Exploring Emotion Recognition Patterns Among Iranian People Using CANTAB as an Approved Neuro-Psychological Assessment

Background: Emotion Recognition is the main component of social cognition and has various patterns in different cultures and nationalities. The present study aimed to investigate emotion recognition patterns among Iranians using the Cambridge Neuro-Psychological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB) as a valid neuropsychological test. Methods: In this descriptive-analytical study, 117 males and females (Mage = 32.1, SD = 6.4) were initially assessed by computerised intelligence and progressive matrices of RAVEN-2. Furthermore, the excitement recognition subtest taken from the Cambridge Neuro-Psychological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB) was performed. The correct response of participants to each of the six basic emotions as well as the recognition time was used for analysis. Results: The maximum correct responses rate was 75.83% related to happy emotion. The correct responses for sadness, surprise, disgust, anger and fear were 70%, 68.48%, 47.84%, 42.54% and 38.26%, respectively. Moreover, the shortest recognition time was related to disgust with 322ms, while sadness with mean response time 1800ms and fear response time with 1529ms indicated the longest recognition time. In addition, participants recognised happiness with mean response time in 1264ms better than other emotions; however, post-hoc t-test analyses showed that only the correct responses for sadness and surprised emotions did not differ significantly, (t (112) = -.59, p = .55, d = .05). These results suggested that different emotions have various correct responses. However, sadness and surprised did not differ. Conclusions: The findings of this study could be beneficial for evaluating cognitive elements, as well as cognitive abilities and inabilities among the Iranian population. Moreover, the findings could be used for investigating social cognition in this population.

Functional visual acuity after implantation of diffractive extended depth-of-focus intraocular lenses using an echelett optics

Background The prospective comparative case series aimed to evaluate all-distance visual acuity, contrast sensitivity, and functional visual acuity (FVA) of eyes with diffractive extended depth-of-focus (EDOF) intraocular lenses (IOLs) using an echelett optics and monofocal IOLs with the same platform. Methods Diffractive EDOF and monofocal IOLs were implanted in 27 eyes of 27 patients each. At 3 months after implantation, all-distance visual acuities at distances of 0.3, 0.5, 0.7, 1, 2, 3, and 5 m were measured under distance-corrected. Static visual function was also examined using photopic contrast sensitivity and area under the logarithmic contrast sensitivity function (AULCSF). Dynamic visual function was examined with FVA, and mean FVA value, visual maintenance ratio (VMR), mean response time, and number of blinks were evaluated. These outcomes were compared between the two IOLs. Results The mean distance-corrected visual acuities were better at distances of 0.7 m or nearer in eyes with EDOF IOLs. There was no difference in the contrast sensitivities (P > 0.22). In the FVA results, no difference was found in mean FVA and VMR (P > 0.68). Conclusion The static and dynamic evaluations of postoperative visual functions demonstrated that the visual function of eyes with EDOF IOLs under photopic and distance-corrected conditions was comparable to eyes with monofocal IOLs.

Cardiac Autonomic Modulation Response Before, During, and After Submaximal Exercise in Older Adults With Intellectual Disability

The analysis of the heart rate variability (HRV) consists of changes in the time intervals between consecutive R waves. It provides information on the autonomic nervous system regulation and it is a predictor of adverse cardiovascular events. Several studies analyzed this parameter in youth and adults with Intellectual Disability (ID). Nevertheless, there is a lack of information regarding the HRV before, during, and after exercise in older adults with ID. Therefore, we aimed to describe and compare the cardiac autonomic modulation before, during, and after the six-minute walk test (6MWT) in older adults with and without ID. Twenty-four volunteers with ID and 24 without ID (non-ID) participated in this study. HRV was assessed by R-R intervals at rest, during and after the 6MWT. At rest and recovery periods, the participants remained sited. The symbolic analysis was used to evaluate non-linear HRV components. The recovery HR kinetics was assessed by the mean response time, which is equivalent to time constant (τ)+time delay (TD). Between groups differences in HRV variables were not significant. During the recovery period, HR kinetics time variables showed significant better results in non-ID participants (TD: 6±5s vs. 15±11s; τ: 19±10s vs. 35±17s; and MRT: 25±9s vs. 50±11s, all p<0.050). In conclusion, our results suggest that the HRV in older adults with and without ID is similar during rest, exercise, and recovery. Recovery HR kinetics after the 6MWT was slower in older adults with ID. The reason for these results may be a reduced post-exercise vagal rebound in older adults with ID.

