501 research outputs found
Constructional Apraxia
No full textNormal1. Alexander MP. Higher-Order Visual Impairments in Office Practice of Neurology, 2nd Edition, Eds Samuels MA, Feske SK. Churchill Livingstone 2003 Chap 141:895-902. 2. Caine D. Posterior cortical atrophy: a review of the literature. Neurocase 2004;10(5):382-385. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15788276 3. Greene JD. Apraxia, agnosias, and higher visual function abnormalities. J. Neurol. Neurosurg Psychiatry 2005; 76 Suppl 5:25-34. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16291919 4. Kartsounis LD, McCarthy RA. Neuropsychology, in Neurology in Clinical Practice. Principles of Diagnosis and Management 3rd Edition. Eds. Bradley WG, Daroff RB, Fenichel GM and Marsden CD. Butterworth-Heinemann 2000; Chap 39:677-685. 5. Laeng B. Constructional apraxia after left or right unilateral stroke. Neuropsychologia 2006;44(9):1595-1606. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16516249 6. McClain M, Foundas A. Apraxia. Curr Neurol Neurosci Rep 2004;4(6):471-476. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15509449 7. Smith AD, Gilchrist ID. Drawing from childhood experience: constructional apraxia and the production of oblique lines. Cortex 2005;41(2):195-204. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1571490
The Buenos Aires water concession
No full textThe signing of a concession contract for the Buenos Aires water and sanitation system in December 1992, attracted worldwide attention, and caused considerable controversy in Argentina. It was one of the world's largest concessions, but the case was also interesting for other reasons. The concession was implemented rapidly, in contrast with slow implementation of privatization in Santiago, for example. And reform generated major improvements in the sector, including wider coverage, better service, more efficient company operations, and reduced waste. Moreover, the winning bid brought an immediate 26.9 percent reduction in water system tariffs. Consumers benefited from the system's expansion and from the immediate drop in real prices, which was only partly reversed by subsequent changes in tariffs, and access charges. And these improvements would probably not have occurred under public administration of the system. Still, the authors show information asymmetries, perverse incentives, and weak regulatory institutions could threaten the concession's sustainability. Opportunities for the company to act opportunistically - and the regulator, arbitrarily - exist, because of politicized regulation, a poor information base, serious flaws in the concession contract, a lumpy and ad hoc tariff system, and a general lack of transparency in the regulatory process. Because of these circumstances, public confidence in the process has eroded. The Buenos Aires concession shows how important transparent, rule-based decision-making is to maintain public trust in regulated infrastructure.Health Economics&Finance,Environmental Economics&Policies,Water Conservation,Water and Industry,Decentralization,Town Water Supply and Sanitation,Environmental Economics&Policies,Water and Industry,Water Supply and Sanitation Governance and Institutions,Water Conservation
Endocavity MRI of the pelvis, editor Nandita M. deSouza Harwood Academic Publishers 2001
No full textPeliosis hepatis: Spectrum of imaging findings
No full textOBJECTIVE. It is important to recognize the imaging characteristics of peliosis hepatis because peliotic lesions may mimic several different types of focal hepatic lesions CONCLUSION. We illustrate the spectrum of imaging findings of peliosis hepatis, including sonography, CT, MR, and angiography. © American Roentgen Ray Society
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The Artistry and Activism of Shirley Graham Du Bois: A Twentieth Century African American Torchbearer
No full textThis dissertation traces the early origins of Shirley Graham Du Bois, a well known Negro achiever in the 1930s and 1940s, from the decades preceding her birth in 1896 up through the mid-twentieth century when she has reached mid life and achieved a number of successes. It attempts to reclaim from obscurity the significant cultural production that Shirley Graham contributed to American society. Her artistry and activism were manifested in many ways. As a very young woman she conducted, throughout the northern and eastern parts of the U. S., musical concerts extolling the beauty and significance of spirituals. While attending school at Oberlin College, she wrote a musical opera that was regarded during its time as the world's first race opera. In 1936 she assumed the role of Director for the Chicago Black Unit of the Federal Theatre Project (FTP). After the FTP phased out, she attended Yale School of Drama to learn the craft of playwriting, and proceeded to write several plays that were staged and viewed by interracial audiences. As the country prepared for WWII, she was selected to head USO activities in Fort Huachuca, Arizona where the largest aggregation of Negro soldiers were stationed before being sent off to battle. She subsequently became a field secretary for the NAACP during this period of tumultuous change in the nation and the world. The early 1940s would see Graham reach the pinnacle of success during this phase of her life by writing biographies for a national children's audience. This success was short lived due to the political climate of red-baiting that became fashionable during the political reign of Senator Joseph McCarthy. Graham's progressive politics, communist affiliation and marriage to W. E. B. Du Bois placed her on the wrong side of the establishment. Each chapter develops the varying forms her activism took shape in each given situation. Following the example of fore-parents who were politically and socially engaged during their lifetimes, Graham follows suit. Her efforts reveal a woman who educated, inspired and empowered others while demonstrating the different ways one could use her abilities to confront racism.Afro-American StudiesDoctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.
