CDRsp - Artigos em revistas internacionais
URI permanente para esta coleção:
Navegar
Percorrer CDRsp - Artigos em revistas internacionais por Domínios Científicos e Tecnológicos (FOS) "Ciências Médicas::Outras Ciências Médicas"
A mostrar 1 - 5 de 5
Resultados por página
Opções de ordenação
- Bioactive Electrospun Fibers of Poly(ε-Caprolactone) Incorporating α-Tocopherol for Food Packaging ApplicationsPublication . Dumitriu, Raluca P.; Stoleru, Elena; Mitchell, Geoffrey R.; Vasile, Cornelia; Brebu, MihaiAntioxidant activity is an important feature for food contact materials such as packaging, aiming to preserve freshness and retard food spoilage. Common bioactive agents are highly susceptible to various forms of degradation; therefore, protection is required to maintain functionality and bioavailability. Poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL), a biodegradable GRAS labeled polymer, was used in this study for encapsulation of α-tocopherol antioxidant, a major component of vitamin E, in the form of electrospun fibers. Rheological properties of the fiber forming solutions, which determine the electrospinning behavior, were correlated with the properties of electrospun fibers, e.g., morphology and surface properties. Interactions through hydrogen bonds were evidenced between the two components. These have strong effect on structuration of macromolecular chains, especially at low α-tocopherol amounts, decreasing viscosity and elastic modulus. Intra-molecular interactions in PCL strengthen at high α-tocopherol amounts due to decreased solvation, allowing good structural recovery after cease of mechanical stress. Morphologically homogeneous electrospun fibers were obtained, with ~6 µm average diameter. The obtained fibers were highly hydrophobic, with fast release in 95% ethanol as alternative simulant for fatty foods. This induced good in vitro antioxidant activity and significant in vivo reduction of microbial growth on cheese, as determined by respirometry. Therefore, the electrospun fibers from PCL entrapping α-tocopherol as bioactive agent showed potential use in food packaging materials.
- Human Cranial SimulationPublication . Perestrelo, Pedro; Bártolo, Paulo; Torres, Maurício; Noritomi, Pedro; Silva, JorgeBeing the traumatic brain injury (TBI) a devastating cause of death, it grows day after day on a worldwide basis. So, the effort to prevent, detect and understand it must be pushed forward. In order to improve the technics applied today and achieve a much stronger effort, biomechanical and clinical theories need to be joined, leading to better technical approaches of the problem and to an improved understanding of it. In the light of this acknowledgement, it is proposed the development of a virtual platform using the BioCAD protocol, computer aided design software (CAD) and finite element method (FEM) analysis software. The computational model to achieve has to be adapted to the needs of the user and/or patient and will result in an innovative tool most needed to an improved development of the research and prevention of TBI. As a consequence this area will be pushed to a new level of understanding.
- Improving the process of making rapid prototyping models from medical ultrasound imagesPublication . Vaezi, Mohammad; Chua, Chee Kai; Chou, Siaw MengPurpose – Today, medical models can be made by the use of medical imaging systems through modern image processing methods and rapid prototyping (RP) technology. In ultrasound imaging systems, as images are not layered and are of lower quality as compared to those of computerized tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), the process for making physical models requires a series of intermediate processes and it is a challenge to fabricate a model using ultrasound images due to the inherent limitations of the ultrasound imaging process. The purpose of this paper is to make high quality, physical models from medical ultrasound images by combining modern image processing methods and RP technology. Design/methodology/approach – A novel and effective semi-automatic method was developed to improve the quality of 2D image segmentation process. In this new method, a partial histogram of 2D images was used and ideal boundaries were obtained. A 3D model was achieved using the exact boundaries and then the 3D model was converted into the stereolithography (STL) format, suitable for RP fabrication. As a case study, the foetus was chosen for this application since ultrasonic imaging is commonly used for foetus imaging so as not to harm the baby. Finally, the 3D Printing (3DP) and PolyJet processes, two types of RP technique, were used to fabricate the 3D physical models. Findings – The physical models made in this way proved to have sufficient quality and shortened the process time considerably. Originality/value – It is still a challenge to fabricate an exact physical model using ultrasound images. Current commercial histogram-based segmentation method is time-consuming and results in a less than optimum 3D model quality. In this research work, a novel and effective semi-automatic method was developed to select the threshold optimum value easily.
