WorldWideScience

Sample records for human body movements

  1. 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.

  2. Searching for Survivors through Random Human-Body Movement Outdoors by Continuous-Wave Radar Array.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Chuantao; Chen, Fuming; Qi, Fugui; Liu, Miao; Li, Zhao; Liang, Fulai; Jing, Xijing; Lu, Guohua; Wang, Jianqi

    2016-01-01

    It is a major challenge to search for survivors after chemical or nuclear leakage or explosions. At present, biological radar can be used to achieve this goal by detecting the survivor's respiration signal. However, owing to the random posture of an injured person at a rescue site, the radar wave may directly irradiate the person's head or feet, in which it is difficult to detect the respiration signal. This paper describes a multichannel-based antenna array technology, which forms an omnidirectional detection system via 24-GHz Doppler biological radar, to address the random positioning relative to the antenna of an object to be detected. Furthermore, since the survivors often have random body movement such as struggling and twitching, the slight movements of the body caused by breathing are obscured by these movements. Therefore, a method is proposed to identify random human-body movement by utilizing multichannel information to calculate the background variance of the environment in combination with a constant-false-alarm-rate detector. The conducted outdoor experiments indicate that the system can realize the omnidirectional detection of random human-body movement and distinguish body movement from environmental interference such as movement of leaves and grass. The methods proposed in this paper will be a promising way to search for survivors outdoors.

  3. Searching for Survivors through Random Human-Body Movement Outdoors by Continuous-Wave Radar Array

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Miao; Li, Zhao; Liang, Fulai; Jing, Xijing; Lu, Guohua; Wang, Jianqi

    2016-01-01

    It is a major challenge to search for survivors after chemical or nuclear leakage or explosions. At present, biological radar can be used to achieve this goal by detecting the survivor’s respiration signal. However, owing to the random posture of an injured person at a rescue site, the radar wave may directly irradiate the person’s head or feet, in which it is difficult to detect the respiration signal. This paper describes a multichannel-based antenna array technology, which forms an omnidirectional detection system via 24-GHz Doppler biological radar, to address the random positioning relative to the antenna of an object to be detected. Furthermore, since the survivors often have random body movement such as struggling and twitching, the slight movements of the body caused by breathing are obscured by these movements. Therefore, a method is proposed to identify random human-body movement by utilizing multichannel information to calculate the background variance of the environment in combination with a constant-false-alarm-rate detector. The conducted outdoor experiments indicate that the system can realize the omnidirectional detection of random human-body movement and distinguish body movement from environmental interference such as movement of leaves and grass. The methods proposed in this paper will be a promising way to search for survivors outdoors. PMID:27073860

  4. Coming to Know about the Body in Human Movement Studies Programmes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Varea, Valeria; Tinning, Richard

    2016-01-01

    This paper explores how a group of undergraduate Human Movement Studies (HMS) students learnt to know about the body during their four-year academic programme at an Australian university. When students begin an undergraduate programme in HMS they bring with them particular constructions, ideas and beliefs about their own bodies and about the body…

  5. Dynamics of human movement

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Koopman, Hubertus F.J.M.

    2010-01-01

    The part of (bio)mechanics that studies the interaction of forces on the human skeletal system and its effect on the resulting movement is called rigid body dynamics. Some basic concepts are presented: A mathematical formulation to describe human movement and how this relates on the mechanical loads

  6. Affective Body Movements (for Robots) Across Cultures

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Rehm, Matthias

    2018-01-01

    Humans are very good in expressing and interpreting emotions from a variety of different sources like voice, facial expression, or body movements. In this article, we concentrate on body movements and show that those are not only a source of affective information but might also have a different i...... with a study on creating an affective knocking movement for a humanoid robot and give details about a co-creation experiment for collecting a cross-cultural database on affective body movements and about the probabilistic model derived from this data....... interpretation in different cultures. To cope with these multiple viewpoints in generating and interpreting body movements in robots, we suggest a methodological approach that takes the cultural background of the developer and the user into account during the development process. We exemplify this approach...

  7. 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.

  8. Editorial: Body Movements

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Carina Assuncao

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available Today, the juxtaposition between physical bodies and the gameworld is ever more fluid. Virtual Reality headsets are available at game stores with more AAA games being created for the format. The release of the Nintendo Switch and its dynamic JoyCon controllers reintroduce haptic movement based controls.  Pokémon GO’s augmented reality took gamers outdoors and has encouraged the Harry Potter franchise to follow in its mobile footsteps. Each development encourages a step further into the digital world. At the same time, the movement of bodies always has political dimensions. We live in a world where walls seem like solutions to the movement of bodies, while the mere meeting of bodies elsewhere – for sex, marriage and other reasons – is still forbidden by many states’ rules. Games and game-like interfaces have shown the ability to bend those rules, and to sometimes project other worlds and rule systems over our world in order to make bodies move and meet. For this special issue on ‘Body Movements’, Press Start invited authors to focus on embodiment, body movements, political bodies, community bodies, virtual bodies, physical bodies, feminine, masculine, trans- bodies, agency or its lack, and anything else in between. The response to this invitation was variegated, and provocative, as outlined here.

  9. Unobstructive Body Area Networks (BAN) for efficient movement monitoring.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Felisberto, Filipe; Costa, Nuno; Fdez-Riverola, Florentino; Pereira, António

    2012-01-01

    The technological advances in medical sensors, low-power microelectronics and miniaturization, wireless communications and networks have enabled the appearance of a new generation of wireless sensor networks: the so-called wireless body area networks (WBAN). These networks can be used for continuous monitoring of vital parameters, movement, and the surrounding environment. The data gathered by these networks contributes to improve users' quality of life and allows the creation of a knowledge database by using learning techniques, useful to infer abnormal behaviour. In this paper we present a wireless body area network architecture to recognize human movement, identify human postures and detect harmful activities in order to prevent risk situations. The WBAN was created using tiny, cheap and low-power nodes with inertial and physiological sensors, strategically placed on the human body. Doing so, in an as ubiquitous as possible way, ensures that its impact on the users' daily actions is minimum. The information collected by these sensors is transmitted to a central server capable of analysing and processing their data. The proposed system creates movement profiles based on the data sent by the WBAN's nodes, and is able to detect in real time any abnormal movement and allows for a monitored rehabilitation of the user.

  10. Integrating body movement into attractiveness research.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fink, Bernhard; Weege, Bettina; Neave, Nick; Pham, Michael N; Shackelford, Todd K

    2015-01-01

    People judge attractiveness and make trait inferences from the physical appearance of others, and research reveals high agreement among observers making such judgments. Evolutionary psychologists have argued that interest in physical appearance and beauty reflects adaptations that motivate the search for desirable qualities in a potential partner. Although men more than women value the physical appearance of a partner, appearance universally affects social perception in both sexes. Most studies of attractiveness perceptions have focused on third party assessments of static representations of the face and body. Corroborating evidence suggests that body movement, such as dance, also conveys information about mate quality. Here we review evidence that dynamic cues (e.g., gait, dance) also influence perceptions of mate quality, including personality traits, strength, and overall attractiveness. We recommend that attractiveness research considers the informational value of body movement in addition to static cues, to present an integrated perspective on human social perception.

  11. Learning dictionaries of sparse codes of 3D movements of body joints for real-time human activity understanding.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Qi, Jin; Yang, Zhiyong

    2014-01-01

    Real-time human activity recognition is essential for human-robot interactions for assisted healthy independent living. Most previous work in this area is performed on traditional two-dimensional (2D) videos and both global and local methods have been used. Since 2D videos are sensitive to changes of lighting condition, view angle, and scale, researchers begun to explore applications of 3D information in human activity understanding in recently years. Unfortunately, features that work well on 2D videos usually don't perform well on 3D videos and there is no consensus on what 3D features should be used. Here we propose a model of human activity recognition based on 3D movements of body joints. Our method has three steps, learning dictionaries of sparse codes of 3D movements of joints, sparse coding, and classification. In the first step, space-time volumes of 3D movements of body joints are obtained via dense sampling and independent component analysis is then performed to construct a dictionary of sparse codes for each activity. In the second step, the space-time volumes are projected to the dictionaries and a set of sparse histograms of the projection coefficients are constructed as feature representations of the activities. Finally, the sparse histograms are used as inputs to a support vector machine to recognize human activities. We tested this model on three databases of human activities and found that it outperforms the state-of-the-art algorithms. Thus, this model can be used for real-time human activity recognition in many applications.

  12. Learning dictionaries of sparse codes of 3D movements of body joints for real-time human activity understanding.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jin Qi

    Full Text Available Real-time human activity recognition is essential for human-robot interactions for assisted healthy independent living. Most previous work in this area is performed on traditional two-dimensional (2D videos and both global and local methods have been used. Since 2D videos are sensitive to changes of lighting condition, view angle, and scale, researchers begun to explore applications of 3D information in human activity understanding in recently years. Unfortunately, features that work well on 2D videos usually don't perform well on 3D videos and there is no consensus on what 3D features should be used. Here we propose a model of human activity recognition based on 3D movements of body joints. Our method has three steps, learning dictionaries of sparse codes of 3D movements of joints, sparse coding, and classification. In the first step, space-time volumes of 3D movements of body joints are obtained via dense sampling and independent component analysis is then performed to construct a dictionary of sparse codes for each activity. In the second step, the space-time volumes are projected to the dictionaries and a set of sparse histograms of the projection coefficients are constructed as feature representations of the activities. Finally, the sparse histograms are used as inputs to a support vector machine to recognize human activities. We tested this model on three databases of human activities and found that it outperforms the state-of-the-art algorithms. Thus, this model can be used for real-time human activity recognition in many applications.

  13. A Data Set of Human Body Movements for Physical Rehabilitation Exercises.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vakanski, Aleksandar; Jun, Hyung-Pil; Paul, David; Baker, Russell

    2018-03-01

    The article presents University of Idaho - Physical Rehabilitation Movement Data (UI-PRMD) - a publically available data set of movements related to common exercises performed by patients in physical rehabilitation programs. For the data collection, 10 healthy subjects performed 10 repetitions of different physical therapy movements, with a Vicon optical tracker and a Microsoft Kinect sensor used for the motion capturing. The data are in a format that includes positions and angles of full-body joints. The objective of the data set is to provide a basis for mathematical modeling of therapy movements, as well as for establishing performance metrics for evaluation of patient consistency in executing the prescribed rehabilitation exercises.

  14. A Data Set of Human Body Movements for Physical Rehabilitation Exercises

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Aleksandar Vakanski

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available The article presents University of Idaho-Physical Rehabilitation Movement Data (UI-PRMD, a publically available data set of movements related to common exercises performed by patients in physical rehabilitation programs. For the data collection, 10 healthy subjects performed 10 repetitions of different physical therapy movements with a Vicon optical tracker and a Microsoft Kinect sensor used for the motion capturing. The data are in a format that includes positions and angles of full-body joints. The objective of the data set is to provide a basis for mathematical modeling of therapy movements, as well as for establishing performance metrics for evaluation of patient consistency in executing the prescribed rehabilitation exercises.

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

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    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.

  16. 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.

  17. Brain-controlled body movement assistance devices and methods

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Leuthardt, Eric C.; Love, Lonnie J.; Coker, Rob; Moran, Daniel W.

    2017-01-10

    Methods, devices, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for brain-controlled body movement assistance devices. In one aspect, a device includes a brain-controlled body movement assistance device with a brain-computer interface (BCI) component adapted to be mounted to a user, a body movement assistance component operably connected to the BCI component and adapted to be worn by the user, and a feedback mechanism provided in connection with at least one of the BCI component and the body movement assistance component, the feedback mechanism being configured to output information relating to a usage session of the brain-controlled body movement assistance device.

  18. Research on Three-dimensional Motion History Image Model and Extreme Learning Machine for Human Body Movement Trajectory Recognition

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    Zheng Chang

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Based on the traditional machine vision recognition technology and traditional artificial neural networks about body movement trajectory, this paper finds out the shortcomings of the traditional recognition technology. By combining the invariant moments of the three-dimensional motion history image (computed as the eigenvector of body movements and the extreme learning machine (constructed as the classification artificial neural network of body movements, the paper applies the method to the machine vision of the body movement trajectory. In detail, the paper gives a detailed introduction about the algorithm and realization scheme of the body movement trajectory recognition based on the three-dimensional motion history image and the extreme learning machine. Finally, by comparing with the results of the recognition experiments, it attempts to verify that the method of body movement trajectory recognition technology based on the three-dimensional motion history image and extreme learning machine has a more accurate recognition rate and better robustness.

  19. Body Movement Music Score – Introduction of a newly developed model for the analysis and description of body qualities, movement and music in music therapy

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hanna Agnieszka Skrzypek

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Background In music therapy, there is a range of music therapy concepts that, in addition to music, describe and analyse the body and movement. A model that equally examines the body, movement and music has not been developed. The Body Movement Music Score (BMMS is a newly developed and evaluated music therapy model for analysing body qualities, movement, playing style of musical instruments and music and to describe body behaviour and body expression, movement behaviour and movement expression, playing behaviour and musical expression in music therapy treatment. The basis for the development of the Body Movement Music Score was the evaluation of the analytical movement model Emotorics-Emotive Body Movement Mind Paradigm (Emotorics-EBMMP by Yona Shahar Levy for the analysis and description of the emotive-motor behaviour and movement expression of schizophrenic patients in music therapy treatment. Participants and procedure The application of the Body Movement Music Score is presented in a videotaped example from the music therapy treatment of one schizophrenic patient. Results The results of applying the Body Movement Music Score are presented in the form of Body Qualities I Analysis, Body Qualities II Analysis, Movement Analysis, Playing Style Analysis and Music Analysis Profiles. Conclusions The Body Movement Music Score has been developed and evaluated for the music therapy treatment of schizophrenic patients. For the development of the model, a proof of reliability is necessary to verify the reliability and limitations of the model in practice and show that the Body Movement Music Score could be used for both practical and clinical work, for documentation purposes and to impact research in music therapy.

  20. Review-Research on the physical training model of human body based on HQ.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Junjie, Liu

    2016-11-01

    Health quotient (HQ) is the newest health culture and concept in the 21st century, and the analysis of the human body sports model is not enough mature at present, what's more, the purpose of this paper is to study the integration of the two subjects the health quotient and the sport model. This paper draws the conclusion that physical training and education in colleges and universities can improve the health quotient, and it will make students possess a more healthy body and mind. Then through a new rigid body model of sports to simulate the human physical exercise. After that this paper has an in-depth study on the dynamic model of the human body movement on the basis of establishing the matrix and equation. The simulation results of the human body bicycle riding and pole throwing show that the human body joint movement simulation can be realized and it has a certain operability as well. By means of such simulated calculation, we can come to a conclusion that the movement of the ankle joint, knee joint and hip joint's motion law and real motion are basically the same. So it further verify the accuracy of the motion model, which lay the foundation of other research movement model, also, the study of the movement model is an important method in the study of human health in the future.

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

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    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

  2. Composite body movements modulate numerical cognition: Evidence from the motion–numerical compatibility effect

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    Xiaorong eCheng

    2015-11-01

    Full Text Available A recent hierarchical model of numerical processing, initiated by Fischer and Brugger (2011 and Fisher (2012, suggested that situated factors, such as different body postures and body movements, can influence the magnitude representation and bias numerical processing. Indeed, Loetscher and colleagues (2008 found that participants’ behavior in a random number generation (RNG task was biased by head rotations. More small numbers were reported after leftward than rightward head turns, i.e. a motion–numerical compatibility effect. Here, by carrying out two experiments, we explored whether similar motion–numerical compatibility effects exist for movements of other important body components, e.g. arms, and for composite body movements as well, which are basis for complex human activities in many ecologically meaningful situations. In Experiment 1, a motion-numerical compatibility effect was observed for lateral rotations of two body components, i.e., the head and arms. Relatively large numbers were reported after making rightward compared to leftward movements for both lateral head and arm turns. The motion-numerical compatibility effect was observed again in Experiment 2 when participants were asked to perform composite body movements of congruent movement directions, e.g., simultaneous head left turns and arm left turns. However, it disappeared when the movement directions were incongruent, e.g., simultaneous head left turns and arm right turns. Taken together, our results extended Loetscher et al.'s (2008 finding by demonstrating that their effect is effector-general and exists for arm movements. Moreover, our study reveals for the first time that the impact of spatial information on numerical processing induced by each of the two sensorimotor-based situated factors, e.g., a lateral head turn and a lateral arm turn, can cancel each other out.

  3. Towards an IMU Evaluation Framework for Human Body Tracking.

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    Venek, Verena; Kremser, Wolfgang; Schneider, Cornelia

    2018-01-01

    Existing full-body tracking systems, which use Inertial Measurement Units (IMUs) as sensing unit, require expert knowledge for setup and data collection. Thus, the daily application for human body tracking is difficult. In particular, in the field of active and assisted living (AAL), tracking human movements would enable novel insights not only into the quantity but also into the quality of human movement, for example by monitoring functional training. While the current market offers a wide range of products with vastly different properties, literature lacks guidelines for choosing IMUs for body tracking applications. Therefore, this paper introduces developments towards an IMU evaluation framework for human body tracking which compares IMUs against five requirement areas that consider device features and data quality. The data quality is assessed by conducting a static and a dynamic error analysis. In a first application to four IMUs of different component consumption, the IMU evaluation framework convinced as promising tool for IMU selection.

  4. Major depressive disorder alters perception of emotional body movements

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    Morten eKaletsch

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Much recent research has shown an association between mood disorders and an altered emotion perception. However, these studies were conducted mainly with stimuli such as faces. This is the first study to examine possible differences in how people with major depressive disorder (MDD and healthy controls perceive emotions expressed via body movements. 30 patients with MDD and 30 healthy controls observed video scenes of human interactions conveyed by point–light displays (PLDs. They rated the depicted emotions and judged their confidence in their rating. Results showed that patients with MDD rated the depicted interactions more negatively than healthy controls. They also rated interactions with negative emotionality as being more intense and were more confident in their ratings. It is concluded that patients with MDD exhibit an altered emotion perception compared to healthy controls when rating emotions expressed via body movements depicted in PLDs.

  5. Frictional Sound Analysis by Simulating the Human Arm Movement

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    Yosouf Khaldon

    2017-03-01

    Full Text Available Fabric noise generated by fabric-to-fabric friction is considered as one of the auditory disturbances that can have an impact on the quality of some textile products. For this reason, an instrument has been developed to analyse this phenomenon. The instrument is designed to simulate the relative movement of a human arm when walking. In order to understand the nature of the relative motion of a human arm, films of the upper half of the human body were taken. These films help to define the parameters required for movement simulation. These parameters are movement trajectory, movement velocity, arm pressure applied on the lateral part of the trunk and the friction area. After creating the instrument, a set of soundtracks related to the noise generated by fabric-to-fabric friction was recorded. The recordings were treated with a specific software to extract the sound parameters and the acoustic imprints of fabric were obtained.

  6. Syncopation, body-movement and pleasure in groove music.

    OpenAIRE

    Witek, MA; Clarke, EF; Wallentin, M; Kringelbach, ML; Vuust, P

    2014-01-01

    Moving to music is an essential human pleasure particularly related to musical groove. Structurally, music associated with groove is often characterised by rhythmic complexity in the form of syncopation, frequently observed in musical styles such as funk, hip-hop and electronic dance music. Structural complexity has been related to positive affect in music more broadly, but the function of syncopation in eliciting pleasure and body-movement in groove is unknown. Here we report results from a ...

  7. The Relationship between Fundamental Movement Skills and Body Mass Index in Korean Preschool Children

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    Kim, Chung-Il; Lee, Kang-Yi

    2016-01-01

    Early childhood obesity is a serious worldwide problem, and fundamental movement skills (FMS) are very important factors in human movement. Thus, several advanced studies have examined the associations between FMS and body mass index (BMI). The purpose of this study was to investigate BMI and FMS (locomotion and object control skills) in Korean…

  8. Movement coordination in applied human-human and human-robot interaction

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Schubö, Anna; Vesper, Cordula; Wiesbeck, Mathey

    2007-01-01

    and describing human-human interaction in terms of goal-oriented movement coordination is considered an important and necessary step for designing and describing human-robot interaction. In the present scenario, trajectories of hand and finger movements were recorded while two human participants performed......The present paper describes a scenario for examining mechanisms of movement coordination in humans and robots. It is assumed that coordination can best be achieved when behavioral rules that shape movement execution in humans are also considered for human-robot interaction. Investigating...... coordination were affected. Implications for human-robot interaction are discussed....

  9. Vestibular feedback maintains reaching accuracy during body movement

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    Reynolds, Raymond F.

    2016-01-01

    Key points Reaching movements can be perturbed by vestibular input, but the function of this response is unclear.Here, we applied galvanic vestibular stimulation concurrently with real body movement while subjects maintained arm position either fixed in space or fixed with respect to their body.During the fixed‐in‐space conditions, galvanic vestibular stimulation caused large changes in arm trajectory consistent with a compensatory response to maintain upper‐limb accuracy in the face of body movement.Galvanic vestibular stimulation responses were absent during the body‐fixed task, demonstrating task dependency in vestibular control of the upper limb.The results suggest that the function of vestibular‐evoked arm movements is to maintain the accuracy of the upper limb during unpredictable body movement, but only when reaching in an earth‐fixed reference frame. Abstract When using our arms to interact with the world, unintended body motion can introduce movement error. A mechanism that could detect and compensate for such motion would be beneficial. Observations of arm movements evoked by vestibular stimulation provide some support for this mechanism. However, the physiological function underlying these artificially evoked movements is unclear from previous research. For such a mechanism to be functional, it should operate only when the arm is being controlled in an earth‐fixed rather than a body‐fixed reference frame. In the latter case, compensation would be unnecessary and even deleterious. To test this hypothesis, subjects were gently rotated in a chair while being asked to maintain their outstretched arm pointing towards either earth‐fixed or body‐fixed memorized targets. Galvanic vestibular stimulation was applied concurrently during rotation to isolate the influence of vestibular input, uncontaminated by inertial factors. During the earth‐fixed task, galvanic vestibular stimulation produced large polarity‐dependent corrections in arm

  10. Perception of Affective Body Movements in HRI Across Age Groups

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Rehm, Matthias; Krogsager, Anders; Segato, Nicolaj

    2016-01-01

    robots and the signals they produce. In this paper we focus on affective connotations of body movements and investigate how the perception of body movements of robots is related to age. Inspired by a study from Japan, we introduce culture as a variable in the experiment and discuss the difficulties...... of cross-cultural comparisons. The results show that there are certain age-related differences in the perception of affective body movements, but not as strong as in the original study. A follow up experiment puts the affective body movements into context and shows that recognition rates deteriorate...

  11. Human body motion tracking based on quantum-inspired immune cloning algorithm

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    Han, Hong; Yue, Lichuan; Jiao, Licheng; Wu, Xing

    2009-10-01

    In a static monocular camera system, to gain a perfect 3D human body posture is a great challenge for Computer Vision technology now. This paper presented human postures recognition from video sequences using the Quantum-Inspired Immune Cloning Algorithm (QICA). The algorithm included three parts. Firstly, prior knowledge of human beings was used, the key joint points of human could be detected automatically from the human contours and skeletons which could be thinning from the contours; And due to the complexity of human movement, a forecasting mechanism of occlusion joint points was addressed to get optimum 2D key joint points of human body; And then pose estimation recovered by optimizing between the 2D projection of 3D human key joint points and 2D detection key joint points using QICA, which recovered the movement of human body perfectly, because this algorithm could acquire not only the global optimal solution, but the local optimal solution.

  12. Human Posture and Movement Prediction based on Musculoskeletal Modeling

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Farahani, Saeed Davoudabadi

    2014-01-01

    Abstract This thesis explores an optimization-based formulation, so-called inverse-inverse dynamics, for the prediction of human posture and motion dynamics performing various tasks. It is explained how this technique enables us to predict natural kinematic and kinetic patterns for human posture...... and motion using AnyBody Modeling System (AMS). AMS uses inverse dynamics to analyze musculoskeletal systems and is, therefore, limited by its dependency on input kinematics. We propose to alleviate this dependency by assuming that voluntary postures and movement strategies in humans are guided by a desire...... expenditure, joint forces and other physiological properties derived from the detailed musculoskeletal analysis. Several attempts have been made to uncover the principles underlying motion control strategies in the literature. In case of some movements, like human squat jumping, there is almost no doubt...

  13. Syncopation, body-movement and pleasure in groove music.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Witek, Maria A G; Clarke, Eric F; Wallentin, Mikkel; Kringelbach, Morten L; Vuust, Peter

    2014-01-01

    Moving to music is an essential human pleasure particularly related to musical groove. Structurally, music associated with groove is often characterised by rhythmic complexity in the form of syncopation, frequently observed in musical styles such as funk, hip-hop and electronic dance music. Structural complexity has been related to positive affect in music more broadly, but the function of syncopation in eliciting pleasure and body-movement in groove is unknown. Here we report results from a web-based survey which investigated the relationship between syncopation and ratings of wanting to move and experienced pleasure. Participants heard funk drum-breaks with varying degrees of syncopation and audio entropy, and rated the extent to which the drum-breaks made them want to move and how much pleasure they experienced. While entropy was found to be a poor predictor of wanting to move and pleasure, the results showed that medium degrees of syncopation elicited the most desire to move and the most pleasure, particularly for participants who enjoy dancing to music. Hence, there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between syncopation, body-movement and pleasure, and syncopation seems to be an important structural factor in embodied and affective responses to groove.

  14. Healthy Movements: Your Body's Mechanics

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... body, are governed by the same basic physical laws,” says Dr. Jeffrey Weiss, a biomechanics expert at ... for movement disorders such as cerebral palsy and Parkinson’s disease. Joints are a common source of problems ...

  15. Real-time modulation of visual feedback on human full-body movements in a virtual mirror: development and proof-of-concept.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Roosink, Meyke; Robitaille, Nicolas; McFadyen, Bradford J; Hébert, Luc J; Jackson, Philip L; Bouyer, Laurent J; Mercier, Catherine

    2015-01-05

    Virtual reality (VR) provides interactive multimodal sensory stimuli and biofeedback, and can be a powerful tool for physical and cognitive rehabilitation. However, existing systems have generally not implemented realistic full-body avatars and/or a scaling of visual movement feedback. We developed a "virtual mirror" that displays a realistic full-body avatar that responds to full-body movements in all movement planes in real-time, and that allows for the scaling of visual feedback on movements in real-time. The primary objective of this proof-of-concept study was to assess the ability of healthy subjects to detect scaled feedback on trunk flexion movements. The "virtual mirror" was developed by integrating motion capture, virtual reality and projection systems. A protocol was developed to provide both augmented and reduced feedback on trunk flexion movements while sitting and standing. The task required reliance on both visual and proprioceptive feedback. The ability to detect scaled feedback was assessed in healthy subjects (n = 10) using a two-alternative forced choice paradigm. Additionally, immersion in the VR environment and task adherence (flexion angles, velocity, and fluency) were assessed. The ability to detect scaled feedback could be modelled using a sigmoid curve with a high goodness of fit (R2 range 89-98%). The point of subjective equivalence was not significantly different from 0 (i.e. not shifted), indicating an unbiased perception. The just noticeable difference was 0.035 ± 0.007, indicating that subjects were able to discriminate different scaling levels consistently. VR immersion was reported to be good, despite some perceived delays between movements and VR projections. Movement kinematic analysis confirmed task adherence. The new "virtual mirror" extends existing VR systems for motor and pain rehabilitation by enabling the use of realistic full-body avatars and scaled feedback. Proof-of-concept was demonstrated for the assessment of

  16. Syncopation, body-movement and pleasure in groove music.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Maria A G Witek

    Full Text Available Moving to music is an essential human pleasure particularly related to musical groove. Structurally, music associated with groove is often characterised by rhythmic complexity in the form of syncopation, frequently observed in musical styles such as funk, hip-hop and electronic dance music. Structural complexity has been related to positive affect in music more broadly, but the function of syncopation in eliciting pleasure and body-movement in groove is unknown. Here we report results from a web-based survey which investigated the relationship between syncopation and ratings of wanting to move and experienced pleasure. Participants heard funk drum-breaks with varying degrees of syncopation and audio entropy, and rated the extent to which the drum-breaks made them want to move and how much pleasure they experienced. While entropy was found to be a poor predictor of wanting to move and pleasure, the results showed that medium degrees of syncopation elicited the most desire to move and the most pleasure, particularly for participants who enjoy dancing to music. Hence, there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between syncopation, body-movement and pleasure, and syncopation seems to be an important structural factor in embodied and affective responses to groove.

  17. Real-time tracking of vertebral body movement with implantable reference microsensors.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mularski, Sven; Picht, Thomas; Kuehn, Björn; Kombos, Theodoros; Brock, Mario; Suess, Olaf

    2006-05-01

    In the spine, navigation techniques serve mainly to control and accurately target insertion of implants. The main source of error is that the spine is not a rigid organ, but rather a chain of semiflexible movement segments. Any intraoperative manipulation of the patient alters the geometry and volumetry as compared to the 3D volume model created from the image data. Thus, the objective of the study was to implement the theoretical principle of microsensor referencing in a model experiment and to clarify which anatomical structures are suitable for intermittent implantation of positional sensors, as illustrated with cervical vertebral bodies. Laboratory tests were conducted using 70 models of human cervical vertebral bodies. The first experiment investigated whether arbitrary movements of vertebral bodies can be tracked with the positional information from the implanted microsensors. The accuracy of this movement monitoring was determined quantitatively on the basis of positional error measurement. In the second experiment, different ventral and dorsal surgical operations were simulated on five models of the cervical spine. Quantifiable measurement values such as the spatial extension of the intervertebral space and the relative positions of the planes of the upper plates were determined. With respect to the differing anatomy of the individual vertebral bodies of the cervical spine, the sensors could be placed securely with a 5x2 mm drill. The registration error (RE) was determined as a root mean square error. The mean value was 0.9425 mm (range: 0.57-1.2 mm; median: 0.9400 mm; SD: 0.1903 mm). The precision of the movement monitoring of the vertebral body was investigated along its three main axes. The error tolerance between post-interventional 3D reconstruction and direct measurement on the model did not exceed 1.3 mm in the distance measurements or 2.5 degrees in the angular measurements. The tomograms on the system monitor could be updated in close to real time

  18. Expressive body movement responses to music are coherent, consistent, and low dimensional.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Amelynck, Denis; Maes, Pieter-Jan; Martens, Jean Pierre; Leman, Marc

    2014-12-01

    Embodied music cognition stresses the role of the human body as mediator for the encoding and decoding of musical expression. In this paper, we set up a low dimensional functional model that accounts for 70% of the variability in the expressive body movement responses to music. With the functional principal component analysis, we modeled individual body movements as a linear combination of a group average and a number of eigenfunctions. The group average and the eigenfunctions are common to all subjects and make up what we call the commonalities. An individual performance is then characterized by a set of scores (the individualities), one score per eigenfunction. The model is based on experimental data which finds high levels of coherence/consistency between participants when grouped according to musical education. This shows an ontogenetic effect. Participants without formal musical education focus on the torso for the expression of basic musical structure (tempo). Musically trained participants decode additional structural elements in the music and focus on body parts having more degrees of freedom (such as the hands). Our results confirm earlier studies that different body parts move differently along with the music.

  19. Emotion Recognition by Body Movement Representation on the Manifold of Symmetric Positive Definite Matrices

    OpenAIRE

    Daoudi , Mohamed; Berretti , Stefano; Pala , Pietro; Delevoye , Yvonne ,; Bimbo , Alberto ,

    2017-01-01

    International audience; Emotion recognition is attracting great interest for its potential application in a multitude of real-life situations. Much of the Computer Vision research in this field has focused on relating emotions to facial expressions, with investigations rarely including more than upper body. In this work, we propose a new scenario, for which emotional states are related to 3D dynamics of the whole body motion. To address the complexity of human body movement, we used covarianc...

  20. Convolutional Neural Networks for Human Activity Recognition Using Body-Worn Sensors

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fernando Moya Rueda

    2018-05-01

    Full Text Available Human activity recognition (HAR is a classification task for recognizing human movements. Methods of HAR are of great interest as they have become tools for measuring occurrences and durations of human actions, which are the basis of smart assistive technologies and manual processes analysis. Recently, deep neural networks have been deployed for HAR in the context of activities of daily living using multichannel time-series. These time-series are acquired from body-worn devices, which are composed of different types of sensors. The deep architectures process these measurements for finding basic and complex features in human corporal movements, and for classifying them into a set of human actions. As the devices are worn at different parts of the human body, we propose a novel deep neural network for HAR. This network handles sequence measurements from different body-worn devices separately. An evaluation of the architecture is performed on three datasets, the Oportunity, Pamap2, and an industrial dataset, outperforming the state-of-the-art. In addition, different network configurations will also be evaluated. We find that applying convolutions per sensor channel and per body-worn device improves the capabilities of convolutional neural network (CNNs.

  1. Origins and early development of human body knowledge.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Slaughter, Virginia; Heron, Michelle

    2004-01-01

    As a knowable object, the human body is highly complex. Evidence from several converging lines of research, including psychological studies, neuroimaging and clinical neuropsychology, indicates that human body knowledge is widely distributed in the adult brain, and is instantiated in at least three partially independent levels of representation. Sensorimotor body knowledge is responsible for on-line control and movement of one's own body and may also contribute to the perception of others' moving bodies; visuo-spatial body knowledge specifies detailed structural descriptions of the spatial attributes of the human body; and lexical-semantic body knowledge contains language-based knowledge about the human body. In the first chapter of this Monograph, we outline the evidence for these three hypothesized levels of human body knowledge, then review relevant literature on infants' and young children's human body knowledge in terms of the three-level framework. In Chapters II and III, we report two complimentary series of studies that specifically investigate the emergence of visuo-spatial body knowledge in infancy. Our technique is to compare infants'responses to typical and scrambled human bodies, in order to evaluate when and how infants acquire knowledge about the canonical spatial layout of the human body. Data from a series of visual habituation studies indicate that infants first discriminate scrambled from typical human body picture sat 15 to 18 months of age. Data from object examination studies similarly indicate that infants are sensitive to violations of three-dimensional human body stimuli starting at 15-18 months of age. The overall pattern of data supports several conclusions about the early development of human body knowledge: (a) detailed visuo-spatial knowledge about the human body is first evident in the second year of life, (b) visuo-spatial knowledge of human faces and human bodies are at least partially independent in infancy and (c) infants' initial

  2. Representational Momentum for the Human Body: Awkwardness Matters, Experience Does Not

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wilson, Margaret; Lancaster, Jessy; Emmorey, Karen

    2010-01-01

    Perception of the human body appears to involve predictive simulations that project forward to track unfolding body-motion events. Here we use representational momentum (RM) to investigate whether implicit knowledge of a learned arbitrary system of body movement such as sign language influences this prediction process, and how this compares to…

  3. the body in movement: a clinical approach

    OpenAIRE

    Probst, Michel; Diedens, Jolien

    2017-01-01

    Physiotherapy or body oriented therapy is often overlooked as an adjunctive treatment for patients with eating disorders (ED). However, the integration of physiotherapy is based on the physiotherapists’ experience in both the body and the body in movement, two important issues integral to eating disorder pathology. From our clinical experience, physiotherapeutic techniques represent a potent clinical addition to available treatments. Patients with eating disorders have an intense fear of gain...

  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. Spontaneous body movements in spatial cognition

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sergiu eTcaci Popescu

    2012-05-01

    Full Text Available People often perform spontaneous body movements during spatial tasks such as giving complex directions or orienting themselves on maps. How are these spontaneous gestures related to spatial problem-solving? We measured spontaneous movements during a perspective-taking task inspired by map reading. Analyzing the motion data to isolate rotation and translation components of motion in specific geometric relation to the task, we found out that most participants executed spontaneous miniature rotations of the head that were significantly related to the main task parameter. These head rotations were as if participants were trying to align themselves with the orientation on the map either in the image plane or on the ground plane, but with tiny amplitudes, typically below 1% of the actual movements. Our results are consistent with a model of sensorimotor prediction driving spatial reasoning. The efference copy of planned movements triggers this prediction mechanism. The movements themselves may then be mostly inhibited; the small spontaneous gestures that we measure are the visible traces of these planned but inhibited actions.

  6. Statistical Analysis of Human Body Movement and Group Interactions in Response to Music

    Science.gov (United States)

    Desmet, Frank; Leman, Marc; Lesaffre, Micheline; de Bruyn, Leen

    Quantification of time series that relate to physiological data is challenging for empirical music research. Up to now, most studies have focused on time-dependent responses of individual subjects in controlled environments. However, little is known about time-dependent responses of between-subject interactions in an ecological context. This paper provides new findings on the statistical analysis of group synchronicity in response to musical stimuli. Different statistical techniques were applied to time-dependent data obtained from an experiment on embodied listening in individual and group settings. Analysis of inter group synchronicity are described. Dynamic Time Warping (DTW) and Cross Correlation Function (CCF) were found to be valid methods to estimate group coherence of the resulting movements. It was found that synchronicity of movements between individuals (human-human interactions) increases significantly in the social context. Moreover, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) revealed that the type of music is the predominant factor in both the individual and the social context.

  7. Motion energy analysis reveals altered body movement in youth at risk for psychosis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dean, Derek J; Samson, Alayna T; Newberry, Raeana; Mittal, Vijay A

    2017-06-03

    Growing evidence suggests that movement abnormalities occur prior to the onset of psychosis. Innovations in technology and software provide the opportunity for a fine-tuned and sensitive measurement of observable behavior that may be particularly useful to detecting the subtle movement aberrations present during the prodromal period. In the present study, 54 youth at ultrahigh risk (UHR) for psychosis and 62 healthy controls participated in structured clinical interviews to assess for an UHR syndrome. The initial 15min of the baseline clinical interview was assessed using Motion Energy Analysis (MEA) providing frame-by-frame measures of total movement, amplitude, speed, and variability of both head and body movement separately. Result showed region-specific group differences such that there were no differences in head movement but significant differences in body movement. Specifically, the UHR group showed greater total body movement and speed of body movements, and lower variation in body movement compared to healthy controls. However, there were no significant associations with positive, negative or disorganized symptom domains. This study represents an innovative perspective on gross motor function in the UHR group. Importantly, the automated approach used in this study provides a sensitive and objective measure of body movement abnormalities, potentially guiding novel assessment and prevention of symptom development in those at risk for psychosis. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier B.V.

  8. Experience of action depends on intention, not body movement

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jensen, Mads; Vagnoni, Eleonora; Overgaard, Morten

    2014-01-01

    in memory. We found that recall of a voluntary action was unaffected by an incongruent involuntary movement. In contrast, recall of an involuntary movement was strongly influenced by an incongruent voluntary action. Our results demonstrate an “intentional capture” of body movement by voluntary actions......, in support of intentional theories of agency, but contrary to reconstructive theories. When asked to recall both actions and movements, people's responses are shaped by memory of what they intended to do, rather than by how their body moved....... effects that they produce. Intentions would then be mere confabulations, and not bona fide experiences. Previous work on voluntary action has focused on immediate experiences of authorship, and few studies have considered memory for voluntary actions. We devised an experiment in which both voluntary...

  9. Optimization of wearable microwave antenna with simplified electromagnetic model of the human body

    Science.gov (United States)

    Januszkiewicz, Łukasz; Barba, Paolo Di; Hausman, Sławomir

    2017-12-01

    In this paper the problem of optimization design of a microwave wearable antenna is investigated. Reference is made to a specific antenna design that is a wideband Vee antenna the geometry of which is characterized by 6 parameters. These parameters were automatically adjusted with an evolution strategy based algorithm EStra to obtain the impedance matching of the antenna located in the proximity of the human body. The antenna was designed to operate in the ISM (industrial, scientific, medical) band which covers the frequency range of 2.4 GHz up to 2.5 GHz. The optimization procedure used the finite-difference time-domain method based full-wave simulator with a simplified human body model. In the optimization procedure small movements of antenna towards or away of the human body that are likely to happen during real use were considered. The stability of the antenna parameters irrespective of the movements of the user's body is an important factor in wearable antenna design. The optimization procedure allowed obtaining good impedance matching for a given range of antenna distances with respect to the human body.

  10. Interpersonal similarity between body movements in face-to-face communication in daily life.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Higo, Naoki; Ogawa, Ken-ichiro; Minemura, Juichi; Xu, Bujie; Nozawa, Takayuki; Ogata, Taiki; Ara, Koji; Yano, Kazuo; Miyake, Yoshihiro

    2014-01-01

    Individuals are embedded in social networks in which they communicate with others in their daily lives. Because smooth face-to-face communication is the key to maintaining these networks, measuring the smoothness of such communication is an important issue. One indicator of smoothness is the similarity of the body movements of the two individuals concerned. A typical example noted in experimental environments is the interpersonal synchronization of body movements such as nods and gestures during smooth face-to-face communication. It should therefore be possible to estimate quantitatively the smoothness of face-to-face communication in social networks through measurement of the synchronization of body movements. However, this is difficult because social networks, which differ from disciplined experimental environments, are open environments for the face-to-face communication between two individuals. In such open environments, their body movements become complicated by various external factors and may follow unstable and nonuniform patterns. Nevertheless, we consider there to be some interaction during face-to-face communication that leads to the interpersonal synchronization of body movements, which can be seen through the interpersonal similarity of body movements. The present study aims to clarify such interaction in terms of body movements during daily face-to-face communication in real organizations of more than 100 people. We analyzed data on the frequency of body movement for each individual during face-to-face communication, as measured by a wearable sensor, and evaluated the degree of interpersonal similarity of body movements between two individuals as their frequency difference. Furthermore, we generated uncorrelated data by resampling the data gathered and compared these two data sets statistically to distinguish the effects of actual face-to-face communication from those of the activities accompanying the communication. Our results confirm an

  11. Interpersonal similarity between body movements in face-to-face communication in daily life.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Naoki Higo

    Full Text Available Individuals are embedded in social networks in which they communicate with others in their daily lives. Because smooth face-to-face communication is the key to maintaining these networks, measuring the smoothness of such communication is an important issue. One indicator of smoothness is the similarity of the body movements of the two individuals concerned. A typical example noted in experimental environments is the interpersonal synchronization of body movements such as nods and gestures during smooth face-to-face communication. It should therefore be possible to estimate quantitatively the smoothness of face-to-face communication in social networks through measurement of the synchronization of body movements. However, this is difficult because social networks, which differ from disciplined experimental environments, are open environments for the face-to-face communication between two individuals. In such open environments, their body movements become complicated by various external factors and may follow unstable and nonuniform patterns. Nevertheless, we consider there to be some interaction during face-to-face communication that leads to the interpersonal synchronization of body movements, which can be seen through the interpersonal similarity of body movements. The present study aims to clarify such interaction in terms of body movements during daily face-to-face communication in real organizations of more than 100 people. We analyzed data on the frequency of body movement for each individual during face-to-face communication, as measured by a wearable sensor, and evaluated the degree of interpersonal similarity of body movements between two individuals as their frequency difference. Furthermore, we generated uncorrelated data by resampling the data gathered and compared these two data sets statistically to distinguish the effects of actual face-to-face communication from those of the activities accompanying the communication. Our results

  12. An approach from the sociology of the body to social movements

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alexis Patricio Sossa Rojas

    2013-12-01

    Full Text Available The present article has as aim articulate two somewhat separate perspectives of the sociological current debate:The sociology of the social movements and the sociology of the body. In this respect, we look to problematized three things. First, why the relevance of the category body, especially the nude, as form and / or resource in the protests. Second, from the thought of Foucault how the social thing interferes in the body, in phenomena as personal as sexuality or family. Finally, from the tensions outlined in section two, we discuss how this gives rise to movements that have claims related to the body, and what theory of social movements is the best to explain it.

  13. Borderline Personality Disorder is Associated with Lower Confidence in Perception of Emotional Body Movements

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Morten eKaletsch

    2014-11-01

    Full Text Available Much recent research has shown that personality disorders are associated with an altered emotion perception. Whereas most of this research was conducted with stimuli such as faces, the present study examined possible differences in the perception of emotions expressed via body language and body movements. 30 patients with borderline personality disorder and 30 non-patients observed video scenes of emotional human interactions conveyed by point–light displays, rated the depicted valence, and judged their confidence in this rating. Patients with borderline personality disorder showed no altered emotion perception (i.e., no biased perception in either a negative or a positive direction. They did not perceive and evaluate depicted emotions as being more extreme than healthy controls. However, patients with borderline personality disorder showed less confidence in their perception of depicted emotions, especially when these were difficult to identify. The findings extend insights on altered emotion perception in persons with borderline personality disorder to include the field of body movements.

  14. Auxetic Foam-Based Contact-Mode Triboelectric Nanogenerator with Highly Sensitive Self-Powered Strain Sensing Capabilities to Monitor Human Body Movement

    KAUST Repository

    Zhang, Steven L.; Lai, Ying-Chih; He, Xu; Liu, Ruiyuan; Zi, Yunlong; Wang, Zhong Lin

    2017-01-01

    The first contact-mode triboelectric self-powered strain sensor using an auxetic polyurethane foam, conductive fabric, and polytetrafluroethylene (PTFE) is fabricated. Utilizing the auxetic properties of the polyurethane foam, the auxetic polyurethane foam would expand into the PTFE when the foam is stretched, causing contact electrification. Due to a larger contact area between the PTFE and the foam as the foam is stretched, this device can serve effectively as a strain sensor. The sensitivity of this method is explored, and this sensor has the highest sensitivity in all triboelectric nanogenerator devices that are used previously as a strain sensor. Different applications of this strain sensor are shown, and this sensor can be used as a human body monitoring system, self-powered scale to measure weight, and a seat belt to measure body movements inside a car seat.

  15. Auxetic Foam-Based Contact-Mode Triboelectric Nanogenerator with Highly Sensitive Self-Powered Strain Sensing Capabilities to Monitor Human Body Movement

    KAUST Repository

    Zhang, Steven L.

    2017-05-15

    The first contact-mode triboelectric self-powered strain sensor using an auxetic polyurethane foam, conductive fabric, and polytetrafluroethylene (PTFE) is fabricated. Utilizing the auxetic properties of the polyurethane foam, the auxetic polyurethane foam would expand into the PTFE when the foam is stretched, causing contact electrification. Due to a larger contact area between the PTFE and the foam as the foam is stretched, this device can serve effectively as a strain sensor. The sensitivity of this method is explored, and this sensor has the highest sensitivity in all triboelectric nanogenerator devices that are used previously as a strain sensor. Different applications of this strain sensor are shown, and this sensor can be used as a human body monitoring system, self-powered scale to measure weight, and a seat belt to measure body movements inside a car seat.

  16. An online brain-machine interface using decoding of movement direction from the human electrocorticogram

    Science.gov (United States)

    Milekovic, Tomislav; Fischer, Jörg; Pistohl, Tobias; Ruescher, Johanna; Schulze-Bonhage, Andreas; Aertsen, Ad; Rickert, Jörn; Ball, Tonio; Mehring, Carsten

    2012-08-01

    A brain-machine interface (BMI) can be used to control movements of an artificial effector, e.g. movements of an arm prosthesis, by motor cortical signals that control the equivalent movements of the corresponding body part, e.g. arm movements. This approach has been successfully applied in monkeys and humans by accurately extracting parameters of movements from the spiking activity of multiple single neurons. We show that the same approach can be realized using brain activity measured directly from the surface of the human cortex using electrocorticography (ECoG). Five subjects, implanted with ECoG implants for the purpose of epilepsy assessment, took part in our study. Subjects used directionally dependent ECoG signals, recorded during active movements of a single arm, to control a computer cursor in one out of two directions. Significant BMI control was achieved in four out of five subjects with correct directional decoding in 69%-86% of the trials (75% on average). Our results demonstrate the feasibility of an online BMI using decoding of movement direction from human ECoG signals. Thus, to achieve such BMIs, ECoG signals might be used in conjunction with or as an alternative to intracortical neural signals.

  17. A psychometric measure of working memory capacity for configured body movement.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ying Choon Wu

    Full Text Available Working memory (WM models have traditionally assumed at least two domain-specific storage systems for verbal and visuo-spatial information. We review data that suggest the existence of an additional slave system devoted to the temporary storage of body movements, and present a novel instrument for its assessment: the movement span task. The movement span task assesses individuals' ability to remember and reproduce meaningless configurations of the body. During the encoding phase of a trial, participants watch short videos of meaningless movements presented in sets varying in size from one to five items. Immediately after encoding, they are prompted to reenact as many items as possible. The movement span task was administered to 90 participants along with standard tests of verbal WM, visuo-spatial WM, and a gesture classification test in which participants judged whether a speaker's gestures were congruent or incongruent with his accompanying speech. Performance on the gesture classification task was not related to standard measures of verbal or visuo-spatial working memory capacity, but was predicted by scores on the movement span task. Results suggest the movement span task can serve as an assessment of individual differences in WM capacity for body-centric information.

  18. Techniques for Clutter Suppression in the Presence of Body Movements during the Detection of Respiratory Activity through UWB Radars

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Antonio Lazaro

    2014-02-01

    Full Text Available This paper focuses on the feasibility of tracking the chest wall movement of a human subject during respiration from the waveforms recorded using an impulse-radio (IR ultra-wideband radar. The paper describes the signal processing to estimate sleep apnea detection and breathing rate. Some techniques to solve several problems in these types of measurements, such as the clutter suppression, body movement and body orientation detection are described. Clutter suppression is achieved using a moving averaging filter to dynamically estimate it. The artifacts caused by body movements are removed using a threshold method before analyzing the breathing signal. The motion is detected using the time delay that maximizes the received signal after a clutter removing algorithm is applied. The periods in which the standard deviations of the time delay exceed a threshold are considered macro-movements and they are neglected. The sleep apnea intervals are detected when the breathing signal is below a threshold. The breathing rate is determined from the robust spectrum estimation based on Lomb periodogram algorithm. On the other hand the breathing signal amplitude depends on the body orientation respect to the antennas, and this could be a problem. In this case, in order to maximize the signal-to-noise ratio, multiple sensors are proposed to ensure that the backscattered signal can be detected by at least one sensor, regardless of the direction the human subject is facing. The feasibility of the system is compared with signals recorded by a microphone.

  19. Are movements necessary for the sense of body ownership? Evidence from the rubber hand illusion in pure hemiplegic patients.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Burin, Dalila; Livelli, Alessandro; Garbarini, Francesca; Fossataro, Carlotta; Folegatti, Alessia; Gindri, Patrizia; Pia, Lorenzo

    2015-01-01

    A question still debated within cognitive neuroscience is whether signals present during actions significantly contribute to the emergence of human's body ownership. In the present study, we aimed at answer this question by means of a neuropsychological approach. We administered the classical rubber hand illusion paradigm to a group of healthy participants and to a group of neurological patients affected by a complete left upper limb hemiplegia, but without any propriceptive/tactile deficits. The illusion strength was measured both subjectively (i.e., by a self-report questionnaire) and behaviorally (i.e., the location of one's own hand is shifted towards the rubber hand). We aimed at examining whether, and to which extent, an enduring absence of movements related signals affects body ownership. Our results showed that patients displayed, respect to healthy participants, stronger illusory effects when the left (affected) hand was stimulated and no effects when the right (unaffected) hand was stimulated. In other words, hemiplegics had a weaker/more flexible sense of body ownership for the affected hand, but an enhanced/more rigid one for the healthy hand. Possible interpretations of such asymmetrical distribution of body ownership, as well as limits of our results, are discussed. Broadly speaking, our findings suggest that the alteration of the normal flow of signals present during movements impacts on human's body ownership. This in turn, means that movements have a role per se in developing and maintaining a coherent body ownership.

  20. Are movements necessary for the sense of body ownership? Evidence from the rubber hand illusion in pure hemiplegic patients.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dalila Burin

    Full Text Available A question still debated within cognitive neuroscience is whether signals present during actions significantly contribute to the emergence of human's body ownership. In the present study, we aimed at answer this question by means of a neuropsychological approach. We administered the classical rubber hand illusion paradigm to a group of healthy participants and to a group of neurological patients affected by a complete left upper limb hemiplegia, but without any propriceptive/tactile deficits. The illusion strength was measured both subjectively (i.e., by a self-report questionnaire and behaviorally (i.e., the location of one's own hand is shifted towards the rubber hand. We aimed at examining whether, and to which extent, an enduring absence of movements related signals affects body ownership. Our results showed that patients displayed, respect to healthy participants, stronger illusory effects when the left (affected hand was stimulated and no effects when the right (unaffected hand was stimulated. In other words, hemiplegics had a weaker/more flexible sense of body ownership for the affected hand, but an enhanced/more rigid one for the healthy hand. Possible interpretations of such asymmetrical distribution of body ownership, as well as limits of our results, are discussed. Broadly speaking, our findings suggest that the alteration of the normal flow of signals present during movements impacts on human's body ownership. This in turn, means that movements have a role per se in developing and maintaining a coherent body ownership.

  1. Human preference for air movement

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Toftum, Jørn; Melikov, Arsen Krikor; Tynel, A.

    2002-01-01

    Human preference for air movement was studied at slightly cool, neutral, and slightly warm overall thermal sensations and at temperatures ranging from 18 deg.C to 28 deg.C. Air movement preference depended on both thermal sensation and temperature, but large inter-individual differences existed...... between subjects. Preference for less air movement was linearly correlated with draught discomfort, but the percentage of subjects who felt draught was lower than the percentage who preferred less air movement....

  2. Human and animal sounds influence recognition of body language.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Van den Stock, Jan; Grèzes, Julie; de Gelder, Beatrice

    2008-11-25

    In naturalistic settings emotional events have multiple correlates and are simultaneously perceived by several sensory systems. Recent studies have shown that recognition of facial expressions is biased towards the emotion expressed by a simultaneously presented emotional expression in the voice even if attention is directed to the face only. So far, no study examined whether this phenomenon also applies to whole body expressions, although there is no obvious reason why this crossmodal influence would be specific for faces. Here we investigated whether perception of emotions expressed in whole body movements is influenced by affective information provided by human and by animal vocalizations. Participants were instructed to attend to the action displayed by the body and to categorize the expressed emotion. The results indicate that recognition of body language is biased towards the emotion expressed by the simultaneously presented auditory information, whether it consist of human or of animal sounds. Our results show that a crossmodal influence from auditory to visual emotional information obtains for whole body video images with the facial expression blanked and includes human as well as animal sounds.

  3. Fetal body movement monitoring.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rayburn, W F

    1990-03-01

    Recording fetal activity serves as an indirect measure of central nervous system integrity and function. The coordination of whole body movement, which requires complex neurologic control, is likely similar to that of the newborn infant. Short-term observations of the fetus are best performed using real-time ultrasound imaging. Monitoring fetal motion has been shown to be clinically worthwhile in predicting impending death or compromise, especially when placental insufficiency is longstanding. The presence of a vigorous fetus is reassuring. Perceived inactivity requires a reassessment of any underlying antepartum complication and a more precise evaluation by fetal heart rate testing or real-time ultrasonography before delivery is contemplated.

  4. 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...

  5. Study of human body: Kinematics and kinetics of a martial arts (Silat) performers using 3D-motion capture

    Science.gov (United States)

    Soh, Ahmad Afiq Sabqi Awang; Jafri, Mohd Zubir Mat; Azraai, Nur Zaidi

    2015-04-01

    The Interest in this studies of human kinematics goes back very far in human history drove by curiosity or need for the understanding the complexity of human body motion. To find new and accurate information about the human movement as the advance computing technology became available for human movement that can perform. Martial arts (silat) were chose and multiple type of movement was studied. This project has done by using cutting-edge technology which is 3D motion capture to characterize and to measure the motion done by the performers of martial arts (silat). The camera will detect the markers (infrared reflection by the marker) around the performer body (total of 24 markers) and will show as dot in the computer software. The markers detected were analyzing using kinematic kinetic approach and time as reference. A graph of velocity, acceleration and position at time,t (seconds) of each marker was plot. Then from the information obtain, more parameters were determined such as work done, momentum, center of mass of a body using mathematical approach. This data can be used for development of the effectiveness movement in martial arts which is contributed to the people in arts. More future works can be implemented from this project such as analysis of a martial arts competition.

  6. A REVIEW ON LOWER APPENDICULAR MUSCULOSKELETAL SYSTEM OF HUMAN BODY

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M. Akhtaruzzaman

    2016-04-01

    Full Text Available Rehabilitation engineering plays an important role in designing various autonomous robots to provide better therapeutic exercise to disabled patients. Hence it is necessary to study human musculoskeletal system and also needs to be presented in scientific manner in order to describe and analyze the biomechanics of human body motion. This review focuses on lower appendicular musculoskeletal structure of human body to represent joints and links architectures; to identify muscle attachments and functions; and to illustrate muscle groups which are responsible for a particular joint movement. Firstly, human lower skeletal structure, linking systems, joint mechanisms, and their functions are described with a conceptual representation of joint architecture of human skeleton. This section also represents joints and limbs by comparing with mechanical systems. Characteristics of ligaments and their functions to construct skeletal joints are also discussed briefly in this part. Secondly, the study focuses on muscular system of human lower limbs where muscle structure, functions, roles in moving endoskeleton structure, and supporting mechanisms are presented ellaborately. Thirdly, muscle groups are tabulated based on functions that provide mobility to different joints of lower limbs. Finally, for a particular movement action of lower extremity, muscles are also grouped and tabulated to have a better understanding on functions of individual muscle. Basically the study presents an overview of the structure of human lower limbs by characterizing and classifying skeletal and muscular systems.KEYWORDS:   Musculoskeletal system; Human lower limbs; Muscle groups; Joint motion; Biomechatronics; Rehabilitation.

  7. Biomimetics of human movement: functional or aesthetic?

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Harris, Christopher M

    2009-01-01

    How should robotic or prosthetic arms be programmed to move? Copying human smooth movements is popular in synthetic systems, but what does this really achieve? We cannot address these biomimetic issues without a deep understanding of why natural movements are so stereotyped. In this article, we distinguish between 'functional' and 'aesthetic' biomimetics. Functional biomimetics requires insight into the problem that nature has solved and recognition that a similar problem exists in the synthetic system. In aesthetic biomimetics, nature is copied for its own sake and no insight is needed. We examine the popular minimum jerk (MJ) model that has often been used to generate smooth human-like point-to-point movements in synthetic arms. The MJ model was originally justified as maximizing 'smoothness'; however, it is also the limiting optimal trajectory for a wide range of cost functions for brief movements, including the minimum variance (MV) model, where smoothness is a by-product of optimizing the speed-accuracy trade-off imposed by proportional noise (PN: signal-dependent noise with the standard deviation proportional to mean). PN is unlikely to be dominant in synthetic systems, and the control objectives of natural movements (speed and accuracy) would not be optimized in synthetic systems by human-like movements. Thus, employing MJ or MV controllers in robotic arms is just aesthetic biomimetics. For prosthetic arms, the goal is aesthetic by definition, but it is still crucial to recognize that MV trajectories and PN are deeply embedded in the human motor system. Thus, PN arises at the neural level, as a recruitment strategy of motor units and probably optimizes motor neuron noise. Human reaching is under continuous adaptive control. For prosthetic devices that do not have this natural architecture, natural plasticity would drive the system towards unnatural movements. We propose that a truly neuromorphic system with parallel force generators (muscle fibres) and noisy

  8. Sleep positions and nocturnal body movements based on free-living accelerometer recordings

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Skarpsno, Eivind Schjelderup; Mork, Paul Jarle; Nilsen, Tom Ivar Lund

    2017-01-01

    Background: In order to establish normative values for body positions and movements during sleep, the objective of this study was to explore the distribution of sleep positions and extent of nocturnal body moments and the association with sex, age, body-mass index (BMI), smoking, alcohol......), but more arm, thigh, and upper-back movements compared to normal-weight participants. Smokers had fewer shifts in body position than nonsmokers (-0.27, 95% CI -0.4 to -0.13). Conclusion: The predominant sleep position in adults is on the side. This preference increases with age and BMI. The extent...

  9. Rationality in Human Movement.

    Science.gov (United States)

    O'Brien, Megan K; Ahmed, Alaa A

    2016-01-01

    It long has been appreciated that humans behave irrationally in economic decisions under risk: they fail to objectively consider uncertainty, costs, and rewards and instead exhibit risk-seeking or risk-averse behavior. We hypothesize that poor estimates of motor variability (influenced by motor task) and distorted probability weighting (influenced by relevant emotional processes) contribute to characteristic irrationality in human movement decisions.

