Measurement For Gap Balancing Technique In Patients Undergoing Total Knee Arthroplasty: A Large Retrospective Observational Study

Background: Many traditional methods are available to prevent unbalance of extension and flexion gap during total knee arthroplasty (TKA), but there are no reports on the use of measurement and positioning method before tibial osteotomy with self-made tools.We designed a self-made tool measuring the location before tibial osteotomy and determined the clinical effect.Methods: The retrospective study included patients who received TKA at our hospital, between January 1, 2012 and December 31, 2015. A new method, named as the measurement and localization before osteotomy with self-made tools, was developed to measure the osteotomy position of the posterior femoral condyle during TKA. They were divided into two groups, one that received the new method (GroupⅠ), and the other that received the traditional method as a control (GroupⅡ). HSS score, Oxford score, VAS score and knee joint activity were evaluated in two groups.Results: One hundred and eighty-seven of 210 eligible patients were included. The function of knee joint in all patients was improved and the pain was obviously relieved. Significant differences were found in the HSS score, Oxford score, VAS score, knee joint activity between two groups at 5-year follow-up (p<0.05).Conclusions: The biomet knee prosthesis was selected for all intraoperative implants. All operations were completed by the same senior surgeon.The use of self-made tools may contribute to improve the balance between flexion and extension gaps as well as the balance between internal and external gaps during TKA, and overcome knee flexion instability.

Risk factors for shoulder pain after stroke: A clinical study

Objectives: To investigate the risk factors for shoulder pain after stroke, and prevent its occurrence effectively. Methods: The patients with stroke treated in our hospital between September 2016 and October 2020 were reviewed retrospectively. The medical records of the included patients including age, gender, lesion side, stroke duration, hospital stay, diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, limitation of shoulder joint activity, alcohol abuse, smoking, type of stroke, Ashworth scale, Brunnstrom stage, sensory disorders, and motor arm score of National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) were collected and analyzed to determine the risk factors for shoulder pain after stroke. Results: A total of 1390 patients were included based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria, consisting of 162 patients with shoulder pain after stroke and the prevalence was 11.6%. The included patients were divided into shoulder pain group and non-shoulder pain group. There were significant differences in age, stroke duration, hospital stay, diabetes, limitation of shoulder joint activity, Ashworth scale, Brunnstrom stage, sensory disorders, and motor arm score of NIHSS between the two groups (P < 0.05). Based on the multivariate regression analysis, the independent risk factors for shoulder pain after stroke included diabetes, limited shoulder joint activity, Brunnstrom grade I-III period, Ashworth 3-4 grade, motor arm score of NIHSS 3-4 points, and sensory disturbance. Conclusion: Great emphasis should be placed on the stroke patients with diabetes, limited shoulder joint activity, Brunnstrom grade I-III period, Ashworth 3-4 grade, motor arm score of NIHSS 3-4 points, or sensory disturbance, as these patients have higher risks for shoulder pain after stroke. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.38.1.4594 How to cite this:Hao N, Zhang M, Li Y, Guo Y. Risk factors for shoulder pain after stroke: A clinical study. Pak J Med Sci. 2022;38(1):---------. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.38.1.4594 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Creativity of Phraseology in Contrast: Cinematic Discourse vs Discourse of Children’s Literature

