-
American Family Physician Jun 2021Many individuals need a mobility assistive device as they age. These devices include canes, crutches, walkers, and wheelchairs. Clinicians should understand how to... (Review)
Review
Many individuals need a mobility assistive device as they age. These devices include canes, crutches, walkers, and wheelchairs. Clinicians should understand how to select the appropriate device and size for individual patients (or work with a physical therapist) and prescribe the device using the patient's health insurance plan. Canes can improve standing tolerance and gait by off-loading a weak or painful limb; however, they are the least stable of all assistive devices, and patients must have sufficient balance, upper body strength, and dexterity to use them safely. Older adults rarely use crutches because of the amount of upper body strength that is needed. Walkers provide a large base of support for patients who have poor balance or who have bilateral lower limb weakness and thus cannot always bear full weight on their legs. A two-wheel rolling walker is more functional and easier to maneuver than a standard walker with no wheels. A four-wheel rolling walker (rollator) can be used by higher-functioning individuals who do not need to fully off-load a lower limb and who need rest breaks for cardiopulmonary endurance reasons, but this is the least stable type of walker. Wheelchairs should be considered for patients who lack the lower body strength, balance, or endurance for ambulation. Proper sizing and patient education are essential to avoid skin breakdown. To use manual wheelchairs, patients must have sufficient upper body strength and coordination. Power chairs may be considered for patients who cannot operate a manual wheelchair or if they need the features of a power wheelchair.
Topics: Aged; Canes; Crutches; Female; Humans; Male; Mobility Limitation; Self-Help Devices; Walkers
PubMed: 34128609
DOI: No ID Found -
PeerJ. Computer Science 2023Devices such as canes and wheelchairs, used to assist locomotion, have remained mostly unchanged for centuries. Recent advances in robotics have the potential to develop...
Devices such as canes and wheelchairs, used to assist locomotion, have remained mostly unchanged for centuries. Recent advances in robotics have the potential to develop smart versions of these devices that can offer better support and living conditions to their users. This is the underlying objective of this project. The existing devices, used during recovery and rehabilitation phases where gait stability is key, are often bulky and cannot be easily migrated from hospital to domestic environments, where maneuvering space tends to be restricted. This article discusses a compact, lightweight and minimally invasive, robotic cane to assist locomotion. The device can assist users with mild locomotion disabilities, , in the final stages of rehabilitation, to maintain and recover their balance in standing and walking situations. This extends previous experiments with alternative control strategies, merged with indicators (based on the Gini index) able to recognize differences between users. Several experiments, with a range of users possessing different mobility impairments, confirm the viability of the robotic cane, with users comfortably using the cane after three minutes, on average, proving its ease of use and low intrusiveness, and with constant support offered during the whole movement. Furthermore, the real-time tuning of the controller gains, the Gini inequality index, enables adjustment to the user's movement.
PubMed: 38192445
DOI: 10.7717/peerj-cs.1563 -
American Family Physician Aug 2011Disability and mobility problems increase with age. Assistive devices such as canes, crutches, and walkers can be used to increase a patient's base of support, improve... (Review)
Review
Disability and mobility problems increase with age. Assistive devices such as canes, crutches, and walkers can be used to increase a patient's base of support, improve balance, and increase activity and independence, but they are not without significant musculoskeletal and metabolic demands. Most patients with assistive devices have never been instructed on the proper use and often have devices that are inappropriate, damaged, or are of the incorrect height. Selection of a suitable device depends on the patient's strength, endurance, balance, cognitive function, and environmental demands. Canes can help redistribute weight from a lower extremity that is weak or painful, improve stability by increasing the base of support, and provide tactile information about the ground to improve balance. Crutches are useful for patients who need to use their arms for weight bearing and propulsion and not just for balance. Walkers improve stability in those with lower extremity weakness or poor balance and facilitate improved mobility by increasing the patient's base of support and supporting the patient's weight. Walkers require greater attentional demands than canes and make using stairs difficult. The top of a cane or walker should be the same height as the wrist crease when the patient is standing upright with arms relaxed at his or her sides. A cane should be held contralateral to a weak or painful lower extremity and advanced simultaneously with the contralateral leg. Clinicians should routinely evaluate their patients' assistive devices to ensure proper height, fit, and maintenance, and also counsel patients on correct use of the device.
