Unwanted Movements Research Articles

A novel tablet-based application for assessment of manual dexterity and its components: a reliability and validity study in healthy subjects

BackgroundWe developed five tablet-based tasks (applications) to measure multiple components of manual dexterity. Aim: to test reliability and validity of tablet-based dexterity measures in healthy participants.MethodsTasks included: (1) Finger recognition to assess mental rotation capacity. The subject taps with the finger indicated on a virtual hand in three orientations (reaction time, correct trials). (2) Rhythm tapping to evaluate timing of finger movements performed with, and subsequently without, an auditory cue (inter-stimulus interval). (3) Multi-finger tapping to assess independent finger movements (reaction time, correct trials, unwanted finger movements). (4) Sequence tapping to assess production and memorization of visually cued finger sequences (successful taps). (5) Line-tracking to assess movement speed and accuracy while tracking an unpredictably moving line on the screen with the fingertip (duration, error). To study inter-rater reliability, 34 healthy subjects (mean age 35 years) performed the tablet tasks twice with two raters. Relative reliability (Intra-class correlation, ICC) and absolute reliability (Standard error of measurement, SEM) were established. Task validity was evaluated in 54 healthy subjects (mean age 49 years, range: 20–78 years) by correlating tablet measures with age, clinical dexterity assessments (time taken to pick-up objects in Box and Block Test, BBT and Moberg Pick Up Test, MPUT) and with measures obtained using a finger force-sensor device.ResultsMost timing measures showed excellent reliability. Poor to excellent reliability was found for correct trials across tasks, and reliability was poor for unwanted movements. Inter-session learning occurred in some measures. Age correlated with slower and more variable reaction times in finger recognition, less correct trials in multi-finger tapping, and slower line-tracking. Reaction times correlated with those obtained using a finger force-sensor device. No significant correlations between tablet measures and BBT or MPUT were found. Inter-task correlation among tablet-derived measures was weak.ConclusionsMost tablet-based dexterity measures showed good-to-excellent reliability (ICC ≥ 0.60) except for unwanted movements during multi-finger tapping. Age-related decline in performance and association with finger force-sensor measures support validity of tablet measures. Tablet-based components of dexterity complement conventional clinical dexterity assessments. Future work is required to establish measurement properties in patients with neurological and psychiatric disorders.

Wrist-Worn Hand Gesture Recognition While Walking via Transfer Learning.

Walking, one of the most common daily activities, causes unwanted movement artifacts which can significantly deteriorate hand gesture recognition accuracy. However, traditional hand gesture recognition algorithms are typically developed and validated with wrist-worn devices only during static human poses, neglecting the critical importance of dynamic effects on gesture accuracy. Thus, we developed and validated a signal decomposition approach via empirical mode decomposition to accurately segment target gestures from coupled raw signals during dynamic walking and a transfer learning method based on distribution adaptation to enable gesture recognition through domain transfer between dynamic walking and static standing scenarios. Ten healthy subjects performed seven hand gestures during both walking and standing experiments while wearing an IMU wrist-worn device. Experimental results showed that the signal decomposition approach reduced the gesture detection error by 83.8%, and the transfer learning approach (20% transfer rate) improved hand gesture recognition accuracy by 15.1%. This ground-breaking work demonstrates the feasibility of hand gesture recognition while walking via wrist-worn sensing. These findings serve to inform real-life and ubiquitous adoption of wrist-worn hand gesture recognition for intuitive human-machine interaction in dynamic walking situations.

Design of a High-Durability X-Band Patch Antenna with a CPW Feeding Network Based on a Durability Evaluation Analysis

In this paper, we propose a high-durability X-band patch antenna with a coplanar waveguide (CPW) feeding network that can directly connect the upper antenna and the lower transmitting receiver modules without additional cabling. To improve the durability of the antenna, both the sub miniature push-on (SMP) connector and the feed-pin are separated through the CPW layer. This separated structure can minimize the deterioration of the antenna performance when the unwanted movement of the SMP connector occurs from external shocks. To verify the design feasibility, the reflection coefficient and radiation patterns of the proposed antenna are measured in a full anechoic chamber. The reflection coefficient of the proposed antenna is −27 dB at 10 GHz, and the operating frequency bandwidth (|Γ| < −10 dB) is 4.7% (9.82~10.29 GHz) in X-band. The proposed antenna has a maximum gain of 5.7 dBi at the bore-sight direction. In addition, the durability evaluations of the proposed design according to unwanted SMP connector movements provoked by external shocks are investigated using Monte Carlo simulations. The results demonstrate that the proposed high-durability antenna design is suitable for military ship applications that involve exposure to various external shocks.

