Liquid hydrogen storage and transportation is an effective method for large-scale transportation and utilization of hydrogen energy. Revealing the flow mechanism of cryogenic working fluid is the key to optimize heat ...Liquid hydrogen storage and transportation is an effective method for large-scale transportation and utilization of hydrogen energy. Revealing the flow mechanism of cryogenic working fluid is the key to optimize heat exchanger structure and hydrogen liquefaction process(LH2). The methods of cryogenic visualization experiment, theoretical analysis and numerical simulation are conducted to study the falling film flow characteristics with the effect of co-current gas flow in LH2spiral wound heat exchanger.The results show that the flow rate of mixed refrigerant has a great influence on liquid film spreading process, falling film flow pattern and heat transfer performance. The liquid film of LH2mixed refrigerant with column flow pattern can not uniformly and completely cover the tube wall surface. As liquid flow rate increases, the falling film flow pattern evolves into sheet-column flow and sheet flow, and liquid film completely covers the surface of tube wall. With the increase of shear effect of gas-phase mixed refrigerant in the same direction, the liquid film gradually becomes unstable, and the flow pattern eventually evolves into a mist flow.展开更多
When a patient falls within a hospital setting,there is a significant increase in the risk of severe injury or health complications.Recognizing factors associated with such falls is crucial to mitigate their impact on...When a patient falls within a hospital setting,there is a significant increase in the risk of severe injury or health complications.Recognizing factors associated with such falls is crucial to mitigate their impact on patient safety.This review seeks to analyze the factors contributing to patient falls in hospitals.The main goal is to enhance our understanding of the reasons behind these falls,enabling hospitals to devise more effective prevention strategies.This study reviewed literature published from 2013 to 2022,using the Arksey and O’Malley methodology for a scoping review.The research literature was searched from seven databases,namely,PubMed,ScienceDirect,Wiley Library,Garuda,Global Index Medicus,Emerald Insight,and Google Scholar.The inclusion criteria comprised both qualitative and quantitative primary and secondary data studies centered on hospitalized patients.Out of the 893 studies analyzed,23 met the criteria and were included in this review.Although there is not an abundance of relevant literature,this review identified several factors associated with falls in hospitals.These encompass environmental,patient,staff,and medical factors.This study offers valuable insights for hospitals and medical personnel aiming to enhance fall prevention practices.Effective prevention efforts should prioritize early identification of patient risk factors,enhancement of the care environment,thorough training for care staff,and vigilant supervision of high-risk patients.By comprehending the factors that contribute to patient falls,hospitals can bolster patient safety and mitigate the adverse effects of falls within the health-care setting.展开更多
Objective:To analyze and provide a comprehensive overview of the knowledge structure and research hotspots of clinical interventions for falls in elderly patients in the community.Methods:The search for publications r...Objective:To analyze and provide a comprehensive overview of the knowledge structure and research hotspots of clinical interventions for falls in elderly patients in the community.Methods:The search for publications related to clinical interventions for falls in elderly patients in the community from 2002 to 2022 was conducted on the Web of Science Core Collection(WoSCC)database.VOSviewers,CiteSpace,and the R package“bibliometrix”were used to conduct this bibliometric analysis.Results:2091 articles from 70 countries,primarily the United States and Australia,were included.The number of publications related to clinical interventions for falls in elderly patients is increasing yearly.The main research institutions in this field were the University of Sydney,Harvard University,and the University of California.BioMed Central(BMC)Geriatrics was the most popular journal in this field and Journals of the American Geriatrics Society was the most co-cited journal.These publications came from 8984 authors among which author Lord SR had published the most papers and author Tinetti Me had the most co-citations.The main keywords in this research field were“balance,”“exercise,”and“risk factor.”Conclusion:This was the first bibliometric study that comprehensively summarized the research hot spots and development of clinical interventions for falls in elderly patients in the community.This paper aims to provide a reference for scholars and researchers in this particular field.展开更多
In this paper,the open-sourced computational fluid dynamics software,OpenFOAM~?,is used to study the fluctuation phenomenon of the water body inside a horizontally one-dimensional enclosed harbor basin with constant w...In this paper,the open-sourced computational fluid dynamics software,OpenFOAM~?,is used to study the fluctuation phenomenon of the water body inside a horizontally one-dimensional enclosed harbor basin with constant water depth triggered by falling wedges with various horizontal falling positions,initial falling velocities and masses.Based on both Fourier transfo rm analysis and wavelet spectrum analysis for the time series of the free surface elevations inside the harbor basin,it is found for the first time that the wedge falling inside the harbor can directly trigger harbor resonance.The influences of the three factors(including the horizontal falling position,the initial falling velocity,and the mass)on the response amplitudes of the lowest three resonant modes are also investigated.The results show that when the wedge falls on one of the nodal points of a resonant mode,the mode would be remarkably suppressed.Conversely,when the wedge falls on one of the anti-nodal points of a resonant mode,the mode would be evidently triggered.The initial falling velocity of the wedge mainly has a remarkable effect on the response amplitude of the most significant mode,and the latter shows a gradual increase trend with the increase of the former.While for the other two less significant modes,their response amplitudes fluctuate around certain constant values as the initial falling velocity rises.In general,the response amplitudes of all the lowest three modes are shown to gradually increase with the mass of the wedge.展开更多
AIM:To investigate the current situation and influencing factors of fear of falling in glaucoma patients in western China.METHODS:In this cross-sectional study,glaucoma patients treated in the Ophthalmology Department...AIM:To investigate the current situation and influencing factors of fear of falling in glaucoma patients in western China.METHODS:In this cross-sectional study,glaucoma patients treated in the Ophthalmology Department of West China Hospital of Sichuan University were conducted to investigate the demographic data,visual acuity,visual field,activities of daily living,risk of falling,fear of falling and psychological states.Generalized linear model was used for multivariate analysis with fear of falling as dependent variable and other factors as independent variables.RESULTS:The mean score of the Chinese version modified Fall Efficacy Scale(MFES)was 7.52±2.09 points.Univariate analysis and multivariate analysis showed that the history of falls within one year,visual acuity,visual field,risk of falling,activities of daily living and psychological states had statistically difference on fear of falling(P<0.05).CONCLUSION:Glaucoma patients in west China have relatively high risk of fear of falling.History of falling within 1y,severe visual function impairment,high risk of falling,incapable of independence of daily living,and abnormal psychological state are risk factors of fear of falling among glaucoma patients.展开更多
