4,387 research outputs found
A Portable, Low-Cost Wheelchair Ergometer Design Based on a Mathematical Model of Pediatric Wheelchair Dynamics
Evaluation and training of wheelchair propulsion improves efficiency and prevents orthopaedic injury in pediatric manual wheelchair users. Ergometers allow static propulsion and emulate typical conditions. Currently available ergometers have deficiencies that limit their use in motion analysis. A new ergometer is developed and evaluated based on a model of wheelchair inertial dynamics that eliminates these deficiencies. This makes integrated motion analysis of wheelchair propulsion in current community, home, and international outreach efforts possible
Evaluation of Upper Extremity Movement Characteristics during Standardized Pediatric Functional Assessment with a KinectÂź-based Markerless Motion Analysis System
A recently developed and evaluated upper extremity (UE) markerless motion analysis system based on the MicrosoftÂź KinectÂź has potential for improving functional assessment of patients with hemiplegic cerebral palsy. 12 typically-developing adolescents ages 12-17 were evaluated using both the Kinect-based system and the Shriners Hospitals for Children Upper Extremity Evaluation (SHUEE), a validated measure of UE motion. The study established population means of UE kinematic parameters for each activity. Statistical correlation analysis was used to identify key kinematic metrics used to develop automatic scoring algorithms. The Kinect motion analysis platform is technically sound and can be applied to standardized task-based UE evaluation while providing enhanced sensitivity in clinical analysis and automation through scoring algorithms
New experiments and a model-driven approach for interpreting Middle Stone Age Lithic Point Function using the Edge Damage Distribution Method
The Middle Stone Age (MSA) is associated with early evidence for symbolic material culture and complex technological innovations. However, one of the most visible aspects of MSA technologies are unretouched triangular stone points that appear in the archaeological record as early as 500,000 years ago in Africa and persist throughout the MSA. How these tools were being used and discarded across a changing Pleistocene landscape can provide insight into how MSA populations prioritized technological and foraging decisions. Creating inferential links between experimental and archaeological tool use helps to establish prehistoric tool function, but is complicated by the overlaying of post-depositional damage onto behaviorally worn tools. Taphonomic damage patterning can provide insight into site formation history, but may preclude behavioral interpretations of tool function. Here, multiple experimental processes that form edge damage on unretouched lithic points from taphonomic and behavioral processes are presented. These provide experimental distributions of wear on tool edges from known processes that are then quantitatively compared to the archaeological patterning of stone point edge damage from three MSA lithic assemblages--Kathu Pan 1, Pinnacle Point Cave 13B, and Die Kelders Cave 1. By using a model-fitting approach, the results presented here provide evidence for variable MSA behavioral strategies of stone point utilization on the landscape consistent with armature tips at KP1, and cutting tools at PP13B and DK1, as well as damage contributions from post-depositional sources across assemblages. This study provides a method with which landscape-scale questions of early modern human tool-use and site-use can be addressed
Measurement errors in body size of sea scallops (Placopecten magellanicus) and their effect on stock assessment models
Body-size measurement errors are usually ignored in stock
assessments, but may be important when body-size data (e.g., from visual sur veys) are imprecise. We used
experiments and models to quantify measurement errors and their effects on assessment models for sea scallops
(Placopecten magellanicus). Errors in size data obscured modes from strong year classes and increased frequency
and size of the largest and smallest sizes, potentially biasing growth, mortality, and biomass estimates. Modeling
techniques for errors in age data proved useful for errors in size data. In terms of a goodness of model fit to the assessment data, it was more important to accommodate variance than bias. Models that accommodated size errors fitted size data substantially better. We recommend experimental quantification of errors along with a modeling approach that accommodates measurement errors because a direct algebraic approach was not robust and because error parameters were diff icult to estimate in our assessment model. The importance of measurement errors depends on
many factors and should be evaluated on a case by case basis
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VarSight: prioritizing clinically reported variants with binary classification algorithms.
BackgroundWhen applying genomic medicine to a rare disease patient, the primary goal is to identify one or more genomic variants that may explain the patient's phenotypes. Typically, this is done through annotation, filtering, and then prioritization of variants for manual curation. However, prioritization of variants in rare disease patients remains a challenging task due to the high degree of variability in phenotype presentation and molecular source of disease. Thus, methods that can identify and/or prioritize variants to be clinically reported in the presence of such variability are of critical importance.MethodsWe tested the application of classification algorithms that ingest variant annotations along with phenotype information for predicting whether a variant will ultimately be clinically reported and returned to a patient. To test the classifiers, we performed a retrospective study on variants that were clinically reported to 237 patients in the Undiagnosed Diseases Network.ResultsWe treated the classifiers as variant prioritization systems and compared them to four variant prioritization algorithms and two single-measure controls. We showed that the trained classifiers outperformed all other tested methods with the best classifiers ranking 72% of all reported variants and 94% of reported pathogenic variants in the top 20.ConclusionsWe demonstrated how freely available binary classification algorithms can be used to prioritize variants even in the presence of real-world variability. Furthermore, these classifiers outperformed all other tested methods, suggesting that they may be well suited for working with real rare disease patient datasets
The immunophenotypic spectrum of primary mediastinal large Bâcell lymphoma reveals prognostic biomarkers associated with outcome
Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/134201/1/ajh24485.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/134201/2/ajh24485_am.pd
Thermo-Electric Properties of Quantum Point Contacts
I. Introduction
II. Theoretical background (Landauer-Buttiker formalism of
thermo-electricity, Quantum point contacts as ideal electron waveguides,
Saddle-shaped potential)
III. Experiments (Thermopower, Thermal conductance, Peltier effect)
IV. ConclusionsComment: #4 of a series of 4 legacy reviews on QPC'
Sequential Modulation of Cardiac Autonomic Control Induced by Cardiopulmonary and Arterial Baroreflex Mechanisms
BackgroundâNonhypotensive lower body negative pressure (LBNP) induces a reflex increase in forearm vascular resistance and muscle sympathetic neural discharge without affecting mean heart rate. We tested the hypothesis that a reflex change of the autonomic modulation of heartbeat might arise during low intensity LBNP without changes of mean heart rate.Methods and ResultsâTen healthy volunteers underwent plasma catecholamine evaluation and a continuous recording of ECG, finger blood pressure, respiratory activity, and central venous pressure (CVP) during increasing levels of LBNP up to â40 mm Hg. Spectrum and cross-spectrum analyses assessed the changes in the spontaneous variability of R-R interval, respiration, systolic arterial pressure (SAP), and CVP and in the gain (αLF) of arterial baroreflex control of heart rate. Baroreceptor sensitivity was also evaluated by the SAP/R-R spontaneous sequences technique. LBNP began decreasing significantly: CVP at â10, R-R interval at â20, SAP at â40, and the indexes αLFand baroreceptor sensitivity at â30 and â20 mm Hg, compared with baseline conditions. Plasma norepinephrine increased significantly at â20 mm Hg. The normalized low-frequency component of R-R variability (LFR-R) progressively increased and was significantly higher than in the control condition at â15 mm Hg.ConclusionsâNonhypotensive LBNP elicits a reflex increase of cardiac sympathetic modulation, as evaluated by LFR-R, which precedes the changes in the hemodynamics and in the indexes of arterial baroreflex control
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