10 th Annual Conference of the International FES Society

Abstrac

The effectiveness and satisfaction of web-based physiotherapy in people with spinal cord injury: a pilot randomised controlled trial

Study Design: Pilot randomised controlled trial. Objectives: The aims of this study were to evaluate the effectiveness and participant satisfaction of web-based physiotherapy for people with Spinal Cord Injury (SCI). Setting: Community patients of a national spinal injury unit in a university teaching hospital, Scotland, UK. Methods: Twenty-four participants were recruited and randomised to receive eight weeks of web-based physiotherapy (intervention), twice per week, or usual care (control). Individual exercise programmes were prescribed based upon participant’s abilities. The intervention was delivered via a website (www.webbasedphysio.com) and monitored and progressed remotely by the physiotherapist. Results: Participants logged on to the website an average of 1.4±0.8 times per week. Between-group differences, although not significant were more pronounced for the 6 minute walk test. Participants were positive about using web-based physiotherapy and stated they would be happy to use it again and would recommend it to others. Overall it was rated as either good or excellent. Conclusions: Web-based physiotherapy was feasible and acceptable for people with SCI. Participants achieved good compliance with the intervention, rated the programme highly and beneficial for health and well-being at various states post injury. The results of this study warrant further work with a more homogenous sample

Simultaneous Analysis of Mycotoxins, Potentially Toxic Elements, and Pesticides in Rice: A Health Risk Assessment Study

Rice is a widely consumed food worldwide; however, it can be a source of pollutants, such as potentially toxic elements (PTEs), mycotoxins, and pesticides. Sixty rice samples imported from Pakistan (PAK), India (IND), and Thailand (THAI), as well as domestic Iranian (IRN) rice, were collected from Bushehr, Iran, and investigated for the contamination of PTEs, including arsenic (As), lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), and nickel (Ni); pesticides, including chlorpyrifos, trichlorfon, diazinon, fenitrothion, and chlorothalonil; mycotoxins, such as aflatoxin B1 (AFB1), zearalenone (ZEN), ochratoxin A (OTA), and deoxynivalenol (DON); and molds. Estimated daily intake (EDI) and hazard quotient (HQ) of pollutants and hazard index (HI) and incremental lifetime cancer risk (ILCR) of rice types for the Iranian adult population were calculated. The content of PTEs in Iranian rice was not higher than Iran’s national standard limits. In contrast, other types of rice (imported) had at least one PTE above the permissible level. OTA content was below the detection limit, and all other mycotoxins were within the allowable range in all rice types. Thai rice was the only group without pesticides. The HI order of rice types was as follows: HIPAK = 2.1 > HIIND = 1.86 > HIIRN = 1.01 > HITHAI = 0.98. As was the biggest contributor to the HI of Iranian and Thai rice, and diazinon in the HI of Pakistani and Indian rice. The calculation of ILCR confirmed that the concentrations of Ni and Pb in Pakistani and Ni and As in Indian, Thai, and Iranian rice were not acceptable in terms of lifetime carcinogenic health risks. © 2023 by the authors

Aberrant crossed corticospinal facilitation in muscles distant from a spinal cord injury.

Crossed facilitatory interactions in the corticospinal pathway are impaired in humans with chronic incomplete spinal cord injury (SCI). The extent to which crossed facilitation is affected in muscles above and below the injury remains unknown. To address this question we tested 51 patients with neurological injuries between C2-T12 and 17 age-matched healthy controls. Using transcranial magnetic stimulation we elicited motor evoked potentials (MEPs) in the resting first dorsal interosseous, biceps brachii, and tibialis anterior muscles when the contralateral side remained at rest or performed 70% of maximal voluntary contraction (MVC) into index finger abduction, elbow flexion, and ankle dorsiflexion, respectively. By testing MEPs in muscles with motoneurons located at different spinal cord segments we were able to relate the neurological level of injury to be above, at, or below the location of the motoneurons of the muscle tested. We demonstrate that in patients the size of MEPs was increased to a similar extent as in controls in muscles above the injury during 70% of MVC compared to rest. MEPs remained unchanged in muscles at and within 5 segments below the injury during 70% of MVC compared to rest. However, in muscles beyond 5 segments below the injury the size of MEPs increased similar to controls and was aberrantly high, 2-fold above controls, in muscles distant (>15 segments) from the injury. These aberrantly large MEPs were accompanied by larger F-wave amplitudes compared to controls. Thus, our findings support the view that corticospinal degeneration does not spread rostral to the lesion, and highlights the potential of caudal regions distant from an injury to facilitate residual corticospinal output after SCI

