APSIC: Training and fitting amputees during situations of daily living

Today, the prevalence of major amputation in France can be estimated between 90,000 and 100,000 and the incidence is about 8300 new amputations per year (according to French National Authority for Health estimation). This prevalence is expected to increase in the next decade due to the ageing of the population. Even if prosthetic fitting allows amputee people recovering the walking ability, their autonomy remains limited when crossing obstacles such as slopes, stairs or cross-slopes frequently encountered during outdoors displacements. The aim of the project APSIC was to complete scientific knowledge about adaptation strategies to situations of daily living compared to level walking through an extensive motion analysis study of transtibial and transfemoral amputee compared to non-amputee people. APSIC succeeded in identifying physiologic joint functions and current prosthetic joint limitations in the studied situations, which notably resulted in the design of a prototype of ankle-knee prosthesis adapted to multimodal locomotion of transfemoral amputee. Perspectives of the clinical use of motion analysis within the rehabilitation process were explored and proved to be relevant for personalized approach of motor learning

Synchronous luminescence potential for coal extract and coal derived liquid studies

A structural analysis of the organic part of two coals of different rank (Gardanne coal and Freyming coal) is performed by UV fluorescence spectroscopy (synchronous excitation-emission technique). The spectral study is made on different extracts (hexane, toluene, tetrahydrofurane and pyridine extracts) obtained by ultrasonic multiple step extraction. On a spectroscopic basis it is thus possible to clearly show the differences between coals of different rank and bring out the notion of "fingerprint" characteristic of a given coal. UV fluorescence spectroscopy also makes it possible to detect structural changes occurring in the aromatic part of coals after demineralization or oxidation. UV fluorescence is also used for qualitative as well as quantitative studies of the derived liquids of these same coals. The different families of polyaromatic compounds are thus characterized in the fractions obtained through the various fractionation processes (under vacuum distillation, solvent extraction, chromatography)