Task Switching in English-Chinese Bilinguals: A Life Span Approach

The current study investigated the developmental trajectory of 124 English-Chinese Singaporean bilinguals (41 6-9-year-olds, 44 18-26-year-olds, and 39 55-79-year-olds) with the Standard (SD), Total Change (TC), Positive Priming (PP), and Negative Priming (NP) versions of the Computerized Dimensional Change Card Sort task. Tasks were administrated in either English or Chinese. Additionally, participants were tested with both English and Chinese versions of the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test. Separate curve fitting indicated that significant quadratic trends appeared in the local switch costs for accuracy only in the SD and the PP versions. Children had significantly larger local switch costs in all the versions compared to young adults and elderly adults, who had similar local switch costs. These findings suggest that bilingualism may slow down the decay of information maintaining, updating, disinhibition, and task set integration in elderly adults. Results imply that bilingual advantage may accumulate through childhood, and be preserved in late adulthood

Structural cerebellar correlates of cognitive functions in spinocerebellar ataxia type 2

Spinocerebellar ataxia type 2 (SCA2) is an autosomal dominant neurodegenerative disease involving the cerebellum and characterized by a typical motor syndrome. In addition, the presence of cognitive impairment is now widely acknowledged as a feature of SCA2. Given the extensive connections between the cerebellum and associative cerebral areas, it is reasonable to hypothesize that cerebellar neurodegeneration associated with SCA2 may impact on the cerebellar modulation of the cerebral cortex, thus resulting in functional impairment. The aim of the present study was to investigate and quantitatively map the pattern of cerebellar gray matter (GM) atrophy due to SCA2 neurodegeneration and to correlate that with patients' cognitive performances. Cerebellar GM maps were extracted and compared between SCA2 patients (n = 9) and controls (n = 33) by using voxel-based morphometry. Furthermore, the relationship between cerebellar GM atrophy and neuropsychological scores of the patients was assessed. Specific cerebellar GM regions were found to be affected in patients. Additionally, GM loss in cognitive posterior lobules (VI, Crus I, Crus II, VIIB, IX) correlated with visuospatial, verbal memory and executive tasks, while additional correlations with motor anterior (V) and posterior (VIIIA, VIIIB) lobules were found for the tasks engaging motor and planning components. Our results provide evidence that the SCA2 neurodegenerative process affects the cerebellar cortex and that MRI indices of atrophy in different cerebellar subregions may account for the specificity of cognitive symptomatology observed in patients, as result of a cerebello-cerebral dysregulation

The comfort woman statue: Analysis of heritagization, dissonance and historical conflict between the Philippines and Japan

The Philippine Comfort Woman statue failed to complete its heritagization process when the Philippine Department of Works and Highways (DPWH) removed the statue in 2018 and when the artist refused to give it back to the organizers on the day, it was to be reinstalled on the Redemptorist Baclaran Church. While the Philippine Government intervened in installing a Filipino Comfort Woman statue as it hinges on Philippine-Japan foreign relations, which may entail economic repercussions. The Filipino Comfort Women and the organizers, on the other hand, raised their ire and dissent over the statue’s removal and withdrawal. As a result, contesting narratives between the Philippine Government and Filipino Comfort Women and its supporters burgeoned, thereby making the Filipino Comfort Woman statue part of dissonant heritage. Using the theory of dissonant heritage and the underpinnings of the heritagization process, this research investigate the factors that contributed to failure of Filipino Comfort Women to achieve full-scale heritagization. Overall, this research argues that the Filipino Comfort Woman statue failed its heritagization process because the Filipino Comfort Woman statue became a conflicted heritage material. Keywords: Philippine Comfort Woman Statue, Filipino Comfort Women, Filipino Comfort Women Civil Organizations and Supporters, Dissonant Heritage, Heritagization, Collective Memorie

An examination of the cerebellum and its involvement in higher cognitive processes

The presence of cerebellar activity in a wide range of cognitive functions examined within an increasing body of neuroimaging literature has consistently been observed. The present thesis sought to clarify the role of the cerebellum in higher cognitive functions through two studies. In Study 1, a meta-analytic approach, which employed the activation likelihood estimate method, was applied to a collection of 88 neuroimaging studies demonstrating cerebellar activations in higher cognitive domains involving emotion, executive function, language, music, timing, and working memory. The results provide a consolidation of information on cerebellar involvement accumulated in different cognitive tasks of interest and systematically identified similarities among the studies. In addition, inter- and intra-domain comparisons for the cognitive domains of emotion, language, and working memory were conducted. Task differences within the domain of verbal working memory were also examined by a comparison of the Sternberg with the n-back task, and an analysis of the differential components within the Sternberg task. Study 2 was motivated by an increasing body of neuroimaging evidence pointing to the involvement of the cerebellum and several key regions in an aspect of executive control, inhibition. Given the roles of these brain regions have remained relatively unclear, the study employed dynamic causal modeling (DCM) in order to understand the roles each region play as part of an extensive neuro-network. In particular, dynamic causal modeling (DCM) was used to understand the neural network that supports the inhibition sub-process in executive function. The left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and insula were found to be involved in the inhibitory process while the right IFG, caudate, and Crus 1 are involved in the facilitative process of the Stroop task.Master of Arts (HSS

Empowerment issues in Japan’s care industry: Narratives of Filipino nurses and care workers under the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) labour scheme

Japan has been accepting foreign nurses and care workers through an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam. For more than ten years of its implementation, the EPA framework with the Philippines has confronted tremendous political hurdles from conservative politicians, groups and non-state agents which oppose the free trans-border flow of health workers. The lack of holistic state support has affected the implementation of the labour scheme under the Philippine-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (PJEPA). In fact, majority of the nurses and care workers have failed the Japanese licensure examination, and an alarming percentage has decided to return to the Philippines after several years of training. Such trends indicate the failure of PJEPA to achieve a sustainable and mutually benefiting migration project. It is therefore imperative to examine the causes of this failure from the viewpoint of nursing and care delivery discourses. This paper contributes to the emerging literature that investigate EPAs and labour migration, with particular focus on the labour conditions and migrant decisions of individual care providers. Rethinking the concept of empowerment, we argue that the migration management regime, manifested in state’s healthcare policies and governance mechanism has been lacking meaningful support and guidance to the healthcare facilities, which translates to workers’ structural disempowerment. Nurses and care workers contest their dignity of labour, negotiate their experiences of deskilling, and seek strategies to survive the system. Disempowerment clearly impacts on individual migrant decisions, challenging established mechanisms and threatening the entire migration system to fail. © Penerbit Universiti Sains Malaysia, 2020

Uso de antimicrobianos locais como coadjuvantes à terapia periodontal - Revisão de literatura.

Uso de antimicrobianos locais como coadjuvantes à terapia periodontal - Revisão de literatura