Polytechnic University of Turin

About: Polytechnic University of Turin is a education organization based out in Turin, Piemonte, Italy. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Finite element method & Computer science. The organization has 11553 authors who have published 41395 publications receiving 789320 citations. The organization is also known as: POLITO & Politecnico di Torino.

Effect of age on muscle functions investigated with surface electromyography.

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to investigate changes in the surface electromyographic (EMG) signal as a means of defining age-related central and peripheral mechanisms affecting muscle fatigue. Spectral and temporal variables of the surface EMG signal were studied during voluntary isometric contractions of the dominant biceps brachii muscle in a group of 8 healthy elderly men (age range 67-86 years) and a group of 10 healthy young men (age range 23-34 years). The maximal torque developed and the rate of decrease (slope) of spectral variables and conduction velocity (CV) were statistically higher in the young subjects than in the elderly subjects. Motor unit (MU) CV distribution was also estimated from the surface EMG signal and no statistical difference was observed in its variance between the two groups. These results confirm previous findings from the tibialis anterior muscle. Thus, changes in fiber type distribution and decrease in MU firing rate with aging may be factors determining the decrease in maximal voluntary contraction torque and in myoelectric manifestations of muscle fatigue.

The shape of collaborations

Abstract: The structure of scientific collaborations has been the object of intense study both for its importance for innovation and scientific advancement, and as a model system for social group coordination and formation thanks to the availability of authorship data. Over the last years, complex networks approach to this problem have yielded important insights and shaped our understanding of scientific communities. In this paper we propose to complement the picture provided by network tools with that coming from using simplicial descriptions of publications and the corresponding topological methods. We show that it is natural to extend the concept of triadic closure to simplicial complexes and show the presence of strong simplicial closure. Focusing on the differences between scientific fields, we find that, while categories are characterized by different collaboration size distributions, the distributions of how many collaborations to which an author is able to participate is conserved across fields pointing to underlying attentional and temporal constraints. We then show that homological cycles, that can intuitively be thought as hole in the network fabric, are an important part of the underlying community linking structure.