Assessing the three attentional networks in children from three to six years: A child-friendly version of the Attentional Network Test for Interaction

Open access funding provided by Universita degli Studi di Roma La Sapienza within the CRUI-CARE Agreement.We want to thank all children, parents, teachers, and headmasters who made this study possible. In particular, we thank the following schools: the Istituto Comprensivo M.T. Cicerone in Arpino (Scuola Infanzia Arpino Cap. (Panaccio), Scuola Infanzia San Sosio, Scuola Infanzia Pagnanelli, Scuola Infanzia Fontana Liri, Scuola Infanzia Santopadre) and the Istituto Comprensivo Vito Fabiano in Latina. We also thank Valentina Valli and Alfredo Spagna for the test drawings.Attention involves three functionally and neuroanatomically distinct neural networks: alerting, orienting, and executive control. This study aimed to analyze the development of attentional networks in children aged between 3 and 6 years using a child-friendly version of the Attentional Network Test for Interaction (ANTI), the ANTI-Birds. The sample included 88 children divided into four age groups: 3-year-old, 4-year-old, 5-year-old, 6-year-old children. The results of this study would seem to indicate that between 4 and 6 years, there are no significant changes in attentional networks. Instead, between 3 and 4 years of age, children significantly improve all their attentional skills.Universita degli Studi di Roma La Sapienza within the CRUI-CARE Agreemen

The Effect of Trust on Gaze-Mediated Attentional Orienting

The last two decades have witnessed growing interest in the study of social cognition and its multiple facets, including trust. Interpersonal trust is generally understood as the belief that others are not likely to harm you. When meeting strangers, judgments of trustworthiness are mostly based on fast evaluation of facial appearance, unless information about past behavior is available. In the past decade, studies have tried to understand the complex relationship between trust and gaze-cueing of attention (GCA) (i.e., attentional orienting following another person’s gaze). This review will focus on the studies that used a gaze-cueing paradigm to explore this relationship. While the predictivity of the gaze-cue seems to consistently influence trustworthiness judgments, the impact of trust on gaze-cueing is less clear. Four studies found enhanced gazecueing effects with trustworthy faces; one found stronger effects of gaze-cueing with faces associated with undesirable behavior, but only when the observer’s personal evaluations were taken into account. Four studies did not observe an effect of trust on gaze-cueing. Overall, studies have highlighted the complexity of this relationship, suggesting that multiple factors (including age, gender, the characteristics of the observer, and whether or not a threat is perceived) are likely to intervene in the interplay between trust and gaze-triggered attentional orienting. After discussing results in the context of existing theories of gaze-cueing and trust, we conclude that further investigation is needed to better understand this relationship and the contribution of social factors to attentional shifts guided by gaze.Zayed University R1905

Abandoned landscape project design

AbstractConversion and transformation of historic buildings and industrial site reclamation projects are becoming topics of renewed interest. Many industrial buildings beckon architecture design theory to revitalize urban areas and make new use of public space. Ruins and historic sites speak to us about the need to rethink settings which belong to long-lost ages and yet are contemporary in the stories they reveal. There are present-day problematic and sensitive areas (abandoned quarries, ex industrial plants, landfills, etc.) which inspire renewed critical thinking; themes of memory and recollection touch us in the here and now. In contrast with the 1970s and 1980 s' tendency to treat such topics with a mix of lightheartedness and nostalgia, the projects presented in this work regard history as a process of revision and reclamation of profound spatial and social principles. Contact with historic, industrial and modern spaces pushes us to apply new methodological approaches in an effort to re-write the present. In fact, nowadays it is imperative that we engage a relationship with the past which takes into consideration not only ancient legacies but also those entrenched in 20th century crises—uncomfortable memories often embodied in areas of great landscape or historic value. How are we to approach our relationship with these legacies? Critical studies illustrate the value of those projects capable of breathing new life into the fabric of urban space by creating public areas and city parks. Memory, seemingly pushed into a playful, irreverently lighthearted vein for years, is thus allowed once again to speak to us of the human and social desire to reclaim time and provide urban and suburban areas with new opportunities for regeneration and growth

