lifting

The use of a soft multi-fingered hand in handling fragile objects has been widely acknowledged. Nevertheless, high flexibility often results in decreased load capacity, necessitating the need for variable stiffness. This article introduces a new soft multi-fingered hand featuring variable stiffness. The finger of the hand has three chambers and an endoskeleton mechanism. Two chambers facilitate bending and swinging motions, whereas the third adjusts stiffness. An endoskeleton mechanism is embedded in the third chamber, and the friction between its moving parts increases as negative air pressure rises, causing the finger's stiffness to increase...

Online consultation services have the potential to reduce the workload of healthcare staff, provide timely care to patients, and improve doctor-patient relationships. The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the development of these services and platforms, but it remains to be seen whether the general public will continue to use them after the pandemic is under control. This research proposes a framework to examine the factors contributing to UK adults' continued usage of online healthcare consultation services after COVID-19 restrictions have been lifted...

OBJECTIVES: We report the first prospective trial of prostatic urethral lift for the treatment of lower urinary tract symptoms associated with benign prostatic hyperplasia in Japan. METHODS: This prospective study was conducted at a single institution and included patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia who underwent prostatic urethral lift based on the Japanese surgical indication. The primary efficacy endpoint was reduced international prostatic symptoms score in the early postoperative period after prostatic urethral lift...

In subjects with scoliotic alterations of the spine, asymmetrical lengths of the lower limbs are frequently observed, a condition commonly referred to as leg length inequality (LLI) or discrepancy (LLD). This asymmetry can induce pelvic misalignments, manifested by an asymmetric height of the iliac crests, and consequently an alteration of the spine's axis. Although correcting this discrepancy might appear to be a straightforward solution, further investigation may reveal other indications. The purpose of this article is to aid clinicians confronted with the decision of whether to compensate for an LLI in individuals with scoliosis, encompassing both adolescents and adults...

Objectives . This study aimed to describe work-, lifestyle-, and health-related factors among ambulance personnel, and to analyse differences between women and men. Methods . The cross-sectional study ( N  = 106) included self-reported and objective measures of work, lifestyle, and health in 10 Swedish ambulance stations. The data collection comprised clinical health examination, blood samples, tests of physical capacity, and questionnaires. Results. A high proportion of the ambulance personnel reported heavy lifting, risk of accidents, threats and violence at work...

Besides its original spin representation, the Ising model is known to have the Fortuin-Kasteleyn (FK) bond and loop representations, of which the former was recently shown to exhibit two upper critical dimensions (d_{c}=4,d_{p}=6). Using a lifted worm algorithm, we determine the critical coupling as K_{c}=0.07770891(4) for d=7, which significantly improves over the previous results, and then study critical geometric properties of the loop Ising clusters on tori for spatial dimensions d=5 to 7. We show that as the spin representation, the loop Ising model has only one upper critical dimension at d_{c}=4...

BACKGROUND: Revision of tumor-type prosthetic fractures is very challenging in clinical work. Traditional repair methods may not be able to meet the needs of complex cases or cause greater bone damage. Therefore, more effective and reliable solutions need to be found. CASE PRESENTATION: This study presents a novel revision technique for managing fractures of tumor-type total elbow prostheses. A 57-year-old female patient was diagnosed with a left distal humeral bone tumor accompanied by pathological fracture and underwent customized tumor-type total elbow prosthesis arthroplasty...

BACKGROUND: Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a common cause of upper and lower respiratory tract infections. This study aimed to explore the prevalence of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and other respiratory viruses in Bulgaria, characterize the genetic diversity of RSV strains, and perform amino acid sequence analyses of RSV surface and internal proteins. METHODS: Clinical and epidemiological data and nasopharyngeal swabs were prospectively collected from patients with acute respiratory infections between October 2020 and May 2023...

Different grasping gestures result in the change of muscular activity of the forearm muscles. Similarly, the muscular activity changes with a change in grip force while grasping the object. This change in muscular activity, measured by a technique called Electromyography (EMG) is used in the upper limb bionic devices to select the grasping gesture. Previous research studies have shown gesture classification using pattern recognition control schemes. However, the use of EMG signals for force manipulation is less focused, especially during precision grasping...

OBJECTIVES: The prostatic urethral lift (PUL) has been used as a minimally invasive surgery for benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) since April 2022 in Japan. This study evaluated the initial outcomes and surgical techniques of PUL for BPH. METHODS: In this prospective, single-center study, indications were based on the proper use guidelines for PUL in Japan. Preoperative patient status, postoperative progress at 1 and 3 months, and perioperative complications were evaluated...

