Effects of jumping skill training on walking balance for children with mental retardation and Down's syndrome

In the present study, we hypothesized that the enhancements obtained from the practice of jumping activity could be transferred to improve the walking balance in children with mental retardation (MR) and Down's syndrome (DS). SUBJECTS: Fourteen children with the diagnosis of MR or DS, aged 3 to 6 years, were recruited from a day care institution. They were ambulant but without jumping ability. Sixty-one non-handicapped children was used to serve as a normative comparison group. METHOD: Before the training program, the performances of walking balance, jump skills and jumping distances were assessed individually by one physical therapist. The balance sub-test in the Bruininks Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency (BOTMP) was administered to assess the walking balance. Motor Skill Inventory (MSI) was used to assess the qualitative levels of jumping skills. A jumping skill training lesson that included horizontal jumps and vertical jumps was designed and integrated into the educational program. The recruited children received 3 sessions of training per-week for 6 weeks. A post-training test and a follow-up test were administered to the handicapped children. RESULT: In BOTMP scores, statistical differences exited between the pre-training and post-training tests in the tested items of floor walk and beam walk. However, no significant difference was found in the items of floor stand, beam stand and floor heel-toe walk. MSI scales revealed there were significant differences between pre-training and post-training tests. There was no significant difference between the scores of post-training test and the follow-up test. DISCUSSION: The results implicated that the jumping activity might effectively evoke the automatic and dynamic postural control. Moreover, the significant improvements of the floor walk and beam walk performances might be due to the transferred effects via the practice of dynamic jumping activity. Furthermore, implications and suggestions are discussed.     

Early patterning of prelimbic cortical axons to the striatal patch compartment in the neonatal mouse

The striatum receives excitatory input from virtually the entire cerebral cortex. In the adult, this input is segregated into two functionally distinct compartments of the striatum, the patch (striosome) and matrix regions. This study determined whether the patterning of corticostriatal afferents from the prelimbic cortex to the striatal patch compartment develops during the early period of collateral formation or instead at the time of peak synaptogenesis. Initial formation of corticostriatal axon collaterals was observed by embryonic day (E) 19. Quantification of corticostriatal collaterals revealed a significant increase in the number and complexity of collateral branches at postnatal day 6 as compared to E19. Concomitant with the increase in collateral branching, a heterogeneous pattern of collateralization consisting of parallel rows of corticostriatal collaterals was observed in the medial striatum. In addition to the rows, clusters of corticostriatal axons occurred more laterally. These clusters colocalized with patches of dense tyrosine hydroxylase-positive fibers, a marker for the striatal patch compartment in the neonatal mouse. Together, these data indicate that corticostriatal patterning occurs during the period of early axon collateralization resulting in a segregation of corticostriatal axon collaterals from the prelimbic cortex to the striatal patch compartment.     

On the formation and stability of dislocation patterns—I: One-dimensional considerations

By distinguishing among mobile and immobile dislocations and operating within the framework of continuum mechanics it is possible to derive a set of partial differential equations of the diffusion-reaction type for the evolution of dislocation species. On examining the competition between gradient dependent terms modelling the motion of dislocations and nonlinear terms modelling their interactions, it is shown that stable solutions are possible. The wavelength turns out to be a material property in agreement with observations. The discussion is limited to one dimension, that is to glide of straight dislocations in the slip direction, and the model corresponds physically to the ladder-like structure of persistent slip bands.     

Comparison of two methods of surfactant administration and the effect on dosing-associated hypoxemia

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of our study was to test the hypothesis that surfactant dosing through a proximal sideport adapter on an endotracheal tube leads to more dosing-associated hypoxemia compared with a method of dosing that uses a double-lumen endotracheal tube. STUDY DESIGN: Using adequate sample size to compare significant changes in O2 saturation (power > 0.8, alpha < 0.05) we enrolled 36 infants with respiratory distress syndrome in this randomized trial. A 10% change in O2 saturation was considered clinically significant. Nineteen infants received 38 doses of surfactant through the sideport adapter. Seventeen infants received 31 doses of surfactant through the nonventilation lumen of a double-lumen endotracheal tube. Two main outcome measures were assessed: time-averaged O2 saturation values 30 minutes after dosing and the largest absolute fall in O2 saturation for each patient. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: Time-averaged O2 saturation measures were higher in the proximal sideport group (p = 0.02), but the magnitude of difference was probably not clinically significant. No significant difference was detected between groups when we compared largest absolute drop in O2 saturation. Secondary analyses found no effect of birth weight or dose number (second vs third dose) on either outcome measure.     

Food aversion conditioned in anesthetized sheep

We discovered that a food aversion could be conditioned in anesthetized sheep. Sheep were allowed to eat a familiar food (alfalfa-grain pellets) for 30 min, and 90 min later they were given either an intraruminal (IR) injection of water (C), an IR injection of LiCl (L), anesthesia followed by an IR injection of water (A), or anesthesia followed by an IR injection of LiCl (A+L). Induction of anesthesia was by an intravenous injection of pentobarbitone sodium, and maintenance of deep anesthesia was by halothane. Sheep were maintained in deep anesthesia for 2 h to ensure that the effects of LiCl on the acquisition of a food aversion, which occur within about 1 h, were completed before they awakened. When tested 5 days later, sheep that received LiCl (treatments L and A+L) consumed less alfalfa-grain pellets than sheep that did not receive LiCl (treatments C and A) (241 g vs. 306 g; p = 0.057). Intake of sheep that were anesthetized (treatments A and A+L) did not differ from that of sheep that were not anesthetized (treatments C and L) (295 g vs. 252 g; p = 0.183). Nor was there an interaction between LiCl and anesthesia (p = 0.423). Thus, we conclude that changes in preferences for foods caused by postingestive feedback occur automatically every time food is ingested (i.e., they are noncognitive), and the kind and amount of feedback is a function of the match between the food's chemical characteristics and its ability to meet the animal's current demands for nutrients.