A Platform for Proactive, Risk-Based Slope Asset Management, Phase II

INE/AUTC 15.0

THE CLINICAL USEFULNESS OF VECTOR CODING VARIABILITY IN FEMALE RUNNERS WITH AND WITHOUT PATELLOFEMORAL PAIN

It has been suggested that Patellofemoral Pain (PFP) may be the result of a coordinate state which exhibits less joint coordination variability. The ability to relate joint coordination variability to PFP pathology could have many clinical uses; however, evidence to support clinical application is lacking. Vector coding’s coupling angle variability (CAV) has been introduced as a possible analysis method to quantify joint coordination variability. The purpose of this study was to assess the clinical usefulness of CAV measures from a dynamical systems perspective. This involved establishing the precision limits of CAV measures when physiological conditions are held constant, altering control parameters of knee pain and population then determining if the observed changes in CAV were clinically meaningful. 20 female recreational runners with PFP and 21 healthy controls performed a treadmill acclimation protocol then ran at a self-selected pace for 15 minutes. 3-D kinematics, force plate kinetics, knee pain and perceived exertion were recorded each minute. CAV were calculated for six knee-ankle combinations for 2 sets of 5 non-consecutive stride cycles at each capture period. Data were selected for the PFP group at a high (=\u3e3) and low (\u3c=high-2) pain level in a non-exhausted state (\u3c14). Healthy data were used from the 11th minute of the running. Levels of agreement were performed between the 2 sets of CAV measures for both populations, a paired t-test compared low to high pain CAV measures and independent t-tests compared populations at the high pain state. Several CAV measures showed a significant increase in value with an increase in pain and were significantly greater for the PFP group. None of the observed changes exceeded the precision limits of all CAV measures investigated. These results do not agree with previous claims that less variability is indicative of pathology but rather the opposite. This suggests that there might be an optimal amount of variability to maintain a healthy coordinate state with deviations in any direction being detrimental. However; due to the volatile nature of CAV measures, the clinical use of CAV is not recommended using current analysis methods since changes observed weren’t considered clinically meaningful

THE CLINICAL USEFULNESS OF VECTOR CODING VARIABILITY IN FEMALE RUNNERS WITH AND WITHOUT PATELLOFEMORAL PAIN

It has been suggested that Patellofemoral Pain (PFP) may be the result of a coordinate state which exhibits less joint coordination variability. The ability to relate joint coordination variability to PFP pathology could have many clinical uses; however, evidence to support clinical application is lacking. Vector coding’s coupling angle variability (CAV) has been introduced as a possible analysis method to quantify joint coordination variability. The purpose of this study was to assess the clinical usefulness of CAV measures from a dynamical systems perspective. This involved establishing the precision limits of CAV measures when physiological conditions are held constant, altering control parameters of knee pain and population then determining if the observed changes in CAV were clinically meaningful.20 female recreational runners with PFP and 21 healthy controls performed a treadmill acclimation protocol then ran at a self-selected pace for 15 minutes. 3-D kinematics, force plate kinetics, knee pain and perceived exertion were recorded each minute. CAV were calculated for six knee-ankle combinations for 2 sets of 5 non-consecutive stride cycles at each capture period. Data were selected for the PFP group at a high (=\u3e3) and low (\u3c=high-2) pain level in a non-exhausted state (\u3c14). Healthy data were used from the 11th minute of the running. Levels of agreement were performed between the 2 sets of CAV measures for both populations, a paired t-test compared low to high pain CAV measures and independent t-tests compared populations at the high pain state.Several CAV measures showed a significant increase in value with an increase in pain and were significantly greater for the PFP group. None of the observed changes exceeded the precision limits of all CAV measures investigated. These results do not agree with previous claims that less variability is indicative of pathology but rather the opposite. This suggests that there might be an optimal amount of variability to maintain a healthy coordinate state with deviations in any direction being detrimental. However; due to the volatile nature of CAV measures, the clinical use of CAV is not recommended using current analysis methods since changes observed weren’t considered clinically meaningful

