9,114 research outputs found
The measurement of the kinematics of the human spine using video fluoroscopy and image processing
No full textThe motion between the segments of the human spine intimately reflects the state of their soft-tissue linkages. Despite this, the diagnosis of mechanical disorders of the spine suffers from lack of acceptable ways of quantifying such intersegmental motion in living subjects. This thesis establishes a technique for obtaining such kinematic information by extrapolating from co-ordinates placed on digitised images from X-ray motion sequences. This provides a low radiation-dose, accurate and detailed method for the analysis of the kinematics of the lumbar spine in the coronal and sagittal planes and of the cervical spine in the saggittal plane. The technique, in addition, reduces the operator involvement with measurement and calculation traditionally associated with such issues. The indices used in this thesis are intervertebral angles and instantaneous centres of rotation (ICRs). Using a calibration model and human volunteer subjects the possibility for determining the former to an accuracy of 2o was established. For ICRs, provided the rotation of the segment in question exceeds 7o, the error and variation in their determination is consistently less than the range of currently accepted normality. Examples of detailed intersegmental motion patterns in asymptomatic and symptomatic human subjects are given and tentative interpretations offered. However, the clinical relevance of such findings must await the application of perhaps future generations of this system to large numbers of patients suffering from mechanical disorders of the spine.</p
Cervical Spine Kinematics Database from Fluoroscopic Imaging
No full textThis dataset includes kinematic measures derived from high-resolution fluoroscopic imaging of cervical vertebrae during controlled motion tasks.
Key Features:
Data Formats: Available in MATLAB (.mat) and Excel formats.
Detailed Data: Includes participant age and sex, and radiation dose.
Kinematic Measures: Vertebral body positions, Vertebral angles, intervertebral translation, and disc height using methods by Frobin et al.
Imaging Details: Derived from 1024x1024 16-bit images at 15 frames per second.
Data Collection Protocol:
Participants performed flexion and extension movements using a motorised motion frame during fluoroscopic imaging, ensuring precise alignment.
Applications:
Ideal for research on cervical spine motion, spinal manipulation effects, and biomechanical modelling.
For detailed methods, refer to Branney, Jonathan, Breen, Alexander, du Rose, Alister, Mowlem, Philip, and Breen, Alan (2024). Disc degeneration and cervical spine intervertebral motion: a cross-sectional study in patients with neck pain and matched healthy controls
Individualised assessment of aberrant intervertebral mechanics
No full textIndividualised assessment of aberrant intervertebral mechanics Alan Breen Introduction: Much of low back pain is considered to be the result of soft tissue stresses in the spine [1]. However, Individualised biomechanical assessment is problematical due to the spine’s inaccessibility to non-invasive physical measurement. This has led to concern about an over-reliance on psycho-social management for people with chronic non-specific spinal pain [2]. Cadaveric experiments have explored the subtle biomechanics of disco-ligamentous sub-failure and muscle overuse caused by added physical demands [3]. There have also been attempts to accurately represent the biomechanics of the spine with mechanical models [4]. These efforts have recognised the need to access kinetic and kinematic information from the mid-range of motion rather than just at its ends. In the 1980s, the merging of fluoroscopy and image processing to overcome this problem was achieved [5]. Between then and now, systems have been improved and some consensus has been reached about how they might be operated [6]. Methods: A series of studies has been conducted into the biomechanics of the lumbar and cervical spines using this this technology, now known as ‘Quantitative Fluoroscopy’ (QF). These investigated its 2-D measurement properties in terms of conventional intervertebral kinematics, such as maximum RoM, translation and finite centre of rotation. Later, new variables were introduced, namely ‘Initial Attainment Rate (a measure of laxity in the mid-range), ‘Motion Sharing Inequality’ (MSI) throughout the range, representing intersegmental co-ordination and ‘Motion Sharing Variability’ (MSV) representing spinal control.