Maximising forward somersault rotation in springboard diving

Performance in the flight phase of springboard diving is limited by the amounts of linear and angular momentum generated during the takeoff phase. A planar 8-segment torque-driven simulation model combined with a springboard model was used to investigate optimum takeoff technique for maximising rotation in forward dives from the one metre springboard. Optimisations were run by varying the torque activation parameters to maximise forward rotation potential (angular momentum × flight time) while allowing for movement constraints, anatomical constraints, and execution variability. With a constraint to ensure realistic board clearance and anatomical constraints to prevent joint hyperextension, the optimised simulation produced 24% more rotation potential than a simulation matching a 2½ somersault piked dive. When 2 ms perturbations to the torque onset timings were included for the ankle, knee and hip torques within the optimisation process, the model was only able to produce 87% of the rotation potential achieved in the matching simulation. This implies that a pre-planned technique cannot produce a sufficiently good takeoff and that adjustments must be made during takeoff. When the initial onset timings of the torque generators were unperturbed and 10 ms perturbations were introduced into the torque onset timings in the board recoil phase, the optimisation produced 8% more rotation potential than the matching simulation. The optimised simulation had more hip flexion and less shoulder extension at takeoff than the matching simulation. This study illustrates the difficulty of including movement variability within performance optimisation when the movement duration is sufficiently long to allow feedback corrections.     

Coping with perturbations to a layout somersault in tumbling

Tumbling is a dynamic movement requiring control of the linear and angular momenta generated during the approach and takeoff phases. Both of these phases are subject to some variability even when the gymnast is trying to perform a given movement repeatedly. This paper used a simulation model of tumbling takeoff to establish how well gymnasts can cope with perturbations of the approach and takeoff phases. A five segment planar simulation model with torque generators at each joint was developed to simulate tumbling takeoffs. The model was customised to an elite gymnast by determining subject specific inertia and torque parameters and a simulation was produced which closely matched a performance of a layout somersault by the gymnast. The performance of a layout somersault was found to be sensitive to the approach characteristics and the activation timings but relatively insensitive to the elasticity of the track and maximum muscle strength. Appropriate variation of the activation timings used during the takeoff phase was capable of coping with moderate perturbations of the approach characteristics. A model of aerial movement established that variation of body configuration in the flight phase was capable of adjusting for takeoff perturbations that would lead to rotation errors of up to 8%. Providing the errors in perceiving approach characteristics are less than 5% or 5 degrees and the errors in timing activations are less than 7ms, perturbations in the approach can be accommodated using adjustments during takeoff and flight.     

On torque and tumbling in swimming Escherichia coli

Bacteria swim by rotating long thin helical filaments, each driven at its base by a reversible rotary motor. When the motors of peritrichous cells turn counterclockwise (CCW), their filaments form bundles that drive the cells forward. We imaged fluorescently labeled cells of Escherichia coli with a high-speed charge-coupled-device camera (500 frames/s) and measured swimming speeds, rotation rates of cell bodies, and rotation rates of flagellar bundles. Using cells stuck to glass, we studied individual filaments, stopping their rotation by exposing the cells to high-intensity light. From these measurements we calculated approximate values for bundle torque and thrust and body torque and drag, and we estimated the filament stiffness. For both immobilized and swimming cells, the motor torque, as estimated using resistive force theory, was significantly lower than the motor torque reported previously. Also, a bundle of several flagella produced little more torque than a single flagellum produced. Motors driving individual filaments frequently changed directions of rotation. Usually, but not always, this led to a change in the handedness of the filament, which went through a sequence of polymorphic transformations, from normal to semicoiled to curly 1 and then, when the motor again spun CCW, back to normal. Motor reversals were necessary, although not always sufficient, to cause changes in filament chirality. Polymorphic transformations among helices having the same handedness occurred without changes in the sign of the applied torque.     

Maximising return on conservation investment in the conterminous USA

Efficient conservation planning requires knowledge about conservation targets, threats to those targets, costs of conservation and the marginal return to additional conservation efforts. Systematic conservation planning typically only takes a small piece of this complex puzzle into account. Here, we use a return‐on‐investment (ROI) approach to prioritise lands for conservation at the county level in the conterminous USA. Our approach accounts for species richness, county area, the proportion of species' ranges already protected, the threat of land conversion and land costs. Areas selected by a complementarity‐based greedy heuristic using our full ROI approach provided greater averted species losses per dollar spent compared with areas selected by heuristics accounting for richness alone or richness and cost, and avoided acquiring lands not threatened with conversion. In contrast to traditional prioritisation approaches, our results highlight conservation bargains, opportunities to avert the threat of development and places where conservation efforts are currently lacking.     

