However, the implantation procedure was difficult, as the cuff electrode had to be located on the distal branches of a multi-fascicular nerve to exclude muscle afferent and efferent activities. This paper proposes a new gait phase detection

scheme that can be applied to a proximal nerve root that includes cutaneous afferent fibers as well as muscle afferent and efferent fibers. To test the feasibility of this scheme, electroneurogram (ENG) signals were measured from the rat sciatic nerve during treadmill walking at several speeds, and the signal properties of the sciatic nerve were analyzed for a comparison with kinematic data from the ankle joint. On the basis of these experiments, a wavelet packet transform was tested to define a feature vector from the sciatic ENG signals LY2606368 according to the gait phases. We also propose a Gaussian

mixture model (GMM) classifier and investigate whether it could be used successfully to discriminate feature vectors into the stance and swing phases. In spite of no significant differences in the rectified bin-integrated values between the stance and swing phases, the sciatic ENG signals could be reliably classified using the proposed wavelet packet transform and GMM classification methods.”
“This work had the objective of testing cleft grafting ASP2215 as a way to asexually propagate different genotypes of Surinam cherry. Bud woods of around 5 cm length were collected from seven genotypes of the Germplasm Bank of Embrapa Clima Temperado, Pelotas, RS. Seedling plants of Surinam cherry seedlings were used as rootstocks.

The average diameter at the grafting point was 2.5 mm. Grafting was done on September, 2006. The experiment was carried out as a completely randomized design with four replications and 10 plants per plot. Evaluations were based on percentages of sprouting and budding efficiency. Percentages of sprouting were between 45.0% and 95% whereas percentages of grafting success in obtain the desirable clones were among 40.0% to 87.5%. Percentages above 65.0% for evaluated parameters, sprouting and grafting success were obtained in selections “Pit selleck chemicals llc 75″, “Pit 61″ and “Pit 137″. There were differences among genotypes for percentage of cleft grafting success in Surinam cherry propagation. This type of grafting is recommended for Surinam cherry vegetative propagation.”
“Background Kinematic design is a predominant phase in the design of robotic manipulators for minimally invasive surgery (MIS). However, an extensive overview of the kinematic design issues for MIS robots is not yet available to both mechanisms and robotics communities. Methods Hundreds of archival reports and articles on robotic systems for MIS are reviewed and studied. In particular, the kinematic design considerations and mechanism development described in the literature for existing robots are focused on.