The German Christians’ Influence on Barth’s Hamartiology of Pride

In Church Dogmatics, IV/1, §60, Karl Barth wrote of “The Pride and Fall of Man,” the first theme in his hamartiology of pride, sloth and falsehood. This thesis will argue that Barth’s conflict with the German Christian Movement served as a source of Barth’s hamartiology of pride. This is specifically evidenced by the reference to Aaron as a man of the “national church” in the lengthy excursus on Exodus 32 in Church Dogmatics §60. Weimar humiliation in Germany had provoked reaction in the movement for a nationalistic church, which Nazism attempted to absorb. Theologians Paul Althaus, Gerhard Kittel and Emanuel Hirsch, among others, provided justification for this. Barth, however, indicted the “German Christians” for the sin of pride, maintaining that in turning people from the God of the Bible to the idolatrous god of the state, they had proudly and sinfully said “No” to God’s “Yes” revealed in Jesus Christ

Quantification of gait kinematics and walking ability of people with multiple sclerosis who are new users of functional electrical stimulation

Objective: To assess whether the application of Functional Electrical Stimulation improves gait kinematics and walking ability in people with multiple sclerosis who experience foot drop. Design: Acute open labelled comparative observation trial. Participants: Twelve people (3 females, 9 males, EDSS 2-4) with relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis (47.8 years (standard deviation 6.6)) who were new users of functional electrical stimulation. Methods: Gait kinematics were recorded using 3D gait analysis. Walking ability was assessed through the 10-m walk test and the 6-min walk test. All assessments were performed with and without the assistance of functional electrical stimulation. The effect of functional electrical stimulation was analysed using paired t-tests. Results: Ankle dorsiflexion at initial contact (p-=-0.026), knee flexion at initial contact (p-=-0.044) and peak knee flexion during swing (p-=-0.011) were significantly greater whilst walking with Functional Electrical Stimulation. The increased peak dorsiflexion in swing of nearly 4 degrees during functional electrical stimulation assisted walking approached significance (p-=-0.069). The 10-m walk time was significantly improved by functional electrical stimulation (p-=-0.004) but the 6 min walk test was not. Conclusion: The acute application of functional electrical stimulation resulted in an orthotic effect through a change in ankle and knee kinematics and increased walking speed over a short distance in people with multiple sclerosis who experience foot dropsch_phy45pub3130pub

Experiments in Empirical Methodology

Two novel experiments were conducted within this project, covering Preference Reversals, Allais Paradox tasks and Dictator Games. In each case the aim was to see whether classic results from designs run in classical experimental economics mode generalise to more realistic (but still incentivised) tasks with more psychological content

Walking measures to evaluate assistive technology for foot drop in multiple sclerosis: A systematic review of psychometric properties

Updated 2019-10-04 to amend the dates to match those on ScienceDirect.Background: Foot drop in people with multiple sclerosis (pwMS) often managed with assistive technologies, such as functional electrical stimulation and ankle foot orthoses. No evidence synthesis exists for the psychometric properties of outcomes used to evaluate the efficacy of these interventions. Objective: This systematic review aimed to identify the outcome measures reported to assess the benefits of assistive technology for pwMS and then synthesize the psychometric evidence in pwMS for a subset of these measures. Methods: Two searches in eight databases were conducted up to May 2017. Methodological quality was rated using the COSMIN guidelines. Overall level of evidence was scored according to the Cochrane criteria. Results: The first search identified 27 measures, with the 10m walk test, gait kinematics and Physiological Cost Index (PCI) most frequently used. The second search resulted in 41 studies evaluating 10 measures related to walking performance. Strong levels of evidence were found for the internal consistency and test-retest reliability of the Multiple Sclerosis Walking Scale-12 and for the construct validity for Timed 25 Foot Walk. No psychometric studies were identified for gait kinematics and PCI in pwMS. There was a lack of evidence for measurement error and responsiveness. Conclusion: Although a strong level of evidence exists for some measures included in this review, there was an absence of psychometric studies on commonly used measures such as gait kinematics. Future psychometric studies should evaluate a wider range of walking related measures used to assess the efficacy of interventions to treat foot drop in pwMS.sch_phy61pub5135pu

Feasibility, Validity, and Reliability of Lower Limb Tactile and Body Awareness Assessments in Children With Upper Motor Neuron Lesions

OBJECTIVE To investigate the feasibility, discriminative and convergent validity, and inter-rater reliability of a lower limb tactile function and 2 body awareness assessments in children with upper motor neuron (UMN) lesions. DESIGN Cross-sectional psychometric study. SETTING Pediatric rehabilitation center. PARTICIPANTS Forty individuals with UMN lesions (mean age 11.7 years, SD 3.4 years; 27 girls) and 40 neurotypically developing children of the same age participated (N=80). INTERVENTIONS Not applicable. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES We assessed the tactile threshold (TT) with monofilaments and body awareness with tactile localization tasks (TLTs) for structural (TLT$_{action}$) and spatial (TLT$_{perception}$) body representation at the foot sole. We compared the test outcomes between children with UMN lesions and neurotypically developing children with the Wilcoxon signed-rank test. Furthermore, we quantified the relations between the 3 tests with Spearman correlations (r$_{s}$) and the interrater reliability with quadratic weighted kappa (κ$_{QW}$). RESULTS About 80% of the children with UMN lesions perceived the tests easy to perform. The children with UMN lesions had significantly reduced somatosensory function compared with the neurotypically developing children. For the more affected leg, we found good relations between the TT and the TLT$_{action}$ (r$_{s}$=0.71; P<.001) and between the 2 TLTs (r$_{s}$=0.66; P<.001), and a fair relation between the TT and the TLT$_{perception}$ (r$_{s}$=0.31; P=.06). The inter-rater reliability analyses for the sum scores showed almost perfect agreement for the TT (κ$_{QW}$ more affected leg 0.86; less affected leg 0.81), substantial agreement for TLT$_{action}$ (κ$_{QW}$ more affected leg 0.76; less affected leg 0.63), and almost perfect agreement for TLT$_{perception}$ (κ$_{QW}$ more affected leg 0.88; less affected leg 0.74). CONCLUSION The 3 tests are feasible to assess lower limb somatosensory function in children with UMN lesions. Discriminative and convergent validity and reliability of the 3 tests were confirmed. Further studies should investigate responsiveness and association with motor function of these outcome measures

