Rhythm analysis of orthogonal signals from human walking

In physical terms, periodic movements of a human body resulting from walking produce a pulse sequence with repetition time T(1) (instant cadence frequency, 1/T(1)) and duration time T(2). Footstep forces generate periodic T(1) broadband seismic and sound signals due to the dynamic forces between the foot and the ground/floor with duration time T(2), which is equal to the time interval for a single footstep from heel strike to toe slap and weight transfer. In a human gait study (for normal speeds of walking), T(1) was detected as 0.5-0.69 s and double limb support takes up about 12% of the gait cycle (2T(1)), so T(2) is greater than 0.12-0.17 s. Short range (of about 50 m) signatures for 30 humans were recorded simultaneously by four orthogonal sensor types at two locations. The sensor types were active Doppler sonar/radar and passive seismic/acoustics. Analysis of signals from these four sensors collected for walking humans showed temporal synchronization and stability of the cadence frequencies, and the cadence frequency from each sensor was equivalent. The time delay between signals from these sensors due to the differences in speeds of propagation for seismic, sound, and electromagnetic waves allows calculation of the distance from a walker to the sensor suite.     

When human walking becomes random walking: fractal analysis and modeling of gait rhythm fluctuations

We present a random walk, fractal analysis of the stride-to-stride fluctuations in the human gait rhythm. The gait of healthy young adults is scale-free with long-range correlations extending over hundreds of strides. This fractal scaling changes characteristically with maturation in children and older adults and becomes almost completely uncorrelated with certain neurologic diseases. Stochastic modeling of the gait rhythm dynamics, based on transitions between different "neural centers", reproduces distinctive statistical properties of the gait pattern. By tuning one model parameter, the hopping (transition) range, the model can describe alterations in gait dynamics from childhood to adulthood including a decrease in the correlation and volatility exponents with maturation.     

Nonlinear time series analysis of normal and pathological human walking

Characterizing locomotor dynamics is essential for understanding the neuromuscular control of locomotion. In particular, quantifying dynamic stability during walking is important for assessing people who have a greater risk of falling. However, traditional biomechanical methods of defining stability have not quantified the resistance of the neuromuscular system to perturbations, suggesting that more precise definitions are required. For the present study, average maximum finite-time Lyapunov exponents were estimated to quantify the local dynamic stability of human walking kinematics. Local scaling exponents, defined as the local slopes of the correlation sum curves, were also calculated to quantify the local scaling structure of each embedded time series. Comparisons were made between overground and motorized treadmill walking in young healthy subjects and between diabetic neuropathic (NP) patients and healthy controls (CO) during overground walking. A modification of the method of surrogate data was developed to examine the stochastic nature of the fluctuations overlying the nominally periodic patterns in these data sets. Results demonstrated that having subjects walk on a motorized treadmill artificially stabilized their natural locomotor kinematics by small but statistically significant amounts. Furthermore, a paradox previously present in the biomechanical literature that resulted from mistakenly equating variability with dynamic stability was resolved. By slowing their self-selected walking speeds, NP patients adopted more locally stable gait patterns, even though they simultaneously exhibited greater kinematic variability than CO subjects. Additionally, the loss of peripheral sensation in NP patients was associated with statistically significant differences in the local scaling structure of their walking kinematics at those length scales where it was anticipated that sensory feedback would play the greatest role. Lastly, stride-to-stride fluctuations in the walking patterns of all three subject groups were clearly distinguishable from linearly autocorrelated Gaussian noise. As a collateral benefit of the methodological approach taken in this study, some of the first steps at characterizing the underlying structure of human locomotor dynamics have been taken. Implications for understanding the neuromuscular control of locomotion are discussed. (c) 2000 American Institute of Physics.     

