scholarly journals Injury prevention in Super-G alpine ski racing through course design

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthias Gilgien ◽  
Philip Crivelli ◽  
Josef Kröll ◽  
Live S. Luteberget ◽  
Erich Müller ◽  
...  

AbstractIn Super-G alpine ski racing mean speed is nearly as high as in Downhill. Hence, the energy dissipated in typical impact accidents is similar. However, unlike Downhill, on Super-G courses no training runs are performed. Accordingly, speed control through course design is a challenging but important task to ensure safety in Super-G. In four male World Cup alpine Super-G races, terrain shape, course setting and the mechanics of a high-level athlete skiing the course were measured with differential global navigation satellite systems (dGNSS). The effects of course setting on skier mechanics were analysed using a linear mixed effects model. To reduce speed by 0.5 m/s throughout a turn, the gate offset needs to be increased by + 51%. This change simultaneously leads to a decrease in minimal turn radius (− 19%), an increase in impulse (+ 27%) and an increase in maximal ground reaction force (+ 6%). In contrast, the same reduction in speed can also be achieved by a − 13% change in vertical gate distance, which also leads to a small reduction in minimal turn radius (− 4%) impulse (− 2%), and no change in maximal ground reaction force; i.e. fewer adverse side effects in terms of safety. It appears that shortening the vertical gate distance is a better and safer way to reduce speed in Super-G than increasing the gate offset.

2020 ◽  
Vol 54 (17) ◽  
pp. 1042-1046 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthias Gilgien ◽  
Philip Crivelli ◽  
Josef Kröll ◽  
Live S Luteberget ◽  
Erich Müller ◽  
...  

Background/AimTo set a safe giant slalom course, speed needs to be controlled in certain sections. Speed may be reduced by adjusting how the gates are set on a course. We studied the effect of elements of course-setting, entrance speed and terrain incline on the mechanics of turning (ie, turn speed, turn radius, and ground reaction force and impulse).MethodsDuring seven World Cup alpine giant slalom competitions, the course and terrain characteristics of the official racetracks and the mechanics of a professional-level athlete skiing the course immediately prior to competition were analysed with differential global navigation satellite system technology. Data were analysed using a linear mixed-effects model.ResultsCourse-setting geometry (vertical gate distance and horizontal gate offset), entrance speed and terrain incline modulated the injury-relevant factor turn speed. Depending on the terrain, the speed throughout a turn can be reduced by 0.5 m/s either by shortening the vertical gate distance by 4.9–6.9 m (from −20% to −29%) or by increasing the horizontal gate offset by 2.8–3.2 m (from +33% to +55%). However, increasing the horizontal gate offset causes the skier to turn with a smaller minimal turn radius, increase maximal ground reaction force and also increase impulse.DiscussionTo reduce speed, we recommend decreasing the vertical gate distance rather than increasing the horizontal gate offset. Increasing horizontal gate offset would require the skiers to sharpen and prolong their turns (reducing turn radius), and this increases the acting ground reaction force and impulse and thus the athlete’s fatigue.


Agronomy ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 230 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luisa Martelloni ◽  
Marco Fontanelli ◽  
Stefano Pieri ◽  
Christian Frasconi ◽  
Lisa Caturegli ◽  
...  

Before the introduction of positioning technologies in agriculture practices such as global navigation satellite systems (GNSS), data collection and management were time-consuming and labor-intensive tasks. Today, due to the introduction of advanced technologies, precise information on the performance of agricultural machines, and smaller autonomous vehicles such as robot mowers, can be collected in a relatively short time. The aim of this work was to track the performance of a robot mower in various turfgrass areas of an equal number of square meters but with four different shapes by using real-time kinematic (RTK)-GNSS devices, and to easily extract data by a custom built software capable of calculating the distance travelled by the robot mower, the forward speed, the cutting area, and the number of intersections of the trajectories. These data were then analyzed in order to provide useful functioning information for manufacturers, entrepreneurs, and practitioners. The path planning of the robot mower was random and the turfgrass area for each of the four shapes was 135 m2 without obstacles. The distance travelled by the robot mower, the mean forward speed, and the intersections of the trajectories were affected by the interaction between the time of cutting and the shape of the turfgrass. For all the different shapes, the whole turfgrass area was completely cut after two hours of mowing. The cutting efficiency decreased by increasing the time, as a consequence of the increase in overlaps. After 75 minutes of cutting, the efficiency was about 35% in all the turfgrass areas shapes, thus indicating a high level of overlapping.


