A chatbot-based coaching intervention for adolescents to promote life skills: pilot study

BACKGROUND: Adolescence is a challenging period, where youth face rapid changes as well as increasing socioemotional demands and threats, such as bullying and cyberbullying. Adolescent mental health and well-being can be best supported by providing effective coaching on life skills, such as coping strategies and protective factors. Interventions that take advantage of online coaching by means of chatbots, deployed on Web or mobile technology, may be a novel and more appealing way to support positive mental health for adolescents.OBJECTIVE: In this pilot study, we co-designed and conducted a formative evaluation of an online, life skills coaching, chatbot intervention, inspired by the positive technology approach, to promote mental well-being in adolescence.METHODS: We co-designed the first life skills coaching session of the CRI (for girls) and CRIS (for boys) chatbot with 20 secondary school students in a participatory design workshop. We then conducted a formative evaluation of the entire intervention-eight sessions-with a convenience sample of 21 adolescents of both genders (mean age 14.52 years). Participants engaged with the chatbot sessions over 4 weeks and filled in an anonymous user experience questionnaire at the end of each session; responses were based on a 5-point Likert scale.RESULTS: A majority of the adolescents found the intervention useful (16/21, 76%), easy to use (19/21, 90%), and innovative (17/21, 81%). Most of the participants (15/21, 71%) liked, in particular, the video cartoons provided by the chatbot in the coaching sessions. They also thought that a session should last only 5-10 minutes (14/21, 66%) and said they would recommend the intervention to a friend (20/21, 95%).CONCLUSIONS: We have presented a novel and scalable self-help intervention to deliver life skills coaching to adolescents online that is appealing to this population. This intervention can support the promotion of coping skills and mental well-being among youth

Claude Buridant, De l’ancien français au français contemporain: gué périlleux et quête du traduire. Réflexions sur la traduction des textes médiévaux en français contemporain

Cet article imposant de Claude Buridant fait le point sur la traduction intralinguale de l’ancien français au français moderne, en tenant compte des acquis de la traductologie (Meschonnic et von Humboldt en particulier), des réflexions des traducteurs eux-mêmes, et d’un important corpus de textes médiévaux traduits dont on trouvera la liste aux pp. 90-101. Après avoir constaté que la traduction concerne essentiellement la littérature narrative, C.B. ébauche un classement typologique: de la «t..

Ryanodine receptor and calsequestrin in arrhythmogenesis: What we have learnt from genetic diseases and transgenic mice

The year 2001 has been pivotal for the identification of the molecular bases of catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia (CPVT): a life-threatening genetic disease that predisposes young individuals with normal cardiac structure to cardiac arrest. Interestingly CPVT has been linked to mutations in genes encoding the cardiac ryanodine receptor (RyR2) and cardiac calsequestrin (CASQ2): two fundamental proteins involved in regulation of intracellular Ca(2+) in cardiac myocytes. The critical role of the two proteins in the heart has attracted interests of the scientific community so that networks of investigators have embarked in translational studies to characterize in vitro and in vivo the mutant proteins. Overall in the last seven years the field has substantially advanced but considerable controversies still exist on the consequences of RyR2 and CASQ2 mutations and on the modalities by which they precipitate cardiac arrhythmias. With so many questions that need to be elucidated it is expected that in the near future the field will remain innovative and stimulating. In this review we will outline how research has advanced in the understanding of CPVT and we will present how the observations made have disclosed novel arrhythmogenic cascades that are likely to impact acquired heart disease

Multidimensional Study on Users’ Evaluation of the KRAKEN Personal Data Sharing Platform

Background: Recent advances in the design of blockchain-based personal data sharing platforms bring the benefit of empowering users with more control and privacy-preserving measures in sharing data products. However, so far very little is known about users’ intentions to adopt such platforms for providing or consuming data products. Objective: This study aims to investigate users’ main expectations, preferences, and concerns regarding the adoption of blockchain-based personal data sharing platforms in the health and education domains. Methods: Fifteen participants were involved in a multidimensional evaluation of a prototyped release of the KRAKEN blockchain-based data sharing platform and asked to assess it in the health or education pilot domains. Data collected during online group interviews with participants were analyzed by applying the micro interlocutor technique to provide a descriptive overview of participant responses. Results: Participants showed a marginal acceptance of the prototype usability, asking for some improvements of the user experience and for a more transparent presentation of the platform security and privacy preserving capabilities. Participants expressed interest in using the platform as data providers and consumers as well as setting privacy policies for sharing data products with third parties, including the possibility of revoking access to data. Conclusions: Blockchain-based data sharing platforms are more likely to engage target users when technical design is informed by a deeper knowledge of their needs, expectations, and relevant concerns

