Preliminary evidence suggests selective voluntary motor control (SVMC), defined as performance of isolated voluntary joint movement on request, may be an important factor affecting functional movement tasks. Individuals with poor SVMC are unable to dissociate hip and knee synergistic movement during the swing phase of gait and have difficulty extending their knee while the hip is flexing during terminal swing regardless of hamstring length. This pattern may limit their ability to take advantage of hamstring-lengthening surgery (HLS) and may explain a lack of improved stride length postoperatively.Provide a preliminary clinical and conceptual framework for using SVMC to predict swing phase parameters of gait after HLS.We contrasted two patients with spastic diplegia of similar age, gross motor function, and spasticity but with different SVMC scores using the Selective Control Assessment of the Lower Extremity (SCALE). The patients underwent bilateral HLS. Popliteal angles, joint kinematics, step length, stride length, and walking velocity were assessed pre- and postoperatively.Popliteal angles, terminal knee extension, and knee range of motion improved for both patients. However, only the patient with higher SCALE scores improved stride length postoperatively.Although preliminary, the data suggest that SVMC, as measured by SCALE, may be a prognostic factor for improved stride length after HLS in patients with spastic diplegia.Level IV, therapeutic study. See Guidelines for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.
A military tank driving simulator has recently been introduced as a training aid for tank drivers in the Israel Defense Forces. Reports of nausea and vomiting among the first users of the simulator launched our investigation of the possible existence of a motion sickness-like syndrome among simulator drivers. Although the 59 subjects drove the simulator without any report of vomiting, other motion sickness-like symptoms were frequently reported. A comparison of symptoms reported after simulator and real tank driving show that dizziness, nausea, disorientation and hypersalivation were more frequently reported by simulator drivers and were of greater intensity. However, sweating and drowsiness were more prevalent among real tank drivers. The objective effect of driving the simulator was evaluated by instability and performance tests that were conducted before, during and after driving the simulator. A greater decrement in test results was observed among subjects reporting higher frequency of motion sickness-like symptoms.
A military tank driving simulator is currently widely used as a training aid for tank drivers. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between possible correlates of simulator sickness and the occurrence of sickness and performance test results among simulator drivers. The average number of motion sickness-like symptoms reported after driving the simulator among subjects with a history of susceptibility to motion sickness was 3.4, significantly higher than the average of 1.6 reported among subjects who did not report previous susceptibility to motion sickness (p < 0.05). Subjects driving the simulator while screen image quality was disturbed had a longer reaction time (42.0 s) than when driving the simulator without screen interferences (18.4 s, p = 0.001). Subjects driving the simulator for a short period had the same number of symptoms as did those driving for a longer period, but had better digit symbol test results. There was no statistically significant association between the development of sickness and tank driving experience. Suggested countermeasures are expected to prevent simulator sickness among some of the simulator trainees and to make simulator training more effective.
On Disney's Big Hero 6, we needed to create the city of San Fransokyo with unparalleled levels of visual complexity. The cityscape has more buildings and more geometry than any prior Disney film. Inhabiting this city are hundreds of unique characters, each performing a high caliber of animation individually and as a group. These challenges prompted a major upgrade to our existing crowd pipeline and the development of several new technologies in authoring crowd characters, generating crowd animation cycles, and instancing crowds for rendering.
We present the latest cloth workflow advancements developed for Disney's Big Hero 6. These techniques allowed artists to achieve a high level of visual richness and artistic stylization through more naturalism in clothing design, more detail in garment construction, and more control over modeling and tessellation authorship.
