Gross Motor Deficits in Children Prenatally Exposed to Alcohol: A Meta-analysis

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Gross motor (GM) deficits are often reported in children with prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE), but their prevalence and the domains affected are not clear. The objective of this review was to characterize GM impairment in children with a diagnosis of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) or moderate to heavy maternal alcohol intake.METHODS: A systematic review with meta-analysis was conducted. Medline, Embase, Allied and Complementary Medicine Database, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, PsycINFO, PEDro, and Google Scholar databases were searched. Published observational studies including children aged 0 to <= 18 years with (1) an FASD diagnosis or moderate to heavy PAE, or a mother with confirmed alcohol dependency or binge drinking during pregnancy, and (2) GM outcomes obtained by using a standardized assessment tool. Data were extracted regarding participants, exposure, diagnosis, and outcomes by using a standardized protocol. Methodological quality was evaluated by using Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology guidelines.RESULTS: The search recovered 2881 articles of which 14 met the systematic review inclusion criteria. The subjects' mean age ranged from 3 days to 13 years. Study limitations included failure to report cutoffs for impairment, nonstandardized reporting of PAE, and small sample sizes. The meta-analysis pooled results (n = 10) revealed a significant association between a diagnosis of FASD or moderate to heavy PAE and GM impairment (odds ratio: 2.9; 95% confidence interval: 2.1-4.0). GM deficits were found in balance, coordination, and ball skills. There was insufficient data to determine prevalence.CONCLUSIONS: The significant results suggest evaluation of GM proficiency should be a standard component of multidisciplinary FASD diagnostic services.

Montagem de uma bancada dinamométrica e avaliação preliminar do desempenho de um motor operando com misturas diesel-biodiesel

Pós-graduação em Engenharia Mecânica - FEIS

Classificação do grau de comprometimento motor e do índice de massa corpórea em crianças com paralisia cerebral

Children with cerebral palsy due to movement and posture disorders might have an injured nutritional state. This study's objective was to classify the body mass index of children with cerebral palsy and verify its relation with the injury level of gross motor function. Twenty children, male and female sex, with cerebral palsy with ages between 2 and 14 years participated in the study. They were chosen from a rehabilitation center with physiotherapy, occupational and speech therapy accompaniment. Children were classified according to the gross motor function classification scale. The anthropometric measures of each child weight, heel-knee length, estimated stature and body mass index were gauged. The body mass index was classified according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's body mass index percentile calculator for children and teenagers. The obtained data didn't show any relation between the gross motor function and body mass index. The reduced number of participants and the fact of all children be accompanied in dysphagia clinics and, when necessary, nutrition clinics, might have influenced these results.

Caracterização do perfil motor de escolares com transtorno autístico

Thematic focus: The motor abnormalities may be part of so-called comorbidities that can coexist with autistic disorder. Objective: To characterize the motor profile of students with autistic disorder. Method: the study included six children with years and 9 months. After signing the consent form by parents or guardians, the students were submitted to the Motor Development Scale for assessment of fine motor, gross motor performance, balance, body scheme, spatial organization, temporal organization and laterality. Results: The results revealed a significant difference between the motor age and chronological age. According to the classification of the Scale of Motor Development, students in this study showed motor development lower than expected for age. Conclusion: The students with autistic disorder in this study presented a profile of Developmental Coordination Disorder in comorbidity, showing that participants of this research presented difficulties in activities that required skills such as handwriting. Thus, motor and psychomotor needs of these students were focused on educational and clinical environment to reduce the impact of behavioral and social manifestations.

Motor development of infants exposed to maternal human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) but not infected

Background: To assess the motor development of infants exposed to maternal human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Methods: Thirty infants were assessed in the period from November 2009 to March 2010 at the AIDS Reference and Training Centre, in São Paulo, Brazil. The assessment instrument used in the research was the Alberta Infant Motor Scale (AIMS). All 30 infants used the antiretroviral drug properly for 42 consecutive days, in accordance with the protocol of the World Health Organization. Results: Out of the total number of infants, 27 (90%) had proper motor performance and 3 (10%) presented motor delay, according to the AIMS. Discussion: This study demonstrated that only 10% of the assessed group had developmental delay and no relation with environmental variables was detected, such as maternal level of education, social and economic issues, maternal practices, attendance at the day care center, and drug use during pregnancy. It is important to emphasize the necessity of studies with a larger number of participants.

