Search results for: back stepping

Authors: Ahmed Assem Abd El Rahim

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BACKGROUND: Low back pain (LBP) is enormously common health problem& most of subjects experience it at some point of their life. Kinesio-taping is one of therapy methods introduced for studied cases with nonspecific low back pain. OBJECTIVES: to look at how Kinesio-taping affects studied cases with non-specific low back pain in terms of discomfort, range of motion, & back muscular strength. SUBJECTS: 40 mechanical LBP patients aged 20-40 years had been assigned haphazardly into two groups, They had been selected from outpatient clinic, KasrAl-AiniHospital, Cairo university. Methods: GroupA: 20 patients received the I-shape KT longitudinally & conventional physiotherapy program. Group B:20 studied cases received application of the KT Horizontally & conventional physiotherapy program. pain had been measured by visual analog scale, Range of motion had been measured by Roland Morris Disability Questionnaire (RMDQ), & strength had been measured by an isokinetic dynamometer before & after therapy. Therapy sessions had been three times weekly for four weeks. RESULTS: Groups (A & B) discovered decrease in pain& disability and rise in their flexion, extension ROM & peak torque of trunk extensor after end of 4 weeks of program. mean values of pain scale after therapy had been 3.7 and 5.04 in groups A & B. mean values of Disability scale after treatment had been 7.87.and 9.35 in groups A & B. mean values of ROM of flexion had been 28.06, and 24.53 in groups A & B. mean values of ROM of extension had been 13.43 & 10.73 in groups A & B. mean values of Peak torque of lumbar extensors were 65.43 and 63.22 in groups A & B. Though, participants who received the I-shape KT longitudinally as well as conventional physiotherapy program (group A), discovered more reduction in pain& disability and more improvement in ROM of flexion, extension, and Peak torque of lumbar extensors value (P<0.001) after therapy program CONCLUSION: Therapeutic longitudinal Kinesio-taping application with conventional physiotherapy will be more valuable than Therapeutic horizontal Kinesio-taping application with conventional physiotherapy when treating nonspecific low back pain studied cases.

Keywords: Kinesio taping, function, low back pain, muscle power

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Authors: Ovidiu Anemtoaicei

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This paper offers a possible answer to the question of what it means to think about men and masculinities through the philosophy of sexual difference as developed by Luce Irigaray, employing Gilles Deleuze’s concept of 'critique' and arguing, at the same time, for a concept of 'becoming-man' as an expression of this answer. First, while examining the nature of the role of male bodies underlying the theorizing of men and masculinities in the field of the Critical Studies of Men and Masculinities, the paper argues for a turn to sexual difference theory as an answer to the 'gap' between the representations on male bodies and their participation in thought and masculine subjective production. Secondly, sharing Luce Irigaray’s critique of Western thought, the paper explores alternative morphological bodily 'locations' for rethinking male imaginary in relation to male embodiments, on the one hand, and in relation to the maternal and the feminine, on the other hand. Thirdly, the paper develops the idea that a phenomenologically-influenced approach towards male bodies might be productive, especially when thought through Irigaray’s sexual difference as a relational and experiential ontology. Finally, while showing that Irigaray and Deleuze share a similar critique of Western philosophical thought and of the masculine historical subject, it proposes a rethinking of the concept of 'becoming-man' as an assemblage meeting between Irigaray’s theory of sexual difference and Deleuze and Guattari’s nomadologic project, as a possibility of thinking change in men’s masculine subjective constitution in relation to both women and other men. As far as the ethical implications of such rethinking are concerned, the paper urges for the cultivation of a masculine culture of stepping back and its constitutive political, social and cultural practices so as to make possible the construction of new spaces that would allow for the becoming of at least two subjects based on the respect for their differences.

Keywords: feminist philosophy, male bodies, masculinities, phenomenology, sexual difference

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Authors: R. S. Arun Raj

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In today's climate of growing energy needs and increasing environmental issues, alternatives to the use of non-renewable and polluting fossil fuels have to be investigated. One such alternative is the solar energy. The SUN provides every hour as much energy as mankind consumes in one year. This paper clearly explains about the solar panel design and new models and methodologies that can be implemented for better utilization of solar energy. Minimisation of losses in solar panel as heat is my innovative idea revolves around. The pay back calculations by implementation of solar panels is also quoted.

Keywords: on-grid and off-grid systems, pyro-electric effect, pay-back calculations, solar panel

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Authors: Ahmed Amine Hachicha

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Temperature effect on the performance of a photovoltaic module is one of the main concern that face this renewable energy, especially in the hot arid region, e.g United Arab Emirates. Overheating of the PV modules reduces the open circuit voltage and the efficiency of the modules dramatically. In this work, water cooling is developed to enhance the performance of PV modules. Different scenarios are tested under UAE weather conditions: front, back and double cooling. A spraying system is used for the front cooling whether a direct contact water system is used for the back cooling. The experimental results are compared to a non-cooling module and the performance of the PV module is determined for different situations. A mathematical model is presented to estimate the theoretical performance and validate the experimental results with and without cooling. The experimental results show that the front cooling is more effective than the back cooling and may decrease the temperature of the PV module significantly.

