SPECIFIC STRATEGY FOR THE MEDALLISTS VERSUS FINALISTS AND SEMI-FINALISTS IN THE WOMEN'S 200 M IM INDIVIDUAL MEDLEY AT THE SYDNEY OLYMPIC GAMES

The performances of the women's 200 m individual medley (IM) at the Sydney Olympic games (final and semi-final) were studied using 12 video cameras. The four strokes velocities, stoke frequency, stroke length, and turn velocities were calculated using a specific competition analysis computer program. The medallists had a higher crawl velocity, turn 2 and 3 velocities than the non-medallist finalists. For the 16 swimmers, the final performance was mainly related to the second part of the race, breaststroke velocity (r = 0.83; p< 0.01), crawl velocity (r = 0.68; p < 0.01) and turn 3 velocity (r = 0.73; p < 0.01). From the stroke frequency and stroke length perspective, two different strategies were observed. However. they were not related to the final result

SPECIFIC STRATEGY FOR THE MEDALLISTS VERSUS FINALISTS AND SEMI FINALISTS IN THE MEN'S 200 M BREASTSTROKE AT THE SYDNEY OLYMPIC GAMES

The performances of the men's 200 m breaststroke at the Sydney Olympic games (final and semi-final) were studied using 12 video cameras. The four 50 m laps were analyzed to calculate the velocities, stroke frequency, stroke length, and turn velocities using a specific competition analysis computer program. The medallists swam faster than the non-medallist finalists in the third 50 m. In contrast, the percentage of the first 50 m swim duration was the longest. Compared to the semi-finalists, the medallists swam faster at all times except during the first 50 m. For the 16 swimmers, the 200 m breaststroke velocity was mainly related to the fourth 50 m lap velocity (r = 0.71; p < 0.01). From the stroke frequency and stroke length perspective, two different strategies were observed. However, these were not related to the final results

SPECIFIC STRATEGY FOR THE MEDALLISTS VERSUS FINALISTS AND SEMI-FINALISTS IN THE WOMEN'S 200 M BREASTSTROKE AT THE SYDNEY OLYMPIC GAMES

The performances of the women's 200 m breaststroke at the Sydney Olympic games (final and semi-final) were studied using 12 video cameras. For each of the four 50 m laps, stroke velocities, stroke frequency, stroke length, and turn velocities were calculated using a specific competition analysis computer program. The medallists swam faster than the nonmedallist finalists in the four 50 m laps of the race. However, the difference was not statistically significant. In contrast, the medallists had a longer stroke length than the two other groups. For the 16 swimmers, the 200 m breaststroke velocity was mainly related to the velocity of the third and fourth 50 m laps (r = 0.88 and 0.86; p < 0.01). From the stroke frequency and stroke length perspective, three different technique strategies were observed. However, they were not related to the final result

Universal Time Dependence of Nighttime F Region Densities at High Latitudes

Coordinated EISCAT, Chatanika, and Millstone Hill incoherent scatter radar observations have revealed that in the auroral zone, the nighttime F region densities vary substantially with the longitude of the observing site: EISCAT’s densities are the largest and Millstone Hill’s are the lowest. The nighttime F region densities measured by the individual radars are not uniform: the regions where the densities are maximum are the so-called “blobs” or “patches” that have been reported previously. The observations are consistent with the hypothesis that the nighttime densities are produced in significant amounts not by particle precipitation, but by solar EUV radiation, and that they have been transported across the polar cap. The observed differences can be explained by the offset of the geographic and geomagnetic poles. A larger portion of the magnetospheric convection pattern is sunlit when EISCAT is in the midnight sector than when Chatanika is. In winter, when Millstone Hill is in the midnight sector, almost all the auroral oval is in darkness. This universal time effect, which was observed on all coordinated three-radar experiments (September 1981 to February 1982), is illustrated using two periods of coincident radar and satellite observations: November 18-19, and December 15-16, 1981. These two periods were selected because they corresponded to relatively steady conditions. Dynamics Explorer (DE) measurements are used to aid in interpreting the radar observations. DE 1 auroral images show what portion of the oval was sunlit. DE 2 data are used to measure the ion drift across the polar cap. Because the altitude of the ionization peak was high, the decay time of the F region density was substantially longer than the transit time across the polar cap. The southward meridional wind that was observed coincidentally with the ionization patches at Chatanika and EISCAT contributed to the maintenance of the F region by raising the altitude of the peak. DE 2 Langmuir probe measurements of electron density clearly showed a UT dependence, the same as that in the radar measurements

Magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling at Jupiter-like exoplanets with internal plasma sources: implications for detectability of auroral radio emissions

In this paper we provide the first consideration of magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling at Jupiter-like exoplanets with internal plasma sources such as volcanic moons. We estimate the radio power emitted by such systems under the condition of near-rigid corotation throughout the closed magnetosphere, in order to examine the behaviour of the best candidates for detection with next generation radio telescopes. We thus estimate for different stellar X-ray-UV (XUV) luminosity cases the orbital distances within which the ionospheric Pedersen conductance would be high enough to maintain near-rigid corotation, and we then consider the magnitudes of the large-scale magnetosphere-ionosphere currents flowing within the systems, and the resulting radio powers, at such distances. We also examine the effects of two key system parameters, i.e. the planetary angular velocity and the plasma mass outflow rate from sources internal to the magnetosphere. In all XUV luminosity cases studied, a significant number of parameter combinations within an order of magnitude of the jovian values are capable of producing emissions observable beyond 1 pc, in most cases requiring exoplanets orbiting at distances between ~1 and 50 AU, and for the higher XUV luminosity cases these observable distances can reach beyond ~50 pc for massive, rapidly rotating planets. The implication of these results is that the best candidates for detection of such internally-generated radio emissions are rapidly rotating Jupiter-like exoplanets orbiting stars with high XUV luminosity at orbital distances beyond ~1 AU, and searching for such emissions may offer a new method of detection of more distant-orbiting exoplanets.Comment: 15 pages, 9 figures. In press at Mon. Not. R. Astron. So