Motor profile of students with dyslexia

In the presence of developmental dyslexia, there is high probability of motor difficulties being present as well purposes: The purposes of this study were to characterize and compare the motor performance of students with dyslexia with students with good academic performance and to identify the presence of the DCD (developmental coordination disorder) co-occurring with developmental dyslexia. A total of 79 students participated in the research, both genders, from 8 to 11 years old, from 3rd to 5th grades, and were divided into Group I: 19 students with developmental dyslexia and Group II: 60 students with good academic performance. All the students were assessed using “The Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency” (second edition), to measure the motor skills and the pattern and differences between groups. The results of this study showed that the motor performance of Group II students was superior to the performance of students of Group I in almost all motor areas assessed but both groups performed less well than they should have for their chronological age. The results of this study indicate that occupational therapists, speech therapists and educators need to be aware of the presence of motor impairments and the need for early intervention in both the academic and clinical environments, in order to ensure that early identification and diagnosis of possible co-occurrences, such as DCD, and the impact on learning to guarantee more appropriate clinical and educational assistance for this population. This may also indicate that increased exposure to movement may be important to limit some of the secondary health consequences in children in Brazil.

The dynamic behavior of a cantilever beam coupled to a non-ideal unbalanced motor through numerical and experimental analysis

An excitation force that is not influenced by the system state is said to be an ideal energy source. In real situations, a direct and feedback coupling between the excitation source and the system must always exist at a certain level. This manifestation of the law of conservation of energy is known as the Sommerfeld effect. In the case of obtaining a mathematical model for such a system, additional equations are usually necessary to describe the vibration sources with limited power and its coupling with the mechanical system. In this work, a cantilever beam and a non-ideal DC motor fixed to its free end are analyzed. The motor has an unbalanced mass that provides excitation to the system which is proportional to the current applied to the motor. During the coast up operation of the motor, if the drive power is increased slowly, making the excitation frequency pass through the first natural frequency of the beam, the DC motor speed will remain the same until it suddenly jumps to a much higher value (simultaneously its amplitude jumps to a much lower value) upon exceeding a critical input power. It was found that the Sommerfeld effect depends on some system parameters and the motor operational procedures. These parameters are explored to avoid the resonance capture in the Sommerfeld effect. Numerical simulations and experimental tests are used to help gather insight of this dynamic behavior. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Nonlinear dynamics and control strategies: On a energy harvester vibrating system with a linear form to non-ideal motor torque

In this paper, we deal with the research of a vibrating model of an energy harvester device, including the nonlinearities in the model of the piezoelectric coupling and the non-ideal excitation. We show, using numerical simulations, in the analysis of the dynamic responses, that the harvested power is influenced by non-linear vibrations of the structure. Chaotic behavior was also observed, causing of the loss of energy throughout the simulation time. Using a perturbation technique, we find an approximate analytical solution for the non-ideal system. Then, we apply both two control techniques, to keep the considered system, into a stable condition. Both the State Dependent Ricatti Equation (SDRE) control as the feedback control by changing the energy of the oscillator, were efficient in controlling of the considered non-ideal system.

Synaptic plasticity and sensory-motor improvennent following fibrin sealant dorsal root reimplantation and mononuclear cell therapy

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Long-Term Spinal Ventral Root Reimplantation, but not Bone Marrow Mononuclear Cell Treatment, Positively Influences Ultrastructural Synapse Recovery and Motor Axonal Regrowth

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Desempenho motor de escolares com dislexia, transtornos e dificuldades de aprendizagem

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Estudo e modelagem 3D de um cabeçote para um motor monocilíndrico, 400cc, 4 T

