No description available.

This study analyzed the relationship between the OF functioning of 100 incarcerated male offenders and their psychopathy symptoms. The study's rejected hypothesis had predicted a significant relationship between measures of OF functioning and the Defective Affective Experience (DAE) and Impulsive and Irresponsible Behavioral Style (IIB) factors of the Cooke and Michie (2001) three-factor model of psychopathy. Regression analysis failed to demonstrate a relationship between OF functioning and the DAE and IIB factors. Group differences on OF functioning were not demonstrated between participants in the upper and lower quartiles of a summed DAE and IIB factor score. A general role for OF functioning in criminal behavior was suggested as two OF measures accounted for 14.9% of the variance of criminal convictions.

Introdução: Neurocisticercose (NCC) é a doença parasitária do sistema nervoso central (SNC) mais freqüente no mundo, afetando mais de 50 milhões de pessoas. No entanto, alguns de seus achados clínicos, tais como comprometimento cognitivo, é um aspecto pouco estudado na literatura e ainda permanece mal caracterizado. Objetivos: Avaliar o desempenho cognitivo de pacientes portadores de NCC e comparar o desempenho deste grupo em testes de avaliação cognitiva com o desempenho de indivíduos saudáveis (GC) e de indivíduos com epilepsia criptogênica (GE). O estudo objetivou também relacionar os achados com o tipo morfológico, número, localização dos cisticercos e fase de desenvolvimento do parasita. Métodos: 32 pacientes (média de idade = 45,2 ± 10,2 anos) com diagnóstico de NCC, com ou sem tratamento específico e em ambas as fases de desenvolvimento do parasita (formas ativa e inativa) foram submetidos a uma avaliação cognitiva, constituída de dez testes (memória, habilidades visuoespaciais, cálculo, abstração, praxias e gnosias e o Mini Exame do Estado Mental - MEEM), sendo comparados a 32 GC e 24 GE emparelhados por idade, gênero e nível educacional. Resultados: Pacientes com NCC apresentam prejuízo cognitivo, em comparação aos controles saudáveis em tarefas de memória visual, memória lógica imediata e recente. Pacientes com NCC e aqueles do GC apresentaram um desempenho cognitivo superior, em comparação ao GE; nos testes que envolveram a atenção e a memória operacional e na praxia reflexiva. Não houve diferença estatisticamente significativa no desempenho cognitivo nos três grupos estudados nos testes cognitivos que avaliaram a praxia construcional e ideomotora, cálculo e capacidade de abstração e julgamento. Não foi encontrada correlação entre alterações nos testes cognitivos dos pacientes com NCC e número de lesões e a fase de desenvolvimento do parasita. Em relação ao tipo morfológico, foi observado que os indivíduos que apresentavam a forma racemosa obtiveram um desempenho inferior no teste do Mini Exame do estado mental (MEEM), quando comparados aos que apresentavam a forma cística simples. Em relação à localização dos cisticercos, pode-se notar que os indivíduos com lesões de localização parenquimatosa demonstraram escores inferiores no teste de Faces Famosas e no teste de memória lógica recente, quando comparados àqueles com lesões ventriculares e no espaço subaracnóide. Conclusões: O declínio cognitivo foi uma manifestação clínica muito freqüente em nossa amostra de pacientes com NCC. Estes dados podem fornecer um conhecimento mais abrangente das manifestações clínicas presentes na NCC / Introduction: Neurocysticercosis (NCC) is the most frequent parasitic disease of the central nervous system (CNS), affecting more than 50 million people. However, some its clinical findings, such as cognitive impairment, are is an aspect little studied in the literature and remain poorly characterized. Aim: Assess the cognitive performance of patients with NCC and compare the performance of this group healthy controls (HC) and cryptogenic epilepsy (CE) patients. The study also aimed to relate the findings with the morphological type, number, location of cysticerci and development phase of the parasite. Methods: thirty-two patients (mean age = 45.2 ± 10.2 years) with diagnosis of NCC, with or without specific treatment and in both stages of parasite development (active and inactive forms) underwent a cognitive evaluation, constituted of ten tests. They were then compared to HC 32 and 24 CE, matched for age, gender and educational level. Results: NCC patients presented cognitive impairment compared to healthy controls in tasks of visual memory, immediate and recent logical memory. NCC patients and the HC