Desenvolvimento de um exoesqueleto para movimentação/reabilita-ção de paraplégicos

People bedridden by paralysis/motor disability are subject to several problems due to lack of movement. Then, it is necessary to use equipments that enable the people bedridden stand up and walk, so as to reduce the problems due to lack of movement and the time of rehabilitation, impacting directly on its quality of life. The aim of this work is the development of an exoskeleton to make the movement of people with paralysis / motor impairment in the lower limbs, without help of third parties, to be activated by the user. To provide support, stability and security to the deficient, it was decided to use a structure formed by four legs, being each leg consisting of a parallel chain. The gait was obtained by combining the movement of two mechanisms: crank/rocker, responsible for oscillatory motion of the leg, and cam/follower, responsible for the foot motion on the desired trajectory. To achieve the aim of this work was conducted a study about the types of exoskeletons for locomotion/rehabilitation of people with lower limb paralysis and presented a study on the movement of the lower limb joints. It also presented a mathematical model to obtain the desired path to the foot of the exoskeleton, the static model and the design of the structure elements. In the sequence is presented the simulation of movements of a people during the human gait, experimental tests and the comparison with the human gait developed by a people without disabilities.

Intervenção mediacional na aprendizagem do braille: um estudo com crianças deficientes visuais

This study aimed to construct and evaluate a proposed mediational intervention with preschool children through reading workshops and writing in Braille system. The proposal is based on the concepts of Vygotsky on defectology and approach to the Mediated Learning Experience (MLE) developed by Feuerstein. For the research were drawn up ten Mediational workshops, in which they developed a work by reading a children's story and from her reading activities and writing in Braille system. The workshops took place within in kindergarten room of the institution. Study participants were four blind children, six and seven years in an institution that assists visually impaired people in the city of Uberaba / MG, and their mothers and the teacher responsible for the room in which they study. During the workshops, the children showed interest in participating in the activities of reading and writing in Braille. We believe that the data built during the research are not sufficient to establish a generalization, due to the small number of participants. However, at the end of the workshops and the assessment of participants' responses can infer the relevance of the proposal, because in addition to the interest shown and the request of the children there were more activities like that, it was noticed greater fluency in reading and greater ease in writing.