The Impact of Sports Training on the Spinal Cord Injury Individual's Balance.

Spinal cord injury (SCI) causes major challenges to mobility and daily life activities and maintaining balance becomes a crucial issue. Individuals with SCI often need to adopt new strategies to manage balance with minimal discomfort. Sports and physical activities have become one of the most popular rehabilitation methods for people with SCI.

The Sensor-Based Biomechanical Risk Assessment at the Base of the Need for Revising of Standards for Human Ergonomics.

Due to the epochal changes introduced by "Industry 4.0", it is getting harder to apply the varying approaches for biomechanical risk assessment of manual handling tasks used to prevent work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMDs) considered within the International Standards for ergonomics. In fact, the innovative human-robot collaboration (HRC) systems are widening the number of work motor tasks that cannot be assessed.

Global Muscle Coactivation of the Sound Limb in Gait of People with Transfemoral and Transtibial Amputation.

The aim of this study was to analyze the effect of the level of amputation and various prosthetic devices on the muscle activation of the sound limb in people with unilateral transfemoral and transtibial amputation. We calculated the global coactivation of 12 muscles using the time-varying multimuscle coactivation function method in 37 subjects with unilateral transfemoral amputation (10, 16, and 11 with mechanical, electronic, and bionic prostheses, respectively), 11 subjects with transtibial amputation, and 22 healthy subjects representing the control group. The results highlighted that people with amputation had a global coactivation temporal profile similar to that of healthy subjects.

The Working Life of People with Degenerative Cerebellar Ataxia.

The aim of the present study was to characterize and analyze the most important individual and organizational variables associated with job accommodation in subjects with degenerative cerebellar ataxia by administering a series of international and validated work activity-related scales. Twenty-four workers (W) and 58 non-workers (NW) were recruited: 34 with autosomal dominant ataxia and 48 with autosomal recessive ataxia (27 with Friedreich ataxia and 21 with sporadic adult-onset ataxia of unknown etiology). The severity of ataxia was rated using the Scale for the Assessment and Rating of Ataxia.

Common and specific gait patterns in people with varying anatomical levels of lower limb amputation and different prosthetic components.

The present study's aim was to identify the kinematic and kinetic gait patterns and to measure the energy consumption in people with amputation according to both the anatomical level of amputation and the type of prosthetic components in comparison with a control group matched for the gait speed. Fifteen subjects with unilateral transtibial amputation (TTA), forty with unilateral transfemoral amputation (TFA) (9 with mechanical, 17 with CLeg and 14 with Genium prosthesis) and forty healthy subjects were recruited. We computed the time-distance gait parameters; the range of angular motion (RoM) at hip, knee and ankle joints, and at the trunk and pelvis; the values of the 2 peaks of vertical force curve; the full width at half maximum (FWHM) and center of activity (CoA) of vertical force; the mechanical behavior in terms of energy recovery (R-step) and energy consumption.

Erratum: Alberto, R. et al., Wearable Monitoring Devices for Biomechanical Risk Assessment at Work: Current Status and Future Challenges-A Systematic Review. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2018, 15, 2001.

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Wearable Monitoring Devices for Biomechanical Risk Assessment at Work: Current Status and Future Challenges-A Systematic Review.

: In order to reduce the risk of work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) several methods have been developed, accepted by the international literature and used in the workplace. The purpose of this systematic review was to describe recent implementations of wearable sensors for quantitative instrumental-based biomechanical risk assessments in prevention of WMSDs. : Articles written until 7 May 2018 were selected from PubMed, Scopus, Google Scholar and Web of Science using specific keywords.

Myoelectric manifestation of muscle fatigue in repetitive work detected by means of miniaturized sEMG sensors.

Upper limb work-related musculoskeletal disorders have a 12-month prevalence ranging from 12 to 41% worldwide and can be partly caused by handling low loads at high frequency. The association between the myoelectric manifestation of elbow flexor muscle fatigue and occupational physical demand has never been investigated. It was hypothesized that an elbow flexor muscle fatigue index could be a valid risk indicator in handling low loads at high frequency.

Mechanical lifting energy consumption in work activities designed by means of the "revised NIOSH lifting equation".

The aims of the present work were: to calculate lifting energy consumption (LEC) in work activities designed to have a growing lifting index (LI) by means of revised NIOSH lifting equation; to evaluate the relationship between LEC and forces at the L-S joint. The kinematic and kinetic data of 20 workers were recorded during the execution of lifting tasks in three conditions. We computed kinetic, potential and mechanical energy and the corresponding LEC by considering three different centers of mass of: 1) the load (CoM); 2) the multi-segment upper body model and load together (CoM); 3) the whole body and load together (CoM).

[The role of coactivation of the trunk musculature in evaluating biomechanical risk].

One of the mechanisms adopted by the central nervous system to stabilize the joints or the spine is muscle co-activation. Nevertheless during lifting tasks muscle co-activation increases spinal load. For co-activation assessment during 3 lifting tasks at increasing load levels we utilized a time-varying co-activation algorithm proposed by Rudolph in 2000.

