An Umbrella Review of Aphasia Intervention descriPtion In Research: the AsPIRE project

Background: Recent reviews conclude that aphasia intervention is effective. However, replication and implementation require detailed reporting of intervention is and a specification of participant profiles. To date, reviews concentrate more on efficacy than on intervention reporting quality. Aims : The aim of this project is to review the descriptions of aphasia interventions and participants appearing in recent systematic reviews of aphasia intervention effectiveness. The relationship between the quality of these descriptions and the robustness of research design is explored, and the replicability of aphasia interventions is evaluated. Methods and Procedures : The scope of our search was an analysis of the aphasia intervention studies included in the and EBRSR 2018 systematic reviews, and in the RCSLT 2014 literature synthesis. Intervention descriptions published separately from the intervention study (i.e. published online, in clinical tools, or a separate trial protocols) were not included. The criteria for inclusion were that participants had aphasia, the intervention involved language and/or communication, and included the following research designs: Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT), comparison or control, crossover design, case series. Exclusion criteria included non-SLT interventions, studies involving fewer than four participants, conference abstracts, studies not available in English. Studies were evaluated for completeness of intervention description using the TIDieR Checklist. Additionally, we rated the quality of patient and intervention description, with particular reference to replicability. Outcomes and Results: Ninety-three studies were included. Only 14 studies (15%) had >50 participants. Fifty-six studies (60%) did not select participants with a specific aphasia profile, and a further 10 studies only described participants as non-fluent. Across the studies, an average of eight (of 12) TIDieR checklist items were given but information on where, tailoring, modification and fidelity items was rarely available. Studies that evaluated general aphasia intervention approaches tended to use RCT designs, whereas more specific intervention studies were more likely to use case series designs. Conclusions: Group studies were generally under-powered and there was a paucity of research looking at specific aphasia interventions for specific aphasia profiles. There was a trade-off between the robustness of the design and the level of specificity of the intervention described. While the TIDieR framework is a useful guide to information which should be included in an intervention study, it is insufficiently sensitive for assessing replicability. We consider possible solutions to the challenges of making large-scale trials more useful for determining effective aphasia intervention

Evidence-based systematic review: Effect of neuromuscular electrical stimulation on swallowing and neural activation

Purpose: To systematically review the literature examining the effects of neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) on swallowing and neural activation. The review was conducted as part of a series examining the effects of oral motor exercises (OMEs) on speech, swallowing, and neural activation. Method: A systematic search was conducted to identify relevant studies published in peer-reviewed journals from 1960 to 2007. All studies meeting the exclusion/inclusion criteria were appraised for quality and categorized as efficacy or exploratory research based on predetermined criteria. Results: Out of 899 citations initially identified for the broad review of OMEs, 14 articles relating to NMES qualified for inclusion. Most of the studies (10/14) were considered exploratory research, and many had significant methodological limitations. Conclusions: This systematic review reveals that surface NMES to the neck has been most extensively studied with promising findings, yet high-quality controlled trials are needed to provide evidence of efficacy. Surface NMES to the palate, faucial pillars, and pharynx has been explored in Phase I research, but no evidence of efficacy is currently available. Intramuscular NMES has been investigated in a single Phase I exploratory study. Additional research is needed to document the effects of such protocols on swallowing performance

Equine-Assisted Services: Current State and the Role of Recreational Therapy

Research in numerous disciplines describe the use of equine-assisted services (EAS) in treating the symptoms and improving the quality of life of individuals with emotional, mental, physical, and/or intellectual disabilities. However, the research on EAS in regard to recreational therapy practice and the function of the CTRS is limited. This study used a multi-method survey to examine the CTRSs’ specific role in the provision of EAS and the current state of equine services in recreational therapy practice. Results of this study may be used to help recreational therapists understand the current state within the field, their role in providing EAS, and to increase the research and literature regarding the provision of equine services in the field of recreational therapy

