309 research outputs found
Aspects of thought factors and their effects on performance in swimming
The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of three types
of thought patterns; positive thoughts, mood words, and task-relevant
content, on swimming performance in age group swimmers.
The major dependent variable was the time it took subjects to perform
each 100 metre segment of two 400 metre constant-effort swims and
the time taken for each 100 metre repeat in a set of eight 100 metre
swims.
A single subject analysis of performance data emphasized the
importance of the use of thought factors in improving swimming performances.
All subjects (N = 6) improved in at least two of the three treatment
conditions over normal thinking in each of the two performance tasks
while three subjects improved in all treatment conditions.
Group averages indicated that task-relevant content was the most
effective variable while mood words, and positive thinking followed in
order. The effects of the treatment conditions across the group for
both performance tasks were significantly greater than one would expect
by chance alone (alpha = .05).
The results of this study supported the importance of the thought
content for improving performance outcomes in the swimming training
environmento The need for more emphasis on mental training components
in training athletes was supported
Approximating Nearest Neighbor Distances
Several researchers proposed using non-Euclidean metrics on point sets in
Euclidean space for clustering noisy data. Almost always, a distance function
is desired that recognizes the closeness of the points in the same cluster,
even if the Euclidean cluster diameter is large. Therefore, it is preferred to
assign smaller costs to the paths that stay close to the input points.
In this paper, we consider the most natural metric with this property, which
we call the nearest neighbor metric. Given a point set P and a path ,
our metric charges each point of with its distance to P. The total
charge along determines its nearest neighbor length, which is formally
defined as the integral of the distance to the input points along the curve. We
describe a -approximation algorithm and a
-approximation algorithm to compute the nearest neighbor
metric. Both approximation algorithms work in near-linear time. The former uses
shortest paths on a sparse graph using only the input points. The latter uses a
sparse sample of the ambient space, to find good approximate geodesic paths.Comment: corrected author nam
Universal Scaling of Optimal Current Distribution in Transportation Networks
Transportation networks are inevitably selected with reference to their
global cost which depends on the strengths and the distribution of the embedded
currents. We prove that optimal current distributions for a uniformly injected
d-dimensional network exhibit robust scale-invariance properties, independently
of the particular cost function considered, as long as it is convex. We find
that, in the limit of large currents, the distribution decays as a power law
with an exponent equal to (2d-1)/(d-1). The current distribution can be exactly
calculated in d=2 for all values of the current. Numerical simulations further
suggest that the scaling properties remain unchanged for both random injections
and by randomizing the convex cost functions.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure
Analysis of and workarounds for element reversal for a finite element-based algorithm for warping triangular and tetrahedral meshes
We consider an algorithm called FEMWARP for warping triangular and
tetrahedral finite element meshes that computes the warping using the finite
element method itself. The algorithm takes as input a two- or three-dimensional
domain defined by a boundary mesh (segments in one dimension or triangles in
two dimensions) that has a volume mesh (triangles in two dimensions or
tetrahedra in three dimensions) in its interior. It also takes as input a
prescribed movement of the boundary mesh. It computes as output updated
positions of the vertices of the volume mesh. The first step of the algorithm
is to determine from the initial mesh a set of local weights for each interior
vertex that describes each interior vertex in terms of the positions of its
neighbors. These weights are computed using a finite element stiffness matrix.
