Comparison of lower body segment alignment of elite level hockey players to age-matched non-hockey players

Master's Project (M.A.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2015Lower body overuse and insidious onset injuries are thought to have an underlying biomechanical component which may be predisposing to injury. The purpose of this study was to compare lower body biomechanical characteristics for elite hockey players to matched controls. I hypothesize that elite hockey players have a greater degree of anterior pelvic tilt, greater varus knee angle, a higher foot arch and feet held in parallel more during gait than a matched non-skating population. Measures were taken of elite level, college aged, male hockey players and compared to cross country runners (ten subjects in each group) who served as controls for trunk angle, pelvic tilt angle, knee alignment, (varus/valgus angle), foot angle, arch index (arch height), hip, center of range of motion, hip external rotation, hip internal rotation, hip total range of motion (ROM), knee transverse plane ROM, and step width. The results obtained support the hypothesis for anterior pelvic tilt and foot angle during gait. Although knee angle was in the expected varus direction it was not significant and no differences were observed in the foot arch between the groups. All other measurements not directly related to the hypothesis were not significantly different with the exception of mean step width. The obtained results are important as recent literature describes a lower body posture of medial collapse into "dynamic valgus" as being predisposing to injury. Results show, on the spectrum from lower body varus to lower body valgus, hockey players are on the varus side of the spectrum in all attributes except arch height, which was similar in both populations. Since lower body alignment is thought to be coupled, this inconsistency appears contrary to the "medial collapse into dynamic valgus" model and may explain why foot orthotics and athletic shoes used as an injury intervention often fail

Nevanlinna representations in several variables

We generalize two integral representation formulae of Nevanlinna to functions of several variables. We show that for a large class of analytic functions that have non-negative imaginary part on the upper polyhalfplane there are representation formulae in terms of densely defined self-adjoint operators on a Hilbert space. We introduce three types of structured resolvent of a self-adjoint operator and identify four different types of representation in terms of these resolvents. We relate the types of representation that a function admits to its growth at infinity.Comment: 37 pages. In this version we have added some references and expanded the introductio

Engineering enterprise through intellectual property education - pedagogic approaches

Engineering faculties, despite shrinking resources, are delivering to new enterprise agendas that must take account of the fuzzying of disciplinary boundaries. Learning and teaching, curriculum design and research strategies reflect these changes. Driven by changing expectations of how future graduates will contribute to the economy, academics in engineering and other innovative disciplines are finding it necessary to re-think undergraduate curricula to enhance students’ entrepreneurial skills, which includes their awareness and competence in respect of intellectual property rights [IPRs]. There is no well established pedagogy for educating engineers, scientists and innovators about intellectual property. This paper reviews some different approaches to facilitating non-law students’ learning about IP. Motivated by well designed ‘intended learning outcomes’ and assessment tasks, students can be encouraged to manage their learning... The skills involved in learning about intellectual property rights in this way can be applied to learning other key, but not core, subjects. At the same time, students develop the ability to acquire knowledge, rather than rely on receiving it, which is an essential competence for a ‘knowledge’ based worker

Three-component laser Doppler velocimeter measurements in a juncture flow

A single-axis, five-beam, three-component laser velocimeter (LV) system was used in a major experiment. Satisfactory results were obtained with the LV system in the juncture flow. Limited optical access to the tunnel proved to be a problem for the three component LV system in determining the third component

New Zealand’s Performance Based Research Funding (PBRF) model undermines Maori research

The Performance Based Research Funding (PBRF) model was instigated in 2002 to increase “the quality of research through peer assessment and performance indicators” in New Zealand (Ministry of Education 2002: 17). It is used to allocate funding between universities, departments and researchers according to the putative quality and quantity of their research outputs over the preceding 6 years. PBRF is expected to incentivise improved research excellence and efficiency, and allow government to invest research funds where greatest returns will result. This is potentially a huge gain for Māori. However, “by changing the conditions of knowledge production, research assessment exercises may also alter the shape and direction of disciplines by diverting and channelling researchers’ intellectual attention and political engagement, influencing what they study, how they do it, and how they report and write” (Middleton 2009: 194). Indeed, universities repeatedly encourage researchers to focus on activities that will improve their PBRF rankings. We believe that an unintended consequence of PBRF is the creation of significant barriers to increasing the volume, scope and quality of environmental research for Māori

The Mighty Oak

I have a test I administer, in secret and in silence, to traveling companions along a stretch of road in southeast Nebraska. It is not a test of knowledge,or of character, but of timbre

Emerging trends in WTO dispute settlement : back to the GATT?

As the number of cases in the World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute settlement system has increased, there has been a greater effort by the academic community to analyze the data for emerging trends. Holmes Rollo, and Young seek to develop this literature using data up to the end of 2002 to ask whether recent trends confirm previously identified patterns and to examine whether there are divergences from the overall pattern according to the type of dispute. They focus on three questions in particular: What explains which countries are most involved in complaints under the dispute settlement understanding? Is there a discernible pattern to which countries win? Is there a difference to these patterns depending on the type of measure at the heart of the complaint? The authors find that: A country's trade share is a pretty robust indicator of its likelihood to be either a complainant or a respondent. The frequently remarked absence of the least developed countries from the dispute settlement system can be explained by their low volume of trade. There is not much, if any, evidence of a bias against developing countries either as complainants or respondents. Regulatory issues are fading as reasons for disputes and trade defense disputes are the rising issue. Complainants overwhelmingly win (88 percent of cases). There is no strong evidence that the rate of completion of cases is biased against newly industrializing countries or traditional less developed countries.Payment Systems&Infrastructure,Judicial System Reform,Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Theory&Research,Information Technology,Judicial System Reform,Economic Theory&Research,Information Technology,TF054105-DONOR FUNDED OPERATION ADMINISTRATION FEE INCOME AND EXPENSE ACCOUNT,Trade and Services