Tai Chi/Qi Gong in Mental Health Treatment and Prevention: A review of Meta-Analytic Evidence and an Analysis of Evidence Congruence with Training Practices

In a review of the literature, Abbot and Lavretsky (2013) concluded that Tai Chi and Qi Gong, two complementary and alternative therapies, improved mental and behavioral health-related outcomes. Their review inspired a number of meta-analytical reviews and follow up randomized controlled trials (RCT) that focused on specific outcome categories defined in their paper. My thesis expands Abbot and Lavretsky’s review by examining the results of these posterior meta-analyses and RCT studies. In addition, I replicate the methodological searches provided by each included meta-analysis to bolster their findings with more recent publications. Creating an updated meta-analysis of my own to support or refute Abbot and Lavretsky’s claims, I add to the argument on Tai Chi and Qi Gong’s therapeutic effect on treating mental illness. Tai Chi and Qi Gong appear to be therapeutically beneficial across a range of mental health issues, and are indicated as a safe alternative of treatment. Future studies should include more methodological rigor (blinding, randomization, and reporting) and study these complementary and alternative therapies effect on additional disorders

Room for improvement

Some businesses have begun to make space work for their staff, while others are stuck in a different ag

The selfish signifier: meaning, virulence and transmissibility in a management fashion

Purpose. Management fashions can be, and have been, conceptualized as narrative elements competing for replication and resources in the wider managerial discourse. Most wax and wane through a life cycle. Some achieve an extended place and even a transition to quasi permanent institutions. Facilities / Facility Management (FM) is one such example. Design/methodology/approach. The case draws FM’s history since 1968 and asks whether it is compatible with recent and classic (Darwin 1871) thoughts on cultural evolution as a selection process between competing discourses. Findings. Several properties of that history are argued as compatible with the theoretical stance taken particularly the mutation of the syntactic content to suit local circumstances and the dilution of the term’s intent. Success attributes in the selective competition include contingency, securing an organizational home and mutability (what was represented became, more operational, less virulent but in the process more transmissible). In spreading globally the signifier / meme FM also proved mutatable to local managerial discourses. Originality/value The study supports a developing paradigm that it is possible to view organizations as ecologies of variously, memes, signifiers, narratives, representations or discourses. All five terms are shown to have been used to make similar significations by different authors. It shows how a natural history of narrative memes can be constructed

Analysis of UK Parliament Web Sites for Disability Accessibility

The growth of the Internet has led to an increase in the number of public services offered by U.K. government entities on their Web sites. A variety of consumers use e-government sites, and those individuals with disabilities are guaranteed the same access government sites under the U.K.’s Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) of 1995. This law provides equality in access, and implements penalties for non-adherence to the law. Industry standards also exist which helps site developers to create better site accessibility. However, despite both standards and legal regulations, total openness of sites for people with disabilities is still not widespread. The purpose of this study is to examine the level of accessibility of a randomly selected sample of 130 members of the U.K. House of Commons. Each site was analyzed using an online software tool –Truwex - to determine if they met industry Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) levels 1.0 and 2.0 standards and DDA law. The results showed that the majority of the sites did not meet either guidelines or legal mandates. Many of the sites displayed similar precedents when it came to the types of non-compliance, and could easily improve compliance with minor changes

The extended narrotype: adaptation and stasis in spatial evolution.

We present the proposition that features of work spaces, in both learning spaces and offices, might be considered as the memetic or linguistic analogue of extended phenotypes. We demonstrate a synchronicity in theorising about, on the one hand processes of cognition and learning, and on the other about the design of physical space in our two chosen contexts. The actual physical expression lags the theory in both because, we argue, it reflects the narratives of both powerful occupiers of the space and the professional departments responsible for provision of same. The results are compatible with, and an independent argument for, a ‘narrative ecology’ perspective on organisations. Our intention here is the theory however the results have relevance both to accelerating learning and democratizing management. They argue for the spatial dimension to organisational studies as a subset of research and practice in organisational Darwinism

Mobility, physical space and learning

Our biological inheritance is to sense the world through many channels including the non verbal. Learning theory, in both organizational and pedagogic contexts, has come to recognise as much, yet the dominant physical expressions given to learning space in both contexts remain rooted in linear arrangements. The advent of contemporary human processing tools and artefacts have the potential to liberate the learner yet space designs, driven by dictates of notional efficiency and a view of work and learning as separate, stationary processes, constrain through a reduction in the natural reliance on sensorial, embodied human capacities. With an example of case material, we suggest an asynchronous co-evolutionary process, a syncretisation of learning theories and space design. Granting physical expression to modern views of the learning process as mobile and corporeal can, accelerate learning. Key words Workspace, workplace, learning, complexity, organizational ecology, mobilit

UK Business Investment: Long-Run Elasticities and Short-Run Dynamics

From neoclassical theory output, capital stock and the user cost are cointegrated; capital and investment also (multi)cointegrate through the capital accumulation identity. An investment equation is estimated on UK data using a new capital stock series and a long series for the weighted cost of capital. Assuming CES technology, the elasticity of substitution is well-determined and below unity. Over-identifying restrictions are accepted. The long-run parameter is robust to alternative specifications, but single-equation investment relationships may obscure the dynamics. The Johansen method is over-sized, but outperforms a single equation test for excluding the capital accumulation identity from the investment equation.investment, capital stock, identification, multicointegration

Common Environment for Undergraduate Computer Programming

We present an Integrated Environment suitable for learning and teaching computer programming which is designed for both students of specialised Computer Science courses, and also non-specialist students such as those following Liberal Arts. The environment is rich enough to allow exploration of concepts from robotics, artificial intelligence, social science, and philosophy as well as the specialist areas of operating systems and the various computer programming paradigms

PhysLab - A 3D Virtual Physics Laboratory of Simulated Experiments for Advanced Physics Learning

We introduce a virtual physics laboratory, “PhysLab”, created using 3D video game technology suitable for advanced level physics courses in secondary schools. This comprises 32 simulated experiments covering a range of physics topics, selected in collaboration with practicing school teachers. PhysLab is made available at no cost for the physics education community in two forms: first an installable application, ready to run; and secondly as a development platform where we provide all computer code and assets. While we focus on the theory, design and pedagogical aspects of PhysLab, we provide some critical reflections on the use of simulations in physics teaching in general, and especially how these could be most effectively used in the physics classroom. The experiments are classified according to their nature: supporting theory; “What if”-scenarios, like playing badminton on the Moon; or as hypothetical situations, such as what happens if you drop your home town into a hole through the centre of the Earth. We also discuss the details of several PhysLab simulations: the Wilberforce Pendulum; oscillations of a mass on a rubber band, which involves non-linearity; the Drude theory of electrical conduction; the Cyclotron, and a “Journey to the Centre of the Earth”