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A biomechanical analysis of the effectiveness of the Graded Repetitive Arm Supplementary Program (GRASP) for chronic stroke rehabilitation
Full text linkPurpose The Graded Repetitive Arm Supplementary Program (GRASP) is used widely to reduce arm impairment from stroke. Evidence for its effectiveness in chronic stroke survivors is based on studies that used clinical measures and different treatment lengths. This study aimed to examine whether GRASP changes movement quality by conducting a biomechanical analysis of chronic stroke survivors’ movements prior to, during and after GRASP; assess whether changes in kinematic and clinical measures are associated and an intervention duration shorter eight-weeks could be similarly effective. Materials and methods Chronic stroke survivors (n = 27) completed the baseline measures, GRASP for eight weeks and post-measures. They practiced one-hour daily at home for six days/week and visited the University weekly, where arm movements were recorded. Results There were significant GRASP related improvements in movement duration and smoothness in the affected arm. Significant improvements in arm function, self-efficacy and quality of life were also observed, but these did not consistently significantly correlate with kinematic changes. There was no evidence to support shortening the program. Conclusion Kinematic changes in movement patterns were evident across the GRASP program as were benefits on clinical measures, but additional research is needed to determine the benefits of GRASP for chronic stroke rehabilitation
What is inclusion and what might that look like in chemistry education?
Full text linkThis chapter sets out the key terms and concepts used when considering responses to individuals with disabilities. It sets out the main models of disability that are used when considering provision for people with disabilities. It then analyses the main drivers for inclusion, including legal frameworks, cultural factors and economic considerations. The differences in access to access to further and higher education in chemistry around the world are considered in terms of the interaction of these different factors. It describes how the distinctive culture of science may confound efforts to promote inclusion of those with disabilities. In conclusion, common approaches to enhancing access to chemistry by people with disability are set out
Managing brand assets internally : turning employees into an integral source of brand equity
Full text linkThe brand is often the most prized asset a company owns. While this intangible asset may be examined from different stakeholders’ perspectives, most research on brand equity has focused primarily on customers and the firm, thus often neglecting the importance of employees. This research draws on three studies to advance a dynamic model, which appreciates the complexity of employee-based brand equity (EBBE) by focusing on its development process and outcomes. Study 1, based on 21 interviews with employees and the pertinent literature, proposes that EBBE consists of four sequential and interdependent blocks: brand-building, brand assimilation, brand affinity and brand enactment. Study 2 uses survey data from 420 employees and leverages the advantages of fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis to support the EBBE development model and its propositions, demonstrating its effects on key outcomes such as employee performance and customer feedback. Finally, Study 3 validates the EBBE model and its dynamic nature on a new sample of US employees and resampled datasets based on employment duration to validate its structural power, dynamic nature and explanatory capacity. This is the first research to examine EBBE as a complex, dynamic process, shedding light on its development and guiding organizations in managing brands by emphasizing employees as key stakeholders
A biopsy/non-biopsy approach to voice disorder classification using deep learning
Full text linkSystems to detect vocal pathologies have gained increasing attention due to the advancement of machine learning and the potential positive impact it can have on the healthcare industry. However, when developing such systems, many existing methods share the challenges of small sample sizes within voice pathology datasets. Many methods have chosen to group these samples and compare them to healthy ones for a binary “has voice pathology/healthy” approach, which does not prove useful in real-world applications, i.e. clinical settings. This research proposes a novel, practical method of grouping voice pathologies for feature learning, which showed promising results on the Saarbrucken Voice Database (SVD) and a local Recurrent Respiratory Papillomatosis (RRP) dataset. Mel-frequency coefficients were used with various RNN networks for feature learning. These models were compared using a multi-stage approach. The first stage, classifying all classes available in the SVD, predictably produced the worst results, likely due to features being hard to distinguish when the sample sizes are few and the classes are many. The second stage investigated the impact of grouping the SVD into Functional, Structural or Neurological classes and saw that the F1-Score increased to 41.04%. In the last stage, each voice pathology was grouped into whether or not the clinician would require a biopsy or not, which increased the F1-Score to 69.81% on the SVD and 64.25% on a local RRP dataset. Although this novel approach shows promising results, further research using more sophisticated deep learning models is needed to confirm its reliabilit
