Measures of localized spinal muscle fatigue

The objective of this study was to determine the best variable, if any, to indicate the level of localized muscle fatigue. Six male and six female subjects were studied while they exerted their maximal voluntary contraction and 40% of maximal voluntary contraction of spinal extensors in an isometric lifting activity. The electromyography (EMG) of erectores spinae at thoracic and lumbar levels was measured bilaterally. Also, the muscle bed blood volume, level of blood oxygenation to erector spinae at L3 level and heart rate were measured. The initial and final values of subjective feelings of fatigue through visual analogue score, rate of perceived exertions and body part discomfort rating were recorded. The mean maximal voluntary contraction forces for males and females were 899 (238) N and 431 (135) N respectively. The mean durations of hold in maximal voluntary fatiguing contraction were 68.1 (39.9) s and 72.3 (37.0) s for men and women respectively. By the end of the hold the force declined to 52% for males and 62% for females. The EMG amplitudes and median frequencies also progressively declined (p < 0.01). ANOVA revealed that the task percentile values of all variables were significantly different (p < 0.01). Gender had a significant main effect (p < 0.01). The correlation coefficients between force and other individual variables were weak to modest, but significant (p < 0.001). None of the single variables predicted fatigue reliably for either gender and levels of contraction. The regression equations developed were highly significant (p < 0.01) and they explained 96 to 98% of variance in both genders and contractions.     

Efficient median based clustering and classification techniques for protein sequences

In this paper, an efficient K-medians clustering (unsupervised) algorithm for prototype selection and Supervised K-medians (SKM) classification technique for protein sequences are presented. For sequence data sets, a median string/sequence can be used as the cluster/group representative. In K-medians clustering technique, a desired number of clusters, K, each represented by a median string/sequence, is generated and these median sequences are used as prototypes for classifying the new/test sequence whereas in SKM classification technique, median sequence in each group/class of labelled protein sequences is determined and the set of median sequences is used as prototypes for classification purpose. It is found that the K-medians clustering technique outperforms the leader based technique and also SKM classification technique performs better than that of motifs based approach for the data sets used. We further use a simple technique to reduce time and space requirements during protein sequence clustering and classification. During training and testing phase, the similarity score value between a pair of sequences is determined by selecting a portion of the sequence instead of the entire sequence. It is like selecting a subset of features for sequence data sets. The experimental results of the proposed method on K-medians, SKM and Nearest Neighbour Classifier (NNC) techniques show that the Classification Accuracy (CA) using the prototypes generated/used does not degrade much but the training and testing time are reduced significantly. Thus the experimental results indicate that the similarity score does not need to be calculated by considering the entire length of the sequence for achieving a good CA. Even space requirement is reduced during both training and classification.     

Radarsat data analysis for monitoring and evaluation of irrigation projects in the monsoon

The availability of multi-look angle HH polarization C band SAR data of different swaths and resolutions from Radarsat, in addition to VV polarization C band SAR data from ERS, has raised hopes for separating individual crops and for estimating soil moisture, enabling monitoring and evaluation of irrigation projects even under cloud cover conditions. Under the Radarsat ADRO Project, an attempt was made to identify irrigated crops in the Bhadra project command area, Karnataka state, India, using temporal, multi-look angle and dual polarization C-band SAR data from Radarsat and ERS. Preliminary analysis included data quality evaluation, rectification, speckle suppression and separability comparison of different land use and land cover classes. Evaluation of Radarsat data quality showed consistency in spatial resolution. Radarsat data acquired on different dates in shallow (S7 mode) and steep (S2 mode) angles and concurrent ERS-2 data were processed and analysed for possible discrimination of individual crops. It was observed that Radarsat data showed better separability of land use and land cover classes than ERS data. Principal Component Analysis was used on multi-look angle and dual polarization data from both ERS and Radarsat to reduce data dimensionality and the results were better with the first three components.     

