Title: Analysis of postural reactions on excercise with symetrical load of upper limbs by centrifugal force Summary: The aim of this thesis is testing excercise equipment Marrko and its effects on human body. Its based on the similar principle as few of established excersice equipments on the market, that are generating load on body by vibration. Thesis is based as biomechanical study pursuing specification of postural system reactions on specific excercises. EMG, Qualisys and Kistler systems were used to observe specific parameters in human body kinetics and muscle activity. Key words: Qualisys, EMG, Kistler, postural reactions

Title: Analysis of postural reactions of excercise with a load of upper limbs by centrifugal force. Summary: The aim of the study is the kinematic analysis of selected body segments (C7, Th4, Th8, Th12, AC and SIPS) during performance with a special exercise tool Marrko Core®. Another goal is to confirm the existing knowledge in the field of kinesiology about the rotation of spinal segments. In addition, we aim to compare the selected exercises with each other and asses their suitability for application in the general population with back pain of various etiologies. The experiment was performed as a biomechanical study, where specific biomechanical parameters in human body kinetics and muscle activity were measured during performance of specific exercises. All measurements have been undertaken in laboratory BEZ UK FTVS. Systems Qualisys, Kistler and EMG Noraxon were used for measurements of chosen parameters in human body kinetics and muscle activity. Participants: Participants attended in this study (8 individuals- 4 women and 4 men) were all healthy individuals, 20-40 years old, without any limitation of mobility and pain free. They were all recreational athletes. Key words: EMG, Kistler, Qualisys, postural stabilizatio

Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) has been regarded as a dysfunctional coping strategy for managing intensely difficult feelings and is a growing area of concern in clinical and non-clinical populations alike. Individuals who engage in NSSI often report significant interpersonal difficulties, with studies showing that they have impaired social interactions. Attending to the emotional expressions of others is important for appropriate social functioning, and subtly mimicking the expressions of others is an unconscious behaviour that encourages empathy and interpersonal bonding. Differences in emotion recognition and reflection can impact social behaviour, yet little research has assessed how individuals with a history of NSSI (HNSSI) process facial expressions of emotion. In this thesis, the results of three studies designed to investigate potential differences in emotion recognition and emotion mimicry in individuals with a history of NSSI compared to controls are reported. Results from Study 1 revealed that when presented with colourful, dynamic morphing stimuli showing emotional expressions, HNSSI participants were able to correctly categorize negative expressions like anger, disgust, sadness, and the ambiguous emotion of surprise at a lower stimulus intensity compared to controls; They also correctly categorized fear with greater accuracy, though at the same intensity as controls. However, in Study 2, when static, greyscale images were obscured with varying levels of fractal noise, HNSSI individuals did not show superior signal-proportion thresholds. These results may suggest that higher-order elements of visual and cognitive processing are evoked by more realistic social stimuli. In the third study, HNSSI participants were found to produce significantly less electrical activity in the corrugator muscle in response to viewing angry stimuli, and significantly less of an expected relaxation in muscle activity in response to viewing happy stimuli. Complementing these results, it was found that endorsing social influence as a motivator for engaging in NSSI was associated with less mimicry, whereas endorsing emotion regulation as a motivator was associated with greater incongruent muscle response when viewing happy faces. These observed differences in facial mimicry between HNSSI and controls may be related to some of the observed relationship difficulties experienced by this group. Results from this research may help us to better understand NSSI behaviour, as well as help to inform and further develop therapies intended to address it.

The purpose of this thesis was to examine hand actions required of nurses and pharmacy assistants involved with chemotherapy drug administration over a work shift, and propose associated risk control strategies. There is a need to evaluate and redesign manual “pushing” and mixing of chemotherapy drugs to prevent musculoskeletal disorders and associated healthcare costs. Muscle activity of the forearm flexor and extensor muscles, and thumb forces, were measured from 5 lab nurses, 5 floor nurses and 5 pharmacy assistants who had their actions recorded throughout their shift. Lab nurses performed an average of 1.85 ± 0.48 hand efforts per min, floor nurses performed 1.62 ± 0.09 per min, while pharmacy assistants performed 5.29 ± 1.27 per min. Syringe use accounted for 17% of the pharmacy assistants’ shift and 12% each for the floor and lab nurses. The tasks of drawing fluid and manually pushing treatment represented 10% of the work day. The left forearm flexors generated the highest activity over the workday and across tasks while only resting for 6% of the workday. The high number of hand efforts, combined with prolonged durations, and lack of muscular rest show evidence of muscular overload over the course of the shift as well as illustrate that the pharmacy assistants are at higher risk for WMSD. The results may also help explain the documented injury statistics and complaints associated with the arm, hand and thumb and support the implementation of a chemotherapy robot to reduce the risk associated with tasks performed by the pharmacy assistants. Further, the findings of this thesis can act as a guide for future evaluation and research of workplaces with similar syringe and hand demands. The risk reducing strategies presented may also be applied to other jobs where hand and syringe use is repetitive and prolonged. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