Advances and future directions in the care of patients with facial paralysis

Advances and future directions in the care of patients with facial paralysis

Effects of application of Kinesio Taping on the Tibialis Anterior muscle in Cerebral Palsy: case series

Justification: Cerebral palsy (CP) caused by injury to the immature Central Nervous System and causes repercussions as serious as the extent of the lesion. Equine foot is common in children with spastic CP, due to hyperactivity of the plantar flexors in relation to the main dorsoflexor, tibialis anterior. Treatment based on adaptations made to improve patients' quality of life. The Kinesio Taping® (KT®) method aims to maintain therapeutic results, being the functional correction technique widely used in neurological patients to limit unwanted or pathological movements. Objective: To observe the effects of KT® application on the tibialis anterior on spasticity levels and tibio-tarsal range of motion in CP. Methods: The descriptive observational study of the case series type, carried out from October 24th to November 31th 2014. Which seven children underwent assessment of spasticity of the right lower limb and of the right tibio-tarsal joint range of motion and intervention using the KT® method. Results: The final sample consisted of seven children aged between 7 and 14 years, one of which was female. Most children reduced or maintained the degree of spasticity, and increased plantar flexion at rest and ranges in dorsiflexion and plantar flexion. Conclusion: The results suggest that, although the participants did not demonstrate affinity with the technique, there was some interference of the Kinésio Taping® method in their spasticity and in their tibio-tarsal joint mobility.

Toward applying a device to reduce motion artifact during imaging: a randomized controlled trial

ABSTRACT Objective One of the most critical problems in different types of medical imaging modalities is unwanted patient movement during imaging procedures, which mainly occurs because of stress, anxiety, and restlessness in patients, resulting in poor image quality and decreased diagnostic accuracy. Methods This prospective, randomized, double-blinded, controlled trial comprised 267 patients who underwent MPI, randomly divided into three groups; Group I: streaming music with a special binaural beat frequency (MBB); Group II: streaming simple music (SM) and Group III: control group. Anxiety level was determined by DASS (Depression Anxiety Stress-Scale) questionnaire and heart rate was monitored. Results Stress and anxiety scores were significantly lower in the MBB group compared with both SM and control group (P˂0.0001). Additionally, a significant decrease in heart rate of patients who were in the MBB group in comparison with the SM (p=0.005) and control group (P=0.018) was observed. The study revealed a significant decrease in motion artifact in the MBB group compared with the SM (P=0.003) and control (P˂0.0001) groups. Conclusions Using the proposed device capable of streaming special binaural beat frequency embedded music can cause a significant reduction in anxiety level, heart rate, and consequently motion artifact. This method can be useful during the imaging procedure due to several reasons. First, this can cause a significant reduction in motion artifacts. Next, anxiety and stress can be reduced significantly due to the application of special binaural beat frequency embedded music during an imaging procedure. Then, a significant reduction in post-imaging stress and anxiety scores was achieved after using it. Finally, binaural beat frequency embedded music leads to imaging repetition avoidance.

EG-SNIK: A Free Viewing Egocentric Gaze Dataset and Its Applications

Egocentric vision data captures the first person perspective of a visual stimulus and helps study the gaze behavior in more natural contexts. In this work, we propose a new dataset collected in a free viewing style with an end-to-end data processing pipeline. A group of 25 participants provided their gaze information wearing Tobii Pro Glasses 2 set up at a museum. The gaze stream is post-processed for handling missing or incoherent information. The corresponding video stream is clipped into 20 videos corresponding to 20 museum exhibits and compensated for user’s unwanted head movements. Then, I-VT algorithm is used to identify eye movements as fixations and saccades. Based on the velocity of directional shifts of the eye, the I-VT algorithm classifies the eye movements into either fixations or saccades. Representative scanpaths are built by generalizing multiple viewers’ gazing styles for all exhibits. The application of our dataset is demonstrated for characterizing the inherent gaze dynamics using state trajectory estimator based on ancestor sampling (STEAS) model in solving gaze data classification and retrieval problems.

