Biomechanics Commons^™

Encoding Of Saltatory Tactile Velocity In The Adult Orofacial Somatosensory System, Rebecca Custead

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Processing dynamic tactile inputs is a key function of somatosensory systems. Spatial velocity encoding mechanisms by the nervous system are important for skilled movement production and may play a role in recovery of motor function following neurological insult. Little is known about tactile velocity encoding in trigeminal networks associated with mechanosensory inputs to the face, or the consequences of movement.

High resolution functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to investigate the neural substrates of velocity encoding in the human orofacial somatosensory system during unilateral saltatory pneumotactile inputs to perioral hairy skin in 20 healthy adults. A custom multichannel, scalable …

The Development Of A Prosthetic Training Software For Upper Limb Amputees, Tyler Kayne Sullins

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to develop an intuitive software that aids in the field of prosthetic training and rehabilitation by creating an individualized visualization of joint angles. This software is titled “the prosthetic training software (PTS) for individualized joint angle representation”, and it enables the individualized portrayal of predicted or pre-recorded joint angles. The PTS is an intuitive program for clinicians and prosthesis users that produces an animation of a virtual avatar reflecting the user’s segment lengths and amputation for rehabilitation and training purposes.

The PTS consists of a graphical user interface (GUI) and a 3D visualization of …

The Role Of Environmental Constraints In Walking: Effects Of Steering And Sharp Turns On Gait Dynamics, Dobromir Dotov, Benoit G. Bardy, Simone Dalla Bella

Journal Articles

Stride durations in gait exhibit long-range correlation (LRC) which tends to disappear with certain movement disorders. The loss of LRC has been hypothesized to result from a reduction of functional degrees of freedom of the neuromuscular apparatus. A consequence of this theory is that environmental constraints such as the ones induced during constant steering may also reduce LRC. Furthermore, obstacles may perturb control of the gait cycle and also reduce LRC. To test these predictions, seven healthy participants walked freely overground in three conditions: unconstrained, constrained (constant steering), and perturbed (frequent 90° turns). Both steering and sharp turning reduced LRC …

Prosthetic Socket Cooling System, Benjamin K. Kraw, Kathy Ha, Derek Piastrelli, Cuong Lai

Mechanical Engineering

A team of four senior-level undergraduate students in the Interdisciplinary Senior Project Design course in the Engineering Department of California Polytechnic State University: San Luis Obispo have worked to develop a prosthetic socket cooling system, namely for veteran Taylor Morris and exclusively for a transfemoral prosthetic socket, under the Quality of Life+ Laboratory. This cooling system will utilize the thermoelectric effect known as the Peltier effect to transmit heat generated from the residual limb to the surrounding environment by means of forced convection over small aluminum heat sinks. Two measurement devices have also been developed to, one, measure the heat …

Physical Testing Of Potential Football Helmet Design Enhancements, Michael Jeremy Schuster

Master's Theses

Football is a much loved sport in the United States. Unfortunately, it is also hard on the players and puts them at very high risk of concussion. To combat this an inventor in Santa Barbara brought a new design to Cal Poly to be tested.

The design was tested in small scale first in order to make some preliminary conclusions about the design. In order to fully test the helmet design; however, full scale testing was required. In order to carry out this testing a drop tower was built based on National Operating Committee on Standards for Athletic Equipment, NOCSAE, …

Range Of Motion And Plantar Foot Pressures In Those With And Without A Lateral Hip Shift During An Overhead Squat, Erin M. Lally

Theses and Dissertations

Context: Asymmetrical loading between lower limbs can theoretically be explained as an inequality of strength, neuromuscular control, or subconscious reliance on one leg more than the other. Asymmetries are often identified utilizing costly equipment such as force plates and 3D motion analysis cameras. It is important to establish less costly ways of identifying movement and loading asymmetries for clinicians to utilize. One qualitative assessment that may identify asymmetries is a ‘lateral hip shift’ during an overhead squat. Objective: To identify differences in lower extremity range of motion (ROM) and plantar foot pressures in individuals with and without a lateral hip …

Mechanics Of Early Retina And Lens Development In The Embryo, Alina Oltean

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Mechanical forces play an essential role in morphogenesis, the shaping of embryonic structures. This research focuses mainly on eye development, a problem that has been studied for decades using a variety of approaches. However, the mechanics of the early stages of eye formation remain incompletely understood.

