Supervised Exercise Training Improves 6 min Walking Distance and Modifies Gait Pattern during Pain-Free Walking Condition in Patients with Symptomatic Lower Extremity Peripheral Artery Disease

This study aimed to investigate the effects of supervised exercise training (SET) on spatiotemporal gait and foot kinematics parameters in patients with symptomatic lower extremity peripheral artery disease (PAD) during a 6 min walk test. Symptomatic patients with chronic PAD (Fontaine stage II) following a 3 month SET program were included. Prior to and following SET, a 6 min walk test was performed to assess the 6 min walking distance (6MWD) of each patient. During this test, spatiotemporal gait and foot kinematics parameters were assessed during pain-free and painful walking conditions. Twenty-nine patients with PAD (65.4 ± 9.9 years.) were included. The 6MWD was significantly increased following SET (+10%; p ≤ 0.001). The walking speed (+8%) and stride frequency (+5%) were significantly increased after SET (p ≤ 0.026). The stride length was only significantly increased during the pain-free walking condition (+4%, p = 0.001), whereas no significant differences were observed during the condition of painful walking. Similarly, following SET, the relative duration of the loading response increased (+12%), the relative duration of the foot-flat phase decreased (−3%), and the toe-off pitch angle significantly increased (+3%) during the pain-free walking condition alone (p ≤ 0.05). A significant positive correlation was found between changes in the stride length (r = 0.497, p = 0.007) and stride frequency (r = 0.786, p ≤ 0.001) during pain-free walking condition and changes in the 6MWD. A significant negative correlation was found between changes in the foot-flat phase during pain-free walking condition and changes in the 6MWD (r = −0.567, p = 0.002). SET was found to modify the gait pattern of patients with symptomatic PAD, and many of these changes were found to occur during pain-free walking. The improvement in individuals’ functional 6 min walk test was related to changes in their gait pattern.

A Frequency Ratio Account of Temporal Atomism

This article examines the time duration of individual occasions in the light of the discovery that temporal succession produces frequency ratios. The frequency ratios are used to define energy ratios and the quantum. The manifold and the common particles are constructed graphically using the arrows of time, with the mass-ratios of the particles derivable from the graphs. The formal reduction of physics to time compels us to adopt Whitehead's conception of the physical universe as occasions of experience engaged in temporal/causal succession. The relative duration of the constituent occasions of the particles are determined by their graphs. In the final section, a refined account of the mind-brain interaction sequence confirms the duration of a human occasion as one tenth of a second.

The Journey from Episode to Evaluation: How Travelers Arrive at Summary Evaluations

Understanding how travelers evaluate their overall trip experience is important to travel research. Psychologists suggested that these retrospective evaluations are often made by temporally integrating multiple episodes following simple heuristics that draw on key episodes only, typically the peak and end episodes, rather than considering every episodic evaluation, weighted by its respective duration. To test these aggregation rules, a survey adapting the Day Reconstruction Method was conducted in 2017 among 691 travelers to Macau. Our findings reveal that summary evaluations are better predicted using an arithmetic average of all episodic evaluations, instead of the peak-end rule. This may be explained by the lengthier and more complex nature of travel, compared with other extended experiences that psychologists have investigated. The immediate theoretical implications are that (1) aggregate trip evaluations are influenced by most episodes, and (2) the relative duration of individual episodes is disregarded. Theoretical, methodological, and practical implications are discussed.

A descriptive account of the Quebec French diphthong fête

Diphthongization has a long history in Quebec French. In this variety, lengthened vowels have the potential to be diphthongized. However, one vowel stands out, as it is always long and seems particularly inclined to be diphthongal: the fête vowel. While it has been much studied over the years, some uncertainties remain in the literature, especially whether length or quality primarily distinguishes it and which phonetic transcription appropriately reflects the way Quebec French speakers pronounce it today. This study addresses these issues by drawing a parallel between acoustic properties of the fête vowel and those of other vowels produced in similar consonantal contexts by 52 native speakers of Quebec French. After analyzing 8866 tokens, we present a descriptive account of their relative duration, location in F1/F2 planes and spectral changes. The results show that fête is, in fact, acoustically distinct, but more in terms of the spectral changes that occur than its duration. Its first two formants extensively shift between 25% and 75% of its duration, with a substantial F2 increase and F1 decrease. In F1/F2 planes, fête has onset values similar to /a/ and offset values similar to /ɛ/. Therefore, we argue that the two most commonly used phonological transcriptions for this singular vowel, /ɜ/ and /ɛː/, present some problems and do not capture its characterizing features. Drawing on our results and the IPA vowel chart, we suggest a more accurate symbol.

EFFECTIVENESS OF DIESEL-LOCOMOTIVE SHUNTER MODERNIZATION AND WAYS FOR ITS DEFINITION

The majority of improvements and diesel-locomotive modernizations are aimed at the decrease of diesel oil consumption and improvement of indices influencing environment ecology. In this sense the corresponding engineering solutions are offered by many experts representing different companies including those which did not deal with diesel locomotive up-dating and testing earlier. But, as a rule, they estimate cost-effectiveness of their developments only by the results of simplified tool measurements. In the paper there are considered the following methods for the modernization assessment of diesel-locomotive shunters: a tool method, a statistical and tool-calculation method with the aid of which it is possible to assess diesel-locomotive shunter cost-effectiveness. It is necessary to take into account advantages and disadvantages of each method depending on operation conditions of traction units. For a test (rebuilt) diesel-locomotive and a test one without up-dating it is necessary to take the same parameters (rolling-stock masses, setoff number etc.) and also conditions (plan and track profile, number, type and point location). It allows obtaining fully comparable results. A basis for the calculation of operation and power indices of diesel-locomotive shunters is a shunting mode characterizing a general and a relative duration of work in the traction mode, fuel consumption, a level of power use which is set depending on operation conditions and traction properties of a specific diesel-locomotive.

