Mechanical Properties of the Poling Motion in Cross Country Skiing

Skate cross-country skiing is a unique gait with the skis acting as sliding limbs and poles acting as fixed limbs. As skiers increase their speed, the sliding limbs (skis) remain relatively unrestricted in their ability to generate forward impulse. The poles, however, are fixed and thus the poling action depends on the skier’s speed. Since muscles generate less force at higher shortening velocity (Hill, 1938), the arms become limited in their ability to generate force through the poles. Also, muscles ability to generate force depends on their length, or the configuration of joints the muscles cross (Gordon et al., 1966). Therefore, it might be expected that the forces of arm and trunk muscles contributing to the poling action change as a function of the poling cycle. The purpose of this study was to relate maximum isometric force of the muscles contributing to poling as a function of the poling cycle, and quantify the dynamic force of these muscles as a function of skiing speed. Maximal isometric force was measured at 11 points in the poling stride of ten nationally ranked skiers. Five of these subjects were also tested for their maximal dynamic poling force at skiing speeds ranging from 6 to 36 km/h, increasing by 6km/h increments. Maximal isometric poling force was maximal (223N) at 20% of the poling cycle. The component of the pole force in the direction of travel was highest (117N) at 30% of the poling cycle. Toward the end of the poling cycle, the propulsive force approaches the total force and the total force decreases to 50 N. The dynamic poling force was maximal for the two slowest speeds tested (236 N at 6km/h and 254 N at 12km/h), and then decreased force almost linearly with increasing speeds and reached 102 N at 36 km/h. The results of this study suggest that the propulsive forces in poling depend greatly on the position of arms and trunk and the speed of skiing

Contribution of the Upper-Body in Skate Cross-Country Skiing

The skate technique in cross-country skiing has a unique gait transition. Typically, skiers will use the two-skate technique at low speeds, transition to the one-skate technique at intermediate speeds, then return to the two-skate technique at high speeds. We hypothesize that this unique gait transition can be explained by differences in the contribution of the arms to propulsion and the associated metabolic cost of upper-body and arm work. In one-skate, poles are planted simultaneously with every skate stride, while in two-skate, poles are planted with every second skate stride (Smith, 2000). Using four trained cross-country ski racers, two separate tests were performed for each technique of skate skiing. First, subjects skied at 6, 15, and 30 km/h on a rollerski treadmill. During the entire test VO2, pole force, lactate, and video were recorded for one technique and repeated on another day using the second technique. In the second phase of testing, the poling motion only was simulated on a pole ergometer with subjects matching their stroke rate and poling forces using video and force feedback. Upper-body VO2 and lactate were measured and compared to the treadmill test values. The average metabolic cost associated with the upper-body work was 60% of the total metabolic cost when skiing on the treadmill. The upper-body metabolic cost was always higher for the one skate compared to the two skate technique. At slow speeds the difference between the two techniques was small (3%), but this difference increased at higher speeds from 10% at 15km/h to 14% at 30km/h. The poling motion associated with one-skate becomes more metabolically costly than two-skate as speed increases. A skier’s regressive transition from one-skate to two-skate at high speeds may be explained by a need to transfer impulse generation to the legs, since the sliding limbs remain effective at high speeds while the fixed limbs (poles) become less effective

Ensemble Sales Forecasting Study in Semiconductor Industry

Sales forecasting plays a prominent role in business planning and business strategy. The value and importance of advance information is a cornerstone of planning activity, and a well-set forecast goal can guide sale-force more efficiently. In this paper CPU sales forecasting of Intel Corporation, a multinational semiconductor industry, was considered. Past sale, future booking, exchange rates, Gross domestic product (GDP) forecasting, seasonality and other indicators were innovatively incorporated into the quantitative modeling. Benefit from the recent advances in computation power and software development, millions of models built upon multiple regressions, time series analysis, random forest and boosting tree were executed in parallel. The models with smaller validation errors were selected to form the ensemble model. To better capture the distinct characteristics, forecasting models were implemented at lead time and lines of business level. The moving windows validation process automatically selected the models which closely represent current market condition. The weekly cadence forecasting schema allowed the model to response effectively to market fluctuation. Generic variable importance analysis was also developed to increase the model interpretability. Rather than assuming fixed distribution, this non-parametric permutation variable importance analysis provided a general framework across methods to evaluate the variable importance. This variable importance framework can further extend to classification problem by modifying the mean absolute percentage error(MAPE) into misclassify error. Please find the demo code at : https://github.com/qx0731/ensemble_forecast_methodsComment: 14 pages, Industrial Conference on Data Mining 2017 (ICDM 2017

Ice front change of marine-terminating outlet glaciers in northwest and southeast Greenland during the 21st century