Keywords: PV cooling, solar energy, cooling methods, electrical efficiency, temperature effect

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Authors: Kaili Wang, Botao Zhang, Enming Zhang

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Background: Low back pain (LBP) is a common problem affecting athletes' training and competition. Although the association between a limited hip range of motion and prevalence of low back pain has been studied extensively, it has not been studied in table tennis. Aim: The main purposes of this study in table tennis players were (1) to investigate if there is a difference in hip internal rotation (HIR) and external rotation (HER) range of motion (ROM) between players with LBP and players without LBP and (2) to analyze the association between HIR and HER ROM and LBP. Methods: Forty-six table tennis players from the Chinese table tennis team were evaluated for passive maximum HIR and HER ROM. LBP was retrospectively recorded for the last 12 months before the date of ROM assessment by a physical therapist. The data were analyzed the difference in HIR and HER ROM between players with LBP and players without LBP by Mann-Whitney U test, and the association between the difference in HIR and HER ROM and LBP was analyzed via a binary logistic regression. Results: The 54% of players had developed LBP during the retrospective study period. Significant difference between LBP group and the asymptomatic group for HIR ROM (z=4.007, p<0.001) was observed. Difference between LBP group and asymptomatic group for HER ROM (z=1.117, p=0.264) was not significant. Players who had HIR ROM deficit had an increased risk of LBP compared with players without HIR ROM deficit (OR=5.344, 95%CI: 1.006-28.395, P=0.049). Conclusion: HIR ROM of a table tennis player with LBP was less than a table tennis player without LBP. Compared with player whose HIR ROM was normal, player who had HIR ROM deficit appeared to have a higher risk for LBP.

Keywords: assessment, injury prevention, low back pain, table tennis players

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Authors: Ujjval J. Solanki, Prof.(Dr.) P.J. Gundaliya, Prof.M.D. Barasara

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The application of Falling Weight Deflectometer is to evaluate structural performance of the flexible pavement. The exercise of back calculation is required to know the modulus of elasticity of existing in-service pavement. The process of back calculation needs in-depth field experience for the input of range of modulus of elasticity of bituminous, granular and subgrade layer, and its required number of trial to find such matching moduli with the observed FWD deflection on the field. The study carried out at Barnala-Mansa State Highway Punjab-India using FWD before and after overlay; the deflections obtained at 0 on the load cell, 300, 600, 900,1200, 1500 and 1800 mm interval from the load cell these seven deflection results used to calculate Surface Curvature Index (SCI), Base damage Index (BDI), Base curvature index (BCI). This SCI, BCI and BDI indices are useful to predict the structural performance of in-service pavement and also useful to identify homogeneous section for condition assessment. The SCI, BCI and BDI range are determined for before and after overlay the range of SCI 520 to 51 BDI 294 to 63 BCI 83 to 0.27 for old pavement and SCI 272 to 23 BDI 228 to 28, BCI 25.85 to 4.60 for new pavement. It also shows good correlation with back calculated modulus of elasticity of all the three layer.

Keywords: back calculation, base damage index, base curvature index, FWD (Falling Weight Deflectometer), surface curvature index

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Authors: Izani Uzair Zubair, Mohd Ismail Ibrahim, Mohd Nazri Shafei, Hassan Merican Omar Naina Merican, Mohamad Sabri Othman, Mohd Izmi Ahmad Ibrahim, Rasilah Ramli, Rajpal Singh Karam Singh

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Nurses experience a higher prevalence of low back pain (LBP) and musculoskeletal complaints as compared to other hospital workers. Due to no proper policy related to LBP, the job has exposed them to the problem. Thus, the current study aims to look at the intensity of the problem and factors associated with development of LBP. Method and Tools: A cross sectional study was carried out among 1292 nurses from six public hospitals in Penang. They were randomly selected and those who were pregnant and have been diagnosed to have LBP were excluded. A Malay validated BACK Questionnaire was used. The associated factors were determined by using multiple logistic regression from SPSS version 20.0. Result: Most of the respondents were at mean age 30 years old and had mean working experience 86 months. The prevalence of LBP was identified as 76% (95% CI 74, 82). Factors that were associated with LBP among nurses include lifting a heavy object (OR2.626 (95% CI 1.978, 3.486) p =0.001 and the estimation weight of the lifted object (OR1.443 (95% CI 1.056, 1.970) p =0.021. Conclusion: Nurses who practice lifting heavy object and weight of the object lifted give a significant contribution to the development of LBP. The prevalence of the problem is significantly high. Thus, a proper no weight lifting policy should be considered.