  10. Interactive Sonification of Spontaneous Movement of Children - Cross-modal Mapping and the Perception of Body Movement Qualities through Sound

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Emma Frid

    2016-11-01

    -modal mapping of body motion qualitiesfrom bodily movement to sounds. Sound can be translated and understood from bodily motion,conveyed through sound visualizations in the shape of drawings and translated back from sound visualizations to audio. The work underlines the potential of using interactive sonification to communicate high-level features of human movement data.

  11. Interactive Sonification of Spontaneous Movement of Children-Cross-Modal Mapping and the Perception of Body Movement Qualities through Sound.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Frid, Emma; Bresin, Roberto; Alborno, Paolo; Elblaus, Ludvig

    2016-01-01

    cross-modal mapping of body motion qualities from bodily movement to sounds. Sound can be translated and understood from bodily motion, conveyed through sound visualizations in the shape of drawings and translated back from sound visualizations to audio. The work underlines the potential of using interactive sonification to communicate high-level features of human movement data.

  12. Interactive Sonification of Spontaneous Movement of Children—Cross-Modal Mapping and the Perception of Body Movement Qualities through Sound

    Science.gov (United States)

    Frid, Emma; Bresin, Roberto; Alborno, Paolo; Elblaus, Ludvig

    2016-01-01

    cross-modal mapping of body motion qualities from bodily movement to sounds. Sound can be translated and understood from bodily motion, conveyed through sound visualizations in the shape of drawings and translated back from sound visualizations to audio. The work underlines the potential of using interactive sonification to communicate high-level features of human movement data. PMID:27891074

  13. Occupant body movement and seat occupancy rate for design of desk micro-environment

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Melikov, Arsen Krikor; Pokora, Petr

    2014-01-01

    Occupant’s body movement and seat occupancy rate are some of the factors important for optimal design of desk micro-environment, including personalized ventilation. A system for identification and recording occupant’s presence and body movement at the desk was designed. The detection system....... In average occupants left the desk 4.6 times during the day and stayed away in average for 20 min. The average distance between the PC monitor and the occupant body was 0.63 m and changed mainly from 0.48 m to 0.72 m. 78% of the time the length of occupants’ body movement to the left/right direction was less...... than 0.225 m, with maximum span of the whole interval up to 0.75 m. In average the frequency of body position change was 4.9 times per minute, with minimum frequency of 0.6 times per minute and maximum frequency of 11.9 times per minute. The collected data are discussed and requirements for optimal...

  14. Development of a tool to capture of the human movement for biometric analysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chacon Taylor, Marco; Ortiz Cubero, Esteban

    2013-01-01

    A tool is developed for the measurement of stability static and dynamic of people. The Wii Remote TM was chosen as the system to capture body movement. The measurements of the gyroscopes and accelerometers are obtained from the wiimote adhered to a part of the human body. Dynamic stability parameters are calculated using the wiimote. Dynamic stability data are compared between IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit) and wiimote. The position, orientation, etc. are recreated from measurements of the wiimote. The study of new motion capture techniques is recommended for the analysis of dynamic stability [es

  15. Revisiting the link between body and agency: visual movement congruency enhances intentional binding but is not body-specific.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zopf, Regine; Polito, Vince; Moore, James

    2018-01-09

    Embodiment and agency are key aspects of how we perceive ourselves that have typically been associated with independent mechanisms. Recent work, however, has suggested that these mechanisms are related. The sense of agency arises from recognising a causal influence on the external world. This influence is typically realised through bodily movements and thus the perception of the bodily self could also be crucial for agency. We investigated whether a key index of agency - intentional binding - was modulated by body-specific information. Participants judged the interval between pressing a button and a subsequent tone. We used virtual reality to manipulate two aspects of movement feedback. First, form: participants viewed a virtual hand or sphere. Second, movement congruency: the viewed object moved congruently or incongruently with the participant's hidden hand. Both factors, form and movement congruency, significantly influenced embodiment. However, only movement congruency influenced intentional binding. Binding was increased for congruent compared to incongruent movement feedback irrespective of form. This shows that the comparison between viewed and performed movements provides an important cue for agency, whereas body-specific visual form does not. We suggest that embodiment and agency mechanisms both depend on comparisons across sensorimotor signals but that they are influenced by distinct factors.

  16. Automated high-throughput measurement of body movements and cardiac activity of Xenopus tropicalis tadpoles

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kay Eckelt

    2014-07-01

    Full Text Available Xenopus tadpoles are an emerging model for developmental, genetic and behavioral studies. A small size, optical accessibility of most of their organs, together with a close genetic and structural relationship to humans make them a convenient experimental model. However, there is only a limited toolset available to measure behavior and organ function of these animals at medium or high-throughput. Herein, we describe an imaging-based platform to quantify body and autonomic movements of Xenopus tropicalis tadpoles of advanced developmental stages. Animals alternate periods of quiescence and locomotor movements and display buccal pumping for oxygen uptake from water and rhythmic cardiac movements. We imaged up to 24 animals in parallel and automatically tracked and quantified their movements by using image analysis software. Animal trajectories, moved distances, activity time, buccal pumping rates and heart beat rates were calculated and used to characterize the effects of test compounds. We evaluated the effects of propranolol and atropine, observing a dose-dependent bradycardia and tachycardia, respectively. This imaging and analysis platform is a simple, cost-effective high-throughput in vivo assay system for genetic, toxicological or pharmacological characterizations.

  17. Combined Influence of Visual Scene and Body Tilt on Arm Pointing Movements: Gravity Matters!

    Science.gov (United States)

    Scotto Di Cesare, Cécile; Sarlegna, Fabrice R.; Bourdin, Christophe; Mestre, Daniel R.; Bringoux, Lionel

    2014-01-01

    Performing accurate actions such as goal-directed arm movements requires taking into account visual and body orientation cues to localize the target in space and produce appropriate reaching motor commands. We experimentally tilted the body and/or the visual scene to investigate how visual and body orientation cues are combined for the control of unseen arm movements. Subjects were asked to point toward a visual target using an upward movement during slow body and/or visual scene tilts. When the scene was tilted, final pointing errors varied as a function of the direction of the scene tilt (forward or backward). Actual forward body tilt resulted in systematic target undershoots, suggesting that the brain may have overcompensated for the biomechanical movement facilitation arising from body tilt. Combined body and visual scene tilts also affected final pointing errors according to the orientation of the visual scene. The data were further analysed using either a body-centered or a gravity-centered reference frame to encode visual scene orientation with simple additive models (i.e., ‘combined’ tilts equal to the sum of ‘single’ tilts). We found that the body-centered model could account only for some of the data regarding kinematic parameters and final errors. In contrast, the gravity-centered modeling in which the body and visual scene orientations were referred to vertical could explain all of these data. Therefore, our findings suggest that the brain uses gravity, thanks to its invariant properties, as a reference for the combination of visual and non-visual cues. PMID:24925371

  18. Eye movement instructions modulate motion illusion and body sway with Op Art.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kapoula, Zoï; Lang, Alexandre; Vernet, Marine; Locher, Paul

    2015-01-01

    Op Art generates illusory visual motion. It has been proposed that eye movements participate in such illusion. This study examined the effect of eye movement instructions (fixation vs. free exploration) on the sensation of motion as well as the body sway of subjects viewing Op Art paintings. Twenty-eight healthy adults in orthostatic stance were successively exposed to three visual stimuli consisting of one figure representing a cross (baseline condition) and two Op Art paintings providing sense of motion in depth-Bridget Riley's Movements in Squares and Akiyoshi Kitaoka's Rollers. Before their exposure to the Op Art images, participants were instructed either to fixate at the center of the image (fixation condition) or to explore the artwork (free viewing condition). Posture was measured for 30 s per condition using a body fixed sensor (accelerometer). The major finding of this study is that the two Op Art paintings induced a larger antero-posterior body sway both in terms of speed and displacement and an increased motion illusion in the free viewing condition as compared to the fixation condition. For body sway, this effect was significant for the Riley painting, while for motion illusion this effect was significant for Kitaoka's image. These results are attributed to macro-saccades presumably occurring under free viewing instructions, and most likely to the small vergence drifts during fixations following the saccades; such movements in interaction with visual properties of each image would increase either the illusory motion sensation or the antero-posterior body sway.

  19. Movement in the body and clinical estimation of technetium-labeled macroagglutinated human serum albumin injection (sup(99m)Tc-MAA)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Suzuki, Masaaki; Nomura, Shigeo; Ueda, Nobuo; Matsushima, Hiroaki; Hazue, Masaaki.

    1978-01-01

    As a basic study, sup(99m)Tc-MMA was given intravenously to rats and 11 human cases which were going to have lung scintigram, and its movements in the body were observed with the progress of time. As clinical studies, sup(99m)Tc-MMA was given intravenously to 219 cases in which lung scintigraphy was performed. Observation was made by gamma camera, and utility of gamma camera was estimated. Radioactivity accumulated in the lung reached the maximum value 5 minutes after the intravenous injection, and thereafter, it decreased with the progress of time. Its biological half-life was 10 hours, and effective half-life was 315 hours. In human, it reached the maximum value just after the intravenous injection, and the biological half-life was 16.1 hours, and the effective half-life was 4.4 hours. Main excretion route in rat and human was urinary tract. The analysis of excreta in urine by chromatography demonstrated that 60% of this drug was metabolized. Clinically, clear lung scintigrams of all 219 cases were obtained. Side effects of sup(99m)Tc-MMA were not recognized, and its utility was recognized. The biological calculative base was set up from the basic data, and estimation was made concerning exposure dose by MIRD method. (J.P.N.)

  20. Recognition and Synthesis of Human Movements by Parametric HMMs

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Herzog, Dennis; Krüger, Volker

    2009-01-01

    The representation of human movements for recognition and synthesis is important in many application fields such as: surveillance, human-computer interaction, motion capture, and humanoid robots. Hidden Markov models (HMMs) are a common statistical framework in this context, since...... on the recognition and synthesis of human arm movements. Furthermore, we will show in various experiments the use of PHMMs for the control of a humanoid robot by synthesizing movements for relocating objects at arbitrary positions. In vision-based interaction experiments, PHMM are used for the recognition...... of pointing movements, where the recognized parameterization conveys to a robot the important information which object to relocate and where to put it. Finally, we evaluate the accuracy of recognition and synthesis for pointing and grasping arm movements and discuss that the precision of the synthesis...

  1. 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.

  2. Human movement is both diffusive and directed.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mark Padgham

    Full Text Available Understanding the influence of the built environment on human movement requires quantifying spatial structure in a general sense. Because of the difficulty of this task, studies of movement dynamics often ignore spatial heterogeneity and treat movement through journey lengths or distances alone. This study analyses public bicycle data from central London to reveal that, although journey distances, directions, and frequencies of occurrence are spatially variable, their relative spatial patterns remain largely constant, suggesting the influence of a fixed spatial template. A method is presented to describe this underlying space in terms of the relative orientation of movements toward, away from, and around locations of geographical or cultural significance. This produces two fields: one of convergence and one of divergence, which are able to accurately reconstruct the observed spatial variations in movement. These two fields also reveal categorical distinctions between shorter journeys merely serving diffusion away from significant locations, and longer journeys intentionally serving transport between spatially distinct centres of collective importance. Collective patterns of human movement are thus revealed to arise from a combination of both diffusive and directed movement, with aggregate statistics such as mean travel distances primarily determined by relative numbers of these two kinds of journeys.

  3. Real-time modulation of visual feedback on human full-body movements in a virtual mirror: development and proof-of-concept

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Roosink, M.; Robitaille, N.; McFadyen, B.J.; Hebert, L.J.; Jackson, P.L.; Bouyer, L.J.; Mercier, C.

    2015-01-01

    BACKGROUND: Virtual reality (VR) provides interactive multimodal sensory stimuli and biofeedback, and can be a powerful tool for physical and cognitive rehabilitation. However, existing systems have generally not implemented realistic full-body avatars and/or a scaling of visual movement feedback.

  4. Interpersonal Similarity between Body Movements in Face-To-Face Communication in Daily Life

    OpenAIRE

    Higo, Naoki; Ogawa, Ken-ichiro; Minemura, Juichi; Xu, Bujie; Nozawa, Takayuki; Ogata, Taiki; Ara, Koji; Yano, Kazuo; Miyake, Yoshihiro

    2014-01-01

    Individuals are embedded in social networks in which they communicate with others in their daily lives. Because smooth face-to-face communication is the key to maintaining these networks, measuring the smoothness of such communication is an important issue. One indicator of smoothness is the similarity of the body movements of the two individuals concerned. A typical example noted in experimental environments is the interpersonal synchronization of body movements such as nods and gestures dur...

  5. Effects of asymmetrical stance and movement on body rotation in pushing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, Yun-Ju; Aruin, Alexander S

    2015-01-21

    Pushing objects in the presence of body asymmetries could increase the risk of back injury. Furthermore, when the object is heavy, it could exacerbate the effects induced by asymmetrical posture. We investigated how the use of asymmetrical posture and/or upper extremity movement affect vertical torque (Tz) and center of pressure (COP) displacement during pushing. Ten healthy volunteers were instructed to push objects of three different weights using two hands (symmetrical hand use) or one hand (asymmetrical hand use) while standing in symmetrical or asymmetrical foot-positions. The peak values of Tz and COP displacement in the medial-lateral direction (COPML) were analyzed. In cases of isolated asymmetry, changes in the Tz were mainly linked with effects of hand-use whereas effects of foot-position dominated changes in the COPML displacement. In cases of a combined asymmetry, the magnitudes of both Tz and COPML were additive when asymmetrical hand-use and foot-position induced the rotation of the lower and upper body in the same direction or subtractive when asymmetries resulted in the rotation of the body segments in the opposite directions. Moreover, larger Tz and COP displacements were seen when pushing the heavy weight. The results point out the importance of using Tz and COPML to describe the isolated or combined effects of asymmetrical upper extremity movement and asymmetrical posture on body rotation during pushing. Furthermore, it suggests that a proper combination of unilateral arm movement and foot placements could help to reduce body rotation even when pushing heavy objects. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  6. Comparison of Urban Human Movements Inferring from Multi-Source Spatial-Temporal Data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cao, Rui; Tu, Wei; Cao, Jinzhou; Li, Qingquan

    2016-06-01

    The quantification of human movements is very hard because of the sparsity of traditional data and the labour intensive of the data collecting process. Recently, much spatial-temporal data give us an opportunity to observe human movement. This research investigates the relationship of city-wide human movements inferring from two types of spatial-temporal data at traffic analysis zone (TAZ) level. The first type of human movement is inferred from long-time smart card transaction data recording the boarding actions. The second type of human movement is extracted from citywide time sequenced mobile phone data with 30 minutes interval. Travel volume, travel distance and travel time are used to measure aggregated human movements in the city. To further examine the relationship between the two types of inferred movements, the linear correlation analysis is conducted on the hourly travel volume. The obtained results show that human movements inferred from smart card data and mobile phone data have a correlation of 0.635. However, there are still some non-ignorable differences in some special areas. This research not only reveals the citywide spatial-temporal human dynamic but also benefits the understanding of the reliability of the inference of human movements with big spatial-temporal data.

  7. COMPARISON OF URBAN HUMAN MOVEMENTS INFERRING FROM MULTI-SOURCE SPATIAL-TEMPORAL DATA

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    R. Cao

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available The quantification of human movements is very hard because of the sparsity of traditional data and the labour intensive of the data collecting process. Recently, much spatial-temporal data give us an opportunity to observe human movement. This research investigates the relationship of city-wide human movements inferring from two types of spatial-temporal data at traffic analysis zone (TAZ level. The first type of human movement is inferred from long-time smart card transaction data recording the boarding actions. The second type of human movement is extracted from citywide time sequenced mobile phone data with 30 minutes interval. Travel volume, travel distance and travel time are used to measure aggregated human movements in the city. To further examine the relationship between the two types of inferred movements, the linear correlation analysis is conducted on the hourly travel volume. The obtained results show that human movements inferred from smart card data and mobile phone data have a correlation of 0.635. However, there are still some non-ignorable differences in some special areas. This research not only reveals the citywide spatial-temporal human dynamic but also benefits the understanding of the reliability of the inference of human movements with big spatial-temporal data.

  8. Body-part templates for recovery of 2D human poses under occlusion

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Poppe, Ronald Walter; Poel, Mannes; Perales, F.J.; Fisher, R.B.

    2008-01-01

    Detection of humans and estimation of their 2D poses from a single image are challenging tasks. This is especially true when part of the observation is occluded. However, given a limited class of movements, poses can be recovered given the visible body-parts. To this end, we propose a novel template

  9. Gastroesophageal Reflux and Body Movement in Infants: Investigations with Combined Impedance-pH and Synchronized Video Recording

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tobias G. Wenzl

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available The aim of this paper was to investigate the temporal association of gastroesophageal reflux (GER and body movement in infants. GER were registered by combined impedance-pH, documentation of body movement was done by video. Videorecording time (Vt was divided into “resting time” and “movement time” and analyzed for occurrence of GER. Association was defined as movement 1 minute before/after the beginning of a GER. Statistical evaluation was by Fisher's exact test. In 15 infants, 341 GER were documented during Vt (86 hours. 336 GER (99% were associated with movement, only 5 episodes (1% occured during resting time. Movement was significantly associated with the occurrence of GER (<.0001. There is a strong temporal association between GER and body movement in infants. However, a clear distinction between cause and effect could not be made with the chosen study design. Combined impedance-pH has proven to be the ideal technique for this approach.

  10. Human Movement Detection and Identification Using Pyroelectric Infrared Sensors

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jaeseok Yun

    2014-05-01

    Full Text Available Pyroelectric infrared (PIR sensors are widely used as a presence trigger, but the analog output of PIR sensors depends on several other aspects, including the distance of the body from the PIR sensor, the direction and speed of movement, the body shape and gait. In this paper, we present an empirical study of human movement detection and identification using a set of PIR sensors. We have developed a data collection module having two pairs of PIR sensors orthogonally aligned and modified Fresnel lenses. We have placed three PIR-based modules in a hallway for monitoring people; one module on the ceiling; two modules on opposite walls facing each other. We have collected a data set from eight subjects when walking in three different conditions: two directions (back and forth, three distance intervals (close to one wall sensor, in the middle, close to the other wall sensor and three speed levels (slow, moderate, fast. We have used two types of feature sets: a raw data set and a reduced feature set composed of amplitude and time to peaks; and passage duration extracted from each PIR sensor. We have performed classification analysis with well-known machine learning algorithms, including instance-based learning and support vector machine. Our findings show that with the raw data set captured from a single PIR sensor of each of the three modules, we could achieve more than 92% accuracy in classifying the direction and speed of movement, the distance interval and identifying subjects. We could also achieve more than 94% accuracy in classifying the direction, speed and distance and identifying subjects using the reduced feature set extracted from two pairs of PIR sensors of each of the three modules.

  11. Kinematic evaluation of movement smoothness in golf: relationship between the normalized jerk cost of body joints and the clubhead.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Choi, Ahnryul; Joo, Su-Bin; Oh, Euichaul; Mun, Joung Hwan

    2014-02-26

    When the human body is introduced to a new motion or movement, it learns the placement of different body parts, sequential muscle control, and coordination between muscles to achieve necessary positions, and it hones this new skill over time and repetition. Previous studies have demonstrated definite differences in the smoothness of body movements with different levels of training, i.e., amateurs compared with professionals. Therefore, we tested the hypothesis that skilled golfers swing a driver with a smoother motion than do unskilled golfers. In addition, the relationship between the smoothness of body joints and that of the clubhead was evaluated to provide further insight into the mechanism of smooth golf swing. Two subject groups (skilled and unskilled) participated in the experiment. The skilled group comprised 20 male professional golfers registered with the Korea Professional Golf Association, and the unskilled group comprised 19 amateur golfers who enjoy golf as a hobby. Six infrared cameras (VICON460 system) were used to record the 3D trajectories of markers attached to the clubhead and body segments, and the resulting data was evaluated with kinematic analysis. A physical quantity called jerk was calculated to investigate differences in smoothness during downswing between the two study groups. The hypothesis that skilled golfers swing a driver with a smoother motion than do unskilled golfers was supported. The normalized jerk of the clubhead of skilled golfers was lower than that of unskilled golfers in the anterior/posterior, medial/lateral, and proximal/distal directions. Most human joints, especially in the lower body, had statistically significant lower normalized jerk values in the skilled group. In addition, the normalized jerk of the skilled group's lower body joints had a distinct positive correlation with the normalized jerk of the clubhead with r = 0.657 (p golf swings and, eventually, to improve golf performance.

  12. 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.

  13. Exoskeleton for assisting human movement

    OpenAIRE

    García Armada, Elena; Cestari, Manuel; Sanz Merodio, Daniel; Carrillo, Xavier Alberto

    2015-01-01

    [EN] The invention relates to an exoskeleton for assisting human movement, which can be fitted to the user in terms of dimensions, tension and ranges of joint motion, either manually or automatically. Said exoskeleton can be fitted to the user in the anteroposterior direction in the sagittal plane, with the user in a horizontal or sitting position, without requiring a functional transfer. The exoskeleton has a modular design which is compatible with human biomechanics and reproduces a natural...

  14. Human perception of air movement. Impact of frequency and airflow direction on draught sensation

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Genhong Zhou

    1999-08-01

    Draught is defined as an unwanted local cooling of the human body caused by air movement. Air velocity and temperature are the main characteristics of air movement in rooms. Characteristics of instantaneous air velocity and temperature records previously measured in ventilated indoor spaces were analyzed. Air velocity and temperature fluctuated randomly. The amplitude and frequency of the fluctuations changed over time. Air movements around the human body were measured with a three-dimensional laser Doppler amemometer. A new parameter, equivalent frequency, was defined as an integral single parameter for describing the frequency characteristics of air velocity. The equivalent frequency of a randomly fluctuating velocity is defined as the frequency of sinusoidal velocity fluctuations with the same ratio of the standard deviation of acceleration to the standard deviation of air velocity as in the random velocity fluctuations. The equivalent frequencies of numerous instantaneous air-velocity records measured in ventilated space were analysed. The equivalent frequency of an airflow in an indoor space was found to be 0.1 to 2 Hz. The equivalent frequencies of most of the airflows were between 0.2 and 0.6 Hz. The relation between equivalent frequency and mean air velocity and standard deviation was established. Experiments were performed to identify the impact of the equivalent frequency on the human perception of draught. Forty subjects (20 women and 20 men) were subjected to airflows from behind with mean air velocities of 0.1, 0.2 and 0.3 m/s, with equivalent frequencies from 0 to 1 Hz at an air temperature of 20 deg. C. In this human-subject experimental study the frequency was found to have a significant impact on draught sensation. Subjects were more sensitive to airflow at an equivalent frequency between 0.2 and 0.6 Hz. A mathematical model for the simulation of draught was established and a computer program was developed for simulating the draught. The program

  15. 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.

  16. Human body communication performance simulations

    OpenAIRE

    Mufti, H. (Haseeb)

    2016-01-01

    Abstract Human Body Communication (HBC) is a novel communication method between devices which use human body as a transmission medium. This idea is mostly based on the concept of wireless biomedical monitoring system. The on-body sensor nodes can monitor vital signs of a human body and use the body as a transmission medium. This technology is convenient for long durations of clinical monitoring with the option of more mobil...

  17. Caffeine increases the velocity of rapid eye movements in unfatigued humans.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Connell, Charlotte J W; Thompson, Benjamin; Turuwhenua, Jason; Hess, Robert F; Gant, Nicholas

    2017-08-01

    Caffeine is a widely used dietary stimulant that can reverse the effects of fatigue on cognitive, motor and oculomotor function. However, few studies have examined the effect of caffeine on the oculomotor system when homeostasis has not been disrupted by physical fatigue. This study examined the influence of a moderate dose of caffeine on oculomotor control and visual perception in participants who were not fatigued. Within a placebo-controlled crossover design, 13 healthy adults ingested caffeine (5 mg·kg -1 body mass) and were tested over 3 h. Eye movements, including saccades, smooth pursuit and optokinetic nystagmus, were measured using infrared oculography. Caffeine was associated with higher peak saccade velocities (472 ± 60° s -1 ) compared to placebo (455 ± 62° s -1 ). Quick phases of optokinetic nystagmus were also significantly faster with caffeine, whereas pursuit eye movements were unchanged. Non-oculomotor perceptual tasks (global motion and global orientation processing) were unaffected by caffeine. These results show that oculomotor control is modulated by a moderate dose of caffeine in unfatigued humans. These effects are detectable in the kinematics of rapid eye movements, whereas pursuit eye movements and visual perception are unaffected. Oculomotor functions may be sensitive to changes in central catecholamines mediated via caffeine's action as an adenosine antagonist, even when participants are not fatigued.

  18. Role of Body-Worn Movement Monitor Technology for Balance and Gait Rehabilitation

    Science.gov (United States)

    King, Laurie; Mancini, Martina

    2015-01-01

    This perspective article will discuss the potential role of body-worn movement monitors for balance and gait assessment and treatment in rehabilitation. Recent advances in inexpensive, wireless sensor technology and smart devices are resulting in an explosion of miniature, portable sensors that can quickly and accurately quantify body motion. Practical and useful movement monitoring systems are now becoming available. It is critical that therapists understand the potential advantages and limitations of such emerging technology. One important advantage of obtaining objective measures of balance and gait from body-worn sensors is impairment-level metrics characterizing how and why functional performance of balance and gait activities are impaired. Therapy can then be focused on the specific physiological reasons for difficulty in walking or balancing during specific tasks. A second advantage of using technology to measure balance and gait behavior is the increased sensitivity of the balance and gait measures to document mild disability and change with rehabilitation. A third advantage of measuring movement, such as postural sway and gait characteristics, with body-worn sensors is the opportunity for immediate biofeedback provided to patients that can focus attention and enhance performance. In the future, body-worn sensors may allow therapists to perform telerehabilitation to monitor compliance with home exercise programs and the quality of their natural mobility in the community. Therapists need technological systems that are quick to use and provide actionable information and useful reports for their patients and referring physicians. Therapists should look for systems that provide measures that have been validated with respect to gold standard accuracy and to clinically relevant outcomes such as fall risk and severity of disability. PMID:25504484

  19. Video-based quantification of body movement during social interaction indicates the severity of negative symptoms in patients with schizophrenia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kupper, Zeno; Ramseyer, Fabian; Hoffmann, Holger; Kalbermatten, Samuel; Tschacher, Wolfgang

    2010-08-01

    In schizophrenia, nonverbal behavior, including body movement, is of theoretical and clinical importance. Although reduced nonverbal expressiveness is a major component of the negative symptoms encountered in schizophrenia, few studies have objectively assessed body movement during social interaction. In the present study, 378 brief, videotaped role-play scenes involving 27 stabilized outpatients diagnosed with paranoid-type schizophrenia were analyzed using Motion Energy Analysis (MEA). This method enables the objective measuring of body movement in conjunction with ordinary video recordings. Correlations between movement parameters (percentage of time in movement, movement speed) and symptom ratings from independent PANSS interviews were calculated. Movement parameters proved to be highly reliable. In keeping with predictions, reduced movement and movement speed correlated with negative symptoms. Accordingly, in patients who exhibited noticeable movement for less than 20% of the observation time, prominent negative symptoms were highly probable. As a control measure, the percentage of movement exhibited by the patients during role-play scenes was compared to that of their normal interactants. Patients with negative symptoms differed from normal interactants by showing significantly reduced head and body movement. Two specific positive symptoms were possibly related to movement parameters: suspiciousness tended to correlate with reduced head movement, and the expression of unusual thought content tended to relate to increased movement. Overall, a close and theoretically meaningful association between the objective movement parameters and the symptom profiles was found. MEA appears to be an objective, reliable and valid method for quantifying nonverbal behavior, an aspect which may furnish new insights into the processes related to reduced expressiveness in schizophrenia. Copyright 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  20. Reflections about the conception of body and movement for an integral education in the early childhood

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Elizabeth Gutiérrez

    2014-02-01

    Full Text Available This article proposes to educators at the initial or pre-school level a reflection about an ideal about how the child should be construed in terms of its physical and psychosocial being during its development. This study is based on neurophysiologic studies on human development on which all the educational proposals rest and on the teaching experiences which experiences that have sought revitalize kindergarten schooling around the exploration of the body, understanding movement and motor activity as educational, creative, expressive elements and from the point of view of consciousness, emotions and relationships. Based on these foundations, the article discusses how corporeality and active experience through movement could be included in the education of early childhood in a classroom context as it influences the development of the child and as well as assessing its responses to the stimuli provided.

  1. Modeling the behavior of human body tissues on penetration

    Science.gov (United States)

    Conci, A.; Brazil, A. L.; Popovici, D.; Jiga, G.; Lebon, F.

    2018-02-01

    Several procedures in medicine (such as anesthesia, injections, biopsies and percutaneous treatments) involve a needle insertion. Such procedures operate without vision of the internal involved areas. Physicians and anesthetists rely on manual (force and tactile) feedback to guide their movements, so a number of medical practice is strongly based on manual skill. In order to be expert in the execution of such procedures the medical students must practice a number of times, but before practice in a real patient they must be trained in some place and a virtual environment, using Virtual Reality (VR) or Augmented Reality (AR) is the best possible solution for such training. In a virtual environment the success of user practices is improved by the addition of force output using haptic device to improve the manual sensations in the interactions between user and computer. Haptic devices enable simulate the physical restriction of the diverse tissues and force reactions to movements of operator hands. The trainees can effectively "feel" the reactions to theirs movements and receive immediate feedback from the actions executed by them in the implemented environment. However, in order to implement such systems, the tissue reaction to penetration and cutting must be modeled. A proper model must emulate the physical sensations of the needle action in the skin, fat, muscle, and so one, as if it really done in a patient that is as they are holding a real needle and feeling each tissue resistance when inserting it through the body. For example an average force value for human skin puncture is 6.0 N, it is 2.0 N for subcutaneous fat tissue and 4.4 N for muscles: this difference of sensations to penetration of each layers trespassed by the needle makes possible to suppose the correct position inside the body. This work presents a model for tissues before and after the cutting that with proper assumptions of proprieties can model any part of human body. It was based on experiments

  2. Decoding Individual Finger Movements from One Hand Using Human EEG Signals

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gonzalez, Jania; Ding, Lei

    2014-01-01

    Brain computer interface (BCI) is an assistive technology, which decodes neurophysiological signals generated by the human brain and translates them into control signals to control external devices, e.g., wheelchairs. One problem challenging noninvasive BCI technologies is the limited control dimensions from decoding movements of, mainly, large body parts, e.g., upper and lower limbs. It has been reported that complicated dexterous functions, i.e., finger movements, can be decoded in electrocorticography (ECoG) signals, while it remains unclear whether noninvasive electroencephalography (EEG) signals also have sufficient information to decode the same type of movements. Phenomena of broadband power increase and low-frequency-band power decrease were observed in EEG in the present study, when EEG power spectra were decomposed by a principal component analysis (PCA). These movement-related spectral structures and their changes caused by finger movements in EEG are consistent with observations in previous ECoG study, as well as the results from ECoG data in the present study. The average decoding accuracy of 77.11% over all subjects was obtained in classifying each pair of fingers from one hand using movement-related spectral changes as features to be decoded using a support vector machine (SVM) classifier. The average decoding accuracy in three epilepsy patients using ECoG data was 91.28% with the similarly obtained features and same classifier. Both decoding accuracies of EEG and ECoG are significantly higher than the empirical guessing level (51.26%) in all subjects (pEEG as in ECoG, and demonstrates the feasibility of discriminating finger movements from one hand using EEG. These findings are promising to facilitate the development of BCIs with rich control signals using noninvasive technologies. PMID:24416360

  3. Experience of action depends on intention, not body movement: an experiment on memory for mens rea.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jensen, Mads; Vagnoni, Eleonora; Overgaard, Morten; Haggard, Patrick

    2014-03-01

    How do we know whether our own actions were voluntary or involuntary? Intentional theories of sense of agency suggest that we consciously perceive the intentions that accompany our actions, but reconstructive theories suggest that we perceive our actions only through the body movements and other effects that they produce. Intentions would then be mere confabulations, and not bona fide experiences. Previous work on voluntary action has focused on immediate experiences of authorship, and few studies have considered memory for voluntary actions. We devised an experiment in which both voluntary action and involuntary movement always occurred at the same time, but could either involve the same hand (congruent condition), or different hands (incongruent condition). When signals from the voluntary and involuntary movements involved different hands, they could therefore potentially interfere in memory. We found that recall of a voluntary action was unaffected by an incongruent involuntary movement. In contrast, recall of an involuntary movement was strongly influenced by an incongruent voluntary action. Our results demonstrate an "intentional capture" of body movement by voluntary actions, in support of intentional theories of agency, but contrary to reconstructive theories. When asked to recall both actions and movements, people's responses are shaped by memory of what they intended to do, rather than by how their body moved. Copyright © 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

  4. Multi-Functional Sensor System for Heart Rate, Body Position and Movement Intensity Analysis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Michael MAO

    2008-12-01

    Full Text Available A novel multi-functional wearable sensor has been developed with multi-axis accelerometer, disposable hydro-gel electrodes, and analog filtering components. This novel sensor implementation can be used for detecting common body positions, movement intensity, and measures bio-potential signals for ECG and heart rate analysis. Based on the novel sensor principle, a prototype combines position detection, heart rate detection, and motion intensity level detection together in a handheld device that records the physiological information and wirelessly transmits the signals through Bluetooth to a mobile phone. Static body positions such as standing/sitting, lying supine, prone, and on the sides have been detected with high accuracy (97.7 % during the subject tests. Further, an algorithm that detects body movement intensity that can potentially be applied in real-time monitoring physical activity level is proposed based on average variance values. Motion intensity results show variance values increase and exercise intensity increases for almost all of the cases. A clear relation between movement intensity level shown by an increase in frequency and/or speed of exercise increases the variance values detected in all three spatial axes.

  5. Physics of the Human Body

    CERN Document Server

    Herman, Irving P

    2007-01-01

    Physics of the Human Body comprehensively addresses the physical and engineering aspects of human physiology by using and building on first-year college physics and mathematics. Topics include the mechanics of the static body and the body in motion, the materials properties of the body, muscles in the body, the energetics of body metabolism, fluid flow in the cardiovascular and respiratory systems, the acoustics of sound waves in speaking and hearing, vision and the optics of the eye, the electrical properties of the body, and the basic engineering principles of feedback and control in regulating all aspects of function. The goal of this text is to understand physical issues concerning the human body, in part by developing and then using simple and subsequently more refined models of the macrophysics of the human body. Many chapters include a brief review of the necessary physical principles. There are problems at the end of each chapter; solutions to selected problems are also provided. This text is geared t...

  6. Movement of the external ear in human embryo.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kagurasho, Miho; Yamada, Shigehito; Uwabe, Chigako; Kose, Katsumi; Takakuwa, Tetsuya

    2012-02-01

    External ears, one of the major face components, show an interesting movement during craniofacial morphogenesis in human embryo. The present study was performed to see if movement of the external ears in a human embryo could be explained by differential growth. In all, 171 samples between Carnegie stage (CS) 17 and CS 23 were selected from MR image datasets of human embryos obtained from the Kyoto Collection of Human Embryos. The three-dimensional absolute position of 13 representative anatomical landmarks, including external and internal ears, from MRI data was traced to evaluate the movement between the different stages with identical magnification. Two different sets of reference axes were selected for evaluation and comparison of the movements. When the pituitary gland and the first cervical vertebra were selected as a reference axis, the 13 anatomical landmarks of the face spread out within the same region as the embryo enlarged and changed shape. The external ear did move mainly laterally, but not cranially. The distance between the external and internal ear stayed approximately constant. Three-dimensionally, the external ear located in the caudal ventral parts of the internal ear in CS 17, moved mainly laterally until CS 23. When surface landmarks eyes and mouth were selected as a reference axis, external ears moved from the caudal lateral ventral region to the position between eyes and mouth during development. The results indicate that movement of all anatomical landmarks, including external and internal ears, can be explained by differential growth. Also, when the external ear is recognized as one of the facial landmarks and having a relative position to other landmarks such as the eyes and mouth, the external ears seem to move cranially. © 2012 Kagurasho et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

  7. Movement and personality development

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Aida M. Aylamazyan

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available The paper discusses the role of the movement in the process of shaping the personality, its importance as a mechanism for personality development is considered. The issue of the movement has always occupied a central place in Russian psychology. However, subsequently the movement began to be considered primarily as an executive action in human life. The role of movement in personality development can vary depending on the level it occupies in the hierarchical structure of activity, and also on the type of movement, its character, and the way it is constructed. Under certain conditions, the movement can express the attitude of the subject to the surrounding world and people. Many foreign and Russian psychologists point to a special place of the postural tonic component of the motor movement, the posture in personal regulation. The posture reflects his/her personal attitudes, the system of relationships, and, above all, the emotional attitude or emotional assessment of the current situation, the interest in the actions performed. Mastering the tonic level of motor management is based on the emotional regulation, so the ability to regulate one’s own pose is an important stage in the personality development. Posture tonic regulation of motor movements in humans reveals a qualitatively different character than in animals, this being due to the person’s facing the task of mastering his’her posture, arbitrary retention of the body in one or another position. Maintaining a vertical posture requires constant activity at an arbitrary and involuntary level of mental regulation. Mastering the posture of an unstable equilibrium presupposes the emergence of the «I» and is the last stage of the development. The way a person solves the motor task of maintaining the vertical position of the body reflects his/her specific personal strategy or attitude.

  8. Gesture and Body-Movement as Teaching and Learning Tools in the Classical Voice Lesson: A Survey into Current Practice

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nafisi, Julia

    2013-01-01

    This article discusses the use of gesture and body-movement in the teaching of singing and reports on a survey amongst professional singing teachers in Germany regarding their use of gesture and body movement as pedagogic tools in their teaching. The nomenclature of gestures and movements used in the survey is based on a previous study by the…

  9. Suitability of Kinect for measuring whole body movement patterns during exergaming

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    van Diest, Mike; Stegenga, Jan; Wortche, Heinrich J.; Postema, Klaas; Verkerke, Gijsbertus J.; Lamoth, Claudine J. C.

    2014-01-01

    Exergames provide a challenging opportunity for home-based training and evaluation of postural control in the elderly population, but affordable sensor technology and algorithms for assessment of whole body movement patterns in the home environment are yet to be developed. The aim of the present

  10. Temporal associations between arousal and body/limb movement in children with suspected obstructed sleep apnoea.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lamprecht, Marnie L; Bradley, Andrew P; Williams, Gordon; Terrill, Philip I

    2016-01-01

    The inter-relationship between arousal events and body and/or limb movements during sleep may significantly impact the performance and clinical interpretation of actigraphy. As such, the objective of this study was to quantify the temporal association between arousals and body/limb movement. From this, we aim to determine whether actigraphy can predict arousal events in children, and identify the impact of arousal-related movements on estimates of sleep/wake periods. Thirty otherwise healthy children (5-16 years, median 9 years, 21 male) with suspected sleep apnoea were studied using full polysomnography and customised raw tri-axial accelerometry measured at the left fingertip, left wrist, upper thorax, left ankle and left great toe. Raw data were synchronised to within 0.1 s of the polysomnogram. Movements were then identified using a custom algorithm. On average 67.5% of arousals were associated with wrist movement. Arousals associated with movement were longer than those without movement (mean duration: 12.2 s versus 7.9 s respectively, p  <  0.01); movements during wake and arousal were longer than other sleep movements (wrist duration: 6.26 s and 9.89 s versus 2.35 s respectively, p  <  0.01); and the movement index (movements/h) did not predict apnoea-hypopnoea index (ρ  =  -0.11). Movements associated with arousals are likely to unavoidably contribute to actigraphy's poor sensitivity for wake. However, as sleep-related movements tend to be shorter than those during wake or arousal, incorporating movement duration into the actigraphy scoring algorithm may improve sleep staging performance. Although actigraphy-based measurements cannot reliably predict all arousal events, actigraphy can likely identify longer events that may have the greatest impact on sleep quality.

  11. Development of the movement domain in the global body examination.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kvåle, Alice; Bunkan, Berit Heir; Opjordsmoen, Stein; Friis, Svein

    2012-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to develop a new Movement domain, based on 16 items from the Global Physiotherapy Examination-52 (GPE-52) and 18 items from the Comprehensive Body Examination (CBE). Furthermore, we examined how well the new domain and its scales would discriminate between healthy individuals and different groups of patients, compared to the original methods. Two physiotherapists, each using one method, independently examined 132 individuals (34 healthy, 32 with localized pain, 32 with generalized pain, and 34 with psychoses). The number of items was reduced by means of correlational and exploratory factor analysis. Internal consistency was examined with Cronbach's alpha. For examination of discriminative validity, Mann-Whitney U-test and Area under the Curve (AUC) were used. The initial 34 items were reduced to two subscales with 13 items: one for range of movement and balance and one for flexibility. Cronbach's alpha was 0.84 and 0.87 for the two subscales. The new subscales showed very good to excellent discriminating ability between healthy persons and the different patient groups (p movement aberrations than the other patient groups. The new Movement domain had fewer items than the GPE-52 and CBE, without losing discriminative validity.

  12. Increased Body Weight Reduces Voluntary Movement to Maintain Energy Expenditure of Rats Exposed to Increases in Gravity

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wade, C. E.; Moran, M. M.; Stein, T. P.; Sin, Sidney (Technical Monitor)

    2001-01-01

    With the increase in obesity related diseases there is heightened interest in mechanisms regulating body weight. To assess the influence of increases in body weight on energy expenditure and intake in rats we employed variable levels of gravity. Our approach afforded the means to measure interactions of energy expenditure and intake in response to increases in body weight (body mass x gravity level). We found a dose relationship between rapid elevation of body weight and reduction of voluntary movement, such that the energy requirements for activity are unchanged, and total energy expenditure and intake maintained. Reduction of movement appears to be a response to increased body weight, rather than a contributing factor, suggesting a new regulatory pathway.

  13. A general-purpose framework to simulate musculoskeletal system of human body: using a motion tracking approach.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ehsani, Hossein; Rostami, Mostafa; Gudarzi, Mohammad

    2016-02-01

    Computation of muscle force patterns that produce specified movements of muscle-actuated dynamic models is an important and challenging problem. This problem is an undetermined one, and then a proper optimization is required to calculate muscle forces. The purpose of this paper is to develop a general model for calculating all muscle activation and force patterns in an arbitrary human body movement. For this aim, the equations of a multibody system forward dynamics, which is considered for skeletal system of the human body model, is derived using Lagrange-Euler formulation. Next, muscle contraction dynamics is added to this model and forward dynamics of an arbitrary musculoskeletal system is obtained. For optimization purpose, the obtained model is used in computed muscle control algorithm, and a closed-loop system for tracking desired motions is derived. Finally, a popular sport exercise, biceps curl, is simulated by using this algorithm and the validity of the obtained results is evaluated via EMG signals.

  14. Developmental Emergence of Self-Referential and Inhibition Mechanisms of Body Movements Underling Felicitous Behaviors

    Science.gov (United States)

    Watanabe, Hama; Homae, Fumitaka; Taga, Gentaro

    2011-01-01

    In young infants, activation or inhibition of body movements on perception of environmental events is important to enable them to act on the world or understand the world. To reveal the development of this ability, we observed movement patterns in all four limbs under the two experimental conditions. Infants assigned to the interaction condition…

  15. Effect of garment design on piezoelectricity harvesting from joint movement

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yang, Jin-Hee; Cho, Hyun-Seung; Park, Seon-Hyung; Song, Seung-Hwan; Yun, Kwang-Seok; Lee, Joo Hyeon

    2016-01-01

    The harvesting of piezoelectricity through the human body involves the conversion of mechanical energy, mostly generated by the repeated movements of the body, to electrical energy, irrespective of the time and location. In this research, it was expected that the garment design would play an important role in increasing the efficiency of piezoelectricity scavenged in a garment because the mechanical deformation imposed on the energy harvester could increase through an optimal design configuration for the garment parts supporting a piezoelectricity harvester. With this expectation, this research aimed to analyze the effect of the clothing factors, and that of human factors on the efficiency of piezoelectricity harvesting through clothing in joint movements. These analyses resulted in that the efficiency of the piezoelectricity harvesting was affected from both two clothing factors, tightness level depending upon the property of the textile material and design configuration of the garment part supporting the piezoelectricity harvesting. Among the three proposed designs of the garment part supporting the piezoelectricity harvesting, ‘reinforced 3D module design,’ which maximized the value of radius in the piezoelectricity harvester, showed the highest efficiency across all areas of the joints in the human body. The two human factors, frequency of movement and body part, affected the efficiency of the piezoelectricity harvesting as well. (paper)

  16. A visible light imaging device for cardiac rate detection with reduced effect of body movement

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jiang, Xiaotian; Liu, Ming; Zhao, Yuejin

    2014-09-01

    A visible light imaging system to detect human cardiac rate is proposed in this paper. A color camera and several LEDs, acting as lighting source, were used to avoid the interference of ambient light. From people's forehead, the cardiac rate could be acquired based on photoplethysmography (PPG) theory. The template matching method was used after the capture of video. The video signal was discomposed into three signal channels (RGB) and the region of interest was chosen to take the average gray value. The green channel signal could provide an excellent waveform of pulse wave on the account of green lights' absorptive characteristics of blood. Through the fast Fourier transform, the cardiac rate was exactly achieved. But the research goal was not just to achieve the cardiac rate accurately. With the template matching method, the effects of body movement are reduced to a large extent, therefore the pulse wave can be detected even while people are in the moving state and the waveform is largely optimized. Several experiments are conducted on volunteers, and the results are compared with the ones gained by a finger clamped pulse oximeter. The contrast results between these two ways are exactly agreeable. This method to detect the cardiac rate and the pulse wave largely reduces the effects of body movement and can probably be widely used in the future.

  17. Ambulatory assessment of human body kinematics and kinetics

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Schepers, H. Martin

    2009-01-01

    Traditional human movement analysis systems consist of an optical position measurement system with one or more 6D force plates mounted in a laboratory. Although clinically accepted as `the golden standard' for the assessment of human movement, the restriction to a laboratory environment with its

  18. The relationship between general measures of fitness, passive range of motion and whole-body movement quality.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Frost, David; Andersen, Jordan; Lam, Thomas; Finlay, Tim; Darby, Kevin; McGill, Stuart

    2013-01-01

    The goal of this study was to establish relationships between fitness (torso endurance, grip strength and pull-ups), hip range of motion (ROM) (extension, flexion, internal and external rotation) and movement quality in an occupational group with physical work demands. Fifty-three men from the emergency task force of a major city police force were investigated. The movement screen comprised standing and seated posture, gait, segmental spine motion and 14 tasks designed to challenge whole-body coordination. Relationships were established between each whole-body movement task, the measures of strength, endurance and ROM. In general, fitness and ROM were not strongly related to the movement quality of any task. This has implications for worker training, in that strategies developed to improve ROM or strength about a joint may not enhance movement quality. Worker-centered injury prevention can be described as fitting workers to tasks by improving fitness and modifying movement patterns; however, the current results show weak correlations between strength, endurance and ROM, and the way individuals move. Therefore, the development of occupation-specific injury prevention strategies may require both fitness and movement-oriented objectives.

  19. Visual analysis and quantitative assessment of human movement

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Soancatl Aguilar, Venustiano

    2018-01-01

    Our ability to navigate in our environment depends on the condition of the musculoskeletal and nervous systems. Any deterioration of a component of these two systems can cause instability or disability of body movements. Such deterioration can happen as a consequence of natural age-related changes,

  20. 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.

  1. 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.

  2. Impairment in emotion perception from body movements in individuals with bipolar I and bipolar II disorder is associated with functional capacity.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vaskinn, Anja; Lagerberg, Trine Vik; Bjella, Thomas D; Simonsen, Carmen; Andreassen, Ole A; Ueland, Torill; Sundet, Kjetil

    2017-12-01

    Individuals with bipolar disorder present with moderate impairments in social cognition during the euthymic state. The impairment extends to theory of mind and to the perception of emotion in faces and voices, but it is unclear if emotion perception from body movements is affected. The main aim of this study was to examine if participants with bipolar disorder perform worse than healthy control participants on a task using point-light displays of human full figures moving in a manner indicative of a basic emotion (angry, happy, sad, fearful, neutral/no emotion). A secondary research question was whether diagnostic subtypes (bipolar I, bipolar II) and history of psychosis impacted on this type of emotion perception. Finally, symptomatic, neurocognitive, and functional correlates of emotion perception from body movements were investigated. Fifty-three individuals with bipolar I (n = 29) or bipolar II (n = 24) disorder, and 84 healthy control participants were assessed for emotion perception from body movements. The bipolar group also underwent clinical, cognitive, and functional assessment. Research questions were analyzed using analyses of variance and bivariate correlations. The bipolar disorder group differed significantly from healthy control participants for emotion perception from body movements (Cohen's d = 0.40). Analyses of variance yielded no effects of sex, diagnostic subtype (bipolar I, bipolar II), or history of psychosis. There was an effect of emotion, indicating that some emotions are easier to recognize. The lack of a significant group × emotion interaction effect points, however, to this being so regardless of the presence of bipolar disorder. Performance was unrelated to manic and depressive symptom load but showed significant associations with neurocognition and functional capacity. Individuals with bipolar disorder had a small but significant impairment in the ability to perceive emotions from body movement. The impairment was global, i

  3. Syncopation affects free body-movement in musical groove

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Witek, Maria A. G.; Popescu, Tudor; Clarke, Eric F

    2016-01-01

    One of the most immediate and overt ways in which people respond to music is by moving their bodies to the beat. However, the extent to which the rhythmic complexity of groove-specifically its syncopation-contributes to how people spontaneously move to music is largely unexplored. Here, we measur...... on the body-part. We demonstrate that while people do not move or synchronise much to rhythms with high syncopation when dancing spontaneously to music, the relationship between rhythmic complexity and synchronisation is less linear than in simple finger-tapping studies.......One of the most immediate and overt ways in which people respond to music is by moving their bodies to the beat. However, the extent to which the rhythmic complexity of groove-specifically its syncopation-contributes to how people spontaneously move to music is largely unexplored. Here, we measured...... free movements in hand and torso while participants listened to drum-breaks with various degrees of syncopation. We found that drum-breaks with medium degrees of syncopation were associated with the same amount of acceleration and synchronisation as low degrees of syncopation. Participants who enjoyed...

  4. Physics of the human body

    CERN Document Server

    Herman, Irving P

    2016-01-01

    This book comprehensively addresses the physics and engineering aspects of human physiology by using and building on first-year college physics and mathematics. Topics include the mechanics of the static body and the body in motion, the mechanical properties of the body, muscles in the body, the energetics of body metabolism, fluid flow in the cardiovascular and respiratory systems, the acoustics of sound waves in speaking and hearing, vision and the optics of the eye, the electrical properties of the body, and the basic engineering principles of feedback and control in regulating all aspects of function. The goal of this text is to clearly explain the physics issues concerning the human body, in part by developing and then using simple and subsequently more refined models of the macrophysics of the human body. Many chapters include a brief review of the underlying physics. There are problems at the end of each chapter; solutions to selected problems are also provided. This second edition enhances the treat...

  5. Body Awareness and Movement for Students with Multiple Disabilities Including Visual Impairments

    Science.gov (United States)

    DePountis, Vicki; Cady, Deborah; Hallak, Tracy

    2013-01-01

    This conference presentation examines concept development for congenitally blind students. It presents current research on best-practice for teaching this population. Examples of strategies to reinforce understanding of body concepts, spatial awareness, and positional language, while promoting mirroring, self regulation, and purposeful movement to…

  6. The Dance of the Now—Poetics of Everyday Human Movement

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lis Engel

    2008-05-01

    Full Text Available The inspiration for this paper comes from an interest in the living movement of everyday life and from an interest in the stories of the felt sense of embodiment, subjectivity and culture. A phenomenological approach is used to get an embodied and experiential understanding of sensitive form and meaning. How are embodiment as performance of expressive form and cultural identities interwoven? How are intersubjectivity and culture performed? The living body images are analysed from an aesthetic-phenomenological perspective highlighting the living body as an inter-subjective, "vibrational" field that deepens the experiential understanding of everyday movement as performance of dynamic repertoires of existence. These become everyday events expressed as the dance of the now. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0802355

  7. Body memories in artistic improvisation: a dialogical embodied exchange of movement

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Ravn, Susanne; Høffding, Simon

    When engaging in observations of and interviews with expert artists, such as dancers and musicians, it becomes evident that their practices are, in different ways, focused on developing, adjusting and optimising certain techniques of the body. In the phenomenological analysis of body memory...... in dance and musicianship presented in this paper, we contend that it would be a mistake to think of these body techniques – or specialised habits – as a repertoire of more or less automatized movements. Rather, in each repetition, body memories including these habits are to be understood as unfolding...... in response to the present context and accordingly instantiate a fresh memory of these habits while moulding them at the same time. In that sense, any habit is also always improvised in some degree – adjusted and timed in accordance with the present situation. In recent sociological discussions, several...

  8. Human, Nature, Dynamism: The Effects of Content and Movement Perception on Brain Activations during the Aesthetic Judgment of Representational Paintings.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Di Dio, Cinzia; Ardizzi, Martina; Massaro, Davide; Di Cesare, Giuseppe; Gilli, Gabriella; Marchetti, Antonella; Gallese, Vittorio

    2015-01-01

    Movement perception and its role in aesthetic experience have been often studied, within empirical aesthetics, in relation to the human body. No such specificity has been defined in neuroimaging studies with respect to contents lacking a human form. The aim of this work was to explore, through functional magnetic imaging (f MRI), how perceived movement is processed during the aesthetic judgment of paintings using two types of content: human subjects and scenes of nature. Participants, untutored in the arts, were shown the stimuli and asked to make aesthetic judgments. Additionally, they were instructed to observe the paintings and to rate their perceived movement in separate blocks. Observation highlighted spontaneous processes associated with aesthetic experience, whereas movement judgment outlined activations specifically related to movement processing. The ratings recorded during aesthetic judgment revealed that nature scenes received higher scored than human content paintings. The imaging data showed similar activation, relative to baseline, for all stimuli in the three tasks, including activation of occipito-temporal areas, posterior parietal, and premotor cortices. Contrast analyses within aesthetic judgment task showed that human content activated, relative to nature, precuneus, fusiform gyrus, and posterior temporal areas, whose activation was prominent for dynamic human paintings. In contrast, nature scenes activated, relative to human stimuli, occipital and posterior parietal cortex/precuneus, involved in visuospatial exploration and pragmatic coding of movement, as well as central insula. Static nature paintings further activated, relative to dynamic nature stimuli, central and posterior insula. Besides insular activation, which was specific for aesthetic judgment, we found a large overlap in the activation pattern characterizing each stimulus dimension (content and dynamism) across observation, aesthetic judgment, and movement judgment tasks. These

  9. Effects of External Loads on Human Head Movement Control Systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nam, M. H.; Choi, O. M.

    1984-01-01

    The central and reflexive control strategies underlying movements were elucidated by studying the effects of external loads on human head movement control systems. Some experimental results are presented on dynamic changes weigh the addition of aviation helmet (SPH4) and lead weights (6 kg). Intended time-optimal movements, their dynamics and electromyographic activity of neck muscles in normal movements, and also in movements made with external weights applied to the head were measured. It was observed that, when the external loads were added, the subject went through complex adapting processes and the head movement trajectory and its derivatives reached steady conditions only after transient adapting period. The steady adapted state was reached after 15 to 20 seconds (i.e., 5 to 6 movements).

  10. A visual analytics design for studying rhythm patterns from human daily movement data

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wei Zeng

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available Human’s daily movements exhibit high regularity in a space–time context that typically forms circadian rhythms. Understanding the rhythms for human daily movements is of high interest to a variety of parties from urban planners, transportation analysts, to business strategists. In this paper, we present an interactive visual analytics design for understanding and utilizing data collected from tracking human’s movements. The resulting system identifies and visually presents frequent human movement rhythms to support interactive exploration and analysis of the data over space and time. Case studies using real-world human movement data, including massive urban public transportation data in Singapore and the MIT reality mining dataset, and interviews with transportation researches were conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness and usefulness of our system.

  11. The consummatory origins of visually guided reaching in human infants: a dynamic integration of whole-body and upper-limb movements.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Foroud, Afra; Whishaw, Ian Q

    2012-06-01

    Reaching-to-eat (skilled reaching) is a natural behaviour that involves reaching for, grasping and withdrawing a target to be placed into the mouth for eating. It is an action performed daily by adults and is among the first complex behaviours to develop in infants. During development, visually guided reaching becomes increasingly refined to the point that grasping of small objects with precision grips of the digits occurs at about one year of age. Integration of the hand, upper-limbs, and whole body are required for successful reaching, but the ontogeny of this integration has not been described. The present longitudinal study used Laban Movement Analysis, a behavioural descriptive method, to investigate the developmental progression of the use and integration of axial, proximal, and distal movements performed during visually guided reaching. Four infants (from 7 to 40 weeks age) were presented with graspable objects (toys or food items). The first prereaching stage was associated with activation of mouth, limb, and hand movements to a visually presented target. Next, reaching attempts consisted of first, the advancement of the head with an opening mouth and then with the head, trunk and opening mouth. Eventually, the axial movements gave way to the refined action of one upper-limb supported by axial adjustments. These findings are discussed in relation to the biological objective of reaching, the evolutionary origins of reaching, and the decomposition of reaching after neurological injury. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  12. Sensing Movement: Microsensors for Body Motion Measurement

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hansong Zeng

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available Recognition of body posture and motion is an important physiological function that can keep the body in balance. Man-made motion sensors have also been widely applied for a broad array of biomedical applications including diagnosis of balance disorders and evaluation of energy expenditure. This paper reviews the state-of-the-art sensing components utilized for body motion measurement. The anatomy and working principles of a natural body motion sensor, the human vestibular system, are first described. Various man-made inertial sensors are then elaborated based on their distinctive sensing mechanisms. In particular, both the conventional solid-state motion sensors and the emerging non solid-state motion sensors are depicted. With their lower cost and increased intelligence, man-made motion sensors are expected to play an increasingly important role in biomedical systems for basic research as well as clinical diagnostics.

  13. Laban movement analysis to classify emotions from motion

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dewan, Swati; Agarwal, Shubham; Singh, Navjyoti

    2018-04-01

    In this paper, we present the study of Laban Movement Analysis (LMA) to understand basic human emotions from nonverbal human behaviors. While there are a lot of studies on understanding behavioral patterns based on natural language processing and speech processing applications, understanding emotions or behavior from non-verbal human motion is still a very challenging and unexplored field. LMA provides a rich overview of the scope of movement possibilities. These basic elements can be used for generating movement or for describing movement. They provide an inroad to understanding movement and for developing movement efficiency and expressiveness. Each human being combines these movement factors in his/her own unique way and organizes them to create phrases and relationships which reveal personal, artistic, or cultural style. In this work, we build a motion descriptor based on a deep understanding of Laban theory. The proposed descriptor builds up on previous works and encodes experiential features by using temporal windows. We present a more conceptually elaborate formulation of Laban theory and test it in a relatively new domain of behavioral research with applications in human-machine interaction. The recognition of affective human communication may be used to provide developers with a rich source of information for creating systems that are capable of interacting well with humans. We test our algorithm on UCLIC dataset which consists of body motions of 13 non-professional actors portraying angry, fear, happy and sad emotions. We achieve an accuracy of 87.30% on this dataset.

  14. Analysis of kinematic movement characteristics of the common center of athlete's body mass while performing the crouch start

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Liudmyla Shesterova

    2017-04-01

    Full Text Available Purpose: to determine the basic conditions for minimizing the cost of effort to accelerate the movement speed of the common center of athlete's body mass in the specified direction of his movement. Material & Methods: the study used video footage for short distances of the world's leading sprinters and athletes of various qualifications. To solve the problems, we used: a method for estimating the angles between biosigns and storyboard video, method of analogies, method of the theory of similarity and dimension, the method of computer modeling, statistical analysis, estimation of physical stress and strength impulse using the method of estimating the interdependence of the developed effort on the angle of expansion between the corresponding biokinematic links. Results: it sets the basic position kinematics movement common center of the athlete's body mass (CCM, which improves the efficiency of performance crouch start. The results of the dynamics of the movement of a common force vector are presented, which determines the direction of movement of the body's CCM in three-dimensional space, ensuring its movement along the center line of the run are presented. On the basis of the observed dynamics of the change in the direction of the resultant force vector, when a crouch start is performed, it is established that the trajectory of its movement is a helicoid. Conclusion: movement of the common center of body mass is carried out along the helicoid with subsequent reduction of its radius. Changes in the length of the helix forming the radius are systematic and reflect the energy efficiency of the running costs. The dynamics of the helicoidal movement of the generating vector is observed in each supporting phase of the running step, which makes it possible to assess the stability of the dynamic stereotype manifestation of the running step, and to judge by these indicators about the degree of athlete fatigue at the distance.

