Three-dimensional joint kinematics of ACL-deficient and ACL-reconstructed knees during stair ascent and descent

Mechanical environmental changes in the knee are induced by altered joint kinematics under cyclic loading during activities of daily living after anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury. This is considered a risk factor in progressive cartilage degeneration and the early onset of osteoarthritis following ACL injury and even after reconstructive surgery. The purpose of this study was to examine 3D joint kinematics of ACL-deficient and ACL-reconstructed knees to health controls during stair ascent and descent. A 3D optical video motion capture system was used to record coordinate data from reflective markers positioned on subjects as they ascended and descended a custom-built staircase. Spatiotemporal gait and knee joint kinematic variables were calculated and further analyzed. The ACL-deficient knees exhibited a significant extension deficit compared to the ACL-intact controls. A more varus and internally rotated tibial position was also identified in the ACL-deficient knees during both stair ascent and descent. The ACL-reconstructed knees exhibited less abnormality in both spatiotemporal gait parameters and joint kinematics, but these variables were not fully restored to a normal level. The kinematic profiles of the ACL-reconstructed knees were more similar to those of the ACL-deficient knees when compared to the ACL-intact knees. This suggests that the ACL-reconstructed knees had been "under-corrected" rather than "over-corrected" by the reconstructive surgery procedure. Findings from this study may provide more insight with respect to improving ACL reconstruction surgical techniques, which may aid the early progression of cartilage degeneration in ACL-reconstructed knees.     

Challenge me! Communicating in multicultural classrooms

The current study investigated the value of Socratic classroom communication (e.g., critical debate and challenging each other on content matters) among students from various cultures (clustered into Western Europeans, Eastern Europeans and Non-Europeans) and from members of faculty at an international university in Germany. Students from Western cultures where Socratic communication had been valued in the school systems reported a greater ease of engaging in the respective communication style than did Eastern European and Non-European students. Furthermore, we assessed how strongly the faculty valued the respective kinds of behavior. The results show that overall students underestimated the extent to which Socratic communication behavior was esteemed by members of faculty. In addition, faculty members perceived themselves to be more explicit about their pedagogical principles than they were perceived by students. Finally, the easier it was for students to show Socratic classroom communication, the more academically satisfied they were and the better their grades. The results are discussed with regard to practical implications and the internationalization of universities.     

Modal preferences in creative problem solving

Embodied cognitive science appeals to the idea that cognition depends on the body as well as on the brain. This study looks at whether we are more likely to engage just the brain or enlist the body for complex cognitive functioning such as creative problem solving. Participants were presented with a puzzle based on De Bono’s lateral thinking puzzles. The puzzle consisted of rotating and joining two-dimensional shapes to make a three-dimensional one. In one condition, participants were given the choice of either solving the puzzle mentally or through manipulation of the images on a computer screen. In another condition, the subjects had to solve the puzzle first mentally and then report which mode they would have preferred to solve the puzzle. Two more conditions were applied with slight variations. In all conditions, an overwhelming majority of participants chose to solve the puzzle by manipulation, even though there was not a significant increase on performance. It appeared that participants were making a conscious choice for the body to play a feedback-driven role in creative cognitive processing. This strong preference for manual manipulation over just mental representation, regardless of the impact on performance, would seem to suggest that it is our natural tendency to involve the body in complex cognitive functioning. This would support the theory that cognition may be more than just a neural process, and that it is a dynamic interplay between body, brain and world. The experiential feedback of the body moving through space and time may be an inherently important factor in creative cognition.     

