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Sample records for constraint induced movement

  1. Constraint-induced movement therapy after stroke

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Kwakkel, G.; Veerbeek, J.M.; van Wegen, E.E.H.; Wolf, S.L.

    2015-01-01

    Constraint-induced movement therapy (CIMT) was developed to overcome upper limb impairments after stroke and is the most investigated intervention for the rehabilitation of patients. Original CIMT includes constraining of the non-paretic arm and task-oriented training. Modified versions also apply

  2. Neuroplasticity in Constraint-Induced Movement Therapy

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Blicher, Jakob; Near, Jamie; Næss-Schmidt, Erhard

    2014-01-01

    In healthy subjects, decreasing GABA facilitates motor learning[1]. Recent studies, using PET[2], TMS[3-5], and pharmacological challenges[6], have pointed indirectly to a decrease in neuronal inhibitory activity after stroke. Therefore, we hypothesize that a suppression of GABA levels post strok...... might be beneficial to motor recovery during Constraint-Induced Movement Therapy (CIMT)....

  3. Constraint-induced movement therapy promotes brain functional reorganization in stroke patients with hemiplegia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Wenqing; Wang, Aihui; Yu, Limin; Han, Xuesong; Jiang, Guiyun; Weng, Changshui; Zhang, Hongwei; Zhou, Zhiqiang

    2012-01-01

    Stroke patients with hemiplegia exhibit flexor spasms in the upper limb and extensor spasms in the lower limb, and their movement patterns vary greatly. Constraint-induced movement therapy is an upper limb rehabilitation technique used in stroke patients with hemiplegia; however, studies of lower extremity rehabilitation are scarce. In this study, stroke patients with lower limb hemiplegia underwent conventional Bobath therapy for 4 weeks as baseline treatment, followed by constraint-induced movement therapy for an additional 4 weeks. The 10-m maximum walking speed and Berg balance scale scores significantly improved following treatment, and lower extremity motor function also improved. The results of functional MRI showed that constraint-induced movement therapy alleviates the reduction in cerebral functional activation in patients, which indicates activation of functional brain regions and a significant increase in cerebral blood perfusion. These results demonstrate that constraint-induced movement therapy promotes brain functional reorganization in stroke patients with lower limb hemiplegia. PMID:25337108

  4. Constraint-Induced Movement Therapy (CIMT): Pediatric Applications

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brady, Kathleen; Garcia, Teressa

    2009-01-01

    The purpose of this article is to describe theoretical and research bases for constraint-induced movement therapy (CIMT), to discuss key features and variations in protocols currently in use with children, and to review the results of studies of efficacy. CIMT has been found to be an effective intervention for increasing functional use of the…

  5. Constraint-induced movement therapy improves upper limb activity and participation in hemiplegic cerebral palsy: a systematic review

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hsiu-Ching Chiu

    2016-07-01

    Full Text Available Questions: Does constraint-induced movement therapy improve activity and participation in children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy? Does it improve activity and participation more than the same dose of upper limb therapy without restraint? Is the effect of constraint-induced movement therapy related to the duration of intervention or the age of the children? Design: Systematic review of randomised trials with meta-analysis. Participants: Children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy with any level of motor disability. Intervention: The experimental group received constraint-induced movement therapy (defined as restraint of the less affected upper limb during supervised activity practice of the more affected upper limb. The control group received no intervention, sham intervention, or the same dose of upper limb therapy. Outcome measures: Measures of upper limb activity and participation were used in the analysis. Results: Constraint-induced movement therapy was more effective than no/sham intervention in terms of upper limb activity (SMD 0.63, 95% CI 0.20 to 1.06 and participation (SMD 1.21, 95% CI 0.41 to 2.02. However, constraint-induced movement therapy was no better than the same dose of upper limb therapy without restraint either in terms of upper limb activity (SMD 0.05, 95% CI –0.21 to 0.32 or participation (SMD –0.02, 95% CI –0.34 to 0.31. The effect of constraint-induced movement therapy was not related to the duration of intervention or the age of the children. Conclusions: This review suggests that constraint-induced movement therapy is more effective than no intervention, but no more effective than the same dose of upper limb practice without restraint. Registration: PROSPERO CRD42015024665. [Chiu H-C, Ada L (2016 Constraint-induced movement therapy improves upper limb activity and participation in hemiplegic cerebral palsy: a systematic review. Journal of Physiotherapy 62: 130–137

  6. Home-based Constraint Induced Movement Therapy Poststroke

    OpenAIRE

    Stephen Isbel HScD; Christine Chapparo PhD; David McConnell PhD; Judy Ranka PhD

    2014-01-01

    Background: This study examined the efficacy of a home-based Constraint Induced Movement Therapy (CI Therapy) protocol with eight poststroke survivors. Method: Eight ABA, single case experiments were conducted in the homes of poststroke survivors. The intervention comprised restraint of the intact upper limb in a mitt for 21 days combined with a home-based and self-directed daily activity regime. Motor changes were measured using The Wolf Motor Function Test (WMFT) and the Motor Activity L...

  7. Effects of modified constraint-induced movement therapy on reach-to-grasp movements and functional performance after chronic stroke: a randomized controlled study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lin, K-C; Wu, C-Y; Wei, T-H; Lee, C-Y; Liu, J-S

    2007-12-01

    To evaluate changes in (1) motor control characteristics of the hemiparetic hand during the performance of a functional reach-to-grasp task and (2) functional performance of daily activities in patients with stroke treated with modified constraint-induced movement therapy. Two-group randomized controlled trial with pretreatment and posttreatment measures. Rehabilitation clinics. Thirty-two chronic stroke patients (21 men, 11 women; mean age=57.9 years, range=43-81 years) 13-26 months (mean 16.3 months) after onset of a first-ever cerebrovascular accident. Thirty-two patients were randomized to receive modified constraint-induced movement therapy (restraint of the unaffected limb combined with intensive training of the affected limb) or traditional rehabilitation for three weeks. Kinematic analysis was used to assess motor control characteristics as patients reached to grasp a beverage can. Functional outcomes were evaluated using the Motor Activity Log and Functional Independence Measure. There were moderate and significant effects of modified constraint-induced movement therapy on some aspects of motor control of reach-to-grasp and on functional ability. The modified constraint-induced movement therapy group preplanned reaching and grasping (P=0.018) more efficiently and depended more on the feedforward control of reaching (P=0.046) than did the traditional rehabilitation group. The modified constraint-induced movement therapy group also showed significantly improved functional performance on the Motor Activity Log (Pcontrol strategy during goal-directed reaching, a possible mechanism for the improved movement performance of stroke patients undergoing this therapy.

  8. Constraint-induced movement therapy for children with acquired brain injury

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Schmidt Pedersen, Kristina; Pallesen, H.; Kristensen, H. K.

    2016-01-01

    An estimated 125-137 Danish children with acquired brain injury (ABI) require rehabilitation annually, 30-40 of these at a highly specialized level. Constraint-induced movement therapy (CIMT) has shown significant effects in increasing function in children with cerebral palsy. More knowledge of h...

  9. Constraint-induced movement therapy: some thoughts about theories and evidence

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    van der Lee, Johanna H.

    2003-01-01

    Constraint-Induced Movement Therapy (CIMT) is a type of treatment for hemiparetic stroke patients in which the patient is strongly encouraged to use the affected arm. One way of doing this is to immobilise the unaffected arm. This treatment is meant to help patients overcome 'learned non-use'. The

  10. Bobath Concept versus constraint-induced movement therapy to improve arm functional recovery in stroke patients: a randomized controlled trial.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Huseyinsinoglu, Burcu Ersoz; Ozdincler, Arzu Razak; Krespi, Yakup

    2012-08-01

    To compare the effects of the Bobath Concept and constraint-induced movement therapy on arm functional recovery among stroke patients with a high level of function on the affected side. A single-blinded, randomized controlled trial. Outpatient physiotherapy department of a stroke unit. A total of 24 patients were randomized to constraint-induced movement therapy or Bobath Concept group. The Bobath Concept group was treated for 1 hour whereas the constraint-induced movement therapy group received training for 3 hours per day during 10 consecutive weekdays. Main measures were the Motor Activity Log-28, the Wolf Motor Function Test, the Motor Evaluation Scale for Arm in Stroke Patients and the Functional Independence Measure. The two groups were found to be homogeneous based on demographic variables and baseline measurements. Significant improvements were seen after treatment only in the 'Amount of use' and 'Quality of movement' subscales of the Motor Activity Log-28 in the constraint-induced movement therapy group over the the Bobath Concept group (P = 0.003; P = 0.01 respectively). There were no significant differences in Wolf Motor Function Test 'Functional ability' (P = 0.137) and 'Performance time' (P = 0.922), Motor Evaluation Scale for Arm in Stroke Patients (P = 0.947) and Functional Independence Measure scores (P = 0.259) between the two intervention groups. Constraint-induced movement therapy and the Bobath Concept have similar efficiencies in improving functional ability, speed and quality of movement in the paretic arm among stroke patients with a high level of function. Constraint-induced movement therapy seems to be slightly more efficient than the Bobath Concept in improving the amount and quality of affected arm use.

  11. Muscle Recruitment and Coordination following Constraint-Induced Movement Therapy with Electrical Stimulation on Children with Hemiplegic Cerebral Palsy: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kaishou Xu

    Full Text Available To investigate changes of muscle recruitment and coordination following constraint-induced movement therapy, constraint-induced movement therapy plus electrical stimulation, and traditional occupational therapy in treating hand dysfunction.In a randomized, single-blind, controlled trial, children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy were randomly assigned to receive constraint-induced movement therapy (n = 22, constraint-induced movement therapy plus electrical stimulation (n = 23, or traditional occupational therapy (n = 23. Three groups received a 2-week hospital-based intervention and a 6-month home-based exercise program following hospital-based intervention. Constraint-induced movement therapy involved intensive functional training of the involved hand during which the uninvolved hand was constrained. Electrical stimulation was applied on wrist extensors of the involved hand. Traditional occupational therapy involved functional unimanual and bimanual training. All children underwent clinical assessments and surface electromyography (EMG at baseline, 2 weeks, 3 and 6 months after treatment. Surface myoelectric signals were integrated EMG, root mean square and cocontraction ratio. Clinical measures were grip strength and upper extremity functional test.Constraint-induced movement therapy plus electrical stimulation group showed both a greater rate of improvement in integrated EMG of the involved wrist extensors and cocontraction ratio compared to the other two groups at 3 and 6 months, as well as improving in root mean square of the involved wrist extensors than traditional occupational therapy group (p<0.05. Positive correlations were found between both upper extremity functional test scores and integrated EMG of the involved wrist as well as grip strength and integrated EMG of the involved wrist extensors (p<0.05.Constraint-induced movement therapy plus electrical stimulation is likely to produce the best outcome in improving muscle recruitment

  12. Constraint-induced movement therapy in treatment of acute and sub-acute stroke: a meta-analysis of 16 randomized controlled trials

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xi-hua Liu

    2017-01-01

    Results: A total of 16 prospective randomized controlled trials (379 patients in the constraint-induced movement-therapy group and 359 in the control group met inclusion criteria. Analysis showed significant mean differences in favor of constraint-induced movement therapy for the Fugl–Meyer motor assessment of the arm (weighted mean difference (WMD = 10.822; 95% confidence intervals (95% CI: 7.419–14.226, the action research-arm test (WMD = 10.718; 95% CI: 5.704–15.733, the motor activity log for amount of use and quality of movement (WMD = 0.812; 95% CI: 0.331–1.293 and the modified Barthel index (WMD = 10.706; 95% CI: 4.417–16.966. Conclusion: Constraint-induced movement therapy may be more beneficial than traditional rehabilitation therapy for improving upper limb function after acute or sub-acute stroke.

  13. Constraint-induced movement therapy for children with acquired brain injury

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Pedersen, Kristina Schmidt; Pallesen, Hanne; Kristensen, Hanne Kaae

    2016-01-01

    An estimated 125–137 Danish children with acquired brain injury (ABI) require rehabilitation annually, 30–40 of these at a highly specialized level. Constraint-induced movement therapy (CIMT) has shown significant effects in increasing function in children with cerebral palsy. More knowledge of how...... CIMT can be adapted for the rehabilitation of children with ABI is needed. The primary purpose of the study was to generate new knowledge about the pedagogical initiatives and frameworks involved in children’s participation in and activities during CIMT. Four children with ABI participated in the 60 h...

  14. Home-based Constraint Induced Movement Therapy Poststroke

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Stephen Isbel HScD

    2014-10-01

    Full Text Available Background: This study examined the efficacy of a home-based Constraint Induced Movement Therapy (CI Therapy protocol with eight poststroke survivors. Method: Eight ABA, single case experiments were conducted in the homes of poststroke survivors. The intervention comprised restraint of the intact upper limb in a mitt for 21 days combined with a home-based and self-directed daily activity regime. Motor changes were measured using The Wolf Motor Function Test (WMFT and the Motor Activity Log (MAL. Results: Grouped results showed statistically and clinically significant differences on the WMFT (WMFT [timed items]: Mean 7.28 seconds, SEM 1.41, 95% CI 4.40 – 10.18, p = 0.000; WMFT (Functional Ability: z = -4.63, p = 0.000. Seven out of the eight participants exceeded the minimal detectable change on both subscales of the MAL. Conclusion: This study offers positive preliminary data regarding the feasibility of a home-based CI Therapy protocol. This requires further study through an appropriately powered control trial.

  15. Characterizing the protocol for early modified constraint-induced movement therapy in the EXPLICIT-stroke trial

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Nijland, R van; Wegen, E. van; Krogt, H. van der; Bakker, C.D.; Buma, F.; Klomp, A.; Kordelaar, J. van; Kwakkel, G.; Geurts, A.C.; Kuijk, A.A. van; Lindeman, E.; Visser-Meily, J.M.A.; Arendzen, H.J.; Meskers, C.G.; Helm, F.C.T. van der; Vlugt, E. de

    2013-01-01

    Constraint-induced movement therapy (CIMT) is a commonly used rehabilitation intervention to improve upper limb function after stroke. CIMT was originally developed for patients with a chronic upper limb paresis. Although there are indications that exercise interventions should start as early as

  16. Effect of modified constraint induced movement therapy on weight bearing and protective extension in children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy

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    Masoud Gharib

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available Background: Constraint induced movement therapy is one of the new therapeutic interventions that limits the performance of intact upper limb with increased use of the affected limb. Aim of this study was to investigate the effects of modified constraint induced movement therapy on weight bearing & protective extension in children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy.Methods: 21 hemiplegic children were selected and randomly divided into experimental and control groups. Common Practices of Occupational Therapy applied for 6 weeks in both groups equally and test group received constrain induced movement therapy for three hours every day. Weight-bearing and protective extension was measured based on quality of test skills of upper limbs (QUEST. Data analyzed using appropriated statistical methods. Results: 11 children in the experimental group (7 girls, 4 boys with mean age 47.2 ± 55.5 months and 10 children in the control group (5 girls, 5 boys with mean age 19.2 ± 10.5 months were studied. No significant difference observed before and after six weeks intervention between two groups (P>0.05. There was a significant change before and after six weeks intervention in both subscales (P<0.05.Conclusion: This study showed that modified constraint induced movement therapy may affect weight bearing, but has no effect on the protective extension.

  17. Constraint-Induced Movement Therapy Combined with Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation over Premotor Cortex Improves Motor Function in Severe Stroke: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial

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    Suellen M. Andrade

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Objective. We compared the effects of transcranial direct current stimulation at different cortical sites (premotor and motor primary cortex combined with constraint-induced movement therapy for treatment of stroke patients. Design. Sixty patients were randomly distributed into 3 groups: Group A, anodal stimulation on premotor cortex and constraint-induced movement therapy; Group B, anodal stimulation on primary motor cortex and constraint-induced movement therapy; Group C, sham stimulation and constraint-induced movement therapy. Evaluations involved analysis of functional independence, motor recovery, spasticity, gross motor function, and muscle strength. Results. A significant improvement in primary outcome (functional independence after treatment in the premotor group followed by primary motor group and sham group was observed. The same pattern of improvement was highlighted among all secondary outcome measures regarding the superior performance of the premotor group over primary motor and sham groups. Conclusions. Premotor cortex can contribute to motor function in patients with severe functional disabilities in early stages of stroke. This study was registered in ClinicalTrials.gov database (NCT 02628561.

  18. The Effects of Modified Constraint-Induced Movement Therapy in Acute Subcortical Cerebral Infarction

    OpenAIRE

    Yu, Changshen; Wang, Wanjun; Zhang, Yue; Wang, Yizhao; Hou, Weijia; Liu, Shoufeng; Gao, Chunlin; Wang, Chen; Mo, Lidong; Wu, Jialing

    2017-01-01

    Background: Constraint-induced movement therapy (CIMT) promotes upper extremity recovery post stroke, however, it is difficult to implement clinically due to its high resource demand and safety of the restraint. Therefore, we propose that modified CIMT (mCIMT) be used to treat individuals with acute subcortical infarction. Objective: To evaluate the therapeutic effects of mCIMT in patients with acute subcortical infarction, and investigate the possible mechanisms underlying the effect. ...

  19. Constraint-Induced Movement Therapy (CIMT: Current Perspectives and Future Directions

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    Aimee P. Reiss

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available Constraint-induced movement therapy (CIMT has gained considerable popularity as a treatment technique for upper extremity rehabilitation among patients with mild-to-moderate stroke. While substantial evidence has emerged to support its applicability, issues remain unanswered regarding the best and most practical approach. Following the establishment of what can be called the “signature” CIMT approach characterized by intense clinic/laboratory-based practice, several distributed forms of training, collectively known as modified constraint therapy (mCIMT, have emerged. There is a need to examine the strengths and limitations of such approaches, and based upon such information, develop the components of a study that would compare the signature approach to the best elements of mCIMT, referred to here as “alternative” CIMT. Based upon a PEDro review of literature, limitations in mCIMT studies for meeting criteria were identified and discussed. A suggestion for a “first effort” at a comparative study that would both address such limitations while taking practical considerations into account is provided.

  20. PELATIHAN MIRROR NEURON SYSTEM SAMA DENGAN PELATIHAN CONSTRAINT INDUCED MOVEMENT THERAPY DALAM MENINGKATKAN KEMAMPUAN FUNGSIONAL ANGGOTA GERAK ATAS PASIEN STROKE

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    Abdul chalik meidian

    2014-03-01

    Full Text Available Stroke is an interruption of blood vasculature system in the brain that causes suddenly neurological dysfunction, resulted in clinically brain tissue damage in a relatively long time period, decreased physical mobility and functional ability impaired of upper limb. The purpose of this study is to know an increasing in upper limb functional ability among stroke patients after mirror neuron system exercise and constraint induced movement therapy exercise and to know the comparison of both exercise. This study uses an experimental research with pre-test and post-test control group design. Number of samples of the first group is 13 patients given mirror neuron system exercise for 30-60 minutes , while the second group 13 patients were given constraint induced movement therapy exercise for 30-60 minutes. The research was conducted in 2 month period time. Each patient is taught a variety of upper limb functional ability in accordance with the operational concept guidance and patients were asked to repeat the exercise independently at home as directed. Measuring test of upper limb functional ability is using the wolf motor function test instruments. The result is an increase the upper limb functional ability of 21.7% in the mirror neuron system exercise group and proved a significant difference (p<0.05 and an increase in the upper limb functional ability of 17.1% in the constraint induced movement therapy exercise group and proved a significant difference (p<0.05 while the difference of increasing of upper limb functional ability of the two groups showed no significant difference (p>0,05. It was concluded that the mirror neuron system exercise is similar with constraint induced movement therapy exercise in increasing the upper limb functional ability among stroke patients.

  1. Shortened constraint-induced movement therapy in subacute stroke - no effect of using a restraint

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Brogårdh, Christina; Vestling, Monika; Sjölund, Bengt H

    2009-01-01

    OBJECTIVE: To examine the effect of using a mitt during shortened constraint-induced movement therapy for patients in the subacute phase after stroke. SUBJECTS: Twenty-four patients with stroke (mean age 57.6 (standard deviation (SD) 8.5) years; average 7 weeks post-stroke) with mild to moderate......, no statistically significant differences between the groups were found in any measures at any point in time. CONCLUSION: In this study, no effect of using a restraint in patients with subacute stroke was found. Thus, this component in the constraint-induced therapy concept seems to be of minor importance...... Scale, the Sollerman hand function test, the 2-Point Discrimination test and Motor Activity Log test. RESULTS: Patients in both groups showed significant improvements in arm and hand motor performance and on self-reported motor ability after 2 weeks of therapy and at 3 months follow-up. However...

  2. Cerebral palsy in adult patients: constraint-induced movement therapy is effective to reverse the nonuse of the affected upper limb

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    Ana Cecília P. Oliveira

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available ABSTRACT Objective To determine if the original protocol of Constraint-Induced Movement Therapy (CIMT, is adequate to reverse the nonuse of the affected upper limb (AUL in patients with Cerebral Palsy (CP in adulthood. Method The study included 10 patients diagnosed with CP hemiparesis had attended the adult protocol CIMT, from January/August 2009/2014. Results Average age 24.6 (SD 9.44; MAL average pretreatment How Often (HO = 0.72 and How Well (HW = 0.68 and post-treatment HO = 3.77 and HW = 3.60 (p ≤ 0.001 and pretreatment WMFT average = 21.03 and post-treatment average = 18.91 (p = 0.350. Conclusion The constraint-induced movement therapy is effective to reverse the nonuse learn of the AUL in adult patients with CP.

  3. The Effects of Constraint-Induced Movement Therapy on Activities Important to Independent School Participation of Children with Hemiparesis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Carney, Joan

    2012-01-01

    This study investigated the efficacy of constraint-induced movement therapy (CI therapy) on activities important to school participation in children with hemiparesis. Four children, ages 4-0 to 7-10 participated in an intensive CI therapy program in a clinical setting. Constraining casts were worn 24 hours daily. Therapy was delivered 6 hours…

  4. In-Home Delivery of Constraint-Induced Movement Therapy via Virtual Reality Gaming

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    Alexandra L. Borstad

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available Purpose: People with chronic hemiparesis are frequently dissatisfied with the recovery of their hand and arm, yet many lack access to effective treatments. Constraint-induced movement therapy (CI therapy effectively increases arm function and spontaneous use in persons with chronic hemiparesis. The purpose of this study was to determine the feasibility and measure safety and outcomes of an in-home model of delivering CI therapy using a custom, avatar-based virtual reality game. Methods: Seventeen individuals with chronic hemiparesis participated in this pretest/posttest quasi-experimental design study. The 10-day intervention had three components: 1 high-repetition motor practice using virtual reality gaming; 2 constraint of the stronger arm via a padded restraint mitt; and 3 a transfer package to reinforce arm use. Feasibility of the intervention was evaluated through comparison to traditional CI therapy and through participants’ subjective responses. The primary outcome measures were the Wolf Motor Function Test (WMFT and the Motor Activity Log quality of movement scale (MAL-QOM. Results: On average, participants completed 17.2 ± 8 hours and 19,436 repetitions of motor practice. No adverse events were reported. Of 7 feasibility criteria, 4 were met. WMFT rate and MAL-QOM increased, with effect size (Cohen’s d of 1.5 and 1.1, respectively. Conclusions: This model of delivering CI therapy using a custom, avatar-based virtual reality game was feasible, well received, and showed preliminary evidence of being a safe intervention to use in the home for persons with chronic hemiparesis.

  5. Can Constraint Induced Movement Therapy Improve In-Hand Manipulation Skills: A Single Subject Design

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    Somaye Kavousipor

    2012-04-01

    Full Text Available Objectives: This study describes a single subject design (ABA that shows the effective use of constraint induced movement therapy in improvement of quality and performance of in-hand manipulation skills for a 10 year old boy and a 9 years old girl with hemiplegic cerebral palsy, as Dickerson (2007 showed it in arm movement and function. Methods: To determine the effectiveness of CIMT by the use of C-statistic analysis and visual analysis. Approach: The first step was to design a child friendly group activity and home based intervention program through occupation. The possible effectiveness of CIMT was evaluated by daily measurements and video recording of 6 sub skills of in-hand manipulation according to Pont category (2009 in defined activity. Results: For making the treatment more cost effective, families can produce a simple clinical setting at home and participate in their child treatment plan actively. Discussion: A client center intervention will facilitate the use and quality of fingers and hand motion. Also a group activity can motivate participants to participate more and better.

  6. Speech production gains following constraint-induced movement therapy in children with hemiparesis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Allison, Kristen M; Reidy, Teressa Garcia; Boyle, Mary; Naber, Erin; Carney, Joan; Pidcock, Frank S

    2017-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to investigate changes in speech skills of children who have hemiparesis and speech impairment after participation in a constraint-induced movement therapy (CIMT) program. While case studies have reported collateral speech gains following CIMT, the effect of CIMT on speech production has not previously been directly investigated to the knowledge of these investigators. Eighteen children with hemiparesis and co-occurring speech impairment participated in a 21-day clinical CIMT program. The Goldman-Fristoe Test of Articulation-2 (GFTA-2) was used to assess children's articulation of speech sounds before and after the intervention. Changes in percent of consonants correct (PCC) on the GFTA-2 were used as a measure of change in speech production. Children made significant gains in PCC following CIMT. Gains were similar in children with left and right-sided hemiparesis, and across age groups. This study reports significant collateral gains in speech production following CIMT and suggests benefits of CIMT may also spread to speech motor domains.

  7. Effect of Child Friendly Constraint Induced Movement Therapy on Unimanual and Bimanual Functions in Children with Cerebral Palsy

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    Seyyed Mohammad Sadegh Hosseini

    2013-07-01

    Full Text Available Objective: Effectiveness of Constraint Induced Movement Therapy (CIMT has been approved in adult persons, while it seems that we need many researches with higher levels of evidences in children. This research aimed to identify the efficacy of CIMT on unimanual and bimanual functions in children with Cerebral Palsy. Materials & Methods: In this interventional study, twenty eight participants were selected that had the inclusion and exclusion criteria and then divided into two groups ofCIMT and control. The intervention was provided on 10 out of 12 consecutive days in CIMT group and another group was received occupational therapy services. Assessment tools which were utilized in the survey were Bruininks-Oseretsky Motor Proficiency Test, Caregiver Functional Use Survey (CFUS, Jebsen-Taylor Test in Hand Function. In order to compare two groups Independent t-test was used and to compare each group from pre-test to post-test paired t-test was utilized. Results: Data showed significant differences between two groups in dexterity, bilateral coordination, bimanual coordination, bimanual function, unimanual function and Caregiver Functional Use Survey (how well & how frequently (P<0.05. Also comparison between pre-test and post-test in each group showed improvement in most of variables in research. Conclusion: protocol of child friendly Constraint Induced Movement Therapywas lead to improvement in either unimanual or bimanual hand functions in children with cerebral palsy.

  8. Motor learning curve and long-term effectiveness of modified constraint-induced movement therapy in children with unilateral cerebral palsy: a randomized controlled trial

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Geerdink-van Nistelrooij, Y.A. van; Aarts, P.; Geurts, A.C.H.

    2013-01-01

    The goal of this study was to determine the progression of manual dexterity during 6 weeks (54h) (modified) constraint-induced movement therapy ((m)CIMT) followed by 2 weeks (18h) bimanual training (BiT) in children with unilateral spastic cerebral palsy (CP), to establish whether and when a maximal

  9. A Critical Review of Constraint-Induced Movement Therapy and Forced Use in Children With Hemiplegia

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    Jeanne Charles

    2005-01-01

    Full Text Available Hemiplegia is a physical impairment that can occur in childhood following head trauma, cerebral vascular accident or transient ischemic attack (stroke, brain tumor, or congenital or perinatal injury. One of the most disabling symptoms of hemiplegia is unilaterally impaired hand and arm function. Sensory and motor impairments in children with hemiplegia compromise movement efficiency. Such children often tend not to use the affected extremity, which may further exacerbate the impairments, resulting in a developmentally learned non-use of the involved upper extremity, termed ‘developmental disuse’. Recent studies suggest that children with hemiplegia benefit from intensive practice. Forced use and Constraint-lnduced Movement Therapy (CI therapy are recent therapeutic interventions involving the restraint of the non-involved upper extremity and intensive practice with the involved upper extremity. These approaches were designed for adults with hemiplegia, and increasing evidence suggests that they are efficacious in this population. Recently, forced use and constraint-induced therapy have been applied to children with hemiplegia. In this review, we provide a brief description of forced use and CI therapy and their historical basis, provide a summary of studies of these interventions in children, and discuss a number of important theoretical considerations, as well as implications for postural control. We will show that whereas the studies to date suggest that both forced use and CI therapy appear to be promising for improving hand function in children with hemiplegia, the data are limited. Substantially more work must be performed before this approach can be advocated for general clinical use.

  10. The Effects of Modified Constraint-Induced Movement Therapy in Acute Subcortical Cerebral Infarction.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yu, Changshen; Wang, Wanjun; Zhang, Yue; Wang, Yizhao; Hou, Weijia; Liu, Shoufeng; Gao, Chunlin; Wang, Chen; Mo, Lidong; Wu, Jialing

    2017-01-01

    Background : Constraint-induced movement therapy (CIMT) promotes upper extremity recovery post stroke, however, it is difficult to implement clinically due to its high resource demand and safety of the restraint. Therefore, we propose that modified CIMT (mCIMT) be used to treat individuals with acute subcortical infarction. Objective : To evaluate the therapeutic effects of mCIMT in patients with acute subcortical infarction, and investigate the possible mechanisms underlying the effect. Methods : The role of mCIMT was investigated in 26 individuals experiencing subcortical infarction in the preceding 14 days. Patients were randomly assigned to either mCIMT or standard therapy. mCIMT group was treated daily for 3 h over 10 consecutive working days, using a mitt on the unaffected arm for up to 30% of waking hours. The control group was treated with an equal dose of occupational therapy and physical therapy. During the 3-month follow-up, the motor functions of the affected limb were assessed by the Wolf Motor Function Test (WMFT) and Motor Activity Log (MAL). Altered cortical excitability was assessed via transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). Results : Treatment significantly improved the movement in the mCIMT group compared with the control group. The mean WMF score was significantly higher in the mCIMT group compared with the control group. Further, the appearance of motor-evoked potentials (MEPs) were significantly higher in the mCIMT group compared with the baseline data. A significant change in ipsilesional silent period (SP) occurred in the mCIMT group compared with the control group. However, we found no difference between two groups in motor function or electrophysiological parameters after 3 months of follow-up. Conclusions : mCIMT resulted in significant functional changes in timed movement immediately following treatment in patients with acute subcortical infarction. Further, early mCIMT improved ipsilesional cortical excitability. However, no long

  11. The Effects of Modified Constraint-Induced Movement Therapy in Acute Subcortical Cerebral Infarction

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Changshen Yu

    2017-05-01

    Full Text Available Background: Constraint-induced movement therapy (CIMT promotes upper extremity recovery post stroke, however, it is difficult to implement clinically due to its high resource demand and safety of the restraint. Therefore, we propose that modified CIMT (mCIMT be used to treat individuals with acute subcortical infarction.Objective: To evaluate the therapeutic effects of mCIMT in patients with acute subcortical infarction, and investigate the possible mechanisms underlying the effect.Methods: The role of mCIMT was investigated in 26 individuals experiencing subcortical infarction in the preceding 14 days. Patients were randomly assigned to either mCIMT or standard therapy. mCIMT group was treated daily for 3 h over 10 consecutive working days, using a mitt on the unaffected arm for up to 30% of waking hours. The control group was treated with an equal dose of occupational therapy and physical therapy. During the 3-month follow-up, the motor functions of the affected limb were assessed by the Wolf Motor Function Test (WMFT and Motor Activity Log (MAL. Altered cortical excitability was assessed via transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS.Results: Treatment significantly improved the movement in the mCIMT group compared with the control group. The mean WMF score was significantly higher in the mCIMT group compared with the control group. Further, the appearance of motor-evoked potentials (MEPs were significantly higher in the mCIMT group compared with the baseline data. A significant change in ipsilesional silent period (SP occurred in the mCIMT group compared with the control group. However, we found no difference between two groups in motor function or electrophysiological parameters after 3 months of follow-up.Conclusions: mCIMT resulted in significant functional changes in timed movement immediately following treatment in patients with acute subcortical infarction. Further, early mCIMT improved ipsilesional cortical excitability. However, no long

  12. Resting State and Diffusion Neuroimaging Predictors of Clinical Improvements Following Constraint-Induced Movement Therapy in Children With Hemiplegic Cerebral Palsy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Manning, Kathryn Y; Fehlings, Darcy; Mesterman, Ronit; Gorter, Jan Willem; Switzer, Lauren; Campbell, Craig; Menon, Ravi S

    2015-10-01

    The aim was to identify neuroimaging predictors of clinical improvements following constraint-induced movement therapy. Resting state functional magnetic resonance and diffusion tensor imaging data was acquired in 7 children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy. Clinical and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data were acquired at baseline and 1 month later following a 3-week constraint therapy regimen. A more negative baseline laterality index characterizing an atypical unilateral sensorimotor resting state network significantly correlated with an improvement in the Canadian Occupational Performance Measure score (r = -0.81, P = .03). A more unilateral network with decreased activity in the affected hemisphere was associated with greater improvements in clinical scores. Higher mean diffusivity in the posterior limb of the internal capsule of the affect tract correlated significantly with improvements in the Jebsen-Taylor score (r = -0.83, P = .02). Children with more compromised networks and tracts improved the most following constraint therapy. © The Author(s) 2015.

  13. Interpersonal Movement Synchrony Responds to High- and Low-Level Conversational Constraints

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    Alexandra Paxton

    2017-07-01

    Full Text Available Much work on communication and joint action conceptualizes interaction as a dynamical system. Under this view, dynamic properties of interaction should be shaped by the context in which the interaction is taking place. Here we explore interpersonal movement coordination or synchrony—the degree to which individuals move in similar ways over time—as one such context-sensitive property. Studies of coordination have typically investigated how these dynamics are influenced by either high-level constraints (i.e., slow-changing factors or low-level constraints (i.e., fast-changing factors like movement. Focusing on nonverbal communication behaviors during naturalistic conversation, we analyzed how interacting participants' head movement dynamics were shaped simultaneously by high-level constraints (i.e., conversation type; friendly conversations vs. arguments and low-level constraints (i.e., perceptual stimuli; non-informative visual stimuli vs. informative visual stimuli. We found that high- and low-level constraints interacted non-additively to affect interpersonal movement dynamics, highlighting the context sensitivity of interaction and supporting the view of joint action as a complex adaptive system.

  14. Effect of Child Friendly Constraint Induced Movement Therapy on Unimanual and Bimanual Function in Hemiplegia

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    Seyed Mohammad Sadegh Hosseini

    2010-10-01

    Full Text Available Objectives: Hemiplegia is a non-progressive damage in premature growing brain which causes movement disorders in one side of the body. The objective of present research is to study the method of modified constraints induced movement therapy (CIMT which can be appropriate on unimanual and bimanual functions of children with Hemiplegia. Methods: This single-blinded, randomized, control trial study performed on twenty-eight participants who were selected based on specific inclusion criteria and divided into two groups of CIMT and conventional therapy. Intervention at CIMT was done six hours every day, for 10 days, whereas another group received conventional occupational therapy. Results: To analyze the data, independent-sample t-test and paired-sample t-test were used. Results showed that significant differences in variables of unimanual function, Jebson Taylor test and dexterity of involved hand in CIMT group, but, these variables did not show any difference in conventional group. Also bimanual functions in CIMT demonstrated significant difference in variables of bimanual function, bilateral coordination, and caregivers’ perception (how much and (how well, whereas this variables did not show any difference in pre-test and post-test of conventional therapy. Discussion: Child friendly CIMT has fairly good effects on unimanual function and some variables of bimanual function of children with hemiplegia.

  15. Modified Constraint-Induced Movement Therapy combined with Bimanual Training (mCIMT-BiT) in children with unilateral spastic cerebral palsy: how are improvements in arm-hand use established?

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Aarts, P.B.M.; Jongerius, P.H.; Geerdink-van Nistelrooij, Y.A. van; Limbeek, J. van; Geurts, A.C.H.

    2011-01-01

    A recent randomized controlled trial indicated that modified Constraint-Induced Movement Therapy followed by Bimanual Training (mCIMT-BiT) is an effective intervention to improve spontaneous use of the affected upper limb in children with unilateral spastic cerebral palsy (CP). The present study

  16. Movement constraints on interpersonal coordination and communication.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tolston, Michael T; Shockley, Kevin; Riley, Michael A; Richardson, Michael J

    2014-10-01

    The present study investigated how constraining movement affects interpersonal coordination and joint cognitive performance. Pairs of participants worked cooperatively to solve picture-puzzle tasks in which they conversed to identify differences between pictures in 3 degree-of-constraint conditions: both participants were free to move their hands (free-free; FF); both participants' hands were restrained (restrained-restrained; RR); and the hands of 1 participant were free while the hands of the other participant were restrained (free-restrained; FR). Eye tracking data were collected, and movement was measured at the waist, hand, and head. Data were analyzed using Cross-Recurrence Quantification Analysis (CRQ). Postural sway coordination, gaze coordination, and task performance were predicted to be highest in FF, followed by RR, and then by FR. Results showed the asymmetric FR condition generally exhibited lesser degrees of coordination than the symmetric Conditions FF and RR, and that the patterning of coordination in the symmetric conditions varied across the measured body segments. These results demonstrate that movement restraints affect not only interpersonal postural coordination, but also joint attention. Additionally, significant positive relationships were found between task performance and total amount of anterior-posterior movement measured at the head, hand and waist; number of utterances; and number of differences pairs found in the puzzles. These findings indicate a relationship between movement and task performance consistent with the hypotheses that both interpersonal coordination and cognitive performance are sensitive to local action constraints.

  17. Využití prvků Constraint-Induced Movement Therapy v terapii pacientů po poškození mozku

    OpenAIRE

    Šulcová, Alice

    2012-01-01

    Name and surname: Alice Šulcová Supervisor: Bc. Olga Nováková, M.Sc. Opponent: ……………………………. Thesis title: The Applications of Constraint-Induced Movement Elements in Therapy in Patients after Brain Injury Abstract: Stroke is a disease with prevalence of 150 to 200 persons per 100 000 in the Czech Republic. It is the third leading cause of death after heart diseases and various types of cancer. Mortality in the Czech Republic is four times higher than in the USA and 40 % of patients die within...

  18. Sit-to-Stand in People with Stroke: Effect of Lower Limb Constraint-Induced Movement Strategies

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    Charla Krystine Gray

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Background. Weight-bearing asymmetry and impaired balance may contribute to the increased fall risk in people with stroke when rising to stand from sitting. Objective. This study investigated the effect of constraint-induced movement (CIM strategies on weight-bearing symmetry and balance during sit-to-stand in people with stroke. Methods. A nonrandom convenience sample of fifteen people with stroke performed the sit-to-stand task using three CIM strategies including a solid or compliant (foam block strategy, with the unaffected limb placed on the block, and an asymmetrical foot position strategy, with the unaffected limb placed ahead of the affected limb. Duration of the task, affected limb weight-bearing, and centre of pressure and centre of mass displacement were measured in the frontal and sagittal plane. Results. Affected limb weight-bearing was increased and frontal plane centre of pressure and centre of mass moved toward the affected limb compared to baseline with all CIM strategies. Centre of mass displacement in the sagittal plane was greater with the compliant block and asymmetrical foot strategies. Conclusions. The CIM strategies demonstrated greater loading of the affected limb and movement of the centre of pressure and centre of mass toward the affected limb. The compliant block and asymmetrical foot conditions may challenge sagittal plane balance during sit-to-stand in people with stroke.

  19. A functional MRI study of the brain in stroke patients with upper-limb paralysis treated with constraint-induced movement therapy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wen Bo; Ma Lin; Weng Changshui; Zheng Zhixin; Sun Tong

    2009-01-01

    Objective: To investigate and compare the activation patterns of stroke patients with upper-limb paralysis using functional MRI before and after treatment with constraint-induced movement therapy (CIMT) so as to explore the mechanism of CIMT. Methods: Six patients in chronic stage of brain infarction who have functional disturbance in right upper-limb and 9 normal controls were entered into the study. All of the patients were asked to perform the thumb-to-index finger tapping task and underwent functional MRI before and two weeks after CIMT. The controls underwent fMRI of same protocol once. The patients' upper-limb function scores before and after CIMT were analyzed with SPSS 11.5 by paired t test. The fMRI data were analyzed with analysis of functional neurolmages (AFNI) software. The percentage of blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) signal change for the normal control was analyzed by one-sample t test to indentify the activated brain regions. The percentage change of BOLD signal for the patients before and after CIMT was compared to control's data by independent-samples t test. The percentage change of BOLD signal for the patients before and after CIMT was analyzed by paired-samples t test. The significant difference level was set P<0.05. Results: The fMRI showed the patients' activated brain regions before CIMT were similar to that of the controls', while the activation level was lower. There were wide areas activated to compensate the impaired function especially for the fight upper-limb. Before CIMT, the patients' score for fight upper-limb on the action research arm test was 27±4. After CIMT, the patients' score was 40±3, and the difference was significant (t=14.626, P<0.05), which indicated the improved function. These subjects also displayed cortical reorganization after CIMT on fMRI. The areas responsible for the right hand movement showed increased activation and the activation level at bilateral corpora striata thalami, and cerebella increased

  20. The Pirate group intervention protocol description and a case report of a modified constraint-induced movement therapy combined with bimanual training for young children with unilateral spastic cerebral palsy

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Aarts, Pauline B.; van Hartingsveldt, Margo; Anderson, Patricia G.; van den Tillaar, Ingrid; van der Burg, Jan; Geurts, Alexander C.

    The purpose of this article was to describe a child-friendly modified constraint-induced movement therapy protocol that is combined with goal-directed task-specific bimanual training (mCIMT-BiT). This detailed description elucidates the approach and supports various research reports. This protocol

  1. Animal movement constraints improve resource selection inference in the presence of telemetry error

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brost, Brian M.; Hooten, Mevin B.; Hanks, Ephraim M.; Small, Robert J.

    2016-01-01

    Multiple factors complicate the analysis of animal telemetry location data. Recent advancements address issues such as temporal autocorrelation and telemetry measurement error, but additional challenges remain. Difficulties introduced by complicated error structures or barriers to animal movement can weaken inference. We propose an approach for obtaining resource selection inference from animal location data that accounts for complicated error structures, movement constraints, and temporally autocorrelated observations. We specify a model for telemetry data observed with error conditional on unobserved true locations that reflects prior knowledge about constraints in the animal movement process. The observed telemetry data are modeled using a flexible distribution that accommodates extreme errors and complicated error structures. Although constraints to movement are often viewed as a nuisance, we use constraints to simultaneously estimate and account for telemetry error. We apply the model to simulated data, showing that it outperforms common ad hoc approaches used when confronted with measurement error and movement constraints. We then apply our framework to an Argos satellite telemetry data set on harbor seals (Phoca vitulina) in the Gulf of Alaska, a species that is constrained to move within the marine environment and adjacent coastlines.

  2. A Concept for Extending the Applicability of Constraint-Induced Movement Therapy through Motor Cortex Activity Feedback Using a Neural Prosthesis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tomas E. Ward

    2007-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper describes a concept for the extension of constraint-induced movement therapy (CIMT through the use of feedback of primary motor cortex activity. CIMT requires residual movement to act as a source of feedback to the patient, thus preventing its application to those with no perceptible movement. It is proposed in this paper that it is possible to provide feedback of the motor cortex effort to the patient by measurement with near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS. Significant changes in such effort may be used to drive rehabilitative robotic actuators, for example. This may provide a possible avenue for extending CIMT to patients hitherto excluded as a result of severity of condition. In support of such a paradigm, this paper details the current status of CIMT and related attempts to extend rehabilitation therapy through the application of technology. An introduction to the relevant haemodynamics is given including a description of the basic technology behind a suitable NIRS system. An illustration of the proposed therapy is described using a simple NIRS system driving a robotic arm during simple upper-limb unilateral isometric contraction exercises with healthy subjects.

  3. Synergistic effect of combined transcranial direct current stimulation/constraint-induced movement therapy in children and young adults with hemiparesis: study protocol.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gillick, Bernadette; Menk, Jeremiah; Mueller, Bryon; Meekins, Gregg; Krach, Linda E; Feyma, Timothy; Rudser, Kyle

    2015-11-12

    Perinatal stroke occurs in more than 1 in 2,500 live births and resultant congenital hemiparesis necessitates investigation into interventions which may improve long-term function and decreased burden of care beyond current therapies ( http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/cp/data.html ). Constraint-Induced Movement Therapy (CIMT) is recognized as an effective hemiparesis rehabilitation intervention. Transcranial direct current stimulation as an adjunct treatment to CIMT may potentiate neuroplastic responses and improve motor function. The methodology of a clinical trial in children designed as a placebo-controlled, serial -session, non-invasive brain stimulation trial incorporating CIMT is described here. The primary hypotheses are 1) that no serious adverse events will occur in children receiving non-invasive brain stimulation and 2) that children in the stimulation intervention group will show significant improvements in hand motor function compared to children in the placebo stimulation control group. A randomized, controlled, double-blinded clinical trial. Twenty children and/or young adults (ages 8-21) with congenital hemiparesis, will be enrolled. The intervention group will receive ten 2-hour sessions of transcranial direct current stimulation combined with constraint-induced movement therapy and the control group will receive sham stimulation with CIMT. The primary outcome measure is safety assessment of transcranial direct current stimulation by physician evaluation, vital sign monitoring and symptom reports. Additionally, hand function will be evaluated using the Assisting Hand Assessment, grip strength and assessment of goals using the Canadian Occupational Performance Measure. Neuroimaging will confirm diagnoses, corticospinal tract integrity and cortical activation. Motor cortical excitability will also be examined using transcranial magnetic stimulation techniques. Combining non-invasive brain stimulation and CIMT interventions has the potential to improve motor

  4. At-home and in-group delivery of constraint-induced movement therapy in children with hemiparesis: A systematic review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Durand, Emilie; Plante, Pascale; Pelletier, Andrey-Anne; Rondeau, Johanie; Simard, Frédérique; Voisin, Julien

    2018-07-01

    Constraint-induced movement therapy (CIMT) is increasingly recognized as an effective therapy for children with hemiparesis. However, the effectiveness of CIMT outside the standard rehabilitation protocol in clinical settings is less known. The aim of this systematic review was to investigate the effectiveness of CIMT conducted at home or in a group. We searched CINAHL, PubMed and ScienceDirect in August 2017 to select articles of studies investigating the impact of CIMT performed at home and in a group on affected upper-limb ability, occupational performance, and quality of life of children. Quality was evaluated with the PEDro scale. Among 374 reports of studies, 30 met the criteria; 15 examined CIMT at home and 15 in a group. CIMT with the 2 delivery models, at home or in a group, had a positive effect on the affected upper-limb ability and occupational performance. The quality of evidence was high for both these outcomes. However, the evidence was weaker and the results too limited to conclude on the impact on quality of life. The data also suggested that the glove may not be the best type of constraint. CIMT performed at home or in a group may be a promising intervention for rehabilitation for children with hemiparesis, but more studies on the impact on quality of life are warranted. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

  5. EFFECT OF MODIFIED CONSTRAINT INDUCED THERAPY ON UPPERLIMB FUNCTIONAL RECOVERY IN YOUNG STROKE SUBJECTS

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    Kiran Prakash Pappala

    2014-10-01

    Full Text Available Background: The aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of modified constraint induced therapy on upper limb functional recovery in young stroke subjects. Most of the stroke rehabilitation units following conventional rehabilitation methods for treatment of the stroke patients where these methods have been proved to be less useful especially in the young stroke subjects. Hence the purpose of this study is to see the effect of modified constraint induced therapy which is a task specific training method for upperlimb in young stroke subjects. Methods: Total of 40 young stroke subjects who is having minimal motor criterion and met other inclusion criteria were recruited from department of physiotherapy, g.s.l.general hospital. Pre and post intervention measures were taken using Wolf motor function test and Jebsen Taylor hand function test. Results: In this study had shown significant improvements in the modified constraint induced therapy group when compared to the conventional rehabilitation alone. P value between groups was < 0.05. Conclusion: In this study concludes that addition of 15 minutes modified constraint induced movement therapy to conventional physiotherapy is a useful adjunct in functional recovery of upper limb among young stroke subjects

  6. Combination of Constraint-Induced Movement Therapy with Electroacupuncture Improves Functional Recovery following Neonatal Hypoxic-Ischemic Brain Injury in Rats

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    Hyunha Kim

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available Aim. Neonatal hypoxic-ischemia (HI due to insufficient oxygen supply and blood flow during the prenatal and postnatal periods can cause cerebral palsy, a serious developmental condition. The purpose of this study was to investigate the efficacy of combining constraint-induced movement therapy (CIMT and electroacupuncture to treat rat neonatal HI brain injury. Methods. The left common carotid arteries of postnatal day 7 rats were ligated to induce HI brain injury, and the neonates were kept in a hypoxia chamber containing 8% oxygen for 2 hrs. Electroacupuncture at Baihui (GV 20 and Zusanli (ST 36 was performed concurrently with CIMT 3 weeks after HI induction for 4 weeks. Results. Motor asymmetry after HI was significantly improved in the CIMT and electroacupuncture combination group, but HI lesion size was not improved. The combination of CIMT and electroacupuncture after HI injury increases NeuN and decreases GFAP levels in the cerebral cortex, suggesting that this combination treatment inversely regulates neurons and astrocytes. In addition, the combination treatment group reduced the level of cleaved caspase-3, a crucial mediator of apoptosis, in the cortex. Conclusions. Our findings indicate that a combination of CIMT and electroacupuncture is an effective method to treat hemiplegia due to neonatal HI brain injury.

  7. The effects of "Constraint-Induced Movement Therapy" on fine motor skills in children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy

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    Abootalebi Sh

    2010-05-01

    Full Text Available "n Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE AR-SA MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} Background: Constraint-Induced movement therapy (CIMT is a promising treatment for improving upper limb function in adults after stroke and traumatic brain injury. It involves constraint of the less affected limb and intensive practice with the more affected limb. The purpose of this study on children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy (CP was to evaluate the effects of CIMT on upper extremity and to make a comparison with conventional treatment."n"nMethods: I a randomized clinical trial twelve children (seven females, five males; aged between 48 and 72 months with mean±standard deviation of 59.91±9.15mo were randomly assigned in two groups. An intensive occupational therapy program including five hours per day for 21 consecutive days was performed for all of them, while less affected limbs were placed in sling for immobilization. Before and after intervention, upper extremity function, spasticity, and motor neuron excitation were evaluated by means of peabody developmental motor scales, modified Ashworth scale, and H reflex and H/M ratio, respectively."n"nResults: The children who received CIMT did not improved their ability to use their hemiplegic hand significantly more than the children in the control group (p>0

  8. How is individualization in constraint-induced movement therapy performed?

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hansen, Gunhild Mo; Pallesen, Hanne; Normann, Britt

    2016-01-01

    compensatory strategies in the more affected upper limb. Non-participatory observations of four individuals undergoing CIMT group training with a physiotherapist were conducted, followed by theme-based content analysis using concepts from practice knowledge and movement analysis as analytical tools...

  9. Clinical importance of voluntary and induced Bennett movement.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tupac, R G

    1978-07-01

    A total of 136 dentulous patients were divided into three groups for purposes of quantitative pantographic comparison of voluntary and induced Bennett movement. The effects of patient age and operator experience on recording the Bennett movement were also studied. The results indicates that for patients studied with Bennett movement iduced in the manner described: 1. Experienced operators can obtain more induced Bennett movement that inexperienced operators. 2. Inducing Bennett movement has a greater effect on the immediate side shift component than it has on the progressive side shift component. 3. For older individuals the amount and direction of induced immediate side shift is greater than for younger patients, statistically highly significant, and therefore clinically important. In conclusion, if the objective of a pantographic survey is to record the complete capacity of the joint to move, *lateral jaw movements must be induced.

  10. Constraint-induced movement therapy promotes motor function recovery and downregulates phosphorylated extracellular regulated protein kinase expression in ischemic brain tissue of rats

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    Bei Zhang

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Motor function impairment is a common outcome of stroke. Constraint-induced movement therapy (CIMT involving intensive use of the impaired limb while restraining the unaffected limb is widely used to overcome the effects of ′learned non-use′ and improve limb function after stroke. However, the underlying mechanism of CIMT remains unclear. In the present study, rats were randomly divided into a middle cerebral artery occlusion (model group, a CIMT + model (CIMT group, or a sham group. Restriction of the affected limb by plaster cast was performed in the CIMT and sham groups. Compared with the model group, CIMT significantly improved the forelimb functional performance in rats. By western blot assay, the expression of phosphorylated extracellular regulated protein kinase in the bilateral cortex and hippocampi of cerebral ischemic rats in the CIMT group was significantly lower than that in the model group, and was similar to sham group levels. These data suggest that functional recovery after CIMT may be related to decreased expression of phosphorylated extracellular regulated protein kinase in the bilateral cortex and hippocampi.

  11. EFFECTS OF MODIFIED CONSTRAINT-INDUCED MOVEMENT THERAPY FOR LOWER LIMB ON MOTOR FUNCTION IN STROKE PATIENTS: A RANDOMIZED CONTROLLED STUDY

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    Sevim ACAROZ CANDAN

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available Background: Few studies have examined the effectiveness of modified constraint-induced movement therapy (mCIMT for the paretic lower limb following stroke. This study aimed to investigate the effects of mCIMT on motor function of the lower limb in stroke patients. Methods: A randomized, controlled study of 30 participants, who were randomized to 2 groups, was conducted. The study group received mCIMT, and the control group received neurodevelopmental therapy (NDT for two weeks. All were evaluated for motor function through the Functional Ambulation Classification (FAC, Berg Balance Scale (BBS,10-Meter Walk Test, gait parameters (cadence and step length ratio and postural symmetry ratio at pretreatment and post-treatment, like two times. Results: The improvements in BBS score, postural symmetry ratio, step length ratio, cadence and walking velocity had greater in the study group than the control group (P < 0.05. The improvement of FAC score was more pronounced in the study group (P = 0.005. Conclusion: mCIMT for paretic lower limb had superior effect against the NDT to enhance the motor function (gait parameters, balance, ambulation, and symmetry in patients with stroke. mCIMT may be used as a new alternative treatment for lower limb rehabilitation.

  12. Influences of hand dominance on the maintenance of benefits after home-based modified constraint-induced movement therapy in individuals with stroke

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    Renata C. M. Lima

    2014-10-01

    Full Text Available Objective: To investigate the influence of hand dominance on the maintenance of gains after home-based modified constraint-induced movement therapy (mCIMT. Method: Aprevious randomized controlled trial was conducted to examine the addition of trunk restraint to the mCIMT. Twenty-two chronic stroke survivors with mild to moderate motor impairments received individual home-based mCIMT with or without trunk restraints, five times per week, three hours daily over two weeks. In this study, the participants were separated into dominant group, which had their paretic upper limb as dominant before the stroke (n=8, and non-dominant group (n=14 for analyses. The ability to perform unimanual tasks was measured by the Wolf Motor Function Test (WMFT and the Motor Activity Log (MAL, whereas the capacity to perform bimanual tasks was measured using the Bilateral Activity Assessment Scale (BAAS. Results: Analysis revealed significant positive effects on the MAL amount of use and quality of the movement scales, as well as on the BAAS scores after intervention, with no differences between groups. Both groups maintained the bimanual improvements during follow-ups (BAAS-seconds 0.1, 95% CI -10.0 to 10.0, however only the dominant group maintained the unilateral improvements (MAL-amount of use: 1.5, 95% CI 0.7 to 2.3; MAL-quality: 1.3, 95% CI 0.5 to 2.1. Conclusions: Upper limb dominance did not interfere with the acquisition of upper limb skills after mCIMT. However, the participants whose paretic upper limb was dominant demonstrated better abilities to maintain the unilateral gains. The bilateral improvements were maintained, regardless of upper limb dominance.

  13. Constraint - Induced Movement Therapy: Determinants and Correlates of Duration of Adherence to Restraint use Among Stroke Survivors with Hemiparesis

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    Arinola Olasumbo Sanya

    2012-02-01

    Full Text Available Background: Constraint-Induced Movement Therapy (CIMT was developed to improve purposeful movement of the stroke-affected extremity by restrictingthe use of the unaffected extremity. The two main components of CIMT are the training of the more-impaired arm to perform functional tasks, and the restraint of the less-impaired arm. One challenge that the application of CIMT faces is in ensuring adherence to the use of restraint.Purpose: There is a need to determine the factors that may influence adherence, as this would allow CIMT to be delivered more effectively, and prevent situations where unrealistic expectations are placed on stroke–affected individuals.Methods: Thirty stroke survivors with hemiparesis who met the inclusion criteria were consecutively recruited from the physiotherapy out-patient clinics, using a purposive sampling technique. A structured questionnaire was used to obtain information on clinical and socio-demographic parameters. The participants were given a restraint and an adherence time log-book, to make a daily record during the period they wore the restraint. The adherence time logbook was collected at the end of every week of the 3-week study. Motor function and functional use of the upper limb were measured using Motricity Index and Motor Activity Log respectively. Data was analysed using mean and standard deviations, independent t-test and Spearman rho; p was significant at 0.05.Results: Gender (p=0.73 and side affected/handedness (p=0.79 had no significant influence on the percentage duration of adherence to restraint use (DARU. The influence of socio-economic status was seen, with the participants of middle socio-economic status adhering for longer duration (p=0.02. Age had weak and no significant correlation with percentage DARU (p=0.55. There was significantly fair correlation between motor function/functional use at any stage (p=0.55 and the corresponding percentage duration of adherence to restraint use, except

  14. Study to assess the effectiveness of modified constraint-induced movement therapy in stroke subjects: A randomized controlled trial

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Priyanka Singh

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available Background and Purpose: The purpose of this study was to assess the effectiveness of modified constraint induced movement therapy (m-CIMT in stroke subjects. Materials and Methods: A total of forty sub-acute stroke subjects were randomly assigned to either a m-CIMT (n = 20 or in a control group (n = 20. The m-CIMT group (14 men, 6 women; mean age = 55.2 years consisted of structured 2 h therapy sessions emphasizing affected arm use, occurring 5 times/week for 2 weeks. A mitt was used to restrain the unaffected arm for 10 h/day for 2 week. The control group (11 men, 9 women; mean age = 56.4 years consisted of conventional rehabilitation for time-matched exercise program. The outcome measures were evaluated at pre- and post-intervention by using the Wolf Motor Function Test (WMFT and Fugl-Meyer assessment (FMA of motor recovery after stroke. Results: After intervention significant effects were observed in m-CIMT group on WMFT (pre-test and post-test score was 28.04 ± 6.58, 13.59 ± 2.86; P =0.003. Similarly on FMA (pre- and post-test score was 31.15 ± 6.37, 55.7 ± 6.4; P = 0.00. Conclusion: There is a significant improvem ent in upper extremity function so it indicates that m-CIMT is effective in improving the motor function of the affected arm in stroke subjects. However, its long-term effect has not proved since there was no follow-up after intervention.

  15. Effects of Number of Repetitions and Number of Hours of Shaping Practice during Constraint-Induced Movement Therapy: A Randomized Controlled Trial

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    Auwal Abdullahi

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available Background. Constraint-induced movement therapy (CIMT is effective in improving motor outcomes after stroke. However, its existing protocols are resource-intensive and difficult to implement. The aim of this study is to design an easier CIMT protocol using number of repetitions of shaping practice. Method. The study design was randomized controlled trial. Participants within 4 weeks after stroke were recruited at Murtala Muhammad Specialist Hospital. They were randomly assigned to groups A, B, C, and D. Group A received 3 hours of traditional therapy. Groups B, C, and D received modified CIMT consisting of 3 hours of shaping practice per session, 300 repetitions of shaping practice in 3 sessions, and 600 repetitions of shaping practice in 3 sessions per day, respectively, and constraint for 90% of the waking hours. All treatment protocols were administered 5 times per week for 4 weeks. The primary outcome was measured using upper limb Fugl-Meyer assessment, while the secondary outcome was measured using motor activity log, Wolf Motor Function Test, and upper limb self-efficacy test at baseline, 2 weeks, and 4 weeks after intervention. Result. There were 48 participants 4 weeks after intervention. The result showed that there was no significant difference between groups at baseline (p>0.05. Within-group improvements attained minimal clinically important difference (MCID in modified CIMT and 300 repetitions and 600 repetitions groups. Conclusion. Number of repetitions of shaping practice significantly improved motor function, real-world arm use, and upper limb self-efficacy after stroke. Therefore, it seems to be a simple alternative for the use of number of hours. Trial Registration. This trial is registered with Pan African Clinical Trial Registry (registration number: PACTR201610001828172 (date of registration: 21/10/2016.

  16. Effect of modified constrained induced movement therapy on ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Ehab M. Abdel-Kafy

    2012-12-21

    Dec 21, 2012 ... movement and shoulder joint development, secondary shoul- der surgery can ... learned nonuse of the affected side through forcing the brain's plasticity .... cessive weeks of treatment by evaluating video recordings of standardized .... Using constraint of the unaffected UE and utilizing games and plays were ...

  17. Structural constraints on pronoun binding and coreference: Evidence from eye movements during reading

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ian eCunnings

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available A number of recent studies have investigated how syntactic and non-syntactic constraints combine to cue memory retrieval during anaphora resolution. In this paper we investigate how syntactic constraints and gender congruence interact to guide memory retrieval during the resolution of subject pronouns. Subject pronouns are always technically ambiguous, and the application of syntactic constraints on their interpretation depends on properties of the antecedent that is to be retrieved. While pronouns can freely corefer with non-quantified referential antecedents, linking a pronoun to a quantified antecedent is only possible in certain syntactic configurations via variable binding. We report the results from a judgement task and three online reading comprehension experiments investigating pronoun resolution with quantified and non-quantified antecedents. Results from both the judgement task and participants’ eye movements during reading indicate that comprehenders freely allow pronouns to corefer with non-quantified antecedents, but that retrieval of quantified antecedents is restricted to specific syntactic environments. We interpret our findings as indicating that syntactic constraints constitute highly weighted cues to memory retrieval during anaphora resolution.

  18. Structural constraints on pronoun binding and coreference: evidence from eye movements during reading

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cunnings, Ian; Patterson, Clare; Felser, Claudia

    2015-01-01

    A number of recent studies have investigated how syntactic and non-syntactic constraints combine to cue memory retrieval during anaphora resolution. In this paper we investigate how syntactic constraints and gender congruence interact to guide memory retrieval during the resolution of subject pronouns. Subject pronouns are always technically ambiguous, and the application of syntactic constraints on their interpretation depends on properties of the antecedent that is to be retrieved. While pronouns can freely corefer with non-quantified referential antecedents, linking a pronoun to a quantified antecedent is only possible in certain syntactic configurations via variable binding. We report the results from a judgment task and three online reading comprehension experiments investigating pronoun resolution with quantified and non-quantified antecedents. Results from both the judgment task and participants' eye movements during reading indicate that comprehenders freely allow pronouns to corefer with non-quantified antecedents, but that retrieval of quantified antecedents is restricted to specific syntactic environments. We interpret our findings as indicating that syntactic constraints constitute highly weighted cues to memory retrieval during anaphora resolution. PMID:26157400

  19. A pilot randomized controlled trial of D-cycloserine and distributed practice as adjuvants to constraint-induced movement therapy after stroke.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nadeau, Stephen E; Davis, Sandra E; Wu, Samuel S; Dai, Yunfeng; Richards, Lorie G

    2014-01-01

    Background. Phase III trials of rehabilitation of paresis after stroke have proven the effectiveness of intensive and extended task practice, but they have also shown that many patients do not qualify, because of severity of impairment, and that many of those who are treated are left with clinically significant deficits. Objective. To test the value of 2 potential adjuvants to normal learning processes engaged in constraint-induced movement therapy (CIMT): greater distribution of treatment over time and the coadministration of d-cycloserine, a competitive agonist at the glycine site of the N-methyl-D-aspartate glutamate receptor. Methods. A prospective randomized single-blind parallel-group trial of more versus less condensed therapy (2 vs 10 weeks) and d-cycloserine (50 mg) each treatment day versus placebo (in a 2 × 2 design), as potential adjuvants to 60 hours of CIMT. Results. Twenty-four participants entered the study, and 22 completed it and were assessed at the completion of treatment and 3 months later. Neither greater distribution of treatment nor treatment with d-cycloserine significantly augmented retention of gains achieved with CIMT. Conclusions. Greater distribution of practice and treatment with d-cycloserine do not appear to augment retention of gains achieved with CIMT. However, concentration of CIMT over 2 weeks ("massed practice") appears to confer no advantage either. © The Author(s) 2014.

  20. Speech language pathologists' opinions of constraint-induced language therapy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Page, Stephen J; Wallace, Sarah E

    2014-01-01

    Constraint-induced language therapy (CILT) has received recent attention as a possible intervention to improve expressive language in people with nonfluent aphasia. Difficulties have been reported with the practical implementation of constraint-induced movement therapy due to its intensive treatment parameters. It remains unknown whether similar challenges may exist with CILT. To determine the opinions of speech-language pathologists (SLPs) about CILT for people with nonfluent aphasia. One hundred sixty-seven SLPs completed an electronic survey assessing their opinions of various aspects of CILT. Over 60% of participants felt that people with aphasia would be very unlikely or somewhat unlikely to adhere to CILT. The majority felt that people with aphasia would hold high or moderate concerns with the number of hours spent in therapy (high, 41.8%; moderate, 31.4%), the number of days spent in therapy (high, 44.4%; moderate, 24.8%), likelihood for managed care reimbursement (high, 74.8%; moderate, 15.2%), and other logistical issues (high, 39.2%; moderate, 30.7%). With respect to providing CILT, participants cited the number of hours of therapy (high, 37.3%; moderate, 21.6%) and the number of consecutive days of therapy (high, 29.4%; moderate, 20.3%) as concerns. There were 70.6% who indicated that their facilities lacked resources to provide CILT, and 90.9% felt that most facilitates do not have the resources to provide CILT. Some SLPs hold significant concerns with the administration of CILT, particularly related to its dosing and reimbursement parameters. Additional work is needed to investigate the issues that were identified in this survey using qualitative methods with SLPs and people with aphasia and to examine modified CILT protocols.

  1. Prevalence of neuroleptic-induced movement disorders in chronic schizophrenia inpatients.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Janno, Sven; Holi, Matti; Tuisku, Katinka; Wahlbeck, Kristian

    2004-01-01

    Since most of the world's schizophrenia patients are treated with conventional antipsychotics, the authors evaluated various methods for establishing the prevalence of neuroleptic-induced movement disorders in these patients. DSM-IV criteria and established score thresholds on a movement disorder rating scale were used to identify cases of neuroleptic-induced movement disorder in a representative Estonian patient sample of 99 chronic institutionalized schizophrenia patients, 18-65 years old, treated with conventional neuroleptics (79.8%) or clozapine (20.2%). Neuroleptic-induced movement disorders according to DSM-IV criteria were found in 61.6% of the group: 31.3% had neuroleptic-induced akathisia, 23.2% had neuroleptic-induced parkinsonism, and 32.3% had neuroleptic-induced tardive dyskinesia. Prevalence rates for akathisia and tardive dyskinesia were similar when either DSM-IV criteria or rating scale scores were used, but the prevalence rate for parkinsonism was much lower per DSM-IV criteria than according to rating scale score. Nearly two-thirds of chronic schizophrenia patients suffered from a neuroleptic-induced movement disorder. Globally, extrapyramidal adverse effects still impose a huge burden on the majority of neuroleptic-treated individuals with schizophrenia. The discrepancy between the standard identification methods for neuroleptic-induced movement disorder indicate the need for further research.

  2. Database of ligand-induced domain movements in enzymes

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hayward Steven

    2009-03-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Conformational change induced by the binding of a substrate or coenzyme is a poorly understood stage in the process of enzyme catalysed reactions. For enzymes that exhibit a domain movement, the conformational change can be clearly characterized and therefore the opportunity exists to gain an understanding of the mechanisms involved. The development of the non-redundant database of protein domain movements contains examples of ligand-induced domain movements in enzymes, but this valuable data has remained unexploited. Description The domain movements in the non-redundant database of protein domain movements are those found by applying the DynDom program to pairs of crystallographic structures contained in Protein Data Bank files. For each pair of structures cross-checking ligands in their Protein Data Bank files with the KEGG-LIGAND database and using methods that search for ligands that contact the enzyme in one conformation but not the other, the non-redundant database of protein domain movements was refined down to a set of 203 enzymes where a domain movement is apparently triggered by the binding of a functional ligand. For these cases, ligand binding information, including hydrogen bonds and salt-bridges between the ligand and specific residues on the enzyme is presented in the context of dynamical information such as the regions that form the dynamic domains, the hinge bending residues, and the hinge axes. Conclusion The presentation at a single website of data on interactions between a ligand and specific residues on the enzyme alongside data on the movement that these interactions induce, should lead to new insights into the mechanisms of these enzymes in particular, and help in trying to understand the general process of ligand-induced domain closure in enzymes. The website can be found at: http://www.cmp.uea.ac.uk/dyndom/enzymeList.do

  3. [The effect of palonosetron on rocuronium-induced withdrawal movement].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Park, Ki-Bum; Jeon, Younghoon; Yi, Junggu; Kim, Ji-Hyun; Chung, Seung-Yeon; Kwak, Kyung-Hwa

    Rocuronium causes pain and withdrawal movement during induction of anesthesia. In this study, palonosetron was investigated to have analgesic effect on the reduction of rocuronium-induced withdrawal movement. 120 patients were randomly assigned to one of three groups to receive either saline, lidocaine 20mg, or palonosetron 0.075mg with a tourniquet applied two minutes before thiopental sodium (5mg.kg -1 ) was given intravenously. After loss of consciousness, rocuronium (0.6mg.kg -1 ) was injected and the withdrawal movement was estimated by 4-point scale in a double-blind manner. The overall incidence of rocuronium withdrawal movement was 50% with lidocaine (p=0.038), 38% with palonosetron (p=0.006) compared with 75% for saline. The incidence of no pain to mild pain was significantly lower in the lidocaine and palonosetron groups (85% and 92% respectively) than in the saline group (58%). However, there was no significant difference in withdrawal movement between the lidocaine and palonosetron groups. There was no severe movement with palonosetron. Pretreatment of palonosetron with venous occlusion may attenuate rocuronium-induced withdrawal movement as effective as the use of lidocaine. It suggested that peripheral action of palonosetron was effective to reduce rocuronium-induced withdrawal movement. Copyright © 2016. Publicado por Elsevier Editora Ltda.

  4. Safety of primed repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation and modified constraint-induced movement therapy in a randomized controlled trial in pediatric hemiparesis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gillick, Bernadette T; Krach, Linda E; Feyma, Tim; Rich, Tonya L; Moberg, Kelli; Menk, Jeremiah; Cassidy, Jessica; Kimberley, Teresa; Carey, James R

    2015-04-01

    To investigate the safety of combining a 6-Hz primed low-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) intervention in the contralesional hemisphere with a modified constraint-induced movement therapy (mCIMT) program in children with congenital hemiparesis. Phase 1 randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled pretest/posttest trial. University academic facility and pediatric specialty hospital. Subjects (N = 19; age range, 8-17 y) with congenital hemiparesis caused by ischemic stroke or periventricular leukomalacia. No subject withdrew because of adverse events. All subjects included completed the study. Subjects were randomized to 1 of 2 groups: either real rTMS plus mCIMT (n = 10) or sham rTMS plus mCIMT (n = 9). Adverse events, physician assessment, ipsilateral hand function, stereognosis, cognitive function, subject report of symptoms assessment, and subject questionnaire. No major adverse events occurred. Minor adverse events were found in both groups. The most common events were headaches (real: 50%, sham: 89%; P = .14) and cast irritation (real: 30%, sham: 44%; P = .65). No differences between groups in secondary cognitive and unaffected hand motor measures were found. Primed rTMS can be used safely with mCIMT in congenital hemiparesis. We provide new information on the use of rTMS in combination with mCIMT in children. These findings could be useful in research and future clinical applications in advancing function in congenital hemiparesis. Copyright © 2015 American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  5. Modified constraint-induced movement therapy or bimanual occupational therapy following injection of Botulinum toxin-A to improve bimanual performance in young children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy: a randomised controlled trial methods paper

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Imms Christine

    2010-07-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Use of Botulinum toxin-A (BoNT-A for treatment of upper limb spasticity in children with cerebral palsy has become routine clinical practice in many paediatric treatment centres worldwide. There is now high-level evidence that upper limb BoNT-A injection, in combination with occupational therapy, improves outcomes in children with cerebral palsy at both the body function/structure and activity level domains of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health. Investigation is now required to establish what amount and specific type of occupational therapy will further enhance functional outcomes and prolong the beneficial effects of BoNT-A. Methods/Design A randomised, controlled, evaluator blinded, prospective parallel-group trial. Eligible participants were children aged 18 months to 6 years, diagnosed with spastic hemiplegic cerebral palsy and who were able to demonstrate selective motor control of the affected upper limb. Both groups received upper limb injections of BoNT-A. Children were randomised to either the modified constraint-induced movement therapy group (experimental or bimanual occupational therapy group (control. Outcome assessments were undertaken at pre-injection and 1, 3 and 6 months following injection of BoNT-A. The primary outcome measure was the Assisting Hand Assessment. Secondary outcomes included: the Quality of Upper Extremity Skills Test; Pediatric Evaluation of Disability Inventory; Canadian Occupational Performance Measure; Goal Attainment Scaling; Pediatric Motor Activity Log; modified Ashworth Scale and; the modified Tardieu Scale. Discussion The aim of this paper is to describe the methodology of a randomised controlled trial comparing the effects of modified constraint-induced movement therapy (a uni-manual therapy versus bimanual occupational therapy (a bimanual therapy on improving bimanual upper limb performance of children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy following

  6. Primed low-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation and constraint-induced movement therapy in pediatric hemiparesis: a randomized controlled trial.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gillick, Bernadette T; Krach, Linda E; Feyma, Tim; Rich, Tonya L; Moberg, Kelli; Thomas, William; Cassidy, Jessica M; Menk, Jeremiah; Carey, James R

    2014-01-01

    The aim of this study was to determine the feasibility and efficacy of five treatments of 6 Hz primed, low-frequency, repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) combined with constraint-induced movement therapy (CIMT) to promote recovery of the paretic hand in children with congenital hemiparesis. Nineteen children with congenital hemiparesis aged between 8 and 17 years (10 males, nine females; mean age 10 years 10 months, SD 2 years 10 months; Manual Ability Classification Scale levels I-III) underwent five sessions of either real rTMS (n=10) or sham rTMS (n=9) alternated daily with CIMT. CIMT consisted of 13 days of continuous long-arm casting with five skin-check sessions. Each child received a total of 10 hours of one-to-one therapy. The primary outcome measure was the Assisting Hand Assessment (AHA) and the secondary outcome variables were the Canadian Occupational Performance Measure (COPM) and stereognosis. A Wilcoxon signed-rank sum test was used to analyze differences between pre- and post-test scores within the groups. Analysis of covariance was used to compute mean differences between groups adjusting for baseline. Fisher's exact test was used to compare individual change in AHA raw scores with the smallest detectable difference (SDD) of 4 points. All participants receiving treatment finished the study. Improvement in AHA differed significantly between groups (p=0.007). No significant differences in the secondary outcome measures were found. Eight out of 10 participants in the rTMS/CIMT group showed improvement greater than the SDD, but only two out of nine in the sham rTMS/CIMT group showed such improvement (p=0.023). No serious adverse events occurred. Primed, low-frequency rTMS combined with CIMT appears to be safe, feasible, and efficacious in pediatric hemiparesis. Larger clinical trials are now indicated. © 2013 Mac Keith Press.

  7. Effects of accuracy constraints on reach-to-grasp movements in cerebellar patients.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rand, M K; Shimansky, Y; Stelmach, G E; Bracha, V; Bloedel, J R

    2000-11-01

    Reach-to-grasp movements of patients with pathology restricted to the cerebellum were compared with those of normal controls. Two types of paradigms with different accuracy constraints were used to examine whether cerebellar impairment disrupts the stereotypic relationship between arm transport and grip aperture and whether the variability of this relationship is altered when greater accuracy is required. The movements were made to either a vertical dowel or to a cross bar of a small cross. All subjects were asked to reach for either target at a fast but comfortable speed, grasp the object between the index finger and thumb, and lift it a short distance off the table. In terms of the relationship between arm transport and grip aperture, the control subjects showed a high consistency in grip aperture and wrist velocity profiles from trial to trial for movements to both the dowel and the cross. The relationship between the maximum velocity of the wrist and the time at which grip aperture was maximal during the reach was highly consistent throughout the experiment. In contrast, the time of maximum grip aperture and maximum wrist velocity of the cerebellar patients was quite variable from trial to trial, and the relationship of these measurements also varied considerably. These abnormalities were present regardless of the accuracy requirement. In addition, the cerebellar patients required a significantly longer time to grasp and lift the objects than the control subjects. Furthermore, the patients exhibited a greater grip aperture during reach than the controls. These data indicate that the cerebellum contributes substantially to the coordination of movements required to perform reach-to-grasp movements. Specifically, the cerebellum is critical for executing this behavior with a consistent, well-timed relationship between the transport and grasp components. This contribution is apparent even when accuracy demands are minimal.

  8. Effect of modified constraint-induced movement therapy on the activities of daily living of patients with acute stroke

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wei-ming ZHANG

    2015-04-01

    Full Text Available Objective To observe the rehabilitation effect of modified constraint-induced movement therapy (mCIMT on activities of daily living (ADL in patients with acute ischemic stroke.  Methods A total of 60 patients in acute stage of cerebral stroke with limb dysfunction admitted in Ruijin Hospital from December 2012 to May 2013, were randomly divided into routine rehabilitation treatment group (control group, N = 30 and mCIMT group (N = 30. Control group was given routine rehabilitation training, 60 min each time, twice per day, 5 d per week; mCIMT group received mCIMT treatment with the similar frequency. After 2-week training, all patients were transferred to rehabilitation center for 4-week continous training. The total treatment period was 6 weeks. All of those patients received assessment before treatment and 2 weeks, 6 weeks, 12 weeks after treatment on the ability of daily living and motor function, including the modified Barthel Index (mBI, Fugl-Meyer Assessment (FMA and Berg Balance Scale (BBS.  Results Patients in both groups got increased mBI (P = 0.004, 0.000, 0.000, FMA (upper limb: P = 0.000, for all and BBS scores (P = 0.005, 0.000, 0.000 2, 6, 12 weeks after treatment. FMA (lower limb score was increased 6 and 12 weeks after treatment (P = 0.000, for all. Compared to the control group, patients in mCIMT group got increased mBI (P = 0.000, for all, FMA (upper limb: P = 0.000, for all; lower limb: P = 0.000, for all and BBS scores (P = 0.000, for all 2, 6, 12 weeks after treatment.  Conclusions mCIMT has positive therapeutic effects on the motor function of limbs in hemiplegic patients with stroke in acute stage, which can improve the balance ability and the ability of daily life, so as to raise the quality of life of patients. The efficacy of mCIMT is superior to general routine rehabilitation treatment. DOI: 10.3969/j.issn.1672-6731.2015.04.006

  9. Functional Sites Induce Long-Range Evolutionary Constraints in Enzymes.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Benjamin R Jack

    2016-05-01

    Full Text Available Functional residues in proteins tend to be highly conserved over evolutionary time. However, to what extent functional sites impose evolutionary constraints on nearby or even more distant residues is not known. Here, we report pervasive conservation gradients toward catalytic residues in a dataset of 524 distinct enzymes: evolutionary conservation decreases approximately linearly with increasing distance to the nearest catalytic residue in the protein structure. This trend encompasses, on average, 80% of the residues in any enzyme, and it is independent of known structural constraints on protein evolution such as residue packing or solvent accessibility. Further, the trend exists in both monomeric and multimeric enzymes and irrespective of enzyme size and/or location of the active site in the enzyme structure. By contrast, sites in protein-protein interfaces, unlike catalytic residues, are only weakly conserved and induce only minor rate gradients. In aggregate, these observations show that functional sites, and in particular catalytic residues, induce long-range evolutionary constraints in enzymes.

  10. INCITE: A randomised trial comparing constraint induced movement therapy and bimanual training in children with congenital hemiplegia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gilmore Rose

    2010-01-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Congenital hemiplegia is the most common form of cerebral palsy (CP accounting for 1 in 1300 live births. These children have limitations in capacity to use the impaired upper limb and bimanual coordination deficits which impact on daily activities and participation in home, school and community life. There are currently two diverse intensive therapy approaches. Traditional therapy has adopted a bimanual approach (BIM training and recently, constraint induced movement therapy (CIMT has emerged as a promising unimanual approach. Uncertainty remains about the efficacy of these interventions and characteristics of best responders. This study aims to compare the efficacy of CIMT to BIM training to improve outcomes across the ICF for school children with congenital hemiplegia. Methods/Design A matched pairs randomised comparison design will be used with children matched by age, gender, side of hemiplegia and level of upper limb function. Based on power calculations a sample size of 52 children (26 matched pairs will be recruited. Children will be randomised within pairs to receive either CIMT or BIM training. Both interventions will use an intensive activity based day camp model, with groups receiving the same dosage of intervention delivered in the same environment (total 60 hours over 10 days. A novel circus theme will be used to enhance motivation. Groups will be compared at baseline, then at 3, 26 and 52 weeks following intervention. Severity of congenital hemiplegia will be classified according to brain structure (MRI and white matter fibre tracking, cortical excitability using Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS, functional use of the hand in everyday tasks (Manual Ability Classification System and Gross Motor Function Classification System (GMFCS. Outcomes will address neurovascular changes (functional MRI, functional connectivity, and brain (reorganisation (TMS, body structure and function (range of motion, spasticity

  11. Neuroleptic-induced movement disorders in a naturalistic schizophrenia population: diagnostic value of actometric movement patterns.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Janno, Sven; Holi, Matti M; Tuisku, Katinka; Wahlbeck, Kristian

    2008-04-18

    Neuroleptic-induced movement disorders (NIMDs) have overlapping co-morbidity. Earlier studies have described typical clinical movement patterns for individual NIMDs. This study aimed to identify specific movement patterns for each individual NIMD using actometry. A naturalistic population of 99 schizophrenia inpatients using conventional antipsychotics and clozapine was evaluated. Subjects with NIMDs were categorized using the criteria for NIMD found in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders - Fourth Edition (DSM-IV).Two blinded raters evaluated the actometric-controlled rest activity data for activity periods, rhythmical activity, frequencies, and highest acceleration peaks. A simple subjective question was formulated to test patient-based evaluation of NIMD. The patterns of neuroleptic-induced akathisia (NIA) and pseudoakathisia (PsA) were identifiable in actometry with excellent inter-rater reliability. The answers to the subjective question about troubles with movements distinguished NIA patients from other patients rather well. Also actometry had rather good screening performances in distinguishing akathisia from other NIMD. Actometry was not able to reliably detect patterns of neuroleptic-induced parkinsonism and tardive dyskinesia. The present study showed that pooled NIA and PsA patients had a different pattern in lower limb descriptive actometry than other patients in a non-selected sample. Careful questioning of patients is a useful method of diagnosing NIA in a clinical setting.

  12. Feasibility of a Day-Camp Model of Modified Constraint-Induced Movement Therapy with and without Botulinum Toxin A Injection for Children with Hemiplegia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Eliasson, Ann-Christin; Shaw, Karin; Ponten, Eva; Boyd, Roslyn; Krumlinde-Sundholm, Lena

    2009-01-01

    The objective of the study was to investigate the feasibility of modified constraint-induced (CI) therapy provided in a 2-week day-camp model with and without intramuscular botulinum toxin type A (BoNT-A) injections for children with congenital cerebral palsy. Sixteen children with congenital hemiplegia, Manual Ability Classification System (MACS)…

  13. Neuroleptic-induced movement disorders in a naturalistic schizophrenia population: diagnostic value of actometric movement patterns

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tuisku Katinka

    2008-04-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Neuroleptic-induced movement disorders (NIMDs have overlapping co-morbidity. Earlier studies have described typical clinical movement patterns for individual NIMDs. This study aimed to identify specific movement patterns for each individual NIMD using actometry. Methods A naturalistic population of 99 schizophrenia inpatients using conventional antipsychotics and clozapine was evaluated. Subjects with NIMDs were categorized using the criteria for NIMD found in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders – Fourth Edition (DSM-IV. Two blinded raters evaluated the actometric-controlled rest activity data for activity periods, rhythmical activity, frequencies, and highest acceleration peaks. A simple subjective question was formulated to test patient-based evaluation of NIMD. Results The patterns of neuroleptic-induced akathisia (NIA and pseudoakathisia (PsA were identifiable in actometry with excellent inter-rater reliability. The answers to the subjective question about troubles with movements distinguished NIA patients from other patients rather well. Also actometry had rather good screening performances in distinguishing akathisia from other NIMD. Actometry was not able to reliably detect patterns of neuroleptic-induced parkinsonism and tardive dyskinesia. Conclusion The present study showed that pooled NIA and PsA patients had a different pattern in lower limb descriptive actometry than other patients in a non-selected sample. Careful questioning of patients is a useful method of diagnosing NIA in a clinical setting.

  14. Effect of plastic prestrain on the crack tip constraint of pipeline steels

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Eikrem, P.A.; Zhang, Z.L.; Nyhus, B.

    2007-01-01

    Before and during operation, pipelines may suffer from plastic pre-deformation due to accidental loading, cold bending and ground movement. Plastic prestrain not only modifies steel's yield and flow properties but also influences its fracture performance. This paper focuses on the effect of prestrain history on crack driving force and crack tip constraint. A single-edge notched tension specimen has been selected for the study and the crack is assumed to exist before a prestrain history was applied. The results show that prestrain history has a strong effect on the crack tip stress field. A new parameter has been proposed to characterize the prestrain-induced crack tip constraint. For the same crack tip opening displacement level, prestrain history will elevate the crack tip stress field. The prestrain-induced constraint decreases with the increase of loading

  15. Quantification of vestibular-induced eye movements in zebrafish larvae

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    Mo Weike

    2010-09-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Vestibular reflexes coordinate movements or sensory input with changes in body or head position. Vestibular-evoked responses that involve the extraocular muscles include the vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR, a compensatory eye movement to stabilize retinal images. Although an angular VOR attributable to semicircular canal stimulation was reported to be absent in free-swimming zebrafish larvae, recent studies reveal that vestibular-induced eye movements can be evoked in zebrafish larvae by both static tilts and dynamic rotations that tilt the head with respect to gravity. Results We have determined herein the basis of sensitivity of the larval eye movements with respect to vestibular stimulus, developmental stage, and sensory receptors of the inner ear. For our experiments, video recordings of larvae rotated sinusoidally at 0.25 Hz were analyzed to quantitate eye movements under infrared illumination. We observed a robust response that appeared as early as 72 hours post fertilization (hpf, which increased in amplitude over time. Unlike rotation about an earth horizontal axis, rotation about an earth vertical axis at 0.25 Hz did not evoke eye movements. Moreover, vestibular-induced responses were absent in mutant cdh23 larvae and larvae lacking anterior otoliths. Conclusions Our results provide evidence for a functional vestibulo-oculomotor circuit in 72 hpf zebrafish larvae that relies upon sensory input from anterior/utricular otolith organs.

  16. Effect of Time Constraind Induced Therapy on Function, Coordination and Movements of Upper Limb on Hemiplegic Adults

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    Masoud Gharib

    2011-10-01

    Full Text Available Objectives: Stroke, is one of the major causes of disability in adults. So, the patient may prefer to use the non-involved limb to perfom selfcare & named this phenomen learned non used. Constraint induced therapy is one of the rehabilitative interventions that can be effective in restoration of the function of the involved limb in some hemiparetic post stroke patients. purpose of this study was to investigate effect of time constraind induced therapy on function, coordination and movements of upper limb on hemiplegic adults. Methods: In an interventional design, 15 hemiplegic patients attended in stracture exrcises for 2 hours a day, 5 days a week for 12 weeks in during while for 5 hours a day, 5 days a week for 12 weeks, the sound limb was restricted within an arm sling for movement & dextrity assessment were used Fugl-Meyer & Minnesota Manual Dexterity Test. Results: the results of Fugl-Meyer & Minnesota Manual Dexterity Test were significantly improved in patients, after the intervention (P<0.05. Discussion: Our study shows that using CIT in involved limb encouraged the patients to use their involved limb and improved function by conquering learned non-use of the limb. more research is necessary to define baselines or golden times for rehabilitation of the patients using CIT method.

  17. Illusory sensation of movement induced by repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Christensen, Mark Schram; Lundbye-Jensen, Jesper; Grey, Michael James

    2010-01-01

    Human movement sense relies on both somatosensory feedback and on knowledge of the motor commands used to produce the movement. We have induced a movement illusion using repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation over primary motor cortex and dorsal premotor cortex in the absence of limb movement...... and its associated somatosensory feedback. Afferent and efferent neural signalling was abolished in the arm with ischemic nerve block, and in the leg with spinal nerve block. Movement sensation was assessed following trains of high-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation applied over...... premotor cortex stimulation was less affected by sensory and motor deprivation than was primary motor cortex stimulation. We propose that repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation over dorsal premotor cortex produces a corollary discharge that is perceived as movement....

  18. Constraint-induced sound therapy for sudden sensorineural hearing loss – behavioral and neurophysiological outcomes

    OpenAIRE

    Hidehiko Okamoto; Munehisa Fukushima; Henning Teismann; Lothar Lagemann; Tadashi Kitahara; Hidenori Inohara; Ryusuke Kakigi; Christo Pantev

    2014-01-01

    Sudden sensorineural hearing loss is characterized by acute, idiopathic hearing deterioration. We report here the development and evaluation of “constraint-induced sound therapy”, which is based on a well-established neuro-rehabilitation approach, and which is characterized by the plugging of the intact ear (“constraint”) and the simultaneous, extensive stimulation of the affected ear with music. The sudden sensorineural hearing loss patients who received the constraint-induced sound therapy ...

  19. Radiation-induced camptocormia and dropped head syndrome. Review and case report of radiation-induced movement disorders

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Seidel, Clemens; Kuhnt, Thomas; Kortmann, Rolf-Dieter; Hering, Kathrin

    2015-01-01

    In recent years, camptocormia and dropped head syndrome (DHS) have gained attention as particular forms of movement disorders. Camptocormia presents with involuntary forward flexion of the thoracolumbar spine that typically increases during walking or standing and may severely impede walking ability. DHS is characterized by weakness of the neck extensors and a consecutive inability to extend the neck; in severe cases the head is fixed in a ''chin to chest position.'' Many diseases may underlie these conditions, and there have been some reports about radiation-induced camptocormia and DHS. A PubMed search with the keywords ''camptocormia,'' ''dropped head syndrome,'' ''radiation-induced myopathy,'' ''radiation-induced neuropathy,'' and ''radiation-induced movement disorder'' was carried out to better characterize radiation-induced movement disorders and the radiation techniques involved. In addition, the case of a patient developing camptocormia 23 years after radiation therapy of a non-Hodgkin's lymphoma of the abdomen is described. In total, nine case series of radiation-induced DHS (n = 45 patients) and - including our case - three case reports (n = 3 patients) about radiogenic camptocormia were retrieved. Most cases (40/45 patients) occurred less than 15 years after radiotherapy involving extended fields for Hodgkin's disease. The use of wide radiation fields including many spinal segments with paraspinal muscles may lead to radiation-induced movement disorders. If paraspinal muscles and the thoracolumbar spine are involved, the clinical presentation can be that of camptocormia. DHS may result if there is involvement of the cervical spine. To prevent these disorders, sparing of the spine and paraspinal muscles is desirable. (orig.) [de

  20. Characterization of root agravitropism induced by genetic, chemical, and developmental constraints

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Moore, R.; Fondren, W.M.; Marcum, H.

    1987-01-01

    The patterns and rates of organelle redistribution in columella (i.e., putative statocyte) cells of agravitropic agt mutants of Zea mays are not significantly different from those of columella cells in graviresponsive roots. Graviresponsive roots of Z. mays are characterized by a strongly polar movement of 45 Ca 2+ across the root tip from the upper to the lower side. Horizontally-oriented roots of agt mutants exhibit only a minimal polar transport of 45 Ca 2+ . Exogenously-induced asymmetries of Ca result in curvature of agt roots toward the Ca source. A similar curvature can be induced by a Ca asymmetry in normally nongraviresponsive (i.e., lateral) roots of Phaseolus vulgaris. Similarly, root curvature can be induced by placing the roots perpendicular to an electric field. This electrotropism increase with (1) currents between 8-35 mA, and (2) time between 1-9 hr when the current is constant. Electrotropism is reduced significantly by treating roots with triiodobenzoic acid (TIBA), an inhibitor of auxin transport. These results suggest that (1) if graviperception occurs via the sedimentation of amyloplasts in columella cells, then nongraviresponsive roots apparently sense gravity as do graviresponsive roots, (2) exogenously induced asymmetries of a gravitropic effector (i.e., Ca) can induce curvature of normally nongraviresponsive roots, (3) the gravity-induced downward movement of exogenously-applied 45 Ca 2+ across tips of graviresponsive roots does not occur in nongraviresponsive roots, (4) placing roots in an electrical field (i.e., one favoring the movement of ions such as Ca 2+ ) induces root curvature and (5) electrically-induced curvature is apparently dependent on auxin transport. These result are discussed relative to a model to account for the lack of graviresponsiveness by these roots

  1. Terapia de movimento induzido pela restrição na hemiplegia: um estudo de caso único Constraint-induced movement therapy in hemiplegia: a single-subject study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Daniela Virgínia Vaz

    2008-09-01

    Full Text Available A terapia de movimento induzido por restrição (TMIR tem mostrado resultados positivos em indivíduos hemiparéticos após acidente vascular cerebral; consiste na contenção do membro superior não-afetado e treinamento intensivo do membro afetado. Este estudo visou documentar longitudinalmente os efeitos da TMIR na funcionalidade do membro superior de um indivíduo com hemiparesia esquerda crônica. Neste estudo de caso único tipo ABA, as fases linha de base (A duraram duas semanas e a intervenção (B compreendeu a contenção do membro sadio com um splint e cinco sessões semanais de 3 horas de treino do membro superior afetado, durante duas semanas. As medidas de funcionalidade Action Research Arm (ARA e de qualidade de movimento e destreza Wolf Motor Function Test (WMFT foram coletadas cinco vezes por semana, e a medida de qualidade e freqüência de uso do membro superior, Motor Activity Log (MAL, uma vez por semana por seis semanas. Os dados coletados foram tratados estatisticamente. Os resultados mostram ganhos significativos na qualidade de movimento (WMFT durante a intervenção (p0,05. Quanto à destreza (WMFT e funcionalidade (ARA, foram detectadas tendências significativas de ganho durante as quatro primeiras semanas; após a intervenção, houve estabilização do desempenho (pConstraint-induced movement therapy (CIMT consists of restraining movement of the non-affected arm while providing intensive training of the affected upper extremity. Positive results have been reported after CIMT in individuals with hemiparesis due to stroke. This study is a longitudinal, ABA-design documentation of the effects of CIMT on upper extremity function of an individual with chronic left hemiparesis. Baseline phases (A lasted two weeks and intervention (B involved restrain of the non-affected arm with a splint and five three-hour weekly sessions of training of the affected arm, for two weeks. During the six study weeks upper extremity function

  2. Integration deficiencies associated with continuous limb movement sequences in Parkinson's disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Park, Jin-Hoon; Stelmach, George E

    2009-11-01

    The present study examined the extent to which Parkinson's disease (PD) influences integration of continuous limb movement sequences. Eight patients with idiopathic PD and 8 age-matched normal subjects were instructed to perform repetitive sequential aiming movements to specified targets under three-accuracy constraints: 1) low accuracy (W = 7 cm) - minimal accuracy constraint, 2) high accuracy (W = 0.64 cm) - maximum accuracy constraint, and 3) mixed accuracy constraint - one target of high accuracy and another target of low accuracy. The characteristic of sequential movements in the low accuracy condition was mostly cyclical, whereas in the high accuracy condition it was discrete in both groups. When the accuracy constraint was mixed, the sequential movements were executed by assembling discrete and cyclical movements in both groups, suggesting that for PD patients the capability to combine discrete and cyclical movements to meet a task requirement appears to be intact. However, such functional linkage was not as pronounced as was in normal subjects. Close examination of movement from the mixed accuracy condition revealed marked movement hesitations in the vicinity of the large target in PD patients, resulting in a bias toward discrete movement. These results suggest that PD patients may have deficits in ongoing planning and organizing processes during movement execution when the tasks require to assemble various accuracy requirements into more complex movement sequences.

  3. Recognizing Induced Emotions of Happiness and Sadness from Dance Movement

    Science.gov (United States)

    Van Dyck, Edith; Vansteenkiste, Pieter; Lenoir, Matthieu; Lesaffre, Micheline; Leman, Marc

    2014-01-01

    Recent research revealed that emotional content can be successfully decoded from human dance movement. Most previous studies made use of videos of actors or dancers portraying emotions through choreography. The current study applies emotion induction techniques and free movement in order to examine the recognition of emotional content from dance. Observers (N = 30) watched a set of silent videos showing depersonalized avatars of dancers moving to an emotionally neutral musical stimulus after emotions of either sadness or happiness had been induced. Each of the video clips consisted of two dance performances which were presented side-by-side and were played simultaneously; one of a dancer in the happy condition and one of the same individual in the sad condition. After every film clip, the observers were asked to make forced-choices concerning the emotional state of the dancer. Results revealed that observers were able to identify the emotional state of the dancers with a high degree of accuracy. Moreover, emotions were more often recognized for female dancers than for their male counterparts. In addition, the results of eye tracking measurements unveiled that observers primarily focus on movements of the chest when decoding emotional information from dance movement. The findings of our study show that not merely portrayed emotions, but also induced emotions can be successfully recognized from free dance movement. PMID:24587026

  4. Efeito das terapias associadas de imagem motora e de movimento induzido por restrição na hemiparesia crônica: estudo de caso Effects of associated therapies of motor imagery and constraint-induced movement in chronic hemiparesis: a case study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Claudia Morais Trevisan

    2010-09-01

    Full Text Available Este estudo analisa os efeitos da associação das terapias de imagem motora e de movimento induzido por restrição na reeducação funcional do membro superior (MS de um paciente com deficit sensorial e motor determinado por acidente vascular encefálico (AVE. A terapia de imagem motora (IM consistiu em: 1o, estimulo visual do espelho, em 3 sessões semanais de 30 a 60 minutos por 4 semanas; e 2o, IM com prática mental, em 3 sessões semanais de 15 minutos por 3 semanas. Por último foi aplicada a terapia de indução ao movimento por restrição do membro superior não-afetado por 14 dias, em 10 dos quais foi feita atividade funcional do membro parético por 6 horas diárias. Além da avaliação clinica da sensibilidade e medida da força de preensão palmar, antes do tratamento e após cada modalidade de terapia foi medida a amplitude de movimentos de ombro, cotovelo e punho e aplicada a escala de avaliação motora (EAM. Os escores dos quatro momentos da coleta foram comparados estatisticamente. Após o tratamento os resultados mostraram diferença significativa (pThis study assessed the efficacy of the association of motor imagery and constraint-induced movement therapies in functional rehabilitation of the upper limb in a patient with somatosensory and motor deficits following stroke. Motor imagery (MI therapy, i.e., mental simulation of body image, consisted in: 1st, mirror visual stimulus, at three 30-60-minute weekly sessions for four weeks; and 2nd, MI with mental practice, at three 15-minute sessions per week for three weeks. Lastly, constraint-induced movement therapy was applied for 14 days, in 10 of which the patient underwent 6 hours daily of paretic limb functional training. The patient was assessed at baseline and at the end of each therapy modality as to clinical examination of sensation; hand grip strength; shoulder, elbow and wrist range of motion; and the motor assessment scale (MAS was applied. Scores obtained at the

  5. Eye movements in ephedrone-induced parkinsonism.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Cecilia Bonnet

    Full Text Available Patients with ephedrone parkinsonism (EP show a complex, rapidly progressive, irreversible, and levodopa non-responsive parkinsonian and dystonic syndrome due to manganese intoxication. Eye movements may help to differentiate parkinsonian syndromes providing insights into which brain networks are affected in the underlying disease, but they have never been systematically studied in EP. Horizontal and vertical eye movements were recorded in 28 EP and compared to 21 Parkinson's disease (PD patients, and 27 age- and gender-matched healthy subjects using standardized oculomotor tasks with infrared videooculography. EP patients showed slow and hypometric horizontal saccades, an increased occurrence of square wave jerks, long latencies of vertical antisaccades, a high error rate in the horizontal antisaccade task, and made more errors than controls when pro- and antisaccades were mixed. Based on oculomotor performance, a direct differentiation between EP and PD was possible only by the velocity of horizontal saccades. All remaining metrics were similar between both patient groups. EP patients present extensive oculomotor disturbances probably due to manganese-induced damage to the basal ganglia, reflecting their role in oculomotor system.

  6. Disease-induced resource constraints can trigger explosive epidemics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Böttcher, L.; Woolley-Meza, O.; Araújo, N. A. M.; Herrmann, H. J.; Helbing, D.

    2015-11-01

    Advances in mathematical epidemiology have led to a better understanding of the risks posed by epidemic spreading and informed strategies to contain disease spread. However, a challenge that has been overlooked is that, as a disease becomes more prevalent, it can limit the availability of the capital needed to effectively treat those who have fallen ill. Here we use a simple mathematical model to gain insight into the dynamics of an epidemic when the recovery of sick individuals depends on the availability of healing resources that are generated by the healthy population. We find that epidemics spiral out of control into “explosive” spread if the cost of recovery is above a critical cost. This can occur even when the disease would die out without the resource constraint. The onset of explosive epidemics is very sudden, exhibiting a discontinuous transition under very general assumptions. We find analytical expressions for the critical cost and the size of the explosive jump in infection levels in terms of the parameters that characterize the spreading process. Our model and results apply beyond epidemics to contagion dynamics that self-induce constraints on recovery, thereby amplifying the spreading process.

  7. Creative Motor Actions As Emerging from Movement Variability.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Orth, Dominic; van der Kamp, John; Memmert, Daniel; Savelsbergh, Geert J P

    2017-01-01

    In cognitive science, creative ideas are defined as original and feasible solutions in response to problems. A common proposal is that creative ideas are generated across dedicated cognitive pathways. Only after creative ideas have emerged, they can be enacted to solve the problem. We present an alternative viewpoint, based upon the dynamic systems approach to perception and action, that creative solutions emerge in the act rather than before . Creative actions, thus, are as much a product of individual constraints as they are of the task and environment constraints. Accordingly, we understand creative motor actions as functional movement patterns that are new to the individual and/or group and adapted to satisfy the constraints on the motor problem at hand. We argue that creative motor actions are promoted by practice interventions that promote exploration by manipulating constraints. Exploration enhances variability of functional movement patterns in terms of either coordination or control solutions. At both levels, creative motor actions can emerge from finding new and degenerate adaptive motor solutions. Generally speaking, we anticipate that in most cases, when exposed to variation in constraints, people are not looking for creative motor actions, but discover them while doing an effort to satisfy constraints. For future research, this paper achieves two important aspects: it delineates how adaptive (movement) variability is at the heart of (motor) creativity, and it sets out methodologies toward stimulating adaptive variability.

  8. The impact of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) combined with modified constraint-induced movement therapy (mCIMT) on upper limb function in chronic stroke: a double-blind randomized controlled trial.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rocha, Sérgio; Silva, Evelyn; Foerster, Águida; Wiesiolek, Carine; Chagas, Anna Paula; Machado, Giselle; Baltar, Adriana; Monte-Silva, Katia

    2016-01-01

    This pilot double-blind sham-controlled randomized trial aimed to determine if the addition of anodal tDCS on the affected hemisphere or cathodal tDCS on unaffected hemisphere to modified constraint-induced movement therapy (mCIMT) would be superior to constraints therapy alone in improving upper limb function in chronic stroke patients. Twenty-one patients with chronic stroke were randomly assigned to receive 12 sessions of either (i) anodal, (ii) cathodal or (iii) sham tDCS combined with mCIMT. Fugl-Meyer assessment (FMA), motor activity log scale (MAL), and handgrip strength were analyzed before, immediately, and 1 month (follow-up) after the treatment. Minimal clinically important difference (mCID) was defined as an increase of ≥5.25 in the upper limb FMA. An increase in the FMA scores between the baseline and post-intervention and follow-up for active tDCS group was observed, whereas no difference was observed in the sham group. At post-intervention and follow-up, when compared with the sham group, only the anodal tDCS group achieved an improvement in the FMA scores. ANOVA showed that all groups demonstrated similar improvement over time for MAL and handgrip strength. In the active tDCS groups, 7/7 (anodal tDCS) 5/7 (cathodal tDCS) of patients experienced mCID against 3/7 in the sham group. The results support the merit of association of mCIMT with brain stimulation to augment clinical gains in rehabilitation after stroke. However, the anodal tDCS seems to have greater impact than the cathodal tDCS in increasing the mCIMT effects on motor function of chronic stroke patients. The association of mCIMT with brain stimulation improves clinical gains in rehabilitation after stroke. The improvement in motor recovery (assessed by Fugl-Meyer scale) was only observed after anodal tDCS. The modulation of damaged hemisphere demonstrated greater improvements than the modulation of unaffected hemispheres.

  9. A Comparison of Independent Event-Related Desynchronization Responses in Motor-Related Brain Areas to Movement Execution, Movement Imagery, and Movement Observation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Duann, Jeng-Ren; Chiou, Jin-Chern

    2016-01-01

    Electroencephalographic (EEG) event-related desynchronization (ERD) induced by movement imagery or by observing biological movements performed by someone else has recently been used extensively for brain-computer interface-based applications, such as applications used in stroke rehabilitation training and motor skill learning. However, the ERD responses induced by the movement imagery and observation might not be as reliable as the ERD responses induced by movement execution. Given that studies on the reliability of the EEG ERD responses induced by these activities are still lacking, here we conducted an EEG experiment with movement imagery, movement observation, and movement execution, performed multiple times each in a pseudorandomized order in the same experimental runs. Then, independent component analysis (ICA) was applied to the EEG data to find the common motor-related EEG source activity shared by the three motor tasks. Finally, conditional EEG ERD responses associated with the three movement conditions were computed and compared. Among the three motor conditions, the EEG ERD responses induced by motor execution revealed the alpha power suppression with highest strengths and longest durations. The ERD responses of the movement imagery and movement observation only partially resembled the ERD pattern of the movement execution condition, with slightly better detectability for the ERD responses associated with the movement imagery and faster ERD responses for movement observation. This may indicate different levels of involvement in the same motor-related brain circuits during different movement conditions. In addition, because the resulting conditional EEG ERD responses from the ICA preprocessing came with minimal contamination from the non-related and/or artifactual noisy components, this result can play a role of the reference for devising a brain-computer interface using the EEG ERD features of movement imagery or observation.

  10. Operational and geotechnical constraints to coal mining in Alaska's interior

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Corser, P; Usibelli, M

    1989-01-01

    Surface mining of coal from the Poker Flats mining area to the north of Healy, Alaska began in 1978. Current operations involve a 25 m/sup 3/ walking dragline which strips two coal seams, using an extended bench on the second pass; a fleet of trucks and shovels are used for coal removal and some limited overburden stripping. Geotechnical constraints to mining within the steeply dipping coal deposits are discussed. The area had a number of landslides. During 1984, mining operations close to a landslide caused movement to resume. A mine plan was developed which allowed the coal to be safely removed without inducing additional movement. This involves a dipline mining scheme through the slide area. Future mine plans will acknowledge the hazards of mining through potentially unstable zones. Aerial photographs, field mapping and geological exploration were used. 1 ref., 6 figs.

  11. Respiration-induced movement correlation for synchronous noninvasive renal cancer surgery.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Abhilash, Rakkunedeth H; Chauhan, Sunita

    2012-07-01

    Noninvasive surgery (NIS), such as high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU)-based ablation or radiosurgery, is used for treating tumors and cancers in various parts of the body. The soft tissue targets (usually organs) deform and move as a result of physiological processes such as respiration. Moreover, other deformations induced during surgery by changes in patient position, changes in physical properties caused by repeated exposures and uncertainties resulting from cavitation also occur. In this paper, we present a correlation-based movement prediction technique to address respiration-induced movement of the urological organs while targeting through extracorporeal trans-abdominal route access. Among other organs, kidneys are worst affected during respiratory cycles, with significant three-dimensional displacements observed on the order of 20 mm. Remote access to renal targets such as renal carcinomas and cysts during noninvasive surgery, therefore, requires a tightly controlled real-time motion tracking and quantitative estimate for compensation routine to synchronize the energy source(s) for precise energy delivery to the intended regions. The correlation model finds a mapping between the movement patterns of external skin markers placed on the abdominal access window and the internal movement of the targeted kidney. The coarse estimate of position is then fine-tuned using the Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS), thereby achieving a nonlinear mapping. The technical issues involved in this tracking scheme are threefold: the model must have sufficient accuracy in mapping the movement pattern; there must be an image-based tracking scheme to provide the organ position within allowable system latency; and the processing delay resulting from modeling and tracking must be within the achievable prediction horizon to accommodate the latency in the therapeutic delivery system. The concept was tested on ultrasound image sequences collected from 20 healthy

  12. Periodontal response to orthodontic tooth movement in diabetes-induced rats with or without periodontal disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ferreira, Camila Lopes; da Rocha, Vinicius Clemente; da Silva Ursi, Weber José; De Marco, Andrea Carvalho; Santamaria, Milton; Santamaria, Mauro Pedrine; Jardini, Maria Aparecida Neves

    2018-03-01

    Systemic conditions can influence orthodontic tooth movement. This study evaluates histologic periodontal responses to orthodontic tooth movement in diabetes-induced rats with or without periodontal disease. Forty Wistar rats were divided according their systemic condition (SC) into diabetic (D) and non-diabetic (ND) groups. Each group was subdivided into control (C), orthodontic tooth movement (OM), ligature-induced periodontitis (P) and ligature-induced periodontitis with orthodontic movement (P+OM) groups. Diabetes mellitus (DM) was induced with alloxan monohydrate, and after 30 days, the P group received a cotton ligature around their first lower molar crown. An orthodontic device was placed in OM and P+OM groups for 7 days, and the animals were then euthanized. Differences in OM between D and ND groups were not significant (6.87± 3.55 mm and 6.81 ± 3.28 mm, respectively), but intragroup analysis revealed statistically significant differences between the P+OM groups for both SCs. Bone loss was greater in the D group (0.16 ± 0.07 mm 2 ) than in the ND group (0.10 ± 0.03 mm 2 ). In intragroup analysis of the D condition, the P+OM group differed statistically from the other groups, while in the ND condition, the P+OM group was different from the C and OM groups. There was a statistically significant difference in bone density between D and ND conditions (18.03 ± 8.09% and 22.53 ± 7.72%) in the C, P, and P+OM groups. DM has deleterious effects on bone density and bone loss in the furcation region. These effects are maximized when associated with ligature-induced periodontitis with orthodontic movement. © 2018 American Academy of Periodontology.

  13. Goal-selection and movement-related conflict during bimanual reaching movements.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Diedrichsen, Jörn; Grafton, Scott; Albert, Neil; Hazeltine, Eliot; Ivry, Richard B

    2006-12-01

    Conflict during bimanual movements can arise during the selection of movement goals or during movement planning and execution. We demonstrate a behavioral and neural dissociation of these 2 types of conflict. During functional magnetic resonance imaging scanning, participants performed bimanual reaching movements with symmetric (congruent) or orthogonal (incongruent) trajectories. The required movements were indicated either spatially, by illuminating the targets, or symbolically, using centrally presented letters. The processing of symbolic cues led to increased activation in a left hemisphere network including the intraparietal sulcus, premotor cortex, and inferior frontal gyrus. Reaction time cost for incongruent movements was substantially larger for symbolic than for spatial cues, indicating that the cost was primarily associated with the selection and assignment of movement goals, demands that are minimized when goals are directly specified by spatial cues. This goal-selection conflict increased activity in the pre-supplementary motor area and cingulate motor areas. Both cueing conditions led to larger activation for incongruent movements in the convexity of the superior parietal cortex, bilaterally, making this region a likely neural site for conflict that arises during the planning and execution of bimanual movements. These results suggest distinct neural loci for 2 forms of constraint on our ability to perform bimanual reaching movements.

  14. Pb-induced avoidance-like chloroplast movements in fronds of Lemna trisulca L.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sławomir Samardakiewicz

    Full Text Available Lead ions are particularly dangerous to the photosynthetic apparatus, but little is known about the effects of trace metals, including Pb, on regulation of chloroplast redistribution. In this study a new effect of lead on chloroplast distribution patterns and movements was demonstrated in mesophyll cells of a small-sized aquatic angiosperm Lemna trisulca L. (star duckweed. An analysis of confocal microscopy images of L. trisulca fronds treated with lead (15 μM Pb2+, 24 h in darkness or in weak white light revealed an enhanced accumulation of chloroplasts in the profile position along the anticlinal cell walls, in comparison to untreated plants. The rearrangement of chloroplasts in their response to lead ions in darkness was similar to the avoidance response of chloroplasts in plants treated with strong white light. Transmission electron microscopy X-ray microanalysis showed that intracellular chloroplast arrangement was independent of the location of Pb deposits, suggesting that lead causes redistribution of chloroplasts, which looks like a light-induced avoidance response, but is not a real avoidance response to the metal. Furthermore, a similar redistribution of chloroplasts in L. trisulca cells in darkness was observed also under the influence of exogenously applied hydrogen peroxide (H2O2. In addition, we detected an enhanced accumulation of endogenous H2O2 after treatment of plants with lead. Interestingly, H2O2-specific scavenger catalase partly abolished the Pb-induced chloroplast response. These results suggest that H2O2 can be involved in the avoidance-like movement of chloroplasts induced by lead. Analysis of photometric measurements revealed also strong inhibition (but not complete of blue-light-induced chloroplast movements by lead. This inhibition may result from disturbances in the actin cytoskeleton, as we observed fragmentation and disappearance of actin filaments around chloroplasts. Results of this study show that the

  15. Creative Motor Actions As Emerging from Movement Variability

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dominic Orth

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available In cognitive science, creative ideas are defined as original and feasible solutions in response to problems. A common proposal is that creative ideas are generated across dedicated cognitive pathways. Only after creative ideas have emerged, they can be enacted to solve the problem. We present an alternative viewpoint, based upon the dynamic systems approach to perception and action, that creative solutions emerge in the act rather than before. Creative actions, thus, are as much a product of individual constraints as they are of the task and environment constraints. Accordingly, we understand creative motor actions as functional movement patterns that are new to the individual and/or group and adapted to satisfy the constraints on the motor problem at hand. We argue that creative motor actions are promoted by practice interventions that promote exploration by manipulating constraints. Exploration enhances variability of functional movement patterns in terms of either coordination or control solutions. At both levels, creative motor actions can emerge from finding new and degenerate adaptive motor solutions. Generally speaking, we anticipate that in most cases, when exposed to variation in constraints, people are not looking for creative motor actions, but discover them while doing an effort to satisfy constraints. For future research, this paper achieves two important aspects: it delineates how adaptive (movement variability is at the heart of (motor creativity, and it sets out methodologies toward stimulating adaptive variability.

  16. Radiation-induced camptocormia and dropped head syndrome. Review and case report of radiation-induced movement disorders

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Seidel, Clemens; Kuhnt, Thomas; Kortmann, Rolf-Dieter; Hering, Kathrin [Leipzig University, Department of Radiotherapy and Radiation Oncology, Leipzig (Germany)

    2015-10-15

    In recent years, camptocormia and dropped head syndrome (DHS) have gained attention as particular forms of movement disorders. Camptocormia presents with involuntary forward flexion of the thoracolumbar spine that typically increases during walking or standing and may severely impede walking ability. DHS is characterized by weakness of the neck extensors and a consecutive inability to extend the neck; in severe cases the head is fixed in a ''chin to chest position.'' Many diseases may underlie these conditions, and there have been some reports about radiation-induced camptocormia and DHS. A PubMed search with the keywords ''camptocormia,'' ''dropped head syndrome,'' ''radiation-induced myopathy,'' ''radiation-induced neuropathy,'' and ''radiation-induced movement disorder'' was carried out to better characterize radiation-induced movement disorders and the radiation techniques involved. In addition, the case of a patient developing camptocormia 23 years after radiation therapy of a non-Hodgkin's lymphoma of the abdomen is described. In total, nine case series of radiation-induced DHS (n = 45 patients) and - including our case - three case reports (n = 3 patients) about radiogenic camptocormia were retrieved. Most cases (40/45 patients) occurred less than 15 years after radiotherapy involving extended fields for Hodgkin's disease. The use of wide radiation fields including many spinal segments with paraspinal muscles may lead to radiation-induced movement disorders. If paraspinal muscles and the thoracolumbar spine are involved, the clinical presentation can be that of camptocormia. DHS may result if there is involvement of the cervical spine. To prevent these disorders, sparing of the spine and paraspinal muscles is desirable. (orig.) [German] In den letzten Jahren haben Bewegungsstoerungen von Wirbelsaeule und paraspinaler Muskulatur in

  17. Slope movements

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wagner, P.

    2009-01-01

    On this poster some reasons of slope movements on the territory of the Slovak Republic are presented. Slope movements induced deterioration of land and forests, endangering of towns villages, and communications as well as hydro-engineering structures. Methods of preventing and stabilisation of slope movements are presented.

  18. Movement Induces the Use of External Spatial Coordinates for Tactile Localization in Congenitally Blind Humans.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Heed, Tobias; Möller, Johanna; Röder, Brigitte

    2015-01-01

    To localize touch, the brain integrates spatial information coded in anatomically based and external spatial reference frames. Sighted humans, by default, use both reference frames in tactile localization. In contrast, congenitally blind individuals have been reported to rely exclusively on anatomical coordinates, suggesting a crucial role of the visual system for tactile spatial processing. We tested whether the use of external spatial information in touch can, alternatively, be induced by a movement context. Sighted and congenitally blind humans performed a tactile temporal order judgment task that indexes the use of external coordinates for tactile localization, while they executed bimanual arm movements with uncrossed and crossed start and end postures. In the sighted, start posture and planned end posture of the arm movement modulated tactile localization for stimuli presented before and during movement, indicating automatic, external recoding of touch. Contrary to previous findings, tactile localization of congenitally blind participants, too, was affected by external coordinates, though only for stimuli presented before movement start. Furthermore, only the movement's start posture, but not the planned end posture affected blind individuals' tactile performance. Thus, integration of external coordinates in touch is established without vision, though more selectively than when vision has developed normally, and possibly restricted to movement contexts. The lack of modulation by the planned posture in congenitally blind participants suggests that external coordinates in this group are not mediated by motor efference copy. Instead the task-related frequent posture changes, that is, movement consequences rather than planning, appear to have induced their use of external coordinates.

  19. Disrupted integration of sensory stimuli with information about the movement of the body as a mechanism explaining LSD-induced experience.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Juszczak, Grzegorz R

    2017-03-01

    LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide) is a model psychedelic drug used to study mechanism underlying the effects induced by hallucinogens. However, despite advanced knowledge about molecular mechanism responsible for the effects induced by LSD and other related substances acting at serotonergic 5-HT 2a receptors, we still do not understand how these drugs trigger specific sensory experiences. LSD-induced experience is characterised by perception of movement in the environment and by presence of various bodily sensations such as floating in space, merging into surroundings and movement out of the physical body (the out-of-body experience). It means that a large part of the experience induced by the LSD can be simplified to the illusory movement that can be attributed to the self or to external objects. The phenomenology of the LSD-induced experience has been combined with the fact that serotonergic neurons provide all major parts of the brain with information about the level of tonic motor activity, occurrence of external stimuli and the execution of orienting responses. Therefore, it has been proposed that LSD-induced stimulation of 5-HT 2a receptors disrupts the integration of the sensory stimuli with information about the movement of the body leading to perception of illusory movement. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  20. Data Driven Constraints for the SVM

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Darkner, Sune; Clemmensen, Line Katrine Harder

    2012-01-01

    We propose a generalized data driven constraint for support vector machines exemplified by classification of paired observations in general and specifically on the human ear canal. This is particularly interesting in dynamic cases such as tissue movement or pathologies developing over time. Assum...

  1. Mechanical energy expenditures and movement efficiency in full body reaching movements.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sha, Daohang; France, Christopher R; Thomas, James S

    2010-02-01

    The effect of target location, speed, and handedness on the average total mechanical energy and movement efficiency is studied in 15 healthy subjects (7 males and 8 females with age 22.9 +/- 1.79 years old) performing full body reaching movements. The average total mechanical energy is measured as the time average of integration of joint power, potential energy, and kinetic energy respectively. Movement efficiency is calculated as the ratio of total kinetic energy to the total joint power and potential energy. Results show that speed and target location have significant effects on total mechanical energy and movement efficiency, but reaching hand only effects kinetic energy. From our findings we conclude that (1) efficiency in whole body reaching is dependent on whether the height of the body center of mass is raised or lowered during the task; (2) efficiency is increased as movement speed is increased, in part because of greater changes in potential energy; and (3) the CNS does not appear to use movement efficiency as a primary planning variable in full body reaching. It may be dependent on a combination of other factors or constraints.

  2. Analysis of Mining-induced Valley Closure Movements

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, C.; Mitra, R.; Oh, J.; Hebblewhite, B.

    2016-05-01

    Valley closure movements have been observed for decades in Australia and overseas when underground mining occurred beneath or in close proximity to valleys and other forms of irregular topographies. Valley closure is defined as the inward movements of the valley sides towards the valley centreline. Due to the complexity of the local geology and the interplay between several geological, topographical and mining factors, the underlying mechanisms that actually cause this behaviour are not completely understood. A comprehensive programme of numerical modelling investigations has been carried out to further evaluate and quantify the influence of a number of these mining and geological factors and their inter-relationships. The factors investigated in this paper include longwall positional factors, horizontal stress, panel width, depth of cover and geological structures around the valley. It is found that mining in a series passing beneath the valley dramatically increases valley closure, and mining parallel to valley induces much more closure than other mining orientations. The redistribution of horizontal stress and influence of mining activity have also been recognised as important factors promoting valley closure, and the effect of geological structure around the valley is found to be relatively small. This paper provides further insight into both the valley closure mechanisms and how these mechanisms should be considered in valley closure prediction models.

  3. Long-stay psychiatric patients: a prospective study revealing persistent antipsychotic-induced movement disorder.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    P Roberto Bakker

    Full Text Available OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to assess the frequency of persistent drug-induced movement disorders namely, tardive dyskinesia (TD, parkinsonism, akathisia and tardive dystonia in a representative sample of long-stay patients with chronic severe mental illness. METHOD: Naturalistic study of 209, mainly white, antipsychotic-treated patients, mostly diagnosed with psychotic disorder. Of this group, the same rater examined 194 patients at least two times over a 4-year period, with a mean follow-up time of 1.1 years, with validated scales for TD, parkinsonism, akathisia, and tardive dystonia. RESULTS: The frequencies of persistent movement disorders in the sample were 28.4% for TD, 56.2% for parkinsonism, 4.6% for akathisia and 5.7% for tardive dystonia. Two-thirds of the participants displayed at least one type of persistent movement disorder. CONCLUSIONS: Persistent movement disorder continues to be the norm for long-stay patients with chronic mental illness and long-term antipsychotic treatment. Measures are required to remedy this situation.

  4. Using visuo-kinetic virtual reality to induce illusory spinal movement: the MoOVi Illusion

    OpenAIRE

    Harvie, Daniel S.; Smith, Ross T.; Hunter, Estin V.; Davis, Miles G.; Sterling, Michele; Moseley, G. Lorimer

    2017-01-01

    Background Illusions that alter perception of the body provide novel opportunities to target brain-based contributions to problems such as persistent pain. One example of this, mirror therapy, uses vision to augment perceived movement of a painful limb to treat pain. Since mirrors can’t be used to induce augmented neck or other spinal movement, we aimed to test whether such an illusion could be achieved using virtual reality, in advance of testing its potential therapeutic benefit. We hypothe...

  5. Ipsilateral wrist-ankle movements in the sagittal plane encoded in extrinsic reference frame.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Muraoka, Tetsuro; Ishida, Yuki; Obu, Takashi; Crawshaw, Larry; Kanosue, Kazuyuki

    2013-04-01

    When performing oscillatory movements of two joints in the sagittal plane, there is a directional constraint for performing such movements. Previous studies could not distinguish whether the directional constraint reflected movement direction encoded in the extrinsic (outside the body) reference frame or in the intrinsic (the participants' torso/head) reference frame since participants performed coordinated movements in a sitting position where the torso/head was stationary relative to the external world. In order to discern the reference frame in the present study, participants performed paced oscillatory movements of the ipsilateral wrist and ankle in the sagittal plane in a standing position so that the torso/head moved relative to the external world. The coordinated movements were performed in one of two modes of coordination, moving the hand upward concomitant with either ankle plantarflexion or ankle dorsiflexion. The same directional mode relative to extrinsic space was more stable and accurate as compared with the opposite directional mode. When forearm position was changed from the pronated position to the supinated position, similar results were obtained, indicating that the results were independent of a particular coupling of muscles. These findings suggest that the directional constraint on ipsilateral joints movements in the sagittal plane reflects movement direction encoded in the extrinsic reference frame. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ireland Ltd and the Japan Neuroscience Society. All rights reserved.

  6. Visually induced eye movements in Wallenberg's syndrome

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kanayama, R.; Nakamura, T.; Ohki, M.; Kimura, Y.; Koike, Y.; Kato, I.

    1991-01-01

    Eighteen patients with Wallenberg's syndrome were investigated concerning visually induced eye movements. All results were analysed quantitatively using a computer. In 16 out of 18 patients, OKN slow-phase velocities were impaired, in the remaining 2 patients they were normal. All patients showed reduced visual suppression of caloric nystagmus during the slow-phase of nystagmus toward the lesion side, except 3 patients who showed normal visual suppression in both directions. CT scan failed to detect either the brainstem or the cerebellar lesions in any cases, but MRI performed on the most recent cases demonstrated the infractions clearly. These findings suggest that infractions are localized in the medulla in the patients of group A, but extend to the cerebellum as well as to the medulla in patients of group B. (au)

  7. Recovery in stroke rehabilitation through the rotation of preferred directions induced by bimanual movements: a computational study.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ken Takiyama

    Full Text Available Stroke patients recover more effectively when they are rehabilitated with bimanual movement rather than with unimanual movement; however, it remains unclear why bimanual movement is more effective for stroke recovery. Using a computational model of stroke recovery, this study suggests that bimanual movement facilitates the reorganization of a damaged motor cortex because this movement induces rotations in the preferred directions (PDs of motor cortex neurons. Although the tuning curves of these neurons differ during unimanual and bimanual movement, changes in PD, but not changes in modulation depth, facilitate such reorganization. In addition, this reorganization was facilitated only when encoding PDs are rotated, but decoding PDs are not rotated. Bimanual movement facilitates reorganization because this movement changes neural activities through inter-hemispheric inhibition without changing cortical-spinal-muscle connections. Furthermore, stronger inter-hemispheric inhibition between motor cortices results in more effective reorganization. Thus, this study suggests that bimanual movement is effective for stroke rehabilitation because this movement rotates the encoding PDs of motor cortex neurons.

  8. Neuromuscular-skeletal origins of predominant patterns of coordination in rhythmic two-joint arm movement.

    Science.gov (United States)

    de Rugy, Aymar; Riek, Stephan; Carson, Richard G

    2006-01-01

    The authors tested for predominant patterns of coordination in the combination of rhythmic flexion-extension (FE) and supination- (SP) at the elbow-joint complex. Participants (N=10) spontaneously established in-phase (supination synchronized with flexion) and antiphase (pronation synchronized with flexion) patterns. In addition, the authors used a motorized robot arm to generate involuntary SP movements with different phase relations with respect to voluntary FE. The involuntarily induced in-phase pattern was accentuated and was more consistent than other patterns. The result provides evidence that the predominance of the in-phase pattern originates in the influence of neuromuscular-skeletal constraints rather than in a preference dictated by perceptual-cognitive factors implicated in voluntary control. Neuromuscular-skeletal constraints involved in the predominance of the in-phase and the antiphase patterns are discussed.

  9. Experimental investigation of flow-induced control-element movements by noise analysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Grunwald, G.; Liewers, P.; Schumann, P.; Weiss, F.P.

    1978-01-01

    The possibility has been reported of separating a single noise component due to flow-induced vibrations of a certain control element from a complex neutron signal which also contained contributions of many other control elements vibrating similarly. One of the basic assumptions for the different methods applied was that the body sound signal originating from touch events with the channel wall is closely correlated with the control-element movement. Some discrepancies between the results of the different methods showed that this assumption may not be entirely fulfilled. This paper investigates this correlation more accurately by measurements of an air flow model of the control-element channel. The pendulum movement of the element, and the body-sound signal due to the touch events with the channel wall, were measured at different flow-rates. The result is that the correlation is not an ideal one. For a constant flow-rate the touch events happen mainly within a small angle region, which means that the touch event marks a certain phase of the movement period and is therefore correlated with the movement. The dispersion of the touch events' angle distribution explains the small discrepancy between the so-called modified averaging method, which uses the sound signal to trigger the averaging procedure, and the partial spectral density method. But not all discrepancies can be explained by these results; they await further investigation. (author)

  10. Search strategies in practice: Influence of information and task constraints.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pacheco, Matheus M; Newell, Karl M

    2018-01-01

    The practice of a motor task has been conceptualized as a process of search through a perceptual-motor workspace. The present study investigated the influence of information and task constraints on the search strategy as reflected in the sequential relations of the outcome in a discrete movement virtual projectile task. The results showed that the relation between the changes of trial-to-trial movement outcome to performance level was dependent on the landscape of the task dynamics and the influence of inherent variability. Furthermore, the search was in a constrained parameter region of the perceptual-motor workspace that depended on the task constraints. These findings show that there is not a single function of trial-to-trial change over practice but rather that local search strategies (proportional, discontinuous, constant) adapt to the level of performance and the confluence of constraints to action. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  11. A compact representation of drawing movements with sequences of parabolic primitives.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Felix Polyakov

    2009-07-01

    Full Text Available Some studies suggest that complex arm movements in humans and monkeys may optimize several objective functions, while others claim that arm movements satisfy geometric constraints and are composed of elementary components. However, the ability to unify different constraints has remained an open question. The criterion for a maximally smooth (minimizing jerk motion is satisfied for parabolic trajectories having constant equi-affine speed, which thus comply with the geometric constraint known as the two-thirds power law. Here we empirically test the hypothesis that parabolic segments provide a compact representation of spontaneous drawing movements. Monkey scribblings performed during a period of practice were recorded. Practiced hand paths could be approximated well by relatively long parabolic segments. Following practice, the orientations and spatial locations of the fitted parabolic segments could be drawn from only 2-4 clusters, and there was less discrepancy between the fitted parabolic segments and the executed paths. This enabled us to show that well-practiced spontaneous scribbling movements can be represented as sequences ("words" of a small number of elementary parabolic primitives ("letters". A movement primitive can be defined as a movement entity that cannot be intentionally stopped before its completion. We found that in a well-trained monkey a movement was usually decelerated after receiving a reward, but it stopped only after the completion of a sequence composed of several parabolic segments. Piece-wise parabolic segments can be generated by applying affine geometric transformations to a single parabolic template. Thus, complex movements might be constructed by applying sequences of suitable geometric transformations to a few templates. Our findings therefore suggest that the motor system aims at achieving more parsimonious internal representations through practice, that parabolas serve as geometric primitives and that non

  12. Cold plasma interactions with plants: Morphing and movements of Venus flytrap and Mimosa pudica induced by argon plasma jet.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Volkov, Alexander G; Xu, Kunning G; Kolobov, Vladimir I

    2017-12-01

    Low temperature (cold) plasma finds an increasing number of applications in biology, medicine and agriculture. In this paper, we report a new effect of plasma induced morphing and movements of Venus flytrap and Mimosa pudica. We have experimentally observed plasma activation of sensitive plant movements and morphing structures in these plants similar to stimulation of their mechanosensors in vivo. Application of an atmospheric pressure argon plasma jet to the inside or outside of a lobe, midrib, or cilia in Dionaea muscipula Ellis induces trap closing. Treatment of Mimosa pudica by plasma induces movements of pinnules and petioles similar to the effects of mechanical stimulation. We have conducted control experiments and simulations to illustrate that gas flow and UV radiation associated with plasma are not the primary reasons for the observed effects. Reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (RONS) produced by cold plasma in atmospheric air appear to be the primary reason of plasma-induced activation of phytoactuators in plants. Some of these RONS are known to be signaling molecules, which control plants' developmental processes. Understanding these mechanisms could promote plasma-based technology for plant developmental control and future use for plant protection from pathogens. Our work offers new insight into mechanisms which trigger plant morphing and movement. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  13. Peripheral optogenetic stimulation induces whisker movement and sensory perception in head-fixed mice.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Park, Sunmee; Bandi, Akhil; Lee, Christian R; Margolis, David J

    2016-06-08

    We discovered that optical stimulation of the mystacial pad in Emx1-Cre;Ai27D transgenic mice induces whisker movements due to activation of ChR2 expressed in muscles controlling retraction and protraction. Using high-speed videography in anesthetized mice, we characterize the amplitude of whisker protractions evoked by varying the intensity, duration, and frequency of optogenetic stimulation. Recordings from primary somatosensory cortex (S1) in anesthetized mice indicated that optogenetic whisker pad stimulation evokes robust yet longer latency responses than mechanical whisker stimulation. In head-fixed mice trained to report optogenetic whisker pad stimulation, psychometric curves showed similar dependence on stimulus duration as evoked whisker movements and S1 activity. Furthermore, optogenetic stimulation of S1 in expert mice was sufficient to substitute for peripheral stimulation. We conclude that whisker protractions evoked by optogenetic activation of whisker pad muscles results in cortical activity and sensory perception, consistent with the coding of evoked whisker movements by reafferent sensory input.

  14. Head movement as an artefact of optimal solutions to linearization

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    IT

    fact that a language invariably will lack a morph to spell out such a mega feature bundle15. Another likely constraint on bundling of features which has wide empirical support is the Head. Movement Constraint (HMC; Travis 1984). As noted previously (cf. section 2), the HMC was originally formulated as a restriction on head ...

  15. Frequency of removal movements during social versus self-grooming among wild chimpanzees.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zamma, Koichiro

    2011-10-01

    Grooming was observed in 11 wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) in Mahale, Tanzania, and the number of removal and stroke movements and grooming duration were recorded. Removal movements were more frequent during social grooming than during self-grooming. Chimpanzees used one or both hands for grooming, and grooming using both hands was more efficient for removing small objects. Due to physical constraints, self-grooming of the arms was almost always done using only one hand. The removal movement frequency during arm grooming was lower when self-grooming than when grooming another. They were more likely to use both hands during grooming another than during self-grooming, and fewer physical constraints during social grooming enabled a higher level of hygienic grooming.

  16. Dynamic representations of human body movement.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kourtzi, Z; Shiffrar, M

    1999-01-01

    Psychophysical and neurophysiological studies suggest that human body motions can be readily recognized. Human bodies are highly articulated and can move in a nonrigid manner. As a result, we perceive highly dissimilar views of the human form in motion. How does the visual system integrate multiple views of a human body in motion so that we can perceive human movement as a continuous event? The results of a set of priming experiments suggest that motion can readily facilitate the linkage of different views of a moving human. Positive priming was found for novel views of a human body that fell within the path of human movement. However, no priming was observed for novel views outside the path of motion. Furthermore, priming was restricted to those views that satisfied the biomechanical constraints of human movement. These results suggest that visual representation of human movement may be based upon the movement limitations of the human body and may reflect a dynamic interaction of motion and object-recognition processes.

  17. Control of articulated snake robot under dynamic active constraints.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kwok, Ka-Wai; Vitiello, Valentina; Yang, Guang-Zhong

    2010-01-01

    Flexible, ergonomically enhanced surgical robots have important applications to transluminal endoscopic surgery, for which path-following and dynamic shape conformance are essential. In this paper, kinematic control of a snake robot for motion stabilisation under dynamic active constraints is addressed. The main objective is to enable the robot to track the visual target accurately and steadily on deforming tissue whilst conforming to pre-defined anatomical constraints. The motion tracking can also be augmented with manual control. By taking into account the physical limits in terms of maximum frequency response of the system (manifested as a delay between the input of the manipulator and the movement of the end-effector), we show the importance of visual-motor synchronisation for performing accurate smooth pursuit movements. Detailed user experiments are performed to demonstrate the practical value of the proposed control mechanism.

  18. Key properties of expert movement systems in sport : an ecological dynamics perspective.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Seifert, Ludovic; Button, Chris; Davids, Keith

    2013-03-01

    This paper identifies key properties of expertise in sport predicated on the performer-environment relationship. Weaknesses of traditional approaches to expert performance, which uniquely focus on the performer and the environment separately, are highlighted by an ecological dynamics perspective. Key properties of expert movement systems include 'multi- and meta-stability', 'adaptive variability', 'redundancy', 'degeneracy' and the 'attunement to affordances'. Empirical research on these expert system properties indicates that skill acquisition does not emerge from the internal representation of declarative and procedural knowledge, or the imitation of expert behaviours to linearly reduce a perceived 'gap' separating movements of beginners and a putative expert model. Rather, expert performance corresponds with the ongoing co-adaptation of an individual's behaviours to dynamically changing, interacting constraints, individually perceived and encountered. The functional role of adaptive movement variability is essential to expert performance in many different sports (involving individuals and teams; ball games and outdoor activities; land and aquatic environments). These key properties signify that, in sport performance, although basic movement patterns need to be acquired by developing athletes, there exists no ideal movement template towards which all learners should aspire, since relatively unique functional movement solutions emerge from the interaction of key constraints.