Comparing poverty rates in Scotland and the rest of the UK
Full text linkPoverty rates are affected by a wide range of factors, including economic and demographic shifts as well as government policy. Comparing poverty rates in Scotland with those in the rest of the UK (rUK) can therefore help to contextualise Scotland’s performance in tackling poverty, indicating whether progress has been aided or inhibited by factors that are shared across the UK. Conversely, it can point to the existence of Scotland-specific factors that are acting to either increase or decrease the risk of living in poverty. Such comparisons do however rely on the data that is available. Official poverty rates are estimated by surveying a sample of households, which is then scaled up to represent the wider population. Although the sample is carefully designed, estimates will inevitably vary depending on exactly which households happen to be surveyed. Statistical significance is a technical way of taking this variability into account. It does not cover all possible sources of error; but if the difference in poverty rates between Scotland and rUK is statistically significant in a given time period, we can at least be confident that the pattern is systematically present in the data
Momentary experience of successful aging among high-commitment volunteers and social innovators
Full text linkA significant body of research exists regarding the benefits of engaging in prosocial behaviors for older adults. However, less is understood about how prosocial behaviors are associated with the subjective experience and evaluation of successful aging in situ. Successful aging refers to a developmental process characterized by the achievement and maintenance of good health, high functioning, social engagement, and positive well-being. This study explored the relationship between prosocial engagement and subjective successful aging at the momentary level. The ebbs and flows of prosocial activity in daily life may carry costs and benefits at different times, especially among older adults who dedicate significant time and effort to prosocial avenues. A purposive sample of 165 older high-commitment volunteers and social innovators (Mage = 71.13, SD = 5.70) participated in a 7-day experience sampling study, responding to surveys at six random times per day. Results revealed that past-hour prosocial engagement was positively associated with both moment-level and person-level subjective successful aging indicators. These findings support an experiential, less static perspective on successful aging, highlighting how everyday prosocial actions are associated with older adults’ momentary perceptions of aging well
KMPS : a reinforcement learning scheduler for Kubernetes edge-cloud systems
Full text linkKubernetes (K8s) provides the foundation for integrating distributed edge-cloud resources. However, existing frameworks struggle to address the challenges of cross-cluster coordination and dynamic resource changes, limiting throughput. We propose KMPS, a deep reinforcement learning-based scheduling framework to enhance long-term throughput. KMPS integrates a multi-agent proximal policy optimization algorithm for autonomous edge access point scheduling, combined with gRPC cross-cluster scheduling and invalid target filtering; utilizes graph neural networks to embed system state information, decomposing high-dimensional service orchestration actions through multiple separate policy networks; and constructs a three-time-scale coordination mechanism (0.25s, 2s, 25s) to coordinate scheduling and orchestration, with K8s compatibility. Experiments on real workloads verify that KMPS operates stably under dynamic loads, sudden emergency tasks, and multi-cluster scenarios. Compared to baselines, the proposed framework achieves an over 5.3% increase in long-term throughput and a 60% reduction in cross-cluster scheduling latency
'Suddenly they are crying. Damm! What is this?' – conflicting martial gendered embodiment for women karate athletes
