Postoperative Osteopathic Manipulative Treatment in Children with Esophageal Atresia: Potential Benefits on the Anthropometric Parameters.

Esophageal atresia (EA) is a congenital malformation that affects the normal esophageal development. Surgical treatment, although restoring the integrity of the alimentary tract, may lead to long-term sequelae-like developmental abnormalities and musculoskeletal deformities. We evaluated the effects of osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT) on the recovery of the range of the right upper limb movement and on the rise of the auxological parameters. A case series of five children affected by type C EA were described. Six OMT sessions were performed over a 4-month period. At each treatment, height, weight, body mass index (BMI) and range of motion (ROM) in elevation of the right upper limb were assessed. OMT was applied to improve scar, larynx, rib cage, and sternum mobility. An average change of 2.3 cm in height and an average increase of 8° in the ROM of the upper limb in the period of study were detected. Additionally, OMT could improve the anthropometric data and the mobility of the right upper limb of children surgically treated for EA. Further studies that evaluate the effectiveness of OMT in post surgical treatment of congenital malformations of the thorax can be considered in the future.

Evaluating the iterative development of VR/AR human factors tools for manual work.

This paper outlines the approach taken to iteratively evaluate a set of VR/AR (virtual reality / augmented reality) applications for five different manual-work applications - terrestrial spacecraft assembly, assembly-line design, remote maintenance of trains, maintenance of nuclear reactors, and large-machine assembly process design - and examines the evaluation data for evidence of the effectiveness of the evaluation framework as well as the benefits to the development process of feedback from iterative evaluation. ManuVAR is an EU-funded research project that is working to develop an innovative technology platform and a framework to support high-value, high-knowledge manual work throughout the product lifecycle. The results of this study demonstrate the iterative improvements reached throughout the design cycles, observable through the trending of the quantitative results from three successive trials of the applications and the investigation of the qualitative interview findings. The paper discusses the limitations of evaluation in complex, multi-disciplinary development projects and finds evidence of the effectiveness of the use of the particular set of complementary evaluation methods incorporating a common inquiry structure used for the evaluation - particularly in facilitating triangulation of the data.