Developing a Dance/Movement Therapy Approach to Qualitatively Analyzing Interview Data

The objective of this research was to develop a model for an embodied-artistic approach to analyzing interview data that could contribute to an enhanced narrative account and/or offer an alternate perspective. A new model was formulated by adapting and/or critically applying a combination of previously developed analytical frameworks. Dance/movement therapy (DMT) skills that encompass ways of listening through an embodied, empathic, aesthetic manner; and a movement observation and assessment tool, Laban Movement Analysis (LMA) were at the core of this explicatory process. The researcher’s movement preferences were identified in the preparatory phase with a certified movement analyst (CMA) as a source for reflexive knowledge. Interviews were conducted with two subsets of dance/movement therapists (N = 6) to: (a) develop the approach in the induction phase (n = 3); and (b) test the approach in the validation phase (n = 3). In the induction phase, the video footage of the dances was shared with a CMA and the participants for peer review. The approach was revised. In the validation phase, this new model was tested with a different subset of dance/movement therapists (n = 3). The analysis was inherent in the process of dance creation. The findings highlighted that interpreting interview data through a dance brings forth the researcher’s values, biases and intersubjective phenomenological experiences. By moving, emotional resonance and dissonance were brought to the fore. The agreement between researcher and participant on the essence of what was communicated in the dance appeared to be determined by a shared aesthetic and emotional consensus. Additionally, the dance analysis articulated the participants’ aspirations and ideas about themselves that they had not verbalized in the interview. The relational and aesthetic focus of the dance approach can reveal intent, justification, and feelings of purpose that would not be discovered through traditional content analysis of written transcriptions. The complex nature of the experience is reflected in the aesthetics with emphasis on the relational manner in which meanings emerge

Effects of Pace and Stress on Upper-Extremity Biomechanical Responses in Sign Language Interpreters

Repetitive motion injuries (RMIs) are disorders of the soft tissues due to repeated exertion and excessive movement of the body. Sign language interpreters who have to move their fingers, hands, wrists and arms repeatedly are susceptible to RMIs. One of the major research voids in the studies of RMIs in sign language interpreters is the lack of quantification of biomechanical exposures. The objective of this study was to analyze the impact of pace and psychosocial stress of sign language interpreting on the biomechanical responses in a quantitative manner and compare the results with the industrial high risk benchmarks. Twelve professional sign language interpreters participated in this study with a one-half hour interpreting task. Biomechanical variables in flexion/extension and radial/ulnar planes of wrist motion in different pace and stress conditions were measured. It was found that pace has a significant positive effect on bilateral biomechanical responses while a positive stress effect was found only for the left hand. The dominant hand was significantly more physically stressed than the non-dominant hand, as indicated by wrist kinetic variables and other wrist motion variables measured in this study. In addition, wrist kinetic variables of sign language interpreting were found similar to or higher than the high risk industrial benchmarks. The results of this study proved with quantitative data that sign language interpreting is a high risk job of RMIs, requiring highly deviated wrist positions, ballistic wrist movements, and highly repetitive wrist motions. The results also shed light on how different factors may influence the biomechanical responses of sign language interpreters

Does your profile say it all? Using demographics to predict expressive head movement during gameplay

In this work, we explore the relation between expressive head movement and user profile information in game play settings. Facial gesture analysis cues are statistically correlated with players' demographic characteristics in two different settings, during game-play and at events of special interest (when the player loses during game play). Experiments were conducted on the Siren database, which consists of 58 participants, playing a modified version of the Super Mario. Here, as player demographics are considered the gender and age, while the statistical importance of certain facial cues (other than typical/universal facial expressions) was analyzed. The proposed analysis aims at exploring the option of utilizing demographic characteristics as part of users' profiling scheme and interpreting visual behavior in a manner that takes into account those features.peer-reviewe

Technical and vocational skills (TVS): a means of preventing violence among youth in Nigeria

Technical and vocational skills are an important tool for reducing violence among youth, especially in Nigeria, who face security challenges due to different kinds of violence. This paper focusses on the policies and programmes intended to provide youth with skills that can help them improve their life instead of engaging in violence. The paper also studies youth participation in violence. The study shows that youth in Nigeria participate in violence because of unemployment and economic pressure. These youth are mostly from poor families and are mostly used by others to achieve their own unlawful ambition. The data were collected from various secondary sources such as textbooks, journals and conference papers that were carefully reviewed. The results obtained from the literature revealed that youth are not committed, sensitised and mobilised to taking advantage of the opportunities available to them. The results also revealed that almost all the programmes meant to provide youths with skills have failed. Poverty alleviation programmes established to create jobs, self-employment and self-reliance have been unsuccessful. Therefore, alternatives must be provided to help the younger generations. Based on the literature reviewed, the paper discusses related issues and outcomes and ends with recommendations to improve the situation

