264,408 research outputs found
The effectiveness of origami on overall hand function after injury: A pilot controlled trial
No full textThis pilot study measured the effectiveness of using origami to improve the overall hand function of outpatients attending an NHS hand injury unit. The initiative came from one of the authors who had used origami informally in the clinical setting and observed beneficial effects. These observed effects were tested experimentally. The design was a pilot non-randomised controlled trial with 13 participants. Allocation of the seven control group members was based on patient preference. The experimental group members attended a weekly hour of origami for six weeks, in addition to their conventional rehabilitation.
Hand function of all participants was measured using the Jebsen-Taylor Hand Function Test before and after the six-week period, and additional qualitative data were gathered in the form of written evaluations from patients. The quantitative data were analysed using the Mann Whitney U test or Fisher’s exact test. Themes were highlighted from the qualitative data.
The results show that there was a greater difference in the total score of the experimental group using the impaired hand between pre- and post-intervention of 11.8 seconds, compared with 4.3 seconds in the control group, but this was not statistically significant at the 5% level (p=0.06). Additionally, differences in the sub-test scores show a markedly larger improvement in the experimental group. Qualitative data indicate that the experimental group experienced the origami sessions as being enjoyable and beneficial. Further research with a larger sample and randomised group allocation is recommended to verify and expand these preliminary findings
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
No full textThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Ulnar collateral ligament injuries of the thumb- An overview of the injury and treatment
No full textObject Dexterous Manipulation in Hand Based on Finite State Machine
No full textLi Q, Meier M, Haschke R, Ritter H, Bolder B. Object Dexterous Manipulation in Hand Based on Finite State Machine. In: Proc. ICMA2012. 2012: 1185-1190
Establishing a Standardized Clinical Assessment Tool of Pathologic and Prosthetic Hand Function: Normative Data, Reliability, and Validity
No full textABSTRACT. Light CM, Chappell PH, Kyberd PJ. Establishing a standardized clinical assessment tool of pathologic and prosthetic hand function: normative data, reliability, and validity. Arch Phys Med Rehabil 2002;83:776-83. Objective: To develop a new assessment procedure, the Southampton Hand Assessment Procedure (SHAP), that allows contextual results of hand function to be obtained readily in a clinical environment. Design: Reliability (test-retest, interrater) and validity (criterion, content) of new assessment procedure against standard medical outcome measure techniques. Setting: Normative data collected in a university laboratory. Participants: Twenty-four volunteers selected on the basis of optimum hand function using these criteria: age (range, 18-25y), and no adverse hand trauma, neurologic condition, or disabling effects of the upper limb. Interventions: Not applicable. Main Outcome Measures: The normative control group was assessed for variability, and the procedure measured in terms of interrater and test-retest reliability. The absence of a direct comparison prevents a criterion standard from being established; however, content validity was shown by expert peer review. Results: The control group data were shown to be multivariate gaussian; test-retest and interrater reliability were demonstrated at the 95% confidence level. The content validity was demonstrated by peer panel approval. Conclusions: Results of the control group established the statistical integrity of SHAP. Clinical trials are underway, although more extensive use of the procedure is advocated in primary care and rehabilitation centers where physiotherapy and occupational therapy are actively used in hand rehabilitation
Risks of occupational exposures to hand-transmitted vibration: VIBRISKS
No full textVIBRISKS seeks to improve understanding of the risk of injury from hand-transmitted vibration and whole-body vibration by means of epidemiological studies supported by fundamental laboratory
research. VIBRISKS is a consortium of six partners from six European countries (France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, The Netherlands, UK). The four-year research project, which commenced in 2003, involves three work packages devoted to hand-transmitted vibration and three work packages devoted to whole-body vibration. This paper summarizes the hand-transmitted vibration research. Work package 1 defines methods to be used in studies of disorders caused by hand-transmitted
vibration in work package 2 and integrates the results of the epidemiological studies in work package 2 with the results of experimental and modeling studies in WP3 so as to define procedures that can be applied by occupational health workers for minimizing risk, screening exposed individuals and managing individuals with symptoms. Work package 2 involves longitudinal studies in workers
exposed to hand-transmitted vibration. Work package 3 involves experimental studies of the acute effects of hand-transmitted vibration on vascular and neurological function and the development of a finite element model of the biodynamic responses of the finger to vibration and force