The cylinder head contains the combustion chamber for the air-fuel mixture and the intake and exhaust valves, the valve guide and the valve seat. The cylinder head also is a support for the camshaft and valve rocker. The holes where the spark plugs are connected are designed to fit the better place in the combustion chamber. The cylinder heads often are manufactured using materials such as aluminum and cast iron. The cooling fins located in the outside of the cylinder head are designed for a good heat transfer and therefore their dimensions and positioning are important. This work aims the calculation for a cylinder head to be installed in a 400 cc displacement, gasoline powered, four stroke, single cylinder engine. According to the displacement it will be analyzed the combustion chamber, the intake and exhaust valves, as well as the camshaft and rocker arms. This also a work to help to accomplish the design of a single cylinder engine, where the alternatives parts, cylinder block and crankcase are all already machined and assembled in this campus

Controle de velocidade de um motor de indução trifásico usando técnicas de ajuste empírico para bancada de teste no laboratório de automação

This work aims to make the closed loop control of a three phase induction motor, through the integration of the following equipment: a frequency inverter, the actuator system; a programmable logic controller (PLC), the controller; an encoder, the velocity sensor, used as a feedback monitoring the control variable and the three-phase induction motor, the plant to be controlled. The control is performed using a Proportional - Integrative - Derivative (PID) approach. The PLC has a help instruction, which performs the auto adjustment of the controller, that instruction is used and confronted with other adjustment methods. There are several types of methods adjustments to the PID controllers, where the empirical methods are addressed in this work. The system is deployed at the Interface and Electro Electronic Control laboratory in the Universidade Estadual Paulista Júlio Mesquita Filho, Guaratinguetá, São Paulo, then, in the future, this work becomes an experiment to be conducted in the classroom, allowing undergraduate students to develop a greater affinity to the programs used by the PLC as well as studies of undergraduate and graduate works with the help of assembly made

Estudo da participação da neurotransmissão colinérgica do córtex pré-límbico nas respostas autonômicas desencadeadas pelo estresse por restrição agudo em ratos

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Estudo do envolvimento da neurotransmissão noradrenérgica do córtex pré-frontal medial nas respostas autonômicas desencadeadas pelo estresse por restrição agudo em ratos

O córtex pré-frontal medial (CPFM) é uma região límbica envolvida no controle da atividade autonômica e cardiovascular. Foi demonstrado que a inibição da região infra-límbica (IL) do CPFM reduziu as repostas comportamentais, neuroendócrinas e autônomas induzidas por estímulos aversivos. Entretanto, apesar das evidências de um importante papel do córtex IL na integração das respostas ao estresse, informações sobre os mecanismos neuroquímicos locais envolvidos no controle destas respostas ainda são escassos. Diante disso, o presente estudo teve o objetivo de investigar um possível envolvimento de mecanismos noradrenérgicos do córtex IL nas respostas autonômicas ao estresse por restrição agudo em ratos. Para tanto, nós investigamos, em grupos independentes de animais, o efeito da microinjeção bilateral no córtex IL de veículo (salina, 100nL), WB4101 (antagonista seletivo de adrenoceptores α1), RX821002 (antagonista seletivo de adrenoceptores α2) e propranolol (antagonista não-seletivo de adrenoceptores β, 10nmol/100nL), sobre as respostas de aumento da pressão arterial (PA) e frequência cardíaca (FC) e redução da temperatura cutânea da cauda induzidas pelo estresse por restrição agudo em ratos. A microinjeção bilateral de WB4101, RX821002 e propranolol no córtex IL não afetou os parâmetros basais de PA, FC e temperatura cutânea da cauda, o que indica uma ausência de influência na manutenção tônica do sistema cardiovascular. Entretanto, o bloqueio de adrenoceptores α1 no córtex IL diminuiu a resposta taquicárdica induzida pelo estresse por restrição, sem afetar as respostas pressora e de redução da temperatura cutânea da cauda. O bloqueio de adrenoceptores α2 no córtex IL reduziu todos os parâmetros analisados e o bloqueio de adrenoceptores β no córtex IL atenuou a resposta de redução da temperatura cutânea induzida pelo estresse por restrição. As respostas de elevação da ...