OBJECTIVES One postural characteristic of increased vocal effort is stiffening of the whole body, which in turn induces some postural instability. The study of postural instability can shed some insight into behavior or causes associated with vocal hyperfunction. PATIENTS AND METHODS A posturography platform was used to measure the root mean square of the velocity of variation of the center o...

BACKGROUND The coefficients of normalized Zernike expansion are orthogonal and reflect the relative contribution of each mode to the total root mean square (RMS) wavefront error. The relationship between the level of RMS wavefront error within a mode and its effect on visual performance is unknown. PURPOSE To determine for various levels of RMS wavefront error how each mode of the normalized ...

This paper presents the optimization of vibrations of centrifugal pump considering fluid-structure interaction (FSI). A set of centrifugal pumps with various blade shapes were studied using FSI method, in order to investigate the transient vibration performance. The Kriging model, based on the results of the FSI simulations, was established to approximate the relationship between the geometrica...

The purpose of the present study was to determine the effects of deception for exercise intensity on surface electromyogram (SEMG) activity and blood lactate concentration during intermittent cycling exercise (ICE) tests. Sixteen healthy male were randomly assigned to two groups who completed two ICE [three 4-min cycling at 80% peak power output (PPO) with 3-min passive recovery periods followe...

BACKGROUND Mammography is one of the most popular tools for early detection of breast cancer. Contour of breast mass in mammography is very important information to distinguish benign and malignant mass. Contour of benign mass is smooth and round or oval, while malignant mass has irregular shape and spiculated contour. Several studies have shown that 1D signature translated from 2D contour can ...

In many passive visual tasks, human perceptual judgments are contrast dependent. To explore whether these contrast dependencies of visual perception also affect closed-loop manual control tasks, we examined visuomotor performance as humans actively controlled a moving luminance-defined line over a range of contrasts. Four subjects were asked to use a joystick to keep a horizontal line centered ...

PURPOSE This study quantified preschool children's optical quality in terms of their aberrations and modulation transfer function (MTF), and examined the dependence of MTF on pupil size and grating orientation. METHODS Aberrometry was used to measure Zernike coefficients in 34 Chinese preschool children (18 males, 16 females; aged 4.95-6.89 years; mean, 5.91 +/- 0.56). For each subject, after...

PURPOSE To investigate image compression of digital retinal images and the effect of various levels of compression on the quality of the images. METHODS JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) and Wavelet image compression techniques were applied in five different levels to 11 eyes with subtle retinal abnormalities and to 4 normal eyes. Image quality was assessed by four different methods: ca...

PURPOSE To describe monochromatic optical aberrations of the eye as a function of age. METHODS One hundred fourteen subjects with a spherical equivalent within +/-3.50 D from emmetropia, corrected visual acuity of 20/40 or better, and normal findings in an ophthalmic examination were enrolled. The mean age was 43.2 +/- 24.5 years (range, 5.7-82.3). Monochromatic optical aberrations were measu...

The large body of work demonstrating hyperthermic impairment of neuromuscular function has utilized maximal isometric contractions, but extrapolating these findings to whole-body exercise and submaximal, dynamic contractions may be problematic. We isolated and compared core and skin temperature influences on an isometric force task versus a position task requiring dynamic maintenance of joint a...