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'Eixample': a reading of a poem by Meredith MacLeod Davidson from her ignitionpress pamphlet Transpiration
No full textPhysical and psychological benefits of a 12-week Zumba Gold® exercise intervention in postmenopausal sedentary women from low socioeconomic status
Get PDFBackground: Exercise is known to help with the effects of the menopause, but women from low socioeconomic status (SES) tend to exercise less at this stage of life. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the physical and psychological effects of a Zumba Gold® community-based intervention in postmenopausal women from low SES. Methods: Forty-three women were divided into a Zumba Gold® (ZG) and control (C) group, and participated in pre- and post-testing sessions, separated by a 12-week intervention period. The outcomes measured were: body composition, sit-to-stand (STS), six-minute walk test (6MWT), balance, Short Form Health Survey (SF-12), Multidimensional Fatigue Index (MFI-20), Self-Efficacy for Exercise (SEE), Behavioral Regulations in Exercise (BREQ-2), Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), and Social Connectedness questionnaires. Semi-structured interviews were also performed on 15 ZG participants. Results: The results showed significant improvements in the ZG group only for STS, 6MWT, mental health, fatigue (general, physical, and mental), social connectedness score, and a significantly lower level of amotivation. Zumba Gold® had positive effects on four main themes: belonging, non-judgmental place, psychological motivational factors, and mind–body connection. Conclusions:This is the first study to show that ZG is beneficial for this population and encourages similar studies on other aspects of the menopause
Sleep in people with intellectual disabilities
No full textAdequate amounts of good-quality sleep are vital for optimal functioning. Children and adults with intellectual disabilities (ID) appear to have increased risk for various forms of sleep disturbance, with implications for their daytime functioning, caregivers’ stress, and the professionals involved in their care. Multiple biological and psychosocial factors likely interact to increase the risk for sleep disturbances and should be considered as part of assessment. Various forms of treatment for sleep difficulties have been used in people with ID (including sleep hygiene, behavioral therapy, chronotherapy, light therapy, and melatonin), but the evidence base is limited in quantity and quality, particularly for adults with ID. Given the scale of the problem in this population there is an urgent need for studies which attempt to understand the mechanisms underlying different forms of sleep disturbance (including in association with discrete genetic disorders or syndromes) and also permit the development of clear management guidelines
Investigating the impact of açai (Euterpe oleracea) on lipid profile : a comprehensive systematic review and meta-analysis
Get PDFConditions such as obesity and cardiovascular diseases represent significant global public health challenges, driven by their increasing prevalence and profound effects on morbidity and mortality. Dyslipidemia, defined by abnormal lipid concentrations, performs a pivotal role in the onset of cardiovascular diseases, especially atherosclerosis. Dietary strategies and other nonpharmacological interventions are crucial for the management of dyslipidemia. Açaí (Euterpe oleracea), a fruit native to the Amazon, is recognised for its antioxidant properties and potential impact on lipid metabolism. This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to assess the impact of açaí consumption on lipid profile markers. A systematic search was performed across several databases, including MEDLINE/PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science and Scopus. We included non-randomised, randomised, no blind, blind and control trials involving adult participants who received açaí in any form. The outcome measures included triglycerides, total cholesterol, LDL-c and HDL-c. The screening of studies and data extraction were independently conducted by four reviewers. The risk of bias was evaluated using the Cochrane Risk of Bias tool, and meta-analyses were completed where applicable. Out of 188 identified studies, 8 met the inclusion criteria. Meta-analysis of 411 participants displayed no significant effect of açaí on LDL-c (MD = 6.06 mg/dL 95% CI: −0.03, 12.48, p = 0.06), HDL-c (MD = 0.30 mg/dL 95% CI: −1.54, 2.13, p = 0.75), total cholesterol (MD = 2.94 mg/dL 95% CI: −6.44, 12.31, p = 0.54) and triglycerides (MD = 2.05 mg/dL 95% CI: 1.79, 2.28, p = 0.59). Additionally, açaí consumption was related to a significant reduction in total lipids (MD = −9.80 g, 95% CI: −13.94 to −5.66, p < 0.001). GRADE evaluation pointed to low/very low certainty of evidence. Açaí consumption may lessen total lipid levels, but no significant effect was noted for cholesterol parameters and triglycerides. Further trials with more demanding research methodologies are required to clarify the effects of açaí on lipid profiles
Home and domestic space
Get PDFThis chapter explores the growing prevalence of studies of home and the domestic within social and cultural geography. First, it traces how feminist scholars have highlighted the home as an important space in shaping societal relations and governance practices. Second, the chapter examines the need for greater communication between studies of home and studies of housing, particularly in relation to post-2008 housing crises. The chapter then turns to recent areas of expansion in studies of home: the relationship between home and queer studies, the ways in which home is intentionally destroyed (“domicide”) and unmade, and the significance of these foci for social and cultural geography. It concludes by highlighting emerging areas of exploration for critical geographies of home: the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on understandings of home, the rising role of domestic surveillance technologies, and the home as an important site in addressing the major global issue of our time, climate change. The chapter emphasizes the centrality of home and the domestic to the discipline. The home is not just an important personal space but also an integral concept in the construction of society, identity formation, and our understandings of major global issues
