“Wastage as never before”: Pound, Williams, and Gendered Turns from Past Poetic Personae

This essay explores the gendered ways in which Pound and Williams reflect on the transformations of their poetic forms from wasteful to economical

Adherence to treatment in asthma and COPD patients in their doctors’ assessment

Introduction: Adherence to therapy is one of the basic preconditions of successful treatment of asthma and COPD. Unfortunately, many patients take their medication incorrectly. The aim of this study was to assess doctors’ knowledge of this phenomenon, including interventions able to improve patient adherence. Material and methods: It was a questionnaire-based survey conducted among convenience sample of Polish physicians treating asthma and COPD. Results: One hundred and sixty one physicians, mainly specialists in allergology (44.1%) and pulmonology (37.3%) took part in the study. According to participants, asthma patients took on average 65.4 ± 17.1% of doses of prescribed drugs, whereas COPD patients — 61.6 ± 24.2%. Over half of respondents claimed that during the first year of treatment, no more than 20% of asthma and COPD patients discontinue their therapy. Survey participants pointed at patients discourage (41.6%) and lack of knowledge about disease (19.3%) as the main reasons for discontinuation of therapy. Almost 2/3 of participants (65.8%) claimed that they could recognize non-adherence in their patients. Prescribing combination inhaled drugs (72.7%), drugs with infrequent dosing (63.4%), and affordable ones (53.4%) were the most common interventions aimed at improving adherence provided by respondents. Conclusions: Survey participants were aware of the phenomenon of non-adherence in patients with asthma and COPD, but underestimated the real prevalence and seriousness of it. They also overestimated their ability to recognise non-adherence in their patients. Therefore, not necessarily they may obtain better adherence in their asthma and COPD patients. These results point at the issues which should be addressed in pre- and postgraduate education of physicians treating chronic airways conditions.Introduction: Adherence to therapy is one of the basic preconditions of successful treatment of asthma and COPD. Unfortunately, many patients take their medication incorrectly. The aim of this study was to assess doctors’ knowledge of this phenomenon, including interventions able to improve patient adherence. Material and methods: It was a questionnaire-based survey conducted among convenience sample of Polish physicians treating asthma and COPD. Results: One hundred and sixty one physicians, mainly specialists in allergology (44.1%) and pulmonology (37.3%) took part in the study. According to participants, asthma patients took on average 65.4 ± 17.1% of doses of prescribed drugs, whereas COPD patients — 61.6 ± 24.2%. Over half of respondents claimed that during the first year of treatment, no more than 20% of asthma and COPD patients discontinue their therapy. Survey participants pointed at patients discourage (41.6%) and lack of knowledge about disease (19.3%) as the main reasons for discontinuation of therapy. Almost 2/3 of participants (65.8%) claimed that they could recognize non-adherence in their patients. Prescribing combination inhaled drugs (72.7%), drugs with infrequent dosing (63.4%), and affordable ones (53.4%) were the most common interventions aimed at improving adherence provided by respondents. Conclusions: Survey participants were aware of the phenomenon of non-adherence in patients with asthma and COPD, but underestimated the real prevalence and seriousness of it. They also overestimated their ability to recognise non-adherence in their patients. Therefore, not necessarily they may obtain better adherence in their asthma and COPD patients. These results point at the issues which should be addressed in pre- and postgraduate education of physicians treating chronic airways conditions

Modern Poetics, Modern Science: the Verbal and Chiasmic Movements of Wallace Stevens

This essay examines Wallace Stevens's use of verbs and chiasmus to destabilize the notion of the body as a singular entity, and it explores how this emerges out of contemporaneous discourses in literature and science

Individual limb mechanical analysis of gait following stroke

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Elsevier via the DOI in this recordThe step-to-step transition of walking requires significant mechanical and metabolic energy to redirect the center of mass. Inter-limb mechanical asymmetries during the step-to-step transition may increase overall energy demands and require compensation during single-support. The purpose of this study was to compare individual limb mechanical gait asymmetries during the step-to-step transitions, single-support and over a complete stride between two groups of individuals following stroke stratified by gait speed (≥0.8 m/s or <0.8 m/s). Twenty-six individuals with chronic stroke walked on an instrumented treadmill to collect ground reaction force data. Using the individual limbs method, mechanical power produced on the center of mass was calculated during the trailing double-support, leading double-support, and single-support phases of a stride, as well as over a complete stride. Robust inter-limb asymmetries in mechanical power existed during walking after stroke; for both groups, the non-paretic limb produced significantly more positive net mechanical power than the paretic limb during all phases of a stride and over a complete stride. Interestingly, no differences in inter-limb mechanical power asymmetry were noted between groups based on walking speed, during any phase or over a complete stride. Paretic propulsion, however, was different between speed-based groups. The fact that paretic propulsion (calculated from anterior-posterior forces) is different between groups, but our measure of mechanical work (calculated from all three directions) is not, suggests that limb power output may be dominated by vertical components, which are required for upright support.This work was supported by the Foundation for Physical Therapy, Incorporated Geriatric Endowment Fund, the American Heart Association (09BGIA2210015), and the Joint University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University Rehabilitation Engineering Center seed grant

Revisiting the mechanics and energetics of walking in individuals with chronic hemiparesis following stroke: from individual limbs to lower limb joints