Development of an Interdisciplinary Electronic Consultation Platform in the Netherlands: a mixed methodes observational study. (Preprint)

BACKGROUND Consultation between General Practitioners (GPs) and hospital specialists can be challenging due to mutual unavailability and lack of interactive communication tools. By contrast, team-based case collaboration on a patient-centered network of healthcare professionals could facilitate communication and knowledge transfer. A digital interactive platform was developed to support this new way of collaboration. OBJECTIVE Purpose. To describe the development of the digital consultation platform (PRISMA) to connect general GPs with hospital specialists via the Siilo application and to evaluate the first year of use, including consultations, topic diversity, and number of participating physicians. METHODS Methods. We conducted a mixed-methods observational study, analyzing qualitative and quantitative data for cases posted on the platform between June 2018 and May 2020. Any GP can post questions to an interdisciplinary group of secondary care specialists, with the platform designed to facilitate discussion and knowledge exchange for all users. RESULTS Results. In total, 3674 cases were posted by 424 GPs across 16 specialisms. Most questions and answers concerned diagnosis, non-medical treatment, and medication. Mean response time was 76 minutes (range, 44–252). An average of three users engaged with each case (up to seven specialists). Almost half of the internal medicine cases received responses from at least two specialisms in secondary care, contrasting with about one-fifth for dermatology. Of note, the growth in consultations was steepest for dermatology. CONCLUSIONS Conclusions. Digital consultations offer the possibility for GPs to receive quick responses when seeking advice. The interdisciplinary approach of PRISMA creates opportunities for digital patient-centered networking. CLINICALTRIAL none

Minimizing Mean Response Time In Batch-Arrival Non-Observable Systems With Single-Server FIFO Queues Operating In Parallel

Consideration is given to a dispatching system, where jobs, arriving in batches, cannot be stored and thus must be immediately routed to single-server FIFO queues operating in parallel. The dispatcher can memorize its routing decisions but at any time instant does not have any system's state information. The only information available is the batch/job size and inter-arrival time distributions, and the servers' service rates. Under these conditions, one is interested in the routing policies which minimize the job's long-run mean response time. The single-parameter routing policy is being proposed which, according to the numerical experiments, outperforms best routing rules known by now for non-observable dispatching systems: probabilistic and deterministic. Both the batch-wise and job-wise assignments are studied. Extension to systems with unreliable servers is also addressed.

Expanded Exploration of the Auditory Naming Test in Patients with Dementia

Background: Auditory naming tests are superior to visual confrontation naming tests in revealing word-finding difficulties in many neuropathological conditions. Objective: To delineate characteristics of auditory naming most likely to reveal anomia in patients with dementia, and possibly improve diagnostic utility, we evaluated a large sample of patients referred with memory impairment complaints. Methods: Patients with dementia (N = 733) or other cognitive impairments and normal individuals (N = 69) were evaluated for frequency of impairment on variables of the Auditory Naming Test (ANT) of Hamberger & Seidel versus the Boston Naming Test (BNT). Results: Naming impairment occurred more frequently using the ANT total score (φ= 0.41) or ANT tip-of-the tongue score (TOT; φ= 0.19) but not ANT mean response time compared to the BNT in patients with dementia (p < 0.001). Significantly more patients were impaired on ANT variables than on the BNT in Alzheimer’s disease (AD), vascular dementia (VaD), mixed AD/VaD, and multiple domain mild cognitive impairment (mMCI) but not in other dementias or amnestic MCI (aMCI). This differential performance of patients on auditory versus visual naming tasks was most pronounced in older, well-educated, male patients with the least cognitive impairment. Impaired verbal comprehension was not contributory. Inclusion of an ANT index score increased sensitivity in the dementia sample (92%). Poor specificity (41%) may be secondary to the inherent limitation of using the BNT as a control variable. Conclusion: The ANT index score adds diagnostic utility to the assessment of naming difficulties in patients with suspected dementia.

