Potential and effects of personalizing gameful fitness applications using behavior change intentions and Hexad user types

Personalizing gameful applications is essential to account for interpersonal differences in the perception of gameful design elements. Considering that an increasing number of people lead sedentary lifestyles, using personalized gameful applications to encourage physical activity is a particularly relevant domain. In this article, we investigate behavior change intentions and Hexad user types as factors to personalize gameful fitness applications. We first explored the potential of these two factors by analyzing differences in the perceived persuasiveness of gameful design elements using a storyboards-based online study (N=178). Our results show several significant effects regarding both factors and thus support the usefulness of them in explaining perceptual differences. Based on these findings, we implemented “Endless Universe,” a personalized gameful application encouraging physical activity on a treadmill. We used the system in a laboratory study (N=20) to study actual effects of personalization on the users’ performance, enjoyment and affective experiences. While we did not find effects on the immediate performance of users, positive effects on user experience-related measures were found. The results of this study support the relevance of behavior change intentions and Hexad user types for personalizing gameful fitness systems further

A model to teach concomitant patient communication during psychomotor skill development

© 2017 Elsevier Ltd. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license:http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/Many health professionals use psychomotor or task-based skills in clinical practice that require concomitant communication with a conscious patient. Verbally engaging with the patient requires highly developed verbal communication skills, enabling the delivery of patient-centred care. Historically, priority has been given to learning the psychomotor skills essential to clinical practice. However, there has been a shift towards also ensuring competent communication with the patient during skill performance. While there is literature outlining the steps to teach and learn verbal communication skills, little is known about the most appropriate instructional approach to teach how to verbally engage with the patient when also learning to perform a task. A literature review was performed and it identified that there was no model or proven approach which could be used to integrate the learning of both psychomotor and communication skills. This paper reviews the steps to teach a communication skill and provides a suggested model to guide the acquisition and development of the concomitant -communication skills required with a patient at the time a psychomotor skill is performed

Abnormal neonatal sodium handling in skin precedes hypertension in the SAME rat

We discovered high Na(+) and water content in the skin of newborn Sprague-Dawley rats, which reduced ~ 2.5-fold by 7 days of age, indicating rapid changes in extracellular volume (ECV). Equivalent changes in ECV post birth were also observed in C57Bl/6 J mice, with a fourfold reduction over 7 days, to approximately adult levels. This established the generality of increased ECV at birth. We investigated early sodium and water handling in neonates from a second rat strain, Fischer, and an Hsd11b2-knockout rat modelling the syndrome of apparent mineralocorticoid excess (SAME). Despite Hsd11b2(-/-) animals exhibiting lower skin Na(+) and water levels than controls at birth, they retained ~ 30% higher Na(+) content in their pelts at the expense of K(+) thereafter. Hsd11b2(-/-) neonates exhibited incipient hypokalaemia from 15 days of age and became increasingly polydipsic and polyuric from weaning. As with adults, they excreted a high proportion of ingested Na(+) through the kidney, (56.15 ± 8.21% versus control 34.15 ± 8.23%; n = 4; P < 0.0001), suggesting that changes in nephron electrolyte transporters identified in adults, by RNA-seq analysis, occur by 4 weeks of age. Our data reveal that Na(+) imbalance in the Hsd11b2(-/-) neonate leads to excess Na(+) storage in skin and incipient hypokalaemia, which, together with increased, glucocorticoid-induced Na(+) uptake in the kidney, then contribute to progressive, volume contracted, salt-sensitive hypertension. Skin Na(+) plays an important role in the development of SAME but, equally, may play a key physiological role at birth, supporting post-natal growth, as an innate barrier to infection or as a rudimentary kidney

Einfluss des Faktors Wortfrequenz auf die satzinterne Großschreibung bei Fünftklässler:innen

