Evaluation of reach and grasp robot-assisted therapy suggests similar functional recovery patterns on proximal and distal arm segments in sub-acute hemiplegia

This paper provides some additional evidence in support of the hypothesis that robot therapies are clinically beneficial in neurorehabilitation. Although only 4 subjects were included in the study, the design of the intervention and the measures were done so as to minimise bias. The results are presented as single case studies, and can only be interpreted as such due to the study size. The intensity of intervention was 16 hours and the therapy philosophy (based on Carr and Shepherd) was that coordinated movements are preferable to joint based therapies, and that coordinating distal movements (in this case grasps) helps not only to recover function in these areas, but has greater value since the results are immediately transferable to daily skills such as reach and grasp movements.

Aerosol impacts on drizzle properties in warm clouds from ARM Mobile Facility maritime and continental deployments

We have extensively evaluated the response of cloud-base drizzle rate (Rcb; mm day–1) in warm clouds to liquid water path (LWP; g m–2) and to cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) number concentration (NCCN; cm–3), an aerosol proxy. This evaluation is based on a 19-month long dataset of Doppler radar, lidar, microwave radiometers and aerosol observing systems from the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Mobile Facility deployments at the Azores and in Germany. Assuming 0.55% supersaturation to calculate NCCN, we found a power law , indicating that Rcb decreases by a factor of 2–3 as NCCN increases from 200 to 1000 cm–3 for fixed LWP. Additionally, the precipitation susceptibility to NCCN ranges between 0.5 and 0.9, in agreement with values from simulations and aircraft measurements. Surprisingly, the susceptibility of the probability of precipitation from our analysis is much higher than that from CloudSat estimates, but agrees well with simulations from a multi-scale high-resolution aerosol-climate model. Although scale issues are not completely resolved in the intercomparisons, our results are encouraging, suggesting that it is possible for multi-scale models to accurately simulate the response of LWP to aerosol perturbations.

The effect of rapid changes in ionospheric flow on velocity vectors deduced from radar beam-swinging experiments

The effects on the horizontal ionospheric velocity vectors deduced from radar beam-swinging experiments, which occur when changes in the flow take place on short time scales compared with the experiment cycle time, are analysed in detail. The further complications which arise in the interpretation of beam-swinging data, due to longitudinal gradients in the flow and to field-aligned flows, are also considered. It is concluded that these effects are unlikely to seriously compromise statistical determinations of the response time of the flow, e.g. to changes in the north-south component of the IMF, such as have been recently reported by Etemadiet al. (1988, Planet. Space Sci.36, 471), using EISCAT ‘Polar’ data.

Evaluation of two cloud parametrization schemes using ARM and Cloudnet observations

Ground-based remote-sensing observations from Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) and Cloud-Net sites are used to evaluate the clouds predicted by a weather forecasting and climate model. By evaluating the cloud predictions using separate measures for the errors in frequency of occurrence, amount when present, and timing, we provide a detailed assessment of the model performance, which is relevant to weather and climate time-scales. Importantly, this methodology will be of great use when attempting to develop a cloud parametrization scheme, as it provides a clearer picture of the current deficiencies in the predicted clouds. Using the Met Office Unified Model, it is shown that when cloud fractions produced by a diagnostic and a prognostic cloud scheme are compared, the prognostic cloud scheme shows improvements to the biases in frequency of occurrence of low, medium and high cloud and to the frequency distributions of cloud amount when cloud is present. The mean cloud profiles are generally improved, although it is shown that in some cases the diagnostic scheme produced misleadingly good mean profiles as a result of compensating errors in frequency of occurrence and amount when present. Some biases remain when using the prognostic scheme, notably the underprediction of mean ice cloud fraction due to the amount when present being too low, and the overprediction of mean liquid cloud fraction due to the frequency of occurrence being too high.

Adding a treatment arm to an ongoing clinical trial: a review of methodology and practice

Incorporating an emerging therapy as a new randomisation arm in a clinical trial that is open to recruitment would be desirable to researchers, regulators and patients to ensure that the trial remains current, new treatments are evaluated as quickly as possible, and the time and cost for determining optimal therapies is minimised. It may take many years to run a clinical trial from concept to reporting within a rapidly changing drug development environment; hence, in order for trials to be most useful to inform policy and practice, it is advantageous for them to be able to adapt to emerging therapeutic developments. This paper reports a comprehensive literature review on methodologies for, and practical examples of, amending an ongoing clinical trial by adding a new treatment arm. Relevant methodological literature describing statistical considerations required when making this specific type of amendment is identified, and the key statistical concepts when planning the addition of a new treatment arm are extracted, assessed and summarised. For completeness, this includes an assessment of statistical recommendations within general adaptive design guidance documents. Examples of confirmatory ongoing trials designed within the frequentist framework that have added an arm in practice are reported; and the details of the amendment are reviewed. An assessment is made as to how well the relevant statistical considerations were addressed in practice, and the related implications. The literature review confirmed that there is currently no clear methodological guidance on this topic, but that guidance would be advantageous to help this efficient design amendment to be used more frequently and appropriately in practice. Eight confirmatory trials were identified to have added a treatment arm, suggesting that trials can benefit from this amendment and that it can be practically feasible; however, the trials were not always able to address the key statistical considerations, often leading to uninterpretable or invalid outcomes. If the statistical concepts identified within this review are considered and addressed during the design of a trial amendment, it is possible to effectively assess a new treatment arm within an ongoing trial without compromising the original trial outcomes.

