Three-dimensional kinematic analysis of upper and lower limb motion during gait of post-stroke patients

The aim of this study was to analyze the alterations of arm and leg movements of patients during stroke gait. Joint angles of upper and lower limbs and spatiotemporal variables were evaluated in two groups: hemiparetic group (HG, 14 hemiparetic men, 53 ± 10 years) and control group (CG, 7 able-bodied men, 50 ± 4 years). The statistical analysis was based on the following comparisons (P ≤ 0.05): 1) right versus left sides of CG; 2) affected (AF) versus unaffected (UF) sides of HG; 3) CG versus both the affected and unaffected sides of HG, and 4) an intracycle comparison of the kinematic continuous angular variables between HG and CG. This study showed that the affected upper limb motion in stroke gait was characterized by a decreased range of motion of the glenohumeral (HG: 6.3 ± 4.5, CG: 20.1 ± 8.2) and elbow joints (AF: 8.4 ± 4.4, UF: 15.6 ± 7.6) on the sagittal plane and elbow joint flexion throughout the cycle (AF: 68.2 ± 0.4, CG: 46.8 ± 2.7). The glenohumeral joint presented a higher abduction angle (AF: 14.2 ± 1.6, CG: 11.5 ± 4.0) and a lower external rotation throughout the cycle (AF: 4.6 ± 1.2, CG: 22.0 ± 3.0). The lower limbs showed typical alterations of the stroke gait patterns. Thus, the changes in upper and lower limb motion of stroke gait were identified. The description of upper limb motion in stroke gait is new and complements gait analysis.53754

Tachyons in Compact Spaces

We discuss condensations of closed string tachyons localized in compact spaces. Time evolution of an on-shell condensation is naturally related to the worldsheet RG flow. Some explicit tachyonic compactifications of Type II string theory is considered, and some of them are shown to decay into supersymmetric theories known as the little string theories.Comment: 14 page

Species Composition and Diversity in two Selected Lowland Tropical Rainforests in Sri Lanka and their Relationships to Temperature and Precipitation

Tropical rainforests are characterised by high species diversity, which may be due to a range of factors such as climate, topography, soil properties and the level of disturbance, both natural and anthropogenic. This study focused on investigating the species composition, richness, diversity and their conservation status in lowland tropical rainforests at two selected locations in Sri Lanka and determining their relationships to temperature and precipitation. Two permanent one-hectare sampling plots each were established at the Kanneliya (KDN1 and KDN2) and Pitadeniya-Sinharaja (PTD1 and PTD2) Forest Reserves. All trees with dbh≥10 cm were enumerated. A total of 3,303 trees were recorded, representing 158 species from 91 genera and 53 families, with a total basal area of 196.26 m2. Most abundant plant species were Alstonia macrophylla in KDN1 (11.7% of trees with dbh≥10 cm), Syzygium grande in KDN2 (9.8%), Shorea affinis in PTD1 (15.8%) Mesua thwaitesii in PTD2 (17.5%). Cullenia rosayroana (7.2%) is the most abundant species within the whole study area. While 25 species were recorded in all four plots, 70 species were found in only one location. Genus Shorea (18.6%) is the most common including 12 different species and Dipterocarpaceae (21.9%) is the most common family including 19 species. KDN1 recorded 1,011 plants from 108 species, with 74.3% endemic, 12.8% native and 11.9% exotic species. Other study sites recorded only endemic (88% at KDN2, 83.7% at PTD1 and 82.3% at PTD2) and native species. In comparison to PTD, KDN recorded higher numbers of trees with dbh≥10 cm (Chi-square p<0.0001), species (p<0.0001) and genera (p=0.0091). KDN also recorded a higher number of families but the difference was not significant (p=0.358). All indices of species diversity (Shannon index, H and Simpson index, D), evenness (J) and richness (R) are higher at KDN. However, only the difference in D was statistically-significant at p=0.05. Multiple regression analysis using the stepwise procedure showed that the number of trees with dbh≥10 cm and the species number increased with increasing average annual air temperature (T) but decreased with annual total precipitation (P). On the other hand, the numbers of genera and families increased with decreasing P with T not having a significant influence. The two diversity indices, H and D, increased with decreasing P and increasing T. In contrast, increasing P decreased J and R whereas variation in T did not have a significant influence. These findings provide important insights in to dynamics plant diversity in response to environmental changes.Keywords: Species composition, Species diversity, Tropical rainforest

