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The Information Technology, Computer Simulation & Signal Processing Core helps develop measurement, analysis, and simulation tools for the study of neurological impairment. Resources in this core include telerehabilitation facilities to quantitatively evaluate passive and active range of motion, muscle strength and stiffness of spastic joints and system identification techniques to investigate human limb dynamics under controlled conditions. Joint kinematic, kinetic and electromyogram (EMG) signals can be measured and processed through system identification techniques to investigate various neuromechanical properties in patients with neurologic disorders and in healthy controls.
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This core facility also has the capacity to build novel electronic and mechanical systems such as telemetered collection systems, portable data loggers, exoskeleton robots, state-of-the-art EMG electrodes, advanced signal processing systems, and extensive modeling and simulation facilities.
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For computer modeling and simulation, the core has two licenses for Mimics , a software package which can be used to analyze computed tomography images and to generate geometric meshes from these images for use in finite element models. The core also has four licenses of ABAQUS software, available for finite element analyses in various neuromechanical applications. As noted previously, five licenses are also available for the modeling software SIMM. The companion Dynamics Pipeline permits dynamic simulations of the SIMM models.
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Software is also available for analysis of magnetic resonance images (MRIs). MRViewer provides a means for segmentation of image slices, e.g., for computing lesion size. Another workstation is available for processing of functional magnetic resonance imaging by use of software distributed through the National Institutes of Health (NIH) .
