752 research outputs found
Investigating strength and range of motion of the hip complex in ice hockey athletes
CONTEXT: Ice hockey athletes frequently injure the hip complex via a non-contact mechanism. We investigated patterns of strength and range of motion (ROM) to establish major differences compared to soccer athletes. Soccer athletes were compared to ice hockey athletes due to similarities between the two sports with regards to the intermittent nature and high number of lower limb injuries. OBJECTIVE: To compare the differences in ROM and strength of the hip for both the dominant (Dom) and non-dominant (Ndom) limb in ice hockey and soccer athletes. DESIGN: Case control study. SETTING: Bilateral ROM in hip flexion in sitting (FS) and lying (FL), extension, abduction, adduction, and internal rotation (IR) and external rotation (ER) was measured using a goniometer and assessed for strength using a hand held dynamometer on both the Dom and Ndom limbs. Participants. Twenty four male, active, uninjured NCAA division III ice hockey (16) and soccer (8) athletes. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: ROM and strength for hip FS, FL extension, abduction, adduction, IR and ER. A mixed model ANOVA was used to investigate interactions and main effects. RESULTS: Ice hockey athletes exhibited greater hip adduction ROM compared to soccer athletes in the Dom leg (both p=0.002) and when both limbs were combined (p = 0.010). Ice hockey athletes had less ROM in ER (p = 0.042) than soccer athletes. Ice hockey athletes displayed less strength in adduction in their Ndom leg compared to their Dom leg (p=0.02) along with less adduction than soccer players in their Ndom leg (p=0.40). Ice hockey athletes displayed less strength in hip adduction (p=0.030), FS (p=0.023) and FL (p=0.030) than soccer athletes. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that ice hockey athletes may present an 'at risk' profile for non-contact hip injuries, in comparison with soccer athletes with regards to strength and ROM of the hip
Effect of Coulomb interactions on the physical observables of graphene
We give an update of the situation concerning the effect of electron-electron
interactions on the physics of a neutral graphene system at low energies. We
revise old renormalization group results and the use of 1/N expansion to
address questions of the possible opening of a low-energy gap, and the
magnitude of the graphene fine structure constant. We emphasize the role of
Fermi velocity as the only free parameter determining the transport and
electronic properties of the graphene system and revise its renormalization by
Coulomb interactions in the light of recent experimental evidence.Comment: Proceedings of the Nobel Symposium on graphene 2010, to appear as a
special issue in Physica Script
Boot-insole effects on comfort and plantar loading at the heel and fifth metatarsal during running and turning in soccer
Plantar loading may influence comfort, performance and injury risk in soccer boots. This study investigated the effect of cleat configuration and insole cushioning levels on perception of comfort and in-shoe plantar pressures at the heel and fifth metatarsal head region. Nine soccer academy players (age 15.7 ± 1.6 years; height 1.80 ± 0.40 m; body mass 71.9 ± 6.1 kg) took part in the study. Two boot models (8 and 6 cleats) and two insoles (Poron and Poron/gel) provided four footwear combinations assessed using pressure insoles during running and 180° turning. Mechanical and comfort perception tests differentiated boot and insole conditions. During biomechanical testing, the Poron insole generally provided lower peak pressures than the Poron/gel insole, particularly during the braking step of the turn. The boot model did not independently influence peak pressures at the fifth metatarsal, and had minimal influence on heel loads. Specific boot-insole combinations performed differently (P < 0.05). The 8-cleat boot and the Poron insole performed best biomechanically and perceptually, but the combined condition did not. Inclusion of kinematic data and improved control of the turning technique are recommended to strengthen future research. The mechanical, perception and biomechanical results highlight the need for a multi-faceted approach in the assessment of footwear
Local modes, phonons, and mass transport in solid He
We propose a model to treat the local motion of atoms in solid He as a
local mode. In this model, the solid is assumed to be described by the Self
Consistent Harmonic approximation, combined with an array of local modes. We
show that in the bcc phase the atomic local motion is highly directional and
correlated, while in the hcp phase there is no such correlation. The correlated
motion in the bcc phase leads to a strong hybridization of the local modes with
the T phonon branch, which becomes much softer than that obtained
through a Self Consistent Harmonic calculation, in agreement with experiment.