Influence of flock treatment with the antibiotic tylosin on poultry meat quality: results of a preliminary experiment

The veterinary antibiotic tylosin was administered to broilers at sub-therapeutic and therapeutic levels to study its effect on the quality of poultry breast meat. No statistically significant differences were observed in moisture content, pH, drip loss, colour and extent of lipid oxidation between the breast meat from treated and not treated birds. However, the cooking loss of the meat from the birds administered tylosin was significantly higher than that from the not treated ones. Additionally, the mean shear force of the breast meat was significantly lower for the sub-therapeutically treated broilers than for the not treated and the therapeutically treated ones. It was concluded that the level at which tylosin was administered to the broilers affected the quality of the breast meat, particularly its textural properties

Higher-order factors of personality: Do they exist?

Scales that measure the Big Five personality factors are often substantially intercorrelated. These correlations are sometimes interpreted as implying the existence of two higher order factors of personality. The authors show that correlations between measures of broad personality factors do not necessarily imply the existence of higher order factors and might instead be due to variables that represent same-signed blends of orthogonal factors. Therefore, the hypotheses of higher order factors and blended variables can only be tested with data on lower level personality variables that define the personality factors. The authors compared the higher order factor model and the blended variable model in three participant samples using the Big Five Aspect Scales, and found better fit for the latter model. In other analyses using the HEXACO Personality Inventory, they identified mutually uncorrelated markers of six personality factors. The authors conclude that correlations between personality factor scales can be explained without postulating any higher order dimensions of personality. © 2009 by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc

Global bifurcation for asymptotically linear Schr\"odinger equations

We prove global asymptotic bifurcation for a very general class of asymptotically linear Schr\"odinger equations \begin{equation}\label{1} \{{array}{lr} \D u + f(x,u)u = \lam u \quad \text{in} \ {\mathbb R}^N, u \in H^1({\mathbb R}^N)\setmimus\{0\}, \quad N \ge 1. {array}. \end{equation} The method is topological, based on recent developments of degree theory. We use the inversion $u\to v:= u/\Vert u\Vert_X^2$ in an appropriate Sobolev space $X=W^{2,p}({\mathbb R}^N)$, and we first obtain bifurcation from the line of trivial solutions for an auxiliary problem in the variables (\lambda,v) \in {\mathbb R} \x X. This problem has a lack of compactness and of regularity, requiring a truncation procedure. Going back to the original problem, we obtain global branches of positive/negative solutions 'bifurcating from infinity'. We believe that, for the values of $\lambda$ covered by our bifurcation approach, the existence result we obtain for positive solutions of \eqref{1} is the most general so fa

Lepton Flavour Violating Leptonic/Semileptonic Decays of Charged Leptons in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model

We consider the leptonic and semileptonic (SL) lepton flavour violating (LFV) decays of the charged leptons in the minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM). The formalism for evaluation of branching fractions for the SL LFV charged-lepton decays with one or two pseudoscalar mesons, or one vector meson in the final state, is given. Previous amplitudes for the SL LFV charged-lepton decays in MSSM are improved, for instance the $\gamma$-penguin amplitude is corrected to assure the gauge invariance. The decays are studied not only in the model-independent formulation of the theory in the frame of MSSM, but also within the frame of the minimal supersymmetric SO(10) model within which the parameters of the MSSM are determined. The latter model gives predictions for the neutrino-Dirac Yukawa coupling matrix, once free parameters in the model are appropriately fixed to accommodate the recent neutrino oscillation data. Using this unambiguous neutrino-Dirac Yukawa couplings, we calculate the LFV leptonic and SL decay processes assuming the minimal supergravity scenario. A very detailed numerical analysis is done to constrain the MSSM parameters. Numerical results for SL LFV processes are given, for instance for tau -> e (mu) pi0, tau -> e (mu) eta, tau -> e (mu) eta', tau -> e (mu) rho0, tau -> e (mu) phi, tau -> e (mu) omega, etc.Comment: 36 pages, 3 tables, 5 .eps figure