Strength of Plantar- and Dorsiflexors Mediates Step Regularity During a High Cognitive Load Situation in a Cross-sectional Cohort of Older and Younger Adults

Background and Purpose: Completing simultaneous tasks while standing or walking (ie, a high cognitive load situation [HCLS]) is inevitable in daily activities and can lead to interference in task performances. Age-related physical and cognitive changes may confound performance variability during HCLS in older and younger adults. Identification of these confounding effects may reveal therapy targets to maintain optimal physical function later in life. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of increasing the difficulty levels of an additional motor task and restricting visual information, on gait parameters in younger and older adults while considering the effect of cognitive and physical covariates. Methods: Fifteen healthy younger and 14 healthy older adults were asked to complete assessments of cognitive function, balance, and strength. They were then asked to walk on a self-paced treadmill with or without carrying a plastic tray. Opaqueness of the tray (vision) and the presence of water in glasses placed on the tray (increasing task difficulty) were varied. Mean, standard deviation, and regularity (sample entropy) of step width and length were compared across conditions and groups using repeated-measures analyses of variance with and without covariate analysis. Only significantly correlated covariates of cognition, balance, and strength were entered into each model. Results and Discussion: Older adults had greater step width irregularity compared with younger adults across all conditions when controlling for concentric plantar- and dorsiflexion strength. A decline in strength may likely alter neuromuscular control of gait, specifically control of step width, which has been associated with fall risk in older adults. Adjusting for the same covariates revealed increased regularity of step length, as visual feedback from the feet was restricted. Specifically, step length was more regular while carrying an opaque tray compared with not carrying a tray. Visual restriction was a contributing factor, which led to more predictable gait kinematics, indicating the role of sensory information to enhance the adaptability during walking under HCLS. Conclusion: The knowledge of the regularity behavior of human movement can expand physical therapists\u27 treatment approaches to promote further interactivity and coordination across body systems that model behavior of healthy young individuals. Targeting strength during therapy may provide additional benefits for gait performance under HCLS

Churg-Strauss syndrome following cessation of allergic desensitization vaccination: a case report

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>Churg-Strauss syndrome is a vasculitis of medium to small sized vessels. Diagnosis is mainly clinical with findings of asthma, eosinophilia, rhinosinusitis and signs of vasculitis in major organs.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>We present a case of a 19-year-old Persian male who developed signs and symptoms of this syndrome related to hyposensitization treatments for allergy control.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>No unifying etiology for the disease can be presented as it is found associated with environmental factors, medications, infections and is even considered a variant of asthma with predisposition to vasculitic involvement. Therefore, it is important to recognize this disease and be aware of underdiagnosis because of emphasis on pathologic evidence. Here, we present a case of allergic desensitization causing Churg-Strauss syndrome in the absence of other known factors.</p

Enhanced Fertility after Diagnostic Hysterosalpingography in Unexplained Infertility

Introduction: Infertility is a common complication present in 10-15% of the population. It causes serious problems for the family. There are different methods for evaluation and treatment of infertility. One of the routine tests is hysterosalpingography that was first used in1922 and with changes in types of contrast media and its techniques, it is the primary test for simultaneous evaluation of tube, uterus body and cervix. Methods: This descriptive clinical outcome study was carried out on the base of a case series study. The study was performed on 117 patients who referred for HSG procedure and were followed for 2 years for detection of pregnancy. Data was analyzed by SPSS.14, and statistical tests included student’s t-test, chi-square and Fisher exact test. Results: The mean age of patients was 26±4.7 years. Duration of infertility was 6 years. Of the total, 98(83.8%) cases had one or both patent tubes on HSG. They didn’t have any established causes of infertility after scrutiny of other findings and 51(43.6%) cases became pregnant during 2 years (CI=95%,34.6-52.6%). Notable point was that 86.3% of pregnancies occurred in the first 6-months after HSG procedure. Conclusion: HSG plays a significant role in infertility diagnosis and treatment in spite of the new techniques and methods for infertility diagnosis and treatment; so follow up and control of patient for 6 months after HSG is recommended. If HSG fails, other procedures such as laparoscopy can be done

