Electromyographic validation of the double pulley equipment during movements of the lower limbs

The double pulley equipment was tested on ten male volunteers during contraction of the semitendinosus and biceps femoris (caput longum) muscles in the following movements of the lower limbs: 1) hip extension with extended knee and erect trunk, 2) hip extension with flexed knee and erect trunk, 3) hip extension with flexed knee and erect trunk, 3) hip extension with extended knee and inclined trunk, 5) hip abduction along the midline, 7) hip abduction with extension beyond the midline, 8) adduction with hip flexion beyond the midline, 8) adduction with hip flexion beyond the midline, and 9) adduction with hip extension beyond the midline. The myoelectric signals were taken up by Lec Tec surface electrodes connected to a 6-channel Lynx electromyographic signal amplifier coupled with a computer equipped with a model CAD 10/26 analogue digital conversion board and with a specific software for signal recording and analysis. The semitendinosus and biceps femoris muscles presented the highest potentials in movements 1; 2; 7, 8 and 9, whereas the potentials in the remaining movements were negligible. The pattern of activity of the semitendinosus and the biceps femoris was similar in exercises 1, 2, 3, 4 and 8. The potentials of the semitendinosus prevailed in movements 5, 6 and 7, and the strongest potentials observed in movement 9 were those of the biceps femoris.

Sensitivity of AMPA receptor channel to calcium oscillations: A computational study

We used a computational model of biochemical pathways that are involved in the phosphorylation/dephosphorylation of AMPA receptor to study the receptor responses to calcium oscillations. In the model, the biochemical pathways are assumed to be located immediately under the postsynaptic membrane and we included three states of AMPA receptor: dephosphorylated, and phosphorylated in one or in two sites. To characterize the effects of calcium oscillations on the AMPA receptor, we exposed the model to stimuli with three varying parameters, namely frequency, number of pulses and calcium spike duration. Our model showed sensitivity to all of these three parameters. © 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Molecular modeling databases: A new way in the search of protein targets for drug development

DBMODELING is a relational database of annotated comparative protein structure models and their metabolic, pathway characterization. It is focused on enzymes identified in the genomes of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Xylella fastidiosa. The main goal of the present database is to provide structural models to be used in docking simulations and drug design. However, since the accuracy of structural models is highly dependent on sequence identity between template and target, it is necessary to make clear to the user that only models which show high structural quality should be used in such efforts. Molecular modeling of these genomes generated a database, in which all structural models were built using alignments presenting more than 30% of sequence identity, generating models with medium and high accuracy. All models in the database are publicly accessible at http://www.biocristalografia.df.ibilce.unesp.br/tools. DBMODELING user interface provides users friendly menus, so that all information can be printed in one stop from any web browser. Furthermore, DBMODELING also provides a docking interface, which allows the user to carry out geometric docking simulation, against the molecular models available in the database. There are three other important homology model databases: MODBASE, SWISSMODEL, and GTOP. The main applications of these databases are described in the present article. © 2007 Bentham Science Publishers Ltd.

Programa computacional para ajuste de curvas polinomiais em experimentos envolvendo dados longitudinais

Pós-graduação em Agronomia (Energia na Agricultura) - FCA

Tensor3D: A computer graphics program to simulate 3D real-time deformation and visualization of geometric bodies

Tensor3D is a geometric modeling program with the capacity to simulate and visualize in real-time the deformation, specified through a tensor matrix and applied to triangulated models representing geological bodies. 3D visualization allows the study of deformational processes that are traditionally conducted in 2D, such as simple and pure shears. Besides geometric objects that are immediately available in the program window, the program can read other models from disk, thus being able to import objects created with different open-source or proprietary programs. A strain ellipsoid and a bounding box are simultaneously shown and instantly deformed with the main object. The principal axes of strain are visualized as well to provide graphical information about the orientation of the tensor's normal components. The deformed models can also be saved, retrieved later and deformed again, in order to study different steps of progressive strain, or to make this data available to other programs. The shape of stress ellipsoids and the corresponding Mohr circles defined by any stress tensor can also be represented. The application was written using the Visualization ToolKit, a powerful scientific visualization library in the public domain. This development choice, allied to the use of the Tcl/Tk programming language, which is independent on the host computational platform, makes the program a useful tool for the study of geometric deformations directly in three dimensions in teaching as well as research activities. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Some experiments with high order compact methods using a computer algebra software - Part I

We consider a procedure for obtaining a compact fourth order method to the steady 2D Navier-Stokes equations in the streamfunction formulation using the computer algebra system Maple. The resulting code is short and from it we obtain the Fortran program for the method. To test the procedure we have solved many cavity-type problems which include one with an analytical solution and the results are compared with results obtained by second order central differences to moderate Reynolds numbers. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Computer-aided design of a novel ligand for retinoic acid receptor in cancer chemotherapy

The isotypes of RAR and RXR are retinoic acid and retinoid X acid receptors, respectively, whose ligand-binding domain contains the ligand-dependent activation function, with distinct pharmacological targets for retinoids, involved in the treatment of various cancers and skin diseases. Due to the major challenge which cancer treatment and cure still imposes after many decades to the international scientific community, there is actually considerable interest in new ligands with increased bioactivity. We have focused on the retinoid acid receptor, which is considered an interesting target for drug design. In this work, we carried out density functional geometry optimizations, and different docking procedures. We performed screening in a large database (hundreds of thousands of molecules which we optimized at the AM1 level) yielding a set of potential bioactive ligands. A new ligand was selected and optimized at the B3LYP/6-31G* level. A flexible docking program was used to investigate the interactions between the receptor and the new ligand. The result of this work is compared with several crystallographic ligands of RAR. Our theoretically more bioactive new-ligand indicates stronger and more hydrogen bonds as well as hydrophobic interactions with the receptor. (c) 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

PhotoLin: a program to identify and analyze linear structures in aerial photographs, satellite images and maps

A computer program, PhotoLin, written for an IBM-PC-compatible microcomputer is described which detects linear features in aerial photographs, satellite images and topographic maps. The program accepts images saved to PCX files as input and applies noise correction and smoothing filters and thinning routines. The output consists of a skeleton containing the median lines of linear features which can be represented on a map. The branches of the skeleton can be broken into sections of constant length for which the mean orientations are obtained for the preparation of rose diagrams. (C) 2001 Elsevier B.V. Ltd. All rights reserved.

Turning math attractive to computer science students: an application-to-model approach

This paper describes an innovative approach to develop the understanding about the relevance of mathematics to computer science. The mathematical subjects are introduced through an application-to-model scheme that lead computer science students to a better understanding of why they have to learn math and learn it effectively. Our approach consists of a single one semester course, taught at the first semester of the program, where the students are initially exposed to some typical computer applications. When they recognize the applications' complexity, the instructor gives the mathematical models supporting such applications, even before a formal introduction to the model in a math course. We applied this approach at Unesp (Brazil) and the results include a large reduction in the rate of students that abandon the college and better students in the final years of our program.

Assessment of in vitro sperm characteristics and their importance in the prediction of conception rate in a bovine timed-AI program

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)