  19. Randomized, multicenter, comparative study of NEURO versus CIMT in poststroke patients with upper limb hemiparesis: the NEURO-VERIFY Study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Abo, Masahiro; Kakuda, Wataru; Momosaki, Ryo; Harashima, Hiroaki; Kojima, Miki; Watanabe, Shigeto; Sato, Toshihiro; Yokoi, Aki; Umemori, Takuma; Sasanuma, Jinichi

    2014-07-01

    Many poststroke patients suffer functional motor limitation of the affected upper limb, which is associated with diminished health-related quality of life. The aim of this study is to conduct a randomized, multicenter, comparative study of low-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation combined with intensive occupational therapy, NEURO (NovEl intervention Using Repetitive TMS and intensive Occupational therapy) versus constraint-induced movement therapy in poststroke patients with upper limb hemiparesis. In this randomized controlled study of NEURO and constraint-induced movement therapy, 66 poststroke patients with upper limb hemiparesis were randomly assigned at 2:1 ratio to low-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation plus occupational therapy (NEURO group) or constraint-induced movement therapy (constraint-induced movement therapy group) for 15 days. Fugl-Meyer Assessment and Wolf Motor Function Test and Functional Ability Score of Wolf Motor Function Test were used for assessment. No differences in patients' characteristics were found between the two groups at baseline. The Fugl-Meyer Assessment score was significantly higher in both groups after the 15-day treatment compared with the baseline. Changes in Fugl-Meyer Assessment scores and Functional Ability Score of Wolf Motor Function Test were significantly higher in the NEURO group than in the constraint-induced movement therapy group, whereas the decrease in the Wolf Motor Function Test log performance time was comparable between the two groups (changes in Fugl-Meyer Assessment score, NEURO: 5·39 ± 4·28, constraint-induced movement therapy: 3·09 ± 4·50 points; mean ± standard error of the mean; P < 0·05) (changes in Functional Ability Score of Wolf Motor Function Test, NEURO: 3·98 ± 2·99, constraint-induced movement therapy: 2·09 ± 2·96 points; P < 0·05). The results of the 15-day rehabilitative protocol showed the superiority of NEURO

  20. Impact of body position on central and peripheral hemodynamic contributions to movement-induced hyperemia: implications for rehabilitative medicine.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Trinity, Joel D; McDaniel, John; Venturelli, Massimo; Fjeldstad, Anette S; Ives, Stephen J; Witman, Melissa A H; Barrett-O'Keefe, Zachary; Amann, Markus; Wray, D Walter; Richardson, Russell S

    2011-05-01

    This study used alterations in body position to identify differences in hemodynamic responses to passive exercise. Central and peripheral hemodynamics were noninvasively measured during 2 min of passive knee extension in 14 subjects, whereas perfusion pressure (PP) was directly measured in a subset of 6 subjects. Movement-induced increases in leg blood flow (LBF) and leg vascular conductance (LVC) were more than twofold greater in the upright compared with supine positions (LBF, supine: 462 ± 6, and upright: 1,084 ± 159 ml/min, P different between positions (supine: 8 ± 1, and upright: 10 ± 1 beats/min, P = 0.22); however, the elevated HR was maintained for a longer duration when upright. Stroke volume contributed to the increase in cardiac output (CO) during the upright movement only. CO increased in both positions; however, the magnitude and duration of the CO response were greater in the upright position. Mean arterial pressure and PP were higher at baseline and throughout passive movement when upright. Thus exaggerated central hemodynamic responses characterized by an increase in stroke volume and a sustained HR response combined to yield a greater increase in CO during upright movement. This greater central response coupled with the increased PP and LVC explains the twofold greater and more sustained increase in movement-induced hyperemia in the upright compared with supine position and has clinical implications for rehabilitative medicine.

  1. Octopus arm movements under constrained conditions: adaptation, modification and plasticity of motor primitives.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Richter, Jonas N; Hochner, Binyamin; Kuba, Michael J

    2015-04-01

    The motor control of the eight highly flexible arms of the common octopus (Octopus vulgaris) has been the focus of several recent studies. Our study is the first to manage to introduce a physical constraint to an octopus arm and investigate the adaptability of stereotypical bend propagation in reaching movements and the pseudo-limb articulation during fetching. Subjects (N=6) were placed inside a transparent Perspex box with a hole at the center that allowed the insertion of a single arm. Animals had to reach out through the hole toward a target, to retrieve a food reward and fetch it. All subjects successfully adjusted their movements to the constraint without an adaptation phase. During reaching tasks, the animals showed two movement strategies: stereotypical bend propagation reachings, which were established at the hole of the Perspex box and variant waving-like movements that showed no bend propagations. During fetching movements, no complete pseudo-joint fetching was observed outside the box and subjects pulled their arms through the hole in a pull-in like movement. Our findings show that there is some flexibility in the octopus motor system to adapt to a novel situation. However, at present, it seems that these changes are more an effect of random choices between different alternative motor programs, without showing clear learning effects in the choice between the alternatives. Interestingly, animals were able to adapt the fetching movements to the physical constraint, or as an alternative explanation, they could switch the motor primitive fetching to a different motor primitive 'arm pulling'. © 2015. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd.

  2. Using visuo-kinetic virtual reality to induce illusory spinal movement: the MoOVi Illusion.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Harvie, Daniel S; Smith, Ross T; Hunter, Estin V; Davis, Miles G; Sterling, Michele; Moseley, G Lorimer

    2017-01-01

    Illusions that alter perception of the body provide novel opportunities to target brain-based contributions to problems such as persistent pain. One example of this, mirror therapy, uses vision to augment perceived movement of a painful limb to treat pain. Since mirrors can't be used to induce augmented neck or other spinal movement, we aimed to test whether such an illusion could be achieved using virtual reality, in advance of testing its potential therapeutic benefit. We hypothesised that perceived head rotation would depend on visually suggested movement. In a within-subjects repeated measures experiment, 24 healthy volunteers performed neck movements to 50 o of rotation, while a virtual reality system delivered corresponding visual feedback that was offset by a factor of 50%-200%-the Motor Offset Visual Illusion (MoOVi)-thus simulating more or less movement than that actually occurring. At 50 o of real-world head rotation, participants pointed in the direction that they perceived they were facing. The discrepancy between actual and perceived direction was measured and compared between conditions. The impact of including multisensory (auditory and visual) feedback, the presence of a virtual body reference, and the use of 360 o immersive virtual reality with and without three-dimensional properties, was also investigated. Perception of head movement was dependent on visual-kinaesthetic feedback ( p  = 0.001, partial eta squared = 0.17). That is, altered visual feedback caused a kinaesthetic drift in the direction of the visually suggested movement. The magnitude of the drift was not moderated by secondary variables such as the addition of illusory auditory feedback, the presence of a virtual body reference, or three-dimensionality of the scene. Virtual reality can be used to augment perceived movement and body position, such that one can perform a small movement, yet perceive a large one. The MoOVi technique tested here has clear potential for assessment and

  3. Using visuo-kinetic virtual reality to induce illusory spinal movement: the MoOVi Illusion

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Daniel S. Harvie

    2017-02-01

    Full Text Available Background Illusions that alter perception of the body provide novel opportunities to target brain-based contributions to problems such as persistent pain. One example of this, mirror therapy, uses vision to augment perceived movement of a painful limb to treat pain. Since mirrors can’t be used to induce augmented neck or other spinal movement, we aimed to test whether such an illusion could be achieved using virtual reality, in advance of testing its potential therapeutic benefit. We hypothesised that perceived head rotation would depend on visually suggested movement. Method In a within-subjects repeated measures experiment, 24 healthy volunteers performed neck movements to 50o of rotation, while a virtual reality system delivered corresponding visual feedback that was offset by a factor of 50%–200%—the Motor Offset Visual Illusion (MoOVi—thus simulating more or less movement than that actually occurring. At 50o of real-world head rotation, participants pointed in the direction that they perceived they were facing. The discrepancy between actual and perceived direction was measured and compared between conditions. The impact of including multisensory (auditory and visual feedback, the presence of a virtual body reference, and the use of 360o immersive virtual reality with and without three-dimensional properties, was also investigated. Results Perception of head movement was dependent on visual-kinaesthetic feedback (p = 0.001, partial eta squared = 0.17. That is, altered visual feedback caused a kinaesthetic drift in the direction of the visually suggested movement. The magnitude of the drift was not moderated by secondary variables such as the addition of illusory auditory feedback, the presence of a virtual body reference, or three-dimensionality of the scene. Discussion Virtual reality can be used to augment perceived movement and body position, such that one can perform a small movement, yet perceive a large one. The Mo

  4. The moving rubber hand illusion revisited: comparing movements and visuotactile stimulation to induce illusory ownership.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kalckert, Andreas; Ehrsson, H Henrik

    2014-05-01

    The rubber hand illusion is a perceptual illusion in which a model hand is experienced as part of one's own body. In the present study we directly compared the classical illusion, based on visuotactile stimulation, with a rubber hand illusion based on active and passive movements. We examined the question of which combinations of sensory and motor cues are the most potent in inducing the illusion by subjective ratings and an objective measure (proprioceptive drift). In particular, we were interested in whether the combination of afferent and efferent signals in active movements results in the same illusion as in the purely passive modes. Our results show that the illusion is equally strong in all three cases. This demonstrates that different combinations of sensory input can lead to a very similar phenomenological experience and indicates that the illusion can be induced by any combination of multisensory information. Copyright © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  5. Informed herbivore movement and interplant communication determine the effects of induced resistance in an individual-based model.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rubin, Ilan N; Ellner, Stephen P; Kessler, André; Morrell, Kimberly A

    2015-09-01

    1. Plant induced resistance to herbivory affects the spatial distribution of herbivores, as well as their performance. In recent years, theories regarding the benefit to plants of induced resistance have shifted from ideas of optimal resource allocation towards a more eclectic set of theories that consider spatial and temporal plant variability and the spatial distribution of herbivores among plants. However, consensus is lacking on whether induced resistance causes increased herbivore aggregation or increased evenness, as both trends have been experimentally documented. 2. We created a spatial individual-based model that can describe many plant-herbivore systems with induced resistance, in order to analyse how different aspects of induced resistance might affect herbivore distribution, and the total damage to a plant population, during a growing season. 3. We analyse the specific effects on herbivore aggregation of informed herbivore movement (preferential movement to less-damaged plants) and of information transfer between plants about herbivore attacks, in order to identify mechanisms driving both aggregation and evenness. We also investigate how the resulting herbivore distributions affect the total damage to plants and aggregation of damage. 4. Even, random and aggregated herbivore distributions can all occur in our model with induced resistance. Highest levels of aggregation occurred in the models with informed herbivore movement, and the most even distributions occurred when the average number of herbivores per plant was low. With constitutive resistance, only random distributions occur. Damage to plants was spatially correlated, unless plants recover very quickly from damage; herbivore spatial autocorrelation was always weak. 5. Our model and results provide a simple explanation for the apparent conflict between experimental results, indicating that both increased aggregation and increased evenness of herbivores can result from induced resistance. We

  6. Entropy of Bit-Stuffing-Induced Measures for Two-Dimensional Checkerboard Constraints

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Forchhammer, Søren; Vaarby, Torben Strange

    2007-01-01

    A modified bit-stuffing scheme for two-dimensional (2-D) checkerboard constraints is introduced. The entropy of the scheme is determined based on a probability measure defined by the modified bit-stuffing. Entropy results of the scheme are given for 2-D constraints on a binary alphabet....... The constraints considered are 2-D RLL (d, infinity) for d = 2, 3 and 4 as well as for the constraint with a minimum 1-norm distance of 3 between Is. For these results the entropy is within 1-2% of an upper bound on the capacity for the constraint. As a variation of the scheme, periodic merging arrays are also...

  7. A Study on Response Strategy to Cope with International and Domestic Constraints on the Development of Nuclear Fuel Cycle.

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Moon, Chung in; Park, Hahn Kyu; Kim, Tak Won; Lee, Dong Yoon; Lee, Yong Hwan [Yonsei University, Seoul (Korea, Republic of)

    1997-12-01

    The purpose of this study is to analyze international and domestic constraints on the development of nuclear fuel cycle technology in Korea and to develop response strategies to deal with these constraints. This study proceeded as follows: Chapter 2 examined multilateral international constrains including IAEA safeguards system and NPT, bilateral international constraints such as the U.S.-Korea Nuclear Energy Cooperation Agreement and the U.S. nonproliferation policy, and domestic constraints like residents' anti nuclear movement and environmental protest movement. In Chapter 3, this study conducted a case study on Japan's nuclear fuel cycle programs as a basic research for the establishment of relevant response strategies vis-a-vis the international and domestic constraints. In this chapter, the focus of analysis was on Japan's strategies to deal with multilateral and bilateral pressures and domestic constraints. In Chapters 4 and 5, this study sought to elaborate Korea's strategies to cope with multilateral international constraints and U.S. constraints on the development of a domestic nuclear fuel cycle in Korea, respectively. The response strategies to domestic constraints were also illuminated in Chapter 6. 44 refs., 2 tabs., 9 figs. (author)

  8. Visually induced eye movements in Wallenberg's syndrome

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kanayama, R.; Nakamura, T.; Ohki, M.; Kimura, Y.; Koike, Y. (Dept. of Otolaryngology, Yamagata Univ. School of Medicine (Japan)); Kato, I. (Dept. of Otolaryngology, St. Marianna Univ. School of Medicine, Kawasaki (Japan))

    1991-01-01

    Eighteen patients with Wallenberg's syndrome were investigated concerning visually induced eye movements. All results were analysed quantitatively using a computer. In 16 out of 18 patients, OKN slow-phase velocities were impaired, in the remaining 2 patients they were normal. All patients showed reduced visual suppression of caloric nystagmus during the slow-phase of nystagmus toward the lesion side, except 3 patients who showed normal visual suppression in both directions. CT scan failed to detect either the brainstem or the cerebellar lesions in any cases, but MRI performed on the most recent cases demonstrated the infractions clearly. These findings suggest that infractions are localized in the medulla in the patients of group A, but extend to the cerebellum as well as to the medulla in patients of group B. (au).

  9. Distinct timing mechanisms produce discrete and continuous movements.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Raoul Huys

    2008-04-01

    Full Text Available The differentiation of discrete and continuous movement is one of the pillars of motor behavior classification. Discrete movements have a definite beginning and end, whereas continuous movements do not have such discriminable end points. In the past decade there has been vigorous debate whether this classification implies different control processes. This debate up until the present has been empirically based. Here, we present an unambiguous non-empirical classification based on theorems in dynamical system theory that sets discrete and continuous movements apart. Through computational simulations of representative modes of each class and topological analysis of the flow in state space, we show that distinct control mechanisms underwrite discrete and fast rhythmic movements. In particular, we demonstrate that discrete movements require a time keeper while fast rhythmic movements do not. We validate our computational findings experimentally using a behavioral paradigm in which human participants performed finger flexion-extension movements at various movement paces and under different instructions. Our results demonstrate that the human motor system employs different timing control mechanisms (presumably via differential recruitment of neural subsystems to accomplish varying behavioral functions such as speed constraints.

  10. Bauhinia forficata prevents vacuous chewing movements induced by haloperidol in rats and has antioxidant potential in vitro.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Peroza, Luis Ricardo; Busanello, Alcindo; Leal, Caroline Queiroz; Röpke, Jivago; Boligon, Aline Augusti; Meinerz, Daiane; Libardoni, Milena; Athayde, Margareth Linde; Fachinetto, Roselei

    2013-04-01

    Classical antipsychotics can produce motor disturbances like tardive dyskinesia in humans and orofacial dyskinesia in rodents. These motor side effects have been associated with oxidative stress production in specific brain areas. Thus, some studies have proposed the use of natural compounds with antioxidant properties against involuntary movements induced by antipsychotics. Here, we examined the possible antioxidant activity of Bauhinia forficata (B. forficata), a plant used in folk medicine as a hypoglycemic, on brain lipid peroxidation induced by different pro-oxidants. B. forficata prevented the formation of lipid peroxidation induced by both pro-oxidants tested. However, it was effective against lipid peroxidation induced by sodium nitroprusside (IC50 = 12.08 μg/mL) and Fe(2+)/EDTA (IC50 = 41.19 μg/mL). Moreover, the effects of B. forficata were analyzed on an animal model of orofacial dyskinesia induced by long-term treatment with haloperidol, where rats received haloperidol each 28 days (38 mg/kg) and/or B. forficata decoction daily (2.5 g/L) for 16 weeks. Vacuous chewing movements (VCMs), locomotor and exploratory activities were evaluated. Haloperidol treatment induced VCMs, and co-treatment with B. forficata partially prevented this effect. Haloperidol reduced the locomotor and exploratory activities of animals in the open field test, which was not modified by B. forficata treatment. Our present data showed that B. forficata has antioxidant potential and partially protects against VCMs induced by haloperidol in rats. Taken together, our data suggest the protection by natural compounds against VCMs induced by haloperidol in rats.

  11. An information maximization model of eye movements

    Science.gov (United States)

    Renninger, Laura Walker; Coughlan, James; Verghese, Preeti; Malik, Jitendra

    2005-01-01

    We propose a sequential information maximization model as a general strategy for programming eye movements. The model reconstructs high-resolution visual information from a sequence of fixations, taking into account the fall-off in resolution from the fovea to the periphery. From this framework we get a simple rule for predicting fixation sequences: after each fixation, fixate next at the location that minimizes uncertainty (maximizes information) about the stimulus. By comparing our model performance to human eye movement data and to predictions from a saliency and random model, we demonstrate that our model is best at predicting fixation locations. Modeling additional biological constraints will improve the prediction of fixation sequences. Our results suggest that information maximization is a useful principle for programming eye movements.

  12. Respiration-induced movement of the upper abdominal organs: a pitfall for the three-dimensional conformal radiation treatment of pancreatic cancer

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bussels, Barbara; Goethals, Laurence; Feron, Michel; Bielen, Didier; Dymarkowski, Steven; Suetens, Paul; Haustermans, Karin

    2003-01-01

    Respiration-induced movement of the upper abdominal organs (pancreas, liver and kidneys) was assessed in 12 subjects using dynamic magnetic resonance imaging. The movement of each organ in the cranio-caudal, the lateral and the anterior-posterior direction was deduced from the movement of the center of gravity on two-dimensional images. This center of gravity was computed from the volume delineated on sequential 8-mm slices of both sagittal and coronal dynamic series. The largest movements were noticed in the cranio-caudal direction for pancreas and liver (23.7±15.9 mm and 24.4±16.4 mm). The kidneys showed smaller movements in the cranio-caudal direction (left kidney 16.9±6.7 mm and right kidney 16.1±7.9 mm). The movements of the different organs in the anterior-posterior and lateral directions were less pronounced. It is of the greatest importance to be aware of these movements in the planning of a conformal radiation treatment for pancreatic cancer

  13. Thermally induced motion of marine sediments resulting from disposal of radioactive wastes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chavez, P.F.; Dawson, P.R.

    1981-01-01

    Coupled creep and heat transfer calculations have been performed to assess the sensitivity of heat load, viscosity, and canister density on the motion of waste canisters buried in marine sediments. Results indicate that no upward movement is predicted for heat loads remaining within the metallurgical and geochemical constraints placed on the temperature of sediments near the canister for the times analyzed. Upward movement of the canister is again not observed in calculations involving reasonable variations of the sediment viscosity and canister density. Maximum effective deviatoric stress levels due to thermally induced differential body forces are significantly less than the sediment's short term peak strength

  14. Similar effects of two modified constraint-induced therapy protocols on motor impairment, motor function and quality of life in patients with chronic stroke

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wilma Costa Souza

    2015-03-01

    Full Text Available Modified constraint-induced movement therapy (CIMT protocols show motor function and real-world arm use improvement. Meanwhile it usually requires constant supervision by physiotherapists and is therefore more expensive than customary care. This study compared the preliminary efficacy of two modified CIMT protocols. A two-group randomized controlled trial with pre and post treatment measures and six months follow-up was conducted. Nineteen patients with chronic stroke received 10 treatment sessions distributed three to four times a week over 22 days. CIMT3h_direct group received 3 hours of CIMT supervised by a therapist (n=10 while CIMT1.5h_direct group had 1.5 hours of supervised CIMT+1.5 hours home exercises supervised by a caregiver (n=9. Outcome measures were the Fugl-Meyer Assessment, the Motor Activity Log, and the Stroke Specific Quality of Life Scale. The modified CIMT protocols were feasible and well tolerated. Improvements in motor function, real-world arm use and quality of life did not differ significantly between treated groups receiving either 3 or 1.5 hours mCIMT supervised by a therapist.

  15. Caffeine may enhance orthodontic tooth movement through increasing osteoclastogenesis induced by periodontal ligament cells under compression.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yi, Jianru; Yan, Boxi; Li, Meile; Wang, Yu; Zheng, Wei; Li, Yu; Zhao, Zhihe

    2016-04-01

    Caffeine is the kernel component of coffee and has multiple effects on bone metabolism. Here we aimed to investigate the effects of caffeine intake on orthodontic tooth movement (OTM). (1) In the in vivo study, two groups comprising 15 randomly assigned rats each underwent orthodontic treatment. One group ingested caffeine at 25mg/kg body weight per day and the other, plain water. After 3 weeks, the degree of tooth movement and effect on the periodontium were assessed. (2) In the in vitro study, we established a model mimicking the essential bioprocess of OTM, which contained a periodontal ligament tissue model (PDLtm), and a co-culture system of osteoblasts (OBs) and osteoclast precursors (pre-OCs). After being subjected to static compressive force with or without caffeine administration, the conditioned media from the PDLtm were used for the OB/pre-OC co-cultures to induce osteoclastogenesis. (1) In vivo, the caffeine group displayed a significantly greater rate of tooth movement than the control. The alveolar bone mineral density and bone volume fraction were similar between the two groups; however, immunohistochemical staining showed that the caffeine group had significantly more TRAP(+) osteoclasts and higher RANKL expression in the compressed periodontium. (2) In vitro, caffeine at 0.01mM significantly enhanced the compression-induced expression of RANKL and COX-2, as well as prostaglandin E2 production in the PDLtm. Furthermore, the "caffeine+compression"-conditioned media induced significantly more TRAP(+) OC formation when compared with compression alone. Daily intake of caffeine, at least at some specific dosage, may enhance OTM through increasing osteoclastogenesis. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  16. A constraints-induced model of park choice

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Stemerding, M.P.; Oppewal, H.; Timmermans, H.J.P.

    1999-01-01

    Conjoint choice models have been used widely in the consumer-choice literature as an approach to measure and predict consumer-choice behavior. These models typically assume that consumer preferences and choice rules are independent from any constraints that might impact the behavior of interest.

  17. Comparing Critical Capitalist Commodity Chains in the Early Twenty-first Century: Opportunities For and Constraints on Labor and Political Movements

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Elizabeth Sowers

    2015-08-01

    Full Text Available There have been a number of critical historical opportunities for labor to exert power by interrupting long distance flows of commodities at the extraction, processing, and transport stages. This vulnerability has been used by workers in these industries to gain higher wages and better working conditions and to achieve political goals in national and international arenas. In this paper, we compare two commodity chains that are critical components of the global economy. The first, which we describe as transport, is a broad category involving a range of manufactured goods, whose delivery to customers around the world was fundamentally changed in the past fifty years via "containerization" and "the logistics revolution." The second is oil and gas, which also has experienced recently dramatic changes in both extraction (via "tar sands" and "[racking" and transportation. In each case, we discuss possibilities and challenges for labor and political organizing to disrupt capital in these key commodity chains. We identify the "stakes" in each commodity chain by demonstrating the vulnerabilities on which labor and political organizations/movements could capitalize, which usually stem from the capital intensity and global integration of each critical commodity chain. These vulnerabilities are the factors which form the most basic opportunities for organizing in these sectors. Our analysis further suggests that while transport and raw materials remain vulnerable nodes in capitalist commodity chains, there are also constraints and challenges to be faced by labor and social movement organizations (SMOs that might attempt to leverage power over these circuits of the world-economy.

  18. Constraints on voltage sensor movement in the shaker K+ channel.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Darman, Rachel B; Ivy, Allison A; Ketty, Vina; Blaustein, Robert O

    2006-12-01

    In nerve and muscle cells, the voltage-gated opening and closing of cation-selective ion channels is accompanied by the translocation of 12-14 elementary charges across the membrane's electric field. Although most of these charges are carried by residues in the S4 helix of the gating module of these channels, the precise nature of their physical movement is currently the topic of spirited debate. Broadly speaking, two classes of models have emerged: those that suggest that small-scale motions can account for the extensive charge displacement, and those that invoke a much larger physical movement. In the most recent incarnation of the latter type of model, which is based on structural and functional data from the archaebacterial K(+) channel KvAP, a "voltage-sensor paddle" comprising a helix-turn-helix of S3-S4 translocates approximately 20 A through the bilayer during the gating cycle (Jiang, Y., A. Lee, J. Chen, V. Ruta, M. Cadene, B.T. Chait, and R. MacKinnon. 2003. Nature. 423:33-41; Jiang, Y., V. Ruta, J. Chen, A. Lee, and R. MacKinnon. 2003. Nature. 423:42-48.; Ruta, V., J. Chen, and R. MacKinnon. 2005. Cell. 123:463-475). We used two methods to test for analogous motions in the Shaker K(+) channel, each examining the aqueous exposure of residues near S3. In the first, we employed a pore-blocking maleimide reagent (Blaustein, R.O., P.A. Cole, C. Williams, and C. Miller. 2000. Nat. Struct. Biol. 7:309-311) to probe for state-dependent changes in the chemical reactivity of substituted cysteines; in the second, we tested the state-dependent accessibility of a tethered biotin to external streptavidin (Qiu, X.Q., K.S. Jakes, A. Finkelstein, and S.L. Slatin. 1994. J. Biol. Chem. 269:7483-7488; Slatin, S.L., X.Q. Qiu, K.S. Jakes, and A. Finkelstein. 1994. Nature. 371:158-161). In both types of experiments, residues predicted to lie near the top of S3 did not exhibit any change in aqueous exposure during the gating cycle. This lack of state dependence argues against

  19. Movement rehabilitation: are the principles of re-learning in the recovery of function the same as those of original learning?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Newell, Karl M; Verhoeven, F Martijn

    2017-01-01

    This paper addresses the change in movement dynamics in rehabilitation through discussing issues that pertain to the question as to whether the principles of re-learning in functional recovery are the same as those of original learning. The many varieties of disease and injury states lead to significant differences in the constraints to action and these impairments in turn influence the pathway of change in re-learning and/or recovery of function. These altered constraints channel the effectiveness of many conditions and strategies of practice that influence learning and performance. Nevertheless, it is proposed that there is a small set of principles for the change in dynamics of motor learning, which drive the continuously evolving stability and instability of movement forms through the lifespan. However, this common set of dynamical principles is realized in individual pathways of change in the movement dynamics of learning, re-learning and recovery of function. The inherent individual differences of humans and environments insure that the coordination, control and skill of movement rehabilitation are challenged in distinct ways by the changing constraints arising from the many manifestations of disease and injury. Implications for rehabilitation The many varieties of disease and injury states lead to significant differences in the constraints to action that in turn influence the pathway of change in re-learning and/or recovery of function, and the effectiveness of the many conditions/strategies of practice to influence learning and performance. There are a small set of principles for the change in dynamics of motor learning that drive the continuously evolving ebb and flow of stability and instability of movement forms through the lifespan. The inherent individual differences of humans and environments insure that the coordination, control and skill of movement rehabilitation are uniquely challenged by the changing constraints arising from the many

  20. The relationship between critical flux and fibre movement induced by bubbling in a submerged hollow fibre system.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wicaksana, F; Fan, A G; Chen, V

    2005-01-01

    Bubbling has been used to enhance various processes. In this paper we deal with the effect of bubbling on submerged hollow fibre membranes, where bubbling is applied to prevent severe membrane fouling. Previous work with submerged hollow fibres has observed that significant fibre movement can be induced by bubbling and that there is a qualitative relationship between fibre movement and filtration performance. Therefore, the aim of the present research has been to analyse the link between bubbling, fibre movement and critical flux, identified as the flux at which the transmembrane pressure (TMP) starts to rise. Tests were performed on vertical isolated fibres with a model feed of yeast suspension. The fibres were subject to steady bubbling from below. The parameters of interest were the fibre characteristics, such as tightness, diameter and length, as well as feed concentration. The results confirmed that the critical fluxes are affected by the fibre characteristics and feed concentration. Higher critical flux values can be achieved by using loose fibres, smaller diameters and longer fibres. The enhancement is partially linked to fibre movement and this is confirmed by improved performance when fibres are subject to mechanical movement in the absence of bubbling.

  1. Induced Gamma-Band Activity and Fixational Eye Movements are Differentially Influenced by Low-and High-Level Factors in a Visual Object Classification Task

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    J Martinovic

    2011-04-01

    Full Text Available Until recently induced high frequency oscillatory activity (gamma-band activity; >30 Hz was considered a neural marker of cortical object representation. However, Yuval-Greenberg et al (2008; Neuron demonstrated that induced gamma-band activity (GBA in the elecetroencephalogram (EEG is susceptible to artifacts caused by miniature eye movements, which account for the major part of the signal in the crucial time window of 200-400 ms after stimulus onset. Is there an underlying cortical-induced gamma-band response that is obscured by ocular artifacts but can still be recorded with EEG? Furthermore, if object-specific modulations of induced GBA in previous studies were caused by ocular artifacts, should we instead study fixational eye movements as a response that can reflect higher-level representational processes in vision? In order to investigate this, we conducted an eye tracking experiment and an EEG experiment using the same design. Participants were asked to classify line drawings of objects or non-objects. To introduce low-level differences, their contours were defined along different directions in cardinal colour space: 1 S-cone-isolating (S, or 2 intermediate isoluminant (S and L-M, or 3 a full-colour stimulus, containing an additional achromatic component (S; L-M; L+M+S. In both experiments, behavioural performance was optimal for full-colour stimuli. In the eye tracking experiment, fixational eye movement rates 200-400 ms after stimulus onset depended on low-level factors, with no difference between objects and non-objects. In the EEG experiment, miniature eye movements were identified and removed using the saccadic filter approach. The artifact-free induced GBA exhibited a lateralised distribution, with enhancements at left and right posterior sites. Activity was higher for full-colour objects on the left, with the opposite effect observed on the right. We conclude that induced GBA can be observed in the EEG. While it showed high

  2. Exercise-induced rib stress fractures: potential risk factors related to thoracic muscle co-contraction and movement pattern

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Vinther-Knudsen, Archibald; Kanstrup, I-L; Christiansen, E

    2006-01-01

    The etiology of exercise-induced rib stress fractures (RSFs) in elite rowers is unclear. The purpose of the study was to investigate thoracic muscle activity, movement patterns and muscle strength in elite rowers. Electromyographic (EMG) and 2-D video analysis were performed during ergometer rowing...

  3. Maximum-entropy description of animal movement.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fleming, Chris H; Subaşı, Yiğit; Calabrese, Justin M

    2015-03-01

    We introduce a class of maximum-entropy states that naturally includes within it all of the major continuous-time stochastic processes that have been applied to animal movement, including Brownian motion, Ornstein-Uhlenbeck motion, integrated Ornstein-Uhlenbeck motion, a recently discovered hybrid of the previous models, and a new model that describes central-place foraging. We are also able to predict a further hierarchy of new models that will emerge as data quality improves to better resolve the underlying continuity of animal movement. Finally, we also show that Langevin equations must obey a fluctuation-dissipation theorem to generate processes that fall from this class of maximum-entropy distributions when the constraints are purely kinematic.

  4. The Aging Mover: A Preliminary Report on Constraints to Action.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Williams, Kathleen; Bird, Michael

    1992-01-01

    Examined constraints that might result in locomotion declines in older adults. Videotaped movements of healthy, active females between 20 and 80 years. Those over 60 walked at significantly slower speeds, particularly climbing stairs and used smaller range of speeds than younger individuals. Despite slowing, pattern of coordination between limbs…

  5. Improvement of Upper Extremity Deficit after Constraint-Induced Movement Therapy Combined with and without Preconditioning Stimulation Using Dual-hemisphere Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation and Peripheral Neuromuscular Stimulation in Chronic Stroke Patients: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Takashi Takebayashi

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available In this study, we investigated the effects of dual-hemisphere transcranial direct current stimulation (dual-tDCS of both the affected (anodal tDCS and non-affected (cathodal tDCS primary motor cortex, combined with peripheral neuromuscular electrical stimulation (PNMES, on the effectiveness of constraint-induced movement therapy (CIMT as a neurorehabilitation intervention in chronic stroke. We conducted a randomized controlled trial of feasibility, with a single blind assessor, with patients recruited from three outpatient clinics. Twenty chronic stroke patients were randomly allocated to the control group, receiving conventional CIMT, or the intervention group receiving dual-tDCS combined with PNMES before CIMT. Patients in the treatment group first underwent a 20-min period of dual-tDCS, followed immediately by PNMES, and subsequent CIMT for 2 h. Patients in the control group only received CIMT (with no pretreatment stimulation. All patients underwent two CIMT sessions, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, each lasting 2 h, for a total of 4 h of CIMT per day. Upper extremity function was assessed using the Fugl-Meyer Assessment (primary outcome, as well as the amount of use (AOU and quality of movement (QOM scores, obtained via the Motor Activity Log (secondary outcome. Nineteen patients completed the study, with one patient withdrawing after allocation. Compared to the control group, the treatment improvement in upper extremity function and AOU was significantly greater in the treatment than control group (change in upper extremity score, 9.20 ± 4.64 versus 4.56 ± 2.60, respectively, P < 0.01, η2 = 0.43; change in AOU score, 1.10 ± 0.65 versus 0.62 ± 0.85, respectively, P = 0.02, η2 = 0.52. There was no significant effect of the intervention on the QOM between the intervention and control groups (change in QOM score, 1.00 ± 0.62 versus 0.71 ± 0.72, respectively, P = 0.07, η2

  6. Sequencing bilateral robot-assisted arm therapy and constraint-induced therapy improves reach to press and trunk kinematics in patients with stroke.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hsieh, Yu-wei; Liing, Rong-jiuan; Lin, Keh-chung; Wu, Ching-yi; Liou, Tsan-hon; Lin, Jui-chi; Hung, Jen-wen

    2016-03-22

    The combination of robot-assisted therapy (RT) and a modified form of constraint-induced therapy (mCIT) shows promise for improving motor function of patients with stroke. However, whether the changes of motor control strategies are concomitant with the improvements in motor function after combination of RT and mCIT (RT + mCIT) is unclear. This study investigated the effects of the sequential combination of RT + mCIT compared with RT alone on the strategies of motor control measured by kinematic analysis and on motor function and daily performance measured by clinical scales. The study enrolled 34 patients with chronic stroke. The data were derived from part of a single-blinded randomized controlled trial. Participants in the RT + mCIT and RT groups received 20 therapy sessions (90 to 105 min/day, 5 days for 4 weeks). Patients in the RT + mCIT group received 10 RT sessions for first 2 weeks and 10 mCIT sessions for the next 2 weeks. The Bi-Manu-Track was used in RT sessions to provide bilateral practice of wrist and forearm movements. The primary outcome was kinematic variables in a task of reaching to press a desk bell. Secondary outcomes included scores on the Wolf Motor Function Test, Functional Independence Measure, and Nottingham Extended Activities of Daily Living. All outcome measures were administered before and after intervention. RT + mCIT and RT demonstrated different benefits on motor control strategies. RT + mCIT uniquely improved motor control strategies by reducing shoulder abduction, increasing elbow extension, and decreasing trunk compensatory movement during the reaching task. Motor function and quality of the affected limb was improved, and patients achieved greater independence in instrumental activities of daily living. Force generation at movement initiation was improved in the patients who received RT. A combination of RT and mCIT could be an effective approach to improve stroke rehabilitation outcomes, achieving

  7. Nanoparticle movement: Plasmonic forces and physical constraints

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Batson, P.E.; Reyes-Coronado, A.; Barrera, R.G.; Rivacoba, A.; Echenique, P.M.; Aizpurua, J.

    2012-01-01

    Nanoparticle structures observed in aberration-corrected electron microscopes exhibit many types of behavior, some of which are dominated by intrinsic conditions, unrelated to the microscope environment. Some behaviors are clearly driven by the electron beam, however, and the question arises as to whether these are similar to intrinsic mechanisms, useful for understanding nanoscale behavior, or whether they should be regarded as unwanted modification of as-built specimens. We have studied a particular kind of beam–specimen interaction – plasmon dielectric forces caused by the electric fields imposed by a passing swift electron – identifying four types of forced motion, including both attractive and repulsive forces on single nanoparticles, and coalescent and non-coalescent forces in groups of two or more nanoparticles. We suggest that these forces might be useful for deliberate electron beam guided movement of nanoparticles. -- Highlights: ► We investigate the interaction of metal nanoparticles with a high energy electron beam. ► We find forces ranging from 0.1 to 50 pN forces between the metal particles and the beam. ► At moderate distances, dielectric forces are usually small and attractive. ► At sub-Nm distances the forces become repulsive, pushing nanoparticles away from the electron beam. ► While the repulsive behavior is predicted by electromagnetic theory, the detailed origin of the behavior is not yet understood.

  8. Clinical features of movement disorders.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yung, C Y

    1983-08-01

    The descriptive aspects of all types of movement disorders and their related syndromes and terminologies used in the literature are reviewed and described. This comprises the features of (a) movement disorders secondary to neurological diseases affecting the extrapyramidal motor system, such as: athetosis, chorea, dystonia, hemiballismus, myoclonus, tremor, tics and spasm, (b) drug induced movement disorders, such as: akathisia, akinesia, hyperkinesia, dyskinesias, extrapyramidal syndrome, and tardive dyskinesia, and (c) abnormal movements in psychiatric disorders, such as: mannerism, stereotyped behaviour and psychomotor retardation. It is intended to bring about a more comprehensive overview of these movement disorders from a phenomenological perspective, so that clinicians can familiarize with these features for diagnosis. Some general statements are made in regard to some of the characteristics of movement disorders.

  9. Zinc movement in the brain under kainate-induced seizures.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Takeda, Atsushi; Hirate, Maki; Tamano, Haruna; Oku, Naoto

    2003-05-01

    On the basis of the evidence that elimination of 65Zn from the brain of epilepsy (EL) mice is facilitated by induction of seizures, zinc movement in the brain was studied in mice injected with kainate (12 mg/kg x 3), which exhibited status epilepticus within 120 min after the last injection of kainate. Zinc concentrations in the brain were determined 24 h after the last injection of kainate. Zinc concentrations in the hippocampus, amygdala and cerebral cortex, in which zinc-containing glutamatergic neuron terminals exist, were significantly decreased by the treatment with kainate, while that in the cerebellum was not decreased. Timm's stain in the brain was extensively attenuated 24 h after the last injection of kainate. These results indicate that zinc homeostasis in the brain is affected by kainate-induced seizures. In the hippocampus of rats injected with kainate (10 mg/kg), furthermore, the release of zinc and glutamate into the extracellular fluid was studied using in vivo microdialysis. The levels of zinc and glutamate in the perfusate were increased along with seizure severity after injection of kainate. It is likely that zinc concentration in the synaptic vesicles is decreased by the excess excitation of glutamatergic neurons. The present study suggests that the excessive release of zinc and glutamate from the neuron terminals under kainate-induced seizures is associated with the loss of zinc from the brain.

  10. Video Game Rehabilitation for Outpatient Stroke (VIGoROUS): protocol for a multi-center comparative effectiveness trial of in-home gamified constraint-induced movement therapy for rehabilitation of chronic upper extremity hemiparesis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gauthier, Lynne V; Kane, Chelsea; Borstad, Alexandra; Strahl, Nancy; Uswatte, Gitendra; Taub, Edward; Morris, David; Hall, Alli; Arakelian, Melissa; Mark, Victor

    2017-06-08

    Constraint-Induced Movement therapy (CI therapy) is shown to reduce disability, increase use of the more affected arm/hand, and promote brain plasticity for individuals with upper extremity hemiparesis post-stroke. Randomized controlled trials consistently demonstrate that CI therapy is superior to other rehabilitation paradigms, yet it is available to only a small minority of the estimated 1.2 million chronic stroke survivors with upper extremity disability. The current study aims to establish the comparative effectiveness of a novel, patient-centered approach to rehabilitation utilizing newly developed, inexpensive, and commercially available gaming technology to disseminate CI therapy to underserved individuals. Video game delivery of CI therapy will be compared against traditional clinic-based CI therapy and standard upper extremity rehabilitation. Additionally, individual factors that differentially influence response to one treatment versus another will be examined. This protocol outlines a multi-site, randomized controlled trial with parallel group design. Two hundred twenty four adults with chronic hemiparesis post-stroke will be recruited at four sites. Participants are randomized to one of four study groups: (1) traditional clinic-based CI therapy, (2) therapist-as-consultant video game CI therapy, (3) therapist-as-consultant video game CI therapy with additional therapist contact via telerehabilitation/video consultation, and (4) standard upper extremity rehabilitation. After 6-month follow-up, individuals assigned to the standard upper extremity rehabilitation condition crossover to stand-alone video game CI therapy preceded by a therapist consultation. All interventions are delivered over a period of three weeks. Primary outcome measures include motor improvement as measured by the Wolf Motor Function Test (WMFT), quality of arm use for daily activities as measured by Motor Activity Log (MAL), and quality of life as measured by the Quality of Life in

  11. WE-A-17A-11: Implanted Brachytherapy Seed Movement Due to Transrectal Ultrasound Probe-Induced Prostate Deformation

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Liu, D; Usmani, N; Sloboda, R [Cross Cancer Institute, Edmonton, Alberta (Canada); University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta (Canada); Meyer, T; Husain, S; Angyalfi, S [Tom Baker Cancer Centre, Calgary, Alberta (Canada); University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta (Canada); Kay, I [Canterbury District Health Board, Christchurch (New Zealand)

    2014-06-15

    Purpose: To characterize the movement of implanted brachytherapy seeds due to transrectal ultrasound probe-induced prostate deformation and to estimate the effects on prostate dosimetry. Methods: Implanted probe-in and probe-removed seed distributions were reconstructed for 10 patients using C-arm fluoroscopy imaging. The prostate was delineated on ultrasound and registered to the fluoroscopy seeds using a visible subset of seeds and residual needle tracks. A linear tensor and shearing model correlated the seed movement with position. The seed movement model was used to infer the underlying prostate deformation and to simulate the prostate contour without probe compression. Changes in prostate and surrogate urethra dosimetry were calculated. Results: Seed movement patterns reflecting elastic decompression, lateral shearing, and rectal bending were observed. Elastic decompression was characterized by anterior-posterior expansion and superior-inferior and lateral contractions. For lateral shearing, anterior movement up to 6 mm was observed for extraprostatic seeds in the lateral peripheral region. The average intra-prostatic seed movement was 1.3 mm, and the residual after linear modeling was 0.6 mm. Prostate D90 increased by 4 Gy on average (8 Gy max) and was correlated with elastic decompression. For selected patients, lateral shearing resulted in differential change in D90 of 7 Gy between anterior and posterior quadrants, and increase in whole prostate D90 of 4 Gy. Urethra D10 increased by 4 Gy. Conclusion: Seed movement upon probe removal was characterized. The proposed model captured the linear correlation between seed movement and position. Whole prostate dose coverage increased slightly, due to the small but systematic seed movement associated with elastic decompression. Lateral shearing movement increased dose coverage in the anterior-lateral region, at the expense of the posterior-lateral region. The effect on whole prostate D90 was smaller due to the subset

  12. The Time-Course of Morphological Constraints: Evidence from Eye-Movements during Reading

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cunnings, Ian; Clahsen, Harald

    2007-01-01

    Lexical compounds in English are constrained in that the non-head noun can be an irregular but not a regular plural (e.g. mice eater vs. *rats eater), a contrast that has been argued to derive from a morphological constraint on modifiers inside compounds. In addition, bare nouns are preferred over plural forms inside compounds (e.g. mouse eater…

  13. Intra- and interpersonal coordination of goal-oriented movements in a working scenario

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Vesper, Cordula; Stork, Sonja; Wiesbeck, Mathey

    2008-01-01

    We present a scenario for examining mechanisms of goal-oriented movement coordination in humans. Our aim is to determine behavioral rules and constraints that shape movement execution. Therefore, trajectories of hand and finger movements are recorded while participants perform a simple construction...... task. We measure different parameters of reaching and grasping and compare performance in a single-person versus a two-person condition. First results of a pilot study are shown. Finally, we discuss our scenario with respect to possible applications in human-robot interaction in a factory environment....

  14. The Propagation of Movement Variability in Time: A Methodological Approach for Discrete Movements with Multiple Degrees of Freedom

    Science.gov (United States)

    Krüger, Melanie; Straube, Andreas; Eggert, Thomas

    2017-01-01

    In recent years, theory-building in motor neuroscience and our understanding of the synergistic control of the redundant human motor system has significantly profited from the emergence of a range of different mathematical approaches to analyze the structure of movement variability. Approaches such as the Uncontrolled Manifold method or the Noise-Tolerance-Covariance decomposition method allow to detect and interpret changes in movement coordination due to e.g., learning, external task constraints or disease, by analyzing the structure of within-subject, inter-trial movement variability. Whereas, for cyclical movements (e.g., locomotion), mathematical approaches exist to investigate the propagation of movement variability in time (e.g., time series analysis), similar approaches are missing for discrete, goal-directed movements, such as reaching. Here, we propose canonical correlation analysis as a suitable method to analyze the propagation of within-subject variability across different time points during the execution of discrete movements. While similar analyses have already been applied for discrete movements with only one degree of freedom (DoF; e.g., Pearson's product-moment correlation), canonical correlation analysis allows to evaluate the coupling of inter-trial variability across different time points along the movement trajectory for multiple DoF-effector systems, such as the arm. The theoretical analysis is illustrated by empirical data from a study on reaching movements under normal and disturbed proprioception. The results show increased movement duration, decreased movement amplitude, as well as altered movement coordination under ischemia, which results in a reduced complexity of movement control. Movement endpoint variability is not increased under ischemia. This suggests that healthy adults are able to immediately and efficiently adjust the control of complex reaching movements to compensate for the loss of proprioceptive information. Further, it is

  15. Dilution and slow injection reduces the incidence of rocuronium-induced withdrawal movements in children

    OpenAIRE

    Shin, Young Hee; Kim, Chung Su; Lee, Jong-Hwan; Sim, Woo Seog; Ko, Justin Sangwook; Cho, Hyun Sung; Jeong, Hui Yeon; Lee, Hye Won; Kim, Sang Hyun

    2011-01-01

    Background The aim of this study was to evaluate whether slow injection of diluted rocuronium could reduce rocuronium-induced withdrawal movements effectively in children. Methods After loss of consciousness, rocuronium 0.6 mg/kg was administered into 171 children according to the pre-assigned groups as follows: Group CF, injection of non-diluted rocuronium over 5 seconds; Group CS, injection of non-diluted rocuronium over 1 minute; Group DF, injection of diluted rocuronium (10 times) over 5 ...

  16. Perceptual Specificity Effects in Rereading: Evidence from Eye Movements

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sheridan, Heather; Reingold, Eyal M.

    2012-01-01

    The present experiments examined perceptual specificity effects using a rereading paradigm. Eye movements were monitored while participants read the same target word twice, in two different low-constraint sentence frames. The congruency of perceptual processing was manipulated by either presenting the target word in the same distortion typography…

  17. Reciprocal modulation of internal and external factors determines individual movements.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Martin, Jodie; van Moorter, Bram; Revilla, Eloy; Blanchard, Pierrick; Dray, Stéphane; Quenette, Pierre-Yves; Allainé, Dominique; Swenson, Jon E

    2013-03-01

    Movement is fundamental to individual and population dynamics, as it allows individuals to meet their basic requirements. Although movement patterns reflect interactions between internal and external factors, only few studies have examined the effects of these factors on movement simultaneously, and they generally focused on particular biological contexts (e.g. dispersal, foraging). However, the relative importance of these factors in driving individual routine movements might reflect a species' potential flexibility to cope with landscape changes and therefore buffer their potential impact on fitness. We used data from GPS collars on Scandinavian brown bears to investigate the relative role of these factors, as well as an additional factor (period of the year) on routine movements at two spatial scales (hourly and daily relocations). As expected, internal factors played a major role in driving movement, compared to external factors at both scales, but its relative importance was greater at a finer scale. In particular, the interaction between reproductive status and period of the year was one of the most influential variables, females being constrained by the movement capacity of their cubs in the first periods of the year. The effect of human disturbance on movement was also greater for females with cubs than for lone females. This study showed how reciprocal modulation of internal and external factors is shaping space use of brown bears. We stress that these factors should be studied simultaneously to avoid the risk of obtaining context-dependent inferences. Moreover, the study of their relative contribution is also highly relevant in the context of multiple-use landscapes, as human activities generally affect the landscape more than they affect the internal states of an individual. Species or individuals with important internal constraints should be less responsive to changes in their environment as they have less freedom from internal constraints and should

  18. Incremental comprehension of pitch relationships in written music: Evidence from eye movements.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hadley, Lauren V; Sturt, Patrick; Eerola, Tuomas; Pickering, Martin J

    2017-03-17

    To investigate how proficient pianists comprehend pitch relationships in written music when they first encounter it we conducted two experiments in which proficient pianists' eyes were tracked while they read and played single-line melodies. In Experiment 1, participants played at their own speed; in Experiment 2 they played with an external metronome. The melodies were either congruent or anomalous, with the anomaly involving one bar being shifted in pitch to alter the implied harmonic structure (e.g., non-resolution of a dominant). In both experiments, anomaly led to rapid disruption in participants' eye-movements in terms of regressions from the target bar, indicating that pianists process written pitch relationships online. This is particularly striking because in musical sight-reading eye movement behaviour is constrained by the concurrent performance. Both experiments also showed that anomaly induced pupil dilation. Together these results indicate that proficient pianists rapidly integrate the music that they read into the prior context, and that anomalies in terms of pitch relationships lead to processing difficulty. These findings parallel those of text reading, suggesting that structural processing involves similar constraints across domains.

  19. SERS study of surface plasmon resonance induced carrier movement in Au@Cu2O core-shell nanoparticles

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Lei; Zhang, Fan; Deng, Xin-Yu; Xue, Xiangxin; Wang, Li; Sun, Yantao; Feng, Jing-Dong; Zhang, Yongjun; Wang, Yaxin; Jung, Young Mee

    2018-01-01

    A plasmon induced carrier movement enhanced mechanism of surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) was investigated using a charge-transfer (CT) enhancement mechanism. Here, we designed a strategy to study SERS in Au@Cu2O nanoshell nanoparticles with different shell thicknesses. Among the plasmonically coupled nanostructures, Au spheres with Cu2O shells have been of special interest due to their ultrastrong electromagnetic fields and controllable carrier transfer properties, which are useful for SERS. Au@Cu2O nanoshell nanoparticles (NPs) with shell thicknesses of 48-56 nm are synthesized that exhibit high SERS activity. This high activity originates from plasmonic-induced carrier transfer from Au@Cu2O to 4-mercaptobenzoic acid (MBA). The CT transition from the valence band (VB) of Cu2O to the second excited π-π* transition of MBA, and is of b2 electronic symmetry, which was enhanced significantly. The Herzberg-Teller selection rules were employed to predict the observed enhanced b2 symmetry modes. The system constructed in this study combines the long-range electromagnetic effect of Au NPs, localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) of the Au@Cu2O nanoshell, and the CT contribution to assist in understanding the SERS mechanism based on LSPR-induced carrier movement in metal/semiconductor nanocomposites.

  20. Learning With Mixed Hard/Soft Pointwise Constraints.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gnecco, Giorgio; Gori, Marco; Melacci, Stefano; Sanguineti, Marcello

    2015-09-01

    A learning paradigm is proposed and investigated, in which the classical framework of learning from examples is enhanced by the introduction of hard pointwise constraints, i.e., constraints imposed on a finite set of examples that cannot be violated. Such constraints arise, e.g., when requiring coherent decisions of classifiers acting on different views of the same pattern. The classical examples of supervised learning, which can be violated at the cost of some penalization (quantified by the choice of a suitable loss function) play the role of soft pointwise constraints. Constrained variational calculus is exploited to derive a representer theorem that provides a description of the functional structure of the optimal solution to the proposed learning paradigm. It is shown that such an optimal solution can be represented in terms of a set of support constraints, which generalize the concept of support vectors and open the doors to a novel learning paradigm, called support constraint machines. The general theory is applied to derive the representation of the optimal solution to the problem of learning from hard linear pointwise constraints combined with soft pointwise constraints induced by supervised examples. In some cases, closed-form optimal solutions are obtained.

  1. Temporal and spatial adaptations during the acquisition of a reversal movement.

    Science.gov (United States)

    van Loon, E M; Buekers, M J; Helsen, W; Magill, R A

    1998-03-01

    Adjustments of the biphasic movement in a coincidence anticipation task were studied using an erroneous knowledge of results (KR) paradigm. Forty participants received either no KR, correct KR, erroneous (+100 ms) KR, or 100 trials of correct KR followed by 50 trials of erroneous KR. Kinematic analyses revealed that for this 100-50 KR group the extension part of the movement was temporally adjusted under the influence of erroneous KR. Although accompanied by a decrease in movement amplitude, this did not account for the temporal shift in movement outcome, because all groups showed a reduction in amplitude. It is argued that changing external time constraints mainly results in temporal adaptations. However, spatial adaptations do play a role in kinematic changes during acquisition.

  2. Pharmacological prevention of rocuronium-induced injection pain or withdrawal movements: a meta-analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kwak, Hyun Jeong; Kim, Ji Young; Kim, Yong Beom; Min, Sang Kee; Moon, Bong Ki; Kim, Jong Yeop

    2013-10-01

    Rocuronium is reported to be associated with injection pain or withdrawal movement (IPWM). This meta-analysis assessed the efficacy of different pharmacological treatments used to decrease the incidence of the rocuronium-induced IPWM. We searched the Cochrane Library, Embase and PubMed for randomized controlled trials comparing a pharmacological drug with a placebo to prevent the rocuronium-induced IPWM and found 37 studies with 5,595 patients. Overall incidence of rocuronium-induced IPWM was 74%. Pretreatment with opioids [risk ratio (RR) 0.16; 95% confidence interval (95% CI) 0.09-0.29], lidocaine (0.47; 0.35-0.64), and ketamine (0.41; 0.22-0.77) were effective in decreasing IPWM. Lidocaine pretreatment with venous occlusion (0.40; 0.32-0.49) and opioids pretreatment with venous occlusion (0.77; 0.61-0.96) were also effective. Mixing sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3) with rocuronium (0.15; 0.06-0.34) was also efficacious in reducing IPWM. Indirect comparison shows that the RR of NaHCO3 admixture and pretreatment with opioids were lower than that of the other four interventions (pretreatments of ketamine or lidocaine, and lidocaine or opioids with venous occlusion). This meta-analysis suggests that opioids, lidocaine, ketamine, and NaHCO3 are effective in decreasing rocuronium-induced IPWM. Considering the efficacy and convenience, pretreatment with opioids without venous occlusion is recommended for reducing rocuronium-induced IPWM.

  3. Poster — Thur Eve — 77: Implanted Brachythearpy Seed Movement due to Transrectal Ultrasound Probe-Induced Prostate Deformation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Liu, D; Usmani, N; Sloboda, R; Meyer, T; Husain, S; Angyalfi, S; Kay, I

    2014-01-01

    The study investigated the movement of implanted brachytherapy seeds upon transrectal US probe removal, providing insight into the underlying prostate deformation and an estimate of the impact on prostate dosimetry. Implanted seed distributions, one obtained with the prostate under probe compression and another with the probe removed, were reconstructed using C-arm fluoroscopy imaging. The prostate, delineated on ultrasound images, was registered to the fluoroscopy images using seeds and needle tracks identified on ultrasound. A deformation tensor and shearing model was developed to correlate probe-induced seed movement with position. Changes in prostate TG-43 dosimetry were calculated. The model was used to infer the underlying prostate deformation and to estimate the location of the prostate surface in the absence of probe compression. Seed movement patterns upon probe removal reflected elastic decompression, lateral shearing, and rectal bending. Elastic decompression was characterized by expansion in the anterior-posterior direction and contraction in the superior-inferior and lateral directions. Lateral shearing resulted in large anterior movement for extra-prostatic seeds in the lateral peripheral region. Whole prostate D90 increased up to 8 Gy, mainly due to the small but systematic seed movement associated with elastic decompression. For selected patients, lateral shearing movement increased prostate D90 by 4 Gy, due to increased dose coverage in the anterior-lateral region at the expense of the posterior-lateral region. The effect of shearing movement on whole prostate D90 was small compared to elastic decompression due to the subset of peripheral seeds involved, but is expected to have greater consequences for local dose coverage

  4. Effects of energy constraints on transportation systems. [Twenty-six papers

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Mittal, R. K. [ed.

    1977-12-01

    Twenty-six papers are presented on a variety of topics including: energy and transportaton facts and figures; long-range planning under energy constraints; technology assessment of alternative fuels; energy efficiency of intercity passenger and freight movement; energy efficiency of intracity passenger movement; federal role; electrification of railroads; energy impact of the electric car in an urban enviroment; research needs and projects in progress--federal viewpoint; research needs in transportation energy conservation--data needs; and energy intensity of various transportation modes--an overview. A separate abstract was prepared for each of the papers for inclusion in Energy Research Abstracts (ERA) and in Energy Abstracts for Policy Analysis (EAPA).

  5. Constraint-led changes in internal variability in running.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Haudum, Anita; Birklbauer, Jürgen; Kröll, Josef; Müller, Erich

    2012-01-01

    We investigated the effect of a one-time application of elastic constraints on movement-inherent variability during treadmill running. Eleven males ran two 35-min intervals while surface EMG was measured. In one of two 35-min intervals, after 10 min of running without tubes, elastic tubes (between hip and heels) were attached, followed by another 5 min of running without tubes. To assess variability, stride-to-stride iEMG variability was calculated. Significant increases in variability (36 % to 74 %) were observed during tube running, whereas running without tubes after the tube running block showed no significant differences. Results show that elastic tubes affect variability on a muscular level despite the constant environmental conditions and underline the nervous system's adaptability to cope with somehow unpredictable constraints since stride duration was unaltered.

  6. The Influence of Semantic Constraints on Bilingual Word Recognition during Sentence Reading

    Science.gov (United States)

    Van Assche, Eva; Drieghe, Denis; Duyck, Wouter; Welvaert, Marijke; Hartsuiker, Robert J.

    2011-01-01

    The present study investigates how semantic constraint of a sentence context modulates language-non-selective activation in bilingual visual word recognition. We recorded Dutch-English bilinguals' eye movements while they read cognates and controls in low and high semantically constraining sentences in their second language. Early and late…

  7. Evidence for the Fundamental Difference Hypothesis or Not?: Island Constraints Revisited

    Science.gov (United States)

    Belikova, Alyona; White, Lydia

    2009-01-01

    This article examines how changes in linguistic theory affect the debate between the fundamental difference hypothesis and the access-to-Universal Grammar (UG) approach to SLA. With a focus on subjacency (Chomsky, 1973), a principle of UG that places constraints on "wh"-movement and that has frequently been taken as a test case for verifying…

  8. The Perceived Naturalness of Virtual Locomotion Methods Devoid of Explicit Leg Movements

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nilsson, Niels Christian; Serafin, Stefania; Nordahl, Rolf

    2013-01-01

    Walking-In-Place (WIP) techniques have potential in terms of solving the problem arising when an immersive virtual environment offers a larger freedom of movement than the physical environment. Such techniques are particularly useful when the spatial constraints are very prominent...

  9. Flurbiprofen in rapid eye movement sleep deprivation induced hyperalgesia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gürel, Elif Ezgi; Ural, Keremcan; Öztürk, Gülnur; Öztürk, Levent

    2014-04-10

    Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep deprivation induces hyperalgesia in healthy rats. Here, we evaluated the effects of flurbiprofen, an anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective agent, on the increased thermal responses observed in REM sleep deprived rats. Forty female rats were divided into four groups following 96-hour REM sleep deprivation: intraperitoneal injections of placebo, and flurbiprofen 5 mg/kg, 15 mg/kg and 40 mg/kg were made in CONT (n=10), FBP5, FBP15 and FBP40 groups respectively. Pain threshold measurements were performed three times at baseline (0.hour), at the end of REM sleep deprivation (96.hour) and at 1 h after injections (97.hour) by hot plate and tail-flick tests. REM sleep deprivation induced a significant decrease in pain thresholds of all rats (hotplate: 0.hour vs 96.hour, 9.75±2.85 vs 5.10±2.02, pFlurbiprofen in 15 mg/kg and 40 mg/kg doses significantly improved pain tolerance measured by tail flick test (tail flick in FBP15 and FBP40 groups: 96.hour vs 97.hour, 7.01±4.97 vs 8.34±3.61 and 5.06±1.57 vs 7.04±2.49, pFlurbiprofen was used for the first time in a rat model of REM sleep deprivation, and it provided anti-nociceptive effects in 15 mg/kg and 40 mg/kg doses. Flurbiprofen may have the potential for treatment of painful syndromes accompanying insomnia or sleep loss. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  10. Physiological modules for generating discrete and rhythmic movements: action identification by a dynamic recurrent neural network.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bengoetxea, Ana; Leurs, Françoise; Hoellinger, Thomas; Cebolla, Ana M; Dan, Bernard; McIntyre, Joseph; Cheron, Guy

    2014-01-01

    In this study we employed a dynamic recurrent neural network (DRNN) in a novel fashion to reveal characteristics of control modules underlying the generation of muscle activations when drawing figures with the outstretched arm. We asked healthy human subjects to perform four different figure-eight movements in each of two workspaces (frontal plane and sagittal plane). We then trained a DRNN to predict the movement of the wrist from information in the EMG signals from seven different muscles. We trained different instances of the same network on a single movement direction, on all four movement directions in a single movement plane, or on all eight possible movement patterns and looked at the ability of the DRNN to generalize and predict movements for trials that were not included in the training set. Within a single movement plane, a DRNN trained on one movement direction was not able to predict movements of the hand for trials in the other three directions, but a DRNN trained simultaneously on all four movement directions could generalize across movement directions within the same plane. Similarly, the DRNN was able to reproduce the kinematics of the hand for both movement planes, but only if it was trained on examples performed in each one. As we will discuss, these results indicate that there are important dynamical constraints on the mapping of EMG to hand movement that depend on both the time sequence of the movement and on the anatomical constraints of the musculoskeletal system. In a second step, we injected EMG signals constructed from different synergies derived by the PCA in order to identify the mechanical significance of each of these components. From these results, one can surmise that discrete-rhythmic movements may be constructed from three different fundamental modules, one regulating the co-activation of all muscles over the time span of the movement and two others elliciting patterns of reciprocal activation operating in orthogonal directions.

  11. New social movements and political process: The politics of hydroelectric power in Switzerland

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lehmann, Luzia M.

    This dissertation analyzes the mobilization and impact of the ecology movement mobilizing against and challenging hydroelectric power plants in the Alps. It argues that the political process model is the most fruitful framework for such a study, linking a political system's structural constraints and opportunities to movement action via organizational resources. The mobilization process resulting in movement impact is conceived as an interactive process among social movements, authorities, other opponents, and potential counter movements. The case study method is then used to analyze three action campaigns launched against hydro power plants in Graubunden since the 1970s: Ilanz I and II, Greina, and Curciusa. In terms of the movement's narrow goal of preventing a plant, Ilanz I and II is a failure, Greina a success, and Curciusa ambiguous. Yet the author defines movement impact more broadly, including procedural, reactive and proactive substantive impact, and structural impact, changes in the alliance/conflict system, and social learning. Based on the evidence from the case studies, these factors affect movement outcome positively: visibility in the media and framing the debate, adjusting the target level and movement repertoire to the opportunity structure and the spatial concentration of the issue, proactivity, and organizational resources with a well developed division of labor, internal communication, and a non-partisan alliance system at all levels. There are two main conceptual contributions. First, the author analyzes the political opportunity structure at all levels of the federal polity--the national, cantonal, and communal--as well as the interplay among the levels. The fact that the cantonal and communal levels exhibit more elements of closure than the national level helps explain differences in movements' organizational resources, movement repertoire, targeting of movement action, and thus movement impact. Second, the author develops the spatial

  12. Variations in task constraints shape emergent performance outcomes and complexity levels in balancing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Caballero Sánchez, Carla; Barbado Murillo, David; Davids, Keith; Moreno Hernández, Francisco J

    2016-06-01

    This study investigated the extent to which specific interacting constraints of performance might increase or decrease the emergent complexity in a movement system, and whether this could affect the relationship between observed movement variability and the central nervous system's capacity to adapt to perturbations during balancing. Fifty-two healthy volunteers performed eight trials where different performance constraints were manipulated: task difficulty (three levels) and visual biofeedback conditions (with and without the center of pressure (COP) displacement and a target displayed). Balance performance was assessed using COP-based measures: mean velocity magnitude (MVM) and bivariate variable error (BVE). To assess the complexity of COP, fuzzy entropy (FE) and detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA) were computed. ANOVAs showed that MVM and BVE increased when task difficulty increased. During biofeedback conditions, individuals showed higher MVM but lower BVE at the easiest level of task difficulty. Overall, higher FE and lower DFA values were observed when biofeedback was available. On the other hand, FE reduced and DFA increased as difficulty level increased, in the presence of biofeedback. However, when biofeedback was not available, the opposite trend in FE and DFA values was observed. Regardless of changes to task constraints and the variable investigated, balance performance was positively related to complexity in every condition. Data revealed how specificity of task constraints can result in an increase or decrease in complexity emerging in a neurobiological system during balance performance.

  13. Constraint-Led Changes in Internal Variability in Running

    OpenAIRE

    Haudum, Anita; Birklbauer, Jürgen; Kröll, Josef; Müller, Erich

    2012-01-01

    We investigated the effect of a one-time application of elastic constraints on movement-inherent variability during treadmill running. Eleven males ran two 35-min intervals while surface EMG was measured. In one of two 35-min intervals, after 10 min of running without tubes, elastic tubes (between hip and heels) were attached, followed by another 5 min of running without tubes. To assess variability, stride-to-stride iEMG variability was calculated. Significant increases in variability (36 % ...

  14. Degeneration of rapid eye movement sleep circuitry underlies rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder.

    Science.gov (United States)

    McKenna, Dillon; Peever, John

    2017-05-01

    During healthy rapid eye movement sleep, skeletal muscles are actively forced into a state of motor paralysis. However, in rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder-a relatively common neurological disorder-this natural process is lost. A lack of motor paralysis (atonia) in rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder allows individuals to actively move, which at times can be excessive and violent. At first glance this may sound harmless, but it is not because rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder patients frequently injure themselves or the person they sleep with. It is hypothesized that the degeneration or dysfunction of the brain stem circuits that control rapid eye movement sleep paralysis is an underlying cause of rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder. The link between brain stem degeneration and rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder stems from the fact that rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder precedes, in the majority (∼80%) of cases, the development of synucleinopathies such as Parkinson's disease, dementia with Lewy bodies, and multiple system atrophy, which are known to initially cause degeneration in the caudal brain stem structures where rapid eye movement sleep circuits are located. Furthermore, basic science and clinical evidence demonstrate that lesions within the rapid eye movement sleep circuits can induce rapid eye movement sleep-specific motor deficits that are virtually identical to those observed in rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder. This review examines the evidence that rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder is caused by synucleinopathic neurodegeneration of the core brain stem circuits that control healthy rapid eye movement sleep and concludes that rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder is not a separate clinical entity from synucleinopathies but, rather, it is the earliest symptom of these disorders. © 2017 International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society. © 2017 International Parkinson and

  15. A semelparous fish continues upstream migration when exposed to alarm cue, but adjusts movement speed and timing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Luhring, Thomas M; Meckley, Trevor D.; Johnson, Nicholas S.; Siefkes, Michael J.; Hume, John B.; Wagner, C. Michael

    2016-01-01

    Animals make trade-offs between predation risk and pursuit of opportunities such as foraging and reproduction. Trade-offs between antipredator behaviours and foraging are well suited to manipulation in laboratory and field settings and have generated a vast compendium of knowledge. However, much less is known about how animals manage trade-offs between predation risk and pursuit of reproductive opportunities in the absence of the confounding effects of foraging. In the present study, we investigated how the nonfeeding migratory life stage of sea lamprey, Petromyzon marinus, responds to odour from dead conspecifics (a cue that induces avoidance behaviours in laboratory and field studies). We released groups of PIT-tagged sea lamprey 65 m from the shore of Lake Michigan or 287 m upstream in Carp Lake River and used antennas to detect their movements in the river. As the breeding season progressed, sea lamprey initiated upstream movement earlier and were more likely to enter the river. Sea lamprey that began the night in Lake Michigan entered Carp Lake River at higher rates and accelerated upstream when exposed to high concentrations of alarm cue, consistent with animals attempting to minimize time spent in risky areas. Sea lampreys that began the night in the river delayed upstream movement when exposed to alarm cue, consistent with animals sheltering and gathering information about a source of risk. We attribute this context-specific reaction to alarm cue to differences in perceived vulnerability to predation in sheltered positions in the river versus exposed positions in the lake. Once in the river, the vast majority of sea lamprey moved upstream independent of alarm cue or Julian date. Although life-history-induced time and energy budgets place rigid constraints on the direction of migration, sea lamprey attend to predation risk by modifying movement timing and speed.

  16. A Review of Techniques for Detection of Movement Intention Using Movement-Related Cortical Potentials

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Aqsa Shakeel

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available The movement-related cortical potential (MRCP is a low-frequency negative shift in the electroencephalography (EEG recording that takes place about 2 seconds prior to voluntary movement production. MRCP replicates the cortical processes employed in planning and preparation of movement. In this study, we recapitulate the features such as signal’s acquisition, processing, and enhancement and different electrode montages used for EEG data recoding from different studies that used MRCPs to predict the upcoming real or imaginary movement. An authentic identification of human movement intention, accompanying the knowledge of the limb engaged in the performance and its direction of movement, has a potential implication in the control of external devices. This information could be helpful in development of a proficient patient-driven rehabilitation tool based on brain-computer interfaces (BCIs. Such a BCI paradigm with shorter response time appears more natural to the amputees and can also induce plasticity in brain. Along with different training schedules, this can lead to restoration of motor control in stroke patients.