Optimized Continuous Wavelet Transform Algorithm Architecture and Implementation on FPGA for Motion Artifact Rejection in Radar-Based Vital Signs Monitoring

The continuous wavelet transform (CWT) has been used in radar-based vital signs detection to identify and to remove the motion artifacts from the received radar signals. Since the CWT algorithm is computationally heavy, the processing of this algorithm typically results in long processing time and complex hardware implementation. The algorithm in its standard form typically uses software processing tools and is unable to support high-performance data processing. The aim of this research is to design an optimized CWT algorithm architecture to implement it on Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) in order to identify the unwanted movement introduced in the retrieved vital signs signals. The optimization approaches in the new implementation structure are based on utilizing the frequency domain processing, optimizing the required number of operations and implementing parallel processing of independent operations. Our design achieves significant processing speed and logic utilization optimization. It is found that processing the algorithm using our proposed hardware architecture is 48 times faster than processing it usingMATLAB. It also achieves an improvement of 58% in speed performance compared to alternative solutions reported in literature. Moreover, efficient resources utilization is achieved and reported. This advanced performance of the proposed design is due to consciously implementing comprehensive approaches of multiple optimization techniques that results in multidimensional improvements. As a result, our achieved design is suitable for utilization in high-performance data processing applications.

Nonlinear repetitive control of the metal cutting machine feed module with saturated input

The article discusses the methodology for constructing an automatic control system for the feed module of the cutting tool for lathes in the presence of input saturation. The presence of the saturation function is due to restrict unwanted movements of the feed module actuator. The generator for periodic signals, the hyperstability criterion, L-dissipativity conditions and an implicit reference model are used as the solution methods for structural synthesis of the control system. At the stage of simulation, the functioning quality of the developed control system is illustrated.

Enterpolasyon Tabanlı Akıllı Video Stabilizasyonu

Video stabilization is the process of eliminating unwanted camera movements and shaking in a recorded video. Recently, learning-based video stabilization methods have become very popular. Supervised learning-based approaches need labeled data. For the video stabilization problem, recording both stable and unstable versions of the same video is quite troublesome and requires special hardware. In order to overcome this situation, learning-based interpolation methods that do not need such data have been proposed. In this paper, we review recent learning-based interpolation methods for video stabilization and discuss the shortcomings and potential improvements of them.

Productivity Improvement through Cycle Time Reduction and Line Balancing: A Case Study of Machine Shop

Abstract: Competitiveness among the manufacturing industries is rapidly increasing because of industrialization. In today’s era, every manufacturing industry is trying to produce low cost products with superior quality and with propriety to deliver them in stipulated time period. Every manufacturing organisation needs appropriate system to produce high quality products in minimum cycle time, which can be achieved by maintaining higher productivity. In this research study, an attempt has been made to enhance the productivity of automotive component oil pan by reducing the machining cycle time and balancing the line to avoid unwanted movement of work piece and bottlenecks. It has been found that by incorporating CBN cutters and spot facing tool in machining, cycle time has been reduced by 7.02minutes per job. U type machine layout has been suggested to balance the production line.It has been observed that, with reduction of cycle time by 7.02 minutes per job, production capacity per shift can be increased from current 28 jobs per shift to 36 jobs per shift. With machining of additional 8 jobs per shift, production capacity of oil pan can be increased from 2000 jobs per month to 2900 jobs per month. Keywords: Productivity, Cycle Time Reduction, Line Balancing, Machine Shop

Olanzapine-Related Somnambulism: A Systematic Review of Literature and a Case Report of Anorexia Nervosa.

