Development of a Platform to Assess the Risk of Musculoskeletal Disorders in Manual Load Handling Activities - Preliminary Results.

Risk identification on workstations is a crucial step to prevent the occurrence of musculoskeletal disorders (MSD) in workers. The available methods and tools used by ergonomists to assess and estimate the risk related to manual handling of loads under repetitive work cycles are usually biased by the inter-evaluator error that can lead to a subjective determination of work-related risks due to the application of, mainly, observational methods. This paper shows the preliminary results of a platform to assess the risk of musculoskeletal disorders during manual load-handling tasks using an instrumented system and using the National Institute for Occupational Safety & Health (NIOSH) method.

Instrumented Timed Up and Go Test (iTUG)-More Than Assessing Time to Predict Falls: A Systematic Review.

The Timed Up and Go (TUG) test is a widely used tool for assessing the risk of falls in older adults. However, to increase the test's predictive value, the instrumented Timed Up and Go (iTUG) test has been developed, incorporating different technological approaches. This systematic review aims to explore the evidence of the technological proposal for the segmentation and analysis of iTUG in elderlies with or without pathologies.

Static Balance Characterization using a single IMU Located in the Lower Back: Preliminary Results.

Balance refers to the dynamics of body posture to prevent falls. For years, researchers have tried to find out which tasks and measures provide optimal detection of balance disorders, so that they can be quantified. This paper proposes the use of an accelerometer sensor located in the lower back to measure the center of mass accelerations and to characterize the subject's static balance.

Predicting risk of falls in elderly using a single Inertial Measurement Unit on the lower-back by estimating spatio-temporal gait parameters.

One of the consequences of aging is the increased risk of falls, especially when someone walks in unknown or uncontrolled environments. Usually, gait is evaluated through observation and clinical assessment scales to identify the state and deterioration of the patient's postural control. Lately, technological systems for bio-mechanical analysis have been used to determine abnormal gait states being expensive, difficult to use, and impossible to apply in real conditions.

Utrecht work engagement scale: Construct validity and reliability in Chilean health science students.

Objective: The Utrecht Work Engagement Scale-Student (UWES-S) has been extensively applied in different countries to assess engagement in students, but there are discrepancies about its factor structure outcomes. To analyse the factor structure of Utrecht Work Engagement Scale-Student as construct validity evidence and reliability in medical students.

Methods: The non-experimental cross-sectional study was conducted at the public-sector University of Concepción in the Bio-Bio region in central Chile at the end of the first academic semester, between July and August 2017, and comprised students of health science undergraduate degree programmes in Medicine, Kinesiology, Pharmacy, and Speech and Language Therapy.

A Novel Capacitive Step Sensor to Trigger Stimulation on Functional Electrical Stimulators Devices for Drop Foot.

Drop foot is a typical clinical condition associated with stroke. According to the World Health Organization, fifteen million people suffer a stroke per year, and one of three people's survival gets drop foot. Functional Electrical Stimulation systems are applied over the peroneal motor nerve to achieve the drop foot problem's dorsiflexion.

Step capacitive array sensor to trigger stimulation on Functional Electrical Stimulators devices for Drop Foot: Preliminary results.

In this work, a new custom wireless capacitive step sensor and a real-time algorithm are proposed to detect the start and end of the swing phase of the gait to trigger the stimulation in Functional Electrical Stimulator devices (FES) for Drop Foot. For this, an array of capacitive pressure sensors was designed to detect patterns of the gait swing phase through the Heel Center of Pressure (HCOP). The proposed system recognized all the events with an average error of 20.

Simple Wireless Impedance Pneumography System for Unobtrusive Sensing of Respiration.

This extended paper presents the development and implementation at a prototype level of a wireless, low-cost system for the measurement of the electrical bioimpedance of the chest with two channels using the AD5933 in a bipolar electrode configuration to measure impedance pneumography. The measurement device works for impedance measurements ranging from 1 Ω to 1800 Ω. Fifteen volunteers were measured with the prototype.

Validation of a portable system for spatial-temporal gait parameters based on a single inertial measurement unit and a mobile application.

There is a lack of commercially available low-cost technologies to assess gait clinically in non-controlled environments. As a consequence of this, there has been poor massification of motion measurement technologies that are both objective and reliable in nature. Advances about the study of gait and its interpretation in recent years using inertial sensors have allowed proposing acceptable alternatives for the development of portable and low-cost systems that contribute to people's health in places and institutions that cannot acquire or maintain the operation of commercially available systems.

Construct validity and test-retest reliability of a free mobile application for spatio-temporal gait analysis in Parkinson's disease patients.

Background: Mobile applications may be used to assess gait pattern deviation through mobile smartphones in people with Parkinson's disease (PD). However, few studies have investigated their psychometrics properties.

Research Question: To study the construct validity and test-retest reliability of the RUNZI® free mobile application in people with mild to moderate PD.

Use of a Single Wireless IMU for the Segmentation and Automatic Analysis of Activities Performed in the 3-m Timed Up & Go Test.

Falls represent a major public health problem in the elderly population. The Timed Up & Go test (TU & Go) is the most used tool to measure this risk of falling, which offers a unique parameter in seconds that represents the dynamic balance. However, it is not determined in which activity the subject presents greater difficulties.