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  • Article
  • Open Access
2,767 Views
13 Pages

Convergent Validity of the Lower Quarter Y Balance Test Against Two-Step and Timed Up and Go Tests in Thai Older Adults with and Without Locomotive Syndrome

  • Chadapa Rungruangbaiyok,
  • Charupa Lektip,
  • Jiraphat Nawarat,
  • Eiji Miyake,
  • Keiichiro Aoki,
  • Hiroyuki Ohtsuka,
  • Yasuko Inaba,
  • Yoshinori Kagaya and
  • Weeranan Yaemrattanakul

Locomotive syndrome (LS) predisposes older adults to falls and functional dependency. In older adults with LS, the validity of the Lower Quarter Y Balance Test (YBT-LQ)—a dynamic balance assessment tool—remains unclear. This cross-section...

  • Review
  • Open Access
15 Citations
3,962 Views
14 Pages

Locomotive Syndrome and Lumbar Spine Disease: A Systematic Review

  • Takaomi Kobayashi,
  • Tadatsugu Morimoto,
  • Koji Otani and
  • Masaaki Mawatari

27 February 2022

Locomotive syndrome (LS) is defined based on the Loco-Check, 25-question Geriatric Locomotive Function Scale (GLFS-25), 5-question Geriatric Locomotive Function Scale (GLFS-5), Stand-Up Test, Two-Step Test, or a total assessment (i.e., positive for o...

  • Article
  • Open Access
6 Citations
4,425 Views
9 Pages

Relationship between Motor Estimation Error and Physical Function in Patients with Parkinson’s Disease

  • Katsuya Sakai,
  • Tsubasa Kawasaki,
  • Yumi Ikeda,
  • Keita Tominaga and
  • Kohei Kurihara

Background: Motor estimation error is an index of how accurately one’s body movement is recognized. This study determines whether motor estimation error distance is a Parkinson’s disease (PD)- or age-related disability using a two-step ta...

  • Article
  • Open Access
3 Citations
3,264 Views
8 Pages

Cost Consequences for the NHS of Using a Two-Step Testing Method for the Detection of Clostridium difficile with a Point of Care, Polymerase Chain Reaction Test as the First Step

  • William S. Jones,
  • Stephen Rice,
  • H. Michael Power,
  • Gregory Maniatopoulos,
  • Jana Suklan,
  • Fiona Beyer,
  • Mark H. Wilcox,
  • Michelle Permain,
  • A. John Simpson and
  • A. Joy Allen
  • + 1 author

14 October 2020

Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) is a common healthcare-associated infection. Current practice for diagnosing CDI in the Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust involves a three-step, laboratory testing strategy using glutamate dehydr...

  • Article
  • Open Access
58 Views
17 Pages

The Use of a Smartphone to Assess the Two-Minute Step Test: Validity of Machine Learning Compared to Analytical Data Processing

  • Gustavo de Oliveira Hoffmann,
  • Guilerme Parra Martini,
  • John G. Buckley and
  • Andre Luiz Felix Rodacki

28 February 2026

The 2-Minute Step Test (2MST) is commonly scored by step count, which overlooks how the task is performed. This study tested whether a smartphone held to the thigh can be used to quantify thigh kinematics to determine 2MST outcome parameters, and whe...

  • Article
  • Open Access
5 Citations
4,688 Views
9 Pages

27 April 2021

Osteoporosis may increase fracture risk and reduce healthy quality of life in older adults. This study aimed to identify an assessment method using physical performance tests to screen for osteoporosis in community dwelling individuals. A total of 16...

  • Article
  • Open Access
9 Citations
7,433 Views
15 Pages

18 January 2021

In an aging society, preventing dysfunction and restoring function of the locomotive organs are necessary for long-term quality of life. Few interventional studies have investigated supplementation for locomotive syndrome. Additionally, very few inte...

  • Article
  • Open Access
4 Citations
3,149 Views
26 Pages

20 July 2022

Impact loading on carbon fiber reinforced polymer matrix (CFRP) composite laminates can result in a significant reduction in their residual properties, and the (ShAI) properties of the composite material are essential to obtain the material allowable...

