Being outdoors may have health benefits including being more physically active. Understanding the relationship between outdoor time and health is hampered by the difficulty of measuring outdoor time. To examine the accuracy and validity of light-sensor and GPS methods for quantifying outdoor time among those aged 3-5 years at child ...

Countries in Sub-Saharan Africa are particularly vulnerable to climate change, given dependence on agricultural production and limited adaptive capacity. Based on farm household and Participatory Rural Appraisal data collected from districts in various agroecological zones in Kenya, this paper examines farmers' perceptions of climate change, ongoing adaptation measures, and factors ...

The near field signal redundancy algorithm for phase-aberration correction is sensitive to tissue motion because several separated transmissions are usually needed to acquire a set of common-midpoint signals. If tissues are moving significantly due to, for example, heart beats, the effects of tissue motion on common-midpoint signals need to be ...

We demonstrate controlled wavelength-dependent light focusing through turbid media using wavefront shaping. Due to the dispersion caused by multiple light scattering, light propagation through turbid media can be independently controlled between different wavelengths. Foci with various wavelengths can be generated by applying different optimized wavefronts to a highly scattering layer. ...

A concave diffraction grating for integrated optics is constructed by replacing the reflective metallic part by multiple thin elements of metal, each partially reflecting the light, arranged in elliptical fashion in order to distribute the diffraction/reflection of light and provide aberration-free focusing by combining the diffraction condition and Bragg condition ...

A shearing interferometer based on using broadband light source, Savart plate, and angular scanning technique is proposed for slope contour measurements in this Letter. Of which, the Savart plate divides the wavefront reflected from the detected surface into two laterally displaced ones, the interference pattern generated by the interference of ...

Motion-compensated radiotracer imaging of fully conscious rodents represents an important paradigm shift for preclinical investigations. In such studies, if motion tracking is performed through a transparent enclosure containing the awake animal, light refraction at the interface will introduce errors in stereo pose estimation. We have performed a thorough investigation of ...

White-light interferometry uses a white-light source with a short coherent length that provides a narrowly localized interferogram that is used to measure three-dimensional surface profiles with possible large step heights without 2π-ambiguity. Combining coherence and phase information improves the vertical resolution. But, inconsistencies between phase and coherence occur at highly ...

White-light interferometry (WLI) on rough surfaces is based on interference from individual speckles. The measurement uncertainty of WLI is limited by a random shift of these individual interference patterns. The statistical error in each measurement point depends on the brightness of the corresponding speckle: a dark speckle yields a larger ...

Standard FFT-based turbulent phase screen generation method has very large errors due to the undersampling of the low frequency components. Subharmonic methods are the main low frequency components compensating methods to improve the accuracy, but the residual errors are still large. In this paper I propose a new low frequency ...

Kerosene has been an important household fuel since the mid-19th century. In developed countries its use has greatly declined because of electrification. However, in developing countries, kerosene use for cooking and lighting remains widespread. This review focuses on household kerosene uses, mainly in developing countries, their associated emissions, and their ...

We use adaptive optics (AO) techniques to manipulate the ocular aberrations and elucidate the effects of these ocular aberrations on contrast detection in a noisy background. The detectability of sine wave gratings at frequencies of 4, 8, and 16 circles per degree (cpd) was measured in a standard two-interval force-choice ...

The pathophysiology underlying tinnitus, a hearing disorder characterized by the chronic perception of phantom sound, has been related to aberrant plastic reorganization of the central auditory system. More specifically, tinnitus is thought to involve changes in the tonotopic representation of sound. In the present study we used high-resolution functional magnetic ...

Hunger was found to facilitate visually induced illusory upward and downward self-motions (vertical vection), but not illusory self-motion in depth (vection in depth). We propose that the origin of this hunger effect lies in the possibility that vertical self-motions (both real and illusory) are more likely to induce changes in ...

Eyes with distant objects in focus in daylight are thought to become myopic in dim light. This phenomenon, often called "night myopia" has been studied extensively for several decades. However, despite its general acceptance, its magnitude and causes are still controversial. A series of experiments were performed to understand night ...

First described during the 18th century, the cause of night myopia remains a controversial topic. Whereas several explanations have been suggested in the literature, particularly related with accommodation or chromatic shift in scotopic light conditions, no definitive explanation for its aetiology has been provided. We describe an experiment in which ...

When humans use vision to gauge the travel distance of an extended forward movement, they often underestimate the movement's extent. This underestimation can be explained by leaky path integration, an integration of the movement to obtain distance. Distance underestimation occurs because this integration is imperfect and contains a leak that ...

This study explored the effect of TV size, illumination, and viewing angle on preferred viewing distance in high-definition liquid crystal display televisions (HDTV). Results showed that the mean preferred viewing distance was 2856 mm. TV size and illumination significantly affected preferred viewing distance. The larger the screen size, the greater the ...

Organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) have attracted great attention because of their potential applications in full-color displays and solid-state lights. In the continual effort to search for ideal materials for OLEDs, small molecules with bipolar transporting character are extremely attractive as they offer the possibility to achieve efficient and stable OLEDs ...

Organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) have attracted great attention because of their potential applications in full-color displays and solid-state lights. In the continual effort to search for ideal materials for OLEDs, small molecules with bipolar transporting character are extremely attractive as they offer the possibility to achieve efficient and stable OLEDs ...

Citation information: Leung T-W, Flitcroft DI, Wallman J, Lee TH, Zheng Y, Lam CS-Y & Kee C-S. A novel instrument for logging nearwork distance. Ophthalmic Physiol Opt 2011, 31, 137-144. doi: 10.1111/j.1475-1313.2010.00814.x ABSTRACT: Purpose:  To validate a novel ultrasonic sensor for logging reading distances. In addition, this device was used ...

Nitric oxide (NO) can induce apoptosis (programmed cell death) at micromolar or higher doses. Although cell death via NO-induced apoptosis has been studied quite extensively, the targeted delivery of such doses of NO to infected or malignant tissues has not been achieved. The primary obstacle is indiscriminate NO release from ...

In this paper, two new organic light emitting diodes in near infrared (NIR) range were fabricated based on acceptor-donor-acceptor (A-D-A) and donor-acceptor-donor (D-A-D) oligomers. We found that, the electroluminescent (EL) spectra of these oligomers which have the wavelength range from 900 to 1150 nm. The maximum external quantum efficiencies (EQE) ...

Shoulder impingement is a common condition presumed to contribute to rotator cuff disease. Impingement can occur externally with the coracoacromial arch or internally with the glenoid rim. Normal scapulothoracic motions that occur during arm elevation include upward rotation, posterior tilting, and either internal or external rotation. These scapulothoracic motions and ...

Enhanced white-light emission was achieved by loading green- and red-light-emitting donor-acceptor pairs in the separate micellar cores and blue-light-emitting polymers around their periphery. Fluorescence resonance energy transfer was enabled between a donor and an acceptor in cores, but was suppressed among these three light-emitting species by micellar coronas, which resulted ...

It was the purpose of our study to examine the kinematics of the pelvis and torso and determine their relationship to the kinematics of the shoulder in high-school baseball pitchers. A single group, repeated-measures design was used to collect pelvis, torso, and shoulder kinematics throughout the pitching motion. Subjects threw ...

Measuring the motion of the scapula and humerus with sub-millimeter levels of accuracy in six-degrees-of-freedom (6-DOF) is a challenging problem. The current methods to measure shoulder joint motion via the skin do not produce clinically significant levels of accuracy. Thus, the purpose of this study was to validate a non-invasive ...

There is an assumption that baseball athletes who reside in warm-weather climates experience larger magnitude adaptations in throwing shoulder motion and strength compared with their peers who reside in cold-weather climates. (1) The warm-weather climate (WWC) group would exhibit more pronounced shoulder motion and strength adaptations than the cold-weather climate ...

The aim of this study was to evaluate two methods of clinical assessment for external rotation of the shoulder to optimise the diagnosis of hyperlaxity in patients being selected for surgery for stabilisation of chronic anterior instability. External rotation was evaluated in 70 healthy student volunteers by two examiners (intertester ...

Abnormal scapular movement is widely believed to be an important factor in clinical pathology of the shoulder joint complex. Validated non-invasive techniques for measuring scapular movement have been developed, but the effect of marker placement on accuracy is unknown. The objective of this study was to determine the accuracy and ...

Purpose. The purpose of this study was to describe horizontal and vertical translation of the elbow and elbow angle in two planes and three speeds during manual wheelchair overground propulsion in individuals with tetraplegia. Methods. Seven individuals with tetraplegia who used manual wheelchairs wheeled overground at three different speeds were recruited for ...

We hypothesize that an anatomic repair of the distal biceps tendon would recreate native tendon moment arm and forearm rotation, while a nonanatomic insertion would compromise moment arm and forearm rotation. Isometric supination torque was measured at 60° of pronation, neutral, and 60° of supination for the native distal biceps ...

The so-called anxiolytic and anxiogenic drugs are considered to cause, respectively, increases and decreases in plus-maze open arm exploration, without modifying locomotor activity occurring in the closed arms in an elevated plus-maze when the animals are tested in an illuminated environment. Simply testing animals in the dark also increases open ...

Impaired motor control of the upper extremity after stroke may be related to lost sensory, motor, and integrative functions of the brain. Artificial activation of sensory afferents might improve control of movement by adding excitatory drive to sensorimotor control structures. The authors evaluated the effect of wrist tendon vibration (TV) ...