Antimicrobial activity of potato juice

Doniesienia literaturowe wskazują, że sok z ziemniaków może być cennym źródłem związków bioaktywnych korzystnie oddziałujących na organizm człowieka. Jak dotąd nie scharakteryzowano jednak w pełni aktywności przeciwdrobnoustrojowej tego produktu. Dlatego też, w niniejszej pracy oceniono aktywność przeciwdrobnoustrojową suszu soku ziemniaczanego powstałego w procesie suszenia rozpyłowego oraz sublimacyjnego, jego hydrolizatu oraz frakcji odbiałczonej. W testach bioaktywności zastosowano szczepy bakterii z rodzajów: Bacteroides, Listeria, Salmonella, Clostridium, Escherichia, Enterococcus, Lactobacillus,, Staphylococcus, Yersinia oraz drożdże Candida i Saccharomyces. Aktywność przeciwdrobnoustrojową oznaczano metodą punktowo-dyfuzyjną. Dodatkowo zbadano zawartość glikoalkaloidów, mikro- i makroelementów, witamin z grupy B oraz witaminy C w soku z ziemniaków, a także podjęto pró- bę określenia ich wpływu na bioaktywność. Przeprowadzone badania wykazały, że żaden z zastosowanych preparatów niezależnie od składu chemicznego i sposobu wytworzenia nie wykazywał aktywności antagonistycznej w stosunku do mikroorganizmów patogennych, probiotycznych i komensalych.There are information in the literature that potato juice could be a valuable source of bioactive compounds revealing beneficial effect on the human health. However, the antimicrobial activity on this product has not been fully established so far. The aim of this study was to evaluate the antimicrobial activity of dried potato juice obtained by spray or sublimation drying, as well as products of its enzymatic hydrolysis and deproteinization. The bacteria of the genera Bacteroides Listeria, Salmonella, Clostridium, Escherichia, Enterococcus, Lactobacillus, Staphylococcus, Yersinia as well as yeasts: Candida and Saccharomyces were used in the study. Antimicrobial activity was determined using the spot-diffusion method. Additionally, characterization of the juice in terms the content of glycoalkaloids, vitamins C and the B group, as well as micro-and macroelements was made. The study showed that none of the investigated species had activity against all pathogenic, commensal and probiotic microflora

Evaluation of the quality and consumer acceptance of wheat bread enriched with potato juice®

Doniesienia literaturowe potwierdzają wysoką aktywność biologiczną soku ziemniaczanego. W pracy przedstawionej w artykule analizowano wpływ dodatku suszonego soku z ziemniaka (stosowanego na 3 poziomach: 2,5; 5,0 i 7,5%) na jakość pieczywa pszennego ocenianą wg Polskiej Normy PN-A-74108 oraz jego akceptowalność konsumencką. Wykazano, że możliwe jest wytworzenie akceptowalnego pieczywa z dodatkiem suszu ziemniaczanego na poziomie 2,5%. Zaobserwowano wpływ dodatku soku na wygląd, barwę oraz strukturę miękiszu pieczywa, a zmiany te pogłębiały się wraz ze wzrostem ilości stosowanego suszu.Literature reports confirm high biological activity of potato juice. Studies analyzed effect of dried potato juice addition during wheat bread production at three different concentrations: 2.5, 5.0 and 7.5 wt.%. Quality of obtained wheat bread was evaluated in accordance to Polish Norm PN-A-74108 and consumer acceptability. It has been shown that it is possible to produce an acceptable bread enriched with 2.5% of the dried potato juice. It was also observed that addition of the potato juice changes appearance, colour and structure of the bread crumb. These changes increases with amount of the potato juice used

Response to "comment on 'Towards high efficiency thin-film crystalline silicon solar cells: The roles of light trapping and non-radiative recombinations'" [J. Appl. Phys. 117, 026101 (2015)]

We respond to a comment about our paper published in J. Appl. Phys. 117, 026101 (2015) on the theory of light trapping and electronic transport in thin-film silicon solar cells. We show that our analytic model is correct and the discrepancies with respect to the full numerical solution are due to the choice of parameters. With the appropriate choice, agreement between analytic model and numerical results is improved and the analytic model has a wide applicability range

Tailoring randomly rough textures for light trapping in thin-film solar cells

In this contribution, we use a rigorous electro-optical model to study randomly rough crystalline silicon solar cells with the absorber thickness ranging from 1 to 100 m. We demonstrate a significant efficiency enhancement, particularly strong for thin cells. We estimate the "region of interest" for thin-film photovoltaics, namely the thickness range for which the energy conversion efficiency reaches maximum. This optimal thickness results from the opposite trends of current and voltage as a function of the absorber thickness. Finally, we focus on surface recombination. In our design, the cell efficiency is limited by recombination at the rear (silicon absorber/back reflector) interface, and therefore engineering the front surface to a large extent does not reduce the efficiency. The presented model of roughness adds a significant functionality to previous approaches, for it allows performing rigorous calculations at a much reduced computational cost