Finding a safe place to cross the road: the effect of distractors and the role of attention in children's identification of safe and dangerous road-crossing sites

Negotiating traffic requires the ability to focus attention on the traffic environment and ignore distracting stimuli. The aims of this study were (1) to examine the effect of distractors on children's ability to identify safe and dangerous road-crossing sites and (2) to examine the relationship between identification of safe/dangerous sites and attention (selective attention, attention switching sustained attention and divided amtion), Participants were 88 children (aged between 6 and 11 years) and 29 adults. Ability to identify safe and dangerous road-crossing sites was assessed using computer presentations of sites with and without visual and auditory distractions. Measures of attention were examined using the Test of Everyday Attention (child and adult versions). The ability to identify safe and dangerous road-crossing sites and performance on the attention tests were found to improve with increasing age, Correct identification of safe/ dangerous roadcrossing sites was related to selective attention and divided attention for children but not for adults. Road safety training should take into account the development of these skills

Choosing a safe place to cross the road: the relationship between attention and identification of safe and dangerous road-crossing sites

Background: Safe pedestrian behaviour relies on cognitive skills, including the ability to focus attention on the traffic environment and ignore irrelevant stimuli. An important pedestrian skill that young children find difficult is the ability to find a safe place to cross the road. The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between attention and children's ability to identify safe and dangerous road-crossing sites. Methods: Participants were 95 children (aged 6.5 years, 8.6 years and 10.4 years) and 33 adults. Ability to identify safe and dangerous road-crossing sites was assessed using computer presentations of five safe and five dangerous sites. Attention was assessed using the Stroop test for resistance to interference. Correlations were calculated between Stroop test measures and pedestrian task measures (accuracy and speed of identifying safe and dangerous road-crossing sites) for each age group separately. Results: The ability to identify safe and dangerous road-crossing sites and the ability to resist interference increased with age. Significant correlations were observed between identification of safe and dangerous road-crossing sites and performance on the Stroop test for children but not for adults. Discussion: The results indicated that attention is required for identifying road-crossing sites quickly and accurately, especially for younger children. Road safety training programmes for children may need to take into account the development of children's attention

Effectiveness of Group Cognitive Bbehavioral Therapy on Anxiety, Depression and Glycemic Control in Children with Type 1 Diabetes

The present study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of group cognitive behavioral therapy in reducing anxiety and depression and glycemic control in children with type I diabetes. The study was quasi- experimental with a pre-test, post-test design with control group. For this purpose, 30 children with diabetes were selected from Imam Reza Hospital in Mashhad. The children were randomly assigned into two experimental group (15) and control group (15). The experimental group was undergone eight 2-hour sessions of cognitive-behavioral training. Before and after the intervention, the Multidimensional Anxiety Scale for Children, which included four components of social anxiety, physical symptoms, harm avoidance, and separation anxiety, and Children Depression Inventory was administrated in both groups. The findings from the covariance analysis test revealed that depression and anxiety and glycemic control in experimental group was controlled at post-test and depression score in experimental group compared to the control group at post-test was decreased. The findings from the multivariate covariance analysis test between components of, physical symptoms, harm avoidance, separation anxiety, and social anxiety revealed meaningful differences between the two groups in social anxiety post-test score. Thus, cognitive behavior therapy can be effective for depression, anxiety, and blood sugar control in children

User Experience Observations on Factors That Affect Performance in a Road-Crossing Training Application for Children Using the CAVE

Each year thousands of pedestrian get killed in road accidents and millions are non-fatally injured. Many of these involve children and occur when crossing at or between intersections. It is more difficult for children to understand, assess and predict risky situations, especially in settings that they don't have that much experience in, such as in a city. Virtual Reality has been used to simulate situations that are too dangerous to practice in real life and has proven to be advantageous when used in training, aiming at improving skills. This paper presents a road-crossing application that simulates a pedestrian crossing found in a city setting. Children have to evaluate all given pieces of information (traffic lights, cars crossing, etc.) and then try to safely cross the road in a virtual environment. A VR CAVE is used to immerse children in the city scene. User experience observations were made so as to identify the factors that seem to affect children's performance. Results indicate that the application was well received as a learning tool and that gender; immersion and traffic noise seem to affect children's performance

The impact of sofosbuvir/daclatasvir or ribavirin in patients with severe COVID-19

OBJECTIVES: Sofosbuvir and daclatasvir are direct-acting antivirals highly effective against hepatitis C virus. There is some in silico and in vitro evidence that suggests these agents may also be effective against SARS-CoV-2. This trial evaluated the effectiveness of sofosbuvir in combination with daclatasvir in treating patients with COVID-19. METHODS: Patients with a positive nasopharyngeal swab for SARS-CoV-2 on RT-PCR or bilateral multi-lobar ground-glass opacity on their chest CT and signs of severe COVID-19 were included. Subjects were divided into two arms with one arm receiving ribavirin and the other receiving sofosbuvir/daclatasvir. All participants also received the recommended national standard treatment which, at that time, was lopinavir/ritonavir and single-dose hydroxychloroquine. The primary endpoint was time from starting the medication until discharge from hospital with secondary endpoints of duration of ICU stay and mortality. RESULTS: Sixty-two subjects met the inclusion criteria, with 35 enrolled in the sofosbuvir/daclatasvir arm and 27 in the ribavirin arm. The median duration of stay was 5 days for the sofosbuvir/daclatasvir group and 9 days for the ribavirin group. The mortality in the sofosbuvir/daclatasvir group was 2/35 (6%) and 9/27 (33%) for the ribavirin group. The relative risk of death for patients treated with sofosbuvir/daclatasvir was 0.17 (95% CI 0.04-0.73, P = 0.02) and the number needed to treat for benefit was 3.6 (95% CI 2.1-12.1, P < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: Given these encouraging initial results, and the current lack of treatments proven to decrease mortality in COVID-19, further investigation in larger-scale trials seems warranted