Adapted Digital Music Players for Individuals with Severe Impairments.

Portable music production devices, such as radios, cassette players and MP3 players have characteristics that make them less than ideal for teaching the cause-and-effect relationships that would enable children and adults with severe impairments to control them independently and appropriately. Even when adapted for control with adaptive switches, the relationship between switch closure and on-off operation results in contingency characteristics that can inhibit learning. Some solutions to these problems are described, and for those individuals who can learn with complex contingencies, some promising products are reviewed.

Evidence of contingency awareness in people with profound multiple impairments: response duration versus response rate indicators.

Evidence of contingency awareness in people with profound multiple impairments is often elusive due to numerous variables that impede learning and contribute to performance variability. Recent research has shown that measuring duration of responding rather than rate has promise for more accurate inferences. Duration measures of adaptive-switch use were obtained with 50 participants during empirical tests for contingency awareness.

Continuous passive motion for osteoarthritis of the hip: a pilot study.

Objective: To evaluate whether extended use of continuous passive motion (CPM) may allay the pain of walking, diminish disease effect, and increase the usual walking speed in patients with osteoarthritis (OA) of the hip.

Methods: This pilot study comprised 21 patients with Kellgren-Lawrence grade 2-4 OA of the hip who used CPM for periods of 1.2 to 7.

Exercise: effects on physical functional performance in independent older adults.

Background: Age-related loss in physiologic capacities contributes to the decline in physical function in the elderly population. Despite the beneficial effects of exercise interventions on maximal physiologic capacity measures, the functional benefits have not been shown in independently living older adults. The objective of this study was to evaluate exercise in independent older adults for significant and meaningful improvements in physical function, not detected by commonly used measures of physical function.

Mass and mass distribution of below-knee prostheses: effect on gait efficacy and self-selected walking speed.

Objective: To study mass and mass distribution effect on function of below-knee prostheses.

Design: Design modifications were done to produce proximal center of mass location versus distal center of mass location variations, and prosthesis weight was modified from 42% to 70% of normal limb weight. Work across joints of affected and unaffected extremities was compared to assess the ability of the prosthesis to substitute for function loss.