Accessible Summary Multisensory stimulation improves attention, which can also improve memory and standing balance of people with learning disabilities, even at a high age. Improved standing balance and body awareness may help reduce falls in people with moderate learning disabilities. Therapeutic treatments could be more effective if preceded by multisensory stimulation. Abstract Background The Snoezelen room provides a multisensory environment for people with learning disabilities. Method Thirty‐five residents were recruited from a convenience sample of people living in a residential centre. A repeated‐measures, within‐subject design was used to evaluate the participants during three conditions: a) Snoezelen room, b) control period and c) watching television. The outcome measures were digit span memory tests and Romberg balance tests. One‐way repeated‐measures ANOVAs and paired‐samples t tests were performed on the data. Results ANOVA results show that there was a significant effect over time in the amount of digits remembered and in balancing ability between the three conditions ( p < .0005). T tests confirmed that the Snoezelen condition was responsible for the significant improvements in memory and balancing ability. Conclusion Participants performed significantly better with memory tasks and balancing skills after having attended multisensory stimulation in a Snoezelen room. This may be due to improved mindfulness, which is correlated with improvements of concentration, learning ability and motor skills caused by neurophysiologic changes of the brain.

Classification of gait disorders would facilitate standardisation of gait management and communication across professional boundaries. In the past, such classification was undertaken using a variety of approaches with often unclear methodology and validation procedures. This study describes the application of hierarchical cluster analysis on sagittal kinematic gait data derived from 56 children with cerebral palsy and 11 neurologically intact children in order to define existing clusters of gait patterns in the children's data. A structured rationale was developed to seek and validate the optimal number of homogenous gait types within the data resulting in 13 different gait clusters that were organised into 'crouch gait type', 'equinus gait type' and 'other gait type'. Applying cluster analysis in combination with visual assessment of gait data and a structured protocol, we have been able to define valid gait groupings.

Objective: To evaluate the inter- and intraobserver repeatability of the Salford Gait Tool (SF-GT), a new observation-based gait assessment tool for evaluating sagittal plane cerebral palsy (CP) gait.Design: Masked comparative evaluation.Setting: University in the United Kingdom.Participants: A convenience sample of 23 pediatric physical therapists with varying degrees of clinical experience recruited from the Greater Manchester area.Intervention: Participants viewed videotapes of the sagittal plane gait of 13 children and used the SF-GT to analyze their 13 different gait styles on 2 occasions. Eleven children had hemiplegic, diplegic, or quadriplegic CP and 2 were neurologically intact.Main Outcome Measures: Inter- and intraobserver repeatability of hip, knee, and ankle joint positions at 6 different phases of the gait cycle. Results: The SF-GT demonstrated good interobserver (77%) and intraobserver (75%) repeatability.Conclusions: We have established that the SF-GT is a repeatable clinical assessment tool with which to guide the diagnosis, treatment planning, and evaluation of interventions by pediatric physical therapists of sagittal plane gait deviations in CP.

The characteristic bone deformities associated with advanced Paget's disease of bone may result in abnormal gait and plantar foot pressures, which contribute to the development of pressure-related skin problems. This study aimed to characterize the foot problems and foot-care needs in this patient group and to investigate the effect of disease distribution on the occurrence of foot pathology. One hundred thirty-four patients with Paget's disease were assessed clinically, and the Foot Structure Index was completed for each patient. Patients completed self-administered questionnaires concerning foot function (Foot Function Index) and quality of life (12-Item Short Form). The results of this study suggest that foot-health and footwear problems are common in patients with Paget's disease. Forty percent of the patients required professional foot care in addition to those already receiving it. The site of pagetic involvement did not affect the occurrence of foot pathology. Further research is required on the impact of the extent of any femoral or tibial deformity on foot symptoms and pathology. Biomechanical studies of the forces and motion in the foot related to different degrees of femoral and tibial deformity might also help determine the impact of deformity on foot pathology.

Topographic monitoring of gravity benchmarks, based on a differential-mode, dual-frequency GPS, started in 2002 on Nisyros volcano. A monitoring network was installed in June 2001. The sites were selected in parts of the island experiencing different seismic-tectonic processes, in order to detect their relative movements. In June 2002, monitoring with the microgravity network was repeated for the first time. The comparison of the resulting values with those recorded in 2001 showed a maximum variation of +0.034 mGal in the active volcanic area, with an increasing trend towards South. In 2003, the monitoring was repeated. The resulting G variations were comparable to those observed in 2001-2002. However, with the installation of a new station in 2002, the G variations proved to be confined to the most active volcanic areas. The extent of the variations recorded between 2001 and 2003 largely exceeded the measuring errors, suggesting that such variations are to be ascribed to mass variations of the volcanic complex.

