Opioid use disorder has increased in the world in recent years and Iran ranks first in terms of opium smoking in the world. In fact, opium smoking by traditional methods, in addition to dependence on morphine, is a behavioral addiction in Iran. The body position during opium smoking is usually non-standard and non-ergonomic. Over time, changes in muscle tissue, tendons and ligaments, and the connective tissue go from elasticity to neuromuscular plasticity. This study aims to compare sway back posture and musculoskeletal problems between opium smokers and non-drug users. In this comparative and cross-sectional study, 80 opium smokers were compared with 74 non-drug users in terms of sway angle (sway back posture), and musculoskeletal complaints (NORDIC questionnaire) and the association of possible risk factors was investigated. Data were analyzed by Kolmogorov-Smirnov, Correlation Coefficient and paired-t tests using SPSS version 23. There were significant differences between two groups in terms of sway back posture (P=0.007), and neck (<0.001), upper back (<0.001) and lower back (0.006) musculoskeletal complaints. Homelessness, the lifetime duration of opium smoking (in months), and the duration of daily opium smoking (in minutes) had significant correlation with sway back posture and musculoskeletal complaints. Homelessness was the strongest predictor and had strongest correlation. Overall, an increase in the duration of sitting in non-ergonomic positions could lead to increase in sway angle and sway back posture and increase in musculoskeletal complaints of neck, upper back and lower back due to the non-neutral posture of opium smoking. It seems that plasticity and structural and functional adaptations of the posture occurs due to opium smoking and further studies are recommended.

Although significant progress has been made in understanding the cortical correlates underlying balance control, these studies focused on a single task limiting the ability to generalize the find-ings. Different balance tasks may elicit cortical activations in the same regions but show different levels of activation because of distinct underlying mechanisms. In this study, we instructed twenty young, neurotypical adults to maintain standing balance while the standing support surface was either translated or rotated and investigated the differences in cortical activations between these two widely used tasks using whole head electroencephalography (EEG). Addi-tionally, we investigated whether transcranial magnetic stimulation could modulate these cortical activations. We found higher delta and lower alpha relative power over the fronto-central region during the platform translation task when compared to the platform rotation task suggesting greater engagement of attentional and sensory integration resources for the former. Continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS) over the supplementary motor area (SMA) significantly reduced delta activity in the fronto-central region but did not alter alpha activity during the platform translation task. Our results provide a direct comparison of neural activations between two commonly used balance tasks and are expected to lay a strong foundation for designing neuro-interventions for balance improvements with effects generalizable across multiple balance scenarios.

Abstract: Considering the significance of postural balance in shooting ability, and consequently soldiers’ occupational performance and survivability, it is of importance to promote the use of balance training programs to improve shooters' efficiency. This study explored how a balance training program affects shooting performance. Twenty participants were divided into two equal groups. They all performed 60 shots in a shooting simulator while standing. The participants went through this process twice, before and after a 4-week balance training program. The shoot-ing was done under four different conditions: without load on a stable surface, with load on a stable surface, without load on an unstable surface, and with load on an unstable surface. The training program had a significant impact on the experimental group, improving their balance by 76 ± 9% (p < 0.01). Additionally, in the experimental group, shooting score increased by 47% and the % center of gravity by 20% (p < 0.01). The stability of the shots, measured by holding time in the target, doubled from 2.2 to 4.5 seconds (p < 0.01). These improvements were more pronounced when participants had a load and/or were on an unstable surface. In conclusion, a balance training program can be beneficial for improving shooting performance.

The bridge crane is often used in a complex environment, often subject to interference of all loads. Some uncertainties factors often have an inevitable impact on its swing. So the force situation of the bridge crane during a working cycle is analyzed, and a three-dimensional dynamic mathematical model of the bridge crane is built. Through the simulation analysis of the model under the action of driving force and wind load, the change law of the swing angle of the bridge crane is studied. Then, the fuzzy control theory is used to determine the control parameter in the anti sway control process. The position, swing angle deviation and deviation rate of the bridge crane are taken as the input, and the parameter correction is obtained after the fuzzification by using the center of gravity method, the anti sway fuzzy control system of the bridge crane is designed and simulated. The research results show that the fuzzy PID anti sway controller can not only improve the adaptability of the control system, but also overcome the large overshoot, quickly restrain the swing, and effectively realize the anti sway function of the bridge crane.

The effectiveness of a recently proposed methodology in the identification of damage in planar, multi-storey, Reinforced Concrete (RC) moment-frames, which develop a plastic-yield mechanism on their beams, is showcased here via the examining of a group of such existing multi-storey frames with three or more unequal spans. According to the methodology, the diagram of the instantaneous Eigen-Frequencies of the frame in the nonlinear regime is drawn as a function of the inelastic seismic roof displacement by performing a sequence of pushover and instantaneous modal analyses with gradually increasing target displacement. Using this key-diagram, the locations of severe seismic damage in an existing moment-frame can be evaluated if the instantaneous fundamental eigen-frequency of the damaged frame, at an analysis step within the nonlinear area, is known in advance by “the monitoring and the identification of frequencies” using a local network of uniaxial accelerometers. This is a hybrid technique because both procedures, the instrumental Monitoring of the structure and the Pushover analysis on the frame (M and P technique), are combined. Moreover, the damage image of the planar multi-storey moment-frame is illustrated, and the lateral stiffness matrix of the damaged frame is calculated with high accuracy.