A survey of hand anthropometry and biomechanical measurements of dentistry students in Turkey

The objectives of this study were 1) to determine various hand dimensions and biomechanics measurements for Turkish dentistry students, 2) to evaluate the differences between males and females and between the right and left hand, and 3) to compare these data with similar data for other populations (Thai, Indian, Malaysian, British, Jordanian, Nigerian, Mexican, Bangladesh, and Vietnamese). The present study was undertaken to generate hand anthropometric and biomechanics data of 92 male and 73 female students studying at dentistry faculty. Sixty-seven anthropometric and 26 biomechanics measurements were taken in both hands. The means, standard deviations, and percentile values were tabulated and compared with other populations. The results suggest that the Turkish female fingers are thinner than those of other females except Indians, and that the Turkish male fingers are wider than those of the other males. Furthermore, the results also suggest that the Turkish female strength in handgripping is greater than that of other females except British females, and the Turkish male handgrip strength is greater than that of other males except Americans. This study provides insights about Turkish hand dimensions and biomechanics; it can be a basis for future studies and the design of dental tools meant for the Turkish market. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc

Assessing the relationship between hand dimensions and manual dexterity performance for Turkish dental students

International Conference on Physical Ergonomics and Human Factors -- JUL 27-31, 2016 -- FLWOS: 000389642400047The objectives of this study included: (i) a determination of whether there is a difference in manual dexterity as a function of gender and dentistry curriculum and (ii) an assessment of hand anthropometric characteristics on manual dexterity test performance. In total, 155 dental students (86 males and 69 females) in their first, second, third, fourth, and fifth years of a five-year undergraduate program took part in the study that involved a simple manual dexterity test. We used a paired sample t-test to compare differences between males and females and among students of different years. Pearson's correlation coefficients were computed as a measure of association between parameters. The results demonstrate that anthropometric data of both hands have small but significant effects on test performance, and that small hands are associated with better test performance

Understanding the social and economic factors affecting adverse events in an active theater of war: A neural network approach

AHFE International Conference on Cross-Cultural Decision Making (CCDM) -- JUL 17-21, 2017 -- Los Angeles, CAWOS: 000451449700020This study focused on the application of artificial neural networks (ANNs) to model the effect of infrastructure development projects on terrorism security events in Afghanistan. The dataset include adverse events and infrastructure aid activity in Afghanistan from 2001 to 2010. Several ANN models were generated and investigated for Afghanistan and its seven regions. In addition to a soft-computing approach, a multiple linear regression (MLR) analysis was also performed to evaluate whether or not the ANN approach showed superior predictive performance compared to a classical statistical approach. According to the performance comparison, the developed ANN model provided better prediction accuracy with respect to the MLR approach. The results obtained from this analysis demonstrate that ANNs can predict the occurrence of adverse events according to economic infrastructure aid activity data.Office of Naval Research (ONR) [1052339]The authors are grateful for the support of the Office of Naval Research (ONR) under Grant No. 1052339, Complex Systems Engineering for Rapid Computational Socio-Cultural Network Analysis, and the helpful guidance of ONR Program Management and the technical team

A fuzzy overlay model for mapping adverse event risk in an active war theatre

WOS: 000443895900008This study discusses a series of fuzzy overlay analysis performed within a Geographic Information System (GIS) on recent adverse events throughout the war in Afghanistan. Three types of input variables are considered in terms of number of people killed, wounded and hijacked over the period 2004-2010 in order to identify the risk level in Afghanistan using fuzzy GIS approach. To conclude, most risky areas are accumulated in the eastern region of the country and major population centres. The proposed approach could enable military decision-makers to obtain a better understanding of the socio-spatial dynamic of incidents in Middle East.Office of Naval Research [10523339]This work was supported by the Office of Naval Research [grant number 10523339]

Concurrent arm swing-stepping (CASS) can reveal gait start hesitation in Parkinson’s patients with low self-efficacy and fear of falling

Background: Movement incoordination, freezing of gait, fear of falling, low self-efficacy, and multi-tasking can all contribute to falls in Parkinson’s disease. How these multi-factorial risks interact in individual patients remain poorly understood. Methods: Concurrent arm swing-stepping is a simple motor test in which subjects are first asked to swing their arms before being instructed to initiate the secondary task of leg stepping-in-place. We postulated that in patients with multiple fall risks, sensorimotor impairments in upper- and lower-limb movement control can render concurrent arm swing-stepping a demanding dual task, thereby triggering gait hesitation. A total of 31 subjects with Parkinson’s disease were enrolled in the study. Results: It was found that concurrent arm swing-stepping induced hesitation primarily in Parkinson’s disease patients with low fall-related self-efficacy and a fear of falling. By contrast, concurrent arm swing-stepping led to limb incoordination in both patients and in healthy elderly controls. The calculated specificity and sensitivity of the concurrent arm swing-stepping test was 100 and 42 % for hesitation and 12 and 77 % for incoordination. Conclusion: These results suggest that the concurrent arm swing-stepping test can be used in conjunction with conventional psychometric assessments to facilitate multi-factorial assessment of potential fall risk