Biosignal-based transferable attention Bi-ConvGRU deep network for hand-gesture recognition towards online upper-limb prosthesis control.

Background And Objective: Upper-limb amputation can significantly affect a person's capabilities with a dramatic impact on their quality of life. As a biological signal, surface electromyogram (sEMG) provides a non-invasive means to measure underlying muscle activation patterns, corresponding to specific hand gestures. This project aims to develop a real-time deep learning based recognition model to automatically and reliably recognise these complex signals of a wide range of daily hand gestures from amputees and non-amputees.

SARS-CoV-2 viability on sports equipment is limited, and dependent on material composition.

The control of the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK has necessitated restrictions on amateur and professional sports due to the perceived infection risk to competitors, via direct person to person transmission, or possibly via the surfaces of sports equipment. The sharing of sports equipment such as tennis balls was therefore banned by some sport's governing bodies. We sought to investigate the potential of sporting equipment as transmission vectors of SARS-CoV-2.

The Potential for Transmission of Coronaviruses via Sports Equipment; A Cricket Case Study.

A review of literature on the role of fomites in transmission of coronaviruses informed the development of a framework which was used to qualitatively analyse a cricket case study, where equipment is shared and passed around, and identify potential mitigation strategies. A range of pathways were identified that might in theory allow coronavirus transmission from an infected person to a non-infected person via communal or personal equipment fomites or both. Eighteen percent of potential fomite based interactions were found to be non-essential to play including all contact with another persons equipment.

The Potential for Airborne Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in Sport: A Cricket Case Study.

A review of risk factors affecting airborne transmission of SARS-CoV-2 was synthesised into an 'easy-to-apply' visual framework. Using this framework, video footage from two cricket matches were visually analysed, one pre-COVID-19 pandemic and one 'COVID-19 aware' game in early 2020. The number of opportunities for one participant to be exposed to biological secretions belonging to another participant was recorded as an exposure, as was the estimated severity of exposure as defined from literature.

Perceived Links Between Playing Surfaces and Injury: a Worldwide Study of Elite Association Football Players.

Background: Injuries in association football (soccer) are debilitating for players and can also be detrimental to the success of a team or club. The type or condition of a playing surface has been empirically linked to injuries, yet results are inconclusive. The overall purpose of this study was to analyse elite football players' perceived links between playing surfaces and injury from a worldwide cohort of players.

Evaluation of a Kinematically-Driven Finite Element Footstrike Model.

A dynamic finite element model of a shod running footstrike was developed and driven with 6 degree of freedom foot segment kinematics determined from a motion capture running trial. Quadratic tetrahedral elements were used to mesh the footwear components with material models determined from appropriate mechanical tests. Model outputs were compared with experimental high-speed video (HSV) footage, vertical ground reaction force (GRF), and center of pressure (COP) excursion to determine whether such an approach is appropriate for the development of athletic footwear.

Measuring the risk of sustaining injury in sport a novel approach to aid the re-design of personal protective equipment.

Despite the possibilities offered by new approaches in design and advances in materials and manufacturing methods, few items of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) used in sport have seen significant change for many decades. A major reason for this is the tradition and conservative attitudes associated with many sports, although the absence of appropriate tools and techniques to assist the design and development process has also played a large part. The aim of this study was to develop the first stage of a method of identifying specific regions of the human anatomy that are at the greatest risk of sustaining injury during participation in sports in which the player is subjected to multiple ballistic impacts.

Nonperturbing measurements of spatially distributed underwater acoustic fields using a scanning laser Doppler vibrometer.

Localized changes in the density of water induced by the presence of an acoustic field cause perturbations in the localized refractive index. This relationship has given rise to a number of nonperturbing optical metrology techniques for recording measurement parameters from underwater acoustic fields. A method that has been recently developed involves the use of a Laser Doppler Vibrometer (LDV) targeted at a fixed, nonvibrating, plate through an underwater acoustic field.