The article features the results of contrastive analysis of phraseological creativity in two discourse types, cinematic discourse and discourse of children’s literature. In the study, we develop the parametric approach to linguistic creativity, with the parameter of phraseology displaying both language and discourse specific character. Two compiled subcorpora of cinematic discourse and discourse of children’s literature contingent in size, genre, creation period, addressee orientation and key pragmatic strategy, serve to explore the activity (frequency) distribution of phraseology as well as its creative language productivity. The Theory of Phraseological Creativity provides the criteria for demarcating creative and non-creative uses of phraseological units. Their further analysis in two subcorpora has shown that whilst their total activity in both discourses is similar, it is the cinematic discourse that demonstrates significant prevalence in phraseological modification, which evidences in favor of its higher discourse creativity potential. The study helped reveal the specificity in the phraseological modification strategies applied in cinematic discourse in contrast with discourse of children’s literature. Furthermore, we addressed the problem of parametric contingency which brought forward other criteria in demarcating creative and non-creative uses of phraseology in discourse. To explore the linguistic creativity parametric contingency, we assessed the joint activity of parameters correlating with phraseology use. Following the procedures of parametric activity processing in HETEROSTAT software and vector-space modelling, we received two discourse-specific phraseological contingency profiles. Their contrastive analysis revealed higher contingency values in the discourse of children’s literature. Moreover, it disclosed discourse-specific functional differences in creative and non-creative phraseology use in the discourse types contrasted. Whereas non-creative phraseological units in cinematic discourse displayed low correlation with other parameters of linguistic creativity, their creative uses displayed higher correlation. The same did not stand true for discourse of children’s literature, which demonstrated high correlation in both cases. Consequently, we concluded that the stimulating function is more typical of linguistic creativity parameters activation contingent with the creative uses of phraseology. In discourse of children’s literature apart from the stimulating function, the contingent parameters also display the compensatory function, with both functions stimulating the children’s comprehension of phraseology and simultaneously enhancing discourse creativity. The results suffice to show that the distribution of two functions – compensatory and stimulating – is discourse-specific, which extends the knowledge about linguistic and discourse creativity.

COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF COMMUNICATION MOTIVES OF PRESCHOOLERS’ WITH VARIOUS DEGREES OF EMOTIONAL ADMIRATION OF JOINT ACTIVITY

The article presents the results of theoretical and empirical research of psychological peculiarities of communication motivation of preschoolers who have different degrees of emotional admiration of joint activity. As a result of theoretical analysis, it was found that the most common reason for children to choose a communication partner is the attractiveness of another person as a personality due to the moral, business or physical qualities, a manifestation of sympathy, love to this person, i.e. emotional attitude. At the same time, the need for a more detailed practical study of the problem was confirmed, because the issue of communication motivation in preschool age, in particular, the influence of the degree of emotional admiration of joint activity on this process, remains insufficiently resolved. The data of an empirical study of the peculiarities of communication motives of preschool children with different degrees of emotional admiration of joint activity showed that the higher the degree of emotional interest of preschoolers for joint activity is, the higher the degree of development of communication motives they have. Parameters such as the subjective significance of a peer for a child, which is manifested in the general admiration of others; peer orientation, i.e. the ability to concede, to help; ability to empathy, as well as the child’s choice (to help or not to help to his or her peers), the degree of emotional admiration of the activity and an indication of its expression (positive or negative); the nature of the child’s behavior, its emotional expression, speech, were used as the main indicators of interpersonal relationships. It was proved that the degree of preschoolers’ emotional admiration of joint activity is largely correlated with the level of development of their ability to concede and the willingness to help. Thus, the motives of communication of the preschooler with other children differ depending on the degree of his or her emotional admiration of joint activity, because it was found that the higher the degree of emotional admiration of preschoolers is, the higher the level of development of the ability to concede and the willingness to help they have.

University as an Environment of Innovative Interactions

Orenburg State University is presented as an environment of multilevel multidimensional interaction of various subjects. The dynamics of value interaction between students and teachers is revealed. In the conditions of modern social and digital transformations, the nature of joint activity is changing from formal-reproductive to value-creative. It is pointed out that the dominant instrumental values of students are shifting due to the information and technological features of distance educational technologies. Youth interactions and socio-cultural practices are integrated into the comprehensive program for the development of the OSU socio-cultural environment on the basis of various project activities. The implementation of the program is characterized by receiving grant support for student initiatives. International aspects of university interaction are represented by the development of forms of scientific and educational export to universities of the Republic of Kazakhstan.