Back loading estimation during team handling: Is the use of only motion data sufficient?

Analyzing back loading during team manual handling tasks requires the measurement of external contacts and is thus limited to standardized tasks. This paper evaluates the possibility of estimating L5/S1 joint moments based solely on motion data. Ten subjects constituted five two-person teams and handling tasks were analyzed with four different box configurations. Three prediction methods for estimating L5/S1 joint moments were evaluated by comparing them to a gold standard using force platforms: one used only motion data, another used motion data and the traction/compression force applied to the box and one used motion data and the ground reaction forces of one team member. The three prediction methods were based on a contact model with an optimization-based method. Using only motion data did not allow an accurate estimate due to the traction/compression force applied by each team member, which affected L5/S1 joint moments. Back loading can be estimated using motion data and the measurement of the traction/compression force with relatively small errors, comparable to the uncertainty levels reported in other studies. The traction/compression force can be obtained directly with a force measurement unit built into the object to be moved or indirectly by using force platforms on which one of the two handlers stands during the handling task. The use of the proposed prediction methods allows team manual handling tasks to be analyzed in various realistic contexts, with team members who have different anthropometric measurements and with different box characteristics

Détecter et traiter les troubles comorbides aux premiers épisodes psychotiques : un levier pour le rétablissement

Objectifs Des comorbidités plus méconnues que les troubles d’utilisation de substance peuvent survenir chez les personnes vivant un premier épisode psychotique (PEP). Le présent article révise l’importance de ces comorbidités par une synthèse de la littérature, éclairée de l’expérience clinique des auteurs.Méthodes Cinq principaux groupes de comorbidités sont abordés : les troubles anxieux et obsessionnels-compulsifs, la dépression, le trouble de personnalité limite, le trouble lié aux jeux de hasard et d’argent et le trouble déficitaire de l’attention avec ou sans hyperactivité. Pour chacun de ces troubles, les données, quant à leur fréquence, leur impact sur le devenir des personnes atteintes, leur détection et leur traitement seront abordées et interprétées à la lumière de l’expérience clinique des auteurs.Résultats Ces comorbidités ont été relativement négligées par les recherches, encore plus dans le contexte spécifique des PEP. Les données qui sont disponibles suggèrent néanmoins qu’elles sont très fréquentes dans cette population. Par exemple, on estime que la prévalence du trouble d’anxiété sociale pourrait atteindre 50 % et celle du trouble obsessionnel-compulsif 13,6 %. Les manifestations de ces troubles comorbides sont parfois difficiles à dissocier de celles de la maladie ; plusieurs manifestations des psychoses pouvant être rencontrées dans ces troubles comorbides et vice versa. Par exemple, le retrait social parfois rencontré dans les troubles anxieux ou la dépression peut être confondu avec des symptômes négatifs ; les troubles de comportement résultant des croyances délirantes ou de désorganisation du comportement survenant dans la psychose peuvent mener à un diagnostic erroné de trouble de personnalité ; les symptômes psychotiques survenant dans un trouble de personnalité partagent les caractéristiques de ceux survenant dans les troubles psychotiques ; les difficultés cognitives associées à un trouble déficitaire de l’attention peuvent donner le change pour celles liées directement au trouble psychotique. Dans certains cas, le traitement antipsychotique peut contribuer à l’émergence de manifestations de ces troubles comorbides, par exemple, des troubles obsessionnels-compulsifs survenant sous clozapine, ou le trouble lié aux jeux de hasard et d’argent survenant lors d’un traitement avec un agoniste dopaminergique. Si les traitements de ces comorbidités ont été peu évalués dans le cadre des PEP, les données disponibles et l’expérience clinique suggèrent que les traitements utilisés dans d’autres populations, une fois adaptés au contexte des PEP, peuvent s’avérer efficaces.Conclusion Globalement, il y a peu de littérature portant sur ces troubles comorbides aux PEP. Pourtant, les données disponibles suggèrent qu’ils sont fréquents, que leur détection et leur traitement peuvent soutenir le rétablissement des personnes composant avec un PEP. Ainsi, il est essentiel de les prendre en compte dans une perspective de pratique d’intervention précoce axée sur le rétablissement.Objectives Comorbidities that are less well known than substance use disorders may occur in individuals experiencing a first-episode psychosis (FEP). This article reviews the importance of these comorbidities through a synthesis of the literature, informed by the authors’ clinical experience.Methods Five main groups of comorbidities are discussed: anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorders, depression, borderline personality disorder, gambling disorder and attention deficit disorder. For each of these disorders, data on their frequency, their impact on the outcome of affected individuals, their detection and treatment will be discussed and interpreted in light of the authors’ clinical experience.Results These comorbidities have been relatively neglected by research, even more so in the specific context of FEP. Nevertheless, the data that are available suggest that they are very common in this population. For example, it is estimated that the prevalence of social anxiety disorder may be as high as 50% and obsessive-compulsive disorder 13.6%. The manifestations of these comorbid disorders are sometimes difficult to dissociate from those of the illness; several manifestations of the psychoses can be encountered in these comorbid disorders and vice versa. For example, the social withdrawal sometimes encountered in anxiety disorders or depression may be confused with negative symptoms; behavioural disturbances resulting from delusional beliefs or behavioural disorganization occurring in psychosis may lead to a misdiagnosis of a personality disorder; psychotic symptoms occurring in a personality disorder share characteristics with those occurring in psychotic disorders; cognitive difficulties associated with an attention deficit disorder may give the impression of being directly related to the psychotic disorder. In some cases, antipsychotic treatment may contribute to the emergence of manifestations of these comorbid disorders, for example, obsessive-compulsive disorder occurring on clozapine, or gambling disorder occurring during treatment with a dopamine agonist. While treatments for these comorbidities have been poorly evaluated in the FEP setting, available data and clinical experience suggest that treatments used in other populations, when adapted to the FEP setting, may be effective.Conclusion Overall, there is little literature addressing these comorbid disorders in FEP. Yet, the available evidence suggests that they are common, and that their detection and treatment can support recovery in individuals coping with FEP. Thus, it is essential to consider them from a recovery-oriented early intervention practice perspective

