Multiple Movements Research Articles

Dynamic response of Camellia oleifera fruit-branch based on mathematical model and high-speed photography

In order to study the motion law and shedding characteristics of fruits during the vibration harvesting process of Camellia oleifera fruit. The dynamic equation of fruit-branch picking was established, the vibration output solution and picking inertial force of Camellia oleifera fruit forced vibration were solved by mathematical methods, and the spectral curve between picking force and frequency when forced vibration of Camellia oleifera fruit was analysed by MATLAB. The three-dimensional model of fruit-branch was established, and the modal analysis and harmonious response analysis were carried out, and the optimal excitation frequency range was 4–8 Hz, and the optimal excitation load of fruit-branch was 50N. The self-made canopy camellia fruit picker was used to continuously vibrate the side branches of Camellia oleifera, and the high-speed camera was used to record the movement process of Camellia oleifera fruit at different vibration frequencies, and the results showed that the movement trajectory of Camellia oleifera fruit was complex and the result of a combination of multiple movements. With the increase of excitation frequency, the speed and acceleration of fruit and flower buds also increased, but the average shedding force of fruits and buds did not change much, and the average shedding force of flower buds was greater than that of fruits. The results of this experiment are basically consistent with the results of the simulation analysis. The results of this study can provide a theoretical basis for the design, selection and research and development of mechanical harvesting equipment.

Collective Memory in the Diaspora as Represented in Crossing the River by Caryl Phillips and Small Island by Andrea Levy

The current study seeks to investigate how Crossing the River (1993) by Caryl Phillips and Small Island (2004) by Andrea Levy engage with what is known today as postcolonial counter-discourse to show how colonialism, slavery and racism shape the collective memory of African and Afro-Caribbean diaspora. It is also significant to understand how such a process allows both writers to use tangible or intangible forms of collective memory as tools in representing, reassessing and documenting the diaspora history from the perspective of the oppressed other. Moreover, a chance will be given to understand how they abrogate/dismantle essentialist hegemonic Western assumptions through collective forms of remembrance in multicultural contexts. In that sense, the analysis will draw on the concept of collective memory as defined by Maurice Halbuach, Aleida Assmann and Linda Shortt's description of memory as a powerful agent of change and Pierre Nora's sites of memory to explore how the diaspora characters remember or deal with their colonial past and its aftermath beyond their national borders. The study concludes that the process of memory recovery and transmission from one diasporic generation to the other, as representative subjects of multiple movements and dwellings, resulted in acquiring problematic senses of belonging due, in large part, to the pervasiveness of ethnic and racial oppression in the new world. At this stage, each diasporic member would consider such traumatic social environments as their premise to define and select what should be remembered or forgotten from a past marked with constant transformations. This selectivity is triggered by their impossible return to a place once called home in their collective diasporic consciousness.

Double-Modal Locomotion of a Hydrogel Ultra-Soft Magnetic Miniature Robot with Switchable Forms.

Flexible miniature robots are expected to enter difficult-to-reach areas invivo to carry out targeted operations, attracting widespread attention. However, it is challenging for the existing soft miniature robots to substantially alter their stable shape once the structure is designed. This limitation leads to a fixed motion mode, which subsequently restricts their operating environment. In this study, we designed a biocompatible flexible miniature robot with a variable stable form that is capable of adapting to complex terrain environments through multiple movement modes. Inspired by the reversible stretching reaction of alginate saline gel stimulated by changes in environmental ion concentration, we manufactured a morphologically changeable super-soft hydrogel miniature robot body. According to the stretch and contraction shapes of the flexible hydrogel miniature robot, we designed magnetic fields for swing and rolling motion modes to realize multi-shape movement. The experimental results demonstrate that the deflection angle of the designed flexible miniature robot is reversible and can reach a maximum of 180°. The flexible miniature robot can complete forward swinging in the bar stretch state and tumbling motion in the spherical state. We anticipate that flexible hydrogel miniature robots with multiple morphologies and multimodal motion have great potential for biomedical applications in complex, unstructured, and enclosed living environments.

