Human Nature and Research Paradigms: Theory Meets Physical Therapy Practice

Human nature is a very complex phenomenon. In physical therapy this complexity is enhanced by the need to understand the intersection between the art and science of human behavior and patient care. A paradigm is a set of basic beliefs that represent a worldview, defines the nature of the world and the individuals place in it, and helps to determine criteria used to select and define research inquiry. A paradigm guides scientific inquiry, not only in the manner in which an investigation is performed, but also in how the investigator defines truth and reality and how the investigator comes to know truth or reality. A paradigm guides the types of research questions that will be posed, the methodological approach to the inquiry, and criteria for assessing the trustworthiness of the inquiry. Research plays an important role in enabling physical therapists to fully embrace the values of the profession, including evidence-based practice and client-centered care, in making informed clinical decisions. However, to do so, the research provided must include not only the views of the researchers, but also the lived experiences of the clients as well. This paper provides the reader with a solid foundation in the positivist/post-positivist, constructivist, and critical theorist research paradigms and how they apply in physical therapy practice. Research perspectives in physical therapy are explored, as are implications for future practice in physical therapy

Exploring Standardized Patients’ Perspectives on Working with Medical Students

Little is known about how working with emerging medical professionals affects Standardized Patients’ (SPs’) professional identities, yet understanding the SP-medical student interaction could be useful for screening SPs, supporting SP professional identity formation, and bridging the SP and medical student cultures. This project provides the unique perspective of SPs involved in the growth of medical students into physicians. Qualitative methods were used to understand the SPs’ perspectives. Two researchers, without evaluative relationships with the SPs, conducted 2 one-hour focus group interviews (n=3; n=9) using a semi-structured interview protocol. Interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Three researchers independently analyzed the transcripts to identify clusters of meaning and codes. Codes identified by consensus and analysis continued until saturation was reached, followed by identification of categories and themes. To ensure credibility and trustworthiness of the results, investigators used triangulation of methods and researchers, prolonged engagement with the data, and presentation of thick rich descriptions as evidence of each theme. A number of themes were identified in these focus group interviews. SPs experienced a transformation of purpose and the emergence of a new professional identity, including genuine professional, guide, teacher, counselor and surrogate parent. They discovered personal meaning and mutuality in their relationships with students, like the satisfaction of helping others, benefiting society, and growing personally. SPs found themselves reacting to student behaviors in a variety of ways including admiration, dislike, surprise, and discomfort. Finally, SPs confronted challenges in moving between their simulated and real selves. This analysis provided insights into transformations SPs underwent as a result their work. It revealed a self-actualization process in which SPs experienced an emergence of new roles and a discovery of new meaning in their relationships similar to the professional identity formation process of students. Understanding this process may prove useful to SP educators in knowing how to best nurture identity, train SPS, reinforce job meaningfulness and increase SP recruitment and retention. SP perspectives about their students’ behaviors may be useful to SP educators in acclimatizing them to the simulation process

Exploring Performance in Air Force Science and Technology Programs

Science and technology (S&T) programs serve an important function in the defense acquisition process as the initial phase leading to discovery and development of warfighting technology. The results of these programs impact the larger major defense acquisition programs, which integrate the technologies in subsequent phases of the life cycle. Despite this important role, little prior research has examined the performance of S&T programs. In this study, the authors investigate the impact of technological maturation as a critical success factor in Air Force S&T programs. The results suggest that S&T programs with mature technologies are more likely to experience above average cost growth and larger contract values while less likely to experience schedule growth. Additionally, the authors find the partnership method between the government and contractor matters for both technological maturation and schedule growth. Lastly, the nature of the S&T program is important, with aerospace programs more likely to technologically mature than human systems programs

The positive soundscape project : a synthesis of results from many disciplines

This paper takes an overall view of ongoing findings from the Positive Soundscape Project, a large inter-disciplinary soundscapes study which is nearing completion. Qualitative fieldwork (soundwalks and focus groups) and lab-based listening tests have revealed that two key dimensions of the emotional response are calmness and vibrancy. In the lab these factors explain nearly 80% of the variance in listener response. Physiological validation is being sought using fMRI measurements, and these have so far shown significant differences in the response of the brain to affective and neutral soundscapes. A conceptual framework which links the key soundscape components and which could be used for future design is outlined. Metrics are suggested for some perceptual scales and possibilities for soundscape synthesis for design and user engagement are discussed, as are the applications of the results to future research and environmental noise policy