[7] Initial sEMG studies examined the relationship to back muscle activation and QF-informed finite element (FE) loading models were generated. Results: These studies have found that most of these measurement parameters have good observer repeatability and most good intra-subject reliability, although not necessarily agreement. Laxity and MSI have so far been the best biomarkers for chronic, non-specific low back pain and its relationship to disc degeneration [7]. The FE studies have demonstrated the feasibility of more closely representing subject-specific tissue loading with such models [8] and contemporaneous sEMG studies have found relationships to spine control (MSV). Only one outcome study has so far been conducted (in the cervical spine), which found no relationship between IV-RoM change and disability score change over a treatment period [9]. Conclusion: Despite these encouraging findings, there is a great deal more work to do to establish the clinical utility of these technologies, not least in the field of spinal surgery, where ‘adjacent segment disease’ is usually attributed to aberrant motion patterns consequent to surgical procedures. The weight bearing condition has barely been explored for the lower back, but individualised FE load modelling seems a real possibility. References [1] Borenstein D (2013) Nature review. Rheumatology,9:643-653. [2] Deane JA & McGregor AH (2016) BMJ Open,2017:e011075. [3] Panjabi MM (1992) Journal of Spinal Disorders,5:390-397. [4] Bassini T et al. (2017) Journal of Biomechanics,58:89-96. [5] Breen AC, Allen, R., Morris, A. (1988) Clinical Biomechanics,3:5-10.[6] Breen AC et al. (2012) Advances in Orthopaedics,1-10. [7] Breen AC, Breen, Ax.C. (2017) European Spine Journal,doi:10.1007/s00586-017-5155-y: [8] Zanjani-Pour S, Meakin, J,R,, Breen, Ax., Breen A. (accepted) Journal of Biomehcanics, [9] Branney J & Breen AC (2014) Chiropractic & Manual Therapies,22:24
Reference Database of Continuous Vertebral Flexion and Return
No full textThis database contains the vertebral angles that formed the basis of the dynamic spinal rhythms published in Breen et al. (2021) A Reference Database of Standardized Continuous Lumbar Inter-Vertebral Motion Analysis for Conducting Patient-specific Comparisons. Published in Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology https://doi.org/10.3389/fbioe.2021.745837 This database provides the vertebral body midplane angles of individual vertebrae to the image x-axis throughout a flexion and return task
Reference Database of Continuous Vertebral Flexion and Return
No full textThis database contains the vertebral angles that formed the basis of the dynamic spinal rhythms published in Breen et al. (2021) A Reference Database of Standardized Continuous Lumbar Inter-Vertebral Motion Analysis for Conducting Patient-specific Comparisons. Published in Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology https://doi.org/10.3389/fbioe.2021.745837 This database provides the vertebral body midplane angles of individual vertebrae to the image x-axis throughout a flexion and return task
Ancient plant DNA in the genomic era
No full textPublished online: 18 June 2018Next-generation sequencing technologies have significantly changed the scope of ancient plant DNA research, moving from analysis of a few loci to generation of ancient genomes. Future research could refine our understanding of plant evolution and adaptation, and provide information for conservation, crop breeding and food security.Oscar Estrada, James Breen, Stephen M. Richards and Alan Coope
Predicting the origin of soil evidence: High throughput eukaryote sequencing and MIR spectroscopy applied to a crime scene scenario
No full textAbstract not availableJennifer M. Young, Laura S. Weyrich, James Breen, Lynne M. Macdonald, Alan Coope
Alan Moore Comics as Performance, Fiction as Scalpel
No full textEclectic British author Alan Moore (b. 1953) is one of the most acclaimed and controversial comics writers to emerge since the late 1970s. He has produced a large number of well-regarded comic books and graphic novels while also making occasional forays into music, poetry, performance, and prose. In Alan Moore: Comics as Performance, Fiction as Scalpel , Annalisa Di Liddo argues that Moore employs the comics form to dissect the literary canon, the tradition of comics, contemporary society, and our understanding of history. The book considers Moore's narrative strategies and pinpoints the main thematic threads in his works: the subversion of genre and pulp fiction, the interrogation of superhero tropes, the manipulation of space and