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Parkinson's disease (PD) is a chronic, idiopathic, degenerative disease that decline postural control and balance. Whole-body vibration (WBV) has been studied to assist in the treatment of disorders caused by PD, since it can affect the muscular performance of the elderly.The aim was to verify the acute influence of WBV on the static and dynamic balance of individuals with PD. Fifteen individuals with idiopathic PD were divided into groups: seven in the placebo group (f = 1 Hz) and eight in the vibration group (f = 30 Hz). After anamnesis, the volunteers were submitted to the static (force plataform) and dynamic (Timed Up and Go) evaluation. Five series of one minute intervals were applied with the vibratory platform, with one minute of rest between each series and the equilibria were re-evaluated. For the verification of normality, the Shapiro-Wilk's test was applied and the Student's t test was used for statistical analysis, with a level of significance of p < 0.05. The balance comparisons between the moments before and after the vibration of the placebo group showed a significant difference in the variables' mean velocity of oscillation (p = 0.02) and total displacement (p = 0.02), since the remaining comparisons did not present a statistical difference. It is concluded that the study did not demonstrate a significant improvement in the static and dynamic balance of individuals with PD after a VCT session. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, there has been increased interest in the use of natural jaws for better results in bone fixation studies. Thus, the sheep mandible has been chosen for such studies. The aim of this study was to evaluate the length and resistance of the sheep mandible when submitted to a compression test with freedom in the three axes of space. Seventy fresh sheep (Ovis aries) mandibles were used in this study. Initially, the soft tissues were removed, and measurements of the mandible size were performed. Fifty mandibles were selected for mechanical testing based on the mean values from this assessment. The mandibles were joined by fixation in the symphyseal region and were tridimensionally deformed. A metallic support suitable for study of the mandible under efforts with freedom in the three axes in space was used. For this test, three displacement cycles were applied. Based on the mean stiffness, 35 mandibles were selected. The mean value of the sheep mandible mensuration was 13.6 cm ± 0.53 cm. The mean value of the sheep mandible stiffness was 153.5N ± 54.0 N. These data are useful for future studies on fixation systems for fractures and orthognathic surgery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The association between contextual interference effect (CIE) and kinematic measures has been little investigated. The purpose of this study was to investigate the CIE on velocity and acceleration kinematic profiles of upper limb. Thirty-two subjects (23,7 ± 3,3 years) were assigned to groups of blocked practice (GPB) and random practice (GPA). The task consisted in achieve three targets in three specific sequences as quickly and accurately as possible. The study was designed in acquisition phase and transfer test. The variables of performance were reaction time, movement time and response time and the kinematic variables were peak of speed, relative time to peak of speed and number of peak acceleration points. The main findings showed that GPA showed lower movement time and response time than GPB. Regression analysis indicated that change in peak velocity during practice was associated to the change of the reaction time from practice to the transfer test. As peak velocity is a measure related to preprogramming, it is suggested that central control was essential to the CIE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a study on the kinematic changes in the reaching movement in people with Parkinson's disease with freezing of gait. The objective of the study was to evaluate the kinematics of the upper limbs in people with Parkinson's during unilateral reaching. The results showed that people with Parkinson's had longer movement duration and lower peak velocity for both upper limbs, as well as longer reaction time for the more affected limb. Correlations were also found between peak velocity and disease subtype, dynamic balance, and freezing of gait. It is concluded that people with Parkinson's had inferior performance in reaching compared to the control group. [Extracted from the article]

Aim: To evaluate the linear variability of comfortable gait according to socioeconomic status in community-dwelling elderly. Method: For this cross-sectional observational study 63 self-functioning elderly were categorized according to the socioeconomic level on medium-low (n= 33, age 69.0 ± 5.0 years) and medium-high (n= 30, age 71.0 ± 6.0 years). Each participant was asked to perform comfortable gait speed for 3 min on an 40 meters elliptical circuit, recording in video five strides which were transformed into frames, determining the minimum foot clearance, maximum foot clearance and stride length. The intra-group linear variability was calculated by the coefficient of variation in percent. Results: The trajectory parameters variability is not different according to socioeconomic status with a 30% (range= 15-55%) for the minimum foot clearance and 6% (range= 3-8%) in maximum foot clearance. Meanwhile, the stride length consistently was more variable in the medium-low socioeconomic status for the overall sample (p= 0.004), female (p= 0.041) and male gender (p= 0.007), with values near 4% (range = 2.5-5.0%) in the medium-low and 2% (range = 1.5-3.5%) in the medium-high. Conclusions: The intra-group linear variability is consistently higher and within reference parameters for stride length during comfortable gait for elderly belonging to medium-low socioeconomic status. This might be indicative of greater complexity and consequent motor adaptability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]