- Statistical Modeling of Lower Limb Kinetics During Deep Squat and Forward LungePublication . Roeck, Joris De; Houcke, J. Van; Almeida, D.; Galibarov, P.; Roeck, L. De; Audenaert, Emmanuel A.Purpose: Modern statistics and higher computational power have opened novel possibilities to complex data analysis. While gait has been the utmost described motion in quantitative human motion analysis, descriptions of more challenging movements like the squat or lunge are currently lacking in the literature. The hip and knee joints are exposed to high forces and cause high morbidity and costs. Pre-surgical kinetic data acquisition on a patient-specific anatomy is also scarce in the literature. Studying the normal inter-patient kinetic variability may lead to other comparable studies to initiate more personalized therapies within the orthopedics. Methods: Trials are performed by 50 healthy young males who were not overweight and approximately of the same age and activity level. Spatial marker trajectories and ground reaction force registrations are imported into the Anybody Modeling System based on subject-specific geometry and the state-of-the-art TLEM 2.0 dataset. Hip and knee joint reaction forces were obtained by a simulation with an inverse dynamics approach. With these forces, a statistical model that accounts for inter-subject variability was created. For this, we applied a principal component analysis in order to enable variance decomposition. This way, noise can be rejected and we still contemplate all waveform data, instead of using deduced spatiotemporal parameters like peak flexion or stride length as done in many gait analyses. In addition, this current paper is, to the authors’ knowledge, the first to investigate the generalization of a kinetic model data toward the population. Results: Average knee reaction forces range up to 7.16 times body weight for the forwarded leg during lunge. Conversely, during squat, the load is evenly distributed. For both motions, a reliable and compact statistical model was created. In the lunge model, the first 12 modes accounts for 95.26% of inter-individual population variance. For the maximal-depth squat, this was 95.69% for the first 14 modes. Model accuracies will increase when including more principal components. Conclusion: Our model design was proved to be compact, accurate, and reliable. For models aimed at populations covering descriptive studies, the sample size must be at least 50.
- Tethered Swimming Can Be Used to Evaluate Force Contribution for Short-Distance Swimming PerformancePublication . Morouço, Pedro G.; Marinho, Daniel A.; Keskinen, Kari L.; Badillo, Juan J.; Marques, Mário C.Morouço, PG, Marinho, DA, Keskinen, KL, Badillo, JJ, and Marques, MC. Tethered swimming can be used to evaluate force contribution for short-distance swimming performance. J Strength Cond Res 28(11): 3093-3099, 2014-The purpose of this study was two-fold: (a) to compare stroke and the physiological responses between maximal tethered and free front crawl swimming and (b) to evaluate the contribution of force exertion for swimming performance over short distances. A total of 34 male swimmers, representing various levels of competitive performance, participated in this study. Each participant was tested in both a 30-second maximal tethered swimming test and a 50-m free swimming test. The tethered force parameters, the swimming speed, stroke (stroke rate [SR]), and the physiological responses (increase in blood lactate concentration [ΔBLa], heart rate, and rate of perceived exertion) were recorded and calculated. The results showed no differences in stroke and the physiological responses between tethered and free swimming, with a high level of agreement for the SR and DBLa. A strong correlation was obtained between the maximum impulse of force per stroke and the speed (r = 0.91; p < 0.001). Multiple regression analysis revealed that the maximum impulse and SR in the tethered condition explained 84% of the free swimming performance. The relationship between the swimming speed and maximum force tended to be nonlinear, whereas linear relationships were observed with the maximum impulse. This study demonstrates that tethered swimming does not significantly alter stroke and the physiological responses compared with free swimming, and that the maximum impulse per stroke should be used to evaluate the balance between force and the ability to effectively apply force during sprint swimming. Consequently, coaches can rely on tethered forces to identify strength deficits and improve swimming performance over short distances.