L'impact de la chorée sur les mouvements alternés rapides des patients ayant la maladie de Huntington = The impact of chorea on rapid alternating movements in patients with Huntington's disease

Le but de cette étude était d'isoler l'impact de la chorée sur les mouvements volontaires, pour mieux évaluer le rôle des mouvements involontaires sur les perturbations motrices observées chez les patients ayant la maladie de Huntington. Les mouvements involontaires du corps ainsi que les actions motrices volontaires furent enregistrés simultanément, à l'aide d'un système de pistage magnétique, chez quinze patients choréiques ayant la maladie de Huntington ainsi que chez quinze sujets contrôle en bonne santé de même âge et sexe. Il a été demandé aux participants d'accomplir deux tâches distinctes; une de mouvements alternés rapides (RAM) qui permettra de quantifier l'hypokinésie et la bradykinésie, et une tâche de poursuite manuelle (MT) qui fournira une mesure quant à l'intrusion des chorées lors de mouvements précis. Les patients ayant la maladie de Huntington ont obtenu de meilleurs résultats comparativement aux sujets contrôles lors de la tâche RAM, démontrant ainsi l'absence de bradykinésie chez ces sujets. Lors de la tâche MT, les patients ayant la maladie de Huntington ont démontré une déviation par rapport à l'emplacement de la cible réduisant ainsi leur habileté à reproduire sa vitesse. De plus, une corrélation fût établie entre l'erreur au niveau des performances et l'amplitude des chorées du corps, illustrant l'effet néfaste des chorées lors de mouvements précis. Ces résultats démontrent clairement que la bradykinésie n'est pas un symptôme de la maladie de Huntington lorsque des chorées sont présentes, mais que les chorées sont la principale cause d'erreur de performance lors de mouvements précis. Donc, les patients atteints de la maladie de Huntington bénéficieraient grandement de traitements visant à réduire les chorées tout en maintenant une fonction motrice adéquate. ______________________________________________________________________________ MOTS-CLÉS DE L’AUTEUR : Huntington, Bradykinesia, Chorée, Quantification, Parkinson

Navajo Peacemaking and Māori Restorative Justice: a Comparison of Process and Procedure

Due to the failure of some crime control approaches in law enforcement alternatives are being examined to determine their applicability in today\u27s society. One of the approaches gaining criminological attention is Navajo Peacemaking . another similar style of crime control is the Māori restorative justice process used in New Zealand. The purposed of this research study is to examine and compare these processes to determine their applicability as crime prevention tools in U.S. towns and cities. Walter Miller\u27s Focal Concerns Theory was used to address the difference in motivation between mainstream culture and its subcultures. The results from this study demonstrated that much of the success of these two approaches is a result of the religious and cultural backgrounds of the subcultures that developed them. Both methods rely on communication between victim, offender and members of the tribe to decide the appropriate response to incidents. The Navajo Peacemaking process is better developed to work within their legal framework and is better documented than the Māori restorative process. This difference makes the Navajo approach the better choice for adaptation for modern societal needs. Since there is no single dominant religion or culture in the U.S. there is not currently a stable basic for building a new crime control process employing either of these methodologies. However, these processes provide inspiration for a different, less retribution-oriented method of crime control and are a possible resolution for some criminological issues

System development guidelines from a review of motion-based technology for people with MCI or dementia

As the population ages and the number of people living with dementia or mild cognitive impairment (MCI) continues to increase, it is critical to identify creative and innovative ways to support and improve their quality of life. Motion-based technology has shown significant potential for people living with dementia or MCI by providing opportunities for cognitive stimulation, physical activity and participation in meaningful leisure activities, while simultaneously functioning as a useful tool for research and development of interventions. However, many of the current systems created using motion-based technology have not been designed specifically for people with dementia or MCI. Additionally, the usability and accessibility of these systems for these populations has not been thoroughly considered. This paper presents a set of system development guidelines derived from a review of the state of the art of motion-based technologies for people with dementia or MCI. These guidelines highlight three overarching domains of consideration for systems targeting people with dementia or MCI: (i) cognitive, (ii) physical, and (iii) social. We present the guidelines in terms of relevant design and use considerations within these domains and the emergent design themes within each domain. Our hope is that these guidelines will aid in designing motion-based software to meet the needs of people with dementia or MCI such that the potential of these technologies can be realized

Biochemical and Functional Relationships in Cheese.