Somnambulism, or sleepwalking (SW), is one of the most common forms of arousal parasomnias. It is characterized by different complex motor behaviors leading to unwanted movements in bed or walking during sleep. It can be the consequence of psychological stress, abnormal breathing during sleep, high fever, or drug adverse effects. There is evidence of an association between antipsychotic treatment, including olanzapine, and SW. We present the case of a patient experiencing treatment-resistant anorexia nervosa whose somnambulism re-exacerbated after the addition of a low dose of olanzapine, following the CARE (CAse REport) Statement and Checklist. We also conducted a systematic review of the literature on olanzapine-induced somnambulism following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. PubMed, PsychINFO, and the Cochrane Library databases were independently reviewed up to January 2021 for articles reporting olanzapine-related somnambulism cases, without language or time restriction. We describe a case of somnambulism in a patient initially admitted to our hospital for anorexia nervosa and treated with a low dose of olanzapine. This is the first case of SW induced by olanzapine in eating disorders to be reported. Up-to-date olanzapine-related somnambulism was described in 8 patients experiencing psychiatric disorders (ie, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder). To provide a reliable estimate of incidence and prevalence for olanzapine-related somnambulism, large-scale, pharmacovigilance studies are required, to allow for comparisons of overall clinical characteristics, outcomes, including time to recovery, between different treatment options. Clinician awareness should be enhanced, and attention should be given to such infrequent adverse effects associated with antipsychotics.

Induction and Assessment of Levodopa-induced Dyskinesias in a Rat Model of Parkinson's Disease.

Levodopa (L-DOPA) remains the gold-standard therapy used to treat Parkinson's disease (PD) motor symptoms. However, unwanted involuntary movements known as L-DOPA-induced dyskinesias (LIDs) develop with prolonged use of this dopamine precursor.It is estimated that the incidence of LIDs escalates to approximately 90% of individuals with PD within 10-15 years of treatment. Understanding the mechanisms of this malady and developing both novel and effective anti-dyskinesia treatments requires consistent and accurate modeling for pre-clinical testing of therapeutic interventions. A detailed method for reliable induction and comprehensive rating of LIDs following 6-OHDA-induced nigral lesioning in a rat model of PD is presented here. Dependable LID assessment in rats provides a powerful tool that can be readily utilized across laboratories to test emerging therapies focused on reducing or eliminating this common treatment-induced burden for individuals with PD.

P063 Optogenetics for Obstructive Sleep Apnea

Abstract Introduction We propose a novel sleep apnea therapy whereby a viral vector construct induces opsin expression and therefore light sensitivity to the upper airway muscles. Pulsed light to these muscles during sleep will enhance muscle contractions resulting in airway dilation and apnea prevention. Here we investigate the therapy’s feasibility, and determine whether a muscle-specific promotor induces superior expression and light-evoked EMG responses compared to a non-specific promotor. Superiority will be determined by the strength and specificity of opsin expression as restricting expression to the tongue minimises the likelihood of immune responses and unwanted sensation, movement or pain with light application. Methods 10 rats received an intramuscular injection of a viral vector construct to induce opsin expression in the tongue. 4 rats received a non-specific construct and 6 received a muscle-specific construct. Pulsed light was applied directly to the tongue, and genioglossus EMG activity was recorded. Confocal imaging of the brainstem and tongue quantified the strength and specificity of opsin expression. Results Despite the greater titer of the non-specific construct, the muscle-specific construct consistently drove stronger expression in the tongue and subsequently greater light-evoked EMG activity. Additionally, whilst the non-specific construct drove retrograde gene expression in hypoglossal motor neurons, no retrograde expression was induced by the muscle-specific construct. Conclusions This study provides proof-of-concept of a non-invasive optogenetic stimulation-based therapy for OSA. The superior expression and light induced EMG activity generated by the muscle-specific promotor indicates that it is the preferred promotor for future studies employing direct optogenetic stimulation of skeletal muscle.

