The Method for Testing the Dynamic of Take-off

Among various sport branches there are such in which the take-off efficiency, and consequently, performing of the exercise depends upon technique and muscles ability to release the maximal energy in a short time. Long and high jumps, acrobatic jumps, ski jumps, volley-ball and basket-ball jumps should be included among the above described branches. In these sports take-offs with one or both legs are employed. Certain elements which may be treated as belonging to technique have some influence upon the efficiency of the energy released during a take-off. In the case of the features in question they are: a degree and velocity of flexion of legs' joints before their extension. On the basis of their research, Murray et al. (1970) and Scudder (1980) stated that the optimum angle for achieving the maximal knee extension strength is the angle of 120° (in isokinetic conditions). Lindahl et al. (1969) obtained similar results in isometric conditions. Osterning et al. (1982) proved that the maximal strength can be reached at the angle form 100° to 110°. Secher et al. (1976) were examining the maximal strength of the leg extensors during a take-off with one leg and with both legs. They noted obvious differences between the strength measures in both tests, which must be connected with the take-off efficiency. The above mentioned question was dealt with by Van Soest et al. (1985). While examining take-off with one and both legs of well-trained volley-ball players they obtained jumps' results: 0.31 m and 0.54 m respectively. In this paper we intend to test the take-off with one leg and the take-off with both legs employing a pendulum which makes it possible to eliminate gravity force which normally influences a take-off. Take-off tested in this way analysed on the background of the static strength of legs

An analytical and experimental comparison of the flow field of an advanced swept turboprop

An argon ion laser velocimeter with four beams was used to measure the detailed flow-field of an advanced eight blade propeller with 45% of tip sweep in an 8x6 foot supersonic wind tunnel. Data were obtained at a free stream Mach number of 0.8, the design advance ratio of 3.06 and a power coefficient of 1.8. Data are presented for inlet flow, exit flow, flow within the blades and flow slightly outside the blade tips. The data are compared to a lifting line theory. In general, the results of the comparison are considered favorable

New test techniques and analytical procedures for understanding the behavior of advanced propellers

Analytical procedures and experimental techniques were developed to improve the capability to design advanced high speed propellers. Some results from the propeller lifting line and lifting surface aerodynamic analysis codes are compared with propeller force data, probe data and laser velocimeter data. In general, the code comparisons with data indicate good qualitative agreement. A rotating propeller force balance demonstrated good accuracy and reduced test time by 50 percent. Results from three propeller flow visualization techniques are shown which illustrate some of the physical phenomena occurring on these propellers

Concurrent thermochemoradiotherapy for brain high-grade glioma

Despite the achievements in the current strategies for treatment, the prognosis in malignant glioma patients remains unsatisfactory. Hyperthermia is currently considered to be the most effective and universal modifier of radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Preliminary treatment outcomes for 28 patients with newly diagnosed (23) and recurrent (5) high-grade gliomas were presented. All the patients received multimodality treatment including surgery, thermoche-moradiotherapy followed by 4 cycles of adjuvant chemotherapy. All the patients endured thermochemoradiotherapy well. A complication, limited skin burn (II stage), was diagnosed in two cases and treated conservatively without treatment interruption. A month after thermochemoradiotherapy the results were as follows: complete regression was achieved in 4 cases, partial regression in 4 cases, stable disease in 14 cases and disease progression in 6 cases (one of them is pseudo-progression). After completing the adjuvant chemotherapy 2 more patients demonstrated complete response and 1 patient had disease progression. Introduction of local hyperthermia in multimodal therapy of malignant glioma does not impair the combined modality treatment tolerability of patients with malignant gliomas. A small number of studied patients and short follow-up time do not allow making reliable conclusions about the impact of local hyperthermia on the treatment outcomes; however, there is a tendency towards the increase in disease-free survival in the patients with newly diagnosed malignant gliomas

Fibre-optic delivery of time and frequency to VLBI station

The quality of Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) radio observations predominantly relies on precise and ultra-stable time and frequency (T&F) standards, usually hydrogen masers (HM), maintained locally at each VLBI station. Here, we present an operational solution in which the VLBI observations are routinely carried out without use of a local HM, but using remote synchronization via a stabilized, long-distance fibre-optic link. The T&F reference signals, traceable to international atomic timescale (TAI), are delivered to the VLBI station from a dedicated timekeeping laboratory. Moreover, we describe a proof-of-concept experiment where the VLBI station is synchronized to a remote strontium optical lattice clock during the observation.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figures, matches the version published in A&A, section Astronomical instrumentatio