End of Project ReportCheese is used extensively in cooking applications, mainly because of its flavour and heat-induced functionality, which is a composite of different attributes such as softening, flow and stretch. The functional attributes of cooked cheese generally have a major impact on the quality of foods in which cheese is included as an ingredient, e.g. pizza pie. Owing to its importance in cookery applications, numerous studies have been undertaken on the effects of different factors on the age-related changes in the functionality of cooked cheese, especially Mozzarella, and to a lesser extent, Cheddar and processed cheese. These studies have shown that the functionality of natural cheese is dynamic, with the different functional attributes undergoing marked changes during ripening, and, for a given cheese variety, the desired functional attributes are optimum within a specific time frame during maturation. The time at which the cheese becomes functional and the width of the window - and hence the functional shelf-life, are affected by the extent of chemical changes, including the increase in proteolysis and the ratio of bound to free moisture. The main aims of this project were to investigate the effects of the following on the age-related changes in heat-related functional attributes (e.g. stretchability, fluidity) of cheese: * fat reduction, * the degree of fat emulsification, * the pH and calcium content and their interaction, * the correlation between proteolysis and functional attributes, especially attributes other than flowability, e.g. rheological properties of raw cheese, stretchability of heated cheese, and * the age-related changes in the functionality of cheeses other than Mozzarella, e.g. analogue pizza cheese and Emmental. At the outset of this project, comparatively little information was available on the effects of the above parameters on the age-related changes in heatinduced functional attributes (e.g. stretchability, fluidity) of cheese, especially for varieties other than Mozzarella.Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marin

The role of motor information in learning and behavior in the presence and absence of challenge, physical or cognitive.

This thesis was specifically designed to explore the role of motor information in behavior and learning in the presence and absence of physical and cognitive challenges. The first experiment examined the role of motor information in the maintenance of standing balance. This study found that light touch (motor information) was most useful when visual condition was challenging, eyes closed. Increased benefit of touch in the presence of challenge suggests that motor information may provide similar information as other senses, and act in a compensatory fashion when those senses are challenged. The second study examined the role of motor information, in the form of enactment, in learning a motor communication task. Results from this study support a role for motor information in enriching the learning environment by strengthening memory to reduce rate of forgetting. The third study examined the role of motor information in disease, using motor-centric instruction and guided movements to teach persons with Alzheimer Dementia to bowl using the Nintendo Wii TM. The spared motor learning observed in these participants confirms claims in the literature of spared motor function in persons with dementia and strengthens the claim the motor system can provide compensatory information to support challenged cognitive systems. Taken together, these findings add to the current literature supporting motor pathways with information separable form other sensory pathways and spared motor capacity to learn in dementia.Doctor of Philosophy (PhD