  15. Generating human-like movements on an anthropomorphic robot using an interior point method

    Science.gov (United States)

    Costa e Silva, E.; Araújo, J. P.; Machado, D.; Costa, M. F.; Erlhagen, W.; Bicho, E.

    2013-10-01

    In previous work we have presented a model for generating human-like arm and hand movements on an anthropomorphic robot involved in human-robot collaboration tasks. This model was inspired by the Posture-Based Motion-Planning Model of human movements. Numerical results and simulations for reach-to-grasp movements with two different grip types have been presented previously. In this paper we extend our model in order to address the generation of more complex movement sequences which are challenged by scenarios cluttered with obstacles. The numerical results were obtained using the IPOPT solver, which was integrated in our MATLAB simulator of an anthropomorphic robot.

  16. Laban Movement Analysis towards Behavior Patterns

    Science.gov (United States)

    Santos, Luís; Dias, Jorge

    This work presents a study about the use of Laban Movement Analysis (LMA) as a robust tool to describe human basic behavior patterns, to be applied in human-machine interaction. LMA is a language used to describe and annotate dancing movements and is divided in components [1]: Body, Space, Shape and Effort. Despite its general framework is widely used in physical and mental therapy [2], it has found little application in the engineering domain. Rett J. [3] proposed to implement LMA using Bayesian Networks. However LMA component models have not yet been fully implemented. A study on how to approach behavior using LMA is presented. Behavior is a complex feature and movement chain, but we believe that most basic behavior primitives can be discretized in simple features. Correctly identifying Laban parameters and the movements the authors feel that good patterns can be found within a specific set of basic behavior semantics.

  17. MODELLING SYNERGISTIC EYE MOVEMENTS IN THE VISUAL FIELD

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    BARITZ Mihaela

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available Some theoretical and practical considerations about eye movements in visual field are presented in the first part of this paper. These movements are developed into human body to be synergistic and are allowed to obtain the visual perception in 3D space. The theoretical background of the eye movements’ analysis is founded on the establishment of movement equations of the eyeball, as they consider it a solid body with a fixed point. The exterior actions, the order and execution of the movements are ensured by the neural and muscular external system and thus the position, stability and movements of the eye can be quantified through the method of reverse kinematic. The purpose of these researches is the development of a simulation model of human binocular visual system, an acquisition methodology and an experimental setup for data processing and recording regarding the eye movements, presented in the second part of the paper. The modeling system of ocular movements aims to establish the binocular synergy and limits of visual field changes in condition of ocular motor dysfunctions. By biomechanical movements of eyeball is established a modeling strategy for different sort of processes parameters like convergence, fixation and eye lens accommodation to obtain responses from binocular balance. The results of modelling processes and the positions of eye ball and axis in visual field are presented in the final part of the paper.

  18. Phages in the Human Body.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Navarro, Ferran; Muniesa, Maite

    2017-01-01

    Bacteriophages, viruses that infect bacteria, have re-emerged as powerful regulators of bacterial populations in natural ecosystems. Phages invade the human body, just as they do other natural environments, to such an extent that they are the most numerous group in the human virome. This was only revealed in recent metagenomic studies, despite the fact that the presence of phages in the human body was reported decades ago. The influence of the presence of phages in humans has yet to be evaluated; but as in marine environments, a clear role in the regulation of bacterial populations could be envisaged, that might have an impact on human health. Moreover, phages are excellent vehicles of genetic transfer, and they contribute to the evolution of bacterial cells in the human body by spreading and acquiring DNA horizontally. The abundance of phages in the human body does not pass unnoticed and the immune system reacts to them, although it is not clear to what extent. Finally, the presence of phages in human samples, which most of the time is not considered, can influence and bias microbiological and molecular results; and, in view of the evidences, some studies suggest that more attention needs to be paid to their interference.

  19. Different temporal bases for body and arm movements in volleyball serve reception

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Benerink, N. H.; Bootsma, R. J.; Zaal, F. T. J. M.

    2015-01-01

    In many sports, successfully intercepting a ball requires players to move both their body and their arms. Yet, studies of interception typically focus on one or the other. We performed an analysis of the moments of first foot and arm movements of elite-level volleyball players during serve

  20. Movement-related theta rhythm in humans: coordinating self-directed hippocampal learning.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Raphael Kaplan

    Full Text Available The hippocampus is crucial for episodic or declarative memory and the theta rhythm has been implicated in mnemonic processing, but the functional contribution of theta to memory remains the subject of intense speculation. Recent evidence suggests that the hippocampus might function as a network hub for volitional learning. In contrast to human experiments, electrophysiological recordings in the hippocampus of behaving rodents are dominated by theta oscillations reflecting volitional movement, which has been linked to spatial exploration and encoding. This literature makes the surprising cross-species prediction that the human hippocampal theta rhythm supports memory by coordinating exploratory movements in the service of self-directed learning. We examined the links between theta, spatial exploration, and memory encoding by designing an interactive human spatial navigation paradigm combined with multimodal neuroimaging. We used both non-invasive whole-head Magnetoencephalography (MEG to look at theta oscillations and Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI to look at brain regions associated with volitional movement and learning. We found that theta power increases during the self-initiation of virtual movement, additionally correlating with subsequent memory performance and environmental familiarity. Performance-related hippocampal theta increases were observed during a static pre-navigation retrieval phase, where planning for subsequent navigation occurred. Furthermore, periods of the task showing movement-related theta increases showed decreased fMRI activity in the parahippocampus and increased activity in the hippocampus and other brain regions that strikingly overlap with the previously observed volitional learning network (the reverse pattern was seen for stationary periods. These fMRI changes also correlated with participant's performance. Our findings suggest that the human hippocampal theta rhythm supports memory by coordinating

  1. Energy expenditure estimation in beta-blocker-medicated cardiac patients by combining heart rate and body movement data.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kraal, Jos J; Sartor, Francesco; Papini, Gabriele; Stut, Wim; Peek, Niels; Kemps, Hareld Mc; Bonomi, Alberto G

    2016-11-01

    Accurate assessment of energy expenditure provides an opportunity to monitor physical activity during cardiac rehabilitation. However, the available assessment methods, based on the combination of heart rate (HR) and body movement data, are not applicable for patients using beta-blocker medication. Therefore, we developed an energy expenditure prediction model for beta-blocker-medicated cardiac rehabilitation patients. Sixteen male cardiac rehabilitation patients (age: 55.8 ± 7.3 years, weight: 93.1 ± 11.8 kg) underwent a physical activity protocol with 11 low- to moderate-intensity common daily life activities. Energy expenditure was assessed using a portable indirect calorimeter. HR and body movement data were recorded during the protocol using unobtrusive wearable devices. In addition, patients underwent a symptom-limited exercise test and resting metabolic rate assessment. Energy expenditure estimation models were developed using multivariate regression analyses based on HR and body movement data and/or patient characteristics. In addition, a HR-flex model was developed. The model combining HR and body movement data and patient characteristics showed the highest correlation and lowest error (r 2  = 0.84, root mean squared error = 0.834 kcal/minute) with total energy expenditure. The method based on individual calibration data (HR-flex) showed lower accuracy (i 2  = 0.83, root mean squared error = 0.992 kcal/minute). Our results show that combining HR and body movement data improves the accuracy of energy expenditure prediction models in cardiac patients, similar to methods that have been developed for healthy subjects. The proposed methodology does not require individual calibration and is based on the data that are available in clinical practice. © The European Society of Cardiology 2016.

  2. The Relationship between Body Movements and Qualities of Social Interaction between a Boy with Severe Developmental Disabilities and His Caregiver

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dammeyer, Jesper; Koppe, Simo

    2013-01-01

    Research in social interaction and nonverbal communication among individuals with severe developmental disabilities also includes the study of body movements. Advances in analytical technology give new possibilities for measuring body movements more accurately and reliably. One such advance is the Qualisys Motion Capture System (QMCS), which…

  3. One way and the other: the bidirectional relationship between ambivalence and body movement

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Schneider, I.K.; Eerland, A.; van Harreveld, F.; Rotteveel, M.; van der Pligt, J.; van der Stoep, N.; Zwaan, R.A.

    2013-01-01

    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

  4. Anger fosters action. Fast responses in a motor task involving approach movements towards angry faces and bodies.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Josje eDe Valk

    2015-09-01

    Full Text Available Efficiently responding to others’ emotions, especially threatening expressions such as anger and fear, can have great survival value. Previous research has shown that humans have a bias towards threatening stimuli. Most of these studies focused on facial expressions, yet emotions are expressed by the whole body. Body language contains a direct action component, and activates action preparation areas in the brain more than facial expressions. Hence, biases towards threat may be larger following threatening bodily expressions as compared to facial expressions. The current study investigated reaction times of movements directed towards emotional bodies and faces. For this purpose, a task was developed where participants were standing in front of a computer screen on which angry, fearful and neutral faces and bodies were presented which they had to touch as quickly as possible. Results show that participants responded faster to angry than to neutral stimuli, regardless of the source (face or body. No significant difference was observed between fearful and neutral stimuli, demonstrating that the threat bias was not related to the negativity of the stimulus, but likely to the directness of the threat. Whereas fearful stimuli might signal an environmental threat that requires further exploration before action, angry expressions signal

  5. The Phonetics of Head and Body Movement in the Realization of American Sign Language Signs.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tyrone, Martha E; Mauk, Claude E

    2016-01-01

    Because the primary articulators for sign languages are the hands, sign phonology and phonetics have focused mainly on them and treated other articulators as passive targets. However, there is abundant research on the role of nonmanual articulators in sign language grammar and prosody. The current study examines how hand and head/body movements are coordinated to realize phonetic targets. Kinematic data were collected from 5 deaf American Sign Language (ASL) signers to allow the analysis of movements of the hands, head and body during signing. In particular, we examine how the chin, forehead and torso move during the production of ASL signs at those three phonological locations. Our findings suggest that for signs with a lexical movement toward the head, the forehead and chin move to facilitate convergence with the hand. By comparison, the torso does not move to facilitate convergence with the hand for signs located at the torso. These results imply that the nonmanual articulators serve a phonetic as well as a grammatical or prosodic role in sign languages. Future models of sign phonetics and phonology should take into consideration the movements of the nonmanual articulators in the realization of signs. © 2016 S. Karger AG, Basel.

  6. Traditional and New Enhancing Human Cybernetic and Nanotechnological Body Modification Technologies: A Comparative Study of Roman Catholic and Transhumanist Ethical Approaches

    Science.gov (United States)

    Caligiuri, Michael J.

    Advances in cybernetic and nanotechnological body modifications currently allow for enhancements to human physical and mental function which exceed human species-based norms. This thesis examines body modification and human enhancement from two perspectives---Roman Catholicism and Transhumanism--- in order to contribute to bioethical deliberations regarding enhancement technologies. Roman Catholicism has a longstanding tradition of bioethical discourse, informing the healthcare directives of Roman Catholic institutions. Transhumanism is more recent movement that endorses body modifications and human enhancements as a means of individual betterment and social evolution. The thesis first considers definitions of human enhancement and levels of normalcy in connection to cybernetic and nanotechnological bionic implants, and outlines a series of criteria to assess a technology's potential bioethical acceptability: implantability, permanency, power, and public interaction. The thesis then describes Roman Catholicism's response to non-enhancing decorative body modifications (cosmetic surgeries, common decorative modifications such as tattoos and piercings, and uncommon modifications such as scarifications and brandings) in order to establish a basis for possible Roman Catholic responses to enhancing cybernetic and nanotechnological modifications. This is followed by an analysis from a Roman Catholic perspective of the major social issues brought forward by enhancement technologies: commodification, eugenics, vulnerability, and distributive justice. Turning to Transhumanism, the thesis describes the origins and philosophy of the movement, and then discusses the bioethical principles it advances with regard to human enhancement. The thesis concludes by locating points of convergence between Transhumanism and Roman Catholicism that could be the basis of more widely accepted ethical guidelines regarding modification technologies.

  7. [Survival Strategies of Aspergillus in the Human Body].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tashiro, Masato; Izumikawa, Koichi

    2017-01-01

     The human body is a hostile environment for Aspergillus species, which originally live outside the human body. There are lots of elimination mechanisms against Aspergillus inhaled into the human body, such as high body temperature, soluble lung components, mucociliary clearance mechanism, or responses of phagocytes. Aspergillus fumigatus, which is the primary causative agent of human infections among the human pathogenic species of Aspergillus, defend itself from the hostile human body environment by various mechanisms, such as thermotolerance, mycotoxin production, and characteristic morphological features. Here we review mechanisms of defense in Aspergillus against elimination from the human body.

  8. A mathematical high bar-human body model for analysing and interpreting mechanical-energetic processes on the high bar.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Arampatzis, A; Brüggemann, G P

    1998-12-01

    The aims of this study were: 1. To study the transfer of energy between the high bar and the gymnast. 2. To develop criteria from the utilisation of high bar elasticity and the utilisation of muscle capacity to assess the effectiveness of a movement solution. 3. To study the influence of varying segment movement upon release parameters. For these purposes a model of the human body attached to the high bar (high bar-human body model) was developed. The human body was modelled using a 15-segment body system. The joint-beam element method (superelement) was employed for modelling the high bar. A superelement consists of four rigid segments connected by joints (two Cardan joints and one rotational-translational joint) and springs (seven rotation springs and one tension-compression spring). The high bar was modelled using three superelements. The input data required for the high bar human body model were collected with video-kinematographic (50 Hz) and dynamometric (500 Hz) techniques. Masses and moments of inertia of the 15 segments were calculated using the data from the Zatsiorsky et al. (1984) model. There are two major phases characteristic of the giant swing prior to dismounts from the high bar. In the first phase the gymnast attempts to supply energy to the high bar-humanbody system through muscle activity and to store this energy in the high bar. The difference between the energy transferred to the high bar and the reduction in the total energy of the body could be adopted as a criterion for the utilisation of high bar elasticity. The energy previously transferred into the high bar is returned to the body during the second phase. An advantageous increase in total body energy at the end of the exercise could only be obtained through muscle energy supply. An index characterising the utilisation of muscle capacity was developed out of the difference between the increase in total body energy and the energy returned from the high bar. A delayed and initially slow but

  9. Automatic Human Movement Assessment With Switching Linear Dynamic System: Motion Segmentation and Motor Performance.

    Science.gov (United States)

    de Souza Baptista, Roberto; Bo, Antonio P L; Hayashibe, Mitsuhiro

    2017-06-01

    Performance assessment of human movement is critical in diagnosis and motor-control rehabilitation. Recent developments in portable sensor technology enable clinicians to measure spatiotemporal aspects to aid in the neurological assessment. However, the extraction of quantitative information from such measurements is usually done manually through visual inspection. This paper presents a novel framework for automatic human movement assessment that executes segmentation and motor performance parameter extraction in time-series of measurements from a sequence of human movements. We use the elements of a Switching Linear Dynamic System model as building blocks to translate formal definitions and procedures from human movement analysis. Our approach provides a method for users with no expertise in signal processing to create models for movements using labeled dataset and later use it for automatic assessment. We validated our framework on preliminary tests involving six healthy adult subjects that executed common movements in functional tests and rehabilitation exercise sessions, such as sit-to-stand and lateral elevation of the arms and five elderly subjects, two of which with limited mobility, that executed the sit-to-stand movement. The proposed method worked on random motion sequences for the dual purpose of movement segmentation (accuracy of 72%-100%) and motor performance assessment (mean error of 0%-12%).

  10. Semantic Representation of Individualized Reaction Movements for Virtual Human

    OpenAIRE

    Garcia-Rojas, A.; Vexo, F.; Thalmann, D.

    2007-01-01

    Virtual Human (VH) creation aims to provide virtual characters with realistic behavior, which implies endowing them with autonomy in an inhabited virtual environment. Autonomous behavior consists in interacting with users or the environment and reacting to stimuli. Reactions are unconscious behaviors that are not often implemented in virtual humans. Frequently, virtual humans show repetitive and robotic movements which tend to decrease realism. To improve believability in virtual humans we ne...

  11. Respiration and body movement analysis during sleep in bed using hetero-core fiber optic pressure sensors without constraint to human activity.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nishyama, Michiko; Miyamoto, Mitsuo; Watanabe, Kazuhiro

    2011-01-01

    We describe respiration monitoring in sleep using hetero-core fiber optic pressure sensors. The proposed hetero-core fiber optic sensor is highly sensitive to macrobending as a result of the core diameter difference due to stable single-mode transmission. Pressure sensors based on hetero-core fiber optics were fabricated to have a high sensitivity to small pressure changes resulting from minute body motions, such as respiration, during sleep and large pressure changes, such as those caused by a rollover. The sensors are installed in a conventional bed. The pressure characteristic performance of all the fabricated hetero-core fiber optic pressure sensors is found to show a monotonic response with weight changes. A respiration monitoring test in seven subjects efficiently demonstrates the effective use of eight hetero-core pressure sensors installed in a bed. Additionally, even in the case of different body postures, such as lying on one's side, a slight body movement due to respiration is detected by the hetero-core pressure sensors.

  12. Human care system for heart-rate and human-movement trajectory in home and its application to detect mental disease

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hata, Yutaka; Kanazawa, Seigo; Endo, Maki; Tsuchiya, Naoki; Nakajima, Hiroshi

    2012-06-01

    This paper proposes a heart rate monitoring system for detecting autonomic nervous system by the heart rate variability using an air pressure sensor to diagnose mental disease. Moreover, we propose a human behavior monitoring system for detecting the human trajectory in home by an infrared camera. In day and night times, the human behavior monitoring system detects the human movement in home. The heart rate monitoring system detects the heart rate in bed in night time. The air pressure sensor consists of a rubber tube, cushion cover and pressure sensor, and it detects the heart rate by setting it to bed. It unconstraintly detects the RR-intervals; thereby the autonomic nervous system can be assessed. The autonomic nervous system analysis can examine the mental disease. While, the human behavior monitoring system obtains distance distribution image by an infrared camera. It classifies adult, child and the other object from distance distribution obtained by the camera, and records their trajectories. This behavior, i.e., trajectory in home, strongly corresponds to cognitive disorders. Thus, the total system can detect mental disease and cognitive disorders by uncontacted sensors to human body.

  13. Nonverbal synchrony of head- and body-movement in psychotherapy: different signals have different associations with outcome

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fabian eRamseyer

    2014-09-01

    Full Text Available Objective: The coordination of patient’s and therapist’s bodily movement – nonverbal synchrony – has been empirically shown to be associated with psychotherapy outcome. This finding was based on dynamic movement patterns of the whole body. The present paper is a new analysis of an existing dataset (Ramseyer & Tschacher, 2011, which extends previous findings by differentiating movements pertaining to head and upper-body regions. Method: In a sample of 70 patients (37 female, 33 male treated at an outpatient psychotherapy clinic, we quantified nonverbal synchrony with an automated objective video-analysis algorithm (Motion Energy Analysis, MEA. Head- and body-synchrony was quantified during the initial 15 minutes of video-recorded therapy sessions. Micro-outcome was assessed with self-report post-session questionnaires provided by patients and their therapists. Macro-outcome was measured with questionnaires that quantified attainment of treatment goals and changes in experiencing and behavior at the end of therapy. Results: The differentiation of head- and body-synchrony showed that these two facets of motor coordination were differentially associated with outcome. Head-synchrony predicted global outcome of therapy, while body-synchrony did not, and body-synchrony predicted session outcome, while head-synchrony did not. Conclusions: The results pose an important amendment to previous findings, which showed that nonverbal synchrony embodied both outcome and interpersonal variables of psychotherapy dyads. The separation of head- and body-synchrony suggested that distinct mechanisms may operate in these two regions: Head-synchrony embodied phenomena with a long temporal extension (overall therapy success, while body-synchrony embodied phenomena of a more immediate nature (session-level success. More explorations with fine-grained analyses of synchronized phenomena in nonverbal behavior may shed additional light on the embodiment of

  14. Body Contact and Body Language: Moments of Personal Development and Social and Cultural Learning Processes in Movement Psychology and Education

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Helle Winther

    2008-05-01

    Full Text Available Body contact and body language are unique and existential and, although culturally dependent and socially embodied, they are also universal communication forms. For small children all over the world, warm, close and nourishing body contact is fundamental to their embodied experi­ence of themselves and the boundaries between self and world. In western societies, the modern premises for contact are in some ways developing from close contact to virtual communication. With this breadth of perspective in mind, the ques­tion is whether conscious and experimental work with body contact and body language in move­ment psychology and education provide potential for intense personal develop­ment as well as for social and cultural learning processes. This performative research project originates from the research project entitled, Movement Psy­chol­ogy: The Language of the Body and the Psy­chol­ogy of Movement based on the Dance Therapy Form Dansergia. The author, who is a practi­tioner-researcher, is methodologically inspir­ed by phenomenology, performative methods and a narrative and auto-ethnographic approach. The project will be presented in an organic, cre­at­ive and performative way. Through a moving dia­logue between a written text and a visceral on-line performance involving photographs and music, the reader/audience has the possibility to be touched both sensually and intellectually, although through communication is in cyberspace, missing the liveliness of direct body language. See online performance: http://www.viddler.com/player/c3c7a343/. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0802637

  15. Analyzing Movements Development and Evaluation of the Body Awareness Scale Movement Quality (BAS MQ).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sundén, A; Ekdahl, C; Horstman, V; Gyllensten, A L

    2016-06-01

    Limitations in everyday movements, physical activities are/or pain are the main reasons for seeking help from a physiotherapist. The purpose of this study was to investigate the psychometric properties of the Body Awareness Scale Movement Quality (BAS MQ) focusing on factor structure, validity and reliability and to explore whether BAS MQ could discriminate between healthy individuals and patients. BAS MQ assesses both limitations and resources concerning functional ability and quality of movements. The total sample in the study (n = 172) consisted of individuals with hip osteoarthritis (OA) (n = 132), individuals with psychiatric disorders (n = 33) and healthy individuals (n = 7). A factor analysis of the BAS MQ was performed for the total group. Inter-rater reliability was tested in a group of individuals with hip OA (n = 24). Concurrent validity was tested in a group of individuals with hip OA (n = 89). The Medical Outcomes Study 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36), the 6-Minute Walk Test (6MWT) and the Hip Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (HOOS) were chosen in the validation process. The factor analysis revealed three factors that together explained 60.8% of the total variance of BAS MQ. The inter-rater reliability was considered good or very good with a kappa value of 0.61. Significant correlations between BAS MQ and SF-36, HOOS and 6MWT in the subjects with hip OA confirmed the validity. The BAS MQ was able to discriminate between healthy individuals and individuals with physical and psychiatric limitations. Results of the study revealed that BAS MQ has a satisfactory factor structure. The inter-rater reliability and validity were acceptable in a group of individuals with hip OA. BAS MQ could be a useful assessment tool for physiotherapists when evaluating the quality of everyday movements in different patient groups. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  16. COMPUTER SIMULATION THE MECHANICAL MOVEMENT BODY BY MEANS OF MATHCAD

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Leonid Flehantov

    2017-03-01

    Full Text Available Here considered the technique of using computer mathematics system MathCAD for computer implementation of mathematical model of the mechanical motion of the physical body thrown at an angle to the horizon, and its use for educational computer simulation experiment in teaching the fundamentals of mathematical modeling. The advantages of MathCAD as environment of implementation mathematical models in the second stage of higher education are noted. It describes the creation the computer simulation model that allows you to comprehensively analyze the process of mechanical movement of the body, changing the input parameters of the model: the acceleration of gravity, the initial and final position of the body, the initial velocity and angle, the geometric dimensions of the body and goals. The technique aimed at the effective assimilation of basic knowledge and skills of students on the basics of mathematical modeling, it provides an opportunity to better master the basic theoretical principles of mathematical modeling and related disciplines, promotes logical thinking development of students, their motivation to learn discipline, improves cognitive interest, forms skills research activities than creating conditions for the effective formation of professional competence of future specialists.

  17. Relationships between Body Composition and Fundamental Movement Skills among Children and Adolescents

    Science.gov (United States)

    Okely, Anthony D.; Booth, Michael L.; Chey, Tien

    2004-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to examine associations of fundamental movement skills (FMS) with measures of body composition. among children and adolescents. Secondary analyses of cross-sectional data collected from 4,363 children and adolescents in Grades 4, 6, 8, and 10 as part of the 1997 New South Wales Schools Fitness and Physical Activity…

  18. Professionalizing a Global Social Movement: Universities and Human Rights

    Science.gov (United States)

    Suarez, David; Bromley, Patricia

    2012-01-01

    Research on the human rights movement emphasizes direct changes in nation-states, focusing on the efficacy of treaties and the role of advocacy in mitigating immediate violations. However, more than 140 universities in 59 countries established academic chairs, research centers, and programs for human rights from 1968-2000, a development that…

  19. What is a Human Body?

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nissen, Ulrik Becker

    2017-01-01

    The essay offers an overview of different understandings of what a body is. As such, it can be read as an overview of what we mean, when we speak of a “human body”. However, the article also goes a step further; in the last section, a responsive understanding of the human body is outlined....... This is understood as responsiveness in three ways: viz an embodied self that responds to natural life, other human beings and, ultimately, to God....

  20. Efficacy of the "body movement and perception" method in the treatment of fibromyalgia syndrome: an open pilot study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Maddali Bongi, S; Di Felice, C; Del Rosso, A; Landi, G; Maresca, M; Giambalvo Dal Ben, G; Matucci-Cerinic, M

    2011-01-01

    Group exercises may be useful in fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS). The 'Body movement and perception' (BMP) method is based on low impact exercises, awareness of body perception and relaxation, aimed at treating small groups of patients following the Resseguier method (RM) and integrating RM with exercises derived from soft gymnastics. We assessed the effects of BMP method on FMS. 40 women with FMS (age and disease duration: 51.7±7.2 and 4.9±3.8 years) participated in an open pilot study. BMP sessions were performer twice a week (50 minutes each) for 8 weeks. Patients were assessed at enrolment (T0) and at the end of the study (T1) by a self-administered questionnaire (temporal characteristics of pain, pain interference in working and recreational activities and in night-time rest, awareness of pain, fatigue, irritability, well-being, quality of movement, ability to focus on perception and to perceive whole body, postural selfcontrol, ability to relax) and a clinical evaluation (tender points, assumption of analgesics/NSAIDs, distribution of pain, pain in sitting and standing position, pain during postural passages and gait, postural body alignment, muscular contractures). At T1, FMS patients significantly improved with respect to T0 in pain, fatigue, irritability, well-being, quality of movement, postural self-control, ability to relax mind and body, movement perception, tender point scores, assumption of analgesic/NSAIDs, body alignment and muscle contractures (p<0.05 for all the comparisons T1 versus T0). In FMS patients, rehabilitation with BMP improves pain and well being, reduces the number of tender points and muscle contractures, thus it is useful in FMS management.

  1. Human Body Exergy Metabolism

    OpenAIRE

    Mady, Carlos Eduardo Keutenedjian

    2013-01-01

    The exergy analysis of the human body is a tool that can provide indicators of health and life quality. To perform the exergy balance it is necessary to calculate the metabolism on an exergy basis, or metabolic exergy, although there is not yet consensus in its calculation procedure. Hence, the aim of this work is to provide a general method to evaluate this physical quantity for human body based on indirect calorimetry data. To calculate the metabolism on an exergy basis it is necessary to d...

  2. Towards emotion detection in educational scenarios from facial expressions and body movements through multimodal approaches.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Saneiro, Mar; Santos, Olga C; Salmeron-Majadas, Sergio; Boticario, Jesus G

    2014-01-01

    We report current findings when considering video recordings of facial expressions and body movements to provide affective personalized support in an educational context from an enriched multimodal emotion detection approach. In particular, we describe an annotation methodology to tag facial expression and body movements that conform to changes in the affective states of learners while dealing with cognitive tasks in a learning process. The ultimate goal is to combine these annotations with additional affective information collected during experimental learning sessions from different sources such as qualitative, self-reported, physiological, and behavioral information. These data altogether are to train data mining algorithms that serve to automatically identify changes in the learners' affective states when dealing with cognitive tasks which help to provide emotional personalized support.

  3. Towards Emotion Detection in Educational Scenarios from Facial Expressions and Body Movements through Multimodal Approaches

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mar Saneiro

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available We report current findings when considering video recordings of facial expressions and body movements to provide affective personalized support in an educational context from an enriched multimodal emotion detection approach. In particular, we describe an annotation methodology to tag facial expression and body movements that conform to changes in the affective states of learners while dealing with cognitive tasks in a learning process. The ultimate goal is to combine these annotations with additional affective information collected during experimental learning sessions from different sources such as qualitative, self-reported, physiological, and behavioral information. These data altogether are to train data mining algorithms that serve to automatically identify changes in the learners’ affective states when dealing with cognitive tasks which help to provide emotional personalized support.

  4. One way and the other: The bi-directional relationship between ambivalence and body movement

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Schneider, I.K.; Eerland, A.; van Harreveld, F.; Rotteveel, M.; van der Pligt, J.; van der Stoep, N.; Zwaan, R.A.

    2013-01-01

    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

  5. A body-fixed-sensor-based analysis of power during sit-to-stand movements

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Zijlstra, Wiebren; Bisseling, Robertus Wilhelmus; Schlumbohm, Stephan; Baldus, Heribert

    This study presents an analysis of power exertion for lifting the body's centre of mass (CoM) during rising from a chair. Five healthy young (21-44 years) and 12 healthy older (70-79 years) subjects performed sit-to-stand (STS) movements while data were measured with force-plates underneath chair

  6. Eye Movements in Darkness Modulate Self-Motion Perception.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Clemens, Ivar Adrianus H; Selen, Luc P J; Pomante, Antonella; MacNeilage, Paul R; Medendorp, W Pieter

    2017-01-01

    During self-motion, humans typically move the eyes to maintain fixation on the stationary environment around them. These eye movements could in principle be used to estimate self-motion, but their impact on perception is unknown. We had participants judge self-motion during different eye-movement conditions in the absence of full-field optic flow. In a two-alternative forced choice task, participants indicated whether the second of two successive passive lateral whole-body translations was longer or shorter than the first. This task was used in two experiments. In the first ( n = 8), eye movements were constrained differently in the two translation intervals by presenting either a world-fixed or body-fixed fixation point or no fixation point at all (allowing free gaze). Results show that perceived translations were shorter with a body-fixed than a world-fixed fixation point. A linear model indicated that eye-movement signals received a weight of ∼25% for the self-motion percept. This model was independently validated in the trials without a fixation point (free gaze). In the second experiment ( n = 10), gaze was free during both translation intervals. Results show that the translation with the larger eye-movement excursion was judged more often to be larger than chance, based on an oculomotor choice probability analysis. We conclude that eye-movement signals influence self-motion perception, even in the absence of visual stimulation.

  7. Human body segmentation via data-driven graph cut.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Shifeng; Lu, Huchuan; Shao, Xingqing

    2014-11-01

    Human body segmentation is a challenging and important problem in computer vision. Existing methods usually entail a time-consuming training phase for prior knowledge learning with complex shape matching for body segmentation. In this paper, we propose a data-driven method that integrates top-down body pose information and bottom-up low-level visual cues for segmenting humans in static images within the graph cut framework. The key idea of our approach is first to exploit human kinematics to search for body part candidates via dynamic programming for high-level evidence. Then, by using the body parts classifiers, obtaining bottom-up cues of human body distribution for low-level evidence. All the evidence collected from top-down and bottom-up procedures are integrated in a graph cut framework for human body segmentation. Qualitative and quantitative experiment results demonstrate the merits of the proposed method in segmenting human bodies with arbitrary poses from cluttered backgrounds.

  8. The Contribution of the Human Body in Young Children's Explanations About Shadow Formation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Herakleioti, Evagelia; Pantidos, Panagiotis

    2016-02-01

    This paper begins with the view that the generation of meaning is a multimodal process. Props, drawings, graphs, gestures, as well as speech and written text are all mediators through which students construct new knowledge. Each semiotic context makes a unique contribution to the conceptualization of scientific entities. The human body, in particular, can function as a factor in both representation and explanation, serving as a link between verbal discourse and setting. Considering this perspective, a body-based activity was designed for kindergarten children, involving the concept of a shadow. The 3-D arrangement of the light from the light source, the human body (the obstacle), and the resulting shadow plays a central role. Using their own bodies as obstacles to the light, the children were able to explore the direction of the light and to change the relative positions of the light source and the obstacle. They formed hypotheses and were able to test them by moving on the stage. This body-centered activity explicitly incorporates the rectilinear movement of light into the process of shadow formation, while also providing learning through direct experience. Positive effects on learning were achieved for the group of children who participated in the activity, while the video analysis showed that many of the children were able to use their bodies to transfer to a different setting the embodied knowledge they acquired. This, according to researchers in the field of science education, is a powerful indication of conceptual change.

  9. Human body may produce bacteria.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Salerian, Alen J

    2017-06-01

    "Human body may produce bacteria" proposes that human body may produce bacteria and represent an independent source of infections contrary to the current paradigm of infectious disorders proposed by Louis Pasteur in 1880. The following observations are consistent with this hypothesis: A. Bidirectional transformations of both living and nonliving things have been commonly observed in nature. B. Complex multicellular organisms harbor the necessary properties to produce bacteria (water, nitrogen and oxygen). C. Physical laws suggest any previously observed phenomenon or action will occur again (life began on earth; a non living thing). D. Animal muscle cells may generate energy (fermentation). E. Sterilized food products (i.e. boiled eggs), may produce bacteria and fungus under special conditions and without any exposure to foreign living cells. "Human body may produce bacteria" may challenge the current medical paradigm that views human infectious disorders as the exclusive causative byproducts of invading foreign cells. It may also introduce new avenues to treat infectious disorders. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  10. Tracking the Evolution of Smartphone Sensing for Monitoring Human Movement

    Science.gov (United States)

    del Rosario, Michael B.; Redmond, Stephen J.; Lovell, Nigel H.

    2015-01-01

    Advances in mobile technology have led to the emergence of the “smartphone”, a new class of device with more advanced connectivity features that have quickly made it a constant presence in our lives. Smartphones are equipped with comparatively advanced computing capabilities, a global positioning system (GPS) receivers, and sensing capabilities (i.e., an inertial measurement unit (IMU) and more recently magnetometer and barometer) which can be found in wearable ambulatory monitors (WAMs). As a result, algorithms initially developed for WAMs that “count” steps (i.e., pedometers); gauge physical activity levels; indirectly estimate energy expenditure and monitor human movement can be utilised on the smartphone. These algorithms may enable clinicians to “close the loop” by prescribing timely interventions to improve or maintain wellbeing in populations who are at risk of falling or suffer from a chronic disease whose progression is linked to a reduction in movement and mobility. The ubiquitous nature of smartphone technology makes it the ideal platform from which human movement can be remotely monitored without the expense of purchasing, and inconvenience of using, a dedicated WAM. In this paper, an overview of the sensors that can be found in the smartphone are presented, followed by a summary of the developments in this field with an emphasis on the evolution of algorithms used to classify human movement. The limitations identified in the literature will be discussed, as well as suggestions about future research directions. PMID:26263998

  11. On scaling of human body models

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hynčík L.

    2007-10-01

    Full Text Available Human body is not an unique being, everyone is another from the point of view of anthropometry and mechanical characteristics which means that division of the human body population to categories like 5%-tile, 50%-tile and 95%-tile from the application point of view is not enough. On the other hand, the development of a particular human body model for all of us is not possible. That is why scaling and morphing algorithms has started to be developed. The current work describes the development of a tool for scaling of the human models. The idea is to have one (or couple of standard model(s as a base and to create other models based on these basic models. One has to choose adequate anthropometrical and biomechanical parameters that describe given group of humans to be scaled and morphed among.

  12. Light bodies in human pituitary adenomas

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Holck, S; Wewer, U M; Albrechtsen, R

    1987-01-01

    Light bodies are large cytoplasmic granules originally described in the gonadotrophic cells of the rat pituitary gland. In order to determine whether similar bodies occur in the human anterior pituitary gland, 89 pituitary adenomas and periadenomatous tissue from 20 cases were examined...... cells in periadenomatous tissue from 20 cases. These results show that some human pituitary adenomas may contain light bodies identical to those seen in gonadotrophs of rat pituitary....... by transmission electron microscopy. Double membrane bound bodies with filamentous internal structure identical to rodent light bodies were identified in 10 hormone-producing adenomas: 5 PRL, 1 PRL-GH, 2 GH, and 2 ACTH-producing tumours. No light bodies were found in the remaining 79 tumours nor in the pituitary...

  13. Imitation of Body Postures and Hand Movements in Children with Specific Language Impairment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Marton, Klara

    2009-01-01

    Within the domain-general theory of language impairment, this study examined body posture and hand movement imitation in children with specific language impairment (SLI) and in their age-matched peers. Participants included 40 children with SLI (5 years 3 months to 6 years 10 months of age) and 40 children with typical language development (5…

  14. EXPRESSION OF MUSIC AND MOVEMENT ACCORDING TO EMIL JACQUES-DALCROZE'S METHOD

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Anna Galikowska – Gajewska

    2016-02-01

    Full Text Available This article discusses the movement expression considering it a crucial element of Dalcroze’s Eurhythmics. At the beginning of the 20th century Emil Jaques-Dalcroze, who is regarded as the creator of Eyrhythmics, discovered that movement should be the basis for music education. The father of Eyrhythmics referred to a common human activity - movement - and by linking it with music, he laid the foundation of methodology of music education. Eurhythmics has become one of the popular methods of arts education but, first of all, a versatile system of music education, which allows acomplishement of true expression. The Dalcroze's approach to music education established the foundation of an understanding of music through movement-motion. Music expressed through the natural and simple language of human body's movements leads to a personal fuller experience of music through motion, enables a deeper feeling of music, a better understanding and discovering its beauty. Dalcroze considered that the qualities of music were fundamental forces in human life, and emphasized music’s connection to other arts, such as dance, drama, poetry, and particularly singing, which all are fundamental human activities involving movement, language and emotion.

  15. Expanding Panjabi's stability model to express movement: a theoretical model.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hoffman, J; Gabel, P

    2013-06-01

    Novel theoretical models of movement have historically inspired the creation of new methods for the application of human movement. The landmark theoretical model of spinal stability by Panjabi in 1992 led to the creation of an exercise approach to spinal stability. This approach however was later challenged, most significantly due to a lack of favourable clinical effect. The concepts explored in this paper address and consider the deficiencies of Panjabi's model then propose an evolution and expansion from a special model of stability to a general one of movement. It is proposed that two body-wide symbiotic elements are present within all movement systems, stability and mobility. The justification for this is derived from the observable clinical environment. It is clinically recognised that these two elements are present and identifiable throughout the body in different joints and muscles, and the neural conduction system. In order to generalise the Panjabi model of stability to include and illustrate movement, a matching parallel mobility system with the same subsystems was conceptually created. In this expanded theoretical model, the new mobility system is placed beside the existing stability system and subsystems. The ability of both stability and mobility systems to work in harmony will subsequently determine the quality of movement. Conversely, malfunction of either system, or their subsystems, will deleteriously affect all other subsystems and consequently overall movement quality. For this reason, in the rehabilitation exercise environment, focus should be placed on the simultaneous involvement of both the stability and mobility systems. It is suggested that the individual's relevant functional harmonious movements should be challenged at the highest possible level without pain or discomfort. It is anticipated that this conceptual expansion of the theoretical model of stability to one with the symbiotic inclusion of mobility, will provide new understandings

  16. A modular approach to numerical human body modeling

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Forbes, P.A.; Griotto, G.; Rooij, L. van

    2007-01-01

    The choice of a human body model for a simulated automotive impact scenario must take into account both accurate model response and computational efficiency as key factors. This study presents a "modular numerical human body modeling" approach which allows the creation of a customized human body

  17. [Research progress on free radicals in human body].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Q B; Xu, F P; Wei, C X; Peng, J; Dong, X D

    2016-08-10

    Free radicals are the intermediates of metabolism, widely exist in the human bodies. Under normal circumstances, the free radicals play an important role in the metabolic process on human body, cell signal pathway, gene regulation, induction of cell proliferation and apoptosis, so as to maintain the normal growth and development of human body and to inhibit the growth of bacteria, virus and cancer. However, when organic lesion occurs affected by external factors or when equilibrium of the free radicals is tipped in the human body, the free radicals will respond integratedly with lipids, protein or nucleic acid which may jeopardize the health of human bodies. This paper summarizes the research progress of the free radicals conducted in recent years, in relations to the perspective of the types, origins, test methods of the free radicals and their relationship with human's health. In addition, the possible mechanisms of environmental pollutants (such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons) mediating oxidative stress and free radicals scavenging in the body were also summarized.

  18. 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.

  19. Reconstruction of equilibrium trajectories during whole-body movements.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Domen, K; Latash, M L; Zatsiorsky, V M

    1999-03-01

    The framework of the equilibrium-point hypothesis was used to reconstruct equilibrium trajectories (ETs) of the ankle, hip and body center of mass during quick voluntary hip flexions ('Japanese courtesy bow') by standing subjects. Different spring loads applied to the subject's back were used to introduce smooth perturbations that are necessary to reconstruct ETs based on a series of trials at the same task. Time patterns of muscle torques were calculated using inverse dynamics techniques. A second-order linear model was employed to calculate the instantaneous position of the spring-like joint or center of mass characteristic at different times during the movement. ETs of the joints and of the center of mass had significantly different shapes from the actual trajectories. Integral measures of electromyographic bursts of activity in postural muscles demonstrated a relation to muscle length corresponding to the equilibrium-point hypothesis.

  20. Adaptable neighbours: movement patterns of GPS-collared leopards in human dominated landscapes in India.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Odden, Morten; Athreya, Vidya; Rattan, Sandeep; Linnell, John D C

    2014-01-01

    Understanding the nature of the interactions between humans and wildlife is of vital importance for conflict mitigation. We equipped five leopards with GPS-collars in Maharashtra (4) and Himachal Pradesh (1), India, to study movement patterns in human-dominated landscapes outside protected areas. An adult male and an adult female were both translocated 52 km, and exhibited extensive, and directional, post release movements (straight line movements: male = 89 km in 37 days, female = 45 km in 5 months), until they settled in home ranges of 42 km2 (male) and 65 km2 (female). The three other leopards, two adult females and a young male were released close to their capture sites and used small home ranges of 8 km2 (male), 11 km2 and 15 km2 (females). Movement patterns were markedly nocturnal, with hourly step lengths averaging 339±9.5 m (SE) during night and 60±4.1 m during day, and night locations were significantly closer to human settlements than day locations. However, more nocturnal movements were observed among those three living in the areas with high human population densities. These visited houses regularly at nighttime (20% of locations human settlements both day and night. The small home ranges of the leopards indicate that anthropogenic food resources may be plentiful although wild prey is absent. The study provides clear insights into the ability of leopards to live and move in landscapes that are extremely modified by human activity.

  1. High-intensity functional training improves functional movement and body composition among cancer survivors: a pilot study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Heinrich, K M; Becker, C; Carlisle, T; Gilmore, K; Hauser, J; Frye, J; Harms, C A

    2015-11-01

    This pilot study investigated feasibility and preliminary efficacy of a high-intensity functional training (HIFT) group-exercise programme among adult cancer survivors within 5 years of last cancer treatment. Eight participants were assigned to a 5-week, 3 days/week HIFT intervention with four testing sessions and 12 workouts along with mobility and stretching exercises. Feasibility was assessed by initiation, adherence, and acceptability. Efficacy was determined by changes from baseline to post-test in health-related quality of life, body composition and functional movement. The recruitment rate was 80% and the adherence rate was 75%. Significant improvements were found for emotional functioning (P = 0.042) and body composition (lean mass +3.8 ± 2.1 kg, P = 0.008; fat mass -3.3 ± 1.0 kg, P = 0.001; body fat percentage -4.7 ± 1.2%, P body strength and power (P = 0.009), aerobic capacity and endurance (P = 0.039), and perceived difficulty for flexibility (P = 0.012). Five weeks of HIFT training was well-received and feasible for most cancer survivors, and effective for improving emotional functioning, body composition and functional movement. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  2. One-year follow-up of basic body awareness therapy in patients with posttraumatic stress disorder. A small intervention study of effects on movement quality, PTSD symptoms, and movement experiences.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Blaauwendraat, Conny; Levy Berg, Adrienne; Gyllensten, Amanda Lundvik

    2017-07-01

    The present study with mixed methods design evaluated the long-term effects of Basic Body Awareness Therapy (BBAT) for patients with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Fifteen patients received 12 individual sessions of BBAT treatment as usual (TAU) when needed. The patients were assessed at baseline (T0), directly after treatment (T1) and at one-year follow-up (T2), using the Body Awareness Scale Movement Quality and Experience (BAS MQ-E), the Visual Analog Scale (VAS), and the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R). The results at T1 showed significant improvement in the quality of movement (p = 0.001), body experience (p = 0.007), and symptoms (p = 0.001). At T2, the improvements were sustained. Pain in stillness (p = 0.017) and during movement (p = 0.007) had decreased. The verbal ability to describe the body experiences in words was poor at T0, but became more detailed at T1 and even more so at T2. Our findings suggest that BBAT in addition to TAU can be a viable physiotherapeutic treatment for patients with PTSD. This knowledge may influence future treatment strategies for patients with PTSD and be of guidance to physiotherapists working with persons with trauma experiences in the community or psychiatry/mental healthcare areas.

  3. A bacteriophages journey through the human body.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Barr, Jeremy J

    2017-09-01

    The human body is colonized by a diverse collective of microorganisms, including bacteria, fungi, protozoa and viruses. The smallest entity of this microbial conglomerate are the bacterial viruses. Bacteriophages, or phages for short, exert significant selective pressure on their bacterial hosts, undoubtedly influencing the human microbiome and its impact on our health and well-being. Phages colonize all niches of the body, including the skin, oral cavity, lungs, gut, and urinary tract. As such our bodies are frequently and continuously exposed to diverse collections of phages. Despite the prevalence of phages throughout our bodies, the extent of their interactions with human cells, organs, and immune system is still largely unknown. Phages physically interact with our mucosal surfaces, are capable of bypassing epithelial cell layers, disseminate throughout the body and may manipulate our immune system. Here, I establish the novel concept of an "intra-body phageome," which encompasses the collection of phages residing within the classically "sterile" regions of the body. This review will take a phage-centric view of the microbiota, human body, and immune system with the ultimate goal of inspiring a greater appreciation for both the indirect and direct interactions between bacteriophages and their mammalian hosts. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  4. Islamic movement and human rights: Pertubuhan Jamaah Islah Malaysia’s involvement in the “Abolish Internal Security Act Movement,” 2000-2012

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Maszlee Malik

    2014-12-01

    Full Text Available Human rights has been acknowledged as one of the essential characteristics of good governance. Abuse of human rights is strongly associated with bad governance, which is believed by many to be a serious impediment to development and sustainable growth. Despite the active participations of Islamic movements in many parts of the political world, very little is known of their involvement in advocating human rights issues as part of their struggle for power. Nevertheless, as an Islamic movement and an Islamic revivalism actor in Malaysia, Pertubuhan Jamaah Islah Malaysia (JIM has shown otherwise. JIM has resembled a different attitude towards the issue of human rights that they believe as an integrated and pertinent composition of good governance. By scrutinising their political activities and discourse since 2000, it becomes clear that JIM has been actively engaged in good governance and human rights issues, especially those that relate to the political rights of citizens through its involvement in the Abolish Internal Security Act (ISA Movement (Gerakan Mansuhkan ISA. This paper examines JIM’s involvement in human rights issues with a special focus on its active and leading role in calling for the abolishment of the Internal Security Act (ISA.

  5. Functional neuronal processing of human body odors.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lundström, Johan N; Olsson, Mats J

    2010-01-01

    Body odors carry informational cues of great importance for individuals across a wide range of species, and signals hidden within the body odor cocktail are known to regulate several key behaviors in animals. For a long time, the notion that humans may be among these species has been dismissed. We now know, however, that each human has a unique odor signature that carries information related to his or her genetic makeup, as well as information about personal environmental variables, such as diet and hygiene. Although a substantial number of studies have investigated the behavioral effects of body odors, only a handful have studied central processing. Recent studies have, however, demonstrated that the human brain responds to fear signals hidden within the body odor cocktail, is able to extract kin specific signals, and processes body odors differently than other perceptually similar odors. In this chapter, we provide an overview of the current knowledge of how the human brain processes body odors and the potential importance these signals have for us in everyday life. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  6. The use of census migration data to approximate human movement patterns across temporal scales.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wesolowski, Amy; Buckee, Caroline O; Pindolia, Deepa K; Eagle, Nathan; Smith, David L; Garcia, Andres J; Tatem, Andrew J

    2013-01-01

    Human movement plays a key role in economies and development, the delivery of services, and the spread of infectious diseases. However, it remains poorly quantified partly because reliable data are often lacking, particularly for low-income countries. The most widely available are migration data from human population censuses, which provide valuable information on relatively long timescale relocations across countries, but do not capture the shorter-scale patterns, trips less than a year, that make up the bulk of human movement. Census-derived migration data may provide valuable proxies for shorter-term movements however, as substantial migration between regions can be indicative of well connected places exhibiting high levels of movement at finer time scales, but this has never been examined in detail. Here, an extensive mobile phone usage data set for Kenya was processed to extract movements between counties in 2009 on weekly, monthly, and annual time scales and compared to data on change in residence from the national census conducted during the same time period. We find that the relative ordering across Kenyan counties for incoming, outgoing and between-county movements shows strong correlations. Moreover, the distributions of trip durations from both sources of data are similar, and a spatial interaction model fit to the data reveals the relationships of different parameters over a range of movement time scales. Significant relationships between census migration data and fine temporal scale movement patterns exist, and results suggest that census data can be used to approximate certain features of movement patterns across multiple temporal scales, extending the utility of census-derived migration data.

  7. Research on the Optimization Method of Arm Movement in the Assembly Workshop Based on Ergonomics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hu, X. M.; Qu, H. W.; Xu, H. J.; Yang, L.; Yu, C. C.

    2017-12-01

    In order to improve the work efficiency and comfortability, Ergonomics is used to research the work of the operator in the assembly workshop. An optimization algorithm of arm movement in the assembly workshop is proposed. In the algorithm, a mathematical model of arm movement is established based on multi rigid body movement model and D-H method. The solution of inverse kinematics equation on arm movement is solved through kinematics theory. The evaluation functions of each joint movement and the whole arm movement are given based on the comfortability of human body joint. The solution method of the optimal arm movement posture based on the evaluation functions is described. The software CATIA is used to verify that the optimal arm movement posture is valid in an example and the experimental result show the effectiveness of the algorithm.

  8. Assessing movement quality in persons with severe mental illness - Reliability and validity of the Body Awareness Scale Movement Quality and Experience.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hedlund, Lena; Gyllensten, Amanda Lundvik; Waldegren, Tomas; Hansson, Lars

    2016-05-01

    Motor disturbances and disturbed self-recognition are common features that affect mobility in persons with schizophrenia spectrum disorder and bipolar disorder. Physiotherapists in Scandinavia assess and treat movement difficulties in persons with severe mental illness. The Body Awareness Scale Movement Quality and Experience (BAS MQ-E) is a new and shortened version of the commonly used Body Awareness Scale-Health (BAS-H). The purpose of this study was to investigate the inter-rater reliability and the concurrent validity of BAS MQ-E in persons with severe mental illness. The concurrent validity was examined by investigating the relationships between neurological soft signs, alexithymia, fatigue, anxiety, and mastery. Sixty-two persons with severe mental illness participated in the study. The results showed a satisfactory inter-rater reliability (n = 53) and a concurrent validity (n = 62) with neurological soft signs, especially cognitive and perceptual based signs. There was also a concurrent validity linked to physical fatigue and aspects of alexithymia. The scores of BAS MQ-E were in general higher for persons with schizophrenia compared to persons with other diagnoses within the schizophrenia spectrum disorders and bipolar disorder. The clinical implications are presented in the discussion.

  9. Mixed movements/performance-based drawing

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Brabrand, Helle

    2011-01-01

    Mixed Movements is a research project engaged in performance-based architectural drawing. As one in a series working with architectonic implementation in relation to body and movements, the actual project relates body-movement and dynamic drawing and presents the material as interactive ‘space-time-tables’....

  10. The Effect of Body Movement on Listeners' Perceptions of Musicality in Trombone Quartet Performance

    Science.gov (United States)

    Silveira, Jason M.

    2014-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to determine what effect body movement would have on listeners' (N = 90) perceptions of a professional chamber ensemble performance. Specifically, an audio/video recording of a trombone quartet performance was used for the music stimulus. Listeners were asked to rate each performance on the basis of perceived…

  11. Dynamic Propagation Channel Characterization and Modeling for Human Body Communication

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nie, Zedong; Ma, Jingjing; Li, Zhicheng; Chen, Hong; Wang, Lei

    2012-01-01

    This paper presents the first characterization and modeling of dynamic propagation channels for human body communication (HBC). In-situ experiments were performed using customized transceivers in an anechoic chamber. Three HBC propagation channels, i.e., from right leg to left leg, from right hand to left hand and from right hand to left leg, were investigated under thirty-three motion scenarios. Snapshots of data (2,800,000) were acquired from five volunteers. Various path gains caused by different locations and movements were quantified and the statistical distributions were estimated. In general, for a given reference threshold è = −10 dB, the maximum average level crossing rate of the HBC was approximately 1.99 Hz, the maximum average fade time was 59.4 ms, and the percentage of bad channel duration time was less than 4.16%. The HBC exhibited a fade depth of −4 dB at 90% complementary cumulative probability. The statistical parameters were observed to be centered for each propagation channel. Subsequently a Fritchman model was implemented to estimate the burst characteristics of the on-body fading. It was concluded that the HBC is motion-insensitive, which is sufficient for reliable communication link during motions, and therefore it has great potential for body sensor/area networks. PMID:23250278

  12. Biodynamics of deformable human body motion

    Science.gov (United States)

    Strauss, A. M.; Huston, R. L.

    1976-01-01

    The objective is to construct a framework wherein the various models of human biomaterials fit in order to describe the biodynamic response of the human body. The behavior of the human body in various situations, from low frequency, low amplitude vibrations to impact loadings in automobile and aircraft crashes, is very complicated with respect to all aspects of the problem: materials, geometry and dynamics. The materials problem is the primary concern, but the materials problem is intimately connected with geometry and dynamics.

  13. Human body capacitance: static or dynamic concept? [ESD

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jonassen, Niels M

    1998-01-01

    A standing human body insulated from ground by footwear and/or floor covering is in principle an insulated conductor and has, as such, a capacitance, i.e. the ability to store a charge and possibly discharge the stored energy in a spark discharge. In the human body, the human body capacitance (HBC...... when a substantial part of the flux extends itself through badly defined stray fields. Since the concept of human body capacitance is normally used in a static (electric) context, it is suggested that the HBC be determined by a static method. No theoretical explanation of the observed differences...

  14. How Big Data Fast Tracked Human Mobility Research and the Lessons for Animal Movement Ecology

    KAUST Repository

    Thums, Michele; Ferná ndez-Gracia, Juan; Sequeira, Ana M. M.; Eguí luz, Ví ctor M.; Duarte, Carlos M.; Meekan, Mark G.

    2018-01-01

    The rise of the internet coupled with technological innovations such as smartphones have generated massive volumes of geo-referenced data (big data) on human mobility. This has allowed the number of studies of human mobility to rapidly overtake those of animal movement. Today, telemetry studies of animals are also approaching big data status. Here, we review recent advances in studies of human mobility and identify the opportunities they present for advancing our understanding of animal movement. We describe key analytical techniques, potential bottlenecks and a roadmap for progress toward a synthesis of movement patterns of wild animals.

  15. How Big Data Fast Tracked Human Mobility Research and the Lessons for Animal Movement Ecology

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Michele Thums

    2018-02-01

    Full Text Available The rise of the internet coupled with technological innovations such as smartphones have generated massive volumes of geo-referenced data (big data on human mobility. This has allowed the number of studies of human mobility to rapidly overtake those of animal movement. Today, telemetry studies of animals are also approaching big data status. Here, we review recent advances in studies of human mobility and identify the opportunities they present for advancing our understanding of animal movement. We describe key analytical techniques, potential bottlenecks and a roadmap for progress toward a synthesis of movement patterns of wild animals.

  16. How Big Data Fast Tracked Human Mobility Research and the Lessons for Animal Movement Ecology

    KAUST Repository

    Thums, Michele

    2018-02-13

    The rise of the internet coupled with technological innovations such as smartphones have generated massive volumes of geo-referenced data (big data) on human mobility. This has allowed the number of studies of human mobility to rapidly overtake those of animal movement. Today, telemetry studies of animals are also approaching big data status. Here, we review recent advances in studies of human mobility and identify the opportunities they present for advancing our understanding of animal movement. We describe key analytical techniques, potential bottlenecks and a roadmap for progress toward a synthesis of movement patterns of wild animals.

  17. Patient education and basic body awareness therapy in hip osteoarthritis - a qualitative study of patients' movement learning experiences.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Olsen, Aarid Liland; Strand, Liv Inger; Skjaerven, Liv Helvik; Sundal, Mary-Anne; Magnussen, Liv Heide

    2017-08-01

    Osteoarthritis (OA) is associated with pain, dysfunction and reduced quality of life. Patient education (PE) followed by 12 weekly sessions of Basic Body Awareness Therapy (BBAT) was offered to patients with hip OA, aiming to strengthen their ability to move and act functionally in daily life. To explore how patients described their experiences and outcome from participating in PE and BBAT. Individual, semi-structured interviews with five patients, aged 52-78 years, were performed after PE and BBAT at four and ten months. Interview data were analyzed by systematic text condensation. Three main themes emerged. "Becoming motivated and involved" reflected experiences of encouragement and support from information given and communication with group members. In "Movement awareness learning" patients described becoming aware of and improving functional movement, alleviating symptoms and increasing daily functioning. "Movement and disease in a long-term perspective" reflected patientś experience of increased self-awareness and taking better care of themselves at 10 months after baseline. Practicing basic movement principles, they felt empowered to handle daily life challenges in more functional and energy-economical ways. PE followed by BBAT in groups may be beneficial to patients with hip OA, and provide lasting benefits regarding daily life function. Implications for Rehabilitation Insight into disease process and relationship to functional movement gained through patient education may empower patients with hip osteoarthritis in management of daily life Movement awareness and exploration of movement quality using principles from Basic Body Awareness Therapy was found to support patients in finding resources for functional movement, implemented in daily actions Movement strategies characterized by adjustment rather than force was experienced by the patients to support their general functioning, despite of prevailing hip pain Implementing group therapeutic factors (Yalom

  18. Modeling the exergy behavior of human body

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Keutenedjian Mady, Carlos Eduardo; Silva Ferreira, Maurício; Itizo Yanagihara, Jurandir; Hilário Nascimento Saldiva, Paulo; Oliveira Junior, Silvio de

    2012-01-01

    Exergy analysis is applied to assess the energy conversion processes that take place in the human body, aiming at developing indicators of health and performance based on the concepts of exergy destroyed rate and exergy efficiency. The thermal behavior of the human body is simulated by a model composed of 15 cylinders with elliptical cross section representing: head, neck, trunk, arms, forearms, hands, thighs, legs, and feet. For each, a combination of tissues is considered. The energy equation is solved for each cylinder, being possible to obtain transitory response from the body due to a variation in environmental conditions. With this model, it is possible to obtain heat and mass flow rates to the environment due to radiation, convection, evaporation and respiration. The exergy balances provide the exergy variation due to heat and mass exchange over the body, and the exergy variation over time for each compartments tissue and blood, the sum of which leads to the total variation of the body. Results indicate that exergy destroyed and exergy efficiency decrease over lifespan and the human body is more efficient and destroys less exergy in lower relative humidities and higher temperatures. -- Highlights: ► In this article it is indicated an overview of the human thermal model. ► It is performed the energy and exergy analysis of the human body. ► Exergy destruction and exergy efficiency decreases with lifespan. ► Exergy destruction and exergy efficiency are a function of environmental conditions.

