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It is well established that the male sex is associated with increased risk for, as well as poorer survival of, most cancers. A similar pattern has been described in lymphomas but has not yet been comprehensively assessed. In this nationwide population-based cohort study, we used the Swedish Lymphoma Register to investigate sex differences in lymphoma subtype incidence and excess mortality in adults (age 18-99) diagnosed in 2000-2019. Male-to-female incidence rate ratios (IRRs) and excess mortality ratios (EMRs) adjusted for age and calendar year were predicted using Poisson regression. We identified 36 795 lymphoma cases, 20 738 (56.4%) in men and 16 057 (43.6%) in women. Men were at significantly higher risk of 14 out of 16 lymphoma subtypes with IRRs ranging from 1.15 (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.09-1.22) in follicular lymphoma to 5.95 (95% CI 4.89-7.24) in hairy cell leukemia. EMRs >1 were seen in 13 out of 16 lymphoma subtypes indicating higher mortality in men, although only statistically significant for classical Hodgkin lymphoma 1.26 (95% CI 1.04-1.54), aggressive lymphoma not otherwise specified 1.29 (95% CI 1.08-1.55), and small lymphocytic lymphoma 1.52 (95% CI 1.11-2.07). A corresponding analysis using data from the Danish Lymphoma Register was performed with comparable results. In conclusion, we demonstrate a significantly higher incidence and trend toward higher mortality in men for most lymphoma subtypes. Future studies with large patient material that include detailed clinicopathological prognostic factors are warranted to further delineate and explain sex differences in lymphoma survival to enable optimal management of lymphoma patients regardless of sex.

All bats possess eyes that are of adaptive value. Echolocating bats have retinae dominated by rod photoreceptors and use dim light vision for navigation, and in rare cases for hunting. However, the visual detection threshold of insectivorous echolocating bats remains unknown. Here we determine this threshold for the vespertilionid bat Myotis daubentonii. We show that for a green luminous target, M. daubentonii has a visual luminance threshold of 3.2±0.9×10−4 candela/m2, an intensity corresponding to the luminance of an open cloudless terrestrial habitat on a starlit night. Our results show that echolocating bats have good visual sensitivity, allowing them to see when they are active. Together with previous results showing that M. daubentonii has poor visual acuity (∼0.6 cycles/deg), suggests that echolocating bats do not use vision to hunt but rather to orient themselves.

Multimicrophone array techniques offer crucial insight into bat echolocation, yet they severely undersample the environments bats operate in as they are limited in geographic placement and mobility. UAVs are excellent candidates to greatly increase the environments in which such arrays can be deployed, but the impact of UAV noise on recording quality and the UAV's behavioral impact on the bats may affect usability. We developed a UAV-borne multimicrophone setup capable of recording bat echolocation across diverse environments. We quantify and mitigate the impact of UAV noise on the recording setup and test the recording capability of the array by recording four common Danish bat species

Previous studies have compared slip resistance of commercially available footwear, however, often lacking the ability to isolate factors such as material and surface properties, or/and geometry. The aim of this study was to compare slip resistance of geometrically identical shoes with varying outsole materials. Three left Ecco Xpedition III shoes were constructed out of three different outsole materials: polyurethane (PU), thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) and vulcanised rubber (RU). The shoes were tested for dynamic coefficient of friction (DCOF) on a steel and a tile surface, without contamination and with glycerine and canola oil as contaminants. The shoes were significantly (p < 0.001) different from each other across all surface/contaminant conditions/combinations, with the PU having a significantly 61–125% (p < 0.001) higher DCOF on contaminated surfaces compared to the RU outsole. Practitioner summary: Previous research has suggested the importance of studying individual parameters separately of footwear in relation to slip resistance. In this study, we managed to construct geometrically identical shoes and compare the slip resistance between three different outsole materials. We found that the polyurethane outsole was the least slippery choice of material for this specific footwear model on contaminated surfaces.

Echolocating bats can detect, localize, classify, pursue, and capture night-flying insects in less than a second. During pursuit, aerial hawking bats dynamically change their emitted calls as they approach prey, increasing call rate, reducing call duration, increasing bandwidth, and reducing source level. Additionally, many bat species dynamically control the shape of the emitted echolocation beam by broadening the beam in close proximity to prey. However, the acoustic scene, as experienced by the bats, depends as much on the characteristics of the emitted call as on the shape and orientation of the outer ears. We show that aerial-hawking bats also dynamically modify the shape and orientation of the outer ear in synchrony with changes to the emitted beam during prey pursuit. We believe that it is the combination of all these dynamic changes, both to the emitted call and to the receiving morphology, that underlie the effectiveness with which bats navigate and forage in the night sky.

