The Impact of Deep Muscle Training on the Quality of Posture and Breathing

Postural control and breathing are mechanically and neuromuscularly interdependent. Both systems– of spinal stability and respiration– involve the diaphragm, transversus abdominis, intercostal muscles, internal oblique muscles and pelvic floor muscles. The aim of the study was to evaluate the effect of exercises activating deep stabilizer muscles on postural control and quality of breathing movements. Eighteen volunteers (25,7 ± 3,5) were recruited from the general population. All the subjects implemented an exercise program activating deep muscles. Head, pelvic and trunk positions in the sagittal and frontal planes were assessed with the photogrammetric method. Breathing movements were estimated with the respiratory inductive plethysmography. The results indicate that the use of deep muscle training contributed to a significant change in the position of the body in the sagittal plane (p = 0.008) and the increase in the amplitude of breathing (p = 0.001).     

Explaining the Relationship Between Post-Critical Beliefs and Sense of Coherence in Polish Young,Middle, and Late Adults

The subject of the presented research is the analysis of relations between Post-Critical Belief and Sense of Coherence in women and men in early, middle, and late adulthood. Six hundred and thirty-six individuals participated in the research, 332 women and 304 men, at the age of 18–79 years. We applied the Post-Critical Belief scale by Hutsebaut (J Empir Theol 9:48–66, 1996) and the Sense of Coherence scale (SOC-29) by Antonovsky (Soc Sci Med 36:725–733, 1993). The results suggest that the salutogenic function of religiosity is related to age and gender—in women, it is most strongly marked in late, and in men, in middle adulthood     

Multicriteria Optimization Technique for Optimal Design of Orthotropic Bridges

The design improvement of large‐scale structures such as cable stayed and suspension bridges with large spans is one of the major engineering optimization problems faced by design engineers. In many real‐life engineering design problems, it is necessary to carry out large‐scale experimental physical models for only one prototype to construct the feasible solution set that is too expensive and not practical. For these reasons, an experimental search for optimal solutions is often not carried out at all. This paper presents a technique for multicriteria analysis, which involve the finite element analysis of the prototype in the optimization process. The improvement of the Suez Canal Bridge in Egypt is introduced as a real‐life large‐scale case study. The parameter space investigation method, the visual basic for application programming language, and Femap as finite element analysis software provide an implementation tools to construct the feasible and Pareto solution sets for the studied bridge. An efficient combination between the parameter space investigation method and the finite element programme was successfully investigated to obtain the Pareto solution set. This study shows possibility to apply the multicriteria optimization method for more applications on different large‐scale structural systems in the future. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Visual Perception in Acoustically Deprived and Normally Hearing Children

In the present study an attempt was made to establish if and to what extent auditory deprivation modifies the processes of visual analysis and synthesis. The study included 54 children aged 10–16 years with hearing impairment attending the School and Educational Center for Children with Hearing Impairment in Wroc?aw (group I) and 127 children with normal hearing acuity attending public schools (group II), forming a reference group. Hearing impairment in the children of group I was from 60 to 100 dB. In 9 of these children the hearing impairment was inherited, while in some others it was acquired and resulted from rubella during the mother's pregnancy (5 subjects) or a severe disease course in childhood, for instance cerebral meningitis (4 subjects) and otolaryngologic antibiotic therapy (7 subjects). In the remaining subjects the reason for auditory deprivation was unknown. Hearing impairment, apart from genetically conditioned causes, appeared in the first months or years of life. The general intellectual level of the examined children was similar to that of their control counterparts, which was confirmed by school psychologists during a routine examination. The examination was performed by means of two tests from the Nonverbal Score of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children: Puzzles and Block Design. The children with a hearing deficit generally needed more time to perform the tasks than those with normal hearing. The investigated parameters of visual perception improved in correlation with age, but the dynamics of these changes were different in the two study groups.     

The selective relationship between religious dimensions and social desirability among Polish students

This study explores the effect of the position of the religious construct-system (central vs. subordinated vs. marginal) in personality on the relationship between social desirability and structure of religiosity, emotion to God and post-critical belief. The sample comprised Polish Students (N?=?200) aged between 19 and 29 years. The Social Desirability Scale, The Structure-of-Religiosity Test and The Post-Critical Belief Scale were employed in the study. The results suggest that religiosity is not associated with social desirability.     

‘Faking brands’: Consumer responses to counterfeiting

Whilst counterfeiting is regarded as one of the ‘oldest crimes in history’, contextualised treatments of Middle East and North Africa (MENA region) are rare despite growing interconnections with the global economy. Accordingly, this paper explores consumer motivations to purchase counterfeit products and identifies possible counter‐influences. Data from a survey of 400 respondents drawn from Morocco was tested with logistic regression models to determine the significant factors that trigger responsiveness and deterrence to counterfeit products. The tests were based on three product categories: clothing, cosmetics and mobile phones. Additionally, consumer demographics and selected social triggers were evaluated to build a profile of consumers typically likely to consider buying (or avoiding) counterfeit goods. Results show that concerns related to health, disappointment risk and integrity are the most significant countervailing factors on behavioural intentions towards purchasing counterfeits. On a socio‐demographic level, it was found that low‐income consumers are more positively disposed to buying counterfeits. Gender also seems to have an explanatory force. Women with higher educational backgrounds are less likely than men to consider buying counterfeit goods. For all the products evaluated, quality and price consistently proved the most important factors driving the intention to buy counterfeits. The implications are highlighted; combating counterfeiting is not an exclusive preserve of any single entity (governments, business or para‐governmental agencies) but a shared responsibility. There is a lot at stake for consumers, manufacturers and the industrial nations if the menace is not effectively checked. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Adolescent Religious Coping Questionnaire. Translation and Cultural Adaptation of Pargament’s RCOPE Scale for Polish Adolescents

The paper presents the process of translation and cultural adaptation of the Religious Coping Questionnaire (the RCOPE) by Pargament et al. (2000) for Polish adolescents. The work was driven by the necessity to obtain a structural and measurement equivalence between the American and Polish versions of the instrument. The Polish version was created at the Department of Clinical Psychology of Children and Adolescents at The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Poland. The exploratory factor analysis with the Oblimin oblique rotation was carried out. The principal components method was used as an extraction method of common factors. The results provided input for constructing the scales. The Adolescent Religious Coping Questionnaire consists of 105 items, grouped in 16 scales, which reflects positive and negative religious coping strategies.     

The suppressing effect of chlorpromazine treatment on alimentary-social differentiation in amygdala dogs

Experiments were performed on dogs with bilateral electrolytic damage of dorso-medial amygdala. Before the operation dogs were trained in alimentary-social reward differentiation. It consisted in conditioning of instrumental responses of either right or left foreleg to two different tones respectively. Chlorpromazine was injected intramuscularly in 1,5 mg/kg dose during four consecutive days, beginning at third to fifth week after the operation. Amygdala damage produced significant deterioration of the instrumental performance both reinforced by food and by social-sensory rewards. Chlorpromazine produced further dramatic decrease of performance of both responses. It was concluded that chlorpromazine exerts a suppressing effect on motivated behavior reinforced by positive rewards in amygdala dogs. As the effect of chlorpromazine and medial amygdalar damage are summated it may be suggested that the deficit of medial amygdala neurons impairs similar neurochemical mechanisms, (probably dopaminergic and α-adrenergic transmission) as does chlorpromazine.