STUDY OBJECTIVE To compare the prevalence of low back pain and associated disability in Hong Kong with that in Britain, and to explore whether differences could be explained by certain known risk factors. DESIGN A cross sectional survey with information collected at interview. Findings were compared with those from an earlier survey in Britain. SETTING Two housing blocks in Hong Kong. SUB...

In semi-arid regions, trees often wither during the dry season. Withering is sometimes manifest as die-back, whereby whithering results in shoot death, which progresses downward from the uppermost part of the crown. In this study, we measured the relationships between height growth and diameter at breast height, die-back frequency and severity, vessel size and specific hydraulic conductivity of...

This paper explains an integrated method of using genetic algorithm on the experimental data for optimizing the process parameters for height to width ratio and use of artificial neural network techniques for predicting the effects on the four weld bead geometric descriptors (front height, front width, back height and back width) by the five controlling weld process variables (welding speed, wi...

BACKGROUND Back pain is a common condition which has been described as a serious public health problem. Spinal shrinkage has been used as an index of spinal loading in a range of tasks. Epidemiological evidence shows that body mass index (BMI: 30 kg/m(2)) is related to the development of low back pain however, no studies have described the stature change patterns of obese individuals. This stud...

While numerous efforts have attempted to provide quantitative guidelines for the prevention of initial low back disorders during material handling tasks, none have appeared in the literature that address the issue of recurrent low back disorders due to materials handling when returning to the workplace. A study comparing the spine loads of low back pain patients and asymptomatic controls was co...

This paper presents results of a study conducted to estimate lower back loadings in cart pushing and pulling. Experiments were conducted in the laboratory using a cart. Six subjects with different weights (ranging from 50 to 80 kg) were tested for three different pushing and pulling forces (98, 196 and 294 newtons), three different heights of exertion (660, 1090 and 1520 mm high) and two differ...

STUDY DESIGN A prospective observational study. PURPOSE To evaluate the role of nucleoplasty in the management of discogenic axial back pain; to determine the influence of concordant pain during provocative discography, annular tear and loss of disc height on the outcome of nucleoplasty. OVERVIEW OF LITERATURE The role of nucleoplasty in the management of radicular leg pain due to disc hern...