scholarly journals A Is for Apple: the Role of Letter–Word Associations in the Development of Grapheme–Colour Synaesthesia

2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (3-5) ◽  
pp. 409-446 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer L. Mankin ◽  
Julia Simner
Keyword(s):  
General Population ◽  
Literacy Acquisition ◽  
Word Associations ◽  
Letter Word ◽  
Typical Colour ◽  
Specific Letter

This study investigates the origins of specific letter–colour associations experienced by people with grapheme–colour synaesthesia. We present novel evidence that frequently observed trends in synaesthesia (e.g., A is typically red) can be tied to orthographic associations between letters and words (e.g., ‘A is for apple’), which are typically formed during literacy acquisition. In our experiments, we first tested members of the general population to show that certain words are consistently associated with letters of the alphabet (e.g., A is for apple), which we named index words. Sampling from the same population, we then elicited the typical colour associations of these index words (e.g., apples are red) and used the letter → index word → colour connections to predict which colours and letters would be paired together based on these orthographic-semantic influences. We then looked at direct letter–colour associations (e.g., red, blue…) from both synaesthetes and non-synaesthetes. In both populations, we show statistically that the colour predicted by index words matches significantly with the letter–colour mappings: that is, red because A is for apple and apples are prototypically red. We therefore conclude that letter–colour associations in both synaesthetes and non-synaesthetes are tied to early-learned letter–word associations.

scholarly journals Civil Religion or Nationalism? The National Day Celebrations in Norway

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 206
Author(s):  
Pål Ketil Botvar
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
General Population ◽  
Civil Religion ◽  
Religious Nationalism ◽  
Theoretical Concepts ◽  
Role Of Religion ◽  
Better Than ◽  
The Way

The Norwegian National Day (17 May, also referred to as Constitution Day) stands out as one of the most popular National Day celebrations in Europe. According to surveys, around seven out of every 10 Norwegians take part in a public celebration during this day. This means that the National Day potentially has an impact on the way people reflect upon national identity and its relationship to the Lutheran heritage. In this paper, I will focus on the role religion plays in the Norwegian National Day rituals. Researchers have described these rituals as both containing a significant religious element and being rather secularized. In this article, I discuss the extent to which the theoretical concepts civil religion and religious nationalism can help us understand the role of religion, or the absence of religion, in these rituals. Based on surveys of the general population, I analyze both indicators of civil religion and religious nationalism. The two phenomena are compared by looking at their relation to such items as patriotism, chauvinism, and xenophobia. The results show that civil religion explains participation in the National Day rituals better than religious nationalism.

scholarly journals AB0407 CARDIOVASCULAR BURDEN IN SYSTEMIC SCLEROSIS: QRISK3 VERSUS FRAMINGHAM FOR RISK ESTIMATION

2021 ◽  
Vol 80 (Suppl 1) ◽  
pp. 1232.1-1232
Author(s):  
M. Di Battista ◽  
S. Barsotti ◽  
A. Della Rossa ◽  
M. Mosca
Keyword(s):  
Risk Factors ◽  
Myocardial Infarction ◽  
Systemic Sclerosis ◽  
High Risk ◽  
General Population ◽  
Risk Score ◽  
Predictive Accuracy ◽  
Risk Estimation ◽  
Cross Sectional

Background:Cardiovascular (CV) diseases, namely myocardial infarction and stroke, are not among the most known and frequent complications of systemic sclerosis (SSc), but there is growing evidence that SSc patients have a higher prevalence of CV diseases than the general population [1].Objectives:To compare two algorithms for CV risk estimation in a cohort of patients with SSc, finding any correlation with clinical characteristics of the disease.Methods:SSc patients without previous myocardial infarction or stroke were enrolled. Traditional CV risk factors, SSc-specific characteristics and ongoing therapies were assessed. Framingham and QRISK3 algorithms were then used to estimate the risk of develop a CV disease over the next 10 years.Results:Fifty-six SSc patients were enrolled. Framingham reported a median risk score of 9.6% (IQR 8.5), classifying 24 (42.9%) subjects at high risk, with a two-fold increase of the mean relative risk in comparison to general population. QRISK3 showed a median risk score of 15.8% (IQR 19.4), with 36 (64.3%) patients considered at high-risk. Both algorithms revealed a significant role of some traditional risk factors and a noteworthy potential protective role of endothelin receptor antagonists (p=0.003). QRISK3 was also significantly influenced by some SSc-specific characteristics, as limited cutaneous subset (p=0.01), interstitial lung disease (p=0.04) and non-ischemic heart involvement (p=0.03), with the first two that maintain statistically significance in the multivariate analysis (p=0.02 for both).Conclusion:QRISK3 classifies more SSc patients at high-risk to develop CV diseases than Framingham, and it seems to be influenced by some SSc-specific characteristics. If its predictive accuracy were prospectively verified, the use of QRISK3 as a tool in the early detection of SSc patients at high CV risk should be recommended.References:[1]Ngian GS, Sahhar J, Proudman SM, Stevens W, Wicks IP, Van Doornum S. Prevalence of coronary heart disease and cardiovascular risk factors in a national cross-sectional cohort study of systemic sclerosis. Ann Rheum Dis. 2012;71:1980-3.Disclosure of Interests:None declared

