Cricket bowling: A two-segment Lagrangian model

In this study, a Lagrangian forward solution of the bowling arm in cricket is made using a two-segment rigid body model, coupled with projectile equations for the free flight of the ball. For given initial arm positions and constant joint torques, the equations are solved numerically to determine the ball speed and arm angle at release so that the ball can land on a predetermined position on the pitch. The model was driven with kinematic data from video obtained from an elite bowler. The model can be analysed in order to study the biomechanics of the bowling arm as well as to quantify the effects of changing input parameters on the trajectory and speed of the ball

Clinical features of colorectal cancer before diagnosis: a population-based case-control study

This is the final version of the article. Available from the publisher via the DOI in this record.Most colorectal cancers are diagnosed after the onset of symptoms. However, the risk of colorectal cancer posed by particular symptoms is largely unknown, especially in unselected populations like primary care. This was a population-based case-control study in all 21 general practices in Exeter, Devon, UK, aiming to identify and quantify the prediagnostic features of colorectal cancer. In total, 349 patients with colorectal cancer, aged 40 years or more, and 1744 controls, matched by age, sex and general practice, were studied. The full medical record for 2 years before diagnosis was coded using the International Classification of Primary Care-2. We calculated odds ratios for variables independently associated with cancer, using multivariable conditional logistic regressions, and then calculated the positive predictive values of these variables, both individually and in combination. In total, 10 features were associated with colorectal cancer before diagnosis. The positive predictive values (95% confidence interval) of these were rectal bleeding 2.4% (1.9, 3.2); weight loss 1.2% (0.91, 1.6); abdominal pain 1.1% (0.86, 1.3); diarrhoea 0.94% (0.73, 1.1); constipation 0.42% (0.34, 0.52); abnormal rectal examination 4.0% (2.4, 7.4); abdominal tenderness 1.1% (0.77, 1.5); haemoglobin 10 mmol l(-1) 0.78% (0.51, 1.1): all P < 0.001. Earlier diagnosis of colorectal cancer may be possible using the predictive values for single or multiple symptoms, physical signs or test results.Project funding from the Department of Health. The funding source had no role in study design, data collection, analysis or writing of the report. All authors had full access to all data, and take final responsibility for publication. WH was funded through his research practice (Barnfield Hill, Exeter) and RCGP/BUPA and NHS Fellowships. The views expressed in the publication are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the Department of Health. We wish to thank all 21 general practices in Exeter, the Dendrite personnel, and the Patients and Practitioners Service Authority, without which this project would not have been successful

Virtual patients design and its effect on clinical reasoning and student experience : a protocol for a randomised factorial multi-centre study

Background Virtual Patients (VPs) are web-based representations of realistic clinical cases. They are proposed as being an optimal method for teaching clinical reasoning skills. International standards exist which define precisely what constitutes a VP. There are multiple design possibilities for VPs, however there is little formal evidence to support individual design features. The purpose of this trial is to explore the effect of two different potentially important design features on clinical reasoning skills and the student experience. These are the branching case pathways (present or absent) and structured clinical reasoning feedback (present or absent). Methods/Design This is a multi-centre randomised 2x2 factorial design study evaluating two independent variables of VP design, branching (present or absent), and structured clinical reasoning feedback (present or absent).The study will be carried out in medical student volunteers in one year group from three university medical schools in the United Kingdom, Warwick, Keele and Birmingham. There are four core musculoskeletal topics. Each case can be designed in four different ways, equating to 16 VPs required for the research. Students will be randomised to four groups, completing the four VP topics in the same order, but with each group exposed to a different VP design sequentially. All students will be exposed to the four designs. Primary outcomes are performance for each case design in a standardized fifteen item clinical reasoning assessment, integrated into each VP, which is identical for each topic. Additionally a 15-item self-reported evaluation is completed for each VP, based on a widely used EViP tool. Student patterns of use of the VPs will be recorded. In one centre, formative clinical and examination performance will be recorded, along with a self reported pre and post-intervention reasoning score, the DTI. Our power calculations indicate a sample size of 112 is required for both primary outcomes