  19. Feasibility of Mind-Body Movement Programs for Cancer Survivors.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Browning, Kristine K; Kue, Jennifer; Lyons, Felisha; Overcash, Janine

    2017-07-01

    To evaluate mind-body movement exercise (MBME) classes (yoga, tai chi, and Qigong) for cancer survivors. 
. A single-group, repeated-measures design.
. The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center-Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital in Columbus.
. 33 adult cancer survivors, with any cancer diagnosis, participating in MBME classes.
. The researchers sought to examine feasibility of multiple data collection time points and data collection measures; acceptability; and changes to physical, emotional, and biometric measures over time, as a result of participation in MBME classes.
. Quality of life, sleep, depressive symptomatology, fatigue, stress, upper body strength, gait and balance, body mass index, heart rate, and blood pressure.
. The current study was feasible because survivors were willing to participate and completed most of the questionnaires. Participants found these classes to be beneficial not only for exercise, but also for social support and social connectedness. Poor sleep quality was consistently reported by participants. MBME classes should be recommended to survivors and are beneficial for oncology practices to offer.
. Conducting MBME research with cancer survivors is feasible, and participants find the MBME acceptable and a way of addressing health and managing cancer-related symptoms.
. Nurses should help patients and caregivers identify locations and times when MBME class participation is possible, assess MBME class participation during each clinic visit to promote continued involvement and to understand if positive effects are occurring, and continue to provide support for MBME classes throughout the survivorship experience.

  20. The use of census migration data to approximate human movement patterns across temporal scales.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Amy Wesolowski

    Full Text Available Human movement plays a key role in economies and development, the delivery of services, and the spread of infectious diseases. However, it remains poorly quantified partly because reliable data are often lacking, particularly for low-income countries. The most widely available are migration data from human population censuses, which provide valuable information on relatively long timescale relocations across countries, but do not capture the shorter-scale patterns, trips less than a year, that make up the bulk of human movement. Census-derived migration data may provide valuable proxies for shorter-term movements however, as substantial migration between regions can be indicative of well connected places exhibiting high levels of movement at finer time scales, but this has never been examined in detail. Here, an extensive mobile phone usage data set for Kenya was processed to extract movements between counties in 2009 on weekly, monthly, and annual time scales and compared to data on change in residence from the national census conducted during the same time period. We find that the relative ordering across Kenyan counties for incoming, outgoing and between-county movements shows strong correlations. Moreover, the distributions of trip durations from both sources of data are similar, and a spatial interaction model fit to the data reveals the relationships of different parameters over a range of movement time scales. Significant relationships between census migration data and fine temporal scale movement patterns exist, and results suggest that census data can be used to approximate certain features of movement patterns across multiple temporal scales, extending the utility of census-derived migration data.

  1. Direction of movement is encoded in the human primary motor cortex.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Carolien M Toxopeus

    Full Text Available The present study investigated how direction of hand movement, which is a well-described parameter in cerebral organization of motor control, is incorporated in the somatotopic representation of the manual effector system in the human primary motor cortex (M1. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI and a manual step-tracking task we found that activation patterns related to movement in different directions were spatially disjoint within the representation area of the hand on M1. Foci of activation related to specific movement directions were segregated within the M1 hand area; activation related to direction 0° (right was located most laterally/superficially, whereas directions 180° (left and 270° (down elicited activation more medially within the hand area. Activation related to direction 90° was located between the other directions. Moreover, by investigating differences between activations related to movement along the horizontal (0°+180° and vertical (90°+270° axis, we found that activation related to the horizontal axis was located more anterolaterally/dorsally in M1 than for the vertical axis, supporting that activations related to individual movement directions are direction- and not muscle related. Our results of spatially segregated direction-related activations in M1 are in accordance with findings of recent fMRI studies on neural encoding of direction in human M1. Our results thus provide further evidence for a direct link between direction as an organizational principle in sensorimotor transformation and movement execution coded by effector representations in M1.

  2. Real-Time Hand Position Sensing Technology Based on Human Body Electrostatics

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kai Tang

    2018-05-01

    Full Text Available Non-contact human-computer interactions (HCI based on hand gestures have been widely investigated. Here, we present a novel method to locate the real-time position of the hand using the electrostatics of the human body. This method has many advantages, including a delay of less than one millisecond, low cost, and does not require a camera or wearable devices. A formula is first created to sense array signals with five spherical electrodes. Next, a solving algorithm for the real-time measured hand position is introduced and solving equations for three-dimensional coordinates of hand position are obtained. A non-contact real-time hand position sensing system was established to perform verification experiments, and the principle error of the algorithm and the systematic noise were also analyzed. The results show that this novel technology can determine the dynamic parameters of hand movements with good robustness to meet the requirements of complicated HCI.

  3. Stability and Control of Human Trunk Movement During Walking.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wu, Q.; Sepehri, N.; Thornton-Trump, A. B.; Alexander, M.

    1998-01-01

    A mathematical model has been developed to study the control mechanisms of human trunk movement during walking. The trunk is modeled as a base-excited inverted pendulum with two-degrees of rotational freedom. The base point, corresponding to the bony landmark of the sacrum, can move in three-dimensional space in a general way. Since the stability of upright posture is essential for human walking, a controller has been designed such that the stability of the pendulum about the upright position is guaranteed. The control laws are developed based on Lyapunov's stability theory and include feedforward and linear feedback components. It is found that the feedforward component plays a critical role in keeping postural stability, and the linear feedback component, (resulting from viscoelastic function of the musculoskeletal system) can effectively duplicate the pattern of trunk movement. The mathematical model is validated by comparing the simulation results with those based on gait measurements performed in the Biomechanics Laboratory at the University of Manitoba.

  4. SURGICAL INTERVENTION AND ACCOMMODATIVE RESPONSES: I. CENTRIPETAL CILIARY BODY, CAPSULE AND LENS MOVEMENT IN RHESUS MONKEYS OF VARYING AGE

    Science.gov (United States)

    Croft, Mary Ann; Mcdonald, Jared P.; James, Rebecca J.; Heatley, Gregg A.; Lin, Ting-Li; Lütjen-Drecoll, Elke; Kaufman, Paul L.

    2009-01-01

    Purpose To determine how surgically altering the normal relationship between the lens and the ciliary body in rhesus monkeys affects centripetal ciliary body and lens movement. Methods In 18 rhesus monkey eyes (aged 6–27 years), accommodation was induced before and after surgery by electrical stimulation of the Edinger-Westphal (E–W) nucleus. Accommodative amplitude was measured by coincidence refractometry. Goniovideography was performed before and after intra- and extra-capsular lens extraction (ICLE, ECLE) and anterior regional zonulolysis. Centripetal lens/capsule movements, centripetal ciliary process (CP) movements, and circumlental space were measured by computerized image analysis of the goniovideography images. Results Centripetal accommodative CP and capsule movement increased in velocity and amplitude post-ECLE compared to pre-ECLE regardless of age (n=5). The presence of the lens substance retarded capsule movement by ~21% in the young eyes and by ~62% in the older eyes. Post-ICLE compared to pre-ICLE centripetal accommodative CP movement was dampened in all eyes in which the anterior vitreous was disturbed (n=7), but not in eyes in which the anterior vitreous was left intact (n=2). Following anterior regional zonulolysis (n=4), lens position shifted toward the lysed quadrant during accommodation. Conclusions The presence of the lens substance, capsule zonular attachments, and Wiegers ligament may play a role in centripetal CP movement. The capsule is still capable of centripetal movement in the older eye (although at a reduced capacity) and may have the ability to produce ~6 diopters of accommodation in the presence of a normal young crystalline lens or a similar surrogate. PMID:18552393

  5. The Global Movement for Human Rights Education

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nancy Flowers

    2015-10-01

    Full Text Available An overview of the global movement for human rights education (HRE, its impetus, challenges, and contrasting developments in different regions of the world, focusing especially on Latin America, the Philippines, South Africa, the Middle East, and Europe. Seeks to put HRE in the USA into an international perspective, as well as to show the variety of goals that inspire HRE and how methodologies have evolved to meet specific regional and political cultures and needs.

  6. Capturing human movement patterns in public spaces

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nielsen, Søren Zebitz; Gade, Rikke

    2014-01-01

    Non-intrusive and non-privacy violating tracking of people by the use of thermal cameras and Computer Vision The video shows examples of data collection of pedestrian tracks in an urban plaza using a thermal camera. The data is used in my PhD project on Human Movement Patterns in Smart Cities....... The recording and analysis of the thermal videos has been made in collaboration with Rikke Gade from the Visual Analytics of People Lab at Aalborg University....

  7. Human body region enhancement method based on Kinect infrared imaging

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yang, Lei; Fan, Yubo; Song, Xiaowei; Cai, Wenjing

    2016-10-01

    To effectively improve the low contrast of human body region in the infrared images, a combing method of several enhancement methods is utilized to enhance the human body region. Firstly, for the infrared images acquired by Kinect, in order to improve the overall contrast of the infrared images, an Optimal Contrast-Tone Mapping (OCTM) method with multi-iterations is applied to balance the contrast of low-luminosity infrared images. Secondly, to enhance the human body region better, a Level Set algorithm is employed to improve the contour edges of human body region. Finally, to further improve the human body region in infrared images, Laplacian Pyramid decomposition is adopted to enhance the contour-improved human body region. Meanwhile, the background area without human body region is processed by bilateral filtering to improve the overall effect. With theoretical analysis and experimental verification, the results show that the proposed method could effectively enhance the human body region of such infrared images.

  8. Separating movement and gravity components in an acceleration signal and implications for the assessment of human daily physical activity.

    Science.gov (United States)

    van Hees, Vincent T; Gorzelniak, Lukas; Dean León, Emmanuel Carlos; Eder, Martin; Pias, Marcelo; Taherian, Salman; Ekelund, Ulf; Renström, Frida; Franks, Paul W; Horsch, Alexander; Brage, Søren

    2013-01-01

    Human body acceleration is often used as an indicator of daily physical activity in epidemiological research. Raw acceleration signals contain three basic components: movement, gravity, and noise. Separation of these becomes increasingly difficult during rotational movements. We aimed to evaluate five different methods (metrics) of processing acceleration signals on their ability to remove the gravitational component of acceleration during standardised mechanical movements and the implications for human daily physical activity assessment. An industrial robot rotated accelerometers in the vertical plane. Radius, frequency, and angular range of motion were systematically varied. Three metrics (Euclidian norm minus one [ENMO], Euclidian norm of the high-pass filtered signals [HFEN], and HFEN plus Euclidean norm of low-pass filtered signals minus 1 g [HFEN+]) were derived for each experimental condition and compared against the reference acceleration (forward kinematics) of the robot arm. We then compared metrics derived from human acceleration signals from the wrist and hip in 97 adults (22-65 yr), and wrist in 63 women (20-35 yr) in whom daily activity-related energy expenditure (PAEE) was available. In the robot experiment, HFEN+ had lowest error during (vertical plane) rotations at an oscillating frequency higher than the filter cut-off frequency while for lower frequencies ENMO performed better. In the human experiments, metrics HFEN and ENMO on hip were most discrepant (within- and between-individual explained variance of 0.90 and 0.46, respectively). ENMO, HFEN and HFEN+ explained 34%, 30% and 36% of the variance in daily PAEE, respectively, compared to 26% for a metric which did not attempt to remove the gravitational component (metric EN). In conclusion, none of the metrics as evaluated systematically outperformed all other metrics across a wide range of standardised kinematic conditions. However, choice of metric explains different degrees of variance in

  9. Separating movement and gravity components in an acceleration signal and implications for the assessment of human daily physical activity.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Vincent T van Hees

    Full Text Available INTRODUCTION: Human body acceleration is often used as an indicator of daily physical activity in epidemiological research. Raw acceleration signals contain three basic components: movement, gravity, and noise. Separation of these becomes increasingly difficult during rotational movements. We aimed to evaluate five different methods (metrics of processing acceleration signals on their ability to remove the gravitational component of acceleration during standardised mechanical movements and the implications for human daily physical activity assessment. METHODS: An industrial robot rotated accelerometers in the vertical plane. Radius, frequency, and angular range of motion were systematically varied. Three metrics (Euclidian norm minus one [ENMO], Euclidian norm of the high-pass filtered signals [HFEN], and HFEN plus Euclidean norm of low-pass filtered signals minus 1 g [HFEN+] were derived for each experimental condition and compared against the reference acceleration (forward kinematics of the robot arm. We then compared metrics derived from human acceleration signals from the wrist and hip in 97 adults (22-65 yr, and wrist in 63 women (20-35 yr in whom daily activity-related energy expenditure (PAEE was available. RESULTS: In the robot experiment, HFEN+ had lowest error during (vertical plane rotations at an oscillating frequency higher than the filter cut-off frequency while for lower frequencies ENMO performed better. In the human experiments, metrics HFEN and ENMO on hip were most discrepant (within- and between-individual explained variance of 0.90 and 0.46, respectively. ENMO, HFEN and HFEN+ explained 34%, 30% and 36% of the variance in daily PAEE, respectively, compared to 26% for a metric which did not attempt to remove the gravitational component (metric EN. CONCLUSION: In conclusion, none of the metrics as evaluated systematically outperformed all other metrics across a wide range of standardised kinematic conditions. However, choice

  10. Body-Machine Interface Enables People With Cervical Spinal Cord Injury to Control Devices With Available Body Movements: Proof of Concept.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Abdollahi, Farnaz; Farshchiansadegh, Ali; Pierella, Camilla; Seáñez-González, Ismael; Thorp, Elias; Lee, Mei-Hua; Ranganathan, Rajiv; Pedersen, Jessica; Chen, David; Roth, Elliot; Casadio, Maura; Mussa-Ivaldi, Ferdinando

    2017-05-01

    This study tested the use of a customized body-machine interface (BoMI) for enhancing functional capabilities in persons with cervical spinal cord injury (cSCI). The interface allows people with cSCI to operate external devices by reorganizing their residual movements. This was a proof-of-concept phase 0 interventional nonrandomized clinical trial. Eight cSCI participants wore a custom-made garment with motion sensors placed on the shoulders. Signals derived from the sensors controlled a computer cursor. A standard algorithm extracted the combinations of sensor signals that best captured each participant's capacity for controlling a computer cursor. Participants practiced with the BoMI for 24 sessions over 12 weeks performing 3 tasks: reaching, typing, and game playing. Learning and performance were evaluated by the evolution of movement time, errors, smoothness, and performance metrics specific to each task. Through practice, participants were able to reduce the movement time and the distance from the target at the 1-second mark in the reaching task. They also made straighter and smoother movements while reaching to different targets. All participants became faster in the typing task and more skilled in game playing, as the pong hit rate increased significantly with practice. The results provide proof-of-concept for the customized BoMI as a means for people with absent or severely impaired hand movements to control assistive devices that otherwise would be manually operated.

  11. Body language in the brain: constructing meaning from expressive movement

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Christine Marie Tipper

    2015-08-01

    Full Text Available This fMRI study investigated neural systems that interpret body language - the meaningful emotive expressions conveyed by body movement. Participants watched videos of performers engaged in modern dance or pantomime that conveyed specific themes such as hope, agony, lust, or exhaustion. We tested whether the meaning of an affectively laden performance was decoded in localized brain substrates as a distinct property of action separable from other superficial features, such as choreography, kinematics, performer, and low-level visual stimuli. A repetition suppression (RS procedure was used to identify brain regions that decoded the meaningful affective state of a performer, as evidenced by decreased activity when emotive themes were repeated in successive performances. Because the theme was the only feature repeated across video clips that were otherwise entirely different, the occurrence of RS identified brain substrates that differentially coded the specific meaning of expressive performances. RS was observed bilaterally, extending anteriorly along middle and superior temporal gyri into temporal pole, medially into insula, rostrally into inferior orbitofrontal cortex, and caudally into hippocampus and amygdala. Behavioral data on a separate task indicated that interpreting themes from modern dance was more difficult than interpreting pantomime; a result that was also reflected in the fMRI data. There was greater RS in left hemisphere, suggesting that the more abstract metaphors used to express themes in dance compared to pantomime posed a greater challenge to brain substrates directly involved in decoding those themes. We propose that the meaning-sensitive temporal-orbitofrontal regions observed here comprise a superordinate functional module of a known hierarchical action observation network, which is critical to the construction of meaning from expressive movement. The findings are discussed with respect to a predictive coding model of action

  12. Human Body Image Edge Detection Based on Wavelet Transform

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    李勇; 付小莉

    2003-01-01

    Human dresses are different in thousands way.Human body image signals have big noise, a poor light and shade contrast and a narrow range of gray gradation distribution. The application of a traditional grads method or gray method to detect human body image edges can't obtain satisfactory results because of false detections and missed detections. According to tte peculiarity of human body image, dyadic wavelet transform of cubic spline is successfully applied to detect the face and profile edges of human body image and Mallat algorithm is used in the wavelet decomposition in this paper.

  13. INTRODUCTION TO THE MOVEMENT SYSTEM AS THE FOUNDATION FOR PHYSICAL THERAPIST PRACTICE EDUCATION AND RESEARCH.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Saladin, Lisa; Voight, Michael

    2017-11-01

    In 2013, the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) adopted an inspiring new vision, "Transforming society by optimizing movement to improve the human experience." This new vision for our profession calls us to action as physical therapists to transform society by using our skills, knowledge, and expertise related to the movement system in order to optimize movement, promote health and wellness, mitigate the progression of impairments, and prevent the development of (additional) disability. The guiding principle of the new vision is "identity," which can be summarized as "The physical therapy profession will define and promote the movement system as the foundation for optimizing movement to improve the health of society." Recognition and validation of the movement system is essential to understand the structure, function, and potential of the human body. As currently defined, the "movement system" represents the collection of systems (cardiovascular, pulmonary, endocrine, integumentary, nervous, and musculoskeletal) that interact to move the body or its component parts. By better characterizing physical therapists as movement system experts, we seek to solidify our professional identity within the medical community and society. The physical therapist will be responsible for evaluating and managing an individual's movement system across the lifespan to promote optimal development; diagnose impairments, activity limitations, and participation restrictions; and provide interventions targeted at preventing or ameliorating activity limitations and participation restrictions. 5.

  14. The biokinetics of ruthenium in the human body

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Leggett, Richard Wayne

    2011-01-01

    The biokinetics of ruthenium (Ru) in the human body is of interest due mainly to the potential for occupational or environmental exposure to 106Ru (T1/2 = 373.6 d) and 103Ru (T1/2 = 39.3 d), which typically represent a significant portion of the fission products in a reactor inventory. During reactor operations or nuclear fuel reprocessing these ruthenium isotopes may be present as ruthenium tetroxide (RuO4) vapor, a highly mobile form of ruthenium that has been involved in a number of cases of accidental exposure to 106Ru or 103Ru. This paper summarizes the biokinetic database for ruthenium and proposes a new respiratory model for inhaled RuO4 vapor, a new biokinetic for systemic (absorbed) ruthenium, and material-specific gastrointestinal absorption fractions for ruthenium. The proposed respiratory model for RuO4 differs from the current ICRP model mainly in that it depicts slower clearance of deposited activity from the respiratory tract and lower absorption to blood than depicted in the current ICRP model. The proposed systemic biokinetic model depicts more realistic paths of movement of absorbed ruthenium in the body than the current ICRP model and, in contrast to the present model, a less uniform distribution of systemic activity. Implications of the proposed models with regard to inhalation and ingestion dose coefficients for 106Ru are examined.

  15. Incorporating Human Movement Behavior into the Analysis of Spatially Distributed Infrastructure.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lihua Wu

    Full Text Available For the first time in human history, the majority of the world's population resides in urban areas. Therefore, city managers are faced with new challenges related to the efficiency, equity and quality of the supply of resources, such as water, food and energy. Infrastructure in a city can be viewed as service points providing resources. These service points function together as a spatially collaborative system to serve an increasing population. To study the spatial collaboration among service points, we propose a shared network according to human's collective movement and resource usage based on data usage detail records (UDRs from the cellular network in a city in western China. This network is shown to be not scale-free, but exhibits an interesting triangular property governed by two types of nodes with very different link patterns. Surprisingly, this feature is consistent with the urban-rural dualistic context of the city. Another feature of the shared network is that it consists of several spatially separated communities that characterize local people's active zones but do not completely overlap with administrative areas. According to these features, we propose the incorporation of human movement into infrastructure classification. The presence of well-defined spatially separated clusters confirms the effectiveness of this approach. In this paper, our findings reveal the spatial structure inside a city, and the proposed approach provides a new perspective on integrating human movement into the study of a spatially distributed system.

  16. Incorporating Human Movement Behavior into the Analysis of Spatially Distributed Infrastructure.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wu, Lihua; Leung, Henry; Jiang, Hao; Zheng, Hong; Ma, Li

    2016-01-01

    For the first time in human history, the majority of the world's population resides in urban areas. Therefore, city managers are faced with new challenges related to the efficiency, equity and quality of the supply of resources, such as water, food and energy. Infrastructure in a city can be viewed as service points providing resources. These service points function together as a spatially collaborative system to serve an increasing population. To study the spatial collaboration among service points, we propose a shared network according to human's collective movement and resource usage based on data usage detail records (UDRs) from the cellular network in a city in western China. This network is shown to be not scale-free, but exhibits an interesting triangular property governed by two types of nodes with very different link patterns. Surprisingly, this feature is consistent with the urban-rural dualistic context of the city. Another feature of the shared network is that it consists of several spatially separated communities that characterize local people's active zones but do not completely overlap with administrative areas. According to these features, we propose the incorporation of human movement into infrastructure classification. The presence of well-defined spatially separated clusters confirms the effectiveness of this approach. In this paper, our findings reveal the spatial structure inside a city, and the proposed approach provides a new perspective on integrating human movement into the study of a spatially distributed system.

  17. Human cortical activity related to unilateral movements. A high resolution EEG study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Urbano, A; Babiloni, C; Onorati, P; Babiloni, F

    1996-12-20

    In the present study a modern high resolution electroencephalography (EEG) technique was used to investigate the dynamic functional topography of human cortical activity related to simple unilateral internally triggered finger movements. The sensorimotor area (M1-S1) contralateral to the movement as well as the supplementary motor area (SMA) and to a lesser extent the ipsilateral M1-S1 were active during the preparation and execution of these movements. These findings suggest that both hemispheres may cooperate in both planning and production of simple unilateral volitional acts.

  18. Discrimination of gender-, speed-, and shoe-dependent movement patterns in runners using full-body kinematics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Maurer, Christian; Federolf, Peter; von Tscharner, Vinzenz; Stirling, Lisa; Nigg, Benno M

    2012-05-01

    Changes in gait kinematics have often been analyzed using pattern recognition methods such as principal component analysis (PCA). It is usually just the first few principal components that are analyzed, because they describe the main variability within a dataset and thus represent the main movement patterns. However, while subtle changes in gait pattern (for instance, due to different footwear) may not change main movement patterns, they may affect movements represented by higher principal components. This study was designed to test two hypotheses: (1) speed and gender differences can be observed in the first principal components, and (2) small interventions such as changing footwear change the gait characteristics of higher principal components. Kinematic changes due to different running conditions (speed - 3.1m/s and 4.9 m/s, gender, and footwear - control shoe and adidas MicroBounce shoe) were investigated by applying PCA and support vector machine (SVM) to a full-body reflective marker setup. Differences in speed changed the basic movement pattern, as was reflected by a change in the time-dependent coefficient derived from the first principal. Gender was differentiated by using the time-dependent coefficient derived from intermediate principal components. (Intermediate principal components are characterized by limb rotations of the thigh and shank.) Different shoe conditions were identified in higher principal components. This study showed that different interventions can be analyzed using a full-body kinematic approach. Within the well-defined vector space spanned by the data of all subjects, higher principal components should also be considered because these components show the differences that result from small interventions such as footwear changes. Crown Copyright © 2012. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  19. The Impact of Virtual Reality Environments on Body Movement and Concentration Skills. A Successful Attempt at Teaching Novice Computer Users

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Esther Zaretsky

    2014-04-01

    Full Text Available This research is aimed at investigating the impact of virtual reality technology on body movement and concentration skills by physical education MA students and pupils through action research. The design and manipulation of virtual reality is based on applying the virtual reality environment to the real world as much as possible by controlling space. The researcher taught the method to 55 MA students majoring in physical education. Such procedures were held among various populations. The findings showed that the connection between virtual and human movements and the application of this connection in physical education lessons became clear to the students as they practiced the simulation design and manipulation through specific simulative software. The students used their unique disciplinary programs in their teaching work and reported their pupils' improvement in physical activities and concentration skills. The students were able to integrate theory and practice in their teaching and improved their level of academic writing. The motivation of the students and their pupils to control, design and manipulate virtual environments was also enhanced.

  20. Multichannel Human Body Communication

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Przystup, Piotr; Bujnowski, Adam; Wtorek, Jerzy

    2016-01-01

    Human Body Communication is an attractive alternative for traditional wireless communication (Bluetooth, ZigBee) in case of Body Sensor Networks. Low power, high data rates and data security makes it ideal solution for medical applications. In this paper, signal attenuation for different frequencies, using FR4 electrodes, has been investigated. Performance of single and multichannel transmission with frequency modulation of analog signal has been tested. Experiment results show that HBC is a feasible solution for transmitting data between BSN nodes

  1. Does the cerebellum initiate movement?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thach, W T

    2014-02-01

    Opinion is divided on what the exact function of the cerebellum is. Experiments are summarized that support the following views: (1) the cerebellum is a combiner of multiple movement factors; (2) it contains anatomically fixed permanent focal representation of individual body parts (muscles and segments) and movement modes (e.g., vestibular driven vs. cognitive driven); (3) it contains flexible changing representations/memory of physical properties of the body parts including muscle strength, segment inertia, joint viscosity, and segmental interaction torques (dynamics); (4) it contains mechanisms for learning and storage of the properties in item no. 3 through trial-and-error practice; (5) it provides for linkage of body parts, motor modes, and motordynamics via the parallel fiber system; (6) it combines and integrates the many factors so as to initiate coordinated movements of the many body parts; (7) it is thus enabled to play the unique role of initiating coordinated movements; and (8) this unique causative role is evidenced by the fact that: (a) electrical stimulation of the cerebellum can initiate compound coordinated movements; (b) in naturally initiated compound movements, cerebellar discharge precedes that in downstream target structures such as motor cerebral cortex; and (c) cerebellar ablation abolishes the natural production of compound movements in the awake alert individuals.

  2. Human Identification at a Distance Using Body Shape Information

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rashid, N K A M; Yahya, M F; Shafie, A A

    2013-01-01

    Shape of human body is unique from one person to another. This paper presents an intelligent system approach for human identification at a distance using human body shape information. The body features used are the head, shoulder, and trunk. Image processing techniques for detection of these body features were developed in this work. Then, the features are recognized using fuzzy logic approach and used as inputs to a recognition system based on a multilayer neural network. The developed system is only applicable for recognizing a person from its frontal view and specifically constrained to male gender to simplify the algorithm. In this research, the accuracy for human identification using the proposed method is 77.5%. Thus, it is proved that human can be identified at a distance using body shape information

  3. Noninvasive, three-dimensional full-field body sensor for surface deformation monitoring of human body in vivo

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Zhenning; Shao, Xinxing; He, Xiaoyuan; Wu, Jialin; Xu, Xiangyang; Zhang, Jinlin

    2017-09-01

    Noninvasive, three-dimensional (3-D), full-field surface deformation measurements of the human body are important for biomedical investigations. We proposed a 3-D noninvasive, full-field body sensor based on stereo digital image correlation (stereo-DIC) for surface deformation monitoring of the human body in vivo. First, by applying an improved water-transfer printing (WTP) technique to transfer optimized speckle patterns onto the skin, the body sensor was conveniently and harmlessly fabricated directly onto the human body. Then, stereo-DIC was used to achieve 3-D noncontact and noninvasive surface deformation measurements. The accuracy and efficiency of the proposed body sensor were verified and discussed by considering different complexions. Moreover, the fabrication of speckle patterns on human skin, which has always been considered a challenging problem, was shown to be feasible, effective, and harmless as a result of the improved WTP technique. An application of the proposed stereo-DIC-based body sensor was demonstrated by measuring the pulse wave velocity of human carotid artery.

  4. Illusory movement perception improves motor control for prosthetic hands

    Science.gov (United States)

    Marasco, Paul D.; Hebert, Jacqueline S.; Sensinger, Jon W.; Shell, Courtney E.; Schofield, Jonathon S.; Thumser, Zachary C.; Nataraj, Raviraj; Beckler, Dylan T.; Dawson, Michael R.; Blustein, Dan H.; Gill, Satinder; Mensh, Brett D.; Granja-Vazquez, Rafael; Newcomb, Madeline D.; Carey, Jason P.; Orzell, Beth M.

    2018-01-01

    To effortlessly complete an intentional movement, the brain needs feedback from the body regarding the movement’s progress. This largely non-conscious kinesthetic sense helps the brain to learn relationships between motor commands and outcomes to correct movement errors. Prosthetic systems for restoring function have predominantly focused on controlling motorized joint movement. Without the kinesthetic sense, however, these devices do not become intuitively controllable. Here we report a method for endowing human amputees with a kinesthetic perception of dexterous robotic hands. Vibrating the muscles used for prosthetic control via a neural-machine interface produced the illusory perception of complex grip movements. Within minutes, three amputees integrated this kinesthetic feedback and improved movement control. Combining intent, kinesthesia, and vision instilled participants with a sense of agency over the robotic movements. This feedback approach for closed-loop control opens a pathway to seamless integration of minds and machines. PMID:29540617

  5. Microwave non-contact imaging of subcutaneous human body tissues.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kletsov, Andrey; Chernokalov, Alexander; Khripkov, Alexander; Cho, Jaegeol; Druchinin, Sergey

    2015-10-01

    A small-size microwave sensor is developed for non-contact imaging of a human body structure in 2D, enabling fitness and health monitoring using mobile devices. A method for human body tissue structure imaging is developed and experimentally validated. Subcutaneous fat tissue reconstruction depth of up to 70 mm and maximum fat thickness measurement error below 2 mm are demonstrated by measurements with a human body phantom and human subjects. Electrically small antennas are developed for integration of the microwave sensor into a mobile device. Usability of the developed microwave sensor for fitness applications, healthcare, and body weight management is demonstrated.

  6. Leveraging Two Kinect Sensors for Accurate Full-Body Motion Capture

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zhiquan Gao

    2015-09-01

    Full Text Available Accurate motion capture plays an important role in sports analysis, the medical field and virtual reality. Current methods for motion capture often suffer from occlusions, which limits the accuracy of their pose estimation. In this paper, we propose a complete system to measure the pose parameters of the human body accurately. Different from previous monocular depth camera systems, we leverage two Kinect sensors to acquire more information about human movements, which ensures that we can still get an accurate estimation even when significant occlusion occurs. Because human motion is temporally constant, we adopt a learning analysis to mine the temporal information across the posture variations. Using this information, we estimate human pose parameters accurately, regardless of rapid movement. Our experimental results show that our system can perform an accurate pose estimation of the human body with the constraint of information from the temporal domain.

  7. Stretch sensors for human body motion

    Science.gov (United States)

    O'Brien, Ben; Gisby, Todd; Anderson, Iain A.

    2014-03-01

    Sensing motion of the human body is a difficult task. From an engineers' perspective people are soft highly mobile objects that move in and out of complex environments. As well as the technical challenge of sensing, concepts such as comfort, social intrusion, usability, and aesthetics are paramount in determining whether someone will adopt a sensing solution or not. At the same time the demands for human body motion sensing are growing fast. Athletes want feedback on posture and technique, consumers need new ways to interact with augmented reality devices, and healthcare providers wish to track recovery of a patient. Dielectric elastomer stretch sensors are ideal for bridging this gap. They are soft, flexible, and precise. They are low power, lightweight, and can be easily mounted on the body or embedded into clothing. From a commercialisation point of view stretch sensing is easier than actuation or generation - such sensors can be low voltage and integrated with conventional microelectronics. This paper takes a birds-eye view of the use of these sensors to measure human body motion. A holistic description of sensor operation and guidelines for sensor design will be presented to help technologists and developers in the space.

  8. Moving Along: In biomechanics, rehabilitation engineering, and movement analysis, Italian researchers are making great strides.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gugliellmelli, Eugenio; Micera, Silvestro; Migliavacca, Francesco; Pedotti, Antonio

    2015-01-01

    In Italy, biomechanics research and the analysis of human and animal movement have had a very long history, beginning with the exceptional pioneering work of Leonardo da Vinci. In 1489, da Vinci began investigating human anatomy, including an examination of human tendons, muscles, and the skeletal system. He continued this line of inquiry later in life, identifying what he called "the four powers--movement, weight, force, and percussion"--and how he thought they worked in the human body. His approach, by the way, was very modern--analyzing nature through anatomy, developing models for interpretation, and transferring this knowledge to bio-inspired machines.

  9. Fundamental Movement Skill Proficiency and Body Composition Measured by Dual Energy X-Ray Absorptiometry in Eight-Year-Old Children

    Science.gov (United States)

    Slotte, Sari; Sääkslahti, Arja; Metsämuuronen, Jari; Rintala, Pauli

    2015-01-01

    Objective: The main aim was to examine the association between fundamental movement skills (FMS) and objectively measured body composition using dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA). Methods: A study of 304 eight-year-old children in Finland. FMS were assessed with the "Test of gross motor development," 2nd ed. Total body fat…

  10. The demographics of human and malaria movement and migration patterns in East Africa.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pindolia, Deepa K; Garcia, Andres J; Huang, Zhuojie; Smith, David L; Alegana, Victor A; Noor, Abdisalan M; Snow, Robert W; Tatem, Andrew J

    2013-11-05

    The quantification of parasite movements can provide valuable information for control strategy planning across all transmission intensities. Mobile parasite carrying individuals can instigate transmission in receptive areas, spread drug resistant strains and reduce the effectiveness of control strategies. The identification of mobile demographic groups, their routes of travel and how these movements connect differing transmission zones, potentially enables limited resources for interventions to be efficiently targeted over space, time and populations. National population censuses and household surveys provide individual-level migration, travel, and other data relevant for understanding malaria movement patterns. Together with existing spatially referenced malaria data and mathematical models, network analysis techniques were used to quantify the demographics of human and malaria movement patterns in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. Movement networks were developed based on connectivity and magnitudes of flow within each country and compared to assess relative differences between regions and demographic groups. Additional malaria-relevant characteristics, such as short-term travel and bed net use, were also examined. Patterns of human and malaria movements varied between demographic groups, within country regions and between countries. Migration rates were highest in 20-30 year olds in all three countries, but when accounting for malaria prevalence, movements in the 10-20 year age group became more important. Different age and sex groups also exhibited substantial variations in terms of the most likely sources, sinks and routes of migration and malaria movement, as well as risk factors for infection, such as short-term travel and bed net use. Census and survey data, together with spatially referenced malaria data, GIS and network analysis tools, can be valuable for identifying, mapping and quantifying regional connectivities and the mobility of different demographic

  11. Dance/Movement Therapy: A Unique Career Opportunity.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Armeniox, Leslie Flint

    Dance and movement therapy is a form of psychotherapy that uses the body, dance, and movement as the primary mediums for the therapeutic process. Dance is a fundamental art form that involves the body as an instrument of self-expression; movement is a universal means of learning and communicating. Dance and movement therapy is the…

  12. Post-human body and beauty.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Russo, Maria Teresa; Di Stefano, Nicola

    2014-01-01

    The article calls into question the very possibility of a post-human aesthetics, starting from the following premise: rather than post-human, it is more correct to speak of post-natural, indicating by this expression a reality produced through a new type of evolution, which does not simply change human nature, but de-natures it, radically transforming it into an artefact. This post-nature which aspires to be perfect, immortal, invulnerable, is entirely devoid of beauty. In fact, while there may be an aesthetic of the artificial and of the artefact if it is in relation to objects, there is, however, no aesthetic of the post-human body. This is because is configured as a non-body and does not have the characteristics for what is commonly intended as beauty (harmony between matter and form, a reflection of inner life, uniqueness). Also in this case, it is more correct to speak of post-beauty, which in its properties appears to be the mirror image of beauty and ultimately, represents its complete dissolution.

  13. Energy expenditure estimation in beta-blocker-medicated cardiac patients by combining heart rate and body movement data

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Kraal, Jos J.; Sartor, Francesco; Papini, Gabriele; Stut, Wim; Peek, Niels; Kemps, Hareld Mc; Bonomi, Alberto G.

    2016-01-01

    Accurate assessment of energy expenditure provides an opportunity to monitor physical activity during cardiac rehabilitation. However, the available assessment methods, based on the combination of heart rate (HR) and body movement data, are not applicable for patients using beta-blocker medication.

  14. Noninvasive, three-dimensional full-field body sensor for surface deformation monitoring of human body in vivo.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Zhenning; Shao, Xinxing; He, Xiaoyuan; Wu, Jialin; Xu, Xiangyang; Zhang, Jinlin

    2017-09-01

    Noninvasive, three-dimensional (3-D), full-field surface deformation measurements of the human body are important for biomedical investigations. We proposed a 3-D noninvasive, full-field body sensor based on stereo digital image correlation (stereo-DIC) for surface deformation monitoring of the human body in vivo. First, by applying an improved water-transfer printing (WTP) technique to transfer optimized speckle patterns onto the skin, the body sensor was conveniently and harmlessly fabricated directly onto the human body. Then, stereo-DIC was used to achieve 3-D noncontact and noninvasive surface deformation measurements. The accuracy and efficiency of the proposed body sensor were verified and discussed by considering different complexions. Moreover, the fabrication of speckle patterns on human skin, which has always been considered a challenging problem, was shown to be feasible, effective, and harmless as a result of the improved WTP technique. An application of the proposed stereo-DIC-based body sensor was demonstrated by measuring the pulse wave velocity of human carotid artery. (2017) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE).

  15. Restoring cortical control of functional movement in a human with quadriplegia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bouton, Chad E; Shaikhouni, Ammar; Annetta, Nicholas V; Bockbrader, Marcia A; Friedenberg, David A; Nielson, Dylan M; Sharma, Gaurav; Sederberg, Per B; Glenn, Bradley C; Mysiw, W Jerry; Morgan, Austin G; Deogaonkar, Milind; Rezai, Ali R

    2016-05-12

    Millions of people worldwide suffer from diseases that lead to paralysis through disruption of signal pathways between the brain and the muscles. Neuroprosthetic devices are designed to restore lost function and could be used to form an electronic 'neural bypass' to circumvent disconnected pathways in the nervous system. It has previously been shown that intracortically recorded signals can be decoded to extract information related to motion, allowing non-human primates and paralysed humans to control computers and robotic arms through imagined movements. In non-human primates, these types of signal have also been used to drive activation of chemically paralysed arm muscles. Here we show that intracortically recorded signals can be linked in real-time to muscle activation to restore movement in a paralysed human. We used a chronically implanted intracortical microelectrode array to record multiunit activity from the motor cortex in a study participant with quadriplegia from cervical spinal cord injury. We applied machine-learning algorithms to decode the neuronal activity and control activation of the participant's forearm muscles through a custom-built high-resolution neuromuscular electrical stimulation system. The system provided isolated finger movements and the participant achieved continuous cortical control of six different wrist and hand motions. Furthermore, he was able to use the system to complete functional tasks relevant to daily living. Clinical assessment showed that, when using the system, his motor impairment improved from the fifth to the sixth cervical (C5-C6) to the seventh cervical to first thoracic (C7-T1) level unilaterally, conferring on him the critical abilities to grasp, manipulate, and release objects. This is the first demonstration to our knowledge of successful control of muscle activation using intracortically recorded signals in a paralysed human. These results have significant implications in advancing neuroprosthetic technology

  16. Eye movements reveal epistemic curiosity in human observers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Baranes, Adrien; Oudeyer, Pierre-Yves; Gottlieb, Jacqueline

    2015-12-01

    Saccadic (rapid) eye movements are primary means by which humans and non-human primates sample visual information. However, while saccadic decisions are intensively investigated in instrumental contexts where saccades guide subsequent actions, it is largely unknown how they may be influenced by curiosity - the intrinsic desire to learn. While saccades are sensitive to visual novelty and visual surprise, no study has examined their relation to epistemic curiosity - interest in symbolic, semantic information. To investigate this question, we tracked the eye movements of human observers while they read trivia questions and, after a brief delay, were visually given the answer. We show that higher curiosity was associated with earlier anticipatory orienting of gaze toward the answer location without changes in other metrics of saccades or fixations, and that these influences were distinct from those produced by variations in confidence and surprise. Across subjects, the enhancement of anticipatory gaze was correlated with measures of trait curiosity from personality questionnaires. Finally, a machine learning algorithm could predict curiosity in a cross-subject manner, relying primarily on statistical features of the gaze position before the answer onset and independently of covariations in confidence or surprise, suggesting potential practical applications for educational technologies, recommender systems and research in cognitive sciences. With this article, we provide full access to the annotated database allowing readers to reproduce the results. Epistemic curiosity produces specific effects on oculomotor anticipation that can be used to read out curiosity states. Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

  17. Computational Model-Based Prediction of Human Episodic Memory Performance Based on Eye Movements

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sato, Naoyuki; Yamaguchi, Yoko

    Subjects' episodic memory performance is not simply reflected by eye movements. We use a ‘theta phase coding’ model of the hippocampus to predict subjects' memory performance from their eye movements. Results demonstrate the ability of the model to predict subjects' memory performance. These studies provide a novel approach to computational modeling in the human-machine interface.

  18. Physical interface dynamics alter how robotic exosuits augment human movement: implications for optimizing wearable assistive devices.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yandell, Matthew B; Quinlivan, Brendan T; Popov, Dmitry; Walsh, Conor; Zelik, Karl E

    2017-05-18

    Wearable assistive devices have demonstrated the potential to improve mobility outcomes for individuals with disabilities, and to augment healthy human performance; however, these benefits depend on how effectively power is transmitted from the device to the human user. Quantifying and understanding this power transmission is challenging due to complex human-device interface dynamics that occur as biological tissues and physical interface materials deform and displace under load, absorbing and returning power. Here we introduce a new methodology for quickly estimating interface power dynamics during movement tasks using common motion capture and force measurements, and then apply this method to quantify how a soft robotic ankle exosuit interacts with and transfers power to the human body during walking. We partition exosuit end-effector power (i.e., power output from the device) into power that augments ankle plantarflexion (termed augmentation power) vs. power that goes into deformation and motion of interface materials and underlying soft tissues (termed interface power). We provide empirical evidence of how human-exosuit interfaces absorb and return energy, reshaping exosuit-to-human power flow and resulting in three key consequences: (i) During exosuit loading (as applied forces increased), about 55% of exosuit end-effector power was absorbed into the interfaces. (ii) However, during subsequent exosuit unloading (as applied forces decreased) most of the absorbed interface power was returned viscoelastically. Consequently, the majority (about 75%) of exosuit end-effector work over each stride contributed to augmenting ankle plantarflexion. (iii) Ankle augmentation power (and work) was delayed relative to exosuit end-effector power, due to these interface energy absorption and return dynamics. Our findings elucidate the complexities of human-exosuit interface dynamics during transmission of power from assistive devices to the human body, and provide insight into

  19. In-to-out body path loss for wireless radio frequency capsule endoscopy in a human body.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vermeeren, G; Tanghe, E; Thielens, A; Martens, L; Joseph, W

    2016-08-01

    Physical-layer characterization is important for design of in-to-out body communication for wireless body area networks (WBANs). This paper numerically investigates the path loss of an in-to-out body radio frequency (RF) wireless link between an endoscopy capsule and a receiver outside the body using a 3D electromagnetic solver. A spiral antenna in the endoscopy capsule is tuned to operate in the Medical Implant Communication Service (MICS) band at 402 MHz, accounting for the properties of the human body. The influence of misalignment, rotation of the capsule, and human body model are investigated. Semi-empirical path loss models for various homogeneous tissues and 3D realistic human body models are provided for manufacturers to evaluate the performance of in-to-out-body WBAN systems.

  20. Reading Emotions from Body Movement: A Generalized Impairment in Schizophrenia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vaskinn, Anja; Sundet, Kjetil; Østefjells, Tiril; Nymo, Katharina; Melle, Ingrid; Ueland, Torill

    2015-01-01

    Body language reading is a social cognitive process with importance for successful maneuvering of social situations. In this study, we investigated body language reading as assessed with human point-light displays in participants with a diagnosis of schizophrenia (n = 84) compared to healthy control participants (n = 84), aiming to answer three questions: (1) whether persons with a diagnosis of schizophrenia have poorer body language reading abilities than healthy persons; (2) whether some emotions are easier to read from body language than others, and if this is the same for individuals with schizophrenia and healthy individuals, and (3) whether there are sex differences in body language reading in participants with schizophrenia and healthy participants. A fourth research aim concerned associations of body language reading with symptoms and functioning in participants with schizophrenia. Scores on the body language reading measure was first standardized using a separate sample of healthy control participants (n = 101). Further results showed that persons with schizophrenia had impaired body language reading ability compared to healthy persons. A significant effect of emotion indicated that some emotions (happiness, neutral) were easier to recognize and this was so for both individuals with schizophrenia and healthy individuals. There were no sex differences for either diagnostic group. Body language reading ability was not associated with symptoms or functioning. In conclusion; schizophrenia was characterized by a global impairment in body language reading that was present for all emotions and across sex.

  1. Reading emotions from body movement: a generalized impairment in schizophrenia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Anja eVaskinn

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Body language reading is a social cognitive process with importance for successful maneuvering of social situations. In this study, we investigated body language reading as assessed with human point-light displays in participants with a diagnosis of schizophrenia (n = 84 compared to healthy control participants (n = 84, aiming to answer three questions: 1 whether persons with a diagnosis of schizophrenia have poorer body language reading abilities than healthy persons; 2 whether some emotions are easier to read from body language than others, and if this is the same for individuals with schizophrenia and healthy individuals, and 3 whether there are sex differences in body language reading in participants with schizophrenia and healthy participants. A fourth research aim concerned associations of body language reading with symptoms and functioning in participants with schizophrenia. Scores on the body language reading measure was first standardized using a separate sample of healthy control participants (n = 101. Further results showed that persons with schizophrenia had impaired body language reading ability compared to healthy persons. A significant effect of emotion indicated that some emotions (happiness, neutral were easier to recognize and this was so for both individuals with schizophrenia and healthy individuals. There were no sex differences for either diagnostic group. Body language reading ability was not associated with symptoms or functioning. In conclusion; schizophrenia was characterized by a global impairment in body language reading that was present for all emotions and across sex.

  2. Detection of Nonverbal Synchronization through Phase Difference in Human Communication.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kwon, Jinhwan; Ogawa, Ken-ichiro; Ono, Eisuke; Miyake, Yoshihiro

    2015-01-01

    Nonverbal communication is an important factor in human communication, and body movement synchronization in particular is an important part of nonverbal communication. Some researchers have analyzed body movement synchronization by focusing on changes in the amplitude of body movements. However, the definition of "body movement synchronization" is still unclear. From a theoretical viewpoint, phase difference is the most important factor in synchronization analysis. Therefore, there is a need to measure the synchronization of body movements using phase difference. The purpose of this study was to provide a quantitative definition of the phase difference distribution for detecting body movement synchronization in human communication. The phase difference distribution was characterized using four statistical measurements: density, mean phase difference, standard deviation (SD) and kurtosis. To confirm the effectiveness of our definition, we applied it to human communication in which the roles of speaker and listener were defined. Specifically, we examined the difference in the phase difference distribution between two different communication situations: face-to-face communication with visual interaction and remote communication with unidirectional visual perception. Participant pairs performed a task supposing lecture in the face-to-face communication condition and in the remote communication condition via television. Throughout the lecture task, we extracted a set of phase differences from the time-series data of the acceleration norm of head nodding motions between two participants. Statistical analyses of the phase difference distribution revealed the characteristics of head nodding synchronization. Although the mean phase differences in synchronized head nods did not differ significantly between the conditions, there were significant differences in the densities, the SDs and the kurtoses of the phase difference distributions of synchronized head nods. These

  3. Detection of Nonverbal Synchronization through Phase Difference in Human Communication.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jinhwan Kwon

    Full Text Available Nonverbal communication is an important factor in human communication, and body movement synchronization in particular is an important part of nonverbal communication. Some researchers have analyzed body movement synchronization by focusing on changes in the amplitude of body movements. However, the definition of "body movement synchronization" is still unclear. From a theoretical viewpoint, phase difference is the most important factor in synchronization analysis. Therefore, there is a need to measure the synchronization of body movements using phase difference. The purpose of this study was to provide a quantitative definition of the phase difference distribution for detecting body movement synchronization in human communication. The phase difference distribution was characterized using four statistical measurements: density, mean phase difference, standard deviation (SD and kurtosis. To confirm the effectiveness of our definition, we applied it to human communication in which the roles of speaker and listener were defined. Specifically, we examined the difference in the phase difference distribution between two different communication situations: face-to-face communication with visual interaction and remote communication with unidirectional visual perception. Participant pairs performed a task supposing lecture in the face-to-face communication condition and in the remote communication condition via television. Throughout the lecture task, we extracted a set of phase differences from the time-series data of the acceleration norm of head nodding motions between two participants. Statistical analyses of the phase difference distribution revealed the characteristics of head nodding synchronization. Although the mean phase differences in synchronized head nods did not differ significantly between the conditions, there were significant differences in the densities, the SDs and the kurtoses of the phase difference distributions of synchronized head

  4. Body odor quality predicts behavioral attractiveness in humans.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Roberts, S Craig; Kralevich, Alexandra; Ferdenzi, Camille; Saxton, Tamsin K; Jones, Benedict C; DeBruine, Lisa M; Little, Anthony C; Havlicek, Jan

    2011-12-01

    Growing effort is being made to understand how different attractive physical traits co-vary within individuals, partly because this might indicate an underlying index of genetic quality. In humans, attention has focused on potential markers of quality such as facial attractiveness, axillary odor quality, the second-to-fourth digit (2D:4D) ratio and body mass index (BMI). Here we extend this approach to include visually-assessed kinesic cues (nonverbal behavior linked to movement) which are statistically independent of structural physical traits. The utility of such kinesic cues in mate assessment is controversial, particularly during everyday conversational contexts, as they could be unreliable and susceptible to deception. However, we show here that the attractiveness of nonverbal behavior, in 20 male participants, is predicted by perceived quality of their axillary body odor. This finding indicates covariation between two desirable traits in different sensory modalities. Depending on two different rating contexts (either a simple attractiveness rating or a rating for long-term partners by 10 female raters not using hormonal contraception), we also found significant relationships between perceived attractiveness of nonverbal behavior and BMI, and between axillary odor ratings and 2D:4D ratio. Axillary odor pleasantness was the single attribute that consistently predicted attractiveness of nonverbal behavior. Our results demonstrate that nonverbal kinesic cues could reliably reveal mate quality, at least in males, and could corroborate and contribute to mate assessment based on other physical traits.

  5. Dystonia and paroxysmal dyskinesias: under-recognized movement disorders in domestic animals? A comparison with human dystonia/paroxysmal dyskinesias.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Angelika eRichter

    2015-11-01

    Full Text Available Dystonia is defined as a neurological syndrome characterized by involuntary sustained or intermittent muscle contractions causing twisting, often repetitive movements and postures. Paroxysmal dyskinesias are episodic movement disorders encompassing dystonia, chorea, athetosis and ballism in conscious individuals. Several decades of research have enhanced the understanding of the etiology of human dystonia and dyskinesias that are associated with dystonia, but the pathophysiology remains largely unknown. The spontaneous occurrence of hereditary dystonia and paroxysmal dyskinesia is well documented in rodents used as animal models in basic dystonia research. Several hyperkinetic movement disorders, described in dogs, horses and cattle, show similarities to these human movement disorders. Although dystonia is regarded as the third most common movement disorder in humans, it is often misdiagnosed because of the heterogeneity of etiology and clinical presentation. Since these conditions are poorly known in veterinary practice, their prevalence may be underestimated in veterinary medicine. In order to attract attention to these movement disorders, i.e. dystonia and paroxysmal dyskinesias associated with dystonia, and to enhance interest in translational research, this review gives a brief overview of the current literature regarding dystonia/paroxysmal dyskinesia in humans, and summarizes similar hereditary movement disorders reported in domestic animals.

  6. Laboratory Validation of Inertial Body Sensors to Detect Cigarette Smoking Arm Movements

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bethany R. Raiff

    2014-02-01

    Full Text Available Cigarette smoking remains the leading cause of preventable death in the United States. Traditional in-clinic cessation interventions may fail to intervene and interrupt the rapid progression to relapse that typically occurs following a quit attempt. The ability to detect actual smoking behavior in real-time is a measurement challenge for health behavior research and intervention. The successful detection of real-time smoking through mobile health (mHealth methodology has substantial implications for developing highly efficacious treatment interventions. The current study was aimed at further developing and testing the ability of inertial sensors to detect cigarette smoking arm movements among smokers. The current study involved four smokers who smoked six cigarettes each in a laboratory-based assessment. Participants were outfitted with four inertial body movement sensors on the arms, which were used to detect smoking events at two levels: the puff level and the cigarette level. Two different algorithms (Support Vector Machines (SVM and Edge-Detection based learning were trained to detect the features of arm movement sequences transmitted by the sensors that corresponded with each level. The results showed that performance of the SVM algorithm at the cigarette level exceeded detection at the individual puff level, with low rates of false positive puff detection. The current study is the second in a line of programmatic research demonstrating the proof-of-concept for sensor-based tracking of smoking, based on movements of the arm and wrist. This study demonstrates efficacy in a real-world clinical inpatient setting and is the first to provide a detection rate against direct observation, enabling calculation of true and false positive rates. The study results indicate that the approach performs very well with some participants, whereas some challenges remain with participants who generate more frequent non-smoking movements near the face. Future

  7. Human movement data for malaria control and elimination strategic planning.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pindolia, Deepa K; Garcia, Andres J; Wesolowski, Amy; Smith, David L; Buckee, Caroline O; Noor, Abdisalan M; Snow, Robert W; Tatem, Andrew J

    2012-06-18

    Recent increases in funding for malaria control have led to the reduction in transmission in many malaria endemic countries, prompting the national control programmes of 36 malaria endemic countries to set elimination targets. Accounting for human population movement (HPM) in planning for control, elimination and post-elimination surveillance is important, as evidenced by previous elimination attempts that were undermined by the reintroduction of malaria through HPM. Strategic control and elimination planning, therefore, requires quantitative information on HPM patterns and the translation of these into parasite dispersion. HPM patterns and the risk of malaria vary substantially across spatial and temporal scales, demographic and socioeconomic sub-groups, and motivation for travel, so multiple data sets are likely required for quantification of movement. While existing studies based on mobile phone call record data combined with malaria transmission maps have begun to address within-country HPM patterns, other aspects remain poorly quantified despite their importance in accurately gauging malaria movement patterns and building control and detection strategies, such as cross-border HPM, demographic and socioeconomic stratification of HPM patterns, forms of transport, personal malaria protection and other factors that modify malaria risk. A wealth of data exist to aid filling these gaps, which, when combined with spatial data on transport infrastructure, traffic and malaria transmission, can answer relevant questions to guide strategic planning. This review aims to (i) discuss relevant types of HPM across spatial and temporal scales, (ii) document where datasets exist to quantify HPM, (iii) highlight where data gaps remain and (iv) briefly put forward methods for integrating these datasets in a Geographic Information System (GIS) framework for analysing and modelling human population and Plasmodium falciparum malaria infection movements.

  8. Human arm stiffness and equilibrium-point trajectory during multi-joint movement.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gomi, H; Kawato, M

    1997-03-01

    By using a newly designed high-performance manipulandum and a new estimation algorithm, we measured human multi-joint arm stiffness parameters during multi-joint point-to-point movements on a horizontal plane. This manipulandum allows us to apply a sufficient perturbation to subject's arm within a brief period during movement. Arm stiffness parameters were reliably estimated using a new algorithm, in which all unknown structural parameters could be estimated independent of arm posture (i.e., constant values under any arm posture). Arm stiffness during transverse movement was considerably greater than that during corresponding posture, but not during a longitudinal movement. Although the ratios of elbow, shoulder, and double-joint stiffness were varied in time, the orientation of stiffness ellipses during the movement did not change much. Equilibrium-point trajectories that were predicted from measured stiffness parameters and actual trajectories were slightly sinusoidally curved in Cartesian space and their velocity profiles were quite different from the velocity profiles of actual hand trajectories. This result contradicts the hypothesis that the brain does not take the dynamics into account in movement control depending on the neuromuscular servo mechanism; rather, it implies that the brain needs to acquire some internal models of controlled objects.

  9. Self-Active Relaxation Therapy (SART) and Self-Regulation: A Comprehensive Review and Comparison of the Japanese Body Movement Approach

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kabir, Russell S.; Haramaki, Yutaka; Ki, Hyeyoung; Ohno, Hiroyuki

    2018-01-01

    Relaxation programs are known for their versatility, cost-effectiveness, and ability to help people obtain skills to regulate their mental states and promote and maintain health. Self-Active Relaxation Therapy (SART) is a body-oriented approach to psychological rehabilitation that grew out of the suite of movement tasks developed in the Japanese psychotherapy known as Dohsa-hou, or the body movement method. The program for SART is designed to stretch, twist, and release areas of the upper, lower, and whole body through a set of movements which are guided by the practitioner and performed “self-actively” by the client to empower them to learn to recognize points of tension in the body and act on their own to achieve a relaxed state. Numerous studies have showed that SART is associated with reduced negative mood states and enhanced body awareness. A short version of SART has been investigated as a psychological support salon activity for the elderly, mothers raising children, special needs students, and children adapting to school. The full program has also been applied in clinical settings to address or supplement treatments for psychological and developmental conditions, and longitudinally employed in community contexts to assist residents facing long-term disaster recovery circumstances in Japan. This paper reviews the research and applications of SART as a bodymind approach by critically examining evidence and research gaps for future studies, comparing it with techniques established in the literature, and positing a self-regulatory framework for SART as a tool to become aware of bodily states, regulate mood, and manage stress through the deliberate practice of relaxation. PMID:29472851

  10. Methodological aspects of EEG and Body dynamics measurements during motion.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Pedro eReis

    2014-03-01

    Full Text Available EEG involves recording, analysis, and interpretation of voltages recorded on the human scalp originating from brain grey matter. EEG is one of the favorite methods to study and understand processes that underlie behavior. This is so, because EEG is relatively cheap, easy to wear, light weight and has high temporal resolution. In terms of behavior, this encompasses actions, such as movements, that are performed in response to the environment. However, there are methodological difficulties when recording EEG during movement such as movement artifacts. Thus, most studies about the human brain have examined activations during static conditions. This article attempts to compile and describe relevant methodological solutions that emerged in order to measure body and brain dynamics during motion. These descriptions cover suggestions of how to avoid and reduce motion artifacts, hardware, software and techniques for synchronously recording EEG, EMG, kinematics, kinetics and eye movements during motion. Additionally, we present various recording systems, EEG electrodes, caps and methods for determination of real/custom electrode positions. In the end we will conclude that it is possible to record and analyze synchronized brain and body dynamics related to movement or exercise tasks.

  11. An improved method to determine neuromuscular properties using force laws - From single muscle to applications in human movements.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Siebert, T; Sust, M; Thaller, S; Tilp, M; Wagner, H

    2007-04-01

    We evaluate an improved method for individually determining neuromuscular properties in vivo. The method is based on Hill's equation used as a force law combined with Newton's equation of motion. To ensure the range of validity of Hill's equation, we first perform detailed investigations on in vitro single muscles. The force-velocity relation determined with the model coincides well with results obtained by standard methods (r=.99) above 20% of the isometric force. In addition, the model-predicted force curves during work loop contractions very well agree with measurements (mean difference: 2-3%). Subsequently, we deduce theoretically under which conditions it is possible to combine several muscles of the human body to model muscles. This leads to a model equation for human leg extension movements containing parameters for the muscle properties and for the activation. To numerically determine these invariant neuromuscular properties we devise an experimental method based on concentric and isometric leg extensions. With this method we determine individual muscle parameters from experiments such that the simulated curves agree well with experiments (r=.99). A reliability test with 12 participants revealed correlations r=.72-.91 for the neuromuscular parameters (p<.01). Predictions of similar movements under different conditions show mean errors of about 5%. In addition, we present applications in sports practise and theory.

