Effect of the Kinesio tape to muscle activity and vertical jump performance in healthy inactive people

BACKGROUND: Elastic taping applied on the triceps surae has been commonly used to improve the performance of lower extremities. However, little objective evidence has been documented. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of elastic taping on the triceps surae during a maximal vertical jump. It was hypothesized that elastic taping to the triceps surae would increase muscle activity and cause positive effect to jump height. METHODS: Thirty-one healthy adults (19 males and 12 females with mean age, body weight and height for 25.3 ± 3.8 years old, 64.1 ± 6.2 kg, and 169.4 ± 7.3 cm, respectively) were recruited. All participants performed vertical jump tests prior to (without taping) and during elastic taping. Two elastic tapes, Kinesio tape and Mplacebo tape from two different manufacturers, were applied to the participants, respectively. RESULTS: The results showed that the vertical ground reaction force increased when Kinesio tape was applied even when the height of jump remained about constant. However, the height of the jump decreased, and there was no difference on the vertical ground reaction force in Mplacebo taping group. Although the EMG activity of medial gastrocnemius tended to increase in Kinesio taping group, we did not see differences in EMG activity for the medial gastrocnemius, tibialis anterior and soleus muscles in either group. CONCLUSIONS: Based on the varied effects of Kinesio tape and Mplacebo tape, different intervention technique was suggested for specific purpose during vertical jump movement. Mplacebo tape was demanded for the benefits of stabilization, protection, and the restriction of motion at the ankle joint. On the other hand, the findings may implicate benefits for medial gastrocnemius muscle strength and push-off force when using Kinesio tape

Direct Radiofrequency Application Improves Pain and Gait in Collagenase-Induced Acute Achilles Tendon Injury

Radiofrequency (RF) is often used as a supplementary and alternative method to alleviate pain for chronic tendinopathy. Whether or how it would work for acute tendon injury is not addressed in the literatures. Through detailed pain and gait monitoring, we hypothesized that collagenase-induce acute tendinopathy model may be able to answer these questions. Gait parameters, including time, distance, and range of motion, were recorded and analyzed using a walking track equipped with a video-based system. Expression of substance P (SP), calcitonin gene related peptide (CGRP), and galanin were used as pain markers. Beta-III tubulin and Masson trichrome staining were used as to evaluate nerve sprouting, matrix tension, and degeneration in the tendon. Of fourteen analyzed parameters, RF significantly improved stance phase, step length, preswing, and intermediary toe-spread of gait. Improved gait related to the expression of substance P, CGRP, and reduced nerve fiber sprouting and matrix tension, but not galanin. The study indicates that direct RF application may be a valuable approach to improve gait and pain in acute tendon injury. Altered gait parameters may be used as references to evaluate therapeutic outcomes of RF or other treatment plan for tendinopathy

Women with endometriosis have higher comorbidities: Analysis of domestic data in Taiwan

AbstractEndometriosis, defined by the presence of viable extrauterine endometrial glands and stroma, can grow or bleed cyclically, and possesses characteristics including a destructive, invasive, and metastatic nature. Since endometriosis may result in pelvic inflammation, adhesion, chronic pain, and infertility, and can progress to biologically malignant tumors, it is a long-term major health issue in women of reproductive age. In this review, we analyze the Taiwan domestic research addressing associations between endometriosis and other diseases. Concerning malignant tumors, we identified four studies on the links between endometriosis and ovarian cancer, one on breast cancer, two on endometrial cancer, one on colorectal cancer, and one on other malignancies, as well as one on associations between endometriosis and irritable bowel syndrome, one on links with migraine headache, three on links with pelvic inflammatory diseases, four on links with infertility, four on links with obesity, four on links with chronic liver disease, four on links with rheumatoid arthritis, four on links with chronic renal disease, five on links with diabetes mellitus, and five on links with cardiovascular diseases (hypertension, hyperlipidemia, etc.). The data available to date support that women with endometriosis might be at risk of some chronic illnesses and certain malignancies, although we consider the evidence for some comorbidities to be of low quality, for example, the association between colon cancer and adenomyosis/endometriosis. We still believe that the risk of comorbidity might be higher in women with endometriosis than that we supposed before. More research is needed to determine whether women with endometriosis are really at risk of these comorbidities

Imaging and Analysis of Single Skin Cell by Ultrahigh-Resolution Optical Coherence Tomography

