Looking ahead: anticipatory gaze and motor ability in infancy

The present study asks when infants are able to selectively anticipate the goals of observed actions, and how this ability relates to infants' own abilities to produce those specific actions. Using eye-tracking technology to measure on-line anticipation, 6-, 8- and 10-month-old infants and a control group of adults were tested while observing an adult reach with a whole hand grasp, a precision grasp or a closed fist towards one of two different sized objects. The same infants were also given a comparable action production task. All infants showed proactive gaze to the whole hand grasps, with increased degrees of proactivity in the older groups. Gaze proactivity to the precision grasps, however, was present from 8 months of age. Moreover, the infants' ability in performing precision grasping strongly predicted their ability in using the actor's hand shape cues to differentially anticipate the goal of the observed action, even when age was partialled out. The results are discussed in terms of the specificity of action anticipation, and the fine-grained relationship between action production and action perception

Widom line prediction by the Soave-Redlich-Kwong and Peng-Robinson equations of state

Using cubic equations of state for a single-component fluid, we compute pseudocritical loci where the isobaric heat capacity is a relative maximum at constant pressure, or at constant temperature. These two loci, called the Widom line and the characteristic isobaric inflection curve (CIIC), are quite different from each other, as we show using the van der Waals equation, based on which the two loci admit a closed-form representation in the (P, T) plane. Similarly, the Redlichâ Kwong (RK) equation leads to a closed-form representation for the CIIC in the (T,v) plane. With the Soaveâ Redlichâ Kwong (SRK) and the Pengâ Robinson (PR) equations we find almost coincident predictions for the above-mentioned pseudocritical loci; furthermore, comparing our results with a correlation obtained by regression of experimental data for CO2and water shows that the increased complexity of the SRK and PR equations (as compared to RK) allows improved agreement with the experimental data

Catheter-associated urinary tract infections: patient characteristics, treatment, and clinical outcomes in one South Texas acute care hospital

Background: Catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CA-UTIs) account for 40 percent of nosocomial infections worldwide. Their elimination is at the forefront of quality improvement in one South Texas acute care hospital. Methods: Over a period of 6 months, five CA-UTIs occurred in one South Texas acute care hospital. These cases were identified via regular surveillance by Infection Prevention staff and the Laboratory Department of the hospital. This research reviews patient age, sex, length of stay, bacteria contracted, appropriate antibiotic use, patient characteristics, and overall outcomes. Results: Between the months of July and December 2021, 5 CAUTIs were contracted. Patients ranged in age from 44 to 71 years old with a mean age of 68.8 years old; 2 were male and 3 were female; the average length of stay ranged from 19 to 59 days with an average stay of 32.2 days. All patients had severe illness on presentation and multiple comorbidities. Organisms isolated included klebsiella oxytoca, carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae, extended-spectrum beta-lactamase E. coli and klebsiella pneumoniae. Susceptibility studies were conducted on all 5 patients. Antibiotics used include piperacillin-tazobactam, ceftriaxone, levofloxacin, and meropenem. CAUTIs resolved in 4 patients; two of them were discharged to skilled nursing facilities, one was discharged home, and one died due to complications from COVID-19. Conclusions: Among these cases, factors such as local rates of COVID-19 cases (the cases happened when hospital census was unusually high), extended length of stay, use of mechanical ventilation, Foley catheter placement in the Emergency Department, severe illness, and comorbid health conditions should be considered when assessing risk of CA-UTI and treatment outcome. While antibiotics that were prescribed appropriately corresponded with sensitivity studies, sustainability of infection prevention processes for the prevention of CA-UTIs is difficult to sustain during periods of crisis as exemplified in this project

Online search trends and word-related emotional response during COVID- 19 lockdown in Italy: a cross-sectional online study

