Acute effects of static stretching on peak and end-range hamstring-to-quadriceps functional ratios

AIM: To evaluate if static stretching influences peak and end-range functional hamstring-to-quadriceps(H/Q) strength ratios in elite women athletes. METHODS: Eleven healthy female athletes in an elite competitive level participated to the study. All the participants fulfilled the static stretching or non-stretching(control) intervention protocol in a randomized design on different days. Two static unassisted stretching exercises, one in standing and one in sitting position, were used to stretch both the hamstring and quadriceps muscles during these protocols. The total time for the static stretching was 6 ± 1 min. The isokinetic peak torque measurements for the hamstring and quadriceps muscles in eccentric and concentric modes and the calculations for the functional H/Q strength ratios at angular velocities of 60°/s and 180°/s were made before(pre) and after(post) the control or stretching intervention. The strength measurements and functional strength ratio calculations were based during the entire- and end-range of knee extension.RESULTS: The pre-test scores for quadriceps and hamstring peak torque and end range values were not significantly different between the groups(P > 0.05). Subsequently, although the control group did notexhibit significant changes in quadriceps and hamstring muscle strength(P > 0.05), static stretching decreased eccentric and concentric quadriceps muscle strength at both the 60°/s and 180°/s test speeds(P < 0.01). Similarly, static stretching also decreased eccentric and concentric hamstring muscle strength at both the 60°/s and 180°/s test speeds(P < 0.01). On the other hand, when the functional H/Q strength ratios were taken into consideration, the pre-intervention values were not significant different between the groups both during the entire and end range of knee extension(P > 0.05). Furthermore, the functional H/Q strength ratios exhibited no significant alterations during the entire and end ranges of knee extension both in the static stretching or the control intervention(P > 0.05). CONCLUSION: According to our results, static stretching routine does not influence functional H/Q ratio. Athletes can confidently perform static stretching during their warm-up routines.

A spawning particle filter for defocused moving target detection in GNSS-based passive radar

Global Navigation Satellite System(GNSS)-based passive radar(GBPR)has been widely used in remote sensing applications.However,for moving target detection(MTD),the quadratic phase error(QPE)introduced by the non-cooperative target motion is usually difficult to be compensated,as the low power level of the GBPR echo signal renders the estimation of the Doppler rate less effective.Consequently,the moving target in GBPR image is usually defocused,which aggravates the difficulty of target detection even further.In this paper,a spawning particle filter(SPF)is proposed for defocused MTD.Firstly,the measurement model and the likelihood ratio function(LRF)of the defocused point-like target image are deduced.Then,a spawning particle set is generated for subsequent target detection,with reference to traditional particles in particle filter(PF)as their parent.After that,based on the PF estimator,the SPF algorithm and its sequential Monte Carlo(SMC)implementation are proposed with a novel amplitude estimation method to decrease the target state dimension.Finally,the effectiveness of the proposed SPF is demonstrated by numerical simulations and pre-liminary experimental results,showing that the target range and Doppler can be estimated accurately.

聚丙烯的官能化及其与尼龙66相容性研究

对聚丙烯(PP)进行官能化,并研究了接枝单体含量、引发剂含量、螺杆转速对接枝率和熔体流动速率的影响,再将不同接枝率的PP与尼龙66共混,研究了接枝率对共混物力学性能及相容性的影响;用扫描电子显微镜观察了共混物的形态,与未增容共混体系相比,增容后共混体系分散相尺寸明显减小,增容共混物的形态依赖于增容剂在共混物中的含量、增容剂的分子量及官能化基团的含量。

Density functional theory study on the influence of cation ratio on the host layer structure of Zn/Al double hydroxides

A density functional theory （DFT） study has been carried out for [Zn-1AI（OH2）n＋6（OH）2n-2]^3＋ （n=3-6） and [Znn-1AI（OH2）2n-2（OH）2n-2]^3＋ （n = 7） clusters, which include the basic structural information of the brucite-like lattice structure of Zn/Al layered double hydroxides （LDHs） with Zn/AI molar ratio （R） in the range 2-6, in order to understand the effect of the Zn/Al ratio on the structure and stability of binary Zn/Al LDHs. Based on systematic calculations of the geometric parameters and formation energies of the cluster models, it was found that it is possible for Zn^2＋ and Al^3＋ cations to replace Mg^2＋ isomorphously in the brucite-like structure with different R values, resulting in differences in microstructure of the clusters and unit cell parameter a of the Zn/Al LDHs. Analysis of the geometry and bonding around the trivalent Al^3＋ or divalent Zn^2＋ cations reveals that Al^3＋ plays a more significant role than Zn^2＋ in determining the microstructure properties, formation and bonding stability of the corresponding ZnRAl clusters when R〈5, while the influence of Zn^2＋ becomes the dominant factor in the case of R〉 5. These findings are in good agreement with experiments. This work provides a detailed electronic-level understanding of how the composition of cations affects the microstructure and stability of Zn-containing binary LDH layers.

A Stable and Energy-Efficient Routing Algorithm Based on Learning Automata Theory for MANET

The mobile Ad Hoc network(MANET)is a self-organizing and self-configuring wireless network,consisting of a set of mobile nodes.The design of efficient routing protocols for MANET has always been an active area of research.In existing routing algorithms,however,the current work does not scale well enough to ensure route stability when the mobility and distribution of nodes vary with time.In addition,each node in MANET has only limited initial energy,so energy conservation and balance must be taken into account.An efficient routing algorithm should not only be stable but also energy saving and balanced,within the dynamic network environment.To address the above problems,we propose a stable and energy-efficient routing algorithm,based on learning automata(LA)theory for MANET.First,we construct a new node stability measurement model and define an effective energy ratio function.On that basis,we give the node a weighted value,which is used as the iteration parameter for LA.Next,we construct an LA theory-based feedback mechanism for the MANET environment to optimize the selection of available routes and to prove the convergence of our algorithm.The experiments show that our proposed LA-based routing algorithm for MANET achieved the best performance in route survival time,energy consumption,energy balance,and acceptable per-formance in end-to-end delay and packet delivery ratio.