162 research outputs found
Bilateral and unilateral arm training improve motor function through differing neuroplastic mechanisms: a single-blinded randomized controlled trial
Get PDFBACKGROUND AND PURPOSE:
This randomized controlled trial tests the efficacy of bilateral arm training with rhythmic auditory cueing (BATRAC) versus dose-matched therapeutic exercises (DMTEs) on upper-extremity (UE) function in stroke survivors and uses functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine effects on cortical reorganization.
METHODS:
A total of 111 adults with chronic UE paresis were randomized to 6 weeks (3×/week) of BATRAC or DMTE. Primary end points of UE assessments of Fugl-Meyer UE Test (FM) and modified Wolf Motor Function Test Time (WT) were performed 6 weeks prior to and at baseline, after training, and 4 months later. Pretraining and posttraining, fMRI for UE movement was evaluated in 17 BATRAC and 21 DMTE participants.
RESULTS:
The improvements in UE function (BATRAC: FM Δ = 1.1 + 0.5, P = .03; WT Δ = -2.6 + 0.8, P < .00; DMTE: FM Δ = 1.9 + 0.4, P < .00; WT Δ = -1.6 + 0.7; P = .04) were comparable between groups and retained after 4 months. Satisfaction was higher after BATRAC than DMTE (P = .003). BATRAC led to significantly higher increase in activation in ipsilesional precentral, anterior cingulate and postcentral gyri, and supplementary motor area and contralesional superior frontal gyrus (P < .05). Activation change in the latter was correlated with improvement in the WMFT (P = .01).
CONCLUSIONS:
BATRAC is not superior to DMTE, but both rehabilitation programs durably improve motor function for individuals with chronic UE hemiparesis and with varied deficit severity. Adaptations in brain activation are greater after BATRAC than DMTE, suggesting that given similar benefits to motor function, these therapies operate through different mechanisms
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Democratic Equality in the Misinformation Age
No full textConventional wisdom blames the “epistemic crisis” of American politics on the leveling force of social media and the collapse of traditional gatekeepers. This dissertation argues democracy’s vulnerability to misinformation stems not from too equal a public sphere but from the epistemically debilitating effects of pervasive social inequality. Entrenched inequalities incentivize media institutions new and old to circulate discourses that legitimize injustice, reinforce stereotypes, foster distrust, and render audiences vulnerable to identity-based manipulation. Answering democracy’s epistemic challenges requires recentering the demands of political equality in an increasingly complex and fragmented media ecosystem.
To that end, I develop a new democratic theory of media institutions that emphasizes their role in securing relations of equality among socially diverse and geographically diffuse citizens. The first half of this dissertation defends a novel account of how political equality anchors democracy’s epistemic foundations and how inequality upsets them. Chapter 1 reconstructs John Dewey’s writings on propaganda to argue pathologies of misinformation are best seen as products of an unequal social structure that keeps citizens isolated from and ignorant of one another. In doing so, I outline Dewey’s call for a distinctly institutionalist politics of public spheres. Chapter 2 argues that democratic theorists have thus far failed to develop such a politics because they have conflated equality’s communicative dimension with deliberation. Against this view, I argue equality ought to be grounded in citizens’ capacity to contribute to the institutional circuits of mass communication that precede and structure interpersonal communicative acts. Chapter 3 draws on James Madison and W.E.B. Du Bois to describe how media institutions can put this account into practice by circulating epistemic goods citizens have a reasonably equal hand in making.
The next three chapters test and refine my theory by applying it to three institutions at the heart of American democracy’s epistemic dysfunction: elite political communication, news journalism, and social media platforms. Chapter 4 explores how electoral incentives lead politicians to amplify and perpetuate the prejudices of strategically well-positioned voters in political messaging. Chapter 5 critiques Meiklejohnian defenses of journalism as insufficiently attentive to the distorting effects of inequality and proposes an alternative egalitarian defense that places stronger demands on news outlets. Chapter 6 relies on Hannah Arendt to argue that social media corporations’ power over the structural conditions of communication divests citizens of the democratic agency necessary for relations of equality. In each of these chapters, I show how a commitment to egalitarian democracy sets an attractive and practical agenda for reform. A short conclusion urges democratic theorists to see institutional reconstruction and participatory politics as complementary and self-reflexive means of transforming political communication
Spatial distribution of diuron sorption affinity as affected by soil, terrain and management practices in an intensively managed apple orchard
No full textWe investigated how the sorption affinity of diuron (3'-(3,4-dichlorophenyl)-1,1-dimenthyl-urea), a moderately hydrophobic herbicide, is affected by soil properties, topography and management practices in an intensively managed orchard system. Soil-landscape analysis was carried out in an apple orchard which had a strong texture contrast soil and a landform with relief difference of 50 m. Diuron sorption (K(d)) affinity was successfully predicted (R(2)=0.79; p<0.001) using a mid-infrared - partial least squares model and calibrated against measured data using a conventional batch sorption technique. Soil and terrain properties explained 75% of the variance of diuron K(d) with TOC, pH(w), slope and WI as key variables. Mean diuron K(d) values were also significantly different (p<0.05) between alley and tree line and between the different management zones. Soil in the tree line generally had lower sorption capacity for diuron than soil in the alleys. Younger stands, which were found to have lower TOC than in the older stands, also had lower diuron K(d) values. In intensively managed orchards, sorption affinity of pesticides to soils was not only affected by soil properties and terrain attributes but also by management regime.Beng P. Umali, Danielle P. Oliver, Bertram Ostendorf, Sean Forrester, David J. Chittleborough, John L. Hutson and Rai S. Kookan