Background. The strong and long lockdown adopted by the Italian government to limit COVID-19 spreading represents the first threat-related mass isolation in history that can be studied in depth by scientists to understand individuals' emotional response to a pandemic. Methods. We investigated the effects on individuals' mental wellbeing of this long-term isolation by means of an online survey on 71 Italian volunteers. They completed the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule and Fear of COVID-19 Scale and judged valence, arousal, and dominance of words either related or unrelated to COVID-19, as identified by Google search trends. Results. Emotional judgments changes from normative data varied depending on word type and individuals' emotional state, revealing early signals of individuals' mental distress to COVID-19 confinement. All individuals judged COVID-19-related words to be less positive and dominant. However, individuals with more negative feelings and COVID-19 fear also judged COVID-19-unrelated words to be less positive and dominant. Moreover, arousal ratings increased for all words among individuals with more negative feelings and COVID-19 fear but decreased among individuals with less negative feelings and COVID-19 fear. Discussion. Our results show a rich picture of emotional reactions of Italians to tight and 2-month long confinement, identifying early signals of mental health distress. They are an alert to the need for intervention strategies and psychological assessment of individuals potentially needing mental health support following the COVID-19 situation

Brain oscillations in cognitive control: a cross-sectional study with a spatial Stroop task

An important aspect of cognitive control is the ability to overcome interference, by boosting the processing of task-relevant information while suppressing the irrelevant information. This ability is affected by the progressive cognitive decline observed in aging. The aims of this study were to shed light on the neural spectral dynamics involved in interference control and to investigate age-dependent differences in these dynamics. For these reasons two samples of participants of different ages (23 younger and 20 older adults, age range=[18 35] and [66 82], respectively) were recruited and administered a spatial Stroop task while recording electroencephalographic activity. Scalp- and source-based time-frequency analyses revealed a main role of theta and beta frequencies in interference control. Specifically, for the theta band, we found age-dependent differences both for early event-related spectral perturbation (ERSP) Stroop effects at the source level \u2013 which involved dorsomedial and dorsolateral prefrontal cortices \u2013 and for related brain-behaviour correlations. This ERSP Stroop effect in theta was greatly reduced in magnitude in the older group and, differently from what observed in younger participants, it was not correlated with behavioural performance. These results suggest an age-dependent impairment of the theta-related mechanism signalling the need of cognitive control, in line with existing findings. We also found age-related differences in ERSP and source spectral activity involving beta frequencies. Indeed, younger participants showed a specific ERSP Stroop effect in beta \u2013 with the main involvement of left prefrontal cortex \u2013 whereas the pattern of older participants was delayed in time and spread bilaterally over the scalp. This study shows clear age-related differences in the neural spectral correlates of cognitive control. These findings open new questions about the causal involvement of specific oscillations in different cognitive processes and may inspire future interventions against age-related cognitive decline

Wearable Robotics for Impaired Upper-Limb Assistance and Rehabilitation: State of the Art and Future Perspectives

Despite more than thirty-five years of research on wearable technologies to assist the upper-limb and a multitude of promising preliminary results, the goal of restoring pre-impairment quality of life of people with physical disabilities has not been fully reached yet. Whether it is for rehabilitation or for assistance, nowadays robotics is still only used in a few high-tech clinics and hospitals, limiting the access to a small amount of people. This work provides a description of the three major 'revolutions' occurred in the field (end-effector robots, rigid exoskeletons, and soft exosuits), reviewing forty-eight systems for the upper-limb (excluding hand-only devices) used in eighty-nine studies enrolling a clinical population before June 2022. The review critically discusses the state of the art, analyzes the different technologies, and compares the clinical outcomes, with the goal of determine new potential directions to follow

Videoconferencing analytic psychodrama in treating young adults’ psychological suffering : preliminary results

The study aims to explore the effects that videoconferencing Analytic Psychodrama (AP) has on the psychological wellbeing and emotional competence of young adults who are suffering from mental health problems. Twenty-two undergraduate students, asking for help at the Psychological Counselling Service of the University of Bologna for anxiety-depressive problems, took part in the three online groups that met weekly from October 2020 to July 2021. The Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation Outcome Measure, the Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire Short Form, the Toronto Alexithymia Scale, the Interpersonal Reactivity Index, and the Group Climate Questionnaire were used as test-retest questionnaires for clinical outcomes, emotional competence, and group climate evaluations. There was a statistically significant difference between the pre-test and 10-month scores for patients in clinical outcomes. Alexithymia significantly decreased and emotional intelligence and group engagement increased post-intervention. Videoconferencing AP sounds promising for alleviating psychological problems and to improve young adults' emotional competence