1. During oblique visually guided saccades, the peak velocity of each component is reduced from what it would be for a purely horizontal or vertical saccade of the same amplitude, and the durations of the components are prolonged. We tested predictions of two competing accounts of the neural basis of this "component stretching" phenomenon. Using a recent experimental approach, we electrically s...

This paper addresses the combined effects of couple stresses, thermal radiation, viscous dissipation and slip condition on a free convective flow of a couple stress fluid induced by a vertical stretching sheet. The Cogley- Vincenti-Gilles equilibrium model is employed to include the effects of thermal radiation in the study. The governing boundary layer equations are transformed into a system o...

This paper deals with the analysis of an unsteady mixed convection flow of a fluid saturated porous medium adjacent to heated/cooled semi-infinite stretching vertical sheet in the presence of heat source. The unsteadiness in the flow is caused by continuous stretching of the sheet and continuous increase in the surface temperature. We present the analytical and numerical solutions of the proble...

1 Necessary conditions have been established recently for the prescribed data along the cylindrical edge(s) of an elastic flat plate to induce only an exponentially decaying elastostatic state. The present paper describes how these conditions may be used to determine the interior solution (or its various thin and thick plate theory approximations) of plate problems. The results in turn show tha...

BACKGROUND Static stretching may result in various strength and power deficiencies. Prior research has not determined, however, if static stretching causes a change in muscle activation during a functional task requiring dynamic stability. The purpose of this study was to determine if static stretching has an effect on mean pre and postlanding muscle (vastus medialis VM, vastus lateralis VL, me...

BACKGROUND Whole-body vibration (WBV) is a new type of exercise that has been increasingly tested for the ability to prevent bone fractures and osteoporosis in frail people. There are two currently marketed vibrating plates: a) the whole plate oscillates up and down; b) reciprocating vertical displacements on the left and right side of a fulcrum, increasing the lateral accelerations. A few stud...

This paper is devoted to describe the asymptotic behavior of a structure made by a thin plate and a thin rod in the framework of nonlinear elasticity. We scale the applied forces in such a way that the level of the total elastic energy leads to the Von-Kármán’s equations (or the linear model for smaller forces) in the plate and to a one dimensional rod-model at the limit. The junction condition...

A microactuating structure with vertical polyimide hinges has been designed, fabricated and tested. Unlike traditional microactuators, which are located on the substrate surface, this new actuation mechanism is capable of producing linear motion at a point far from the substrate. This advantage can make it possible to drive other out-of-plane folded structures for on-wafer or out-of-wafer appli...

In this work we present an adaptive method for detection of Brazilian license plate. This method enhances adaptively an input image, improving low contrast areas and guaranteeing a good contrast in the plate region. Based on the fact that license plate’s area is rich in texture and vertical edge information, we can identify it after filtering the image with Sobel and Canny operators eliminating...