THE EFFECT OF DIFFERENT EXTERNAL ELASTIC COMPRESSION ON MUSCLE STRENGTH, FATIGUE, EMG AND MMG ACTIVITY

The purpose of this study was to quantify the effects of three different compression conditions on (a) performance of muscle strength/power and fatigue in lower extremity, and (b) the responses of electromyography (EMG) and mechanomyography (MMG) of rectus femoris (RF) under repeated concentric muscle actions. All subjects (N=12) performed maximal voluntary contractions (MVC) and consecutive, maximal isokinetic knee extension movements at 60°/s & 300°/s velocities with three different compression conditions. The results indicated that local elastic compression of lower extremity, while not significant in improving isokinetic strength in short period, may have a positive effect on fatigue by helping maintain long-term force production through altering muscle activity in high-velocity of locomotion

KINEMATIC ANALYSIS OF THE SLIDING STOP IN WESTERN RIDING AT THE MALLORCA WESTERN REINING TROPHY 2006

The purpose of this study was to show the acceleration acting during the sliding stop. As data source we used a DVD of 10 finalists of the Mallorca Western Festivals 2006 (reining competition). These videos were analysed using the SIMI-Motion software. Additionally to the defined location on the horse and rider the reference points on the horse (saddle pad) and on the panel fence (advertising board) were digitised. With the help of the reference point the coordinates were determined and the acceleration was calculated. The maximum acceleration of the sliding stop in the running direction was mean=37.92 m/s² (SD=9.47). The vertical acceleration of the sliding stop at this time was mean=8.50 m/s² (SD=6.26).With an expected mass of horse and rider between 500 to 600 Kg, this acceleration will lead to a load between 11.6 KN and 37.6 KN. The conclusion is that the acting load during the sliding stop is comparable to load on the extremity during a gallop race. The question remains what are the effects of the sliding to the lower hind extremities of the horse and does it lead to injuries

On Optimal Subarchitectures for Quantum Circuit Mapping

Compiling a high-level quantum circuit down to a low-level description that can be executed on state-of-the-art quantum computers is a crucial part of the software stack for quantum computing. One step in compiling a quantum circuit to some device is quantum circuit mapping, where the circuit is transformed such that it complies with the architecture's limited qubit connectivity. Because the search space in quantum circuit mapping grows exponentially in the number of qubits, it is desirable to consider as few of the device's physical qubits as possible in the process. Previous work conjectured that it suffices to consider only subarchitectures of a quantum computer composed of as many qubits as used in the circuit. In this work, we refute this conjecture and establish criteria for judging whether considering larger parts of the architecture might yield better solutions to the mapping problem. We show that determining subarchitectures that are of minimal size, i.e., of which no physical qubit can be removed without losing the optimal mapping solution for some quantum circuit, is a very hard problem. Based on a relaxation of the criteria for optimality, we introduce a relaxed consideration that still maintains optimality for practically relevant quantum circuits. Eventually, this results in two methods for computing near-optimal sets of subarchitectures\unicode{x2014}providing the basis for efficient quantum circuit mapping solutions. We demonstrate the benefits of this novel method for state-of-the-art quantum computers by IBM, Google and Rigetti.Comment: 19 pages, 9 figures, 3 table

Setting up an extensive reading program in Austria

Die Diplomarbeit beschäftigt sich mit dem Thema des Extensive Reading als didaktische Methode im Englischunterricht. Sie beschreibt die Organisation eines solchen Leseprojekts an einer österreichischen AHS. Die aufbauenden Schritte werden allgemein erläutert und die Erfahrungen als Hilfestellung für potentielle AnwenderInnen beschrieben.This paper will focus on extensive reading as a current trend in teaching reading in a foreign language. Moreover, it aims at giving a detailed guideline to the buildup of a class library. The thesis consists of three main parts: a theoretical foundation on the topic of extensive reading, the description of practical guidelines concerning the buildup of a class library and lastly, a reflective evaluation of the carried out field study

Charakteristika von Vortragenden und ihr Effekt auf die Bewertung des gelesenen Vortrages

Die vorliegende Diplomarbeit beschäftigt sich mit der Nachweisbarkeit des Halo-Effekts in einem transkribierten Vortrag. Unter Halo-Effekt wird die Ausstrahlung eines Attributes in der Wahrnehmung auf andere wahrgenommenen Eigenschaften verstanden (Felser, 2007). Den an der Studie teilnehmenden Personen wurde ein Vortragstext mit jeweils unterschiedlicher Vorinformation zur vortragenden Person vorgelegt. Die in der Vorinformation variierten Eigenschaften waren die Beschreibung der vortragenden Person als Theoretiker/in oder Praktiker/in sowie deren Geschlecht, zusätzlich wurde das Geschlecht der Versuchspersonen für Auswertung herangezogen. Es konnten weder Halo-Effekt noch Geschlechtereffekte nachgewiesen werden; die Beurteilung des Vortrages wurde nicht von den unterschiedlichen Vorinformationen der verschiedenen Versuchsbedingungen beeinflusst

