Development of social cognition: Pre-verbal infants perception of everyday social interaction An eye tracking study

Eye-tracking techniques were used to examine how 6, 9 and 12 month old typically developing infants perceive social interaction as a third party observer. The infants were presented with movies where two adult actors conversed about everyday events, in different conditions: With eye contact, with their eyes closed, or without eye contact. The two first conditions were also presented in a back-to-back manner. Gaze shifts between the two actors following the flow of the conversation were registered presumed to reflect the infants understanding of the communicative meaning of a social situation in the observed event. The different conditions were included to tentatively disentangle the relative importance of the constituents of the social interaction. There were no significant results between age groups, however, there were differences within age groups. Results demonstrated that 6 month old infants made more gaze shifts with the flow of the conversation when the actors were standing face-to-face with eye contact rather than back-to-back with their eyes open, which indicates the face-to-face effect demonstrated by Augusti, Melinder, and Gredebäck (2010). Furthermore, 9 month old infants made more gaze shifts between the actors in accordance with the conversation when they were standing face-to-face with eye contact rather than face-to-face with their eyes closed. This indicates sensitivity not only to body orientation, but also to the social information inherent in eye contact when observing others social interaction

Saccade Latency and Fixation Stability: Repeatability and Reliability

This study aimed to investigate the repeatability and reliability of saccadic latency and fixation stability as a function of sighting-dominance and contact lens wear. Eye movements were recorded in 12 healthy adults who performed a pro- saccade and a fixation task in four conditions; baseline, retest, non-sighting eye viewing and plano contact lens wear. The re-sults showed that saccadic latency and fixation stability (indexed via logBCEA) have good internal consistency, reliability and repeatability, which are not influenced by sighting- dominance or contact lens wear. For standard deviation of eye position, internal consistency was low to moderate. The results also indicated that the non-sighting eye is slightly less stable than the sighting eye and that wearing a contact lens decreases precision

Optically induced refractive errors reduces fixation stability but saccade latency remains stable

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of optically induced refractive errors on saccade latency and fixation stability.Sixteen healthy, young adults (two males), with normal visual acuity and normal accommodation, performed a saccade task and a fixation task wearing a range of contact lenses (from +3.00 to -5.00 diopters) which induced visual blur and accommodation. The results showed that mean (± standard error) saccade latency was 207 (± 5) milliseconds (ms) and remained stable with both visual blur and accommodation, whereas mean (± standard error) fixation stability was logBCEA 2.48 (± 0.03) (arcmin²) and declined by about 0.09 logBCEA with both visual blur and accommodation.  In healthy adults with normal vision, results indicate that recording of saccade latency can be completed accurately regardless of the moderate refractive errors induced in this study. Fixation stability, on the other hand, degrades slightly with blur and with accommodation

Plasmodium falciparum ligand binding to erythrocytes induce alterations in deformability essential for invasion

The most lethal form of malaria in humans is caused by Plasmodium falciparum. These parasites invade erythrocytes, a complex process involving multiple ligand-receptor interactions. The parasite makes initial contact with the erythrocyte followed by dramatic deformations linked to the function of the Erythrocyte binding antigen family and P. falciparum reticulocyte binding-like families. We show EBA-175 mediates substantial changes in the deformability of erythrocytes by binding to glycophorin A and activating a phosphorylation cascade that includes erythrocyte cytoskeletal proteins resulting in changes in the viscoelastic properties of the host cell. TRPM7 kinase inhibitors FTY720 and waixenicin A block the changes in the deformability of erythrocytes and inhibit merozoite invasion by directly inhibiting the phosphorylation cascade. Therefore, binding of P. falciparum parasites to the erythrocyte directly activate a signaling pathway through a phosphorylation cascade and this alters the viscoelastic properties of the host membrane conditioning it for successful invasion

An intervention designed to improve sensory impairments in the elderly and indoor lighting in their homes: an exploratory randomized controlled trial

Background: Vision and hearing impairments in the elderly (aged over 80 years) and poor indoor lighting conditions in a home-care setting are risk factors for functional decline, reduced social participation, withdrawal, and accidents. Objective: We aimed to evaluate the changes in vision, hearing, and lighting conditions in the homes of participants aged over 80 years after implementation of a clinical intervention. Methods: We undertook an exploratory randomized, controlled experimental study of sensory impairments and lighting conditions in the homes of elderly aged over 80 years who received home care. The intervention group (IG) received advice and encouragement to improve their vision, hearing, and indoor lighting conditions in the home, with a 10-week follow-up period. The control group (CG) received their usual care and underwent the same vision and hearing tests but were provided no intervention. Results: Vision and hearing (self-assessed) and tested by Wilcoxon rank-sum test were significantly better (P=0.025 and P=0.008, respectively) in the IG after the intervention and follow-up. The test between the groups showed a significance of P=0.026 for visual acuity and P=0.098 for pure-tone average. The maximum and minimum lighting levels were significantly improved in the IG after the intervention (P=0.002 and P=0.039, respectively) but were unchanged in the CG. Conclusion: Several of the IG participants did not follow all of the advice; however, among those who did, vision, hearing, and lighting conditions were all significantly improved. It appears that modest interventions have great potential for improving vision and hearing. Older patients in the home-care setting cannot be expected to take the necessary action to improve their sensory impairments by themselves. They require close monitoring, help from a specialist, and help to improve the indoor lighting conditions in their homes

