Walker-Assisted Gait in Rehabilitation: A Study of Biomechanics and Instrumentation

While walkers are commonly prescribed to improve patient stability and ambulatory ability, quantitative study of the biomechanical and functional requirements for effective walker use is limited. To date no one has addressed the changes in upper extremity kinetics that occur with the use of a standard walker, which was the objective of this study. A strain gauge-based walker instrumentation system was developed for the six degree-of-freedom measurement of resultant subject hand loads. The walker dynamometer was integrated with an upper extremity biomechanical model. Preliminary system data were collected for seven healthy, right-handed young adults following informed consent. Bilateral upper extremity kinematic data were acquired with a six camera Vicon motion analysis system using a Micro-VAX workstation. Internal joint moments at the wrist, elbow, and shoulder were determined in the three clinical planes using the inverse dynamics method. The walker dynamometer system allowed characterization of upper extremity loading demands. Significantly differing upper extremity loading patterns were Identified for three walker usage methods. Complete description of upper extremity kinetics and kinematics during walker-assisted gait may provide insight into walker design parameters and rehabilitative strategies

De l’influence des modes de pensée sur la traduction

La lisibilité d’un texte pragmatique doit être considérée comme primordiale par le traducteur qui ne peut ignorer que son travail de médiation culturelle s’insère dans une démarche communicative. Cet article se donne ainsi pour objectif d’explorer un peu plus avant l’altérité culturelle en analysant la manière dont le facteur linguistique dépend, psychologiquement et sociologiquement, des modes de pensées des francophones et anglophones. Nous avons choisi d’examiner successivement la propension des uns vers l’abstraction et des autres vers la concrétude, puis la structuration phraséologique du français et de l’anglais, pour finir avec le problème de logique interne susceptible d’induire une recomposition du texte à traduire.The readability of a pragmatic text ought to be considered as an essential feature for the translator deeply convinced of acting as a cultural mediator within a communicative process. This article sets out to explore cultural contrast more in depth and analyse how the linguistic factor depends, in a psychological and sociological perspective, on the ways of thinking of native French and English speakers. We first examine the tendency of French speakers towards abstract ideas and of English speakers towards concrete ideas, then how French and English phraseology is actually structured and finally why a translated text may be built up in a logically different way

Procédure de constitution d’un corpus attesté d’articles de recherche scientifique en vue d’une étude contrastive

Pour pouvoir se livrer à une étude contrastive à partir d’un corpus qui soit véritablement représentatif de la discipline concernée, il nous paraît nécessaire de se référer à trente articles de recherche par langue étudiée, couvrant une période de six ans. Les auteurs de ces articles auront été tirés au hasard sur une liste officielle de professeurs des universités spécialistes du domaine ; étant donné que cette population est supérieure à cent vingt individus (assimilable à l’infini), dans chaque groupe linguistique, l’on peut appliquer la loi de Gauss dont le tableau indique que le nombre d’échantillons doit être égal à trente. Il suffit ensuite de consulter la base de données PASCAL (couvrant la quasi-totalité des domaines scientifiques) pour sélectionner un article par auteur en fonction de la qualité scientifique du support médiatique, déterminée par un panel de spécialistes du domaine à partir d’une liste de référence de revues et journaux spécialisés. Cependant, cette procédure ne saurait se passer de quelques précautions d’ordre linguistique et soulève quelques problèmes d’ordre culturel.Carrying out a contrastive study on a corpus assumed to be fully representative of a scientific domain, involves selecting thirty research articles per studied language over a period of six years. The different authors will be randomly drawn on an official document bearing the names of University Professors having an expertise in the field; and as the number of professors goes beyond one hundred and twenty in each linguistic group, the population is said to be representative of the domain so that the table of the Gaussean law can be applied, showing a sampling of thirty articles. Next, access PASCAL data base which covers most scientific fields, so as to select the articles of the corpus (one per author) in relation to the high scientific level quality of the journals, as assessed by a panel of peers, in a set of reference journals. However, such a selection also requires careful attention to a few linguistic and cultural parameters

