A corrida de rua é uma das atividades que obteve maior número de adeptos entre a população idosa. É sabido que, durante a corrida, idosos apresentam padrões diferente de adultos jovens, como um maior ângulo de toe-out. No entanto, não é conhecida a relação com a carga mecânica nas articulações dos membros inferiores. Muitos estudos apontam para uma relação entre o momento adutor externo do joelho e o ângulo de toe-out, inclusive como mecanismo de proteção em indivíduos com osteoartrite do joelho, doença comum em pessoas acima dos 65 anos. Assim, pretendeu-se investigar uma possível relação do ângulo de toe-out aumentado nesses indivíduos e o momento do joelho no plano frontal. Vinte e dois adultos jovens corredores, 23 idosos corredores e 13 idosos sedentários andaram a 5 km/h e correram a 7, 10 km/h e na velocidade média da última prova de 10 km. Na velocidade de 5 km/h e 10 km/h os indivíduos corredores realizaram também uma condição com o toe-out aumentado além do natural. Os indivíduos executaram estas tarefas em uma esteira instrumentada com duas cintas independentes e com duas plataformas de força de seis componentes operando a 600 Hz (Bertec, USA) e tiveram os movimentos dos membros inferiores registrados por um sistema de análise tridimensional do movimento composto por oito câmeras de infravermelho operando a 150 Hz (Motion Analysis Corporation, USA). Uma completa análise cinemática e cinética das tarefas foi realizada por meio dos softwares Visual3D (CMotion. Inc., USA) e Matlab (Mathworks, USA). Em particular, o ângulo de toe-out e o momento adutor externo do joelho foram mensurados em todas as condições e comparados entre as condições com e sem o toe-out aumentado e entre os grupos a partir de análise de variâncias fatorial mistas e ANOVA, respectivamente. Os ângulos e momentos artivulares foram comparados entre os grupos com testes de Wicoxon Signed-rank com correção de Bonferroni. Em geral, os adultos corredores, idosos corredores e idosos sedentários apresentaram diferenças nos padrões cinemáticos e cinéticos do movimento dos membros inferiores durante o andar a 5 km/h e durante o correr a 7 km/h. Também foram observadas diferenças, porém em menor número, durante a corrida a 10 km/h e a corrida na velocidade média da última prova de 10 km para os adultos corredores e idosos corredores. Quanto à relação do ângulo de toe-out e o momento adutor externo do joelho, contrariamente à literatura, nós não observamos um aumento deste ângulo para os idosos durante o andar ou correr em relação aos adultos, assim como uma relação inversa entre o ângulo de toe-out e o momento adutor externo do joelho, talvez pelas coletas terem sido realizadas sobre uma esteira com cinta dupla, o que pode ter levado à alteração do posicionamento natural dos pés (toe-out) / Running is one of the activities that had the highest number of participants among elderly population. It is known that during running, elderly have different patterns of young adults, as a greater toe-out angle. However it is still unknown the relationship between the mechanical loads at the joints of the lower limbs. Several studies point to a correlation between the external knee adduction moment and the toe-out angle, including as a protective mechanism among people with knee osteoarthritis, a common disease in people over 65 years old. Thus, we sought to investigate a possible relationship between the toe-out angle increased in these individuals and the knee moment in the frontal plane. Twenty-two young adult runners, 23 elderly runners and 13 sedentary elderly walked at 5 km/h and ran at 7, 10 km/h and at the mean speed of the last 10 K race. At the speed of 5 km/h and 10 km/h the individuals who were runners also performed a condition with the toe-out angle increased beyond the natural. The subjects did all tasks in an instrumented treadmill with independent two belts and two force plates with six components operating at 600 Hz (Bertec, USA) and had the lower limb movements registered by a tridimentional motion analysis system with eight infrared cameras operating at 150Hz (Motion Analysis Corporation, USA). A complete kinematics and kinectics analysis were made using Visual3D (CMotion. Inc., USA) and Matlab (Mathworks, USA) softwares. The toe-out angle and the external knee adduction moment were measured during all conditions and compared between the condition with and without the toe-out angle increased, and between the groups with a mixed effects modeling and ANOVA respectivelly. The joint angles and joint moments were compared between groups with Wilcoxon Signed-rank tests with Bonferroni correction. In general, young adult runners, elderly runners and elderly sedentaries had differences in kinematic and kinetic pattern of movement of lower limbs during walk at 5 km/h and run at 7 km/h. There were also differences, though in smaller number, during run at 10 km/h and run at mean speed of the last 10 K race between young adult runners and elderly runners. Contrasting the literature there was no relation between toe-out angle and external knee adduction moment and we didnt observe a greater angle in elderly than young adults during walk or run, it maybe can be explained by the fact that the tasks were above a double belt treadmill, what can lead to a different feet position (toe-out)