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Interstellar Gas Clouds and Gen. Ed. Astronomy Students: Who Are They? How Do They Behave?
No full textThe first chapter begins with the observations of 1,882 sources from the Bolocam Galactic Plane Survey (BGPS) at 1.1 mm in HCO⁺ J = 3 − 2 and N₂H⁺ J = 3 − 2. We determine kinematic distances for 529 sources and derive the size, mass, and average density for this subset of clumps. The median size of BGPS clumps is 0.75 pc with a median mass of 330 M⊙ (assuming T(Dust) = 20 K). The median HCO⁺ linewidth is 2.9 km s⁻¹ indicating the clumps are not thermally supported and provide no evidence for a size-linewidth relationship. This collection of objects is a less-biased sample of star-forming regions in the Milky Way that likely span a wide range of evolutionary states. We study in detail the G111 Infrared Dark Cloud northwest of NGC 7538 with the K-band Focal Plane Array. We map NH₃ (1,1) and (2,2), H₂O maser, and CCS emission simultaneously with the GBT. We find the NH₃ gas traces the 1.1 mm BGPS structure very well with gas kinetic temperatures consistently close to 15 K. Typical column densities are 2.5 × 10¹⁴ cm⁻² with a median abundance of NH₃ to H₂ of 5.94 × 10⁻⁸. The median linewidth of the NH₃ emission is 0.64 km s⁻¹ indicating the filament is not thermally supported. The NH₃ is subthermally populated along the entire filament. Individual NH3 peaks have a median size of 0.61 pc, mass of 188M⊙, and density of 3.4×10³ cm⁻³. An activity analysis shows the most active star forming regions are found at the junctions of the subfilaments that make up the larger G111 IRDC. The last chapter describes our systematic examination of individual student responses to the Light and Spectroscopy Concept Inventory national dataset. We use classical test theory to form a framework of results that is used to evaluate item difficulties, item discriminations, and the overall reliability of the LSCI. We perform an analysis of individual student’s normalized gains, providing further insight into the prior results from this data set. This investigation allows us to better understand the efficacy of using the LSCI to measure student achievement
Parks Johnson and Wally Butterworth pose with the women of the Kappa Kappa Gamma Sorority from Syracuse University , March 7, 1940
No full textEpisode number 332. Photograph of Parks Johnson and Wally Butterworth with women of Kappa Kappa Gamma Sorority at the Kappa Kappa Gamma Sorority House at Syracuse University. Photo taken on March 7, 1940. Photo credits: Robert J. Arnold Photography, Syracuse, NY. Pictured: Mary Elizabeth Gibson, Martha Lincoln Burt, Jane Bundage Kellogg, Phyllis Hickman, Anne Campbell Conan, Mary Alice Reed, Anieta Burns, Marjorie Bock, Virginia Cavanaugh, Lois Drake, Karen Moyer, Virginia Conklin, Marion Covell, Nancy Tyler, Sue Greeley, Barbara Klock, Shirley Burnett, Jane Winne, Jane Hooper, Marian Laidlaw, Lynne Lisko, Lillian Franklin, Nancy McLean, Jean Hathaway, Jean Rudolf, Esteele K. Hall, Peggy McCain, Isabel Basye, Rachel M. Spear, Myrel Williams, Mary Bowkley, Beryl Ball, Marion Cobb, Mary Wolcott, Louise Hennemuth, Virginia Hamel, Natalie Santorie, Jane Greeley, Mary Mix, Alice Hunziker, Barbara Bishop, Adeline Haslett, Lucille James, Isabel McCarthy, Phyllis Blocksidge, Lillian Bright, Florence Mills Bryson
Dressing Apraxia
No full textNormalConstructional Apraxia: https://collections.lib.utah.edu/details?id=2174193Difficulty dressingThe patient is a 72 year old right handed woman who presented in November 1995 with the sudden onset of impaired coordination of visual and motor skills following an inner right ear infection. One of her problems was difficulty sitting on a chair as she tended to place her body incorrectly. By late March 1996, she was unable to tie her shoes. In April 1996, during a vacation in Florida to play golf, she frequently missed the ball and had trouble lining herself up with the tee. Her symptoms progressed. Her writing deteriorated and she could not make her bed because the corners that were tucked in were "improperly positioned". On some occasions she mishandled kitchen utensils and one time she tried to cut meat with the handle of a knife. Dressing became a problem. She was unable to put on her bra and frequently she put both legs into the same leg when she tried to put a pair of trousers on. She also stated that she "was unable to line up anything straight" ,for example, when placing tablecloths on a table. She also