Direct Hit Research Articles

Examining the Reliability and Validity of Coding Perceived Force Severity and Bracing in the NHL Concussion Spotter Program.

Data obtained from the National Hockey League (NHL) have shown that a risk prediction model, including both visible signs and mechanisms of injury, improves the identification of possible concussion. However, only about half of concussions diagnosed by club medical staff in the NHL exhibit visible signs. At present, the NHL concussion spotter protocol does not include central league spotters' subjective judgments of the severity of forces associated with a direct hit to the head (perceived force severity [PFS]) or whether players brace before a hit (bracing). To examine the interrater reliability, preliminary validity, and association with concussion diagnosis of central league spotter determinations of PFS and bracing. Cross-sectional study. Video footage of 1071 events after a direct or indirect blow to the head were observed from the 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 NHL seasons. These events were classified into 4 groups: concussion with visible signs; concussion without visible signs; no concussion with visible signs; and no concussion without visible signs. A total of 50 events were randomly selected from the total events in each group. Then, 2 raters (NHL central league spotters) coded PFS for each of the 200 video events as low, medium, or high. Bracing was coded as no bracing, insufficient bracing, or full bracing. Interrater reliability was fair to moderate for the categorical and continuous ratings of both PFS (κ = 0.36 and 0.45, respectively) and bracing (κ = 0.40 and 0.49, respectively). There was no significant association between concussion diagnosis and either PFS (Z = 0.00, P = .99) or bracing (Z = 0.77, P = .44). Exploratory, post hoc analyses suggested a possible relationship between bracing and reduced concussion risk among a select subsample of events with no visible signs (r = -0.29, P < .01). The interrater reliability for PFS and for bracing was fair to moderate. Neither PFS nor bracing were significantly related to concussion diagnosis, but they were significantly associated with other visible signs and mechanisms of injury.

Edge Caching Placement Strategy based on Evolutionary Game for Conversational Information Seeking in Edge Cloud Computing

In Internet applications, network conversation is the primary communication between the user and server. The server needs to efficiently and quickly return the corresponding service according to the conversation sent by the user to improve the users’ Quality of Service. Thus, Conversation Information Seeking (CIS) research has become a hot topic today. In Cloud Computing (CC), a central service mode, the conversation is transmitted between the user and the remote cloud over a long distance. With the explosive growth of Internet applications, network congestion, long-distance communication, and single point of failure have brought new challenges to the centralized service mode. People put forward Edge Cloud Computing (ECC) to meet the new challenges of the centralized service mode of CC. As a distributed service mode, ECC is an extension of CC. By migrating services from the remote cloud to the network edge closer to users, ECC can solve the above challenges in CC well. In ECC, people solve the problem of CIS through edge caching. The current research focuses on designing the edge cache strategy to achieve more predictable caching. In this article, we propose an edge cache placement method Evolutionary Game based Caching Placement Strategy (EG-CPS). This method consists of three modules: the user preference prediction module, the content popularity calculation module, and the cache placement decision module. To maximize the predictability of the cache strategy, we are committed to optimizing the cache hit rate and service latency. The simulation experiment compares the proposed strategy with several other cache strategies. The experimental results illustrate that EG-CPS can reduce up to 2.4% of the original average content request latency, increase the average direct cache hit rate by 1.7%, and increase the average edge cache hit rate by 3.3%.

Lightning Strike Danger Zone Detector System Integrated with Smartphone

The potential for direct hits and bounces from buildings during thunderstorms can endanger pedestrians in the open area of the Faculty of Engineering Untirta campus. So far, there has been no danger warning in the open area so that pedestrians in the area are not prepared if unwanted things happen, especially when there is rain and lightning. Direct lightning strikes are one of the hydrometeorological events that need to be watched out for. Because of its impact that can cause damage to objects and casualties if exposed to humans. The campus area has a fairly large open area, making the threat of lightning strikes can occur at any time, especially during the rainy season. The purpose of this research is to design and implement a direct lightning strike hazard zone detection device in the campus area of the Faculty of Engineering UNTIRTA located in the city of Cilegon. The stages of research carried out include analyzing the open area of the FT campus using the Rolling sphere method. After that, plotting the area of the analysis results. Then an area detection tool was created which is categorized as a direct lightning strike danger zone that is integrated with Smartphone notifications.

