Manchester Metropolitan University

About: Manchester Metropolitan University is a education organization based out in Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Context (language use). The organization has 5435 authors who have published 16202 publications receiving 442561 citations. The organization is also known as: Manchester Polytechnic & MMU.

A Novel AI-enabled Framework to Diagnose Coronavirus COVID-19 using Smartphone Embedded Sensors: Design Study

Abstract: Coronaviruses are a famous family of viruses that cause illness in both humans and animals. The new type of coronavirus COVID-19 was firstly discovered in Wuhan, China. However, recently, the virus has widely spread in most of the world and causing a pandemic according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Further, nowadays, all the world countries are striving to control the COVID-19. There are many mechanisms to detect coronavirus including clinical analysis of chest CT scan images and blood test results. The confirmed COVID-19 patient manifests as fever, tiredness, and dry cough. Particularly, several techniques can be used to detect the initial results of the virus such as medical detection Kits. However, such devices are incurring huge cost, taking time to install them and use. Therefore, in this paper, a new framework is proposed to detect COVID-19 using built-in smartphone sensors. The proposal provides a low-cost solution, since most of radiologists have already held smartphones for different daily-purposes. Not only that but also ordinary people can use the framework on their smartphones for the virus detection purposes. Today’s smartphones are powerful with existing computation-rich processors, memory space, and large number of sensors including cameras, microphone, temperature sensor, inertial sensors, proximity, colour-sensor, humidity-sensor, and wireless chipsets/sensors. The designed Artificial Intelligence (AI) enabled framework reads the smartphone sensors’ signal measurements to predict the grade of severity of the pneumonia as well as predicting the result of the disease.

Ageing of human muscles and tendons.

Abstract: At whole muscle level, the reduction in intrinsic force observed with ageing is probably the result of the combined effect of changes in: (i) muscle architecture, (ii) tendon mechanical properties, (iii) neural drive (reduced agonist and increased antagonist muscles' activity), and (iv) single fibre specific tension. Only recently have alterations in muscle architecture and in tendon mechanical properties been shown to contribute to the reduction in intrinsic muscle force, and tendon stiffness changes play an important role. Of note is the fact that most of these changes may be reversed by 14 weeks of resistive training, for both fibre fascicle length and tendon stiffness were found to be increased by 10% and 64%, respectively. Surprisingly, however, training had no effect on the estimated relative length-tension properties of the muscle, indicating that the effects of increased tendon stiffness and increased fascicle length cancelled out each other. It seems that natural strategies may be in place to ensure that the relative operating range of muscle remains unaltered by changes in physical activity, and perhaps age.

2018 Consensus statement on exercise therapy and physical interventions (orthoses, taping and manual therapy) to treat patellofemoral pain: recommendations from the 5th International Patellofemoral Pain Research Retreat, Gold Coast, Australia, 2017.

Abstract: Patellofemoral pain affects a large proportion of the population, from adolescents to older adults, and carries a substantial personal and societal burden. An international group of scientists and clinicians meets biennially at the International Patellofemoral Research Retreat to share research findings related to patellofemoral pain conditions and develop consensus statements using best practice methods. This consensus statement, from the 5th International Patellofemoral Research Retreat held in Australia in July 2017, focuses on exercise therapy and physical interventions (eg, orthoses, taping and manual therapy) for patellofemoral pain. Literature searches were conducted to identify new systematic reviews and randomised controlled trials (RCTs) published since the 2016 Consensus Statement. The methodological quality of included systematic reviews and RCTs was graded using AMSTAR and PEDro, respectively. Evidence-based statements were developed from included papers and presented to a panel of 41 patellofemoral pain experts for consensus discussion and voting. Recommendations from the expert panel support the use of exercise therapy (especially the combination of hip-focused and knee-focused exercises), combined interventions and foot orthoses to improve pain and/or function in people with patellofemoral pain. The use of patellofemoral, knee or lumbar mobilisations in isolation, or electrophysical agents, is not recommended. There is uncertainty regarding the use of patellar taping/bracing, acupuncture/dry needling, manual soft tissue techniques, blood flow restriction training and gait retraining in patients with patellofemoral pain. In 2017, we launched the International Patellofemoral Research Network (www.ipfrn.org) to consolidate and grow our patellofemoral research community, facilitate collaboration and disseminate patellofemoral pain knowledge to clinicians and the general public. The 6th International Patellofemoral Research Retreat will be held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA, in October 2019.

Effects of eccentric strength training on biceps femoris muscle architecture and knee joint range of movement.

Abstract: The aim was to determine whether eccentric strengthening changed the muscle architecture of human biceps femoris and consequently, knee range of motion. Twenty-two subjects were randomly assigned to control and experimental groups. The experimental group completed an eccentric strengthening programme for 8 weeks. Outcome measures included hamstring muscle strength (one repetition maximum), the passive knee extension test (PKE) (knee joint angle at which the onset of passive tension occurs), fascicle length (FL) and pennation angle (PA). One repetition maximum increased by 34% (P < 0.01), the PKE test revealed a 5% increase in joint range of motion (P = 0.01), FL increased by 34% (P = 0.01) and PA did not change (P = 0.38). This is the first report of an increase in FL in the biceps femoris following eccentric resistance training. In addition, the results might imply that this fascicle lengthening could lead to an increase in the range of motion of the knee. Clinical implications for rehabilitation and injury prevention are discussed.