Title: Selected fitness aspects of professional firefighters competing in fire sport and TFA Objectives: The aim of the thesis was to find out the level and the difference in the parameters of body constitution, postural stability and muscular and explosive force of lower limbs with groups of professional firemen competing in fire sport and TFA Methods: The research sample was represented by two groups of professional firemen (17 fire sportsmen and 17 TFA competitors). We assessed chosen parameters of body constitution (Tanita MC-980MA), postural stability (RS Footscan), explosive force (Kistler) and muscular force (Cybex Humac Norm). Assessed parameters of body constitution were percentage of body fat and fatless matter. In the tests of postural stability we assessed total travel way of the centre of pressure (TTW), narrow stand (open and closed eyes) and one-leg stand (right, left). When testing explosive force, overall produced maximal force and height of the leap were assessed. Muscular force was assessed with the help of muscular force moment in concentric muscle activity with angular velocity 60ř·s-1. Results: We found out a significant difference between the two groups in the tests of postural stability - narrow stand with open and closed eyes (F1,32 = 9,94, p<0,01), in the tests of...

Title: Developing the explosive strength of the lower extremities of the players of the extra league team in volleyball. Subject: Measuring the jump height of twelve players of the extra league team. Objectives: Measure to see if it is possible, by systematically training the explosive strength of the lower extremities, to increase the jump height for volleyball players after a period of three months. Results: To compare the results of each single measurement with the first measurement performed prior to systematic training of the explosive strength of the lower extremities Key words: Development, explosive strenght, lower extremities, player, volleyball, team.

Title: The Effects of a warm-up on the performance of football players Objectives: The comparison of influence of two types of warm-up before and after a physical activity on performance of U19 football players. Testing of subsequent post-warm-up performance focused on acceleration, explosive power and agility. Methods: In this empirical-theoretical thesis, a total of twenty-four U19 football players, divided in two experimental groups, is tested. The players within each group undertook either a complete dynamic warm-up or a shorter warm-up without the dynamic component. The performance was tested after the warm-up utilizing four tests - an acceleration run test on 30 m, a standing long jump, a foul throw and a shuttle run. The same tests were conducted again after an interlaid physical activity. The same procedure was repeated after a week when the two groups swapped the warm-up methods. Statistical analyses were employed to evaluate the results. Results: The hypothesis 1, assuming a positive effect of a complete dynamic warm-up on the performance before the physical activity was on one hand supported in the acceleration run on 30 m and the foul throw. On the other hand, no distinctive advantage of a complete dynamic warm-up was observed for the standing long jump and the shuttle run. Hypothesis 2...

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / With bombings in the United States on the rise for the first time since 2016, the detection and identification of explosives remains of pertinent interest to law enforcement agencies. This work presents two soon-to-be published research articles that focus on the detection and identification of explosives by both chemical instrumentation and canines. The first article, Quantitative Analysis of Smokeless Powder Particles in Post-Blast Debris via Gas Chromatography/Vacuum Ultraviolet Spectroscopy (GC/VUV), utilizes gas chromatography/vacuum ultraviolet spectroscopy (GC/VUV) to determine the difference in chemical composition of two smokeless powders in both pre- and post-blast conditions. The compounds of interest in this study were nitroglycerin, 2,4- dinitrotoluene, diphenylamine, ethyl centralite, and di-n-butyl phthalate. Concentration changes between pre- and post-blast smokeless powder particles were determined as well as microscopic differences between pre- and post-blast debris for both smokeless powders in all devices. To our knowledge, this is the first use of GC/VUV for the quantification of explosives. The second article, An Odor-Permeable Membrane Device for the Storage of Canine Training Aids, proposes the use of an odor-permeable membrane device (OPMD) as a standardized storage method for canine training aids. It is hypothesized that the OPMD would minimize cross-contamination between training aids, and that the OPMD could be used for canine training as well as storage. The goal of this research is to use flux and evaporation rate to quantify the explosive odor that escapes from the OPMD compared to unconfined explosives. Preliminary data suggests that there is an exponential relationship between relative boiling point and evaporation rate. It has been determined that compounds with higher boiling points have lower evaporation rates than compounds that have lower boiling points. The materials studied thus far are known odor compounds produced by explosive formulations. These include nitromethane, nitroethane, 1- nitropropane, r-limonene, and toluene.

