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This article discusses a special issue of the journal Applied Sciences that focuses on the International Conference Wood Science and Engineering (ICWSE) held in November 2023. The conference covered various topics related to wood, including wood structure and properties, wood constructions, wood drying and heat treatments, conservation and restoration of wooden objects, wood-based materials, mechanical wood processing, and surface quality. The articles in the special issue explore different aspects of these topics, such as the characteristics and potential uses of different wood species, innovative wood construction techniques, optimal drying conditions for specific wood species, and the production and properties of wood-based materials. The research presented aims to promote the production of high-value wood products and contribute to the preservation of cultural heritage. The text provides a summary of various research papers related to wood science and engineering, covering topics such as the utilization potential of different tree species, wood material properties, wood preservation and coating techniques, and furniture design. The research findings highlight the importance of factors such as printing parameters, surface quality, adhesion of varnish coatings, and light-induced color changes in wood. The authors hope that these studies contribute to a better understanding of the scientific potential of wood and will be a starting point for further research in the field. [Extracted from the article]

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The article informs about three distinct topics in pathology it discusses about the development of a lab-developed test (LDT) for multiplex HR-HPV genotyping in cervical precursor lesions, offering a cost-effective and sensitive screening test. Topic include it presents a comparative study of a rapid, economic acetic acid, Papanicolaou stain (REAP) over conventional Papanicolaou stain in oral cytology, demonstrating the efficacy of REAP as a cost-effective and rapid alternative.

The profession of recreational therapy first established professional membership organizations in the 1940s and 1950s. The most recent national professional membership organization was developed in 1984, when the American Therapeutic Recreation Association (ATRA) was formed. The National Academy of Recreational Therapists (NART) was established in 2011 as an honor society to recognize the most accomplished practitioners and educators in recreational therapy and to provide a clearinghouse for the exchange of ideas that would ultimately lead to the advancement of the recreational therapy profession. Efforts to establish NART began in 2009 when David Austin and Ray West drafted a conceptualization of the academy and its operations, as well as proposed a set of by-laws. A steering committee was subsequently established to review and approve by-laws for NART and to establish the Founding Fellows of NART. The central purpose of the Academy was the advancement of recreational therapy by recognition, education, research, scholarly activity, advocacy, and the provision of advice to decision makers. Since its inception NART has established and funded a Future Scholars Fund to support outstanding graduate students considering pursuing a terminal degree, as well as the Marcia Carter Scholarly Manuscript Award for the best annual publication in the Therapeutic Recreation Journal. Over its first 10 years, NART made revisions to its bylaws to refine criteria and categories for Fellows, and by 2021 there were 77 elected Fellows. The invited paper summarizes the first 10 years and considers a number of original goals that remain to be realized to support and advance this honor society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This special issue contains six revised and extended versions of tool papers that appeared in the proceedings of TACAS 2021, the 27th International Conference on Tools and Algorithms for the Construction and Analysis of Systems. The issue is dedicated to the realization of algorithms in tools and the studies of the application of these tools for analysing hard- and software systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: It is now widely recognised that engaging consumers in research activities can enhance the quality, equity and relevance of the research. Much of the commentary about consumer engagement in research focuses on research processes and implementation, rather than dissemination in conference settings. This article offers reflections and learnings from consumers, researchers and conference organisers on the 12th Health Services Research Conference, a biennial conference hosted by the Health Services Research Association of Australia and New Zealand (HSRAANZ). Method: We were awarded funds via a competitive application process by Bellberry Limited, a national not‐for‐profit agency with a focus on improving research quality, to incorporate consumer engagement strategies in conference processes and evaluate their impact. Findings: Strategies included consumer scholarships, a buddy system, designated quiet space and consumer session co‐chairs; the reflections explored in this paper were collected in the funded, independent evaluation. Our insights suggest a need for more structured consumer involvement in conference planning and design, as well as the development of specific engagement strategies. Conclusion: To move toward active partnership in scientific conference settings, our experience reinforces the need to engage consumers as members in designing and conducting research and in presenting research and planning conference content and processes. Public Contribution: Consumer engagement in research dissemination at conferences is the focus of this viewpoint article. Consumers were involved in the conception of this article and have contributed to authorship at all stages of revisions and edits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Homomorphic evaluation of hash functions offers a solution to the challenge of data integrity authentication in the context of homomorphic encryption. The earliest attempt to achieve homomorphic evaluation of SHA-256 hash function was proposed by Mella and Susella (in: Cryptography and coding—14th IMA international conference, IMACC 2013. Lecture notes in computer science, vol 8308. Springer, Heidelberg, pp 28–44, 2013. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-45239-0%5f3.) based on the BGV scheme. Unfortunately, their implementation faced significant limitations due to the exceedingly high multiplicative depth, rendering it impractical. Recently, a homomorphic implementation of SHA-256 based on the TFHE scheme (Homomorphic evaluation of SHA-256. https://github.com/zama-ai/tfhe-rs/tree/main/tfhe/examples/sha256%5fbool) brings it from theory to reality, however, its current efficiency remains insufficient. In this paper, we revisit the homomorphic evaluation of the SHA-256 hash function in the context of TFHE, further reducing the reliance on gate bootstrapping and enhancing evaluation latency. Specifically, we primarily utilize ternary gates to reduce the number of gate bootstrappings required for logic functions in message expansion and addition of modulo 2 32 in iterative compression. Furthermore, we demonstrate that our optimization techniques are applicable to the Chinese commercial cryptographic hash SM3. Finally, we give specific comparative implementations based on the TFHE-rs library. Experiments demonstrate that our optimization techniques lead to an improvement of approximately 35–50% compared with the state-of-the-art result under different cores. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we highlight how the apparent double coverage of toxins and bioregulators by both the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC) and the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) in fact masks a regulatory gap that has left such potentially dangerous agents neglected by both the control regimes during a period of rapid advances in relevant chemical, life and associated sciences and technologies. We first review what toxins, bioregulators and other mid-spectrum agents are and why they are of such concern and then examine how they are regulated under the BTWC and CWC. This paper then examines an illustrative range of contemporary chemical and life science research and associated activities of concern drawn from case study research on China, India, Iran, Russia, Syria and the United States, and assesses how the CWC and BTWC States Parties have inadequately addressed these threats. We then examine how both the CWC and BTWC Review Conferences failed to address these long-term challenges, and we end by providing a series of recommendations for how both regimes can be strengthened in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Karen Sames was born and raised in Milwaukee, WI. From an early age, she was surrounded by art. An experience with occupational therapy during the third grade jumpstarted her journey connecting art to occupation. Karen believes that art is a necessary part of life and credits much of her own personal success with art to her friends and family for their inspiration and to the instructors at the Eagan Art House in Minnesota. Her piece "Cherry Blossoms," a pastel on paper, is based on a photograph taken by her son, who is currently living in Japan, and graces the cover of the Spring 2024 edition of The Open Journal of Occupational Therapy (OJOT). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The biennial Visual Resource Stewardship conferences of 2017, 2019, and 2021 were designed to catalyze new ideas and innovation between academia, practice, NGOs, and government agencies who work to address the analysis, planning, valuation, design, and management of visual resources. This Special Issue is a compilation of articles from these conferences that represent a broad perspective of research and project works focused on visual, scenic, and landscape resource assessment and management. With the foundation set for a new conference, a conference planning committee was formalized with a vision to expand the reach and dissemination of activities within the subject area. [Extracted from the article]

Why R? Turkey 2022 was a non-profit conference that aimed to bring Turkish R users together and encourage them to attend the R conferences. The targeted audience of the conference consisted of, data scientists, data analysts, and all R users from academia and industry. The three-day conference, which consisted of several events such as workshops, regular talks, lightning talks, short tutorials, and panels, was free of charge and fully online. This article describes the challenges and benefits, as well as providing an overview of the conference's content and participants' profile. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay focuses on the values of Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556) concerning the issues related to disability and how the mission of the "Conference on Disability at the Intersection of History, Culture, Religion, Gender, and Health" hosted by Marquette University embodies those values. This conference, which was first held in 2022 and planned to take place in 2025 again, serves several goals shared by Jesuit education, Catholic values and Ignatius' philosophy. It aspires to contribute to social justice, deep thinking and reflection, and meaningful change in society. Above all, the conference is motivated by 'service' to humanity and thus to the Divine. It is a value-based initiative that aims to eliminate the socially constructed and thus man-made divisions and hierarchies based on material and physical characteristics. After probing into how the Disability Conference represents Ignatian values and contributes to their actualization in the society, the paper provides some examples from the conference presentations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article informs the alcohol addiction impacts not only the individual abusing it but also the people living with them. It mentions the extensive research has been conducted on various aspects of alcoholism, the lives of caretakers, especially wives of alcoholic men in the Indian context, have been given secondary consideration by society and researchers. It highlight the limited studies on this topic in the Indian setting.

The article presents the discussion on Japan Institute of Public Finance (JIPF) was established in 1940 by 63 scholars. Topics include enhancing academic research in public finance, providing opportunities for members to present their research papers; and first post-war Annual Conference was held in 1949 and has been held annually since then in either October or November.

In this paper, we present a novel localization scheme, location-aware ranging correction (LARC), to correct ranging estimates from ultra wideband (UWB) signals. Existing solutions to calculate ranging corrections rely solely on channel information features (e.g., signal energy, maximum amplitude, estimated range). We propose to incorporate a preliminary location estimate into a localization chain, such that location-based features can be calculated as inputs to a range-error prediction model. This way, we can add information to range-only measurements without relying on additional hardware such as an inertial measurement unit (IMU). This improves performance and reduces overfitting behavior. We demonstrate our LARC method using an open-access measurement dataset with distances up to 20 m, using a simple regression model that can run purely on the CPU in real-time. The inclusion of the proposed features for range-error mitigation decreases the ranging error 90th percentile (P90) by 58% to 15 cm (compared to the uncorrected range error), for an unseen trajectory. The 2D localization P90 error is improved by 21% to 18 cm. We show the robustness of our approach by comparing results to a changed environment, where metallic objects have been moved around the room. In this modified environment, we obtain a 56% better P90 ranging performance of 16 cm. The 2D localization P90 error improves as much as for the unchanged environment, by 17% to 18 cm, showing the robustness of our method. This method evolved