Progression of the smoking epidemic in high-income regions and its effects on male-female survival differences:a cohort-by-age analysis of 17 countries

BackgroundOf all lifestyle behaviours, smoking caused the most deaths in the last century. Because of the time lag between the act of smoking and dying from smoking, and because males generally take up smoking before females do, male and female smoking epidemiology often follows a typical double wave pattern dubbed the 'smoking epidemic'. How are male and female deaths from this epidemic differentially progressing in high-income regions on a cohort-by-age basis? How have they affected male-female survival differences?MethodsWe used data for the period 1950-2015 from the WHO Mortality Database and the Human Mortality Database on three geographic regions that have progressed most into the smoking epidemic: high-income North America, high-income Europe and high-income Oceania. We examined changes in smoking-attributable mortality fractions as estimated by the Preston-Glei-Wilmoth method by age (ages 50-85) across birth cohorts 1870-1965. We used these to trace sex differences with and without smoking-attributable mortality in period life expectancy between ages 50 and 85.ResultsIn all three high-income regions, smoking explained up to 50% of sex differences in period life expectancy between ages 50 and 85 over the study period. These sex differences have declined since at least 1980, driven by smoking-attributable mortality, which tended to decline in males and increase in females overall. Thus, there was a convergence between sexes across recent cohorts. While smoking-attributable mortality was still increasing for older female cohorts, it was declining for females in the more recent cohorts in the US and Europe, as well as for males in all three regions.ConclusionsThe smoking epidemic contributed substantially to the male-female survival gap and to the recent narrowing of that gap in high-income North America, high-income Europe and high-income Oceania. The precipitous decline in smoking-attributable mortality in recent cohorts bodes somewhat hopeful. Yet, smoking-attributable mortality remains high, and therefore cause for concern

Structure of human NMN adenylyltransferase. A key nuclear enzyme for NAD homeostasis.

Abstract Nicotinamide mononucleotide adenylyltransferase (NMNAT), a member of the nucleotidyltransferase α/β-phosphodiesterases superfamily, catalyzes a universal step (NMN + ATP = NAD + PPi) in NAD biosynthesis. Localized within the nucleus, the activity of the human enzyme is greatly altered in tumor cells, rendering it a promising target for cancer chemotherapy. By using a combination of single isomorphous replacement and density modification techniques, the human NMNAT structure was solved by x-ray crystallography to a 2.5-A resolution, revealing a hexamer that is composed of α/β-topology subunits. The active site topology of the enzyme, analyzed through homology modeling and structural comparison with other NMNATs, yielded convincing evidence for a substrate-induced conformational change. We also observed remarkable structural conservation in the ATP-recognition motifs GXXXPX(T/H)XXH and SXTXXR, which we take to be the universal signature for NMNATs. Structural comparison of human and prokaryotic NMNATs may also lead to the rational design of highly selective antimicrobial drugs

Mechanical ventilation and volutrauma: study in vivo of a healthy pig model

Mechanical ventilation is essential in intensive care units. However, it may itself induce lung injury. Current studies are based on rodents, using exceptionally large tidal volumes for very short periods, often after a "priming" pulmonary insult. Our study deepens a clinically relevant large animal model, closely resembling human physiology and the ventilator setting used in clinic settings. Our aim was to evaluate the pathophysiological mechanisms involved in alveolo/capillary barrier damage due to mechanical stress in healthy subjects. We randomly divided 18 pigs (sedated with medetomidine/tiletamine-zolazepam and anesthetised with thiopental sodium) into three groups (n=6): two were mechanically ventilated (tidal volume of 8 or 20 ml/kg), the third breathed spontaneously for 4 hours, then animals were sacrifi ced (thiopental overdose). We analyzed every 30' hemogasanalysis and the main circulatory and respiratory parameters. Matrix gelatinase expression was evaluated on bronchoalveolar lavage fl uid after surgery and before euthanasia. On autoptic samples we performed zymographic analysis of lung, kidney and liver tissues and histological examination of lung. Results evidenced that high V T evoked profound alterations of lung mechanics and structure, although low V T strategy was not devoid of side effects, too. Unexpectedly, also animals that were spontaneously breathing showed a worsening of the respiratory functions