Reading Spoor

The spoor of animals and humans alike contain rich information about an individual and about a momentary activity this individual performed. If the – arguably hard-wired – human ability to read spoor and tracks is sufficiently trained, a footprint allows to glean from it various physical, kinetic, medical, social and psychologic data about an individual, as has been observed among various populations across the globe. The Ju|’hoansi San from northern Namibia still today practice traditional hunting so that tracking is a skill that is required and trained on a daily base. For a good tracker, the information she or he gets from spoor is equally rich on animal and human footprints, and it is not necessary that the tracker has been exposed before to the individual whose spoor she/he reads. In order to allow an assessment of how tenable are the interpretations by contemporary hunter-gatherers of prehistoric human footprints, this chapter elucidates methodological aspects of tracking and situates this ability in an epistemological framework.

Monitoring Dysfunction after Stroke Sequelae in Patients undergoing Hydro-/ Thermo-/ Kinesio-Therapy

Stroke is an important health problem generating a set of musculoskeletal and cognitive consequences that significantly affect the patient’s clinical-functional status and quality of life, as well as the effectiveness of the recovery treatment. Hydro-/ thermo-/ kinesio-therapy with water from Lake Techirghiol, known for its special properties, is also used for patients with neurological disorders and consists in immersing the patient in the therapeutic pool with specific exercises under the strict supervision of specialized medical staff. The aim of this study is to analyze the effects of Lake Techirghiol water on the functional deficit in patients with post-stroke sequelae. In this sense, 200 patients who were hospitalized in the Balneal Rehabilitation Sanatorium of Techirghiol, Constanta County, Romania during 2018-2020 were included in the study and they were divided into two groups: patients from group 1 performed on a daily basis, for 12 days, hydro-/ thermo-/ kinesiotherapy and other physical-kinetic procedures, and the patients from group 2 performed on a daily basis, for 12 days, only physical-kinetic procedures, without hydro-/ thermo-/ kinesio-therapy. Patients’ assessment was made based on the Functional Independence Measure scale and a better evolution was observed in the patients who performed hydro-/ thermo-/ kinesio-therapy as compared to those who did not perform this procedure, in the sense of a diminution of the functional deficit by making self-service activities easier and by improving gait disorders and transfers. We consider appropriate that we extend the period of patients’ treatment and follow-up in our next research so as to highlight, if relevant, any notable changes in terms of increasing functional independence also in the case of patients undergoing land-based kinesiotherapy.

The role of the balneo-physical-kinetic treatment on the ligamentous stability in osteoarthritis of the knee

Osteoarthritis of the knee is one of the disabling conditions with a major impact on the quality of life of the patients. Existing therapies focus on reducing pain and disability caused by the disease. The existence of scores that evaluate the different aspects of patients quality of life are often used in monitoring the treatment and its results. The study is performed on a batch of 21 patients, between June 2017 and June 2018. They performed a complex rehabilitation program being evaluated every six months by applying the WOMAC questionnaire and performing specific maneuvers. The study has shown that by performing complex rehabilitation treatments the patients ability to perform some actions as well as their quality of life is improved and the effect following repeated treatments every six months is maintained during two treatments successive treatment.

Benefic Effect of Conservative Treatments on Patients Diagnosed With Osteoporosis

Osteoporosis (OP) represents the most common metabolic bone disease, characterized by the shrinkage in bone mass and the destruction of bone quality, thus conferring a higher risk for micro-fractures and injuries. The goal of treatment in OP is to grow-up the bone mineral density of the skeleton and to increase resorption of formed bone, due to improving the quality life of patients. The methods are diverse, such as medications, conservative measures, weight reduction, physical and occupational therapy, mechanical support devices and surgery. This paper presents a balneal-conservative treatment of patients diagnosed with OP from Rehabilitation Clinical Hospital of Felix Spa. The treatment is complex and involves balneal-physical-kinetic therapy or balneal-physical-kinetic recovery treatment, which must be periodical repeated every six months to obtain good results. The study has been applied to two separate groups of patients with OP between 2009–2011. The first group of 100 subjects, presented clinical symptomatology, as pain of variable types like backaches, fragility fractures or deformation of bone shape that resulted from fractures or alterations of weakens bones. A second group of 80 subjects, received the balneal-rehabilitation treatment combined, or not with physical exercises. DEXA and SF-36 scores, using statistical analysis, performed the evaluation of OP treatment. The results of experiment emphasized the efficiency of balneal-rehabilitation treatment applied patients with OP. The future research will be focused upon the implementation of vibration therapy with balneal-conservative treatment on patients with osteoporosis and osteoarthritis to reduce the therapy time and improving the quality life of patients.

On the Designing and Prototyping of Kinetic Objects

MSOrgm (Huang, 2009), SSOrgan, and LBSkeleton (Huang, 2011) were created to contain computation, aesthetic, and structural characteristics to employ physical kinetic motion to embody and communicate to people. MSOrgm raises its branches when it senses someone who is looking at it. MSOrgm was developed as a robot plant to interact with the viewer in a soothing way; it uses transformable module to build interconnected fabric and produce unexpected behavior. SSOrgan provides a novel tangible interaction, which generates color in response to touch. SSOrgan is an artificial skin system composed by dense individual sensing module; it creates the responsive behavior executed by its external contact and its internal computing mechanism. LBSkeleton explores a mutual interaction that happens between “the piper and the snake” ? through the change of the sound performance that should triggered by body movement reflectivity. LBSkeleton shows a kinetic structural system, which is engaged with the sensor networked framework and the origami tessellation module to perform a kind of growling behavior with sound. These works bring the specific type of modeling, controlling, and interacting on the designing of the kinetic creatures. The artworks are bringing novel user experiences with the biomimetic mechanism in a space.

Some Aspects Regarding Treatment and Rehabilitation of Weight Bearing Joints for Patients With Osteoarthritis

The paper presents some aspects and practical solutions of weight bearing joints treatment for patients with osteoarthritis and following by the rehabilitation process, which has realized at Recovery Clinical Hospital of Felix Spa. A model of human body under applied and conjunction forces explains the damping and shocks into synovial joints from elastic modulus of bone cartilages in contact and variation of dynamic viscosity’s synovial fluid and spine fluid. The conservative treatment of osteoarthritis involves balneal-physical-kinetic therapy or balneal-physical-kinetic recovery treatment, which must be repeated periodical, every six months to get good results. In addition, a vibration treatment of patients with osteoarthritis combines with balneal-conservative treatment is proposed. This vibration treatment system is composed of vibration bed, electrical motor to generate the vibration with direct adjustment of frequency by a digital frequency convertor, and a command panel system of measurement, analysis and interpretation of data from FFT electronic vibration gage. These combination treatments have assured an amelioration of patients with osteoarthritis and improving the bio-lubrication between cartilages of synovial joints, respectively of fluid spine.