from the first-ranking solution of the 2021 and 2022 International Conference on Indoor Position and Indoor Navigation (IPIN) Competition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The International Conference on Sports Concussion, held every four years since 2001, has been instrumental in forming the international consensus on sports-related concussions. However, due to the unprecedented global pandemic of COVID-19, not only the Tokyo Olympics 2020, but also the initially scheduled sixth conference was postponed multiple times. Finally, the 6th International Conference on Sports Concussion took place in Amsterdam at the end of October 2022. In July 2023, the Amsterdam Declaration, reflecting the outcomes of this sixth conference, was released. This paper provides an overview of the conference, in which significant updates were revealed and introduced, including revisions to the definition of sports-related concussions, as well as the latest version of the Sports Concussion Assessment Tool (SCAT), known as SCAT6, the Office Assessment Tool (SCOAT), and the updated staged return-to-play protocol. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The problem of interaction between man and nature throughout history is, relatively, rarely addressed by classical historiography. The session entitled Man and Nature: Between destruction and creation, organized and chaired by Prof. Tadeusz Janicki (Faculty of History, UAM, Poznań, Poland) and Prof. Dariusz J. Gwiazdowicz (Department of Forest Protection, Poznań University of Life Sciences, Poland) on 24 August 2022 as part of the XXIII International Congress of Historical Sciences Poznań 2022, was an attempt to change this tendency and broaden the existing research perspective. The papers delivered during the occassion were the starting point for the preparation of a special issue of the journal Studia Historiae Oeconomicae (SHO), the primary purpose of which is interdisciplinary reflection by specialists from various scientific disciplines on the problem of destruction of natural landscapes and creation of cultural landscapes, along with other issues concerning the interaction between humans and the natural environment from prehistoric times to the present. This special issue of SHO consists of seven articles on diverse topics, analysing human interactions with nature through different historical periods, meanwhile taking into account their economic, civil, social and climatic conditions. The result is a multifaceted mosaic of topics that constitutes an original and interdisciplinary analysis of man's relationship with nature, which may be a source of inspiration for readers and perhaps further research in this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The field of retroviral integration research has a long history that started with the provirus hypothesis and subsequent discoveries of the retroviral reverse transcriptase and integrase enzymes. Because both enzymes are essential for retroviral replication, they became valued targets in the effort to discover effective compounds to inhibit HIV-1 replication. In 2007, the first integrase strand transfer inhibitor was licensed for clinical use, and subsequently approved second-generation integrase inhibitors are now commonly co-formulated with reverse transcriptase inhibitors to treat people living with HIV. International meetings specifically focused on integrase and retroviral integration research first convened in 1995, and this paper is part of the Viruses Special Issue on the 7th International Conference on Retroviral Integration, which was held in Boulder Colorado in the summer of 2023. Herein, we overview key historical developments in the field, especially as they pertain to the development of the strand transfer inhibitor drug class. Starting from the mid-1990s, research advancements are presented through the lens of the international conferences. Our overview highlights the impact that regularly scheduled, subject-specific international meetings can have on community-building and, as a result, on field-specific collaborations and scientific advancements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the paper is to analyse the involvement of the local and regional authorities within the Conference on the Future of Europe. The former, being closer to the citizens, could play important role in reaching "every corner of the European Union" and helping the citizens to articulate their ideas about the European integration. Therefore, the activity of the subnational level could contribute to the final success of the Conference (or failure - in case of lack of any actions). The analysis is based on the author's own empirical study conducted among the Polish territorial self-government units after the closure of the Conference. The local and regional authorities were asked if they informed the citizens about the Conference, organised events regarding this enterprise or took part in the events organised by other entities. The results show very low level of the activity, even among the territorial self-government units that are present at the European level. The conclusions regard both to the Polish circumstances as well as to the general performance of the Conference. In the first case, they unveil the unwritten practice among the Polish territorial self-government units on their involvement in the European affairs. Regarding the second point, the results indicate that the Conference did not manage to exceed the "European bubble". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Every year the scientific sessions of Annual National Conference of Indian Psychiatric Society (ANCIPS) are marked by presentation of free papers, posters, and award paper sessions, which are usually meant for presentation of new research which is not yet published. Hence, it is expected that these papers will be published in near future so that the scientific literature is distributed and shared with wider audience. Aim: This paper aims to evaluate the abstract to publication rate of papers presented during ANCIPS in the years 2012–2014. Materials and Methods: For this study, all the free papers, posters, and award papers presented during the ANCIPS of 2012–2014 were listed, and electronic searches were carried out to search for published articles. In addition, one of the authors of papers not found in the electronic searches were contacted through E-mail. Results: A total of 1081 papers were presented during the ANCIPS in the 3 year period under study. Of these, 64 were award papers, 622 were free papers, and 395 were posters. Majority (n = 807; 74.6%) of these could be categorized as research data-based presentations; this was followed by case reports/series (203; 18.8%), review of literature (n = 35; 3.3%), and others (n = 36; 3.3%). Overall, only 27% of the papers were published after at least 5 years of the presentation. Of all the award papers, 69.6% of papers were published, whereas only 26.8% of free oral papers and 22.5% of free posters were published. About half (45.6%) of the papers were published in national journals. In terms of indexing, among those which were published, 62.8% were published in Medline-indexed (PubMed-listed) Journals with a mean impact factor of 1. Conclusion: The present study shows that only 27% of the abstracts presented during the ANCIPS are ultimately published as full text articles in the next 5 years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper evaluates the first 15 editions of the European Countryside magazine in relation to the EURORURAL conferences and international projects of the Department of Applied and Landscape Ecology of the Mendel University in Brno. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Disruptions within higher education are seldom effortless and often provocative. They may result in a break from traditional, established educational models of knowledge transmission, offering alternative ways of accessing and cocreating knowledge. In 2021, the Higher Education Learning and Teaching Association of Southern Africa (HELTASA) adopted an (un)conferencing methodology for its annual conference. In this paper, the association's Student Learning Project Team explores contextual disruption against the (un)conferencing backdrop. Critical reflective accounts by project-team members provide the empirical grounding for the paper. First, the notions of context and contextual disruption are discussed. Second, the reflective accounts are analysed using Archer's structure, culture, and agency, as analytical framework. Third, Archer's morphogenetic framework is used to appraise whether change or stasis occurred within the project team. Finally, recommendations for others wishing to facilitate intentional contextual disruption are shared. Ultimately, the article provides insight into the intricacies of contextual disruption as part of (un)conferencing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Handwritten Text Recognition (HTR) is essential for digitizing historical documents in different kinds of archives. In this study, we introduce a hybrid form archive written in French: the Belfort civil registers of births. The digitization of these historical documents is challenging due to their unique characteristics such as writing style variations, overlapped characters and words, and marginal annotations. The objective of this survey paper is to summarize research on handwritten text documents and provide research directions toward effectively transcribing this French dataset. To achieve this goal, we presented a brief survey of several modern and historical HTR offline systems of different international languages, and the top state-of-the-art contributions reported of the French language specifically. The survey classifies the HTR systems based on techniques employed, datasets used, publication years, and the level of recognition. Furthermore, an analysis of the systems' accuracies is presented, highlighting the best-performing approach. We have also showcased the performance of some HTR commercial systems. In addition, this paper presents a summarization of the HTR datasets that publicly available, especially those identified as benchmark datasets in the International Conference on Document Analysis and Recognition (ICDAR) and the International Conference on Frontiers in Handwriting Recognition (ICFHR) competitions. This paper, therefore, presents updated state-of-the-art research in HTR and highlights new directions in the research field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This editorial describes the selection process and the collection of articles selected for presentation for the Proceedings Track of the ISMB 2024 conference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Runtime verification (RV) refers to methods for formal reasoning about all aspects of the dynamic execution of systems, including hardware, software, and cyber-physical systems. RV includes techniques to assess and enforce correctness of a system against systemic bugs or extrinsic uncertainties. These methods are typically considered lightweight as they may not involve exhaustive verification or proofs, but they provide a higher level of rigor and versatility compared to conventional testing methods. This article introduces the extended versions of selected papers from the peer-reviewed proceedings of the 20th International Conference on Runtime Verification (RV 2020). RV 2020 was supposed to be held in Los Angeles, California, USA in July 2020, but was instead held virtually due to the global Covid-19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Annual Conference and International Conference of the Chinese Association of Micro-NanoTechnology is a comprehensive, cross-disciplinary, high-level academic conference that has been held annually since 1994 and has become an important academic event in the field of micro- and nanotechnology. 35208433 12 Zeng L., Chen X., Zhang R., Hu S., Zhang H., Zhang Y., Yang H. High-Resolution Separation of Nanoparticles Using a Negative Magnetophoretic Microfluidic System. 35208353 7 Tan L., Liu P., She C., Xu P., Yan L., Quan H. Research on Heat Dissipation of Multi-Chip LED Filament Package. 35056227 6 Liu P., She C., Tan L., Xu P., Yan L. Development of LED Package Heat Dissipation Research. [Extracted from the article]

Objectives: Some surgeons prefer reverse shoulder arthroplasty to total shoulder arthroplasty in elderly patients with osteoarthritis (OA) and without cuff tears because these patients may subsequently develop cuff tears. However, other studies have shown total shoulder arthroplasty provides good to excellent results in elderly patients with intact rotator cuffs, even in patients ≥ 80 years of age. We conducted the following studies to clarify potential rotator cuff degeneration in elderly OA patients, histologically analyzing the torn edges of ruptured rotator cuff tendons from patients with cuff tear arthropathy (CTA) with a proximal humeral fracture with an intact cuff (control) or en bloc cuff tendon remaining on the greater tuberosity from patients with OA after harvesting such tissues at the time of RSA. Then, we compared the clinical results of elderly patients undergoing total shoulder arthroplasty (TSA) and reversed shoulder arthroplasty (RSA) when these patients reached ≥ 80 years of age. We hypothesized that rotator cuff tendons were more severely degenerated microscopically in elderly patients with OA and intact cuff tendons compared with tendons in elderly patients with proximal humeral fractures, and comparable to those with CTA. Methods: We histologically evaluated torn rotator cuff tendon samples harvested from 13 samples in 11 shoulders in 9 patients with OA without cuff tears, 18 samples in 14 shoulders in 14 patients with CTA, and 2 shoulders in 2 patients with proximal humeral fractures using the Bonar score and electron microscopic analysis. In addition, we compared the clinical results of TSA in 7 shoulders in 6patients and RSA in 19 shoulders in 15 patients when these patients reached ≥ 80 years of age. Bonar scores were compared between the OA and CTA patients (OA and CTA groups), and Constant scores, and range of motion were compared between the two procedures (TSA and RSA groups). Two patients with proximal humeral fractures served as controls. We identified patients with