Background & Objectives: In case of inappropriateness of the dimensions of chairs or when users feel pain and pressure in their lumbar region due to poor posture, damage to the spine can be prevented using some additional supports. The aim of this study was ergonomic evaluation of one of these supportive products named “Spine Fit”.Methods: In this descriptive and cross-sectional study, in the first stage, five ergonomists evaluated the product regarding its dimension, adjustability, material, conformity, and manufacturer claims. Then, three groups of workers including office workers, office workers with low back pain, and bus drivers filled out a self-administered questionnaire after using Spine Fit.Results: For the first stage, an acceptable adjustability and dimension was found. Conformity for different kinds of office and bus seats was mostly fair. Findings from the second stage revealed that the subjects in three groups were satisfied regarding seats comfort and ease of use. Concerning the conformity of Spine Fit, it was in good level among office workers, while different levels of conformity were observed by drivers of different models of bus.Conclusion: Spine Fit supports back region based on its supportive role in pelvis, lumbar vertebrae column and thoracic spine. Moreover, Spine Fit features that reduce sweating can improve individuals’ convenience.

Background: Osteoid osteoma is a benign tumor that occurs in the spine in 10-20% of cases. Tumor presents with pain and/or deformity and usually causes torticoli in the cervical spine, and C-shape painful scoliosis is the most common presentation in the thoracic and lumbar spine.Methods: We studied 19 patients with established osteoid osteoma of the spine and reviewed their symptoms, site of involvement, imaging and treatment options. We also followed patients to determine the recurrence of tumor and outcome of deformity after tumor excision.Findings: Painful torticoli was the most common presentation of osteoid osteoma in the cervical spine (75%). In thoracic and lumbar lesions, painful scoliosis was the most common presentation (80%) but the tumor can be a painful condition in spine or even only a deformity. Typical night pain was seen in 9 patients. Tumor excision was the curative treatment although 3 patients needed posterior fusion because of scoliosis curve progression after tumor excision.Conclusion: Pain is the most common presentation of osteoid osteoma in spine and is often accompanied by deformity. Whole. body isotope bone scan and CT scan can help in making the diagnosis. In patientswithcurveCobbanglemorethan40 degreesatI the time of tumor excision, posterior spinal fusion is required.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between Back extensor strength (BES) and spine flexibility with degree of kyphosis and lordosis in young healthy people. One hundred healthy male students participated in this study (23.27±1.41age, 177.42±6.64cm, 65.17±10.63kg). BES measured by using standard digital dynamometer KE-D300. Spine flexibility and degree of kyphosis and lordosis measured by using Spinal mouse 3.2 (non-invasive tool). The relationship of variables was determined by using Spearman Correlation Coefficients. Results showed significant negative correlation between BES and degree of kyphosis (r=-0.72, P<0.05) and significant positive correlation between BES and degree of lordosis (r=0.28, P<0.05). But there was no significant correlation between spine flexibility with degree of kyphosis (r=-0.04, P>0.05) and lordosis (r=0.06, P>0.05). Among variables regression analysis revealed that BES was the best predictor of kyphosis (R2= 55% b= -0.73, P<0.05) and lordosis (R2= 24%, b= 0.30, P<0.05). According to the results as BES increased, degree of kyphosis decreased while degree of lordosis increased manually, but there is no relationship between spine flexibility with degree of kyphosis and lordosis.