  17. Regular nicotine intake increased tooth movement velocity, osteoclastogenesis and orthodontically induced dental root resorptions in a rat model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kirschneck, Christian; Maurer, Michael; Wolf, Michael; Reicheneder, Claudia; Proff, Peter

    2017-01-01

    Orthodontic forces have been reported to significantly increase nicotine-induced periodontal bone loss. At present, however, it is unknown, which further (side) effects can be expected during orthodontic treatment at a nicotine exposure corresponding to that of an average European smoker. 63 male Fischer344 rats were randomized in three consecutive experiments of 21 animals each (A/B/C) to 3 experimental groups (7 rats, 1/2/3): (A) cone-beam-computed tomography (CBCT); (B) histology/serology; (C) reverse-transcription quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR)/cotinine serology—(1) control; (2) orthodontic tooth movement (OTM) of the first and second upper left molar (NiTi closed coil spring, 0.25 N); (3) OTM with 1.89 mg·kg−1 per day s.c. of L(−)-nicotine. After 14 days of OTM, serum cotinine and IL-6 concentration as well as orthodontically induced inflammatory root resorption (OIIRR), osteoclast activity (histology), orthodontic tooth movement velocity (CBCT, within 14 and 28 days of OTM) and relative gene expression of known inflammatory and osteoclast markers were quantified in the dental-periodontal tissue (RT–qPCR). Animals exposed to nicotine showed significantly heightened serum cotinine and IL-6 levels corresponding to those of regular European smokers. Both the extent of root resorption, osteoclast activity, orthodontic tooth movement and gene expression of inflammatory and osteoclast markers were significantly increased compared to controls with and without OTM under the influence of nicotine. We conclude that apart from increased periodontal bone loss, a progression of dental root resorption and accelerated orthodontic tooth movement are to be anticipated during orthodontic therapy, if nicotine consumption is present. Thus patients should be informed about these risks and the necessity of nicotine abstinence during treatment. PMID:28960194

  18. A characterisation of the magnetically induced movement of NdFeB-particles in magnetorheological elastomers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schümann, M.; Borin, D. Y.; Huang, S.; Auernhammer, G. K.; Müller, R.; Odenbach, S.

    2017-09-01

    Magnetorheological elastomers are a type of smart hybrid material where elastic properties of a soft elastomer matrix are combined with magnetic properties of magnetic micro particles. This combination leads to a complex interplay of magnetic and elastic phenomena, of which the magnetorheological effect is the best described. In this paper, magnetically hard NdFeB-particles were used to obtain remanent magnetic properties. X-ray microtomography has been utilised to analyse the particle movement induced by magnetic fields. A particle tracking was performed; thus, it was possible to characterise the movement of individual particles. Beyond that, a comprehensive analysis of the orientation of all particles was performed at different states of magnetisation and global particle arrangements. For the first time, this method was successfully applied to a magnetorheological material with a technically relevant amount of magnetic NdFeB-particles. A significant impact of the magnetic field on the rotation and translation of the particles was shown.

  19. [Architecture and movement].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rivallan, Armel

    2012-01-01

    Leading an architectural project means accompanying the movement which it induces within the teams. Between questioning, uncertainty and fear, the organisational changes inherent to the new facility must be subject to constructive and ongoing exchanges. Ethics, safety and training are revised and the unit projects are sometimes modified.

  20. Modulation of stimulus-induced 20-Hz activity for the tongue and hard palate during tongue movement in humans.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Maezawa, Hitoshi; Onishi, Kaori; Yagyu, Kazuyori; Shiraishi, Hideaki; Hirai, Yoshiyuki; Funahashi, Makoto

    2016-01-01

    Modulation of 20-Hz activity in the primary sensorimotor cortex (SM1) may be important for oral functions. Here, we show that 20-Hz event-related desynchronization/synchronization (20-Hz ERD/ERS) is modulated by sensory input and motor output in the oral region. Magnetic 20-Hz activity was recorded following right-sided tongue stimulation during rest (Rest) and self-paced repetitive tongue movement (Move). To exclude proprioception effects, 20-Hz activity induced by right-sided hard palate stimulation was also recorded. The 20-Hz activity in the two conditions was compared via temporal spectral evolution analyses. 20-Hz ERD/ERS was detected over bilateral temporoparietal areas in the Rest condition for both regions. Moreover, 20-Hz ERS was significantly suppressed in the Move condition for both regions. Detection of 20-Hz ERD/ERS during the Rest condition for both regions suggests that the SM1 functional state may be modulated by oral stimulation, with or without proprioceptive effects. Moreover, the suppression of 20-Hz ERS for the hard palate during the Move condition suggests that the stimulation-induced functional state of SM1 may have been modulated by the movement, even though the movement and stimulation areas were different. Sensorimotor function of the general oral region may be finely coordinated through 20-Hz cortical oscillation. Copyright © 2015 International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  1. A review of Constraint-Induced Therapy applied to aphasia rehabilitation in stroke patients

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Joana Bisol Balardin

    Full Text Available Abstract Constraint-induced aphasia therapy (CIAT is an intensive therapy model based on the forced use of verbal oral language as the sole channel of communication, while any alternative communication mode such as writing, gesturing or pointing are prevented. Objectives: This critical review involved the analysis of studies examining CIAT applied to stroke patients. Methods and Results: Using keywords, the Medline database was searched for relevant studies published between 2001 and 2008 (Medline 2001-2008. The critical evaluation of the articles was based on the classifications described by the ASNS (Cicerone adaptation. Two studies were categorized as level Ia, two as level II and one study as level IV. Conclusions: These recommendations should be interpreted with caution, given the small number of studies involved, but serve as a guideline for future studies in aphasia therapy.

  2. Cost assessment of the movement restriction policy in France during the 2006 bluetongue virus episode (BTV-8).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tago, Damian; Hammitt, James K; Thomas, Alban; Raboisson, Didier

    2014-12-01

    This study aims at evaluating the costs of the movement restriction policy (MRP) during the 2006 BTV-8 epidemic in France for the producers of 6-9 month old Charolais beef weaned calves (BWC), an important sector that was severely affected by the restrictions imposed. This study estimates the change in the number of BWC sold that was due to the movement restrictions, and evaluates the economic effect of the MRP. The change in BWC sold by producers located inside the restriction zone (RZ) was analyzed for 2006 by using a multivariate matching approach to control for any internal validity threat. The economic evaluation of the MRP was based on several scenarios that describe farms' capacity constraints, feeding prices, and the animal's selling price. Results show that the average farmer experienced a 21% decrease in animals sold due to the MRP. The economic evaluation of the MRP shows a potential gain during the movement standstill period in the case of no capacity constraint faced by the farm and food self-sufficiency. This gain remains limited and close to zero in case of a low selling price and when animals are held until they no longer fit the BWC market so that they cannot be sold as an intermediate product. Capacity constraints represent a tremendous challenge to farmers facing movement restrictions and the fattening profit becomes negative under such conditions. The timing and length of the movement standstill period significantly affect the profitability of the strategy employed by the farmer: for a 5.5 month-long standstill period with 3.5 months of cold weather, farmers with capacity constraints have stronger incentives to leave their animals outside during the whole period and face higher mortality and morbidity rates than paying for a boarding facility for the cold months. This is not necessarily true for a shorter standstill period. Strategies are also sensitive to the feed costs and to the food self-sufficiency of the farm. Altogether, the present work

  3. Temporal coupling due to illusory movements in bimanual actions: evidence from anosognosia for hemiplegia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pia, Lorenzo; Spinazzola, Lucia; Rabuffetti, Marco; Ferrarin, Maurizio; Garbarini, Francesca; Piedimonte, Alessandro; Driver, Jon; Berti, Anna

    2013-06-01

    In anosognosia for hemiplegia, patients may claim having performed willed actions with the paralyzed limb despite unambiguous evidence to the contrary. Does this false belief of having moved reflect the functioning of the same mechanisms that govern normal motor performance? Here, we examined whether anosognosics show the same temporal constraints known to exist during bimanual movements in healthy subjects. In these paradigms, when participants simultaneously reach for two targets of different difficulties, the motor programs of one hand affect the execution of the other. In detail, the movement time of the hand going to an easy target (i.e., near and large), while the other is going to a difficult target (i.e., far and small), is slowed with respect to unimanual movements (temporal coupling effect). One right-brain-damaged patient with left hemiplegia and anosognosia, six right-brain-damaged patients with left hemiplegia without anosognosia, and twenty healthy subjects were administered such a bimanual task. We recorded the movement times for easy and difficult targets, both in unimanual (one target) and bimanual (two targets) conditions. We found that, as healthy subjects, the anosognosic patient showed coupling effect. In bimanual asymmetric conditions (when one hand went to the easy target and the other went to the difficult target), the movement time of the non-paralyzed hand going to the easy target was slowed by the 'pretended' movement of the paralyzed hand going to the difficult target. This effect was not present in patients without anosognosia. We concluded that in anosognosic patients, the illusory movements of the paralyzed hand impose to the non-paralyzed hand the same motor constraints that emerge during the actual movements. Our data also support the view that coupling relies on central operations (i.e., activation of intention/programming system), rather than on online information from the periphery. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights

  4. Resolving Interference between Body Movements: Retrieval-Induced Forgetting of Motor Sequences

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tempel, Tobias; Frings, Christian

    2013-01-01

    When body movements are stored in memory in an organized manner, linked to a common retrieval cue like the effector with which to execute the movement, interference may arise as soon as one initiates the execution of a specific body movement in the presence of the retrieval cue because related motor programs also are activated. We investigated the…

  5. Inhibition of polar calcium movement and gravitropism in roots treated with auxin-transport inhibitors

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, J. S.; Mulkey, T. J.; Evans, M. L.

    1984-01-01

    Primary roots of maize (Zea mays L.) and pea (Pisum sativum L.) exhibit strong positive gravitropism. In both species, gravistimulation induces polar movement of calcium across the root tip from the upper side to the lower side. Roots of onion (Allium cepa L.) are not responsive to gravity and gravistimulation induces little or no polar movement of calcium across the root tip. Treatment of maize or pea roots with inhibitors of auxin transport (morphactin, naphthylphthalamic acid, 2,3,5-triiodobenzoic acid) prevents both gravitropism and gravity-induced polar movement of calcium across the root tip. The results indicate that calcium movement and auxin movement are closely linked in roots and that gravity-induced redistribution of calcium across the root cap may play an important role in the development of gravitropic curvature.

  6. The role of periodontal ASIC3 in orofacial pain induced by experimental tooth movement in rats.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gao, Meiya; Long, Hu; Ma, Wenqiang; Liao, Lina; Yang, Xin; Zhou, Yang; Shan, Di; Huang, Renhuan; Jian, Fan; Wang, Yan; Lai, Wenli

    2016-12-01

    This study aimed to clarify the roles of Acid-sensing ion channel 3 (ASIC3) in orofacial pain following experimental tooth movement. Sixty male Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into the experimental group (40g, n = 30) and the sham group (0g, n = 30). Closed coil springs were ligated between maxillary incisor and molars to achieve experimental tooth movement. Rat grimace scale (RGS) scores were assessed at 0, 1, 3, 5, 7, and 14 days after the placement of the springs. ASIC3 immunostaining was performed and the expression levels of ASIC3 were measured through integrated optical density/area in Image-Pro Plus 6.0. Moreover, 18 rats were divided into APETx2 group (n = 6), amiloride group (n = 6), and vehicle group (n = 6), and RGS scores were obtained compared among them to verify the roles of ASIC3 in orofacial pain following tooth movement. ASIC3 expression levels became significantly higher in the experimental group than in sham group on 1, 3, and 5 days and became similar on 7 and 14 days. Pain levels (RGS scores) increased in both groups and were significantly higher in the experimental group on 1, 3, 5, and 7 days and were similar on 14 days. Periodontal ASIC3 expression levels were correlated with orofacial pain levels following experimental tooth movement. Periodontal administrations of ASIC3 antagonists (APETx2 and amiloride) could alleviate pain. This study needs to be better evidenced by RNA interference of ASIC3 in periodontal tissues in rats following experimental tooth movement. Moreover, we hope further studies would concentrate on the pain perception of ASIC3 knockout (ASIC3 -/- ) mice. Our results suggest that periodontal ASIC3 plays an important role in orofacial pain induced by experimental tooth movement. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Orthodontic Society. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  7. Protein-induced geometric constraints and charge transfer in bacteriochlorophyll-histidine complexes in LH2.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wawrzyniak, Piotr K; Alia, A; Schaap, Roland G; Heemskerk, Mattijs M; de Groot, Huub J M; Buda, Francesco

    2008-12-14

    Bacteriochlorophyll-histidine complexes are ubiquitous in nature and are essential structural motifs supporting the conversion of solar energy into chemically useful compounds in a wide range of photosynthesis processes. A systematic density functional theory study of the NMR chemical shifts for histidine and for bacteriochlorophyll-a-histidine complexes in the light-harvesting complex II (LH2) is performed using the BLYP functional in combination with the 6-311++G(d,p) basis set. The computed chemical shift patterns are consistent with available experimental data for positive and neutral(tau) (N(tau) protonated) crystalline histidines. The results for the bacteriochlorophyll-a-histidine complexes in LH2 provide evidence that the protein environment is stabilizing the histidine close to the Mg ion, thereby inducing a large charge transfer of approximately 0.5 electronic equivalent. Due to this protein-induced geometric constraint, the Mg-coordinated histidine in LH2 appears to be in a frustrated state very different from the formal neutral(pi) (N(pi) protonated) form. This finding could be important for the understanding of basic functional mechanisms involved in tuning the electronic properties and exciton coupling in LH2.

  8. A Generalized Radiation Model for Human Mobility: Spatial Scale, Searching Direction and Trip Constraint.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chaogui Kang

    Full Text Available We generalized the recently introduced "radiation model", as an analog to the generalization of the classic "gravity model", to consolidate its nature of universality for modeling diverse mobility systems. By imposing the appropriate scaling exponent λ, normalization factor κ and system constraints including searching direction and trip OD constraint, the generalized radiation model accurately captures real human movements in various scenarios and spatial scales, including two different countries and four different cities. Our analytical results also indicated that the generalized radiation model outperformed alternative mobility models in various empirical analyses.

  9. Judesių ribojimo ir veidrodinio аtspindžio terаpijų poveikis vаikų, turinčių cerebrinį pаrаlyžių, rаnkos funkcijаi ir аpsitаrnаvimui.

    OpenAIRE

    Stasiulienė, Ksenija

    2017-01-01

    The aim of the research: Identification of constraint-induced movement therapy and mirror therapy effects for children with cerebral palsy (spastic hemiplegic) to hand function and self-care. The tasks of the research: 1. To evaluate constraint-induced movement therapy effects for children with cerebral palsy (spastic hemiplegic) to hand function and self-care. 2. To evaluate mirror therаpy effects on children with cerebral palsy (spastic hemiplegic) for hand function and self-care. 3. Ide...

  10. Constraints on CP violating four-fermion interactions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    He, X.G.; McKellar, B.

    1996-04-01

    It has been shown that CP violating electron-nucleon and nucleon-nucleon interactions can induce atomic electric dipole moments and are therefore constrained from experimental data. We show that using the experimental upper bounds on neutron and electron electric dipole moments, one can also obtain constraints, in some cases better ones, on these interactions. In addition stringent constraints can also be obtained for muon-quark and tauon-quark four-fermion CP violating interactions, which cannot be constrained from atomic electric dipole moment experiments. 12 refs., 2 tabs., 1 fig

  11. Open-Ended Measurement of Whole-Body Movement: A Feasibility Study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Finn, Michael T. M.

    2018-02-01

    Full Text Available As the importance of embodiment emerges for psychology, there is a need to advance methodology for measuring the dynamics of movement in an open-ended fashion. Such a tool should be versatile across contexts and track spontaneous and natural movement with minimal constraints. We test the feasibility of a method for measuring whole-body movement over time that attempts to meet this need. We use a motion capture system comprised of two Microsoft Kinect version 2.0 cameras and iPiSoft Motion Capture software, and compare its estimates of magnitude rotational velocity and whole-body movement complexity (multivariate multiscale sample entropy; MMSE to that of a gold standard motion capture system across a variety of movement sequences. The candidate system satisfactorily estimated the instantaneous velocity of 13 body segments in agreement with the gold standard system across movement sequences demonstrating initial feasibility of this process. Summary calculations of velocity by sequence and MMSE calculations were also in high agreement with the gold standard, crucially suggesting that the candidate system could pick up on the complex dynamics of movement over time. The candidate system was feasible and demonstrates preliminary validity for general use in the tracking of continuous human movement for clinical and experimental psychology. We also provide R code and sample data for the importing and processing of movement data exported from iPiSoft Motion Capture Studio.

  12. The effect of an acute bout of rubber tube running constraint on kinematics and muscle activity.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Haudum, Anita; Birklbauer, Jürgen; Müller, Erich

    2012-01-01

    We examined the effect of an acute bout of treadmill running with rubber tube (RT) and without rubber tube (NT) elastic constraints on electromyographic (EMG), 3D kinematics variability, and blood lactate concentration (LA). In the RT test, the constraints were attached to the hips and ankles. The selected variables were compared between 30 min of NT running and 30 minutes of RT running in 13 healthy recreationally trained male runners who had no prior exposure to RT. Statistical analysis revealed significantly higher EMG variability (p running influences muscle recruitment and variability, but has only a minor influence on kinematics. Changes in LA were significant, although relatively small. The observed adaptations in EMG and kinematics suggest that the RTs provide a possibility to create within movement variability in various sports, and thus, variable training conditions may foster strategies to increase the ability to flexibly adapt to different and new situations. Key pointsAdaptation to training device occurred quite rapidly.Changes in muscle activity were more pronounced than kinematic changes due to the training device.Training device may be used to increase within-movement variability.Participants may learn to flexibly adapt to variable constraints.

  13. Vection is the main contributor to motion sickness induced by visual yaw rotation: Implications for conflict and eye movement theories.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Suzanne A E Nooij

    Full Text Available This study investigated the role of vection (i.e., a visually induced sense of self-motion, optokinetic nystagmus (OKN, and inadvertent head movements in visually induced motion sickness (VIMS, evoked by yaw rotation of the visual surround. These three elements have all been proposed as contributing factors in VIMS, as they can be linked to different motion sickness theories. However, a full understanding of the role of each factor is still lacking because independent manipulation has proven difficult in the past. We adopted an integrative approach to the problem by obtaining measures of potentially relevant parameters in four experimental conditions and subsequently combining them in a linear mixed regression model. To that end, participants were exposed to visual yaw rotation in four separate sessions. Using a full factorial design, the OKN was manipulated by a fixation target (present/absent, and vection strength by introducing a conflict in the motion direction of the central and peripheral field of view (present/absent. In all conditions, head movements were minimized as much as possible. Measured parameters included vection strength, vection variability, OKN slow phase velocity, OKN frequency, the number of inadvertent head movements, and inadvertent head tilt. Results show that VIMS increases with vection strength, but that this relation varies among participants (R2 = 0.48. Regression parameters for vection variability, head and eye movement parameters were not significant. These results may seem to be in line with the Sensory Conflict theory on motion sickness, but we argue that a more detailed definition of the exact nature of the conflict is required to fully appreciate the relationship between vection and VIMS.

  14. Entropy of space-time outcome in a movement speed-accuracy task.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hsieh, Tsung-Yu; Pacheco, Matheus Maia; Newell, Karl M

    2015-12-01

    The experiment reported was set-up to investigate the space-time entropy of movement outcome as a function of a range of spatial (10, 20 and 30 cm) and temporal (250-2500 ms) criteria in a discrete aiming task. The variability and information entropy of the movement spatial and temporal errors considered separately increased and decreased on the respective dimension as a function of an increment of movement velocity. However, the joint space-time entropy was lowest when the relative contribution of spatial and temporal task criteria was comparable (i.e., mid-range of space-time constraints), and it increased with a greater trade-off between spatial or temporal task demands, revealing a U-shaped function across space-time task criteria. The traditional speed-accuracy functions of spatial error and temporal error considered independently mapped to this joint space-time U-shaped entropy function. The trade-off in movement tasks with joint space-time criteria is between spatial error and timing error, rather than movement speed and accuracy. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  15. Subthalamic nucleus detects unnatural android movement.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ikeda, Takashi; Hirata, Masayuki; Kasaki, Masashi; Alimardani, Maryam; Matsushita, Kojiro; Yamamoto, Tomoyuki; Nishio, Shuichi; Ishiguro, Hiroshi

    2017-12-19

    An android, i.e., a realistic humanoid robot with human-like capabilities, may induce an uncanny feeling in human observers. The uncanny feeling about an android has two main causes: its appearance and movement. The uncanny feeling about an android increases when its appearance is almost human-like but its movement is not fully natural or comparable to human movement. Even if an android has human-like flexible joints, its slightly jerky movements cause a human observer to detect subtle unnaturalness in them. However, the neural mechanism underlying the detection of unnatural movements remains unclear. We conducted an fMRI experiment to compare the observation of an android and the observation of a human on which the android is modelled, and we found differences in the activation pattern of the brain regions that are responsible for the production of smooth and natural movement. More specifically, we found that the visual observation of the android, compared with that of the human model, caused greater activation in the subthalamic nucleus (STN). When the android's slightly jerky movements are visually observed, the STN detects their subtle unnaturalness. This finding suggests that the detection of unnatural movements is attributed to an error signal resulting from a mismatch between a visual input and an internal model for smooth movement.

  16. Yamove! A Movement Synchrony Game That Choreographs Social Interaction

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Katherine Isbister

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper presents a design case study of Yamove!, a well-received dance battle game. The primary aim for the project was to design a mobile-based play experience that enhanced in-person social interaction and connection. The game emphasized the pleasures of mutual, improvised amateur movement choreography at the center of the experience, achieved through a core mechanic of synchronized movement. The project team engaged techniques from the independent ("indie" game development community that proved valuable in tempering the constraints to which technologically driven design can sometimes fall prey. Contributions of this work include (a presentation and discussion of a polished digital game that embodies design knowledge about engaging players in mutual physical improvisation that is socially supported by technology, and (b a case study of a design process influenced by indie game development that may help others interested in creating technologies that choreograph pleasurable intentional human movement in social contexts.

  17. Distributed fusion estimation for sensor networks with communication constraints

    CERN Document Server

    Zhang, Wen-An; Song, Haiyu; Yu, Li

    2016-01-01

    This book systematically presents energy-efficient robust fusion estimation methods to achieve thorough and comprehensive results in the context of network-based fusion estimation. It summarizes recent findings on fusion estimation with communication constraints; several novel energy-efficient and robust design methods for dealing with energy constraints and network-induced uncertainties are presented, such as delays, packet losses, and asynchronous information... All the results are presented as algorithms, which are convenient for practical applications.

  18. Constraints and spandrels of interareal connectomes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rubinov, Mikail

    2016-12-01

    Interareal connectomes are whole-brain wiring diagrams of white-matter pathways. Recent studies have identified modules, hubs, module hierarchies and rich clubs as structural hallmarks of these wiring diagrams. An influential current theory postulates that connectome modules are adequately explained by evolutionary pressures for wiring economy, but that the other hallmarks are not explained by such pressures and are therefore less trivial. Here, we use constraint network models to test these postulates in current gold-standard vertebrate and invertebrate interareal-connectome reconstructions. We show that empirical wiring-cost constraints inadequately explain connectome module organization, and that simultaneous module and hub constraints induce the structural byproducts of hierarchies and rich clubs. These byproducts, known as spandrels in evolutionary biology, include the structural substrate of the default-mode network. Our results imply that currently standard connectome characterizations are based on circular analyses or double dipping, and we emphasize an integrative approach to future connectome analyses for avoiding such pitfalls.

  19. Changes of right-hemispheric activation after constraint-induced, intensive language action therapy in chronic aphasia: fMRI evidence from auditory semantic processing1

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mohr, Bettina; Difrancesco, Stephanie; Harrington, Karen; Evans, Samuel; Pulvermüller, Friedemann

    2014-01-01

    The role of the two hemispheres in the neurorehabilitation of language is still under dispute. This study explored the changes in language-evoked brain activation over a 2-week treatment interval with intensive constraint induced aphasia therapy (CIAT), which is also called intensive language action therapy (ILAT). Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to assess brain activation in perilesional left hemispheric and in homotopic right hemispheric areas during passive listening to high and low-ambiguity sentences and non-speech control stimuli in chronic non-fluent aphasia patients. All patients demonstrated significant clinical improvements of language functions after therapy. In an event-related fMRI experiment, a significant increase of BOLD signal was manifest in right inferior frontal and temporal areas. This activation increase was stronger for highly ambiguous sentences than for unambiguous ones. These results suggest that the known language improvements brought about by intensive constraint-induced language action therapy at least in part relies on circuits within the right-hemispheric homologs of left-perisylvian language areas, which are most strongly activated in the processing of semantically complex language. PMID:25452721

  20. Constraint Differentiation

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Mödersheim, Sebastian Alexander; Basin, David; Viganò, Luca

    2010-01-01

    We introduce constraint differentiation, a powerful technique for reducing search when model-checking security protocols using constraint-based methods. Constraint differentiation works by eliminating certain kinds of redundancies that arise in the search space when using constraints to represent...... results show that constraint differentiation substantially reduces search and considerably improves the performance of OFMC, enabling its application to a wider class of problems....

  1. Orthodontic tooth movement and root resorption in ovariectomized rats treated by systemic administration of zoledronic acid.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sirisoontorn, Irin; Hotokezaka, Hitoshi; Hashimoto, Megumi; Gonzales, Carmen; Luppanapornlarp, Suwannee; Darendeliler, M Ali; Yoshida, Noriaki

    2012-05-01

    The effect of zoledronic acid, a potent and novel bisphosphonate, on tooth movement and orthodontically induced root resorption in osteoporotic animals systemically treated with zoledronic acid as similarly used in postmenopausal patients has not been elucidated. Therefore, this study was undertaken. Fifteen 10-week-old female Wistar rats were divided into 3 groups: ovariectomy, ovariectomy + zoledronic acid, and control. Only the ovariectomy and ovariectomy + zoledronic acid groups underwent ovariectomies. Two weeks after the ovariectomy, zoledronic acid was administered only to the ovariectomy + zoledronic acid group. Four weeks after the ovariectomy, 25-g nickel-titanium closed-coil springs were applied to observe tooth movement and orthodontically induced root resorption. There were significant differences in the amounts of tooth movement and orthodontically induced root resorption between the ovariectomy and the control groups, and also between the ovariectomy and the ovariectomy + zoledronic acid groups. There was no statistically significant difference in tooth movement and orthodontically induced root resorption between the ovariectomy + zoledronic acid and the control groups. Zoledronic acid inhibited significantly more tooth movement and significantly reduced the severity of orthodontically induced root resorption in the ovariectomized rats. The ovariectomy + zoledronic acid group showed almost the same results as did the control group in both tooth movement and orthodontically induced root resorption. Zoledronic acid inhibits excessive orthodontic tooth movement and also reduces the risk of severe orthodontically induced root resorption in ovariectomized rats. Copyright © 2012 American Association of Orthodontists. Published by Mosby, Inc. All rights reserved.

  2. Constraint-based scheduling applying constraint programming to scheduling problems

    CERN Document Server

    Baptiste, Philippe; Nuijten, Wim

    2001-01-01

    Constraint Programming is a problem-solving paradigm that establishes a clear distinction between two pivotal aspects of a problem: (1) a precise definition of the constraints that define the problem to be solved and (2) the algorithms and heuristics enabling the selection of decisions to solve the problem. It is because of these capabilities that Constraint Programming is increasingly being employed as a problem-solving tool to solve scheduling problems. Hence the development of Constraint-Based Scheduling as a field of study. The aim of this book is to provide an overview of the most widely used Constraint-Based Scheduling techniques. Following the principles of Constraint Programming, the book consists of three distinct parts: The first chapter introduces the basic principles of Constraint Programming and provides a model of the constraints that are the most often encountered in scheduling problems. Chapters 2, 3, 4, and 5 are focused on the propagation of resource constraints, which usually are responsibl...

  3. Optimal Environmental Policy Differentials under Emissions Constraints

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Florax, R.J.G.M.; Mulatu, A.; Withagen, C.A.A.M.

    2007-01-01

    Is there a case for preferential treatment of the exposed sector in an economy when compliance to an aggregate emissions constraint induced by an international environmental agreement is mandatory? This question is being debated in many countries in the context of the implementation of the Kyoto

  4. Constraint-induced aphasia therapy versus intensive semantic treatment in fluent aphasia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wilssens, Ineke; Vandenborre, Dorien; van Dun, Kim; Verhoeven, Jo; Visch-Brink, Evy; Mariën, Peter

    2015-05-01

    The authors compared the effectiveness of 2 intensive therapy methods: Constraint-Induced Aphasia Therapy (CIAT; Pulvermüller et al., 2001) and semantic therapy (BOX; Visch-Brink & Bajema, 2001). Nine patients with chronic fluent aphasia participated in a therapy program to establish behavioral treatment outcomes. Participants were randomly assigned to one of two groups (CIAT or BOX). Intensive therapy significantly improved verbal communication. However, BOX treatment showed a more pronounced improvement on two communication-namely, a standardized assessment for verbal communication, the Amsterdam Nijmegen Everyday Language Test (Blomert, Koster, & Kean, 1995), and a subjective rating scale, the Communicative Effectiveness Index (Lomas et al., 1989). All participants significantly improved on one (or more) subtests of the Aachen Aphasia Test (Graetz, de Bleser, & Willmes, 1992), an impairment-focused assessment. There was a treatment-specific effect. BOX treatment had a significant effect on language comprehension and semantics, whereas CIAT treatment affected language production and phonology. The findings indicate that in patients with fluent aphasia, (a) intensive treatment has a significant effect on language and verbal communication, (b) intensive therapy results in selective treatment effects, and (c) an intensive semantic treatment shows a more striking mean improvement on verbal communication in comparison with communication-based CIAT treatment.

  5. The utility of bispectral index monitoring for prevention of rocuronium-induced withdrawal movement in children: A randomized controlled trial.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lim, Byung Gun; Lee, Il Ok; Kim, Young Sung; Won, Young Ju; Kim, Heezoo; Kong, Myoung Hoon

    2017-01-01

    This study was designed to determine whether a deep hypnotic state with a bispectral index (BIS) value less than 40 could alleviate withdrawal movement (WM) upon rocuronium injection during anesthesia induction in children. Finally, 135 healthy children (3-12 years) scheduled for minor elective surgery were studied. Without premedication, anesthesia was induced with thiopental sodium 5 mg/kg. Patients were randomized into 2 groups (control vs experimental) and then by virtue of rocuronium injection time, patients in the experimental group were allocated into 2 groups, as follows: in the control group (group C; n = 45), rocuronium 0.6 mg/kg was administered at the loss of eyelash reflex; in the 1st experimental group, rocuronium 0.6 mg/kg was administered when BIS fell to less than 40 (group T; n = 45); however, if BIS did not fall below 40 after thiopental sodium administration, manual ventilation was provided with oxygen 6 L/minute using sevoflurane 8% and then rocuronium was administered when BIS fell below 40 (the 2nd experimental group, group S; n = 45). Rocuronium-induced WM was evaluated using a 4-point scale (no movement; movement/withdrawal involving the arm only; generalized response, with movement/withdrawal of more than 1 extremity, but no requirement for restraint of the body; and generalized response which required restraint of the body and caused coughing or breath-holding). No significant differences were found among the groups for patient characteristics including age, sex, height, and location of venous cannula. However, body weight, height, and body mass index in group S were all smaller than those in group T. The incidence of WM caused by rocuronium was 100% in group C, 95.6% in group T, and 80% in group S, and was significantly lower in group S than in group C. The grade of WM was 3.7 ± 0.6 in group C, 3.2 ± 0.9 in group T, and 2.6 ± 1.0 in group S. It was significantly lower in group T than in group C and

  6. Impact of body position on central and peripheral hemodynamic contributions to movement-induced hyperemia: implications for rehabilitative medicine

    OpenAIRE

    Trinity, Joel D.; McDaniel, John; Venturelli, Massimo; Fjeldstad, Anette S.; Ives, Stephen J.; Witman, Melissa A. H.; Barrett-O'Keefe, Zachary; Amann, Markus; Wray, D. Walter; Richardson, Russell S.

    2011-01-01

    This study used alterations in body position to identify differences in hemodynamic responses to passive exercise. Central and peripheral hemodynamics were noninvasively measured during 2 min of passive knee extension in 14 subjects, whereas perfusion pressure (PP) was directly measured in a subset of 6 subjects. Movement-induced increases in leg blood flow (LBF) and leg vascular conductance (LVC) were more than twofold greater in the upright compared with supine positions (LBF, supine: 462 ±...

  7. Effects of Direction and Index of Difficulty on Aiming Movements after Stroke

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Paola Ribeiro Coqueiro

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Background. Brain hemispheres play different roles in the control of aiming movements that are impaired after unilateral stroke. It is not clear whether those roles are influenced by the direction and the difficulty of the task. Objective. To evaluate the influence of direction and index of difficulty (ID of the task on performance of ipsilesional aiming movements after unilateral stroke. Methods. Ten individuals with right hemisphere stroke, ten with left hemisphere stroke, and ten age- and gender-matched controls performed the aiming movements on a digitizing tablet as fast as possible. Stroke individuals used their ipsilesional arm. The direction (ipsilateral or contralateral, size (0.8 or 1.6 cm, and distance (9 or 18 cm of the targets, presented on a monitor, were manipulated and determined to be of different ID (3.5, 4.5, and 5.5. Results. Individuals with right hemisphere lesion were more sensitive to ID of the task, affecting planning and final position accuracy. Left hemisphere lesion generated slower and less smooth movements and was more influenced by target distance. Contralateral movements and higher ID increased planning demands and hindered movement execution. Conclusion. Right and left hemisphere damages are differentially influenced by task constraints which suggest their complementary roles in the control of aiming movements.

  8. Speed invariance of independent control of finger movements in pianists.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Furuya, Shinichi; Soechting, John F

    2012-10-01

    Independent control of finger movements characterizes skilled motor behaviors such as tool use and musical performance. The purpose of the present study was to identify the effect of movement frequency (tempo) on individuated finger movements in piano playing. Joint motion at the digits was recorded while 5 expert pianists were playing 30 excerpts from musical pieces with different fingering and key locations either at a predetermined normal tempo or as fast as possible. Principal component analysis and cluster analysis using an expectation-maximization algorithm determined three distinct patterns of finger movement coordination for a keypress with each of the index, middle, ring, and little fingers at each of the two tempi. The finger kinematics of each coordination pattern was overall similar across the tempi. Tone sequences assigned into each cluster were also similar for both tempi. A linear regression analysis determined no apparent difference in the amount of movement covariation between the striking and nonstriking fingers at both metacarpo-phalangeal and proximal-interphalangeal joints across the two tempi, which indicated no effect of tempo on independent finger movements in piano playing. In addition, the standard deviation of interkeystroke interval across strokes did not differ between the two tempi, indicating maintenance of rhythmic accuracy of keystrokes. Strong temporal constraints on finger movements during piano playing may underlie the maintained independent control of fingers over a wider range of tempi, a feature being likely to be specific to skilled pianists.

  9. Adaptation to climate-induced regional water constraints in the Spanish energy sector: An integrated assessment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Khan, Zarrar; Linares, Pedro; García-González, Javier

    2016-01-01

    The energy sector depends on water in all phases of its life-cycle, including raw material extraction, power plant cooling, irrigation of biofuel crops and directly in hydropower generation. In the coming decades, several regions of the world are expected to experience a decrease in water resource availability, in part due to climate change. The dependence of the energy sector on water resources calls for an active effort to adapt to the possible scenarios. This paper presents a novel model that addresses the direct impacts of regional and temporal water shortages on energy operation and investment decisions. The paper investigates the costs and benefits of adapting the energy sector to climate-induced water scarcity. The results show that the increase in costs for an energy plan that considers future water stress is relatively small as compared to one which ignores it. A plan which ignores water constraints, however, may lead to significant economic damages when actually exposed to water shortages. The results also highlight the value of the availability of water for the energy sector, which is significantly higher than existing prices. The paper concludes that the potential benefits to be gained by integrating energy and water models can be considerable. - Highlights: • Spatial and temporal water constraints are added to an energy planning model. • Integrated water-energy planning can lead to significant savings in future water-stressed scenarios. • Actual value of water for the energy sector may be much higher than existing prices.

  10. Coverage-based constraints for IMRT optimization

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mescher, H.; Ulrich, S.; Bangert, M.

    2017-09-01

    Radiation therapy treatment planning requires an incorporation of uncertainties in order to guarantee an adequate irradiation of the tumor volumes. In current clinical practice, uncertainties are accounted for implicitly with an expansion of the target volume according to generic margin recipes. Alternatively, it is possible to account for uncertainties by explicit minimization of objectives that describe worst-case treatment scenarios, the expectation value of the treatment or the coverage probability of the target volumes during treatment planning. In this note we show that approaches relying on objectives to induce a specific coverage of the clinical target volumes are inevitably sensitive to variation of the relative weighting of the objectives. To address this issue, we introduce coverage-based constraints for intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) treatment planning. Our implementation follows the concept of coverage-optimized planning that considers explicit error scenarios to calculate and optimize patient-specific probabilities q(\\hat{d}, \\hat{v}) of covering a specific target volume fraction \\hat{v} with a certain dose \\hat{d} . Using a constraint-based reformulation of coverage-based objectives we eliminate the trade-off between coverage and competing objectives during treatment planning. In-depth convergence tests including 324 treatment plan optimizations demonstrate the reliability of coverage-based constraints for varying levels of probability, dose and volume. General clinical applicability of coverage-based constraints is demonstrated for two cases. A sensitivity analysis regarding penalty variations within this planing study based on IMRT treatment planning using (1) coverage-based constraints, (2) coverage-based objectives, (3) probabilistic optimization, (4) robust optimization and (5) conventional margins illustrates the potential benefit of coverage-based constraints that do not require tedious adjustment of target volume objectives.

  11. Human movement analysis using stereophotogrammetry. Part 3. Soft tissue artifact assessment and compensation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Leardini, Alberto; Chiari, Lorenzo; Della Croce, Ugo; Cappozzo, Aurelio

    2005-02-01

    When using optoelectronic stereophotogrammetry, skin deformation and displacement causes marker movement with respect to the underlying bone. This movement represents an artifact, which affects the estimation of the skeletal system kinematics, and is regarded as the most critical source of error in human movement analysis. A comprehensive review of the state-of-the-art for assessment, minimization and compensation of the soft tissue artifact (STA) is provided. It has been shown that STA is greater than the instrumental error associated with stereophotogrammetry, has a frequency content similar to the actual bone movement, is task dependent and not reproducible among subjects and, of lower limb segments, is greatest at the thigh. It has been shown that in in vivo experiments only motion about the flexion/extension axis of the hip, knees and ankles can be determined reliably. Motion about other axes at those joints should be regarded with much more caution as this artifact produces spurious effects with magnitudes comparable to the amount of motion actually occurring in those joints. Techniques designed to minimize the contribution of and compensate for the effects of this artifact can be divided up into those which model the skin surface and those which include joint motion constraints. Despite the numerous solutions proposed, the objective of reliable estimation of 3D skeletal system kinematics using skin markers has not yet been satisfactorily achieved and greatly limits the contribution of human movement analysis to clinical practice and biomechanical research. For STA to be compensated for effectively, it is here suggested that either its subject-specific pattern is assessed by ad hoc exercises or it is characterized from a large series of measurements on different subject populations. Alternatively, inclusion of joint constraints into a more general STA minimization approach may provide an acceptable solution.

  12. Functional Improvement after Photothrombotic Stroke in Rats Is Associated with Different Patterns of Dendritic Plasticity after G-CSF Treatment and G-CSF Treatment Combined with Concomitant or Sequential Constraint-Induced Movement Therapy.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Katrin Frauenknecht

    Full Text Available We have previously shown that granulocyte-colony stimulating factor (G-CSF treatment alone, or in combination with constraint movement therapy (CIMT either sequentially or concomitantly, results in significantly improved sensorimotor recovery after photothrombotic stroke in rats in comparison to untreated control animals. CIMT alone did not result in any significant differences compared to the control group (Diederich et al., Stroke, 2012;43:185-192. Using a subset of rat brains from this former experiment the present study was designed to evaluate whether dendritic plasticity would parallel improved functional outcomes. Five treatment groups were analyzed (n = 6 each (i ischemic control (saline; (ii CIMT (CIMT between post-stroke days 2 and 11; (iii G-CSF (10 μg/kg G-CSF daily between post-stroke days 2 and 11; (iv combined concurrent group (CIMT plus G-CSF and (v combined sequential group (CIMT between post-stroke days 2 and 11; 10 μg/kg G-CSF daily between post-stroke days 12 and 21, respectively. After impregnation of rat brains with a modified Golgi-Cox protocol layer V pyramidal neurons in the peri-infarct cortex as well as the corresponding contralateral cortex were analyzed. Surprisingly, animals with a similar degree of behavioral recovery exhibited quite different patterns of dendritic plasticity in both peri-lesional and contralesional areas. The cause for these patterns is not easily to explain but puts the simple assumption that increased dendritic complexity after stroke necessarily results in increased functional outcome into perspective.

  13. Origins of balance disorders during a daily living movement in obese: can biomechanical factors explain everything?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jean-Baptiste Mignardot

    Full Text Available Obese people suffer from postural deficits and are more subject to falls than their lean counterpart. To improve prevention and post-fall rehabilitation programs, it seems important to better understand the posturo-kinetic disorders in daily life situations by determining the contribution of some key factors, mainly morphological characteristics and physical activity level, in the apparition of these disorders. Twelve severe android obese and eight healthy non obese adults performed a reaching task mobilizing the whole body. To further determine the origin of the postural and motor behavior differences, non obese individuals also performed an experimental session with additional constraints which simulated some of the obese morphological characteristics. Impact of the sedentary lifestyle was also studied by dissociation of the obese in two subgroups: physically « active » and physically « inactive ». Movement kinetics and kinematics were characterized with an optoelectronic system synchronized to a force platform. The mechanical equilibrium pattern was evaluated through the displacements of the Centre of Mass (CoM and the centre of foot pressure within the Base of Support (BoS. Results showed that obesity decreased movement speed (≈-23%, p<0.01, strongly increased CoM displacement (≈+30%, p<0.05 and induced an important spatio-temporal desynchronization (≈+40%, p<0.05 of the focal and postural components of the movement during the transition between the descending and ascending movements. The role of some morphological characteristics and of physical activity on obese patients' postural control disorder is discussed and set back in the more general context of overall factors contributing to postural deficits with obesity.

  14. Origins of balance disorders during a daily living movement in obese: can biomechanical factors explain everything?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mignardot, Jean-Baptiste; Olivier, Isabelle; Promayon, Emmanuel; Nougier, Vincent

    2013-01-01

    Obese people suffer from postural deficits and are more subject to falls than their lean counterpart. To improve prevention and post-fall rehabilitation programs, it seems important to better understand the posturo-kinetic disorders in daily life situations by determining the contribution of some key factors, mainly morphological characteristics and physical activity level, in the apparition of these disorders. Twelve severe android obese and eight healthy non obese adults performed a reaching task mobilizing the whole body. To further determine the origin of the postural and motor behavior differences, non obese individuals also performed an experimental session with additional constraints which simulated some of the obese morphological characteristics. Impact of the sedentary lifestyle was also studied by dissociation of the obese in two subgroups: physically « active » and physically « inactive ». Movement kinetics and kinematics were characterized with an optoelectronic system synchronized to a force platform. The mechanical equilibrium pattern was evaluated through the displacements of the Centre of Mass (CoM) and the centre of foot pressure within the Base of Support (BoS). Results showed that obesity decreased movement speed (≈-23%, p<0.01), strongly increased CoM displacement (≈+30%, p<0.05) and induced an important spatio-temporal desynchronization (≈+40%, p<0.05) of the focal and postural components of the movement during the transition between the descending and ascending movements. The role of some morphological characteristics and of physical activity on obese patients' postural control disorder is discussed and set back in the more general context of overall factors contributing to postural deficits with obesity.

  15. New Rehabilitation Approaches for Upper Limb Function of Children With Hemiplegia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Seyed Mohammad Sadegh Hosseini

    2017-10-01

    Conclusion Based on the positive results of all these studies, constraint-induced therapy, forced use and hand-arm bimanual intensive therapy seemed to show effectiveness as interventions to improve involved hand and arm function in children with hemiplegia. Nevertheless, we needed to conduct researches with level 1 of evidence for each of the above treatment methods, particularly hand-arm bimanual intensive therapy for use in medical centers. Forced use was started with animal studies and then was continued on human studies of stroke patients and eventually expanded to children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy. Further research based on principles of motor learning and neuroplasticity promoted the use of forced use and developed constraint-induced movement therapy. Finally, the hand-arm bimanual intensive therapy was developed to remove constraints and difficulties of intervention in constraint induced movement therapy. Each of these interventions may be useful for hemiplegia. Comparative studies between these interventions are suggested to study their effects on the target behaviors.

  16. The speed-curvature power law of movements: a reappraisal.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zago, Myrka; Matic, Adam; Flash, Tamar; Gomez-Marin, Alex; Lacquaniti, Francesco

    2018-01-01

    Several types of curvilinear movements obey approximately the so called 2/3 power law, according to which the angular speed varies proportionally to the 2/3 power of the curvature. The origin of the law is debated but it is generally thought to depend on physiological mechanisms. However, a recent paper (Marken and Shaffer, Exp Brain Res 88:685-690, 2017) claims that this power law is simply a statistical artifact, being a mathematical consequence of the way speed and curvature are calculated. Here we reject this hypothesis by showing that the speed-curvature power law of biological movements is non-trivial. First, we confirm that the power exponent varies with the shape of human drawing movements and with environmental factors. Second, we report experimental data from Drosophila larvae demonstrating that the power law does not depend on how curvature is calculated. Third, we prove that the law can be violated by means of several mathematical and physical examples. Finally, we discuss biological constraints that may underlie speed-curvature power laws discovered in empirical studies.

  17. Assessing opportunities and constraints for biofuel development in sub-Saharan Africa

    CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

    Von Maltitz, Graham P

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available , the development of sustainability principles, criteria and indicators for biofuel development, and constraints to imports in the EU, have been some key responses to reduce unsustainable practices (Harrison et al. 2010a, Vis et al. 2008). �ough the adoption... FSC Forest Stewardship Council GAIA Movement Trust Living Earth Green World Action GAP Good Agricultural Practices GHG Greenhouse gas GIZ Gesellscha� f?r Internationale Zusammenarbeit Ha Hectare HCV High Conservation Value HDI Human Development...

  18. Movement disorders induced in monkeys by chronic haloperidol treatment

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Weiss, B; Santelli, S; Lusink, G

    1977-01-01

    After several months of treatment, Cebus apella, Cebus albifrons, and Saimiri sciurea monkeys maintained on haloperidol, in doses of 0.5 or 1.0 mg/kg orally 5 days per week, began to display severe movement disorders, typically 1 to 6 h post-drug. Cebus monkeys exhibited violent, uncontrolled movements that flung the animals about the cage. Such episodes usually lasted only a few minutes, recurring several times during the period following drug ingestion. Writhing and bizarre postures dominated the response in S. sciurea. Cessation of drug treatment produced no distinctive after-effects. When tested as long as 508 days after the last administration, however, Cebus monkeys responded to haloperidol with several episodes of hyperkinesis, even at challenge doses considerably lower than those in the original treatment.

  19. Multi-hierarchical movements in self-avoiding walks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sakiyama, Tomoko; Gunji, Yukio-Pegio

    2017-07-01

    A self-avoiding walk (SAW) is a series of moves on a lattice that visit the same place only once. Several studies reported that repellent reactions of foragers to previously visited sites induced power-law tailed SAWs in animals. In this paper, we show that modelling the agent's multi-avoidance reactions to its trails enables it to show ballistic movements which result in heavy-tailed movements. There is no literature showing emergent ballistic movements in SAWs. While following SAWs, the agent in my model changed its reactions to marked patches (visited sites) by considering global trail patterns based on local trail patterns when the agent was surrounded by previously visited sites. As a result, we succeeded in producing ballistic walks by the agents which exhibited emergent power-law tailed movements.

  20. The effect of deep excavation-induced lateral soil movements on the behavior of strip footing supported on reinforced sand

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mostafa El Sawwaf

    2012-10-01

    Full Text Available This paper presents the results of laboratory model tests on the influence of deep excavation-induced lateral soil movements on the behavior of a model strip footing adjacent to the excavation and supported on reinforced granular soil. Initially, the response of the strip footings supported on un-reinforced sand and subjected to vertical loads (which were constant during the test due to adjacent deep excavation-induced lateral soil movement were obtained. Then, the effects of the inclusion of geosynthetic reinforcement in supporting soil on the model footing behavior under the same conditions were investigated. The studied factors include the value of the sustained footing loads, the location of footing relative to the excavation, the affected depth of soil due to deep excavation, and the relative density of sand. Test results indicate that the inclusion of soil reinforcement in the supporting sand significantly decreases both vertical settlements and the tilts of the footings due to the nearby excavation. However, the improvements in the footing behavior were found to be very dependent on the location of the footing relative to excavation. Based on the test results, the variation of the footing measured vertical settlements with different parameters are presented and discussed.

  1. Dance movement therapy in the concept of expressive arts-therapy

    OpenAIRE

    Martinec, Renata

    2013-01-01

    Dance Movement Therapy is a complementary method which includes using and analyzing of different aspects of body-experience and body-expression such us movement, mimics, pantomime, touch… In Dance Movement Therapy body is dominant media of therapeutic process. So this kind of therapy may have positive influence on physiological awareness, body expression of emotions, inducing unconscious impulses, and improving new strategies of behaviour through exploring new patterns and qualities of mov...

  2. Eye movements during listening reveal spontaneous grammatical processing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Huette, Stephanie; Winter, Bodo; Matlock, Teenie; Ardell, David H; Spivey, Michael

    2014-01-01

    Recent research using eye-tracking typically relies on constrained visual contexts in particular goal-oriented contexts, viewing a small array of objects on a computer screen and performing some overt decision or identification. Eyetracking paradigms that use pictures as a measure of word or sentence comprehension are sometimes touted as ecologically invalid because pictures and explicit tasks are not always present during language comprehension. This study compared the comprehension of sentences with two different grammatical forms: the past progressive (e.g., was walking), which emphasizes the ongoing nature of actions, and the simple past (e.g., walked), which emphasizes the end-state of an action. The results showed that the distribution and timing of eye movements mirrors the underlying conceptual structure of this linguistic difference in the absence of any visual stimuli or task constraint: Fixations were shorter and saccades were more dispersed across the screen, as if thinking about more dynamic events when listening to the past progressive stories. Thus, eye movement data suggest that visual inputs or an explicit task are unnecessary to solicit analog representations of features such as movement, that could be a key perceptual component to grammatical comprehension.

  3. Eye movements during listening reveal spontaneous grammatical processing

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Stephanie eHuette

    2014-05-01

    Full Text Available Recent research using eye-tracking typically relies on constrained visual contexts in particular goal-oriented contexts, viewing a small array of objects on a computer screen and performing some overt decision or identification. Eyetracking paradigms that use pictures as a measure of word or sentence comprehension are sometimes touted as ecologically invalid because pictures and explicit tasks are not always present during language comprehension. This study compared the comprehension of sentences with two different grammatical forms: the past progressive (e.g., was walking, which emphasizes the ongoing nature of actions, and the simple past (e.g., walked, which emphasizes the end-state of an action. The results showed that the distribution and timing of eye movements mirrors the underlying conceptual structure of this linguistic difference in the absence of any visual stimuli or task constraint: Fixations were shorter and saccades were more dispersed across the screen, as if thinking about more dynamic events when listening to the past progressive stories. Thus, eye movement data suggest that visual inputs or an explicit task are unnecessary to solicit analogue representations of features such as movement, that could be a key perceptual component to grammatical comprehension.

  4. Convergence of marine megafauna movement patterns in coastal and open oceans

    KAUST Repository

    Sequeira, A. M. M.; Rodrí guez, J. P.; Eguí luz, V. M.; Harcourt, R.; Hindell, M.; Sims, D. W.; Duarte, C. M.; Costa, D. P.; Ferná ndez-Gracia, J.; Ferreira, L. C.; Hays, G. C.; Heupel, M. R.; Meekan, M. G.; Aven, A.; Bailleul, F.; Baylis, A. M. M.; Berumen, Michael L.; Braun, C. D.; Burns, J.; Caley, M. J.; Campbell, R.; Carmichael, R. H.; Clua, E.; Einoder, L. D.; Friedlaender, Ari; Goebel, M. E.; Goldsworthy, S. D.; Guinet, C.; Gunn, J.; Hamer, D.; Hammerschlag, N.; Hammill, M.; Hü ckstä dt, L. A.; Humphries, N. E.; Lea, M.-A.; Lowther, A.; Mackay, A.; McHuron, E.; McKenzie, J.; McLeay, L.; McMahon, C. R.; Mengersen, K.; Muelbert, M. M. C.; Pagano, A. M.; Page, B.; Queiroz, N.; Robinson, P. W.; Shaffer, S. A.; Shivji, M.; Skomal, G. B.; Thorrold, S. R.; Villegas-Amtmann, S.; Weise, M.; Wells, R.; Wetherbee, B.; Wiebkin, A.; Wienecke, B.; Thums, M.

    2018-01-01

    The extent of increasing anthropogenic impacts on large marine vertebrates partly depends on the animals' movement patterns. Effective conservation requires identification of the key drivers of movement including intrinsic properties and extrinsic constraints associated with the dynamic nature of the environments the animals inhabit. However, the relative importance of intrinsic versus extrinsic factors remains elusive. We analyze a global dataset of ∼2.8 million locations from >2,600 tracked individuals across 50 marine vertebrates evolutionarily separated by millions of years and using different locomotion modes (fly, swim, walk/paddle). Strikingly, movement patterns show a remarkable convergence, being strongly conserved across species and independent of body length and mass, despite these traits ranging over 10 orders of magnitude among the species studied. This represents a fundamental difference between marine and terrestrial vertebrates not previously identified, likely linked to the reduced costs of locomotion in water. Movement patterns were primarily explained by the interaction between species-specific traits and the habitat(s) they move through, resulting in complex movement patterns when moving close to coasts compared with more predictable patterns when moving in open oceans. This distinct difference may be associated with greater complexity within coastal microhabitats, highlighting a critical role of preferred habitat in shaping marine vertebrate global movements. Efforts to develop understanding of the characteristics of vertebrate movement should consider the habitat(s) through which they move to identify how movement patterns will alter with forecasted severe ocean changes, such as reduced Arctic sea ice cover, sea level rise, and declining oxygen content.

  5. Convergence of marine megafauna movement patterns in coastal and open oceans

    KAUST Repository

    Sequeira, A. M. M.

    2018-02-26

    The extent of increasing anthropogenic impacts on large marine vertebrates partly depends on the animals\\' movement patterns. Effective conservation requires identification of the key drivers of movement including intrinsic properties and extrinsic constraints associated with the dynamic nature of the environments the animals inhabit. However, the relative importance of intrinsic versus extrinsic factors remains elusive. We analyze a global dataset of ∼2.8 million locations from >2,600 tracked individuals across 50 marine vertebrates evolutionarily separated by millions of years and using different locomotion modes (fly, swim, walk/paddle). Strikingly, movement patterns show a remarkable convergence, being strongly conserved across species and independent of body length and mass, despite these traits ranging over 10 orders of magnitude among the species studied. This represents a fundamental difference between marine and terrestrial vertebrates not previously identified, likely linked to the reduced costs of locomotion in water. Movement patterns were primarily explained by the interaction between species-specific traits and the habitat(s) they move through, resulting in complex movement patterns when moving close to coasts compared with more predictable patterns when moving in open oceans. This distinct difference may be associated with greater complexity within coastal microhabitats, highlighting a critical role of preferred habitat in shaping marine vertebrate global movements. Efforts to develop understanding of the characteristics of vertebrate movement should consider the habitat(s) through which they move to identify how movement patterns will alter with forecasted severe ocean changes, such as reduced Arctic sea ice cover, sea level rise, and declining oxygen content.

  6. Modifier constraint in alkali borophosphate glasses using topological constraint theory

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Li, Xiang [Key Laboratory for Ultrafine Materials of Ministry of Education, School of Materials Science and Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai 200237 (China); Zeng, Huidan, E-mail: hdzeng@ecust.edu.cn [Key Laboratory for Ultrafine Materials of Ministry of Education, School of Materials Science and Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai 200237 (China); Jiang, Qi [Key Laboratory for Ultrafine Materials of Ministry of Education, School of Materials Science and Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai 200237 (China); Zhao, Donghui [Unifrax Corporation, Niagara Falls, NY 14305 (United States); Chen, Guorong [Key Laboratory for Ultrafine Materials of Ministry of Education, School of Materials Science and Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai 200237 (China); Wang, Zhaofeng; Sun, Luyi [Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering and Polymer Program, Institute of Materials Science, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269 (United States); Chen, Jianding [Key Laboratory for Ultrafine Materials of Ministry of Education, School of Materials Science and Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai 200237 (China)

    2016-12-01

    In recent years, composition-dependent properties of glasses have been successfully predicted using the topological constraint theory. The constraints of the glass network are derived from two main parts: network formers and network modifiers. The constraints of the network formers can be calculated on the basis of the topological structure of the glass. However, the latter cannot be accurately calculated in this way, because of the existing of ionic bonds. In this paper, the constraints of the modifier ions in phosphate glasses were thoroughly investigated using the topological constraint theory. The results show that the constraints of the modifier ions are gradually increased with the addition of alkali oxides. Furthermore, an improved topological constraint theory for borophosphate glasses is proposed by taking the composition-dependent constraints of the network modifiers into consideration. The proposed theory is subsequently evaluated by analyzing the composition dependence of the glass transition temperature in alkali borophosphate glasses. This method is supposed to be extended to other similar glass systems containing alkali ions.

  7. New method for minimizing regular functions with constraints on parameter region

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kurbatov, V.S.; Silin, I.N.

    1993-01-01

    The new method of function minimization is developed. Its main features are considered. It is possible minimization of regular function with the arbitrary structure. For χ 2 -like function the usage of simplified second derivatives is possible with the control of correctness. The constraints of arbitrary structure can be used. The means for fast movement along multidimensional valleys are used. The method is tested on real data of K π2 decay of the experiment on rare K - -decays. 6 refs

  8. Effects of knee extension constraint training on knee flexion angle and peak impact ground-reaction force.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Hui; Wu, Will; Yao, Wanxiang; Spang, Jeffrey T; Creighton, R Alexander; Garrett, William E; Yu, Bing

    2014-04-01

    significantly altered lower extremity movement patterns and transferred these changes in lower extremity movement patterns to stop-jump and side-cutting tasks in which ACL injuries frequently occur. Training effects were retained 4 weeks after the training was completed but were diminished in magnitude. A knee extension constraint device may be a useful training tool in future ACL injury prevention programs to alter movement patterns without extra training time.

  9. Collective movement in ecology: from emerging technologies to conservation and management.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Westley, Peter A H; Berdahl, Andrew M; Torney, Colin J; Biro, Dora

    2018-05-19

    Recent advances in technology and quantitative methods have led to the emergence of a new field of study that stands to link insights of researchers from two closely related, but often disconnected disciplines: movement ecology and collective animal behaviour. To date, the field of movement ecology has focused on elucidating the internal and external drivers of animal movement and the influence of movement on broader ecological processes. Typically, tracking and/or remote sensing technology is employed to study individual animals in natural conditions. By contrast, the field of collective behaviour has quantified the significant role social interactions play in the decision-making of animals within groups and, to date, has predominantly relied on controlled laboratory-based studies and theoretical models owing to the constraints of studying interacting animals in the field. This themed issue is intended to formalize the burgeoning field of collective movement ecology which integrates research from both movement ecology and collective behaviour. In this introductory paper, we set the stage for the issue by briefly examining the approaches and current status of research in these areas. Next, we outline the structure of the theme issue and describe the obstacles collective movement researchers face, from data acquisition in the field to analysis and problems of scale, and highlight the key contributions of the assembled papers. We finish by presenting research that links individual and broad-scale ecological and evolutionary processes to collective movement, and finally relate these concepts to emerging challenges for the management and conservation of animals on the move in a world that is increasingly impacted by human activity.This article is part of the theme issue 'Collective movement ecology'. © 2018 The Author(s).

  10. Stroboscopic image capture: Reducing the dose per frame by a factor of 30 does not prevent beam-induced specimen movement in paraffin

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Typke, Dieter; Gilpin, Christopher J.; Downing, Kenneth H.; Glaeser, Robert M.

    2007-01-01

    Beam-induced specimen movement may be the major factor that limits the quality of high-resolution images of organic specimens. One of the possible measures to improve the situation that was proposed by Henderson and Glaeser [Ultramicroscopy 16 (1985) 139-150], which we refer to here as 'stroboscopic image capture', is to divide the normal exposure into many successive frames, thus reducing the amount of electron exposure-and possibly the amount of beam-induced movement-per frame. The frames would then be aligned and summed. We have performed preliminary experiments on stroboscopic imaging using a 200-kV electron microscope that was equipped with a high dynamic range Charge-coupled device (CCD) camera for image recording and a liquid N 2 -cooled cryoholder. Single-layer paraffin crystals on carbon film were used as a test specimen. The ratio F(g)/F(0) of paraffin reflections, calculated from the images, serves as our criterion for the image quality. In the series that were evaluated, no significant improvement of the F image (g)/F image (0) ratio was found, even though the electron exposure per frame was reduced by a factor of 30. A frame-to-frame analysis of image distortions showed that considerable beam-induced movement had still occurred during each frame. In addition, the paraffin crystal lattice was observed to move relative to the supporting carbon film, a fact that cannot be explained as being an electron-optical effect caused by specimen charging. We conclude that a significant further reduction of the dose per frame (than was possible with this CCD detector) will be needed in order to test whether the frame-to-frame changes ultimately become small enough for stroboscopic image capture to show its potential

  11. Measuring miniature eye movements by means of a SQUID magnetometer

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Peters, M.J.; Dunajski, Z.; Meijzssen, T.E.M.; Breukink, E.W.; Wevers-Henke, J.J.

    1982-01-01

    A new technique to measure small eye movements is reported. The precise recording of human eye movements is necessary for research on visual fatigue induced by visual display units.1 So far all methods used have disadvantages: especially those which are sensitive or are rather painful.2,3 Our method

  12. Graphical constraints: a graphical user interface for constraint problems

    OpenAIRE

    Vieira, Nelson Manuel Marques

    2015-01-01

    A constraint satisfaction problem is a classical artificial intelligence paradigm characterized by a set of variables (each variable with an associated domain of possible values), and a set of constraints that specify relations among subsets of these variables. Solutions are assignments of values to all variables that satisfy all the constraints. Many real world problems may be modelled by means of constraints. The range of problems that can use this representation is very diverse and embrace...

  13. Physiological modules for generating discrete and rhythmic movements: component analysis of EMG signals.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bengoetxea, Ana; Leurs, Françoise; Hoellinger, Thomas; Cebolla, Ana Maria; Dan, Bernard; Cheron, Guy; McIntyre, Joseph

    2014-01-01

    A central question in Neuroscience is that of how the nervous system generates the spatiotemporal commands needed to realize complex gestures, such as handwriting. A key postulate is that the central nervous system (CNS) builds up complex movements from a set of simpler motor primitives or control modules. In this study we examined the control modules underlying the generation of muscle activations when performing different types of movement: discrete, point-to-point movements in eight different directions and continuous figure-eight movements in both the normal, upright orientation and rotated 90°. To test for the effects of biomechanical constraints, movements were performed in the frontal-parallel or sagittal planes, corresponding to two different nominal flexion/abduction postures of the shoulder. In all cases we measured limb kinematics and surface electromyographic activity (EMG) signals for seven different muscles acting around the shoulder. We first performed principal component analysis (PCA) of the EMG signals on a movement-by-movement basis. We found a surprisingly consistent pattern of muscle groupings across movement types and movement planes, although we could detect systematic differences between the PCs derived from movements performed in each shoulder posture and between the principal components associated with the different orientations of the figure. Unexpectedly we found no systematic differences between the figure eights and the point-to-point movements. The first three principal components could be associated with a general co-contraction of all seven muscles plus two patterns of reciprocal activation. From these results, we surmise that both "discrete-rhythmic movements" such as the figure eight, and discrete point-to-point movement may be constructed from three different fundamental modules, one regulating the impedance of the limb over the time span of the movement and two others operating to generate movement, one aligned with the

  14. Multi Canister Overpack (MCO) Handling Machine Trolley Seismic Uplift Constraint Design Loads

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    SWENSON, C.E.

    2000-01-01

    The MCO Handling Machine (MHM) trolley moves along the top of the MHM bridge girders on east-west oriented rails. To prevent trolley wheel uplift during a seismic event, passive uplift constraints are provided as shown in Figure 1-1. North-south trolley wheel movement is prevented by flanges on the trolley wheels. When the MHM is positioned over a Multi-Canister Overpack (MCO) storage tube, east-west seismic restraints are activated to prevent trolley movement during MCO handling. The active seismic constraints consist of a plunger, which is inserted into slots positioned along the tracks as shown in Figure 1-1. When the MHM trolley is moving between storage tube positions, the active seismic restraints are not engaged. The MHM has been designed and analyzed in accordance with ASME NOG-1-1995. The ALSTHOM seismic analysis (Reference 3) reported seismic uplift restraint loading and EDERER performed corresponding structural calculations. The ALSTHOM and EDERER calculations were performed with the east-west seismic restraints activated and the uplift restraints experiencing only vertical loading. In support of development of the CSB Safety Analysis Report (SAR), an evaluation of the MHM seismic response was requested for the case where the east-west trolley restraints are not engaged. For this case, the associated trolley movements would result in east-west lateral loads on the uplift constraints due to friction, as shown in Figure 1-2. During preliminary evaluations, questions were raised as to whether the EDERER calculations considered the latest ALSTHOM seismic analysis loads (See NCR No. 00-SNFP-0008, Reference 5). Further evaluation led to the conclusion that the EDERER calculations used appropriate vertical loading, but the uplift restraints would need to be re-analyzed and modified to account for lateral loading. The disposition of NCR 00-SNFP-0008 will track the redesign and modification effort. The purpose of this calculation is to establish bounding seismic

  15. Inspirations on Virus Replication and Cell-to-Cell Movement from Studies Examining the Cytopathology Induced by Lettuce infectious yellows virus in Plant Cells

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wenjie Qiao

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available Lettuce infectious yellows virus (LIYV is the type member of the genus Crinivirus in the family Closteroviridae. Like many other positive-strand RNA viruses, LIYV infections induce a number of cytopathic changes in plant cells, of which the two most characteristic are: Beet yellows virus-type inclusion bodies composed of vesicles derived from cytoplasmic membranes; and conical plasmalemma deposits (PLDs located at the plasmalemma over plasmodesmata pit fields. The former are not only found in various closterovirus infections, but similar structures are known as ‘viral factories’ or viroplasms in cells infected with diverse types of animal and plant viruses. These are generally sites of virus replication, virion assembly and in some cases are involved in cell-to-cell transport. By contrast, PLDs induced by the LIYV-encoded P26 non-virion protein are not involved in replication but are speculated to have roles in virus intercellular movement. These deposits often harbor LIYV virions arranged to be perpendicular to the plasma membrane over plasmodesmata, and our recent studies show that P26 is required for LIYV systemic plant infection. The functional mechanism of how LIYV P26 facilitates intercellular movement remains unclear, however, research on other plant viruses provides some insights on the possible ways of viral intercellular movement through targeting and modifying plasmodesmata via interactions between plant cellular components and viral-encoded factors. In summary, beginning with LIYV, we review the studies that have uncovered the biological determinants giving rise to these cytopathological effects and their importance in viral replication, virion assembly and intercellular movement during the plant infection by closteroviruses, and compare these findings with those for other positive-strand RNA viruses.

  16. A neural command circuit for grooming movement control.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hampel, Stefanie; Franconville, Romain; Simpson, Julie H; Seeds, Andrew M

    2015-09-07

    Animals perform many stereotyped movements, but how nervous systems are organized for controlling specific movements remains unclear. Here we use anatomical, optogenetic, behavioral, and physiological techniques to identify a circuit in Drosophila melanogaster that can elicit stereotyped leg movements that groom the antennae. Mechanosensory chordotonal neurons detect displacements of the antennae and excite three different classes of functionally connected interneurons, which include two classes of brain interneurons and different parallel descending neurons. This multilayered circuit is organized such that neurons within each layer are sufficient to specifically elicit antennal grooming. However, we find differences in the durations of antennal grooming elicited by neurons in the different layers, suggesting that the circuit is organized to both command antennal grooming and control its duration. As similar features underlie stimulus-induced movements in other animals, we infer the possibility of a common circuit organization for movement control that can be dissected in Drosophila.

  17. Influences of rhythm- and timbre-related musical features on characteristics of music-induced movement.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Burger, Birgitta; Thompson, Marc R; Luck, Geoff; Saarikallio, Suvi; Toiviainen, Petri

    2013-01-01

    Music makes us move. Several factors can affect the characteristics of such movements, including individual factors or musical features. For this study, we investigated the effect of rhythm- and timbre-related musical features as well as tempo on movement characteristics. Sixty participants were presented with 30 musical stimuli representing different styles of popular music, and instructed to move along with the music. Optical motion capture was used to record participants' movements. Subsequently, eight movement features and four rhythm- and timbre-related musical features were computationally extracted from the data, while the tempo was assessed in a perceptual experiment. A subsequent correlational analysis revealed that, for instance, clear pulses seemed to be embodied with the whole body, i.e., by using various movement types of different body parts, whereas spectral flux and percussiveness were found to be more distinctly related to certain body parts, such as head and hand movement. A series of ANOVAs with the stimuli being divided into three groups of five stimuli each based on the tempo revealed no significant differences between the groups, suggesting that the tempo of our stimuli set failed to have an effect on the movement features. In general, the results can be linked to the framework of embodied music cognition, as they show that body movements are used to reflect, imitate, and predict musical characteristics.

