The Effect of Upper Extremity Immobilization Following Surgical Rotator Cuff Repair on Balance in Elderly Individuals

The purpose of this study was to determine if a relationship exists between upper extremity immobilization following surgical rotator cuff repair and balance in elderly individuals. Twenty-eight healthy volunteers (nine with rotator cuff repair, nineteen without) aged 53 to 74 participated in the study. Balance was measured using the Berg Balance Measure, Modified Berg Balance Measure, Functional Reach Test, and force plate analysis. Results were analyzed using t-tests for paired and independent samples, Mann Whitney U (Wilcoxon Rank Sum W) tests and Wilcoxon Matched-Pairs Signed- Ranks tests. Significant differences were found between the post-rotator cuff surgery and control groups for performance on the Berg (p=0.0125) and Modified Berg (p=0.019, p=0.0120), as well as between the sling and no-sling block for two measures of posterior maximal lean (p=0.0249, p=0.0179). Results suggest that long and short term immobilization have some effect on balance. A need for balance training may exist in this population

A Process To Credential The Registered Nurse As First Assistant During Surgery

The evolution of contemporary medical practice over the past 30 years is extraordinary. This researcher has observed medical practitioners with many years of preparation in the role as first assistant to the surgeon. When phrases as cost effective and cost containment were verbalized it was obvious radical changes were to be made. As time went by non-physicians were employed as first assistants. These individuals attained certification by going through rigorous training programs for surgical assistants. Registered nurses were assigned to assist the surgeons in surgery. An on-the-job training was taking place. Unfortunately, only the practical application of surgical assisting was being emphasized with little or no theory being taught. This practicum is designed to credential those professionals as first assistants. Appendices include first assistant survey by state, affiliation agreement, RN first assistant study guide, pre/post test, and evaluation tools

Causes, Prevention and Care of Athletic Injuries

This is a study of athletic injuries, their prevention, causes and cure. Athletic injuries as used in this paper refer to any injury brought about by contact or non-contact sports which hampers one\u27s ability to per-form effectively. Naturally these injuries are not peculiar only to athletics but this study limits itself to that area. The writer has used a rather broad definition of athletic injuries, this is so because injuries of this nature are many in both type and number. It is desired that this study will help to make clear the factors which affect maximum performance

Thermal Performance Analysis Of The Liquid Cooling And Ventilation Garment (LCVG) With Respect To Tubing Geometry

The technology of a liquid-cooled garment allows astronauts to complete extravehicular activities while maintaining a degree of thermal comfort. The garment has gone largely unchanged despite advancements in technology, materials, and knowledge. This research examines possible advancements in thermal efficiency with an alternate tubing geometry through heat transfer rate calculations. A semi-circle cross-section was selected and compared against the current circular cross-section tubing. Each tubing cross-section was 3-D printed and integrated into forearm sleeves. For comparison, the assembly of each sleeve resembled the current Liquid Cooling and Ventilation Garment used with the Extravehicular Mobility Unit. Subjects wore the forearm sleeves while water at 25 °C, 18 °C, and 10 °C flowed through the tubing. Skin surface temperatures from the four test subjects were recorded with thermocouples before and during the experiments. The data collected from this research supported the conclusion that semi-circle cross-section tubing provides an average 24.5% greater heat transfer compared to circular cross-section tubing. The ANOVA analysis suggests there is some statistical significance in the heat transfer rates between the two tubing cross-sections. Further data analysis implies that the semi-circle cross-section tubing could provide increased thermal regulation based on a decrease in skin temperature

Osteopathic Technic

A brief summary of the principles of Osteopathy, this book is a fitting introduction..Its philosophy rests on axioms; its practice on facts; its profession and its history on success. The axioms on which its philosophy is founded are: I. Everything composed of mechanical parts is subject to disorder among those parts. From this axiom there is no appeal. There is no exception to it. The solar system is not an exception, the eye of the beetle is not an exception, and the human body is not an exception. A corollary of this axiom is that the greater the number of parts, the more frequent should be disorder or lesion among them ; and there are a great many different parts to the human body. II. If anything depends on the order, then that thing will be deranged by the disorder. From the very first inadvertent experiment made by Dr. Still, the policy of correcting disorders was followed by good results, and was pursued only and solely for that reason. Other men seeing the good results that followed this policy insisted on being trained in it.https://digitalcommons.pcom.edu/classic_med_works/1003/thumbnail.jp

Disabling Poetics: Bodily Otherness and the Saying of Poetry

Vol. 1 Defecting: Poems : Major Creative Work -- Vol. 2 Disabling Poetics: Bodily Otherness and the Saying of Poetry : ExegesisThis thesis – entitled, “Disabling Poetics: Bodily Otherness and the Saying of Poetry” – consists of a four-chapter exegesis and a major creative work consisting of eighty poems. Together, they examine the intimate connections between bodily otherness and poetry, both forms of encounter and disruption. The exegesis begins by establishing a philosophical framework on otherness and on poetry. It elaborates on Emmanuel Levinas's writings on the Other, and brings them into conversation with critical disability theory. I argue that the Other can only be known through their disfigured embodiment, but also that this disfiguring arises from within the encounter as much as the body itself. I then adapt Levinas's distinction between 'the saying' and 'the said', in order to position poetry as a form of writing which is able to amplify this saying. While Levinas has certain suspicions regarding poetry, I argue that these are disabled by the voice of the Other within his own writing, and that poetry is premised on interruption and deformity. The exegesis goes on to discuss a series of recent poems, most of them by Australian poets – both in terms of the dynamic of their encounters with the Other and the detail of their poetic techniques. Chapter three examines poems that depict public encounters with disabled people. These poems uncomfortably acknowledge our impulse to stare, while to varying degrees turning that gaze back upon the reader, thus emphasising the defects in our ability to genuinely see the Other. Chapter four examines how caesurae can open up a space for the Other to appear. By defining the caesura expansively, I show how the ruptures or silences of these poems are not empty, but are in fact reflections and amplifications of the disruptiveness of our encounter with the Other. The poems written for the thesis, titled Defecting, engage with bodily otherness in a variety of ways, both in terms of content, voice and formal approach. While some poems engage with aspects of bodily otherness from various eras and religious traditions, others explore the contemporary milieu – including medical technology, online media and increased financial precarity. There are a number of poems that deal with unsettling extremes of embodiment and with violence against disabled people. However, many poems also emerge out of quotidian experience – illness, social encounters, ageing and love. Finally, there are many ekphrastic poems, which reflect on how bodily otherness has been treated in the visual arts, photography, theatre, the internet, as well as in other poems. These poems are arranged into four sections, which correlate with the focus of the four exegetical chapters. Broadly speaking, the poems are direct and lyrical, yet with an overt attentiveness towards the disturbances of language. The order of the poems is more associative than thematic, adding another layer of subtle disruption to the reading experience. In this way, they generate a sense of both intimacy and distance – a disabling poetics.Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Humanities, 201

