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Children with cerebral palsy (CP) are likely to experience decreased participation in activities and less competence in activities of daily living. Studies of children with spastic CP have shown that strengthening programs produce positive results in strength, gait, and functional outcomes (measured by the Gross Motor Function Measure). No investigations have analyzed electromyography (EMG) activity before and after strength training to determine whether any changes occur in the GMFM. This feasibility case report quantified dorsiflexor and plantarflexor muscle activation changes during performance of 3-5 selected GMFM items following a plantarflexor strength training in two children with cerebral palsy. Increased plantarflexor strength and increased ability to selectively activate muscles were found. Little carryover to performance on GMFM items was observed. It is feasible to use EMG during performance on selected GMFM items to evaluate motor control changes following strength training in children with CP. (Contains 3 tables.)

This paper examines how and why academics in different parts of the academy collaborate. In this paper we argue that: (1) There is a useful analytical distinction to be made between collaboration (fluid and expressive) and Collaboration (concrete and instrumental); (2) These two are not mutually exclusive and their use varies between disciplines; and (3) This distinction is an informative one for policy making that aims to encourage collaboration. Two interview based studies were used to explore the differences in collaborative practices across disciplines. The first was small and confined to a single university (n = 36) and the second was a larger study conducted in three countries (n = 274). Cross tabulations and analysis of open ended questions demonstrated many differences across the humanities, sciences and social sciences in collaboration. The C/collaboration distinction proves useful in understanding different disciplinary approaches to research, and in pointing to implications for research policy and funding. Attempts to increase collaborative research through Collaboration only, may well have deleterious effects on both collaboration and Collaboration. Research policy and funding should bear these differences in mind when seeking to stimulate collaborative research, so as to gain better outcomes across a range of disciplines.

Aim: To compare the effects of a supported speed treadmill training exercise program (SSTTEP) with exercise on spasticity, strength, motor control, gait spatiotemporal parameters, gross motor skills, and physical function. Method: Twenty-six children (14 males, 12 females; mean age 9y 6mo, SD 2y 2mo) with spastic cerebral palsy (CP; diplegia, n = 12; triplegia, n = 2; quadriplegia n = 12; Gross Motor Function Classification System levels II-IV) were randomly assigned to the SSTTEP or exercise (strengthening) group. After a twice daily, 2 week induction, children continued the intervention at home 5 days a week for 10 weeks. Data collected at baseline, after 12-weeks' intervention, and 4 weeks after the intervention stopped included spasticity, motor control, and strength; gait spatiotemporal parameters; Gross Motor Function Measure (GMFM); and Pediatric Outcomes Data Collection Instrument (PODCI). Results: Gait speed, cadence, and PODCI global scores improved, with no difference between groups. No significant changes were seen in spasticity, strength, motor control, GMFM scores, or PODCI transfers and mobility. Post-hoc testing showed that gains in gait speed and PODCI global scores were maintained in the SSTTEP group after withdrawal of the intervention. Interpretation: Although our hypothesis that the SSTTEP group would have better outcomes was not supported, results are encouraging as children in both groups showed changes in function and gait. Only the SSTTEP group maintained gains after withdrawal of intervention.

Don't Think of an Elephant: know your values and frame the debate George Lakoff (Introduction by Julia Baird) Scribe Publications, Melbourne, 2005, 144 pp. ISBN 1920769455 (pbk) $22.00 The title [...]

Australian Citizenship Brian Galligan and Winsome Roberts, Melbourne, Melbourne University Press, 2004 $39.95 Galligan and Roberts stake their territory early (even before the Contents page) in the dedication of their [...]

To authenticate to the full-text of this article, please visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-4446.2009.01277_6.x Byline: Sandy Ross (1) Author Affiliation: (1)London School of Economics and Political Science