  • Article
  • Open Access
1,133 Views
16 Pages

15 June 2024

The two-step thermal stress calculation method (TTSCM) is commonly used to predict the cracking temperature of asphalt mixture. The aim of this study is to improve TTSCM’s mathematical model so as to enhance its prediction accuracy. First, this...

  • Article
  • Open Access
35 Citations
6,577 Views
16 Pages

A Modified Two-Step Screening Strategy for Gestational Diabetes Mellitus Based on the 2013 WHO Criteria by Combining the Glucose Challenge Test and Clinical Risk Factors

  • Katrien Benhalima,
  • Paul Van Crombrugge,
  • Carolien Moyson,
  • Johan Verhaeghe,
  • Sofie Vandeginste,
  • Hilde Verlaenen,
  • Chris Vercammen,
  • Toon Maes,
  • Els Dufraimont and
  • Chantal Mathieu
  • + 9 authors

13 October 2018

This study determines if a modified two-step screening strategy with a glucose challenge test (GCT) ≥ 7.2 mmol/L and clinical risk factors improves the diagnostic accuracy for gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM), based on 2013 WHO criteria, while lim...

  • Article
  • Open Access
9 Citations
10,815 Views
8 Pages

8 January 2019

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a two-step algorithm for the detection of Clostridium difficile infection. Setting and Design: A two-step testing algorithm was evaluated for testing stool samples from patients suspected of...

  • Article
  • Open Access
5 Citations
7,130 Views
16 Pages

24 August 2020

Technology-based outcomes have recently been proposed to complement the standard Four Square Step Test (FSST) by providing a decomposition of the sequences and information about the stepping pattern. A test-retest study and a randomized crossover des...

  • Article
  • Open Access
4 Citations
2,938 Views
12 Pages

Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI) is a major healthcare-associated infection that leads to a significant health economic burden in Japan. Using a decision tree model, we evaluated the budget impact of adopting a one-step nucleic acid amplifica...

  • Study Protocol
  • Open Access
2 Citations
3,463 Views
11 Pages

Study Protocol for Two-Steps Parallel Randomized Controlled Trial: Pre-Clinical Usability Tests for a New Double-Chamber Syringe

  • Pedro Parreira,
  • Liliana B. Sousa,
  • Inês A. Marques,
  • Paulo Santos-Costa,
  • Sara Cortez,
  • Filipa Carneiro,
  • Arménio Cruz and
  • Anabela Salgueiro-Oliveira

A new double-chamber syringe (DUO Syringe) was developed for intravenous drug administration and catheter flushing. This study presents a protocol for pre-clinical usability tests to validate the golden prototype of this new device, performed in a hi...

  • Article
  • Open Access
4 Citations
5,510 Views
11 Pages

Assessment of Dynamic Knee Valgus between Lateral Step-Down Test and Running in Female Runners with and without Patellofemoral Pain Using Two-Dimensional Video Analysis

  • Diego Protasio de Vasconcelos,
  • Felipe J. Aidar,
  • Tarcisio Brandao Lima,
  • Flavio Martins do Nascimento Filho,
  • Igor Leonardo Alves Mendonça,
  • Alfonso López Díaz-de-Durana,
  • Nuno Domingos Garrido,
  • Michael Silveira Santiago and
  • Walderi Monteiro da Silva Junior

10 June 2022

Dynamic knee valgus (DKV) is a frontal plane knee kinematic alteration that has been associated with patellofemoral pain (PFP) in female runners. DKV is commonly assessed in clinical practice by measuring frontal plane knee projection angle (FPPA) du...

  • Article
  • Open Access
9 Citations
7,331 Views
11 Pages

In empirical applications based on linear regression models, structural changes often occur in both the error variance and regression coefficients, possibly at different dates. A commonly applied method is to first test for changes in the coefficient...

