Title Gait Analysis in Adolescents with Idiopathic Scoliosis: A Systematic Review. Aim The role of spine is vital as a gait stabilizer. Gait analysis may provide a more holistic view of how the body behaves to idiopathic scoliosis among adolescents. The aim of this thesis is to review the effectiveness and validity of gait analysis in examining AIS, and secondly to assess how the gait of AIS patients differ from adolescents without scoliosis. Method A systematic review of the topic was conducted. Information was gathered from six e-databases, and seventeen articles were selected, of which seven focusing solely on AIS subjects (i.e. non-comparative) and ten were focusing on AIS in relation to control subjects (i.e. comparative). Results Spatio-temporal (STP), kinematic, kinetic and EMG parameters show significant changes in AIS subjects during walking. But variations between results, lack of data for certain parameters and no significant relationship between gait parameters and scoliosis was also seen. Furthermore, AIS subjects differ in performance compared to non-scoliosis adolescents in at least one gait parameter across all studies. This includes abnormalities in muscle activity, less economical use of the body, poorer performance in kinematic parameters and differences in STP such as step...

This is a paper that focuses on mapping the possibilities of development in sports for women in the Växjö based athletic club Växjö AIS. The paper uses Yvonne Hirdmans gender theory which states that women are socially subordinated men in today's society (written 1988). The aim of using this theory, is to see if there is support for Hirdmans theory among female athletes in Växjö AIS during 1984-1998. Hirdman also discusses whether an equal social society is better reached through segregation or integration and therefore the study is categorised after these two ways of sectioning practice and competition in an athletic club.To fulfil this aim, the study is done by conducting two enquiries, the first focuses on newsletters produced by the female athletes themselves, and the other one investigates surveys with earlier female athletes in Växjö AIS during the period investigated. Each study has its own “part-aim” where the newsletters are interpreted to map female self-perception. A large part in the possibilities of development. The survey has as an aim to explain female possibilities of development through an organisational perspective. What gender had the best training facilities, etc.? The paper also compares the survey from female athletes active from 1987-1997 with the guidelines from the Swedish Riksidrottsförbundet (national athletes association) and their equality plan from 1989.The aim is to see if the plan had any effect on possibilities for development among female athletes, comparing before and after the plans were launched.

Axon initial segment (AIS) disruption has been described in a number of pathological environments where neuroinflammation is a contributing factor; however, whether this disruption is reversible in unknown. To address the principle of AIS structural recovery, we employed an acute neuroinflammatory model. Acute neuroinflammation induced disruption of AIS structural and functional domains and, importantly, upon resolution of neuroinflammatory conditions, was reversed. Consistent with other studies, we observed a close interaction of microglia with AISs, and utilized this acute neuroinflammatory model to investigate the relationship between reactive microglia and AIS integrity. Gene expression analysis of microglial transcription profiles identified reactive oxygen species (ROS)-producing enzymes as candidates in AIS pathogenesis. Experiments employing mice lacking the major ROS-producing enzyme NOX2, identified ROS as mediators of AIS disruption. Furthermore, we established calcium-dependent protease calpain as a disruptor of AIS protein clustering in inflammation-induced disruption. Since we observed an intimate interaction between microglia and the AIS, we conducted studies designed to identify a candidate in microglia that regulates microglial-AIS contact. During chronic inflammatory conditions, microglia enhance contact with AISs often completely surrounding the domain. Concomitant with this morphological change, neurofascin (Nfasc) expression increased in microglia. Nfasc is a cell adhesion molecule with cell-specific isoforms known to mediate glial-neuronal interactions, but until now, was not reported to be expressed by microglia. Here, I characterize the unique Nfasc isoform expressed by microglia and present evidence that suggests that microglial Nfasc may mediate microglial-AIS contact, a potentially pivotal interaction in the induction of AIS disruption by pro-inflammatory factors.

According to the Center for Disease Control’s (CDC) report to the Congress, there are 2.2 million emergency department visits; 80,000 hospitalizations; and 50,000 deaths each year due to traumatic brain injury. Adults 65 years and older account substantially for the majority of the hospitalization and deaths. Over 70% of the traumatic brain injuries of the older adults are classified as mild to moderate; however, even with these milder injuries, older adults present with a significantly higher morbidity and mortality compared to all other age groups (LeBlanc et al., 2006). With that in mind, it seems essential to develop a deeper understanding of the causes behind higher mortality and morbidity of traumatic brain injury in the elder population. It is well documented that increased age is accompanied by increased CNS inflammation. Recently, our laboratory showed that inflammation drives brain pathology. Specifically, we reported that the axon initial segment of cortical neurons was structurally and functionally compromised in an inflamed CNS environment. With this in mind, we proposed that age-related inflammation predisposes that brain to exacerbated pathologic consequence. To test this hypothesis, we administered a mild to moderate central fluid percussion brain injury in aged and young adult mice. Using immunocytochemical labeling against the axon initial segment protein ankyrinG combined with laser scanning confocal microscopy, we quantitatively compared axon initial segment number and length between age groups and within age groups with and without injury. Additionally, we also quantified global axonal pathology by immunolabeling for amyloid precursor protein (APP) positive swelling as an indicator of compromised axonal transport. We proposed that ankyrinG labeling will be both reduced in the aged injured mice compared against aged uninjured, young adult injured and young adult non-injured. We observed a significant increase in APP accumulations due to injury independent of aging, and due to aging independent of injury. No significant changes in the effect of injury between young and aged injured mice were observed. Although AIS length was not altered between age groups following injury, our results demonstrate that the elderly population presents with significantly shorter initial segments. The consequence of this shortening is not clear but may reflect compensatory changes in the brain to maintain homeostasis.

