A Pilot Study Investigating the Effects of the Summer Rodeo Season on Functional Movement Screening Scores of College Rodeo Athletes

Rodeo is well known for its high-velocity, high-impact atmosphere where athletes compete against the clock and uncooperative livestock. Many rodeo competitive related injuries are associated with insufficient muscular synergy, endurance, strength, and limb flexibility. PURPOSE: The purpose of this investigation was to examine the difference between pre-summer rodeo functional movement screening (FMS) outcomes and post-summer rodeo FMS outcomes of rodeo athletes. METHODS: The researchers conducted pre-summer rodeo FMS assessments on collegiate rodeo athletes (n = 8). Athletes were instructed to complete their standard summer rodeo season without the integration of exercise modalities that may serve as corrective strategies for altered functional movement onset by the demands of rodeo performance. Rodeo athletes returned for post-summer rodeo season FMS testing upon the conclusion of their summer rodeo season. A paired-sample t-test (p \u3c 0.05) was employed to identify differences in pre- and post-summer rodeo FMS outcomes. RESULTS: The statistical analysis revealed no significant differences between pre- and post-summer rodeo season FMS scores. However, moderate effects sizes were identified between pre- and post-rotary stability (d = .725), pre- and post-deep squat (d = .725), and pre- and post-hurdle step (d = .725), and pre- and post-trunk stability (d = -.540). CONCLUSION: These results suggest that the intensity and volume of summer rodeo season performance may contribute to alterations in rodeo athlete’s functional movement abilities. An FMS utilized to identify movement compensations/limitation of rodeo athletes prior to summer rodeo season, and the integration of exercise modalities that serve as corrective strategies for the presented movement compensations may assist in decreasing the chance of non-impact injury sustainmen

Sex-Specific Difference of Functional Movement Screening Scores Among Rodeo Athletes

Faulty movement patterns, especially in elite athletes, can lead to neuromuscular imbalances. Rodeo is an example of an injury prone sport that requires optimal muscular synergy, endurance, strength, and limb flexibility to succeed in rodeo performance. The Functional Movement Screening (FMS) test has shown validity in identifying various neuromuscular imbalances, and subsequently, scientific findings support the FMS threshold score (less ≤ 14) as valid for injury risk screening in collision and team sports, firefighters, and the tactical professions. If an athlete has a composite score of 14 or less in conjunction with a previous injury, they are 15 times more likely to sustain an injury. FMS studies have indicated women are more proficient in lower leg raise, while men possess greater trunk stability. However, both men and women overall report no significant differences in mean scores for FMS. However, identifying FMS outcome differences between male and female rodeo athletes has yet to be examined. PURPOSE: The purpose of the current investigation was to identify sex-specific FMS outcomes for rodeo athletes. METHODS: Collegiate rodeo athletes (n = 85; 25 men, 60 women) completed a Functional Movement Screening Test to establish athlete specific movement pattern efficiencies. A MANOVA (p \u3c .05) was employed to examine differences in FMS outcomes between male and female rodeo athletes. RESULTS: Statistically significant main effect was reported between sex in overall FMS outcomes of rodeo athletes, F(8, 76) = 5, p \u3c .001; Wilks’ Λ = .655, η2 = .345. Specifically, a significant between-subjects effect recognized sex differences when performance Active Straight Leg Raise (p \u3c .001), Shoulder Mobility (p = .012), Truck Stability (p = 005), In-Line Lunge (p = 005), and Deep Squat (p = .029). No significant differences being identified between the sexes when assessing the Hurdle Step (p = .201), Rotary Stability (p = .739), nor Total FMS score (p = .820). CONCLUSION: These results suggest differences in FMS outcomes between sexes may be present among different rodeo events. Additionally, and specific to rodeo, FMS outcomes may be attributed to different physical demands associated with sex-specific events of rodeo. This information may also provide future researchers and practitioners insight into potential injury associated with low FMS scores of rodeo athletes

