1,798 research outputs found
Methods and protocols for incremental exercise testing in tetraplegia, using arm-crank ergometry assisted by Functional Electrical Stimulation
Cervical spinal cord injury (SCI) leads to tetraplegia, with paralysis and loss of sensation in the upper and lower limbs. The associated sedentary lifestyle results in an increased risk of cardiovascular disease. To address this, we require the design of exercise modalities aimed
specifically at tetraplegia and methods to assess their efficacy.
This paper describes methods for arm-crank ergometry (ACE) assisted by Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) applied to the biceps and triceps. The instrumented ergometer
enables work-rate control during exercise, implemented here for incremental exercise testing during FES-ACE. Detailed protocols for the tests are given.
Experimental data collected during exercise tests with tetraplegic volunteers are provided to illustrate the feasibility of the proposed approach to testing and data analysis. Incremental tests enabled calculation of peak power output and peak oxygen uptake.
We propose that the high-precision exercise testing protocols described here are appropriate to assess the efficacy of the novel exercise modality, FES-ACE, in tetraplegia
Data perspective in process choreographies : modeling and execution
Process choreographies - communication between different organizations to exchange information - is part of daily business. While the correct ordering of exchanged messages can be modeled and enacted with current choreography techniques, no approach exists to describe the data perspective for a successful process choreography. In this paper, we describe an entirely model-driven approach for BPMN, the industry standard, to include the data perspective while maintaining control flow aspects by utilizing a recent concept to enact data dependencies in internal processes. This work provides a modeling guideline with the require artifacts and their operational semantics to allow automatic choreography enactment covering data retrieval, transformation, and correlation. We show applicability of our approach by an implementation for the Camunda BPM platform, a java-based process engine, and validate it with the service interaction patterns. Keywords: Process Modeling, Data Modeling, Process Choreographies, Process Enactment, BPMN, SQ
Visual product architecture modelling for structuring data in a PLM system
Part 8: Formalization for PLMInternational audienceThe goal of this paper is to determine the role of a product architecture model to support communication and to form the basis for developing and maintaining information of product structures in a PLM system. This paper contains descriptions of a modelling tool to represent a product architecture in a company to support the development of a family of products, as well as the reasons leading to the use of the specific model and its terminology. The fundamental idea for using the architecture model is that an improved understanding of the whole product system, will lead to better decision making. Moreover, it is discussed how the sometimes intangible elements and phenomena within an architecture model can be visually modeled in order to form the basis for a data model in a PLM system
Multilevel Contracts for Trusted Components
This article contributes to the design and the verification of trusted
components and services. The contracts are declined at several levels to cover
then different facets, such as component consistency, compatibility or
correctness. The article introduces multilevel contracts and a
design+verification process for handling and analysing these contracts in
component models. The approach is implemented with the COSTO platform that
supports the Kmelia component model. A case study illustrates the overall
approach.Comment: In Proceedings WCSI 2010, arXiv:1010.233
Magnetotunneling spectroscopy of mesoscopic correlations in two-dimensional electron systems
An approach to experimentally exploring electronic correlation functions in
mesoscopic regimes is proposed. The idea is to monitor the mesoscopic
fluctuations of a tunneling current flowing between the two layers of a
semiconductor double-quantum-well structure. From the dependence of these
fluctuations on external parameters, such as in-plane or perpendicular magnetic
fields, external bias voltages, etc., the temporal and spatial dependence of
various prominent correlation functions of mesoscopic physics can be
determined. Due to the absence of spatially localized external probes, the
method provides a way to explore the interplay of interaction and localization
effects in two-dimensional systems within a relatively unperturbed environment.
We describe the theoretical background of the approach and quantitatively
discuss the behavior of the current fluctuations in diffusive and ergodic
regimes. The influence of both various interaction mechanisms and localization
effects on the current is discussed. Finally a proposal is made on how, at
least in principle, the method may be used to experimentally determine the
relevant critical exponents of localization-delocalization transitions.Comment: 15 pages, 3 figures include
Functional modelling of a novel mutation in BBS5.
