Energy expenditure and heart rate responses to increased loading in individuals with motor complete spinal cord injury performing body weight-supported exercises.

Objective: To examine acute metabolic and heart rate responses in individuals with motor complete spinal cord injury (SCI) during stepping and standing with body weight support (BWS).

Design: Cohort study.

Setting: Therapeutic exercise research laboratory.

A randomized controlled trial of an internal family systems-based psychotherapeutic intervention on outcomes in rheumatoid arthritis: a proof-of-concept study.

Objective: To conduct a proof-of-concept randomized trial of an Internal Family Systems (IFS) psychotherapeutic intervention on rheumatoid arthritis (RA) disease activity and psychological status.

Methods: Patients with RA were randomized to either an IFS group for 9 months (n = 39) or an education (control) group (n = 40) that received mailed materials on RA symptoms and management. The groups were evaluated every 3 months until intervention end and 1 year later.

External quality assessment of platelet disorder investigations: results of international surveys on diagnostic tests for dense granule deficiency and platelet aggregometry interpretation.

The quality of platelet aggregation and dense granule deficiency testing is important for diagnosing platelet function disorders. After a successful pilot exercise on diagnosing platelet dense granule deficiency by electron microscopy (EM), the North American Specialized Coagulation Laboratory Association (NASCOLA) has launched regular external quality assurance (EQA) for dense granule EM, as well as for the interpretation of platelet aggregation findings. EQA records were analyzed to assess performance.

A study of the difference between nominal and actual hand forces in two-handed sagittal plane whole-body exertions.

Given a task posture, changes in hand force magnitude and direction with regard to joint locations result in variations in joint loads. Previous work has quantified considerable vertical force components during push/pull exertions. The objective of this work was to quantify and statistically model actual hand forces in two-hand, standing exertions relative to the required nominal horizontal and vertical hand forces for a population of widely varying stature and strength.