background: degenerative joint disease (djd) is the most common joint disease in human beings. previous studies have explained that glucosamine is preferred as placebo and in efficacy compared with nsaid’s in treatment of patients’ knee osteoarthritis. alendronate was used to treat osteoporotic patients and its efficacy was established. objectives: the aim of this study was to compare the effic...

Stiffness, particularly "morning stiffness" is a characteristic symptom of active Rheumatoid Disease. An articular component of stiffness has been measured directly in a number of studies (Scott, 1960; Wright and Johns, 1961). Stiffness in muscle is less readily measured and has been given relatively little attention. Stiffness in both muscle and joint increase the load on actively contracting ...

introduction: low-level laser therapy (lllt) is thought to have analgesic and biomodulatory effects. our objective was to assess the pain-relieving effect of lllt and possible changes in joint stiffness and disability of patients with knee osteoarthritis (koa) and compare it to the more commonly used modality; therapeutic ultrasound(us). methods: 37 patients with mild or moderate koa were rando...

We address the estimation of biomechanical parameters with wearable measurement technologies. In particular, we focus on the estimation of sagittal plane ankle joint stiffness in dorsiflexion/plantar flexion. For this estimation, a novel nonlinear biomechanical model of the lower leg was formulated that is driven by electromyographic signals. The model incorporates a two-dimensional kinematic d...

Accepted 29 January 1997 An 18-year-old man walked into the out-patient department with complaints of spontaneous onset of pain and stiffness of neck and upper back for the last six years. On examination, multiple painless bony swellings were found over the nape of neck and dorsolumbar region. Similar bony swellings were also present over the left arm, forearm and both legs. Radiographic examin...

this article considers the seismic behavior of beam-to-column joints in steel frames for different bolt arrangements by using of finite element modeling. as the most important beam-to-column joint type, the beam-to-column joints with end-plate is chosen for the analysis. four different specimens have been analyzed. these models had some differences such as bolt arrangement and the presence or a...

INTRODUCTION: It has been supposed that leg stiffness affect repeated jump performance, such as hopping. Previous study indicated that ankle joint stiffness is important in leg stiffness (Arampatzis et al. 2001). Furthermore, it was demonstrated that Achilles tendon properties could contribute to the total mechanical work during hopping (Lichtwark and Wilson 2005). On the other hand, it is know...

Asymmetry in vertical stiffness has been associated with increased injury incidence and impaired performance. The determinants of vertical stiffness asymmetry have not been previously investigated. Eighteen healthy men performed three unilateral drop jumps during which vertical stiffness and joint stiffness of the ankle and knee were calculated. Reactive strength index was also determined durin...

Humans demonstrate an impressive ability to manipulate fragile objects without damaging them, graciously controlling the position of hands and tools while managing contact forces as necessary for the task. Robot control has been characterized by position control with the aim of producing fast, accurate and repeatable motion. These capabilities have reached a level where robots often outperform ...

Since safe human-robot interaction is naturally linked to compliance in these robots, this requirement presents a challenge for the positioning accuracy. The class of variable-stiffness robots features intrinsically soft contact behavior where physical stiffness can even be altered during operation. Here we present control scheme bidirectional, antagonistic actuators that achieve high-precision...