ABSTRACT The attention of contemporary planners to environmental factors and increasing awareness and communication of man with his surrounding environment has increased the layers and defining factors of design and planning concepts. In such a way, a common problem with the issue of environmental capabilities to respond was put in front of the planners. The collection of ideas presented in this era was in the form of responsive planning, focusing on the maximum use of environmental capabilities. The necessity of the emergence of a comprehensive discourse to overcome the plurality of factors, definitions and design methods in the environmental fields has been given less attention. Based on this, the current research aims to organize the leading theories in this field in a targeted manner and seeks to improve them based on their synergy. The structural question of this research is the meanings, examples and meaningful contexts of flexibility in various aspects and scales of urban planning. The research method used is qualitative thematic analysis with the help of artificial intelligence in MAXQDA software in a 6-step processing process. The important application of this research is to structure the minds of the planners of this field to reduce the scattered and interdisciplinary problems of the resources. The results of this research revealed dimensions such as identification and recognizability, diversity and changeability, adaptability and expandability, distribution, separation and continuity, organization and compatibility in the field of flexibility and related to the corresponding parts in urban planning   Extended Abstract Introduction Responsiveness-based design and planning emphasizing the maximum use of environmental capacities to meet users' needs implicitly cause a targeted improvement of environmental quality. As the environmental awareness of contemporary man has expanded and the platforms have become more diverse, many challenges are raised in the field of environment-oriented in the field of infrastructure quality and service provision. Urban developments and new developments in cities should be interpreted with integrated conceptualization. The conceptualization of interpretive flexibility in the planning and designing of public spaces in the city is used as an interdisciplinary perspective in urban space design to open and discuss its connection and potential as an approach to strengthening social cohesion and inclusion. The general definition of flexibility is that it can create places with new forms of meaning and be used for different groups to strengthen its coherence and multidisciplinary inclusion in terms of design and planning of space and body. On this basis, the concept of flexibility is proposed as a principle in the context of design and planning due to its wide range of effects on background phenomena. The history of such a role can be seen in the diversity of users' needs. In such a way, it is impossible to express the specific time and area of the need to pay attention to this concept. This is in line with Oldenburg's theory of "social public spaces," in which being in public space, communicating with people and the environment through observing the streets, sidewalks, squares, and parks of the city is a necessary step for people as a part of their social life. The meaningfulness of the design of the artificial environment was considered. In any case, in the contemporary era, on the one hand, at the same time as the quantitative and qualitative increase of human environmental awareness, there is no longer any phenomenon in the eyes of contemporary man arising from a unique aspect and range of factors. On the other hand, his life needs in the individual and collective dimensions have seen a high diversity, which has led to the formation of multiple semantic domains of past flexibility. The meaning of flexibility in such an interdisciplinary platform and basic design refers to the concept of understanding and responding quickly and efficiently to environmental changes. Such a holistic definition for this broad field of environmental design means the implicit acceptance of the role of scale in the meaningful domain of these concepts. On a macro scale, it means making design options to increase the presence, participation, and power of choices of users of the environment in participatory urban planning and design methods, and on a small scale, it means making design options to increase spatial quality and, as a result, the quality of activities. The daily activities of environmental users are through selection against the "dominant space." Flexibility at different scales is crucial for dimensional optimization, shaping, and structuring spatial features, leading to improved performance of space components and spaces. The development of the concept of "flexibility" from various studies in metropolitan to micro scales, such as interior architecture, allows it to pass the discourse of responsiveness to provide a broad approach to environmental design in which different values, interests, and priorities are prioritized. As a result, the issue of flexibility in environmental design has been raised as a multi-dimensional field in the design and planning of the basic environment. The breadth and complexity of this concept have made the researchers of this field deal with it in one or more ways, and it has been avoided to provide a comprehensive framework about the nature and structuring processes. The current research presents a structured view of flexibility in architecture and urban planning with an environmental approach.   Methodology The methodology to achieve this goal is to use the macro research method and achieve a comprehensive framework by combining categorized interpretations. In such a way that by sorting and categorizing these concepts and bases in a new way, he has found a new level of theoretical findings, which will be a suitable answer for the gaps in scientific knowledge and scientific methods created in this field. In this context, the research method "thematic analysis" has been used with a qualitative approach and the use of library resources. Also, to overcome the breadth and complexity of these concepts and the multi-layer networking of concepts in this research method, artificial intelligence has been used in MAXQDA research assistance software.   Results and discussion In the meantime, attention should also be paid to the fields of influence and application of the results of this research because designers refer to flexibility as the creator of environmental qualities, including dynamism. Also, since flexibility, along with the principles of readability and adaptability, affect the lifestyle and behavioral patterns of the audience of environmental design in architecture and urban planning, it will also be effective in dealing with the challenge of complexity in environmental design factors. One of the key questions for achieving research goals on this issue is how flexibility in environmental design impacts the relationship between flexibility and scale.   Conclusion The most important finding of this research suggests that first, it requires a focus on the conditions under which the processes of perceiving human abilities and discovering the needs of the human audience can manifest. The theoretical framework arises from a comparative approach between design disciplines. These conditions are independent of the final state of the design product, and strengthening the environmental capacities will lead to a direction and an area that includes environmental flexibility. By responding to new situations, the construction of the space and the body within a space building can be adapted to various configurations. Even though the environment may remain constant, the designed place will continue functioning as a strong living system over time.  It also seems that the nature of issues related to flexibility has complexity. Considering that the quality of flexibility in urban planning and architecture is significant in multilevel and multifaceted scales from micro to macro, it is important to pay attention to the scale of different variables. In order to reduce this problem, the consistency and adjustment of the scale of the variables measured in a specific analysis should be considered in the first step.   Funding There is no funding support.   Authors’ Contribution All of the authors approved the content of the manuscript and agreed on all aspects of the work.   Conflict of Interest Authors declared no conflict of interest.   Acknowledgments We are grateful to all the scientific.