<p> The effectiveness of auditory frontalis EMG feedback as a means of teaching general relaxation to spastic and athetoid cerebral palsy individuals was investigated in a pilot study. It was hypothesized that an increase in voluntary ability to reduce levels of muscle activity would translate into improved functional skills and act as an effective coping response in dealing with stress and anxiety.</p> <p> Two subjects - one athetoid (female; 16 years old) and the other spastic (male; 19 years old were studied in depth, each through the use of an A-B-A single-subject design, where the B phase consisted of ten 15-minute sessions of auditory feedback of the frontalis muscle. Generalization of relaxation was assessed by monitoring forearm flexor and extensor muscle activity, peripheral skin temperature, and respiration rate. A Tektronix 4051 desktop computer was utilized to facilitate data management. In addition to the physiological measures, functional evaluations were conducted prior to and after training and a questionnaire was answered by the subject's relatives. Although there was no clear tendency for either subject to reduce absolute levels of EMG, one subject demonstrated a striking reduction in variability of muscle activity across sessions. Functional assessments for these subjects indicated mild to moderate improvements.</p> / Thesis / Master of Engineering (MEngr)

Work focusing on the combination of EMG and fMRI in skeletal muscle. / Two commonly used diagnostic techniques for examining muscle function in vivo are functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and electromyography (EMG). EMG allows for examination of the functional, electrical activity of muscle during force production. Comparatively, fMRI or more specifically blood oxygen level dependant imaging can be applied to visualize muscle activation and recovery post-exercise. It is a combination of oxygenation, metabolism, blood flow and blood volume. The proposed method combines both techniques in simultaneous data acquisition to provide greater muscle physiological information during exercise. Additionally, both techniques are non-invasive making repeated measurements feasible. EMG hardware filtering was designed and constructed to facilitate EMG measurements alongside MRI scans during simultaneous acquisition. Next, a complex artifact subtraction method called fMRI artifact slice template removal (FASTR) was implemented. With custom scripts and small adaptations to FASTR, it was modified for use with EMG/fMRI, specifically, with a echo planar imaging (EPI) BOLD sequence. Several experiments were then performed to test it's capabilities improving the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the EMG data from 2.8 to 46 in one case. After EMG hardware and software were developed and implemented, a simple exercise protocol was developed to investigate changes in concurrent BOLD/EMG, recording before, during and following exercise. A linear correlation analyses was performed to compare EMG and BOLD results. A strong correlation between the EMG root-mean-square (RMS) peak amplitude and the length of time to recover back to baseline was noted (r=0.681, n=3). For future studies, multiple EMG measurements should be applied to improve the amount of information collected during voluntary exercise. Lastly, this technique may have usage with not just BOLD MRI scans, but with various other techniques such as near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) in order to further probe muscle physiology. / Thesis / Master of Applied Science (MASc) / Two commonly used methods for detecting disease and injury in muscle are magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and electromyography (EMG). EMG provides information about the electrical activity of muscle during exercise, while MRI scans give two or three dimensional images of the body. Using these two techniques at the same time, provides the opportunity to obtain greater physiological information of muscle during and after exercise. The goal of this work was to design and create an EMG system that functioned alongside MRI scans. However, combining these two techniques presented several challenges that needed to be solved before this was possible. These issues were resolved and diminished by utilizing specific hardware and software solutions alongside rigorous testing. Additionally, results from the combination of these two techniques have demonstrated there is great potential for future studies. In conclusion, using EMG and MRI together is feasible, and allows for further investigation into muscle physiology.