Modern ballistic armor can protect soldiers against gunfire and shrapnel. The added weight and movement restriction of armor on the extremities may negatively impact soldier performance. Loading the limbs with weight has been found to increase metabolic cost in locomotion and alter gait kinematics. It was hypothesized that increases in metabolic cost and alterations in gait kinematics would result from the use of extremity armor. Fifteen healthy U.S. Army men walked (1.34 m/s) and ran (2.46 m/s) on a level treadmill with three different levels of extremity armor configuration: a no armor condition (4.3 lbs) that consisted of minimal clothing, combat boots, and a helmet; a partial extremity armor configuration (27.2 lbs) that consisted of an armor vest and extremity armor on the upper arms and thighs plus the minimal clothing; and a full extremity armor configuration (29.2 lbs) that consisted of forearm and shank armor in addition to the partial extremity armor configuration. In walking and running on the treadmill, metabolic cost normalized to body mass increased significantly when extremity armor was worn, as compared to the no armor condition. No difference was found in metabolic cost scaled to total mass (body mass + mass of armor), indicating no effect of mass placement. When walking on the treadmill, double support time was the only temporal variable found to increase with use of extremity armor; no differences between partial and full armor configurations were found. Range of motion (ROM) of the ankle decreased in walking with extremity armor, while hip and knee ROMs increased with the use of extremity armor. In running, only hip ROM and trunk lean increased significantly with the use of extremity armor, while no difference was found between the two extremity armor configurations. In conclusion, use of extremity armor on soldiers walking and running on a level treadmill resulted in a metabolic cost increase as the mass of the armor increased and did affect gait kinematics. The distal placement of the armor on the extremities at the low mass tested did not significantly affect metabolic cost or gait kinematics.

Orientador: José Geraldo Trani Brandão / Banca: Celso Pinto Morais Pereira / Banca: Marcio Augusto Martin / Resumo: O objetivo deste trabalho foi estudar a distribuição das cargas no sistema cadeira plataforma de força (C-PF) e verificar se há correlação entre as forças medidas no assento e encosto, na postura sentada adequada. Participaram 38 voluntários, classificados pelo biótipo (32 mulheres e 6 homens): idade média de 43,92 anos, estatura média de 1,60 m e peso corporal médio de 65,10 kgf. Uma cadeira, com células de carga nas partes anterior e posterior do assento e no encosto, e uma plataforma de força mediram a distribuição do peso corporal. Estabeleceram-se várias correlações entre as variáveis (peso corporal, altura, idade, e índice de massa corporal) e as cargas medidas e entre as próprias forças adquiridas. Uma das correlações determinou uma relação entre a força total no assento e a força medida no encosto. A distribuição do peso corporal observada foi: 20,04% na plataforma de força; 45,33% e 30,43%, nas partes anterior e posterior do assento, respectivamente; e 4,20% no encosto. Não houve diferenças estatísticas significativas na comparação das médias dos valores da distribuição do peso corporal tanto entre os sexos como entre os biótipos. Porém, como há diferenças na forma corporal de acordo com os sexos e com os biótipos, houve certa diferença nos valores das forças medidas, no sistema C-PF. / Abstract: The aim of this study was to study the load distribution in chair-force plate system (CFP) and to verify if there is correlation between measured seat and backrest forces in the adequate sitting posture. 38 volunteers participated of the study, classifieds according to physical types (32 female and 6 male): mean age of 43,92 years old, mean height of 1,60 m and mean body weight of 65,10 kgf. An instrumented office chair with load cells in the anterior and posterior portions of the seat and backrest and a force plate were used to measure the forces and body weight distribution in C-FP system. This study was established many correlations among some variables (body weight, height, age and body mass index) and the measured loads and among the acquired forces. One of these correlations determined a relation among total force measured on seat and acquired force on lumbar backrest. The body weight distribution observed in the C-FP system was: 20,04% in the force plate, 45,33% and 30,43% in the anterior and posterior portions of the seat respectively, and 4,20% in the backrest. There were no statistics significant differences in comparison of values weight distribution averages as between gender as between physical patterns. But, there are some differences in the body shape according to gender and physical patterns, it there was some difference in the values of acquired forces in the C-FP system. / Mestre