  18. Influences of rhythm- and timbre-related musical features on characteristics of music-induced movement

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Birgitta eBurger

    2013-04-01

    Full Text Available Music makes us move. Several factors can affect the characteristics of such movements, including individual factors or musical features. For this study, we investigated the effect of rhythm- and timbre-related musical features as well as tempo on movement characteristics. Sixty participants were presented with 30 musical stimuli representing different styles of popular music, and instructed to move along with the music. Optical motion capture was used to record participants’ movements. Subsequently, eight movement features and four rhythm- and timbre-related musical features were computationally extracted from the data, while the tempo was assessed in a perceptual experiment. A subsequent correlational analysis revealed that, for instance, clear pulses seemed to be embodied with the whole body, i.e., by using various movement types of different body parts, whereas spectral flux and percussiveness were found to be more distinctly related to certain body parts, such as head and hand movement. A series of ANOVAs with the stimuli being divided into three groups of five stimuli each based on the tempo revealed no significant differences between the groups, suggesting that the tempo of our stimuli set failed to have an effect on the movement features. In general, the results can be linked to the framework of embodied music cognition, as they show that body movements are used to reflect, imitate, and predict musical characteristics.

  19. Brain stimulation and constraint for perinatal stroke hemiparesis: The PLASTIC CHAMPS Trial.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kirton, Adam; Andersen, John; Herrero, Mia; Nettel-Aguirre, Alberto; Carsolio, Lisa; Damji, Omar; Keess, Jamie; Mineyko, Aleksandra; Hodge, Jacquie; Hill, Michael D

    2016-05-03

    To determine whether the addition of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) and/or constraint-induced movement therapy (CIMT) to intensive therapy increases motor function in children with perinatal stroke and hemiparesis. A factorial-design, blinded, randomized controlled trial (clinicaltrials.gov/NCT01189058) assessed rTMS and CIMT effects in hemiparetic children (aged 6-19 years) with MRI-confirmed perinatal stroke. All completed a 2-week, goal-directed, peer-supported motor learning camp randomized to daily rTMS, CIMT, both, or neither. Primary outcomes were the Assisting Hand Assessment and the Canadian Occupational Performance Measure at baseline, and 1 week, 2 and 6 months postintervention. Outcome assessors were blinded to treatment. Interim safety analyses occurred after 12 and 24 participants. Intention-to-treat analysis examined treatment effects over time (linear mixed effects model). All 45 participants completed the trial. Addition of rTMS, CIMT, or both doubled the chances of clinically significant improvement. Assisting Hand Assessment gains at 6 months were additive and largest with rTMS + CIMT (β coefficient = 5.54 [2.57-8.51], p = 0.0004). The camp alone produced large improvements in Canadian Occupational Performance Measure scores, maximal at 6 months (Cohen d = 1.6, p = 0.002). Quality-of-life scores improved. Interventions were well tolerated and safe with no decrease in function of either hand. Hemiparetic children participating in intensive, psychosocial rehabilitation programs can achieve sustained functional gains. Addition of CIMT and rTMS increases the chances of improvement. This study provides Class II evidence that combined rTMS and CIMT enhance therapy-induced functional motor gains in children with stroke-induced hemiparetic cerebral palsy. © 2016 American Academy of Neurology.

  20. Constraints on small-scale cosmological fluctuations from SNe lensing dispersion

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ben-Dayan, Ido; Takahashi, Ryuichi

    2015-04-01

    We provide predictions on small-scale cosmological density power spectrum from supernova lensing dispersion. Parameterizing the primordial power spectrum with running α and running of running β of the spectral index, we exclude large positive α and β parameters which induce too large lensing dispersions over current observational upper bound. We ran cosmological N-body simulations of collisionless dark matter particles to investigate non-linear evolution of the primordial power spectrum with positive running parameters. The initial small-scale enhancement of the power spectrum is largely erased when entering into the non-linear regime. For example, even if the linear power spectrum at k>10 hMpc -1 is enhanced by 1-2 orders of magnitude, the enhancement much decreases to a factor of 2-3 at late time (z≤1.5). Therefore, the lensing dispersion induced by the dark matter fluctuations weakly constrains the running parameters. When including baryon-cooling effects (which strongly enhance the small-scale clustering), the constraint is comparable or tighter than the PLANCK constraint, depending on the UV cut-off. Further investigations of the non-linear matter spectrum with baryonic processes is needed to reach a firm constraint.

  1. Experiential knowledge of expert coaches can help identify informational constraints on performance of dynamic interceptive actions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Greenwood, Daniel; Davids, Keith; Renshaw, Ian

    2014-01-01

    Coordination of dynamic interceptive movements is predicated on cyclical relations between an individual's actions and information sources from the performance environment. To identify dynamic informational constraints, which are interwoven with individual and task constraints, coaches' experiential knowledge provides a complementary source to support empirical understanding of performance in sport. In this study, 15 expert coaches from 3 sports (track and field, gymnastics and cricket) participated in a semi-structured interview process to identify potential informational constraints which they perceived to regulate action during run-up performance. Expert coaches' experiential knowledge revealed multiple information sources which may constrain performance adaptations in such locomotor pointing tasks. In addition to the locomotor pointing target, coaches' knowledge highlighted two other key informational constraints: vertical reference points located near the locomotor pointing target and a check mark located prior to the locomotor pointing target. This study highlights opportunities for broadening the understanding of perception and action coupling processes, and the identified information sources warrant further empirical investigation as potential constraints on athletic performance. Integration of experiential knowledge of expert coaches with theoretically driven empirical knowledge represents a promising avenue to drive future applied science research and pedagogical practice.

  2. Social Media Rhetoric of the Transnational Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Movement

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jennifer Hitchcock

    2016-02-01

    Full Text Available This article uses rhetorical analysis to determine the effectiveness and characteristics of social media usage by the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS movement targeting Israel. Hundreds of local student, community, and religious groups in the United States use social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook to promote BDS discourse and organize local BDS-related events. Even though social media platforms are important for an international movement composed of a very dispersed population, with millions of Palestinians also living under military occupation, the history of traditional media use during the First Intifada also suggests that social media are not necessary for mobilizing Palestinians at the local level. A preliminary rhetorical analysis of several BDS-related Facebook pages and Twitter accounts reveals that the BDS movement’s social media usage functions similarly in some ways to other contemporary mass movements by facilitating on-the-ground actions and delivering useful information to supporters. BDS movement social media discourse, however, does not establish the same level of emotional connection or interactivity with audiences as some other recent movements have, but these limitations can be partly explained by the unique political, material, and rhetorical constraints of the situation.

  3. Analysis of the direction of plasma vertical movement during major disruptions in ITER

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lukash, Victor; Sugihara, Masayoshi; Gribov, Yuri; Fujieda, Hirobumi

    2005-01-01

    The plasma movement in the upward direction (away from the X-point) after the thermal quench (TQ) of major disruptions in ITER is favourable for the machine design, since the downward movement causes larger electromagnetic (EM) load due to the induced eddy and halo currents. Vertical directions of plasma movement after the TQ in ITER are investigated using the predictive mode of the DINA code. Three dominant parameters in determining the direction of plasma movement are identified: (i) the rate of plasma current quench (plasma temperature after the TQ) (ii) the width of plasma current mixing area just after the TQ (change of the internal plasma inductance l i ) and (iii) the initial vertical position of plasma column before the TQ. It is shown that the reference ITER plasma moves upwards after the TQ, if the electron temperature after the TQ is less than 10 eV and the drop of l i does not exceed 0.2 for the present reference initial vertical position (55.5 cm above the centre of the machine). It is also shown that the operational domain leading to the upward movement is considerably large for disruptions with fast current quench, which could generate quite severe EM load due to the induced eddy current combined with the induced halo current if the movement is downwards

  4. HCN channels segregate stimulation‐evoked movement responses in neocortex and allow for coordinated forelimb movements in rodents

    Science.gov (United States)

    Farrell, Jordan S.; Palmer, Laura A.; Singleton, Anna C.; Pittman, Quentin J.; Teskey, G. Campbell

    2016-01-01

    Key points The present study tested whether HCN channels contribute to the organization of motor cortex and to skilled motor behaviour during a forelimb reaching task.Experimental reductions in HCN channel signalling increase the representation of complex multiple forelimb movements in motor cortex as assessed by intracortical microstimulation.Global HCN1KO mice exhibit reduced reaching accuracy and atypical movements during a single‐pellet reaching task relative to wild‐type controls.Acute pharmacological inhibition of HCN channels in forelimb motor cortex decreases reaching accuracy and increases atypical movements during forelimb reaching. Abstract The mechanisms by which distinct movements of a forelimb are generated from the same area of motor cortex have remained elusive. Here we examined a role for HCN channels, given their ability to alter synaptic integration, in the expression of forelimb movement responses during intracortical microstimulation (ICMS) and movements of the forelimb on a skilled reaching task. We used short‐duration high‐resolution ICMS to evoke forelimb movements following pharmacological (ZD7288), experimental (electrically induced cortical seizures) or genetic approaches that we confirmed with whole‐cell patch clamp to substantially reduce I h current. We observed significant increases in the number of multiple movement responses evoked at single sites in motor maps to all three experimental manipulations in rats or mice. Global HCN1 knockout mice were less successful and exhibited atypical movements on a skilled‐motor learning task relative to wild‐type controls. Furthermore, in reaching‐proficient rats, reaching accuracy was reduced and forelimb movements were altered during infusion of ZD7288 within motor cortex. Thus, HCN channels play a critical role in the separation of overlapping movement responses and allow for successful reaching behaviours. These data provide a novel mechanism for the encoding of multiple

  5. Do older adults perceive postural constraints for reach estimation?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cordova, Alberto; Gabbard, Carl

    2014-01-01

    BACKGROUND/STUDY CONTEXT: Recent evidence indicates that older persons have difficulty mentally representing intended movements. Furthermore, in an estimation of reach paradigm using motor imagery, a form of mental representation, older persons significantly overestimated their ability compared with young adults. The authors tested the notion that older adults may also have difficulty perceiving the postural constraints associated with reach estimation. The authors compared young (Mage = 22 years) and older (Mage = 67) adults on reach estimation while seated and in a more postural demanding standing and leaning forward position. The expectation was a significant postural effect with the standing condition, as evidenced by reduced overestimation. Whereas there was no difference between groups in the seated condition (both overestimated), older adults underestimated whereas the younger group once again overestimated in the standing condition. From one perspective, these results show that older adults do perceive postural constraints in light of their own physical capabilities. That is, that group perceived greater postural demands with the standing posture and elected to program a more conservative strategy, resulting in underestimation.

  6. From Consumerism to the Empowerment of Consumers: The Case of Consumer Oriented Movements in France

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sophie Dubuisson-Quellier

    2010-06-01

    Full Text Available Political consumerism was developed during the 19th century and expanded at the turn of the century through social movements aimed at empowering civil society in the market. Many of these movements succeeded in building power on the consumption side. Today, we still witness several forms of political consumerism. This contribution explores the possibilities and limits of consumer involvement in sustainable consumption. The main finding of this study of the political organization of consumers is that the market may not be the only arena for changing consumer behavior. Instead, social constraint and political empowerment seem to be rather more efficient.

  7. Bilateral brain reorganization with memantine and constraint-induced aphasia therapy in chronic post-stroke aphasia: An ERP study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Barbancho, Miguel A; Berthier, Marcelo L; Navas-Sánchez, Patricia; Dávila, Guadalupe; Green-Heredia, Cristina; García-Alberca, José M; Ruiz-Cruces, Rafael; López-González, Manuel V; Dawid-Milner, Marc S; Pulvermüller, Friedemann; Lara, J Pablo

    2015-01-01

    Changes in ERP (P100 and N400) and root mean square (RMS) were obtained during a silent reading task in 28 patients with chronic post-stroke aphasia in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of both memantine and constraint-induced aphasia therapy (CIAT). Participants received memantine/placebo alone (weeks 0-16), followed by drug treatment combined with CIAT (weeks 16-18), and then memantine/placebo alone (weeks 18-20). ERP/RMS values (week 16) decreased more in the memantine group than in the placebo group. During CIAT application (weeks 16-18), improvements in aphasia severity and ERP/RMS values were amplified by memantine and changes remained stable thereafter (weeks 18-20). Changes in ERP/RMS occurred in left and right hemispheres and correlated with gains in language performance. No changes in ERP/RMS were found in a healthy group in two separated evaluations. Our results show that aphasia recovery induced by both memantine alone and in combination with CIAT is indexed by bilateral cortical potentials. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  8. Effects of social intention on movement kinematics in cooperative actions

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Francois eQuesque

    2013-10-01

    Full Text Available Optimal control models of biological movements are used to account for those internal variables that constrain voluntary goal-directed actions. They however do not take into account external environmental constraints as those associated to social intention. We investigated here the effects of the social context on kinematic characteristics of sequential actions consisting in placing an object on an initial pad (preparatory action before reaching and grasping as fast as possible the object to move it to another location (main action. Reach-to-grasp actions were performed either in an isolated condition or in the presence of a partner (audience effect, located in the near or far space (effect of shared reachable space, and who could intervene on the object in a systematic fashion (effect of social intention effect or not (effect of social uncertainty. Results showed an absence of audience effect but nevertheless an influence of the social context both on the main and the preparatory actions. In particular, a localized effect of shared reachable space was observed on the main action, which was smoother when performed within the reachable space of the partner. Furthermore, a global effect of social uncertainty was observed on both actions with faster and jerkier movements. Finally, social intention affected the preparatory action with higher wrist displacements and slower movements when the object was placed for the partner rather than placed for self-use. Overall, these results demonstrate specific effects of action space, social uncertainty and social intention on the planning of reach-to-grasp actions, in particular on the preparatory action, which was performed with no specific execution constraint. These findings underline the importance of considering the social context in optimal models of action control for human-robot interactions, in particular when focusing on the implementation of motor parameters required to afford intuitive

  9. Islamic Puritanism Movements in Indonesia as Transnational Movements

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Benny Baskara

    2017-04-01

    Full Text Available Islamic puritanism movements are the movements compelling to return to the teachings of Quran and Sunnah, as the pure teachings of Islam and abandon even abolish other teachings outside the teachings of Quran and Sunnah. The movements of Islamic puritanism can be considered as transnational movements because they spread their teachings and ideologies, create organizations, networks, and provide financial supports across nations. This paper describes Islamic puritanism movements in Indonesia and their transnational connections. Some Islamic puritanism movements in Indonesia can be considered as part of Islamic transnational movements, in which most of the movements are centered in the Middle East. In Indonesia, Islamic puritanism movements firstly appeared in the beginning of the nineteenth century, called Padri movement in West Sumatra. It was then continued to the emergence of Islamic organizations in the twentieth century. Recently, Islamic puritanism movements in Indonesia mostly take form as Salafism-Wahabism movements.

  10. Testing multiple coordination constraints with a novel bimanual visuomotor task.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Helene M Sisti

    Full Text Available The acquisition of a new bimanual skill depends on several motor coordination constraints. To date, coordination constraints have often been tested relatively independently of one another, particularly with respect to isofrequency and multifrequency rhythms. Here, we used a new paradigm to test the interaction of multiple coordination constraints. Coordination constraints that were tested included temporal complexity, directionality, muscle grouping, and hand dominance. Twenty-two healthy young adults performed a bimanual dial rotation task that required left and right hand coordination to track a moving target on a computer monitor. Two groups were compared, either with or without four days of practice with augmented visual feedback. Four directional patterns were tested such that both hands moved either rightward (clockwise, leftward (counterclockwise, inward or outward relative to each other. Seven frequency ratios (3∶1, 2∶1, 3∶2, 1∶1, 2∶3. 1∶2, 1∶3 between the left and right hand were introduced. As expected, isofrequency patterns (1∶1 were performed more successfully than multifrequency patterns (non 1∶1. In addition, performance was more accurate when participants were required to move faster with the dominant right hand (1∶3, 1∶2 and 2∶3 than with the non-dominant left hand (3∶1, 2∶1, 3∶2. Interestingly, performance deteriorated as the relative angular velocity between the two hands increased, regardless of whether the required frequency ratio was an integer or non-integer. This contrasted with previous finger tapping research where the integer ratios generally led to less error than the non-integer ratios. We suggest that this is due to the different movement topologies that are required of each paradigm. Overall, we found that this visuomotor task was useful for testing the interaction of multiple coordination constraints as well as the release from these constraints with practice in the presence of

  11. Information in learning to co-ordinate and control movements: Is there a need for specificity of practice?

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Savelsbergh, Geert J.P.; Van Der Kamp, John

    2000-01-01

    The goal of the paper is to defend the thesis that information and movement are tightly coupled and as a result specificity of training is required in order to get meaningful learning effects. This thesis will be illustrated by elaborating upon the role of informational constraints in the control

  12. The Comparisons of Cerebral Hemodynamics Induced by Obstructive Sleep Apnea with Arousal and Periodic Limb Movement with Arousal: A Pilot NIRS Study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Zhongxing; Schneider, Maja; Laures, Marco; Qi, Ming; Khatami, Ramin

    2016-01-01

    Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSA) and restless legs syndrome (RLS) with periodic limb movement during sleep (PLMS) are two sleep disorders characterized by repetitive respiratory or movement events associated with cortical arousals. We compared the cerebral hemodynamic changes linked to periodic apneas/hypopneas with arousals (AHA) in four OSA-patients with periodic limb movements (PLMA) with arousals in four patients with RLS-PLMS using near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). AHA induced homogenous pattern of periodic fluctuations in oxygenated (HbO2) and deoxygenated (HHb) hemoglobin, i.e., the decrease of HbO2 was accompanied by an increase of HHb during the respiratory event and resolved to reverse pattern when cortical arousal started. Blood volume (BV) showed the same pattern as HHb but with relative smaller amplitude in most of the AHA events.These changing patterns were significant as Wilcoxon signed-rank tests gave p Wilcoxon signed-rank tests, p Wilcoxon signed-rank test, p Wilcoxon signed-rank test, p Wilcoxon signed-rank test, p < 0.001) and then decreased. The results of this preliminary study show that both AHA and PLMA induce changes in cerebral hemodynamics. The occurrence of cortical arousal is accompanied by increased HR in both events, but by different BV changes (i.e., decreased/increased BV in AHA/PLMA, respectively). HR changes may partially account for the increased cerebral hemodynamics during PLMA; whereas in AHA probable vasodilatation mediated by hypoxia/hypercapnia is more crucial for the post-arousal hemodynamics. The differences between changes of cerebral hemodynamics and HR may indicate different pathological mechanisms behind these two sleep disorder events.

  13. Head and pelvic movement asymmetry during lungeing in horses with symmetrical movement on the straight.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rhodin, M; Roepstorff, L; French, A; Keegan, K G; Pfau, T; Egenvall, A

    2016-05-01

    Lungeing is commonly used as part of standard lameness examinations in horses. Knowledge of how lungeing influences motion symmetry in sound horses is needed. The aim of this study was to objectively evaluate the symmetry of vertical head and pelvic motion during lungeing in a large number of horses with symmetric motion during straight line evaluation. Cross-sectional prospective study. A pool of 201 riding horses, all functioning well and considered sound by their owners, were evaluated in trot on a straight line and during lungeing to the left and right. From this pool, horses with symmetric vertical head and pelvic movement during the straight line trot (n = 94) were retained for analysis. Vertical head and pelvic movements were measured with body mounted uniaxial accelerometers. Differences between vertical maximum and minimum head (HDmax, HDmin) and pelvic (PDmax, PDmin) heights between left and right forelimb and hindlimb stances were compared between straight line trot and lungeing in either direction. Vertical head and pelvic movements during lungeing were more asymmetric than during trot on a straight line. Common asymmetric patterns seen in the head were more upward movement during push-off of the outside forelimb and less downward movement during impact of the inside limb. Common asymmetric patterns seen in the pelvis were less upward movement during push-off of the outside hindlimb and less downward movement of the pelvis during impact of the inside hindlimb. Asymmetric patterns in one lunge direction were frequently not the same as in the opposite direction. Lungeing induces systematic asymmetries in vertical head and pelvic motion patterns in horses that may not be the same in both directions. These asymmetries may mask or mimic fore- or hindlimb lameness. © 2015 The Authors. Equine Veterinary Journal published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of EVJ Ltd.

  14. From physical dose constraints to equivalent uniform dose constraints in inverse radiotherapy planning

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Thieke, Christian; Bortfeld, Thomas; Niemierko, Andrzej; Nill, Simeon

    2003-01-01

    Optimization algorithms in inverse radiotherapy planning need information about the desired dose distribution. Usually the planner defines physical dose constraints for each structure of the treatment plan, either in form of minimum and maximum doses or as dose-volume constraints. The concept of equivalent uniform dose (EUD) was designed to describe dose distributions with a higher clinical relevance. In this paper, we present a method to consider the EUD as an optimization constraint by using the method of projections onto convex sets (POCS). In each iteration of the optimization loop, for the actual dose distribution of an organ that violates an EUD constraint a new dose distribution is calculated that satisfies the EUD constraint, leading to voxel-based physical dose constraints. The new dose distribution is found by projecting the current one onto the convex set of all dose distributions fulfilling the EUD constraint. The algorithm is easy to integrate into existing inverse planning systems, and it allows the planner to choose between physical and EUD constraints separately for each structure. A clinical case of a head and neck tumor is optimized using three different sets of constraints: physical constraints for all structures, physical constraints for the target and EUD constraints for the organs at risk, and EUD constraints for all structures. The results show that the POCS method converges stable and given EUD constraints are reached closely

  15. Understanding and treating lateral ankle sprains and their consequences: a constraints-based approach.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wikstrom, Erik A; Hubbard-Turner, Tricia; McKeon, Patrick O

    2013-06-01

    Lateral ankle sprains are a common consequence of physical activity. If not managed appropriately, a cascade of negative alterations to both the joint structure and a person's movement patterns continue to stress the injured ligaments. These alterations result in an individual entering a continuum of disability as evidenced by the ~30 % of ankle sprains that develop into chronic ankle instability (CAI) and up to 78 % of CAI cases that develop into post-traumatic ankle osteoarthritis (OA). Despite this knowledge, no significant improvements in treatment efficacy have been made using traditional treatment paradigms. Therefore, the purpose of this review is to (1) provide an overview of the consequences associated with acute lateral ankle sprains, CAI and post-traumatic ankle OA; (2) introduce the patient-, clinician-, laboratory (PCL)-oriented) model that addresses the lateral ankle sprains and their consequences from a constraints perspective; and (3) introduce the dynamic systems theory as the framework to illustrate how multiple post-injury adaptations create a singular pathology that predisposes individuals with lateral ankle sprains to fall into a continuum of disability. The consequences associated with lateral ankle sprains, CAI and ankle OA are similar and encompass alterations to the structure of the ankle joint (e.g. ligament laxity, positional faults, etc.) and the sensorimotor function responsible for proper ankle joint function (e.g. postural control, gait, etc.). Further, the impairments have been quantified across a range of patient-oriented (e.g. self-report questionnaires), clinician-oriented (e.g. bedside measures of range of motion and postural control), and laboratory-oriented (e.g. arthrometry, gait analysis) outcome measures. The interaction of PCL-oriented outcomes is critically important for understanding the phenomenon of CAI across the continuum of disability. Through the integration of all three sources of evidence, we can clearly see that

  16. Constraint-based reachability

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Arnaud Gotlieb

    2013-02-01

    Full Text Available Iterative imperative programs can be considered as infinite-state systems computing over possibly unbounded domains. Studying reachability in these systems is challenging as it requires to deal with an infinite number of states with standard backward or forward exploration strategies. An approach that we call Constraint-based reachability, is proposed to address reachability problems by exploring program states using a constraint model of the whole program. The keypoint of the approach is to interpret imperative constructions such as conditionals, loops, array and memory manipulations with the fundamental notion of constraint over a computational domain. By combining constraint filtering and abstraction techniques, Constraint-based reachability is able to solve reachability problems which are usually outside the scope of backward or forward exploration strategies. This paper proposes an interpretation of classical filtering consistencies used in Constraint Programming as abstract domain computations, and shows how this approach can be used to produce a constraint solver that efficiently generates solutions for reachability problems that are unsolvable by other approaches.

  17. Constraint-Muse: A Soft-Constraint Based System for Music Therapy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hölzl, Matthias; Denker, Grit; Meier, Max; Wirsing, Martin

    Monoidal soft constraints are a versatile formalism for specifying and solving multi-criteria optimization problems with dynamically changing user preferences. We have developed a prototype tool for interactive music creation, called Constraint Muse, that uses monoidal soft constraints to ensure that a dynamically generated melody harmonizes with input from other sources. Constraint Muse provides an easy to use interface based on Nintendo Wii controllers and is intended to be used in music therapy for people with Parkinson’s disease and for children with high-functioning autism or Asperger’s syndrome.

  18. Spontaneous movement tempo can be influenced by combining action observation and somatosensory stimulation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ambra eBisio

    2015-08-01

    Full Text Available Spontaneous movement tempo (SMT was a popular field of study of the Gestalt psychologists . It can be determined from subjects freely tapping out a rhythm with their finger, and it has been found to average about 2Hz. A previous study showed that SMT changed after the observation of rhythmical movements performed at frequency different from the SMT. This effect was long-lasting only when movement execution immediately followed action observation (AO. We recently demonstrated that only when AO was combined with peripheral nerve stimulation (AO-PNS was it possible to induce plastic changes in the excitability of the motor cortex, whereas AO and PNS alone did not evoke any changes.Here we investigated whether the observation of rhythmical actions at a frequency higher than the SMT combined with PNS induced lasting changes in SMT even in absence of immediate movement execution. Forty-eight participants were assigned to 4 groups. In AO-PNS group they observed a video showing a right hand performing a finger opposition movement sequence at 3Hz and contemporarily received an electrical stimulation at the median nerve; in AO group and PNS group participants either observed the same video or received the same electrical stimulation of the AO-PNS group, respectively; in LANDSCAPE group subjects observed a neutral video. Participants performed a finger opposition movement sequence at spontaneous movement rate before and 30 min after the conditioning protocols. Results showed that SMT significantly changed only after AO-PNS. This result suggested that the AO-PNS protocol was able to induce lasting changes in SMT due to neuroplasticity mechanisms, indicating possible application of AO-PNS in rehabilitative treatments.

  19. Ethanol exposure affects cell movement during gastrulation and induces split axes in zebrafish embryos.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Ying; Shao, Ming; Wang, Lifeng; Liu, Zhongzhen; Gao, Ming; Liu, Chao; Zhang, Hongwei

    2010-06-01

    To explore the toxic effects of ethanol on axis formation during embryogenesis, zebrafish embryos at different developmental stages were treated with 3% ethanol for 3h. The effects of ethanol exposure appeared to be stage-dependent. The dome stage embryo was most sensible to form posterior split axes upon ethanol exposure. Morphological and histological observations and whole-mount in situ hybridization results showed that ethanol exposure at this stage caused a general gastrulation delay, and induced double notochords, double neural tubes and two sets of somites in the posterior trunk. Mechanistically, no ectopic organizer was found by examining the expression patterns of dorsoventral markers including goosecoid, chordin and eve1 at the onset of gastrulation. However, radial intercalation, epiboly and convergence extension were inhibited by ethanol exposure as revealed by cell labeling, phenotypic observation and the expression patterns of axial or paraxial markers. Further investigation showed that the cell aggregation might be affected by ethanol exposure, as indicated by the much more scattered expression pattern of chordin, eve1 and wnt11 at the early gastrula stage, and the discontinuous gsc positive cells during migration. These results imply that ethanol might affect cell movement before and during gastrulation and as a consequence, induces a split axes phenotype. Copyright 2010 ISDN. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  20. Effects of diabetes on tooth movement and root resorption after orthodontic force application in rats.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Arita, K; Hotokezaka, H; Hashimoto, M; Nakano-Tajima, T; Kurohama, T; Kondo, T; Darendeliler, M A; Yoshida, N

    2016-05-01

    To investigate the effects of diabetes on orthodontic tooth movement and orthodontically induced root resorption in rats. Twenty-three 10-week-old male Sprague-Dawley rats divided into control (n = 7), diabetes (n = 9), and diabetes + insulin (n = 7) groups. Diabetes was induced by administering a single intraperitoneal injection of streptozotocin. Rats with a blood glucose level exceeding 250 mg/dl were assigned to the diabetes group. Insulin was administered daily to the diabetes + insulin group. A nickel-titanium closed-coil spring of 10 g was applied for 2 weeks to the maxillary left first molar in all rats to induce mesial tooth movement. Tooth movement was measured using microcomputed tomography images. To determine the quantity of root resorption, the mesial surfaces of the mesial and distal roots of the first molar were analyzed using both scanning electron microscopy and scanning laser microscopy. After 2 weeks, the amount of tooth movement in the diabetic rats was lower than that in the control rats. Root resorption was also significantly lower in the diabetic rats. These responses of the rats caused by diabetes were mostly diminished by insulin administration. Diabetes significantly reduced orthodontic tooth movement and orthodontically induced root resorption in rats. The regulation of blood glucose level through insulin administration largely reduced these abnormal responses to orthodontic force application. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  1. Optimal environmental policy differentials in open economies under emissions constraints

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Withagen, C.A.A.M.; Florax, R.J.G.M.; Mulatu, A.

    2007-01-01

    Is there a case for preferential treatment of the exposed sector in an economy when compliance to an aggregate emissions constraint induced by an international environmental agreement is mandatory? This question is being debated in many countries in the context of the implementation of the Kyoto

  2. Sensorimotor Reorganizations of Arm Kinematics and Postural Strategy for Functional Whole-Body Reaching Movements in Microgravity

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Thomas Macaluso

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available Understanding the impact of weightlessness on human behavior during the forthcoming long-term space missions is of critical importance, especially when considering the efficiency of goal-directed movements in these unusual environments. Several studies provided a large set of evidence that gravity is taken into account during the planning stage of arm reaching movements to optimally anticipate its consequence upon the moving limbs. However, less is known about sensorimotor changes required to face weightless environments when individuals have to perform fast and accurate goal-directed actions with whole-body displacement. We thus aimed at characterizing kinematic features of whole-body reaching movements in microgravity, involving high spatiotemporal constraints of execution, to question whether and how humans are able to maintain the performance of a functional behavior in the standards of normogravity execution. Seven participants were asked to reach as fast and as accurately as possible visual targets while standing during microgravity episodes in parabolic flight. Small and large targets were presented either close or far from the participants (requiring, in the latter case, additional whole-body displacement. Results reported that participants successfully performed the reaching task with general temporal features of movement (e.g., movement speed close to land observations. However, our analyses also demonstrated substantial kinematic changes related to the temporal structure of focal movement and the postural strategy to successfully perform -constrained- whole-body reaching movements in microgravity. These immediate reorganizations are likely achieved by rapidly taking into account the absence of gravity in motor preparation and execution (presumably from cues about body limbs unweighting. Specifically, when compared to normogravity, the arm deceleration phase substantially increased. Furthermore, greater whole-body forward displacements

  3. Artificial gravity: head movements during short-radius centrifugation

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Young, L. R.; Hecht, H.; Lyne, L. E.; Sienko, K. H.; Cheung, C. C.; Kavelaars, J.

    2001-01-01

    Short-radius centrifugation is a potential countermeasure to long-term weightlessness. Unfortunately, head movements in a rotating environment induce serious discomfort, non-compensatory vestibulo-ocular reflexes, and subjective illusions of body tilt. In two experiments we investigated the effects

  4. Reduction of Constraints: Applicability of the Homogeneity Constraint for Macrobatch 3

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Peeler, D.K.

    2001-01-01

    The Product Composition Control System (PCCS) is used to determine the acceptability of each batch of Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF) melter feed in the Slurry Mix Evaporator (SME). This control system imposes several constraints on the composition of the contents of the SME to define acceptability. These constraints relate process or product properties to composition via prediction models. A SME batch is deemed acceptable if its sample composition measurements lead to acceptable property predictions after accounting for modeling, measurement and analytic uncertainties. The baseline document guiding the use of these data and models is ''SME Acceptability Determination for DWPF Process Control (U)'' by Brown and Postles [1996]. A minimum of three PCCS constraints support the prediction of the glass durability from a given SME batch. The Savannah River Technology Center (SRTC) is reviewing all of the PCCS constraints associated with durability. The purpose of this review is to revisit these constraints in light of the additional knowledge gained since the beginning of radioactive operations at DWPF and to identify any supplemental studies needed to amplify this knowledge so that redundant or overly conservative constraints can be eliminated or replaced by more appropriate constraints

  5. A rolling constraint reproduces ground reaction forces and moments in dynamic simulations of walking, running, and crouch gait.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hamner, Samuel R; Seth, Ajay; Steele, Katherine M; Delp, Scott L

    2013-06-21

    Recent advances in computational technology have dramatically increased the use of muscle-driven simulation to study accelerations produced by muscles during gait. Accelerations computed from muscle-driven simulations are sensitive to the model used to represent contact between the foot and ground. A foot-ground contact model must be able to calculate ground reaction forces and moments that are consistent with experimentally measured ground reaction forces and moments. We show here that a rolling constraint can model foot-ground contact and reproduce measured ground reaction forces and moments in an induced acceleration analysis of muscle-driven simulations of walking, running, and crouch gait. We also illustrate that a point constraint and a weld constraint used to model foot-ground contact in previous studies produce inaccurate reaction moments and lead to contradictory interpretations of muscle function. To enable others to use and test these different constraint types (i.e., rolling, point, and weld constraints) we have included them as part of an induced acceleration analysis in OpenSim, a freely-available biomechanics simulation package. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  6. Self-directed therapy programmes for arm rehabilitation after stroke: a systematic review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Da-Silva, Ruth H; Moore, Sarah A; Price, Christopher I

    2018-05-01

    To investigate the effectiveness of self-directed arm interventions in adult stroke survivors. A systematic review of Medline, EMBASE, CINAHL, SCOPUS and IEEE Xplore up to February 2018 was carried out. Studies of stroke arm interventions were included where more than 50% of the time spent in therapy was initiated and carried out by the participant. Quality of the evidence was assessed using the Cochrane risk of bias tool. A total of 40 studies ( n = 1172 participants) were included (19 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and 21 before-after studies). Studies were grouped according to no technology or the main additional technology used (no technology n = 5; interactive gaming n = 6; electrical stimulation n = 11; constraint-induced movement therapy n = 6; robotic and dynamic orthotic devices n = 8; mirror therapy n = 1; telerehabilitation n = 2; wearable devices n = 1). A beneficial effect on arm function was found for self-directed interventions using constraint-induced movement therapy ( n = 105; standardized mean difference (SMD) 0.39, 95% confidence interval (CI) -0.00 to 0.78) and electrical stimulation ( n = 94; SMD 0.50, 95% CI 0.08-0.91). Constraint-induced movement therapy and therapy programmes without technology improved independence in activities of daily living. Sensitivity analysis demonstrated arm function benefit for patients >12 months poststroke ( n = 145; SMD 0.52, 95% CI 0.21-0.82) but not at 0-3, 3-6 or 6-12 months. Self-directed interventions can enhance arm recovery after stroke but the effect varies according to the approach used and timing. There were benefits identified from self-directed delivery of constraint-induced movement therapy, electrical stimulation and therapy programmes that increase practice without using additional technology.

  7. Understanding the dynamical control of animal movement

    Science.gov (United States)

    Edwards, Donald

    2008-03-01

    Over the last 50 years, neurophysiologists have described many neural circuits that transform sensory input into motor commands, while biomechanicians and behavioral biologists have described many patterns of animal movement that occur in response to sensory input. Attempts to link these two have been frustrated by our technical inability to record from the necessary neurons in a freely behaving animal. As a result, we don't know how these neural circuits function in the closed loop context of free behavior, where the sensory and motor context changes on a millisecond time-scale. To address this problem, we have developed a software package, AnimatLab (www.AnimatLab.com), that enables users to reconstruct an animal's body and its relevant neural circuits, to link them at the sensory and motor ends, and through simulation, to test their ability to reproduce appropriate patterns of the animal's movements in a simulated Newtonian world. A Windows-based program, AnimatLab consists of a neural editor, a body editor, a world editor, stimulus and recording facilities, neural and physics engines, and an interactive 3-D graphical display. We have used AnimatLab to study three patterns of behavior: the grasshopper jump, crayfish escape, and crayfish leg movements used in postural control, walking, reaching and grasping. In each instance, the simulation helped identify constraints on both nervous function and biomechanical performance that have provided the basis for new experiments. Colleagues elsewhere have begun to use AnimatLab to study control of paw movements in cats and postural control in humans. We have also used AnimatLab simulations to guide the development of an autonomous hexapod robot in which the neural control circuitry is downloaded to the robot from the test computer.

  8. Diagram of Calcium Movement in the Human Body

    Science.gov (United States)

    2002-01-01

    This diagram shows the normal pathways of calcium movement in the body and indicates changes (green arrows) seen during preliminary space flight experiments. Calcium plays a central role because 1) it gives strength and structure to bone and 2) all types of cells require it to function normally. To better understand how and why weightlessness induces bone loss, astronauts have participated in a study of calcium kinetics -- that is, the movement of calcium through the body, including absorption from food, and its role in the formation and breakdown of bone.

  9. Context-dependence of Aimed Arm Movements: A Transitory or A Stable Phenomenon?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Benjamin Baak

    2014-10-01

    Full Text Available Previous work documented that grasping movements in a typical laboratory context differ widely from those in a more natural context. We evaluate whether this context-dependence changes with experience. Data from 48 subjects (24 female; 24.9 ± 2.7 years of age were (reanalyzed. They had participated in experimental blocks with externally triggered, purposeless and repetitive movements (context L, laboratory-like, and a block with self-initiated, ecologically valid movements embedded in a complex task (context E, everyday-like. Mechanical constraints on grasping were identical in both blocks. A global metric, representing context-dependence across multiple kinematic parameters, did not change appreciably across the 20 trials of a block. Furthermore, the metric was not affected by prior participation in the other block. We conclude that context-dependence of grasping is robust, i.e., it shows little influence of prior experience. This opens the avenue for within-subject designs on context-dependence, e.g., for clinical investigations. Keywords: Motor control, Prehension, Context-dependence, Serial order, Attunement

  10. Momentum constraint relaxation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Marronetti, Pedro

    2006-01-01

    Full relativistic simulations in three dimensions invariably develop runaway modes that grow exponentially and are accompanied by violations of the Hamiltonian and momentum constraints. Recently, we introduced a numerical method (Hamiltonian relaxation) that greatly reduces the Hamiltonian constraint violation and helps improve the quality of the numerical model. We present here a method that controls the violation of the momentum constraint. The method is based on the addition of a longitudinal component to the traceless extrinsic curvature A ij -tilde, generated by a vector potential w i , as outlined by York. The components of w i are relaxed to solve approximately the momentum constraint equations, slowly pushing the evolution towards the space of solutions of the constraint equations. We test this method with simulations of binary neutron stars in circular orbits and show that it effectively controls the growth of the aforementioned violations. We also show that a full numerical enforcement of the constraints, as opposed to the gentle correction of the momentum relaxation scheme, results in the development of instabilities that stop the runs shortly

  11. Nuclear politics: Exploring the nexus between citizens movements and public policy in Japan

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tabusa, K.

    1992-01-01

    This dissertation analyzes the relationship between the grass-roots antinuclear movement and nuclear energy policy in Japan. In particular, it seeks to explain the lack of impact of the grass-roots antinuclear movement on Japanese nuclear energy policymaking. To explain the lack of political pressure exerted, the author focuses on the lack of open-quotes political opportunitiesclose quotes for the movement. Past studies on antinuclear movements and nuclear energy policymaking of the Western countries indicate that such opportunities are provided in the processes of parliamentary politics, bureaucratic rivalries, central-local governmental conflicts, and judicial intervention in the resolution of political conflicts. The author's study argues that closed political opportunity structure of the Japanese political system has separated the grass-roots antinuclear movement from the national nuclear energy policymaking process by imposing constraints on the development and achievement of the movement. The research shows that: (1) the nature of party conflicts (balance of power and idealogy) in the Japanese parliament tends to discourage the representation of antinuclear interests by opposition parties; (2) the government has successfully prevented antinuclear groups from interfering with the licensing and regulatory processes; and (3) the local governments and courts have failed to intervene in the nuclear energy conflict on behalf of antinuclear groups. The closed opportunity structure has also led the movement to stress the mobilization of public opinion rather than manipulation of institutional access to the policymaking process as its strategy. In addition to well-publicized protest activities and mass demonstrations, electoral campaigns and litigation have also become activities primarily designed to appeal to the public, which has so far failed to indicate strong support for the antinuclear movement

  12. MPC-Based Path Following Control of an Omnidirectional Mobile Robot with Consideration of Robot Constraints

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kiattisin Kanjanawanishkul

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available In this paper, the path following problem of an omnidirectional mobile robot (OMR has been studied. Unlike nonholonomic mobile robots, translational and rotational movements of OMRs can be controlled simultaneously and independently. However the constraints of translational and rotational velocities are coupled through the OMR's orientation angle. Therefore, a combination of a virtual-vehicle concept and a model predictive control (MPC strategy is proposed in this work to handle both robot constraints and the path following problem. Our proposed control scheme allows the OMR to follow the reference path successfully and safely, as illustrated in simulation experiments. The forward velocity is close to the desired one and the desired orientation angle is achieved at a given point on the path, while the robot's wheel velocities are maintained within boundaries.

  13. Inhibitory effect of interferon-γ on experimental tooth movement in mice.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kohara, Haruka; Kitaura, Hideki; Yoshimatsu, Masako; Fujimura, Yuji; Morita, Yukiko; Eguchi, Toshiko; Yoshida, Noriaki

    2012-09-01

    The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of interferon (IFN)-γ on experimental tooth movement in mice using a murine experimental tooth movement model. An Ni-Ti closed-coil spring was inserted between the upper-anterior alveolar bones and the upper-left first molars in mice. We evaluated the relationship between local Ifn-γ mRNA levels and orthodontic tooth movement. In other experiments, IFN-γ was injected adjacent to each first molar every other day during tooth movement. After 12 days, the amount of tooth movement was measured. Tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase (TRAP)-positive cells at the pressure side of each experimental tooth were counted as osteoclasts. Local Ifn-γ mRNA expression increased with orthodontic tooth movement. The number of TRAP-positive cells increased on the pressure side of the first molar. In contrast, the degree of tooth movement and the number of TRAP-positive cells on the pressure side in IFN-γ-injected mice were less than those of control mice. IFN-γ was induced in experimental tooth movement, and could inhibit mechanical force-loaded osteoclastogenesis and tooth movement. These results suggest that IFN-γ might be useful in controlling orthodontic tooth movement because of its inhibitory action on excessive osteoclastogenesis during this movement.

  14. Passive limb movement: evidence of mechanoreflex sex specificity.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ives, Stephen J; McDaniel, John; Witman, Melissa A H; Richardson, Russell S

    2013-01-01

    Previous studies have determined that premenopausal women exhibit an attenuated metaboreflex; however, little is known about sex specificity of the mechanoreflex. Thus, we sought to determine if sex differences exist in the central and peripheral hemodynamic responses to passive limb movement. Second-by-second measurements of heart rate, stroke volume, cardiac output (CO), mean arterial pressure, and femoral artery blood flow (FBF) were recorded during 3 min of supine passive knee extension in 24 young healthy subjects (12 women and 12 men). Normalization of CO and stroke volume to body surface area, expressed as cardiac index and stroke index, eliminated differences in baseline central hemodynamics, whereas, peripherally, basal FBF and femoral vascular conductance were similar between the sexes. In response to passive limb movement, women displayed significantly attenuated peak central hemodynamic responses compared with men (heart rate: 9.0 ± 1 vs. 14.8 ± 2% change, stroke index: 4.5 ± 0.6 vs. 7.8 ± 1.2% change, cardiac index: 9.6 ± 1 vs. 17.2 ± 2% change, all P movement induced similar increases in peak FBF (167 ± 32 vs. 193 ± 17% change) and femoral vascular conductance (172 ± 31 vs. 203 ± 16% change) in both sexes (women vs. men, respectively). Additionally, there was a significant positive relationship between individual peak FBF and peak CO response to passive movement in men but not in women. Thus, although both sexes exhibited similar movement-induced hyperemia and peripheral vasodilatory function, the central hemodynamic response was blunted in women, implying an attenuated mechanoreflex. Therefore, this study reveals that, as already recognized with the metaboreflex, there is likely a sex-specific attenuation of the mechanoreflex in women.

  15. A movement ecology paradigm for unifying organismal movement research.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nathan, Ran; Getz, Wayne M; Revilla, Eloy; Holyoak, Marcel; Kadmon, Ronen; Saltz, David; Smouse, Peter E

    2008-12-09

    Movement of individual organisms is fundamental to life, quilting our planet in a rich tapestry of phenomena with diverse implications for ecosystems and humans. Movement research is both plentiful and insightful, and recent methodological advances facilitate obtaining a detailed view of individual movement. Yet, we lack a general unifying paradigm, derived from first principles, which can place movement studies within a common context and advance the development of a mature scientific discipline. This introductory article to the Movement Ecology Special Feature proposes a paradigm that integrates conceptual, theoretical, methodological, and empirical frameworks for studying movement of all organisms, from microbes to trees to elephants. We introduce a conceptual framework depicting the interplay among four basic mechanistic components of organismal movement: the internal state (why move?), motion (how to move?), and navigation (when and where to move?) capacities of the individual and the external factors affecting movement. We demonstrate how the proposed framework aids the study of various taxa and movement types; promotes the formulation of hypotheses about movement; and complements existing biomechanical, cognitive, random, and optimality paradigms of movement. The proposed framework integrates eclectic research on movement into a structured paradigm and aims at providing a basis for hypothesis generation and a vehicle facilitating the understanding of the causes, mechanisms, and spatiotemporal patterns of movement and their role in various ecological and evolutionary processes. "Now we must consider in general the common reason for moving with any movement whatever." (Aristotle, De Motu Animalium, 4th century B.C.).

  16. Intercellular signaling through secreted proteins induces free-energy gradient-directed cell movement.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kravchenko-Balasha, Nataly; Shin, Young Shik; Sutherland, Alex; Levine, R D; Heath, James R

    2016-05-17

    Controlling cell migration is important in tissue engineering and medicine. Cell motility depends on factors such as nutrient concentration gradients and soluble factor signaling. In particular, cell-cell signaling can depend on cell-cell separation distance and can influence cellular arrangements in bulk cultures. Here, we seek a physical-based approach, which identifies a potential governed by cell-cell signaling that induces a directed cell-cell motion. A single-cell barcode chip (SCBC) was used to experimentally interrogate secreted proteins in hundreds of isolated glioblastoma brain cancer cell pairs and to monitor their relative motions over time. We used these trajectories to identify a range of cell-cell separation distances where the signaling was most stable. We then used a thermodynamics-motivated analysis of secreted protein levels to characterize free-energy changes for different cell-cell distances. We show that glioblastoma cell-cell movement can be described as Brownian motion biased by cell-cell potential. To demonstrate that the free-energy potential as determined by the signaling is the driver of motion, we inhibited two proteins most involved in maintaining the free-energy gradient. Following inhibition, cell pairs showed an essentially random Brownian motion, similar to the case for untreated, isolated single cells.

  17. Movement impairment: Focus on the brain.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Adami, Raffaella; Bottai, Daniele

    2016-04-01

    The saying "mens sana in corpore sano" has a particular resonance these days because, for the majority who have a very sedentary occupation, the everyday rhythms of life do not compel us to do much physical exercise. Recently published data indicate that exercise can counteract the effects of neurological diseases such as Alzheimer's disease and have prompted research on the beneficial effects of movement on the brain and brain neurogenesis. This might lead us to hypothesize that the absence or reduction of movements, especially those with antigravity effects, could induce a deterioration of the brain. This Review discusses current knowledge of the relationship between neurogenic capacity and the lack of motor activity in human and animal models. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  18. Topology optimization of continuum structure with dynamic constraints using mode identification

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Li, Jianhongyu; Chen, Shenyan; Huang, Hai

    2015-01-01

    For the problems such as mode exchange and localized modes in topology optimization of continuum structure with dynamic constraints, it is difficult to apply the traditional optimization model which considers fixed order mode frequencies as constraints in optimization calculation. A new optimization model is established, in which the dynamical constraints are changed as frequencies of structural principal vibrations. The order of the principal vibrations is recognized through modal identification in the optimization process, and the constraints are updated to make the optimization calculation execute smoothly. Localized mode elimination techniques are introduced to reduce the localized modes induced by the low density elements, which could improve the optimization efficiency. A new optimization process is designed, which achieves the purpose of overcoming mode exchange problem and localized mode problem at the cost of increasing several structural analyses. Optimization system is developed by using Nastran to perform structural analysis and sensitivity analysis and two-level multipoint approximation algorithm as optimizer. Numerical results verified that the presented method is effective and reasonable.

  19. Calibrating EEG-based motor imagery brain-computer interface from passive movement.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ang, Kai Keng; Guan, Cuntai; Wang, Chuanchu; Phua, Kok Soon; Tan, Adrian Hock Guan; Chin, Zheng Yang

    2011-01-01

    EEG data from performing motor imagery are usually collected to calibrate a subject-specific model for classifying the EEG data during the evaluation phase of motor imagery Brain-Computer Interface (BCI). However, there is no direct objective measure to determine if a subject is performing motor imagery correctly for proper calibration. Studies have shown that passive movement, which is directly observable, induces Event-Related Synchronization patterns that are similar to those induced from motor imagery. Hence, this paper investigates the feasibility of calibrating EEG-based motor imagery BCI from passive movement. EEG data of 12 healthy subjects were collected during motor imagery and passive movement of the hand by a haptic knob robot. The calibration models using the Filter Bank Common Spatial Pattern algorithm on the EEG data from motor imagery were compared against using the EEG data from passive movement. The performances were compared based on the 10×10-fold cross-validation accuracies of the calibration data, and off-line session-to-session transfer kappa values to other sessions of motor imagery performed on another day. The results showed that the calibration performed using passive movement yielded higher model accuracy and off-line session-to-session transfer (73.6% and 0.354) than the calibration performed using motor imagery (71.3% and 0.311), and no significant differences were observed between the two groups (p=0.20, 0.23). Hence, this study shows that it is feasible to calibrate EEG-based motor imagery BCI from passive movement.

  20. Restoration of Movement using FES: An Introductory Study I

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ahmed, M.; Huq, M. S.; Ibrahim, B. S. K. K.

    2018-03-01

    FES has been applied for movement restoration, rehabilitation and therapy in spinal cord injury and nervous system failure subjects, whose number rise worldwide every year. Despite the increase, assist devices that are expected to aid healthcare delivery are not in abundance and could be as a result of standards imposed due to the sensitive condition of the subjects. Although closed loop control systems are expected to positively aid in that regards, the delicacy of the plant was a big constraint. An existing model from the works Ferrarin and Pedotti was elaborated from the knee swinging to the sit-to-stand movements and from the two mathematical models it can be inferred that even though similar higher level of excitation would be required for sit-to-stand manoeuvre. As part of research to improve on closed approach for the FES system, an appraisal was successfully done on the neuromuscular model together with fatigue models from the works on Lynch. The remodelled fatigue models to suit the research were presented.

  1. Do constraints associated with the locomotor habitat drive the evolution of forelimb shape? A case study in musteloid carnivorans.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fabre, Anne-Claire; Cornette, Raphael; Goswami, Anjali; Peigné, Stéphane

    2015-06-01

    Convergence in morphology can result from evolutionary adaptations in species living in environments with similar selective pressures. Here, we investigate whether the shape of the forelimb long bones has converged in environments imposing similar functional constraints, using musteloid carnivores as a model. The limbs of quadrupeds are subjected to many factors that may influence their shape. They need to support body mass without collapsing or breaking, yet at the same time resist the stresses and strains induced by locomotion. This likely imposes strong constraints on their morphology. Our geometric morphometric analyses show that locomotion, body mass and phylogeny all influence the shape of the forelimb. Furthermore, we find a remarkable convergence between: (i) aquatic and semi-fossorial species, both displaying a robust forelimb, with a shape that improves stability and load transfer in response to the physical resistance imposed by the locomotor environment; and (ii) aquatic and arboreal/semi-arboreal species, with both groups displaying a broad capitulum. This augments the degree of pronation/supination, an important feature for climbing as well as grasping and manipulation ability, behaviors common to aquatic and arboreal species. In summary, our results highlight how musteloids with different locomotor ecologies show differences in the anatomy of their forelimb bones. Yet, functional demands for limb movement through dense media also result in convergence in forelimb long-bone shape between diverse groups, for example, otters and badgers. © 2015 Anatomical Society.

  2. Independence of Movement Preparation and Movement Initiation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Haith, Adrian M; Pakpoor, Jina; Krakauer, John W

    2016-03-09

    Initiating a movement in response to a visual stimulus takes significantly longer than might be expected on the basis of neural transmission delays, but it is unclear why. In a visually guided reaching task, we forced human participants to move at lower-than-normal reaction times to test whether normal reaction times are strictly necessary for accurate movement. We found that participants were, in fact, capable of moving accurately ∼80 ms earlier than their reaction times would suggest. Reaction times thus include a seemingly unnecessary delay that accounts for approximately one-third of their duration. Close examination of participants' behavior in conventional reaction-time conditions revealed that they generated occasional, spontaneous errors in trials in which their reaction time was unusually short. The pattern of these errors could be well accounted for by a simple model in which the timing of movement initiation is independent of the timing of movement preparation. This independence provides an explanation for why reaction times are usually so sluggish: delaying the mean time of movement initiation relative to preparation reduces the risk that a movement will be initiated before it has been appropriately prepared. Our results suggest that preparation and initiation of movement are mechanistically independent and may have a distinct neural basis. The results also demonstrate that, even in strongly stimulus-driven tasks, presentation of a stimulus does not directly trigger a movement. Rather, the stimulus appears to trigger an internal decision whether to make a movement, reflecting a volitional rather than reactive mode of control. Copyright © 2016 the authors 0270-6474/16/363007-10$15.00/0.

  3. Study of low energy thermal constraints for a copper-plated niobium structure carried out by thermal projection

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gassot, H.; Durante, M.; Thiebault, A.; Vernay, E.

    1999-06-01

    In the framework of T.T.F. (Tesla Test Facility), the international collaboration on research and development of superconducting cavities, a study of a new method of manufacturing cavities was launched, which consists in deposing a metal (copper) or an alloy by thermal projection on niobium cavities in order to stiffen them. Analytical and numerical calculations showed that when cooled this bi-material cavities behave very differently in comparison with classical pure niobium cavities and strong thermal constraints do occur in niobium as well as in copper. These strong constraints may have important consequences upon the functioning of superconducting cavities. In addition these constraints may induce in time cracks in materials and interfaces. In this paper an experiment for measuring constraints at the temperature of cavity operation, i.e., at the liquid helium temperature, is proposed in order to compare the measured constraints with the calculated constraints. The sample studied has a cylindrical shape, rather representative for the geometrical shape of cavities, but easier to handle than a prototype cavity. The experimental approach consists in carrying out two deformation measurements. The first one, is done on single material sample (niobium and copper) to establish the laws of compensation of the constraint gauges as a function of temperature. The other measurement establishes the global deformations of a bi-metallic tube (Nb-Cu) when the interior surface (niobium) and the external surface (porous copper) of the tube are cooled. From these deformation data the thermal constraints of the bi-metallic tube at low temperature have been derived. The implementation of the entire setup of the methods of measuring the constraints at low temperature constitutes a new development in the field of superconducting cavities. The experiments have also indicated certain further developments which should be achieved if the plastic deformations induced by the freezing regime

  4. Computational movement analysis

    CERN Document Server

    Laube, Patrick

    2014-01-01

    This SpringerBrief discusses the characteristics of spatiotemporal movement data, including uncertainty and scale. It investigates three core aspects of Computational Movement Analysis: Conceptual modeling of movement and movement spaces, spatiotemporal analysis methods aiming at a better understanding of movement processes (with a focus on data mining for movement patterns), and using decentralized spatial computing methods in movement analysis. The author presents Computational Movement Analysis as an interdisciplinary umbrella for analyzing movement processes with methods from a range of fi

  5. Interactive effects of periodontitis and orthodontic tooth movement on dental root resorption, tooth movement velocity and alveolar bone loss in a rat model.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kirschneck, Christian; Fanghänel, Jochen; Wahlmann, Ulrich; Wolf, Michael; Roldán, J Camilo; Proff, Peter

    2017-03-01

    Many adult orthodontic patients suffer from chronic periodontitis with recurrent episodes of active periodontal inflammation. As their number is steadily increasing, orthodontists are more and more frequently challenged by respective treatment considerations. However, little is currently known regarding interactive effects on undesired dental root resorption (DRR), tooth movement velocity, periodontal bone loss and the underlying cellular and tissue reactions. A total of 63 male Fischer344 rats were used in three consecutive experiments employing 21 animals each (A/B/C), randomly assigned to 3 experimental groups (n=7, 1/2/3), respectively: (A) CBCT; (B) histology/serology; (C) RT-qPCR-(1) control; (2) orthodontic tooth movement (OTM) of the first/second upper left molars (NiTi coil spring, 0.25N); (3) OTM with experimentally induced periodontitis (cervical silk ligature). After 14days of OTM, we quantified blood leukocyte level, DRR, osteoclast activity and relative gene expression of inflammatory and osteoclast marker genes within the dental-periodontal tissue as well as tooth movement velocity and periodontal bone loss after 14 and 28 days. The experimentally induced periodontal bone loss was significantly increased by concurrent orthodontic force application. Periodontal inflammation during OTM on the other hand significantly augmented the extent of DRR, relative expression of inflammatory/osteoclast marker genes, blood leukocyte level and periodontal osteoclast activity. In addition, contrary to previous studies, we observed a significant increase in tooth movement velocity. Although accelerated tooth movement would be favourable for orthodontic treatment, our results suggest that orthodontic interventions should only be performed after successful systematic periodontal therapy and paused in case of recurrent active inflammation. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.

  6. Substrate Binding Induces Domain Movements in Orotidine 5'-Monophosphate Decarboxylase

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Harris, Pernille Hanne; Poulsen, Jens-Christian Navarro; Jensen, Kaj Frank

    2002-01-01

    ); here we present the 2.5 Å structure of the uncomplexed apo enzyme, determined from twinned crystals. A structural analysis and comparison of the two structures of the E. coli enzyme show that binding of the inhibitor is accompanied by significant domain movements of approximately 12° around a hinge...

  7. A taste of dark matter. Flavour constraints on pseudoscalar mediators

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Dolan, Matthew J.; McCabe, Christopher

    2014-12-01

    Dark matter interacting via the exchange of a light pseudoscalar can induce observable signals in indirect detection experiments and experience large self-interactions while evading the strong bounds from direct dark matter searches. The pseudoscalar mediator will however induce flavour-changing interactions in the Standard Model, providing a promising alternative way to test these models. We investigate in detail the constraints arising from rare meson decays and fixed target experiments for different coupling structures between the pseudoscalar and Standard Model fermions. The resulting bounds are highly complementary to the information inferred from the dark matter relic density and the constraints from primordial nucleosynthesis. We discuss the implications of our findings for the dark matter self-interaction cross section and the prospects of probing dark matter coupled to a light pseudoscalar with direct or indirect detection experiments. In particular, we find that a pseudoscalar mediator can only explain the Galactic Centre excess if its mass is above that of the B mesons, and that it is impossible to obtain a sufficiently large direct detection cross section to account for the DAMA modulation.

  8. Fatigue-Induced Changes in Movement Pattern and Muscle Activity During Ballet Releve on Demi-Pointe.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lin, Cheng-Feng; Lee, Wan-Chin; Chen, Yi-An; Hsue, Bih-Jen

    2016-08-01

    Fatigue in ballet dancers may lead to injury, particularly in the lower extremities. However, few studies have investigated the effects of fatigue on ballet dancers' performance and movement patterns. Thus, the current study examines the effect of fatigue on the balance, movement pattern, and muscle activities of the lower extremities in ballet dancers. Twenty healthy, female ballet dancers performed releve on demi-pointe before and after fatigue. The trajectory of the whole body movement and the muscle activities of the major lower extremity muscles were recorded continuously during task performance. The results show that fatigue increases the medial-lateral center of mass (COM) displacement and hip and trunk motion, but decreases the COM velocity and ankle motion. Moreover, fatigue reduces the activities of the hamstrings and tibialis anterior, but increases that of the soleus. Finally, greater proximal hip and trunk motions are applied to compensate for the effects of fatigue, leading to a greater COM movement. Overall, the present findings show that fatigue results in impaired movement control and may therefore increase the risk of dance injury.

  9. Remifentanil Prevents Withdrawal Movements Caused by Intravenous Injection of Rocuronium

    Science.gov (United States)

    Choi, Byung In; Choi, Seung Ho; Shin, Yang-Sik; Lee, Sung Jin; Yoon, Kyung Bong; Shin, Seo Kyung

    2008-01-01

    Purpose The incidence of pain induced withdrawal movement following intravenous injection of rocuronium is high. This randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study was designed to evaluate the effect of pretreatment of remifentanil on the withdrawal movements due to intravenous injection of rocuronium during anesthetic induction. Materials and Methods Ninety adult female patients undergoing thyroidectomy were randomly allocated to three groups. Each patient intravenously received one of three solutions of equal volume (4 mL): normal saline (Group I, n = 30), 0.5 µg/kg remifentanil (Group II, n = 30) or 1 µg/kg remifentanil (Group III, n = 30). Thirty seconds after remifentanil administration, anesthesia was induced with 5 mg/kg IV thiopental. Twenty seconds after thiopental injection, 0.6 mg/kg IV rocuronium was administered (injection rate of 0.5 mL/sec) and patients' withdrawal movements were assessed. Mean arterial pressure (MAP) and heart rate were assessed on arrival in the operation room, before the tracheal intubation and immediately, 1 and 2 min after the tracheal intubation. Results The incidence of withdrawal movements was significantly lower in both of the remifentanil groups (3 and 0% in Group II and III, respectively) than in the saline group (70%). Remifentanil attenuated the increase of heart rate and MAP immediately and 1 min after the tracheal intubation. Conclusion The pretreatment with 0.5 and 1.0 µg/kg remifentanil of bolus doses prevented the withdrawal movements caused by rocuronium injection, and effectively blunted cardiovascular activation following tracheal intubation. PMID:18452256

  10. Personality traits correlate with characteristics of music-induced movement

    OpenAIRE

    Luck, Geoff; Saarikallio, Suvi; Toiviainen, Petri

    2009-01-01

    Individual factors such as personality are essential for understanding musical experiences and engagement with music. Personality has been shown to be related to musical preferences and experiences, but little is known about how it affects music-related movement. The current study examined whether personality traits were related to the way in which people moved spontaneously to music. Twenty young adults (7 males, and 13 females, mean age 24.0 years) were asked to move spontaneously to a 12 b...

  11. Attention and choice: a review on eye movements in decision making.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Orquin, Jacob L; Mueller Loose, Simone

    2013-09-01

    This paper reviews studies on eye movements in decision making, and compares their observations to theoretical predictions concerning the role of attention in decision making. Four decision theories are examined: rational models, bounded rationality, evidence accumulation, and parallel constraint satisfaction models. Although most theories were confirmed with regard to certain predictions, none of the theories adequately accounted for the role of attention during decision making. Several observations emerged concerning the drivers and down-stream effects of attention on choice, suggesting that attention processes plays an active role in constructing decisions. So far, decision theories have largely ignored the constructive role of attention by assuming that it is entirely determined by heuristics, or that it consists of stochastic information sampling. The empirical observations reveal that these assumptions are implausible, and that more accurate assumptions could have been made based on prior attention and eye movement research. Future decision making research would benefit from greater integration with attention research. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  12. Functional range of movement of the hand: declination angles to reachable space.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pham, Hai Trieu; Pathirana, Pubudu N; Caelli, Terry

    2014-01-01

    The measurement of the range of hand joint movement is an essential part of clinical practice and rehabilitation. Current methods use three finger joint declination angles of the metacarpophalangeal, proximal interphalangeal and distal interphalangeal joints. In this paper we propose an alternate form of measurement for the finger movement. Using the notion of reachable space instead of declination angles has significant advantages. Firstly, it provides a visual and quantifiable method that therapists, insurance companies and patients can easily use to understand the functional capabilities of the hand. Secondly, it eliminates the redundant declination angle constraints. Finally, reachable space, defined by a set of reachable fingertip positions, can be measured and constructed by using a modern camera such as Creative Senz3D or built-in hand gesture sensors such as the Leap Motion Controller. Use of cameras or optical-type sensors for this purpose have considerable benefits such as eliminating and minimal involvement of therapist errors, non-contact measurement in addition to valuable time saving for the clinician. A comparison between using declination angles and reachable space were made based on Hume's experiment on functional range of movement to prove the efficiency of this new approach.

  13. Real-time movement detection and analysis for video surveillance applications

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hueber, Nicolas; Hennequin, Christophe; Raymond, Pierre; Moeglin, Jean-Pierre

    2014-06-01

    Pedestrian movement along critical infrastructures like pipes, railways or highways, is of major interest in surveillance applications as well as its behavior in urban environment. The goal is to anticipate illicit or dangerous human activities. For this purpose, we propose an all-in-one small autonomous system which delivers high level statistics and reports alerts in specific cases. This situational awareness project leads us to manage efficiently the scene by performing movement analysis. A dynamic background extraction algorithm is developed to reach the degree of robustness against natural and urban environment perturbations and also to match the embedded implementation constraints. When changes are detected in the scene, specific patterns are applied to detect and highlight relevant movements. Depending on the applications, specific descriptors can be extracted and fused in order to reach a high level of interpretation. In this paper, our approach is applied to two operational use cases: pedestrian urban statistics and railway surveillance. In the first case, a grid of prototypes is deployed over a city centre to collect pedestrian movement statistics up to a macroscopic level of analysis. The results demonstrate the relevance of the delivered information; in particular, the flow density map highlights pedestrian preferential paths along the streets. In the second case, one prototype is set next to high speed train tracks to secure the area. The results exhibit a low false alarm rate and assess our approach of a large sensor network for delivering a precise operational picture without overwhelming a supervisor.

  14. Cosmological constraints on radion evolution in the universal extra dimension model

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chan, K. C.; Chu, M.-C.

    2008-01-01

    The constraints on the radion evolution in the universal extra dimension (UED) model from cosmic microwave background (CMB) and Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) data are studied. In the UED model, where both the gravity and standard model fields can propagate in the extra dimensions, the evolution of the extra-dimensional volume, the radion, induces variation of fundamental constants. We discuss the effects of variation of the relevant constants in the context of UED for the CMB power spectrum and SNe Ia data. We then use the three-year WMAP data to constrain the radion evolution at z∼1100, and the 2σ constraint on ρ/ρ 0 (ρ is a function of the radion, to be defined in the text) is [-8.8,6.6]x10 -13 yr -1 . The SNe Ia gold sample yields a constraint on ρ/ρ 0 , for redshift between 0 and 1, to be [-4.7,14]x10 -13 yr -1 . Furthermore, the constraints from SNe Ia can be interpreted as bounds on the evolution QCD scale parameter, Λ QCD /Λ QCD,0 , [-1.4,2.8]x10 -11 yr -1 , without reference to the UED model.

  15. Spontaneous reverse movement of mRNA-bound tRNA through the ribosome.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Konevega, Andrey L; Fischer, Niels; Semenkov, Yuri P; Stark, Holger; Wintermeyer, Wolfgang; Rodnina, Marina V

    2007-04-01

    During the translocation step of protein synthesis, a complex of two transfer RNAs bound to messenger RNA (tRNA-mRNA) moves through the ribosome. The reaction is promoted by an elongation factor, called EF-G in bacteria, which, powered by GTP hydrolysis, induces an open, unlocked conformation of the ribosome that allows for spontaneous tRNA-mRNA movement. Here we show that, in the absence of EF-G, there is spontaneous backward movement, or retrotranslocation, of two tRNAs bound to mRNA. Retrotranslocation is driven by the gain in affinity when a cognate E-site tRNA moves into the P site, which compensates the affinity loss accompanying the movement of peptidyl-tRNA from the P to the A site. These results lend support to the diffusion model of tRNA movement during translocation. In the cell, tRNA movement is biased in the forward direction by EF-G, which acts as a Brownian ratchet and prevents backward movement.

  16. Crack-tip constraint analyses and constraint-dependent LBB curves for circumferential through-wall cracked pipes

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Chen, Y.L.; Wang, G.Z., E-mail: gzwang@ecust.edu.cn; Xuan, F.Z.; Tu, S.T.

    2015-04-15

    Highlights: • Solution of constraint parameter τ* for through-wall cracked pipes has been obtained. • Constraint increases with increasing crack length and radius–thickness ratio of pipes. • Constraint-dependent LBB curve for through-wall cracked pipes has been constructed. • For increasing accuracy of LBB assessments, constraint effect should be considered. - Abstract: The leak-before-break (LBB) concept has been widely applied in the structural integrity assessments of pressured pipes in nuclear power plants. However, the crack-tip constraint effects in LBB analyses and designs cannot be incorporated. In this paper, by using three-dimensional finite element calculations, the modified load-independent T-stress constraint parameter τ* for circumferential through-wall cracked pipes with different geometries and crack sizes has been analyzed under different loading conditions, and the solutions of the crack-tip constraint parameter τ* have been obtained. Based on the τ* solutions and constraint-dependent J–R curves of a steel, the constraint-dependent LBB (leak-before-break) curves have been constructed. The results show that the constraint τ* increases with increasing crack length θ, mean radius R{sub m} and radius–thickness ratio R{sub m}/t of the pipes. In LBB analyses, the critical crack length calculated by the J–R curve of the standard high constraint specimen for pipes with shorter cracks is over-conservative, and the degree of conservatism increases with decreasing crack length θ, R{sub m} and R{sub m}/t. Therefore, the constraint-dependent LBB curves should be constructed to modify the over-conservatism and increase accuracy of LBB assessments.

  17. Misconceptions and constraints

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Whitten, M.; Mahon, R.