Keywords: low back pain, nurses, Penang public hospital, Penang

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Authors: Jimeng Shi, Mahek Jain, Giri Narasimhan

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Time Series Forecasting (TSF) is used to predict the target variables at a future time point based on the learning from previous time points. To keep the problem tractable, learning methods use data from a fixed-length window in the past as an explicit input. In this paper, we study how the performance of predictive models changes as a function of different look-back window sizes and different amounts of time to predict the future. We also consider the performance of the recent attention-based Transformer models, which have had good success in the image processing and natural language processing domains. In all, we compare four different deep learning methods (RNN, LSTM, GRU, and Transformer) along with a baseline method. The dataset (hourly) we used is the Beijing Air Quality Dataset from the UCI website, which includes a multivariate time series of many factors measured on an hourly basis for a period of 5 years (2010-14). For each model, we also report on the relationship between the performance and the look-back window sizes and the number of predicted time points into the future. Our experiments suggest that Transformer models have the best performance with the lowest Mean Average Errors (MAE = 14.599, 23.273) and Root Mean Square Errors (RSME = 23.573, 38.131) for most of our single-step and multi-steps predictions. The best size for the look-back window to predict 1 hour into the future appears to be one day, while 2 or 4 days perform the best to predict 3 hours into the future.

Keywords: air quality prediction, deep learning algorithms, time series forecasting, look-back window

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Authors: Dina Jalalvand, Joshua A. Cleland

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This double-blind, randomized control trial with parallel groups aimed to examine the effectiveness of office-based occupational therapy for office workers with low back pain on the intensity of pain and range of motion. Seventy-two male office workers (age: 20-50 years) with chronic low back pain (more than three months with at least two symptoms of chronic low back pain) satisfied eligibility criteria and agreed to participate in this study. The absence of joint burst following magnetic resonance imagining (MRI) was considered as an important inclusion criterion as well. Subjects were randomly assigned to a control or experimental group. The experimental group received the modified package of exercise-based occupational therapy, which included 11 simple exercise movements (derived from Williams and McKenzie), and the control group just received the conventional therapy, which included their routine physiotherapy sessions. The subjects completed the exercises three times a week for a duration of six weeks. Each exercise session was 10-15 minutes. Pain intensity and range of motion were the primary outcomes and were measured at baseline, 6 weeks, and 12 weeks after the end of the intervention using the numerical rating scale (NRS) and goniometer accordingly. Repeated measure ANOVA was used for analyzing data. The results of this study showed that significant decreases in pain intensity (p ≤ 0.05) and an increase in range of motion (p ≤ 0.001) in the experimental group in comparison with the control group after 6 and 12 weeks of intervention (between-group comparisons). In addition, there was a significant decrease in intensity of the pain (p ≤ 0.05) and an increase (p ≤ 0.001) in range of motion in the intervention group in comparison with baseline after 6 and 12 weeks (within-group comparison). This showed a positive effect of exercise-based occupational therapy that could potentially be used with low cost among office workers who suffer from low back pain. In addition, it should be noted that the introduced package of exercise training is easy to do, and there is not a need for a specific introduction.

Keywords: public health, office workers, low back pain, occupational therapy

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Authors: Bin Mu, Site Li, Shijin Yuan

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Under the circumstance of environment deterioration, people are increasingly concerned about the quality of the environment, especially air quality. As a result, it is of great value to give accurate and timely forecast of AQI (air quality index). In order to simplify influencing factors of air quality in a city, and forecast the city’s AQI tomorrow, this study used MATLAB software and adopted the method of constructing a mathematic model of PCA-GABP to provide a solution. To be specific, this study firstly made principal component analysis (PCA) of influencing factors of AQI tomorrow including aspects of weather, industry waste gas and IAQI data today. Then, we used the back propagation neural network model (BP), which is optimized by genetic algorithm (GA), to give forecast of AQI tomorrow. In order to verify validity and accuracy of PCA-GABP model’s forecast capability. The study uses two statistical indices to evaluate AQI forecast results (normalized mean square error and fractional bias). Eventually, this study reduces mean square error by optimizing individual gene structure in genetic algorithm and adjusting the parameters of back propagation model. To conclude, the performance of the model to forecast AQI is comparatively convincing and the model is expected to take positive effect in AQI forecast in the future.

Keywords: AQI forecast, principal component analysis, genetic algorithm, back propagation neural network model

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Authors: Ajoy Kumar Das, Prasenjit Dey

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Heat transfer due to forced convection of copper water based nanofluid has been predicted by Artificial Neural network (ANN). The present nanofluid is formed by mixing copper nano particles in water and the volume fractions are considered here are 0% to 15% and the Reynolds number are kept constant at 100. The back propagation algorithm is used to train the network. The present ANN is trained by the input and output data which has been obtained from the numerical simulation, performed in finite volume based Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) commercial software Ansys Fluent. The numerical simulation based results are compared with the back propagation based ANN results. It is found that the forced convection heat transfer of water based nanofluid can be predicted correctly by ANN. It is also observed that the back propagation ANN can predict the heat transfer characteristics of nanofluid very quickly compared to standard CFD method.

