Objectives: To explore if joint mobility, as a measure of connective tissue quality, could be a predictor for pregnancy-related low back pain after pregnancy and to evaluate local corticosteroid injection treatment in women with persistent pelvic girdle pain long after childbirth. Material and methods: To investigate joint mobility in relation to pain, 200 women were examined repeatedly from early pregnancy until three months after delivery. Their mobility in left fourth finger abduction in early pregnancy was compared with clinically assessed low back and pelvic pain 3 months after delivery. To evaluate local corticosteroid injection treatment, 36 women with persistent PGP were included in a randomised controlled trial (RCT) and randomised to either corticosteroid injection or saline injection on one occasion at the ischial spine bilaterally, with a follow-up after four weeks. In both studies, the women were asked about obstetric history, to complete a pain drawing, estimate their level of pain on a visual analogue scale (0-100) and estimate how they manage their everyday activities on a questionnaire, Disability Rating Index (DRI). In the RCT, the 36 women also completed Short Form 36 (SF-36), a quality of life questionnaire, six-minute walk test (6MWT), and isometric trunk flexion and extension were examined. Results: Women with low back and pelvic pain three months after pregnancy had increased finger laxity in early pregnancy. The larger the finger angle and the more pregnancies, the greater the risk of low back and pelvic pain after pregnancy. In the RCT, at follow-up, the women who received corticosteroid injection treatment improved in walking ability, estimated physical ability and isometric trunk extension more than those who received saline injections. Conclusions: Increased joint mobility, as measured by finger joint mobility, together with the number of previous pregnancies, may be an indicator of low back and pelvic pain postpartum. One single corticosteroid injection treatment to intra-pelvic structures improved function in women with persistent PGP which may indicate a source of pain.

Orientador: Aparecido Augusto de Carvalho / Banca: Alexandre César Rodrigues da Silva / Banca: Josivaldo Godoy da Silva / Resumo: O teste de força de aperto das mãos tem como finalidade detectar eventuais patologias nos membros superiores e avaliar a força exercida pelas mãos de pacientes. Neste trabalho é descrito o desenvolvimento de um dinamômetro biomédico projetado para efetuar a avaliação funcional das mãos, através da utilização de moldes específicos. O equipamento é constituído basicamente por sensores com extensômetros metálicos, um circuito de condicionamento de sinais, um circuito de interfaceamento e por um display digital. O circuito de condicionamento de sinais foi implementado com um amplificador de instrumentação, um amplificador com ganho programável e por um filtro passa-baixas. O principal componente do circuito de interfaceamento é o microcontrolador ATMEGA8. O equipamento é robusto, apresenta resposta linear na faixa de 0 a 500 N, precisão de 0,54%, resolução de 0,70 N e histerese desprezível. O valor da força pode ser lida em um display e também na tela de um computador. Pode ser útil em Engenharia de Reabilitação, Fisioterapia e Terapia Ocupacional / Abstract: In this work we describe the development of a biomedical dynamometer. It was designed with the goal of performing the functional evaluation of hands with specific shapes. The equipment is constituted by force sensors, a signal conditioning circuit, an interface circuit and a digital display. Metallic strain gages were used as sensors. The signal conditioning circuit is constituted by an instrumentation amplifier, a programmable gain amplifier and a low-pass filter. The main component of the interface circuit is an ATMEGA8 microcontroller. The instrument can measure forces with resolution of 0.70 N and precision of 0.54% in the range of 0 to 500 N. It is rugged, presents linear response and very small hysteresis. The value of the force can be read in a display and in a computer screen. The device can be useful in Rehabilitation Engineering, Physiotherapy and Ocupational Therapy / Mestre

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / Retinoblastoma binding protein 6 (RBBP6) is a 250 kDa protein that is implicated in mRNA processing and ubiquitination functions and has been shown to be highly up-regulated in a number of cancers. In humans and mice, RBBP6 interacts with both tumour suppressors p53 and pRb, suggesting that it is involved in regulation of transcription, induction of apoptosis and cell cycle control. Knock-out of an RBBP6 homologue PACT resulted in p53 dependent cell cycle arrest and apoptosis. Although the biological functions of RBBP6 remain largely unclear, it is possible that its functions are mediated through interaction with other cellular proteins. Since it is possible to unveil novel functions of a target protein through identifying its interacting protein partners, this study aims to further characterize the functions of RBBP6 through identifying novel protein interacting partners using a yeast 2-hybrid screen. In order to identify interaction partners of RBBP6, two well characterized domains of RBBP6, the N-terminal ubiquitin-like DWNN domain and RING finger domain, were used as baits in a yeast 2-hybrid screen of a human testis cDNA library. Putative interactors were verified using in vitro and in vivo immunoprecipitation assays. The RING finger domain was shown to interact with transcriptional factors V-Box binding protein 1 (YB-1) and zinc finger and BTB containing protein 38 (zBTB38), resulting in their ubiquitination. In the case of YB-1 ubiquitination was correlated with a decrease in the intra-cellular levels of YB-1, suggesting that ubiquitination leads to degradation in the proteosome. The DWNN domain was shown to interact with a splicing associated small nuclear ribonucleoprotein polypeptide G (snRPG) and heat shock protein 70 (Hsp70). The results of this work suggest that, at least in the case of YB-1 and zBTB38, RBBP6 plays a role in the regulation of gene expression by ubiquitination of transcription factors, causing them to be degraded in the proteosome. The study provides further evidence of RBBP6's involvement in mRNA splicing through its interaction with snRPG. The interaction with Hsp70 suggests a possible role in protein quality control similar to that played by other E3 ligases such as Parkin and CHIP.