  12. Motor imagery beyond the motor repertoire: Activity in the primary visual cortex during kinesthetic motor imagery of difficult whole body movements.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mizuguchi, N; Nakata, H; Kanosue, K

    2016-02-19

    To elucidate the neural substrate associated with capabilities for kinesthetic motor imagery of difficult whole-body movements, we measured brain activity during a trial involving both kinesthetic motor imagery and action observation as well as during a trial with action observation alone. Brain activity was assessed with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Nineteen participants imagined three types of whole-body movements with the horizontal bar: the giant swing, kip, and chin-up during action observation. No participant had previously tried to perform the giant swing. The vividness of kinesthetic motor imagery as assessed by questionnaire was highest for the chin-up, less for the kip and lowest for the giant swing. Activity in the primary visual cortex (V1) during kinesthetic motor imagery with action observation minus that during action observation alone was significantly greater in the giant swing condition than in the chin-up condition within participants. Across participants, V1 activity of kinesthetic motor imagery of the kip during action observation minus that during action observation alone was negatively correlated with vividness of the kip imagery. These results suggest that activity in V1 is dependent upon the capability of kinesthetic motor imagery for difficult whole-body movements. Since V1 activity is likely related to the creation of a visual image, we speculate that visual motor imagery is recruited unintentionally for the less vivid kinesthetic motor imagery of difficult whole-body movements. Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

  13. A Neuro-Fuzzy System for Characterization of Arm Movements

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alexandre Balbinot

    2013-02-01

    Full Text Available The myoelectric signal reflects the electrical activity of skeletal muscles and contains information about the structure and function of the muscles which make different parts of the body move. Advances in engineering have extended electromyography beyond the traditional diagnostic applications to also include applications in diverse areas such as rehabilitation, movement analysis and myoelectric control of prosthesis. This paper aims to study and develop a system that uses myoelectric signals, acquired by surface electrodes, to characterize certain movements of the human arm. To recognize certain hand-arm segment movements, was developed an algorithm for pattern recognition technique based on neuro-fuzzy, representing the core of this research. This algorithm has as input the preprocessed myoelectric signal, to disclosed specific characteristics of the signal, and as output the performed movement. The average accuracy obtained was 86% to 7 distinct movements in tests of long duration (about three hours.

  14. Exploiting Human Resource Requirements to Infer Human Movement Patterns for Use in Modelling Disease Transmission Systems: An Example from Eastern Province, Zambia.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Simon Alderton

    Full Text Available In this research, an agent-based model (ABM was developed to generate human movement routes between homes and water resources in a rural setting, given commonly available geospatial datasets on population distribution, land cover and landscape resources. ABMs are an object-oriented computational approach to modelling a system, focusing on the interactions of autonomous agents, and aiming to assess the impact of these agents and their interactions on the system as a whole. An A* pathfinding algorithm was implemented to produce walking routes, given data on the terrain in the area. A* is an extension of Dijkstra's algorithm with an enhanced time performance through the use of heuristics. In this example, it was possible to impute daily activity movement patterns to the water resource for all villages in a 75 km long study transect across the Luangwa Valley, Zambia, and the simulated human movements were statistically similar to empirical observations on travel times to the water resource (Chi-squared, 95% confidence interval. This indicates that it is possible to produce realistic data regarding human movements without costly measurement as is commonly achieved, for example, through GPS, or retrospective or real-time diaries. The approach is transferable between different geographical locations, and the product can be useful in providing an insight into human movement patterns, and therefore has use in many human exposure-related applications, specifically epidemiological research in rural areas, where spatial heterogeneity in the disease landscape, and space-time proximity of individuals, can play a crucial role in disease spread.

  15. Exploiting Human Resource Requirements to Infer Human Movement Patterns for Use in Modelling Disease Transmission Systems: An Example from Eastern Province, Zambia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alderton, Simon; Noble, Jason; Schaten, Kathrin; Welburn, Susan C; Atkinson, Peter M

    2015-01-01

    In this research, an agent-based model (ABM) was developed to generate human movement routes between homes and water resources in a rural setting, given commonly available geospatial datasets on population distribution, land cover and landscape resources. ABMs are an object-oriented computational approach to modelling a system, focusing on the interactions of autonomous agents, and aiming to assess the impact of these agents and their interactions on the system as a whole. An A* pathfinding algorithm was implemented to produce walking routes, given data on the terrain in the area. A* is an extension of Dijkstra's algorithm with an enhanced time performance through the use of heuristics. In this example, it was possible to impute daily activity movement patterns to the water resource for all villages in a 75 km long study transect across the Luangwa Valley, Zambia, and the simulated human movements were statistically similar to empirical observations on travel times to the water resource (Chi-squared, 95% confidence interval). This indicates that it is possible to produce realistic data regarding human movements without costly measurement as is commonly achieved, for example, through GPS, or retrospective or real-time diaries. The approach is transferable between different geographical locations, and the product can be useful in providing an insight into human movement patterns, and therefore has use in many human exposure-related applications, specifically epidemiological research in rural areas, where spatial heterogeneity in the disease landscape, and space-time proximity of individuals, can play a crucial role in disease spread.

  16. A Circuit Model of Real Time Human Body Hydration.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Asogwa, Clement Ogugua; Teshome, Assefa K; Collins, Stephen F; Lai, Daniel T H

    2016-06-01

    Changes in human body hydration leading to excess fluid losses or overload affects the body fluid's ability to provide the necessary support for healthy living. We propose a time-dependent circuit model of real-time human body hydration, which models the human body tissue as a signal transmission medium. The circuit model predicts the attenuation of a propagating electrical signal. Hydration rates are modeled by a time constant τ, which characterizes the individual specific metabolic function of the body part measured. We define a surrogate human body anthropometric parameter θ by the muscle-fat ratio and comparing it with the body mass index (BMI), we find theoretically, the rate of hydration varying from 1.73 dB/min, for high θ and low τ to 0.05 dB/min for low θ and high τ. We compare these theoretical values with empirical measurements and show that real-time changes in human body hydration can be observed by measuring signal attenuation. We took empirical measurements using a vector network analyzer and obtained different hydration rates for various BMI, ranging from 0.6 dB/min for 22.7 [Formula: see text] down to 0.04 dB/min for 41.2 [Formula: see text]. We conclude that the galvanic coupling circuit model can predict changes in the volume of the body fluid, which are essential in diagnosing and monitoring treatment of body fluid disorder. Individuals with high BMI would have higher time-dependent biological characteristic, lower metabolic rate, and lower rate of hydration.

  17. Whole-Body Human Inverse Dynamics with Distributed Micro-Accelerometers, Gyros and Force Sensing

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Claudia Latella

    2016-05-01

    Full Text Available Human motion tracking is a powerful tool used in a large range of applications that require human movement analysis. Although it is a well-established technique, its main limitation is the lack of estimation of real-time kinetics information such as forces and torques during the motion capture. In this paper, we present a novel approach for a human soft wearable force tracking for the simultaneous estimation of whole-body forces along with the motion. The early stage of our framework encompasses traditional passive marker based methods, inertial and contact force sensor modalities and harnesses a probabilistic computational technique for estimating dynamic quantities, originally proposed in the domain of humanoid robot control. We present experimental analysis on subjects performing a two degrees-of-freedom bowing task, and we estimate the motion and kinetics quantities. The results demonstrate the validity of the proposed method. We discuss the possible use of this technique in the design of a novel soft wearable force tracking device and its potential applications.

  18. Small-bodied humans from Palau, Micronesia.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lee R Berger

    Full Text Available UNLABELLED: Newly discovered fossil assemblages of small bodied Homo sapiens from Palau, Micronesia possess characters thought to be taxonomically primitive for the genus Homo. BACKGROUND: Recent surface collection and test excavation in limestone caves in the rock islands of Palau, Micronesia, has produced a sizeable sample of human skeletal remains dating roughly between 940-2890 cal ybp. PRINCIPLE FINDINGS: Preliminary analysis indicates that this material is important for two reasons. First, individuals from the older time horizons are small in body size even relative to "pygmoid" populations from Southeast Asia and Indonesia, and thus may represent a marked case of human insular dwarfism. Second, while possessing a number of derived features that align them with Homo sapiens, the human remains from Palau also exhibit several skeletal traits that are considered to be primitive for the genus Homo. SIGNIFICANCE: These features may be previously unrecognized developmental correlates of small body size and, if so, they may have important implications for interpreting the taxonomic affinities of fossil specimens of Homo.

  19. Effect of Aggression Regulation on Eating Disorder Pathology : RCT of a Brief Body and Movement Oriented Intervention

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Boerhout, Cees; Swart, Marte; Van Busschbach, Jooske T.; Hoek, Hans W.

    ObjectiveThe objective of the study is to evaluate the effect of a brief body and movement oriented intervention on aggression regulation and eating disorder pathology for individuals with eating disorders. MethodIn a first randomized controlled trial, 40 women were allocated to either the

  20. Directional asymmetries in human smooth pursuit eye movements.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ke, Sally R; Lam, Jessica; Pai, Dinesh K; Spering, Miriam

    2013-06-27

    Humans make smooth pursuit eye movements to bring the image of a moving object onto the fovea. Although pursuit accuracy is critical to prevent motion blur, the eye often falls behind the target. Previous studies suggest that pursuit accuracy differs between motion directions. Here, we systematically assess asymmetries in smooth pursuit. In experiment 1, binocular eye movements were recorded while observers (n = 20) tracked a small spot of light moving along one of four cardinal or diagonal axes across a featureless background. We analyzed pursuit latency, acceleration, peak velocity, gain, and catch-up saccade latency, number, and amplitude. In experiment 2 (n = 22), we examined the effects of spatial location and constrained stimulus motion within the upper or lower visual field. Pursuit was significantly faster (higher acceleration, peak velocity, and gain) and smoother (fewer and later catch-up saccades) in response to downward versus upward motion in both the upper and the lower visual fields. Pursuit was also more accurate and smoother in response to horizontal versus vertical motion. CONCLUSIONS. Our study is the first to report a consistent up-down asymmetry in human adults, regardless of visual field. Our findings suggest that pursuit asymmetries are adaptive responses to the requirements of the visual context: preferred motion directions (horizontal and downward) are more critical to our survival than nonpreferred ones.

  1. Movement dynamics reflect a functional role for weak coupling and role structure in dyadic problem solving.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Abney, Drew H; Paxton, Alexandra; Dale, Rick; Kello, Christopher T

    2015-11-01

    Successful interaction requires complex coordination of body movements. Previous research has suggested a functional role for coordination and especially synchronization (i.e., time-locked movement across individuals) in different types of human interaction contexts. Although such coordination has been shown to be nearly ubiquitous in human interaction, less is known about its function. One proposal is that synchrony supports and facilitates communication (Topics Cogn Sci 1:305-319, 2009). However, questions still remain about what the properties of coordination for optimizing communication might look like. In the present study, dyads worked together to construct towers from uncooked spaghetti and marshmallows. Using cross-recurrence quantification analysis, we found that dyads with loosely coupled gross body movements performed better, supporting recent work suggesting that simple synchrony may not be the key to effective performance (Riley et al. 2011). We also found evidence that leader-follower dynamics-when sensitive to the specific role structure of the interaction-impact task performance. We discuss our results with respect to the functional role of coordination in human interaction.

  2. Octopuses use a human-like strategy to control precise point-to-point arm movements.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sumbre, Germán; Fiorito, Graziano; Flash, Tamar; Hochner, Binyamin

    2006-04-18

    One of the key problems in motor control is mastering or reducing the number of degrees of freedom (DOFs) through coordination. This problem is especially prominent with hyper-redundant limbs such as the extremely flexible arm of the octopus. Several strategies for simplifying these control problems have been suggested for human point-to-point arm movements. Despite the evolutionary gap and morphological differences, humans and octopuses evolved similar strategies when fetching food to the mouth. To achieve this precise point-to-point-task, octopus arms generate a quasi-articulated structure based on three dynamic joints. A rotational movement around these joints brings the object to the mouth . Here, we describe a peripheral neural mechanism-two waves of muscle activation propagate toward each other, and their collision point sets the medial-joint location. This is a remarkably simple mechanism for adjusting the length of the segments according to where the object is grasped. Furthermore, similar to certain human arm movements, kinematic invariants were observed at the joint level rather than at the end-effector level, suggesting intrinsic control coordination. The evolutionary convergence to similar geometrical and kinematic features suggests that a kinematically constrained articulated limb controlled at the level of joint space is the optimal solution for precise point-to-point movements.

  3. Developmental changes in emotion recognition from full-light and point-light displays of body movement.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ross, Patrick D; Polson, Louise; Grosbras, Marie-Hélène

    2012-01-01

    To date, research on the development of emotion recognition has been dominated by studies on facial expression interpretation; very little is known about children's ability to recognize affective meaning from body movements. In the present study, we acquired simultaneous video and motion capture recordings of two actors portraying four basic emotions (Happiness Sadness, Fear and Anger). One hundred and seven primary and secondary school children (aged 4-17) and 14 adult volunteers participated in the study. Each participant viewed the full-light and point-light video clips and was asked to make a forced-choice as to which emotion was being portrayed. As a group, children performed worse than adults for both point-light and full-light conditions. Linear regression showed that both age and lighting condition were significant predictors of performance in children. Using piecewise regression, we found that a bilinear model with a steep improvement in performance until 8.5 years of age, followed by a much slower improvement rate through late childhood and adolescence best explained the data. These findings confirm that, like for facial expression, adolescents' recognition of basic emotions from body language is not fully mature and seems to follow a non-linear development. This is in line with observations of non-linear developmental trajectories for different aspects of human stimuli processing (voices and faces), perhaps suggesting a shift from one perceptual or cognitive strategy to another during adolescence. These results have important implications to understanding the maturation of social cognition.

  4. Unvealing the Principal Modes of Human Upper Limb Movements through Functional Analysis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Giuseppe Averta

    2017-08-01

    Full Text Available The rich variety of human upper limb movements requires an extraordinary coordination of different joints according to specific spatio-temporal patterns. However, unvealing these motor schemes is a challenging task. Principal components have been often used for analogous purposes, but such an approach relies on hypothesis of temporal uncorrelation of upper limb poses in time. To overcome these limitations, in this work, we leverage on functional principal component analysis (fPCA. We carried out experiments with 7 subjects performing a set of most significant human actions, selected considering state-of-the-art grasp taxonomies and human kinematic workspace. fPCA results show that human upper limb trajectories can be reconstructed by a linear combination of few principal time-dependent functions, with a first component alone explaining around 60/70% of the observed behaviors. This allows to infer that in daily living activities humans reduce the complexity of movement by modulating their motions through a reduced set of few principal patterns. Finally, we discuss how this approach could be profitably applied in robotics and bioengineering, opening fascinating perspectives to advance the state of the art of artificial systems, as it was the case of hand synergies.

  5. Economy, Movement Dynamics, and Muscle Activity of Human Walking at Different Speeds

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Raffalt, Peter Christian; Guul, Martin Kjær; Nielsen, A. N.

    2017-01-01

    The complex behaviour of human walking with respect to movement variability, economy and muscle activity is speed dependent. It is well known that a U-shaped relationship between walking speed and economy exists. However, it is an open question if the movement dynamics of joint angles and centre...... of mass and muscle activation strategy also exhibit a U-shaped relationship with walking speed. We investigated the dynamics of joint angle trajectories and the centre of mass accelerations at five different speeds ranging from 20 to 180% of the predicted preferred speed (based on Froude speed) in twelve...... healthy males. The muscle activation strategy and walking economy were also assessed. The movement dynamics was investigated using a combination of the largest Lyapunov exponent and correlation dimension. We observed an intermediate stage of the movement dynamics of the knee joint angle and the anterior...

  6. Illusory movement perception improves motor control for prosthetic hands.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Marasco, Paul D; Hebert, Jacqueline S; Sensinger, Jon W; Shell, Courtney E; Schofield, Jonathon S; Thumser, Zachary C; Nataraj, Raviraj; Beckler, Dylan T; Dawson, Michael R; Blustein, Dan H; Gill, Satinder; Mensh, Brett D; Granja-Vazquez, Rafael; Newcomb, Madeline D; Carey, Jason P; Orzell, Beth M

    2018-03-14

    To effortlessly complete an intentional movement, the brain needs feedback from the body regarding the movement's progress. This largely nonconscious kinesthetic sense helps the brain to learn relationships between motor commands and outcomes to correct movement errors. Prosthetic systems for restoring function have predominantly focused on controlling motorized joint movement. Without the kinesthetic sense, however, these devices do not become intuitively controllable. We report a method for endowing human amputees with a kinesthetic perception of dexterous robotic hands. Vibrating the muscles used for prosthetic control via a neural-machine interface produced the illusory perception of complex grip movements. Within minutes, three amputees integrated this kinesthetic feedback and improved movement control. Combining intent, kinesthesia, and vision instilled participants with a sense of agency over the robotic movements. This feedback approach for closed-loop control opens a pathway to seamless integration of minds and machines. Copyright © 2018 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works.

  7. Sandia's severe human body Electrostatic Discharge Tester (SSET)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Barnum, J.R.

    1991-01-01

    This paper reports that the Electromagnetic Testing Division at Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) has developed a simulator to replicate a severe human body electrostatic discharge event. This simulator is referred to as Sandia's Severe Human Body Electrostatic Discharge Tester (SSET). The SSET is configured as a coaxial transmission line, which allows control of parasitic inductance and capacitance to achieve the desired waveform signature, and operates reliably at voltages up to 35 kV. It is constructed from off-the-shelf or easily fabricated components and costs approximately $750 for materials, not including the power supply. The output is very repeatable and provides good simulation fidelity of a severe human body discharge

  8. Human body micro-environment: The benefits of controlling airflow interaction

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Melikov, Arsen Krikor

    2015-01-01

    This paper focuses on the micro-environment around a human body, and especially on its interaction with the surrounding environment. Research on the free convection flow generated by a human body (including the convective boundary layer around the body and the thermal plume above the body), its...

  9. The Reconfigured Body. Human-animal relations in xenotransplantation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kristofer Hansson

    2011-12-01

    Full Text Available The article explores issues concerning the reconfiguration of human and animal bodies in modern biotechnology. The examples are based on xenotransplantation: Transplantation of cells, tissue and organs from animals to humans. Three thematic issues that emerged from xenotransplantation research in Sweden in the 1990s and early 2000s are examined in the article. The first issue concerns how the pig was introduced as a donor animal in xenotransplantation and, at the same time, dehumanized in relation to what is human. Baboons and chimpanzees that had previously been used in xenotransplantation now became an ethically problematic choice, and were in stead humanized. The second issue concerns the introduction of transgenic and cloned pigs as commoditized objects. The biotechnological development reconfigured the pig’s cells, tissue and organs to become more human-like. The third issue concerns the risk that pigs contain retrovirus that could infect the transplanted patients. The human body became part of a network of both animal and retrovirus. Boundlessness between human and animal bodies appears in these three thematic phases and is analysed from a cultural perspective.

  10. [Microbiota and representations of the human body].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dodet, Betty

    2016-11-01

    Although the presence of an intestinal flora has been known for a long time, the discovery of the role of gut microbiota in human health and disease has been widely recognized as one of the most important advances in the recent years. Chronic diseases may result from dysbiosis, i.e. a disruption of the balance within the bacterial population hosted by the human body. These developments open new prospects in terms of prevention and treatment, including the design of adapted diets, the development of functional foods and fecal transplantation. These discoveries have profoundly altered our view of microbes, of health and disease, of self and non-self, as well as our representations of the body and its relationship with its ecosystem. Gut microbiota is now generally considered as an organ in its own right. A model of the "microbiotic person" thus arises, in which the human organism is defined as an ecosystem, a chimeric superorganism with a double genome, both human and microbial. Thought should be given to the way in which these new paradigms modify lay perceptions of the human body. © 2016 médecine/sciences – Inserm.

  11. Imagining with the body in analytical psychology. Movement as active imagination: an interdisciplinary perspective from philosophy and neuroscience.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Deligiannis, Ana

    2018-04-01

    This article explores how the body and imagination operate as pathways of knowledge through the use of Movement as Active Imagination in clinical practice. This method activates the transcendent function, thus encouraging new therapeutic responses. A philosophical perspective (Spinoza, Nietzsche, Merleau-Ponty) and some concepts from neuroscience (embodied cognition, somatic markers, image schema, mirror neurons, neuronal plasticity) will accompany us throughout this work, illustrated with a clinical vignette. Three levels of integration: 1) body, 2) body-emotion, 3) body-emotion-imagination are proposed: these mark a progressive sense of articulation and complexity. Finally the relation between creativity and neuronal plasticity will be considered. © 2018, The Society of Analytical Psychology.

  12. Human movement data for malaria control and elimination strategic planning

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Pindolia Deepa K

    2012-06-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Recent increases in funding for malaria control have led to the reduction in transmission in many malaria endemic countries, prompting the national control programmes of 36 malaria endemic countries to set elimination targets. Accounting for human population movement (HPM in planning for control, elimination and post-elimination surveillance is important, as evidenced by previous elimination attempts that were undermined by the reintroduction of malaria through HPM. Strategic control and elimination planning, therefore, requires quantitative information on HPM patterns and the translation of these into parasite dispersion. HPM patterns and the risk of malaria vary substantially across spatial and temporal scales, demographic and socioeconomic sub-groups, and motivation for travel, so multiple data sets are likely required for quantification of movement. While existing studies based on mobile phone call record data combined with malaria transmission maps have begun to address within-country HPM patterns, other aspects remain poorly quantified despite their importance in accurately gauging malaria movement patterns and building control and detection strategies, such as cross-border HPM, demographic and socioeconomic stratification of HPM patterns, forms of transport, personal malaria protection and other factors that modify malaria risk. A wealth of data exist to aid filling these gaps, which, when combined with spatial data on transport infrastructure, traffic and malaria transmission, can answer relevant questions to guide strategic planning. This review aims to (i discuss relevant types of HPM across spatial and temporal scales, (ii document where datasets exist to quantify HPM, (iii highlight where data gaps remain and (iv briefly put forward methods for integrating these datasets in a Geographic Information System (GIS framework for analysing and modelling human population and Plasmodium falciparum malaria infection movements.

  13. [The gift of human body's products: philosophical and ethical aspects].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Baertschi, B

    2014-09-01

    In continental Europe, there is a very strong moral condemnation against putting parts or products of the human body on sale-and, consequently, against putting sperms and oocytes on sale. Only a gift is morally permissible. The situation is different in Anglo-Saxon countries. Who is right? Above all, it must be noticed that two views of the human body are facing each other here: for the first, the human body is a part of the person (so, it partakes of the person's dignity), whereas for the second, the human body is a possession of the person (the person is the owner of his/her body). In my opinion, the argument of dignity comes up against serious objections, and the property argument is more consistent. However, it does not follow that it would be judicious to put parts and products of the human body for sale on a market. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

  14. Shared periodic performer movements coordinate interactions in duo improvisations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jakubowski, Kelly; Moran, Nikki; Keller, Peter E.

    2018-01-01

    Human interaction involves the exchange of temporally coordinated, multimodal cues. Our work focused on interaction in the visual domain, using music performance as a case for analysis due to its temporally diverse and hierarchical structures. We made use of two improvising duo datasets—(i) performances of a jazz standard with a regular pulse and (ii) non-pulsed, free improvizations—to investigate whether human judgements of moments of interaction between co-performers are influenced by body movement coordination at multiple timescales. Bouts of interaction in the performances were manually annotated by experts and the performers’ movements were quantified using computer vision techniques. The annotated interaction bouts were then predicted using several quantitative movement and audio features. Over 80% of the interaction bouts were successfully predicted by a broadband measure of the energy of the cross-wavelet transform of the co-performers’ movements in non-pulsed duos. A more complex model, with multiple predictors that captured more specific, interacting features of the movements, was needed to explain a significant amount of variance in the pulsed duos. The methods developed here have key implications for future work on measuring visual coordination in musical ensemble performances, and can be easily adapted to other musical contexts, ensemble types and traditions. PMID:29515867

  15. Effect of a single 3-hour exposure to bright light on core body temperature and sleep in humans.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dijk, D J; Cajochen, C; Borbély, A A

    1991-01-02

    Seven human subjects were exposed to bright light (BL, approx. 2500 lux) and dim light (DL, approx. 6 lux) during 3 h prior to nocturnal sleep, in a cross-over design. At the end of the BL exposure period core body temperature was significantly higher than at the end of the DL exposure period. The difference in core body temperature persisted during the first 4 h of sleep. The latency to sleep onset was increased after BL exposure. Rapid-eye movement sleep (REMS) and slow-wave sleep (SWS; stage 3 + 4 of non-REMS) were not significantly changed. Eight subjects were exposed to BL from 20.30 to 23.30 h while their eyes were covered or uncovered. During BL exposure with uncovered eyes, core body temperature decreased significantly less than during exposure with covered eyes. We conclude that bright light immediately affects core body temperature and that this effect is mediated via the eyes.

  16. Consensus on core phenomena and statements describing Basic Body Awareness Therapy within the movement awareness domain in physiotherapy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Skjaerven, L H; Mattsson, M; Catalan-Matamoros, D; Parker, A; Gard, G; Gyllensten, A Lundvik

    2018-02-26

    Physiotherapists are facing complex health challenges in the treatment of persons suffering from long-lasting musculoskeletal disorders and mental health problems. Basic Body Awareness Therapy (BBAT) is a physiotherapy approach within the movement awareness domain developed to bridge physical, mental, and relational health challenges. The purpose of this study was to reach a consensus on core phenomena and statements describing BBAT. A consensus-building process was conducted using the nominal group technique (NGT). Twenty-one BBAT experts from 10 European countries participated in a concentrated weekend workshop of 20 hours. All participants signed informed consent. Participants reached a consensus on 138 core phenomena, clustered in three overarching categories: clinical core, historical roots, and research and evaluation phenomena. Of the 106 clinical core phenomena, the participants agreed on three categories of phenomena: movement quality, movement awareness practice, and movement awareness therapy and pedagogy. Furthermore, the participants reached 100 percent consensus on 16 of 30 statements describing BBAT. This study provides a consensus on core phenomena and statements describing BBAT. The data reveal phenomena implemented when promoting movement quality through movement awareness. Data provide clarity in some aspects of the vocabulary as fundamental theory. Further reearch will be developed.

  17. 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.

  18. Media Representation of the Human Body: Discourse Analysis of Advertisements

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marija Lončar

    2015-09-01

    Full Text Available Even though advertisements represent a world of its own, they are an inevitable part of different kinds of media. The purpose of advertising is not only to promote a product but also to transfer messages, values and ideas in order to make emotional connections with brands. By building emotional attachment, advertisers increase and strengthen consumers’ responses. The promoting of the advertisements’ images becomes much more important than promoting the product itself. Nowadays, an increasing interest in representing a human body along with different kinds of products and services has become a commonplace among advertisers. Representation of the body is a socially constructed phenomenon. In other words, social processes shape perceptions of our bodies and these perceptions (recreate human experiences of the body. The authors’ approach includes qualitative discourse analysis of advertisements. The objective was to identify the relationship between the human body and textual messages as integral components of the advertised item taken in consideration, as well as the ways in which they interact with the reader’s overall experience. For this purpose, different advertisements that contain visual and textual messages representing human bodies have been analysed. They were all published in the following lifestyle magazines: Cosmopolitan, Playboy, Men’s Health, during 2012 and 2013. The authors conclude that media representations of a human body as social phenomena perceive value and treat the body in different ways depending on the relationship between the advertisement, the textual message and the human body.

  19. Recognition of dance-like actions: memory for static posture or dynamic movement?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vicary, Staci A; Robbins, Rachel A; Calvo-Merino, Beatriz; Stevens, Catherine J

    2014-07-01

    Dance-like actions are complex visual stimuli involving multiple changes in body posture across time and space. Visual perception research has demonstrated a difference between the processing of dynamic body movement and the processing of static body posture. Yet, it is unclear whether this processing dissociation continues during the retention of body movement and body form in visual working memory (VWM). When observing a dance-like action, it is likely that static snapshot images of body posture will be retained alongside dynamic images of the complete motion. Therefore, we hypothesized that, as in perception, posture and movement would differ in VWM. Additionally, if body posture and body movement are separable in VWM, as form- and motion-based items, respectively, then differential interference from intervening form and motion tasks should occur during recognition. In two experiments, we examined these hypotheses. In Experiment 1, the recognition of postures and movements was tested in conditions in which the formats of the study and test stimuli matched (movement-study to movement-test, posture-study to posture-test) or mismatched (movement-study to posture-test, posture-study to movement-test). In Experiment 2, the recognition of postures and movements was compared after intervening form and motion tasks. These results indicated that (1) the recognition of body movement based only on posture is possible, but it is significantly poorer than recognition based on the entire movement stimulus, and (2) form-based interference does not impair memory for movements, although motion-based interference does. We concluded that, whereas static posture information is encoded during the observation of dance-like actions, body movement and body posture differ in VWM.

  20. Evaluation of Propagation Characteristics Using the Human Body as an Antenna.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Jingzhen; Nie, Zedong; Liu, Yuhang; Wang, Lei; Hao, Yang

    2017-12-11

    In this paper, an inhomogeneous human body model was presented to investigate the propagation characteristics when the human body was used as an antenna to achieve signal transmission. Specifically, the channel gain of four scenarios, namely, (1) both TX electrode and RX electrode were placed in the air, (2) TX electrode was attached on the human body, and RX electrode was placed in the air, (3) TX electrode was placed in the air, and RX electrode was attached on the human body, (4) both the TX electrode and RX electrode were attached on the human body, were studied through numerical simulation in the frequency range 1 MHz to 90 MHz. Furthermore, the comparisons of input efficiency, accepted efficiency, total efficiency, absorption power of human body, and electric field distribution of different distances of four aforementioned scenarios were explored when the frequency was at 44 MHz. In addition, the influences of different human tissues, electrode position, and the distance between electrode and human body on the propagation characteristics were investigated respectively at 44 MHz. The results showed that the channel gain of Scenario 4 was the maximum when the frequency was from 1 MHz to 90 MHz. The propagation characteristics were almost independent of electrode position when the human body was using as an antenna. However, as the distance between TX electrode and human body increased, the channel gain decreased rapidly. The simulations were verified by experimental measurements. The results showed that the simulations were in agreement with the measurements.

  1. Embodiment without bodies? Analysis of embodiment in US-based pro-breastfeeding and anti-male circumcision movements.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Newman, Harmony D; Carpenter, Laura M

    2014-06-01

    This article uses the cases of pro-breastfeeding and anti-circumcision activism to complicate the prevailing conceptualisation of embodiment in research on embodied health movements (EHMs). Whereas most EHM activists draw on their own bodily experiences, in the breastfeeding and circumcision movements, embodiment by proxy is common. Activists use embodiment as a strategy but draw on physical sensations that they imagine for other people's bodies, rather than on those they experience themselves. Pro-breastfeeding activists, who seldom disclose whether they were themselves breastfed, target mothers, encouraging them to breastfeed rather than to formula feed their children in order to reduce their child's risk of disease. Anti-circumcision activists, only some of whom are circumcised men, urge parents to leave their sons' penises intact in order to avoid illness and disfigurement and to preserve the sons' rights to make their own informed decisions as adults. In both movements activists use embodiment as a persuasive strategy even though they themselves do not necessarily embody the risks of the negative health outcomes with which they are concerned. Future research on EHMs should reconceptualise EHMs to include embodiment by proxy and examine whether this important phenomenon systematically affects movement strategies and outcomes.

  2. A role of the human thalamus in predicting the perceptual consequences of eye movements.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ostendorf, Florian; Liebermann, Daniela; Ploner, Christoph J

    2013-01-01

    Internal monitoring of oculomotor commands may help to anticipate and keep track of changes in perceptual input imposed by our eye movements. Neurophysiological studies in non-human primates identified corollary discharge (CD) signals of oculomotor commands that are conveyed via thalamus to frontal cortices. We tested whether disruption of these monitoring pathways on the thalamic level impairs the perceptual matching of visual input before and after an eye movement in human subjects. Fourteen patients with focal thalamic stroke and 20 healthy control subjects performed a task requiring a perceptual judgment across eye movements. Subjects reported the apparent displacement of a target cue that jumped unpredictably in sync with a saccadic eye movement. In a critical condition of this task, six patients exhibited clearly asymmetric perceptual performance for rightward vs. leftward saccade direction. Furthermore, perceptual judgments in seven patients systematically depended on oculomotor targeting errors, with self-generated targeting errors erroneously attributed to external stimulus jumps. Voxel-based lesion-symptom mapping identified an area in right central thalamus as critical for the perceptual matching of visual space across eye movements. Our findings suggest that trans-thalamic CD transmission decisively contributes to a correct prediction of the perceptual consequences of oculomotor actions.

  3. A role of the human thalamus in predicting the perceptual consequences of eye movements

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Florian eOstendorf

    2013-04-01

    Full Text Available Internal monitoring of oculomotor commands may help to anticipate and keep track of changes in perceptual input imposed by our eye movements. Neurophysiological studies in non-human primates identified corollary discharge signals of oculomotor commands that are conveyed via thalamus to frontal cortices. We tested whether disruption of these monitoring pathways on the thalamic level impairs the perceptual matching of visual input before and after an eye movement in human subjects. Fourteen patients with focal thalamic stroke and twenty healthy control subjects performed a task requiring a perceptual judgment across eye movements. Subjects reported the apparent displacement of a target cue that jumped unpredictably in sync with a saccadic eye movement. In a critical condition of this task, six patients exhibited clearly asymmetric perceptual performance for rightward versus leftward saccade direction. Furthermore, perceptual judgments in seven patients systematically depended on oculomotor targeting errors, with self-generated targeting errors erroneously attributed to external stimulus jumps. Voxel-based lesion-symptom mapping identified an area in right central thalamus as critical for the perceptual matching of visual space across eye movements. Our findings suggest that trans-thalamic corollary discharge transmission decisively contributes to a correct prediction of the perceptual consequences of oculomotor actions.

  4. Dynamic Human Body Modeling Using a Single RGB Camera.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhu, Haiyu; Yu, Yao; Zhou, Yu; Du, Sidan

    2016-03-18

    In this paper, we present a novel automatic pipeline to build personalized parametric models of dynamic people using a single RGB camera. Compared to previous approaches that use monocular RGB images, our system can model a 3D human body automatically and incrementally, taking advantage of human motion. Based on coarse 2D and 3D poses estimated from image sequences, we first perform a kinematic classification of human body parts to refine the poses and obtain reconstructed body parts. Next, a personalized parametric human model is generated by driving a general template to fit the body parts and calculating the non-rigid deformation. Experimental results show that our shape estimation method achieves comparable accuracy with reconstructed models using depth cameras, yet requires neither user interaction nor any dedicated devices, leading to the feasibility of using this method on widely available smart phones.

  5. Human bipedalism and body-mass index.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yi, Su Do; Noh, Jae Dong; Minnhagen, Petter; Song, Mi-Young; Chon, Tae-Soo; Kim, Beom Jun

    2017-06-16

    Body-mass index, abbreviated as BMI and given by M/H 2 with the mass M and the height H, has been widely used as a useful proxy to measure a general health status of a human individual. We generalise BMI in the form of M/H p and pursue to answer the question of the value of p for populations of animal species including human. We compare values of p for several different datasets for human populations with the ones obtained for other animal populations of fish, whales, and land mammals. All animal populations but humans analyzed in our work are shown to have p ≈ 3 unanimously. In contrast, human populations are different: As young infants grow to become toddlers and keep growing, the sudden change of p is observed at about one year after birth. Infants younger than one year old exhibit significantly larger value of p than two, while children between one and five years old show p ≈ 2, sharply different from other animal species. The observation implies the importance of the upright posture of human individuals. We also propose a simple mechanical model for a human body and suggest that standing and walking upright should put a clear division between bipedal human (p ≈ 2) and other animals (p ≈ 3).

  6. Functional Neuronal Processing of Human Body Odors

    OpenAIRE

    Lundström, Johan N.; Olsson, Mats J.

    2010-01-01

    Body odors carry informational cues of great importance for individuals across a wide range of species, and signals hidden within the body odor cocktail are known to regulate several key behaviors in animals. For a long time, the notion that humans may be among these species has been dismissed. We now know, however, that each human has a unique odor signature that carries information related to his or her genetic makeup, as well as information about personal environmental variables, such as d...

  7. Protocols for the Investigation of Information Processing in Human Assessment of Fundamental Movement Skills.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ward, Brodie J; Thornton, Ashleigh; Lay, Brendan; Rosenberg, Michael

    2017-01-01

    Fundamental movement skill (FMS) assessment remains an important tool in classifying individuals' level of FMS proficiency. The collection of FMS performances for assessment and monitoring has remained unchanged over the last few decades, but new motion capture technologies offer opportunities to automate this process. To achieve this, a greater understanding of the human process of movement skill assessment is required. The authors present the rationale and protocols of a project in which they aim to investigate the visual search patterns and information extraction employed by human assessors during FMS assessment, as well as the implementation of the Kinect system for FMS capture.

  8. Human whole body cold adaptation.

    OpenAIRE

    Daanen, Hein A.M.; Van Marken Lichtenbelt, Wouter D.

    2016-01-01

    ABSTRACT Reviews on whole body human cold adaptation generally do not distinguish between population studies and dedicated acclimation studies, leading to confusing results. Population studies show that indigenous black Africans have reduced shivering thermogenesis in the cold and poor cold induced vasodilation in fingers and toes compared to Caucasians and Inuit. About 40,000?y after humans left Africa, natives in cold terrestrial areas seems to have developed not only behavioral adaptations...

  9. Quantifying Human Movement Using the Movn Smartphone App: Validation and Field Study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Maddison, Ralph; Gemming, Luke; Monedero, Javier; Bolger, Linda; Belton, Sarahjane; Issartel, Johann; Marsh, Samantha; Direito, Artur; Solenhill, Madeleine; Zhao, Jinfeng; Exeter, Daniel John; Vathsangam, Harshvardhan; Rawstorn, Jonathan Charles

    2017-08-17

    The use of embedded smartphone sensors offers opportunities to measure physical activity (PA) and human movement. Big data-which includes billions of digital traces-offers scientists a new lens to examine PA in fine-grained detail and allows us to track people's geocoded movement patterns to determine their interaction with the environment. The objective of this study was to examine the validity of the Movn smartphone app (Moving Analytics) for collecting PA and human movement data. The criterion and convergent validity of the Movn smartphone app for estimating energy expenditure (EE) were assessed in both laboratory and free-living settings, compared with indirect calorimetry (criterion reference) and a stand-alone accelerometer that is commonly used in PA research (GT1m, ActiGraph Corp, convergent reference). A supporting cross-validation study assessed the consistency of activity data when collected across different smartphone devices. Global positioning system (GPS) and accelerometer data were integrated with geographical information software to demonstrate the feasibility of geospatial analysis of human movement. A total of 21 participants contributed to linear regression analysis to estimate EE from Movn activity counts (standard error of estimation [SEE]=1.94 kcal/min). The equation was cross-validated in an independent sample (N=42, SEE=1.10 kcal/min). During laboratory-based treadmill exercise, EE from Movn was comparable to calorimetry (bias=0.36 [-0.07 to 0.78] kcal/min, t 82 =1.66, P=.10) but overestimated as compared with the ActiGraph accelerometer (bias=0.93 [0.58-1.29] kcal/min, t 89 =5.27, PDireito, Madeleine Solenhill, Jinfeng Zhao, Daniel John Exeter, Harshvardhan Vathsangam, Jonathan Charles Rawstorn. Originally published in JMIR Mhealth and Uhealth (http://mhealth.jmir.org), 17.08.2017.

  10. Introduction: Minds, Bodies, Machines

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Deirdre Coleman

    2008-10-01

    Full Text Available This issue of 19 brings together a selection of essays from an interdisciplinary conference on 'Minds, Bodies, Machines' convened last year by Birkbeck's Centre for Nineteenth-Century Studies, University of London, in partnership with the English programme, University of Melbourne and software developers Constraint Technologies International (CTI. The conference explored the relationship between minds, bodies and machines in the long nineteenth century, with a view to understanding the history of our technology-driven, post-human visions. It is in the nineteenth century that the relationship between the human and the machine under post-industrial capitalism becomes a pervasive theme. From Blake on the mills of the mind by which we are enslaved, to Carlyle's and Arnold's denunciation of the machinery of modern life, from Dickens's sooty fictional locomotive Mr Pancks, who 'snorted and sniffed and puffed and blew, like a little labouring steam-engine', and 'shot out […]cinders of principles, as if it were done by mechanical revolvency', to the alienated historical body of the late-nineteenth-century factory worker under Taylorization, whose movements and gestures were timed, regulated and rationalised to maximize efficiency; we find a cultural preoccupation with the mechanisation of the nineteenth-century human body that uncannily resonates with modern dreams and anxieties around technologies of the human.

  11. Human Body Representations in Didactic Books of Science

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Emerson de Lima Soares

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available Several authors have pointed out that Didactic Book still plays an important role in the teaching and learning process, and is often the main, and the only educational resource available to teachers. In this way, we will analyze human body representations in Didactic Books of science adopted by a municipal public school in the city of Uruguaiana/RS. In the context of writing, we understand that body's perceptions permeate a historical and cultural construction, constituted from the relationships lived by the subjects in society. This study is a qualitative research, based on the content analysis of Bardin, in which we seek to identify human body representations in the messages, characteristics, structures, contents, and figures present in books. For this, we set up an analytical matrix with guiding questions related to the approach of the body, showed in didactic books. The results demonstrate that the contents follow the same pattern, that is, a body divided into parts like a human body just formed by limbs, organs, and tissues. They present a detailed division of content, from the cellular organization, concepts, structures, and the images are presented in a fragmented way, always following normative standards. We found these books dedicate spaces to analyze and discuss the biosocial body, in a well-elaborated way, contemplating different visions, such as sexuality beyond human reproduction. We believe that these issues should be part of the Political Education Projects (PPPs of schools and the educational system as a whole because in this way more projects will be carried out contemplating the issue. However, it is still up to the teacher to take this approach, and if such issues are not addressed in the LD, he should keep in mind that if we are thinking beings, our body is much more than organic components, and so seek means to carry out this approach.

  12. Human whole body cold adaptation.

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Daanen, Hein A.M.; Van Marken Lichtenbelt, Wouter D.

    2016-01-01

    Reviews on whole body human cold adaptation generally do not distinguish between population studies and dedicated acclimation studies, leading to confusing results. Population studies show that indigenous black Africans have reduced shivering thermogenesis in the cold and poor cold induced

  13. NATURAL USER INTERFACE SENSORS FOR HUMAN BODY MEASUREMENT

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    J. Boehm

    2012-08-01

    Full Text Available The recent push for natural user interfaces (NUI in the entertainment and gaming industry has ushered in a new era of low cost three-dimensional sensors. While the basic idea of using a three-dimensional sensor for human gesture recognition dates some years back it is not until recently that such sensors became available on the mass market. The current market leader is PrimeSense who provide their technology for the Microsoft Xbox Kinect. Since these sensors are developed to detect and observe human users they should be ideally suited to measure the human body. We describe the technology of a line of NUI sensors and assess their performance in terms of repeatability and accuracy. We demonstrate the implementation of a prototype scanner integrating several NUI sensors to achieve full body coverage. We present the results of the obtained surface model of a human body.

  14. Natural User Interface Sensors for Human Body Measurement

    Science.gov (United States)

    Boehm, J.

    2012-08-01

    The recent push for natural user interfaces (NUI) in the entertainment and gaming industry has ushered in a new era of low cost three-dimensional sensors. While the basic idea of using a three-dimensional sensor for human gesture recognition dates some years back it is not until recently that such sensors became available on the mass market. The current market leader is PrimeSense who provide their technology for the Microsoft Xbox Kinect. Since these sensors are developed to detect and observe human users they should be ideally suited to measure the human body. We describe the technology of a line of NUI sensors and assess their performance in terms of repeatability and accuracy. We demonstrate the implementation of a prototype scanner integrating several NUI sensors to achieve full body coverage. We present the results of the obtained surface model of a human body.

  15. Human body composition models and methodology : theory and experiment

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Wang, Z.M.

    1997-01-01


    The study of human body composition is a branch of human biology which focuses on the in vivo quantification of body components, the quantitative relationships between components, and the quantitative changes in these components related to various influencing factors.

  16. Reconstruction of conductivity changes and electrode movements based on EIT temporal sequences

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Dai, Tao; Gómez-Laberge, Camille; Adler, Andy

    2008-01-01

    Electrical impedance tomography (EIT) reconstructs a conductivity change image within a body from electrical measurements on the body surface; while it has relatively low spatial resolution, it has a high temporal resolution. One key difficulty with EIT measurements is due to the movement and position uncertainty of the electrodes, especially due to breathing and posture change. In this paper, we develop an approach to reconstruct both the conductivity change image and the electrode movements from the temporal sequence of EIT measurements. Since both the conductivity change and electrode movement are slow with respect to the data frame rate, there are significant temporal correlations which we formulate as priors for the regularized image reconstruction model. Image reconstruction is posed in terms of a regularization matrix and a Jacobian matrix which are augmented for the conductivity change and electrode movement, and then further augmented to concatenate the d previous and future frames. Results are shown for simulation, phantom and human data, and show that the proposed algorithm yields improved resolution and noise performance in comparison to a conventional one-step reconstruction method

  17. The influence of body movements on children's perception of music with an ambiguous expressive character.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Maes, Pieter-Jan; Leman, Marc

    2013-01-01

    The theory of embodied music cognition states that the perception and cognition of music is firmly, although not exclusively, linked to action patterns associated with that music. In this regard, the focus lies mostly on how music promotes certain action tendencies (i.e., dance, entrainment, etc.). Only recently, studies have started to devote attention to the reciprocal effects that people's body movements may exert on how people perceive certain aspects of music and sound (e.g., pitch, meter, musical preference, etc.). The present study positions itself in this line of research. The central research question is whether expressive body movements, which are systematically paired with music, can modulate children's perception of musical expressiveness. We present a behavioral experiment in which different groups of children (7-8 years, N = 46) either repetitively performed a happy or a sad choreography in response to expressively ambiguous music or merely listened to that music. The results of our study show indeed that children's perception of musical expressiveness is modulated in accordance with the expressive character of the dance choreography performed to the music. This finding supports theories that claim a strong connection between action and perception, although further research is needed to uncover the details of this connection.

  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. Cytoplasmic lipid bodies of human neutrophilic leukocytes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Weller, P.F.; Ackerman, S.J.; Nicholson-Weller, A.; Dvorak, A.M.

    1989-01-01

    The morphology and function of cytoplasmic lipid bodies in human neutrophils were evaluated. By transmission electron microscopy, neutrophil lipid bodies were cytoplasmic inclusions, usually several microns in diameter, that occasionally coalesced to attain a diameter up to 7 microM. Neutrophil lipid bodies were not enveloped by membrane but were often surrounded by a more electron-dense shell at their periphery. Normal peripheral blood neutrophils contained an average of approximately one lipid body per cell. Lipid bodies appeared in greater numbers in neutrophils from inflammatory lesions. Perturbation of neutrophils during conventional methods of cell isolation and purification modestly increased lipid body numbers in neutrophils, whereas incubation of neutrophils with 1 microM oleic acid rapidly induced lipid body formation over 30 to 60 minutes. After granulocytes were incubated for 2 hours with 3H-fatty acids, including arachidonic, oleic, and palmitic acids, electron microscopic autoradiography demonstrated that lipid bodies represented the predominant intracellular sites of localization of each of the three 3H-fatty acids. There was lesser labeling noted in the perinuclear cisterna, but not in cell membranes. Virtually all of each of the three 3H-fatty acids incorporated by the neutrophils were esterified into chromatographically resolved classes of neutral lipids or phospholipids. These findings indicate that cytoplasmic lipid bodies are more prominent in neutrophils in vivo engaged in inflammatory responses and that these organelles in human neutrophils function as sites of deposition of esterified, incorporated fatty acids

  20. Developmental changes in emotion recognition from full-light and point-light displays of body movement.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Patrick D Ross

    Full Text Available To date, research on the development of emotion recognition has been dominated by studies on facial expression interpretation; very little is known about children's ability to recognize affective meaning from body movements. In the present study, we acquired simultaneous video and motion capture recordings of two actors portraying four basic emotions (Happiness Sadness, Fear and Anger. One hundred and seven primary and secondary school children (aged 4-17 and 14 adult volunteers participated in the study. Each participant viewed the full-light and point-light video clips and was asked to make a forced-choice as to which emotion was being portrayed. As a group, children performed worse than adults for both point-light and full-light conditions. Linear regression showed that both age and lighting condition were significant predictors of performance in children. Using piecewise regression, we found that a bilinear model with a steep improvement in performance until 8.5 years of age, followed by a much slower improvement rate through late childhood and adolescence best explained the data. These findings confirm that, like for facial expression, adolescents' recognition of basic emotions from body language is not fully mature and seems to follow a non-linear development. This is in line with observations of non-linear developmental trajectories for different aspects of human stimuli processing (voices and faces, perhaps suggesting a shift from one perceptual or cognitive strategy to another during adolescence. These results have important implications to understanding the maturation of social cognition.

  1. Democratising Democracy, Humanising Human Rights. European Decolonial Movements and the “Alternative Thinking of Alternatives"

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Suárez-Krabbe, Julia

    2013-01-01

    des Indigènes de la République (PIR) in France, the Dutch Black Movement, the Islamic Human Rights Commission in the UK, and the Studies Group of the Andalusian Workers' Union (Grupo de Estudios - Sindicato Andaluz de Trabajadores; GE-SAT). These movements all point to two fundamental crises of longue...

  2. New Window into the Human Body

    Science.gov (United States)

    1985-01-01

    Michael Vannier, MD, a former NASA engineer, recognized the similarity between NASA's computerized image processing technology and nuclear magnetic resonance. With technical assistance from Kennedy Space Center, he developed a computer program for Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology enabling Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) to scan body tissue for earlier diagnoses. Dr. Vannier feels that "satellite imaging" has opened a new window into the human body.

  3. Body movements during the off-ice execution of back spins in figure skating.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mapelli, Andrea; Rodano, Renato; Fiorentini, Angelo; Giustolisi, Andrea; Sidequersky, Fernanda V; Sforza, Chiarella

    2013-10-01

    Using an optoelectronic motion capture system, we quantitatively assessed the arrangement of body segments and the displacement of the horizontal projection of the center of mass (CM) in seven skaters performing off-ice back spins on a rotating device (spinner). The position of the CM at the beginning of the spins was not a determining factor, but its rapid stabilization towards the center of the spinner, together with the achievement of a stable arrangement of trunk and limbs, was crucial to get the dynamic equilibrium, necessary for a lasting performance. At full spinning, however, there was an indicative variety of individual body postures. A final deceleration, associable with the loss of body equilibrium, was detected in the last spin of most of skaters. In conclusion, the current investigation demonstrated that the off-ice execution of back spin, a critical movement of ice skating, can be measured in laboratory, thus providing quantitative information to both the skaters and the coaches. The analysis is not invasive, and it may be proposed also for longitudinal evaluations of skating and postural training. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  4. Human whole body cold adaptation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Daanen, Hein A M; Van Marken Lichtenbelt, Wouter D

    2016-01-01

    Reviews on whole body human cold adaptation generally do not distinguish between population studies and dedicated acclimation studies, leading to confusing results. Population studies show that indigenous black Africans have reduced shivering thermogenesis in the cold and poor cold induced vasodilation in fingers and toes compared to Caucasians and Inuit. About 40,000 y after humans left Africa, natives in cold terrestrial areas seems to have developed not only behavioral adaptations, but also physiological adaptations to cold. Dedicated studies show that repeated whole body exposure of individual volunteers, mainly Caucasians, to severe cold results in reduced cold sensation but no major physiological changes. Repeated cold water immersion seems to slightly reduce metabolic heat production, while repeated exposure to milder cold conditions shows some increase in metabolic heat production, in particular non-shivering thermogenesis. In conclusion, human cold adaptation in the form of increased metabolism and insulation seems to have occurred during recent evolution in populations, but cannot be developed during a lifetime in cold conditions as encountered in temperate and arctic regions. Therefore, we mainly depend on our behavioral skills to live in and survive the cold.

  5. Proprioceptive body illusions modulate the visual perception of reaching distance.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Agustin Petroni

    Full Text Available The neurobiology of reaching has been extensively studied in human and non-human primates. However, the mechanisms that allow a subject to decide-without engaging in explicit action-whether an object is reachable are not fully understood. Some studies conclude that decisions near the reach limit depend on motor simulations of the reaching movement. Others have shown that the body schema plays a role in explicit and implicit distance estimation, especially after motor practice with a tool. In this study we evaluate the causal role of multisensory body representations in the perception of reachable space. We reasoned that if body schema is used to estimate reach, an illusion of the finger size induced by proprioceptive stimulation should propagate to the perception of reaching distances. To test this hypothesis we induced a proprioceptive illusion of extension or shrinkage of the right index finger while participants judged a series of LEDs as reachable or non-reachable without actual movement. Our results show that reach distance estimation depends on the illusory perceived size of the finger: illusory elongation produced a shift of reaching distance away from the body whereas illusory shrinkage produced the opposite effect. Combining these results with previous findings, we suggest that deciding if a target is reachable requires an integration of body inputs in high order multisensory parietal areas that engage in movement simulations through connections with frontal premotor areas.

  6. Body contact and body language

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Winther, Helle

    2008-01-01

    and the boundaries between self and world. In western societies, the modern premises for contact are in some ways developing from close contact to virtual communication. With this breadth of perspective in mind, the ques­tion is whether conscious and experimental work with body contact and body language in move......­ment psychology and education provide potential for intense personal develop­ment as well as for social and cultural learning processes. This performative research project originates from the research project entitled, Movement Psy­chol­ogy: The Language of the Body and the Psy­chol­ogy of Movement based......Body contact and body language are unique and existential and, although culturally dependent and socially embodied, they are also universal communication forms. For small children all over the world, warm, close and nourishing body contact is fundamental to their embodied experi­ence of themselves...

  7. Bodies in Movement in Public Space

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Smith, Shelley

    2014-01-01

    This article explores the sensorial and conceptual perception of space and time, in an urbanity defined by urban life and urban form in movement and flux. Particularly regarding what public spaces and domains can be in contemporary societies and how these can be designed and developed....

  8. Development of a Kinect Software Tool to Classify Movements during Active Video Gaming.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rosenberg, Michael; Thornton, Ashleigh L; Lay, Brendan S; Ward, Brodie; Nathan, David; Hunt, Daniel; Braham, Rebecca

    2016-01-01

    While it has been established that using full body motion to play active video games results in increased levels of energy expenditure, there is little information on the classification of human movement during active video game play in relationship to fundamental movement skills. The aim of this study was to validate software utilising Kinect sensor motion capture technology to recognise fundamental movement skills (FMS), during active video game play. Two human assessors rated jumping and side-stepping and these assessments were compared to the Kinect Action Recognition Tool (KART), to establish a level of agreement and determine the number of movements completed during five minutes of active video game play, for 43 children (m = 12 years 7 months ± 1 year 6 months). During five minutes of active video game play, inter-rater reliability, when examining the two human raters, was found to be higher for the jump (r = 0.94, p game play, demonstrating that both humans and KART had higher agreement for jumps than sidesteps in the game play condition. The results of the study provide confidence that the Kinect sensor can be used to count the number of jumps and sidestep during five minutes of active video game play with a similar level of accuracy as human raters. However, in contrast to humans, the KART system required a fraction of the time to analyse and tabulate the results.

  9. Effect of Aggression Regulation on Eating Disorder Pathology: RCT of a Brief Body and Movement Oriented Intervention.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Boerhout, Cees; Swart, Marte; Van Busschbach, Jooske T; Hoek, Hans W

    2016-03-01

    The objective of the study is to evaluate the effect of a brief body and movement oriented intervention on aggression regulation and eating disorder pathology for individuals with eating disorders. In a first randomized controlled trial, 40 women were allocated to either the aggression regulation intervention plus supportive contact or a control condition of supportive contact only. The intervention was delivered by a psychomotor therapist. Participants completed questionnaires on anger coping and eating disorder pathology. Independent samples t-tests were performed on the difference between pre-treatment and post-treatment scores. Twenty-nine participants completed questionnaires at pre-intervention and post-intervention. The intervention resulted in a significantly greater improvement of anger coping, as well as of eating disorder pathology. Results indicate that body and movement-oriented aggression regulation may be a viable add-on for treating eating disorders. It tackles a difficult to treat emotion which may have a role in blocking the entire process of treating eating disorders. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and Eating Disorders Association.

  10. Digitization of the human body in the present-day economy

    Science.gov (United States)

    D'Apuzzo, Nicola

    2005-01-01

    In this paper we report on the historic development of human body digitization and on the actual state of commercially available technology. Complete systems for the digitization of the human body exist since more than ten years. One of the main users of this technology was the entertainment industry. Every new movie excited with attractive visual effects, but only few people knew that the most thrilling cuts were realized by using virtual persons. The faces and bodies of actors were digitized and the "virtual twin" replaced the actor in the movie. Nowadays, the state of the human body digitization is so high that it is not possible any more to distinguish the real actor from the virtual one. Indeed, for the rush technical development has to be thanked the movie industry, which was one of the strong economic motors for this technology. Today, with the possibility of a massive cost reduction given by new technologies, methods for digitization of the human body are used also in other fields of application, such as ergonomics, medical applications, computer games, biometry and anthropometrics. With the time, this technology becomes interesting also for sport, fitness, fashion and beauty. A large expansion of human body digitization is expected in the near future. To date, different technologies are used commercially for the measurement of the human body. They can be divided into three distinguished groups: laser-scanning, projection of light patterns, combination modeling and image processing. The different solutions have strengths and weaknesses that profile their suitability for specific applications. This paper gives an overview of their differences and characteristics and expresses clues for the selection of the adequate method. Practical examples of commercial exploitation of human body digitization are also presented and new interesting perspectives are introduced.

  11. Energy Generation in the Human Body by the Human Cells ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    We adapted the thermodynamics equation for energy generation in a diesel engine in modeling energy generation in human body by the human cells by doing a thorough study on both systems and saw that the process of energy generation is the same in them. We equally saw that the stages involved in energy generation ...

  12. Stereotactic body radiotherapy for stage I lung cancer and small lung metastasis: evaluation of an immobilization system for suppression of respiratory tumor movement and preliminary results

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ayakawa Shiho

    2009-05-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background In stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT for lung tumors, reducing tumor movement is necessary. In this study, we evaluated changes in tumor movement and percutaneous oxygen saturation (SpO2 levels, and preliminary clinical results of SBRT using the BodyFIX immobilization system. Methods Between 2004 and 2006, 53 consecutive patients were treated for 55 lesions; 42 were stage I non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC, 10 were metastatic lung cancers, and 3 were local recurrences of NSCLC. Tumor movement was measured with fluoroscopy under breath holding, free breathing on a couch, and free breathing in the BodyFIX system. SpO2 levels were measured with a finger pulseoximeter under each condition. The delivered dose was 44, 48 or 52 Gy, depending on tumor diameter, in 4 fractions over 10 or 11 days. Results By using the BodyFIX system, respiratory tumor movements were significantly reduced compared with the free-breathing condition in both craniocaudal and lateral directions, although the amplitude of reduction in the craniocaudal direction was 3 mm or more in only 27% of the patients. The average SpO2 did not decrease by using the system. At 3 years, the local control rate was 80% for all lesions. Overall survival was 76%, cause-specific survival was 92%, and local progression-free survival was 76% at 3 years in primary NSCLC patients. Grade 2 radiation pneumonitis developed in 7 patients. Conclusion Respiratory tumor movement was modestly suppressed by the BodyFIX system, while the SpO2 level did not decrease. It was considered a simple and effective method for SBRT of lung tumors. Preliminary results were encouraging.

  13. Human Activity-Understanding: A Multilayer Approach Combining Body Movements and Contextual Descriptors Analysis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Consuelo Granata

    2015-07-01

    Full Text Available A deep understanding of human activity is key to successful human-robot interaction (HRI. The translation of sensed human behavioural signals/cues and context descriptors into an encoded human activity remains a challenge because of the complex nature of human actions. In this paper, we propose a multilayer framework for the understanding of human activity to be implemented in a mobile robot. It consists of a perception layer which exploits a D-RGB-based skeleton tracking output used to simulate a physical model of virtual human dynamics in order to compensate for the inaccuracy and inconsistency of the raw data. A multi-support vector machine (MSVM model trained with features describing the human motor coordination through temporal segments in combination with environment descriptors (object affordance is used to recognize each sub-activity (classification layer. The interpretation of sequences of classified elementary actions is based on discrete hidden Markov models (DHMMs (interpretation layer. The framework assessment was performed on the Cornell Activity Dataset (CAD-120 [1]. The performances of our method are comparable with those presented in [2] and clearly show the relevance of this model-based approach.