Clouds, aerosols, and precipitation in the marine boundary layer: an ARM Mobile Facility Deployment

The Clouds, Aerosol, and Precipitation in the Marine Boundary Layer (CAP-MBL) deployment at Graciosa Island in the Azores generated a 21-month (April 2009–December 2010) comprehensive dataset documenting clouds, aerosols, and precipitation using the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program (ARM) Mobile Facility (AMF). The scientific aim of the deployment is to gain improved understanding of the interactions of clouds, aerosols, and precipitation in the marine boundary layer. Graciosa Island straddles the boundary between the subtropics and midlatitudes in the northeast Atlantic Ocean and consequently experiences a great diversity of meteorological and cloudiness conditions. Low clouds are the dominant cloud type, with stratocumulus and cumulus occurring regularly. Approximately half of all clouds contained precipitation detectable as radar echoes below the cloud base. Radar and satellite observations show that clouds with tops from 1 to 11 km contribute more or less equally to surface-measured precipitation at Graciosa. A wide range of aerosol conditions was sampled during the deployment consistent with the diversity of sources as indicated by back-trajectory analysis. Preliminary findings suggest important two-way interactions between aerosols and clouds at Graciosa, with aerosols affecting light precipitation and cloud radiative properties while being controlled in part by precipitation scavenging. The data from Graciosa are being compared with short-range forecasts made with a variety of models. A pilot analysis with two climate and two weather forecast models shows that they reproduce the observed time-varying vertical structure of lower-tropospheric cloud fairly well but the cloud-nucleating aerosol concentrations less well. The Graciosa site has been chosen to be a permanent fixed ARM site that became operational in October 2013.

Evaluation of Mid-upper Arm Circumference in Pre-school Children: Comparison Between NCHS/CDC-2000 and WHO-2006 References

We aimed to evaluate the classification of arm circumference (AC) in pre-school children by using National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS/CDC-2000) and World Health Organization (WHO-2006) references. We evaluated 205 children: weight, height and AC were assessed and the body mass index (BMI) was calculated. The BMI values were classified into Z-scores by the WHO referential. The AC was classified into Z-cores by two references, comparing the whole-sample value and among groups (tercis) of BMI Z-score. The correlation was also evaluated between differences of AC with BMI Z-score. The WHO referential classified the AC in Z-scores greater than the NCHS/CDC, which is more specific and less sensitive than the NCHS/CDC for lean children and at the same time more sensitive and less specific for children with overweight. In conclusion, a significant difference in the AC classification occurs according to the referential used.

Compressão de imagem e vídeo com controlador ARM

Este trabalho foi desenvolvido num estágio na empresa ABS GmbH sucursal em Portugal, e teve como foco a compressão de imagem e vídeo com os padrões JPEG e H.264, respetivamente. Foi utilizada a plataforma LeopardBoard DM368, com um controlador ARM9. A análise do desempenho de compressão de ambos os padrões foi realizada através de programas em linguagem C, para execução no processador DM368. O programa para compressão de imagem recebe como parâmetros de entrada o nome e a resolução da imagem a comprimir, e comprime-a com 10 níveis de quantização diferentes. Os resultados mostram que é possível obter uma velocidade de compressão até 73 fps (frames per second) para a resolução 1280x720, e que imagens de boa qualidade podem ser obtidas com rácios de compressão até cerca de 22:1. No programa para compressão de vídeo, o codificador está configurado de acordo com as recomendações para as seguintes aplicações: videoconferência, videovigilância, armazenamento e broadcasting/streaming. As configurações em cada processo de codificação, o nome do ficheiro, o número de frames e a resolução do mesmo representam os parâmetros de entrada. Para a resolução 1280x720, foram obtidas velocidades de compressão até cerca de 68 fps, enquanto para a resolução 1920x1088 esse valor foi cerca de 30 fps. Foi ainda desenvolvida uma aplicação com capacidades para capturar imagens ou vídeos, aplicar processamento de imagem, compressão, armazenamento e transmissão para uma saída DVI (Digital Visual Interface). O processamento de imagem em software permite melhorar dinamicamente as imagens, e a taxa média de captura, compressão e armazenamento é cerca de 5 fps para a resolução 1280x720, adequando-se à captura de imagens individuais. Sem processamento em software, a taxa sobe para cerca de 23 fps para a resolução 1280x720, sendo cerca de 28 fps para a resolução 1280x1088, o que é favorável à captura de vídeo.

