Breathing, postural stability, and psychological health: a study to explore triangular links.

Objective: This study aims to test the hypothesis that breathing can be directly linked to postural stability and psychological health. A protocol enabling the simultaneous analysis of breathing, posture, and emotional levels in university students is presented. This aims to verify the possibility of defining a triangular link and to test the adequacy of various measurement techniques. Participants and Procedure: Twenty-three subjects (9 females and 14 males), aged between 18 and 23 years, were recruited. The experiment consisted of four conditions, each lasting 3 minutes: Standard quiet standing with open eyes 1), with closed eyes 2), and relaxed quiet standing while attempting deep abdominal breathing with open eyes 3) and with closed eyes 4). These latter two acquisitions were performed after subjects were instructed to maintain a relaxed state. Main Outcome Measures: All subjects underwent postural and stability analysis in a motion capture laboratory. The presented protocol enabled the extraction of 4 sets of variables: Stabilometric data, based on the displacement of the center of pressure and acceleration, derived respectively from force plate and wearable sensors. Postural variables: angles of each joint of the body were measured using a stereophotogrammetric system, implementing the Helen Hayes protocol. Breathing compartment: optoelectronic plethysmography allowed the measurement of the percentage of use of each chest compartment. Emotional state was evaluated using both psychometric data and physiological signals. A multivariate analysis was proposed. Results: A holistic protocol was presented and tested. Emotional levels were found to be related to posture and the varied use of breathing compartments. Abdominal breathing proved to be a challenging task for most subjects, especially females, who were unable to control their breathing patterns. In males, the abdominal breathing pattern was associated with increased stability and reduced anxiety. Conclusion: In conclusion, difficulties in performing deep abdominal breathing were associated with elevated anxiety scores and decreased stability. This depicts a circular self-sustaining relationship that may reduce the quality of life, undermine learning, and contribute to muscular co-contraction and the development of musculoskeletal disorders. The presented protocol can be utilized to quantitatively and holistically assess the healthy and/or pathological condition of subjects.

An estimation of the number of cells in the human body.

BACKGROUND: All living organisms are made of individual and identifiable cells, whose number, together with their size and type, ultimately defines the structure and functions of an organism. While the total cell number of lower organisms is often known, it has not yet been defined in higher organisms. In particular, the reported total cell number of a human being ranges between 10(12) and 10(16) and it is widely mentioned without a proper reference. AIM: To study and discuss the theoretical issue of the total number of cells that compose the standard human adult organism. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: A systematic calculation of the total cell number of the whole human body and of the single organs was carried out using bibliographical and/or mathematical approaches. RESULTS: A current estimation of human total cell number calculated for a variety of organs and cell types is presented. These partial data correspond to a total number of 3.72 × 10(13). CONCLUSIONS: Knowing the total cell number of the human body as well as of individual organs is important from a cultural, biological, medical and comparative modelling point of view. The presented cell count could be a starting point for a common effort to complete the total calculation.

Relationship Between the Choice of Clinical Treatment, Gait Functionality and Kinetics in Patients With Comparable Knee Osteoarthritis.

Objective: The objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between the choice of clinical treatment, gait functionality, and kinetics in patients with comparable knee osteoarthritis. Design: This was an observational case-control study. Setting: The study was conducted in a university biomechanics laboratory. Participants: Knee osteoarthritis patients were stratified into the following groups: clinical treatment (conservative/total knee replacement (TKR) planned), sex (male/female), age (60-67/68-75), and body mass index (BMI) (<30/≥30). All patients had a Kellgren-Lawrence score of 2 or 3 (N = 87). Main Outcome Measures: All patients underwent gait analysis, and two groups of dependent variables were extracted: • Spatiotemporal gait variables: gait velocity, stride time, and double-support time, which are associated with patient functionality. • Kinetic gait variables: vertical, anterior-posterior, and mediolateral ground reaction forces, vertical free moment, joint forces, and moments at the ankle, knee, and hip. Multifactorial and multivariate analyses of variance were performed. Results: Functionality relates to treatment decisions, with patients in the conservative group walking 25% faster and spending 24% less time in the double-support phase. However, these differences vary with age and are reduced in older subjects. Patients who planned to undergo TKR did not present higher knee forces, and different joint moments between clinical treatments depended on the age and BMI of the subjects. Conclusions: Knee osteoarthritis is a multifactorial disease, with age and BMI being confounding factors. The differences in gait between the two groups were mitigated by confounding factors and risk factors, such as being a woman, elderly, and obese, reducing the variability of the gait compression loads. These factors should always be considered in gait studies of patients with knee osteoarthritis to control for confounding effects.