  14. Injury to the human body, part 2

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Anon.

    1981-01-01

    Injuries by exposure to the atomic bomb at Hiroshima and Nagasaki and its effects were studied as follows: 1) Injury to the human body following exposure to the atomic bomb; 2) Body injury in the initial stage-acute stage of atomic bomb injury; 3) Aftereffects and genetic effects. (J.P.N.)

  15. Experimental investigation of biodynamic human body models subjected to whole-body vibration during a vehicle ride.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Taskin, Yener; Hacioglu, Yuksel; Ortes, Faruk; Karabulut, Derya; Arslan, Yunus Ziya

    2018-02-06

    In this study, responses of biodynamic human body models to whole-body vibration during a vehicle ride were investigated. Accelerations were acquired from three different body parts, such as the head, upper torso and lower torso, of 10 seated passengers during a car ride while two different road conditions were considered. The same multipurpose vehicle was used during all experiments. Additionally, by two widely used biodynamic models in the literature, a set of simulations were run to obtain theoretical accelerations of the models and were compared with those obtained experimentally. To sustain a quantified comparison between experimental and theoretical approaches, the root mean square acceleration and acceleration spectral density were calculated. Time and frequency responses of the models demonstrated that neither of the models showed the best prediction performance of the human body behaviour in all cases, indicating that further models are required for better prediction of the human body responses.

  16. 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...

  17. "Scientific peep show": the human body in contemporary science museums.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Canadelli, Elena

    2011-01-01

    The essay focuses on the discourse about the human body developed by contemporary science museums with educational and instructive purposes directed at the general public. These museums aim mostly at mediating concepts such as health and prevention. The current scenario is linked with two examples of past museums: the popular anatomical museums which emerged during the 19th century and the health museums thrived between 1910 and 1940. On the museological path about the human body self-care we went from the emotionally involving anatomical Venuses to the inexpressive Transparent Man, from anatomical specimens of ill organs and deformed subjects to the mechanical and electronic models of the healthy body. Today the body is made transparent by the new medical diagnostics and by the latest discoveries of endoscopy. The way museums and science centers presently display the human body involves computers, 3D animation, digital technologies, hands-on models of large size human parts.

  18. Human motor cortical activity recorded with Micro-ECoG electrodes, during individual finger movements.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, W; Degenhart, A D; Collinger, J L; Vinjamuri, R; Sudre, G P; Adelson, P D; Holder, D L; Leuthardt, E C; Moran, D W; Boninger, M L; Schwartz, A B; Crammond, D J; Tyler-Kabara, E C; Weber, D J

    2009-01-01

    In this study human motor cortical activity was recorded with a customized micro-ECoG grid during individual finger movements. The quality of the recorded neural signals was characterized in the frequency domain from three different perspectives: (1) coherence between neural signals recorded from different electrodes, (2) modulation of neural signals by finger movement, and (3) accuracy of finger movement decoding. It was found that, for the high frequency band (60-120 Hz), coherence between neighboring micro-ECoG electrodes was 0.3. In addition, the high frequency band showed significant modulation by finger movement both temporally and spatially, and a classification accuracy of 73% (chance level: 20%) was achieved for individual finger movement using neural signals recorded from the micro-ECoG grid. These results suggest that the micro-ECoG grid presented here offers sufficient spatial and temporal resolution for the development of minimally-invasive brain-computer interface applications.

  19. Transport of gaseous pollutants around a human body in quiescent indoor environment

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Licina, Dusan; Melikov, Arsen Krikor; Mioduszewski, Pawel

    2014-01-01

    (CBL) to transport the pollution in quiescent indoor environment. A human body is resembled by a thermal manikin with a body shape and surface temperature distribution of a real person. The objective of the study is to examine the impact of the pollutant location around the human body on the pollution...... concentration levels in the breathing zone. The results show that the location of the pollution source has a considerable influence of the breathing zone concentrations. This is contributed to the human CBL, as it pulls the pollution emitted close to the human body and transports it to the breathing zone...... the human body should be recognized in ventilation design practice....

  20. The Human Body Sword

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kris Borer

    2010-08-01

    Full Text Available The human body shield problem involves an apparent dilemma for a libertarian, forcing him to choose between his own death and the death of an innocent person. This paper argues that the non-aggression principle permits a forceful response against the property of innocent individuals when a conflict is initiated with that property. In other words, a libertarian may shoot the hostage in order to save himself.

  1. Evaluation of a smartphone human activity recognition application with able-bodied and stroke participants.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Capela, N A; Lemaire, E D; Baddour, N; Rudolf, M; Goljar, N; Burger, H

    2016-01-20

    Mobile health monitoring using wearable sensors is a growing area of interest. As the world's population ages and locomotor capabilities decrease, the ability to report on a person's mobility activities outside a hospital setting becomes a valuable tool for clinical decision-making and evaluating healthcare interventions. Smartphones are omnipresent in society and offer convenient and suitable sensors for mobility monitoring applications. To enhance our understanding of human activity recognition (HAR) system performance for able-bodied and populations with gait deviations, this research evaluated a custom smartphone-based HAR classifier on fifteen able-bodied participants and fifteen participants who suffered a stroke. Participants performed a consecutive series of mobility tasks and daily living activities while wearing a BlackBerry Z10 smartphone on their waist to collect accelerometer and gyroscope data. Five features were derived from the sensor data and used to classify participant activities (decision tree). Sensitivity, specificity and F-scores were calculated to evaluate HAR classifier performance. The classifier performed well for both populations when differentiating mobile from immobile states (F-score > 94 %). As activity recognition complexity increased, HAR system sensitivity and specificity decreased for the stroke population, particularly when using information derived from participant posture to make classification decisions. Human activity recognition using a smartphone based system can be accomplished for both able-bodied and stroke populations; however, an increase in activity classification complexity leads to a decrease in HAR performance with a stroke population. The study results can be used to guide smartphone HAR system development for populations with differing movement characteristics.

  2. Human movement onset detection from isometric force and torque measurements: a supervised pattern recognition approach.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Soda, Paolo; Mazzoleni, Stefano; Cavallo, Giuseppe; Guglielmelli, Eugenio; Iannello, Giulio

    2010-09-01

    Recent research has successfully introduced the application of robotics and mechatronics to functional assessment and motor therapy. Measurements of movement initiation in isometric conditions are widely used in clinical rehabilitation and their importance in functional assessment has been demonstrated for specific parts of the human body. The determination of the voluntary movement initiation time, also referred to as onset time, represents a challenging issue since the time window characterizing the movement onset is of particular relevance for the understanding of recovery mechanisms after a neurological damage. Establishing it manually as well as a troublesome task may also introduce oversight errors and loss of information. The most commonly used methods for automatic onset time detection compare the raw signal, or some extracted measures such as its derivatives (i.e., velocity and acceleration) with a chosen threshold. However, they suffer from high variability and systematic errors because of the weakness of the signal, the abnormality of response profiles as well as the variability of movement initiation times among patients. In this paper, we introduce a technique to optimise onset detection according to each input signal. It is based on a classification system that enables us to establish which deterministic method provides the most accurate onset time on the basis of information directly derived from the raw signal. The approach was tested on annotated force and torque datasets. Each dataset is constituted by 768 signals acquired from eight anatomical districts in 96 patients who carried out six tasks related to common daily activities. The results show that the proposed technique improves not only on the performance achieved by each of the deterministic methods, but also on that attained by a group of clinical experts. The paper describes a classification system detecting the voluntary movement initiation time and adaptable to different signals. By

  3. High School Students' Understanding of the Human Body System

    Science.gov (United States)

    Assaraf, Orit Ben-Zvi; Dodick, Jeff; Tripto, Jaklin

    2013-01-01

    In this study, 120 tenth-grade students from 8 schools were examined to determine the extent of their ability to perceive the human body as a system after completing the first stage in their biology curriculum--"The human body, emphasizing homeostasis". The students' systems thinking was analyzed according to the STH thinking model, which roughly…

  4. Human vocal attractiveness as signaled by body size projection.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yi Xu

    Full Text Available Voice, as a secondary sexual characteristic, is known to affect the perceived attractiveness of human individuals. But the underlying mechanism of vocal attractiveness has remained unclear. Here, we presented human listeners with acoustically altered natural sentences and fully synthetic sentences with systematically manipulated pitch, formants and voice quality based on a principle of body size projection reported for animal calls and emotional human vocal expressions. The results show that male listeners preferred a female voice that signals a small body size, with relatively high pitch, wide formant dispersion and breathy voice, while female listeners preferred a male voice that signals a large body size with low pitch and narrow formant dispersion. Interestingly, however, male vocal attractiveness was also enhanced by breathiness, which presumably softened the aggressiveness associated with a large body size. These results, together with the additional finding that the same vocal dimensions also affect emotion judgment, indicate that humans still employ a vocal interaction strategy used in animal calls despite the development of complex language.

  5. Relationship between alertness, performance, and body temperature in humans

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wright, Kenneth P Jr; Hull, Joseph T.; Czeisler, Charles A.

    2002-01-01

    Body temperature has been reported to influence human performance. Performance is reported to be better when body temperature is high/near its circadian peak and worse when body temperature is low/near its circadian minimum. We assessed whether this relationship between performance and body temperature reflects the regulation of both the internal biological timekeeping system and/or the influence of body temperature on performance independent of circadian phase. Fourteen subjects participated in a forced desynchrony protocol allowing assessment of the relationship between body temperature and performance while controlling for circadian phase and hours awake. Most neurobehavioral measures varied as a function of internal biological time and duration of wakefulness. A number of performance measures were better when body temperature was elevated, including working memory, subjective alertness, visual attention, and the slowest 10% of reaction times. These findings demonstrate that an increased body temperature, associated with and independent of internal biological time, is correlated with improved performance and alertness. These results support the hypothesis that body temperature modulates neurobehavioral function in humans.

  6. Energetic and exergetic comparison of the human body for the summer season

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Caliskan, Hakan

    2013-01-01

    Highlights: • Energetic and exergetic comparison of the human body. • Usage of summer season data. • Calculation of entropy generation of the human body. • Thermal comfort. • Determining predicted mean vote rate and predicted percentage dissatisfied rate for the human comfort. - Abstract: The energy and exergy analyses are performed to the human body for the summer season of the Izmir city in Turkey. It is found that the metabolism energy and exergy rates are the major part of the human body’s energy generation. However, metabolism energy rate (58.326 W/m 2 ) is much higher than corresponding exergetic one (1.661 W/m 2 ). The maximum energy loss of the human body (70.59%) occurs due to heat exchange such as radiation, convection, and conduction. On the other hand, the maximum exergy loss of the human body happens due to exhaled humid air (6.393%), while the most of the total exergy is consumed by the human body (90.786%). Thermal comfort condition is also calculated. The Predicted Mean Vote (PMV) rate is found as 0.028 which means that the thermal sensation of the human body is called as comfortable. Furthermore, the Predicted Percentage Dissatisfied (PPD) rate is determined to be 5.017% which is low and shows the thermally dissatisfied people percentages

  7. Electric field prediction for a human body-electric machine system.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ioannides, Maria G; Papadopoulos, Peter J; Dimitropoulou, Eugenia

    2004-01-01

    A system consisting of an electric machine and a human body is studied and the resulting electric field is predicted. A 3-phase induction machine operating at full load is modeled considering its geometry, windings, and materials. A human model is also constructed approximating its geometry and the electric properties of tissues. Using the finite element technique the electric field distribution in the human body is determined for a distance of 1 and 5 m from the machine and its effects are studied. Particularly, electric field potential variations are determined at specific points inside the human body and for these points the electric field intensity is computed and compared to the limit values for exposure according to international standards.

  8. ESTIMATION OF HUMAN BODY SHAPE PARAMETERS USING MICROSOFT KINECTSENCOR

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    D. M. Vasilkov

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available In the paper a human body shape estimation technology based on scan data acquired from sensor controller Microsoft Kinect is described. This device includes an RGB camera and a depth sensor that provides, for each pixel of the image,a distance from the camera focus to the object. A scan session produces a triangulated high-density surface noised with oscillations, isolated fragments and holes. When scanning a human, additional noise comes from garment folds and wrinkles. An algorithm of creating a sparse and regular 3D human body model (avatar free of these defects, which approximates shape, posture and basic metrics of the scanned body is proposed. This solution finds application in individual clothing industry and computer games, as well.

  9. Gender Recognition from Unconstrained and Articulated Human Body

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Qin Wu

    2014-01-01

    human body images acquired from an unconstrained environment in the real world. A systematic study of some critical issues in body-based gender recognition, such as which body parts are informative, how many body parts are needed to combine together, and what representations are good for articulated body-based gender recognition, is also presented. This paper also pursues data fusion schemes and efficient feature dimensionality reduction based on the partial least squares estimation. Extensive experiments are performed on two unconstrained databases which have not been explored before for gender recognition.

  10. A novel human body exergy consumption formula to determine indoor thermal conditions for optimal human performance in office buildings

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Wu, Xiaozhou; Zhao, Jianing; Olesen, Bjarne W.

    2013-01-01

    In this paper, a novel human body exergy consumption formula was derived strictly according to Gagge's two-node thermal transfer model. The human body exergy consumption calculated by the formula was compared with values calculated using Shukuya's formula for a typical office environment....... The results show that human body exergy consumption calculated by either of these formulas reaches a minimum under the same thermal condition. It is shown that this is in accordance with expectation. The relation between human performance and human body exergy consumption was studied by analyzing the data...... obtained in simulated office environments in winter. The results show that human body exergy consumption and human performance are inversely as operative temperature changes from 17 to 28°C or human thermal sensation changes from −1.0 to +1.4, and that optimum thermal comfort cannot be expected to lead...

  11. Changes in inferior vena cava blood flow velocity and diameter during breathing movements in the human fetus

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    T. Huisman (T.); S. van den Eijnde (Stefan); P.A. Stewart (Patricia); J.W. Wladimiroff (Juriy)

    1993-01-01

    textabstractBreathing movements in the human fetus cause distinct changes in Doppler flow velocity measurements at arterial, venous and cardiac levels. In adults, breathing movements result in a momentary inspiratory collapse of the inferior vena cava vessel wall. The study objective was to quantify

  12. Scandinavian Semantics and the Human Body

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Levisen, Carsten

    2015-01-01

    , it is demonstrated that Scandinavian and English systems differ significantly in some aspects of the way in which the construe the human body with words. The study ventures an innovative combination of methods, pairing the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) approach to linguistic and conceptual analysis......This paper presents an ethnolinguistic analysis of how the space between the head and the body is construed in Scandinavian semantic systems vis-a-vis the semantic system of English. With an extensive case study of neck-related meanings in Danish, and with cross-Scandinavian reference...... with empirical evidence from the Evolution of Semantic Systems (EoSS) project. This combination of empirical and interpretative tools helps to integrate evidence from semantics and semiotics, pinning out in great detail the intricacies of the meanings of particular body words. The paper concludes that body words...

  13. The origins of Western mind-body exercise methods.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hoffman, Jonathan; Gabel, C Philip

    2015-11-02

    Background: Over recent decades, mind-body exercise methods have gained international popularity and importance in the management of musculoskeletal disorders. Objectives: The scope of this paper was to investigate: the origins of Western mind-body methods, their philosophies, exercises, and relationship with mainstream healthcare over the last two centuries. Major findings: Within a few decades of the turn of the 20th century, a cluster of mind-body exercise methods emerged from at least six pioneering founders: Checkley, Müller, Alexander, Randell, Pilates, and Morris. Each was based upon a similar exercise philosophy and similar functional movement-harmonizing exercises. This renaissance of independent mind-body schools occurred in parallel with the demise of the 18th and 19th century gymnasium Physical Culture movement and the concurrent emergence of bodybuilding and strength training. Even though mostly forgotten today, Western mind-body exercise methods enjoyed celebrated success during the first half of the 20th century, were hailed by medical and allied health practitioners and practiced by millions from society's elite to deprived minorities. Conclusions: Rediscovering the Western mind-body exercise movement is hoped to facilitate official healthcare establishment recognition of this kind of training as an integral entity. This may widen research opportunities and consolidate approaches toward: optimal musculoskeletal rehabilitation and injury prevention, promotion of a healthy active lifestyle environment in the modern world, and enhancement of the natural pain-free human athletic look, feel, and performance.

  14. FMS™ scores and low-back loading during lifting--whole-body movement screening as an ergonomic tool?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Beach, Tyson A C; Frost, David M; Callaghan, Jack P

    2014-05-01

    Previous research suggests that a general whole-body movement screen could be used to identify personal movement attributes that promote potentially injurious low-back loading patterns at work. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between Functional Movement Screen™ (FMS) composite scores and the low-back loading response to lifting. Fifteen men who scored greater than 14 on the FMS (high-scorers) and 15 height- and weight-matched low-scorers (FMS axes, but there was a tendency for the lumbar spine to be more deviated in the low-scorers. Using the previously established injury prediction threshold value of 14, the composite FMS score was not related to the peak low-back loading magnitudes in lifting. Though not statistically significant, the tendency for the lumbar spines of low-scorers to be more deviated when the peak low-back compression force was imposed could be biomechanically meaningful because spinal load tolerance varies with posture. Future attempts to modify or reinterpret FMS scoring are warranted given that several previous studies have revealed links between composite FMS scores and musculoskeletal complaints. Crown Copyright © 2013. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  15. 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.

  16. Sensing power transfer between the human body and the environment

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Veltink, Petrus H.; Kortier, H.G.; Schepers, H. Martin

    The power transferred between the human body and the environment at any time and the work performed are important quantities to be estimated when evaluating and optimizing the physical interaction between the human body and the environment in sports, physical labor, and rehabilitation. It is the

  17. Short-Term Plasticity of the Visuomotor Map during Grasping Movements in Humans

    Science.gov (United States)

    Safstrom, Daniel; Edin, Benoni B.

    2005-01-01

    During visually guided grasping movements, visual information is transformed into motor commands. This transformation is known as the "visuomotor map." To investigate limitations in the short-term plasticity of the visuomotor map in normal humans, we studied the maximum grip aperture (MGA) during the reaching phase while subjects grasped objects…

  18. Heat Exchange in “Human body - Thermal protection - Environment” System

    Science.gov (United States)

    Khromova, I. V.

    2017-11-01

    This article is devoted to the issues of simulation and calculation of thermal processes in the system called “Human body - Thermal protection - Environment” under low temperature conditions. It considers internal heat sources and convective heat transfer between calculated elements. Overall this is important for the Heat Transfer Theory. The article introduces complex heat transfer calculation method and local thermophysical parameters calculation method in the system called «Human body - Thermal protection - Environment», considering passive and active thermal protections, thermophysical and geometric properties of calculated elements in a wide range of environmental parameters (water, air). It also includes research on the influence that thermal resistance of modern materials, used in special protective clothes development, has on heat transfer in the system “Human body - Thermal protection - Environment”. Analysis of the obtained results allows adding of the computer research data to experiments and optimizing of individual life-support system elements, which are intended to protect human body from exposure to external factors.

  19. Body schematics: on the role of the body schema in embodied lexical-semantic representations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rueschemeyer, Shirley-Ann; Pfeiffer, Christian; Bekkering, Harold

    2010-02-01

    Words denoting manipulable objects activate sensorimotor brain areas, likely reflecting action experience with the denoted objects. In particular, these sensorimotor lexical representations have been found to reflect the way in which an object is used. In the current paper we present data from two experiments (one behavioral and one neuroimaging) in which we investigate whether body schema information, putatively necessary for interacting with functional objects, is also recruited during lexical processing. To this end, we presented participants with words denoting objects that are typically brought towards or away from the body (e.g., cup or key, respectively). We hypothesized that objects typically brought to a location on the body (e.g., cup) are relatively more reliant on body schema representations, since the final goal location of the cup (i.e., the mouth) is represented primarily through posture and body co-ordinates. In contrast, objects typically brought to a location away from the body (e.g., key) are relatively more dependent on visuo-spatial representations, since the final goal location of the key (i.e., a keyhole) is perceived visually. The behavioral study showed that prior planning of a movement along an axis towards and away from the body facilitates processing of words with a congruent action semantic feature (i.e., preparation of movement towards the body facilitates processing of cup.). In an fMRI study we showed that words denoting objects brought towards the body engage the resources of brain areas involved in the processing information about human bodies (i.e., the extra-striate body area, middle occipital gyrus and inferior parietal lobe) relatively more than words denoting objects typically brought away from the body. The results provide converging evidence that body schema are implicitly activated in processing lexical information. 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  20. Scanning 3D full human bodies using Kinects.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tong, Jing; Zhou, Jin; Liu, Ligang; Pan, Zhigeng; Yan, Hao

    2012-04-01

    Depth camera such as Microsoft Kinect, is much cheaper than conventional 3D scanning devices, and thus it can be acquired for everyday users easily. However, the depth data captured by Kinect over a certain distance is of extreme low quality. In this paper, we present a novel scanning system for capturing 3D full human body models by using multiple Kinects. To avoid the interference phenomena, we use two Kinects to capture the upper part and lower part of a human body respectively without overlapping region. A third Kinect is used to capture the middle part of the human body from the opposite direction. We propose a practical approach for registering the various body parts of different views under non-rigid deformation. First, a rough mesh template is constructed and used to deform successive frames pairwisely. Second, global alignment is performed to distribute errors in the deformation space, which can solve the loop closure problem efficiently. Misalignment caused by complex occlusion can also be handled reasonably by our global alignment algorithm. The experimental results have shown the efficiency and applicability of our system. Our system obtains impressive results in a few minutes with low price devices, thus is practically useful for generating personalized avatars for everyday users. Our system has been used for 3D human animation and virtual try on, and can further facilitate a range of home–oriented virtual reality (VR) applications.

  1. Does the brain use sliding variables for the control of movements?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hanneton, S; Berthoz, A; Droulez, J; Slotine, J J

    1997-12-01

    Delays in the transmission of sensory and motor information prevent errors from being instantaneously available to the central nervous system (CNS) and can reduce the stability of a closed-loop control strategy. On the other hand, the use of a pure feedforward control (inverse dynamics) requires a perfect knowledge of the dynamic behavior of the body and of manipulated objects. Sensory feedback is essential both to accommodate unexpected errors and events and to compensate for uncertainties about the dynamics of the body. Experimental observations concerning the control of posture, gaze and limbs have shown that the CNS certainly uses a combination of closed-loop and open-loop control. Feedforward components of movement, such as eye saccades, occur intermittently and present a stereotyped kinematic profile. In visuo-manual tracking tasks, hand movements exhibit velocity peaks that occur intermittently. When a delay or a slow dynamics are inserted in the visuo-manual control loop, intermittent step-and-hold movements appear clearly in the hand trajectory. In this study, we investigated strategies used by human subjects involved in the control of a particular dynamic system. We found strong evidence for substantial nonlinearities in the commands produced. The presence of step-and-hold movements seemed to be the major source of nonlinearities in the control loop. Furthermore, the stereotyped ballistic-like kinematics of these rapid and corrective movements suggests that they were produced in an open-loop way by the CNS. We analyzed the generation of ballistic movements in the light of sliding control theory assuming that they occurred when a sliding variable exceeded a constant threshold. In this framework, a sliding variable is defined as a composite variable (a combination of the instantaneous tracking error and its temporal derivatives) that fulfills a specific stability criterion. Based on this hypothesis and on the assumption of a constant reaction time, the

  2. Investigation of human body potential measured by a non-contact measuring system.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ichikawa, Norimitsu

    2016-12-07

    A human body is occasionally electrified in a room. This charged object will be a source of electrostatic accidents, including the malfunction of electronic equipment. Hence, prevention of these accidents is required. Accidents occasionally occur, even though antistatic clothes and shoes are used. One of the causes for these accidents is that there is a lack of the preventive measures. This situation occurs when using, for example, unconductive wax. In this study, human body potential (voltage) is measured using a non-contact measuring system. An investigation of the human body's voltage when using this system is conducted. The result demonstrates that the voltage of a human body wearing antistatic clothes and shoes or light clothes and slippers exceeds a malfunctioning voltage of a microelectronics device when the body walks on floors. Thus, accidents may occur even if a human body wearing the antistatic clothes walks on flooring. These results will be useful in estimating determination whether electrostatic accidents occur or not.

  3. Alterations in the rate of limb movement using a lower body positive pressure treadmill do not influence respiratory rate or phase III ventilation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Buono, Michael J; Burnsed-Torres, Marissa; Hess, Bethany; Lopez, Kristine; Ortiz, Catherine; Girodo, Ariel; Lolli, Karen; Bloom, Brett; Bailey, David; Kolkhorst, Fred W

    2015-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of alterations in rate of limb movement on Phase III ventilation during exercise, independent of metabolic rate, gait style, and treadmill incline. Subjects completed five submaximal exercise bouts on a lower body positive pressure treadmill (AlterG P 200). The percent body weight for the five exercise bouts was 100, 87, 75, 63, and 50% and each was matched for carbon dioxide production (V CO2 ). Naturally, to match the V CO2 while reducing the body weight up to 50% of normal required a significant increase in the treadmill speed from 3.0 ± 0.1 to 4.1 ± 0.2 mph, which resulted in a significant (P body weight) to 133 ± 6 at 4.1 mph (i.e., 50% of body weight). The most important finding was that significant increases in step frequency did not significantly alter minute ventilation or respiratory rate. Such results do not support an important role for the rate of limb movement in Phase III ventilation during submaximal exercise, when metabolic rate, gait style, and treadmill incline are controlled.

  4. Changing the narratives of marginalised bodies - a study about body positivism

    OpenAIRE

    Alentola, Anni Emilia

    2017-01-01

    The purpose of this study is to explain and analyse the body positivity movement in the social media platform Instagram, as well as its empowering effects on women active in this movement. The phenomenon based on visuality, body positivism, has more than three million pictures on Instagram, hashtagged under two popular hashtags examined in this thesis: #bodypositivity and #bodypositive. The goal of this movement is to show diversity in the portrayal of women, as well as to encourage acceptanc...

  5. The evolution of body size and shape in the human career

    Science.gov (United States)

    Grabowski, Mark; Hatala, Kevin G.; Richmond, Brian G.

    2016-01-01

    Body size is a fundamental biological property of organisms, and documenting body size variation in hominin evolution is an important goal of palaeoanthropology. Estimating body mass appears deceptively simple but is laden with theoretical and pragmatic assumptions about best predictors and the most appropriate reference samples. Modern human training samples with known masses are arguably the ‘best’ for estimating size in early bipedal hominins such as the australopiths and all members of the genus Homo, but it is not clear if they are the most appropriate priors for reconstructing the size of the earliest putative hominins such as Orrorin and Ardipithecus. The trajectory of body size evolution in the early part of the human career is reviewed here and found to be complex and nonlinear. Australopith body size varies enormously across both space and time. The pre-erectus early Homo fossil record from Africa is poor and dominated by relatively small-bodied individuals, implying that the emergence of the genus Homo is probably not linked to an increase in body size or unprecedented increases in size variation. Body size differences alone cannot explain the observed variation in hominin body shape, especially when examined in the context of small fossil hominins and pygmy modern humans. This article is part of the themed issue ‘Major transitions in human evolution’. PMID:27298459

  6. [The solidarity of the human body].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bioy, Xavier

    2014-06-01

    The legal and bioethical regulation of the uses of the elements of the human body can be described by means of the concept of solidarity. From the French example, we can so show that the State tries to frame solidarities which already exist, for example between people who share the same genome, in the family, or, on the contrary, tent to impose or to direct the sharing of the human biological resources (organs, tissues, gametes, stem cell...).

  7. Statistical multi-path exposure method for assessing the whole-body SAR in a heterogeneous human body model in a realistic environment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vermeeren, Günter; Joseph, Wout; Martens, Luc

    2013-04-01

    Assessing the whole-body absorption in a human in a realistic environment requires a statistical approach covering all possible exposure situations. This article describes the development of a statistical multi-path exposure method for heterogeneous realistic human body models. The method is applied for the 6-year-old Virtual Family boy (VFB) exposed to the GSM downlink at 950 MHz. It is shown that the whole-body SAR does not differ significantly over the different environments at an operating frequency of 950 MHz. Furthermore, the whole-body SAR in the VFB for multi-path exposure exceeds the whole-body SAR for worst-case single-incident plane wave exposure by 3.6%. Moreover, the ICNIRP reference levels are not conservative with the basic restrictions in 0.3% of the exposure samples for the VFB at the GSM downlink of 950 MHz. The homogeneous spheroid with the dielectric properties of the head suggested by the IEC underestimates the absorption compared to realistic human body models. Moreover, the variation in the whole-body SAR for realistic human body models is larger than for homogeneous spheroid models. This is mainly due to the heterogeneity of the tissues and the irregular shape of the realistic human body model compared to homogeneous spheroid human body models. Copyright © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  8. Validation of seat-off and seat-on in repeated sit-to-stand movements using a single-body-fixed sensor

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Van Lummel, R C; Ainsworth, E; Hausdorff, J M; Lindemann, U; Beek, P J; Van Dieën, J H

    2012-01-01

    The identification of chair rise phases is a prerequisite for quantifying sit-to-stand movements. The aim of this study is to validate seat-off and seat-on detection using a single-body-fixed sensor against detection based on chair switches. A single sensor system with three accelerometers and three gyroscopes was fixed around the waist. Synchronized on–off switches were placed under the chair. Thirteen older adults were recruited from a residential care home and fifteen young adults were recruited among college students. Subjects were asked to complete two sets of five trials each. Six features of the trunk movement during seat-off and seat-on were calculated automatically, and a model was developed to predict the moment of seat-off and seat-on transitions. The predictions were validated with leave-one-out cross-validation. Feature extraction failed in two trials (0.7%). For the optimal combination of seat-off predictors, cross-validation yielded a mean error of 0 ms and a mean absolute error of 51 ms. For the best seat-on predictor, cross-validation yielded a mean error of –3 ms and a mean absolute error of 127 ms. The results of this study demonstrate that seat-off and seat-on in repeated sit-to-stand movements can be detected semi-automatically in young and older adults using a one-body-fixed sensor system with an accuracy of 51 and 127 ms, respectively. The use of the ambulatory instrumentation is feasible for non-technically trained personnel. This is an important step in the development of an automated method for the quantification of sit-to-stand movements in clinical practice. (paper)

  9. 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.

  10. Variability in human body size

    Science.gov (United States)

    Annis, J. F.

    1978-01-01

    The range of variability found among homogeneous groups is described and illustrated. Those trends that show significantly marked differences between sexes and among a number of racial/ethnic groups are also presented. Causes of human-body size variability discussed include genetic endowment, aging, nutrition, protective garments, and occupation. The information is presented to aid design engineers of space flight hardware and equipment.

  11. Measurement of Radioactivity in the Human Body

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Andersson, I Oe; Nilsson, I

    1960-12-15

    A body counter with a steel room and a 4-inch-diameter by 4-inch thick Nal scintillation counter has been in operation since February 1958. It is used to control the internal contamination in people working with radioactive materials. Measurements have also been made on the natural activity in the human body. The average cesium-137/potassium ratio in a group of Swedish males was in May 1959 73 {mu}{mu}c per gram of body potassium and in June 1960 55 {mu}{mu}c per gram of body potassium. The cessation of the nuclear bomb tests has caused a decrease in the cesium level in people. This gives some information of how cesium is entering the biosphere.

  12. Measurement of Radioactivity in the Human Body

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Andersson, I.Oe.; Nilsson, I.

    1960-12-01

    A body counter with a steel room and a 4-inch-diameter by 4-inch thick Nal scintillation counter has been in operation since February 1958. It is used to control the internal contamination in people working with radioactive materials. Measurements have also been made on the natural activity in the human body. The average cesium-137/potassium ratio in a group of Swedish males was in May 1959 73 μμc per gram of body potassium and in June 1960 55 μμc per gram of body potassium. The cessation of the nuclear bomb tests has caused a decrease in the cesium level in people. This gives some information of how cesium is entering the biosphere

  13. Teaching exploration and practice of the human body structure course

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    Feng LI; Ming-feng CHEN; Wen-long DING

    2015-01-01

    In the 21 st century,the medical model has transformed from the biological model to the biopsycho-social medical model. The transformation of medical model raises higher requirements for the training of medical staff. Comprehensive promotion of the reform of medical education has become the consensus and trend,which breeds the integrated medical teaching that is based on modules and organ systems. As one of eight integrated modules,the human body structure course of Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine introduces morphological structures of normal human organs according to function systems( such as locomotor system,digestive system,angiological system,and nervous system) of human organs and parts of human body. This course endeavors to integrate theories with practices,contents of disciplines of basic medicine,and basic medicine with clinical medicine. The human body structure course combines basic medicine with clinical medicine and is an important part of medical science.

  14. Optimal sensorimotor control in eye movement sequences.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Munuera, Jérôme; Morel, Pierre; Duhamel, Jean-René; Deneve, Sophie

    2009-03-11

    Fast and accurate motor behavior requires combining noisy and delayed sensory information with knowledge of self-generated body motion; much evidence indicates that humans do this in a near-optimal manner during arm movements. However, it is unclear whether this principle applies to eye movements. We measured the relative contributions of visual sensory feedback and the motor efference copy (and/or proprioceptive feedback) when humans perform two saccades in rapid succession, the first saccade to a visual target and the second to a memorized target. Unbeknownst to the subject, we introduced an artificial motor error by randomly "jumping" the visual target during the first saccade. The correction of the memory-guided saccade allowed us to measure the relative contributions of visual feedback and efferent copy (and/or proprioceptive feedback) to motor-plan updating. In a control experiment, we extinguished the target during the saccade rather than changing its location to measure the relative contribution of motor noise and target localization error to saccade variability without any visual feedback. The motor noise contribution increased with saccade amplitude, but remained <30% of the total variability. Subjects adjusted the gain of their visual feedback for different saccade amplitudes as a function of its reliability. Even during trials where subjects performed a corrective saccade to compensate for the target-jump, the correction by the visual feedback, while stronger, remained far below 100%. In all conditions, an optimal controller predicted the visual feedback gain well, suggesting that humans combine optimally their efferent copy and sensory feedback when performing eye movements.

  15. Allometric and temporal scaling of movement characteristics in Galapagos tortoises

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bastille-Rousseau, Guillaume; Yackulic, Charles B.; Frair, Jacqueline L.; Cabrera, Freddy; Blake, Stephen

    2016-01-01

    Understanding how individual movement scales with body size is of fundamental importance in predicting ecological relationships for diverse species. One-dimensional movement metrics scale consistently with body size yet vary over different temporal scales. Knowing how temporal scale influences the relationship between animal body size and movement would better inform hypotheses about the efficiency of foraging behaviour, the ontogeny of energy budgets, and numerous life-history trade-offs.We investigated how the temporal scaling of allometric patterns in movement varies over the course of a year, specifically during periods of motivated (directional and fast movement) and unmotivated (stationary and tortuous movement) behaviour. We focused on a recently diverged group of species that displays wide variation in movement behaviour – giant Galapagos tortoises (Chelonoidis spp.) – to test how movement metrics estimated on a monthly basis scaled with body size.We used state-space modelling to estimate seven different movement metrics of Galapagos tortoises. We used log-log regression of the power law to evaluate allometric scaling for these movement metrics and contrasted relationships by species and sex.Allometric scaling of movement was more apparent during motivated periods of movement. During this period, allometry was revealed at multiple temporal intervals (hourly, daily and monthly), with values observed at daily and monthly intervals corresponding most closely to the expected one-fourth scaling coefficient, albeit with wide credible intervals. We further detected differences in the magnitude of scaling among taxa uncoupled from observed differences in the temporal structuring of their movement rates.Our results indicate that the definition of temporal scales is fundamental to the detection of allometry of movement and should be given more attention in movement studies. Our approach not only provides new conceptual insights into temporal attributes in one

  16. Staying human in the 21st century : thinking beyond human enhancement technologies inside the body

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Est, van Q.C.; Schuijff, M.; Boer, de T.; Fischer, R.

    2013-01-01

    The debate on human enhancement has focused so far on invasive biomedical technologies that work inside the body. To fully address the question of what does it mean to be human in the 21st century, we should also pay attention to a broad range of technologies that work outside the body, but still

  17. Effect of human movement on airborne disease transmission in an airplane cabin: study using numerical modeling and quantitative risk analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Han, Zhuyang; To, Gin Nam Sze; Fu, Sau Chung; Chao, Christopher Yu-Hang; Weng, Wenguo; Huang, Quanyi

    2014-08-06

    Airborne transmission of respiratory infectious disease in indoor environment (e.g. airplane cabin, conference room, hospital, isolated room and inpatient ward) may cause outbreaks of infectious diseases, which may lead to many infection cases and significantly influences on the public health. This issue has received more and more attentions from academics. This work investigates the influence of human movement on the airborne transmission of respiratory infectious diseases in an airplane cabin by using an accurate human model in numerical simulation and comparing the influences of different human movement behaviors on disease transmission. The Eulerian-Lagrangian approach is adopted to simulate the dispersion and deposition of the expiratory aerosols. The dose-response model is used to assess the infection risks of the occupants. The likelihood analysis is performed as a hypothesis test on the input parameters and different human movement pattern assumptions. An in-flight SARS outbreak case is used for investigation. A moving person with different moving speeds is simulated to represent the movement behaviors. A digital human model was used to represent the detailed profile of the occupants, which was obtained by scanning a real thermal manikin using the 3D laser scanning system. The analysis results indicate that human movement can strengthen the downward transport of the aerosols, significantly reduce the overall deposition and removal rate of the suspended aerosols and increase the average infection risk in the cabin. The likelihood estimation result shows that the risk assessment results better fit the outcome of the outbreak case when the movements of the seated passengers are considered. The intake fraction of the moving person is significantly higher than most of the seated passengers. The infection risk distribution in the airplane cabin highly depends on the movement behaviors of the passengers and the index patient. The walking activities of the crew

  18. Subjective thermal sensation and human body exergy consumption rate: analysis and correlation

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Simone, Angela; Dovjak, M.; Kolarik, Jakub

    2011-01-01

    , it is reasonable to consider both the exergy flows in building and those within the human body. There is a need to verify the human-body exergy model with the Thermal-Sensation (TS) response of subjects exposed to different combinations of indoor climate parameters (temperature, humidity, etc.). First results...... available on the relation between human-body exergy consumption rates and subjectively assessed thermal sensation showed that the minimum human body exergy consumption rate is associated with thermal sensation votes close to thermal neutrality, tending to slightly cool side of thermal sensation. By applying...... the exergy concept to the built indoor environment, additional results are going to be explored. By using the data available so far of operative temperature (to), the human body exergy consumption rates increase as to increases above 24°C or decreases below 22°C at relative humidity (RH) lower than 50...

  19. Urban dogs in rural areas: Human-mediated movement defines dog populations in southern Chile.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Villatoro, Federico J; Sepúlveda, Maximiliano A; Stowhas, Paulina; Silva-Rodríguez, Eduardo A

    2016-12-01

    Management strategies for dog populations and their diseases include reproductive control, euthanasia and vaccination, among others. However, the effectiveness of these strategies can be severely affected by human-mediated dog movement. If immigration is important, then the location of origin of dogs imported by humans will be fundamental to define the spatial scales over which population management and research should apply. In this context, the main objective of our study was to determine the spatial extent of dog demographic processes in rural areas and the proportion of dogs that could be labeled as immigrants at multiple spatial scales. To address our objective we conducted surveys in households located in a rural landscape in southern Chile. Interviews allowed us to obtain information on the demographic characteristics of dogs in these rural settings, human influence on dog mortality and births, the localities of origin of dogs living in rural areas, and the spatial extent of human-mediated dog movement. We found that most rural dogs (64.1%) were either urban dogs that had been brought to rural areas (40.0%), or adopted dogs that had been previously abandoned in rural roads (24.1%). Some dogs were brought from areas located as far as ∼700km away from the study area. Human-mediated movement of dogs, especially from urban areas, seems to play a fundamental role in the population dynamics of dogs in rural areas. Consequently, local scale efforts to manage dog populations or their diseases are unlikely to succeed if implemented in isolation, simply because dogs can be brought from surrounding urban areas or even distant locations. We suggest that efforts to manage or study dog populations and related diseases should be implemented using a multi-scale approach. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  20. Gender Recognition from Unconstrained and Articulated Human Body

    OpenAIRE

    Wu, Qin; Guo, Guodong

    2014-01-01

    Gender recognition has many useful applications, ranging from business intelligence to image search and social activity analysis. Traditional research on gender recognition focuses on face images in a constrained environment. This paper proposes a method for gender recognition in articulated human body images acquired from an unconstrained environment in the real world. A systematic study of some critical issues in body-based gender recognition, such as which body parts are informative, ho...

  1. Human Age Estimation Method Robust to Camera Sensor and/or Face Movement

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dat Tien Nguyen

    2015-08-01

    Full Text Available Human age can be employed in many useful real-life applications, such as customer service systems, automatic vending machines, entertainment, etc. In order to obtain age information, image-based age estimation systems have been developed using information from the human face. However, limitations exist for current age estimation systems because of the various factors of camera motion and optical blurring, facial expressions, gender, etc. Motion blurring can usually be presented on face images by the movement of the camera sensor and/or the movement of the face during image acquisition. Therefore, the facial feature in captured images can be transformed according to the amount of motion, which causes performance degradation of age estimation systems. In this paper, the problem caused by motion blurring is addressed and its solution is proposed in order to make age estimation systems robust to the effects of motion blurring. Experiment results show that our method is more efficient for enhancing age estimation performance compared with systems that do not employ our method.

  2. Transport of gaseous pollutants by convective boundary layer around a human body

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Licina, Dusan; Melikov, Arsen Krikor; Sekhar, Chandra

    2015-01-01

    This study investigates the ability of the human convective boundary layer to transport pollution in a quiescent indoor environment. The impact of the source location in the vicinity of a human body is examined in relation to pollution distribution in the breathing zone and the thickness...... of the pollution boundary layer. The study, in addition, evaluates the effects of the room air temperature, table positioning, and seated body inclination. The human body is represented by a thermal manikin that has a body shape, size, and surface temperature that resemble those of a real person. The results show...... at the upper back or behind the chair. The results also indicate that a decrease in personal exposure to pollutants released from or around the human body increases the extent to which the pollution spreads to the surroundings. Reducing the room air temperature or backward body inclination intensifies...

  3. Steady-state visually evoked potential correlates of human body perception.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Giabbiconi, Claire-Marie; Jurilj, Verena; Gruber, Thomas; Vocks, Silja

    2016-11-01

    In cognitive neuroscience, interest in the neuronal basis underlying the processing of human bodies is steadily increasing. Based on functional magnetic resonance imaging studies, it is assumed that the processing of pictures of human bodies is anchored in a network of specialized brain areas comprising the extrastriate and the fusiform body area (EBA, FBA). An alternative to examine the dynamics within these networks is electroencephalography, more specifically so-called steady-state visually evoked potentials (SSVEPs). In SSVEP tasks, a visual stimulus is presented repetitively at a predefined flickering rate and typically elicits a continuous oscillatory brain response at this frequency. This brain response is characterized by an excellent signal-to-noise ratio-a major advantage for source reconstructions. The main goal of present study was to demonstrate the feasibility of this method to study human body perception. To that end, we presented pictures of bodies and contrasted the resulting SSVEPs to two control conditions, i.e., non-objects and pictures of everyday objects (chairs). We found specific SSVEPs amplitude differences between bodies and both control conditions. Source reconstructions localized the SSVEP generators to a network of temporal, occipital and parietal areas. Interestingly, only body perception resulted in activity differences in middle temporal and lateral occipitotemporal areas, most likely reflecting the EBA/FBA.

  4. Optimization study of using PTC for human body heating dissipation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tiberiu Adrian SALAORU

    2014-06-01

    Full Text Available A better knowledge of the human body heat loses mechanisms is important for both diminishing the number of deaths during the surgical procedures of the patients under effect of full anaesthesia and increasing the efficiency of the Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC systems. For these studies it is necessary to manufacture a human body mannequin having its surface temperature maintained on a value close to the real human body temperature. A number of PTC (Positive Temperature Coefficient thermistors placed on the entire external surface of the mannequin can be used for this purpose. This paper presents a study of the transient heating regime and the stability of the maintained temperature, performed on these devices.

  5. Movement-related and steady-state electromyographic activity of human elbow flexors in slow transition movements between two equilibrium states.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tal'nov, A N; Cherkassky, V L; Kostyukov, A I

    1997-08-01

    The electromyograms were recorded in healthy human subjects by surface electrodes from the mm. biceps brachii (caput longum et. brevis), brachioradialis, and triceps brachii (caput longum) during slow transition movements in elbow joint against a weak extending torque. The test movements (flexion transitions between two steady-states) were fulfilled under visual control through combining on a monitor screen a signal from a joint angle sensor with a corresponding command generated by a computer. Movement velocities ranged between 5 and 80 degrees/s, subjects were asked to move forearm without activation of elbow extensors. Surface electromyograms were full-wave rectified, filtered and averaged within sets of 10 identical tests. Amplitudes of dynamic and steady-state components of the electromyograms were determined in dependence on a final value of joint angle, slow and fast movements were compared. An exponential-like increase of dynamic component was observed in electromyograms recorded from m. biceps brachii, the component had been increased with movement velocity and with load increment. In many experiments a statistically significant decrease of static component could be noticed within middle range of joint angles (40-60 degrees) followed by a well expressed increment for larger movements. This pattern of the static component in electromyograms could vary in different experiments even in the same subjects. A steady discharge in m. brachioradialis at ramp phase has usually been recorded only under a notable load. Variable and quite often unpredictable character of the static components of the electromyograms recorded from elbow flexors in the transition movements makes it difficult to use the equilibrium point hypothesis to describe the central processes of movement. It has been assumed that during active muscle shortening the dynamic components in arriving efferent activity should play a predominant role. A simple scheme could be proposed for transition to a

  6. The effect of egocentric body movements on users' navigation performance and spatial memory in zoomable user interfaces

    OpenAIRE

    Rädle, Roman; Jetter, Hans-Christian; Butscher, Simon; Reiterer, Harald

    2013-01-01

    We present two experiments examining the impact of navigation techniques on users’ navigation performance and spatial memory in a zoomable user interface (ZUI). The first experiment with 24 participants compared the effect of egocentric body movements with traditional multi-touch navigation. The results indicate a 47% decrease in path lengths and a 34% decrease in task time in favor of egocentric navigation, but no significant effect on users’ spatial memory immediately after a navigation tas...

  7. 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.

  8. Development of a Kinect Software Tool to Classify Movements during Active Video Gaming

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rosenberg, Michael; Lay, Brendan S.; Ward, Brodie; Nathan, David; Hunt, Daniel; Braham, Rebecca

    2016-01-01

    While it has been established that using full body motion to play active video games results in increased levels of energy expenditure, there is little information on the classification of human movement during active video game play in relationship to fundamental movement skills. The aim of this study was to validate software utilising Kinect sensor motion capture technology to recognise fundamental movement skills (FMS), during active video game play. Two human assessors rated jumping and side-stepping and these assessments were compared to the Kinect Action Recognition Tool (KART), to establish a level of agreement and determine the number of movements completed during five minutes of active video game play, for 43 children (m = 12 years 7 months ± 1 year 6 months). During five minutes of active video game play, inter-rater reliability, when examining the two human raters, was found to be higher for the jump (r = 0.94, p < .01) than the sidestep (r = 0.87, p < .01), although both were excellent. Excellent reliability was also found between human raters and the KART system for the jump (r = 0.84, p, .01) and moderate reliability for sidestep (r = 0.6983, p < .01) during game play, demonstrating that both humans and KART had higher agreement for jumps than sidesteps in the game play condition. The results of the study provide confidence that the Kinect sensor can be used to count the number of jumps and sidestep during five minutes of active video game play with a similar level of accuracy as human raters. However, in contrast to humans, the KART system required a fraction of the time to analyse and tabulate the results. PMID:27442437

  9. Development of a Kinect Software Tool to Classify Movements during Active Video Gaming.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Michael Rosenberg

    Full Text Available While it has been established that using full body motion to play active video games results in increased levels of energy expenditure, there is little information on the classification of human movement during active video game play in relationship to fundamental movement skills. The aim of this study was to validate software utilising Kinect sensor motion capture technology to recognise fundamental movement skills (FMS, during active video game play. Two human assessors rated jumping and side-stepping and these assessments were compared to the Kinect Action Recognition Tool (KART, to establish a level of agreement and determine the number of movements completed during five minutes of active video game play, for 43 children (m = 12 years 7 months ± 1 year 6 months. During five minutes of active video game play, inter-rater reliability, when examining the two human raters, was found to be higher for the jump (r = 0.94, p < .01 than the sidestep (r = 0.87, p < .01, although both were excellent. Excellent reliability was also found between human raters and the KART system for the jump (r = 0.84, p, .01 and moderate reliability for sidestep (r = 0.6983, p < .01 during game play, demonstrating that both humans and KART had higher agreement for jumps than sidesteps in the game play condition. The results of the study provide confidence that the Kinect sensor can be used to count the number of jumps and sidestep during five minutes of active video game play with a similar level of accuracy as human raters. However, in contrast to humans, the KART system required a fraction of the time to analyse and tabulate the results.

  10. Electromyography and the study of sports movements: a review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Clarys, J P; Cabri, J

    1993-10-01

    Within electromyography (EMG), a particular specialty has been developed wherein the aim is to use EMG for the study of muscular function and co-ordination. This area of research is usually called kinesiological EMG. The general aims of kinesiological EMG are to analyse the function and co-ordination of muscles in different movements and postures, in healthy subjects as well as in the disabled, in skilled actions as well as during training, in humans as well as in animals, under laboratory conditions as well as during daily or vocational activities. This is often done by a combination of electromyographical and kinesiological or biomechanical measurement techniques. Because there are over 400 skeletal muscles in the human body and both irregular and complex involvement of the muscles may occur in neuromuscular diseases and in voluntary occupational or sports movements, it is impossible to sample all of the muscles of the entire body during the performance of complex motor skills. In addition, the measurement of kinesiological EMG in sport and specific field circumstances, such as the track and/or soccer field, the alpine ski slope, the swimming pool and the ice rink, demands a specific technological and methodological approach, adaptable to both the field and the sport circumstances. Sport movement techniques and skills, training approaches and methods, ergonomic verification of the human-machine interaction have, amongst others, a highly specialized muscular activity in common. The knowledge of such muscular action in all its aspects, its evaluation and its feedback should allow for the optimization of movement, of sports materials, of training possibilities and, in the end, of sports performance. Drawing conclusions from a review of the EMG research of 32 sports, covering over 100 different complex skills, including methodological approaches, is an impossible task. We have attempted to set standards concerning the EMG methodology at the beginning of this review

  11. Emergency Handling for MAC Protocol in Human Body Communication

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kwon Youngmi

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available The human body communication (HBC is a technology that enables short range data communication using the human body as a medium, like an electrical wire. Thus it removes the need for a traditional antenna. HBC may be used as a type of data communication in body area network (BAN, while the devices are being in contact with body. One of important issues in BAN is an emergency alarm because it may be closely related to human life. For emergency data communication, the most critical factor is the time constraint. IEEE 802.15.6 specifies that the emergency alarm for the BAN must be notified in less than 1 sec and must provide prioritization mechanisms for emergency traffic and notification. As one type of BAN, the HBC must follow this recommendation, too. Existing emergency handling methods in BAN are based on the carrier sensing capability on radio frequencies to detect the status of channels. However, PHY protocol in HBC does not provide the carrier sensing. So the previous methods are not well suitable for HBC directly. Additionally, in the environment that the emergency rate is very low, the allocation of dedicated slot(s for emergency in each superframe is very wasteful. In this work, we proposed specific emergency handling operation for human body communication's medium access control (HBC-MAC protocol to meet the emergency requirements for BAN. We also showed the optimal number of emergency slots for the various combinations of beacon intervals and emergency rates.

  12. Observing human movements helps decoding environmental forces.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zago, Myrka; La Scaleia, Barbara; Miller, William L; Lacquaniti, Francesco

    2011-11-01

    Vision of human actions can affect several features of visual motion processing, as well as the motor responses of the observer. Here, we tested the hypothesis that action observation helps decoding environmental forces during the interception of a decelerating target within a brief time window, a task intrinsically very difficult. We employed a factorial design to evaluate the effects of scene orientation (normal or inverted) and target gravity (normal or inverted). Button-press triggered the motion of a bullet, a piston, or a human arm. We found that the timing errors were smaller for upright scenes irrespective of gravity direction in the Bullet group, while the errors were smaller for the standard condition of normal scene and gravity in the Piston group. In the Arm group, instead, performance was better when the directions of scene and target gravity were concordant, irrespective of whether both were upright or inverted. These results suggest that the default viewer-centered reference frame is used with inanimate scenes, such as those of the Bullet and Piston protocols. Instead, the presence of biological movements in animate scenes (as in the Arm protocol) may help processing target kinematics under the ecological conditions of coherence between scene and target gravity directions.

  13. Control of the seven-degree-of-freedom upper limb exoskeleton for an improved human-robot interface

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kim, Hyunchul; Kim, Jungsuk

    2017-04-01

    This study analyzes a practical scheme for controlling an exoskeleton robot with seven degrees of freedom (DOFs) that supports natural movements of the human arm. A redundant upper limb exoskeleton robot with seven DOFs is mechanically coupled to the human body such that it becomes a natural extension of the body. If the exoskeleton robot follows the movement of the human body synchronously, the energy exchange between the human and the robot will be reduced significantly. In order to achieve this, the redundancy of the human arm, which is represented by the swivel angle, should be resolved using appropriate constraints and applied to the robot. In a redundant 7-DOF upper limb exoskeleton, the pseudoinverse of the Jacobian with secondary objective functions is widely used to resolve the redundancy that defines the desired joint angles. A secondary objective function requires the desired joint angles for the movement of the human arm, and the angles are estimated by maximizing the projection of the longest principle axis of the manipulability ellipsoid for the human arm onto the virtual destination toward the head region. Then, they are fed into the muscle model with a relative damping to achieve more realistic robot-arm movements. Various natural arm movements are recorded using a motion capture system, and the actual swivel-angle is compared to that estimated using the proposed swivel angle estimation algorithm. The results indicate that the proposed algorithm provides a precise reference for estimating the desired joint angle with an error less than 5°.

  14. Nearly automatic motion capture system for tracking octopus arm movements in 3D space.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zelman, Ido; Galun, Meirav; Akselrod-Ballin, Ayelet; Yekutieli, Yoram; Hochner, Binyamin; Flash, Tamar

    2009-08-30

    Tracking animal movements in 3D space is an essential part of many biomechanical studies. The most popular technique for human motion capture uses markers placed on the skin which are tracked by a dedicated system. However, this technique may be inadequate for tracking animal movements, especially when it is impossible to attach markers to the animal's body either because of its size or shape or because of the environment in which the animal performs its movements. Attaching markers to an animal's body may also alter its behavior. Here we present a nearly automatic markerless motion capture system that overcomes these problems and successfully tracks octopus arm movements in 3D space. The system is based on three successive tracking and processing stages. The first stage uses a recently presented segmentation algorithm to detect the movement in a pair of video sequences recorded by two calibrated cameras. In the second stage, the results of the first stage are processed to produce 2D skeletal representations of the moving arm. Finally, the 2D skeletons are used to reconstruct the octopus arm movement as a sequence of 3D curves varying in time. Motion tracking, segmentation and reconstruction are especially difficult problems in the case of octopus arm movements because of the deformable, non-rigid structure of the octopus arm and the underwater environment in which it moves. Our successful results suggest that the motion-tracking system presented here may be used for tracking other elongated objects.

  15. Myotonia congenita-associated mutations in chloride channel-1 affect zebrafish body wave swimming kinematics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cheng, Wei; Tian, Jing; Burgunder, Jean-Marc; Hunziker, Walter; Eng, How-Lung

    2014-01-01

    Myotonia congenita is a human muscle disorder caused by mutations in CLCN1, which encodes human chloride channel 1 (CLCN1). Zebrafish is becoming an increasingly useful model for human diseases, including muscle disorders. In this study, we generated transgenic zebrafish expressing, under the control of a muscle specific promoter, human CLCN1 carrying mutations that have been identified in human patients suffering from myotonia congenita. We developed video analytic tools that are able to provide precise quantitative measurements of movement abnormalities in order to analyse the effect of these CLCN1 mutations on adult transgenic zebrafish swimming. Two new parameters for body-wave kinematics of swimming reveal changes in body curvature and tail offset in transgenic zebrafish expressing the disease-associated CLCN1 mutants, presumably due to their effect on muscle function. The capability of the developed video analytic tool to distinguish wild-type from transgenic zebrafish could provide a useful asset to screen for compounds that reverse the disease phenotype, and may be applicable to other movement disorders besides myotonia congenita.

  16. Myotonia congenita-associated mutations in chloride channel-1 affect zebrafish body wave swimming kinematics.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wei Cheng

    Full Text Available Myotonia congenita is a human muscle disorder caused by mutations in CLCN1, which encodes human chloride channel 1 (CLCN1. Zebrafish is becoming an increasingly useful model for human diseases, including muscle disorders. In this study, we generated transgenic zebrafish expressing, under the control of a muscle specific promoter, human CLCN1 carrying mutations that have been identified in human patients suffering from myotonia congenita. We developed video analytic tools that are able to provide precise quantitative measurements of movement abnormalities in order to analyse the effect of these CLCN1 mutations on adult transgenic zebrafish swimming. Two new parameters for body-wave kinematics of swimming reveal changes in body curvature and tail offset in transgenic zebrafish expressing the disease-associated CLCN1 mutants, presumably due to their effect on muscle function. The capability of the developed video analytic tool to distinguish wild-type from transgenic zebrafish could provide a useful asset to screen for compounds that reverse the disease phenotype, and may be applicable to other movement disorders besides myotonia congenita.

  17. Alterations in the Rate of Limb Movement Using a Lower Body Positive Pressure Treadmill Do Not Influence Respiratory Rate or Phase III Ventilation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Michael J. Buono

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of alterations in rate of limb movement on Phase III ventilation during exercise, independent of metabolic rate, gait style, and treadmill incline. Subjects completed five submaximal exercise bouts on a lower body positive pressure treadmill (AlterG P 200. The percent body weight for the five exercise bouts was 100, 87, 75, 63, and 50% and each was matched for carbon dioxide production (VCO2. Naturally, to match the VCO2 while reducing the body weight up to 50% of normal required a significant increase in the treadmill speed from 3.0±0.1 to 4.1±0.2 mph, which resulted in a significant (P<0.05 increase in the mean step frequency (steps per minute from 118±10 at 3 mph (i.e., 100% of body weight to 133±6 at 4.1 mph (i.e., 50% of body weight. The most important finding was that significant increases in step frequency did not significantly alter minute ventilation or respiratory rate. Such results do not support an important role for the rate of limb movement in Phase III ventilation during submaximal exercise, when metabolic rate, gait style, and treadmill incline are controlled.

  18. Humans use visual and remembered information about object location to plan pointing movements

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Brouwer, A.-M.; Knill, D.C.

    2009-01-01

    We investigated whether humans use a target's remembered location to plan reaching movements to targets according to the relative reliabilities of visual and remembered information. Using their index finger, subjects moved a virtual object from one side of a table to the other, and then went back to

  19. Decoding of Human Movements Based on Deep Brain Local Field Potentials Using Ensemble Neural Networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mohammad S. Islam

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Decoding neural activities related to voluntary and involuntary movements is fundamental to understanding human brain motor circuits and neuromotor disorders and can lead to the development of neuromotor prosthetic devices for neurorehabilitation. This study explores using recorded deep brain local field potentials (LFPs for robust movement decoding of Parkinson’s disease (PD and Dystonia patients. The LFP data from voluntary movement activities such as left and right hand index finger clicking were recorded from patients who underwent surgeries for implantation of deep brain stimulation electrodes. Movement-related LFP signal features were extracted by computing instantaneous power related to motor response in different neural frequency bands. An innovative neural network ensemble classifier has been proposed and developed for accurate prediction of finger movement and its forthcoming laterality. The ensemble classifier contains three base neural network classifiers, namely, feedforward, radial basis, and probabilistic neural networks. The majority voting rule is used to fuse the decisions of the three base classifiers to generate the final decision of the ensemble classifier. The overall decoding performance reaches a level of agreement (kappa value at about 0.729±0.16 for decoding movement from the resting state and about 0.671±0.14 for decoding left and right visually cued movements.

