Essays on Motor Control

John Magill is a 75-year-old male with Parkinson’s disease, which he was diagnosed with five years ago. John was admitted to the hospital after falling at home. The physical examination revealed bruising on John’s hips and buttocks, as well as a tear on the right hip, but the X-ray did not reveal fractures in the lower extremities. The emergency department noted generalised tremor, decreased mobility, signs of confusion, agitation, and restlessness. The assessment of John’s vital signs showed that most measures are within expected ranges for an elderly person (temperature 37.2; respiratory rate 24; heart rate ...

Fuel Cell Technologies in Passenger Cars

Fuel Cell Technology The last decade is characterized by the rapid development of research activity in the field of fuel cells, thus, creating the conditions for their uptake in electric systems. The basic fuel cells’ operating principle has been known for 150 years. However, a variety of technical and financial problems had kept them on the margins of technological applications (Brandon & Hart, 1999). The basic difference between a fuel cell and batteries is that while batteries store energy, fuel cells directly convert a fuel’s chemical energy into electricity by an electrochemical reaction (i.e. Without requiring combustion or movement ...

Part A: Cranial Nerves:

There are 12 pairs of cranial nerves emerging from the brain’s underside passing via cranial openings leading to various parts of the head, neck and body trunk. These nerves are naming, and numbering of these nerves is based on their position i.e. from the anterior to the posterior of the brain. In this case, the olfactory nerve is CN1 while CN12 is the hypoglossal nerve (Wissmann, 2013). In this paper, only four of the twelve cranial nerves shall be discussed i.e. the Olfactory nerve (CN1), Oculomotor Nerve (CN-III) which are sensory nerves, and the Trigeminal Nerve (CN-V) and ...

Abstract

In the recent times, scientists in the discipline of artificial intelligence are confused which approach closely imitates the structure of a human brain. The best two approaches are bottom-up, or the top-down, and they comprise of both their advantages and disadvantages. The top-down approach has the capability to perform high-level tasks since it is programmed (Russell et.al 27). On the contrary, the bottom-up approach is capable of modeling the lower-level human functions such as motor control, image recognition, and learning capabilities. Each method operates perfectly where the other method is imperfect. Therefore, to establish the advantages and disadvantages of ...

CHAPTER I

THE NATURE AND SCOPE OF THE PROBLEM Introduction As far as human walking is concerned, it has been best described as the progression of the body’s center of mass along a pathway by moving the two legs alternatively. It is generally acknowledged that the development of walking skill in human beings is completed by the age of five (Sutherland, 1980). Locomotion is influenced by interactions between neuromuscular activity as well as musculoskeletal alignment (Perry & Burnfield, 2010). In addition, there are several other factors that can affect the coordination pattern of walking. These include sensory information from somatosensory, visual ...

InstitutionUnderstanding Lifestyle Modification: My Personal Experiences in Managing Chronic Back Pain through Healthy Diet and Physical Exercise

A. Personal response However escapist I may sound, I did have a host of factors contributing to my poor eating habits and lack of exercise. On top of being a mother of two small kids (2 and 5 yrs old), I am working part time and studying in school full time. Due to busy schedule, I have little or no time for exercise and paid no attention to healthy eating regimen. On and off, I did attempt to follow healthy eating regimen, but intrapersonal challenges made it hard for me to adjust and stay with healthy eating habits. Perhaps ...

The history of human evolution has always been a heated topic for debate; many theories abound as to what factors led to the evolution of apes into man, using the concepts of trait adaptation, among others, to help explain why we became what we became. There are those who believe that the major contributing factor was the development of language, or the forming of groups with hierarchical structures. Others believe that the development of monogamy as a social concept is the most important factor leaving to the evolution of humanity. However, it is my concerted belief that the most important contributing ...

In the human brain, the cortex is responsible for a multitude of important functions, including the processing of memory, perception, thought, attention, language and consciousness. The cerebral cortex is connected to other brain structures, including the thalamus and the basal ganglia. The cortex both sends signals to these other regions of the brain and receives and processes information from other structures. Sensorial input is processed on the opposite hemisphere from where it was experienced: for example, visual input that passes through the right retina is processed on the left side of the brain. Eye movement is one of the ...

Motor control as open and closed-loop systems.

In high control, system serves as building block for many mechanical systems used today. Using the appropriate control one can design systems to perform tasks within the specified time. Motor control system consists two categories sharing some similar parts but differ in a variety of ways. Open Loop control is the simpler of the two allowing one way flow of data and never and there is no feedback. This means that in the signal flow there is no transfer of data back to the source. The signal enters through the input stage, passes through the amplifiers to produce the ...

1. To what extent could Phoenix’s liability have been avoided had it documented Wilson’s alleged inability to perform required tasks on the new computer system? In your opinion, is Phoenix required to wait until Wilson makes a costly mistake before concluding that he cannot perform the functions of the job? Are there alternatives short of waiting for a mistake? James Wilson has been employed by Phoenix Specialty Manufacturing Company a family business that manufactures specialty washers used in aircrafts. However, the company asserts that Wilson’s employment was terminated due two reasons. The first reason was that Wilson had ...

Patients with Post-Stroke Hemiparetic Upper Limb

Abstract The US and Europe are both experiencing the coming of age of an elderly population which is prone to strokes and will need health care focused on post-stroke therapies. The most promising therapies are robot-assisted motion exercises coupled with Non-invasive Brain Simulations (NBS) such as Transcranial Magnetic Simulation (TMS). At this time the most attractive combination for both effective and affordable therapy is the use of simply designed, easily manipulated robot systems coupled with TMS. Since 2003 the area of neurorehabilitation has been growing with many effective and exciting designs in robotics. It hasn’t been very ...

For this study, it was hypothesized that the reaches and walking endurance of children with spastic CP were strengthened and reinforced after a physical therapy treatment is given to the subjects.

Chapter V. Theoretical Frame Work /Conceptual Framework

Pediatric Endurance and Limb Strengthening for children with Cerebral Palsy or “PEDALS” is one of four projects sponsored by the Physical Therapy Clinical Research Network (PTClinResNet), which is a member of the Inventory and Evaluation of Clinical Research Networks (IECRN). According to Fowler et al (2007), the PTClinREsNet was initially established in the year 2002, to espouse the research that investigated the effectiveness of physical therapy interventions. This national network ...

The brain regulates the choice of a person to be physically active. Stimuli from the environment and from the tissues excite receptors and nerves which in turn excite the muscles. The central nervous system has three general areas that are associated with the complexity of the movement and the familiarity of the various stimuli. The areas include the spinal cord which handles simple reflex actions, the lower brain which organizes more complex responses while the cerebral cortex controls the most complicated responses and stores general motor programs. The spinal cord consists of two-way tracks of nerve fibers which carries both ...