The purpose of this experiment was to examine upper-body bench throw performance during tests that specifically target different aspects of functional performance. A pool of 26 male, semi-professional rugby league players (age: 23 ± 3 years, height: 180.8 ± 5.6 cm, mass: 95.7 ± 13.0 kg, estimated 1 repetition maximum ...

A variety of laser or light-based devices have been developed for skin rejuvenation. This study evaluates the efficacy (at the microscopic level) of a combination of pneumatic energy, broadband light, and profusion tip-delivered epidermal growth factor (EGF). Healthy adult Japanese volunteers were recruited for this study. The posterior parts of ...

OBJECTIVE: To explore manual wheelchair propulsion strategies for ramp ascent and descent in snow and snow-ice-grit conditions. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. SETTING: Climatic Engineering and Testing Chamber (Ottawa, Canada). PARTICIPANTS: Manual wheelchair users (N=11) who typically self-propel their wheelchair in winter. INTERVENTIONS: Ramp ascent and descent at 3 grades (1:10, 1:12, ...

Bilateral interference, referring to the tendency of movements of one arm to disrupt the intended movements made simultaneously with the other arm, is often observed in a task that involves differential planning of each arm movement during sensorimotor adaptation. In the present study, we examined two questions: 1) how does ...

The purposes of this study were (a) to describe the detailed movements of the shoulder complex during the cocking phase in tennis serve and (b) to determine the contribution of the scapular rotation to the peak shoulder external rotation attained at the end of the cocking phase. Twenty tennis players ...

The posterior parietal cortex (PPC) contains viewer-centered spatial maps important for reaching movements. It is known that spatial reaching deficits emerge when this region is damaged, yet less is known about temporal deficits that may also emerge because of a failure in sensory-spatial transformations. This work introduces a new geometric ...

Clinical measurement, reliability. To compare intrarater and interrater reliability of shoulder internal rotation (IR) passive range of motion measurements utilizing a standard supine position and a sidelying position. Glenohumeral IR range of motion deficits are often noted in patients with shoulder pathology. Excellent intrarater reliability has been found when measuring ...

This study examined the joint motions and movement patterns of the kinetic chain in the ballistic skill of performing the windmill pitch. Seventeen healthy girls who were currently playing competitive fast-pitch softball volunteered for the study. Subjects were instructed to perform 5 successful fastball windmill style deliveries. We selected 1 ...

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to determine whether immobilization of an arm has detrimental effects on driving performance. METHODS: Thirty-six healthy officers-in-training were assigned a sequence of fiberglass splints (left and right-sided above-the-elbow thumb spica and below-the-elbow splints) with use of a randomized higher-order crossover design. Runs were ...

This study examined the effect of swimming speed on inter-arm coordination and the inter-relationships between swimming speed, inter-arm coordination, and other stroke parameters, in a group of competitive unilateral arm amputee front crawl swimmers. Thirteen highly-trained swimmers were filmed underwater during a series of 25-m front crawl trials of increasing ...

The present study investigated the intrarater reliability, interrater reliability and minimal detectable change at the 90% confidence interval (MDC(90)) of active shoulder range of motion measurements using digital inclinometry. Two investigators each measured two repetitions of active flexion, abduction, external rotation (ER), and internal rotation (IR) on the nondominant shoulder ...

This preliminary study aimed to quantify the magnitude of the peak shoulder distraction force during the bowling action of female cricket fast bowlers. An eight camera Vicon motion analysis system operating at 120 Hz recorded the fast bowling actions of 18 Australian female fast bowlers. A three segment inverse solution ...

The effectiveness of wrist guards and modifying elbow posture for reducing impact-induced accelerations at the wrist and elbow, for the purpose of decreasing upper extremity injury risk during forward fall arrest, has not yet been documented in living people. A seated human pendulum was used to simulate the impact conditions ...

Equifinality, during arm reaching movements, relates to the capacity of the neuromuscular system to attain the same final position in the presence or absence of transient perturbations. There have been several controversies regarding equifinality in the literature. A brief elastic perturbation, applied during a fast arm movement or just before ...

Because the human shoulder has many degrees of freedom that allow redundant means of producing the same net humerothoracic motion, there are many impediments to objective, repeatable assessment of shoulder function in vivo. Devices designed to date have suffered from poor reliability. In this study we introduce a new device ...

Among hypnotized subjects passing a challenge suggestion of arm rigidity, how might patterns of motor activity (strategies) contribute to the illusion that the elbow cannot be bent? Kinematic analyses of upper limb and trunk were performed. Nonhypnotized subjects carefully enacted a set of prescribed strategies typifying responses possibly adopted by ...