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Powers of Practice: Michel Foucault and the Politics of Asceticism
No full textThis dissertation offers a novel re-reading of Michel Foucault’s oeuvre from 1975 – 1984 oriented by his late theory of asceticism. My reading reveals in the late Foucault a method for analysing ethical phenomena founded in a close examination of ascesis. This term is to be understood in its pre-Christian, etymological sense as all of those activities, in domains as diverse as sport and rhetoric, the practice of which has as its direct effect the transformation of the practitioner. An ‘ethnography of the ascetic,’ as Foucault refers to his late project, always looks at these practices in their social-political context to understand how practices of the self inflect relations with others and are in turn mediated by the ideational and material contexts in which they are undertaken. As such, a Foucaultian theory of asceticism pulls us not away from but directly towards the political: asceticisms are always entangled in relations of power that they reinforce or resist. A theoretically rich understanding of asceticism is crucial if we are to diagnose and specify the political role that the self and self-development do and might play in contexts and problems as diverse as neoliberal lifestyle capitalism and contemporary disciplinary procedures. The first half of this dissertation reconstructs a general theory of asceticism in Foucault’s late works by situating them in biographical and historical context, analysing the anthropological dimensions of his exploration of asceticism, and exploring the concepts of ‘critique’ and ‘parrhesia’ as hinges between habitual inertia and self-(re)creation. The second half of the dissertation applies this theory of ascesis to contemporary issues of interest to Foucault himself, by rethinking discipline and neoliberalism as part of an ‘ascetic renaissance’ in late modernity that simultaneously provides new and productive tools for the development of political and ethical capacities and risks submerging these capacities in alienating and coercive structures of power. The concluding chapter extrapolates a set of theses from the preceding chapters regarding ascesis and politics and sets the groundwork for a future political theory of asceticism and historical study of ascesis
"Montgomery and his Legions:" A Study of Operational Development, Innovation and Command in 21st Army Group, North-West Europe, 1944-45
Get PDFThis thesis considers armour and infantry unit organization and structure in the British Army during the Second World War, specifically in Montgomery's 21st Army Group in North-West Europe. The strengths and weaknesses of how corps and divisions responded to Montgomery's command system - and in particular the commonality of doctrinal practice - has become an issue of debate among historians. This thesis examines and analyses the factors that produced both an effective weapon and a functional doctrine for combining armour and infantry. It does this by tracking how 21st Army Group moved from 'anarchy' to 'problem solving' under Montgomery's direction.
It shows that far from being either authoritarian or anarchic, Montgomery's ultimate command system actually encouraged commanders to use their initiative within the goals set out by Montgomery in late 1944 in a series of pamphlets. He believed in the imposition of doctrine, but this overlooks mid-July to end-of-September 1944 when he was open to the "bubble-up" of new ideas: albeit post-pamphlets the subsequent price of uniformity of doctrine was a certain apparent inflexibility. By late 1944 when Montgomery's 21st Army Group "stood at the door of Germany", armour-infantry co-operation practice is shown to have involved the coordination of armour originally intended to play different roles; infantry, and artillery on the basis of commonly agreed upon understandings which had been reached by an essentially collaborative process. Once set out in Montgomery's pamphlets, however, no deviation from this framework was subsequently permitted. Simultaneously, success in action depended on commanders exercising their initiative to be proactive to a greater extent than has hitherto been suggested: Montgomery wanted to constrain choices yet he allowed armoured commanders enough freedom of action to respond to challenges within the "master plan".
This thesis thus makes an original contribution to the debate on Montgomery's command style, and its consequences, and more widely on the role of a great commander
Research snippett: Aboriginal Offender Substance Abuse Program (AOSAP) and cultural engagement
No full textThe cultural, social and substance use histories of male offenders enrolled in the Aboriginal Offender Substance Abuse Program (AOSAP)
No full textSocial networks: the future of marketing for small business
Get PDFPurpose – The authors review recent developments in online marketing strategy that demonstrate the growing power of online communities in building brand reputations and customer relationships. Design/methodologies/approach – This work draws upon the results of an ongoing research project that is investigating the use of new technologies by entrepreneurial growing businesses in the London area. A range of examples from our 30 case study businesses are drawn upon to illustrate some of the opportunities and threats associated with these new marketing priorities.<br/
Outsourcing the Business Services
Get PDFThe nowadays international market of outsourcing services is relatively mature and with age comes wisdom ... Thus, on a grown market, choosing to outsource services can not only be justified by the strive to reduce costs but it aims to meeting more advanced objectives as accurate alignment with business strategies of the enterprise. As a result, outsourcing has reached new forms of expression that can help the enterprises to gain competitive advantage. In the context of a grown market, a new concept appears, namely the multisourcing which it refers to the outsourcing model of the future [1] that businesses must prepare to accept and use. This concept or model of the future refers to working with several suppliers, which are competitors in a spirit of trust and teamwork, in a collaborative process to maximize the benefits associated with outsourcing process.Business Outsourcing, Audit, Economic and Financial Analysis, Information Technology Outsourcing
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