Synchronized lower limb kinematics with pelvis orientation achieves the non-rotational shot

A non-rotational (NR) shot is now a well-known scoring move in soccer. To execute the NR shot, it is necessary to deprive the ball of any rotational forces during the impact phase. To execute the NR shot, it is natural that the force vector acting from the foot would pass through the ball’s center of gravity; however, the coordinated motion of the lower limb joint’s angular displacement and the pelvis is still unclear. The aim of this study is to estimate the coordinated leg and pelvis motion during the NR shot as compared to that during instep kicking. Four right-leg dominant college league players were asked to perform a NR shot and an instep kick a total of 10 times each. Hip, knee, and ankle joint angular displacements in the sagittal plane and pelvis yaw and roll rotational motions during both types of kicks were calculated with 14 IR reflective markers using a 3D real-time motion analysis system with a 250-Hz sampling. The Euclidean distances of the joint space of the NR shot and the instep kick were also calculated to detect similarities in the coordinated motion of the lower limb. The results showed that the lower limb joint motions in the sagittal plane were not different; however, the pelvis roll and yaw motions were apparently different, and these phenomena could simulate a pendulum motion with changes in both the vertical and horizontal displacements. These results suggest that the coordinated motion of the lower limb joint’s angular displacement shows high similarity between the NR shot and the instep kick, and the pelvis roll and yaw synchronized orientation is essential for achieving the NR shot.     

TELEVISION IN LABORATORY GUIDANCE: PRACTICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL BASES

At the University of Electro‐Communications instruction is given on fundamental electricity in accordance with the educational principles derived from the philosophy of ‘Zen’. On the technical side, CCTV interphones and other audio‐visual aids are employed. In particular, we have inaugurated a remote instruction method called ‘TV‐Interphone’, abbreviated to T.I. method, through which we give personal guidance to students in the conduct of their experiments. Data from the experiments are fed into a computer which was installed in the laboratory for control processing

Three courses are provided:

1. 1. Electrical Measurements and Characteristics of Analogue and Digital Circuits.

2. 2. Electrical Measurements and Characteristics of Advanced Analogue Circuits

3. 3. Design and Experiment

     

Boundary control of a linear distributed parameter bioprocess

This paper is concerned with boundary control of a linear distributed parameter bioprocess. Huang's result (Ann. Differential Equations 1(1) (1985) 43) on the spectrum determined growth assumption is applied to prove that the closed-loop system becomes exponentially stable under a certain condition with respect to the feedback gain. Moreover, it is shown that the decay rate of the open-loop system is given by letting the feedback gain tend to zero.     

Kinematic analysis of the backstroke start: differences between backstroke specialists and non-specialists

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to clarify factors to perform the hole-entry technique in the backstroke start. A total of 16 well-trained Japanese competitive swimmers were divided into two groups (backstroke specialists and non-specialists) to compare their backstroke start motions. Their backstroke motions were videotaped, and two-dimensional co-ordinates for the swimmers were obtained from the video images using direct linear transformation methods. A non-paired t-test and Mann–Whitney U-test were used to analyse the statistical difference of the kinematic variables between the groups. Backstroke specialists showed a significantly shorter 5 m time (P = 0.009, effect size = –1.54), a significantly higher position of the toe (P = 0.010, effect size = 1.47) at signal and of the hip at toe-off (P = 0.002, effect size = 1.94), a significantly larger hip joint angle at toe-off (P = 0.007, effect size = 1.60) and a significantly higher angular velocities of the hip joints (45–85%; P < 0.05) for the normalised time as compared to that of non-specialists. An earlier initiation of the extension and the maintenance of a higher extension speed at the hip joints were important factors in achieving an arched-back posture, which facilitated and water entrance with a small entry range.     

Numerical and experimental investigations of human swimming motions

This paper reviews unsteady flow conditions in human swimming and identifies the limitations and future potential of the current methods of analysing unsteady flow. The capability of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) has been extended from approaches assuming steady-state conditions to consideration of unsteady/transient conditions associated with the body motion of a swimmer. However, to predict hydrodynamic forces and the swimmer’s potential speeds accurately, more robust and efficient numerical methods are necessary, coupled with validation procedures, requiring detailed experimental data reflecting local flow. Experimental data obtained by particle image velocimetry (PIV) in this area are limited, because at present observations are restricted to a two-dimensional 1.0 m² area, though this could be improved if the output range of the associated laser sheet increased. Simulations of human swimming are expected to improve competitive swimming, and our review has identified two important advances relating to understanding the flow conditions affecting performance in front crawl swimming: one is a mechanism for generating unsteady fluid forces, and the other is a theory relating to increased speed and efficiency.     

