Dilatancy-based impression and fabrication technique for custom foot orthoses

2015 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 409-413 ◽  
Author(s):  
Larissa A Sletto ◽  
Yeongchi Wu ◽  
Christopher Robinson

Background and aim: Current methods used to take impressions for custom foot orthoses include plaster bandage, foam box, fiberglass, and laser-optical scanner. Impressions are converted to positive plaster or foam models. These methods create waste and may not be feasible in resource-limited areas. This technical note presents an alternative, greener impression and fabrication technique for foot orthoses that utilizes the dilatancy principle. Technique: Steps of the dilatancy (vacuum-based) procedure include taking an impression of the foot, converting the negative mold to a positive sand model, modifying the positive sand model, and thermoforming the foot orthosis. Discussion: This plaster-less system is inexpensive to set up and maintain, is reusable thereby minimizing cost and waste, and is clean to use. It enables a practitioner to quickly take an impression for fabricating a foot orthosis in a short period of time during a single clinic visit by the patient. Clinical relevance The dilatancy casting system could potentially be a cheaper, faster, and greener alternative procedure for fabricating custom foot orthoses in both developing and developed countries.

2014 ◽  
Vol 44 (5) ◽  
pp. 470-502 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simone Turchetti

After World War II had ended, Italy, not unlike other developed countries, held the ambition to establish an atomic energy program. The Peace Treaty of 1947 forbade its administration from seeking to acquire atomic weaponry, but in 1952 a national research committee was set up to explore the peaceful uses of atomic energy, in particular with regard to building nuclear reactors. One of the committee’s goals was to use nuclear power to make the country less reliant on foreign energy provisions. Yet, this paper reveals that the atomic energy project resulted in actually increasing Italy’s dependence on overseas assistance. I explain the reasons for this outcome by looking at the unfolding of U.S.–Italy relations and the offers of collaboration in the atomic energy field put forth by the U.S. State Department and the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. I argue that these offers undermined plans to shape the nuclear program as its Italian architects had envisioned, caused them to reconsider the goal of self-sufficiency in energy provisioning, and reconfigured the project to be amenable to the security and economic priorities of the U.S. administration. In this way, I conclude, the path for the Italian project to “de-develop” was set.


PEDIATRICS ◽  
1994 ◽  
Vol 94 (6) ◽  
pp. 1033-1036
Author(s):  
Eva Sellström ◽  
Sven Bremberg ◽  
Albert Chang

In the developed countries, an increasing number of children are enrolled in day-care centers. When parents leave their child in a day-care center they expect high standards of health and safety. Accidental injuries are a major threat in this age group. In a comparable institution that serves children, the school, the risk of injury is higher than in the home environment.1-2 Thus, safety in day-care centers cannot be taken for granted. A few studies of injuries in day-care centers have been reported, from the Nordic countries2,3-5 and from the US.6-10 Most of these studies, however, have been small and most lack information on time of exposure. Information about the risk of injury in Swedish day-care centers might be of interest as enrollment has been high for a long time. In Sweden, within the frame of a national injury program,11 a number of local hospital- and health center-based injury report systems have been set up. All have a basic common coding. These systems enable compilation of injuries in day-care centers on a national basis. The aim of our study was to analyze child injuries in day-care centers as reported in 10 local injury registry systems in Sweden regarding incidence, type, and mechanism of injury. METHOD Data were compiled from 10 local injury registry systems, covering 1- to 2-year periods. The earliest registers were from the years 1983 to 1984 and the latest from 1991. These systems were set up in all medical institutions at a predefined level, covering all individuals in a total or a part of a county.


