Does pictorial composition guide the eye? Investigating four centuries of last supper pictures

Within art literature, there is a centuries-old assumption that the eye follows the lines set out by the composition of a painting. However, recent empirical findings suggest that this may not be true. This study investigates beholders’ saccadic eye movements while looking at fourteen paintings representing the scene of the Last Supper, and their perception of the compositions of those paintings. The experiment included three parts: 1) recording the eye movements of the participants looking at the paintings; 2) asking participants to draw the composition of the paintings; and 3) asking them to rate the amount of depth in the paintings. We developed a novel coefficient of similarity in order to quantify 1) the similarity between the saccades of different observers; 2) the similarity between the compositional drawings of different observers; and 3) the similarity between saccades and compositional drawings. For all of the tested paintings, we found a high, above-chance similarity between the saccades and between the compositional drawings. Additionally, for most of the paintings, we also found a high, above-chance similarity between compositional lines and saccades, both on a collective and on an individual level. Ultimately, our findings suggest that composition does influence visual perception.&nbsp

Crisis and collectives shaping art events: from events that matter to events that care

Art events like biennials and large-scale exhibitions typically strive to address urgent, timely issues; curatorial approaches respond to various crises from the environment and war to Indigenous rights – notwithstanding the way existing exhibition structures often reproduce exploitative relations or other forms of everyday precarity. In our analysis of crisis, we eschew the concept of crisis as a disruptive event with a clear end for a framing of crisis as a condition. Especially for art events on the ‘periphery’, working under conditions of crisis is hardly new. We investigate the collective practices of three artist collectives, ruangrupa (Indonesia), Womanifesto (Thailand), and Atis Rezistans/Ghetto Biennale (Haiti). In practices like sharing resources, centring non-productivity and giving attention to nourishment and health, these collectives are reshaping art events from events that matter in terms of their pursuits of relevance towards events that care

Exploring Human attitude during Human-Robot Interaction

The aim of this work is to provide an automatic analysis to assess the user attitude when interacts with a companion robot. In detail, our work focuses on defining which combination of social cues the robot should recognize so that to stimulate the ongoing conversation and how. The analysis is performed on video recordings of 9 elderly users. From each video, low-level descriptors of the behavior of the user are extracted by using open-source automatic tools to extract information on the voice, the body posture, and the face landmarks. The assessment of 3 types of attitude (neutral, positive and negative) is performed through 3 machine learning classification algorithms: k-nearest neighbors, random decision forest and support vector regression. Since intra- and intersubject variability could affect the results of the assessment, this work shows the robustness of the classification models in both scenarios. Further analysis is performed on the type of representation used to describe the attitude. A raw and an auto-encoded representation is applied to the descriptors. The results of the attitude assessment show high values of accuracy (>0.85) both for unimodal and multimodal data. The outcome of this work can be integrated into a robotic platform to automatically assess the quality of interaction and to modify its behavior accordingly

Non-Pharmacological Approaches in the Treatment of Dementia

Currently, a pharmacological disease-modifying treatment for dementia is not available, but different non-pharmacological approaches appear to be useful. In this chapter, we describe traditional treatments such as cognitive and emotion-oriented interventions, sensory and multi-sensory stimulation interventions and also potentially alternative interesting options such as behavioural therapy, animal-assisted therapy, home-adaptation therapy and assistive technologies to support patient with dementia. Many non-pharmacological treatments have reported benefits in multiple research studies, but there is a need for further Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) with an adequate sample size to improve the strength of evidence in order to apply these approaches

Old Age and Women’s Identity

Female identity is a dynamic concept, and it has been a very discussed issue by contemporary cultural critic. How does old age affect identity construction and perception in elderly woman? Has feminine gender an impact in subjective well-being? Psychological changes of midlife women have been as conflicting as the idea that society has about them. Personality changes after young adulthood in women is a controversial matter. Erikson proposed that women might not develop identities in early adulthood as men do. In fact, he argued that women develop them later, in the context of an intimate relationship. Moreover, identity development appears to have important consequences for midlife well-being. For example, Vandewater et al. found that women’s midlife well-being was facilitated by earlier attainment of a well-articulated identity. In these situations accomplishment of developmentally earlier tasks (identity formation) sets the stage for later psychological health. Our work sheds additional light on how women live this period of life in terms of happiness and purpose of life

Information and Communication Technologies for the Activities of Daily Living in Older Patients with Dementia: A Systematic Review

Background: Significant innovations have been introduced in recent years in the application of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to support healthcare for patients with dementia. Objective: In the present systematic review, our goal is to keep track of ICT concepts and approaches to support the range of activities of daily living for people with dementia and to provide a snapshot of the effect that technology is having on patients' self-reliance. Methods: We reviewed the literature and identified systematic reviews of cohort studies and other authoritative reports. Our selection criteria included: (1) activities of daily living, (2) ICT, and (3) dementia. Results: We identified 56 studies published between 2000 and 2015, of which 26 met inclusion criteria. The present systematic review revealed many ICT systems that could purportedly support the range of activities of daily living for patients with dementia. The results showed five research bodies: 1) technologies used by patients with dementia, 2) technologies used by caregivers, 3) monitoring systems, 4) ambient assistive living with ICTs, and 5) tracking and wayfinding. Conclusions: There is a potential for ICTs to support dementia care at home and to improve quality of life for caregivers, reducing healthcare costs and premature institutional care for these patients

