Slow Running Research Articles

Therapeutic Effects of Melatonin On Liver And Kidney Damages In Intensive Exercise Model of Rats.

Extensive exercise induces inflammatory reactions together with high production of free radicals and subsequent liver and kidney tissues damage. This study was designed to investigate for effects of melatonin on liver and kidney tissues in the extensive exercise exposed rats and non-exercised rats. In this research, 24-male Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into four groups. For exercise rat model, the rats were exposed to slow pace running with the velocity of 10 m/min for 5 minutes for five days just before the study. And for last ten days after adaptation period, the exercise was improved as 15 min with the speed of 20 m/min and intra-peritoneal melatonin injection has been performed to the melatonin treated groups with the dose of 10 mg/kg. Biochemical results revealed a decrease in the parameters of kidney and liver enzymes in exercise-group and an increase in the parameters of serum, liver and kidney enzymes in the group that melatonin-exercise-group. As for histological analysis, while it is observed that there are cellular degenerations in the liver and kidney tissues with exercise application, a decrease has been observed in these degenerations in the group that melatonin was applied. At the end of the research, it has been determined that exercise application causes some damages on liver and kidney, and these damages were ameliorated with melatonin treatment.

Analysis of Jumping-Landing Manoeuvers after Different Speed Performances in Soccer Players.

PurposeRunning at high speed and sudden change in direction or activity stresses the knee. Surprisingly, not many studies have investigated the effects of sprinting on knee’s kinetics and kinematics of soccer players. Hence, this study is aimed to investigate indices of injury risk factors of jumping-landing maneuvers performed immediately after sprinting in male soccer players.MethodsTwenty-three collegiate male soccer players (22.1±1.7 years) were tested in four conditions; vertical jump (VJ), vertical jump immediately after slow running (VJSR), vertical jump immediately after sprinting (VJFR) and double horizontal jump immediately after sprinting (HJFR). The kinematics and kinetics data were measured using Vicon motion analyzer (100Hz) and two Kistler force platforms (1000Hz), respectively.ResultsFor knee flexion joint angle, (p = 0.014, η = 0.15) and knee valgus moment (p = 0.001, η = 0.71) differences between condition in the landing phase were found. For knee valgus joint angle, a main effect between legs in the jumping phase was found (p = 0.006, η = 0.31), which suggests bilateral deficit existed between the right and left lower limbs.ConclusionIn brief, the important findings were greater knee valgus moment and less knee flexion joint angle proceeding sprint (HJFR & VJFR) rather than no sprint condition (VJ) present an increased risk for knee injuries. These results seem to suggest that running and sudden subsequent jumping-landing activity experienced during playing soccer may negatively change the knee valgus moment. Thus, sprinting preceding a jump task may increase knee risk factors such as moment and knee flexion joint angle.

Empirical investigation on safety constraints of merging pedestrian crowd through macroscopic and microscopic analysis

A recent crowd stampede during a New Year's Eve celebration in Shanghai, China resulted in 36 fatalities and over 49 serious injuries. Many of such tragic crowd accidents around the world resulted from complex multi-direction crowd movement such as merging behavior. Although there are a few studies on merging crowd behavior, none of them have conducted a systematic analysis considering the impact of both merging angle and flow direction towards the safety of pedestrian crowd movement. In this study, a series of controlled laboratory experiments were conducted to examine the safety constraints of merging pedestrian crowd movements considering merging angle (60°, 90° and 180°) and flow direction under slow running and blocked vision condition. Then, macroscopic and microscopic properties of crowd dynamics are obtained and visualized through the analysis of pedestrian crowd trajectory data derived from video footage. It was found that merging angle had a significant influence on the fluctuations of pedestrian flows, which is important in a critical situation such as emergency evacuation. As the merging angle increased, mean velocity and mean flow at the measuring region in the exit corridors decreased, while mean density increased. A similar trend was observed for the number of weaving and overtaking conflicts, which resulted in the increase of mean headway. Further, flow direction had a significant impact on the outflow of the individuals while blocked vision had an influence on pedestrian crowd interactions and merging process. Finally, this paper discusses safety assessments on crowd merging behaviors along with some recommendations for future research. Findings from this study can assist in the development and validation of pedestrian crowd simulation models as well as organization and control of crowd events.

