Pieces Of Advice Research Articles

Four pieces of advice for new neurologists

Four pieces of advice for new neurologists

Do patients with low back pain remember physiotherapists' advice? A mixed-methods study on patient-therapist communication.

The primary aim of this study was to determine if the advice physiotherapists think they provide to patients with low back pain (LBP) is what the patients remember and take away from the clinical encounter. The secondary aim was to determine which factors may influence the retention of this advice. The first component of the study used questionnaires completed by patients and therapists after the initial visit. Related questionnaires of patients and therapists were screened for inconsistencies. The second component of the study involved semi-structured interviews. Ninety pairs of questionnaires were completed. Therapists provided patients with one (N = 90), two (N = 85) or three (N = 51) items of advice regarding the management of their LBP. All patients remembered the first item of advice, 92% remembered a second, and 67% remembered the third piece of advice. All items of advice were deemed either 'relevant' or 'very relevant' by 97% of the patients. After the analysis of 14 interviews, data saturation was reached. Four themes emerged from the data analysis of the interviews: (a) Evaluation type, (b) Exercise factors, (c) Patient concerns about their diagnosis, and (d) Patient expectations. In most cases, patients remembered what therapists told them and considered that the advice provided was relevant. Based on the qualitative data, patients were more likely to remember what therapists said when: (a) shared decision making was used during the initial encounter, (b) prescribed exercises were simple to perform and few in number, (c) patients' concerns about their diagnosis were addressed, and (d) patients' expectations were identified and addressed.

Tübingen Hip Flexion Splint for Developmental Dysplasia of the Hip in Children and its Safety Assessment: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Background Hip dysplasia is an abnormality of the hip joint where the socket portion does not fully cover the ball portion, which might increase the risk of joint dislocation. Hip dysplasia may occur at birth or develop in early life. The purpose of the present study was to assess the effect of treatment with Tubingen hip flexion splint for Developmental Dysplasia of the Hip (DDH), and its safety. Materials and Methods: The systematicsearch was carried out on the online databases (Medline, Cochrane library, EMBASe, and Scopus) to assess the effect of treatment with Tubingen hip flexion splint for developmental dysplasia of the hip. Articles indexed until 20 April 2020 were reviewed using keywords such as (Hip dislocation, Congenital, DDH, and Tubingen hip flexion splint). The study selection was carried out by two reviewers. Results: Six studies were included in systematic review and meta-analysis. The pooled successful rate of Tubingen hip flexion splint was 88% with a Confidence Interval [CI]; 87-97%; p <0.001; heterogeneity; I2: 89%%, p <0.001; six trials; random effect model. The heterogeneity level was high among the included studies. Due to high heterogeneity, the sensitivity analysis was conducted to assess the effect of each study on the result and the level of heterogeneity. The results of the sensitivity analysis showed that no studies influenced the outcome and the level of heterogeneity. However, the pieces of advice were not associated with serious side effects. Conclusion According to the results, the success rate of this Tubingen brace was 88%. Moreover, the results must be interpreted with caution due to the small sample size and high heterogeneity. The effectiveness of this method in the long term is still debatable.

Qur’anic Allusions in Naguib Mahfouz’s Midaq Alley: Comparing Two Arabic-English Translations

The Holy Quran is a crucial text in the Arabic culture, and hence the Arabic literature uses it extensively. As a hypertext, the Quran transcends its function in the Arabic culture, and Qur’anic verses and phrases serve in literary works as pieces of advice and expressions of wisdom. This paper aims to compare the two English translations of Naguib Mahfouz’s Midaq Alley (1947), by Trevor Le Gassick (1966), and Humphery Davies (2011). The paper examines the rendition of allusions to Quran and explores the strategies deployed by the translators. The language used in the source text reflects the culture in which it is born and determines the ideologies of its users. Before Mahfouz won the Noble Prize in 1988, the Westerners were prejudiced “against Arabs and Islam,” and they considered Arabic literature as embargoed (Said, September 17, 1999). The paper hypothesizes that the purpose of the two translations of Midaq Alley is to transfer the Egyptian culture to the target reader (TR). The underpinning approach is skopos theory, whose principles are: skopos, coherence, and loyalty (Nord, 2018). The paper queries how loyal each translator is to the ST and ST author to achieve functional adequacy. One finding shows that Le Gassick renders the Quranic allusions literally ignoring the SC; however, Davies either uses cultural equivalents or resorts to paraphrasing, reducing the image to its sense. Second, the new translation of Davies transfers the Qur’anic culture-specific images feasibly. Finally, not recognizing the pictures and their functions in the ST affects their interpretations negatively.

