Comparison of Constraint-Induced Movement Therapy Vs Traditional Rehabilitation Therapy to Improve Upper Limb Function in Hemiplegic Acute and Subacute Stroke Patients

Background: Stroke is a generic term in use to describe the sudden interruption of blood flow to the part of brain, resulting loss of brain function. A stroke may be also known as cerebrovascular accident. Cerebrovascular accident which defines as pathology in which brain disease occurs secondary to disorders of blood supply of brain. It is essential to know about the magnitude of impact of stroke globally. Aim: To determine effectiveness of constraint induced movement therapy and comparing its efficacy to traditional rehabilitation in acute and sub-acute stroke survivors exhibiting upper limb hemiplegia Methodology: This was a randomized clinical trial study, conducted in Lahore in which eighteen stroke patients had participated. Current study includes MAL and WMFT questionnaire in it and sample size was 18. Patients were treated 4 times a week and unaffected limb was constrained for two hours in therapy session and onwards to 10 hours to motivate the use of effected limb. Readings were taken weekly and patients were reassessed by using MAL and WMFT. CIMT treatment protocol consists of 3 or 4 month of daily intensive training of the affected extremity for 2 hours in association with restriction of the non-affected extremity for 10 hours a day. Group B: Traditional rehabilitation therapy used Sling (shoulder immobilizer) made of poly urethane material. Hair brush, cup, marbles, cards, blocks, tissue paper, cones, Swiss ball, dexterity board. Results: Statistical analysis was set at p ≤ 0.05. huge and direct to vast impacts existed on WMFT (P=0.010) noteworthy and direct to extensive impacts existed When p-value is not as much as the foreordained importance level which is frequently 0.05 or 0.01, showing that the watched results would be profoundly impossible under the alternate theory. In this way, the alternate hypothesis was supported. Subsequently null hypothesis is rejected and alternate hypothesis is accepted. Conclusion: This study concluded that the patients who were treated with CIMT showed remarkable change in upper extremity functions. While patients who were treated with traditional rehabilitation therapy they exhibited less change in their functional activities than Constraint-Induced Movement Therapy. Keywords: Comparison, traditional rehabilitation therapy, Constraint-Induced Movement Therapy (CIMT) Approaches

Stereotype Threat and Its Problems: Theory Misspecification in Research, Consequences, and Remedies

Despite the explosive growth in stereotype threat (ST) research over the decades, a substantive amount of variability in ST effects still cannot be explained by extant research. While some attribute this unexplained heterogeneity to yet unidentified ST mechanisms, we explored an alternate hypothesis that ST theory is often misspecified in experimental research design, which introduces experimental noise (and hence variability) in stereotype threat effects unlikely to be explained by extant moderators. This study used multilevel meta-analysis to examine the impact of ST misspecification in research design on ST outcomes. Results revealed that ST effects were artificially inflated in studies that failed to include essential conditions necessary for its occurrence. Because most studies in the meta-analysis had either excluded or partially included these conditions, findings from this study suggest that ST effects on women’s performance might be smaller than previously reported in primary and secondary (meta-analytic) studies.

Effectiveness of a Nutritional Education Intervention Focussed on Iron among School Children in National Capital Region and Mumbai

Introduction: Anaemia is a major health problem in India. Various studies mention poor nutrition knowledge and education as main factors of malnutrition. Aim: This study aims at assessing the effect of nutritional education on iron among school children. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional interventional study to improve nutrition literacy in schools was undertaken from April 2018 to February 2019. The outreach platform used was Eat Right School program by Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI). A study tool employed was data collection using self-developed questionnaire for pre and post-intervention knowledge assessment. School children from Delhi NCR and Mumbai participated in this study. Knowledge intervention was done on 5 key elements related to iron including role, sources, iron deficiency anaemia, iron absorption and knowledge of fortification. Chi-squared test (α=0.05) was applied for comparison. Results: It was found that 54% (n=18,626) of school children studied were in the age group 11-14 years. From 27355 participants who reported the gender, 58.1% (n=15899) were boys and 41.9% (n=11456) girls. Comparison of pre and post-intervention assessment revealed that percentage of students knowing importance/role of iron increased from 27.30% to 59.50%, iron deficiency anaemia from 34.03% to 59.85%, sources of iron from 25.20% to 51.70%, iron absorption from 36.00% to 61.2% and knowledge of fortification from 55.4% to 76.9%. Thus, significant shift (p≤0.001) in all the parameters was observed; improvement in scores ranged from 21.5% to 32.20% with highest increase seen in understanding the role of iron. Conclusion: Results of the study reject the null hypothesis leading to acceptance of alternate hypothesis. The alternate hypothesis highlights the role of nutrition education in improving the nutritional literacy of school children in the area of iron and iron deficiency anaemia. Results of the current study increased the knowledge of children on all parameters related to iron education module. Thus, nutritional literacy is imperative in improving nutritional status and adolescent age-group is the window of opportunity to correct it.

