TRUNK AND UPPER EXTREMITY KINEMATICS OF THE OFFSIDE FOREHAND POLO SWING IN PROFESSIONAL POLO ATHLETES

The purpose of this study was to examine trunk (flexion, lateral flexion, rotation) and upper extremity (shoulder horizontal abduction, elevation, and elbow flexion) kinematics of the offside forehand polo swing between professional male and female polo athletes. Kinematic data were collected while participants performed the offside forehand polo swing on a stationary wooden horse. The polo swing was analyzed at three events: take away (TA), top of back swing (TOB) and ball contact (BC). Results revealed significant differences in trunk and upper extremity kinematics between the male and female professional polo athlete. Further investigation into these mechanical differences, along with the influence of live play and performance variables are necessitated to understand mechanics for the most powerful swin

Water Quality Impacts of Natural Riparian Grasses Part 1: Empirical Studies

Studies were conducted on the effectiveness of natural riparian grass buffer strips in removing sediment and ag chemicals from surface runoff. No till and conventional tillage erosion plots served as the sediment and chemical source area. Runoff from the plots was directed onto 15, 30, and 45 foot filter strips where the inflow and outflow concentrations and sediment size distributions. Trapping percentages for sediment and ag chemicals typically ranged near or above 90%. An evaluation was made of the distribution of trapped chemicals among infiltrated mass and mass stored in the surface layer and on plant surfaces. The analysis showed that most of the chemicals were trapped by infiltration onto the soil matrix

Volatile Decision Dynamics: Experiments, Stochastic Description, Intermittency Control, and Traffic Optimization

The coordinated and efficient distribution of limited resources by individual decisions is a fundamental, unsolved problem. When individuals compete for road capacities, time, space, money, goods, etc., they normally make decisions based on aggregate rather than complete information, such as TV news or stock market indices. In related experiments, we have observed a volatile decision dynamics and far-from-optimal payoff distributions. We have also identified ways of information presentation that can considerably improve the overall performance of the system. In order to determine optimal strategies of decision guidance by means of user-specific recommendations, a stochastic behavioural description is developed. These strategies manage to increase the adaptibility to changing conditions and to reduce the deviation from the time-dependent user equilibrium, thereby enhancing the average and individual payoffs. Hence, our guidance strategies can increase the performance of all users by reducing overreaction and stabilizing the decision dynamics. These results are highly significant for predicting decision behaviour, for reaching optimal behavioural distributions by decision support systems, and for information service providers. One of the promising fields of application is traffic optimization.Comment: For related work see http://www.helbing.or

Intruder bands and configuration mixing in the lead isotopes

A three-configuration mixing calculation is performed in the context of the interacting boson model with the aim to describe recently observed collective bands built on low-lying $0^+$ states in neutron-deficient lead isotopes. The configurations that are included correspond to the regular, spherical states as well as two-particle two-hole and four-particle four-hole excitations across the Z=82 shell gap.Comment: 20 pages, 4 figures, accepted by PRC, reference added for section 1 in this revised versio

Towards a Definition of Symbiotic Relations Between Humans and Machines

What are symbiotic systems? In this short paper, the workshop chairs describe the focus of this workshop and elaborate on the definition of symbiotic human-machine relation

A phase I/II study of CY and topotecan in patients with high-risk malignancies undergoing autologous hematopoietic cell transplantation: the St Jude long-term follow-up

