Relationship between muscular extensibility, strength and stability and the transmission of impacts during fatigued running.

The aim was to analyse the relationship between isokinetic strength, dynamic stability, muscular extensibility and impacts transmission during fatigued running. Low- and high-frequency impacts related to body movements and the severity of impacts, respectively were assessed in 17 male recreational runners, before and after a treadmill running fatigue protocol, using a triaxial accelerometry system. High-frequency impacts in the tibia were negatively correlated to the knee angle at which the quadriceps peak torque was reached (p = 0.014), and also to the extensibility of the hamstrings and soleus (p = 0.001 and p = 0.023, respectively). The increases of high-frequency impacts in tibia caused by fatigue were positively related to the knee angle at which the hamstrings peak torque was reached (p = 0.001) and to stability after landing (p = 0.007). The attenuation of high-frequency impacts was positively related to hamstrings/quadriceps ratio of strength (p = 0.010) and to stability (p = 0.006). Limiting possible deficits in hamstring and soleus range of motion, improving stability after landing, developing hamstring and quadriceps strength in elongated muscle range, and maintaining a balanced ratio of hamstring/quadriceps strength could help to reduce the injury risk in running

The 1996 Soft State Transitions of Cygnus X-1

We report continuous monitoring of Cygnus X-1 in the 1.3 to 200 keV band using ASM/RXTE and BATSE/CGRO for about 200 days from 1996 February 21 to 1996 early September. During this period Cygnus X-1 experienced a hard-to-soft and then a soft-to-hard state transition. The low-energy X-ray (1.3-12 keV) and high-energy X-ray (20-200 keV) fluxes are strongly anti-correlated during this period. During the state transitions flux variations of about a factor of 5 and 15 were seen in the 1.3-3.0 keV and 100-200 keV bands, respectively, while the average 4.8-12 keV flux remains almost unchanged. The net effect of this pivoting is that the total 1.3-200 keV luminosity remained unchanged to within about 15%. The bolometric luminosity in the soft state may be as high as 50-70% above the hard state luminosity, after color corrections for the luminosity below 1.3 keV. The blackbody component flux and temperature increase in the soft state is probably caused by a combination of the optically thick disk mass accretion rate increase and a decrease of the inner disk radius.Comment: 18 pages, 1 PostScript figure. Accepted for ApJ

The burden of proof: the current state of atrial fibrillation prevention and treatment trials

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is an age-related arrhythmia of enormous socioeconomic significance. In recent years, our understanding of the basic mechanisms that initiate and perpetuate AF has evolved rapidly, catheter ablation of AF has progressed from concept to reality, and recent studies suggest lifestyle modification may help prevent AF recurrence. Emerging developments in genetics, imaging, and informatics also present new opportunities for personalized care. However, considerable challenges remain. These include a paucity of studies examining AF prevention, modest efficacy of existing antiarrhythmic therapies, diverse ablation technologies and practice, and limited evidence to guide management of high-risk patients with multiple comorbidities. Studies examining the long-term effects of AF catheter ablation on morbidity and mortality outcomes are not yet completed. In many ways, further progress in the field is heavily contingent on the feasibility, capacity, and efficiency of clinical trials to incorporate the rapidly evolving knowledge base and to provide substantive evidence for novel AF therapeutic strategies. This review outlines the current state of AF prevention and treatment trials, including the foreseeable challenges, as discussed by a unique forum of clinical trialists, scientists, and regulatory representatives in a session endorsed by the Heart Rhythm Society at the 12th Global CardioVascular Clinical Trialists Forum in Washington, DC, December 3–5, 2015

You call it ‘Self-Exuberance,’ I call it ‘Bragging.’ Miscalibrated Predictions of Emotional Responses to Self-Promotion

People engage in self-promotional behavior because they want others to hold favorable images of them. Self-promotion, however, entails a tradeoff between conveying one’s positive attributes and being seen as bragging. We propose that people get this tradeoff wrong because they erroneously project their own feelings onto their interaction partners. As a consequence, people overestimate the extent to which recipients of their self-promotion will feel proud of and happy for them, and underestimate the extent to which recipients will feel annoyed (Experiment 1 and 2). Because people tend to self-promote excessively when trying to make a favorable impression on others, such efforts often backfire, causing targets of the self-promotion to view the self-promoter as less likeable and as a braggart (Experiment 3)