Characterizing Disease Progression in Parkinson's Disease from Videos of the Finger Tapping Test.

Parkinson's disease (PD) is characterized by motor symptoms whose progression is typically assessed using clinical scales, namely the Movement Disorder Society-Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (MDS-UPDRS). Despite its reliability, the scale is bounded by a 5-point scale that limits its ability to track subtle changes in disease progression and is prone to subjective interpretations. We aimed to develop an automated system to objectively quantify motor symptoms in PD using Machine Learning (ML) algorithms to analyze videos and capture nuanced features of disease progression. We analyzed videos of the Finger Tapping test, a component of the MDS-UPDRS, from 24 healthy controls and 66 PD patients using ML algorithms for hand pose estimation. We computed multiple movement features related to bradykinesia from videos and employed a novel tiered classification approach to predict disease severity that employed different features according to severity. We compared our video-based disease severity prediction approach against other approaches recently introduced in the literature. Traditional kinematics features such as amplitude and velocity changed linearly with disease severity, while other non-traditional features displayed non-linear trends. The proposed disease severity prediction approach demonstrated superior accuracy in detecting PD and distinguishing between different levels of disease severity when compared to existing approaches.

Perceptuomotor skill acquisition in a solo manual ball-and-beam task with varying accuracy requirements.

In the manual ball-and-beam task, participants have to control a ball that is rolling continuously on a long and hand-held beam. Since the task can be performed individually, in a solo action setting, as well as collaboratively, in a (dyadic) joint action setting, it allows us to investigate how joint performances arise from individual performances, which we investigate in a series of interrelated studies. Here we focused on individual skill acquisition on the ball-and-beam task in the solo action setting, with the goal to characterize the behavioral dynamics that arise from learning to couple (ball motion) perception and (beam motion) action. By moving a beam extremity up and down to manipulate the beam's inclination angle, the task's objective was to roll the ball as fast as and accurately as possible between two indicated targets on the beam. Based on research into reciprocal aiming tasks, we hypothesized that the emergent dynamics of the beam's inclination angle would be constrained by the size of the targets, such that large targets would evoke a continuous beam movement strategy, while small targets would lead to a discrete beam movement strategy. 16 participants individually practiced the task in two separate six-block sessions. Each block consisted of one trial per target-size condition (small, medium and large). Overall, the number of target hits increased over trials, due to a larger range of motion of the beam's inclination angle, a stronger correlation between the ball and beam motion and a smaller variability of the beam motion. Contrary to our expectations, target size did not appreciably affect the shape of the beam movement patterns. Instead, we found stable inter-individual differences in the movement strategies adopted that were uncorrelated with the number of target hits on a trial. We concluded that multiple movement strategies may lead to success on the task, while individual skill acquisition was characterized by the refinement of behavioral dynamics that emerged in an early stage of learning. We speculate that such differences in individual strategies on the task may affect the interpersonal coordination that arises in joint-action performances on the task.

Affordances for throwing: An uncontrolled manifold analysis.

Movement systems are massively redundant, and there are always multiple movement solutions to any task demand; motor abundance. Movement consequently exhibits 'repetition without repetition', where movement outcomes are preserved but the kinematic details of the movement vary across repetitions. The uncontrolled manifold (UCM) concept is one of several methods that analyses movement variability with respect to task goals, to quantify repetition without repetition and test hypotheses about the control architecture producing a given abundant response to a task demand. However, like all these methods, UCM is under-constrained in how it decomposes a task and performance. In this paper, we propose and test a theoretical framework for constraining UCM analysis, specifically the perception of task-dynamical affordances. Participants threw tennis balls to hit a target set at 5m, 10m or 15m, and we performed UCM analysis on the shoulder-elbow-wrist joint angles with respect to variables derived from an affordance analysis of this task as well as more typical biomechanical variables. The affordance-based UCM analysis performed well, although data also showed thrower dynamics (effectivities) need to be accounted for as well. We discuss how the theoretical framework of affordances and affordance-based control can be connected to motor abundance methods in the future.

