Biomechanical analysis based on a full-body musculoskeletal model for evaluating the effect of a passive lower-limb exoskeleton on lumbar load

The present study investigated the effect of a passive lower-limb exoskeleton on lumbar load and verified the effectiveness of biomechanical analysis for evaluating the physical burden while wearing the exoskeleton. Twelve healthy male participants performed an assembly task under three conditions: standing and high and low sitting while wearing the exoskeleton. We mainly analyzed the joint compression force computed using the musculoskeletal model based on measurements obtained from a motion capture system and force platform. While wearing the exoskeleton, the lumbar joint compression force increased. Analysis of the joint compression force can determine the increase in the lumbar load when wearing an exoskeleton, which is not possible using the traditional analysis of posture and muscular activity. Therefore, biomechanical analysis based on a full-body musculoskeletal model provides valuable information in evaluating the effect of the exoskeleton that attempts to prevent musculoskeletal disorders.Comment: 46 pages, 10 figure

Clinicopathological and prognostic value of transforming acidic coiled-coil-containing protein 3 (TACC3) expression in soft tissue sarcomas.

Transforming acidic coiled-coil-containing protein 3 (TACC3), a microtubule regulator, is associated with various cancers. However, the relationship between TACC3 and soft tissue sarcomas (STS) remains unclear. We investigated the expression of TACC3 in 136 STS patient samples using immunohistochemical (IHC) staining, and the statistical associations between TACC3 expression and clinicopathological characteristics were evaluated. Additionally, the expression levels of the tumor suppressor p53 and of the cell proliferation marker Ki-67 were also assessed by IHC. High TACC3 expression was detected in 94/136 of STS cases (69.1%), and significantly correlated with higher grade according to the French Fédération Nationale des Centres de Lutte Contre le Cancer system (P<0.0001), poorer tumor differentiation (P<0.0001), increased mitotic counts (P<0.0001), advanced stage per American Joint Committee on Cancer guidelines (P<0.0001), higher p53 expression (P = 0.0487), higher Ki-67 expression (P<0.0001), and undergoing postoperative therapy (P = 0.0001). Disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) of patients with high TACC3 expression were significantly shorter (P<0.0001 and P<0.0001, respectively). On multivariate analyses, high TACC3 expression was an independent negative prognostic factor for both DFS and OS (hazard ratio [HR]: 3.074; P = 0.0235 and HR: 8.521; P = 0.0415, respectively). Our results suggest that TACC3 is an independent prognostic factor and may be a novel therapeutic target for the treatment of STS

GATA3 Expression Is a Poor Prognostic Factor in Soft Tissue Sarcomas.

Recent studies have investigated the significance of GATA3 expression in patients with various malignant tumors. However, no previous studies have evaluated the clinicopathological importance of GATA3 expression in soft tissue sarcomas (STS) patients.We evaluated GATA3 expression in 76 STS cases using immunohistochemical analysis, and statistically compared clinicopathological characteristics between GATA3-positive and GATA3-negative cases.GATA3-positive expression was significantly associated with a higher mitotic count (P < 0.0001). Disease-free survival (DFS) of GATA3-positive cases was significantly shorter than that of cases without GATA3 expression (P = 0.0104). Overall survival (OS) of GATA3-positive cases was significantly shorter than that of cases without GATA3 expression (P = 0.0006). GATA3-positive expression was significantly associated with shorter DFS in both univariate analysis (hazard ratio [HR], 2.719; P = 0.012) and multivariate analysis (HR, 2.711; P = 0.014). GATA3-positive expression was also significantly associated with worse OS in both univariate analysis (HR, 5.730; P = 0.0007) and multivariate analysis (HR, 5.789; P = 0.0008).These results indicate that GATA3 is an independent prognostic factor and suggest that evaluation of GATA3 expression might enable more effective clinical follow-up using prognostic stratification of STS patients

Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses of risk factors affecting OS in STS patients.

<p>Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses of risk factors affecting OS in STS patients.</p

Histological types of STS.

<p>Histological types of STS.</p

Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses of risk factors affecting DFS in STS patients.

<p>Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses of risk factors affecting DFS in STS patients.</p

Clinicopathological characteristics of patients.

<p>Clinicopathological characteristics of patients.</p