Haptic input and balance control: An exploratory study examining normative messaging

2019 ◽  
pp. 135910531987744
Author(s):  
Kevin S Spink ◽  
Colin W Federow ◽  
Joel L Lanovaz ◽  
Alison R Oates

This study examined the effect of descriptive norm messaging information on the relationship between haptic input and balance control. Participants were randomly assigned to either a message group where they balanced with haptic input after receiving a descriptive norm message about the positive effect of haptic input or a control group. Findings from an analysis of covariance revealed a significant difference between the two groups. Those in the descriptive norm message group had better balance control than those in the control group. These findings suggest that efforts designed to improve balance control through haptic input may be enhanced through normative messaging.

2015 ◽  
Vol 85 (6) ◽  
pp. 920-926 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ricardo Carvalho Bueno ◽  
Roberta Tarkany Basting

ABSTRACT Objective:  To evaluate the proliferation and morphology of human osteoblasts cultured on two brands of mini-implants after 24, 48, and 72 hours, in addition to the chemical composition found on their surface. Materials and Methods:  Two brands of mini-implant (Morelli and Neodent) were evaluated; polystyrene was used as a control group (n  =  3). Osteoblasts were cultured on the surface of sterilized mini-implants in a CO2 incubator at different time periods (24, 48, and 72 hours). Osteoblast proliferation was quantified by scanning electron microscopy using up to 5000× magnification, and cell morphology was analyzed by a single observer. For the chemical analysis, spectroscopy X-ray fluorescence was used to identify and quantify chemical components on the surface of the mini-implants. Results:  Two-way ANOVA showed no significant interaction between the factors studied (P  =  0.686). A Tukey test revealed no significant difference in osteoblast proliferation between the mini-implants at all studied periods; however, a difference in cell proliferation was detected between the Neodent and the control group (P  =  .025). For all groups, time had a direct and positive effect on osteoblast proliferation (P < .001). The significant elements present in both brands of mini-implants were titanium, aluminum, vanadium, and iron. Conclusions:  Osteoblast proliferation was present on the mini-implants studied, which increased over time; however, no significant difference between brands was observed. No difference was seen between the mini-implants evaluated in terms of chemical composition. Cell adhesion after 72 hours suggests that areas of bone remodeling can be achieved, thus initiating the process of mini-implant anchorage.


Author(s):  
Owen Stafford ◽  
Anna Berry ◽  
Laura K. Taylor ◽  
Sinead Wearen ◽  
Cian Prendergast ◽  
...  

Abstract Objective: The unprecedented occurrence of a global pandemic is accompanied by both physical and psychological burdens that may impair quality of life. Research relating to COVID-19 aims to determine the effects of the pandemic on vulnerable populations who are at high risk of developing negative health or psychosocial outcomes. Having an ongoing medical condition during a pandemic may lead to greater psychological distress. Increased psychological distress may be due to preventative public health measures (e.g. lockdown), having an ongoing medical condition, or a combination of these factors. Methods: This study analyses data from an online cross-sectional national survey of adults in Ireland and investigates the relationship between comorbidity and psychological distress. Those with a medical condition (n128) were compared to a control group without a medical condition (n128) and matched according to age, gender, annual income, education, and work status during COVID-19. Participants and data were obtained during the first public lockdown in Ireland (27.03.202008.06.2020). Results: Individuals with existing medical conditions reported significantly higher levels of anxiety (p<.01) and felt less gratitude (p.001). Exploratory analysis indicates that anxiety levels were significantly associated with illness perceptions specific to COVID-19. Post-hoc analysis reveal no significant difference between the number of comorbidities and condition type (e.g. respiratory disorders). Conclusion: This research supports individualised supports for people with ongoing medical conditions through the COVID-19 pandemic, and has implications for the consideration of follow-up care specifically for mental health. Findings may also inform future public health policies and post-vaccine support strategies for vulnerable populations.