Differences in Functional Movement Screening Score between College Rodeo Events

The sport of rodeo is recognized as a high velocity/intensity activity, with a wide range of varying dynamic movements occurring across difference rodeo events. High velocities and extreme dynamic range of motion movements, compound with uncooperative livestock, contribute to elevated risk of injury. While these factors generally attribute to rodeo injuries, little is known in regards to movement limitations of rodeo athletes. PURPOSE: Therefore, the purpose of the current investigation was to identify movement pattern differences among rodeo events using the Functional Movement Screening (FMS) test. METHODS: College rodeo athletes (n = 85) from a mid-size university in the southwest region were selected as participants for this study. Athletes were categories according to their respected rodeo event: Steer Wrestling (n = 7), Breakaway Roping (n = 28), Goat Tying (n = 11), Barrel Racing (n = 20), Saddle Bronc Riding (n = 9), Tie Down Roping (n = 4), Bull Riding (n = 2), or Team Roping (n = 4). Following, all rodeo athletes completed an FMS test to establish movement efficiencies. A MANOVA was utilized to differentiate FMS scores between rodeo events. RESULTS: There was a statistically significant main effect between rodeo event and FMS outcomes of rodeo athletes, F(56, 382.72) = 1.777, p = .001; Wilk’s Λ = .288, partial η2 = .163. LSD Post hoc test revealed significant differences between various events for all dependent variables except the Hurdle Step Test. CONCLUSION: These results suggest different rodeo event specific movement pattern may affect FMS test results. Additionally, for the practitioner, these differences may serve as valid precursors to injuries per rodeo event

Weak closure and Oliver's p-group conjecture

To date almost all verifications of Oliver's p-group conjecture have proceeded by verifying a stronger conjecture about weakly closed quadratic subgroups. We construct a group of order 3^n for n = 49 which refutes the weakly closed conjecture but satisfies Oliver's conjecture.Comment: 9 page

A Pilot Study Examining the Relationship between Functional Movement Screening Scores and Rodeo Performance Outcomes

Research has identified diverse levels of flexibility among different sports and the athletes that compete within them. Rodeo, in particular, is a high intensity, high velocity sport, that requires substantial dynamic range of motion during competition. Functional Movement Screening (FMS) is a comprehensive set of tests that is recognized as a valid precursor to identifying potential injury and has established mobility norms for various sports. However, no studies have explored the FMS profile of rodeo athletes and the relationship between FMS and rodeo performance. PURPOSE: This investigation was designed to establish FMS norms for rodeo athletes per event (i.e., rough stock and timed events) and determine the impact of mobility on event specific performance. METHODS: Pre-season FMS was conducted on 29 collegiate rodeo athletes. Rodeo performance outcomes was collected upon the conclusion of the regular spring season rodeo. A spearman\u27s rank order correlation was employed to assess the relationship between FMS scores and rodeo performance outcomes. Alpha levels were set at p \u3c 0.05. RESULTS: Descriptive FMS results (M ± SD) are as follows: Tiedown Ropers (n = 2) 15 ± 1.41; Saddle Bronc Riders (n = 2) 15.5 ± 0.71; Steer Wrestlers (n = 5) 16.6 ± 2.70; Breakaway Ropers (n = 13) 16.6 ± 2.43; Goat Tiers (n = 5) 17.2 ± 1.79; Barrel Racers (n = 6) 16.2 ± 2.14. Strong, significant negative correlations were recognized between Barrel Racers Average Time and Shoulder Mobility (rs(6) = -.878, p = .021), Rotary Stability (rs(5) = -.845, p = .034), Deep Squat (rs(5) = -.878, p = .021), and Total FMS Score (rs(5) = -.812, p = .050). Marginal correlations were identified between Shoulder Mobility and Catch Percentage (rs(5) = .783, p = .118) and In-line Lunge and Average Time (rs(5) = -.707, p = .182) for Steer Wrestlers. A marginal correlation was identified between Hurdle Step and Average Time (rs(13) = -.536, p = .059), and Rotary Stability and Average Time (rs(5) = -.707, p = .182) for Breakaway Ropers. CONCLUSION: These results provide a novel perspective regarding the FMS status of rodeo athletes and highlights the influence sufficient dynamic mobility has on rodeo performance outcomes

Geometric Aspects of Confining Strings

Confining strings in 4D are effective, thick strings describing the confinement phase of compact U(1) and, possibly, also non-Abelian gauge fields. We show that these strings are dual to the gauge fields, inasmuch as their perturbative regime corresponds to the strong coupling (large e) regime of the gauge theory. In this regime they describe smooth surfaces with long-range correlations and Hausdorff dimension two. For lower couplings e and monopole fugacities z, a phase transition takes place, beyond which the smooth string picture is lost. On the critical line intrinsic distances on the surface diverge and correlators vanish, indicating that world-sheets become fractal.Comment: 19 pages, 4 figures, harvma

A Sharp Test of the Portability of Expertise *

Abstract We measure the contextual dependence of expertise by observing experts perform a task conceptually identical to-but contextually distinct from-the task in which they are experienced. We find that these experts fail to apply their expertise in the decontextualized environment, indicating that unfamiliarity restricts the portability of expertise. However, we also find that the experts improve with repetition in the new setting-and more quickly than comparably able novices-suggesting that experts learn to apply their expertise on the initially foreign task

Examining the Role of Chloride Ligands on Defect Removal in Imperfectly Attached Semiconductor Nanocrystals for 1D and 2D Attachment Cases

Semiconducting, core-shell nanocrystals (NCs) are promising building blocks for the construction of higher dimensional artificial nanostructures using oriented attachment. However, the assembly and epitaxial attachment steps critical to this construction introduce disorder and defects which inhibit the observation of desirable emergent electronic phenomena. Consequently, understanding defect formation and remediation in these systems as a function of dimensionality is a crucial step to perfecting their synthesis. In this work, we use in situ high resolution transmission electron microscopy to examine the role of chloride ligands as remediator agents for imperfect attachment interfaces between CdSe/CdS core-shell NCs for both 1D and 2D attachment cases. In the 1D case, we find that the presence of chloride additives in imperfectly attached NC dimers can result in defect removal speeds nearly twice as large as those found in their plain, non-chloride treated counterparts. However, when we increased the dimensionality of the system and examined 2D NC arrays, we found no statistically significant difference in attachment interface quality between the chloride and non-chloride treated samples. We propose that this discongruity arises from fundamental differences between 1D and 2D NC attachment and discuss synthetic guidelines to inform future nanomaterial superlattice design.Comment: 35 pages, 6 figures, work conducted at the University of California, Berkele

3D Mobility Models and Analysis for UAVs

We present a flexible family of 3D mobility models suitable for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). Based on stochastic differential equations, the models offer a unique property of explicitly incorporating the mobility control mechanism and environmental perturbation, while enabling tractable steady state solutions for properties such as position and connectivity. Specifically, motivated by UAV flight data, for a symmetric mobility model with an arbitrary control mechanism, we derive the steady state distribution of the distance from the target position. We provide closed form expressions for the special cases of the Ornstein-Uhlenbeck (OU) process and on-off control (OC). We extend the model to incorporate imperfect positioning and asymmetric control. For a practically relevant scenario of partial symmetry (such as in the x-y plane), we present steady state position results for the OU control. Building on these results, we derive UAV connectivity probability results based on a SNR criterion in a Rayleigh fading environment.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication at IEEE PIMRC 202

In an in vitro model of human tuberculosis, monocyte-microglial networks regulate matrix metalloproteinase-1 and -3 gene expression and secretion via a p38 mitogen activated protein kinase-dependent pathway.

BACKGROUND: Tuberculosis (TB) of the central nervous system (CNS) is characterized by extensive tissue inflammation, driven by molecules that cleave extracellular matrix such as matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-1 and MMP-3. However, relatively little is known about the regulation of these MMPs in the CNS. METHODS: Using a cellular model of CNS TB, we stimulated a human microglial cell line (CHME3) with conditioned medium from Mycobacterium tuberculosis-infected primary human monocytes (CoMTb). MMP-1 and MMP-3 secretion was detected using ELISAs confirmed with casein zymography or western blotting. Key results of a phospho-array profile that detects a wide range of kinase activity were confirmed with phospho-Western blotting. Chemical inhibition (SB203580) of microglial cells allowed investigation of expression and secretion of MMP-1 and MMP-3. Finally we used promoter reporter assays employing full length and MMP-3 promoter deletion constructs. Student's t-test was used for comparison of continuous variables and multiple intervention experiments were compared by one-way ANOVA with Tukey's correction for multiple pairwise comparisons. RESULTS: CoMTb up-regulated microglial MMP-1 and MMP-3 secretion in a dose- and time-dependent manner. The phospho-array profiling showed that the major increase in kinase activity due to CoMTb stimulation was in p38 mitogen activated protein kinase (MAPK), principally the α and γ subunits. p38 phosphorylation was detected at 15 minutes, with a second peak of activity at 120 minutes. High basal extracellular signal-regulated kinase activity was further increased by CoMTb. Secretion and expression of MMP-1 and MMP-3 were both p38 dependent. CoMTb stimulation of full length and MMP-3 promoter deletion constructs demonstrated up-regulation of activity in the wild type but a suppression site between -2183 and -1612 bp. CONCLUSIONS: Monocyte-microglial network-dependent MMP-1 and MMP-3 gene expression and secretion are dependent upon p38 MAPK in tuberculosis. p38 is therefore a potential target for adjuvant therapy in CNS TB