Some athletes utilize olfactory inhalation treatments using ammonia salt and aromatic oils to attain their peak performance or for physical and psychological relaxation. However, there is still a ...lack of clear evidence on olfactory inhalation treatment and scent types via precise experiments, and there is no research regarding fine motor control performance in activities such as golf putting. Thus, the purpose of this study was to examine the effects of various olfactory inhalations (lavender, citrus, and ammonia) on professional golfers' 3-meter putting performance (percentage of success), postural stability (CoP area), and heart rate (HR). In order to examine the effects of olfactory treatment on actual automated task performance, ten professional golfers were recruited for the putting task experiment. During the putting task, a biometric shirt was utilized to record the HR changes, and a force plate was used to measure changes in the CoP area. The results were as follows. First, the olfactory inhalation treatment inhibited the putting performance (no inhalation: 68.75%; lavender: 51.25%; citrus: 40.00%; ammonia: 52.50%); however, no statistically significant difference was found (
= 0.115). Second, the olfactory inhalation treatment inhibited postural stability while putting; it had a partially statistically significant lower value (address:
= 0.000; downswing:
= 0.035; total putting section:
= 0.047). Third, the olfactory inhalation treatment decreased the HR during putting; however, there was no statistically significant difference between groups (address:
= 0.838; putting:
= 0.878; total:
= 0.666). This study implies that olfactory inhalation affects putting performance, postural stability, and HR. The effect size results for the olfactory treatment in the CoP area during the putting task (address:
= 0.524; downswing:
= 0.349; total putting section:
= 0.298) suggest that arousal regulation through olfactory inhalation may have negative effects on dynamic postural stability in static tasks such as golf putting, showing the direction of its useful application for athletes in sports.
•Influences of pre-heat treatment on the chemical strengthening are investigated in an aluminosilicate glass.•Pre-heat treatment prior to chemical strengthening turns out to be influential to ...increase compression stress.•The heat treatment makes the glass structure more densified in the medium range scale.
We consider a commercial aluminosilicate glass as an example case to obtain an understanding of the correlations between heat treatment and characteristics of chemical strengthening. Different heat treatments are performed prior to an ionic exchange process, and their effects on the chemical strengthening are investigated. It is verified that pre-heating treatment is influential, increasing the generated compressive stress by ∼10%, whereas depth of the compressive layer is observed to be remained identical regardless of heat treatment. These behaviors are able to be connected with structural evolutions observed through a Raman analysis, revealing that 4- and 3-membered ring structures are increased with proper heat-treatment. This indicates that the glass structure tends to be densified on a medium range scale by forming a smaller ring structure, which influences the stuffing effect of chemical strengthening. The stress profile of aluminosilicate glasses can be additionally engineered via heat-treatment conducted before the ionic exchange process.
Subclinical postural-control changes may persist beyond the point when athletes are considered clinically recovered postconcussion.
To compare postural-control performance between former high ...school football players with or without a history of concussion using linear and nonlinear metrics.
Case-control study.
Clinical research laboratory.
A total of 11 former high school football players (age range, 45-60 years) with 2 or more concussions and 11 age- and height-matched former high school football players without a history of concussion. No participant had college or professional football experience.
Participants completed the Sensory Organization Test. We compared postural control (linear: equilibrium scores; nonlinear: sample and multiscale entropy) between groups using a 2 × 3 analysis of variance across conditions 4 to 6 (4: eyes open, sway-referenced platform; 5: eyes closed, sway-referenced platform; 6: eyes open, sway-referenced surround and platform).
We observed a group-by-condition interaction effect for medial-lateral sample entropy ( F
= 3.26, P = .049, η
= 0.140). Participants with a history of concussion presented with more regular medial-lateral sample entropy values (0.90 ± 0.41) for condition 5 than participants without a history of concussion (1.30 ± 0.35; mean difference = -0.40; 95% confidence interval CI = -0.74, -0.06; t
= -2.48, P = .02), but conditions 4 (mean difference = -0.11; 95% CI: -0.37, 0.15; t
= -0.86, P = .40) and 6 (mean difference = -0.25; 95% CI: -0.55, 0.06; t
= -1.66, P = .11) did not differ between groups.
Postconcussion deficits, detected using nonlinear metrics, may persist long after injury resolution. Subclinical concussion deficits may persist for years beyond clinical concussion recovery.
