Carpal Tunnel Syndrome: Clinical Application

Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) causes irritation or compression of the median nerve within the carpal tunnel at the wrist. CTS is caused by factors including bony abnormalities, neuropathic conditions, inflammatory conditions, and most commonly, cumulative trauma. The trauma involves excessive repetition, force, bending, vibration, and impact activities performed at home or at work. As a result, the median nerve becomes irritated and intermittent sensory deficits occur initially leading to motor dysfunction with advanced disease. Once CTS is diagnosed, the first line of defense is conservative treatment which may result in operative care if unsuccessful. Modified activity and early postoperative hand therapy is the key to a good prognosis, although no treatment is a reliable cure. CTS is a growing epidemic with increasing treatment cost demands due to the growing use of computers which lead to repetitive motion. Physical therapists must stay current on the causes, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of CTS to reduce the incidence. The focus of this paper remains on the therapist\u27s role in treating CTS conservatively and postoperatively utilizing various clinical techniques with emphasis on preventing CTS using ergonomics in the workplace

From Scalability to Subsidiarity in Addressing Online Harm

Large social media platforms are generally designed for scalability—the ambition to increase in size without a fundamental change in form. This means that to address harm among users, they favor automated moderation wherever possible and typically apply a uniform set of rules. This article contrasts scalability with restorative and transformative justice approaches to harm, which are usually context-sensitive, relational, and individualized. We argue that subsidiarity—the principle that local social units should have meaningful autonomy within larger systems—might foster the balance between context and scale that is needed for improving responses to harm

A Continued Study of the Use of Created Ponds for Amphibian Breeding in Fragmented Forested Areas

Amphibian populations are declining worldwide due to factors such as habitat degradation, fragmentation and destruction. I conducted a study to explore the use of created ponds in a forested habitat by breeding amphibians, specifically Rana sylvatica and Ambystoma maculatum. The objectives were to examine the movement of these animals after leaving the ponds, the survival and movement of juveniles, how both respond to fragmentation, and how similar the created ponds were to natural ones. Nine ponds were constructed in December 2003 in the MeadWestvaco Wildlife Ecosystem Research Forest (MWERF) in Randolph County, West Virginia. All trapped amphibians were measured and given a pond specific mark. Three silviculture treatments were cut around all ponds in August 2006. A significant difference in air temperature was found between elevations and between silviculture treatments. A significant difference in capture rates was found between elevations. A significant difference was found between created and natural ponds

The adventures of GI Jane: Women in the military

Many women in the United States are living in a paradox. While changes in the American culture have led to significant improvements in women\u27s lives, they still are frequently exposed to discriminatory policies and actions. This study examines the United States military, which is a specific institution that embodies this paradox. While the military offers women certain opportunities, such as a college education, travel and adventure, it is still steeped in male domination and gender discrimination. Using a review of secondary sources, this study explores the discourses relating to power, gender and sexuality in the military, which form the basis for the discrimination of servicewomen. This study also explores the persistence of discrimination and patterns of resistance by conducting in-depth focus group interviews to examine the dominant ideologies and discourses that frame women\u27s experiences and the ways in which women reproduce, resist, or construct alternative discourses

Children’s episodic and generic reports of alleged abuse

With the present data, we explored the relations between the language of interviewer questions, children’s reports, and case and child characteristics in forensic interviews. Results clearly indicated that the type of questions posed by interviewers – either probing generic or episodic features of an event – was related to the specificity of information reported by children. Further, interviewers appeared to adjust their questioning strategies based on the frequency of the alleged abuse. Children alleging single instances of abuse were asked more episodic questions than those alleging multiple abuses. In contrast, children alleging multiple incidents of abuse were asked a greater proportion of generic questions. Given that investigators often seek forensically-relevant episodic information, it is recommended that training for investigators focus on recognition of prompt selection tendencies and developing strategies for posing non-suggestive, episodically focused questions

Political Participation in Physical Therapy: Attitudes and Perceptions Across the Practice Spectrum