Real-Time Sound and Motion Feedback for Violin Bow Technique Learning: A Controlled, Randomized Trial.

The production of good sound generation in the violin is a complex task that requires coordination and spatiotemporal control of bowing gestures. The use of motion-capture technologies to improve performance or reduce injury risks in the area of kinesiology is becoming widespread. The combination of motion accuracy and sound quality feedback has the potential of becoming an important aid in violin learning. In this study, we evaluate motion-capture and sound-quality analysis technologies developed inside the context of the TELMI, a technology-enhanced music learning project. We analyzed the sound and bow motion of 50 participants with no prior violin experience while learning to produce a stable sound in the violin. Participants were divided into two groups: the experimental group (N = 24) received real-time visual feedback both on kinematics and sound quality, while participants in the control group (N = 26) practiced without any type of external help. An additional third group of violin experts performed the same task for comparative purposes (N = 15). After the practice session, all groups were evaluated in a transfer phase without feedback. At the practice phase, the experimental group improved their bowing kinematics in comparison to the control group, but this was at the expense of impairing the sound quality of their performance. At the retention phase, the experimental group showed better results in sound quality, especially concerning control of sound dynamics. Besides, we found that the expert group improved the stability of their sound while using the technology. All in all, these results emphasize the importance of feedback technologies in learning complex tasks, such as musical instrument learning.

Effects of Visual and Auditory Feedback in Violin and Singing Voice Pitch Matching Tasks.

Auditory-guided vocal learning is a mechanism that operates both in humans and other animal species making us capable to imitate arbitrary sounds. Both auditory memories and auditory feedback interact to guide vocal learning. This may explain why it is easier for humans to imitate the pitch of a human voice than the pitch of a synthesized sound. In this study, we compared the effects of two different feedback modalities in learning pitch-matching abilities using a synthesized pure tone in 47 participants with no prior music experience. Participants were divided into three groups: a feedback group (N = 15) receiving real-time visual feedback of their pitch as well as knowledge of results; an equal-timbre group (N = 17) receiving additional auditory feedback of the target note with a similar timbre to the instrument being used (i.e., violin or human voice); and a control group (N = 15) practicing without any feedback or knowledge of results. An additional fourth group of violin experts performed the same task for comparative purposes (N = 15). All groups were posteriorly evaluated in a transfer phase. Both experimental groups (i.e., the feedback and equal-timbre groups) improved their intonation abilities with the synthesized sound after receiving feedback. Participants from the equal-timber group seemed as capable as the feedback group of producing the required pitch with the voice after listening to the human voice, but not with the violin (although they also showed improvement). In addition, only participants receiving real-time visual feedback learned and retained in the transfer phase the mapping between the synthesized pitch and its correspondence with the produced vocal or violin pitch. It is suggested that both the effect of an objective external reward, together with the experience of exploring the pitch space with their instrument in an explicit manner, helped participants to understand how to control their pitch production, strengthening their schemas, and favoring retention.

Muscular tension significantly affects stability in standing posture.

BACKGROUND: Muscular co-contraction is a strategy commonly used by elders with the aim to increase stability. However, co-contraction leads to stiffness which in turns reduces stability. Some literature seems to suggest an opposite approach and to point out relaxation as a way to improve stability. Teaching relaxation is therefore becoming the aim of many studies letting unclear whether tension or relaxation are the most effective muscular strategy to improve stability. Relaxation is a misleading concept in our society. It is often confused with rest, while it should be addressed during stressing tasks, where it should aim to reduce energetic costs and increase stability. The inability to relax can be related to sub-optimal neuro-motor control, which can lead to increased stresses. RESEARCH QUESTION: The objective of the study is to investigate the effect of voluntary muscle contraction and relaxation over the stability of human standing posture, answering two specific research questions: (1) Does the muscular tension have an impact on stability of standing posture? (2) Could this impact be estimated by using a minimally invasive procedure? METHODS: By using a force plate, we analysed the displacement of the center of pressure of 30 volunteers during state of tension and relaxation in comparison with a control state, and with open and closed eyes. RESULTS: We found that tension significantly reduced the stability of subjects (15 out of 16 parameters, p < 0.003). SIGNIFICANCE: Our results show that daily situations of stress can lead to decreased stability. Such a loss might actually increase the risk of chronic joint overload or fall. Finally, breathing has direct effect over the management of pain and stress, and the results reported here point out the need to explicitly explore the troubling fact that a large portion of population might not be able to properly breath.