Objectives: To evaluate how physiotherapists are trained in and use clinically orientated gait assessment tools and instrumented gait analysis, and to identify if a need exists for a standardized methology.Design: Survey.Setting: UK National Health Service.Participants: Physiotherapists working with a variety of patient groups in 210 randomly selected Health Care Trusts.Interventions: Not applicable.Main Outcome Measures: Amount of gait assessment training, frequency of gait laboratory use, types and frequency of standardized gait assessment tools used, and expressed need for a gait assessment tool in clinical practice.Results: A total of 1826 (43.5%) physiotherapists responded. Management of abnormal gait constituted a major aspect of physiotherapy practice; yet, there was no systematic use of standardized gait assessment tools. Gait video images were typically collected and analyzed without the use of standardized protocols. Only 23.1% of all respondents had a patient assessed in a gait laboratory. Clinicians indicated that they need training in gait assessment (66.4%) and desire guidance at a national level. Exactly 91.8% of physiotherapists requested a new gait assessment tool that can be used easily and quickly within a busy schedule without compromising reliability and validity.Conclusions: Gait assessment plays a pivotal role for physiotherapists, managing gait problems. The challenge for developers of gait assessment tools is to find a balance between the practicalities of use and scientific merit.

For physical therapists observational gait assessment is preferable to instrumented gait assessment in the clinical setting. Existing observational gait assessment tools used in clinical practice were reviewed in terms of their validity, repeatability, sensitivity, and specificity. Most gait assessment tools lacked information concerning their validity or repeatability. In addition, most gait assessment tools had not had their sensitivity and specificity adequately evaluated. Current approaches to the development and use of observational gait assessment tools have been characterised by a top down approach, designing what is useful without any understanding of the appropriateness of a tool's content, construction, and so forth. We would advocate a more structured approach, by assessing gait using the gold standard of instrumented gait analysis and designing an observational gait assessment tool based on the data.

Since the early 1980s, geological and structural mapping, gravity, and helium soil–gas studies have been performed in the eastern sector of the Vulsini Volcanic District (Roman Magmatic Province) in an attempt to locate potential geothermal reservoirs. This area is characterised by an anomalous geothermal gradient of >100°C/km, and by widespread hydrothermal mineralization, thermal springs, high gas fluxes, and fossil and current travertine deposits. The results of these surveys indicate the existence of a number of fault systems, with N–S and E–W structures that appear to be superimposed on older NW–SE and NE–SW features. Comparison of the results of the various studies also reveals differences in permeability and potential reservoir structures at depth.

A Uniboom survey was carried out in Bracciano Lake (Northern Latium) in order to obtain further information about its structural and morphological features. The authors give an updated geophysical interpretation of the lake by combining the findings of the seismic survey with those from gravity and magnetometric prospecting. Through seismic sections, obtained by developing a new bathymetric map, some sedimentary and volcanic structures were identified. (C) 1998 INQUA/Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

The results of an interdisciplinary research program on the Gran Bajo del Gualicho (Rio Negro, Argentina) are reported. Geological, morphological, gravimetric, and geochemical studies provide the basis for a reconstruction of the possible origin and evolution of this endorheic depression. On the basis of the available data, the hypothesis is advanced that the depression had a tectonic origin (according to NNW-SSE and ENE-WSW tectonic lines) and subsequently was shaped by exogenous forces that obscured the original fault scarps and caused the depression to assume its present characteristics.

In the period from 1980 to 1994, the geodynamically-active and highly-seismic area of Central Italy was investigated by means of three microgravity networks, aimed at recording gravitational field changes

The San Giuliano low-temperature hydrothermal system is located al the foot of the Pisan Mounts in Tuscany, the most important geothermal region in Italy. Eleven water points with temperatures within the range 16-40-degrees-C and salinity between 0.6 and 2.4 g/l are distributed along the superficial contact between the Mesozoic carbonate aquifer formations outcropping on the relief and the low-permeability deposits of the Pisan plain. Hydrogeological and geophysical investigations, as well as periodic geochemical and isotopic samplings and temperature measurements of the different water-points, were carried out during the period 1988-91. These observations indicate that thermal, low-tritium, calcium-sulphate waters rise toward the surface from a reservoir made up of a Triassic evaporitic sequence through a buried fault located in the vicinity of the margins of the Pisan Mountains. The presence of a low-permeable cover, represented by Quaternary and Neogenic deposits, allows only the local upflow of thermal water and a poor flow rate at the warmest springs. These springs, located in the central part of the prospect, are used in the Spa facilities. Most of the thermal water, blocked by the impervious cover, moves laterally within the system and mixes with young, cold, meteoric water. Most of the water points represent mixtures in different proportions of the Spa water and this meteoric component. The local carbonate outcrops probably represent the main recharge areas for the system. However, assuming that a regional circulation could be present, a large amount of water, at temperatures between 70 and 80-degrees-C, as suggested by geothermometric indications, could be found at depth.

Abstract The results of precise levelling measurements on a specially constructed network of benchmarks in the Travale geothermal area (Tuscany, Italy) revealed that the central part of this area is subsiding and that the average rate of subsidence in the period 1973–1983 was 20–25 mm/year. Three series of horizontal distance measurements were carried out (1980, 1981, 1982) to monitor variations in the coordinates of the bases of a horizontal control net. The variations noted in this time interval range between 13 and 36 mm, slightly exceeding the semi-axis values of their error ellipses. A series of gravity measurements was carried out annually between 1979 and 1982 on a network of gravity benchmarks coinciding with part of the topographic benchmarks. The g variations observed reached a maximum of 40 μGal. A tentative correlation of these data with field exploitation data indicates a possible means of interpreting the variations observed during these surveys.