Time-motion analysis in women’s team handball: importance of aerobic performance

Women’s handball is a sport, which has seen an accelerated development over the last decade. Data on movement patterns in combination with physiological demands are nearly nonexistent in the literature. The aim of this study was twofold: first, to analyze the horizontal movement pattern, including the sprint acceleration profiles, of individual female elite handball players and the corresponding heart rates (HRs) during a match and secondly to determine underlying correlations with individual aerobic performance. Players from one German First League team (n = 11) and the Norwegian National Team (n = 14) were studied during one match using the Sagit system for movement analysis and Polar HR monitoring for analysis of physiological demands. Mean HR during the match was 86 % of maximum HR (HRmax). With the exception of the goalkeepers (GKs, 78 % of HRmax), no position-specific differences could be detected. Total distance covered during the match was 4614 m (2066 m in GKs and 5251 m in field players (FPs)). Total distance consisted of 9.2 % sprinting, 26.7 % fast running, 28.8 % slow running, and 35.5 % walking. Mean velocity varied between 1.9 km/h (0.52 m/s) (GKs) and 4.2 km/h (1.17 m/s) (FPs, no position effect). Field players with a higher level of maximum oxygen uptake (V̇O2max) executed run activities with a higher velocity but comparable percentage of HRmax as compared to players with lower aerobic performance, independent of FP position. Acceleration profile depended on aerobic performance and the field player’s position. In conclusion, a high V̇O2max appears to be important in top-level international women’s handball. Sprint and endurance training should be conducted according to the specific demands of the player’s position.

Real time motion estimation using a neural architecture implemented on GPUs

This work describes a neural network based architecture that represents and estimates object motion in videos. This architecture addresses multiple computer vision tasks such as image segmentation, object representation or characterization, motion analysis and tracking. The use of a neural network architecture allows for the simultaneous estimation of global and local motion and the representation of deformable objects. This architecture also avoids the problem of finding corresponding features while tracking moving objects. Due to the parallel nature of neural networks, the architecture has been implemented on GPUs that allows the system to meet a set of requirements such as: time constraints management, robustness, high processing speed and re-configurability. Experiments are presented that demonstrate the validity of our architecture to solve problems of mobile agents tracking and motion analysis.

Performance Factors in Women's Team Handball: Physical and Physiological Aspects—A Review

Team handball is an Olympic sport played professionally in many European countries. Nevertheless, a scientific knowledge regarding women's elite team handball demands is limited. Thus, the purpose of this article was to review a series of studies (n = 33) on physical characteristics, physiological attributes, physical attributes, throwing velocity, and on-court performances of women's team handball players. Such empirical and practical information is essential to design and implement successful short-term and long-term training programs for women's team handball players. Our review revealed that (a) players that have a higher skill level are taller and have a higher fat-free mass; (b) players who are more aerobically resistant are at an advantage in international level women team handball; (c) strength and power exercises should be emphasized in conditioning programs, because they are associated with both sprint performance and throwing velocity; (d) speed drills should also be implemented in conditioning programs but after a decrease in physical training volume; (e) a time-motion analysis is an effective method of quantifying the demands of team handball and provides a conceptual framework for the specific physical preparation of players. According to our results, there are only few studies on on-court performance and time-motion analysis for women's team handball players, especially concerning acceleration profiles. More studies are needed to examine the effectiveness of different training programs of women's team handball players' physiological and physical attributes.

Integrating the development of data mining and data warehouses via model-driven engineering

Data mining is one of the most important analysis techniques to automatically extract knowledge from large amount of data. Nowadays, data mining is based on low-level specifications of the employed techniques typically bounded to a specific analysis platform. Therefore, data mining lacks a modelling architecture that allows analysts to consider it as a truly software-engineering process. Bearing in mind this situation, we propose a model-driven approach which is based on (i) a conceptual modelling framework for data mining, and (ii) a set of model transformations to automatically generate both the data under analysis (that is deployed via data-warehousing technology) and the analysis models for data mining (tailored to a specific platform). Thus, analysts can concentrate on understanding the analysis problem via conceptual data-mining models instead of wasting efforts on low-level programming tasks related to the underlying-platform technical details. These time consuming tasks are now entrusted to the model-transformations scaffolding. The feasibility of our approach is shown by means of a hypothetical data-mining scenario where a time series analysis is required.