secondary rotator cuff dysfunction by the presence of either moderate or severe superior subluxation of the humeral head base on radiographic assessment of humeral superior subluxation. Results: There were no significant differences in patients' age, sex, BMI, heart disease, DM, hyperlipidemia, sample site, and preoperative Constant and ASES scores (except regarding the number of affected dominant arms), between the CTA and OA groups. There were no significant differences in the distribution of each category for tenocytes, ground substance, and collagen; and vascularity (P =.227.107,.509,.848, respectively). In addition, there was no significant difference in the Bonar scores between the CTA and OA groups (P =.140). In the both groups, irregularly-orientated collagen fibers showing fiber separation and numerous blood vessels and inflammatory cells were observed in the sections with HE staining (Fig. 1A-C, A, OA patients; B and C, CTA patients). In the sections with AB/PAS staining, increase in alcianophilia indicating glycosaminoglycans among collagen fibers were observed (Figure 1, D, CTA patient). The control supraspinatus tendons from the patients of a four-part proximal humeral fracture demonstrated well-oriented collagen fibers with tightly cohesive well-demarcated bundles. The two control shoulders had 0 points and 2 points for the Bonar score, respectively (Figure 2). The ultrastructural analysis showed that collagen fibrils were arranged irregularly, with a heterogenous extracellular matrix, in the OA group. Similarly, in the CTA group, some collagen fibrils were oriented in different directions, and that there were empty spaces between the fibrils, representing non-collagenous extracellular matrix (Figure 3, A, C; OA patient, B,D; CTA patient). We found no significant difference in the fibril diameter (nm) between the two groups (mean,66.9 for the CTA group and 65.0 for the OA group) (P =.219) (Figure 3 C and D). There were significant improvements between preoperative and postoperative clinical scores in both groups. In addition, patients in the TSA group had significantly lower Constant scores, Constant ROM scores, and ROM in flexion and abduction at the final follow-up (P;.009, <.001,.003,.009, respectively). Upward migration of the prosthetic humeral head was observed in 7 shoulders (100%) overall and was graded as mild in 3 shoulders (42.9%), moderate in 4 shoulders (57.1%) as secondary cuff dysfunction. Conclusions: The most important finding in the present study was that rotator cuff tendons in elderly OA patients without cuff tears had relatively higher mean Bonar scores than the scores in the cuff tendons in two patients with proximal humeral fractures (control shoulders), and scores were comparable to the scores in cuff tendons in the elderly CTA patients. In addition, our clinical results showed that the TSA group had significantly lower clinical variables than those of the RSA group regarding the Constant score, Constant ROM score, and ROM in flexion and abduction in our cohort who were ≥ 80 years of age at the latest follow-up. Furthermore, 4 shoulders (57.1%) in the TSA group had moderate superior subluxation of the prosthetic humeral head as possible secondary cuff tendon dysfunction, at the final follow-up. Considering these histologic and clinical results, severe histological degeneration of rotator cuff tendons in elderly OA patients without cuff tears may be a risk of secondary rotator cuff dysfunction and poor clinical outcome after TSA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to compare clinical outcomes between randomized groups who underwent MCL augmentation repair versus MCL autograft reconstruction. Methods: Patients were prospectively enrolled from 2013 to 2019 from 3 centers (United States, Norway, Denmark). Grade III superficial (sMCL) injuries were confirmed by stress radiography. Patients were randomized to an anatomic sMCL reconstruction versus an augmented repair with surgical treatment determined after examination under anesthesia confirmed sMCL incompetence. Post-operative visits occurred at 6 weeks and 6 months for repeat evaluation and repeat stress radiography at final follow-up. Patient reported outcome measures (PROMs) were obtained preoperatively and postoperatively at 6 months, 1 year, and at final follow-up. The two one-sided t-test (TOST) procedure was used to test clinical equivalence for side-to-side difference in valgus gapping, and Mann-Whitney U-test was used to compare postoperative PROMs between groups. Results: Fifty-four patients were prospectively enrolled from 3 centers. The average overall patient age was 38.0 years (standard deviation (SD = 14.2 years), average body mass index was 25.0 (SD = 3.6). Preoperative valgus stress radiographs demonstrated 3.74 mm (SD = 1.1 mm) of increased side-to-side gapping overall, while it was 4.10 mm (SD = 1.46 mm) in the MCL augmentation group and 3.42 mm (SD = 0.55) in the MCL reconstruction group (p = 0.036). Postoperative valgus stress radiographs at an average of 6 months were 0.21 mm (SD = 0.81 mm) for MCL augmentation and 0.19 mm (SD = 0.67 mm) for MCL reconstruction (p = 0.940). At final follow-up (minimum 1-year), Lysholm scores were significantly higher in the reconstruction group (median 90, inter-quartile range 83–99) compared to the repair group (median 80, IQR 67-92; p=0.031). Final IKDC scores were significantly higher for the reconstruction group (median 85, IQR 68-89) compared to the repair group (median 72, IQR 60-78; p=0.039). Postoperative Tegner scores were not significantly different between the repair group (median 5, IQR 3.5-6) and the reconstruction group (median 5.5, IQR 4-7; p=0.123). Patient satisfaction was not significantly different between the repair (median 7.5, IQR 5.75–9.25) and reconstruction groups (median 9, IQR 7 - 10; p=0.184). There were no reported cases of DVT, infection, or arthrofibrosis in any patient in either group. There were no reported MCL graft ruptures in either the augmentation or reconstruction group as indicated from valgus stress radiographs (≥ 3.2 mm) and physical examination at 12 months postoperatively. Conclusions: There was no difference in objective outcomes between a sMCL augmentation repair versus a complete sMCL reconstruction at one year postoperatively. Patient reported clinical outcomes favored the reconstruction over repair. This randomized controlled trial demonstrated that anatomic-based treatment of MCL tears with an early knee motion program had low risk of graft attenuation and complications. Table 1. Comparison of baseline covariates between MCL Treatment Groups.† Table A2. Comparison of baseline covariates between sites.