Methods: Healthy males (18-30 years old, n=31; 50-64 years old, n=37) had their total body areal bone mineral density (aBMD) and body composition measured with Dual Energy X-ray Absorptiometry (DXA). Volumetric bone characteristics, muscle cross-sectional area (MCSA) and fat cross-sectional area (FCSA) of the leg were measured with peripheral Quantitative Computed Tomography (pQCT). Results: Young men were significantly (p<0.05) lighter and had less fat mass than older men. Total volumetric BMD (vBMD) at 66% of the tibia length was significantly lower (p<0.05) in older men. Bone-free lean body mass values were useful predictors of total

and cortical area and content (R(2)=0.338-0.467). MCSA was more predictive of leg BFLBM than total body BFLBM, and those relationships were stronger in older men. Conclusions: selleck chemicals llc Differences in tibial bone area and density existed between young and middle-aged men, and relationships between pQCT- and DXA-derived body composition variables were age-dependent.”
“This paper concerns body attitude (orientation) estimation for free ranging animal. The main idea of the this website proposed approach combines a quaternion-based nonlinear observer

with an Iterated Least Squares Algorithm (ILSA) and exploits measurements from Micro-Electro-Mechanical-System (MEMS) sensors as 3-axis accelerometer, 3-axis magnetometer and 3-axis gyroscope to produce attitude estimates during the entire range of the observed animal’s body movements. Moreover, the proposed observer allows estimating the bias in gyroscope which is used to correct the angular velocity measurements in the attitude estimation step. Since, biologists use an index of DBA for evaluating the energy consumption of the moving animal; the resulting estimations are then used to extract the Dynamic Body Acceleration (DBA) of the animal. Note that, this work is necessary in Bio-logging science and allows monitoring aspects of animal’s biology (behavior,

movement, and physiology) and environments. The performance of the algorithm is theoretically proven and illustrated by an attitude estimation selleckchem example. Moreover, the efficiency of the proposed approach is shown with a set of experiments through sensor measurements provided by an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU). We have also included some comparison results with another method already applied in Bio-logging field in order to point out the improvements issued from the proposed approach. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.”
“Artemisia annua L. is an important medicinal plant that produces substantial quantity of artemisinin, an antimalarial agent. In India, it grows wild in the Ladhak region and has harboured considerable variability over the years. EST-derived SSR markers were used to measure the genetic diversity among the A.