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Problem: Low response rate to weekly self-reported questionnaires used to obtain athlete health-related and risk exposure data and low compliance with intervention have been reported. We thus aimed to investigate if time to 1) non-response to a weekly questionnaire and 2) non-compliance with an intervention is different among French athletics athletes with different characteristics. Methods: We performed a secondary analysis of data from the PREVATHLE randomized controlled trial including 840 female and male competitive athletics athletes followed over 39-weeks. Using univariate Cox proportional hazards regression models, we analyzed the association between athletes’ baseline characteristics and the following outcomes: time to failing to (1) respond to a weekly questionnaire and (2) complete a prescribed intervention. Results: Most athletes failed to complete all questionnaires over the 39 weeks (n=672, 80%), athletes in the intervention group, female athletes, younger athletes, athletes performing explosive disciplines, and athletes with higher non-specific sport training failed sooner. Nearly all athletes in the intervention group failed to comply with the intervention (n=443; 98.7%), and the rates were similar amongst athletes with different characteristics. Conclusions: This study shows that novel ways have to be found in order to improve both 1) athletes’ self-reported responses to weekly questionnaires on health-related and risk exposure data and 2) athletes’ compliance with an injury risk reduction program. Education and/or digital solutions might be potential opportunities. info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

Problem: Low response rate to weekly self-reported questionnaires used to obtain athlete health-related and risk exposure data and low compliance with intervention have been reported. We thus aimed to investigate if time to 1) non-response to a weekly questionnaire and 2) non-compliance with an intervention is different among French athletics athletes with different characteristics. › Methods: We performed a secondary analysis of data from the PREVATHLE randomized controlled trial including 840 female and male competitive athletics athletes followed over 39-weeks. Using univariate Cox proportional hazards regression models, we analyzed the association between athletes’ baseline characteristics and the following outcomes: time to failing to (1) res-pond to a weekly questionnaire and (2) complete a prescribed intervention. › Results: Most athletes failed to complete all questionnaires over the 39 weeks (n=672, 80%), athletes in the intervention group, female athletes, younger athletes, athletes performing explosive disciplines, and athletes with higher non-specific sport training failed sooner. Nearly all athletes in the intervention group failed to comply with the intervention (n=443; 98.7%), and the rates were similar amongst athletes with different characteristics. › Conclusions: This study shows that novel ways have to be found in order to improve both 1) athletes’ self-reported responses to weekly questionnaires on health-related and risk exposure data and 2) athletes’ compliance with an injury risk reduction pro-gram. Education and/or digital solutions might be potential opportunities.

The objective of this study was to describe, from the Physical Education Teacher Education (PETE) students’ perspective, sports injury prevention practices and map their suggestions for its improvement. In this qualitative study, we conducted 21 semi-structured interviews with PETE students from four different PETE schools in the Netherlands, which were transcribed verbatim and analysed these using the thematic analysis method. Four main themes were extracted from the data, which described the applied preventive strategies, the critical factors for successful injury prevention, motives for injury prevention, and recommendations on prevention. All the participants described using various preventive measures. They described injury prevention as a standard part of daily life and approached it in a multi-faceted and dynamic way. Maintaining a healthy lifestyle and balancing load and recovery were consistently described as essential injury prevention strategies. According to the participants, the critical factors to successfully apply injury prevention were: communication, learning what works, self-management, shared responsibilities, and social support. The main motives for injury prevention were to care for the body and perform well (e.g., academic success; sports). Given the participants, injury prevention could be improved, mainly by enhancing the PETE program’s load management (e.g., schedules) and offering injury prevention education (e.g., theory; practical skills). This study provided insight into how injury prevention is shaped in practice, identified critical factors for successful injury prevention and motives for injury prevention, and mapped recommendations for its improvement from the target population. These findings support the development of context-driven preventive strategies in the PETE population.

