The paper presents a prototype of a rehabilitation robot for lower extremities. It is created on the basis of cylindrical kinematic model, equipped with two rigid arms, special handles and fixtures. It has five active degrees of freedom and is designed to repeat the trajectories generated by physiotherapist during the learning phase. Presented prototype of rehabilitation robot has the ability to replay different types of trained exercises such as: hip and knee flexion/extension, leg abduction/adduction. The protection system (including overload detection) implemented in the robot ensures safe working with patients.
This paper deals with mechanical and hardware design of a robot, used for the rehabilitation of upper extremities. It has been called ARR-1 (Arm Rehabilitation Robot). The robot has a semi-exoskeleton structure. This means that some parts of the robot fit closely to the human arm (an orthosis), but the weight of the construction does not load patient’s body. The device is used for the whole arm rehabilitation, but active joints are only situated in glenohumeral and elbow joints. The robot is electrically actuated.
The aim of this paper is to analyse whether the medical rehabilitation segment is an important part of the entire Polish healthcare system, and if the medical rehabilitation services are provided with adequate levels of financing and management. The study reviews published literature and legal acts, and undertakes an analysis of data acquired from international and national health data repositories. In Poland there exists no coordination between medical, vocational and social rehabilitation or between the rehabilitation delivered by the health resort facilities. There is an observed lack of coordination among public fund payers. The described lack of coordination influences not only patient treatments (it is difficult to measure outputs and outcomes), but also makes summarizing the total expenditures on curative rehabilitation more difficult. Even though numerous countries spend a smaller or comparable amount of money on rehabilitation (per patient), funds allocated to rehabilitation in Poland (expressed in PPS) are over seven times lower than in France, about five times lower than in Austria and Belgium, and three times lower than in the Netherlands.
Geological and Mining Law enforced in Poland does not provide adequate regulations assuring financial means for a mine closure and mined land rehabilitation. The gradual accumulation of funds within a framework of a mine rehabilitation fund may not provide the full coverage of costs of all the necessary works in the event the exploitation is terminated before lifting all minable resources.
Regulations defining the duties of mining enterprises lack specific preclusions related to assurance of financial means for mine closures in the event a mining license is issued by a staroste (prefect). To address this problem a simplified estimation method for establishing closing costs is put forward in the first stage. This is based on unified indicators related to deposits’ reserves or acreage used for mining activities.
The equivalent of the closure costs established in this manner shall be paid to an escrow account on a similar basis as means of rehabilitation funds are put aside. However, paying the entire amount either in one (preferably) or two instalments is recommended. The introduction of this recommendation requires an amendment to the Geological and Mining Law as well as securing appropriate competences in staroste’s offices along with a convincing communication campaign.
Limb physical movements disability is the result of illnesses or serious injuries, impaired execution of daily activities and limitations or even inability to perform working activity. Restoration of fitness in such cases is possible through rehabilitation that requires arduous repetition of appropriate exercises with participation of an experienced physiotherapist. Exercises using the robot to repeat movements would speed up the process of rehabilitation. The paper presents the concept of rehabilitation robot control system realizing a specified purpose.
The church of Santa Ana in Moratalaz, Madrid, Spain (1965-1971), is an emblematic work of the architect Miguel Fisac. In his long career include interventions in the religious field, constituting one of the most important contributions to Spanish religious architecture of the last century. This church is a singular place of worship and architecturally significant, in which the acoustics played an important role in the configuration of the spatiality of the church. This paper studies the acoustic behaviour of the church and its relationship with its unique structural, spatial and coating material characteristics. The analysis of the current acoustic conditions, with high reverberation times (up to 6 seconds) and poor intelligibility on the audience, serve as the basis for making an acoustic rehabilitation proposal that contributes to improving the sound conditions of the building for the intended use, without distorting the spatial, formal and material aspects with which the architect conceived the project.
Introduction: Temporomandibular disorders (TMD) are the second most common cause of chronic pain in the human musculoskeletal system. The triad of symptoms of TMD includes: pain within the temporomandibular joint (TMJ), limitation of its mobility and crepitations. The aim of the study was to present the methods of physiotherapy and to assess its effectiveness in patients with hypomobility of temporomandibular joints.
Material and Methods: 44 patients (40.2 ± 10.6 years) were examined for signs of TMD using the Manual Functional Analysis of masticatory system (MFA) questionnaire due to DC/TMD. In the above group, 20 patients showed hypomobility of TMJs and myofascial pain. They underwent a 3-week phy-siotherapy consisting of manual therapy and exercises. In the study group, linear measurements of TMJs mobility and palpation of selected masticatory muscles were performed. Pain was assessed before and after 3 weeks of therapy according to Numerical Rating Scale (NRS). Statistical processing of the data was done with STATISTICA 13 and was conducted considering significance at a p-value <0.05.
Results: Significant improvement in TMJ’s mobility, which increased on average by 6.6 mm (p = 0.0005) and reducing of pain, a decrease of 3 points on average on the NRS Scale (p = 0.00002) were achieved.
Conclusions: The applied physiotherapy algorithm, including manual therapy and exercises of mas-ticatory muscles, is effective in the case of improvement TMJ’s range of motion and reduction of pain in patients with hypomobility of TMJ’s.