A Real-time Simulator for the Sport of Skeleton

The track bound sliding sport of Skeleton was permanently added to Winter Olympics programme in 2002. This has led to increased interest in the sport. Engineering has already proved to be a vital contributor to improved performance in the related sport of Bobsleighing. We hope that engineering can do the same for Skeleton. This report describes an attempt at developing a platform to be used as a real-time training simulator for the sport of Skeleton. For a multitude of reasons athletes are, on average limited to a total of two hours of practice and competitive on-track time in any given year. When compared with time spent practising and in competition in most sports, this is extremely low. It is hypothesized that a simulator can augment track time by providing a realistic environment to practise in, even when access to a track is not available. This work is guided by simulators that have been developed for Bobsleighing. The main components are the models to describe the dynamics of the sport, an input method and visualization of the simulation. The main considerations for the dynamic model are of the track surface, the sled and contact between sled and track surface. These models lead to a system of equations which when solved provide accelerations and contact forces. The accelerations are integrated over a fixed time interval to determine changes in velocities, position and orientation. The position and orientation obtained after the integration is passed on to a game engine which provides the user with real-time visual output of the position and orientation along a digitally recreated track surface. A video game controller was chosen to serve as the input device. It has two joysticks, which can be mapped so as to mimic the forces applied by an athlete. A number of descents were performed using this platform both at real-time speed and at a slower speed to give the user, unfamiliar with the sport, a better chance to steer the sled. We were able to consistently reach the exit of curve 2 in real-time speed and curve 4 at the slower play speed before failure of the simulation. In most cases the algorithm used here proves to take lesser time for computation than the chosen integration time step, which is a great sign for future development as we did not make any attempts to optimise its omputationtime. We made an attempt at validation using time elapsed to traverse a certain distance and the sum of magnitude of Lagrangian multipliers. We had poor results with the time elapsed comparison, with simulated runs being 15% slower than competitive descents. While the sum of Lagrangian multipliers showed good relation to expected behaviour. This first attempt was reasonably successful, and we believe that the lessons learnt from this work has brought us one step closer to realizing a training simulator that can be useful to Skeleton athletes

Additional file 1: of Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) as part of primary health care in Germany–comparison of patients consulting general practitioners and CAM practitioners: a cross-sectional study

Patient questionnaire used in the study. (PDF 146 kb

Differences between Practice Patterns of Conventional and Naturopathic GPs in Germany

<div><p>Background</p><p>Limited evidence exists whether practice patterns of general practitioners (GPs) who have additionally completed training in naturopathy are different from those of conventional GPs. We aimed to assess and compare practice patterns of GPs in conventional and naturopathic GPs.</p><p>Methods</p><p>Routine data from 41 GPs (31 with and 11 without additional qualification in NP, respectively) and 180,789 patients, drawn from the CONTinuous morbidity registration Epidemiologic NeTwork (CONTENT)-registry and collected between 2009 and 2014, were used. To assess practice patterns determinants of (non-)phytopharmaceutical prescriptions, referrals and hospitalizations were analyzed using mixed-effects Poisson regression models. As explanatory variables, the qualification of the GP in NM, the age group and sex of the patient, as well as bivariate interactions between these variables were considered.</p><p>Results</p><p>GPs additionally qualified in naturopathy exhibited higher rates of phytopharmaceutical prescriptions (p<0.034; independent effect) compared to conventional GPs. This association was not observed with respect to non-phytopharmaceutical prescriptions. However, interaction effects between qualification and age group as well as sex were present with respect to both phytopharmaceutical and non-phytopharmaceutical prescriptions (all p<0.001). No further independent association existed between qualification and either referral rates or hospitalization rates, but again interactions between qualification and age group and sex (only referrals) were statistically significant (all p<0.0001).</p><p>Conclusion</p><p>The results show that the rate of phyto-pharmaceutical prescriptions are generally higher when the GP has an additional qualification in naturopathy. Further differences in practice patterns between conventional and naturopathy GPs could be subject to certain age groups and sex. However, the magnitude of these differences seem to be rather small.</p></div

Comparison of AIMS2-SF, WOMAC, x-ray and a global physician assessment in order to approach quality of life in patients suffering from osteoarthritis-0

<p><b>Copyright information:</b></p><p>Taken from "Comparison of AIMS2-SF, WOMAC, x-ray and a global physician assessment in order to approach quality of life in patients suffering from osteoarthritis"</p><p>BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders 2006;7():6-6.</p><p>Published online 26 Jan 2006</p><p>PMCID:PMC1382223.</p><p>Copyright © 2006 Rosemann et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.</p

Study population.

<p>Study population.</p

Comparison of AIMS2-SF, WOMAC, x-ray and a global physician assessment in order to approach quality of life in patients suffering from osteoarthritis-1

<p><b>Copyright information:</b></p><p>Taken from "Comparison of AIMS2-SF, WOMAC, x-ray and a global physician assessment in order to approach quality of life in patients suffering from osteoarthritis"</p><p>BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders 2006;7():6-6.</p><p>Published online 26 Jan 2006</p><p>PMCID:PMC1382223.</p><p>Copyright © 2006 Rosemann et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.</p

Rates of hospitalizations according to qualification of physician, stratified by age group and sex of patients

<p>Rates of hospitalizations according to qualification of physician, stratified by age group and sex of patients</p

Rates of referrals according to qualification of physician, stratified by age group and sex of patients.

<p>Rates of referrals according to qualification of physician, stratified by age group and sex of patients.</p

Rates of phytopharmaceutical prescriptions according to qualification of physician, stratified by age group and sex of patients.

<p>Rates of phytopharmaceutical prescriptions according to qualification of physician, stratified by age group and sex of patients.</p

Crude outcomes.

<p>Crude outcomes.</p