Construction de l'argumentation dans l'article de recherche en mécanique, différences entre discours du francophone et de l'anglophone

Dans le présent article, il s'agit de montrer comment le chercheur francophone ou anglophone, devenu homme-texte (énonciateur), construit son argumentation dans l'article de recherche pour justifier sa démarche expérimentale de façon logique auprès de ses pairs (coénonciateur). Il s'agit également de voir comment le discours du francophone se fonde sur une rhétorique rhématique centrée sur les faits et un raisonnement déductif alors que l'anglophone recourt à une phraséologie complexe de nature thématique et inductive. Il s'agit enfin d'analyser la manière dont l'énonciateur et le coénonciateur cohabitent dans un discours à forte valeur stratégiqueThis article attempts to show how a French-speaking and an English-speaking researcher – assumed to be the utterer of a text – build up their arguments in the research article so as to justify their experimental approach to their peers – as the co-utterer – in a logical way. It also studies how the French-speaking researcher's discourse unrolls on a rhematic rhetoric focused on facts and based on deductive reasoning, as compared to that of the English-speaking researcher who uses a complex topical and inductive phraseology. The article also analyzes how the utterer and co-utterer interact within a highly strategic discourse

Spin states of asteroids in the Eos collisional family

Eos family was created during a catastrophic impact about 1.3 Gyr ago. Rotation states of individual family members contain information about the history of the whole population. We aim to increase the number of asteroid shape models and rotation states within the Eos collision family, as well as to revise previously published shape models from the literature. Such results can be used to constrain theoretical collisional and evolution models of the family, or to estimate other physical parameters by a thermophysical modeling of the thermal infrared data. We use all available disk-integrated optical data (i.e., classical dense-in-time photometry obtained from public databases and through a large collaboration network as well as sparse-in-time individual measurements from a few sky surveys) as input for the convex inversion method, and derive 3D shape models of asteroids together with their rotation periods and orientations of rotation axes. We present updated shape models for 15 asteroids and new shape model determinations for 16 asteroids. Together with the already published models from the publicly available DAMIT database, we compiled a sample of 56 Eos family members with known shape models that we used in our analysis of physical properties within the family. Rotation states of asteroids smaller than ~20 km are heavily influenced by the YORP effect, whilst the large objects more or less retained their rotation state properties since the family creation. Moreover, we also present a shape model and bulk density of asteroid (423) Diotima, an interloper in the Eos family, based on the disk-resolved data obtained by the Near InfraRed Camera (Nirc2) mounted on the W.M. Keck II telescope.Comment: Accepted for publication in ICARUS Special Issue - Asteroids: Origin, Evolution & Characterizatio

ExoClock Project: An open platform for monitoring the ephemerides of Ariel targets with contributions from the public

The Ariel mission will observe spectroscopically around 1000 exoplanets to further characterise their atmospheres. For the mission to be as efficient as possible, a good knowledge of the planets' ephemerides is needed before its launch in 2028. While ephemerides for some planets are being refined on a per-case basis, an organised effort to collectively verify or update them when necessary does not exist. In this study, we introduce the ExoClock project, an open, integrated and interactive platform with the purpose of producing a confirmed list of ephemerides for the planets that will be observed by Ariel. The project has been developed in a manner to make the best use of all available resources: observations reported in the literature, observations from space instruments and, mainly, observations from ground-based telescopes, including both professional and amateur observatories. To facilitate inexperienced observers and at the same time achieve homogeneity in the results, we created data collection and validation protocols, educational material and easy to use interfaces, open to everyone. ExoClock was launched in September 2019 and now counts over 140 participants from more than 15 countries around the world. In this release, we report the results of observations obtained until the 15h of April 2020 for 119 Ariel candidate targets. In total, 632 observations were used to either verify or update the ephemerides of 83 planets. Additionally, we developed the Exoplanet Characterisation Catalogue (ECC), a catalogue built in a consistent way to assist the ephemeris refinement process. So far, the collaborative open framework of the ExoClock project has proven to be highly efficient in coordinating scientific efforts involving diverse audiences. Therefore, we believe that it is a paradigm that can be applied in the future for other research purposes, too