Elite coaches consider aspects of sports science when preparing athletes for competition. Sports scientists conduct applied research and a fundamental purpose of sports science research is to produce knowledge that helps improve the performance of elite athletes. In view of the considerable resources being directed toward research and coaching at the elite level, there is a need to conduct research to identify the relationship between research and coaching practice at the elite level. Australia has an institute of sport or academy of sport in each state and territory dedicated to the development of team and individual sports, both Olympic and non- Olympic. In the area of elite athlete performance, the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) has gained an international reputation for excellence, and the AIS Research Centre has achieved international recognition for the quality of research projects directed toward the performance of elite athletes. Sports scientists at Australian universities also undertake research related to elite coaching, some of which has occurred in partnership with researchers at Australian institutes of sport. The purpose of the study was to identify the relationship between sports science research at Australian institutes of sport and post-graduate sports science research in Australian universities, and how elite coaches in Australia perceive sports science research practice meeting the needs of elite coaching. A case study method was selected for this thesis, which involved the following data gathering instruments: a survey of 225 elite coaches and 125 sports science researchers, follow-up interviews of elite coaches and sports science researchers, and document analysis of 725 research projects conducted at Australian institutes of sport and postgraduate theses at Master and Doctoral level at Australian universities. An analysis was also conducted to assess the sports science content contained in the National Coaching Accreditation Scheme's Level Three course material. A schedule was developed for the document analysis called the "Williams Sports Science Research Schedule". Interviews were conducted with elite key informants to validate a model that was developed fiom the study. Results of the study revealed a degree of congruence between the perceptions of elite coaches and sports science researchers regarding the research needs of elite coaches and the research activity of sports science researchers. A model, called the "Elite Sports Research Model" was developed to describe that relationship. The Elite Sports Research Model contains four components, namely: coach knowledge, information seeking/dissemination strategies, qualities valued in an elite coach and a sports science researcher, and application of research. Within the model, particular perspectives of elite coaches and particular perspectives of sports science researchers were identified. Some differences were found between elite coaches of team sports and elite coaches of individual sports, as well as some differences between researchers at institutes of sports and researchers at universities. At the elite level in Australia a relationship was found between sports science research activity and the research needs of elite coaches. With the increase in support for elite coaching and sports science research in Australia and internationally, the results of this study should help to inform improvement in sports science research programs that support elite coaching practice.

<p>An ethnographic study loosely informed by the theoretical framework of distributed cognition was carried out in order to describe how mariners have adopted the Automatic Identification System (AIS) in their work practice, or"made the technology their own". AIS is a transponder-based identification and communication system that allows ships to automatically identify and track each other. In addition to facilitating the identification and tracking of ships, objectives behind the introduction of AIS are to"simplify informational exchange", and"provide additional information to assist situation awareness". Participant observation and interviews were made at four different ships, as well as at two shore stations. A focus group was also held at a maritime conference. The study gave some interesting results. For example, a Problem of Public Information Loss was identified. It is tentatively suggested that this problem has been overlooked partly because of a widespread but impoverished model of communication which does not account for the role of side-participants in a conversation. It is concluded that more research needs to be done on maritime work and the use of new bridge technology.</p>

