BACKGROUND Pulsed electromagnetic field (PEMF) therapy has shown promising therapeutic effectiveness on bone- and cartilage-related pathologies, being also safe for management of knee osteoarthritis. AIM The aim of this study was to investigate the clinical efficacy of a PEMF device for management of knee osteoarthritis in elderly patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS A total of 33 patients were ...

This paper describes the protocols and results of the experiments for the estimation of the mechanical impedance of the humans' lower leg in the External-Internal direction in the transverse plane under non-load bearing condition and with relaxed muscles. The objectives of the estimation of the lower leg's mechanical impedance are to facilitate the design of passive and active prostheses with m...

AIMS This study was undertaken to investigate the immediate effect of static stretching on normal Achilles tendon morphology and stiffness, and the different effect on dominant and non-dominant legs; and to evaluate inter-operator and intra-operator reliability of using shear-wave elastography in measuring Achilles tendon stiffness. METHODS 20 healthy subjects (13 males, 7 females) were inclu...

AIM It is accepted that leg stiffness (Kleg ) increases when surface stiffness decreases, and vice versa. However, little is known how the central nervous system fulfils this task. To understand the effect of surface stiffness on the neural control of stretch-shortening cycle movements, this study aimed to compare modulation of spinal and corticospinal excitability at distinct phases after grou...

Based on the analysis of the stiffness relation between the operational space and the Ž ngertip space of multi-Ž ngered hands, this paper provides a guideline of task-based compliance planning for multi-Ž ngered robotic manipulations. In order to show the characteristics of the taskbased stiffness matrix, various twoand three-dimensional examples are illustrated. Also, it is shown that some of ...

The aim of this study was to analyse the effects of age and gender (and their interaction) on a stretch shortening cycle solicited during a hopping task. For this aim, 147 girls and 148 boys aged 11 to 20 years, who were enrolled in middle school or secondary school with no experience in sport activity, or training less than three times per week, performed 3×5 hops in place. Leg-stiffness, jump...

INTRODUCTION Running, hopping and trotting animals can be modeled as spring-mass systems in which the mechanical behavior of the musculoskeletal system is represented as a leg spring. The stiffness of the leg spring is the primary determinant of the dynamics of running. Biomechanical studies have revealed that larger mammalian species have stiffer legs (Farley et al., 1993). Similarly, large ad...