Post-operative rehabilitation after PIP joint arthroplasty with early active motion: A retrospective review of outcomes

We present a retrospectively review of outcomes of the first fifteen patients who underwent proximal interphalangeal (PIP) joint arthroplasty and were treated using the same early active motion rehabilitation regime introduced by the therapy department at Mount Vernon Hospital. The regime utilises early motion of the PIP joint while protecting the arthroplasty with a small static splint and digit strapping to reduce lateral forces on the joint. The notes of fifteen patients were reviewed and their outcomes presented. To evaluate the outcomes in more detail the patients were divided into three groups according to their diagnostic reason for the procedure (rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis and trauma). The overall mean arc of motion at the PIP joint on discharge from therapy was 54 improved from 28 pre operatively. The patients with the osteoarthritic PIP joints gained the largest improvement in the PIP joint arc of motion and required the least rehabilitation intervention. Patients with rheumatoid arthritis required intense rehabilitation to gain less overall PIP joint motion but still reported satisfaction with their outcome. All 15 patients experienced an improvement in their pain level and subjectively reported increased function in their affected hand. Following this retrospective review of cases the team continue to use this regime for metal and silastic prosthesis but now routinely provide additional written information pre operatively to assist patients’ understanding of the procedure and the extent of the rehabilitation required

“Two Minds Don’t Blink Alike”: The Attentional Blink Does Not Occur in a Joint Context

Typically, when two individuals perform a task together, each partner monitors the other partners' responses and goals to ensure that the task is completed efficiently. This monitoring is thought to involve a co-representation of the joint goals and task, as well as a simulation of the partners' performance. Evidence for such "co-representation" of goals and task, and "simulation" of responses has come from numerous visual attention studies in which two participants complete different components of the same task. In the present research, an adaptation of the attentional blink task was used to determine if co-representation could exert an influence over the associated attentional mechanisms. Participants completed a rapid serial visual presentation task in which they first identified a target letter (T1) and then detected the presence of the letter X (T2) presented one to seven letters after T1. In the individual condition, the participant identified T1 and then detected T2. In the joint condition, one participant identified T1 and the other participant detected T2. Across two experiments, an attentional blink (decreased accuracy in detecting T2 when presented three letters after T1) was observed in the individual condition, but not in joint conditions. A joint attentional blink may not emerge because the co-representation mechanisms that enable joint action exert a stronger influence at information processing stages that do not overlap with those that lead to the attentional blink

Teachers as mediators: an exploration of situated English teaching

Within the context of lower secondary English teaching in South West England, this study identifies in broad terms the competing goals between which English teachers mediate and the explicit and hidden tensions that result. To understand the interactions of competing goals, teachers’ goal-oriented behaviours are referenced to a set of idealised ‘role types’ based on the dimensions of goals, norms, discourses and practices. It is asserted that competing goals, significant to particular educational circumstances, emanate from various sometimes contradictory local, national and perhaps broader social and cultural influences on practice. Yet the teachers observed moved smoothly between goal-oriented behaviours in a continuous and comfortable style, easily and without reflecting any tensions between them. Thus, this article elaborates an account of situated English teaching

