Effects of an 11-week vibro-tactile stimulation treatment on voice symptoms in laryngeal dystonia.

Background: Laryngeal dystonia is a task-specific focal dystonia of laryngeal muscles that impairs speech and voice production. At present, there is no cure for LD. The most common therapeutic option for patients with LD involves Botulinum neurotoxin injections.

The SoftHand Pro: Functional evaluation of a novel, flexible, and robust myoelectric prosthesis.

Roughly one quarter of active upper limb prosthetic technology is rejected by the user, and user surveys have identified key areas requiring improvement: function, comfort, cost, durability, and appearance. Here we present the first systematic, clinical assessment of a novel prosthetic hand, the SoftHand Pro (SHP), in participants with transradial amputation and age-matched, limb-intact participants. The SHP is a robust and functional prosthetic hand that minimizes cost and weight using an underactuated design with a single motor.

Effects of a combined inversion and plantarflexion surface on knee and hip kinematics during landing.

Although landing in a plantarflexion and inversion position is a well-known characteristic of lateral ankle sprains, the associated kinematics of the knee and hip is largely unknown. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the changes in knee and hip kinematics during landings on an altered landing surface of combined plantarflexion and inversion. Participants performed five drop landings from 30 cm onto a trapdoor platform in three different conditions: flat landing surface, 25° inversion, or a combined 25° plantarflexion and 25° inversion.

Is the inverted surface landing more suitable in evaluating ankle braces and ankle inversion perturbation?

Objective: To investigate biomechanical (kinematic) differences between 2 ankle brace testing protocols: landing on an inverted surface (IS) and inversion drop on an inversion platform.

Design: Five trials in each of 4 dynamic movement conditions were performed: inversion drop and drop landing from 0.45 m onto an IS without and with an ankle brace.