Asset development and state standards woven into a cloth of student achievement

In 2002, President George W. Bush passed a bill entitled No Child Left Behind. The key goal of the legislation is that every child will succeed in school. At the district, state, and national level, all students are being held to higher standards for academic achievement. In the State of California, students in high school are being required to pass an exit examine to graduate. Goldschmidt & Wong (1990) write, "Among student characteristics being held back is by far the most important factor for early dropouts" (p. 3). The focus of this research project is to find avenues to help support all students in their quest to achieve academic success. By employing Action Based Research (Hubbard & Power, 1999), I have used my classroom, students, and parents in this project in an effort to become a better facilitator and improve student achievement. Also, I have put on the lens of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy (Ladson-Billings, 2001), Academic Achievement, Cultural Competence, and Sociopolitical Consciousness. This lens examines the internal assets category of"Commitment to Learning" (Starkman, Scales, & Roberts, 1999), and the five subcategories within "Commitment to Learning," they are Achievement Motivation, School Engagement, Homework, Bonding to School, and Reading for Pleasure. My purpose for doing all of this is to address my research question, "How can Asset Development be used as a tool to support students' academic achievement?" My method for collecting data for this project was classroom observations, parent/ guardian and student surveys using the Likert Scale Questions, and a writing response part where survey participants could express their views to the Likert Scale Questions in writing. The findings supported the literature in regards for the need of providing adult support to improve student achievement. The more students have adults who care, support, and nurture them the better they will do in school. Further, the whole school community has a powerful influence on students' ability to succeed and feel valued. In the final chapter, I advocate the need for future study in the area of asset development (Starkman, Scales, and Roberts, 1999). The area is in how students feel about their schools. In my study, around 80% of the students felt school was a safe and caring environment for them to learn in, and that the people at their school cared about them. However, the Search Institute, (Starkman, Scales, and Roberts, 1999) write that in surveying over 100,000 students from around the nation only around 24% of students in grades sixth through twelfth felt their schools were places that cared about them. This decline in how students' perceive schools as a caring and supportive place needs to be examined

Estimating Knee Joint Angles During Cycling Using Deep Learning and Wearable Sensors

In this study, a long short-term memory (LSTM) neuralnetwork was trained using inertial measurement unit (IMU)data to predict knee joint angles during cycling. Even with asmall dataset, results produced are similar to othermethodologies which require a calibration stage andexpensive motion capture. Further training on a larger datasetcould produce better predictions and reduce model overfitting

Estimating Knee Joint Angles During Cycling Using Deep Learning and Wearable Sensors

In this study, a long short-term memory (LSTM) neuralnetwork was trained using inertial measurement unit (IMU)data to predict knee joint angles during cycling. Even with asmall dataset, results produced are similar to othermethodologies which require a calibration stage andexpensive motion capture. Further training on a larger datasetcould produce better predictions and reduce model overfitting

Access to sustainable lifestyles: disability and environmental citizenship

Reducing environmental impacts at the level of the individual or household is a key feature of sustainability debates, and there is interest in transitions toward more sustainable lifestyles. The implications of this for disability equality, however, have not yet been fully explored. This thesis examines disabled people’s experiences regarding sustainable lifestyles and uses these to bring a disability studies perspective to various sustainability literatures, such as environmental citizenship, which have so far neglected disability issues. Policy discourses around sustainability and disability equality are also explored and their implications examined. Methods included qualitative interviews and focus groups with disabled participants living in one local authority area, enabling participants’ experiences to be situated in the context of local sustainability- and disability-focused strategies. The findings indicate significantly more complex and diverse engagements with sustainable lifestyles than has been shown in previous research. Although many participants’ experiences could be conceptualised as issues of environmental (in)justice, they tended to favour perspectives based on responsibility rather than rights. Many participants could be identified as environmental citizens, demonstrating that disabled people can play an active role in environmental protection. Taking a social practice approach to the data also indicates a potentially valuable way to more fully conceptualise accessibility in relation to sustainable lifestyles. This research has important implications for transitions towards sustainable lifestyles. Current policy contexts are significantly constrained by the wider neoliberal economic context, so change may need to begin outside the policy arena – such as the environmental movement. The movement itself, however, also needs to incorporate disability equality as a concern. Disability equality can be conceptualised as a feature of sustainability, meaning sustainability will not be achieved without the inclusion of disabled people. Considering environmentalism as facilitated by external factors rather than internal values may be a potential way forward

Midnight Oil : the Wheaton Undergraduate Review - No. 28, 2007.

31 p.A yearly publication of student essays, chosen from essays nominated by members of the Wheaton College faculty