  • Article
  • Open Access
2 Citations
4,092 Views
7 Pages

Multicenter Evaluation of the C6 Lyme ELISA Kit for the Diagnosis of Lyme Disease

  • Silvia Zannoli,
  • Michela Fantini,
  • Simona Semprini,
  • Barbara Marchini,
  • Barbara Ceccarelli,
  • Monica Sparacino,
  • Pasqua Schiavone,
  • Anna Belgrano,
  • Maurizio Ruscio and
  • Vittorio Sambri
  • + 4 authors

Lyme disease (LD), caused by infection with Borrelia burgdorferi, is the most common tick-borne infection in many regions of Eurasia. Antibody detection is the most frequently used laboratory test, favoring a two-step serodiagnostic algorithm; immuno...

  • Article
  • Open Access
2 Citations
2,893 Views
17 Pages

Continuously acquired biosignals from patient monitors contain significant amounts of unusable data. During the development of a decision support system based on continuously acquired biosignals, we developed machine and deep learning algorithms to a...

  • Article
  • Open Access
9 Citations
2,299 Views
21 Pages

Moving-Target Detection for FDA-MIMO Radar in Partially Homogeneous Environments

  • Changshan He,
  • Running Zhang,
  • Bang Huang,
  • Mingming Xu,
  • Zhibin Wang,
  • Lei Liu,
  • Zheng Lu and
  • Ye Jin

23 February 2024

This paper delves into the problem of moving-target detection in partially homogeneous environments (PHE) with unknown Gaussian disturbance using a frequency diverse array multiple-input multiple-output (FDA-MIMO) radar. Using training data, we have...

  • Article
  • Open Access
24 Citations
3,855 Views
17 Pages

19 December 2021

The effect of multi-step austempering treatments on the microstructure and mechanical properties of a novel medium carbon high silicon carbide-free bainitic steel was studied. Five different isothermal treatment processes were selected, including sin...

  • Article
  • Open Access
11 Citations
6,165 Views
7 Pages

Double-Gate Two-Step Source/Drain Poly-Si Thin-Film Transistor

  • Feng-Tso Chien,
  • Chih-Ping Hung,
  • Hsien-Chin Chiu,
  • Tsung-Kuei Kang,
  • Ching-Hwa Cheng and
  • Yao-Tsung Tsai

A current improved and electric field reduced double-gate (DG) polycrystalline silicon thin-film transistor with two-step source/drain (DGTSD-TFT) design is proposed and demonstrated in this study. The two-step source/drain (TSD) design, which consis...

  • Article
  • Open Access
5 Citations
1,953 Views
12 Pages

Nanomechanics of Retained Austenite in Medium-Carbon Low-Temperature Bainitic Steel: A Critical Analysis of a One-Step versus a Two-Step Treatment

  • Songbo Zhou,
  • Feng Hu,
  • Kun Wang,
  • Chengyang Hu,
  • Wen Zhou,
  • Serhii Yershov,
  • Kaiming Wu,
  • Zhicheng Zhang and
  • Xianming Pan

30 August 2022

A two-step bainitic treatment with a final isothermal temperature below MS was adopted to obtain bainitic steel with abundant retained austenite (RA). Nanoindentation testing was used to investigate the stability of RA in bainite steel and clarify th...

  • Communication
  • Open Access
12 Citations
2,923 Views
13 Pages

8 May 2022

This paper discusses the problem of detecting subspace signals in structured interference plus compound Gaussian sea clutter with persymmetric structure. The sea clutter is represented by a compound Gaussian process wherein the texture obeys the inve...

  • Article
  • Open Access
8 Citations
7,992 Views
13 Pages

The two-step GMM estimators of Arellano and Bond (1991) and Blundell and Bond (1998) for dynamic panel data models have been widely used in empirical work; however, neither of them performs well in small samples with weak instruments. The continuous-...

  • Technical Note
  • Open Access
33 Citations
11,084 Views
18 Pages

23 June 2021

High-throughput amplicon sequencing that primarily targets the 16S ribosomal DNA (rDNA) (for bacteria and archaea) and the Internal Transcribed Spacer rDNA (for fungi) have facilitated microbial community discovery across diverse environments. A thre...