Characteristics of raindrop size distribution during summer are studied by using the data from six Parsivel disdrometers located in the northeastern Tibetan Plateau.The analysis focuses on convective and stratiform pr...Characteristics of raindrop size distribution during summer are studied by using the data from six Parsivel disdrometers located in the northeastern Tibetan Plateau.The analysis focuses on convective and stratiform precipitation at high altitudes from 2434 m to 4202 m.The results show that the contribution of stratiform and convective precipitation with rain rate between 1≤R<5 mm h^(-1) to the total precipitation increases with altitude,and the raindrop scale and number concentration of convective precipitation is larger than that for stratiform precipitation.The droplet size spectra of both stratiform and convective precipitation shows a single peak with a peak particle size between 0.31–0.50 mm,and they have essentially the same peak particle size and number concentration at the same altitude.The maximum spectral widths of stratiform clouds are between 4 mm and 5 mm,while those of convective clouds range from 4 mm to 8 mm.The Gamma distribution is more suitable than the Marshall-Palmer distribution in terms of the actual raindrop spectrum distribution.The stratiform precipitation particles are smaller with higher number concentration,while the opposite is true for the convective precipitation particles.The convective precipitation particles drop faster than stratiform precipitation particles when the particle size exceeds 2 mm,and the falling velocity of raindrops after standard curve fitting is underestimated during the observation period.Moreover,conventional radar estimation methods would underestimate the precipitation in the Northeastern Tibetan Plateau.展开更多
Objective:The consequences of falls in the elderly are severe,ranging from skin abrasion to hip fracture,which is very easy to cause death.Using advanced technology to develop anti-fall clothing that meets the needs o...Objective:The consequences of falls in the elderly are severe,ranging from skin abrasion to hip fracture,which is very easy to cause death.Using advanced technology to develop anti-fall clothing that meets the needs of the elderly can play a significant role in protecting the elderly.By reviewing and analyzing the existing literature on the importance of fall protection clothing in reducing falls and protecting the body of the elderly,it is hoped to explore further research that needs improvement.Methods:Guided by the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses,eight related studies were identified through Web of Science,Scopus and Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure.The research objects,approaches,material and equipment,protection principle,and survey results are extracted.Results:Two articles verified the fall detection algorithm adopted in the research through experiments,which significantly improved fall detection accuracy.Six papers found that selecting appropriate cushioning materials can effectively reduce the consequences of falls of the elderly through experimental comparative analysis.Finally,three attributes for significant design value are drawn:(1)size and fit;(2)cushioning materials;(3)wearable sensing elements.展开更多
As the key equipment of floating liquefied natural gas(FLNG)process,the performance of spiral wound heat exchanger(SWHE)influences operation costs and reliability of the whole system.The sea conditions destroy the fal...As the key equipment of floating liquefied natural gas(FLNG)process,the performance of spiral wound heat exchanger(SWHE)influences operation costs and reliability of the whole system.The sea conditions destroy the falling film flow state of the refrigeration and then affect the heat transfer performance of FLNG SWHE.In order to design and optimize the SWHE,a cryogenic experimental device of FLNG process and a numerical model of falling film flow have been constructed to study the effects of sea conditions on the falling film flow and heat transfer characteristics of SWHE.The cryogenic experimental results show that the pitching conditions have larger effects on the heat transfer performance than yawing.Under the pitching angle of 7°,the natural gas temperature and gaseous refrigerant temperature increase by 3.22°C and 7.42°C,respectively.The flow rates of refrigerant and feed natural gas have a great impact on the heat transfer performance of SWHE under pitching and compound sloshing conditions.When the tilt angle increases to 9°,the tube structure with outer diameter D=8 mm and pipe spacing S=4 mm is recommended to reduce the drying area of the pipe wall surface.展开更多
The flow in a liquid falling film is predominantly laminar,and the liquid-side mass transfer is limited by molecular diffusion.The effective way to enhance the mass transfer is to improve the liquid film flow behavior...The flow in a liquid falling film is predominantly laminar,and the liquid-side mass transfer is limited by molecular diffusion.The effective way to enhance the mass transfer is to improve the liquid film flow behavior.The falling film behaviors of water,ethanol and ethylene glycol in nine different wavy microchannels were simulated by Computational Fluid Dynamics.The simulation results show that the falling film thickness exhibits a waveform distribution resulting in a resonance phenomenon along the wavy microchannel.The fluctuation of liquid film surface increases the gas-liquid interface area,and the internal eddy flow inside the liquid film also improves the turbulence of liquid film,the gas-liquid mass transfer in falling film microchannels is intensified.Compared with flat microchannel,the CO_(2) absorption efficiency in water in the wavy microchannel is improved over 41%.Prediction models of liquid film amplitude and average liquid film thickness were established respectively.展开更多
The commodity price of grape reduces as berry falling after harvest. It is crucial to prevent grape from berry falling during storage. In this article, the structure change of grape cells in the abscission zone was ob...The commodity price of grape reduces as berry falling after harvest. It is crucial to prevent grape from berry falling during storage. In this article, the structure change of grape cells in the abscission zone was observed, the ABA content and the activities of cellulase and polygalacturonase (PG) were measured, and the relationship of ABA and berry falling was investigated. The results suggest that cells in the abscission zone grow into a separation layer soon after the grapes are cut off. According to the level of development, we designed 6 grades to sort the different development stages. The grade 3 plays an important role in berry falling. ABA enhances the activities of cellulase and polygalacturonase, and accelerates the decomposition of cellulose and pectin, which determines the level of development of abscission zone and berry falling. If ABA ratio is less than 20 ng g-i flesh weight (FW), the abscission zone is not developed to the grade 3, and the berry falling is effectively stopped. We treated grape bunches with nine plant growth regulators and two chemicals. The results indicated that 2,3,5-triiodobenzoic acid (TIBA) can (a) inhibit the generation of ABA significantly, (b) inactivate the activities of cellulase and PG, (c) delay the development of the grade 3 of abscission zone, and (d) stop berry falling. Indole acetic acid (IAA), gibberellic acid (GA3), naphthalene acetic acid (NAA), 6-benzylaminopurine (6-BA), calcium chloride (CaCl2), and potassium permanganate (KMnO4) caused similar results as TIBA. Chlorocholine chloride (CCC), dimethyl amino succinamic acid (B9), chloroethylphosphonic acid (CEPA) and exogenous ABA showed opposite effects.展开更多
The Eastern Great Lakes region covers 51,000 square km of land, and is home to 15 million people. This region is rich in natural resources, industry and agriculture, and forms the heartland of both Canada and the Unit...The Eastern Great Lakes region covers 51,000 square km of land, and is home to 15 million people. This region is rich in natural resources, industry and agriculture, and forms the heartland of both Canada and the United States. The development of this region has a history that is closely tied to waterways, and the development of canals that promoted growth and prosperity. The St. Lawrence Seaway connects Western and Eastern Great Lakes to the St Lawrence River and the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. The New York State Canal and the St. Lawrence Seaway were linked by the Oswego canal and provided a shorter route for cargo via barges to New York City. The New York State (NYS) Barge Canal and the St. Lawrence Seaway provided pathways for the settlement of the Eastern Great Lakes. Lake Erie drains into Lake Ontario via the Niagara River but the river was not navigable due to the obstacles of Niagara Falls and the Niagara Escarpment. Until the 1820s ships could not travel into Lake Erie. It was not possible to engineer a bypass of Niagara Falls with a series of locks due to the 100 m high Niagara escarpment. This escarpment obstacle to Niagara River navigation was overcome in 1829 with the completion of the first of four Welland Canals with locks 40 kilometers west of the Niagara River through the glacial till and alluvium that overlays the Niagara Escarpment. This permitted ocean going ships to enter Lake Erie and to continue on to Lake Michigan, Lake Huron and Lake Superior. The Eastern Great Lake shorelines, river banks and canals are actively eroding as a consequence of high surface water levels and flooding. The settlement of millions of people into the Eastern Great Lakes via the NYS Barge Canal and St. Lawrence Seaway migration pathways have created environmental and natural resource risks and challenges. These challenges and risks include deterioration of the Fourth Welland Canal and the need to replace it with the Fifth Welland Canal, industrial and urban wastewater disposal, shoreline, river bank and canal erosion as results of high water levels, the building of structures on the shoreline banks, invasive species and flooding.展开更多