Dynamics of human walking at steady speeds

Biped locomotion is discussed through a Lagrangian formulation for velocity-dependent, body driving forces. An analysis of level walking in humans is given through the known experimental data on the ground-reaction force and the external work without recourse to inverted-pendulum modeling. At a certain speed, rectilinear motion of the center of mass with its backward rotation along a shortened hypocycloid is ensured by double-frequency nonlinear oscillations, whose energy cost is 1% of the external work. With increasing speed, a peculiarity and an instability of the trajectory indicate, respectively, a slow-to-normal gait crossover and the maximal fast walking speed. Key words: integrative biology, biped locomotion, human gaits, muscles.     

Holographic walking from tachyon DBI

We use holography to study conformal phase transitions, which are believed to be realized in four dimensional QCD and play an important role in walking technicolor models of electroweak symmetry breaking. At strong coupling they can be modeled by the non-linear dynamics of a tachyonic scalar field with mass close to the Breitenlohner–Freedman bound in anti-de Sitter spacetime. Taking the action for this field to have a tachyon-Dirac–Born–Infeld form gives rise to models that resemble hard and soft wall AdS/QCD, with a dynamically generated wall. For hard wall models, the highly excited spectrum has the KK form _mn∼n$m_n\sim n$; in the soft wall case we exhibit potentials with _mn∼n^α$m_n\sim n^{\alpha }$, 0<α?1/2$0<\alpha ?1/2$. We investigate the finite temperature phase structure and find first or second order symmetry restoration transitions, depending on the behavior of the potential near the origin of field space.     

Extraction of the velocity of walking human's body segments using ultrasonic Doppler

The focus of this paper is to experimentally extract the Doppler signatures of a walking human's individual body segments using an ultrasonic Doppler system (UDS) operating at 40 kHz. In a human's walk, the major contribution to Doppler velocities and acoustic scattering is from the foot, lower leg, thigh (upper leg) and torso. The Doppler signature of these human body segments are extracted experimentally. The measurements were made by illuminating one of these body segments at a time and blocking the remaining body segments using acoustic screens. The results obtained in our experiment were verified with the results published by Bradley using a physics-based model for Doppler sonar spectrograms.     

XPS analysis with pulsed voltage stimuli

We record XPS spectra while applying 0 to +10 V or 0 to −10 V square pulses to the sample rod, which normally results in twinning of all peaks at correspondingly increased (for +10 V) or decreased (for −10 V) binding energies. For poorly conducting samples, like silicon oxide layer on a silicon substrate, the twinned peaks appear at different energies due to differential charging, which also vary with respect to the frequency of the applied pulses. Moreover, the frequency dependence varies with the thickness and can be correlated with the capacitance of the oxide layer. The technique is simple and can lead to extract important information related with dielectric properties of surface structures in a totally non-contact fashion.     

Theoretical analysis of magnetic sensor output voltage

The output voltage is an important parameter to determine the stress state in magnetic stress measurement, the relationship between the output voltage and the difference in the principal stresses was investigated by a comprehensive application of magnetic circuit theory, magnetization theory, stress analysis as well as the law of electromagnetic induction, and a corresponding quantitative equation was derived. It is drawn that the output voltage is proportional to the difference in the principal stresses, and related to the angle between the principal stress and the direction of the sensor. This investigation provides a theoretical basis for the principle stresses measurement by output voltage.     

Descriptive analysis of combine cabin vibrations and their effect on the human body

All on- and off-road vehicles are exposed to vibrations caused by unevenness of road or soil profile, moving elements within the machine or implements. A higher prevalence of low back pain is found in drivers of off-road machinery than in other drivers. In this study, significantly higher levels of low-frequency vibrations are found in the cabin of a combine, driving at high speed on a concrete surface, compared to driving slower on field road. Comfort values indicate that injury can result from long-term driving on the field as well as on a concrete road. As seats with suspension systems are the main transmission paths of vibration towards the spine of the driver, their vibration attenuating characteristics play an important role in comfort assessment. The resonant frequency of seats with passive suspension system, used in agricultural machinery, lies in the low-frequency range most excited in agricultural machinery. A seat with air suspension is found to attenuate better frequencies above and provide more comfort to the driver than a seat with a mechanical suspension.     