In vivo measurements of muscle specific tension in adults and children

This article is available open access through the publisher’s website at the link below. Copyright @ 2009 The Authors.To better understand the effects of pubertal maturation on the contractile properties of skeletal muscle in vivo, the present study investigated whether there are any differences in the specific tension of the quadriceps muscle in 20 adults and 20 prepubertal children of both sexes. Specific tension was calculated as the ratio between the quadriceps tendon force and the sum of the physiological cross-sectional area (PCSA) multiplied by the cosine of the angle of pennation of each head within the quadriceps muscle. The maximal quadriceps tendon force was calculated from the knee extension maximal voluntary contraction (MVC) by accounting for EMG-based estimates of antagonist co-activation, incomplete quadriceps activation using the interpolation twitch technique and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-based measurements of the patellar tendon moment arm. The PCSA was calculated as the muscle volume, measured from MRI scans, divided by optimal fascicle length, measured from ultrasound images during MVC at the estimated angle of peak quadriceps muscle force. It was found that the quadriceps tendon force and PCSA of men (11.4 kN, 214 cm2) were significantly greater than those of the women (8.7 kN, 152 cm2; P 0.05) between groups: men, 55 ± 11 N cm−2; women, 57.3 ± 13 N cm−2; boys, 54 ± 14 N cm−2; and girls, 59.8 ± 15 N cm−2. These findings indicate that the increased muscle strength with maturation is not due to an increase in the specific tension of muscle; instead, it can be attributed to increases in muscle size, moment arm length and voluntary activation level

Relativity principles in 1+1 dimensions and differential aging reversal

We study the behavior of clocks in 1+1 spacetime assuming the relativity principle, the principle of constancy of the speed of light and the clock hypothesis. These requirements are satisfied by a class of Finslerian theories parametrized by a real coefficient $\beta$, special relativity being recovered for $\beta=0$. The effect of differential aging is studied for the different values of $\beta$. Below the critical values $|\beta| =1/c$ the differential aging has the usual direction - after a round trip the accelerated observer returns younger than the twin at rest in the inertial frame - while above the critical values the differential aging changes sign. The non-relativistic case is treated by introducing a formal analogy with thermodynamics.Comment: 12 pages, no figures. Previous title "Parity violating terms in clocks' behavior and differential aging reversal". v2: shortened introduction, some sections removed, pointed out the relation with Finsler metrics. Submitted to Found. Phys. Let

Moderating Readers and Reading Online

Despite the proliferation of online forums for the discussion of literary texts, very little has been written to date on the management of these spaces and how this helps frame the kinds of discussion and interpretative work that take place. This article draws on a series of interviews with moderators of online book-related sites, alongside close analysis of online interactions between moderators and users to consider issues of authority, hierarchy, power and control, asking how these act to structure or facilitate acts of interpretation taking place online. We begin by outlining the moderator's role before conducting a brief review of existing scholarship on offline reading groups and online communities, to identify how social infrastructures are established and negotiated. The main body of the article draws upon interviews with moderators of two online literary forums – The Republic of Pemberley and The Guardian’s online Reading Group – to explore the ways in which each of the respective moderators frames his or her role. This is accompanied by an in-depth exploration of how the forms of interpretation we find on the two sites are shaped and directed by the moderators. The article concludes by reflecting upon some of the issues raised by this study and its methodology, particularly with regards to digital dualism and the blurring of the boundaries between the public and the private in online spaces

