Coaches' perceptions of golf swing kinematics

Using a computer-based videotape analysis system, a randomized series of golf swings was presented to 10 professional and 10 amateur golf coaches in an attempt to determine differences m their internal model of golf swing kinematics. A global measure was obtained by having coaches independently inspect the swings of eight golfers and estimate their golf handicaps. A micro level of analysis was undertaken by requiring participants to indicate what they considered to be 'ideal' swing characteristics using 17 predetermined limb, club, and body position angles for various phases of the swing Videotaped swings for a highly skilled and beginner level golfer were used for this task. Although the training requirements for professional coaches are much more demanding and their playing ability higher, evidence of internal model differences was not found in the handicap estimation task. It was also established that a golfer's swing may be perceived to have deficiencies but still produce sufficient accuracy to engender a low handicap On the second task, only one of the 17 estimated swing angles showed a significant difference between the coach groups. When, however, the two coach groups indicated their preferred angles for the highly skilled golfer and the beginner, 6 of the 17 angles were significantly different. The implications of these findings are that the two coach groups had similar ability to identify fundamental characteristics of the golf swing, but their model of the ideal swing was influenced by the observed golfer's skill level.

Mediators of the relationship between maternal education and children's TV viewing

Background: Maternal education is consistently found to be inversely related to children’s television viewing and is associated with aspects of the family television environment. This study investigates whether family television environment mediates the relationship between maternal education and children’s television viewing.

Methods: Parents of 1484 children reported maternal education, time their child spends watching television, and 21 aspects of the family television environment (potential mediators) during 2002 and 2003. Separate regression analyses were conducted in 2006 for each potential mediator that met two initial conditions for mediation (associated with both maternal education and children’s television viewing (p<0.10)), to assess whether inclusion reduced the association between maternal education and children’s television viewing. Multivariable regression assessed the combined impact of all mediators.

Results: Twelve of 21 potential mediators met the initial conditions for mediation. Inclusion of each resulted in decreased β values (3.2% to 15.2%) for the association between maternal education and television viewing. Number and placement of televisions in the home appeared to have the greatest mediating effect, followed by frequency of eating dinner in front of the television with the child and rules about television viewing during mealtimes. Together, the 12 mediators accounted for more than one-third of the association between maternal education and children’s television viewing time.

Conclusions: This study suggests the strong inverse relationship between maternal education and children’s television viewing is partly mediated by aspects of the family television environment.

Fitting ST-OWA operators to empirical data

The OWA operators gained interest among researchers as they provide a continuum of aggregation operators able to cover the whole range of compensation between the minimum and the maximum. In some circumstances, it is useful to consider a wider range of values, extending below the minimum and over the maximum. ST-OWA are able to surpass the boundaries of variation of ordinary compensatory operators. Their application requires identification of the weighting vector, the t-norm, and the t-conorm. This task can be accomplished by considering both the desired analytical properties and empirical data.

Antioxidant defences and homeostasis of reactive oxygen species in different human mitochondrial DNA-depleted cell lines

Three pairs of parental (ρ+) and established mitochondrial DNA depleted (ρ0) cells, derived from bone, lung and muscle were used to verify the influence of the nuclear background and the lack of efficient mitochondrial respiratory chain on antioxidant defences and homeostasis of intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS). Mitochondrial DNA depletion significantly lowered glutathione reductase activity, glutathione (GSH) content, and consistently altered the GSH2 : oxidized glutathione ratio in all of the ρ0 cell lines, albeit to differing extents, indicating the most oxidized redox state in bone ρ0 cells. Activity, as well as gene expression and protein content, of superoxide dismutase showed a decrease in bone and muscle ρ0 cell lines but not in lung ρ0 cells. GSH peroxidase activity was four times higher in all three ρ0 cell lines in comparison to the parental ρ+, suggesting that this may be a necessary adaptation for survival without a functional respiratory chain. Taken together, these data suggest that the lack of respiratory chain prompts the cells to reduce their need for antioxidant defences in a tissue-specific manner, exposing them to a major risk of oxidative injury. In fact bone-derived ρ0 cells displayed the highest steady-state level of intracellular ROS (measured directly by 2',7'-dichlorofluorescin, or indirectly by aconitase activity) compared to all the other ρ+ and ρ0 cells, both in the presence or absence of glucose. Analysis of mitochondrial and cytosolic/iron regulatory protein-1 aconitase indicated that most ROS of bone ρ0 cells originate from sources other than mitochondria.