    2005-01-01

    In theory, the sterile insect technique (SIT) is applicable to a wide variety of invertebrate pests. However, in practice, the approach has been successfully applied to only a few major pests. Chapters in this volume address possible reasons for this discrepancy, e.g. Klassen, Lance and McInnis, and Robinson and Hendrichs. The shortfall between theory and practice is partly due to the persistence of some common misconceptions, but it is mainly due to one constraint, or a combination of constraints, that are biological, financial, social or political in nature. This chapter's goal is to dispel some major misconceptions, and view the constraints as challenges to overcome, seeing them as opportunities to exploit. Some of the common misconceptions include: (1) released insects retain residual radiation, (2) females must be monogamous, (3) released males must be fully sterile, (4) eradication is the only goal, (5) the SIT is too sophisticated for developing countries, and (6) the SIT is not a component of an area-wide integrated pest management (AW-IPM) strategy. The more obvious constraints are the perceived high costs of the SIT, and the low competitiveness of released sterile males. The perceived high up-front costs of the SIT, their visibility, and the lack of private investment (compared with alternative suppression measures) emerge as serious constraints. Failure to appreciate the true nature of genetic approaches, such as the SIT, may pose a significant constraint to the wider adoption of the SIT and other genetically-based tactics, e.g. transgenic genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Lack of support for the necessary underpinning strategic research also appears to be an important constraint. Hence the case for extensive strategic research in ecology, population dynamics, genetics, and insect behaviour and nutrition is a compelling one. Raising the competitiveness of released sterile males remains the major research objective of the SIT. (author)

  18. The impact of the perception of rhythmic music on self-paced oscillatory movements.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Peckel, Mathieu; Pozzo, Thierry; Bigand, Emmanuel

    2014-01-01

    Inspired by theories of perception-action coupling and embodied music cognition, we investigated how rhythmic music perception impacts self-paced oscillatory movements. In a pilot study, we examined the kinematic parameters of self-paced oscillatory movements, walking and finger tapping using optical motion capture. In accordance with biomechanical constraints accounts of motion, we found that movements followed a hierarchical organization depending on the proximal/distal characteristic of the limb used. Based on these findings, we were interested in knowing how and when the perception of rhythmic music could resonate with the motor system in the context of these constrained oscillatory movements. In order to test this, we conducted an experiment where participants performed four different effector-specific movements (lower leg, whole arm and forearm oscillation and finger tapping) while rhythmic music was playing in the background. Musical stimuli consisted of computer-generated MIDI musical pieces with a 4/4 metrical structure. The musical tempo of each song increased from 60 BPM to 120 BPM by 6 BPM increments. A specific tempo was maintained for 20 s before a 2 s transition to the higher tempo. The task of the participant was to maintain a comfortable pace for the four movements (self-paced) while not paying attention to the music. No instruction on whether to synchronize with the music was given. Results showed that participants were distinctively influenced by the background music depending on the movement used with the tapping task being consistently the most influenced. Furthermore, eight strategies put in place by participants to cope with the task were unveiled. Despite not instructed to do so, participants also occasionally synchronized with music. Results are discussed in terms of the link between perception and action (i.e., motor/perceptual resonance). In general, our results give support to the notion that rhythmic music is processed in a motoric

  19. The impact of the perception of rhythmic music on oscillatory self-paced movements

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mathieu ePeckel

    2014-09-01

    Full Text Available Inspired by theories of perception-action coupling and embodied music cognition, we investigated how rhythmic music perception impacts self-paced oscillatory movements. In a pilot study, we examined the kinematic parameters of self-paced oscillatory movements, walking and finger tapping using optical motion capture. In accordance with biomechanical constraints accounts of motion, we found that movements followed a hierarchical organization depending on the proximal/distal characteristic of the limb used. Based on these findings, we were interested in knowing how and when the perception of rhythmic music could resonate with the motor system in the context of these constrained oscillatory movements. In order to test this, we conducted an experiment where participants performed four different effector-specific movements (lower leg, whole arm and forearm oscillation and finger tapping while rhythmic music was playing in the background. Musical stimuli consisted of computer-generated MIDI musical pieces with a 4/4 metrical structure. The musical tempo of each song increased from 60 BPM to 120 BPM by 6 BPM increments. A specific tempo was maintained for 20s before a 2s transition to the higher tempo. The task of the participant was to maintain a comfortable pace for the four movements (self-paced while not paying attention to the music. No instruction on whether to synchronize with the music was given. Results showed that participants were distinctively influenced by the background music depending on the movement used with the tapping task being consistently the most influenced. Furthermore, eight strategies put in place by participants to cope with task were unveiled. Despite not instructed to do so, participants also occasionally synchronized with music. Results are discussed in terms of the link between perception and action (i.e. motor/perceptual resonance. In general, our results give support to the notion that rhythmic music is processed in a

  20. Social-movement analysis of the American antinuclear movement

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ladd, A.E.

    1981-01-01

    Utilizing data from a survey of participants at the May 6, 1979 antinuclear rally in Washington, DC (N = 420), this dissertation explored some of the major structural and ideological characteristics of the American Antinuclear Movement. By organizing the data around three of the key analytical concepts in the study of social movements - mobilization, recruitment, and ideology - the author was able to derive from the demonstration sample a descriptive and illustrative analysis of those individuals, organizations, and processes involved in the national antinuclear crusade. Given that few researchers have actively studied the antinuclear movement beyond the scope of local or regional protests, this work constitutes the only empirical study to date examining a cross section of the movement's participants from a sociological perspective. It is also one of the few attempts to use a national demonstration as a social laboratory for the study of a social movement in general. In terms of the mobilization variables examined in the study, it was found that organizational networks, past movement activism, and individual resources were important factors in the May 6 mobilization effort. While less than one-half of the demonstrators were part of the antinuclear organizational network per se, most of them had been active in the major protest movements of the 1960's and 1970's. The demonstrators were relatively high in socio-economic resources and had occupational or educational schedules conducive to creating the necessary discretionary time for movement participation

  1. Hydrodynamic interactions induce movement against an external load in a ratchet dimer Brownian motor.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fornés, José A

    2010-01-15

    We use the Brownian dynamics with hydrodynamic interactions simulation in order to describe the movement of a elastically coupled dimer Brownian motor in a ratchet potential. The only external forces considered in our system were the load, the random thermal noise and an unbiased thermal fluctuation. For a given set of parameters we observe direct movement against the load force if hydrodynamic interactions were considered.

  2. Constraints on Gauge Field Production during Inflation

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nurmi, Sami; Sloth, Martin Snoager

    2014-01-01

    In order to gain new insights into the gauge field couplings in the early universe, we consider the constraints on gauge field production during inflation imposed by requiring that their effect on the CMB anisotropies are subdominant. In particular, we calculate systematically the bispectrum...... of the primordial curvature perturbation induced by the presence of vector gauge fields during inflation. Using a model independent parametrization in terms of magnetic non-linearity parameters, we calculate for the first time the contribution to the bispectrum from the cross correlation between the inflaton...

  3. Bowel Movement

    Science.gov (United States)

    A bowel movement is the last stop in the movement of food through your digestive tract. Your stool passes out of ... what you eat and drink. Sometimes a bowel movement isn't normal. Diarrhea happens when stool passes ...

  4. Identifying compensatory movement patterns in the upper extremity using a wearable sensor system.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ranganathan, Rajiv; Wang, Rui; Dong, Bo; Biswas, Subir

    2017-11-30

    Movement impairments such as those due to stroke often result in the nervous system adopting atypical movements to compensate for movement deficits. Monitoring these compensatory patterns is critical for improving functional outcomes during rehabilitation. The purpose of this study was to test the feasibility and validity of a wearable sensor system for detecting compensatory trunk kinematics during activities of daily living. Participants with no history of neurological impairments performed reaching and manipulation tasks with their upper extremity, and their movements were recorded by a wearable sensor system and validated using a motion capture system. Compensatory movements of the trunk were induced using a brace that limited range of motion at the elbow. Our results showed that the elbow brace elicited compensatory movements of the trunk during reaching tasks but not manipulation tasks, and that a wearable sensor system with two sensors could reliably classify compensatory movements (~90% accuracy). These results show the potential of the wearable system to assess and monitor compensatory movements outside of a lab setting.

  5. Putting lexical constraints in context into the visual-world paradigm.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Novick, Jared M; Thompson-Schill, Sharon L; Trueswell, John C

    2008-06-01

    Prior eye-tracking studies of spoken sentence comprehension have found that the presence of two potential referents, e.g., two frogs, can guide listeners toward a Modifier interpretation of Put the frog on the napkin... despite strong lexical biases associated with Put that support a Goal interpretation of the temporary ambiguity (Tanenhaus, M. K., Spivey-Knowlton, M. J., Eberhard, K. M. & Sedivy, J. C. (1995). Integration of visual and linguistic information in spoken language comprehension. Science, 268, 1632-1634; Trueswell, J. C., Sekerina, I., Hill, N. M. & Logrip, M. L. (1999). The kindergarten-path effect: Studying on-line sentence processing in young children. Cognition, 73, 89-134). This pattern is not expected under constraint-based parsing theories: cue conflict between the lexical evidence (which supports the Goal analysis) and the visuo-contextual evidence (which supports the Modifier analysis) should result in uncertainty about the intended analysis and partial consideration of the Goal analysis. We reexamined these put studies (Experiment 1) by introducing a response time-constraint and a spatial contrast between competing referents (a frog on a napkin vs. a frog in a bowl). If listeners immediately interpret on the... as the start of a restrictive modifier, then their eye movements should rapidly converge on the intended referent (the frog on something). However, listeners showed this pattern only when the phrase was unambiguously a Modifier (Put the frog that's on the...). Syntactically ambiguous trials resulted in transient consideration of the Competitor animal (the frog in something). A reading study was also run on the same individuals (Experiment 2) and performance was compared between the two experiments. Those individuals who relied heavily on lexical biases to resolve a complement ambiguity in reading (The man heard/realized the story had been...) showed increased sensitivity to both lexical and contextual constraints in the put-task; i

  6. Strategic biopharmaceutical portfolio development: an analysis of constraint-induced implications.

    Science.gov (United States)

    George, Edmund D; Farid, Suzanne S

    2008-01-01

    Optimizing the structure and development pathway of biopharmaceutical drug portfolios are core concerns to the developer that come with several attached complexities. These include strategic decisions for the choice of drugs, the scheduling of critical activities, and the possible involvement of third parties for development and manufacturing at various stages for each drug. Additional complexities that must be considered include the impact of making such decisions in an uncertain environment. Presented here is the development of a stochastic multi-objective optimization framework designed to address these issues. The framework harnesses the ability of Bayesian networks to characterize the probabilistic structure of superior decisions via machine learning and evolve them to multi-objective optimality. Case studies that entailed three- and five-drug portfolios alongside a range of cash flow constraints were constructed to derive insight from the framework where results demonstrate that a variety of options exist for formulating nondominated strategies in the objective space considered, giving the manufacturer a range of pursuable options. In all cases limitations on cash flow reduce the potential for generating profits for a given probability of success. For the sizes of portfolio considered, results suggest that naïvely applying strategies optimal for a particular size of portfolio to a portfolio of another size is inappropriate. For the five-drug portfolio the most preferred means for development across the set of optimized strategies is to fully integrate development and commercial activities in-house. For the three-drug portfolio, the preferred means of development involves a mixture of in-house, outsourced, and partnered activities. Also, the size of the portfolio appears to have a larger impact on strategy and the quality of objectives than the magnitude of cash flow constraint.

  7. Constraints and Creativity in NPD - Testing the Impact of 'Late Constraints'

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Onarheim, Balder; Valgeirsdóttir, Dagný

    experiment was conducted, involving 12 teams of industrial designers from three different countries, each team working on two 30 minutes design tasks. In one condition all constraints were given at the start, and in the other one new radical constraint was added after 12 minutes. The output from all 24 tasks......The aim of the presented work is to investigate how the timing of project constraints can influence the creativity of the output in New Product Development (NPD) projects. When seeking to produce a creative output, is it beneficial to know all constraints when initiating a project...... was assessed for creativity using the Consensual Assessment Technique (CAT), and a comparative within-subjects analysis found no significant different between the two conditions. Controlling for task and assessor a small but non-significant effect was found, in favor of the ‘late constraint’ condition. Thus...

  8. Geo-hazard by sediment mass movements in submarine canyons

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ghaith, Afif; Fakhri, Milad; Ivaldi, Roberta; Ciavola, Paolo

    2017-04-01

    Submarine mass movements and their consequences are of major concern for coastal communities and infrastructures but also for the exploitation and the development of seafloor resources. Elevated awareness of the need for better understanding of the underwater mass movement is coupled with great advances in underwater mapping technologies over the past two decades. The seafloor in the Nahr Ibrahim and Saida regions (Lebanon) is characterized by deep canyons, reaching one thousand meters depths in proximity of the coast. Signs of submarine mass movement instability related to these canyons create a connection between shallow and deep water. The presence of these canyons in a tectonically active area generates a particular drained mechanism to the sediment in form of mass movement and slumping. Identification of potential areas where slope movements could be triggered requires data with high spatial resolution. Since this area is poorly explored, in the framework of an international project between Lebanese Navy, Lebanese National Center for Marine Sciences, University of Ferrara and Italian Hydrographic Institute, we analyse the morpho-bathymetric and sedimentological characters of the coastal and shelf sectors. Multibeam echosounder and sub-bottom profiler acoustic systems calibrated with ground truths (sediment grab and core samples) allow us to characterize the nature of seafloor and sub-seafloor with particular detail to the geotechnical properties of sediments and high resolution seismic stratigraphy of the shallow layers. The detection of particular undersea features provides detail maps which are in support to littoral morpho-dynamics, coastal transport and sediment budget. Multilayer hydro-oceanographic map, referring to the seafloor dynamics in connection with deep water environment and drainage system, in accordance to the International Hydrographic Standards and nautical supports, are produced. This high resolution multibeam bathymetry dataset, integrated

  9. Receiver function and gravity constraints on crustal structure and vertical movements of the Upper Mississippi Embayment and Ozark Uplift

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Lin; Gao, Stephen S.; Liu, Kelly H.; Mickus, Kevin

    2017-06-01

    The Upper Mississippi Embayment (UME), where the seismically active New Madrid Seismic Zone resides, experienced two phases of subsidence commencing in the Late Precambrian and Cretaceous, respectively. To provide new constraints on models proposed for the mechanisms responsible for the subsidence, we computed and stacked P-to-S receiver functions recorded by 49 USArray and other seismic stations located in the UME and the adjacent Ozark Uplift and modeled Bouguer gravity anomaly data. The inferred thickness, density, and Vp/Vs of the upper and lower crustal layers suggest that the UME is characterized by a mafic and high-density upper crustal layer of ˜30 km thickness, which is underlain by a higher-density lower crustal layer of up to ˜15 km. Those measurements, in the background of previously published geological observations on the subsidence and uplift history of the UME, are in agreement with the model that the Cretaceous subsidence, which was suggested to be preceded by an approximately 2 km uplift, was the consequence of the passage of a previously proposed thermal plume. The thermoelastic effects of the plume would have induced wide-spread intrusion of mafic mantle material into the weak UME crust fractured by Precambrian rifting and increased its density, resulting in renewed subsidence after the thermal source was removed. In contrast, the Ozark Uplift has crustal density, thickness, and Vp/Vs measurements that are comparable to those observed on cratonic areas, suggesting an overall normal crust without significant modification by the proposed plume, probably owing to the relatively strong and thick lithosphere.

  10. A qualitative motion analysis study of voluntary hand movement induced by music in patients with Rett syndrome

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tohshin Go

    2009-10-01

    Full Text Available Tohshin Go1, Asako Mitani21Center for Baby Science, Doshisha University, Kizugawa, Kyoto, Japan; 2Independent Music Therapist (Poco A Poco Music Room, Tokyo, JapanAbstract: Patients with Rett syndrome are known to respond well to music irrespective of their physical and verbal disabilities. Therefore, the relationship between auditory rhythm and their behavior was investigated employing a two-dimensional motion analysis system. Ten female patients aged from three to 17 years were included. When music with a simple regular rhythm started, body rocking appeared automatically in a back and forth direction in all four patients who showed the same rocking motion as their stereotyped movement. Through this body rocking, voluntary movement of the hand increased gradually, and finally became sufficient to beat a tambourine. However, the induction of body rocking by music was not observed in the other six patients who did not show stereotyped body rocking in a back and forth direction. When the music stopped suddenly, voluntary movement of the hand disappeared. When the music changed from a simple regular rhythm to a continuous tone without an auditory rhythm, the periodic movement of both the hand and body prolonged. Auditory rhythm shows a close relationship with body movement and facilitates synchronized body movement. This mechanism was demonstrated to be preserved in some patients with Rett syndrome, and stimulation with music could be utilized for their rehabilitation.Keywords: Rett syndrome, music, auditory rhythm, stereotyped movement, body rocking, voluntary movement

  11. Voluntary eye movements direct attention on the mental number space.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ranzini, Mariagrazia; Lisi, Matteo; Zorzi, Marco

    2016-05-01

    Growing evidence suggests that orienting visual attention in space can influence the processing of numerical magnitude, with leftward orienting speeding up the processing of small numbers relative to larger ones and the converse for rightward orienting. The manipulation of eye movements is a convenient way to direct visuospatial attention, but several aspects of the complex relationship between eye movements, attention orienting and number processing remain unexplored. In a previous study, we observed that inducing involuntary, reflexive eye movements by means of optokinetic stimulation affected number processing only when numerical magnitude was task relevant (i.e., during magnitude comparison, but not during parity judgment; Ranzini et al., in J Cogn Psychol 27, 459-470, (2015). Here, we investigated whether processing of task-irrelevant numerical magnitude can be modulated by voluntary eye movements, and whether the type of eye movements (smooth pursuit vs. saccades) would influence this interaction. Participants tracked with their gaze a dot while listening to a digit. The numerical task was to indicate whether the digit was odd or even through non-spatial, verbal responses. The dot could move leftward or rightward either continuously, allowing tracking by smooth pursuit eye movements, or in discrete steps across a series of adjacent locations, triggering a sequence of saccades. Both smooth pursuit and saccadic eye movements similarly affected number processing and modulated response times for large numbers as a function of direction of motion. These findings suggest that voluntary eye movements redirect attention in mental number space and highlight that eye movements should play a key factor in the investigation of number-space interactions.

  12. Analysis of the movement of calcified lymph nodes during breathing

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jenkins, Peter; Salmon, Clare; Mannion, Cathy

    2005-01-01

    Purpose: To identify and measure the respiratory-induced movement of calcified mediastinal lymph nodes. Methods and materials: Twenty-one patients receiving radiation therapy for primary lung or pleural tumors were noted to have calcification within one or more mediastinal lymph nodes. The breathing motion of 27 such nodes was measured with orthogonal fluoroscopic imaging during quiet respiration. Results: All 27 nodes showed some motion synchronous with breathing. The mean respiratory movement was 6.6 mm, 2.6 mm, and 1.4 mm in the craniocaudal, dorsoventral, and mediolateral planes, respectively. There was a significant difference in the amplitude of motion in the craniocaudal plane compared with movement in the other two directions (p < 0.001). No differences were seen in the movement of lymph nodes dependent on position within the mediastinum (supracarinal vs. infracarinal or hilar vs. mediastinal). Neither size of the primary tumor nor spirometric parameters were correlated with the amplitude of lymph node movement. Conclusions: Mediastinal lymph nodes move during breathing, and this needs to be accounted for when the internal margin component of the PTV is defined. The amplitude of this movement is anisotropic and seems to be less than that reported for primary lung tumors. This should permit a modest reduction in the margin allowed for breathing movement around involved mediastinal nodes, particularly in the mediolateral and dorsoventral planes

  13. Periodontal CGRP contributes to orofacial pain following experimental tooth movement in rats.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Long, Hu; Liao, Lina; Gao, Meiya; Ma, Wenqiang; Zhou, Yang; Jian, Fan; Wang, Yan; Lai, Wenli

    2015-08-01

    Calcitonin-related gene peptide (CGRP) plays an important role in orofacial inflammatory pain. The aim of this study was to determine whether periodontal CGRP contributes to orofacial pain induced by experimental tooth movement in rats. Male Sprague-Dawley rats were used in this study. Closed coil springs were used to deliver forces. Rats were euthanized on 0d, 1d, 3d, 5d, 7d, and 14d following experimental tooth movement. Then, alveolar bones were obtained for immunostaining of periodontal tissues against CGRP. Two hours prior to euthanasia on each day, orofacial pain levels were assessed through rat grimace scale. CGRP and olcegepant (CGRP receptor antagonist) were injected into periodontal tissues to verify the roles of periodontal CGRP in orofacial pain induced by experimental tooth movement. Periodontal CGRP expression levels and orofacial pain levels were elevated on 1d, 3d, 5d, and 7d following experimental tooth movement. The two indices were significantly correlated with each other and fitted into a dose-response model. Periodontal administration of CGRP could elevate periodontal CGRP expressions and exacerbate orofacial pain. Moreover, olcegepant administration could decrease periodontal CGRP expressions and alleviate orofacial pain. Therefore, periodontal CGRP plays an important role in pain transmission and modulation following experimental tooth movement. We suggest that it may participate in a positive feedback aiming to amplify orofacial pain signals. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  14. Thoracolumbar movement in sound horses trotting in straight lines in hand and on the lunge and the relationship with hind limb symmetry or asymmetry.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Greve, L; Pfau, T; Dyson, S

    2017-02-01

    Equine movement symmetry is changed when turning, which may induce alterations in thoracolumbosacral kinematics; however, this has not previously been investigated. Our objectives were to document thoracolumbar movement in subjectively sound horses comparing straight lines with circles on both reins and to relate these observations to the objectively determined symmetry/asymmetry of hindlimb gait. Fourteen non-lame horses were assessed prospectively in a non-random, cross-sectional survey. The horses were trotted in straight lines and lunged on both reins and inertial sensor data collected at landmarks: withers, T13 and T18, L3, tubera sacrale, and left and right tubera coxae. Data were processed using published methods; angular motion range of motion (ROM; flexion-extension, axial rotation, lateral bending) and translational ROM (dorsoventral and lateral) and symmetry within each stride were assessed. The dorsoventral movement of the back exhibited a sinusoidal pattern with two oscillations per stride. Circles induced greater asymmetry in dorsoventral movement within each stride (mean ± standard deviation, up to 9 ± 6%) compared with straight lines (up to 6 ± 6%). The greatest amplitude of dorsoventral movement (119 ± 14 mm in straight lines vs. 126 ± 20 mm in circles) occurred at T13. Circles induced greater flexion-extension ROM (>1.3°; P = 0.002), lateral bending (>16°; P 16 mm; P = 0.002) compared with straight lines. Circles induced a movement pattern similar to an inside hindlimb lameness, which was significantly associated with the circle-induced greater asymmetry of dorsoventral movement of the thoracolumbar region (P = 0.03). Moving in a circle induces measurable changes in thoracolumbar movement compared with moving in straight lines, associated with alterations in the hindlimb gait. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  15. Constraint and loneliness in agoraphobia: an empirical investigation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pehlivanidis, A; Koulis, S; Papakostas, Y

    2014-01-01

    While progress in the aetiopathology and treatment of panic disorder is indisputable, research regarding agoraphobia lacks behind. One significant-yet untested- theory by Guidano and Liotti, suggests the existence of inner representations of fear of "constraint" and fear of "loneliness" as two major schemata, important in the pathogenesis and manifestation of agoraphobia. Activation of these schemata may occur in situations in which the patient: (a) feels as in an inescapable trap (constraint) or (b) alone, unprotected and helpless (loneliness). Upon activation, the "constraint" schema elicits such symptoms as asphyxiation, chest pain, difficult breathing, motor agitation and muscular tension, while the "loneliness" schema elicits such symptoms as sensation of tachycardia, weakness of limbs, trembling or fainting. Activation of these schemata by content-compatible stimuli is expected to trigger various, yet distinct, response patterns, both of which are indiscriminately described within the term "agoraphobia". In order to investigate this hypothesis and its possible clinical applications, several mental and physical probes were applied to 20 patients suffering primarily from agoraphobia, and their responses and performance were recorded. Subjects also completed the "10-item Agoraphobia Questionnaire" prepared by our team aiming at assessing cognitions related to Guidano and Liotti's notion of "loneliness" and "constraint". Breath holding (BH) and Hyperventilation (HV) were selected as physical probes. BH was selected as an easily administered hypercapnea - induced clinical procedure, because of its apparent resemblance to the concept of "constraint". Subjects were instructed to hold their breath for as long as they could and stop at will. Similarly, it was hypothesized that HV might represent a physical "loneliness" probe, since it can elicit such symptoms as dizziness, paraesthesias, stiff muscles, cold hands or feet and trembling, reminiscent of a "collapsing

  16. Forced Use Treatment of Chronic Hemiparesis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    J Gordon Millichap

    2002-07-01

    Full Text Available Twelve children (age 1 to 8 years with chronic (>1 year hemiparesis were treated by forced use, or constraint-induced, movement therapy at Tulane University School of Medicine, New Orleans, LA.

  17. Protest movements

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rucht, D.

    1989-01-01

    The author describes the development of protest movements in postwar Germay and outlines two essential overlapping 'flow cycles'. The first of these was characterised by the restaurative postwar years. It culminated and ended in the students' revolt. This revolt is at the same time the start of a second cycle of protest which encompasses all subsequent individual movement and is initated by an economic, political and sociocultural procrastination of modernisation. This cycle culminates in the late 70s and early 80s and clearly lost momentum over the last few years. The follwoing phases and themes are described profoundly: against restauration and armament in the 1950; the revolutionary impatience of the students' movement, politisation of everyday life by the womens' movement and citizens' action groups, antinuclear- and ecological movement, differentiation and stabilisation of the movement in the 70s and 80s; break-up and continuity in the German protest behaviour. The paper contains a detailed chronicle of protest activities since 1945. (orig.) [de

  18. Orthology and paralogy constraints: satisfiability and consistency.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lafond, Manuel; El-Mabrouk, Nadia

    2014-01-01

    A variety of methods based on sequence similarity, reconciliation, synteny or functional characteristics, can be used to infer orthology and paralogy relations between genes of a given gene family  G. But is a given set  C of orthology/paralogy constraints possible, i.e., can they simultaneously co-exist in an evolutionary history for  G? While previous studies have focused on full sets of constraints, here we consider the general case where  C does not necessarily involve a constraint for each pair of genes. The problem is subdivided in two parts: (1) Is  C satisfiable, i.e. can we find an event-labeled gene tree G inducing  C? (2) Is there such a G which is consistent, i.e., such that all displayed triplet phylogenies are included in a species tree? Previous results on the Graph sandwich problem can be used to answer to (1), and we provide polynomial-time algorithms for satisfiability and consistency with a given species tree. We also describe a new polynomial-time algorithm for the case of consistency with an unknown species tree and full knowledge of pairwise orthology/paralogy relationships, as well as a branch-and-bound algorithm in the case when unknown relations are present. We show that our algorithms can be used in combination with ProteinOrtho, a sequence similarity-based orthology detection tool, to extract a set of robust orthology/paralogy relationships.

  19. Respiratory-induced prostate motion: quantification and characterization

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Malone, Shawn; Crook, Juanita M.; Kendal, Wayne S.; Zanto, Janos S.

    2000-01-01

    Purpose: The precise localization of the prostate is critical for dose-escalated conformal radiotherapy. This study identifies and characterizes a potential cause of inaccurate prostatic localization--respiratory-induced movement. Methods and Materials: Prostate movement during respiration was measured fluoroscopically using implanted gold fiducial markers. Twenty sequential patients with CT 1 -T 3 N 0 M 0 prostate carcinoma were evaluated prone, immobilized in customized thermoplastic shells. A second 20 patients were evaluated both prone (with and without their thermoplastic shells) and supine (without their shells). Results: When the patients were immobilized prone in thermoplastic shells, the prostate moved synchronously with respiration. In the study the prostate was displaced a mean distance of 3.3 ± 1.8 (SD) mm (range, 1-10.2 mm), with 23% (9/40) of the displacements being 4 mm or greater. The respiratory-associated prostate movement decreased significantly when the thermoplastic shells were removed. Conclusion: Significant prostate movement can be induced by respiration when patients are immobilized in thermoplastic shells. This movement presumably is related to transmitted intraabdominal pressure within the confined space of the shells. Careful attention to the details of immobilization and to the possibility of respiratory-induced prostate movements is important when employing small field margins in prostatic radiotherapy

  20. Quantifying kinematics of purposeful movements to real, imagined, or absent functional objects: implications for modelling trajectories for robot-assisted ADL tasks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wisneski, Kimberly J; Johnson, Michelle J

    2007-03-23

    Robotic therapy is at the forefront of stroke rehabilitation. The Activities of Daily Living Exercise Robot (ADLER) was developed to improve carryover of gains after training by combining the benefits of Activities of Daily Living (ADL) training (motivation and functional task practice with real objects), with the benefits of robot mediated therapy (repeatability and reliability). In combining these two therapy techniques, we seek to develop a new model for trajectory generation that will support functional movements to real objects during robot training. We studied natural movements to real objects and report on how initial reaching movements are affected by real objects and how these movements deviate from the straight line paths predicted by the minimum jerk model, typically used to generate trajectories in robot training environments. We highlight key issues that to be considered in modelling natural trajectories. Movement data was collected as eight normal subjects completed ADLs such as drinking and eating. Three conditions were considered: object absent, imagined, and present. This data was compared to predicted trajectories generated from implementing the minimum jerk model. The deviations in both the plane of the table (XY) and the sagittal plane of torso (XZ) were examined for both reaches to a cup and to a spoon. Velocity profiles and curvature were also quantified for all trajectories. We hypothesized that movements performed with functional task constraints and objects would deviate from the minimum jerk trajectory model more than those performed under imaginary or object absent conditions. Trajectory deviations from the predicted minimum jerk model for these reaches were shown to depend on three variables: object presence, object orientation, and plane of movement. When subjects completed the cup reach their movements were more curved than for the spoon reach. The object present condition for the cup reach showed more curvature than in the object

  1. Quantifying kinematics of purposeful movements to real, imagined, or absent functional objects: Implications for modelling trajectories for robot-assisted ADL tasks**

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wisneski Kimberly J

    2007-03-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Robotic therapy is at the forefront of stroke rehabilitation. The Activities of Daily Living Exercise Robot (ADLER was developed to improve carryover of gains after training by combining the benefits of Activities of Daily Living (ADL training (motivation and functional task practice with real objects, with the benefits of robot mediated therapy (repeatability and reliability. In combining these two therapy techniques, we seek to develop a new model for trajectory generation that will support functional movements to real objects during robot training. We studied natural movements to real objects and report on how initial reaching movements are affected by real objects and how these movements deviate from the straight line paths predicted by the minimum jerk model, typically used to generate trajectories in robot training environments. We highlight key issues that to be considered in modelling natural trajectories. Methods Movement data was collected as eight normal subjects completed ADLs such as drinking and eating. Three conditions were considered: object absent, imagined, and present. This data was compared to predicted trajectories generated from implementing the minimum jerk model. The deviations in both the plane of the table (XY and the saggital plane of torso (XZ were examined for both reaches to a cup and to a spoon. Velocity profiles and curvature were also quantified for all trajectories. Results We hypothesized that movements performed with functional task constraints and objects would deviate from the minimum jerk trajectory model more than those performed under imaginary or object absent conditions. Trajectory deviations from the predicted minimum jerk model for these reaches were shown to depend on three variables: object presence, object orientation, and plane of movement. When subjects completed the cup reach their movements were more curved than for the spoon reach. The object present condition for the cup

  2. Functionalized iron oxide nanoparticles for controlling the movement of immune cells

    Science.gov (United States)

    White, Ethan E.; Pai, Alex; Weng, Yiming; Suresh, Anil K.; van Haute, Desiree; Pailevanian, Torkom; Alizadeh, Darya; Hajimiri, Ali; Badie, Behnam; Berlin, Jacob M.

    2015-04-01

    Immunotherapy is currently being investigated for the treatment of many diseases, including cancer. The ability to control the location of immune cells during or following activation would represent a powerful new technique for this field. Targeted magnetic delivery is emerging as a technique for controlling cell movement and localization. Here we show that this technique can be extended to microglia, the primary phagocytic immune cells in the central nervous system. The magnetized microglia were generated by loading the cells with iron oxide nanoparticles functionalized with CpG oligonucleotides, serving as a proof of principle that nanoparticles can be used to both deliver an immunostimulatory cargo to cells and to control the movement of the cells. The nanoparticle-oligonucleotide conjugates are efficiently internalized, non-toxic, and immunostimulatory. We demonstrate that the in vitro migration of the adherent, loaded microglia can be controlled by an external magnetic field and that magnetically-induced migration is non-cytotoxic. In order to capture video of this magnetically-induced migration of loaded cells, a novel 3D-printed ``cell box'' was designed to facilitate our imaging application. Analysis of cell movement velocities clearly demonstrate increased cell velocities toward the magnet. These studies represent the initial step towards our final goal of using nanoparticles to both activate immune cells and to control their trafficking within the diseased brain.Immunotherapy is currently being investigated for the treatment of many diseases, including cancer. The ability to control the location of immune cells during or following activation would represent a powerful new technique for this field. Targeted magnetic delivery is emerging as a technique for controlling cell movement and localization. Here we show that this technique can be extended to microglia, the primary phagocytic immune cells in the central nervous system. The magnetized microglia were

  3. Deriving Animal Movement Behaviors Using Movement Parameters Extracted from Location Data

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Maryam Teimouri

    2018-02-01

    Full Text Available We present a methodology for distinguishing between three types of animal movement behavior (foraging, resting, and walking based on high-frequency tracking data. For each animal we quantify an individual movement path. A movement path is a temporal sequence consisting of the steps through space taken by an animal. By selecting a set of appropriate movement parameters, we develop a method to assess movement behavioral states, reflected by changes in the movement parameters. The two fundamental tasks of our study are segmentation and clustering. By segmentation, we mean the partitioning of the trajectory into segments, which are homogeneous in terms of their movement parameters. By clustering, we mean grouping similar segments together according to their estimated movement parameters. The proposed method is evaluated using field observations (done by humans of movement behavior. We found that on average, our method agreed with the observational data (ground truth at a level of 80.75% ± 5.9% (SE.

  4. Anti-Streptococcus IgM Antibodies Induce Repetitive Stereotyped Movements: Cell Activation and Co-Localization with Fcα/μ Receptors in the Striatum and Motor Cortex

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Danhui; Patel, Ankur; Zhu, Youhua; Siegel, Allan; Zalcman, Steven S.

    2012-01-01

    Group A beta-hemolytic streptococcus (GABHS) infections are implicated in neuropsychiatric disorders associated with an increased expression of repetitive stereotyped movements. Anti-streptococcus IgG presumably cross-reacts with elements on basal ganglia cells, modifies their function, and triggers symptoms. IgM may play a unique role in precipitating behavioral disturbances since variations in cortico-striatal activity occur in temporal congruity with peak IgM titers during an orchestrated immune response. We discovered in Balb/c mice that single subcutaneous injections of mouse monoclonal IgM antibodies to Streptococcus Group A bacteria induce marked dose-dependent increases in repetitive stereotyped movements, including head bobbing, sniffing, and intense grooming. Effects were antibody- and antigen-specific: anti-streptococcus IgG stimulated ambulatory activity and vertical activity but not these stereotypies, while anti-KLH IgM reduced activity. We suggest that anti-streptococcus IgM and IgG play unique roles in provoking GABHS-related behavioral disturbances. Paralleling its stereotypy-inducing effects, anti-streptococcus IgM stimulated Fos-like immunoreactivity in regions linked to cortico-striatal projections involved in motor control, including subregions of the caudate, nucleus accumbens, and motor cortex. This is the first evidence that anti-streptococcus IgM antibodies induce in vivo functional changes in these structures. Moreover, there was a striking similarity in the distributions of anti-streptococcus IgM deposits and Fos-like immunoreactivity in these regions. Of further importance, Fcα/μ receptors, which bind IgM, were present- and co-localized with anti-streptococcus IgM in these structures. We suggest that anti-streptococcus IgM-induced alterations of cell activity reflect local actions of IgM that involve Fcα/μ receptors. These findings support the use of anti-streptococcus monoclonal antibody administration in Balb/c mice to model GABHS

  5. Efficient multi-site data movement using constraint programming for data hungry science

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Zerola, Michal; Sumbera, Michal [Nuclear Physics Institute, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic (Czech Republic); Lauret, Jerome [Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton (United States); Bartak, Roman, E-mail: michal.zerola@ujf.cas.c, E-mail: jlauret@bnl.go, E-mail: roman.bartak@mff.cuni.c, E-mail: sumbera@ujf.cas.c [Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University (Czech Republic)

    2010-04-01

    For the past decade, HENP experiments have been heading towards a distributed computing model in an effort to concurrently process tasks over enormous data sets that have been increasing in size as a function of time. In order to optimize all available resources (geographically spread) and minimize the processing time, it is necessary to face also the question of efficient data transfers and placements. A key question is whether the time penalty for moving the data to the computational resources is worth the presumed gain. Onward to the truly distributed task scheduling we present the technique using a Constraint Programming (CP) approach. The CP technique schedules data transfers from multiple resources considering all available paths of diverse characteristic (capacity, sharing and storage) having minimum user's waiting time as an objective. We introduce a model for planning data transfers to a single destination (data transfer) as well as its extension for an optimal data set spreading strategy (data placement). Several enhancements for a solver of the CP model will be shown, leading to a faster schedule computation time using symmetry breaking, branch cutting, well studied principles from job-shop scheduling field and several heuristics. Finally, we will present the design and implementation of a corner-stone application aimed at moving datasets according to the schedule. Results will include comparison of performance and trade-off between CP techniques and a Peer-2-Peer model from simulation framework as well as the real case scenario taken from a practical usage of a CP scheduler.

  6. Efficient multi-site data movement using constraint programming for data hungry science

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zerola, Michal; Sumbera, Michal; Lauret, Jerome; Bartak, Roman

    2010-01-01

    For the past decade, HENP experiments have been heading towards a distributed computing model in an effort to concurrently process tasks over enormous data sets that have been increasing in size as a function of time. In order to optimize all available resources (geographically spread) and minimize the processing time, it is necessary to face also the question of efficient data transfers and placements. A key question is whether the time penalty for moving the data to the computational resources is worth the presumed gain. Onward to the truly distributed task scheduling we present the technique using a Constraint Programming (CP) approach. The CP technique schedules data transfers from multiple resources considering all available paths of diverse characteristic (capacity, sharing and storage) having minimum user's waiting time as an objective. We introduce a model for planning data transfers to a single destination (data transfer) as well as its extension for an optimal data set spreading strategy (data placement). Several enhancements for a solver of the CP model will be shown, leading to a faster schedule computation time using symmetry breaking, branch cutting, well studied principles from job-shop scheduling field and several heuristics. Finally, we will present the design and implementation of a corner-stone application aimed at moving datasets according to the schedule. Results will include comparison of performance and trade-off between CP techniques and a Peer-2-Peer model from simulation framework as well as the real case scenario taken from a practical usage of a CP scheduler.

  7. Financing Constraints and Entrepreneurship

    OpenAIRE

    William R. Kerr; Ramana Nanda

    2009-01-01

    Financing constraints are one of the biggest concerns impacting potential entrepreneurs around the world. Given the important role that entrepreneurship is believed to play in the process of economic growth, alleviating financing constraints for would-be entrepreneurs is also an important goal for policymakers worldwide. We review two major streams of research examining the relevance of financing constraints for entrepreneurship. We then introduce a framework that provides a unified perspecti...

  8. The effects of corticotrophin-releasing factor and two antagonists on breathing movements in fetal sheep.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bennet, L; Johnston, B M; Vale, W W; Gluckman, P D

    1990-01-01

    1. The respiratory effects of corticotrophin-releasing factor (CRF) and the CRF antagonists alpha-helical CRF 9-41 (alpha hCRF) and [DPhe 12, Nle 21-38] rCRF (12-41) (DPhe CRF) have been studied in unanaesthetized fetal lambs of 125-140 days gestation. 2. CRF when given as a 10 micrograms bolus followed by a 5 micrograms h-1 infusion into a lateral cerebral ventricle caused prolonged continuous fetal breathing movements which were stimulated in both amplitude and frequency but which did not persist during hypoxia. 3. Lower doses of CRF (20 ng bolus followed by 10 ng h-1) increased the amplitude but not the frequency of fetal breathing movements which did not become continuous. 4. At higher doses (20 micrograms bolus followed by 10-15 micrograms h-1) CRF induced cerebral convulsions which were also associated with fetal breathing movements of increased amplitude and frequency. 5. The CRF antagonists alpha hCRF and DPhe CRF both inhibited fetal breathing movements and induced a prolonged apnoea which was resistant to the stimulatory effects of 5-6% hypercapnia. 6. We conclude that CRF stimulates breathing movements in the fetal lamb. The finding that administration of the CRF antagonists alone cause apnoea suggests that CRF may have a tonic role in the regulation of fetal breathing movements. Images Fig. 1 Fig. 2 Fig. 3 Fig. 4 PMID:2348387

  9. Creativity from Constraints in Engineering Design

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Onarheim, Balder

    2012-01-01

    This paper investigates the role of constraints in limiting and enhancing creativity in engineering design. Based on a review of literature relating constraints to creativity, the paper presents a longitudinal participatory study from Coloplast A/S, a major international producer of disposable...... and ownership of formal constraints played a crucial role in defining their influence on creativity – along with the tacit constraints held by the designers. The designers were found to be highly constraint focused, and four main creative strategies for constraint manipulation were observed: blackboxing...

  10. Tics and other stereotyped movements as side effects of pharmacological treatment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Madruga-Garrido, Marcos; Mir, Pablo

    2013-01-01

    Tics and other stereotyped abnormal movements can be seen as adverse effects of some pharmacologic drugs. Among these drugs, antipsychotics may provoke tardive syndromes after a chronic exposure, primarily in the case of typical antipsychotics. These syndromes include tardive tics, tardive dyskinesia, or tardive akathisia, which present with tics or stereotyped movements as a clinical phenomenon. Psychostimulants (mainly methylphenidate) have traditionally been associated with the appearance of tics due to the increased dopamine activity caused by stimulants. Nevertheless, in recent years, several studies have concluded not only that methylphenidate does not exacerbate or reactivate tics but also that tics can improve with its use in patients with associated attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder and tic disorder. Antiepileptic drugs, although infrequently, can also induce tics, with carbamazepine and lamotrigine described as tic inducers. Other antiepileptics, including levetiracetam and topiramate, have been proposed as a potential treatment for tic disorders due to a positive effect on tics, especially in those with associated epileptic disorder. Clinical and therapeutic approaches to tics and stereotyped movements after exposure to antipsychotics, stimulants, and antiepileptic drugs will be reviewed in this chapter. © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  11. The trade-off between spatial and temporal variabilities in reciprocal upper-limb aiming movements of different durations.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Frederic Danion

    Full Text Available The spatial and temporal aspects of movement variability have typically been studied separately. As a result the relationship between spatial and temporal variabilities remains largely unknown. In two experiments we examined the evolution and covariation of spatial and temporal variabilities over variations in the duration of reciprocal aiming movements. Experiments differed in settings: In Experiment 1 participants moved unperturbed whereas in Experiment 2 they were confronted with an elastic force field. Different movement durations-for a constant inter-target distance-were either evoked by imposing spatial accuracy constraints while requiring participants to move as fast as possible, or prescribed by means of an auditory metronome while requiring participants to maximize spatial accuracy. Analyses focused on absolute and relative variabilities, respectively captured by the standard deviation (SD and the coefficient of variation (CV = SD/mean. Spatial variability (both SDspace and CVspace decreased with movement duration, while temporal variability (both SDtime and CVtime increased with movement duration. We found strong negative correlations between spatial and temporal variabilities over variations in movement duration, whether the variability examined was absolute or relative. These findings observed at the level of the full movement contrasted with the findings observed at the level of the separate acceleration and deceleration phases of movement. During the separate acceleration and deceleration phases both spatial and temporal variabilities (SD and CV were found to increase with their respective durations, leading to positive correlations between them. Moreover, variability was generally larger at the level of the constituent movement phases than at the level of the full movement. The general pattern of results was robust, as it emerged in both tasks in each of the two experiments. We conclude that feedback mechanisms operating to

  12. Movement - uncontrolled or slow

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dystonia; Involuntary slow and twisting movements; Choreoathetosis; Leg and arm movements - uncontrollable; Arm and leg movements - uncontrollable; Slow involuntary movements of large muscle groups; Athetoid movements

  13. The processing of visual and auditory information for reaching movements.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Glazebrook, Cheryl M; Welsh, Timothy N; Tremblay, Luc

    2016-09-01

    Presenting target and non-target information in different modalities influences target localization if the non-target is within the spatiotemporal limits of perceptual integration. When using auditory and visual stimuli, the influence of a visual non-target on auditory target localization is greater than the reverse. It is not known, however, whether or how such perceptual effects extend to goal-directed behaviours. To gain insight into how audio-visual stimuli are integrated for motor tasks, the kinematics of reaching movements towards visual or auditory targets with or without a non-target in the other modality were examined. When present, the simultaneously presented non-target could be spatially coincident, to the left, or to the right of the target. Results revealed that auditory non-targets did not influence reaching trajectories towards a visual target, whereas visual non-targets influenced trajectories towards an auditory target. Interestingly, the biases induced by visual non-targets were present early in the trajectory and persisted until movement end. Subsequent experimentation indicated that the magnitude of the biases was equivalent whether participants performed a perceptual or motor task, whereas variability was greater for the motor versus the perceptual tasks. We propose that visually induced trajectory biases were driven by the perceived mislocation of the auditory target, which in turn affected both the movement plan and subsequent control of the movement. Such findings provide further evidence of the dominant role visual information processing plays in encoding spatial locations as well as planning and executing reaching action, even when reaching towards auditory targets.

  14. Positive effects of robotic exoskeleton training of upper limb reaching movements after stroke

    Science.gov (United States)

    2012-01-01

    This study, conducted in a group of nine chronic patients with right-side hemiparesis after stroke, investigated the effects of a robotic-assisted rehabilitation training with an upper limb robotic exoskeleton for the restoration of motor function in spatial reaching movements. The robotic assisted rehabilitation training was administered for a period of 6 weeks including reaching and spatial antigravity movements. To assess the carry-over of the observed improvements in movement during training into improved function, a kinesiologic assessment of the effects of the training was performed by means of motion and dynamic electromyographic analysis of reaching movements performed before and after training. The same kinesiologic measurements were performed in a healthy control group of seven volunteers, to determine a benchmark for the experimental observations in the patients’ group. Moreover degree of functional impairment at the enrolment and discharge was measured by clinical evaluation with upper limb Fugl-Meyer Assessment scale (FMA, 0–66 points), Modified Ashworth scale (MA, 0–60 pts) and active ranges of motion. The robot aided training induced, independently by time of stroke, statistical significant improvements of kinesiologic (movement time, smoothness of motion) and clinical (4.6 ± 4.2 increase in FMA, 3.2 ± 2.1 decrease in MA) parameters, as a result of the increased active ranges of motion and improved co-contraction index for shoulder extension/flexion. Kinesiologic parameters correlated significantly with clinical assessment values, and their changes after the training were affected by the direction of motion (inward vs. outward movement) and position of target to be reached (ipsilateral, central and contralateral peripersonal space). These changes can be explained as a result of the motor recovery induced by the robotic training, in terms of regained ability to execute single joint movements and of improved interjoint coordination of

  15. Positive effects of robotic exoskeleton training of upper limb reaching movements after stroke

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Frisoli Antonio

    2012-06-01

    Full Text Available Abstract This study, conducted in a group of nine chronic patients with right-side hemiparesis after stroke, investigated the effects of a robotic-assisted rehabilitation training with an upper limb robotic exoskeleton for the restoration of motor function in spatial reaching movements. The robotic assisted rehabilitation training was administered for a period of 6 weeks including reaching and spatial antigravity movements. To assess the carry-over of the observed improvements in movement during training into improved function, a kinesiologic assessment of the effects of the training was performed by means of motion and dynamic electromyographic analysis of reaching movements performed before and after training. The same kinesiologic measurements were performed in a healthy control group of seven volunteers, to determine a benchmark for the experimental observations in the patients’ group. Moreover degree of functional impairment at the enrolment and discharge was measured by clinical evaluation with upper limb Fugl-Meyer Assessment scale (FMA, 0–66 points, Modified Ashworth scale (MA, 0–60 pts and active ranges of motion. The robot aided training induced, independently by time of stroke, statistical significant improvements of kinesiologic (movement time, smoothness of motion and clinical (4.6 ± 4.2 increase in FMA, 3.2 ± 2.1 decrease in MA parameters, as a result of the increased active ranges of motion and improved co-contraction index for shoulder extension/flexion. Kinesiologic parameters correlated significantly with clinical assessment values, and their changes after the training were affected by the direction of motion (inward vs. outward movement and position of target to be reached (ipsilateral, central and contralateral peripersonal space. These changes can be explained as a result of the motor recovery induced by the robotic training, in terms of regained ability to execute single joint movements and of improved

  16. Deepening Contractions and Collateral Constraints

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jensen, Henrik; Ravn, Søren Hove; Santoro, Emiliano

    and occasionally non-binding credit constraints. Easier credit access increases the likelihood that constraints become slack in the face of expansionary shocks, while contractionary shocks are further amplified due to tighter constraints. As a result, busts gradually become deeper than booms. Based...

  17. Occupational dose constraint

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Heilbron Filho, Paulo Fernando Lavalle; Xavier, Ana Maria

    2005-01-01

    The revision process of the international radiological protection regulations has resulted in the adoption of new concepts, such as practice, intervention, avoidable and restriction of dose (dose constraint). The latter deserving of special mention since it may involve reducing a priori of the dose limits established both for the public and to individuals occupationally exposed, values that can be further reduced, depending on the application of the principle of optimization. This article aims to present, with clarity, from the criteria adopted to define dose constraint values to the public, a methodology to establish the dose constraint values for occupationally exposed individuals, as well as an example of the application of this methodology to the practice of industrial radiography

  18. Gender-based differences in Florida apple snail (Pomacea paludosa) movements

    Science.gov (United States)

    Valentine-Darby, P. L.; Darby, P.C.; Percival, H.F.

    2011-01-01

    Gastropod movements have been studied in the context of habitat selection, finding food and mates, and avoiding predation. Many of these studies were conducted in the laboratory, where constraints on spatial scale influence behavior. We conducted a field study of Florida apple snail (Pomacea paludosa) movements using telemetry. We hypothesized that Florida apple snail movements were driven by reproductive activity, and that gender differences would be evident. We documented male and female directions and distances traveled. We also conducted a trapping study that included conspecific bait to test if the presence of females attracted more males as measured by M:F ratios in traps. The greatest distances traveled were by males, and males were more likely to maintain a consistent bearing compared to females. Male distances peaked in what typically corresponds to peak breeding season. M:F ratios in traps were positively associated with reproductive activity in the study population as measured by egg cluster counts. Conspecific bait had no effect on the number of males or females captured. However, if a female crawled into the trap, we observed greater numbers of males compared to those with no trapped females. Males may have tracked females to increase mating encounters, following slime trails, as seen in other aquatic (including other Pomacea) snails. The capacity for mate finding has implications for reproductive success in the relatively low density populations often seen for Pomacea paludosa.

  19. The tactile movement aftereffect.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hollins, M; Favorov, O

    1994-01-01

    The existence of a tactile movement aftereffect was established in a series of experiments on the palmar surface of the hand and fingers of psychophysical observers. During adaptation, observers cupped their hand around a moving drum for up to 3 min; following this period of stimulation, they typically reported an aftereffect consisting of movement sensations located on and deep to the skin, and lasting for up to 1 min. Preliminary experiments comparing a number of stimulus materials mounted on the drum demonstrated that a surface approximating a low-spatial-frequency square wave, with a smooth microtexture, was especially effective at inducing the aftereffect; this adapting stimulus was therefore used throughout the two main experiments. In Experiment 1, the vividness of the aftereffect produced by 2 min of adaptation was determined under three test conditions: with the hand (1) remaining on the now stationary drum; (2) in contact with a soft, textured surface; or (3) suspended in air. Subjects' free magnitude estimates of the peak vividness of the aftereffect were not significantly different across conditions; each subject experienced the aftereffect at least once under each condition. Thus the tactile movement aftereffect does not seem to depend critically on the ponditions of stimulation that obtain while it is being experienced. In Experiment 2, the vividness and duration of the aftereffect were measured as a function of the duration of the adapting stimulus. Both measures increased steadily over the range of durations explored (30-180 sec). In its dependence on adapting duration, the aftereffect resembles the waterfall illusion in vision. An explanation for the tactile movement aftereffect is proposed, based on the model of cortical dynamics of Whitsel et al. (1989, 1991). With assumed modest variation of one parameter across individuals, this application of the model is able to account both for the data of the majority of subjects, who experienced the

  20. Phosphoinositides play differential roles in regulating phototropin1- and phototropin2-mediated chloroplast movements in Arabidopsis.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chhavi Aggarwal

    Full Text Available Phototropins are UVA/blue-light receptors involved in controlling the light-dependent physiological responses which serve to optimize the photosynthetic activity of plants and promote growth. The phototropin-induced phosphoinositide (PI metabolism has been shown to be essential for stomatal opening and phototropism. However, the role of PIs in phototropin-induced chloroplast movements remains poorly understood. The aim of this work is to determine which PI species are involved in the control of chloroplast movements in Arabidopsis and the nature of their involvement. We present the effects of the inactivation of phospholipase C (PLC, PI3-kinase (PI3K and PI4-kinase (PI4K on chloroplast relocations in Arabidopsis. The inhibition of the phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphospahte [PI(4,5P2]-PLC pathway, using neomycin and U73122, suppressed the phot2-mediated chloroplast accumulation and avoidance responses, without affecting movement responses controlled by phot1. On the other hand, PI3K and PI4K activities are more restricted to phot1- and phot2-induced weak-light responses. The inactivation of PI3K and PI4K by wortmannin and LY294002 severely affected the weak blue-light-activated accumulation response but had little effect on the strong blue-light-activated avoidance response. The inhibitory effect observed with PI metabolism inhibitors is, at least partly, due to a disturbance in Ca(2+ ((c signaling. Using the transgenic aequorin system, we show that the application of these inhibitors suppresses the blue-light-induced transient Ca(2+ ((c rise. These results demonstrate the importance of PIs in chloroplast movements, with the PI(4,5P2-PLC pathway involved in phot2 signaling while PI3K and PI4K are required for the phot1- and phot2-induced accumulation response. Our results suggest that these PIs modulate cytosolic Ca(2+ signaling during movements.

  1. Phosphoinositides play differential roles in regulating phototropin1- and phototropin2-mediated chloroplast movements in Arabidopsis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aggarwal, Chhavi; Labuz, Justyna; Gabryś, Halina

    2013-01-01

    Phototropins are UVA/blue-light receptors involved in controlling the light-dependent physiological responses which serve to optimize the photosynthetic activity of plants and promote growth. The phototropin-induced phosphoinositide (PI) metabolism has been shown to be essential for stomatal opening and phototropism. However, the role of PIs in phototropin-induced chloroplast movements remains poorly understood. The aim of this work is to determine which PI species are involved in the control of chloroplast movements in Arabidopsis and the nature of their involvement. We present the effects of the inactivation of phospholipase C (PLC), PI3-kinase (PI3K) and PI4-kinase (PI4K) on chloroplast relocations in Arabidopsis. The inhibition of the phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphospahte [PI(4,5)P2]-PLC pathway, using neomycin and U73122, suppressed the phot2-mediated chloroplast accumulation and avoidance responses, without affecting movement responses controlled by phot1. On the other hand, PI3K and PI4K activities are more restricted to phot1- and phot2-induced weak-light responses. The inactivation of PI3K and PI4K by wortmannin and LY294002 severely affected the weak blue-light-activated accumulation response but had little effect on the strong blue-light-activated avoidance response. The inhibitory effect observed with PI metabolism inhibitors is, at least partly, due to a disturbance in Ca(2+) ((c)) signaling. Using the transgenic aequorin system, we show that the application of these inhibitors suppresses the blue-light-induced transient Ca(2+) ((c)) rise. These results demonstrate the importance of PIs in chloroplast movements, with the PI(4,5)P2-PLC pathway involved in phot2 signaling while PI3K and PI4K are required for the phot1- and phot2-induced accumulation response. Our results suggest that these PIs modulate cytosolic Ca(2+) signaling during movements.

  2. Tomographic and Geodynamic Constraints on Convection-Induced Mixing in Earth's Deep Mantle

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hafter, D. P.; Forte, A. M.; Bremner, P. M.; Glisovic, P.

    2017-12-01

    Seismological studies reveal two large low-shear-velocity provinces (LLSVPs) in the lowermost mantle (e.g., Su et al. 1994; Wang & Wen 2007; He & Wen 2012), which may represent accumulations of subducted slabs at the CMB (Tan & Gurnis 2005; Christensen & Hoffman 1994) or primordial material generated in the early differentiation of Earth (e.g. Li et al. 2014). The longevity or stability of these large-scale heterogeneities in the deep mantle depends on the vigor and spatial distribution of the convective circulation, which is in turn dependent on the distribution of mantle buoyancy and viscosity (e.g. Glisovic & Forte 2015). Here we explore the state of convective mixing in the mantle using the ASPECT convection code (Kronbichler et al. 2012). A series of experiments are conducted to consider the geochemical and dynamical contributions of LLSVPs to deep-mantle upwellings and corresponding plume-sourced volcanism. The principal feature of these experiments is the use of particle tracers to track geochemical changes in the LLSVPs and mantle plumes in addition to identifying those parts of the mantle that may remain unmixed. We employ 3-D mantle density anomalies derived from joint inversions of seismic, geodynamic and mineral physics constraints and geodynamically-constrained viscosity distributions (Glisovic et al. 2015) to ensure that the predicted flow fields yield a good match to key geophysical constraints (e.g. heat flow, global gravity anomalies and plate velocities).

  3. Processing rhythmic pattern during Chinese sentence reading: An eye movement study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yingyi eLuo

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available Prosodic constraints play a fundamental role during both spoken sentence comprehension and silent reading. In Chinese, the rhythmic pattern of the verb-object (V-O combination has been found to rapidly affect the semantic access/integration process during sentence reading (Luo and Zhou, 2010. Rhythmic pattern refers to the combination of words with different syllabic lengths, with certain combinations disallowed (e.g., [2+1]; numbers standing for the number of syllables of the verb and the noun respectively and certain combinations preferred (e.g., [1+1] or [2+2]. This constraint extends to the situation in which the combination is used to modify other words. A V-O phrase could modify a noun by simply preceding it, forming a V-O-N compound; when the verb is disyllabic, however, the word order has to be O-V-N and the object is preferred to be disyllabic. In this study, we investigated how the reader processes the rhythmic pattern and word order information by recording the reader’s eye-movements. We created four types of sentences by crossing rhythmic pattern and word order in compounding. The compound, embedding a disyllabic verb, could be in the correct O-V-N or the incorrect V-O-N order; the object could be disyllabic or monosyllabic. We found that the reader spent more time and made more regressions on and after the compounds when either type of anomaly was detected during the first pass reading. However, during re-reading (after all the words in the sentence have been viewed, less regressive eye movements were found for the anomalous rhythmic pattern, relative to the correct pattern; moreover, only the abnormal rhythmic pattern, not the violated word order, influenced the regressive eye movements. These results suggest that while the processing of rhythmic pattern and word order information occurs rapidly during the initial reading of the sentence, the process of recovering from the rhythmic pattern anomaly may ease the reanalysis

  4. Processing Rhythmic Pattern during Chinese Sentence Reading: An Eye Movement Study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Luo, Yingyi; Duan, Yunyan; Zhou, Xiaolin

    2015-01-01

    Prosodic constraints play a fundamental role during both spoken sentence comprehension and silent reading. In Chinese, the rhythmic pattern of the verb-object (V-O) combination has been found to rapidly affect the semantic access/integration process during sentence reading (Luo and Zhou, 2010). Rhythmic pattern refers to the combination of words with different syllabic lengths, with certain combinations disallowed (e.g., [2 + 1]; numbers standing for the number of syllables of the verb and the noun respectively) and certain combinations preferred (e.g., [1 + 1] or [2 + 2]). This constraint extends to the situation in which the combination is used to modify other words. A V-O phrase could modify a noun by simply preceding it, forming a V-O-N compound; when the verb is disyllabic, however, the word order has to be O-V-N and the object is preferred to be disyllabic. In this study, we investigated how the reader processes the rhythmic pattern and word order information by recording the reader's eye-movements. We created four types of sentences by crossing rhythmic pattern and word order in compounding. The compound, embedding a disyllabic verb, could be in the correct O-V-N or the incorrect V-O-N order; the object could be disyllabic or monosyllabic. We found that the reader spent more time and made more regressions on and after the compounds when either type of anomaly was detected during the first pass reading. However, during re-reading (after all the words in the sentence have been viewed), less regressive eye movements were found for the anomalous rhythmic pattern, relative to the correct pattern; moreover, only the abnormal rhythmic pattern, not the violated word order, influenced the regressive eye movements. These results suggest that while the processing of rhythmic pattern and word order information occurs rapidly during the initial reading of the sentence, the process of recovering from the rhythmic pattern anomaly may ease the reanalysis processing at the

  5. A qualitative motion analysis study of voluntary hand movement induced by music in patients with Rett syndrome.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Go, Tohshin; Mitani, Asako

    2009-01-01

    Patients with Rett syndrome are known to respond well to music irrespective of their physical and verbal disabilities. Therefore, the relationship between auditory rhythm and their behavior was investigated employing a two-dimensional motion analysis system. Ten female patients aged from three to 17 years were included. When music with a simple regular rhythm started, body rocking appeared automatically in a back and forth direction in all four patients who showed the same rocking motion as their stereotyped movement. Through this body rocking, voluntary movement of the hand increased gradually, and finally became sufficient to beat a tambourine. However, the induction of body rocking by music was not observed in the other six patients who did not show stereotyped body rocking in a back and forth direction. When the music stopped suddenly, voluntary movement of the hand disappeared. When the music changed from a simple regular rhythm to a continuous tone without an auditory rhythm, the periodic movement of both the hand and body prolonged. Auditory rhythm shows a close relationship with body movement and facilitates synchronized body movement. This mechanism was demonstrated to be preserved in some patients with Rett syndrome, and stimulation with music could be utilized for their rehabilitation.

  6. Surface Coating Constraint Induced Self-Discharging of Silicon Nanoparticles as Anodes for Lithium Ion Batteries

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Luo, Langli; Zhao, Peng; Yang, Hui; Liu, Borui; Zhang, Jiguang; Cui, Yi; Yu, Guihua; Zhang, Sulin; Wang, Chong M.

    2015-10-01

    One of the key challenges of Si-based anodes for lithium ion batteries is the large volume change upon lithiation and delithiation, which commonly leads to electrochemo-mechanical degradation and subsequent fast capacity fading. Recent studies have shown that applying nanometer-thick coating layers on Si nanoparticle (SiNPs) enhances cyclability and capacity retention. However, it is far from clear how the coating layer function from the point of view of both surface chemistry and electrochemo-mechanical effect. Herein, we use in situ transmission electron microscopy to investigate the lithiation/delithiation kinetics of SiNPs coated with a conductive polymer, polypyrrole (PPy). We discovered that this coating layer can lead to “self-delithiation” or “self-discharging” at different stages of lithiation. We rationalized that the self-discharging is driven by the internal compressive stress generated inside the lithiated SiNPs due to the constraint effect of the coating layer. We also noticed that the critical size of lithiation-induced fracture of SiNPs is increased from ~ 150 nm for bare SiNPs to ~ 380 nm for the PPy-coated SiNPs, showing a mechanically protective role of the coating layer. These observations demonstrate both beneficial and detrimental roles of the surface coatings, shedding light on rational design of surface coatings for silicon to retain high-power and high capacity as anode for lithium ion batteries.

  7. Research on the Strategy of Motion Constraint-Aided ZUPT for the SINS Positioning System of a Shearer

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hai Yang

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available The accurate measurement of position and orientation for shearers is a key technology in realizing an automated, fully-mechanized, coal mining face. Since Global Positioning System (GPS signal cannot arrive at the coal mine underground, wireless sensor network positioning system cannot operate stably in the coal mine; thus a strap-down inertial navigation system (SINS is used to measure the position and orientation of the shearer. Aiming at the problem of the SINS accumulative error, this paper proposes a positioning error correction method based on the motion constraint-aided SINS zero velocity updated (ZUPT model. First of all, a stationary state detection model of the shearer is built with median filter based on the acceleration and angular rate measured by the SINS. Secondly, the motion of the shearer is analyzed using coal mining technology, then the motion constraint model of the shearer is established. In addition, the alternate action between the motion constraint model and the ZUPT model is analyzed at the process of movement and cessation of the shearer, respectively; hence, the motion constraint-aided SINS ZUPT model is built. Finally, by means of the experimental platform of the SINS for the shearer, the experimental results show that the maximum position error with the positioning model proposed in this paper is 1.6 m in 180 s, and increases by 92.0% and 88.1% compared with the single motion constraint model and single ZUPT model, respectively. It can then restrain the accumulative error of the SINS effectively.

  8. Synchronization of impacting mechanical systems with a single constraint

    Science.gov (United States)

    Baumann, Michael; Biemond, J. J. Benjamin; Leine, Remco I.; van de Wouw, Nathan

    2018-01-01

    This paper addresses the synchronization problem of mechanical systems subjected to a single geometric unilateral constraint. The impacts of the individual systems, induced by the unilateral constraint, generally do not coincide even if the solutions are arbitrarily 'close' to each other. The mismatch in the impact time instants demands a careful choice of the distance function to allow for an intuitively correct comparison of the discontinuous solutions resulting from the impacts. We propose a distance function induced by the quotient metric, which is based on an equivalence relation using the impact map. The distance function obtained in this way is continuous in time when evaluated along jumping solutions. The property of maximal monotonicity, which is fulfilled by most commonly used impact laws, is used to significantly reduce the complexity of the distance function. Based on the simplified distance function, a Lyapunov function is constructed to investigate the synchronization problem for two identical one-dimensional mechanical systems. Sufficient conditions for the uncoupled individual systems are provided under which local synchronization is guaranteed. Furthermore, we present an interaction law which ensures global synchronization, also in the presence of grazing trajectories and accumulation points (Zeno behavior). The results are illustrated using numerical examples of a 1-DOF mechanical impact oscillator which serves as stepping stone in the direction of more general systems.

  9. Solar constraints

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Provost, J.

    1984-01-01

    Accurate tests of the theory of stellar structure and evolution are available from the Sun's observations. The solar constraints are reviewed, with a special attention to the recent progress in observing global solar oscillations. Each constraint is sensitive to a given region of the Sun. The present solar models (standard, low Z, mixed) are discussed with respect to neutrino flux, low and high degree five-minute oscillations and low degree internal gravity modes. It appears that actually there do not exist solar models able to fully account for all the observed quantities. (Auth.)

  10. Temporal Concurrent Constraint Programming

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nielsen, Mogens; Valencia Posso, Frank Dan

    2002-01-01

    The ntcc calculus is a model of non-deterministic temporal concurrent constraint programming. In this paper we study behavioral notions for this calculus. In the underlying computational model, concurrent constraint processes are executed in discrete time intervals. The behavioral notions studied...... reflect the reactive interactions between concurrent constraint processes and their environment, as well as internal interactions between individual processes. Relationships between the suggested notions are studied, and they are all proved to be decidable for a substantial fragment of the calculus...

  11. Evaluation of the conservativeness of the methodology for estimating earthquake-induced movements of fractures intersecting canisters

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    La Pointe, Paul R.; Cladouhos, Trenton T.; Outters, Nils; Follin, Sven

    2000-04-01

    This study evaluates the parameter sensitivity and the conservativeness of the methodology outlined in TR 99-03. Sensitivity analysis focuses on understanding how variability in input parameter values impacts the calculated fracture displacements. These studies clarify what parameters play the greatest role in fracture movements, and help define critical values of these parameters in terms of canister failures. The thresholds or intervals of values that lead to a certain level of canister failure calculated in this study could be useful for evaluating future candidate sites. Key parameters include: 1. magnitude/frequency of earthquakes; 2. the distance of the earthquake from the canisters; 3. the size and aspect ratio of fractures intersecting canisters; and 4. the orientation of the fractures. The results of this study show that distance and earthquake magnitude are the most important factors, followed by fracture size. Fracture orientation is much less important. Regression relations were developed to predict induced fracture slip as a function of distance and either earthquake magnitude or slip on the earthquake fault. These regression relations were validated by using them to estimate the number of canister failures due to single damaging earthquakes at Aberg, and comparing these estimates with those presented in TR 99-03. The methodology described in TR 99-03 employs several conservative simplifications in order to devise a numerically feasible method to estimate fracture movements due to earthquakes outside of the repository over the next 100,000 years. These simplifications include: 1. fractures are assumed to be frictionless and cohesionless; 2. all energy transmitted to the fracture by the earthquake is assumed to produce elastic deformation of the fracture; no energy is diverted into fracture propagation; and 3. shielding effects of other fractures between the earthquake and the fracture are neglected. The numerical modeling effectively assumes that the

  12. Evaluation of the conservativeness of the methodology for estimating earthquake-induced movements of fractures intersecting canisters

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    La Pointe, Paul R.; Cladouhos, Trenton T. [Golder Associates Inc., Las Vegas, NV (United States); Outters, Nils; Follin, Sven [Golder Grundteknik KB, Stockholm (Sweden)

    2000-04-01

    This study evaluates the parameter sensitivity and the conservativeness of the methodology outlined in TR 99-03. Sensitivity analysis focuses on understanding how variability in input parameter values impacts the calculated fracture displacements. These studies clarify what parameters play the greatest role in fracture movements, and help define critical values of these parameters in terms of canister failures. The thresholds or intervals of values that lead to a certain level of canister failure calculated in this study could be useful for evaluating future candidate sites. Key parameters include: 1. magnitude/frequency of earthquakes; 2. the distance of the earthquake from the canisters; 3. the size and aspect ratio of fractures intersecting canisters; and 4. the orientation of the fractures. The results of this study show that distance and earthquake magnitude are the most important factors, followed by fracture size. Fracture orientation is much less important. Regression relations were developed to predict induced fracture slip as a function of distance and either earthquake magnitude or slip on the earthquake fault. These regression relations were validated by using them to estimate the number of canister failures due to single damaging earthquakes at Aberg, and comparing these estimates with those presented in TR 99-03. The methodology described in TR 99-03 employs several conservative simplifications in order to devise a numerically feasible method to estimate fracture movements due to earthquakes outside of the repository over the next 100,000 years. These simplifications include: 1. fractures are assumed to be frictionless and cohesionless; 2. all energy transmitted to the fracture by the earthquake is assumed to produce elastic deformation of the fracture; no energy is diverted into fracture propagation; and 3. shielding effects of other fractures between the earthquake and the fracture are neglected. The numerical modeling effectively assumes that the

  13. Examining Age-Related Movement Representations for Sequential (Fine-Motor) Finger Movements

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gabbard, Carl; Cacola, Priscila; Bobbio, Tatiana

    2011-01-01

    Theory suggests that imagined and executed movement planning relies on internal models for action. Using a chronometry paradigm to compare the movement duration of imagined and executed movements, we tested children aged 7-11 years and adults on their ability to perform sequential finger movements. Underscoring this tactic was our desire to gain a…

  14. Predicting tritium movement and inventory in fusion reactor subsystems using the TMAP code

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jones, J.L.; Merrill, B.J.; Holland, D.F.