Consonance perception beyond the traditional existence region of pitch

Some theories posit that the perception of consonance is based on neural periodicity detection, which is dependent on accurate phase locking of auditory nerve fibers to features of the stimulus waveform. In the current study, 15 listeners were asked to rate the pleasantness of complex tone dyads (2 note chords) forming various harmonic intervals and bandpass filtered in a high-frequency region (all components >5.8 kHz), where phase locking to the rapid stimulus fine structure is thought to be severely degraded or absent. The two notes were presented to opposite ears. Consonant intervals (minor third and perfect fifth) received higher ratings than dissonant intervals (minor second and tritone). The results could not be explained in terms of phase locking to the slower waveform envelope because the preference for consonant intervals was higher when the stimuli were harmonic, compared to a condition in which they were made inharmonic by shifting their component frequencies by a constant offset, so as to preserve their envelope periodicity. Overall the results indicate that, if phase locking is indeed absent at frequencies greater than ∼5 kHz, neural periodicity detection is not necessary for the perception of consonance

An activity-centric conceptual framework for assessing and creating positive urban soundscapes

The Positive Soundscapes Project is an interdisciplinary investigation of soundscape perception [1]. The project seeks to develop a rounded view of human perception of soundscapes by drawing together methods from the disciplines of engineering sound quality [2], acoustics, psychoacoustics, physiology [3], as well as sound art, acoustic ecology and social science [4]. In the acoustics community, sound in the environment, especially that made by other people has overwhelmingly been considered in negative terms as both intrusive and undesirable. The strong focus of traditional engineering acoustics on reducing noise levels ignores the many possibilities for characterizing positive aspects of the soundscape, whereas art and social science disciplines interpret soundscape perception as a multimodal and multi-dimensional concept. The project team come from a wide range of disciplines and are applying their experiences to investigate soundscapes from different aspects to produce a more nuanced and complete picture of listener response than has so far been achieved. In order for the team behind the project to achieve this, an underpinning framework is required, by which to approach and move the project forward, while aligning thinking from the different disciplines. This paper describes a high-level first iteration of the conceptual framework, which is structured in three parts. The use and potential application of the framework within the Positive Soundscapes Project is then discussed

Improving Acquisitions In Science And Technology Programs: Creating Unique Cost Factors To Improve Resource Allocation Decisions

Acquisition Research Program Sponsored Report SeriesSponsored Acquisition Research & Technical ReportsCost factors are a common technique employed in Major Defense Acquisition Program (MDAP) cost estimating. The extant suite of available factors, however, primarily consists of development factors from the Engineering and Manufacturing Development (EMD) phase of the life cycle. This study expands the set of factors available to analysts by producing cost factors germane to programs early in the life cycle (i.e. Science and Technology (S&T) programs) and also creates factors for the Production phase of the life cycle. Cost factor development in S&T programs provides unique challenges due to non-standard reporting requirements. To meet these challenges, this study first mapped S&T cost data to create a new, suggested Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) that mirrors the WBS structure utilized in MDAPs via Mil-Std-881. From this, it was determined that two cost factors commonly utilized in MDAP estimates, Systems Engineering/Program Management (SE/PM) and Systems Test and Evaluation (ST&E) could be derived for the S&T programs. The creation of factors for the production phase of the life cycle resulted in 1033 new cost factors from a multitude of diverse programs. Factors were developed by commodity type (aircraft, missile, UAV, space, and ship), contract type (various), contractor type (prime and sub), and Service (Air Force, Army, and Navy). Combining the results of the previous EMD factors developed (Markman et al., 2019) with the two new phases developed here (S&T; Production) results in a robust cost factor toolkit across the acquisition life cycle spectrum.Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited.Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited

The spike train statistics for consonant and dissonant musical accords

The simple system composed of three neural-like noisy elements is considered. Two of them (sensory neurons or sensors) are stimulated by noise and periodic signals with different ratio of frequencies, and the third one (interneuron) receives the output of these two sensors and noise. We propose the analytical approach to analysis of Interspike Intervals (ISI) statistics of the spike train generated by the interneuron. The ISI distributions of the sensory neurons are considered to be known. The frequencies of the input sinusoidal signals are in ratios, which are usual for music. We show that in the case of small integer ratios (musical consonance) the input pair of sinusoids results in the ISI distribution appropriate for more regular output spike train than in a case of large integer ratios (musical dissonance) of input frequencies. These effects are explained from the viewpoint of the proposed theory.Comment: 22 pages, 6 figure

An overview of the major phenomena of the localization of sound sources by normal-hearing, hearing-impaired, and aided listeners

Localizing a sound source requires the auditory system to determine its direction and its distance. In general, hearing-impaired listeners do less well in experiments measuring localization performance than normal-hearing listeners, and hearing aids often exacerbate matters. This article summarizes the major experimental effects in direction (and its underlying cues of interaural time differences and interaural level differences) and distance for normal-hearing, hearing-impaired, and aided listeners. Front/back errors and the importance of self-motion are noted. The influence of vision on the localization of real-world sounds is emphasized, such as through the ventriloquist effect or the intriguing link between spatial hearing and visual attention