Virtual Round care model in a Covid-19 Geriatric sub intensive unit

Introduction. Telepresence provides clinicians the ability to monitor patients as well to communicate with all the members of the healthcare staff.  Covid-19 Units cope with high complexity in providing care and an integration amount the care team and the patients’ relatives should be carried out to obtained successful outcomes and preventing complication. Virtual rounding (VR) has been successfully applied to cope with this task in the last 2000 years in medical units.  Covid-19 patients due to safety rules may be prone to isolation and lack of communication with their family. Purpose. The aim of our study was to evaluate the effect of structured virtual round protocol in a geriatric Covid-19 unit on anxiety and depression for the patients and their relatives. Methodology. All the patients admitted to the geriatric Covid-19 unit from 1 February 2021 to 30 April were studied. Inclusion criteria to the study were the followings: no severe cognitive impairment (MMSE =>24) or neuro sensorial deficits; informed consent to participate to the study. Forty-nine 49 (75% of patients) met the inclusion criteria. All the subject who were found to be eligible to the study underwent a VR standard protocol of care. VR was consisted with: 1) a video call with a tablet device conducted by a psychologist that established a cooperative communication between the health care staff (nurses and MD, their relatives) at the bed sides; 2) a video call with the patient’s relatives in which it was clearly explained the standard care and the role of each healthcare member was also included. Anxiety and depression levels were assessed for the patients at baseline after the end of the protocol by the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). Patients’ relatives were investigated for depression at baseline and after the end of the protocol by the Beck Depression Inventory- Primary Care (BDI-PC). The Beck Depression Inventory for primary care has seven items with each item rated on a 4-point scale (0–3). It is scored by summing ratings for each item (range 0–21). Items are symptoms of sadness, pessimism, past failure, loss of pleasure, self-dislike, self-criticalness, and suicidal thoughts and wishes. The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) is a self- assessment scale found to be a reliable instrument for detecting states of depression and anxiety. The anxiety and depressive sub-scales are also valid measures of severity of the emotional disorder. The questionnaire comprises seven questions for anxiety and seven questions for depression, and takes 2–5min to complete. For both scales, scores less than 7 indicate non- cases, 8-10 mild, 11-14 moderate, 15-21 severe. JMP software by SAS (v.16) was used for the statistical analysis. Results. The present study included forty-nine 49 patients (67% male), mean age of 69.9 ±14.7 years with one relative for each patient. The average mean of the hospitalization for each patients was 17.6 ± 5.7 days The mean VR duration time was 60±5.5 minutes. VR showed a significant decrease in both Anxiety and depression for patients: (HADS Depression baseline 10.6 ±3.1 vs 6.9 ±2.7 end p<0.01) (HADS Anxiety baseline 10.2 ±3.4 vs 6.8 ±3.0 end p<0.01). VR has also reduced depression in the relatives of patients (BDI-PC 3.6 ±2.4 vs 1.9 ±1.9 p<0.01). Discussion. VR has reduced anxiety and depression in patients hospitalized in a sub-intensive COVID 19 unit and it also has been found to be effective in decreasing depression in the relatives of these patients Limitation. However, the study has some possible limitations considering its small size and that it was mono centric Conclusions. Our data confirm the efficacy of VR in the sub-intensive care setting. This evidence supports the key role of a multidisciplinary team, focusing on the importance of social and psychological support during the hospital stay.   More studies will be consequently necessary to better validate the importance of VR as a standard care tool in intensive/sub- intensive care units for the elderly patient

Robotic and Sensor Technologies for Mobility in Older People

Maintaining independent mobility is fundamental to independent living and to the quality of life of older people. Robotic and sensor technologies may offer a lot of potential and can make a significant difference in the lives of older people and to their primary caregivers. The aim of this study was to provide a presentation of the methods that are used up till now for analysis and evaluation of human mobility utilizing sensor technologies and to give the state of the art in robotic platforms for supporting older people with mobility limitations. The literature was reviewed and systematic reviews of cohort studies and other authoritative reports were identified. The selection criteria included (1) patients with age â\u89¥60 years; (2) patients with unstable gait, with or without recurrent falls; (3) patients with slow movements, short strides, and little trunk movement; (4) sensor technologies that are currently used for mobility evaluation; and (5) robotic technologies that can serve as a supporting companion for older people with mobility limitations. One hundred eighty-one studies published up until February 2017 were identified, of which 36 were included. Two categories of research were identified from the review regarding the robot and sensor technologies: (1) sensor technologies for mobility analysis and (2) robots for supporting older people with mobility limitations. Potential for robotic and sensor technologies can be taken advantage of for evaluation and support at home for elder persons with mobility limitations in an automated way without the need of the physical presence of any medical personnel, reducing the stress of caregivers

Sarcopenia: Technological Advances in Measurement and Rehabilitation

Sarcopenia is an important recently defined disease affecting people aged ≥65 years all over the world. Improving the assessment of loss of muscle mass is becoming mandatory. In this regard, various new technologies have been advanced. Although the gold standard is represented by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS), computed tomography (CT) or dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA), followed by biological impedance analysis (BIA) compared with DXA, there are numerous correlations between sarcopenia and health domain of everyday life that must be investigated and addressed, trying to obtain the best possible outcome in the older population. In this review, we focused on all types of new technologies assessing loss of muscle mass, frailty, independence, walking, capacity to get dressed, and loss of balance or sleepiness in older people and that could improve the diagnosis of sarcopenia or the rehabilitation of sarcopenic patients to prevent possible accidents. Different technologies have been proposed to investigate the factors promoting the loss of muscle mass and weakness. Despite the standard EWGSOP 2019 guidelines defining a specific methodology for the diagnosis of sarcopenia, not all domains and devices were included, and new frontiers of prevention have been explored