1,721,030 research outputs found
Updates and comments on: Influence of transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation on spasticity, balance, and walking speed in stroke patients: A systematic review and meta-analysis
Get PDFProprioceptive Based Training for stroke recovery. Proposal of new treatment modality for rehabilitation of upper limb in neurological diseases
No full textThe central nervous system (CNS) has plastic properties allowing its adaptation through development. These properties are still maintained in the adult age and potentially activated in case of brain lesion. In the present study authors hypothesized that a significant recovery of voluntary muscle contraction in post stroke patients experiencing severe upper limb paresis can be obtained, when proprioceptive based stimulations are provided. Proprioceptive based training (PBT) is based on performing concurrent movements with both unaffected and affected arm, with the aim to foster motor recovery through some mutual connections of interhemispheric and transcallosal pathways. The aim of this pre-post pilot study was to evaluate the feasibility of PBT on recovery of voluntary muscle contraction in subacute phase after stroke
Effects of vibratory stimulation on balance and gait in Parkinson’s disease: A systematic review and meta-analysis
No full textINTRODUCTION: Among the different rehabilitative approaches to Parkinson’s disease, there is conflicting evidence about the effects of vibratory stimulation and its capability to modulate the central elaboration of proprioceptive stimuli. the hypothesis is that the vibration-induced sensorial perturbation (through whole body vibration [WBV] or localized vibration) can influence the motor response in complex tasks such as postural control and gait. thus, the objective of this review was to evaluate the effect of different modalities of vibratory stimulation treatment on balance, gait signs and symptoms, and quality of life, in patients with parkinson’s disease. EVidEncE acQuisition: from the initial 1249 records, 10 of them which compared Whole body Vibration (WbV) or localized vibration to conventional physiotherapy were included (i.e. randomized controlled trials, crossover trials, and quasi-experimental trials). Finally, five papers on WbV were included in quantitative synthesis (meta-analysis), while for three studies on localized vibrations a qualitative synthesis was performed. Two independent reviewers selected potentially relevant studies based on the inclusion criteria, extracted data, and evaluated the methodological quality. EVIDENCE SYNTHESIS: Meta-analysis was performed among five studies on WBV treatment, whose effect was found to be significantly better than standard treatment for improving gait (measured by timed up and Go test and stand-walk-sit test: standardized mean difference = -0.51; 95% CI=-1.00 to -0.01). Conversely, WBV was not significantly better than standard treatment for all the other outcomes. Due to high heterogeneity it was not possible to conduct a quantitative meta-analysis on studies of localized vibration. conclusions: results of the review show that WbV can improve gait performance in patients with parkinson’s disease
The effectiveness of reinforced feedback in virtual environment in the first 12 months after stroke
No full textBackground and purpose: Reinforced feedback in virtual environment (RFVE) therapy is emerging as an innovative
method in rehabilitation, which may be advantageous in the treatment of the affected arm after stroke. The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of assisted motor training in a virtual environment for the treatment of the upper extremity (UE) after stroke compared to traditional neuromotor rehabilitation (TNR), studying also if differences exist related to the type of stroke (haemorrhagic or ischaemic). Material and methods: Eighty patients affected by a stroke (48 ischaemic and 32 haemorrhagic) that occurred at least 1 year before were enrolled. The clinical assessment comprising the Fugl-Meyer UE (F-M UE), modified Ashworth (Bohannon & Smith) and Functional Independence Measure scale (FIM) was administered before and after the treatment. Results: A statistically significant difference between RFVE and TNR groups (Mann-Whitney U-test) was observed in the clinical outcomes of F-M UE and FIM (both p < 0.001), but not Ashworth (p = 0.053). The outcomes of F-M UE
and FIM improved in the RFVE haemorrhagic group and in the TNR haemorrhagic group with a significant difference between groups (both p < 0.001), but not for Ashworth (p = 0.651). Comparing the RFVE ischaemic group to the TNR ischaemic group, statistically significant differences emerged in F-M UE (p < 0.001), FIM (p < 0.001), and Ashworth (p = 0.036). Conclusions: The RFVE therapy in combination with TNR showed better improvements compared to the TNR treatment only. The RFVE therapy combined with the TNR treatment was more effective than the TNR double training, in both postischaemic and post-haemorrhagic groups. We observed improvements in both groups of patients: post-haemorrhagic and post-ischaemic stroke after RFVE training
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
Virtual Feedback for Arm Motor Function Rehabilitation after Stroke: A Randomized Controlled Trial
Get PDFA single-blind randomized controlled trial was conducted to compare whether the con-tinuous visualization of a virtual teacher, during virtual reality rehabilitation, is more effective than the same treatment provided without a virtual teacher visualization, for the recovery of arm motor function after stroke. Teacher and no-teacher groups received the same amount of virtual reality therapy (i.e., 1 h/d, 5 dd/w, 4 ww) and an additional hour of conventional therapy. In the teacher group, specific feedback (“virtual-teacher”) showing the correct kinematic to be emulated by the patient was always displayed online during exercises. In the no-teacher group patients performed the same exer-cises, without the virtual-teacher assistance. The primary outcome measure was Fugl-Meyer Upper Extremity after treatment. 124 patients were enrolled and randomized, 62 per group. No differences were observed between the groups, but the same number of patients (χ2 = 0.29, p = 0.59) responded to experimental and control interventions in each group. The results confirm that the manipulation of a single instant feedback does not provide clinical advantages over multimodal feedback for arm rehabilitation after stroke, but combining 40 h conventional therapy and virtual reality provides large effect of intervention (i.e., Cohen’s d 1.14 and 0.92 for the two groups, respectively)
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
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