Nasal Morphology As A Predictor Of Craniofacial Growth Direction

It is important for an orthodontist to predict growth related changes and thereby appropriately time orthodontic treatment using the vertical indicators currently available. A potential predictor of craniofacial growth direction that has been discussed yet remains scientifically unexplored is nasal morphology. The objectives of this study are to determine if a difference in pre-adolescent nasal contour exists between post-adolescent normodivergent and hyperdivergent subjects, and if nasal contour morphology in pre-adolescent females is a reliable indicator of future craniofacial growth direction. A significant difference in pre-adolescent nasal contour morphology was found between normodivergent and hyperdivergent groups. A pre-adolescent nasal contour elevation \u3e0.75mm may be indicative of future vertical craniofacial growth direction. However, pre-adolescent nasal contour morphology was judged to be a fair-to-poor diagnostic indicator of future craniofacial growth direction and should not be relied upon in craniofacial growth direction predictions

THE APPLICATION OF THE BIOMECHANICS MODELS FOR THE CONTROL OF THE "IMPROVEMENT TARGETS" IN 110m MEN'S HURDLES

Athletic performance in 110m men's hurdles is determined by a succession of kinematic, dynamic and anthropometric characteristics. The purpose of this research is to present a methodology study concerning the biomechanics of the athletic movement, through which, the determination of those contingent parameters that mainly condition the partial characteristics ("improvement targets") of athletic performance, will be feasible. The following characteristics are presented as "improvement targets" 1 .The height of the center of gravity before the hurdle clearance (takeoff), 2. The height of the flight during the hurdle clearance, 3. Horizontal take-off velocity during the support phase after the hurdle. With the method of the models we can check on the "improvement targets" in order to decide on the biomechanic characteristics that affect them, adopting a mechanical simplification of the human body, that is, the center of gravity. In the deterministic model, there is the possibility that the correlations that possibly exist among the contingent kinematic characteristics of the model are not considered, which in turn, will lead to an arbitrary differentiation. Because of this, the need for the structure of an indeterministic model based on primary data is brought about. After checking the model's equations we experiment with them in order to calculate the height of the influence of the partial biomechanic characteristics on the "improvement targets" The method of the models presents certain kinematic, dynamic and anthropometric characteristics that can be used for the direction of the training of technique

DYNAMICS OF FORWARD SWINGING SKILLS ON THE PARALLEL BARS

INTRODUCTION AND PURPOSE: There is a need for and value in studying individual skills on any gymnastic apparatus. Identifying skills that share common elements and could be grouped together may be of greater value, however. On the parallel bars, the back toss (BT) and the backward somersault dismount (BD) appear to share common elements, at least qualitatively. Although both skills have been studied independently and their kinematics have also been presented as a group, their dynamics have not been investigated. The purpose of this investigation was to study the dynamics of the upswing phase of forward swinging skills (FS) on the parallel bars which appear to share common elements. METHODS: Thirty-four FS recorded with a NAC 400 HSV camera were analyzed utilizing an Ariel Performance Analysis System. The analyzed FS were rated by two internationally-qualified judges. Two dimensional position data of four to six body points were digitally smoothed before further analysis. Variables examined were: 1) average vertical and horizontal forces during the upswing phase of FS, 2) reduction of vertical force prior to takeoff, and 3) angular momentum at takeoff. Forces were calculated utilizing the impulse-momentum relationship and normalized by body weight. Angular momentum was normalized for height and mass. RESULTS: Independent t-tests between the BT (n=16) and BD (n=18) revealed a significant (

ASSESSMENT OF CHARACTERISTICS OF PHYSICAL CONDITIONING RELATING TO STRENGTH AND SPEED IN VOLLEYBALL

INTRODUCTION AND PURPOSE: Selection of the most talented young athletes frequently necessitates the screening of a large number of youngsters. In most sports, including volleyball, screening is for practical reasons limited to a small number of simple physical activities (SPA). It is questionable how well the particular SPA measure the characteristics of physical conditioning which are important for success in the sport. Therefore the purpose of this study was to: 1) measure characteristics of physical conditioning relating to strength and/or speed (CPC) in youngsters who were just selected to begin practicing volleyball on the basis of their performance in SPA, and 2) examine the relationship between the results of the SPA and the measured CPC. METHODS: Seventeen youngsters (mean age=9.3 years) were selected by the Greek Volleyball Federation to begin practicing the sport on the basis of their performance in the following SPA: a) 30 meter sprint, b) shot putting 1 Kg, and 3) standing long jump. On the basis of previous research, the 17 youngsters’ CPC relating to speed and strength was measured by testing them on: 1) maximum isometric push-off force (Fmax), 2) vertical counter-movement jump (CMJ), 3) vertical jump from a flexed hip, knee, and ankle joint position (SJ), 4) drop vertical jumps from heights of 10-30cm (DJ) and 5) maximum pedaling rate (zero resistance). RESULTS: The results revealed a high correlation between performance in the 3 SPA (r=0.93-0.99, ). Comparison between performance in the 3 SPA and performance in the 5 CPC revealed: 1) high correlations between performance in the 3 SPA and maximum pedaling rate (r=0.93, ), 2) moderate correlations between performance in the 3 SPA and Fmax (r=-0.38), and 3) non significant correlations between performance in the 3 SPA and the remaining CPC. CONCLUSIONS: This study revealed that performance in the 3 SPA utilized by the Greek Volleyball Federation correlates highly to only one of the measured CPC, moderately to a second CPC, and does not significantly correlate to the remaining measured CPC. Based on these results, the appropriateness of the 3 SPA as tools for the identification of CPC is questioned. It will be difficult to further improve CPC, if the tools utilized to identify them are questionable