Development in attention functions and social processing: Evidence from the Attention Network Test

According to the attention network approach, attention is best understood in terms of three functionally and neuroanatomically distinct networks – alerting, orienting, and executive attention. Recent findings showed that social information influences the efficiency of these networks in adults. Using some social and non-social variants of the Attentional Network Test (ANT), this study was aimed to evaluate the development of the three attention networks in childhood, also assessing the development of the ability to manage social or non-social conflicting information. Sixty-six children (three groups of 6, 8, and 10 years of age) performed three variants of the original ANT, using fish, schematic, or real faces looking to the left or right as target and flanker stimuli. Results showed an improvement from 6 to 8 and 10 years of age in reaction time (RT) and accuracy, together with an improvement of executive control and a decrement in alerting. These developmental changes were not unique to social stimuli, and no differences were observed between social and no-social variants of the ANT. However, independently from the age of the children, a real face positively affected the executive control (as indexed by RTs) as compared to both a schematic face and a fish. Findings of this study suggest that attentional networks are still developing from 6 to 10 years of age and underline the importance of face information in modulating the efficiency of executive control

Deep Neuromuscular Blockade Improves Surgical Conditions During Gynecological Laparoscopy

Obtaining an appropriate laparoscopic workspace depends on several factors related to the patient (i.e., weight and abdominal compliance) and the procedure (i.e., body’s position, depth of anesthesia and intra-abdominal (IA) pressure). Among them, a deep neuromuscular blockade (NMB) contributes to provide the surgeon with better operating conditions. This chapter discusses the interests and challenges of muscle relaxation during gynecological laparoscopy. The introduction of sugammadex into clinical practice provides the opportunity to modify the management of neuromuscular blockade to improve the surgical conditions during laparoscopy as well as the safety of the patients. The maintenance of a rocuronium-induced deep neuromuscular block from the trocar insertion until the end of laparoscopy is no longer incompatible with rapid recovery and awakening in optimal conditions. Neuromuscular transmission (NMT) monitoring is the key to adequate management and should be used in all cases. Objective measurements allow for excellent intubation and surgical conditions, the definition of thresholds and doses for the administration of reversal agents, and the exclusion of residual blockade prior to the patient extubation

Reply to “Association of Serum Uric Acid Concentration With Metabolic Risk Factors in Patients With Type 2 Diabetes”

In our subsample of diabetic patients, serum UA was associated with other features of the metabolic syndrome and with signs of target organ damage in a similar way to that observed in the whole population of elderly, mostly obese, Neapolitan patients. However, on the basis of the different actions of UA described in the literature, it is theoretically conceivable that in select cases, as in the lean, male diabetics observed by Yanai and Hirowatari, UA might exert a protective role

Selecting Insulating Materials for Building Envelope: A Life Cycle Approach

This paper aims at assessing the embodied energy and greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) of two building envelopes, designed for a two floors semi-detached house located in the Central Italy. The analysis is performed by applying the Life Cycle Assessment methodology, following a from cradle-to-gate approach. Fixtures (windows and doors), external and internal opaque walls, roof and floors (including interstorey floors) make the building envelopes. Their stratigraphy allows for achieving the thermal transmittance values established in the Italian Decree on energy performance of buildings. The two examined envelopes differ only for the insulation material: extruded expanded polystyrene (XPS) or cellulose fibers. The results shows that the envelope using cellulose fibers has better performance than that using XPS: it allows for reducing the embodied energy and the GHGs of about 13% and 9.3%, respectively. A dominance analysis allows to identify the envelope components responsible of the higher impacts and the contribution of the insulating material to the impacts. The study is part of the Italian research “Analysis of the energy impacts and greenhouse gas emissions of technologies and components for the energy efficiency of buildings from a life cycle perspective” funded by the Three-year Research Plan within the National Electricity System 2019-2021