Canine angulation and rotation during canine retraction using elastomeric chains with and without a power arm

Background: During canine retraction, orthodontic forces are applied away from the tooth’s center of resistance. This introduces canine distal tipping and mesiobuccal rotation. The correction of these unwanted movements will prolong treatment time. Applying the force closer to the center of resistance should decrease this unwanted tooth movement. Objective: Compare the canine angulation and rotation during canine retraction with and without the use of power arm. Materials and Methods: Twenty-four female orthodontic patients (age 19.32± 4.17 years) with dental Class II indicated for bilateral maxillary first premolar extraction and maximum anchorage were included in this study. The canines were retracted with elastomeric chains over 0.016” X 0.022” statinless steel arch wires to reduce friction. The retraction force was 150g. In twelve patients, the canines were retracted using a power arm fixed to the vertical slots of the canine brackets. For the other twelve patients, the elastic chains were attached to the bracket hooks. Results: Before treatment, the canine angulation and rotation was similar for the two groups. The canine angulation was 12.38± 8.27 and 14.5o± 9.41 for the group with the power arm and without, respectively. while canine rotation was 64.74o± 11.65 and 63.12o± 14.88, respectively. Post-retraction, there was no significant difference in the canine angulation or rotation between the groups. Conclusion: Compared to canine retraction with a power arm, conventional canine retraction with elastomeric chains attached to the bracket hook may provide similar control over distal tipping, provided a stiff 0.017” X 0.025” stainless steel arch wire is used.

Subperiosteal Anchorage in Orthodontics: A Narrative Review

Orthodontic anchorage is a necessity for every treatment and must be carefully evaluated by the orthodontist. It is defined as the resistance to unwanted dental movement of a tooth or a number of teeth by using different techniques. The purpose of the present paper is to highlight the subperiosteal anchorage applied to orthodontics; this technique has been debated in the literature and the purpose here is to summarize the fields of application. During the first check of previous literature 548 results were found, which have been reduced to 19 selected papers after application of the inclusion criteria and the elimination of duplicates. Multiple electronic databases were searched from 1 January 1995 to 31 December 2020 in order to identify papers eligible for current review. The data obtained by this review underlined the versatility of onplants used as absolute anchorage during orthodontic treatments, the advantages and disadvantages, the biomechanical properties and survival rates, and the clinical procedure. Further clinical studies and research are required to explore other kinds of application and to state specific guidelines; however, this study represents an update and a starting point for clinicians who want to use these devices and for further improvement of the technique.

Establishment and evaluation of a compound fear behavior model of Tourette's syndrome in rats.

BackgroundTourette syndrome (TS) is a common childhood disorder characterized by unwanted movements or vocal sounds called tics. It is often accompanied by other psychobehavioral disorders, including fearful behavior. The establishment and evaluation of rat models of TS and comorbid fear can provide an experimental basis for the treatment of TS and its comorbid fear disorder.MethodsSixteen rats were randomly divided into a model group (n=8) and control group (n=8). In the model group, rats were injected intraperitoneally with iminodipropionitrile (IDPN) for 1 week to establish the TS model, which was followed by acoustic and electrical stimulation for 3 weeks to establish the rat models of TS and comorbid fear. The control group received intraperitoneal injection of saline for 1 week, and no further intervention was given in the last 3 weeks. The behavioral changes of the rats were observed and analyzed by the open field test (OFT). Protein kinase A (PKA), cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP), and dopamine (DA) were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) and microRNA-134 (miRNA-134) in the brain tissue were detected by using polymerase chain reaction (PCR).ResultsOne rat in the model group died on the 24th day. Compared with the control group, the model group had significantly higher scores of locomotor activity, stereotyped behavior, and motor behavior, along with prolonged freezing time and significantly lower expression of miRNA-134. The differences in the expressions of PKA, cAMP, DA, and TH in brain tissue were not statistically significant.ConclusionsThe rat models of TS and comorbid fear have similar changes in behaviors and miRNA-134 level to those in clinical settings and therefore can be used as a reliable animal model to study the mechanism of action of TS and comorbid fear.

