NEURAL NETWORK USED FOR THE PREDICTION OF JOINT TORQUE FROM GROUND REACTION FORCE DURING COUNTER·MOVEMENT JUMP AND SQUAT JUMP

The purpose of this study was to develop an artificial neural network (ANN) for predicting the joint torque of lower limb using solely the ground reaction force (GRF) parameters for counter-movement jump (CMJ) and squat jump (SJ). Ten sport students performed CMJ and SJ on force plate, meanwhile the kinematic data were recorded and the joint torque were calculated as experimental data by inverse dynamics. We used a fully-connected, feed-forward network comprised of one input layer, one hidden layer and one output layer trained by back propagation using Steepest Descent Method. The input parameters of ANN were relevant time variables of GRF measurement and the output parameters were joint torque. The results revealed that the ANN model fitted the experimental data well indicating that the model developed in this study is feasible in the assessment of joint torque for CMJ and SJ

Controlled Morphological Structure of Ceria Nanoparticles Prepared by Spray Pyrolysis

AbstractCeria based materials have been widely used as catalyst supporters and electrolytes. Different applications require different morphologies, and the microstructural control during the synthesis is crucial. In the study, ceria particles were prepared from various precursors using a spray pyrolysis (SP). Comparing to the hollow and porous particles, the formation mechanism with solid spherical structure is not clarified readily. The ceria particles were characterized by transmission electron microscopy, thermogravimetry analysis and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. This experimental result suggests that the morphology is controlled by the precursors and could be related to their decomposed behavior during the heating process in SP

A STUDY OF THE INFLUENCES OF KNOWLEDGE BOUNDARY SPANNING ON PROJECT PERFORMANCE IN INFORMATION SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS

Information system development (ISD) is a knowledge intensive process, and a socialize cross-disciplines collaboration that brings up innovations and creates a competitive advantage for the organization. However, different layers of knowledge boundaries (syntactic, semantic, pragmatic) arise with the knowledge diversity of the ISD project and further lowers the project performance and product quality. To solve the problems, we will follow a construct development methodology to empirically identify the critical knowledge boundary spanning (KBS) processes, roles and objects for different layers of knowledge boundary, examine their influences to the effectiveness of corresponding KBS, and further assess the direct and moderating relationships from KBS effectiveness to project performance and product quality through a questionnaire survey. For academic applications, we not only split up the layers of KBS effectiveness and examine their direct and moderating effects to ISD performance but also offer categorized KBS activities under a formal construct development methodology for future studies. For practical implications, we offer a model for ISD team members to refer to for solving their knowledge boundary issues and increase their project performance and product quality

‘Drop, Cover and Hold On’ or ‘Triangle of Life’ Attributes of Information Sources Influencing Earthquake Protective Actions

A well-known fact is that an earthquake or earth shaking does not cause injuries and deaths. Rather, buildings and infrastructure systems collapsing on people do. Hence, reputable government organizations from countries prone to high earthquake risks are heavily invested in advising their populations on immediate lifesaving protective actions (PAs). One such action is the ‘Drop, Cover and Hold on’ strategy proven to have saved countless lives. Unfortunately, in recent years another action known as the ‘Triangle of Life’ has been trolled through internet sites and hearsay. It is believed that adopting such an unsubstantiated erroneous action is likely to put people at greater risk during an earthquake. Thus, there is a need to extend studies to understand factors that influence people’s decisions to take certain PAs over another for earthquakes. This research does that through an empirical study of 647 residents from Mianyang City in the Sichuan province of China. The results indicate that if a PA is easy to understand, mentioned often by multiple sources and easy to access, then people will adopt it. But a striking finding is that people are also likely to be influenced by wrong information, depending on who is providing such information and through which medium (e.g. social media). These findings suggest that the Chinese government needs to provide gate keepers who are dedicated, trained personnel who can monitor misinformation on various Internet sites and address them. In parallel they can provide regular, up to date public advisories on immediate PA through multiple legitimate government, private and non-profit sector sources and channels

Local Residents’ Risk Perceptions in Response to Shale Gas Exploitation: Evidence from China

In 2014, China became the world’s third country to accomplish shale gas commercial development, following the United States and Canada. China still however lacks a comprehensive analysis of its public’s concerns about potential environmental risks of shale gas exploration, particularly those of local residents near extraction sites. This paper specifically aims to explore risks perceived as associated with shale gas development in the Changning-Weiyuan area of Sichuan Basin, by conducting a face-to-face household survey with 730 participants interviewed. Some 86% of respondents reported their belief that shale gas exploitation causes more than three types of negative impacts, the most commonly perceived being noise, underground water contamination and geological disruption. Associated variables that were statistically significant predictors of risk perception include demographic characteristics (age, gender, education), environmental awareness level, landslide experience, awareness of past shale gas accidents, information sources, general knowledge about shale gas, and perspectives on whether negative impacts can be observed and controlled, along with trust in the central government and the petroleum company. Our findings implications are discussed, with the goal of informing both central and local authorities’ policy development in protecting local residents from risks of shale gas exploitation and better communicating risks to residents

