CDIO project on MaViCo heat compress for tackwondo players

Taekwondo is a traditional Korean martial arts sport which is currently practiced by many countries around the world. As claimed by the International Olympics Committee (2015), this sport made its debut in 1988 as a demonstration of Olympic sport in Korea and became an official medal sport in Sydney, Australia in the year 2000. The art of taekwondo develops posture, graceful movement, excellent coordination, and attention to detail. As a martial arts sport, taekwondo is characterized by its emphasis on dynamic techniques for taking mobile stances, speed, flexibility, and endurance in order to perform the whole process perfectly. Thus, athletes are required to have control over their shoulders, back, hips, knees, ankles, and feet when practicing this sport

Accessibility to biologics and its impact on disease activity and quality of life in patients with rheumatoid arthritis in Kuwait

Objective: Biologics are indicated in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in case of persistent high disease activity despite conventional disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (cDMARDs) or patients with contraindications to cDMARDs or poor prognostic factors. The purpose of this study was to compare the prescription rates of biologics in Kuwaiti and non-Kuwaiti patients and to assess whether this had an impact on disease activity and quality of life in RA patients. Methods: Data were extracted from the Kuwait Registry for Rheumatic Diseases. Adult patients who satisfied the ACR classification criteria for RA from four major hospitals in Kuwait were evaluated from February 2013 through May 2018. The treatment agents, disease activity, and quality of life of Kuwaiti patients were compared with non-Kuwaiti patients. Results: A total of 1651 RA patients were included; 806 (48.8%) were Kuwaiti patients. Among Kuwaiti patients, 62.5% were on biologic drugs in comparison with 14% of non-Kuwaiti patients. In comparison with non-Kuwaiti patients, Kuwaiti patients had significantly lower numbers of swollen joints (p < 0.001) and disease activity score-28 scores (p = 0.02) and less steroid use (p < 0.001) yet a significantly higher health assessment questionnaire-disability index (p < 0.001). Regression analysis showed that DAS-28 scores were significantly associated with the treatment type (p < 0.001) and that nationality was significantly predictive of the treatment type (p < 0.001). Conclusion: In the setting of easy accessibility to treatment for Kuwaiti patients, biologics were prescribed by rheumatologists at a higher rate than for non-Kuwaitis. This may explain the lower disease activity and the lower rate of steroid use in Kuwaiti patients than non-Kuwaitis. Key points: • Significant discrepancies in the rates of prescribing biologic therapies between KP and NKP in Kuwait were observed. • Several treatment outcomes were significantly better in the KP group than in the NKP group even after adjustment of confounding factors. • The poor access to biologic therapies was suggested to limit the effectiveness of RA treatments in the NKP group

Carbon disclosure and firm risk: evidence from the UK corporate responses to climate change

By considering the theoretical association between corporate transparency, information asymmetry and firm risk, this paper investigates the relationship between corporate carbon disclosure and firm risk in the UK context. Using a sample of FTSE350 firms with Carbon Disclosure Project-based year-observations from 2007 to 2015, we find that enhanced voluntary carbon disclosure reduces a firm's total, systematic, and idiosyncratic risks. We also find that this negative association is driven mainly by carbon-intensive industries. Additional tests show that carbon disclosure was not a significant determinant of a firm's risk until after the global financial crisis of 2007–2008. Our findings are of interest to stakeholders, including business managers and investors as they have considerable interest in assessing firms' survival and sustainability

Adult Spinal Deformity Surgery and Frailty: A Systematic Review.

Study designSystematic review.ObjectivesAdult spinal deformity (ASD) can be a debilitating condition with a profound impact on patients' health-related quality of life (HRQoL). Many reports have suggested that the frailty status of a patient can have a significant impact on the outcome of the surgery. The present review aims to identify all pre-operative patient-specific frailty markers that are associated with postoperative outcomes following corrective surgery for ASD of the lumbar and thoracic spine.MethodsA systematic review of the literature was performed to identify findings regarding pre-operative markers of frailty and their association with postoperative outcomes in patients undergoing ASD surgery of the lumbar and thoracic spine. The search was performed in the following databases: PubMed, Embase, Cochrane and CINAHL.ResultsAn association between poorer performance on frailty scales and worse postoperative outcomes. Comorbidity indices were even more frequently employed with similar patterns of association between increased comorbidity burden and postoperative outcomes. Regarding the assessment of HRQoL, worse pre-operative ODI, SF-36, SRS-22 and NRS were shown to be predictors of post-operative complications, while ODI, SF-36 and SRS-22 were found to improve post-operatively.ConclusionsThe findings of this review highlight the true breadth of the concept of "frailty" in ASD surgical correction. These parameters, which include frailty scales and various comorbidity and HRQoL indices, highlight the importance of identifying these factors preoperatively to ensure appropriate patient selection while helping to limit poor postoperative outcomes

Incidence of musculoskeletal pain in adult Kuwaitis using the validated Arabic version of the WHO-ILAR COPCORD core questionnaire.

<b>Background: </b>The WHO-ILAR Community Oriented Program for Control of Rheumatic Diseases (COPCORD) primarily aims to estimate the burden of musculoskeletal symptoms/disorders. We estimated the incidence of musculoskeletal pain in the first community-based COPCORD study in Kuwait. <b>Subjects and Methods: </b>The validated Arabic version of the WHOILAR COPCORD Core Questionnaire was used in a survey of 2500 randomly selected Kuwaiti households to assess the frequency of musculoskeletal pain, disability, and health-seeking behavior in adult Kuwaitis. Those subjects reporting no musculoskeletal pain were identified and followed-up for a period of one year by contacting them every 2 weeks. Once a respondent reported pain, an appointment to report to hospital was offered and the subject was examined by a rheumatologist using American College of Rheumatology (ACR) criteria. <b>Results: </b>Of 5159 adults who were non-complainers in an earlier prevalence phase of the study, 3341 responded to phone calls (response rate of 65&#x0025;). The incidence of musculoskeletal pain was 6.6&#x0025; (95&#x0025;CI, 3.4&#x0025;- 9.7&#x0025;). Age- and sex-adjusted incidence rates were 7.2&#x0025; (95&#x0025;CI, 3.4&#x0025;- 10.5&#x0025;) for females and 6.1&#x0025; (95&#x0025;CI, 3.1&#x0025;-9.2&#x0025;) for males. The incidence rate increased with increasing age, body mass index, and with being married. The common sites of pain were knee, low back and shoulder. <b>Conclusion: </b>The incidence of musculoskeletal pain among Kuwaiti adults is reported for the first time. Further studies adopting the same instrument in other communities are warranted to compare with our findings