Inadequate sitting posture can cause imbalanced loading on the spine and result in abnormal spinal pressure, which serves as the main risk factor contributing to irreversible and chronic spinal deformity. Therefore, sitting posture recognition is important for understanding people’s sitting behaviors and for correcting inadequate postures. Recently, wearable devices embedded with microelectromechanical systems (MEMs) sensors, such as inertial measurement units (IMUs), have received increased attention in human activity recognition. In this study, a wearable device embedded with IMUs and a machine learning algorithm were developed to classify seven static sitting postures: upright, slump, lean, right and left bending, and right and left twisting. Four 9-axis IMUs were uniformly distributed between thoracic and lumbar regions (T1-L5) and aligned on a sagittal plane to acquire kinematic information about subjects’ backs during static-dynamic alternating motions. Time-domain features served as inputs to a signal-based classification model that was developed using long short-term memory-based recurrent neural network (LSTM-RNN) architecture, and the model’s classification performance was used to evaluate the relevance between sensor signals and sitting postures. Overall results from performance evaluation tests indicate that this IMU-based measurement and LSTM-RNN structural scheme was appropriate for sitting posture recognition.

Introduction: Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is considered a transitional stage between soundness of mind and dementia, often involving problems with memory, which may lead to abnormal postural control and altered end-point control when dealing with neuromechanical challenges during obstacle-crossing. The study aimed to identify the end-point control and angular kinematics of the pelvis-leg apparatus while crossing obstacles for both leading and trailing limbs.Methods: 12 patients with MCI (age: 66.7 ± 4.2 y/o; height: 161.3 ± 7.3 cm; mass: 62.0 ± 13.6 kg) and 12 healthy adults (age: 67.7 ± 2.9 y/o; height: 159.3 ± 6.1 cm; mass: 61.2 ± 12.0 kg) each walked and crossed obstacles of three different heights (10, 20, and 30% of leg length). Angular motions of the pelvis and lower limbs and toe-obstacle clearances during leading- and trailing-limb crossings were calculated. Two-way analyses of variance were used to study between-subject (group) and within-subject (obstacle height) effects on the variables. Whenever a height effect was found, a polynomial test was used to determine the trend. A significance level of α = 0.05 was set for all tests.Results: Patients with MCI significantly increased pelvic anterior tilt, hip abduction, and knee adduction in the swing limb during leading-limb crossing when compared to controls (p < 0.05). During trailing-limb crossing, the MCI group showed significantly decreased pelvic posterior tilt, as well as ankle dorsiflexion in the trailing swing limb (p < 0.05).Conclusion: Patients with MCI adopt altered kinematic strategies for successful obstacle-crossing. The patients were able to maintain normal leading and trailing toe-obstacle clearances for all tested obstacle heights with a specific kinematic strategy, namely increased pelvic anterior tilt, swing hip abduction, and knee adduction during leading-limb crossing, and decreased pelvic posterior tilt and swing ankle dorsiflexion during trailing-limb crossing. The current results suggest that regular monitoring of obstacle-crossing kinematics for reduced toe-obstacle clearance or any signs of changes in crossing strategy may be helpful for early detection of compromised obstacle-crossing ability in patients with single-domain amnestic MCI. Further studies using a motor/cognitive dual-task approach on the kinematic strategies adopted by multiple-domain MCI will be needed for a complete picture of the functional adaptations in such a patient group.

A suture anchor is a medical device commonly used in rotator cuff repair surgery to attach tendons to the greater tuberosity of the humerus. Patient- and device-related factors, such as structural designs and poor bone density, can cause unsatisfactory clinical results. In this study, a new suture anchor design with four distinctive parameters was proposed, and the structural performance was optimized in a full factorial experimental design using finite element analysis. Two types of bone blocks—normal and osteoporotic bone—which received screw implants, were simulated to investigate the parametrical effects on various bone qualities. The prescribed motion at a constant removal velocity was used to evaluate the pullout strength. The von Mises criterion was employed in a force control simulation for topology optimization. Moreover, mechanical tests guided by ASTM-F543-17 were conducted for validation. This paper demonstrates the comprehensive process for developing a suture anchor with sufficient mechanical integrity for clinical use and clarifies the contributions of each distinctive design parameter in this application.

Cardiac discomfort has been reported periodically in COVID-19-vaccinated individuals. Thus, this study aimed to evaluate the role of myocardial strains in the early assessment of the clinical presentations after COVID-19 vaccination. Totally, 121 subjects who received at least one dose of vaccine within 6 weeks underwent laboratory tests, electrocardiogram (ECG), and echocardiogram. Two-dimensional speckle tracking echocardiography (2D-STE) was implemented to analyze changes in the left ventricular myocardium. After vaccination, 66 individuals (55.4 ± 17.4 years) developed cardiac discomforts, such as chest tightness, palpitations, dyspnea, and chest pain. The ECG readings exhibited both premature ventricular contractions and premature atrial contractions (n = 24, 36.4%), while none of the individuals in the control group manifested signs of cardiac arrhythmia. All had normal serum levels of creatine phosphokinase, creatine kinase myocardial band, troponin, N-terminal pro b-type natriuretic peptide, platelets, and D-dimer. Left ventricular ejection fraction in the symptomatic group (71.41% ± 7.12%) and the control group (72.18% ± 5.11%) (p = 0.492) were normal. Use of 2D-STE presented global longitudinal strain (GLS) and global circumferential strain (GCS) was reduced in the symptomatic group (17.86% ± 3.22% and 18.37% ± 5.22%) compared to the control group (19.54% ± 2.18% and 20.73% ± 4.09%) (p = 0.001 and p = 0.028). COVID-19 vaccine-related cardiac adverse effects can be assessed early by 2D-STE. The prognostic implications of GLS and GCS enable the evaluation of subtle changes in myocardial function after vaccination.

Background: Cardiac discomfort has been reported periodically in COVID-19 vaccinated individuals. Thus, this study aimed to evaluate the role of myocardial strains in the early assessment of the clinical presentations after COVID-19 vaccination. Methods and Results: Totally, 121 subjects who received at least one dose of vaccine within 6 weeks underwent laboratory tests and echocardiogram. Two-dimensional speckle tracking echocardiography (2D-STE) was implemented to analyze changes in the left ventricular myocardium. After vaccination, 66 individuals (55.4 ± 17.4 years) developed cardiac discomfort, such as chest tightness, palpitations, dyspnea, and chest pain. All had normal serum levels of creatine phosphokinase, creatine kinase myocardial band, troponin, N-terminal pro b-type natriuretic peptide, platelets, and D-dimer. Left ventricular ejection fraction in the symptomatic group (71.41% ± 7.12%) and the control group (72.18% ± 5.11%) (p = 0.492) were normal. Use of 2D-STE presented global longitudinal strain (GLS) and global circumferential strain (GCS) were reduced in symptomatic group (17.86% ± 3.22% and 18.37% ± 5.22%) compared to control group (19.54% ± 2.18% and 20.73% ± 4.09%) (p = 0.001 and p = 0.028). Conclusion: COVID-19 vaccine-related cardiac adverse effects can be assessed early by 2D-STE. The prognostic implications of GLS and GCS enable evaluation of subtle changes in myocardial function after vaccination.