PPGTempStitch: A MATLAB Toolbox for Augmenting Annotated Photoplethsmogram Signals

An annotated photoplethysmogram (PPG) is required when evaluating PPG algorithms that have been developed to detect the onset and systolic peaks of PPG waveforms. However, few publicly accessible PPG datasets exist in which the onset and systolic peaks of the waveforms are annotated. Therefore, this study developed a MATLAB toolbox that stitches predetermined annotated PPGs in a random manner to generate a long, annotated PPG signal. With this toolbox, any combination of four annotated PPG templates that represent regular, irregular, fast rhythm, and noisy PPG waveforms can be stitched together to generate a long, annotated PPG. Furthermore, this toolbox can simulate real-life PPG signals by introducing different noise levels and PPG waveforms. The toolbox can implement two stitching methods: one based on the systolic peak and the other on the onset. Additionally, cubic spline interpolation is used to smooth the waveform around the stitching point, and a skewness index is used as a signal quality index to select the final signal output based on the stitching method used. The developed toolbox is free and open-source software, and a graphical user interface is provided. The method of synthesizing by stitching introduced in this paper is a data augmentation strategy that can help researchers significantly increase the size and diversity of annotated PPG signals available for training and testing different feature extraction algorithms.

The Effect of Weight Training with Fast and Slow Rhythm Movement towards Strength Enhancement

Kamal Firdaus, 2012. The Effect of Weight Training with Fast and Slow Rhythm Movement towards Strength Enhancement. Strength is the most important physical conditions in doing various activities, either daily activities or sports activities. One can not do much when there is no power. In the world of sports, generally the elements of power play a fairly important. In addition for those those truly need a power such as heavy weight, wrestling, boxing and other sports branches. The achievements competitiveness in sports happens because there are so many prizes and bonuses which are promised when somebody becomes a champion, it makes people strive to improve their performance in many ways in terms of strength. One of the efforts is from physical exercises. Physical exercise to increase strength is by lifting weights. The impact of other forms of weight training can be done to increase the strength. In this research, the writer would only look at the effect of weight training with a fast beat and slow rhythm towards the rate of strength enhancement. As for those who tried to be included in the study were derived from the population of boys grade I and II of SMA Negeri 3 Padang. From the total of the population, the writer randomized as many as 40 people as a sample. After these two groups underwent the initial tests, then the writer tried to divide them into 2 groups again, with each group consisting of 20 people. Before the treatment was conducted, some boys were given out the trial tests. This initial test was conducted to determine the level of initial strength owned by sample and tried to divide people into two homogeneous groups. After the sample had done the initial tests and had been divided into two groups, then for group I was given the weight training treatment with fast rhythm, while the second group was given the treatment of weight training with a slow rhythm. Treatment was given for 2 months with the practice intensity was 3 times per week. After the sample tried to complete their training program, then do another test (final test). This second test functions to see how much the influence of the treatment given by the trainer comparing to the results of preliminary tests. From the data analysis, it can be seen that; Weight training with fast rhythm movement can enhance the strength significantly . It is based on P <0.05 or value tO> from t table. Weight training with slow motion rhythm can enhance the strength significantly It is based on P <0.05 or value tO> of the t table. There were no differences in strength enhancement by conducting the treatment of weight training with fast rhythm and slow rhythm. It is proved that P> 0.05 or value tO < of t table.

The Interior Design Study on Modern Underground Stations in Europe Countries

Nowadays, in modern cities, the underground station is becoming one of the most important public spaces. With the fast rhythm of modern people’s life, the previous small station is unable to satisfy their demands not only in any functional aspect but also in appearance. Therefore, to create a modern underground station is particularly important for satisfying the functional requirement and for protecting the traditional art and culture. This essay will talk about the interior design for modern underground stations in Europe countries.