Author(s):  
A. Kuznetsov

The author examines problems of Russia’s integration into the global financial system since early 1990s. During this short period of time Russia has turned from a net debtor into a net creditor. This is evidenced by its current net international investment position, as well as by active participation in the formation of credit resources of the key international financial institutions, particularly IMF. Still, the net investment income of Russia is negative. Such a disadvantage is explained by the difference in interest rates between payments of Russia on its external obligations and receipts as income from investments in foreign assets, mainly low-income bonds of developed countries, which form Russian international reserves. For three centuries the United Kingdom and the United States have been playing key role in the development of the global financial system. Today London and New York still operate nearly two thirds of the volume of global flows of capital in the international financial markets. Thus, as one of major economies in terms of GDP and as a resource-richest country of the world, Russia, as author argues, can rightfully claim for a more adequate share of income from the global financial intermediation. Obstacles include the lack of development of the domestic financial market and insufficient international demand for financial instruments denominated in Rubles. Russian Ruble remains a purely internal currency which practically is not used in the international trading and financial operations. At this stage, Russia’s inability to influence the basic conditions of refinancing on international capital markets, as well as the recent Western sanctions make impossible the full-scale participation of Russia in the processes of financial globalization. The author concludes that alternative way of Russia’s entry into the global financial system lays in playing the key role in the creation of the regional financial market of the Eurasian Economic Space.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 295-313
Author(s):  
Roger Luckhurst

This essay explores the short period of time that Arthur Conan Doyle spent between March and June 1891 when he moved his family into rooms in Bloomsbury and took a consulting room near Harley Street in an attempt to set up as an eye specialist. This last attempt to move up the professional hierarchy from general practitioner to specialist tends to be seen as a final impulsive move before Conan Doyle decided to become a full-time writer in June 1891. The essay aims to elaborate a little on the medical contexts for Conan Doyle’s brief spell in London, and particularly to track the medical topography in which he placed himself, situated between the radical, reformist Bloomsbury medical institutions and the fame and riches of the society doctors of Harley Street. These ambivalences are tracked in the medical fiction he published in Round the Red Lamp, his peculiar collection of medical tales and doctoring in 1894.


2018 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 6-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Faezeh Abbasi ◽  
Mahmood bahramizadeh ◽  
Mohammad Hadadi

Background: Chronic ankle instability as a prevalent consequence of ankle sprain causes various impairments such as balance and postural control deficits. Foot orthoses are one of the common interventions for rehabilitation of patients with chronic ankle instability. Objectives: To investigate the effect of custom-molded foot orthoses with textured surfaces on dynamic balance of chronic ankle instability patients and to compare their effects with other types of foot orthoses. Study design: This is a repeated measure design. Methods: A total of 30 participants were recruited based on the guideline introduced by the International Ankle Consortium. The effect of prefabricated, custom-molded, and custom-molded with textured surface foot orthoses was evaluated on dynamic balance by the Star Excursion Balance Test. Normalized reach distances in anteromedial, medial, and posteromedial directions of the test were computed to be used for statistical analysis. Results: The foot orthoses increased reach distances compared to the no-orthosis conditions in all three directions. The custom-molded with textured surface foot orthosis has significant differences compared with prefabricated foot orthosis ( p = 0.001) in all measured directions and with custom-molded foot orthosis ( p < 0.01) in medial and posteromedial directions. Conclusion: Foot orthoses improve reach distances in patients with chronic ankle instability. Custom-molded with textured surface foot orthosis has a more pronounced effect compared with other foot orthoses. Clinical relevance The custom-molded foot orthosis with textured surface could be an effective device to improve dynamic balance in chronic ankle instability (CAI) patients. It may be considered as an efficient intervention to reduce ankle sprain recurrence in these individuals, although further research should be conducted.


2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Faten Karim ◽  
Giselle Rampersad

The main advantage of cloud computing is to reduce the IT cost. By using cloud computing, organisations do not have to set up an IT infrastructure, and instead are able to rent resources and give payment only for the using services. Even with the appealing of cloud computing benefits, it is still in infancy in developing countries due to many reasons. Technology adoption has been explored to a limited degree in developing countries, particularly in relation to cloud computing in the tertiary education sector. Existing studies have examined technology adoption in developed countries and to a lesser extent in developing countries in non-education contexts such as e-government. This paper contributes to the cloud computing adoption literature in developing countries, and specifically in Saudi Arabian universities. 


