In the last decade, population ageing has been registered as a global phenomenon. A relation exists between falling and ageing, since falling frequency increases significantly with age. In fact, one in three older adult falls annually. Although ageing is generically associated with decrease and degeneration of psychological and physical functions, it is still not common for the correct identification of risk factors to lead to a clinical prognosis of the elder being in risk of falling. Therefore, the goal of this review article is to identify, categorise and analyse typical ageing and fall factors mentioned in the literature as well as to quantify the number of times they were referenced. The research considered hundreds of publications, but analysis was then restricted to the 87 most pertinent articles written in English and published in journals or scientific magazines between 1995 and 2010. We concluded that falls among older adults can be characterised by the following: anatomic characteristics and physiological consequences of ageing; the pathologies that induce falls, which can be neurological, musculoskeletal, cardiovascular and other diseases; causes and risk factors of falls that can be behavioural, biological, environmental or socio-economic; type of physical consequences of falls, including fractures, bruises, injuries or other physical consequences; and strategies to prevent, mitigate or rehabilitate, which can be of a physical, environmental or behavioural nature.
Bone is a remarkable tissue that can respond to external stimuli. The importance of mechanical forces on the mass and structural development of bone has long been accepted. This adaptation behaviour is very complex and involves multidisciplinary concepts, and significant progress has recently been made in understanding this process. In this review, we describe the state of the art studies in this area and highlight current insights while simultaneously clarifying some basic yet essential topics related to the origin of mechanical stimulus in bone, the biomechanisms associated with mechanotransduction, the nature of physiological bone stimuli and the test systems most commonly used to study the mechanical stimulation of bone.
In this work composites of styrene-butadiene-styrene (SBS) block copolymer with multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) were processed by solution casting and their mechanical, electrical and electro-mechanical (gauge factor) response were characterised. Also investigated was the influence of the filler content in the polymer matrix, the different ratio of styrene/butadiene in the copolymer, and the architecture of the SBS matrix (radial, linear) on the electrical, mechanical and electro-mechanical properties of the composites. It was found that filler content and elastomer matrix architecture influence the percolation threshold and consequently the overall composite electrical conductivity. The mechanical properties are mainly affected by the styrene and filler content, with minor contributions from the SBS architecture. Hopping between nearest fillers is proposed as the main mechanism for the composite conduction, the overall composite electrical conductivity being explained by the existence of a weak disorder regime. The variation of the electrical resistivity is linear with the deformation. This fact, together with the gauge factor values in the range of 2 to 18, results in appropriate composites to be used as (large) deformation sensors.
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