KNEE JOINT TORQUE MEASUREMENTS BEFORE, DURING AND AFTER TRAINING WITH ELECTRICAL STIMULATION

The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of an eight-week Electrical Stimulation (ES) training program on the knee joint torque of the knee joint extensor muscles of six test persons (three trained hobby sportsmen ‘T ES’ and three untrained test persons ‘UT ES’). ES sessions were carried out with simultaneous maximum voluntary isometric contraction five times weekly. A control group of six test persons (three ‘T NoES’ and three ‘UT NoES’) completed the same training program without ES. Every two weeks measurements on a dynamometer were done before, during and after training sessions. The averaged strength increase of the ‘UT ES’-group amounted to 9.5% and of the ‘T ES’-group to 5.7% at the knee joint flexion angle of 60°. The ‘UT NoES’-group achieved 9.1% at the same knee joint flexion angle

INVESTIGATION OF POWER OUTPUT ON A NOVEL BICYCLE DRIVE IN COMPARISON WITH THE COMMON BICYCLE DRIVE

The aim of this study is to check whether a novel bicycle drive allows a higher power output. In order to be able to judge the efficiency of this drive the power output during use of this specific drive was matched with the one of a traditional bicycle drive. Both maximal power output tests and endurance tests with lactate determination where carried out. During the maximal power output tests a power output increase of 5.2% could be measured. During the endurance tests the anaerobe threshold (4 mmol lactate / l blood) at 80 rpm could be raised by 4.17 W, this is equivalent to 2.4%. At four time trials of an amateur cycling club the test riders were 5.3% faster with the new drive over the distance of 14.62 km (with a hairpin bend). This corresponds to a power output increase of 15.9%

Quasiparticle light elements and quantum condensates in nuclear matter

Nuclei in dense matter are influenced by the medium. In the cluster mean field approximation, an effective Schr\"odinger equation for the $A$-particle cluster is obtained accounting for the effects of the surrounding medium, such as self-energy and Pauli blocking. Similar to the single-baryon states (free neutrons and protons), the light elements ($2 \le A \le 4$, internal quantum state $\nu$) are treated as quasiparticles with energies $E_{A,\nu}(P; T, n_n,n_p)$ that depend on the center of mass momentum $\vec P$, the temperature $T$, and the total densities $n_n,n_p$ of neutrons and protons, respectively. We consider the composition and thermodynamic properties of nuclear matter at low densities. At low temperatures, quartetting is expected to occur. Consequences for different physical properties of nuclear matter and finite nuclei are discussed.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure, 2 table

On the effect of surfactants on drop coalescence at liquid/liquid interfaces

In this work the effect of surfactants on the coalescence of a drop with a flat aqueous-organic interface was experimentally investigated. A high speed Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) system was used to obtain velocity profiles and kinetic energy per unit mass distribution inside the coalescing droplets. Different mass ratios of surfactant to oil below the CMC value, up to ϕ = 5 × 10−4, of a non-ionic surfactant dissolved in the organic phase were studied. It was found that an increase in the surfactant concentration promoted the deformation of the interface before the film that separated the drop from the interface ruptured. A high surfactant concentration also increased the time needed for film rupture. When rupture occurred, two counter-rotating vortices formed inside the droplet on either side of the rupture point, which moved upwards with time. The propagation of the vortices inside the droplet was faster for low surfactant concentrations, while the intensities of the two counter-rotating vortices significantly decreased for increasing surfactant concentration. At the early stages of coalescence after film rupture, the kinetic energy per unit mass was mainly distributed near the bottom part of the droplet, while at later stages it was distributed near the upper part of the droplet

ADJUSTMENT OF FUNCTIONAL ELECTRICAL STIMULATION (FES) ACCORDING TO KNEE FLEXION ANGLE

To clarify the different results of our simulation and FES-cycling tests, measurements on a knee dynamometer were made. The m. quadriceps of 16 healthy test persons was activated both by FES and voluntary contraction. Stimulated with the same level of intensity in a knee flexion angle range from 5° to 105°, the diagrams showed a very unusual course. The knee torque shows its maximum at the knee flexion angle of approx. 30°. Additional isometric measurements using stimulation intensity on constant on-verge-to pain levels for different knee angles were made. The measured courses of the resulting knee torque as a function of the knee angle are much closer to the results of physiologically activated muscle. These measurements show that for optimum power release, the stimulation intensity must be regulated depending on the knee flexion angle

Bounded Verification with On-the-Fly Discrepancy Computation

Simulation-based verification algorithms can provide formal safety guarantees for nonlinear and hybrid systems. The previous algorithms rely on user provided model annotations called discrepancy function, which are crucial for computing reachtubes from simulations. In this paper, we eliminate this requirement by presenting an algorithm for computing piece-wise exponential discrepancy functions. The algorithm relies on computing local convergence or divergence rates of trajectories along a simulation using a coarse over-approximation of the reach set and bounding the maximal eigenvalue of the Jacobian over this over-approximation. The resulting discrepancy function preserves the soundness and the relative completeness of the verification algorithm. We also provide a coordinate transformation method to improve the local estimates for the convergence or divergence rates in practical examples. We extend the method to get the input-to-state discrepancy of nonlinear dynamical systems which can be used for compositional analysis. Our experiments show that the approach is effective in terms of running time for several benchmark problems, scales reasonably to larger dimensional systems, and compares favorably with respect to available tools for nonlinear models.Comment: 24 page

Carbonic Anhydrases: Versatile and Useful Biocatalysts in Chemistry and Biochemistry

Metalloenzymes such as the carbonic anhydrases (CAs, EC 4.2.1.1) possess highly specialized active sites that promote fast reaction rates and high substrate selectivity for the physiologic reaction that they catalyze, hydration of CO2 to bicarbonate and a proton. Among the eight genetic CA macrofamilies, α-CAs possess rather spacious active sites and show catalytic promiscuity, being esterases with many types of esters, but also acting on diverse small molecules such as cyanamide, carbonyl sulfide (COS), CS2, etc. Although artificial CAs have been developed with the intent to efficiently catalyse non-biologically related chemical transformations with high control of stereoselectivity, the activities of these enzymes were much lower when compared to natural CAs. Here, we report an overview on the catalytic activities of α-CAs as well as of enzymes which were mutated or artificially designed by incorporation of transition metal ions. In particular, the distinct catalytic mechanisms of the reductase, oxidase and metatheses-ase such as de novo designed CAs are discussed

An experimental study on the drop/interface partial coalescence with surfactants

This paper presents investigations on the partial coalescence of an aqueous drop with an organicaqueous interface with and without surfactants. The organic phase was different silicone oils and the aqueous phase was a glycerol-water solution at different concentrations. It is found that when the surfactant Span 80 is introduced into the organic phase, the partial coalescence region is reduced in the Oh-Bo coalescence map. The range of the inertio-capillary regime reduces when surfactants are present, while the drop size ratio decreases with increasing surfactant concentration. The velocity fields inside the aqueous drop were studied with high speed particle image velocimetry for the first time. In the surfactant-free system, it was found that the inward motion of the fluids at the upper part of the drop favours the generation of a liquid cylinder at the early stages of coalescence. The pressure gradient created by the downward stream at the bottom of the liquid cylinder drives the pinch-off of the secondary drop. When surfactants are present, the rupture of the film between the drop and the interface occurs at an off-axis location. The liquid cylinder formed in this case is not symmetric and does not lead to pinch-off. It is also found that the vortices inside the droplet have little impact on the partial coalescence