Frequenz ist ein vielbeachteter Faktor, wenn es darum geht, zu erklären, warum manche Wörter und Teilbereiche von Wörtern eher fehleranfälliger sind als andere. In regelhaften Bereichen der Orthographie haben viele Studien zudem gezeigt, dass Frequenz einen größeren Einfluss auf Richtigschreibungen haben könnte als regelbasiertes Lernen. Der vorliegende Beitrag nimmt dies zum Ausgangspunkt und untersucht, ob der Faktor der Wortfrequenz in der satzinternen Großschreibung eine Rolle spielt. Die Arbeit umfasst zwei Forschungsfragen: (1) Sagt die Wortfrequenz von Nomen deren Großschreibung voraus, wenn man Konkretheit kontrolliert? und (2) Sagt die Frequenz von Verben und Adjektiven in Bezug auf die Frequenz der entsprechenden Nominalisierungen die Großschreibung letzterer voraus? Für die Untersuchung wurde die Großschreibung von 185 luxemburgischen Fünftklässler:innen in Lücken- und Satzdiktaten analysiert. Die Frequenz wurde aufgrund von drei Korpora berechnet. Die Regressionsanalysen zeigen das frequente Nomen eher großgeschrieben werden als seltene Nomen. Allerdings verschwindet dieser Effekt, wenn der lexikalisch-semantische Typ (Konkreta, Abstrakta, Nominalisierungen) in die Analysen einbezogen wird. Der ausschlaggebende Faktor für die Großschreibung in dieser Studie war schließlich Konkretheit, nicht Frequenz

Low-Iodine Diet of 4 Days Is Sufficient Preparation for I-131 Therapy in Differentiated Thyroid Cancer Patients

CONTEXT: No consensus exists about the optimal duration of the low-iodine diet (LID) in the preparation of (131)I therapy in differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) patients. OBJECTIVE: This work aimed to investigate if a LID of 4 days is enough to achieve adequate iodine depletion in preparation for (131)I therapy. In addition, the nutritional status of the LID was evaluated. METHODS: In this prospective study, 65 DTC patients treated at 2 university medical centers were included between 2018 and 2021. The patients collected 24-hour urine on days 4 and 7 of the LID and kept a food diary before and during the LID. The primary outcome was the difference between the 24-hour urinary iodine excretion (UIE) on both days. RESULTS: The median 24-hour UIE on days 4 and 7 of the LID were not significantly different (36.1 mcg [interquartile range, 25.4-51.2 mcg] and 36.5 mcg [interquartile range, 23.9-47.7 mcg], respectively, P = .43). On day 4 of the LID, 72.1% of the DTC patients were adequately prepared (24-hour UIE < 50 mcg), and 82.0% of the DTC patients on day 7 (P = .18). Compared to the self-reported regular diet, DTC patients showed a significantly (P < .01) lower percentage of nutrient intake (calories, protein, calcium, iodine, and water) during the LID. CONCLUSION: The 24-hour UIE on day 4 of the LID did not differ from day 7, and therefore shortening the LID from 7 to 4 days seems justified to prepare DTC patients for (131)I therapy in areas with sufficient iodine intake and may be beneficial to maintain a sufficient nutritional intake during DTC treatment

TGFb2 induces the soluble isoform of CTLA-4 – implications for CTLA-4 based checkpoint inhibitor antibodies in malignant melanoma

FUNDING This work was funded by the Chief Scientist’s office, Scotland grant no. ETM/280. Acknowledgments Microscopy was performed in the Microscopy and Histology Core Facility at the University of Aberdeen. Flow cytometry was performed in the Iain Fraser Cytometry Centre. We are very grateful to our lab manager Ms. Gill Moir for her assistance with this work and also to the many BSc/MSc project students who worked on this project. We are extremely grateful for all of the volunteer melanoma patient donors and healthy donors that supported this work. FA-F received an Elphinstone PhD scholarship funded by the School of Medicine, Medical Sciences & Nutrition at the University of Aberdeen.Peer reviewedPublisher PD