After a boundary transformation is applied, a linear system of equations based
upon the weights is solved to determine the final positions of the interior
vertices. The FEMWARP algorithm has been considered in the previous literature
(e.g., in a 2001 paper by Baker). FEMWARP has been succesful in computing
deformed meshes for certain applications. However, sometimes FEMWARP reverses
elements; this is our main concern in this paper. We analyze the causes for
this undesirable behavior and propose several techniques to make the method
more robust against reversals. The most successful of the proposed methods
includes combining FEMWARP with an optimization-based untangler.Comment: Revision of earlier version of paper. Submitted for publication in
BIT Numerical Mathematics on 27 April 2010. Accepted for publication on 7
September 2010. Published online on 9 October 2010. The final publication is
available at http://www.springerlink.co
Associations among parental feeding styles and children's food intake in families with limited incomes
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Although general parenting styles and restrictive parental feeding practices have been associated with children's weight status, few studies have examined the association between feeding styles and proximal outcomes such as children's food intake, especially in multi-ethnic families with limited incomes. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the association of parental feeding styles and young children's evening food intake in a multiethnic sample of families in Head Start.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Participants were 715 Head Start children and their parents from Texas and Alabama representing three ethnic groups: African-American (43%), Hispanic (29%), and White (28%). The Caregivers Feeding Styles Questionnaire (Hughes) was used to characterize authoritative, authoritarian (referent), indulgent or uninvolved feeding styles. Food intake in several food groups was calculated from 3 days of dietary recalls for the child for evening food intakes from 3 PM until bedtime.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Compared to children of authoritarian parents, intakes of fruits, juice and vegetables were lowest among children of indulgent or uninvolved parents (1.77 ± 0.09 vs 1.45 ± 0.09 and 1.42 ± 0.11 cups) as were intakes of dairy foods (0.84 ± 0.05 vs 0.67 ± 0.05 and 0.63+0.06 cups), respectively.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Findings suggest that permissive parent feeding styles like indulgent or uninvolved relate negatively to children's intake of nutrient-rich foods fruit, 100% fruit juice, vegetables and dairy foods from 3 PM until bedtime.</p
Variational tetrahedral meshing
In this paper, a novel Delaunay-based variational approach to isotropic tetrahedral meshing is presented. To achieve both robustness and efficiency, we minimize a simple mesh-dependent energy through global updates of both vertex positions and connectivity. As this energy is known to be the â 1 distance between an isotropic quadratic function and its linear interpolation on the mesh, our minimization procedure generates well-shaped tetrahedra. Mesh design is controlled through a gradation smoothness parameter and selection of the desired number of vertices. We provide the foundations of our approach by explaining both the underlying variational principle and its geometric interpretation. We demonstrate the quality of the resulting meshes through a series of examples
Assessment of surface roughness and blood rheology on local coronary hemodynamics: a multi-scale computational fluid dynamics study
The surface roughness of the coronary artery is associated with the onset of atherosclerosis. The study applies, for the first time, the micro-scale variation of the artery surface to a 3D coronary model, investigating the impact on haemodynamic parameters which are indicators for atherosclerosis. The surface roughness of porcine coronary arteries have been detailed based on optical microscopy and implemented into a cylindrical section of coronary artery. Several approaches to rheology are compared to determine the benefits/limitations of both single and multiphase models for multi-scale geometry. Haemodynamic parameters averaged over the rough/smooth sections are similar; however, the rough surface experiences a much wider range, with maximum wall shear stress greater than 6 Pa compared to the approximately 3 Pa on the smooth segment. This suggests the smooth-walled assumption may neglect important near-wall haemodynamics. While rheological models lack sufficient definition to truly encompass the micro-scale effects occurring over the rough surface, single-phase models (Newtonian and non-Newtonian) provide numerically stable and comparable results to other coronary simulations. Multiphase models allow for phase interactions between plasma and red blood cells which is more suited to such multi-scale models. These models require additional physical laws to govern advection/aggregation of particulates in the near-wall region
Whirling Hexagons and Defect Chaos in Hexagonal Non-Boussinesq Convection
We study hexagon patterns in non-Boussinesq convection of a thin rotating
layer of water. For realistic parameters and boundary conditions we identify
various linear instabilities of the pattern. We focus on the dynamics arising
from an oscillatory side-band instability that leads to a spatially disordered
chaotic state characterized by oscillating (whirling) hexagons. Using
triangulation we obtain the distribution functions for the number of pentagonal
and heptagonal convection cells. In contrast to the results found for defect
chaos in the complex Ginzburg-Landau equation and in inclined-layer convection,
the distribution functions can show deviations from a squared Poisson
distribution that suggest non-trivial correlations between the defects.Comment: 4 mpg-movies are available at
http://www.esam.northwestern.edu/~riecke/lit/lit.html submitted to New J.
Physic
Value of secondary distribution of HIV self test kits to male partners of women attending antenatal clinics
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