Graethempoort te Borgloon

Dit rapport werd ingediend bij het agentschap samen met een aantal afzonderlijke digitale bijlagen. Een aantal van deze bijlagen zijn niet inbegrepen in dit pdf document en zijn niet online beschikbaar. Sommige bijlagen (grondplannen, fotos, spoorbeschrijvingen, enz.) kunnen van belang zijn voor een betere lezing en interpretatie van dit rapport. Indien u deze bijlagen wenst te raadplegen kan u daarvoor contact opnemen met: [email protected]

Pertendonckstraat te Broechem (gem. Ranst). Archeologisch vooronderzoek door middel van Proefsleuven

Dit rapport werd ingediend bij het agentschap samen met een aantal afzonderlijke digitale bijlagen. Een aantal van deze bijlagen zijn niet inbegrepen in dit pdf document en zijn niet online beschikbaar. Sommige bijlagen (grondplannen, fotos, spoorbeschrijvingen, enz.) kunnen van belang zijn voor een betere lezing en interpretatie van dit rapport. Indien u deze bijlagen wenst te raadplegen kan u daarvoor contact opnemen met: [email protected]

Proactive Evaluation of Traffic Signs Using a Traffic Sign Simulator

Traffic signs and pavement markings are a crucial aspect of road design since they are essential sources of information for road users to calibrate their driving behavior, evaluate route possibilities and cope with unexpected events. A proactive evaluation of (the quality of) these road design elements will help to improve the safety performance of the roadway. This paper presents the Traffic Sign Simulator, an innovative research tool to study the influence of these elements on road users’ routing decisions, lane choice and visual behavior, to investigate road users’ comprehension of these signs, and to collect suggestions for improvements. Using a driving simulator mock-up, participants navigate through a full HD video from route(s) in which the planned traffic signs have been digitally implemented using specialized software for camera-tracking and 3D video-integration. Participants’ route and lane choice and their visual behavior (using eye tracking) are monitored while driving through the scenario(s). Laptop preand post-tests are applied to collect additional in-depth information concerning the participants’&nbsp;processing, comprehension and general evaluation of the traffic signs and suggestions for improvement. The paper illustrates the possibilities of the Traffic Sign Simulator with a case study that examined the effectiveness of temporary work zone signalization (i.e., traffic signs, digital information panels and pavement markings) as it was used during the reconstruction works on the Vilvoorde fly-over near Brussels, one of the busiest interchanges in the Belgian motorway network

Screening tools to expedite assessment of frailty in people receiving haemodialysis: A diagnostic accuracy study

From Springer Nature via Jisc Publications RouterAbstract: Background: Frailty is associated with multiple adverse outcomes in stage-5 chronic kidney disease (CKD-5) and upwards of one third of people receiving haemodialysis (HD) are frail. While many frailty screening methods are available in both uremic and non-uremic populations, their implementation in clinical settings is often challenged by time and resource constraints. In this study, we explored the diagnostic accuracy of time-efficient screening tools in people receiving HD. Methods: A convenience sample of 76 people receiving HD [mean age = 61.1 years (SD = 14), 53.9% male] from three Renal Units were recruited for this cross-sectional study. Frailty was diagnosed by means of the Fried phenotype. Physical performance-based screening tools encompassed handgrip strength, 15-ft gait speed, timed up and go (TUG), and five-repetition sit to stand (STS-5) tests. In addition, participants completed the SF-36 Health Survey, the short-form international physical activity questionnaire and the Tinetti falls efficacy scale (FES) as further frailty-related measures. Outcome measures included the area under the curve (AUC), sensitivity, specificity, positive (PPV) and negative predictive values (NPV). The diagnostic performance of screening tools in assessing fall-risk was also investigated. Results: Overall, 36.8% of participants were classified as frail. All the examined instruments could significantly discriminate frailty status in the study population. Gait speed [AUC = 0.89 (95%CI: 0.81–0.98), sensitivity = 75%, specificity = 93%] and TUG [AUC = 0.90 (95%CI: 0.80–0.99), sensitivity = 89%, specificity = 85%] exhibited the highest diagnostic accuracy. There was a significant difference in gait speed AUC (20%, p = 0.013) between participants aged 65 years or older (n = 36) and those under 65 years of age (n = 40), with better discriminating performance in the younger sub-group. The Tinetti FES was the only instrument showing good diagnostic accuracy (AUCs≥0.80) for both frailty (sensitivity = 82%, specificity = 79%) and fall-risk (sensitivity = 82%, specificity = 71%) screening. Conclusions: This cross-sectional study revealed that time- and cost-efficient walking performance measures can accurately be used for frailty-screening purposes in people receiving HD. While self-selected gait speed had an excellent performance in people under 65 years of age, TUG may be a more suitable screening method for elderly patients (≥65 years). The Tinetti FES may be a clinically useful test when physical testing is not achievable.This work was supported by a British Kidney Patient Association – British Renal Society joint grant (BKPA-BRS grant number: 16–003). The funders of this study had no role in study design; collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; writing the report; or the decision to submit the report for publication.21pubpu