Search results for "Movement"

Reading ahead: Adult music students’ eye movements in temporally controlled performances of a children’s song

2014

In the present study, education majors minoring in music education ( n = 24) and music performance majors ( n =14) read and performed the original version and melodically altered versions of a simple melody in a given tempo. Eye movements during music reading and piano performances were recorded. Errorless trials were analyzed to explore the adjustments of visual processing in successful performances. The temporal length of the eye–hand span (time between gaze and the performed note) was typically around one second or less. A measure of gaze activity indicated that performers generally inspected two quarter-note areas between two metrical beat onsets. The performance majors operated with s…

Moved through music: The effect of experienced emotions on performers’ movement characteristics

2012

Do performers who feel sad move differently compared to those who express sadness? Although performers’ expressive movements have been widely studied, little is known about how performers’ experienced emotions affect such movements. To investigate this, we made 72 motion-capture recordings of eight violinists playing a melodic phrase in response to three different instructions. The first instruction was to focus on the technical aspects of playing. The second instruction was to give an expressive performance. Before the third instruction, performers were subjected to a mood induction task. Following this, performers played while focusing on their experienced emotions. After each playing co…

Live imaging of stem cell and progeny behaviour in physiological hair-follicle regeneration

2012

Tissue development and regeneration depend on cell-cell interactions and signals that target stem cells and their immediate progeny. However, the cellular behaviours that lead to a properly regenerated tissue are not well understood. Using a new, non-invasive, intravital two-photon imaging approach we study physiological hair-follicle regeneration over time in live mice. By these means we have monitored the behaviour of epithelial stem cells and their progeny during physiological hair regeneration and addressed how the mesenchyme influences their behaviour. Consistent with earlier studies, stem cells are quiescent during the initial stages of hair regeneration, whereas the progeny are more …

Two-photon light-sheet microscopy for high-speed whole-brain functional imaging of zebrafish neuronal physiology and pathology

2020

We present the development of a custom-made two-photon light-sheet microscope optimized for high-speed (5 Hz) volumetric imaging of zebrafish larval brain for the analysis of neuronal physiological and pathological activity. High-speed volumetric two-photon light-sheet microscopy is challenging to achieve, due to constrains on the signal-to-noise ratio. To maximize this parameter, we optimized our setup for high peak power of excitation light, while finely controlling its polarization, and we implemented remote scanning of the focal plane to record without disturbing the sample. Two-photon illumination is advantageous for zebrafish larva studies since infra-red excitation does not induce a …

Strategies of migration and wintering of Italian lesser kestrel Falco naumanni populations.

2017

Avian migration is naturally a plastic trait, and tracking migratory birds is problematic because of distances and areas involved. Electronic data loggers (e.g. light-level geolocators, GPS/GSM tags, etc) provide a means to directly follow several individuals and understand migration routes and geographic patterns of population displacements in overwintering areas. Thanks to the collaboration between different projects (PRIN, LIFE+ LIFE11/NAT/IT068), we tracked lesser kestrels equipped with GPS/UHF and GLS devices and we analyzed the migration data of more than 20 individuals breeding in different populations of Sicily (Gela Plain) and Southern Italy (Altamura, Gravina). The weights of comp…

Cell motility probed by noise analysis of thickness shear mode resonators.

2006

The quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) technique is an emerging bioanalytical tool to study the behavior of animal cells in vitro. Due to the high interfacial sensitivity of thickness shear mode (TSM) resonators it is possible to monitor the formation and breakage of cell-matrix interactions and changes in viscoelasticity of the cell bodies, as well as minute cell volume alterations by the time course of their resonance frequency even with millisecond time resolution. We found that mammalian MDCK-II cells grown on TSM resonators impose characteristic fluctuations on the resonance frequency, which are a quantitative indicator for dynamic activities of the cells on the surface and report on th…

Biocompatibility of three new calcium silicate-based endodontic sealers on human periodontal ligament stem cells.

2016

Aim To evaluate the biocompatibility of three calcium silicate-based endodontic sealers, Bioroot BC Sealer (Septodont, Saint-Maur-des-Fosses, France), Endoseal MTA (EndoSeal, Maruchi, Seoul, Korea) and Nano-ceramic Sealer (B&L Biotech, Fairfax, VA, USA) (NCS), on human periodontal ligament stem cells (hPDLSCs). Methodology Human periodontal ligament stem cells were cultured in the presence of various endodontic sealer eluates for 24 h. Cell viability was determined using the MTT assay. Cell death and changes in phenotype induced by the set endodontic sealer eluates were evaluated through flow cytometry. Also, an in vitro scratch wound-healing model was used to determine their effects in cel…

Investigating the Effects of Differential Learning on Golfers’ Pitching Performance as a Function of Handicap

2022

Traditionally, golf instruction has been oriented toward imitation of role models, guided by errors that surround a channel of supposedly correct repetition. Recent motor learning approaches relying on the dynamics of living systems suggest the inclusion of additional noise during practice for supporting players’ movement exploration and improving adaptability that in consequence will lead to increased performance. While the effectiveness of this approach has now been demonstrated in many sports, research exploring the effects of differential learning (DL) in golf is scarce, especially when considering different shot distances and players with various handicap levels. Therefore, the p…

Z dziejów muzyki kościelnej w Międzylesiu na ziemi kłodzkiej

2014

Architecture to Serve Disabled and Elderly

2013

We propose an architecture (discussed in the context of a dressing and cleaning application for impaired and elderly persons) that combines a cognitive framework that generates motor commands with the MOSAIC architecture which selects the right motor command according to the proper context. The ambition is to have robots able to understand humans intentions (dressing or cleaning intentions), to learn new tasks only by observing humans, and to represent the world around it by using conceptual spaces. The cognitive framework implements the learning by demonstration paradigm and solves the related problem to map the observed movement into the robot motor system. Such framework is assumed to wo…