Analysis of attacking corner kick strategies in the FA women’s super league 2017/2018

This study describes how corner kicks were taken across the 2017/2018 FA Women’s Super League season and assesses the effectiveness of these attacking corner kick strategies. A total of 824 corner kicks were analysed examining delivery type, delivery area and attack organisation on corner kick outcomes. A total of 38 goals were scored (4.6% of corners taken resulted in a goal) from the corner kicks, accounting for 13.5% of the total 282 goals scored during the 2017/2018 season. Corner delivery type did not affect the outcome of the corner (p > 0.05). However, delivery zone effected both the likelihood of an attempt on target (p = 0.018) and goal being scored (p < 0.001). Attempts on target were increased when the ball was delivered into the central area of the 18-yard box (zone CA2) with 14.7% of corners delivered to CA2 resulting in an attempt on target. Goals were most likely to be scored when the ball was delivered into the central zone but closer to the goal line (zone GA2) with 13.0% of corner kicks delivered to this zone resulting in a goal. These results can aid coaches to enhance the attacking effectiveness of corner kicks within Women’s soccer

Sintering of calcium phosphates with a femtosecond pulsed laser for hard tissue engineering

The authors acknowledge support from the sponsors of this work; the EPSRC LUMIN (EP/K020234/1) and EU-Marie-Curie-IAPP LUSTRE (324538) projects.Direct laser sintering on hard tissues is likely to open new pathways for personalised medicine. To minimise irradiation damage of the surrounding soft tissues, lasers operating at wavelengths that are ‘safe’ for the tissues and biomaterials with improved optical properties are required. In this work laser sintering is demonstrated with the use of an ultrafast, femtosecond (100 fs) pulsed laser operating at a wavelength of 1045 nm and two existing calcium phosphate minerals (brushite and hydroxyapatite) which have been improved after doping with iron (10 mol%). Femtosecond laser irradiation caused transformation of the Fe3+-doped brushite and Fe3+-doped HAp samples into β-calcium pyrophosphate and calcium-iron-phosphate, respectively, with simultaneous evidence for microstructural sintering and densification. After estimating the temperature profile at the surface of the samples we suggest that soft tissues over 500 μm from the irradiated zone would be safe from thermal damage. This novel laser processing provides a means to control the phase constitution and the morphology of the finished surfaces. The porous structure of β-pyrophosphate might be suitable for applications in bone regeneration by supporting osteogenic cell activity while, the densified Fe3+-rich calcium-iron-phosphate may be promising for applications like dental enamel restoration.PostprintPeer reviewe