EMG activity of upper limb on spinal cord injury individuals during whole-body vibration

Whole-body vibration (WBV) has shown positive results increasing electromyographic (EMG) activity and strength in a healthy population when applied to upper and lower limbs. The aim of this study was to verify if WBV increases the EMG signal of the upper limb muscles in patients with spinal cord injury (SCI). For this study, 15 patients with SCI were selected and one single session of WBV was applied to the upper limb. Five sessions of 30 s at 30 Hz were applied and EMG of anterior deltoid and forearm muscles was measured. The results show that EMG activity had a significant increase during WBV session compared with baseline muscle activity. These results support WBV as an efficient tool to increase the upper body EMG in individuals with SCI

Integrated optical fiber force myography sensor as pervasive predictor of hand postures

Force myography (FMG) is an appealing alternative to traditional electromyography in biomedical applications, mainly due to its simpler signal pattern and immunity to electrical interference. Most FMG sensors, however, send data to a computer for further processing, which reduces the user mobility and, thus, the chances for practical application. In this sense, this work proposes to remodel a typical optical fiber FMG sensor with smaller portable components. Moreover, all data acquisition and processing routines were migrated to a Raspberry Pi 3 Model B microprocessor, ensuring the comfort of use and portability. The sensor was successfully demonstrated for 2 input channels and 9 postures classification with an average precision and accuracy of ~99.5% and ~99.8%, respectively, using a feedforward artificial neural network of 2 hidden layers and a competitive output layer11CONSELHO NACIONAL DE DESENVOLVIMENTO CIENTÍFICO E TECNOLÓGICO - CNPQCOORDENAÇÃO DE APERFEIÇOAMENTO DE PESSOAL DE NÍVEL SUPERIOR - CAPESFUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DE SÃO PAULO - FAPESPNão tem0012017/25666-

Scale invariance and universality of force networks in static granular matter

Force networks form the skeleton of static granular matter. They are the key ingredient to mechanical properties, such as stability, elasticity and sound transmission, which are of utmost importance for civil engineering and industrial processing. Previous studies have focused on the global structure of external forces (the boundary condition), and on the probability distribution of individual contact forces. The disordered spatial structure of the force network, however, has remained elusive so far. Here we report evidence for scale invariance of clusters of particles that interact via relatively strong forces. We analyzed granular packings generated by molecular dynamics simulations mimicking real granular matter; despite the visual variation, force networks for various values of the confining pressure and other parameters have identical scaling exponents and scaling function, and thus determine a universality class. Remarkably, the flat ensemble of force configurations--a simple generalization of equilibrium statistical mechanics--belongs to the same universality class, while some widely studied simplified models do not.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures; to appear in Natur

The biogas chain and local sustainability: an environmental socioeconomic analysis of energy obtained from urban solid-waste from the Caximba land-fill in Curitiba, Parana, Brazil

Urban solid waste-derived renewable energy sources are currently being discussed as strategic choices; however, they have not yet been significantly included in world and/or Brazilian energetic matrixes. Feasibility studies must be carded out on the use of renewable sources and on related socioeconomic and environmental impacts. The research method was exploratory and was aimed at assessing the feasibility of generating energy from the Caximba (Parana, Brazil) sanitary landfill biogas chain, taking its socioeconomic and environmental sustainability into consideration; this landfill contains around 8 million tons of solid waste. The results showed that generating renewable energy was not economically feasible in the technological conditions defined by this case-study due to the plant's low-scale production. However, biogas production could become economically, environmentally and socially feasible if combined with carbon credit trading.1934839

Viral-free generation and characterization of a human induced pluripotent stem cell line from dermal fibroblasts

Peripheral dermal fibroblasts (DF) from a healthy 56 year old female were obtained from the Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing (CHeBA) Biobank, University of New South Wales, under the material transfer agreement with the University of Wollongong. DFs were reprogrammed via mRNA-delivered transcription factors into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). The generated iPSCs were confirmed to be pluripotent, capable of three germ layer differentiation and are thus a useful resource for creating iPSC-derived healthy human cells of any lineage

Decomposition and nutrient release of leguminous plants in coffee agroforestry systems.

Leguminous plants used as green manure are an important nutrient source for coffee plantations, especially for soils with low nutrient levels. Field experiments were conducted in the Zona da Mata of Minas Gerais State, Brazil to evaluate the decomposition and nutrient release rates of four leguminous species used as green manures (Arachis pintoi, Calopogonium mucunoides, Stizolobium aterrimum and Stylosanthes guianensis) in a coffee agroforestry system under two different climate conditions. The initial N contents in plant residues varied from 25.7 to 37.0 g kg-1 and P from 2.4 to 3.0 g kg-1. The lignin/N, lignin/polyphenol and(lignin+polyphenol)/N ratios were low in all residues studied. Mass loss rates were highest in the first 15 days, when 25 % of the residues were decomposed. From 15 to 30 days, the decomposition rate decreased on both farms. On the farm in Pedra Dourada (PD), the decomposition constant k increased in the order C. mucunoides < S. aterrimum < S. guianensis < A. pintoi. On the farm in Araponga (ARA), there was no difference in the decomposition rate among leguminous plants. The N release rates varied from 0.0036 to 0.0096 d-1. Around 32 % of the total N content in the plant material was released in the first 15 days. In ARA, the N concentration in the S. aterrimum residues was always significantly higher than in the other residues. At the end of 360 days, the N released was 78 % in ARA and 89 % in PD of the initial content. Phosphorus was the most rapidly released nutrient (k values from 0.0165 to 0.0394 d-1). Residue decomposition and nutrient release did not correlate with initial residue chemistry and biochemistry, but differences in climatic conditions between the two study sites modified the decomposition rate constants

The mRNA-based reprogramming of fibroblasts from a SOD1\u3csup\u3eE101G\u3c/sup\u3e familial amyotrophic lateral sclerosis patient to induced pluripotent stem cell line UOWi007

2020 The Authors Dermal fibroblasts were donated by a 43 year old male patient with clinically diagnosed familial amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), carrying the SOD1E101G mutation. The induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) line UOWi007-A was generated using repeated mRNA transfections for pluripotency transcription factors Oct4, Klf4, Sox2, c-Myc, Lin28 and Nanog. The iPSCs carried the SOD1E101G genotype and had a normal karyotype, expressed expected pluripotency markers and were capable of in vitro differentiation into endodermal, mesodermal and ectodermal lineages. This iPSC line may be useful for investigating familial ALS resulting from a SOD1 E101G mutation

The Underestimation Of Egocentric Distance: Evidence From Frontal Matching Tasks

There is controversy over the existence, nature, and cause of error in egocentric distance judgments. One proposal is that the systematic biases often found in explicit judgments of egocentric distance along the ground may be related to recently observed biases in the perceived declination of gaze (Durgin & Li, Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, in press), To measure perceived egocentric distance nonverbally, observers in a field were asked to position themselves so that their distance from one of two experimenters was equal to the frontal distance between the experimenters. Observers placed themselves too far away, consistent with egocentric distance underestimation. A similar experiment was conducted with vertical frontal extents. Both experiments were replicated in panoramic virtual reality. Perceived egocentric distance was quantitatively consistent with angular bias in perceived gaze declination (1.5 gain). Finally, an exocentric distance-matching task was contrasted with a variant of the egocentric matching task. The egocentric matching data approximate a constant compression of perceived egocentric distance with a power function exponent of nearly 1; exocentric matches had an exponent of about 0.67. The divergent pattern between egocentric and exocentric matches suggests that they depend on different visual cues