An asymmetric inhibition model of hemispheric differences in emotional processing

Two relatively independent lines of research have addressed the role of the prefrontal cortex in emotional processing. The first examines hemispheric asymmetries in frontal function; the second focuses on prefrontal interactions between cognition and emotion. We briefly review each perspective and highlight inconsistencies between them. We go on to describe an alternative model that integrates approaches by focusing on hemispheric asymmetry in inhibitory executive control processes. The Asymmetric Inhibition Model proposes that right lateralized executive control inhibits processing of positive or approach-related distractors, and left-lateralized control inhibits negative or withdrawal-related distractors. These complementary processes allow us to maintain and achieve current goals in the face of emotional distraction. We conclude with a research agenda that uses the model to generate novel experiments that will advance our understanding of both hemispheric asymmetries and cognition-emotion interactions

Wave Breaking and the Generation of Undular Bores in an Integrable Shallow Water System

The generation of an undular bore in the vicinity of a wave‐breaking point is considered for the integrable Kaup–Boussinesq (KB) shallow water system. In the framework of the Whitham modulation theory, an analytic solution of the Gurevich–Pitaevskii type of problem for a generic “cubic” breaking regime is obtained using a generalized hodograph transform, and a further reduction to a linear Euler–Poisson equation. The motion of the undular bore edges is investigated in detail

Evolution of solitary waves and undular bores in shallow-water flows over a gradual slope with bottom friction

This paper considers the propagation of shallow-water solitary and nonlinear periodic waves over a gradual slope with bottom friction in the framework of a variable-coefficient Korteweg-de Vries equation. We use the Whitham averaging method, using a recent development of this theory for perturbed integrable equations. This general approach enables us not only to improve known results on the adiabatic evolution of isolated solitary waves and periodic wave trains in the presence of variable topography and bottom friction, modelled by the Chezy law, but also, importantly, to study the effects of these factors on the propagation of undular bores, which are essentially unsteady in the system under consideration. In particular, it is shown that the combined action of variable topography and bottom friction generally imposes certain global restrictions on the undular bore propagation so that the evolution of the leading solitary wave can be substantially different from that of an isolated solitary wave with the same initial amplitude. This non-local effect is due to nonlinear wave interactions within the undular bore and can lead to an additional solitary wave amplitude growth, which cannot be predicted in the framework of the traditional adiabatic approach to the propagation of solitary waves in slowly varying media

Intramolecular Radical Cyclization Reactions — Scope and Limitations for Electrochemical Processes

Radical-anions formed by one electron attachment to aryl halides undergo cleavage of the carbon-halogen bond in a unimolecular process to give an aryl σ-radical and halide ion. Aryl σ-radicals are highly reactive intermediates and the objective of our work is to find conditions under which they can be trapped in an intramolecular reaction by an adjacent phenyl or alkene substituent. Further steps lead to a stable cyclised product and the process is of interest in synthesis. The corresponding intermolecular reactions between phenyl radicals and either benzene or an alkene have been shown to have bimolecular rate constants1 in the range 105 to 108 M−1s−1 so that the related intramolecular and unimolecular processes are expected to be very fast. Alternative reactions for the aryl σ-radical intermediates include abstraction of a hydrogen atom from the solvent and further electron transfer at the electrode surface to form a carbanion which undergoes protonation

Numerical study on diverging probability density function of flat-top solitons in an extended Korteweg-de Vries equation

We consider an extended Korteweg-de Vries (eKdV) equation, the usual Korteweg-de Vries equation with inclusion of an additional cubic nonlinearity. We investigate the statistical behaviour of flat-top solitary waves described by an eKdV equation in the presence of weak dissipative disorder in the linear growth/damping term. With the weak disorder in the system, the amplitude of solitary wave randomly fluctuates during evolution. We demonstrate numerically that the probability density function of a solitary wave parameter $\kappa$ which characterizes the soliton amplitude exhibits loglognormal divergence near the maximum possible $\kappa$ value.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figure

Action, actor, context, target, time (AACTT): a framework for specifying behaviour

BACKGROUND: Designing implementation interventions to change the behaviour of healthcare providers and other professionals in the health system requires detailed specification of the behaviour(s) targeted for change to ensure alignment between intervention components and measured outcomes. Detailed behaviour specification can help to clarify evidence-practice gaps, clarify who needs to do what differently, identify modifiable barriers and enablers, design interventions to address these and ultimately provides an indicator of what to measure to evaluate an intervention's effect on behaviour change. An existing behaviour specification framework proposes four domains (Target, Action, Context, Time; TACT), but insufficiently clarifies who is performing the behaviour (i.e. the Actor). Specifying the Actor is especially important in healthcare settings characterised by multiple behaviours performed by multiple different people. We propose and describe an extension and re-ordering of TACT to enhance its utility to implementation intervention designers, practitioners and trialists: the Action, Actor, Context, Target, Time (AACTT) framework. We aim to demonstrate its application across key steps of implementation research and to provide tools for its use in practice to clarify the behaviours of stakeholders across multiple levels of the healthcare system. METHODS AND RESULTS: We used French et al.'s four-step implementation process model to describe the potential applications of the AACTT framework for (a) clarifying who needs to do what differently, (b) identifying barriers and enablers, (c) selecting fit-for-purpose intervention strategies and components and (d) evaluating implementation interventions. CONCLUSIONS: Describing and detailing behaviour using the AACTT framework may help to enhance measurement of theoretical constructs, inform development of topic guides and questionnaires, enhance the design of implementation interventions and clarify outcome measurement for evaluating implementation interventions

TRUNK KINEMATICS DURING THE TEE-SHOT OF MALE AND FEMALE GOLFERS

While females comprise 20% of the golfing population in some Western countries (e.g. Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2007), previous research has typically assessed populations that are exclusively comprised of male golfers (e.g. Cheetham et al., 2008). However, the overall prevalence of golf-related injuries is reported to be similar for males and females (McHardy et al., 2006) and thus, it is of interest to assess whether the kinematics of the female golf swing are similar to those demonstrated by male players. This is important, as this knowledge will ensure that any changes that are made by coaches to improve performance and/or reduce the risk of injury in these golfers are appropriate

LOW BACK PAIN IN GOLF: DOES THE CRUNCH FACTOR CONTRIBUTE TO LOW BACK INJURIES IN GOLFERS?

