Cognitive effects of calligraphy therapy for older people: a randomized controlled trial in Hong Kong

BACKGROUND: This pilot study investigated the effects of calligraphy therapy on cognitive function in older Hong Kong Chinese people with mild cognitive impairment. METHODS: A single-blind, randomized controlled trial was carried out in a sample of 31 adults aged 65 years or older with mild cognitive impairment. They were randomly assigned to receive either intensive calligraphy training led by a trained research assistant for eight weeks (calligraphy group, n = 14) or no calligraphy treatment (control group, n = 17). Participants' cognitive function was assessed by the Chinese version of the Mini-Mental State Examination (CMMSE) before and after calligraphy treatment. Repeated measures analysis of variance and paired samples t-tests were used to analyze the data. RESULTS: A significant interaction effect of time and intervention was detected [F (1, 29) = 9.11, P = 0.005, eta(2) = 0.24]. The calligraphy group was found to have a prominent increase in CMMSE global score, and scores in the cognitive areas of orientation, attention, and calculation after two months (DeltaM = 2.36, P < 0.01), whereas their counterparts in the control group experienced a decline in CMMSE score (DeltaM = -0.41, P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Calligraphy therapy was effective for enhancing cognitive function in older people with mild cognitive impairment and should be incorporated as part of routine programs in both community and residential care settings. © 2011 Kwok et al, publisher and licensee Dove Medical Press Ltd.published_or_final_versio

Recommending anchor points in structure-preserving hypertext document retrieval

Traditional WWW search engines index and recommend individual Web pages to assist users in locating relevant documents. Users are often overwhelmed by the large answer set recommended by the search engines. The logical starting point of the hyper-document is thus hidden among the large basket of matching pages. Users need to spend a lot of effort browsing through the pages to locate the starting point, a very time consuming process. This paper studies the anchor point indexing problem. The anchor points of a given user query is a small set of key pages from which the larger set of documents that are relevant to the query can be easily reached. The use of anchor points help solve the problems of huge answer set and low precision suffered by most search engines by considering the hyper-link structures of the relevant documents, and by providing a summary view of the result set.published_or_final_versio

Two semi-Lagrangian fast methods for Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equations

In this paper we apply the Fast Iterative Method (FIM) for solving general Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman (HJB) equations and we compare the results with an accelerated version of the Fast Sweeping Method (FSM). We find that FIM can be indeed used to solve HJB equations with no relevant modifications with respect to the original algorithm proposed for the eikonal equation, and that it overcomes FSM in many cases. Observing the evolution of the active list of nodes for FIM, we recover another numerical validation of the arguments recently discussed in [Cacace et al., SISC 36 (2014), A570-A587] about the impossibility of creating local single-pass methods for HJB equations

Spatial heterogeneity enhances and modulates excitability in a mathematical model of the myometrium

The muscular layer of the uterus (myometrium) undergoes profound changes in global excitability prior to parturition. Here, a mathematical model of the myocyte network is developed to investigate the hypothesis that spatial heterogeneity is essential to the transition from local to global excitation which the myometrium undergoes just prior to birth. Each myometrial smooth muscle cell is represented by an element with FitzHugh–Nagumo dynamics. The cells are coupled through resistors that represent gap junctions. Spatial heterogeneity is introduced by means of stochastic variation in coupling strengths, with parameters derived from physiological data. Numerical simulations indicate that even modest increases in the heterogeneity of the system can amplify the ability of locally applied stimuli to elicit global excitation. Moreover, in networks driven by a pacemaker cell, global oscillations of excitation are impeded in fully connected and strongly coupled networks. The ability of a locally stimulated cell or pacemaker cell to excite the network is shown to be strongly dependent on the local spatial correlation structure of the couplings. In summary, spatial heterogeneity is a key factor in enhancing and modulating global excitability

Improving quality of life through reducing post-operative bacterial infections

Session: Functionalization of Cells and Biomaterials: abstract no. 483INTRODUCTION: Metallic implants such as titanium alloy have been widely used in orthopaedic surgeries1. 2-5% of the patients acquire post-operative bacterial infections at implant site though prescription of antibiotics2. Patients may suffer from surgeries like debridement of wound, removal of problematic implant and insertion of new implant. To reduce bacterial infections and improve quality of life of patients, implant surfaces loaded with …postprintThe 2010 North America Conference of the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society (TERMIS-NA 2010), Orlando, FL., 5-8 December 2010

A DNA vaccine targeting TcdA and TcdB induces protective immunity against Clostridium difficile

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Knocking down 10-formyltetrahydrofolate dehydrogenase increased oxidative stress and impeded zebrafish embryogenesis by obstructing morphogenetic movement

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Computable analysis of linear rearrangement optimization

Optimization problems over rearrangement classes arise in various areas such as mathematics, fluid mechanics, biology, and finance. When the generator of the rearrangement class is two-valued, they reduce to shape optimization and free boundary problems which can exhibit intriguing symmetry breaking phenomena. A robust framework is required for computable analysis of these problems. In this paper, as a first step towards such a robust framework, we provide oracle Turing machines that compute the distribution function, decreasing rearrangement, and linear rearrangement optimizers, with respect to functions that are continuous and have no significant flat zones. This assumption on the reference function is necessary, as otherwise, the aforementioned operations may not be computable. We prove that the results can be computed to within any degree of accuracy, conforming to the framework of Type-II Theory of Effectivity

Mp1p Is a Virulence Factor in Talaromyces (Penicillium) marneffei

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