Background: Falls in the elderly are a global public health problem with serious medical and socio-economic consequences, especially in low and middle-income countries. The aim of this study was to describe the charac...Background: Falls in the elderly are a global public health problem with serious medical and socio-economic consequences, especially in low and middle-income countries. The aim of this study was to describe the characteristics of falls among the elderly in trauma units in Senegal. Materials and Methods: This was a descriptive, prospective study from April 20, 2022 to October 30, 2022 among people aged at least 60 and admitted to the surgical emergency department of Idrissa Pouye Hospital in Dakar following a fall. Socio-demographic, clinical, therapeutic and evolutionary characteristics were collected and analyzed using Sphinx Plus 2 and Excel 2019 for Windows software. Results: Out of 730 elderly people seen during this period, 100 met the criteria, representing a prevalence of 13.69%. The average consultation time was 3.25 +/? 4 days. The average age was 73 +/? 8.43 years, with women predominating (74%). Medical expenses were mainly covered by the family (73%). Most falls occurred during the day (68%), at home (82%), especially in the bedroom (30%), with stumbling (32%) as the main mechanism. The majority of patients (86%) spent less than 30 minutes on the floor. Predisposing factors were dominated by visual disorders (56%) and precipitating factors were mainly environmental (62%). Geriatric syndromes were dominated by frailty (22%). Complications were dominated by fractures (86%), and almost half (47%) had lost their autonomy for post-fall Activities Daily Living (ADL). Prescription medication was almost systematic (98%), dominated by analgesics (98%). Surgery was indicated in 58% of patients. The average waiting time for surgery was 25.36 +/? 19 days. A death rate of 1% was recorded in the emergency department. Conclusion: Falls in the elderly are a frequent occurrence in traumatological emergencies, with etiological factors that are often multiple and interrelated, leading to significant morbidity. Raising awareness among people at risk and setting up an orthogeriatric service would help prevent falls and optimize care in the short and long term.展开更多
This study introduces a long-short-term memory(LSTM)-based neural network model developed for detecting anomaly events in care-independent smart homes,focusing on the critical application of elderly fall detection.It ...This study introduces a long-short-term memory(LSTM)-based neural network model developed for detecting anomaly events in care-independent smart homes,focusing on the critical application of elderly fall detection.It balances the dataset using the Synthetic Minority Over-sampling Technique(SMOTE),effectively neutralizing bias to address the challenge of unbalanced datasets prevalent in time-series classification tasks.The proposed LSTM model is trained on the enriched dataset,capturing the temporal dependencies essential for anomaly recognition.The model demonstrated a significant improvement in anomaly detection,with an accuracy of 84%.The results,detailed in the comprehensive classification and confusion matrices,showed the model’s proficiency in distinguishing between normal activities and falls.This study contributes to the advancement of smart home safety,presenting a robust framework for real-time anomaly monitoring.展开更多
Inpatient falls from beds in hospitals are a common problem.Such falls may result in severe injuries.This problem can be addressed by continuous monitoring of patients using cameras.Recent advancements in deep learnin...Inpatient falls from beds in hospitals are a common problem.Such falls may result in severe injuries.This problem can be addressed by continuous monitoring of patients using cameras.Recent advancements in deep learning-based video analytics have made this task of fall detection more effective and efficient.Along with fall detection,monitoring of different activities of the patients is also of significant concern to assess the improvement in their health.High computation-intensive models are required to monitor every action of the patient precisely.This requirement limits the applicability of such networks.Hence,to keep the model lightweight,the already designed fall detection networks can be extended to monitor the general activities of the patients along with the fall detection.Motivated by the same notion,we propose a novel,lightweight,and efficient patient activity monitoring system that broadly classifies the patients’activities into fall,activity,and rest classes based on their poses.The whole network comprises three sub-networks,namely a Convolutional Neural Networks(CNN)based video compression network,a Lightweight Pose Network(LPN)and a Residual Network(ResNet)Mixer block-based activity recognition network.The compression network compresses the video streams using deep learning networks for efficient storage and retrieval;after that,LPN estimates human poses.Finally,the activity recognition network classifies the patients’activities based on their poses.The proposed system shows an overall accuracy of approx.99.7% over a standard dataset with 99.63% fall detection accuracy and efficiently monitors different events,which may help monitor the falls and improve the inpatients’health.展开更多
With the widespread use of Internet of Things(IoT)technology in daily life and the considerable safety risks of falls for elderly individuals,research on IoT-based fall detection systems has gainedmuch attention.This ...With the widespread use of Internet of Things(IoT)technology in daily life and the considerable safety risks of falls for elderly individuals,research on IoT-based fall detection systems has gainedmuch attention.This paper proposes an IoT-based spatiotemporal data processing framework based on a depthwise separable convolution generative adversarial network using skip-connection(Skip-DSCGAN)for fall detection.The method uses spatiotemporal data from accelerometers and gyroscopes in inertial sensors as input data.A semisupervised learning approach is adopted to train the model using only activities of daily living(ADL)data,which can avoid data imbalance problems.Furthermore,a quantile-based approach is employed to determine the fall threshold,which makes the fall detection frameworkmore robust.This proposed fall detection framework is evaluated against four other generative adversarial network(GAN)models with superior anomaly detection performance using two fall public datasets(SisFall&MobiAct).The test results show that the proposed method achieves better results,reaching 96.93% and 92.75% accuracy on the above two test datasets,respectively.At the same time,the proposed method also achieves satisfactory results in terms ofmodel size and inference delay time,making it suitable for deployment on wearable devices with limited resources.In addition,this paper also compares GAN-based semisupervised learning methods with supervised learning methods commonly used in fall detection.It clarifies the advantages of GAN-based semisupervised learning methods in fall detection.展开更多