Orientador: José Carlos Plácido da Silva / Banca: Luis Carlos Paschoarelli / Banca: Paulo Kawauchi / Resumo: É amplamente conhecido o fato de que os ambientes físicos têm influência nos usuários e nas interações sociais que ocorrem dentre destes. Nesse contexto, cada vez mais, tem se atentado para um interesse pelos estudos que abordam a relação homem-ambiente construído, no entando, ainda percebe-se uma necessidade de se aprofundar cada vez mais realizar estudos nessa área. Foi observando esse panorama que se procurou realizar um estudo na área do Design em conjunto com a Arquitetura, mais especificamente a Avaliação Pós-Ocupação (estudada também pela Psicologia Ambiental) e da Ergonomia, levando em consideração que a conjugação de metodologias dessas duas áreas de estudo pode contribuir para a análise e avaliação do ambiente habitado e do relacionamento homem-mobiliário. Para tal, foram utilizadas ferramentas pertinentes a essas duas áreas de estudo, na área da Arquitetura foram a Avaliação Pós-Ocupação (avaliação da percepção do usuário), complementada pela Análise de Behavior Setting, ferramenta estudada pela Psicologia Ambiental; e na área da Ergonomia foram utilizadas duas ferramentas de análise biomecânica, o Diagrama de Corlett e Manenica (1980), que levam em consideração a opinião do usuário sobre constrangimentos posturais e o Rapid Entire Body Assessment - REBA (HIGNETT; MCATAMNEY, 2000), que, por meio de contagem de scores, analisa as posturas do corpo inteiro desenvolvida com objetivo de avaliar as posturas de trabalho imprevisíveis / Abstract: A contribution of ergonomics to the studies of architecture. It is widely known fact that the physical environment has an influence on users and in the social interactions that occur within them. In this context, increasingly, has been attempt to interest in studies that address the relationship between man - the built environment, yet still perceive a need for further and more and studies in this area. Was watching this context we sought to conduct a study in Design in conjunction with the architecture, specifically the Post-Occupancy Evalution (also studied by the environmental psychology) and ergonomics, talking into account that the combination of methodologies of these two areas study may contribute to the analysis and assessment of environment inhabited and the relationship between men and furniture. For this, we used tools relevant to these two areas of study in the field of architecture were the Post-Occupancy Evaluation (evalution of user perception and the technical evaluation of researcher) complemented by Behavior Setting Analysis, tool for the studied environmental psychology and area of ergonomics were two tools used biomechanical analysis, the diagran Manenica and Corlett (1980) with takes into account the views of the user on postural constraints and Rapid Entire Body Assessement - REBA (HIGNETT; MCATAMNEY, 2000), BY counting of the scores analyzes the whole body designed to evaluate the positions of unpredictable work / Mestre

Orientador: José Elias Tomazini / Banca: José Geraldo Trani Brandão / Banca: Marcelo Sampaio Martins / Banca: Paulo José Oliveira Cortez / Banca: Everaldo de Barros / Resumo: A degenerescência em função da idade, de posturas e de movimentos não ergonômicos acarreta perdas das funções mecânicas e patologias nas colunas, principalmente nos discos intervertebrais. Ultimamente têm sido desenvolvidos muitos modelos matemáticos e feitas muitas experiências para avaliação desses discos. Neste trabalho foi desenvolvido e fabricado um dispositivo para testar partes de coluna vertebral objetivando obter dados de características mecânicas dos discos intervertebrais, fornecendo informações para desenvolvimento de próteses. Concomitantemente foi desenvolvido um programa matemático para tratamento dos dados dos sensores do dispositivo em informações cinemáticas, além do desenvolvimento de um programa de simulação para comparação com os dados dos testes. O modelo matemático para simulação baseou-se no corpo de teste utilizado nos testes e os dados experimentais foram compatíveis com os resultados obtidos na simulação / Abstract: The degeneration in function of age, postures and movements not ergonomic causes loss of mechanical functions and pathologies in spinal column, mainly in intervertebral discs. Lately it has been developed many mathematical models and made many experiments for evaluation of these discs. In this work it was developed and manufactured a device to test parts of the spinal column aiming to obtain data of mechanical characteristics of intervertebral discs, providing information for the development of prosthesis. At the same time it was developed a program to turn the data of the sensors of the device into kinematical information, besides the development of a program of simulation for comparison with the data of the tests. The mathematical model for simulation was based on a body of test used in the tests and the experimental data were compatible with the results obtained in the simulation / Doutor

Mechanosensation, the ability for cells to sense and respond to physical cues, is a ubiquitous process among living organisms and its dysfunction can lead to devastating diseases, including atherosclerosis, osteoporosis, and cancer. The primary cilium is a solitary, immotile organelle that projects from the surface of virtually every cell in the human body and can function as a mechanosensor across diverse biological contexts, deflecting in response to fluid flow, pressure, touch and vibration. It can detect urinary flow rate in the kidney, monitor bile flow in the liver, and distinguish the direction of nodal flow in embryos. In this thesis, we examined the interplay of biology and mechanics in the context of this multifunctional sensory organelle from the tissue to subcellular scale. In the first part of this work, we examined the cilium at the tissue level. Primary cilia are just beginning to be appreciated in bone with studies recently reporting loss of cilia results in defects in skeletal development and adaptation. We disrupted primary cilia in osteocytes, the principal mechanosensing cells in bone, and demonstrated that loss of primary cilia in osteocytes impairs load-induced bone formation. Over the course of our work with primary cilia, we also identified the need for more