How to party with Netflix

Netflix Party or Teleparty is a Google Chrome extension that allows you to watch Netflix remotely with friends - or, as a Netflix ad puts it, “movie nights with that long-distance special someone”. It promises synchronised video playback and group chat. From a cyber-security angle, Netflix Party's Chrome plug-in used to be open-source until it was maintained privately. This means it made the code more transparent. While one doesn't always know who contributed to the codebase there is a common supervisory element that could help to avoid malicious code. However, Chrome plug-ins have been used in the past by attackers to infect users' systems with malicious software. One piece of advice is not to use your corporate laptops to host Netflix Parties. A VPN generally helps, too - not so much with an encrypted IP address, but to watch the same movies with friends from other countries.

Dissecting the Dual Role of the Glial Scar and Scar-Forming Astrocytes in Spinal Cord Injury

Recovery from spinal cord injury (SCI) remains an unsolved problem. As a major component of the SCI lesion, the glial scar is primarily composed of scar-forming astrocytes and plays a crucial role in spinal cord regeneration. In recent years, it has become increasingly accepted that the glial scar plays a dual role in SCI recovery. However, the underlying mechanisms of this dual role are complex and need further clarification. This dual role also makes it difficult to manipulate the glial scar for therapeutic purposes. Here, we briefly discuss glial scar formation and some representative components associated with scar-forming astrocytes. Then, we analyze the dual role of the glial scar in a dynamic perspective with special attention to scar-forming astrocytes to explore the underlying mechanisms of this dual role. Finally, taking the dual role of the glial scar into account, we provide several pieces of advice on novel therapeutic strategies targeting the glial scar and scar-forming astrocytes.

SPOTTING AND ANALYSING THE SPEECH ACTS ENSHRINED IN THE DISCOURSE OF KAMILU AMOOADENIYI'S TOO BEAUTIFUL TO DIE (2015)

In their everyday life’s conversation, people produced utterances which commit others to partaking in actions. Those are speech acts which some writers, including Kamilu Amoo Adeniyi borrow to encode their message. The objective of this study is to undercover the novel “ Too beautiful to Die ” (2015) so as to associate the meanings encoded therein to the context of its production. That concretely has to do with identifying and describing those speech act types used in the discourse ingrained in the novel. To achieve this objective, it has been necessary to identify and select systematically four extracts based on the relevance of the theme around which they develop. Searle (1976) speech acts model serves as the theoretical backbone while the qualitative research method has been preferred to substantiate the data generation, collection and analysis components. The so generated and collected data have been disaggregated in table 3.1 which presents the various levels of preponderance in the frequencies revealed by the analyses respectively for Representative, Expressive, Declarative and Commissive speech acts in the four selected passages. The findings reveal that the writer has used unequally the speech act types in the four passages 1, 2, 3 and 4 (excerpt Declarative Speech Acts in passage 2). The findings also show the preponderance of Representative, Expressive and Commissive Speech acts in the four analyzed passages. This insinuates and indicates that Kamilu, through the utterances of the characters, the description of events gives pieces of advice, deplores and expresses his own view about those emergent and rampant cankers that take place in the past and continue to pollute today’s society. Those are, inter alia, cultish sacrifices, money rituals, and human ritual in Nigeria. The study concludes on the inopportuneness of those violence, human rituals and sacrifices as they do not engender development. Article visualizations:

