Gait analysis under the lens of statistical physics

Human gait; Irreversibility; Multi-fractal analysisMarcha humana; Irreversibilidad; Análisis multifractalMarxa humana; Irreversibilitat; Anàlisi multifractalHuman gait is a fundamental activity, essential for the survival of the individual, and an emergent property of the interactions between complex physical and cognitive processes. Gait is altered in many situations, due both to external constraints, as e.g. paced walk, and to physical and neurological pathologies. Its study is therefore important as a way of improving the quality of life of patients, but also as a door to understanding the inner working of the human nervous system. In this review we explore how four statistical physics concepts have been used to characterise normal and pathological gait: entropy, maximum Lyapunov exponent, multi-fractal analysis and irreversibility. Beyond some basic definitions, we present the main results that have been obtained in this field, as well as a discussion of the main limitations researchers have dealt and will have to deal with. We finally conclude with some biomedical considerations and avenues for further development.This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No 851255). M.Z. and F.O. acknowledges the Spanish State Research Agency through Grant MDM-2017–0711 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033. Authors acknowledge support from the Escuela Universitaria de Fisioterapia de la ONCE

Three-dimensional multifractal analysis of trabecular bone under clinical computed tomography

Purpose: An adequate understanding of bone structural properties is critical for predicting fragility conditions caused by diseases such as osteoporosis, and in gauging the success of fracture prevention treatments. In this work we aim to develop multiresolution image analysis techniques to extrapolate high-resolution images predictive power to images taken in clinical conditions. Methods: We performed multifractal analysis (MFA) on a set of 17 ex vivo human vertebrae clinical CT scans. The vertebræ failure loads (FFailure) were experimentally measured. We combined bone mineral density (BMD) with different multifractal dimensions, and BMD with multiresolution statistics (e.g., skewness, kurtosis) of MFA curves, to obtain linear models to predict FFailure. Furthermore we obtained short- and long-term precisions from simulated in vivo scans, using a clinical CT scanner. Ground-truth data - high-resolution images - were obtained with a High-Resolution Peripheral Quantitative Computed Tomography (HRpQCT) scanner. Results: At the same level of detail, BMD combined with traditional multifractal descriptors (Lipschitz-Hölder exponents), and BMD with monofractal features showed similar prediction powers in predicting FFailure (87%, adj. R2). However, at different levels of details, the prediction power of BMD with multifractal features raises to 92% (adj. R2) of FFailure. Our main finding is that a simpler but slightly less accurate model, combining BMD and the skewness of the resulting multifractal curves, predicts 90% (adj. R2) of FFailure. Conclusions: Compared to monofractal and standard bone measures, multifractal analysis captured key insights in the conditions leading to FFailure. Instead of raw multifractal descriptors, the statistics of multifractal curves can be used in several other contexts, facilitating further research.Fil: Baravalle, Rodrigo Guillermo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Rosario. Centro Internacional Franco Argentino de Ciencias de la Información y de Sistemas. Universidad Nacional de Rosario. Centro Internacional Franco Argentino de Ciencias de la Información y de Sistemas; ArgentinaFil: Thomsen, Felix Sebastian Leo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad Nacional del Sur; ArgentinaFil: Delrieux, Claudio Augusto. Universidad Nacional del Sur; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Lu, Yongtao. Dalian University of Technology; ChinaFil: Gómez, Juan Carlos. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Rosario. Centro Internacional Franco Argentino de Ciencias de la Información y de Sistemas. Universidad Nacional de Rosario. Centro Internacional Franco Argentino de Ciencias de la Información y de Sistemas; ArgentinaFil: Stošić, Borko. Universidade Federal Rural Pernambuco; BrasilFil: Stošić, Tatijana. Universidade Federal Rural Pernambuco; Brasi

Automated design of robust discriminant analysis classifier for foot pressure lesions using kinematic data

In the recent years, the use of motion tracking systems for acquisition of functional biomechanical gait data, has received increasing interest due to the richness and accuracy of the measured kinematic information. However, costs frequently restrict the number of subjects employed, and this makes the dimensionality of the collected data far higher than the available samples. This paper applies discriminant analysis algorithms to the classification of patients with different types of foot lesions, in order to establish an association between foot motion and lesion formation. With primary attention to small sample size situations, we compare different types of Bayesian classifiers and evaluate their performance with various dimensionality reduction techniques for feature extraction, as well as search methods for selection of raw kinematic variables. Finally, we propose a novel integrated method which fine-tunes the classifier parameters and selects the most relevant kinematic variables simultaneously. Performance comparisons are using robust resampling techniques such as Bootstrap$632+$and k-fold cross-validation. Results from experimentations with lesion subjects suffering from pathological plantar hyperkeratosis, show that the proposed method can lead to$sim 96$correct classification rates with less than 10% of the original features

Assessment of long-range correlation in animal behaviour time series: the temporal pattern of locomotor activity of Japanese quail (Coturnix coturnix) and mosquito larva (Culex quinquefasciatus)

The aim of this study was to evaluate the performance of a classical method of fractal analysis, Detrended Fluctuation Analysis (DFA), in the analysis of the dynamics of animal behavior time series. In order to correctly use DFA to assess the presence of long-range correlation, previous authors using statistical model systems have stated that different aspects should be taken into account such as: 1) the establishment by hypothesis testing of the absence of short term correlation, 2) an accurate estimation of a straight line in the log-log plot of the fluctuation function, 3) the elimination of artificial crossovers in the fluctuation function, and 4) the length of the time series. Taking into consideration these factors, herein we evaluated the presence of long-range correlation in the temporal pattern of locomotor activity of Japanese quail ({\sl Coturnix coturnix}) and mosquito larva ({\sl Culex quinquefasciatus}). In our study, modeling the data with the general ARFIMA model, we rejected the hypothesis of short range correlations (d=0) in all cases. We also observed that DFA was able to distinguish between the artificial crossover observed in the temporal pattern of locomotion of Japanese quail, and the crossovers in the correlation behavior observed in mosquito larvae locomotion. Although the test duration can slightly influence the parameter estimation, no qualitative differences were observed between different test durations

Biometrics Authentication of Fingerprint with Using Fingerprint Reader and Microcontroller Arduino

The idea of security is as old as humanity itself. Between oldest methods of security were included simple mechanical locks whose authentication element was the key. At first, a universal–simple type, later unique for each lock. A long time had mechanical locks been the sole option for protection against unauthorized access. The boom of biometrics has come in the 20th century, and especially in recent years, biometrics is much expanded in the various areas of our life. Opposite of traditional security methods such as passwords, access cards, and hardware keys, it offers many benefits. The main benefits are the uniqueness and the impossibility of their loss. The main benefits are the uniqueness and the impossibility of their loss. Therefore we focussed in this paper on the the design of low cost biometric fingerprint system and subsequent implementation of this system in praxtise. Our main goal was to create a system that is capable of recognizing fingerprints from a user and then processing them. The main part of this system is the microcontroller Arduino Yun with an external interface to the scan of the fingerprint with a name Adafruit R305 (special reader). This microcontroller communicates with the external database, which ensures the exchange of data between Arduino Yun and user application. This application was created for (currently) most widespread mobile operating system-Android