standardized imaging approaches to the cilium and presented an improvement to distinguishing proteins within the cilium from the rest of the cell. In the later part of this work, we examined the primary cilium at the subcellular level. While deflection is integral to the cilium's mechanosensory function, it remains poorly understood and characterized. Using a novel experimental and computational approach to capture and determine the mechanical properties of the cilium, we demonstrated cilium deflection can be mechanically and chemically modulated. We revealed a mechanism, acetylation, through which this mechanosensor can adapt and regulate overall cellular mechanosensing. By modifying our combined experimental and computational approach, we analyzed cilium deflection in vivo for the first time. Collectively, this work uncovers new insights across biological scales in the primary cilium as an extracellular nexus integrating mechanical stimuli and cellular signaling. Understanding the mechanisms driving cilium mechanosensing has broad reaching implications and unlocks the cilium's potential as a therapeutic target to treat impaired cellular mechanosensing critical to a multitude of diseases.

Osteoporosis is a major metabolic bone disease that causes reduced bone mass, deteriorated bone microstructural and increased fracture risk. In clinical practice, the gold standard to examine bone quality and evaluate fracture risk is using dual energy X-ray absorptiometry through measurements of areal bone mineral density (aBMD). However, it has been well accepted that in addition to aBMD, bone geometry, microstructure and material properties also play important roles in determining overall bone mechanical competence, which is directly related to fracture risk. High-resolution peripheral quantitative computed tomography (HR-pQCT) has the capability to image three-dimensional (3D) bone microstructures in vivo and provide quantitative measurements of bone mineral density as well as cortical and trabecular microstructure. Based on the HR-pQCT images, micro finite element (µFE) models can be constructed to directly estimate bone strength. HR-pQCT has become a widely used imaging tool in clinical research to evaluate the effect of aging, drug treatment, and metabolic bone disease on bone quality. The work in this thesis focuses on evaluating the accuracy and capability of HR-pQCT in quantifying microstructural properties of human radius and tibia bone, exploring its prediction power of whole bone strength and discussing potential applications in clinical studies. In this thesis, we quantified the accuracy of the standard HR-pQCT microstructural measurements of human distal radius and tibia through comparisons with gold standard µCT-based morphological measures. The results showed that the BV/TVd, Tb.N*, Tb.Th and Tb.Sp from HR-pQCT were significantly and highly correlated with those from gold-standard µCT measurements. Strong correlations between the HR-pQCT µFE predictions and direct mechanical testing measures suggest that HR-pQCT µFE is a robust method to determine bone mechanical properties. In a clinical setting, standard HR-pQCT scans are performed on the non-dominant wrist (usually the left) and the corresponding tibia. However, the contralateral side is selected for scanned when there is a fracture the non-dominant wrist. It remains unclear whether the dominant side is representative of the non-dominant side and how much error it will bring into a study where subjects include mixed scans of both sides. In this thesis, we applied HR-pQCT and µCT based morphological and mechanical measurements to characterize the symmetric nature of distal radius and tibia. We found that the right radius tend to be larger than the left radius. However, at the tibia, the bone size was found to be similar between left and right. By micro computed tomography (µCT), microstructural parameters such as BV/TV were also found to be larger at the right radius, while no difference was found at the tibia. Trabecular number, trabecular thickness, trabecular separation and cortical thickness were not different between left and right radius. µFE analyses demonstrated that stiffness and strength of right radius were significantly higher than left radius, while there was no difference at the tibia. The standard clinical region of interest HR-pQCT is recommended by the manufacturer; however, it is not clear whether a segment HR-pQCT scan is representative of whole bone mechanical properties. Therefore we quantified the associations of microstructural and mechanical measurements of the radius and tibia segments with whole bone stiffness and examined if we can improve the correlation when we select a different region. The microstructural and mechanical measurements at the two regions next to the standard HR-pQCT segment (proximal and distal) were also examined. The results showed that the bone microstructure from proximal and distal sections is highly correlated to standard region at both distal radius and tibia. The mechanical properties of the three segments were strongly correlated with overall bone mechanical properties. The microstructural measurements at the most distal section were correlated with whole bone stiffness better compared to those from standard and proximal regions. DXA is incapable of discriminating patients with wrist fracture from those without. In this study, we examined the microstructural and mechanical properties in patients with and without wrist fracture through HR-pQCT based analyses. We demonstrated that wrist fracture patients had lower plate and rod bone volume fraction, less plate and rod trabecular number, thinner cortex and lower whole bone stiffness and strength, compared to healthy controls. Failure analyses also depicted significantly lower trabecular plate compression and tension failure fraction in wrist fracture patients.