2021 ◽  
Vol 17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seyedeh Zahra Masoumi ◽  
Khodayar Oshvandi ◽  
Masoumeh Rostami-Moez ◽  
Arezoo Shayan ◽  
Farideh Kazemi

Background: Infertility can cause low marital satisfaction. Marital satisfaction has an important effect on infertile couples’ health. Objective: This study aimed to assess the effect of relationship enrichment training on improving the marital satisfaction of infertile couples. Methods: This randomized clinical trial was conducted on 50 infertile couples in the infertility center of Fatemieh Hospital in Hamadan, Iran in 2018. Participants were matched for demographic characteristics and randomly assigned to intervention and control groups (each group had 25 couples). Informed consent was obtained from all participants. The Enrich Marital Satisfaction questionnaire and demographic information were used to collect data before the study and two months after the intervention. Two trained midwifery students taught only the intervention group the relationship enrichment topics in seven sessions (each session = 90 minutes). The data were analyzed by SPSS Statistics version 21 using analysis of covariance, independent t-test, chi-square, and Mann–Whitney. The significance level was set at p ≤ 0.05. Results: There was no significant difference in demographic and obstetric information between the two groups (p >0.05). The mean of marital satisfaction in the intervention group significantly increased among women and men from 151.00 ±28.61 to 154.88 ±22.62 and from 152.56 ±27.33 to 159.24 ±22.14, respectively, (p <0.001). Conversely, the mean of marital satisfaction decreased among women and men from 158.13 ±13.86 to 146.25 ±19.53 and from 164.25 ±17.00 to 153.17 ±27.50 in the control group (p=0.02). Conclusion: Relationship enrichment training can be effective in promoting the marital satisfaction of infertile couples. Registration number: The National Center for Strategic Research in medical education, No. 960185.


2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 194-199
Author(s):  
Mahdi Ghafari ◽  
Ebrahim Banitalebi ◽  
Mohamad Faramarzi

Background and aims: Intermuscular lipolysis disorder plays an important role in insulin resistance and diabetes mellitus and perilipin PLIN5 and PLIN3 are the key proteins in regulating muscle cellular lipolysis. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between the expression of PLIN3 and PLIN5 protein following endurance training in streptozotocin (STZ) rats. Methods: A number of 24 male Wistar rats were randomly divided into low endurance training group (n = 8), high-intensity training group (n = 8), and control group (n = 8). Diabetes was induced in every rat by STZ injection. Three days after injection, the blood samples were taken from the cut tip of the tails of the mice and animals with blood glucose greater than 300 mg/dL were considered diabetic. The training program included eight weeks of aerobic training at different intensities. Training in high- and low-intensity groups included 22-25 and 5-8 m/min of training. Finally, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and correlation was used to determine the significance of the differences between variables, followed by utilizing Tukey’s post-hoc test for significance. Results: The comparison between the groups by ANOVA showed significant differences in PLIN3 (P=0.0006) and PLIN5 (P=0.012). The results of Tukey post hoc test also demonstrated a statistical difference between the mean values of diabetic control group and high-intensity endurance group regarding PLIN3 (P=0.01) and PLIN5 (P=0.009), but no significant increase was observed in the lowintensity exercise group as compared to the control group (PLIN3, P=0.067 & PLIN5, P=0.44). As regards insulin resistance, there was a significant difference among the three groups (P=0.0001). Eventually, the result of the correlation between PLIN3 and PLIN5 showed similar enhancement by increasing the intensity (P=0.0026). Conclusion: According to research results, high-intensity endurance training increased the expression of PLIN3 and PLIN5 in diabetic specimens and PLIN3 and PLIN5 followed a similar increase pattern in high-intensity training


