Spinocerebellar ataxia (SCA) is a hereditary neurodegenerative disorder that presents as ataxia. Due to the decline in balance, patients with SCA often experience restricted mobility and a decreased quality of life. Thus, many studies have emphasized the importance of physiotherapies, including gait training, in SCA patients. However, few studies have examined the effectiveness of robotic gait training in SCA. Here, we report the therapeutic outcomes of exoskeleton-assisted gait training in a patient with SCA. A 23-year-old woman with SCA participated in a gait training program using a powered lower-limb robotic exoskeleton, ANGELLEGS. The 8-week training program consisted of standing training, weight-shifting exercises, and gait training. Several measures of general function, balance, gait, and cardiopulmonary function were applied before, after, and 4 weeks after the program. After the program, overall improvements were found on scales measuring balance and gait function, and these improvements remained at 4 weeks after the program. Cardiopulmonary function was also improved 4 weeks after the program. Robotic exoskeleton gait training can be a beneficial option for training balance, gait, and cardiopulmonary function in SCA.
Orthostatic tremor (OT) is an uncommon progressive movement disorder that involves a leg tremor when standing or weight bearing. Additionally, OT can accompany other medical or neurodegenerative disorders. In this article, we report an unusual case of OT after trauma in an 18-year-old male patient whose symptoms of OT have been resolved after a multimodal therapeutic approach, including botulinum toxin injection. Surface electromyography, including a tremor recording, was used for the diagnosis of OT. The patient completely recovered after the rehabilitation. A comprehensive rehabilitative treatment is required in the management of OT as the patient’s quality of life is greatly affected.
Appreciation of nature and an understanding of the biological sciences by the general public are key to the popularization of modern science. In particular, informal and accessible venues such as museum exhibits occupy a crucial role in science education, and they depend heavily on fields related to macrobiology, including Ecology, Animal Behavior, and Environmental Science. Unfortunately, lack of engaged experts and superficial descriptions of natural phenomena all too often prevent scientific knowledge from being shared effectively with the general public. Raw information itself and knowledge are not in a form or structure accessible to nonspecialists. In order to move successfully deliver substantive comprehension of the biological knowledge to the general public, it is necessary to categorize information from a content-conscious perspective and transform it into useful biological content. Therefore, the role of scientists is critically important in a series of processes that include theme selection, editing, and even graphical layout of contents. These processes require not only a scientific and logical way of thinking, but also an aptitude for artistic presentation and effective communication. The concept of Translation is presented as a theoretical and operational framework for the popularization of science.■ keyword :|Content|Biological Knowledge|Popularization of Science|Translation|
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.