There are limited treatment options available today to slow down progression of osteoarthritis in its early stages and most interventions, such as highly invasive partial and total joint replacement surgeries, are performed only at the late stages of the disease. Understanding the mechanism of early articular cartilage stress-mediated wear and failure can aid in the design of new treatment options that are introduced at earlier stages of the disease, presenting the potential to slow down osteoarthritis progression and thus significantly improve patient outcomes. This dissertation aims to provide a basic science understanding of wear propagation and repair of articular cartilage in the absence of traumatic events under the normal reciprocal sliding motion of the articular layers at physiologic load magnitudes. In this dissertation there are three main thrusts: (1) characterize cartilage delamination wear under normal sliding (2) define a chemical environment that promotes cartilage explant homeostasis to enable long-term wear-and-repair studies (3) investigate a practical treatment modality capable of stopping or slowing down structural degeneration of articular cartilage in OA. We hypothesize that the mode of cartilage damage is delamination wear that progresses by fatigue failure of the extracellular matrix (ECM) under physiologic sliding, even when cartilage layers are subject to physiologic load magnitudes and contact stresses and even when the friction coefficient μ remains low (H1a). Based on prior literature findings regarding the role of synovial fluid (SF) boundary lubricants on the reduction of friction and wear, we also test the hypothesis (H1b) that SF delays the onset of cartilage delamination when compared to physiological buffered saline (PBS). We then test a third hypothesis (H1c) that loading cartilage against cartilage delays the onset of delamination wear compared to testing glass on cartilage, since contacting porous cartilage layers exhibit a much smaller solid-on-solid contact area fraction than impermeable glass contacting porous cartilage. Next, we hypothesize that the homeostatic dysregulation previously observed in cultured immature cartilage explants results from the presence of non-physiologic levels of important metabolic mediators in the culture medium. To this end, we hypothesize that: (H2a) immature bovine cartilage explants cultured in native synovial fluid will maintain homeostasis as characterized by maintenance of their mechanical properties and ECM contents at initial (post- explantation) levels, and (H2b) explants cultured in a physiologic-based medium, consisting of physiologic levels of key metabolic mediators, will maintain a similar homeostasis over long- term culture. Finally, a laser treatment strategy is explored that has the capability to reform collagen crosslinks, replacing those lost during OA progression. This novel therapy acts without injuring the cells and without any chemical additive or thermal ablation. The laser treatment protocol used in this application can specifically target the subsurface region, located 200 μm of the articular surface. By strengthening this region with enhanced crosslinking, we hypothesize (H3a) that cartilage will demonstrate greater resistance to fatigue failure than untreated controls. We then hypothesized (H3b) that this treatment protocol would also be effective on devitalized fibrillated human articular cartilage from OA joints with overall Outerbridge score OS1-3. We find that for both cartilage-on-cartilage and glass-on-cartilage sliding configurations at physiologic applied loads, long-term sliding with a low friction coefficient causes wear in the form of delamination. We show that the use of synovial fluid as a lubricant delays the onset of wear; and, similarly, that sliding with a cartilage counterface also reduces the incidence of wear. In subsequent studies we fully characterize a homeostatic culture medium to emulate cartilage in vitro behavior in synovial fluid. We show that explants cultured in this medium can maintain their properties for at least one month and have no loss in cell viability. Laser treatment is then tested on both living and devitalized bovine and devitalized human cartilage and the treatment is shown to improve the wear resistance of the tissue without harming embedded cells. Overall this work has led to novel insights that have clinical applicability. One strength of the in vitro investigations described in this body of work is the ability to separate out mechanically-mediated events from biochemically-mediated events, which would be impossible in vivo. Parsing out such specific mechanisms of cartilage wear can help guide better understanding of disease progression and drive therapeutic intervention. Intervening during the early stages of OA offers the promise of preventive care that currently does not exist and could provide significant benefits to a patient’s quality of life. This dissertation asserts that focusing on delaying or preventing wear by improving the resiliency of the extant intact cartilage in early OA is a viable strategy to improve patient outcomes and offers an innovative approach over existing regenerative techniques.

