Does the gender matter?: anxiety symptoms and emotion dysregulation in adults with autism and intellectual disabilities

Research shows high rates of anxious symptoms in people autistic spectrum disorder (ASD). Finding factors related to the development of anxiety in ASD is necessary. Emotion regulation (ER) is associated with anxiety in ASD. Moreover, some studies find higher rates of anxiety in women with ASD. A total of 121 adults (M = 35.46 years, SD = 9.46) with ASD and intellectual disabilities were evaluated to verify moderating role of gender and mediating role of ER. A moderated mediation analysis supported the moderated role of gender in the relationship mediated by emotional dysregulation between ASD and anxiety. These findings suggest that interventions designed to prevent or reduce anxiety symptoms in women with ASD should include among their goals emotional regulatio

Spanish version of the Adult Executive Functioning Inventory (ADEXI): Psychometric properties in adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders and Intellectual Disability

Abstract: The aim of the present study was to investigate the psychometric properties of the Spanish version of the Adult Executive Functioning Inventory (ADEXI) in adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and Intellectual Disability (ID). A total of 121 adults with ASD and ID were recruited and informant ratings on the ADEXI were collected to investigate the factor structure, as well as reliability and validity. The results showed that we could replicate the two-factor structure (i.e., working memory and inhibition) that had been found in a previous study of adults with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). The two ADEXI subscales were shown to have high internal consistency and significant associations were found between the ADEXI and the Dysexecutive Questionnaire (DEX), another executive function rating instrument. Conclusively, the ADEXI appear to be a valid instrument for assessing executive function deficits in adults with ASD and ID. Keywords: Executive deficits; Autism Spectrum Disorders; Intellectual Disability; assessment; psychometric properties. Versión en español del Inventario de Funcionamiento Ejecutivo para Adultos (ADEXI): propiedades psicométricas en adultos con trastornos del espectro del autismo y discapacidad intelectual Resumen: El objetivo del presente estudio fue investigar las propiedades psicométricas de la versión española del Inventario de Funcionamiento Ejecutivo para Adultos (ADEXI) en personas adultas con Trastornos del Espectro del Autismo (TEA) y Discapacidad Intelectual (DI). Se reclutó un total de 121 personas con TEA y DI y se recopilaron los resultados obtenidos en el ADEXI para investigar la estructura factorial, la fiabilidad y validez. Los resultados obtenidos replican los hallazgos en cuanto a estructura de dos factores (es decir, memoria de trabajo e inhibición) de un estudio previo con una población de adultos con Trastorno por Déficit de Atención e Hiperactividad (TDAH). Se demostró que las dos subescalas del ADEXI tienen una alta consistencia interna y se encontraron asociaciones significativas entre el ADEXI y el Cuestionario Disejecutivo (DEX), otro instrumento de evaluación de las funciones ejecutivas. En conclusión, el ADEXI parece ser un instrumento válido para evaluar la disfunción ejecutiva en adultos con TEA y DI

Artificial intelligence methodologies and their application to diabetes

In the past decade diabetes management has been transformed by the addition of continuous glucose monitoring and insulin pump data. More recently, a wide variety of functions and physiologic variables, such as heart rate, hours of sleep, number of steps walked and movement, have been available through wristbands or watches. New data, hydration, geolocation, and barometric pressure, among others, will be incorporated in the future. All these parameters, when analyzed, can be helpful for patients and doctors' decision support. Similar new scenarios have appeared in most medical fields, in such a way that in recent years, there has been an increased interest in the development and application of the methods of artificial intelligence (AI) to decision support and knowledge acquisition. Multidisciplinary research teams integrated by computer engineers and doctors are more and more frequent, mirroring the need of cooperation in this new topic. AI, as a science, can be defined as the ability to make computers do things that would require intelligence if done by humans. Increasingly, diabetes-related journals have been incorporating publications focused on AI tools applied to diabetes. In summary, diabetes management scenarios have suffered a deep transformation that forces diabetologists to incorporate skills from new areas. This recently needed knowledge includes AI tools, which have become part of the diabetes health care. The aim of this article is to explain in an easy and plane way the most used AI methodologies to promote the implication of health care providers?doctors and nurses?in this field

TRHIOS: Trust and reputation in hierarchical and quality-oriented societies

In this paper we present TRHIOS: a Trust and Reputation system for HIerarchical and quality-Oriented Societies. We focus our work on hierarchical medical organizations. The model estimates the reputation of an individual, RTRHIOS, taking into account information from three trust dimensions: the hierarchy of the system; the source of information; and the quality of the results. Besides the concrete reputation value, it is important to know how reliable that value is; for each of the three dimensions we calculate the reliability of the assessed reputations; and aggregating them, the reliability of the reputation of an individual. The modular approach followed in the definition of the different types of reputations provides the system with a high flexibility that allows adapting the model to the peculiarities of each society

Personalized rule-based closed-loop control algorithm for type 1 diabetes

Type 1 diabetes-mellitus implies a life-threatening absolute insulin deficiency. Artificial pancreas (CGM sensor, insulin pump and control algorithm) is promising to outperform current open-loop therapies

How Continuous Monitoring Changes the Interaction of Patients with a Mobile Telemedicine System