Slow Recovery From Excitation of Thalamic Reticular Nucleus Neurons

Responses to repeated auditory stimuli were examined in 103 neurons in the auditory region of the thalamic reticular nucleus (TRN) and in 20 medial geniculate (MGB) neurons of anesthetized rats. A further six TRN neurons were recorded from awake rats. The TRN neurons showed strong responses to the first trial and weak responses to the subsequent trials of repeated auditory stimuli and electrical stimulation of the MGB and auditory cortex when the interstimulus interval (ISI) was short (<3 s). They responded to the second trial when the interstimulus interval was lengthened to ≥3 s. These responses contrasted to those of MGB neurons, which responded to repeated auditory stimuli of different ISIs. The TRN neurons showed a significant increase in the onset auditory response from 9.5 to 76.5 Hz when the ISI was increased from 200 ms to 10 s ( P < 0.001, ANOVA). The duration of the auditory-evoked oscillation was longer when the ISI was lengthened. The slow recovery of the TRN neurons after oscillation of burst firings to fast repetitive stimulus was a reflection of a different role than that of the thalamocortical relay neurons. Supposedly the TRN is involved in the process of attention such as attention shift; the slow recovery of TRN neurons probably limits the frequent change of the attention in a fast rhythm.

Alpha-1 Adrenoceptor Agonists Generate a “Fast” NMDA Receptor-Independent Motor Rhythm in the Neonatal Rat Spinal Cord

Noradrenaline, a potent activator of rhythmogenic networks in adult mammals has not been reported to produce functional rhythmic patterns in isolated spinal cords of newborn rats. We now show that a “fast” (cycle time: 1–4 s) transient rhythm was induced in sacrococcygeal (SC) and rostral-lumbar spinal segments of the neonatal rat by bath-applied noradrenaline. The fast rhythm was blocked by 1 μM of the α1-adrenoceptor antagonist prazosin but not by 1–20 μM of the α2-adrenoceptor blocker yohimbine, it could be initiated and maintained by α1-adrenoceptor agonists, and it was accompanied by a slow nonlocomotor rhythm. Transection at the lumbosacral junction abolished the fast-thoracolumbar (TL) rhythm while the fast-SC and slow-TL rhythms were unaffected. The N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonist 2-amino-5-phosphonopentanoic acid (AP5) abolished the slow- and did not interrupt the fast rhythm. Thus α1-adrenoceptor agonists induce an NMDA receptor-independent rhythm in the SC cord and modulate NMDA receptor-dependent rhythmicity in TL segments. Injection of current steps into S2 and flexor-dominated L2 motoneurons during the fast rhythm revealed a 20–30% decrease in input-resistance ( RN), coinciding with contralateral bursting. The RN of extensor-dominated L5 motoneurons did not vary with the fast rhythm. The rhythmic fluctuations of RN in L2 motoneurons were abolished, but the alternating left-right pattern of the fast rhythm was unchanged in midsagittally split TL cords. We suggest that the locomotor generators were not activated during the fast rhythm, that crossed-inhibitory pathways activated by SC projections controlled the rhythmic decrease in RN in L2 motoneurons, and that the alternating pattern of the split TL cord was maintained by excitatory SC projections.

Population and Unit Synchrony of Fast Rhythms in Expiratory Recurrent Laryngeal Discharges

In a decerebrate, vagotomized, gallamine-paralyzed cat that had a prominent bilaterally coherent fast rhythm (50 Hz) in expiratory (E) recurrent laryngeal (RL) nerve discharges, recordings were taken of the firing of nine RL E fibers. This rhythm (called E high-frequency oscillation or EHFO) was seen as a sharp peak in all unit autospectra, all unit-nerve coherence spectra (value range 0.39–0.91), and all unit-unit coherence spectra (value range 0.27–0.85). In addition, 8/9 units had a sharp autospectral peak in a lower frequency range (19–35 Hz) called E medium-frequency oscillation (EMFO), but there was no coherence at this frequency between signal pairs (unit-unit, unit-nerve, nerve-nerve). The MFOs are specific for each unit and are considered to arise from asynchronous inputs and membrane properties. The HFOs are considered to arise from widespread network interactions that produce a common (correlated) rhythm in virtually all neurons of the RL E network. These phenomena suggest the use of the RL E network as a model system for analyzing rhythmic neural interactions.