Darbo tikslas: nustatyti stuburą stabilizuojančios kineziterapijos veiksmingumą gydant apatinės nugaros dalies skausmą. Pasirinktam darbo tikslui įgyvendinti buvo iškelti šie uždaviniai: 1. Išanalizuoti naujausią mokslinę literatūrą apie apatinės nugaros dalies skausmą, juosmeninį stabilumą bei segmentinės stuburą stabilizuojančios kineziterapijos efektyvumą. 2. Įvertinti sveikų asmenų nugaros raumenų tonusą ir palyginti su besiskundžiančių apatinės nugaros dalies skausmais asmenų raumenų tonusu. 3. Įvertinti besiskundžiančių apatinės nugaros dalies skausmais asmenų nugaros raumenų tonuso pokyčius prieš ir po stuburą stabilizuojančios kineziterapijos. 4. Įvertinti besiskundžiančių apatinės nugaros dalies skausmais asmenų dauginio ir skersinio pilvo raumenų funkciją prieš ir po segmentinės stuburą stabilizuojančios kineziterapijos. 5. Įvertinti besiskundžiančių apatinės nugaros dalies skausmais asmenų juosmeninės stuburo dalies skausmo pokyčius prieš ir po segmentinės stuburą stabilizuojančios kineziterapijos. 6. Įvertinti besiskundžiančių apatinės nugaros dalies skausmais asmenų funkcinės negalios pokyčius prieš ir po segmentinės stuburą stabilizuojančios kineziterapijos. Tyrimo metodai. Keturiolika asmenų, besiskundžiančių apatinės nugaros dalies skausmais, sudarė tiriamąją grupę, kuriai buvo taikyta segmentinė stuburą stabilizuojanti kineziterapija. Kontrolinę grupę sudarė 12 asmenų nejaučiančių apatinės nugaros skausmų. Tiriamajai grupei prieš atliekant kineziterapiją ir... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Purpose: to define effectiveness of the spinal segmental stabilizing physiotherapy curing the low back pain. To achieve the goal several tasks were raised: 1. To analyse recent literature about low back pain, lumbar stability and the local spinal segmental stabilizing physiotherapy. 2. Evaluate the muscle tone of healthy patients' and compare to the muscle tone of patients' complaining of the low back pain. 3. Evaluate the muscle tone of patients' complaining of the low back pain before and after the local spinal segment stabilizing physiotherapy. 4. Evaluate the muscle function for multifidus and transversus abdominis muscles for patients' complaining of the low back pain before and after the local spinal segmental stabilizing phsysiotherapy. 5. Evaluate the changes of pain in patients'complaining of the low back pain before and after the local spinal segmental stabilizing phsysiotherapy. 6. Evaluate the changes of functional disability before and after the local spinal segmental stabilizing physiotherapy in patients' complaining of the low back pain. Methods of the research. Fourteen people complaining of the low back pain made a research group using the spinal segmental stabilizing physiotherapy. There was also a control group of 12 patients without the low back pain. The research group before and after the spinal segmental stabilizing physiotherapy had evaluation of the low back pain's intensivity (VAS), functional ability of low back ( Roland-Morris... [to full text]