A entorse de tornozelo pode ocorrer pela amplitude exagerada de inversão e flexão plantar. Lacuna importante no controle postural é a ação do ajuste postural antecipatório (APA) e compensatório (APC) para estabilizar a articulação do tornozelo. O reflexo de estiramento (M1) e as reações pré-programadas (M2 e M3) foram pouco exploradas em pessoas com instabilidade crônica de tornozelo (CAI). A co-ativação e inibição são fenômenos modulados em nível medular por neurônios excitatórios e inibitórios, mas as informações sobre esses fenômenos atuam na CAI são escassas. A fadiga muscular afeta negativamente as pessoas na condição de CAI. Logo, qual é a relação entre APA e APC no movimento de entorse de tornozelo? A CAI pode alterar as respostas M1, M2 e M3 por lesões osteomioarticulares do tornozelo? A fadiga pode alterar todas estas variáveis em pessoas com CAI? Esta dissertação de mestrado teve por objetivo geral analisar o sinal EMG no movimento simulado da inversão de tornozelo em atletas universitárias de futsal que possuem e que não possuem a CAI. A amostra foi composta por 24 atletas de futsal feminino universitário e foram divididos em dois grupos: controle e instabilidade. A simulação do movimento de entorse do tornozelo foi feita por meio de uma plataforma mecânica que simula o movimento de inversão de tornozelo. Foi utilizado um sistema de aquisição de sinais de 8 canais, onde foram utilizados 4 canais para registro EMG e 3 canais para o registro do sinal do acelerômetro. Para determinar o início e final do movimento da plataforma foi fixado um acelerômetro 3D em uma das bordas da plataforma de inversão. Foram realizar quedas aleatórias na plataforma de inversão antes e depois do protocolo de fadiga. Foram monitorados os músculos tibial anterior, fibular longo e curto e gastrocnêmio lateral. Os períodos analisados foram os APA, APC, reflexo de estiramento muscular e reações pré-programadas. Parece que durante os períodos M1, M2 e M3 há um fator de desproteção no grupo instabilidade, apesar de haver em alguns pares de músculos uma maior coerência, comparado com o grupo controle. Durante o APA os músculos eversores não foram alterados no grupo instabilidade, mas no APC os eversores foram menores comparados com o grupo controle, sugerindo um fator de desproteção. Na correlação cruzada, todos os pares de músculos foram maiores no grupo controle, uma forma de se opor ao movimento de inversão maior que o grupo instabilidade. A co-ativação e inibição recíproca foram alteradas com a fadiga, aumentando após a fadiga, mas a inibição recíproca foi maior somente no grupo controle, podendo mover a articulação do tornozelo de uma forma mais facilitada que o grupo instabilidade. A coerência de pares de músculos foi diferente somente nos grupos, sendo que durante o APC os músculos não sincronizaram de forma satisfatória no grupo instabilidade, somente durante APA e período M / Ankle sprain is an injury associated with sports and exercise and may be used for the exaggerated amplitude of inversion and plantar flexion. An important gap in postural control is the anticipatory (APA) and compensatory (CPA) postural adjustments to stabilize the ankle joint. The stretch reflex (M1) and the pre-programmed reactions (M2 and M3) were poorly explored in people with chronic ankle instability (CAI). Coactivation and recíprocal inhibition are phenomena modulated at the spinal level by excitatory and inhibitory neurons, but the information about these phenomena in CAI is scarce. Negative effects of muscular fatigue affect persons with CAI. Therefore, What is the relationship between APA and CPA in the movement of ankle sprain? Can CAI change the M1, M2 and M3 responses due to osteomyoarticular ankle injuries? Can fatigue change all these variables in people with CAI? This dissertation aimed at analysing the EMG signal in the simulated ankle inversion movement task in female indoor soccer university athletes who have and do not have the CAI. Participants were 24 female indoor soccer college athletes divided in two groups: control and instability. Simulation of ankle sprain was performed with a mechanical platform that simulated the ankle inversion movement. An 8-channel signal