Bakgrund: Löpare drabbas ofta av olika överbelastningsskador, varför diskussionen om vilken löpstil en ska välja uppstått med ett ökande intresse hos allmänheten. Tidigare studier har visat att löpning på hälen genererar högre muskelaktivitet i Tibialis anterior och löpning på framfoten aktiverar Gastrocnemius i högre grad. Enligt vissa studier tycks biomekaniska skillnader kunna förutsäga vilka individer som riskerar att drabbas av olika skador. Syftet var att jämföra inomindividuella skillnader gällande muskelaktivitet och ledvinklar i nedre extremitet mellan löpning med hälisättning och löpning på framfoten. Metod: Två män, 28 och 29 år gamla med liknande träningsbakgrund sprang varsin gång med bägge löpstilarna, varpå den generella muskelaktiviteten och ett medelvärde av maxvärdena för ledvinklarna beräknades. Datainsamlingen gjordes med elektromyografi för muskelaktivitet och tröghetssensorer för 3D-rörelseanalys. Musklerna som testades var Gluteus medius, Biceps femoris, mediala Gastrocnemius och Tibialis anterior. Ledvinklarna som undersöktes var höftens flexion-extension, abduktion-adduktion och in- och utåtrotation, knäets flexion-extension, samt fotens plantarflexion-dorsalextension och inversion-eversion. Resultat: Muskelaktiviteten i Gluteus medius, Biceps femoris och Gastrocnemius var högre vid framfotsisättning, medan Tibialis anterior hade högst aktivitet vid hälisättning, hos bägge testpersonerna. Plantarflexionen var större hos den ena personen vid framfotsisättning, medan dorsalextensionen var som störst vid hälisättning. Konklusion: Enligt vår kännedom finns inga tidigare studier som undersökt maximala ledvinklar och generell muskelaktivitet, där testpersonerna haft liknande erfarenhet av de bägge löpstilarna. Undersökningen bidrar till ökad kunskap om individuella skillnader i ledvinklar mellan löpstilarna hos testpersonerna. Studier med ett större antal deltagare som byter från en löpstil till en annan behövs för att kunna fastställa hur muskelaktivitet och ledvinklar påverkas.

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<p> The force-velocity and force-length relationships of skeletal muscle have been thoroughly investigated in the literature. Unfortunately many of the relationships that have been applied to models of the human anatomy have been based upon investigations that have been performed under in-vitro conditions. It was the intention of this study to investigate whether the relationships determined by in-vitro investigation and assumed to be correct could accurately and properly be applied to actual human examples. Previous investigation by Leedham and Dowling (1991) displayed that when investigating human elbow flexors and in particular the biceps brachii that the force-length relationship did not concur with in-vitro results. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships between length, velocity, EMG and force of the biceps muscle. </p> <p> Eight young adult males (22-26) were fastened into an isoveloci ty device ( CYBEX) which allowed only flexion and extension of the right elbow. The forearm was then rotated eccentrically or concentrically through a range of motion from 50 to 170 degrees of extension (or vice-versa). The biceps muscle was either maximally contracted voluntarily or was excited using electrical stimulation at 40 Hz. Using the constant angle torque (CAT) method and three dimensional surfaces the force-velocity, force-length and EMG-velocity relationships were investigated. <p> <p> The main conclusions of the study were that the neural drive provided by electrical stimulation over the motor point provided CMAPS of consistent amplitude regardless of the joint angle or angular velocity. The concentric force-velocity relationship of the biceps was in agreement with most accounts in the literature however the eccentric contraction condition displayed a peak force production at 30° Is then showed a slight decline to plateau across faster eccentric velocities. Increased eccentric force production was thought to be more mechanical than neurological in nature. </p> / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

This experimented proposed to test the relationships between self-reported hostility and both facial muscle tone and cardiovascular functioning. Based on previous research, it was proposed that individuals high in self-reported hostility would show increased cardiovascular reactivity in response to a physical stressor (the cold-pressor task). Additionally, based on the integration of multiple lines of research, it was proposed that individuals with high levels of self-reported hostility would show asymmetric facial tone, with greater muscle activation at the left-hemiface. Results showed increased cardiovascular responding in the high-hostile participants following exposure to the cold-pressor task. Additionally, the individuals with high levels of self-reported hostility did show asymmetric facial tone, with increased left-hemifacial EMG values. These differences were present prior to exposure to the cold-pressor task, and were increased following the stressor. Results supported the literature showing increased cardiovascular responding to stress in high-hostile individuals, and also supported the proposed relationship between right orbitofrontal functioning and hostility. / Ph. D.