BACKGROUND Midfoot osteoarthritis (OA) is more prevalent and strongly associated with pain than previously thought. Excessive mechanical loading of the midfoot structures may contribute to midfoot OA and studies suggest that functional foot orthoses (FFO) may relieve pain through improving function. This exploratory study aimed to evaluate the mechanical effect of two off-the-shelf FFOs, compar...

With enormous amounts of information injected into the Internet every second, manual maintenance of the knowledge base on the Internet is a hopeless task. A reasonable remedy for this problem is to create a “machine understandable” Internet. To achieve this, Heflin et al. proposed an HTML-based knowledge representation language called Simple HTML Ontology Extension (SHOE). SHOE can be used in m...

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of shoe design on the plantar pressure dynamics of patients with diabetic neuropathy during walking. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Three shoe design categories were tested. Total contact area and biomechanical variables in multiple areas under the foot were measured. RESULTS Shoes with a rocker bottom principle reduced pressure 35-...

Background Court shoe designs predominantly focus on reducing excessive vertical ground reaction force, but shear force cushioning has received little attention in the basketball population. We aimed to examine the effect of a novel shoe-cushioning design on both resultant horizontal ground reaction forces and comfort perception during two basketball-specific cutting movements. Methods Fiftee...

INTRODUCTION Arthrodesis of the ankle is an established operation. The lack of normal ankle movement after ankle arthrodesis reduced the ability of the patients to walk smoothly on the arthrodesis foot. It would have a more profound effect in negotiating stairs, because large ranges of dorsiflexion and plantarflexion are required to accomplish this activity. Although gait characteristics have b...

AIM The first aim of this study was to assess how changes in the mechanical characteristics of the foot/shoe-ground interface affect spatio-temporal variables, ground pressure distribution, sagittal plane kinematics, and running economy in 8 experienced barefoot runners. The second aim was to assess if a special lightweight shoe (Vibram Fivefingers) was effective in mimic the experience of bare...

Xanthogranulomatous pyelonephritis (XGPN) represents an unusual suppurative granulomatous reaction to chronic infection, often in the presence of chronic obstruction from a calculus. We present a case of XGPN in a horse shoe kidney in an adult. Hemi-nephrectomy of the involved side was followed by clinical improvement. The case highlights the importance of early hemi-nephrectomy in XPGN with ho...

Every research study requires a sound design, careful planning, good management and proper analysis. In some cases, a study is conducted in multiple sites and possibly in different countries, often in order to increase the study sample size or to compare and contrast different study populations. Multi-center studies require co-investigators and research staff not only knowledgeable about the st...

3 Chapter 1: Introduction 4 7 Chapter 2: Related Work 8 28 Chapter 3: Approach & Methodology 29 – 39 Chapter 4: Description of the Augmented Tango Shoe System 40 46 Chapter 5: Design, Implementation, Results, & Discussion 47 58 Chapter 6: Conclusion & Future Work 59 – 60 Appendix A: Acronyms 61 Bibliography 62 68 Mapping Strategies for the Augmented Tango Shoe

Background Unstable shoe designs should support the muscle activity and promise the treatment of leg, back and foot problems. According to manufacturers, they should activate additional muscles and reduce joint reaction forces. Goal of this study is to investigate the effect of an unstable shoe design to gait patterns of healthy volunteers and by the means of inverse dynamic multi-body simulation.