had a problem walking and described difficulty figuring out which foot to put down next. Going down stairs was particularly difficult and when she came to a curb to cross the road she feared she was going to fall. Frequently she bumped into things particularly on her left side and when she picked things up with her left hand, she tended to drop them. When she attempted to dance with her husband, her left foot dragged. In September 1996 these behavioral changes prompted a referral to Dr. David Caplan for a neurological opinion. Past History: Negative for stroke. Family History: Negative for CNS disease. Social History: She described herself as an average student and left high school after her sophomore year. She worked at GE as a machine operator and retired in 1970. In her retirement, she assisted her husband baking cakes for their restaurant and bookkeeping. Symptomatic Inquiry: Negative for any language difficulty, memory impairment, headache, vertigo, confusion, syncope or visual symptoms. Her general health was good. On examination: • She was fully oriented to time, place and person • Her memory was intact • Her speech was normal. She made only 1 spelling mistake writing Iland for Island • She could not however spell table, leopard and the non- word beff correctly to dictation. She was totally unable to: • Draw a floor plan of her house • Place towns in New Hampshire on a map of New Hampshire correctly. She placed Portsmouth inland and north of the coast and Seabrook slightly to the west of Portsmouth • Multiply 7 x 14 in her head or do simple addition and subtraction sums correctly. The cranial nerve examination was normal. • Visual acuity OU and fields normal Examination of the Motor System showed unilateral left hand apraxia with: A pronator drift of the left arm with impaired dexterous finger movements. Inability to move her left index finger rapidly from her nose to touch the examiner\u27s finger Inability to perform Lurias\u27s metakinetic tests of motor sequencing (touching her knee with her hand in the form of a fist, the edge of her hand, and the palm of her hand in sequence) and failure to make pantomime movements, such as brushing her hair or her teeth, with her left hand The right hand made all the movements correctly. Sensory examination showed: Graphesthesia bilaterally. She was able to name one of three letters written on her right palm but unable to name all the letters or numbers written on her left palm. Limb apraxia: Her gait showed a rigidity in movement of her left arm and on standing, she had external rotation of the left leg. When she came into the office she completely misjudged the position of a chair and sat down with her left leg over the arm of the chair and could not extricate herself from that position. She could not climb onto the examining table using a stool because she tended to put her right foot too far towards the left part of the stool for there to be room for her left foot. When descending from the table she put her right leg on the stool and then did not know how far down either the stool or the ground was for her left leg. A CT Brain scan in April 1996 was normal. Two subsequent MRI scans with Gadolinium were reported to show "mild atrophy". Neuropsychological evaluation by Dr. Janet Sherman showed significant difficulties with visual-motor coordination. Perception: On the line by line bisection task, there was some suggestion of left sided neglect, with lines often bisected very far to the right of center. On a test of tactile perception, stereognosis, she had no difficulty in tactually identifying objects with her right hand, but with her left hand made numerous errors, correctly identifying only 3 of 7 objects. Her errors with the left hand were suggestive for right hemisphere damage. Visual Construction: First, she was asked to copy a number of figures on the Beery Developmental Test of Visual Motor Integration, a test that is normally administered to children. On this test, she successfully copied a vertical line, horizontal line, a circle, diagonal line and a plus sign, but was unable to copy a square, a triangle or any of the more complex figures that required integration of more than one element. Her drawing of a square showed an inability to integrate its parts. Her overall raw score of 6 on this test placed her at a 4 year, 6 month age equivalent level, and demonstrated a profound level of impairment in visual construction. She was unable to copy the two intersecting hexagons on the Mini Mental State