The Psycho-pedagogic Value of Video Games and E-sports

The human race inherited its neurobiological endowment not as an exclusively human thing but rather from all the species from which we evolved. Let us take play as an example. The concept of play has always characterized the human sphere, accompanying the child in all his stages of development and promoting psycho-evolutionary growth. To play has been recognized as the primary source of memory stimulation, attention and concentration, favoring the development of the schemes of perception and the powers of comparison and communication in the individual. Recent research in 2013 highlighted the notion that video games give adolescents and young adults the opportunity to increase and perfect social, cognitive and emotional skills, contrarily to the risks and negative effects one hears so much about. They do this through the use of the video game as a true social “gym”, used in the same way as any other peer interaction, thus promoting mental health and well-being

L'evoluzione ludica dell'uomo: l'influenza del gioco moderno sulla formazione delle scienze motorie

The psycho-evolutionary dimension has been favored by the play. The study of the playful phenomenon, can give us the original interpretative keys related to the social changes of different peoples, because the game is a decisive operator of every culture. Videogames can be considered a evolved form of play, that is not at all limiting or trivializing the general game. The interaction and communication introduced by videogames have given rise to new opportunities for social relations, in which human beings are in contact with others. A pedagogical analysis can be a valid contribution focuses on the various cognitive, psychological and linguistic aspects of the videogame, through the presentation of all the fundamental aspects of video-gaming. It’s need to acquire more knowledge. Today, university education in motor science is allied to the knowledge and use virtual realty tools in order to acquire the interactive and continuous skills to be acquired in an interactive and continuous journey over time.La dimensione psicoevolutiva dell'uomo è stata favorita dal gioco. Lo studio del fenomeno ludico, nella storia umana può darci originali chiavi interpretative relative ai cambiamenti sociali dei diversi popoli perchè il gioco è un operatore decisivo di ogni cultura. Il videogioco riesce a sussumere ogni modalità di gioco, rappresentando una forma evoluta e niente affatto limitante o banalizzante del gioco in generale. Le forme di interazione e di comunicazione introdotte dai videogames hanno originato nuove opportunità di relazioni sociali, in cui gli individui tra loro sconosciuti, si incontrano e danno vita a scambi comunicativi senza mediazione di soggetti terzi. Con un'analisi pedagogica si può affermare che un valido contributo si concentra sui vari aspetti cognitivi, psicologici e linguistici propri del videogioco, attraverso la presentazione tutti gli aspetti fondanti del video-giocare. Appare la necessità di acquisire maggiori conoscenze e ricostruire un'immagine coerente dei vigeogames, considerando la celere evoluzione di questi gradevoli strumenti d'intrattenimento, per poter sfruttare gli aspetti educativi che ipotizziamo possano consetirci di considerare il gioco come prezioso elemento formativo per il futuro cittadino. Oggi la formazione universitaria delle scienze motorie si allea alla conoscenza e all'utilizzo di questi strumenti per poter trasformare le competenze da acquisire in un viaggio interattivo e continuo nel tempo.&nbsp

Improving physical activity levels in primary schools: Slackline Training education strategy

Physical education (PE) can be considered the focus of cognitive and social physical literacy (PL) school programs. In primary school, the PL of children is fundamental, both to raise levels of motivation, confidence and competence and to educate an active lifestyle. Slacklining (SLK) is based on the use of a support band, stretched between two solid fixed supports, which stimulates the balance of the body and provides a high variability of movement. The article proposes situations of SLK with which to increase levels of physical activity to expand curriculum planning, in primary school, and offer children educational experiences in which to solicit both psycho-motor and motivational and social aspects. In other words, it is about involving children, through engaging and fun proposals, in the acquisition of an active lifestyle that will last even in later ages

Body Representations in Children with Cerebral Palsy

We constantly process top-down and bottom-up inputs concerning our own body that interact to form body representations (BR). Even if some evidence showed BR deficits in children with cerebral palsy, a systematic study that evaluates different kinds of BR in these children, taking into account the possible presence of a general deficit affecting non-body mental representations, is currently lacking. Here we aimed at investigating BR (i.e., Body Semantics, Body Structural Representation and Body Schema) in children with cerebral palsy (CP) taking into account performance in tasks involving body stimuli and performance in tasks involving non-body stimuli. Thirty-three CP (age range: 5–12 years) were compared with a group of 103 typically-developing children (TDC), matched for age and sex. 63.64% of children with CP showed a very poor performance in body representation processing. Present data also show alterations in different body representations in CP in specific developmental stages. In particular, CP and TDC performances did not differ between 5 to 7 years old, whereas CP between 8 and 12 years old showed deficits in the Body Structural Representation and Body Schema but not in Body Semantics. These findings revealed the importance of taking into account the overall development of cognitive domains when investigating specific stimuli processing in children who do not present a typical development and were discussed in terms of their clinical implications

Las referencias bibliográficas sobre 'nursing diagnosis' en Medline (1994-2000)