The novel The Rise and Fall of Wing Shing Street delves into the reality of Hong Kong residents deeply attuned to spatial awareness but detached from temporal significance,entangling emotions surrounding time and spac...The novel The Rise and Fall of Wing Shing Street delves into the reality of Hong Kong residents deeply attuned to spatial awareness but detached from temporal significance,entangling emotions surrounding time and space.Through narrative interruption and extension,the author portrays the genuine struggles of Hong Kong inhabitants-juxtaposing the blurred boundaries of time and space and the inherent rootlessness of reality within a fictionalized framework.Emphasizing the 20th-century human condition,wherein spatial awareness overshadows temporal understanding,the novel underscores the consequences:a loss of history and cultural identity.With a fresh perspective,the narrative explores the interplay of time and space,accentuating both the fictitious and authentic dimensions.This prompts readers to reconsider their history,culture,and the current moment,ultimately highlighting the pivotal role of temporal awareness.展开更多
Background and Aims: Androgenetic alopecia (AGA) is a common form of hair loss in both men and women. Despite its high prevalence and associated patient morbidity, the approved therapeutic options are limited to finas...Background and Aims: Androgenetic alopecia (AGA) is a common form of hair loss in both men and women. Despite its high prevalence and associated patient morbidity, the approved therapeutic options are limited to finasteride and minoxidil. The present study is aimed at assessing the efficacy of hair serum formulation, Trichosera<sup>®</sup>containing Bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stromal cells conditioned media as an active ingredient, for hair fall control and hair regrowth in healthy Indian human volunteers. Methods: The product was made using a 20% concentration of 10X Conditioned Media along with excipients. The final product was tested for physicochemical parameters, biomarkers, total protein content and microbial limits as per our in-house specifications. Results: The primary irritation patch test showed that the product is non-irritant and dermatologically safe. A clinical study on 40 subjects was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the bioactive formulation in hair fall control and hair regrowth in healthy volunteers. Phototrichogram measurement showed hair density and hair growth rate increased significantly by 11.54% and 18.66% at week 24. Hair tensile strength also increased significantly by 41.10% at 12 weeks follow-up. Hair pull test, to see a reduction in pulled hair and comb’s test to show a decrease in hair fall significantly improved from week 4 onwards. There were no significant adverse events in response to the product application. Conclusion: It is concluded that the hair serum product is completely safe on direct application to the scalp and showed significant improvement in the hair growth rate, hair density, scalp condition and reduction in hair fall. .展开更多
In Sweden, there has been only limited documentation for injuries requiring ambulance responses. The main objective of this study is, through the use of historic data, to assess the suitability of ambulance records to...In Sweden, there has been only limited documentation for injuries requiring ambulance responses. The main objective of this study is, through the use of historic data, to assess the suitability of ambulance records to describe circumstances with fall injuries. Methods: The injury events data around patients were sourced from the ambulance data register. Descriptive statistics were used to describe injured patients based on age group, type of injury, place of injury, injury mechanism and consequence of an injury event. Two-group comparison was performed with Pearson’s chi-squared. Predictors of transport to hospital were identified using logistic regression analyses. Result: Ambulance provides unique data on all injury events, with direct implications for translational research, public policy and clinical practice (safety promotion). In 2002 ambulance attended 3964 injured people which represents 14% of ambulance attended workload in Värmland county, Sweden. The most common trauma location was the traffic area followed by residential area and nursing home. These three injury sites account for 2320 cases (61.6%). The most common cause of injury was falls (63.9%) followed by contact with another person (26.5%). Contact with another person is the most common site of injury in the traffic area (79.5%), and men aged 25-66 years are overrepresented. Conclusion: Logistic regression found that, age-group and place code were significant predictor for being attended by ambulance. Traffic, home and nursing homes were over-represented injury environments (61.6%) that require special attention. Most injury cases occur in the home and nursing homes among people over 67 years of age. Surprisingly, most of the injury events in the traffic environment are about hitting another person. Paramedics can provide rich and valuable data on injury events. Registration of such data is entirely possible and desirable, and can be used in preventive work.展开更多
Introduction: In older populations, the help of a third person may be necessary for a certain number of individuals in order to fill in questionnaires. The influence of this assistance on the collected information can...Introduction: In older populations, the help of a third person may be necessary for a certain number of individuals in order to fill in questionnaires. The influence of this assistance on the collected information can raise questions, among others concerning the concordance between the information provided by the persons themselves and by their proxies, or the introduction of a potential bias. Our study’s objective is to examine, among older people, the differences in the reported frequency of falls, fear of falling and activity restriction due to fear of falling, according to the fact that people had filled in a questionnaire with or without the help of a third person. Methods: The data used come from the secondary analysis of a cross-sectional survey using a self-administered questionnaire and conducted in 2006 in a Belgian semi-rural town among non-institutionalised persons aged 65 years and over. Results: Among the 501 questionnaires, 16.4% were filled in with the help of another person. In bivariate analysis, the persons who needed help reported fall history, fear of falling and activity restriction significantly more often. In multivariable analysis, when considering concurrently the covariates (sex, age, living alone and fall history for fear of falling and for activity restriction), the influence of having received help to fill in the survey was only significant for activity restriction. Conclusion: Our study shows that it is important to know whether or not a person has received help to fill in a questionnaire. This can actually influence the reported frequency of certain outcomes, even, for activity restriction, when considering simultaneously the effect of other covariates. Given the current and future ageing of our populations, it seems that more extensive exploration is needed of the influence of proxies on the collected information about falls, fear of falling and activity restriction among older people.展开更多
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(52304067,62273213)the Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province of China(ZR2021QE073)+1 种基金the Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province for Innovation and Development Joint Funds(ZR2022LZH001)the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation(2023M732111)。
文摘Liquid hydrogen storage and transportation is an effective method for large-scale transportation and utilization of hydrogen energy. Revealing the flow mechanism of cryogenic working fluid is the key to optimize heat exchanger structure and hydrogen liquefaction process(LH2). The methods of cryogenic visualization experiment, theoretical analysis and numerical simulation are conducted to study the falling film flow characteristics with the effect of co-current gas flow in LH2spiral wound heat exchanger.The results show that the flow rate of mixed refrigerant has a great influence on liquid film spreading process, falling film flow pattern and heat transfer performance. The liquid film of LH2mixed refrigerant with column flow pattern can not uniformly and completely cover the tube wall surface. As liquid flow rate increases, the falling film flow pattern evolves into sheet-column flow and sheet flow, and liquid film completely covers the surface of tube wall. With the increase of shear effect of gas-phase mixed refrigerant in the same direction, the liquid film gradually becomes unstable, and the flow pattern eventually evolves into a mist flow.
