The known lengthening effects of phrase-final position and of contrastive emphasis have been predicted by Klatt to combine superadditively. In a new experiment, texts elicited at a wide range of speaking rates were measured and the separate and combined effects of these lengthening factors were found to combine approximately additively at all rates studied. The proportion of lengthening attribu...

Sugar cane, an intermediate day plant, clearly received a stronger stimulus to flower during lengthening nights than during shortening nights. Flowering was vigorous under warm, lengthening nights (21 degrees ) but less so under cool, lengthening nights (16-17 degrees ). Warm or cool shortening nights either failed to induce flowering altogether or reduced it substantially. Under the warmer nig...

A production study was conducted to investigate the effect of focus on the temporal structure of Swedish two-syllable words. Speakers read aloud simple three-word sentences with systematic variation of the position of focus in the syntactic structure. All the words in each sentence had the same word accent, either acute or grave and they were all two-syllable non-compounds. In general, focus on...

The purpose of this study was to determine the incidence and degree of sagittal plane deformity that occurs during limb lengthening of the femur. Twenty-one patients (25 limbs) were identified who underwent femoral lengthening. The limbs were lengthened a mean of 6.1 cm, and mean follow-up was 1.5 years. The immediate postoperative deformity in the sagittal plane was 8.3°; this deformity did no...

We assessed the medium-term outcome of three methods of isolated calf lengthening in cerebral palsy by clinical examination, observational gait analysis and, where appropriate, instrumented gait analysis. The procedures used were percutaneous lengthening of tendo Achillis, open Z-lengthening of tendo Achillis and lengthening of the gastrosoleus aponeurosis (Baker's procedure). We reviewed 195 p...

A single shortening contraction reduces the force capacity of muscle fibers, whereas force capacity is enhanced following lengthening. However, how motor unit recruitment and discharge rate (muscle activation) are adapted to such changes in force capacity during submaximal contractions remains unknown. Additionally, there is limited evidence for force enhancement in larger muscles. We therefore...

An important function of skeletal muscle is deceleration via active muscle fascicle lengthening, which dissipates movement energy. The mechanical interplay between muscle contraction and tendon elasticity is critical when muscles produce energy. However, the role of tendon elasticity during muscular energy dissipation remains unknown. We tested the hypothesis that tendon elasticity functions as...