Integrated mobility measurement and notation system

System for description of movements and positions facilitates design of space suits with more mobility. This measurement and notation system gives concise and unequivocal descriptions, compatible with engineering analysis and applicable to specific needs

Being well, being musical: Music composition as a resource and occupation for older people

Introduction: Participatory music making for older people has tended to focus on singing and performance. In a community music project undertaken by Manchester Camerata (a chamber orchestra), Blacon Community Trust and a small group of older adults, participants were given the opportunity to compose individual pieces of music interactively with professional musicians. This paper reports the findings of the research project. Method: An arts-based research method was adopted and incorporated action research and interpretive interactionism to articulate the experiences and perceptions of participants. Participants and Manchester Camerata musicians also worked together to represent the thematic findings of the research in a group composition. Findings: The findings demonstrate that individual and group music composition contributed to a sense of wellbeing through control over musical materials, opportunities for creativity and identity making, validation of life experience and social engagement with other participants and professional musicians. Conclusion: The results emphasised occupation as essential to health and wellbeing in the later stages of life. The findings also highlight the particularly innovative aspects of this research: (i) the use of music composition as a viable arts-in-health occupation for older people and (ii) the arts-based research method of group composition

Rockwell experience applications to Ames space station mockup habitability/productivity studies

The use of Rockwell experiences to assist NASA/Ames with planning for space station mockup studies is outlined. Mockup lessons from Rockwell spacecraft studies are reviewed. Typical and unique mockup technology applications are illustrated. Potential uses for space station mockups are given along with the areas of concern. Workstation design requirements are given

ACUTE STRESS, BUT NOT CORTICOSTERONE, FACILITATES ACQUISITION OF PAIRED ASSOCIATES LEARNING ASSESSED IN RATS USING TOUCHSCREEN-EQUIPPED OPERANT CONDITIONING CHAMBERS

Acute stress is well known to influence learning and memory tasks in humans and rodents, enhancing performance in some instances while impairing it in others. Across species, subjects preferentially employ striatal mediated stimulus-response strategies in spatial memory tasks following stress, making use of fewer hippocampal based strategies which are thought to be more cognitively demanding. Previous research has demonstrated that the acquisition of rodent paired associates learning (PAL) relies primarily on the striatum, while later task performance can be impaired through hippocampal disruption. Therefore, we sought to explore whether the acquisition of this task could be enhanced by acute stress. Male Long-Evans rats were trained to a predefined criterion in PAL and were subjected to either a single session of restraint stress (30 min) or injection of corticosterone (CORT; 3 mg/kg). Daily performance was then monitored for one week. We found that only the animals subjected to restraint stress performed with higher accuracy and task efficiency, when compared to untreated controls. These results suggest that while acute stress enhances the acquisition of PAL, CORT alone does not. This may be due to differences which have been identified between these treatments and their ability to produce sufficient catecholamine release in the amygdala, a requirement for stress effects on memory. However, as the effect of restraint stress was moderate and not significantly improved over CORT, these results should be interpreted with caution until these findings are replicated

Environmental Dynamics of Dissolved Organic Matter and Dissolved Black Carbon in Fluvial Systems: Effects of Biogeochemistry and Land Use

