The effects of a continuous passive motion device on myoelectric activity of the erector spinae during prolonged sitting at a computer workstation

Continuous passive motion (CPM) has been proposed as a method to help individuals with low back pain cope with prolonged sitting. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects that a commercially available CPM device had on lumbar and thoracic erector spinae (ES) muscle activation (using surface electromyography, "EMG"), and on subjective discomfort during prolonged seated computer work with and without the use of the CPM device. There were no significant differences in average ES muscle activation levels, amplitude probability distribution functions, and EMG gaps number and length when sitting with the CPM device was compared to sitting normally. Subjective ratings of discomfort were also not significantly different between the two sitting conditions. The results indicated that there were no clear mechanisms by which the CPM device may reduce ES muscle pain and fatigue for the tasks and pain-free individuals studied.     

Differentiating Processes of Control and Understanding in the Early Development of Emotion and Cognition

In this study, we examined the hypothesis that preschoolers' performance on emotion and cognitive tasks is organized into discrete processes of control and understanding within the domains of emotion and cognition. Additionally, we examined the relations among component processes using mother report, behavioral observation, and physiological measures of emotion control. Participants were 263 children (42 percent non‐White) and their mothers. Results indicated that the three approaches of measuring emotion control were unrelated. Regardless of the measurement method, a four‐factor solution differentiating emotion control and understanding and cognitive control and understanding fits the data better than did either of two two‐factor models, one based on domains of emotion and cognition across processes, and one based on processes of control and understanding across domains. Results of this research replicate those of Leerkes et al. in describing a differentiated underlying structure of emotion and cognition processes in early childhood while also extending these conclusions across samples and across measurement approaches for assessing emotion control.     

Eighth Conference of the Australian Advisory Council for the Physically Handicapped

Abstract

While Burnside is today well known for the services it provides to families and children throughout western Sydney, information about its early history is less well known. This article describes the background to the establishment of Burnside at North Parramatta, the role played by Sir James Burns of Burns Philp &; Co, the impact of the Second World War when the Homes were evacuated to the Blue Mountains, and demonstrates how the impact of changes to child welfare policy this century affected the Homes. As different theories of appropriate care for children and the resultant policy measures were introduced, the Homes were transformed from being one of the largest residential child care institutions in New South Wales in the era of the Great Depression, to their current role of providing services to large numbers of families and children of a more preventive nature.     

Getting Paid in Smiles: The Gendering of Child Care Work

Based on four and a half years of participant‐observation field research and focused interviews with men and women child care workers, the author examines the occupational processes of the entry and tenure of workers, paying particular attention to gender as it manifests in the meanings and actions involved in becoming and continuing as a child care worker. As men and women workers go about the business of becoming and being child care workers, they become active agents in the reproduction of child care as low‐wage, low‐status, women's work. Through the construction of particular gendered “accounts” and “vocabularies of motive,” workers play a key role in sustaining the status of child care as a gendered occupation.     

Contraceptive determinants in three leading countries

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relative importance of access to family planning and the motivation to restrict fertility in determining contraceptive use in three countries that have led the fertility transitions in their regions: Colombia, Tunisia, and Zimbabwe. A structural equations model is estimated where endogenous fertility intentions are allowed to affect contraceptive method use. Simulation methods are then used to quantify the size of the impact of intentions and access on method choice for the three countries. The results demonstrate that even after controlling for fertility intentions, family planning program variables still have important effects in all three countries.     

Welfare generosity, pregnancies and abortions among unmarried AFDC recipients

Even before the 1996 overhaul of the U.S. welfare system, a number of states had ended the practice of paying extra benefits to families who have additional children while receiving welfare. Proponents believe that this reform can reduce births to recipients, however many worry that it may encourage women to obtain abortions. Using a sample of unmarried AFDC recipients from the NLSY, we estimate a bivariate probit model of pregnancy and, conditional on becoming pregnant, the probability of abortion. Our results lend some support for the proposition that reducing incremental AFDC benefits will decrease pregnancies without increasing abortions. Received: 16 April 1998/Accepted: 11 March 1999     

Children of Adolescent Mothers: Cognitive and Behavioral Status at Age Six

The cognitive and behavioral status at age six years of 185 children of adolescent mothers (60.5% boys) were assessed using the mother (CBCL) and teacher (TRF) report forms of the Child Behavior Checklist and the Bracken Basic Concepts Scale. There was evidence for impairment in all areas of functioning. More than half of the sample exceeded the borderline clinical cutoff (T = 60) on either the CBCL or TRF Total Problem score, and nearly half the sample had Bracken scores that were more than 1 SD below the normative mean. Only 26.9% of the children were in the normal range on all three measures. These results are discussed in terms of implications for social work practice with children and adolescent mother families.     

Reports of Conferences, Institutes, and Seminars

This quarter's column features reports from the 2011 Electronic Resources & Libraries Conference; the 2011 North Carolina Serials Conference; the 2011 Association of College and Research Libraries Conference; the 2011 Kansas Library Association Conference; the New England Technical Services Librarians Section of the New England Library Association Spring 2011 Conference; and the 2011 Texas Library Association Conference.     

斯伦贝谢对中国的兴趣

中国的 SIM 卡和银行卡的增长2001年有望分别达到25%和50%。“中国是一个大市场,是一个很有潜力的市场,只要合理,我们就不断会在中国投资。”