Opportunities of learning through the history of mathematics: the example of national textbooks in Cyprus and Greece

In this paper, we examine the ways the history of mathematics is integrated in the national textbooks of Cyprus and Greece. Our data-driven analyses suggest that the references identified can be clustered in four categories: (a) biographical references about mathematicians or historical references regarding the origins of a mathematical concept (b) references to the history of a mathematical method or formula containing a solution or proof, (c) mathematical tasks of purely cognitive elements that require a solution, explanation or proof and (d) tasks that encourage discussion or the production of a project that would connect the history of mathematics with life outside mathematics. Furthermore, we employed a framework around the levels of cognitive demands derived from the literature to analyse the identified mathematical tasks

VERITE: A Robust Benchmark for Multimodal Misinformation Detection Accounting for Unimodal Bias

Multimedia content has become ubiquitous on social media platforms, leading to the rise of multimodal misinformation (MM) and the urgent need for effective strategies to detect and prevent its spread. In recent years, the challenge of multimodal misinformation detection (MMD) has garnered significant attention by researchers and has mainly involved the creation of annotated, weakly annotated, or synthetically generated training datasets, along with the development of various deep learning MMD models. However, the problem of unimodal bias in MMD benchmarks -- where biased or unimodal methods outperform their multimodal counterparts on an inherently multimodal task -- has been overlooked. In this study, we systematically investigate and identify the presence of unimodal bias in widely-used MMD benchmarks (VMU-Twitter, COSMOS), raising concerns about their suitability for reliable evaluation. To address this issue, we introduce the "VERification of Image-TExtpairs" (VERITE) benchmark for MMD which incorporates real-world data, excludes "asymmetric multimodal misinformation" and utilizes "modality balancing". We conduct an extensive comparative study with a Transformer-based architecture that shows the ability of VERITE to effectively address unimodal bias, rendering it a robust evaluation framework for MMD. Furthermore, we introduce a new method -- termed Crossmodal HArd Synthetic MisAlignment (CHASMA) -- for generating realistic synthetic training data that preserve crossmodal relations between legitimate images and false human-written captions. By leveraging CHASMA in the training process, we observe consistent and notable improvements in predictive performance on VERITE; with a 9.2% increase in accuracy. We release our code at: https://github.com/stevejpapad/image-text-verificatio

KINEMATIC COMPARISON OF THE OVERGRIP AND UNDERGRIP DISMOUNT GIANT SWINGS ON THE UNEVEN BARS

INTRODUCTION: Uneven bar dismounts are executed from either overgrip or undergrip giant swings. Gymnasts performing either of these two styles of dismounts attempt to optimize release conditions by incorporating a beat swing associated with hip joint motion. The purpose of this study was to quantify projectile determinants, and swing and beat characteristics of the overgrip and undergrip dismount giant swings on the uneven bars. METHODS: Thirteen (seven undergrip and six overgrip) giant swings, were recorded during the 1994 World Gymnastics Championships (Dortmund, Germany) with 2 video cameras operating at 50 Hz. They were analyzed utilizing the Ariel Performance Analysis System (APAS). Three dimensional position data of 12 body points (ankles, knees, hips, shoulders, elbows, and hands) and a point on the top bar were digitally smoothed before being submitted to further analysis. RESULTS: Results showed no significant differences between overgrip and undergrip dismount giant swings in terms of center of mass (CM) maximum and release angular velocities, CM position, and CM horizontal and vertical release velocities. Radius of gyration at release, reflecting body configuration, was significantly different (51.6 vs. 58.8 % of height for undergrip and overgrip dismount giants, respectively; ). There were significant differences in the mechanics of the beat swing in terms of both magnitude of hip joint range of motion (111 vs. 65 degrees for undergrip and overgrip dismount giants, respectively; ), and timing of the beat swing (starting in the first quadrant for the overgrip and second quadrant for the undergrip dismount giants; and finishing in the second quadrant for the overgrip and third quadrants for the undergrip dismount giants; ). CONCLUSION: Results indicate that overgrip and undergrip giant swings generated similar projectile determinants for uneven bars dismounts. There were, however, significant differences between the two swings in the timing and magnitude of the hip joint beat action which partially generates the projectile determinants

Brucella cervical spondylitis complicated by spinal cord compression: a case report

A case of 65-year-old farmer who presented with Brucella-related cervical spondylitis is described. Because of the advanced form of the infection resulted in neurological impairment, cervical vertebra corpectomy and debridement of the paravertebral granulomatous tissue deposits were performed followed by stabilization with anterior plating and bone grafting. In addition, double antimicrobial chemotherapy regimen was administered for 12 weeks. After one year, follow up evaluation demonstrated resolution of the infection. The authors recommend that brucellosis should be included in the differential diagnosis of cervical spondylitis, particularly in patients who reside in countries where the zoonosis is still endemic