Author(s):  
Mahmut Atum ◽  
Gürsoy Alagöz

Purpose: This study aimed to compare the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte (NLR) and plateletto- lymphocyte (PLR) ratios in patients with retinal artery occlusion (RAO) with those from a healthy control population and to identify the relationship between them. Methods: Forty-six patients with RAO and fifty-one healthy control subjects were included in this retrospective case-control study. RAO was diagnosed following an ophthalmic examination and fluorescein angiography (FA). Blood neutrophil, lymphocyte, and platelet counts were recorded for each of the 97 subjects, from which NLR and PLR values were calculated. Results: There were 46 patients (28 male [M], 18 female [F]) in the RAO group and 51 patients (27 M, 24 F) in the control group. No significant differences were found between patients with RAO and the control subjects in terms of gender and age (P > 0.05). Patients with RAO had significantly increased NLR values (2.85 ± 1.70) than the control subjects (1.63 ± 0.59, P < 0.001). The mean PLR in patients with RAO was 123.69 ± 64.98, while that in control subjects was 103.08 ± 36.95; there was no significant difference between the two groups (P = 0.055). A logistic regression analysis revealed that NLRs were 3.8 times higher in patients with RAO than in control subjects (odds ratio = 3.880; 95% confidence interval = 1.94 to 7.74; P < 0.001). Conclusion: NLRs were significantly increased in patients with RAO compared to the control subjects.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuki Oda ◽  
Chiaki Furutani ◽  
Reo Kawano ◽  
Jumpei Murakami ◽  
Yuika Mizota ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: Studies have reported a high prevalence of periodontal disease in individuals with intellectual disability (ID). The aim of this study was to compare the relative abundance of periodontal pathogens (red, orange, yellow, purple, and green complexes) between individuals with ID and healthy controls.Methods: Of the 31 subjects enrolled in this study, 16 with severe ID were selected from the outpatient clinic of the Special Care Dentistry of Hiroshima University Hospital, and 14 healthy subjects were selected from the outpatient clinic of another department at the same hospital. Dental plaque was sampled after oral examination. Decayed, missing, and filled permanent teeth (DMFT) counts were obtained and periodontal measurements were taken using the papillary-marginal-attached (PMA) index, plaque index (PI), gingival index (GI), and probing depth (PD). Gene sequencing (16S rRNA) was performed for each sample using next-generation high-throughput sequencing methods. The relative abundance of the periodontal pathogens and the clinical parameters were compared. An unpaired t-test was used to compare the oral health status in both groups and analysis of covariance was performed to compare the relative abundance of each pathogen.Results: No statistically significant difference in DMFT was observed between the two groups. However, significant differences in the median PMA index, PI, and GI were noted between the groups (P < 0.0001). In addition, the mean PD in the ID group was significantly higher than that in the control group (P < 0.0001). The relative abundances of Tannerella spp. and Treponema spp. were significantly higher in the ID group when compared to the control group at the genus level (P = 0.0383 and 0.0432, respectively); alternatively, the relative abundance of Porphyromonas spp. was significantly lower in the ID group (P < 0.0001).Conclusions: The PMA index, PI, GI, and PD were significantly lower in the ID group than in the control group. On the other hand, no significant difference in DMFT was observed between the two groups. Furthermore, our findings indicate that Tannerella forsythia might be more closely associated with periodontal disease than Porphyromonas gingivalis in individuals with ID.


EDULANGUE ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-35
Author(s):  
Kasyfur Rahman ◽  
Imansyah Imansyah ◽  
I Made Permadi Utama

This study aimed to investigate the relative effect of Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD) teaching approach on tertiary EFL students’ writing. During two months, sixty EFL University students enrolling in basic writing course took part in this project and were divided into experimental and control groups. Pre- and post-tests were carried out to garner the intended data pertinent to the students’ writing scores. A mixed-design ANOVA was carried out to analyze the changes of writing scores of the respective groups since the assumption of homogeneity of regression slopes for the planned Analysis of Covariance was not met. The statistical evidence showed that there was a significant difference between the two groups in terms of writing scores at the significant value sig .00 < .05. The data also suggested that students who were taught using SRSD relatively outperformed their counterparts in the control group. The empirical evidence demonstrates that the use of SRSD as an instructional approach to some extent positively affects EFL students’ writing skill.