Features of display in account of compensation of losses from written-off stocks during the period of martial state

The paper is devoted to the issues of reflecting in the accounts compensation for losses from written-off stocks during the period of martial law. The relevance of this direction of research is due to the fact that, unfortunately, at enterprises in places where assets are stored, processes of theft, improper storage and deterioration of stocks sometimes occur, as a result of which business entities suffer losses. Therefore, the use of compensation mechanisms by the guilty parties (employees of the enterprise, the aggressor country) and their reflection in accounting lead to a decrease in costs during the write-off of stocks from the enterprise's balance sheet. Every enterprise in Ukraine, during its activity, necessarily records stocks that can be used in production, trade, administration or in other areas of work. Special attention is paid to the places of their storage during the receipt of these assets. We believe that the data of warehouse accounting of stocks should coincide with the data of accounting. But, unfortunately, there are situations in which, after an inventory or military aggression, it is necessary to write off undetected (stolen), damaged or destroyed stocks. In today's conditions, Ukrainian enterprises suffer significant losses as a result of martial law. The use of unmanned aerial vehicles and missiles by Russia, the occupation of a large part of Ukrainian territories, the location of enterprises in war zones or close to them leads to the loss of enterprise assets. We have researched that these losses can occur as a result of direct ammunition hits, fires, and breakdown of equipment used to preserve stocks. Unfortunately, the loss and deterioration of stocks leads to the mismatch of their recognition as assets and the subsequent receipt of economic benefits.

Influence of Boundary Layer Mixing Mechanisms on the Simulation of Typhoon Wutip: A Direct Hit on the Xisha Islands in 2013

Influence of Boundary Layer Mixing Mechanisms on the Simulation of Typhoon Wutip: A Direct Hit on the Xisha Islands in 2013

Monte Carlo-Based Nanoscale Dosimetry Holds Promise for Radiopharmaceutical Therapy Involving Auger Electron Emitters.

Radiopharmaceutical therapy (RPT) is evolving as a promising strategy for treating cancer. As interest grows in short-range particles, like Auger electrons, understanding the dose-response relationship at the deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) level has become essential. In this study, we used the Geant4-DNA toolkit to evaluate DNA damage caused by the Auger-electron-emitting isotope I-125. We compared the energy deposition and single strand break (SSB) yield at each base pair location in a short B-form DNA (B-DNA) geometry with existing simulation and experimental data, considering both physical direct and chemical indirect hits. Additionally, we evaluated dosimetric differences between our high-resolution B-DNA target and a previously published simple B-DNA geometry. Overall, our benchmarking results for SSB yield from I-125 decay exhibited good agreement with both simulation and experimental data. Using this simulation, we then evaluated the SSB and double strand break (DSB) yields caused by a theranostic Br-77-labeled poly ADP ribose polymerase (PARP) inhibitor radiopharmaceutical. The results indicated a predominant contribution of chemical indirect hits over physical direct hits in generating SSB and DSB. This study lays the foundation for future investigations into the nano-dosimetric properties of RPT.

UQAM‐TCW: A Global Hybrid Tropical Cyclone Wind Model Based Upon Statistical and Coupled Climate Models

AbstractTropical cyclones (TCs) are among the most destructive natural hazards and yet, quantifying their financial impacts remains a significant methodological challenge. It is therefore of high societal value to synthetically simulate TC tracks and winds to assess potential impacts along with their probability distributions for example, land use planning and financial risk management. A common approach to generate TC tracks is to apply storm detection methodologies to climate model output, but such an approach is sensitive to the method and parameterization used and tends to underestimate intense TCs. We present a global TC model (the UQAM‐TCW model thereafter) that melds statistical modeling, to capture historical risk features, with a climate model large ensemble, to generate large samples of physically coherent TC seasons. Integrating statistical and physical methods, the model is probabilistic and consistent with the physics of how TCs develop. The model includes frequency and location of cyclogenesis, full trajectories with maximum sustained winds and the entire wind structure along each track for the six typical cyclogenesis basins from IBTrACS. Being an important driver of TCs globally, we also integrate ENSO effects in key components of the model. The global TC model thus belongs to a recent strand of literature that combines probabilistic and physical approaches to TC track generation. As an application of the model, we show global hazard maps for direct and indirect hits expressed in terms of return periods. The global TC model can be of interest to climate and environmental scientists, economists and financial risk managers.

Delayed coastal inundations caused by ocean dynamics post-Hurricane Matthew

Post Hurricane Abnormal Water Level (PHAWL) poses a persistent inundation threat to coastal communities, yet unresolved knowledge gaps exist regarding its spatiotemporal impacts and causal mechanisms. Using a high-resolution coastal model with a set of observations, we find that the PHAWLs are up to 50 cm higher than the normal water levels for several weeks and cause delayed inundations around residential areas of the U.S. Southeast Coast (USSC). Numerical experiments reveal that while atmospheric forcing modulates the coastal PHAWLs, ocean dynamics primarily driven by the Gulf Stream control the mean component and duration of the shelf-scale PHAWLs. Because of the large spatial impact of the post-hurricane oceanic forcing, the coastal hazards are not limited to a direct hit from a hurricane but can be detected throughout the USSC where the oceanic processes reach.