Anisotropic Rayleigh wave tomography revealed lithospheric modification and tectonic deformation mechanisms in Hubei Province, central China

The collision of the North China and Yangtze blocks, along with multiple orogenic movements, has caused complex tectonic deformation of the lithosphere in Hubei Province. In order to reveal the stress distribution features and tectonic deformation mechanisms of the regional lithosphere, we inverted an azimuthal anisotropic structural model of the Hubei lithosphere from anisotropic Rayleigh wave tomography with data obtained from 48 broadband seismometers deployed in and around the province. Our model revealed strong lateral variations of azimuthal anisotropy in the crust and upper mantle, providing new seismological evidence for the lithospheric modification of the Yangtze block and the layered deformation of the lithosphere east of the North-South Gravity Lineament. We speculate that the primary dynamic factor causing lithospheric modification in the Yangtze block is related to the rifting events associated with the super-mantle plume, triggered by the deep subduction of the Pacific and Philippine plates. Meanwhile, the rifting event is also the main cause of the lithospheric structural layered deformation east of the North-South Gravity Lineament. The inverted anisotropic model, together with the results of previous geodetic and seismologic studies, revealed the causes and tectonic deformation mechanisms of anisotropy generation in the crust and upper mantle in Hubei Province. Crustal deformation in the Hubei region may be related to the eastward expansion of materials from the Tibetan Plateau and the ultra-high pressure metamorphic zone formed by the subduction and collision of the Yangtze and North China blocks, while upper mantle deformation is associated with subduction and collision of Yangtze and North China blocks, preserved fossil anisotropy from previous orogenic movements, and rifting events tied to the super-mantle plume induced by the deep subduction of the Pacific and Philippine plates. Moreover, we analyzed the regional crust-mantle coupling mechanism and concluded that the crust-mantle in the Dabie orogenic belt is coupled, whereas it is decoupled in other regions.

Modality Exploration, Retrieval and Adaptation for Trajectory Prediction.

Predicting future trajectories of dynamic agents is inherently riddled with uncertainty. Given a certain historical observation, there are multiple plausible future movements people can perform. Notably, these possible movements are usually centralized around a few representative motion patterns, e.g. acceleration, deceleration, turning, etc. In this paper, we propose a novel prediction scheme which explores human behavior modality representations from real-world trajectory data to discover such motion patterns and further uses them to aid in trajectory prediction. To explore potential behavior modalities, we introduce a deep feature clustering process on trajectory features and each cluster can represent a type of modality. Intuitively, each modality is naturally a class, and a classification network can be adopted to retrieve highly probable modalities about to happen in the future according to historical observations. On account of a wide variety of cues existing in the observation (e.g. agents' motion states, semantics of the scene, etc.), we further design a gated aggregation module to fuse different types of cues into a unified feature. Finally, an adaptation process is proposed to adapt a certain modality to specific historical observations and generate fine-grained prediction results. Extensive experiments on four widely-used benchmarks show the superiority of our proposed approach.

Brain Magnetic Resonance Imaging Findings in Chronic Kidney Disease Patients with and without Parkinsonism: A Case-Control Study

Introduction: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) poses a major public health concern on a global scale. Patients with CKD have a heightened risk of developing multiple movement disorders like parkinsonism. Timely diagnosis through imaging and effective management may hold the key to mitigating disease symptoms. Material and Methods: Twenty-eight individuals with CKD were categorized into two groups, nine patients showing signs of parkinsonism and a control group of nineteen patients without parkinsonism. All participants underwent non-contrast brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans, including T1, T2, DWI, and FLAIR sequences. The data were statistically analyzed using SPSS-24 and STATA software. Results: Nine patients exhibited parkinsonism symptoms, while nineteen did not. Brain MRI revealed hypointensities in structures like the putamen, globus pallidus, and cerebellar dentate nucleus in both groups. Comparative analysis showed no statistically significant differences in the percentages of these findings (P>0.05). Similarly, the presence of cerebral atrophy and cerebrovascular disease did not significantly differ between the groups. Factors such as diabetes, hypertension, and history of dialysis also failed to show significant distinctions (P>0.05 for all). Conclusion: The correlation between brain MRI alterations in CKD patients with parkinsonism symptoms and those without was not significant. Nevertheless, there was a strong association between the duration of CKD in patients and the presence of parkinsonism-related signs.