time, the uses of magic and mythology, the instability of gender and ethnic identity, and the accumulation of imagery to create satire that comments on politics and art history. Examining Moore's use of comics to scrutinize contemporary culture, Di Liddo analyzes his best-known works-- Swamp Thing, V for Vendetta, Watchmen, From Hell, Promethea , and Lost Girls . The study also highlights Moore?s lesser-known output, such as Halo Jones, Skizz , and Big Numbers , and his prose novel Voice of the Fire. Alan Moore: Comics as Performance, Fiction as Scalpel reveals Moore to be one of the most significant and distinctly postmodern comics creators of the last quarter-century.Intro -- Contents -- Preface and Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- CHAPTER 1. Formal Considerations on Alan Moore's Writing -- CHAPTER 2. Chronotopes: Outer Space, the Cityscape, and the Space of Comics -- CHAPTER 3. Moore and the Crisis of English Identity -- CHAPTER 4. Finding a Way into Lost Girls -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- Q -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- Y -- ZEclectic British author Alan Moore (b. 1953) is one of the most acclaimed and controversial comics writers to emerge since the late 1970s. He has produced a large number of well-regarded comic books and graphic novels while also making occasional forays into music, poetry, performance, and prose. In Alan Moore: Comics as Performance, Fiction as Scalpel , Annalisa Di Liddo argues that Moore employs the comics form to dissect the literary canon, the tradition of comics, contemporary society, and our understanding of history. The book considers Moore's narrative strategies and pinpoints the main thematic threads in his works: the subversion of genre and pulp fiction, the interrogation of superhero tropes, the manipulation of space and time, the uses of magic and mythology, the instability of gender and ethnic identity, and the accumulation of imagery to create satire that comments on politics and art history. Examining Moore's use of comics to scrutinize contemporary culture, Di Liddo analyzes his best-known works-- Swamp Thing, V for Vendetta, Watchmen, From Hell, Promethea , and Lost Girls . The study also highlights Moore?s lesser-known output, such as Halo Jones, Skizz , and Big Numbers , and his prose novel Voice of the Fire. Alan Moore: Comics as Performance, Fiction as Scalpel reveals Moore to be one of the most significant and distinctly postmodern comics creators of the last quarter-century.Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, YYYY. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries
Third prize: chiropractic and the national health care system: a basis for partnership in the UK
No full textBackground: Changes in United Kingdom (UK) health care policy and legislation have the potential to radically change care for patients with musculoskeletal conditions by widening access to manipulation services under its National Health Service (NHS).Objective: To investigate chiropractors’ past and current provision of musculoskeletal services for NHS patients and optimal future arrangements.Methods: One thousand forty-two UK chiropractors on professional registers were sent a 2-part questionnaire. The profession was divided into 2 groups and each group answered part of the questionnaire from either a practitioner or patient perspective.Results: Sixty-nine percent responded. Of these, 29% had previously provided services for NHS patients, and 18% were currently providing them, reporting moderate to high levels of satisfaction. Ninety-five percent were interested in future arrangements but on a part-time basis and in a way that most closely resembled private practice.Conclusion: The majority of UK chiropractors favor future partnership with the NHS. National health care reform and the statutory self-regulation of chiropractors have brought this closer to a more widespread reality. However, to prosper in this setting, the profession may benefit from a greater understanding of the competing priorities and constraints faced by NHS purchasers, who, for their part, should be prepared to implement policy based on evidence
In Alan Turing’s Name: Pardoning the Dead, Forgetting the Living
No full textThis special panel discussion brought together authorities on Alan Turing and the statutory pardon legislation intended to honour him. Leading academics, in conversation with those who have unsuccessfully petitioned to have offences disregarded, were joined by the Turing Bill’s author
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