Author(s):  
Alimohammad Ranjbar ◽  
Elahe Kamali Ardakani ◽  
Rahele Zareshahi

Aims: In Iranian culture, due to some narratives from the prophet Mohammad about the use of frankincense during pregnancy for increasing IQ in children, some women consume frankincense during expectancy. This study's goal is to evaluate the relationship between frankincense used during pregnancy and the incidence of ADHD. Methods: In this study, the case group comprised children 4-17 years old referring to Shahid Chamran Pharmacy in Yazd from summer to winter 2018 for receiving Methylphenidate, those with whom a psychologist had identified ADHD based on DSM-V factors.  The control group included children of the same age group but without ADHD. For data gathering, a checklist was used with some questions on smoking, family history of ADHD, presence/absence of a specific disease during pregnancy, frankincense used during pregnancy, and a chemical medication consumed during pregnancy. Results: The main result demonstrated that the children whose mothers used frankincense during pregnancy were 0.67 times less likely to be affected by ADHD than those whose mothers did not use this substance. However, the difference failed to be statistically significant (P>0.05). Conclusion: Some studies report that frankincense can bear a positive effect on the development of the brain and possibly adequate formation of dendrites trees, axons and induce proper communication between them, so the impact of frankincense on the brain may be justified by its protective effect against the hyperactive child.


2016 ◽  
Vol 88 (1) ◽  
pp. 56 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mehmet Zeynel Keskin ◽  
Salih Budak ◽  
Saim Gubari ◽  
Kalender Durmaz ◽  
Mehmet Yoldas ◽  
...  

Objectives: There are a number of studies about the effect of cigarette and alcohol on semen parameters in the literature. There is not a consensus on the relationship between use of cigarette and alchol and semen parameters in those studies. The number of studies in which cigarette and alcohol use are evaluated together is limited. This study was aimed to analyze the effect of cigarette and/or alcohol use on semen parameters. Methods: In this prospective study, 762 patients who applied to an hospital urology polyclinic between January 2015 and March 2015 due to infertility, were questioned for alcohol and cigarette use in anamnesis. The remaining 356 patients were included in our study. Then, semen analysis of the patients was performed. The patients were divided into five groups according to cigarette use, into five groups according to alcohol use and into four groups according to cigarette and/or alcohol use. Significant differences were analyzed between the groups in terms of semen volume, semen concentration, total motility, forward motility and morphological (normality, head anomaly, neck anomaly, tail anomaly) values. Results: According to cigarette use, only in group 4 (who use more than 20 package-years cigarette) semen volume was significantly lower than the control group (Mann-Whitney U, p = 0.009). There was no significant difference in any of the other parameters and groups compared with the control group (Mann-Whitney U, p &gt; 0,05) Conclusion:According to our study, using more than 20 package- years cigarette decreases semen volume. The reason of this result might be the fact that the threshold value, from which the effect of cigarette and alcohol use on the semen parameters has to be determined.


2019 ◽  
Vol 126 (5) ◽  
pp. 886-903 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Meggs ◽  
Mark A. Chen

This study assessed the effect of two different psychological methods of skills training—self-talk and goal setting—on the swimming performance of youth swimmers. We allocated a convenience sample of club and county level youth swimmers ( N = 49; Mage = 10.8, SD = 1.25) to one of the three groups: self-talk, goal setting, or a control group engaged in no systematic psychological method of skills training. The groups were balanced in terms of competitive performance ability, age, and gender. Participants in the experimental conditions (self-talk and goal setting) completed a 5-week psychological skills intervention program and were measured on pre- and post-200-m swimming time in competition. After controlling for level of engagement in the program, analysis of covariance revealed a significant omnibus effect ( p = .006, [Formula: see text] = .20) with post hoc pairwise comparisons using magnitude-based statistics demonstrating that goal setting had a small positive effect compared with self-talk ( η2 = .40; ± 0.45). Both self-talk ( η2 = .50; ±0.48) and goal setting ( η2 = .71; ±0.4) showed a small and moderate positive effect, respectively, relative to the control group. A social validation check confirmed that the swimmers found the intervention to be relevant, beneficial, and meaningful for improving performance. Psychological skills training may be effective in improving youth swimming performance; specific mechanisms underlying these benefits need further exploration.


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