Mapping therapy for sentence production impairments in nonfluent aphasia

This study investigated a new treatment in which sentence production abilities were trained in a small group of individuals and nonfluent aphasia. It was based upon a mapping therapy approach which holds that sentence production and comprehension impairments are due to difficulties in mapping between the meaning form (thematic roles) and the syntactic form of sentences. We trained production of both canonical and noncanonical reversible sentences.Three patients received treatment and two served as control participants. Patients who received treatment demonstrated acquisition of all trained sentence structures. They also demonstrated across-task generalisation of treated and some untreated sentence structures on two tasks of constrained sentence production, and showed some improvements on a narrative task. One control participant improved on some of these measures and the other did not. There was no noted improvement in sentence comprehension abilities following treatment. Results are discussed with reference to the heterogeneity of underlying impairments in sentence production impairments in nonfluent patients, and the possible mechanisms by which improvement in sentence production might have been achieved in treatment

The Effects of Heart Rate Variability, Measures of Impulsivity, and Activity Level in College Students

The objectives of this study were to assess the relationships of breathingassociated heart rate variability and measures of impulsivity using EKG-derived heart rate, the BaiTatt Impulsivity Scale (BIS-11), and the Conners’ Continuous Performance Test (CPT-II). To measure activity level as a proxy for fitness. activity monitors were worn by most participants and all participants completed the International Physical Activity Questiomiaire (IPAQ). Fifty-two college students (23 male and 29 female, ages 18-22) participated in the study. Auscultatory blood pressure, EKG-derived heart rate, and mean successive difference of interbeat intervals were collected during 2 ten-minute rest periods and during the CPT-II. Participants were then asked to wear an activity monitor for 24 hours. It was hypothesized that (1) the measures of impulsivity generated by the Barratt would be significantly correlated with CPT-II- derived impulsivity measures; (2) the self-report and activity measures of activity level would both accurately track an individual’s activity; (3) Heart rate variability during either rest or task periods would show significant relationships with impulsivity in males only. No significant correlations were found between the BIS-11 and the CPT-II, and no significant correlations were found between measures of the IPAQ and the activity monitor. A significant positive correlation was found between the number of commissions on the CPT-II and resting HRV, a result opposite from that predicted based upon previous studies. This was found for males only. No significant correlations were found for HRV measures and impulsivity for all participants combined or for females alone. These results suggest a complex relationship between HRV and impulsivity

Therapy outcome in two individuals with jargon aphasia and neologisms

Two individuals with jargon aphasia with similar clinical profiles received identical phonological therapy but responded differently to the therapy-P9 did not show any positive gains but FF showed improved naming. Analysis showed that FF and P9 had comparable performance in the semantic domain but P9 had poorer phonological skills. FF also showed a decrease in the number of neologisms and an increase in similarity with the target following therapy. Discussion will focus on the importance of exploring underlying linguistic processes before initiating therapy and the importance of analyzing both quality and quantity of errors to measure the impact of therapy

Eyewitness Recollection of Sport Coaches

The current study is based on the works of Franks and Miller (1986) Eyewitness Testimony in Sport which measured coaches' observational accuracy from one half of an international football match. Franks and Miller used novice Physical Education students, with no previous soccer experience, to recall events accurately in six categories of questions reflecting important aspects of an international soccer game. These results showed a relatively low recall ability and observational accuracy recorded by this group of 42%. The aim of the current study was to assess the ability of experienced, qualified, football coaches (with a minimum of 6 months experience after obtaining their qualification) to recollect accurately critical events during 45 minutes of a football match. Subjects were allowed to take notes whilst watching the match before answering the six category questionnaire at the end. The results of the current study show that the probability of qualified, experienced coaches recalling critical events accurately is 59.2% (SD±15.3). Coach observation accuracy and recall ability is 17.2% greater than novice coaches reported by Franks and Miller (1986). It can be concluded that qualified coaches, who have greater familiarity with the sport being observed, have greater recall accuracy

Eyewitness Recollection of Sport Coaches

The current study is based on the works of Franks and Miller (1986) Eyewitness Testimony in Sport which measured coaches' observational accuracy from one half of an international football match. Franks and Miller used novice Physical Education students, with no previous soccer experience, to recall events accurately in six categories of questions reflecting important aspects of an international soccer game. These results showed a relatively low recall ability and observational accuracy recorded by this group of 42%. The aim of the current study was to assess the ability of experienced, qualified, football coaches (with a minimum of 6 months experience after obtaining their qualification) to recollect accurately critical events during 45 minutes of a football match. Subjects were allowed to take notes whilst watching the match before answering the six category questionnaire at the end. The results of the current study show that the probability of qualified, experienced coaches recalling critical events accurately is 59.2% (SD±15.3). Coach observation accuracy and recall ability is 17.2% greater than novice coaches reported by Franks and Miller (1986). It can be concluded that qualified coaches, who have greater familiarity with the sport being observed, have greater recall accuracy

Design of a computerised treatment for short-term memory deficits in aphasia

The treatment of auditory-verbal short-term memory (STM) deficits in aphasia is a growing avenue of research (Martin & Reilly, 2012; Murray, 2012). STM treatment requires time precision, which is suited to computerised delivery. We have designed software, which provides STM treatment for aphasia. The treatment is based on matching listening span tasks (Howard & Franklin, 1990), aiming to improve the temporal maintenance of multi-word sequences (Salis, 2012). The person listens to pairs of word-lists that differ in word-order and decides if the pairs are the same or different. This approach does not require speech output and is suitable for persons with aphasia who have limited or no output. We describe the software and how its review from clinicians shaped its design

Artificial intelligence-based preventive, personalized and precision medicine for cardiovascular disease/stroke risk assessment in rheumatoid arthritis patients: a narrative review

The challenges associated with diagnosing and treating cardiovascular disease (CVD)/Stroke in Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) arise from the delayed onset of symptoms. Existing clinical risk scores are inadequate in predicting cardiac events, and conventional risk factors alone do not accurately classify many individuals at risk. Several CVD biomarkers consider the multiple pathways involved in the development of atherosclerosis, which is the primary cause of CVD/Stroke in RA. To enhance the accuracy of CVD/Stroke risk assessment in the RA framework, a proposed approach involves combining genomic-based biomarkers (GBBM) derived from plasma and/or serum samples with innovative non-invasive radiomic-based biomarkers (RBBM), such as measurements of synovial fluid, plaque area, and plaque burden. This review presents two hypotheses: (i) RBBM and GBBM biomarkers exhibit a significant correlation and can precisely detect the severity of CVD/Stroke in RA patients. (ii) Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based preventive, precision, and personalized (aiP3) CVD/Stroke risk AtheroEdge™ model (AtheroPoint™, CA, USA) that utilizes deep learning (DL) to accurately classify the risk of CVD/stroke in RA framework. The authors conducted a comprehensive search using the PRISMA technique, identifying 153 studies that assessed the features/biomarkers of RBBM and GBBM for CVD/Stroke. The study demonstrates how DL models can be integrated into the AtheroEdge™–aiP3 framework to determine the risk of CVD/Stroke in RA patients. The findings of this review suggest that the combination of RBBM with GBBM introduces a new dimension to the assessment of CVD/Stroke risk in the RA framework. Synovial fluid levels that are higher than normal lead to an increase in the plaque burden. Additionally, the review provides recommendations for novel, unbiased, and pruned DL algorithms that can predict CVD/Stroke risk within a RA framework that is preventive, precise, and personalized. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature