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A primer on meta-awareness of mind wandering in schizotypy and schizophrenia
Get PDFDuring everyday life, our attention may drift away from immediate perceptual inputs to consider alternatives unrelated to the task at hand, which is known as mind wandering. At times, mind wandering may be accompanied by awareness of one’s attention having deviated from the ongoing task, often referred to as meta-awareness. However, mind wandering can also occur without individuals immediately noticing that their attention is off task. Importantly, little is known about mind wandering and meta-awareness, including their underlying content in schizotypy and schizophrenia. Here, in this narrative review, we synthesise the existing literature on mind wandering across the schizotypy-schizophrenia continuum. In doing so, we present the main proposal that there would be lower levels of meta-awareness of mind wandering in patients with schizophrenia as compared to healthy controls. We expect that meta-awareness of mind wandering would be negatively associated with schizophrenia symptomatology and multidimensional schizotypy traits. We also recommend examining mind wandering content in patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders, including links between multidimensional schizotypy and the contents of meta-awareness of mind wandering. Ultimately, we hope that our proposal will be empirically tested in future research and will provide a foundation to understand the diversity of mind wandering features in clinical populations as well as insights into potential new treatment avenues.</p
The End of Law Lectures? Not Yet…
No full textThis article examines claims of declining student attendance at law lectures and evaluates the contemporary relevance of the synchronous lecture. The authors discuss the benefits of lectures, analyse the reasons for low student attendance, and investigate student perceptions regarding the value of synchronous lectures versus asynchronous learning options such as lecture recordings. The study includes a review of the literature on the value of lecture attendance, an analysis of lecture attendance data, a survey of student preferences, and a summary of focus groups with students. Ultimately, the authors conclude that abolishing law lectures is not advisable as law students continue to find value in having access to both synchronous and asynchronous learning options
The resisted levator scapulae test: a clinical test for C4 radiculopathy
No full textPurpose:Cervical radiculopathy results from compression of a nerve root in the cervical spine creating upper limb or shoulder girdle sensorimotor dysfunction which commonly affects the C5-8 roots. Isolated C4 radiculopathy is rare and lacks typical clinical radiculopathy features and, as a result is underreported and poorly diagnosed. Nerve blocks can be used on the basis of pain distribution and clinical suspicion, however, no bedside tests exist to identify and test C4 radiculopathy in isolation. The objective of our study was to assess the clinical utility of using the Resisted Levator Scapulae test in identifying patients with C4 radiculopathy on physical exam.Methods:Participants were recruited on the basis of clinical suspicion of C4 radiculopathy. Participants were separated into test and pragmatic control based on radiographic evidence of C3/4 foraminal stenosis. Test group patients received the reference standard CT guided nerve root injection, pragmatic control patients were classed based on imaging. The reference standard was performed after review with a spinal surgeon where the RLS test result was recorded. Data was collected with primary and expanded analyses providing data for for predictive values using a contingency table.Results:Twenty-five participants (12 male, 13 female) with a median age of 69 completed the study in the test group, with 298 participants (192 male, 106 female) completing the study in the pragmatic control group. Nine test group participants (2.8%) showed isolated C4 radiculopathy with response to the diagnostic CT guided C4 nerve block, while 15 (4.6%) had multilevel involvement including C4. Primary analysis revealed sensitivity of 90% and specificity of 20% with an odds ratio of 2.25 (confidence interval: 0.2–25.4). Expanded analysis strengthened specificity (93%) and NPV (99.6%).Conclusion:The resisted levator scapulae test is a novel bedside physical diagnostic test for C4 radiculopathy used to complement a neurological examination and raise suspicion when positive
Privacy concerns about third-party images hosted by deepfake technologies
No full textThe emergence of deepfakes, also referred to as Artificial Intelligence Generated Contexts (AIGC), has sparked significant scholarly and public interest. Deepfakes have both captivated and raised concerns among observers due to their profound implications for media productivity and manipulation, which in turn challenges traditional concepts of reality. Additionally, the ethical and legal implications surrounding the creation and dissemination of deepfakes have become subjects of intense scrutiny.Leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) and computer graphics, deepfakes have rapidly evolved, enabling the creation of realistic videos, audio, and images portraying events and scenarios that are entirely fictitious. A creator of a deepfake video uses an image of a third party to create content that may depict the person’s image and voice doing various acts. The creation of a deepfake video may use a person’s personal data such as image, voice, and other personal data without their permission. This personal data may fall within the scope of privacy law; however, when an individual creates a deepfake depicting third-party images and voice data, it potentially falls outside the scope of protection of privacy law.Aside from privacy issues, there are concerns that regulation of deepfakes might clash with freedom of expression. In some circumstances where there are gaps in privacy protection, tort law may fill in some gaps where there has been an unlawful use of one’s information for deepfakes. Although in the absence of one’s clear consent to the use of images, no exchange takes place, courts might not stand behind all litigations.Recently, some big data companies have scraped all public images and data to train their artificial intelligence large language models, which raises questions of consent for the use of those