The use of continuous glucose monitor changes the way patients manage their diabetes, as observed in the increased number of daily insulin bolus, the increased number of daily BG measurements, and the differences in the distribution of BG measurements throughout the day. Continuous monitoring also increases the interaction of patients with the information system and modifies their patterns of use

Electronic Report Generation Web Service evaluated within a Telemedicine System

This work presents a generic tool based on a client-server architecture that generates electronic reports helping the evaluation process of any information system. For the specific evaluation of telemedicine systems the defined reports cover four dimensions: auditory of the system; evolution of clinical protocols; results from the questionnaires for user acceptance and quality of life; and surveillance of clinical variables. The use of a Web Service approach allows multiplatform use of the developed electronic report service and the modularity followed in the implementation enables easy system evolution and scalability

Determinación del estado metabólico de pacientes con diabetes gestacional mediante autómatas finitos

Los nuevos criterios de diagnóstico de la diabetes gestacional recomendados por la IADPSGC disminuyen los efectos adversos de la hiperglucemia tanto en la madre como en el recién nacido, pero su aplicación supondría un aumento de la prevalencia llegando a triplicar el número de casos actual. Para que los Servicios de Endocrinología y Nutrición puedan hacer frente a la carga que supondría este aumento de prevalencia es necesario emplear nuevos procesos asistenciales que incluyan el uso de las TICs. Este trabajo presenta una herramienta de análisis automático de datos de monitorización que determina el estado metabólico de las pacientes con diabetes gestacional a partir de sus datos de glucemia, dieta y cetonuria. Su diseño se basa en dos autómatas finitos, uno para el análisis de la glucemia y de la dieta y el otro para el análisis de la cetonuria. La salida de ambos autómatas se combina para determinar el estado metabólico de la paciente a lo largo del tiempo. La herramienta se ha evaluado con datos retrospectivos de 25 pacientes pertenecientes al Hospital Parc Taulí de Sabadell comparando los 1288 estados metabólicos resultantes con los 47 ajustes de terapia realizados por el equipo médico. Se observó que el 91,49% de los cambios de tratamiento coincidieron con estados metabólicos deficientes determinados por la herramienta de análisis. La herramienta ayuda a diferenciar pacientes complejas que requieren una evaluación exhaustiva y un ajuste de terapia de las que tienen buen control metabólico y no necesitan ser evaluadas por el personal médico

Diseño de un regulador no lineal por bloques para el sistema glucosa-insulina utilizando redes neuronales de alto orden

En este trabajo se propone un algoritmo de control en lazo cerrado para el control automático de la diabetes tipo 1 basado en la identificación de sistemas no lineales con redes neuronales artificiales y mediante la regulación basada en la forma controlable no lineal por bloques. Como paciente virtual se utiliza el modelo de Hovorka al que se conecta el algoritmo de control utilizando prealimentación procedente de la terapia prescrita con insulina y un módulo de seguridad para evitar las hipoglucemias. El identificador neuronal es entrenado en línea con un filtro de Kalman extendido con una función de activación definida por la tangente hiperbólica. El controlador no lineal por bloques se basa en la estructura de la red neuronal, cuya salida es la propuesta de dosificación de insulina antes de prealimentación y módulo de seguridad. El algoritmo presenta un peso que se interpreta como una ganancia de controlabilidad. La glucosa del paciente está condicionada al valor de la ganancia, se definen tres ensayos con diferentes valores: ensayo A (10?3); ensayo B (7 · 10?4) y ensayo C (9 · 10?3). El valor del peso de controlabilidad condiciona la cantidad de insulina propuesta por el controlador de forma directa en el paciente virtual medio del modelo de Hovorka

Papel del contexto urbano en la relación entre los síntomas ansiosos y el trastorno del espectro del autismo

Several investigations demonstrated a remarkable prevalence of comorbid anxiety symptoms in people affected by an autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This prevalence is much higher than the one observed in the normotypical population. This research aims to clarify whether context moderates this association between anxiety and autism. One hundred twenty-one adults (M = 35.46 years¸ SD = 9.46) with ASD and intellectual disability (ID) participated in this study. A moderation analysis was performed to determine the role of context – rural or urban – in the development of anxiety symptoms in people with ASD. The results reached allow us to conclude that the urban context significantly moderated the relationship between ASD and anxiety symptoms. These results suggest implications for preventing or reducing anxiety symptoms in people with ASD and ID related to the characteristics of the context in which they develop.Diversas investigaciones demostraron una notable prevalencia de la sintomatología ansiosa comórbida en personas afectadas por un trastorno del espectro del autismo (TEA). Esta prevalencia es muy superior a la que se observa en población normotípica. Esta investigación tiene por objetivo esclarecer si el contexto modera esta asociación entre ansiedad y autismo. En este estudio participaron ciento veintiún adultos (M = 35.46 años¸ SD = 9.46) con TEA y discapacidad intelectual (DI). Se realizó un análisis de moderación para conocer el papel del contexto – rural o urbano – en el desarrollo de síntomas ansiosos en personas con TEA. Los resultados alcanzados permiten concluir que el contexto urbano moderó de forma significativa la relación entre el TEA y los síntomas ansiosos. Estos resultados sugieren implicaciones para prevenir o reducir los síntomas ansiosos en las personas con TEA y DI relacionadas con las características del contexto en el que se desarrollan