The Effect of Selected Grease Components on the Wear Behavior of Grease-Lubricated Gears

For gears that are operated at slow speeds, wear is often the failure mode that limits gear lifetime. Gears running at slow speeds are often lubricated with grease. The composition of the grease has a significant effect not only on gear lifetime but also on lubrication costs. Therefore, the selection of a suitable grease for a given gear application requires a good knowledge of its expected performance in regard to wear. In order to better understand the wear behavior of gears lubricated with grease, an understanding of the influence that different grease components, e.g., base oil type and viscosity, thickener type, additive type, and solid lubricants, have on gear wear behavior is important. In this paper, systematic investigations on the influence of different grease components on the wear behavior of slow running, case carburized gears were conducted using the FZG back-to-back gear test rig. The emphasis of the experimental work presented herein lies on the effect that the base oil viscosity and type, additive type, type of soap thickener, as well as the type and concentration of solid lubricants have on the gear wear behavior at low pitch line velocities. The investigations showed that the base oil type and viscosity only have a slight effect on gear wear behavior under boundary lubrication conditions. However, the thickener type and especially the additive type as well as the solid lubricant type significantly affect the wear behavior of gears running at slow speeds and lubricated with grease.

Electromagnetic Energy Harvester With Flexible Coils and Magnetic Spring for 1–10 Hz Resonance

This paper presents an energy harvester with microfabricated flexible coils (rolled and aligned to a magnet array for maximum magnetic flux change) and magnetic spring to generate electrical power from human body motion. The magnet array is suspended by a magnetic spring for a resonant frequency of several hertz. An analytical model of vibration-driven energy harvester with magnetic spring through magnet and coil arrays is developed to explore the power generation with various magnet ranges and vibration amplitudes. Experimental results show that the electromagnetic energy harvester with six 7-turn microfabricated coils (occupying 3.8 cc and weighing 8.5 gram) generates an induced electromotive force (EMF) of $\mathrm{V}_{\mathrm {rms}} =6.7$ mV with 0.53- $\mu $ W power output (into 21- $\Omega $ load) from 0.27-g acceleration at 8 Hz (corresponding to 1.05-mm vibration amplitude). Its larger-scale version with sixteen 200-turn wire-wound coils (occupying 26 cc and weighing 98 gram) generates an EMF of $\mathrm{V}_{\mathrm {rms}} =1.3$ V with 4.3-mW power output (into 100- $\Omega $ load) from 0.5-g acceleration at 5.5 Hz (corresponding to 4.1-mm vibration amplitude). When the larger-scale version of the energy harvester is placed in a backpack of a human walking at various speeds, the power output is increased as the walking speed is increased from 0.45 m/s (slow walking) to 2.68 m/s (slow running), and reaches 14.8 mW at 2.68 m/s. [2014-0323]

It's a Matter of Mind! Cognitive Functioning Predicts the Athletic Performance in Ultra-Marathon Runners.

The present study was aimed at exploring the influence of cognitive processes on performance in ultra-marathon runners, providing an overview of the cognitive aspects that characterize outstanding runners. Thirty runners were administered a battery of computerized tests right before their participation in an ultra-marathon. Then, they were split according to the race rank into two groups (i.e., faster runners and slower runners) and their cognitive performance was compared. Faster runners outperformed slower runners in trials requiring motor inhibition and were more effective at performing two tasks together, successfully suppressing the activation of the information for one of the tasks when was not relevant. Furthermore, slower runners took longer to remember to execute pre-defined actions associated with emotional stimuli when such stimuli were presented. These findings suggest that cognitive factors play a key role in running an ultra-marathon. Indeed, if compared with slower runners, faster runners seem to have a better inhibitory control, showing superior ability not only to inhibit motor response but also to suppress processing of irrelevant information. Their cognitive performance also appears to be less influenced by emotional stimuli. This research opens new directions towards understanding which kinds of cognitive and emotional factors can discriminate talented runners from less outstanding runners.

