Objectives To explore whether neurophysiologically confirmed carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) has different risk factors from sensory symptoms in the hand that occur in the absence of impaired median nerve conduction. Methods We compared 475 patients with neurophysiologically confirmed (NP+ve) CTS, 409 patients investigated for CTS but negative on neurophysiological testing (NP-ve), and 799 controls. Exposures to risk factors were ascertained by self-administered questionnaire. Odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) were estimated by logistic regression. Results NP+ve CTS was associated with obesity, use of vibratory tools, repetitive movement of the wrist or fingers, poor mental health and workplace psychosocial stressors. NP-ve illness was also related to poor mental health and occupational psychosocial stressors, but differed from NP+ve disease in showing associations also with prolonged use of computer keyboards and tendency to somatise, and no relation to obesity. In direct comparison of NP+ve relative to NP-ve cases, the most notable differences were for obesity (OR 2.7, 95% CI 1.9-3.9), somatising tendency (OR 0.6, 95% CI 0.4-0.9), diabetes (OR 1.6, 95% CI 0.9-3.1) and work with vibratory tools (OR 1.4, 95% CI 0.9-2.2). Conclusions When viewed in the context of earlier research, our findings suggest that obesity, diabetes, use of hand-held vibratory tools, and repeated forceful movements of the wrist and hand are causes of impaired median nerve function. In addition, sensory symptoms in the hand, whether from identifiable pathology or non-specific in origin, may be rendered more prominent and distressing by hand activity, low mood, tendency to somatise, and psychosocial stressors at work. Objective Determine long-term efficacy of a comprehensive, multi-facility ergonomic intervention, utilising patient handling devices and participatory approach, on patient handling injuries to nursing personnel and comfort and safety of patients. Background Musculoskeletal injuries (MSDs), in particular back and shoulder injuries, are a major problem for nursing personnel in patient care. In USA, nursing aides (NAs) have the highest incidence rate of days-away from-work injuries and illnesses (465/10,000 workers) from MSDs, a rate more than seven times the national MSD average for all occupations. The majority of injuries and illnesses (56%) among NAs involved contact with patients, with 86% of those injuries due to overexertion. Methods A pre-post design (pre: 38.9 months, post: 51.2 months) was used to evaluate the efficacy of an ergonomic intervention using patient handling devices in six long-term care facilities and one chronic care hospital. Each facility formed teams consisting of: worker representatives, management, and an ergonomic specialist. These teams developed comprehensive ergonomics programs using participatory approach to reduce patient handling injuries, primarily through implementation of "no-manual-lifting-policies". Results Compared to pre-intervention, post-intervention data showed sig...

Interpolating contours and reconstructing a rational surface from a contour map are two of essential problems in terrain modeling. They are often met in the field of computer graphics and CAD systems based on geographic information systems. Although many approaches have been developed for these two problems, one difficulty is still remained open. That is how to ensure the reconstructed surface both to be smooth globally and to coincide with the given contours exactly simultaneously. In this paper we solve the two problems in a unified framework. We use gradient controlled partial differential equation(PDE) surfaces to express terrain surfaces, in which the surface shapes can be globally determined by the contours, their locations, height and gradient values. The surface generated by this method is accurate in the sense of exactly coinciding with the original contours and smooth with C 1 continuity everywhere. The method can reveal smooth saddle shapes caused by surface branching of one to more and can make rational interpolated sub-contours between two or more neighboring contours.

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