Eliciting preschoolers’ number abilities using open, multi-touch environments

Research has highlighted the potential of digital technology to support the development of children’s number sense abilities. However, the main focus of such research has been on apps affording directed interactions, where only one solution strategy is available, and it has targeted mostly cardinality. Little is known, in these terms, about task design and implementation in more open environments where several different solution strategies are available. To explore this direction, we chose to study TouchCounts, an open environment that combines multi-touch affordances with aural, visual and symbolic ones as well. Using tasks that were designed to address different number sense abilities, we experimented with 4-year-old preschoolers. In this paper we present two tasks, their expected potential with respect to strengthening number sense abilities, and analyses of data collected during the preschoolers’ interactions with TouchCounts. The analyses reveal that the children used different strategies in response to the two tasks, and that a broad range of abilities related to number sense were elicited, including both cardinality and ordinality. An important contribution of this study is also a theoretical framework capable of identifying children’s learning in a multi-touch environment

Psychological stress in seafarers: a review

Background: Seafaring is a particular profession, in which workers are usually exposed to several stressors that are related to the different duties on board ships. This paper has reviewed the main publications on different factors affecting seafarers with the purpose of identifying specific stress factors related to a particular duty on board. Materials and methods: A literature search was conducted using the online databases PubMed and OvidSP. A survey on health, stress, and fatigue of Australian Seafarers published by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) fulfilling the selection criteria was also examined. This publication provided relevant data obtained from a large sample of seafarers. Results: Our analysis confirmed that seafaring is associated with mental, psychosocial, and physical stressors. The most important factors were separation from family, loneliness on board, fatigue, multi-nationality, limited recreation activity, and sleep deprivation. The AMSA report gave a more detailed analysis on lifestyle and relevant factors inducing psychological distress. Stressors affecting seafarers working in the engine room were different from those involving the deck crew. Sleep quality and duration were reported to be poor mainly in pilots, whereas deck crew tended to be less adherent to physical exercise and healthy lifestyle recommendations. Conclusions: Seafaring is still associated with relevant mental health risks. Information on known stress factors on board should be provided to seafarers to help them in lowering stress perception. Strategies for coping with “inevitable” stress conditions should also be investigated and developed. Strategies to decrease risks of stress should be directed to the different categories of seafarers, and the results of specific interventions should be evaluated

The Effect of the Association between Donepezil and Choline Alphoscerate on Behavioral Disturbances in Alzheimer's Disease: Interim Results of the ASCOMALVA Trial

BACKGROUND: Behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) are a group of psychological reactions, psychiatric symptoms, and behaviors commonly found in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Four clusters of BPSD have been described: mood disorders (depression, anxiety, and apathy), psychotic symptoms (delusions and hallucinations), aberrant motor behaviors (pacing, wandering, and other purposeless behaviors), and inappropriate behaviors (agitation, disinhibition, and euphoria). Most of them are attributed to acetylcholine deficiency. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate if a higher amount of acetylcholine obtained by associating donepezil and choline alphoscerate might have a favorable effect on BPSD. METHODS: BPSD were measured at baseline and after 24 months in 113 mild/moderate AD patients, included in the double-blind randomized trial ASCOMALVA, by the Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI). Two matched groups were compared: group A treated with donepezil (10 mg/day) plus choline alphoscerate (1200 mg/day), and group B treated with donepezil (10 mg/day) plus placebo. RESULTS: Data of NPI revealed a significant decrease of BPSD severity and distress of the caregiver in patients of group A compared with group B. Mood disorders (depression, anxiety and apathy) were significantly decreased in subjects treated with donepezil and choline alphoscerate, while their severity and frequency was increased in the other group. CONCLUSIONS: Patients treated with donepezil plus choline alphoscerate showed a lower level of behavioral disturbances than subjects treated with donepezil only, suggesting that the association can have beneficial effect

Evaluation of neurocognitive abilities in children affected by obstructive sleep apnea syndrome before and after adenotonsillectomy

Obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome (OSAS) is the most severe form of sleep-related disordered breathing (SRDB) and is characterised by snoring, apnoeas, and/or hypopnoeas associated to hypoxia, hypercarbia, or repeated arousals from sleep. OSAS has three major categories of morbidities: neurobehavioural, cardiovascular and somatic growth failure. The gold standard for objective diagnosis of obstructive-SRDB severity is polysomnography (PSG). The indication for surgical treatment in children is moderate-severe OSAS (AHI, apnoea hypopnoea index > 5/h) and in mild OSAS (AHI 2-5/h) with complications or morbidity. The entire spectrum of PSG-defined SRDB (ranging from Primary Snoring to severe OSAS) may correlate with behavioural, attentional and executive function deficits relating to hypoxia and sleep disruption: in some cases, these alterations may mimic attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The aim of this research was to evaluate visuoperceptual and constructional abilities, paediatric sleep questionnaire and polysomnographic scores before and 6 months after adenotonsillectomy with objective and subjective information. We included 59 children who underwent neuropsychiatric and otolaryngologist clinical evaluation and the Beery-Buktenica Developmental Test of Visual-Motor Integration (VMI); children parents were asked to fill in the Paediatric Sleep Questionnaire (PSQ); each child underwent PSG. At 6 months after adenotonsillectomy, all patients were evaluated again. There is a significant difference in PSQ parameters, VMI standard, visual tests scores and PSG parameters before and after adenotonsillectomy in children affected by OSAS. These results showed the achievement of therapeutic benefits with improvement of the quality of life for both children and their parents

