Metatarsophalangeal joint function during sprinting: A comparison of barefoot and sprint spike shod foot conditions

This is the authors' post print as accepted for publication in Journal of Applied Biomechanics. The published version is available at http://journals.humankinetics.com/jabThe metatarsophalangeal joint is an important contributor to lower limb energetics during sprint running. This study compared the kinematics, kinetics and energetics of the metatarsophalangeal joint during sprinting barefoot and wearing standardised sprint spikes. The aim of this investigation was to determine whether standard sprinting footwear alters the natural motion and function of the metatatarsophalangeal joint exhibited during barefoot sprint running. Eight trained sprinters performed maximal sprints along a runway, four sprints in each condition. Three dimensional high speed (1000 Hz) kinematic and kinetic data were collected at the 20 m point. Joint angle, angular velocity, moment, power and energy were calculated for the metatarsophalangeal joint. Sprint spikes significantly increase sprinting velocity (0.3 m/s average increase), yet limit the range of motion about the metatarsophalangeal joint (17.9 % average reduction) and reduce peak dorsiflexion velocity (25.5 % average reduction), thus exhibiting a controlling affect over the natural behaviour of the foot. However, sprint spikes improve metatarsophalangeal joint kinetics by significantly increasing the peak metatarsophalangeal joint moment (15 % average increase) and total energy generated during the important push-off phase (0.5 J to 1.4 J). The results demonstrate substantial changes in metatarsophalangeal function and potential improvements in performance-related parameters due to footwear

Enhancing Quality of Service in Software-Defined Internet of Things (SD-IoT) Environment: A review

The Internet of Things (IoT) connects billions of devices via the Internet, providing real-time intelligent services. Software-Defined Networking (SDN) represents an advanced solution for managing traffic and resources in these IoT environments, enabling centralized and flexible management through the separation of control and data. This article provides an in-depth analysis of current approaches to addressing Quality of Service (QoS) challenges in SD-IoT networks. It examines specific techniques such as QoS routing, dynamic load balancing, real-time traffic classification, and adaptive rule placement, highlighting key results such as improved efficiency of QoS routing algorithms and the benefits of load balancing strategies based on heuristic optimization. The article also identifies persistent challenges, such as issues related to scalability. Finally, it proposes future research directions, including the integration of artificial intelligence to enhance the adaptability of management models and address the growing complexities of SD-IoT networks

Smart greenhouse and plant growth control

Since the development of agriculture is an important problem for every state, huge funds are allocated to this industry. However, the problem of lack of fresh fruits/vegetables, that is, the problem of import substitution remains a pressing issue in many countries. The aim of the study was to inspect the growth of plants in a home-based mini-greenhouse, for which reason the following tasks were set: conduct a biological experiment; search for dependence of the influence of environmental conditions (microclimate) on growth. The paper highlights the problem of import substitution of vegetables in Kazakhstan, and suggests the best way to solve this issue. The proposed solution offers the development of mini-greenhouse that meets the criteria of price and quality. The developed system differs from other smart greenhouses, firstly, by its availability to a wide range of users (price criterion), and secondly, by ensuring agrotechnical, energy, and design requirements (quality criterion). These requirements are implemented through the use of promising technologies: phytomonitoring, intelligent technologies and open source software, the use of available construction materials and water saving technologies such as drip irrigation. The economic effect from the use of the proposed technology has amounted to 10,000 tenge, the payback period was 4 seasons

Smart greenhouse and plant growth control

Since the development of agriculture is an important problem for every state, huge funds are allocated to this industry. However, the problem of lack of fresh fruits/vegetables, that is, the problem of import substitution remains a pressing issue in many countries. The aim of the study was to inspect the growth of plants in a home-based mini-greenhouse, for which reason the following tasks were set: conduct a biological experiment; search for dependence of the influence of environmental conditions (microclimate) on growth. The paper highlights the problem of import substitution of vegetables in Kazakhstan, and suggests the best way to solve this issue. The proposed solution offers the development of mini-greenhouse that meets the criteria of price and quality. The developed system differs from other smart greenhouses, firstly, by its availability to a wide range of users (price criterion), and secondly, by ensuring agrotechnical, energy, and design requirements (quality criterion). These requirements are implemented through the use of promising technologies: phytomonitoring, intelligent technologies and open source software, the use of available construction materials and water saving technologies such as drip irrigation. The economic effect from the use of the proposed technology has amounted to 10,000 tenge, the payback period was 4 seasons

The Human Innate Nature Based Medical Expert System for Self-diagnosis

This article considers the some results of the diagnostic text in the medical expert system, which based on integration of the “european” and “eastern” medicines. One of the proposed work directions is the study of the patient's questionnaire informative value, where the questions of a prototype with binary answers "YES-NO" are performed as corpuscular diagnostic testing (?TD). Then, in determining the real disease (diseases), there arises an actual task of selecting the most preferred CDT at each step of the diagnostic processes. CDT is an indivisible diagnostic procedure, which estimates one or more indicators of the condition of the body. In addition, using by real determination of human inborn innate nature gives opportunity to understand internal causes of chronic diseases. Also, for selection more probabilistic diseases have been applied the Bayesian approach and the conditional entropy

ANN Based Inverse Dynamic Model of the 6-PGK Parallel Robot Manipulator

This paper presents an inverse dynamic model estimation based on an artificial neural network of a complete new parallel robot manipulator prototype 6- PGK with six degrees of freedom, built at Petru Maior University of Tirgu-Mures. The model estimation of the parallel robot manipulator is performed with a feedforward artificial neural network. In the control engineering domain there are control structures that need the direct or inverse model of the process for ensuring the process control at the imposed performances. Usually, the determination of the direct/inverse mathematical model is a difficult or impossible task to be achieved. In these cases different non-parametric or parametric, off-line or on-line identification methods are used. A solution that may support the on-line parametric methods is represented by the feedforward artificial neural networks. By implementing feedforward artificial neural networks as a nonlinear autoregressive model with exogenous inputs, the authors investigate the possibility of choosing the optimum parameters that characterize the neural network so that it approximates as better as possible the model of the 6-PGK prototype robot. Finally an innovative algorithm is developed for obtaining the optimal configuration parameters set of the feedforward artificial neural network. The proposed algorithm helps in setting the optimal parameters of the neural network that offer high opportunities to provide satisfactory identification of the robot model. Experimental results obtained by a structure derived from the proposed solution demonstrate a good approximation related to the studied system, which is characterized by nonlinearities and high complexity

Molecular epidemiology of clinical isolates of Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolated from horses in Ireland

Clinical isolates (n = 63) of Pseudomonas aeruginosa obtained from various sites in 63 horses were compared using ERIC2 RAPD PCR to determine their genetic relatedness. Resulting banding patterns (n = 24 genotypes) showed a high degree of genetic heterogeneity amongst all isolates examined, indicating a relative non-clonal relationship between isolates from these patients, employing this genotyping technique. This study characterised 63 clinical isolates into 24 distinct genotypes, with the largest cluster (genotype E) accounting for 10/63 (15.9%) of the isolates. ERIC2 RAPD PCR proved to be a highly discriminatory molecular typing tool of P. aeruginosa in isolates recovered from horses. With the adoption of several controls to aid reproducibility, this technique may be useful as an alternative to PFGE, particularly in epidemiological investigations of outbreaks where speed may be a significant parameter. This is the first report of clonal heterogeneity amongst P. aeruginosa from horses and demonstrated that ERIC RAPD PCR is a rapid method for the examination of this species in horses, which may be useful in outbreak analysis

Development of Thematic 3D Dictionaries of Russian Sign Language for People with Hearing Disabilities Age for People

Одним из способов обеспечения доступности получения государственных услуг лицами с ограниченными возможностями здоровья по слуху является реализация социально значимого проекта по созданию тематического учебного портала русского жестового языка по основным сферам жизнедеятельности глухих людей – образование, здравоохранение, общественный транспорт, государственные сервисы, культура и др. Важнейшей задачей при создании учебного портала является разработка тематического словаря русского жестового языка. В статье представлен сопоставительный анализ тематических словарей русского жестового языка, перечислены предъявляемые к ним требования, а также предложена перспективная технология их создания и поддержки на основе машинного перевода и 3D-анимации. Подробно рассмотрены технология машинного перевода фраз русского языка на русский жестовый язык и калькирующую жестовую речь, способы выявления в тексте новой лексики и включения в тематический словарь новых жестов. В результате исследования сделан вывод о том, что данная технология удовлетворяет требованиям лиц с ограниченными возможностями здоровья по слуху и может быть рекомендована как базовая для разработки тематического словаря русского жестового языкаSetting and solving the problem of implementing a socially significant project to create a thematic educational portal of Russian sign language in the main spheres of life of deaf people (education, healthcare, public transport, government services, culture, etc.) is due to the need to ensure accessibility of government services for persons with disabilities by ear. The educational portal is based on a thematic dictionary of Russian sign language. The purpose of the work is to propose a promising technology for creating and maintaining a thematic dictionary based on a comparative analysis of thematic dictionaries of Russian sign language, the requirements for them, machine translation and 3D animation. The analysis of existing thematic dictionaries of Russian sign language was carried out according to the following criteria: the volume of the lexicographic source; relevance of vocabulary; universality in terms of coverage of language material; availability; the ability to quickly modify a resource; use of language material visualization technologies in the source. As a result of the analysis, it was revealed that all dictionaries do not fully solve the problem posed. This applies to both universal and specialized dictionaries. The technology for creating thematic dictionaries of Russian sign language, used in the project of the Novosibirsk State Technical University within the framework of a grant from the Priority 2030 program, is examined in detail. This technology, based on the use of machine translation and 3D animation, includes several stages: speech recognition; syntactic and semantic analysis of text; application of the function of displaying text in Russian sign language; formation of a set of control commands; generation of 3D animation and visualization; video synthesis. As a result of the study, it was concluded that this technology meets the requirements of people with hearing disabilities and can be recommended as the basis for the development of a thematic dictionary of Russian sign languag