The study of wrist postures of musicians using the WristSystem (Greenleaf Medical System)

This study examined wrist motions of instrumentalists who have never experienced a cumulative traumatic disorder. Eighteen student musicians ranging from 18 to 29 years of age, with more than 9 years of playing experience participated in this study using the WristSystem (Greenleaf Medical System). The wrist motions were measured while participants played their instrument for five minutes. The results indicated a different pattern of wrist movements for each instrumentalist. Pianists demonstrated more ulnar deviation for both hands and more flexion for the left hand than any of the other instrumentalists. The average wrist range of motion for all four movements was under 15 degrees for violinists and violists. The right hand of the cellist had more flexion than any other instrumentalists. For both hands, flutists had more wrist extension than any other instrumentalists. This study provided information about wrist motions of musicians as one of the many factors that contribute to cumulative traumatic disorders. However, further research is needed to identify causal factors, and to promote prevention of the injury.     

Learning to feel: the neglected sociology of social movements

This paper discusses the experience and ideology of emotions among animal rights activists, and more broadly, the applicability of the sociology of emotions to the field of social movements. I examine the case of a social movement which relies heavily on empathy in its initial recruitment, and which has been derisively labeled by outsiders as ‘emotional’. I explain recruitment to animal rights activism by showing how activists develop a ‘vocabulary of emotions’ to rationalize their participation to others and themselves, along with managing the emotional tone of the movement by limiting the kinds of people who can take part in debates about animal cruelty. The interactive nature in which emotions develop in social movements is stressed over previous approaches to emotions in the social movement literature, which treat emotions as impulsive or irrational.     

From social movements to cloud protesting: the evolution of collective identity

This article develops a conceptual framework for understanding collective action in the age of social media, focusing on the role of collective identity and the process of its making. It is grounded on an interactionist approach that considers organized collective action as a social construct with communicative action at its core [Melucci, A. 1996 Melucci, A. (1996). Challenging codes: Collective action in the information age. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]. Challenging codes: Collective action in the information age. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press]. It explains how micromobilization is mediated by social media, and argues that social media play a novel broker role in the activists' meaning construction processes. Social media impose precise material constraints on their social affordances, which have profound implications in both the symbolic production and organizational dynamics of social action. The materiality of social media deeply affects identity building, in two ways: firstly, it amplifies the ‘interactive and shared’ elements of collective identity (Melucci, 1996 Melucci, A. (1996). Challenging codes: Collective action in the information age. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]), and secondly, it sets in motion a politics of visibility characterized by individuality, performance, visibility, and juxtaposition. The politics of visibility, at the heart of what I call ‘cloud protesting’, exacerbates the centrality of the subjective and private experience of the individual in contemporary mobilizations, and has partially replaced the politics of identity typical of social movements. The politics of visibility creates individuals-in-the-group, whereby the ‘collective’ is experienced through the ‘individual’ and the group is the means of collective action, rather than its end.     

On the scaling of annoyance due to environmental factors

A recurrent problem in sociological annoyance surveys is to scale the environmental variables quantitatively as they are perceived. Data from two surveys on malodors and noise are discussed within a framework of scaling theory. A Thurstonian scaling technique was applied to the category annoyance data. In the investigation of malodors a rather stable picture of the results of the annoyance reports was obtained independently of the assumptions made in data treatment. On the other hand, the results of the noise investigation indicate that paired comparisons may furnish a better procedure than verbal category scaling for data collection in surveys. Scales of annoyance from different populations will give different units of measurement, and annoyance scales cannot be compared adequately unless the scales are calibrated. A possible calibration procedure is to introduce a defined psychological unit of measurement into the data.This study was supported by grants from the Swedish Environment Protection Board and the Swedish Council for Social Science Research. The authors wish to thank Anita and Peter Medlund for collecting parts of the data.     

International migrations to and from Zimbabwe and the influence of political changes on population movements, 1965-1987

"This article suggests that the special case of [international migration in] southern African countries (Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe), in which the majority of permanent movers have historically been whites of European origin, requires that greater attention should be given to the politico-structural context of voluntary international migrations [as compared to economic motivation]. Statistical data on international migrations to and from Zimbabwe during the past quarter of a century are used to demonstrate that the temporal magnitude and spatial patterns of population movements are best explained by reference to the changing political, rather than economic, conditions within the country."     

