Due to the complex nature of jaw movements, three-dimensional (3D) movement recording provide information about the jaw movement capacity. The aim of the present report was to test the reliability of measuring lower jaw movements using a 3D movement recording system and to calculate the lower jaw movement volume. Lower jaw movements, recorded by 3D optoelectronic movement analysis system (MacReflex®) was compared with reference values from a digital caliper. Pre-tests were performed to develop a software to calculate the lower jaw movements in separate dimensions and its volume. Pilot tests with two test persons followed to register the lower jaw movements and calculate lower jaw movement volume. The results indicate low reliability of lower jaw movements measured by movement recording system compared with reference values from digital caliper, reflected by delta values (D = max-min). The values from the movement recording system indicate high variability reflected by higher levels of standard deviation for movement recorded values compared with digital caliper and by percentage values calculated from the differences between mean values of movement recording and digital caliper. The calculated lower jaw movement volume was 10.3 cm3 and 17.2 cm3 for the test persons, respectively. Conclusively, the results imply that further testing of the method is needed with larger series and test-retest reliability analysis to evaluate the possibility to improve accuracy of tracing jaw movements with recording device. The 3D-movement recording system together with the software could be used for calculation of lower jaw movement volume but its accuracy could not be validated.

Lorsque nous pensons à nous-mêmes, à toutes les caractéristiques physiques ou psychologiques qui nous définissent, à tous les objets que nous possédons, nous avons limpression quils ont un statut bien particulier dans notre esprit, quils sont spéciaux pour nous. Notre propre visage est certainement parmi lune des plus uniques et distinctives de toutes ces informations autoréférentielles. Dans ce travail, nous nous sommes penchés sur les spécificités du traitement visuel du propre visage. Dans un premier chapitre théorique, nous avons questionné la possibilité dutiliser le traitement du propre visage comme un indice de conscience de soi (voir Chapitre 1). Ensuite, nous avons passé en revue les différentes études existantes qui concernaient la spécificité du propre visage ou dautres informations autoréférentielles (voir Chapitre 2). Suite à cette revue de la littérature, il est apparu que lintuition selon laquelle notre propre visage est un stimulus spécial navait pas pu être confirmée unanimement par les études qui nous précédaient. Ce travail ambitionnait donc dévaluer empiriquement dans quelle mesure notre propre visage est traité par le système cognitif de façon différente des autres visages que nous rencontrons. Nous avons tenté de répondre à cette question selon trois angles différents. Tout dabord, nous nous sommes intéressés à la précision de la représentation de notre propre visage en mémoire. Pour cela, nous avons utilisé dans notre première étude une méthode psychophysique permettant de déterminer dans quelle mesure nous sommes capables de détecter des modifications fines apportées à des photographies de notre propre visage (voir Chapitre 4). Ensuite, nous avons examiné si la reconnaissance de notre propre visage, mais aussi celle de notre propre corps, sont sous-tendues par des zones cérébrales spécifiques. A cette fin, au cours dune seconde étude, nous avons utilisé limagerie par résonance magnétique fonctionnelle (IRMf, voir Chapitre 5). Enfin, nous avons testé si le propre visage est particulièrement apte à capturer ou à retenir notre attention lorsquil est présenté de façon inopportune alors que nous sommes occupés à réaliser une tâche sans rapport (voir Chapitres 6, 7 et 8). Pour ce faire, nous avons eu recours, dans une série de trois études, à différents paradigmes attentionnels : un paradigme de jugement de parité, un paradigme de cécité attentionnelle, et un paradigme de recherche visuel lors duquel nous avons procédé à lenregistrement des mouvements oculaires des participants. Tout au long de ce travail, nous avons adopté une approche visant à différencier les effets dautoréférence de simples effets de familiarité. Pour ce faire, dans toutes nos études, nous avons comparé les réponses obtenues lors de la présentation du propre visage du participant à celles obtenues lors de la présentation du visage dune personne hautement familière pour le participant (un ami ou un collègue du même groupe dâge et du même sexe). Par ailleurs, dans les études attentionnelles, les réponses subséquentes à la présentation de ces deux visages familiers étaient également comparées à celles obtenues suite à lapparition de visages de personnes inconnues. En somme, si les performances obtenues sur le propre visage et le visage très familier différaient, nous pourrions penser que ces différences sont dues à laspect autoréférentiel du propre visage. Par contre, si les performances ne différaient pas entre le propre visage et lautre visage très familier mais que ces deux visages se distinguaient des visages inconnus, nous pourrions supposer que nous sommes face à de simples effets de familiarité. La première étude psychophysique a montré que la représentation que nous avons en mémoire de notre propre visage est très précise. Cette précision est seulement limitée par les capacités de discrimination perceptive de notre système visuel. Cependant, il en était de même pour le visage dune autre personne hautement familière. De ce point de vue, il ne semble donc