Challenges in the Forecasting of Severe Typhoon Koinu in 2023

Hong Kong was under the direct hit of Severe Typhoon Koinu (2314) on 8 and 9 October 2023, necessitating the issuance of the Increasing Gale or Storm Signal, No. 9. Koinu was a very challenging case for TC forecasting and warning services due to its compact size and erratic movement over the northern part of the South China Sea. This paper reviews the difficulties and challenges of the forecasting aspect of the severe typhoon. The predicted tropical cyclone track and intensity from both conventional models and emerging artificial intelligence models are examined, as well as local wind and rainfall forecast. Experience in this case study showed that while deterministic global models only performed moderately and were not able to adequately support early warning, a regional model and AI models could more effectively support decision making for an operational tropical cyclone warning service.

Wildlife-vehicle collisions: The disproportionate risk of injury faced by motorcyclists

We applied a generalized linear mixed-effects model to determine the factors leading to injuries from wildlife-vehicle collisions (WVCs). We used the Police database representing WVCs which took place on the Czech road network between 2009 and 2022. The majority of WVCs in Czechia are with roe deer, followed by wild boar, i.e., both relatively small ungulates. Less than 2 % of these encounters ends with an injury to the motor vehicle occupants.We found that the probability of sustaining injury was systematically higher for motorcyclists than for car occupants. The odds of sustaining an injury during WVC were roughly 1600 times higher for motorcyclists than for car occupants. When applying an evading manoeuvre, the odds of sustaining an injury were approximately 68 times higher for car occupants while only 2.3 times higher for motorcyclists compared to a direct hit to an animal. The lack of helmets (for motorcyclists) and missing seat belts (for car occupants) were additional factors which made the outcomes worse for WVCs.While the acceptance of a direct hit (preceded by braking) seems to be a reasonable strategy for car drivers, WVC awareness (including maintaining a lower speed during critical times and places) should be raised among motorcyclists as both manoeuvres are almost comparably dangerous for them.

Comparative Analysis of the Mechanical Exploitation Properties of the Steel Sheet Welded Joint of New and Old Materials

The rehabilitation process of the war-damaged vertical cylindrical tank with a volume of 5.000 m3 located at the oil terminal for liquid cargo TTT S-105 Ribić in Bihać, included a preliminary experimental examination of the mechanical exploitation properties of the steel sheet welded joints. A new steel sheet Č.0361 was acquired for this purpose. In addition, a sample of an old sheet of the same quality was taken from the construction of the devastated tank, which had been in use for more than 35 years. The experimental testing should determine the mechanical exploitation properties of the new material, examine the same properties of the old used material, compare the obtained results and confirm their mutual acceptability in the joint construction. The tank in question was damaged as a result of direct or indirect missile hits during the war period. Following the more economically acceptable rehabilitation, compared to demolition and complete reconstruction, the tank should be returned to a safe and usable condition.

Einsatz von Shutter-Brillen im Tennis – Einfluss von (Bild-)Frequenz und Dunkelphasenanteil auf die Zielschlagpräzision

Purpose. The use of shutter glasses for perception training in sports requires knowledge of adequate load dosage. The study analyses the influence of (image-)frequency or “duty ratio” (dark phase percentage) on target stroke accuracy in tennis. Material and Methods. With a total number of 22 tennis players (18m, 4f, mean age = 23.6, SD = ± 2.7 years) the target hit precision was conducted. The tennis players had to return the balls played to them by a ball machine using the forehand volley and to make direct hits to a bull’s eye (high scores = high target hit precision). The results with different (randomised) conditions (strobe rates level II = 5.3 Hz, level V = 2.3 Hz, lev- el VIII = 1.0 Hz; dark phase level II = 88 ms, level V = 341 ms, level VIII = 909 ms) of currently used shutter glasses (Nike Vapor Strobe) and without occlusion have been compared. Keywords intermittent vision, stroboscopic visual training, shutter lens glasses, sports vision training, tennis

Concussion Characteristics in the National Hockey League Before and After the Introduction of Rule 48

