1,063 research outputs found
An exploratory study on internet addiction, somatic symptoms and emotional and behavioral functioning in school-aged adolescents
Objective: In the last two decades there has been a significant transformation regarding the use of new technologies. Despite growing acknowledgement concerning the different activities and functions of digital technologies, there remains a lack of understanding on how technology overuse may negatively impact both physical and psychosocial well-being. Although researchers have begun to explore the meaning and implications of excessive Internet use in non-clinical populations of children and adolescents, there is still little consistent knowledge on the topic. This study aimed to extend existing knowledge on the excessive use of the Internet among school-aged adolescents, focusing on its association with recurrent somatic symptoms, depressive risk and behavioral and emotional problems. Method: Two hundred and forty adolescents (51.9% females) aged between 10 and 15, participated in this study. Data was collected using the Children’s Somatization Inventory, the Internet Addiction Test, the Children’s Depression Inventory, the Youth Self Report and the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire. Structural Equation Model analysis was used to analyse the data. Results: Approximately 21.8% of participants reported excessive Internet use based on Young’s criteria. Higher levels of Internet use were associated with somatic and depressive symptoms as well as emotional and behavioral problems. Depressive Symptoms predicted both Internet Addiction (b = 0.304, p < 0.001) and Internalizing (b = 0.542, p <0.001) and Externalizing problems (b = 0.484, p < 0.001). Internet Addiction also significantly predicted both Internalizing (b = 0.162, p = 0.02) and Externalizing problems (b = 0.183, p = 0.02). Finally, Structural Equation Modeling showed that the indirect effect of Depressive Symptoms (via Internet Addiction) on Internalizing or Externalizing problems were significant. Conclusions: Longitudinal studies are needed to confirm these findings and to identify the mechanisms linking Internet use, somatic symptoms and adaptive functioning
Don't judge a book by its cover. factitious disorder imposed on children-report on 2 cases
Factitious Disorder Imposed on Another (FDIA), also known as Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy (MSbP) is a very serious form of child abuse. The perpetrator, usually the mother, invents symptoms or causes real ones in order to make her child appear sick. Usually this is due to a maladaptive disorder or to an excessive of attention-seeking on her part. We report here two new cases of FDIA. The first one is a 9-year-old boy with a history of convulsive episodes, reduced verbal production, mild psychomotor disorder and urological problems who underwent several invasive procedures and hospitalizations before a diagnosis of FDIA was made. The second is a 12 year-old girl with headache, abdominal pain, lipothymic episodes, seizures and a gait impairment, who was hospitalized in several hospitals before an FDIA was diagnosed
Metacognition and headache: which Is the role in childhood and adolescence?
Headache, in particular migraine, is one of the most frequent neurological symptoms in
children and adolescents and it affects about 60% of children and adolescents all over
the world. Headache can affect several areas of child’s functioning, such as school,
physical activities, peer, and family relationship. The global and severe burden of this
disease requires a multidisciplinary strategy and an effective treatment addressed all
of the patient’s needs and based on cutting-edge scientific research. In recent years,
research has focused on cognitive factors specifically in functions called metacognitive
processes. Metacognition can be defined as the knowledge, beliefs, and cognitive
processes involved in monitoring, control, and assessment of cognition. Metacognition
seems to be closely related to the ability of theory of mind, the ability to infer, and reason
about the mental states of other people in order to predict and explain own behavior.
Recent studies found a relationship between metacognitive skills and anxiety, depression,
motivation, academic performance, human social interactions, and stress symptoms.
This relationship is very interesting for headache treatment, because these factors are
the most commonly reported triggers in this disorder and there is a high comorbidity
with anxiety and depression in children and adolescents with headache. So, headache
and these comorbidities, in particular anxiety and depression, may have in common
persistent and maladaptive patterns of thinking which are related to maladaptive metacognitive
beliefs. Further research should assess metacognitive processes of children
and adolescents with headache in order to increase their ability to control their own
cognitive processes and consequently monitor factors which may trigger the attacks
Headache and alexithymia in children and adolescents: what Is the connection?
