Sleepiness, Neuropsychological Skills, and Scholastic Learning in Children

Excessive daytime sleepiness is a frequent condition among children and adolescents that may lead to several and significant daytime consequences, including impaired neurocognitive skills and scholastic performance. Here, we evaluated in one hundred and ninety-one unselected primary school children, the relationship between sleepiness and a wide range of cognitive and academic skills through a standardized neuropsychological test battery. In order to assess the statistical relationship, we performed a partial least squares path modelling, a non-parametrical approach which combined a model of paths between latent variables and the coefficients between indicators and dimensions. Results were validated through the bootstrap approach and suggest that sleepiness is not associated with all cognitive and scholastic abilities, but only with those relying on verbal abilities and complex cognitive functions (i.e., reading comprehension, oral/syntactic comprehension, spelling, and mathematic skills). Our data suggest the idea that sleepiness in children is associated mostly with “higher” (mainly verbal) cognitive function(s), while the visuospatial domain was not affected.

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The Problem of Identifying and Modeling the Relationship between Monetary Factor and Inflation in the Russian Economy

Voprosy Ekonomiki ◽

10.32609/0042-8736-2008-7-61-76 ◽

2008 ◽

pp. 61-76

Author(s):

A. Porshakov ◽

A. Ponomarenko

Keyword(s):

Money Supply ◽

Money Demand ◽

Russian Economy ◽

Long Run ◽

Complex Approach ◽

Wide Range ◽

Long Time ◽

The Relationship ◽

Supply Side Factors

The role of monetary factor in generating inflationary processes in Russia has stimulated various debates in social and scientific circles for a relatively long time. The authors show that identification of the specificity of relationship between money and inflation requires a complex approach based on statistical modeling and involving a wide range of indicators relevant for the price changes in the economy. As a result a model of inflation for Russia implying the decomposition of inflation dynamics into demand-side and supply-side factors is suggested. The main conclusion drawn is that during the recent years the volume of inflationary pressures in the Russian economy has been determined by the deviation of money supply from money demand, rather than by money supply alone. At the same time, monetary factor has a long-run spread over time impact on inflation.

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Celiac Disease in Kosovar Albanian Children: Evaluation of Clinical Features and Diagnosis

Current Pediatric Reviews ◽

10.2174/1573396316666200116093753 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 16 (3) ◽

pp. 241-247

Author(s):

Atifete Ramosaj-Morina ◽

Alije Keka-Sylaj ◽

Arbana Baloku Zejnullahu ◽

Lidvana Spahiu ◽

Virgjina Hasbahta ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Celiac Disease ◽

Disease Onset ◽

Clinical Manifestations ◽

Gastrointestinal Symptoms ◽

Dominant Mode ◽

Primary School Children ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Classical Form ◽

Wide Range ◽

The Mean

Background: Celiac disease is an immune-mediated disorder characterized by variable clinical manifestations, specific antibodies, HLA-DQ2/DQ8 haplotypes, and enteropathy. Objectives: The aim of this study was to present the clinical spectrum and patterns of celiac disease in Kosovar Albanian children. Methods: A cross-sectional retrospective study was performed with Albanian children aged 0-18 years, treated for celiac disease in the Pediatric Clinic, University Clinical Center of Kosovo from 2005 to 2016. Results: During the study period, 63 children were treated for celiac disease. The mean age at diagnosis was 5.5 years (SD ± 3.31). The mean age at celiac disease onset was 3.3 years (SD ± 2.02), while the mean delay from the first symptoms indicative of celiac disease to diagnosis was 2.2 years (SD ± 2.09). More than 70% of the patients were diagnosed in the first 7 years of life, mainly presented with gastrointestinal symptoms, while primary school children and adolescents mostly showed atypical symptoms (p<0.001). The classical form of celiac disease occurred in 78% of the cases. Sixty (95%) patients carried HLA-DQ2.5, DQ2.2 and/or HLA-DQ8 heterodimers, and only three of them tested negative. Conclusions: Kosovo, as the majority of developing countries, is still facing the classical form of celiac disease as the dominant mode of presentation; as a result, most children with other forms of the celiac disease remain undiagnosed. : Physicians should be aware of the wide range of clinical presentations and utilize low testing thresholds in order to prevent potential long-term problems associated with untreated celiac disease.