Green exercise as a workplace intervention to reduce job stress: results from a pilot study

Stress and mental fatigue are major health threats to employees in office-based occupations. Physical activity is widely used as a stress-management intervention for employees. Moreover, experiences in contact with nature have been shown to provide stress-reduction and restoration from mental fatigue. OBJECTIVES:In a pilot study designed as a randomized controlled trial we investigated the impact of a green-exercise intervention on psychological and physiological indicators of stress in municipality employees. METHODS:Fourteen employees (7 females and 7 males, 49±8 yrs) volunteered in an exercise-based intervention in workplace either outdoors in a green/nature area or in an indoor exercise-setting. The intervention consisted of an information meeting and two exercise sessions, each including a biking bout and a circuit-strength sequence using elastic rubber bands (45-minutes, at about 55% of HR reserve, overall). Main outcomes were perceived environmental potential for restoration, affective state, blood pressure (BP) and cortisol awakening response (CAR AUCG and CAR AUCI) and cortisol levels in serum. Measurements were taken at baseline and in concomitance with the exercise sessions. Furthermore, affective state and self-reported physical activity levels were measured over a 10-weeks follow-up period. RESULTS:Compared with the indoor group, the nature group reported higher environmental potential for restoration (p <  0.001) and Positive Affect (p <  0.01), along with improved CAR AUCI (p = 0.04) and, marginally, diastolic BP (p = 0.05). The nature group also reported higher ratings of Positive Affect at follow-up (p = 0.02). Differences at post-exercise were not found for any of the other components of affective state, systolic BP, CAR AUCG and cortisol levels measured in serum. CONCLUSIONS:Green-exercise at the workplace could be a profitable way to manage stress and induce restoration among employees. Further studies on larger samples are needed in order to improve the generalizability of the results

Fatal Accidents in Outdoor Recreation and Nature-Based Tourism in Norway: A Discourse Analysis

The purpose of this research is to investigate how the Norwegian outdoor-safety discourse develop between 2005 – 2015. Second, I examine the creation of meaning and understanding about risk and safety in the outdoors. The research affirms that important elements of opinion formation are discursively negotiated. The main line in the negotiations revolves around how to relate to ‘the mountain common sense line’, based on the code of conduct of ‘touring at your own risk’. The legal discourse, the energy industry safety discourse and the professional struggle draw towards less individual responsibility for own safety, and more towards institutional responsibility for people’s safety, more public regulation and more physical facilitations to reduce risk. On the other hand, lax regulatory legislation, the administrative apparatus, ‘the layman tradition’ and the friluftsliv discourse draws on individual responsibility for one’s own safety, limited institutional responsibility and public regulation, and moderate physical facilitations aimed at keeping people safe.acceptedVersio

Tour planning for trips on lakes and waterways

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Lessons learnt from a feasibility study on price incentivised healthy eating promotions in workplace catering establishments

Background It is recognised that the worksite catering sector is likely to play a pivotal role in influencing dietary intake in adults of working age. The present study aimed to assess the feasibility of engaging worksites in a healthy eating intervention, implementing a price incentivised main meal intervention and measuring indicative intervention responses to inform the design of a future trial. Methods Workplaces registered with the Scottish Healthy Living Award were invited to participate. The EatSMART intervention (a reduced price, healthy meal combination plus promotions) was implemented over 10 weeks in two worksites. Implementation was assessed by observational and sales data. Indicative effects on food habits were measured using online pre- and post-intervention questionnaires. Focus group discussions and interviews were used to determine catering staff and consumer acceptability. Results Thirty-seven worksites were invited to participate and four worksites responded positively. Two sites (with 1600 and 500 employees, respectively) participated. Both required significant implementation support. Estimated sales data indicated that the uptake of promoted items varied by week (range 60–187 items) and by site. A poor response rate from questionnaires limited the evaluation of intervention impact. Consumers reported improved value for money and quality. Both sites reported an intention to continue the intervention delivery. Conclusions Significant efforts are required to engage worksite catering teams and implement healthy eating interventions. Evaluation methods require further development to improve data collection. Responses from consumers and catering staff suggest that further work in this area would be welcomed