文摘When a patient falls within a hospital setting,there is a significant increase in the risk of severe injury or health complications.Recognizing factors associated with such falls is crucial to mitigate their impact on patient safety.This review seeks to analyze the factors contributing to patient falls in hospitals.The main goal is to enhance our understanding of the reasons behind these falls,enabling hospitals to devise more effective prevention strategies.This study reviewed literature published from 2013 to 2022,using the Arksey and O’Malley methodology for a scoping review.The research literature was searched from seven databases,namely,PubMed,ScienceDirect,Wiley Library,Garuda,Global Index Medicus,Emerald Insight,and Google Scholar.The inclusion criteria comprised both qualitative and quantitative primary and secondary data studies centered on hospitalized patients.Out of the 893 studies analyzed,23 met the criteria and were included in this review.Although there is not an abundance of relevant literature,this review identified several factors associated with falls in hospitals.These encompass environmental,patient,staff,and medical factors.This study offers valuable insights for hospitals and medical personnel aiming to enhance fall prevention practices.Effective prevention efforts should prioritize early identification of patient risk factors,enhancement of the care environment,thorough training for care staff,and vigilant supervision of high-risk patients.By comprehending the factors that contribute to patient falls,hospitals can bolster patient safety and mitigate the adverse effects of falls within the health-care setting.
基金This study was supported by the Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine:Nursing Development Program(No.Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine[2021])Shanghai Ninth People’s Hospital,Shanghai Jiao Tong University,School of Medicine“Excellent Nursing Talent Program”LinkedIn Program(JYHRC22-L01).
文摘Objective:To analyze and provide a comprehensive overview of the knowledge structure and research hotspots of clinical interventions for falls in elderly patients in the community.Methods:The search for publications related to clinical interventions for falls in elderly patients in the community from 2002 to 2022 was conducted on the Web of Science Core Collection(WoSCC)database.VOSviewers,CiteSpace,and the R package“bibliometrix”were used to conduct this bibliometric analysis.Results:2091 articles from 70 countries,primarily the United States and Australia,were included.The number of publications related to clinical interventions for falls in elderly patients is increasing yearly.The main research institutions in this field were the University of Sydney,Harvard University,and the University of California.BioMed Central(BMC)Geriatrics was the most popular journal in this field and Journals of the American Geriatrics Society was the most co-cited journal.These publications came from 8984 authors among which author Lord SR had published the most papers and author Tinetti Me had the most co-citations.The main keywords in this research field were“balance,”“exercise,”and“risk factor.”Conclusion:This was the first bibliometric study that comprehensively summarized the research hot spots and development of clinical interventions for falls in elderly patients in the community.This paper aims to provide a reference for scholars and researchers in this particular field.
基金financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No.51911530205)the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (Grant No.BK20201455)+5 种基金the Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation (Grant No.2023A1515010890)the Key Laboratory of PortWaterway and Sedimentation Engineering of MOT (Grant No.YK222001-2)the Open Research Fund of Key Laboratory of Water Security Guarantee in Guangdong-Hong Kong-Marco Greater Bay Area of Ministry of Water Resources (Grant No.WSGBAKJ202309)the Qing Lan Project of Jiangsu Universitiesthe Royal Society (Grant No.IECNSFC181321)。
文摘In this paper,the open-sourced computational fluid dynamics software,OpenFOAM~?,is used to study the fluctuation phenomenon of the water body inside a horizontally one-dimensional enclosed harbor basin with constant water depth triggered by falling wedges with various horizontal falling positions,initial falling velocities and masses.Based on both Fourier transfo rm analysis and wavelet spectrum analysis for the time series of the free surface elevations inside the harbor basin,it is found for the first time that the wedge falling inside the harbor can directly trigger harbor resonance.The influences of the three factors(including the horizontal falling position,the initial falling velocity,and the mass)on the response amplitudes of the lowest three resonant modes are also investigated.The results show that when the wedge falls on one of the nodal points of a resonant mode,the mode would be remarkably suppressed.Conversely,when the wedge falls on one of the anti-nodal points of a resonant mode,the mode would be evidently triggered.The initial falling velocity of the wedge mainly has a remarkable effect on the response amplitude of the most significant mode,and the latter shows a gradual increase trend with the increase of the former.While for the other two less significant modes,their response amplitudes fluctuate around certain constant values as the initial falling velocity rises.In general,the response amplitudes of all the lowest three modes are shown to gradually increase with the mass of the wedge.