The embryonic eyes begin as bilateral protrusions called optic vesicles (OVs) that grow outward from the anterior end of the brain tube. The optic vesicles contact and adhere to the overlying surface ectoderm (SE) via extracellular matrix (ECM). Then, both layers thicken in the region of contact to form the retinal and lens placodes, …

Division Of Labour: A Democratic Approach Towards Understanding Manual Asymmetries In Non-Human Primates, Madhur Mangalam, Nisarg Desai, Mewa Singh

Journal Articles

A consequence of the 'gold rush'-like hunch for human-like handedness in non-human primates has been that researchers have been continually analysing observations at the level of the population, ignoring the analysis at the level of an individual and, consequently, have potentially missed revelations on the forms and functions of manual asymmetries. Recently, consecutive studies on manual asymmetries in bonnet macaques, Macaca radiata revealed both the functional and adaptive significance of manual asymmetries respectively, and pointed towards the division of labour as being the general principle underlying the observed hand-usage patterns. We review the studies on manual asymmetries in capuchin monkeys, …

Mobility Of Individuals With Multiple Sclerosis And The Influence Of Physical Therapy, Brenda L. Davies

Theses & Dissertations

One main purpose was to explore the compensatory gait strategies of individuals with multiple sclerosis (MS). To address this purpose, we quantified the mechanical work generated by the lower extremity joints during walking. The outcomes from this investi­gation suggested that individuals with MS redistribute positive mechanical work during walking to the hip in order to compensate for a reduced ability of the ankle to generate positive mechanical work. Additionally, we also explored the motor control of the ankle as a potential contributing factor to the mobility limitations of individuals with MS. The outcomes from this investigation indicated that individuals with …

Reliability Of Gastrocnemius Pennation Angle Using Ultrasound With 15 Degree Adduction And Abduction In Standing Position, Diana J. Tyler

Honors College Theses

A pennate muscle has fascicles that attach obliquely to its tendon. In parallel, more fascicles can be aligned allowing for greater production of force. In previous research, pennation angle has been measured using ultrasound while in a laying supine position. The purpose of this study was to measure pennation angle of the gastrocnemius muscle with ultrasound while standing neutral, in a mechanically loaded position. 16 participants, one two separate days, had their ultrasound imaging taken in three different foot orientations: neutral, fifteen degree adduction / abduction positions. This information was then be analyzed using ImageJ software. This research shows the …

Power Output And Loads On The Lumbar Vertebrae During A Power Clean 2016, Joseph Keleher

Master's Theses

The purpose of the present study was to compare the peak resultant torque, shear, and compressive forces acting at the L3/L4 junction of the lumbar vertebrae and the peak power output during 40% one repetition maximum (1RM) and 80% 1RM attempts of the power clean. It was hypothesized that performance of a power clean at 80% 1RM will result in greater peak resultant compressive force, torque and shear force at the L3/L4 junction of the lumbar spine than that of a 40% 1RM attempt. Power cleans at 80% 1RM will also result in higher maximum instantaneous power outputs than that …

Effect Of Passive Heating On Males And Females With Elevated Arterial Stiffness, Forrest Blake Robinson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Context: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is one of the leading causes of mortality in the United States, accounting for about 1 in every 4 deaths annually. Studies have shown that passive heating does have some degree of effect on arterial stiffness, but not much is known about populations with higher stiffness. Objective: To examine the independent effect of core temperature increase during passive heating on arterial stiffness. Methods: Participants visited the lab three times; one familiarization and two experimental trials. The experimental trials consisted of subjects being passively heated in an environment of 40°C / 40% relative humidity (HEAT) or normal …

Turning Performance In Squid And Cuttlefish: Unique Dual-Mode, Muscular Hydrostatic Systems, Rachel A. Jastrebsky, Ian K. Bartol, Paul S. Krueger

