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An investigation of the effects of walking frame height and width on walking stability (2020)
Journal Article
Thies, S., Russell, R., Al-ani, A., Belet, T., Bates, A., Costamagna, E., …Howard, D. (2020). An investigation of the effects of walking frame height and width on walking stability. Gait & Posture, 82, 248-253. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gaitpost.2020.09.017

Background Walking aids are designed for structural support during walking, however, surprisingly self-reported use of a walking aid (“Yes, I use one.”) has been identified as a risk factor for falling. Adjustment and design of walking aids may affe... Read More about An investigation of the effects of walking frame height and width on walking stability.

Are older people putting themselves at risk when using their walking frames? (2020)
Journal Article
Thies, S., Bates, A., Costamagna, E., Kenney, L., Granat, M., Webb, J., …Dawes, H. (2020). Are older people putting themselves at risk when using their walking frames?. BMC Geriatrics, 20(1), 90. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12877-020-1450-2

Background Walking aids are issued to older adults to prevent falls, however, paradoxically their use has been identified as a risk factor for falling. To prevent falls, walking aids must be used in a stable manner, but it remains unknown to what ext... Read More about Are older people putting themselves at risk when using their walking frames?.

A three-site clinical feasibility study of a flexible functional electrical stimulation system to support functional task practice for upper limb recovery in people with stroke (2019)
Journal Article
Smith, C., Sun, M., Kenney, L., Howard, D., Luckie, H., Waring, K., …Cotterill, S. (2019). A three-site clinical feasibility study of a flexible functional electrical stimulation system to support functional task practice for upper limb recovery in people with stroke. Frontiers in Neurology, 10(227), https://doi.org/10.3389/fneur.2019.00227

Introduction: Of those people who survive a stroke, only between 40 and 70% regain upper limb dexterity. A number of reviews have suggested that functional electrical stimulation (FES) may have a beneficial effect on upper limb motor recovery. In lig... Read More about A three-site clinical feasibility study of a flexible functional electrical stimulation system to support functional task practice for upper limb recovery in people with stroke.

Objective measures of rollator user stability and device loading during different walking scenarios (2019)
Journal Article
Costamagna, E., Thies, S., Kenney, L., Howard, D., Lindemann, U., Klenk, J., & Baker, R. (2019). Objective measures of rollator user stability and device loading during different walking scenarios. PLoS ONE, 14(1), e0210960. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0210960

Walking aids are widely used by older adults, however, alarmingly, their use has been linked to increased falls-risk, yet clinicians have no objective way of assessing user stability. This work aims to demonstrate the application of a novel methodolo... Read More about Objective measures of rollator user stability and device loading during different walking scenarios.

Logging therapy session data via an upper limb FES rehabilitation system (2018)
Presentation / Conference
Sun, M., Kenney, L., Howard, D., Smith, C., Waring, K., & Luckie, H. (2018, August). Logging therapy session data via an upper limb FES rehabilitation system. Presented at Annual Conference of the International Functional Electrical Stimulation Society, Nottwil, Switzerland

This paper reports on an approach to capturing real-time therapy session data using an upper limb functional electrical stimulation (FES) system to support our under-standing of its usability in clinical environments and to record therapy delivered.... Read More about Logging therapy session data via an upper limb FES rehabilitation system.

FES-UPP : a flexible functional electrical stimulation system to support upper limb functional activity practice (2018)
Journal Article
Sun, M., Smith, C., Howard, D., Kenney, L., Luckie, H., Waring, K., …Finn, S. (2018). FES-UPP : a flexible functional electrical stimulation system to support upper limb functional activity practice. Frontiers in Neuroscience, 12(449), https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2018.00449

There is good evidence supporting highly intensive, repetitive, activity-focused, voluntary-initiated practice as a key to driving recovery of upper limb function following stroke. Functional electrical stimulation (FES) offers a potential mechanism... Read More about FES-UPP : a flexible functional electrical stimulation system to support upper limb functional activity practice.