文摘AIM:To investigate the current situation and influencing factors of fear of falling in glaucoma patients in western China.METHODS:In this cross-sectional study,glaucoma patients treated in the Ophthalmology Department of West China Hospital of Sichuan University were conducted to investigate the demographic data,visual acuity,visual field,activities of daily living,risk of falling,fear of falling and psychological states.Generalized linear model was used for multivariate analysis with fear of falling as dependent variable and other factors as independent variables.RESULTS:The mean score of the Chinese version modified Fall Efficacy Scale(MFES)was 7.52±2.09 points.Univariate analysis and multivariate analysis showed that the history of falls within one year,visual acuity,visual field,risk of falling,activities of daily living and psychological states had statistically difference on fear of falling(P<0.05).CONCLUSION:Glaucoma patients in west China have relatively high risk of fear of falling.History of falling within 1y,severe visual function impairment,high risk of falling,incapable of independence of daily living,and abnormal psychological state are risk factors of fear of falling among glaucoma patients.
基金jointly sponsored by the Second Tibetan Plateau Atmospheric Sciences Experiment(STEP)(Grant No.2019QZKK010406)the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant No.42165008)Natural Science Foundation of Technology Department of Qinghai Province(Grant No.2021-ZJ-745)。
文摘Characteristics of raindrop size distribution during summer are studied by using the data from six Parsivel disdrometers located in the northeastern Tibetan Plateau.The analysis focuses on convective and stratiform precipitation at high altitudes from 2434 m to 4202 m.The results show that the contribution of stratiform and convective precipitation with rain rate between 1≤R<5 mm h^(-1) to the total precipitation increases with altitude,and the raindrop scale and number concentration of convective precipitation is larger than that for stratiform precipitation.The droplet size spectra of both stratiform and convective precipitation shows a single peak with a peak particle size between 0.31–0.50 mm,and they have essentially the same peak particle size and number concentration at the same altitude.The maximum spectral widths of stratiform clouds are between 4 mm and 5 mm,while those of convective clouds range from 4 mm to 8 mm.The Gamma distribution is more suitable than the Marshall-Palmer distribution in terms of the actual raindrop spectrum distribution.The stratiform precipitation particles are smaller with higher number concentration,while the opposite is true for the convective precipitation particles.The convective precipitation particles drop faster than stratiform precipitation particles when the particle size exceeds 2 mm,and the falling velocity of raindrops after standard curve fitting is underestimated during the observation period.Moreover,conventional radar estimation methods would underestimate the precipitation in the Northeastern Tibetan Plateau.
文摘Objective:The consequences of falls in the elderly are severe,ranging from skin abrasion to hip fracture,which is very easy to cause death.Using advanced technology to develop anti-fall clothing that meets the needs of the elderly can play a significant role in protecting the elderly.By reviewing and analyzing the existing literature on the importance of fall protection clothing in reducing falls and protecting the body of the elderly,it is hoped to explore further research that needs improvement.Methods:Guided by the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses,eight related studies were identified through Web of Science,Scopus and Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure.The research objects,approaches,material and equipment,protection principle,and survey results are extracted.Results:Two articles verified the fall detection algorithm adopted in the research through experiments,which significantly improved fall detection accuracy.Six papers found that selecting appropriate cushioning materials can effectively reduce the consequences of falls of the elderly through experimental comparative analysis.Finally,three attributes for significant design value are drawn:(1)size and fit;(2)cushioning materials;(3)wearable sensing elements.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(U21B2085)the Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province of China(ZR2021QE073)+2 种基金the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation(2021M703587)the Qingdao Postdoctoral Applied Research Project(qdyy20200096)Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities(20CX06076A)
文摘As the key equipment of floating liquefied natural gas(FLNG)process,the performance of spiral wound heat exchanger(SWHE)influences operation costs and reliability of the whole system.The sea conditions destroy the falling film flow state of the refrigeration and then affect the heat transfer performance of FLNG SWHE.In order to design and optimize the SWHE,a cryogenic experimental device of FLNG process and a numerical model of falling film flow have been constructed to study the effects of sea conditions on the falling film flow and heat transfer characteristics of SWHE.The cryogenic experimental results show that the pitching conditions have larger effects on the heat transfer performance than yawing.Under the pitching angle of 7°,the natural gas temperature and gaseous refrigerant temperature increase by 3.22°C and 7.42°C,respectively.The flow rates of refrigerant and feed natural gas have a great impact on the heat transfer performance of SWHE under pitching and compound sloshing conditions.When the tilt angle increases to 9°,the tube structure with outer diameter D=8 mm and pipe spacing S=4 mm is recommended to reduce the drying area of the pipe wall surface.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant No.21576168)。
文摘The flow in a liquid falling film is predominantly laminar,and the liquid-side mass transfer is limited by molecular diffusion.The effective way to enhance the mass transfer is to improve the liquid film flow behavior.The falling film behaviors of water,ethanol and ethylene glycol in nine different wavy microchannels were simulated by Computational Fluid Dynamics.The simulation results show that the falling film thickness exhibits a waveform distribution resulting in a resonance phenomenon along the wavy microchannel.The fluctuation of liquid film surface increases the gas-liquid interface area,and the internal eddy flow inside the liquid film also improves the turbulence of liquid film,the gas-liquid mass transfer in falling film microchannels is intensified.Compared with flat microchannel,the CO_(2) absorption efficiency in water in the wavy microchannel is improved over 41%.Prediction models of liquid film amplitude and average liquid film thickness were established respectively.
基金financed by the Natural Science Foundation of Shaanxi Province of China (2004C109)
文摘The commodity price of grape reduces as berry falling after harvest. It is crucial to prevent grape from berry falling during storage. In this article, the structure change of grape cells in the abscission zone was observed, the ABA content and the activities of cellulase and polygalacturonase (PG) were measured, and the relationship of ABA and berry falling was investigated. The results suggest that cells in the abscission zone grow into a separation layer soon after the grapes are cut off. According to the level of development, we designed 6 grades to sort the different development stages. The grade 3 plays an important role in berry falling. ABA enhances the activities of cellulase and polygalacturonase, and accelerates the decomposition of cellulose and pectin, which determines the level of development of abscission zone and berry falling. If ABA ratio is less than 20 ng g-i flesh weight (FW), the abscission zone is not developed to the grade 3, and the berry falling is effectively stopped. We treated grape bunches with nine plant growth regulators and two chemicals. The results indicated that 2,3,5-triiodobenzoic acid (TIBA) can (a) inhibit the generation of ABA significantly, (b) inactivate the activities of cellulase and PG, (c) delay the development of the grade 3 of abscission zone, and (d) stop berry falling. Indole acetic acid (IAA), gibberellic acid (GA3), naphthalene acetic acid (NAA), 6-benzylaminopurine (6-BA), calcium chloride (CaCl2), and potassium permanganate (KMnO4) caused similar results as TIBA. Chlorocholine chloride (CCC), dimethyl amino succinamic acid (B9), chloroethylphosphonic acid (CEPA) and exogenous ABA showed opposite effects.
