Placemaking through community and adaptable design (The Case of Coffee Park) (First Design Iteration).

Using participatory planning and community design methodologies (i.e. open planning, pattern language design, placemaking, community planning charrettes, planning-in-situ and wikiplanning) this project explores solutions to revitalize Coffee Park -- a small park along the CN railway in West Montreal. This is a complex site that shows issues of unsafety, lack of mobility and sense of place. The objective of this project is to integrate the park to its larger urban context to improve the mobility, safety and overall quality of life in this public space. After a series of visioning workshops, brainstorming sessions, two community planning charrettes and an open planning exercise, this project incorporates inputs from stakeholders, students and ordinary citizens into a collaborative urban design project. The project proposes strategies of urban re-stitching and regeneration through adaptable design and open community planning. With the objective of encouraging future adaptations and transformations, this project is published under a Creative Commons license. Adopt and adapt these ideas (but cite and acknowledge accordingly)

Best practice for motor imagery: a systematic literature review on motor imagery training elements in five different disciplines

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The literature suggests a beneficial effect of motor imagery (MI) if combined with physical practice, but detailed descriptions of MI training session (MITS) elements and temporal parameters are lacking. The aim of this review was to identify the characteristics of a successful MITS and compare these for different disciplines, MI session types, task focus, age, gender and MI modification during intervention.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>An extended systematic literature search using 24 databases was performed for five disciplines: Education, Medicine, Music, Psychology and Sports. References that described an MI intervention that focused on motor skills, performance or strength improvement were included. Information describing 17 MITS elements was extracted based on the PETTLEP (physical, environment, timing, task, learning, emotion, perspective) approach. Seven elements describing the MITS temporal parameters were calculated: study duration, intervention duration, MITS duration, total MITS count, MITS per week, MI trials per MITS and total MI training time.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Both independent reviewers found 96% congruity, which was tested on a random sample of 20% of all references. After selection, 133 studies reporting 141 MI interventions were included. The locations of the MITS and position of the participants during MI were task-specific. Participants received acoustic detailed MI instructions, which were mostly standardised and live. During MI practice, participants kept their eyes closed. MI training was performed from an internal perspective with a kinaesthetic mode. Changes in MI content, duration and dosage were reported in 31 MI interventions. Familiarisation sessions before the start of the MI intervention were mentioned in 17 reports. MI interventions focused with decreasing relevance on motor-, cognitive- and strength-focused tasks. Average study intervention lasted 34 days, with participants practicing MI on average three times per week for 17 minutes, with 34 MI trials. Average total MI time was 178 minutes including 13 MITS. Reporting rate varied between 25.5% and 95.5%.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>MITS elements of successful interventions were individual, supervised and non-directed sessions, added after physical practice. Successful design characteristics were dominant in the Psychology literature, in interventions focusing on motor and strength-related tasks, in interventions with participants aged 20 to 29 years old, and in MI interventions including participants of both genders. Systematic searching of the MI literature was constrained by the lack of a defined MeSH term.</p

Reservoir quality of Cenozoic carbonate buildups and coral reef terraces

Almost half of SE Asia's considerable hydrocarbon reserves are contained in carbonates. The majority of these reservoirs are Miocene buildups up to tens of kilometres across. However, with the exception of a few fields, there is little detailed data on how local depositional and diagenetic conditions influence the considerable heterogeneities in reservoir quality often encountered. This study focuses on factors influencing the facies, diagenetic and reservoir variability of comparable Modern, Quaternary and Neogene reef associated deposits from the Tukang Besi Archipelago, Central Indonesia.The Archipelago includes large atolls, a number of smaller buildups and 4 main islands each with modern rimmed shelves or fringing reefs. On the islands, over ten late Neogene and Quaternary coral reef terraces have been uplifted to maximum heights of ~300 m. Analysis of the modern deposits allows initial reservoir potential to be assessed and related to local environmental conditions. The influence of diagenesis on final reservoir quality is evaluated for the depositional facies exposed in the uplifted terraces. The overall spatial distribution of effective porosity across the area is strongly dependent on local energy conditions, water depth, carbonate producers, size of atolls or islands, climate and local meteoric diagenetic processes. This evaluation of spatial variability in carbonate reservoir characteristics provides much needed analogue data as the hydrocarbon industry focuses on improving recovery from existing fields and exploring for new reserves

'Voyaging in': colonialism and migration

A major reference chapter on the history of the literature of colonialism and migration 1945-70. The book marks an intervention into conventional histories of British Literature. The chapter illustrates and analyses the influential formation of alternative modernities by migrant writers resident in Britain during this period; it also extends the gaze to the period before 1945 earlier in the twentieth century. Maps new ways of reading literary history; broad and wideranging discussion of migration during this period

Randomized Clinical Trials of Weight Loss Maintenance

The problem of overweight and obesity has reached epidemic proportions in the United States and globally, and the high prevalence is due in part to the recidivism associated with weight loss treatment. Approximately one-third of lost weight is often regained in the first year after treatment and, at times, continues. Because a plethora of comorbid diseases are associated with obesity, in particular, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia, clinicians and researchers have attempted to find useful strategies for maintaining weight loss. This review presents the findings from 42 randomized clinical trials of weight loss maintenance from 1984 through 2007 using interventions that include (1) the Internet, (2) strategies after a very low calorie diet, (3) pharmacotherapy, (4) behavioral strategies, (5) physical activity, and (6) alternative strategies. The results of the reviewed trials revealed that treatment with orlistat or sibutramine combined with dietary modification, caffeine or protein supplementation, consuming a diet lower in fat, adherence to physical activity routines, prolonged contact with participants, problem-solving therapy, and the alternative treatment of acupressure were efficacious in reducing weight regain after weight loss treatment. The limitations of some studies may reduce the robustness of their findings, and future studies are necessary to replicate and support these results so that individuals are able to maintain weight loss and retain the health benefits associated with a lower weight. © 2009 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Inc