Effective reviewing for conceptual journal submissions

Peer reviewed academic journals, like AMS Review, live and die by their ability to obtain high quality reviews of submitted manuscripts. However, academics are increasingly pressed for time, needing to publish their research, teach their classes, and provide service to their Department, Faculty/College and University to support their careers in terms of retention, tenure, and promotion. Amidst these responsibilities, as a service to the Academy, academics also are expected to provide reviews of manuscripts in order to move the intellectual trajectory of the domain forward. High quality reviewing, though, takes cognitive energy and is time consuming, which then interferes with other academic responsibilities. For these reasons, editors of peer-reviewed academic journals are finding it more and more difficult to obtain a sufficient number of high-quality reviews to make good decisions about submissions in a timely manner. The purpose of this article is to help all reviewers, but especially those reviewing conceptual articles, provide a high-quality review. Specifically, this article first defines what constitutes a “high quality review,” and suggests how reviewing can aid an academic’s own research, writing and career. It then defines the behaviors needed for effective reviewing for all manuscripts, termed the 5 R’s: roles, responsibilities, responses, reactions, and respect. It then provides a reviewing template for conceptual articles, given the special difficulties of peer reviewing such articles, and closes with a few additional pieces of advice to help with being efficient in reviewing, while being effective.

Lessons on lymphangioleiomyomatosis: positivity and possibilities

Lessons on lymphangioleiomyomatosis: positivity and possibilities

Optimal visual perception in land-use planning and design based on landsenses ecology

ABSTRACTLand-use planning and design (LPD) is one of the most critical passways toward sustainable development. LPD without thorough considerations can cause many problems, such as disharmony between people’s perception and nature, the chaos of spatial patterns, and the misuse of land resources. Landsenses ecology, a discipline based on natural elements and people’s perception, provide scientific basis to guide LPD. Here we summarized the state-of-the-art concept of optimal visual perception based on conventional optical theory and contemporary visualization technology. Instead of solely using an artistic design perspective to sum up experience, we combined human binocular visual angle and distance with the field of view (FOV) of cell phone cameras to determine an optimal visual perception. We explained the rationality of the concept of optimal visual perception with three examples, located at the Institute of Urban Environmental (IUE) from Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Welcoming-Guests Pine on Huangshan Mountain, and the Sunlight Rock of Gulangyu Island in Xiamen, China, respectively. Both landsenses involving the IUE and Welcoming-Guests Pine satisfy the required conditions for optimal visual perception, whereas the Sunlight Rock shows the chaos of near and far landscapes, which is not compatible with the optimal visual perception. At the end of this paper, we provide pieces of advice on applying optimal visual perception to land-use planners and architects as well as sustainability scholars.

Qur’Anic Allusions in Naguib Mahfouz's Midaq Alley: Comparing Two Arabic-English Translations

The Holy Quran is a crucial text in the Arabic culture, and hence the Arabic literature uses it extensively. As a hypertext, the Quran transcends its function in the Arabic culture, and Qur’anic verses and phrases serve in literary works as pieces of advice and expressions of wisdom. This paper aims to compare the two English translations of Naguib Mahfouz’s Midaq Alley (1947), by Trevor Le Gassick (1966), and Humphery Davies (2011). The paper examines the rendition of allusions to Quran and explores the strategies deployed by the translators. The language used in the source text reflects the culture in which it is born and determines the ideologies of its users. Before Mahfouz won the Noble Prize in 1988, the Westerners were prejudiced “against Arabs and Islam,” and they considered Arabic literature as embargoed (Said, September 17, 1999). The paper hypothesizes that the purpose of the two translations of Midaq Alley is to transfer the Egyptian culture to the target reader (TR). The underpinning approach is skopos theory, whose principles are: skopos, coherence, and loyalty (Nord, 2018). The paper queries how loyal each translator is to the ST and ST author to achieve functional adequacy. One finding shows that Le Gassick renders the Quranic allusions literally ignoring the SC; however, Davies either uses cultural equivalents or resorts to paraphrasing, reducing the image to its sense. Second, the new translation of Davies transfers the Qur’anic culture-specific images feasibly. Finally, not recognizing the pictures and their functions in the ST affects their interpretations negatively.

