The Creative Process of Choreography and Performance: The Brain Injury Rehabilitation Within Dance/Movement Therapy

The underlying creative process in the acts of choreography and performance has not yet been fully researched for use in clinical practices. It is rarely addressed for adults with brain injury in rehabilitation. This study investigated the perceived effects of the creative process within the performance as therapy (PAT) framework on the brain injury population. In a collaborative process engaging the participants as co-researchers and as co-performers in a final dance performance at a public venue, the role of PAT in brain injury rehabilitation was explored. By using artistic inquiry methodology through participatory action research (PAR) paradigm, the study addressed the following research questions: How can PAT impact the rehabilitation process of the brain injury population? What is the role of the creative process in the PAT intervention for the brain injury population? Due to the subjective and transient aspects of movement, and the inherent nature of embodied experience, the data analysis occurred simultaneously during the data collection phase using methods of movement observations, video recording, and personal journal entries. 197 pages

Contamination of chicken carcasses and the abattoir environment with Salmonella spp. and Listeria monocytogenes in Taiwan

Contaminated poultry and poultry products are the main food sources for human salmonellosis and listeriosis, with these contaminations predominantly occurring in abattoirs during the slaughtering and processing stages. Although poultry is the most commonly consumed meat in Taiwan, the epidemiological characteristics of contaminations during processing were not known prior to the studies described in this thesis. A nationwide survey of 362 batches of broiler carcasses (1810 individual carcasses) processed at 45 abattoirs in Taiwan found that 56.4% (95% CI: 51.1-61.5) were positive for Salmonella. The results of a multivariable logistic regression analysis found that contamination was significantly associated with: season of sampling (warm season > cooler season, OR = 1.95; 95% CI: 1.2-3.2); location of the abattoir (southern region < northern region, OR = 0.45; 95% CI: 0.3-0.8); duration of scalding (scalding times longer than 90 seconds < shorter scalding times, OR = 0.2; 95% CI: 0.1-0.3); and bird type (commercial white broiler < Taiwan native chickens, OR = 0.21; 95% CI: 0.1-0.4). Salmonella were detected in 156 of 622 samples (25.1%; 95% CI: 21.7-28.7) collected from a more intensive study undertaken at six abattoirs. The prevalence of Salmonella varied between sampling sites with 5.8, 17.6, 31.3 and 35.5% of cloacal swabs, environmental samples prior to processing, environmental samples during processing and carcass rinse samples, respectively, being positive. These 156 isolates represented 50 PFGE types. The presence of the same PFGE type at multiple stages during processing highlighted that the abattoir environment and intestinal contents are important sources of Salmonella in abattoirs. Listeria monocytogenes was not detected in any cloacal swabs (n = 120) or environmental (n = 256) samples collected before and during processing, but 28 of 246 (11.4%; 95% CI: 7.7-16.0) rinse samples collected from carcasses post-evisceration were positive. These 28 isolates represented 5 PFGE types, confirming the presence of cross-contamination during processing. An intensive study undertaken at one abattoir on 12 consecutive processing days involving repeated sampling of chickens from 12 farms detected Salmonella in 83.3, 22.9, 35.4, 34.4, 19.8 and 21.9% of carcass samples at post exsanguination, post plucking, post evisceration, post inside-outside bird washer, post wash tank, and post air-chilling, respectively. Fifty-seven PFGE types were characterized from the 223 isolates, and confirmed that Salmonella-infected flocks are important sources of contamination in the abattoir resulting in subsequent cross-contamination of carcasses. Distribution biomaps were developed in combination with Salmonella PFGE profiles to identify potential sources of cross-contamination in the abattoir. Overall a total of 968 isolates belonging to 33 serotypes of Salmonella were detected in the three studies, with S. Albany (30.9%), S. Enteritidis (16.5%), S. Schwarzengrund (9.7%), and S. Typhimurium (6.7%) being most frequently isolated. These results demonstrate that the Salmonella serotypes commonly isolated from chicken carcasses and the abattoir environment were also those frequently affecting humans in Taiwan, supporting the belief that contaminated chicken meat is one source of human salmonellosis. The 28 isolates of L. monocytogenes were serotyped as either 1/2a (82.1%) or 1/2b (14.3%), with one isolate non-typeable (3.6%). These serotypes were the same as those causing the majority of human listeriosis cases in Taiwan and other countries of the world. It is concluded that the information obtained from this research can be used to assess control measures to minimize the contamination of chickens processed at abattoirs in Taiwan with potentially pathogenic bacteria

HARMFUL ALGAE IN CHESAPEAKE BAY: A STUDY FOCUSED ON KARLODINIUM VENEFICUM APPLYING TIME SERIES, PHYSIOLOGICAL, AND MODELING APPROACHES

