BACKGROUND Grip and pinch strength are crucially important attributes and standard parameters related to the functional integrity of the hand. It seems significant to investigate normative data for grip and pinch strength of baseball players to evaluate their performance and condition. Nevertheless, few reports have explained the association between grip and pinch strength and anthropometric va...

The focal adhesion (FA) protein PINCH-1 is required for the survival of primitive endoderm (PrE) cells. How PINCH-1 regulates this fundamental process is not known. Here, we use embryoid bodies (EBs) and isolated EB-derived PrE cells to investigate the mechanisms by which PINCH-1 promotes PrE survival. We report that loss of PINCH-1 in PrE cells leads to a sustained activity of JNK and the pro-...

Incorporating the virtual reality technology into stroke rehabilitation has been proved to be effective in improving upper extremity function for stroke survivors. However, without haptic feedback, the recovery of pinch skill will not be sufficient for daily activities. Pinch skill is an important component for hand manipulation. Impaired pinch skill affects dexterity function after stroke. Thi...

This paper presents an optimization model for the synthesis of water networks. A superstructure presenting all the available candidates is proposed and the model is solved using Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO). The objective function aims the primary water consumption minimization. The concepts of Pinch Analysis were used as a initial point to limit the solution space. The optimal reuse netwo...

Process integration consists of numerous techniques that allow engineers to evaluate entire processes or sites, rather than focus on individual unit operations. It includes hierarchical design methods, knowledge-based systems, numerical and graphical techniques, and pinch analysis (1, 2). In the area of energy effi ciency, pinch methods dominate. Indeed, the terms pinch analysis and process int...

The generalization of the pinch technique beyond one loop is presented. It is shown that the crucial physical principles of gauge-invariance, unitarity, and gauge-fixing-parameter independence are instrumental for accomplishing this task, and is explained how the aforementioned requirements single out at two loops exactly the same algorithm which has been used to define the pinch technique at o...

We have developed a method to quantify the dynamic interaction between fingertip force magnitude (strength) and directional control (dexterity) during pinch with a novel strength-dexterity (S-D) test based on the principle of buckling of compression springs. The test consists of asking participants to use key and opposition pinch to attempt to fully compress springs, in random order, with a wid...