Although the benefits of current anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury prevention programmes have been demonstrated in efficacy studies, they, unfortunately, have had limited public health impact to date. For example, the incidence of ACL injuries continues to rise in adolescent athletes. Raising awareness and educating coaches and athletes is not enough to facilitate the widespread, sustained use of these programmes in the real-world setting. Considering the profound burden of ACL injuries, it is necessary to continue to improve the current ACL injury prevention programmes through co-creation. First, the uptake of the programmes should be optimized by a better appreciation and understanding of the individual, socio-cultural and environmental context (i.e., community). Second, the content of the programmes should be optimized to better reflect the demands of the sport by creating more ownership and increasing motivation (incorporating challenging, sport-specific and fun elements) with the end-users. In addition, implicit motor learning, random practice and differential learning are concepts that should be integrated when practising to obtain the most optimal results when learning or finetuning skills.

Problem: Epidemiological data of injuries and illnesses in water polo athletes are limited. This studys objective was to describe the incidence, prevalence, and severity of health problems among a cohort of elite Players.Methods: We conducted a prospective cohort study with 24 elite waterpolo athletes over 2.5 years. Health problems were recorded weekly with the Oslo Sports Trauma Research Center Questionnaire on health problems and subsequently categorized into illnesses and injuries according to the recently published International Olympic Committee guidelines. Based on the athletes weekly responses, we calculated health problem prevalence, incidence and severity.Results: A total of 288 health problems were reported, including 76 illnesses and 212 injuries resulting in a weekly prevalence of 30.3% (95% CI: 28.2-32.4) for all health problems. Of these, 115 (39.9%) were categorized as substantial, of which 76 were illnesses, and 39 were injuries. The overall acute injury incidence rate was 1.66 injuries (95% CI: 1.23-2.09) per 1,000 sports exposure hours. The training and competition acute injury incidence rates were, respectively, 1.20 (95%CI: 0.81 1.59) per 1,000 training hours and 5.38 (95% CI: 3.18 7.58) per 1,000 competition hours.Conclusion: There was a high prevalence of injuries among this cohort of elite water polo athletes. Future efforts that further improve athlete safety should focus on both acute and repetitive mechanism injuries.Key Words: Epidemiology, Acute Injury, Repetitive Injury, Injury Mechanism

Problem/Intro: Epidemiological data of injuries and illnesses in equestrian athletes are limited. The objective of this study was to describe the incidence, prevalence, and severity of health problems among a cohort of elite riders.Methods: We conducted a prospective cohort study with 38 elite equestrian athletes over a two-year follow-up period. Health problems were recorded weekly with the Oslo Sports Trauma Research Center Questionnaire on health problems and subsequently categorized into illnesses and injuries according to the recently published International Olympic Committee guidelines. Based on the athletes weekly responses, we calculated health problem prevalence, incidence and severity.Results: A total of 93 health problems were reported including 30 illnesses and 63 injuries resulting in a weekly prevalence of 12.1% (95% CI: 10.5-13.7) for all health problems. For acute injuries, the chest, lumbosacral region, and neck were the most commonly reported body locations. The lumbosacral region was the most commonly reported repetitive injury mechanism body region. Illnesses most often affected the upper respiratory and gastrointestinal body systems.Conclusion: There was a low prevalence of injuries among this cohort of elite athletes. Future efforts that further improve athlete safety should focus on repetitive mechanism injuries and implementation and scale-up of preventive equipment to the broader equestrian population.Key Words: Epidemiology, Acute Injury, Repetitive Injury, Injury Mechanism