Topics: Aged; Canes; Crutches; Decision Support Techniques; Dependent Ambulation; Directive Counseling; Health Services for the Aged; Humans; Orthopedic Equipment; Self-Help Devices; Walkers
PubMed: 21842786
DOI: No ID Found -
JTCVS Techniques Jun 2020
PubMed: 34317788
DOI: 10.1016/j.xjtc.2020.02.001 -
Frontiers in Genetics 2022Advances in sugarcane breeding have contributed significantly to improvements in agronomic traits and crop yield. However, the growing global demand for sugar and... (Review)
Review
Advances in sugarcane breeding have contributed significantly to improvements in agronomic traits and crop yield. However, the growing global demand for sugar and biofuel in the context of climate change requires further improvements in cane and sugar yields. Attempts to achieve the desired rates of genetic gain in sugarcane by conventional breeding means are difficult as many agronomic traits are genetically complex and polygenic, with each gene exerting small effects. Unlike those of many other crops, the sugarcane genome is highly heterozygous due to its autopolyploid nature, which further hinders the development of a comprehensive genetic map. Despite these limitations, many superior agronomic traits/genes for higher cane yield, sugar production, and disease/pest resistance have been identified through the mapping of quantitative trait loci, genome-wide association studies, and transcriptome approaches. Improvements in traits controlled by one or two loci are relatively easy to achieve; however, this is not the case for traits governed by many genes. Many desirable phenotypic traits are controlled by quantitative trait nucleotides (QTNs) with small and variable effects. Assembling these desired QTNs by conventional breeding methods is time consuming and inefficient due to genetic drift. However, recent developments in genomics selection (GS) have allowed sugarcane researchers to select and accumulate desirable alleles imparting superior traits as GS is based on genomic estimated breeding values, which substantially increases the selection efficiency and genetic gain in sugarcane breeding programs. Next-generation sequencing techniques coupled with genome-editing technologies have provided new vistas in harnessing the sugarcane genome to look for desirable agronomic traits such as erect canopy, leaf angle, prolonged greening, high biomass, deep root system, and the non-flowering nature of the crop. Many desirable cane-yielding traits, such as single cane weight, numbers of tillers, numbers of millable canes, as well as cane quality traits, such as sucrose and sugar yield, have been explored using these recent biotechnological tools. This review will focus on the recent advances in sugarcane genomics related to genetic gain and the identification of favorable alleles for superior agronomic traits for further utilization in sugarcane breeding programs.
PubMed: 35991570
DOI: 10.3389/fgene.2022.854936 -
Biotechnology Reports (Amsterdam,... Mar 2022Sugarcane deteriorates at a quick rate, just like other perishable crops. The quick loss of sucrose content in sugarcane from the time it is harvested has a significant... (Review)
Review
Sugarcane deteriorates at a quick rate, just like other perishable crops. The quick loss of sucrose content in sugarcane from the time it is harvested has a significant impact on sugar recovery. This problem of post-harvest sucrose losses in sugarcane is a serious concern in cane-producing countries, as it not only leads to low sugar recovery in mills, but also to poor sugar refining. Unreasonable delays in cane transportation from the fields to the mill are frequently linked to a number of problems related to primary or secondary sucrose losses, all of which contribute to a significant reduction in cane weight and sugar recovery. In sugar mills, the processing of damaged or stale canes also presents a number of challenges, including increased viscosity due to dextran generation, formation of acetic acid, and dextrans due to spp. invasion, and so on. The combination of all of these variables results in low sugar quality, resulting in significant losses for sugar mills. The primary and secondary losses caused by post-harvest sucrose degradation in sugarcane are enlisted. The employment of physico-chemical technologies in farmers' fields and sugar mills to control and minimize these losses has also been demonstrated.
PubMed: 35145888
DOI: 10.1016/j.btre.2022.e00705 -
Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) Jan 2023Laser sensing and vision sensing smart canes can improve the convenience of travel for the visually impaired, but for the present, most of the system functions of laser... (Review)
Review
Laser sensing and vision sensing smart canes can improve the convenience of travel for the visually impaired, but for the present, most of the system functions of laser sensing and vision sensing smart canes are still defective. Guide equipment and smart blind canes are introduced and classified first, and the smart blind canes based on vision sensing, laser sensing and laser vision sensing are investigated, respectively, and the research status of laser vision sensing smart blind canes is sorted out. The advantages and disadvantages of various laser vision sensing smart blind canes are summarized, especially the research development of laser vision fusion as the core of new smart canes. The future development prospects of laser vision sensing smart blind cane are overviewed, to boost the development of laser vision sensing smart blind cane, to provide safe and efficient travel guarantee for the visually impaired.