    1986-01-01

    The Fusion Safety Program of EGandG idaho, Inc. at the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory (INEL) is developing a safety analysis code called TMAP (Tritium Migration Analysis Program) to analyze tritium loss from fusion systems during normal and off-normal conditions. TMAP is a one-dimensional code that calculates tritium movement and inventories in a system of interconnected enclosures and wall structures. These wall structures can include composite materials with bulk trapping of the permeating tritium on impurities or radiation induced dislocations within the material. The thermal response of a structure can be modeled to provide temperature information required for tritium movement calculations. Chemical reactions and hydrogen isotope movement can also be included in the calculations. TMAP was used to analyze the movement of tritium implanted into a proposed limiter/first wall structure design

  15. Unilateral versus bilateral upper limb training after stroke: the ULTRA-Stroke clinical trial

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    van Delden, A.E.Q.; Peper, C.E.; Nienhuys, K.; Zijp, N.I.; Beek, P.J.; Kwakkel, G.

    2013-01-01

    Background and Purpose - Unilateral and bilateral training protocols for upper limb rehabilitation after stroke represent conceptually contrasting approaches with the same ultimate goal. In a randomized controlled trial, we compared the merits of modified constraint-induced movement therapy,

  16. A Somatic Movement Approach to Fostering Emotional Resiliency through Laban Movement Analysis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rachelle P. Tsachor

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available Although movement has long been recognized as expressing emotion and as an agent of change for emotional state, there was a dearth of scientific evidence specifying which aspects of movement influence specific emotions. The recent identification of clusters of Laban movement components which elicit and enhance the basic emotions of anger, fear, sadness and happiness indicates which types of movements can affect these emotions (Shafir et al., 2016, but not how best to apply this knowledge. This perspective paper lays out a conceptual groundwork for how to effectively use these new findings to support emotional resiliency through voluntary choice of one's posture and movements. We suggest that three theoretical principles from Laban Movement Analysis (LMA can guide the gradual change in movement components in one's daily movements to somatically support shift in affective state: (A Introduce new movement components in developmental order; (B Use LMA affinities-among-components to guide the expansion of expressive movement range and (C Sequence change among components based on Laban's Space Harmony theory to support the gradual integration of that new range. The methods postulated in this article have potential to foster resiliency and provide resources for self-efficacy by expanding our capacity to adapt emotionally to challenges through modulating our movement responses.

  17. Theory of Constraints (TOC)

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Michelsen, Aage U.

    2004-01-01

    Tankegangen bag Theory of Constraints samt planlægningsprincippet Drum-Buffer-Rope. Endvidere skitse af The Thinking Process.......Tankegangen bag Theory of Constraints samt planlægningsprincippet Drum-Buffer-Rope. Endvidere skitse af The Thinking Process....

  18. Neuroimaging Correlates of Post-Stroke Aphasia Rehabilitation in a Pilot Randomized Trial of Constraint-Induced Aphasia Therapy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nenert, Rodolphe; Allendorfer, Jane B; Martin, Amber M; Banks, Christi; Ball, Angel; Vannest, Jennifer; Dietz, Aimee R; Szaflarski, Jerzy P

    2017-07-18

    BACKGROUND Recovery from post-stroke aphasia is a long and complex process with an uncertain outcome. Various interventions have been proposed to augment the recovery, including constraint-induced aphasia therapy (CIAT). CIAT has been applied to patients suffering from post-stroke aphasia in several unblinded studies to show mild-to-moderate linguistic gains. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the neuroimaging correlates of CIAT in patients with chronic aphasia related to left middle cerebral artery stroke. MATERIAL AND METHODS Out of 24 patients recruited in a pilot randomized blinded trial of CIAT, 19 patients received fMRI of language. Eleven of them received CIAT (trained) and eight served as a control group (untrained). Each patient participated in three fMRI sessions (before training, after training, and 3 months later) that included semantic decision and verb generation fMRI tasks, and a battery of language tests. Matching healthy control participants were also included (N=38; matching based on age, handedness, and sex). RESULTS Language testing showed significantly improved performance on Boston Naming Test (BNT; paphasia with no specific effect from CIAT training.

  19. Functional Movement Disorder

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... Publications Patient Organizations International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) See all related organizations Publications Order NINDS Publications Definition Psychogenic movement is an unwanted muscle movement such ...

  20. Movement monitoring device

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ichikawa, Takashi; Yoneda, Yasuaki; Hanatsumi, Masaharu.

    1997-01-01

    The present invention provides a device suitable to accurate recognition for the moving state of reactor core fuels as an object to be monitored in a nuclear power plant. Namely, the device of the present invention prepares each of scheduled paths for the movement of the object to be monitored and executed moving paths along with the movement based on the information of the movement obtained from scheduled information for the movement of the reactor core fuels as a object to be monitored and the actual movement of the object to be monitored. The results of the preparation are outputted. As an output mode, (1) the results of preparation for each of the paths for movement and the results of the monitoring obtained by monitoring the state of the object to be monitored are jointed and outputted, (2) images showing each of the paths for the movement are formed, and the formed images are displayed on a screen, and (3) each of the moving paths is prepared as an image, and the image is displayed together with the image of the regions before and after the movement of the object to be monitored. In addition, obtained images of each of the paths for the movement and the monitored images obtained by monitoring the state of the object to be monitored are joined and displayed. (I.S.)

  1. Constraint Embedding for Multibody System Dynamics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jain, Abhinandan

    2009-01-01

    This paper describes a constraint embedding approach for the handling of local closure constraints in multibody system dynamics. The approach uses spatial operator techniques to eliminate local-loop constraints from the system and effectively convert the system into tree-topology systems. This approach allows the direct derivation of recursive O(N) techniques for solving the system dynamics and avoiding the expensive steps that would otherwise be required for handling the closedchain dynamics. The approach is very effective for systems where the constraints are confined to small-subgraphs within the system topology. The paper provides background on the spatial operator O(N) algorithms, the extensions for handling embedded constraints, and concludes with some examples of such constraints.

  2. Optimal Referral Reward Considering Customer’s Budget Constraint

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dan Zhou

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available Everyone likes Porsche but few can afford it. Budget constraints always play a critical role in a customer’s decision-making. The literature disproportionally focuses on how firms can induce customer valuations toward the product, but does not address how to assess the influence of budget constraints. We study these questions in the context of a referral reward program (RRP. RRP is a prominent marketing strategy that utilizes recommendations passed from existing customers to their friends and effectively stimulates word of mouth (WoM. We build a stylized game-theoretical model with a nested Stackelberg game involving three players: a firm, an existing customer, and a potential customer who is a friend of the existing customer. The budget is the friend’s private information. We show that RRPs might be optimal when the friend has either a low or a high valuation, but they work differently in each situation because of the budget. Furthermore, there are two budget thresholds, a fixed one and a variable one, which limit a firm’s ability to use rewards.

  3. Fortune favours the brave: Movement responses shape demographic dynamics in strongly competing populations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Potts, Jonathan R; Petrovskii, Sergei V

    2017-05-07

    Animal movement is a key mechanism for shaping population dynamics. The effect of interactions between competing animals on a population's survival has been studied for many decades. However, interactions also affect an animal's subsequent movement decisions. Despite this, the indirect effect of these decisions on animal survival is much less well-understood. Here, we incorporate movement responses to foreign animals into a model of two competing populations, where inter-specific competition is greater than intra-specific competition. When movement is diffusive, the travelling wave moves from the stronger population to the weaker. However, by incorporating behaviourally induced directed movement towards the stronger population, the weaker one can slow the travelling wave down, even reversing its direction. Hence movement responses can switch the predictions of traditional mechanistic models. Furthermore, when environmental heterogeneity is combined with aggressive movement strategies, it is possible for spatially segregated co-existence to emerge. In this situation, the spatial patterns of the competing populations have the unusual feature that they are slightly out-of-phase with the environmental patterns. Finally, incorporating dynamic movement responses can also enable stable co-existence in a homogeneous environment, giving a new mechanism for spatially segregated co-existence. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  4. Brown Trout removal effects on short-term survival and movement of Myxobolus cerebralis-resistant rainbow trout

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fetherman, Eric R.; Winkelman, Dana L.; Bailey, Larissa L.; Schisler, George J.; Davies, K.

    2015-01-01

    Following establishment of Myxobolus cerebralis (the parasite responsible for salmonid whirling disease) in Colorado, populations of Rainbow Trout Oncorhynchus mykissexperienced significant declines, whereas Brown Trout Salmo trutta densities increased in many locations across the state, potentially influencing the success of M. cerebralis-resistant Rainbow Trout reintroductions. We examined the effects of Brown Trout removal on the short-term (3-month) survival and movement of two crosses of reintroduced, M. cerebralis-resistant Rainbow Trout in the Cache la Poudre River, Colorado. Radio frequency identification passive integrated transponder tags and antennas were used to track movements of wild Brown Trout and stocked Rainbow Trout in reaches where Brown Trout had or had not been removed. Multistate mark–recapture models were used to estimate tagged fish apparent survival and movement in these sections 3 months following Brown Trout removal. A cross between the German Rainbow Trout and Colorado River Rainbow Trout strains exhibited similar survival and movement probabilities in the reaches, suggesting that the presence of Brown Trout did not affect its survival or movement. However, a cross between the German Rainbow Trout and Harrison Lake Rainbow Trout exhibited less movement from the reach in which Brown Trout had been removed. Despite this, the overall short-term benefits of the removal were equivocal, suggesting that Brown Trout removal may not be beneficial for the reintroduction of Rainbow Trout. Additionally, the logistical constraints of conducting removals in large river systems are substantial and may not be a viable management option in many rivers.

  5. Selection of new constraints

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sugier, A.

    2003-01-01

    The selected new constraints should be consistent with the scale of concern i.e. be expressed roughly as fractions or multiples of the average annual background. They should take into account risk considerations and include the values of the currents limits, constraints and other action levels. The recommendation is to select four leading values for the new constraints: 500 mSv ( single event or in a decade) as a maximum value, 0.01 mSv/year as a minimum value; and two intermediate values: 20 mSv/year and 0.3 mSv/year. This new set of dose constraints, representing basic minimum standards of protection for the individuals taking into account the specificity of the exposure situations are thus coherent with the current values which can be found in ICRP Publications. A few warning need however to be noticed: There is no more multi sources limit set by ICRP. The coherence between the proposed value of dose constraint (20 mSv/year) and the current occupational dose limit of 20 mSv/year is valid only if the workers are exposed to one single source. When there is more than one source, it will be necessary to apportion. The value of 1000 mSv lifetimes used for relocation can be expressed into annual dose, which gives approximately 10 mSv/year and is coherent with the proposed dose constraint. (N.C.)

  6. Tracking without perceiving: a dissociation between eye movements and motion perception.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Spering, Miriam; Pomplun, Marc; Carrasco, Marisa

    2011-02-01

    Can people react to objects in their visual field that they do not consciously perceive? We investigated how visual perception and motor action respond to moving objects whose visibility is reduced, and we found a dissociation between motion processing for perception and for action. We compared motion perception and eye movements evoked by two orthogonally drifting gratings, each presented separately to a different eye. The strength of each monocular grating was manipulated by inducing adaptation to one grating prior to the presentation of both gratings. Reflexive eye movements tracked the vector average of both gratings (pattern motion) even though perceptual responses followed one motion direction exclusively (component motion). Observers almost never perceived pattern motion. This dissociation implies the existence of visual-motion signals that guide eye movements in the absence of a corresponding conscious percept.

  7. Assessment of thermal fatigue damage caused by local fluid temperature fluctuation (part I: characteristics of constraint and stress caused by thermal striation and stratification)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kamaya, Masayuki

    2014-01-01

    Highlights: • The source of the membrane constraint due to local temperature fluctuation was shown. • Thermal fatigue that occurred at a mixing tee and branched elbow was analyzed. • Cracking occurrence was reasonably explained by the constraint and stress conditions. - Abstract: This study was aimed at identifying the constraint conditions under local temperature fluctuation by thermal striping at a mixing tee and by thermal stratification at an elbow pipe branched from the main pipe. Numerical and analytical approaches were made to derive the thermal stress and its fluctuation. It was shown that an inhomogeneous temperature distribution in a straight pipe caused thermal stress due to a membrane constraint even if an external membrane constraint did not act on the pipe. Although the membrane constraint increased the mean stress at the mixing tee, it did not contribute to fluctuation of the thermal stress. On the other hand, the membrane constraint played an important role in the fatigue damage accumulation near the stratification layer of the branched elbow. Based on the constraint and stress conditions analyzed, the characteristics of the cracking observed in actual nuclear power plants were reasonably explained. Namely, at the mixing tee, where thermal crazing has been found, the lack of contribution of the membrane constraint to stress fluctuation caused a stress gradient in the thickness direction and arrested crack growth. On the other hand, at the branched elbow, where axial through-wall cracks have been found, the relatively large hoop stress fluctuation was brought about by movement of the stratified layer together with the membrane constraint even under a relatively low frequency of stress fluctuation

  8. Robustness of movement models: can models bridge the gap between temporal scales of data sets and behavioural processes?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schlägel, Ulrike E; Lewis, Mark A

    2016-12-01

    Discrete-time random walks and their extensions are common tools for analyzing animal movement data. In these analyses, resolution of temporal discretization is a critical feature. Ideally, a model both mirrors the relevant temporal scale of the biological process of interest and matches the data sampling rate. Challenges arise when resolution of data is too coarse due to technological constraints, or when we wish to extrapolate results or compare results obtained from data with different resolutions. Drawing loosely on the concept of robustness in statistics, we propose a rigorous mathematical framework for studying movement models' robustness against changes in temporal resolution. In this framework, we define varying levels of robustness as formal model properties, focusing on random walk models with spatially-explicit component. With the new framework, we can investigate whether models can validly be applied to data across varying temporal resolutions and how we can account for these different resolutions in statistical inference results. We apply the new framework to movement-based resource selection models, demonstrating both analytical and numerical calculations, as well as a Monte Carlo simulation approach. While exact robustness is rare, the concept of approximate robustness provides a promising new direction for analyzing movement models.

  9. Punishment induced behavioural and neurophysiological variability reveals dopamine-dependent selection of kinematic movement parameters

    Science.gov (United States)

    Galea, Joseph M.; Ruge, Diane; Buijink, Arthur; Bestmann, Sven; Rothwell, John C.

    2013-01-01

    Action selection describes the high-level process which selects between competing movements. In animals, behavioural variability is critical for the motor exploration required to select the action which optimizes reward and minimizes cost/punishment, and is guided by dopamine (DA). The aim of this study was to test in humans whether low-level movement parameters are affected by punishment and reward in ways similar to high-level action selection. Moreover, we addressed the proposed dependence of behavioural and neurophysiological variability on DA, and whether this may underpin the exploration of kinematic parameters. Participants performed an out-and-back index finger movement and were instructed that monetary reward and punishment were based on its maximal acceleration (MA). In fact, the feedback was not contingent on the participant’s behaviour but pre-determined. Blocks highly-biased towards punishment were associated with increased MA variability relative to blocks with either reward or without feedback. This increase in behavioural variability was positively correlated with neurophysiological variability, as measured by changes in cortico-spinal excitability with transcranial magnetic stimulation over the primary motor cortex. Following the administration of a DA-antagonist, the variability associated with punishment diminished and the correlation between behavioural and neurophysiological variability no longer existed. Similar changes in variability were not observed when participants executed a pre-determined MA, nor did DA influence resting neurophysiological variability. Thus, under conditions of punishment, DA-dependent processes influence the selection of low-level movement parameters. We propose that the enhanced behavioural variability reflects the exploration of kinematic parameters for less punishing, or conversely more rewarding, outcomes. PMID:23447607

  10. Movement and Space

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Riisgaard Hansen, Thomas; Eriksson, Eva; Lykke-Olesen, Andreas

    2005-01-01

    In this paper we explore the space in which movement based interaction takes place. We have in several projects explored how fixed and mobile cameras can be used in movement based interaction and will shortly describe these projects. Based on our experience with working with movement......-based interaction we will briefly introduce and discuss how learning, mapping and multi-user interaction are important when designing movement based interaction....

  11. Minimal Flavor Constraints for Technicolor

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Sakuma, Hidenori; Sannino, Francesco

    2010-01-01

    We analyze the constraints on the the vacuum polarization of the standard model gauge bosons from a minimal set of flavor observables valid for a general class of models of dynamical electroweak symmetry breaking. We will show that the constraints have a strong impact on the self-coupling and mas......We analyze the constraints on the the vacuum polarization of the standard model gauge bosons from a minimal set of flavor observables valid for a general class of models of dynamical electroweak symmetry breaking. We will show that the constraints have a strong impact on the self...

  12. Concatenation of observed grasp phases with observer's distal movements: a behavioural and TMS study.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Elisa De Stefani

    Full Text Available The present study aimed at determining how actions executed by two conspecifics can be coordinated with each other, or more specifically, how the observation of different phases of a reaching-grasping action is temporary related to the execution of a movement of the observer. Participants observed postures of initial finger opening, maximal finger aperture, and final finger closing of grasp after observation of an initial hand posture. Then, they opened or closed their right thumb and index finger (experiments 1, 2 and 3. Response times decreased, whereas acceleration and velocity of actual finger movements increased when observing the two late phases of grasp. In addition, the results ruled out the possibility that this effect was due to salience of the visual stimulus when the hand was close to the target and confirmed an effect of even hand postures in addition to hand apparent motion due to the succession of initial hand posture and grasp phase. In experiments 4 and 5, the observation of grasp phases modulated even foot movements and pronunciation of syllables. Finally, in experiment 6, transcranial magnetic stimulation applied to primary motor cortex 300 ms post-stimulus induced an increase in hand motor evoked potentials of opponens pollicis muscle when observing the two late phases of grasp. These data suggest that the observation of grasp phases induced simulation which was stronger during observation of finger closing. This produced shorter response times, greater acceleration and velocity of the successive movement. In general, our data suggest best concatenation between two movements (one observed and the other executed when the observed (and simulated movement was to be accomplished. The mechanism joining the observation of a conspecific's action with our own movement may be precursor of social functions. It may be at the basis for interactions between conspecifics, and related to communication between individuals.

  13. Concatenation of observed grasp phases with observer's distal movements: a behavioural and TMS study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    De Stefani, Elisa; Innocenti, Alessandro; De Marco, Doriana; Gentilucci, Maurizio

    2013-01-01

    The present study aimed at determining how actions executed by two conspecifics can be coordinated with each other, or more specifically, how the observation of different phases of a reaching-grasping action is temporary related to the execution of a movement of the observer. Participants observed postures of initial finger opening, maximal finger aperture, and final finger closing of grasp after observation of an initial hand posture. Then, they opened or closed their right thumb and index finger (experiments 1, 2 and 3). Response times decreased, whereas acceleration and velocity of actual finger movements increased when observing the two late phases of grasp. In addition, the results ruled out the possibility that this effect was due to salience of the visual stimulus when the hand was close to the target and confirmed an effect of even hand postures in addition to hand apparent motion due to the succession of initial hand posture and grasp phase. In experiments 4 and 5, the observation of grasp phases modulated even foot movements and pronunciation of syllables. Finally, in experiment 6, transcranial magnetic stimulation applied to primary motor cortex 300 ms post-stimulus induced an increase in hand motor evoked potentials of opponens pollicis muscle when observing the two late phases of grasp. These data suggest that the observation of grasp phases induced simulation which was stronger during observation of finger closing. This produced shorter response times, greater acceleration and velocity of the successive movement. In general, our data suggest best concatenation between two movements (one observed and the other executed) when the observed (and simulated) movement was to be accomplished. The mechanism joining the observation of a conspecific's action with our own movement may be precursor of social functions. It may be at the basis for interactions between conspecifics, and related to communication between individuals.

  14. Reconsidering the effects of respiratory constraints on the optimal running speed.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Willcockson, Michael A; Wall-Scheffler, Cara M

    2012-07-01

    Although both humans and quadrupeds frequently coordinate breathing and limb movement during running, early studies in humans focused on how increased breathing flexibility in humans allowed for relaxed or even transient coordination during locomotion. This difference was used to explain why quadrupeds had an optimal running speed whereas humans did not. Recent research, however, has clearly demonstrated that humans, like quadrupeds, have an optimal running speed. Because these findings are new, it remains unclear why this is true: whether because entrainment in humans was more important than initially predicted or because another restraint is acting. Here, we try to explain the observed minimum cost of transport (CoT) by analyzing metabolic cost with respect to entrainment and a standard set of anthropometrics. We measured the energetic cost of human running at five different speeds and calculated individual CoT curves for each participant (N = 9). Simultaneously, entrainment was determined by the degree to which a poststimulus histogram (breaths per 0.05-s bin after a footfall) differed from a uniform plot. We compared the degree of entrainment to each participant's optimal running speed and found that although all of our subjects clearly entrained at some speeds, entrainment was not a function of CoT (P = 0.897). Because entrainment was also not correlated with speed (P = 0.304), it seems that bipedalism removed the respiratory constraints associated with quadrupedalism as originally suggested. Unlike quadrupeds, for whom respiratory constraints remain implicated in the speed dependence of CoT, constraints that lead to a minimum CoT for people must involve other mechanisms of efficiency such as the storage and release of energy in the lower limbs.

  15. Temporal Concurrent Constraint Programming

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nielsen, Mogens; Palamidessi, Catuscia; Valencia, Frank Dan

    2002-01-01

    The ntcc calculus is a model of non-deterministic temporal concurrent constraint programming. In this paper we study behavioral notions for this calculus. In the underlying computational model, concurrent constraint processes are executed in discrete time intervals. The behavioral notions studied...

  16. The Effect of Ovariectomy and Orchiectomy on Orthodontic Tooth Movement and Root Resorption in Wistar Rats.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Seifi, Massoud; Ezzati, Baharak; Saedi, Sara; Hedayati, Mehdi

    2015-12-01

    Root resorption (RR) after orthodontic tooth movement (OTM) is known as a multifactorial complication of orthodontic treatments. Hormonal deficiencies and their effect on bone turnover are reported to have influences on the rate of tooth movement and root resorption. This study was designed to evaluate the effect of female and male steroid sex hormones on tooth movement and root resorption. Orthodontic appliances were placed on the right maxillary first molars of 10 ovariectomized female and 10 orchiectomized male Wistar rats as experimental groups and 10 female and 10 male healthy Wistar rats as control groups. NiTi closed-coil springs (9mm, Medium, 011"×.030", Ortho Technology(®); Tampa, Florida) were placed between the right incisors and the first right maxillary molars to induce tipping movement in the first molars with the application of a 60g force. After 21 days, the rats were sacrificed and tooth movement was measured by using a digital caliper (Guanglu, China). Orthodontic induced root resorption (OIRR) was assessed by histomorphometric analysis after hematoxylin and eosin staining of sections of the mesial root. The rate of tooth movement was significantly higher in all female rats, with the root resorption being lower in the experimental group. The rate of tooth movement in experimental male rats was significantly higher than the control group (p= 0.001) and the rate of root resorption was significantly lower in the experimental group (p= 0.001). It seems that alterations in plasma levels of estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone hormones can influence the rate of OTM and RR. The acceleration in tooth movement increased OTM and decreased RR.

  17. Movement - uncoordinated

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... Loss of coordination; Coordination impairment; Ataxia; Clumsiness; Uncoordinated movement ... Smooth graceful movement requires a balance between different muscle groups. A part of the brain called the cerebellum manages this balance.

  18. A new method to infer vegetation boundary movement from 'snapshot' data

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Eppinga, M.B.; Pucko, C.A.; Baudena, M.; Beckage, B.; Molofsky, J.

    2012-01-01

    Global change may induce shifts in plant community distributions at multiple spatial scales. At the ecosystem scale, such shifts may result in movement of ecotones or vegetation boundaries. Most indicators for ecosystem change require timeseries data, but here a new method is proposed enabling

  19. Efficient Searching with Linear Constraints

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Agarwal, Pankaj K.; Arge, Lars Allan; Erickson, Jeff

    2000-01-01

    We show how to preprocess a set S of points in d into an external memory data structure that efficiently supports linear-constraint queries. Each query is in the form of a linear constraint xd a0+∑d−1i=1 aixi; the data structure must report all the points of S that satisfy the constraint. This pr...

  20. Constraint qualifications and optimality conditions for optimization problems with cardinality constraints

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Červinka, Michal; Kanzow, Ch.; Schwartz, A.

    2016-01-01

    Roč. 160, č. 1 (2016), s. 353-377 ISSN 0025-5610 R&D Projects: GA ČR GAP402/12/1309; GA ČR GA15-00735S Institutional support: RVO:67985556 Keywords : Cardinality constraints * Constraint qualifications * Optimality conditions * KKT conditions * Strongly stationary points Subject RIV: BA - General Mathematics Impact factor: 2.446, year: 2016 http://library.utia.cas.cz/separaty/2016/MTR/cervinka-0461165.pdf

  1. Constraint optimization model of a scheduling problem for a robotic arm in automatic systems

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kristiansen, Ewa; Smith, Stephen F.; Kristiansen, Morten

    2014-01-01

    are characteristics of the painting process application itself. Unlike spot-welding, painting tasks require movement of the entire robot arm. In addition to minimizing intertask duration, the scheduler must strive to maximize painting quality and the problem is formulated as a multi-objective optimization problem....... The scheduling model is implemented as a stand-alone module using constraint programming, and integrated with a larger automatic system. The results of a number of simulation experiments with simple parts are reported, both to characterize the functionality of the scheduler and to illustrate the operation...... of the entire software system for automatic generation of robot programs for painting....

  2. Effects of Unilateral Upper Limb Training in Two Distinct Prognostic Groups Early After Stroke: The EXPLICIT-Stroke Randomized Clinical Trial

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Kwakkel, G.; Winters, C.; Wegen, E.E.H. van; Nijland, R.H.; Kuijk, A.A. van; Visser-Meily, A.; Groot, J. de; Vlugt, E. de; Arendzen, J.H.; Geurts, A.C.H.; Meskers, C.G.

    2016-01-01

    Background and Objective Favorable prognosis of the upper limb depends on preservation or return of voluntary finger extension (FE) early after stroke. The present study aimed to determine the effects of modified constraint-induced movement therapy (mCIMT) and electromyography-triggered

  3. Effects of Unilateral Upper Limb Training in Two Distinct Prognostic Groups Early after Stroke : The EXPLICIT-Stroke Randomized Clinical Trial

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Kwakkel, Gert; Winters, Caroline; Van Wegen, Erwin E.H.; Nijland, Rinske H.M.; Van Kuijk, Annette A.A.; Visser-Meily, Anne; De Groot, Jurriaan; De Vlugt, Erwin; Arendzen, J. Hans; Geurts, Alexander C.H.; Meskers, Carel G.M.

    2016-01-01

    Background and Objective. Favorable prognosis of the upper limb depends on preservation or return of voluntary finger extension (FE) early after stroke. The present study aimed to determine the effects of modified constraint-induced movement therapy (mCIMT) and electromyography-triggered

  4. Constraint Specialisation in Horn Clause Verification

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kafle, Bishoksan; Gallagher, John Patrick

    2015-01-01

    We present a method for specialising the constraints in constrained Horn clauses with respect to a goal. We use abstract interpretation to compute a model of a query-answer transformation of a given set of clauses and a goal. The effect is to propagate the constraints from the goal top......-down and propagate answer constraints bottom-up. Our approach does not unfold the clauses at all; we use the constraints from the model to compute a specialised version of each clause in the program. The approach is independent of the abstract domain and the constraints theory underlying the clauses. Experimental...

  5. Constraint specialisation in Horn clause verification

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kafle, Bishoksan; Gallagher, John Patrick

    2017-01-01

    We present a method for specialising the constraints in constrained Horn clauses with respect to a goal. We use abstract interpretation to compute a model of a query–answer transformed version of a given set of clauses and a goal. The constraints from the model are then used to compute...... a specialised version of each clause. The effect is to propagate the constraints from the goal top-down and propagate answer constraints bottom-up. The specialisation procedure can be repeated to yield further specialisation. The approach is independent of the abstract domain and the constraint theory...

  6. Constraints on perturbative f(R) gravity via neutron stars

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Arapoğlu, Savaş; Ekşi, K. Yavuz [İstanbul Technical University, Faculty of Science and Letters, Physics Engineering Department, Maslak 34469, İstanbul (Turkey); Deliduman, Cemsinan, E-mail: arapoglu@itu.edu.tr, E-mail: cemsinan@msgsu.edu.tr, E-mail: eksi@itu.edu.tr [Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, Department of Physics, Beşiktaş 34349, İstanbul (Turkey)

    2011-07-01

    We study the structure of neutron stars in perturbative f(R) gravity models with realistic equations of state. We obtain mass-radius relations in a gravity model of the form f(R) = R+αR{sup 2}. We find that deviations from the results of general relativity, comparable to the variations due to using different equations of state (EoS'), are induced for |α| ∼ 10{sup 9} cm{sup 2}. Some of the soft EoS' that are excluded within the framework of general relativity can be reconciled with the 2 solar mass neutron star recently observed for certain values of α within this range. For some of the EoS' we find that a new solution branch, which allows highly massive neutron stars, exists for values of α greater than a few 10{sup 9} cm{sup 2}. We find constraints on α for a variety of EoS' using the recent observational constraints on the mass-radius relation. These are all 5 orders of magnitude smaller than the recent constraint obtained via Gravity Probe B for this gravity model. The associated length scale √(alpha)approx 10{sup 5} cm is only an order of magnitude smaller than the typical radius of a neutron star, the probe used in this test. This implies that real deviations from general relativity can be even smaller.

  7. Sleep-related movement disorders.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Merlino, Giovanni; Gigli, Gian Luigi

    2012-06-01

    Several movement disorders may occur during nocturnal rest disrupting sleep. A part of these complaints is characterized by relatively simple, non-purposeful and usually stereotyped movements. The last version of the International Classification of Sleep Disorders includes these clinical conditions (i.e. restless legs syndrome, periodic limb movement disorder, sleep-related leg cramps, sleep-related bruxism and sleep-related rhythmic movement disorder) under the category entitled sleep-related movement disorders. Moreover, apparently physiological movements (e.g. alternating leg muscle activation and excessive hypnic fragmentary myoclonus) can show a high frequency and severity impairing sleep quality. Clinical and, in specific cases, neurophysiological assessments are required to detect the presence of nocturnal movement complaints. Patients reporting poor sleep due to these abnormal movements should undergo non-pharmacological or pharmacological treatments.

  8. Recent crustal movements

    Science.gov (United States)

    Maelzer, H.

    Calculation of temporal height changes for the determination of recent vertical crustal movements in northern, western, and southern Germany is described. Precise geodetic measurements and their analysis for the determination of recent crustal movements in north-eastern Iceland, western Venezuela, and central Peru are described. Determination of recent vertical crustal movements by leveling and gravity data; geodetic modeling of deformations and recent crustal movements; geodetic modeling of plate motions; and instrumental developments in geodetic measuring are discussed.

  9. Reduction Of Constraints For Coupled Operations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Raszewski, F.; Edwards, T.

    2009-01-01

    The homogeneity constraint was implemented in the Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF) Product Composition Control System (PCCS) to help ensure that the current durability models would be applicable to the glass compositions being processed during DWPF operations. While the homogeneity constraint is typically an issue at lower waste loadings (WLs), it may impact the operating windows for DWPF operations, where the glass forming systems may be limited to lower waste loadings based on fissile or heat load limits. In the sludge batch 1b (SB1b) variability study, application of the homogeneity constraint at the measurement acceptability region (MAR) limit eliminated much of the potential operating window for DWPF. As a result, Edwards and Brown developed criteria that allowed DWPF to relax the homogeneity constraint from the MAR to the property acceptance region (PAR) criterion, which opened up the operating window for DWPF operations. These criteria are defined as: (1) use the alumina constraint as currently implemented in PCCS (Al 2 O 3 (ge) 3 wt%) and add a sum of alkali constraint with an upper limit of 19.3 wt% (ΣM 2 O 2 O 3 constraint to 4 wt% (Al 2 O 3 (ge) 4 wt%). Herman et al. previously demonstrated that these criteria could be used to replace the homogeneity constraint for future sludge-only batches. The compositional region encompassing coupled operations flowsheets could not be bounded as these flowsheets were unknown at the time. With the initiation of coupled operations at DWPF in 2008, the need to revisit the homogeneity constraint was realized. This constraint was specifically addressed through the variability study for SB5 where it was shown that the homogeneity constraint could be ignored if the alumina and alkali constraints were imposed. Additional benefit could be gained if the homogeneity constraint could be replaced by the Al 2 O 3 and sum of alkali constraint for future coupled operations processing based on projections from Revision 14 of

  10. Higher order statistics of curvature perturbations in IFF model and its Planck constraints

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fujita, Tomohiro; Yokoyama, Shuichiro

    2013-01-01

    We compute the power spectrum P ζ and non-linear parameters f NL and τ NL of the curvature perturbation induced during inflation by the electromagnetic fields in the kinetic coupling model (IFF model). By using the observational result of P ζ ,f NL and τ NL reported by the Planck collaboration, we study the constraint on the model comprehensively. Interestingly, if the single slow-rolling inflaton is responsible for the observed P ζ , the constraint from τ NL is most stringent. We also find a general relationship between f NL and τ NL generated in this model. Even if f NL ∼ O(1), a detectable τ NL can be produced

  11. Changing Artificial Playback Speed and Real Movement Velocity Do Not Differentially Influence the Excitability of Primary Motor Cortex during Observation of a Repetitive Finger Movement

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Takefumi Moriuchi

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available Action observation studies have investigated whether changing the speed of the observed movement affects the action observation network. There are two types of speed-changing conditions; one involves “changes in actual movement velocity,” and the other is “manipulation of video speed.” Previous studies have investigated the effects of these conditions separately, but to date, no study has directly investigated the differences between the effects of these conditions. In the “movement velocity condition,” increased velocity is associated with increased muscle activity; however, this change of muscle activities is not shown in the “video speed condition.” Therefore, a difference in the results obtained under these conditions could be considered to reflect a difference in muscle activity of actor in the video. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of different speed-changing conditions and spontaneous movement tempo (SMT on the excitability of primary motor cortex (M1 during action observation, as assessed by motor-evoked potentials (MEPs amplitudes induced by transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS. A total of 29 healthy subjects observed a video clip of a repetitive index or little finger abduction movement under seven different speed conditions. The video clip in the movement velocity condition showed repetitive finger abduction movements made in time with an auditory metronome, at frequencies of 0.5, 1, 2, and 3 Hz. In the video speed condition, playback of the 1-Hz movement velocity condition video clip was modified to show movement frequencies of 0.5, 2, or 3 Hz (Hz-Fake. TMS was applied at the time of maximal abduction and MEPs were recorded from two right-hand muscles. There were no differences in M1 excitability between the movement velocity and video speed conditions. Moreover, M1 excitability did not vary across the speed conditions for either presentation condition. Our findings suggest that changing

  12. Transmission and capacity pricing and constraints

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fusco, M.

    1999-01-01

    A series of overhead viewgraphs accompanied this presentation which discussed the following issues regarding the North American electric power industry: (1) capacity pricing transmission constraints, (2) nature of transmission constraints, (3) consequences of transmission constraints, and (4) prices as market evidence. Some solutions suggested for pricing constraints included the development of contingent contracts, back-up power in supply regions, and new line capacity construction. 8 tabs., 20 figs

  13. Hadronic EDM constraints on orbifold GUTs

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hisano, Junji; Kakizaki, Mitsuru; Nagai, Minoru

    2005-01-01

    We point out that the null results of the hadronic electric dipole moment (EDM) searches constrain orbifold grand unified theories (GUTs), where the GUT symmetry and supersymmetry (SUSY) are both broken by boundary conditions in extra dimensions and it leads to rich fermion and sfermion flavor structures. A marginal chromoelectric dipole moment (CEDM) of the up quark is induced by the misalignment between the CP violating left- and right-handed up-type squark mixings, in contrast to the conventional four-dimensional SUSY GUTs. The up quark CEDM constraint is found to be as strong as those from charged lepton flavor violation (LFV) searches. The interplay between future EDM and LFV experiments will probe the structures of the GUTs and the SUSY breaking mediation mechanism

  14. Effect of speed on local dynamic stability of locomotion under different task constraints in running.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mehdizadeh, Sina; Arshi, Ahmed Reza; Davids, Keith

    2014-01-01

    A number of studies have investigated effects of speed on local dynamic stability of walking, although this relationship has been rarely investigated under changing task constraints, such as during forward and backward running. To rectify this gap in the literature, the aim of this study was to investigate the effect of running speed on local dynamic stability of forward and backward running on a treadmill. Fifteen healthy male participants took part in this study. Participants ran in forward and backward directions at speeds of 80%, 100% and 120% of their preferred running speed. The three-dimensional motion of a C7 marker was recorded using a motion capture system. Local dynamic stability of the marker was quantified using short- and long-term largest finite-time Lyapunov exponents (LyE). Results showed that short-term largest finite-time LyE values increased with participant speed meaning that local dynamic stability decreased with increasing speed. Long-term largest finite-time LyEs, however, remained unaffected as speed increased. Results of this study indicated that, as in walking, slow running is more stable than fast running. These findings improve understanding of how stability is regulated when constraints on the speed of movements is altered. Implications for the design of rehabilitation or sport practice programmes suggest how task constraints could be manipulated to facilitate adaptations in locomotion stability during athletic training.

  15. Evaluating Distributed Timing Constraints

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kristensen, C.H.; Drejer, N.

    1994-01-01

    In this paper we describe a solution to the problem of implementing time-optimal evaluation of timing constraints in distributed real-time systems.......In this paper we describe a solution to the problem of implementing time-optimal evaluation of timing constraints in distributed real-time systems....

  16. Thermomechanical constraints and constitutive formulations in thermoelasticity

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Baek S.

    2003-01-01

    Full Text Available We investigate three classes of constraints in a thermoelastic body: (i a deformation-temperature constraint, (ii a deformation-entropy constraint, and (iii a deformation-energy constraint. These constraints are obtained as limits of unconstrained thermoelastic materials and we show that constraints (ii and (iii are equivalent. By using a limiting procedure, we show that for the constraint (i, the entropy plays the role of a Lagrange multiplier while for (ii and (iii, the absolute temperature plays the role of Lagrange multiplier. We further demonstrate that the governing equations for materials subject to constraint (i are identical to those of an unconstrained material whose internal energy is an affine function of the entropy, while those for materials subject to constraints (ii and (iii are identical to those of an unstrained material whose Helmholtz potential is affine in the absolute temperature. Finally, we model the thermoelastic response of a peroxide-cured vulcanizate of natural rubber and show that imposing the constraint in which the volume change depends only on the internal energy leads to very good predictions (compared to experimental results of the stress and temperature response under isothermal and isentropic conditions.

  17. Adaptive covariation between the coat and movement proteins of prunus necrotic ringspot virus.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Codoñer, Francisco M; Fares, Mario A; Elena, Santiago F

    2006-06-01

    The relative functional and/or structural importance of different amino acid sites in a protein can be assessed by evaluating the selective constraints to which they have been subjected during the course of evolution. Here we explore such constraints at the linear and three-dimensional levels for the movement protein (MP) and coat protein (CP) encoded by RNA 3 of prunus necrotic ringspot ilarvirus (PNRSV). By a maximum-parsimony approach, the nucleotide sequences from 46 isolates of PNRSV varying in symptomatology, host tree, and geographic origin have been analyzed and sites under different selective pressures have been identified in both proteins. We have also performed covariation analyses to explore whether changes in certain amino acid sites condition subsequent variation in other sites of the same protein or the other protein. These covariation analyses shed light on which particular amino acids should be involved in the physical and functional interaction between MP and CP. Finally, we discuss these findings in the light of what is already known about the implication of certain sites and domains in structure and protein-protein and RNA-protein interactions.

  18. Does a time constraint modify results from rating-based conjoint analysis? Case study with orange/pomegranate juice bottles.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Reis, Felipe; Machín, Leandro; Rosenthal, Amauri; Deliza, Rosires; Ares, Gastón

    2016-12-01

    People do not usually process all the available information on packages for making their food choices and rely on heuristics for making their decisions, particularly when having limited time. However, in most consumer studies encourage participants to invest a lot of time for making their choices. Therefore, imposing a time-constraint in consumer studies may increase their ecological validity. In this context, the aim of the present work was to evaluate the influence of a time-constraint on consumer evaluation of pomegranate/orange juice bottles using rating-based conjoint task. A consumer study with 100 participants was carried out, in which they had to evaluate 16 pomegranate/orange fruit juice bottles, differing in bottle design, front-of-pack nutritional information, nutrition claim and processing claim, and to rate their intention to purchase. Half of the participants evaluated the bottle images without time constraint and the other half had a time-constraint of 3s for evaluating each image. Eye-movements were recorded during the evaluation. Results showed that time-constraint when evaluating intention to purchase did not largely modify the way in which consumers visually processed bottle images. Regardless of the experimental condition (with or without time constraint), they tended to evaluate the same product characteristics and to give them the same relative importance. However, a trend towards a more superficial evaluation of the bottles that skipped complex information was observed. Regarding the influence of product characteristics on consumer intention to purchase, bottle design was the variable with the largest relative importance in both conditions, overriding the influence of nutritional or processing characteristics, which stresses the importance of graphic design in shaping consumer perception. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  19. Overt head movements and persuasion: a self-validation analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Briñol, Pablo; Petty, Richard E

    2003-06-01

    The authors report 3 experiments that examine a new mechanism by which overt head movements can affect attitude change. In each experiment, participants were induced to either nod or to shake their heads while listening to a persuasive message. When the message arguments were strong, nodding produced more persuasion than shaking. When the arguments were weak, the reverse occurred. These effects were most pronounced when elaboration was high. These findings are consistent with the "self-validation" hypothesis that postulates that head movements either enhance (nodding) or undermine (shaking) confidence in one's thoughts about the message. In a 4th experiment, the authors extended this result to another overt behavior (writing with the dominant or nondominant hand) and a different attitude domain (self-esteem).

  20. The effect of chronic low back pain on tactile suppression during back movements.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Van Damme, Stefaan; Van Hulle, Lore; Danneels, Lieven; Spence, Charles; Crombez, Geert

    2014-10-01

    The aim of the present study was to examine whether tactile suppression, the phenomenon whereby tactile perception is suppressed during movement, would occur in the context of back movements. Of particular interest, it was investigated if tactile suppression in the back would be attenuated in those suffering from chronic low back pain. Individuals with chronic low back pain (N = 30) and a matched control group (N = 24) detected tactile stimuli on three possible locations (back, arm, chest) while performing a back or arm movement, or no movement. We hypothesized that the movements would induce tactile suppression, and that this effect would be largest for low-intense stimuli on the moving body part. We further hypothesized that, during back movements, tactile suppression on the back would be less pronounced in the chronic low back pain group than in the control group. The results showed the expected general tactile suppression effects. The hypothesis of back-specific attenuation of tactile suppression in the chronic low back pain group was not supported. However, back-specific tactile suppression in the chronic low back pain group was less pronounced in those who performed the back movements more slowly. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  1. Therapies for children with cerebral palsy A Web of Science-based literature analysis

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    Yaping Mu; Na Li; Lijun Guan; Chunnan Wang; Shuyun Shang; Yan Wang

    2012-01-01

    OBJECTIVE:To identify global research trends in three therapies for children with cerebral palsy.DATA RETRIEVAL:We performed a bibliometric analysis of studies on therapies for children with cerebral palsy from 2002 to 2011 retrieved from Web of Science.SELECTION CRITERIA:Inclusion criteria:(a)peer-reviewed published articles on botulinum toxin,constraint-induced movement therapy,or acupuncture for children with cerebral palsy indexed in Web of Science;(b)original research articles,reviews,meeting abstracts,proceedings papers,book chapters,editorial material,and news items;and(c)publication between 2002 and 2011.Exclusion criteria:(a)articles that required manual searching or telephone access;(b)documents that were not published in the public domain;and(c)a number of corrected papers from the total number of articles.MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES:(1)Number of publications on the three therapies;(2)annual publication output,distribution by journals,distribution by institution,and top-cited articles on botulinum toxin;(3)annual publication output,distribution by journal,distribution by institution,and top-cited articles on constraint-induced movement therapy;(4)annual publication,distribution by journal,distribution by institution,and top-cited articles on acupuncture.RESULTS:This analysis,based on Web of Science articles,identified several research trends in studies published over the past 10 years of three therapies for children with cerebral palsy.More articles on botulinum toxin for treating children with cerebral palsy were published than the articles regarding constraint-induced movement therapy or acupuncture.The numbers of publications increased over the 10-year study period.Most papers appeared in journals with a focus on neurology,such as Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology and Journal of Child Neurology.Research institutes publishing on botulinum toxin treatments for this population are mostly in the Netherlands,the United States of America,and Australia

  2. Machine tongues. X. Constraint languages

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Levitt, D.

    Constraint languages and programming environments will help the designer produce a lucid description of a problem domain, and then of particular situations and problems in it. Early versions of these languages were given descriptions of real world domain constraints, like the operation of electrical and mechanical parts. More recently, the author has automated a vocabulary for describing musical jazz phrases, using constraint language as a jazz improviser. General constraint languages will handle all of these domains. Once the model is in place, the system will connect built-in code fragments and algorithms to answer questions about situations; that is, to help solve problems. Bugs will surface not in code, but in designs themselves. 15 references.

  3. Reconstruction artefacts in magnetic induction tomography due to patient's movement during data acquisition

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gürsoy, D; Scharfetter, H

    2009-01-01

    Magnetic induction tomography (MIT) attempts to obtain the distribution of passive electrical properties inside the body. Eddy currents are induced in the body using an array of transmitter coils and the magnetic fields of these currents are measured by receiver coils. In clinical usage, the relative position of the coils to the body can change during data acquisition because of the expected/unexpected movements of the patient. Especially in respiration monitoring these movements will inevitably cause artefacts in the reconstructed images. In this paper, this effect was investigated for both state and frequency differential variants of MIT. It was found that a slight shift of the body in the transverse plane causes spurious perturbations on the surface. In reconstructions, this artefact on the surface propagates towards the centre in an oscillatory manner. It was observed that the movement can corrupt all the valuable information in state differential MIT, while frequency differential MIT seems more robust against movement effects. A filtering strategy is offered in order to decrease the movement artefacts in the images. To this end, monitoring of the patient's movement during data acquisition is required

  4. MEG-compatible pneumatic stimulator to elicit passive finger and toe movements.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Piitulainen, Harri; Bourguignon, Mathieu; Hari, Riitta; Jousmäki, Veikko

    2015-05-15

    Magnetoencephalographic (MEG) signals recorded from the primary sensorimotor (SM1) cortex are coherent with kinematics of both active and passive finger movements. The coherence mainly reflects movement-related proprioceptive afference to the cortex. Here we describe a novel MEG-compatible stimulator to generate computer-controlled passive finger and toe movements that can be used as stimuli in functional brain-imaging experiments. The movements are produced by pneumatic artificial muscle (PAM), elastic actuator that shortens with increasing air pressure. To test the applicability of the stimulator to functional brain-imaging, 4-min trains of passive repetitive 5-mm flexion-extension movements of the right and left index finger and the right hallux were produced at 3Hz while the subject's brain activity was measured with whole-scalp MEG and finger or toe kinematics with an accelerometer. In all ten subjects studied, statistically significant coherence (up to 0.78) occurred between the accelerometer and MEG signals at the movement frequency or its first harmonic. Sources of coherent activity were in the contralateral hand or foot SM1 cortices. Movement-evoked fields elicited with intermittent movements of the right index finger (once every 3.2-4.0s; mean±SD peak response latency 88±25ms) were co-located with the respective coherent sources. We further moved the right index finger at 3, 6, and 12Hz (movement ranges 5, 3, and 2mm, respectively), and analyzed the first 1, 2, and 4-min epochs of data. One minute of data was sufficient to locate the left hand area of the SM1 cortex at all movement frequencies. Sound-induced spurious coherence was reliably ruled out in a control experiment. Our novel movement stimulator thus provides a robust and reliable tool to track proprioceptive afference to the cortex and to locate the SM1 cortex. Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  5. The Role of Hypoxia in Orthodontic Tooth Movement

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    A. Niklas

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available Orthodontic forces are known to have various effects on the alveolar process, such as cell deformation, inflammation, and circulatory disturbances. Each of these conditions affecting cell differentiation, cell repair, and cell migration, is driven by numerous molecular and inflammatory mediators. As a result, bone remodeling is induced, facilitating orthodontic tooth movement. However, orthodontic forces not only have cellular effects but also induce vascular changes. Orthodontic forces are known to occlude periodontal ligament vessels on the pressure side of the dental root, decreasing the blood perfusion of the tissue. This condition is accompanied by hypoxia, which is known to either affect cell proliferation or induce apoptosis, depending on the oxygen gradient. Because upregulated tissue proliferation rates are often accompanied by angiogenesis, hypoxia may be assumed to fundamentally contribute to bone remodeling processes during orthodontic treatment.

  6. Some applications and prospects of cellular automata in traffic problems

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Goldengorin, Boris; Makarenko, Alexander; Smelyanec, Natalia; Yacoubi, SE; Chopard, B; Bandini, S

    2006-01-01

    In this paper we deal with mathematical modeling of participants' movement based on cellular automata (CA). We describe some improvements of CA models of pedestrian motion taking into account the real geometrical constraints induced by a specific restricted space. Also some presumable optimization

  7. Planck 2015 results: XIX. Constraints on primordial magnetic fields

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Ade, P. A R; Aghanim, N.; Arnaud, M.

    2016-01-01

    of the CMB angular power spectra, using the Planck likelihood, are B1 Mpc 4.4 nG (where B1 Mpc is the comoving field amplitude at a scale of 1 Mpc) at 95% confidence level, assuming zero helicity. By considering the Planck likelihood, based only on parity-even angular power spectra, we obtain B1 Mpc ... to three applied methods, all below 5 nG. The constraint from the magnetically-induced passive-tensor bispectrum is B1 Mpc Mpc 4.5 nG, whereas the compensated-scalar bispectrum gives B1 Mpc

  8. Sensation of Movement

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Sensation of Movement will discuss the role of sensation in the control of action, bodily self-recognition, and sense of agency. Sensing movement is dependent on a range of information received by the brain, from signalling in the peripheral sensory organs to the establishment of higher order goals....... This volume will question whether one type of information is more relevant for the ability to sense and control movements, and demonstrate the importance of integrating neuroscientific knowledge with philosophical perspectives, in order to arrive at new insights into how sensation of movement can be studied...

  9. Releasing the Constraints on Aphasia Therapy: The Positive Impact of Gesture and Multimodality Treatments

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rose, Miranda L.

    2013-01-01

    Purpose: There is a 40-year history of interest in the use of arm and hand gestures in treatments that target the reduction of aphasic linguistic impairment and compensatory methods of communication (Rose, 2006). Arguments for constraining aphasia treatment to the verbal modality have arisen from proponents of constraint-induced aphasia therapy…

  10. Concatenation of Observed Grasp Phases with Observer’s Distal Movements: A Behavioural and TMS Study

    Science.gov (United States)

    De Stefani, Elisa; Innocenti, Alessandro; De Marco, Doriana; Gentilucci, Maurizio

    2013-01-01

    The present study aimed at determining how actions executed by two conspecifics can be coordinated with each other, or more specifically, how the observation of different phases of a reaching-grasping action is temporary related to the execution of a movement of the observer. Participants observed postures of initial finger opening, maximal finger aperture, and final finger closing of grasp after observation of an initial hand posture. Then, they opened or closed their right thumb and index finger (experiments 1, 2 and 3). Response times decreased, whereas acceleration and velocity of actual finger movements increased when observing the two late phases of grasp. In addition, the results ruled out the possibility that this effect was due to salience of the visual stimulus when the hand was close to the target and confirmed an effect of even hand postures in addition to hand apparent motion due to the succession of initial hand posture and grasp phase. In experiments 4 and 5, the observation of grasp phases modulated even foot movements and pronunciation of syllables. Finally, in experiment 6, transcranial magnetic stimulation applied to primary motor cortex 300 ms post-stimulus induced an increase in hand motor evoked potentials of opponens pollicis muscle when observing the two late phases of grasp. These data suggest that the observation of grasp phases induced simulation which was stronger during observation of finger closing. This produced shorter response times, greater acceleration and velocity of the successive movement. In general, our data suggest best concatenation between two movements (one observed and the other executed) when the observed (and simulated) movement was to be accomplished. The mechanism joining the observation of a conspecific’s action with our own movement may be precursor of social functions. It may be at the basis for interactions between conspecifics, and related to communication between individuals. PMID:24278395

  11. Optimal Tempo for Groove: Its Relation to Directions of Body Movement and Japanese nori

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Takahide Etani

    2018-04-01

    Full Text Available The tendency for groove-based music to induce body movements has been linked to multiple acoustical factors. However, it is unclear how or whether tempo affects groove, although tempo significantly affects other aspects of music perception. To address this issue, the present study investigated effects of tempo, specific rhythmic organizations of patterns, and syncopation on groove and the induction of the sensation of wanting to move. We focused on the directions of body movement in particular by taking into account nori, which is an indigenous Japanese musical term used not only synonymously with groove, but also as a spatial metaphor indicating vertical or horizontal movement directions. Thus, the present study explored how groove was felt and defined, as well as how musical factors induced the sensation of wanting to move in cross-cultural context. A listening experiment was conducted using drum breaks as stimuli. Stimuli consisted of various rhythm patterns at six tempi from 60 to 200 BPM. The main findings are that: (1 an optimal tempo for groove existed for drum breaks at around 100–120 BPM, (2 an optimal tempo existed for the sensation of wanting to move the body in specific directions (i.e., back-and-forth and side-to-side, (3 groove and nori shared a similar concept of wanting to move but differed on several points (i.e., association with sense of pulse and fast tempo. Overall, the present study suggests that there is an optimal tempo for body movement related to groove. This finding has implications for the use of music or rhythmic stimuli to induce smooth motion in rehabilitation, therapy, or dance.

  12. Optimal Tempo for Groove: Its Relation to Directions of Body Movement and Japanese nori.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Etani, Takahide; Marui, Atsushi; Kawase, Satoshi; Keller, Peter E

    2018-01-01

    The tendency for groove-based music to induce body movements has been linked to multiple acoustical factors. However, it is unclear how or whether tempo affects groove, although tempo significantly affects other aspects of music perception. To address this issue, the present study investigated effects of tempo, specific rhythmic organizations of patterns, and syncopation on groove and the induction of the sensation of wanting to move. We focused on the directions of body movement in particular by taking into account nori , which is an indigenous Japanese musical term used not only synonymously with groove, but also as a spatial metaphor indicating vertical or horizontal movement directions. Thus, the present study explored how groove was felt and defined, as well as how musical factors induced the sensation of wanting to move in cross-cultural context. A listening experiment was conducted using drum breaks as stimuli. Stimuli consisted of various rhythm patterns at six tempi from 60 to 200 BPM. The main findings are that: (1) an optimal tempo for groove existed for drum breaks at around 100-120 BPM, (2) an optimal tempo existed for the sensation of wanting to move the body in specific directions (i.e., back-and-forth and side-to-side), (3) groove and nori shared a similar concept of wanting to move but differed on several points (i.e., association with sense of pulse and fast tempo). Overall, the present study suggests that there is an optimal tempo for body movement related to groove. This finding has implications for the use of music or rhythmic stimuli to induce smooth motion in rehabilitation, therapy, or dance.

  13. Estimating the implicit component of visuomotor rotation learning by constraining movement preparation time.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Leow, Li-Ann; Gunn, Reece; Marinovic, Welber; Carroll, Timothy J

    2017-08-01

    When sensory feedback is perturbed, accurate movement is restored by a combination of implicit processes and deliberate reaiming to strategically compensate for errors. Here, we directly compare two methods used previously to dissociate implicit from explicit learning on a trial-by-trial basis: 1 ) asking participants to report the direction that they aim their movements, and contrasting this with the directions of the target and the movement that they actually produce, and 2 ) manipulating movement preparation time. By instructing participants to reaim without a sensory perturbation, we show that reaiming is possible even with the shortest possible preparation times, particularly when targets are narrowly distributed. Nonetheless, reaiming is effortful and comes at the cost of increased variability, so we tested whether constraining preparation time is sufficient to suppress strategic reaiming during adaptation to visuomotor rotation with a broad target distribution. The rate and extent of error reduction under preparation time constraints were similar to estimates of implicit learning obtained from self-report without time pressure, suggesting that participants chose not to apply a reaiming strategy to correct visual errors under time pressure. Surprisingly, participants who reported aiming directions showed less implicit learning according to an alternative measure, obtained during trials performed without visual feedback. This suggests that the process of reporting can affect the extent or persistence of implicit learning. The data extend existing evidence that restricting preparation time can suppress explicit reaiming and provide an estimate of implicit visuomotor rotation learning that does not require participants to report their aiming directions. NEW & NOTEWORTHY During sensorimotor adaptation, implicit error-driven learning can be isolated from explicit strategy-driven reaiming by subtracting self-reported aiming directions from movement directions, or

  14. Ant colony optimization and constraint programming

    CERN Document Server

    Solnon, Christine

    2013-01-01

    Ant colony optimization is a metaheuristic which has been successfully applied to a wide range of combinatorial optimization problems. The author describes this metaheuristic and studies its efficiency for solving some hard combinatorial problems, with a specific focus on constraint programming. The text is organized into three parts. The first part introduces constraint programming, which provides high level features to declaratively model problems by means of constraints. It describes the main existing approaches for solving constraint satisfaction problems, including complete tree search

  15. Revisiting big-bang nucleosynthesis constraints on long-lived decaying particles

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kawasaki, Masahiro; Kohri, Kazunori; Moroi, Takeo; Takaesu, Yoshitaro

    2018-01-01

    We study the effects of long-lived massive particles, which decayed during the big-bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) epoch, on the primordial abundance of light elements. Compared to previous studies, (i) the reaction rates of standard BBN reactions are updated, (ii) the most recent observational data on the light element abundance and cosmological parameters are used, (iii) the effects of the interconversion of energetic nucleons at the time of inelastic scattering with background nuclei are considered, and (iv) the effects of the hadronic shower induced by energetic high-energy antinucleons are included. We compare the theoretical predictions on the primordial abundance of light elements with the latest observational constraints, and we derive upper bounds on the relic abundance of the decaying particle as a function of its lifetime. We also apply our analysis to an unstable gravitino, the superpartner of a graviton in supersymmetric theories, and obtain constraints on the reheating temperature after inflation.

  16. Causality Constraints in Conformal Field Theory

    CERN Multimedia

    CERN. Geneva

    2015-01-01

    Causality places nontrivial constraints on QFT in Lorentzian signature, for example fixing the signs of certain terms in the low energy Lagrangian. In d-dimensional conformal field theory, we show how such constraints are encoded in crossing symmetry of Euclidean correlators, and derive analogous constraints directly from the conformal bootstrap (analytically). The bootstrap setup is a Lorentzian four-point function corresponding to propagation through a shockwave. Crossing symmetry fixes the signs of certain log terms that appear in the conformal block expansion, which constrains the interactions of low-lying operators. As an application, we use the bootstrap to rederive the well known sign constraint on the (∂φ)4 coupling in effective field theory, from a dual CFT. We also find constraints on theories with higher spin conserved currents. Our analysis is restricted to scalar correlators, but we argue that similar methods should also impose nontrivial constraints on the interactions of spinni...

  17. Causality constraints in conformal field theory

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hartman, Thomas; Jain, Sachin; Kundu, Sandipan [Department of Physics, Cornell University,Ithaca, New York (United States)

    2016-05-17

    Causality places nontrivial constraints on QFT in Lorentzian signature, for example fixing the signs of certain terms in the low energy Lagrangian. In d dimensional conformal field theory, we show how such constraints are encoded in crossing symmetry of Euclidean correlators, and derive analogous constraints directly from the conformal bootstrap (analytically). The bootstrap setup is a Lorentzian four-point function corresponding to propagation through a shockwave. Crossing symmetry fixes the signs of certain log terms that appear in the conformal block expansion, which constrains the interactions of low-lying operators. As an application, we use the bootstrap to rederive the well known sign constraint on the (∂ϕ){sup 4} coupling in effective field theory, from a dual CFT. We also find constraints on theories with higher spin conserved currents. Our analysis is restricted to scalar correlators, but we argue that similar methods should also impose nontrivial constraints on the interactions of spinning operators.

  18. Movement Matters: Observing the Benefits of Movement Practice

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fuchs, Melani Alexander

    2015-01-01

    Montessori's first premise is that movement and cognition are closely entwined, and movement can enhance thinking and learning (Lillard, 2005). Children must move, and practice moving, to develop strength, balance, and the stability needed to fully participate in the rigors of daily life. It is imperative for young children's motor…

  19. Learning and Parallelization Boost Constraint Search

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yun, Xi

    2013-01-01

    Constraint satisfaction problems are a powerful way to abstract and represent academic and real-world problems from both artificial intelligence and operations research. A constraint satisfaction problem is typically addressed by a sequential constraint solver running on a single processor. Rather than construct a new, parallel solver, this work…

  20. Low-intensity pulsed ultrasound accelerates tooth movement via activation of the BMP-2 signaling pathway.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hui Xue

    Full Text Available The present study was designed to determine the underlying mechanism of low-intensity pulsed ultrasound (LIPUS induced alveolar bone remodeling and the role of BMP-2 expression in a rat orthodontic tooth movement model. Orthodontic appliances were placed between the homonymy upper first molars and the upper central incisors in rats under general anesthesia, followed by daily 20-min LIPUS or sham LIPUS treatment beginning at day 0. Tooth movement distances and molecular changes were evaluated at each observation point. In vitro and in vivo studies were conducted to detect HGF (Hepatocyte growth factor/Runx2/BMP-2 signaling pathways and receptor activator of NFκB ligand (RANKL expression by quantitative real time PCR (qRT-PCR, Western blot and immunohistochemistry. At day 3, LIPUS had no effect on the rat orthodontic tooth movement distance and BMP-2-induced alveolar bone remodeling. However, beginning at day 5 and for the following time points, LIPUS significantly increased orthodontic tooth movement distance and BMP-2 signaling pathway and RANKL expression compared with the control group. The qRT-PCR and Western blot data in vitro and in vivo to study BMP-2 expression were consistent with the immunohistochemistry observations. The present study demonstrates that LIPUS promotes alveolar bone remodeling by stimulating the HGF/Runx2/BMP-2 signaling pathway and RANKL expression in a rat orthodontic tooth movement model, and LIPUS increased BMP-2 expression via Runx2 regulation.

  1. Fuzzy Constraint-Based Agent Negotiation

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    Menq-Wen Lin; K. Robert Lai; Ting-Jung Yu

    2005-01-01

    Conflicts between two or more parties arise for various reasons and perspectives. Thus, resolution of conflicts frequently relies on some form of negotiation. This paper presents a general problem-solving framework for modeling multi-issue multilateral negotiation using fuzzy constraints. Agent negotiation is formulated as a distributed fuzzy constraint satisfaction problem (DFCSP). Fuzzy constrains are thus used to naturally represent each agent's desires involving imprecision and human conceptualization, particularly when lexical imprecision and subjective matters are concerned. On the other hand, based on fuzzy constraint-based problem-solving, our approach enables an agent not only to systematically relax fuzzy constraints to generate a proposal, but also to employ fuzzy similarity to select the alternative that is subject to its acceptability by the opponents. This task of problem-solving is to reach an agreement that benefits all agents with a high satisfaction degree of fuzzy constraints, and move towards the deal more quickly since their search focuses only on the feasible solution space. An application to multilateral negotiation of a travel planning is provided to demonstrate the usefulness and effectiveness of our framework.

  2. Constraint-based scheduling

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zweben, Monte

    1993-01-01

    The GERRY scheduling system developed by NASA Ames with assistance from the Lockheed Space Operations Company, and the Lockheed Artificial Intelligence Center, uses a method called constraint-based iterative repair. Using this technique, one encodes both hard rules and preference criteria into data structures called constraints. GERRY repeatedly attempts to improve schedules by seeking repairs for violated constraints. The system provides a general scheduling framework which is being tested on two NASA applications. The larger of the two is the Space Shuttle Ground Processing problem which entails the scheduling of all the inspection, repair, and maintenance tasks required to prepare the orbiter for flight. The other application involves power allocation for the NASA Ames wind tunnels. Here the system will be used to schedule wind tunnel tests with the goal of minimizing power costs. In this paper, we describe the GERRY system and its application to the Space Shuttle problem. We also speculate as to how the system would be used for manufacturing, transportation, and military problems.

  3. Cannabidiol as a Promising Strategy to Treat and Prevent Movement Disorders?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fernanda F. Peres

    2018-05-01

    Full Text Available Movement disorders such as Parkinson's disease and dyskinesia are highly debilitating conditions linked to oxidative stress and neurodegeneration. When available, the pharmacological therapies for these disorders are still mainly symptomatic, do not benefit all patients and induce severe side effects. Cannabidiol is a non-psychotomimetic compound from Cannabis sativa that presents antipsychotic, anxiolytic, anti-inflammatory, and neuroprotective effects. Although the studies that investigate the effects of this compound on movement disorders are surprisingly few, cannabidiol emerges as a promising compound to treat and/or prevent them. Here, we review these clinical and pre-clinical studies and draw attention to the potential of cannabidiol in this field.

  4. Notes on Timed Concurrent Constraint Programming

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nielsen, Mogens; Valencia, Frank D.

    2004-01-01

    and program reactive systems. This note provides a comprehensive introduction to the background for and central notions from the theory of tccp. Furthermore, it surveys recent results on a particular tccp calculus, ntcc, and it provides a classification of the expressive power of various tccp languages.......A constraint is a piece of (partial) information on the values of the variables of a system. Concurrent constraint programming (ccp) is a model of concurrency in which agents (also called processes) interact by telling and asking information (constraints) to and from a shared store (a constraint...

  5. Locomotor-like leg movements evoked by rhythmic arm movements in humans.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Francesca Sylos-Labini

    Full Text Available Motion of the upper limbs is often coupled to that of the lower limbs in human bipedal locomotion. It is unclear, however, whether the functional coupling between upper and lower limbs is bi-directional, i.e. whether arm movements can affect the lumbosacral locomotor circuitry. Here we tested the effects of voluntary rhythmic arm movements on the lower limbs. Participants lay horizontally on their side with each leg suspended in an unloading exoskeleton. They moved their arms on an overhead treadmill as if they walked on their hands. Hand-walking in the antero-posterior direction resulted in significant locomotor-like movements of the legs in 58% of the participants. We further investigated quantitatively the responses in a subset of the responsive subjects. We found that the electromyographic (EMG activity of proximal leg muscles was modulated over each cycle with a timing similar to that of normal locomotion. The frequency of kinematic and EMG oscillations in the legs typically differed from that of arm oscillations. The effect of hand-walking was direction specific since medio-lateral arm movements did not evoke appreciably leg air-stepping. Using externally imposed trunk movements and biomechanical modelling, we ruled out that the leg movements associated with hand-walking were mainly due to the mechanical transmission of trunk oscillations. EMG activity in hamstring muscles associated with hand-walking often continued when the leg movements were transiently blocked by the experimenter or following the termination of arm movements. The present results reinforce the idea that there exists a functional neural coupling between arm and legs.

  6. A core outcome set for clinical trials on non-specific low back pain: study protocol for the development of a core domain set

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Chiarotto, Alessandro; Terwee, Caroline B; Deyo, Richard A.

    2014-01-01

    on randomized controlled trials (RCTs) included in a Cochrane systematic review on the effectiveness of constraint-induced movement therapy (CIMT) for stroke patients. METHODS: We extracted data on the functional independence measure (FIM) and the action research arm test (ARAT) from RCTs that compared CIMT...

