Motor imagery ability in patients with traumatic brain injury

Oostra KM, Vereecke A, Jones K, Vanderstraeten G, Vingerhoets G. Motor imagery ability in patients with traumatic brain injury. Arch Phys Med Rehabil 2012;93:828-33. Objective: To assess motor imagery (MI) ability in patients with moderate to severe traumatic brain injury (TBI). Design: Prospective, cohort study. Setting: University hospital rehabilitation unit. Participants: Patients with traumatic brain injury (mean coma duration, 18d) undergoing rehabilitation (n=20) and healthy controls (n=17) matched for age and education level. Interventions: Not applicable. Main Outcome Measures: The vividness of MI was assessed using a revised version of the Movement Imagery Questionnaire-Revised second version (MIQ-RS); the temporal features were assessed using the time-dependent motor imagery (TDMI) screening test, the temporal congruence test, and a walking trajectory imagery test; and the accuracy of MI was assessed using a mental rotation test. Results: The MIQ-RS revealed a decrease of MI vividness in the TBI group. An increasing number of stepping movements was observed with increasing time periods in both groups during the TDMI screening test. The TBI group performed a significantly smaller number of imagery movements in the same movement time. The temporal congruence test revealed a significant correlation between imagery and actual stepping time in both groups. The walking trajectory test revealed an increase of the imagery and actual walking time with increasing path length in both groups, but the ratio of imaginary walking over actual walking time was significantly greater than 1 in the TBI group. Results of the hand mental rotation test indicated significant effects of rotation angles on imagery movement times in both groups, but rotation time was significantly slower in the TBI group. Conclusions: Our patients with TBI demonstrated a relatively preserved MI ability indicating that MI could be used to aid rehabilitation and subsequent functional recovery

Influence of surface properties on adsorption of organic compounds from adsorbent texture control to direct XPS analysis

Doctorat en sciences appliquées - UCL, 199

Influence of oral zinc supplementation on the lymphocyte response to mitogens of normal subjects

SCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Targeting neutrophils in asthma : a therapeutic opportunity?

Suppression of airway inflammation with inhaled corticosteroids has been the key therapeutic approach for asthma for many years. Identification of inflammatory phenotypes in asthma has moreover led to important breakthroughs, e.g. with specific targeting of the IL-5 pathway as add-on treatment in difficult-to-treat eosinophilic asthma. However, the impact of interfering with the neutrophilic component in asthma is less documented and understood. This review provides an overview of established and recent insights with regard to the role of neutrophils in asthma, focusing on research in humans. We will describe the main drivers of neutrophilic responses in asthma, the heterogeneity in neutrophils and how they could contribute to asthma pathogenesis. Moreover we will describe findings from clinical trials, in which neutrophilic inflammation was targeted. It is clear that neutrophils are important actors in asthma development and play a role in exacerbations. However, more research is required to fully understand how modulation of neutrophil activity could lead to a significant benefit in asthma patients with airway neutrophilia

Effect of nano-confinement on the kinetics of an interfacial click chemistry reaction

In semiconductor manufacturing of 3-D nano-transistors, modified kinetics have been encountered for the aqueous chemical etching of thin films in 1-D and 2-D nano-confined volumes, either delayed or accelerated [1,2]. Deviations from kinetics observed on planar substrates were attributed to the overlap of electrostatic double layers (EDL) on opposite walls and the consequent depletion or enrichment of reactive ions in the nano-space. These explanations stem from studies on nanofluidic systems, where however electrostatic effects cannot explain all observations [3]. The study of the mechanisms in play in the etching of thin films is hampered by the complexity of the reaction schemes. On the other hand, biorthogonal click chemistry provides kinetically simple reactions in aqueous solutions, which are also being used in the binding of biological molecules such as DNA to the active surface of biosensors. In this last purpose, the surface is covered with a SAM ending with one of the reactants. Reactions at the surface of highly organized monomolecular layers, such as SAMs, are typically retarded compared to those in solution [4]. In nanofluidic devices, kinetics will be affected by both the confinement in the SAM and in the nano-channels. We studied the cycloaddition of dibenzylcyclooctyne-PEG3-alcohol (DBCO) to a linear azide-terminated SAM in ultra-pure water, a second order strain-promoted azide-alkyne click chemistry reaction with no side reaction when performed in solution. Kinetics were monitored in-situ using ATR-FTIR. For this purpose, double-side polished silicon wafers without and with 320nm deep nanochannels of varying width (32-64nm) were cleaved and polished to make ATR crystals that were mounted in a flow cell [5]. The cycloaddition in presence of an excess DBCO could be described as a pseudo-first-order reaction in all cases, in agreement with literature on similar reactions in solution [6,7]. However, the rate constant for the reaction with the SAM was higher by about 3 orders of magnitude compared to those of similar reactions in solution [6,7]. The interactions of the rather hydrophobic SAM surface (water contact angle of 84°) with the hydrophobic head of the DBCO molecule, together with the orientation of the azide groups at the surface of the SAM were likely responsible for the faster reaction with the DBCO molecule. On the other hand, the rate constant for the SAM in the nanochannels was about 4 times smaller than that for the planar surface. Here an explanation was sought in the overlap of the EDLs of the polarized SAM surfaces and its influence on the orientation of the polar-tailed DBCO molecule inside the channels. In support of this interpretation, changes in electrical potential inside the channels were probed using pH measurements with fluorescein, as described in [8].status: publishe