Why are the courts having so much trouble deciding what should be done with Phillip Becker? Two years ago this column discussed the first series of cases involving Phillip. At that time the California courts decided that his parents had the right to refuse recommended heart surgery for this twelve-year-old Down syndrome child, even though this would result in a slow and painful death for Philli...

His bundle electrograms were recorded in a patient with pre-excitation and normal PR intervals to determine whether conduction was via anomalous A-V connection (Kent bundle) or infranodal bypass (Mahaim tract). During sinus rhythm (62/ min) both P-delta and P-H measured 155 msec. With atrial pacing at 70 and 75/min, P-H prolonged while P-delta remained constant. At 80/min, the anomalous pathway...

To investigate parasympathetic influences on the forehead microvasculature, blood flow was monitored bilaterally in seven participants with a unilateral facial nerve lesion during conjunctival irritation with Schirmer's strips and while breathing at 0.15 Hz. Blood flow and slow-wave frequency increased on the intact side of the forehead during Schirmer's test but did not change on the denervate...

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been causing major disruptions in the sporting world. Negative physiological and psychological effects on athletes have reported, such as respiratory issues increased stress. Therefore, it is timely to support this population by presenting cost-effective accessible intervention techniques reduce impact. Slow-paced breathing (SPB) potential counteract ...

BACKGROUND Biological theories on respiratory regulation have linked separation anxiety disorder (SAD) to panic disorder (PD). We tested if SAD children show similarly increased anxious and psychophysiological responding to voluntary hyperventilation and compromised recovery thereafter as has been observed in PD patients. METHODS Participants were 49 children (5-14 years old) with SAD, 21 cli...

Playgrounds are underutilized for enhancing the social development of young children with special needs. The unstructured, fast-paced nature of play in this setting necessitates using teacher-mediated interventions to enhance inclusion of children with special needs in cooperative interactions with their typically developing peers. In this review, we discuss the importance of moving classroom c...

In this chapter, we present a mathematical theory of human movement vigor. At the core of the theory is the concept of the cost of time. According to it, natural movement cannot be too slow because the passage of time entails a cost which makes slow moves undesirable. Within this framework, an inverse methodology is available to reliably and robustly characterize how the brain penalizes time fr...

The six-minute walk test (6MWT) is a self-paced, submaximal exercise test used to assess functional exercise capacity in patients with chronic diseases (Chang 2006, Solway et al 2001). It has been used widely in adults, and is being utilised increasingly in paediatric populations; it has been used as an estimate of physical fitness in, for example, children with severe cardiopulmonary disease, ...

BACKGROUND AND AIM The role of sleep in the enhancement of motor skills has been studied extensively in adults. We aimed to determine involvement of sleep and characteristics of spindles and slow waves in a motor skill in children. HYPOTHESIS We hypothesized sleep-dependence of skill enhancement and an association of interindividual differences in skill and sleep characteristics. METHODS 30...

Previous studies used a text-fading procedure as a training tool with the goal to increase silent reading fluency (i.e., proficient reading rate and comprehension). In recently published studies, this procedure resulted in lasting reading enhancements for adult and adolescent research samples. However, studies working with children reported mixed results. While reading rate improvements were ob...