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Although steady swimming has received considerable attention in prior studies, unsteady swimming movements represent a larger portion of many aquatic animals' locomotive repertoire and have not been examined extensively. Squids and cuttlefishes are cephalopods with unique muscular hydrostat-driven, dual-mode propulsive systems involving paired fins and a pulsed jet. These animals exhibit a wide range of swimming behavior, but turning performance has not been examined quantitatively. Brief squid, Lolliguncula brevis, and dwarf cuttlefish, Sepia bandensis, were filmed during turns using high-speed cameras. Kinematic features were tracked, including the length-specific radius of the turn (R/L), a measure of maneuverability, and …

Investigation Of Sequential Intermittent Pneumatic Compression Effect On Run Performance, Max Evan Jones

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The main aim of this study was to determine if IPC after a 5000 m run influences maximal effort 1600 m run performance. A secondary purpose was to determine if the level of IPC pressure used influences run performance. Nine subjects (6 male and 3 female were included in the study; 30 years±5.19 years; Height 173.72cm±8.25; Weight; 72.54±9.97 kg). These subjects were recruited to be in this study via word of mouth or social media advertisement in the Las Vegas area. Participant inclusion criteria was 18- 50 year old apparently healthy, had been running a minimum of 20 miles a …

Aging Affects Postural Tracking Of Complex Visual Motion Cues, Haralampos Sotirakis, Anastasia Kyvelidou, L. Mademli, Nicholas Stergiou, Vassilia Hatzitaki

Journal Articles

Postural tracking of visual motion cues improves perception–action coupling in aging, yet the nature of the visual cues to be tracked is critical for the efficacy of such a paradigm. We investigated how well healthy older (72.45 ± 4.72 years) and young (22.98 ± 2.9 years) adults can follow with their gaze and posture horizontally moving visual target cues of different degree of complexity. Participants tracked continuously for 120 s the motion of a visual target (dot) that oscillated in three different patterns: a simple periodic (simulated by a sine), a more complex (simulated by the Lorenz attractor that is …

Electromyographic And Mechanomyographic Time And Frequency Responses During Fatiguing, Submaximal, Isokinetic Muscle Actions Of The Biceps Brachii, Ethan C. Hill

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The purpose of the present investigation was to examine the time-course of changes in electromyographic (EMG) and mechanomyographic (MMG), time and frequency domain responses during repeated, submaximal, concentric, isokinetic, forearm flexion muscle actions. Twelve men (mean age ± SD = 22.6 ± 2.2 yrs; body weight = 84.0 ± 8.3 kg; height = 178.6 ± 8.3 cm) performed 50 repeated, submaximal (65% of concentric peak torque), concentric muscle actions of the dominant forearm flexors on an isokinetic dynamometer at 60°·s^-1. Surface EMG and MMG signals were simultaneously recorded from the biceps brachii muscle. Polynomial regression analyses (first, second, …

Identification Of Kinematic And Kinetic Injury Risk Predictors In Division I Football Athletes, Corbin M. Rasmussen, Guilherme M. Cesar, Shinya Takahashi

UCARE: Research Products

biomechanical patterns and insufficiencies that may influence risk of ligamentous injury, such as an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tear. One kinematic pattern that has been identified as detrimental to ACL integrity is frontal plane knee collapse (valgus) during jumping and landing tasks.1 Inter-limb differences in force generation have also been connected to the occurrence of lower extremity injury.2 It is not known, however, whether these patterns contribute to the occurrence of lower extremity (LE) non-contact soft-tissue injury. The counter-movement vertical jump (CMVJ) is one way to simultaneously screen for knee collapse and asymmetrical force production patterns. This method was therefore …

Preliminary Results On Organization On The Court, Physical And Technical Performance Of Brazilian Professional Futsal Players: Comparison Between Friendly Pre-Season And Official Match, Luiz Henrique Palucci Vieira, Sera N. Doğramaci, Ricardo Augusto Barbieri, Fabio Milioni, Felipe Arruda Moura, Vitor Luiz De Andrade, Guilherme Manna Cesar, Paulo Roberto Pereira Santiago

Athletic Performance Research

The main aim of this study was to verify possible differences between a friendly pre-season match (FM) and an official in-season match (OM) regarding physical, technical, and organizational performances of a professional Brazilian futsal team. Ten professional futsal athletes participated in this study. The matches were monitored with video cameras (30 Hz) and athlete trajectories obtained with automatic tracking. The values obtained for distance covered per minute, percentage of distance covered at moderate intensity, team coverage area, spread, passes, possessions, ball touches and successful passes per minute were greater for the OM than FM. On the contrary, percentage of distance …

Pertinacity Volume 2 Issue 1, Yuri Hosokawa

Pertinacity

No abstract provided.