Para conocer las características bibliométricas y metodológicas de los documentos sobre diagnósticos de enfermería indexados en la base Medline entre 1994 y 2000, se realizó un estudio en la Unidad de Salud Pública (Escuela Universitaria de Enfermería, Universitat de Barcelona) y en el Instituto Catalán de la Salud (Generalitat de Catalunya). Se empleó un diseño observacional, descriptivo y transversal. El material estudiado corresponde a 204 referencias bibliográficas (RB) que contenían los términos «nursing diagnosis» en el título e identificadas en la base Medline (1994-2000). Se concluye que la mayor parte de las RB estudiadas corresponde a artículos de tipo teórico; sus autores son del ámbito académico y desarrollan su actividad en el mundo anglosajón. Destaca el hecho de que en las RB estudiadas no constan algunas de las variables que se pretendían analizar en el presente estudio: filiación de los autores, lugar donde se realiza el estudio, número de sujetos estudiados, etcétera

Immune-mediated genetic pathways resulting in pulmonary function impairment increase lung cancer susceptibility

Impaired lung function is often caused by cigarette smoking, making it challenging to disentangle its role in lung cancer susceptibility. Investigation of the shared genetic basis of these phenotypes in the UK Biobank and International Lung Cancer Consortium (29,266 cases, 56,450 controls) shows that lung cancer is genetically correlated with reduced forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1: r(g) = 0.098, p = 2.3 x 10(-8)) and the ratio of FEV1 to forced vital capacity (FEV1/FVC: r(g) = 0.137, p = 2.0 x 10(-12)). Mendelian randomization analyses demonstrate that reduced FEV1 increases squamous cell carcinoma risk (odds ratio (OR) = 1.51, 95% confidence intervals: 1.21-1.88), while reduced FEV1/FVC increases the risk of adenocarcinoma (OR = 1.17, 1.01-1.35) and lung cancer in never smokers (OR = 1.56, 1.05-2.30). These findings support a causal role of pulmonary impairment in lung cancer etiology. Integrative analyses reveal that pulmonary function instruments, including 73 novel variants, influence lung tissue gene expression and implicate immune-related pathways in mediating the observed effects on lung carcinogenesis

Both “illness and temptation of the enemy”: melancholy, the medieval patient and the writings of King Duarte of Portugal (r. 1433–38)

Recent historians have rehabilitated King Duarte of Portugal, previously maligned and neglected, as an astute ruler and philosopher. There is still a tendency, however, to view Duarte as a depressive or a hypochondriac, due to his own description of his melancholy in his advice book, the Loyal Counselor. This paper reassesses Duarte's writings, drawing on key approaches in the history of medicine, such as narrative medicine and the history of the patient. It is important to take Duarte's views on his condition seriously, placing them in the medical and theological contexts of his time and avoiding modern retrospective diagnosis. Duarte's writings can be used to explore the impact of plague, doubt and death on the life of a well-educated and conscientious late-medieval ruler

Genetic Drivers of Heterogeneity in Type 2 Diabetes Pathophysiology

Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is a heterogeneous disease that develops through diverse pathophysiological processes1,2 and molecular mechanisms that are often specific to cell type3,4. Here, to characterize the genetic contribution to these processes across ancestry groups, we aggregate genome-wide association study data from 2,535,601 individuals (39.7% not of European ancestry), including 428,452 cases of T2D. We identify 1,289 independent association signals at genome-wide significance (P \u3c 5 × 10-8) that map to 611 loci, of which 145 loci are, to our knowledge, previously unreported. We define eight non-overlapping clusters of T2D signals that are characterized by distinct profiles of cardiometabolic trait associations. These clusters are differentially enriched for cell-type-specific regions of open chromatin, including pancreatic islets, adipocytes, endothelial cells and enteroendocrine cells. We build cluster-specific partitioned polygenic scores5 in a further 279,552 individuals of diverse ancestry, including 30,288 cases of T2D, and test their association with T2D-related vascular outcomes. Cluster-specific partitioned polygenic scores are associated with coronary artery disease, peripheral artery disease and end-stage diabetic nephropathy across ancestry groups, highlighting the importance of obesity-related processes in the development of vascular outcomes. Our findings show the value of integrating multi-ancestry genome-wide association study data with single-cell epigenomics to disentangle the aetiological heterogeneity that drives the development and progression of T2D. This might offer a route to optimize global access to genetically informed diabetes care

Genetic drivers of heterogeneity in type 2 diabetes pathophysiology

Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is a heterogeneous disease that develops through diverse pathophysiological processes1,2 and molecular mechanisms that are often specific to cell type3,4. Here, to characterize the genetic contribution to these processes across ancestry groups, we aggregate genome-wide association study data from 2,535,601 individuals (39.7% not of European ancestry), including 428,452 cases of T2D. We identify 1,289 independent association signals at genome-wide significance (P &lt; 5 × 10-8) that map to 611 loci, of which 145 loci are, to our knowledge, previously unreported. We define eight non-overlapping clusters of T2D signals that are characterized by distinct profiles of cardiometabolic trait associations. These clusters are differentially enriched for cell-type-specific regions of open chromatin, including pancreatic islets, adipocytes, endothelial cells and enteroendocrine cells. We build cluster-specific partitioned polygenic scores5 in a further 279,552 individuals of diverse ancestry, including 30,288 cases of T2D, and test their association with T2D-related vascular outcomes. Cluster-specific partitioned polygenic scores are associated with coronary artery disease, peripheral artery disease and end-stage diabetic nephropathy across ancestry groups, highlighting the importance of obesity-related processes in the development of vascular outcomes. Our findings show the value of integrating multi-ancestry genome-wide association study data with single-cell epigenomics to disentangle the aetiological heterogeneity that drives the development and progression of T2D. This might offer a route to optimize global access to genetically informed diabetes care.</p