A rule prohibiting a direct hit to the lateral side of the head (ie, Rule 48-Illegal Check to the Head) was introduced in the National Hockey League (NHL) in the 2010-2011 season and refined in the 2011-2012 season to widen the application to include direct contact to all areas of the head. To compare the incidence and proportion of concussions that occurred following hits to the head before and after the implementation of Rule 48. This retrospective cohort study used a before and after design to evaluate concussions among NHL players in regular season games. Data from the 4 seasons preceding the implementation of Rule 48 (2006-2007 to 2009-2010) were compared with data from 5 seasons following its implementation (2014-2015 to 2018-2019). Data were analyzed from October 31, 2021, to November 30, 2022. The incidence and relative proportion of concussion characteristics and mechanisms before and after the introduction of Rule 48. In the analysis of 688 concussions for NHL seasons spanning 2006 to 2010 (n = 231) and 2014 to 2019 (n = 457), there was an overall increase in the incidence of concussion between the 2 time frames, although the incidence of concussions due to hits to the lateral aspect of the head decreased from 1.6/100 games to 1.0/100 games (estimated difference, 0.6/100 games [90% credible interval (CrI), 0.30/100 games to 0.90/100 games). There was also a reduction of 18.8 (90% CrI, 13.0-23.7) percentage points in the proportion of concussions due to hits to the lateral aspect of the head from 80 of 231 concussions (34.6%) to 61 of 457 concussions (13.3%). The incidence of concussions following hits to the head from body checks using the shoulder, arm, and glove was similar before and following the implementation of Rule 48. However, the proportion was reduced 14.7 percentage points from 113 of 231 concussions (48.9%) before to 149 of 457 concussions (32.6%) after implementation of Rule 48 (90% CrI of the difference, 8.9-20.7 percentage points). The findings of this cohort study of NHL players suggest that after the introduction of Rule 48, the incidence rate and proportion of concussions from contact to the lateral aspect of the head decreased, as did the proportion of concussions following direct hits to the head.

Knee pain among athletes influenced by several factors at Bangladesh

Objectives: To expose the injured participant’s age, training duration and sporting event, identify other associated knee injuries, extract the types of injury, identify recurrence of injuries among the athlete, and know about the management of injury (medication, physiotherapy or both). Methods: A quantitative cross-sectional study design was chosen to achieve the objectives of the study. 40 subjects were selected through convenience sampling technique from the athlete, who trained in BKSP by using a structural questionnaire to collect data. Results: The factors of knee pain 78% (n=29) among the 40 participants. Among the injured participants most affected age was 17, 20.0% (n=8). Male athlete are more affected at the percentage of 77.5% (n=31). 42.5% (n=17) participants are suffered from ACL injury who are trainees of athletics and 41% (n=16) participants are injured whom training event is 2 years. Along with ACL injury 10.0% (n=4) participants are suffered from meniscus injury. 90.0% (n=36) injured participants are affected by direct hit and recurrence rate is 10.0% (n=4). Among 40 affected participants 41% (n=16) participants do their warm up cool down activities for 15 to 20 minutes and most of them about 60.0% (n=24) taken both medicines and physiotherapy treatment. Conclusion: The vulnerable age range 15-20 was frequent injury occurring among Athlete and noticeably flexibility and overuse are the key issues to cause of injury. Health education and perform regular physical activity along with physio therapeutic exercises can prevent injury.

An ever-present Gaia snail shell triggered by a dark matter wake

ABSTRACT We utilize a novel numerical technique to model star formation in cosmological simulations of galaxy formation – called superstars – to simulate a Milky Way-like galaxy with ≳108 star particles to study the formation and evolution of out-of-equilibrium stellar disc structures in a full cosmological setting. In the plane defined by the coordinate and velocity perpendicular to the mid-plane [vertical phase space, (Z, VZ)], stars in solar-like volumes at late times exhibit clear spirals qualitatively similar in shape and amplitude to the Gaia ‘snail shell’ phase spiral. We show that the phase spiral forms at a lookback time of ∼6 Gyr during the pericentric passage of an ∼1010$\rm {\rm M}_{\odot }$ satellite on a polar orbit. This satellite stimulates the formation of a resonant wake in the dark matter halo while losing mass at a rate of ∼0.5–1 dex per orbit loop. The peak magnitude of the wake-induced gravitational torque at the solar radius is ∼8 times that from the satellite, and triggers the formation of a disc warp that wraps up into a vertical phase spiral over time. As the wake decays, the phase spiral propagates several gigayears to present day and can be described as ‘ever-present’ once stable disc evolution is established. These results suggest an alternative scenario to explain the Gaia phase spiral, which does not rely on a perturbation from bar buckling or a recent direct hit from a satellite.