BACKGROUND: Throwing is one of the most important movement in handball. Throwing performance is crucial for success in handball. OBJECTIVE: Τo investigate the level of evidence for the effect of resistance training (RT) on throwing performance in handball players. METHODS: Systematic searches of Pubmed, Medline complete, Cinahl, Sport Discus and Scopus were undertaken for peer reviewed articles published between 18 March 1995 to 18 March 2023...

Commonly used risk indexes, such as the NIOSH Lifting Index, do not capture the effect of exoskeletons. This makes it difficult for Health and Safety professionals to rigorously assess the benefit of such devices. The community requires a simple method to assess the effectiveness of back-support exoskeleton's (BSE) in possibly reducing ergonomic risk. The method introduced in this work is termed "Equivalent Weight" (EqW) and it proposes an interpretation of the effect built on the benefit delivered through reduced activation of the erector spinae (ES)...

This study aimed to reduce the risk of graft occlusion by evaluating the two-phase flow of blood and LDL nanoparticles in coronary artery grafts. The study considered blood as an incompressible Newtonian fluid, with the addition of LDL nanoparticles, and the artery wall as a porous medium. Two scenarios were compared, with constant inlet velocity (CIV) and other with pulsatile inlet velocity (PIV), with LDL nanoparticles experiencing drag, wall-induced lift, and induced Saffman lift forces, or drag force only...

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PURPOSE: The main treatment for macular hole (MH) is pars plana vitrectomy, with or without internal limiting membrane (ILM) peeling, followed by gas tamponade and face-down positioning (FDP). This study aims to present the anatomical and visual outcomes following MH repair with optical coherence tomography (OCT)-guided FDP. METHODS: Thirty-two patients who underwent surgery for idiopathic MH were enrolled. The requirement for the prone position was lifted for those with MH closure observed under gas on postoperative day one OCT...

The folding/unfolding mechanism and collision recovery effect of the beetle's hind wings can provide biomimetic inspiration for the optimization of wing deplorability and the investigation of collision prevention recovery mechanism of new amphibious morphing vehicle. In this study, a method is described to investigate the structural response and mechanical properties of the hind wings of the beetle Protetia brevitarsis under natural conditions. The specially processed test samples were conducted to tensile testing, which facilitates the evaluation of the mechanical properties of specific areas of the hind wing...

BACKGROUND: The World Health Organization (WHO) has outlined a set of targets to achieve eliminating hepatitis C by 2030. In May 2022, Lithuanian health authorities initiated a hepatitis C virus (HCV) screening program to start working towards elimination. In the program, bonus was given to general practitioners (GPs) to promote and conduct anti-HCV tests for two situations: (1) one time testing for individuals born in 1945-1994 and (2) annual HCV testing for persons who inject drugs or are living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) regardless of age...

New transfer coefficient (TC) values were derived for vineyard workers handling treated grapevines during harvesting and crop maintenance activities. Re-entry exposure and dislodgeable foliar residue (DFR) studies were performed in Europe, covering hand harvesting, pruning/training, pruning/tying and pruning /shoot lifting. Foliar applications of fungicides (iprovalicarb, dimethomorph, dithianon, pyrimethanil and fenbuconazole) were made and 73 workers at 16 sites were monitored over one working day. Exposure was measured on inner and outer dosimeters, face/neck wipes and hand washes...

An assembly of 13 atoms can form highly symmetric architectures like those belonging to D 3h , O h , D 5h , and I h point groups. Here, using photoelectron imaging spectroscopy in combination with density functional theory (DFT) calculations, we present a simple yet convincing experimental signature for the selective formation of icosahedral cages of anionic silver clusters encapsulating a dopant atom of group 5 elements: M@Ag12 - (M = V, Nb, and Ta). Their photoelectron images obtained at 4 eV closely resemble one another: only a single ring is observed, which is assignable to photodetachment signals from a 5-fold degenerate superatomic 1D electronic shell in the 1S2 1P6 1D10 configuration of valence electrons...

The New Dunedin Hospital (NDH) is New Zealand's largest health infrastructure build. Here we describe the use of a simple simulation-based hospital design exercise to inform the appropriate lift car size for critical care intrahospital transfers in the NDH. The intensive care unit (ICU) user group tested a series of entries and exits of simulated complex patient transfers in mocked-up lift cars of three different dimensions. Time taken to enter and exit the lift were recorded, reflecting the relative difficulty of transfer...