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Nonverbal Semantics Test (NVST)—A Novel Diagnostic Tool to Assess Semantic Processing Deficits: Application to Persons with Aphasia after Cerebrovascular Accident

Brain Sciences ◽

10.3390/brainsci11030359 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (3) ◽

pp. 359

Author(s):

Katharina Hogrefe ◽

Georg Goldenberg ◽

Ralf Glindemann ◽

Madleen Klonowski ◽

Wolfram Ziegler

Keyword(s):

Language Processing ◽

Cerebrovascular Accident ◽

Semantic Processing ◽

Factor Model ◽

Principal Component ◽

Original Data ◽

Verbal Abilities ◽

Verbal Tasks ◽

Alternative Means ◽

The Relationship

Assessment of semantic processing capacities often relies on verbal tasks which are, however, sensitive to impairments at several language processing levels. Especially for persons with aphasia there is a strong need for a tool that measures semantic processing skills independent of verbal abilities. Furthermore, in order to assess a patient’s potential for using alternative means of communication in cases of severe aphasia, semantic processing should be assessed in different nonverbal conditions. The Nonverbal Semantics Test (NVST) is a tool that captures semantic processing capacities through three tasks—Semantic Sorting, Drawing, and Pantomime. The main aim of the current study was to investigate the relationship between the NVST and measures of standard neurolinguistic assessment. Fifty-one persons with aphasia caused by left hemisphere brain damage were administered the NVST as well as the Aachen Aphasia Test (AAT). A principal component analysis (PCA) was conducted across all AAT and NVST subtests. The analysis resulted in a two-factor model that captured 69% of the variance of the original data, with all linguistic tasks loading high on one factor and the NVST subtests loading high on the other. These findings suggest that nonverbal tasks assessing semantic processing capacities should be administered alongside standard neurolinguistic aphasia tests.

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Exploring the Moderation Effect of Educational Stage on Visual Magnocellular Functioning Linked to Reading: A Study in French Primary School Children

Children ◽

10.3390/children8020068 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 8 (2) ◽

pp. 68

Author(s):

Stéphanie Bellocchi ◽

Virginie Leclercq

Keyword(s):

Reading Proficiency ◽

Beginning Readers ◽

Primary School Children ◽

Moderation Effect ◽

Magnocellular System ◽

Reading Abilities ◽

Developing Readers ◽

System Functioning ◽

Advanced Readers ◽

The Relationship

Many studies have investigated the visual magnocellular system functioning in dyslexia. However, very little is known on the relationship between the visual magnocellular system functioning and reading abilities in typical developing readers. In this study, we aimed at studying this relationship and more specifically the moderation effect of educational stage on this link. We thus tested 82 French typical developing readers (40 beginning readers—Grade 1 and 42 advanced readers—Grade 5) with reading tests and a coherent dot motion task measuring the visual magnocellular functioning. Results indicate positive correlations between visual magnocellular functioning and reading for beginning readers but not for advanced readers. Moreover, moderation analyses confirm that reading proficiency moderates the relationship between magnocellular system functioning and reading outcomes. We concluded that the relationship between visual magnocellular pathway functioning and reading abilities in typical developing readers could depend on reading proficiency.

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Polymorphic Iterable Sequential Effect Systems

ACM Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems ◽

10.1145/3450272 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 43 (1) ◽

pp. 1-79

Author(s):

Colin S. Gordon

Keyword(s):

