scholarly journals Sprinting with prosthetic versus biological legs: insight from experimental data

2022 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Owen N. Beck ◽  
Paolo Taboga ◽  
Alena M. Grabowski

Running-prostheses have enabled exceptional athletes with bilateral leg amputations to surpass Olympic 400 m athletics qualifying standards. Due to the world-class performances and relatively fast race finishes of these athletes, many people assume that running-prostheses provide users an unfair advantage over biologically legged competitors during long sprint races. These assumptions have led athletics governing bodies to prohibit the use of running-prostheses in sanctioned non-amputee (NA) competitions, such as at the Olympics. However, here we show that no athlete with bilateral leg amputations using running-prostheses, including the fastest such athlete, exhibits a single 400 m running performance metric that is better than those achieved by NA athletes. Specifically, the best experimentally measured maximum running velocity and sprint endurance profile of athletes with prosthetic legs are similar to, but not better than those of NA athletes. Further, the best experimentally measured initial race acceleration (from 0 to 20 m), maximum velocity around curves, and velocity at aerobic capacity of athletes with prosthetic legs were 40%, 1–3% and 19% slower compared to NA athletes, respectively. Therefore, based on these 400 m performance metrics, use of prosthetic legs during 400 m running races is not unequivocally advantageous compared to the use of biological legs.

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Phillip G. D. Ward ◽  
Nicholas J. Ferris ◽  
Parnesh Raniga ◽  
David L. Dowe ◽  
Amanda C. L. Ng ◽  
...  

AbstractPurposeTo improve the accuracy of automated vein segmentation by combining susceptibility-weighted images (SWI), quantitative susceptibility maps (QSM), and a vein atlas to produce a resultant image called a composite vein image (CV image).MethodAn atlas was constructed in common space from 1072 manually traced 2D-slices. The composite vein image was derived for each subject as a weighted sum of three inputs; a SWI image, a QSM image and the vein atlas. The weights for each input and each anatomical location, called template priors, were derived by assessing the accuracy of each input over an independent data set. The accuracy of venograms derived automatically from each of the CV image, SWI, and QSM image sets was assessed by comparison with manual tracings. Three different automated vein segmentation techniques were used, and ten performance metrics evaluated.ResultsVein segmentations using the CV image were comprehensively better than those derived from SWI or QSM images (mean Cohen’s d = 1.1). Sixty permutations of performance metric and automated segmentation technique were evaluated. Vein identification improvements that were both large and significant (Cohen’s d>0.80, p<0.05) were found in 77% of the permutations, compared to no improvement in 5%.ConclusionThe accuracy of automated venograms derived from the composite vein image was overwhelmingly superior to venograms derived from SWI or QSM alone.


TAPPI Journal ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 9-14
Author(s):  
RENMEI XU ◽  
CELESTE M. CALKINS

This work investigates the ink mileage of dry toners in electrophotography (EP). Four different substrates were printed on a dry-toner color production Xerox iGen3 EP press. The print layout contained patches with different cyan, magenta, yellow, and black tonal values from 10% to 100%. Toner amounts on cyan patches were measured using an analytical method. Printed patches and unprinted paper samples, as well as dry toners, were dissolved in concentrated nitric acid. The copper concentrations in the dissolved solutions were analyzed by a Zeeman graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometer. Analytical results were calculated to determine the toner amounts on paper for different tonal values. Their corresponding reflection densities were also measured. All data were plotted with OriginPro® 8 software, and four mathematical models were used for curve fitting. It was found that the C-S model fitted the experimental data of the two uncoated papers better than the other three models. None of the four models fitted the experimental data of the two coated papers, while the linear model was found to fit the data well. Linear fitting was the best in the practical density region for the two coated papers. Ink mileage curves obtained from curve fitting were used to estimate how much ink was required to achieve a target density for each paper; hence, the ink mileage was calculated. The highest ink mileage was 3.39 times the lowest ink mileage. The rougher the paper surface, the higher the requirement for ink film weight, and the lower ink mileage. No correlation was found between ink mileage and paper porosity.


Designs ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 8
Author(s):  
Pyrrhon Amathes ◽  
Paul Christodoulides

Photography can be used for pleasure and art but can also be used in many disciplines of science, because it captures the details of the moment and can serve as a proving tool due to the information it preserves. During the period of the Apollo program (1969 to 1972), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) successfully landed humans on the Moon and showed hundreds of photos to the world presenting the travel and landings. This paper uses computer simulations and geometry to examine the authenticity of one such photo, namely Apollo 17 photo GPN-2000-00113. In addition, a novel approach is employed by creating an experimental scene to illustrate details and provide measurements. The crucial factors on which the geometrical analysis relies are locked in the photograph and are: (a) the apparent position of the Earth relative to the illustrated flag and (b) the point to which the shadow of the astronaut taking the photo reaches, in relation to the flagpole. The analysis and experimental data show geometrical and time mismatches, proving that the photo is a composite.


2020 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
KIRK LOUGHEED
Keyword(s):  

Abstract Anti-theism is the view that God's existence would (or does) detract from the value of the world. A distinctive argument for anti-theism says that the very best atheist worlds are better than the best theist worlds. The reason for this is that it's possible to gain most or all of the benefits associated with theism in Godless worlds. For instance, worlds with a lesser god or several lesser gods can provide many of the benefits of theism without the associated disadvantages. While some work has been done to show that the advantages of theism can be had in atheist worlds, very little has been said regarding whether the disadvantages can simultaneously be avoided in such worlds. I aim to show that it is difficult to describe a possible atheist world where the benefits of theism obtain but the harms do not. I thus problematize this particular argument for anti-theism.


2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-79
Author(s):  
Frida Hastrup

Dating back to medieval times, fruit cultivation in Hardanger in western Norway is rooted in what is portrayed as a perfect microclimate naturally yielding the best apples in the world. However, the viability of the comparatively minute Norwegian fruit trade is continuously threatened by competition from outside, spurring all kinds of initiatives and policies to make it sustainable. The Norwegian fruit landscape, in other words, is both the natural and perfect home of world-class fruit and a site for continuous, often state-driven interventions to make it so; indeed, the perfection of the place accentuates the need to do what it takes to make it thrive. The necessary means to accomplish such viability, however, make up a complex terrain, as the resourcefulness of the Norwegian fruit landscape is ‘measured’ according to very different units.


1978 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 373-387
Author(s):  
David Hartman

Hope is a category of transcedence, by means of which a man does not permit what he senses and experiences to be the sole criterion of what is possible. It is the belief or the conviction that present reality (what I see) does not exhaust the potentialities of the given data. Hope opens the present to the future; it enables a man to look ahead, to break the fixity of what he observes, and to perceive the world as open-textured. The categories of possibility and of transcendence interweave a closely stitched fabric - hope says that tomorrow can be better than today.


Author(s):  
Natasha Warner ◽  
Daniel Brenner ◽  
Jessamyn Schertz ◽  
Andrew Carnie ◽  
Muriel Fisher ◽  
...  

AbstractScottish Gaelic is sometimes described as having nasalized fricatives (/ṽ/ distinctively, and [f̃, x̃, h̃], etc. through assimilation). However, there are claims that it is not aerodynamically possible to open the velum for nasalization while maintaining frication noise. We present aerodynamic data from 14 native Scottish Gaelic speakers to determine how the posited nasalized fricatives in this language are realized. Most tokens demonstrate loss of nasalization, but nasalization does occur in some contexts without aerodynamic conflict, e.g., nasalization with the consonant realized as an approximant, nasalization of [h̃], nasalization on the preceding vowel, or sequential frication and nasalization. Furthermore, a very few tokens do contain simultaneous nasalization and frication with a trade-off in airflow. We also present perceptual evidence showing that Gaelic listeners can hear this distinction slightly better than chance. Thus, instrumental data from one of the few languages in the world described as having nasalized fricatives confirms that the claimed sounds are not made by producing strong nasalization concurrently with clear frication noise. Furthermore, although speakers most often neutralize the nasalization, when they maintain it, they do so through a variety of phonetic mechanisms, even within a single language.


2021 ◽  
pp. 104433
Author(s):  
Sebastián Hreus ◽  
Jakub Výravský ◽  
Jan Cempírek ◽  
Karel Breiter ◽  
Michaela Vašinová Galiová ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  

1997 ◽  
Vol 119 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Yuan ◽  
C. Sarica ◽  
S. Miska ◽  
J. P. Brill

A new test facility was designed and constructed to simulate flow in a horizontal well with a single perforation. A total of 635 tests were conducted with Reynolds numbers ranging from 5000 to 60,000 with influx to main rate ratios ranging from 1/5 to 1/100, and also for the no-influx case. The flow behavior in a single-perforation new friction expression for a single-perforation horizontal well was developed. A new simple correlation for the horizontal well friction factor was developed by applying experimental data to the general friction factor expression. The new friction factor correlation and experimental data were compared with the Asheim et al. (1992) data and model, and showed that the new correlation performed better than the Asheim et al. (1992) model.


2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yue Zhang ◽  
Kuanquan Wang ◽  
Yongfeng Yuan ◽  
Dong Sui ◽  
Henggui Zhang

Hodgkin-Huxley (HH) equation is the first cell computing model in the world and pioneered the use of model to study electrophysiological problems. The model consists of four differential equations which are based on the experimental data of ion channels. Maximal conductance is an important characteristic of different channels. In this study, mathematical method is used to investigate the importance of maximal sodium conductanceg-Naand maximal potassium conductanceg-K. Applying stability theory, and takingg-Naandg-Kas variables, we analyze the stability and bifurcations of the model. Bifurcations are found when the variables change, and bifurcation points and boundary are also calculated. There is only one bifurcation point wheng-Nais the variable, while there are two points wheng-Kis variable. The (g-Na,  g-K) plane is partitioned into two regions and the upper bifurcation boundary is similar to a line when bothg-Naandg-Kare variables. Numerical simulations illustrate the validity of the analysis. The results obtained could be helpful in studying relevant diseases caused by maximal conductance anomaly.


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