Maximal frequent sequences applied to drug-drug interaction extraction

A drug-drug interaction (DDI) occurs when the effects of a drug are modified by the presence of other drugs. DDIs can decrease therapeutic benefit or efficacy of treatments and this could have very harmful consequences in the patient's health that could even cause the patient's death. Knowing the interactions between prescribed drugs is of great clinical importance, it is very important to keep databases up-to-date with respect to new DDI. In this thesis we aim to build a system to assist healthcare professionals to be updated about published drug-drug interactions. The goal of this thesis is to study a method based on maximal frequent sequences (MFS) and machine learning techniques in order to automatically detect interactions between drugs in pharmacological and medical literature. With the study of these methods, the IT community will assist healthcare community to update their drug interactions database in a fast and semi-automatic way. In a first solution, we classify pharmacological sentences depending on whether or not they are describing a drug-drug interaction. This would enable to automatically find sentences containing drug-drug interactions. This solution is completely based in maximal frequent sequences (MFS) extracted from a set of test documents. In a second solution based in machine learning, we go further in the search and perform DDI extraction, determining if two specific drugs appearing in a sentence interact or not. This can be used as an assisting tool to populate databases with drug-drug interactions. The machine learning classifier is trained with several features i.e., bag of words, word categories, MFS, token and char level features and drug level features. The classifier we used was a Random Forest. This system was sent to the DDIExtraction 2011 competition and reached the 6th position. Finally, we introduce Maximal Frequent Discriminative Sequences (MFDS), a novel method of sequential pattern discovery that extends the concept of MFS to adapt it to classification tasks.García Blasco, S. (2012). Maximal frequent sequences applied to drug-drug interaction extraction. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/15342Archivo delegad

Patent Clutter

Patent claims are supposed to clearly and succinctly describe the patented invention, and only the patented invention. This Article hypothesizes that a substantial amount of language in patent claims is in fact not about the core invention, which may contribute to well-documented problems with patent claims. I analyze the claims of 40,000 patents and applications, and document the proliferation of “clutter”—language in patent claims that is not about the invention. Although claims are supposed to be exclusively about the invention, clutter appears across industries and makes up approximately 25% of claim language. Patent clutter may contribute several major problems in patent law. Extensive clutter makes patent claims harder to search. Excessive language in patent claims may be the result of over-claiming—when patentees describe potential corollaries they do not possess—thereby making the patent so broad in scope as to be invalid. More generally, it strains the comprehensibility of patents and burdens the resources of patent examiners. After arguing that patent clutter may contribute to these various problems, this Article turns to reforms. Rejections based on prolix, lack of enablement, and lack of written description can be crafted to dispose of the worst offenders, and better algorithms and different litigation rules can allow the patent system to adapt (and even benefit from) the remaining uses of excess language. The Article additionally generates important theoretical insights. Claims are often thought of as entirely synonymous with the invention and all elements of the claim are thought to relate equally strongly to the invention. This Article suggests empirically that these assumptions do not hold in practice, and offers a framework for restructuring conceptions of the relationship between claims and the invention

A Systematic Review of Psychological Group Interventions for Adults with Refugee Backgrounds in Resettlement Countries: Development of a Stepped Care Approach to Mental Health Treatment

This item is only available electronically.The number of refugees globally has increased and due to exposure to trauma and postmigration stressors, many are in need of appropriate mental health care. Objective: While previous systematic reviews have focused on individual interventions for refugees, the current study aims to contribute to the literature by systematically reviewing the effectiveness of group and community-based interventions, to provide insight into ways current treatments can be scaled and integrated into stepped-care interventions. Method: A systematic review was conducted. In November 2020, PsycINFO, PubMed, Scopus, Embase and CINAHL were systematically searched and findings were analysed using narrative thematic analysis. Results: Four key themes were identified in the literature including: a) the benefits and challenges of group-based interventions b) effectiveness of group-based interventions and c) how to implement group-based treatments effectively when working with refugees. Conclusion: In general, while groups were not typically seen as a replacement for individual therapy, the included studies suggested the complementary value of group modalities, as well as their effectiveness as an early access intervention. Ultimately, the existing body of research concerning group interventions indicates that treatments delivered in a group format have utility and scalability and should be considered for integration into stepped models of care for people with refugee backgrounds.Thesis (M.Psych(Clinical)) -- University of Adelaide, School of Psychology, 202

A systematic review of scientific studies and case reports on music and obsessive-compulsive disorder

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a severe psychiatric disorder, which can be associated with music-related symptoms. Music may also be used as an adjunct treatment for OCD. Following the PRISMA guidelines, we performed a systematic literature review exploring the relationship between music and OCD by using three online databases: PubMed, the Web of Science, and PsycINFO. The search terms were “obsessive compulsive disorder”, “OCD”, “music”, and “music therapy”. A total of 27 articles were utilised (n = 650 patients/study participants) and grouped into three categories. The first category comprised case reports of patients with musical obsessions in patients with OCD. Most patients were treated with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) or a combination of an SSRI and another pharmacological or a non-pharmacological treatment, with variable success. Studies on the music perception of people with OCD or obsessive-compulsive personality traits represented the second category. People with OCD or obsessive-compulsive personality traits seem to be more sensitive to tense music and were found to have an increased desire for harmony in music. Three small studies on music therapy in people with OCD constituted the third category. These studies suggest that patients with OCD might benefit from music therapy, which includes listening to music