THE INFLUENCE OF THE RIDER ON THE TROTTING MOTION OF A HORSE

Introduction: The characteristics of trot, such as collection, impulsion, action of the hind quarter, the position of the head and the balance of the horse are described in the Rules of Dressage Events of the Federation Equestre International. Up to now, these characteristics were judged subjectively by dressage judges, but no objective measures have been developed to substantiate these judgments. The aim of our study was to establish measurable criteria that make possible the quantification of dressage characteristics, by comparing the motion pattern of trotting horses ridden by two riders of different skill and being led on hand. Materials and Methods: Twenty horses aged 4 to 22 years at different training levels were measured being ridden at trot by a professional rider and a hobby rider, as well as being trotted on hand. The measurements were carried out from the right side, with six cameras (sample rate 120 Hz, resolution 240 x 833 points) tracing 20 reflecting spherical markers placed on the horse’s and rider’s right side. At least eight recordings of five seconds each were taken with the ExpertVision System of Motion Analysis Corporation with the horse trotting on a 12 m long pressed sand track in an indoor riding arena. At least eight motion cycles of each rider-horse combination and of the horses being trotted on hand were analyzed. The 3-dimensional movement of the markers was calculated, and the stridelength, speed, and vertical movement of the fetlock joints were compared. The data were normalized to the trotting speed. The normal distribution of each group was tested using the Kolmogorov- Smirnov test, and the Student test of paired samples was used to check the differences between the means of the groups of the above described parameters. Results and Discussion: With the hobby rider the horses had the significantly lowest trotting speeds, the smallest stride length, the highest head position, the smallest vertical movement of the fetlock joint and the longest duration of stancephase when compared to when the horse is ridden by the professional rider and trotted on hand. Between the horse’s motion when ridden by the professional rider and trotted on hand no significant differences could be detected in the trotting speed and the duration of stance-phase, whereas significant differences were established for head position and stride length. The vertical movement of the fetlock joint did not differ significantly when ridden by the hobby rider and trotted on the hand, but both did differ significantly from the vertical movement of the fetlock joint when ridden by the professional rider. The results of this study show that some terms used by the Federation Equestre International can be translated into measurable quantities, and thus a more objective judgment of dressage may evolve

MOTION PATTERN CONSISTENCY OF THE RIDER-HORSE SYSTEM

INTRODUCTION: Dressage riding is difficult to judge, because the aesthetics of the performance cannot be measured simply. The aim of this study was to show a method of visualizing and quantifying the harmony of the motion of a rider and a horse by evaluating their coordination. Rider and horse have a natural frequency when trotting; they can therefore be considered a system of coupled biological oscillators. The characteristics of such a system are determined by the innate and learned motion patterns, anatomy and physical condition of both participants. Any periodic motion can be described as a limit-cycleattractor in the phase space. The characteristics of an oscillator or a system of oscillators can be depicted as a phase plane diagram (PPD), which is a suitable method to visualize the characteristics (e.g., longterm behavior and limit-cycle) of a complex system, such as the ridden horse. METHODS: Twenty horses aged 4 to 22 years on different training levels were measured being ridden at trot by a professional rider and a hobby rider. The measurements were carried out from the right side, with six cameras (sample rate 120 Hz, resolution 240 x 833 points) tracing 20 reflecting spherical markers placed on the horse’s and rider’s right side. At least eight recordings of five seconds each were taken with the ExpertVision System of the Motion Analysis Corporation with the horse trotting on a 12 m long pressed sand track in an indoor riding arena. At least eight motion cycles of each rider-horse combination were analyzed. The 3-dimensional movements of the markers were used to deduce the angle between the linkages of rider’s head to rider’s back and of rider’s back to the horse’s head. Then the data were normalized to 100% of the length of the motion cycle. Angle velocity and angle acceleration were computed and from all three data-sets, scaled to 100% of the professional rider’s angle, angle velocity and angle acceleration; the trajectories in the phase-space were plotted and the lengths of the resulting vectors (LV) in the phase-space were computed. The mean and average deviation (variation of LV) of LV of every horse and rider were determined and grouped for each rider. The normal distribution of each group was tested with the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. The Student test of paired samples and one-way analysis of variance were used to check the differences between the mean of the groups of LV and average deviation. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: There was no significant difference in the mean of LV between the 2 riders, but there was a significant () difference in the average deviation of the LV, showing that the motion of the horse-professional rider system is more consistent than of the horse-hobby rider system. With this method the rhythm and the natural balance of the rider-horse system can be evaluated, and this information might prove a useful feedback for the education of riders