… “I wouldn’t say it feels like a brand new team, but I think you can definitely tell people are starting to get more comfortable and you see people develop chemistry and things like that,” Samuelson said. “That’s something that as we continue to move forward, is going to continue to grow.”
Although the record suggests otherwise, developing chemistry and establishing roles for a Storm team with five newcomers have been elusive commodities considering Seattle has rolled out five different lineups in its first seven games.
At the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic last year, Rams left tackle Andrew Whitworth began outfitting his garage with gym equipment.
Whitworth did not initially envision that it would become a workout spot for Rams teammates. But the 15-year veteran said all offensive linemen, except for recently drafted rookies, have spent this offseason training together in his Westlake Village home gym.
“Most of the guys just call it ‘The Dojo,’ right now,” Whitworth said Tuesday during a videoconference, adding, “Everybody’s involved and invested in it and that’s made it unique. It’s created a really special bond between us.”
The Detroit Pistons hired John Beilein as a senior adviser for player development Wednesday, saying the hope is that the former NBA and Michigan coach can help the young team “maximize its potential.”
Owner Tom Gores credited coach Dwane Casey for the decision to add the 68-year-old Beilein.
“There is nothing more important to our franchise right now than the growth and development of our players,” Gores said. “Having spent time with John, we all know he is one of the best teachers in the game of basketball at any level. ”
… Leicester City’s revamp of their medical team has continued with the recruitment of two new staff members.
City made changes to the structure of their backroom team at the start of the season, a move that saw long-term head physio Dave Rennie leave the club and Bryan English arrive as club doctor.
… They have a new coaching staff with offensive and defensive systems that have been used by recent Super Bowl teams, instilling confidence in the players. Led by coach Robert Saleh, the staff is youthful and energetic. They also have made changes on an organizational level — some of them subtle — which will change the way the Jets do business.
Hey, why not? Business hasn’t been good since January 2011, when they reached the AFC Championship Game for the second straight year.
“We have a system that’s shown to work,” Jets linebacker C.J. Mosley said last week. “Our job as players is to come in every day and make sure we buy into the system, that we buy into the new way of the Jets — all gas, no brake — and we bring it to the field when it’s ready.”
That’s Saleh’s mantra — All gas, no brake — and it appears throughout the team facility.
PLOS One; Luis G. Rosa, Jonathan S. Zia, Omer T. Inan, Gregory S. Sawicki from
Background and objective
Dynamic muscle fascicle length measurements through B-mode ultrasound have become popular for the non-invasive physiological insights they provide regarding musculoskeletal structure-function. However, current practices typically require time consuming post-processing to track muscle length changes from B-mode images. A real-time measurement tool would not only save processing time but would also help pave the way toward closed-loop applications based on feedback signals driven by in vivo muscle length change patterns. In this paper, we benchmark an approach that combines traditional machine learning (ML) models with B-mode ultrasound recordings to obtain muscle fascicle length changes in real-time. To gauge the utility of this framework for ‘in-the-loop’ applications, we evaluate accuracy of the extracted muscle length change signals against time-series’ derived from a standard, post-hoc automated tracking algorithm. Methods
We collected B-mode ultrasound data from the soleus muscle of six participants performing five defined ankle motion tasks: (a) seated, constrained ankle plantarflexion, (b) seated, free ankle dorsi/plantarflexion, (c) weight-bearing, calf raises (d) walking, and then a (e) mix. We trained machine learning (ML) models by pairing muscle fascicle lengths obtained from standardized automated tracking software (UltraTrack) with the respective B-mode ultrasound image input to the tracker, frame-by-frame. Then we conducted hyperparameter optimizations for five different ML models using a grid search to find the best performing parameters for a combination of high correlation and low RMSE between ML and UltraTrack processed muscle fascicle length trajectories. Finally, using the global best model/hyperparameter settings, we comprehensively evaluated training-testing outcomes within subject (i.e., train and test on same subject), cross subject (i.e., train on one subject, test on another) and within/direct cross task (i.e., train and test on same subject, but different task). Results
Support vector machine (SVM) was the best performing model with an average r = 0.70 ±0.34 and average RMSE = 2.86 ±2.55 mm across all direct training conditions and average r = 0.65 ±0.35 and average RMSE = 3.28 ±2.64 mm when optimized for all cross-participant conditions. Comparisons between ML vs. UltraTrack (i.e., ground truth) tracked muscle fascicle length versus time data indicated that ML tracked images reliably capture the salient qualitative features in ground truth length change data, even when correlation values are on the lower end. Furthermore, in the direct training, calf raises condition, which is most comparable to previous studies validating automated tracking performance during isolated contractions on a dynamometer, our ML approach yielded 0.90 average correlation, in line with other accepted tracking methods in the field. Conclusions
By combining B-mode ultrasound and classical ML models, we demonstrate it is possible to achieve real-time tracking of human soleus muscle fascicles across a number of functionally relevant contractile conditions. This novel sensing modality paves the way for muscle physiology in-the-loop applications that could be used to modify gait via biofeedback or unlock novel wearable device control techniques that could enable restored or augmented locomotion performance.
