COMPARISON OF PLUG-IN GAIT AND A SIX DEGREES OF FREEDOM MODEL ON ESTIMATING KNEE KINEMATICS DURING A DOUBLE LEG DROP JUMP

Biomechanical models allow for a comprehensive understanding of dynamic movements that could be used to assess athletic performance or identify injury risk and return to play status. In order to make clinical recommendations based on these model outputs, discrepancies between modelling approaches need to be identified. The purpose of this study was to compare the knee kinematics between the commonly used Plug-in Gait model and a six degrees of freedom model during the first landing a double leg drop jump (DLDJ). This study identified differences in the model outputs for knee kinematics, most prominently in the frontal and transverse planes. Further investigation is required to determine the reliability and sensitivity of these model outputs

Translation and Cross-Cultural Adaptation of the Supportive and Palliative Care Indicators Tool into Japanese:A Preliminary Report

BACKGROUND: There is a need for tools in primary care to support clinicians to identify patients with unmet palliative care needs. The Supportive and Palliative Care Indicators Tool (SPICT) is concise and covers most conditions in primary care settings. However, the SPICT was not available in Japanese. METHODS: The translation and cultural adaptation of the SPICT was conducted in four stages: forward translation (Stage I), synthesis (Stage II), back translation (Stage III), and expert committee review (Stage IV). RESULTS: During the translation process, any content challenging to translate was addressed in Stage II and through discussion among the researchers. The expert committee review provided valuable insights on palliative care in Japan in addition to the translation. CONCLUSION: The Japanese version of the SPICT and its user guide are ready to be tested in clinical settings. They have the potential to help Japanese family physicians integrate palliative care in their care of patients with all life-limiting illnesses

Archetypal trajectories of social, psychological, and spiritual wellbeing and distress in family care givers of patients with lung cancer: secondary analysis of serial qualitative interviews

Objective To assess if family care givers of patients with lung cancer experience the patterns of social, psychological, and spiritual wellbeing and distress typical of the patient, from diagnosis to death

Comparison of Plug-in Gait and a 6DOF model for estimating knee kinematics during a double-leg drop jump

Biomechanical models allow for a comprehensive understanding of dynamic movements that could be used to assess athletic performance or identify injury risk and return to play status. In order to make clinical recommendations based on these model outputs, discrepancies between modelling approaches need to be identified. The purpose of this study was to compare the knee kinematics between the commonly used Plug-in Gait model and a six degrees of freedom model during the first landing a double leg drop jump (DLDJ). This study identified differences in the model outputs for knee kinematics, most prominently in the frontal and transverse planes. Further investigation is required to determine the reliability and sensitivity of these model outputs

What do our school reports really say?

School reports are an enduring feature of the education landscape. They form part of our personal history, fondly retained by parents well beyond a child’s school leaving age. The Department for Education requires schools in England to report to parents annually(Department for Education, 2015). There is widespread variation in reporting practice and many schools are doing more than is legally required of them(Power and Clark, 2000).While frequent, data focused reports are commonly used, many schools continue to write comment-based reports as part of their reporting regime. As students move into secondary school, reports of their day to day learning become less forthcoming from the students themselves and reports become one of very few channels of home-school communication

Unscheduled and out-of-hours care for people in their last year of life:a retrospective cohort analysis of national datasets

Objectives To analyse patterns of use and costs of unscheduled National Health Service (NHS) services for people in the last year of life.Design Retrospective cohort analysis of national datasets with application of standard UK costings.Participants and setting All people who died in Scotland in 2016 aged 18 or older (N=56 407).Main outcome measures Frequency of use of the five unscheduled NHS services in the last 12 months of life by underlying cause of death, patient demographics, Continuous Unscheduled Pathways (CUPs) followed by patients during each care episode, total NHS and per-patient costs.Results 53 509 patients (94.9%) had at least one contact with an unscheduled care service during their last year of life (472 360 contacts), with 34.2% in the last month of life. By linking patient contacts during each episode of care, we identified 206 841 CUPs, with 133 980 (64.8%) starting out-of-hours. People with cancer were more likely to contact the NHS telephone advice line (63%) (χ2 (4)=1004, p<0.001) or primary care out-of-hours (62%) (χ2 (4)=1924,p<0.001) and have hospital admissions (88%) (χ2 (4)=2644, p<0.001). People with organ failure (79%) contacted the ambulance service most frequently (χ2 (4)=584, p<0.001). Demographic factors associated with more unscheduled care were older age, social deprivation, living in own home and dying of cancer. People dying with organ failure formed the largest group in the cohort and had the highest NHS costs as a group. The cost of providing services in the community was estimated at 3.9% of total unscheduled care costs despite handling most out-of-hours calls.Conclusions Over 90% of people used NHS unscheduled care in their last year of life. Different underlying causes of death and demographic factors impacted on initial access and subsequent pathways of care. Managing more unscheduled care episodes in the community has the potential to reduce hospital admissions and overall costs

Hypogravity reduces trunk admittance and lumbar muscle activation in response to external perturbations

Reduced paraspinal muscle size and flattening of spinal curvatures have been documented after spaceflight. Assessment of trunk adaptations to hypogravity can contribute to develop specific countermeasures. In this study, parabolic flights were used to investigate spinal curvature and muscle responses to hypogravity. Data from five trials at 0.25g, 0.50g and 0.75g were recorded from six participants, positioned in a kneeling-seated position. During the first two trials, participants maintained a normal, upright posture. In the last three trials, small-amplitude perturbations were delivered in the anterior direction at the T10 level. Spinal curvature was estimated using motion capture cameras. Trunk displacement and contact force between the actuator and participant were recorded. Muscle activity responses were collected using intramuscular electromyography (iEMG) of the deep and superficial lumbar multifidus, iliocostalis lumborum, longissimus thoracis, quadratus lumborum, transversus abdominis, obliquus internus and obliquus externus muscles. The root mean square iEMG and the average spinal angles were calculated. Trunk admittance and muscle responses to perturbations were calculated as closed-loop frequency response functions. Compared with 0.75g, 0.25g resulted in: lower activation of the longissimus thoracis (P=0.002); lower responses of the superficial multifidus at low frequencies (P=0.043); lower responses of the superficial multifidus (P=0.029) and iliocostalis lumborum (P=0.043); lower trunk admittance (P=0.037) at intermediate frequencies; and stronger responses of the transversus abdominis at higher frequencies (p=0.032). These findings indicate that exposure to hypogravity reduces trunk admittance, partially compensated by weaker stabilizing contributions of the paraspinal muscles and coinciding with an apparent increase of the deep abdominal muscle activity