PEDIATRICS ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 127 (2) ◽  
pp. e423-e441 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Peacock-Villada ◽  
B. A. Richardson ◽  
G. C. John-Stewart

2017 ◽  
Vol 107 (1) ◽  
pp. 46-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
So Young Ahn ◽  
Soo Kyung Bok ◽  
Bong Ok Kim ◽  
In Sik Park

Background: A talus control foot orthosis (TCFO) combines an inverted rigid foot orthosis (RFO) with a broad upright portion that rises well above the navicular to cover and protect the talonavicular joint. We sought to identify the therapeutic effect of TCFOs in children with flexible flatfoot. Methods: Flexible flatfoot was diagnosed in 40 children when either of the feet had greater than 4° valgus of resting calcaneal stance position (RCSP) angle and one of the radiographic indicators was greater than 30° in anteroposterior talocalcaneal angles, 45° in lateral talocalcaneal angles, and 4° in lateral talometatarsal angles and less than 10° of calcaneal pitch in barefoot radiographs. Of 40 children with flexible flatfoot, 20 were fitted with a pair of RFOs and 20 with TCFOs, randomly. Follow-up clinical and radiographic measurements were completed 12 months later. Results: All of the radiographic indicators changed toward the corrective direction in both groups. There were significant improvements in calcaneal pitch and RCSP in both groups (P &lt; .05). In the TCFO group, the anteroposterior talocalcaneal angle and the RCSP showed statistically significant improvement compared with the RFO group. Conclusions: In this study, the TCFO was more effective than the RFO at treating children with flexible flatfoot.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (19) ◽  
pp. 8896
Author(s):  
Xiuping Han ◽  
Xiaofei Wu ◽  
Jiadong Wang ◽  
Hongwen Li ◽  
Kaimin Cao ◽  
...  

The current status of the research of Ballistocardiography (BCG) and Seismocardiogram (SCG) in the field of medical treatment, health care and nursing was analyzed systematically, and the important direction in the research was explored, to provide reference for the relevant researches. This study, based on two large databases, CNKI and PubMed, used the bibliometric analysis method to review the existing documents in the past 20 years, and made analyses on the literature of BCG and SCG for their annual changes, main countries/regions, types of research, frequently-used subject words, and important research subjects. The results show that the developed countries have taken a leading position in the researches in this field, and have made breakthroughs in some subjects, but their research results have been mainly gained in the area of research and development of the technologies, and very few have been actually industrialized into commodities. This means that in the future the researchers should focus on the transformation of BCG and SCG technologies into commercialized products, and set up quantitative health assessment models, so as to become the daily tools for people to monitor their health status and manage their own health, and as the main approaches of improving the quality of life and preventing diseases for individuals.


SLEEP ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michelle E Stepan ◽  
Erik M Altmann ◽  
Kimberly M Fenn

Abstract Sleeping for a short period (i.e., napping) may help mitigate impairments in cognitive processing caused by sleep deprivation, but there is limited research on effects of brief naps in particular. Here, we tested the effect of a brief nap opportunity (30- or 60-min) during a period of sleep deprivation on two cognitive processes with broad scope, placekeeping and vigilant attention. In the evening, participants (N = 280) completed a placekeeping task (UNRAVEL) and a vigilant attention task (Psychomotor Vigilance Task [PVT]) and were randomly assigned to either stay awake overnight or sleep at home. Sleep-deprived participants were randomly assigned to receive either no nap opportunity, a 30-min opportunity, or a 60-min opportunity. Participants who napped were set up with polysomnography. The next morning, sleep participants returned, and all participants completed UNRAVEL and the PVT. Sleep deprivation impaired performance on both tasks, but nap opportunity did not reduce the impairment, suggesting that naps longer than those tested may be necessary to cause group differences. However, in participants who napped, more time spent in slow-wave sleep (SWS) was associated with reduced performance deficits on both tasks, effects we interpret in terms of the role of SWS in alleviating sleep pressure and facilitating memory consolidation.


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