Perceptual learning, when applied to speech, describes experience-evoked adjustments to the cognitive-perceptual processes required for recognising spoken language. It provides the theoretical basis for improved understanding of a speech signal that is initially difficult to perceive. Reduced intelligibility is a frequent and debilitating symptom of dysarthria, a speech disorder associated with neurological disease or injury. The current thesis investigated perceptual learning of dysarthric speech, by jointly considering intelligibility improvements and associated learning mechanisms for listeners familiarised with the neurologically degraded signal. Moderate hypokinetic dysarthria was employed as the test case in the three phases of this programme of research. The initial research phase established strong empirical evidence of improved recognition of dysarthric speech following a familiarisation experience. Sixty normal hearing listeners were randomly assigned to one of three groups and familiarised with passage readings under the following conditions: (1) neurologically intact speech (control) (n = 20), dysarthric speech (passive familiarisation) (n = 20), and (3) dysarthric speech coupled with written information (explicit familiarisation) (n = 20). Subsequent phrase transcription analysis revealed that the intelligibility scores of both groups familiarised with dysarthric speech were significantly higher than those of the control group. Furthermore, performance gains were superior, in both size and longevity, when the familiarisation conditions were explicit. A condition discrepancy in segmentation strategies, in which attention towards syllabic stress contrast cues increased following explicit familiarisation but decreased following passive familiarisation, indicated that performance differences were more than simply magnitude of benefit. Thus, it was speculated that the learning that occurred with passive familiarisation may be qualitatively different to that which occurred with explicit familiarisation. The second phase of the research programme followed up on the initial findings and examined whether the key variable behind the use of particular segmentation strategies was simply the presence or absence of written information during familiarisation. Forty normal hearing listeners were randomly assigned to one of two groups and were familiarised with experimental phrases under either passive (n = 20) or explicit (n = 20) learning conditions. Subsequent phrase transcription analysis revealed that regardless of condition, all listeners utilised syllabic stress contrast cues to segment speech following familiarisation with phrases that emphasised this prosodic perception cue. Furthermore, the study revealed that, in addition to familiarisation condition, intelligibility gains were dependent on the type of the familiarisation stimuli employed. Taken together, the first two research phases demonstrated that perceptual learning of dysarthric speech is influenced by the information afforded within the familiarisation procedure. The final research phase examined the role of indexical information in perceptual learning of dysarthric speech. Forty normal hearing listeners were randomly assigned to one of two groups and were familiarised with dysarthric speech via a training task that emphasised either the linguistic (word identification) (n = 20) or indexical (speaker identification) (n = 20) properties of the signal. Intelligibility gains for listeners trained to identify indexical information paralleled those achieved by listeners trained to identify linguistic information. Similarly, underlying error patterns were also comparable between the two training groups. Thus, phase three revealed that both indexical and linguistic features of the dysarthric signal are learnable, and can be used to promote subsequent processing of dysarthric speech. In summary, this thesis has demonstrated that listeners can learn to better understand neurologically degraded speech. Furthermore, it has offered insight into how the information afforded by the specific familiarisation procedure is differentially leveraged to improve perceptual performance during subsequent encounters with the dysarthric signal. Thus, this programme of research affords preliminary evidence towards the development of a theoretical framework that exploits perceptual learning for the treatment of dysarthria.

Repair of bone defects is a major challenge in orthopaedic surgery. Current bone graft treatments, including autografts, allografts and xenografts, have many limitations making it necessary to develop a biomaterial to be a bone graft substitute. One such biomaterial is bioactive resorbable silica-calcium phosphate nanocomposite (SCPC). SCPC was processed using a 3D rapid prototyping technique and sintered at different temperatures to create porous scaffolds. SEM analyses and mercury intrusion porosimetry showed SCPC to be highly porous with micro- and nanopores. BET analysis indicated that SCPC had high surface area. Mechanical testing demonstrated that SCPC had a compressive strength similar to trabecular bone. Analysis of different thermal treatment temperatures indicated as the temperature was increased, the porosity decreased and the mechanical strength increased. When loaded with rhBMP-2 (SCPC-rhBMP-2), SCPC provided a sustained release profile of rhBMP-2 for 14 days. This was shown to be a greater release than hydroxyapatite (HA)-rhBMP-2. After immersion in SBF, ICP analyses showed the calcium concentration of SBF dropped drastically after one day of immersion. In conjunction, FTIR showed the formation of a hydroxyapatite layer on the SCPC surface and was confirmed by SEM. SCPC thermally treated at 850 ??C demonstrated the greatest dissolution/precipitation reactions when immersed in SBF. Processing the SCPC-rhBMP-2 hybrid using a rapid prototyping technique allowed for an exact replica of the rabbit ulna to be fabricated. This was implanted into a 10 mm segmental defect in the rabbit ulna. CT scans during the healing of the defect showed intimate union between SCPC-rhBMP-2 and the bone and about 65% healing of the defect after 4 weeks. Rabbits were euthanized after 12 and 16 weeks. Digital images show almost complete healing of the defect after 16 weeks. Torsional testing of the ulna after 12 weeks demonstrated restoration of maximum torque and angle at failure. Histological evaluation after 12 weeks showed the regenerated bone has all the morphological characteristics of mature bone. Through in-vitro and in-vivo testing, it can be recommended that the porous bioactive SCPC can serve as a successful delivery system for biological growth factors and serve as an alternative to autologous bone grafting.