Inertial Motion Capture-Based Estimation of L5/S1 Moments during Manual Materials Handling

Inertial motion capture (IMC) has gained popularity in conducting ergonomic studies in the workplace. Because of the need to measure contact forces, most of these in situ studies are limited to a kinematic analysis, such as posture or working technique analysis. This paper aims to develop and evaluate an IMC-based approach to estimate back loading during manual material handling (MMH) tasks. During various representative workplace MMH tasks performed by nine participants, this approach was evaluated by comparing the results with the ones computed from optical motion capture and a large force platform. Root mean square errors of 21 Nm and 15 Nm were obtained for flexion and asymmetric L5/S1 moments, respectively. Excellent correlations were found between both computations on indicators based on L5/S1 peak and cumulative flexion moments, while lower correlations were found on indicators based on asymmetric moments. Since no force measurement or load kinematics measurement is needed, this study shows the potential of using only the handler’s kinematics measured by IMC to estimate kinetics variables. The assessment of workplace physical exposure, including L5/S1 moments, will allow more complete ergonomics evaluation and will improve the ecological validity compared to laboratory studies, where the situations are often simplified and standardized

Geographic clustering of travel-acquired infections in Ontario, Canada, 2008-2020.

As the frequency of international travel increases, more individuals are at risk of travel-acquired infections (TAIs). In this ecological study of over 170,000 unique tests from Public Health Ontario's laboratory, we reviewed all laboratory-reported cases of malaria, dengue, chikungunya, and enteric fever in Ontario, Canada between 2008-2020 to identify high-resolution geographical clusters for potential targeted pre-travel prevention. Smoothed standardized incidence ratios (SIRs) and 95% posterior credible intervals (CIs) were estimated using a spatial Bayesian hierarchical model. High- and low-incidence areas were described using data from the 2016 Census based on the home forward sortation area of patients testing positive. A second model was used to estimate the association between drivetime to the nearest travel clinic and incidence of TAI within high-incidence areas. There were 6,114 microbiologically confirmed TAIs across Ontario over the study period. There was spatial clustering of TAIs (Moran's I = 0.59, p<0.0001). Compared to low-incidence areas, high-incidence areas had higher proportions of immigrants (p<0.0001), were lower income (p = 0.0027), had higher levels of university education (p<0.0001), and less knowledge of English/French languages (p<0.0001). In the high-incidence Greater Toronto Area (GTA), each minute increase in drive time to the closest travel clinic was associated with a 3% reduction in TAI incidence (95% CI 1-6%). While urban neighbourhoods in the GTA had the highest burden of TAIs, geographic proximity to a travel clinic in the GTA was not associated with an area-level incidence reduction in TAI. This suggests other barriers to seeking and adhering to pre-travel advice