  20. Dynamics of human subthalamic neuron phase-locking to motor and sensory cortical oscillations during movement.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lipski, Witold J; Wozny, Thomas A; Alhourani, Ahmad; Kondylis, Efstathios D; Turner, Robert S; Crammond, Donald J; Richardson, Robert Mark

    2017-09-01

    Coupled oscillatory activity recorded between sensorimotor regions of the basal ganglia-thalamocortical loop is thought to reflect information transfer relevant to movement. A neuronal firing-rate model of basal ganglia-thalamocortical circuitry, however, has dominated thinking about basal ganglia function for the past three decades, without knowledge of the relationship between basal ganglia single neuron firing and cortical population activity during movement itself. We recorded activity from 34 subthalamic nucleus (STN) neurons, simultaneously with cortical local field potentials and motor output, in 11 subjects with Parkinson's disease (PD) undergoing awake deep brain stimulator lead placement. STN firing demonstrated phase synchronization to both low- and high-beta-frequency cortical oscillations, and to the amplitude envelope of gamma oscillations, in motor cortex. We found that during movement, the magnitude of this synchronization was dynamically modulated in a phase-frequency-specific manner. Importantly, we found that phase synchronization was not correlated with changes in neuronal firing rate. Furthermore, we found that these relationships were not exclusive to motor cortex, because STN firing also demonstrated phase synchronization to both premotor and sensory cortex. The data indicate that models of basal ganglia function ultimately will need to account for the activity of populations of STN neurons that are bound in distinct functional networks with both motor and sensory cortices and code for movement parameters independent of changes in firing rate. NEW & NOTEWORTHY Current models of basal ganglia-thalamocortical networks do not adequately explain simple motor functions, let alone dysfunction in movement disorders. Our findings provide data that inform models of human basal ganglia function by demonstrating how movement is encoded by networks of subthalamic nucleus (STN) neurons via dynamic phase synchronization with cortex. The data also

  1. Hypoxia regulates microRNA expression in the human carotid body

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mkrtchian, Souren; Lee, Kian Leong; Kåhlin, Jessica; Ebberyd, Anette; Poellinger, Lorenz; Fagerlund, Malin Jonsson; Eriksson, Lars I.

    2017-01-01

    The carotid body (CB) is the key sensing organ for physiological oxygen levels in the body. Under conditions of low oxygen (hypoxia), the CB plays crucial roles in signaling to the cardiorespiratory center in the medulla oblongata for the restoration of oxygen homeostasis. How hypoxia regulates gene expression in the human CB remains poorly understood. While limited information on transcriptional regulation in animal CBs is available, the identity and impact of important post-transcriptional regulators such as non-coding RNAs, and in particular miRNAs are not known. Here we show using ex vivo experiments that indeed a number of miRNAs are differentially regulated in surgically removed human CB slices when acute hypoxic conditions were applied. Analysis of the hypoxia-regulated miRNAs shows that they target biological pathways with upregulation of functions related to cell proliferation and immune response and downregulation of cell differentiation and cell death functions. Comparative analysis of the human CB miRNAome with the global miRNA expression patterns of a large number of different human tissues showed that the CB miRNAome had a unique profile which reflects its highly specialized functional status. Nevertheless, the human CB miRNAome is most closely related to the miRNA expression pattern of brain tissues indicating that they may have the most similar developmental origins. - Highlights: • Hypoxia triggers differential expression of many miRNAs in the human carotid body. • This can lead to the upregulation of proliferation and immune response functions. • CB expression profile in the carotid body resembles the miRNA expression pattern in the brain. • miRNAs are involved in the regulation of carotid body functions including oxygen sensing.

  2. Hypoxia regulates microRNA expression in the human carotid body

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Mkrtchian, Souren, E-mail: souren.mkrtchian@ki.se [Section for Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine, Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Karolinska Institute, SE-171 77 Stockholm (Sweden); Lee, Kian Leong, E-mail: csilkl@nus.edu.sg [Cancer Science Institute of Singapore, National University of Singapore, 117599 Singapore (Singapore); Kåhlin, Jessica [Section for Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine, Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Karolinska Institute, SE-171 77 Stockholm (Sweden); Function Perioperative Medicine and Intensive Care, Karolinska University Hospital, SE-171 76 Stockholm (Sweden); Ebberyd, Anette [Section for Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine, Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Karolinska Institute, SE-171 77 Stockholm (Sweden); Poellinger, Lorenz [Cancer Science Institute of Singapore, National University of Singapore, 117599 Singapore (Singapore); Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Karolinska Institute, SE-171 77 Stockholm (Sweden); Fagerlund, Malin Jonsson; Eriksson, Lars I. [Section for Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine, Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Karolinska Institute, SE-171 77 Stockholm (Sweden); Function Perioperative Medicine and Intensive Care, Karolinska University Hospital, SE-171 76 Stockholm (Sweden)

    2017-03-15

    The carotid body (CB) is the key sensing organ for physiological oxygen levels in the body. Under conditions of low oxygen (hypoxia), the CB plays crucial roles in signaling to the cardiorespiratory center in the medulla oblongata for the restoration of oxygen homeostasis. How hypoxia regulates gene expression in the human CB remains poorly understood. While limited information on transcriptional regulation in animal CBs is available, the identity and impact of important post-transcriptional regulators such as non-coding RNAs, and in particular miRNAs are not known. Here we show using ex vivo experiments that indeed a number of miRNAs are differentially regulated in surgically removed human CB slices when acute hypoxic conditions were applied. Analysis of the hypoxia-regulated miRNAs shows that they target biological pathways with upregulation of functions related to cell proliferation and immune response and downregulation of cell differentiation and cell death functions. Comparative analysis of the human CB miRNAome with the global miRNA expression patterns of a large number of different human tissues showed that the CB miRNAome had a unique profile which reflects its highly specialized functional status. Nevertheless, the human CB miRNAome is most closely related to the miRNA expression pattern of brain tissues indicating that they may have the most similar developmental origins. - Highlights: • Hypoxia triggers differential expression of many miRNAs in the human carotid body. • This can lead to the upregulation of proliferation and immune response functions. • CB expression profile in the carotid body resembles the miRNA expression pattern in the brain. • miRNAs are involved in the regulation of carotid body functions including oxygen sensing.

  3. Feature Interactions Enable Decoding of Sensorimotor Transformations for Goal-Directed Movement

    Science.gov (United States)

    Barany, Deborah A.; Della-Maggiore, Valeria; Viswanathan, Shivakumar; Cieslak, Matthew

    2014-01-01

    Neurophysiology and neuroimaging evidence shows that the brain represents multiple environmental and body-related features to compute transformations from sensory input to motor output. However, it is unclear how these features interact during goal-directed movement. To investigate this issue, we examined the representations of sensory and motor features of human hand movements within the left-hemisphere motor network. In a rapid event-related fMRI design, we measured cortical activity as participants performed right-handed movements at the wrist, with either of two postures and two amplitudes, to move a cursor to targets at different locations. Using a multivoxel analysis technique with rigorous generalization tests, we reliably distinguished representations of task-related features (primarily target location, movement direction, and posture) in multiple regions. In particular, we identified an interaction between target location and movement direction in the superior parietal lobule, which may underlie a transformation from the location of the target in space to a movement vector. In addition, we found an influence of posture on primary motor, premotor, and parietal regions. Together, these results reveal the complex interactions between different sensory and motor features that drive the computation of sensorimotor transformations. PMID:24828640

  4. Quantifying Postural Control during Exergaming Using Multivariate Whole-Body Movement Data: A Self-Organizing Maps Approach.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mike van Diest

    Full Text Available Exergames are becoming an increasingly popular tool for training balance ability, thereby preventing falls in older adults. Automatic, real time, assessment of the user's balance control offers opportunities in terms of providing targeted feedback and dynamically adjusting the gameplay to the individual user, yet algorithms for quantification of balance control remain to be developed. The aim of the present study was to identify movement patterns, and variability therein, of young and older adults playing a custom-made weight-shifting (ice-skating exergame.Twenty older adults and twenty young adults played a weight-shifting exergame under five conditions of varying complexity, while multi-segmental whole-body movement data were captured using Kinect. Movement coordination patterns expressed during gameplay were identified using Self Organizing Maps (SOM, an artificial neural network, and variability in these patterns was quantified by computing Total Trajectory Variability (TTvar. Additionally a k Nearest Neighbor (kNN classifier was trained to discriminate between young and older adults based on the SOM features.Results showed that TTvar was significantly higher in older adults than in young adults, when playing the exergame under complex task conditions. The kNN classifier showed a classification accuracy of 65.8%.Older adults display more variable sway behavior than young adults, when playing the exergame under complex task conditions. The SOM features characterizing movement patterns expressed during exergaming allow for discriminating between young and older adults with limited accuracy. Our findings contribute to the development of algorithms for quantification of balance ability during home-based exergaming for balance training.

  5. Fast detection and modeling of human-body parts from monocular video

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Lao, W.; Han, Jungong; With, de P.H.N.; Perales, F.J.; Fisher, R.B.

    2009-01-01

    This paper presents a novel and fast scheme to detect different body parts in human motion. Using monocular video sequences, trajectory estimation and body modeling of moving humans are combined in a co-operating processing architecture. More specifically, for every individual person, features of

  6. DEVELOPMENT OF 2D HUMAN BODY MODELING USING THINNING ALGORITHM

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    K. Srinivasan

    2010-11-01

    Full Text Available Monitoring the behavior and activities of people in Video surveillance has gained more applications in Computer vision. This paper proposes a new approach to model the human body in 2D view for the activity analysis using Thinning algorithm. The first step of this work is Background subtraction which is achieved by the frame differencing algorithm. Thinning algorithm has been used to find the skeleton of the human body. After thinning, the thirteen feature points like terminating points, intersecting points, shoulder, elbow, and knee points have been extracted. Here, this research work attempts to represent the body model in three different ways such as Stick figure model, Patch model and Rectangle body model. The activities of humans have been analyzed with the help of 2D model for the pre-defined poses from the monocular video data. Finally, the time consumption and efficiency of our proposed algorithm have been evaluated.

  7. A finite-element simulation of galvanic coupling intra-body communication based on the whole human body.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Song, Yong; Zhang, Kai; Hao, Qun; Hu, Lanxin; Wang, Jingwen; Shang, Fuzhou

    2012-10-09

    Simulation based on the finite-element (FE) method plays an important role in the investigation of intra-body communication (IBC). In this paper, a finite-element model of the whole body model used for the IBC simulation is proposed and verified, while the FE simulation of the galvanic coupling IBC with different signal transmission paths has been achieved. Firstly, a novel finite-element method for modeling the whole human body is proposed, and a FE model of the whole human body used for IBC simulation was developed. Secondly, the simulations of the galvanic coupling IBC with the different signal transmission paths were implemented. Finally, the feasibility of the proposed method was verified by using in vivo measurements within the frequency range of 10 kHz-5 MHz, whereby some important conclusions were deduced. Our results indicate that the proposed method will offer significant advantages in the investigation of the galvanic coupling intra-body communication.

  8. Effects of MDMA on body temperature in humans

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liechti, Matthias E

    2014-01-01

    Hyperthermia is a severe complication associated with the recreational use of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA, Ecstasy). In this review, the clinical laboratory studies that tested the effects of MDMA on body temperature are summarized. The mechanisms that underlie the hyperthermic effects of MDMA in humans and treatment of severe hyperthermia are presented. The data show that MDMA produces an acute and dose-dependent rise in core body temperature in healthy subjects. The increase in body temperature is in the range of 0.2-0.8°C and does not result in hyperpyrexia (>40°C) in a controlled laboratory setting. However, moderately hyperthermic body temperatures >38.0°C occur frequently at higher doses, even in the absence of physical activity and at room temperature. MDMA primarily releases serotonin and norepinephrine. Mechanistic clinical studies indicate that the MDMA-induced elevations in body temperature in humans partially depend on the MDMA-induced release of norepinephrine and involve enhanced metabolic heat generation and cutaneous vasoconstriction, resulting in impaired heat dissipation. The mediating role of serotonin is unclear. The management of sympathomimetic toxicity and associated hyperthermia mainly includes sedation with benzodiazepines and intravenous fluid replacement. Severe hyperthermia should primarily be treated with additional cooling and mechanical ventilation. PMID:27626046

  9. The Moving Rubber Hand Illusion Reveals that Explicit Sense of Agency for Tapping Movements Is Preserved in Functional Movement Disorders

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Angela Marotta

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available Functional movement disorders (FMD are characterized by motor symptoms (e.g., tremor, gait disorder, and dystonia that are not compatible with movement abnormalities related to a known organic cause. One key clinical feature of FMD is that motor symptoms are similar to voluntary movements but are subjectively experienced as involuntary by patients. This gap might be related to abnormal self-recognition of bodily action, which involves two main components: sense of agency and sense of body ownership. The aim of this study was to systematically investigate whether this function is altered in FMD, specifically focusing on the subjective feeling of agency, body ownership, and their interaction during normal voluntary movements. Patients with FMD (n = 21 and healthy controls (n = 21 underwent the moving Rubber Hand Illusion (mRHI, in which passive and active movements can differentially elicit agency, ownership or both. Explicit measures of agency and ownership were obtained via a questionnaire. Patients and controls showed a similar pattern of response: when the rubber hand was in a plausible posture, active movements elicited strong agency and ownership; implausible posture of the rubber hand abolished ownership but not agency; passive movements suppressed agency but not ownership. These findings suggest that explicit sense of agency and body ownership are preserved in FMD. The latter finding is shared by a previous study in FMD using a static version of the RHI, whereas the former appears to contrast with studies demonstrating altered implicit measures of agency (e.g., sensory attenuation. Our study extends previous findings by suggesting that in FMD: (i the sense of body ownership is retained also when interacting with the motor system; (ii the subjective experience of agency for voluntary tapping movements, as measured by means of mRHI, is preserved.

  10. A biophysical analysis of mitochondrial movement: differences between transport in neuronal cell bodies versus processes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Narayanareddy, Babu Reddy Janakaloti; Vartiainen, Suvi; Hariri, Neema; O'Dowd, Diane K; Gross, Steven P

    2014-07-01

    There is an increasing interest in factors that can impede cargo transport by molecular motors inside the cell. Although potentially relevant (Yi JY, Ori-McKenney KM, McKenney RJ, Vershinin M, Gross SP, Vallee RB. High-resolution imaging reveals indirect coordination of opposite motors and a role for LIS1 in high-load axonal transport. J Cell Biol 2011;195:193-201), the importance of cargo size and subcellular location has received relatively little attention. Here we address these questions taking advantage of the fact that mitochondria - a common cargo - in Drosophila neurons exhibit a wide distribution of sizes. In addition, the mitochondria can be genetically marked with green fluorescent protein (GFP) making it possible to visualize and compare their movement in the cell bodies and in the processes of living cells. Using total internal reflection microscopy coupled with particle tracking and analysis, we quantified the transport properties of GFP-positive mitochondria as a function of their size and location. In neuronal cell bodies, we find little evidence for significant opposition to motion, consistent with a previous study on lipid droplets (Shubeita GT, Tran SL, Xu J, Vershinin M, Cermelli S, Cotton SL, Welte MA, Gross SP. Consequences of motor copy number on the intracellular transport of kinesin-1-driven lipid droplets. Cell 2008;135:1098-1107). However, in the processes, we observe an inverse relationship between the mitochondrial size and velocity and the run distances. This can be ameliorated via hypotonic treatment to increase process size, suggesting that motor-mediated movement is impeded in this more-confined environment. Interestingly, we also observe local mitochondrial accumulations in processes but not in cell bodies. Such accumulations do not completely block the transport but do increase the probability of mitochondria-mitochondria interactions. They are thus particularly interesting in relation to mitochondrial exchange of elements.

  11. The construction of human body--from model to reality.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Motoc, A; Motoc, Marilena; Bolintineanu, S; Muşuroi, Corina; Munteanu, M

    2005-01-01

    The human body building represented a complex research topic for the scientist in the most diverse domains. Although their interests and reasons were different, the goal was always the same: establishing a relation to verify the ratio between the dimensions of the constituent segments It appears that the mystery was solved out in the XIX-th century by Adolf Zeising, a German, who, using the statistic calculus, defined the division of a segment by the gold section. This purely mathematic logic confirms the human body's integration in proportion to the finest segments, thus providing the technical instrument of building a fully harmonious human body. The present study aims to compare the ideal, the calculated perfection to the reality, namely the theoretically obtained values to the average values of an 18-year-old male. It appears that the differences refer especially to the limbs; both the superior ones and the inferior ones being longer comparing to the ideal pattern while the bust is shorter and broader.

  12. Air temperature investigation in microenvironment around a human body

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Licina, Dusan; Melikov, Arsen Krikor; Sekhar, Chandra

    2015-01-01

    The aim of this study is to investigate the temperature boundary layer around a human body in a quiescent indoor environment. The air temperature, mean in time and standard deviation of the temperature fluctuations around a breathing thermal manikin are examined in relation to the room temperature......, body posture and human respiratory flow. To determine to what extent the experiments represent the realistic scenario, the additional experiments were performed with a real human subject. The results show that at a lower room air temperature (20°C), the fluctuations of air temperature increased close...... to the surface of the body. The large standard deviation of air temperature fluctuations, up to 1.2°C, was recorded in the region of the chest, and up to 2.9°C when the exhalation was applied. The manikin leaned backwards increased the air temperature in the breathing zone, which was opposite from the forward...

  13. Involuntary human hand movements due to FM radio waves in a moving van.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Huttunen, P; Savinainen, A; Hänninen, Osmo; Myllylä, R

    2011-06-01

    Finland TRACT Involuntary movements of hands in a moving van on a public road were studied to clarify the possible role of frequency modulated radio waves on driving. The signals were measured in a direct 2 km test segment of an international road during repeated drives to both directions. Test subjects (n=4) had an ability to sense radio frequency field intensity variations of the environment. They were sitting in a minivan with arm movement detectors in their hands. A potentiometer was used to register the hand movements to a computer which simultaneously collected data on the amplitude of the RF signal of the local FM tower 30 km distance at a frequency of about 100 MHz. Involuntary hand movements of the test subjects correlated with electromagnetic field, i.e. FM radio wave intensity measured. They reacted also on the place of a geomagnetic anomaly crossing the road, which was found on the basis of these recordings and confirmed by the public geological maps of the area.In conclusion, RF irradiation seems to affect the human hand reflexes of sensitive persons in a moving van along a normal public road which may have significance in traffic safety.

  14. Wearable health monitoring using capacitive voltage-mode Human Body Communication.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Maity, Shovan; Das, Debayan; Sen, Shreyas

    2017-07-01

    Rapid miniaturization and cost reduction of computing, along with the availability of wearable and implantable physiological sensors have led to the growth of human Body Area Network (BAN) formed by a network of such sensors and computing devices. One promising application of such a network is wearable health monitoring where the collected data from the sensors would be transmitted and analyzed to assess the health of a person. Typically, the devices in a BAN are connected through wireless (WBAN), which suffers from energy inefficiency due to the high-energy consumption of wireless transmission. Human Body Communication (HBC) uses the relatively low loss human body as the communication medium to connect these devices, promising order(s) of magnitude better energy-efficiency and built-in security compared to WBAN. In this paper, we demonstrate a health monitoring device and system built using Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) sensors and components, that can collect data from physiological sensors and transmit it through a) intra-body HBC to another device (hub) worn on the body or b) upload health data through HBC-based human-machine interaction to an HBC capable machine. The system design constraints and signal transfer characteristics for the implemented HBC-based wearable health monitoring system are measured and analyzed, showing reliable connectivity with >8× power savings compared to Bluetooth low-energy (BTLE).

  15. Measuring Accurate Body Parameters of Dressed Humans with Large-Scale Motion Using a Kinect Sensor

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sidan Du

    2013-08-01

    Full Text Available Non-contact human body measurement plays an important role in surveillance, physical healthcare, on-line business and virtual fitting. Current methods for measuring the human body without physical contact usually cannot handle humans wearing clothes, which limits their applicability in public environments. In this paper, we propose an effective solution that can measure accurate parameters of the human body with large-scale motion from a Kinect sensor, assuming that the people are wearing clothes. Because motion can drive clothes attached to the human body loosely or tightly, we adopt a space-time analysis to mine the information across the posture variations. Using this information, we recover the human body, regardless of the effect of clothes, and measure the human body parameters accurately. Experimental results show that our system can perform more accurate parameter estimation on the human body than state-of-the-art methods.

  16. Persons and their bodies: how we should think about human embryos.

    Science.gov (United States)

    McLachlan, Hugh V

    2002-01-01

    The status of human embryos is discussed particularly in the light of the claim by Fox, in Health Care Analysis 8 that it would be useful to think of them in terms of cyborg metaphors. It is argued that we should consider human embryos for what they are--partially formed human bodies--rather than for what they are like in some respects (and unlike in others)--cyborgs. However to settle the issue of the status of the embryo is not to answer the moral questions which arise concerning how embryos should be treated. Since persons rather than bodies have rights, embryos do not have rights. However, whether or not embryos have rights, people can have duties concerning them. Furthermore, the persons whose fully developed bodies embryos will, might (or might have) become can have rights. Contrary to what is often assumed, it is not merely persons who have (or have had) living, developed human bodies who have moral rights: so it is argued in this paper.

  17. 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.

  18. Signal transmission in a human body medium-based body sensor network using a Mach-Zehnder electro-optical sensor.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Song, Yong; Hao, Qun; Zhang, Kai; Wang, Jingwen; Jin, Xuefeng; Sun, He

    2012-11-30

    The signal transmission technology based on the human body medium offers significant advantages in Body Sensor Networks (BSNs) used for healthcare and the other related fields. In previous works we have proposed a novel signal transmission method based on the human body medium using a Mach-Zehnder electro-optical (EO) sensor. In this paper, we present a signal transmission system based on the proposed method, which consists of a transmitter, a Mach-Zehnder EO sensor and a corresponding receiving circuit. Meanwhile, in order to verify the frequency response properties and determine the suitable parameters of the developed system, in-vivo measurements have been implemented under conditions of different carrier frequencies, baseband frequencies and signal transmission paths. Results indicate that the proposed system will help to achieve reliable and high speed signal transmission of BSN based on the human body medium.

  19. Wintering ecology of sympatric subspecies of Sandhill Crane: Correlations between body size, site fidelity, and movement patterns

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ivey, Gary L.; Dugger, Bruce D.; Herziger, Caroline P.; Casazza, Michael L.; Fleskes, Joseph P.

    2015-01-01

    Body size is known to correlate with many aspects of life history in birds, and this knowledge can be used to manage and conserve bird species. However, few studies have compared the wintering ecology of sympatric subspecies that vary significantly in body size. We used radiotelemetry to examine the relationship between body size and site fidelity, movements, and home range in 2 subspecies of Sandhill Crane (Grus canadensis) wintering in the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta of California, USA. Both subspecies showed high interannual return rates to the Delta study area, but Greater Sandhill Cranes (G. c. tabida) showed stronger within-winter fidelity to landscapes in our study region and to roost complexes within landscapes than did Lesser Sandhill Cranes (G. c. canadensis). Foraging flights from roost sites were shorter for G. c. tabida than for G. c. canadensis (1.9 ± 0.01 km vs. 4.5 ± 0.01 km, respectively) and, consequently, the mean size of 95% fixed-kernel winter home ranges was an order of magnitude smaller for G. c. tabida than for G. c. canadensis (1.9 ± 0.4 km2 vs. 21.9 ± 1.9 km2, respectively). Strong site fidelity indicates that conservation planning to manage for adequate food resources around traditional roost sites can be effective for meeting the habitat needs of these cranes, but the scale of conservation efforts should differ by subspecies. Analysis of movement patterns suggests that conservation planners and managers should consider all habitats within 5 km of a known G. c. tabida roost and within 10 km of a G. c. canadensis roost when planning for habitat management, mitigation, acquisition, and easements.

  20. Development and use of an observation tool for active gaming and movement (OTAGM) to measure children's movement skill components during active video game play.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rosa, Rita L; Ridgers, Nicola D; Barnett, Lisa M

    2013-12-01

    This article presents a direct observational tool for assessing children's body movements and movement skills during active video games. The Observation Tool of Active Gaming and Movement (OTGAM) was informed by the Test of Gross Motor Development-2. 18 elementary school children (12 boys, 6 girls; M age = 6.1 yr., SD = 0.9) were observed during Nintendo Wii game play. Using the OTAGM, researchers were able to capture and quantify the children's body movements and movement skills during active play of video games. Furthermore, the OTAGM captured specific components of object control skills: strike, throw, and roll. Game designers, health promotion practitioners, and researchers could use this information to enhance children's physical activity and movement skills.

  1. Lo Score: un algoritmo per investigare la Body Knowledge

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Letizia Gioa Monda

    2015-03-01

    Full Text Available Both inside and outside theatre, body work is the first and principle aspect of work on the ‘self’. It is the first inescapable step in the path toward the aware action which in theatre is the “action in perception”, i.e. thinking-in-movement. This aware thought involves the whole background of the person. It is an action that arises only when the person is present and at the same time dynamically involved entirely in the environment: it is the perceptual consciousness that integrates the planning of the action with the execution of the same action. “Thinking-in-movement” is a dynamic process that is not possible to be codified: it is a language that asks to be experienced in order to be able to be understood and learned. Therefore, what is the Score? Is it a concept, a method of movement, or a digital tool? Perhaps it is each one of these things. The Score is an indispensable algorithm to read the dance that the human writes in order to obtain information, transfer them and so continue in the evolution of the body knowledge. The Score is the medium in which the human being structured tensions are shaped: i.e., an alternative site to understand the potential instigation of the human body and the organization of his residual actions. In this article I will read the score like a crystal: metaphor of the shaped dynamism innate in the expressive movement. I will explain how this crystal is the necessary channel to make sure the choreographic counterpoint can show up during the live performance. I will explore what this means for the choreographers involved in Motion Bank - William Forsythe, Deborah Hay, Jonathan Burrows and Matteo Fargion - analyzing the somatic connections between their dance-making and the score-creation.

  2. Human body as a food for sexuality

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Everton Luiz de Oliveira

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available The present article depicts a theoretical walk, based on a historical and cultural narrative, that presents the body as a central element in the formatting and construction of human sexuality. Such walk intuits to show some projections, thoughts and materialization which ascertained the physical beauty as a promoter of desires, intentions and erotic feelings, in favor of an announced sexuality and common sense as ideal. The objective was also discuss, how the physical body aesthetic has been the driving force for configuring standard discourses on sexuality, distorting the idea that only the similar bodies to the hegemonic body models can be considered as object of desire, pleasure, and sexual and erotic practices. Finally, it learns that the body can also be admitted as an instrument to subvert the predetermined logic that body, beauty and sexual practices appear to form a triad in favor of the myth of perfect or performative sexuality. As the bodies (all of them has been recognized by the community as promoters of pleasures, desires and foundation for effective practices and sexual/erotic routines, regardless of their physiological, anatomical and aesthetic formatting.

  3. Human-Derived Disturbance Estimation and Compensation (DEC) Method Lends Itself to a Modular Sensorimotor Control in a Humanoid Robot.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lippi, Vittorio; Mergner, Thomas

    2017-01-01

    The high complexity of the human posture and movement control system represents challenges for diagnosis, therapy, and rehabilitation of neurological patients. We envisage that engineering-inspired, model-based approaches will help to deal with the high complexity of the human posture control system. Since the methods of system identification and parameter estimation are limited to systems with only a few DoF, our laboratory proposes a heuristic approach that step-by-step increases complexity when creating a hypothetical human-derived control systems in humanoid robots. This system is then compared with the human control in the same test bed, a posture control laboratory. The human-derived control builds upon the identified disturbance estimation and compensation (DEC) mechanism, whose main principle is to support execution of commanded poses or movements by compensating for external or self-produced disturbances such as gravity effects. In previous robotic implementation, up to 3 interconnected DEC control modules were used in modular control architectures separately for the sagittal plane or the frontal body plane and successfully passed balancing and movement tests. In this study we hypothesized that conflict-free movement coordination between the robot's sagittal and frontal body planes emerges simply from the physical embodiment, not necessarily requiring a full body control. Experiments were performed in the 14 DoF robot Lucy Posturob (i) demonstrating that the mechanical coupling from the robot's body suffices to coordinate the controls in the two planes when the robot produces movements and balancing responses in the intermediate plane, (ii) providing quantitative characterization of the interaction dynamics between body planes including frequency response functions (FRFs), as they are used in human postural control analysis, and (iii) witnessing postural and control stability when all DoFs are challenged together with the emergence of inter

  4. 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.

  5. The Human Figure and Urban Ground: Cyborgs and the City.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Parkhurst, Aaron

    2016-07-01

    Recent years have seen developments in cyborgian movements in which people play and experiment with the boundaries of human flesh and aesthetic realities. Some individuals develop novel intimate relationships with devices that, each in their own way, interfere with human subjectivity. Public dissemination of these movements often proposes notions of transcendence, therapy, post-humanism and trans-humanism, but often fails to outline the lived-experience of those who explore cyborgian identity as an alternative mode of being in the world. This paper briefly follows self-described cyborgs who delimit the body through sensory 'enhancement' in an effort to disrupt common relationships between the human figure and the urban ground. Borrowing from Lewis Mumford's concepts of biotechnics, I propose cyborgian engagement as a type of psychodynamic living. Rather than focus on post-human discourses, these cyborgs turn to the natural world for inspiration in shaping the terms of engagement between their bodies and the city.

  6. Repositioning the knee joint in human body FE models using a graphics-based technique.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jani, Dhaval; Chawla, Anoop; Mukherjee, Sudipto; Goyal, Rahul; Vusirikala, Nataraju; Jayaraman, Suresh

    2012-01-01

    Human body finite element models (FE-HBMs) are available in standard occupant or pedestrian postures. There is a need to have FE-HBMs in the same posture as a crash victim or to be configured in varying postures. Developing FE models for all possible positions is not practically viable. The current work aims at obtaining a posture-specific human lower extremity model by reconfiguring an existing one. A graphics-based technique was developed to reposition the lower extremity of an FE-HBM by specifying the flexion-extension angle. Elements of the model were segregated into rigid (bones) and deformable components (soft tissues). The bones were rotated about the flexion-extension axis followed by rotation about the longitudinal axis to capture the twisting of the tibia. The desired knee joint movement was thus achieved. Geometric heuristics were then used to reposition the skin. A mapping defined over the space between bones and the skin was used to regenerate the soft tissues. Mesh smoothing was then done to augment mesh quality. The developed method permits control over the kinematics of the joint and maintains the initial mesh quality of the model. For some critical areas (in the joint vicinity) where element distortion is large, mesh smoothing is done to improve mesh quality. A method to reposition the knee joint of a human body FE model was developed. Repositions of a model from 9 degrees of flexion to 90 degrees of flexion in just a few seconds without subjective interventions was demonstrated. Because the mesh quality of the repositioned model was maintained to a predefined level (typically to the level of a well-made model in the initial configuration), the model was suitable for subsequent simulations.

  7. [Effect of high impact movements on body composition, strength and bone mineral density on women over 60 years].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ramírez-Villada, Jhon F; León-Ariza, Henry H; Argüello-Gutiérrez, Yenny P; Porras-Ramírez, Keyla A

    2016-01-01

    Osteoporosis is characterised by loss of bone mass and deterioration of bone tissue microarchitecture that leads to fragility related to the risk of fractures. The aim of the study is to analyse the effects of a training program based on explosive movements and impact, assessed in a swimming pool, on body composition, explosive strength and bone mineral density in women over 60 years old. A total of 35 healthy physically active women (60±4.19 years) were divided into a training pool group using multi jumps (JG) and a control group (CG). JG trained for 24 weeks, 3 times a week, an hour and a half per session. Body composition testing, explosive strength, and bone mineral density were assessed before and after the program. There were differences in the explosive force (JG vs CG=P<.05 to .001) and the estimated power (JG vs CG=P<.05 to .002) between JG vs CG, with significant increases in JG. There were no significant differences in the percentage of fat and lean mass, bone mineral density lumbar and femoral between groups, although slightly significant increases in bone mineral density lumbar and femoral could be seen in JG after program implementation (JG pre-test vs JG post- test=P<.05). The training program with impact and explosive movements assessed in a pool induces gains in muscle strength and power with slight adaptations in body mass index in women over 60 years. Copyright © 2015 SEGG. Published by Elsevier Espana. All rights reserved.

  8. More-Realistic Digital Modeling of a Human Body

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rogge, Renee

    2010-01-01

    A MATLAB computer program has been written to enable improved (relative to an older program) modeling of a human body for purposes of designing space suits and other hardware with which an astronaut must interact. The older program implements a kinematic model based on traditional anthropometric measurements that do provide important volume and surface information. The present program generates a three-dimensional (3D) whole-body model from 3D body-scan data. The program utilizes thin-plate spline theory to reposition the model without need for additional scans.

  9. Intellectual property rights and detached human body parts.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pila, Justine

    2014-01-01

    This paper responds to an invitation by the editors to consider whether the intellectual property (IP) regime suggests an appropriate model for protecting interests in detached human body parts. It begins by outlining the extent of existing IP protection for body parts in Europe, and the relevant strengths and weaknesses of the patent system in that regard. It then considers two further species of IP right of less obvious relevance. The first are the statutory rights of ownership conferred by domestic UK law in respect of employee inventions, and the second are the economic and moral rights recognised by European and international law in respect of authorial works. In the argument made, both of these species of IP right may suggest more appropriate models of sui generis protection for detached human body parts than patent rights because of their capacity better to accommodate the relevant public and private interests in respect of the same.

  10. Conceptualizing movement by expert Bobath instructors in neurological rehabilitation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vaughan-Graham, Julie; Patterson, Kara; Zabjek, Karl; Cott, Cheryl A

    2017-12-01

    Movement, a core aspect of physiotherapy practice, and integral to the clinical reasoning process has undergone limited theoretical development. Instead, research has focused on intervention effectiveness embedded within the positivist paradigm. The purpose of this study was to explore how expert neurorehabilitation therapists conceptualize movement as part of their clinical reasoning. A qualitative interpretive descriptive approach consisting of stimulated recall using video-recorded treatment sessions and in-depth interviews was used. Theoretical sampling was used to recruit members of the International Bobath Instructors Training Association (IBITA) who are recognized experts in neurorehabilitation. Interview transcripts were transcribed verbatim. Data analysis was progressive, iterative, and inductive. Twenty-two IBITA instructors from 7 different countries volunteered to participate. They ranged in clinical experience from 12 to 40 years and instructor experience from 1 to 35 years. The conceptualization of movement by the IBITA instructors involves the following elements: (1) movement comprises the whole person and the whole body, not just individual body segments; (2) active alignment of body segments is integral to movement performance; and (3) efficient movement requires the relative integration of postural control/stability and selective movement/mobility. The IBITA instructors conceptualize movement from a person-centred perspective. The integration of postural control and selective movement, with alignment and variability as key components, forms the foundation of their understanding of movement. Further investigation into the role of postural control in movement recovery post central nervous system lesion is required. Likewise, the dimensions of movement critical to the conceptualization of movement are not well understood from the perspective of the physiotherapist or persons with neurological impairments. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  11. Perspective of the Human Body in Sasang Constitutional Medicine

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Junhee Lee

    2009-01-01

    Full Text Available The Sasang constitutional medicine (SCM, a medical tradition originating from Korea, is distinguished from the traditional Chinese medicine in its philosophical background, theoretical development and especially, the fundamental rationale that analyzes the structure and function of the human body within a quadrifocal scheme. In SCM, the structure of the body is comprehended within the Sasang quadrifocal scheme, and the function of the body is understood within the context of the energy-fluid metabolism and the water-food metabolism controlled by the four main organs (lung, spleen, liver and kidney. Also, the concept of Seong-Jeong is used to explain the structural and functional variations between different constitutional types that arise from the constitutional variations in organ system scheme, which are in turn caused by deviations in the constitutional Seong-Jeong. Therefore, understanding the SCM perspective of the human body is essential in order to fully appreciate the advantages of the constitutional typological system (which focuses on individual idiosyncrasies found in SCM.

  12. Resourcifying human bodies--Kant and bioethics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Miyasaka, Michio

    2005-01-01

    This essay roughly sketches two major conceptions of autonomy in contemporary bioethics that promote the resourcification of human body parts: (1) a narrow conception of autonomy as self-determination; and (2) the conception of autonomy as dissociated from human dignity. In this paper I will argue that, on the one hand, these two conceptions are very different from that found in the modern European tradition of philosophical inquiry, because bioethics has concentrated on an external account of patient's self-determination and on dissociating dignity from internal human nature. However, on the other hand, they are consistent with more recent European philosophy. In this more recent tradition, human dignity has gradually been dissociated from contextual values, and human subjectivity has been dissociated from objectivity and absolutized as never to be objectified. In the concluding part, I will give a speculative sketch in which Kant's internal inquiry of maxim of ends, causality and end, and dignity as iirreplaceability is recombined with bioethics' externalized one and used to support an extended human resourcification.

  13. Body maps on the human genome.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cherniak, Christopher; Rodriguez-Esteban, Raul

    2013-12-20

    Chromosomes have territories, or preferred locales, in the cell nucleus. When these sites are taken into account, some large-scale structure of the human genome emerges. The synoptic picture is that genes highly expressed in particular topologically compact tissues are not randomly distributed on the genome. Rather, such tissue-specific genes tend to map somatotopically onto the complete chromosome set. They seem to form a "genome homunculus": a multi-dimensional, genome-wide body representation extending across chromosome territories of the entire spermcell nucleus. The antero-posterior axis of the body significantly corresponds to the head-tail axis of the nucleus, and the dorso-ventral body axis to the central-peripheral nucleus axis. This large-scale genomic structure includes thousands of genes. One rationale for a homuncular genome structure would be to minimize connection costs in genetic networks. Somatotopic maps in cerebral cortex have been reported for over a century.

  14. A DXA Whole Body Composition Cross-Calibration Experience: Evaluation With Humans, Spine, and Whole Body Phantoms.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Krueger, Diane; Libber, Jessie; Sanfilippo, Jennifer; Yu, Hui Jing; Horvath, Blaine; Miller, Colin G; Binkley, Neil

    2016-01-01

    New densitometer installation requires cross-calibration for accurate longitudinal assessment. When replacing a unit with the same model, the International Society for Clinical Densitometry recommends cross-calibrating by scanning phantoms 10 times on each instrument and states that spine bone mineral density (BMD) should be within 1%, whereas total body lean, fat, and %fat mass should be within 2% of the prior instrument. However, there is limited validation that these recommendations provide adequate total body cross-calibration. Here, we report a total body cross-calibration experience with phantoms and humans. Cross-calibration between an existing and new Lunar iDXA was performed using 3 encapsulated spine phantoms (GE [GE Lunar, Madison, WI], BioClinica [BioClinica Inc, Princeton, NJ], and Hologic [Hologic Inc, Bedford, MA]), 1 total body composition phantom (BioClinica), and 30 human volunteers. Thirty scans of each phantom and a total body scan of human volunteers were obtained on each instrument. All spine phantom BMD means were similar (within 1%; g/cm2 bias) between the existing and new dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry unit. The BioClinica body composition phantom (BBCP) BMD and bone mineral content (BMC) values were within 2% with biases of 0.005 g/cm2 and -3.4 g. However, lean and fat mass and %fat differed by 4.6%-7.7% with biases of +463 g, -496 g, and -2.8%, respectively. In vivo comparison supported BBCP data; BMD and BMC were within ∼2%, but lean and fat mass and %fat differed from 1.6% to 4.9% with biases of +833 g, -860 g, and -1.1%. As all body composition comparisons exceeded the recommended 2%, the new densitometer was recalibrated. After recalibration, in vivo bias was lower (g, respectively. Similarly, BBCP lean and fat agreement improved. In conclusion, the BBCP behaves similarly, but not identical, to human in vivo measurements for densitometer cross-calibration. Spine phantoms, despite good BMD and BMC agreement, did not detect

  15. EEG Oscillations Are Modulated in Different Behavior-Related Networks during Rhythmic Finger Movements.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Seeber, Martin; Scherer, Reinhold; Müller-Putz, Gernot R

    2016-11-16

    Sequencing and timing of body movements are essential to perform motoric tasks. In this study, we investigate the temporal relation between cortical oscillations and human motor behavior (i.e., rhythmic finger movements). High-density EEG recordings were used for source imaging based on individual anatomy. We separated sustained and movement phase-related EEG source amplitudes based on the actual finger movements recorded by a data glove. Sustained amplitude modulations in the contralateral hand area show decrease for α (10-12 Hz) and β (18-24 Hz), but increase for high γ (60-80 Hz) frequencies during the entire movement period. Additionally, we found movement phase-related amplitudes, which resembled the flexion and extension sequence of the fingers. Especially for faster movement cadences, movement phase-related amplitudes included high β (24-30 Hz) frequencies in prefrontal areas. Interestingly, the spectral profiles and source patterns of movement phase-related amplitudes differed from sustained activities, suggesting that they represent different frequency-specific large-scale networks. First, networks were signified by the sustained element, which statically modulate their synchrony levels during continuous movements. These networks may upregulate neuronal excitability in brain regions specific to the limb, in this study the right hand area. Second, movement phase-related networks, which modulate their synchrony in relation to the movement sequence. We suggest that these frequency-specific networks are associated with distinct functions, including top-down control, sensorimotor prediction, and integration. The separation of different large-scale networks, we applied in this work, improves the interpretation of EEG sources in relation to human motor behavior. EEG recordings provide high temporal resolution suitable to relate cortical oscillations to actual movements. Investigating EEG sources during rhythmic finger movements, we distinguish sustained from

  16. Half-life of each dioxin and PCB congener in the human body

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ogura, Isamura [National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Tsukuba (Japan)

    2004-09-15

    It is well known that dioxin and PCB congeners accumulate in the human body. For assessing their toxicological risk, it is important to know the half-life of each congener in the human body. This study summarizes the overall half-lives of congeners in humans as reported in the literature, and compares them with the half-lives due to fecal and sebum excretions, as estimated by data on the concentrations of congeners in feces and sebum in the literature. In addition, the overall half-lives of congeners for the general Japanese population were estimated from the data on dietary intakes and concentrations in the human body reported by the municipalities.

  17. Whole-body MRI screening

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Puls, Ralf [HELIOS Klinikum Erfurt (Germany). Inst. of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology and Neuroradiology; Hosten, Norbert (ed.) [Universitaetsklinikum Greifswald (Germany). Diagnostic Radiology and Neuroradiology

    2014-07-01

    The advent of dedicated whole-body MRI scanners has made it possible to image the human body from head to toe with excellent spatial resolution and with the sensitivity and specificity of conventional MR systems. A comprehensive screening examination by MRI relies on fast image acquisition, and this is now feasible owing to several very recent developments, including multichannel techniques, new surface coil systems, and automatic table movement. The daily analysis of whole-body MRI datasets uncovers many incidental findings, which are discussed by an interdisciplinary advisory board of physicians from all specialties. This book provides a systematic overview of these incidental findings with the aid of approximately 240 high-quality images. The radiologists involved in the project have written chapters on each organ system, presenting a structured compilation of the most common findings, their morphologic appearances on whole-body MRI, and guidance on their clinical management. Chapters on technical and ethical issues are also included. It is hoped that this book will assist other diagnosticians in deciding how to handle the most common incidental findings encountered when performing whole-body MRI.

  18. Whole-body MRI screening

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Puls, Ralf; Hosten, Norbert

    2014-01-01

    The advent of dedicated whole-body MRI scanners has made it possible to image the human body from head to toe with excellent spatial resolution and with the sensitivity and specificity of conventional MR systems. A comprehensive screening examination by MRI relies on fast image acquisition, and this is now feasible owing to several very recent developments, including multichannel techniques, new surface coil systems, and automatic table movement. The daily analysis of whole-body MRI datasets uncovers many incidental findings, which are discussed by an interdisciplinary advisory board of physicians from all specialties. This book provides a systematic overview of these incidental findings with the aid of approximately 240 high-quality images. The radiologists involved in the project have written chapters on each organ system, presenting a structured compilation of the most common findings, their morphologic appearances on whole-body MRI, and guidance on their clinical management. Chapters on technical and ethical issues are also included. It is hoped that this book will assist other diagnosticians in deciding how to handle the most common incidental findings encountered when performing whole-body MRI.

  19. Teaching practices epistemologically differentiated about human body learning

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rosália Maria Ribeiro de Aragão

    2011-12-01

    Full Text Available How could we teach about THE HUMAN BODY as a different way, in both epistemological and pedagogical approaches? How could we leave behind stagnant as well as stagnating aspects of traditional way of teaching, such as the fragmentation/segmentation of contents, the far away reality, the excessive use of details or else, whenever learning about our own body? These are some of the questions we have considered when trying to escape the bad influence which came from our "environment formation" - putting it on all the marks we have acquired inside or even outside school - trying to overview as meaning our body working...in constant interaction with the surrounding ambient. Among those pointed kind of formation marks we frequently acquire from studying at the University - which need to be transcended —here we come to detach those innumerable contacts with both anatomized and misfigurated supposed human bodies' which didn't even look like actual human bodies, because they could never seem to have sheltered life inside themselves. They were inert as well as static bodies, only used as a such of vain "didactic materials" that could/can permit many teachers on their educational formation to focus a certain teaching approach which only seeks both the students' memorization of an infinitude of "complicated words", and to structure the systems -by several procedures of nouns definition and/or classification - as part of the so called biological organism. In order to do a different way of teaching, we have based our approach on three alternative teaching methodologies which focus these matters under a constructive perspective. On those three focused studies, it is possible to observe that some very principles of a present day teaching approach were there considered to achieve some of them: the respect for the students' previous ideas; the understanding about knowledge as something that is not established for good but as ever changeable and, at last, the

  20. Human Activity Recognition from Body Sensor Data using Deep Learning.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hassan, Mohammad Mehedi; Huda, Shamsul; Uddin, Md Zia; Almogren, Ahmad; Alrubaian, Majed

    2018-04-16

    In recent years, human activity recognition from body sensor data or wearable sensor data has become a considerable research attention from academia and health industry. This research can be useful for various e-health applications such as monitoring elderly and physical impaired people at Smart home to improve their rehabilitation processes. However, it is not easy to accurately and automatically recognize physical human activity through wearable sensors due to the complexity and variety of body activities. In this paper, we address the human activity recognition problem as a classification problem using wearable body sensor data. In particular, we propose to utilize a Deep Belief Network (DBN) model for successful human activity recognition. First, we extract the important initial features from the raw body sensor data. Then, a kernel principal component analysis (KPCA) and linear discriminant analysis (LDA) are performed to further process the features and make them more robust to be useful for fast activity recognition. Finally, the DBN is trained by these features. Various experiments were performed on a real-world wearable sensor dataset to verify the effectiveness of the deep learning algorithm. The results show that the proposed DBN outperformed other algorithms and achieves satisfactory activity recognition performance.

  1. Quasi-static modeling of human limb for intra-body communications with experiments.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pun, Sio Hang; Gao, Yue Ming; Mak, PengUn; Vai, Mang I; Du, Min

    2011-11-01

    In recent years, the increasing number of wearable devices on human has been witnessed as a trend. These devices can serve for many purposes: personal entertainment, communication, emergency mission, health care supervision, delivery, etc. Sharing information among the devices scattered across the human body requires a body area network (BAN) and body sensor network (BSN). However, implementation of the BAN/BSN with the conventional wireless technologies cannot give optimal result. It is mainly because the high requirements of light weight, miniature, energy efficiency, security, and less electromagnetic interference greatly limit the resources available for the communication modules. The newly developed intra-body communication (IBC) can alleviate most of the mentioned problems. This technique, which employs the human body as a communication channel, could be an innovative networking method for sensors and devices on the human body. In order to encourage the research and development of the IBC, the authors are favorable to lay a better and more formal theoretical foundation on IBC. They propose a multilayer mathematical model using volume conductor theory for galvanic coupling IBC on a human limb with consideration on the inhomogeneous properties of human tissue. By introducing and checking with quasi-static approximation criteria, Maxwell's equations are decoupled and capacitance effect is included to the governing equation for further improvement. Finally, the accuracy and potential of the model are examined from both in vitro and in vivo experimental results.

  2. Exploring the human body space: A geographical information system based anatomical atlas

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Antonio Barbeito

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available Anatomical atlases allow mapping the anatomical structures of the human body. Early versions of these systems consisted of analogical representations with informative text and labeled images of the human body. With computer systems, digital versions emerged and the third and fourth dimensions were introduced. Consequently, these systems increased their efficiency, allowing more realistic visualizations with improved interactivity and functionality. The 4D atlases allow modeling changes over time on the structures represented. The anatomical atlases based on geographic information system (GIS environments allow the creation of platforms with a high degree of interactivity and new tools to explore and analyze the human body. In this study we expand the functions of a human body representation system by creating new vector data, topology, functions, and an improved user interface. The new prototype emulates a 3D GIS with a topological model of the human body, replicates the information provided by anatomical atlases, and provides a higher level of functionality and interactivity. At this stage, the developed system is intended to be used as an educational tool and integrates into the same interface the typical representations of surface and sectional atlases.

  3. 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 ±...

  4. 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.).

  5. Inertial and magnetic sensing of human movement near ferromagnetic materials

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Roetenberg, D.; Luinge, Hendrik J.; Veltink, Petrus H.

    2003-01-01

    This paper describes a Kalman filter design to estimate orientation of human body segments by fusing gyroscope, accelerometer and magnetometer signals. Ferromagnetic materials near the sensor disturb the local magnetic field and therefore the orientation estimation. The magnetic disturbance can be

  6. Gender recognition from unconstrained and articulated human body.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wu, Qin; Guo, Guodong

    2014-01-01

    Gender recognition has many useful applications, ranging from business intelligence to image search and social activity analysis. Traditional research on gender recognition focuses on face images in a constrained environment. This paper proposes a method for gender recognition in articulated human body images acquired from an unconstrained environment in the real world. A systematic study of some critical issues in body-based gender recognition, such as which body parts are informative, how many body parts are needed to combine together, and what representations are good for articulated body-based gender recognition, is also presented. This paper also pursues data fusion schemes and efficient feature dimensionality reduction based on the partial least squares estimation. Extensive experiments are performed on two unconstrained databases which have not been explored before for gender recognition.

  7. Gender Recognition from Unconstrained and Articulated Human Body

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wu, Qin; Guo, Guodong

    2014-01-01

    Gender recognition has many useful applications, ranging from business intelligence to image search and social activity analysis. Traditional research on gender recognition focuses on face images in a constrained environment. This paper proposes a method for gender recognition in articulated human body images acquired from an unconstrained environment in the real world. A systematic study of some critical issues in body-based gender recognition, such as which body parts are informative, how many body parts are needed to combine together, and what representations are good for articulated body-based gender recognition, is also presented. This paper also pursues data fusion schemes and efficient feature dimensionality reduction based on the partial least squares estimation. Extensive experiments are performed on two unconstrained databases which have not been explored before for gender recognition. PMID:24977203

  8. Does relative body fat influence the Movement ABC-2 assessment in children with and without developmental coordination disorder?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Faught, Brent E; Demetriades, Stephen; Hay, John; Cairney, John

    2013-12-01

    Developmental coordination disorder (DCD) is a condition that results in an impairment of gross and/or fine motor coordination. Compromised motor coordination contributes to lower levels of physical activity, which is associated with elevated body fat. The impact of elevated body fat on motor coordination diagnostic assessments in children with DCD has not been established. The purpose of this study was to determine if relative body fat influences performance on the Movement Assessment Battery for Children, 2nd Edition (MABC-2) test items in children with and without DCD. A nested case-control, design was conducted within the Physical Health Activity Study Team longitudinal cohort study. The MABC-2 was used to assess motor coordination to categorize cases and matched controls. Relative body fat was assessed using whole body air displacement plethysmography. Relative body fat was negatively associated with the MABC-2 "balance" subcategory after adjusting for physical activity and DCD status. Relative body fat did not influence the subcategories of "manual dexterity" or "aiming and catching". Item analysis of the three balance tasks indicated that relative body fat significantly influences both "2-board balance" and "zig-zag hopping", but not "walking heel-toe backwards". Children with higher levels of relative body fat do not perform as well on the MABC-2, regardless of whether the have DCD or not. Dynamic balance test items are most negatively influenced by body fat. Health practitioners and researchers should be aware that body fat can influence results when interpreting MABC-2 test scores. Crown Copyright © 2013. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  9. Movement augmentation to evaluate human control of locomotor stability.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brown, Geoffrey; Wu, Mengnan Mary; Huang, Felix C; Gordon, Keith E

    2017-07-01

    Controlling center of mass (COM) position and velocity within a dynamic base of support is essential for gait stability. This skill is often compromised following neurologic injury, creating a need to develop effective interventions to enhance gait stability. A movement augmentation paradigm applied to walking could potentially be used to improve control of COM dynamics. We have developed a cable robot system, the Agility Trainer, to apply continuous frontal-plane forces to the pelvis during treadmill walking. This cable robot system uses a set of series elastic actuators powered by linear motors to create bilateral forces. Here we use the Agility Trainer to create a negative viscosity force field proportional to the subject's lateral velocity. Two healthy young subjects performed two 10-minute walking trials, Baseline and Negative Viscosity. During the first minute of walking in the Negative Viscosity field, participants' lateral COM motion became less controlled when compared to the rhythmic sinusoidal motion observed during Baseline walking. By the 10th minute of walking in the Negative Viscosity field the participants had adapted their gait patterns, decreasing their variation in peak lateral COM speed each stride. These results demonstrate that it is feasible to use the Agility Trainer to apply a movement augmentation paradigm to human walking.

  10. Transformers: Movement Experiences for Early Childhood Classrooms

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vagovic, Julia

    2008-01-01

    Transformers are simple movement experiences for the classroom that engage the mind and body, focus energy, and help children transition to the next activity. Teachers can use them throughout the day, every day. The author explains the basic movements and suggests ways to build on them. They range from deep breathing to gentle wake-up movements to…

  11. CAD Design of Human Male Body for Mass–Inertial Characteristics Studies

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nikolova Gergana

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available The aim of the present research is to present a 16-segmental biomechanical model of the Bulgarian male to determine the mass-inertial characteristics of the body of the Bulgarian male based on parameters available in the literature and its 3D generation within SolidWorks software. The motivation of the research is to support mainly sport, rehabilitation, wearable robots and furniture design users. The proposed CAD model of the human body of men is verified against the analytical results from our previous investigation, as well as through comparison with data available in the provided references. In this paper we model two basic human body positions: standing position and sitting with thighs elevated. The comparison performed between our model results and data reported in literature gives us confidence that this model can be reliably used to calculate the mass-inertial characteristics of male body at any postures of the body that is of interest. Therefore, our model can be used to obtain data for positions which the human body has to take in everyday live, in sport, leisure, including space exploration, for investigating criminology cases – body fall, car crash, etc. The model is suitable for performing computer simulation in robotics, medicine, sport and other areas.

  12. Mixed Movements

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Brabrand, Helle

    2010-01-01

    levels than those related to building, and this exploration is a special challenge and competence implicit artistic development work. The project Mixed Movements generates drawing-material, not primary as representation, but as a performance-based media, making the body being-in-the-media felt and appear...... as possible operational moves....

  13. CUE: counterfeit-resistant usable eye movement-based authentication via oculomotor plant characteristics and complex eye movement patterns

    Science.gov (United States)

    Komogortsev, Oleg V.; Karpov, Alexey; Holland, Corey D.

    2012-06-01

    The widespread use of computers throughout modern society introduces the necessity for usable and counterfeit-resistant authentication methods to ensure secure access to personal resources such as bank accounts, e-mail, and social media. Current authentication methods require tedious memorization of lengthy pass phrases, are often prone to shouldersurfing, and may be easily replicated (either by counterfeiting parts of the human body or by guessing an authentication token based on readily available information). This paper describes preliminary work toward a counterfeit-resistant usable eye movement-based (CUE) authentication method. CUE does not require any passwords (improving the memorability aspect of the authentication system), and aims to provide high resistance to spoofing and shoulder-surfing by employing the combined biometric capabilities of two behavioral biometric traits: 1) oculomotor plant characteristics (OPC) which represent the internal, non-visible, anatomical structure of the eye; 2) complex eye movement patterns (CEM) which represent the strategies employed by the brain to guide visual attention. Both OPC and CEM are extracted from the eye movement signal provided by an eye tracking system. Preliminary results indicate that the fusion of OPC and CEM traits is capable of providing a 30% reduction in authentication error when compared to the authentication accuracy of individual traits.

  14. Mathematical human body modelling for impact loading

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Happee, R.; Morsink, P.L.J.; Wismans, J.S.H.M.

    1999-01-01

    Mathematical modelling of the human body is widely used for automotive crash safety research and design. Simulations have contributed to a reduction of injury numbers by optimisation of vehicle structures and restraint systems. Currently such simulations are largely performed using occupant models

  15. Multi-modal RGB–Depth–Thermal Human Body Segmentation

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Palmero, Cristina; Clapés, Albert; Bahnsen, Chris

    2016-01-01

    This work addresses the problem of human body segmentation from multi-modal visual cues as a first stage of automatic human behavior analysis. We propose a novel RGB-Depth-Thermal dataset along with a multi-modal seg- mentation baseline. The several modalities are registered us- ing a calibration...... to other state-of-the-art meth- ods, obtaining an overlap above 75% on the novel dataset when compared to the manually annotated ground-truth of human segmentations....

  16. Modeling and characterization of different channels based on human body communication.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jingzhen Li; Zedong Nie; Yuhang Liu; Lei Wang

    2017-07-01

    Human body communication (HBC), which uses the human body as a transmission medium for electrical signals, provides a prospective communication solution for body sensor networks (BSNs). In this paper, an inhomogeneous model which includes the tissue layers of skin, fat, and muscle is proposed to study the propagation characteristics of different HBC channels. Specifically, the HBC channels, namely, the on-body to on-body (OB-OB)channel, on-body to in-body (OB-IB) channel, in-body to on-body (IB-OB) channel, and in-body to in-body (IB-IB)channel, are studied over different frequencies (from 1MHz to 100MHz) through numerical simulations with finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method. The results show that the gain of OB-IB channel and IB-OB channel is almost the same. The gain of IB-IB channel is greater than other channels in the frequency range 1MHz to 70MHz. In addition, the gain of all channels is associated with the channel length and communication frequency. The simulations are verified by experimental measurements in a porcine tissue sample. The results show that the simulations are in agreement with the measurements.

  17. The Importance of Social Movements in the Fight for the Women's Rights From the Incorporation of Speech of Human Rights

    OpenAIRE

    Souza, Luciana Correa

    2016-01-01

    This article aims to analyze the role of social movements in the struggle for women's rights. Initially, the historical origin of the gender term and its concept will be analyzed. Subsequently, the role of social movements for the development of international protection of human rights instruments will be reviewed. Finally, the role of social movements will be analyzed in the fight for women's rights in Brazil. From this study was concluded by the importance of social movements in the fight f...

  18. Investigation of the effects of human body stability on joint angles’ prediction

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pasha Zanoosi, A. A.; Naderi, D.; Sadeghi-Mehr, M.; Feri, M.; Beheshtiha, A. Sh.; Fallahnejad, K.