Examination, drawing only the right side of each of the figures. She was able to place numbers on a clock face with a fair degree of accuracy but was unable to show the time 11:10 as requested, instead pointing the hands to 10 and 12 on the clock, and then adding a hand pointing to 11. Her free drawing was profoundly impaired as she was unable to draw a daisy, a cube or a house. Her difficulty on this task did not appear to be one of imaging the object, as she was able to tell the examiner, "I know what a house looks like, a square, a roof, a chimney", but was able to draw only two separate horizontal lines. Visual Object Recognition: She was also administered the Boston Naming Test, a test of confrontation naming in which the individual is asked to provide the names for line drawings of objects (e.g. camel, wheelchair, cactus). Of 60 items presented, she provided the correct name for 43 of them, a performance that placed her within normal limits as compared to age-matched controls. This test confirmed that visual-object recognition appeared to be intact. Apraxia Assessment: The Apraxia Test from the Boston Diagnostic Aphasia Examination was administered and she was able to execute all of the commands when asked to perform them with her right hand but was completely uncoordinated in carrying out the same actions with her left hand (for example, patting when asked to wave goodbye with her left hand). Memory: Verbal short-term memory was intact. But, her ability to remember story information was at the 52 percentile for immediate recall. Attention: Performance on the Trial Making Test, a test of visual-motor conceptual tracking was impaired, with difficulties mainly attributed to difficulty in keeping her place on the page and a slow visual search. ( Selected illustrations of the test results are shown in Figure 1-8). Summary: The apraxic deficits exhibited by this patient were Dressing Apraxia Constructional Apraxia Left hand apraxia together with Left-sided neglect and Optic Ataxia The Cognitive Syndrome resulted in impairment of: • The control of the left side of her body • The mental reconstruction of space • The ability to use visual information and proprioceptive information to guide action and • Cognitive deficits that are associated with right hemisphere disease in right handed individuals. Discussion: The first consideration in this case is lesion laterality. Damage to the left hemisphere causes deficits in processing visual stimuli for language content or associations. Deficits in processing visual material for some spatial relations, for some perceptual properties, and for some aspects of emotional content usually are caused by right hemisphere lesions. The second anatomical consideration is dorsal-ventral. Damage to the ventral (inferior) visual association cortex and pathways impairs discrimination and identification of stimuli: the "what" system. Damage to the dorsal (superior) visual association cortex and pathways impairs intentional, spatial, and kinesthetic analyses; the "where" system. (Table 141-1 (1)). The brunt of the disease process in this patient affected the dorsal superior visual association cortex and pathways in the right parietal lobe. It was not at all clear, however, what the etiology was. Her deficits in visual construction and mathematical calculation (spatial dyscalculia) are impairments that are also associated with right parietal functions. Diagnosis: Progressive Lobar Atrophy Affecting the Right Parietal Lobe - a condition which has been better described in the case of left hemisphere disease leading to primary progressive aphasia than in the case of right hemisphere disease leading to progressive apraxia. The patient was lost to follow-up.This pleasant right handed woman with a progressive (probably neuro-degenerative) process affecting the right parietal lobe was aware of her difficulties and was coping with them remarkably well. She never got distressed when asked to do tasks that demonstrated the severity of her apraxia. Object recognition was intact. She named 10/10 objects correctly including a pen, watch, and watch winder. She also named famous people correctly when shown their photograph. Apraxia and neglect clearly affected her hand writing. She had significant difficulty with the formation of letters and the placement of writing on the page. She was able to write January 11, 1996 correctly. She made two attempts to draw the face of a clock, which showed crowding of numbers on the left. She failed to copy a