Authors: Hu MT, Hsu AT, Lin SW, Su FC
Pain involving basal joints of the thumb is one of the major occupation-related disorders for orthopedic physiotherapists and manual therapists. The thumb-tip force generation while performing manual techniques may be influenced not only by the specific manual techniques employed but also by general flexibility of the therapist. The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of general flexibility and different techniques on thumb-tip force generation. Twenty-three subjects with no exposure to manual techniques and 15 physical therapy clinicians with at least 3 years of orthopedic experience participated. The general flexibility of each subject was assessed by Beighton score (BS). Each subject was requested to exert a maximal force on a…

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We treat people every day who had an unfortunate circumstance that brought them to a physical therapist.  Sometimes it’s an injury; sometimes it’s an auto accident; sometimes it’s a genetic condition; sometimes it’s the result of a disease process; sometimes it’s degenerative changes.  Each and every person treated by a physical therapist has had some life changing incident that doesn’t allow for normal function - due to pain, weakness, structural change, balance deficits.  Each person has an individual reaction to the current situation and the reaction can impact not just the results of physical therapy services, but also life.  We know this, there is plenty of research on copers and noncopers, on active involvement in treatment versus passive involvement, on secondary gain issues,…

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If you think the bailout hasn’t reached the PT world, guess again.  In an effort to “get out of the health care business”, the county government in which Groveland Physical Therapy Clinic is located (California) is trying to give the clinic to a physical therapist!
There’s a catch! The money losing clinic would cost the county $25,000 and they want the PT to be personally responsible for the “bridge loan” during the 2 months!  The PT rightly refused the loan. 
Guess the reason cited for the loss of money during the two months to end Feb 2009?  “To enable Monterey-based physical therapist ……to secure a Medicare provider number and private insurance credentials for the site”.
Only a county government would act…

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Practical Wildlife Care (Paperback)
By Les, MBE Stocker

Buy new: $57.59
32 used and new from $41.69
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Customer tags: veterinary medicine(3), wildlife(3), rehabilitation(2), british wildlife, raccoons, zoo, les mbe stocker, conservation

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A changing workplace …

“For user experience researchers, and many others, it’s all about the technology. The future of work involves a lot of beautifully designed devices, wireless communication and sophisticated, technologically-mediated multitasking. It’s a world where technology makes monkeys – or geniuses - of us all, and where damaging, unnecessary and antiquated practices such as gender discrimination have ceased to be in any way relevant.

Hooray for that. But have we missed a trick? Business psychologist, Professor Adrian Furnham, speaking recently at the WorkTech 08 conference at the British Library, thinks so. Like many psychologists across the subject’s various disciplines, he has been persuaded of the contribution of evolutionary psychology to our understanding of the human condition. Evolutionary psychology investigates our behaviour in terms of long-term survival strategies, connecting what we do now with our ancestral experiences dating back many hundreds of thousands of years. Like our ability to enjoy music, learn language and form relationships, according to this view, much of our social and interpersonal behaviour is hardwired, and no amount of modern legislation or technology can change it. And one way or another, it all comes down to sex.

Furnham’s talk focused on gender differences in the workplace, although the differences he identified are discernible in infants just a few hours old. Evolution is no respecter of political correctness, and Furnham showed how males are consistently better at spatial reasoning and shape rotation than females, while females consistently outperform males in tests of calculation, recall and verbal dexterity. There’s more. Across all cultures and jobs, males value status, power and money more than any other attribute of their jobs. They take more risks and enjoy greater success than comparable women; they thrive in competitive hierarchies and aim for leadership roles. Women prefer teams, work better in groups and regularly trade off money and power for relationships and job security. They generally earn less than men in similar positions and value work for its intrinsic rewards, not for its role as a route to leadership.

Evolutionary psychology explains these bald truths in terms of ancient gender roles – men hunting, defending and competing for women; women home-making, child-rearing and seeking the best genes for their future children. Like it or not, the evidence for powerful gender-based behaviours is compelling – and the implications are significant. Our hardwired behaviours are unlikely to change much for at least ten thousand years, so it makes sense to take them into account when designing the future workplace. What technology has done so far is render the classic masculine working culture somewhat cumbersome. In a wired world, individual decisions, rigid hierarchies and aggressive competition are unhelpful and personally limiting; what works is extensive communication, co-operation, and a preference for goal-oriented use of technology rather than random experimentation.

