Influence of motor imagery training on gait rehabilitation in sub-acute stroke: a randomized controlled trial

Objective: To evaluate the effect of mental practice on motor imagery ability and assess the influence of motor imagery on gait rehabilitation in sub-acute stroke. Design: Randomized controlled trial. Subjects: A total of 44 patients with gait dysfunction after first-ever stroke were randomly allocated to a motor imagery training group and a muscle relaxation group. Methods: The motor imagery group received 6 weeks of daily mental practice. The relaxation group received a muscle relaxation programme of equal duration. Motor imagery ability and lower limb function were assessed at baseline and after 6 weeks of treatment. Motor imagery ability was tested using a questionnaire and mental chronometry test. Gait outcome was evaluated using a 10-m walk test (near transfer) and the Fugl-Meyer assessment (far transfer). Results: Significant between-group differences were found, with the vividness of kinesthetic imagery and the walking test results improving more in the motor imagery group than in the muscle relaxation group. There was no group interaction effect for the far transfer outcome score. Conclusion: Motor imagery training may have a beneficial task-specific effect on gait function in sub-acute stroke; however, longer term confirmation is required

Boundary of central tiles associated with Pisot beta-numeration and purely periodic expansions

This paper studies tilings related to the beta-transformation when beta is a Pisot number (that is not supposed to be a unit). Then it applies the obtained results to study the set of rational numbers having a purely periodic beta-expansion. Special focus is given to some quadratic examples

All their eggs in one basket: a rocky reef nursery for the longnose skate (Raja rhina Jordan & Gilbert, 1880) in the southern California Bight

Skates (family Rajidae) are oviparous and lay tough, thick-walled eggs. At least some skate species lay their eggs in spatially restricted nursery grounds where embryos develop and hatch (Hitz, 1964; Hoff, 2007). After hatching, neonates may quickly leave the nursery grounds (Hoff, 2007). Egg densities in these small areas may be quite high. As an example, in the eastern Bering Sea, a site <2 km2 harbored eggs of Alaska skate (Bathyraja parmifera) exceeding 500,000/km2. All skate nursery grounds have been identified over soft sea floors (Lucifora and García, 2004; Hoff, 2007)

Flip sides of the same coin? A simple efficiency score versus energy bill savings information to drive consumers to choose more energy-efficient products

Together with our utility clients, Enervee is experimenting with behavioural intervention strategies to see which are most effective in nudging purchasing decisions toward more efficient products. This paper presents results on decision-making, preferences and online shopping behaviour obtained from a series of observational (utility-branded marketplace platform analytics) and experimental studies (randomized controlled trials). Within the trials, we tested potential direct and interaction effects of two distinct but related energy product attributes that improve market transparency: an energy score (a relative product model energy efficiency index) and energy savings (estimated energy bill dollar savings compared to a base model benchmark). The trials all show that the use of an energy score has a significant effect on consumer product choices, encouraging them to select more energy-efficient products, consistent with the observational data. These robust results make a strong case for leveraging heuristics-based nudges to drive energy-efficient purchasing behaviour at scale. Responses to the energy bill savings information varied across the studies, offering insights about the influence of buying context and decision styles on consumer choice. The simple-to-process energy score appears to elicit a hot/impulsive decision style, whilst the cognitively more complex energy bill savings information prompts a reflective/cool decision style. Overall, the studies provide intriguing and robust insights to inform the continued development of cost-effective and scalable interventions to drive more energy-efficient consumer product choices

Réel, contexte, et cognition. Contribution à une histoire de la linguistique cognitive

International audienceThe object of this study is to ask how cognitive linguistics has addressed, over the course of the last half century, the role of context in the mental operations of reception/interpretation and language production (operations which are the core foci of its key concerns from the very outset of cognitive linguistics). The more specific focus of our study is the conflict between internalism and externalism, in other words the significance given to material reality in linguistic cognition. We will discuss the treatment of the notion of context in cognitive linguistics since Chomsky, and the way the mind-body problem has been presented from the 1990s, namely in the heterodox models of situated cognition. Thus we make proposals for a better integration of verbal production environments to linguistic analysis in a cognitive perspective.Cet article interroge, dans une perspective historique et épistémologique, la manière dont la linguistique cognitive du demi-siècle passé a pris en compte (ou non) le contexte dans les opérations mentales de réception / interprétation et de production langagière auxquelles elle s'est, dès son fondement, attachée. L'axe de réflexion est l'opposition internalisme vs externalisme et la question posée est celle de la prise en compte du poids et de l'existence de ce qui relève, dans la cognition linguistique, de la réalité matérielle. Sont abordés le traitement du contexte dans les linguistiques cognitives depuis Chomsky et celui du mind-body problem dans les courants hétérodoxes de la cognition située à partir des années 1990. Des propositions sont faites pour une meilleure intégration des environnements de la production verbale aux analyses linguistiques dans une perspective cognitive

Radiodiagnostic Imaging in Pregnancy and the Risk of Childhood Malignancy: Raising the Bar

Eduardo Franco and Guy-Anne Turgeon discuss new findings from Joel Ray and colleagues on the cancer risk following prenatal exposure to radiodiagnostic imaging, and where new research needs to be focused

Performances of geographical routing protocols combined with a position estimation process in wireless heterogenous networks

This paper addresses the performance of geographical routing protocol in wireless networks, where only few nodes possess self- locating capability such as GPS. To be able to apply end-to-end geographical routing protocols, it is necessary every node know their position coordinates. We propose a method to infer such positioning information to any node, based only on connectivity and localization information obtained from the neighborhood. Three metrics are used to evaluate the performance of such a scheme: the density of useful nodes for geographical routing protocol, the reachability and the path length.8th IFIP/IEEE International conference on Mobile and Wireless CommunicationRed de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI