TY - JOUR A1 - Kellis, Eleftherios A1 - Ellinoudis, Athanasios A1 - Intziegianni, Konstantina T1 - Reliability of sonographic assessment of biceps femoris distal tendon strain during passive stretching JF - Ultrasound in Medicine & Biology N2 - The purpose of this study was to determine the intra-rater, inter-examiner and inter-observer reliability of biceps femoris long head (BFlh) tendon strain using ultrasound imaging. Nineteen patients (age: 20.4 +/- 0.35 y) were tested twice with a 1-wk interval. Each session included passive stretching from three different hip positions. Tests were performed independently by two examiners while BFlh tendon displacement (mm) and strain (%) were manually extracted from ultrasound video footages by two observers. Intra-rater comparisons revealed an intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC2,1) range of 0.87 to 0.98 and a variability less than 4.74%. Interexaminer comparisons revealed an ICC2,1 range of 0.83 to 0.99 and less than 4.69% variability. Inter-observer ICCs ranged from 0.93 to 0.97 with variability less than 4.89%. Using a well-defined scanning protocol, two experienced examiners attained high levels of intra-rater agreement, with similarly excellent results for inter-rater and inter-observer reliability for BFlh tendon displacement and strain. (E-mail: ekellis@phed-sr.auth.gr) (C) 2017 World Federation for Ultrasound in Medicine & Biology. KW - Hamstring KW - Tendon KW - Strain injury KW - Ultrasound KW - Imaging KW - Muscle Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ultrasmedbio.2017.04.018 SN - 0301-5629 SN - 1879-291X VL - 43 SP - 1769 EP - 1779 PB - Elsevier CY - New York ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Cassel, Michael A1 - Risch, Lucie A1 - Mayer, Frank A1 - Kaplick, Hannes A1 - Engel, Aaron A1 - Kulig, Kornelia A1 - Bashford, Greg T1 - Achilles tendon morphology assessed using image based spatial frequency analysis is altered among healthy elite adolescent athletes compared to recreationally active controls JF - Journal of science and medicine in sport : official journal of Sports Medicine Australia N2 - Objectives: Although expected, tendon adaptations in adolescent elite athletes have been underreported. Morphologically, adaptations may occur by an increase in collagen fiber density and/or organization. These characteristics can be captured using spatial frequency parameters extracted from ultrasound images. This study aims to compare Achilles tendon (AT) morphology among sports-specific cohorts of elite adolescent athletes and to compare these findings to recreationally active controls by use of spatial frequency analysis. Design: Cross-sectional observational study. Method: In total, 334 healthy adolescent athletes from four sport categories (ball, combat, endurance, explosive strength) and 35 healthy controls were included. Longitudinal ultrasound scans were performed at the AT insertion and midportion. Intra-tendinous-morphology was quantified by performing spatial frequency analysis assessing eight parameters at standardized ROls. Increased values in five parameters suggest a higher structural organization, and in two parameters higher fiber density. One parameter represents a quotient combining both organization and fiber density. Results: Among athletes, only ball sport athletes exhibited an increase in one summative parameter at pre-insertion site compared to athletes from other sport categories. When compared to athletes, controls had significantly higher values of four parameters at pre-insertion and three parameters at midportion site reflecting differences in both, fiber organization and density. Conclusions: Intra-tendinous-morphology was similar in all groups of adolescent athletes. Higher values found in non-athletes might suggest higher AT fiber density and organization. It is yet unclear whether the lesser structural organization in young athletes represents initial AT pathology, or a physiological adaptive response at the fiber cross-linking level. (C) 2019 Sports Medicine Australia. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. KW - Tendon structure KW - Adaptation KW - Ultrasound KW - Athletic loading KW - Tendinopathy Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsams.2019.03.011 SN - 1440-2440 SN - 1878-1861 VL - 22 IS - 8 SP - 882 EP - 886 PB - Elsevier CY - Oxford ER - TY - GEN A1 - Rubertus, Elina A1 - Noiray, Aude T1 - On the development of gestural organization BT - A cross-sectional study of vowel-to-vowel anticipatory coarticulation T2 - Postprints der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe N2 - In the first years of life, children differ greatly from adults in the temporal organization of their speech gestures in fluent language production. However, dissent remains as to the maturational direction of such organization. The present study sheds new light on this process by tracking the development of anticipatory vowel-to-vowel coarticulation in a cross-sectional investigation of 62 German children (from 3.5 to 7 years of age) and 13 adults. It focuses on gestures of the tongue, a complex organ whose spatiotemporal control is indispensable for speech production. The goal of the study was threefold: 1) investigate whether children as well as adults initiate the articulation for a target vowel in advance of its acoustic onset, 2) test if the identity of the intervocalic consonant matters and finally, 