  • Article
  • Open Access
18 Citations
4,889 Views
17 Pages

24 September 2020

Double pulse resistance spot welding process by applying a second step welding current is a new pathway to alter the mechanical properties for advanced high strength steels. Herein, the resistance spot welding (RSW) of hot stamped boron steel 15B22 b...

  • Feature Paper
  • Article
  • Open Access
55 Citations
6,998 Views
20 Pages

Mapping Soil Organic Carbon for Airborne and Simulated EnMAP Imagery Using the LUCAS Soil Database and a Local PLSR

  • Kathrin J. Ward,
  • Sabine Chabrillat,
  • Maximilian Brell,
  • Fabio Castaldi,
  • Daniel Spengler and
  • Saskia Foerster

20 October 2020

Soil degradation is a major threat for European soils and therefore, the European Commission recommends intensifying research on soil monitoring to capture changes over time and space. Imaging spectroscopy is a promising technique to create spatially...

  • Communication
  • Open Access
13 Citations
3,154 Views
6 Pages

27 October 2019

Geopolymer-TiO2 nanocomposites were prepared by two different techniques, namely the two-step acidification calcination treatment and one-step adding method. The potential photocatalytic activities of geopolymer-TiO2 nanocomposites prepared by the tw...

  • Article
  • Open Access
378 Views
10 Pages

Spring viremia of carp (SVC) is a highly contagious disease that affects cyprinids, resulting in systemic hemorrhage, abdominal distension, exophthalmia, and high mortality in juveniles. This can lead to significant losses in the aquaculture industry...

  • Communication
  • Open Access
4 Citations
2,787 Views
8 Pages

Decreased Balance Function in School-Aged Children with Behavioral Problems

  • Naomichi Matsunaga,
  • Tadashi Ito,
  • Yuji Ito,
  • Jun Mizusawa,
  • Yingzhi Gu,
  • Shota Sanada,
  • Yuya Shirai,
  • Daiki Takahashi,
  • Nobuhiko Ochi and
  • Hideshi Sugiura
  • + 1 author

16 January 2022

Children with behavioral problems have a high risk of impaired motor performance. However, the characteristics of balance functions and their associations with behavioral traits are unclear in this population. This study aimed to evaluate balance fun...

  • Article
  • Open Access
4 Citations
5,060 Views
11 Pages

Effect of Different Dilution Methods and Ratios of Ram Semen on Sperm Parameters after Cryopreservation

  • Liuming Zhang,
  • Xuyang Wang,
  • Caiyu Jiang,
  • Tariq Sohail,
  • Yuxuan Sun,
  • Xiaomei Sun,
  • Jian Wang and
  • Yongjun Li

15 March 2024

The dilution method and ratio were tested to assess their effects on the Hu ram semen after cryopreservation. Experiment I aimed to explore the effect of various dilution ratios (1:1, 1:2, 1:3, 1:4) of diluent I (Tris-based and egg yolk) under the co...

  • Article
  • Open Access
8 Citations
3,833 Views
18 Pages

Effect of Adhesive Application Method on the Enamel Bond Durability of a Two-Step Adhesive System Utilizing a Universal Adhesive-Derived Primer

  • Toshiki Takamizawa,
  • Munenori Yokoyama,
  • Keiichi Sai,
  • Sho Shibasaki,
  • Wayne W. Barkmeier,
  • Mark A. Latta,
  • Akimasa Tsujimoto and
  • Masashi Miyazaki

20 August 2021

This study aimed to evaluate the effect of the adhesive application method on the durability of the enamel bond and the thickness of the adhesive layer. A new-generation two-step universal adhesive system, G2-Bond Universal, and two conventional two-...

  • Article
  • Open Access
3 Citations
1,948 Views
7 Pages

Physical Function of Japanese Preadolescents during the COVID-19 Pandemic

  • Sho Narahara,
  • Tadashi Ito,
  • Yuji Ito,
  • Hideshi Sugiura,
  • Koji Noritake and
  • Nobuhiko Ochi

16 December 2022

Children’s exercise habits have changed during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aimed to examine the physical function and physical activity of preadolescent children before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. This cross-sectional study compared...