Algebraic Structure ◽

Position Effect ◽

Type Systems ◽

Sequential Effect ◽

Prior Work ◽

Sequential Effects ◽

Wide Range ◽

The Relationship ◽

Categorical Semantics

Effect systems are lightweight extensions to type systems that can verify a wide range of important properties with modest developer burden. But our general understanding of effect systems is limited primarily to systems where the order of effects is irrelevant. Understanding such systems in terms of a semilattice of effects grounds understanding of the essential issues and provides guidance when designing new effect systems. By contrast, sequential effect systems—where the order of effects is important—lack an established algebraic structure on effects. We present an abstract polymorphic effect system parameterized by an effect quantale—an algebraic structure with well-defined properties that can model the effects of a range of existing sequential effect systems. We define effect quantales, derive useful properties, and show how they cleanly model a variety of known sequential effect systems. We show that for most effect quantales, there is an induced notion of iterating a sequential effect; that for systems we consider the derived iteration agrees with the manually designed iteration operators in prior work; and that this induced notion of iteration is as precise as possible when defined. We also position effect quantales with respect to work on categorical semantics for sequential effect systems, clarifying the distinctions between these systems and our own in the course of giving a thorough survey of these frameworks. Our derived iteration construct should generalize to these semantic structures, addressing limitations of that work. Finally, we consider the relationship between sequential effects and Kleene Algebras, where the latter may be used as instances of the former.

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Age-Dependency of Total Tau in the Cerebrospinal Fluid Is Corrected by Amyloid-β 1–40: A Correlational Study in Healthy Adults

Journal of Alzheimer s Disease ◽

10.3233/jad-210286 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-8

Author(s):

Paul Theo Zebhauser ◽

Achim Berthele ◽

Marie-Sophie Franz ◽

Oliver Goldhardt ◽

Janine Diehl-Schmid ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Cerebrospinal Fluid ◽

Amyloid Β ◽

Healthy Adults ◽

Tau Proteins ◽

Clinical Settings ◽

Inclusion Criteria ◽

Total Tau ◽

Potential Marker ◽

Wide Range ◽

The Relationship

Background: Tau proteins are established biomarkers of neuroaxonal damage in a wide range of neurodegenerative conditions. Although measurement of total-Tau in the cerebrospinal fluid is widely used in research and clinical settings, the relationship between age and total-Tau in the cerebrospinal fluid is yet to be fully understood. While past studies reported a correlation between age and total-Tau in the cerebrospinal fluid of healthy adults, in clinical practice the same cut-off value is used independently of patient’s age. Objective: To further explore the relationship between age and total-Tau and to disentangle neurodegenerative from drainage-dependent effects. Methods: We analyzed cerebrospinal fluid samples of 76 carefully selected cognitively healthy adults and included amyloid-β 1–40 as a potential marker of drainage from the brain’s interstitial system. Results: We found a significant correlation of total-Tau and age, which was no longer present when correcting total-Tau for amyloid-β 1–40 concentrations. These findings were replicated under varied inclusion criteria. Conclusion: Results call into question the association of age and total-Tau in the cerebrospinal fluid. Furthermore, they suggest diagnostic utility of amyloid-β 1–40 as a possible proxy for drainage-mechanisms into the cerebrospinal fluid when interpreting biomarker concentrations for neurodegenerative diseases.

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Understanding the Adoption of Incentivized Word-of-Mouth in the Online Environment

Journal of theoretical and applied electronic commerce research ◽

10.3390/jtaer16040056 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 16 (4) ◽

pp. 992-1007

Author(s):

Bogdan Anastasiei ◽

Nicoleta Dospinescu ◽

Octavian Dospinescu

Keyword(s):

Latent Variables ◽

Word Of Mouth ◽

Electronic Word Of Mouth ◽

Argument Quality ◽

Message Type ◽

Source Expertise ◽

The One ◽

Random Groups ◽

The Relationship ◽

Adoption Intention

Nowadays, word-of-mouth is a very important component of e-commerce activity because consumers are very sensitive to other people’s opinions. Depending on the companies’ politics, these opinions can be incentivized or non-incentivized. One of the major dilemmas consists in establishing which kind of word-of-mouth has more influence on customers’ perceptions. The purpose of this study is to assess the relationships between perceived argument quality (PAQ) and perceived source expertise (PSE), on the one hand, and electronic word-of-mouth adoption intention on the other hand, for an incentivized message compared to a non-incentivized message. We processed answers from two different random groups by using adapted PAQ and PSE inventories of questions. The constructs, latent variables and items were analyzed in IBM Amos software, and our findings confirm the hypotheses regarding the relationship between the attributes of the message (argument quality and source expertise) and message credibility. Additionally, we found a significant positive relationship between message credibility and electronic word-of-mouth adoption intention. Our research also explores the moderating role of the message type (incentivized vs. non-incentivized) in the relationships above, and we discovered that the message type significantly moderates the relationship between perceived argument quality and credibility, but the type of message does not moderate the relationship between message credibility and eWOM adoption intention.