Black carbon (BC) is an organic residue formed primarily from biomass burning (e.g., wildfires) and fossil fuel combustion. Until recently, it was understood that BC was highly recalcitrant and stabilized in soils over millennial scales. However, a fraction of the material can be solubilized and transported in fluvial systems as dissolved BC (DBC), which represents on average 10% of the global export of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) from rivers to coastal systems. The composition of DBC controls its reactivity, and it has been linked with a variety of in-stream processes that induce both carbon sequestration and evasion of CO₂ from aquatic systems, which suggest DBC may have a significant contribution within the global carbon cycle. The primary objectives for the thesis were to elucidate environmental factors that control the fate and transport of DBC in fluvial systems. Ultra-high resolution mass spectrometry was used to characterize DBC on a molecular scale whereas benzenepolycarboxylic acids were used to quantify and characterize BC in both dissolved and particulate phases (PBC). Sinks for polycondensed DBC were linked to a series of in-stream biogeochemical processes (e.g., photodegradation, metal interactions); whereas photooxidation of particulate charcoal led to production of DBC, suggesting photodissolution as a previously unrecognized source of DBC to fluvial systems. Coupling of DBC with PBC, however, was hydrologically constrained with sources varying over temporal scales and land use regimes. For DBC in particular, an enrichment of heteroatomic functionality was observed as a function of anthropogenic land use. Furthermore, land use coupled with stream order (a proxy for in-stream processing as defined by the River Continuum Concept) could explain significant spatial variability in organic matter (e.g., DOC) composition within an anthropogenically impacted system. With an increase in wildfire frequency projected with on-going climate change trends, parallel projections for increases in BC production are also expected. Furthermore, conversion of natural landscapes for urban and agricultural practices is also expected to continue in the coming decades. Thus, it is imperative to reach a comprehensive understanding of processes regulating the transport of DBC in fluvial systems with efforts to constrain future BC budgets and climate change models

Parental perception of listening difficulties: an interaction between weaknesses in language processing and ability to sustain attention

(Central) auditory processing disorder ((C)APD) is a controversial diagnostic category which may be an artefact of referral route. Yet referral route must, to some extent, be influenced by a child’s profile of presenting symptoms. This study tested the hypothesis that parental perception of listening difficulty is associated with weaknesses in ability to sustain attention while listening to speech. Forty-four children (24 with listening difficulties) detected targets embedded in a 16-minute story. The targets were either mispronunciations or nonsense words. Sentence context was modulated to separate out effects due to deficits in language processing from effects due to deficits in attention. Children with listening difficulties missed more targets than children with typical listening abilities. Both groups of children were initially sensitive to sentence context, but this declined over time in the children with listening difficulties. A report-based measure of language abilities captured the majority of variance in a measure capturing time-related changes in sensitivity to context. Overall, the findings suggest parents perceive children to have listening, not language difficulties, because weaknesses in language processing only emerge when stressed by the additional demands associated with attending to, and processing, speech over extended periods of time

Shuttle considerations for the design of large space structures

Shuttle related considerations (constraints and guidelines) are compiled for use by designers of a potential class of large space structures which are transported to orbit and, deployed, fabricated or assembled in space using the Space Shuttle Orbiter. Considerations of all phases of shuttle operations from launch to ground turnaround operations are presented. Design of large space structures includes design of special construction fixtures and support equipment, special stowage cradles or pallets, special checkout maintenance, and monitoring equipment, and planning for packaging into the orbiter of all additional provisions and supplies chargeable to payload. Checklists of design issues, Shuttle capabilities constraints and guidelines, as well as general explanatory material and references to source documents are included

A comparison of the contentions of the value of existence in the process aesthetic theory of the metaphysics of Alfred North Whitehead and The Plague of Albert Camus.

This thesis compares the contentions of the value of existence in the process aesthetic theory of the metaphysics of Alfred North Whitehead and The Plague of Albert Camus. One of the central tenets of the process aesthetic theory is that each experience contains aesthetic value. There are various levels of value achievement, depending on the choices of actual entities (the most basic units of reality). Beauty is the ideal value, and is the attainment of the aesthetic mean. Likewise, for Albert Camus, existence is valuable unto itself, and simply to live is to concede that existence is valuable. To rebel against that which negates that overarching value, moreover, indicates that this value is worth preserving. The thesis shows that one of the central tenets of the process aesthetic theory is that the extremes of existence lead to imbalances wherein suffering and evil arise. The Plague portrays these extremes. Both the extremes of monotony and chaos lead to suffering. For this reason, each actual entity strives to avoid the extremes to attain the aesthetic mean, or beauty, the ideal value. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)Dept. of Religious Studies. Paper copy at Leddy Library: Theses & Major Papers - Basement, West Bldg. / Call Number: Thesis1999 .R37. Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 39-02, page: 0368. Adviser: Barry L. Whitney. Thesis (M.A.)--University of Windsor (Canada), 1998