This diploma thesis deals with different ways of grayscale image processing of veins in a finger of human hand. The process consists of vein structure extraction, and then this structure is compared with collection of provided snapshots. First of all we introduced problem of biometric systems and image processing. There are presented also some commercial solutions from the same field. Within the detailed description of image processing we suggested different modifications in adaptive thresholding algorithm, feature extraction, which continues into comparison of vein structures. Thesis is closed by testing and final review.

Les signaux électromyographiques de surface (sEMG) correspondent aux signaux électriques composés par les potentiels d’action produits par les unités motrices d’un muscle actif et enregistrés par des électrodes de surface. Les signaux sEMG sont largement utilisés dans la médicine, le contrôle des prothèses et plus généralement dans les études biomécaniques portant sur l’analyse du mouvement humain. Les signaux sEMG sont très souvent utilisés comme un indicateur d’activation musculaire.Bien que présentant un intérêt évident, l’utilisation de ces signaux reste difficile compte tenu qu’ils sont souvent susceptibles d’interférence (diaphonie, ou plus communément « crosstalk ») entre les muscles contigus, parfois même éloignés. Cette contamination croisée est particulièrement présente pour des muscles présents dans un volume restreint, ce qui est le cas des muscles extenseur de l’index et du petit doigt, extensor indicis et extensor digiti minimi. L’interférence induit la réduction de la précision de l’estimation des activations musculaires et reste, à ce titre, un problème important et récurrent de la biomécanique. Afin que les signaux sEMG puissent être utilisés de manière plus robuste en biomécanique, il convient de réduire cette interférence avant de procéder à l’estimation des activations musculaires. Les activations individuelles des muscles participant au mouvement correctement estimées peuvent être utilisées comme données d’entrées d’un modèle biomécanique. Cette démarche, nommée dynamique directe, permet notamment d’estimer la force externe produite par le système et dans un second temps de comparer cette dernière avec la mesure réalisée grâce à un système dynamométrique. En ce sens cette démarche permet une validation indirecte des estimations réalisées à partir des signaux sEMG. Dans le cadre de cette thèse, nous avons modélisé le doigt et plus particulièrement le mécanisme extenseur qui est une structure qui transmet les forces des muscles-extenseurs aux articulations digitales. Cette structure est très mal connue du point de vue biomécanique et le plus souvent représentée par un ensemble des coefficients établis sur l’analyse de mains de cadavres dans des situations très particulières et standardisées (doigts en extension). Ainsi, l’objectif de ce travail de thèse était double : (1) améliorer l’estimation de la force au bout du doigt à partir des mélanges des sEMG sur la base d’extraction des activations des signaux sEMG des muscles extensor indicis et extensor digiti minimi, et (2) modélisation biomécanique du mécanisme extenseur du doigt. Pour cela, les signaux sEMG ont été enregistrés avec une matrice d’électrodes de surface haute densité à 64 capteurs. Ensuite, l’extraction des activations musculaires a été réalisée sur la base d’une procédure de classification des potentiels détectés en utilisant les invariants musculaires que sont la direction de propagation et la profondeur de l’unité motrice à l’origine du signal.Dans un deuxième temps, un modèle biomécanique précis du mécanisme extenseur du doigt a été créé, qui contient les tendons et les principaux ligaments représentés par des bandes et des surfaces élastiques. Un algorithme de paramétrage du modèle a été proposé. Ce type d ‘approche est nécessaire pour mieux décrire les déformations du système anatomique dans des situations de mouvement sain ou pathologique.Cette démarche a montré qu’elle était pertinente pour l’étude biomécanique du doigt. Elle présente des utilisations judicieuses pour les études biomécaniques portant sur l’évaluation clinique, la réhabilitation et le contrôle des prothèses myoélectriques. / The surface electromyographic signals (SEMG) are the electric signals, composed of electric potentials. These potentials are produced by the recruited motor units of an active muscle and captured by the surface electrodes. The SEMG signals are widely used in medicine, prosthesis control and biomechanical studies as an indicator of muscle activity.However, SEMG measurements are usually subjects of crosstalk or interference from nearby muscles. It appears when two or more muscles situated close to each other are active during a SEMG recording. An example of such muscles are the extensors of index and little finger, extensor indicis and extensor digiti minimi, situated close to each other and creating a significant amount of mutual crosstalk when simultaneously active. The crosstalk causes precision decrease of SEMG-based estimation of muscle activations. Hence, the crosstalk-reducing problem must be preliminary solved before muscle activation evaluation.Once the activations of individual muscles are estimated from the mixture, they may be used as an input of a finger biomechanical model to calculate a fingertip force. These models usually contain an extensor mechanism of the finger, which is a structure, transmitting the force from the extensor muscles to the finger joints. This structure is often taken into account as a set of coefficients. However, there is a lack of study about how these coefficients vary with posture, applied force, and subject variability.The purpose of this work is to improve the finger force estimation from the crosstalk-contaminated signals for isometric tasks by extracting the activations of individual muscles and improving the finger biomechanical model.Firstly, the SEMG signals were recorded with high-density surface electromyographic (HD-EMG) electrode matrix. The extraction was based on classifying the detected potentials according their propagation direction and depth of originating motor unit.Secondly, a precise biomechanical model of the finger extensor mechanism was created, containing the principal tendons and ligaments. The algorithm of the model parametrization was proposed as well.The proposed methods of muscle activation estimation along with the created extensor mechanism model may be used for calculating the fingertip force and internal tissues deformations for normal or pathological fingers.

