Comparative Analysis of Respiratory and Functional Outcomes in Children Post-Fontan Procedure Versus Healthy Peers.

Studies have shown that respiratory muscle training enhances functional capacity and pulmonary function in Fontan patients. However, diaphragm muscle characteristics in Fontan children have not been fully elucidated. The aim of this study was to compare respiratory function, maximal and submaximal functional capacities, and quality of life, as well as to assess diaphragm mobility and thickness, between Fontan patients aged 8 to 12 years and healthy individuals.

Designing for culturally responsive social robots: An application of a participatory framework.

Integrating cultural responsiveness into the educational setting is essential to the success of multilingual students. As social robots present the potential to support multilingual children, it is imperative that the design of social robot embodiments and interactions are culturally responsive. This paper summarizes the current literature on educational robots in culturally diverse settings.

Connecting the Dots of Social Robot Design From Interviews With Robot Creators.

Despite promises about the near-term potential of social robots to share our daily lives, they remain unable to form autonomous, lasting, and engaging relationships with humans. Many companies are deploying social robots into the consumer and commercial market; however, both the companies and their products are relatively short lived for many reasons. For example, current social robots succeed in interacting with humans only within controlled environments, such as research labs, and for short time periods since longer interactions tend to provoke user disengagement.

Aerobic exercise and inspiratory muscle training increase functional capacity in patients with univentricular physiology after Fontan operation: A randomized controlled trial.

Background: The effect of exercise training and its mechanisms on the functional capacity improvement in Fontan patients (FP) are virtually unknown. This trial evaluated four-month aerobic exercise training and inspiratory muscle training on functional capacity, pulmonary function, and autonomic control in patients after Fontan operation.

Methods: A randomized controlled clinical trial with 42 FP aged 12 to 30 years and, at least, five years of Fontan completion.

Blunted peripheral blood supply and underdeveloped skeletal muscle in Fontan patients: The impact on functional capacity.

Background: Changes in circulatory physiology are common in Fontan patients due to suboptimal cardiac output, which may reduce the peripheral blood flow and impair the skeletal muscle. The objective of this study was to investigate the forearm blood flow (FBF), cross-sectional area (CSA) of the thigh and functional capacity in asymptomatic clinically stable patients undergoing Fontan surgery.

Methods: Thirty Fontan patients and 27 healthy subjects underwent venous occlusion plethysmography, magnetic resonance imaging of the thigh musculature and maximal cardiopulmonary exercise testing.

Correction to: Influence of Body Odors and Gender on Perceived Genital Arousal.

There were 4 cells in the original Table 2 that reported SEM values instead of SDs. A corrected version of the table is provided below. In the Results section, the corresponding corrections are as follows.

Influence of Body Odors and Gender on Perceived Genital Arousal.

Olfaction is often linked to mating behavior in nonhumans. Additionally, studies in mating behavior have shown that women seem to be more affected by odor cues than men. However, the relationship between odor cues and sexual response-specifically, sexual arousal-has not been studied yet.

PBMCs express a transcriptome signature predictor of oxygen uptake responsiveness to endurance exercise training in men.

Peripheral blood cells are an accessible environment in which to visualize exercise-induced alterations in global gene expression patterns. We aimed to identify a peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) signature represented by alterations in gene expression, in response to a standardized endurance exercise training protocol. In addition, we searched for molecular classifiers of the variability in oxygen uptake (V̇o2).