Synthesis and Characterisation of Polyamides and Polyimides from Amino/Methylene bis[Benzenamine] Styryl Pyridines

Polyamides and polyimides containing diamines, with potential non-linear optical characteristics, were prepared using (E)-4,4′-[[[2-(4-pyridinyl)ethenyl]phenyl]amino]bis[benzenamine] and (E)-4-4′-[[[2-(4-pyridinyl)ethenyl]2-methyl phenyl]amino]bis[benzenamine] condensed with pyromellitic dianhydride to obtain poly(amic acid)s. The poly(amic acid)s were soluble in polar aprotic solvents, such as dimethylformamide, dimethylsulphoxide and dimethylacetamide, and could be cast into transparent, tough, flexible films. Amorphous thermally stable polyimides were formed by cyclodehydration. Similarly, (E)-4,4′-[[[2-(4-pyridinyl)ethenyl]phenyl]methylene]bis[benzenamine] and (E)-4,4′-[[[2-(4-pyridinyl)ethenyl]phenyl]methylene]bis[N-ethylbenzenamine] were condensed with 3-methyladipoyl chloride to obtain other new polyamides. Characterisation using infra-red and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction and thermogravimetric analysis are reported. © 1997 SCI.     

A New Method to Determine Effective Lateral Doping Abruptness and Spreading-Resistance Components in Nanoscale MOSFETs

A comprehensive technique for the accurate extraction of the effective lateral doping abruptness and the spreading-resistance components in source/drain extension (EXT) regions is presented by FET on-resistance characterization and physical resistance modeling. The spreading-resistance components under EXT-to-gate overlap, and spacer regions are successfully correlated to the lateral EXT doping abruptness by the relationship between on-resistance and overlap capacitance response measured from 90-nm-node silicon-on-insulator MOSFETs. The accurate determination of lateral doping abruptness is found to be essential for linking the external spreading resistance to intrinsic short-channel device characteristics.     

Processing and analysis of onionseed (Allium cepa) and its fixed oil

The characteristics of onionseed (Allium cepa) and its fixed oil are reported. The component fatty acids of the oil by GLC are: palmitic, 7.2%; stearic, 1.2%; oleic, 33.5% and linoleic, 58.1%. The oil was refined and bleached to a light color.     

Persistence of quinalphos and occurrence of its primary metabolite in soils

PURPOSE: This study focuses on the quantification of genetic and environmental factors in arm strength after high-resistance strength training. METHODS: Male monozygotic (MZ, N = 25) and dizygotic (DZ, N = 16) twins (22.4 +/- 3.7 yr) participated in a 10-wk resistance training program for the elbow flexors. The evidence for genotype*training interaction, or association of interindividual differences in training effects with the genotype, was tested by a two-way ANOVA in the MZ twins and using a bivariate model-fitting approach on pre- and post-training phenotypes in MZ and DZ twins. One repetition maximum (1RM), isometric strength, and concentric and eccentric moments in 110 degree arm flexion at velocities of 30 degrees x s(-1), 60 degrees x s(-1), and 12 degrees x s(-1) were evaluated as well as arm muscle cross-sectional area (MCSA). RESULTS: Results indicated significant positive training effects for all measures except for maximal eccentric moments. Evidence for genotype*training interaction was found for 1RM and isometric strength, with MZ intra-pair correlations of 0.46 and 0.30, respectively. Bivariate model-fitting indicated that about 20% of the variation in post-training 1RM, isometric strength, and concentric moment at 120 degrees x s(-1) was explained by training-specific genetic factors that were independent from genetic factors that explained variation in the pretraining phenotype (30-77%). CONCLUSIONS: Genetic correlations between measures of pre- and post-training strength were indicative for high pleiotropic gene action and minor activation of training-specific genes during training.     

On the Computation of the Discrete Cosine Transform

AnN-point discrete Fourier transform (DFT) algorithm can be used to evaluate a discrete cosine transform by a simple rearrangement of the input data. This method is about two times faster compared to the conventional method which uses a2N-point DFT.