Exomoon candidates from transit timing variations: eightKeplersystems with TTVs explainable by photometrically unseen exomoons

ABSTRACT If a transiting exoplanet has a moon, that moon could be detected directly from the transit it produces itself, or indirectly via the transit timing variations (TTVs) it produces in its parent planet. There is a range of parameter space where the Kepler Space Telescope is sensitive to the TTVs exomoons might produce, though the moons themselves would be too small to detect photometrically via their own transits. The Earth’s Moon, for example, produces TTVs of 2.6 min amplitude by causing our planet to move around their mutual centre of mass. This is more than Kepler’s short-cadence interval of 1 min and so nominally detectable (if transit timings can be measured with comparable accuracy), even though the Moon’s transit signature is only 7 per cent that of Earth’s, well below Kepler’s nominal photometric threshold. Here, we examine several Kepler systems, exploring the hypothesis that an exomoon could be detected solely from the TTVs it induces on its host planet. We compare this with the alternate hypothesis that the TTVs are caused by an non-transiting planet in the system. We examine 13 Kepler systems and find 8 where both hypotheses explain the observed TTVs equally well. Though no definitive exomoon detection can be claimed on this basis, the observations are nevertheless completely consistent with a dynamically stable moon small enough to fall below Kepler’s photometric threshold for transit detection, and these systems warrant further observation and analysis.

The War of the Romantics: An Alternate Hypothesis Using nPVI for the Quantitative Anthropology of Music

This response offers an alternate interpretation for the data described in Joseph Daniele's 2016 article "A tool for the quantitative anthropology of music: Use of the nPVI equation to analyze rhythmic variability within long-term historical patterns in music." I examine Daniele's argument that there is an overall rising trend in rhythmic variability in German composition from 1600-1950, and offer an alternate, historically informed explanation based on the re-examination of the data. The rising trend does not appear to be consistent throughout time, and rather than being the result of the waning influence of Italian music on German music, I suggest an alternative hypothesis concerning documented differences between late 19th century German composers and their compositional styles.

The "Rhythmic Fingerprint": An Extension of the nPVI to Quantify Rhythmic Influence

This article is in response to Leigh VanHandel's "The War of the Romantics: An Alternate Hypothesis Using nPVI for the Quantitative Anthropology of Music." (2016) I address comments made in VanHandel's response and propose a new tool, the "rhythmic fingerprint," to move away from representing a composer as a single value (e.g. mean nPVI) and more accurately quantify and classify rhythmic influence within a composer's lifetime.

The Income Elasticity of Gambling in Australia and New Zealand

This paper analyses disposable income as it relates to consumer demand for gambling products in Australia and New Zealand from Financial years (FY) 1998 to 2008. The hypothesis is that income elasticity of demand for gambling products is greater than one i.e. gambling products are a luxury good. The alternate hypothesis is that the income elasticity of demand for gambling products are less than one and are classed as either necessity or inferior goods. Data compiled by the Queensland Treasury and Trade department, the Australian Bureau of Statistics, Statistics New Zealand and the New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs was used to calculate income elasticities for all gambling products. The results indicate that income elasticity for gambling products varies over time and is greater than one pre FY2003 and less than one post FY2003. However, once the change in market share of different gambling products and the large increase in supply in the gaming industry sector (pre FY2003) was accounted for, income elasticities were estimated to be less than one in support of the alternate hypothesis.

The elasticity of tobacco demand in Australia

This paper examines the elasticity of demand of tobacco products in Australia from 2000 to 2011. The hypothesis is that the demand for cigarettes is inelastic. The alternate hypothesis is that the demand for cigarettes is elastic. The hypothesis implies that increasing tobacco tax decreases government tax revenue, while the opposite is true for a decrease in tobacco tax. This paper obtains data mainly from Australian Bureau of Statistics and Cancer Council Victoria. We find an increase in the excise rate and government revenue from tobacco products, therefore implying that the demand of tobacco products in Australia is inelastic. We find further support of this finding by examining factors such as the age and income structure of the population.