Author(s):  
M. O. Ehigiator

Geophysical investigation was conducted at Okada community in ovia North Local Govertment area of Edo state to determine the prospect of aquifer zone. The Petrozenith PZ-02 Terrameter, one of the Electrical Resistivity Equipment was used to conduct a Vertical Electrical Sounding (VES) in the study area. The Garmin Etrex 10 Global Navigation satellite systems (GNSS) was used to acquire Geodetic coordinates of point where VES observations were made. This research was carried out as a pre-drilling Hydro-geophysical survey conducted for the purpose of surveying and studying the proposed water borehole site at Okada Community that has suffered acute water problems for a very long time. There have been series of boreholes drilled in the studied area but all are dry wells. This survey was conducted to investigate the subsurface complexity of the sites in respect of lithology and to recommend the total drill depth based on the prospective aquifer unit so identified. Result of interpretation suggests that the area is underlain with substantive aquiferous formation but at a depth not exceeding 121.60 m (398.95 ft), which is the lower aquifer unit. The value of elevation at point of observation referenced to mean sea level is 94 m.


2021 ◽  
Vol 95 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mirjam Bilker-Koivula ◽  
Jaakko Mäkinen ◽  
Hannu Ruotsalainen ◽  
Jyri Näränen ◽  
Timo Saari

AbstractPostglacial rebound in Fennoscandia causes striking trends in gravity measurements of the area. We present time series of absolute gravity data collected between 1976 and 2019 on 12 stations in Finland with different types of instruments. First, we determine the trends at each station and analyse the effect of the instrument types. We estimate, for example, an offset of 6.8 μgal for the JILAg-5 instrument with respect to the FG5-type instruments. Applying the offsets in the trend analysis strengthens the trends being in good agreement with the NKG2016LU_gdot model of gravity change. Trends of seven stations were found robust and were used to analyse the stabilization of the trends in time and to determine the relationship between gravity change rates and land uplift rates as measured with global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) as well as from the NKG2016LU_abs land uplift model. Trends calculated from combined and offset-corrected measurements of JILAg-5- and FG5-type instruments stabilized in 15 to 20 years and at some stations even faster. The trends of FG5-type instrument data alone stabilized generally within 10 years. The ratio between gravity change rates and vertical rates from different data sets yields values between − 0.206 ± 0.017 and − 0.227 ± 0.024 µGal/mm and axis intercept values between 0.248 ± 0.089 and 0.335 ± 0.136 µGal/yr. These values are larger than previous estimates for Fennoscandia.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 638
Author(s):  
Nikolay Shestakov ◽  
Alexander Orlyakovskiy ◽  
Natalia Perevalova ◽  
Nikolay Titkov ◽  
Danila Chebrov ◽  
...  

Global Navigation Satellite Systems have been extensively used to investigate the ionosphere response to various natural and man-made phenomena for the last three decades. However, ionospheric reaction to volcano eruptions is still insufficiently studied and understood. In this work we analyzed the ionospheric response to the 11–16 June 2009 VEI class 4 Sarychev Peak volcano eruption by using surrounding Russian and Japanese GPS networks. Prominent covolcanictotal electron content (TEC)ionospheric disturbances (CVIDs) with amplitudes and periods ranged between 0.03–0.15 TECU and 2.5–4.5 min were discovered for the three eruptive events occurred at 18:51 UT, 14 June; at 01:15 and 09:18 UT, 15 June 2009. The estimates of apparent CVIDs velocities vary within 700–1000 m/s in the far-field zone (300–900 km to the southwest from the volcano) and 1300–1800 m/s in close proximity toSarychev Peak. The characteristics of the observed TEC variations allow us to attribute them to acoustic mode. The south-southwestward direction is preferred for CVIDs propagation. We concluded that the ionospheric response to a volcano eruption is mainly determined by a ratio between explosion strength and background ionization level. Some evidence of secondary (F2-layer) CVIDs’ source eccentric location were obtained.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (13) ◽  
pp. 6079
Author(s):  
Abulasad Elgamoudi ◽  
Hamza Benzerrouk ◽  
G. Arul Elango ◽  
René Landry

A single Radio-Frequency Interference (RFI) is a disturbance source of modern wireless systems depending on Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) and Satellite Communication (SatCom). In particular, significant applications such as aeronautics and satellite communication can be severely affected by intentional and unintentional interference, which are unmitigated. The matter requires finding a radical and effective solution to overcome this problem. The methods used for overcoming the RFI include interference detection, interference classification, interference geolocation, tracking and interference mitigation. RFI source geolocation and tracking methodology gained universal attention from numerous researchers, specialists, and scientists. In the last decade, various conventional techniques and algorithms have been adopted in geolocation and target tracking in civil and military operations. Previous conventional techniques did not address the challenges and demand for novel algorithms. Hence there is a necessity for focussing on the issues associated with this. This survey introduces a review of various conventional geolocation techniques, current orientations, and state-of-the-art techniques and highlights some approaches and algorithms employed in wireless and satellite systems for geolocation and target tracking that may be extremely beneficial. In addition, a comparison between different conventional geolocation techniques has been revealed, and the comparisons between various approaches and algorithms of geolocation and target tracking have been addressed, including H∞ and Kalman Filtering versions that have been implemented and investigated by authors.


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