Handwriting characteristics analysis for Alzheimer’s Disease and Mild Cognitive Impairments Assessment

AbstractBackgroundMotor changes are early signs of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD), but they are often difficult to detect, especially in the early stages. In the past, the examination of handwriting has been used to investigate motoric changes in different neurodegenerative diseases. In this study, we explore a wide array of explainable characteristics of the handwriting of patients obtained with signal processing, and study their potential for assessment of Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) and AD.MethodWe collected the written tasks from 37 participants, 7 with AD, 17 with MCI, and 13 for the control group (CTL) on a digital tablet. We analyzed 14 different tasks, including holding the pen over a point, copying images, free writing/drawing, and memory copying. We extracted multiple movement characteristics, including the length of each stroke, the ratio of the time the pen spent on‐air vs in‐tablet and the standard deviation of the distance between consecutive points. The drawings of each subject were manually supervised, then processed to extract multiple characteristics, and compared to identify the ones providing the most significant differences between the three studied groups using Welch’s t‐test, with false discovery rate (FDR) correction.ResultPreliminary results showed that the ratio between the time with the pen in contact with the tablet and without (on‐air vs in‐tablet) for writing tasks, significantly differentiate between AD and CTL patients (p‐value<0.01), as well as the position standard deviation when asked to maintain the pen at a fixed position (p‐value<0.05). The comparison between MCI and CTL populations also showed that the length of the strokes for drawings and copying tasks can deliver clues to distinguish both groups (p‐value<0.05).ConclusionAutomated analysis of a large variety of handwriting segments employing machine learning techniques can provide an assessment of patients with AD and MCI that may be useful in their early diagnosis and assessment of progression.

Identification of movement phenotypes from occupational gesture kinematics: Advancing individual ergonomic exposure classification and personalized training

The identification of personalized preventive strategies plays a major role in contrasting the occurrence of work-related musculoskeletal disorders. This requires the identification of distinct movement patterns within large samples and the attribution of a proper risk level to each identified movement phenotype. We assessed the feasibility of this approach by exploiting wearable inertial measurement units to estimate the whole-body kinematics of 43 healthy participants performing 18 reach-to-manipulate movements, which differed based on the object's position in the space and the type of manipulation required. Through unsupervised clustering, we identified multiple movement phenotypes graded by ergonomic performance. Furthermore, we determined which joints mostly contributed to instantiating the ergonomic differences across clusters, emphasizing the importance of monitoring this aspect during occupational gestures. Overall, our analysis suggests that movement phenotypes can be identified within occupational motor repertoires. Assigning individual performance to specific phenotypes has the potential to inform the development of more effective and tailored interventions.

Advancements in Polymer Friction and Wear: A Scratch-Modeling Approach

Due to its many applications, including assessing strength, fracture toughness, and so on, the scratch method has attracted much attention in the research community. Finding the tribological characteristics of polymers, such as friction and wear, proved difficult for scratch approaches. This study tested a constant loading scratch method with a Rockwell indenter on the polymeric surface to develop an accessible wear and friction calculation model. Scratch load, speed, and passes, three primary factors, are considered to observe the polymers' response, particularly in terms of width, penetration depth, residual depth, and percentage of recovery. Considering all these scratch parameters, the experiments were conducted on five polymers: polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), polyether ether ketone (PEEK), polypropylene (PP), high-density polyethylene (HDPE), and polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA). The scratch characteristics are considered to calculate the friction coefficient and wear throughout the scratching process. Increased groove width, penetration depth, and residual depth and a decrease in recovery percentage are the effects of the number of scratch passes. The strain hardening caused by the multiple movements of the indenter on the same grooves causes a behavior change. With an increase in the scratch pass, the coefficient of friction decreases and stabilizes, and the volumetric wear increases, suggesting that more scratch passes will cause more material loss. This study derived two distinct models by applying the least-square curve fitting technique to evaluate friction and material wear characteristics. This model demonstrates a high degree of compatibility with the specific characteristics of polymeric materials and exhibits a significantly low margin of error.