Keywords: forced convection, square cylinder, nanofluid, neural network

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Authors: R. Loukil, M. Chtourou, T. Damak

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This paper investigates the training of multilayer neural network using the classic approach. Then, for estimation purposes, we suggest the use of a specific neural observer that we study its training algorithm which is the back-propagation one in the case of the disponibility of the state and in the case of an unmeasurable state. A MATLAB simulation example will be studied to highlight the usefulness of this kind of observer.

Keywords: training, estimation purposes, neural observer, back-propagation, unmeasurable state

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Authors: Navneet Dabra, Baljinder Kaur, Lakhbir Singh, V. Annapu Reddy, R. Nath, Dae-Yong Jeong, Jasbir S. Hundal

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The ferroelectric properties of fused potassium nitrate (KNO3)- polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) composite films have been investigated. The composite films of KNO3-PVA have been prepared by solvant cast technique and then fused over the brass substrate. The ferroelectric hysteresis loops (P-E) have been obtained at room temperature using modified Sawyer-Tower circuit. Percentage of back switching and differential dielectric constant has been derived from P-V loops. The x-ray diffraction (XRD) studies confirm the formation of ferroelectric phase (phase III) in these composite films. The AFM and FE-SEM studies have been used to study the surface morphology of these composite films. The values of remanemt polarization, coercive field, back switching, crystallite size, lattice parameters, and surface roughness have been estimated and correlated.

Keywords: ferroelectric polymer composite, remanemt polarization, back switching, crystallite size, lattice parameters and surface roughness

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Authors: Venus Pagare, Amit Kharat, Dhaval K. Thakkar, Tushar J. Palekar

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Introduction: Chronic low back pain (CLBP) is a major public health problem and is the leading musculoskeletal cause of disability. Altered neuromuscular control of core muscles, particulary transverses abdominis (TrA) is thought to be a contributing factor for the development of CLBP. Therefore, various exercises targeting the TrA are commonly incorporated into the rehabilitation. Objectives: To investigate the effects of 3 different core exercises on activation capacity of TrA muscle in individuals with CLBP as compared with healthy controls. Methodology: Thickness of TrA muscle was measured by ultrasound imaging in 30 patients with CLBP and 30 healthy controls. Measurements were taken during 3 different TrA activation exercises i.e Abdominal drawing in maneuver (ADIM), Abdominal drawing in with straight leg raise (ADSLR) and breathe hold at maximum expiration (ME). Thickness of the muscle at rest (at the end of normal tidal expiration) was taken as a baseline measure. Results: There was a significant difference between the healthy subjects and patients with low back pain with regard to the thickness of TrA at rest and thickness during contraction. ADIM produced a significant increase in the thickness of TrA compared to ADSLR and ME (p<0.001). Also, increase in thickness of TrA was more in the control group than patients with low back pain. Conclusion: CLBP patients exhibited atrophy of TrA muscle with delayed activation. Also, of the various core exercises, ADIM can be an effective method for activation of TrA.

Keywords: LBP, CLBP, ADSLR, ADIM

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Authors: Sai Sankalp Vemavarapu

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This paper discusses the application of machine learning in the field of transportation engineering for predicting engineering properties of pavement more accurately and efficiently. Predicting the elastic properties aid us in assessing the current road conditions and taking appropriate measures to avoid any inconvenience to commuters. This improves the longevity and sustainability of the pavement layer while reducing its overall life-cycle cost. As an example, we have implemented differential evolution (DE) in the back-calculation of the elastic modulus of multi-layered pavement. The proposed DE global optimization back-calculation approach is integrated with a forward response model. This approach treats back-calculation as a global optimization problem where the cost function to be minimized is defined as the root mean square error in measured and computed deflections. The optimal solution which is elastic modulus, in this case, is searched for in the solution space by the DE algorithm. The best DE parameter combinations and the most optimum value is predicted so that the results are reproducible whenever the need arises. The algorithm’s performance in varied scenarios was analyzed by changing the input parameters. The prediction was well within the permissible error, establishing the supremacy of DE.

Keywords: cost function, differential evolution, falling weight deflectometer, genetic algorithm, global optimization, metaheuristic algorithm, multilayered pavement, pavement condition assessment, pavement layer moduli back calculation

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Authors: Ozge Yilmaz Kusbeci, Ipek Inci

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Aim: Musculoskeletal problems are very common in Parkinson’s disease (PD). They affect quality of life and cause disabilities. However they are under-evaluated, and under-treated. The aim of this study is to evaluate the prevalence and clinical features of musculoskeletal problems in patients with Parkinson disease (PD) compared to controls. Methods: 50 PD patients and 50 age and sex matched controls were interviewed by physicians about their musculoskeletal problems. Results: The prevalence of musculoskeletal problems was significantly higher in the PD group than in the control group (p < 0.05). Commonly involved body sites were the shoulder, low back, and knee. The shoulder and low back was more frequently involved in the PD group than in the control group. However, the knee was similarly involved in both groups. Among the past diagnoses associated with musculoskeletal problems, frozen shoulder, low back pain and osteoporosis more common in the PD group than in the control group (p < 0.05). Furthermore, musculoskeletal problems in the PD group tended to receive less treatment than that of the control group. Conclusion: Musculoskeletal problems were more common in the PD group than in the controls. Therefore assessment and treatment of musculoskeletal problems could improve quality of life in PD patients.