A Perceptual Motor Intervention Improves Play Behavior In Children With Moderate To Severe Cerebral Palsy, Bridget O. Ryalls, Regina T. Harbourne, Lisa Kelly-Vance, Jordan Wickstrom, Nikolaos Stergiou, Anastasia Kyvelidou

Journal Articles

For children with moderate or severe cerebral palsy (CP), a foundational early goal is independent sitting. Sitting offers additional opportunities for object exploration, play and social engagement. The achievement of sitting coincides with important milestones in other developmental areas, such as social engagement with others, understanding of spatial relationships, and the use of both hands to explore objects. These milestones are essential skills necessary for play behavior. However, little is known about how sitting and play behavior might be affected by a physical therapy intervention in children with moderate or severe CP. Therefore, our overall purpose in this study was …

Fission–Fusion Species Under Restricted Living Conditions: A Comparative Study Of Dyadic Interactions And Physical Proximity In Captive Bonobos And Bornean Orangutans, Dorothee Classen, Stefanie Kiessling, Madhur Mangalam, Werner Kaumanns, Mewa Singh

Journal Articles

The present study investigates how the 'fission–fusion-adapted' bonobos and Bornean orangutans manage social relationships when kept under permanent group-living conditions. Our results showed that the bonobos and orangutans did not differ in the overall frequency of dyadic interactions. The orangutans evidently realized a potential to interact with partners, which on a surface did not differ from what was found in the bonobos. However, the bonobos spent more time on sociopositive interactions, especially on grooming and sit in contact, whereas the orangutans agonistically interacted with each other more often. Though frequencies of approaching were similar between the two species, orangutans actively …

Associations Between Mobility, Cognition And Callosal Integrity In People With Parkinsonism, Brett W. Fling, Marian L. Dale, Carolin Curtze, Katrijn Smulders, John G. Nutt, Fay B. Horak

Journal Articles

Falls in people with parkinsonism are likely related to both motor and cognitive impairments. In addition to idiopathic Parkinson's disease (PD), some older adults have lower body parkinsonism (a frontal gait disorder), characterized by impaired lower extremity balance and gait as well as cognition, but without tremor or rigidity. Neuroimaging during virtual gait suggests that interhemispheric, prefrontal cortex communication may be involved in locomotion, but contributions of neuroanatomy connecting these regions to objective measures of gait in people with parkinsonism remains unknown. Our objectives were to compare the integrity of fiber tracts connecting prefrontal and sensorimotor cortical regions …

Perception-Action Mutuality Does Not Obviate Emergence Or The Animal’S Active Role In The Perceptual Act, Dobromir Dotov

Journal Articles

Open peer commentary on the article “Perception-Action Mutuality Obviates Mental Construction” by Martin Flament Fultot, Lin Nie & Claudia Carello. Upshot: The main goal of this commentary is to make more discriminative the comparison between enactive and ecological theories of perception. Emergence at the level of the animal-environment system might be playing the role attributed to mental construction in basic perceptual processes. If correct, this would render some forms of enactivism compatible with the theoretical tenets of the target article.