Expression of uncoupling protein-3 subsarcolemmal and intermyofibrillar mitochondria of various mouse muscle types and its moduclation by fasting

Uncoupling protein-3 (UCP3) is a mitochondrial inner-membrane protein abundantly expressed in rodent and human skeletal muscle which may be involved in energy dissipation. Many studies have been performed on the metabolic regulation of UCP3 mRNA level, but little is known about UCP3 expression at the protein level. Two populations of mitochondria have been described in skeletal muscle, subsarcolemmal (SS) and intermyofibrillar (IMF), which differ in their intracellular localization and possibly also their metabolic role. To examine if UCP3 is differentially expressed in these two populations and in different mouse muscle types, we developed a new protocol for isolation of SS and IMF mitochondria and carefully validated a new UCP3 antibody. The data show that the density of UCP3 is higher in the mitochondria of glycolytic muscles (tibialis anterior and gastrocnemius) than in those of oxidative muscle (soleus). They also show that SS mitochondria contain more UCP3 per mg of protein than IMF mitochondria. Taken together, these results suggest that oxidative muscle and the mitochondria most closely associated with myofibrils are most efficient at producing ATP. We then determined the effect of a 24-h fast, which greatly increases UCP3 mRNA (16.4-fold) in muscle, on UCP3 protein expression in gastrocnemius mitochondria. We found that fasting moderately increases (1.5-fold) or does not change UCP3 protein in gastrocnemius SS or IMF mitochondria, respectively. These results show that modulation of UCP3 expression at the mRNA level does not necessarily result in similar changes at the protein level and indicate that UCP3 density in SS and IMF mitochondria can be differently affected by metabolic changes.

Texture recognition by using GLCM and various aggregation functions

We discuss the problem of texture recognition based on the grey level co-occurrence matrix (GLCM). We performed a number of numerical experiments to establish whether the accuracy of classification is optimal when GLCM entries are aggregated into standard metrics like contrast, dissimilarity, homogeneity, entropy, etc., and compared these metrics to several alternative aggregation methods.We conclude that k nearest neighbors classification based on raw GLCM entries typically works better than classification based on the standard metrics for noiseless data, that metrics based on principal component analysis inprove classification, and that a simple change from the arithmetic to quadratic mean in calculating the standard metrics also improves classification.

Should capillary blood glucose measurements be used in population surveys?

Objective
To determine the accuracy and appropriateness of capillary blood glucose testing in population surveys.
Materials and methods
Capillary blood glucose using the Rochec ACCU-CHEK instrument and Advantage 11 Test Strips was compared to a laboratory instrument. Three independent cross-sectional risk factor surveys (n=1432) and baseline individuals from the Greater Green Triangle Diabetes Prevention Project (n=341) provided both fasting plasma and capillary blood glucose measurements. Accuracy of capillary glucoses was assessed using the ISO 15197 standard. The median age of the participants was 71years, ranging from 25 to 84years. There were 799 males and 974 females.
Results
Capillary glucose method had poorer precision at lower concentrations (CV: 9.50%, mean=3.09mmol/L, CV: 4.90%, mean=16.78mmol/L, n=233 replicates). Individual discrepancies were seen across the measuring range (2.8–19.9mmol/L, n=1773). In total, 94.5% of results fell within the minimum acceptable accuracy standards. This was slightly short of the 95% of results required to meet the ISO 15197 standard. The prevalence of diabetes in the study population using glucose 7.0mmol/L was 2.4% (95%CI 1.8–3.3%) according to fasting plasma glucose and 2.8% (2.1–3.8%) according to fasting capillary glucose. The lower WHO-defined cut-off of 6.1mmol/L for capillary blood glucose testing gave a prevalence of 10.7% (9.0–12.5%).
Conclusions
This study of matched capillary and plasma glucose results concludes that while it is appropriate to use fasting capillary glucose levels to determine the prevalence of diabetes in populations, it should not be used to reliably diagnose diabetes in individuals.