  • Article
  • Open Access
22 Citations
5,098 Views
14 Pages

CeO2-Supported Pt Catalysts Derived from MOFs by Two Pyrolysis Strategies to Improve the Oxygen Activation Ability

  • Xueqing Zhu,
  • Hui He,
  • Yanxia Li,
  • Haoyuan Wu,
  • Mingli Fu,
  • Daiqi Ye,
  • Junliang Wu,
  • Haomin Huang,
  • Yun Hu and
  • Xiaojun Niu

Functional metal organic framework (MOF) derivatives have attracted tremendous attention as promising catalysts for various reactions. The thermal decomposition strategies have a vital effect on the structures and physicochemical properties of functi...

  • Article
  • Open Access
4 Citations
2,944 Views
24 Pages

30 November 2023

The compressive sensing (CS) framework offers a cost-effective alternative to dense alias-free sampling. Designing seismic layouts based on the CS technique imposes the use of specific sampling patterns in addition to the logistical and geophysical r...

  • Article
  • Open Access
48 Citations
6,255 Views
15 Pages

21 November 2018

Hydrochar is a very interesting product from agricultural and food production residues. Unfortunately, severe conditions for complete conversion of lignocellulosic biomass is necessary, especially compared to the conversion of sugar compounds. The go...

  • Article
  • Open Access
2 Citations
2,738 Views
14 Pages

10 November 2022

The mechanical durability of a superhydrophobic aluminum alloy surface is an important indicator of its practical use. Herein, we propose a strategy to prepare a superhydrophobic 2024 aluminum alloy surface with highly enhanced mechanical durability...

  • Article
  • Open Access
24 Citations
3,998 Views
19 Pages

Therapy for aggressive metastatic breast cancer remains a great challenge for modern biomedicine. Biocompatible polymer nanoparticles have been successfully used in clinic and are seen as a potential solution. Specifically, researchers are exploring...

  • Communication
  • Open Access
12 Citations
2,518 Views
8 Pages

The Survival of Pear Dormant Buds at Ultra-Low Temperatures

  • Alois Bilavcik,
  • Milos Faltus and
  • Jiri Zamecnik

18 November 2021

Currently, there is a varietal diversity decline in pear orchards of the Czech Republic. Thus, the safe storage of their gene pool collections is becoming increasingly important. Therefore, the ultra-low temperature survival after two-step cryopreser...

  • Article
  • Open Access
43 Citations
6,235 Views
18 Pages

On the Accuracy of Factory-Calibrated Low-Cost Soil Water Content Sensors

  • Jesús María Domínguez-Niño,
  • Heye Reemt Bogena,
  • Johan Alexander Huisman,
  • Bernd Schilling and
  • Jaume Casadesús

13 July 2019

Soil water content (SWC) monitoring is often used to optimize agricultural irrigation. Commonly, capacitance sensors are used for this task. However, the factory calibrations have been often criticized for their limited accuracy. The aim of this pape...

  • Feature Paper
  • Article
  • Open Access
57 Citations
9,607 Views
15 Pages

A Sequential Steam Explosion and Reactive Extrusion Pretreatment for Lignocellulosic Biomass Conversion within a Fermentation-Based Biorefinery Perspective

  • José Miguel Oliva,
  • María José Negro,
  • Paloma Manzanares,
  • Ignacio Ballesteros,
  • Miguel Ángel Chamorro,
  • Felicia Sáez,
  • Mercedes Ballesteros and
  • Antonio D. Moreno

The present work evaluates a two-step pretreatment process based on steam explosion and extrusion technologies for the optimal fractionation of lignocellulosic biomass. Two-step pretreatment of barley straw resulted in overall glucan, hemicellulose a...

