Abstract Archive

Botulinum toxin type A (BTX-A) is widely used for spasticity management in cerebral palsy. However, recent animal experiments indicate more involved effects of BTX-A on muscular mechanics than just weakening of the injected muscle. Acutely, BTX-A was shown to elevate passive forces and decrease leng...

Notwithstanding decades of research, predictions from the existing muscle models on eccentric contraction remain elusive. This study aimed to test the possibility that a relatively simple phenomenological muscle model, based on an adapted Hill-type muscle model with some novel assumptions, can captu...

Arm injuries in baseball pitchers are highly prevalent at all levels of the sport. By utilizing wearable inertial measurement units (IMUs), we aim to develop a day-to-day monitoring system that can quantify player-specific variations in pitching mechanics to enable more precise pitching workload pro...

Elliptical chainrings have been designed to manipulate the radius as a function of crank angle, consequently altering the crank angular velocity profile experienced through the pedal cycle. We tested chainrings with varying levels of eccentricity and crank orientations to drive a musculoskeletal mod...

A cadaver model was utilized to determine operating muscle lengths of the infraspinatus, teres minor, and subscapularis through the internal-external rotation range of motion before and after implantation of reverse shoulder arthroplasty (RSA) components with a lateralized glenosphere. All three mus...

This study characterized macroscopic cortical bone material properties and porosity in severe osteogenesis imperfecta (OI). Specimens were from long bone diaphyses of three children with severe OI and five controls of typically developing pediatric bone. They were machined into miniature beams, imag...

With future applications of torso electromyograms (EMG) to control dexterous robotic devices in vision, the static contraction of several torso muscles was characterized during EMG-based target-matching contractions in healthy young adults. The resulting data provided empirical bases upon which indi...

This study investigated the classification of muscle activation patterns (MAP) during normal walking and while performing a cognitive task using artificial neural networks. The MAPs were successfully classified (average classification rate = 92.2%), indicating a systematic difference between single ...

The talar articular surface was divided into medial and lateral areas. Three force reaction elements were embedded in each area to calculate the contact force in the tibiotalar joint. Walking data of normal and flatfoot were measured using motion capture, force plate, and pressure mat. We performed ...

Many athletes who perform jumping movements in their sport wear a prophylactic ankle brace as an injury preventative measure. However, it has been theorized that stabilization at the ankle joint may cause excessive frontal plane knee angle and moment in females. Limited research has examined the fro...

We used a simple musculoskeletal model to determine the ability of an elastic ankle exoskeleton to restore older adult locomotion performance to that of young adults. We found that exoskeleton stiffness (kexo) values greater than 10% of young adult Achilles tendon stiffness (kten*) can reduce the me...

Stair navigation is a risky task for older adults and people with balance disorders. In this study, we evaluated the effect of stair nosing design and handrail use on centre-of-mass (COM) control during ascent and descent. COM anterior displacement was affected by stair nosing, while handrail use de...

Load carriage is an essential component of combat related roles in military populations. Warfighters are regularly required to walk at velocities more routinely associated with running, known as forced marching (FM). There is a paucity of research regarding the effects of FM on knee total joint mome...

The purpose of the study was to investigate the effect of mechanical loading on serum biomarker concentrations of articular cartilage in relation to knee joint mechanics. Thirty minutes of moderate running exercise caused an increase in all analyzed serum biomarker concentrations. However, no direct...

Tracking Soldier gait parameters in the field using a non-obtrusive, shin mounted inertial measurement unit (IMU) may provide increased insight into metrics related to performance and/or injury potential relative to lab-based measurements. However, until recently, wearable sensors lacked the appropr...

It is of interest for health professionals to automatically classify and diagnose diabetic neuropathy (DPN) patients. Therefore, in this study, we initially propose a machine learning based tool capable of discriminating healthy from DPN individuals using motor data from surface electromyography sig...

Total knee arthroplasty (TKA) candidates are demographically and biomechanically heterogeneous and can be well characterized by four cluster phenotypes related to functional improvement post-TKA. Cluster profiling can support triaging and developing osteoarthritis (OA) treatment and surgical strateg...

Finite Element (FE) modeling can be used to simulate knee joint mechanics and estimate failure sites. Computed tomography (CT) has been underused in the model generation due to difficulties in soft tissue visualisation and consequent segmentation; hence, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has been the...

This study compared the MilestonePod (MSP) wireless running sensor to a fully instrumented treadmill (FIT) in measuring average vertical loading rate (AVLR), ground contact time (GCT), cadence, and stride length. MSP data from treadmill was also compared to MSP data during outdoor overground running...

We used a robotic gait simulator to calibrate and validate the in situ relationship between squared shear wave speed and axial stress in cadaveric Achilles tendons. We first performed isometric plantarflexion simulations at multiple ankle angles to assess linearity and posture-dependence, and to est...

Impact sound has been suggested to be an auditory feedback to modify footstrike pattern with an intention to reduce the vertical loading rates and injury risk in runners. However, the isolated effect of a change in footstrike pattern on the impact sound and vertical loading rates remains unclear. Th...

Cervical spine loads associated with non-injurious physical activities that involve notably asymmetrical coronal motion of the head and neck have not to date been reported in the literature. In the current study, three-dimensional forces and moments are calculated at the upper cervical spine from th...

Kinematic and electromyography data were collected from nine participants with transtibial amputation (TTA) while walking over ground using a powered and a non-powered prosthesis. Peak EMG amplitude of the major thigh muscles was compared across prostheses and sides. There was no significant effect ...

This research examined the changes in gait throughout loaded military march. Data on pace, step length, stance time, and cadence were collected in the field during a dismounted military movement. The results showed that all gait metrics tended to decline with fatigue until approximately 65% completi...

This study characterized trunk motor control strategies in subjects with low back pain (LBP) using a goal-directed, unstable sitting task assessing feedforward (motor planning) and feedback control of the lumbopelvic system. Center of pressure (COP)-based outcomes suggested that feedforward strategi...

Low back pain (LBP) remains a critical issue in primary care. Currently, clinical practitioners rely on subjective measures/questionnaires to categorize LBP patients to pursue specific treatment regimens. However, the need for new objective scales to assess the level of patients’ prognosis risk is...

Immediate mobilization shows neuromuscular benefits, but lengthening of Achilles tendon (AT) could be a devastating problem. Here we describe the AT angle of clinical failure (CF) during cyclical mobilization in human cadaveric specimens that were repaired using the Dresden technique. Eight lower li...

This study aimed to determine the breakpoints in superficial electromyography (sEMG) signal during a maximal incremental skating test (IT) and compare them to the first (VT1) and second (VT2) ventilatory threshold. Ten well-trained long track speed skaters performed a maximal incremental skating tes...

While body-powered prostheses are the preferred devices following transradial limb loss, the compensatory strategies they elicit are currently not well understood. This study aims to identify at which upper body joints compensation occurs. Based on the findings, body-powered prosthesis users compens...