2,569 research outputs found
The effects of a 12-week leisure centre-based, group exercise intervention for people moderately affected with multiple sclerosis: a randomized controlled pilot study
<b>Objective:</b> To establish the effects of a 12-week, community-based group exercise intervention for people moderately affected with multiple sclerosis.
<b>Design:</b> Randomised controlled pilot trial.
<b>Setting:</b> Two community leisure centres.
<b>Participants:</b> Thirty-two participants with multiple sclerosis randomised into intervention or control groups.
<b>Intervention:</b> The intervention group received 12 weeks of twice weekly, 60-minute group exercise sessions, including mobility, balance and resistance exercises. The control group received usual care.
<b>Main outcome measures:</b> An assessor blinded to group allocation assessed participants at baseline, after eight weeks and after 12 weeks. The primary outcome measure was 25-foot (7.6 m) walk time, secondary outcomes assessed walking endurance, balance, physical function, leg strength, body mass index, activity levels, fatigue, anxiety and depression, quality of life and goal attainment.
<b>Results:</b> The intervention made no statistically significant difference to the results of participants’ 25-foot walk time. However the intervention led to many improvements. In the intervention group levels of physical activity improved statistically between baseline and week 8 (P < 0.001) and baseline and week 12 (P = 0.005). Balance confidence results showed a significant difference between baseline and week 12 (P = 0.013). Good effect sizes were found for dynamic balance (d = 0.80), leg strength (d = 1.33), activity levels (d = 1.05) and perceived balance (d = 0.94).
<b>Conclusion:</b> The results of the study suggest that community-based group exercise classes are a feasible option for people moderately affected with multiple sclerosis, and offer benefits such as improved physical activity levels, balance and leg strength
Effect of soaking and misting on respiration rate, body surface temperature, and body temperature of heat stressed dairy cattle
Reducing heat stress is a key issue for dairy producers. Use of feedline soaking and supplemental airflow effectively reduces heat stress and increases milk production and profitability. High-pressure misting allows water to evaporate in the air, reduces air temperature, and increases relative humidity. Misting also soaks the skin of cattle, resulting in additional cooling as water evaporates from skin surfaces, similar to the cooling effect of feedline soaking. Impact of soaking frequency (5-, 10-, or 15-minute intervals) was compared to continuous high-pressure misting. Cows cooled with either system had lower respiration rates, body surface temperatures, and internal body temperatures than controls. Soaking cattle every 5 minutes or 5-minute soaking plus high-pressure misting produced similar body temperatures, but lower (P\u3c0.01) than those when soaking occurred every 10 or 15 minutes. Skin surface temperatures from the thurl, shoulder, and rear udder were less when cattle were cooled with high-pressure misting. Cattle cooled with high-pressure misting became soaked, thus the cooling effect is the combination of cooler air and water evaporation from the skin. These results indicate that either frequent soaking (every 5 minutes) or continuous high-pressure misting that soaks the skin could be equally effective in reducing heat stress in dairy cattle.; Dairy Day, 2003, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS, 2003
Trajectory versus probability density entropy
We study the problem of entropy increase of the Bernoulli-shift map without
recourse to the concept of trajectory and we discuss whether, and under which
conditions if it does, the distribution density entropy coincides with the
Kolmogorov-Sinai entropy, namely, with the trajectory entropy.Comment: 24 page
Very large dielectric response of thin ferroelectric films with the dead layers
We study the dielectric response of ferroelectric (FE) thin films with "dead"
dielectric layer at the interface with electrodes. The domain structure
inevitably forms in the FE film in presence of the dead layer. As a result, the
effective dielectric constant of the capacitor increases
abruptly when the dead layer is thin and, consequently, the pattern of
180-degree domains becomes "soft". We compare the exact results for this
problem with the description in terms of a popular "capacitor" model, which is
shown to give qualitatively incorrect results. We relate the present results to
fatigue observed in thin ferroelectric films.Comment: 5 pages, REVTeX 3.1 with one eps-figure. A note added that the linear
response is not changed by electromechanical effect. To appear in Phys. Rev.
Phase III trial of valacyclovir for the prevention of shingles after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation
Supporting 'design for reuse' with modular design
Engineering design reuse refers to the utilization of any knowledge gained from the design activity to support future design. As such, engineering design reuse approaches are concerned with the support, exploration, and enhancement of design knowledge prior, during, and after a design activity. Modular design is a product structuring principle whereby products are developed with distinct modules for rapid product development, efficient upgrades, and possible reuse (of the physical modules). The benefits of modular design center on a greater capacity for structuring component parts to better manage the relation between market requirements and the designed product. This study explores the capabilities of modular design principles to provide improved support for the engineering design reuse concept. The correlations between modular design and 'reuse' are highlighted, with the aim of identifying its potential to aid the little-supported process of design for reuse. In fulfilment of this objective the authors not only identify the requirements of design for reuse, but also propose how modular design principles can be extended to support design for reuse
Constructing Context-Aware Sentiment Lexicons with an Asynchronous Game with a Purpose
One of the reasons sentiment lexicons do not reach human-level performance is that they lack the contexts that define the polarities of words. While obtaining this knowledge through machine learning would require huge amounts of data, context is commonsense knowledge for people, so human computation is a better choice. We identify context using a game with a purpose that increases the workers' engagement in this complex task. With the contextual knowledge we obtain from only a small set of answers, we already halve the sentiment lexicons' performance gap relative to human performance
Towards the Thermodynamics of Localization Processes
We study the entropy time evolution of a quantum mechanical model, which is
frequently used as a prototype for Anderson's localization. Recently Latora and
Baranger [V. Latora, M. Baranger, Phys. Rev.Lett. 82, 520(1999)] found that
there exist three entropy regimes, a transient regime of passage from dynamics
to thermodynamics, a linear in time regime of entropy increase, namely a
thermodynamic regime of Kolmogorov kind, and a saturation regime. We use the
non-extensive entropic indicator recently advocated by Tsallis [ C. Tsallis, J.
Stat. Phys. 52, 479 (1988)] with a mobile entropic index q, and we find that
with the adoption of the ``magic'' value q = Q = 1/2 the Kolmogorov regime
becomes more extended and more distinct than with the traditional entropic
index q = 1. We adopt a two-site model to explain these properties by means of
an analytical treatment and we argue that Q =1/2 might be a typical signature
of the occurrence of Anderson's localization.Comment: 13 pages, 8 figures submitted to Phys. Rev.
Intrinsic decoherence and classical-quantum correspondence in two coupled delta-kicked rotors
We show that classical-quantum correspondence of center of mass motion in two
coupled delta-kicked rotors can be obtained from intrinsic decoherence of the
system itself which occurs due to the entanglement of the center of mass motion
to the internal degree of freedom without coupling to external environment
Magnetoresistance of Two-Dimensional Fermions in a Random Magnetic Field
We perform a semiclassical calculation of the magnetoresistance of spinless
two-dimensional fermions in a long-range correlated random magnetic field. In
the regime relevant for the problem of the half filled Landau level the
perturbative Born approximation fails and we develop a new method of solving
the Boltzmann equation beyond the relaxation time approximation. In absence of
interactions, electron density modulations, in-plane fields, and Fermi surface
anisotropy we obtain a quadratic negative magnetoresistance in the weak field
limit.Comment: 12 pages, Latex, no figures, Nordita repor
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