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Book Review: Lincoln, Seward, and US Foreign Relations in the Civil War, reviewed by Alexandre F. Caillot
No full textBook Review: Lincoln, Seward, and US Foreign Relations in the Civil War. Review by Alexandre F. Caillo
Differences in Human Motoneuron Excitability Between Functionally Diverse Muscles
Get PDFIntroduction: Spinal motoneurons (MN) transmit neural commands from the brain to the muscles they innervate and, as a result, produce functional movement. However, MNs are not simply passive conduits of these command and, instead, actively shape motor output through alterations in intrinsic excitability. We hypothesize that the excitability of MNs is not fixed across the body; instead, MNs are functionally tuned to the tasks they control. Here, we investigate this mapping of MN excitability across motor pools.
Methods: High-density surface electromyography of the tibialis anterior (TA) and first dorsal interosseous (FDI) was recorded from four neurologically intact participants while they performed low-level, isometric contractions. The data were decomposed into underlying motor unit action potentials and paired motor unit analyses were subsequently performed on these spike trains to quantify MN excitability (ΔF).
Results: 1,638 motor unit spike trains were extracted across all contractions. Mann-Whitney U test revealed that all subjects (4/4) had significantly higher maximal discharge rates in FDI, 19.13 [17.62 – 20.59] pps, when compared to the TA, 13.08 [11.51 – 15.46] pps. All subjects (4/4) had a higher ΔF in the TA (4.22 [2.89 – 5.61] pps) than the FDI (3.62 [1.23 – 5.94] pps), with 3/4 reaching statistical significance.
Conclusions: Our findings suggest that the discharge rate and intrinsic excitability of human MNs differs across TA and FDI motor pools during similar isometric tasks. These results support the notion that motor pools are functionally tuned to their environmental demands
Predicting Intelligibility: An Investigation of Speech Sound Accuracy in Childhood Apraxia of Speech
No full textBackground: Childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) is a pediatric speech disorder that significantly affects communication and life participation. Most CAS treatment research uses speech accuracy as primary outcome measure, on the assumption that accuracy predicts communicative success. However, this relationship has not yet been examined in this population, limiting our understanding of the impact of available treatments.
Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between speech accuracy and intelligibility in children with CAS. Intelligibility is defined here as the proportion of words correctly understood by an unfamiliar listener.
Methods: Adult listeners, who were unfamiliar with children with CAS, listened to recordings of children with CAS producing single words, and typed what they heard the child say. Separately, and prior to the listening experiment, the children’s words were scored for accuracy using various measures, including the percent phonemes (sounds) correct (PPC), percent consonants correct (PCC), and percent vowels correct (PVC). The relationship between these accuracy measures and intelligibility were examined descriptively.
Results: Preliminary findings suggest that there is a positive relationship between intelligibility and PPC and PCC in children with CAS. Conclusions: Implications of these findings for clinical practice as well as future treatment research are discussed
Design and Development of a Protective Face Mask to Mitigate Community Spread and Prevent Wearer Infection from COVID - 19 Using Design Thinking
Get PDFRelatively early during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic it was widely recognized that community spread could be mitigated by the widespread wearing of face masks. However, at first, they were difficult to procure and the CDC discouraged the use of masks for the general public since this might cause shortages for healthcare workers. Subsequently, the CDC suggested that cloth masks, without filters, should be used by the general public since these were considered ineffective for healthcare workers. Using the concepts of design thinking, effective protective face masks with filters were designed and developed using readily available materials that could be used by the general public.  
The Most Unwanted People in the World
No full textVictims of long-standing persecution and ethnically charged violence in Myanmar, the Rohingya Muslims are targets of genocide enacted by Myanmar’s military and permitted by the government. The state systematically rendered the Rohingya Muslims to be powerless actors under the 1982 Citizenship Law, making the Rohingya the largest population of stateless people in the world. The inter-state ethnic conflict reached new heights following the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) counterattack led by Rohingya men against the military in 2017. The military responded by burning Rohingya villages, gang-raping Muslim women, murdering Rohingya civilians, placing the Rohingya in internment camps, and causing Rohingya Muslims to flee to neighboring states.
Following the 2017 attack, the Myanmar military is committed to wiping Rohingya Muslims out of existence. The method of inquiry to research this paper was content analyses of journals and news articles about Myanmar’s historical ethnic tensions and current genocidal events. The objective is to investigate the human rights and security violations of the Rohingya Muslims done by Myanmar’s government backed by military force and the potential avenues of relief provided by foreign powers and international organizations. It concludes that intervention from States is needed to punish Myanmar for human rights and security violations
The Politics of Womanhood: The Mirabal Sister’s Resistance
No full textThe Mirabal Sisters, Patria, Minerva, María Teresa, and Dedé, lived during one of the most repressive times in modern Dominican history, the Trujillo Regime. Their lives were marked by political instability, violence against women, and resistance. Through an analysis of both primary and secondary sources, including newspaper articles, Dedé Mirabal’s memoir, and journal articles, this paper argues that the Mirabal sisters, especially Minerva Mirabal, challenged Spanish-Colonial and Dominican ideals of womanhood through their education, politics, and questioning of masculine authority. Following a brief history on the Trujillo Dictatorship and his relationship with women, the paper establishes what womanhood meant in Dominican society through examining colonial foundations of gender norms and directives of the Trujillo government. Using this definition, the paper then seeks to prove the Mirabal Sisters challenged these ideals and concludes with modern context of the international importance of the Mirabal sisters. Their influence continues to remain salient in society today, notably through literary references such as Julia Alvarez’s 1994 novel In the Time of the Butterflies and Junot Diaz’s 2007 novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. Additionally, the anniversary of the death of three of the sisters at the hands of the regime, November 25, stands as the official International Day of Nonviolence Against Women, revealing their global impac