Performance of optimised prosthetic ankle designs that are based on a hydraulic variable displacement actuator (VDA) (2017)
Journal Article
Gardiner, J., Bari, A., Kenney, L., Twiste, M., Moser, D., Zahedi, S., & Howard, D. (2017). Performance of optimised prosthetic ankle designs that are based on a hydraulic variable displacement actuator (VDA). IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering, 25(12), 2418-2426. https://doi.org/10.1109/TNSRE.2017.2763999

Current energy storage and return (ESR) prosthetic feet only marginally reduce the cost of amputee locomotion compared to basic solid ankle cushioned heel (SACH) feet, possibly due to their lack of push-off at the end of stance. To our knowledge,... Read More about Performance of optimised prosthetic ankle designs that are based on a hydraulic variable displacement actuator (VDA).

A generalizable methodology for stability assessment of walking aid users (2017)
Journal Article
Costamagna, E., Thies, S., Kenney, L., Howard, D., Liu, A., & Ogden, D. (2017). A generalizable methodology for stability assessment of walking aid users. Medical Engineering and Physics, 47, 167-175. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.medengphy.2017.06.013

To assist balance and mobility, older adults are often prescribed walking aids. Nevertheless, surprisingly their use has been associated with increased falls-risk. To address this finding we first need to characterise a person’s stability while using... Read More about A generalizable methodology for stability assessment of walking aid users.

Closed-loop control of compression paddle motion to reduce blurring in mammograms (2017)
Journal Article
Ma, W., Hogg, P., & Howard, D. (2017). Closed-loop control of compression paddle motion to reduce blurring in mammograms. Medical Physics, 44(8), 4139-4147. https://doi.org/10.1002/mp.12333

Background: Since the introduction of full field digital mammography (FFDM) a large number of UK breast cancer screening centers have reported blurred images, which can be caused by movement at the compression paddle during image acquisition. Purpos... Read More about Closed-loop control of compression paddle motion to reduce blurring in mammograms.

Estimating the material properties of heel pad sub-layers using inverse finite element analysis (2016)
Journal Article
Ahanchian, N., Nester, C., Howard, D., Ren, L., & Parker, D. (2016). Estimating the material properties of heel pad sub-layers using inverse finite element analysis. Medical Engineering and Physics, 40, 11-19. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.medengphy.2016.11.003

Detailed information about the biomechanical behaviour of plantar heel pad tissue contributes to our understanding of load transfer when the foot impacts the ground. The objective of this work was to obtain the hyperelastic and viscoelastic material... Read More about Estimating the material properties of heel pad sub-layers using inverse finite element analysis.

Energy flow analysis of amputee walking shows a proximally-directed transfer of energy in intact limbs, compared to a distally-directed transfer in prosthetic limbs at push-off (2016)
Journal Article
Weinert-Aplin, R., Howard, D., Twiste, M., Jarvis, H., Bennett, A., & Baker, R. (2017). Energy flow analysis of amputee walking shows a proximally-directed transfer of energy in intact limbs, compared to a distally-directed transfer in prosthetic limbs at push-off. Medical Engineering and Physics, 39, 73-82. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.medengphy.2016.10.005

Reduced capacity and increased metabolic cost of walking occurs in amputees, despite advances in prosthetic componentry. Joint powers can quantify deficiencies in prosthetic gait, but do not reveal how energy is exchanged between limb segments. This... Read More about Energy flow analysis of amputee walking shows a proximally-directed transfer of energy in intact limbs, compared to a distally-directed transfer in prosthetic limbs at push-off.

A review of the design and clinical evaluation of the ShefStim array-based functional electrical stimulation system (2016)
Journal Article
Kenney, L., Heller, B., Barker, A., Reeves, M., Healey, J., Good, T., …Howard, D. (2016). A review of the design and clinical evaluation of the ShefStim array-based functional electrical stimulation system. Medical Engineering and Physics, 38(11), 1159 -1165. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.medengphy.2016.08.005

Functional electrical stimulation has been shown to be a safe and effective means of correcting foot drop of central neurological origin. Current surface-based devices typically consist of a single channel stim- ulator, a sensor for determining gait... Read More about A review of the design and clinical evaluation of the ShefStim array-based functional electrical stimulation system.