In addition we predict a high energy excitation branch which is important for
self-diffusion. Both the hybridization and the presence of a high energy branch
are a consequence of the correlation, and appear only in the bcc phase. We
suggest that the local modes can play the role in mass transport usually
attributed to point defects (vacancies). Our approach offers a more overall
consistent picture than obtained using vacancies as the predominant point
defect. In particular, we show that our approach resolves the long standing
controversy regarding the contribution of point defects to the specific heat of
solid He.Comment: 10 pages, 10 figure
Fast lemons and sour boulders:Testing crossmodal correspondences using an internet-based testing methodology
Abstract. According to a popular family of hypotheses, crossmodal matches between distinct features hold because they correspond to the same polarity on several conceptual dimensions (such as active–passive, good–bad, etc.) that can be identified using the semantic differential technique. The main problem here resides in turning this hypothesis into testable empirical predictions. In the present study, we outline a series of plausible consequences of the hypothesis and test a variety of well-established and previously untested crossmodal correspondences by means of a novel internet-based testing methodology. The results highlight that the semantic hypothesis cannot easily explain differences in the prevalence of crossmodal associations built on the same semantic pattern (fast lemons, slow prunes, sour boulders, heavy red); furthermore, the semantic hypothesis only minimally predicts what happens when the semantic dimensions and polarities that are supposed to drive such crossmodal associations are made more salient (e.g., by adding emotional cues that ought to make the good/bad dimension more salient); finally, the semantic hypothesis does not explain why reliable matches are no longer observed once intramodal dimensions with congruent connotations are presented (e.g., visually presented shapes and colour do not appear to correspond)
Spectral isolation of naturally reductive metrics on simple Lie groups
We show that within the class of left-invariant naturally reductive metrics
on a compact simple Lie group , every
metric is spectrally isolated. We also observe that any collection of
isospectral compact symmetric spaces is finite; this follows from a somewhat
stronger statement involving only a finite part of the spectrum.Comment: 19 pages, new title and abstract, revised introduction, new result
demonstrating that any collection of isospectral compact symmetric spaces
must be finite, to appear Math Z. (published online Dec. 2009
The Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Infrared Experiment: A Millimeter-wave Receiver for Cluster Cosmology
Measurements of the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (S-Z) effect towards distant clusters
of galaxies can be used to determine the Hubble constant and the radial
component of cluster peculiar velocities. Determination of the cluster peculiar
velocity requires the separation of the two components of the S-Z effect, which
are due to the thermal and bulk velocities of the intracluster plasma. The two
components can be separated practically only at millimeter (mm) wavelengths.
Measurements of the S-Z effect at mm wavelengths are subject to minimal
astrophysical confusion and, therefore, provide an important test of results
obtained at longer wavelengths. We describe the instrument used to make the
first significant detections of the S-Z effect at millimeter wavelengths. This
instrument employs new filter, detector, and readout technologies to produce
sensitive measurements of differential sky brightness stable on long time
scales. These advances allow drift scan observations which achieve high
sensitivity while minimizing common sources of systematic error.Comment: 19 pages, 15 postscript figures, LaTeX(aaspptwo.sty), ApJ(in press
Mid-infrared optical parametric amplifier using silicon nanophotonic waveguides
All-optical signal processing is envisioned as an approach to dramatically
decrease power consumption and speed up performance of next-generation optical
telecommunications networks. Nonlinear optical effects, such as four-wave
mixing (FWM) and parametric gain, have long been explored to realize
all-optical functions in glass fibers. An alternative approach is to employ
nanoscale engineering of silicon waveguides to enhance the optical
nonlinearities by up to five orders of magnitude, enabling integrated
chip-scale all-optical signal processing. Previously, strong two-photon
absorption (TPA) of the telecom-band pump has been a fundamental and
unavoidable obstacle, limiting parametric gain to values on the order of a few
dB. Here we demonstrate a silicon nanophotonic optical parametric amplifier
exhibiting gain as large as 25.4 dB, by operating the pump in the mid-IR near
one-half the band-gap energy (E~0.55eV, lambda~2200nm), at which parasitic
TPA-related absorption vanishes. This gain is high enough to compensate all
insertion losses, resulting in 13 dB net off-chip amplification. Furthermore,
dispersion engineering dramatically increases the gain bandwidth to more than
220 nm, all realized using an ultra-compact 4 mm silicon chip. Beyond its
significant relevance to all-optical signal processing, the broadband
parametric gain also facilitates the simultaneous generation of multiple
on-chip mid-IR sources through cascaded FWM, covering a 500 nm spectral range.
Together, these results provide a foundation for the construction of
silicon-based room-temperature mid-IR light sources including tunable
chip-scale parametric oscillators, optical frequency combs, and supercontinuum
generators
Growth modes of Fe(110) revisited: a contribution of self-assembly to magnetic materials
We have revisited the epitaxial growth modes of Fe on W(110) and Mo(110), and
propose an overview or our contribution to the field. We show that the
Stranski-Krastanov growth mode, recognized for a long time in these systems, is
in fact characterized by a bimodal distribution of islands for growth
temperature in the range 250-700°C. We observe firstly compact islands
whose shape is determined by Wulff-Kaischev's theorem, secondly thin and flat
islands that display a preferred height, ie independant from nominal thickness
and deposition procedure (1.4nm for Mo, and 5.5nm for W on the average). We
used this effect to fabricate self-organized arrays of nanometers-thick stripes
by step decoration. Self-assembled nano-ties are also obtained for nucleation
of the flat islands on Mo at fairly high temperature, ie 800°C. Finally,
using interfacial layers and solid solutions we separate two effects on the
preferred height, first that of the interfacial energy, second that of the
continuously-varying lattice parameter of the growth surface.Comment: 49 pages. Invited topical review for J. Phys.: Condens. Matte
Self-energy of image states on copper surfaces
We report extensive calculations of the imaginary part of the electron
self-energy in the vicinity of the (100) and (111) surfaces of Cu. The
quasiparticle self-energy is computed by going beyond a free-electron
description of the metal surface, either within the GW approximation of
many-body theory or with inclusion, within the GW approximation, of
short-range exchange-correlation effects. Calculations of the decay rate of the
first three image states on Cu(100) and the first image state on Cu(111) are
also reported, and the impact of both band structure and many-body effects on
the electron relaxation process is discussed.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev.
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