International audience; Better understanding the psychological consequences of an injury and its influence on behavior changes and the implementation of a prevention program seems relevant for injury management (treatment and prevention). Thus, the objective of this present study was (1) to analyze the perception of injury by athletes, and (2) to analyze their influence on the realization of injury prevention measures.Methods: We conducted a national retrospective quantitative observational study to collect the feelings of competitive athletes licensed to the French Athletics Federation with respect to their injury history, their perception of the injury and the injury prevention programs, through a computer survey sent to athletes in spring 2020.Results: In all, 7712 responses from athletes were included in this analysis, including 37% women and 63% men, aged 37.9 ± 14.8 years (18 to 87 years), ranging from international to departmental level, covering all disciplines of athletics. Seventy percent of athletes had never completed an injury prevention program in their career, while 30% felt they had partially or fully completed one. Ninety percent of the athletes had had at least one injury since starting athletics. Athletes reported that an injury created sadness, frustration, disgust, and a worry about getting hurt in one place. They were aware that poor management of an injury could lead to a recurrence or a new injury. Athletes with a history of injury performed significantly more injury prevention program than those with no injury history. Athletes with previous injury believed in the effectiveness of injury prevention programs more than those without. On the other hand, there was no difference in the perception of the interest of preventive measures such as a healthy lifestyle, listening to your body, pain and fatigue between athletes with and without a history of injuries.Conclusion: We have reported that an injury can have significant psychological consequences on the athlete. These repercussions are important to consider in the overall management of injuries, e.g. in the treatment, return to the field and prevention of injuries.; Mieux comprendre les conséquences psychologiques d’une blessure et l’influence de celle-ci sur les modifications de comportement et la réalisation d’un programme de prévention semble pertinent pour la prise en charge thérapeutique et dans une optique de prévention. Ainsi, l’objectif de cette présente étude a donc été (1) d’analyser la perception des blessures par les athlètes, et (2) d’analyser l’influence de celles-ci sur la réalisation de mesures de prévention.Méthodes : Nous avons conduit une étude observationnelle quantitative rétrospective nationale de recueil du ressenti des athlètes de compétition licenciés à la Fédération française d’athlétisme vis-à-vis de leurs antécédents de blessures, leur perception de la blessure et les programmes de prévention des blessures, par un questionnaire informatique envoyé aux athlètes au printemps 2020.Résultats : Au total, 7712 réponses d’athlètes ont été incluses dans cette analyse, incluant 37 % de femmes et 63 % d’hommes, âgés de 37,9 ± 14,8 ans (de 18 à 87 ans), allant de niveau international à départemental, couvrant toutes les disciplines de l’athlétisme. Soixante-dix pour cent des athlètes n’avaient jamais réalisé de programme de prévention des blessures durant leur carrière, alors que 30 % estimaient en avoir suivi un de manière partielle ou totale. Quatre-vingt dix pour cent des athlètes avaient eu au moins une blessure depuis le début de leur pratique. Les sportifs rapportaient qu’une blessure engendrait une tristesse, une frustration, un dégoût et une préoccupation de se refaire mal au même endroit. Ils étaient conscients qu’une mauvaise prise en charge pouvait entraîner une récidive ou une nouvelle blessure. Les athlètes avec antécédent de blessure réalisaient significativement plus un programme de prévention des lésions que ceux ne s’étant jamais blessés. Ceux s’étant déjà blessés croyaient en l’efficacité des programmes de prévention, davantage que ceux sans antécédent de blessure. En revanche, il n’y avait pas de différence de perception de l’intérêt de mesures préventives telles que l’hygiène de vie, l’écoute de son corps, de ses douleurs et de sa fatigue entre les athlètes avec et sans antécédent de blessures.Conclusion : Une blessure peut entraîner des conséquences psychologiques non négligeables pour l’athlète. Ses répercussions sont importantes à prendre en compte dans la prise en charge globale des lésions.

Objectives\ud \ud The vast majority of rugby union (‘rugby’) participants are community-based players; however, the majority of injury surveillance studies reported relate to the elite, professional game. A potential reason for this dearth of studies could be the perceived difficulty of using the consensus statement for injury recording at the community level. The aim of this study was to identify areas where the consensus statement could be adapted for easier and more appropriate implementation within the community setting.\ud \ud Design\ud \ud Round-table discussion\ud \ud Methods\ud \ud All community-based injury surveillance issues were discussed during a 2-day facilitated round-table meeting, by an 11-person working group consisting of researchers currently active in rugby-related injury surveillance, sports medicine and sports science issues. The outcomes from the meeting were summarised in a draft guidance document that was then subjected to an extensive iterative review prior to producing methodological recommendations.\ud \ud Results\ud \ud Each aspect of the rugby-specific consensus statement was reviewed to determine whether it was feasible to implement the standards required in the context of non-elite rugby and the resources available within in a community setting. Final recommendations are presented within a community-based injury report form.\ud \ud Conclusions\ud \ud It is recommended that whenever possible the rugby-specific consensus statement for injury surveillance studies be used: this paper presents an adapted report form that can be used to record injury surveillance information in community rugby if suitable medical support is not available.