ExoClock project: an open platform for monitoring the ephemerides of Ariel targets with contributions from the public

The Ariel mission will observe spectroscopically around 1000 exoplanets to further characterise their atmospheres. For the mission to be as efficient as possible, a good knowledge of the planets’ ephemerides is needed before its launch in 2028. While ephemerides for some planets are being refined on a per-case basis, an organised effort to collectively verify or update them when necessary does not exist. In this study, we introduce the ExoClock project, an open, integrated and interactive platform with the purpose of producing a confirmed list of ephemerides for the planets that will be observed by Ariel. The project has been developed in a manner to make the best use of all available resources: observations reported in the literature, observations from space instruments and, mainly, observations from ground-based telescopes, including both professional and amateur observatories. To facilitate inexperienced observers and at the same time achieve homogeneity in the results, we created data collection and validation protocols, educational material and easy to use interfaces, open to everyone. ExoClock was launched in September 2019 and now counts over 140 participants from more than 15 countries around the world. In this release, we report the results of observations obtained until the 15h of April 2020 for 120 Ariel candidate targets. In total, 632 observations were used to either verify or update the ephemerides of 84 planets. Additionally, we developed the Exoplanet Characterisation Catalogue (ECC), a catalogue built in a consistent way to assist the ephemeris refinement process. So far, the collaborative open framework of the ExoClock project has proven to be highly efficient in coordinating scientific efforts involving diverse audiences. Therefore, we believe that it is a paradigm that can be applied in the future for other research purposes, too

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

BACKGROUND: Robotic therapy is at the forefront of stroke rehabilitation. The Activities of Daily Living Exercise Robot (ADLER) was developed to improve carryover of gains after training by combining the benefits of Activities of Daily Living (ADL) training (motivation and functional task practice with real objects), with the benefits of robot mediated therapy (repeatability and reliability). In combining these two therapy techniques, we seek to develop a new model for trajectory generation that will support functional movements to real objects during robot training. We studied natural movements to real objects and report on how initial reaching movements are affected by real objects and how these movements deviate from the straight line paths predicted by the minimum jerk model, typically used to generate trajectories in robot training environments. We highlight key issues that to be considered in modelling natural trajectories. METHODS: Movement data was collected as eight normal subjects completed ADLs such as drinking and eating. Three conditions were considered: object absent, imagined, and present. This data was compared to predicted trajectories generated from implementing the minimum jerk model. The deviations in both the plane of the table (XY) and the saggital plane of torso (XZ) were examined for both reaches to a cup and to a spoon. Velocity profiles and curvature were also quantified for all trajectories. RESULTS: We hypothesized that movements performed with functional task constraints and objects would deviate from the minimum jerk trajectory model more than those performed under imaginary or object absent conditions. Trajectory deviations from the predicted minimum jerk model for these reaches were shown to depend on three variables: object presence, object orientation, and plane of movement. When subjects completed the cup reach their movements were more curved than for the spoon reach. The object present condition for the cup reach showed more curvature than in the object imagined and absent conditions. Curvature in the XZ plane of movement was greater than curvature in the XY plane for all movements. CONCLUSION: The implemented minimum jerk trajectory model was not adequate for generating functional trajectories for these ADLs. The deviations caused by object affordance and functional task constraints must be accounted for in order to allow subjects to perform functional task training in robotic therapy environments. The major differences that we have highlighted include trajectory dependence on: object presence, object orientation, and the plane of movement. With the ability to practice ADLs on the ADLER environment we hope to provide patients with a therapy paradigm that will produce optimal results and recovery