495 research outputs found
Squad management, injury and match performance in a professional soccer team over a Championship-winning season
Squad management, injury and physical, tactical and technical match performance were investigated in a professional soccer team across five consecutive league seasons (2008–2013, 190 league games) with specific focus on a championship-winning season (2010/11). For each player, match participation and time-loss injuries were recorded, the latter prospectively diagnosed by the team's physician. Defending and attacking tactical and technical performance indicators investigated included ball possession and possession in opponents' half, passes, forward passes, completed passes and forward passes, crosses and completed crosses, goal attempts and goal attempts on target, successful final third entries, free-kicks and 50/50 duels won/lost. Physical performance measures included total distance and distance covered at high-speeds (≥19.1 km/h). Results showed that during the 2010/11 season, squad utilisation was lowest potentially owing to the observed lower match injury occurrence and working days lost to injury thereby increasing player availability. In 2010/11, the team won both its highest number of points and conceded its lowest number of goals especially over the second half of this season. The team also won its highest number of games directly via a goal from a substitute and scored and conceded a goal first on the highest and lowest number of occasions, respectively. While multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) detected a significant difference in some attacking and defensive performance indicators across the five seasons, these were generally not distinguishing factors in 2010/11. Similarly, univariate ANOVAs showed a significant difference in running distances covered across seasons, but the trend was for less activity in 2010/11
Semilinear mixed problems on Hilbert complexes and their numerical approximation
Arnold, Falk, and Winther recently showed [Bull. Amer. Math. Soc. 47 (2010),
281-354] that linear, mixed variational problems, and their numerical
approximation by mixed finite element methods, can be studied using the
powerful, abstract language of Hilbert complexes. In another recent article
[arXiv:1005.4455], we extended the Arnold-Falk-Winther framework by analyzing
variational crimes (a la Strang) on Hilbert complexes. In particular, this gave
a treatment of finite element exterior calculus on manifolds, generalizing
techniques from surface finite element methods and recovering earlier a priori
estimates for the Laplace-Beltrami operator on 2- and 3-surfaces, due to Dziuk
[Lecture Notes in Math., vol. 1357 (1988), 142-155] and later Demlow [SIAM J.
Numer. Anal., 47 (2009), 805-827], as special cases. In the present article, we
extend the Hilbert complex framework in a second distinct direction: to the
study of semilinear mixed problems. We do this, first, by introducing an
operator-theoretic reformulation of the linear mixed problem, so that the
semilinear problem can be expressed as an abstract Hammerstein equation. This
allows us to obtain, for semilinear problems, a priori solution estimates and
error estimates that reduce to the Arnold-Falk-Winther results in the linear
case. We also consider the impact of variational crimes, extending the results
of our previous article to these semilinear problems. As an immediate
application, this new framework allows for mixed finite element methods to be
applied to semilinear problems on surfaces.Comment: 22 pages; v2: major revision, particularly sharpening of error
estimates in Section
Spaces of finite element differential forms
We discuss the construction of finite element spaces of differential forms
which satisfy the crucial assumptions of the finite element exterior calculus,
namely that they can be assembled into subcomplexes of the de Rham complex
which admit commuting projections. We present two families of spaces in the
case of simplicial meshes, and two other families in the case of cubical
meshes. We make use of the exterior calculus and the Koszul complex to define
and understand the spaces. These tools allow us to treat a wide variety of
situations, which are often treated separately, in a unified fashion.Comment: To appear in: Analysis and Numerics of Partial Differential
Equations, U. Gianazza, F. Brezzi, P. Colli Franzone, and G. Gilardi, eds.,
Springer 2013. v2: a few minor typos corrected. v3: a few more typo
correction
Contrasted granite emplacement modes within an oblique crustal section: The closepet granite, South India
TThe Closepet Granite, in South India, is a large, syntectonic Archaean granitic complex. Differential erosion has exposed it from the lower (25 km) to upper crust (5 km). Four main parts are recognized from bottom to top: (i) A root zone, where magmas formed, collected and rose within active shear zones, leaving schlieren behind. The surrounding crust was highly ductile, leading to diffuse deformation. (ii) A transfer zone, where the magma was progressively enriched in K-feldspar phenocrysts during its ascent. In this part, the granite rose as a mush moving as a whole within a less ductile crust. Slow cooling was responsible for a long magma residence time under conditions favoring to fabric enhancement and strain partitioning, leading to horizontal and vertical melt migration. (iii) A gap(dyke complex that acted as a filter zone), were the ascent of the mush was stopped. Probably due to high phenocryst load and high viscosity contrast with the wall rocks. Only crystal-poor melts could continue their ascent through the dykes. (iv) A zone of shallow intrusions, where the liquids extracted from the mush filled small, elliptical plutons, cooling quickly and developing only very weak fabrics. © 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved
Self-organization and Mechanical Properties of Active Filament Bundles
A phenomenological description for active bundles of polar filaments is
presented. The activity of the bundle results from crosslinks, that induce
relative displacements between the aligned filaments. Our generic description
is based on momentum conservation within the bundle. By specifying the internal
forces, a simple minimal model for the bundle dynamics is obtained, capturing
generic dynamic behaviors. In particular, contracted states as well as solitary
and oscillatory waves appear through dynamic instabilities. The introduction of
filament adhesion leads to self-organized persistent filament transport.