Essential training variables of arm-hand training in people with cervical spinal cord injury: a systematic review.

To identify and evaluate 3 training variables of motor training programmes involving people with a cervical spinal cord injury: i.e. motor training strategies, therapy dosage, and persons' motivation for arm-hand functioning in subacute and chronic phases. PubMed, Cochrane, CINAHL, EMBASE, and DARE databases were searched for active arm-hand motor training programmes. Two independent reviewers assessed methodological quality. Pre-post effect sizes were calculated using Hedge's g, and mean effect sizes were calculated to compare outcomes on the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health levels of function and activity. Twelve training programmes integrated mainly skill training alone or combined with strength and/or endurance training. Task-oriented training components included: multiple movement planes, functional movements, clear functional goals, and bimanual practice. Training duration of 8 weeks was common. Quantitative analyses of 8 training programmes showed an overall small effect (0.34) on function level and an overall moderate effect (0.55) on activity level. In depth-analysis of activity level showed moderate effects of skill training only (0.55) or combined with strength and endurance training (0.53). Moderate effects (0.53-0.60) were found for integrating functional movements, clear functional goals, real-life object manipulation, multiple movement planes, total skill practice, context-specific environment, exercise variety, and bimanual practice. Training of minimum 8 weeks showed a moderate effect (0.60-0.69). Based on limited studies, arm-hand functioning aiming to improve activity level can be improved using skill training with at least 8 task-oriented training components, additional strength and endurance training, with a minimum training duration of 8 weeks.

Divergent Temporal Trends of Mercury in Arctic Char from Paired Lakes Influenced by Climate-Related Drivers.

Climate-driven changes including rising air temperatures, enhanced permafrost degradation, and altered precipitation patterns can have profound effects on contaminants, such as mercury (Hg), in High Arctic lakes. Two physically similar lakes, East Lake and West Lake at the Cape Bounty Arctic Watershed Observatory on Melville Island, Nunavut, Canada are being affected by climate change differently. Both lakes have experienced permafrost degradation in their catchments; however, West Lake has also undergone multiple underwater Mass Movement Events (MMEs; beginning in fall 2008), leading to a sustained 50-fold increase in turbidity. This provided the unique opportunity to understand the potential impacts of permafrost degradation and other climate-related effects on Hg concentrations and body condition of landlocked Arctic char (Salvelinus alpinus), an important sentinel species across the Circum-Arctic. Our objectives were to assess temporal trends in char Hg concentrations and to determine potential mechanisms driving the trends. There was a significant decrease in Hg concentrations in East Lake char, averaging 6.5%/year and 3.8%/year for length-adjusted and age-adjusted means, respectively, from 2008 to 2019. Conversely, in West Lake there was a significant increase, averaging 7.9%/year and 8.0%/year for length-adjusted and age-adjusted mean Hg concentrations, respectively, for 2009 to 2017 (the last year with sufficient sample size). The best predictors of length-adjusted Hg concentrations in West Lake were carbon and nitrogen stable isotope ratios, indicating a shift in diet including possible dietary starvation brought on by the profound increase in lake turbidity. Our study provides an example of how increasing lake turbidity, a likely consequence of climate warming in Arctic lakes, may influence fish condition and Hg concentrations. Environ Toxicol Chem 2023;42:2712-2725. © 2023 His Majesty the King in Right of Canada and The Authors. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of SETAC. Reproduced with the permission of the Minister of Environment and Climate Change Canada.