    2015-01-01

    Loosing stability control in elderly or paralyzed has motivated researchers to study how a stability control system works and how to determine its state at every time instant. Studying the stability of a human body is not only an important problem from a scientific viewpoint, but also finally leads to new designs of prostheses and orthoses and rehabilitation methods. Computer modeling enables researchers to study and describe the reactions and propose a suitable and optimized motion pattern to strengthen the neuromuscular system and helps a human body maintain its stability. A perturbation as a tilting is exposed to an underfoot plate of a musculoskeletal model of the body to study the stability. The studied model of a human body included four links and three degrees of freedom with eight muscles in the sagittal plane. Lagrangian dynamics was used for deriving equations of motion and muscles were modeled using Hill’s model. Using experimental data of joint trajectories for a human body under tilting perturbation, forward dynamics has been applied to predict joint trajectories and muscle activation. This study investigated the effects of stability on predicting body joints’ motion. A new stability function for a human body, based on the zero moment point, has been employed in a forward dynamics procedure using a direct collocation method. A multi-objective optimization based on genetic algorithm has been proposed to employ stability as a robotic objective function along with muscle stresses as a biological objective function. The obtained results for joints’ motion were compared to experimental data. The results show that, for this type of perturbations, muscle stresses are in conflict with body stability. This means that more body stability requires more stresses in muscles and reverse. Results also show the effects of the stability objective function in better prediction of joint trajectories

  19. Investigation of the effects of human body stability on joint angles’ prediction

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Pasha Zanoosi, A. A., E-mail: aliakbar.pasha@yahoo.com, E-mail: aliakbar.pasha@qiau.ac.ir [Islamic Azad University, Faculty of Industrial & Mechanical Engineering, Qazvin Branch (Iran, Islamic Republic of); Naderi, D.; Sadeghi-Mehr, M.; Feri, M. [Bu Ali-Sina University, Mechanical Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering (Iran, Islamic Republic of); Beheshtiha, A. Sh. [Leibniz Universität Hannover, Institute of Mechanics and Computational Mechanics (Germany); Fallahnejad, K. [Flinders University, Discipline of Mechanical Engineering, School of Computer Science, Engineering and Mathematics (Australia)

    2015-10-15

    Loosing stability control in elderly or paralyzed has motivated researchers to study how a stability control system works and how to determine its state at every time instant. Studying the stability of a human body is not only an important problem from a scientific viewpoint, but also finally leads to new designs of prostheses and orthoses and rehabilitation methods. Computer modeling enables researchers to study and describe the reactions and propose a suitable and optimized motion pattern to strengthen the neuromuscular system and helps a human body maintain its stability. A perturbation as a tilting is exposed to an underfoot plate of a musculoskeletal model of the body to study the stability. The studied model of a human body included four links and three degrees of freedom with eight muscles in the sagittal plane. Lagrangian dynamics was used for deriving equations of motion and muscles were modeled using Hill’s model. Using experimental data of joint trajectories for a human body under tilting perturbation, forward dynamics has been applied to predict joint trajectories and muscle activation. This study investigated the effects of stability on predicting body joints’ motion. A new stability function for a human body, based on the zero moment point, has been employed in a forward dynamics procedure using a direct collocation method. A multi-objective optimization based on genetic algorithm has been proposed to employ stability as a robotic objective function along with muscle stresses as a biological objective function. The obtained results for joints’ motion were compared to experimental data. The results show that, for this type of perturbations, muscle stresses are in conflict with body stability. This means that more body stability requires more stresses in muscles and reverse. Results also show the effects of the stability objective function in better prediction of joint trajectories.

  20. Variant and invariant patterns embedded in human locomotion through whole body kinematic coordination.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Funato, Tetsuro; Aoi, Shinya; Oshima, Hiroko; Tsuchiya, Kazuo

    2010-09-01

    Step length, cadence and joint flexion all increase in response to increases in gradient and walking speed. However, the tuning strategy leading to these changes has not been elucidated. One characteristic of joint variation that occurs during walking is the close relationship among the joints. This property reduces the number of degrees of freedom and seems to be a key issue in discussing the tuning strategy. This correlation has been analyzed for the lower limbs, but the relation between the trunk and lower body is generally ignored. Two questions about posture during walking are discussed in this paper: (1) whether there is a low-dimensional restriction that determines walking posture, which depends not just on the lower limbs but on the whole body, including the trunk and (2) whether some simple rules appear in different walking conditions. To investigate the correlation, singular value decomposition was applied to a measured walking pattern. This showed that the whole movement can be described by a closed loop on a two-dimensional plane in joint space. Furthermore, by investigating the effect of the walking condition on the decomposed patterns, the position and the tilt of the constraint plane was found to change significantly, while the loop pattern on the constraint plane was shown to be robust. This result indicates that humans select only certain kinematic characteristics for adapting to various walking conditions.

  1. An Implementation of Wireless Body Area Networks for Improving Priority Data Transmission Delay.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gündoğdu, Köksal; Çalhan, Ali

    2016-03-01

    The rapid growth of wireless sensor networks has enabled the human health monitoring of patients using body sensor nodes that gather and evaluate human body parameters and movements. This study describes both simulation model and implementation of a new traffic sensitive wireless body area network by using non-preemptive priority queue discipline. A wireless body area network implementation employing TDMA is designed with three different priorities of data traffics. Besides, a coordinator node having the non-preemptive priority queue is performed in this study. We have also developed, modeled and simulated example network scenarios by using the Riverbed Modeler simulation software with the purpose of verifying the implementation results. The simulation results obtained under various network load conditions are consistent with the implementation results.

  2. DTN routing in body sensor networks with dynamic postural partitioning.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Quwaider, Muhannad; Biswas, Subir

    2010-11-01

    This paper presents novel store-and-forward packet routing algorithms for Wireless Body Area Networks ( WBAN ) with frequent postural partitioning. A prototype WBAN has been constructed for experimentally characterizing on-body topology disconnections in the presence of ultra short range radio links, unpredictable RF attenuation, and human postural mobility. On-body DTN routing protocols are then developed using a stochastic link cost formulation, capturing multi-scale topological localities in human postural movements. Performance of the proposed protocols are evaluated experimentally and via simulation, and are compared with a number of existing single-copy DTN routing protocols and an on-body packet flooding mechanism that serves as a performance benchmark with delay lower-bound. It is shown that via multi-scale modeling of the spatio-temporal locality of on-body link disconnection patterns, the proposed algorithms can provide better routing performance compared to a number of existing probabilistic, opportunistic, and utility-based DTN routing protocols in the literature.

  3. Deciphering the iron isotope message of the human body

    Science.gov (United States)

    Walczyk, Thomas; von Blanckenburg, Friedhelm

    2005-04-01

    Mass-dependent variations in isotopic composition are known since decades for the light elements such as hydrogen, carbon or oxygen. Multicollector-inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (MC-ICP-MS) and double-spike thermal ionization mass spectrometry (TIMS) permit us now to resolve small variations in isotopic composition even for the heavier elements such as iron. Recent studies on the iron isotopic composition of human blood and dietary iron sources have shown that lighter iron isotopes are enriched along the food chain and that each individual bears a certain iron isotopic signature in blood. To make use of this finding in biomedical research, underlying mechanisms of isotope fractionation by the human body need to be understood. In this paper available iron isotope data for biological samples are discussed within the context of isotope fractionation concepts and fundamental aspects of human iron metabolism. This includes evaluation of new data for body tissues which show that blood and muscle tissue have a similar iron isotopic composition while heavier iron isotopes are concentrated in the liver. This new observation is in agreement with our earlier hypothesis of a preferential absorption of lighter iron isotopes by the human body. Possible mechanisms for inducing an iron isotope effect at the cellular and molecular level during iron uptake are presented and the potential of iron isotope effects in human blood as a long-term measure of dietary iron absorption is discussed.

  4. The major histocompatibility complex and perfumers' descriptions of human body odors

    OpenAIRE

    Wedekind, C.; Escher, S.; Van de Waal, M.; Frei, E.

    2007-01-01

    The MHC (major histocompatibility complex) is a group of genes that play a crucial role in immune recognition and in tolerance of tissue grafting. The MHC has also been found to influence body odors, body odor preferences, and mate choice in mice and humans. Here we test whether verbal descriptions of human body odors can be linked to the MHC. We asked 45 male students to live as odor neutral as possible for two consecutive days and to wear a T-shirt during the nights. The odors of these T-sh...

  5. The venality of human body parts and products in French law and common law.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Haoulia, Naima

    2012-03-01

    The successive bioethics laws in France have constantly argued that the human body is not for sale and consecrated an absolute principle of free and anonymous donations, whether of semen, ova, blood, tissues or organs. Nonetheless, this position is not shared by all countries. These legal divergences upset today our moral principles and the development of these practices leads us to question the legal status of human biological material and its gradual commodification. This paper outlines the current law principles that protect people's interests in their bodies, excised body parts and tissues without conferring the rights of full legal ownership in French law and in Common law. Contrary to what many people believe, people do not legally 'own' their bodies, body parts or tissues. However, they do have some legal rights in relation to their bodies and excised body material. For lawyers, the exact relationship people have with their bodies has raised a host of complex questions and long debates about the status we should grant to human body parts. The significance of this issue is due to two reasons:first, because of the imperative protection we have to assure to human dignity and then, because of the economic value which is attached to human products.

  6. Movement Features Which Describe the Flat Bench Press

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Król Henryk

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available Introduction. In sport technique studies, motion features can be useful as they have a certain defined measure [1]. In this work, we examined the following three features: the structure of the movement (all the characteristics of the movement, the fluency of the movement, and the rhythm of the movement. The aim of the study was to determine the usefulness of the selected movement features in the evaluation of the flat bench press. The protocol of the study included a flat bench press with free weights and a “touch-and-go” technique. Material and methods. The study involved twenty healthy men; however, only two were selected for analysis. The first subject was a 25-year-old powerlifter (body mass = 95 kg; body height = 182 cm; 1-RM in flat bench press = 145 kg. The second one was a 25-year-old bodybuilder (body mass = 77 kg; body height = 175 cm; 1-RM in flat bench press = 100 kg. The subjects performed consecutive sets of a single repetition of flat bench pressing with an increasing load (70, 80, 90, and 100% 1-RM, with the anticipated maximum weight, until the completion of one repetition maximum. Multidimensional movement analysis was made with the measuring system Smart-E (BTS, Italy, which consisted of six infrared cameras (120 Hz and a wireless module to measure muscle bioelectric activity (Pocket EMG. Results. It was demonstrated that the internal structure of the bench press performed by the bodybuilder and the powerlifter was different. As the time-history of barbell kinematics (the acceleration-time curve showed, with increased loading of the barbell, the rhythm of the flat bench press changed, and the fluidity of the movement worsened.

  7. Body language in health care: a contribution to nursing communication.

    Science.gov (United States)

    de Rezende, Rachel de Carvalho; de Oliveira, Rosane Mara Pontes; de Araújo, Sílvia Teresa Carvalho; Guimarães, Tereza Cristina Felippe; do Espírito Santo, Fátima Helena; Porto, Isaura Setenta

    2015-01-01

    to classify body language used in nursing care, and propose "Body language in nursing care" as an analytical category for nursing communication. quantitative research with the systematic observation of 21:43 care situations, with 21 members representing the nursing teams of two hospitals. Empirical categories: sound, facial, eye and body expressions. sound expressions emphasized laughter. Facial expressions communicated satisfaction and happiness. Eye contact with members stood out in visual expressions. The most frequent body expressions were head movements and indistinct touches. nursing care team members use body language to establish rapport with patients, clarify their needs and plan care. The study classified body language characteristics of humanized care, which involves, in addition to technical, non-technical issues arising from nursing communication.

  8. Human movement stochastic variability leads to diagnostic biomarkers In Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wu, Di; Torres, Elizabeth B.; Jose, Jorge V.

    2015-03-01

    ASD is a spectrum of neurodevelopmental disorders. The high heterogeneity of the symptoms associated with the disorder impedes efficient diagnoses based on human observations. Recent advances with high-resolution MEM wearable sensors enable accurate movement measurements that may escape the naked eye. It calls for objective metrics to extract physiological relevant information from the rapidly accumulating data. In this talk we'll discuss the statistical analysis of movement data continuously collected with high-resolution sensors at 240Hz. We calculated statistical properties of speed fluctuations within the millisecond time range that closely correlate with the subjects' cognitive abilities. We computed the periodicity and synchronicity of the speed fluctuations' from their power spectrum and ensemble averaged two-point cross-correlation function. We built a two-parameter phase space from the temporal statistical analyses of the nearest neighbor fluctuations that provided a quantitative biomarker for ASD and adult normal subjects and further classified ASD severity. We also found age related developmental statistical signatures and potential ASD parental links in our movement dynamical studies. Our results may have direct clinical applications.

  9. 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.

  10. A relation between calculated human body exergy consumption rate and subjectively assessed thermal sensation

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Simone, Angela; Kolarik, Jakub; Iwamatsu, Toshiya

    2011-01-01

    occupants, it is reasonable to consider both the exergy flows in building and those within the human body. Until now, no data have been available on the relation between human-body exergy consumption rates and subjectively assessed thermal sensation. The objective of the present work was to relate thermal...... sensation data, from earlier thermal comfort studies, to calculated human-body exergy consumption rates. The results show that the minimum human body exergy consumption rate is associated with thermal sensation votes close to thermal neutrality, tending to the slightly cool side of thermal sensation....... Generally, the relationship between air temperature and the exergy consumption rate, as a first approximation, shows an increasing trend. Taking account of both convective and radiative heat exchange between the human body and the surrounding environment by using the calculated operative temperature, exergy...

  11. Estimation of temperature change in human body using MRI

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nikawa, Yoshio; Nakamura, Suguru

    2016-01-01

    In the field of traditional oriental medicine, two types of treatment style, which are an acupuncture treatment and a moxibustion treatment have been performed. These treatments are used and effected by doctor or acupuncturist in their clinic or hospital and are widely spread. In spite of such a general treatment, it is not deeply discussed about mechanism of heat transfer modality and about temperature distribution in the treatment of moxibustion. Also, it is not discussed about temperature distribution deep inside human tissue during acupuncture treatment. It comes from the difficulty of noninvasive measurement of temperature deep inside human body. In this study, a temperature distribution for acupuncture and moxibustion treatment is measured and analyzed using thermograph and MRI by measuring the phase of longitudinal relaxation time of protons. The experimental results of measured temperature distribution under the human legs have been demonstrated. The result of temperature analysis in the human body is also reported. (author)

  12. Development of a protocol for the kinematic analysis of movement in patients with total hip arthroplasty

    OpenAIRE

    Mateu Pla, Joan

    2015-01-01

    The aim of this final degree project is to study and analyze the kinematics of the human body lower limbs. First of all, it is extremely important to establish a protocol in order to compare two patients operated with two different techniques of total hip arthroplasty. The three usual movements that are employed to make this comparison are gait, sit-to-stand and stairs climbing. A three-dimensional full body model is implemented and the kinematic parameters (angles) necessary for the st...

  13. Centralized Networks to Generate Human Body Motions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vakulenko, Sergei; Radulescu, Ovidiu; Morozov, Ivan; Weber, Andres

    2017-12-14

    We consider continuous-time recurrent neural networks as dynamical models for the simulation of human body motions. These networks consist of a few centers and many satellites connected to them. The centers evolve in time as periodical oscillators with different frequencies. The center states define the satellite neurons' states by a radial basis function (RBF) network. To simulate different motions, we adjust the parameters of the RBF networks. Our network includes a switching module that allows for turning from one motion to another. Simulations show that this model allows us to simulate complicated motions consisting of many different dynamical primitives. We also use the model for learning human body motion from markers' trajectories. We find that center frequencies can be learned from a small number of markers and can be transferred to other markers, such that our technique seems to be capable of correcting for missing information resulting from sparse control marker settings.

  14. Nuclear body formation and PML body remodeling by the human cytomegalovirus protein UL35

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Salsman, Jayme; Wang Xueqi; Frappier, Lori

    2011-01-01

    The human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) UL35 gene encodes two proteins, UL35 and UL35a. Expression of UL35 in transfected cells results in the formation of UL35 nuclear bodies that associate with promyelocytic leukemia (PML) protein. PML forms the basis for PML nuclear bodies that are important for suppressing viral lytic gene expression. Given the important relationship between PML and viral infection, we have further investigated the association of UL35 with PML bodies. We demonstrate that UL35 bodies form independently of PML and subsequently recruit PML, Sp100 and Daxx. In contrast, UL35a did not form bodies; however, it could bind UL35 and inhibit the formation of UL35 bodies. The HCMV tegument protein pp71 promoted the formation of UL35 bodies and the cytoplasmic localization of UL35a. Similarly, UL35a shifted pp71 to the cytoplasm. These results indicate that the interplay between UL35, UL35a and pp71 affects their subcellular localization and likely their functions throughout infection.

  15. Inverse biomimetics: how robots can help to verify concepts concerning sensorimotor control of human arm and leg movements.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kalveram, Karl Theodor; Seyfarth, André

    2009-01-01

    Simulation test, hardware test and behavioral comparison test are proposed to experimentally verify whether a technical control concept for limb movements is logically precise, physically sound, and biologically relevant. Thereby, robot test-beds may play an integral part by mimicking functional limb movements. The procedure is exemplarily demonstrated for human aiming movements with the forearm: when comparing competitive control concepts, these movements are described best by a spring-like operating muscular-skeletal device which is assisted by feedforward control through an inverse internal model of the limb--without regress to a forward model of the limb. In a perspective on hopping, the concept of exploitive control is addressed, and its comparison to concepts derived from classical control theory advised.

  16. Validation Studies of the Human Movement Analysis Panel for Hand/Arm Performance

    OpenAIRE

    Smith, Charles D.; Walton, Ashley; Slevin, John T.; Gerhardt, Greg A.; Umberger, Gloria; Smoot, Kyle; Schulze, Emily; Gash, Don

    2007-01-01

    The human movement analysis panel (HMAP) measures separable components of arm motion and simple and complex finger coordination. HMAP testing takes 30 minutes to administer. In separate experiments we have validated the HMAP against the standard grooved pegboard and measures of gait speed, and demonstrated important learning effects over both short durations of days, and longer intervals of months to years in normal subjects of different ages. Stepwise regression demonstrated the strongest co...

  17. Clinical identification of the simple sleep-related movement disorders.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Walters, Arthur S

    2007-04-01

    Simple sleep-related movement disorders must be distinguished from daytime movement disorders that persist during sleep, sleep-related epilepsy, and parasomnias, which are generally characterized by activity that appears to be simultaneously complex, goal-directed, and purposeful but is outside the conscious awareness of the patient and, therefore, inappropriate. Once it is determined that the patient has a simple sleep-related movement disorder, the part of the body affected by the movement and the age of the patient give clues as to which sleep-related movement disorder is present. In some cases, all-night polysomnography with accompanying video may be necessary to make the diagnosis. Hypnic jerks (ie, sleep starts), bruxism, rhythmic movement disorder (ie, head banging/body rocking), and nocturnal leg cramps are discussed in addition to less well-appreciated disorders such as benign sleep myoclonus of infancy, excessive fragmentary myoclonus, and hypnagogic foot tremor/alternating leg muscle activation.

  18. Recognition of dance-like actions: memory for static posture or dynamic movement?

    OpenAIRE

    Vicary, S.A.; Robbins, R.A.; Calvo-Merino, B.; Stevens, C.J.

    2014-01-01

    Dance-like actions are complex visual stimuli involving multiple changes in body posture across time and space. Visual perception research has demonstrated a difference between the processing of dynamic body movement and the processing of static body posture. Yet, it is unclear whether this processing dissociation continues during the retention of body movement and body form in visual working memory (VWM). When observing a dance-like action, it is likely that static snapshot images of body po...

  19. Realistic Modeling and Animation of Human Body Based on Scanned Data

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    Yong-You Ma; Hui Zhang; Shou-Wei Jiang

    2004-01-01

    In this paper we propose a novel method for building animation model of real human body from surface scanned data.The human model is represented by a triangular mesh and described as a layered geometric model.The model consists of two layers: the control skeleton generating body animation from motion capture data,and the simplified surface model providing an efficient representation of the skin surface shape.The skeleton is generated automatically from surface scanned data using the feature extraction,and thena point-to-line mapping is used to map the surface model onto the underlying skeleton.The resulting model enables real-time and smooth animation by manipulation of the skeleton while maintaining the surface detail.Compared with earlier approach,the principal advantages of our approach are the automated generation of body control skeletons from the scanned data for real-time animation,and the automatic mapping and animation of the captured human surface shape.The human model constructed in this work can be used for applications of ergonomic design,garment CAD,real-time simulating humans in virtual reality environment and so on.

  20. Analysis of Attentional Bias towards Attractive and Unattractive Body Regions among Overweight Males and Females: An Eye-Movement Study.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Petra Warschburger

    Full Text Available Body image distortion is highly prevalent among overweight individuals. Whilst there is evidence that body-dissatisfied women and those suffering from disordered eating show a negative attentional bias towards their own unattractive body parts and others' attractive body parts, little is known about visual attention patterns in the area of obesity and with respect to males. Since eating disorders and obesity share common features in terms of distorted body image and body dissatisfaction, the aim of this study was to examine whether overweight men and women show a similar attentional bias.We analyzed eye movements in 30 overweight individuals (18 females and 28 normal-weight individuals (16 females with respect to the participants' own pictures as well as gender- and BMI-matched control pictures (front and back view. Additionally, we assessed body image and disordered eating using validated questionnaires.The overweight sample rated their own body as less attractive and showed a more disturbed body image. Contrary to our assumptions, they focused significantly longer on attractive compared to unattractive regions of both their own and the control body. For one's own body, this was more pronounced for women. A higher weight status and more frequent body checking predicted attentional bias towards attractive body parts. We found that overweight adults exhibit an unexpected and stable pattern of selective attention, with a distinctive focus on their own attractive body regions despite higher levels of body dissatisfaction. This positive attentional bias may either be an indicator of a more pronounced pattern of attentional avoidance or a self-enhancing strategy. Further research is warranted to clarify these results.

  1. Analysis of Attentional Bias towards Attractive and Unattractive Body Regions among Overweight Males and Females: An Eye-Movement Study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Warschburger, Petra; Calvano, Claudia; Richter, Eike M; Engbert, Ralf

    2015-01-01

    Body image distortion is highly prevalent among overweight individuals. Whilst there is evidence that body-dissatisfied women and those suffering from disordered eating show a negative attentional bias towards their own unattractive body parts and others' attractive body parts, little is known about visual attention patterns in the area of obesity and with respect to males. Since eating disorders and obesity share common features in terms of distorted body image and body dissatisfaction, the aim of this study was to examine whether overweight men and women show a similar attentional bias. We analyzed eye movements in 30 overweight individuals (18 females) and 28 normal-weight individuals (16 females) with respect to the participants' own pictures as well as gender- and BMI-matched control pictures (front and back view). Additionally, we assessed body image and disordered eating using validated questionnaires. The overweight sample rated their own body as less attractive and showed a more disturbed body image. Contrary to our assumptions, they focused significantly longer on attractive compared to unattractive regions of both their own and the control body. For one's own body, this was more pronounced for women. A higher weight status and more frequent body checking predicted attentional bias towards attractive body parts. We found that overweight adults exhibit an unexpected and stable pattern of selective attention, with a distinctive focus on their own attractive body regions despite higher levels of body dissatisfaction. This positive attentional bias may either be an indicator of a more pronounced pattern of attentional avoidance or a self-enhancing strategy. Further research is warranted to clarify these results.

  2. A topological multilayer model of the human body.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Barbeito, Antonio; Painho, Marco; Cabral, Pedro; O'Neill, João

    2015-11-04

    Geographical information systems deal with spatial databases in which topological models are described with alphanumeric information. Its graphical interfaces implement the multilayer concept and provide powerful interaction tools. In this study, we apply these concepts to the human body creating a representation that would allow an interactive, precise, and detailed anatomical study. A vector surface component of the human body is built using a three-dimensional (3-D) reconstruction methodology. This multilayer concept is implemented by associating raster components with the corresponding vector surfaces, which include neighbourhood topology enabling spatial analysis. A root mean square error of 0.18 mm validated the three-dimensional reconstruction technique of internal anatomical structures. The expansion of the identification and the development of a neighbourhood analysis function are the new tools provided in this model.

  3. Transfer of fallout tritium from environment to human body

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hisamatsu, Shun-ichi; Takizawa, Yukio

    1989-01-01

    A large quntity of tritium will be used as a fuel of nuclear fusion in the future. It is, therefore, considered important to elucidate tritium behavior present in the environment and the process of tritium transfer from the environment to the human body. Fallout tritium is an applicable material in searching for the long term behavior of tritium in the environment. This paper focuses on the American, Italian, Japanese literature concerning fallout tritium in food and in the human body. The specific activity ratio of bound to free tritium poses an important problem. The mechanism of biological concentration must await further studies. (N.K.) 63 refs

  4. Effect of the environmental stimuli upon the human body in winter outdoor thermal environment

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Sakoi, Tomonori; Kondo, Emi; Ishii, Jin

    2013-01-01

    the psychological thermal responses of the human body and winter outdoor thermal environment variables. Subjective experiments were conducted in the winter outdoor environment. Environmental factors and human psychological responses were measured. The relationship between the psychological thermal responses...... of the human body and the outdoor thermal environment index ETFe (enhanced conduction-corrected modified effective temperature) in winter was shown. The variables which influence the thermal sensation vote of the human body are air temperature, long-wave thermal radiation and short-wave solar radiation....... The variables that influence the thermal comfort vote of the human body are air temperature, humidity, short-wave solar radiation, long-wave thermal radiation, and heat conduction. Short-wave solar radiation, and heat conduction are among the winter outdoor thermal environment variables that affect...

  5. Medical Sequencing at the extremes of Human Body Mass

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ahituv, Nadav; Kavaslar, Nihan; Schackwitz, Wendy; Ustaszewski,Anna; Martin, Joes; Hebert, Sybil; Doelle, Heather; Ersoy, Baran; Kryukov, Gregory; Schmidt, Steffen; Yosef, Nir; Ruppin, Eytan; Sharan,Roded; Vaisse, Christian; Sunyaev, Shamil; Dent, Robert; Cohen, Jonathan; McPherson, Ruth; Pennacchio, Len A.

    2006-09-01

    Body weight is a quantitative trait with significantheritability in humans. To identify potential genetic contributors tothis phenotype, we resequenced the coding exons and splice junctions of58 genes in 379 obese and 378 lean individuals. Our 96Mb survey included21 genes associated with monogenic forms of obesity in humans or mice, aswell as 37 genes that function in body weight-related pathways. We foundthat the monogenic obesity-associated gene group was enriched for rarenonsynonymous variants unique to the obese (n=46) versus lean (n=26)populations. Computational analysis further predicted a significantlygreater fraction of deleterious variants within the obese cohort.Consistent with the complex inheritance of body weight, we did notobserve obvious familial segregation in the majority of the 28 availablekindreds. Taken together, these data suggest that multiple rare alleleswith variable penetrance contribute to obesity in the population andprovide a deep medical sequencing based approach to detectthem.

  6. Electromagnetic Modeling of Human Body Using High Performance Computing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ng, Cho-Kuen; Beall, Mark; Ge, Lixin; Kim, Sanghoek; Klaas, Ottmar; Poon, Ada

    Realistic simulation of electromagnetic wave propagation in the actual human body can expedite the investigation of the phenomenon of harvesting implanted devices using wireless powering coupled from external sources. The parallel electromagnetics code suite ACE3P developed at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory is based on the finite element method for high fidelity accelerator simulation, which can be enhanced to model electromagnetic wave propagation in the human body. Starting with a CAD model of a human phantom that is characterized by a number of tissues, a finite element mesh representing the complex geometries of the individual tissues is built for simulation. Employing an optimal power source with a specific pattern of field distribution, the propagation and focusing of electromagnetic waves in the phantom has been demonstrated. Substantial speedup of the simulation is achieved by using multiple compute cores on supercomputers.

  7. The Effect of Body Mass on Outdoor Adult Human Decomposition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Roberts, Lindsey G; Spencer, Jessica R; Dabbs, Gretchen R

    2017-09-01

    Forensic taphonomy explores factors impacting human decomposition. This study investigated the effect of body mass on the rate and pattern of adult human decomposition. Nine males and three females aged 49-95 years ranging in mass from 73 to 159 kg who were donated to the Complex for Forensic Anthropology Research between December 2012 and September 2015 were included in this study. Kelvin accumulated degree days (KADD) were used to assess the thermal energy required for subjects to reach several total body score (TBS) thresholds: early decomposition (TBS ≥6.0), TBS ≥12.5, advanced decomposition (TBS ≥19.0), TBS ≥23.0, and skeletonization (TBS ≥27.0). Results indicate no significant correlation between body mass and KADD at any TBS threshold. Body mass accounted for up to 24.0% of variation in decomposition rate depending on stage, and minor differences in decomposition pattern were observed. Body mass likely has a minimal impact on postmortem interval estimation. © 2017 American Academy of Forensic Sciences.

  8. Human kinematics and event control: On-line movement registration as a means for experimental manipulation

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Oudejans, R.R.D.; Coolen, H.

    2003-01-01

    In human movement and sports science, manipulations of perception and action are common and often comprise the control of events, such as opening or closing liquid crystal goggles. Most of these events are externally controlled, independent of the actions of the participants. Less common, although

  9. Visuals and Visualisation of Human Body Systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mathai, Sindhu; Ramadas, Jayashree

    2009-01-01

    This paper explores the role of diagrams and text in middle school students' understanding and visualisation of human body systems. We develop a common framework based on structure and function to assess students' responses across diagram and verbal modes. Visualisation is defined in terms of understanding transformations on structure and relating…

  10. Deceptive body movements reverse spatial cueing in soccer.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Michael J Wright

    Full Text Available The purpose of the experiments was to analyse the spatial cueing effects of the movements of soccer players executing normal and deceptive (step-over turns with the ball. Stimuli comprised normal resolution or point-light video clips of soccer players dribbling a football towards the observer then turning right or left with the ball. Clips were curtailed before or on the turn (-160, -80, 0 or +80 ms to examine the time course of direction prediction and spatial cueing effects. Participants were divided into higher-skilled (HS and lower-skilled (LS groups according to soccer experience. In experiment 1, accuracy on full video clips was higher than on point-light but results followed the same overall pattern. Both HS and LS groups correctly identified direction on normal moves at all occlusion levels. For deceptive moves, LS participants were significantly worse than chance and HS participants were somewhat more accurate but nevertheless substantially impaired. In experiment 2, point-light clips were used to cue a lateral target. HS and LS groups showed faster reaction times to targets that were congruent with the direction of normal turns, and to targets incongruent with the direction of deceptive turns. The reversed cueing by deceptive moves coincided with earlier kinematic events than cueing by normal moves. It is concluded that the body kinematics of soccer players generate spatial cueing effects when viewed from an opponent's perspective. This could create a reaction time advantage when anticipating the direction of a normal move. A deceptive move is designed to turn this cueing advantage into a disadvantage. Acting on the basis of advance information, the presence of deceptive moves primes responses in the wrong direction, which may be only partly mitigated by delaying a response until veridical cues emerge.

  11. Point-Structured Human Body Modeling Based on 3D Scan Data

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ming-June Tsai

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available A novel point-structured geometrical modelling for realistic human body is introduced in this paper. This technique is based on the feature extraction from the 3D body scan data. Anatomic feature such as the neck, the arm pits, the crotch points, and other major feature points are recognized. The body data is then segmented into 6 major parts. A body model is then constructed by re-sampling the scanned data to create a point-structured mesh. The body model contains body geodetic landmarks in latitudinal and longitudinal curves passing through those feature points. The body model preserves the perfect body shape and all the body dimensions but requires little space. Therefore, the body model can be used as a mannequin in garment industry, or as a manikin in various human factor designs, but the most important application is to use as a virtue character to animate the body motion in mocap (motion capture systems. By adding suitable joint freedoms between the segmented body links, kinematic and dynamic properties of the motion theories can be applied to the body model. As a result, a 3D virtual character that is fully resembled the original scanned individual is vividly animating the body motions. The gaps between the body segments due to motion can be filled up by skin blending technique using the characteristic of the point-structured model. The model has the potential to serve as a standardized datatype to archive body information for all custom-made products.

  12. Identification of Motive Forces on the Whole Body System during Walking

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Raghdan J. AlKhoury

    2010-01-01

    Full Text Available Motive forces by muscles are applied to different parts of the human body in a periodic fashion when walking at a uniform rate. In this study, the whole human body is modeled as a multidegree of freedom (MDOF system with seven degrees of freedom. In view of the changing contact conditions with the ground due to alternating feet movements, the system under study is considered piecewise time invariant for each half-period when one foot is in contact with the ground. Forces transmitted from the body to the ground while walking at a normal pace are experimentally measured and numerically simulated. Fourth-order Runge-Kutta method is employed to numerically simulate the forces acting on different masses of the body. An optimization problem is formulated with the squared difference between the measured and simulated forces transmitted to the ground as the objective function, and the motive forces on the body masses as the design variables to solve.

  13. Identification and risk estimation of movement strategies during cutting maneuvers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    David, Sina; Komnik, Igor; Peters, Markus; Funken, Johannes; Potthast, Wolfgang

    2017-12-01

    Approximately 70% of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries occur in non-contact situations during cutting and landing maneuvers. Parameters such as footstrike patterns and trunk orientation were found to influence ACL relevant knee loading, however, the relationship between the whole body movement and injury risk is debated. This study identifies whole body movement strategies that increase injury risk, and provides training recommendations to reduce this risk or enable a save return to sports after injury. Experimental cross-sectional study design. Three dimensional movement analysis was carried out to investigate 50 participants performing anticipated 90° cutting maneuvers. To identify and characterize movement strategies, footstrike pattern, knee valgus moment, knee internal rotation moment, angle of attack, shoulder and pelvis axis were analyzed using statistical parametric mapping. Three different movement strategies were identified. One strategy included rearfoot striking in combination with a relatively upright body position which generated higher knee joint loads than the second strategy, forefoot striking in combination with more backwards leaning and pre-rotation of the trunk towards the new movement direction. A third strategy combined forefoot striking with less preorientation which increased the ACL relevant knee joint load compared to the second strategy. The identified movement strategies clearly pre-determine the injury risk during non-contact situations with the third strategy as the most unfavorable one. Compared to the study of isolated parameters, the analysis of the whole body movement allowed for detailed separation of more risky from less risky cutting strategies. These results give practical recommendations for the prevention of ACL injury. Copyright © 2017 Sports Medicine Australia. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  14. Earthing the human body influences physiologic processes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sokal, Karol; Sokal, Pawel

    2011-04-01

    This study was designed to answer the question: Does the contact of the human organism with the Earth via a copper conductor affect physiologic processes? Subjects and experiments: Five (5) experiments are presented: experiment 1-effect of earthing on calcium-phosphate homeostasis and serum concentrations of iron (N = 84 participants); experiment 2-effect of earthing on serum concentrations of electrolytes (N = 28); experiment 3-effect of earthing on thyroid function (N = 12); experiment 4-effect of earthing on glucose concentration (N = 12); experiment 5-effect of earthing on immune response to vaccine (N = 32). Subjects were divided into two groups. One (1) group of people was earthed, while the second group remained without contact with the Earth. Blood and urine samples were examined. Earthing of an electrically insulated human organism during night rest causes lowering of serum concentrations of iron, ionized calcium, inorganic phosphorus, and reduction of renal excretion of calcium and phosphorus. Earthing during night rest decreases free tri-iodothyronine and increases free thyroxine and thyroid-stimulating hormone. The continuous earthing of the human body decreases blood glucose in patients with diabetes. Earthing decreases sodium, potassium, magnesium, iron, total protein, and albumin concentrations while the levels of transferrin, ferritin, and globulins α1, α2, β, and γ increase. These results are statistically significant. Earthing the human body influences human physiologic processes. This influence is observed during night relaxation and during physical activity. Effect of the earthing on calcium-phosphate homeostasis is the opposite of that which occurs in states of weightlessness. It also increases the activity of catabolic processes. It may be the primary factor regulating endocrine and nervous systems.

  15. Assessing Brain–Muscle Connectivity in Human Locomotion through Mobile Brain/Body Imaging: Opportunities, Pitfalls, and Future Directions

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Federico Gennaro

    2018-02-01

    Full Text Available Assessment of the cortical role during bipedalism has been a methodological challenge. While surface electroencephalography (EEG is capable of non-invasively measuring cortical activity during human locomotion, it is associated with movement artifacts obscuring cerebral sources of activity. Recently, statistical methods based on blind source separation revealed potential for resolving this issue, by segregating non-cerebral/artifactual from cerebral sources of activity. This step marked a new opportunity for the investigation of the brains’ role while moving and was tagged mobile brain/body imaging (MoBI. This methodology involves simultaneous mobile recording of brain activity with several other body behavioral variables (e.g., muscle activity and kinematics, through wireless recording wearable devices/sensors. Notably, several MoBI studies using EEG–EMG approaches recently showed that the brain is functionally connected to the muscles and active throughout the whole gait cycle and, thus, rejecting the long-lasting idea of a solely spinal-driven bipedalism. However, MoBI and brain/muscle connectivity assessments during human locomotion are still in their fledgling state of investigation. Mobile brain/body imaging approaches hint toward promising opportunities; however, there are some remaining pitfalls that need to be resolved before considering their routine clinical use. This article discusses several of these pitfalls and proposes research to address them. Examples relate to the validity, reliability, and reproducibility of this method in ecologically valid scenarios and in different populations. Furthermore, whether brain/muscle connectivity within the MoBI framework represents a potential biomarker in neuromuscular syndromes where gait disturbances are evident (e.g., age-related sarcopenia remains to be determined.

  16. Development of the ventral body wall in the human embryo

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Mekonen, Hayelom K.; Hikspoors, Jill P. J. M.; Mommen, Greet; Köhler, S. Eleonore; Lamers, Wouter H.

    2015-01-01

    Migratory failure of somitic cells is the commonest explanation for ventral body wall defects. However, the embryo increases ~ 25-fold in volume in the period that the ventral body wall forms, so that differential growth may, instead, account for the observed changes in topography. Human embryos

  17. Governing the postmortem procurement of human body material for research.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Van Assche, Kristof; Capitaine, Laura; Pennings, Guido; Sterckx, Sigrid

    2015-03-01

    Human body material removed post mortem is a particularly valuable resource for research. Considering the efforts that are currently being made to study the biochemical processes and possible genetic causes that underlie cancer and cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases, it is likely that this type of research will continue to gain in importance. However, post mortem procurement of human body material for research raises specific ethical concerns, more in particular with regard to the consent of the research participant. In this paper, we attempt to determine which consent regime should govern the post mortem procurement of body material for research. In order to do so, we assess the various arguments that could be put forward in support of a duty to make body material available for research purposes after death. We argue that this duty does in practice not support conscription but is sufficiently strong to defend a policy of presumed rather than explicit consent.

  18. Effects of geolocators on hatching success, return rates, breeding movements, and change in body mass in 16 species of Arctic-breeding shorebirds

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Weiser, Emily L; Lanctot, Richard B.; Brown, Stephen C; Alves, José A.; Battley, Phil; Bentzen, Rebecca; Bêty, Joël; Bishop, Mary Anne; Boldenow, Megan; Bollache, Loïc; Casler, Bruce; Christie, Maureen; T. Coleman, Jonathan; Conklin, Jesse; B. English, Willow; Gates, H. River; Gilg, Olivier; Giroux, Marie-Andrée; Gosbell, Ken; Hassell, Chris J.; Helmericks, Jim; Johnson, Andrew; Katrínardóttir, Borgný; Koivula, Kari; Kwon, Eunbi; Lamarre, Jean-Francois; Lang, Johannes; Lank, David B.; Lecomte, Nicolas; Liebezeit, Joe; Loverti, Vanessa; McKinnon, Laura; Minton, Clive D. T.; Mizrahi, David; Minton, Clive D. T.; Nol, Erica; Pakanen, Veli-Matti; Perz, Johanna; Porter, Ron; Rausch, Jennie; Reneerkens, Jeroen; Rönkä, Nelli; Saalfeld, Sarah; Senner, Nathan; Sittler, Benoit; Smith, Paul A.; Sowl, Kristine; Taylor, Audrey; Ward, David H.; Yezerinac, Stephen; Sandercock, Brett K.

    2016-01-01

    Background: Geolocators are useful for tracking movements of long-distance migrants, but potential negative effects on birds have not been well studied. We tested for effects of geolocators (0.8–2.0 g total, representing 0.1–3.9 % of mean body mass) on 16 species of migratory shorebirds, including

  19. Investigation and Modeling of Capacitive Human Body Communication.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhu, Xiao-Qi; Guo, Yong-Xin; Wu, Wen

    2017-04-01

    This paper presents a systematic investigation of the capacitive human body communication (HBC). The measurement of HBC channels is performed using a novel battery-powered system to eliminate the effects of baluns, cables and instruments. To verify the measured results, a numerical model incorporating the entire HBC system is established. Besides, it is demonstrated that both the impedance and path gain bandwidths of HBC channels is affected by the electrode configuration. Based on the analysis of the simulated electric field distribution, an equivalent circuit model is proposed and the circuit parameters are extracted using the finite element method. The transmission capability along the human body is also studied. The simulated results using the numerical and circuit models coincide very well with the measurement, which demonstrates that the proposed circuit model can effectively interpret the operation mechanism of the capacitive HBC.

  20. Real-time stylistic prediction for whole-body human motions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Matsubara, Takamitsu; Hyon, Sang-Ho; Morimoto, Jun

    2012-01-01

    The ability to predict human motion is crucial in several contexts such as human tracking by computer vision and the synthesis of human-like computer graphics. Previous work has focused on off-line processes with well-segmented data; however, many applications such as robotics require real-time control with efficient computation. In this paper, we propose a novel approach called real-time stylistic prediction for whole-body human motions to satisfy these requirements. This approach uses a novel generative model to represent a whole-body human motion including rhythmic motion (e.g., walking) and discrete motion (e.g., jumping). The generative model is composed of a low-dimensional state (phase) dynamics and a two-factor observation model, allowing it to capture the diversity of motion styles in humans. A real-time adaptation algorithm was derived to estimate both state variables and style parameter of the model from non-stationary unlabeled sequential observations. Moreover, with a simple modification, the algorithm allows real-time adaptation even from incomplete (partial) observations. Based on the estimated state and style, a future motion sequence can be accurately predicted. In our implementation, it takes less than 15 ms for both adaptation and prediction at each observation. Our real-time stylistic prediction was evaluated for human walking, running, and jumping behaviors. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  1. Method of calculation for three-dimensional joint torque in human movement in a linked rigid body system

    OpenAIRE

    宮西, 智久; Tomohisa, Miyanishi; 仙台大学; Sendai College

    1998-01-01

    In sports biomechanics, joint torque analysis play a very important role. For this reason, if we understand the joint torque during sports activity, it will be useful for the diagnosis and/or evaluation of sports technique, the specific method for muscle training and the mechanisms of sports movement. In the past decade, many studies which dealt with the motion analysis for sports activity using a three-dimensional cinematography, have been done. However, most of these studies has been focuse...

  2. Geographically Modified PageRank Algorithms: Identifying the Spatial Concentration of Human Movement in a Geospatial Network.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chin, Wei-Chien-Benny; Wen, Tzai-Hung

    2015-01-01

    A network approach, which simplifies geographic settings as a form of nodes and links, emphasizes the connectivity and relationships of spatial features. Topological networks of spatial features are used to explore geographical connectivity and structures. The PageRank algorithm, a network metric, is often used to help identify important locations where people or automobiles concentrate in the geographical literature. However, geographic considerations, including proximity and location attractiveness, are ignored in most network metrics. The objective of the present study is to propose two geographically modified PageRank algorithms-Distance-Decay PageRank (DDPR) and Geographical PageRank (GPR)-that incorporate geographic considerations into PageRank algorithms to identify the spatial concentration of human movement in a geospatial network. Our findings indicate that in both intercity and within-city settings the proposed algorithms more effectively capture the spatial locations where people reside than traditional commonly-used network metrics. In comparing location attractiveness and distance decay, we conclude that the concentration of human movement is largely determined by the distance decay. This implies that geographic proximity remains a key factor in human mobility.

  3. Knowledge through movement

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jensen, Søren Kjær; Moser, T.

    2003-01-01

    In: Children and adolescents in movement - perspectives and ideas. The Danish Ministry of Culture, pages 150 - 162. 2003 Short description: the article debunks a lot of the myths surrounding body and learning, and replace them with a vision about another kind of learning. The aim is to reintroduce...

  4. Modeling connectivity to identify current and future anthropogenic barriers to movement of large carnivores: A case study in the American Southwest.

    Science.gov (United States)

    McClure, Meredith L; Dickson, Brett G; Nicholson, Kerry L

    2017-06-01

    This study sought to identify critical areas for puma ( Puma concolor ) movement across the state of Arizona in the American Southwest and to identify those most likely to be impacted by current and future human land uses, particularly expanding urban development and associated increases in traffic volume. Human populations in this region are expanding rapidly, with the potential for urban centers and busy roads to increasingly act as barriers to demographic and genetic connectivity of large-bodied, wide-ranging carnivores such as pumas, whose long-distance movements are likely to bring them into contact with human land uses and whose low tolerance both for and from humans may put them at risk unless opportunities for safe passage through or around human-modified landscapes are present. Brownian bridge movement models based on global positioning system collar data collected during bouts of active movement and linear mixed models were used to model habitat quality for puma movement; then, a wall-to-wall application of circuit theory models was used to produce a continuous statewide estimate of connectivity for puma movement and to identify pinch points, or bottlenecks, that may be most at risk of impacts from current and future traffic volume and expanding development. Rugged, shrub- and scrub-dominated regions were highlighted as those offering high quality movement habitat for pumas, and pinch points with the greatest potential impacts from expanding development and traffic, although widely distributed, were particularly prominent to the north and east of the city of Phoenix and along interstate highways in the western portion of the state. These pinch points likely constitute important conservation opportunities, where barriers to movement may cause disproportionate loss of connectivity, but also where actions such as placement of wildlife crossing structures or conservation easements could enhance connectivity and prevent detrimental impacts before they occur.

  5. Constraining eye movement in individuals with Parkinson's disease during walking turns.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ambati, V N Pradeep; Saucedo, Fabricio; Murray, Nicholas G; Powell, Douglas W; Reed-Jones, Rebecca J

    2016-10-01

    Walking and turning is a movement that places individuals with Parkinson's disease (PD) at increased risk for fall-related injury. However, turning is an essential movement in activities of daily living, making up to 45 % of the total steps taken in a given day. Hypotheses regarding how turning is controlled suggest an essential role of anticipatory eye movements to provide feedforward information for body coordination. However, little research has investigated control of turning in individuals with PD with specific consideration for eye movements. The purpose of this study was to examine eye movement behavior and body segment coordination in individuals with PD during walking turns. Three experimental groups, a group of individuals with PD, a group of healthy young adults (YAC), and a group of healthy older adults (OAC), performed walking and turning tasks under two visual conditions: free gaze and fixed gaze. Whole-body motion capture and eye tracking characterized body segment coordination and eye movement behavior during walking trials. Statistical analysis revealed significant main effects of group (PD, YAC, and OAC) and visual condition (free and fixed gaze) on timing of segment rotation and horizontal eye movement. Within group comparisons, revealed timing of eye and head movement was significantly different between the free and fixed gaze conditions for YAC (p  0.05). In addition, while intersegment timings (reflecting segment coordination) were significantly different for YAC and OAC during free gaze (p training programs for those with PD, possibly promoting better coordination during turning and potentially reducing the risk of falls.

  6. Stereotyped movement disorder in ICD-11.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stein, Dan J; Woods, Douglas W

    2014-01-01

    According to current proposals for ICD-11, stereotyped movement disorder will be classified in the grouping of neurodevelopmental disorders, with a qualifier to indicate whether self-injury is present, similar to the classification of stereotypic movement disorder in DSM-5. At the same time, the WHO ICD-11 Working Group on the Classification of Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders has proposed a grouping of body-focused repetitive behavior disorders within the obsessive-compulsive and related disorders (OCRD) cluster to include trichotillomania and skin-picking disorder. DSM-5 has taken a slightly different approach: trichotillomania and excoriation (skin picking) disorder are included in the OCRD grouping, while body-focused repetitive behavior disorder is listed under other specified forms of OCRD. DSM-5 also includes a separate category of nonsuicidal self-injury in the section on "conditions for further study." There are a number of unresolved nosological questions regarding the relationships among stereotyped movement disorder, body-focused repetitive behavior disorders, and nonsuicidal self-injury. In this article, we attempt to provide preliminary answers to some of these questions as they relate to the ICD-11 classification of mental and behavioral disorders.

  7. Bodystorming for Movement-Based Interaction Design

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Elena Márquez Segura

    2016-11-01

    Full Text Available After a decade of movement-based interaction in human–computer interaction, designing for the moving body still remains a challenge. Research in this field requires methods to help access, articulate, and harness embodied experiences in ways that can inform the design process. To address this challenge, this article appropriates bodystorming, an embodied ideation method for movement-based interaction design. The proposed method allows for early consideration of the physical, collocated, and social aspects of a designed activity as illustrated with two explorative workshops in different application domains: interactive body games and interactive performances. Using a qualitative methods approach, we used video material from the workshops, feedback from participants, and our own experience as participants and facilitators to outline important characteristics of the bodystorming method in the domain of movement-based interaction. The proposed method is compared with previous ones and application implications are discussed.

  8. Mindful movement and skilled attention

    Science.gov (United States)

    Clark, Dav; Schumann, Frank; Mostofsky, Stewart H.

    2015-01-01

    Bodily movement has long been employed as a foundation for cultivating mental skills such as attention, self-control or mindfulness, with recent studies documenting the positive impacts of mindful movement training, such as yoga and tai chi. A parallel “mind-body connection” has also been observed in many developmental disorders. We elaborate a spectrum of mindfulness by considering ADHD, in which deficient motor control correlates with impaired (disinhibited) behavioral control contributing to defining features of excessive distractibility and impulsivity. These data provide evidence for an important axis of variation for wellbeing, in which skillful cognitive control covaries with a capacity for skillful movement. We review empirical and theoretical literature on attention, cognitive control, mind wandering, mindfulness and skill learning, endorsing a model of skilled attention in which motor plans, attention, and executive goals are seen as mutually co-defining aspects of skilled behavior that are linked by reciprocal inhibitory and excitatory connections. Thus, any movement training should engage “higher-order” inhibition and selection and develop a repertoire of rehearsed procedures that coordinate goals, attention and motor plans. However, we propose that mindful movement practice may improve the functional quality of rehearsed procedures, cultivating a transferrable skill of attention. We adopt Langer’s spectrum of mindful learning that spans from “mindlessness” to engagement with the details of the present task and contrast this with the mental attitudes cultivated in standard mindfulness meditation. We particularly follow Feldenkrais’ suggestion that mindful learning of skills for organizing the body in movement might transfer to other forms of mental activity. The results of mindful movement training should be observed in multiple complementary measures, and may have tremendous potential benefit for individuals with ADHD and other

  9. Mindful Movement and Skilled Attention

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dav eClark

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available Bodily movement has long been employed as a foundation for cultivating mental skills such as attention, self-control or mindfulness, with recent studies documenting the positive impacts of mindful movement training, such as yoga and tai chi. A parallel mind-body connection has also been observed in many developmental disorders. We elaborate a spectrum of mindfulness by considering ADHD, in which deficient motor control correlates with impaired (disinhibited behavioral control contributing to defining features of excessive distractibility and impulsivity. These data provide evidence for an important axis of variation for wellbeing, in which skillful cognitive control covaries with a capacity for skillful movement. We review empirical and theoretical literature on attention, cognitive control, mind wandering, mindfulness and skill learning, endorsing a model of skilled attention in which motor plans, attention, and executive goals are seen as mutually co-defining aspects of skilled behavior that are linked by reciprocal inhibitory and excitatory connections. Thus, any movement training should engage higher-order inhibition and selection and develop a repertoire of rehearsed procedures that coordinate goals, attention and motor plans. However, we propose that mindful movement practice may improve the functional quality of rehearsed procedures, cultivating a transferrable skill of attention. We adopt Langer’s spectrum of mindful learning that spans from mindlessness to engagement with the details of the present task and contrast this with the mental attitudes cultivated in standard mindfulness meditation. We particularly follow Feldenkrais’ suggestion that mindful learning of skills for organizing the body in movement might transfer to other forms of mental activity. The results of mindful movement training should be observed in multiple complementary measures, and may have tremendous potential benefit for individuals with ADHD and other

  10. Movement Skill Assessment of Typically Developing Preschool Children: A Review of Seven Movement Skill Assessment Tools

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cools, Wouter; Martelaer, Kristine De; Samaey, Christiane; Andries, Caroline

    2009-01-01

    The importance of movement is often overlooked because it is such a natural part of human life. It is, however, crucial for a child’s physical, cognitive and social development. In addition, experiences support learning and development of fundamental movement skills. The foundations of those skills are laid in early childhood and essential to encourage a physically active lifestyle. Fundamental movement skill performance can be examined with several assessment tools. The choice of a test will depend on the context in which the assessment is planned. This article compares seven assessment tools which are often referred to in European or international context. It discusses the tools’ usefulness for the assessment of movement skill development in general population samples. After a brief description of each assessment tool the article focuses on contents, reliability, validity and normative data. A conclusion outline of strengths and weaknesses of all reviewed assessment tools focusing on their use in educational research settings is provided and stresses the importance of regular data collection of fundamental movement skill development among preschool children. Key pointsThis review discusses seven movement skill assessment tool’s test content, reliability, validity and normative samples.The seven assessment tools all showed to be of great value. Strengths and weaknesses indicate that test choice will depend on specific purpose of test use.Further data collection should also include larger data samples of able bodied preschool children.Admitting PE specialists in assessment of fundamental movement skill performance among preschool children is recommended.The assessment tool’s normative data samples would benefit from frequent movement skill performance follow-up of today’s children. Abbreviations MOT 4-6: Motoriktest fur vier- bis sechsjährige Kinder, M-ABC: Movement Assessment Battery for Children, PDMS: Peabody Development Scales, KTK: K

  11. More accurate picture of human body organs

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kolar, J.

    1985-01-01

    Computerized tomography and nucler magnetic resonance tomography (NMRT) are revolutionary contributions to radiodiagnosis because they allow to obtain a more accurate image of human body organs. The principles are described of both methods. Attention is mainly devoted to NMRT which has clinically only been used for three years. It does not burden the organism with ionizing radiation. (Ha)

  12. Mixed Movements/performance-based drawing

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Brabrand, Helle

    2010-01-01

    Mixed Movements is a research project engaged in performance-based architectural drawing. The project experiments with drawing-series as montages of materials and forces, making the drawing appear in its changing character. The moving components are conditioned by different circumstances...... that question each other, working as well with space-time motives as with expressions and techniques. A series poses questions both to the kind of forces it raises as well as to the kind of sensual affects it produces – to how the body resonates with the rhythms and tensions that appear in the drawing....... A drawing-series is then both a machine, a diagram, and an appearance, what we call a resonance-model, creating links between tectonic and drawing constructions, kinaesthetic competences and actual body-movements....

  13. Modal analysis of human body vibration model for Indian subjects under sitting posture.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Singh, Ishbir; Nigam, S P; Saran, V H

    2015-01-01

    Need and importance of modelling in human body vibration research studies are well established. The study of biodynamic responses of human beings can be classified into experimental and analytical methods. In the past few decades, plenty of mathematical models have been developed based on the diverse field measurements to describe the biodynamic responses of human beings. In this paper, a complete study on lumped parameter model derived from 50th percentile anthropometric data for a seated 54- kg Indian male subject without backrest support under free un-damped conditions has been carried out considering human body segments to be of ellipsoidal shape. Conventional lumped parameter modelling considers the human body as several rigid masses interconnected by springs and dampers. In this study, concept of mass of interconnecting springs has been incorporated and eigenvalues thus obtained are found to be closer to the values reported in the literature. Results obtained clearly establish decoupling of vertical and fore-and-aft oscillations. The mathematical modelling of human body vibration studies help in validating the experimental investigations for ride comfort of a sitting subject. This study clearly establishes the decoupling of vertical and fore-and-aft vibrations and helps in better understanding of possible human response to single and multi-axial excitations.

  14. Data Fusion Research of Triaxial Human Body Motion Gesture based on Decision Tree

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Feihong Zhou

    2014-05-01

    Full Text Available The development status of human body motion gesture data fusion domestic and overseas has been analyzed. A triaxial accelerometer is adopted to develop a wearable human body motion gesture monitoring system aimed at old people healthcare. On the basis of a brief introduction of decision tree algorithm, the WEKA workbench is adopted to generate a human body motion gesture decision tree. At last, the classification quality of the decision tree has been validated through experiments. The experimental results show that the decision tree algorithm could reach an average predicting accuracy of 97.5 % with lower time cost.

  15. Sex Differences in Fundamental Movement Skills of a Selected Group of 6-Year-Old South African Children

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pienaar, Anita E.; van Reenen, Irma; Weber, Angelique M.

    2016-01-01

    Background: Motor competence is emerging as an important marker of health, while adequate basic movement patterns, body control and body awareness are important building blocks of more specialized body movements and scholastic adjustment during early childhood. This study examined fundamental movement skill competency and explored sex differences…

  16. Alterations in the Rate of Limb Movement Using a Lower Body Positive Pressure Treadmill Do Not Influence Respiratory Rate or Phase III Ventilation

    OpenAIRE

    Michael J. Buono; Marissa Burnsed-Torres; Bethany Hess; Kristine Lopez; Catherine Ortiz; Ariel Girodo; Karen Lolli; Brett Bloom; David Bailey; Fred W. Kolkhorst

    2015-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of alterations in rate of limb movement on Phase III ventilation during exercise, independent of metabolic rate, gait style, and treadmill incline. Subjects completed five submaximal exercise bouts on a lower body positive pressure treadmill (AlterG P 200). The percent body weight for the five exercise bouts was 100, 87, 75, 63, and 50% and each was matched for carbon dioxide production (V CO2 ). Naturally, to match the V CO2 while reducin...

  17. An Impact of Thermodynamic Processes in Human Bodies on Performance Reliability of Individuals

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Smalko Zbigniew

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available The article presents the problem of the influence of thermodynamic factors on human fallibility in different zones of thermal discomfort. Describes the processes of energy in the human body. Been given a formal description of the energy balance of the human body thermoregulation. Pointed to human reactions to temperature changes of internal and external environment, including reactions associated with exercise. The methodology to estimate and determine the reliability of indicators of human basal acting in different zones of thermal discomfort. The significant effect of thermodynamic factors on the reliability and security ofperson.

  18. Earthing the Human Body Influences Physiologic Processes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sokal, Karol

    2011-01-01

    Abstract Objectives This study was designed to answer the question: Does the contact of the human organism with the Earth via a copper conductor affect physiologic processes? Subjects and experiments Five (5) experiments are presented: experiment 1—effect of earthing on calcium–phosphate homeostasis and serum concentrations of iron (N = 84 participants); experiment 2—effect of earthing on serum concentrations of electrolytes (N = 28); experiment 3—effect of earthing on thyroid function (N = 12); experiment 4—effect of earthing on glucose concentration (N = 12); experiment 5—effect of earthing on immune response to vaccine (N = 32). Subjects were divided into two groups. One (1) group of people was earthed, while the second group remained without contact with the Earth. Blood and urine samples were examined. Results Earthing of an electrically insulated human organism during night rest causes lowering of serum concentrations of iron, ionized calcium, inorganic phosphorus, and reduction of renal excretion of calcium and phosphorus. Earthing during night rest decreases free tri-iodothyronine and increases free thyroxine and thyroid-stimulating hormone. The continuous earthing of the human body decreases blood glucose in patients with diabetes. Earthing decreases sodium, potassium, magnesium, iron, total protein, and albumin concentrations while the levels of transferrin, ferritin, and globulins α1, α2, β, and γ increase. These results are statistically significant. Conclusions Earthing the human body influences human physiologic processes. This influence is observed during night relaxation and during physical activity. Effect of the earthing on calcium–phosphate homeostasis is the opposite of that which occurs in states of weightlessness. It also increases the activity of catabolic processes. It may be the primary factor regulating endocrine and nervous systems. PMID:21469913

  19. Lip Movement Exaggerations during Infant-Directed Speech

    Science.gov (United States)

    Green, Jordan R.; Nip, Ignatius S. B.; Wilson, Erin M.; Mefferd, Antje S.; Yunusova, Yana

    2010-01-01

    Purpose: Although a growing body of literature has identified the positive effects of visual speech on speech and language learning, oral movements of infant-directed speech (IDS) have rarely been studied. This investigation used 3-dimensional motion capture technology to describe how mothers modify their lip movements when talking to their…

  20. Dance/Movement Therapy with Emotionally Disturbed Adolescents.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bannon, Veronica

    This outline profiles two programs that use dance/movement therapy to help students with low self-esteem, poor body image, poor self-control, lack of trust in others, difficulty identifying and expressing feelings, and poor interpersonal relating skills. Students referred for dance/movement therapy services are assessed for appropriateness, and…