文摘The Eastern Great Lakes region covers 51,000 square km of land, and is home to 15 million people. This region is rich in natural resources, industry and agriculture, and forms the heartland of both Canada and the United States. The development of this region has a history that is closely tied to waterways, and the development of canals that promoted growth and prosperity. The St. Lawrence Seaway connects Western and Eastern Great Lakes to the St Lawrence River and the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. The New York State Canal and the St. Lawrence Seaway were linked by the Oswego canal and provided a shorter route for cargo via barges to New York City. The New York State (NYS) Barge Canal and the St. Lawrence Seaway provided pathways for the settlement of the Eastern Great Lakes. Lake Erie drains into Lake Ontario via the Niagara River but the river was not navigable due to the obstacles of Niagara Falls and the Niagara Escarpment. Until the 1820s ships could not travel into Lake Erie. It was not possible to engineer a bypass of Niagara Falls with a series of locks due to the 100 m high Niagara escarpment. This escarpment obstacle to Niagara River navigation was overcome in 1829 with the completion of the first of four Welland Canals with locks 40 kilometers west of the Niagara River through the glacial till and alluvium that overlays the Niagara Escarpment. This permitted ocean going ships to enter Lake Erie and to continue on to Lake Michigan, Lake Huron and Lake Superior. The Eastern Great Lake shorelines, river banks and canals are actively eroding as a consequence of high surface water levels and flooding. The settlement of millions of people into the Eastern Great Lakes via the NYS Barge Canal and St. Lawrence Seaway migration pathways have created environmental and natural resource risks and challenges. These challenges and risks include deterioration of the Fourth Welland Canal and the need to replace it with the Fifth Welland Canal, industrial and urban wastewater disposal, shoreline, river bank and canal erosion as results of high water levels, the building of structures on the shoreline banks, invasive species and flooding.
文摘Background: Falls in the elderly are a global public health problem with serious medical and socio-economic consequences, especially in low and middle-income countries. The aim of this study was to describe the characteristics of falls among the elderly in trauma units in Senegal. Materials and Methods: This was a descriptive, prospective study from April 20, 2022 to October 30, 2022 among people aged at least 60 and admitted to the surgical emergency department of Idrissa Pouye Hospital in Dakar following a fall. Socio-demographic, clinical, therapeutic and evolutionary characteristics were collected and analyzed using Sphinx Plus 2 and Excel 2019 for Windows software. Results: Out of 730 elderly people seen during this period, 100 met the criteria, representing a prevalence of 13.69%. The average consultation time was 3.25 +/? 4 days. The average age was 73 +/? 8.43 years, with women predominating (74%). Medical expenses were mainly covered by the family (73%). Most falls occurred during the day (68%), at home (82%), especially in the bedroom (30%), with stumbling (32%) as the main mechanism. The majority of patients (86%) spent less than 30 minutes on the floor. Predisposing factors were dominated by visual disorders (56%) and precipitating factors were mainly environmental (62%). Geriatric syndromes were dominated by frailty (22%). Complications were dominated by fractures (86%), and almost half (47%) had lost their autonomy for post-fall Activities Daily Living (ADL). Prescription medication was almost systematic (98%), dominated by analgesics (98%). Surgery was indicated in 58% of patients. The average waiting time for surgery was 25.36 +/? 19 days. A death rate of 1% was recorded in the emergency department. Conclusion: Falls in the elderly are a frequent occurrence in traumatological emergencies, with etiological factors that are often multiple and interrelated, leading to significant morbidity. Raising awareness among people at risk and setting up an orthogeriatric service would help prevent falls and optimize care in the short and long term.
基金Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University Researchers Supporting Project number(PNURSP2024R 343),Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University,Riyadh,Saudi Arabia.The authors extend their appreciation to the Deanship of Scientific Research at Northern Border University,Arar,KSA for funding this research work through the Project Number“NBU-FFR-2024-1092-04”.
文摘This study introduces a long-short-term memory(LSTM)-based neural network model developed for detecting anomaly events in care-independent smart homes,focusing on the critical application of elderly fall detection.It balances the dataset using the Synthetic Minority Over-sampling Technique(SMOTE),effectively neutralizing bias to address the challenge of unbalanced datasets prevalent in time-series classification tasks.The proposed LSTM model is trained on the enriched dataset,capturing the temporal dependencies essential for anomaly recognition.The model demonstrated a significant improvement in anomaly detection,with an accuracy of 84%.The results,detailed in the comprehensive classification and confusion matrices,showed the model’s proficiency in distinguishing between normal activities and falls.This study contributes to the advancement of smart home safety,presenting a robust framework for real-time anomaly monitoring.
基金the Deanship of Scientific Research at Majmaah University for funding this work under Project No.R-2023-667.
文摘Inpatient falls from beds in hospitals are a common problem.Such falls may result in severe injuries.This problem can be addressed by continuous monitoring of patients using cameras.Recent advancements in deep learning-based video analytics have made this task of fall detection more effective and efficient.Along with fall detection,monitoring of different activities of the patients is also of significant concern to assess the improvement in their health.High computation-intensive models are required to monitor every action of the patient precisely.This requirement limits the applicability of such networks.Hence,to keep the model lightweight,the already designed fall detection networks can be extended to monitor the general activities of the patients along with the fall detection.Motivated by the same notion,we propose a novel,lightweight,and efficient patient activity monitoring system that broadly classifies the patients’activities into fall,activity,and rest classes based on their poses.The whole network comprises three sub-networks,namely a Convolutional Neural Networks(CNN)based video compression network,a Lightweight Pose Network(LPN)and a Residual Network(ResNet)Mixer block-based activity recognition network.The compression network compresses the video streams using deep learning networks for efficient storage and retrieval;after that,LPN estimates human poses.Finally,the activity recognition network classifies the patients’activities based on their poses.The proposed system shows an overall accuracy of approx.99.7% over a standard dataset with 99.63% fall detection accuracy and efficiently monitors different events,which may help monitor the falls and improve the inpatients’health.
