Decision-Making in a Social Multi-Armed Bandit Task: Behavior, Electrophysiology and Pupillometry

Understanding, predicting, and learning from other people's actions are fundamental human social-cognitive skills. Little is known about how and when we consider other's actions and outcomes when making our own decisions. We developed a novel task to study social influence in decision-making: the social multi-armed bandit task. This task assesses how people learn policies for optimal choices based on their own outcomes and another player's (observed) outcomes. The majority of participants integrated information gained through observation of their partner similarly as information gained through their own actions. This lead to a suboptimal decision-making strategy. Interestingly, event-related potentials time-locked to stimulus onset qualitatively similar but the amplitudes are attenuated in the solo compared to the dyadic version. This might indicate that arousal and attention after receiving a reward are sustained when a second agent is present but not when playing alone.Comment: Accepted for publication in The 41st Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society (CogSci 2019

Thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome after administration of AZD1222 or Ad26.COV2.S vaccine for COVID-19: A systematic review

Background: Cases of thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS) have been reported following vaccination with AZD1222 or Ad26.COV2.S. This review aimed to explore the pathophysiology, epidemiology, diagnosis, management, and prognosis of TTS.Methods: A systematic review was conducted to identify evidence on TTS till 4th September 2021. Case reports and series reporting patient-level data were included. Descriptive statistics were reported and compared across patients with different sexes, age groups, vaccines, types of thrombosis, and outcomes.Findings: Sixty-two studies reporting 160 cases were included from 16 countries. Patients were predominantly females with a median age of 42.50 (22) years. AZD1222 was administered to 140 patients (87·5%). TTS onset occurred in a median of 9 (4) days after vaccination. Venous thrombosis was most common (61.0%). Most patients developed cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST; 66.3%). CVST was significantly more common in female vs male patients (p = 0·001) and in patients aged \u3c45 years vs ≥45 years (p = 0·004). The mortality rate was 36.2%, and patients with suspected TTS, venous thrombosis, CVST, pulmonary embolism, or intraneural complications, patients not managed with non-heparin anticoagulants or IVIG, patients receiving platelet transfusions, and patients requiring intensive care unit admission, mechanical ventilation, or inpatient neurosurgery were more likely to expire than recover.Interpretation: These findings help to understand the pathophysiology of TTS while also recommending diagnostic and management approaches to improve prognosis in patients.Funding: This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors

Pill in the blister pack: a rare cause of dysphagia in an elderly adult

Foreign body impaction in the esophagus amongst adults is not a common cause of dysphagia. Fish bone, food bolus, dentures may cause symptoms of dysphagia, odynophagia, chest pain or respiratory distress. It needs prompt evaluation along with removal of the substance either surgically or endoscopically to avoid the  development of life threatening complications. Here we are reporting a case of an elderly male, who presented to us with a history of absolute dysphagia for one week, as a consequence of ingestion of a pill in blister pack.Key words: Foreign body, pill induced esophageal ulcer, dysphagi

Prevalence of neuro-musculoskeletal complications in patients with T2DM

Diabetes mellitus affects normal metabolizing body function and causes long term organs dysfunctions like blindness, kidney failure, neuropathy and autonomic dysfunction. The musculoskeletal is also affected by T2DM and causes pain, dysfunctions, and disabilities. Thus, this study is to find the prevalence of neuro-musculoskeletal complications in patients with T2DM. This cross sectional survey was conducted in various public and private sector hospitals of four major cities of Pakistan (Islamabad, Karachi, Lahore, and Sargodha) from 1st May to 31st December 2015. The patients of type II diabetes mellitus with both gender and age above 40 were included, and patients with active systemic disease of bones and soft tissues were excluded. A self-structured questionnaire was developed, reviewed by experts, and finalized after calculating their recommendations. The questionnaire was distributed among 600 patients, out of whom 500 patients responded. The non-probability convenient sampling technique was used for data collection. The data was analyzed by SPSS and percentages were calculated to estimate the neuro-musculoskeletal complications in patients with T2DM. The prevalence of neuro-musculoskeletal complication in type II Diabetes mellitus was 100 %, while the frozen shoulder, tingling sensations and ants crawling sensations (61%) were equally the most common neuro-musculoskeletal complications followed by knee pain (53%), low back pain (43%).The most involved age group was 61 to 65 years and 58% patients were with positive family history. The most commonly used way of treatment was medications (90%) and physical therapy (10%). It was proved in study that frozen shoulder, altered sensations, knee pain and back pain have high association with long duration of T2DM.There is association between long duration of diabetes mellitus and neuro-musculoskeletal complications. It is concluded that the prevalence of neuro-musculoskeletal complications is high among patients of T2DM and commonly affects shoulder, back, knee and altered sensation in legs. These are most commonly managed with medications followed by physical therapy

