Normative Static Grip Strength of Saudi Arabia’s Population and Influences of Numerous Factors on Grip Strength

Most daily tasks require exerting static grip strength which can be challenging for the elderly as their strength diminishes with age. Moreover, normative static grip strength data are important in ergonomics and clinical settings. The goal of this study is to present the gender, age-specific, hand-specific, and body-mass-index-specific handgrip strength reference of Saudi males and females in order to describe the population’s occupational demand and to compare them with the international standards. The secondary objective is to investigate the effects of gender, age group, hand area, and body mass index on the grip strength. A sample of 297 (146 male and 151 female) volunteers aged between 18 and 70 with different occupations participated in the study. Grip strength data were collected using a Jamar dynamometer with standard test position, protocol, and instructions. The mean maximum voluntary grip strength values for males were 38.71 kg and 22.01 kg, respectively. There was a curvilinear relationship of grip strength to age; significant differences between genders, hand area, and some age groups; and a correlation to hand dimensions depending on the gender.

Finger representations in primary somatosensory cortex are modulated during vibrotactile working memory

It is well-established that vibrotactile stimulations elicit Blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) responses in somatotopically organized brain regions. Whether these somatotopic maps are modulated by working memory (WM) is still unknown. In our WM experiment, participants had to compare frequencies that were separated by a delay period. Vibrotactile stimuli were sequentially applied to either their right index or little finger. Using functional MRI, we investigated whether vibrotactile WM modulated neural activity in primary somatosensory (S1), an area that is known to contain individual finger representations. Our mass-univariate results revealed the well-described network of brain regions involved in WM. Interestingly, our mass-univariate results did not demonstrate S1 to be part of this network. However, when we parametrically modulated the time-binned regressors in our GLM we found that the delay activity in S1 and secondary somatosensory cortex (S2) was reflected in a U-shaped manner. Using multi-voxel pattern analysis (MVPA), an analysis technique that is more sensitive to subtle activity differences, we found finger-specific patterns of activation in the S1 hand area during the WM delay period. These results indicate that processes underlying WM modulate finger-specific representations during our discrimination task.

Is Single Gloving Still Acceptable? Investigation and Evaluation of Damages on Sterile Latex Gloves in General Surgery

(1) Background: The sterile latex surgical glove is an important part of protecting both the patient and the surgical team from infections. However, mechanical stress can damage the integrity of the glove material and thus may lead to infections. (2) Method: A total of 896 gloves from 448 surgeries were tested and evaluated by the water tightening test according to EN455 and ASTM D5151-19. (3) Results: From 448 surgeries, 18.8% of the interventions showed glove damage. In vascular surgery, gloves were damaged in 20.8%, in thoracic surgery 9.1%, in laparoscopic interventions 21.7%, in the subgroup hernia surgeries (TAPP) 17.6% and in open interventions 17.6%. A total of 101 damages were found on 896 gloves; one glove could have several damages. During vascular surgery, 60% of the damages were on the subordinated hand of the surgeon, and 73.3% of the damages had a size of 1 mm. In laparoscopic procedures, the subordinated hand was also more frequently affected (61.3%) than the dominant hand; 64.5% of the damages were 1 mm in size. In the hernia surgery subgroup (TAPP), no damage was larger than 1 mm; 66.7% were in the subordinated hand area. The duration of surgery had no influence on the lesion rate. (4) Conclusion: The damage rate in low impact procedures is high and represents an underestimated problem in soft tissue surgery. The use of single gloving can therefore lead to the risk of infection. EN455 and ASTM D5151-19 does not take into consideration the risk of intraoperative lesions. Double gloving and glove change algorithms should be established.

Investigating facial information content in the hand area of individuals with a congenital and acquired missing hand

Cortical remapping after hand loss in the primary somatosensory cortex (S1) is thought to be predominantly dictated by cortical proximity, with adjacent body parts remapping into the deprived area. Traditionally, this remapping has been characterised by changes in the lip representation, which is assumed to be the immediate neighbour of the hand based on electrophysiological research in non-human primates. However, the orientation of facial somatotopy in humans is debated, with contrasting work reporting both an inverted and upright topography. We aimed to fill this gap in the S1 homunculus by investigating the topographic organisation of the face. Using both univariate and multivariate approaches we examined the extent of face-to-hand remapping in individuals with a congenital and acquired missing hand (hereafter one-handers and amputees, respectively), relative to two-handed controls. Participants were asked to move different facial parts (forehead, nose, lips, tongue) during fMRI scanning. We first report evidence for an upright facial organisation in all three groups, with the upper face and not the lips bordering the hand area. We further found little evidence for remapping of all tested facial parts in amputees, with no significant relationship to the chronicity of their PLP. In contrast, we found converging evidence for a complex pattern of face remapping in congenital one-handers across all facial parts, where the location of the cortical neighbour, the forehead, is shown to shift away from the deprived hand area, which is subsequently activated by the lips and the tongue. Together, our findings demonstrate that the face representation in humans is highly plastic, but that this plasticity is restricted by the developmental stage of input deprivation, rather than cortical proximity.

Real-time Hand Gesture Extraction Using Python Programming Language Facilities

Hand gesture recognition is one of communication in which used bodily behavior to transmit several messages. This paper aims to detect hand gestures with the mobile device camera and create a customize dataset that used in deep learning model training to recognize hand gestures. The real-time approach was used for all these objectives: the first step is hand area detection; the second step is hand area storing in a dataset form to use in the future for model training. A framework for human contact was put in place by studying pictures recorded by the camera. It was converted the RGB color space image to the greyscale, the blurring method is used for object noise removing efficaciously. To highlight the edges and curves of the hand, the thresholding method is used. And subtraction of complex background is applied to detect moving objects from a static camera. The objectives of the paper were reliable and favorable which helps deaf and dumb people interact with the environment through the sign language fully approved to extract hand movements. Python language as a programming manner to discover hand gestures. This work has an efficient hand gesture detection process to address the problem of framing from real-time video.

More comprehensive proprioceptive stimulation of the hand amplifies its cortical processing

ABSTRACTCorticokinematic coherence (CKC) quantifies the phase coupling between limb kinematics and cortical neurophysiological signals reflecting proprioceptive feedback to the primary sensorimotor (SM1) cortex. We studied CKC to proprioceptive stimulation (i.e. movement-actuator-evoked movements) of right-hand digits (index, middle, ring and little) performed simultaneously or separately. CKC was computed between magnetoencephalography (MEG) and finger acceleration signals. The strongest CKC was obtained by stimulating the fingers simultaneously at fixed 3-Hz frequency, and can, therefore, be recommended as design for fast functional localization of the hand area in the primary sensorimotor (SM1) cortex using MEG. The peaks of CKC sources were concentrated in the hand region of the SM1 cortex, but did not follow consistent somatotopic order. This result suggests that spatial specificity of MEG is not sufficient to separate proprioceptive finger representations of the same hand adequately or that their representations are overlapping.

The combined use of a fermentoterapiya and carboxytherapy at complications of planimetric plasticity of area of a brush in cosmetology

Background. In recent years, cosmetology has become increasingly popular procedures for the introduction of various fillers to correct age-related changes in the hands (visualization of veins and tendons) to compensate for the amount of fat lost with age in the back of the hand. At the same time, the number of complications after contouring the hand area is also increasing, due to non-compliance with the insertion technique, ignorance of the anatomical features of the corrected area, and a number of other factors. Aims: to study the effectiveness of a combined method that includes a course of collalizine diadinamophoresis in combination with injection carboxytherapy for the correction of complications that occurred on the back of the hand when injecting fillers based on calcium hydroxyapatite. Methods. There were 28 women under observation, with an average age of 41.5 4.6 years, with a complication after administration of a drug based on calcium hydroxyapatite on the back of the hand. Were allocated to 3 groups that received a course of carboxytherapy, the rate of diadynamophoresis collalizine and their combination. Results. The use of a combined course of collalizine diadinamophoresis with injectable carboxytherapy provides a pronounced analgesic effect, stabilizes the psychoemotional state and gives a pronounced effect of reducing the thickness of the dermis and increasing the dermis density coefficient, especially in the early stages of observation, which is probably due to a decrease in intra-dermal edema that occurs as a reaction to a filler injected either too deeply or in large quantities. In addition, this combined technique significantly accelerates both the biodegradation of the previously introduced filler, and affects pathological fibrosis around calcium hydroxyapatite crystals. Conclusions. The combined use of collazine diadinamophoresis and injective carboxytherapy locally on lesions with complications in the form of edema, contouring and local neuropathic manifestations that occur when injecting fillers based on calcium hydroxyapatite to the back of the hand is a highly effective method of treatment, which is confirmed by relieving clinical symptoms and improving the quality of life of patients.