Symptomatic second-degree atrioventricular block in a recreational athlete

This case study provides an example of bradycardia associated with an increase in exercise training in a recreational athlete. Although recognised among high-level endurance athletes, this case demonstrates the potential negative effects of exercise on the heart in a patient participating in the levels of exercise recommended by Public Health England. It adds weight to the ongoing discussion of the incomplete understanding of the level of exercise needed to induce pathological changes in cardiac physiology. We discuss the investigations that led us to our diagnosis, highlighting the importance of a detailed exercise history in patients who present with palpitations and provide a potential explanation of how this phenomenon may have occurred. Currently, bradycardia induced by exercise has been managed through pacemaker insertion or complete cessation of exercise. This report demonstrates effective treatment through a period of exercise cessation and slow reintroduction of exercise training.

Social Learning Strategies and Cooperative Behaviour: Evidence of Payoff Bias, but Not Prestige or Conformity, in a Social Dilemma Game

Human cooperation, occurring without reciprocation and between unrelated individuals in large populations, represents an evolutionary puzzle. One potential explanation is that cooperative behaviour may be transmitted between individuals via social learning. Using an online social dilemma experiment, we find evidence that participants’ contributions were more consistent with payoff-biased transmission than prestige-biased transmission or conformity. We also found some evidence for lower cooperation (i) when exposed to social information about peer cooperation levels than without such information, and (ii) in the prisoners’ dilemma game compared to the snowdrift game. A simulation model established that the observed cooperation was more likely to be caused by participants’ general propensity to cooperate than by the effect of social learning strategies employed within the experiment, but that this cooperative propensity could be reduced through selection. Overall, our results support previous experimental evidence indicating the role of payoff-biased transmission in explaining cooperative behaviour, but we find that this effect was small and was overwhelmed by participants’ general propensity for cooperation.

Comparative anatomy of dissected optic lobes, optic ventricles, midbrain tectum, collicular ventricles, and aqueduct: evolutionary modifications as potential explanation for non-tumoral aqueductal anomalies in humans

Purpose An extensive literature has postulated multiple etiologies for aqueductal stenosis. No publications were found, discussing that evolutionary modifications might explain aqueductal anomalies. This study’s objectives were to review the evolutionary modifications of vertebrates’ tectum structures that might explain human aqueduct anomalies. Undertaking vertebrate comparative study is currently not feasible in view of limitations in obtaining vertebrate material. Thus, vertebrate material collected, injected, dissected, and radiographed in the early 1970s was analyzed, focusing on the aqueduct and components of the midbrain tectum. Methods Photographs of brain dissections and radiographs of the cerebral ventricles and arteries of adult shark, frog, iguana, rabbit, cat, dog, and primate specimens, containing a barium-gelatin radiopaque compound, were analyzed focusing on the aqueduct, the optic ventricles, the quadrigeminal plate, and collicular ventricles. The anatomic information provided by the dissections and radiographs is not reproducible by any other radiopaque contrast currently available. Results Dissected and radiographed cerebral ventricular and arterial systems of the vertebrates demonstrated midbrain tectum changes, including relative size modifications of the mammalian components of the tectum, simultaneously with the enlargement of the occipital lobe. There is a transformation of pre-mammalian optic ventricles to what appear to be collicular ventricles in mammals, as the aqueduct and collicular ventricle form a continuous cavity. Conclusions The mammalian tectum undergoes an evolutionary cephalization process consisting of relative size changes of the midbrain tectum structures. This is associated with enlargement of the occipital lobe, as part of overall neocortical expansion. Potentially, aqueductal anomalies could be explained by evolutionary modifications.