Movement behavior, habitat selection, and functional responses to habitat availability among four species of wintering waterfowl in California

IntroductionHabitat selection analyses provide a window into the perceived value of habitats by animals and how those perceptions compare with other animals, change across time, or change in relation to availability (termed functional responses). Habitat selection analysis and functional responses can be used to develop strategies to avoid habitat limitations, guide habitat management, and set attainable conservation goals. GPS relocations of marked animals are the principal data used in habitat selection analysis. The accuracy and frequency with which tracking devices collect data are increasing and may result in non-stationary point processes that result from latent behaviors previously unidentifiable in sparse data.MethodsWe investigated non-stationary step length distributions and integrated a two-mixture model of animal movement with step selection analysis to identify patterns of activity among four species of co-occurring waterfowl that winter in the Central Valley of California, United States. We evaluated relative strength of selection and compared functional responses across a range of habitat types for two goose and two dabbling duck species.ResultsGoose species (greater white-fronted goose [Anser albifrons] and lesser snow goose [Anser caerulescens caerulescens]) used habitats similarly and displayed similar functional responses with habitat availability. Northern pintail (Anas acuta) displayed functional responses for habitats that provided primary food resources and sanctuary from hunting that were more similar to geese than to mallard (Anas platyrhynchos), which expressed a more generalist pattern of habitat selection.DiscussionOur results define conditions where food resource competition between geese and ducks could operate, which indicate that some species may be more impacted than others. Specifically, early season food limitation may manifest more strongly in snow geese due to longer movements and stronger functional response with rice availability. Late season limitations may manifest in northern pintail, which remain reliant on rice later but may not be reflected in habitat selection patterns due to a consistent functional response with rice availability. We show that multiple movement processes present in high-resolution data can be used to obtain a variety of information about animal behavior and that subsequent step selection analyses may demonstrate unique functional responses relative to alternate habitat selection methods that warrant additional investigation.

The observation of superiority on multiple movements to the Italian left-periphery: Intervention effects on nested dependencies and the role of information-structure features.

Young Romance speakers can structure their sentences by dislocating multiple constituents to the left periphery, resulting in non-canonical word orders. Production data, however, show that this ordering is rigid: only SOV sequences are attested, an observation reminiscent of Superiority. The first goal of the paper is to replicate this observation in comprehension; the second is to derive the Subject-over-Object pattern in terms of Intervention, with the additional assumption that only nested chains count as interveners. Three experiments are reported here. Experiment 1 and Experiment 2 show that SOVs interpretations are systematically favored over OSV and that not only Number features, but also a [+Topic] feature help to overcome intervention. Experiment 3 addresses a potential confound related to the clitic. These results integrate existing intervention-based accounts, traditionally built on relatives, providing not only new evidence coming from matrix clauses, but also investigating the role of information-structure features.

Redução de luxação da articulação temporomandibular (ATM) em equino - relato de caso

ABSTRACT Luxation of the temporomandibular joint (TMJ) in horses, despite being an uncommon condition, is often associated with local trauma involving the head. Its clinical importance is mainly related to the painful injury and impairment of the multiple movements involved in chewing and breaking foods. The objective of the current work is to describe the manual reduction technique of TMJ dislocation in a 6-year-old Mangalarga Marchador stallion with a history of inability to close the oral cavity and lateral displacement of the mandible. In the radiographic and ultrasonographic evaluation of the region a rostral displacement of the mandibular condyle was observed. Manual reduction was effective with the patient under dissociative anesthesia, progressing to medical discharge within 12 days.

Exploring the Spectrum of RHOBTB2 Variants Associated with Developmental Encephalopathy 64: A Case Series and Literature Review.