Keywords: parkinson disease, musculoskeletal problems, quality of life, PD disease

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Authors: El Sayed A. Sharara, A. Tsuji, K. Terada

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Call centers have been expanding and they have influence on activation in various markets increasingly. A call center’s work is known as one of the most demanding and stressful jobs. In this paper, we propose the fatigue detection system in order to detect burnout of call center agents in the case of a neck pain and upper back pain. Our proposed system is based on the computer vision technique combined skin color detection with the Viola-Jones object detector. To recognize the gesture of hand poses caused by stress sign, the YCbCr color space is used to detect the skin color region including face and hand poses around the area related to neck ache and upper back pain. A cascade of clarifiers by Viola-Jones is used for face recognition to extract from the skin color region. The detection of hand poses is given by the evaluation of neck pain and upper back pain by using skin color detection and face recognition method. The system performance is evaluated using two groups of dataset created in the laboratory to simulate call center environment. Our call center agent burnout detection system has been implemented by using a web camera and has been processed by MATLAB. From the experimental results, our system achieved 96.3% for upper back pain detection and 94.2% for neck pain detection.

Keywords: call center agents, fatigue, skin color detection, face recognition

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Authors: Ching-Yuan Chen, Lung-Kwang Pan

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Objective: Back pain is a major health problem costing billions of health budgets annually in Taiwan. Thousands of back pain surgeries are performed annually with up to 40% of patients complaining of back pain at time of post-surgery causing failed back surgery syndrome (FBSS), although diagnosis in these patients may be complex. The aim of study is to assess the feasibility of using bone SPECT-CT imaging to localize the active lesions causing persistent, recurrent or new backache after spine surgery. Materials and Methods: Bone SPECT-CT imaging was performed after the intravenous injection of 20 mCi of 99mTc-MDP for all the patients with diagnosis of FBSS. Patients were evaluated using status of subjectively pain relief, functional improvement and degree of satisfaction by reviewing the medical records and questionnaires in a 2 more years’ follow-up. Results: We enrolled a total of 16 patients were surveyed in our hospital from Jan. 2015 to Dec. 2016. Four people on SPEC/CT imaging ensured significant lesions were undergone a revised surgery (surgical treatment group). The mean visual analogue scale (VAS) decreased 5.3 points and mean Oswestry disability index (ODI) improved 38 points in the surgical group. The remaining 12 on SPECT/CT imaging were diagnosed as no significant lesions then received drug treatment (medical treatment group). The mean VAS only decreased 2 .1 point and mean ODI improved 12.6 points in the medical treatment group. In the posttherapeutic evaluation, the pain of the surgical treatment group showed a satisfactory improvement. In the medical treatment group, 10 of the 12 were also satisfied with the symptom relief while the other 2 did not improve significantly. Conclusions: Findings on SPECT-CT imaging appears to be easily explained the patients' pain. We recommended that SPECT/CT imaging was a feasible and useful clinical tool to improve diagnostic confidence or specificity when evaluating patients with FBSS.

Keywords: failed back surgery syndrome, oswestry disability index, SPECT-CT imaging, 99mTc-MDP, visual analogue scale

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Authors: Samuel Kwaku Essien, Catherine Trask, Niels Koehncke, Brenna Bath

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Background: Low back disorder (LBD) is the most common musculoskeletal problem among farmers, with higher prevalence than other occupations. Operators of tractors and other farm machinery such as combines or all-terrain vehicles (ATV) can have considerable cumulative exposure to whole body vibration (WBV). Although there appears to be an association between LBD and WBV, lack of prospective studies makes the relationship between LBD and WBV unclear. Purpose: This study investigates the association between WBV and LBD among Saskatchewan farmers using a prospective cohort study Methods: The Saskatchewan Farm Injury Cohort Study Phase I (2007) and II (2013) data were used. Baseline data were collected via postal questionnaire on accumulated yearly tractor, combine, and ATV use as well as several covariates to support a biopsychosocial model of LBD. Follow-up data on musculoskeletal symptoms were collected for the 6-year with sample size of 1149. Questions on ‘low back trouble’ (ache, pain, discomfort) experienced in the last 12 months answered by farmer participants as ‘yes’ or ‘no’. A GEE-modified Poisson approach was performed using SPSS 22 and SAS 9.4. Results: Twelve-month Prevalence of LBD was 59.8%. In multivariate analysis of the 6-year follow-up, LBD was associated with ATV operation and tractor operation, with a dose-response relationship for annual accumulated tractor operation. Although combine operation ≥ 61 hrs/year was related to LBD in bivariate analysis, this difference did not persist after adjustment for confounder. Age was found to be a confounder in relationship between WBV and LBD and no interactions were found. Conclusion: Longer annual tractor operation and older age are important predictors of LBD symptoms in farmers. Future research involving direct measurement can help identify appropriate prevention strategies.