3D patient-specific finite element models of the proximal femur based on DXA towards the classification of fracture and non-fracture cases.

Osteoporotic bone fractures reduce quality of life and drastically increase mortality. Minimally irradiating imaging techniques such as dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) allow assessment of bone loss through the use of bone mineral density (BMD) as descriptor. Yet, the accuracy of fracture risk predictions remains limited. Recently, DXA-based 3D modelling algorithms were proposed to analyse the geometry and BMD spatial distribution of the proximal femur. This study hypothesizes that such approaches can benefit from finite element (FE)-based biomechanical analyses to improve fracture risk prediction. One hundred and eleven subjects were included in this study and stratified in two groups: (a) 62 fracture cases, and (b) 49 non-fracture controls. Side fall was simulated using a static peak load that depended on patient mass and height. Local mechanical fields were calculated based on relationships between tissue stiffness and BMD. The area under the curve (AUC) of the receiver operating characteristic method evaluated the ability of calculated biomechanical descriptors to discriminate fracture and control cases. The results showed that the major principal stress was better discriminator (AUC > 0.80) than the volumetric BMD (AUC ≤ 0.70). High discrimination capacity was achieved when the analysis was performed by bone type, zone of fracture and gender/sex (AUC of 0.91 for women, trabecular bone and trochanter area), and outcomes suggested that the trabecular bone is critical for fracture discrimination. In conclusion, 3D FE models derived from DXA scans might significantly improve the prediction of hip fracture risk; providing a new insight for clinicians to use FE simulations in clinical practice for osteoporosis management.

A New Ensemble Classification System For Fracture Zone Prediction Using Imbalanced Micro-CT Bone Morphometrical Data.

Trabecular bone fractures constitute a major health issue for the modern societies, with the currently established prediction methods of fracture risk, such as bone mineral density (BMD), resulting in errors up to 40%. Fracture-zone prediction based on bone's microstructure has been recently proposed as an alternative prediction method of fracture risk. In this paper, a classification system (CS) for the automatic fracture-zone prediction based on an Ensemble of Imbalanced Learning methods is proposed, following the observation that the percentage of the actual fractured bone area is significantly smaller than the intact bone in the case of a fracture event. The sample is divided into Volumes of Interest (VOIs) of specific size and 29 morphometrical parameters are calculated from each VOI, which serve as input features for the CS in order for it to separate the input patterns in to two classes: fractured and nonfractured. To this end, two well-established Imbalanced Learning methods, namely Random Undersampling and Synthetic Minority Oversampling, and two popular classification algorithms, namely Multilayer Perceptrons and Support Vector Machines, are tested and combined accordingly, to provide the best possible performance on a dataset that contains 45 specimens' pre- and postfailure scans. The best combination is then compared with three well-established Ensembles of Imbalanced Learning methods, namely RUSBoost, UnderBagging and SMOTEBagging. The experimental results clearly show that the proposed CS outperforms the competition, scoring in some occasions more than 90% in G-Mean and Area under Curve metrics. Finally, an investigation on the significance of the various trabecular bone's biomechanical parameters is made using the sequential forward floating selection technique, in order to identify possible biomarkers for fracture-zone prediction.

Mechanical testing of cancellous bone from the femoral head: experimental errors due to off-axis measurements.

The aim of this study was to verify whether a misalignment between the testing direction and the trabecular main direction has a significant effect on the compressive behaviour of cancellous bone. Ten cylindrical specimens were extracted from femoral heads with a misalignment to the trabecular main direction of approximately 20 degrees. Each specimen was paired with a specimen extracted aligned with the main direction of the trabeculae on the basis of the closest bone volume fraction, obtaining two groups, one 'aligned' and one 'misaligned'. The average off-axis angle was 6.1 degrees and 21.6 degrees for the 'aligned' and 'misaligned' group, respectively. The specimens underwent micro-tomographic analysis, compressive testing, micro-indentation testing and ashing. No significant differences were found in histomorphometric parameters, hardness and ash density between the two groups, whereas significant differences were found in Young's modulus and ultimate stress: both parameters, measured for the 'misaligned' group, were about 40% lower than those measured for the 'aligned' group. These results demonstrate a great effect of the angle between the testing direction and the main direction of the trabecular structure on the compressive behaviour of cancellous bone. This angle should be reduced as much as possible (in the present work the average value was 6.6+/-3.3 degrees), in any case measured, and always reported together with the mechanical parameters of cancellous bone.

