Understanding of the inter-joint coordination between rotational movement of each hip and trunk in golf would provide basic knowledge regarding how the neuromuscular system organises the related joints to perform a successful swing motion. In this study, we evaluated the inter-joint coordination characteristics between rotational movement of the hips and trunk during golf downswings. Twenty-one right-handed male professional golfers were recruited for this study. Infrared cameras were installed to capture the swing motion. The axial rotation angle, angular velocity and inter-joint coordination were calculated by the Euler angle, numerical difference method and continuous relative phase, respectively. A more typical inter-joint coordination demonstrated in the leading hip/trunk than trailing hip/trunk. Three coordination characteristics of the leading hip/trunk reported a significant relationship with clubhead speed at impact (r < -0.5) in male professional golfers. The increased rotation difference between the leading hip and trunk in the overall downswing phase as well as the faster rotation of the leading hip compared to that of the trunk in the early downswing play important roles in increasing clubhead speed. These novel inter-joint coordination strategies have the great potential to use a biomechanical guideline to improve the golf swing performance of unskilled golfers.

Background/Aims:Endoscopic band ligation (EBL) is an accepted method in the management of variceal bleeding; however, there is little evidence on the safety and feasibility of EBL for the closure of bowel perforation. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the technical feasibility and efficacy of EBL in iatrogenic colon perforation by using a canine model.Methods:We established an iatrogenic colon perforation model by using seven beagle dogs. Longitudinal 1.5- to 1.7-cm colon perforations were created with a needle knife and an insulated-tip knife, and the perforation was subsequently closed with EBL. During a 2-week follow-up period, the animals were carefully monitored and then euthanized for pathologic examination.Results:The EBL of iatrogenic colon perforations was successful in all dogs. The mean procedure time for EBL closure with one to three bands was 191.7 seconds, and there were no immediate complications. One animal was euthanized after 3 days because of peritonitis. There were no clinical and laboratory features of sepsis or peritonitis in the remaining six animals. On necropsy, we did not find any fecal peritonitis, pericolonic abscess formation, or transmural dehiscence at the perforation site. Histopathology demonstrated inflamed granulation tissue and scar lesions replaced by fibrosis.Conclusions:EBL might be a feasible and safe method for the management of iatrogenic colon perforations in an in vivo model.

Purpose: From the perspective of biomechanics, joint moments quantitatively show a subject's ability to perform actions. In this study, the effect of normalization in the fast and asymmetric motions of a golf swing was investigated by applying three different normalization methods to the raw joint moment. Methods: The study included 13 subjects with no previous history of musculoskeletal diseases. Golf swing analyses were performed with six infrared cameras and two force plates. The majority of the raw peak joint moments showed a significant correlation at p < 0.05. Additionally, the resulting effects after applying body weight (BW), body weight multiplied by height (BWH), and body weight multiplied by leg length (BWL) normalization methods were analyzed through correlation and regression analysis. Results: The BW, BWH, and BWL normalization methods normalized 8, 10, and 11 peak joint moments out of 18, respectively. The best method for normalizing the golf swing was found to be the BWL method, which showed significant statistical differences. Several raw peak joint moments showed no significant correlation with measured anthropometrics, which was considered to be related to the muscle coordination that occurs in the swing of skilled professional golfers. Conclusions: The results of this study show that the BWL normalization method can effectively remove differences due to physical characteristics in the golf swing analysis.

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Urinalysis is an important clinical test to diagnose urinary diseases, and dipstick method with visual inspection is widely applied in practice. Automated optical devices recently developed have disadvantages of long measurement time, big size and heavy weight, accuracy degradation with time, etc. The present study proposed a new computer scanning technique, in which the test strip and the standard chart were simultaneously scanned to remove any environmental artifacts, followed by automated differentiation with the minimum distance algorithm, leading to significant enhancement of accuracy. Experiments demonstrated an accuracy of 100 % in that all test results were identical with the human visual inspection. The present technique only uses a personal computer with scanner and shortens the test time to a great degree. The results are also stored and accumulated for later use which can be transmitted to remote locations through a network, thus could be easily integrated to any ubiquitous health care systems.