The effects of union membership on absence from work due to illness

A simple model of the effects of unionization on absenteeism due to illness is developed and tested. It is argued that unions lower absenteeism through providing a monopoly wage, but raise it by providing liberal sick-leave benefits. Data from the Michigan Panel Study of Income Dynamics are used to test the model. In regressions which control for human capital and demographic characteristics as well as working conditions, it is found that the net effect of unionization is to encourage absence.     

A migration channels approach to the study of high level manpower movements: a theoretical perspective

"There can be little doubt that major changes have taken place in recent years in the nature and organisation of skilled manpower moves. This short article sets out to investigate the ways in which these trends in high level manpower moves might be analysed. It arises from the discussions of a group of British geographers who commenced investigations on this topic in 1985 under the auspices of a working party of the Institute of British Geographers. The article commences by briefly considering the significance of skilled international migration before turning to consider a theoretical framework by which such movements might be analysed. It pays particular attention to the impact of skilled international migration on sub-national units or regions [of developed countries], and tries to link together the findings of the working party on this topic with particular reference to a set of papers presented to a workshop held at the University of Liverpool in March 1989." (SUMMARY IN FRE AND SPA)     

Fundamental study on relationship between human injury probability due to fall and the fall height

Many fatal accidents due to falling from height have happen at construction sites in Japan. The purpose of this study is about to seek new prevention methods of fatal accidents due to falling. For the first step, this study was carried out to find out "cause of death" in labor accidents by using past statistics data and was analyzed it. For the second, Butt dropping tests were carried out to measure impact load and acceleration of human head and neck by using simplified human model. After that, relationship between the human injury probability and the fall height was discussed by comparing with experimental results and some impact tolerance values for human. From the results of this study, impact force might be able to head trauma involved not only skull fracture but also cervical spinal cord injury. These results suggest needs to explore new protection equipment for head and cervical injuries prevention.     

CDC on the complexities of using ICD coding to track NAS

It should be noted that in 2001 a patent application was filed with the U.S. Patent Office by G. R. Barrie Webster of Manitoba and published on July 22, 2004, regarding the conversion of cannabidiol (CBD) to tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). That application cited earlier work by Gaoni and Mechoulam that converted CBD to THC. Thus, while it can be done to produce yields up to 70 percent THC, one would need access to key chemicals, certain acids, organic solvents, nitrogen, methylene chloride and other substances. Again, if the object is to get “high,” converting CBD to THC would generally not be done, because it is costly, labor‐intensive and unnecessary given the availability of cannabis‐THC.     

Domestic violence and women with disabilities: locating the issue on the periphery of social movements

Women with disabilities, like non‐disabled women, are at risk of experiencing abuse perpetrated by those closest to them. This paper reviews what is known about the domestic abuse of disabled women, explores some of the dynamics of that abuse and considers why this issue has not been high on the agenda of either the movement against domestic violence or the disabled people’s movement in the UK, taking into consideration several points that disabled women have raised. In doing so it focuses on the concept of compound oppressions as a potential explanation for the failure of this problem to have widespread recognition as a social issue.     

社区运动的“社区性”——对现行社区运动理论的回应与补充

在国家强控制、组织发育不良的背景下,资源动员理论和政治过程理论等对社区运动解释式微,社区性成为影响社区运动产生与维系的核心变量。空间、人口、组织三个社区性要素循环互动,促成或抑制了社区运动,同时形塑了程度不一的社区共同体(社区认同感)。内在的社区居民共同体与外在的社会(控制)结构两个社区性维度的互动解释了社区运动的发生与走向。本文认为,只有通过对社区性要素和维度的合理安排与调整,改变政府与居民零和博弈的关系,才能营造出合作、共赢的社区治理局面。     

The impact of seating and positioning on the development of repetitive strain injuries of the upper extremity in wheelchair athletes