Approximating the limit: the interaction between 'almost' and some temporal connectives in Italian

International audienceThis paper focuses on the interpretation of the Italian approximative adverb 'almost' by primarily looking at cases in which it modifies temporal connectives, a domain which, to our knowledge, has been largely unexplored thus far. Consideration of this domain supports the need for a scalar account of the semantics of (close in spirit to Hitzeman's semantic analysis of , in: Canakis et al. (eds) Papers from the 28th regional meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society, 1992). When paired with suitable analyses of temporal connectives, such an account can provide a simple explanation of the patterns of implication that are observed when modifies locational (e.g. 'when'), directional (e.g. 'until' and 'since'), and event-sequencing temporal connectives (e.g. 'before' and 'after'). A challenging empirical phenomenon that is observed is a contrast between the modification of and by , on the one hand, and the modification of and by the same adverb, on the other. While and behave symmetrically, a puzzling asymmetry is observed between and . To explain the asymmetry, we propose an analysis of and on which the former has the meaning of the temporal comparative 'earlier', while the latter is seen as an atomic predicate denoting temporal succession between events (Del Prete, Nat Lang Semantics 16:157-203, 2008). We show that the same pattern of implication observed for is attested when modifies overt comparatives, and propose a pragmatic analysis of this pattern that uniformly applies to both cases, thus providing new evidence for the claim that is underlyingly a comparative. A major point of this paper is a discussion of the notion of scale which is relevant for the semantics of ; in particular, we show that the notion of Horn (entailment-based) scale is not well-suited for handling modification of temporal connectives, and that a more general notion of scale is required in order to provide a uniform analysis of as a cross-categorial modifier

A novel approach to measure mitochondrial respiration in frozen biological samples.

Respirometry is the gold standard measurement of mitochondrial oxidative function, as it reflects the activity of the electron transport chain complexes working together. However, the requirement for freshly isolated mitochondria hinders the feasibility of respirometry in multi-site clinical studies and retrospective studies. Here, we describe a novel respirometry approach suited for frozen samples by restoring electron transfer components lost during freeze/thaw and correcting for variable permeabilization of mitochondrial membranes. This approach preserves 90-95% of the maximal respiratory capacity in frozen samples and can be applied to isolated mitochondria, permeabilized cells, and tissue homogenates with high sensitivity. We find that primary changes in mitochondrial function, detected in fresh tissue, are preserved in frozen samples years after collection. This approach will enable analysis of the integrated function of mitochondrial Complexes I to IV in one measurement, collected at remote sites or retrospectively in samples residing in tissue biobanks

Alix is required for activity-dependent bulk endocytosis at brain synapses

In chemical synapses undergoing high frequency stimulation, vesicle components can be retrieved from the plasma membrane via a clathrin-independent process called activitydependent bulk endocytosis (ADBE). Alix (ALG-2-interacting protein X/PDCD6IP) is an adaptor protein binding to ESCRT and endophilin-A proteins which is required for clathrinindependent endocytosis in fibroblasts. Alix is expressed in neurons and concentrates at synapses during epileptic seizures. Here, we used cultured neurons to show that Alix is recruited to presynapses where it interacts with and concentrates endophilin-A during conditions triggering ADBE. Using Alix knockout (ko) neurons, we showed that this recruitment, which requires interaction with the calcium-binding protein ALG-2, is necessary for ADBE. We also found that presynaptic compartments of Alix ko hippocampi display subtle morphological defects compatible with flawed synaptic activity and plasticity detected electrophysiologically. Furthermore, mice lacking Alix in the forebrain undergo less seizures during kainate-induced status epilepticus and reduced propagation of the epileptiform activity. These results thus show that impairment of ADBE due to the lack of neuronal Alix leads to abnormal synaptic recovery during physiological or pathological repeated stimulations

Acute Stress Induces Contrasting Changes in AMPA Receptor Subunit Phosphorylation within the Prefrontal Cortex, Amygdala and Hippocampus

Exposure to stress causes differential neural modifications in various limbic regions, namely the prefrontal cortex, hippocampus and amygdala. We investigated whether α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid receptor (AMPAR) phosphorylation is involved with these stress effects. Using an acute inescapable stress protocol with rats, we found opposite effects on AMPA receptor phosphorylation in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and dorsal hippocampus (DH) compared to the amygdala and ventral hippocampus (VH). After stress, the phosphorylation of Ser831-GluA1 was markedly decreased in the mPFC and DH, whereas the phosphorylation of Ser845-GluA1 was increased in the amygdala and VH. Stress also modulated the GluA2 subunit with a decrease in the phosphorylation of both Tyr876-GluA2 and Ser880-GluA2 residues in the amygdala, and an increase in the phosphorylation of Ser880-GluA2 in the mPFC. These results demonstrate that exposure to acute stress causes subunit-specific and region-specific changes in glutamatergic transmission, which likely lead to the reduced synaptic efficacy in the mPFC and DH and augmented activity in the amygdala and VH. In addition, these findings suggest that modifications of glutamate receptor phosphorylation could mediate the disruptive effects of stress on cognition. They also provide a means to reconcile the contrasting effects that stress has on synaptic plasticity in these regions. Taken together, the results provide support for a brain region-oriented approach to therapeutics