presented a higher cognitive performance, compared to CE, in tests involving attention, working memory and reflective praxis. There was no statistically significant difference in cognitive performance among the three groups on cognitive tests that assessed ideomotor and constructional praxis, calculation and capacity for abstraction and trial. No correlation was found between changes in cognitive tests of patients NCC and number of lesions and stage of parasite development. Regarding to the morphological type, it was observed that individuals with the racemose form a lower performance in tests of the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE), when compared to those who had the simple cystic form. Regarding location of cysticerci, it was noted that individuals with parenchymal lesions showed lower scores in the Famous Faces Test and recent test of logical memory when compared to those with lesions in the ventricular and subarachnoid space. Conclusions: The cognitive decline was a very frequent clinical manifestation in our sample of patients NCC. This data provide a better understanding of the broader clinical manifestations in patients with NCC

O avanço na qualidade de atendimento intensivo na fase neonatal levou ao aumento dos índices de sobrevivência de bebês prematuros. A grande preocupação, não diz respeito tão somente à sobrevida, mas principalmente à qualidade de vida. O presente estudo teve por objetivo principal caracterizar o desenvolvimento neurocomportamental de bebês nascidos pré-termo antes de atingir o termo de 40 semanas de idade pós-concepcional. Os objetivos específicos foram: a) comparar o desempenho neurocomportamental da amostra de estudo com a amostra original da padronização do teste NAPI; b) comparar os indicadores de desenvolvimento neurocomportamental em grupos diferenciados pelos problemas perinatais; c) comparar os indicadores de desenvolvimento neurocomportamental em grupos diferenciados quanto ao sexo. A amostra foi composta por 202 bebês pré-termo ( 37 semanas de idade gestacional), de ambos os sexos, com baixo peso (< 2500g), estáveis clinicamente e internados na Unidade de Terapia Intensiva Neonatal ou Berçário de Cuidados Intermediários do Hospital Materno-Infantil da cidade de Goiânia (GO), no período de setembro de 2004 a janeiro de 2006. Foram utilizados os seguintes instrumentos: Avaliação Neurocomportamental do Pré-Termo (NAPI), roteiro de anamnese, prontuário médico e Questionário de Classificação Sócio Econômico. O procedimento de avaliação dos bebês foi filmado. O índice de acordo entre observadores foi de 88%. A análise dos vídeos foi processada para obter a pontuação do desempenho dos bebês, de acordo com o NAPI. Primeiramente, os dados foram submetidos à análise estatística descritiva. As variáveis discretas foram quantificadas em termos de frequência, prevalência ou porcentagem e as variáveis contínuas em termos de média e desvio padrão, mediana, valores mínimo e máximo. Procedeu-se à comparação entre os desempenhos no NAPI obtidos na amostra do estudo e os resultados da amostra do teste, entre meninos e meninas e entre dois grupos (Grupo com problema perinatal - PIG, anóxia, hemorragia e hidrocefalia e Grupo sem problema perinatal). Os resultados mostraram que houve diferença significativa entre os grupos nos domínios do NAPI. A amostra do estudo (AE) apresentou menor tonicidade muscular no sinal de cachecol, menor vigor e movimentação espontânea e maior alerta e orientação do que o grupo de padronização do teste (AT). Além disso, o grupo AE apresentou choro levemente mais fraco e maior quantidade de sono, indicando que os bebês dormiram mais durante a realização do teste, do que o grupo AT. Ao analisar a classificação geral do NAPI, de acordo com o desvio-padrão da amostra de padronização do teste, foi possível notar que a maior parte dos bebês estudados foi classificada na média e cerca de um terço foram classificados como abaixo da média. Verificou-se que não houve diferença estatística significativa entre os desempenho de meninos e meninas. Os resultados do desenvolvimento neurocomportamental dos grupos sem problemas e com problemas perinatais, em comparação à amostra de padronização do teste foram semelhantes em relação ao desempenho nos itens do NAPI. A avaliação forneceu dados sobre a detecção de risco no desenvolvimento de bebês nascidos prematuros, a fim de implementar medidas efetivas de intervenção preventiva para evitar problemas de desenvolvimento no futuro. / The quality improvement on newborns intensive care leaded to higher levels for premature babies