pas que notre propre visage soit spécial. Néanmoins, il semblerait que cette représentation soit sous-tendue par des substrats cérébraux spécifiques, comme indiqué par notre seconde étude en IRMf. Cette étude a aussi montré que notre propre corps serait également traité par des régions cérébrales spécifiques. De plus, certaines régions seraient dédiées au traitement abstrait de notre propre apparence physique puisquelles étaient impliquées indépendamment du type de matériel présenté (visage ou corps). Enfin, nous avons montré, grâce aux trois études attentionnelles, que le propre visage nest pas un distracteur exceptionnel par rapport à dautres visages familiers. En effet, le propre visage ne semble pas capturer lattention de façon automatique. Il semblerait que le propre visage bénéficie simplement dune allocation de lattention préférentielle par rapport à des visages inconnus. En dautres termes, lallocation de lattention au propre visage est sujette à diverses contraintes (par exemple sa localisation spatiale) et il semblerait que lattention soit nécessaire pour identifier le propre visage en tant que tel. Cet ensemble de résultats est discuté dans un dernier chapitre (voir Chapitre 9) où nous tentons de mettre les données provenant des trois perspectives différentes (représentation en mémoire, substrats cérébraux et propriétés attentionnelles relatifs au propre visage) en rapport. De plus, la possibilité dutiliser le propre visage comme outil détude de la conscience de soi ou de différents processus cognitifs (reconnaissance ou attention visuelle) est brièvement passée en revue.<br> <br> When we think about ourselves, about the traits that define us, about the physical characteristics or the objects that we own, we have the intuition that they have a special status in our mind. We deeply feel that they are different from everything else in the world. This thesis concerned the specificity of a highly distinctive self-referential stimulus: the self-face. In the present thesis, we have conducted five studies examining whether the self-face is processed in a special way by comparison with other faces. We have put three main questions: (1) how accurate is the representation of the self-face in memory?; (2) is this representation subtended by specific neural correlates?; and (3) does the self-face have special abilities to attract and/or to hold attention? First, we showed that the perceptual representation in memory of the self-face is similar to that of other familiar faces as regard with its precision. Second, we demonstrated that although ones own face perceptual representation is not really special, the visual processing of the self-face is subtended by specific neural correlates. Apparently, the self-body is also processed via specialised pathways in the brain. In addition, some regions seem devoted to the abstract processing of ones own physical appearance independently of the material presented. Third, we showed that ones own face is not a particularly potent distractor by comparison with other familiar faces. It does not seem able to capture attention but rather benefits from a preferential allocation of attention by comparison with unfamiliar faces. In other words, its attentional processing is subject to various constraints (e.g. spatial localisation, available attentional resources) and attention seems necessary to process self-referential parts of a face. We discussed the idea that the presentation of the self-face can constitute a way to enhance chances of eliciting responses in non-communicative patients but that it is not the best way to study self-consciousness in normal adults when using only behavioural methods. In addition, because of its unique characteristics, the self-face can represent a useful tool of investigation of visual recognition and visual attention.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T20:18:14Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 3792.pdf: 3922165 bytes, checksum: 1533e03deedd086e3496ff42c87c7a3e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-06-09 / Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais / Neck pain has been highly prevalent among workers. In occupational settings physical risk factors, especially posture, are considered fundamental in neck pain development. However, neck posture and movements have not been properly evaluated at workplace due to the use of not reliable measurement methods. Furthermore, most of the studies that evaluate posture during occupational activities have focused on the wrist and hand assessment. Thus, in order to contribute with information about neck movements recording in occupational settings, three related studies were developed. The aim of the first study was to investigate the applications and limitations of the systems for direct measurement of neck movement in the workplace. The results of this study showed that in most of the articles the three axes of neck movement were not simultaneously recorded. Deficiencies in available equipment explain this flaw, demonstrating that sensors and systems need to be improved so that a true understanding of real occupational exposure can be achieved. Further studies are also needed to assess neck movement in those who perform heavy&#8208;duty work, such as nurses and electricians, since no report about such jobs was identified. Based on these results, an option to record three&#8208;dimensional neck movements in occupational settings is the use of flexible electrogoniometers. But neither electrogoniometers, nor inclinometers (direct measurement most commonly used) were compared with a system considered more accurate and precise. Then, the objective of