Collagen is one of the major protein constituents in mammals and is present in all tissues and organs with the exceptions of keratin tissues such as hair and nails. Collagen monomers self-aggregate into a number of structures. In order to understand the physical bases for the structural polymorphism observed in collagen, a good starting point is one of the simplest collagen aggregates, segmental long spacing (SLS) collagen. Although SLS collagen formation induced by the presence of adenosine 5’-triphosphate is widely known, effects of other triphosphates, on the other hand, are much less studied. By varying the pH, it is discovered that all the nucleoside 5’-triphophsates, as well as inorganic triphosphate, are able to induce SLS formation over certain pH ranges. Adenosine 5’-diphosphate and para-nitrophenylphosphate cannot induce SLS formation at any pH. Based on the pH ranges at which SLS collagen can be formed, it is concluded the triphosphate functionality, with one negative charge per phosphate group, is primarily responsible for the formation of SLS collagen. Since inorganic triphosphate is able to induce SLS collagen formation, the presence of the nucleoside is optional for the assembly process; however if present, the assembly process prefers the nucleosides carrying acidic protons. Using electron spectroscopic imaging (ESI) technique, it is found phosphorus, present only in nucleotides but not in polypeptides, is localized in certain regions of SLS collagen, forming a unique banding pattern transverse the long axis of the SLS collagen. Nitrogen mapping indicates the localization of phosphorus is not due to accumulation of materials. The phosphorus banding pattern demonstrates an excellent consistency across SLS collagen assembled from both bovine and recombinant human collagen monomers. Results from molecular simulation are consistent with the experimental results. All threephosphate groups seem to be involved in the assembly process to some degree. In the last chapter of the thesis, a reliable protocol to synthesis native type collagen fibers is introduced.

An alternative structural system for short span bridges is presented: a precast segmental double-T with external, unbonded post-tensioning tendons. Single-span designs from 20 to 45 m long show that the system can be implemented over a wide range of spans and that the system’s sensitivity to post-tensioning losses reported in previous literature can be reduced by aligning the prestressing force more concentrically. Designs for multi-span bridges using this system are presented using simply supported spans connected by thin flexible linking slabs made of ultra high-performance fibre-reinforced concrete and using sections made fully continuous over intermediate supports. A simplified method of geometry control is presented to facilitate the proper alignment of precast segments without the use of match casting. The precast segmental double-T bridge is compared to sixteen existing slab on girder bridges and found to be a competitive alternative in terms of material use, cost, construction schedule, and aesthetic merit.

Collagen is one of the major protein constituents in mammals and is present in all tissues and organs with the exceptions of keratin tissues such as hair and nails. Collagen monomers self-aggregate into a number of structures. In order to understand the physical bases for the structural polymorphism observed in collagen, a good starting point is one of the simplest collagen aggregates, segmental long spacing (SLS) collagen. Although SLS collagen formation induced by the presence of adenosine 5’-triphosphate is widely known, effects of other triphosphates, on the other hand, are much less studied. By varying the pH, it is discovered that all the nucleoside 5’-triphophsates, as well as inorganic triphosphate, are able to induce SLS formation over certain pH ranges. Adenosine 5’-diphosphate and para-nitrophenylphosphate cannot induce SLS formation at any pH. Based on the pH ranges at which SLS collagen can be formed, it is concluded the triphosphate functionality, with one negative charge per phosphate group, is primarily responsible for the formation of SLS collagen. Since inorganic triphosphate is able to induce SLS collagen formation, the presence of the nucleoside is optional for the assembly process; however if present, the assembly process prefers the nucleosides carrying acidic protons. Using electron spectroscopic imaging (ESI) technique, it is found phosphorus, present only in nucleotides but not in polypeptides, is localized in certain regions of SLS collagen, forming a unique banding pattern transverse the long axis of the SLS collagen. Nitrogen mapping indicates the localization of phosphorus is not due to accumulation of materials. The phosphorus banding pattern demonstrates an excellent consistency across SLS collagen assembled from both bovine and recombinant human collagen monomers. Results from molecular simulation are consistent with the experimental results. All threephosphate groups seem to be involved in the assembly process to some degree. In the last chapter of the thesis, a reliable protocol to synthesis native type collagen fibers is introduced.