very simple design of an arrow and was unable to draw in the feathers of the arrow at an angle to the shaft. Instead she placed them horizontally. This patient had a primary dressing disorder - Dressing Apraxia due to her inability to represent the spatial, kinesthetic components of visually guiding her hands to her clothes. Primary dressing apraxia is due to damage to the dorsal (superior) visual association cortex and pathways in the parietal lobe that impair attentional, spatial and kinesthetic analyses; the "where" system. (Table 141-1). Damage of either the right or left hemisphere produces disturbances in visuoconstructive tasks. The tasks entail at a minimum, integration of movement with perception, complete attention to the entire visual target and the ability to direct attention to some components of the target. Patient with right parieto-occipital lesions, probably because of coincident neglect and inability to register the configuration of the entire target, produce worse drawings and constructions than patients with left posterior parietal lesions.MRI scan showed mild atrophy. The true nature of the degenerative process was not clear.See Table 141-1 (1).Not availableProgressive Lobar Atrophy - Degenerative CNS DiseaseNone available1. Alexander MP. Higher-Order Visual Impairments in Office Practice of Neurology, 2nd Edition, Eds Samuels MA, Feske SK. Churchill Livingstone 2003 Chap 141:895-902. 2. Caine D. Posterior cortical atrophy: a review of the literature. Neurocase 2004;10(5):382-385. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15788276 3. Greene JD. Apraxia, agnosias, and higher visual function abnormalities. J. Neurol. Neurosurg Psychiatry 2005; 76 Suppl 5:25-34. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16291919 4. Kartsounis LD, McCarthy RA. Neuropsychology, in Neurology in Clinical Practice. Principles of Diagnosis and Management 3rd Edition. Eds. Bradley WG, Daroff RB, Fenichel GM and Marsden CD. Butterworth-Heinemann 2000; Chap 39:677-685. 5. Laeng B. Constructional apraxia after left or right unilateral stroke. Neuropsychologia 2006;44(9):1595-1606. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16516249 6. McClain M, Foundas A. Apraxia. Curr Neurol Neurosci Rep 2004;4(6):471-476. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15509449 7. Smith AD, Gilchrist ID. Drawing from childhood experience: constructional apraxia and the production of oblique lines. Cortex 2005;41(2):195-204. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15714902curriculum_fello
The role of regulation and commitment in the development of telecommunications in Chile
No full textOver six decades, Chile experimented with three regulatory regimes and ownership patterns for its telecommunications sectors, each with radically different investment patterns. Until 1970, Chile relied on private ownership and rate-of-return regulation, but excess demand persisted. In the 1970s, Chile relied on public ownership of two regulated monopolies, but the sector grew even more slowly than before. After 1982, Chile deregulated some market segments, introduced benchmark regulation, and returned to private ownership. The new regulatory regime and privatization doubled the number of lines in service in only four years. The author explains investment behavior as a function of the solutions to two contracting problems: between government and the firm, and between government and interest groups. The author concludes that regulatory rules on pricing, entry, and conflict resolution mechanisms are critical for investing in such asset-specific utilities as telecommunications. More important, the outcome of regulatory reform depends on a match between reform and both the prevailing political and judicial systems and interest group politics. According to the author, Chile satisfactorily resolved the two contracting problems in the 1980's. Chile's new regulations are reasonably efficient and very specific about how tariffs are to be calculated, how entry is to be governed, and how conflicts are to be resolved. The rules are embodied in a law that is relatively difficult to change (because the judicial system is independent). The impetus for reform came from the emergency of a new private entrepreneurial class, whose growth depends on modern telecommunications services.Environmental Economics&Policies,Public Sector Economics&Finance,National Governance,ICT Policy and Strategies,Economic Theory&Research
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