In this chapter, the authors review basic concepts about echolocation, the variety of animals known to echolocate, the production of echolocation signals, the different types of echolocation signals, the hearing anatomy, and how echolocating animals use echolocation. The differences between echolocation signals in air versus water are discussed. Echolocation abilities have been studied intensively in bats and toothed whales, the two groups with the most sophisticated echolocation systems in terms of physiological specializations and performance. Echolocation has also been documented in oilbirds and swiftlets; and a crude form of echo-based orientation may be present in tenrecs and shrews.The authors emphasize that the ability to produce ultrasonic sounds does not necessarily imply an echolocation function. Most echolocators (i.e., a select group of bats, toothed whales, oilbirds, and swiftlets) use broadband clicks, but the majority of bats produce tonal echolocation signals of constant frequency, frequency modulation, or a combination of both. Most echolocators cannot broadcast and receive echolocation signals at the same time but separate each outgoing pulse from its returning echoes in time to detect the echoes and avoid masking caused by overlap with the outgoing signal. However, three families of bats can tolerate pulse-echo overlap and use the Doppler shift to identify prey items.A primary advantage of echolocation is allowing animals to operate and orient independently of ambient light conditions. At the same time, information leakage is a primary disadvantage of echolocation. The signals used in echolocation are audible to many other animals, such as competing conspecifics, predators, and prey.

This study conducted friction experiments of three elastomer block materials on ice (low pressure injection of polyurethane (PU), injection moulding of a thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) and vulcanization of rubber (RU)), with a linear tribometer operating under four different ambient air temperatures (-10 °C to 0 °C) and six different sliding velocities (0.3 to 5 m/s). At low temperatures (-10 °C and -5 °C), the RU material showed the highest dynamic and static friction. However, at high temperatures (-2 °C and 0 °C) the PU revealed the highest dynamic friction and highest static friction at 0 °C. We discuss the physical phenomena’s of elastomer friction on ice and in relation to the application of footwear slipping on ice.

Adequate friction between footwear and surface is essential to reduce the risk of slipping (Chang et al., 2001) and maximise athletic performance (Luo & Stefanyshyn, 2011). Footwear outsole materia...

Introduction: The contact mechanism between shoe and surface is crucial in order to avoid slipping and falling, enhance sporting performance or minimize the risk of sport injuries. However, studying this contact mechanism, between footwear and surface, is challenging and violates the traditional Amontons–Coulomb’s law of friction, due to the viscoelastic outsole materials. Hence, replicating the biomechanical test conditions are of great importance, when determining the friction properties of footwear. The aim of this study is to present a test-setup able to replicate biomechanical relevant test conditions.Approach/Methods: The test-setup consisted of a steel frame designed to maintain the position of a shoe, mounted above a force plate. The force plate is attached on top of a hydraulic platform, which makes it possible to move vertical and horizontal. Discussion & Significance: This study presents a new test setup that can characterize the tribological behavior of shoe and surface in a traditional way, by following the traditional ISO 13287 standards, but more importantly also being able to add a novel impacting approach to the test of footwear, which is arguably more biomechanically relevant.

Sprains to the lateral ligaments of the ankle joint are the most common type of acute musculoskeletal injuries (Vuurberg et al., 2018). These injuries are especially prevalent in indoor sports wher...

All animals are adapted to their ecology within the bounds of their evolutionary heritage. Echolocating bats clearly show such adaptations and boundaries through their biosonar call design. Adaptations include not only the overall time-frequency structure, but also the shape of the emitted echolocation beam.

Traction is widely regarded as essential to sporting performance. However, high traction also increases lower limb injury risk (Pasanen, Parkkari, Rossi, & Kannus, 2008). Indoor sports shoes are ge...

All echolocating bats and whales measured to date emit a directional bio-sonar beam that affords them a number of advantages over an omni-directional beam, i.e. reduced clutter, increased source level and inherent directional information. In this study, we investigated the importance of directional sound emission for navigation through echolocation by measuring the sonar beam of brown long-eared bats

It has previously been speculated that the occurrence and severity of lateral ankle sprain injuries is linked to excessive shoe-surface friction. The purpose of this study was to assess the amount of lateral edge friction in indoor sports shoes, and evaluate the variation from the traditional forefoot traction test. Therefore, we modified the ISO:12387:2019 test for slip resistance and positioned the shoe on its lateral edge while simulating a sideways movement. All tests were conducted on an indoor surface. In general, we found that lateral edge friction on average was 22% lower than forefoot friction (p

It has previously been speculated that the occurrence and severity of lateral ankle sprain injuries is linked to excessive shoe–surface friction. Especially, the lateral parts of the shoe outsole are suggested to play an important role in such scenarios but have never been quantified in a systematic manner. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the variation of friction of indoor sport shoes with foot orientation and compare it to the traditional industry forefoot friction test standard. We modified the ISO:13287:2019 test for footwear slip resistance and positioned the shoe on its forefoot and lateral edge while replicating medio-lateral movements similar to previously reported ankle sprain incidents. All tests were conducted on an indoor vinyl/sport surface. The results from the modified setups were compared to those following the anterior-posterior orientated ISO standard. Medio-lateral friction was on average 17% lower and lateral edge friction 24% lower than anterior-posterior forefoot friction (p