3) describe age-related developments of these lingual coarticulatory patterns. To achieve this goal, ultrasound tongue imaging was used to record lingual movements and quantify changes in coarticulation degree as a function of consonantal context and age. Results from linear mixed effects models indicate that like adults, children initiate vowels' lingual gestures well ahead of their acoustic onset. Second, while the identity of the intervocalic consonant affects the degree of vocalic anticipation in adults, it does not in children at any age. Finally, the degree of vowelto-vowel coarticulation is significantly higher in all cohorts of children than in adults. However, among children, a developmental decrease of vocalic coarticulation is only found for sequences including the alveolar stop /d/ which requires finer spatiotemporal coordination of the tongue's subparts compared to labial and velar stops. Altogether, results suggest greater gestural overlap in child than in adult speech and support the view of a non-uniform and protracted maturation of lingual coarticulation calling for thorough considerations of the articulatory intricacies from which subtle developmental differences may originate. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe - 478 KW - Catalan VCV Sequences KW - Speech Motor Control KW - Vocal-Tract KW - Acoustic Analysis KW - Locus Equations KW - Lingual Coarticulation KW - Children KW - Ultrasound KW - English KW - Resistance Y1 - 2018 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-419753 IS - 478 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Rubertus, Elina A1 - Noiray, Aude T1 - On the development of gestural organization BT - A cross-sectional study of vowel-to-vowel anticipatory coarticulation JF - PLoS ONE N2 - In the first years of life, children differ greatly from adults in the temporal organization of their speech gestures in fluent language production. However, dissent remains as to the maturational direction of such organization. The present study sheds new light on this process by tracking the development of anticipatory vowel-to-vowel coarticulation in a cross-sectional investigation of 62 German children (from 3.5 to 7 years of age) and 13 adults. It focuses on gestures of the tongue, a complex organ whose spatiotemporal control is indispensable for speech production. The goal of the study was threefold: 1) investigate whether children as well as adults initiate the articulation for a target vowel in advance of its acoustic onset, 2) test if the identity of the intervocalic consonant matters and finally, 3) describe age-related developments of these lingual coarticulatory patterns. To achieve this goal, ultrasound tongue imaging was used to record lingual movements and quantify changes in coarticulation degree as a function of consonantal context and age. Results from linear mixed effects models indicate that like adults, children initiate vowels' lingual gestures well ahead of their acoustic onset. Second, while the identity of the intervocalic consonant affects the degree of vocalic anticipation in adults, it does not in children at any age. Finally, the degree of vowelto-vowel coarticulation is significantly higher in all cohorts of children than in adults. However, among children, a developmental decrease of vocalic coarticulation is only found for sequences including the alveolar stop /d/ which requires finer spatiotemporal coordination of the tongue's subparts compared to labial and velar stops. Altogether, results suggest greater gestural overlap in child than in adult speech and support the view of a non-uniform and protracted maturation of lingual coarticulation calling for thorough considerations of the articulatory intricacies from which subtle developmental differences may originate. KW - Catalan VCV Sequences KW - Speech Motor Control KW - Vocal-Tract KW - Acoustic Analysis KW - Locus Equations KW - Lingual Coarticulation KW - Children KW - Ultrasound KW - English KW - Resistance Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0203562 SN - 1932-6203 VL - 13 IS - 9 SP - 1 EP - 21 PB - Public Library of Science CY - San Francisco ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Daschewski, Maxim A1 - Kreutzbruck, Marc A1 - Prager, Jens A1 - Dohse, Elmar A1 - Gaal, Mate A1 - Harrer, Andrea T1 - Resonance-free measuring and excitation of ultrasound JF - Technisches Messen : tm ; Plattform für Methoden, Systeme und Anwendungen der Messtechnik N2 - In this contribution we present innovative methods for broadband and resonance-free sensing and emitting of ultrasound. The sensing method uses a polyethylene foil and a laser vibrometer as a broadband and resonance-free sound receiver. In general, this method enables absolute measurement of sound particle velocity and sound pressure in arbitrary, laser beam transparent liquids and gases with known density and sound velocity. The resonance-free emitting method is based on the electro-thermo-acoustic principle and enables, contrary to conventional ultrasound transducers, generation of arbitrary shaped acoustic signals without resonances and post-oscillations. KW - Ultrasound KW - transfer function KW - characterization of ultrasonic measurement systems KW - thermo-acoustic ultrasound emitter Y1 - 2015 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1515/teme-2014-0020 SN - 0171-8096 VL - 82 IS - 3 SP - 156 EP - 166 PB - De Gruyter CY - Berlin ER -