Consumption was one of the spheres of everyday life shaken and remoulded by the collapse of socialist regimes at the end of the 20th century. Especially in times of rapid change, a moral economies lens is a fruitful means to understand the contentious moral landscape and moral tensions that pervade consumption behaviour, norms and discourse. Important areas of consideration in post-socialist societies in this field include links between ideology and consumption; transformations of material culture, especially luxury culture; the retraditionalisation and polarisation of gender; and intergenerational and social class divisions. Theoretically, we stress the importance of multiple levels of analysis and address both the empirical and critical dimensions of 'moral economy'. In particular, this recognises the importance of the Zelizerian relational approach while cautioning against the hostile worlds rhetorical frame. It is through the simultaneous critical and empirical approaches of Polanyi and Thompson that an important analytical focus for post-socialist moral economies of consumption and beyond – moral tensions – is made plain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Critiques of consumption frequently assume moral undertones, with the effect of obscuring the moral foundations underlying consumer practices themselves. The articles in this collection offer compelling and ethnographically rich evidence of the moral tensions that inform consumer preferences in post-socialist Europe. Consumer behaviors and discourses have historically played an important role in the region, determining grounds for social inclusion under socialism as much as under capitalism. This makes post-socialist settings particularly rich sites for ethnographic studies of the intersection between consumer culture and the moral order, as it allows us to trace how the criteria for full social membership – a chance to be seen, heard, and treated with respect – relate to consumption under different economic and political regimes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing research on how consumers experience increasing debt as normal focuses on the shifting moral meanings surrounding debt. Examining rapid mortgage debt escalation in post-socialist Hungary, we propose a different approach. Using practice theory, we identify credit use as 'ordinary consumption': a non-expressive practice which enables other, meaningful practices; akin to energy use. Like energy, credit is channelled by background infrastructures, such as mortgage instruments. We find that mortgage debt grew and became 'naturalized' through the co-evolution of practices associated with a 'normal life' centred on the home on the one hand, and of available mortgage instruments on the other. This process did not change what debt means but stripped its meanings, making debt increasingly unreflected and invisible. We argue that this invisibility is not a natural characteristic of mortgages but a contested quality. High-risk mortgages became invisible through particular selling devices and discourses that positioned mortgages as 'expert goods', to be preselected and installed by qualified advisers. Emphasising the socio-material structuring of this process, we conclude by integrating the meaning-laden and unreflected credit practices into a new theoretical framework, as contingent qualities of credit consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the making of personhood through conspicuous hospitality practices in the Republic of Georgia, focusing on how this process has underpinned moral boundary drawing in Georgia's recent history – from the late Soviet era, through the 1990s, to the years following the Rose Revolution in 2003. Largely perceived and defined as tradition by local people and external observers, hospitality is a powerful device to organise social relationships and exchanges in the community. Excess is a fundamental feature of hospitality practices: people spend many hours around the table displaying, offering and consuming plenty of food and alcoholic drinks and engaging in conspicuous bodily gestures and speech. Analysing literary and media sources and data collected through participant observation and follow-up interviews, the article explores the way in which shifting moral boundaries drawn upon hospitality practices have transformed domination and counter-domination patterns in Georgian society. From a unifying marker of Georgians' positive distinctiveness vis-à-vis other people, hospitality's excesses became a token of increasing socio-economic inequality. The analysis contributes to the understanding of consumption, especially in its excessive aspects, as a fundamental element in the making of individual and collective personhood, which, in turn, shapes boundaries of exclusion and inclusion within and across smaller and larger communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores secondhand clothing dynamics in the Czech Republic as evidence of the shifting material culture and moral economy in this post-socialist country. Ethnographical investigation indicates that the practices and meanings surrounding the Czech market in used clothing are quite distinct from what has been observed elsewhere in the world of reused clothes. The case study notes a significant contradiction between widespread participation in the shopping for and wearing of secondhand clothing, and concurrent concealment of such practice among Czechs. This seeming contradiction can be largely attributed to the attraction for inexpensive branded clothes, which helps signal an individual's well-being and search for respect in a newly competitive market society, and the simultaneous association of reuse with the backwardness and consumer poverty associated with the socialist era. The contrast in values and norms surrounding the acceptability of used garment is especially pronounced in different generations. It is argued here that membership in generations should be considered a more significant variable than class or other social attributes in dissecting social differences in transitioning societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the importance of consumption of luxury goods as a mechanism accompanying upwards movement in a social hierarchy has been well acknowledged, attention to the role and perceptions of luxury in multicultural societies has been scarce so far. It is nonetheless intriguing that ethnic groups inhabiting the same territory, and exposed to a same culture, might develop substantially different notions of luxury, which may end up affecting the integration, or isolation, of one of the groups. Our article addresses this deficiency in the literature by exploring the case of Estonia, a multi-ethnic society where Russians make up almost one-fourth of the population. Much has been written about the integration, and lack thereof, of ethnic Russians into Estonian society. We contrast these views by looking at inter-ethnic relations in the country from a different angle and by a) looking at consumption of luxury in the country through the concept of 'conspicuous consumption'; b) endorsing Foster's concept of consumer citizenship. This allows us to shed light on an under-explored tendency and maintain here that, in a significant number of cases, ordinary citizens challenge official identity narratives by the state through counter-narratives centred around consumption of luxury at the everyday level. The identified counter-narratives end up translating into (consumer behaviour) instructions