An alternative structural system for short span bridges is presented: a precast segmental double-T with external, unbonded post-tensioning tendons. Single-span designs from 20 to 45 m long show that the system can be implemented over a wide range of spans and that the system’s sensitivity to post-tensioning losses reported in previous literature can be reduced by aligning the prestressing force more concentrically. Designs for multi-span bridges using this system are presented using simply supported spans connected by thin flexible linking slabs made of ultra high-performance fibre-reinforced concrete and using sections made fully continuous over intermediate supports. A simplified method of geometry control is presented to facilitate the proper alignment of precast segments without the use of match casting. The precast segmental double-T bridge is compared to sixteen existing slab on girder bridges and found to be a competitive alternative in terms of material use, cost, construction schedule, and aesthetic merit.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Uppsala : Uppsala universitet, 2009.

The research is a study of male working class pronunciation in the Rhondda, part of the 'Valleys' area of South East Wales. It encompasses both segmental and suprasegmental (prosodic) phonology. The segmental analysis is primarily auditory although it has some supporting acoustic detail. It examines the consonant and vowel systems of Rhondda Valleys English (RVE), with phonetic realizations and lexical incidence. Comparisons with British R.P. are made and similarities with neighbouring varieties of English (e.g. the West Country) and the Welsh Language are observed. The suprasegmental (prosodic) analysis is of spontaneous conversational data, and is auditory and instrumental. The phonology of RVE intonation is described mainly via a system of intonation phrases (IPs), accents, and terminal tones. IP tunes (overall contours) are observed to contain accent profiles whose pitch obtrusions to the stressed syllable are, in the majority of cases, downwards and whose initial pitch movement from the stressed syllable is rising in over 80% of final accents and final accents. A large majority of IP terminal tones in the data are ultimately rising. Aspects of length and rhythm are examined. Evidence is found of rhythmic organization, e.g. of alternation between strong and weak beats. Strongly accented syllables can be accompanied either by lengthening of the vowel, or by shortening of the vowel with lengthening of the succeeding consonant. Which of these two strategies is adopted by the speaker depends partly on the vowel and partly on how the speaker syllabifies the word. The final 'weak' syllable of an IP may be phonetically stronger (with greater duration, envelope amplitude and pitch prominence) than the accented penult. Several of the prosodic features of RVE are found to bear strong influence from the Welsh Language.

Esta é uma análise da variação das oclusivas dentais [t, d], seguidas da vogal alta /i/ nas comunidades lingüísticas de Taquara e Panambi (RS), a partir das amostras de vinte e quatro informantes do Projeto VARSUL (Variação Lingüística na Região Sul). As amostras examinadas foram coletadas em épocas distintas, o que dá condições para analisar o comportamento variável em dois momentos de tempo. A análise individual de cada grupo geográfico tem por objetivo comparar a aplicação da regra variável em uma perspectiva de mudança lingüística em tempo real, segundo os moldes labovianos (1994). A análise conjunta tem por objetivo analisar o comportamento variável em estudo, verificando-se os possíveis condicionadores lingüísticos e extralingüísticos intervenientes, tendo por base um número mais significativo de dados ao juntar as amostras das duas comunidades lingüísticas. Os resultados estatísticos mostraram que em Taquara e em Panambi a aplicação da regra variável é semelhante e que se encontra em estado de aquisição. / This is an analysis of the variation of the dental stops [t, d], followed of the high vowel /i/ in the linguistic communities of Taquara and Panambi (RS), from the samples of twenty and four informers of Project VARSUL (Linguistic Variation in the South Region). The examined samples were collected at distinct times, what it gives conditions to analyze the changeable behavior at two moments of time. The individual analysis of each geographic group has for objective to compare the application of the changeable rule in a perspective of linguistic change in real time, according to labovianos molds (1994). The joint analysis has for objective to analyze the changeable behavior in study, verifying itself the possible intervening linguistic and extralinguistic conditioners, having for base a more significant number of data when joining the samples of the two linguistic communities. The statistical results had shown that in Taquara and Panambi the application of the changeable rule is similar and that meets in acquisition state.