A distributed time-lapse camera network to track vegetation phenology with high temporal detail and at varying scales

Abstract. Near-surface remote sensing techniques are essential monitoring tools to provide spatial and temporal resolutions beyond the capabilities of orbital methods. This high level of detail is especially helpful to monitor specific plant communities and to accurately time the phenological stages of vegetation – which satellites can miss by days or weeks in frequently clouded areas such as the Arctic. In this paper, we describe a measurement network that is distributed across varying plant communities in the high Arctic valley of Adventdalen on the Svalbard archipelago with the aim of monitoring vegetation phenology. The network consists of 10 racks equipped with sensors that measure NDVI (normalized difference vegetation index), soil temperature, and moisture as well as time-lapse RGB cameras (i.e. phenocams). Three additional time-lapse cameras are placed on nearby mountains to provide an overview of the valley. We derived the vegetation index GCC (green chromatic channel) from these RGB photos, which has similar applications as NDVI but at a fraction of the cost of NDVI imaging sensors. To create a robust time series for GCC, each set of photos was adjusted for unwanted movement of the camera with a stabilizing algorithm that enhances the spatial precision of these measurements. This code is available at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4554937 (Parmentier, 2021) and can be applied to time series obtained with other time-lapse cameras. This paper presents an overview of the data collection and processing and an overview of the dataset that is available at https://doi.org/10.21343/kbpq-xb91 (Nilsen et al., 2021). In addition, we provide some examples of how these data can be used to monitor different vegetation communities in the landscape.

Betulinic Acid Hydroxamate is Neuroprotective and Induces Protein Phosphatase 2A-Dependent HIF-1\u03b1 Stabilization and Post-transcriptional Dephosphorylation of Prolyl Hydrolase 2

Huntington’s disease (HD) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by unwanted choreatic movements, behavioral and psychiatric disturbances, and dementia. The activation of the hypoxic response pathway through the pharmacological inhibition of hypoxia-inducing factor (HIF) prolyl-hydroxylases (PHDs) is a promising approach for neurodegenerative diseases, including HD. Herein, we have studied the mechanism of action of the compound Betulinic acid hydroxamate (BAH), a hypoximimetic derivative of betulinic acid, and its efficacy against striatal neurodegeneration using complementary approaches. Firstly, we showed the molecular mechanisms through which BAH modifies the activity of the PHD2 prolyl hydroxylase, thus directly affecting HIF-1α stability. BAH treatment reduces PHD2 phosphorylation on Ser-125 residue, responsible for the control of its hydrolase activity. HIF activation by BAH is inhibited by okadaic acid and LB-100 indicating that a protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A) is implicated in the mechanism of action of BAH. Furthermore, in striatal cells bearing a mutated form of the huntingtin protein, BAH stabilized HIF-1α protein, induced Vegf and Bnip3 gene expression and protected against mitochondrial toxin-induced cytotoxicity. Pharmacokinetic analyses showed that BAH has a good brain penetrability and experiments performed in a mouse model of striatal neurodegeneration induced by 3-nitropropionic acid showed that BAH improved the clinical symptoms. In addition, BAH also prevented neuronal loss, decreased reactive astrogliosis and microglial activation, inhibited the upregulation of proinflammatory markers, and improved antioxidant defenses in the brain. Taken together, our results show BAH’s ability to activate the PP2A/PHD2/HIF pathway, which may have important implications in the treatment of HD and perhaps other neurodegenerative diseases.

Canine avulsion: An extreme complication of a fixed mandibular lingual retainer

The use of fixed retainers at the end of a course of orthodontic treatment has become standard practice. The main complication that can occur with fixed retainers is the detachment of the wire from one or more teeth. A less common complication is unwanted tooth movement. This article presents a patient with extreme tooth movement associated with a mandibular fixed retainer. Ten years after orthodontic treatment, a 26-year-old male sought treatment for post-orthodontic movement of the mandibular anterior 6 teeth. Despite the fixed retainer still being attached to all teeth, the apex of the right canine was completed avulsed labially. Severe labial recession was also present on the left lateral incisor. The canine was extracted, and the fixed retainer was removed. Significant root resorption identified on a panoramic radiograph contraindicated any further extensive orthodontic intervention. This case highlights that clinicians and patients should be aware of this rare but serious complication.