BACKGROUND Congenital talipes equinovarus (CTEV), also known as clubfoot, is common congenital orthopedic foot deformity in children characterized by four components of foot deformities: hindfoot equinus, hindfoot varus, midfoot cavus, and forefoot adduction. Although a number of conservative and surgical methods have been proposed to correct the clubfoot deformity, the relapses of the clubfoot...

[Purpose] The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of abdominal bracing with low extremity movement on changes in thickness of abdominal muscles and lumbar strength. [Subjects] Sixteen patients with chronic low back pain were randomly assigned to two groups: an abdominal bracing with active straight leg raise (ABSLR) group and abdominal bracing with ankle dorsiflexion (ABDF) gro...

Many older transmission towers are designed based on tension-only bracing systems with slender diagonal members. However, the increased demand in power supply and changing global weather patterns mean that these towers require upgrading to carry the resultant heavier loading. The failure of a single tower can rapidly propagate along the line and result in severe damage that costs many millions ...

in this paper, the problem of layout optimization for x-bracing of steel frames is studied using the ant system (as). a new design method is employed to share the gravity and the lateral loads between the main frame and the bracings according to the requirements of the ibc2006 code. an algorithm is developed which is called optimum steel designer (osd). an optimization method based on an approx...

Abstract Internal bracing is an augmentation of ligament repair or reconstruction using a non-absorbable suture tape. The reinforcement the intended to absorb forces applied joint while underneath healing. rigidity construct expected improve primary stability, which should facilitate and accelerate postoperative mobilization rehabilitation. Nevertheless, internal novel treatment data limited. T...

BACKGROUND Intra-articular hyaluronic acid (HA) injection is an intermediate option between analgesics and knee joint replacement in patients with osteoarthritis (OA). Our objective was to test whether image-guided HA injections may improve knee OA outcomes after 6 months of treatment independent of potential covariates. METHODS This is a retrospective case series with multivariate outcome-ba...

BACKGROUND Bracing concepts in use today for the treatment of scoliosis include symmetric and asymmetric hard braces usually made of polyethylene (PE) and soft braces. The plaster cast method worldwide seems to be the most practiced technique for the construction of hard braces at the moment. CAD (Computer Aided Design) systems are available which allow brace adjustments without plaster. Anothe...

An experimental setup is designed to detect composite delamination damage based on ultrasonic infrared thermography. The ultrasonic infrared thermography system is composed by ultrasonic excitation system, infrared thermal imager and data acquisition system and two damaged composite plate specimens are produced in the experiment. The image processing methods including thresholding, filters, edg...