The population of people who use wheelchairs has been increasing due to technological advances. With this increase, there has also been an increase in participation in wheelchair sports. The incidence of upper extremity injury in wheelchair users has been reported to be between 31 and 73% [2,13,23,26,29]. Wheelchair athletes may be at an increased risk for upper extremity injury due to increased upper extremity use with sport. The purpose of this paper is to ascertain whether proper seating and positioning have an impact on the prevention of repetitive strain injuries (RSI) of the soft tissues, including peripheral nerve entrapments and muscle injury, of the upper extremity in wheelchair athletes. A review of current research on wheelchair propulsion and RSI revealed several hazards for wheelchair athletes to develop RSI's. These include duration of impairment, muscle imbalance, awkward positioning, inadequate rest breaks, repetition of muscle use in daily activities and in sport participation, the degree of force needed for propulsion, and fatigue. Current research does not provide conclusive information on optimal seating. Suggestions of preventative measures are given including suggestions with regard to positioning in the wheelchair.     

Infants born full term and preterm increase the height of anti-gravity leg movements during a kick-activated mobile task using a scaffolded task environment

Prior research supports that infants born very preterm (PT), compared with full term (FT), have early differences in rate of learning and motor control that may hinder their ability to learn challenging motor tasks. Four-month-old infants born FT (n = 18) and PT (n = 18) participated in an infant kick-activated mobile task that was scaffolded to motivate progressively higher kicks. We found the FT group learned the association between their leg movements and mobile activation on the second day, but the PT group learned the association on the third day. Both groups of infants increased the height of their kicks on the day they learned the task, compared with their spontaneous kicking height. These findings suggest that infants born PT have the ability to learn challenging motor tasks, such as kicking high, when participating in a task environment that uses scaffolding.     

The effect of task differences,attention and personality on the frequency of body-focused hand movements

A hypothesized relationship between apparently irrelevant self or object manipulatory hand movements and attentional demand was investigated by observing the frequency of these hand movements during the performance of three tasks: a monologue, mental arithmetic, and rest. The attentional demand of each task was assessed by means of a simultaneous reaction time probe task. The monologue task had both the highest frequency of hand movements and the highest level of attentional demand. However, correlations between these measures were not significant for any of the tasks. The influence of the task differences on movement frequencies was much greater than the effect of individual differences. Correlations of trait anxiety and field dependence measures with movement frequencies varied markedly with task differences. The nature and significance of these movements is considered by reference to similar observations in nonhuman species.     

互联网聊天成瘾的社会心理学分析

互联网的迅猛发展,对现代人的生活和工作产生了划时代的影响。它给人们带来丰富的信息资源的同时,也对一些上网者产生了不可忽视的负面影响,使其出现了不同程度、不同种类的网络沉溺。本文针对青少年上网者中较常发生的聊天成瘾现象,从社会心理学的角度进行分析。     

Bivariate pointing movements on large touch screens: investigating the validity of a refined Fitts' Law

On the basis of three empirical studies Fitts' Law was refined for bivariate pointing tasks on large touch screens. In the first study different target width parameters were investigated. The second study considered the effect of the motion angle. Based on the results of the two studies a refined model for movement time in human-computer interaction was formulated. A third study, which is described here in detail, concerns the validation of the refined model. For the validation study 20 subjects had to execute a bivariate pointing task on a large touch screen. In the experimental task 250 rectangular target objects were displayed at a randomly chosen position on the screen covering a broad range of ID values (ID= [1.01; 4.88]). Compared to existing refinements of Fitts' Law, the new model shows highest predictive validity. A promising field of application of the model is the ergonomic design and evaluation of project management software. By using the refined model, software designers can calculate a priori the appropriate angular position and the size of buttons, menus or icons.     

职场"出气筒"不能承受之痛

人在职场,有着太多的身不由己.相信没有哪个人喜欢总被别人批评,但职场如战场,如果没有抗战能力,麻烦总是自动找上门,似乎注定了你是别人的"出气筒".其实,很多时候做"出气筒"并非你本意,也并非你不够努力,只是有许多Office里的门道你还没弄懂摸熟,无意间冲撞到了禁区,变成了被挑刺找茬的出气目标.面对向你撒气的上司、同事……你的忍耐性有多大?如果他们语言过激、行为过分,达到你不能承受之痛时,你必须翻身反击.