We report a novel, fully-integrated nanophotonic wavelength and displacement sensor based on an electrostatically-actuated double-membrane photonic crystal nanocavity detector with a quantum dot absorption region.

Il nuovo cimento della Società Italiana di Fisica / C 39(1), 260 (2016). doi:10.1393/ncc/i2016-16260-7, Published by Ed. Compositori, Bologna [u.a.]

Il nuovo cimento della Società Italiana di Fisica / C 39(1), 269 (2016). doi:10.1393/ncc/i2016-16269-x, Published by Ed. Compositori, Bologna [u.a.]

In this chapter, we discuss the various definitions of position-dependent obstructive apnea. The first was introduced in 1984 by Cartwright, who suggested that physicians should differentiate between patients with either positional (POSA) or non-positional obstructive sleep apnea.Treatment of POSA has advanced dramatically recently with the introduction of a new generation of positional therapy (PT), a small device attached to either the neck or chest which corrects the patient from adopting the supine position through a vibrating stimulus. Encouraging data have been published suggesting that this simple therapy successfully prevents patients with POSA from adopting the supine position without negatively influencing sleep efficiency, as well as allowing for good adherence. Unfortunately, evaluating the efficacy of PT and comparing results are hindered by the fact that there are no universally used POSA criteria.In this chapter a new classification system is discussed called the Amsterdam Positional OSA Classification (APOC) aimed at identifying suitable candidates for PT: patients who will benefit from a clinically, significant improvement of their OSA with PT.The shared use of this classification can facilitate collection of data across multiple centres and comparison of results across studies.

Running is a popular form of physical activity, despite of the high incidence of running-related injuries (RRIs). Because of methodological issues, the etiology of RRIs remains unclear. Therefore, the purposes of the study were to assess the incidence of RRIs and to identify risk factors for RRIs in a large group of novice runners. In total, 1696 runners of a 6-week supervised " Start to Run" program were included in the NLstart2run study. All participants were aged between 18 and 65, completed a baseline questionnaire that covered potential risk factors, and completed at least one running diary. RRIs were registered during the program with a weekly running log. An RRI was defined as a musculo-skeletal complaint of the lower extremity or back attributed to running and hampering running ability for three consecutive training sessions. During the running program, 10.9% of the runners sustained an RRI. The multivariable Cox regression analysis showed that a higher age, higher BMI, previous musculo-skeletal complaints not attributed to sports and no previous running experience were related to RRI. These findings indicate that many novice runners participating in a short-term running program suffer from RRIs. Therefore, the identified risk factors should be considered for screening and prevention purposes.

With the increases in the LHC instantaneous luminosity, maintaining effective triggering and avoiding dead time will become especially challenging. As the sensitivity of many physics studies, depends critically on the ability to maintain relatively low muon momentum thresholds, the identification of potential improvements in triggering is particularly important. The addition of a new muon detector to the existing CMS muon system in the very forward region allows for a substantial improvement in the performance of muon triggering. Integration of the new detector and the existing Cathode Strip Chamber system can improve the muon trigger momentum resolution due to an increase in the lever arm for the measurement of the muon bending angle., Presentation at the DPF 2013 Meeting of the American Physical Society Division of Particles and Fields, Santa Cruz, California, August 13-17, 2013

The international CMS GEM collaboration is studying the feasibility of upgrading the CMS forward muon system by adding layers of triple GEM based detectors. After successful tests of small size tripe-GEM chambers in the period of 2010-2011, the collaboration has designed, built and tested full size GEM chambers for the upgrade purpose. We report on results from test beam and simulation that were conducted to study the performance of the GEM chambers.

