Studies have compared the differences and similarities between backward walking and forward walking, and demonstrated the potential of backward walking for gait rehabilitation. However, current evidence supporting the benefits of backward walking over forward walking remains inconclusive. Considering the proven association between gait and the cerebral cortex, we used electroencephalograms (EEG) to differentiate the effects of backward walking and forward walking on cortical activities, by comparing the sensorimotor rhythm (8–12 Hz, also called mu rhythm) of EEG signals. A systematic signal procedure was used to eliminate the motion artifacts induced by walking to safeguard EEG signal fidelity. Statistical test results of our experimental data demonstrated that walking motions significantly suppressed mu rhythm. Moreover, backward walking exhibited significantly larger upper mu rhythm (10–12 Hz) suppression effects than forward walking did. This finding implies that backward walking induces more sensorimotor cortex activity than forward walking does, and provides a basis to support the potential benefits of backward walking over forward walking. By monitoring the upper mu rhythm throughout the rehabilitation process, medical experts can adaptively adjust the intensity and duration of each walking training session to improve the efficacy of a walking ability recovery program.
By assuming that the human body rotates primarily around the ankle joint in the sagittal plane, the human body has been modelled as a single inverted pendulum (IP) to simulate the human quiet stance. Despite its popularity, the validity of the IP model has been challenged in many studies. Rather than testing the validity of the IP model as a true or false question, this work proposes a feature to quantify the degree of validity of the IP model. The development of the proposed feature is based on the fact that the IP model predicts that the horizontal acceleration of COM is proportional to the COP error which is defined as the difference between the center of pressure (COP) and the vertical projection of the center of mass (COM). Since the horizontal components of the acceleration of COM and the ground reaction force (GRF) are always proportional, the proposed feature is the correlation coefficient between the anterior-posterior (AP) components of GRF and the COP error. The efficacy of the proposed feature is demonstrated by comparing its differences for individuals in two age groups (18–24 and 65–73 years) in quiet standing. The experimental results show that the IP model is more suited for predicting the motion of the older group than the younger group. Our results also show that the proposed feature is more sensitive to aging effects than one of the most reliable and accurate COP-based postural stability features.
In this study, a fluidized bed reactor was used to compare heterogeneous and homogeneous 15 crystallization for recovering magnesium ammonia phosphate (MAP) from the dewatering filtrate at a municipal wastewater treatment plant.
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