Absence of Ankle Stiffening While Standing in Focus and Cognitive Task Conditions in Older Adults

Abstract

Research suggests that an external focus or cognitive task may improve postural control. Removing attention from movement production may promote automaticity, or the tasks may promote ankle stiffening. To investigate these two theories, twenty older adults stood while performing baseline standing, internal focus, external focus, and two cognitive tasks. Changes in postural control occurred in external focus and cognitive task conditions compared to baseline and internal focus, while no change occurred in cocontraction indices. This suggests that an external focus and cognitive task can improve postural control in older adults. Since no change occurred in cocontraction indices across conditions, this suggests that stiffening cannot explain these changes. Instead, changes could be due to automaticity of sway.     

Children's Creative Intentions: Where do the Ideas for their Drawings Come from?

The process of drawing is a creative endeavor, often beginning with ideas of what to draw. This exploratory study aimed to explore these creative intentions of pupils from mainstream schools (tending to focus on observational, imaginative, and expressive drawing), and from Steiner schools (tending to focus on imagination and expression). Fifty-seven children (age 6–16 years) drew a single drawing at the request of the researcher. Before and after drawing, children completed a semi-structured interview about the content of their drawing. This interview was first analyzed qualitatively using thematic analysis to describe where children got the ideas for their drawings from. Four key themes were identified: (a) content from immediate surroundings, (b) content from memory, (c) representational content with element of imagination added, and (d) intention to express a mood or message. Content analysis was then used to quantify the interview responses and compare them between the school types. This indicated no difference in the frequency that mainstream and Steiner pupils referred to ideas based on real-world referents or imagination. However, Steiner pupils talked more about expressive ideas. The results suggest that children use a wide range of sources when generating ideas of what to draw, including their educational experiences.     

儿童语言样本的分析技术

语言样本分析是评定儿童表达性语言能力发展的一个有效的广泛应用的方法,文章介绍了国外关于语言样本分析技术的发展情况,包括语言样本分析的程序、流行程度、语言样本的诱发方式,及其宏观结构和微观结构的分析指标;总结了国内在儿童语言样本分析领域的三方面的探索研究;未来的国内研究可以在宏观结构分析方面借鉴国外的经验,但在微观结构分析方面还需要基于汉语自身的特点,开发出适于中国儿童的语言样本分析指标。     

肥胖男性血浆脂联素水平及影响因素

检测正常男性血浆脂联素水平,探讨其与各检测指标之间的相关性。选取正常男性96例,按体重指数（BMI）将上述两组分为2个亚组：肥胖（BMI≥25kg／m^2）组40例及体重正常（BMI〈25kg／m^2）组56例,测定空腹血浆脂联素浓度。肥胖组的血浆脂联素水平[（7．48±3．4）μg／m1]明显低于体重正常组[（10．57±4．73）μg／m1],差异有显著的统计学意义（P〈0．01）。相关分析显示血浆脂联素与体重指数（BMI）、腰围（WC）、血压（BP）、总胆固醇（TC）、血清胰岛素（FINs）、胰岛素抵抗指数（HOMA-IR）之间存在负相关,与高密度脂蛋白胆固醇（HDL-C）正相关。BMI、WC、HOMA-IR为影响血浆脂联素水平的独立因素。男性肥胖者血浆脂联素水平较体重正常者明显降低,血浆脂联素水平可能与肥胖及其相关疾病相关。     

建立县级领导干部绩效结构和考核指标体系的思考

县级领导干部的绩效考核一直是党和国家关注的焦点,而实践中县级领导干部的绩效考核多年来一直是个难点问题。该文通过回顾国内外绩效考核的相关理论和文献,对应该如何建立科学有效的县级领导干部绩效结构及考核指标体系进行了探讨,并进一步提出了其研究的创新和意义所在。     

Imagining human enhancement: whose future,which rationality?

This article critically evaluates bettering human life. Because this involves lives that do not exist yet, the article investigates human eugenics and enhancement through the social prism of ‘the imaginary’ (defined ‘as a set of assumptions and concepts for thinking and speaking about human enhancement and its future direction’) [1]. “Exploring basic assumptions underlying the idea of human enhancement” investigates underlying assumptions and claims for human enhancement. Firstly, human eugenics and enhancement entangles a factual as well as a normative claim about what improvement/betterment maybe constitutive of. Secondly, claims about what a better life is, is often a future orientated claim about whether certain kinds of life that do not exist yet should ever exist. Moral images of thought are introduced and how they work to make normative judgments about lives that do not exist. This implicates the moral problem of difference, where an image of a ‘better’ life—classically expressed in eugenics as a ‘superior’ and/or ‘normal’ life—necessarily entails inferiority and/or deviance from a norm. “Moral imagination in contemporary fiction and the history of old eugenics”, introduces moral images in history of eugenics and demonstrates how examples fall foul of the problem. “The new (liberal) eugenics and the moral image of therapy” examines progress in contemporary debates, the move from authoritarian to non-authoritarian eugenics (human enhancement), and how, to some extent, this has solved the problem of difference, through liberal defence of personal choice. “The heart of the eugenic issue” suggests that personal choice in liberal non-authoritarian eugenics is not immune to basic drive behind all eugenic arguments; desire as lack which is expressed as the continual dissatisfaction of not having our future expectations met.

The relative contribution of profile body shape and weight to judgements of women's physical attractiveness in Britain and Malaysia

Ninety-six Malaysian and British men rated for physical attractiveness a set of photographs of real women in profile, with known body mass index (BMI) and waist-to-hip ratio (WHR). Results showed that BMI accounted for the greater amount of variance in all settings. There were also significant differences in preferences for body weight, with low resource, low socioeconomic status (SES) raters preferring a significantly heavier partner than high resource, high SES raters. The disparity with previous findings using line drawings of women in profile was discussed in terms of the weaknesses of line-drawn stimuli.     

6～11年级学生情绪自我调节发展研究

本研究以六年级到高二学生为被试进行问卷研究,着重探讨与情绪表达有关的自我意向和具体情境下的情绪反应。问卷设置了事件的正-负性、事件的大-小、情绪反应的人际-单独场合等多种情境因素。结果显示,稳重和开朗自我意向影响着情绪表达。开朗意向一般表现人际场合的情绪增强表达,稳重意向对单独场合的强表达和人际场合的弱表达有预测效果。进一步探讨日常活动与情绪表达状态及心理健康的关系,结果表明,日常活动的丰富性可以形成对个体情绪表达的有益补充。     

Preferences for female body size in Britain and the South Pacific

To assess current attitudes to body weight and shape in the South Pacific, a region characterised by relatively high levels of obesity and traditionally positive views of large bodies, 38 high socio-economic status (SES) adolescent males and 38 low SES adolescent males in Independent Samoa were asked to rate a set of images of real women for physical attractiveness. Participants in both SES settings preferred women with a slender figure, as did a comparison group in Britain, suggesting that the traditional veneration of large bodies is no longer apparent in Samoa. However, the results also showed that low SES adolescents were more likely to view overweight figures as attractive, which suggests that the veneration of slim figures may be associated with increasing SES. Implications of this finding are discussed in conclusion.     

癫痫诊治中医患同盟建立的实践与策略

通过对肝硬化者行超声检测,预测食管静脉出血,结果显示,出血组门静脉及胃左静脉管径均增粗,但胃左静脉更明显,门静脉血流速减慢而胃左静脉增快;出血组胃左静脉均呈离肝血流,其分流指数明显增大。胃左静脉的管径及血流速与门静脉比较具有显著的变化,其分流指数和血流方向在预测出血方面具有更大的价值。