超高解析光學同調斷層掃描(ultrahigh-resolution optical coherence tomography; UR-OCT)首次應用於體外單顆皮膚細胞的三維造影與分析研究上。此非侵入式、毋須標定、以及擁有極深成像與細胞等級之空間解析能力的光學偵測技術，可從三維的方式來分析單顆細胞之散射特性。基於UR-OCT影像以及細胞形態學上的觀察，我們可以很容易地辨別活的和細胞凋亡之基底癌細胞。除此之外，我們首次提出一種全新且快速之自動提取個別單顆皮膚細胞之特徵參數的方法，包含訊號平均、細胞體積、細胞密度及平均動態範圍。並藉此分析方法進行了定量比較和參數分析，其中三個特徵參數p-value小於0.05。實驗結果顯示出UR-OCT於細胞級別上具有檢測細胞死亡與否之能力。 更進一步，我們藉由圖像分割中屬於型態學影像處理之膨脹與侵蝕技術，進行一系列的影像處理，並計算出由UR-OCT拍攝的HaCaT之細胞大小和細胞核體積，進而推算出細胞核質比為0.18，非常接近螢光顯微鏡之結果。 最後，我們採用HaCaT與Hs68細胞株作為表皮中的角質細胞與真皮中的纖維母細胞代表，同樣使用自行定義之特徵參數，藉由圖像分割中的k-means聚類法，從統計學上對不同類型的皮膚細胞進行區分。我們展現了總共12顆的HaCaT與Hs68細胞可以很準確且快速地被辨別，暗示了UR-OCT於未來皮膚科臨床應用與組織工程上扮演一個重要角色。Ultrahigh-resolution optical coherence tomography (UR-OCT) has been used to study single skin cells in vitro for the first time. This non-invasive and label-free optical detection technique with deep imaging depth can be used to analyze scattering properties of single cells in three-dimensional with cellular spatial resolution. Based on morphological observation of the UR-OCT images, live and apoptotic basal cell carcinoma (BCC) can be easily identified. In addition, we developed a novel method to automatically extract the characteristic parameters which defined as signal average, cell volume, cellular density and average dynamic range of individual cells. Quantitative comparison showed that three parameters were found with p-value smaller than 0.05. The experimental results show that the ability of UR-OCT to detect cell death at cellular level. To find the nuclear-cytoplasmic ratio (N:C ratio) of single cells, we did a series of image segmentation processes by means of morphological dilation and erosion. In this way, calculated N:C ratio of single HaCaT cell was 0.18, which was very close to the observation of confocal fluorescence microscopy. Finally, the HaCaT and Hs68 cell lines were used to model epidermis and dermis respectively. We applied clustering analysis on these cells by k-means clustering method based on the characteristic parameters. We demonstrate that a total of 12 HaCaT and Hs68 cells can be distinguished very quickly and accurately, indicating that the UR-OCT will play an important role in clinical dermatology and tissue engineering in the future

Valuation of Guarantees Set Relative to Cross-Currency Stochastic Rates of Return

[[abstract]]We derive the pricing formulas for guarantees whose guaranteed minimum rates of return are set relative to cross-currency stochastic rates of return, “GCSRs” for short, via a cross-currency framework. GCSRs are often embedded in contracts which include life and pension insurance policies, guaranteed investment contracts and index-linked bonds, etc. The valuation of such guarantees has not been investigated in previous literature regarding guarantees. Our research finds that valuing GCSRs via a single-currency framework which is adopted in previous research on guarantees causes a significant underestimation of GCSRs under both maturity and multi-period guarantee. The underestimation of multi-period guarantee is much more significant than that of maturity guarantee. As a result, the pricing formulas derived in our research are more suitable, tractable and feasible for practice than those in previous relevant literature

Modulation of motor excitability by cortical optogenetic theta burst stimulation.

Intermittent theta burst stimulation (iTBS) and continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS) are protocols used in repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) or cortical electrical stimulation (CES) to facilitate or suppress corticospinal excitability. However, rTMS and CES excite all types of neuron in the target cortex probed by the coil or electrode, making it difficult to differentiate the effect of TBS on specific neural circuits involved in motor plasticity. In this study, TBS protocols were converted into an optogenetic model to achieve focalized and cell-type-specific cortical modulation. Light-sensitive channelrhodopsin-2 (ChR2) was expressed in the glutamatergic neuron in the primary motor cortex (M1) driven by the CaMKIIα promoter. A custom-made optrode comprising an optical fiber and a metal cannula electrode was fabricated to achieve optogenetic stimulation and simultaneous local field potential (LFP) recording. Single-pulse CES was delivered into M1 to elicit motor-evoked potential (MEP), which served as an indicator of motor excitability, before and after TBS intervention. Results show that both CES-iTBS and optogenetic iTBS (Opto-iTBS) can potentiate MEP activity. However, CES-cTBS suppressed MEP activity whereas Opto-cTBS enhanced it. This discrepancy may have resulted from the different neural networks targeted by the two TBS modalities, with CES-cTBS exciting all types of neuron and Opto-cTBS targeting excitatory neuron specifically. The results support the idea that intra-cortical networks determine the variation of TBS-induced neuroplasticity. This study shows that focalized and cell-type-specific brain stimulation using the optogenetic approach is viable and can be extended for further exploration of neuroplasticity