The basal ganglia and semantic engagement: Potential insights from semantic priming in individuals with subcortical vascular lesions, Parkinson's disease, and cortical lesions

The impact of basal ganglia dysfunction on semantic processing was investigated by comparing the performance of individuals with nonthalamic subcortical (NS) vascular lesions, Parkinson's disease (PD), cortical lesions, and matched controls on a semantic priming task. Unequibiased lexical ambiguity primes were used in auditory prime-target pairs comprising 4 critical conditions; dominant related (e.g., bank-money), subordinate related (e.g., bank-river), dominant unrelated (e.g.,foot-money) and subordinate unrelated (e.g., bat-river). Participants made speeded lexical decisions (word/nonword) on targets using a go-no-go response. When a short prime-target interstimulus interval (ISI) of 200 ins was employed, all groups demonstrated priming for dominant and subordinate conditions, indicating nonselective meaning facilitation and intact automatic lexical processing. Differences emerged at the long ISI (1250 ms), where control and cortical lesion participants evidenced selective facilitation of the dominant meaning, whereas NS and PD groups demonstrated a protracted period of nonselective meaning facilitation. This finding suggests a circumscribed deficit in the selective attentional engagement of the semantic network on the basis of meaning frequency, possibly implicating a disturbance of frontal-subcortical systems influencing inhibitory semantic mechanisms.

3: Rehabilitation principles for treating chronic musculoskeletal injuries

Evaluation of patients for rehabilitation after musculoskeletal injury involves identifying, grading and assessing the injury and its impact on the patient's normal activities. Management is guided by a multidisciplinary team, comprising the patient, doctor and physical therapist, with other health professionals recruited as required. Parallel interventions involving the various team members are specified in a customised management plan. The key component of the plan is active mobilisation utilising strengthening, flexibility and endurance exercise programs. Passive physical treatments (heat, ice, and manual therapy), as well as drug therapy and psychological interventions, are used as adjunctive therapy. Biomechanical devices or techniques (eg, orthotic devices) may also be helpful. Coexisting conditions such as depression and drug dependence are treated at the same time as the injury. Effective team communication, simulated environmental testing and, for those employed, contact with the employer facilitate a staged return to normal living, sports and occupational activities.

Teoria da estrutura em organiza????o

Dentro de uma conceitua????o geral, pode-se dizer que organiza????o ?? sinergia: unidade de a????o. E que a unidade de a????o tem seu fundamento na singularidade de prop??sito. Assim, um team de foot-ball, que ?? um conjunto de elementos operando com o mesmo prop??sito, ?? uma organiza????o. Esta caracteriza????o din??mica subentende a exist??ncia de uma base f??sica em cada organiza????o. A base f??sica, ou o corpo da organiza????o, ?? o grupo social. A ci??ncia organiza????o se preocupa com os fen??menos da natureza relacional, ocorridos entre os elementos do grupo social , e que repercutem na consecu????o do fim a que se prop??e o grupo. P??sto assim o problema, percebe-se, de imediato, que em organiza????o todos os fatos s??o moldados por um valor constante: o fim a que se prop??e o grupo; e que a natureza d??sses fatos ?? ???relacional???, do que resulta serem insepar??veis, inatomiz??veis. Uma an??lise, mesmo superficial de um grupo organizado ??? voltemos ao exemplo do team de foot-ball ??? revela que ??le ?? constitu??do de: a) elementos materiais e humanos (a bola, o campo e os homens); b) tarefas a executar (as fun????es de keeper, de back, etc); c) rela????es estruturais f??sicas e psicol??gicas entre os elementos para realiza????o das tarefas.

