CHANGES OF KINEMATICS DURING UNDERWATER UNDULATORY SWIMMING WITH INCREASING SWIMMING VELOCITY

The purpose of this study was to clarify about the changes of the kinematics during underwater undulatory swimming (UUS) with increasing the swimming velocity. Eight male collegiate swimmers performed three UUS trials at the 70%, 80% and 90% velocity of their maximum effort swimming velocity in a water flume. For motion analysis, a motion capture system was used to collect the three-dimensional coordinates. Using the collected coordinates, the kinematic parameters were analyzed in each trial. As the main results, the kick frequnecy increased and the relative duration of the un-propusive phase with hip extension and knee felxion decreased with increasing swimming velocity. Furtheremore, since the peak hip external roation velocity increased with increasing swimming velocity, it was considered that the hip external rotation velocity during the downward kicking related to controll the swimming velocity during underwater undulatory swimming

KED estimated distribution of Earth Scientific Information

KED, the Kriging with External Drift, is one of the spatial statistical method for estimating some distribution from the discrete spatial sampled data set about the research field. The KED uses the kriging method (Matheron, 1973) with some auxiliary map to minimize the estimated error. The KED procedure was performed by the R-Language (Ihaka and Gentleman, 1996) using some geostatistical libraries. The auxiliary maps required by the KED were prepared by the authors with some GIS applications. The 3-dimensional geographic representations for the estimated distribution were performed by the Google Earth (Google, 2011). In this report, the KED was applied to some Earth scientific information to show the fundamental scheme of the method

DGEM: Digital Geological Elevation Model

DGEM, a Digital Geological Elevation Model, was developed using the digital geological map and the JPGIS DEM data with some GIS application and the R-Language. In the model, the information of the geological map was combined with the DEM by their coordinates. The integration of those two digital map was performed by the R-Language, so the model can be used by some useful presentation library of the language, such as the RGL, or by some geographical calculation libraries. Moreover, the DGEM will be used by the spatial statistical libraries of the R-Language to investigate some geological spatial distributed specifications

Estimation of SPM concentration distribution over the central Seto Inland Sea

Ordinary Kriging, OK, and Regression Kriging, RK, are the spatial statistical methods that are possible to estimate a horizontal distribution in a study area from discrete data. OK is the method which takes account of only spatial auto-correlation structure of the data, while RK is the method which takes account of an interrelationship between spatial auto-correlation structure and some auxiliary variables to minimize the estimation error. Analytical processing for OK and RK methods was performed by the R-Language (R Core Team, 2012) and its some additional libraries. The auxiliary variables required to perform RK method were prepared by a GIS application, Quantum GIS (Quantum GIS Development Team, 2012). The 3-dimensional geographic representation of the estimation maps was performed by the Google Earth (Google, 2012). In this report, OK and RK methods were applied to one of the Earth scientific information, SPM (Supended Particulate Matter). Then, these methods were considered by comparing two estimation maps, and finally considered qualitatively by displaying these maps in the Google Earth

Representation of Earth scientific information by the Google(TM) Earth

The Google(TM) Earth is a GIS application provided by the Google, with versatile and high performance visualization and manipulation capability for geographic information. The Google Earth is also a multi-platform application, so the installation and running cost for research and education site is relatively low. The Earth scientific information also have a geographic information scheme, so the Google Earth has some potential to support the education and research field of the Earth science. In this report, some Earth scientific information were converted by the R-Language and its libraries for represent by the Google Earth. The 3-dimensional representation of the information will be able to support to understanding the specification of the data for the Earth scientific research and education field

Effectiveness of active occupational therapy in patients with acute stroke: A propensity score-weighted retrospective study

Background and purposeThe effects of therapy and patient characteristics on rehabilitation outcomes in patients with acute stroke are unclear. We investigated the effects of intensive occupational therapy (OT) on patients with acute stroke.MethodsWe performed a retrospective cohort study using the 2005–2016 Japan Rehabilitation Database, from which we identified patients with stroke (n = 10,270) who were admitted to acute care hospitals (n = 37). We defined active OT (AOT) and non-AOT as OT intervention times (total intervention time/length of hospital stay) longer or shorter than the daily physical therapy intervention time, respectively. The outcomes assessed were the Functional Independence Measure (FIM) and National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) scores, duration of hospitalization, and rate of discharge. Propensity scores and inverse probability of treatment weighting analyses adjusted for patient characteristics were performed to investigate the effects of AOT on patient outcomes.ResultsWe enrolled 3,501 patients (1,938 and 1,563 patients in the AOT and non-AOT groups, respectively) in the study. After inverse probability of treatment weighting, the AOT group had a shorter length of hospitalization (95% confidence interval: −3.7, −1.3, p < 0.001), and the FIM (95% confidence interval: 2.0, 5.7, p < 0.001) and NIHSS (95% confidence interval; 0.3, 1.1, p < 0.001) scores improved significantly. Subgroup analysis showed that lower NHISS scores for aphasia, gaze, and neglect and lower overall NIHSS and FIM scores on admission led to a greater increase in FIM scores in the AOT group.ConclusionsAOT improved the limitations in performing activities of daily living (ADL) and physical function in patients with acute stroke and reduced the length of hospitalization. Additionally, subgroup analysis suggested that the increase in FIM score was greater in patients with severe limitations in performing ADLs and worse cognitive impairment, such as neglect, on admission

Design and baseline characteristics of the finerenone in reducing cardiovascular mortality and morbidity in diabetic kidney disease trial

Background: Among people with diabetes, those with kidney disease have exceptionally high rates of cardiovascular (CV) morbidity and mortality and progression of their underlying kidney disease. Finerenone is a novel, nonsteroidal, selective mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist that has shown to reduce albuminuria in type 2 diabetes (T2D) patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) while revealing only a low risk of hyperkalemia. However, the effect of finerenone on CV and renal outcomes has not yet been investigated in long-term trials. Patients and Methods: The Finerenone in Reducing CV Mortality and Morbidity in Diabetic Kidney Disease (FIGARO-DKD) trial aims to assess the efficacy and safety of finerenone compared to placebo at reducing clinically important CV and renal outcomes in T2D patients with CKD. FIGARO-DKD is a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group, event-driven trial running in 47 countries with an expected duration of approximately 6 years. FIGARO-DKD randomized 7,437 patients with an estimated glomerular filtration rate >= 25 mL/min/1.73 m(2) and albuminuria (urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio >= 30 to <= 5,000 mg/g). The study has at least 90% power to detect a 20% reduction in the risk of the primary outcome (overall two-sided significance level alpha = 0.05), the composite of time to first occurrence of CV death, nonfatal myocardial infarction, nonfatal stroke, or hospitalization for heart failure. Conclusions: FIGARO-DKD will determine whether an optimally treated cohort of T2D patients with CKD at high risk of CV and renal events will experience cardiorenal benefits with the addition of finerenone to their treatment regimen. Trial Registration: EudraCT number: 2015-000950-39; ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT02545049