Reaching in sitting: The effect of seat design and body manipulations

Work ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Adeolu Ademiluyi ◽  
Alexander S. Aruin
Keyword(s):  
Healthy Subjects ◽  
Major Effect ◽  
Motor Activities ◽  
Chair Design ◽  
At Home

BACKGROUND: Sitting is a common and familiar position used daily as a platform for many motor activities in the workplace, at school, or at home. OBJECTIVE: To investigate how difference in the chair design and selected sitting manipulations contribute to reach distance in sitting. METHODS: Ten healthy subjects were required to reach forward as far as possible while sitting in an adjustable chair with 0°, 10° forward or 10° backward inclination of the seat, with and without footrest and leg support, with legs crossed, and when holding the edge of the seat with the contralateral arm. RESULTS: In comparison to sitting with feet on the footrest, the maximal reaching distance decreased significantly when sitting on either forward or backward inclined seat (p <  0.05) and it increased when the subjects held the edge of the seat while seated with footrest and the posterior leg support (p <  0.05). There was no major effect of crossing the legs or the use of anterior leg support on the maximal reach distance. CONCLUSIONS: Modification of the chair design could increase or decrease reaching distance in sitting. The outcome of the study provides a background for future investigations of the effect of sitting positions on reaching distance in the workplace, at home, or at school.

scholarly journals School chair design and key criteria from the users’ point of view

2020 ◽  
pp. 43-61
Author(s):  
Nataša Rizman Herga ◽  
Samo Fošnarič ◽  
Andreja Kolar
Keyword(s):  
Body Height ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The Body ◽  
Older Students ◽  
Prolonged Sitting ◽  
Upper Level ◽  
School Furniture ◽  
Chair Design ◽  
At Home

People are becoming increasingly sedentary, including students attending the upper level of primary education. Due to school, young people spend a lot of time sitting in class and at home, which has a negative effect on their health, especially if their work environment, including school furniture, does not meet all the criteria in terms of physiological, psychological, and sociological guidelines for healthy furniture design. Chairs, as school furniture, have been designed according to standards that take into account ergonomic compliance with the body height of pupils. Slovenian classrooms are equipped with standard conventional chairs. In our student-oriented research, we were interested in whether chairs designed according to the standard are suitable for adolescents and what, if any, additional criteria must be met from the users’ point of view. The study included 192 upper level pupils (56.3 % girls and 43.7 % boys), age of 12.4 ± 1.7 years. The research is based on quantitative and qualitative methodology. The descriptive causal non-experimental method was supported by the observation method. The results of the survey show that older students (81.6 %) are of the opinion that they spend more time at school than at home. Due to prolonged sitting, older students (55.3 %) report problems more often than younger ones (28.4 %). Nearly two-thirds of younger students (63.8 %) also believe they sit more in school than at home. The results show that prolonged sitting negatively affects their health or general well-being. Differences between the responses of older and younger pupils are statistically significant both in the opinion expressed regarding the location of sitting (p = 0.010) and in the reporting of problems due to prolonged sitting (p = 0.001). There are no statistically significant differences between the sexes in both groups of older and younger pupils. Pupils sit on hard, uncomfortable, conventional chairs that are not tailored to their needs. They want to use comfortable, soft, swivel chairs with backrests and armrests. The study has shown that, in addition to comfort, school chairs must provide dynamic or active sitting. The present study confirms that static and rigidly shaped school chairs do not offer support for active and restless youth. Therefore, chair design must change to meet the physical, ergonomic, cognitive, and social needs of their users.

scholarly journals Kinect V2 Performance Assessment in Daily-Life Gestures: Cohort Study on Healthy Subjects for a Reference Database for Automated Instrumental Evaluations on Neurological Patients

2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 ◽  
pp. 1-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessandro Scano ◽  
Andrea Chiavenna ◽  
Matteo Malosio ◽  
Lorenzo Molinari Tosatti
Keyword(s):  
Healthy Subjects ◽  
Daily Life ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Major Effect ◽  
Healthy People ◽  
Reference Database ◽  
Kinect V2 ◽  
Effective Strategies ◽  
Neurological Patients

Background. The increase of sanitary costs related to poststroke rehabilitation requires new sustainable and cost-effective strategies for promoting autonomous and dehospitalized motor training. In the Riprendo@Home and Future Home for Future Communities research projects, the promising approach of introducing low-cost technologies that promote home rehabilitation is exploited. In order to provide reliable evaluation of patients, a reference database of healthy people’s performances is required and should consider variability related to healthy people performances.Methods.78 healthy subjects performed several repetitions of daily-life gestures, the reaching movement (RM) and hand-to-mouth (HtMM) movement with both the dominant and nondominant upper limbs. Movements were recorded with a Kinect V2. A synthetic biomechanical protocol based on kinematical, dynamical, and motor control parameters was used to assess motor performance of the healthy people. The investigation was conducted by clustering participants depending on their limb dominancy (right/left), gender (male/female), and age (young/middle/senior) as sources of variability.Results.Results showed that limb dominancy has minor relevance in affecting RM and HtMM; gender has relevance in affecting the HtMM; age has major effect in affecting RM and HtMM.Conclusions.An investigation of healthy subjects’ upper limb performances during daily-life gestures was performed with the Kinect V2 sensor. Findings will be the basis for a database of normative data for neurological patients’ motor evaluation.

scholarly journals Does at-home bleaching induce systemic oxidative stress in healthy subjects?