Maximising a function of the selection differential

Summary It is shown that some problems of optimising selection response can be solved without assuming a specific form of distribution for the trait of interest. To maximise the selection limit using selection among a fixed number every generation, all above the mean should retained. If a fraction of a population is set aside as a sire breeding nucleus, and selection is at one stage, maximum response per generation occurs when the nucleus as a fraction of the whole population is the square root of the sires: dams ratio. When a trait has an optimum, but declines in value at different rates A above and B below the optimum, the population mean should be chosen so that a fraction B/(A + B) are above the optimum.     

Perturbation of the chemotactic tumbling of bacteria

The bacterial sensing system has been studied on three levels. First, a quantitative method has been devised for measuring the “action spectrum” of the bacterium in response to a sudden addition of attractant. Second, a technique has been developed for the rapid isolation of mutants defective in the transmission part of the sensing system. Third, a study of the effects of light on the transmission system reveals two components, one which generates tumbling and another which inhibits it.     

Maximising survival by shifting the daily timing of activity

Maximising survival requires animals to balance the competing demands of maintaining energy balance and avoiding predation. Here, quantitative modelling shows that optimising the daily timing of activity and rest based on the encountered environmental conditions enables small mammals to maximise survival. Our model shows that nocturnality is typically beneficial when predation risk is higher during the day than during the night, but this is reversed by the energetic benefit of diurnality when food becomes scarce. Empirical testing under semi‐natural conditions revealed that the daily timing of activity and rest in mice exposed to manipulations in energy availability and perceived predation risk is in line with the model’s predictions. Low food availability and decreased perceived daytime predation risk promote diurnal activity patterns. Overall, our results identify temporal niche switching in small mammals as a strategy to maximise survival in response to environmental changes in food availability and perceived predation risk.     

The tumbling concha-cartilage flap for correction of lop ear

This article presents a new surgical method that uses tumbling concha-cartilage flaps to correct lop ears. Through a posterior or anterior auricular skin incision, a rectangular or T-shaped cartilage flap is elevated from the concha and tumbled backward. After passing under the postauricular skin, the flap's tip is fixed to the lidded helix or scapha. The recoiling force of the flap's conchal side enables the lidded portion to be in a normal, erect, anatomic position. The method also increases the vertical height of the ear and creates a normally shaped scapha. Sixteen lop ears were corrected using this procedure, with most of them maintaining natural auricular features. Therefore, this method was considered effective for the correction of moderate lop ear deformity.     

Cryptic speciation and host-race formation in a purportedly generalist tumbling flower beetle

Host-race formation remains controversial as a source of herbivorous insect diversity, and examples of host races are still fairly scarce. In this study, analysis of five enzyme loci in the ostensibly generalist tumbling flower beetle Mordellistena convicta (Coleoptera: Mordellidae) revealed hidden host-plant and plant-organ related genetic differentiation. Mordellistena convicta turned out to be a complex of cryptomorphic species, each with fewer hosts than the nominal species. These cryptic species, in turn, were divided into taxa that showed host-race characteristics: samples from different host plants and organs exhibited (1) genetic indications of partial reproductive isolation, (2) differences in size and emergence timing that suggested divergent host-related selection, and (3) among-host selective differences in mortality from parasitoids. Host-race formation in M. convicta, which has a somewhat different life history from the well-studied host races, enlarges the group of insects considered likely to undergo this process. The widespread sympatry of the M. convicta species complex, along with its spectrum of host-correlated genetic differentiation, suggests that these host specialist taxa developed in sympatry.     

Optimisation of high bar circling technique for consistent performance of a triple piked somersault dismount

The dismount from the high bar is one of the most spectacular skills performed in Men's Artistic Gymnastics. Hiley and Yeadon [2005. Maximal dismounts from high bar. Journal of Biomechanics 38, 2221-2227] optimised the technique in the backward giant circle prior to release using a computer simulation model to show that a gymnast could generate sufficient linear and angular momentum to perform a triple piked backward somersault dismount with a sufficiently large release window (the period of time during which the gymnast could release the bar and successfully complete the dismount). In the present study, it was found that when the timing of the actions at the hip and shoulder joints from the optimum simulation were perturbed by 30ms the resulting simulation could no longer meet the criteria for sufficient aerial rotation and release window. Since it is to be expected that a gymnast's technique can cope with small errors in timing for consistent performance, a requirement of robustness to timing perturbations should be included within the optimisation process. When the technique in the backward giant circle was optimised to be robust to 30ms perturbations, it was found that sufficient linear and angular momentum for a triple piked dismount could be achieved with a realistic release window.     

