Osteoporosis is a systemic skeletal disorder characterized by low bone mass, micro-architectural deterioration of bone tissue leading to more porous bone, and consequent increase in fracture risk. It is the most common reason for a broken bone among the elderly. Bones that commonly break include the vertebrae in the spine, the bones of the forearm, the wrist, and the hip. Until a broken bone occurs there are typically no symptoms. Bones may weaken to such a degree that a break may occur with minor stress or spontaneously. After the broken bone heals, the person may have chronic pain and a decreased ability to carry out normal activities.
A tuning fork is an acoustic resonator in the form of a two-pronged fork with the prongs (tines) formed from a U-shaped bar of elastic metal. It resonates at a specific constant pitch when set vibrating by striking it against a surface or with an object, and emits a pure musical tone once the high overtones fade out. A tuning fork's pitch depends on the length and mass of the two prongs. They are traditional sources of standard pitch for tuning musical instruments.
The cochlea is the part of the inner ear involved in hearing. It is a spiral-shaped cavity in the bony labyrinth, in humans making 2.75 turns around its axis, the modiolus. A core component of the cochlea is the organ of Corti, the sensory organ of hearing, which is distributed along the partition separating the fluid chambers in the coiled tapered tube of the cochlea.
The acoustic reflex is an involuntary muscle contraction that occurs in the middle ear in response to loud sound stimuli or when the person starts to vocalize.
Cryotherapy, sometimes known as cold therapy, is the local or general use of low temperatures in medical therapy. Cryotherapy may be used to treat a variety of tissue lesions. The most prominent use of the term refers to the surgical treatment, specifically known as cryosurgery or cryoablation. Cryosurgery is the application of extremely low temperatures to destroy abnormal or diseased tissue and is used most commonly to treat skin conditions.
The brown note, also sometimes called the brown frequency or brown noise, is a hypothetical infrasonic frequency capable of causing fecal incontinence by creating acoustic resonance in the human bowel. Considered an urban myth, the name is a metonym for the common color of human faeces. Attempts to demonstrate the existence of a "brown note" using sound waves transmitted through the air have failed.
Spinal adjustment and chiropractic adjustment are terms used by chiropractors to describe their approaches to spinal manipulation, as well as some osteopaths, who use the term adjustment. Despite anecdotal success, there is no scientific evidence that spinal adjustment is effective against disease.
Vibration white finger (VWF), also known as hand-arm vibration syndrome (HAVS) or dead finger, is a secondary form of Raynaud's syndrome, an industrial injury triggered by continuous use of vibrating hand-held machinery. Use of the term vibration white finger has generally been superseded in professional usage by broader concept of HAVS, although it is still used by the general public. The symptoms of vibration white finger are the vascular component of HAVS.
Volley theory states that groups of neurons of the auditory system respond to a sound by firing action potentials slightly out of phase with one another so that when combined, a greater frequency of sound can be encoded and sent to the brain to be analyzed. The theory was proposed by Ernest Wever and Charles Bray in 1930 as a supplement to the frequency theory of hearing. It was later discovered that this only occurs in response to sounds that are about 500 Hz to 5000 Hz.
Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) are injuries or pain in the human musculoskeletal system, including the joints, ligaments, muscles, nerves, tendons, and structures that support limbs, neck and back. MSDs can arise from a sudden exertion, or they can arise from making the same motions repeatedly, or from repeated exposure to force, vibration, or awkward posture. Injuries and pain in the musculoskeletal system caused by acute traumatic events like a car accident or fall are not considered musculoskeletal disorders. MSDs can affect many different parts of the body including upper and lower back, neck, shoulders and extremities. Examples of MSDs include carpal tunnel syndrome, epicondylitis, tendinitis, back pain, tension neck syndrome, and hand-arm vibration syndrome.
Therapeutic ultrasound refers generally to any type of ultrasonic procedure that uses ultrasound for therapeutic benefit. Physiotherapeutic ultrasound was introduced into clinical practice in the 1950s, with lithotripsy introduced in the 1980s. Others are at various stages in transitioning from research to clinical use: HIFU, targeted ultrasound drug delivery, trans-dermal ultrasound drug delivery, ultrasound hemostasis, cancer therapy, and ultrasound assisted thrombolysis It may use focused ultrasound or unfocused ultrasound.
Shock pulse method (SPM) is a technique for using signals from rotating rolling bearings as the basis for efficient condition monitoring of machines. From the innovation of the method in 1969 it has been further developed and broadened and is a worldwide accepted philosophy for condition monitoring of rolling bearings and machine maintenance.
