Mirror Images: The (Lack of) Parallels Between Nogami Yaeko and Her Female Protagonists

Certain characteristics of Japanese woman writer Nogami Yaeko's career and personal life were significantly different from those of her peers. Reading Nogami's works in context of her life story therefore provides an interesting platform on which to perform a literary analysis. This paper performs such an analysis on two of Nogami's short stories, "Persimmon Sweets" (1908) and "A Story of a Missing Leg" (1931). In particular, I show how Nogami was able to make unobtrusive societal criticisms through her writing because the lives of her female protagonists did not closely mirror her own life. As a dedicated wife and mother, Nogami appeared to be a very traditional woman in the eyes of literary critics, who therefore considered her a mere amateur author who wrote without any particular agenda. Nogami used this misguided impression to publish subversive writings which were not recognized as such by critics. In "Persimmon Sweets" and "A Story of a Missing Leg", the protagonists reject the stereotypically female roles that society tries to force on them. However, because Nogami's own life seemed to be in compliance with the rigid adherence to gender roles that her characters renounce, critics did not view her writing as revolutionary. Only by doing a careful reading and remembering that Nogami was not at all an amateur author--as I do in this paper--can readers appreciate the true depth of her social commentary

The Effect of Upper Limb Prosthesis Type on Functional Outcomes and Satisfaction

Despite the significant functional limitations imposed by upper limb loss, little research has focused on quantifying the functional success and satisfaction of prosthesis users. Most existing evidence comes from surveys, rather than experimental outcomes. Without a quantitative baseline, it is difficult to know where to focus attention for improvement in future prosthesis designs or to demonstrate whether new designs offer advantages over existing technologies. Thus, the goal of this dissertation was to quantify how functional outcomes and satisfaction relate to the type of prosthesis used. The first aim was to determine if prosthesis type affects embodiment, or the extent to which prosthesis users perceived their prosthesis to be part of their body. We quantified embodiment for body-powered (BP) and myoelectric (MYO) prosthesis users based on a survey and two objective measurements of body schema and peripersonal space. Although BP users reported a stronger sense of agency over their prostheses in comparison to MYO users, other measures did not consistently differentiate experiences of embodiment based on prosthesis type. However, measurements of body schema varied depending on the cause of limb loss. The second aim was to determine if prosthesis type impacts movement quality during activities of daily living. As an initial step for this aim, we quantified the reliability of movement quality metrics (three measures of smoothness and one measure of straightness) in healthy adults performing a variety of different tasks. Based on these findings, we then compared movement quality in BP and MYO prosthesis users during a subset of tasks (moving a can from a low shelf to a high shelf, placing a pill in a pillbox, and placing a pushpin in a bulletin board) using the metrics that had the highest reliability. All movements were slower when performed with MYO prostheses, except for the reaching phase of the pill task. Object manipulation movements were consistently less smooth when performed with MYO prostheses. However, differences in curvature of the reaching movements between the prosthesis types varied across tasks. The third aim was to determine if prosthesis type affects kinematic compensations during activities of daily living. We quantified lateral lean, axial rotation, and flexion of the trunk during the same three activities of daily living. The range of motion was greater in all directions for BP prostheses during each task—except axial rotation and flexion during the pin task, which were greater for MYO prostheses. The fourth aim was to explore the factors associated with interest in noninvasive (myoelectric) and invasive (targeted muscle reinnervation, peripheral nerve interfaces, cortical interfaces) interfaces for prosthesis control. An online survey collected opinions from 232 individuals with upper limb loss on the interfaces. Relationships between interest in the interfaces and demographics, limb loss characteristics, and prosthesis use history were defined using bivariate analysis and logistic regression. There was increased interest in the invasive interfaces among individuals who were younger, had unilateral limb loss, or had acquired limb loss. Taken together, these aims suggest that BP prostheses may promote embodiment and smooth movement, while MYO prostheses may minimize compensatory movement. Although emerging prosthesis technologies requiring surgical intervention may not be accepted by all individuals with upper limb loss, functional outcomes with these technologies should be compared to outcomes with existing BP and MYO prostheses to demonstrate the relative merits of each design.PHDBiomedical EngineeringUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/151708/1/sengdahl_1.pdfDescription of sengdahl_1.pdf : Restricted to UM users only