Cell balance equation for chemotactic bacteria with a biphasic tumbling frequency

Alts three-dimensional cell balance equation characterizing the chemotactic bacteria was analyzed under the presence of one-dimensional spatial chemoattractant gradients. Our work differs from that of others who have developed rather general models for chemotaxis in the use of a non-smooth anisotropic tumbling frequency function that responds biphasically to the combined temporal and spatial chemoattractant gradients. General three-dimensional expressions for the bacterial transport parameters were derived for chemotactic bacteria, followed by a perturbation analysis under the planar geometry. The bacterial random motility and chemotaxis were summarized by a motility tensor and a chemotactic velocity vector, respectively. The consequence of invoking the diffusion-approximation assumption and using intrinsic one-dimensional models with modified cellular swimming speeds was investigated by numerical simulations. Characterizing the bacterial random orientation after tumbles by a turn angle probability distribution function, we found that only the first-order angular moment of this turn angle probability distribution is important in influencing the bacterial long-term transport. Mathematics Subject Classification (2000):60G05, 60J60, 82A70     

Maximising sensitivity for detecting changes in protein expression: experimental design using minimal CyDyes

DIGE is a powerful tool for measuring changes in protein expression between samples. Here we assess the assumptions of normality and heterogeneity of variance that underlie the univariate statistical tests routinely used to detect proteins with expression changes. Furthermore, the technical variance experienced in a multigel experiment is assessed here and found to be reproducible within- and across-sample types. Utilising the technical variance measured, a power study is completed for several "typical" fold changes in expression commonly used as thresholds by researchers. Based on this study using DeCyder, guidance is given on the number of gel replicates that are needed for the experiment to have sufficient sensitivity to detect expression changes. A two-dye system based on utilising just Cy3 and Cy5 was found to be more reproducible than the three-dye system. A power and cost-benefit analysis performed here suggests that the traditional three-dye system would use fewer resources in studies where multiple samples are compared. Technical variance was shown to encompass both experimental and analytical noise and thus is dependent on the analytical software utilised. Data is provided as a resource to the community to assess alternative software and upgrades.     

The influence of touchdown conditions and contact phase technique on post-flight height in the straight handspring somersault vault

In vaulting the gymnast must generate sufficient linear and angular momentum during the approach and table contact in order to complete the rotational requirements in the post-flight phase. This study investigated the effects of touchdown conditions and contact technique on peak post-flight height of a straight handspring somersault vault. A planar seven-segment torque-driven computer simulation model of the contact phase in vaulting was evaluated by varying joint torque activation time histories to match three performances of a straight handspring somersault vault by an elite gymnast. The closest matching simulation was used as a starting point to optimise peak post-flight height of the mass centre for a straight handspring somersault. It was found that optimising either the touchdown conditions or the contact technique increased post-flight height by 0.1 m whereas optimising both together increased post-flight height by 0.4 m above that of a simulation matching the recorded performance. Thus touchdown technique and contact technique make similar contributions to post-flight height in the straight handspring somersault vault. Increasing touchdown velocity and angular momentum lead to additional post-flight height although there was a critical value of vertical touchdown velocity beyond which post-flight height decreased.     

Crop rotation

Crop rotation has been used for thousands of years. During the 1950s and early 1960s, it was felt that synthetic fertilizers and pesticides could forever replace crop rotation without loss of yield, but that opinion has changed. The current consensus is that crop rotation increases yield and profit and allows for sustained production. For example, maize, in a 2‐year rotation with soybean, yields 5 to 20% more than continuous maize, and no amount of fertilizer or pesticide can compensate completely for that difference. It is not well understood what causes the rotation effect, but improvements in soil physical properties and soil organic matter probably play a beneficial role in rotations that include multiple years of sod, pasture, or hay. Short rotations such as maize‐soybean actually result in a degradation in those same factors, yet the rotation effect still is realized. Recent information suggests that soilborne pathogens may be responsible for the yield depression seen with continuous monoculture.