Is virtual reality exercise effective in reducing falls among older adults with a history of falls?

This journal suppl. entitled: World Confederation for Physical Therapy Congress 2015 Abstracts, Singapore, 1-4 May 2015Session - Older people and falls (PLR5-09): no. RR-PLR5-3572BACKGROUND: Falls have been identified as one of the major causes of morbidity and mortality in the older adults. Virtual reality (VR) technologies have been used as an assessment and treatment tool in rehabilitation. PURPOSE: This single-blinded randomized controlled clinical trial was to determine the effectiveness of VR exercise in reducing falls risk and incidence among the older adults with a history of falls using Nintendo's Wii Fit® balance board. METHODS: Sixty older subjects aged 65 and above who lived in a nursing home participated this study. They were randomly allocated to balance training with either Wii Fit equipment or conventional exercise. The exercise was organized in one hour session which was held on three days a week for six weeks. Physiological Profile Assessment (PPA) scores and incidence of falls were observed with subsequent intent-to-treat statistical analyses. RESULTS: Independent t-tests showed that there was no statistically significant difference in the average pre-test PPA values and numbers of falls over previous one year between the two groups. Two-way repeated measures of ANOVA did, however, show significant interactions in the PPA z-scores and falls incidence. Within both the Wii Fit and conventional training groups, paired t-tests showed that there were significant differences in their PPA z-scores and falls incidence before and after the respective interventions. However, independent t-tests showed that there were statistically significant differences in the post-test PPA z-scores and number of falls between the two groups. The subjects of the Wii Fit training group showed significantly greater improvement in both outcome measures. CONCLUSIONS: Wii Fit balance training was more effective than conventional balance training in reducing falls risk and incidence among these institutionalized older persons with a history of falls

Muscular morphomechanical characteristics after an Achilles repair

202303 bckwAccepted ManuscriptOthersNational Science Council, Republic of ChinaPublishe

Systematic identification of factors involved in post-transcriptional processes in wheat grain

The original publication can be found at www.springerlink.comPost-transcriptional processing of primary transcripts can significantly affect both the quantity and the structure of mature mRNAs and the corresponding protein products. It is an important mechanism of gene regulation in animals, yeast and plants. Here we have investigated the interactive networks of pre-mRNA processing factors in the developing grain of wheat (Triticum aestivum), one of the world’s major food staples. As a first step we isolated a homologue of the plant specific AtRSZ33 splicing factor, which has been shown to be involved in the early stages of embryo development in Arabidopsis. Real-time PCR showed that the wheat gene, designated TaRSZ38, is expressed mainly in young, developing organs (flowers, root, stem), and expression peaks in immature grain. In situ hybridization and immunodetection revealed preferential abundance of TaRSZ38 in mitotically active tissues of the major storage organ of the grain, the endosperm. The protein encoded by TaRSZ38 was subsequently used as a starting bait in a two-hybrid screen to identify additional factors in grain that are involved in pre-mRNA processing. Most of the identified proteins showed high homology to known splicing factors and splicing related proteins, supporting a role for TaRSZ38 in spliceosome formation and 5′ site selection. Several clones were selected as baits in further yeast two-hybrid screens. In total, cDNAs for 16 proteins were isolated. Among these proteins, TaRSZ22, TaSRp30, TaU1-70K, and the large and small subunits of TaU2AF, are wheat homologues of known plant splicing factors. Several, additional proteins are novel for plants and show homology to known pre-mRNA splicing, splicing related and mRNA export factors from yeast and mammals.Sergiy Lopato, Ljudmilla Borisjuk, Andrew S. Milligan, Neil Shirley, Natalia Bazanova and Peter Langridg

The Benefits of Avoiding Cancer (or Dying from Cancer): Evidence from a Four-Country Study

We use stated-preference methods to estimate the cancer Value per Statistical Life (VSL) and Value per Statistical Case (VSCC) from a representative sample of 45-60-year olds in four countries in Europe. We ask respondents to report information about their willingness to pay for health risk reductions that are different from those used in earlier valuation work because they are comprised of two probabilities—that of getting cancer, and that of dying from it (conditional on getting it in the first place). The product of these two probabilities is the unconditional cancer mortality risk. Our hypothetical risk reductions also include two qualitative attributes—quality-of-life impacts and pain. The results show that respondents did appear to have an intuitive grasp of compound probabilities, and took into account each component of the unconditional cancer mortality risk when answering the valuation questions. We estimate the cancer VSL to be between € 1.9 and 5.7 million, depending on whether the (unconditional) mortality risk was reduced by lowering the chance of getting cancer, increasing the chance of surviving cancer, or both. The VSCC is estimated to be up to € 0.550 million euro, and its magnitude depends on the initial (conditional) cancer mortality and on the improvement in survival. We interpret these as “pure” mortality and cancer risk values, stripped of morbidity, pain or quality-of-life effects. The survey responses show that impacts on daily activities and pain have little or no effect on the WTP to reduce the adverse health risks