Translation, Cross-Cultural Adaptation, and Validation of the Traditional Chinese Version of the VISA-P Questionnaire.

Background: The Victorian Institute of Sport Assessment-Patella (VISA-P) questionnaire is a widely accepted instrument for measuring the severity of symptoms and pain in patients having sustained patellar tendinopathy.

Purpose: To adapt the VISA-P questionnaire cross-culturally to a traditional Chinese version (VISA-P-Ch) and validate its psychometric properties.

Study Design: Cohort study (diagnosis); Level of evidence, 3.

The treatment of oily wastewater by thermo-responsive calcium alginate capsules immobilized Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

A microfluidic strategy of smart calcium alginate (CA) capsules is presented to immobilize Pseudomonas aeruginosa to treat oil slicks effectively. The capsule wall is embedded with poly (N-isopropyl acrylamide) sub-microspheres as thermo-responsive switches. CA capsules, with a diameter of 3.

Scapula-Focused Exercises With or Without Biofeedback and Corticospinal Excitability in Recreational Overhead Athletes With Shoulder Impingement.

Context: Individuals with shoulder impingement syndrome (SIS) exhibit changes in corticospinal excitability, scapular kinematics, and scapular muscle-activation patterns. To restore the scapular kinematics and muscle-activation patterns in individuals with SIS, treatment protocols usually include scapula-focused exercises, such as scapular-orientation and strength training.

Objective: To investigate whether scapular-orientation and strength training can reverse the altered corticospinal excitability of recreational overhead athletes with SIS.

Alterations in kinematics of temporomandibular joint associated with chronic neck pain.

Background: Temporomandibular disorder (TMD) is an umbrella term for pain and dysfunction of the temporomandibular joint (TMJ) and its associated structures. Patients with TMD show changes in TMJ kinematics and masticatory muscle activation. TMD is commonly comorbid with non-specific chronic neck pain (NCNP), which may be one of the risk factors for TMD.

Altered corticospinal excitability of scapular muscles in individuals with shoulder impingement syndrome.

The purpose of this study is to assess and compare corticospinal excitability in the upper and lower trapezius and serratus anterior muscles in participants with and without shoulder impingement syndrome (SIS). Fourteen participants with SIS, and 14 without SIS were recruited through convenient sampling in this study. Transcranial magnetic stimulation assessment of the scapular muscles was performed while the participants were holding their arm at 90 degrees scaption.

Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation of the Contralesional Dorsal Premotor Cortex for Upper Extremity Motor Improvement in Severe Stroke: Study Protocol for a Pilot Randomized Clinical Trial.

Up to 50% of stroke survivors have persistent, severe upper extremity paresis even after receiving rehabilitation. Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) can augment the effects of rehabilitation by modulating corticomotor excitability, but the conventional approach of facilitating excitability of the ipsilesional primary motor cortex (iM1) fails to produce motor improvement in stroke survivors with severe loss of ipsilesional substrate. Instead, the undamaged, contralesional dorsal premotor cortex (cPMd) may be a more suitable target.

Stratifying chronic stroke patients based on the influence of contralesional motor cortices: An inter-hemispheric inhibition study.

Objective: A recent "bimodal-balance recovery" model suggests that contralesional influence varies based on the amount of ipsilesional reserve: inhibitory when there is a large reserve, but supportive when there is a low reserve. Here, we investigated the relationships between contralesional influence (inter-hemispheric inhibition, IHI) and ipsilesional reserve (corticospinal damage/impairment), and also defined a criterion separating subgroups based on the relationships.

Methods: Twenty-four patients underwent assessment of IHI using Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (ipsilateral silent period method), motor impairment using Upper Extremity Fugl-Meyer (UEFM), and corticospinal damage using Diffusion Tensor Imaging and active motor threshold.

Using theoretical models from adult stroke recovery to improve use of noninvasive brain stimulation for children with congenital hemiparesis.

Noninvasive brain stimulation has been widely used for adults with stroke to improve upper limb motor function. A recent study by Kirton and colleagues (Kirton A, Ciechanski P, Zewdie E, Andersen J, Nettel-Aguirre A, Carlson H, Carsolio L, Herrero M, Quigley J, Mineyko A, Hodge J, Hill M. 88: 259-267, 2017) applied noninvasive brain stimulation to children with congenital hemiparesis but found no significant effect of noninvasive brain stimulation on motor function.

Joint position sense - There׳s an app for that.

Traditionally, proprioception has been assessed with a passive model, in which an external apparatus moves a body segment. Recently, protocols have been developed based on active movements, which are more representative of functional activities. However, even these approaches require expensive testing equipment and the necessity of a visit to a research lab, as there are no commercially available mobile instruments that allow for the assessment of proprioception outside of a laboratory setting.

Errors in Shoulder Joint Position Sense Mainly Come from the Glenohumeral Joint.

While synchronous movement of the glenohumeral and scapulothoracic joints has been emphasized in previous kinematics studies, most investigations of shoulder joint position sense have treated the shoulder complex as a single joint. The purposes of this study were to investigate the joint position sense errors of the humerothoracic, glenohumeral, and scapulothoracic joints at different elevation angles and to examine whether the errors of the glenohumeral and scapulothoracic joints contribute to the errors of the humerothoracic joint. Fifty-one subjects with healthy shoulders were recruited.

Exercises focusing on rotator cuff and scapular muscles do not improve shoulder joint position sense in healthy subjects.

Proprioception is essential for shoulder neuromuscular control and shoulder stability. Exercise of the rotator cuff and scapulothoracic muscles is an important part of shoulder rehabilitation. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of rotator cuff and scapulothoracic muscle exercises on shoulder joint position sense.

Four-week exercise program does not change rotator cuff muscle activation and scapular kinematics in healthy subjects.

Rotator cuff and scapular muscle strengthening exercises are an essential part of shoulder rehabilitation and sports training. Although the effect of exercise training on pain and function have been widely investigated, few studies have focused on the changes in shoulder kinematics and muscle activity after exercise training. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of rotator cuff and scapular strengthening exercises on shoulder kinematics and the activation of rotator cuff and scapular muscles in healthy subjects.

Excitability of the infraspinatus, but not the middle deltoid, is affected by shoulder elevation angle.

Although both the rotator cuff and deltoid muscle serve as shoulder abductors, they play different roles in shoulder movement. While the deltoid is a primary abductor, the rotator cuff is a stabilizer. They have different anatomic structures for force production and demonstrate different neuromuscular control at different shoulder angles, as measured by electromyographic activity.

Sensors on the humerus are not necessary for an accurate assessment of humeral kinematics in constrained movements.

The measurement of humeral kinematics with a sensor on the humerus is susceptible to large errors due to skin motion artifacts. An alternative approach is to use data from a forearm sensor, combined with data from either a scapular or thoracic sensor. We used three tasks to assess the errors of these approaches: humeral elevation, elbow flexion and humeral internal rotation.