scholarly journals The effect of liner design and materials selection on prosthesis interface heat dissipation

2017 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 275-279 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rhys James Williams ◽  
Elaine Denise Washington ◽  
Mark Miodownik ◽  
Catherine Holloway
Keyword(s):  
Heat Dissipation ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Skin Damage ◽  
Materials Selection ◽  
Thermal Discomfort ◽  
Thermally Conductive ◽  
Technological Improvements ◽  
Interface Heat ◽  
Better Than

Background and aim: Thermal discomfort often affects prosthesis wearers and could be addressed by increasing liner thermal conductivity. This note explores a liner made from thermally conductive silicone and two additional alternative liner designs. Technique: Thermally conductive silicone was used to create a conductive liner and a hybrid liner. Additionally, one with open elements was made. These were compared with a plain silicone liner and a no liner scenario. Scaled down liner prototypes were used due to the high-cost of the thermally conductive silicone. Temperature decay profiles were collected by attaching thermistors to a heated liner phantom and used to evaluate scenarios. Discussion: No scenario performed much better than the plain silicone liner. Implementation of passive solutions may be easier, but alternative liner materials are unlikely to affect dissipation enough to address thermal discomfort. Based on this work, future research efforts may be better spent developing active thermal discomfort solutions. Clinical relevance Thermal discomfort can increase the probability of skin damage, reduce prosthesis satisfaction and, ultimately, the quality of life. The prosthesis-wearing experience could be improved if thermal discomfort can be addressed by technological improvements.

Influence of learning Ugandan folksongs using aural/oral versus notation means on US music majors’ preferences for instruction method and quality of freely created rhythmic accompaniments

2018 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 630-643
Author(s):  
Janice N Killian ◽  
Lawrence Branco Sekalegga
Keyword(s):  
Oral Tradition ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Music Majors ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Better Than

To examine the quality of rhythmic improvisations after learning Ugandan folksongs via notated or aural/oral means, we asked university music majors ( N = 32) to practice two Ugandan folksongs via Western notation or while viewing a prerecorded video of an expert Ugandan performer singing the same song to mimic aural/oral tradition conditions. Subsequently participants heard an authentic performance of the song they had just learned and were asked to create a rhythmic accompaniment to that song. All conditions were counterbalanced by treatment and by song. Resulting improvisations were judged regarding whether the first was better than the second. Results indicated no significant difference between improvisations on the basis of how the song was learned ( p = 0.2617), differences between the songs themselves ( p = 0.1261) or the order of the songs ( p = 0.7518). Participants improvised better when the song was learned under notation conditions (differences not significant), but 70.1% of participants preferred to learn the song via aural/oral means ( p = 0.0041). Results are discussed in terms of challenges in assessment of improvisations and pedagogical implications for future research.

scholarly journals Efficacy of Compound Kushen Injection in Relieving Cancer-Related Pain: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu-ming Guo ◽  
Yi-xue Huang ◽  
Hong-hui Shen ◽  
Xiu-xiu Sang ◽  
Xiao Ma ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Treatment Groups ◽  
Total Pain ◽  
Research Level ◽  
Relief Rate ◽  
Compound Kushen Injection ◽  
Adequate Power ◽  
Better Than

Despite widespread popular use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) therapies, a rigorous evidence based on the efficacy of compound kushen injection (CKI) for cancer-related pain is lacking. In this study, we evaluated the efficacy and safety of compound kushen injection and provided information for current or future research and clinical application. Sixteen trials were identified with a total of 1564 patients. The total pain relief rate of CKI plus chemotherapy is better than chemotherapy except for colorectal cancer. The treatment groups achieved a reduction in the incidences of leukopenia and gastrointestinal, hepatic, and renal functional lesion. However, there is paucity of multi-institutional RCTs evaluating compound kushen injection for cancer pain with adequate power, duration, and sham control. The quantity and quality of RCTs are lower so that we still have to boost the research level through scientific design and normative report.

scholarly journals Benchmarking holiday experience: the case of senior tourists

2016 ◽  
Vol 23 (7) ◽  
pp. 1860-1875 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Johann ◽  
Panchapakesan Padma
Keyword(s):  
Design Methodology ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Food Choices ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Essential Characteristic ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Practical Implications ◽  
Better Than ◽  
Tourist Service

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to determine and benchmark the senior tourists’ preferences by considering the importance attached by them and their perception with respect to internal tourism attributes (i.e. package tour characteristics) and external tourism attributes (i.e. destination features). Design/methodology/approach The present study makes use of importance-performance analysis and employs paired sample t-test for this purpose. Findings The senior tourists evaluated the package tour attributes to be more important and better than destination characteristics. They also perceived that the service providers have to pay immediate attention to improve the quality of restaurants and meals and hotels. Research limitations/implications Data are collected only from inbound senior tourists in Poland. In future, research may be conducted with a more representative sample. Practical implications The senior tourists want to explore the local cuisine and then have food choices from their culture as well. “Tour escort” is one of the most essential characteristic of a package tour and it could serve as a factor of differentiation. Hence, the tourist service providers have to pay attention to these factors. Originality/value The paper takes into account the internal tour attributes and destination attributes to evaluate senior tourists’ holiday experience.