† [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Significant anterior glenoid bone loss in the setting of recurrent instability may warrant a coracoid transfer (Latarjet). However, the amount of glenoid width that must be restored with a Latarjet in order to reestablish glenohumeral stability has not been studied. We hypothesize that restoration of greater than 90% of glenoid width with a Latarjet will be necessary to restore glenohumeral stability. We also hypothesize that there will be significant increases in anterior humeral head translation when 90% or less of the native glenoid width is restored and that contact pressures on the coracoid graft will increase. Methods: Seven cadaveric specimens were prepared and mounted on an established shoulder simulator, which loads shoulder tendons through a system of pulleys and weights. A motion tracking system to record glenohumeral translations was placed on the scapula and humerus and registered based on a computed tomography (CT) scan. Contact pressures were mapped and recorded using a TekScan secured to the glenoid face and coracoid graft transfer (Figure 1). The humerus was placed in 90 degrees of humerothoracic abduction. Coracoid osteotomy was performed, and the coracoid graft was sized to a depth of 10mm. A lesser tuberosity osteotomy (LTO) was performed to allow accurate removal of glenoid bone. The amount of bone loss needed to re-establish 110%, 100%, 90% and 80% of native glenoid width after Latarjet was calculated by directly measuring the widest point of the glenoid and confirming accuracy based on the CT scan. Glenoid bone loss was established using a burr and the coracoid graft transfer was secured to the anteroinferior glenoid with two screws. The conjoined tendon was passed through a subscapularis split and the LTO was repaired with multiple Kirshner wires prior to each testing condition (Figure 2). Additionally, the rotator interval was closed and the capsule was repaired prior to each testing condition. The supraspinatus, subscapularis, infraspinatus and conjoined tendons were each loaded with 22N. Testing conditions included native glenohumeral joint, LTO, Bankart tear, and then 110%, 100%, 90% and 80% of glenoid width restoration with Latarjet. Glenohumeral translations and contact pressures were recorded with an anteroinferior load of 0 or 44N at 0 degrees of glenohumeral external rotation. Results: Progressive increases in anterior humeral head translation occurred with an anteroinferior load as the amount of glenoid width restored decreased (Figure 3). An anteroinferior load created an average of 5.5mm, 9.6mm, 3.3mm, 3.6mm, 9.2mm and 10.2mm of anterior translation in the LTO, Bankart, 110%, 100%, 90% and 80% of glenoid restoration cohorts, respectively. Greater glenoid bone loss also led to more contact pressure on the coracoid graft after Latarjet (Figure 4). An anteroinferior load produced 26.4%, 46.9%, 86.2% and 94.4% of the contact pressures on the coracoid graft relative to the native glenoid with glenoid width restored to 110%, 100%, 90% and 80%, respectively. Conclusions: There is an increase in anterior humeral head translation and contact pressure on the coracoid graft when 90% or less of the native glenoid width is restored with Latarjet. By determining the goals for glenoid width restoration after Latarjet, the findings of this study may provide guidance for patient-specific size requirements for the coracoid based on preoperative imaging. When greater than 90% of glenoid width cannot be restored with a Latarjet, surgeons may consider alternative graft sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Medial ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) repair utilization is increasing in recent years, bolstered by shorter rehabilitation and satisfactory clinical outcomes. While previous literature has illustrated the importance of tunnel position on restoring graft isometry in UCL reconstruction, there remains a paucity of literature guiding anchor placement in UCL repair. Herein, we describe a 3-dimensional (3D) elbow model to measure and optimize anchor location during UCL repair. Methods: A 3D computer model of a human elbow joint was created using CT and MRI images from a single patient. The humeral and ulnar attachments of the UCL were plotted using three distinct methodologies: 1) geometric cloud mapping; 2) quantitative measurements as described by the anatomical studies by Camp et al1; and 3) Frangiamore et al2. A 3.5mm-diameter clockface was placed on each attachment site which allowed for simulation of 12 distinct, 1.75mm deviations in anchor position. The three elbow models were then ranged through 0-120 degrees of flexion at 10-degree increments, and the 3D distances were measured between the two ligament centroids. The humeral and ulnar anchors were sequentially repositioned around the clockfaces, and ligament lengths were again measured to evaluate changes in isometry. An independent t-test was performed to determine if there was a significant difference in isometry between the humeral or ulnar anchor deviations. Results: Using method 1, the UCL length at 90 degrees of elbow flexion was 26.8mm. This ligament underwent 13.6mm of total excursion for a 46.4% change in length throughout arc of motion. Method 2 produced a 19.3mm ligament that underwent 0.8mm of excursion for a 3.9% length change throughout the arc. Method 3 produced a 24.5mm ligament that underwent 2.3mm of excursion for a 9.4% length change throughout arc. Identifying ligament footprints using the quantitative anatomical measurements as described by Camp et al1 and Frangiamore et al2 produced better ligament isometry through 120 degrees of flexion (ligament length changes of 3.9% and 9.4%, respectively) when compared to using the geometric cloud technique (46.4% length change). Humeral anchor deviations produced a statistically significant increase in ligament excursion when compared to ulnar anchor deviations (p < 0.001). Conclusions: When performing UCL repair, small deviations in humeral anchor position may significantly influence graft and ligament isometry. Anchor position was most isometric while using the quantitative measurements as described in Camp et al1. Particularly when addressing detachments of the humeral footprint, surgeons should be critical of the humeral anchor position in order to restore native anatomy and optimal biomechanics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: The effect of platelet-rich plasma (PRP) treatment on recovery in acute hamstring injuries is controversial. Previous study results are inconsistent, and a standardized therapeutic approach has not been established yet. The objective of the study was to assess the treatment effect using a combination of hematoma aspiration and muscle strain PRP injection in partial hamstring muscle tears (grade 2 strains) in athletes. Methods: MRIs of athletes with grade 2 hamstring strains were reviewed from 2013 to 2018. From 2013 to 2015 athletes were treated conservatively and from 2016 to 2018 with a combination of ultrasound-guided hematoma aspiration and PRP muscle strain injection. The outcome, including return-to-play (in days) and recurrence rate, was compared retrospectively between both groups (conservative vs. aspiration/PRP) using ANOVA and Fisher's Exact test. There was no significant difference in age, type of sport, and muscle involvement (including injury grade/location, hamstring muscle type, and length/cross-sectional area of the strain). Results: Fifty-five athletes (28 treated conservatively, 27 with hematoma aspiration/PRP injection) were included. Average return-to-play time (mean) was 32.4 days in the conservative group