The Behavioral Dyscontrol Scale and Functional Status Among Elderly Medical and Surgical Rehabilitation Patients

This research was conducted in a sample of 150 older adults (mean age = 78.0) who were inpatients receiving rehabilitation services for a variety of medical and postsurgical conditions. The purpose of the study was to test the hypothesis that the Behavioral Dyscontrol Scale (BDS), a measure of the ability to use intentions to guide purposeful activity, would be strongly associated with concurrent functional status after controlling for age, sex, education, severity of pain, medical comorbidity, depression (Geriatric Depression Scale), and general mental status (Mini Mental State Exam [MMSE]). Functional status was assessed by rehabilitaion nurses' ratings of patients on 11 individual Activities of Daily Living (ADL) items and the Barthel Index. The hypothesis, tested by means of multiple regression analysis, was supported by the results. The BDS was the independent variable most strongly associated with all 11 ADL items and the Barthel Index. The MMSE contributed significantly to none of the models. Other covariates made minimal contributions to the variance shared with functional ability. Consistent with prior results in other samples, the ability to use intentions to guide purposeful behavior appears to be an important contributor to everyday functioning among older adults.     

Quadriceps-hamstrings intermuscular coherence during single-leg squatting 3–12 years following a youth sport-related knee injury

The purpose of this study was to determine the degree of co-contraction as per electromyographic gamma-band intermuscular coherence of the quadricep (Q) and hamstring (H) muscles during single-leg squatting (SLS), and to assess the influence of sex and self-reported knee complaints on the association between knee injury history and medial and lateral Q-H intermuscular coherence.Participants included 34 individuals who suffered a youth sport-related intra-articular knee injury 3–12 years previously, and 37 individuals with no knee injury history. Surface electromyographic signals were recorded from medial and lateral thigh muscles bilaterally to determine the gamma-band (30–60 Hz) intermuscular coherence between medial and lateral Q-H muscle pairs during SLS. Multivariable linear regression (α = 0.05) was performed to investigate the relationship between knee injury history (main exposure) and medial and lateral Q-H coherence (outcome) while accounting for the influence of sex and self-reported knee pain and symptoms (covariates).The median age of participants was 25 (range 18–30) and 67% were female. Q-H gamma-band coherence was present for 60–90% of legs. Medial and lateral Q-H coherence was higher in females compared to males. There was no evidence for an association between medial Q-H coherence, knee injury history, knee pain, or symptoms. There was evidence for an association between knee injury history and lateral Q-H coherence, which was modified by sex such that previously injured males demonstrated reduced Q-H coherence compared to uninjured males.These finding suggest that females demonstrate a more pronounced Q-H co-contraction strategy during a SLS than males regardless of knee injury history. Further, that male who suffered a youth sport-related knee injury 3–12 years previously demonstrate less Q-H co-contraction during a SLS than uninjured males. The mechanisms behind differences in neuromuscular control between males and females as well as previously injured and uninjured males require further investigation.     

JOURNEY OF THE UNIVERSE: WEAVING SCIENCE WITH THE HUMANITIES

This article discusses Journey of the Universe as a project that consists of a film, book, conversation series, online classes, and a website. It describes how the creators worked to integrate science and humanities, not privilege or elevate science. It refutes arguments made in Lisa Sideris's Consecrating Science: Wonder, Knowledge, and the Natural World that suggest that Journey overlooks religion and distorts wonder. The article observes that Journey does not dismiss religion but includes it in explicit ways. It does not dictate wonder; it evokes wonder. In short, Journey is a living or functional cosmology with implications for mutually enhancing human–Earth relations.     

Positive Loss and Tragic Memory: On the Preservation of Community

Theologies of disaster have to recognize exceptional disasters in the framework of a general human exposure to vulnerability, while engaging in the formation of human and religious resilience. Resilience is about “bouncing back and forward” in and through precautionary and self‐adaptive responses to disasters. Drawing up a distinction between personal tragedies and socially shared disasters, the basic argument is that the reconnection of disrupted communities lies at the center of both tragedy and disaster. This article describes a post‐secular theology of tragedy and disaster that mainly stays in a vernacular language, referring to basic assumptions of the gospel while refraining from using the heavier repertoires of Christian doctrine.     

A portable defense of the Procreation Asymmetry

Abstract

The Procreation Asymmetry holds that we have strong moral reasons not to create miserable people for their own sakes, but no moral reasons to create happy people for their own sakes. To defend this conjunction against an argument that it leads to inconsistency, I show how recognizing ‘creation’ as a temporally extended process allows us to revise the conjuncts in a way that preserves their intuitive force. This defense of the Procreation Asymmetry is preferable to others because it does not require us to take on controversial metaphysical or metaethical commitments – in other words, it has the theoretical virtue of portability.     

我对卒中单元的体会

卒中单元作为卒中治疗的最佳模式,逐渐被临床医生所接受,就卒中单元的概念、特点及我国卒中的现状等多数人所关心的问题进行了分析和探讨,以助于更好的理解。     

建立有中国特色的卒中单元

卒中单元是一种医疗管理模式,它将治疗脑卒中的有效手段集中在一起,让病人在有效治疗时间窗内的到他所需要的最佳治疗,尽可能地使卒中病人恢复神经功能,恢复自我,回归社会。但我国的卒中单元还存在许多问题,需共同努力建立有中国特色的卒中单元。     

Teaching Pedestrian Skills to Individuals with Developmental Disabilities

The purpose of the present study was to examine the effectiveness of most to least prompting on teaching pedestrian skills to individuals with developmental disabilities. Five individuals with developmental disabilities were taught three different pedestrian skills, all related to crossing the streets, using simulation activities on a road model in the gym of their school. A multiple probe design across behaviors was used to evaluate the effects of most to least prompting. The results of the study revealed that most to least prompting was effective in teaching pedestrian skills. The subjects learned each of the skills and managed to generalize these skills to the actual city traffic.