Evaluation of the Clinimetric Properties of the Upper Limb Subscales of the Motor Assessment Scale Using a Rasch Analysis Model.

OBJECTIVES: To apply Rasch analysis to evaluate the psychometric properties of the composite score of the 3 upper limb subscales of the Motor Assessment Scale (UL-MAS) when administered in the acute/subacute phase post-stroke. DESIGN: Prospective data collection of UL-MAS scores. PARTICIPANTS: Eighty Eighty individuals a mean of 64.8 days (standard deviation 53.3; range 4-193 days) following the onset of unilateral stroke. METHODS: All UL-MAS test items were administered in 30 participants assessed longitudinally over 3 occasions, and in 50 participants assessed on a single occasion. These 140 observations were pooled to be evaluated using Rasch analysis. RESULTS: With the elimination of the wrist radial deviation test item, the UL-MAS demonstrated uni-dimensionality with no significant test item response bias. The test item difficulty hierarchy was validated in the Upper Arm and Hand Movements subscales, but not in the Advanced Hand Activities subscale. The acceptable floor (14%) and ceiling (9%) effects and the high Person Separation Reliability Index (0.96) indicated that the scale was appropriately targeted to discriminate statistically between groups of acute/subacute stroke participants with differing upper limb motor recovery. CONCLUSION: The findings support the psychometric properties of the composite UL-MAS score in this clinical population

Inclined to see it your way: do altercentric intrusion effects in visual perspective taking reflect an intrinsically social process?

It has been suggested that some aspects of mental state understanding recruit a rudimentary, but fast and efficient, processing system, demonstrated by the obligatory slowing down of judgements about what the self can see when this is incongruent with what another can see. We tested the social nature of this system by investigating to what extent these altercentric intrusions are elicited under conditions that differed in their social relevance and, further, how these related to self-reported social perspective taking and empathy (Davis, 1983). In Experiment 1, adult participants were asked to make ‘self’ or ‘other’ perspective-taking judgements during congruent (‘self’ and ‘other’ can see the same items) or incongruent conditions (‘self’ and ‘other’ cannot see the same items) in conditions that were social (i.e., involving a social agent), semi-social (an arrow) or non-social (a dual-coloured block). Reaction time indices of altercentric intrusion effects were present across all conditions, but were significantly stronger for the social compared to the less social conditions. Self-reported perspective taking and empathy correlated with altercentric intrusion effects in the social condition only. In Experiment 2, the significant correlations for the social condition were replicated, but this time with gaze duration indices of altercentric intrusion effects. Findings are discussed with regard to the degree to which this rudimentary system is socially specialized and how it is linked to more conceptual understanding

Morph-specific investment in testes mass in a trimorphic beetle, Proagoderus watanabei

When competition between males for mates is intense, it is common to find that some males will adopt alternative tactics for acquiring fertilizations, often involving the use of ‘sneak’ tactics whereby males avoid precopulatory contests. These alternative tactics are sometimes associated with discrete differences in male morphology, with sneak males investing less in weaponry but more in traits such as testes which may give an advantage in sperm competition. In some cases, it appears that males develop into more than two morphs, with a number of examples of tri- and even tetramorphic arthropod species being described. Here, we analyse the scaling relations of the dung beetle species Proagoderus watanabei, which expresses two distinct weapon traits: paired head horns and a pronotal horn. We find that males of this species are trimorphic, with alpha males expressing long head horns and a pronotal horn, beta males with long head horns but no pronotal horn and gamma males with short head horns only. We also find that alpha males invest relatively less in testes than do beta or gamma males, indicating that beta and gamma males in this species probably experience higher risks of sperm competition than do alphas

Preliminary comparison of 3.5-cm and 12.6-cm wavelength continuous wave observations of Mars

Radar observations of Mars at Goldstone in 1990 were conducted by transmitting pure sinusoidal signals at 3.5-cm wavelengths and receiving the Doppler-spread echoes from Mars at Earth. Radar transmissions were circularly polarized and the echoes recorded in two senses: depolarized and polarized. Latitudes of the subradar points are between 3.5 deg and 11.1 deg S; longitude coverage is discontinuous. The observed depolarized and polarized echo total cross-sections and their ratios for two wavelengths were compared and discussed

Comparison of traps and baits for censusing small mammals in Neotropical lowlands.