<p>The transformation of mechanical energy into thermal energy within composite energetic materials through various thermomechanical mechanisms is thought to lead to the creation of localized areas of intense heating. The growth of these “hot spots” is responsible for the bulk reaction or decomposition of the energetic material. Understanding the formation and growth of these hot spots has been an active area of research particularly for high-speed impact and shock conditions, but further work remains to be done in particular with respect to hot spot formation due to periodic mechanical excitation. Previous literature has established that many potential thermomechanical mechanisms may act at the interface between the constituent components of a composite energetic material. In order to provide further insight and guidance into the design of safer and more resilient energetic materials, the role of adhesion on hot spot formation for polymer bonded explosives (PBXs), a subset of composite energetic materials, was explored. Single HMX (1,3,5,7-tetranitro-1,3,5,7-tetrazocane) crystals in polymer blocks were subjected to ultrasonic excitation and subsequent heating was captured via infrared thermography. Subsequent testing of HMX PBXs using a drop weight tower captured changes in the sensitivity of the energetic material. Variation of the polymer binder allowed for a range of adhesive and mechanical properties to be examined. These experiments on the role of adhesion under these kinds of excitations provided insight into how mechanical energy is being transformed into localized heating.</p>

Blast profiles and two primary methods of determining them were reviewed for use in the creation of a computer program for calculating blast pressures which serves as a design tool to aid engineers or analysts in the study of structures subjected to explosive air blast. These methods were integrated into a computer program, BLAST.F, to generate air blast pressure profiles by one of these two differing methods. These two methods were compared after the creation of the program and can conservatively model the effects of spherical air blast and hemispherical surface burst. The code, BLAST.F, was used in conjunction with a commercial finite element code (NASTRAN) in a demonstration of method on a 30 by 30 inch aluminum 2519 quarter plate of fixed boundary conditions in hemispherical ground burst and showed good convergence with 256 elements for deflection and good agreement in equivalent stresses of a point near the blast between the 256 and 1024 element examples. Application of blasts to a hypothetical wing comprised of aluminum 7075-T6 was also conducted showing good versatility of method for using this program with other finite element models. / Master of Science

<p>Analysis of explosives (intact and post-blast) is of interest to the forensic science community to qualitatively identify the explosive(s) in an improvised explosive device (IED). This requires high sensitivity, selectivity, and specificity. Forensic science laboratories typically utilize visual/microscopic exams, spectroscopic analysis (e.g., Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR)) and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) for explosive analysis/identification. However, GC/MS has limitations for explosive analysis due to difficulty differentiating between structural isomers (e.g., 2,4-dinitrotoluene, 2,5-dinitrotoluene and 2,6-dinitrotoluene) and thermally labile compounds (e.g., ethylene glycol dinitrate (EGDN), nitroglycerine (NG) and pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN)) due to mass spectra with very similar fragmentation patterns. </p><p>The development of a benchtop vacuum ultraviolet spectrometer coupled to a gas chromatography (GC/VUV) was developed in 2014 with a wavelength region of 120 nm to 430 nm. GC/VUV can overcome limitations in differentiating explosive compounds that produces similar mass spectra. This work encompasses analysis of explosive compounds via GC/VUV to establish the sensitivity, selectivity, and specificity for the potential application for forensic explosive analysis. Nitrate ester and nitramine explosive compounds thermally decompose in the VUV flow cell resulting in higher specificity due to fine structure in the VUV spectra. These fine structures originate as vibronic and Rydberg transitions in the small decomposition compounds (nitric oxide, carbon monoxide, formaldehyde, water, and oxygen) and were analyzed computationally. The thermal decomposition process was further investigated for the determination of decomposition temperatures for the nitrate ester and nitramine compounds which range between 244 ºC and 277 ºC. Nitrated compounds were extensively investigated to understand the absorption characteristics of the nitro functional group in the VUV region. The nitro absorption maximum appeared over a wide range (170 - 270 nm) with the wavelength and intensity being highly dependent upon the structure of the rest of the molecule. Finally, the GC/VUV system was optimized for post-blast debris analysis. Parameters optimized include the final temperature of a ramped multimode inlet program (200 ºC), GC carrier gas flow rate (1.9 mL/min), and VUV make-up gas pressure (0.00 psi). The transfer line/flow cell temperature was determined not to be statistically significant.</p><br>