X-ARM: um modelo de representação de artefatos de software

A great challenge of the Component Based Development is the creation of mechanisms to facilitate the finding of reusable assets that fulfill the requirements of a particular system under development. In this sense, some component repositories have been proposed in order to answer such a need. However, repositories need to represent the asset characteristics that can be taken into account by the consumers when choosing the more adequate assets for their needs. In such a context, the literature presents some models proposed to describe the asset characteristics, such as identification, classification, non-functional requirements, usage and deployment information and component interfaces. Nevertheless, the set of characteristics represented by those models is insufficient to describe information used before, during and after the asset acquisition. This information refers to negotiation, certification, change history, adopted development process, events, exceptions and so on. In order to overcome this gap, this work proposes an XML-based model to represent several characteristics, of different asset types, that may be employed in the component-based development. Besides representing metadata used by consumers, useful for asset discovering, acquisition and usage, this model, called X-ARM, also focus on helping asset developers activities. Since the proposed model represents an expressive amount of information, this work also presents a tool called X-Packager, developed with the goal of helping asset description with X-ARM

Swimming versus swinging effects in spacetime

Wisdom has recently unveiled a new relativistic effect, called spacetime swimming, where quasirigid free bodies in curved spacetimes can speed up, slow down or deviate their falls by performing local cyclic shape deformations. We show here that for fast enough cycles this effect dominates over a nonrelativistic related one, named here space swinging, where the fall is altered through nonlocal cyclic deformations in Newtonian gravitational fields. We expect, therefore, to clarify the distinction between both effects leaving no room to controversy. Moreover, the leading contribution to the swimming effect predicted by Wisdom is enriched with a higher order term and the whole result is generalized to be applicable in cases where the tripod is in large redshift regions.

Coupling between muscle activities and muscle torques during horizontal-planar arm movements with direction reversal

In this study we investigated the hypothesis that the simple set of rules used to explain the modulation of muscle activities during single-joint movements could also be applied for reversal movements of the shoulder and elbow joints. The muscle torques of both joints were characterized by a triphasic impulse. The first impulse of each joint accelerated the limb to the target and was generated by an initial burst of the muscles activated first (primary mover). The second impulse decelerated the limb to the target, reversed movement direction and accelerated the limb back to the initial position, and was generated by an initial burst of the muscles activated second (secondary movers). A third impulse, in each joint, decelerated the limb to the initial position due to the generation of a second burst of the primary movers. The first burst of the primary mover decreased abruptly, and the latency between the activation of the primary and secondary movers varied in proportion with target distances for the elbow, but not for the shoulder muscles. All impulses and bursts increased with target distances and were well coupled. Therefore, as predicted, the bursts of muscle activities were modulated to generate the appropriate level of muscle torque. (C) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Head, eye and arm coordination in table tennis

The aim of this study was to determine the role of head, eye and arm movements during the execution of a table tennis forehand stroke. Three-dimensional kinematic analysis of line-of-gaze, arm and ball was used to describe visual and motor behaviour. Skilled and less skilled participants returned the ball to cued right or left target areas under three levels of temporal constraint: pre-, early- and late-cue conditions. In the pre- and early-cue conditions, both high and low skill participants tracked the ball early in flight and kept gaze stable on a location in advance of the ball before ball-bat contact. Skilled participants demonstrated an earlier onset of ball tracking and recorded higher performance accuracy than less skilled counterparts. The manipulation of cue condition showed the limits of adaptation to maintain accuracy on the target. Participants were able to accommodate the constraints imposed by the early-cue condition by using a shorter quiet eye duration, earlier quiet eye offset and reduced arm velocity at contact. In the late-cue condition, modifications to gaze, head and arm movements were not sufficient to preserve accuracy. The findings highlight the functional coupling between perception and action during time-constrained, goal-directed actions.

DUPLICATION OF THE SHORT ARM OF THE X-CHROMOSOME IN MOTHER AND DAUGHTER

An 11-year-old girl with short stature, mental retardation, and mild dysmorphic features was found to have an inverted duplication of most of the short arm of the X chromosome [dic inv dup(X)(qter --> p22.3 = p22.3 --> cen:)]. Her mother, who is also short and retarded, carries the same duplication. Fluorescence in situ hybridization with an X chromosome library, and with X centromere-specific alpha satellite and telomere probes, was useful in characterizing the duplication. In most females with structurally abnormal X chromosomes, the abnormal chromosome is inactivated. Although the duplicated X was consistently late replicating in the mother, X chromosome inactivation studies in the proband indicated that in 11 % of her lymphocytes the duplicated X was active.