acquisition system was used, which 4 channels were used for EMG recording and 3 channels to record accelerometer signal. For determine the beginning and end of the movement of the inversion platform a 3D accelerometer was fixed to one of the edges of the inversion platform. We performed random falls on the inversion platform before and after the fatigue protocol. Muscles monitored were mm. tibialis anterior, fibularis longus, fibularis brevis and gastrocnemius lateralis. Data epochs were APA, CPA, muscle stretching reflex and preprogramed reactions. During M1, M2 and M3 epochs, there was an unprotection factor for instability group, although in some muscle pairs there were more coherence compared to control group. The eversor muscles were not changed in instability group compared with control group during APA epoch, it suggests an unprotect factor. All pair of muscles, the cross correlation were greater in control group to oppose the inversion movement greater in control group than instability group. Coactivation and reciprocal inhibition were changed with fatigue, increasing after fatigue, but reciprocal inhibition was greater only in control group, and could move the ankle joint more easily than for instability group. Coherence of muscle pairs was different only between groups, and during CPA the muscles did not synchronize satisfactorily for instability group, only during APA and M epochs

Este trabalho apresentará um projeto cujo propósito foi definir um protocolo de avaliação para pacientes paraplégicos sob terapia, através do uso de estimulação elétrica neuromuscular, no ambulatório de ortopedia do Hospital das Clínicas da Universidade de Campinas. A análise proposta servirá tanto para o acompanhamento da evolução dos pacientes, quanto, principalmente, para avaliação dos sistemas de reabilitação desenvolvidos pelo laboratório de biocibernética e engenharia de reabilitação na Escola de Engenharia de São Carlos. Neste trabalho o protocolo foi aplicado especificamente para descrever a locomoção do paraplégico usando a estimulação padrão de 4 canais, que realiza a ativação dos quadríceps para extensão das pernas, necessária para o suporte do corpo, e a ativação do reflexo de retirada através da estimulação do nervo fibular para a flexão necessária para a fase de balanço. A análise usou como referência o conhecimento relacionado à descrição das fases e estratégias usadas pela locomoção do ser humano intacto. O protocolo de avaliação usou recursos do laboratório de biomecânica e reabilitação do aparelho locomotor, situado no hospital citado acima, que permitiram a descrição da cinemática dos membros superiores e inferiores, da atividade muscular realizada pelos membros superiores, e das forças de reação do solo. / This work present a case study on the use of the motion analysis laboratory resources (three-dimensional motion capture system, EMG, and force plate) with the purpose of improve the use of surface electrical stimulation to enable the locomotion in paraplegic subjects. Five trials for each of the five patients (thoracic complete spinal cord lesion) using a four channel electrical stimulator was done for synchronously acquisition of: 3D coordinates of 30 markers distributed on the whole body (to evaluate the stride\'s characteristics and three-dimensional measurements of angles of whole-body); EMG signal, on both sides, of triceps brachii long head, pectoralis major, middle deltoideus, extensor carpi radialis; and the vertical component of the ground reaction force. All data were normalized on the right gait cycle. The analysis was done braking the cycle in 11 events related with the swing phase in both sides, because it was focused firstly in the actions related with the swing limb and upper body advance, that represents a critical factor in locomotion aided by electrical stimulation. These events divided the gait cycle in 10 phases, which was used for associate the data evaluated with specifics tasks. The results showed temporal parameters similar to that reported by other authors, specific characteristics of the patient, the mechanism used by the patient for advance the body, and the periods of high activity of the muscles on the cycle.