Layered lithium–nickel–cobalt–manganese oxide (NCM) materials have emerged as promising alternative cathode materials owing to their high energy density and electrochemical stability. Although high ...reversible capacity has been achieved for Ni‐rich NCM materials when charged beyond 4.2 V versus Li+/Li, full lithium utilization is hindered by the pronounced structural degradation and electrolyte decomposition. Herein, the unexpected realization of sustained working voltage as well as improved electrochemical performance upon electrochemical cycling at a high operating voltage of 4.9 V in the Ni‐rich NCM LiNi0.895Co0.085Mn0.02O2 is presented. The improved electrochemical performance at a high working voltage at 4.9 V is attributed to the removal of the resistive Ni2+O rock‐salt surface layer, which stabilizes the voltage profile and improves retention of the energy density during electrochemical cycling. The manifestation of the layered Ni2+O rock‐salt phase along with the structural evolution related to the metal dissolution are probed using in situ X‐ray diffraction, neutron diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, and X‐ray absorption spectroscopy. The findings help unravel the structural complexities associated with high working voltages and offer insight for the design of advanced battery materials, enabling the realization of fully reversible lithium extraction in Ni‐rich NCM materials.
Structural and electrochemical stabilization of Ni‐rich LiNixCoyMn1−x−yO2 (NCM) materials under high‐voltage battery operation is demonstrated. The improved electrochemical performance at a high working voltage at 4.9 V is attributed to the removal of the resistive Ni2+O rock‐salt surface layer, which stabilizes the voltage profile and improves retention of the energy density during electrochemical cycling.
A stretchable resistive pressure sensor is achieved by coating a compressible substrate with a highly stretchable electrode. The substrate contains an array of microscale pyramidal features, and the ...electrode comprises a polymer composite. When the pressure‐induced geometrical change experienced by the electrode is maximized at 40% elongation, a sensitivity of 10.3 kPa−1 is achieved.
Asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis are representative chronic respiratory diseases (CRDs). Although they differ in terms of disease presentation, they ...are all thought to arise from unresolved inflammation. Neutrophils are not only the first responders to acute inflammation, but they also help resolve the inflammation. Notably, emerging clinical studies show that CRDs are associated with systemic and local elevation of neutrophils. Moreover, murine studies suggest that airway-infiltrating neutrophils not only help initiate airway inflammation but also prolong the inflammation. Given this background, this review describes neutrophil-mediated immune responses in CRDs and summarizes the completed, ongoing, and potential clinical trials that test the therapeutic value of targeting neutrophils in CRDs. The review also clarifies the importance of understanding how neutrophils interact with other immune cells and how these interactions contribute to chronic inflammation in specific CRDs. This information may help identify future therapeutic strategies for CRDs.
Hydrogen plays a crucial role in several oxide semiconductors, where the amount of hydrogen significantly influences the device performance. Thus, its manipulation in oxide semiconductors is ...important for device performance. In our investigation, we studied the effect of hydrogen on defects in In-Ga-Zn-O semiconductor thin-film transistors (TFTs), as it varies with Al 2 O 3 atomic layer deposition temperature. We found that the total trap-density (N tot ) extracted by the sub-threshold slope and the trap density (N t ) measured by low-frequency noise (LFN) as well as the density-of-states analyzed by capacitance-voltage decreased with increasing amounts of hydrogen in the oxide semiconductor. Given that LFN data show that mobility fluctuation is the major origins of noise and the front channel of TFT is a major carrier transport region, our results indicate that hydrogen effectively passivates the defects in front channel of oxide semiconductor and contributes to achieving superior device performance.
Noonan syndrome (NS) and cardio-facio-cutaneous (CFC) syndrome are the most common subtypes of RASopathy. As an effector of Ras, BRAF is one of the molecules responsible for RASopathy. We ...investigated the phenotypic and genotypic features of 26 patients with BRAF-associated RASopathy. The clinical diagnoses were CFC (n = 21, 80.8%), NS (n = 3, 11.5%), NS/CFC (n = 1, 3.8%), and undefined syndromic intellectual disability (ID) (n = 1, 3.8%). The mostly shared phenotypes were ID (90.5%), cutaneous manifestations (84.6%), congenital heart defects (76.9%), short stature (76.9%), and dysmorphic features such as short neck (65.4%) and low-set ears (65.4%). Importantly, moderate to severe ID (57.1%) and epilepsy (26.9%) were noted. Eighteen different missense mutations were found, including a novel mutation, p.Phe498Tyr. p.Gln257Arg (n = 9, 34.6%) was the most common mutation, and the mutations were clustered in the cysteine-rich domain or protein kinase domain. A review of previously reported cases along with our findings revealed the existence of multiple sub-phenotypes of RASopathy within a single genotype, indicating that BRAF-associated RASopathy is not variant-specific. Our study further delineated the diverse and expanded clinical phenotypes of BRAF-associated RASopathy with their molecular genetic characteristics.
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