SOFIA upGREAT/FIFI-LS Emission-line Observations of Betelgeuse during the Great Dimming of 2019/2020

We report NASA-DLR SOFIA upGREAT circumstellar [O i] 63.2 μm and [C ii] 157.7 μm emission profiles and FIFI-LS [O i] 63.2 μm, [O i] 145.5 μm, and [C ii] 157.7 μm fluxes obtained shortly after Betelgeuse’s 2019/2020 Great Dimming event. Haas et al. noted a potential correlation between the [O i] 63.2 μm flux and V magnitude based on three Kuiper Airborne Observatory observations made with the CGS and FIFI instruments. The FIFI observation was obtained when V ≃ 0.88 and revealed a 3σ non-detection at a quarter of the previous CGS flux measurement made when V ≃ 0.35. A potential explanation could be a change in dust-gas drag heating by circumstellar silicates caused by variations in the photospheric radiation field. SOFIA observations provide a unique test of this correlation because the V-band brightness went to its lowest value on record, V ≃ 1.61, with the SOFIA observations being made when V FIFI−LS ≃ 1.51 and V upGREAT ≃ 1.36. The upGREAT spectra show a [O i] 63.2 μm flux larger than previous space observatory measurements obtained when V ≃ 0.58. The profile is consistent with formation in the slower, more turbulent inner S1 outflow, while the [C ii] 157.7 μm profile is consistent with formation farther out in the faster S2 outflow. Modeling of dust-gas drag heating, combined with 25 yr of Wing three-filter and V photometry, reveals that it is unlikely that the S1 circumstellar envelope and [O i] 63.2 μm fluxes are dominated by the dust-gas drag heating and that another heating source is also active. The [O i] 63.2 μm profile is hard to reconcile with existing outflow velocity models.

What will you want tomorrow? Children—But not adults- mis-predict another person’s future desires

Young children have difficulty predicting a future physiological state that conflicts with their current state. This finding is explained by the fact that children are biased by their current state (e.g., thirsty and desiring water) and thus have difficulty imagining themselves in a different state (e.g., not thirsty and desiring pretzels) “tomorrow,” for example. Another potential explanation that we explore here is that young children have difficulty understanding how physiological states, like thirst, fluctuate over time. We asked 3-, 4- and 5-year-olds (Experiment 1) and adults (Experiment 2) to predict what a thirsty Experimenter–who preferred crisps to water—would want (“water” or “crisps”) “right now” and “tomorrow.” Only adults correctly predicted someone else’s future desires when this person’s future and current desires conflicted. In contrast, both adults and children in the control groups (in which the Experimenter was not thirsty) had no difficulty predicting that the Experimenter would want crisps “right now” and “tomorrow.” Our findings suggest that children’s difficulty predicting future desires cannot solely be attributed to their being biased by their current state since the children in our study were, themselves, not thirsty. We discuss our results in the context of children’s difficulty understanding fluctuations in physiological states.

Differences between Facebook and Instagram Usage in Regard to Problematic Use and Well-Being

Although the association of well-being (e.g., self-esteem, depression symptoms, and loneliness) with Facebook usage (i.e., number of friends and frequency of use) has been investigated by many researchers, only a limited number of studies have scrutinised Facebook against Instagram use. The aim of this study is not only to address this literature gap but also to explore whether problematic use and well-being differ between Facebook and Instagram users in relation to the number of received “likes” and Facebook friends/Instagram followers, as well as the importance of these “likes” and friends/followers. Sixty-nine Facebook users and 66 Instagram users completed an online questionnaire, including self-esteem, loneliness, depression, and problematic Internet use items. Overall, Instagram users exhibited significantly higher problematic use behaviour compared to Facebook users. Age and importance of “followers” were negatively associated with problematic use of Instagram, whilst only the importance of “likes” was negatively associated with Facebook. The number of Facebook “friends” was positively associated with depressive symptoms, but this was not the case for the number of Instagram “followers”. It is important to note that the number of “likes” was only negatively associated with self-esteem, but there was no association with loneliness. A potential explanation between the differences in the two platforms and well-being might be related to their different functionalities, for example, Instagram is an image-oriented platform that may boost users’ self-esteem through post “likes” but only when the users are strongly connected.