The capacity of the human iliotibial band to store elastic energy during running

The human iliotibial band (ITB) is a poorly understood fascial structure that may contribute to energy savings during locomotion. This study evaluated the capacity of the ITB to store and release elastic energy during running, at speeds ranging from 2–5m/s, using a model that characterizes the three-dimensional musculoskeletal geometry of the human lower limb and the force–length properties of the ITB, tensor fascia lata (TFL), and gluteus maximus (GMax). The model was based on detailed analyses of muscle architecture, dissections of 3-D anatomy, and measurements of the muscles' moment arms about the hip and knee in five cadaveric specimens. The model was used, in combination with measured joint kinematics and published EMG recordings, to estimate the forces and corresponding strains in the ITB during running. We found that forces generated by TFL and GMax during running stretch the ITB substantially, resulting in energy storage. Anterior and posterior regions of the ITB muscle–tendon units (MTUs) show distinct length change patterns, in part due to different moment arms at the hip and knee. The posterior ITB MTU likely stores more energy than the anterior ITB MTU because it transmits larger muscle forces. We estimate that the ITB stores about 1J of energy per stride during slow running and 7J during fast running, which represents approximately 14% of the energy stored in the Achilles tendon at a comparable speed. This previously unrecognized mechanism for storing elastic energy may be an adaptation to increase human locomotor economy.

Novel heuristic speculative execution strategies in heterogeneous distributed environments

MapReduce is a promising distributed computing platform for large-scale data processing applications. Hadoop MapReduce has been considered as one of the most extensively used open-source implementations of MapReduce frameworks for its flexible customization and convenient usage. Despite these advantages, a relatively slow running task called straggler task impedes job progress. In this study, two novel speculative strategies, namely, Estimate Remaining time Using Linear relationship model (ERUL) and extensional Maximum Cost Performance (exMCP), are developed to improve the estimation of the remaining time of a task. ERUL is a dynamic system load-aware strategy; using this strategy, we can overcome some drawbacks of the Longest Approximate Time to End (LATE) that misleads speculative execution in some cases. In exMCP, different slot values are considered. Extensive experiments show that ERUL and exMCP are applied to accurately estimate the remaining execution times of running tasks and reduce the running time of a job.

Achilles tendon loading patterns during barefoot walking and slow running on a treadmill: An ultrasonic propagation study.

Measurement of tendon loading patterns during gait is important for understanding the pathogenesis of tendon "overuse" injury. Given that the speed of propagation of ultrasound in tendon is proportional to the applied load, this study used a noninvasive ultrasonic transmission technique to measure axial ultrasonic velocity in the right Achilles tendon of 27 healthy adults (11 females and 16 males; age, 26 ± 9 years; height, 1.73 ± 0.07 m; weight, 70.6 ± 21.2 kg), walking at self-selected speed (1.1 ± 0.1 m/s), and running at fixed slow speed (2 m/s) on a treadmill. Synchronous measures of ankle kinematics, spatiotemporal gait parameters, and vertical ground reaction forces were simultaneously measured. Slow running was associated with significantly higher cadence, shorter step length, but greater range of ankle movement, higher magnitude and rate of vertical ground reaction force, and higher ultrasonic velocity in the tendon than walking (P < 0.05). Ultrasonic velocity in the Achilles tendon was highly reproducible during walking and slow running (mean within-subject coefficient of variation < 2%). Ultrasonic maxima (P1, P2) and minima (M1, M2) were significantly higher and occurred earlier in the gait cycle (P1, M1, and M2) during running than walking (P < 0.05). Slow running was associated with higher and earlier peaks in loading of the Achilles tendon than walking.

Aging's effects on marathon performance insights from the New York City race.

Most studies on aging and marathon have analyzed elite marathoners, yet the latter only represent a very small fraction of all marathon participants. In addition, analysis of variance or unpaired Student t tests are frequently used to compare mean performance times across age groups. In this report the authors propose an alternative methodology to determine the impact of aging on marathon performance in both nonelite and elite marathoners participating in the New York City Marathon. In all, 471,453 data points corresponding to 370,741 different runners over 13 race editions (1999-2011) were retrieved. Results showed that the effect of aging on marathon performance was overall comparable in both sexes, the effect of aging differed between the fastest and slowest runners in both sexes, and the magnitude of the sex differences was higher in the slowest runners than in the fastest ones. Current data suggest that the biological differences between sexes allow men to have better marathon performance across most of the human life span.

