Maintenance of postural stability as a function of tilted base of support

The experiment was set-up to investigate the mechanisms of postural control by manipulating the base of support angle, using tilted platform wedges. The primary focus was to analyze the coupling of the motion of the center of mass (CoM) and the center of pressure (CoP), and the motions of the leg joints considered as individual components and synergies. The CoM-CoP coupling (both medio-lateral and anterioposterior) was preserved (∼0°) across all tilted platform angles (35°, 30°, 20°, 10° Down, 0° Flat and 10°, 20°, 25° Up), reflecting an in-phase pattern. There was high coherence (∼1) for CoM-CoP in the lower frequency range, whereas contrarily the hip, knee and ankle pair-wise couplings had values ranging between (0.4 and 0.7) across the different platform angle conditions. These findings are consistent with the view that the local pair-wise coupled variables of Hip, Knee and Ankle motions adaptively self-organized to preserve the CoM-CoP in-phase coupling at equilibrium over the baseline (0° Flat) platform condition and all other tilted platform angles. The findings support the hypothesis of CoM-CoP coupling acting as a collective variable that provides the structural integrity of the system for upright quiet standing across the platform angle conditions.     

Lost in the Rhythm: Effects of Rhythm on Subsequent Interpersonal Coordination

Music is a natural human expression present in all cultures, but the functions it serves are still debated. Previous research indicates that rhythm, an essential feature of music, can enhance coordination of movement and increase social bonding. However, the prolonged effects of rhythm have not yet been investigated. In this study, pairs of participants were exposed to one of three kinds of auditory stimuli (rhythmic, arrhythmic, or white‐noise) and subsequently engaged in five trials of a joint‐action task demanding interpersonal coordination. We show that when compared with the other two stimuli, exposure to the rhythmic beat reduced the practice effect in task performance. Analysis of the behavioral data suggests that this reduction results from more temporally coupled motor movements over successive trials and that shared exposure to rhythm facilitates interpersonal motor coupling, which in this context serves to impede the attainment of necessary dynamic coordination. We propose that rhythm has the potential to enhance interpersonal motor coupling, which might serve as a mechanism behind its facilitation of positive social attitudes.     

Disruption of kinematic coordination in throwing under stress

The present study tested the conscious-control theory of the relationship between stress and performance. Performers under stress conditions consciously attempted to control their movements, disrupting the automaticity of control. Twenty-two male subjects (11 in Experiment 1 and 11 in Experiment 2) performed an underhand ball-throwing task using the non-dominant hand. The inter-trial variability of two kinematic measures was analyzed, namely arm-joint coordination during the throw and hand position at release (release point). Experiment 1 confirmed the validity of regarding these variability measures as indices of automaticity, as they did not vary in spite of resource shortage induced by a dual-task paradigm. In Experiment 2, in which stress led to a detriment in performance, the variability of joint coordination increased, whereas the release point became more fixed. These findings imply that throwing performance is impaired when the coordination is disrupted as a result of inflexible movement executed by conscious control.     

EMDR and Emotionally Oriented Couples Therapy

When reviewing past and current research on the role of emotion in couples therapy, there appeared to be a lack of articulation concerning how emotional expressions and relational dynamics are affected by emotional trauma that has not been accessed. The authors demonstrate how emotionally and experientially oriented therapy with couples can be enhanced by accessing stored trauma through the use of Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR). This approach is called Eye Movement Relationship Enhancement (EMRE) therapy and includes key clinical areas such as accessing and tolerating previously disowned emotion, reprocessing emotional experiences, and amplifying couple intimacy. These key areas are discussed and illustrated with case examples.     

Shared dynamics of attentional cost and pattern stability.

