22,145 research outputs found
'It burdens me': The impact of stroke in central Aceh, Indonesia
Get PDFThis is the accepted version of the following article: Norris, M., Allotey, P. and Barrett, G. (2012), ‘It burdens
me’: the impact of stroke in central Aceh, Indonesia. Sociology of Health & Illness, 34: 826–840.
doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9566.2011.01431.x, which has been published in final form at
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-9566.2011.01431.x/abstract.The complex primary and secondary consequences of stroke have often been equated with the concept of biographical disruption, although a number of mediating factors have been identified. However, the research to date is almost exclusively based in western contexts, despite the fact that stroke is increasing most rapidly in low-income and middle-income countries. This research explores the experience of stroke in the rural community of central Aceh, Indonesia. The participants included 11 stroke survivors and 18 carers, with data collected through in-depth interviews and photographic facilitated interviews, supported with participant observation over a nine month period. The participants discussed and illustrated the disruptive result of their stroke, but for most, their ability to maintain religious duties and contribute to their family resulted in a form of biographical continuity. Their strategies and challenges are discussed alongside the implications for care in this context
Molecular dissection of I(A) in cortical pyramidal neurons reveals three distinct components encoded by Kv4.2, Kv4.3, and Kv1.4 alpha-subunits
Get PDFThe rapidly activating and inactivating voltage-gated K(+) (Kv) current, I(A), is broadly expressed in neurons and is a key regulator of action potential repolarization, repetitive firing, backpropagation (into dendrites) of action potentials, and responses to synaptic inputs. Interestingly, results from previous studies on a number of neuronal cell types, including hippocampal, cortical, and spinal neurons, suggest that macroscopic I(A) is composed of multiple components and that each component is likely encoded by distinct Kv channel alpha-subunits. The goals of the experiments presented here were to test this hypothesis and to determine the molecular identities of the Kv channel alpha-subunits that generate I(A) in cortical pyramidal neurons. Combining genetic disruption of individual Kv alpha-subunit genes with pharmacological approaches to block Kv currents selectively, the experiments here revealed that Kv1.4, Kv4.2, and Kv4.3 alpha-subunits encode distinct components of I(A) that together underlie the macroscopic I(A) in mouse (male and female) cortical pyramidal neurons. Recordings from neurons lacking both Kv4.2 and Kv4.3 (Kv4.2(-/-)/Kv4.3(-/-)) revealed that, although Kv1.4 encodes a minor component of I(A), the Kv1.4-encoded current was found in all the Kv4.2(-/-)/Kv4.3(-/-) cortical pyramidal neurons examined. Of the cortical pyramidal neurons lacking both Kv4.2 and Kv1.4, 90% expressed a Kv4.3-encoded I(A) larger in amplitude than the Kv1.4-encoded component. The experimental findings also demonstrate that the targeted deletion of the individual Kv alpha-subunits encoding components of I(A) results in electrical remodeling that is Kv alpha-subunit specific
The Life and Times of the Parkes-Tidbinbilla Interferometer
Full text linkThe Parkes-Tidbinbilla took advantage of a real-time radio-link connecting
the Parkes and Tidbinbilla antennas to form the world's longest real-time
interferometer. Built on a minuscule budget, it was an extraordinarily
successful instrument, generating some 24 journal papers including 3 Nature
papers, as well as facilitating the early development of the Australia
Telescope Compact Array. Here we describe its origins, construction, successes,
and life cycle, and discuss the future use of single-baseline interferometers
in the era of SKA and its pathfinders.Comment: Accepted by Journal of Astronomical History & Heritage. arXiv admin
note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1210.098
"I feel like half my body is clogged up": Lay models of stroke in Central Aceh, Indonesia
Get PDFThis is the post-print version of the final paper published in Social Science and Medicine. The published article is available from the link below. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. Copyright @ 2010 Elsevier B.V.Stroke in low and middle income countries is an increasing cause of death and disability, with rates and the estimated burden considerably higher than that of high income countries. Lay explanatory models are believed to be one of the major influences on health seeking behaviour and essential to understand for appropriate education strategies. Despite stroke being a considerable health concern in Indonesia and particularly in Aceh, no studies to date have explored lay stroke models in that context. This paper presents the findings of a qualitative study informed by both hermeneutic phenomenology and ethnography. Based in rural communities in Bener Meriah and Aceh Tengah in Central Aceh, Indonesia, data were gathered through interviews, photographs and observations with 11 persons with stroke (aged 32–69 years) and 18 of their carers. Fieldwork was conducted over nine months between 2007 and 2008. The study examined lay concepts of stroke, described as a condition resulting from a local blockage in blood from multiple causes, many of which are not recognised within the biomedical frame. The blockage is understood to be reversible and therefore the condition curable. This understanding is embedded and sustained in the specific political, cultural, religious and social context. The results illustrate similarities and differences with other cross-cultural studies and suggest areas of future research and points of consideration for stroke education strategies
Averaging over fast variables in the fluid limit for Markov chains: Application to the supermarket model with memory
Full text linkWe set out a general procedure which allows the approximation of certain
Markov chains by the solutions of differential equations. The chains considered
have some components which oscillate rapidly and randomly, while others are
close to deterministic. The limiting dynamics are obtained by averaging the
drift of the latter with respect to a local equilibrium distribution of the
former. Some general estimates are proved under a uniform mixing condition on
the fast variable which give explicit error probabilities for the fluid
approximation. Mitzenmacher, Prabhakar and Shah [In Proc. 43rd Ann. Symp.
Found. Comp. Sci. (2002) 799-808, IEEE] introduced a variant with memory of the
"join the shortest queue" or "supermarket" model, and obtained a limit picture
for the case of a stable system in which the number of queues and the total
arrival rate are large. In this limit, the empirical distribution of queue
sizes satisfies a differential equation, while the memory of the system
oscillates rapidly and randomly. We illustrate our general fluid limit estimate
by giving a proof of this limit picture.Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/12-AAP861 the Annals of
Applied Probability (http://www.imstat.org/aap/) by the Institute of
Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org
Modeling and identification of SCOLE
Get PDFVector differential equations for distributed structures; discretization (in space) of distributed structures; and parameter identification for the Spacecraft Control Laboratory Experiment (SCOLE) are examined
Mid-morning Break and Poster Sessions: Family Gambling and its Connection to Intergenerational Family Relationship Building
Full text linkIntroduction
Most research has viewed gambling as an individual activity and very little research has been devoted to the impacts of family gambling.
Bengtson and Roberts (1991) viewed intergenerational family solidarity as a comprehensive construct consisting of six components of solidarity. Affectual, Associational, and Functional solidarities, can be adapted to a gambling context.
The three family solidarity dimensions of affection, association, and function are the core components to family solidarity (Hogerbrugge & Komter, 2012)
Action for Rehabilitation from Neurological Injury (ARNI): A pragmatic study of functional training for stroke survivors
Get PDFThis article has been made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund. Copyright @ 2013 Cherry Kilbride et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.This study evaluated the effectiveness of a twelve-week community-based functional training on measures of impairment, activity and participation in a group of stroke survivors. Isometric strength of the knee musculature, Centre-Of-Pressure (COP) based measures of balance, Berg Balance Scale (BBS), 10 m walk test, and the Subjective Index of Physical and Social Out come (SIPSO), were recorded at baseline, post-intervention, and after twelve weeks (follow-up). Exercise instructors delivered training once a week in a group format at a community centre. Significant improvement was noted in the BBS (p < 0.002), and 10 m walk speed (p = 0.03) post intervention which remained unchanged at follow-up. Total SIPSO score improved significantly post-intervention (p = 0.044). No other significant differences and no adverse effects were observed. It is possible that functional training provided more opportunity for the improvement of dynamic aspects of balance control that could be captured by the BBS but not with the traditional measures of balance using COP data. Results also suggest positive effects on the level of participation, and lack of association between measures of impairment and activity. Community based functional training could be effective and used to extend access to rehabilitation services beyond the acute and sub-acute stages after stroke.London Borough of Hillingdo
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