A new muscle co-activation index for biomechanical load evaluation in work activities.

Low-back disorders (LBDs) are the most common and costly musculoskeletal problem. Muscle co-activation, a mechanism that stabilises the spine, is adopted by the central nervous system to provide added protection and avoid LBDs. However, during high-risk lifting tasks, the compressive load on the spine grows owing to increased co-activation.

Kinematic and electromyographic assessment of manual handling on a supermarket green- grocery shelf.

Background: There are few epidemiological data regarding musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) in retail industry. Biomechanical risk assessment in ergonomics is commonly performed in retail sector using standardized protocols. However, such protocols have numerous limitations, such as the lack of objectivity or applicability and restrictive conditions.

Lower-limb joint coordination pattern in obese subjects.

The coordinative pattern is an important feature of locomotion that has been studied in a number of pathologies. It has been observed that adaptive changes in coordination patterns are due to both external and internal constraints. Obesity is characterized by the presence of excess mass at pelvis and lower-limb areas, causing mechanical constraints that central nervous system could manage modifying the physiological interjoint coupling relationships.

[Air transport biomechanical risk: reduced mobility passengers' handling].

As the airport traffic increases there is a continuous increase of passengers with different motor disabilities. Disabled passenger's assistance causes a biomechanical overload in airport workers. Some disabled passengers are classified by IATA as WCHC (wheel chair in cabin or Charlie).

[Modelling metallic bars in an orthopaedic laboratory: postural and biomechanical analysis].

Aim of this work is to assess, with an objective technique (i.e. surface electromyography), the upper limb biomechanical load in workers specialized in manufacturing of orthopedic prostheses.

Biomechanical evaluation of supermarket cashiers before and after a redesign of the checkout counter.

An experiment was carried out on supermarket cashiers to evaluate the time, kinematic and electromyographic changes, in both sitting and standing positions, following the redesign of a checkout counter. The novelty of the prototype checkout counter is a disk wheel placed in the bagging area, which is designed to avoid the cashier having to manually push products along the bagging area. The kinematic evaluation was based on the upper limb and trunk range of motions (RoM).

Kinematic analysis of post office employees' workstations.

This study analyzed a post office clerk's tasks, comparing two workstation models. The clerk was facing the client in one, and seated at 45 degrees to the counter in the other. We analyzed the most frequent tasks and those presenting the most critical points: 1) payment of a postal order; 2) accepting a registered letter, breaking them down into subtasks.

[How surface electromyography (sEMG) can help in biomechanical risk assessment in industrial work].

Observational information on muscle activity is related to sEMG activity expressed as a percentage of the maximum voluntary contraction (MVC). This is the case for the Garg and Moore Strain Index and the Hand Activity Level (HAL) proposed by the ACGIH. This latter involves the assessor recording the levels of MVC in 10% intervals.

[Walking efficiency of blind people on trapezoidal and sinusoidal section tactile leading indicators].

Gait of visually impaired subjects (VIS) is worse than that of sighted ones. VIS can use tactile ground surface indicators to optimize their walking efficiency. Aim of the study was to compare VIS walking efficiency on either trapezoidal and sinusoidal shape leading indicators.

Walking strategies of visually impaired people on trapezoidal- and sinusoidal-section tactile groundsurface indicators.

The visual system in walking serves to perceive feedback or feed-forward signals. Therefore, visually impaired persons (VIP) have biased motor control mechanisms. The use of leading indicators (LIs) and long canes helps to improve their walking efficiency.

[Coordination patterns assessed by a continuous measure of joints coupling during upper limb repetitive movements].

We analyzed the coordination patterns between elbow, shoulder and trunk in a motor task consisting of reaching out, picking up a cylinder, and transporting it back by using the Dynamical Systems Theory and calculating the continuous relative phase (CRP), a continuous measure of the coupling between two interacting joints. We used an optoelectronic motion analysis system consisting of eight infra-red ray cameras to detect the movements of nine skin-mounted markers. We calculated the root square of the adjusted coefficient of determination, the coefficient of multiple correlation (CMC), in order to investigate the repeatability of the joints coordination.

[Subjective perception and comfort/discomfort ergonomic evaluation in school environment].

In order to carry out the present study a school place representative of the entire Italian school have been identified, an Institute within Rome province have been selected. The first step has been the measurement of the dimensional and structural features of the classrooms considered, their furniture and work-posts, also considering the activities carried on in the classrooms and their environmental conditions. Pictures and videos have been shot so as to have a deep analysis of the ergonomic level of the work-posts and, at the same time, an inquiry to understand the needs of the students with respect to the environment "classroom", the work-posts and didactical tools utilized, by means of a multiple answers questionnaire, drawing, and the implementation of the shared design method.

[Biomechanical risk assessment of manual material handling in vegetables and fruit departments of supermarkets].

There is little in the literature about the risks of manual handling of material in supermarkets and what there is refers solely to storehouse work. This contrasts with the substantial number of studies of the risk of repeated arm movements among supermarket cash-desk staff. The scarcity of information is partly due to the difficulties of applying widely employed, standardized evaluation methods in this sector.