2016 ◽  
Vol 62 (1) ◽  
pp. 58-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
M Akbari ◽  
AH Nejat ◽  
N Farkhondeh ◽  
S Mehraban Moghadam ◽  
SI Hashemy ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Oxidative Stress ◽  
Healthy Subjects ◽  
Systemic Oxidative Stress ◽  
At Home

Reflex Responses in Upper Limb Muscles to Cutaneous Stimuli

1993 ◽  
Vol 20 (04) ◽  
pp. 271-278 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Chen
Keyword(s):  
Stimulus Intensity ◽  
Upper Limb ◽  
Healthy Subjects ◽  
Voluntary Contraction ◽  
Cutaneous Reflexes ◽  
Focal Lesions ◽  
Normal Ranges ◽  
Conduction Velocities ◽  
Limb Muscles ◽  
Biphasic Responses

ABSTRACT:Cutaneous reflexes in the upper limb were elicited by stimulating digital nerves and recorded by averaging rectified EMG from proximal and distal upper limb muscles during voluntary contraction. Distal muscles often showed a triphasic response: an inhibition with onset about 50 ms (Il) followed by a facilitation with onset about 60 ms (E2) followed by another inhibition with onset about 80 ms (12). Proximal muscles generally showed biphasic responses beginning with facilitation or inhibition with onset at about 40 ms. Normal ranges for the amplitude of these components were established from recordings on 22 arms of 11 healthy subjects. An attempt was made to determine the alterent fibers responsible for the various components by varying the stimulus intensity, by causing ischemic block of larger fibers and by estimating the afferent conduction velocities. The central pathways mediating these reflexes were examined by estimating central delays and by studying patients with focal lesions

Systematic Modification of Parental Input to Train Language Symbols

1981 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 4-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Culatta ◽  
Donna Horn
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Meaningful Use ◽  
Hearing Impaired ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
Parental Input ◽  
Language Exposure ◽  
Therapy Sessions ◽  
Impaired Children ◽  
Hearing Impaired Children ◽  
At Home

This study attempted to maximize environmental language learning for four hearing-impaired children. The children's mothers were systematically trained to present specific language symbols to their children at home. An increase in meaningful use of these words was observed during therapy sessions. In addition, as the mothers began to generalize the language exposure strategies, an increase was observed in the children's use of words not specifically identified by the clinician as targets.

Iterative Development of a Home Review Program to Promote Preschoolers' Vocabulary Skills: Social Validity and Learning Outcomes

2020 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
pp. 371-389 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xigrid Soto ◽  
Yagmur Seven ◽  
Meaghan McKenna ◽  
Keri Madsen ◽  
Lindsey Peters-Sanders ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High Stress ◽  
Social Validity ◽  
Home Language ◽  
Single Subject ◽  
Considerable Difficulty ◽  
Home Program ◽  
Iterative Development ◽  
Vocabulary Skills ◽  
Validity Measures ◽  
At Home

Purpose This article describes the iterative development of a home review program designed to augment vocabulary instruction for young children (ages 4 and 5 years) occurring at school through the use of a home review component. Method A pilot study followed by two experiments used adapted alternating treatment designs to compare the learning of academic words taught at school to words taught at school and reviewed at home. At school, children in small groups were taught academic words embedded in prerecorded storybooks for 6 weeks. Children were given materials such as stickers with review prompts (e.g., “Tell me what brave means”) to take home for half the words. Across iterations of the home intervention, the home review component was enhanced by promoting parent engagement and buy-in through in-person training, video modeling, and daily text message reminders. Visual analyses of single-subject graphs, multilevel modeling, and social validity measures were used to evaluate the additive effects and feasibility of the home review component. Results Social validity results informed each iteration of the home program. The effects of the home program across sites were mixed, with only one site showing consistently strong effects. Superior learning was evident in the school + home review condition for families that reviewed words frequently at home. Although the home review program was effective in improving the vocabulary skills of many children, some families had considerable difficulty practicing vocabulary words. Conclusion These studies highlight the importance of using social validity measures to inform iterative development of home interventions that promote feasible strategies for enhancing the home language environment. Further research is needed to identify strategies that stimulate facilitators and overcome barriers to implementation, especially in high-stress homes, to enrich the home language environments of more families.

App-titude: Top Apps for Tots

ASHA Leader ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 32-32
Author(s):  
Heidi Hanks
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Early Language ◽  
At Home

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