This is the final version. Available on open access from BMC via the DOI in this recordBACKGROUND: Previous reports of the mechanics and energetics of post-stroke hemiparetic walking have either not combined estimates of mechanical and metabolic energy or computed external mechanical work based on the limited combined limbs method. Here we present a comparison of the mechanics and energetics of hemiparetic and unimpaired walking at a matched speed. METHODS: Mechanical work done on the body centre of mass (COM) was computed by the individual limbs method and work done at individual leg joints was computed with an inverse dynamics analysis. Both estimates were converted to average powers and related to simultaneous estimates of net metabolic power, determined via indirect calorimetry. Efficiency of positive work was calculated as the ratio of average positive mechanical power [Formula: see text] to net metabolic power. RESULTS: Total [Formula: see text] was 20% greater for the hemiparetic group (H) than for the unimpaired control group (C) (0.49 vs. 0.41 W · kg(-1)). The greater [Formula: see text] was partly attributed to the paretic limb of hemiparetic walkers not providing appropriately timed push-off [Formula: see text] in the step-to-step transition. This led to compensatory non-paretic limb hip and knee [Formula: see text] which resulted in greater total mechanical work. Efficiency of positive work was not different between H and C. CONCLUSIONS: Increased work, not decreased efficiency, explains the greater metabolic cost of hemiparetic walking post-stroke. Our results highlighted the need to target improving paretic ankle push-off via therapy or assistive technology in order to reduce the metabolic cost of hemiparetic walking.This research was funded by the following grants: NC TraCs Institute grant number 50KR41018; National Institutes of Health award #R24 HD 050821 (through the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago); and Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Development of the National Institutes of Health award #R21 HD072588 all to G.S.S

Tangible Things: The Matter of Susan Howe

“Tangible Things: The Matter of Susan Howe” examines materiality in two books, That This (2010) and Debths (2017), by the contemporary American experimental poet Susan Howe. More specifically, this examination finds a double movement in both collections between foregrounding the materiality of writing and of the text and meditating on the vibrant nature of matter itself. To frame the first part of this double movement, the thesis draws on recent digital humanities scholarship from Matthew Kirschenbaum and Johanna Drucker that highlights the technologically and materially mediated nature of writing processes and the texts they produce. Then, to frame the second part, it explores Jane Bennett’s new materialism, particularly its claim that all human and nonhuman matter coalesce into assemblages thereby displaying and developing an immanent thing-power. Within Howe’s work, both parts of this double movement play off of each other. Her books use prose, verse, and visual design to announce their materialities in order to articulate an ontological claim about matter. That This contains details of Howe’s archival research, minimalist page layouts, and clashing word collages. These elements certainly underscore the physicality of her medium; they also accentuate her recollections of her deceased husband and the manner in which the things she had long associated with him channel and conduct those recollections. Meanwhile, Debths includes odes to Howe’s most beloved editions and similarly minimalist page layouts and clashing word collages. These features again emphasize the materiality of her work; simultaneously, they amplify her claim that nonhuman things structure our temporal experiences. Howe’s later work, in this respects, always materializes experience

The role of movement errors in modifying spatiotemporal asymmetry post-stroke: a randomized clinical trial

Objective: Current rehabilitation to improve gait symmetry following stroke is based on one of two competing motor learning strategies: minimizing or augmenting symmetry errors. We sought to determine which of those motor learning strategies best improves overground spatiotemporal gait symmetry. Design: Randomized controlled trial. Setting: Rehabilitation research lab. Subjects: In all, 47 participants (59 ± 12 years old) with chronic hemiparesis post stroke and spatiotemporal gait asymmetry were randomized to error augmentation, error minimization, or conventional treadmill training (control) groups. Interventions: To augment or minimize asymmetry on a step-by-step basis, we developed a responsive, “closed-loop” control system, using a split-belt instrumented treadmill that continuously adjusted the difference in belt speeds to be proportional to the patient’s current asymmetry. Main measures: Overground spatiotemporal asymmetries and gait speeds were collected prior to and following 18 training sessions. Results: Step length asymmetry reduced after training, but stance time did not. There was no group × time interaction. Gait speed improved after training, but was not affected by type of asymmetry, or group. Of those who trained to modify step length asymmetry, there was a moderately strong linear relationship between the change in step length asymmetry and the change in gait speed. Conclusion: Augmenting errors was not superior to minimizing errors or providing only verbal feedback during conventional treadmill walking. Therefore, the use of verbal feedback to target spatiotemporal asymmetry, which was common to all participants, appears to be sufficient to reduce step length asymmetry. Alterations in stance time asymmetry were not elicited in any group

Precarious Bodies: Presence and Absence in Henry Green’s Party Going and Nothing

This essay explores the concepts of presence and absence in two of Henry Green's novels, Party Going and Nothing, and argues that they articulate anxieties about either a multiplicity of bodies or aging bodies

Sensitivity and specificity of HR HPV E6/E7 mRNA test in detecting cervical squamous intraepithelial lesion and cervical cancer

Objectives: The paper assess the relevance of HR HPV E6/E7 mRNA test in women with abnormal Pap results.  Material and methods: Between 2013–2014, 125 women were subjects to the enhanced diagnostics due to abnormal Pap results. According to The Bethesda system, if ASC-US, AGC, LSIL, ASC-H, HSIL or cancer cells were present, the result was abnormal. The patients underwent the enhanced diagnostics which included the following procedures: Pap smear collection for molecular assessment of HR HPV E6/E7 mRNA test, the colposcopic examination and biopsy of clinically suspicious areas.  Results: High-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions constituted the most frequent cervical pathology in women with abnormal Pap test results, as well as with the positive results of HR HPV E6/E7 mRNA test. Test sensitivity in patients with the histopathological diagnosis of high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion was estimated at 86.1%.  Conclusions: HR HPV E6/E7 mRNA test identifying neoplastic lesions and cervical cancer is characterised by a high relevance which is reflected by means of sensitivity and specificity. In fact, test sensitivity and specificity increased with the age in the group of patients up to 50 years old.