In this paper, a fully discretized bio-fidelity simulation model for biomechanical (kinematic) analysis of scoliosis for various patients was developed to analyze forces on vertebrae, loads acting on the intervertebral disc, corresponding angles between vertebrae, and tension in the spine muscles during lateral bending.It was further developed to study the movement limitation and muscle activation of a scoliotic subject. This system was built by using the commercial software Life MOD. The whole spine (pre-defined by the software) was discretized into individual vertebra segments with rotational joints representing intervertebral discs. In this study, two female subjects (with 40±1.0 kg weight and 154±3 cm height), one with normal spine and the other one with scoliotic spine, were asked to do lateral bending and bend as far as they can. Motion capture data of these two subjects was obtained. Next, motion capture data was assigned to the model using a motion agent set and the inverse dynamics simulation was performed to simulate the complicated multi-body motion of lateral bending. The mobility of the ribcage, activity of muscles which are important in the lateral motion of body, as well as joint angles were analyzed using the developed simulation model. According to the obtained results, the mobility of the ribcage in scoliosis model was less than that of the normal model with the same anthropometric data. This finding is in direct agreement with the qualitative experimental results done by other researchers.

Background and Aim: Today, considering the mechanical life, sitting behind the table and doing harmful movements make susceptible people prone to musculoskeletal abnormalities, the reason for which is remained unclear. The present study was conducted to investigate the relationship between flexibility and somatotype with abnormal lumbar lordosis among female students. Materials and Methods: A total of 92 female students of Ahvaz Islamic Azad University participated in the study. Research variables included the degree of lumbar lordosis measured using 30-cm flexible ruler and forward bending test using Youdas and Rate of flexibility method. Somatotype (endomorph, mesomorph, and ectomorph) was calculated using Heath and Carter somatotype method. The data were analyzed using Spearman, correlation, and multiple regression with the significance level set at α = 0. 05. Results: The results showed that there was no significant relationship between flexibility and lumbar lordosis (r=-0. 11, p=0. 3), but there was a significant negative relationship between endomorph and lumbar lordosis (r=-0. 40 and p=0. 0001). There was a positive relationship between mesomorph somatotype (r=0. 18, p =0. 09) as well as the ectomorph somatotype (r=0. 07, p=0. 48) and lumbar lordosis. Regression of predicted lumbar lordosis using variables of the flexibility and somatotype was significant only for endomorphy and mesomorphy components (f=4. 35and p=0. 003). Conclusion: According to the results and the possibility of predicting lordosis changes using somatotype components, it seems that physical conditions of the individual should be considered prior to any intervention in spinal abnormalities.

Background and aims: With increasing age, we observe a decrease in muscle strength and endurance, range of joint motion and flexibility of body tissues, which in turn these factors may cause muscle pain and chronic low back pain in these individuals. So, continuing this cycle will lead to atrophy and decrease of muscle strength. The aim of the current study was to investigate the effect of two methods for massage and physical exercise selected in water on spine flexibility, pain and disability among non-active elderly women in Dezful.Methods: In this semi- experimental study, a total of 45 inactive elderly women were selected according to the inclusion criteria in the research and awareness of the stages of implementation. were assigned homogeneously in three groups, 15 women in each group. The range of back flexibility, pain intensity, the inability of all subjects was evaluated before and after the implementation of the exercise protocol. Then, the experimental group exercised six weeks (Massage group: four 15-minute sessions per week, group activator in the water: three one-hour sessions per week). Differences between pretest and posttest groups was determined using independent t-test and changes between the study groups was compared using analysis of covariance test.Results: Statistical analysis results showed there is a significant difference in the massage group and training group after the exercise protocol, in the flexibility, pain intensity and the inability, but it was not observed no significant difference in the control group. Also, in comparison between groups, the results showed that training method in water was more effective on the variables of pain intensity and the disability, but any difference was not observed between training methods on pain intensity of subjects, and two training methods had an equal effect on pain intensity of elderly women.Conclusion: It seems using massage and active exercises in the water, can cause further improvement in performance in elderly women.