Dynamic stability of human walking during perturbed conditions

Imposing a perturbation can induce an unstable condition during gait. Measuring the compensatory responses may be an accurate indicator of the ability to control stability. Responses to a perturbation can be quantified through the perturbed walking pattern deviations from an unperturbed condition, and the rate of return towards the unperturbed walking pattern. This study aims to determine the effect of perturbation magnitude or speed of walking on compensatory responses to medial and lateral perturbations during walking. Fifteen healthy young participants will be perturbed with the medium magnitude of perturbation (5 cm, 0.98 m/s, 0.88 m/s2), while walking on the treadmill at three different speeds (slow, preferred, and fast). They also will walk on the treadmill at their preferred speed while perturbed with three different magnitudes of perturbation (small, medium, large). All perturbations will be delivered as a platform translation toward the walker’s left side at right heel contact (medial) and toward the walker’s left side at left heel contact (lateral). The impulse to the participant is analyzed using the integral of the ground reaction force result vector. The response to the perturbation can be divided into two compensatory phases: 1) (resistance) and 2) recovery phase. It is expected that Increasing walking speed will improve resistance to the perturbation while decreasing the performance in the recovery phase of the compensatory response. Increasing perturbation magnitudes is assumed to negatively affect recovery compensatory responses while resistance to the perturbation will remain unchanged

Effects of Natural Aging Treatment on Mechanical, Microstructural and Forming Properties of Al 2024 Aluminum Alloy Sheets

In this study, the microstructural variations, mechanical properties and forming limit diagrams (FLD) of Al 2024 aluminum alloy sheet with the thickness of 0.81mm are investigated during natural ageing (T4) treatment. The most formability in Al 2024 can be achieved just after solution treatment, and it is better to perform the forming process, on this aluminum alloy sheet, in this condition. However, in industrial applications, there is usually a postponement for some hours after solution treatment to begin the forming process that it means the forming process should be done at the natural ageing condition. This condition decreases the formability of Al 2024 sheets. To monitor the properties variations in natural ageing condition, FLDs are determined after specific times (e.g., 0.5, 1.5, 4 and 24 hours). The variations in micro-hardness, yield strength, ultimate tensile strength and elongation at break are observed with changing the ageing time. The scanning electron microscope (SEM) investigations illustrated that density and size of precipitates are changed with ageing time. Moreover, the Nakazima test is utilized to study the forming limits considering the natural ageing condition. Results show by increasing the ageing time, up to 4hr, the majority of properties variations could be seen, and from 4hr to 24hr, the variations are changed slower

Assessment of sick building syndrome among office workers in Shahid Sadoughi University of medical sciences in 2008

Background and aims Building associated illnesses are a group of illnesses caused by physical or psychological conditions of workplace. One of theses illnesses is sick building syndrome (SBS) which consists of a group of symptoms, including mucosal irritation, headache, fatigue, skin dryness and itching, and nausea that are temporally related to presence in a particular building. This study was designed to assess SBS and factors affecting it in central building of Shahid Sadoughi University of medical sciences.   Methods This is a cross-sectional study on workers of central building of Shahid Sadoughi University of medical sciences. The prevalence of SBS was determined using self-administered indoor air quality (IAQ) questionnaire for office workers. All workers who worked at least one year in this building and had no other medical illnesses with similar symptoms to SBS, entered the study and the questionnaire was filled out for them. Data was analyzed using chi square test.   ResultsPrevalence of SBS among the workers of central building was 35.7% (34.8% in male and 36.9% in female workers). There was no significant association between prevalence of SBS and age, gender, duration of employment and level of education. The most frequent complaints mentioned by participants were fatigue and headache, and the most frequent causes were noise, inadequate physical space and crowded work environment.   Conclusion This survey showed a relatively high prevalence of SBS among office workers in this organization. So considering the effects of SBS on workers' function and productivity, it is recommended to reduce its causes, especially noise and inadequate space