Communications of the ACM; Xavier Franch, Cristina Palomares, Tony Gorschek from
Requirements Engineering (RE) is a critical area in software development, as figuring out what to develop and include in a product is a cornerstone activity which all others depend upon. Countless studies of unsuccessful development projects report that lack in RE is often a core-contributing failure factor.13 Central in RE is the role that coordinates all its related activities, usually named requirements engineer. Still, empirical evidence on the way companies implement this role is scarce. In this article, we present the results of an interview-based descriptive study involving 24 IT professionals from 12 companies. As a main outcome, we can affirm that all companies assign IT professionals to the requirements engineer role in their projects, but in many different ways, which might impact efficiency of the function. Furthermore, we uncover that requirements engineers often perform other tasks ranging from project’s go vs. no-go decisions to test suite design in addition to handling requirements. Last, the study highlights their need to communicate with many other roles inside the company, from domain experts to system architects.
… The implicit promise of UX for many of us was a burgeoning philosophy of management by inquiry and insight, in which new creative explorations would lead to new questions about human behavior, which in turn would drive the definition of new product and value opportunities. The culture of UX also seemed to necessitate a degree of respect, compassion, and simple humility toward the people who use what we make, and the ways in which their lives and experiences may shape their behavior to look very different from our own. More exposure to this kind of thinking, the theory went, would lead to more demand for it, and the rising tide of human-centered design would pave the way for human-centered enterprises.
That, to put it bluntly, did not happen.
Instead of challenging teams to stretch their thinking to address deeper and subtler user needs, product design practices have become increasingly less insight-driven. UX processes in many organizations these days amount to little more than UX theater, creating the appearance of due diligence and a patina of legitimacy that’s just enough to look like a robust design process to uninformed business leaders and hopeful UX recruits alike.
MIT researchers have created the first fiber with digital capabilities, able to sense, store, analyze, and infer activity after being sewn into a shirt.
Yoel Fink, who is a professor in the departments of materials science and engineering and electrical engineering and computer science, a Research Laboratory of Electronics principal investigator, and the senior author on the study, says digital fibers expand the possibilities for fabrics to uncover the context of hidden patterns in the human body that could be used for physical performance monitoring, medical inference, and early disease detection.
Stretchable and wearable sensors allow intimate integration with the human body for health and fitness monitoring. In addition to the acquisition of various physical parameters, quantitative analysis of chemical biomarkers present in sweat may provide vital insights into the physiological state of an individual. A widely investigated system utilizes electrochemical techniques for continuous monitoring of these biomarkers. The required supporting electronics and batteries are often challenging to form a deformable system. In this study, an intrinsically stretchable sensing patch is developed with compliant mechanical properties for conformal attachment to the skin and reliable collection of sweat. In these patches, superhydrophilic colorimetric assays consisting of thermoplastic polyurethane nanofiber textiles decorated with silica nanoparticles are assembled over a styrene–ethylene–butylene–styrene-based superhydrophobic substrate, thereby generating a large wettability contrast to efficiently concentrate the sweat. The system supports multiplexed colorimetric analysis of sweat to quantify pH and ion concentrations with images acquired using smartphones, in which the influence of ambient lighting conditions is largely compensated with a set of reference color markers. Successful demonstrations of insitu analysis of sweat after physical exercises effectively illustrate the practical suitability of the sensing patch, which is attractive for advanced health monitoring, clinical diagnostics, and competitive sports.
The coronavirus outbreak brought significant disruption to women’s soccer around the world, with some players going without competition for as many as 250 days, according to a FIFPRO report.
Three-quarters of women’s leagues stopped play because of the pandemic. And national teams were also impacted, with players experiencing a 56% drop in minutes.
The lack of playing time was exacerbated by a women’s competition calendar that is more fragmented than the men’s calendar.
FIFPRO, the international players’ union, released the findings Wednesday in a report on player workload and impact during the coronavirus outbreak. The data was culled from its new Player Workload Management platform.
Jack Flaherty and Fernando Tatis Jr. very well could have – maybe still will – win the National League Cy Young and MVP awards, respectively.
Yet in a span of less than 24 hours, the St. Louis Cardinals ace and San Diego Padres shortstop suffered oblique injuries, the latest stars succumbing to what can only be described as an unstoppable epidemic in Major League Baseball.
Flaherty tore his oblique muscle during a Monday start at Dodger Stadium; his absence will be measured in months, not weeks. Tatis, 23, was removed with oblique tightness one night later and the cautious maneuver left manager Jayce Tingler “optimistic we caught it before things got bad.”
Tatis has already made two trips to the injured list, due to a shoulder injury, but looks to have dodged a bullet in joining dozens of others to suffer a soft tissue injury – pulls, strains or tears of the hamstring, oblique quadriceps or groin – ravaging MLB one year after a pandemic-shortened season.
SI.com, Fan Nation, All Syracuse blog, Mike McCallister from
The role technology plays in recruiting has been on the rise over the last decade. The reliance on technologies increased exponentially during the pandemic that impacted nearly the entire 2021 recruiting cycle and a large portion of the 2022 cycle. How does Syracuse utilize technology to help evaluate players? We recently spoke to Syracuse Director of Recruiting Kramer Cook to find out.