Full text linkMartial arts and combat sports (MACS) are often gender binary environments. In karate, women tend to be considered unable to learn and properly perform martial arts and martial movements due to their gender. The social embodiment they bring as ‘girls’, socially allowing them to cry, leads their coaches to affirm that women are not made for fighting. By taking a critical, feminist, social-constructionist framework, we explore how this embodiment is both criticized and reinforced withing karate. We follow Merleau-Ponty [(2005). The spatiality of one’s own body and motility. In Phenomenology of perception. Routledge] theory to unpack embodiment and inquire into embodiment as ‘crystallizations’ that happen to women’s bodies and subjectivities, socially and in karate. Young’s [(1980). Throwing like a girl: A phenomenology of feminine body comportment motility and spatiality. Human Studies, 3(1), 137–156] work – updated by Mason [(2018). Gendered embodiment. In B. J. Risman (Ed.), Handbook of the sociology of gender, handbooks of sociology and social research (pp. 95–107). Springer International Publishing] – is central for this paper. Young’s three levels, covered by the corporal, spatiality, intentionality and transcendence, are transferred to women’s experiences in karate, highlighting how women’s bodily experiences are restricted, incomplete or simply absent, with a consequently limited embodiment. This was verified through research with the Spanish women’s Olympic karate squad, getting insights from their embodied experiences through observations, video-analysis and semi-structured interviews with 14 elite women fighters and four men coaches. We focus on the contradictions surrounding the gendered embodiment of martiality, the negotiations women make to remain in the environment, and how the navigation between adapting to norms and challenging them contributes to disrupting normative traditions and may generate new ways of embodiment. The paper does not present a unique direction, but a combination of contradictions and mixed feelings, opening the floor for further discussions
How alkali metal alkoxides initiate organic radical reactions
No full textAlkali metal alkoxides have long been known to cause hydrodehalogenation of aryl halides; this conversion of aryl halides to arenes happens when the reactions are conducted in appropriate solvents (with weak C-H bonds). More recently, when aryl halides are heated with alkoxides in arene solvents, coupling to arenes occurs. Both of these reaction types are known to involve aryl radical intermediates. The consensus has been that alkali metal alkoxides undergo electron transfer to aryl halides to form radicals, but crucial evidence has been missing. We now refute this proposal and show through deuterium isotope studies that the deprotonation of the substrates leads to benzynes that initiate radical chemistry. Surprisingly, -, -, - and, in appropriate cases, - (remote) benzynes are simultaneously formed. During reactions with potassium -butoxide, we observed for the first time low-level methylation of arenes, resulting from methyl radicals derived from -butoxide. Although methyl radicals could, in principle, arise by electron transfer from -butoxide ions, followed by known radical fragmentation, we show that a different, previously unreported mechanism applies
A review of process modeling for wood borer pests
Full text linkIntroduction: Wood borer pests represent a growing threat to forestry worldwide, with potential for an increase in climate change induced outbreaks that could significantly impact ecosystem functioning. Methods: This study reviews the current state-of-the-art in bark beetle modeling as presented in peer-reviewed English language scientific papers and reviews cited in Clarivate Analytics Web of Science (WoS) Core Collection in the period from 2006 to 2023, but earlier influential papers cited in reviews from this period are also in scope. We categorize studies by modeling methodology, by host and by modeled processes. Results: Ash, pine, and spruce hosts account for 88% of studies, the majority of which focus on the continental USA, British Columbia, Canada and Central Europe. In terms of methodology, statistical methods are the most commonly employed technique, and the majority of articles model just one or two key processes with pest demography and environmental factors being the most studied across different hosts. Commonalities in methods used across pest-host systems include: use of phenology-like models; application of static species distribution models (SDMs) to understand climate impacts; modeling of spread via local and long-range kernels; and use of economic cost-benefit analysis as a tool to guide management. Discussion: We identify several gaps in current research including quantifying economic consequences of wood borer pests and the need for greater understanding of ecological impacts and resilience. Agent- and individual-based models may also provide useful tools for understanding the complexity of socio-ecological system dynamics. However, such developments should be in tandem with wider use of techniques for parameter estimation and uncertainty quantification, including Bayesian inference in particular of the dynamics of spatial spread. A related challenge is better quantification of pathways - including trade - for entry by invasive pests, coupled with a greater understanding of potential vulnerabilities of forest systems to environmental drivers like climate change, coupled with potentially multiple endemic, emerging and novel pests. Addressing these challenges would enable both better mitigation of risks associated with wood borer beetle infestations and better management of outbreaks when they do occur
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