724 research outputs found
Analysis of navigation pattern in the sport of rowing
The effect of weather and environmental conditions on sports has been extensively studied over the last few years (Pezzoli et al., 2010). Based upon the studies of Lobozewicz (1981) and of Kay and Vamplew (2002), Pezzoli and Cristofori (2008) have studied the impact of some specific environmental parameters over different sports using a particular impact index divided into five classes. This analysis clearly shows that most of the outdoor sport activities are strongly influenced by the variation of meteorological parameters. However the impact of meteorological conditions on outdoor sport activities has not yet been extensively studied. The aim of this research is to show that an accurate assessment of wind and wave parameters enables decisive improvements in both training and race strategy planning. Furthermore this analysis provide a very innovative working method for the applied sport research. The work has been based on in-situ measurements of both environmental and performance parameters (wind direction, wind velocity, boat speed and stroke rate) made over different classes and in different race conditions during the 2009 FISA World Championship (Poznan, Poland). In particular a detailed environmental analysis was performed by measuring the wind direction, the wind speed and by evaluating the significant wave height and the wave peak period for each class during the semi-final phase and the final phase. It should be noted that, since wind is a key parameter affecting not only the boat speed but also the race strategy, the assessment of the wind velocity and of the wind direction has been made in connection with the boat movement. The comparison between coupled wind-wave data, boat speed and stroke rate evidently demonstrates that only crews that managed the adaption to changing in the environmental conditions from semi-final to final phase of the race, were able to get better results. References Kay, J., & Vamplew, W. (2002) Weather beaten: sport in the British climate. London: Ed. Mainstream Publishing. Lobozewicz, T. (1981) Meteorology in sport. Frankfurt: Ed. Sportverlag. Pezzoli, A,, Moncalero, M., Boscolo, A., Cristofori, E., Giacometto, F., Gastaldi, S., & Vercelli, G. (2010) The meteo-hydrological analysis and the sport performance: which are the connections? The case of the XXI Winter Olympic Games, Vancouver 2010, Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness, 50: 19-20. Pezzoli, A., & Cristofori, E. (2008) Analisi, previsioni e misure meteorologiche applicate agli sport equestri, in: 10th Congress "New findings in equine practices, Druento: Centro Internazionale del Cavallo Ed., p.38-4
Giant g factor tuning of long-lived electron spins in Ge
Control of electron spin coherence via external fields is fundamental in
spintronics. Its implementation demands a host material that accommodates the
highly desirable but contrasting requirements of spin robustness to relaxation
mechanisms and sizeable coupling between spin and orbital motion of charge
carriers. Here we focus on Ge, which, by matching those criteria, is rapidly
emerging as a prominent candidate for shuttling spin quantum bits in the mature
framework of Si electronics. So far, however, the intrinsic spin-dependent
phenomena of free electrons in conventional Ge/Si heterojunctions have proved
to be elusive because of epitaxy constraints and an unfavourable band
alignment. We overcome such fundamental limitations by investigating a two
dimensional electron gas (2DEG) confined in quantum wells of pure Ge grown on
SiGe-buffered Si substrates. These epitaxial systems demonstrate exceptionally
long spin relaxation and coherence times, eventually unveiling the potential of
Ge in bridging the gap between spintronic concepts and semiconductor device
physics. In particular, by tuning spin-orbit interaction via quantum
confinement we demonstrate that the electron Land\'e g factor and its
anisotropy can be engineered in our scalable and CMOS-compatible architectures
over a range previously inaccessible for Si spintronics
Spin-dependent direct gap emission in tensile-strained Ge films on Si substrates
The circular polarization of direct gap emission of Ge is studied in
optically-excited tensile-strained Ge-on-Si heterostructures as a function of
doping and temperature. Owing to the spin-dependent optical selection rules,
the radiative recombinations involving strain-split light (cG-LH) and heavy
hole (cG-HH) bands are unambiguously resolved. The fundamental cG-LH transition
is found to have a low temperature circular polarization degree of about 85%
despite an off-resonance excitation of more than 300 meV. By photoluminescence
(PL) measurements and tight binding calculations we show that this
exceptionally high value is due to the peculiar energy dependence of the
optically-induced electron spin population. Finally, our observation of the
direct gap doublet clarifies that the light hole contribution, previously
considered to be negligible, can dominate the room temperature PL even at low
tensile strain values of about 0.2%
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