694 research outputs found
Information Needs and Concerns of Patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease: What Can We Learn from Participants in a Bilingual Clinical Cohort?
BACKGROUND: Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) patients are confronted with needs and concerns related to their disease.
AIM: To explore information expectations of patients included in a national bilingual IBD cohort in Switzerland (SIBDC).
METHODS: This is a mixed-methods study, comprising 1) a semi-narrative survey sent to 1506 patients from the SIBDC and 2) two focus groups conducted with 14 patients to explore and assess the relevance of the survey's findings. Data collected within the framework of the SIBDC was used to characterize survey's responders.
RESULTS: 728 patients (48%) replied to the survey: 52.5% females, 56% Crohn's disease (CD), 87% secondary/tertiary level educated, 70% full/part-time employed. On average, 47% of patients sought for information, regardless of the disease stage; 27% of them were dissatisfied with information received at the time of first symptoms. During flares, 43% were concerned about drugs and therapies; in remission, 57% had concerns on research and developments; 27% searched for information linked to daily disease management. Information-seeking increased when active disease, for CD with high levels of perceived stress (OR = 2.47; p = 0.003), and for all with higher posttraumatic stress symptoms. The focus groups confirmed a perceived lack of information about general functioning, disease course, treatments and their risks, extra-intestinal symptoms and manifestations.
CONCLUSIONS: Information remains insufficient for IBD patients. Lack of information in specific domains can potentially cause stress and hinder detection of symptoms. Better information should be considered as a potentially important component in improving patients' outcomes in IBD
Cannabinoids for behavioral symptoms in severe dementia: Safety and feasibility in a long-term pilot observational study in nineteen patients.
The management of behavioral symptoms and rigidity in patients with dementia constitutes a significant challenge. Short-term studies suggest an interest in the use of medical cannabis, but long-term data are lacking.
The objective of this study was to investigate the feasibility and long-term safety of administering tetrahydrocannabinol/cannabidiol (THC/CBD) treatment as an additional drug to a poly medicated population with severe dementia, evaluate clinical improvements, and collect information on the pharmacokinetics of cannabinoids and possible drug-drug interactions.
A prospective observational study of patients with severe dementia living in a long-term care home to whom the physicians had prescribed a medical cannabis treatment. Data were collected over 2 years. We assessed the changes in medical cannabis dosages, safety parameters, variations in neuropsychiatric problems, agitation, rigidity, the most invalidating daily activity, and disabling behavior trouble scores. We evaluated the pharmacokinetics of cannabinoids by measuring plasma levels and analyzing the enzymatic activity.
We assessed 19 patients (81.4 years-17 women and two men) receiving an average of 12.4 mg THC/24.8 mg CBD per day for up to 13 months, with no reported problems related to the treatment and limited adverse drug reactions. Clinical scores showed a marked improvement that was stable over time, deprescription of other medications, and care facilitated. The pharmacokinetic evaluation showed an expected slight reduction in the enzymatic activity of CYP1A2 and CYP2C19.
A long-term THC/CBD (1:2) medication can be administered safely and with overall positive clinical improvement to poly medicated older adults with severe dementia and associated problems. The results must be confirmed in a randomized trial
Affective iconic words benefit from additional soundâmeaning integration in the left amygdala
Recent studies have shown that a similarity between sound and meaning of a word (i.e., iconicity) can help more readily access the meaning of that word, but the neural mechanisms underlying this beneficial role of iconicity in semantic processing remain largely unknown. In an fMRI study, we focused on the affective domain and examined whether affective iconic words (e.g., high arousal in both sound and meaning) activate additional brain regions that integrate emotional information from different domains (i.e., sound and meaning). In line with our hypothesis, affective iconic words, compared to their nonâiconic counterparts, elicited additional BOLD responses in the left amygdala known for its role in multimodal representation of emotions. Functional connectivity analyses revealed that the observed amygdalar activity was modulated by an interaction of iconic condition and activations in two hubs representative for processing sound (left superior temporal gyrus) and meaning (left inferior frontal gyrus) of words. These results provide a neural explanation for the facilitative role of iconicity in language processing and indicate that language users are sensitive to the interaction between sound and meaning aspect of words, suggesting the existence of iconicity as a general property of human language
Can the evolution of music be analyzed in a quantitative manner?
We propose a methodology to study music development by applying multivariate
statistics on composers characteristics. Seven representative composers were
considered in terms of eight main musical features. Grades were assigned to
each characteristic and their correlations were analyzed. A bootstrap method
was applied to simulate hundreds of artificial composers influenced by the
seven representatives chosen. Afterwards we quantify non-numeric relations like
dialectics, opposition and innovation. Composers differences on style and
technique were represented as geometrical distances in the feature space,
making it possible to quantify, for example, how much Bach and Stockhausen
differ from other composers or how much Beethoven influenced Brahms. In
addition, we compared the results with a prior investigation on philosophy.
