ObjectivesThe aim of this study was to investigate the effects of continuous (48-hour) use of Kinesiotaping (KT) on functional and proprioceptive performance in healthy, physically active men.MethodTwenty-six healthy, physically active men (21.8±2.2 years old) were randomly allocated into two groups: 1) Kinesiotaping group (KG, tape applied with 40% tension for rectus femoris activation); 2) Control (CG, tape applied over rectus femoris without additional tension). Subjects attended the laboratory on five separate occasions: 1) familiarization; 2) baseline measurement without tape (BL); 3) immediately post-tape application (T0); 4) 24h (T24); and 5) 48h (T48) post-tape application. The outcomes were distance in the single (SHT) and triple hop tests (THT), vertical jump height (VJH), vertical jump power (VJP), and rate of force development (RFD). A mixed-model ANOVA was applied to verify differences between and within groups.ResultsNo significant (p >0.05) differences were found in the SHT and THT between groups and moments. Likewise, the main effects for VJH, VJP, and RFD were not significant (p >0.05).ConclusionThe present study demonstrated no significant immediate or prolonged (48h) effects of KT on functional and proprioceptive performance.

Polyimide is an emerging and very interesting material for substrate and passivation of neural probes. However, the standard curing temperature of polyimide (350 °C) is critical for the microelectrodes and contact pads of the neural probe, due to the thermal oxidation of the metals during the passivation process of the neural probe. Here, the fabrication process of a flexible neural probe, enhanced with a photosensitive and low-temperature cured polyimide, is presented. Annealing tests were performed with metallic films deposited on polyimide, which led to the reduction of the curing temperature to 250 °C, with no significant irregularities in the metallic sample annealed at that temperature and an effective polyimide curing. The use of a lower curing temperature reduces the thermal oxidation of the metals during the polyimide curing process to passivate the neural probe. Additionally, in this fabrication process, the microelectrodes of the neural probe were coated with electrodeposited platinum (Pt), only after the passivation process, and its electrochemical performance was accessed. At 1 kHz, the impedance of the microelectrodes before Pt electrodeposition was approximately 1.2 MΩ, and after Pt electrodeposition, it was approximately 350 kΩ. Pt electrodeposition changed the equivalent circuit of the microelectrodes and reduced their impedance, which will be crucial for future in‑vivo tests to acquire the electrical activity of the neurons with the fabricated neural probe.

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Wrist injuries are a very common type of pathology that can compromise most daily tasks. Conventional therapy is dependent on the availability of physiotherapists as well as devices designed for this purpose. Conventional devices do not accompany the patient throughout their rehabilitation process, requiring their constant replacement. Vibratory therapies emerged in recent years and have demonstrated several benefits in this area. However, there are few vibratory devices designed for wrist rehabilitation. In this paper, we propose two different portable and active models for wrist rehabilitation based on vibratory therapy for wrist rehabilitation. The first model has a cylindrical shape and the second model has a dumbbell shape. The results obtained showed that vibratory therapy can assist the wrist rehabilitation because it promoted improvements in joint amplitude gain in all wrist movements. Furthermore, the second device demonstrated higher joint gains than the first device. In addition, the results obtained from the measurement of accelerations demonstrate that the natural frequencies of both devices are adequate for wrist and forearm rehabilitation as well as the mode of vibration. There are differences between what the simulations predicted and what was obtained in practice in terms of natural frequency values.