3,486 research outputs found
Kinematic variations due to changes in pace during men's and women's 5 km road running
The purpose of this study was to investigate variations in kinematic parameters in men's and women's 5 km road racing. Athletes often vary their pace and changes particularly tend to occur towards the end of a race due to fatigue and sprint finishes. Twenty competitive distance runners (10 male, 10 female) were videoed as they completed the English National 5 km championships. Three-dimensional kinematic data were analysed using motion analysis software (SIMI, Munich). Data were recorded at 950 m, 2,400 m and 3,850 m. Repeated measures ANOVA showed significant decreases in speed due to reduced step length and cadence in both men and women. These decreases predominantly occurred between the first two measurement points. The hip, knee, ankle and shoulder angles at both initial contact and toe-off did not change significantly, but there were significant reductions in the elbow angle for both men (at initial contact) and women (at toe-off)
Constraints on Cold Dark Matter in the Gamma-ray Halo of NGC 253
A gamma-ray halo in a nearby starburst galaxy NGC 253 was found by the
CANGAROO-II Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescope (IACT). By fitting the
energy spectrum with expected curves from Cold Dark Matter (CDM) annihilations,
we constrain the CDM-annihilation rate in the halo of NGC 253. Upper limits for
the CDM density were obtained in the wide mass range between 0.5 and 50 TeV.
Although these limits are higher than the expected values, it is complementary
important to the other experimental techniques, especially considering the
energy coverage. We also investigate the next astronomical targets to improve
these limits.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures, aastex.cls, natbib.sty, To appear in ApJ v596n1,
Oct. 10, 200
Radiogenic power and geoneutrino luminosity of the Earth and other terrestrial bodies through time
We report the Earth's rate of radiogenic heat production and (anti)neutrino
luminosity from geologically relevant short-lived radionuclides (SLR) and
long-lived radionuclides (LLR) using decay constants from the geological
community, updated nuclear physics parameters, and calculations of the
spectra. We track the time evolution of the radiogenic power and luminosity of
the Earth over the last 4.57 billion years, assuming an absolute abundance for
the refractory elements in the silicate Earth and key volatile/refractory
element ratios (e.g., Fe/Al, K/U, and Rb/Sr) to set the abundance levels for
the moderately volatile elements. The relevant decays for the present-day heat
production in the Earth ( TW) are from K, Rb,
Sm, Th, U, and U. Given element concentrations
in kg-element/kg-rock and density in kg/m, a simplified equation to
calculate the present day heat production in a rock is: The
radiogenic heating rate of Earth-like material at Solar System formation was
some 10 to 10 times greater than present-day values, largely due to
decay of Al in the silicate fraction, which was the dominant radiogenic
heat source for the first Ma. Assuming instantaneous Earth formation,
the upper bound on radiogenic energy supplied by the most powerful short-lived
radionuclide Al ( = 0.7 Ma) is 5.510 J,
which is comparable (within a factor of a few) to the planet's gravitational
binding energy.Comment: 28 pages, 6 figures, 5 table
Microwave Lens for Polar Molecules
We here report on the implementation of a microwave lens for neutral polar
molecules suitable to focus molecules both in low-field-seeking and in
high-field-seeking states. By using the TE_11m modes of a 12 cm long
cylindrically symmetric microwave resonator, Stark-decelerated ammonia
molecules are transversally confined. We investigate the focusing properties of
this microwave lens as a function of the molecules' velocity, the detuning of
the microwave frequency from the molecular resonance frequency, and the
microwave power. Such a microwave lens can be seen as a first important step
towards further microwave devices, such as decelerators and traps.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
Reactor Neutrino Experiments with a Large Liquid Scintillator Detector
We discuss several new ideas for reactor neutrino oscillation experiments
with a Large Liquid Scintillator Detector. We consider two different scenarios
for a measurement of the small mixing angle with a mobile
source: a nuclear-powered ship, such as a submarine or an
icebreaker, and a land-based scenario with a mobile reactor. The former setup
can achieve a sensitivity to at the 90%
confidence level, while the latter performs only slightly better than Double
Chooz. Furthermore, we study the precision that can be achieved for the solar
parameters, and , with a mobile reactor
and with a conventional power station. With the mobile reactor, a precision
slightly better than from current global fit data is possible, while with a
power reactor, the accuracy can be reduced to less than 1%. Such a precision is
crucial for testing theoretical models, e.g. quark-lepton complementarity.Comment: 18 pages, 3 figures, 2 tables, revised version, to appear in JHEP,
Fig. 1 extended, Formula added, minor changes, results unchange
First-Order Melting and Dynamics of Flux Lines in a Model for YBaCuO
We have studied the statics and dynamics of flux lines in a model for YBCO,
using both Monte Carlo simulations and Langevin dynamics. For a clean system,
both approaches yield the same melting curve, which is found to be weakly first
order with a heat of fusion of about per vortex pancake at a
field of The time averaged magnetic field distribution
experienced by a fixed spin is found to undergo a qualitative change at
freezing, in agreement with NMR and experiments. Melting in the
clean system is accompanied by a proliferation of free disclinations which show
a clear B-dependent 3D-2D crossover from long disclination lines parallel to
the c-axis at low fields, to 2D ``pancake'' disclinations at higher fields.