Keywords: agriculture, low back disorder, low back pain, occupational health

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Authors: Razieh Karimian, Kim Burton, Mohammad Mehdi Naghizadeh, Maryam Karimian

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Introduction: Habitual upper body postures are associated with online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study explored whether adding an exercise routine to an ergonomic advice intervention improves these postures. Methods: In this randomized trial, 42 male adolescent students with a forward head posture were randomly divided into two equal groups, one allocated to ergonomic advice alone and the other to ergonomic advice plus an exercise routine. The angles of forward head, shoulder, and back postures were measured with a photogrammetric profile technique before and after the 8-week intervention period. Findings: During home quarantine, 76% of the students used their mobile phones, while 35% used a table-chair-computer for online learning. While significant reductions of the forward, shoulder, and back angles were found in both groups (P < 0.001), the effect was significantly greater in the exercise group (P < 0.001: forward head, shoulder, and back angles reduced by some 9, 6, and 5 degrees respectively, compared with 4 degrees in the forward head, and 2 degrees in the shoulder and back angles for ergonomic advice alone. Conclusion: The exercise routine produced a greater improvement in habitual upper body postures than ergonomic advice alone, a finding that may extend beyond online learning at home.

Keywords: randomized trial, online learning, adolescent, posture, exercise, ergonomic advice

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Authors: Y. Zheng, M. Busi, A. F. Pedersen, M. A. Beltran, C. Gundlach

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X-ray phase contrast imaging has shown to yield a better contrast compared to conventional attenuation X-ray imaging, especially for soft tissues in the medical imaging energy range. This can potentially lead to better diagnosis for patients. However, phase contrast imaging has mainly been performed using highly brilliant Synchrotron radiation, as it requires high coherence X-rays. Many research teams have demonstrated that it is also feasible using a laboratory source, bringing it one step closer to clinical use. Nevertheless, the requirement of fine gratings and high precision stepping motors when using a laboratory source prevents it from being widely used. Recently, a random phase object has been proposed as an analyzer. This method requires a much less robust experimental setup. However, previous studies were done using a particular X-ray source (liquid-metal jet micro-focus source) or high precision motors for stepping. We have been working on a much simpler setup with just small modification of a commercial bench-top micro-CT (computed tomography) scanner, by introducing a piece of sandpaper as the phase analyzer in front of the X-ray source. However, it needs a suitable algorithm for speckle tracking and 3D reconstructions. The precision and sensitivity of speckle tracking algorithm determine the resolution of the system, while the 3D reconstruction algorithm will affect the minimum number of projections required, thus limiting the temporal resolution. As phase contrast imaging methods usually require much longer exposure time than traditional absorption based X-ray imaging technologies, a dynamic phase contrast micro-CT with a high temporal resolution is particularly challenging. Different reconstruction methods, including neural network based techniques, will be evaluated in this project to increase the temporal resolution of the phase contrast micro-CT. A Monte Carlo ray tracing simulation (McXtrace) was used to generate a large dataset to train the neural network, in order to address the issue that neural networks require large amount of training data to get high-quality reconstructions.

Keywords: micro-ct, neural networks, reconstruction, speckle-based x-ray phase contrast

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Authors: Wael Elkholy, Ashraf Sakr, Mahmoud Qandeel, Adam Elkholy

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Lumbar disc herniation is a common pathology that may cause significant low back pain and radicular pain that could profoundly impair daily life activities of individuals. Patients who undergo surgical treatment for lumbar disc herniation usually present with radiculopathy along with low back pain (LBP) instead of radiculopathy alone. When discectomy is performed, improvement in leg radiating pain is observed due to spinal nerve irritation. However, long-term LBP due to degenerative changes in the disc may occur postoperatively. In addition, limited research has been reported on the short-term (within 1 year) improvement in LBP after discectomy. In this study we would like to share our minimally invasive open technique for lumbar discectomy with annuloplasty and nuceloplasty as a technique for effective reduction of both axial and radicular pain.

Keywords: nucleoplasty, sinuvertebral nerve cauterization, annuloplasty, discogenic low back pain, axial pain, radicular pain, minimally invasive lumbar discectomy

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Authors: Adesola Odole, Nse Odunaiya, Samuel Adewale

