Development of a best practice statement on the use of ankle-foot orthoses following stroke in Scotland

A National Health Service Quality Improvement Scotland (NHS QIS) scoping exercise in 2007 identified the use of ankle-foot orthoses (AFOs) following stroke as a clinical improvement priority, leading to the development of a best practice statement (BPS) on AFO use after stroke. This paper outlines the development process of the BPS which is available from NHS QIS. The authors were involved in the development of the BPS as part of a working group that included practitioners from the fields of orthotics, physiotherapy, stroke nursing and bioengineering, and staff of NHS QIS and a patient representative. In consultation with an NHS QIS health services researcher, the authors undertook a systematic literature review to evidence where possible the recommendations made in the BPS. Where evidence was unavailable, consensus was reached by the expert working group. As the BPS was designed for the non-specialist and non-orthotic practitioner the authors also developed educational resources which were included within the BPS to aid the understanding of the principles underpinning orthotic design and prescription. The BPS has been widely distributed throughout the health service in Scotland and is available electronically at no cost via the NHS QIS website. At part of an ongoing evaluation of the impact of the BPS on the quality of orthotic provision, NHS QIS has invited feedback regarding successes and challenges to implementation

When and where do feed-forward neural networks learn localist representations?

According to parallel distributed processing (PDP) theory in psychology, neural networks (NN) learn distributed rather than interpretable localist representations. This view has been held so strongly that few researchers have analysed single units to determine if this assumption is correct. However, recent results from psychology, neuroscience and computer science have shown the occasional existence of local codes emerging in artificial and biological neural networks. In this paper, we undertake the first systematic survey of when local codes emerge in a feed-forward neural network, using generated input and output data with known qualities. We find that the number of local codes that emerge from a NN follows a well-defined distribution across the number of hidden layer neurons, with a peak determined by the size of input data, number of examples presented and the sparsity of input data. Using a 1-hot output code drastically decreases the number of local codes on the hidden layer. The number of emergent local codes increases with the percentage of dropout applied to the hidden layer, suggesting that the localist encoding may offer a resilience to noisy networks. This data suggests that localist coding can emerge from feed-forward PDP networks and suggests some of the conditions that may lead to interpretable localist representations in the cortex. The findings highlight how local codes should not be dismissed out of hand

A promising new tool for literacy instruction: The morphological matrix

There is growing interest in the role that morphological knowledge plays in literacy acquisition, but there is no research directly comparing the efficacy of different forms of morphological instruction. Here we compare two methods of teaching English morphology in the context of a memory experiment when words were organized by affix during study (e.g., a list of words was presented that all share an affix, such as , , , , etc.) or by base during study (e.g., a list of words was presented that all share a base, such as , , , ). We show that memory for morphologically complex words is better in both conditions compared to a control condition that does not highlight the morphological composition of words, and most importantly, show that studying words in a base-centric format improves memory further still. We argue that the morphological matrix that organizes words around a common base may provide an important new tool for literacy instruction

Reaching the Unsaved through the Sunday School

The purpose of this study was to show the need for evangelism in the Sunday school. The objectives of this study were: 1) to provide a plan to find the lost, 2) to show how the lost may be enlisted in the Sunday school, 2) to show ways to encourage regular attendance of all scholars, and 4) to win the lost in the Sunday school sessions or prepare them through Bible study and encourage church attendance so they may be won through other channels of the church

Tort Law - The Public Duty Doctrine: Should It Apply in the Face of Legislative Abrogation of Sovereign Immunity? - Coleman v. Cooper

This Note analyzes the Coleman case. The Note suggests that the court incorrectly applied the public duty doctrine where the defense of governmental immunity had been waived. First, the Note traces the background of the public duty doctrine. Second, the Note discusses the facts and holding of the Coleman case. Next, the note focuses on cases from other jurisdictions that have analyzed the public duty doctrine and its relation to governmental immunity. Finally, the Note addresses the issue of whether there is a real distinction between governmental immunity and the public duty doctrine

A Study of Onboarding and Turnover Mediating Variables in U.S. Air Force Officers

Employee retention, while always a concern in the workplace, has become a greater challenge for organizations in recent years. Today’s working class has displayed a propensity to change jobs more rapidly than previous generations, exacerbating not only turnover rates but also the costs associated with them (Frankel, 2016). This challenge is especially relevant to the United States Air Force, which has experienced difficulty retaining young officers in recent years. The problems resulting from this voluntary turnover are exceedingly impactful to the military command structure, as senior leaders must work their way up from the lowest ranks. As such, the Air Force stands to benefit largely from research exploring how to mitigate voluntary turnover of officers. This study addressed this issue by gathering data from young officers regarding their onboarding experience with the Air Force. Onboarding, which is the process of “helping new hires adjust to…their new jobs quickly and smoothly,” (Bauer, 2006) has garnered more attention in recent years, and is a topic that warrants more exploration in the military community. In order to better determine onboarding’s relationship with turnover, the onboarding experience was correlated with three key variables, each having research-supported connections to turnover: job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and job embeddedness. Results of this study indicated that both organizational commitment and job embeddedness were significantly correlated with higher quality onboarding. While the correlation with job satisfaction was not significantly supported, data did show connections worthy of future exploration. Implications, limitations, and recommendations for future research are all discussed, with the ultimate conclusion being that onboarding is a valuable tool that can help the U.S. Air Force to mitigate losses due to voluntary turnover

Pseudo-Democracy in America, 1945-1960: Anticommunism versus the Social Issues of African Americans and Women.

During the period 1945 - 1960, the United States developed an intense fervor of anticommunism and strove to prevent the spread of communism to other nations, particularly the Indochina region. As a result, the government ignored or responded inadequately to key social events at home affecting both women and African Americans. This thesis will explore the extent of the active involvement in Indochina to prevent the spread of communism and the effects of that involvement on major social issues at home concerning African Americans and women. The United States had numerous opportunities to discontinue its involvement in Indochina, but it repeatedly chose to remain an important participant in the events that took place in that country from 1945-1960. As our involvement intensified, less attention was given to discrimination, educational, workforce, and civil rights issues that concerned African Americans and women. A slight period of peace allowed these groups to petition the government for help, but the response was often inadequate. As a result, these two groups formed social and political committees that would later become a major factor in the Civil Rights Movements of the 1960s. The research for this thesis included both primary and secondary sources. The primary sources include documents from the Eisenhower Public Library (accessed online), the Truman Public Library (accessed online), and personal accounts from those involved in the government and social actions at this time. The majority of the material was available from the Sherrod Library at East Tennessee State University. The conclusions drawn from this research are: a) the United States government demonstrated the precedence of fighting communism over domestic issues both by the choice to remain an active participant in Indochina and by the extent of involvement; b) African American issues were often ignored unless some type of public demonstration forced the government to take notice and act; c) the anticommunist movement caused the government to overlook issues facing women to the point that the outrage generated by the ambivalence led women to revolt from traditional stereotypes to gain equal rights