30 research outputs found

    Training attention control of very preterm infants: protocol for a feasibility study of the Attention Control Training (ACT)

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    Background Children born preterm may display cognitive, learning, and behaviour difficulties as they grow up. In particular, very premature birth (gestation age between 28 and less than 32 weeks) may put infants at increased risk of intellectual deficits and attention deficit disorder. Evidence suggests that the basis of these problems may lie in difficulties in the development of executive functions. One of the earliest executive functions to emerge around 1 year of age is the ability to control attention. An eye-tracking-based cognitive training programme to support this emerging ability, the Attention Control Training (ACT), has been developed and tested with typically developing infants. The aim of this study is to investigate the feasibility of using the ACT with healthy very preterm (VP) infants when they are 12 months of age (corrected age). The ACT has the potential to address the need for supporting emerging cognitive abilities of VP infants with an early intervention, which may capitalise on infants’ neural plasticity. Methods/design The feasibility study is designed to investigate whether it is possible to recruit and retain VP infants and their families in a randomised trial that compares attention and social attention of trained infants against those that are exposed to a control procedure. Feasibility issues include the referral/recruitment pathway, attendance, and engagement with testing and training sessions, completion of tasks, retention in the study, acceptability of outcome measures, quality of data collected (particularly, eye-tracking data). The results of the study will inform the development of a larger randomised trial. Discussion Several lines of evidence emphasise the need to support emerging cognitive and learning abilities of preterm infants using early interventions. However, early interventions with preterm infants, and particularly very preterm ones, face difficulties in recruiting and retaining participants. These problems are also augmented by the health vulnerability of this population. This feasibility study will provide the basis for informing the implementation of an early cognitive intervention for very preterm infants. Trial registration Registered Registration ID: NCT03896490. Retrospectively registered at Clinical Trials Protocol Registration and Results System (clinicaltrials.gov)

    The Rotterdam Study: 2016 objectives and design update

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    Somatosensory functioning and experienced pain in ADHD-families: a pilot study.

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    Contains fulltext : 71003.pdf (publisher's version ) (Closed access)BACKGROUND: An issue somewhat overlooked in children with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is somatosensory functioning. Some studies show a deficit in the processing of tactile and kinesthetic stimuli, but more research is needed to confirm these findings. A related topic, namely the subjective experience of pain, has not been investigated. Also unknown is the somatosensory functioning and experienced pain of non-affected siblings of children with ADHD, which may shed light on the familiality of possible alterations in somatosensory functioning and experienced pain. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate these aspects in children with ADHD and their non-affected siblings, and to investigate how these aspects were related to each other. METHOD: Somatosensory functioning (tactile perception and kinesthesia) and subjective intensity and emotionality of pain experiences were examined in 50 children with ADHD, their 38 non-affected siblings and 35 normal controls. RESULTS: Both children with ADHD and their non-affected siblings showed deficits in tactile perception, though kinesthesia appeared unimpaired. Non-affected siblings reported a significant lower intensity and emotionality of past experienced pain than controls. The 'objective' tests of somatosensory functioning did not relate to the subjective sensation of pain. CONCLUSIONS: Alterations in tactile perception may relate to a familial susceptibility for ADHD. Clinicians should be aware of possible under reportage of experienced pain in siblings of children with ADHD. The intensity and emotionality of pain appears difficult to objectify with somatosensory test

    Using a bio-economic farm model to evaluate the economic potential and pesticide load reduction of the greenRelease technology

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    CONTEXT: Policies and strategies at EU and national level aim at a reduced use of pesticides in agriculture, such as the Farm to Fork Strategy of the EU Commission. Technological progress can lower pesticide application and contribute to a sustainable bioeconomy. As an example, the greenRelease technology increases the attachment of the active ingredient of plant protection products to the leaf surface and slowly releases the active ingredient from a microgel container. Experiments under both controlled and field conditions have demonstrated the po-tential of the greenRelease technology to reduce pesticide use. As a so-called platform technology, the green -Release concept can be applied to various crops and plant protection chemicals.OBJECTIVE: To guide further development, this study analyses the greenRelease technology regarding its eco-nomic potential and its possible contribution to the reduction of environmental and health risks from pesticide use. METHODS: To do so, we use a bio-economic farm model to assess the technology potential for a typical farm and spraying sequences of various crops in northwestern Germany.RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: The results reveal that the economic potential of the greenRelease technology is highest for systemic fungicides in all assessed crops as well as for herbicides for potato cultivation. It is lowest for insecticides in winter barley and potato as well as for contact fungicides, due to the small doses and low product costs. The potential to lower possible environmental and health risks of pesticide use, indicated by the Danish pesticide load indicator, is highest for fungicides in potato, winter wheat, and winter barley as well as for herbicides in sugar beet cultivation. Relative to overall costs in arable farming, the cost changes induced by the greenRelease technology are minor, such that the environmental benefits will be key for promoting its appli-cation. However, the economic competitiveness of the technology increases if agri-environmental policies pro-gressively internalize the negative externalities of pesticides use.SIGNIFICANCE: This research is the first comprehensive economic and environmental assessment of the tech-nology greenRelease which can contribute to lower the environmental burden of pesticide use in agriculture

    Propentdyopent: the scaffold of a heme metabolite as an electron reservoir in transition metal complexes

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    The dipyrrin-1,9-dione scaffold of heme metabolite propendyopent coordinates late transition metals (Co, Ni, Cu, and Zn) forming homoleptic, pseudo-tetrahedral complexes. Electrochemical and spectroscopic studies reveal that the monoanionic, bidentate ligands behave as electron reservoirs as the complexes reversibly host one or two ligand-based radicals.We gratefully acknowledge Drs Jonathan Loughrey and Sue Roberts for assistance with initial electrochemical measurements and analysis of X-ray diffraction data, respectively. This work was supported by the University of Arizona and by the National Science Foundation ( CAREER grant 1454047 to E.T.).Open Access Article--RSC Gold.This item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]

    Pervasive Sensing: Addressing the Heterogeneity Problem

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    Pervasive sensing is characterized by heterogeneity across a number of dimensions. This raises significant problems for those designing, implementing and deploying sensor networks, irrespective of application domain. Such problems include for example, issues of data provenance and integrity, security, and privacy amongst others. Thus engineering a network that is fit-for-purpose represents a significant challenge. In this paper, the issue of heterogeneity is explored from the perspective of those who seek to harness a pervasive sensing element in their applications. A initial solution is proposed based on the middleware construct
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