Visualization of the human body toward the navigation diagnosis with the virtualized human body

In this article we present the visualization of the human body basing upon the X-ray CT and MR images. Topics and examaples of images rendered by the computer are all selected from the studies in the authors’ laboratory during about twenty years. Topics are classified into four groups. First we introduce a few historical pictures of cross section images, and the surface of bones and the skull. Second, the selected pictures in the surgical simulation system NUCSS (=Nagoya University Craniofacial Surgical Simulation system) we developed are shown. This system was for the simulation of the craniofacial surgery of the skull and the orthopedic surgery of the hip joint. This was the pioneering work which showed the potential of computer aid in surgery based upon 3D CT images about ten years in advance of the present rapid extention of the computer aided surgery. One of the earliest work to visualize the performance of the soft tissue — rendering of the cut skin is also included. Third, the virtualized endoscope system is presented in detail. The images of both the inside and the outside view of the bronchus, the vessel and the stomach are shown here with the introduction to the new concept of the navigation diagnosis. Finally the navigation through an Egyptian mummy is added.     

Reciprocal contribution analysis of the left and right hips while walking

The physical posture of even healthy university students is easy to collapse when walking with textbooks and other heavy loads during university attendance. Consequently, they may experience lower-back pain or knee pain. However, the resulting burden of this stress to the left and right lower-back has not previously been quantitatively analyzed.In this study, we employed a Relative Power Contribution (RPC) analysis approach to quantitatively investigate and compare the reciprocal contribution between the left and right lower-backs while walking with a bag and without a bag. Quantitative data were collected by two accelerometers installed on the subjects.Results for the subjects walking with and without a bag indicated that the contribution of the left and right lower-backs decreased by up to 21% (p<0.05). Some disorder occurs in the feedback relations of the movement in both lower-backs and as a result, it was understood to cause much discomfort in these areas.This analysis reveals the quantitative relations of left and right lower-backs, which are difficult to discern from the original data. The results can be useful for preventive healthcare for lower-back and knee pains.     

新型维氏起电机的研制与分析

维氏起电机使用过程中,必须顺时针摇动手柄才能使得放电杆之间产生火花放电现象,逆时针摇动手柄不能放电. 针对该问题对实验仪器进行了改进,以达到顺时针或逆时针摇动手柄后都能起电的目的,并剖析了维氏起电机的起电机理,对相关问题作了深入的分析和研究.     

A light scalar from walking solutions in gauge-string duality

We consider the type-IIB background generated by the strong-coupling limit of Nc$N_c$ D5 branes wrapped on S²$S^2$, and focus our attention on a special class of solutions that exhibit walking behavior. We compute numerically the spectrum of scalar fluctuations around vacua of this class. Besides two cuts, and sequences of single poles converging on one of the branch points, the spectrum contains one isolated scalar, the mass of which is suppressed by the length of the walking region. Approximate scale-invariance symmetry in the walking region suggests that this might be interpreted as a light dilaton, the pseudo-Goldstone boson of dilatations.     

Application of nanodiamonds in human body fluid analysis by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry

Direct mass spectrometric analysis of complex biological samples is very important and challenging. In this paper, nanodiamonds have been successfully used in matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometric analysis of human serum and urine. As a practical tool and platform, it can be widely used in the field of humoral proteomics, and it plays a very promising role in clinical diagnosis, including identification of novel disease-associated biomarkers.     

Spectrum of radar signal reflected from sea surface

The theoretical problem of the spectrum of a microwave radar signal reflected from the sea surface is examined with allowance for the simultaneous contributions of two scattering mechanisms — reflective and Bragg. The characteristics of the scattered-field spectrum are studied as functions of wind velocity, radar-beam angle of incidence, radar velocity, and antenna beam width. The results indicate high sensitivity of the spectrum parameters to changes in the sea-surface state.Institute of Applied Physics, Russian Academy of Science. Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Radiofizika, Vol. 36, No. 1, pp. 3–15, January, 1993.