2018 in review: five hot topics in tropical medicine

Abstract The year 2018 heralded many new developments in the field of tropical medicine, including licensure of novel drugs for novel indications, licensure of existing drugs for existing indications but in novel settings, and globalized outbreaks of both vector-borne and zoonotic diseases. We herein describe five top stories in tropical medicine that occurred during 2018, and illuminate the practice-changing development within each story

Genotyping Canadian Cyclospora cayetanensis Isolates to Supplement Cyclosporiasis Outbreak Investigations

Cyclospora cayetanensis is an emerging foodborne parasite that causes cyclosporiasis, an enteric disease of humans. Domestically acquired outbreaks have been reported in Canada every spring or summer since 2013. To date, investigations into the potential sources of infection have relied solely on epidemiological data. To supplement the epidemiological data with genetic information, we genotyped 169 Canadian cyclosporiasis cases from stool specimens collected from 2010 to 2021 using an existing eight-marker targeted amplicon deep (TADS) scheme specific to C. cayetanensis as previously described by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This is the first study to genotype Canadian Cyclospora cayetanensis isolates, and it focuses on evaluating the genotyping performance and genetic clustering. Genotyping information was successfully collected with at least part of one of the markers in the TADS assay for 97.9% of specimens, and 81.1% of cyclosporiasis cases met the minimum requirements to genetically cluster into 20 groups. The performance of the scheme suggests that examining cyclosporiasis cases genetically will be a valuable tool for supplementing epidemiological outbreak investigations and to minimize further infections. Further research is required to expand the number of discriminatory markers to improve genetic clustering

Salmonella Vitkin Outbreak Associated with Bearded Dragons, Canada and United States, 2021–2022

We identified 2 cases of Salmonella enterica serovar Vitkin infection linked by whole-genome sequencing in infants in Ontario, Canada, during 2022. Both households of the infants reported having bearded dragons as pets. The outbreak strain was also isolated from an environmental sample collected from a patient’s bearded dragon enclosure. Twelve cases were detected in the United States, and onset dates occurred during March 2021–September 2022 (isolates related to isolates from Canada within 0–9 allele differences by core-genome multilocus sequence typing). Most US patients (66.7%) were <1 year of age, and most (72.7%) had reported bearded dragon exposure. Hospitalization was reported for 5 (38.5%) of 13 patients. Traceback of bearded dragons identified at least 1 potential common supplier in Southeast Asia. Sharing rare serovar information and whole-genome sequencing data between Canada and the United States can assist in timely identification of outbreaks, including those that might not be detected through routine surveillance

AC133[sup]+ umbilical cord blood progenitors demonstrate rapid self-renewal and low apoptosis

Umbilical cord blood (UCB) provides immediate access to haemopoietic stem/progenitor cells (HSPC) but low cell number restricts use in full adult bone marrow reconstitution. This study investigated early ex vivo expansion kinetics of UCB AC133+ cells (2-4 x 10(4)/ml), mononuclear cells (MNC, 1-2 x 10(6)/ml) and AC133negative cells (AC133(neg), 2-4 x 10(4)/ml) in stroma-free 8 d liquid culture (fetal bovine serum-supplemented Iscove's-modified Dulbecco's medium (IMDM) with either 'K36EG'[c-Kit ligand, interleukin 3 (IL-3), IL-6, erythropoietin, granulocyte colony-stimulating factor] or 'TPOFL' (thrombopoietin, Flt-3 ligand). Cell enumeration, apoptosis assay and AC133/CD34/CD38 antigen immunophenotyping were performed at d 0, 3, 5 and 8. All three cell populations went through a proliferation lag phase between d 3 and d 5. AC133+ cells recovered better from lag phase with significantly higher fold increase (FI) when compared with MNC and AC133(neg) populations (K36EG FI: 15.04 +/- 5.46; TPOFL FI: 8.59 +/- 2.92, P < 0.05). After 8 d, populations lacking AC133+ cells were significantly more inclined to undergo apoptosis under proliferative conditions (P < 0.01). Also, when compared with K36EG, 8 d TPOFL-expanded AC133+ cells encompassed a significantly higher percentage of AC133+ and CD34+ early HSPC (K36EG: 20.50 +/- 2.36; TPOFL: 47.00 +/- 7.69; P < 0.05). In conclusion, TPOFL synergism demonstrated the potential for AC133+ HSPC ex vivo expansion inducing self-renewal, early HSPC maintenance and promoting cell survival status