Investigating Relationships between Balance Confidence and Balance Ability in Older Adults

Increasing balance confidence in older individuals is important towards improving their quality of life and reducing activity avoidance. Here, we investigated if balance confidence (perceived ability) and balance performance (ability) in older adults were related to one another and would improve after balance training. The relationship of balance confidence in conjunction with balance performance for varied conditions (such as limiting vision, modifying somatosensory cues, and also base of support) was explored. We sought to determine if balance confidence and ability, as well as their relationship, could change after several weeks of training. Twenty-seven healthy participants were trained for several weeks during standing and walking exercises. In addition, seven participants with a higher risk of imbalance leading to falls (survivors of stroke) were also trained. Prior to and after training, balance ability and confidence were assessed via the Balance Error Scoring System (BESS) and Activities Specific Balance Confidence (ABC) Scale, respectively. Both groups showed improvements in balance abilities (i.e., BESS errors significantly decreased after training). Balance confidence was significantly higher in the healthy group than in the stroke group; however, ABC results reflected that balance confidence did not significantly increase after training for each. The correlations between balance ability and balance confidence were explored. Encouragingly, healthy participants displayed a negative correlation between BESS errors and ABC (i.e., enhancements in balance confidence (increases in ABC Scale results) were related to improvements in balance ability (decreases in BESS errors)). For the stroke participants, despite improvements in balance ability, our results showed that there was no relation to balance confidence (i.e., no correlation between BESS errors and ABC) in this group.

Construction of a simple and selective electrochemical sensor based on Nafion/TiO2 for the voltammetric determination of olopatadine

A selective and facile voltammetric method based on titanium dioxide nanoparticles and Nafion (Nafion/TiO2 NPs) on the screen-printed electrode (SPE) was proposed for olopatadine determination. Followed by the synthesis of TiO2 nanoparticles, various methods, including high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM), ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy (UV-Vis), energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) Raman spectrum, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) were utilized to characterize the nanomaterials. Nafion/TiO2 on the screen-printed electrode (NFN/TiO2/SPE) was used to determine olopatadine in concentration ranges of 0.01 to 0.07 and 0.07 to 14.6 µM with a limit of quantification as low as 7.0 nM, via differential pulse voltammetry technique. The NFN/TiO2/SPE offered a high-performance ability to determine olopatadine in the eye drop sample with satisfactory recovery data of 98.2–99.0 %. Also, the developed electrode showed good reproducibility, repeatability, and high selectivity features. The obtained results indicate that NFN/TiO2/SPE could be utilized as an appropriate candidate for electrochemical olopatadine sensing.

Knowledge and Performance Ability of Defibrillator among General Hospital Nurses

Background: The purpose of this study was to investigate nurses' knowledge and performance ability of Defibrillator.Methods: The participants in this study were 121 nurses who have been working in a general hospital located in G region. The measuring tools of this study were developed on the basis of guidelines from American Heart Association and Korea Association of Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation. The knowledge of defibrillator was measured by self-report questionnaire, and the performance ability of defibrillator was measured by observation of the participants. The period of collected date was from May 15 to June 15 in 2016. The collected data were analyzed by using SPSS 19.0 program.Results: The mean score about knowledge of defibrillator was 2.79±2.42. The mean score about performing ability of defibrillation was 6.44±3.39. The knowledge of defibrillator was a significant difference with age, working area, working carrier, experience of using defibrillator. The performance ability of defibrillator was a significant difference with age, working area, working carrier, experience of using defibrillator. There was a significant positive correlation between knowledge and performance ability of defibrillator.Conclusions: The finding suggests developing the knowledge and the performance ability of defibrillator on going refresher courses and training programs, including the related nursing practice guidelines to improve the knowledge and performance ability of defibrillator.

High-Level Carbapenem Resistance among OXA-48-Producing Klebsiella pneumoniae with Functional OmpK36 Alterations: Maintenance of Ceftazidime/Avibactam Susceptibility