Ataxia-telangiectasia (A-T) is classically characterized by progressive neurodegeneration, oculocutaneous telangiectasia, immunodeficiency and elevated a-fetoprotein levels. Some patients, classified as variant A-T, exhibit a milder clinical course. In the latter patients extrapyramidal symptoms, instead of cerebellar ataxia, tend to be the dominating feature and other classical disease hallmarks, like telangiectasia, appear later or even may be absent. Some patients with variant disease have clinically pronounced anterior horn cell degeneration. Neuropathological studies of genetically proven A-T patients are lacking. The aims of our study were to describe the neuropathology of three A-T patients; in two of them the diagnosis was genetically confirmed. The neuropathological findings were compared with those of all known published autopsy findings in A-T patients up to now. Two classical A-T patients aged 19 and 22 and a 33-year-old patient with variant disease were autopsied. In line with previous reports, our patients had severe cerebellar atrophy, less pronounced degeneration of the dentate nucleus and inferior olive, degeneration of the posterior columns and neurogenic muscular atrophy. In addition, all three had anterior horn cell degeneration, which was most prominent at the lumbar level. Compared to the literature, the degenerative changes in the brain stem of the variant A-T patient were somewhat less than anticipated for his age. Degenerative changes in the cerebellum and spinal cord were comparable with those in the literature. Progeric changes were lacking. In conclusion, compared to classical A-T, the variant A-T patient showed essentially the same, only slightly milder neuropathological abnormalities, except for anterior horn degeneration.

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25th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition / 5th World Conference on Photovoltaic Energy Conversion, 6-10 September 2010, Valencia, Spain; 10-14, Advanced light management in thin-film solar cells is becoming increasingly important to reduce semiconductor layer thicknesses (and thus costs) while still absorbing the full solar spectrum in the cell. Here, we discuss how the excitation of surface plasmon resonances in metal nanoparticles can serve to enhance the trapping of light in thin-film solar cells. We discuss three geometries, with particles either at the top or back of the cell, or embedded in the solar cell, and compare these different designs. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the plasmonic light trapping concept by presenting experimental data on ultra-thin n-i-p a-Si:H solar cells with plasmonic back reflectors. We show that using a properly designed scattering structure, the performance of cells on randomly textured Asahi substrates can be surpassed. The periodic patterns are made via an inexpensive and scalable nanoimprint method. Electromagnetic modeling is shown to agree well with measurements, and used to understand further details of the device.

We characterize bending losses of curved plasmonic nanowire waveguides for radii of curvature ranging from 1 to 12 μm and widths down to 40 nm. We use near-field measurements to separate bending losses from propagation losses. The attenuation due to bending loss is found to be as low as 0.1 μm−1 for a curved waveguide with a width of 70 nm and a radius of curvature of 2 μm. Experimental results are supported by Finite Difference Time Domain simulations. An analytical model developed for dielectric waveguides is used to predict the trend of rising bending losses with decreasing radius of curvature in plasmonic nanowires

We report on the design, fabrication, and measurement of ultrathin film a-Si:H solar cells with nanostructured plasmonic back contacts, which demonstrate enhanced short circuit current densities compared to cells having flat or randomly textured back contacts. The primary photocurrent enhancement occurs in the spectral range from 550 nm to 800 nm. We use angle-resolved photocurrent spectroscopy to confirm that the enhanced absorption is due to coupling to guided modes supported by the cell. Full-field electromagnetic simulation of the absorption in the active a-Si:H layer agrees well with the experimental results. Furthermore, the nanopatterns were fabricated via an inexpensive, scalable, and precise nanopatterning method. These results should guide design of optimized, non-random nanostructured back reflectors for thin film solar cells

