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- Ferronato, Priscilla A. M., et al.
(författare)
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Early influence of auditory stimuli on upper-limb movements in young human infants : an overview
- 2014
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Ingår i: Frontiers in Psychology. - : Progressive Frontiers Press. - 1664-1078. ; 5:1043
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- Given that the auditory system is rather well developed at the end of the third trimester of pregnancy, it is likely that couplings between acoustics and motor activity can be integrated as early as at the beginning of postnatal life. The aim of the present mini-review was to summarize and discuss studies on earlyauditory-motor integration, focusing particularly on upper-limb movements (one of the most crucial means to interact with the environment) in association with auditory stimuli, to develop further understanding of their significance with regard to early infant development. Many studies have investigated the relationship between various infant behaviors (e.g., sucking, visual fixation,head turning) and auditory stimuli, and established that human infants can beobserved displaying couplings between action and environmental sensory stimulation already from just after birth, clearly indicating a propensity forintentional behavior. Surprisingly few studies, however, have investigated the associations between upper-limb movements and different auditory stimuli in newborns and young infants, infants born at risk for developmental disorders/delays in particular. Findings from studies of early auditory-motor interaction support that the developing integration of sensory and motor systems is a fundamental part of the process guiding the development of goal-directed action in infancy, of great importance for continued motor, perceptual, and cognitive development. At-risk infants (e.g., those bornpreterm) may display increasing central auditory processing disorders,negatively affecting early sensory-motor integration, and resulting inlong-term consequences on gesturing, language development, and social communication. Consequently, there is a need for more studies on such implications.
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- Gustafsson, Stig-Inge, et al.
(författare)
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Optimization models and solution methods for load management
- 2004
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Ingår i: International Journal of Energy Research. - : Hindawi Limited. - 0363-907X .- 1099-114X. ; 28:4, s. 299-317
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The electricity market in Sweden has changed during recent years. Electricity for industrial use can now be purchased from a number of competing electricity suppliers. Hence, the price for each kilowatt-hour is significantly lower than it was just two years ago and interest in electricity conservation measures has declined. However, part of the electricity tariff, i.e. the demand cost expressed in Swedish Kronor (SEK) for each kilowatt, is almost the same as before. Attention has thereby been drawn to load management measures in order to reduce this specific cost. Saving one kWh might lead to a monetary saving of between SEK 0.22 and SEK 914, this paper demonstrates how to eliminate only those kWh that actually save a significant amount of money. A load management system has been installed in a small carpentry factory that can turn off equipment based on a pre-set priority and number of minutes each hour. The question now is what level of the electricity load is optimal in a strictly mathematical sense, i.e. how many kW should be set in the load management computer in order to maximise profitability? In this paper, we develop a mathematical model that can be used as a tool both to find the most profitable subscription level and to control the choices to be made. Numerical results from a case study are presented. Copyright (C) 2004 John Wiley Sons, Ltd.
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- Håkansson, Nina, et al.
(författare)
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A strategic analysis of slaughterhouses and animal transportation in Sweden
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Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The number of slaughterhouses in Sweden has decreased over time. Fewer slaughterhouses are expected to affect the transport time for animals and as a consequence animal welfare. We have analyzed the transportto- slaughter system, for pigs and cattle, using transport-data from 2008, geographical information for slaughterhouses and farms, and actual route distances between facilities. We made a strategic analysis of the existing slaughterhouses and tested the impact of numbers decreasing further. With strategic planning the potential reduction of transport distance is 25% for pigs and 40% for cattle. About 50% of the slaughterhouses in Sweden could be closed down with small effect on the total transport work. This implies that for the national total animal welfare which animals are sent where, is much more important than the number of slaughterhouses. However for the welfare (transport time and distance) of the animals in long transports number of slaughterhouses (regular or mobile) is important. Animal welfare weights of distances in the objective function decreases the amount of transports with long route times. We have investigated where in Sweden it would be beneficial to use mobile slaughterhouses. Animals are usually not sent to closest slaughterhouse; we show how slaughterhouse capacity must change if that transport strategy was applied.
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- Håkansson, Nina, et al.