Decorative Plasterwork in South-West England c.1550-1640

This thesis is the first comprehensive academic analysis of domestic decorative plasterwork in South-West England, which survives in a variety and abundance that exceeds other areas of the country. It focuses on the Post-Reformation period from c. 1550 to c. 1640, which covers the foundation and development of the craft to a point of divergence between the vernacular and polite traditions in the mid-seventeenth century. As a primarily object-based study it presents a close analysis of decorated ceilings, overmantels and friezes in the region based on their physical presence and location within the houses. This study is underpinned by a gazetteer of plasterwork from 485 houses from Cornwall, Devon, Somerset and West Dorset, supported by maps, tables and 296 photographs and illustrations. Of these houses, 62 were visited as part of this study and recorded in detail, concentrating on four key geographic areas: the borders of West Somerset, Devon and Dorset; the North Devon port of Barnstaple and its hinterland; the region’s capital at Exeter; and the South Devon mercantile centres of Dartmouth and Totnes. This study places the corpus of plasterwork within the context of the social, economic, and architectural developments of the period. It assesses the nature of the medium, the techniques employed in its production and use, the designs adopted and adapted, and the internal and external sources for these. It analyses the operation of plasterwork workshops within their geographical parameters and the respective roles of the client and plasterer and examines their input into design choices. It presents new understandings of the use of iconography in plasterwork and how the display of heraldic, biblical, and classical imagery and its placement within the house was used by the client to communicate identity and status. This thesis also presents new evidence that the architecture of late-sixteenth century high status houses was consciously manipulated to prioritise the visual qualities of the plasterwork

Do you see what I see? Co-actor posture modulates visual processing in joint tasks

Interacting with other people is a ubiquitous part of daily life. A complex set of processes enable our successful interactions with others. The present research was conducted to investigate how the processing of visual stimuli may be affected by the presence and the hand posture of a co-actor. Experiments conducted with participants acting alone have revealed that the distance from the stimulus to the hand of a participant can alter visual processing. In the main experiment of the present paper, we asked whether this posture-related source of visual bias persists when participants share the task with another person. The effect of personal and co-actor hand-proximity on visual processing was assessed through object-specific benefits to visual recognition in a task performed by two co-actors. Pairs of participants completed a joint visual recognition task and, across different blocks of trials, the position of their own hands and of their partner's hands varied relative to the stimuli. In contrast to control studies conducted with participants acting alone, an object-specific recognition benefit was found across all hand location conditions. These data suggest that visual processing is, in some cases, sensitive to the posture of a co-actor

Integrated Impression Management: How NCAA Division I Athletics Directors Understand Public Relations

The sport industry has become an enormous cultural and economic force across the globe. Yet it is one that is largely understudied in regards to public relations. In the United States, intercollegiate athletics—particularly football and men’s and women’s basketball—garners a tremendous amount of attention from media, the government, sports fan communities, merchandisers and scholars. However, there is scant research on public relations within intercollegiate athletics departments. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to learn how intercollegiate athletics directors (ADs) from National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I institutions with major basketball programs understand public relations, overall and in the context of men’s and women’s basketball coaches. For this study, a phenomenological approach was used. Twelve ADs were interviewed, and their transcripts were analyzed using comparative analysis procedures. The findings show that the overall understanding of public relations to the participants is integrated impression management: a combination of image, message, and action/interaction. The ADs associated public relations with marketing, branding, communication, media relations, community/university relations, fundraising and crisis management. They expressed a range of responsibility within their organizations for public relations, as well as related issues and challenges. They also associated some specific responsibilities and challenges regarding public relations to the context of men’s and women’s basketball coaching. The results of this study imply that despite some scholars’ insistence that public relations is a distinct discipline from marketing, executives do not necessarily separate the two. The findings of this study aid in understanding how public relations might be evolving within intercollegiate athletics. Learning how those with power and influence in this industry understand public relations can help intercollegiate athletics departments with the root and ramifications of some major challenges. For scholars, this presents an opportunity to test and develop theory, as well as to identify trends, changes and solutions for public relations in an industry with cultural power and influence

Using Google SketchUp to Develop Students' Experiences of Dimension in Geometry

Dimension is a powerful mathematical construct that is rarely taught or researched explicitly. The study reported on here explored how the software Google SketchUp can facilitate students’ experiences of dimension. Clinical interviews based on carefully designed tasks were conducted with 10-year-old students. This article offers evidence from the data on how the task setting, including SketchUp’s dimensional tools identified in the software, prompted the construction of ideas about dimension. More specifically, children expressed intuitive ideas about an object/space’s freedom to move within a space/object of higher dimension and its capacity to house other objects/spaces of lower dimension