Ariel - Volume 11 Number 2

Executive Editors Ellen Feldman Leonardo S. Nasca, Jr. Business .Managers Barbara L. Davies Martin B. Getzow News Editor Aaron D. Bleznak Features Editor Hugh A. Gelabert CAHS Editor Joan M. Greco Editorial Page Editor Samuel Markind Photography Editor Leonardo S. Nasca, Jr. Sports Editor Paul F. Mansfiel

Intra-individual movement variability during skill transitions: A useful marker?

Applied research suggests athletes and coaches need to be challenged in knowing when and how much a movement should be consciously attended to. This is exacerbated when the skill is in transition between two more stable states, such as when an already well learnt skill is being refined. Using existing theory and research, this paper highlights the potential application of movement variability as a tool to inform a coach’s decision-making process when implementing a systematic approach to technical refinement. Of particular interest is the structure of co-variability between mechanical degrees-of-freedom (e.g., joints) within the movement system’s entirety when undergoing a skill transition. Exemplar data from golf are presented, demonstrating the link between movement variability and mental effort as an important feature of automaticity, and thus intervention design throughout the different stages of refinement. Movement variability was shown to reduce when mental effort directed towards an individual aspect of the skill was high (target variable). The opposite pattern was apparent for variables unrelated to the technical refinement. Therefore, two related indicators, movement variability and mental effort, are offered as a basis through which the evaluation of automaticity during technical refinements may be made

On Alternative Supermatrix Reduction

We consider a nonstandard odd reduction of supermatrices (as compared with the standard even one) which arises in connection with possible extension of manifold structure group reductions. The study was initiated by consideration of the generalized noninvertible superconformal-like transformations. The features of even- and odd-reduced supermatrices are investigated on a par. They can be unified into some kind of "sandwich" semigroups. Also we define a special module over even- and odd-reduced supermatrix sets, and the generalized Cayley-Hamilton theorem is proved for them. It is shown that the odd-reduced supermatrices represent semigroup bands and Rees matrix semigroups over a unit group.Comment: 22 pages, Standard LaTeX with AmS font

'Mine's a Pint of Bitter': Performativity, gender, class and representations of authenticity in real-ale tourism

Leisure choices are expressive of individual agency around the maintenance of taste, boundaries, identity and community. This research paper is part of a wider project designed to assess the social and cultural value of real ale to tourism in the north of England. This paper explores the performativity of real-ale tourism and debates about belonging in northern English real-ale communities. The research combines an ethnographic case study of a real-ale festival with semi-structured interviews with organisers and volunteers, northern English real-ale brewers and real-ale tourists visiting the festival. It is argued that real-ale tourism, despite its origins in the logic of capitalism, becomes a space where people can perform Habermasian, communicative leisure, and despite the contradictions of preferring some capitalist industries over others on the basis of their perceived smaller size and older age, real-ale fans demonstrate agency in their performativity

High Throughput Discovery of Lightweight Corrosion-Resistant Compositionally Complex Alloys

Compositionally complex alloys hold the promise of simultaneously attaining superior combinations of properties such as corrosion resistance, light-weighting, and strength. Achieving this goal is a challenge due in part to a large number of possible compositions and structures in the vast alloy design space. High throughput methods offer a path forward, but a strong connection between the synthesis of a given composition and structure with its properties has not been fully realized to date. Here we present the rapid identification of light weight highly corrosion-resistant alloys based on combinations of Al and Cr in a Cantor-like base alloy (Al-Co-Cr-Fe-Ni). Previously unstudied alloy stoichiometries were identified using a combination of high throughput experimental screening coupled with key metallurgical and electrochemical corrosion tests, identifying alloys with excellent passivation behavior. Importantly, the electrochemical impedance modulus of the exposure-modified, air-formed film at the corrosion potential was found as an accurate non-destructive predictor of corrosion and passivation characteristics. Multi-element EXAFS analyses connected more ordered type chemical short range order in the Ni-Al 1st nn shell to poorer corrosion. This report underscores the utility of high throughput exploration of compositionally complex alloys for the identification and rapid screening of vast stoichiometric space

Electron energy loss and induced photon emission in photonic crystals

The interaction of a fast electron with a photonic crystal is investigated by solving the Maxwell equations exactly for the external field provided by the electron in the presence of the crystal. The energy loss is obtained from the retarding force exerted on the electron by the induced electric field. The features of the energy loss spectra are shown to be related to the photonic band structure of the crystal. Two different regimes are discussed: for small lattice constants $a$ relative to the wavelength of the associated electron excitations $\lambda$, an effective medium theory can be used to describe the material; however, for $a\sim\lambda$ the photonic band structure plays an important role. Special attention is paid to the frequency gap regions in the latter case.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figure