survival rates. The bigger preoccupation doesnt regard simply their survival, but further on, regards quality of life. This study has the main objective to typify the neurobehavioral development on preterm born babies, before the 40th week of post-conceptional age. As specific objectives: a) to compare neurobehavioral performance of this studys sample to the original standard sample of NAPI test; b) to parallel indicators of neurobehavioral development in groups classified according to perinatal problems; c) to compare neurobehavioral development indicators from groups created according the gender. The sample has been composed of 202 preterm infants (gestational age 37 weeks), both genders, underweight (< 2500 g), clinically stable and on therapy at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit or Intermediary Care Nursery of the Goiânias Hospital Materno-Infantil, for the period of September 2004 to January 2006. The following instruments were applied: Neurobehavioral Assessment for the Preterm Infant (NAPI), guide for anamnesis, medical history and a Questionnaire for Socioeconomical Individuation. The procedure for babies evaluation was filmed. The accordance rate among the beholders has been about 88%. The videos analysis had the purpose of rating babies performances according to NAPI. Firstly, data were submitted to descriptive statistic analysis. The discret variances were quantified depending on frequency, prevalence or percentage and continuous variances in terms of medium value and standard deviation, median, minimum and maximum values. Then the comparison of NAPI performances on studys sample and tests standard results, between both genders and two groups (one with perinatal problems PIG, such as anoxia, hemorrhaging and hydrocephalus and another group without any perinatal problem). Results shown meaningful difference between the groups on NAPI basis. The sample of this study (AE) has shown less muscular tonicity at the scarf sign, less vigor and spontaneuos movements, higher alert and orientation regards tests standard group (AT). Furthermore, the the AE group shown lightly weaker crying and higher quantity of sleeping, what means the newborns slept more during the test, regards AT group. When analyzed NAPI general ratings, according standard deviation on tests sample, it was remarkable that the the most of the newborns on study were rated at medium rating, besides around one third of them under that rate. No meaningful statistic difference was verified between boys and girls ratings. The results of neurobehavioral development on groups with and without perinatal problems, regards the standard of the test were simillar on NAPI. The assessment provided data about risk detection on babies born preterm, with the purpose of putting into effect effective measures for preventive intervention to avoid future development problems.

O avanço na qualidade de atendimento intensivo na fase neonatal levou ao aumento dos índices de sobrevivência de bebês prematuros. A grande preocupação, não diz respeito tão somente à sobrevida, mas principalmente à qualidade de vida. O presente estudo teve por objetivo principal caracterizar o desenvolvimento neurocomportamental de bebês nascidos pré-termo antes de atingir o termo de 40 semanas de idade pós-concepcional. Os objetivos específicos foram: a) comparar o desempenho neurocomportamental da amostra de estudo com a amostra original da padronização do teste NAPI; b) comparar os indicadores de desenvolvimento neurocomportamental em grupos diferenciados pelos problemas perinatais; c) comparar os indicadores de desenvolvimento neurocomportamental em grupos diferenciados quanto ao sexo. A amostra foi composta por 202 bebês pré-termo ( 37 semanas de idade gestacional), de ambos os sexos, com baixo peso (< 2500g), estáveis clinicamente e internados na Unidade de Terapia Intensiva Neonatal ou Berçário de Cuidados Intermediários do Hospital Materno-Infantil da cidade de Goiânia (GO), no período de setembro de 2004 a janeiro de 2006. Foram utilizados os seguintes instrumentos: Avaliação Neurocomportamental do Pré-Termo (NAPI), roteiro de anamnese, prontuário médico e Questionário de Classificação Sócio Econômico. O procedimento de avaliação dos bebês foi filmado. O índice de acordo entre observadores foi de 88%. A análise dos vídeos foi processada para obter a pontuação do desempenho dos bebês, de acordo com o NAPI. Primeiramente, os dados foram submetidos à análise estatística descritiva. As variáveis discretas foram quantificadas em termos de frequência, prevalência ou porcentagem e as variáveis contínuas em termos de média e desvio padrão, mediana, valores mínimo e máximo. Procedeu-se à comparação entre os desempenhos no NAPI obtidos na amostra do estudo e os resultados da amostra do teste, entre meninos e meninas e entre dois grupos (Grupo com problema perinatal - PIG, anóxia, hemorragia e hidrocefalia e Grupo sem problema perinatal). Os resultados mostraram que houve diferença significativa entre os grupos nos domínios do NAPI. A amostra do estudo (AE) apresentou menor tonicidade muscular no sinal de cachecol, menor vigor e movimentação espontânea e maior alerta e orientação do que o grupo de padronização do teste (AT). Além disso, o grupo AE apresentou choro levemente mais fraco e maior quantidade de sono, indicando que os bebês dormiram mais durante a realização do teste, do que o grupo AT. Ao analisar a classificação geral do NAPI, de acordo com o desvio-padrão da amostra de padronização do teste, foi possível notar que a maior parte dos bebês estudados foi classificada na média e cerca de um terço foram classificados como abaixo da média. Verificou-se que não houve diferença estatística significativa entre os desempenho de meninos e meninas. Os resultados do desenvolvimento neurocomportamental dos grupos sem problemas e com problemas perinatais, em comparação à amostra de padronização do teste foram semelhantes em relação ao desempenho nos itens do NAPI. A avaliação forneceu dados sobre a detecção de risco no desenvolvimento de bebês nascidos prematuros, a fim de implementar medidas efetivas de intervenção preventiva para evitar problemas de desenvolvimento no futuro. / The quality improvement on newborns intensive care leaded to higher levels for premature babies survival rates. The bigger preoccupation doesnt regard simply their survival, but further on, regards quality of life. This study has the main objective to typify the neurobehavioral development on preterm born babies, before the 40th week of post-conceptional age. As specific objectives: a) to compare neurobehavioral performance of this studys sample to the original standard sample of NAPI test; b) to parallel indicators of neurobehavioral development in groups classified according to perinatal problems; c) to compare neurobehavioral development indicators from groups created according the gender. The sample has been composed of 202 preterm infants (gestational age 37 weeks), both genders, underweight (< 2500 g), clinically stable and on therapy at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit or Intermediary Care Nursery of the Goiânias Hospital Materno-Infantil, for the period of September 2004 to January 2006. The following instruments were applied: Neurobehavioral Assessment for the Preterm Infant (NAPI), guide for anamnesis, medical history and a Questionnaire for Socioeconomical Individuation. The procedure for babies evaluation was filmed. The accordance rate among the beholders has been about 88%. The videos analysis had the purpose of rating babies performances according to NAPI. Firstly, data were submitted to descriptive statistic analysis. The discret variances were quantified depending on frequency, prevalence or percentage and continuous variances in terms of medium value and standard deviation, median, minimum and maximum values. Then the comparison of NAPI performances on studys sample and tests standard results, between both genders and two groups (one with perinatal problems PIG, such as anoxia, hemorrhaging and hydrocephalus and another group without any perinatal problem). Results shown meaningful difference between the groups on NAPI basis. The sample of this study (AE) has shown less muscular tonicity at the scarf sign, less vigor and spontaneuos movements, higher alert and orientation regards tests standard group (AT). Furthermore, the the AE group shown lightly weaker crying and higher quantity of sleeping, what means the newborns slept more during the test, regards AT group. When analyzed NAPI general ratings, according standard deviation on tests sample, it was remarkable that the the most of the newborns on study were rated at medium rating, besides around one third of them under that rate. No meaningful statistic difference was verified between boys and girls ratings. The results of neurobehavioral development on groups with and without perinatal problems, regards the standard of the test were simillar on NAPI. The assessment provided data about risk detection on babies born preterm, with the purpose of putting into effect effective measures for preventive intervention to avoid future development problems.

