The effectiveness of manual intervention in the management of adhesive capsulitis: a narrative review of the scientific literature

openINTRODUZIONE: La spalla congelata, nota anche come capsulite adesiva, rappresenta una tra le più comuni condizioni patologiche che colpisce il distretto della spalla e che affligge una considerevole parte della popolazione mondiale (2-5% della popolazione). Si caratterizza da un esordio dolorifico e con una progressiva riduzione della mobilità articolare nella spalla. OBIETTIVO: ricercare l'efficacia dell'intervento manuale nella gestione della capsulite adesiva in termini di riduzione del dolore, miglioramento della mobilità articolare e della qualità della vita rispetto ad altri approcci terapeutici; e in quale fase possa essere maggiormente efficace. METODI: la ricerca degli articoli scientifici è stata eseguita nelle seguenti banche dati: PubMed, PEDro e Cochrane Library. Sono stati utilizzati per la ricerca gli operatori boleani “AND” e “OR” con le seguenti parole chiave: “frozen shoulder”; “adhesive capsulitis”; “physiotherapy”; “physiotherapy treatment”; “physical therapy”; “manual therapy”; “surgical treatment”. RISULTATI: gli articoli trovati inserendo queste parole chiave sono 9467: 8589 su PubMed, 132 su PEDro e su 746 Cochrane Library. Rispettando i criteri di inclusione ed esclusione, sono stati selezionati 8 articoli. Le cose da sottolineare sono il fatto che i trattamenti con i corticosteroidi e le terapie fisiche, come le onde d’urto o altre tipologie di terapie fisiche, davano un’efficacia superiore sugli outcome come dolore, ampiezza di movimento e stato funzionale. Subito dopo, con risultati più moderati, ma comunque significativi, ritroviamo molte tecniche di terapie manuali come la tecnica PNF, tecnica di mobilizzazione Mulligan, ed esercizi di stretching muscolare passivo (lo stretching capsulare, invece, aveva un’efficacia migliore). CONCLUSIONI: le tecniche, come la SMET, la mobilizzazione di Mulligan e il PNF, che sfruttano l’attivazione muscolare in cooperazione alla manualità del terapista sono più efficaci rispetto alle tecniche più passive. L’intervento manuale, inoltre, sembra avere buoni effetti nella seconda fase della patologia, per cercare di ridurre il dolore, recuperare l’articolarità persa e ripristinare la funzionalità del distretto nelle ADL.INTRODUCTION: Frozen shoulder, also known as adhesive capsulitis, represents one of the most common pathological conditions affecting the shoulder area and which affects a considerable part of the world population (2-5% of the population). It is characterized by a painful onset and a progressive reduction of joint mobility in the shoulder. AIM: to research the effectiveness of manual intervention in the management of adhesive capsulitis in terms of pain reduction, improvement of joint mobility and quality of life compared to other therapeutic approaches; and at what stage it can be most effective. METHODS: the search for scientific articles was performed in the following databases: PubMed, PEDro and Cochrane Library. The Boolean operators “AND” and were used for the search "OR" with the following keywords: "frozen shoulder"; “adhesive capsulitis”; "Physiotherapy"; “physiotherapy treatment”; "Physiotherapy"; “manual therapy”; “surgical treatment”. RESULTS: the articles found to insert these keywords are 9431: 8589 on PubMed, 132 on PEDro and 746 on Cochrane Library. Respecting the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 8 articles were selected. The things to underline are the fact that treatments with corticosteroids and physical therapies, such as shock waves or other types of physical therapies, gave superior effectiveness on outcomes such as pain, range of motion and functional status. Immediately afterwards, with more moderate but still significant results, we find many manual therapy techniques such as the PNF technique, Mulligan mobilization technique, and passive muscle stretching exercises (capsular stretching, on the other hand, had better efficacy). CONCLUSIONS: techniques, such as SMET, Mulligan mobilization and PNF, which exploit muscle activation in cooperation with the therapist's manual skills have more effect than more passive techniques. Furthermore, manual intervention seems to have good effects in the second phase of the pathology, to try to reduce pain, recover lost range of motion and restore the functionality of the district in ADL

Exploiting news to categorize tweets: Quantifying the impact of different news collections

Short texts, due to their nature which makes them full of abbreviations and new coined acronyms, are not easy to classify. Text enrichment is emerging in the literature as a potentially useful tool. This paper is a part of a longer term research that aims at understanding the effectiveness of tweet enrichment by means of news, instead of the whole web as a knowledge source. Since the choice of a news collection may contribute to produce very different outcomes in the enrichment process, we compare the impact of three features of such collections: volume, variety, and freshness. We show that all three features have a significant impact on categorization accuracy. Copyright \ua9 2016 for the individual papers by the paper's authors