images. However, the further use of images to create deepfake content can amount to an involuntary exchange. In this respect, some activities organized by voluntary exchanges can lead to wealth maximization, meaning that individuals have access to required materials to increase their productivity.Despite this, some people are willing to bypass the market through coercive actions. In such cases, a transaction is not concluded, nor can compensation be paid to the influenced parties. With a distortive impact on the efficient allocation of resources, society is prompted to criminalize these actions. Hence, social institutions should deal with two broad types of behaviors, legal and criminal.Although society aims to crack down on criminal actions, transgressors are still looking for new ways to reap the benefits without obeying the rules of the market. In this vein, deepfake technology instrumentally assists one with exploiting and jeopardizing others’ information and reputation, respectively, which in turn disrupts the legitimate market for deepfakes.This paper aims to examine the legal status quo and the recent legal movements in Australia, the European Union, and the United States regarding privacy concerns arising from the prevalence of deepfake technologies. However, litigations might not effectively deter creators or distributors of illegal deepfake content. Thus, an ex-ante prohibitive law can be regarded as a substantial constraint on deepfake technologies with a sound safeguard for privacy. In this vein, it is assumed that the prohibition of destructive uses and the promotion of instructive applications of deepfakes are possible through legal instruments
Effects оf an Unsupervised Home Exercise Program to Improve Volunteer Firefighter Fitness and Occupational Performance: A Pilot Study
Get PDFVolunteer firefighters perform the same job tasks as professional firefighter but may have lower levels of fitness and may be at greater risk of cardiovascular disease. The aim of this study was to determine the effects of an 8-week unsupervised home exercise program on the physical fitness and occupational performance of volunteer firefighters. Firefighters (n = 15 male) volunteered to participate. Outcome measures included measures of stature, health (blood pressure and percentage body fat – %BF), fitness (cardiovascular endurance, muscular strength, power and endurance, flexibility) movement skills (i.e., Functional Movement Screen – FMS) and occupational performance (stair climb, hose drag, equipment carry and victim drag). Between data collection points, participants undertook an unsupervised 8-week home exercise training program of 3 sessions per week plus corrective exercises based on FMS scores. Of the five firefighters that completed the program the compliance rates were 47% (33–70%). Right hand grip strength and FMS scores improved significantly (p < 0.05) with a trend towards improved blood pressure (p = 0.054), and %BF (p =0.084). Given difficulties in providing a supervised exercise program for volunteer firefighters, an unsupervised home exercise program did lead to some improvements in their health and fitness. An unsupervised home exercise program may improve the elements of firefighter fitness but participation rates and compliance are major challenges. Provision of an unsupervised home exercise program alone will potentially be of limited value. Future research should investigate the means o improving unsupervised exercise program compliance in this population.<br/
General and Job-Specific Fitness Test Performance of Prospective and Hiring List Firefighter Candidates
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Genital herpes is on the rise. Here’s what to know about this common infection
No full textThe World Health Organization (WHO) recently released new estimates suggesting around 846 million people aged between 15 and 49 live with a genital herpes infection. That’s equivalent to one in every five people from that age group. At least one person each second (42 million people annually) contracts a new genital herpes infection. So what is genital herpes, and are cases on the rise? Here’s what to know about this common infection
Parent concerns prior to an assessment of autism spectrum disorder: A systematic review
Get PDFWhen a parent has concerns about their child's development, there is a lag between seeking and receiving health information. When waiting, parents may speculate about a possible diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder, but it is unclear what types of concerns might drive this speculation. To determine the types of concerns parents may have before their child is assessed, we conducted a systematic review that explored parent concerns before an autism spectrum disorder assessment. Our aim was to determine the types of concerns that might drive parents to seek medical help for their child's development. Four online databases were searched and 10 articles reporting on 9 studies matched our inclusion criteria. In these cohorts, parents reported autism spectrum disorder-specific concerns (i.e. communication, social or stereotyped behaviour concerns) or non-autism spectrum disorder-specific concerns (i.e. behaviour/temperament, developmental, medical, sensory or motor concerns). Some parents also reported on their positive and negative thoughts of a potential autism spectrum disorder diagnosis and what the diagnosis would mean to them. The most reported parental concerns before an assessment were speech and language, social and behavioural. To understand the types of concerns parents have once they seek medical help, further research into how families speculated a possible autism spectrum disorder is recommended.</p
Effect of inbound tourism on inclusive growth: Does institutionalized democracy matter?
No full textThis paper examines the effect of inbound tourism on inclusive growth and whether the effect is moderated by countries' democratic institutions. Using data from 154 countries from 2000 to 2020 and the dynamic generalized method of moments estimator, we found that inbound tourism (tourism arrival, receipt, and expenditure) is positively related to inclusive growth. Also, democracy is found to have a significant positive effect on inclusive growth. The results also showed that the impact of inbound tourism on inclusive growth is moderated by democracy. The results are consistently established when alternative econometric methods are applied, and they vary across income groups