1,720,955 research outputs found
Effects of balance and gait rehabilitation in cerebellar disease of vascular or degenerative origin
No full textPURPOSE:
To investigate whether the response to rehabilitation differs between patients with abnormalities of balance and gait due to vascular or to degenerative cerebellar disease.
METHODS:
We reviewed the outcome of 27 cerebellar patients. Fourteen patients with vascular and 13 with degenerative cerebellar disease underwent a 3-week inpatient physical therapy program for 5 days/week, 90 min/day, focused on balance and gait. Body sway area during quiet stance with eyes open and eyes closed, and gait velocity, stride length, cadence and step width were recorded. The Berg Balance Scale (BBS) and Functional Independence Measure (FIM) were administered. All tests were performed before and after treatment.
RESULTS:
Before treatment, both groups showed comparable values in all sway and gait variables and in BBS. FIM score was higher in degenerative than vascular patients. After treatment, a significant reduction of body sway area was observed under both visual conditions in both groups. Gait velocity, stride length and step width improved more in the vascular than in the degenerative patient group. BBS improved in both groups. FIM improved to a larger extent in the vascular patients.
CONCLUSION:
Short-term treatment may not be sufficient to produce definite improvement in locomotion in degenerative as much as occurs in vascular patients, even if clinical and functional signs of balance improve in both groups
Afferent control of walking: Are there distinct deficits associated to loss of fibres of different diameter?
No full textOBJECTIVES:
To compare the gait pattern in patients affected by different types of neuropathy.
METHODS:
We recruited healthy subjects (HS, n=38), patients with Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease type 1A (CMT1A) (n=10) and patients with diabetic neuropathy (DNP) (n=12). Neuropathy impairment score and neuropathy score were assessed. Body sway during quiet stance, and spatio-temporal gait parameters were recorded.
RESULTS:
Most patients had reduced or absent tendon-tap reflexes. Strength of foot dorsiflexor muscles (p<0.05) and conduction velocity (CV) of leg nerves (p<0.0001) were more impaired in CMT1A than DNP, whereas joint-position sense was more affected (p<0.05) in DNP. Body sway while standing was larger in DNP compared to CMT1A and HS (p<0.01 and p<0.0001 respectively). During gait, the distribution of foot sole contact pressure was abnormal in CMT1A (p<0.05) but not in DNP. Velocity and step length were decreased, and foot yaw angle at foot flat increased, in DNP with respect to CMT1A and HS (both variables, p<0.001). Gait velocity and step length were decreased (p<0.005) also in CMT1A, but to a smaller extent than in DNP, so that the difference between patient groups was significant (p<0.0005). Duration of the double support was protracted in DNP compared to CMT1A and HS (p<0.0005). For DNP only, velocity of gait and duration of single support were correlated (p<0.05) both to sway path and lower limb muscle strength.
CONCLUSIONS:
Changes in both body sway and stance phase of gait were larger in DNP than CMT1A, indicating more impaired static and dynamic control of balance when neuropathy affects the small in addition to the large afferent fibres. Diminished somatosensory input from the smaller fibres rather than muscle weakness or foot deformity plays a critical role in the modulation of the support phase of gait.
SIGNIFICANCE:
The analysis of balance and gait in patients with neuropathy can offer a tool for understanding the nature and functional impact of the neuropathy and should be included in their functional evaluation
Test-retest reliability of an insole plantar pressure system to assess gait along linear and curved trajectories
Get PDFBACKGROUND: Previous studies have assessed reliability of insole technology for
evaluating foot pressure distribution during linear walking. Since in natural
motion straight walking is intermingled with turns, we determined the test-retest
reliability of insole assessment for curved as well as linear trajectories, and
estimated the minimum number of steps required to obtain excellent reliability
for each output variable.
METHODS: Sixteen young healthy participants were recruited. Each performed, two
days apart, two sessions of three walking conditions: linear (LIN) and curved,
clockwise (CW) and counter-clockwise (CCW). The Pedar-X system was used to
collect pressure distribution. Foot print was analyzed both as a whole and as
subdivided into eight regions: medial and lateral heel, medial and lateral arch,
I metatarsal head, II-V metatarsal heads, hallux, lateral toes. Reliability was
assessed by using intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) for clinically
relevant variables from analysis of 50 steps per trajectory: Peak Force (PF);
Peak Pressure (PP); Contact Area (CA); Stance Duration (S).
RESULTS: When considering whole-foot, all variables showed an ICC >0.80,
therefore highly reliable. This was true for both LIN and curved trajectories.
There was no difference in ICC of the four variables between left and right foot.
When collapsing foot and trajectories, S had a lower ICC than PP and CA, and PP
lower than CA. Mean percent error between the values of first and second session
was <5%. When separately considering the eight foot regions, ICCs of PF, PP and
CA for all regions and trajectories were generally >0.90, indicating excellent
reliability. In curved trajectories, S showed smaller ICCs. Since the least ICC
value for S was 0.60 in LIN trajectory, we estimated that to achieve an ICC ≥0.90
more than 200 steps should be collected.
CONCLUSIONS: High reliability of insole dynamic variables (PF, PP, CA) is
obtained with 50 steps using the Pedar-X system. On the contrary, high
reliability of temporal variable (S) requires a larger step number. The
negligible differences in ICC between LIN and curved trajectory allow use of this
device for gait assessment along mixed trajectories in both clinical and research
setting
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Get PDFWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
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