KINEMATIC AND ELECTROMYOGRAPHIC ANALYSIS OF UPPER EXTREMITY IN ARM WRESTLING

Few studies of the kinematic features of arm wrestling exercise have been published. The purpose of this study was to initiate a concrete analysis of the kinematic characteristics and muscular activities involved in arm wrestling exercise. 12 healthy male volunteers were recruited in this study. The pectoralis major (PMJ) showed significantly higher muscle activity in winning position than in losing position (p=.039) and had significant influence on arm wrestling outcome (

Probing the A1 to L10 Transformation in FeCuPt Using the First Order Reversal Curve Method

The A1- L10 phase transformation has been investigated in (001) FeCuPt thin films prepared by atomic-scale multilayer sputtering and rapid thermal annealing (RTA). Traditional x-ray diffraction is not always applicable in generating a true order parameter, due to non-ideal crystallinity of the A1 phase. Using the first-order reversal curve (FORC) method, the A1 and L10 phases are deconvoluted into two distinct features in the FORC distribution, whose relative intensities change with the RTA temperature. The L10 ordering takes place via a nucleation-and-growth mode. A magnetization-based phase fraction is extracted, providing a quantitative measure of the L10 phase homogeneity.Comment: 17 pages, 5 figures, 4 page supplementary material (4 figures

Integrative model for the selection of a new product launch strategy, based on ANP, TOPSIS and MCGP: a case study

New product launch strategy is a key competitive advantage for a new product development. A new product launch is a multiple criteria decision-making problem, which involves evaluating different criteria or attributes in a strategy selection process. The purpose of this paper is to develop a qualitative and quantitative approach for the selection of a new product launch strategy. The current study proposes an integrated approach, integrating analytic network process, the technique for order preference by similarity to an ideal solution and multi-choice goal programming, which can be used to determine the best launch strategy for marketing problems. The advantage of this integrated method is that it enables the consideration of both tangible (qualitative) and intangible (quantitative) criteria as well as both “more/higher is better” (e.g., benefit criteria) and “less/lower is better” (e.g., cost criteria) in the launch strategy of a new product selection problem. To show the practicality and usefulness of this method, an empirical example of a watch company is demonstrated. First published online: 03 Nov 201

Autoimmunity-related demyelination in infection by Japanese encephalitis virus

Japanese encephalitis (JE) virus is the most common cause of epidemic viral encephalitis in the world. The virus mainly infects neuronal cells and causes an inflammatory response after invasion of the parenchyma of the brain. The death of neurons is frequently observed, in which demyelinated axons are commonly seen. The mechanism that accounts for the occurrence of demyelination is ambiguous thus far. With a mouse model, the present study showed that myelin-specific antibodies appeared in sera, particularly in those mice with evident symptoms. Meanwhile, specific T cells proliferating in response to stimulation by myelin basic protein (MBP) was also shown in these mice. Taken together, our results suggest that autoimmunity may play an important role in the destruction of components, e.g., MBP, of axon-surrounding myelin, resulting in demyelination in the mouse brain after infection with the JE virus

Magnetic Yoking and Tunable Interactions in FePt-Based Hard/Soft Bilayers

Magnetic interactions in magnetic nanostructures are critical to nanomagnetic and spintronic explorations. Here we demonstrate an extremely sensitive magnetic yoking effect and tunable interactions in FePt based hard/soft bilayers mediated by the soft layer. Below the exchange length, a thin soft layer strongly exchange couples to the perpendicular moments of the hard layer;above the exchange length, just a few nanometers thicker, the soft layer moments turn in-plane and act to yoke the dipolar fields from the adjacent hard layer perpendicular domains. The evolution from exchange to dipolar-dominated interactions is experimentally captured by first-order reversal curves, the Delta M method, and polarized neutron reflectometry, and confirmed by micromagnetic simulations. These findings demonstrate an effective yoking approach to design and control magnetic interactions in wide varieties of magnetic nanostructures and devices

Structured LDPC codes with low error floor based on PEG Tanner graphs

Abstract-Progressive edge-growth (PEG) algorithm was proven to be a simple and effective approach to design good LDPC codes. However, the Tanner graph constructed by PEG algorithm is non-structured which leads the positions of 's of the corresponding parity check matrix fully random. In this paper, we propose a general method based on PEG algorithm to construct structured Tanner graphs. These hardware-oriented LDPC codes can reduce the VLSI implementation complexity. Similar to PEG method, our CP-PEG approach can be used to construct both regular and irregular Tanner graphs with flexible parameters. For the consideration of encoding complexity and error floor, the modifications of proposed algorithm are discussed. Simulation results show that our codes, in terms of bit error rate (BER) or packet error rate (PER), outperform other PEG-based LDPC codes and are better than the codes in IEEE 802.16e

Genetic Polymorphism of XRCC1 Arg399Gln Is Associated With Survival in Non–Small-Cell Lung Cancer Patients Treated With Gemcitabine/Platinum

