This study investigated the influence of the torque produced by plantar flexor muscles on cortical and spinal excitability during lengthening and shortening voluntary contractions. To that purpose, modulations of motor-evoked potential (MEP) and Hoffmann (H) reflex were compared in the soleus (SOL) and medial gastrocnemius (MG) during anisometric submaximal and maximal voluntary contraction (MV...

Prosody facilitates perceptual segmentation of the speech stream into a sequence of words and phrases. With regard to speech timing, vowel lengthening is well established as a cue to an upcoming boundary, but listeners' exploitation of consonant lengthening for segmentation has not been systematically tested in the absence of other boundary cues. In a series of artificial language learning expe...

Femoral lengthening using the Intramedullary Skeletal Kinetic Distractor is a new technique. However, with intramedullary distraction the surgeon has less control over the lengthening process. Therefore, 33 femora lengthened with this device were assessed to evaluate the effect of operative variables under the surgeon's control on the course of lengthening. The desired lengthening was achieved ...

Our overarching research project explores the usability of disfluencies in incremental spoken dialogue systems. This endeavor requires basic phonetic research on disfluencies in spontaneous speech corpora as to define strategies for synthesizing disfluencies in a meaningful way. In this paper, our current research focus lies in an investigation of disfluency-related lengthening as a promising t...

We present our experience of forearm lengthening in children with various conditions performed by a single surgeon between 1995 and 2009. A total of 19 children with a mean age of 9.8 years (2.1 to 15.9) at the time of surgery had 22 forearm lengthenings using either an Ilizarov/spatial and Ilizarov circular frame or a monolateral external fixator. The patients were divided into two groups: gro...

Based on results from previous experiments, the hypothesis is are given, with accented syllables in capitals and the relevant tested that there is an interaction between final lengthening and material underlined: accentual lengthening in Dutch, but not in English. To this end, a production experiment was run for both languages with accented (1) a. English and unaccented words in three positions...

We performed limb lengthening and correction of deformity of nine long bones of the lower limb in six children (mean age, 14.7 years) with osteogenesis imperfecta (OI). All had femoral lengthening and three also had ipsilateral tibial lengthening. Angular deformities were corrected simultaneously. Five limb segments were treated using a monolateral external fixator and four with the Ilizarov fr...

Skeletal muscles can be injured by lengthening contractions, when the muscles are stretched while activated. Lengthening contractions produce structural damage that leads to the degeneration and regeneration of damaged muscle fibers by mechanisms that have not been fully elucidated. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) generated at the time of injury may initiate degenerative or regenerative processes...

PURPOSE Children with radial longitudinal deficiency have very short forearms. The Ilizarov method of distraction osteogenesis has been used to increase extremity length, but results differ with the underlying condition and the limb being lengthened. The purpose of this study is to examine retrospectively the outcomes of Ilizarov lengthening of the ulna in children with radial longitudinal defi...

The development of knee flexion contractures is among the most common problems and complications associated with lengthening the femur with an internal device or external fixator. Conservative treatment strategies include physical therapy, serial casting, and low-load prolonged stretching with commercially available splinting systems. The authors developed an individually molded, low-cost custo...