Examining influence of merging architectural features on pedestrian crowd movement

Architectural features such as merging corridors form an important component in floor plans of any major public infrastructure. Previous studies on documented crowd disasters have highlighted that passage restriction such as merging corridors can have negative impacts on the efficiency of evacuation process. However, limited data exists on merging process in the literature. This study aims to address this issue through empirical data collection and analysis of merging process in a controlled laboratory walking experiments.A series of experiments were conducted with different merging angles (60°, 90° and 180°) and with different desired speed (normal and slow running). The experiments indicated that pedestrians tend to reduce speeds within merging areas. With higher merging angle, there is greater reduction in speed in the merging area. Speed reduction is statistically significant with merging angles and desired speed. The speed reduction had an effect on the flow rate with reduced flow rate observed for higher merging angle. The empirical results from this study can be used to develop and test pedestrian crowd simulation models.

Treadmill vs. overground running gait during childhood: A qualitative and quantitative analysis

Conventional gait labs are limited in their ability to study running gait due to their size. There is no consensus in the literature regarding the ability to extrapolate results for adult treadmill running to overground. This comparison has not been studied in children. Twenty-four healthy children (mean age 11.7) ran overground at a slow running speed while motion capture, ground reaction force, and surface electromyography (EMG) data were obtained. The same data were then collected while participants ran for 6min on an instrumented treadmill at a speed similar to their overground speed. The kinematic, kinetic, and EMG data for overground and treadmill running were compared. Sagittal plane kinematics demonstrated similar hip and knee waveforms with the exception of more knee extension just before toe off. Ankle kinematic waveforms were similar during stance phase but treadmill running demonstrated decreased dorsiflexion during swing. Kinetic data was significantly different between the two conditions with treadmill running having a more anterior ground reaction force compared to overground. Due to the numerous differences between overground and treadmill gait demonstrated in this study, it is felt that the use of an instrumented treadmill is not a surrogate to the study of overground running in a pediatric population. This data set will function as a normative data set against which future treadmill studies can be compared.

The role of environmental factors and genetic diversity on colonization success of a non-native fish, Lepomis gibbosus from western part of Turkey

Non-native freshwater fishes may become one of the dominant species in still and slow running waters and may impact whole ecosystem. One such species is the pumpkinseed Lepomis gibbosus, which has become widely distributed throughout Western Europe occurring primarily lakes and reservoirs. Although the species is known to have existed at least for four decades and expanded its distribution range in Turkish waters widely, virtually there is no study on the factors behind the species' establishment success. We hypothesized high environmental tolerance as well as high population structuring result in more successful establishment of pumpkinseed in new environments. We sampled three reservoirs, one canal and one stream located longitudinally along western part of Turkey to test this hypothesis. Optima (uk) and tolerance (tk) levels of the species were calculated with weighted averaging values for several measured environmental factors. Invasiveness of pumpkinseed populations was determined with the model proposed earlier examining the relationship between juvenile growth and age at maturity. The phylogenetic network of mitochondrial haplotypes was constructed for Turkish populations and other populations of pumpkinseed from native (North America) and introduced range (Europe). Potential invasiveness of pumpkinseed populations in Turkey was categorized as invasive in one location (Sarıçay stream) and transitional in other locations. Environmental tolerance values were higher in southern populations. Likewise phylogenetic network showed that the Turkish populations have unique haplotypes, which were originated from native North American populations suggesting a high differentiation in haplotypes. Results clearly demonstrate the effect of environmental factors on genetic structure and the establishment success of pumpkinseed.

Cumulative loads increase at the knee joint with slow-speed running compared to faster running: a biomechanical study.

Biomechanical cross-sectional study. To investigate the hypothesis that the cumulative load at the knee during running increases as running speed decreases. The knee joint load per stride decreases as running speed decreases. However, by decreasing running speed, the number of strides per given distance is increased. Running a given distance at a slower speed may increase the cumulative load at the knee joint compared with running the same distance at a higher speed, hence increasing the risk of running-related injuries in the knee. Kinematic and ground reaction force data were collected from 16 recreational runners, during steady-state running with a rearfoot strike pattern at 3 different speeds (mean ± SD): 8.02 ± 0.17 km/h, 11.79 ± 0.21 km/h, and 15.78 ± 0.22 km/h. The cumulative load (cumulative impulse) over a 1000-m distance was calculated at the knee joint on the basis of a standard 3-D inverse-dynamics approach. Based on a 1000-m running distance, the cumulative load at the knee was significantly higher at a slow running speed than at a high running speed (relative difference, 80%). The mean load per stride at the knee increased significantly across all biomechanical parameters, except impulse, following an increase in running speed. Slow-speed running decreases knee joint loads per stride and increases the cumulative load at the knee joint for a given running distance compared to faster running. The primary reason for the increase in cumulative load at slower speeds is an increase in number of strides needed to cover the same distance.