Relationships between clubshaft motions and clubface orientation during the golf swing

Since clubface orientation at impact affects ball direction and ball spin, the ability to control clubface orientation is one of the most important skills for golfers. This study presents a new method to describe clubface orientation as a function of the clubshaft motions (i.e., swing plane orientation, clubshaft angle in the swing plane, and clubshaft rolling angle) during a golf swing and investigates the relationships between the clubshaft motions and clubface orientation at impact. The club motion data of driver shots were collected from eight skilled golfers using a three-dimensional motion capture system. The degrees of influence of the clubshaft motions on the clubface orientation were investigated using sensitivity analysis. The sensitivity analysis revealed that the swing plane horizontal angle affected the clubface horizontal angle to an extent of 100%, that the clubshaft angle in the swing plane affected both the clubface vertical and horizontal angles to extents of 74 and 68%, respectively, and that the clubshaft rolling angle affected both the clubface vertical and horizontal angles to extents of -67 and 75%, respectively. Since the method presented here relates clubface orientation to clubshaft motions, it is useful for understanding the clubface control of a golfer.     

Supervised automatic evaluation for summarization with voted regression model

The high quality evaluation of generated summaries is needed if we are to improve automatic summarization systems. Although human evaluation provides better results than automatic evaluation methods, its cost is huge and it is difficult to reproduce the results. Therefore, we need an automatic method that simulates human evaluation if we are to improve our summarization system efficiently. Although automatic evaluation methods have been proposed, they are unreliable when used for individual summaries. To solve this problem, we propose a supervised automatic evaluation method based on a new regression model called the voted regression model (VRM). VRM has two characteristics: (1) model selection based on ‘corrected AIC’ to avoid multicollinearity, (2) voting by the selected models to alleviate the problem of overfitting. Evaluation results obtained for TSC3 and DUC2004 show that our method achieved error reductions of about 17–51% compared with conventional automatic evaluation methods. Moreover, our method obtained the highest correlation coefficients in several different experiments.     

Contribution of hand and foot force to take-off velocity for the kick-start in competitive swimming

This study examines the hand and foot reaction force recorded independently while performing the kick-start technique. Eleven male competitive swimmers performed three trials for the kick-start with maximum effort. Three force platforms (main block, backplate and handgrip) were used to measure reaction forces during starting motion. Force impulses from the hands, front foot and rearfoot were calculated via time integration. During the kick-start, the vertical impulse from the front foot was significantly higher than that from the rearfoot and the horizontal impulse from the rearfoot was significantly higher than that from the front foot. The force impulse from the front foot was dominant for generating vertical take-off velocity and the force impulse from the rearfoot was dominant for horizontal take-off velocity. The kick-start’s shorter block time in comparison to prior measurements of the grab start was explained by the development of horizontal reaction force from the hands and the rearfoot at the beginning of the starting motion.     

Noise properties in breaking and loose contacts and their effect on quality degradation of digital signal

Electric contact discharge is subject closely related to digital information transmission, and integrity of digital signals for realizing high reliablility transmission. This kind of problem is a part of EMC (electromagnetic compatibility). From such a viewpoint, contact noise problems will be mentioned which disturb and degrade digital signals. The induction noise and radiation noise from discharge, electrostatic discharge (ESD), and connector related fundamental subject will be mentioned.     

Insert geometry effects on surface roughness in turning process of AISI D2 steel

Surface roughness is an important parameter for ensuring that the dimension of geometry is within the permitted tolerance.The ideal surface roughness is determined by the feed rate and the geometry of the tool.However,several uncontrollable factors including work material factors,tool angle,and machine tool vibration,may also influence surface roughness.The objective of this study was to compare the measured surface roughness (from experiment) to the theoretical surface roughness (from theoretical calculation) and to investigate the surface roughness resulting from two types of insert,‘C’ type and ‘T’ type.The experiment was focused on the turning process,using a lathe machine Colchester 6000.The feed rate was varied within the recommended feed rate range.We found that there were large deviations between the measured and theoretical surface roughness at a low feed rate (0.05 mm/r) from the application of both inserts.A work material factor of AISI D2 steel that affects the chip character is presumably responsible for this phenomenon.Interestingly,at a high feed rate (0.4 mm/r),the ‘C’ type insert resulted in 40% lower roughness compared to the ‘T’ type due to the difference in insert geometry.This study shows that the geometry of an insert may result in a different surface quality at a particular level of feed rate.