THE EFFECT OF EXHAUSTIVE RUNNING ON POSTURAL DYNAMICS

Recently, researchers have begun to use nonlinear measures such as the Lyapunovexponent (LyE) and Approximate Entropy (ApEn) to examine temporal structure in the continuous behavior of biological systems. When using these measures a higher score indicates lesser periodicity and greater chaotic behavior. A decrease in LyE and ApEn values have been shown in some cases to indicate pathological conditions. Studies of postural control have found that after a cerebral concussion, an athlete’s center of pressure oscillations measured by ApEn are significantly decreased even up to 96 hours post-injury as compared with their preseason ApEn scores, even when the athlete appears steady (Cavanaugh, 2006). In regards to walking gate, local dynamic stability showed decreased variability when assessed amongst ACL reconstruction patients (Stergiou, 2004). The purpose of the current experiment ıs to use ApEn versus a set of traditional postural measure to evaluate a postural sway during upright stance prior to and following a bout of exhaustive running. In published balance studies only about 50% report significant improvements, possibly because traditional measures aren’t capturing the improvements in postural control. Promising results from the above cited studies indicate that nonlinear measures may be measuring elements that the traditional measures don’t detect

BALANCE TRAINING ALTERS POSTURAL DYNAMICS UNIQUELY FOR STANCE ON COMPLIANT VS. NON-COMPLIANT SURFACES

Balance training is a common clinical modality used for improving postural control and preventing injury during sports training and participation. However, a number of empirical studies have failed to support the efficacy of balance training. One factor that may have limited the previous empirical studies is a lack of sensitivity with regard to the traditional descriptive statistics used to characterize postural control. Recent developments in non-linear dynamic analyses have led researchers to revaluate the way in which postural control is measured and understood. The advantage of nonlinear analyses for assessing postural behavior is their sensitivity to changes in the time-dependent structures of continuous postural sway. Lyapunov Exponent (LyE) is defined as the slope of the average logarithmic divergence of neighboring trajectories in a state space (Wolf, 1985). The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of balance training on postural control in a healthy population using both a traditional (position variability; as measured by standard deviation) and non-linear (Lyapunov Exponent; LyE) measure of postural sway variability

EFFECT OF RESPIRATION DYNAMICS ON POSTURAL CONTROL FOLLOWING A 5K RUN

Research has shown postural control during upright stance can be diminished for up to twenty minutes following aerobic exercise of different types, intensities, and durations (Lepers et al., 1997; Nagy et al., 2002). Researchers have posited that this is caused by neuromuscular changes associated with aerobic exercise and fatigue such as the reduced excitability and central drive to peripheral muscles (Lepers et al., 2002), vestibular desensitization (Lepers et al., 1997), and peripheral somatosensory desensitization (Lepers et al., 1997). However, no research has measured or attempted to control for the influence that changes in respiration dynamics (e.g., rate and volume) alone might have on postural sway. The aim of the current study was to examine these effects in order decipher whether changes to postural control following intense aerobic exercise (a 5-kilometer run performed with maximal effort) can be attributed to effects of exercise and fatigue or simply changes in respiration

Language Model Combination and Adaptation Using Weighted Finite State Transducers

In speech recognition systems language model (LMs) are often constructed by training and combining multiple n-gram models. They can be either used to represent different genres or tasks found in diverse text sources, or capture stochastic properties of different linguistic symbol sequences, for example, syllables and words. Unsupervised LM adaption may also be used to further improve robustness to varying styles or tasks. When using these techniques, extensive software changes are often required. In this paper an alternative and more general approach based on weighted finite state transducers (WFSTs) is investigated for LM combination and adaptation. As it is entirely based on well-defined WFST operations, minimum change to decoding tools is needed. A wide range of LM combination configurations can be flexibly supported. An efficient on-the-fly WFST decoding algorithm is also proposed. Significant error rate gains of 7.3% relative were obtained on a state-of-the-art broadcast audio recognition task using a history dependently adapted multi-level LM modelling both syllable and word sequence

The Rainbow Scale for the Assessment of the Cervicomental Angle:A Validated Scale