A Comparison of Approaches for Segmenting the Reaching and Targeting Motion Primitives in Functional Upper Extremity Reaching Tasks

There is growing interest in the kinematic analysis of human functional upper extremity movement (FUEM) for applications such as health monitoring and rehabilitation. Deconstructing functional movements into activities, actions, and primitives is a necessary procedure for many of these kinematic analyses. Advances in machine learning have led to progress in human activity and action recognition. However, their utility for analyzing the FUEM primitives of reaching and targeting during reach-to-grasp and reach-to-point tasks remains limited. Domain experts use a variety of methods for segmenting the reaching and targeting motion primitives, such as kinematic thresholds, with no consensus on what methods are best to use. Additionally, current studies are small enough that segmentation results can be manually inspected for correctness. As interest in FUEM kinematic analysis expands, such as in the clinic, the amount of data needing segmentation will likely exceed the capacity of existing segmentation workflows used in research laboratories, requiring new methods and workflows for making segmentation less cumbersome. This paper investigates five reaching and targeting motion primitive segmentation methods in two different domains (haptics simulation and real world) and how to evaluate these methods. This work finds that most of the segmentation methods evaluated perform reasonably well given current limitations in our ability to evaluate segmentation results. Furthermore, we propose a method to automatically identify potentially incorrect segmentation results for further review by the human evaluator. Clinical impact: This work supports efforts to automate aspects of processing upper extremity kinematic data used to evaluate reaching and grasping, which will be necessary for more widespread usage in clinical settings

Factors associated with interest in novel interfaces for upper limb prosthesis control

<div><p>Background</p><p>Surgically invasive interfaces for upper limb prosthesis control may allow users to operate advanced, multi-articulated devices. Given the potential medical risks of these invasive interfaces, it is important to understand what factors influence an individual’s decision to try one.</p><p>Methods</p><p>We conducted an anonymous online survey of individuals with upper limb loss. A total of 232 participants provided personal information (such as age, amputation level, etc.) and rated how likely they would be to try noninvasive (myoelectric) and invasive (targeted muscle reinnervation, peripheral nerve interfaces, cortical interfaces) interfaces for prosthesis control. Bivariate relationships between interest in each interface and 16 personal descriptors were examined. Significant variables from the bivariate analyses were then entered into multiple logistic regression models to predict interest in each interface.</p><p>Results</p><p>While many of the bivariate relationships were significant, only a few variables remained significant in the regression models. The regression models showed that participants were more likely to be interested in all interfaces if they had unilateral limb loss (p ≤ 0.001, odds ratio ≥ 2.799). Participants were more likely to be interested in the three invasive interfaces if they were younger (p < 0.001, odds ratio ≤ 0.959) and had acquired limb loss (p ≤ 0.012, odds ratio ≥ 3.287). Participants who used a myoelectric device were more likely to be interested in myoelectric control than those who did not (p = 0.003, odds ratio = 24.958).</p><p>Conclusions</p><p>Novel prosthesis control interfaces may be accepted most readily by individuals who are young, have unilateral limb loss, and/or have acquired limb loss However, this analysis did not include all possible factors that may have influenced participant’s opinions on the interfaces, so additional exploration is warranted.</p></div

Summary of logistic regression model predicting interest in CI.

<p>Summary of logistic regression model predicting interest in CI.</p

Sample characteristics for all ordinal and nominal factors.

<p>Sample characteristics for all ordinal and nominal factors.</p

Median values of continuous and ordinal factors for interested and uninterested participants.

<p>Median values of continuous and ordinal factors for interested and uninterested participants.</p

Additional categories of functions that were not already included in the survey.

<p>Participants listed additional functions that they wanted to perform with a prosthesis that were not already included in the survey. In cases where a participant mentioned multiple functions that could be classified into a single category, the participant was counted only once for that category.</p

Summary of logistic regression model predicting interest in PNI.

<p>Summary of logistic regression model predicting interest in PNI.</p