GENDER DIFFERENCES IN INSTRUMENTED TREKKING POLE USE DURING DOWNHILL WALKING

This study examined gender differences when hiking downhill with and without trekking poles. Fourteen men and thirteen women were recruited who had hiking and poling experience. Integrated and peak GRF and braking forces (BF), integrated EMG, and trekking pole forces were collected and analyzed. A MANOVA using mean gain scores examined statistical significance (p=.05). Moderate correlations were noted for pole forces and the dependent variables, but no statistical significance was found for the mean gain scores between gender. Trends were noted for peak Fz and BF between gender, with men demonstrating a greater reduction in forces. Men on average also generated greater pole loads, even when normalized for body mass. Four distinct patterns of pole use effectiveness were observed posthoc, but crossed gender lines. Overall, pole loading may be a contributing mechanism to a reduction in forces and muscle activity for men more so than women, but high subject variability limits the strength of this conclusion

TREKKING POLE FORCES DURING DOWNHILL WALKING

This study examined gender differences when hiking downhill with trekking poles. Fourteen men and thirteen women were recruited who had hiking and poling experience. Integrated pole forces were examined over two pole strikes (left pole followed by right pole) prior to and during a stance phase of a step. Total pole force was compared between gender, as well the percent of pole force during the actual stance phase of the step. Left and right pole strikes were also examined for symmetry. Men generated a greater combined pole force than women (0.61N/kg vs. 0.48N/kg) but the differences were not statistically significant. During the stance phase, 48% of the combined pole force occurred for men, but only 35% of the pole force was noted for the women. Pole forces were less symmetrical for the women as well, although also not statistically different. Similar total pole forces between gender with less pole force during stance phase indicates pole walking technique differences rather than a lack of upper body strength, for women, who previously demonstrated less footfall force changes when walking with poles than without, in comparison to men

Prediction of the long-term groundwater recharge by hydropedotransfer functions

A method is outlined to predict actual evapotranspiration and groundwater recharge considering climate, soil and depth to groundwater

Heating of Calcium Phosphate Crystals: Morphological Consequences and Biological Implications

Sintering hydroxyapatite (HA) and ß-tricalcium phosphate (ß-TCP) affects the chemical composition, the crystallinity, and the morphological features as demonstrated by means of X-ray diffraction (XRD) , infrared spectroscopy (IR), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). When heated to 1230°C, 16.7% of HA had decomposed to ß-TCP. SEM investigations showed homogeneous, sharp angular polyhedric blocks of 30 to 50 µm with rare surface pores. On heating at 1230°C, ß-TCP had entirely transformed to a-TCP. During sintering, the size of the powder grains increased and progressive bridging between the grains was observed. At 1230°C, a network within round-shaped polyhedric blocks of 50 to 90 µm was formed. In both, HA and IJ-TCP, surfaces were smooth. The chemical composition and the crystallinity of calcium phosphate ceramics determine their dissolution behavior and osteogenic properties. Nevertheless, their temperature dependent morphological features, such as, particle shape and size, surface texture, and porosity, as demonstrated in the present study, also influence the resorption rates , tissue responses, and wound healing duration. This should be emphasized more by clinicians in choosing an appropriate material for bone substitution

Developing a reliable strategy to infer the effective soil hydraulic properties from field evaporation experiments for agro-hydrological models

The Richards equation has been widely used for simulating soil water movement. However, the take-up of agro-hydrological models using the basic theory of soil water flow for optimizing irrigation, fertilizer and pesticide practices is still low. This is partly due to the difficulties in obtaining accurate values for soil hydraulic properties at a field scale. Here, we use an inverse technique to deduce the effective soil hydraulic properties, based on measuring the changes in the distribution of soil water with depth in a fallow field over a long period, subject to natural rainfall and evaporation using a robust micro Genetic Algorithm. A new optimized function was constructed from the soil water contents at different depths, and the soil water at field capacity. The deduced soil water retention curve was approximately parallel but higher than that derived from published pedo-tranfer functions for a given soil pressure head. The water contents calculated from the deduced soil hydraulic properties were in good agreement with the measured values. The reliability of the deduced soil hydraulic properties was tested in reproducing data measured from an independent experiment on the same soil cropped with leek. The calculation of root water uptake took account for both soil water potential and root density distribution. Results show that the predictions of soil water contents at various depths agree fairly well with the measurements, indicating that the inverse analysis is an effective and reliable approach to estimate soil hydraulic properties, and thus permits the simulation of soil water dynamics in both cropped and fallow soils in the field accurately

Quasi-fission reactions as a probe of nuclear viscosity

Fission fragment mass and angular distributions were measured from the ^{64}Ni+^{197}Au reaction at 418 MeV and 383 MeV incident energy. A detailed data analysis was performed, using the one-body dissipation theory implemented in the code HICOL. The effect of the window and the wall friction on the experimental observables was investigated. Friction stronger than one-body was also considered. The mass and angular distributions were consistent with one-body dissipation. An evaporation code DIFHEAT coupled to HICOL was developed in order to predict reaction time scales required to describe available data on pre-scission neutron multiplicities. The multiplicity data were again consistent with one-body dissipation. The cross-sections for touch, capture and quasi-fission were also obtained.Comment: 25 pages REVTeX, 3 tables, 13 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev

Excited States in 52Fe and the Origin of the Yrast Trap at I=12+

Excited states in 52Fe have been determined up to spin 10\hbar in the reaction 28Si + 28Si at 115 MeV by using \gamma-ray spectroscopy methods at the GASP array. The excitation energy of the yrast 10+ state has been determined to be 7.381 MeV, almost 0.5 MeV above the well known \beta+-decaying yrast 12+ state, definitely confirming the nature of its isomeric character. The mean lifetimes of the states have been measured by using the Doppler Shift Attenuation method. The experimental data are compared with spherical shell model calculations in the full pf-shell.Comment: 9 pages, RevTeX, 7 figures include

Spectroscopic factors for bound s-wave states derived from neutron scattering lengths

A simple and model-independent method is described to derive neutron single-particle spectroscopic factors of bound s-wave states in $^{A+1}Z = ^{A}Z \otimes n$ nuclei from neutron scattering lengths. Spectroscopic factors for the nuclei ^{13}C, ^{14}C, ^{16}N, ^{17}O, ^{19}O, ^{23}Ne, ^{37}Ar, and ^{41}Ar are compared to results derived from transfer experiments using the well-known DWBA analysis and to shell model calculations. The scattering length of ^{14}C is calculated from the ^{15}C_{g.s.} spectroscopic factor.Comment: 9 pages (uses revtex), no figures, accepted for publication in PRC, uuencoded tex-files and postscript-files available at ftp://is1.kph.tuwien.ac.at/pub/ohu/Thermal.u