scholarly journals Mortality rate in rheumatoid arthritis-related interstitial lung disease: the role of radiographic patterns

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria A. Nieto ◽  
Maria J. Rodriguez-Nieto ◽  
Olga Sanchez-Pernaute ◽  
Fredeswinda Romero-Bueno ◽  
Leticia Leon ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Rheumatoid Arthritis ◽  
Interstitial Lung Disease ◽  
Mortality Rate ◽  
General Population ◽  
Lung Disease ◽  
Interstitial Pneumonia ◽  
Usual Interstitial Pneumonia ◽  
Multiple Regression Model ◽  
Multicentric Study

Abstract Background To assess mortality rate (MR) and standardized mortality rate (SMR) of rheumatoid arthritis-related interstitial lung disease (RA-ILD) patients and to evaluate the role of radiographic patterns in mortality. Methods A longitudinal multicentric study was conducted in RA-ILD patients from 2005 to 2015 and followed-up until October 2018 in Madrid. Patients were included in the Neumologia-Reumatología y Enfermedades Autoinmunes Registry, from diagnosis of ILD. The main outcome was all-cause mortality. The radiographic pattern at baseline [usual interstitial pneumonia (UIP), nonspecific interstitial pneumonia (NSIP), or others] was the independent variable. Covariables included sociodemographic and clinical data. Survival techniques were used to estimate MR, expressed per 1000 persons-year with their 95% confidence intervals [CI]. Cox multiple regression model was run to examine the influence of radiographic patterns on survival. SMR [CI] was calculated comparing MR obtained with MR expected in the general population of Madrid by indirect age-gender standardization. Results 47 patients were included with a follow-up 242 patients-year. There were 16 (34%) deaths, and most frequent causes were acute ILD exacerbation and pneumonia. MR was 64.3 [39.4–104.9], and 50% of the patients died at 8.3 years from ILD diagnosis. After adjusting for confounders, (UIP compared to NSIP was associated with higher mortality risk. The overall SMR was 2.57 [1.4–4.17]. Women of 60–75 years of age were the group with the highest SMR. Conclusions RA-ILD is associated with an excess of mortality compared to general population. Our results support that UIP increases the risk of mortality in RA-ILD, regardless other factors.

FACTS, MYTHS AND INFODEMICS IN COVID-19 IN HEALTH CARE WORKERS AND GENERAL POPULATION: AN OBSERVATIONAL STUDY.

2021 ◽  
pp. 49-52
Author(s):  
Shrivastava P ◽  
Verma S ◽  
Khushboo Khushboo ◽  
Bhattacharya P K
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Social Media ◽  
General Population ◽  
Mass Media ◽  
Observational Study ◽  
Health Care Workers ◽  
The Public ◽  
Care Workers ◽  
Health Related

Despite the ubiquity of health-related communications via social media, no consensus has emerged what information should be conveyed and how it should be conveyed to avoid creating panic among general population. With lockdowns social media, mass media became as a habit by people for news, information regarding COVID-19 and it is practiced even after lockdown. During the COVID-19 pandemic, mass media, social media and local news has become as the source of a toxic “infodemic” source for public. It contained both solicited and unsolicited advice. No conceptual model exists for examining the roles of media. It is important to rst assess the important mis-information, role of infodemics and prevalent casualness among the public regarding the COVID-19. Till mass vaccination is not commenced it is prudent to emphasize guidelines and practices as per COVID guidelines like social distancing, wearing mask, hand hygiene

scholarly journals What Is the Role of Resilience and Coping Strategies on the Mental Health of the General Population during the COVID-19 Pandemic? Results from the Italian Multicentric COMET Study