Two-Component Solutions of Repertory Grid Data: A Comparison of Three Methods

Abstract

Of the various ways in which repertory grid data can be summarized, the two-component plot has been the most popular method. These plots are derived in three main ways: (1) Slater's (1977) INGR1D program, (2) subprogram FACTOR in the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) (Nie, Hull, Jenkins, Steinbrenner, & Brent, 1975), and (3) Higgenbotham and Bannister's (1983) CAB program, little attempt has been made to compare the solutions produced by these programs despite widespread use. A small number of single case studies suggest that the solutions are comparable. This paper reports a study that compares the solutions derived from INGRID, SPSS, and CAB for a series of cases. The results show that correspondence was good for the first components, but for the second components the results were less satisfactory     

Group fixed-role therapy: A clinical application

Fixed-role therapy has primarily been seen as a form of individual therapy. However, Kelly 0955) suggested that it would provide an interesting and useful way of approaching group psychotherapy. This article illustrates the feasibility of Kelly's suggestion in a clinical setting. The group had 5 participants, all of whom had been referred for help with social anxiety or social phobia. Self-report measures were administered before and after group therapy, and the outcome was positive.     

Testing a postselectional account of across-dimension switch costs

In visual search for a pop-out target, responses are faster when the target dimension from the previous trial is repeated than when it changes. Currently, it is unclear whether these across-dimension switch costs originate from processes that guide attention to the target or from later processes (e.g., target identification or response selection). The present study tested two critical predictions of a response-selection account of across-dimension switch costs—namely, (1) that switch costs should occur even when visual attention is guided by a completely different feature and (2) that changing the target dimension should affect the speed of responding, but not the speed of eye movements to the target. The results supported both predictions, indicating that changes of the target dimension do not affect early processes that guide attention to the target but, rather, affect later processes, which commence after the target has been selected.     

Never the Twain Shall Meet: A Critical Appraisal of the Combination of Discourse and Psychoanalytic Theory in Studies of Men and Masculinity

In recent years there have been a number of attempts by different researchers to study men and masculinity using a combination of discourse theory and psychoanalysis. The main reason for this development is the sense that, on its own, discourse theory provides an incomplete account of masculine subjectivity. Psychoanalysis is thought to be able to fill those gaps. In this paper I reviewed these arguments, provided an outline of the alleged deficiencies in discursive approaches to men and masculinity, and examined some of the work that has attempted the above synthesis. I argued that, for a number of reasons, such attempts are bound to fail. Instead, I argued that better progress can be made in studies of masculinity by remaining within the theoretical boundaries of Discursive Psychology.     

Karol Wojtyla and Emmanuel Levinas on the Embodied Self: the Forming of the Other as Moral Self-disclosure

The 'other' has taken on an increased theological significance for the Church in the advent of post-modern reflection, resulting in a myriad of possibilities for those who would reflect on the significance of the other in relation to the 'self', largely in connection with various theories of embodiment. Following Karol Wojtyla's (John Paul II) emphasis on the given-ness of the body I wish to illustrate a way in which the other might be understood theologically, informed by the insights of the continental philosophical tradition, specifically Emmanuel Levinas' phenomenological outline of the other as a key locus of ethical reflection. Bringing Levinas' continental philosophy into dialogue with Wojtyla's philosophical theology, it will be argued that the other must be re-approached in terms of their subjective self-disclosure, centring upon the en-fleshed and bodily form of the human person, who confronts us as a reflection of both that which is most other to ourselves (the divine) and paradoxically that which most resembles ourselves (the human). The other is always an en-fleshed subject and in their action, their subjective identity is disclosed on the relational level.     

Wittgenstein and Basic Moral Certainty

In On Certainty, Wittgenstein’s reflections bring into view the phenomenon of basic certainty. He explores this phenomenon mostly in relation to our certainty with regard to empirical states of affairs. Drawing on these seminal observations and reflections, I extend the inquiry into what I call “basic moral certainty”, arguing that the latter plays the same kind of foundational role in our moral practices and judgements as basic empirical certainty does in our epistemic practices and judgements. I illustrate the nature and significance of basic moral certainty via critical examination of contemporary philosophical “explanations” of the wrongness of killing. These pseudo explanations, as I show them to be, will be seen to founder in a similar manner to Moore’s “Proof” of an external world, that is, in a manner that discloses the phenomenon of basic (moral) certainty.