Abstract Archive

This study examined the effect of abductor muscle strengthening on joint loading in patients with developmental dysplasia of the hip (DDH). Abductor strengthening reduced peak hip joint reaction force (JRF) by a maximum of 205.2 N (33.7% body weight), yet also increased anterior hip JRF.

Q-Factor (QF) refers to the frontal-plane inter-pedal distance of a bicycle or cycle ergometer. The purpose of this research was to examine the effects of increasing QF on frontal plane knee biomechanics during cycling.

Stride time variability in gait is a factor associated with falls in aging adults, especially in females. This sex difference in aging may originate from differences in motor output variability at individual joints. We analysed sagittal plane ankle, knee, and hip joint angles in gait from a large sa...

This study addressed the biomechanical effect of varying forefoot stiffness in a foot prosthesis during different ambulation tasks. The external mean ankle moment arm (EMAMA) outcome measure captures the mean dynamic effects of changes in center of pressure (CoP) that impact body dynamics. Findings ...

This study aims to understand the influence of spine modelling and marker placement on the execution of the inverse kinematics (IK) process in OpenSim. IK adjusts the model at each time step best matching the marker data while remaining kinematically feasible, correcting for experimental error. Anal...

Inter-limb leg stiffness changes during weight transfer of gait were used to evaluate the efficacy of surgical treatments on body support strategies in children with diplegic cerebral palsy (DCP). Compared to Controls, children with DCP were found to have similar linter-limb leg stiffness sharing du...

Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) and matrix metalloproteinase inhibitors (MMPIs) have been used as therapeutic options for tendinopathy. However, mixed results have been reported regarding their efficacy. We posited that the combination of these two treatment strategies would be more beneficial for healin...

Soft tissue motion can contribute to energy losses during locomotion. Energy losses due to soft tissue motion were calculated using marker arrays on the shank soft tissue during different foot strike patterns and running velocities on a group of runners. Energy losses associated with damped soft tis...

This study aimed to determine the minimal amount of pressure sensors for the estimation accuracy of vertical ground reaction force (vGRF) in gait tasks. Ten healthy males walked and ran at self-selected speeds. Eight different layouts with different amounts of sensors (3-17 sensors) were established...

Patellofemoral (PF) pain is a common running injury where PF joint stress has been implicated. Using a musculoskeletal model, we examined how PF joint stress is influenced in running with and without 9 kg of added load at a set running speed. PF joint stress increased 10% which was attributed to a 1...

Postural control deficits have been shown to exist up to one month following concussion. Although post-concussion postural control deficits have been studied extensively, less is known regarding the effects of participation in contact sports, characterized by repetitive head impacts (RHI), has on po...

Load carriage running (LCR) is a common activity for military personnel and is associated with a high incidence of tibial stress fracture (TSF). Select biomechanical variables have been linked to TSF but the effect of LCR on these variables is unknown. In this study, we observed higher loading rates...

This study evaluated the lifting kinematics and muscle activation for an occupational lifting task before and after a three-hour simulated driving task. No changes in upper body lifting kinematics were found however, there were significant differences in maximum and mean percent muscle activation le...

The magnitude and complexity of skeletal muscle force variability has been shown to change e.g. with different force levels [1], with fatigue [1], and with ageing. The purpose of this study was to use motor unit models to determine how the location of noise inputs affect variability at different act...

It is well known that the force production of the muscle is history-dependent. The steady-state isometric force following an active shortening or lengthening contraction is smaller (force depression) or greater (residual force enhancement) compared to an isometric reference contraction. However, it ...

Studies showed that a constant forward traction force applied at the waist can reduce metabolic cost. However, there is limited information about the effects of non-constant forces. Our aim was to investigate the effects of timing and magnitude of different forward force profiles on metabolic cost. ...

Rotator cuff pathology is the most common cause of shoulder pain, specifically shoulder impingement syndrome (SIS). SIS is commonly associated with changes in the glenohumeral and scapulothoracic movement patterns, suggesting dysfunction in the muscular activation order. The aims were to determine t...

External transducers have the potential to serve as practical surrogates for bone load estimates both in and outside the lab. This study examined the relationship between modelled tibia stress estimates during running using subject-specific tibial geometry with ground reaction force (GRF) and tibial...

Controlled micromotion between bone fragments is a vital component of fracture healing. Distal femur fractures are stabilized using locking plates and the functional stiffness of this construct is sensitive to implant geometry, material, and bridge span (the distance between screws crossing the frac...

We examined the effects of the ankle and metatarsophalangeal (MTP) joint angles on the length, thickness and stiffness of the human plantar fascia (PF) using magnetic resonance imaging and ultrasound shear wave elastography. We revealed that the ankle and MTP joint angles affected the length of PF, ...

While several biomechanical factors have been identified as key determinants of running economy (i.e. metabolic cost) [1], the influence of individual mechanical factors such as center of mass (CoM) vertical motion remains unclear. The purpose of this study was to determine how manipulating CoM vert...

We determined how use of a pediatric prosthetic foot affects 3D hip kinematics in toddlers with transtibial amputations (TTAs). We compared 3D hip joint kinematics in the affected leg (AL) of toddlers with a TTA using a standard prosthetic foot to their unaffected leg (UL) and to both legs of non-am...

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of inclined walking on muscle activation level of biceps femoris (BF), soleus (SOL), and tibialis posterior (TP). Subjects included 28 able-bodied volunteers walked at the level and inclined self-paced instrumented treadmill. Uphill walking increa...

The influence of subtalar arthrodesis on the anteroposterior stiffness and laxity of the talocrural joint was studied in vitro. Six fresh-frozen ankle specimens with soft tissues removed following standard specimen preparation procedure were tested by a robot-based joint testing system (RJTS) which ...

Visual biofeedback was provided to patient who had sustained multi-ligamentous knee injury with tibiofemoral dislocation over the course of 20 sessions across the final 12 weeks of 15 months of rehabilitation. Changes in vertical loading symmetry during jumping and landing tasks were noted with impr...

We developed a novel, multiple-input single-output, closed-loop, parametric identification method to quantify the EMG-torque relations for central controller and stretch reflex contributions to human postural control. Our results demonstrated that the relation for the reflex pathway has higher bandw...

We investigated if ultrasound image (US) brightness could be used as a surrogate measure of force in 2 quadricep muscles during gait. We hypothesized that higher speeds would have higher correlations between brightness and ground reaction force (GRF). We found that the preferred speed (PS) had the l...

Using indirect calorimetry, we can measure the average cost of a stride cycle but we cannot identify which phase has the highest metabolic cost (e.g. in patients). Recent simulation methods allow estimating the time profile of metabolic cost within the stride cycle. In this study, we compare the est...