Holographic models of de Sitter QFTs

We describe the dynamics of strongly coupled field theories in de Sitter spacetime using the holographic gauge/gravity duality. The main motivation for this is to explore the possibility of dynamical phase transitions during cosmological evolution. Specifically, we study two classes of theories: (i) conformal field theories on de Sitter in the static patch which are maintained in equilibrium at temperatures that may differ from the de Sitter temperature and (ii) confining gauge theories on de Sitter spacetime. In the former case we show the such states make sense from the holographic viewpoint in that they have regular bulk gravity solutions. In the latter situation we add to the evidence for a confinement/deconfinement transition for a large N planar gauge theory as the cosmological acceleration is increased past a critical value. For the field theories we study, the critical acceleration corresponds to a de Sitter temperature which is less than the Minkowski space deconfinement transition temperature by a factor of the spacetime dimension.Comment: 35 pages, LaTeX, 4 figures, v2: refs adde

Double-heterostructure cavities: from theory to design

We derive a frequency-domain-based approach for radiation (FAR) from double-heterostructure cavity (DHC) modes. We use this to compute the quality factors and radiation patterns of DHC modes. The semi-analytic nature of our method enables us to provide a general relationship between the radiation pattern of the cavity and its geometry. We use this to provide general designs for ultrahigh quality factor DHCs with radiation patterns that are engineered to emit vertically

The Cornell Net Carbohydrate and Protein System:Updates to the model and evaluation of version 6.5

AbstractNew laboratory and animal sampling methods and data have been generated over the last 10 yr that had the potential to improve the predictions for energy, protein, and AA supply and requirements in the Cornell Net Carbohydrate and Protein System (CNCPS). The objectives of this study were to describe updates to the CNCPS and evaluate model performance against both literature and on-farm data. The changes to the feed library were significant and are reported in a separate manuscript. Degradation rates of protein and carbohydrate fractions were adjusted according to new fractionation schemes, and corresponding changes to equations used to calculate rumen outflows and postrumen digestion were presented. In response to the feed-library changes and an increased supply of essential AA because of updated contents of AA, a combined efficiency of use was adopted in place of separate calculations for maintenance and lactation to better represent the biology of the cow. Four different data sets were developed to evaluate Lys and Met requirements, rumen N balance, and milk yield predictions. In total 99 peer-reviewed studies with 389 treatments and 15 regional farms with 50 different diets were included. The broken-line model with plateau was used to identify the concentration of Lys and Met that maximizes milk protein yield and content. Results suggested concentrations of 7.00 and 2.60% of metabolizable protein (MP) for Lys and Met, respectively, for maximal protein yield and 6.77 and 2.85% of MP for Lys and Met, respectively, for maximal protein content. Updated AA concentrations were numerically higher for Lys and 11 to 18% higher for Met compared with CNCPS v6.0, and this is attributed to the increased content of Met and Lys in feeds that were previously incorrectly analyzed and described. The prediction of postruminal flows of N and milk yield were evaluated using the correlation coefficient from the BLUP (R2BLUP) procedure or model predictions (R2MDP) and the concordance correlation coefficient. The accuracy and precision of rumen-degradable N and undegradable N and bacterial N flows were improved with reduced bias. The CNCPS v6.5 predicted accurate and precise milk yield according to the first-limiting nutrient (MP or metabolizable energy) with a R2BLUP=0.97, R2MDP=0.78, and concordance correlation coefficient=0.83. Furthermore, MP-allowable milk was predicted with greater precision than metabolizable energy–allowable milk (R2MDP=0.82 and 0.76, respectively, for MP and metabolizable energy). Results suggest a significant improvement of the model, especially under conditions of MP limitation

Simple geometrical interpretation of the linear character for the Zeno-line and the rectilinear diameter

The unified geometrical interpretation of the linear character of the Zeno-line (unit compressibility line Z=1) and the rectilinear diameter is proposed. We show that recent findings about the properties of the Zeno-line and striking correlation with the rectilinear diameter line as well as other empirical relations can be naturally considered as the consequences of the projective isomorphism between the real molecular fluids and the lattice gas (Ising) model.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figure