Background: Aging of the neck results in an increased cervicomental angle, which can be treated by various surgical and nonsurgical procedures. To measure the success of these procedures, standardized validated objective photographic measurement tools are needed. However, no online standardized photographic measurement tools exist for the assessment of the cervicomental angle. Objectives: The purpose of this study was to establish a validated and reliable measurement tool for the assessment of the cervicomental angle based on the Rainbow Scale. Methods: A 5-point photographic rating scale was developed and created from 1 photograph with Adobe Photoshop. Fifteen reference photographs of women, 3 photographs per grade, were included for validation. Seven panelists (ie, plastic and maxillofacial surgeons) assessed the reference photographs 3 times with a minimal interval of 3 days in an online survey. Intra- and inter-observer agreements were calculated utilizing the weighted kappa coefficient. Results: Mean intra-observer agreement was 0.93 (0.78-1.00). Mean interobserver agreement was 0.796 (0.574-0.961) for survey 1, 0.868 (0.690-0.960) for survey 2, and 0.820 (0.676-0.959) for survey 3. Conclusions: The Rainbow Scale for the assessment of the cervicomental angle has been validated in an online fashion. The scale is reproducible and reliable and requires no learning curve. Potential applications include objective assessment of neck treatment planning and surgical outcome

Amauropelta achalensis (Hieron.) Salino & T.E. Almeida

Sierra de Achala, al Norte de la Cuesta de CopinapublishedVersio

Pengaruh Tingkat Pendidikan dan Jenis Kelamin Peternak terhadap Tingkat Produksi Babi (Studi Kasus di Manokwari, Papua Barat Indonesia)

The aim of this research was to understand the effect of educational level of gender types on pig farming production, a special case in Manokwari West Papua-Indonesia. The field study was done in Manokwari regency involved six districts. The respondents of 49 farmers chosen guided by local extensions selected from 15 villages. The participatory situation analysis employed to approach pig farmers by using questionnaire. A General Linear Model analysis of variances was used. All data were entered in Excel and analyzed using SPPS version 10.0. The conclusion that interaction between education and gender occur on household member and income earn. The female with adequate education will provide better income than the male. Understanding interaction effect of education level and gender will enable farmers to improve their pig productivities on scales and time

Palaeontological evidence for an Oligocene divergence between Old World monkeys and apes

Apes and Old World monkeys are prominent components of modern African and Asian ecosystems, yet the earliest phases of their evolutionary history have remained largely undocumented(1). The absence of crown catarrhine fossils older than similar to 20 million years (Myr) has stood in stark contrast to molecular divergence estimates of similar to 25-30 Myr for the split between Cercopithecoidea (Old World monkeys) and Hominoidea (apes), implying long ghost lineages for both clades(2-4). Here we describe the oldest known fossil 'ape', represented by a partial mandible preserving dental features that place it with 'nyanzapithecine' stem hominoids. Additionally, we report the oldest stem member of the Old World monkey clade, represented by a lower third molar. Both specimens were recovered from a precisely dated 25.2-Myr-old stratum in the Rukwa Rift, a segment of the western branch of the East African Rift in Tanzania. These finds extend the fossil record of apes and Old World monkey swell into the Oligocene epoch of Africa, suggesting a possible link between diversification of crown catarrhines and changes in the African landscape brought about by previously unrecognized tectonic activity(5) in the East African rift system

FAS and NF-κB signalling modulate dependence of lung cancers on mutant EGFR

Human lung adenocarcinomas with activating mutations in EGFR (epidermal growth factor receptor) often respond to treatment with EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs), but the magnitude of tumour regression is variable and transient. This heterogeneity in treatment response could result from genetic modifiers that regulate the degree to which tumour cells are dependent on mutant EGFR. Through a pooled RNA interference screen, we show that knockdown of FAS and several components of the NF-κB pathway specifically enhanced cell death induced by the EGFR TKI erlotinib in EGFR-mutant lung cancer cells. Activation of NF-κB through overexpression of c-FLIP or IKK (also known as CFLAR and IKBKB, respectively), or silencing of IκB (also known as NFKBIA), rescued EGFR-mutant lung cancer cells from EGFR TKI treatment. Genetic or pharmacologic inhibition of NF-κB enhanced erlotinib-induced apoptosis in erlotinib-sensitive and erlotinib-resistant EGFR-mutant lung cancer models. Increased expression of the NF-κB inhibitor IκB predicted for improved response and survival in EGFR-mutant lung cancer patients treated with EGFR TKI. These data identify NF-κB as a potential companion drug target, together with EGFR, in EGFR-mutant lung cancers and provide insight into the mechanisms by which tumour cells escape from oncogene dependence