Task-Oriented Ankle And Foot Training For Improving Gait, Balance, And Strength In Individuals With Multiple Sclerosis: A Pilot Study, Cizelle Rodriques, Kurt Jackson, Joaquin Alberto Barrios, Lloyd L. Laubach, Kimberly Edginton Bigelow

Physical Therapy Faculty Publications

The purpose of this pilot study was to investigate the effects and feasibility of a task-oriented ankle and foot exercise program on gait, balance, and strength in 6 adults with mild to moderate disability from multiple sclerosis (MS). The subjects participated in an 8-wk task-specific home-based ankle and foot exercise program. Outcome measures included stance phase ankle joint torque and power, limits of stability, isometric and isokinetic ankle strength, gait speed, and the 12-item Multiple Sclerosis Walking Scale (MSWS-12). Five subjects completed the 8- wk intervention. Following training, there were significant increases in ankle power during early (38.1%) and late …

Volumetric Flow Imaging Reveals The Importance Of Vortex Ring Formation In Squid Swimming Tail-First And Arms-First, Ian K. Bartol, Paul S. Krueger, Rachel A. Jastrebsky, Sheila Williams, Joseph T. Thompson

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Squids use a pulsed jet and fin movements to swim both arms-first (forward) and tail-first (backward). Given the complexity of the squid multi-propulsor system, 3D velocimetry techniques are required for the comprehensive study of wake dynamics. Defocusing digital particle tracking velocimetry, a volumetric velocimetry technique, and high-speed videography were used to study arms-first and tail-first swimming of brief squid Lolliguncula brevis over a broad range of speeds [0-10 dorsal mantle lengths (DML) s^-1) in a swim tunnel. Although there was considerable complexity in the wakes of these multi-propulsor swimmers, 3D vortex rings and their derivatives were prominent reoccurring features …

Hpcnmf: A High-Performance Toolbox For Non-Negative Matrix Factorization, Karthik Devarajan, Guoli Wang

COBRA Preprint Series

Non-negative matrix factorization (NMF) is a widely used machine learning algorithm for dimension reduction of large-scale data. It has found successful applications in a variety of fields such as computational biology, neuroscience, natural language processing, information retrieval, image processing and speech recognition. In bioinformatics, for example, it has been used to extract patterns and profiles from genomic and text-mining data as well as in protein sequence and structure analysis. While the scientific performance of NMF is very promising in dealing with high dimensional data sets and complex data structures, its computational cost is high and sometimes could be critical for …

Mastoid Vibration Affects Dynamic Postural Control During Gait, Jung Chien, Mukul Mukherjee, Nicholas Stergiou

Journal Articles

Our objective was to investigate how manipulating sensory input through mastoid vibration (MV) could affect dynamic postural control during walking, with and without simultaneous manipulation of the visual and the somatosensory systems. We used three levels of MV (none, unilateral, and bilateral) via vibrating elements placed on the mastoid processes. We combined this with the six conditions of the Locomotor Sensory Organization Test (LSOT) paradigm to challenge the visual and somatosensory systems. We hypothesized that MV would affect both amount and temporal structure measures of sway variability during walking and that, in combination with manipulations of the visual and the …

Chapter 8: Autocorrelation Function, Mutual Information, And Correlation Dimension, Nathaniel Hunt

Journal Articles

In this chapter, we will discuss in greater detail the autocorrelation function and the mutual information we mentioned in Chapter 3 on the reconstruction of the state space. We will also cover a new measure called the correlation dimension, which quantifies the dimensionality of an attractor.

Chapter 5: Surrogation, Sara A. Myers

Journal Articles

One of the goals of time series analysis is to understand the underlying mechanisms that generate different dynamics for different time series. If a time series is not a product of random process, then we can assume that some kind of dynamics govern the time series. The question is what kinds of dynamics are controlling the time series. For nonlinear time series analysis, our focus is on nonlinear dynamics, and one of the goals is to characterize those dynamics by applying nonlinear tools. However, it is important to establish evidence of nonlinearity in a time series first in order to …

Chapter 2: Time Series, Sara A. Myers

Journal Articles

Time series is “simply a list of numbers assumed to measure some process sequentially in time” (Stergiou et al. 2004). Mathematicians have a more formal definition, that is, a set or a sequence of observations, with each one recorded at specific times, or at least sequentially (Brockwell and Davis 2002; Box et al. 2008). Time series are created from multiple sources for research purposes to understand various behaviors. For example, social scientists could collect graduation rates, physiologists record heart rates, economists study consumer spending, and climatologists examine weather patterns. Basically, any time observations are taken repeatedly over time, from any …