The advent of the “Running Boom” in the late 1970’s coincided with the introduction of the first “technical” running shoe products incorporating cushioned soles and features intended to stabilize the foot during ground contact. The sensation of comfort provided by cushioned running shoes appears to have facilitated the participation of many “joggers” who would otherwise not have taken up the sp...

There has been little scientific investigation of the impact of dance shoes on foot motion or dance injuries. The pointed (plantar-flexed) foot is a fundamental component of both the technical requirements and the traditional aesthetic of ballet and jazz dancing. The aims of this study were to quantify the externally observed angle of plantar flexion in various jazz shoes compared with barefoot...

BACKGROUND The majority of multi-segment kinematic foot studies have been limited to barefoot conditions, because shod conditions have the potential for confounding surface-mounted markers. The aim of this study was to investigate whether a shoe modified with a webbed upper can accommodate multi-segment foot marker sets without compromising kinematic measurements under barefoot and shod conditi...

OBJECTIVE To determine the effectiveness of using a disinfectant mat filled with a peroxygen compound to prevent mechanical transmission of bacteria via contaminated footwear between the food animal ward and common breezeway of a veterinary teaching hospital. DESIGN Observational study. SAMPLE POPULATION Shoe soles of individuals entering and exiting from the ward. PROCEDURES A mat filled...

Sample-size determination is often an important step in planning a statistical study—and it is usually a difficult one. Among the important hurdles to be surpassed, one must obtain an estimate of one or more error variances, and specify an effect size of importance. There is the temptation to take some shortcuts. This paper offers some suggestions for successful and meaningful sample-size deter...

In this paper, a new method for estimating the eigenvalues and associated subspaces of covariance matrices using their sample estimates is presented. The method is based on random matrix theory and provides consistent estimates when both the sample size and the observation dimension tend to infinity at the same rate, provided that an eigenvalue asymptotic splitting condition is fulfilled. The p...

BACKGROUND Chemicals used in leather tanning, rubber processing, and/or adhesives are the most often-cited culprits in footwear dermatitis. Patch testing patients with suspected shoe dermatitis is essential for diagnosis and management. OBJECTIVES The four goals for this study were to (1) determine the frequency of allergens associated with a shoe source in North American Contact Dermatitis G...

BACKGROUND The role of footwear in protection against a range of Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) is gaining increasing attention. Better understanding of the behaviors that influence use of footwear will lead to improved ability to measure shoe use and will be important for those implementing footwear programs. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS Using the PRECEDE-PROCEED model we assessed soci...

We examined sister chromatid exchanges (SCEs) and micronuclei (MN; cytokinesis-block method) in cultured peripheral lymphocytes from 52 female workers of two shoe factories and from 36 unexposed age- and sex-matched referents. The factory workers showed an elevated level of urinary hippuric acid, a biomarker of toluene exposure, and workplace air contained high concentrations of various organic...

To date it has been thought that shoe midsole hardness does not affect vertical impact peak forces during running. This conclusion is based partially on results from experimental data using homogeneous samples of participants that found no difference in vertical impact peaks when running in shoes with different midsole properties. However, it is currently unknown how apparent joint stiffness is...