The Mechanostat is a term describing the way in which mechanical loading influences bone structure by changing the mass and architecture to provide a structure that resists habitual loads with an economical amount of material. As changes in the skeleton are accomplished by the processes of formation and resorption, the mechanostat models the effect of influences on the skeleton by those processes, through their effector cells, osteocytes, osteoblasts, and osteoclasts. The term was invented by Harold Frost: an orthopaedic surgeon and researcher described extensively in articles referring to Frost and Webster Jee's Utah Paradigm of Skeletal Physiology in the 1960s. The Mechanostat is often defined as a practical description of Wolff's law described by Julius Wolff (1836–1902), but this is not completely accurate. Wolff wrote his treatises on bone after images of bone sections were described by Culmann and von Meyer, who suggested that the arrangement of the struts (trabeculae) at the ends of the bones were aligned with the stresses experienced by the bone. It has since been established that the static methods used for those calculations of lines of stress were inappropriate for work on what were, in effect, curved beams, a finding described by Lance Lanyon, a leading researcher in the area as "a triumph of a good idea over mathematics." While Wolff pulled together the work of Culmann and von Meyer, it was the French scientist Roux, who first used the term "functional adaptation" to describe the way that the skeleton optimized itself for its function, though Wolff is credited by many for that.
Mechanography is a medical diagnostic measurement method for motion analysis and assessment of muscle function and muscle power by means of physical parameters. The method is based on measuring the variation of the ground reaction forces over the time for motion patterns close to typical every day movements. From these ground reaction forces centre of gravity related physical parameters like relative maximum forces, velocity, power output, kinetic energy, potential energy, height of jump or whole body stiffness are calculated. If the ground reaction forces are measured separately for left and right leg in addition body imbalances during the motions can be analysed. This enables for example to document the results of therapy. The same methodology can also be used for gait analysis or for analysis of stair climbing, grip strength and Posturography. Due to the utilization of every-day movements reproducibility is high over a wide age range
Speech science refers to the study of production, transmission and perception of speech. Speech science involves anatomy, in particular the anatomy of the oro-facial region and neuroanatomy, physiology, and acoustics.
In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid. In human physiology and psychology, sound is the reception of such waves and their perception by the brain. Only acoustic waves that have frequencies lying between about 20 Hz and 20 kHz, the audio frequency range, elicit an auditory percept in humans. In air at atmospheric pressure, these represent sound waves with wavelengths of 17 meters (56 ft) to 1.7 centimeters (0.67 in). Sound waves above 20 kHz are known as ultrasound and are not audible to humans. Sound waves below 20 Hz are known as infrasound. Different animal species have varying hearing ranges.
In occupational safety and health, hand arm vibrations (HAVs) are a specific type of occupational hazard which can lead to hand arm vibration syndrome.
Electrocochleography is a technique of recording electrical potentials generated in the inner ear and auditory nerve in response to sound stimulation, using an electrode placed in the ear canal or tympanic membrane. The test is performed by an otologist or audiologist with specialized training, and is used for detection of elevated inner ear pressure or for the testing and monitoring of inner ear and auditory nerve function during surgery.
Vibration calibrators , sometimes also called reference shakers, are electromechanical instruments which enable calibration of vibration sensors and measuring instruments to traceable standards. They produce sinusoidal mechanical vibration signals with known amplitudes and frequencies. The vibrating part of the instrument is usually a cylindrical steel stud with an internal thread for attachment of the test object. An electrodynamic or piezoelectric actuator system is used to produce the vibrations. With older instruments it was necessary to adjust the vibration amplitude according to the weight of the test object. However, modern instruments contain a built-in reference accelerometer and closed-loop control, with which the amplitude is kept constant up to a maximum specified weight of test object. Older models can be used to calibrate objects weighing up to a maximum of approximately 100 g, whereas the latest instruments can work stably with test objects weighing over 500 g.
Shock-mitigating suspension seats are designed to reduce the severity of vibration and mechanical shock. These seats are used in vehicles that operate in high exposure environments, such as high-speed watercraft, military platforms, construction, forestry and agricultural vehicles, and industrial trucks. A vehicle's collisions with waves or rough terrain are a source of whole body vibration that may cause discomfort, acute injuries, and chronic pain among operators. The marine environment is particularly severe and people exposed to these conditions may experience unusually high injury rates.
