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FES-assisted cycling has been recommended to people struggling to emerge from a disability to more functioning life after spinal cord injury. Recommendations issued by a gowing number of scientific papershas promised toimprove body composition and physical activity levels, as well as to controlinvoluntary muscle response; favoring activity and participation which break new grounds in expanding locomotion, leisure and occupational options for people with paraplegia and tetraplegia. In this report we described our experience to select and prepare a pilot to compete in the FES Bike Race modality at Cybathlon 2016 in Kloten (Zurick). He was a man, 38 years old, with a complete spinal cord injury, level T9, three years of injury. He took part in a two preparation phases lasting respectively 18 and 12 weeks each: (1st) pre-FES-cycling and a (2nd) FES-cycling. The 1st phase aimed to explore electrical stimulation response in the quadricps, hamstrings and gluteus muscles; searching for a standard muscular recruitment enable to propel the pedals of a trike. Following, in the 2nd phase, stationary to mobile FES-cycling was performed at the same time the development of the automation and control systems were being incorporated in the trike. We adapted a commercial tadpole trycicle anda pilot controlled system. Although we had planned a three session by week protocol, for reasons of term and time to finish the trike development and be prepared to compete, in the last two weeks before the Cybatlhon an intense level of exercise was maintained. After the race, we noticedinflammatory signs on the left knee which later revealed a patella fracture. The video footage analysis confirmed ithappened during the race’s first lap.

Functional electrical stimulation cycling has been proposed as an assistive technology with numerous health and fitness benefits for people with spinal cord injury, such as improvement in cardiovascular function, increase in muscular mass, and reduction of bone mass loss. However, some limitations, for example, lack of optimal control strategies that would delay fatigue, may still prevent this technology from achieving its full potential. In this work, we performed experiments on a person with complete spinal cord injury using a stationary tadpole trike when both cadence tracking and disturbance rejection were evaluated. In addition, two sets of experiments were conducted 6 months apart and considering activation of different muscles. The results showed that reference tracking is achieved above the cadence of 25 rpm with mean absolute errors between 1.9 and 10% when only quadriceps are activated. The disturbance test revealed that interferences may drop the cadence but do not interrupt a continuous movement if the cadence does not drop below 25 rpm, again when only quadriceps are activated. When other muscle groups were added, strong spasticity caused larger errors on reference tracking, but not when a disturbance was applied. In addition, spasticity caused the last experiments to result in less smooth cycling.

Functional Electrical Stimulation assisted cycling (FES-Cycling) is increasingly becoming an alternative option recommended to people with spinal cord injury struggling with paraplegia and interested in practicing sports. In order to propose preconditions to guide FES-Cycling recommendation, we aimed to investigate some features and their potential relationships with responsiveness to Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation (NMES). Fourteen volunteers attended a public recruitment forum to be assessed about their responsiveness through the 16-sessions of NMES. Volunteers were separated in two groups (responsive and non-responsive to NMES) which were investigated in the light of some personal, clinical, structural and functional features. Fifty seven percent of the initial sample responded to electrical stimulation with a visual contraction. This responsive group was predominantly composed by subjects presenting traumatic spinal cord injuries above T12 vertebral level. Only two subjects became responsive at the 3rd and 16th sessions. Among the observed features, the etiology and level of injuries seems to be more associated to responsiveness. Our observations seem to indicate that subjects with traumatic spinal cord injury above T12 level were the best potential candidates for FES-cycling.

Background Post-poliomyelitis syndrome is a clinical condition that can affect poliomyelitis survivors. Our aim was to evaluate post-poliomyelitis syndrome knowledge among Brazilian health professionals. Methods A self-administered questionnaire (30 questions) was designed to probe knowledge about poliomyelitis and post-poliomyelitis syndrome. From the questionnaire, we created a structured exam to evaluate the performance of the professionals. The exam was composed of 20 questions and a score was provided, varying from 0 (totally ill advised) to 20 (totally well-informed). Results In general, physicians, physiotherapists and nurses demonstrated a better understanding of poliomyelitis and post-polio syndrome. The health professionals who had received previous information about poliomyelitis and PPS had significantly higher scores than those that had never received information (p<0.001). On average, this difference was approximately 28.6%. Conclusions The findings of the present study indicate a critical need for the improvement of PPS knowledge among Brazilian health professionals.

A partir da reflexão sobre o design gráfico com finalidade social, este trabalho buscou identificar os elementos que caracterizam a territorialidade de um coletivo de mulheres em uma comunidade remanescente de quilombo, com a finalidade de se elaborar estratégias que confiram visibilidade social do grupo. Uma dessas táticas encontra-se no campo da comunicação visual, a partir de marcas gráficas de cunho social. Assim, adotou-se os preceitos metodológicos da pesquisa exploratória de natureza qualitativa, utilizando a hermenêutica de Wilhelm Dilthey para interpretação dos resultados. Constatou-se que a territorialidade do coletivo é caracterizada feminismo negro e o autoconhecimento, conceitos norteadores para a criação da marca. Mediante esta pesquisa, é possível afirmar que o design gráfico voltado às causas sociais deve fomentar a reflexão crítica no próprio designer e na sociedade e buscar estratégias de inovação e melhoria social a partir de ações que colaborem para que minorias sociais se tornem socialmente visíveis.

Este trabalho apresenta um estudo comparativo do tempo de processamento de um algoritmo de esqueletização de imagens desenvolvido sob duas formas: sequencial e paralela. A aplicação é voltada para imagens de fundo de retina, cuja extração de características dos vasos sanguíneos auxiliará diagnósticos médicos e, portanto, o tempo de resposta do sistema é fundamental. A plataforma de computação paralela escolhida foi o CUDA. Testes realizados em uma base de dados pública de imagens de retina, DRIVE, mostraram que a versão paralela foi, em média, mais de 31 vezes mais rápida do que a versão sem paralelismo.

BACKGROUND: Postpoliomyelitis syndrome is a clinical condition that can affect poliomyelitis survivors. OBJECTIVE: Our aim was to evaluate knowledge of poliomyelitis and postpoliomyelitis syndrome among Brazilian healthcare professionals. DESIGN AND SETTING: Cross-sectional study conducted at a Brazilian public higher education institution located in the state of Goiás. METHODS: The participants (n = 578) were Brazilian physicians, physical therapists, nurses, nutritionists and psychologists. A self-administered questionnaire (30 questions) was designed to probe knowledge about poliomyelitis and postpoliomyelitis syndrome. From the questionnaire, we created a structured test to objectively evaluate the knowledge of these professionals. The test was composed of 20 questions and was scored over a range from 0 (totally ill-informed) to 20 (totally well-informed). RESULTS: In general, the physicians, physical therapists and nurses demonstrated better understanding of poliomyelitis and postpoliomyelitis syndrome. The healthcare professionals who had received previous information about poliomyelitis and postpoliomyelitis syndrome had significantly higher scores than those who had never received information (P < 0.001). On average, this difference was approximately 28.6%. CONCLUSIONS:The findings from the present study indicate that there is a critical need for improvement of knowledge about postpoliomyelitis syndrome among Brazilian healthcare professionals. The services provided by these professionals may therefore become compromised. Furthermore, public healthcare initiatives should be implemented to improve knowledge among healthcare professionals.