for those Russians willing to assert their Estonianness thus allowing them to seek integration into the majority group by simply consuming luxury items that they perceive as appreciated among Estonians, or associated with Estonian high status. By doing this, we make a case for expanding the parameters for academic scrutiny of social integration to include more 'banal' forms of consumer practices through which top- down narratives and macro studies may be challenged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on ethnographic research into household money practices among young middle-class couples in Warsaw, Poland, this article shows that normative concerns about the fair use of domestic money shape household budgeting rules. The practical division of funds into 'mine', 'yours' and 'ours' reflects what couples running a household together consider morally right. Focusing on couples' practical and moral reasoning, I show the set of expectations and the moral logic they employ to achieve fairness in their household financial arrangements. The analysis of two models of domestic money allocation – the 50–50 model, which is based on a couple's equal contributions, and the joint-money model, which involves a couple's recognition of mutual obligations – highlights how fairness is articulated in rules about equality, independence and solidarity. By studying couples through time as they experience significant life changes, I show how the rules of fairness come to be challenged and how what is considered fair is questioned or even contested. I argue that turning points such as taking out a mortgage together or having a child produce new expectations and imaginaries about the future and prompt couples to question the rules of fairness and consequently to change their money practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This investigation developed a measure of motor control at the ankle for persons with CP using relative phase. Twenty-nine subjects, 14 with spastic diplegia cerebral palsy (CP group) and 15 without disability (WD group) were tested once. Video data were collected as a seated subject performed four full range of ankle plantar and dorsiflexion movement tasks (right ankle, left ankle, ankles in-phase with each other, and ankles antiphase to each other) at four different frequencies (self-paced, 0.5, 0.75, 1.0 Hz). The relative phase measure was able to discern the differences between the two groups of children. The CP group had poorer motor control than the WD group, based upon the measure. Both groups had more difficulty performing the antiphase than the in-phase movements. The investigation adds to the body of knowledge in that the concept of relative phase was used as a measure of motor control at the ankle in persons with CP. Results indicated that the measure was adequately sensitive to quantify differences between a group with CP and a group without disability. Clinically the measure could eventually be used as both an assessment and outcome tool. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This nonrandomized prospective descriptive study compared outcomes of three isolated heel cord surgeries in children with spastic diplegia cerebral palsy (CP): (1) heel cord advancement (HCA), (2) heel cord lengthening according to Vulpius (HCL-V), and (3) heel cord lengthening according to White (HCL-W). Thirty-two children were tested prior to and approximately 1 year after undergoing one of the three surgeries. Objective measures were collected for ankle passive and active range of motion, gross motor function measure (GMFM), and gait. All surgeries indicated significant improvements in end range passive and active ankle dorsiflexion, GMFM, and dorsiflexion during gait. Gait speed was significantly improved for the HCA group, but appeared to be the result of maturity. Gait speed for the HCL-V and HCL-W groups was unchanged. The study was the first to directly compare three heel-cord-lengthening surgeries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study was conducted to determine whether an objective and quantitative measure for active ankle range of motion would be sensitive to differences between persons of able body and those with cerebral palsy (CP), and between pre- and postselective dorsal rhizotomy (SDR). Twelve children with spastic diplegia CP were tested before undergoing an SDR, and again after 8 months of intensive physical therapy (SDR group). Fourteen other children with spastic diplegia were tested initially and again 8 months following no intervention but maintaining their existing level of physical therapy (CP group). Twenty age-matched children of able body were tested once (AB group). A video system recorded active sagittal plane ankle movements as the seated child independently performed maximum dorsiflexion and plantarflexion. The data were tracked and analyzed to determine end-range dorsiflexion and plantarflexion, and total active ankle range of motion. Repeated-measures ANOVA and Tukey post hoc tests were used to test for significant differences among and between groups, p < 0. 05. Results for the SDR group indicated a significant increase in end-range dorsiflexion and total range of motion following the surgery, with no changes in any measures for the CP group. Results for both groups with CP indicated differences vs. the AB group. The measure provided additional information from what has previously been reported for active ankle range of motion. The integration of this measure with other objective measures for quantifying impairments and presurgical function may be useful in predicting post-SDR gait status and other functional activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Compares the hip spasticity and strength in children with spastic diplegia cerebral palsy and able bodies. Characterization of cerebral palsy; Calculation of maximum torques and work by the abductors and abductors; Similarities between strength tests and spasticity tests.

Investigates the maximum active resultant knee joint torques in children with cerebral palsy. Characterization of cerebral palsy; Measurement of resultant joint torques; Comparison of muscle weakness between cerebral palsy patients and nondisabled children; Factors preventing the children with cerebral palsy in achieving maximum extensor or flexor torques.

In anthropology, sociology, and the humanities, money’s quantity is usually conceptualized as objectifying, creating abstract indexes of value, and as representing and enforcing abstraction, economic or otherwise. It is this link between quantity and abstraction that is partly responsible for questionable dichotomies opposing money’s numerical quantities and its qualities. Contributors to this special issue interrogate these dichotomies by exploring material and qualitative aspects of quantities in the history of economic thought, through British jewelers, blood money payments in Germanic law codes, and the everyday use of money in Russia, Kenya, and Cuba and among Brazilian Gypsies. Our introduction frames these engagements by presenting phenomena that blur differences between quality and quantity: part-whole relations, recursivity, set partitioning and infinities, and hysteresis and elastic thresholds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To purchase or authenticate to the full-text of this article, please visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-4446.2007.00173_12.x Byline: Sandy Ross (1) Author Affiliation: (1)PhD student, London School of Economics and Political Science