and 23.5 days in the aspiration/PRP group (p<0.001). Recurrence rate of the hamstring strain was 28.6% (8/28) in the conservative treatment group and less than 4% (1/27) in the aspiration/PRP group (p=0.025). Conclusions: Athletes with grade 2 hamstring strains treated with a combination of hematoma aspiration and PRP injection had a significantly shorter return-to-play and a lower recurrence rate compared to athletes receiving conservative treatment. Axial T2-weighted fat saturated image in a 24-year-old athlete shows a grade 2 strain of the biceps femoris muscle with hemorrhage/hematoma (dashed arrow) surrounding the sciatic nerve (solid arrow). Corona STIR image of the thighs in a 27-year-old athlete with a grade 2 strain of the right biceps femoris muscle shows muscle edema and fluid (solid arrow). A feathery pattern of edema is also present (dashed arrow). Axial/cross-sectional ultrasound image of the right hamstring muscle in a 25-year-old athlete shows a grade 2 strain of the semitendinosus muscle (dashed arrow) and the adjacent normal portion of the muscle (solid arrow). Long axis ultrasound image in the same patient shows hemorrhage/hematoma (solid arrow) surrounding the sciatic nerve (asterisk). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: The timing for initiation of a throwing program following shoulder or elbow surgery in an overhead throwing athlete is dependent on a variety of factors, including surgical procedure performed, time from surgery, level of competition, and successful progression through a physical therapy program. Determining when it is safe for an athlete to begin a post-surgical throwing program is vitally important to ensure safe return to play, and objective data is often preferred to help accurately make such decisions. However, there is a paucity of objective data available to help guide the decision for the timing of initiation of a throwing program following shoulder and elbow surgery in overhead throwing athletes. Additionally, it is unknown what percentage of athletes typically achieve appropriate objective criteria at the presumed timepoint for initiation of a throwing program. Therefore, the objectives of the current study were the following: 1) to create a reproducible, objective return to throwing protocol, 2) to determine what percentage of post-surgical competitive baseball players successfully satisfied the objective return to throwing criteria at the presumed time of throwing program initiation, and 3) to determine what risk factors were most common in athletes who failed to meet objective criteria for return to throwing. Methods: Patients who were a competitive overhead throwing athlete and who underwent a shoulder or elbow surgery by one of the two senior authors were given the opportunity to perform an objective return to throwing evaluation at the presumed time of clearance by the treating physician. Figure 1 outlines the objective return to throwing criteria with the desired goal for each criterion. Each evaluation was performed by a single physical therapist with extensive experience in rehabilitation of overhead athletes. Patients who successfully accomplished all criteria at the time of evaluation were given a passing grade. Patients who failed the initial objective evaluation were re-tested two weeks later. Surgical procedure, level of play, and reason for failing were recorded for all players. Kinematic variables were compared between patients who passed versus those who failed using a two-tailed student's t-test. Relative odds and risks ratios were assessed for level of play and type of surgery with 95% confidence intervals. Significance was set at p<0.05 for all tests. Results: A total of 48 players were evaluated, and level of play was divided into high school (20 patients), college (19 patients), and professional (8 patients). A total of 36 players (75%) obtained a passing grade at the initial evaluation while 12 players received a failing grade (25%). The distribution of passing grades based on surgery type was the following: arthroscopic shoulder surgery: 4/7 patients, UCL reconstruction: 23/31 patients, UCL repair: 3/3 patients, and other elbow surgery (i.e. ulnar nerve decompression transposition, isolated elbow arthroscopy): 5/6 patients. Level of play, type of surgery, and reason for failing is summarized for all players who received a failing grade (Table 1). All players who failed were retested at two weeks and received a passing grade after focused physical therapy to address any insufficiencies. Players who received a failing grade demonstrated significantly more elbow extension, less dominant arm maximum shoulder internal rotation strength, and less dominant arm maximum shoulder external rotation strength (Table 2). Players with a level of play beyond high school and college each showed an elevated odds ratio and relative risk for receiving a failing grade, yet this did not reach statistical significance. Undergoing ulnar collateral ligament reconstruction demonstrated a trend towards having a smaller odds ratio for a failing grade, but this also did not reach statistical significance (Table 3). Conclusions: The most important finding of the current study is that 25% of competitive baseball players did not pass an objective return to throw evaluation at the time of presumed clearance based on time from surgical procedure and objective in-office evaluation by the treating surgeon. All patients who failed were able to achieve a passing grade two weeks later after directed physical therapy to address all insufficiencies. No specific factor reached statistical significance for increasing the odds ratio or relative risk for receiving a failing grade, though undergoing UCL reconstruction demonstrated an insignificant trend for having a lower risk of failing. Our findings demonstrate that not all competitive baseball players will be objectively ready to throw at the presumed time point following shoulder and elbow surgery, and insufficient shoulder strength and/or endurance was the most common reason for failure. Creating objective criteria to help determine when to start a post-surgical throwing program is a critical step to ensure safe rehabilitation after shoulder and elbow surgery in competitive baseball players. The current study provides a foundation for establishing such objective criteria, and it highlights areas of improvement in rehabilitation protocols. Further research is needed to validate the objective testing protocol and its applicability in a larger population. Figure 1. Checklist for objective return to throwing criteria. To obtain a passing score, the patient must achieve a "Yes" by attaining the minimum goal for each criterion. Table 1. Level of play, surgical procedure, and reason for failing for all patients who received an initial failing grade from objective return to throw testing Table 2. Descriptive statistics for time since surgery and throwing arm joint kinematics and kinetics for all players and within passing/failing groups Table 3. Relative odds and risk ratios for passing the return-to-throw test with respect to noted criteria [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Though recognized as a risk factor, posterior glenoid bone loss has only recently been characterized and is distinctly different than anterior glenoid bone loss patterns. Existing biomechanical studies are limited by employment of anterior glenoid bone loss models which are different in both orientation and morphology than posterior glenoid bone loss, and testing in a single neutral arm position thus not fully accounting for the contribution of capsuloligamentous structures in various at-risk arm positions. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the biomechanical effectiveness of a posterior labral repair in the setting of a clinically relevant bone loss model using 3-dimensional computed tomography modeling of patients with recurrent posterior shoulder instability in various at-risk arm positions. Methods: Ten fresh-frozen cadaveric shoulders (mean age: 55.4 years, range: 39-65) were prepared by removing all tissue except the capsule and distal rotator cuff insertions. A joint coordinate frame was established, the specimens were potted, then mounted to a customized fixture on 6-degrees-of-freedom robotic arm. A posterior labral tear was created, then repaired with 3 horizontal mattress sutures and secured by drilling 6 transosseous holes along the peripheral glenoid face exiting the anterior glenoid neck. The sutures were secured for the labral repair states to the mounted fixture under maximal tension and released for the labral tear states and for creating the sequential bone loss models. Bone loss models were created based off a cohort of CT data on patients undergoing revision posterior labral repair surgery to develop 2 clinically relevant 3D models of glenoid bone loss: the first simulating the mean bone loss in this cohort and represented 7% or small bone loss; the second was the mean + 2SD representing 28% or large bone loss. The bone loss was created on each specimen with a 3mm round burr to match each respective 3D printed template (Figure 1). Each specimen was tested in 7 consecutive states: (1) native anatomy, (2) posterior labral tear (6-9 o'clock), (3) posterior labral repair, (4) mean posterior glenoid bone loss with labral tear, (5) mean posterior glenoid bone loss with labral repair, (6) large posterior glenoid bone loss with labral tear, and (7) large posterior glenoid bone loss with labral repair. Each state underwent 75N of posterior-inferior force and 75N of compression during the four tests at 60 and 90 degrees of flexion and 60 and 90 degrees of scaption. Posterior-inferior translation, lateral translation, and dislocation force were measured for each condition. Statistical analysis was performed using two-factor random-intercepts linear mixed-effects models. Results: Compared to the labral tear state, significant increases in dislocation forces occurred with labral repair independent of bone loss state or arm position with values as follows: 14.8N (60° scaption), 12.2N (90° scaption), 11.1N (60° flexion), and 10.1N (90° flexion) with mean 12.1 ± 2.0N across all arm positions (Figure 2). Dislocation force significantly decreased between no bone loss and small bone loss (mean 12.4 ± 0.7N) and between small bone loss and large bone loss (mean 11.8 ± 2.1N) regardless of labral state in all arm positions (table 1). Posterior-inferior translation significantly decreased with labral repair compared to labral tear states independent of bone loss state in all arm positions (Table 1). Lateral translation of the humeral head significant increased when the labrum was repaired independent of bone loss state in all arm positions except 90° scaption and decreased progressively in all bone loss states in all arm positions (table 1). In the native state, the shoulder significantly translated posterior-inferior in scaption at 60° and 90° elevation compared to flexion (p<0.017) and was most unstable in 60° scaption with 29.9 ± 6.1mm posterior-inferior translation (Figure 3). Conclusions: This is the first study to biomechanically evaluate posterior glenoid bone loss using a clinical model in various at-risk arm positions on a 6 degree-of-freedom robot and through a precise linear effects model has established values for the increase in dislocation force posterior labral repair provides regardless of bone loss. The most significant finding of the study is that independent of bone loss, labral repair reduced posterior dislocation forces by 12.1 ± 2.0N and significantly decreased posterior-inferior translation. With a mean decrease in dislocation force of 12.4 ± 0.7N with small (7%) bone loss, labral repair alone may be enough to restore shoulder stability in most individuals. However, significant increases in posterior bone loss may require bony augmentation for adequate stability based on individual factors such as age and activity level. Table 1. Summary of statistically significance among modeled effects for labrum state and bone loss state. Separate linear mixed-effects models were constructed for each combination shoulder position, elevation and measurement. Numeric results reflect the estimated effect of moving from State A -> State B, as indicated in the column header. Up arrows indicate an increasing effect in the measure of interest, while down arrows indicate a decreasing effect, n.s. represents not statistically significant. Figure 2. Bar plots indicating mean and standard deviation values, stratified by shoulder position, elevation, and experimental status of the labrum and glenoid bone loss. Figure 3. Linear mixed-effects model estimates for shoulder position and elevation upon posterior inferior translation among native shoulders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This conference was convened by the Chiropractic Educators Research Forum (CERF) on December 2, 2023. This conference took a closer look at what chiropractic programs are doing to identify burnout and build student, faculty, and staff resilience in the psychosocial domain. During the meeting, presenters and panelists took an in-depth look at research related to how chiropractic programs are addressing issues in mental health of students, faculty, and staff as this relates to burnout and resilience in the chiropractic program and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines a specific unconferencing methodology designed for the HELTASA (un)conference, an international online event held in 2021 in South Africa. Drawing from the principles of unconferencing and decolonisation, the description of the unconferencing methodology in this paper is interspersed with collective autoethnographic reflections, collected through individual and collective writing engagements, to engage with our complex narratives as designers, facilitators, and presenters/participants of this (un)conference. Through selected vignettes of reflective moments in planning and facilitating this (un)conference, we explore opportunities and challenges when adopting both principles of unconferencing and decolonisation in our practice. We end the paper with a discussion of the possibilities of adopting a decolonial unconferencing model in the global South through a colonial matrix of power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]