Efeitos do acompanhamento de analistas e da dupla listagem sobre o disclosure voluntário durante o processo de convergência ao padrão IFRS no Brasil

Objetivou-se com o presente trabalho, estudar os efeitos da convergência às normas internacionais de contabilidade (IFRS), da cobertura de analistas financeiros e da emissão de American Depositary Receipts - ADR, sobre o disclosure voluntário das empresas listadas na BM&FBOVESPA. Partindo-se da análise de 14 trabalhos acadêmicos, desenvolveu-se um índice de disclosure voluntário contendo um total de 38 itens, sendo 25 itens de natureza financeira, econômica e organizacional e 13 itens de natureza social e ambiental. O check list do índice desenvolvido foi aplicado sobre 1.406 documentos (notas explicativas e relatórios da administração, contendo 58,2 mil páginas), de uma amostra com 703 observações - ano, obtidas durante os anos de 2006 a 2013. Utilizando-se do teste de Wilcoxon, os resultados apontam incrementos estatisticamente significantes nos níveis de disclosure voluntário durante o período de convergência ao padrão IFRS no Brasil, sendo mais significativos elementos de natureza econômica, financeira e organizacional do que os de natureza social e ambiental. Utilizando-se de modelos OLS robustos, aplicados sobre dados em painel desbalanceado, os resultados dos testes econométricos confirmaram parcialmente a hipótese de que o padrão IFRS contribuiu no desenvolvimento do disclosure voluntário das empresas com maior acompanhamento de analistas financeiros, porém, significativamente para as empresas que emitiram American Depositary Receipts (ADR) durante o período de convergência às normas internacionais de contabilidade. Os resultados são robustos e significativos quando controlados por variáveis representativas do tamanho (TAM), da rentabilidade (RENT), do endividamento (ALAV) e de auditoria de uma big – four (AUDI) como determinantes do disclosure voluntário durante o período de convergência ao padrão IFRS no Brasil.

Considerations about the recommendations of the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf on the Amazon fan

In 2004, Brazil submitted to the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS) a Submission for the outer limit of the Brazilian continental shelf for its extension beyond the limits of 200 nautical miles. In 2007, the CLCS presented its recommendations, however it did not recommend four areas proposed by Brazil, the Amazon Fan among them. The objective of this study is to present the main legal and technical aspects of the controversy about the Amazon Fan, in order to evaluate some alternatives for a future submission, new or revised.

Automatic modeling of an orthotic bracing for nonoperative correction of PectusCarinatum

Pectus Carinatum is a deformity of the chest wall, characterized by an anterior protrusion of the sternum, often corrected surgically due to cosmetic motivation. This work presents an alternative approach to the current open surgery option, proposing a novel technique based on a personalized orthosis. Two different processes for the orthosis’ personalization are presented. One based on a 3D laser scan of the patient chest, followed by the reconstruction of the thoracic wall mesh using a radial basis function, and a second one, based on a computer tomography scan followed by a neighbouring cells algorithm. The axial position where the orthosis is to be located is automatically calculated using a Ray-Triangle intersection method, whose outcome is input to a pseudo Kochenek interpolating spline method to define the orthosis curvature. Results show that no significant differences exist between the patient chest physiognomy and the curvature angle and size of the orthosis, allowing a better cosmetic outcome and less initial discomfort

Automatic modeling of an orthotic bracing for nonoperative correction of pectus carinatum

Pectus Carinatum is a deformity of the chest wall, characterized by an anterior protrusion of the sternum, often corrected surgically due to cosmetic motivation. This work presents an alternative approach to the current open surgery option, proposing a novel technique based on a personalized orthosis. Two different processes for the orthosis’ personalization are presented. One based on a 3D laser scan of the patient chest, followed by the reconstruction of the thoracic wall mesh using a radial basis function, and a second one, based on a computer tomography scan followed by a neighbouring cells algorithm. The axial position where the orthosis is to be located is automatically calculated using a Ray-Triangle intersection method, whose outcome is input to a pseudo Kochenek interpolating spline method to define the orthosis curvature. Results show that no significant differences exist between the patient chest physiognomy and the curvature angle and size of the orthosis, allowing a better cosmetic outcome and less initial discomfort.