(författare)
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Improvement of animal welfare by strategic analysis and logistic optimisation of animal slaughter transportation
- 2016
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Ingår i: Animal Welfare. - : Universities Federation for Animal Welfare. - 0962-7286 .- 2054-1538. ; 25:2, s. 255-263
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The transportation of animals to slaughterhouses is a major welfare concern. The number of slaughterhouses has decreased over time in Europe due to centralisation. This is expected to increase transport time for animals and as a consequence negatively affect animal welfare. We propose an optimisation model based on a facility location model to perform strategic analysis to improve transportation logistics. The model is tested on the Swedish slaughter transport system. We show that, by strategic planning and redirection of transports while keeping the slaughterhouse capacities as of the originaldata, the potential exists to reduce transport distance by 25% for pigs and 40% for cattle. Furthermore, we demonstrated that approximately 50% of Swedish slaughterhouses can be shut down with a minimal effect on total transport distances. This implies that in terms of the overall welfare picture, the decision of which animals to send where plays a for more significant role than the number of slaughterhouses. In addition, by changing relative weights on distances in the optimisation function the amount of individualtransports with longjourney times can be decreased. We also show results from altered slaughterhouse capacity and geographical location of slaughterhouses. This is the first time an entire country has been analysed in great detail with respect to the location, capacity and number of slaughterhouses. The focus is mainly on the analysis of unique and detailed information of actual animal transports in Sweden and a demonstration of the potential impact redirection of the transports and/ or altering of slaughterhouses can have on animal welfare.
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| 7. |
- Håkansson, Nina, et al.
(författare)
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Route planning reduces the costs of animal transportation : Animal welfare versus economics
- 2007
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Ingår i: XIII International Congress in Animal Hygiene, June 17–21, 2007, Tartu, Estonia. - 9789949426300 ; , s. 1044-1048
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Animals are more stressed on long transport routes with stops at many farms. The positions of farms and abattoirs are the basic properties that set the limits for route planning. Mobile abattoirs can reduce the cost of transportation and increase the welfare for the animals. The trade-offs between welfare and profit can be reduced by effective route planning. We have, by computer simulations, investigated how trade-offs differs between areas in Sweden and in general landscapes. The general results are applicable to any area and hence for animal transportation in general.
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| 8. |
- Johansson, A.M., et al.
(författare)
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Action preparation, performance and motor imagery in children with autism spectrum disorder
- 2021
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Ingår i: Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology. - : John Wiley & Sons. - 0012-1622 .- 1469-8749. ; 63:S2, s. 39-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Introduction: Motor anomalies are frequent in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Effective and efficient motor acts rely on the formation of motor plans that serve as predictive models or blue-prints of upcoming actions. We studied movement initiation latencies (MILs) and movement durations in a peg-rotation (PR) task and response times (RT) in a motor imagery (MI) task in children with ASD.Patients and Methods: Thirteen 7–8 year-old children with ASD (4 girls) and 17 typically developing (TD) children (9 girls) participated. MILs and PR task duration, extracted from 3D kinematic recordings, and RTs on a MI task (hand laterality judgement task) was compared between children with ASD and TD. The PR-task varied in constraints and the possibility to pre-plan actions was experimentally controlled.Results: Nine of the ASD children passed the MI task showing biomechanical constraints effect but the error rate was however higher than in TD. The MILs on the PR-task were shorter when pre-planning was possible, indicating a time cost for movement planning. This cost was highest for the children who failed the MI task, specifically for the PR-task with the highest constraint where task durations also were the highest. Overall, TD children had shorter PR-task durations than ASD.Conclusion: MI ability was highly varied for the ASD children. Interestingly, the children with ASD failing the MI task showed the greatest increase in MILs in relation to task difficulty indicative of pre-planning. They also had increased task durations, specifically for the most difficult condition, suggestive of poorer on-line control.
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| 9. |
- Johansson, Anna-Maria, 1981-, et al.
(författare)
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Associations between motor skills, cognitive function and birth immaturitly in school-aged children born preterm
- 2013
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- OBJECTIVES: Within the framework of an ongoing longitudinal study, relations between motor skills and cognitive function in 7-8-year-old preterm born children were investigated.BACKGROUND: Motor and cognitive problems have been suggested to be the two major sequalea of a preterm birth. Global and selective deficit of neuromotor and executive functions have been found within this group of children at school age. However, few studies haveinvestigated the associations between motor skills andcognitive function in relation toweeks of gestation (GW) and birth weight (BW).DESIGN/METHOD: Children (n = 18) born between 25-34 GW performed the Movement-ABC 2 (M-ABC 2) and Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-IV (WISC-IV). Scaled scores from M-ABC 2 (hand function, ball handling skills, static- and dynamic balance, total score) were correlated with indexes derived from the WISC-IV (verbal comprehension, perceptual reasoning, working memory, processing speed, full scale intelligence quotient [FSIQ]), GW and BW.RESULTS: The majority of children had mild to moderate general motor impairments (n = 10) where hand function was most affected (n = 15). FSIQ was somewhat below the norm (M = 95) where working memory (WM) was most impaired (M = 87). Further, associations between motor skills (apart from balance) and processing speed was shown, FSIQ was related to GW, and BW to WM, perceptual reasoning and FSIQ. Most of the associations remained even when excluding two children with a diagnosis of hemiplegic cerebral palsy.CONCLUSIONS: No direct relationships between GW/BW and motor skills were shown. However, the associations found suggest that cognitive function may be a mediating factor between birth status and motor skills. Other analytical methods requiring larger study samples are needed to verify such causality.
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