On One Byzantine Rhetorical Gambit to Disavow Diplomatic Precedent (Const. Porph. Dai. 13.145–194 &amp; Liud. Relatio. 55)

Introduction. The article aims to compare two texts concerning byzantine diplomatic practices of the mid 10th century. The first one is described in the 13th chapter of the treatise “De Administrando Imperio”, in which its author Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus gave some pieces of advice to his son Romanus II Porphyrogenitus how to line up rhetorical manipulation during the negotiations with ambassadors of different ‘barbarian’ nations. The second one is the description of conversation, which took place on September 17, 968 between emperor Otto I the Great’s ambassador bishop Liudprand of Cremona and patrician Christopher. It is described in Liudprand’s “Relatio de Legatione Constantinopolitana”. Methods. The classical comparative method is used to examine the veracity of two independent texts of different character describing the similar diplomatic trick. The author compares a program-ideological and simultaneously a propaedeutic treatises with a semiofficial report of a foreign senior ambassador. Analysis. In the 13th chapter of the treatise “De Administrando Imperio” its author Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus advised his son Roman II in negotiations with the ambassadors of the “barbarian” nations not to except the precedent of giving in marriage the granddaughter of the Byzantine emperor Romanus I Lecapenus Maria-Irina to Bulgarian ruler Peter, since Romanus I Lecapenus was a man of poor education and incompetent in the ancient sacred customs of the Roman Empire. In “Relatio de Legatione Constantinopolitana” by bishop Liudprand of Cremona during the confiscation of “purple clothes”, which he had bought, he referred to the fact that during his last visit to Constantinople, emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus had allowed him to take out even more expensive clothes without any obstacles. Contrary to this example, he received a reply from patrician Christopher, that emperor Constantine was a weak man and cherished the friendship of barbarians and foreigners with gifts, and ruling emperor Nikephoros II Phokas was a strong and warlike man, he didn’t allow such liberties for foreigners. In both cases, the same counter-argument was used to disavow precedent – a criticism of the bygone emperor in comparison with the current sovereign. This suggests that it was a common rhetorical device for Byzantine diplomats. These two cases allow to clarify the sophisticated ideology of “Tradition” and its “Split” as a corner-stone political idea of Eastern Roman Empire. Results. As a result of comparing the texts “De Administrando Imperio” (952–959) and “Relatio de Legatione Constantinopolitano” (969) it becomes clear that Byzantine politicians in the mid 10th century used for disavowing diplomatic precedents the criticism of their own emperor, who agreed to some concessions in the past. His personality was declared inappropriate to the high standards of a Roman ruler in comparison with the current emperor. Such rhetoric was surprising for the peoples who considered a series of their rulers as a genealogical aggregate of relatives responsible for their predecessors as for themselves. Byzantine politicians calmly recognized imperfections of their bygone emperors, what allowed them to ignore the strongest diplomatic argument of the early Middle Ages – a historical precedent.

Dictionaries and translation

Abstract The article offers a bird’s-eye view of the use of dictionaries in translation, accompanied by down-to-earth exemplifications of the arguments. After propounding the essential difference between a bilingual dictionary and translation, a brief survey follows of problems that should be solved by both. They include the treatment and translation of technical and literary texts, of collocations, phrases and idioms, of colloquial, slang, dialectal, dated and obsolete words, of neologisms and nonce-words. Mention is also made of the problem of treating application. As a onclusion, translators may be given a piece of advice: Think of a dictionary as a counsellor and a friendly aide, but complement it with other sources of information and do not always rely upon it.

Lessons learned in setting up an open access journal: the case of JEHC

This paper details the lessons learned in the process of setting up a new open access (OA) journal from scratch. The Journal of the European Honors Council (JEHC) was started in 2016, published its first issue in 2017, and is currently publishing its fifth issue. The development of JEHC is described in four phases: lead-up to the first idea (2015-2016), from first idea to first issue (2016-2017), professionalization (2017-2018), and increasing impact (2018-). Ten lessons learnt are detailed: (1) do a realistic needs assessment; (2) involve committed people with skills, passion, and time; (3) provide a low-barrier publication option; (4) identify and pick ‘low-hanging fruit’; (5) get your basics organized; (6) invest time in technical knowledge; (7) professionalize in phases; (8) be transparent, open, and personal; (9) try to avoid monetary transactions as much as possible; and (10) printing can help. The main piece of advice to others wishing to start an OA journal is: inform yourself well before you start, but do not be afraid to learn along the way.