Great Expectations: Voluntary Sports Clubs and Their Role in Delivering National Policy for English Sport

“The original publication is available at www.springerlink.com”. Copyright International Society for Third-Sector Research and The Johns Hopkins University. DOI: 10.1007/s11266-009-9095-yVoluntary sports clubs (VSCs) account for about a quarter of all volunteering in England. The volunteers work in a mutual aid, self-production, self-consumption system whose main purpose is identifying and nurturing high-level performers. But the new HMG/Sport England strategies leading to London 2012 expects volunteers to make a major contribution to sustaining and extending participation. The study utilized six focus group sessions with a total of 36 officials and members of 36 clubs across the six counties of Eastern England to assess whether and to what extent government policy objectives can be delivered through the voluntary sector. The study focused on the perceptions and attitudes of club members about being expected to serve public policy and the current pressures they and their clubs face. The results lead the authors to question the appropriateness, sensitivity, and feasibility of current sport policy, particularly the emphasis on VSCs as policy implementers.Peer reviewe

Responsiveness and ceiling effects of the Forgotten Joint Score-12 following total hip arthroplasty

ObjectivesTo assess the responsiveness and ceiling/floor effects of the Forgotten Joint Score -12 and to compare these with that of the more widely used Oxford Hip Score (OHS) in patients six and 12 months after primary total hip arthroplasty.MethodsWe prospectively collected data at six and 12 months following total hip arthroplasty from 193 patients undergoing surgery at a single centre. Ceiling effects are outlined with frequencies for patients obtaining the lowest or highest possible score. Change over time from six months to 12 months post-surgery is reported as effect size (Cohen’s d).ResultsThe mean OHS improved from 40.3 (sd 7.9) at six months to 41.9 (sd 7.2) at 12 months. The mean FJS-12 improved from 56.8 (sd 30.1) at six months to 62.1 (sd 29.0) at 12 months. At six months, 15.5% of patients reached the best possible score (48 points) on the OHS and 8.3% obtained the best score (100 points) on the FJS-12. At 12 months, this percentage increased to 20.8% for the OHS and to 10.4% for the FJS-12. In terms of the effect size (Cohen’s d), the change was d = 0.10 for the OHS and d = 0.17 for the FJS-12.ConclusionsThe FJS-12 is more responsive to change between six and 12 months following total hip arthroplasty than is the OHS, with the measured ceiling effect for the OHS twice that of the FJS-12. The difference in effect size of change results in substantial differences in required sample size if aiming to detect change between these two time points. This has important implications for powering clinical trials with patient-reported measures as the primary outcome

A Systematic Mapping Approach of 16q12.2/FTO and BMI in More Than 20,000 African Americans Narrows in on the Underlying Functional Variation: Results from the Population Architecture using Genomics and Epidemiology (PAGE) Study

Genetic variants in intron 1 of the fat mass- and obesity-associated (FTO) gene have been consistently associated with body mass index (BMI) in Europeans. However, follow-up studies in African Americans (AA) have shown no support for some of the most consistently BMI-associated FTO index single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). This is most likely explained by different race-specific linkage disequilibrium (LD) patterns and lower correlation overall in AA, which provides the opportunity to fine-map this region and narrow in on the functional variant. To comprehensively explore the 16q12.2/FTO locus and to search for second independent signals in the broader region, we fine-mapped a 646-kb region, encompassing the large FTO gene and the flanking gene RPGRIP1L by investigating a total of 3,756 variants (1,529 genotyped and 2,227 imputed variants) in 20,488 AAs across five studies. We observed associations between BMI and variants in the known FTO intron 1 locus: the SNP with the most significant p-value, rs56137030 (8.3×10-6) had not been highlighted in previous studies. While rs56137030was correlated at r2>0.5 with 103 SNPs in Europeans (including the GWAS index SNPs), this number was reduced to 28 SNPs in AA. Among rs56137030 and the 28 correlated SNPs, six were located within candidate intronic regulatory elements, including rs1421085, for which we predicted allele-specific binding affinity for the transcription factor CUX1, which has recently been implicated in the regulation of FTO. We did not find strong evidence for a second independent signal in the broader region. In summary, this large fine-mapping study in AA has substantially reduced the number of common alleles that are likely to be functional candidates of the known FTO locus. Importantly our study demonstrated that comprehensive fine-mapping in AA provides a powerful approach to narrow in on the functional candidate(s) underlying the initial GWAS findings in European populations