Tectonic feedback, intraplate orogeny and the geochemical structure of the crust: a central Australian perspective
No full textCopyright © 2001 Geological Society of LondonThe geological record of intraplate deformation in central Australia implies that past tectonic activity (basin formation, deformation and erosion) has modulated the response of the lithosphere during subsequent tectonic activity. In particular, there is a correspondence between the localization of deformation during intraplate orogeny and the presence of thick sedimentary successions in the preserved remnants of a formerly widespread intracratonic basin. This behaviour can be understood as a kind of ‘tectonic feedback’, effected by the long-term thermal and mechanical consequences of changes in the distribution of heat producing elements induced by earlier tectonism. From a geochemical point of view, one of the most dramatic effects of intraplate orogeny in central Australia has been the exposure, in the cores of the orogens, of deep crustal rocks largely depleted in the heat producing elements. The geochemical structuring of the crust associated with the erosion of the heat-producing upper crust resulted in long-term cooling of the deep crust and upper mantle with associated lithospheric strengthening. This is illustrated here by mapping the consequences of deformation and associated tectonic responses onto the h-qc plane, where h is the characteristic length-scale for heat production distribution, and qc is the total crustal heat production. Because rates of intraplate deformation in central Australia appear to be much slower than that typical of plate margin orogens, it is possible that the ongoing geochemical structuring of the crust has played an important role in terminating intraplate orogeny in central Australia by providing a ‘thermal lock’. The diagnostic geophysical signature of this lock may be the extraordinary gravity anomalies of the central Australian intraplate orogens.M. Sandiford, M. Hand & S. McLare
Coming clean on hand hygiene
No full textIntroduction: Hand hygiene is universally recognized as one of the most effective ways to reduce the cross-transmission of hospital acquired infections. Successful strategies to improve hand hygiene compliance require a baseline knowledge of hand hygiene practices. Methodology: A direct observational method was used to collect data about hand hygiene practices amongst medical doctors by a group of trained medical students during their clinical assignments. To prevent any bias during the observation, the purpose of the study was not disclosed to the doctors; they only knew that they were being observed for infection control practices. A structured data collection sheet was used to direct the observations. Data on hand hygiene practices was collected during routine clinical work over a number of weeks. Observers recorded the professional grade of physician observed, speciality, location, activity performed, method used, and facilities available. Results: A total of 898 observations were recorded. Overall compliance before and after doctor-patient contact was 22.7% and 33.5% respectively. Within specialties, hand hygiene practices were lowest in obstetrics and gynaecology and highest in specialized surgical units. Poorest compliance was evident in house officers before patient contact, while the most compliant was the registrar group, following examination. Alcohol hand rub was the preferred method in the wards whilst hand washing was mainly utilised in the outpatient setting. Conclusion: Hand hygiene amongst doctors in St Luke's Hospital is low and could be a factor in the high MRSA endemicity.peer-reviewe
Efficient human hand kinematics for manipulation tasks
No full textThis work is focused on obtaining efficient human hand models that are suitable for manipulation tasks. A 24 DoF kinematic model of the human hand is defined to realistic movements. This model is based on the human skeleton. Dynamic and Static constraints have been included in order to improve the movement realism. Two simplified hand models with 9 and 6 DoF have been developed according to the constraints predefined. These simplified models involve some errors in reconstructing the hand posture. These errors are calculated with respect to the 24 DoF model and evaluated according to the hand gestures. Finally, some criteria are defined to select the hand description best suited to the features of the manipulation task
Real time hand gesture recognition including hand segmentation and tracking
No full textIn this paper we present a system that performs automatic gesture recognition. The system consists of two main components: (i) A unified technique for segmentation and tracking of face and hands using a skin detection algorithm along with handling occlusion between skin objects to keep track of the status of the occluded parts. This is realized by combining 3 useful features, namely, color, motion and position. (ii) A static and dynamic gesture recognition system. Static gesture recognition is achieved using a robust hand shape classification, based on PCA subspaces, that is invariant to scale along with small translation and rotation transformations. Combining hand shape classification with position information and using DHMMs allows us to accomplish dynamic gesture recognition
- …