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Chronic Mechanical Low Back Pain (CMLBP) is prevalent in the aging population; some studies have documented the association among pain intensity, functional disability and physical activity in the general population but very few studies in the elderly. This study was designed to investigate the association among pain intensity, functional disability and physical activity of elderly individuals with CMLBP in the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, Nigeria and also to determine the difference in physical activity, pain intensity and functional disability between males and females. A total of 96 participants diagnosed with CMLBP participated in this cross-sectional survey. They were conveniently sampled from selected units in the UCH, Ibadan, Nigeria. Data on sex, marital status, occupation and duration of onset of pain of participants were obtained from the participants. The Physical Activity Scale for the Elderly, Visual Analogue Scale and Oswestry Disability Questionnaire were used to measure the physical activity, pain intensity and functional disability of the participants respectively. Data was analysed using Spearman correlation, independent t-test; and α was set at 0.05. Participants (25 males, 71 females) were aged 69.64±7.43 years. The majority (76.0%) of the participants were married, and over half (55.2%) were retirees. Participants’ mean pain intensity score was 5.21±2.03 and mean duration of onset of low back pain was 63.63 ± 90.01 months. The majority (67.6%) of the participants reported severe to crippled functional disability. Their mean functional disability was 46.91 ± 13.99. Participants’ mean physical activity score was 97.47 ± 82.55. There was significant association between physical activity and pain intensity (r = -0.21, p = 0.04). There was significant association between physical activity and functional disability (r = -0.47, p = 0.00). Male (87.26 ± 79.94) and female (101.07 ± 83.71) participants did not differ significantly in physical activity (t = 0.00, p = 0.48). In addition, male (5.48 ± 2.06) and female (5.11 ± 2.02) participants’ pain intensity were comparable (t = 0.26, p = 0.44). There was also no significant difference in functional disability (t = 0.05, p = 0.07) between male (42.56 ±13.85) and female (48.45 ± 13.81) participants. It can be concluded from this study that majority of the elderly individuals with chronic mechanical low back pain had a severe to crippled functional disability. Those who reported increased physical activity had reduced pain intensity and functional disability. Male and female elderly individuals with chronic mechanical low back pain are comparable in their pain intensity, functional disability, and physical activity. Elderly individuals with CMLBP should be educated on the importance of participating in physical activity which could reduce their pain symptoms and improve functional disability.

Keywords: elderly, functional disability, mechanical low back pain, pain intensity, physical activity

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Authors: Barham J. Nareeman, Ilham I. Mohammed

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Excavations in urban developed area are generally supported by deep excavation walls such as; diaphragm wall, bored piles, soldier piles and sheet piles. In some cases, these walls may be braced by internal braces or tie back anchors. Tie back anchors are by far the predominant method for wall support, the large working space inside the excavation provided by a tieback anchor system has a significant construction advantage. This paper aims to analyze a deep excavation bracing system of contiguous pile wall braced by pre-stressed tie back anchors, which is a part of a huge residential building project, located in Turkey/Gaziantep province. The contiguous pile wall will be constructed with a length of 270 m that consists of 285 piles, each having a diameter of 80 cm, and a center to center spacing of 95 cm. The deformation analysis was carried out by a finite element analysis tool using PLAXIS. In the analysis, beam element method together with an elastic perfect plastic soil model and Soil Hardening Model was used to design the contiguous pile wall, the tieback anchor system, and the soil. The two soil clusters which are limestone and a filled soil were modelled with both Hardening soil and Mohr Coulomb models. According to the basic design, both soil clusters are modelled as drained condition. The simulation results show that the maximum horizontal movement of the walls and the maximum settlement of the ground are convenient with 300 individual case histories which are ranging between 1.2mm and 2.3mm for walls, and 15mm and 6.5mm for the settlements. It was concluded that tied-back contiguous pile wall can be satisfactorily modelled using Hardening soil model.

Keywords: deep excavation, finite element, pre-stressed tie back anchors, contiguous pile wall, PLAXIS, horizontal deflection, ground settlement

Procedia PDF Downloads 226

Authors: Royan Dawud Aldian, Endah Purwanti, Soegianto Soelistiono

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In this research we have been developed an automatic investigation to classify normal children voice or autistic by using modern computation technology that is computation based on artificial neural network. The superiority of this computation technology is its capability on processing and saving data. In this research, digital voice features are gotten from the coefficient of linear-predictive coding with auto-correlation method and have been transformed in frequency domain using fast fourier transform, which used as input of artificial neural network in back-propagation method so that will make the difference between normal children and autistic automatically. The result of back-propagation method shows that successful classification capability for normal children voice experiment data is 100% whereas, for autistic children voice experiment data is 100%. The success rate using back-propagation classification system for the entire test data is 100%.

Keywords: autism, artificial neural network, backpropagation, linier predictive coding, fast fourier transform

Procedia PDF Downloads 427

Authors: Seyedeh Nahal Sadiri, Ardalan Shariat

Abstract:

Developing flexibility, by using pilates, would be useful for karate players by reducing the stiffness of muscles and tendons. This study aimed to determine the effects of 12-week pilates training on flexibility, and level of perceived exertion of back muscles among karate players. In this experimental study, 29 male karate players (age: 16-18 years) were randomized to pilates (n=15), and control (n=14) groups and the assessments were done in baseline and after 12-week intervention. Both groups completed 12-week of intervention (2 hours of training, 3 times weekly). The experimental group performed 30 minutes pilates within their warm-up and preparation phase, where the control group only attended their usual karate training. Digital backward flexmeter was used to evaluate the trunk extensors flexibility, and digital forward flexmeter was used to measure the trunk flexors flexibility. Borg CR-10 Scale was also used to determine the perceived exertion of back muscles. Independent samples t-test and paired sample t-test were used to analyze the data. There was a significant difference between the mean score of experimental and control groups in the level of backward trunk flexibility (P < 0.05), forward trunk flexibility (P < 0.05) after 12-week intervention. The results of Borg CR-10 scale showed a significant improvement in pilates group (P < 0.05). Karate instructors, coaches, and athletes can integrate pilates exercises with karate training in order to improve the flexibility, and level of perceived exertion of back muscles.