BACKGROUND: Bardet-Biedl syndrome (BBS) is an autosomal recessive ciliopathy disorder with 18 known causative genes (BBS1-18). The primary clinical features are renal abnormalities, rod-cone dystrophy, post-axial polydactyly, learning difficulties, obesity and male hypogonadism. RESULTS: We describe the clinical phenotype in three Saudi siblings in whom we have identified a novel mutation in exon 12 of BBS5 (c.966dupT; p.Ala323CysfsX57). This single nucleotide duplication creates a frame shift results in a predicted elongated peptide. Translation blocking Morpholino oligonucleotides were used to create zebrafish bbs5 morphants. Morphants displayed retinal layering defects, abnormal cardiac looping and dilated, cystic pronephric ducts with reduced cilia expression. Morphants also displayed significantly reduced dextran clearance via the pronephros compared to wildtype embryos, suggesting reduced renal function in morphants. The eye, kidney and heart defects reported in morphant zebrafish resemble the human phenotype of BBS5 mutations. The pathogenicity of the novel BBS5 mutation was determined. Mutant mRNA was unable to rescue pleiotropic phenotypes of bbs5 morphant zebrafish and in cell culture we demonstrate a mislocalisation of mutant BBS5 protein which fails to localise discretely with the basal body. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that this novel BBS5 mutation has a deleterious function that accounts for the multisystem ciliopathy phenotype seen in affected human patients
Shear viscosity of the Quark-Gluon Plasma from a virial expansion
We calculate the shear viscosity in the quark-gluon plasma (QGP) phase
within a virial expansion approach with particular interest in the ratio of
to the entropy density , i.e. . The virial expansion approach
allows us to include the interactions between the partons in the deconfined
phase and to evaluate the corrections to a single-particle partition function.
In the latter approach we start with an effective interaction with parameters
fixed to reproduce thermodynamical quantities of QCD such as energy and/or
entropy density. We also directly extract the effective coupling \ga_{\rm V}
for the determination of . Our numerical results give a ratio
at the critical temperature , which is very
close to the theoretical bound of . Furthermore, for temperatures
the ratio is in the range of the present
experimental estimates at RHIC. When combining our results for
in the deconfined phase with those from chiral perturbation theory or
the resonance gas model in the confined phase we observe a pronounced minimum
of close to the critical temperature .Comment: Published in Eur. Phys. J. C, 7 pages, 2 figures, 3 tabl
Mitochondrial DNA diversity and population structure of humpback whales from their wintering areas in the Indian and South Atlantic Oceans (Wintering Regions A,B, C and X). Scientific Committee document SC/56/SH3, International Whaling Commission, July 2004, Sorrento, Italy
Humpback whales in the Southern Hemisphere are separated by the International Whaling Commission (IWC) into seven wintering Regions (A-G) based on tropical distribution. To better evaluate the significance of these stock subdivisions, an analysis of mtDNA was conducted for the eastern and western South Atlantic (Regions A and B), the southwestern Indian Ocean (Region C) and the northern Indian Ocean (Region X). A total of 1,416 individual whales representing eleven sampling sites within the four wintering Regions were sequenced for a portion of the mtDNA control region. A hierarchical analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) using FST and FST supported the division of wintering Regions based on IWC designated boundaries of A, B, C, and X. Pairwise comparisons further confirmed the A, B and C divisions, although varying degrees of heterogeneity (particularly molecular distances) were detected for proposed sub-divisions within Regions B and C. Overall, this large-scale mtDNA analysis for humpback whales in the Indian and South Atlantic Oceans supports wintering Region designations by the IWC. However, additional analyses and consideration of biological parameters such as gene flow are needed so that ‘within-region’ genetic analyses can help evaluate population structure and recovery in a management context
Nucleosynthesis Constraints on a Massive Gravitino in Neutralino Dark Matter Scenarios
The decays of massive gravitinos into neutralino dark matter particles and
Standard Model secondaries during or after Big-Bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) may
alter the primordial light-element abundances. We present here details of a new
suite of codes for evaluating such effects, including a new treatment based on
PYTHIA of the evolution of showers induced by hadronic decays of massive,
unstable particles such as a gravitino. We also develop an analytical treatment
of non-thermal hadron propagation in the early universe, and use this to derive
analytical estimates for light-element production and in turn on decaying
particle lifetimes and abundances. We then consider specifically the case of an
unstable massive gravitino within the constrained minimal supersymmetric
extension of the Standard Model (CMSSM). We present upper limits on its
possible primordial abundance before decay for different possible gravitino
masses, with CMSSM parameters along strips where the lightest neutralino
provides all the astrophysical cold dark matter density. We do not find any
CMSSM solution to the cosmological Li7 problem for small m_{3/2}. Discounting
this, for m_{1/2} ~ 500 GeV and tan beta = 10 the other light-element
abundances impose an upper limit m_{3/2} n_{3/2}/n_\gamma < 3 \times 10^{-12}
GeV to < 2 \times 10^{-13} GeV for m_{3/2} = 250 GeV to 1 TeV, which is similar
in both the coannihilation and focus-point strips and somewhat weaker for tan
beta = 50, particularly for larger m_{1/2}. The constraints also weaken in
general for larger m_{3/2}, and for m_{3/2} > 3 TeV we find a narrow range of
m_{3/2} n_{3/2}/n_\gamma, at values which increase with m_{3/2}, where the Li7
abundance is marginally compatible with the other light-element abundances.Comment: 74 pages, 40 Figure
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