Spinal and Supraspinal Motor Control Predictors of Rate of Torque Development

During explosive movements and potentially injurious situations, the ability to rapidly generate torque is critical. Previous research has suggested that different phases of rate of torque development (RTD) are differentiately controlled. However, the extent to which supraspinal and spinal mechanisms predict RTD at different time intervals is unknown. RTD of the plantarflexors across various phases of contraction (i.e., 0–25, 0–50, 0–100, 0–150, 0–200, and 0–250 ms) was measured in 37 participants. The following predictor variables were also measured: (a) gain of the resting soleus H-reflex recruitment curve; (b) gain of the resting homonymous post-activation depression recruitment curve; (c) gain of the GABAergic presynaptic inhibition recruitment curve; (d) the level of postsynaptic recurrent inhibition at rest; (e) level of supraspinal drive assessed by measuring V waves; and (f) the gain of the resting soleus M wave. Stepwise regression analyses were used to determine which variables significantly predicted allometrically scaled RTD. The analyses indicated that supraspinal drive was the dominant predictor of RTD across all phases. Additionally, recurrent inhibition predicted RTD in all of the time intervals except 0–150 ms. These results demonstrate the importance of supraspinal drive and recurrent inhibition to RTD

Comparing soil boundaries delineated by digital analysis of multispectral scanner data from high and low spatial resolution systems

The author has identified the following significant results. Computer-aided analysis techniques used with aircraft MSS data showed that the spatial resolution was sufficient to recognize each soil mapping unit of the test site. Some difficulties occurred where different soil series were intricately mixed, and this mixture showed as a separate spectral mapping unit, or where the difference between two soils depended on the depth of silty surface material. Analysis of LANDSAT data with computer-aided techniques showed that it was not possible to find spectrally homogeneous soil features of the seven soil series on the 40 ha test site on the digital display or on a picture print map. Cluster techniques could be used on an extended test area to group spectrally similar data points into cluster classes

Determining land use patterns through man-machine analysis of LANDSAT data: A tutorial simulation

There are no author-identified significant results in this report

Is sexism a gender issue? A motivated social cognition perspective on men’s and women’s sexist attitudes toward own and other gender

The present research investigated the antecedents of ambivalent sexism (i.e., hostile and benevolent forms) in both men and women toward own and other gender. In two heterogeneous adult samples (Study 1: N = 179 and Study 2: N = 222), it as revealed that gender itself was only a minor predictor of sexist attitudes compared to the substantial impact of individual differences in general motivated cognition (i.e., Need for closure). Analyses further showed that the relationship between Need for closure and sexism was mediated by social attitudes (i.e., right-wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation), which were differently related to benevolent and hostile forms of sexism. In the discussion it is argued that sexism primarily stems from individual differences in motivated cognitive style, which relates to peoples? perspective on the social world, rather than from group differences between men and women

Application of Multispectral Reflectance Studies of Soils: Pre-Landsat

It was recognized in the 1960\u27s that measuring the spectral, spatial and temporal variation of electromagnetic fields reflected and emitted from the Earth\u27s surface had many potential applications in the field of agriculture. As a result, computer-implemented pattern recognition techniques were used to analyze multispectral data for the purpose of delineating soil differences. Spectral data were obtained (1) in the laboratory by scanning soil samples with a double-beam spectrophotometer (Beckman DK-2A) and (2) in the field by scanning large areas of soils with an airborne multispectral scanner. The results obtained through this early research clearly illustrated relationships between the reflected and emitted energy from soils and other physical and chemical properties of those soils. The possibility of sampling large geographic areas and obtaining information about various soil parameters within a relatively short time period appeared to be of great value to potential users, i.e. soil surveyors, soil conservationists and other resource management personnel

SchNetPack 2.0: A neural network toolbox for atomistic machine learning

SchNetPack is a versatile neural networks toolbox that addresses both the requirements of method development and application of atomistic machine learning. Version 2.0 comes with an improved data pipeline, modules for equivariant neural networks as well as a PyTorch implementation of molecular dynamics. An optional integration with PyTorch Lightning and the Hydra configuration framework powers a flexible command-line interface. This makes SchNetPack 2.0 easily extendable with custom code and ready for complex training task such as generation of 3d molecular structures

Boosting the Figure Of Merit of LSPR-based refractive index sensing by phase-sensitive measurements

Localized surface plasmon resonances possess very interesting properties for a wide variety of sensing applications. In many of the existing applications only the intensity of the reflected or transmitted signals is taken into account, while the phase information is ignored. At the center frequency of a (localized) surface plasmon resonance, the electron cloud makes the transition between in- and out-of-phase oscillation with respect to the incident wave. Here we show that this information can experimentally be extracted by performing phase-sensitive measurements, which result in linewidths that are almost one order of magnitude smaller than those for intensity based measurements. As this phase transition is an intrinsic property of a plasmon resonance, this opens up many possibilities for boosting the figure of merit (FOM) of refractive index sensing by taking into account the phase of the plasmon resonance. We experimentally investigated this for two model systems: randomly distributed gold nanodisks and gold nanorings on top of a continuous gold layer and a dielectric spacer and observed FOM values up to 8.3 and 16.5 for the respective nanoparticles

Tiotropium modulates transient receptor potential V1 (TRPV1) in airway sensory nerves: A beneficial off-target effect?⋆

BackgroundRecent studies have suggested that the long-acting muscarinic receptor antagonist tiotropium, a drug widely prescribed for its bronchodilator activity in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and asthma, improves symptoms and attenuates cough in preclinical and clinical tussive agent challenge studies. The mechanism by which tiotropium modifies tussive responses is not clear, but an inhibition of vagal tone and a consequent reduction in mucus production from submucosal glands and bronchodilation have been proposed.ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to investigate whether tiotropium can directly modulate airway sensory nerve activity and thereby the cough reflex.MethodsWe used a conscious cough model in guinea pigs, isolated vagal sensory nerve and isolated airway neuron tissue– and cell-based assays, and in vivo single-fiber recording electrophysiologic techniques.ResultsInhaled tiotropium blocked cough and single C-fiber firing in the guinea pig to the transient receptor potential (TRP) V1 agonist capsaicin, a clinically relevant tussive stimulant. Tiotropium and ipratropium, a structurally similar muscarinic antagonist, inhibited capsaicin responses in isolated guinea pig vagal tissue, but glycopyrrolate and atropine did not. Tiotropium failed to modulate other TRP channel–mediated responses. Complementary data were generated in airway-specific primary ganglion neurons, demonstrating that tiotropium inhibited capsaicin-induced, but not TRPA1-induced, calcium movement and voltage changes.ConclusionFor the first time, we have shown that tiotropium inhibits neuronal TRPV1-mediated effects through a mechanism unrelated to its anticholinergic activity. We speculate that some of the clinical benefit associated with taking tiotropium (eg, in symptom control) could be explained through this proposed mechanism of action