Dynamic Resource Allocation Scheme in Cloud Computing

Cloud Computing environment provisions the supply of computing resources on the basis of demand, as and when needed. It builds upon advances of virtualisation and distributed computing to support cost efficient usage of computing resources, emphasizing on resource scalability and on-demand services. It allows business outcomes to scale up and down their resources based on needs. Managing the customer demand creates the challenges of on-demand resource allocation. Virtual Machine (VM) technology has been employed for resource provisioning. It is expected that using virtualized environment will reduce the average job response time as well as executes the task according to the availability of resources. Hence VMs are allocated to the user based on characteristics of the job. Effective and dynamic utilization of the resources in cloud can help to balance the load and avoid situations like slow run of systems. This paper mainly focuses on allocation of VM to the user, based on analyzing the characteristics of the job. Main principle of this work is that low priority jobs (deadline of the job is high) should not delay the execution of high priority jobs (deadline of the job is low) and to dynamically allocate VM resources for a user job within deadline

Human locomotion and heat loss: an evolutionary perspective.

Humans are unique in many respects including being furless, striding bipeds that excel at walking and running long distances in hot conditions. This review summarizes what we do and do not know about the evolution of these characteristics, and how they are related. Although many details remain poorly known, the first hominins (species more closely related to humans than to chimpanzees) apparently diverged from the chimpanzee lineage because of selection for bipedal walking, probably because it improved their ability to forage efficiently. However, because bipedal hominins are necessarily slow runners, early hominins in open habitats likely benefited from improved abilities to dump heat in order to forage safely during times of peak heat when predators were unable to hunt them. Endurance running capabilities evolved later, probably as adaptations for scavenging and then hunting. If so, then there would have been strong selection for heat-loss mechanisms, especially sweating, to persistence hunt, in which hunters combine endurance running and tracking to drive their prey into hyperthermia. As modern humans dispersed into a wide range of habitats over the last few hundred thousand years, recent selection has helped populations cope better with a broader range of locomotor and thermoregulatory challenges, but all humans remain essentially adapted for long distance locomotion rather than speed, and to dump rather than retain heat.

A wearable respiratory monitoring device--the between-days variability of calibration.

The between-days variability in ascertained gain factors for calibration of a wearable respiratory inductance plethysmograph (RIP) and validity thereof for the repeated use during exercise were examined. Consecutive 5-min periods of standing still, slow running at 8 km·h(-1), fast running at 14 km·h(-1) (male) or 12 km·h(-1) (female) and recovery were repeated by 10 healthy subjects on 5 days. Breath-by-breath data were recorded simultaneously by flow meter and RIP. Gain factors were determined individually for each trial (CALIND) via least square regression. Reliability and variability in gain factors were quantified respectively by intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) and limits of agreement. Within a predefined error range of ±20% the amount of RIP-derived tidal volumes after CALIND was compared to corresponding amounts when gain factors of the first trial were applied on the following 4 trials (CALFIRST). ICC ranged within 0.96 and 0.98. The variability in gain factors (up to ± 24.06%) was reduced compensatively by their sum. Amounts of breaths within the predefined error range did not differ between CALIND and (CALFIRST) (P>0.32). The between-days variability of gain factors for a wearable RIP-device does not show impaired reliability in further derived tidal volumes.

Error estimates for the analysis of differential expression from RNA-seq count data.