Personal Digital Assistant in an orthopaedic wireless ward: the HandHealth project.

Personal Digital Assistant devices are becoming a frequently used device for the bedside care of the patient. Ways of application are many, but limitations are also numerous. Input device and monitor resolution are limited by the device size. Moreover, the choice of specific programs and the amount of storable data are limited by the quantity of memory. During HandHealth project a system was developed using a different point of view. Personal Digital Assistant is only a means to access data and use functionalities that are stored in a remote server. Using that system patient ward note can be showed and collected on the handheld device but saved directly on the Hospital Information System. Medical images can be showed on the device display, but also transferred to a high-resolution monitor. Large amount of data can be dictated and translated by remote continuous speech recognition.

An Independent Active Contours Segmentation framework for bone micro-CT images.

Micro-CT is an imaging technique for small tissues and objects that is gaining increased popularity especially as a pre-clinical application. Nevertheless, there is no well-established micro-CT segmentation method, while typical procedures lack sophistication and frequently require a degree of manual intervention, leading to errors and subjective results. To address these issues, a novel segmentation framework, called Independent Active Contours Segmentation (IACS), is proposed in this paper. The proposed IACS is based on two autonomous modules, namely automatic ROI extraction and IAC Evolution, which segments the ROI image using multiple Active Contours that evolve simultaneously and independently of one another. The proposed method is applied on a Phantom dataset and on real datasets. It is tested against several established segmentation methods that include Adaptive Thresholding, Otsu Thresholding, Region Growing, Chan-Vese (CV) AC, Geodesic AC and Automatic Local Ratio-CV AC, both qualitatively and quantitatively. The results prove its superior performance in terms of object identification capability, accuracy and robustness, under normal circumstances and under four types of artificially introduced noise. These enhancements can lead to more reliable analysis, better diagnostic procedures and treatment evaluation of several bone-related pathologies, and to the facilitation and further advancement of bone research.

The micro-structure of bone trabecular fracture: an inter-site study.

Trabecular bone fracture represents a major health problem, therefore the improvement of its assessment is mandatory for the reduction of the economic and social burden. The micro-structure of the trabecular bone was found to have an important effect on trabecular mechanical behavior. Nonetheless, the high variability of the trabecular micro-structure suggests a search for the local characteristics leading to the fracture. This work concerns the study of the local trabecular fracture zone and its morphometrical characterization, aiming to prediction of the probable fracture zone. Ninety micro-CT datasets acquired before and after the mechanical compression of 45 trabecular specimens were analyzed. Specimens were extracted from the lower limbs of two donors: 4 femora and 4 tibiae. A previously validated tool for the identification of the 3D fracture zone was applied and the local fracture zone was identified and analyzed in all the specimens. Fifteen morphometrical parameters were extracted for each local fracture zone. Standard statistical non-parametric analysis was performed to compare fractured and un-fractured zones together with a classification analysis for the prediction of the fracture zone. The statistical analysis showed strong statistical difference in the micro-structure of the trabecular fractured zone compared to the un-fractured one. Ten out of 15 measured parameters, like SMI, Tb.Th, BV/TV, off-axis angle, BS/BV and others, showed a statistical difference between full 3D fractured and un-fractured zones. Nonetheless, a satisfactory classification of the fractured zone was possible with none of the identified parameters. On the other hand, a total classification accuracy of 95.5% was presented by the application of a linear classifier based on a combination of the most representative parameters, like BS/BV and the off-axis angle. The study points out the local essence and peculiar characteristics of the fracture zone, it highlights the weakness of some parameters in discriminate between fractured and un-fractured zones and encourage focussing the future studies over the local fracture zone itself with the aim to identify objective differences that could one day lead to the improvement of clinical assessment of fracture risk.

Micro-computed tomography study of oval-shaped canals prepared with the self-adjusting file, Reciproc, WaveOne, and ProTaper universal systems.

