EXAMINING FLOW STATES AND MOTIVATIONAL PERSPECTIVES OF ASHTANGA YOGA PRACTITIONERS

Flow state refers to an optimal psychological experience and is associated with a number of experiential qualities one of which is complete absorption in the task at hand. Self-determination theory provides a framework for examining the relation between different types of motivation and flow because it distinguishes among different forms of motivation based on the degree that they can be considered self-determined. Although flow has been studied among athletes and, to a lesser degree, exercisers, no studies have focused on the flow experiences of yoga practitioners. Yoga, which originated in India, has been gaining popularity in the United States. The purpose of this descriptive study was to examine the flow experiences and motivational perspectives of ashtanga yoga practitioners. Five specific aims were addressed. A sample of 127 ashtanga yoga practitioners were recruited from six yoga studios in various locations across the United States. Participants completed a series of questionnaires related to flow experiences, motivational orientation, yoga practice characteristics, and sociodemographic information. The majority of the participants of the study were women, highly educated, and approximately 40 years old. The participants demonstrated a strong commitment to yoga practicing on average 4 times per week for over 1.5 hours. The majority had more than 2.5 years of ashtanga yoga experience. They reported strong intrinsic and selfdetermined extrinsic motivation to practice ashtanga yoga. They reported experiencing flow during ashtanga yoga practice and at least moderately endorsed all nine dimensions of flow state. Higher scores on the EMS subscales of intrinsic motivation (IM) to accomplish things and IM to experience sensation were predictive of higher flow state for the practitioners. The respondents yoga flow scores were significantly higher than the flow scores associated with a comparison other physical activity participated in currently or in the past. Finally, age (inversely) and years of ashtanga yoga experience were predictive of flow experiences for this group of yoga practitioners. For those interested in the study of motivation, these findings contribute to the understanding of the relation between flow and motivation and how enjoyment may be manifested within the context of physical activity

An Analysis of the theoretical foundations of expert system technology

Dirosah Tahliliyah Sikulujiyah Adab) ini mengaji tentang penokohan dan watak yang terkandung dalam karya tersebut. Peneliti melakukan penelitian tersebut dengan tujuan untuk mengetahui bagaimana penokohan dan watak yang ada dalam cerpen tersebut. Hasil dari penelitian yang telah dilakukan, kebermaknaan hidup tokoh “si perempuan gila” yang kata orang , ia tidak mengetahui musim semi. Skripsi yang berjudul Al-Qishoh Al qoshiroh “Imroah Gholabati Syaiton li Taufik Al-Hakim ( DiYang ia kenal hanyalah musim gugur dan musim hujan. Sekalipun begitu perempuan tersebut adalah perempuan kuat yang tidak pernah kehilangan harapan. Dia tidak pernah merasakan kehadiran laki-laki disampignya. Dan pada suatu malam tanpa sadar dia menjerit dengan berkata , hai syaitan semua ini ulahmu . selang beberapa menit setelah dia mengucapkan seperti itu tiba-tiba datang syaitan ke rumah si perempuan tersebut. Dengan berkata: “apa yang kamu inginkan wahai perempuan? Dia meminta kecantikan, kehidupan dan harta. Tanpa sadar dia mengucapkan seperti itu , kemudian syaitan menjawab :” apakah kamu tahu harga untuk semuanya?” sang perempuan menjawab: ambillah semua harga tersebut seperti yang kamu inginkan. Syaitan berkata: Ruhmu akan aku bawa ke neraka jahannam! Karena itu adalah pekerjaanku di dunia. Kemudian si perempuan setuju dan mereka membuat perjanjian berupa cek darah si perempuan tersebut. Si perempuan akhirnya meminta kepada syaitan untuk diberi waktu selama sepuluh tahun . setelah waktunya tiba syaitanpun menagih janji kepada si perempuan, akan tetapi perempuan tersebut menolak dan ingin meminta perpanjangan waktu lagi selama dua bulan, akhirnya syaitanpun menyetujui dan mengabulkan permintaan perempuan tersebut. Selama waktu dua bulan berlalu, perempuan tersebut selalu melewatkan hari-harinya dengan sholat malam, selalu menggunakan pakaian ibadah, melaksanakan fardhu haji dan tenggelam dalam kenikmatan ibadah untuk akhirat kelak. Suatu masa tibalah waktu perempuan itu habis dan syaitanpun membawa ruhnya ke neraka jahannam, tiba-tiba di ambang” pintu neraka datanglah beberapa malaikat dan menarik tangan si perempuan itu untuk dibawa ke surga, awalnya perempuan itu menolak karena tidak mau menghianati syaiton. Tetapi para malaikat bersikeras ingin mengajaknya ke surga , syaitanpun marah dan si perempuan itu di anggap membohonginya, ia mau si perempuan itu tetap ikut bersama syaiton. Akan tetapi setelah melihat kegiatan mulai sehari-hari yang dilakukan perempuan tersebut , akhirnya syaitanpun merasa terpojokkan dan berkata: “celakalah kalian ! dan ambilllah dia dari hadapanku! Dia hanyalah ruh seorang perempuan dan bukan beberapa perempuan, pergilah ke surga! Akan tetapi dia tidak akan lupa bahwa perempuan tersebut telah menipunya

Predictors of survival in a cohort of patients with polymyositis and dermatomyositis: effect of corticosteroids, methotrexate and azathioprine

Introduction: The idiopathic inflammatory myopathies are rare diseases for which data regarding the natural history, response to therapies and factors affecting mortality are needed. We performed this study to examine the effects of treatment and clinical features on survival in polymyositis and dermatomyositis patients. Methods: A total of 160 consecutive patients (77 with polymyositis and 83 with dermatomyositis) seen at the University of Michigan from 1997 to 2003 were included. Medical records were abstracted for clinical, laboratory and therapeutic data, including initial steroid regimen and immunosuppressive use. State vital records were utilized to derive mortality and cause of death data. Survival was modeled by left-truncated Kaplan-Meier estimation and Cox regression. Results: The 5- and 10-year survival estimates were 77% (95% CI = 66 to 85), and 62% (95% CI = 48 to 73), respectively, and the rates were similar for polymyositis and dermatomyositis. Survival between the sexes was similar through 5 years and significantly lower thereafter for males (10-year survival: 18% male, 73% female; P = 0.002 for 5- to 10-year interval). The sex disparity was restricted to the polymyositis group. Increased age at diagnosis and non-Caucasian race were associated with lower survival. Intravenous versus oral corticosteroid use was associated with a higher risk of death among Caucasians (HR = 10.6, 95% CI = 2.1 to 52.8). Early survival between patients treated with methotrexate versus azathioprine was similar, but survival at 10 years was higher for the methotrexate-treated group (76% vs 52%, P = 0.046 for 5- to 10-year interval). Conclusions: Patients treated initially with intravenous corticosteroids had higher mortality, which was likely related to disease severity. Both methotrexate and azathioprine showed similar early survival benefits as first-line immunosuppressive drugs. Survival was higher between 5 and 10 years in the methotrexate-treated group, but could not be confirmed in multivariable modeling for the full follow-up period. Other important predictors of longterm survival included younger age, female sex and Caucasian race.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/90025/1/IIM_ART2012.pdf1611

Constructing computer virus phylogenies

There has been much recent algorithmic work on the problem of reconstructing the evolutionary history of biological species. Computer virus specialists are interested in finding the evolutionary history of computer viruses - a virus is often written using code fragments from one or more other viruses, which are its immediate ancestors. A phylogeny for a collection of computer viruses is a directed acyclic graph whose nodes are the viruses and whose edges map ancestors to descendants and satisfy the property that each code fragment is "invented" only once. To provide a simple explanation for the data, we consider the problem of constructing such a phylogeny with a minimum number of edges. In general this optimization problem is NP-complete; some associated approximation problems are also hard, but others are easy. When tree solutions exist, they can be constructed and randomly sampled in polynomial time

A Biologically Supported Error-Correcting Learning Rule

We show that a form of synaptic plasticity recently discovered in slices of the rat visual cortex (Artola et al. 1990) can support an error-correcting learning rule. The rule increases weights when both pre- and postsynaptic units are highly active, and decreases them when pre-synaptic activity is high and postsynaptic activation is less than the threshold for weight increment but greater than a lower threshold. We show that this rule corrects false positive outputs in feedforward associative memory, that in an appropriate opponent-unit architecture it corrects misses, and that it performs better than the optimal Hebbian learning rule reported by Willshaw and Dayan (1990)

Education for livelihood.

Every normal citizen is faced with the problem of acquiring some skill for which the community is prepared to reward him. He may, like the engineer, add years of special study to the normal years of schooling, or like the unskilled labourer learn on the job to use a pick and shovel, or like the artist live on a crust in the hope that society will eventually recognize his talent. [p.3] It is obvious that educational planning must take special account of this problem of preparing for livelihood. The problem has many different facets. At what age should preparation commence? Should it, or can it, be clearly marked off from general education? At what sort of institution should it be given? Should we require or should we discountenance early specialization in such training? By what means and at what age should young people decide what particular form of livelihood-training they will seek? Should it be under the same form of administrative authority as general education? Should it include compulsory part-time training after entering into a job? What proportion of our youth at present fail to receive any specific training for their life work? Can we have too many trained men? [p.3-4] If we are to face the problems which lie ahead we must raise· the standard of citizenship in Australia. The aspect of citizenship with which we are here concerned is that of vocational efficiency. [p.4

Development of a reciprocating aerofoil wind energy harvester

Cross flow wind turbines are not unique. The performance of Savonius and Darrieus turbines is well documented. Both share the advantage of being able to accept fluid flow from any direction. The Savonius is drag based and hence has poor power output while the Darrieus is lift based. Due to the fact that the Darrieus has fixed blades the fluid flow through the rotor does not result in optimal lift being generated at all points in the rotation circle. A drawback of the Darrieus system is that it has to operate at a high tip-to wind-speed ratio to obtain reasonable performance with the fixed blades. Deviation from a small optimal range of tip speed ratios results in poor performance. The Darrieus also has poor starting torque. The research conducted in this project focused on overcoming the shortcomings of other turbines and developing an effective cross flow turbine capable of good performance. A number of different concepts were experimented with, however all were based on a symmetrical aerofoil presented to the actual relative airflow at an angle that would produce the highest lift force at all times. The lift force was then utilized to generate movement and to do work on an electrical generator. All concepts contemplated were researched to ascertain their appropriateness for the intended application. During development of the final experimental platform and after lodging of a provisional patent (RSA 2007/00927) it was ascertained that the design shared some similarities with an American patent 5503525 dated 28/4/1994. This patent employed complex electronic sensing and control equipment for control of blade angle. This was thought to be overly complex and costly, particularly for small scale wind energy generation applications and a simpler mechanical solution was sought in the design of the final experimental platform used in this project. The design of the mechanical control system was refined in an attempt to make it simpler, more durable and employ the least number of moving parts. Literature studies and patent searches conducted, suggested that the mechanical control system as developed for the final experimental platform was unique. The enormous variation in the power available from the wind at the different wind speeds likely to be encountered by the device necessitated some means of control. In high wind conditions control of the amount of wind power into the device was deemed to be the preferable means of control. A number of different concepts to achieve this were devised and tested. The final concept employed limited the tail angle deflection and hence the lift produced by the aerofoils. This resulted in a seamless “throttle” control allowing the device to be used in any wind strength by adjusting the control to a position that resulted in the device receiving a suitable amount of power from the wind. The outcome of performance tests conducted indicated that the device has the potential to be developed into a viable wind turbine for both small and large scale applications. The ability to control the power input from the wind to the machine from zero to a maximum is considered to be one of the most beneficial outcomes of this project and together with the quiet operation and low speed, are considered the main advantages of the device over existing wind turbine designs. The possibilities of using the device to compress air for energy storage are exciting avenues that warrant further research