Snap-traps, live-traps, and baits affect the ability to capture small mammals, but few previous studies have involved sampling communities of small mammals in tropical environments. We tested differences in captures of small marsupials and rodents by Victor snap-traps versus Sherman live-traps and by two types of bait in lowland rainforest at Reserva Cuzco Amazónico, southeastern Peru. Snap-traps took ca. 3.5 times as many individuals as live-traps. Snap-traps also captured more species (and more rare species), but we attribute this to more numerous captures overall because the relative proportions of species captured by the two traps generally were the same. Type of bait had little impact on our trapping results

Mixed-conducting oxygen permeable ceramic membranes for the carbon dioxide reforming of methane

This is the published version. Copyright 2007 Royal Society of ChemistryDue to the high economic, environmental, and safety costs associated with pure oxygen, mixed-conducting oxygen-permeable ceramic membranes are being explored as an alternative oxygen source for hydrocarbon conversion reactors. This work reports a dramatic improvement in catalyst performance when an oxygen-permeable SrFeCo0.5Ox ceramic membrane is used in conjunction with a conventional powder Pt/ZrO2 catalyst for the CO2 reforming of CH4. Experiments comparing catalyst performance with up to 2% co-fed oxygen to catalyst performance with oxygen from the ceramic membrane demonstrated a conversion three times higher with the membrane than with any amount of co-fed oxygen. The results suggest that membrane oxygen is more beneficial for catalyst activity and stability than molecular gas-phase oxygen

New Lower Bounds on the Self-Avoiding-Walk Connective Constant

We give an elementary new method for obtaining rigorous lower bounds on the connective constant for self-avoiding walks on the hypercubic lattice $Z^d$. The method is based on loop erasure and restoration, and does not require exact enumeration data. Our bounds are best for high $d$, and in fact agree with the first four terms of the $1/d$ expansion for the connective constant. The bounds are the best to date for dimensions $d \geq 3$, but do not produce good results in two dimensions. For $d=3,4,5,6$, respectively, our lower bound is within 2.4\%, 0.43\%, 0.12\%, 0.044\% of the value estimated by series extrapolation.Comment: 35 pages, 388480 bytes Postscript, NYU-TH-93/02/0

Particle-in-cell simulations of rf breakdown

Breakdown voltages of a capacitively coupled radio frequency argon discharge at 27 MHz are studied. We use a one-dimensional electrostatic PIC code to investigate the effect of changing the secondary emission properties of the electrodes on the breakdown voltage, particularly at low pd values. Simulation results are compared with the available experimental results and a satisfactory agreement is found.Comment: 12th International Congress on Plasma Physics, 25-29 October 2004, Nice (France

Inhibition of γ-secretase induces G2/M arrest and triggers apoptosis in breast cancer cells

γ-Secretase activity is vital for the transmembrane cleavage of Notch receptors and the subsequent migration of their intracellular domains to the nucleus. Notch overexpression has been associated with breast, colon, cervical and prostate cancers. We tested the effect of three different γ-secretase inhibitors (GSIs) in breast cancer cells. One inhibitor (GSI1) was lethal to breast cancer cell lines at concentrations of 2 μM and above but had a minimal effect on the non-malignant breast lines. GSI1 was also cytotoxic for a wide variety of cancer cell lines in the NCI60 cell screen. GSI1 treatment resulted in a marked decrease in γ-secretase activity and downregulation of the Notch signalling pathway with no effects on expression of the γ-secretase components or ligands. Flow cytometric and western blot analyses indicated that GSI1 induces a G2/M arrest leading to apoptosis, through downregulation of Bcl-2, Bax and Bcl-XL. GSI1 also inhibited proteasome activity. Thus, the γ-secretase inhibitor GSI1 has a complex mode of action to inhibit breast cancer cell survival and may represent a novel therapy in breast cancer

'We need to put what we do in my dad’s language, in pounds, shillings and pence': commercialisation and the reshaping of public-sector planning in England

This article furthers understanding of how commercial imperatives are reshaping dominant conceptions of planning practice in England, and by extension the production of the built environment more widely. We make an original contribution by tracing the emergence of the logic of commercialisation in England, demonstrating how the impacts of austerity and ‘market-led viability planning’ have entrenched the ‘delivery state’, a powerful disciplinary matrix representing late-neoliberal governance. Through in-depth, ethnographic study of a local planning authority, we argue that commercialisation within the delivery state creates a distinct ‘economy of attention’, reshaping planners’ agency and professional identities, and the substance and scope of their work. The conclusion draws out wider implications of commercialisation for planning in and beyond the delivery state