Metadeglutition? Rate of Aspiration-Related Events in Healthy Females Using a Novel Data Collection App

Purpose Recently, there has been increased emphasis in the dysphagia literature on what constitutes the “normal” swallow, including rates of aspiration and penetration in healthy persons across the age ranges. Since a majority of the normed-based studies utilized videofluoroscopy and were conducted in a tightly controlled environment, there is a need to increase the ecological validity of this body of research and investigate the swallow during functional, day-to-day activities. The aim of this study is to track the incidence of swallowing difficulty in young, healthy adults over an extended period to determine the frequency of aspiration-related events and under what environmental circumstances these events occurred. Method Sixty-nine young, healthy women (aged 18–39 years) participated in the study and recorded data for 95 consecutive days. Participants installed a web-based application on their cell phones and were asked to access the app and answer three simple questions immediately following any adverse swallowing events. These data were used to determine the frequency of aspiration-related events and their relationship to environmental circumstance. Results Fifty-three of the 69 participants (76.8%) reported coughing or choking, 43 (62.3%) reported clearing their throat, 19 (27.5%) reported a globus sensation, and 14 (20.2%) reported difficulty initiating a swallow. The environmental circumstances most commonly associated with aspiration-related events were talking, being distracted, and using an electronic device. Conclusion Results suggest that young, healthy adults experience aspiration-related events at a high frequency and that these events typically occur during activities that require dual attention.

Kecepatan dan Presentase Infeksi Penyakit Ice-Ice pada Kappaphycus alvarezii di Perairan Bluto Sumenep [Velocity and Infection Percentage of Ice-Ice Disease on Kappaphycus alvarezii in Bluto Beach Sumenep]

Seaweed is vulnerable to be infected by disease due to unlikely environmental circumstance. This condition could cause impact on the optimum growth of seaweed. This research was carried out to understand the rate and percentage of ice-ice disease on Kappaphycus alvarezii. Seven units of seaweed rafts were used. Each of them was observed every 12 hours. Results of this research indicated that the percentage of infection was relatively higher during the day on the observation units which were located next to the shore (1,008%). Three days after the infection of ice-ice disease occurred, the mortality of Kappaphycus alvarezii was certain. Therefore, it was recommended that harvesting Kappaphycus alvarezii should be done one day after the indications of ice-ice disease were noticed.

Modelling Adaptation through Social Allostasis: Modulating the Effects of Social Touch with Oxytocin in Embodied Agents

Social allostasis is a mechanism of adaptation that permits individuals to dynamically adapt their physiology to changing physical and social conditions. Oxytocin (OT) is widely considered to be one of the hormones that drives and adapts social behaviours. While its precise effects remain unclear, two areas where OT may promote adaptation are by affecting social salience, and affecting internal responses of performing social behaviours. Working towards a model of dynamic adaptation through social allostasis in simulated embodied agents, and extending our previous work studying OT-inspired modulation of social salience, we present a model and experiments that investigate the effects and adaptive value of allostatic processes based on hormonal (OT) modulation of affective elements of a social behaviour. In particular, we investigate and test the effects and adaptive value of modulating the degree of satisfaction of tactile contact in a social motivation context in a small simulated agent society across different environmental challenges (related to availability of food) and effects of OT modulation of social salience as a motivational incentive. Our results show that the effects of these modulatory mechanisms have different (positive or negative) adaptive value across different groups and under different environmental circumstance in a way that supports the context-dependent nature of OT, put forward by the interactionist approach to OT modulation in biological agents. In terms of simulation models, this means that OT modulation of the mechanisms that we have described should be context-dependent in order to maximise viability of our socially adaptive agents, illustrating the relevance of social allostasis mechanisms.

The Development and Initial Validation of a Brief Daily Hassles Scale Suitable for Use with Adolescents

Daily hassles are defined as “irritating, frustrating demands that occur during everyday transactions with the environment” ( Holm & Holroyd, 1992, p. 465 ). They need to be differentiated from significant life events, which refer to “environmental circumstance[s] that [have] an identifiable onset and ending and may carry the potential for altering an individual’s present state of mental and physical well-being” ( Goodyer, 2001, p. 204 ). Significant life events, such as the death of a family member or having a parent move out of home, typically occur infrequently and have readily identifiable onsets and endings. Daily hassles, on the other hand, such as those that come when interacting with family or friends, occur with regular frequency, and have less readily identifiable beginnings and endings. Previous research has suggested that the stress from ongoing daily hassles is detrimental to the wellbeing of adolescents ( Sim, 2000 ), and may be more important than significant life events for psychological adjustment in this population ( Goodyer, 2001 ). Three studies led to the development and initial validation of a brief daily hassles scale that could be used with adolescents. Study 1 drew on hassles identified in existing scales, hassles from the literature, a focus group with adolescents, and expert feedback to generate and finalize 69 daily hassle items. In Study 2, the items were administered to a sample of 212 adolescents. We then used item and exploratory factor analysis to reduce the number of items to 14, which represented two homogeneous and internally reliable subscales of family and peer/other hassles. In Study 3, the brief daily hassles scale was administered to a second sample of 236 adolescents. Here we tested the initial structure using confirmatory factor analysis and examined construct validity by testing the scale’s relationship with measures of depression, anxiety, and life satisfaction.

Great Ape Cognition and the Evolutionary Roots of Human Imagination

The imaginative powers of humans obviously exceed those of other species; however these characteristics and knowledge did not spring from nowhere. Instead they evolved on the shoulders of the distinctive psychology of man’s pre-human ancestors. This chapter defines the key characteristics of the ancestral foundations of man and describes the evidence in great ape behaviour for two aspects of imagination. The first level of imagination is inventiveness. Inventiveness is the capacity to generate novel and diverse behavioural responses to any given environmental circumstance. In the experimental studies presented in this chapter wherein chimpanzees are tasked to solve particular problems, it was found that great apes such as gorillas, orang-utans, and chimpanzees display imaginative skills compared to other primates. The second aspect of imagination refers to the capacity to operate mentally in a ‘pretend’ world. This second level of imagination is higher than inventiveness as it requires holding mind distinctions between the hypothetical and real world. Although the experimental studies generated intriguing results, these results are limited, and while the pretence in apes should be observable, it is dominated by the manifestation of a more general capacity for secondary representation.

Taking a Glance at the Environment: Prolegomena to an Ethics of the Environment

It is remarkable how much we can understand about an environmental problem at a mere glance. By means of a glance - at once quick and comprehensive - we can detect that something is going wrong in a given environmental circumstance, and we can even begin to suspect what needs to be done to rectify the situation. In this paper I explore the unsuspected power of the glance in environmental thought and practice, drawing special lessons for an ethics of the environment. Specific examples are analyzed, and authors as diverse as John Dewey and Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari are invoked in an effort to develop a coherent vision of how the human glance helps to locate and remedy environmental crises.