BACKGROUND Arterial stiffness increases in hypertensive individuals. Arterial stiffness is associated with impairment of systolic and diastolic myocardial function in hypertension (HT). However, the relationship between arterial stiffness and serum heart-type fatty acid-binding protein (H-FABP) levels, a sensitive marker of myocardial damage, has not been previously examined in patients with HT...

A telesurgical system with reliable force feedback can extend the application range of minimally invasive surgery to more complex procedures. For medical decisions that are primarily based on touch information, such as the localisation of a tumour or hidden arteries or the quality verification of a suture, surgeons mainly rely on their stiffness perception and discrimination abilities. This wor...

38 39 Distractions affect postural control, but this mechanism is not well understood. Diversion of 40 resources during cognitive stress may lead to decreased motor drive and postural muscle tone. 41 This may appear as decreased postural stiffness, and increased postural sway amplitude. We 42 hypothesized that dual tasking leads to decreased stiffness and increased sway amplitude. 43 Postural s...

Spinal stability describes the ability of the neuromuscular system to maintain equilibrium in the presence of kinematic and control variability, and may play an important role in the etiology of low-back disorders (LBDs). The primary mechanism for the neuromuscular control of spinal stability is the recruitment and control of active paraspinal muscle stiffness (i.e., trunk stiffness). The two m...

Safe Physical Human Robot Interaction, conservation of energy and adaptability are just the main robotic applications that prompted the development of a number of Variable Stiffness Actuators (VSA). Implemented in a variety of ways, they use various technologies, and feature the most diverse mechanical solutions, all of which share a fundamentally unavoidable nonlinear behavior. The control sch...

The fundamental objective in developing variable stiffness actuators is to enable the actuator to deliberately tune its stiffness. This is done through controlling the energy flow extracted from internal power units, i.e., the motors of a variable stiffness actuator (VSA). However, the stiffness may also be unintentionally affected by the external environment, over which, there is no control. T...

In this paper, a novel force tracking impedance control strategy is presented in which target stiffness is varied on-line to regulate the desired contact force without any knowledge of the environment. Humans can control contact force by adjusting their arm stiffness. The contact force can be either increased by making one’s arm stiffer or decreased by reducing the arm stiffness. Furthermore, h...

Early life environmental influences can have lifelong consequences for health, including the risk of cardiovascular disease. Uteroplacental insufficiency causes fetal undernutrition and impairs fetal growth. Previously we have shown that uteroplacental insufficiency is associated with impaired maternal mammary development, compromising postnatal growth leading to hypertension in male rat offspr...

background: in this experimental study, the radiographic and biomechanical characteristics of osteoperforated rabbit tibia during bone repair period were investigated. materials and methods: using dental drills, 2 mm holes were drilled at the mid-shaft of right tibia in 12 new zealand white rabbits. the left tibia was intact and selected as the control. x-rays of the left and right tibias were ...