Falls due to stumbles are a major cause of injury for many populations, and as such interventions to reduce fall risk have been a key focus of rehabilitation research. However, dedicated stumble recovery assistance in a powered lower-limb exoskeleton has yet to be explored as a fall mitigation intervention. Thus young, healthy adults ($ N=3 $) were recruited for a stumble recovery experiment to test the efficacy of knee exoskeleton stumble recovery assistance in improving an impaired stumble recovery response (i.e., the elevating strategy response). Leg weights were attached unilaterally to each participant’s shank to simulate walking and stumble recovery impairment, and a unilateral powered knee exoskeleton was worn on the same leg for walking and stumble recovery assistance. Ultimately, knee exoskeleton stumble recovery assistance served to improve participants’ elevating limb kinematics (i.e., increase thigh and knee motion) and reduce overall fall risk (i.e., reduce trunk motion and improve foot placement) during responses relative to their impaired response (i.e., with the leg weights and no assistance), and relative to their response while receiving only walking assistance. This initial exploration provides a first indication that knee exoskeleton stumble recovery assistance is a viable approach to improving an impaired stumble recovery response, which could serve two important use cases: (1) a safety mechanism for existing exoskeleton wearers, who may be less capable of recovering from stumbles due to the added weight or joint impedance of the device; (2) an external stumble recovery aid for fall-prone populations, such as the elderly or stroke survivors.

Psychomotor activity is one of the traits we most immediately perceive in others. Psychomotor slowing, which can be easily noticed on a first medical examination, is a symptom which may be prodromal of psychic disturbances.

Historically, psychomotor retardation is a characteristic attached to depression, especially melancholia. Some studies show that psychomotor retardation is associated with good therapeutic prognosis, including positive response to electro-convulsivo-therapy. The cluster of non-verbal symptoms includes both basic aspects related to motor behavior such as attitudes and movements and more complex aspects such as goal-directed behaviors. We will see that this intuitive and fundamental dimension of clinical depression is not homogeneous. From a motor point of view, hypo-bradykinesia in depression may be compared to the one found in cortico-subcortical syndromes such as Parkinson's disease. This comparison suggests that key brain structures such as the basal ganglia could be involved in depression.

Moreover, the loss of vital energy is the dominant psychopathological explanation linked to psychomotor retardation. From a phenomenological point of view, this interpretation seems to be relevant but appears disappointing as an experimental variable. However, motivation, understood as the factor that energizes the behavior seems to be an interesting and promising concept.

Experimentally, it is possible to measure how much an individual is able to invest energy in order to achieve a goal.

The impact of depression on the process of incentive motivation will be analyzed before turning to a description of therapeutic interventions related to psychomotor field such as sports or sensorimotor stimulations that appear to be promising tracks for clinical improvement.

La catatonie est une pathologie motrice et de l’affect associant immobilisme et décharge motrice, comportements stéréotypés et sidération. La description historique s’autonomise sous la plume de Kahlbaum à la fin du xixe. Longtemps rattachée à la schizophrénie, l’étude systématique des patients des urgences et en population psychiatrique générale a permis d’infirmer que la catatonie était un sous-type de schizophrénie. Plus d’un tiers des états catatoniques sont associés à des causes somatiques diverses qui modifient la prise en charge et interrogent sur la physiopathologie. Par ailleurs, les troubles de l’humeur sont la cause psychiatrique la plus fréquemment retrouvée. De plus, pour certains auteurs des pathologies comme le syndrome malin des neuroleptiques sont à rattacher à la catatonie. Des catatonies malignes sont décrites et doivent être systématiquement éliminées. Indépendamment de la pathologie associée à la catatonie qui nécessite une prise en charge spécifique, la catatonie considérée comme un syndrome médical à part entière fait actuellement l’objet d’une prise en charge bien codifiée qui passe par un test thérapeutique aux benzodiazépines ou apparentés (zolpidem). La sismothérapie reste une option thérapeutique à ne pas négliger surtout dans les situations d’urgence. D’autres alternatives existent. Certains états catatoniques se chronicisent mais peuvent cependant être de bon pronostic. Les liens avec des pathologies comme la perte d’auto-activation psychique méritent d’être discutés. Enfin, le décloisonnement dans le champ de la recherche entre psychiatrie et médecine somatique particulièrement les états minimaux de conscience nous offre des perspectives de compréhension de ce syndrome passionnant et encore insuffisamment exploré.

A one-year field-study has been carried out in a diarrhoea-endemic area in West Africa to determine the relationship between the bacteriostatic activity of fresh human milk for Escherichia coli in vitro and freedom from diarrhoea of the infant recipients of the milk. The specific contribution of E. coli gastroenteritis to gastrointestinal diseases of infants in general is not known, nor is its particular role in the Gambian infants studied. During the study period, however, both enteropathogenic and toxigenic strains of E. coli were isolated.

The incidence of diarrhoea in Gambian infants of seven age-groups from 2 days to 12 months was not significantly correlated with the bacteriostatic activity of milk. This was due rather to absence of diarrhoea in babies fed on low-activity milk than illness in those receiving highly bacteriostatic milk. Indeed, very active milk appeared to protect recipients almost completely, including seven babies of over 3 months of age, five of them during the rainy season, when the risk was high. Babies receiving lower-activity milk experienced more diarrhoea. In a situation where diarrhoeal disease is multifactorial, field evaluation of the protective action by one antibacterial property of milk is difficult. A better understanding of in vivo protection is important, and the factors which have to be taken into account are discussed.

Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) are immunomediated ailments affecting millions of individuals. Although diet is regarded as an important factor influencing IBD, there are no accepted dietary recommendations presently available. We administered 7·6 % lyophilised apples obtained from two cultivars (Golden Delicious and Marie Ménard, low and high in polyphenols, respectively) to HLA-B27 transgenic rats which develop spontaneous IBD. After 3 months feeding, rats fed Marie Ménard apples had reduced myeloperoxidase activity (3·6 (sem 0·3) v. 2·2 (sem 0·2) U/g tissue; P < 0·05) and reduced cyclo-oxygenase-2 (P < 0·05) and inducible NO synthase gene expression (P < 0·01) in the colon mucosa and significantly less diarrhoea (P < 0·05), compared with control rats. Cell proliferation in the colon mucosa was reduced significantly by feeding Golden Delicious apples, with a borderline effect of Marie Ménard apples. Gene expression profiling of the colon mucosa, analysed using the Whole Rat Genome 4 × 44 K Agilent Arrays, revealed a down-regulation of the pathways of PG synthesis, mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signalling and TNFα–NF-κB in Marie Ménard-fed rats. In the stools of the animals of this group we also measured a significant reduction of bacteria of the Bacteriodes fragilis group. In conclusion, the administration of Marie Ménard apples, rich in polyphenols and used at present only in the manufacturing of cider, ameliorates colon inflammation in transgenic rats developing spontaneous intestinal inflammation, suggesting the possible use of these and other apple varieties to control inflammation in IBD patients.