The workplace, Furnham proposed, is becoming increasingly feminised, because technology relies on and enhances typically feminine strengths. For user experience professionals, it means design for gender is about more than pink versus blue; more than gaming versus chatting. Ancient behaviours combined with modern technology will impact, in emergent and also unpredictable ways, on work structures, working patterns and work value systems, but whatever happens, it will be moulded around the ways in which men and women instinctively prefer to behave, rather than moulding their behaviour.”    (Continued via Usability News, Joanna Bawa)    [Ergonomics Resources]

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Muscles: Testing and Function, with Posture and Pain (Kendall, Muscles) (Hardcover)
By Florence Peterson Kendall

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Customer tags: muscle test(6), physical therapy(3), therapy, chiropractic, bibile for muscle testing, kinesiology, rehabilitation, anatomy, bible of muscle testing

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Evaluation of the Enbody chair …

“Nowhere does the tyranny of a sedentary office lifestyle generate more curiosity and inquiry than in the issue of chairs. Entrepreneur and current Mahalo CEO Jason Calacanis called the chair “the only thing that matters” in furnishing a startup; indeed, a back-of-the-envelope calculation has an average worker seated 57.5 days a year.

Here at Creativity HQ, that time is spent in a fairly generic chair, comfortable enough, but not at all notable. So when a bright orange loaner of Herman Miller’s new Embody, the company’s follow-up to the Aeron showed up, heads turned.

The flat, egalitarian-in-mediocrity world of office furniture was disrupted. Our office manager, generally the first to pipe up when any of these sort of wrinkles arise, inquired before the chair was even out of the mailroom. Our mailguys wouldn’t bring the chair by until I spoke to him; evidently he wanted to know why I’d ordered a new chair when we’d all received new seats recently.

Colleagues stopped by and asked about the orange oddity. Those with back ailments looked at it like the Lourdes of our cubicle farm. Some were just struck by the shape.

It seemed smartest to organize a rotation, weekly, so everyone could get a chance to evaluate the Embody, at least on our small staff. First off, you tweak the settings according to the included hangtag infosheet. Handles let you pull the seat deck out to further support your thighs to the inner-knee. A crank tightens up the lumbar region. A tiny joystick controls height. The armrests lift and move wider with ease. I was ready to fly a spaceship.

A couple weeks later it turns out we all agree on something: it’s a very comfortable chair. The sitter’s cradle of comfort, where your posterior meets the fabric, with the lower back and thighs as main points of contact, feels firm yet forgiving. The spinal array of struts and supports comes on with multiple touchpoints, like an alien vertebrate structure.”    (Continued via Creativity Online, Nick Parish)    [Ergonomics Resources]

Embody Back

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Related Articles

Long-term effects of a stabilization exercise therapy for chronic low back pain.

Man Ther. 2008 Nov 19;

Authors: Meziat Filho N, Santos S, Rocha RM

PMID: 19026587 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

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Quantitative application of transverse friction massage and its neurological effects on flexor carpi radialis.

Man Ther. 2008 Nov 20;

Authors: Lee HM, Wu SK, You JY

The purpose of the study was to determine the effects of transverse friction massage (TFM) on flexor carpi radialis (FCR) motoneuron (MN) pool excitability. Twenty-eight healthy subjects were randomly assigned into massage and control groups. Pre- vs post-TFM H-reflex data were collected. Controls received a rest period instead of massage. Massage dose was standardized by a novel electronic method which recorded the massage rate, momentary pressure and total cumulative pressure (energy). Two-way ANOVA of H/M ratios derived from maximal amplitudes of Hoffman reflexes (Hmax) and motor responses (Mmax) was used to analyze neurological effects and group differences. Analysis of pressure/time curve data showed: mean massage rate was 0.501+/-0.005Hz; mean duration of massage sessions was 184.6+/-26.4s; mean peak pressure was 4.990+/-1.006psi. Hmax/Mmax ratios declined from 14.3% to 10.3% for massage (P<0.01) but showed no change for controls (P>0.05). In conclusion a novel quantitative approach to the study of massage has been demonstrated while testing the effects of TFM on FCR MN pool excitability. TFM appears to reduce MN pool excitability. The novel method of quantifying massage permits more rigorous testing of client-centered massage in future research.

PMID: 19027340 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

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Related Articles

Sex differences in the pattern of innominate motion during passive hip abduction and external rotation.

Man Ther. 2008 Nov 20;

Authors: Bussey MD, Milosavljevic S, Bell ML

The objective of the study was to evaluate sex differences in the pattern of innominate motion about the sacroiliac joint (SIJ) during hip movement. Although the magnitude of intrinsic SIJ motion is influenced by joint congruence and ligament elasticity sex differences in pelvic joint kinematics are under-investigated. Forty healthy and active males and females between the ages of 18 and 35 were recruited. 3D motion of the innominate bones and femur were recorded with a magnetic tracking device as the hips were loaded in standardised increments of 10 degrees in 3 positions - external rotation (ER), abduction (AB), and combined external rotation and abduction (AB+ER). While females had greater overall innominate motion, two distinct sex dominant patterns emerged. Patterns of innominate motion also differed when load was applied to the dominant rather than non-dominant limb. As the main motion within the pelvis is intrinsic, the results of the present study point to a differing viscoelastic response and different movement strategies to passive load between the sexes. In addition, careful attention to limb dominance should be considered when testing SIJ motion.

PMID: 19027341 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

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