Properties of a carbon-fibre composite modified by electrospun poly (vinylidene fluoride)

The interlaminar toughening of a carbon-fibre reinforced composite by incorporation of electrospun polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) nanofibrous membranes was explored in this work. The nanofibres were electrospun directly onto commercial pre-impregnated carbon fibre materials under optimised conditions and PVDF was found to primarily crystallise in its β phase polymorphic form. There is strong evidence from DMTA analysis to suggest that a partial miscibility between the amorphous phases of the PVDF nanofibres and the epoxy exists. The improved plastic deformation at the crack tip after inclusion of the nanofibres was directly translated to a 57% increase in the mode II interlaminar fracture toughness (in-plane shear failure). Conversely, the fracture toughness in mode I (opening failure) was slightly lower than the reference by approximately 20%, and the results were interpreted from the complex micromechanisms of failure arising from the changes in polymorphism of the PVDF.

Outcomes of population based language promotion for slow to talk toddlers at ages 2 and 3 years: let’s learn language cluster randomised controlled trial

Objective To determine the benefits of a low intensity parent-toddler language promotion programme delivered to toddlers identified as slow to talk on screening in universal services.
Design Cluster randomised trial nested in a population based survey.
Setting Three local government areas in Melbourne, Australia.
Participants Parents attending 12 month well child checks over a six month period completed a baseline questionnaire. At 18 months, children at or below the 20th centile on an expressive vocabulary checklist entered the trial.
Intervention Maternal and child health centres (clusters) were randomly allocated to intervention (modified “You Make the Difference” programme over six weekly sessions) or control (“usual care”) arms.
Main outcome measures The primary outcome was expressive language (Preschool Language Scale-4) at 2 and 3 years; secondary outcomes were receptive language at 2 and 3 years, vocabulary checklist raw score at 2 and 3 years, Expressive Vocabulary Test at 3 years, and Child Behavior Checklist/1.5-5 raw score at 2 and 3 years.
Results 1217 parents completed the baseline survey; 1138 (93.5%) completed the 18 month checklist, when 301 (26.4%) children had vocabulary scores at or below the 20th centile and were randomised (158 intervention, 143 control). 115 (73%) intervention parents attended at least one session (mean 4.5 sessions), and most reported high satisfaction with the programme. Interim outcomes at age 2 years were similar in the two groups. Similarly, at age 3 years, adjusted mean differences (intervention−control) were −2.4 (95% confidence interval −6.2 to 1.4; P=0.21) for expressive language; −0.3 (−4.2 to 3.7; P=0.90) for receptive language; 4.1 (−2.3 to 10.6; P=0.21) for vocabulary checklist; −0.5 (−4.4 to 3.4; P=0.80) for Expressive Vocabulary Test; −0.1 (−1.6 to 1.4; P=0.86) for externalising behaviour problems; and −0.1 (−1.3 to 1.2; P=0. 92) for internalising behaviour problems.
Conclusion This community based programme targeting slow to talk toddlers was feasible and acceptable, but little evidence was found that it improved language or behaviour either immediately or at age 3 years.

On (TS,N)-fuzzy implications

This paper proposes a new class of fuzzy implications, built according to the well-known (S,N) scheme but in such a way that the t-conorm S is replaced with a compensatory TS function (an aggregation function combining a t-norm and a t-conorm). The basic properties of such implications are studied, and different examples are provided.

Penalty functions over a cartesian product of lattices

In this work we present the concept of penalty function over a Cartesian product of lattices. To build these mappings, we make use of restricted dissimilarity functions and distances between fuzzy sets. We also present an algorithm that extends the weighted voting method for a fuzzy preference relation.

Student evaluation of teaching data 2009-2010

This dataset consists of a summary of publicly available student evaluation of teaching (SET) data for the annual period of trimester 2 2009, trimester 3 2009/2010 and trimester 1 2010, from the Student Evaluation of Teaching and Units (SETU) portal.

The data was analysed to include mean rating sets for 1432 units of study, and represented 74498 sets of SETU ratings, 188391 individual student enrolements and 58.5 percent of all units listed in the Deakin University handbook for the period under consideration, to identify any systematic influences on SET results at Deakin University.

The data reported for a unit included:
• total enrolment;
• total number of responses; and
• computed response rate for the enrolment location(s) selected

And, the data reported for each of the ten core SETU items included:
• number of responses;
• mean rating;
• standard deviation of the mean rating;
• percentage agreement;
• percentage disagreement; and
• percentage difference.