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 1231
Author(s):  
Gaia Sampogna ◽  
Valeria Del Del Vecchio ◽  
Vincenzo Giallonardo ◽  
Mario Luciano ◽  
Umberto Albert ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
General Population ◽  
Coping Strategies ◽  
Mental Health Problems ◽  
Poor Mental Health ◽  
Adaptive Coping ◽  
Current Increase ◽  
Stress Symptoms ◽  
Low Levels

The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health are now well documented, however, few studies have been focused on the role of coping strategies and resilience in counterbalancing these detrimental effects. Data are derived from the COvid Mental hEalth Trial (COMET), a national multicentric trial carried out in the Italian general population. The final sample consisted of 20,720 participants, 53.1% (n = 11,000) of the sample reported low levels of resilience. Adaptive coping strategies and resilience levels did not have any significant protective impact on the levels of depressive, anxiety, and stress symptoms. Only self-distraction was a risk factor for poor mental health (Beta Coefficient, B = 0.1, 95% Confidence Interval, CI: 0.003 to 0.267 for stress symptoms; B = 0.2; 95% CI: 0.077 to 0.324 for anxiety symptoms and B = 0.2, 95% CI: 0.105 to 0.382 for depressive symptoms). High levels of resilience were predicted by adaptive coping strategies, such as acceptance (B = 1.8, CI 95% = 1.4–2.7). Exposure to the different weeks of lockdown, being infected by COVID-19, and being a healthcare professional did not influence the levels of resilience. Our findings should be carefully considered, since the low levels of resilience may represent the missing link between the pandemic and the current increase in mental health problems.

scholarly journals Indirect associations in learning semantic and syntactic lexical relationships

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Alex Kelly ◽  
David Reitter ◽  
Robert West ◽  
Moojan Ghafurian
Keyword(s):  
Computational Models ◽  
Human Memory ◽  
Learning Support ◽  
Distributional Semantics ◽  
Grammatical Structure ◽  
Word Associations ◽  
Part Of Speech ◽  
Degree Of Separation ◽  
Mechanisms Of Memory

Computational models of distributional semantics (a.k.a. word embeddings) represent a word's meaning in terms of its relationships with all other words. We examine what grammatical information is encoded in distributional models and investigate the role of indirect associations. Distributional models are sensitive to associations between words at one degree of separation, such as 'tiger' and 'stripes', or two degrees of separation, such as 'soar' and 'fly'. By recursively adding higher levels of representations to a computational, holographic model of semantic memory, we construct a distributional model sensitive to associations between words at arbitrary degrees of separation. We find that word associations at four degrees of separation increase the similarity assigned by the model to English words that share part-of-speech or syntactic type. Word associations at four degrees of separation also improve the ability of the model to construct grammatical English sentences. Our model proposes that human memory uses indirect associations to learn part-of-speech and that the basic associative mechanisms of memory and learning support knowledge of both semantics and grammatical structure.

scholarly journals Role of Cardiac Magnetic Resonance in Detecting Biventricular Apical Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-5
Author(s):  
Nathan Zaher ◽  
Hammam Shereef ◽  
Rashid Al Hussain ◽  
John Dawdy ◽  
Diane Levine ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cardiac Magnetic Resonance ◽  
Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy ◽  
Magnetic Resonance ◽  
General Population ◽  
Right Ventricular ◽  
Imaging Modality ◽  
Transthoracic Echocardiogram ◽  
Apical Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy ◽  
Low Prevalence

Apical Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy (ApHCM) is a rare variant of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy with a low prevalence in the general population. ApHCM with right ventricular involvement (BiApHCM) is largely unreported and may not be detected with conventional transthoracic echocardiogram (TTE) alone. Cardiac Magnetic Resonance (CMR) has been demonstrated to be a proficient imaging modality to diagnose BiApHCM. We present a case of BiApHCM that was diagnosed with TTE and further characterized by CMR. This imaging modality may be utilized more in the future to help diagnose and detect the prevalence of BiApHCM.

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