Oxygen Uptake Kinetics in Endurance Trained Youth and Adult Cyclists

Previous studies reported faster pulmonary oxygen uptake kinetics at the onset of exercise in untrained youth compared with adults. Whether or not these differences are identical for trained groups have not been examined. The purpose of this study was to compare ̇VO2 kinetics of youth and adult cyclists at moderate and heavy-intensity exercise. Thirteen adult (age: 23.2 ± 4.8 years; ̇VO2peak 68.4 ± 6.8 mL·min-1.kg-1) and thirteen youth cyclists (age: 14.3 ± 1.5 years; ̇VO2peak 61.7 ± 4.3 mL·min-1.kg-1) completed a series of 6-min square wave exercises at moderate and heavy-intensity exercise at 90 rev·min-1. A two-way repeated-measure ANOVA was conducted to identify differences between groups and intensities. The time constant, time delay and the mean response time were not significantly different between youth and adult cyclists (p > 0.05). We found significant differences between intensities, with a faster time constant during moderate than heavy-intensity exercise in youth (24.1 ± 7.0 s vs. 31.8 ± 5.6 s; p = 0.004) and adults (22.7 ± 5.6 s vs. 28.6 ± 5.7 s; p < 0.001). The present data suggest that the effect of training history in adult cyclists compensate for the superior primary response of the oxygen uptake kinetics typically seen in youth compared to adults. Furthermore, the ̇VO2 response is dependent of work rate intensity in trained youth and adult cyclists.

The dynamic adjustment of mean arterial pressure during exercise: A potential tool for discerning cardiovascular health status

The regulation of mean arterial pressure (MAP) during exercise has important physiological and clinical implications. Kinetics analysis on numerous physiological variables following the transition from unloaded-to-loaded exercise has revealed important information regarding their control. Surprisingly, the dynamic response of MAP during this transition remains to be quantified. Therefore, ten healthy participants (5/5 M/F, 24±3 years) completed repeated transitions from unloaded to moderate- and heavy-intensity dynamic single-leg knee-extensor exercise to investigate the on-kinetics of MAP. Following the transition to loaded exercise, MAP increased in a first-order dynamic manner, subsequent to a time delay (moderate:23±10; heavy:19±9 s, P>0.05) at a speed (tau, moderate:59±30; heavy:66±19 s, P>0.05) which did not differ between intensities, but the MAP amplitude was doubled during heavy-intensity exercise (moderate:12±5; heavy:24±8 mmHg, p<0.001). The reproducibility (coefficient of variation (CV)) during heavy-intensity for unloaded baseline, amplitude, and mean response time, when assessed as individual transitions were 7±1, 18±2, and 25±4%, respectively. Averaging two transitions improved the CVs to 4±1, 8±2, and 13±3%, respectively. Preliminary findings supporting the clinical relevance of evaluating MAP kinetics in middle-aged hypertensive (n=5) and, age-matched, normotensive (n=5) participants revealed an exaggerated MAP response in both older groups (P<0.05), but the MAP response was slowed only for the patients with hypertension (P<0.05). It is concluded that kinetics modeling of MAP is practical for heavy-intensity knee-extensor exercise and may provide insight into cardiovascular health and the effect of aging.

Development of Perceptual Inhibition in Adolescents—a Critical Period?

Recent studies suggest that the developmental curves in adolescence, related to the development of executive functions, could be fitted to a non-linear trajectory of development with progressions and retrogressions. Therefore, the present study proposes to analyze the pattern of development in Perceptual Inhibition (PI), considering all stages of adolescence (early, middle, and late) in intervals of one year. To this aim, we worked with a sample of 275 participants between 10 and 25 years, who performed a joint visual and search task (to measure PI). We have fitted ex-Gaussian functions to the probability distributions of the mean response time across the sample and performed a covariance analysis (ANCOVA). The results showed that the 10- to 13-year-old groups performed similarly in the task and differ from the 14- to 19-year-old participants. We found significant differences between the older group and all the rest of the groups. We discuss the important changes that can be observed in relation to the nonlinear trajectory of development that would show the PI during adolescence.

Optimal Multiserver Scheduling with Unknown Job Sizes in Heavy Traffic

We consider scheduling to minimize mean response time of the M/G/k queue with unknown job sizes. In the singleserver k = 1 case, the optimal policy is the Gittins policy, but it is not known whether Gittins or any other policy is optimal in the multiserver case. Exactly analyzing the M/G/k under any scheduling policy is intractable, and Gittins is a particularly complicated policy that is hard to analyze even in the single-server case.