Impact of Nearby Lightning Strikes on Wireless Power Transfer Ground Assembly

Direct hits from Lightning Strikes (LS) are commonly recognized as dangerous events for open air installations, but also the much more frequent case of LS hitting nearby can cause overvoltage potentially damaging connected circuits, if not correctly protected. In this paper, adopting a hybrid formulation, we simulate the voltage induced at the terminals of a Wireless Power Transfer (WPT) ground coil by a LS hitting the ground nearby the system. The induced overvoltage has a non-negligible amplitude, depending on the distance of the hit, the tortuosity of the lightning channel, and the inclination of the coil with respect to the ground plane.

Always Be Prepared

Always Be Prepared

Resilience Trustees Program in Hospitals–A Case Study: Wolfson Hospital, Israel

Introduction:Medical and paramedical staff endure a psychological toll of burn-out as part of the heavy personal consequences of their work, with an immeasurable increase during the Covid-19 pandemic outbreak. In Israel, there is an added stress of the highly unstable political situation, including war and racial-riots with direct hits of missiles leading to mass casualty events. Members often had to stay in the hospitals for days as the roads home were blocked. Wolfson Medical Center (WMC) is a medium size, level II hospital in the center of Israel. It serves a complex population, most from low to medium socioeconomic status, and a large population of displaced persons. The responsibilities of the staff weigh heavy, leading to psychological trauma, with clear signs of anxiety, depression and suicide.Israel Trauma Coalition (ITC) is a non-profit organization collaborating with over 40 organizations to create a continuum of care in psycho-trauma, response and preparedness.Method:ITC has initiated a Resilience-Trustees program, establishing a strong and active group within the organization, with adequate representation from each department and profession. Training the team to identify a colleague in distress, to respond adequately and to refer to professional help as needed. The program has started implementation in various hospitals in Israel, including WMC.Results:The expected results of this program is a change in the organization's culture of discourse and daily interaction so as to promote resilience and mutual trust and to help cope favorably with crisis situations. The actual results will be shown through a case study of the WMC team of Resilience Trustees, in accordance with the steps of the program (resilience in the original team, then the overall staff).Conclusion:This initiative will promote awareness and acceptance of mental, personal and team difficulties, as well as reduce risks of secondary traumatization, burnout and other disorders.

Federated Deep Reinforcement Learning for Recommendation-Enabled Edge Caching in Mobile Edge-Cloud Computing Networks

To support rapidly increasing services and applications from users, multi-tier computing is emerged as a promising system-level computing architecture by distributing computing/caching/communication/networking capabilities between cloud servers to users, especially deploying edge servers at network edges (e.g., base stations). However, due to heterogeneous content requests of users and a high-cost hit manner with direct hits, edge caching is still a most serious issue to be addressed. In this paper, we investigate the issue of recommendation-enabled edge caching in mobile two-tier (edge-cloud) computing networks. Particularly, we integrate recommender systems and edge caching to support both direct hits and soft hits and thus improve the resource utilization of edge servers. We model the factors affecting the user quality of experience as a comprehensive system cost and further formulate the problem as a multi-agent Markov decision process with the goal of minimizing the long-term average system cost. To address the formulated problem, we propose a decentralized recommendation-enabled edge caching framework that leverages a discrete multi-agent variant of soft actor-critic and federated learning. The proposed framework enables each edge server to learn its best policy locally and generate judicious decisions independently. Finally, trace-driven simulation results demonstrate that the proposed framework converges to a better caching policy and outperforms several existing algorithms on average system cost reduction.

Identification of novel human nicotinamide N-methyltransferase inhibitors: a structure-based pharmacophore modeling and molecular dynamics approach

Human nicotinamide N-methyltransferase (hNNMT) is a cytosolic enzyme associated in the phase-II metabolism, belonging to the S-adenosyl-L-methionine (SAM)-dependent methyltransferases family. Overexpression of hNNMT was observed in diseases such as metabolic disorders and different types of cancers, which suggest NNMT as a prospective therapeutic target. In this study we propose a structure-based pharmacophore model to understand the structural features responsible for the pharmacological activity. The generated model was validated using the ROC curve (AUC), goodness of hit score (GH), specificity, sensitivity and enrichment factor (EF). The pharmacophore was employed to retrieve active molecules from the ZINC database, followed by virtual-screening and molecular docking. Six molecules with the best pharmfit score, binding energy and ADMET properties were identified in this study. A 150 ns molecular dynamics simulation was performed on the selected molecules complexed with hNNMT protein to validate the results. The molecules ZINC35464499, ZINC13311192, ZINC31159282, ZINC14650833, ZINC14819515 and ZINC00303881 were identified, which could be act as the potential hNNMT inhibitors and can also be used as direct hits for developing novel hNNMT antagonists. Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma