THE DESIGN AND ANALYSIS OF EXPERIMENTS. By Oscar Kempthorne. New York, John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1952. 631 pp. $8.50. This book by a teacher of statistics (as well as a consultant for \"experimenters\") is a comprehensive study of the philosophical background for the statistical design of experiment. It is necessary to have some facility with algebraic notation and manipulation to be able to use the volume intelligently. The problems are presented from the theoretical point of view, without such practical examples as would be helpful for those not acquainted with mathematics. The mathematical justification for the techniques is given. As a somewhat advanced treatment of the design and analysis of experiments, this volume will be interesting and helpful for many who approach statistics theoretically as well as practically. With emphasis on the \"why,\" and with description given broadly, the author relates the subject matter to the general theory of statistics and to the general problem of experimental inference. MARGARET J. ROBERTSON

The Design and Analysis of Experiments

Muscle fatigue is an exercise-induced reduction in maximal voluntary muscle force. It may arise not only because of peripheral changes at the level of the muscle, but also because the central nervous system fails to drive the motoneurons adequately. Evidence for “central” fatigue and the neural mechanisms underlying it are reviewed, together with its terminology and the methods used to reveal it. Much data suggest that voluntary activation of human motoneurons and muscle fibers is suboptimal and thus maximal voluntary force is commonly less than true maximal force. Hence, maximal voluntary strength can often be below true maximal muscle force. The technique of twitch interpolation has helped to reveal the changes in drive to motoneurons during fatigue. Voluntary activation usually diminishes during maximal voluntary isometric tasks, that is central fatigue develops, and motor unit firing rates decline. Transcranial magnetic stimulation over the motor cortex during fatiguing exercise has revealed focal cha...

Spinal and Supraspinal Factors in Human Muscle Fatigue

/pdf/chapter-4-european-guidelines-for-the-management-of-chronic-4lrtve55lo.pdf

Chapter 4. European guidelines for the management of chronic nonspecific low back pain.

: This thesis applies neural network feature selection techniques to multivariate time series data to improve prediction of a target time series. Two approaches to feature selection are used. First, a subset enumeration method is used to determine which financial indicators are most useful for aiding in prediction of the S&P 500 futures daily price. The candidate indicators evaluated include RSI, Stochastics and several moving averages. Results indicate that the Stochastics and RSI indicators result in better prediction results than the moving averages. The second approach to feature selection is calculation of individual saliency metrics. A new decision boundary-based individual saliency metric, and a classifier independent saliency metric are developed and tested. Ruck's saliency metric, the decision boundary based saliency metric, and the classifier independent saliency metric are compared for a data set consisting of the RSI and Stochastics indicators as well as delayed closing price values. The decision based metric and the Ruck metric results are similar, but the classifier independent metric agrees with neither of the other metrics. The nine most salient features, determined by the decision boundary based metric, are used to train a neural network and the results are presented and compared to other published results. (AN)

/pdf/nonlinear-time-series-analysis-1j3a35n4y3.pdf

Nonlinear Time Series Analysis.

1. Introduction 2. Concepts, theories and models, and types of measurements 3. The development of a measurement instrument 4. Field testing - item reduction and data structure 5. Reliability 6. Validity 7. Responsiveness 8. Interpretation 9. Systematic reviews of measurement properties Index.

Measurement in Medicine: A Practical Guide

Knowledge of the complex three-dimensional loads imposed on the spine during typical manual materials handling (MMH) tasks could provide more insights about the mechanical etiology of low back injuries in occupational settings. Comprehensive treatment of such information has been lacking. Most previous studies quantified spinal loading in terms of compressive forces alone. However, there is enough empirical and epidemiological evidence to indicate that the shear forces imposed on the spine may be more important than mere compression. Hence, the purpose of this study was to assess, in-vivo, the three-dimensional complex spinal loading associated with lifting tasks. Subjects performed simulated lifting tasks with varying workplace characteristic. An EMG-assisted model provided the continuous three-dimensional spinal loads. Asymmetric (complex) lifting tasks showed distinctive loading patterns from those observed under symmetric conditions. Simultaneous occurrences of spinal loads in all three directions (co...

http://pro.sagepub.com/content/40/13/661.full.pdf

Three-Dimensional Spinal Loading during Complex Lifting Tasks

A modular hierarchical structure is developed to describe human movement planning level. The modular feature of the proposed model enables it to generalize planning a task. The movements are planned based on decomposing a task into its corresponding subtasks (motion phases). There is a module responsible for one condition. The final plan is constructed using soft computing of the plans proposed by different modules. Each module estimates the kinematics of the joints at the end of each subtask; we call them kinematic estimator modules (KEMs). A timing module estimates the duration of motion and a gating module determines the responsibility of each KEM under different conditions. To evaluate the performance of the proposed model, a set of experimental data are collected for the Sit-to-Stand movement under five different bases of support as different conditions. The results showed that this architecture is able to plan the motion under new untested conditions. Good match between the simulation results and experimental movement, low computational requirements as well as behavioral and neurophysiological supports, make it to be considered as a good candidate to interpret computationally the function of the motor planning level in the central nervous system.

A mixture of modular structures to describe human motor planning level: A new perspective based on motor decomposition

Prior modeling approaches are reviewed, and a general nonlinear optimization model for trunk muscle recruitment is developed. The effects of the different cost functions and the load vector characterization on the predicted muscle tensions are investigated. Some of the model's limitations are discussed, and some results obtained using six different cost functions are presented and evaluated. >

Modeling of trunk muscle recruitment during isometric exertion

The role of motor control in development of low back pain is subject of many researches both in theoretical and experimental fields. In this work flexion-extension movement of lumbar spine have been controlled by three different methods, including feedback linearization (FBL), PD control and their combinations. The model involves 7 links: 1 link for pelvis, 5 links for lumbar vertebrae and 1 link for trunk. Torque actuators have been used on each joint to make them follow desired trajectory. In linear control method, equations of motion have been linearized with respect to upright position and then control signals have been applied in the direction of eigenvectors. Robustness of each method against noises, sensory delay and parameters uncertainty have been investigated. Desired trajectory of each joint has been produced by Central Pattern Generators (CPGs), which was the subject of our previous work. The results show that PD controller in comparison with feedback linearization method is more robust in presence of noise and parameters uncertainty, but FBL controller is better when we have sensory delay. Combination of these methods leads to better control in all three simulations.

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel5/5656240/5669634/05669759.pdf

Control of lumbar spine flexion-extension movement by PD controller and feedback linearization method

The tibiofemoral joint is known to bear compressive loads of several body-weights during daily activities. These forces are known to be transferred through the joint via compression of the tibial and femoral surfaces against one another. The menisci are also known to enhance this process by increasing the contact area and decreasing contact stress. However, calculations presented in this paper suggest that the load-bearing capacity of contact mechanisms is seemingly several times smaller than tibiofemoral joint loads. This suggests that probably one or more non-contact load-bearing mechanism(s) exist, and share the load with the already known contact mechanisms.

Mohamad Parnianpour

Papers

Three-Dimensional Spinal Loading during Complex Lifting Tasks

A mixture of modular structures to describe human motor planning level: A new perspective based on motor decomposition

Modeling of trunk muscle recruitment during isometric exertion

Control of lumbar spine flexion-extension movement by PD controller and feedback linearization method

Are tibiofemoral compressive loads transferred only via contact mechanisms