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We tested the validity of an instrumented treadmill dynamometer for measuring maximal propulsive power during sprint running, and sought to verify whether this could be done over one single sprint, as shown during sprint cycling. The treadmill dynamometer modified towards sprint use (constant motor torque) allows vertical and horizontal forces to be measured at the same location as velocity, i.e. at the foot, which is novel compared to existing methods in which power is computed as the product of belt velocity and horizontal force measured by transducers placed in the tethering system. Twelve males performed 6 s sprints against default, high and low loads set from the motor torque necessary to overcome the friction due to subjects’ weight on the belt (default load), and 20% higher and lower motor torque values. Horizontal ground reaction force, belt velocity, propulsive power and linear force–velocity relationships were compared between the default load condition and when taking all conditions together. Force and velocity traces and values were reproducible and consistent with the literature, and no significant difference was found between maximal power and force–velocity relationships obtained in the default load condition only vs. adding data from all conditions. The presented method allows one to measure maximal propulsive power and calculate linear force–velocity relationships from one single sprint data. The main novelties are that both force and velocity are measured at the same location, and that instantaneous values are averaged over one contact period, and not over a constant arbitrary time-window.

Objectives. The World Health Organization’s Regional Office for Europe has undertaken a large study to evaluate housing and health in 7 European cities. Methods. Survey tools were used to obtain information about housing and living conditions, health perception, and health status from a representative sample of the population in each city. Results. In Forli, Italy, the first city studied, preliminary findings indicate some important potential links between housing and health. Conclusions. These findings, when combined with those from the remaining European cities, will likely generate concrete recommendations for the allocation of resources to programs that can improve housing and health.

Background Understanding the mechanisms underlying gene electrotransfer muscle damage can help to design more effective gene electrotransfer strategies for physiological and therapeutical applications. The present study investigates the factors involved in gene electrotransfer associated muscle damage. Methods Histochemical analyses were used to determine the extent of transfection efficiency and muscle damage in the Tibialis anterior muscles of Sprague‐Dawley male rats after gene electrotransfer. Results Five days after gene electrotransfer, features of muscle degeneration and regeneration were consistently observed, thus limiting the extent of transfection efficiency. Signs of muscle degeneration/regeneration were no longer evident 21 days after gene electrotransfer except for the presence of central myonuclei. Neither the application of electrical pulses per se nor the extracellular presence of plasmid DNA per se contributed significantly to muscle damage (2.9 ± 1.0 and 2.1 ± 0.7% of the whole muscle cross‐sectional area, respectively). Gene electrotransfer of a plasmid DNA, which does not support gene expression, increased significantly muscle damage (8.7 ± 1.2%). When plasmid DNA expression was permitted (gene electrotransfer of pCMV‐β‐galactosidase), muscle damage was further increased to 19.7 ± 4.5%. Optimization of cumulated pulse duration and current intensity dramatically reduced gene electrotransfer associated muscle damage. Finally, mathematical modeling of gene electrotransfer associated muscle damage as a function of the number of electrons delivered to the tissue indicated that pulse length critically determined the extent of muscle damage. Conclusion Our data suggest that neither the extracellular presence of plasmid DNA per se nor the application of electric pulses per se contributes significantly to muscle damage. Gene electrotransfer associated muscle damage mainly arises from the intracellular presence and expression of plasmid DNA. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