The Psychological General Well-Being Index (PGWBI) for assessing stress of seafarers on board merchant ships

Background: In their working activity, seafarers are exposed to high levels of stress that should be accuratelyinvestigated, measured, followed up and, if possible, countered. This is also required by regulations recently entered into force such as the Maritime Labour Convention 2006, recommending to consider special physiological or psychological problems created by the shipboard environment. The choice of the tools for this evaluation is challenging, and a common basic standard usable in a large scale should be identified.Aim: The aim of this study was to evaluate: 1) the suitability of the Psychological General Well-Being Index (PGWBI) questionnaire conducted on board for assessing stress in the sailing seafarers, 2) The presenceof stress in seafarers of different categories (deck officers, engine officers, deck crew, engine crew, chiefstewards/catering staff) monitored by the PGWBI.Materials and methods: 162 male seafarers on board of 7 tankers belonging to the same shipping companywere evaluated through the PGWB questionnaire. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to analyse thedifferences in the scores of the questionnaire.Results: Engine officers exhibited significantly higher anxiety levels than the deck or engine crew, andshowed lower satisfaction than the deck crew. Deck and engine officers revealed higher self-control levelsthan the engine crew. Chief stewards/catering staff showed lower vitality levels than the deck crew.Conclusions: Deck or engine officers should achieve a greater self-control than the crew and this is documentedby the present study. Our findings support the view that management responsibility is more often associated with higher levels of stress. In our opinion, the PGWB questionnaire is a reasonable compromise forobtaining a global evaluation of psychological conditions, including stress of seafarers. It should be therefore considered as a large scale tool for assessing the well-being and eventual stress levels of sailing seafarers

DOTA-Derivatives of Octreotide Dicarba-Analogs with High Affinity for Somatostatin sst2,5 Receptors

In vivo somatostatin receptor scintigraphy is a valuable method for the visualization of human endocrine tumors and their metastases. In fact, peptide ligands of somatostatin receptors (sst's) conjugated with chelating agents are in clinical use. We have recently developed octreotide dicarba-analogs, which show interesting binding profiles at sst's. In this context, it was mandatory to explore the possibility that our analogs could maintain their activity also upon conjugation with DOTA. In this paper, we report and discuss the synthesis, binding affinity and conformational preferences of three DOTA-conjugated dicarba-analogs of octreotide. Interestingly, two conjugated analogs exhibited nanomolar affinities on sst(2) and sst(5) somatostatin receptor subtypes

The kinectome: A comprehensive kinematic map of human motion in health and disease

Human voluntary movement stems from the coordinated activations in space and time of many musculoskeletal segments. However, the current methodological approaches to study human movement are still limited to the evaluation of the synergies among a few body elements. Network science can be a useful approach to describe movement as a whole and to extract features that are relevant to understanding both its complex physiology and the pathophysiology of movement disorders. Here, we propose to represent human movement as a network (that we named the kinectome), where nodes represent body points, and edges are defined as the correlations of the accelerations between each pair of them. We applied this framework to healthy individuals and patients with Parkinson’s disease, observing that the patients’ kinectomes display less symmetrical patterns as compared to healthy controls. Furthermore, we used the kinectomes to successfully identify both healthy and diseased subjects using short gait recordings. Finally, we highlighted topological features that predict the individual clinical impairment in patients. Our results define a novel approach to study human movement. While deceptively simple, this approach is well-grounded, and represents a powerful tool that may be applied to a wide spectrum of framework

Late and early onset dementia: what is the role of vascular factors? A retrospective study.

Neuropathology of Alzheimer's disease (AD) demonstrates that the common occurrence of vascular lesions and vascular factors is suggested to contribute significantly to the clinical progression of the disease. This study has assessed the presence of vascular brain lesions and risk factors in subjects with diagnosis of AD and their influence on the disease course both in Late Onset Dementia (LOD) and in Early Onset Dementia (EOD). METHODS: MRI scans of 374 LOD and of 67 EOD patients were evaluated for the presence of vascular associated lesions and rated according to the age-related white matter changes (ARWMC) scale as "pure degenerative", "mixed" and "vascular" cases of dementia. Vascular risk factors burden (hypertension, diabetes, dyslipidemia, myocardial infarction) and disease progression were also assessed. RESULTS: 44% of LOD cases and 46% of EOD were classified as "mixed dementia cases". The vascular risk factors burden showed an increase from the pure degenerative to the pure vascular forms. Disease progression, calculated in two years using the Mini Mental State Evaluation (MMSE), Activities of Daily Living (ADL) and Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADL) scores, did not reveal differences among the three different classes of dementias. CONCLUSIONS: Vascular lesions are found in the majority of LOD cases and in about one half of EOD. This observation is consistent with the hypothesis of a synergistic effect of the degenerative and vascular factors on the development of cognitive dysfunction. The linear increase of the vascular burden supports the idea of a continuum spectrum between the pure degenerative and the pure vascular forms of adult-onset dementia disorder

Spatial and temporal expressions of prune reveal a role in Muller gliogenesis during Xenopus retinal development

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