In free space, the diffraction limit sets a lower bound to the size to which light can be confined. Surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs), which are electromagnetic waves bound to the interface between a metal and a dielectric, allow the control of light on subwavelength length scales. This opens up a rich world of opportunities in science and technology, ranging from lighting and photovoltaics to photonic circuits and quantum optics. This thesis explores new ways to tailor the properties of SPPs such that they enable the confinement of light at nanoscale dimensions. A variety of metallodielectric geometries are used that can serve as waveguides for SPPs. We show how the SPP propagation characteristics can be controlled, and how light can be concentrated in subwavelength volumes by tapering and truncating the waveguides. In Chapter 2 we use a near-field microscope to image the fields of SPPs that are squeezed into a 50~nm thick dielectric layer between two Ag surfaces, showing that the wavelength of SPPs is significantly shortened with respect to that of light. Chapter 3 focuses on specific waveguided SPP modes that can exhibit a negative effective index of refraction. This enables negative refraction of light into the waveguide at optical frequencies. Chapters 4 and 5 show that the concentration of infrared SPPs in laterally tapered Ag stripe waveguides enhances the upconversion of infrared to visible light in Er ions in the substrate. SPPs focus at the 65 nm large taper apex. Calculations show that the observed focusing effect can only occur for SPPs at the interface between the metal stripe and the high-index substrate. The focusing in tapered waveguides is explained in terms of an adiabatic transformation of a SPP mode guided by the waveguides in Chapter 6. Tapered waveguides are used to efficiently excite SPPs on metal nanowires with diameters as small as 60 nm. Phase- and polarization-sensitive near-field microscopy allows retrieval of the propagation speed and the polarization nature of the excited nanowire mode. The efficiency with which a taper couples light to a nanowire is measured to be 50%. In Chapter 7, we show that SPPs that propagate onto a Si wedge on Ag come to a halt at a specific wedge thickness, concentrating energy in a subwavelength focus. Chapter 8 investigates field enhancement at a wavelength of 1.5 m in arrays of subwavelength apertures in a metal film. We study the enhanced excitation of Er ions positioned close to the metal film by collecting Er upconversion emission. Both propagating and localized SPP resonances are studied. The field enhancement due to localized resonances is shown to be independent of the incident angle. Chapter 9 describes the enhancement of the radiative emission rate of Er ions placed inside annular apertures. An increase of both the photoluminescence intensity and the photoluminescence decay rate is observed when the aperture resonance is tuned to the Er emission wavelength. We discuss some possible applications and future research directions in Chapter 10, in integrated photonics, photovoltaics, molecular sensing and metamaterials research.

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The international press has been full of blood chilling accounts concerning a supposedly new practice in the Netherlands of terminating the life of severely defective newborn babies with a protocol. Our aim is to give insight into the medical and legal aspects of this protocol and to describe its contents. The legal developments concerning termination of life in newborns in the Netherlands are being discussed.

We report on the design, fabrication, and measurement of ultrathin film a-Si:H solar cells with nanostructured plasmonic back contacts, which demonstrate enhanced short circuit current densities compared to cells having flat or randomly textured back contacts. The primary photocurrent enhancement occurs in the spectral range from 550 nm to 800 nm. We use angle-resolved photocurrent spectroscopy to confirm that the enhanced absorption is due to coupling to guided modes supported by the cell. Full-field electromagnetic simulation of the absorption in the active a-Si:H layer agrees well with the experimental results. Furthermore, the nanopatterns were fabricated via an inexpensive, scalable, and precise nanopatterning method. These results should guide design of optimized, non-random nanostructured back reflectors for thin film solar cells.

The in vitro responses of lymphoid cells from the blood of children with acute lymphatic leukaemia to stimulation with phytohaemagglutinin, pokeweed mitogen, allogeneic lymphocytes and a cocktail of five different antigens were studied. In addition the stimulatory capacity in mixed lymphocyte culture was investigated as well as the formation of rosettes with sheep erythrocytes which were either uncoated or coated with antibody and complement.

International audience; During the future LHC upgrade planned in 2018, the forward endcap region of the CMS muon spectrometer will be upgraded with GEM chambers. GEM technology is able to withstand the radiation environment expected in the forward region. The GE1/1 station will be included in the muon L1 trigger, allowing to keep low pT threshold even at high luminosity. Moreover, it will bring detection redundancy in the most critical part of the CMS muon system, along with benefits to muon reconstruction performance.