A possible role in strength regulation to maintain an upright position and adjustment of coherent postural reactions during body displacement has been suggested for the basal ganglia. 1 Controlling upright posture also requires the constant use of sensory information analyzed by different neural networks, most often unconsciously.2 These signals proceed from proprioceptors (vestibular, muscular, and tendinous), and exteroceptors (visual and cutaneous) used for stability.3 Patients with advanced Parkinson's disease (PD) show difficulties in keeping a body position, 4 particularly the body center of mass, within specific spatial and stability limits in order to maintain equilibrium between stabilizing and destabilizing forces, resulting in falls and injuries that become more and more frequent as the disease progresses.2 Their balance difficulties are characterized by a loss of postural balance reactions as well as a decrease in anticipatory postural adjustments. 5 In one study, 6 lateral oscillations differentiated PD patients from control subjects while anteriorposterior mean values were comparable in both groups, but greater anterior-posterior than lateral oscillations have also been reported. 7 The participants in the latter two studies had different mean disease duration (7 and 16 years, respectively).Postural stability control is a crucial aspect of motor function at all PD stages but has not been fully characterized early in the ABSTRACT: Objective: To characterize postural stability control and levodopa responsiveness in early Parkinson's disease (PD). Methods: Postural sway was studied during quiet stance in ten patients within six years of PD onset, both before (OFF) and after (ON) regular oral levodopa dosing. Postural sway was recorded using a force platform during 30 sec with eyes open, and six dependent variables were examined. Results: Mild baseline subclinical changes in postural sway were recorded in our patients. Clear benefit was observed in five out of six characteristics (mean sway, transversal sway, sagittal sway, sway intensity, and sway area) in the ON condition. Conclusion: Postural control mechanisms are affected early in PD and modulated by dopamine.

Service-oriented e-learning platforms can be considered as a third generation of learning management systems (LMSs). As opposed to the previous generations, consisting of ad hoc solutions and traditional LMS, this new technology contemplates e-learning systems as services that can be integrated into different learning scenarios. This paper shows that the flexibility of these systems allows building personal learning environments and proposes the use of an extended technology acceptance model (TAM) to assess the acceptance and intention to use a third generation of LMS. To fit and validate the service-oriented e-learning platforms acceptance model, structural equation modeling and path analysis have been implemented. The results point out that the intention to use this third-generation LMS is determined by the gadgets and container design, both of which are structural elements of this technology. Finally, it is also shown that previous experience does not determine the use intention of this technology. IntroductionIn the past two decades, learning management systems (LMSs) have been major paradigms in the field of Internet-based education. Due to the technological evolution of these last years, three different generations of LMS platforms can be found, which can be characterized using several properties, among them were communication, interoperability and learning context, as shown in

No abstract

The use of practical laboratories is a key in engineering education in order to provide our students with the resources needed to acquire practical skills. This is specially true in the case of distance education, where no physical interactions between lecturers and students take place, so virtual or remote laboratories must be used. UNED has developed a system to create and manage virtual remote laboratories, aimed at improving the way how practical exercises are conducted. This system is based on cloud computing and virtualization concepts. These Virtual Remote Laboratories (VRLabs) combine features of traditional virtual and remote laboratories but with clear differences over them, among others, VRLabs do not necessarily access real physical devices but are not based on simulations either. Each student is provided with a virtual remote laboratory based on virtualization that he/she will access through the Internet and will use to implement his/her practical assignments. We present details on how these laboratories are implemented for a subject in a post-degree program in our University. Furthermore, we also present an evaluation of the system used on such subject aiming at assessing the quality of the system regarding three different concepts, namely perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and perceived interaction. This evaluation is twofold, first, we have conducted a survey over the students of the subject, and second, we have performed another survey over the teaching team of the subject, both have been performed for the 2012-2013 and 2013-2014 academic years.

No abstract