Dealing with time-varying recruitment and length in Hill-type muscle models (2016)
Journal Article
Hamouda, A., Kenney, L., & Howard, D. (2016). Dealing with time-varying recruitment and length in Hill-type muscle models. Journal of Biomechanics, 49(14), 3375-3380. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbiomech.2016.08.030

Hill-type muscle models are often used in muscle simulation studies and also in the design and virtual prototyping of functional electrical stimulation systems. These models have to behave in a sufficiently realistic manner when recruitment level a... Read More about Dealing with time-varying recruitment and length in Hill-type muscle models.

A novel method of using accelerometry for upper limb FES control (2016)
Journal Article
Sun, M., Kenney, L., Smith, C., Waring, K., Luckie, H., Liu, A., & Howard, D. (2016). A novel method of using accelerometry for upper limb FES control. Medical Engineering and Physics, 38(11), 1244-1250. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.medengphy.2016.06.005

This paper reports on a novel approach to using a 3-axis accelerometer to capture body segment angle for upper limb functional electrical stimulation (FES) control. The approach calculates the angle between the accelerome... Read More about A novel method of using accelerometry for upper limb FES control.

A flexible finite state controller for upper limb functional electrical stimulation (2016)
Presentation / Conference
Sun, M., Kenney, L., Smith, C., Waring, K., Luckie, H., & Howard, D. (2016, June). A flexible finite state controller for upper limb functional electrical stimulation. Poster presented at 20th Annual Conference of the International Functional Electrical Stimulation Society, La Grande-Motte, France

This paper reports on a flexible finite stage machine (FSM) controller for the real-time control of functional electrical stimulation (FES) during upper limb rehabilitation, and an associated setup Graphical User Interface (GUI) guides clinical users... Read More about A flexible finite state controller for upper limb functional electrical stimulation.

A device for characterising the mechanical properties of the plantar soft tissue of the foot (2015)
Journal Article
Parker, D., Cooper, G., Pearson, S., Crofts, G., Howard, D., Busby, P., & Nester, C. (2015). A device for characterising the mechanical properties of the plantar soft tissue of the foot. Medical Engineering and Physics, 37(11), 1098-1104. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.medengphy.2015.08.008

The plantar soft tissue is a highly functional viscoelastic structure involved in transferring load to the human body during walking. A Soft Tissue Response Imaging Device was developed to apply a vertical compression to the plantar soft tissue whils... Read More about A device for characterising the mechanical properties of the plantar soft tissue of the foot.

Meta-analysis of metabolic cost of amputee walking shows only a marginal improvement in cost when using ESR feet compared to conventional SACH feet (2015)
Presentation / Conference
Gardiner, J., Bari, Z., Kenney, L., & Howard, D. (2015, June). Meta-analysis of metabolic cost of amputee walking shows only a marginal improvement in cost when using ESR feet compared to conventional SACH feet. Presented at ISPO World Congress 2015, Lyon, France

Background: Energy storage and return (ESR) prosthetic feet are designed to store strain energy during stance and release that energy during push-off and, hence, promote a more energy efficient gait. However, despite ESR feet being prescribed for app... Read More about Meta-analysis of metabolic cost of amputee walking shows only a marginal improvement in cost when using ESR feet compared to conventional SACH feet.

A forward dynamic modelling investigation of cause-and-effect relationships in single support phase of human walking (2015)
Journal Article
McGrath, M., Howard, D., & Baker, R. (2015). A forward dynamic modelling investigation of cause-and-effect relationships in single support phase of human walking. Computational and Mathematical Methods in Medicine, 2015, 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1155/2015/383705

Mathematical gait models often fall into one of two categories: simple and complex. There is a large leap in complexity between model types, meaning the effects of individual gait mechanisms get overlooked. This study investigated the cause-and-effec... Read More about A forward dynamic modelling investigation of cause-and-effect relationships in single support phase of human walking.

The use of an adjustable electrode housing unit to compare electrode alignment and contact variation with myoelectric prosthesis functionality: A pilot study (2014)
Journal Article
and contact variation with myoelectric prosthesis functionality: A pilot study. Prosthetics and Orthotics International, 40(1), 123-128. https://doi.org/10.1177/0309364614545417

Background: Usable myoelectric control relies on secure and intimate contact at all times between the electrode, the socket and the residual limb. At present, there is little post-fitting socket adjustment available to prosthetists with respect to el... Read More about The use of an adjustable electrode housing unit to compare electrode alignment and contact variation with myoelectric prosthesis functionality: A pilot study.