Phylo-mLogo: an interactive and hierarchical multiple-logo visualization tool for alignment of many sequences

BACKGROUND: When aligning several hundreds or thousands of sequences, such as epidemic virus sequences or homologous/orthologous sequences of some big gene families, to reconstruct the epidemiological history or their phylogenies, how to analyze and visualize the alignment results of many sequences has become a new challenge for computational biologists. Although there are several tools available for visualization of very long sequence alignments, few of them are applicable to the alignments of many sequences. RESULTS: A multiple-logo alignment visualization tool, called Phylo-mLogo, is presented in this paper. Phylo-mLogo calculates the variabilities and homogeneities of alignment sequences by base frequencies or entropies. Different from the traditional representations of sequence logos, Phylo-mLogo not only displays the global logo patterns of the whole alignment of multiple sequences, but also demonstrates their local homologous logos for each clade hierarchically. In addition, Phylo-mLogo also allows the user to focus only on the analysis of some important, structurally or functionally constrained sites in the alignment selected by the user or by built-in automatic calculation. CONCLUSION: With Phylo-mLogo, the user can symbolically and hierarchically visualize hundreds of aligned sequences simultaneously and easily check the changes of their amino acid sites when analyzing many homologous/orthologous or influenza virus sequences. More information of Phylo-mLogo can be found at URL

EVALUATION OF ELBOW AND FOREARM MOTION BETWEEN SIDEARM AND OVERHAND PITCHING

This study is to analyze the differences in kinematics, electromyography (EMG) and ultrasonography between two types of pitchers. We intend to observe and simulate the muscles around glenohumeral and elbow joints in different pitching motions and hope to discover the connections and differences in between. 12 pitchers from the top level were recruited. Larger elbow flexion was found in sidearm pitchers during the acceleration phase. Decrease of the distance of nerve to medial epicondyle was also found as the elbow moved to a more flexed position. More anterior translation of the ulnar nerve might occur during acceleration phase. Slightly lower flexor carpi radialis (FCR) activity was displayed in sidearm pitchers, showing that FCR might play a less crucial role in protecting medial elbow by providing less varus torque

Initial presentation of mesenteric venous thrombosis mimicking acute duodenitis: A true gastrointestinal vascular emergency

AbstractWe present a patient who had a 3-day history of epigastric pain and acid regurgitation and was found to have gastroesophageal reflux disease and duodenitis by esophagogastroduodenoscopy. His symptoms were refractory to treatment with a proton pump inhibitor. Peritonitis developed subsequently. Enhanced computed tomography (CT) confirmed a diagnosis of mesenteric venous thrombosis (MVT) with jejunum infarction. Emergency exploratory laparotomy with segmental resectioning of the jejunum was performed. We emphasize that emergency department (ED) physicians should always thoroughly re-evaluate patients with abdominal pain using serial physical examinations in accordance with the chronic nature of the disease. There is a need to be highly alert to pain that is out of the proportion to the physical examination results and/or endoscopic findings, the development of peritoneal irritation signs, the presence of fever, and the presence of leukocytosis among patients with nonspecific endoscopic findings. This will help to differentiate MVT as the true etiology of ischemic duodenitis in a timely manner. ED physicians should also be aware that hyperemic edematous duodenitis can be the finding for MVT using endoscopy

Weekday effects on gold: Tokyo, London, and New York markets

Using the probability distribution approach, this study explores the weekday effects among Tokyo, London, and New York gold markets. Friday shows positive and significant higher returns, whereas Tuesday shows negative and significant lower returns than other weekdays. The weekend effects still exist, while Monday effects disappear. On average, London was found to have the highest returns, followed by New York and Tokyo. The peak and width estimations show that Tokyo has the highest volatility, while London and New York have similar volatility distributions, implying a similar preference behavior of investors. It also implies that arbitrage opportunities between London and New York could be trivial. After estimating the distribution from Monday to Friday across the three markets, we found that the distribution of return shows a leftward shifting in London and New York, meaning that the weekend effect is starting earlier from Wednesday and Thursday in London and New York. Some strategy implications are valuable to traders or hedgers Vol. 11, Iss: 2, pp.33-44