1,123 research outputs found
COMPUTATION OF HIP AND SHOULDER TORQUES IN COMPETITIVE SWIMMING
The mechanisms of propulsion can be deduced from 3D video analysis of swimming. The basic hydrodynamic equation can be used to compute the total force for those particles. The shoulder torque was calculated by summation over hand, lower arm and upper arm of infinitesimal torques of displaced water particles. These muscle force moments were related to the velocity of the mass centre as a measure of the propulsion. However, a direct interrelation between velocity and torques cannot be established since the total resistance of the body in motion is unknown. Therefore, the aim was to determine individual differences in swimming technique, controlled by shoulder, hip torques and swimming velocity, at any state of one movement cycle. Recommendations for best propulsion techniques are derived
Spatio-temporal dynamics induced by competing instabilities in two asymmetrically coupled nonlinear evolution equations
Pattern formation often occurs in spatially extended physical, biological and
chemical systems due to an instability of the homogeneous steady state. The
type of the instability usually prescribes the resulting spatio-temporal
patterns and their characteristic length scales. However, patterns resulting
from the simultaneous occurrence of instabilities cannot be expected to be
simple superposition of the patterns associated with the considered
instabilities. To address this issue we design two simple models composed by
two asymmetrically coupled equations of non-conserved (Swift-Hohenberg
equations) or conserved (Cahn-Hilliard equations) order parameters with
different characteristic wave lengths. The patterns arising in these systems
range from coexisting static patterns of different wavelengths to traveling
waves. A linear stability analysis allows to derive a two parameter phase
diagram for the studied models, in particular revealing for the Swift-Hohenberg
equations a co-dimension two bifurcation point of Turing and wave instability
and a region of coexistence of stationary and traveling patterns. The nonlinear
dynamics of the coupled evolution equations is investigated by performing
accurate numerical simulations. These reveal more complex patterns, ranging
from traveling waves with embedded Turing patterns domains to spatio-temporal
chaos, and a wide hysteretic region, where waves or Turing patterns coexist.
For the coupled Cahn-Hilliard equations the presence of an weak coupling is
sufficient to arrest the coarsening process and to lead to the emergence of
purely periodic patterns. The final states are characterized by domains with a
characteristic length, which diverges logarithmically with the coupling
amplitude.Comment: 9 pages, 10 figures, submitted to Chao
Solid State Science Special Issue Symposium A on carbon-based nanostructured composite films Nanomaterials and Nanotechnology E-MRS Spring Meeting 2008 (Editorial)
Many-body effects on Cr(001) surfaces: An LDA+DMFT study
The electronic structure of the Cr(001) surface with its sharp resonance at
the Fermi level is a subject of controversial debate of many experimental and
theoretical works. To date, it is unclear whether the origin of this resonance
is an orbital Kondo or an electron-phonon coupling effect. We have combined ab
initio density functional calculations with dynamical mean-field simulations to
calculate the orbitally resolved spectral function of the Cr(001) surface. The
calculated orbital character and shape of the spectrum is in agreement with
data from (inverse) photoemission experiments. We find that dynamic electron
correlations crucially influence the surface electronic structure and lead to a
low energy resonance in the and orbitals. Our results
help to reconvene controversial experimental results from (I)PES and STM
measurements.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figure
Functional characterization of polysaccharide utilization loci in the marine Bacteroidetes 'Gramella forsetii' KT0803
Members of the phylum Bacteroidetes are abundant in many marine ecosystems and are known to have a pivotal role in the mineralization of complex organic substrates such as polysaccharides and proteins. We studied the decomposition of the algal glycans laminarin and alginate by 'Gramella forsetii' KT0803, a bacteroidetal isolate from North Sea surface waters. A combined application of isotope labeling, subcellular protein fractionation and quantitative proteomics revealed two large polysaccharide utilization loci (PULs) that were specifically induced, one by alginate and the other by laminarin. These regulons comprised genes of surface-exposed proteins such as oligomer transporters, substrate-binding proteins, carbohydrate-active enzymes and hypothetical proteins. Besides, several glycan-specific TonB-dependent receptors and SusD-like substrate-binding proteins were expressed also in the absence of polysaccharide substrates, suggesting an anticipatory sensing function. Genes for the utilization of the beta-1,3-glucan laminarin were found to be co-regulated with genes for glucose and alpha-1,4-glucan utilization, which was not the case for the non-glucan alginate. Strong syntenies of the PULs of 'G. forsetii' with similar loci in other Bacteroidetes indicate that the specific response mechanisms of 'G. forsetii' to changes in polysaccharide availability likely apply to other Bacteroidetes. Our results can thus contribute to an improved understanding of the ecological niches of marine Bacteroidetes and their roles in the polysaccharide decomposition part of carbon cycling in marine ecosystems
Effects of Task Experience and Layout on Learning from Text and Pictures with or without Unnecessary Picture Descriptions
The presentation of extraneous (i.e., irrelevant or unnecessary) information may
hamper learning with multimedia. The present study examined whether people can
learn to ignore unnecessary information with increasing experience with the task and
whether this depends on the layout of that information. In two experiments,
participants learned about the process of mitosis from a multimedia slideshow, with
each slide presenting a combination of expository text and a picture on one of the
stages in the process. Slides either contained no unnecessary text (control condition)
or unnecessary text (i.e., merely describing the picture) either integrated in the picture
(integrated condition) or presented underneath the picture (separated condition).
Knowledge about the studied mitosis phase was tested immediately after each slide
using a cloze test. Across Experiments 1 and 2, we did not find a reliable negative effect
of the unnecessary text on cloze test performance. As a result, the question of whether
task experience would reduce or eliminate that negative effect could not be answered.
The eye movement data did confirm, however, that participants attended less to the
unnecessary information with increasing task experience, suggesting that students
can adapt their study strategy and learn to ignore unnecessary information
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