Otępienie i depresja po udarze mózgu

Wstęp: U pacjentów po udarze mózgu usprawnianych w Oddziałach Rehabilitacji oprócz niepełnosprawności fizycznej występują zaburzenia emocjonalne i poznawcze. Mogą one być wynikiem udaru, ale mogą również występować bez związku z udarem. Bez względu na etiologię i mechanizm powstawania wymagają uwzględnienia w pracy z pacjentem, gdyż wpływają na proces usprawniania, ryzyko kolejnego udaru oraz na umieralność. Cel: Ocena częstości występowania depresji i otępienia w grupie pacjentów po udarze mózgu, a także związku ich występowania z cechami socjo-demograficznymi i klinicznymi. Materiał i metody: Dokonano przeglądu dokumentacji pacjentów. Przeanalizowano dokumentację 124 pacjentów w wieku od 37 do 91 lat wypisanych z Oddziału Rehabilitacji Neurologicznej w okresie od 01.01.2012 do 31.07.2013. Obecność otępienia i depresji stwierdzano na podstawie klinicznej diagnozy postawionej przez psychologów posiłkujących się testami: Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) i Krótkim Testem Stanu Psychicznego (KTSP) oraz skalą Hamiltona i skalą Becka. Wyniki: Otępienie stwierdzano u 46% pacjentów po udarze mózgu usprawnianych w Oddziale Rehabilitacji Neurologicznej Ośrodka Rehabilitacji Narządu Ruchu „Krzeszowice”, a depresję u blisko 39%. U osób w wieku powyżej 65 lat stwierdzono większą szansę wystąpienia otępienia w porównaniu do osób młodszych (OR=5,91; 95%CI: 2,52-13,89). Występowanie afazji było związane z pięciokrotnie większą szansą wystąpienia otępienia (OR=5,74; 95%CI: 1,93-17,11). Płeć, wykształcenie oraz pozostałe czynniki kliniczne i socjo-demograficzne nie były związane z występowaniem otępienia. Nie stwierdzono związku pomiędzy występowaniem depresji a otępieniem, wiekiem, płcią, wykształceniem, liczbą współmieszkańców, typem udaru, lokalizacją udaru, liczbą udarów, czasem od udaru, nadciśnieniem tętniczym, cukrzycą oraz afazją. Wnioski: Depresja i otępienie towarzyszą niepełnosprawności po udarze mózgu. Otępienie częściej występuje u osób powyżej 65 roku życia oraz u pacjentów z afazją. Ponieważ depresja i otępienie zwiększają ryzyko kolejnego udaru mózgu oraz u osób na nie cierpiących stwierdza się wyższą śmiertelność w porównaniu do pacjentów bez tych schorzeń, powinno się je wcześnie wykrywać i leczyć aby zapobiegać ich skutkom.Introduction: In addition to physical impairment, post-stroke patients also display emotional and cognitive disorders, e.g., depression and dementia, which may result from a stroke or occur independently of it. Because these disorders affect treatment outcome, the risk of a subsequent stroke, and mortality, they should be taken into account during rehabilitation. Aim: The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of depression and dementia among post-stroke patients and to assess the correlation between these disorders and sociodemographic and clinical characteristics. Material and methods: Retrospective analysis of medical documentation of 124 post‑stroke patients hospitalised in a neurological rehabilitation ward from 1 January 2012 to 31 July 2013 was conducted. Depression and dementia were diagnosed by psychologists using the Mini-Mental State Examination, Short Test of Mental State, Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression, and Beck Depression Inventory. Results: a total of 46% of post-stroke patients rehabilitated in the Krzeszowice Rehabilitation Centre were diagnosed with dementia, and 39% were diagnosed with depression. Persons aged over 65 years had a higher chance of dementia compared to younger persons (OR=5.91, 95%CI: 2.52–13.89). Aphasia correlated with a five times higher chance of dementia (OR=5.74, 95%CI: 1.93–17.11). Sex, education, and other analysed clinical and sociodemographic characteristics did not correlate with dementia. No correlation was found between depression and dementia, age, sex, education, number of inhabitants, the type, location and number of strokes, time since stroke, hypertension, diabetes, or aphasia. Conclusions: Dementia and depression were diagnosed in a group of post-stroke patients. Dementia was more prevalent among persons aged over 65 years and persons with aphasia. Because depression and dementia increase the risk of a subsequent stroke and mortality in post-stroke patients, both disorders should be diagnosed and treated early to prevent their effects

A Heuristic Based on the Intrinsic Dimensionality for Reducing the Number of Cyclic DTW Comparisons in Shape Classification and Retrieval Using AESA

Cyclic Dynamic Time Warping (CDTW) is a good dissimilarity of shape descriptors of high dimensionality based on contours, but it is computationally expensive. For this reason, to perform recognition tasks, a method to reduce the number of comparisons and avoid an exhaustive search is convenient. The Approximate and Eliminate Search Algorithm (AESA) is a relevant indexing method because of its drastic reduction of comparisons, however, this algorithm requires a metric distance and that is not the case of CDTW. In this paper, we introduce a heuristic based on the intrinsic dimensionality that allows to use CDTW and AESA together in classification and retrieval tasks over these shape descriptors. Experimental results show that, for descriptors of high dimensionality, our proposal is optimal in practice and significantly outperforms an exhaustive search, which is the only alternative for them and CDTW in these tasks