Keywords: pilates training, karate players, flexibility, Borg CR-10

Procedia PDF Downloads 141

Authors: Oanthata Jester Sealetsa, Richie Moalosi

Abstract:

Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSDs) are reported to be amongst the leading contributing factors of low productivity in many industries across the world, and the most affected being New Emerging Economies (NEC) such as Botswana. This is due to lack of expertise and resources to deal with existing ergonomics challenges. This study was aimed to evaluate occupational postures and the prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders among diamond polishers in a diamond company in Botswana. A case study was conducted with about 106 diamond polishers in Gaborone, Botswana. A case study was chosen because it can investigate and explore an issue thoroughly and deeply, and record behaviour over time so changes in behaviour can be identified. The Corlett and Bishop Body Map was used to determine frequency of MSDs symptoms in different body parts of the workers. This was then followed by the use of the Rapid Entire Body Assessment (REBA) to evaluate the occupational postural risks of MSDs. Descriptive statistics, chi square, and logistic regression were used for data analysis. The results of the study reveal that workers experienced pain in the upper back, lower back, shoulders, neck, and wrists with the most pain reported in the upper back (44.6%) and lower back (44.2%). However, the mean REBA score of 6.07 suggests that sawing, bruiting and polishing were the most dangerous processes in diamond polishing. The study recommends that a redesign of the diamond polishing workstations is necessary to accommodate the anthropometry characteristic of Batswana (people from Botswana) to prevent the development of MSDs.

Keywords: assessment, Botswana, diamond polishing, ergonomics, musculoskeletal disorders, occupational postural risks

Procedia PDF Downloads 159

Authors: Tinu Rose Francis, S. Wilkinson, Y. Chang-Richards, S. Mannakkara

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The objective of this paper is to assess the implementation of Build Back Better (BBB) propositions for disaster risk reduction in the natural environment with regard to greater Christchurch, New Zealand, after the 2010–2011 earthquakes in the region. A set of indicators was established to analyse the extent of recovery attained in Christchurch. Disaster recovery in the region is an ongoing process, which gives us the opportunity to rate the progress made so far. Disasters cause significant damage to the built, social and economic environments and also have severe consequences for the natural environment. Findings show that greater Christchurch has made important progress and implemented a comprehensive natural environment recovery plan. The plan addresses the restoration of biodiversity, natural resources, disaster waste management and amenity values in greater Christchurch. This paper also surveys the risk reduction actions being implemented with regard to the natural environment. The findings of this study will help governing bodies to identify and fill the gaps in their natural environment recovery plans.

Keywords: build back better (BBB), natural environment, planning, recovery, reconstruction, resilience, risk reduction

Procedia PDF Downloads 353

Authors: Ahmed N. Shmroukh

Abstract:

This study examined a new solar still equipped with a movable inclined back, and this back is covered with a wick for seawater desalination. The tested backside inclination angles were 105, 125 and 160, respectively. The wick helped in increasing the seawater evaporation rate by increasing the evaporation surface area allowed for seawater in the still basin. The proposed modified solar still was compared with the conventional simple still. The results showed that the daily produced desalinated water of the modified solar still with angles 105, 125 and 160 increased by approximately 13.7%, 27.9%, and 39.2%, respectively, compared with the conventional solar still.

Keywords: solar still, inclined still, porous materials, Wick

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Authors: Chia-Hao Chang, Geng-Gui Wang, Jee-Cheng Wu

Abstract:

The prediction of a landslide is a difficult task because it requires a detailed study of past activities using a complete range of investigative methods to determine the changing condition. In this research, first step, LiDAR 1-meter by 1-meter resolution of digital elevation model (DEM) was used to generate six environmental factors of landslide. Then, back-propagation neural networks (BPNN) was adopted to identify scarp, landslide areas and non-landslide areas. The BPNN uses 6 environmental factors in input layer and 1 output layer. Moreover, 6 landslide areas are used as training areas and 4 landslide areas as test areas in the BPNN. The hidden layer is set to be 1 and 2; the hidden layer neurons are set to be 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8; the learning rates are set to be 0.01, 0.1 and 0.5. When using 1 hidden layer with 7 neurons and the learning rate sets to be 0.5, the result of Network training root mean square error is 0.001388. Finally, evaluation of BPNN classification accuracy by the confusion matrix shows that the overall accuracy can reach 94.4%, and the Kappa value is 0.7464.

Keywords: digital elevation model, DEM, environmental factors, back-propagation neural network, BPNN, LiDAR

Procedia PDF Downloads 112