NGTS Observations of Enhanced Nanoflare Activity in Fully Convective Stars Linked to Plasma Resistivity

Previous examination of fully-convective M-dwarf stars highlighted unexplained enhanced rates of nanoflare activity. A potential explanation was linked to the helical turbulence dynamo which operates in fully convective stars. However, recent studies have found this helical dynamo does not appear significantly different to the Solar dynamo. The specific role the convective boundary plays on observed nanoflare rates, until now, was not known. Here we find evidence that fully convective M2.5V (and later) stars display greatly enhanced nanoflare rates compared with their pre-convective boundary counterparts. Importantly, the rate of nanoflare activity increases with increasing spectral sub-type, with nanoflares exhibiting greatly enhanced flaring rates via Sweet-Parker reconnection. This occurs more favourably at increased plasma resistivities experienced in these later MV stars, suggesting a direct interplay between the rate of nanoflare occurrence and the intrinsic plasma parameters. As such, nanoflare behaviour is likely to be unrelated to the behaviour of the local dynamo.

Relationship Between Parent Vowel Hyperarticulation in Infant-Directed Speech and Infant Phonetic Complexity on the Level of Conversational Turns

When speaking to infants, parents typically use infant-directed speech, a speech register that in several aspects differs from that directed to adults. Vowel hyperarticulation, that is, extreme articulation of vowels, is one characteristic sometimes found in infant-directed speech, and it has been suggested that there exists a relationship between how much vowel hyperarticulation parents use when speaking to their infant and infant language development. In this study, the relationship between parent vowel hyperarticulation and phonetic complexity of infant vocalizations is investigated. Previous research has shown that on the level of subject means, a positive correlational relationship exists. However, the previous findings do not provide information about the directionality of that relationship. In this study the relationship is investigated on a conversational turn level, which makes it possible to draw conclusions on whether the behavior of the infant is impacting the parent, the behavior of the parent is impacting the infant, or both. Parent vowel hyperarticulation was quantified using the vhh-index, a measure that allows vowel hyperarticulation to be estimated for individual vowel tokens. Phonetic complexity of infant vocalizations was calculated using the Word Complexity Measure for Swedish. Findings were unexpected in that a negative relationship was found between parent vowel hyperarticulation and phonetic complexity of the immediately following infant vocalization. Directionality was suggested by the fact that no such relationship was found between infant phonetic complexity and vowel hyperarticulation of the immediately following parent utterance. A potential explanation for these results is that high degrees of vowel hyperarticulation either provide, or co-occur with, large amounts of phonetic and/or linguistic information, which may occupy processing resources to an extent that affects production of the next vocalization.

Effect of Dynamic Stereoscopic Vision on Balance with Induced Anisometropia

The purpose of this study was to investigate the correlation between dynamic stereoscopic vision and balance, and to compare our results to previous studies that sought to determine the correlation between changes in visual information and balance. Thirty-three healthy adults participated in the measurement of balance by inducing anisometropia with +0.0D, +2.0D, and +5.0D refractive lenses placed in specially made glasses that removed peripheral vision. COP data was collected via force plate and was evaluated by converting it to COP velocity. An α <0.05 was considered statistically significant. Our results show that, provided it is above a minimum threshold level, the greater the change in dynamic stereoscopic vision, the poorer the balance. And it was found that changes below a minimum threshold level did not affect the balance. These results provide a potential explanation for the complementary compensatory action of sensory information, which could not be explained previously based on the change of balance due to changes in visual information across both eyes. Given these data, it seems clear that vision correction is essential for those affected by dynamic stereoscopic vision formation disorders above a certain level in order to improve balance. On the other hand, dynamic stereoscopic vision formation disorders below a certain level can likely be improved using simple somatosensory treatments. This study will help physical therapists better consider dynamic stereoscopic vision when evaluating and conducting therapies designed to increase balance.