Harmful algal blooms (HABs) are expanding worldwide. The harmful dinoflagellate Karlodinium veneficum is of concern because its toxigenic properties cause fish kills. Despite considerable study on nutrient-HAB relationships, there is a lack of data on HAB nutrient physiology because of the complexity of HAB nutrition. Many bloom-forming harmful algae consume particulate prey when nutrients are not available in the dissolved form. The goal of this dissertation was to apply statistical time series analysis, together with a series of laboratory experiments, and multi-nutrient quota models to improve our understanding and predictive capability of this important HAB species. Statistical time series analysis of K. veneficum abundance in Chesapeake Bay showed the predictive power of multiplicative factors (i.e., physical factors, nutrients, and prey) and the importance of temporal lags in some of these factors in bloom promotion. In laboratory experiments, feeding rates were determined for K. veneficum on prey when both were in varying nutritional conditions. Highest feeding rates were found for K. veneficum initially under low nitrogen:phosphorus condition and fed nitrogen-rich prey. Based on these data, a conceptual model was developed of mid-Bay summer K. veneficum blooms that incorporates the role of prey with a high nitrogen:phosphorus ratio originating from river inputs and a source inocula of K. veneficum from southern Bay waters with a lower nitrogen:phosphorus content. Further laboratory experiments were conducted using multi-wavelength fluorometry to measure growth, grazing and photo-physiology of K. veneficum with single and multiple prey species. Growth of K. veneficum increased with increasing prey concentrations of the cryptophyte Rhodomonas salina, but declined with Synechococcus as the prey. Subsequent multi-nutrient mechanistic modeling was undertaken, simulating the growth of dinoflagellate K. veneficum and its common prey, Rhodomonas. The model was run varying nutrient ratios (molar nitrogen:phosphorus of 4, 16 and 32) and temperatures. The modeled biomass of K. veneficum was highest when they consumed prey under high nitrogen:phosphorus conditions. When nutrients were in balanced proportions, lower biomass of the dinoflagellate was attained at all temperatures in the model. This study underscores the importance of considering prey and their nutritional quality, as well as dissolved nutrients, in modeling HAB dynamics

Coronary Artery Ectasia Presenting With Recurrent Inferior Wall Myocardial Infarction

AbstractCoronary ectasia presenting as a recurrent inferior myocardial infarction has rarely been reported in the literature. Herein, we report a 61-year-old man who presented with persistent chest pain accompanied by ST segment elevation in the inferior ECG leads. Coronary angiography showed ectasia of the right coronary artery (RCA) and total occlusion from the middle RCA. Two stents were implanted separately in the middle and distal RCA. The patient was readmitted due to recurrent inferior wall infarction 15 months after discharge. He underwent primary percutaneous coronary intervention again, and coronary angiography showed massive thrombosis and in-stent re-stenosis. The thrombosis and re-stenosis were successfully treated using balloon angioplasty. The patient was discharged under medical therapy with aspirin and clopidogrel. There were no anginal symptoms during the 3 years of follow up

Housing and stock market nexus in the US

Purpose: The research aims to study the causality between the US stock and housing markets in the period from 1890 to 2014. Design/Methodology/Approach: The Granger-Causality bootstrap rolling-window test is used for studying the causality between the stock as well as real estate markets in the US. Findings: The results provide robust evidence that the causality running from the housing in the stock markets has positive effects between 1918 and 1922, 1926 and 1931, 1953 and 1955 but negative effects between 1932 and 1934 and from 1971 to 1972, displaying the occurrence of a credit-price effect. In contrast, the S&P 500 stomped the housing market between 1965 and 1970, when the wealth effect dominated in the US economy. Specifically, when the negative causality of both markets happens, investors gain by allocating housing and stocks assets as various portfolios. Practical Implications: This finding specifies that housing markets may be employed to predict stock markets and vice versa in the US. Studying both markets’ causality offers policymakers and practitioners more situation on where the market may be going and how it works over time. Originality/Value: Original research.peer-reviewe

THE EFFECT OF EIGHT WEEKS TRAINING WITH EXTRA WEIGHT ON STANDING LONG JUMP PERFORMANCE

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of eight weeks training with extra weight in the hands on standing long jump performance. Fifteen junior high school male students participated in the study. Vicon motion system (10 cameras, 200Hz) and two Kistler force plates (1000 Hz) were used to collect the kinematics and kinetic data of pretraining and post-training tests. The results found the jumping distance increased 18 % after extra weight training. The horizontal velocity of center of mass (CM) at takeoff, flight distance, landing distance, the CM difference at takeoff, the horizontal positive impulse and the peak horizontal ground reaction force were all significantly enhanced. It was concluded that eight weeks of extra weight in the hands jump training increased the high school male standing long jump performance

An IoT Knowledge Reengineering Framework for Semantic Knowledge Analytics for BI-Services

In a progressive business intelligence (BI) environment, IoT knowledge analytics are becoming an increasingly challenging problem because of rapid changes of knowledge context scenarios along with increasing data production scales with business requirements that ultimately transform a working knowledge base into a superseded state. Such a superseded knowledge base lacks adequate knowledge context scenarios, and the semantics, rules, frames, and ontology contents may not meet the latest requirements of contemporary BI-services. Thus, reengineering a superseded knowledge base into a renovated knowledge base system can yield greater business value and is more cost effective and feasible than standardising a new system for the same purpose. Thus, in this work, we propose an IoT knowledge reengineering framework (IKR framework) for implementation in a neurofuzzy system to build, organise, and reuse knowledge to provide BI-services to the things (man, machines, places, and processes) involved in business through the network of IoT objects. The analysis and discussion show that the IKR framework can be well suited to creating improved anticipation in IoT-driven BI-applications

Performance Analysis with Coordination Among Base Stations for Next Generation Communication System

[[abstract]]Next generation communication system, such as Long Term Evolution Advanced (LTE-A), has the advantages of high transmission rate, wide bandwidth and better bandwidth utilization in high mobility environments. However, in such a kind of system when users are distributed sparsely in the base station coverage range the spectrum efficiency becomes worse. The emergence of new technologies such as the coordination among based stations makes the utilization of system bandwidth more efficient. The technology of coordination among base stations has other merits such as reducing noise interference, increasing receiving diversity, improving the system receiving gain, etc. In this paper, the system spectrum utilization and its associated efficiency will be investigated when the scheme of coordination among base stations is implemented.[[notice]]補正完畢[[incitationindex]]EI[[booktype]]電子