The increasingly negative mass balance of the Greenland ice sheet (GrIS) over the last ~25 years has been associated with enhanced surface melt and increased ice loss from marine-terminating outlet glaciers. Accelerated retreat during 2000–2010 was concentrated in the southeast and northwest sectors of the ice sheet; however, there was considerable spatial and temporal variability in the timing and magnitude of retreat both within and between these regions. This behaviour has yet to be quantified and compared for all glaciers in both regions. Furthermore, it is unclear whether retreat has continued after 2010 in the northwest, and whether the documented slowdown in the southeast post-2005 has been sustained. Here, we compare spatial and temporal patterns of frontal change in the northwest and southeast GrIS, for the period 2000–2015. Our results show near-ubiquitous retreat of outlet glaciers across both regions for the study period; however, the timing and magnitude of inter-annual frontal position change is largely asynchronous. We also find that since 2010, there is continued terminus retreat in the northwest, which contrasts with considerable inter-annual variability in the southeast. Analysis of the role of glacier-specific factors demonstrates that fjord and bed geometry are important controls on the timing and magnitude of glacier retreat

Cultural relativism and the discourse of intercultural communication: aporias of praxis in the intercultural public sphere

The premise of much intercultural communication pedagogy and research is to educate people from different cultures towards open and transformative positions of mutual understanding and respect. This discourse in the instance of its articulation realises and sustains Intercultural Communication epistemologically – as an academic field of social enquiry, and judgementally – as one which locates itself on a moral terrain. By adopting an ethical stance towards difference, the discourse of intercultural communication finds itself caught in a series of aporias, or performative contradictions, where interculturalists are projected simultaneously into positions of cultural relativism on the one hand and ideological totalism on the other. Such aporias arise because the theoretical premises upon which the discourse relies are problematic. We trace these thematics to a politics of presence operating within the discourse of intercultural communication and links this to questions of judgement and truth in the intercultural public sphere. We propose that the politics of presence be set aside in favour of an intercultural praxis which is oriented to responsibility rather than to truth

Convection enhanced delivery of panobinostat (LBH589)-loaded pluronic nano-micelles prolongs survival in the F98 rat glioma model

BACKGROUND: The pan-histone deacetylase inhibitor panobinostat is a potential therapy for malignant glioma, but it is water insoluble and does not cross the blood–brain barrier when administered systemically. In this article, we describe the in vitro and in vivo efficacy of a novel water-soluble nano-micellar formulation of panobinostat designed for administration by convection enhanced delivery (CED). MATERIALS AND METHODS: The in vitro efficacy of panobinostat-loaded nano-micelles against rat F98, human U87-MG and M059K glioma cells and against patient-derived glioma stem cells was measured using a cell viability assay. Nano-micelle distribution in rat brain was analyzed following acute CED using rhodamine-labeled nano-micelles, and toxicity was assayed using immunofluorescent microscopy and synaptophysin enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. We compared the survival of the bioluminescent syngenic F98/Fischer344 rat glioblastoma model treated by acute CED of panobinostat-loaded nano-micelles with that of untreated and vehicle-only-treated controls. RESULTS: Nano-micellar panobinostat is cytotoxic to rat and human glioma cells in vitro in a dose-dependent manner following short-time exposure to drug. Fluorescent rhodamine-labelled nano-micelles distribute with a volume of infusion/volume of distribution (Vi/Vd) ratio of four and five respectively after administration by CED. Administration was not associated with any toxicity when compared to controls. CED of panobinostat-loaded nano-micelles was associated with significantly improved survival when compared to controls (n=8 per group; log-rank test, P<0.001). One hundred percent of treated animals survived the 60-day experimental period and had tumour response on post-mortem histological examination. CONCLUSION: CED of nano-micellar panobinostat represents a potential novel therapeutic option for malignant glioma and warrants translation into the clinic

Magnesium supplementation for the treatment of restless legs syndrome and periodic limb movement disorder : A systematic review

Magnesium supplementation is often suggested for restless legs syndrome (RLS) or period limb movement disorder (PLMD) based on anecdotal evidence that it relieves symptoms and because it is also commonly recommended for leg cramps. We aimed to review all articles reporting the effects of magnesium supplementation on changes in RLS and/or PLMD. We conducted a systematic search looking for all relevant articles and then two reviewers read all article titles and abstracts to identify relevant studies. Eligible studies were scored for their quality as interventional trials. We found 855 abstracts and 16 of these could not be definitively excluded for not addressing all aspects of our research question. Seven full-text articles were unlocatable and one was ineligible which left eight studies with relevant data. One was a randomised placebo-controlled trial, three were case series and four were case studies. The RCT did not find a significant treatment effect of magnesium but may have been underpowered. After quality appraisal and synthesis of the evidence we were unable to make a conclusion as to the effectiveness of magnesium for RLS/PLMD. It is not clear whether magnesium helps relieve RLS or PLMD or in which patient groups any benefit might be seen. (c) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.Peer reviewe