INTRODUCTION: Nearly 41% of low back injuries in golf occur around impact or during early follow-through (McHardy et al., 2007). In view of these recent statistics, it is important consider the significance of the crunch factor as a possible contributor to golf-related back injuries. The crunch factor was described by Sugaya et al. (1997) as the instantaneous product of lateral trunk flexion (LFA) and axial trunk rotational velocity (ARV) and was based on the knowledge that both of these measures reach their peak close to impact. The authors reported that these factors would contribute to spinal degeneration and stated that the crunch factor could be useful to compare trunk mechanics in injured and healthy golfers. However, as only one earlier study (Lindsay & Horton, 2002) has examined the crunch factor in injured golfers, this work further considered the importance of this measure in low back pain golfers. METHODS: Fifteen healthy golfers (NLBP) and twelve golfers with a mild or greater level low back pain (LBP) were recruited. Each golfer performed 20 drives, whilst being filmed three genlocked video cameras (50 Hz). Three-dimensional kinematics were derived for best three swings using Peak Motus. The crunch factor was calculated as the instantaneous product of LFA and ARV, where LFA was the angle between the segments joining the mid-hip and mid-shoulder markers and the right and left hip markers minus ninety degrees ARV was the first derivative of the hip to mid-trunk differential angle with respect to time. ANCOVA controlling for age was used to assess for inter-group differences. RESULTS: The crunch factor for both groups increased rapidly from the mid-point of downswing through impact and into the follow-through, but the statistical results showed significant difference between the groups with respect to the peak value. Similarly, peak lateral flexion and axial trunk rotational velocity did not differ between the golfers (Table 1). Table 1: Peak crunch factor, lateral flexion and axial trunk rotational velocities. LBP NLBP Mean SD Mean SD p Cohen’s Peak Crunch (deg2/s) 4879.7 2194.9 4920.2 2273.4 0.44 0.24 Peak Lateral Flexion (deg) -19.1 5.6 -19.1 5.7 0.36 0.28 Peak Axial Trunk Rotational Velocity (deg/s) -271.0 76.8 -260.4 50.3 0.36 0.33 DISCUSSION: This research showed no significant difference between the LBP and NLBP groups for peak LFA, ARV or the resulting crunch factor. These data were comparable to peak crunch factors reported previously for six injured and uninjured golfers (Lindsay Horton, 2002), but were greater than those presented for healthy golfers (Morgan al.,1999). The non-significant findings together with small effect sizes suggest that the crunch factor is not a contributory factor in the development of low back pain in golfers. REFERENCES: Lindsay, D. M., & Horton, J. F. (2002). Journal of Sports Sciences, 20(8), 599-605. McHardy, A., et al. (2007). Journal of Chiropractic Medicine, 6(1), 20-26. Morgan, D. et al. (1999). Science and Golf III, pp.120-126. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics. Sugaya, H., et al. (1997). 22nd Annual Meeting of the AOSSM, Sun Valley, ID

Anonymity and its Prospects in the Digital World

"This work­ing paper traces the changes under­gone by anonymity - and by the dis­courses sur­rounding it - in liberal Western societies. The author asks whether the current politi­cization of the issue is likely to have any impact on the gra­dual dis­appearance of oppor­tunities for anonymity that we are currently witnes­sing and argues that anonymity is an ambi­valent but critical feature of the demo­cratic public sphere. The argu­ment proceeds in three stages. It begins with a number of concep­tual ob­ser­vations on anonymity. From these, a heuristic frame­work emerges with which the changes in anony­mous communi­cation, and in the role this communi­cation plays in society, can be described. The author then analyses the extent to which options for anonymity have been affected by the rev­olution in infor­mation and communi­cation techno­logies and concludes by con­sidering how anonymity is framed in public dis­course and what impacts this has." (author's abstract)"Das Working Paper unter­sucht die Ver­änderungen von Anonymität und den Diskursen über Anonymität in liberalen west­lichen Gesell­schaften. Der Autor fragt, in­wiefern die gegen­wärtige Politi­sierung des Themas einen Einfluss auf das gra­duelle Ver­schwinden der Möglich­keiten anonymer Kom­munikation haben wird und welche Be­deutung Anonymität für die demo­kratische Öffen­tlich­keit hat. Die Analyse voll­zieht sich in drei Schritten: Zunächst wird konzep­tuell ge­klärt, was Anonymität ist und darauf auf­bauend ein heur­istisches Instru­ment ent­wickelt mittels dessen sich die Ver­änderung anonymer Kom­muni­kations­mög­lich­keiten in der Gesell­schaft be­schreiben lassen. Im zweiten Schritt wird dieses Instru­ment zur An­wendung gebracht, um die sich wandelnden Möglich­keiten anonymer Komm­uni­kation im digitalen Struktur­wandel zu porträtieren. Der dritte Teil des Papiers fragt schließ­lich nach der Art und Weise, wie Anonymität im öffent­lichen Diskurs politi­siert wird - und sucht die Erfolgs­aus­sichten ab­zu­schätzen, die diese Thema­tisierung hat, der Ent­wicklung zu be­gegnen oder sie gar um­zu­kehren." (Autorenreferat