scholarly journals IMPROVING THE PERFORMANCE OF MUET STUDENTS IN REPORT-WRITING: FROM EXPERIMENT TO ACTIONS

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 175
Author(s):  
Boo Ho Voon ◽  
Ai Kiat Teo ◽  
Joyce E.C. Voon
Keyword(s):  
Customer Orientation ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Control Groups ◽  
Government School ◽  
Report Writing ◽  
Students First ◽  
Class Room ◽  
And Control ◽  
Better Than

Students always need sincere and kind guidance from the teachers. Hence, a true customer orientation is instrumental in teaching English as it is always good to understand the students’ needs to improve their performance.  This paper addresses the requirement to understand the students’ needs and then teach accordingly to improve the quality of MUET report-writing. A class-room based experiment was done on 40 students in a government school. The students were briefed on the requirements for report writing in MUET. There were experimental and control groups in this study. This research found that the format-driven teaching (FBT) had significantly improved the writing performance of the MUET students. The results indicated that the overall mean score of the students before the FBT teaching stood at 18.50 (out of maximum 40.00), but the score significantly increased to 23.95 after the students were briefed and taught based on the format and requirements of the report-writing. The quality of their writings was much better than before. This research suggested the need of putting the interests of the students first in teaching. The students might have different needs such as not knowing the expectations of the examiners or teachers. Implications and direction for future research were also discussed.

scholarly journals The Imagined Audience for and Perceived Quality of News Comments: Exploring the Perceptions of Commenters on News Sites and on Facebook

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 205630511876574 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jisu Kim ◽  
Seth C. Lewis ◽  
Brendan R. Watson
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Survey Data ◽  
Perceived Quality ◽  
Online News ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Implicit Assumption ◽  
Civic Discourse ◽  
News Organizations ◽  
Better Than

A number of news organizations have begun shifting commenting from their websites to Facebook, based on the implicit assumption that commenting on Facebook is an equivalent (or preferred) substitute. Using survey data from 317 online news commenters, and drawing on the concept of imagined audience, this article examines this assumption by comparing news commenters’ perceptions of imagined audiences for comments on news organizations’ websites and on Facebook. While news commenters had mostly different imagined audiences between the two platforms, they had similar evaluations of the personal dimensions of their audiences and the quality of news comments. News commenters on Facebook, for example, did not perceive their audiences to be any more reasonable, intelligent, or responsive—or any less aggressive—than did commenters on news organizations’ websites. Facebook commenters also did not perceive comments to be of any greater quality than did commenters on news organizations’ websites. Thus, it appears that at least in the context of aiming to elevate the quality and civility of civic discourse, news commenters do not perceive Facebook to be demonstrably better than news organizations’ websites. Implications for journalism, social media, and future research are discussed.

scholarly journals Excavation of Genes Related to the Mining of Growth, Development, and Meat Quality of Two Crossbred Sheep Populations Based on Comparative Transcriptomes

Animals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 1492
Author(s):  
Jinping Shi ◽  
Xueying Wang ◽  
Yali Song ◽  
Ting Liu ◽  
Shuru Cheng ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Meat Quality ◽  
Transcriptome Analysis ◽  
Muscle Development ◽  
Bioinformatic Analysis ◽  
Production Performance ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Productive Performance ◽  
Growth Development ◽  
Better Than

Crossbreeding can improve production performance and meat quality in sheep. The objective of this study was to look for genes related to sheep growth, development, and muscle. In this study, Dorper (DP) × Small Tailed Han (STH) sheep and Mongolia (MG) × Small-tailed Han (STH) sheep were used to estimate the productive performance and meat quality in a crossbreed. Subsequently, transcriptome analysis and bioinformatic analysis were performed on the Longissimus dorsi muscles of DP × STH and MG × STH sheep to identify differentially expressed genes (DEGs) related to growth, development, and meat quality. The presence of DEGs was confirmed by real-time PCR (qPCR). Productive performance and meat quality of the DP × STH sheep were better than the MG × STH sheep. Compared to DP × STH, a total of 1445 DEGs were identified in MG × STH sheep (1026 DEG were up-regulated and 419 DEG were down-regulated). Of these, 38 DEGs were related to growth, 161 to development, and 43 to muscle. In addition, 13 co-expressed genes (FGFRL1, SIX1, PLCB1, CRYAB, MYL2, ADIPOQ, GPX1, PPARD, GPC1, CDC42, LOC101106246, IGF1, and LARGE) were identified. The expression of DEGs was consistent with the comparative transcriptome analysis. This work provides genetics resources for future research on muscle development in sheep.

