Characteristics of Postural Muscle Activity in Response to A Motor-Motor Task in Elderly

The purpose of the current study was to evaluate postural muscle performance of older adults in response to a combination of two motor tasks perturbations. Fifteen older participants were instructed to perform a pushing task as an upper limb perturbation while standing on a fixed or sliding board as a lower limb perturbation. Postural responses were characterized by onsets and magnitudes of muscle activities as well as onsets of segment movements. (Please see full abstract article

The operating mechanism of Schottky-gate nanosensors

[[abstract]]The highly sensitive nanowire-based Schottky-gate nanosensors for detecting UV, bio-molecules, and gas sensing were demonstrated. The operating mechanism of the Schottky-gate nanosensors is totally distinct from the conventional Ohmic contacted nanosensors. The Schottky-gated device (SGD) has a few merits in comparison to the conventional Ohmic contacted device (OCD). First, it needs no bio-probe to detect molecules; rather, it depends on the absorption of the charged molecules to the junction region. Second, as for the same type of nanowires, such as ZnO, the sensitivity of the SGD is much higher than that of OCD, because a few molecules at the junction region can change the “gate” that effectively tunes the conductance. This Schottky-gate-modulation based sensing principle can be applied to other materials and sensing systems.[[conferencetype]]國際[[conferencedate]]20110621~20110624[[conferencelocation]]Tao-Yuan, Taiwa

Impaired H-Reflex Adaptations Following Slope Walking in Individuals With Post-stroke Hemiparesis

Background and Purpose: Short term adaptations in the Ia afferent-motoneuron pathway, as measured using the H-reflex, in response to altered ground reaction forces (GRFs) applied at the feet during slope walking have been observed in the non-impaired nervous system. The ability of the stroke-impaired nervous system to adapt to altered GRFs have not been examined. The purpose of this study was to examine the acute effects of altered propulsive and braking forces applied at the feet, which naturally occurs when walking on different slopes, on adaptations of the H-reflex pathway in individuals with chronic post-stroke hemiparesis

Formation mechanism of SiGe nanorod arrays by combining nanosphere lithography and Au-assisted chemical etching

The formation mechanism of SiGe nanorod (NR) arrays fabricated by combining nanosphere lithography and Au-assisted chemical etching has been investigated. By precisely controlling the etching rate and time, the lengths of SiGe NRs can be tuned from 300 nm to 1 μm. The morphologies of SiGe NRs were found to change dramatically by varying the etching temperatures. We propose a mechanism involving a locally temperature-sensitive redox reaction to explain this strong temperature dependence of the morphologies of SiGe NRs. At a lower etching temperature, both corrosion reaction and Au-assisted etching process were kinetically impeded, whereas at a higher temperature, Au-assisted anisotropic etching dominated the formation of SiGe NRs. With transmission electron microscopy and scanning electron microscopy analyses, this study provides a beneficial scheme to design and fabricate low-dimensional SiGe-based nanostructures for possible applications