Muscle activation mapping of skeletal hand motion: an evolutionary approach.

Creating controlled dynamic character animation consists of mathe- matical modelling of muscles and solving the activation dynamics that form the key to coordination. But biomechanical simulation and control is com- putationally expensive involving complex di erential equations and is not suitable for real-time platforms like games. Performing such computations at every time-step reduces frame rate. Modern games use generic soft- ware packages called physics engines to perform a wide variety of in-game physical e ects. The physics engines are optimized for gaming platforms. Therefore, a physics engine compatible model of anatomical muscles and an alternative control architecture is essential to create biomechanical charac- ters in games. This thesis presents a system that generates muscle activations from captured motion by borrowing principles from biomechanics and neural con- trol. A generic physics engine compliant muscle model primitive is also de- veloped. The muscle model primitive forms the motion actuator and is an integral part of the physical model used in the simulation. This thesis investigates a stochastic solution to create a controller that mimics the neural control system employed in the human body. The control system uses evolutionary neural networks that evolve its weights using genetic algorithms. Examples and guidance often act as templates in muscle training during all stages of human life. Similarly, the neural con- troller attempts to learn muscle coordination through input motion samples. The thesis also explores the objective functions developed that aids in the genetic evolution of the neural network. Character interaction with the game world is still a pre-animated behaviour in most current games. Physically-based procedural hand ani- mation is a step towards autonomous interaction of game characters with the game world. The neural controller and the muscle primitive developed are used to animate a dynamic model of a human hand within a real-time physics engine environment

The effect of a low GI diet on truncal fat mass and glycated hemoglobin in South Indians with type 2 diabetes—A single centre randomized prospective study

Background: There has been no previous study that has investigated the effect of a low glycemic index (LGI) diet with local recipes of South Indian cuisine on the body fat composition using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA). Truncal obesity has been associated with the risk of metabolic disorders and cardiovascular diseases. Aim: The aim of this study was to examine the effect of a low GI diet on glycemic control and body composition in people with type 2 diabetes in South India. Method: This was a prospective and randomized controlled study that was conducted over a period of 24 weeks. A total of 40 participants were recruited from the Department of Endocrinology and Diabetes Outpatient in Kerala, South India. All the patients had type 2 diabetes and were randomly assigned and given advice and instructions to follow either a low GI diet plan (n = 18) or their usual diet, which served as control (n = 18). The advice was reinforced throughout the study period. Dietary compliance was evaluated based on a 24 h dietary recall at weeks 3, 11, 12, 18, 23, and 24. The age of the subjects ranged from 35 to 65 years. Anthropometric, body composition, and cardio-metabolic parameters were measured according to standard procedures. T-tests were conducted to compare differences between intervention and control groups and the Pearson correlation coefficient was used to evaluate associations between the variables. Results: There were significant reductions (p < 0.05) in the low GI diet compared to the control group with respect to weight, body mass index (BMI), and triceps skinfold thickness. Similarly, significant reductions were observed in the low GI diet group with respect to region, total fat, android, and gynoid fat mass and the differences between the groups were significant at p < 0.05. There was also a positive correlation between BMI and android fat mass (r = 0.745), total fat mass (r = 0.661), total truncal mass (r = 0.821), and truncal fat (r = 0.707). There was a significant reduction in glycated hemoglobin in the low GI diet group compared to the control group at p < 0.05. Conclusion: This study has demonstrated that there was a significant reduction (p < 0.05) of truncal obesity and glycated hemoglobin in patients with type 2 diabetes on a local diet of South Indian cuisine with low GI compared with the control

South Indian cuisine with low glycemic index ingredients reduces cardiovascular risk factors in subjects with type 2 diabetes

Background: Inflammation is considered as a predictor of cardiovascular diseases in type 2 diabetes mellitus. No previous studies have investigated the effect of low glycemic index (LGI) recipes of South Indian cuisine on the risk factors of cardiovascular disease in patients with diabetes. Aim: The aim of this randomized controlled trial was to evaluate the improvement in cardiovascular risk factors and blood glucose control, in patients with type 2 diabetes, after intervention with recipes of Kerala cuisine, from locally available whole grain cereals, low in glycemic index. Method: This was a prospective and randomized controlled study that was conducted over a period of 24 weeks. A total of 80 participants were recruited from the Department of Endocrinology and Diabetes Outpatient in Kerala, South India. All 80 patients had type 2 diabetes, and were aged between 35 and 65 years. Participants were randomly assigned and advised to follow either a LGI diet plan (n = 40) or their usual diet, which served as a control group (n = 40). The advice was reinforced throughout the study period. Anthropometric, biochemical parameters which included glycemic and cardio-metabolic parameters were measured according to standard procedures. T-tests were conducted to compare the differences between intervention and control groups, and the Pearson correlation coefficient was used to evaluate associations between the variables. Results: There were significant differences (p < 0.05) between the intervention and control groups with respect to weight, HbA1c, insulin, triglycerides, Homeostatic Model Assessment of Insulin Resistance (HOMA-IR), high sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) and apolipoprotein B (ApoB). There was also a positive correlation between weight and blood glucose variables. ApoB was positively correlated with lipid profile and insulin levels. Conclusions: The long-term implementation of LGI diet of Kerala cuisine has been found to promote weight loss, enhance insulin sensitivity and reduce the cardiovascular risk