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Political participation has been identified by the APTA as one way to engage in social responsibility. Among the traditional professions, including health care, political participation is encouraged as a professional duty to society through professional codes of ethics and educational preparation. Currently, no research exists on PT professionals’ attitudes regarding political participation. The purpose of this study was to explore physical therapists’ perceptions and experiences surrounding political participation.METHODS:A phenomenological qualitative approach was employed to gather data from 4 semi-structured focus groups regarding physical therapists’ perceptions surrounding political participation. Participants included 22 physical therapists and 1 physical therapist assistant from the acute, outpatient, and inpatient rehabilitation practice settings. Audio data from each focus group was transcribed, returned to subjects for verification, and independently coded and themed by the researchers. Methods such as purposive sampling, member checks, peer debriefings and triangulation were used to support the dependability and trustworthiness of the study.RESULTS:Multiple themes emerged within four categories. The “individual” category included one’s views about political participation, specifically as a professional role. The behaviors and outcomes” category included the actions individuals engage in when participating politically and the achievements gained through said participation. The “motivators and barriers” category described the influences on the behaviors, either encouraging or discouraging political participation. The aforementioned categories exist within the larger context of the final category, the physical therapy profession/APTA and practice setting.”CONCLUSION:Results of this study indicate that PTs perceptions of political participation emerge from a combination of personal and experiential elements. PTs recognized the importance of political activity, but saw it as more a role of the APTA rather than the individual. Participants had difficulty articulating the achievements of the APTA in the political arena and expressed frustration with the communication of political advocacy information. For political participation among PTs to increase, exemplary behaviors should be modeled in the school and work places, motivating factors should be increased and barriers decreased. Furthermore, there must be a direct and explicit call for physical therapists to live up to the standards charged by their profession

Time manages interference in visual short-term memory

Emerging evidence suggests that age-related declines in memory may reflect a failure in pattern separation, a process that is believed to reduce the encoding overlap between similar stimulus representations during memory encoding. Indeed, behavioural pattern separation may be indexed by a visual continuous recognition task in which items are presented in sequence and observers report for each whether it is novel, previously viewed (old), or whether it shares features with a previously viewed item (similar). In comparison to young adults, older adults show a decreased pattern separation when the number of items between “old” and “similar” items is increased. Yet the mechanisms of forgetting underpinning this type of recognition task are yet to be explored in a cognitively homogenous group, with careful control over the parameters of the task, including elapsing time (a critical variable in models of forgetting). By extending the inter-item intervals, number of intervening items and overall decay interval, we observed in a young adult sample (N = 35, Mage = 19.56 years) that the critical factor governing performance was inter-item interval. We argue that tasks using behavioural continuous recognition to index pattern separation in immediate memory will benefit from generous inter-item spacing, offering protection from inter-item interference

Technology makes learning fun: top 10 technologies to try in your school library

The following tools offer school library media specialists innovative and useful ways to incorporate technology into classroom instruction, and each can be adapted for use in youth services within public libraries. While many of the tools may seem geared towards teachers, library media specialists should be familiar with them in order to provide support during instruction

Multicenter Evaluation of the QIAstat-Dx Respiratory Panel for the Detection of Viruses and Bacteria in Nasopharyngeal Swab Specimens

The QIAstat-Dx Respiratory Panel (QIAstat-Dx RP) is a multiplex in vitro diagnostic test for the qualitative detection of 20 pathogens directly from nasopharyngeal swab (NPS) specimens. The assay is performed using a simple sample-to-answer platform with results available in approximately 69 min. The pathogens identified are adenovirus, coronavirus 229E, coronavirus HKU1, coronavirus NL63, coronavirus OC43, human metapneumovirus A and B, influenza A, influenza A H1, influenza A H3, influenza A H1N1/2009, influenza B, parainfluenza virus 1, parainfluenza virus 2, parainfluenza virus 3, parainfluenza virus 4, rhinovirus/enterovirus, respiratory syncytial virus A and B, Bordetella pertussis, Chlamydophila pneumoniae, and Mycoplasma pneumoniae. This multicenter evaluation provides data obtained from 1,994 prospectively collected and 310 retrospectively collected (archived) NPS specimens with performance compared to that of the BioFire FilmArray Respiratory Panel, version 1.7. The overall percent agreement between QIAstat-Dx RP and the comparator testing was 99.5%. In the prospective cohort, the QIAstat-Dx RP demonstrated a positive percent agreement of 94.0% or greater for the detection of all but four analytes: coronaviruses 229E, NL63, and OC43 and rhinovirus/enterovirus. The test also demonstrated a negative percent agreement of ≥97.9% for all analytes. The QIAstat-Dx RP is a robust and accurate assay for rapid, comprehensive testing for respiratory pathogens