IntroductionElevated DNA-repair capacity has been related to chemoresistance of platinum doublet chemotherapy in non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). We evaluated whether single nucleotide polymorphisms of DN- repair genes excision repair cross-complementing group 1 (ERCC1), ERCC2, x-ray repair cross-complementing group 1 (XRCC1), XRCC3, and RRM1 associate with treatment outcome in NSCLC patients receiving gemcitabine plus platinum as their first-line chemotherapy.MethodsGenotyping for eight polymorphisms in five DNA-repair genes was performed with the GenomeLab nucleotide polymorphismstream Genotyping System in 62 advanced NSCLC patients in a training set and 45 patients in a validation set treated with gemcitabine/platinum.ResultsIn the training set, the wild-type genotype of XRCC1 Arg399Gln (G/G) was associated with decreased median overall survival (OS) (22 months, 95% confidence interval [CI], 10–34 months versus not reached, log-rank test, p = 0.005) than those carrying variant genotypes (G/A+A/A). In addition, there was a statistically significant longer median OS in patients carrying wild-type ERCC2 Asp312Asn genotype (G/G) (51 months, 95% CI, 19–82 months versus 10 months, log-rank test, p < 0.001) than those carrying heterozygous variant genotypes (G/A). In the multivariate Cox model, we found a significant effect of XRCC1 Arg399Gln (G/A+A/A versus G/G, hazard ratio [HR] 0.290; 95%CI, 0.12–0.705, p = 0.006) and ERCC2 Asp312Asn (G/A versus G/G, HR 14.04; 95% CI, 2.253–87.513, p = 0.005) polymorphisms on patients’ OS. In the validation set, only XRCC1 399ConclusionsGenetic polymorphism of XRCC1 Arg399Gln may be a candidate for contributing interindividual difference in the OS of gemcitabine/platinum-treated advanced NSCLC patients

A Power-Efficient Multiband Planar USB Dongle Antenna for Wireless Sensor Networks

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) had been applied in Internet of Things (IoT) and in Industry 4.0. Since a WSN system contains multiple wireless sensor nodes, it is necessary to develop a low-power and multiband wireless communication system that satisfies the specifications of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the Certification European (CE). In a WSN system, many devices are of very small size and can be slipped into a Universal Serial Bus (USB), which is capable of connecting to wireless systems and networks, as well as transferring data. These devices are widely known as USB dongles. This paper develops a planar USB dongle antenna for three frequency bands, namely 2.30–2.69 GHz, 3.40–3.70 GHz, and 5.15–5.85 GHz. This study proposes a novel antenna design that uses four loops to develop the multiband USB dongle. The first and second loops construct the low and intermediate frequency ranges. The third loop resonates the high frequency property, while the fourth loop is used to enhance the bandwidth. The performance and power consumption of the proposed multiband planar USB dongle antenna were significantly improved compared to existing multiband designs

AMiBA: Cluster Sunyaev-Zel’dovich Effect Observations with the Expanded 13-element Array

The Yuan-Tseh Lee Array for Microwave Background Anisotropy (AMiBA) is a co-planar interferometer array operating at a wavelength of 3 mm to measure the Sunyaev-Zel’dovich effect (SZE) of galaxy clusters at arcminute scales. The first phase of operation—with a compact 7-element array with 0.6 m antennas (AMiBA-7)—observed six clusters at angular scales from 5\\prime to 23\\prime . Here, we describe the expansion of AMiBA to a 13-element array with 1.2 m antennas (AMiBA-13), its subsequent commissioning, and cluster SZE observing program. The most noticeable changes compared to AMiBA-7 are (1) array re-configuration with baselines ranging from 1.4 m to 4.8 m, allowing us to sample structures between 2\\prime and 10\\prime , (2) 13 new lightweight carbon-fiber-reinforced plastic (CFRP) 1.2 m reflectors, and (3) additional correlators and six new receivers. Since the reflectors are co-mounted on and distributed over the entire six-meter CFRP platform, a refined hexapod pointing error model and phase error correction scheme have been developed for AMiBA-13. These effects—entirely negligible for the earlier central close-packed AMiBA-7 configuration—can lead to additional geometrical delays during observations. Our correction scheme recovers at least 80 ± 5% of the point-source fluxes. We, therefore, apply an upward correcting factor of 1.25 to our visibilities to correct for phase decoherence, and a ±5% systematic uncertainty is added in quadrature with our statistical errors. We demonstrate the absence of further systematics with a noise level consistent with zero in stacked uv-visibilities. From the AMiBA-13 SZE observing program, we present here maps of a subset of 12 clusters with signal-to-noise ratios above five. We demonstrate combining AMiBA-7 with AMiBA-13 observations on Abell 1689, by jointly fitting their data to a generalized Navarro-Frenk-White model. Our cylindrically integrated Compton-y values for five radii are consistent with results from the Berkeley-Illinois-Maryland Array, the Owens Valley Radio Observatory, the Sunyaev-Zel’dovich Array, and the Planck Observatory. We also report the first targeted SZE detection toward the optically selected cluster RCS J1447+0828, and we demonstrate the ability of AMiBA SZE data to serve as a proxy for the total cluster mass. Finally, we show that our AMiBA-SZE derived cluster masses are consistent with recent lensing mass measurements in the literature