An introduction to Chord Algorithm.

Source is converted into pdf format. An introduction to Chord Algorithm.

Ziel dieser Arbeit war es, die Entscheidungsfindung mittels virtueller Methoden im Fahrzeugentwicklungsprozess zu unterstützen. Es wurde ein Interaktionssystem entwickelt, welches auf Propriozeption und taktilem Feedback als multimodale Komponente in Verbindung mit visueller Wahrnehmung beruht. Zur sinnvollen Nutzung der Propriozeption wurde eine Freihandinteraktion basierend auf Fingertracking in der CAVE eingesetzt, welche die Abbildung einer Bedienmetapher sehr ähnlich der eines Bewegungsablaufes im realen Fahrzeug ermöglicht. Das System wurde in Probandenstudien evaluiert. Es wurde gezeigt, dass eine individuelle Anpassung des virtuellen Augenabstandes deutliche Verbesserungen in der virtuellen Raumwahrnehmung erzielt. Zudem wurde eine Kalibriermethodik entwickelt, welche es über eine Integration von visuellem und taktilem Sinn ermöglicht, die konsistente Wahrnehmung des Nutzers zu verbessern. Das visuelltaktile Feedback wurde im Vergleich verschiedener Interaktionsfeedbacks für Aufgaben der virtuellen Interieurbewertung als am besten geeignet verifiziert. Mittels des visuelltaktilen Feedbacks konnte sowohl die Leistung, als auch die Genauigkeit der Aufgabenausführung gesteigert werden. Darauf basierend konnte gezeigt werden, dass sowohl die Präsenz in virtuellen Umgebungen, als auch die Intuitivität signifikant durch das Fingertrackingsystem im Vergleich zur bisher eingesetzten Interaktionsmethode externer Operator gesteigert werden. Obwohl sich die virtuelle Raumwahrnehmung nicht signifikant verbesserte, liegt die Einschätzung unter Betrachtung aller Ergebnisse nahe, dass eine Verortung im virtuellen Fahrzeug deutlich positiv durch das Fingertrackingsystem unterstützt wird. Insgesamt konnte eine Erhöhung der Benutzerakzeptanz und Entscheidungskompetenz realisiert werden.

Title: Effect of mechanical correction and active exercise in the treatment of deformity of the fifth toe - Tailor's bunion Objectives: The aim of this thesis is to identify the effect of mechanical correction and active physiotherapeutic intervention in the treatment of deformity Tailor's bunion. Methods: This is a quantitative-qualitative experimental study involving 10 probands aged 19 to 25 with flexible Tailor's bunion deformity, 6 out of 10 probands had bilateral deformity and the remaining probands unilateral deformity. In this thesis, passive intervention in the form of mechanical axial correction of V. MTP joint by strapping tape was used and active intervention in the form of selected active exercise aimed at evaluating (identifying) the effect on selected foot parameters. The participants were randomly divided into two groups of five. Group 1 was subjected to active therapeutic intervention and Group 2 was subjected to passive therapeutic intervention for 4 weeks. Before and after the therapeutic intervention, the probands were examined clinically, followed by a postural stability test in static standing on the tensometric plate RS Footscan ® Balance and pressure distribution testing of individual foot segments while walking on a Footscan Gait plate. At the end of the examination we did...

I studien utforskas användandet av högerhandens lillfinger i klassiskt gitarrspel. Genom videoanalys och loggbok beskrivs övningsprocesser, problem och lösningar samt upplevelser kring användandet av högerhandens lillfinger. För att få ett anatomiskt perspektiv genomfördes även en intervju med en specialist inom handkirurgi. Arbetet avslutades med att en etyd komponerades med målet att se i vilka musikaliska sammanhang lillfingret kan bidra till den musikaliska gestaltningen. / This study explores the use of the little finger of the right hand in classical guitar playing. Through video analysis and logbook, the practice processes, problems, and solutions were described, as well as experiences on the use of the right hand's little finger. An interview with a hand surgery specialist was also conducted to provide an anatomical perspective. The work ended with a composing of an etude in order to investigate in what musical contexts the little finger can contribute to musical performance.