  • Article
  • Open Access
6 Citations
4,206 Views
14 Pages

Securing the Insecure: A First-Line-of-Defense for Body-Centric Nanoscale Communication Systems Operating in THz Band

  • Waqas Aman,
  • Muhammad Mahboob Ur Rahman,
  • Hasan T. Abbas,
  • Muhammad Arslan Khalid,
  • Muhammad A. Imran,
  • Akram Alomainy and
  • Qammer H. Abbasi

19 May 2021

This manuscript presents a novel mechanism (at the physical layer) for authentication and transmitter identification in a body-centric nanoscale communication system operating in the terahertz (THz) band. The unique characteristics of the propagation...

  • Article
  • Open Access
22 Citations
3,825 Views
13 Pages

24 July 2019

To enhance the interfacial adhesion between poly(p-phenylene terephthalamide) (PPTA) fibers and a rubber matrix without damaging the fiber structures, aminated carbon nanotubes (NH2-CNTs) were mildly deposited onto the fiber surface by combining the...

  • Article
  • Open Access
3 Citations
3,321 Views
19 Pages

Location of Moving Targets in Substation Non-Line-of-Sight Environment

  • Yubo Wang,
  • Weimin Yang,
  • Zheng Wang,
  • Wenjun Zhou,
  • Liang Li and
  • Hongsen Zou

3 December 2019

In substations, a localization system based on a wireless sensor network (WSN) is a challenge, because the propagation of the measured signal could be blocked by various devices. In other words, non-line-of-sight (NLOS) propagation, where the signal...

  • Article
  • Open Access
30 Citations
3,132 Views
18 Pages

24 November 2022

Nitrogen explosive decompression pretreatment was tested on barley straw, aspen wood, and pine wood in a two-step pretreatment approach. The two-step approach aims to avoid the uncontrolled degradation of hemicellulose during pretreatment and to reco...

  • Article
  • Open Access
860 Views
15 Pages

Opportunity Screening for Early Detection of Gestational Diabetes: Results from the MERGD Study

  • Manju Mamtani,
  • Kunal Kurhe,
  • Ashwini Patel,
  • Manisha Jaisinghani,
  • Kanchan V. Pipal,
  • Savita Bhargav,
  • Shailendra Mundhada,
  • Prabir Kumar Das,
  • Seema Parvekar and
  • Hemant Kulkarni
  • + 2 authors

10 October 2025

Background: The definitions and approaches used to diagnose gestational diabetes (GD) are varied. The two-step approach recommended by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) combines the sensitivity of a glucose challenge test...

  • Article
  • Open Access
9 Citations
4,671 Views
14 Pages

29 September 2018

The geomagnetic field is as fundamental a constituent of passive navigation as Earth’s gravity. In cases where no other external attitude reference is available, for the direct heading angle estimation by a typical magnetic compass, a two-step...

  • Article
  • Open Access
7 Citations
2,791 Views
12 Pages

Impact of the Introduction of a Two-Step Laboratory Diagnostic Algorithm in the Incidence and Earlier Diagnosis of Clostridioides difficile Infection

  • Nieves Sopena,
  • Jun Hao Wang-Wang,
  • Irma Casas,
  • Lourdes Mateu,
  • Laia Castellà,
  • María José García-Quesada,
  • Sara Gutierrez,
  • Josep M. Llibre,
  • M. Luisa Pedro-Botet and
  • Gema Fernandez-Rivas

Our aim was to determine changes in the incidence of CD infection (CDI) following the introduction of a two-step diagnostic algorithm and to analyze CDI cases diagnosed in the study period. We retrospectively studied CDI (January 2009 to July 2018) i...

  • Article
  • Open Access
10 Citations
4,176 Views
22 Pages

Optimized One-Click Development for Topology-Optimized Structures

  • Tobias Rosnitschek,
  • Rick Hentschel,
  • Tobias Siegel,
  • Claudia Kleinschrodt,
  • Markus Zimmermann,
  • Bettina Alber-Laukant and
  • Frank Rieg

8 March 2021

Topology optimization is a powerful digital engineering tool for the development of lightweight products. Nevertheless, the transition of obtained design proposals into manufacturable parts is still a challenging task. In this article, the developmen...

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