Strong point pins produce a logarithmical relaxation which results from
slow annealing out of disclinations in disordered samples.Comment: 31 pages, latex, revtex, 12 figures available upon request, No major
changes to the original text, but some errors in the axes scale for Figures 6
and 7 were corrected(new figures available upon request), to be published in
Physical Review B, July 199
DETERMINATION OF BODY SEGMENT INERTIA PARAMETERS USING 3D HUMAN BODY SCANNER AND 3D CAD SOFTWARE
In the field of sports biomechanics, a human body is often treated as a linkage model to investigate various kinds of human movement. This modeling requires body segment inertia parameters (BSPs) such as masses, centers of mass, and moments of inertia. As the quality of motion capture system increases, more accurate BSPs are also needed to get accurate inverse dynamics results. Advanced technology has enabled us to obtain three-dimensional coordinates of the entire body surface. A 3D CAD software has also been able to be applied to measure the human body. It was hypothesized that BSPs with high accuracy could be determined by the combination of a 3D body scanner and a 3D CAD software. The purposes of this study are, first, to introduce a new method of measuring subject-specific BSPs and, second, to compare the BSPs from this study with those from an existing mathematical model in order to
show that the proposed method can be used to produce more accurate BSPs
Expected gamma-ray emission of supernova remnant SN 1987A
A nonlinear kinetic theory of cosmic ray (CR) acceleration in supernova
remnants is employed to re-examine the nonthermal properties of the remnant of
SN 1987A for an extended evolutionary period of 5--100 yr. It is shown that an
efficient production of nuclear CRs leads to a strong modification of the outer
supernova remnant shock and to a large downstream magnetic field
mG. The shock modification and the strong field are
required to yield the steep radio emission spectrum observed, as well as to
considerable synchrotron cooling of high energy electrons which diminishes
their X-ray synchrotron flux. These features are also consistent with the
existing X-ray observations. The expected \gr energy flux at TeV-energies at
the current epoch is nearly erg cms under reasonable assumptions about the overall
magnetic field topology and the turbulent perturbations of this field. The
general nonthermal strength of the source is expected to increase roughly by a
factor of two over the next 15 to 20 yrs; thereafter it should decrease with
time in a secular form.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ, a number of
changes have been made, even though these are not changing the main results
of the pape
Spin models for orientational ordering of colloidal molecular crystals
Two-dimensional colloidal suspensions exposed to periodic external fields
exhibit a variety of molecular crystalline phases. There two or more colloids
assemble at lattice sites of potential minima to build new structural entities,
referred to as molecules. Using the strength of the potential and the filling
fraction as control parameter, phase transition to unconventional
orientationally ordered states can be induced. We introduce an approach that
focuses at the discrete set of orientational states relevant for the phase
ordering. The orientationally ordered states are mapped to classical spin
systems. We construct effective hamiltonians for dimeric and trimeric molecules
on triangular lattices suitable for a statistical mechanics discussion. A
mean-field analysis produces a rich phase behavior which is substantiated by
Monte Carlo simulations.Comment: 19 pages, 21 figures; misplacement of Fig.3 fixe
The 3D Euler solutions using automated Cartesian grid generation
Viewgraphs on 3-dimensional Euler solutions using automated Cartesian grid generation are presented. Topics covered include: computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and the design cycle; Cartesian grid strategy; structured body fit; grid generation; prolate spheroid; and ONERA M6 wing
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