Furthermore, calculating the tension, homogeneous bundles are shown to be able
to actively contract and to perform work against external forces. Our
description is motivated by dynamic phenomena in the cytoskeleton and could
apply to stress-fibers and self-organization phenomena during cell-locomotion.Comment: 19 pages, 10 figure
Actively Contracting Bundles of Polar Filaments
We introduce a phenomenological model to study the properties of bundles of
polar filaments which interact via active elements. The stability of the
homogeneous state, the attractors of the dynamics in the unstable regime and
the tensile stress generated in the bundle are discussed. We find that the
interaction of parallel filaments can induce unstable behavior and is
responsible for active contraction and tension in the bundle. Interaction
between antiparallel filaments leads to filament sorting. Our model could apply
to simple contractile structures in cells such as stress fibers.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, RevTex, to appear in Phys. Rev. Let
Effects of Coupling in Human-Virtual Agent Body Interaction
International audienceThis paper presents a study of the dynamic coupling between a user and a virtual character during body interaction. Coupling is directly linked with other dimensions, such as co-presence, engagement, and believability, and was measured in an experiment that allowed users to describe their subjective feelings about those dimensions of interest. The experiment was based on a theatrical game involving the imitation of slow upper-body movements and the proposal of new movements by the user and virtual agent. The agent's behaviour varied in autonomy: the agent could limit itself to imitating the user's movements only, initiate new movements, or combine both behaviours. After the game, each participant completed a questionnaire regarding their engagement in the interaction, their subjective feeling about the co-presence of the agent, etc. Based on four main dimensions of interest, we tested several hypotheses against our experimental results, which are discussed here
Measurement of air and nitrogen fluorescence light yields induced by electron beam for UHECR experiments
Most of the Ultra High Energy Cosmic Ray (UHECR) experiments and projects
(HiRes, AUGER, TA, EUSO, TUS,...) use air fluorescence to detect and measure
extensive air showers (EAS). The precise knowledge of the Fluorescence Light
Yield (FLY) is of paramount importance for the reconstruction of UHECR. The
MACFLY - Measurement of Air Cherenkov and Fluorescence Light Yield - experiment
has been designed to perform such FLY measurements. In this paper we will
present the results of FLY in the 290-440 nm wavelength range for dry air and
pure nitrogen, both excited by electrons with energy of 1.5 MeV, 20 GeV and 50
GeV. The experiment uses a 90Sr radioactive source for low energy measurement
and a CERN SPS electron beam for high energy. We find that the FLY is
proportional to the deposited energy (E_d) in the gas and we show that the air
fluorescence properties remain constant independently of the electron energy.
At the reference point: atmospheric dry air at 1013 hPa and 23C, the ratio
FLY/E_d=17.6 photon/MeV with a systematic error of 13.2%.Comment: 19 pages, 8 figures. Accepted for publication in Astroparticle
Physic
Analysis of repeated high-intensity running performance in professional soccer
The aims of this study conducted in a professional soccer team were two-fold: to characterise repeated high-intensity movement activity profiles in official match-play; b) to inform and verify the construct validity of tests commonly used to determine repeated-sprint ability in soccer by investigating the relationship between the results from a test of repeated-sprint ability and repeated high-intensity performance in competition. High-intensity running performance (movement at velocities >19.8 km/h for a minimum of 1-s duration) in 20 players was measured using computerised time motion analysis. Performance in 80 French League 1 matches was analysed. In addition, 12 out of the 20 players performed a repeated-sprint test on a non-motorized treadmill consisting of 6 consecutive 6s sprints separated by 20s passive recovery intervals. In all players, the majority of consecutive high-intensity actions in competition were performed after recovery durations ≥61s, recovery activity separating these efforts was generally active in nature with the major part of this spent walking, and players performed 1.1±1.1 repeated high-intensity bouts (a minimum of 3 consecutive high-intensity with a mean recovery time ≤20s separating efforts) per game. Players reporting lowest performance decrements in the repeated-sprint ability test performed more high-intensity actions interspersed by short recovery times (≤20s, p<0.01 and ≤30s, p<0.05) compared to those with higher decrements. Across positional roles, central-midfielders performed a greater number of high-intensity actions separated by short recovery times (≤20s) and spent a larger proportion of time running at higher intensities during recovery periods while fullbacks performed the most repeated high-intensity bouts (statistical differences across positional roles from p<0.05 to p<0.001). These findings have implications for repeated high-intensity testing and physical conditioning regimens
Deterministic mechanical model of T-killer cell polarization reproduces the wandering of aim between simultaneously engaged targets
T-killer cells of the immune system eliminate virus-infected and tumorous cells through direct cell-cell interactions. Reorientation of the killing apparatus inside the T cell to the T-cell interface with the target cell ensures specificity of the immune response. The killing apparatus can also oscillate next to the cell-cell interface. When two target cells are engaged by the T cell simultaneously, the killing apparatus can oscillate between the two interface areas. This oscillation is one of the most striking examples of cell movements that give the microscopist an unmechanistic impression of the cell's fidgety indecision. We have constructed a three-dimensional, numerical biomechanical model of the molecular-motor-driven microtubule cytoskeleton that positions the killing apparatus. The model demonstrates that the cortical pulling mechanism is indeed capable of orienting the killing apparatus into the functional position under a range of conditions. The model also predicts experimentally testable limitations of this commonly hypothesized mechanism of T-cell polarization. After the reorientation, the numerical solution exhibits complex, multidirectional, multiperiodic, and sustained oscillations in the absence of any external guidance or stochasticity. These computational results demonstrate that the strikingly animate wandering of aim in T-killer cells has a purely mechanical and deterministic explanation. © 2009 Kim, Maly
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