Abstract: Novel hentriacontapeptides having the following amino acid sequence:H-Tyr-X-Gly-Phe-Met-Thr-Ser-Glu-Lys-Ser-Gln-Thr-Pro-Leu-Val-Thr-Leu-Phe-Lys -Asn-Ala-Ile-Ile-Lys-Asn-Ala-Tyr-Lys-Lys-Gly-Glu-Ywherein X is a chiral residue of a D-amino acid selected from the group consisting of D-alanine, D-leucine, D-isoleucine, D-valine, D-phenylalanine, D-tyrosine, D-tryptophan, D-serine, D-threonine, D-methionine, D-glutamic acid, D-glutamine, D-aspartic acid, D-asparagine, D-lysine, D-proline, D-histidine or D-arginine; Y is selected from the group consisting of hydroxy, amino, loweralkylamino, diloweralkylamino and lower alkoxy; and the pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof; intermediates useful in making the novel compounds and pharmaceutical compositions and methods employing the novel compounds.

Abstract: This invention relates to an improved EMG-based method for actuating a prosthetic appliance wherein a single pair of electrodes may be used to actuate several artificial limb movements by way of sampling and repeatedly resampling substantially the entire time function of the myoelectric signal as it appears on the limb stump over a period so short that the signal remains quasi-stationary, comparing a minimum number of parameters of such signals with a range of values of these same parameters stored within the data bank of a microcomputer, and actuating one or more functions of a prosthetic appliance whenever the current data for the sampled parameters all falls within a preselected domain chosen on the basis of the historical data.