What do older people understand by mobility-related difficulties?

Despite the centrality of the difficulty concept in the study of disability, there has been little research on its significance from the point of view of people with functional limitations. The main objective of this study was to describe what older people understand when asked about difficulty in undertaking mobility activities. As a secondary objective, we considered whether there are any differences depending on the type of activities, according to the International Classification of Functioning (ICF) mobility domains. Methods: Seventeen community-dwelling men and women aged 70 years old or over were interviewed by means of a questionnaire containing 55 items covering the ICF mobility domains. The participants responded to the items while thinking aloud, saying what led them to give a specific answer about their level of difficulty. Inductive content analysis was conducted and categories, subthemes and themes were identified. Results: Causes of difficulty (pathologies, impairments, symptoms) and accommodations (task modifications and use of aids) were the two themes identified; and their importance (and that of the subthemes included) varied across the types of activity. All the participants said that they had no difficulty in at least one task, despite mentioning changes in the way they performed them. Conclusions: Older people's opinions were consistent with theoretical models of disability and with the standard practice of measuring functional limitations by asking about the degree of difficulty; however, the design of these measures needs to be improved in order to detect perceptions of no difficulty in the presence of task modification.

Heterofunctional Supports in Enzyme Immobilization: From Traditional Immobilization Protocols to Opportunities in Tuning Enzyme Properties

A heterofunctional support for enzyme immobilization may be defined as that which possesses several distinct functionalities on its surface able to interact with a protein. We will focus on those supports in which a final covalent attachment between the enzyme and the support is achieved. Heterofunctionality sometimes has been featured in very old immobilization techniques, even though in many instances it has been overlooked, giving rise to some misunderstandings. In this respect, glutaraldehyde-activated supports are the oldest multifunctional supports. Their matrix has primary amino groups, the hydrophobic glutaraldehyde chain, and can covalently react with the primary amino groups of the enzyme. Thus, immobilization may start (first event of the immobilization) via different causes and may involve different positions of the enzyme surface depending on the activation degree and immobilization conditions. Other “classical” heterofunctional supports are epoxy commercial supports consisting of reactive covalent epoxy groups on a hydrophobic matrix. Immobilization is performed at high ionic strength to permit protein adsorption, so that covalent attachment may take place at a later stage. Starting from these old immobilization techniques, tailor-made heterofunctional supports have been designed to permit a stricter control of the enzyme immobilization process. The requirement is to find conditions where the main covalent reactive moieties may have very low reactivity toward the enzyme. In this Review we will discuss the suitable properties of the groups able to give the covalent attachment (intending a multipoint covalent attachment), and the groups able to produce the first enzyme adsorption on the support. Prospects, limitations, and likely pathways for the evolution (e.g., coupling of site-directed mutagenesis and thiol heterofunctional supports of enzyme immobilization on heterofunctional supports) will be discussed in this Review.

La Universidad de Alicante Universidad promotora de salud/Universidad Saludable. Un reto y una oportunidad

Justificación: Dentro de la estrategia de Universidades Saludables, la Universidad de Alicante (UA) inicia un proyecto para conocer, difundir y potenciar los activos para la salud. Se plantea dotar de contenido empírico la propuesta de Morgan y Ziglio de usar el modelo de activos para la salud pública identificados por la comunidad universitaria. Objetivos: explorar la factibilidad y los retos de la aplicación de mapeos de activos para la salud en la UA con el fin de que la comunidad universitaria pueda ganar salud, calidad de vida y bienestar. Desarrollo de la experiencia: Formación de promotores de salud: • La promoción de la salud y la teoría salutogénica. • Aproximación al modelo y la estrategia de activos en salud. Enfoque Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD). • Diferencia entre recursos y activos. • Técnicas de observación y diálogo. • Técnicas mixtas: open space, TICs y mapping... • Competencias profesionales, entorno facilitador y apoyo para obtener resultados. Metodología: Lograr el mapeo de los activos en salud, sus entornos y sus estudiantes siguiendo el enfoque de John McKnight. Aplicación de “lo aprendido” en el contexto de la UA: Planificación del proyecto para el año 2014. Resultados: construcción de un mapa de activos para la salud, geolocalizado en la Universidad de Alicante. Dinamización del mapa de activos, estudiando conexiones entre activos y necesidades de la comunidad universitaria con las personas participantes, para realizar propuestas de acción futura. Difusión del mismo a través de tecnologías de la información.