596 research outputs found
Effects of three different combined training interventions on jump, change of direction, power performance, and inter-limb asymmetry in male youth soccer players
Background: This study compared the effects of performing different unilateral combined training interventions on diverse vertical and horizontal jumping performance parameters, change of direction, concentric and eccentric mean power, and their associated inter-limb asymmetries in young soccer players. Methods: Forty-seven young male soccer players (age: 15.5 ± 0.9 years) were distributed into three groups. Two groups performed the same training volume with both legs, beginning with the weaker leg (Stronger Volume Weaker leg group (SVW), n = 14) or with the stronger leg (Stronger Volume Stronger leg group, (SVS), n = 15). The third group executed double the volume with the weaker leg and also commenced with such leg (Double Volume Weaker leg group (DVW), n = 16) during a 10-week period. Pre-and post-intervention tests included a single-leg hop, single-leg lateral hop, triple hop, bilateral and unilateral countermovement jumps, a change of direction speed test, concentric and eccentric mean power during the lateral squat test, and their corresponding asymmetries. Results: Single-leg hop weaker leg, triple hop weaker leg, and bilateral countermovement jump improvements were achieved in the SVW (ES: 0.29 to 0.46) and DVW (ES: 0.55 to 0.73) groups. Between-groups analysis showed better results in single-leg hop in the SVW and DVW compared to group SVS. The DVW group achieved better improvements in countermovement jump in comparison to groups SVS and SVW. Conclusions: Groups that started with the weaker leg seemed to achieve a greater volume of significant changes than when starting with the stronger leg. Performing a double volume on the weaker limb does not guarantee further improved performance compared to other groups. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland
Infinitesimal and local convexity of a hypersurface in a semi-Riemannian manifold
Given a Riemannian manifold M and a hypersurface H in M, it is well known
that infinitesimal convexity on a neighborhood of a point in H implies local
convexity. We show in this note that the same result holds in a semi-Riemannian
manifold. We make some remarks for the case when only timelike, null or
spacelike geodesics are involved. The notion of geometric convexity is also
reviewed and some applications to geodesic connectedness of an open subset of a
Lorentzian manifold are given.Comment: 14 pages, AMSLaTex, 2 figures. v2: typos fixed, added one reference
and several comments, statement of last proposition correcte
Development and external validation study of a melanoma risk prediction model incorporating clinically assessed naevi and solar lentigines
Background:
Melanoma risk prediction models could be useful for matching preventive interventions to patientsâ risk.
Objectives:
To develop and validate a model for incident firstâprimary cutaneous melanoma using clinically assessed risk factors.
Methods:
We used unconditional logistic regression with backward selection from the Australian Melanoma Family Study (461 cases and 329 controls) in which age, sex and city of recruitment were kept in each step, and we externally validated it using the Leeds Melanoma CaseâControl Study (960 cases and 513 controls). Candidate predictors included clinically assessed wholeâbody naevi and solar lentigines, and selfâassessed pigmentation phenotype, sun exposure, family history and history of keratinocyte cancer. We evaluated the predictive strength and discrimination of the model risk factors using odds per ageâ and sexâadjusted SD (OPERA) and the area under curve (AUC), and calibration using the HosmerâLemeshow test.
Results:
The final model included the number of naevi â„ 2 mm in diameter on the whole body, solar lentigines on the upper back (a sixâlevel scale), hair colour at age 18 years and personal history of keratinocyte cancer. Naevi was the strongest risk factor; the OPERA was 3·51 [95% confidence interval (CI) 2·71â4·54] in the Australian study and 2·56 (95% CI 2·23â2·95) in the Leeds study. The AUC was 0·79 (95% CI 0·76â0·83) in the Australian study and 0·73 (95% CI 0·70â0·75) in the Leeds study. The HosmerâLemeshow test Pâvalue was 0·30 in the Australian study and < 0·001 in the Leeds study.
Conclusions:
This model had good discrimination and could be used by clinicians to stratify patients by melanoma risk for the targeting of preventive interventions.
What's already known about this topic?
Melanoma risk prediction models may be useful in prevention by tailoring interventions to personalized risk levels.
For reasons of feasibility, time and cost many melanoma prediction models use selfâassessed risk factors. However, individuals tend to underestimate their naevus numbers.
What does this study add?
We present a melanoma risk prediction model, which includes clinicallyâassessed wholeâbody naevi and solar lentigines, and selfâassessed risk factors including pigmentation phenotype and history of keratinocyte cancer.
This model performs well on discrimination, the model's ability to distinguish between individuals with and without melanoma, and may assist clinicians to stratify patients by melanoma risk for targeted preventive interventions
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Early phonological and sociocognitive skills as predictors of later language and social communication outcomes
Background:â Previous studies of outcome for children with early language delay have focused on measures of early language as predictors of language outcome. This study investigates whether very early processing skills (VEPS) known to underpin language development will be better predictors of specific language and social communication outcomes than measures of language itself.
Method:â Participants were 163 children referred to clinical services with concerns about language at 2;6â3;6 years and followed up at 4â5 years. Novel assessments of phonological and sociocognitive processing were administered at Time 1 (T1), together with a standardised test of receptive and expressive language, and parental report of expressive vocabulary. The language test was re-administered at Time 2 (T2), together with assessments of morphosyntax and parental reports of social communication.
Results:â Intercorrelations at and between T1 and T2 were high, and dissociations were rare. Ordinal regressions were run, entering predictors singly and simultaneously. With the exception of the phonological task, every early measure on its own was significantly predictive of most outcomes, and receptive language was the strongest all-round predictor. Results of simultaneous entry, controlling for the effect of other predictors, showed that early language was the strongest predictor of general language outcome, but early phonology was the strongest predictor of a measure of morphosyntax, and early sociocognition the strongest predictor of social communication.
Conclusions:â Language measures which draw on a wide range of skills were the strongest overall predictors of general language outcomes. However, our VEPS measures were stronger predictors of specific outcomes. The clinical and theoretical implications of these findings are discussed
Orbital Characterization of Igneous and Aqueous Outcrops in the Tyrrhena Terra Region of Mars
Identifying Olivine Composition in Tyrrhena Terra, Mars, Using Orbital Mid-Infrared Data
Magnificent rock / Crater floors of melted Mars / Hold the olivine
Weak capture of protons by protons
The cross section for the proton weak capture reaction
is calculated with wave functions obtained from a number of modern, realistic
high-precision interactions. To minimize the uncertainty in the axial two-body
current operator, its matrix element has been adjusted to reproduce the
measured Gamow-Teller matrix element of tritium decay in model
calculations using trinucleon wave functions from these interactions. A
thorough analysis of the ambiguities that this procedure introduces in
evaluating the two-body current contribution to the pp capture is given. Its
inherent model dependence is in fact found to be very weak. The overlap
integral for the pp capture is predicted to be in the range
7.05--7.06, including the axial two-body current contribution, for all
interactions considered.Comment: 17 pages RevTeX (twocolumn), 5 postscript figure
Critical properties of 1-D spin 1/2 antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model
We discuss numerical results for the 1-D spin 1/2 antiferromagnetic
Heisenberg model with next-to-nearest neighbour coupling and in the presence of
an uniform magnetic field. The model develops zero frequency excitations at
field dependent soft mode momenta. We compute critical quantities from finite
size dependence of static structure factors.Comment: talk given by H. Kr{\"o}ger at Heraeus Seminar Theory of Spin
Lattices and Lattice Gauge Models, Bad Honnef (1996), 20 pages, LaTeX + 18
figures, P
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