Intérprete y portavoz: la figura del diputado en las elecciones de 1854 en España

Las elecciones de 1854 en España se desarrollaron en un contexto político que favoreció la participación en el marco del sufragio censitario. Un número significativo de candidatos publicaron manifiestos en la prensa, a través de los cuales es posible delinear varios rasgos de los modelos representativos existentes en la cultura política de la época. El análisis de los manifiestos constituye el núcleo central de este texto, donde apuntamos los elementos que conforman la figura del diputado a Cortes.

Spatiotemporal characteristics of the Huangtupo landslide in the Three Gorges region (China) constrained by radar interferometry

The Huangtupo landslide is one of the largest in the Three Gorges region, China. The county-seat town of Badong, located on the south shore between the Xiling and Wu gorges of the Yangtze River, was moved to this unstable slope prior to the construction of the Three Gorges Project, since the new Three Gorges reservoir completely submerged the location of the old city. The instability of the slope is affecting the new town by causing residential safety problems. The Huangtupo landslide provides scientists an opportunity to understand landslide response to fluctuating river water level and heavy rainfall episodes, which is essential to decide upon appropriate remediation measures. Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) techniques provide a very useful tool for the study of superficial and spatially variable displacement phenomena. In this paper, three sets of radar data have been processed to investigate the Huangtupo landslide. Results show that maximum displacements are affecting the northwest zone of the slope corresponding to Riverside slumping mass I#. The other main landslide bodies (i.e. Riverside slumping mass II#, Substation landslide and Garden Spot landslide) exhibit a stable behaviour in agreement with in situ data, although some active areas have been recognized in the foot of the Substation landslide and Garden Spot landslide. InSAR has allowed us to study the kinematic behaviour of the landslide and to identify its active boundaries. Furthermore, the analysis of the InSAR displacement time-series has helped recognize the different displacement patterns on the slope and their relationships with various triggering factors. For those persistent scatterers, which exhibit long-term displacements, they can be decomposed into a creep model (controlled by geological conditions) and a superimposed recoverable term (dependent on external factors), which appears closely correlated with reservoir water level changes close to the river's edge. These results, combined with in situ data, provide a comprehensive analysis of the Huangtupo landslide, which is essential for its management.

El impacto de la crisis económica sobre la movilidad internacional de los residentes extranjeros en la provincia de Alicante

Introducción: En este estudio se investigan los efectos de la crisis económica en los flujos migratorios internacionales. Específicamente, se realiza un análisis comparado sobre los comportamientos en la movilidad residencial de los principales grupos de residentes a partir de las Estadísticas de Variaciones Residenciales (EVR) de 2005 a 2010 en Alicante. Método: Se analizan los microdatos de las EVR para comparar las entradas y salidas de inmigrantes procedentes de los países que aglutinan a las personas que se trasladan orientadas por motivos más cercanos a la esfera del ocio que a la del trabajo, con el grupo de nacionalidades que concentra a la mayoría de los inmigrantes laborales que llegaron atraídos por las ofertas de empleo generadas con la expansión del sector inmobiliario. Resultados: Entre los años 2007 y 2009 se redujeron mucho las variaciones residenciales de entrada en la provincia Alicante desde el extranjero, mientras que se incrementaron las variaciones relacionadas con las salidas. Aunque existen diferencias en el balance de entradas y salidas según la zona de la provincia, la nacionalidad y la edad de los migrantes, la crisis parece asociarse con una tendencia a la reducción del número de residentes extranjeros en general. Discusión o Conclusión: Se concluye que la crisis no sólo ha generado un éxodo de los ciudadanos con menos recursos económicos, también ha provocado la salida masiva de aquellos otros inmigrantes cuya presencia en España se asocia con el consumo.

Economic crisis and tourism competitiveness in Spain: permanent effects or transitory shocks?