Rho-related BTB domain-containing protein 2 (RHOBTB2) is a protein that interacts with cullin-3, a crucial E3 ubiquitin ligase for mitotic cell division. RHOBTB2 has been linked to early infantile epileptic encephalopathy, autosomal dominant type 64 (OMIM618004), in 34 reported patients. We present a case series of seven patients with RHOBTB2-related disorders (RHOBTB2-RD), including a description of a novel heterozygous variant. We also reviewed previously published cases of RHOBTB2-RD. The seven patients had ages ranging from 2 years and 8 months to 26 years, and all had experienced seizures before the age of one (onset, 4-12 months, median, 4 months), including various types of seizures. All patients in this cohort also had a movement disorder (onset, 0.3-14 years, median, 1.5 years). Six of seven had a baseline movement disorder, and one of seven only had paroxysmal dystonia. Stereotypies were noted in four of six, choreodystonia in three of six, and ataxia in one case with multiple movement phenotypes at baseline. Paroxysmal movement disorders were observed in six of seven patients for whom carbamazepine or oxcarbazepine treatment was effective in controlling acute or paroxysmal movement disorders. Four patients had acute encephalopathic episodes at ages 4 (one patient) and 6 (three patients), which improved following treatment with methylprednisolone. Magnetic resonance imaging scans revealed transient fluid-attenuated inversion recovery abnormalities during these episodes, as well as myelination delay, thin corpus callosum, and brain atrophy. One patient had a novel RHOBTB2 variant (c.359G>A/p.Gly120Glu). RHOBTB2-RD is characterized by developmental delay or intellectual disability, early-onset seizures, baseline movement disorders, acute or paroxysmal motor phenomena, acquired microcephaly, and episodes of acute encephalopathy. Early onsets of focal dystonia, acute encephalopathic episodes, episodes of tongue protrusion, or peripheral vasomotor disturbances are important diagnostic clues. Treatment with carbamazepine or oxcarbazepine was found to be effective in controlling acute or paroxysmal movement disorders. Our study highlights the clinical features and treatment response of RHOBTB2-RD.

Distraction and visual search characteristics of young drivers when using navigation system displays

Navigation systems are fast and efficient sources of road information for drivers. However, they can increase the potential for accidents by distracting drivers. This study investigated the impact of navigation systems on driver distraction and visual search under various driving conditions. Using a driving simulator, eye-tracking technology recorded visual search data from twenty young drivers. The experiment analyzed factors such as driving environment (urban and rural), illumination level (day and night), and navigation system display size (large and small), as well as their interactions. Multiple eye movement metrics were employed, including duration and frequency of GPS fixation, dwell duration on the road ahead, and dwelling on mirrors and side windows. Statistical analysis employed repeated measures ANOVA to analyze the data. Findings revealed that small GPS displays caused greater distraction in terms of average and total gaze duration. Additionally, distraction increased during daytime driving conditions. In terms of visual search, wider and more dispersed search patterns were observed during the day, resulting in improved driving performance. This study aims to compare small and large navigation displays to identify the more effective option in reducing driver distractions. The research contributes to understanding driver distraction and visual search when using navigation system displays.

Validating Adhesive-Free Bioimpedance of the Leg in Mid-Activity and Uncontrolled Settings.

Musculoskeletal health monitoring is limited in everyday settings where patient symptoms can substantially change - delaying treatment and worsening patient outcomes. Wearable technologies aim to quantify musculoskeletal health outside clinical settings but sensor constraints limit usability. Wearable localized multi-frequency bioimpedance assessment (MFBIA) shows promise for tracking musculoskeletal health but relies on gel electrodes, hindering extended at-home use. Here, we address this need for usable technologies for at-home musculoskeletal health assessment by designing a wearable adhesive-free MFBIA system using textile electrodes in extended uncontrolled mid-activity settings. An adhesive-free multimodal wearable leg MFBIA system was developed in-lab under realistic conditions (5 participants, 45 measurements). Mid-activity textile and gel electrode MFBIA was compared across multiple compound movements (10 participants). Accuracy in tracking long-term changes in leg MFBIA was assessed by correlating gel and textile MFBIA simultaneously recorded in uncontrolled settings (10 participants, 80+ measurement hours). Mid-activity MFBIA measurements with textile electrodes agreed highly with (ground truth) gel electrode measurements (average [Formula: see text], featuring <1-Ohm differences (0.618 ± 0.340 Ω) across all movements. Longitudinal MFBIA changes were successfully measured in extended at-home settings (repeated measures r = 0.84). Participant responses found the system to be comfortable and intuitive (8.3/10), and all participants were able to don and operate the system independently. This work demonstrates wearable textile electrodes can be a viable substitute for gel electrodes when monitoring leg MFBIA in dynamic, uncontrolled settings. Adhesive-free MFBIA can improve healthcare by enabling robust wearable musculoskeletal health monitoring in at-home and everyday settings.