INTRODUCTION: The newly developed single-file systems claimed to be able to prepare the root canal space with only 1 instrument. The present study was designed to test the null hypothesis that there is no significant difference in the preparation of oval-shaped root canals using single- or multiple-file systems. METHODS: Seventy-two single-rooted mandibular canines were matched based on similar morphologic dimensions of the root canal achieved in a micro-computed tomographic evaluation and assigned to 1 of 4 experimental groups (n = 18) according to the preparation technique (ie, Self-Adjusting File [ReDent-Nova, Ra'anana, Israel], WaveOne [Dentsply Maillefer, Ballaigues, Switzerland], Reciproc [VDW, Munich, Germany], and ProTaper Universal [Dentsply Maillefer] systems). Changes in the 2- and 3-dimensional geometric parameters were compared with preoperative values using analysis of variance and the post hoc Tukey test between groups and the paired sample t test within groups (α = 0.05). RESULTS: Preparation significantly increased the analyzed parameters; the outline of the canals was larger and showed a smooth taper in all groups. Untouched areas occurred mainly on the lingual side of the middle third of the canal. Overall, a comparison between groups revealed that SAF presented the lowest, whereas WaveOne and ProTaper Universal showed the highest mean increase in most of the analyzed parameters (P < .05). CONCLUSIONS: All systems performed similarly in terms of the amount of touched dentin walls. Neither technique was capable of completely preparing the oval-shaped root canals.

3D identification of trabecular bone fracture zone using an automatic image registration scheme: A validation study.

Accurate identification of the local fracture zone is an important step towards the failure assessment of trabecular bone. In previous in-vitro studies, local fracture zones were visually identified in micro-CT images by experienced observers. This is a time-consuming and observer-dependent approach and it prevents any large-scale analysis of local trabecular fracture regions. The scope of this study is the application and validation of a new registration scheme for the automatic identification of trabecular bone fracture zones. Six human trabecular specimens were extracted from different anatomical sites. Five specimens were mechanically tested and scanned using micro-CT. For each specimen pre- and post-failure micro-CT datasets were obtained. The sixth specimen was scanned twice without any mechanical compression and was used to test the accuracy of the proposed scheme. The registration scheme was applied to the acquired datasets for the automatic identification of the fracture zone. The proposed scheme comprises of a three-dimensional (3D) automatic registration method to define the differences between the two datasets, and the application of a criterion for defining slices of the pre-failure dataset as "broken" or "unbroken". Identifications of the fracture zones were qualitatively validated against visual identification of observers. Furthermore, "full 3D" fracture zone identification, based on the presented scheme, was proposed. The proposed scheme proved to be more accurate and significantly faster than the currently used visual process.

Hermite kernels for slice interpolation in medical images.

Univariate Hermite interpolation of the total degree (HTD) is an algebraically demanding interpolation method that utilizes information of the values of the signal to be interpolated at distinct support positions, as well as the values of its derivatives up to a maximum available order. In this work the interpolation kernels of the univariate HTD are derived, using several approximations of the 1st and 2nd order of discrete signal derivative. We assess the derived Hermite kernels in the task of medical image slice interpolation, against several other well established interpolation techniques. Results show that specific Hermite kernels can outperform other established interpolation methods with similar computational complexity, in terms of root mean square error (RMSE), in a number of interpolation experiments, resulting in higher accuracy interpolated images.

Local analysis of trabecular bone fracture.

Assessment of bone fracture risk is the first step in the prevention of traumatic events. In several previous study the use of bone mineral density and bone volume fraction was suggested for the identification of the failure zone, nonetheless the limits of this approach were also investigated, underling the need of other information to fully describe the failure event. In the present study, a comparison between fracture and non-fracture zones of trabecular bone is proposed with the aim of analyze the local structural differences attempting to identify the morphometrical parameters who best can describe the trabecular fracture zone. Eighteen trabecular specimens were extracted from the lower limb of two donors without skeletal disorders. All the specimens were scanned by means of a micro-CT and mechanically tested. After the mechanical compression every specimen was scanned again obtaining for every specimen two datasets: pre- and post-failure. An automatic registration scheme, comprising of a three-dimensional automatic registration method to define the differences between the two datasets, and the application of a criterion for defining "broken" or "unbroken" trabeculae, was applied for the identification of the full 3D fracture zone. The morphometrical analysis of fracture and non-fracture zone was performed by the study of several morphometrical parameters, such as bone volume fraction, off-axis angle, structural model index, connectivity density, etc. The results of the two different structures were compared by means of a Wilcoxon non-parametric test. Ten out of 12 morphometrical parameters were found statistically significantly different between fracture and non-fracture zones, underlining the strong structural difference between the two areas. Nonetheless, only three of them have shown differences superior to 30%, with a reduce overlapping of their distributions: off-axis angle, structural model index and connectivity density. On the other hand, bone volume fraction showed a smaller, even if significant, difference with great overlap of the distributions, in agreement with the limits already pointed out in the literature.