American Sign Language Interpreters and their Influence on the Hearing World

This honors thesis is going to discuss the hearing community’s perception of American Sign Language and by association the hearing community’s perception of the Deaf community. For most of the hearing community their only interaction with American Sign Language is through watching an interpreter perform at their job. They personally have no physical interactions with the language. Even though they have never personally used the language or attempted to interact with the Deaf community they will draw their own conclusions about sign language and the Deaf community. The conclusions that are assumed tend to be incorrect. Early on in the field of interpreting these misunderstandings are encountered. The small nature of the Deaf community makes it hard for these false perceptions to be dismantled because the Deaf community and the hearing population with the misconceptions rarely intersect. This thesis will delve into the extent of these misconceptions and just how much of the hearing world’s perspective they influence. To first understand the potential hazard of the interpreter language model it is important to understand a brief history of American Sign Language and Deaf culture. The paper when then apply these principles to the Deaf community, the interpreter, and the hearing community. The end of the paper will then dispel many of the false perceptions that the hearing community has of Deaf culture. This section is included to show that the misconceptions exist

The Revolution of 1917 — the 1920s and the History of Social and Political Thought from Ivan Lysiak-Rudnytsky’s Perspective

Prominent Ukrainian historian Ivan Lysiak-Rudnytsky (1919–1984) repeatedly addressed the topic of the Ukrainian revolution of 1917 – the 1920s, especially considering its intellectual origins and implications in the context of the history of Ukrainian social and political thought. Analysis of his works shows the manner in which the Ukrainian revolution as an event structures the history of Ukrainian social and political thought in both senses of the term “history”: as history itself and as its historiography. Based on this analysis, the article considers changes in the meaning of the revolution for modern Ukrainians, as well as the credibility – in the context of these changes – of the classifications of the historiography of Ukrainian social and political thought, which rest on the key meaning of the revolution for modern Ukrainian history. The article also supports the conclusion that the rejection of the evolutionary model which I. Lysiak-Rudnytsky most directly addressed will help to outline a well-balanced and reliable history of Ukrainian social and political thought without excessive historicism

The Sui Generis Problem in Plato's Timaeus

In the Timaeus, Plato tells the story of a divine craftsman who, using the world of intelligibles as a model, produces a living and orderly universe from the pre-existing physical elements. The Demiurge in the cosmological narrative has at various times been identified by interpreters of Plato with the model, the product, or even simultaneously both. I intend to argue that there is a strong basis for Plato’s cosmology to be structurally triadic, that is, between a distinct model, cause, and product. As such, the Demiurge, identified with the cause, can be interpreted as ontologically distinct from his product, the World-soul, as well as the model, the Forms. Thus, the Demiurge must be Sui Generis, ontologically distinct from model as well as product

To Tell the Truth on Kant and Christianity: Will the Real Affirmative Interpreter Please Stand Up!

After reviewing the history of the “affirmative” approach to interpreting Kant’s Religion, I offer four responses to the symposium papers in the previous issue of Faith and Philosophy. First, incorrectly identifying Kant’s two “experiments” leads to misunderstandings of his affirmation of Christianity. Second, Kant’s Critical Religion expounds a thoroughgoing interpretation of these experiments, and was not primarily an attempt to confirm the architectonic introduced in Kant’s System of Perspectives. Third, the surprise positions defended by most symposium contributors render the “affirmative” label virtually meaningless. Finally, if Kant is read as constructing perspectival philosophy, not theology, the compatibility of his positions with Christianity stands

Sensing and decision-making in random search

While microscopic organisms can use gradient-based search to locate resources, this strategy can be poorly suited to the sensory signals available to macroscopic organisms. We propose a framework that models search-decision making in cases where sensory signals are infrequent, subject to large fluctuations, and contain little directional information. Our approach simultaneously models an organism's intrinsic movement behavior (e.g. Levy walk) while allowing this behavior to be adjusted based on sensory data. We find that including even a simple model for signal response can dominate other features of random search and greatly improve search performance. In particular, we show that a lack of signal is not a lack of information. Searchers that receive no signal can quickly abandon target-poor regions. Such phenomena naturally give rise to the area-restricted search behavior exhibited by many searching organisms