  7. Expression and Function of Hypoxia Inducible Factor-1α and Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor in Pulp Tissue of Teeth under Orthodontic Movement

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fulan Wei

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Orthodontic force may lead to cell damage, circulatory disturbances, and vascular changes of the dental pulp, which make a hypoxic environment in pulp. In order to maintain the homeostasis of dental pulp, hypoxia will inevitably induce the defensive reaction. However, this is a complex process and is regulated by numerous factors. In this study, we established an experimental animal model of orthodontic tooth movement to investigate the effects of mechanical force on the expression of VEGF and HIF-1α in dental pulp. Histological analysis of dental pulp and expressions of HIF-1α and VEGF proteins in dental pulp were examined. The results showed that inflammation and vascular changes happened in dental pulp tissue in different periods. Additionally, there were significant changes in the expression of HIF-1α and VEGF proteins under orthodontic force. After application of mechanical load, expression of HIF-1α and VEGF was markedly positive in 1, 3, 7 d, and 2 w groups, and then it weakened in 4 w group. These findings suggested that the expression of HIF-1α and VEGF was enhanced by mechanical force. HIF-1α and VEGF may play an important role in retaining the homeostasis of dental pulp during orthodontic tooth movement.

  8. Internal damping due to dislocation movements induced by thermal expansion mismatch between matrix and particles in metal matrix composites. [Al/SiC

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Girand, C.; Lormand, G.; Fougeres, R.; Vincent, A. (GEMPPM, Villeurbanne (France))

    1993-05-01

    In metal matrix composites (MMCs), the mechanical 1 of the reinforcement-matrix interface is an important parameter because it governs the load transfer from matrix to particles, from which the mechanical properties of these materials are derived. Therefore, it would be useful to set out an experimental method able to characterize the interface and the adjacent matrix behaviors. Thus, a study has been undertaken by means of internal damping (I.D.) measurements, which are well known to be very sensitive for studying irreversible displacements at the atomic scale. More especially, this investigation is based on the fact that, during cooling of MMC's, stress concentrations originating from differences in coefficients of thermal expansion (C.T.E.) of matrix and particles should induce dislocation movements in the matrix surrounding the reinforcement; that is, local microplastic strains occur. Therefore, during I.D. measurements vs temperature these movements should contribute to MMCs I.D. in a process similar to those involved around first order phase transitions in solids. The aim of this paper is to present, in the case of Al/SiC particulate composites, new developments of this approach that has previously led to promising results in the case of Al-Si alloys.

  9. New Constraints on Dark Matter Effective Theories from Standard Model Loops

    CERN Document Server

    Crivellin, Andreas; Procura, Massimiliano

    2014-01-01

    We consider an effective field theory for a gauge singlet Dirac dark matter (DM) particle interacting with the Standard Model (SM) fields via effective operators suppressed by the scale $\\Lambda \\gtrsim 1$ TeV. We perform a systematic analysis of the leading loop contributions to spin-independent (SI) DM--nucleon scattering using renormalization group evolution between $\\Lambda$ and the low-energy scale probed by direct detection experiments. We find that electroweak interactions induce operator mixings such that operators that are naively velocity-suppressed and spin-dependent can actually contribute to SI scattering. This allows us to put novel constraints on Wilson coefficients that were so far poorly bounded by direct detection. Constraints from current searches are comparable to LHC bounds, and will significantly improve in the near future. Interestingly, the loop contribution we find is maximally isospin violating even if the underlying theory is isospin conserving.

  10. Antiglobalization movements and their critics

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Corry, Olaf

    2012-01-01

    inequity, organize transnationally, and maintain a critical stance toward significant aspects of the state system. For this reason, many supporters favor other terms such as alterglobalization movement, global justice movement , or simply the movement of movements . Critics accuse the movements...... of ideological incoherence, self-interested protectionism, and illiberal and undemocratic political methods, and point to Western liberal elite dominance within the movements. The debate has ...

  11. Functional magnetic resonance imaging of the frontal eye fields during saccadic eye movements

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Miki, Atsushi; Takagi, Mineo; Abe, Haruki; Nakajima, Takashi; Miyauchi, Satoru.

    1996-01-01

    We evaluated activity-induced signal intensity changes in the human cerebral cortex during horizontal saccadic eye movements using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) based on the blood-oxygenation-level-dependent (BOLD) contrast method. Compared with central fixation, significant signal increases were observed bilaterally in the middle frontal gyrus (Brodmann area 8) during saccadic conditions. The location of the activated area was consistent with that of previously reported frontal eye fields (FEF). These results suggest that fMRI has potential merit for the study of cortical control of eye movements in humans. (author)

  12. Discretionary Time of Chinese College Students: Activities and Impact of SARS-Induced Constraints on Choices

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yang, He; Hutchinson, Susan; Zinn, Harry; Watson, Alan

    2011-01-01

    How people make choices about activity engagement during discretionary time is a topic of increasing interest to those studying quality of life issues. Assuming choices are made to maximize individual welfare, several factors are believed to influence these choices. Constraints theory from the leisure research literature suggests these choices are…

  13. The constraints

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jones, P.M.S.

    1987-01-01

    There are considerable incentives for the use of nuclear in preference to other sources for base load electricity generation in most of the developed world. These are economic, strategic, environmental and climatic. However, there are two potential constraints which could hinder the development of nuclear power to its full economic potential. These are public opinion and financial regulations which distort the nuclear economic advantage. The concerns of the anti-nuclear lobby are over safety, (especially following the Chernobyl accident), the management of radioactive waste, the potential effects of large scale exposure of the population to radiation and weapons proliferation. These are discussed. The financial constraint is over two factors, the availability of funds and the perception of cost, both of which are discussed. (U.K.)

  14. Role of material properties and mechanical constraint on stress-assisted diffusion in plate electrodes of lithium ion batteries

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Song Yicheng; Zhang Junqian; Shao Xianjun; Guo Zhansheng

    2013-01-01

    This work investigates the stress-assisted diffusion of lithium ions in layered electrodes of Li-ion batteries. Decoupled diffusion governing equations are obtained. Material properties, which are characterized by a single dimensionless parameter, and mechanical constraint between a current collector and an active layer, which is characterized by the elastic modulus ratio and thickness ratio between the layers, are identified as key factors that govern the stress-assisted diffusion. For a symmetric plate electrode, stress is induced by the Li-ion concentration gradient, and stress-assisted diffusion therefore depends only on the material properties. For an asymmetric bilayer electrode, mechanical constraint plays a very important role in the diffusion via generation of bending stress. Diffusion may be facilitated, or inversely impeded, according to the constraint. By summarizing the coupling factors of common active materials and investigating the concentration variation induced by stress-assisted diffusion in various electrodes, this work provides insights on stress-assisted diffusion in a layered electrode, as well as suggestions for relevant modelling works on whether the stress-assisted diffusion should be taken into account according to the selection of material and structure. (paper)

  15. One way and the other: the bidirectional relationship between ambivalence and body movement.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schneider, Iris K; Eerland, Anita; van Harreveld, Frenk; Rotteveel, Mark; van der Pligt, Joop; van der Stoep, Nathan; Zwaan, Rolf A

    2013-03-01

    Prior research exploring the relationship between evaluations and body movements has focused on one-sided evaluations. However, people regularly encounter objects or situations about which they simultaneously hold both positive and negative views, which results in the experience of ambivalence. Such experiences are often described in physical terms: For example, people say they are "wavering" between two sides of an issue or are "torn." Building on this observation, we designed two studies to explore the relationship between the experience of ambivalence and side-to-side movement, or wavering. In Study 1, we used a Wii Balance Board to measure movement and found that people who are experiencing ambivalence move from side to side more than people who are not experiencing ambivalence. In Study 2, we induced body movement to explore the reverse relationship and found that when people are made to move from side to side, their experiences of ambivalence are enhanced.

  16. How superdiffusion gets arrested: ecological encounters explain shift from Lévy to Brownian movement

    Science.gov (United States)

    de Jager, Monique; Bartumeus, Frederic; Kölzsch, Andrea; Weissing, Franz J.; Hengeveld, Geerten M.; Nolet, Bart A.; Herman, Peter M. J.; van de Koppel, Johan

    2014-01-01

    Ecological theory uses Brownian motion as a default template for describing ecological movement, despite limited mechanistic underpinning. The generality of Brownian motion has recently been challenged by empirical studies that highlight alternative movement patterns of animals, especially when foraging in resource-poor environments. Yet, empirical studies reveal animals moving in a Brownian fashion when resources are abundant. We demonstrate that Einstein's original theory of collision-induced Brownian motion in physics provides a parsimonious, mechanistic explanation for these observations. Here, Brownian motion results from frequent encounters between organisms in dense environments. In density-controlled experiments, movement patterns of mussels shifted from Lévy towards Brownian motion with increasing density. When the analysis was restricted to moves not truncated by encounters, this shift did not occur. Using a theoretical argument, we explain that any movement pattern approximates Brownian motion at high-resource densities, provided that movement is interrupted upon encounters. Hence, the observed shift to Brownian motion does not indicate a density-dependent change in movement strategy but rather results from frequent collisions. Our results emphasize the need for a more mechanistic use of Brownian motion in ecology, highlighting that especially in rich environments, Brownian motion emerges from ecological interactions, rather than being a default movement pattern. PMID:24225464

  17. How superdiffusion gets arrested: ecological encounters explain shift from Lévy to Brownian movement.

    Science.gov (United States)

    de Jager, Monique; Bartumeus, Frederic; Kölzsch, Andrea; Weissing, Franz J; Hengeveld, Geerten M; Nolet, Bart A; Herman, Peter M J; van de Koppel, Johan

    2014-01-07

    Ecological theory uses Brownian motion as a default template for describing ecological movement, despite limited mechanistic underpinning. The generality of Brownian motion has recently been challenged by empirical studies that highlight alternative movement patterns of animals, especially when foraging in resource-poor environments. Yet, empirical studies reveal animals moving in a Brownian fashion when resources are abundant. We demonstrate that Einstein's original theory of collision-induced Brownian motion in physics provides a parsimonious, mechanistic explanation for these observations. Here, Brownian motion results from frequent encounters between organisms in dense environments. In density-controlled experiments, movement patterns of mussels shifted from Lévy towards Brownian motion with increasing density. When the analysis was restricted to moves not truncated by encounters, this shift did not occur. Using a theoretical argument, we explain that any movement pattern approximates Brownian motion at high-resource densities, provided that movement is interrupted upon encounters. Hence, the observed shift to Brownian motion does not indicate a density-dependent change in movement strategy but rather results from frequent collisions. Our results emphasize the need for a more mechanistic use of Brownian motion in ecology, highlighting that especially in rich environments, Brownian motion emerges from ecological interactions, rather than being a default movement pattern.

  18. Pre-movement planning processes in people with congenital mirror movements.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Franz, E A; Fu, Y

    2017-10-01

    Pre-movement processes were investigated in people with Congenital mirrormovement (CMM), a rare disorder in which bilateral movement (mirroring) occurs in the upper distal extremities (primarily the hands and fingers) during intended unilateral movements. Abnormal density of ipsilateral corticospinal projections is an established hallmark of CMM. This study tested whether the Lateralised Readiness Potential (LRP), which reflects movement planning and readiness, is also abnormal in people with CMM. Twenty-eight neurologically-normal controls and 8 people with CMM were tested on a unimanual Go/No-go task while electroencephalography (EEG) was recorded to assess the LRP. No significant group differences were found in reaction time (RT). However, significantly smaller LRP amplitudes were found, on average, in the CMM group compared to Controls at central-motor (C3,C4) sites in stimulus-locked and response-locked epochs; similar group differences were also found at further frontal sites (F3,F4) during response-locked epochs. Abnormal brain activity in pre-movement processes associated with response planning and preparation is present in people with CMM. Aberrant bilateral activity during pre-movement processes is clearly implicated; whether part of the etiology of CMM, or as a mechanism of neuro-compensation, is not yet known. Copyright © 2017 International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  19. Co-movement of Africa's equity markets: Regional and global analysis in the frequency-time domains

    Science.gov (United States)

    Boako, Gideon; Alagidede, Paul

    2017-02-01

    This paper examines regional and global co-movement of Africa's stock markets using the three-dimensional continuous Morlet wavelet transform methodology. The analyses which are done in segments investigate co-movements with global markets; bilateral exchange rates expressed in US dollars and euro; and four regional markets in Africa. First, we find evidence of stronger co-movements broadly narrowed to short-run fluctuations. The co-movements are time-varying and commonly non-homogeneous - with phase difference arrow vectors implying lead-lag relationships. The presence of lead-lag effects and stronger co-movements at short-run fluctuations may induce arbitrage and diversification opportunities to both local and international investors with long-term investment horizons. The findings also reveal that some African equity markets are, to a degree, segmented from volatilities of the dollar and euro exchange rates. Thus, inferring that, ceteris paribus, international investors may diversify their portfolio investments across those markets without worrying about the effects of currency price volatility.

  20. Effect of amino acid substitution of CAPRICE on cell-to-cell movement ability in Arabidopsis root epidermis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tominaga-Wada, Rumi; Wada, Takuji

    2018-03-01

    An R3-type MYB transcription factor, CAPRICE (CPC), is known to promote root hair cell differentiation in Arabidopsis root epidermis. The CPC protein moves from non-hair cells to the neighboring cells, and acts as an inducer of root hair formation. In contrast, we previously showed that the CPC homolog, ENHANCER OF TRY AND CPC1 (ETC1), does not move between the root epidermal cells. To clarify the critical difference in the cell-to-cell movement ability of CPC and ETC1 proteins, we generated five different chimeras of CPC and ETC1. As expected, four of the five chimeric proteins with substitution of CPC amino acids with those of ETC1 induced many root hair and no-trichome phenotype, like CPC. These chimeric proteins essentially maintained the cell-to-cell movement ability of CPC. However, one chimeric protein in which ETC1 was sandwiched between the CPC-specific movement motifs of S1 and S2 did not induce ectopic root hair formation. This chimeric protein did not move between the cells. These results indicate that the maintenance of not only the S1 and S2 motifs but also the precise structure of CPC protein might be necessary for the cell-to-cell movement of CPC. Our results should help in further unraveling of the roles of these MYB transcription factors in root hair formation. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  1. Developmental constraints on behavioural flexibility.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Holekamp, Kay E; Swanson, Eli M; Van Meter, Page E

    2013-05-19

    We suggest that variation in mammalian behavioural flexibility not accounted for by current socioecological models may be explained in part by developmental constraints. From our own work, we provide examples of constraints affecting variation in behavioural flexibility, not only among individuals, but also among species and higher taxonomic units. We first implicate organizational maternal effects of androgens in shaping individual differences in aggressive behaviour emitted by female spotted hyaenas throughout the lifespan. We then compare carnivores and primates with respect to their locomotor and craniofacial adaptations. We inquire whether antagonistic selection pressures on the skull might impose differential functional constraints on evolvability of skulls and brains in these two orders, thus ultimately affecting behavioural flexibility in each group. We suggest that, even when carnivores and primates would theoretically benefit from the same adaptations with respect to behavioural flexibility, carnivores may nevertheless exhibit less behavioural flexibility than primates because of constraints imposed by past adaptations in the morphology of the limbs and skull. Phylogenetic analysis consistent with this idea suggests greater evolutionary lability in relative brain size within families of primates than carnivores. Thus, consideration of developmental constraints may help elucidate variation in mammalian behavioural flexibility.

  2. Generalized Pauli constraints in small atoms

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Schilling, Christian; Altunbulak, Murat; Knecht, Stefan

    2018-01-01

    investigations have found evidence that these constraints are exactly saturated in several physically relevant systems, e.g., in a certain electronic state of the beryllium atom. It has been suggested that, in such cases, the constraints, rather than the details of the Hamiltonian, dictate the system......'s qualitative behavior. Here, we revisit this question with state-of-the-art numerical methods for small atoms. We find that the constraints are, in fact, not exactly saturated, but that they lie much closer to the surface defined by the constraints than the geometry of the problem would suggest. While...

  3. Discretionary time of Chinese college students: Activities and impact of SARS-induced constraints on choices

    Science.gov (United States)

    He Yang; Susan Hutchinson; Harry Zinn; Alan Watson

    2011-01-01

    How people make choices about activity engagement during discretionary time is a topic of increasing interest to those studying quality of life issues. Assuming choices are made to maximize individual welfare, several factors are believed to influence these choices. Constraints theory from the leisure research literature suggests these choices are heavily influenced by...

  4. Short-sale Constraints and Credit Runs

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Venter, Gyuri

    ), creditors with high private signals are more lenient to roll over debt, and a bank with lower asset quality remains solvent. This leads to higher allocative efficiency in the real economy. My result thus implies that the decrease in average informativeness due to short-sale constraints can be more than......This paper studies how short-sale constraints affect the informational efficiency of market prices and the link between prices and economic activity. I show that under short-sale constraints security prices contain less information. However, short-sale constraints increase the informativeness...... the price of an asset the bank holds. I show that short-selling constraints in the financial market lead to the revival of self-fulfilling beliefs about the beliefs and actions of others, and create multiple equilibria. In the equilibrium where agents rely more on public information (i.e., the price...

  5. Hamiltonian constraint in polymer parametrized field theory

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Laddha, Alok; Varadarajan, Madhavan

    2011-01-01

    Recently, a generally covariant reformulation of two-dimensional flat spacetime free scalar field theory known as parametrized field theory was quantized using loop quantum gravity (LQG) type ''polymer'' representations. Physical states were constructed, without intermediate regularization structures, by averaging over the group of gauge transformations generated by the constraints, the constraint algebra being a Lie algebra. We consider classically equivalent combinations of these constraints corresponding to a diffeomorphism and a Hamiltonian constraint, which, as in gravity, define a Dirac algebra. Our treatment of the quantum constraints parallels that of LQG and obtains the following results, expected to be of use in the construction of the quantum dynamics of LQG: (i) the (triangulated) Hamiltonian constraint acts only on vertices, its construction involves some of the same ambiguities as in LQG and its action on diffeomorphism invariant states admits a continuum limit, (ii) if the regulating holonomies are in representations tailored to the edge labels of the state, all previously obtained physical states lie in the kernel of the Hamiltonian constraint, (iii) the commutator of two (density weight 1) Hamiltonian constraints as well as the operator correspondent of their classical Poisson bracket converge to zero in the continuum limit defined by diffeomorphism invariant states, and vanish on the Lewandowski-Marolf habitat, (iv) the rescaled density 2 Hamiltonian constraints and their commutator are ill-defined on the Lewandowski-Marolf habitat despite the well-definedness of the operator correspondent of their classical Poisson bracket there, (v) there is a new habitat which supports a nontrivial representation of the Poisson-Lie algebra of density 2 constraints.

  6. Evading the pulsar constraints on the cosmic string tension in supergravity inflation

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kamada, Kohei [Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), Hamburg (Germany); Miyamoto, Yuhei [Tokyo Univ. (Japan). Dept. of Physics; Tokyo Univ. (JP). Research Center for the Early Universe (RESCEU); Yokoyama, Jun' ichi [Tokyo Univ. (JP). Research Center for the Early Universe (RESCEU); Tokyo Univ., Kashiwa, Chiba (JP). Inst. for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (IPMU)

    2012-04-15

    The cosmic string is a useful probe of the early Universe and may give us a clue to physics at high energy scales where any artificial particle accelerators cannot reach. Although one of the most promising tools is the cosmic microwave background, the constraint from gravitational waves is becoming so stringent that one may not hope to detect its signatures in the cosmic microwave background. In this paper, we construct a scenario that contains cosmic strings observable in the cosmic microwave background while evading the constraint imposed by the recent pulsar timing data. We argue that cosmic strings with relatively large tension are allowed by delaying the onset of the scaling regime. We also show that this scenario is naturally realized in the context of chaotic inflation in supergravity, where the phase transition is governed by the Hubble induced mass.

  7. Evading the pulsar constraints on the cosmic string tension in supergravity inflation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kamada, Kohei; Miyamoto, Yuhei; Yokoyama, Jun'ichi

    2012-04-01

    The cosmic string is a useful probe of the early Universe and may give us a clue to physics at high energy scales where any artificial particle accelerators cannot reach. Although one of the most promising tools is the cosmic microwave background, the constraint from gravitational waves is becoming so stringent that one may not hope to detect its signatures in the cosmic microwave background. In this paper, we construct a scenario that contains cosmic strings observable in the cosmic microwave background while evading the constraint imposed by the recent pulsar timing data. We argue that cosmic strings with relatively large tension are allowed by delaying the onset of the scaling regime. We also show that this scenario is naturally realized in the context of chaotic inflation in supergravity, where the phase transition is governed by the Hubble induced mass.

  8. Diagnosis and management of acute movement disorders.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dressler, D; Benecke, R

    2005-11-01

    Most movement disorders, reflecting degenerative disorders, develop in a slowly progressive fashion. Some movement disorders, however, manifest with an acute onset. We wish to give an overview of the management and therapy of those acute-onset movement disorders.Drug-induced movement disorders are mainly caused by dopamine-receptor blockers (DRB) as used as antipsychotics (neuroleptics) and antiemetics. Acute dystonic reactions usually occur within the first four days of treatment. Typically, cranial pharyngeal and cervical muscles are affected. Anticholinergics produce a prompt relief. Akathisia is characterized by an often exceedingly bothersome feeling of restlessness and the inability to remain still. It is a common side effect of DRB and occurs within few days after their initiation. It subsides when DRB are ceased. Neuroleptic Malignant Syndrome is a rare, but life-threatening adverse reaction to DRB which may occur at any time during DRB application. It is characterised by hyperthermia, rigidity, reduced consciousness and autonomic failure. Therapeutically immediate DRB withdrawal is crucial. Additional dantrolene or bromocriptine application together with symptomatic treatment may be necessary. Paroxysmal dyskinesias are childhood onset disorders characterised by dystonic postures, chorea, athetosis and ballism occurring at irregular intervals. In Paroxysmal Kinesigenic Dyskinesia they are triggered by rapid movements, startle reactions or hyperventilation. They last up to 5 minutes, occur up to 100 times per day and are highly sensitive to anticonvulsants. In Paroxysmal Non-Kinesiogenic Dyskinesia they cannot be triggered, occur less frequently and last longer. Other paroxysmal dyskinesias include hypnogenic paroxysmal dyskinesias, paroxysmal exertional dyskinesia, infantile paroxysmal dystonias, Sandifer's syndrome and symptomatic paroxysmal dyskinesias. In Hereditary Episodic Ataxia Type 1 attacks of ataxia last for up to two minutes, may be accompanied

  9. Canadian 24-Hour Movement Guidelines for Children and Youth: Exploring the perceptions of stakeholders regarding their acceptability, barriers to uptake, and dissemination.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Faulkner, Guy; White, Lauren; Riazi, Negin; Latimer-Cheung, Amy E; Tremblay, Mark S

    2016-06-01

    Engaging stakeholders in the development of guidelines and plans for implementation is vital. The purpose of this study was to examine stakeholders' (parents, teachers, exercise professionals, paediatricians, and youth) perceptions of the Canadian 24-Hour Movement Behaviour Guidelines for Children and Youth ("Movement Guidelines"). Stakeholders (n = 104) engaged in semi-structured focus groups or interviews to discuss the perceived acceptability of the guidelines, potential barriers to implementation, and preferred methods and messengers of dissemination. A thematic analysis was conducted. Overall, there was consistent support across all stakeholder groups, with the exception of youth participants, for the Movement Guidelines. Stakeholders identified a range of barriers to the uptake of the guidelines including concerns with accurately defining key terms such as "recreational" screen time; everyday challenges such as financial and time constraints; and the possibility of the Movement Guidelines becoming just another source of stress and guilt for already busy and overwhelmed parents. Participants identified a range of recommended methods and messengers for future dissemination. School and medical settings were the most commonly recommended settings through which dissemination efforts should be delivered. Overall, participants representing a range of stakeholder groups were receptive to the new Movement Guidelines and endorsed their value. In complementing the Movement Guidelines, messaging and resources will need to be developed that address common concerns participants had regarding their dissemination and implementation.

  10. Generating optimal control simulations of musculoskeletal movement using OpenSim and MATLAB.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, Leng-Feng; Umberger, Brian R

    2016-01-01

    Computer modeling, simulation and optimization are powerful tools that have seen increased use in biomechanics research. Dynamic optimizations can be categorized as either data-tracking or predictive problems. The data-tracking approach has been used extensively to address human movement problems of clinical relevance. The predictive approach also holds great promise, but has seen limited use in clinical applications. Enhanced software tools would facilitate the application of predictive musculoskeletal simulations to clinically-relevant research. The open-source software OpenSim provides tools for generating tracking simulations but not predictive simulations. However, OpenSim includes an extensive application programming interface that permits extending its capabilities with scripting languages such as MATLAB. In the work presented here, we combine the computational tools provided by MATLAB with the musculoskeletal modeling capabilities of OpenSim to create a framework for generating predictive simulations of musculoskeletal movement based on direct collocation optimal control techniques. In many cases, the direct collocation approach can be used to solve optimal control problems considerably faster than traditional shooting methods. Cyclical and discrete movement problems were solved using a simple 1 degree of freedom musculoskeletal model and a model of the human lower limb, respectively. The problems could be solved in reasonable amounts of time (several seconds to 1-2 hours) using the open-source IPOPT solver. The problems could also be solved using the fmincon solver that is included with MATLAB, but the computation times were excessively long for all but the smallest of problems. The performance advantage for IPOPT was derived primarily by exploiting sparsity in the constraints Jacobian. The framework presented here provides a powerful and flexible approach for generating optimal control simulations of musculoskeletal movement using OpenSim and MATLAB. This

  11. Constraint-based Word Segmentation for Chinese

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Christiansen, Henning; Bo, Li

    2014-01-01

    -hoc and statistically based methods. In this paper, we show experiments of implementing different approaches to CWSP in the framework of CHR Grammars [Christiansen, 2005] that provides a constraint solving approach to language analysis. CHR Grammars are based upon Constraint Handling Rules, CHR [Frühwirth, 1998, 2009......], which is a declarative, high-level programming language for specification and implementation of constraint solvers....

  12. Postero-inferior condylar movement induced by artificial occlusal interference on the balancing side during fictive mastication in rabbits.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Morita, Takumi; Hiraba, Katsunari; Matsunaga, Tomoko; Ito, Yu; Maruo, Hisanobu; Kurita, Kenichi

    2016-06-01

    Tooth contact does not occur on the balancing side during mastication. Hence, it is possible that the presence of occlusal interference on the balancing side causes mandibular rotation followed by atypical condylar movement because the jaw-closing muscle activity on the working side is greater than on the balancing side. The aim of the present study was to investigate the relationship between occlusal contact on the balancing side and condylar movement during mastication. EMG activity of the masseter (MS), lateral pterygoid (LP) and digastric (DG) muscles and jaw movements were recorded. Condylar movements in the sagittal plane were recorded using a high speed charge-coupled device (CCD) camera. Incisal point movements were recorded using a magnet on the mentum and a magnetometric sensor on the nasal bone. A removable biting plate was used to introduce an artificial occlusal interference on the balancing side. Nine of the 10 rabbits showed large postero-inferior condylar movement (Pi-Cm) when a biting plate was applied on the balancing side. Five rabbits showed very small Pi-Cm when a biting plate was applied on the balancing side. In the small Pi-Cm group, MS activity decreased markedly and LP and DG transient activity appeared in the early occlusal phase in the presence of the biting plate. Interference on the balancing side always caused Pi-Cm on the ipsilateral side during mastication. However, the degree of Pi-Cm was often decreased by a jaw opening reflex response. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  13. Movement disorders

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Leenders, K.L.

    1986-01-01

    This thesis describes the measurement of brain-tissue functions in patients with movement disorders using positron emission tomography (PET). This scanning technique is a method for direct in vivo quantitation of the regional tissue content of positron emitting radionuclides in brain (or other organs) in an essentially non-invasive way. Ch. 2 outlines some general features of PET and describes the scanner which has been used for the studies in this thesis. Also the tracer methodology, as applied to data investigations of movement disorders, are discussed. Ch. 3 contains the results of the PET investigations which were performed in the study of movement disorders. The results are presented in the form of 12 papers. The main goals of these studies were the understanding of the pathophysiology of Parkinson's disease, Huntington's chorea, Steele-Richardson-Olzewski syndrome and special case reports. Ch. 4 summarizes the results of these publications and Ch. 5 concludes the main part of this thesis with a general discussion of movement disorders in relation to PET investigations. 697 refs.; 60 figs.; 31 tabs

  14. Representing tools as hand movements: early and somatotopic visuomotor transformations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bartoli, Eleonora; Maffongelli, Laura; Jacono, Marco; D'Ausilio, Alessandro

    2014-08-01

    The term affordance defines a property of objects, which relates to the possible interactions that an agent can carry out on that object. In monkeys, canonical neurons encode both the visual and the motor properties of objects with high specificity. However, it is not clear if in humans exists a similarly fine-grained description of these visuomotor transformations. In particular, it has not yet been proven that the processing of visual features related to specific affordances induces both specific and early visuomotor transformations, given that complete specificity has been reported to emerge quite late (300-450ms). In this study, we applied an adaptation-stimulation paradigm to investigate early cortico-spinal facilitation and hand movements׳ synergies evoked by the observation of tools. We adapted, through passive observation of finger movements, neuronal populations coding either for precision or power grip actions. We then presented the picture of one tool affording one of the two grasps types and applied single-pulse Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) to the hand primary motor cortex, 150ms after image onset. Cortico-spinal excitability of the Abductor Digiti Minimi and Abductor Pollicis Brevis showed a detailed pattern of modulations, matching tools׳ affordances. Similarly, TMS-induced hand movements showed a pattern of grip-specific whole hand synergies. These results offer a direct proof of the emergence of an early visuomotor transformation when tools are observed, that maintains the same amount of synergistic motor details as the actions we can perform on them. Copyright © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

  15. Generalized Pauli constraints in small atoms

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schilling, Christian; Altunbulak, Murat; Knecht, Stefan; Lopes, Alexandre; Whitfield, James D.; Christandl, Matthias; Gross, David; Reiher, Markus

    2018-05-01

    The natural occupation numbers of fermionic systems are subject to nontrivial constraints, which include and extend the original Pauli principle. A recent mathematical breakthrough has clarified their mathematical structure and has opened up the possibility of a systematic analysis. Early investigations have found evidence that these constraints are exactly saturated in several physically relevant systems, e.g., in a certain electronic state of the beryllium atom. It has been suggested that, in such cases, the constraints, rather than the details of the Hamiltonian, dictate the system's qualitative behavior. Here, we revisit this question with state-of-the-art numerical methods for small atoms. We find that the constraints are, in fact, not exactly saturated, but that they lie much closer to the surface defined by the constraints than the geometry of the problem would suggest. While the results seem incompatible with the statement that the generalized Pauli constraints drive the behavior of these systems, they suggest that the qualitatively correct wave-function expansions can in some systems already be obtained on the basis of a limited number of Slater determinants, which is in line with numerical evidence from quantum chemistry.

  16. University Course Timetabling using Constraint Programming

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hadi Shahmoradi

    2017-03-01

    Full Text Available University course timetabling problem is a challenging and time-consuming task on the overall structure of timetable in every academic environment. The problem deals with many factors such as the number of lessons, classes, teachers, students and working time, and these are influenced by some hard and soft constraints. The aim of solving this problem is to assign courses and classes to teachers and students, so that the restrictions are held. In this paper, a constraint programming method is proposed to satisfy maximum constraints and expectation, in order to address university timetabling problem. For minimizing the penalty of soft constraints, a cost function is introduced and AHP method is used for calculating its coefficients. The proposed model is tested on department of management, University of Isfahan dataset using OPL on the IBM ILOG CPLEX Optimization Studio platform. A statistical analysis has been conducted and shows the performance of the proposed approach in satisfying all hard constraints and also the satisfying degree of the soft constraints is on maximum desirable level. The running time of the model is less than 20 minutes that is significantly better than the non-automated ones.

  17. New constraints on mobility in Europe: Policy response to European crises or constitutional ambiguity?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Izabela Jędrzejowska-Schiffauer

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available This paper investigates the effectiveness of recent measures undertaken by the governments of some European Union Member States such as the United Kingdom, Germany and Poland as well as of non-EU European countries such as Switzerland in order to face growing concerns in the public opinion with the increase of transnational migration flows on European continent. The authors analyse selected legislative, regulatory and administrative measures motivated by objectives of migration policy or affecting the mobility of workers, taken in the aftermath of the economic and financial crisis. They argue that, albeit political discourse unfavourable on immigration and migrant workers has become the mainstream in some countries, the measures taken by national governments and legislators seldom involve direct constraints on the free movement of workers which is safeguarded by EU treaty provisions. However, concrete examples illustrate that access of such workers to social security benefits has been restricted through making use of certain derogations from the principle of equal treatment allowed under EU law. In some cases national legislators had to abandon plans to limit directly the free movement of workers, because the envisaged provisions were incompatible with the EU Treaties. With regard to social security, regulatory measures and administrative actions may have effectively implemented national policy concerns with large-scale migration movements. In general, it could be concluded that the European Union, while struggling against multiple crises, has taken a not fully favourable approach to free movement and migration of EU citizens. The present political climate unfavourable to intra-European migration may be understood, from the perspective of historical analysis, as an expression of constitutional ambiguity underlying the European Union’s normative framework, consisting in a gap between its formally recognised noble values and the mentalities

  18. Marker-based reconstruction of the kinematics of a chain of segments: a new method that incorporates joint kinematic constraints.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Klous, Miriam; Klous, Sander

    2010-07-01

    The aim of skin-marker-based motion analysis is to reconstruct the motion of a kinematical model from noisy measured motion of skin markers. Existing kinematic models for reconstruction of chains of segments can be divided into two categories: analytical methods that do not take joint constraints into account and numerical global optimization methods that do take joint constraints into account but require numerical optimization of a large number of degrees of freedom, especially when the number of segments increases. In this study, a new and largely analytical method for a chain of rigid bodies is presented, interconnected in spherical joints (chain-method). In this method, the number of generalized coordinates to be determined through numerical optimization is three, irrespective of the number of segments. This new method is compared with the analytical method of Veldpaus et al. [1988, "A Least-Squares Algorithm for the Equiform Transformation From Spatial Marker Co-Ordinates," J. Biomech., 21, pp. 45-54] (Veldpaus-method, a method of the first category) and the numerical global optimization method of Lu and O'Connor [1999, "Bone Position Estimation From Skin-Marker Co-Ordinates Using Global Optimization With Joint Constraints," J. Biomech., 32, pp. 129-134] (Lu-method, a method of the second category) regarding the effects of continuous noise simulating skin movement artifacts and regarding systematic errors in joint constraints. The study is based on simulated data to allow a comparison of the results of the different algorithms with true (noise- and error-free) marker locations. Results indicate a clear trend that accuracy for the chain-method is higher than the Veldpaus-method and similar to the Lu-method. Because large parts of the equations in the chain-method can be solved analytically, the speed of convergence in this method is substantially higher than in the Lu-method. With only three segments, the average number of required iterations with the chain

  19. Psychological constraints on egalitarianism

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kasperbauer, Tyler Joshua

    2015-01-01

    processes motivating people to resist various aspects of egalitarianism. I argue for two theses, one normative and one descriptive. The normative thesis holds that egalitarians must take psychological constraints into account when constructing egalitarian ideals. I draw from non-ideal theories in political...... philosophy, which aim to construct moral goals with current social and political constraints in mind, to argue that human psychology must be part of a non-ideal theory of egalitarianism. The descriptive thesis holds that the most fundamental psychological challenge to egalitarian ideals comes from what......Debates over egalitarianism for the most part are not concerned with constraints on achieving an egalitarian society, beyond discussions of the deficiencies of egalitarian theory itself. This paper looks beyond objections to egalitarianism as such and investigates the relevant psychological...

  20. Constraint Programming for Context Comprehension

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Christiansen, Henning

    2014-01-01

    A close similarity is demonstrated between context comprehension, such as discourse analysis, and constraint programming. The constraint store takes the role of a growing knowledge base learned throughout the discourse, and a suitable con- straint solver does the job of incorporating new pieces...

  1. Updating visual memory across eye movements for ocular and arm motor control.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thompson, Aidan A; Henriques, Denise Y P

    2008-11-01

    Remembered object locations are stored in an eye-fixed reference frame, so that every time the eyes move, spatial representations must be updated for the arm-motor system to reflect the target's new relative position. To date, studies have not investigated how the brain updates these spatial representations during other types of eye movements, such as smooth-pursuit. Further, it is unclear what information is used in spatial updating. To address these questions we investigated whether remembered locations of pointing targets are updated following smooth-pursuit eye movements, as they are following saccades, and also investigated the role of visual information in estimating eye-movement amplitude for updating spatial memory. Misestimates of eye-movement amplitude were induced when participants visually tracked stimuli presented with a background that moved in either the same or opposite direction of the eye before pointing or looking back to the remembered target location. We found that gaze-dependent pointing errors were similar following saccades and smooth-pursuit and that incongruent background motion did result in a misestimate of eye-movement amplitude. However, the background motion had no effect on spatial updating for pointing, but did when subjects made a return saccade, suggesting that the oculomotor and arm-motor systems may rely on different sources of information for spatial updating.

  2. Induced movement of the magnetic beads and DNA-based dumbbell in a micro fluidic channel

    Science.gov (United States)

    Babić, B.; Ghai, R.; Dimitrov, K.

    2007-12-01

    We have explored controlled movement of magnetic beads and a dumbbell structure composed of DNA, a magnetic and a non-magnetic bead in a micro fluidic channel. Movement of the beads and dumbbells is simulated assuming that a net force is described as a superposition between the magnetic and hydrodynamic drag forces. Trajectories of beads and dumbbells are observed with optical light microscopy. The experimentally measured data show a good agreement with the simulations. This dynamical approach offers the prospect to stretch the DNA within the dumbbell and investigate its conformational changes. Further on, we demonstrate that short sonication can reduce multiple attachments of DNA to the beads.

  3. Understanding movement data and movement processes: current and emerging directions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schick, Robert S; Loarie, Scott R; Colchero, Fernando; Best, Benjamin D; Boustany, Andre; Conde, Dalia A; Halpin, Patrick N; Joppa, Lucas N; McClellan, Catherine M; Clark, James S

    2008-12-01

    Animal movement has been the focus on much theoretical and empirical work in ecology over the last 25 years. By studying the causes and consequences of individual movement, ecologists have gained greater insight into the behavior of individuals and the spatial dynamics of populations at increasingly higher levels of organization. In particular, ecologists have focused on the interaction between individuals and their environment in an effort to understand future impacts from habitat loss and climate change. Tools to examine this interaction have included: fractal analysis, first passage time, Lévy flights, multi-behavioral analysis, hidden markov models, and state-space models. Concurrent with the development of movement models has been an increase in the sophistication and availability of hierarchical bayesian models. In this review we bring these two threads together by using hierarchical structures as a framework for reviewing individual models. We synthesize emerging themes in movement ecology, and propose a new hierarchical model for animal movement that builds on these emerging themes. This model moves away from traditional random walks, and instead focuses inference on how moving animals with complex behavior interact with their landscape and make choices about its suitability.

  4. Some cosmological constraints on gauge theories

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Schramm, D.N.

    1983-01-01

    In these lectures, a review is made of various constraints cosmology may place on gauge theories. Particular emphasis is placed on those constraints obtainable from Big Bang Nucleosynthesis, with only brief mention made of Big Bang Baryosynthesis. There is also a considerable discussion of astrophysical constraints on masses and lifetimes of neutrinos with specific mention of the 'missing mass (light)' problem of galactic dynamics. (orig./HSI)

  5. Does Chronic Administration of Sodium Valproate to Juvenile Rats Induce Movement Disorder and Cognitive Dysfunction during Adulthood?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Namitha Nair

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available Background: Children with seizure disorder are often treated with sodium valproate (SV on long-term basis. SV acts mainly through gamma amino butyric acid pathways, reducing the excitatory neurotransmission and modifying the monoamine concentration. Altered monoamine concentration by SV is expected to cause movement disorder and cognitive dysfunction, considered reversible after the withdrawal of treatment, but some claim it to be irreversible. It is not clear whether such adverse effects continue during adulthood. The aim of this study was to investigate whether chronic administration of SV in juvenile rats causes movement disorder and cognitive dysfunction during their early adulthood. Methods: Sixteen-day-old male Wistar rats from the central animal house, KMC, Mangalore, India in 2015, received either 200 or 400 mg/kg dose of SV for 45 consecutive days and another group served as control. Thirty days after discontinuation of the drug, at postnatal day 90, the rats were tested for movement disorder and cognitive function. Results: Chronic SV treatment in juvenile rats resulted in slow movement, tremors during adulthood but did not affect muscle tone, locomotor and exploratory activities. It also caused cognitive dysfunction in adult rats. Conclusion: Despite the reported safety of chronic SV therapy, its adverse effects such as Parkinsonism symptoms or cognitive dysfunctions should be of concern in all young patients treated with SV for many years. Persistence of cognitive impairment, tremors and generalized slow movement during adulthood after cessation of treatment that was observed in this study, warrants a close monitoring system in children who receive long-term sodium valproate.

  6. Dynamics and causality constraints

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sousa, Manoelito M. de

    2001-04-01

    The physical meaning and the geometrical interpretation of causality implementation in classical field theories are discussed. Causality in field theory are kinematical constraints dynamically implemented via solutions of the field equation, but in a limit of zero-distance from the field sources part of these constraints carries a dynamical content that explains old problems of classical electrodynamics away with deep implications to the nature of physicals interactions. (author)

  7. Data assimilation with inequality constraints

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thacker, W. C.

    If values of variables in a numerical model are limited to specified ranges, these restrictions should be enforced when data are assimilated. The simplest option is to assimilate without regard for constraints and then to correct any violations without worrying about additional corrections implied by correlated errors. This paper addresses the incorporation of inequality constraints into the standard variational framework of optimal interpolation with emphasis on our limited knowledge of the underlying probability distributions. Simple examples involving only two or three variables are used to illustrate graphically how active constraints can be treated as error-free data when background errors obey a truncated multi-normal distribution. Using Lagrange multipliers, the formalism is expanded to encompass the active constraints. Two algorithms are presented, both relying on a solution ignoring the inequality constraints to discover violations to be enforced. While explicitly enforcing a subset can, via correlations, correct the others, pragmatism based on our poor knowledge of the underlying probability distributions suggests the expedient of enforcing them all explicitly to avoid the computationally expensive task of determining the minimum active set. If additional violations are encountered with these solutions, the process can be repeated. Simple examples are used to illustrate the algorithms and to examine the nature of the corrections implied by correlated errors.

  8. Influence of Concurrent Finger Movements on Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS)-Induced Aftereffects.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shirota, Yuichiro; Terney, Daniella; Antal, Andrea; Paulus, Walter

    2017-01-01

    Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has been reported to have bidirectional influence on the amplitude of motor-evoked potentials (MEPs) in resting participants in a polarity-specific manner: anodal tDCS increased and cathodal tDCS decreased them. More recently, the effects of tDCS have been shown to depend on a number of additional factors. We investigated whether a small variety of movements involving target and non-target muscles could differentially modify the efficacy of tDCS. MEPs were elicited from the right first dorsal interosseous muscle, defined as the target muscle, by single pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) over the primary motor cortex (M1). During M1 tDCS, which lasted for 10 min applying anodal, cathodal, or sham condition, the participants were instructed to squeeze a ball with their right hand (Task 1), to move their right index finger only in the medial (Task 2), in the lateral direction (Task 3), or in medial and lateral direction alternatively (Task 4). Anodal tDCS reduced MEP amplitudes measured in Task 1 and Task 2, but to a lesser extent in the latter. In Task 3, anodal tDCS led to greater MEP amplitudes than cathodal stimulation. Alternating movements resulted in no effect of tDCS on MEP amplitude (Task 4). The results are congruent with the current notion that the aftereffects of tDCS are highly variable relying on a number of factors including the type of movements executed during stimulation.

  9. Ability of mini-implant-facilitated micro-osteoperforations to accelerate tooth movement in rats.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cheung, Tracy; Park, Juyoung; Lee, Deborah; Kim, Catherine; Olson, Jeffrey; Javadi, Shadi; Lawson, Gregory; McCabe, James; Moon, Won; Ting, Kang; Hong, Christine

    2016-12-01

    Although current techniques for accelerated tooth movement often involve invasive surgical procedures, micro-osteoperforations (MOPs) using mini-implants may facilitate orthodontic tooth movement without raising flaps, reduce surgical risks, and increase patient acceptance. In this study, we evaluated the effectiveness of mini-implant-facilitated MOPs in inducing accelerated tooth movement and investigated the potential risks for root resorption. Five MOPs were placed on the left side around the maxillary first molars in 6 rats using an automated mini-implant driver, whereas the right side received no MOPs as the control. Closed-coiled springs were secured from incisors to first molars for orthodontic tooth movement. Tooth movement was measured, and samples underwent radiologic and histologic analyses. The MOP side exhibited a 1.86-fold increase in the rate of tooth movement with decreased bone density and bone volume around the first molars compared with the control side. Hematoxylin and eosin and tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase analyses showed increased numbers of osteoclasts as well as new bone formation. Three-dimensional volumetric analysis of all 5 roots of the maxillary first molars demonstrated no statistically significant difference in root volumes. Mini-implant-facilitated MOPs accelerated tooth movement without increased risk for root resorption and therefore may become a readily available and efficient treatment option to shorten orthodontic treatment time with improved patient acceptance. Copyright © 2016 American Association of Orthodontists. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  10. Use of dose constraints in public exposure

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tageldein, Amged

    2015-02-01

    An overview of the dose constraints in public exposures has been carried out in this project. The establishment, development and the application of the concept of dose constraints are reviewed with regards to public exposure. The role of dose constraints in the process of optimization of radiation protection was described and has been showed that the concept of the dose constraints along with many other concept of radiation protection is widely applied in the optimization of exposure to radiation. From the beginning of the establishment of dose constraints as a concept in radiation protection, the International Commission of Radiological Protection (ICRP) has published a number of documents that provides detailed application related to radiation protection and safety of public exposure from ionizing radiation. This work provides an overview of such publications and related documents with special emphasis on optimization of public exposure using dose constraints. (au)

  11. Cellular and Molecular Changes in Orthodontic Tooth Movement

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zainal Ariffin, Shahrul Hisham; Yamamoto, Zulham; Zainol Abidin, lntan Zarina; Megat Abdul Wahab, Rohaya; Zainal Ariffin, Zaidah

    2011-01-01

    Tooth movement induced by orthodontic treatment can cause sequential reactions involving the periodontal tissue and alveolar bone, resulting in the release of numerous substances from the dental tissues and surrounding structures. To better understand the biological processes involved in orthodontic treatment, improve treatment, and reduce adverse side effects, several of these substances have been proposed as biomarkers. Potential biological markers can be collected from different tissue samples, and suitable sampling is important to accurately reflect biological processes. This paper covers the tissue changes that are involved during orthodontic tooth movement such as at compression region (involving osteoblasts), tension region (involving osteoclasts), dental root, and pulp tissues. Besides, the involvement of stem cells and their development towards osteoblasts and osteoclasts during orthodontic treatment have also been explained. Several possible biomarkers representing these biological changes during specific phenomenon, that is, bone remodelling (formation and resorption), inflammation, and root resorption have also been proposed. The knowledge of these biomarkers could be used in accelerating orthodontic treatment. PMID:22125437

  12. Immersion in Movement-Based Interaction

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pasch, Marco; Bianchi-Berthouze, Nadia; van Dijk, Betsy; Nijholt, Anton

    The phenomenon of immersing oneself into virtual environments has been established widely. Yet to date (to our best knowledge) the physical dimension has been neglected in studies investigating immersion in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). In movement-based interaction the user controls the interface via body movements, e.g. direct manipulation of screen objects via gestures or using a handheld controller as a virtual tennis racket. It has been shown that physical activity affects arousal and that movement-based controllers can facilitate engagement in the context of video games. This paper aims at identifying movement features that influence immersion. We first give a brief survey on immersion and movement-based interfaces. Then, we report results from an interview study that investigates how users experience their body movements when interacting with movement-based interfaces. Based on the interviews, we identify four movement-specific features. We recommend them as candidates for further investigation.

  13. Inter- and intrafractional movement of the tumour in extracranial stereotactic radiotherapy of NSCLC

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jensen, Henrik R; Hansen, Olfred; Hjelm-Hansen, Mogens

    2008-01-01

    where given a stereotactic treatment. The patients were scanned with normal and uncoached respiration without use of abdominal compression. Each patient had CT-scans performed at four occasions throughout the treatment: As part of the CT-simulation and before the three radiotherapy treatments. At every...... frame were LR: 1.5 mm, AP: 1.1 mm and CC: 1.7 mm (1 SD). DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: Consecutive CT scans can be used to evaluate the respiration induced tumour movement. For patients immobilized in a stereotactic body frame, large movements of the tumour are rarely seen within the lung...

  14. Social movements and science

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jamison, Andrew

    2006-01-01

    The article examines the role of social movements in the development of scientific knowledge. Interactions between social movements and science in broad, historical terms are discussed. The relations between the new social movements of the 1960s and 1970s and changes in the contemporary scientific...

  15. Investigation of pancreas tumour movements and of their potential markers by four-dimensional scanography: implication for image-guided radiotherapy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Huguet, F.; Yorke, E.; Davidson, M.; Zhang, Z.; Jackson, A.; Mageras, G.; Wu, A.; Goodman, K.

    2011-01-01

    The authors report the study which aimed at quantifying pancreas tumour movements induced by breathing by using four-dimensional scanography, and at assessing the reliability of biliary prosthesis, of intra-tumor fiducials, and of an external maker as position markers of the gross tumour volume (GTV). The authors analyzed scanography images acquired during the simulation of 22 patients treated for locally advanced pancreas cancer by intensity-modulated conformational irradiation with respiratory gating. Average movements in different directions have measured. Respiratory gating limits the GTV movement amplitude by 40 to 60 per cent. GTV movements are in good correlation with that of biliary prostheses and intra-tumor fiducials. Short communication

  16. A general treatment of dynamic integrity constraints

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    de Brock, EO

    This paper introduces a general, set-theoretic model for expressing dynamic integrity constraints, i.e., integrity constraints on the state changes that are allowed in a given state space. In a managerial context, such dynamic integrity constraints can be seen as representations of "real world"

  17. Eye Movement Disorders

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... work properly. There are many kinds of eye movement disorders. Two common ones are Strabismus - a disorder ... in "crossed eyes" or "walleye." Nystagmus - fast, uncontrollable movements of the eyes, sometimes called "dancing eyes" Some ...

  18. Stereotypic movement disorder

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... this page: //medlineplus.gov/ency/article/001548.htm Stereotypic movement disorder To use the sharing features on this page, please enable JavaScript. Stereotypic movement disorder is a condition in which a person makes ...

  19. An Introduction to 'Creativity Constraints'

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Onarheim, Balder; Biskjær, Michael Mose

    2013-01-01

    Constraints play a vital role as both restrainers and enablers in innovation processes by governing what the creative agent/s can and cannot do, and what the output can and cannot be. Notions of constraints are common in creativity research, but current contributions are highly dispersed due to n...

  20. Market segmentation using perceived constraints

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jinhee Jun; Gerard Kyle; Andrew Mowen

    2008-01-01

    We examined the practical utility of segmenting potential visitors to Cleveland Metroparks using their constraint profiles. Our analysis identified three segments based on their scores on the dimensions of constraints: Other priorities--visitors who scored the highest on 'other priorities' dimension; Highly Constrained--visitors who scored relatively high on...

  1. The ribosome as a molecular machine: the mechanism of tRNA-mRNA movement in translocation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rodnina, Marina V; Wintermeyer, Wolfgang

    2011-04-01

    Translocation of tRNA and mRNA through the ribosome is one of the most dynamic events during protein synthesis. In the cell, translocation is catalysed by EF-G (elongation factor G) and driven by GTP hydrolysis. Major unresolved questions are: how the movement is induced and what the moving parts of the ribosome are. Recent progress in time-resolved cryoelectron microscopy revealed trajectories of tRNA movement through the ribosome. Driven by thermal fluctuations, the ribosome spontaneously samples a large number of conformational states. The spontaneous movement of tRNAs through the ribosome is loosely coupled to the motions within the ribosome. EF-G stabilizes conformational states prone to translocation and promotes a conformational rearrangement of the ribosome (unlocking) that accelerates the rate-limiting step of translocation: the movement of the tRNA anticodons on the small ribosomal subunit. EF-G acts as a Brownian ratchet providing directional bias for movement at the cost of GTP hydrolysis.

  2. Classification of movement disorders.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fahn, Stanley

    2011-05-01

    The classification of movement disorders has evolved. Even the terminology has shifted, from an anatomical one of extrapyramidal disorders to a phenomenological one of movement disorders. The history of how this shift came about is described. The history of both the definitions and the classifications of the various neurologic conditions is then reviewed. First is a review of movement disorders as a group; then, the evolving classifications for 3 of them--parkinsonism, dystonia, and tremor--are covered in detail. Copyright © 2011 Movement Disorder Society.

  3. Constraint Handling Rules with Binders, Patterns and Generic Quantification

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Serrano, Alejandro; Hage, J.

    2017-01-01

    Constraint Handling Rules provide descriptions for constraint solvers. However, they fall short when those constraints specify some binding structure, like higher-rank types in a constraint-based type inference algorithm. In this paper, the term syntax of constraints is replaced by λ-tree syntax, in

  4. Effects of 4-aminopyridine on organelle movement in cultured mouse dorsal root ganglion neurites.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hiruma, Hiromi; Kawakami, Tadashi

    2010-03-01

    Aminopyridines, widely used as a K(+) channel blocker, are membrane-permeable weak bases and have the ability to form vacuoles in the cytoplasm. The vacuoles originate from acidic organelles such as lysosomes. Here, we investigated the effects of 4-aminopyridine (4-AP) on organelle movement in neurites of cultured mouse dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons by using video-enhanced microscopy. Some experiments were carried out using fluorescent dyes for lysosomes and mitochondria and confocal microscopy. Treatment of DRG neurons with 4 mM 4-AP caused Brownian movement of some lysosomes within 5 min. The Brownian movement gradually became rapid and vacuoles were formed around individual lysosomes 10-20 min after the start of treatment. Axonal transport of organelles was inhibited by 4-AP. Lysosomes showing Brownian movement were not transported in longitudinal direction of the neurite and the transport of mitochondria was interrupted by vacuoles. The 4-AP-induced Brownian movement of lysosomes with vacuole formation and inhibition of axonal transport were prevented by the simultaneous treatment with vacuolar H(+) ATPase inhibitor bafilomycin A1 or in Cl(-)-free SO(4)(2-) medium. These results indicate that changes in organelle movement by 4-AP are related to vacuole formation and the vacuolar H(+) ATPase and Cl(-) are required for the effects of 4-AP.

  5. Effective amino acid composition of seaweeds inducing food preference behaviors in Aplysia kurodai.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nagahama, Tatsumi; Fujimoto, Kiyo; Takami, Shigemi; Kinugawa, Aiko; Narusuye, Kenji

    2009-07-01

    Aplysia kurodai feeds on Ulva but rejects Gelidium and Pachydictyon with distinct patterned jaw movements. We previously demonstrated that these movements are induced by taste alone. Thus some chemicals may contribute to induction of these responses. We explored the amino acids composition of Ulva, Gelidium and Pachydictyon extracts used during our taste-induced physiological experiments. These solutions contained many constituents. The concentrations of six amino acids (Asp, Asn, Glu, Gln, Phe, Tau) were obviously different in the three extract solutions. We explored patterned jaw movements following application of solutions containing a pure amino acid. We statistically compared the occurrence numbers of ingestion-like and rejection-like patterned jaw movements (positive and negative values, respectively) for each amino acid. Our results suggested that L-Asn tends to induce ingestion-like responses, likely resulting in a preference of Ulva. In contrast, L-Asp tends to induce rejection-like responses, likely resulting in aversion towards Pachydictyon. In addition, we demonstrated that L-Asn and L-Asp solutions were sufficient to induce muscle activity associated with ingestion-like or rejection-like responses in the jaw muscles of a semi-intact preparation.

  6. Separating timing, movement conditions and individual differences in the analysis of human movement

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Raket, Lars Lau; Grimme, Britta; Schöner, Gregor

    2016-01-01

    mixed-effects models as viable alternatives to conventional analysis frameworks. The model is then combined with a novel factor-analysis model that estimates the low-dimensional subspace within which movements vary when the task demands vary. Our framework enables us to visualize different dimensions......A central task in the analysis of human movement behavior is to determine systematic patterns and differences across experimental conditions, participants and repetitions. This is possible because human movement is highly regular, being constrained by invariance principles. Movement timing...

  7. Seeing via miniature eye movements: A dynamic hypothesis for vision

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ehud eAhissar

    2012-11-01

    Full Text Available During natural viewing, the eyes are never still. Even during fixation, miniature movements of the eyes move the retinal image across tens of foveal photoreceptors. Most theories of vision implicitly assume that the visual system ignores these movements and somehow overcomes the resulting smearing. However, evidence has accumulated to indicate that fixational eye movements cannot be ignored by the visual system if fine spatial details are to be resolved. We argue that the only way the visual system can achieve its high resolution given its fixational movements is by seeing via these movements. Seeing via eye movements also eliminates the instability of the image, which would be induced by them otherwise. Here we present a hypothesis for vision, in which coarse details are spatially-encoded in gaze-related coordinates, and fine spatial details are temporally-encoded in relative retinal coordinates. The temporal encoding presented here achieves its highest resolution by encoding along the elongated axes of simple cell receptive fields and not across these axes as suggested by spatial models of vision. According to our hypothesis, fine details of shape are encoded by inter-receptor temporal phases, texture by instantaneous intra-burst rates of individual receptors, and motion by inter-burst temporal frequencies. We further describe the ability of the visual system to readout the encoded information and recode it internally. We show how reading out of retinal signals can be facilitated by neuronal phase-locked loops (NPLLs, which lock to the retinal jitter; this locking enables recoding of motion information and temporal framing of shape and texture processing. A possible implementation of this locking-and-recoding process by specific thalamocortical loops is suggested. Overall it is suggested that high-acuity vision is based primarily on temporal mechanisms of the sort presented here and low-acuity vision is based primarily on spatial mechanisms.

  8. Music and movement

    OpenAIRE

    Nasev, Lence

    2012-01-01

    Rhythm is one of the fundamental elements without which music would not exist. In plays with singing, a child learns to synchronize its movements with the rhythm of music from a very early age. The skill of movement plays a major role in the learning of music and thus deserves an important place in the school curriculum. In this paper, an overview is made of the most important music pedagogues who introduced movement, and at the same time perceived its importance in learning musical conte...

  9. HDAC6 Inhibitors Rescued the Defective Axonal Mitochondrial Movement in Motor Neurons Derived from the Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells of Peripheral Neuropathy Patients with HSPB1 Mutation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ji-Yon Kim

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available The Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease 2F (CMT2F and distal hereditary motor neuropathy 2B (dHMN2B are caused by autosomal dominantly inherited mutations of the heat shock 27 kDa protein 1 (HSPB1 gene and there are no specific therapies available yet. Here, we assessed the potential therapeutic effect of HDAC6 inhibitors on peripheral neuropathy with HSPB1 mutation using in vitro model of motor neurons derived from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs of CMT2F and dHMN2B patients. The absolute velocity of mitochondrial movements and the percentage of moving mitochondria in axons were lower both in CMT2F-motor neurons and in dHMN2B-motor neurons than those in controls, and the severity of the defective mitochondrial movement was different between the two disease models. CMT2F-motor neurons and dHMN2B-motor neurons also showed reduced α-tubulin acetylation compared with controls. The newly developed HDAC6 inhibitors, CHEMICAL X4 and CHEMICAL X9, increased acetylation of α-tubulin and reversed axonal movement defects of mitochondria in CMT2F-motor neurons and dHMN2B-motor neurons. Our results suggest that the neurons derived from patient-specific iPSCs can be used in drug screening including HDAC6 inhibitors targeting peripheral neuropathy.

  10. Modelling group dynamic animal movement

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Langrock, Roland; Hopcraft, J. Grant C.; Blackwell, Paul G.

    2014-01-01

    makes its movement decisions relative to the group centroid. The basic idea is framed within the flexible class of hidden Markov models, extending previous work on modelling animal movement by means of multi-state random walks. While in simulation experiments parameter estimators exhibit some bias......, to date, practical statistical methods which can include group dynamics in animal movement models have been lacking. We consider a flexible modelling framework that distinguishes a group-level model, describing the movement of the group's centre, and an individual-level model, such that each individual......Group dynamic movement is a fundamental aspect of many species' movements. The need to adequately model individuals' interactions with other group members has been recognised, particularly in order to differentiate the role of social forces in individual movement from environmental factors. However...

  11. Toward an automaton Constraint for Local Search

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jun He

    2009-10-01

    Full Text Available We explore the idea of using finite automata to implement new constraints for local search (this is already a successful technique in constraint-based global search. We show how it is possible to maintain incrementally the violations of a constraint and its decision variables from an automaton that describes a ground checker for that constraint. We establish the practicality of our approach idea on real-life personnel rostering problems, and show that it is competitive with the approach of [Pralong, 2007].

  12. Constraint-based Attribute and Interval Planning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jonsson, Ari; Frank, Jeremy

    2013-01-01

    In this paper we describe Constraint-based Attribute and Interval Planning (CAIP), a paradigm for representing and reasoning about plans. The paradigm enables the description of planning domains with time, resources, concurrent activities, mutual exclusions among sets of activities, disjunctive preconditions and conditional effects. We provide a theoretical foundation for the paradigm, based on temporal intervals and attributes. We then show how the plans are naturally expressed by networks of constraints, and show that the process of planning maps directly to dynamic constraint reasoning. In addition, we de ne compatibilities, a compact mechanism for describing planning domains. We describe how this framework can incorporate the use of constraint reasoning technology to improve planning. Finally, we describe EUROPA, an implementation of the CAIP framework.

  13. Universality of Planck's constant and a constraint from the absence of ℏ-induced neutrino mixing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Llanes-Estrada, Felipe J.

    2014-03-01

    You have probably often set ℏ = 1 but for what particle? I revisit here the possibility of a non-universal Planck-constant. Anomaly cancellation suggests that all particles in the same family perceive the same ℏ at fixed charges e, gw, gs; the difference between the muon's and the electron's (and thus the first and second families) can be tightly constrained by the muon's anomalous magnetic moment, but constraints are weaker for the third family. Neutrino mixing could have proceeded a priori not only by the Lagrangian neutrino mass-term, but also by the kinetic term if Planck's constant was not equal for all three species. An experimental constraint follows as such contributions, characterized by oscillations proportional to the energy, as opposed to the inverse energy, have been generically analyzed in the past. This provides at the same time support for gauge invariance. On the other hand if ℏ differs among particles while fixing the fine structure constants αem, αs, etc. instead of the charges, it affects the muonic atom puzzle without much constrain from g - 2 . Based on arXiv:1312.3566. Supported by spanish grants FPA2011-27853-C02-01 and CPAN.

  14. Compositionality in Neural Control:An Interdisciplinary Study of Scribbling Movements in Primates

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Moshe eAbeles

    2013-09-01

    Full Text Available This article discusses the compositional structure of hand movements by analyzing and modeling neural and behavioral data obtained from experiments where a monkey (Macaca fascicularis performed scribbling movements induced by a search task. Using geometrically based approaches to movement segmentation, it is shown that the hand trajectories are composed of elementary segments that are primarily parabolic in shape. The segments could be categorized into a small number of classes on the basis of decreasing intra-class variance over the course of training. A separate classification of the neural data employing a hidden Markov model showed a coincidence of the neural states with the behavioral categories. An additional analysis of both types of data by a data mining method provided evidence that the neural activity patterns underlying the behavioral primitives were formed by sets of specific and precise spike patterns. A geometric description of the movement trajectories, together with precise neural timing data indicates a compositional variant of a realistic synfire chain model. This model reproduces the typical shapes and temporal properties of the trajectories; hence the structure and composition of the primitives may reflect meaningful behavior.

  15. Movement recognition technology as a method of assessing spontaneous general movements in high risk infants

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Claire eMarcroft

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Preterm birth is associated with increased risks of neurological and motor impairments such as cerebral palsy. The risks are highest in those born at the lowest gestations. Early identification of those most at risk is challenging meaning that a critical window of opportunity to improve outcomes through therapy-based interventions may be missed. Clinically, the assessment of spontaneous general movements is an important tool which can be used for the prediction of movement impairments in high risk infants.Movement recognition aims to capture and analyze relevant limb movements through computerized approaches focusing on continuous, objective, and quantitative assessment. Different methods of recording and analyzing infant movements have recently been explored in high risk infants. These range from camera-based solutions to body-worn miniaturized movement sensors used to record continuous time-series data that represent the dynamics of limb movements. Various machine learning methods have been developed and applied to the analysis of the recorded movement data. This analysis has focused on the detection and classification of atypical spontaneous general movements. This paper aims to identify recent translational studies using movement recognition technology as a method of assessing movement in high risk infants. The application of this technology within pediatric practice represents a growing area of inter-disciplinary collaboration which may lead to a greater understanding of the development of the nervous system in infants at high risk of motor impairment.

  16. Constraints on stress-energy perturbations in general relativity

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Traschen, J.

    1985-01-01

    Conditions are found for the existence of integral constraints on stress-energy perturbations in general relativity. The integral constraints can be thought of as a general-relativistic generalization of the conservation of energy and momentum of matter perturbations in special relativity. The constraints are stated in terms of a vector field V, and the Robertson-Walker spacetimes are shown to have such constraint vectors. Although in general V is not a Killing vector, in a vacuum spacetime the constraint vectors are precisely the Killing vectors

  17. The promises of stem cells: stem cell therapy for movement disorders.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mochizuki, Hideki; Choong, Chi-Jing; Yasuda, Toru

    2014-01-01

    Despite the multitude of intensive research, the exact pathophysiological mechanisms underlying movement disorders including Parkinson's disease, multiple system atrophy and Huntington's disease remain more or less elusive. Treatments to halt these disease progressions are currently unavailable. With the recent induced pluripotent stem cells breakthrough and accomplishment, stem cell research, as the vast majority of scientists agree, holds great promise for relieving and treating debilitating movement disorders. As stem cells are the precursors of all cells in the human body, an understanding of the molecular mechanisms that govern how they develop and work would provide us many fundamental insights into human biology of health and disease. Moreover, stem-cell-derived neurons may be a renewable source of replacement cells for damaged neurons in movement disorders. While stem cells show potential for regenerative medicine, their use as tools for research and drug testing is thought to have more immediate impact. The use of stem-cell-based drug screening technology could be a big boost in drug discovery for these movement disorders. Particular attention should also be given to the involvement of neural stem cells in adult neurogenesis so as to encourage its development as a therapeutic option. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  18. On Lifecycle Constraints of Artifact-Centric Workflows

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kucukoguz, Esra; Su, Jianwen

    Data plays a fundamental role in modeling and management of business processes and workflows. Among the recent "data-aware" workflow models, artifact-centric models are particularly interesting. (Business) artifacts are the key data entities that are used in workflows and can reflect both the business logic and the execution states of a running workflow. The notion of artifacts succinctly captures the fluidity aspect of data during workflow executions. However, much of the technical dimension concerning artifacts in workflows is not well understood. In this paper, we study a key concept of an artifact "lifecycle". In particular, we allow declarative specifications/constraints of artifact lifecycle in the spirit of DecSerFlow, and formulate the notion of lifecycle as the set of all possible paths an artifact can navigate through. We investigate two technical problems: (Compliance) does a given workflow (schema) contain only lifecycle allowed by a constraint? And (automated construction) from a given lifecycle specification (constraint), is it possible to construct a "compliant" workflow? The study is based on a new formal variant of artifact-centric workflow model called "ArtiNets" and two classes of lifecycle constraints named "regular" and "counting" constraints. We present a range of technical results concerning compliance and automated construction, including: (1) compliance is decidable when workflow is atomic or constraints are regular, (2) for each constraint, we can always construct a workflow that satisfies the constraint, and (3) sufficient conditions where atomic workflows can be constructed.

  19. Camera Movement in Narrative Cinema

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nielsen, Jakob Isak

    2007-01-01

    section unearths what characterizes the literature on camera movement. The second section of the dissertation delineates the history of camera movement itself within narrative cinema. Several organizational principles subtending the on-screen effect of camera movement are revealed in section two...... but they are not organized into a coherent framework. This is the task that section three meets in proposing a functional taxonomy for camera movement in narrative cinema. Two presumptions subtend the taxonomy: That camera movement actively contributes to the way in which we understand the sound and images on the screen......, commentative or valuative manner. 4) Focalization: associating the movement of the camera with the viewpoints of characters or entities in the story world. 5) Reflexive: inviting spectators to engage with the artifice of camera movement. 6) Abstract: visualizing abstract ideas and concepts. In order...

  20. Distortion Correction in Fetal EPI Using Non-Rigid Registration With a Laplacian Constraint.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kuklisova-Murgasova, Maria; Lockwood Estrin, Georgia; Nunes, Rita G; Malik, Shaihan J; Rutherford, Mary A; Rueckert, Daniel; Hajnal, Joseph V

    2018-01-01

    Geometric distortion induced by the main B0 field disrupts the consistency of fetal echo planar imaging (EPI) data, on which diffusion and functional magnetic resonance imaging is based. In this paper, we present a novel data-driven method for simultaneous motion and distortion correction of fetal EPI. A motion-corrected and reconstructed T2 weighted single shot fast spin echo (ssFSE) volume is used as a model of undistorted fetal brain anatomy. Our algorithm interleaves two registration steps: estimation of fetal motion parameters by aligning EPI slices to the model; and deformable registration of EPI slices to slices simulated from the undistorted model to estimate the distortion field. The deformable registration is regularized by a physically inspired Laplacian constraint, to model distortion induced by a source-free background B0 field. Our experiments show that distortion correction significantly improves consistency of reconstructed EPI volumes with ssFSE volumes. In addition, the estimated distortion fields are consistent with fields calculated from acquired field maps, and the Laplacian constraint is essential for estimation of plausible distortion fields. The EPI volumes reconstructed from different scans of the same subject were more consistent when the proposed method was used in comparison with EPI volumes reconstructed from data distortion corrected using a separately acquired B0 field map.