Effectiveness of the rapid test of polar compounds in frying oils as a function of environmental and compositional variables under restaurant conditions

Effect of fried food, oil type, moisture, fatty acid and molecular distribution on the effectiveness of rapid test of Total Polar Compounds (TPC) in frying oil based on dielectric constant was explored. Effects of all factors were compared and found to be significant (P < 0.05). Throughout the life cycle of frying oil, its rapid results were correlated well with those of conventional chromatography (Y = 0.7625X + 3.681, R2 = 0.8734). But the discrepancy was found within selected TPC ranges of 0%–10% and 20%–30%. According to the definition of TPC, three potential reasons for the high TPC values of fresh oils were discussed. For the deteriorated oils, the triglyceride dimers, mono-unsaturated and di-unsaturated fatty acids were found to be the main compositional factors by stepwise multivariate regression analysis. Pieces of advice about the operation guideline, internal control indices, calibration, reference oil, sensor, and detection range were proposed for instrument users and producers.

What career advice do you give your grad students or postdocs?

Advice from a mentor can be an invaluable in terms of seeing yourself better or starting you down a path that you might not have thought about. In this TrendsTalk article we ask four professors about the best piece of advice that they give to their trainees.

Disc Cutter’s Rock Breaking Ability and Wear Resistance in Extremely Hard Rock: A Case Study in Qinling Tunnel of Han River to Wei River Water Diversion Project

Contraposing the problem of cutter wear and other issues in TBM boring in erosive and hard strata, this paper analyzes the boring parameters and cutter wear amount in the trial 2 km of TBM section in Qinling Tunnel of Han River to Wei River Water Diversion Project. Then several pieces of advice are proposed and analysis results suggest that the inadequate amount of cutters around No. 43 cutter causes their relatively high wear. Experiments of disc cutter breaking hard rock are conducted, showing that the specific energy of TBM used for breaking rock is relatively low while the efficiency high when the S/p (the ratio of cutter space to penetration) is between 25 and 30. Relevant scaled experiments indicate a critical penetration value beyond which the mass wear rate of disc cutter surges. The experiment also proves that round-blade disc cutter could effectively reduce the wear. The research could provide reference for the cutter-head design and parameter control of TBM in similar geologies.

PECULIARITIES OF PREPARING STUDENTS OF HIGHER LEARNING INSTITUTIONS OF THE I‒II ACCREDITATION LEVELS FOR EXTERNAL INDEPENDENT TESTING IN MATHEMATICS

The article is devoted to the problem of preparing students of higher learning institutions of the I‒II accreditation levels for external independent testing in mathematics. The objective of the article is to consider the peculiarities of the preparation period for college students to participate in the external independent testing in mathematics. The objectives of the paper are to consider the technologies of preparing the college students for their testing in mathematics, and to analyze their psychological state, peculiarities of the preparation for applicants with the educational and qualification level of a junior specialist to participate in an external independent testing in mathematics. The article reveals psychological techniques to overcome stress, fear, anxiety and other students’ psychological problems before testing; Some pieces of advice are provided, the article points to the aspects one should take into account when preparing for testing in mathematics (overcoming fears of unknown tasks, training test experience, avoiding standard mistakes, focusing on topics that are missing in the program), also the paper provides effective techniques of preparing for participation in the external independent testing, in particular, on-line courses in mathematics such as «EdEra», «iLearn», «Education-Online», «Portal Academia». Such courses allow to fill the gaps in theoretical knowledge and check their memorizing and understanding, doing practical tasks at free time, in individual regime (duration of the lesson, hour a day, number of views). The methods of choosing the correct answer to the test questions that are inherent in the discipline «Mathematics» are given, which allow to reduce time. The typical mistakes the participants of the external independent testing assume are analyzed, students are given tips on the ways to avoid them.

Non-adherence to antimicrobial stewardship prospective audit and feedback advice: Risk factors and clinical consequences

Amongst 325 patients receiving restricted antimicrobials whose management was subject to antimicrobial stewardship prospective audit and feedback, adherence to advice was 78%. Non-adherence was associated with diabetic patients, giving more than 1 piece of advice and receipt of piperacillin/tazobactam therapy, and was inversely associated with liver disease. Adherence to advice was associated with a one third reduction in duration of antimicrobial use without adversely impacting other infection-related patient outcomes.

What 50 principal investigators taught me about my failure to land tenure.

Bela Z. Schmidt’s quest to understand an all-too-familiar career setback can be distilled into eight pieces of advice. Bela Z. Schmidt’s quest to understand an all-too-familiar career setback can be distilled into eight pieces of advice.