This paper examines the informational activity devoted by the CNS to couple oscillating limbs in order to sustain and stabilize bimanual coordination patterns. Through a double-task paradigm associating a bimanual coordination task and a reaction time (RT) task, we investigated the relation between the stability of preferred bimanual coordination patterns and the central cost expended by the CNS for their stabilization. Ten participants performed in-phase and anti-phase coordination patterns in a dual task condition (coordination + RT) at several frequencies (0.5, 0.75, 1.0, 1.5, and 2.0 Hz), thereby decreasing the stability of the bimanual patterns. Results showed a U-shaped evolution of pattern stability and attentional cost, as a function of oscillation frequency, exhibiting a minimum value at the same frequency. These findings indicate that central cost and pattern stability covary and may share common, high order dynamics. Moreover, the attentional focus given to the bimanual coordination and the RT task was also manipulated by requiring either shared attention or priority to the coordination task. Such a manipulation led to a tradeoff between pattern stability and RT performance: The more stable the pattern, the more costly it is to stabilize. This suggests that stabilizing a coordination pattern incurs a central cost that depends on its intrinsic stability. Conceptual consequences of these results for understanding the relationship between attention and coordination are drawn, and the mechanisms putatively at work in dual tasks are discussed.     

软件开发组织的沟通与协调

在对软件开发中人员与组织问题进行回顾的基础上,该文首先就软件开发组织沟通与协调的重要性进行分析,然后对软件开发组织中的沟通与团队结构、沟通与项目成员、沟通频次分布、沟通方式等问题,以及整体协调、外部协调、内部协调等问题进行阐述。最后就今后软件开发组织沟通与协调问题可拓展的研究方向进行了讨论。     

病人权利运动综述

病人权利运动以“个人主义”为思想基础,从１８世纪的法国开始,一直延续至今。在这一运动的推动下,２０世纪５０年代以后,各国制定了一系列有关病人权利的伦理学文献,对于维护病人的权利发挥了重要作用。     

Body-related emotions and subsequent physical activity behaviour: An ecological momentary assessment

Body-related shame and guilt are theorized to be time-varying affective determinants of physical activity, yet research has predominantly relied on self-report measures of physical activity and between-person associations. To address these limitations, the present study used ecological momentary assessment to examine within- and between-person associations between body-related shame and guilt, and subsequent time spent in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) measured by continuously worn accelerometers. University students (n = 98; 79.6% female; m_age = 19.45) were prompted 49 times over seven days to report body-related shame and guilt, and wore activPAL accelerometers to monitor movement behaviours. Higher levels of within-person body-related guilt, but not shame, were associated with increased subsequent time spent in MVPA. Contrary to existing literature, neither body-related shame nor guilt demonstrated a significant association with average levels of MVPA between individuals. These findings support theoretical propositions that body-related guilt may impact engagement in physical activity in daily life.     

Perspective on “in the wild” movement analysis using machine learning

Recent advances in wearable sensing and machine learning have created ample opportunities for “in the wild” movement analysis in sports, since the combination of both enables real-time feedback to be provided to athletes and coaches, as well as long-term monitoring of movements. The potential for real-time feedback is useful for performance enhancement or technique analysis, and can be achieved by training efficient models and implementing them on dedicated hardware. Long-term monitoring of movement can be used for injury prevention, among others. Such applications are often enabled by training a machine learned model from large datasets that have been collected using wearable sensors. Therefore, in this perspective paper, we provide an overview of approaches for studies that aim to analyze sports movement “in the wild” using wearable sensors and machine learning. First, we discuss how a measurement protocol can be set up by answering six questions. Then, we discuss the benefits and pitfalls and provide recommendations for effective training of machine learning models from movement data, focusing on data pre-processing, feature calculation, and model selection and tuning. Finally, we highlight two application domains where “in the wild” data recording was combined with machine learning for injury prevention and technique analysis, respectively.     

Towards a broader scope of biomechanics in developmental studies: a commentary on Jensen (2005)

In this article, we discuss where biomechanical analysis can contribute to our understanding of motor development, and more particularly in what ways biomechanics can contribute to (1) explaining the universal sequence in motor milestones; (2) explaining variations in developmental sequence between individuals; (3) understanding the impact of context on the actions of an individual; and (4) understanding, preventing, and managing chronic disabilities. In our view, biomechanics is concerned with the dynamics of the musculo‐skeletal system (MSS) and thus provides insights in the way motion is affected by the activation of muscles and the mechanical interaction between the MSS and the environment. Biomechanical analysis is important in understanding the development of actions that depend on the perceptual‐motor loop although it cannot provide a full account of the changes in the behaviour. The contributions and limitations of specific biomechanical analyses such as the inverse and forward dynamical models are discussed in the light of the article of Jensen (2005). Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.