Coordination changes in front-crawl swimming

We report the evolution of the coordination with velocity in front-crawl swimming which is used in competitions over a large range of distances (from 50 m up to 25 km in open-water races). Inside this single stroke, top-level swimmers show different patterns of arm organization. At low velocities, swimmers select an alternated stroke with gliding pauses during their propulsion. The relative duration of the gliding pauses on a stroke cycle is independent of the velocity in this first regime. Above a critical velocity, the relative duration of the gliding pauses starts to decrease as speed increases. Above a second critical velocity, the gliding pauses disappear and the swimmers start to superpose their propulsion phases. These three regimes are first revealed experimentally and then studied theoretically. It appears that below the first critical velocity, swimmers use a constant coordination index and vary their speed by varying their propulsive force to minimize their cost of propulsion. For larger velocities, swimmers use their maximum propulsive force and vary their recovery time to increase further their speed. The physical model developed is general and could be applied to understand other modes of locomotion.

Turning Heads: The Effects of Face View and Eye Gaze Direction on the Perceived Attractiveness of Expressive Faces

We investigated whether the perceived attractiveness of expressive faces was influenced by head turn and eye gaze towards or away from the observer. In all experiments, happy faces were consistently rated as more attractive than angry faces. A head turn towards the observer, whereby a full-face view was shown, was associated with relatively higher attractiveness ratings when gaze direction was aligned with face view (Experiment 1). However, preference for full-face views of happy faces was not affected by gaze shifts towards or away from the observer (Experiment 2a). In Experiment 3, the relative duration of each face view (front-facing or averted at 15°) during a head turn away or towards the observer was manipulated. There was benefit on attractiveness ratings for happy faces shown for a longer duration from the front view, regardless of the direction of head turn. Our findings support previous studies indicating a preference for positive expressions on attractiveness judgements, which is further enhanced by the front views of faces, whether presented during a head turn or shown statically. In sum, our findings imply a complex interaction between cues of social attention, indicated by the view of the face shown, and reward on attractiveness judgements of unfamiliar faces.

The analysis of violations of the dynamic and temporary registration of utterances in children with minimal dysarthric disorders

The article is devoted to the analysis of violations of the dynamic and temporary registration of statements for preschoolers with minimal dysarthric disorders. The results were received in the process experimental-phonetic research, involving identifying the features of these components of intonation by comparing graphs of the relative duration and intensity of sounds in children with normal speech development and with various forms of minimal dysarthric disorders. There are described the results of the experiment which is characterized the manifestations and mechanisms of violations in dynamic and temporary registration of statements in children with this type of speech dysontogenesis. There is analyzed the qualitatively heterogeneous and the variable nature of violations in the usage of phonetic level units of the language sound system (duration and intensity) by children with minimal dysarthric disorders. There is characterized the connection between the violations of dynamic and temporary registration and communicative type of statement.

DEFORMATION OF COASTAL PROFILE DURING DIFFERENT STORM PHASES

The aim of the work is to describe the mechanisms controlling the sediment transportation at different stages of the storm cycle including three main phases, namely development, stabilization and attenuation. The resulting morphological effect of the considered storm depends presumably not only on its strength, but also on the relative duration of the destructive and recovery phases. Two full-scale experiments conducted on the Bulgarian coast in 2016 and 2018 provided materials on the shore profile dynamics under conditions of storm waves. It proved that the profile deformations usually considered to be seasonal may happen in the course of a single extreme event of once a year frequency. Field experiment data analysis proved the concept that long mild waves move sediments onshore (cause accumulative profile) and short steep waves create erosional profile with sandbar. In studied case waves steeper than 0.02 create sandbars and milder than 0.02 – transport sandbars onshore. It was observed that in some cases accumulative phase corresponds to decrease of the peak period while mean period stays unchanged, which indicates narrowing of the wave spectrum.

Diagnostics and Identification of Injection Duration of Common Rail Diesel Injectors

In this paper, we study the diagnostics and identification of injection duration of common rail (CR) diesel pilot injectors of dual-fuel engines. In these pilot injectors, the injected volume is small and the repeatability of the injections and identification of the drifts of the injectors are important factors, which need to be taken into account in achieving good repeatability (shot-to-shot with every cylinder) and therefore a well-balanced engine and reduced overall wear. A diagnostics method based on analysis of CR pressure signal with experimental verification results is presented. Using the developed method, the relative duration of injection events can be identified. In the method, the pressure signal during the injection is first extracted after the control of each injection event. After that, the signal is normalized and filtered. Then a derivative of the filtered signal is calculated. Change in the derivative of the filtered signal larger than a predefined threshold indicates an injection event which can be detected and its relative duration can be identified. The efficacy of the proposed diagnostics method is presented with the experimental results, which show that the developed method detects drifts in injection duration and the magnitude of drift. According to the result, ≥ 10 μs change (2%, 500 μs) in injection time can be identified.