Evaluation of the impact of non-slip socks on the motor recovery of elderly people in acute care hospitals: Protocol for a randomized, controlled trial study.

BACKGROUND: Older patients often arrive in acute care wards with inappropriate footwear. Hospitals may provide non-slip socks to improve the patients' safety. However, few studies have been conducted on the benefits of non-slip socks. A recent literature review found only two randomized controlled studies that evaluated non-slip socks, but the socks were not the primary focus of the studies. The aim of this study is therefore to specifically evaluate the benefits of non-slip socks on gait in hospitalized older people. METHODS: This open, randomized, controlled trial will include patients aged 75 years and over, hospitalized in an acute medical unit. Patients will be randomized to either remain barefoot or wear non-slip socks throughout their stay. The primary outcome is gait speed, assessed on Day 1 and Day 8. DISCUSSION: This randomized controlled trial should provide clinicians with a scientific rational for the recommendation, or not, of the use of non-slip socks for older patients in acute care hospitals. TRIAL REGISTRATION: https://clinicaltrials.gov/ on May 12, 2021 under the reference: NCT04882696 https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04882696.

Anti-Helicobacter pylori activities of natural isopentenyloxycinnamyl derivatives from Boronia pinnata.

In this study we investigated the anti-Helicobacter pylori activity of four isopentenyloxycinnamyl derivatives from the Australian shrub Boronia pinnata Sm. (Rutaceae), structurally related to boropinic acid: (E)-3-(4-(3-methylbut-2-enyloxy)-3,5-dimethoxyphenyl)acrylaldehyde (1), boropinol C (2), boropinal (3) and boropinol A (4). In vitro growth of H. pylori strains 26695 and B128 was analyzed in liquid culture with increasing doses of these compounds. Bacterial morphology was visualized by scanning electron microscopy. The in vivo effects of the two most efficient molecules that reduced bacterial growth in vitro, compounds 3 and 4, were investigated on H. pylori gastric colonization in the mouse model. The presence of these compounds in the bacterial cultures led to alterations of bacterial surface and flagella. In vivo, both compounds 3 and 4 at 250 microM reduced significantly the ability of H pylori to colonize the gastric mucosa of mice, compared with untreated ones. These data indicate that these natural isopentenyloxycinnamyl derivatives related to boropinic acid can be considered as novel antibacterial agents with anti-H. pylori activity.

High-resolution spectroscopy on an X-ray absorption beamline.

A bent-crystal spectrometer based on the Rowland circle geometry has been installed and tested on the BM30b/FAME beamline at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility to improve its performances. The energy resolution of the spectrometer allows different kinds of measurements to be performed, including X-ray absorption spectroscopy, resonant inelastic X-ray scattering and X-ray Raman scattering experiments. The simplicity of the experimental device makes it easily implemented on a classical X-ray absorption beamline. This improvement in the fluorescence detection is of particular importance when the probed element is embedded in a complex and/or heavy matrix, for example in environmental sciences.