Opposition, strong on philosophy, was not remarkable on music. Supporting an
observation already considered by music theorists, strong influences were
identified between composers by the quantification of dialectics, implying
inheritance and suggesting a stronger master-disciple evolution when compared
to the philosophy analysis.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, added references for sections 1 and 4.C, better
mathematical description on section 2. New values and interpretation, now
considering a bootstrap metho
Promise and ontological ambiguity in the In Vitro Meat imagescape: From laboratory myotubes to the cultured burger
In vitro meat, also known as cultured meat, involves growing cells into muscle tissue to be eaten as food. The technology had its most high profile moment in 2013 when a cultured burger was cooked and tasted in a press conference. Images of the burger featured in the international media and were circulated across the internet. These images â literally marks on a two-dimension surface - do important work in establishing what in vitro meat is and what it can do. A combination of visual semiotics and narrative analysis shows that images of in vitro meat afford readings of their story that are co-created by the viewer. Before the cultured burger, during 2011, images of in vitro meat fell into four distinct categories: cell images, tissue images, flowcharts, and meat in a dish images. The narrative infrastructure of each image type affords different interpretations of what in vitro meat can accomplish and what it is. The 2013 cultured burger images both draw upon and depart from these images types in an attempt to present in vitro meat as a normal food stuff, and as âmatter in placeâ when placed on the plate. The analysis of individual images and the collection of images about a certain object or subject â known as the imagescape â is a productive approach to understanding the ontology and promise of in vitro meat and is applicable to other areas of social life
An unfolding signifier: London's Baltic Exchange in Tallinn
In the summer of 2007 an unusual cargo arrived at Muuga and Paldiski harbors outside Tallinn. It consisted of nearly 50 containers holding over 1,000 tons of building material ranging from marble columns, staircases and fireplaces, to sculpted allegorical figures, wooden paneling and old-fashioned telephone booths. They were once part of the Baltic Exchange in the City of London. Soon they will become facets of the landscape of Tallinn. The following article charts this remarkable story and deploys this fragmented monument to analyze three issues relating to the Estonian capital: the relocation of the âBronze Soldierâ, the demolition of the Sakala Culture Center, and Tallinnâs future role as European Cultural Capital in 2011
Unravelling social constructionism
Social constructionist research is an area of rapidly expanding influence that has brought together theorists from a range of different disciplines. At the same time, however, it has fuelled the development of a new set of divisions. There would appear to be an increasing uneasiness about the implications of a thoroughgoing constructionism, with some regarding it as both theoretically parasitic and politically paralysing. In this paper I review these debates and clarify some of the issues involved. My main argument is that social constructionism is not best understood as a unitary paradigm and that one very important difference is between what Edwards (1997) calls its ontological and epistemic forms. I argue that an appreciation of this distinction not only exhausts many of the disputes that currently divide the constructionist community, but also takes away from the apparent radicalism of much of this work
Two new species of Phalangopsis Serville, 1831 (Orthoptera: Grylloidea: Phalangopsidae) from Brazilian Amazon Forest
We describe here two new species of the genus Phalangopsis Serville, 1831 from the Brazilian Amazon Forest. The male genitalia and the female copulatory papilla were described, and a combination of diagnostic characteristics was given to separate both new species from the other described species. The principal morphological characteristics of this genus were discussed.Aqui foram descritas duas espĂ©cies novas do gĂȘnero Phalangopsis Serville, 1831 da Floresta AmazĂŽnica brasileira. A genitĂĄlia masculina e a papila copulatĂłria feminina sĂŁo descritas, bem como uma combinação de caracterĂsticas diagnĂłsticas para separar ambas as novas espĂ©cies das outras espĂ©cies descritas. As principais caracterĂsticas morfolĂłgicas foram discutidas
Language and Groundwater: Symbolic Gradients of the Anthropocene
This article argues that geographers must study the power of words as integral parts of humanâenvironment relationships, with particular attention to local meanings, to intervene more effectively in the Anthropocene. Words are important tools by which people come to understand environmental changes and develop plans to facilitate mitigation and adaptation or, alternatively, to postpone these responses. This project considers the portion of Texas underlain by the Ogallala aquifer as a system of communication, exploring stakeholder articulations through in-depth interviews. The semiotic concepts of gradients, grading, degradation, and grace are employed to facilitate consideration of how verbal articulations intersect with resource use, conservation, anthropogenic environmental change, and action within a highly conservative political context.Office of the VP for Researc
Touring as a Peircean habit
The Peircean sign contains three parts: object, representamen (image) and interpretant (interpretation).
Interpretation in the Peircean system draws heavily upon the accumulated knowledge that an individual has built up over time.
Interpretation might be thoughtful, but more often it is an embodied habit.
The Peircean notion of habit inherently relates to the performative and is sufficiently general to incorporate emotionality
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