Self-Compassion and Quality of Life in Adults Who Stutter

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 2097-2108
Author(s):  
Robyn L. Croft ◽  
Courtney T. Byrd
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Social Connectedness ◽  
The Self ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Self Compassion ◽  
Adults Who Stutter ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Impact

Purpose The purpose of this study was to identify levels of self-compassion in adults who do and do not stutter and to determine whether self-compassion predicts the impact of stuttering on quality of life in adults who stutter. Method Participants included 140 adults who do and do not stutter matched for age and gender. All participants completed the Self-Compassion Scale. Adults who stutter also completed the Overall Assessment of the Speaker's Experience of Stuttering. Data were analyzed for self-compassion differences between and within adults who do and do not stutter and to predict self-compassion on quality of life in adults who stutter. Results Adults who do and do not stutter exhibited no significant differences in total self-compassion, regardless of participant gender. A simple linear regression of the total self-compassion score and total Overall Assessment of the Speaker's Experience of Stuttering score showed a significant, negative linear relationship of self-compassion predicting the impact of stuttering on quality of life. Conclusions Data suggest that higher levels of self-kindness, mindfulness, and social connectedness (i.e., self-compassion) are related to reduced negative reactions to stuttering, an increased participation in daily communication situations, and an improved overall quality of life. Future research should replicate current findings and identify moderators of the self-compassion–quality of life relationship.

The Relationship Between Interoception and Metacognition

2016 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 76-86 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judith Meessen ◽  
Verena Mainz ◽  
Siegfried Gauggel ◽  
Eftychia Volz-Sidiropoulou ◽  
Stefan Sütterlin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Memory Performance ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Demographic Characteristics ◽  
Metacognitive Awareness ◽  
Interoceptive Awareness ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Heartbeat Perception ◽  
Interoceptive Accuracy ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract. Recently, Garfinkel and Critchley (2013) proposed to distinguish between three facets of interoception: interoceptive sensibility, interoceptive accuracy, and interoceptive awareness. This pilot study investigated how these facets interrelate to each other and whether interoceptive awareness is related to the metacognitive awareness of memory performance. A sample of 24 healthy students completed a heartbeat perception task (HPT) and a memory task. Judgments of confidence were requested for each task. Participants filled in questionnaires assessing interoceptive sensibility, depression, anxiety, and socio-demographic characteristics. The three facets of interoception were found to be uncorrelated and interoceptive awareness was not related to metacognitive awareness of memory performance. Whereas memory performance was significantly related to metamemory awareness, interoceptive accuracy (HPT) and interoceptive awareness were not correlated. Results suggest that future research on interoception should assess all facets of interoception in order to capture the multifaceted quality of the construct.

Assessments of User Comments With “Alternative Views” as a Function of Media Trust

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Marlene Kunst
Keyword(s):  
Online Discussions ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
Argument Quality ◽  
The Public ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
User Comments ◽  
Media Trust ◽  
Heuristic Information Processing

Abstract. Comments sections under news articles have become popular spaces for audience members to oppose the mainstream media’s perspective on political issues by expressing alternative views. This kind of challenge to mainstream discourses is a necessary element of proper deliberation. However, due to heuristic information processing and the public concern about disinformation online, readers of comments sections may be inherently skeptical about user comments that counter the views of mainstream media. Consequently, commenters with alternative views may participate in discussions from a position of disadvantage because their contributions are scrutinized particularly critically. Nevertheless, this effect has hitherto not been empirically established. To address this gap, a multifactorial, between-subjects experimental study ( N = 166) was conducted that investigated how participants assess the credibility and argument quality of media-dissonant user comments relative to media-congruent user comments. The findings revealed that media-dissonant user comments are, indeed, disadvantaged in online discussions, as they are assessed as less credible and more poorly argued than media-congruent user comments. Moreover, the findings showed that the higher the participants’ level of media trust, the worse the assessment of media-dissonant user comments relative to media-congruent user comments. Normative implications and avenues for future research are discussed.

Kepuasan Masyarakat Terhadap Pelayanan Kelurahan Setelah Pemekaran Di Tangerang Selatan

Liquidity ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 151-159
Author(s):  
Pitri Yandri
Keyword(s):  
Public Perception ◽  
Service Personnel ◽  
Urban Services ◽  
Hospitality Workers ◽  
Care Workers ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Cartesian Diagram ◽  
Better Than

The purpose of this study is (1) to analyze public perception on urban services before and after the expansion of the region, (2) analyze the level of people's satisfaction with urban services, and (3) analyze the determinants of the variables that determine what level of people's satisfaction urban services. This study concluded that first, after the expansion, the quality of urban services in South Tangerang City is better than before. Secondly, however, public satisfaction with the services only reached 48.53% (poor scale). Third, by using a Cartesian Diagram, the second priority that must be addressed are: (1) clarity of service personnel, (2) the discipline of service personnel, (3) responsibility for care workers; (4) the speed of service, (5) the ability of officers services, (6) obtain justice services, and (7) the courtesy and hospitality workers.

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