Methodological innovation for the study of request production in telecollaboration

Second language (L2) request production has long been a central area of inquiry in interlanguage pragmatics, including how L2 learners mitigate their requests and whether such strategies correspond to or differ from those of first language (L1) speakers. Methodologically, such research often involves elicited speech and tends to isolate the speech act from the surrounding discourse using instruments such as discourse completion tasks. While some naturalistic speech contexts (e.g., academic advising sessions) have been investigated, few studies to date have analyzed requesting in synchronous computer-mediated communication (SCMC). The current study responds by presenting a multifactorial analysis of L1 and L2 request production that occurred during eight one-hour web conferences between L2 learners of German for professional purposes and L1 German professionals. Three taxonomies traditionally used in face-to-face pragmatics research were adapted for analysis of the SCMC, enabling the use of a generalized linear mixed model. Findings indicate that while both groups of speakers used predominantly direct requesting behavior, L1 speakers used significantly more internal modification devices than did L2 learners

Are perceptual reasons the objects of perception?

I will proceed as follows. In §1 I outline the puzzle to which (TMV) is best seen as a response. In §2 I outline (TMV), distinguishing between different versions of it, contrasting it with its competitor and saying something about what might motivate it. In§3 I raise the issue of what sense the proponent of (TMV) can make of the rationalising-explanatory role reasons for belief can play. I argue that once that explanatory role is properly understood, (TMV) faces a problem. Finally, §4 considers and rejects two objections to my argument against (TMV)

Justification by Faith : Richard Baxter\u27s Influence upon John Wesley

Correction In our Spring 2009 issue we published an essay, \u27Justification by Faith : Richard Baxters Influence upon John Wesley. Due to an editing error, the essay was mistakenly attributed to Floyd T. Cunningham, president of Asia Pacific Nazarene Theological Seminary. We apologize to Dr. Cunningham for the inconveniences this mistake has caused. We also apologize to Dr. Joseph W Curmingham of Eureka College who is the correct author of the essay. In order to emphasize this correct attribution, we are republishing the essay in this issue with Dr. Joseph W Cunningham listed as the author. -TerryC Muck Editor The DOI number is the same as the original article, which has been corrected

The Development of Pragmatic Competence through Telecollaboration: An Analysis of Requesting Behavior

Telecollaboration is a pedagogical approach in which geographically distant parties work together for the purposes of culture and language learning. A growing body of literature documents the benefits of telecollaboration for the foreign language classroom, specifically in the area of interlanguage pragmatic development. While peer-peer telecollaborative studies are well represented in this strand of research, there has been a lack of attention to novice-expert telecollaboration, a gap this dissertation seeks to fill. The study investigated the requesting behavior of American learners of German for Professional Purposes (`novices') as they interacted via synchronous Web conferences with German-speaking professionals in Germany (`experts'). Requesting behavior was examined through four focal areas: directness, internal modification, external modification, and appropriateness. In addition to comparing the requesting behavior of novices and experts, the study also examined the effect of interaction with experts and data-driven focused instruction on the development of novices' requesting behavior. The research used a mixed methodology of quantitative and qualitative analytic approaches to evaluate transcribed and coded request sequences. The two groups showed a number of differences: novice speakers used more direct requests than experts, experts used more internal modification than novices, and experts were rated as more appropriate than novices. This result broadly corresponds to previous research findings. In contrast to earlier findings, the two groups showed similarities in their use of external modifiers, including both the frequency and range of use. Novice development was not evident from quantitative analysis, but qualitative analysis revealed individual differences among the learners profiled, including the emergence of an unexpected category of request modification: the modified external support move. Although certain learners were seen to exhibit pragmatic development, other learners showed the opposite trend, namely an overreliance on formulaic language use. In addition to supporting previous research findings about the nature of request production in second language learners, the study confirms the utility of explicit instruction in pragmatic development occurring within a telecollaborative context. It further contributes new understanding to the field of second language acquisition by identifying the limits of existing coding taxonomies for speech act research, and it suggests the need to develop better tools for quantitative research of interlanguage pragmatic development