Effects of an Ionic Bracelet on Physical, Cognitive, and Integrative Tasks

Abstract: One approach in complementary/alternative medicine posits that manipulations of undocumented body energy patterns (biofields) can improve health and function. Various clinician-delivered interventions focus on biofields, but devices that purportedly correct these are also marketed and claim immediate benefits in a variety of domains. OBJECTIVE: To determine acute effects of ionic bracelet use on physical, cognitive and integrative sports-related tasks. METHODS: 52 healthy young adults participated (9 men and 43 women; 20.2±3.4 years of age; 65.4±11.3 kg; 165±6.9 cm). None reported prior or current use of the product. Each completed 2 series of 6 tasks wearing the ionic and an inert bracelet (counter-balanced presentation order). Bracelets were applied by the investigators behind a shield and covered by a sleeve in a single-blind design. Center of pressure excursion in single leg stance on a dynamic surface assessed posture control; anticipation timing absolute error represented perceptuomotor performance; time difference between 2 Stroop task variants tested concentration; peak vertical jump velocity (m/s) served to test power; maximum force in an isometric dead-lift was used to test strength; and time able to hold a weight (20% of body weight) at chin level served to test endurance. Effects of test order and bracelet type were analyzed independently via paired t-tests (α =.05). RESULTS: An order effect for strength was observed, attributable to a learning effect or an artifact of the number of t-tests applied; no other significant contrast was revealed. CONCLUSION: This ionic bracelet demonstrated no immediate benefits in any of the domains examined

Influence of Baseball Catcher Mask Design, Impact Location and Ball Trajectory on Head Acceleration

International Journal of Exercise Science 9(5): 567-575, 2016. The general aim was to contrast accelerations caused by baseball impacts for different catcher mask designs. Study1 focused on impact locations for a perpendicular ball trajectory. Study2 examined perpendicular and oblique trajectories striking a single mask location. A 5.9 kg head model instrumented with a 3-d accelerometer recording at 512 Hz was mounted upright with springs in a shallow ball joint. A pitching machine fired a standard baseball at ~28 m/s for all tests. Transverse plane resultant peak acceleration was gathered from 5 trials in each experimental combination. In Study1, effects of mask design (T=traditional, H=hockey, and M=modified traditional) and impact location (high or low and center or lateral) effects were examined via 3x2x2 ANOVA. For Study2, design and ball trajectory effects were analyzed via 3x2 ANOVA. In Study1, the triple interaction was significant. For high/center collisions, T & H were 41% lower than M; for low/center impacts, H was 40% less than T & M; for high/side strikes, H was 33% less than T which was 32% less than M; and all 3 designs were equivalent for low/side contacts. T and H utilized different protection schemes. For T, energy transfer was reduced when equipment was displaced. For H, the more angled mask deflected the ball’s energy. Both mechanisms were impaired for M. In Study2, no significant effects were identified. The trajectory conditions may have relied solely on the mask padding. Both the T and H designs offer protection, with the H performing somewhat better for the conditions tested here

Comparing nuclear power trajectories in Germany and the UK: from ‘regimes' to ‘democracies’ in sociotechnical transitions and Discontinuities

This paper focuses on arguably the single most striking contrast in contemporary major energy politics in Europe (and even the developed world as a whole): the starkly differing civil nuclear policies of Germany and the UK. Germany is seeking entirely to phase out nuclear power by 2022. Yet the UK advocates a ‘nuclear renaissance’, promoting the most ambitious new nuclear construction programme in Western Europe.Here,this paper poses a simple yet quite fundamental question: what are the particular divergent conditions most strongly implicated in the contrasting developments in these two countries. With nuclear playing such an iconic role in historical discussions over technological continuity and transformation, answering this may assist in wider understandings of sociotechnical incumbency and discontinuity in the burgeoning field of‘sustainability transitions’. To this end, an ‘abductive’ approach is taken: deploying nine potentially relevant criteria for understanding the different directions pursued in Germany and the UK. Together constituted by 30 parameters spanning literatures related to socio-technical regimes in general as well as nuclear technology in particular, the criteria are divided into those that are ‘internal’ and ‘external’ to the ‘focal regime configuration’ of nuclear power and associated ‘challenger technologies’ like renewables. It is ‘internal’ criteria that are emphasised in conventional sociotechnical regime theory, with ‘external’ criteria relatively less well explored. Asking under each criterion whether attempted discontinuation of nuclear power would be more likely in Germany or the UK, a clear picture emerges. ‘Internal’ criteria suggest attempted nuclear discontinuation should be more likely in the UK than in Germany– the reverse of what is occurring. ‘External’ criteria are more aligned with observed dynamics –especially those relating to military nuclear commitments and broader ‘qualities of democracy’. Despite many differences of framing concerning exactly what constitutes ‘democracy’, a rich political science literature on this point is unanimous in characterising Germany more positively than the UK. Although based only on a single case,a potentially important question is nonetheless raised as to whether sociotechnical regime theory might usefully give greater attention to the general importance of various aspects of democracy in constituting conditions for significant technological discontinuities and transformations. If so, the policy implications are significant. A number of important areas are identified for future research, including the roles of diverse understandings and specific aspects of democracy and the particular relevance of military nuclear commitments– whose under-discussion in civil nuclear policy literatures raises its own questions of democratic accountability

The role of war in deep transitions: exploring mechanisms, imprints and rules in sociotechnical systems

This paper explores in what ways the two world wars influenced the development of sociotechnical systems underpinning the culmination of the first deep transition. The role of war is an underexplored aspect in both the Techno-Economic Paradigms (TEP) approach and the Multi-level perspective (MLP) which form the two key conceptual building blocks of the Deep Transitions (DT) framework. Thus, we develop a conceptual approach tailored to this particular topic which integrates accounts of total war and mechanisms of war from historical studies and imprinting from organisational studies with the DT framework’s attention towards rules and meta-rules. We explore in what ways the three sociotechnical systems of energy, food, and transport were affected by the emergence of new demand pressures and logistical challenges during conditions of total war; how war impacted the directionality of sociotechnical systems; the extent to which new national and international policy capacities emerged during wartime in the energy, food, and transport systems; and the extent to which these systems were influenced by cooperation and shared sacrifice under wartime conditions. We then explore what lasting changes were influenced by the two wars in the energy, food, and transport systems across the transatlantic zone. This paper seeks to open up a hitherto neglected area in analysis on sociotechnical transitions and we discuss the importance of further research that is attentive towards entanglements of warfare and the military particularly in the field of sustainability transitions

Coherent soft X-ray diffraction imaging of coliphage PR772 at the Linac coherent light source

Single-particle diffraction from X-ray Free Electron Lasers offers the potential for molecular structure determination without the need for crystallization. In an effort to further develop the technique, we present a dataset of coherent soft X-ray diffraction images of Coliphage PR772 virus, collected at the Atomic Molecular Optics (AMO) beamline with pnCCD detectors in the LAMP instrument at the Linac Coherent Light Source. The diameter of PR772 ranges from 65–70 nm, which is considerably smaller than the previously reported ~600 nm diameter Mimivirus. This reflects continued progress in XFEL-based single-particle imaging towards the single molecular imaging regime. The data set contains significantly more single particle hits than collected in previous experiments, enabling the development of improved statistical analysis, reconstruction algorithms, and quantitative metrics to determine resolution and self-consistency