Postural control data from prevalent kidney transplant patients with and without history of falls

From Elsevier via Jisc Publications RouterItem not available in this repository.This article presents data from a research paper entitled “Postural balance, muscle strength, and history of falls in end-stage renal disease patients living with a kidney transplant: a cross-sectional study” available in Journal Gait and Posture [1]. In this article, we reported the minimal detectable changes at the 95% level of confidence (MDC95) of postural balance variables measured in eyes open (EO) and eyes closed (EC) conditions, with a stabilometric platform, in 59 kidney transplant (KT) recipients (mean age= 53.2 ± 11 years). In addition, we also performed receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curve analysis to explore the ability of postural balance measures to discriminate fallers and non-fallers (history of falls: yes or no). Sensitivity, specificity and area under the curve (AUC) of mean center of pressure velocity (CoPv), sway area (SA), center of pressure range of displacement in the anterior-posterior (AP) and medio-lateral (ML) directions were calculated. These data can be used by researchers aiming to design psychometric studies of postural balance in KT patients and they also provide clinicians with information on possible prioritization of outcome assessment for future fall-risk research in this clinical population.31pubpu

Reliability of an isometric and isokinetic strength testing protocol of the knee and ankle in young adults

Background: Isokinetic dynamometers are becoming very common in assessing muscle strength and pathology, both in research and clinical practice, but for most of those devices reliability studies are still needed to support their extended use. The aim of this study is to assess the test-retest reliability also in health adults. Methods: Thirty adults (13 male and 17 females; mean age 25.4 ± 2.7 years) were recruited among University students. They participated to two testing sessions (7 day apart) in which they performed isokinetic and isometric strength assessment of the knee and ankle flexion and extension. Results: All variable showed an Intra-class correlation coefficient higher than 0.7 (isometric knee extension 0.96; isokinetic knee extension 0.96; isokinetic knee flexion 0.97; isometric ankle right flexion pl and flexion do 0.75-0.96; isometric ankle left flexion pl and flexion do 0.78-0.97; isokinetic ankle right flexion pl and flexion do 0.88-0.73; isokinetic ankle right flexion pl and flexion do 0.88-0.85) and paired-sample t-test showed no significant difference. Moreover, most of the recorded values were included within the upper and lower limits of agreement. Conclusion: Multi-joint evaluation system is a reliable device to assess knee and ankle isokinetic and isometric strength among healthy adults

Global and Regional IUCN Red List Assessments: 2

In this contribution the conservation status assessment of six plant species according to IUCN categories and criteria are presented. It includes the assessment at global level of Charybdis glaucophylla Bacch., Brullo, D’Emerico, Pontec. & Salmeri, Euphorbia nicaeensis All. subsp. japygica (Ten.) Arcang., Hieracium australe Fr. subsp. australe, Limonium multiforme Pignatti, Onosma helvetica Boiss. em. Teppner subsp. lucana (Lacaita) Peruzzi, Aquaro & Cesca and the assessment at national level (Italy) of Lathyrus laxiflorus (Desf.) Kuntze subsp. laxiflorus

Upgrading the Italian BIRALES system to a pulse compression radar for space debris range measurements

Space debris represent a major risk for every spacecraft and satellite. In fact, other than cause serious damages to these structures, new collisions could exponentially increase the amount of debris and so the level of threat represented by the objects. To avoid new impacts, the monitoring of the space environment with space-based and ground-based measurement campaigns is necessary. The ground-based measurement can be implemented with optical or radar technologies. In this paper the upgrade of the Italian BIRALES radar system for space debris, that initially performed only Doppler measurements, is described. With its new features the BIRALES will be able to perform even range measurements

Notulae to the Italian native vascular flora: 5.

In this contribution, new data concerning the distribution of native vascular flora in Italy are presented. It includes new records and confirmations to the Italian administrative regions for taxa in the genera Allium, Arabis, Campanula, Centaurea, Chaerophyllum, Crocus, Dactylis, Dianthus, Festuca, Galanthus, Helianthemum, Lysimachia, Milium, Pteris, and Quercus. Nomenclature and distribution updates, published elsewhere, and corrections are provided as supplementary material

Contribution to the floristic knowledge of eastern Irpinia and Vulture-Melfese area (Campania and Basilicata, southern Italy)

In order to improve the floristic knowledge of the Italian territory, we report the inventory of the taxa collected during the annual field trip of the working group for Floristics, Systematics and Evolution of the Italian Botanical Society held in 2015 in eastern Irpinia and Vulture-Melfese area (South Italy). The investigated territories are located in southern Apennines, along the border between the Campania and Basilicata administrative regions. These areas are scarcely known in terms of vascular flora. The floristic samplings were performed in 19 sites selected as representative of the local environmental diversity as regards to climate, litho-morphology and land-use. The research led to the identification of 4,137 specimens of vascular plants, belonging to 815 species and subspecies, 399 genera, and 85 families. Among these taxa, 42 were endemic to Italy, 38 were included in the IUCN Red List of the Italian Flora, 28 were alien and 5 were cryptogenic in Campania and/ or Basilicata administrative regions. Two taxa, Aquilegia coerulea (casual alien, native to North America) and Lolium ×boucheanum (native), were found to be new for Italy. On the basis of the available floristic literature the first one is also to be considered new for the European flora. At regional scale, we have found 18 taxa new for the Campania and 15 new for the Basilicata region. Finally, 10 taxa were confirmed for Campania. Data obtained during this study, confirmed the important role of a collaborative approach among botanists and the great relevance of these territories for plant diversity