Impact of knee marker misplacement on gait kinematics of children with cerebral palsy using the Conventional Gait Model — a sensitivity study

Clinical gait analysis is widely used in clinical routine to assess the function of patients with motor disorders. The proper assessment of the patient’s function relies greatly on the repeatability between the measurements. Marker misplacement has been reported as the largest source of variability between measurements and its impact on kinematics is not fully understood. Thus, the purpose of this study was: 1) to evaluate the impact of the misplacement of the lateral femoral epicondyle marker on lower limb kinematics, and 2) evaluate if such impact can be predicted. The kinematic data of 10 children with cerebral palsy and 10 aged-match typical developing children were included. The lateral femoral epicondyle marker was virtually misplaced around its measured position at different magnitudes and directions. The outcome to represent the impact of each marker misplacement on the lower limb was the root mean square deviations between the resultant kinematics from each simulated misplacement and the originally calculated kinematics. Correlation and regression equations were estimated between the root mean square deviation and the magnitude of the misplacement expressed in percentage of leg length. Results indicated that the lower-limb kinematics is highly sensitive to the lateral femoral epicondyle marker misplacement in the anterior-posterior direction. The joint angles most impacted by the anterior-posterior misplacement were the hip internal-external rotation (5.3° per 10 mm), the ankle internal-external rotation (4.4° per 10 mm) and the knee flexion-extension (4.2° per 10 mm). Finally, it was observed that the lower the leg length, the higher the impact of misplacement on kinematics. This impact was predicted by regression equations using the magnitude of misplacement expressed in percentage of leg length. An error below 5° on all joints requires a marker placement repeatability under 1.2% of the leg length. In conclusion, the placement of the lateral femoral epicondyle marker in the antero-posterior direction plays a crucial role on the reliability of gait measurements with the Conventional Gait Model

Slow flows of yield stress fluids: complex spatio-temporal behaviour within a simple elasto-plastic model

A minimal athermal model for the flow of dense disordered materials is proposed, based on two generic ingredients: local plastic events occuring above a microscopic yield stress, and the non-local elastic release of the stress these events induce in the material. A complex spatio-temporal rheological behaviour results, with features in line with recent experimental observations. At low shear rates, macroscopic flow actually originates from collective correlated bursts of plastic events, taking place in dynamically generated fragile zones. The related correlation length diverges algebraically at small shear rates. In confined geometries bursts occur preferentially close to the walls yielding an intermittent form of flow localization.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Automated Grain Yield Behavior Classification

A method for classifying grain stress evolution behaviors using unsupervised learning techniques is presented. The method is applied to analyze grain stress histories measured in-situ using high-energy X-ray diffraction microscopy (HEDM) from the aluminum-lithium alloy Al-Li 2099 at the elastic-plastic transition (yield). The unsupervised learning process automatically classified the grain stress histories into four groups: major softening, no work-hardening or softening, moderate work-hardening, and major work-hardening. The orientation and spatial dependence of these four groups are discussed. In addition, the generality of the classification process to other samples is explored