In skeletal muscle, slow-twitch fibers are highly dependent on mitochondrial oxidative metabolism suggesting the existence of common regulatory pathways in the control of slow muscle-specific protein expression and mitochondrial biogenesis. In this study, we determined whether peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma co-activator-1 alpha (PGC-1 alpha ) could transactivate promoters of nuclear-encoded mitochondrial protein (cytochrome c) and muscle-specific proteins (fast troponin I, MyoD). We also investigated if calcineurin A (CnA) and calcium/calmodulin kinase IV (CaMKIV) were involved in the regulation of PGC-1 alpha and cytochrome c promoter. For this purpose, we took advantage of the gene electrotransfer technique, which allows acute expression of a gene of interest. Electrotransfer of a PGC-1 alpha expression vector into rat Tibialis anterior muscle induced a strong transactivation of cytochrome c promoter (P < 0.001) independent of nuclear respiratory factor 1. PGC-1 alpha gene electrotransfer did not transactivate fast troponin I promoter, whereas it did transactivate MyoD promoter (P<0.05). Finally, whereas electrotransfers of CnA or CaMKIV expression vectors transactivated PGC-1 alpha promoter (P < <0.001), gene electrotransfer of CaMKIV was only able to transactivate cytochrome c promoter. Taken together, these data suggest that CnA triggers PGC-1 alpha promoter transactivation to drive the expression of non-mitochondrial proteins.

This report describes a new method allowing to measure the three-dimensional forces applied on right and left pedals during cycling. This method is based on a cycle ergometer mounted on a force platform. By recording the forces applied on the force platform and applying the fundamental mechanical equations, it was possible to calculate the instantaneous three-dimensional forces applied on pedals. It was validated by static and dynamic tests. The accuracy of the present system was −7.61 N, −3.37 N and −2.81 N, respectively, for the vertical, the horizontal and the lateral direction when applying a mono-directional force and −4.52 N when applying combined forces. In pedaling condition, the orientation and magnitude of the pedal forces were comparable to the literature. Moreover, this method did not modify the mechanical properties of the pedals and offered the possibility for pedal force measurement with materials often accessible in laboratories. Measurements obtained showed that this method has an interesting potential for biomechanical analyses in cycling.

This article reports the laser calibration of the hadronic Tile Calorimeter of the ATLAS experiment in the LHC Run 2 data campaign. The upgraded Laser II calibration system is described. The system was commissioned during the first LHC Long Shutdown, exhibiting a stability better than 0.8% for the laser light monitoring. The methods employed to derive the detector calibration factors with data from the laser calibration runs are also detailed. These allowed to correct for the response fluctuations of the 9852 photomultiplier tubes of the Tile Calorimeter with a total uncertainty of 0.5% plus a luminosity-dependent sub-dominant term. Finally, we report the regular monitoring and performance studies using laser events in both standalone runs and during proton collisions. These studies include channel timing and quality inspection, and photomultiplier linearity and response dependence on anode current.

The present article introduces a novel ASIC architecture, designed in the context of the ATLAS Tile Calorimeter upgrade program for the High-Luminosity phase of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. The architecture is based on radiation-tolerant 130 nm Complementary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor technology, embedding both analog and digital processing of detector signals. A detailed description of the ASIC is given in terms of motivation, design characteristics and simulated and measured performance. Experimental studies, based on 24 prototype units under real particle beam conditions are also presented in order to demonstrate the potential of the architecture as a reliable front-end readout electronic solution.

The calibration and performance of the LHCb Calorimeter system in Run 1 and 2 at the LHC are described. After a brief description of the sub-detectors and of their role in the trigger, the calibration methods used for each part of the system are reviewed. The changes which occurred with the increase of beam energy in Run 2 are explained. The performances of the calorimetry for \\(\\gamma\\) and \\(\\pi^0\\) are detailed. A few results from collisions recorded at \\(\\sqrt {s}\\) = 7, 8 and 13 TeV are shown.

This paper presents the design of the LHCb trigger and its performance on data taken at the LHC in 2011. A principal goal of LHCb is to perform flavour physics measurements, and the trigger is designed to distinguish charm and beauty decays from the light quark background. Using a combination of lepton identification and measurements of the particles' transverse momenta the trigger selects particles originating from charm and beauty hadrons, which typically fly a finite distance before decaying. The trigger reduces the roughly 11\\,MHz of bunch-bunch crossings that contain at least one inelastic \\(pp\\) interaction to 3\\,kHz. This reduction takes place in two stages; the first stage is implemented in hardware and the second stage is a software application that runs on a large computer farm. A data-driven method is used to evaluate the performance of the trigger on several charm and beauty decay modes.