The Influence of Simulated Drowning Audits on Lifeguard Surveillance and Swimmer Risk-Taking at Public Swimming Pools

An alarming number of injuries and drowning events occur at lifeguarded swimming pools. One strategy used in the aquatics industry to improve swimming safety is simulated drowning lifeguard audits. During audits, supervisors arrive unannounced and ask on-duty lifeguard(s) to rescue a dummy. This study tested whether audits effectively improve lifeguard surveillance and reduce swimmer risk-taking behaviors. A pre-post design examined lifeguard surveillance and swimmer risk-taking prior to, 3 days after, and a month after conducting unannounced lifeguard audits at 14 public swimming pools. Lifeguard surveillance and swimmer risk-taking were assessed via behavioral observation. Following the audits, lifeguards were less distracted and swimmers took fewer risks. Simulated drowning lifeguard audits appear to offer a useful strategy to improve lifeguard surveillance and decrease swimmer risk-taking at public swimming pools

Linear Spatial–Numeric Associations Aid Memory for Single Numbers

Memory for numbers improves with age. One source of this improvement may be learning linear spatial–numeric associations, but previous evidence for this hypothesis likely confounded memory span with quality of numerical magnitude representations and failed to distinguish spatial–numeric mappings from other numeric abilities, such as counting or number word-cardinality mapping. To obviate the influence of memory span on numerical memory, we examined 39 3- to 5-year-olds’ ability to recall one spontaneously produced number (1–20) after a delay, and the relation between numeric recall (controlling for non-numeric recall) and quality of mapping between symbolic and non-symbolic quantities using number-line estimation, give-a-number estimation, and counting tasks. Consistent with previous reports, mapping of numerals to space, to discrete quantities, and to numbers in memory displayed a logarithmic-to-linear shift. Also, linearity of spatial–numeric mapping correlated strongly with multiple measures of numeric recall (percent correct and percent absolute error), even when controlling for age and non-numeric memory. Results suggest that linear spatial–numeric mappings may aid memory for number over and above children’s other numeric skills

Quantitative EEG patterns following unilateral stroke: A study in chronic stage

The aim of this study was to investigate the EEG power spectra obtained during rest and mental processing in chronic stroke patients. Seventeen patients with stabilized unilateral cerebral ischemia, grouped according to the side of lesion, underwent quantitative EEG recordings during rest and attentive/cognitive tasks. EEG spectral values were compared with those of 11 healthy subjects. Patients displayed different EEG patterns from controls, under rest condition: patients with left hemispheric lesion were characterized by a preserved alpha and beta band "reactivity," with a lack of significant changes in slow band components. In patients with right hemisphere lesion, no significant changes of the slow and fast band activities were evident during each task These findings indicate that different EEG patterns of activation characterize stroke patients with left and right hemispheric damage

Grotta della Lea (Nardò, Lecce)

La Grotta della Lea (scoperta nella seconda metà del secolo scorso dal Gruppo Speleologico Neretino - GSN) si trova nella pineta del Parco di Porto Selvaggio, all’interno dell’attuale agro del comune di Nardò (Lecce), in un’area che ha già restituito notevoli testimonianze che vanno dal Paleolitico all’età dei metalli (per una sintesi dei dati noti dall’area si veda Valchera et al. 2011)

Lower instantaneous entropy of heartbeat dynamics during seizures in untreated temporal lobe epilepsy

Temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) is associated with dysfunction of the autonomic nervous system. While it is known that heart rate variability (HRV) changes in epilepsy comprise both ictal (CRI) and interictal (INT) autonomic cardiac effects, the mechanisms leading to these alterations are not well understood. In this paper we investigate the alterations in instantaneous autonomic complexity during CRI in untreated TLE using bipolar ECG recordings from 10 patients with at least one seizure originating from temporal regions as recorded by video-EEG monitoring. We isolated artifact-free INT and CRI periods and computed mean values of instantaneous point-process Approximate and Sample Entropy (ipApEn and ipSampEn, respectively). ipApEn was significantly lower (p<0.02) and ipSampEn was lower (p<0.065) in CRI vs. INT. The variability (median absolute deviation) of ipApEn was also significantly lower (p<0.03) in CRI vs INT. Our results suggest that ictal events in untreated TLE are associated with a decrease in heartbeat complexity and its variability, possibly pointing toward subtle autonomic changes which may accompany or precede seizures, and can only be detected using an instantaneous, time resolved approach to quantifying autonomic complexity