Factors influencing students’ usage satisfaction toward university web portal: a pls-sem analysis

The aim of this study is to empirically examine the factors affecting users’ satisfaction with university portals in Malaysia. This study tested seven hypotheses on factors affecting users’ satisfaction of university portal with empirical data from a sample of 318 students from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. Data were collected through personal-administered questionnaire. Partial Least Square (PLS) analysis results revealed that system quality, information quality, service quality, user ability, and educational services were significantly influence users satisfaction. Information quality was found as the dominating factor in this research

The performance of robust multivariate Ewma control charts

Multivariate Exponential Weighted Moving Average (MEWMA) control chart is a popular statistical tool for monitoring multivariate process over time. However, this chart is sensitive to the presence of outliers arising from the use of classical mean vector and covariance matrix in estimating the MEWMA statistic. These classical estimators are known to be sensitive to the outliers. To address this problem, robust MEWMA control charts based on modified one-step M-estimator (MOM) and Winsorized modified one-step M-estimator (WM) are proposed. Their performance is then compared with the standard MEWMA control chart in various situations. The findings revealed that the proposed robust MEWMA control charts are more effective in controlling false alarm rates especially for large sample sizes and high percentage of outlier

Consideration on refugees’ financial assistances: why humanitarian Sukuk is important?

As the year 2023 approaches, the contemporary world is witnessing the biggest refugee crisis since World War II. As a result of the vast migration of migrants caused by war and genocide, these refugees face famine and loss of human rights which is beyond comprehension. Malaysia is one of the countries that host the largest number of refugees. It has an honourable reputation for allowing them to access the territory of the country and live with a comfortable condition. Europe also gives refugees several privileges. Lately, however, these privileges have gradually diminished during the recent European financial crisis. Nowadays, there are many researchers discovered and written very deeply regarding humanitarian aid instruments inspiring their principles from the conventional economy. However, there is a wide gap in literature review and a few sources regarding humanitarian Sukuk. The aim of this research is to list a different category of humanitarian instruments that aim to assist refugees and meet their needs in the long term period and provide an overview regarding Sukuk and its strength in mitigating the refugees’ crisis in the short and long-run period and also its critical role to boost the economy of Malaysia through refugees side. this research explores the potentials of humanitarian Sukuk in overcoming the refugee crisis in Malaysia. The researchers found that the Sukuk has high potentials to be used as alternative financing in overcoming refugee crisis. It is also a practical instrument in eliminating the refugee crisis. In this study, the researchers proposed certain structures of Sukuk that can be adopted in financing humanitarian aids to overcome the refugee crisis within the Malaysia borders

Understanding potentials of humanitarian sukuk and its contribution towards financial refugee crisis

Purpose – This paper aims to present an alternative to Financing Refugees. The purpose of the paper is the optimization of the concept of the Sukuk tool and its crucial role to mitigate several financial problems generated by the Refugees crisis. Design/ methodology/ approach – Using the existing literature on a humanitarian initiative in Europe and incorporating these contributions into a Malaysian Humanitarian Aid. Several assumptions concerning the structure and operation of the Sukuk are made, descriptively analyzed. Findings – The concept of Sukuk could be used for the operation of an Islamic social finance instrument dedicated to humanitarian activism. Research limitations/implications – Research that would inform the economic importance of Sukuk would be served with an increased understanding of humanitarian initiatives and Sukuk humanitarian. Social implications – This paper could contribute to the effectiveness of Sukuk humanitarian in their delivery of public good to the refugees. These implications are not restricted to a specific country. Charities and the refugees of any society may benefit from this study if the idea of total Islamic social finance is upheld. Originality/value – This study is the first to address the structure and operation of a Sukuk humanitarian to overcoming the financial refugee crisis