A New Species of Muscicapa Flycatcher from Sulawesi, Indonesia

The Indonesian island of Sulawesi, a globally important hotspot of avian endemism, has been relatively poorly studied ornithologically, to the extent that several new bird species from the region have been described to science only recently, and others have been observed and photographed, but never before collected or named to science. One of these is a new species of Muscicapa flycatcher that has been observed on several occasions since 1997. We collected two specimens in Central Sulawesi in 2012, and based on a combination of morphological, vocal and genetic characters, we describe the new species herein, more than 15 years after the first observations. The new species is superficially similar to the highly migratory, boreal-breeding Gray-streaked Flycatcher Muscicapa griseisticta, which winters in Sulawesi; however, the new species differs strongly from M. griseisticta in several morphological characters, song, and mtDNA. Based on mtDNA, the new species is only distantly related to M. griseisticta, instead being a member of the M. dauurica clade. The new species is evidently widely distributed in lowland and submontane forest throughout Sulawesi. This wide distribution coupled with the species' apparent tolerance of disturbed habitats suggests it is not currently threatened with extinction.This project was funded by the National Geographic Society (NGS CRE 8919-11; granted to PCR), the Loke Wan Tho Memorial Foundation (granted to DLY), and an EIPR scholarship at the University of Adelaide (granted to JBCH). Labwork for this project was co-funded by a National University of Singapore Faculty of Science start-up grant to FER (WBS R-154-000-570-133). We thank RISTEK for issuing the national research permits (for 2011, 0215/SIP/FRP/VI/2011; for 2012, 183/SIP/FRP/SM/VI/2012) and Lore Lindu National Park for permit letters. The Research Centre for Biology-LIPI supported DMP and DDP in their field research and provided facilities for laboratory analysis. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript

Acquisition of pneumococci specific effector and regulatory Cd4+ T cells localising within human upper respiratory-tract mucosal lymphoid tissue

The upper respiratory tract mucosa is the location for commensal Streptococcus (S.) pneumoniae colonization and therefore represents a major site of contact between host and bacteria. The CD4(+) T cell response to pneumococcus is increasingly recognised as an important mediator of immunity that protects against invasive disease, with data suggesting a critical role for Th17 cells in mucosal clearance. By assessing CD4 T cell proliferative responses we demonstrate age-related sequestration of Th1 and Th17 CD4(+) T cells reactive to pneumococcal protein antigens within mucosal lymphoid tissue. CD25(hi) T cell depletion and utilisation of pneumococcal specific MHCII tetramers revealed the presence of antigen specific Tregs that utilised CTLA-4 and PDL-1 surface molecules to suppress these responses. The balance between mucosal effector and regulatory CD4(+) T cell immunity is likely to be critical to pneumococcal commensalism and the prevention of unwanted pathology associated with carriage. However, if dysregulated, such responses may render the host more susceptible to invasive pneumococcal infection and adversely affect the successful implementation of both polysaccharide-conjugate and novel protein-based pneumococcal vaccines

Misty, Spellbound and the lost Gothic of British girls’ comics.

This article is a case study of the 1970s British girls’ comics Spellbound (DC Thomson, 1976–1977) and Misty (IPC, 1978–1980). These mystery anthology comics followed the more famous American horror comics from publishers like EC Comics - but were aimed at pre-teen girls. The article situates these comics with respect to Gothic critical theory and within the wider landscape of British girls’ comics. Firstly, it closely considers and compares the structure and content of their stories with respect to theories of the terror and horror Gothic. It discovers that both comics offer similar fare, with a subversive streak that undercuts established horror archetypes. The article then looks closely at both titles’ aesthetics and their use of the page to draw comparisons. It uses comics theory and Gothic cinematic theory to demonstrate that the appearance of Misty is more strongly Gothic than the aesthetic of Spellbound. Finally, it considers a selection of stories from both comics and analyses their common themes using Gothic critical theory. It argues that both comics rework Gothic themes into new forms that are relevant to their pre-teen and teenage readers. It concludes by summarising the study’s findings and suggesting that these comics offer a “Gothic for Girls” that is part cautionary tale and part bildungsroman. This article is published as part of a collection on Gothic and horror