Topics: Humans; Canes; Equipment Design; Blindness; Visually Impaired Persons
PubMed: 36679665
DOI: 10.3390/s23020869 -
BMC Psychology Aug 2023The white cane is globally an important tool in orientation and mobility for blind and visually impaired people, but it is not often used. The goal of this study was to...
BACKGROUND
The white cane is globally an important tool in orientation and mobility for blind and visually impaired people, but it is not often used. The goal of this study was to develop and validate the white cane use perceived advantages and disadvantages (WCPAD) questionnaire for detecting effective factors in the use or non-use of canes.
METHOD
The initial questionnaire items were extracted through semi-structured interviews with 21 blind or severely impaired vision individuals under two main themes, the perceived advantages, and disadvantages of using a white cane. Linguistic validity and writing evaluation with seven experts, face validity with 23 blind persons, content validity ratio (CVR), and content validity index (CVI) were used for assessment of validity. Internal and external reliability assessment was done using Cronbach's alpha and intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC). Explanatory factor analysis was conducted to identify the factors of the questionnaire; then, corrected item-total correlations, convergent and discriminant validity, and Confirmatory Factor Analyses (CFA) were done, and model fit indices were reported. A total of 320 blind and severe visual impaired individuals (138 males and 182 females) participated in the study. The final questionnaire contained 12 questions in perceived advantages and 21 in perceived disadvantages.
RESULTS
Three factors (social participation, mobility, and culture) extracted for perceived advantages which explained 67.95% of the total variance, Cronbach-α for the three extracted factors was between 0.75 and 0.91. Four factors (social, safety, ergonomics, and family) for perceived disadvantages were extracted which explained 50.98% of the total variance. Cronbach-α for the four extracted factors was from 0.75 to 0.88. CFA confirmed the final models for perceived advantages and disadvantages.
CONCLUSION
WCPAD questionnaire has good reliability and validity, and the factors obtained from factor analysis can measure the reasons for using or otherwise of white canes.
Topics: Female; Male; Humans; Canes; Reproducibility of Results; Ergonomics; Factor Analysis, Statistical; Writing
PubMed: 37649118
DOI: 10.1186/s40359-023-01282-4 -
International Journal of Molecular... Nov 2022Phenolic extracts from berry seeds have been extensively studied for their health benefits. However, few studies have been conducted on the effects of phenolic extracts...
Phenolic extracts from berry seeds have been extensively studied for their health benefits. However, few studies have been conducted on the effects of phenolic extracts from L. canes and berry stems. The Chinese spine grape ( Foex) is an important and widely distributed wild species of L. The present study explored the metabolomic profile and evaluated the antioxidant activity of phenolic compounds in extracts from Foex. canes and stems, with a focus on their role in preventing DNA damage caused by free radicals and inhibiting the growth of breast (MCF-7) and cervical (HeLa) cancer cells. Total phenolic compounds in the dried berry stems of spine grapes were higher than that in vine canes. Analysis of the extracts showed that proanthocyanins, epicatechin, catechin, and phenolic acid were the main phenolic compounds in Foex, but in higher quantities in berry stems than in vine canes. However, -resveratrol and kaempferol 3--glucoside were present in the vine canes but not in the berry stems. Antioxidant analysis by FRAP and ABTS showed that extracts from berry stems and vine canes had a higher antioxidant activity than thinned young fruit shoots before flowering, leaves, peel, pulp, and seeds in Foex. Moreover, the antioxidant activity of extracts from berry stems was higher than that in other grape species, except for muscadine. In vitro analyses further showed that the extracts significantly increased HO scavenging ability and conferred a protective effect against DNA damage. Furthermore, a low concentration of phenolic compounds in extracts from the vine canes and berry stems of spine grapes inhibited the proliferation of the MCF-7 and Hela cancer cells. These research results provided some important useful information for the exploitation of Foex canes and berry stems and indicated that canes and stems of Foex had good antioxidant properties, anticancer activity and prevented DNA damage, providing evidence for medical utilization of Foex.
Topics: Vitis; Antioxidants; Hydrogen Peroxide; Phenols; Fruit; Plant Extracts; Catechin
PubMed: 36499201
DOI: 10.3390/ijms232314873