A Novel Power-Efficient Wireless Multi-channel Recording System for the Telemonitoring of Electroencephalography (EEG)

This research introduces the development of a novel EEG recording system that is modular, batteryless, and wireless (untethered) with the supporting theoretical foundation in wireless communications and related design elements and circuitry. Its modular construct overcomes the EEG scaling problem and makes it easier for reconfiguring the hardware design in terms of the number and placement of electrodes and type of standard EEG system contemplated for use. In this development, portability, lightweight, and applicability to other clinical applications that rely on EEG data are sought. Due to printer tolerance, the 3D printed cap consists of 61 electrode placements. This recording capacity can however extend from 21 (as in the international 10-20 systems) up to 61 EEG channels at sample rates ranging from 250 to 1000 Hz and the transfer of the raw EEG signal using a standard allocated frequency as a data carrier. The main objectives of this dissertation are to (1) eliminate the need for heavy mounted batteries, (2) overcome the requirement for bulky power systems, and (3) avoid the use of data cables to untether the EEG system from the subject for a more practical and less restrictive setting. Unpredictability and temporal variations of the EEG input make developing a battery-free and cable-free EEG reading device challenging. Professional high-quality and high-resolution analog front ends are required to capture non-stationary EEG signals at microvolt levels. The primary components of the proposed setup are the wireless power transmission unit, which consists of a power amplifier, highly efficient resonant-inductive link, rectification, regulation, and power management units, as well as the analog front end, which consists of an analog to digital converter, pre-amplification unit, filtering unit, host microprocessor, and the wireless communication unit. These must all be compatible with the rest of the system and must use the least amount of power possible while minimizing the presence of noise and the attenuation of the recorded signal A highly efficient resonant-inductive coupling link is developed to decrease power transmission dissipation. Magnetized materials were utilized to steer electromagnetic flux and decrease route and medium loss while transmitting the required energy with low dissipation. Signal pre-amplification is handled by the front-end active electrodes. Standard bio-amplifier design approaches are combined to accomplish this purpose, and a thorough investigation of the optimum ADC, microcontroller, and transceiver units has been carried out. We can minimize overall system weight and power consumption by employing battery-less and cable-free EEG readout system designs, consequently giving patients more comfort and freedom of movement. Similarly, the solutions are designed to match the performance of medical-grade equipment. The captured electrical impulses using the proposed setup can be stored for various uses, including classification, prediction, 3D source localization, and for monitoring and diagnosing different brain disorders. All the proposed designs and supporting mathematical derivations were validated through empirical and software-simulated experiments. Many of the proposed designs, including the 3D head cap, the wireless power transmission unit, and the pre-amplification unit, are already fabricated, and the schematic circuits and simulation results were based on Spice, Altium, and high-frequency structure simulator (HFSS) software. The fully integrated head cap to be fabricated would require embedding the active electrodes into the 3D headset and applying current technological advances to miniaturize some of the design elements developed in this dissertation

Identifying The Impact of Socioeconomic Status on The Sleep Quality of Aging Adults With MCI: A Comparative Study

Aging adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) are underrepresented in built environment research, specifically studies that mainly focus on low socioeconomic status and racial minorities. Part of this thesis is a part of a larger study conducted by the Cognitive Empowerment Program that is investigating the built environment of aging adults with MCI. The aim of this thesis is multifold: first, to provide a clearer understanding of the differences in the sleep environment related to socioeconomic status in aging adults with MCI and investigate if these differences affect their sleep health. Second, this thesis also aimed to evaluate which home environment factors, such as lighting, noise, temperature, air quality and housing insecurity affect sleep health for aging adults with MCI. Lastly, this thesis aimed to empower underprivileged aging adults with MCI and give back to this community that is not represented enough in research. Affluent and underprivileged aging adults with MCI were surveyed in Atlanta Georgia, using mental health measures, cognitive health measures, sleep quality measures and a built environment survey that asks questions about their sleeping environment. This study was able to suggest an association between socioeconomic status with sleep quality, depression, and stress. The findings of this study also suggest a relationship between sleep health and the satisfaction with the current living arrangement, homeownership, wanting to move out of current living arrangement and moving frequency. Lastly, this study was also able to identify gender differences in sleep health. This study is a preliminary investigation on the home and sleeping environments of underprivileged aging adults with MCI. Since there is a lack of literature about this presented topic, future research should investigate the indoor environmental conditions and its relationship with sleep health of racial/ethnic minorities, low socioeconomic status groups, and cognitive aging adults to allow these vulnerable populations to age-in-place in their homes peacefully and independently.M.S