Sexual Health in Spanish People with Intellectual Disability: the Impact of the Lockdown due to COVID-19

Introduction: The lockdown due to COVID-19 affected the sexual health of the people with intellectual disabilities by differentially modifying the frequency and characteristics of people's sexual activity depending on whether or not they lived with a partner during this period. The aim of this study was to analyze the extent to which the sexual behavior of people with intellectual disabilities (with and without a partner) was affected during the lockdown. Methods: The sample consisted of 73 people with intellectual disabilities between 21 and 63 years old (M = 39.63; SD = 10.11). The variables analyzed were the physical, social, and technological environment during the lockdown, sexual appetite, sexual behavior, online sexual activity, and sexual abuse. The data were collected between the months of May and June of 2020. Results: The lockdown increased the sexual appetite of a third of the sample (38%), especially the youngest participants. Sexual activity focused on autoeroticism and online behavior, particularly sending nude images of oneself (88%) and viewing pornography (83.6%). Rates of sexual abuse during this period were relatively high (6.8%). Conclusions: The sexual activity of people with ID was important during the lockdown, and they had to adapt to the circumstances of isolation in a similar way to the general population. Technological improvements in terms of devices and connection quality at home allowed their sexual behavior to be reoriented, opening the door to new risks for the sexual health of people with ID. Policy implications: Cybersex and the increase in sexual abuse due to confinement are aspects that should be included in programs to improve the sexual health of this group

The topology of a discussion: the #occupy case

We analyse a large sample of the Twitter activity developed around the social movement 'Occupy Wall Street' to study the complex interactions between the human communication activity and the semantic content of a discussion. We use a network approach based on the analysis of the bipartite graph @Users-#Hashtags and of its projections: the 'semantic network', whose nodes are hashtags, and the 'users interest network', whose nodes are users In the first instance, we find out that discussion topics (#hashtags) present a high heterogeneity, with the distinct role of the communication hubs where most the 'opinion traffic' passes through. In the second case, the self-organization process of users activity leads to the emergence of two classes of communicators: the 'professionals' and the 'amateurs'. Moreover the network presents a strong community structure, based on the differentiation of the semantic topics, and a high level of structural robustness when a certain set of topics are censored and/or accounts are removed. Analysing the characteristics the @Users-#Hashtags network we can distinguish three phases of the discussion about the movement. Each phase corresponds to specific moment of the movement: from declaration of intent, organisation and development and the final phase of political reactions. Each phase is characterised by the presence of specific #hashtags in the discussion. Keywords: Twitter, Network analysisComment: 13 pages, 9 figure

Cross-Modal Plasticity in Cuban Visually-Impaired Child Cochlear Implant Candidates: Topography of Somatosensory Evoked Potentials

ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION Studies of neuroplasticity have shown that the brain's neural networks change in the absence of sensory input such as hearing or vision. However, little is known about what happens when both sensory modalities are lost (deaf-blindness). Hence, this study of cortical reorganization in visually-impaired child cochlear implant (CI) candidates

Imagen Corporal y Obesidad mediante las Siluetas de Stunkard en Niños y Adolescentes Indios de 8 a 15 Años

The present study focused on the study of body image and overweightand obesityin Indian children and adolescents. This investigation involved 395 participants (212 males and 183 females) from Karbi Anglong, Assam,aged between 8 and 15 years (12.16 ± 2.01). The instrument used was Stunkard’s et al. silhouettes. 37.3% men and 22.4% women were classified as overweight/obese (!"#=13.033; p=.001; d=0.63). Regarding body image, 82.3% were dissatisfied with their body, highlighting those who would like to be larger (men 62.7% and women 49.7%). Therefore, the problem of body dissatisfaction had a higher prevalence than the physiological problem of obesity. It is recommended to implement physical activity programs to improve body image and body composition of children and adolescents in Assam.Este artículo se centra en estudiar la imagen corporal y la sobrecarga ponderal (sobrepeso y obesidad) en niños y adolescente de India. La muestra estuvo compuesta por 395 participantes de 8-15 años de Karbi Anglong, Assam (212 de sexo masculino y 183 de sexo femenino). El instrumento utilizado fue el de las siluetas de Stunkard. El 37.3% de hombres y el 22,4% de mujeres fueron clasificados en la categoría de sobrepeso/obesidad (  =13,033; p=,001; d=0,63). Respecto a la imagen corporal, el 82,3% presentó insatisfacción con su cuerpo, destacando aquellos a los que les gustaría ser más grandes (hombres 62,7% y mujeres 49,7%). Por tanto, el problema psicológico de la insatisfacción corporal tuvo una mayor prevalencia que el problema fisiológico de la obesidad. Se recomienda implementar programas de actividad física para mejorar la imagen corporal y la composición corporal de los niños y adolescentes de Assam

Stress and suicide risk among adolescents: the role of problematic internet use, gaming disorder and emotional regulation