Due to a lack of a gold standard objective marker, the current practice for diagnosing neuropsychiatric disorders is mostly based on clinical symptoms, which may occur in the late stage of the disease. Clinical diagnosis is also subject to high variance due to between- and within-subject variability of patient symptomatology and between-clinician variability. Effectively modeling disease course and making early predictions using biomarkers and subtle clinical signs are critical and challenging both for improving diagnostic accuracy and designing preventive clinical trials for neurological disorders. Leveraging the domain knowledge that certain biological characteristics (i.e., causal genetic mutation, cognitive reserve) are part of the disease mechanism, we first propose a nonlinear model with random inflection points depending on subject-specific characteristics to jointly estimate the trajectories of the biomarkers. The model scales different biomarkers into comparable progression curves with a temporal order based on the mean inflection point. Meanwhile, it assesses how subject-specific characteristics affect the dynamic trajectory of different markers, which offers information on designing preventive therapeutics and personalized disease management strategy. We use EM algorithm for the estimation. Extensive simulation studies are conducted. The method is applied to biomarkers in neuroimaging, cognitive, and motor domains of Huntington’s disease. Under the same nonlinear random effects model framework, we propose the second model inspired by the neural mass models. Biomarkers are modeled as the average manifestation of the functioning status of neuronal ensembles. A latent liability score is shared across biomarkers to pool information. We use EM algorithm for maximum likelihood estimation, and a normal approximation is used to facilitate numerical integration. The results show that some neuroimaging biomarkers are early signs of the onset of Huntington’s disease. Finally, we develop an online tool that provides the personalized prediction of biomarker trajectory given the medical history and baseline measurements. The third model uses a dynamical system based on differential equations to model the evolution of biomarkers. The dynamical system is not only useful to characterize the temporal patterns of the biomarkers, but also informative of the interaction among the biomarkers. We propose a semiparametric dynamical system based on multi-index models. For estimation and inference, we consider a two-step procedure based on the integral equations from the proposed model. The algorithm iterates between the estimation of the link function through splines and the estimation of the index parameters, allowing for regularization to achieve sparsity. We prove the model identifiability and derive the asymptotic properties of the model parameters. A benefit of the model and the estimation approach is to pool information from multiple subjects to construct the network of biomarkers and provide inference. We demonstrate the empirical improvement over competing approaches with the simulated gene expression data from the third DREAM challenge. It is applied to the electroencephalogram (EEG) data and it reveals different effective connectivity of brain networks for patients with alcohol dependence under different cognitive tasks.

Pesticides are toxic by nature and they pose a serious threat to populations in agricultural communities, particularly to children, and farmers in low-income countries. Children living in agricultural communities may face a higher risk from pesticide exposure in the home environment than children in the general population. Farmers in low-income countries may also have higher risks from increased pesticide exposure due to the use of highly toxic pesticides that are banned in other countries and to unsafe practices and behaviors while handling pesticides. There is a growing body of literature that suggests pesticides, specifically organophosphorus pesticides (OPs), cause neurobehavioral impairment in children and adults. In a fruit orchard community in the U.S. Pacific Northwest, dust was collected from households and analyzed for four types of OPs. Various factors such as housing characteristics and resident behaviors were evaluated to examine their relationships with the OP concentrations in the home dust. School-aged children completed a battery of neurobehavioral tests at two time points, one year apart. The relationship between pesticide exposure, measured with parents’ occupations and a summary OP concentration, and neurobehavioral performance was examined. A cross-sectional study was carried out in The Gambia to identify rural residents’ knowledge about pesticide hazards and practices while handling pesticides. Relationships between participants’ knowledge, characteristics, and practices were examined. Occupational exposure scores were developed to quantify participants’ chronic pesticide exposures using the study’s questionnaire. In addition, participants provided information on neurological symptoms associated with pesticide use and a neurobehavioral test battery was administered to assess cognitive function. The relationships between occupational exposure scores and neurological symptoms and neurobehavioral performance were examined. In the orchard community, OP detection frequencies and concentrations were higher in agricultural households compared to non-agricultural households. Significant associations were found between higher OP concentrations in dust and the following: (1) homes with a parent working in an agricultural field and/or orchard, (2) homes with ≥ 2 agricultural workers living in the home, and (3) homes located in close proximity to an agricultural field or orchard. Having air conditioning in the home had a protective effect on OP concentrations. Results suggested that deficits in learning, or less improvement, on the neurobehavioral tests from the first visit to the second visit were found in agricultural children compared to non-agricultural children. In The Gambia, the majority of participants reported risky practices while handling pesticides such as: not wearing any protective clothing or equipment; mixing with bare hands; applying with their bare hands, plastic bags, or leaves; storing pesticides in the home; inadequately disposing of empty pesticide containers; and wearing shoes into the home after working with pesticides. They also reported having concerns about the adverse effects of pesticides on their health. Participants having had farm or pesticide safety training reported having less risky pesticide handling practices and behaviors. Participants with high occupational exposure scores experienced more symptoms and had worse performance on several of the neurobehavioral tests, including tests of motor function and dexterity, compared to participants with low exposure scores. Results from these studies suggest neurobehavioral impairments were found in participants with higher pesticide exposures compared to participants with lower exposures in the two populations. Further research is needed to identify successful strategies for reducing pesticide exposure in the home environment and while handling pesticides.