Cat and Mouse Experiments with Cozmo Robotics: BSc Computing Project
Get PDFUsing Cozmo robotics on a low powered and outdated systems, a physical simulation was developed and tested in the real world of a Cat and Mouse game. This included the construction of a physical maze for the Cozmo units to recognize via Barcodes on walls in the maze and navigate
around, and a defined rule set that they must follow to complete their goals, which involve the Mouse attempting to capture the Cube, also referred to as Cheese and Cat attempting to capture Mouse. These captures are done via the visual recognition systems of the Cozmo detecting the Cube or the Barcodes on the rear of the Cozmo unit. This was a test of integrating pre defined systems in the Cozmo SDK on older hardware where compatibility issues do exist. The results were a successful simulation of the Cat and Mouse game where the Cozmo units were able to navigate the maze and react to each other under the rule set given to
them
Assessment and evaluation of the values and threats affecting abandoned agricultural terrace environments in Il-Majjistral Nature and History Park, Malta
Get PDFThis study investigates the features and trends seen in an abandoned agricultural terrace environment in il majjistral nature park. This report specifically identifies biodiversity trends in relation to soil moisture, and the condition of rubble walls. Stakeholder conflict creates complex issues for the management and conservation of protected socio-ecological systems, wherein intangible cultural heritage practices both threaten and provide value to a given environment. In this report, a seven-point soil wetness scale is used to identify biodiversity trends in relation to soil moisture . In addition, a Rubble Wall Degradation Index is constructed to determine the urgency for rubble wall maintenance. Alongside these indexes, an analysis of the activities threatening the human-modified, geodiverse landscape is used. Ecological values of the rubble wall and terrace landscape are examined through species diversity testing and plant type analysis; findings suggest that walled, abandoned agricultural terraces create a rich and active, yet at-risk geo and biodiverse micro-ecosystem which intertwines with human leisure and heritage. Suggestions are made for holistic implementations of sustainable conservation and management
Expanding the lens : developments and theoretical limits in desistance research
Get PDFDesistance literature is often criticized for being overly agentic, and for its traditional preoccupation with male populations in only some parts of the world (namely the United States and the United Kingdom). This article explores some of the developments in desistance literature and theory, emphasizing the ways in which more recent studies refute some of these criticisms. Its main motivation for doing so is to offer some theoretical reflections on the limits and contributions of desistance theories within the broader criminological and social sciences. It argues that desistance scholarship should not be siloed but recognized as complementary to other critical and structural theorizing. Importantly, desistance scholarship offers what many other theories cannot: direct insight into individuals’ lived experiences of change (or attempted change) and their interactions with the social, structural, and institutional barriers that can impede it. As such, it remains a valuable perspective – especially when combined within wider socio-structural analysis – for understanding, improving, or even dismantling aspects of the criminal justice system
Synaptic Facilitation and Learning of Multiplexed Neural Signals
No full textIntroduction: In this work, we introduce a novel approach to one of the historically fundamental questions in neural networks: how to encode information? More particularly, we look at temporal coding in spiking networks, where the timing of a spike as opposed to the frequency, determines the information content. In contrast to previous temporal-coding schemes, which rely on the statistical properties of populations of neurons and connections, we employ a novel synaptic plasticity mechanism that allows the timing to be learnt at the single-synapse level.
Methods: Using a formal basis from information theory, we show how a phase-coded spike train (relative to some ‘reference’ phase) can, in fact, multiplex multiple different information signals onto the same spike train, significantly improving overall information capacity. We furthermore derive limits on the channel capacity in the phase-coded spiking case, and show that the learning rule also has a continuous derivative in the input-output relation, making it potentially amenable to classical learning rules from artificial neural networks such as backpropagation.
Results: Using a simple demonstration network, we show the multiplexing of different signals onto the same connection, and demonstrate that different synapses indeed can adapt using this learning rule, to specialise to different interspike intervals (i.e., phase relationships). The overall approach allows for denser encoding, and thus energy efficiency, in neural networks for complex tasks, allowing smaller and more compact networks to achieve combinations of tasks which traditionally would have required high-dimensional embeddings.
Discussion: Although carried out as a study in computational spiking neural networks, the results may have insights for functional neuroscience, and suggest links to mechanisms that have been shown from neuroscientific studies to support temporal coding. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to solve one of the outstanding problems in spiking neural networks: to demonstrate that distinct temporal codings can be distinguished through synaptic learning