the second study was to assess concurrent validity between flexible electrogoniometers (EGM), inclinometers (INC) and a three&#8208;dimensional analysis system based on video recording (IMG) in simultaneous and synchronized data collection. EGM presented high differences when compared with INC and IMG. Moreover, the EGM sensors physically restricted the full neck flexion&#8208;extension range of motion. Inclinometers, which cannot record rotation movement, presented good concurrent validity in relation to IMG, except for flexion&#8208;extension movement. Due to non&#8208;optimal conditions during flexion&#8208;extension movement, IMG underestimated these movements. The results of the studies described above designed the third study that aimed to quantify the head, upper back and upper arm postures of practical nurses while performing their occupational activities and to verify if there are differences between the postures of professionals with and without symptoms. The results showed that most of the activities of practical nurses involve considerable postural risk for the head, upper back and upper arms. The postural risk varied among tasks: there was more exposure for the neck region when separating medication and keeping medical records. In general, workers with symptoms in the neck and upper arm region presented greater amplitude of movement and a higher fraction of time spent in awkward postures than asymptomatic workers, but with no significant difference between these two groups. / A dor no pescoço tem sido altamente prevalece entre trabalhadores. Em ambiente ocupacional, fatores de risco físico, particularmente a postura, são considerados preponderantes no desenvolvimento de dor no pescoço. Contudo, as posturas e os movimentos dessa região não têm sido adequadamente avaliados no ambiente de trabalho, devido ao uso de métodos de medida não confiáveis. Além disso, a maioria dos estudos que avaliam a postura durante as atividades ocupacionais tem focado na avaliação do punho e da mão. Assim, para contribuir com o entendimento do registro dos movimentos do pescoço em ambiente de trabalho, três estudos foram desenvolvidos. O objetivo do primeiro estudo foi investigar as aplicações e limitações dos sistemas de medidas diretas para registro do movimento do pescoço em ambiente de trabalho. Os resultados desse estudo revelaram que na maioria dos artigos, os três eixos de movimento do pescoço não foram registrados simultaneamente. Deficiências nos equipamentos disponíveis explicam esta falha, demonstrando que os sensores e os sistemas precisam ser melhorados para que um entendimento da real exposição ocupacional do pescoço possa ser alcançado. Mais estudos também são necessários para avaliar os movimentos do pescoço em profissionais que realizam trabalho pesado, tais como enfermeiros e eletricistas, já que nenhum artigo avaliando essas ocupações foi identificado. Baseado nesses resultados, uma alternativa para o registro tridimensional dos movimentos do pescoço em ambiente ocupacional seria o uso de eletrogoniômetros flexíveis. Mas nem os eletrogoniômetros, nem os inclinômetros (medida direta mais comumente usada) foram comparados com um sistema considerado mais preciso e confiável. Assim, o objetivo do segundo estudo foi avaliar a validade concorrente entre eletrogoniômetros flexíveis (EGM), inclinômetros (INC) e um sistema de análise tridimensional baseado em registro de vídeo (IMG) numa coleta de dados simultânea e sincronizada. O EGM apresentou grandes diferenças quando comparado com o INC e com a IMG. Além disso, os sensores do EGM restringiram fisicamente a amplitude de movimento completa de flexo&#8208;extensão do pescoço. Inclinômetros, os quais não podem registrar o movimento de rotação, apresentaram boa validade concorrente em relação à IMG, exceto para o movimento de flexo&#8208;extensão. Devido a condições não&#8208;ótimas durante o movimento de fluxo&#8208;extensão, a IMG subestimou esses movimentos. Os resultados dos estudos descritos acima delinearam o terceiro estudo cujo objetivo foi quantificar as posturas da cabeça, tronco superior e braços de técnicos de enfermagem durante a realização de suas atividades ocupacionais e verificar se há diferenças entre as posturas dos profissionais com e sem sintomas. Os resultados mostraram que a maioria das atividades dos técnicos de enfermagem envolve considerável risco postural para a cabeça, tronco superior e braços. O risco postural variou entre as atividades: houve maior exposição para a região do pescoço nas tarefas de separar medicação e anotar em prontuário médico. Em geral, os trabalhadores com sintomas no pescoço e ombro apresentaram maior amplitude de movimento e maior fração do tempo gasto em posturas extremas do que os trabalhadores assintomáticos, mas sem diferença significativa entre esses dois grupos.

The subject of this thesis is the design and implementation of a client-server applications for collecting GPS data using a smartphone with Android OS. The system is used for real-time monitoring and recording vehicle’s movement on a server, where the data are adapted to the real road. This thesis is a continuation of the project DoAutoškoly.cz . The theoretical part of the thesis deals with GPS, real-time communication problems and the Android platform, including its application interface for GPS. In the next part of the thesis, this knowledge is used to design the whole system. The thesis continues with the implementation of a mobile application, the web module and the corresponding server application. The chapters continue to deal with real-time tracking and route editing. The last part is focused on testing and evaluation of the results.