M. Tech. Electrical Engineering / For the last 3 decades, interdisciplinary studies on the Brain Computer Interface (BCI) have grown in number. This common interest has been stirred up by recent developments in technology and opportunities seen in BCI. BCI systems provide an interface for communicating and controlling the physical environment, bypassing the normal neuromuscular pathways. They thus constitute an alternative means of control for the large population of people with limited to non-existent muscular abilities. Limitations in existing systems have prevented BCIs from being used in real life applications. New approaches are now being investigated with the aim of exporting BCI to home usage. This study investigates a BCI with realistic performances for practical home usage. It proposes a BCI to be used as a modality in a multimodal control of an exoskeleton.

No description available.

Purpose: The principal aim of this project was to investigate the influence of clinical indices of injury severity and polymorphism of the apolipoprotein E gene upon the long-term physical, cognitive and emotional sequelae of traumatic brain injury and spontaneous subarachnoid haemorrhage. It was also intended to determine the extent to which changes occur in these sequelae beyond the initial six months post injury. Method: Sixty-two brain injury patients who had previously taken part in a neuropsychological assessment at six months post injury were traced and participated in a follow-up assessmens some 6-9 years subsequent to their injury. Separately, a group of 70 subarachnoid patients drawn from a consecutive series of neurosurgical admissions participated in a neuropsychological assessment at 14 months subsequent to their haemorrhage. In both studies, the assessment comprised a semi-structured interview and a battery of cognitive measures focusing principally upon memory and executive function tasks. A questionnaire including a range of standardised measures of anxiety, depression and quality of life was left with patients to be returned by post. Results: The ApoE e4 allele did not appear to influence recovery amongst these brain injury survivors, though there are suggestions that it may have an influence upon subgroups of patients. Amongst traumatic brain injury survivors, post-traumatic amnesia was a better predictor of functional or emotional outcome than consciousness based measures. However, consciousness based measures were more predictive of cognitive sequelae and low admission Glasgow Coma Scale was associated with continued improvement on information processing tasks. Other than on these tasks, there was little evidence of change between 6 months and 6-9 years post injury. Amongst the subarachnoid haemorrhage patients, Fisher Grade was found to be more predictive of subsequent Glasgow Outcome Scale and cognitive function than WFNS Grade or other clinical indices. Surviving aneurysmal patients had comparable levels of recovery to patients who had a negative angiogram. In both studies emotional sequelae, in particular anxiety-related difficulties, were found to be a principal factor in the functional outcome of some 40% of patients. Conclusions: Greater emphasis should be placed upon measures of post-traumatic amnesia as predictors of functional recovery in surviving patients. The use of an amnesia measure may also be warranted in studies of outcome following subarachnoid haemorrhage or other stroke. The ApoE e4 allele does not appear to have a strong influence upon functional recovery after brain injury across all patients, though it is possible that it interacts with other factors to influence recovery in subgroups. Greater emphasis should be placed upon the prevention and/or detection and treatment of mood disorders following brain injury. In the absence of intensive rehabilitative interventions, survivors of serious brain injury are more likely to deteriorate than to continue to recover beyond six months post injury.