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(人間・環境学) / 甲第21176号 / 人博第848号 / 新制||人||203(附属図書館) / 29||人博||848(吉田南総合図書館) / 京都大学大学院人間・環境学研究科相関環境学専攻 / (主査)教授 加藤 眞, 教授 市岡 孝朗, 教授 瀬戸口 浩彰 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Human and Environmental Studies / Kyoto University / DFAM

Explosive precursors and narcotic salts are chemicals contributing to an undesirabledevelopment of the Swedish society, both in terms of criminal activities and harm to the environment. Reducing the illegal use of these chemicals is important in the work towards a safer society. National Forensic Centre (NFC) is the state agency responsible for forensic investigations for the Swedish Police Authority. The Drug Analysis and ChemistryTechnology section at NFC were both in need for an accurate quantification method to determine the content of Cl in narcotic salts and explosive precursors. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy was assessed to be suitable since a recently published article had shown applicability of 35Cl NMR on narcotic salts. The aim of the method was to find the most appropriate parameter settings for the compounds of interest, including operating frequency, 90° pulse length, number of scans, relaxation time, and relaxation delay. To ensure a reliable and accurate method, the following validation parameters were studied; linearity, limit of detection (LOD), limit of quantification (LOQ), intermediate precision, trueness, repeatability, and ruggedness. Dimethyl sulfoxide (d6-DMSO) was chosen as the preferredsolvent for the Drug Analysis section since it is a common solvent for their 1H-NMR analysis. For explosive precursors results showed advantages of using deuterium oxide (D!O) as solvent, considering accuracy, solubility and shorter analysis time.Concluding, the chosen criteria of signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio &gt;6 resulted in an LOQ of around 0.15g/L, though this was dependent upon the number of scans utilized. Successful pulse length experiments determined exact 90° pulse lengths for each sample and solvent combination. The longitudinal relaxation time T1 was also successfully determined, and since it was multiplied with five to ensure complete relaxation to stable state the relaxation delay D1was assumed as an insignificant parameter for the determination of chloride. Quantification was based upon the pulse-length based concentration determination (PULCON) using an external standard. The ruggedness can be studied additionally by another experienced operator (since trueness was strongly dependent upon the preparation of the external standard solution). The method displayed good linearity over the mass range normally utilized in such quantifications. The conclusion drawn in the thesis is that the method shows great promise but additional analyzes are still required before implementation at NFC

Therapeutic alliance is widely considered one of the factors most associated with treatment success in psychotherapy across a variety of outcomes. However, these effects may differ based on treatment approach or who is rating alliance (client, therapist, or third-party observer). Notably, research on this relationship among individuals with primary aggression problems is limited, with no study to date investigating therapeutic alliance in psychotherapy among individuals with intermittent explosive disorder (IED), the only psychiatric disorder for which affective aggression is pathognomonic. The current study sought to fill this gap by exploring the role of therapeutic alliance on a range of outcomes among 51 adults with IED who participated in a randomized clinical trial comparing cognitive-behavioral and supportive psychotherapy. Therapeutic alliance was assessed by clients, therapists, and an observer at week four of treatment, and outcomes included time in treatment, anger, aggression, emotion dysregulation, and IED remission status. Results showed that alliance was positively associated with reduced anger and aggression at post-treatment. Although alliance was more highly rated in the cognitive-behavioral condition, the alliance-outcome relationship did not differ based on treatment condition. There were no differences found between raters of alliance. These findings support the importance of developing and maintaining a strong relationship in psychotherapy with individuals diagnosed with IED. / Psychology