Kaohsiung Harbor is one of the major commercial ports in Taiwan, located at the hub of northeastern and southeastern Asia shipping lanes. Therefore there are a considerable number of commercial shipping channels distributed around Kaohsiung Harbor. The security of Kaohsiung Harbor becomes more difficult to defense than others due to the complexity of channels. In this study, Automatic Identification System (AIS) system is used to collect the ships information from June 1, 2010 to June 30, 2011. The collected AIS data were decoded, converted, corrected, integrated and analyzed systematically, which will become the base of future database. The information of the AIS includes Maritime Mobile Service Identity (MMSI), latitude and longitude, heading, course, speed, and others. The activities of ships can be monitored by AIS, so the density and distribution of ships on each major channel can be obtained by grid computing. By the results of one-year AIS data, three major shipping channels of Kaohsiung Harbor can be identified, which are north-western, north-southern, and east-western. Based on this kind of long term shipping statistics, possible novel harbor security defense may be founded. Although the AIS was designed to monitor the ship activities, but it can be viciously shut down, or signal is out of range sometimes, then it will become the possible security breach. Nevertheless, ships at sea will generate certain kind of noises, such as from engine and propeller. With efficient propagation of sound waves in water, acoustic technology may compensate the limitations of AIS, to be a feasible method of detecting unknown ships. In this study, acoustic modeling code ¡§Acoustic Module for Sea-surface Noise¡¨ (AMSN) is applied by using the ship position information from AIS, to calculate the related underwater noise sound field of Kaohsiung Harbor. Discussions were made on the dependence of noise level variation with ship density. As a conclusion, with sufficient understanding of sound field statistics of harbor, any anomaly of noise level can be an indication of hostile intrusion, thus harbor security can be further assured.

In air traffic, safety is the key word. Safety is kept in numerous ways. One of these ways is with the help of Aeronautical Information (AI). AI is all information regarding air traffic, i.e. aerodrome hours of operation, weather reports and information about unserviceable navigational aids. Sometimes it happens that some of the information does not reach the pilots in the aircraft, which can have a negative impact on safety. This thesis examines the flow of AI all the way from the originator of the information to the end-user, and analyzes it to find where the errors occur. The thesis is based on the rules and regulations set by ICAO, the International Civil Aviation Organization, two field trips to the Swedish AI provider LFV, and interviews with four airlines, Novair, NextJet, Malmö Aviation, and SAS. The results exposes where in the flow the weakness exists, and finally gives advice as to how these weaknesses can be addressed.

Quality information is critical to organisations’ success in today’s highly competitive environment. Accounting information systems (AIS) as a discipline within information systems require high quality data. However, empirical evidence suggests that data quality is problematic in AIS. Therefore, knowledge of critical factors that are important in ensuring data quality in accounting information systems is desirable. A literature review evaluates previous research work in quality management, data quality, and accounting information systems. It was found that there was a gap in the literature about critical success factors for data quality in accounting information systems. Based on this gap in the literature and the findings of the exploratory stage of the research, a preliminary research model for factors influence data quality in AIS was developed. A framework for understanding relationships between stakeholder groups and data quality in accounting information systems was also developed. The major stakeholders are information producers, information custodians, information managers, information users, and internal auditors. Case study and survey methodology were adopted for this research. Case studies in seven Australian organisations were carried out, where four of them were large organisations and the other three are small to medium organisations (SMEs). Each case was examined as a whole to obtain an understanding of the opinions and perspectives of the respondents from each individual organisation as to what are considered to be the important factors in the case. Then, cross-case analysis was used to analyze the similarities and differences of the seven cases, which also include the variations between large organisations and small to medium organisations (SMEs). Furthermore, the variations between five different stakeholder groups were also examined. The results of the seven main case studies suggested 26 factors that may have impact on data quality in AIS. Survey instrument was developed based on the findings from case studies. Two large-scale surveys were sent to selected members of Australian CPA, and Australian Computer Society to further develop and test the research framework. The major findings from the survey are: 1. respondents rated the importance of the factors consistent higher than the actual performance of those factors. 2. There was only one factor, ‘audit and reviews’, that was found to be different between different sized organisations. 3. Four factors were found to be significantly different between different stakeholder groups: user focus, measurement and reporting, data supplier quality management and audit and reviews. 4. The top three critical factors for ensuring data quality in AIS were: top management commitment, education and training, and the nature of the accounting information systems. The key contribution of this thesis is the theoretical framework developed from the analysis of the findings of this research, which is the first such framework built upon empirical study that explored factors influencing data quality in AIS and their interrelationships with stakeholder groups and data quality outcomes. That is, it is now clear which factors impact on data quality in AIS, and which of those factors are critical success factors for ensuring high quality information outcomes. In addition, the performance level of factors was also incorporated into the research framework. Since the actual performance of factors has not been highlighted in other studies, this research adds new theoretical insights to the extant literature. In turn, this research confirms some of the factors mentioned in the literature and adds a few new factors. Moreover, stakeholder groups of data quality in AIS are important considerations and need more attention. The research framework of this research shows the relationship between stakeholder groups, important factors and data quality outcomes by highlighting stakeholder groups’ influence on identifying the important factors, as well as the evaluation of the importance and p erformance of the factors.

This report aims to explore a possible transparent alternative to the black box approach of machine learning in identifying a ship’s type from simple movement data, consisting of a set of coordinates with timestamps. This is achieved by an application that converts the set of coordinates to vectors and assigns them various traits, such as turn radius, speed and distance traveled, and then identifying the correlation between collections of different values of these traits, called granules, and different ship types. The results show a definite connection between certain kinds of granules and certain ship types and lay the foundation for building a more well defined syntax for ship identification.