Fifty-eight consecutive children with high-risk malignancies were treated with CY, and targeted topotecan followed by autologous hematopoietic cell transplantation (AHCT) in a phase I/II Institutional Review Board-approved study. Twelve participants enrolled in phase I; 5 received dose level 1 of topotecan 3 mg/m(2) per day, with subsequent doses targeted to total systemic exposure of 100±20 ng h/mL and CY 750 mg/m(2) per day. Seven participants received dose level 2. CY dose escalation to 1 g/m(2) per day was considered excessively toxic; one died from irreversible veno-occlusive disease and two experienced reversible hepatotoxicity. These adverse events halted further dose escalation. A total of 46 participants were enrolled in phase II; results are on the 51 participants who received therapy at dose level 1, the maximum tolerated dose. Diagnoses included neuroblastoma (26), sarcoma (9), lymphoma (8), brain tumors (5), Wilms (2) and retinoblastoma (1). Twenty participants (39.3%) were in CR1 at enrollment; median age was 5.1 years. Most common non-hematological grade III-IV toxicity was gastrointestinal (n=37). Neutrophil and platelet engraftment occurred at a median of 15 and 24 days, respectively. Twenty-six (51%) participants remain alive at a median of 6.4 years after AHCT. CY 3.75 g/m(2), and targeted topotecan followed by AHCT are feasible and produce acceptable toxicity in children with high-risk malignancies.Bone Marrow Transplantation advance online publication, 19 March 2012; doi:10.1038/bmt.2012.51

Associations of variants In the hexokinase 1 and interleukin 18 receptor regions with oxyhemoglobin saturation during sleep

Sleep disordered breathing (SDB)-related overnight hypoxemia is associated with cardiometabolic disease and other comorbidities. Understanding the genetic bases for variations in nocturnal hypoxemia may help understand mechanisms influencing oxygenation and SDB-related mortality. We conducted genome-wide association tests across 10 cohorts and 4 populations to identify genetic variants associated with three correlated measures of overnight oxyhemoglobin saturation: average and minimum oxyhemoglobin saturation during sleep and the percent of sleep with oxyhemoglobin saturation under 90%. The discovery sample consisted of 8,326 individuals. Variants with p −6 were analyzed in a replication group of 14,410 individuals. We identified 3 significantly associated regions, including 2 regions in multi-ethnic analyses (2q12, 10q22). SNPs in the 2q12 region associated with minimum SpO2 (rs78136548 p = 2.70 × 10−10). SNPs at 10q22 were associated with all three traits including average SpO2 (rs72805692 p = 4.58 × 10−8). SNPs in both regions were associated in over 20,000 individuals and are supported by prior associations or functional evidence. Four additional significant regions were detected in secondary sex-stratified and combined discovery and replication analyses, including a region overlapping Reelin, a known marker of respiratory complex neurons.These are the first genome-wide significant findings reported for oxyhemoglobin saturation during sleep, a phenotype of high clinical interest. Our replicated associations with HK1 and IL18R1 suggest that variants in inflammatory pathways, such as the biologically-plausible NLRP3 inflammasome, may contribute to nocturnal hypoxemia

Three-dimensional analysis of a lofted instep kick by male and female footballers

There is a paucity of data describing the lofted instep kick and little information on the kinematic differences between male and female footballers. This study provides a preliminary investigation into the differences in motion patterns between the sexes. A four-camera motion analysis system videoed 13 amateur footballers (7 female and 6 male) attempting a standardised task that represented a lofted instep kick of approximately 35 m. Footballers performed 20 kicks, with the three trials categorised closest to the standardised distance retained for statistical analysis. Three-dimensional motion patterns for kicks of 35 m illustrated that female footballers produced greater fluctuation in movement patterns for pelvic, hip joint and thoracolumbar spine motion in the frontal plane; thorax and hip joint transverse rotation; and ankle dorsiflexion/plantarflexion motion. Peak hip extension (P = 0.018), impact hip abduction (P = 0.032), impact ankle plantar flexion (P = 0.030) and resultant ball velocity (P = 0.004) differed significantly between sexes. Principle component analysis highlighted associations between kinematic variables related to ball velocity and sex including a reduced hip abduction and increased internal rotation approaching impact, and greater peak knee flexion, respectively. In summary, increased variation in direction of segment motion, increased backswing and formation of a tension arc by females compared to males, may be related to anthropometric, strength and muscle activation differences. Specifically, this exploratory study indicates future research would benefit from exploring trunk, pelvis and hip kinematics and kinetics, and whether training the trunk, pelvis and hip musculature assists female footballers.Published versio