Humans have a preference for curved over angular shapes, an effect noted by artists as well as scientists. It may be that people like smooth curves or that people dislike angles, or both. We investigated this phenomenon in four experiments. Using abstract shapes differing in type of contour (angular vs. curved) and complexity, Experiment 1 confirmed a preference for curvature not linked to perc...

Local disparity signals must interact in visual cortex to represent boundaries and surfaces of three-dimensional (3D) objects. We investigated how disparity signals interact in 3D contours and in 3D surfaces generated from the contours. We compared flat (single disparity) stimuli with curved (multi-disparity) stimuli. We found no consistent differences in sensitivity to contours vs. surfaces; f...

Previous curved muscle models have typically examined their robustness only under simple, single-plane static exertions. In addition, the empirical validation of curved muscle models through an entire lumbar spine has not been fully realized. The objective of this study was to empirically validate a personalized biologically-assisted curved muscle model during complex dynamic exertions. Twelve ...

Restriction fragments containing established curved regions, such as the pBR322 tn3 region, the phage lambda attP region and the SV40 T-antigen and terminus of replication regions, exhibit systematically retarded elution upon anion exchange based HPLC. Using this method, we were able to detect readily other SV40 curved regions, exhibiting also the polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis retardation ...

Guaranteed-quality unstructured meshing algorithms facilitate the development of automatic meshing tools. However, these algorithms require domains discretized using a set of linear segments, leading to numerical errors in domains with curved boundaries. We introduce an extension of Ruppert’s Delaunay refinement algorithm to domains with curved boundaries and prove that the same quality bounds ...

We propose a method for generating well-shaped curved unstructured meshes using a nonlinear elasticity analogy. The geometry of the domain to be meshed is represented as an elastic solid. The undeformed geometry is the initial mesh of linear triangular or tetrahedral elements. The external loading results from prescribing a boundary displacement to be that of the curved geometry, and the final ...

OBJECTIVE Curved walking requires complex adaptations, including shift of body weight to counteract the ensuing centrifugal force, and the production of strides of different length between legs. We hypothesized that gait capacities would be more stressed in hemiparetic patients than in healthy subjects when walking along curved, compared with straight, trajectories. METHODS Twenty chronic, st...

A computational study was previously carried out to analyze DNA sequences that are known to position histone octamers at single translational sites. A conserved pattern of intrinsic DNA curvature was uncovered that was proposed to direct the formation of nucleosomes to unique positions. The pattern consists of two regions of curved DNA separated by preferred lengths of non-curved DNA. In the pr...

Early biomechanical spine models represented the trunk muscles as straight-line approximations. Later models have endeavoured to accurately represent muscle curvature around the torso. However, only a few studies have systematically examined various techniques and the logic underlying curved muscle models. The objective of this review was to systematically categorise curved muscle representatio...