This paper considers the influence of business cycles and economic crises on Spain's tourism competitiveness. This competitiveness is measured by its share in world tourism. Analysing the presence of unit roots in the market share series from 1958 to 2010, the permanent effects of economic crises on competitiveness are evaluated. The evidence from standard linear unit root tests indicates that crises on Spanish market shares are highly persistent. When we account for endogenously determined structural breaks, we obtain greater support for stationarity, but breakpoints are identified with major economic crises. Therefore the main conclusion obtained is that the effects of the economic shocks are not neutral on competitiveness, with the negative effects being more persistent in highly intensive crises. These crises reinforce a natural downward trend of the Spanish world tourism market share caused by the natural emergence of new competing destinations and by the maturity of the Spain's principal tourism product.

Trends in mortality due to motor vehicle traffic accident injuries between 1987 and 2011 in a Spanish region (Comunitat Valenciana)

Objective: To analyse the time evolution of the rates of mortality due to motor vehicle traffic accidents (MVTA) injuries that occurred among the general population of Comunitat Valenciana between 1987 and 2011, as well as to identify trend changes by sex and age group. Methods: An observational study of annual mortality trends between 1987 and 2011. We studied all deaths due to MVTA injuries that occurred during this period of time among the non-institutionalised population residing in Comunitat Valenciana (a Spanish Mediterranean region that had a population of 5,117,190 inhabitants in 2011). The rates of mortality due to MVTA injuries were calculated for each sex and year studied. These rates were standardised by age for the total population and for specific age groups using the direct method (age-standardised rate – ASR). Joinpoint regression models were used in order to detect significant trend changes. Additionally, the annual percentage change (APC) of the ASRs was calculated for each trend segment, which is reflected in statistically significant joinpoints. Results: For all ages, ASRs decrease greatly in both men and women (70% decrease between 1990 and 2011). In 1990 and 2011, men have rates of 36.5 and 5.2 per 100,000 men/year, respectively. In the same years, women have rates of 8.0 and 0.9 per 100,000 women/year, respectively. This decrease reaches up to 90% in the age group 15–34 years in both men and women. ASR ratios for men and women increased over time for all ages: this ratio was 3.9 in 1987; 4.6 in 1990; and 5.8 in 2011. For both men and women, there is a first significant segment (p < 0.05) with an increasing trend between 1987 and 1989–1990. After 1990, there are 3 segments with a significant decreasing APC (1990–1993, 1993–2005 and 2005–2011, in the case of men; and 1989–1996, 1999–2007 and 2007–2011, in the case of women). Conclusion: The risk of death due to motor vehicle traffic accidents injuries has decreased significantly, especially in the case of women, for the last 25 years in Comunitat Valenciana, mainly as of 2006. This may be a consequence of the road-safety measures that have been implemented in Spain and in Comunitat Valenciana since 2004. The economic crisis that this country has undergone since 2008 may have also been a contributing factor to this decrease. Despite the decrease, ASR ratios for men and women increased over time and it is still a high-risk cause of death among young men. It is thus important that the measures that helped decrease the risk of death are maintained and improved over time.

Software for video-based multi-point frequency measuring and mapping

Complementary programs

Methods and algorithms for video-based multi-point frequency measuring and mapping

Software for video-based multi-point frequency measuring and mapping: http://hdl.handle.net/10045/53429

Electrochemical Characterization of Shape-Controlled Pt Nanoparticles in Different Supporting Electrolytes

The voltammetric profile of preferentially shaped platinum nanoparticles has been used to analyze the different sites present on the surface. For the first time, this analysis has been made in NaOH solutions and revisited in sulfuric and perchloric acid media. The comparison with the voltammetric profiles of the model surfaces, that is, single-crystal electrodes, allows assigning the different signals appearing in the voltammograms of the nanoparticle to specific sites on the surface. A good correlation between the shape of the nanoparticle determined by TEM and the voltammetric profile is obtained. For the nanoparticles characterized in alkaline media, the adsorbed species on the surface have been characterized, and three major regions can be identified. Below 0.2 V, the major contribution is due to hydrogen adsorption, whereas above 0.6 V, adsorbed OH is the main species on the surface. Between those values, the signals are due to the competitive adsorption/desorption process of OH/H. New criteria for determining the active area in NaOH solutions has been proposed. In this medium, the total charge density measured between 0.06 and 0.90 V stands for 390 μC cm–2. The areas measured are in perfect agreement with those measured in acid media. Once the nanoparticles have been characterized, the behavior of the nanoparticles toward CO oxidation is analyzed and compared with that observed for single-crystal electrodes.