Clinical Utility of Robot-Assisted Gait Training in Patients with Spinal Cord Injury Caused by Electrical Burns: A Case Report.

Robot-assisted gait training (RAGT) has been proven effective in improving gait function in not only patients with central nervous system damage, but also in patients who have undergone musculoskeletal surgery. Nevertheless, evidence supporting the efficacy of such training in burn patients remains insufficient. This report aimed to evaluate the effect of RAGT in burn patients with spinal cord injuries (SCI) caused by electrical trauma. We reported a case of two patients. The total duration of each session was about 1 h 30 min. This included 10 min to put on the exoskeleton, 30 min of robot-assisted training using SUBAR®, 10 min to remove the exoskeleton, 10 min to observe whether complications such as skin abrasion, ulcer, or pain occur in the scar area after RAGT, and 30 min of conventional physiotherapy, at a rate of 5 days a week for 12 weeks. All measurements were assessed before training (0 week) and after training (12 weeks). The American Spinal Cord Injury Association (ASIA) lower extremity motor score (LEMS), passive range of motions (ROMs) of different joints (hip, knee, and ankle), ambulatory motor index (AMI), functional ambulation categories (FAC), and 6 min walking (6 MWT) distances were evaluated to measure the degree of gait function through training. In both patients, manual muscle test measurement and joint ROM in the lower extremities improved after 12 weeks training. The first patient scored 0 in the FAC before training. After 12 weeks of training, he could walk independently indoors, improving to an FAC score of 4. He also reached 92.16 m in the 6 MWT. LEMS improved from 22 before training to 30 after training, and AMI score improved from 12 before training to 16 after training. In the second patient, an independent walking function was not acquired. LEMS improved from 10 before training to 26 after training. AMI scores were the same at 10 points before and after training. The results suggested the possibility of achieving clinical effects in terms of improving lower extremity muscle strength, joint ROMs, and gait performance in patients with SCI caused by electrical trauma.

Electrical Stability of Solution-Processed Indium Oxide Thin-Film Transistors.

We investigated the electrical stability of bottom-gate/top-contact-structured indium oxide (In2O3) thin-film transistors (TFTs) in atmospheric air and under vacuum. The solution-processed In2O3 film exhibits a nanocrystalline morphology with grain boundaries. The fabricated In2O3 TFTs operate in an n-type enhancement mode. Over repeated TFT operation under vacuum, the TFTs exhibit a slight increase in the field-effect mobility, possibly due to multiple instances of the "trapping and release" behavior of electrons at grain boundaries. On the other hand, a decrease in the fieldeffect mobility and an increase in the hysteresis are observed as the measurement continues in atmospheric air. These results suggest that the electrical stability of solution-processed In2O3 TFTs is significantly affected by the electron-trapping phenomenon at crystal grain boundaries in the In2O3 semiconductor and the electrostatic interactions between electrons and polar water molecules.