The Digital Flynn Effect: Complexity of Posts on Social Media Increases over Time

Parents and teachers often express concern about the extensive use of social media by youngsters. Some of them see emoticons, undecipherable initialisms and loose grammar typical for social media as evidence of language degradation. In this paper, we use a simple measure of text complexity to investigate how the complexity of public posts on a popular social networking site changes over time. We analyze a unique dataset that contains texts posted by 942, 336 users from a large European city across nine years. We show that the chosen complexity measure is correlated with the academic performance of users: users from high-performing schools produce more complex texts than users from low-performing schools. We also find that complexity of posts increases with age. Finally, we demonstrate that overall language complexity of posts on the social networking site is constantly increasing. We call this phenomenon the digital Flynn effect. Our results may suggest that the worries about language degradation are not warranted

Recurrent schizophrenia-like psychosis as first manifestation of epilepsy: a diagnostic challenge in neuropsychiatry

Since the 1950s, several studies have been carried out to investigate the occurrence of schizophrenia-like psychoses in epilepsy. The psychopathological profile comprises symptoms from the affective, schizophrenic, and cognitive domains and the prevalence varies between 2% to 20%. Classification of such conditions is performed according to their temporal relationship with the seizure itself. Although it is well known that epilepsy may be associated with psychotic disorders, it is less widely recognized that relapsing psychotic phenomena may be the first and only symptom of epilepsy. In this research, two patients are described who were initially referred for recurrent episodes of bipolar affective disorder and schizophrenic psychosis, respectively. In both patients, a diagnosis of relapsing postictal psychotic states due to previously undiagnosed epilepsy was made and consequently, treatment with antiepileptics was started. During follow up over several months, they remained free of both epileptic and psychotic symptoms. Given the kaleidoscopic nature of the postictal psychosis and full recovery from this, such psychoses best meet the criteria for a cycloid psychosis. These observations illustrate diagnostic and therapeutic pitfalls due to the conceptual disintegration emerging from the inadequate separation between psychiatry and neurology. Therefore, the importance of a neuropsychiatric viewpoint should be promoted

Binding of smoothelin-like 1 to tropomyosin and calmodulin is mutually exclusive and regulated by phosphorylation

BACKGROUND: The smoothelin-like 1 protein (SMTNL1) can associate with tropomyosin (Tpm) and calmodulin (CaM), two proteins essential to the smooth muscle contractile process. SMTNL1 is phosphorylated at Ser301 by protein kinase A during calcium desensitization in smooth muscle, yet the effect of SMTNL1 phosphorylation on Tpm- and CaM-binding has yet to be investigated. RESULTS: Using pull down studies with Tpm-Sepharose and CaM-Sepharose, we examined the interplay between Tpm binding, CaM binding, phosphorylation of SMTNL1 and calcium concentration. Phosphorylation greatly enhanced the ability of SMTNL1 to associate with Tpm in vitro; surface plasmon resonance yielded a 10-fold enhancement in K (D) value with phosphorylation. The effect on CaM binding is more complex and varies with the availability of calcium. CONCLUSIONS: Combining both CaM and Tpm with SMTNL1 shows that the binding to both is mutually exclusive. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12858-017-0080-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

PCA of waveforms and functional PCA: A primer for biomechanics.

Principal components analysis (PCA) of waveforms and functional PCA (fPCA) are statistical approaches used to explore patterns of variability in biomechanical curve data, with fPCA being an accepted statistical method grounded within the functional data analysis (FDA) statistical framework. This technical note demonstrates that PCA of waveforms is the most rudimentary form of FDA, and consequently can be rationalised within the FDA framework of statistical processes. Mathematical proofing applied demonstrations of both techniques, and an example of when fPCA may be of greater benefit to control over smoothing of functional principal components is provided using an open access motion sickness dataset. Finally, open access software is provided with this paper as means of priming the biomechanics community for using these methods as a part of future functional data explorations

Comparative Network Analysis of Preterm vs. Full-Term Infant-Mother Interactions

Several studies have reported that interactions of mothers with preterm infants show differential characteristics compared to that of mothers with full-term infants. Interaction of preterm dyads is often reported as less harmonious. However, observations and explanations concerning the underlying mechanisms are inconsistent. In this work 30 preterm and 42 full-term mother-infant dyads were observed at one year of age. Free play interactions were videotaped and coded using a micro-analytic coding system. The video records were coded at one second resolution and studied by a novel approach using network analysis tools. The advantage of our approach is that it reveals the patterns of behavioral transitions in the interactions. We found that the most frequent behavioral transitions are the same in the two groups. However, we have identified several high and lower frequency transitions which occur significantly more often in the preterm or full-term group. Our analysis also suggests that the variability of behavioral transitions is significantly higher in the preterm group. This higher variability is mostly resulted from the diversity of transitions involving non-harmonious behaviors. We have identified a maladaptive pattern in the maternal behavior in the preterm group, involving intrusiveness and disengagement. Application of the approach reported in this paper to longitudinal data could elucidate whether these maladaptive maternal behavioral changes place the infant at risk for later emotional, cognitive and behavioral disturbance

Interventricular septum hematoma during cineventriculography

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Intraseptal hematoma and subsequent myocardial infarction due to accidental contrast agent deposition complicating diagnostic cineventriculography is a previously undescribed complication of angiography.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>A 61 year old man was admitted at intensive care unit because of unstable angina pectoris 1 hour after coronary angiography. Transthoracic contrast echocardiography showed a non-perfused area in the middle of interventricular septum with an increase of thickening up to 26 mm. Review of cineventriculography revealed contrast enhancement in the interventricular septum after contrast medium injection and a dislocation of the pigtail catheter tip. Follow up by echocardiography and MRI showed, that intramural hematoma has resolved after 6 weeks. After 8 weeks successful stent implantation in LAD was performed and after 6 month the patient had a normal LV-function without ischemic signs or septal thickening demonstrated by stressechocardiography.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>A safe and mobile position of the pigtail catheter during ventriculography in the middle of the LV cavity should be ensured to avoid this potentially life-threatening complication. For assessment and absolute measurement of intramural hematoma contrast-enhanced echocardiography is more feasible than MRI and makes interchangeable results.</p

Specificity determinants for Cry insecticidal proteins: insights from their mode of action

Insecticidal proteins from the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) are used as active components of biopesticides and as plant incorporated protectants in transgenic crops. One of the most relevant attributes of these Bt protein-based insecticidal technologies is their high specificity, which assures lack of detrimental effects on non-target insects, vertebrates and the environment. The identification of specificity determinants in Bt insecticidal proteins could guide risk assessment for novel insecticidal proteins currently considered for commercialization. In this work we review the available data on specificity determinants of crystal (Cry) insecticidal proteins as the Bt toxins most well characterized and used in transgenic crops. The multi step mode of action of the Cry insecticidal proteins allows various factors to potentially affect specificity determination and here we define seven levels that could influence specificity. The relative relevance of each of these determinants on efficacy of transgenic crops producing Cry insecticidal proteins is also discussed