Background: Headache is one of the most common complaints in children and adolescents and comorbidity rates are very high and the major associated diseases are depression, anxiety, atopic disorders, sleep, and behavioral disorders. In recent years, it has been highlighted that difficulties regulating emotions such as alexithymia have also been associated with diagnosis of somatization. Methods: We carried out a mini review analyzing the relation between alexithymia and primary headache (e.g., migraine and tension type headache) in children and adolescents by synthesizing the relevant studies in the literature on PubMed, PsycINFO, and Google Scholar. Search terms were "alexithymia" combined with the "primary headache," "migraine," "tension type headache," "children," and "adolescents." Results: All analyzed studies found higher levels of alexithymia in children and adolescents with headache than control groups but there are different opinions about the relationship between headache and alexithymia. For example, some studies suggest that the association between headache and alexithymia in children may be due to an incomplete development of emotive competency or a general immature cognitive development, instead other studies found a correlation between headache symptoms, insecure attachment, and alexithymia. There seems to be also differences between children with migraine compared to those with tension type headache (TTH). Conclusion: There are some studies on adults suffering from headache or migraine and alexithymia, but there is only a moderate amount of research on pediatric age with different opinions and theories about this relationship. Further studies on children and adolescents are necessary to effectively understand this relationship and to help children to reduce headache and improve emotional consciousness
Fuzzy Dark Matter candidates from string theory
String theory has been claimed to give rise to natural fuzzy dark matter candidates in the form of ultralight axions. In this paper we revisit this claim by a detailed study of how moduli stabilisation affects the masses and decay constants of different axion fields which arise in type IIB flux compactifications. We find that obtaining a considerable contribution to the observed dark matter abundance without tuning the axion initial misalignment angle is not a generic feature of 4D string models since it requires a mild violation of the Sf ≲ MP bound, where S is the instanton action and f the axion decay constant. Our analysis singles out C4-axions, C2-axions and thraxions as the best candidates to realise fuzzy dark matter in string theory. For all these ultralight axions we provide predictions which can be confronted with present and forthcoming observations
Effects of add-on ultramicronized n-palmitol ethanol amide in patients suffering of migraine with aura. a pilot study
Background: Palmitoyl ethanol amide (PEA) is an endogenously produced substance showing anti-nociceptive effect through both receptor and non-receptor mediated effects at the level of different cellular and tissue sites. This study showed the results of a single blind study that was conducted to evaluate both the safety and the efficacy of ultramicronized PEA (umPEA; 1,200 mg/day) for up 90 days in patients suffering of Migraine with Aura (MA) treated with NSAIDs. Methods: A total of 20 patients, 8 male (33-56-years, average 41.4 ± 7.8) and 12 female (19-61-years, average 38.5 ± 11.9) with MA were admitted to our observation and diagnosed according to ICHD-3 criteria, they received umPEA (1,200 mg/day) in combination with NSAIDs for up to 90 days. They were revaluated at 30, 60, and 90 days after treatment. Results: umPEA administration induced a statistically significant and time dependent pain relief. In particular, these effects were evident at 60 days (male P = 0.01189; female P = < 0.01) and they lasted until the end of the study (male P = 0.0066; female P = 0.01473). Conclusion: Although further studies are needed, our findings indicate that in patients suffering of MA treatment with umPEA had good efficacy and safety which candidate this compound as a therapeutic tool in pain migraine management
Nature, Source and Function of Pigments in Tardigrades: In Vivo Raman Imaging of Carotenoids in Echiniscus blumi
Tardigrades are microscopic aquatic animals with remarkable abilities to withstand harsh physical conditions such as
dehydration or exposure to harmful highly energetic radiation. The mechanisms responsible for such robustness are
presently little known, but protection against oxidative stresses is thought to play a role. Despite the fact that many
tardigrade species are variously pigmented, scarce information is available about this characteristic. By applying Raman
micro-spectroscopy on living specimens, pigments in the tardigrade Echiniscus blumi are identified as carotenoids, and their
distribution within the animal body is visualized. The dietary origin of these pigments is demonstrated, as well as their
presence in the eggs and in eye-spots of these animals, together with their absence in the outer layer of the animal (i.e.,
cuticle and epidermis). Using in-vivo semi-quantitative Raman micro-spectroscopy, a decrease in carotenoid content is
detected after inducing oxidative stress, demonstrating that this approach can be used for studying the role of carotenoids
in oxidative stress-related processes in tardigrades. This approach could be thus used in further investigations to test several
hypotheses concerning the function of these carotenoids in tardigrades as photo-protective pigments against ionizing
radiations or as antioxidants defending these organisms against the oxidative stress occurring during desiccation processes
Stress response of a boreo-alpine species of tardigrade, Borealibius zetlandicus (Eutardigrada, Hypsibiidae)
Invertebrates living in extreme environments as well as those living under unpredictable habitat conditions must be able to survive severe environmental stresses bound to their habitats. Tardigrades represent a good animal model to analyze responses evolved by organisms to overcome extreme environmental stresses or to colonize extreme environments because they respond to desiccation or freezing in their habitats by entering cryptobiosis. The responses to environmental stresses have been evaluated almost exclusively in terrestrial tardigrades, while very little is known about the ability of limnic species to tolerate those stresses. This study evaluates the responses of the limnic boreo-alpine species Borealibius zetlandicus, under lab conditions, to stresses imposed by desiccation and temperature variation (freezing and heating). Our results indicate that active specimens are able to freeze, confirming the cryobiotic ability of this species. There is a negative correlation between survival and cooling rates. In contrast, no specimens of B. zetlandicus are able to survive desiccation. With regard to thermal tolerance, the animals show a high ability to resist heat-shock (LT50 = 33.0 0.5°C) for a short time. This wide tolerance to different environmental parameters could be the reason for the wide distribution of the species. Due to the disjunct distribution of the species and to the presence of cryptic tardigrade species that could have different ecological and physiological responses, we decided to characterize the population studied from a molecular point of view by investigating its COI mtDNA sequences
Automated Knowledge Graph Completion for Natural Language Understanding: Known Paths and Future Directions
Knowledge Graphs (KGs) are large collections of structured data that can model real world knowledge and are important assets for the companies that employ them. KGs are usually constructed iteratively and often show a sparse structure. Also, as knowledge evolves, KGs must be updated and completed. Many automatic methods for KG Completion (KGC) have been proposed in the literature to reduce the costs associated with manual maintenance. Motivated by an industrial case study aiming to enrich a KG specifically designed for Natural Language Understanding tasks, this paper presents an overview of classical and modern deep learning completion methods. In particular, we delve into Large Language Models (LLMs), which are the most promising deep learning architectures. We show that their applications to KGC are affected by several shortcomings, namely they neglect the structure of KG and treat KGC as a classification problem. Such limitations, together with the brittleness of the LLMs themselves, stress the need to create KGC solutions at the interface between symbolic and neural approaches and lead to the way ahead for future research in intelligible corpus-based KGC
- …