System With RF Power Delivery Capabilities for Active Safety Enhancement in Industrial Vehicles Using Interchangeable Implements

In this paper, an active system for safety enhancement in industrial and off-highway vehicles using interchangeable implements is presented. The system, applied to the real case study of automatic identification of implements connected to a telehandler, is developed by adopting a hardware–software codesign approach. It is comprised of two devices: the Illuminator-Gateway Device (IGD) and the End Device (ED). Differently from other similar solutions, the system embeds a complete radio frequency (RF) power delivery system that is compliant with the regulations in force in Europe and in North America to extend the battery lifetime of the ED. In particular, the IGD, positioned on the free end of the telescopic arm of the telehandler, supplies the RF energy required for the operations of the ED and acts as a gateway sending the data received from the ED to the other Electronic Control Units (ECUs) of the vehicle. The ED, instead, is mounted on the connected implement, collects the RF energy delivered by the IGD, and wirelessly sends the unique identifier, the key parameters, and the calculated effective working time of the implement. This information can be used by the main ECU of the vehicle for safety-related purposes and programmed maintenance. Experimental results show that the implemented RF power delivery system is able to gather up to 63% of the power required by the ED when it is on duty, thus significantly extending its battery lifetime

Active Safety System with RF Energy Harvesting Capabilities for Industrial Applications using Interchangeable Implements

In this paper a system for the remote powering of low power electronic devices is presented. The system has been applied to a real industrial application allowing to enhance active safety in industrial vehicles. It is comprised of two main devices: i) the End Device (ED) with an embedded Radio Frequency (RF) energy harvester; ii) the Illuminator-Gateway Device (IGD) with an embedded RF power transmitter. Thanks to the optimization of the customized dual band Planar Inverted Folded Antenna (PIFA) used, the ULP architecture of the ED, the hardware-software co-design approach used and the optimization of the ED firmware, the proposed system is able to provide up to the 63% of the power required by the ED when it is on duty

On the relationship between force reduction, loading rate and energy absorption in athletics tracks

In this work, finite element simulations of typical sports surfaces were performed to evaluate parameters, such as the loading rate and the energy absorbed by the surface, in relation to its characteristics (surface structure and material properties). Hence, possible relations between these quantities and the standard parameters used to characterize the shock absorbing characteristics of the athletics track (in particular, its force reduction) were investigated. The samples selected for this study were two common athletics tracks and a sheet of natural rubber. They were first characterized by quasi-static compression tests; their mechanical properties were extrapolated to the strain rate of interest and their dependence on the level of deformation was modelled with hyperelastic constitutive equations. Numerical simulations were carried out for varying sample thicknesses to understand the influence of track geometry on force reduction, loading rate and stored energy. A very good correlation was found between force reduction and the other relevant parameters, with the exception of the loading rate at the beginning of the impact

Biotechnological and digital revolution for climate-smart plant breeding

Climate change, associated with global warming, extreme weather events, and increasing incidence of weeds, pests and pathogens, is strongly influencing major cropping systems. In this challenging scenario, miscellaneous strategies are needed to expedite the rate of genetic gains with the purpose of developing novel varieties. Large plant breeding populations, efficient high-throughput technologies, big data management tools, and downstream biotechnology and molecular techniques are the pillars on which next generation breeding is based. In this review, we describe the toolbox the breeder has to face the challenges imposed by climate change, remark on the key role bioinformatics plays in the analysis and interpretation of big “omics„ data, and acknowledge all the benefits that have been introduced into breeding strategies with the biotechnological and digital revolution

It's not always varicocele: A strange case of Zinner syndrome

A 42-year-old man presented with a huge varicocele. The patient was completely asymptomatic and he did not complain of dysuria, perineal discomfort, or ejaculatory pain. During the visit, the mass mimicked a varicocele and during the Valsalva maneuver a reflux was documented by colour Doppler ultrasound and an abdominal ultrasound revealed an agenesis of the right kidney and a 4.5-cm diameter intra-prostatic cyst. An abdominal and pelvis magnetic resonance imaging was then performed, which confirmed the right renal agenesis, with an epididymal enlargement in the body and tail. This is a unique case of Zinner syndrome in which the patient presented with a paratesticular mass mimicking a varicocele. \ua9 2015 Canadian Urological Association