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A fast calculation method was used to obtain the spectral optical properties of human normal and pathological (chromophobe renal cell carcinoma) kidney tissues. Using total transmittance, total reflectance and collimated transmittance spectra acquired from ex vivo kidney samples, the spectral optical properties of both tissues, namely the absorption, the scattering and the reduced scattering coefficients, as well as the scattering anisotropy, dispersion and light penetration depth, were calculated between 200 and 1000 nm. Analysis of the mean absorption coefficient spectra of the kidney tissues showed that both contain melanin and lipofuscin, and that 83 % of the melanin in the normal kidney converts into lipofuscin in the pathological kidney., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Objectives: To assess the feasibility, safety and outcomes of playing Microsoft Kinect Adventures™ for people with Parkinson's disease in order to guide the design of a randomised clinical trial., Design: Single-group, blinded trial., Setting: Rehabilitation Center of São Camilo University, Brazil., Participants: Seven patients (six males, one female) with Parkinson's disease (Hoehn and Yahr Stages 2 and 3)., Interventions: Fourteen 60-minute sessions, three times per week, playing four games of Kinect Adventures!, Main Outcome Measures: The feasibility and safety outcomes were patients' game performance and adverse events, respectively. The clinical outcomes were the 6-minute walk test, Balance Evaluation System Test, Dynamic Gait Index and Parkinson's Disease Questionnaire (PDQ-39)., Results: Patients' scores for the four games showed improvement. The mean [standard deviation (SD)] scores in the first and last sessions of the Space Pop game were 151 (36) and 198 (29), respectively [mean (SD) difference 47 (7), 95% confidence interval 15 to 79]. There were no adverse events. Improvements were also seen in the 6-minute walk test, Balance Evaluation System Test, Dynamic Gait Index and PDQ-39 following training., Conclusion: Kinect-based training was safe and feasible for people with Parkinson's disease (Hoehn and Yahr Stages 2 and 3). Patients improved their scores for all four games. No serious adverse events occurred during training with Kinect Adventures!, which promoted improvement in activities (balance and gait), body functions (cardiopulmonary aptitude) and participation (quality of life)., (Copyright © 2013 Chartered Society of Physiotherapy. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

In this work we demonstrate a novel microfluidic based platform to investigate the performance of 3D out-of-plane microspike array based glucose and lactate biosensors. The microspike array was bonded with a glass slide and modified with glucose oxidase or lactate oxidase using covalent coupling chemistry. An epoxy-polyurethane based membrane was used to extend the linear working range (from 0 to 25 mM of substrate) of these biosensors. Both lactate and glucose sensors performed well in the clinically relevant substrate concentration range. Glucose microspikes were further investigated with respect to the effects of substrate transfer by incorporation into a microfluidic system. Data from the microfluidic system revealed that the sensor response is mainly dependent on enzyme kinetics rather than membrane permeability to glucose. The robustness of the sensors was demonstrated by its consistency in performance extending over 48 h.

Studies have demonstrated high sensibility of the polimerase chain reaction (PCR) technique in the identification of the Mycobacterium leprae DNA . This study aimed to evalue the PCR sensibility at the detection of the M. leprae DNA in nasal swab of leprosy patients and to compare the results with the bacilloscopy and multibacillary (MBs) and paucibacilares (PBs) forms. Nasal secretion samples of 24 leprosy patients were collected, and were preserved in one and two lise's solution. The PCR results were highly significant (p <0.0000) and they revealed grater sensibility than bacilloscopy, in several clinical forms. Nevertheless, still different studies are necessary, testing new markers and preservatives, with the purpose of lifting up the sensibility of this technique, in nasal secretion samples.

In order to develop DNA probes for rapid, sensitive and specific detection of the pathogenic yeast species Candida albicans, we carried out comparative sequence analysis of the two internal transcribed spacer regions (ITS1 and ITS2) of the ribosomal DNA (rDNA) units of C. albicans and the closely related pathogenic species C. tropicalis. While overall sequence similarity between the two species was considerable (65-75%), both ITS1 and ITS2 were found to contain distinct regions with sufficient sequence divergence to make them suitable as specific target sites for the identification of C. albicans. On the basis of these results one ITS1-derived (ANAB1) and two ITS2-derived (ANAB2 and ANAB3) oligonucleotides were selected, chemically synthesized, and used as hybridization probes. Their specificity and reliability were evaluated in dot-blot hybridization experiments with total genomic DNA from 13 strains of medically important Candida species, six strains of other yeast genera associated with man and animals, and ten strains previously identified as C. albicans by phenotypic criteria. Under well-defined hybridization conditions the three probes hybridized exclusively with DNA derived from strains belonging to the species C. albicans, thus demonstrating their potential clinical usefulness. The failure of four of the (presumed) C. albicans strains to show hybridization to the ITS probes sheds doubt upon their taxonomic classification, which is reinforced by other phenotypic aspects of these strains.