Variation of Carrying Angle With Age, Sex, Height and Special Reference to Side

Background The carrying angle is defined as the acute angle made by the median axis of arm and median axis of forearm in full extension and supination. This angle permits the forearms to clear the hips in swinging movements during walking and is important when carrying objects.Objective The purpose of this study was to determine the values of carrying angle in both the sexes according to the age group in relation with height and special reference to side.Methods To evaluate the elbow carrying angle in normal children between 5-15 years by a manual goniometer, measurements were performed in 532 children (Male- 335, Female- 197), with the elbow in full extension and forearm in supination. Carrying angle was measured on right and left upper limbs to find out the difference on both the limbs. Their height, ages and sexes are also recorded. Bicipital groove, biceps brachii tendon at its insertion and palmaris longus tendon at the wrist were palpated and marked as anatomical landmarks to demarcate the median axes of arm and forearm respectively.Results The mean carrying angle of male on the left limb was 7.0359O and the female was 7.8030O and the mean carrying angle of male on the right limb was 4.5509O and the female was 4.9545O. We observed the greater carrying angle in non-dominant limb than the dominant limbs. There was significant positive correlation between height of students and carrying angle left (r =0.0866, p= 0.048<0.05), negative correlation between height and carrying angle right (r= -0.082, p= 0.058 >0.05).Conclusion The present study showed that the carrying angle was greater in female than in male and was greater in non-dominant arm than in dominant arm and the carrying angle was not inversely related to the height of the person.Kathmandu Univ Med J 2013; 11(4): 315-318

Road Tracking from High resolution IRS And IKONOS Images Using Unscented Kalman Filtering

A typical way to update map is to compare recent satellite images with existing map data, detect new roads and add them as cartographic entities to the road layer. At present image processing and pattern recognition are not robust enough to automate the image interpretation system feasible. For this reason we have to develop an image interpretation system that rely on human guidance. More importantly road maps require final checking by a human due to the legal implementations of error. Our proposed technique is applied to IRS and IKONOS images using Unscented Kalman Filter(UKF) . UKF is used for tracing the median axis of the single road segment. The Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) is probably the most widely used estimation algorithm for road tracking. However, more than 35 years of experience in the estimation community has shown that is difficult to implement and is difficult to tune. To overcome this limitation,UKF is introduced in road tracking which is more accurate, easier to implement, and uses the same order of calculations as linearization. The principles and algorithm of EKF and UKF were also discussed. The core of our system is based on profile matching.UKF traces the roadbeyond obstacles and tries to find the continuation of the road finding all road branches initializing at the road junction.The completeness and correctness of road tracking from the IRS and IKONOS images were also compared.

Taphonomy and paleoecology of the bivalve trace fossil Protovirgularia in deltaic heterolithic facies of the Miocene Chenque Formation, Patagonia, Argentina

Lower Miocene tide-influenced deltaic deposits from the Chenque Formation, Patagonia, Argentina, contain abundant and well-preserved biogenic structures attributed to locomotion of deposit-feeder protobranch bivalves. These trace fossils, assigned to the ichnogenus Protovirgularia, consist of delicate, inclined-to-horizontal, chevronate structures, mostly symmetrical with respect to a median axis. Identification of Protovirgularia at sandstone sole beds (hypichnion) is quite straightforward. Endichnial, exichnial and epichnial preservation in heterolithic facies, however, provides a wide variety of forms that depart from the archetypal Protovirgularia and challenges ichnotaxonomic classification. Specimens in prodelta and delta-front facies display morphologic features controlled by substrate fluidity, toponomy, and sedimentation rate. Most specimens show sharp, closely spaced chevrons and occur along sandstone/mudstone interfaces of the proximal prodelta and distal delta-front deposits. These forms reflect how tracemakers experienced significant friction while advancing through the sediment, which resulted in relatively smaller increments of movements. In contrast, variants of Protovirgularia formed in muddier beds, such as in prodeltaic facies, show irregular, poorly defined and unevenly spaced chevrons, and are locally asymmetric in relation to the axis, reflecting softer, water-rich, and plastic substrates. This sediment offered relatively low friction but poor anchorage for the foot. These occurrences of Protovirgularia in tide-influenced, marginal-marine deposits suggests that protobranchs were tolerant of fluctuations in salinity, sedimentation rates, turbidity, and oxygen depletion, displaying opportunistic strategies in stressed nearshore environments. Our evaluation of taphonomic controls and appropriate identification of Protovirgularia can provide valuable information for expanding our knowledge of the ethology and paleoecology of protobranch bivalves.

Two experimental sediment traps: operation and solids characteristics

Specific sediment traps for solids transported as bed load during storm events could be an interesting alternative to usual grit chambers. Two field experiments have been carried out in Bordeaux (south-west of France) in 1993 and 1994 to characterise the solids caught in the traps and to assess the sediment trap efficiency. These two sites have been chosen because it was easy to transform the existing usual grit chambers with a set of boxes used as sediment traps. The mass of trapped solids is well correlated with the rainfall height, for rainfalls of less than 50 mm. For greater rainfalls, the experimental sediment traps were too small to catch all solids. The efficiency of the sediment traps located at the grit chamber inlet side is assessed at about 70-80% in mass. Only 20-30% of solids are trapped at the outlet side. The efficiency decreases rapidly for the traps that are not in alignment with the median axis of the inlet pipe. The grain size distribution of the trapped solids is very characteristic: the d10, d50 and d90 values decrease when the traps are farther away from the median axis of the inlet pipe. This distribution of the trapped solids is due to the enlargement of the grit chamber which leads to a decrease of the flow velocity. The organic fraction increases when the d50 decreases: the finer the particles, the more organic the fractions.

Growth and function of the micro-frills present on the Devonian brachiopod Athyris campomanesi (Verneuil & Archiac)

ABSTRACTMinute, lamellose concentric micro-frills are described on the external surfaces of the Devonian brachiopod Athyris campomanesi (Verneuil & Archiac). The micro-frills are very regularly spaced with a separation of approximately 0.5 mm, are inclined anteriorly and antero-laterally, and become more or less recurved peripherally down towards the valve surface. These micro-frills must have been secreted by outward extensions of epithelium, presumably resulting from an increase in the rate of cell proliferation or extension in the marginal zone. Extrapolating from the known growth rates of living brachiopods, it seems probable that the micro-frills formed very rapidly, within a matter of days or hours. In life the micro-frills would have formed minute channels around the peripheries of both valves, similar in form and function to rain gutters. As such they probably functioned as baffle chambers, within which excess paniculate material from the inhalant feeding currents would have accumulated. Such particulate material is likely to have been moved laterally from the median axis of the shell down to the sediment surface under the effects of gravity and in vitro shell movements. Each micro-frill may only have functioned in this fashion for a matter of weeks before being rendered ineffective by the forward growth of the valve margin, at which stage it would have been abandoned and replaced by a subsequently formed micro-frill.