基金supported partly by the Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province,China(LGF21F020017).
文摘With the widespread use of Internet of Things(IoT)technology in daily life and the considerable safety risks of falls for elderly individuals,research on IoT-based fall detection systems has gainedmuch attention.This paper proposes an IoT-based spatiotemporal data processing framework based on a depthwise separable convolution generative adversarial network using skip-connection(Skip-DSCGAN)for fall detection.The method uses spatiotemporal data from accelerometers and gyroscopes in inertial sensors as input data.A semisupervised learning approach is adopted to train the model using only activities of daily living(ADL)data,which can avoid data imbalance problems.Furthermore,a quantile-based approach is employed to determine the fall threshold,which makes the fall detection frameworkmore robust.This proposed fall detection framework is evaluated against four other generative adversarial network(GAN)models with superior anomaly detection performance using two fall public datasets(SisFall&MobiAct).The test results show that the proposed method achieves better results,reaching 96.93% and 92.75% accuracy on the above two test datasets,respectively.At the same time,the proposed method also achieves satisfactory results in terms ofmodel size and inference delay time,making it suitable for deployment on wearable devices with limited resources.In addition,this paper also compares GAN-based semisupervised learning methods with supervised learning methods commonly used in fall detection.It clarifies the advantages of GAN-based semisupervised learning methods in fall detection.
文摘The novel The Rise and Fall of Wing Shing Street delves into the reality of Hong Kong residents deeply attuned to spatial awareness but detached from temporal significance,entangling emotions surrounding time and space.Through narrative interruption and extension,the author portrays the genuine struggles of Hong Kong inhabitants-juxtaposing the blurred boundaries of time and space and the inherent rootlessness of reality within a fictionalized framework.Emphasizing the 20th-century human condition,wherein spatial awareness overshadows temporal understanding,the novel underscores the consequences:a loss of history and cultural identity.With a fresh perspective,the narrative explores the interplay of time and space,accentuating both the fictitious and authentic dimensions.This prompts readers to reconsider their history,culture,and the current moment,ultimately highlighting the pivotal role of temporal awareness.
文摘Background and Aims: Androgenetic alopecia (AGA) is a common form of hair loss in both men and women. Despite its high prevalence and associated patient morbidity, the approved therapeutic options are limited to finasteride and minoxidil. The present study is aimed at assessing the efficacy of hair serum formulation, Trichosera<sup>®</sup>containing Bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stromal cells conditioned media as an active ingredient, for hair fall control and hair regrowth in healthy Indian human volunteers. Methods: The product was made using a 20% concentration of 10X Conditioned Media along with excipients. The final product was tested for physicochemical parameters, biomarkers, total protein content and microbial limits as per our in-house specifications. Results: The primary irritation patch test showed that the product is non-irritant and dermatologically safe. A clinical study on 40 subjects was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the bioactive formulation in hair fall control and hair regrowth in healthy volunteers. Phototrichogram measurement showed hair density and hair growth rate increased significantly by 11.54% and 18.66% at week 24. Hair tensile strength also increased significantly by 41.10% at 12 weeks follow-up. Hair pull test, to see a reduction in pulled hair and comb’s test to show a decrease in hair fall significantly improved from week 4 onwards. There were no significant adverse events in response to the product application. Conclusion: It is concluded that the hair serum product is completely safe on direct application to the scalp and showed significant improvement in the hair growth rate, hair density, scalp condition and reduction in hair fall. .
文摘In Sweden, there has been only limited documentation for injuries requiring ambulance responses. The main objective of this study is, through the use of historic data, to assess the suitability of ambulance records to describe circumstances with fall injuries. Methods: The injury events data around patients were sourced from the ambulance data register. Descriptive statistics were used to describe injured patients based on age group, type of injury, place of injury, injury mechanism and consequence of an injury event. Two-group comparison was performed with Pearson’s chi-squared. Predictors of transport to hospital were identified using logistic regression analyses. Result: Ambulance provides unique data on all injury events, with direct implications for translational research, public policy and clinical practice (safety promotion). In 2002 ambulance attended 3964 injured people which represents 14% of ambulance attended workload in Värmland county, Sweden. The most common trauma location was the traffic area followed by residential area and nursing home. These three injury sites account for 2320 cases (61.6%). The most common cause of injury was falls (63.9%) followed by contact with another person (26.5%). Contact with another person is the most common site of injury in the traffic area (79.5%), and men aged 25-66 years are overrepresented. Conclusion: Logistic regression found that, age-group and place code were significant predictor for being attended by ambulance. Traffic, home and nursing homes were over-represented injury environments (61.6%) that require special attention. Most injury cases occur in the home and nursing homes among people over 67 years of age. Surprisingly, most of the injury events in the traffic environment are about hitting another person. Paramedics can provide rich and valuable data on injury events. Registration of such data is entirely possible and desirable, and can be used in preventive work.
文摘Introduction: In older populations, the help of a third person may be necessary for a certain number of individuals in order to fill in questionnaires. The influence of this assistance on the collected information can raise questions, among others concerning the concordance between the information provided by the persons themselves and by their proxies, or the introduction of a potential bias. Our study’s objective is to examine, among older people, the differences in the reported frequency of falls, fear of falling and activity restriction due to fear of falling, according to the fact that people had filled in a questionnaire with or without the help of a third person. Methods: The data used come from the secondary analysis of a cross-sectional survey using a self-administered questionnaire and conducted in 2006 in a Belgian semi-rural town among non-institutionalised persons aged 65 years and over. Results: Among the 501 questionnaires, 16.4% were filled in with the help of another person. In bivariate analysis, the persons who needed help reported fall history, fear of falling and activity restriction significantly more often. In multivariable analysis, when considering concurrently the covariates (sex, age, living alone and fall history for fear of falling and for activity restriction), the influence of having received help to fill in the survey was only significant for activity restriction. Conclusion: Our study shows that it is important to know whether or not a person has received help to fill in a questionnaire. This can actually influence the reported frequency of certain outcomes, even, for activity restriction, when considering simultaneously the effect of other covariates. Given the current and future ageing of our populations, it seems that more extensive exploration is needed of the influence of proxies on the collected information about falls, fear of falling and activity restriction among older people.