1,720,977 research outputs found
Functional Reach and touch: how sense of movement disorders can influence Anticipatory Postural Adjustment?
No full textBackground: Sense of movement disorders (SMDs), as result
of the failure of a complex multisensorial process involving
the proprioceptive, visual, somaesthetic, and vestibular systems
(A Berthoz 1997), are very frequent in children with
cerebral palsy (CP) and negatively influence motor function-
ing and postural control. The most frequent signs are: exaggerated
and low threshold startle reaction, freezing posture,
blinking or closing eyes, visual attention shifting, and facial
grimaces. Diplegic children with SMDs show panic reactions
to mild postural perturbations and are therefore unable to
execute common tasks successfully, such as reaching and
touching an object. Postural adjustments depend on motor
reactions as well as on perception but perception has a leading
role in anticipation.
Objectives: We wanted to investigate how SMDs negatively
influence anticipatory postural adjustments (APA).
Method: A group of 14 children with diplegia were selected
according to the following criteria: aged 6–15 years, acquired
walking, no major differences at GMFCS, and no major sensorial
or cognitive deficit. Eight were diagnosed positive for
SMDs (according to the mentioned clinical signs), six did not
have SMDs, and five normal participants matched for age
were selected for the control group. The experimental setting
consisted of a functional reach and touch task in the sitting
position on an adjustable stool, a force platform
registered the centre of pressure. A small ball target was
placed at a distance of 120% of arms’ length and at 45 ̊ of
abduction. The child sat with feet on a foot rest. The stool
was set at two levels: ground and raised.
Results: APAs are indicated by a backward shifting of centre of
pressure with respect to the reaching direction before the
start of the gesture. The presence of APAs according to group
were: SMD, ground 42%, raised 36%; non-SMD ground 83%,
raised 78%; controls, ground 93%, raised 93%.
Discussion: The diplegic group with SMD has significantly
fewer APAs than both the controls and non-SMD group. The
height of the stool seems to influence APAs within the same
group but we did not have enough statistical evidence (ttest).
Data seem to support the hypothesis that SMDs influence
negatively anticipatory postural control and this can
reduce autonomy levels in action
Come il disturbo percettivo influenza la performance motoria in un compito di functional reach and touch nel paziente diplegico pci
No full text
Perception disorder: how to identify it in children with spastic diplegia
No full textINTRODUCTION
It is well known that “movement and perception are the two sides of the same coin in Cerebral Palsy (CP)”. In PC, the alteration of perceptive system represents a crucial element for “palsy development”. Central Nervous System (CNS) isn’t able to collect, elaborate, and integrate sensitive and sensorial information to obtain representations that are coherent among them and corresponding to reality[1]. In particular the altered process of collimation between visual and proprioceptive information may produce visual-kinestesic conflict. In children with CP this is mainly expressed through intolerance to movement, emptiness and depth. It is has been surveyed that in diplegic population, the biggest group in CP, perception disorder influences in a determining way functional abilities, in particular motor autonomy and walking quality[2]. The recognition of this perception disorder represents a basic preliminary assumption for a correct diagnostic framing and for the statement of the most appropriate rehabilitation goals and choices. This study intends to research one or more pathognomonic signs of this pathologic pattern in order to identify the perception disorder in a simple, not invasive setting, easy to be applied in territorial services. From data collected in past observations, the startle resulted as one of the most recurring signs. Therefore we want to investigate its presence in a population of diplegic children walking without support and to verify if it is a pathognomonic sign of perception disorder for the group of selected patients.
METHODS
This is a retrospective blind-randomized study.
We evaluated 41 videos, realised with standard modalities, showing children with spastic diplegia while they are walking. Video are randomly selected among those of patients followed at Child Rehabilitation in RE. The inclusion criteria were: spastic diplegia supported by MRI, age between 5 and 15 years old, no surgical intervention since at least one year and no botulinum injection since at least 6 months, walking without support.
Then the studied population was divided into two groups through video observation of walking. Group A is composed of subjects presenting clinic sign of startle during the march, while Group B by subjects not showing that sign. According to the information regarding the perception disorder found in clinical documentation (realised by gold standard) the sample studied has been divided again into two groups: children with (Group C) or without (Group D) perception disorder.
To identify the importance of the startle clinic sign during walk, we evaluated whether Group A corresponded to Group C and Group B to Group D. We defined motor autonomy level of 41 patients according to the Palisano et al. classification [GMFCS] to assess the possible correlation between this one and the perception disorder.
RESULTS
Among the 14 patients, whose documentation reported the presence of perception disorder (Group C), the 100% shows startle reaction during walk without support. Among the 27 patients without disorder (Group D), only one subject has startle (3,7%). Among subjects of Group C, 6 patients out of 14 (42,86%) belong to level II of GMFCS and the remaining 8 (57,14%) to level III. In Group D, 17 children belong to level I of GMFCS (62,96%) and the remaining 10 to level II (37,04%).
DISCUSSION
Thanks to the results obtained, it is possible to assert that startle represents a pathognomonic sign of perception disorder for population able to walk without support.
It is interesting to underline how clinical documentation of the only subject from group D presenting startle during walk, highlights previous signs of perception disorder which were not relevant in the last years.
The importance of recognizing perception disorder is once again confirmed by the results regarding GMFCS. The presence of the disorder influences in a negative way motor autonomy and its identification is therefore necessary for..
Un gold-standard fluoroscopico per la valutazione dei protocolli per la cinematica di piede in vivo
No full text
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe 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
Full text link“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
Full text linkWe 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
- …