Background: Previous studies have associated videogame playing and social media use with suicidal behaviors together with lower stress coping or poor emotion regulation strategies. Due to the inconclusive evidence regarding the factors associated with suicidal behavior, the present study aimed to overcome the limitations of previous research and explored the relationship between adolescent stress, problematic internet use (PIU), gaming disorder (GD), and emotional regulation (ER) in a cross-section design. It was hypothesized that stress would have a direct effect on suicide risk (SR) as well as being mediated by PIU, GD, and ER. Methods: The participants comprised 430 adolescents (58.4% male) aged between 16 and 19 years. They completed an online survey including the Mobile-Related Experiences Questionnaire, Internet Gaming Disorder Scale-Short Form, Meta-Mood Trait Repair Scale, and Spanish version of the Suicidal Behaviors Questionnaire. Results: A total of 34.2% of the adolescents (N = 147) were at risk for SR. Results also indicated that 30,7% had experienced suicidal ideation at some point in their life, 12.1% had at least one plan to die by suicide, and 5.1% had attempted suicide. Results of path analysis confirmed that stress appeared to be a risk factor for suicide, but that its effects were not mediated by PIU. However, ER and GD mediated the effect of stress on SR. The results suggest that stress is a main risk factor for suicide, especially among adolescents with poor emotional regulation or problematic gaming. Conclusions: Considering the prevalence of suicide among adolescents, the results of the present study suggest that suicide prevention programs should include emotional regulation strategies, stress coping, and videogaming management skills in the early stages of high school. Providing these protective resources to adolescents will help them face the stressful and changing situations typical of adolescence and will help them to attain greater well-being and satisfaction with life

How does cognitive load influence speech perception? : An encoding hypothesis

Two experiments investigated the conditions under which cognitive load exerts an effect on speech perception. These experiments extend earlier research by using a different speech perception task (four-interval oddity task) and by implementing cognitive load through a task often thought to be modular, namely, face processing. In the cognitive-load conditions, participants were required to remember two faces presented before the speech stimuli. In Experiment 1, performance in the speech-perception task under cognitive load was not impaired in comparison to a no-load baseline condition. In Experiment 2, we modified the load condition minimally such that it required encoding of the two faces simultaneously with the speech stimuli. As a reference condition, we also used a visual search task that in earlier experiments had led to poorer speech perception. Both concurrent tasks led to decrements in the speech task. The results suggest that speech perception is affected even by loads thought to be processed modularly, and that, critically, encoding in working memory might be the locus of interference

A Search for MeV to TeV Neutrinos from Fast Radio Bursts with IceCube

We present two searches for IceCube neutrino events coincident with 28 fast radio bursts (FRBs) and 1 repeating FRB. The first improves on a previous IceCube analysis - searching for spatial and temporal correlation of events with FRBs at energies greater than roughly 50 GeV - by increasing the effective area by an order of magnitude. The second is a search for temporal correlation of MeV neutrino events with FRBs. No significant correlation is found in either search; therefore, we set upper limits on the time-integrated neutrino flux emitted by FRBs for a range of emission timescales less than one day. These are the first limits on FRB neutrino emission at the MeV scale, and the limits set at higher energies are an order-of-magnitude improvement over those set by any neutrino telescope

Search for sources of astrophysical neutrinos using seven years of icecube cascade events

Low-background searches for astrophysical neutrino sources anywhere in the sky can be performed using cascade events induced by neutrinos of all flavors interacting in IceCube with energies as low as ∼1 TeV. Previously we showed that, even with just two years of data, the resulting sensitivity to sources in the southern sky is competitive with IceCube and ANTARES analyses using muon tracks induced by charge current muon neutrino interactions - especially if the neutrino emission follows a soft energy spectrum or originates from an extended angular region. Here, we extend that work by adding five more years of data, significantly improving the cascade angular resolution, and including tests for point-like or diffuse Galactic emission to which this data set is particularly well suited. For many of the signal candidates considered, this analysis is the most sensitive of any experiment to date. No significant clustering was observed, and thus many of the resulting constraints are the most stringent to date. In this paper we will describe the improvements introduced in this analysis and discuss our results in the context of other recent work in neutrino astronomy

Flame spheroidisation of dense and porous Ca2Fe2O5 microspheres

Compositionally uniform magnetic Ca2Fe2O5 (srebrodolskite) microspheres created via a rapid, single-stage flame spheroidisation (FS) process using magnetite and carbonate based porogen (1:1 Fe3O4:CaCO3) feedstock powders, are described. Two types of Ca2Fe2O5 microsphere are produced: dense (35 - 80 µm), and porous (125 - 180 µm). Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) based techniques are used to image and quantify these. Complementary high-temperature X-ray diffraction (HT-XRD) measurements and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) provide insights into the initial process of porogen feedstock decomposition, prior to the coalescence of molten droplets and spheroidisation, driven by surface tension. Evolution of CO2 gas (from porogen decomposition) is attributed to the development of interconnected porosity within the porous microspheres. This occurs during Ca2Fe2O5 rapid cooling and solidification. The facile FS-processing route provides a method for the rapid production of both dense and porous magnetic microspheres, with high levels of compositional uniformity and excellent opportunity for size control. The controllability of these factors make the FS production method useful for a range of healthcare, energy and environmental remediation applications