200 research outputs found
RUNNING SHOE STIFFNESS:THE EFFECT ON WALKING GAIT
Sports shoes can be grouped into various categories based on their stability, protection capabilities, traction, impact characteristics and stiffness. The majority of shoe tests involve measures of traction and impact. Few studies have examined shoe sole stiffness. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to assess shoe sole stiffness by a materials testing procedure, and then examine the effect of shoe stiffness on walking gait. A damped oscillation technique, previously used on muscle-tendon complexes, was utilised to calculate the stiffness and the damping factor of six types of running shoes. The shoes used different rnidsole components which included air sacs, gel sacs, ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA), and kevlar reinforcing. Two shoes at the extremes of the range were then selected from the materials test results for use in the subsequent gait analysis. Nine males ranging in age from 25 to 45 years (mean =36 years) participated in the experiment. Heights ranged from 186cm to 176cm (mean=182cm) and weights ranged from 72.5kg to 89kg (mean=8lkg). No subjects had any musculoskeletal problems affecting the lower limb. Two dimensional video data were collected on the right leg using an Ariel Video Analysis system sampling at 50 Hz, as subjects walked at 5.1 km/hr on a motor driven treadmill. Markers were placed on the greater trochanter, lateral condyle of the femur, lateral malleolus of the fibular, the heel of the shoe and on the shoe at the level of the fifth metatarsal head. Three stride cycles were collected after the subjects had walked on the treadmill for one minute. Data were digitised and downloaded to FMAP software to calculate kinematic variables such as knee and ankle angle and knee and ankle angular velocity. Data were then normalised to 50 points and averaged across stride cycles and subjects. Although a comparison of the stiff and flexible shoes indicated no differences in the kinematic parameters (p>0.05), it may be that the muscles of the lower limb adjust their activity level for the stiffness of the shoe to maintain an invariant kinematic pattern
Parking functions, labeled trees and DCJ sorting scenarios
In genome rearrangement theory, one of the elusive questions raised in recent
years is the enumeration of rearrangement scenarios between two genomes. This
problem is related to the uniform generation of rearrangement scenarios, and
the derivation of tests of statistical significance of the properties of these
scenarios. Here we give an exact formula for the number of double-cut-and-join
(DCJ) rearrangement scenarios of co-tailed genomes. We also construct effective
bijections between the set of scenarios that sort a cycle and well studied
combinatorial objects such as parking functions and labeled trees.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figure
A quality control study of the accuracy of patient positioning in irradiation of pelvic fields
Exploratory Behavior, Trap Models and Glass Transitions
A random walk is performed on a disordered landscape composed of sites
randomly and uniformly distributed inside a -dimensional hypercube. The
walker hops from one site to another with probability proportional to , where is the inverse of a formal temperature and
is an arbitrary cost function which depends on the hop distance .
Analytic results indicate that, if and , there
exists a glass transition at . Below
, the average trapping time diverges and the system falls into an
out-of-equilibrium regime with aging phenomena. A L\'evy flight scenario and
applications to exploratory behavior are considered.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, new versio
Scaling properties in off equilibrium dynamical processes
In the present paper, we analyze the consequences of scaling hypotheses on
dynamic functions, as two times correlations . We show, under general
conditions, that must obey the following scaling behavior , where the scaling variable is
and , two
undetermined functions. The presence of a non constant exponent
signals the appearance of multiscaling properties in the dynamics.Comment: 6 pages, no figure
Fredman’s reciprocity, invariants of abelian groups, and the permanent of the Cayley table
Escaping from cycles through a glass transition
A random walk is performed over a disordered media composed of sites
random and uniformly distributed inside a -dimensional hypercube. The walker
cannot remain in the same site and hops to one of its neighboring sites
with a transition probability that depends on the distance between sites
according to a cost function . The stochasticity level is parametrized by
a formal temperature . In the case , the walk is deterministic and
ergodicity is broken: the phase space is divided in a number of
attractor basins of two-cycles that trap the walker. For , analytic
results indicate the existence of a glass transition at as . Below , the average trapping time in two-cycles diverges and
out-of-equilibrium behavior appears. Similar glass transitions occur in higher
dimensions choosing a proper cost function. We also present some results for
the statistics of distances for Poisson spatial point processes.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figure
Derivative moments for characteristic polynomials from the CUE
We calculate joint moments of the characteristic polynomial of a random
unitary matrix from the circular unitary ensemble and its derivative in the
case that the power in the moments is an odd positive integer. The calculations
are carried out for finite matrix size and in the limit as the size of the
matrices goes to infinity. The latter asymptotic calculation allows us to prove
a long-standing conjecture from random matrix theory.Comment: 31 pages, 3 figure
Crystal morphology of binary and ternary mixtures of hydrogenated fats and soybean oil
Representational predicaments for employees: Their impact on perceptions of supervisors\u27 individualized consideration and on employee job satisfaction
A representational predicament for a subordinate vis-à-vis his or her immediate superior involves perceptual incongruence with the superior about the subordinate\u27s work or work context, with unfavourable implications for the employee. An instrument to measure the incidence of two types of representational predicament, being neglected and negative slanting, was developed and then validated through an initial survey of 327 employees. A subsequent substantive survey with a fresh sample of 330 employees largely supported a conceptual model linking being neglected and negative slanting to perceptions of low individualized consideration by superiors and to low overall job satisfaction. The respondents in both surveys were all Hong Kong Chinese. Two case examples drawn from qualitative interviews illustrate and support the conceptual model. Based on the research findings, we recommend some practical exercises to use in training interventions with leaders and subordinates. © 2013 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC
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