Background. A number of algorithms exist for analysing RNA-sequencing data to infer profiles of differential gene expression. Problems inherent in building algorithms around statistical models of over dispersed count data are formidable and frequently lead to non-uniform p-value distributions for null-hypothesis data and to inaccurate estimates of false discovery rates (FDRs). This can lead to an inaccurate measure of significance and loss of power to detect differential expression.Results. We use synthetic and real biological data to assess the ability of several available R packages to accurately estimate FDRs. The packages surveyed are based on statistical models of overdispersed Poisson data and include edgeR, DESeq, DESeq2, PoissonSeq and QuasiSeq. Also tested is an add-on package to edgeR and DESeq which we introduce called Polyfit. Polyfit aims to address the problem of a non-uniform null p-value distribution for two-class datasets by adapting the Storey–Tibshirani procedure.Conclusions. We find the best performing package in the sense that it achieves a low FDR which is accurately estimated over the full range of p-values, albeit with a very slow run time, is the QLSpline implementation of QuasiSeq. This finding holds provided the number of biological replicates in each condition is at least 4. The next best performing packages are edgeR and DESeq2. When the number of biological replicates is sufficiently high, and within a range accessible to multiplexed experimental designs, the Polyfit extension improves the performance DESeq (for approximately 6 or more replicates per condition), making its performance comparable with that of edgeR and DESeq2 in our tests with synthetic data.

G.P.267: Nebulin-associated myopathy: New genetic and pathologic presentations

Nebulin is a giant sarcomeric protein spanning whole length of thin filament, and its coding gene (NEB) mostly causes autosomal recessive nemaline myopathy. The NEB mutations may also cause distal nebulin myopathy with initial presentation of foot drop, and recent reports added another muscle disease of core-rod myopathy with double presentation of nemaline rods and cores. In this study, two patients with nemaline rods in muscle pathology were recruited, one of whom (patient 1) was the proband of a symptomatic sibling. Patient 1 initially presented with foot drop and has been a slow runner since childhood. His fourth elder brother also complained of foot drop and gait disturbance. Patient 2 had gait disturbance since age 5, and his ankle dorsiflexors were the most weak among all muscles. All the patients were still ambulant and never complained of respiratory restriction. Muscle CT scans revealed atrophy of anterior tibial muscles in both of patients. Muscle pathology additionally showed core lesions and mitochondrial abnormalities, as well as nemaline rods. Nemaline myopathy-causing genes were first excluded and then, whole exome sequencing and followed targeted sequencing were detected three novel mutations in NEB gene: one missense, one single bp deletion and del/ins mutations. One missense mutation was shared by all of them. This study represents the disease associated with novel NEB mutations marked by the presence of additional pathological features, as well as nemaline rods. Although mixed pathology has been already reported in core-rod myopathy with NEB mutations, muscle pathology in these patients is more characteristic, and clinical manifestation is much milder compared with the previous ones. This report suggests the expanded clinical and pathological spectrum of nebulin-associated myopathy with new genetic and pathologic features. Further, next genome sequencing might be helpful for searching mutations in big, huge-sized genes, such as NEB.

G.P.237: Autosomal-dominant spinal muscular atrophy due to mutations in BICD2 gene in Bulgarian patients

Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) refers to a group of genetic disorders characterized by degeneration of anterior horn cells of the spinal cord. Initially, the disease was considered purely as an autosomal recessive condition caused by deleterious SMN1 mutations in 5q13. Nowadays a growing number of conditions are designated as non-5q forms of SMA. Materials and methods: A four-generation Bulgarian family with 11 affected members and one sporadic patient afflicted with autosomal dominant proximal SMA underwent detailed neurological examination and testing of muscle strength. Evaluation of serum creatine phosphokinase (CPK) levels and electromyography (EMG) were performed in 6 subjects. The molecular-genetic analysis encompassed genome-wide linkage analysis and whole-exome sequencing. The clinical onset was in childhood, varying between 1 and 6 years (mean 3.17 ± 1.70 years). The affected presented with delayed motor milestones, such as walking, difficulties in getting upright from a squatting position and in climbing stairs, a waddling gait, and slow running. The weakness was limited to the lower limbs and did not show significant progression over time, given that the oldest affected individuals still remained ambulatory into the fifth decade. Symmetric wasting was most prominent in the hip muscles, whereas distal leg muscles seemed atrophic in the older family members. EMG analysis proved anterior horn involvement. Serum creatine phosphokinase (CPK) levels were mostly normal. The genome-wide linkage analysis and whole-exome sequencing found a heterozygous de novo c.320C>T (p. Ser107Leu) mutation in bicaudal D homolog 2 (Drosophila) (BICD2) in the 11 affected from the four-generation family and c.2321A>G (p. Glu774Gly) in the sporadic case. Our study identifies BICD2 gene mutations as a cause of the increasing number non-5q linked SMA and highlights its importance in the motor neuron function in humans.