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Modelling the elastic mechanical properties of bioactive glass-derived scaffolds

Biomedical glasses ◽

10.1515/bglass-2020-0005 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 6 (1) ◽

pp. 50-56

Author(s):

Francesco Baino ◽

Elisa Fiume

Keyword(s):

Elastic Properties ◽

Poisson’S Ratio ◽

Mechanical Performance ◽

Solid Material ◽

Poisson's Ratio ◽

Predictive Capability ◽

Shear Moduli ◽

Wide Range ◽

Constitutive Parameters ◽

The Relationship

AbstractPorosity is known to play a pivotal role in dictating the functional properties of biomedical scaffolds, with special reference to mechanical performance. While compressive strength is relatively easy to be experimentally assessed even for brittle ceramic and glass foams, elastic properties are much more difficult to be reliably estimated. Therefore, describing and, hence, predicting the relationship between porosity and elastic properties based only on the constitutive parameters of the solid material is still a challenge. In this work, we quantitatively compare the predictive capability of a set of different models in describing, over a wide range of porosity, the elastic modulus (7 models), shear modulus (3 models) and Poisson’s ratio (7 models) of bioactive silicate glass-derived scaffolds produced by foam replication. For these types of biomedical materials, the porosity dependence of elastic and shear moduli follows a second-order power-law approximation, whereas the relationship between porosity and Poisson’s ratio is well fitted by a linear equation.

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A Progressive View on Religion and Modern Art

Religion and the Arts ◽

10.1163/15685292-01905002 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 19 (5) ◽

pp. 488-530

Author(s):

Cynthia Fowler

Keyword(s):

Cultural Identity ◽

Modern Art ◽

Religious Art ◽

Wide Range ◽

Museum Professionals ◽

The Relationship

This article examines the Religious Art of Today exhibition, originally held in 1944 at Boston’s Institute of Modern Art and then reformulated for the Dayton Art Institute in Ohio. The exhibition was eclectic in that it included a wide range of artists and a diversity of faiths, and engaged the debate held among museum professionals about the relationship between religion and modern art. The article focuses closely on Catholic, Jewish, and Navajo art included in the exhibition. The IMA’s commitment to the figurative tradition afforded artists the opportunity to explore their identities—as Jews, as Catholics, as Navajos—using recognizable religious subjects. That the works in the exhibition were selected as representative of modern art resulted in a convergence of discourses related to modern art with those of religious/cultural identity.

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New Insights into Molecular Mechanism behind Anti-Cancer Activities of Lycopene

Molecules ◽

10.3390/molecules26133888 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 26 (13) ◽

pp. 3888

Author(s):

Boon-Peng Puah ◽

Juriyati Jalil ◽

Ali Attiq ◽

Yusof Kamisah

Keyword(s):

Immune Cells ◽

Scientific Evidence ◽

Special Role ◽

Real Potential ◽

Wide Range ◽

Anti Cancer ◽

The Family ◽

The Relationship ◽

Cancer Activity ◽

Reduced Risk

Lycopene is a well-known compound found commonly in tomatoes which brings wide range of health benefits against cardiovascular diseases and cancers. From an anti-cancer perspective, lycopene is often associated with reduced risk of prostate cancer and people often look for it as a dietary supplement which may help to prevent cancer. Previous scientific evidence exhibited that the anti-cancer activity of lycopene relies on its ability to suppress oncogene expressions and induce proapoptotic pathways. To further explore the real potential of lycopene in cancer prevention, this review discusses the new insights and perspectives on the anti-cancer activities of lycopene which could help to drive new direction for research. The relationship between inflammation and cancer is being highlighted, whereby lycopene suppresses cancer via resolution of inflammation are also discussed herein. The immune system was found to be a part of the anti-cancer system of lycopene as it modulates immune cells to suppress tumor growth and progression. Lycopene, which is under the family of carotenoids, was found to play special role in suppressing lung cancer.

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