Contribution of ankle, knee, and hip joints to the perception threshold for support surface rotation

The purpose of the present experiment was to investigate the extent to which subjects can perceive, at very slow velocities, an angular rotation of the support surface about the medio-lateral axis of the ankle, knee, hip, or neck joint when visual cues are not available. Subjects were passively displaced on a slowly rotating platform at .01, .03, and .05 deg/sec. The subjects’ task was to detect movements of the platform in four different postural conditions allowing body oscillations about the ankle, knee, hip, or neck joint. In Experiment 1, subjects had to detect backward and forward rotation (pitching). In Experiment 2, they had to detect left and right rotations of the platform (rolling). In Experiment 3, subjects had to detect both backward/forward and left/right rotations of the platform, with the body fixed and the head either fixed or free to move. Overall, when the body was free to oscillate about the ankle, knee, or hip joints, a similar threshold for movement perception was observed. This threshold was lower for rolling than for pitching. Interestingly, in these postural conditions, an unconscious compensation in the direction opposite to the platform rotation was observed on most trials. The threshold for movement perception was much higher when the head was the only segment free to oscillate about the neck joint. These results suggest that, in static conditions, the otoliths are poor detectors of the direction of gravity forces. They also suggest that accurate perception of body orientation is improved when proprioceptive information can be dynamically integrated.     

Four Decades of Creative Vision: Insights from an Evaluation of the Future Problem Solving Program International (FPSPI)

E. Paul Torrance, a pioneer in creative education, and his associates founded the Future Problem Solving Program (now FPSPI, or Future Problem Solving Program International) in the mid‐1970s as a competitive, interscholastic program and as a curriculum project integrating creative problem‐solving and future studies. Since its founding, the program has emerged to be international in scope, and has expanded to incorporate multiple components to engage students’ creative strengths and talents in varied ways. This report presents highlights of an international evaluation of the program, the results of which support and sustain Torrance's creative vision for education.     

Unpaired shocks during extinction weaken the contextual renewal of a conditioned discrimination

Extinction is generally more fragile than conditioning, as illustrated by the contextual renewal effect. The traditional extinction procedure entails isolated presentations of the conditioned stimulus. Extinction may be boosted by adding isolated presentations of the unconditioned stimulus, as this should augment breaking the contingency between the two stimuli. In a human conditioning experiment with on-line expectancy ratings and electrodermal responding as dependent variables, 32 participants were differentially conditioned to two neutral figures using electric shock. After a change of context, one group received normal extinction treatment whereas another group received explicitly unpaired presentations of the figures and shock. At test, the two figures were presented in the original context again. For both measures, only the group that received normal extinction showed renewal of the conditioned discrimination. These results suggest that unpaired shocks during extinction strengthen the extinction learning.     

Correction to: Quality of Life and Spirituality in Indian University Students

Applied Research in Quality of Life - After the publication of this article, Dr. Deb noted he had mistakenly omitted two authors from the authorship, Dr. Mani and Dr. Vempaty.     

Neuromuscular Control of Posture in the Infant and Child

This study explored the effects of vision and maturation on the characteristics of neuromuscular responses underlying balance control in both seated and standing children of five age groups (3½–5 months, 8–14 months, 2–3 years, 4–6 years, and 7–10 years). A platform was used to unexpectedly disturb the child’s balance in the anterior or posterior direction. Responses of the leg, trunk, and neck muscles were recorded using surface electromyograms.

Vision was not required for the activation of these responses in any of the age groups tested. However, comparison of muscle response latencies of standing children to posterior platform translation in the two visual conditions showed a significant reduction in latency for neck flexors in the 2- to 3-year-olds with vision removed and an increase in the total number of monosynaptic reflexes. No reduction in latency was found in the older age groups. The hypothesis of a shift from an early long latency visual dominance to a shorter latency proprioceptive one during childhood is discussed.

Postural control showed a cephalo-caudal developmental gradient with postural responses appearing first in the neck, then trunk, and finally, legs, as children developed from 3 to 14 months of age. A wide variety of response patterns was seen in the 3- to 5-month-olds, indicating that postural responses are not functional prior to experience with stabilizing the center of mass.     

Anomalous agglomeration characteristics observed in iron oxide nanoclusters

Iron oxide nanoclusters, exhibiting unusual and interesting particle characteristics on thermal treatment, have been synthesized and studied. In all samples, a sharp size distribution has been obtained. Initially, the clusters exhibit agglomerated fractal morphology with low compactness but these disintegrate into smaller fragments and then grow in size as a function of the holding time of thermal treatment. The structure becomes more compact at higher holding times. The monodispersed agglomerates are basically clusters consisting of a large number of smaller grains of a few nanometres in size. The fractions of interfacial and bulk components in all samples have been estimated.     

Priority setting up close

Published accounts of specific priority-setting projects in healthcare are relatively few. This article chronicles the collaborative efforts of a professional practice lead and a bioethicist to strengthen the priority-setting process for a specific home care service. The project included two features not often reported in other priority-setting projects: the entire "frontline team" was involved for the project's duration, and a group of parents was canvassed for their views. Informed by both Daniels's "accountability for reasonableness" approach and challenges levied against it, the article explains the evolution of an assessment procedure, eligibility and priority criteria, and guiding substantive principles and concludes with the "lessons learned" by the project leads.     

History of military service and the risk of suicidal ideation: findings from the 2008 national survey on drug use and health

Studies of completed suicide by history of military service have produced inconsistent findings; no representative population‐based study has compared the risk of nonfatal suicidal behavior among veterans with risk among nonveterans. The objective of this study was to examine whether male veterans of the U.S. military are at heightened risk of suicidal ideation, compared with males who never served in the U.S. military. A total of 17,641 adult men completed the 2008 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH). Subjects provided information about history of ever having served in the U.S. armed forces, past suicidal ideation, alcohol and drug abuse and dependence, measures of psychological distress, and sociodemographic data. Overall, men who had ever served in the armed forces were no more likely than men who had never served to report having seriously considered suicide over the prior 12 months. Military status was not differentially associated with other known suicide risk factors assessed by NSDUH, including psychiatric disorders. Our findings suggest that evidence‐based suicide prevention strategies applicable to the general population should be employed to reduce suicide risk among the veteran population as well.