Activity

.

Stretching has been proven to be effective on pain and range of motion (ROM) in patients with plantar fasciitis. Despite recent gain in popularity and the proposed theories of effectiveness of foam roller, there is a lack of literature on the effect of foam rolling on plantar fasciitis.

The objective of this study was to compare the effects of foam rolling and stretching on pain and ankle ROM in patients with plantar fasciitis.

A total of 50 participants were included and randomly allocated to the stretching and foam roller groups. Visual analog scale (VAS), pressure pain thresholds (PPTs) for gastrocnemius, soleus and plantar fascia and weight-bearing lunge test (WBLT) measurements were recorded at baseline and immediately after treatment.

Within-group analysis has shown there is a statistically significant difference (

p

<

0

.

001

) in all the outcome measures in both foam roller and self-stretching groups. The between-groups analysis showed no statistical significance difference in VAS, plantar fascia PPT and WBLT parameters (with

p

-values of 0.171, 0.372 and 0.861, respectively); however, significant differences were found in gastrocnemius PPT (

p

=

0

.

029

) and soleus PPT (

p

=

0

.

013

).

It was seen that both stretching and foam rolling techniques helped in reducing pain and increasing the ROM. However, the effectiveness of foam roller was superior to stretching in terms of increase in PPTs at gastrocnemius and soleus.

CTRI/2018/01/011398.

The Clinical Trials Registry – India (CTRI); https//ctri.nic.in.

The Clinical Trials Registry – India (CTRI); https//ctri.nic.in.

Low-intensity resistance training (RT) combined with neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) is one method of exercise to improve the deterioration of physical function. However, it is unclear whether low-intensity RT combined with NMES (RT + NMES) can be safely implemented.

This study aimed to examine the influence of low-intensity RT + NMES on autonomic activity and cardiovascular responses in healthy adults.

This study was an open-label, randomized controlled cross-over trial. The exercise intensity of isometric knee extension RT was set to 40% of the maximum voluntary contraction (peak torque). NMES was adjusted to a biphasic asymmetrical waveform with the frequency maintained at 50 Hz and a phase duration of 300

μ

s. The difference in the change in autonomic activity and cardiovascular responses was compared by assessing heart rate variability, blood pressure, and heart rate during RT and

RT

+

NMES

.

Twenty healthy male college students (mean age

21

.

0

±

0

.

6

years) participated in this study. The ratio of low- and high-frequency components of heart rate variability, systolic blood pressure, and heart rate increased during exercise in the RT and

RT

+

NMES

sessions (

P

<

0.05). There were no significant differences in autonomic activity and cardiovascular responses throughout the sessions during RT and

RT

+

NMES

.

In conclusion, our results demonstrated that low-intensity

RT

+

NMES

was safe and did not induce excessive autonomic and cardiovascular responses in healthy adults.

In conclusion, our results demonstrated that low-intensity RT + NMES was safe and did not induce excessive autonomic and cardiovascular responses in healthy adults.Instrumented gait analysis allows for the identification of walking parameters to predict cognitive decline and the worsening of dementia. The aim of this study was to perform a meta-analysis to better clarify which gait parameters are affected or modified with the progression of the dementia in a larger sample, as well as which gait assessment conditions (single-task or dual-task conditions) would be more sensitive to reflect the influence of dementia. Literature searches were conducted with the keywords “quantitative gait” OR “gait analysis” AND “dementia” AND “single-task” AND “dual-task,” and for “quantitative gait” OR “gait analysis” AND “dementia” AND “fall risk” on PubMed, EMBASE, the Cochrane Library, Scopus, and Web of Science. The results were used to perform a systematic review focussing on instrumental quantitative assessment of the walking of patients with dementia, during both single and dual tasks. The search was performed independently by two authors (C. R. and C. M.) from January 2018 to April 2020 using the PICOS criteria. Nine publications met the inclusion criteria and were included in the systematic review. Our meta-analysis showed that during a single task, most of the spatiotemporal parameters of gait discriminated best between patients with dementia and healthy controls, including speed, cadence, stride length, stride time, stride time variability, and stance time. HG-9-91-01 cell line In dual tasks, only speed, stride length, and stride time variability discriminated between the two groups. In addition, compared with spatial parameters (e.g. stride length), some temporal gait parameters were more correlated to the risk of falls during the comfortable walking in a single task, such as cadence, stride time, stride time variability, and stance time. During a dual task, only the variability of stride time was associated with the risk of falls.In this work, macroscopic TiO2 monoliths are proposed to serve simultaneously as support and co-catalyst in a continuous flow photoreactor. The impregnation via one-pot of mesoporous TiO2 with CdS (m-TiO2/CdS) and CuO (m-TiO2/CuO) nanoparticles enabled the formation of photocatalytic heterojunctions retaining high specific surface area (~ 100 m2/g). The impregnated monoliths of 2-3 mm in size were employed as photocatalysts to inactivate airborne bacteria under blue light, reducing the emission of living airborne bacteria up to 0.1% and 37.7% when using m-TiO2/CdS and m-TiO2/CuO, respectively. Bacteria were characterized and quantified by flow cytometry and cell lysis was confirmed by SEM, detecting collapsed bacteria. Along 96 h of continuous photocatalysis at a flow rate of 2.2 L/min, the cell concentration presented maxima and minima due to the adsorption-desorption stages of bioaerosols over the catalysts, in concordance with thermal gravimetric analysis. The reactivation of catalysts was achieved by calcination at 400 °C, however, after a third re-cycle, the photocatalytic activity for all monoliths was practically negligible because the physicochemical surface changes hinder the adequate bioaerosol adsorption.