The aim of this work was to analyze outer membrane porin-encoding genes (ompK35 and ompK36) in a collection of OXA-48 producing Klebsiella pneumoniae, to assess the effect of porin alterations on the susceptibility to ceftazidime/avibactam, and to describe a screening methodology for phenotypic detection of OXA-48-producing K. pneumoniae with disrupted porins. Antimicrobial susceptibility was tested by Microscan and Etest. The genomes of 81 OXA-48-producing K. pneumoniae were sequenced. MLST, detection of antimicrobial resistance genes, and analysis of ompK35 and ompK36 were performed in silico. Tridimensional structures of the OmpK36 variants were assessed. Receiver operating characteristics curves were built to visualize the performance ability of a disk diffusion assay using carbapenems and cefoxitin to detect OmpK36 functional alterations. A wide variety of OmpK36 alterations were detected in 17 OXA-48-producing K. pneumoniae isolates. All displayed a high-level meropenem resistance (MIC ≥ 8 mg/L), and some belonged to high-risk clones, such as ST15 and ST147. Alterations in ompK35 were also observed, but they did not correlate with high-level meropenem resistance. All isolates were susceptible to ceftazidime/avibactam and porin alterations did not affect the MICs of the latter combination. Cefoxitin together with ertapenem/meropenem low inhibition zone diameters (equal or lower than 16 mm) could strongly suggest alterations affecting OmpK36 in OXA-48-producing K. pneumoniae. OXA-48-producing K. pneumoniae with porin disruptions are a cause of concern; ceftazidime/avibactam showed good in vitro activity against them, so this combination could be positioned as the choice therapy to combat the infections caused by this difficult-to-treat isolates.

The changes of joint-position sense, peroneal strength, postural control, and functional performance ability after the modified Broström procedure for chronic ankle instability

Purpose: Residual functional ankle instability regardless of the restoration of mechanical stability after the lateral ligament repair or reconstruction can cause recurrent sprain. The purpose of this study was to identify the sequential changes of joint-position sense, peroneal strength, postural control, and functional performance ability after the modified Broström procedure (MBP) for chronic ankle instability. Methods: A total of 46 patients (46 ankles) who underwent the MBP for chronic ankle instability were eligible for this study and were followed up for 1 year postoperatively. The changes of joint-position sense and peroneal strength were periodically evaluated with an isokinetic dynamometer. Postural control ability was evaluated using a one-leg stance test with eyes closed. The functional performance ability examination comprised a one-leg hop test, a six-meter hop test, and a cross three-meter hop test. Results: The error in joint-position sense significantly improved from a mean 4.3° to 2.8° ( p < 0.001). Peak torque for eversion significantly improved from a mean 18.2 Nm to 21.2 Nm ( p = 0.024). Balance retention time significantly improved from a mean 4.7 s to 6.4 s ( p < 0.001). Among the functional performance tests, only the one-leg hop test showed a significant improvement postoperatively ( p = 0.031). At 1 year postoperatively, the recovery ratios compared to the unaffected ankle were 67.9% in joint-position sense ( p < 0.001), 86.9% in peroneal strength ( p = 0.012), and 74.4% in postural control ( p < 0.001), with significant side-to-side differences. Conclusion: Although joint-position sense, peroneal strength, postural control, and functional performance ability were significantly improved after the MBP, recovery ratios compared to the unaffected ankle were insufficient up to 1 year postoperatively. Level of Evidence: Level IV (prospective case series)

Microwave-Assisted Solid Extraction from Natural Matrices

The extraction of secondary metabolites from plants, and natural sources in general, is a cornerstone in medicinal chemistry and required the development of sustainable extraction techniques. Microwave-Assisted Solid Extraction (MASE) is a promising extractive methodology being more effective than traditional extraction techniques. It offers higher and faster extraction performance ability with less solvent consumption and protection toward thermolabile constituents. For these reasons, MASE resulted in a suitable extractive methodology in all aspects, including economical and practical, compared to traditional extraction techniques, especially over Soxhlet or solid–liquid extraction. In this chapter, a brief theoretical background about the use of microwave energy for extraction has been presented for better understanding. Then, the potential of MASE for the extraction of secondary metabolites from natural resources, for evaluating the plant productivity and for evaluating the quality of the natural matrices will be reviewed. The discussion is supported by reporting recent applicative examples of MASE applied to the extraction of the most representative chemical classes of secondary metabolites, with a special focus on some drugs or compounds of pharmaceutical and nutraceutical interest.

Plasmonic Sensor based on Microstructure PCF: Performance Analysis with Outside Detecting Approach

In this microarticle, we design a microstructure photonic crystal fiber (PCF) based external sensing surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensor. The performance of the design is numerically evaluated incorporating the finite element method (FEM) with Perfectly Matched Layer (PML) boundary condition of scattering case. Modal analysis is performed using finer mesh anlaysis. At the optimized thickness (40nm) of chemically stable gold(Au) layer, the ever been maximum reported wavelength sensitivity (WS) and standard amplitude sensitivity (AS) are to 75,000 nm per RIU and 480 per RIU correspondingly. The sensor also exposed high polynomial fit (𝐑𝟐 = 𝟎. 𝟗𝟗) as well as high figure of merit (FoM) of 280.77 per RIU. Since very much high sensitivity, high detecting range and figure of merit, lowing the cost of fabrication, the proposed design can be a pleasant competitor in detection of the analyte refractive index (RI). At the last, to prove performance ability of our designed sensor all the performance parameter calculated results compare with the existing sensors.