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Consumer perception, knowledge, and uses of cannabidiol
No full textIntroduction
The legalization of cannabidiol (CBD) across the United States, in varying degrees, has made CBD easily accessible to consumers for complementary and medical purposes. However, there is a paucity of scientific evidence on the benefits and risks of commercially available CBD. In the literature, 2 studies have gathered consumer perceptions and attitudes on cannabis products, specifically CBD, using survey-based questionnaires. This study aimed to build on the aforementioned studies in obtaining consumer perception and knowledge of CBD products using a national survey-based questionnaire.
Methods
Respondents were recruited through an anonymous, nationwide, online survey administered through Qualtrics in the United States from March 28 to April 30, 2021. The survey consisted of demographics, perceived efficacy and safety of CBD, and resources to obtain CBD information. The survey responses were reported using descriptive statistics along with median and interquartile range for the Likert portion.
Results
A total of 1158 respondents accessed the survey. The median age was 43 and 50% of respondents were female. The uses for CBD included neurological disorders, pulmonary conditions, gastrointestinal disorders, and chronic pain. The most commonly reported safety concern related to taking CBD was anxiety. Participants agreed that CBD is safe when used responsibly for medical use, and social media was the main source used to obtain information about CBD.
Discussion
Respondents who used CBD for a condition thought it was helpful; however, most of the adverse effects were rated as moderate to severe, requiring medical attention from a health care professional, hospital, or emergency room visit.
Keywords: cannabidiol, consumer, perception, drug resources, surve
Vznemirljivo proučevanje prepleta jezikov, zgodovine, identitete. Dr. Marc L. Greenberg ureja Enciklopedijo slovanskih jezikov in jezikoslovja, ki bo najcelovitejša zbirka podatkov o slovanski jezikovni družini
No full textInterview with Marc L. Greenberg in Slovene for the Ljubljana daily Delo, focusing on his work as editor-in-chief of the Encyclopedia of Slavic Languages and Linguistics, published by Brill Publishers, Leiden, NL
Everyday Challenges for Individuals Aging With Vision Impairment: Technology Implications
No full textBackground and Objectives
There are growing numbers of older adults with long-term vision impairment who are likely to experience everyday activity challenges from their impairment in conjunction with age-related changes. Technology has potential to support activity engagement. To develop effective technologies and interventions, we need to understand the context of activity challenges and identify unmet support needs.
Research Design and Methods
The Aging Concerns, Challenges, and Everyday Solution Strategies (ACCESS) study is a mixed-method approach to explore everyday challenges of people aging with long-term disabilities. Participants included 60 adults aging with long-term vision impairment (63% female; M age = 67, SD = 4.6) who completed in-depth, structured interviews exploring the nature of everyday challenges and their unmet support needs for activity engagement. We conducted a content analysis using a deductive and inductive approach to build a detailed coding scheme of challenge codes and subcodes.
Results
The analyses provided detailed insights about the nature of challenges people aging with vision impairment experience when performing specific instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs) in the context of home maintenance, transportation, shopping/finance, and managing health. Vision-related challenges and participation restrictions were identified for several activities that require reading, navigation, and identification (e.g., shopping, medication management, public transportation). Emergent challenge themes for performing IADLs included personal limitations (e.g., physical, cognitive, financial) and environmental barriers (e.g., accessibility, technology, transportation).
Discussion and Implications
Contextual examples of IADL challenges among individuals aging with vision impairment highlight opportunities for technology design and innovation to support participation in everyday activities
Time-Frequency Analysis of Waveform Diverse Designs
No full textWaveform diversity desires to optimize the Radar waveform given the constraints and objectivesof a particular task or scenario. Recent advances in electronics have significantly expanded thedesign space of waveforms. The resulting waveforms of various waveform diverse approachespossess complex structures which have temporal, spectral, and spatial extents. The utilization ofoptimization in many of these approaches results in complex signal structures that are not imagineda priori, but are instead the product of algorithms. Traditional waveform analysis using thefrequency spectrum, autocorrelation, and beampatterns of waveforms provide the majority ofmetrics of interest. But as these new waveforms’ structure increases in complexity, and theconstraints of their use tighten, further aspects of the waveform’s structure must be considered,especially the true occupancy of the waveforms in the transmission hyperspace. Time-Frequencyanalysis can be applied to these waveforms to better understand their behavior and to inform futuredesign. These tools are especially useful for spectrally shaped random FM waveforms as well asspatially shaped spatial beams. Both linear and quadratic transforms are used to study theemissions in time, frequency, and space dimensions. Insight on waveform generation is observedand future design opportunities are identified
The Discrepancy between Subjective and Objective Evaluations of Cognitive and Functional Ability among People with Schizophrenia: A Systematic Review
No full textBackground: An important aspect of recovery in schizophrenia relates to one’s subjective, lived experience. Self-report is a subjective measurement method with yet-uncertain utility in the assessment of functioning among individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia-spectrum disorder. No review to date has comprehensively synthesized existing research to evaluate the degree of correspondence, or lack thereof, between subjective and objective assessments of cognitive and everyday functioning, nor how extant data can inform the use of self-reported information in treatment and research. Methods: A systematic review was completed to provide a broad perspective of the literature on this topic. Relevant manuscripts were identified via a search strategy using key terms in PubMed and PsycINFO and a review of manuscript bibliographies. Twenty-six studies met the inclusion criteria. Results: These studies show minimal to modest associations between subjective assessments of cognition and everyday functioning and objective assessments of these domains, including informant reports and neuropsychological and behavioral measures. Individuals with schizophrenia appear to overestimate their functioning when compared to objective measures. Depression and greater cognitive ability tend to predict greater correspondence between subjective and objective assessments of cognition and everyday functioning. Discussion: This review discusses how we might understand the low correspondence between subjective and objective measures of functioning and provides recommendations for using and eliciting self-reported information in the pursuit of recovery-centered practices
Tailoring Regenerative Therapies to Enhance Wound Healing Outcomes
No full textWound healing is a physiological regenerative process that consists of a dynamic series of interrelated events that are highly dependent on diverse paracrine signaling for proper progression through the phases of wound healing. However, many patients and wound types can be predisposed to inadequate progression through the phases of wound healing, subsequently resulting in atypical healing and/or protraction of the wound healing response. Notably, aberrant wound healing progression is associated with insufficient epidermal regeneration, a critical process of wound closure, and ultimate propagation of chronic wounds. The treatment of complex wounds affects millions of patients every year in the US, with chronic non-healing wounds associated with poor quality of life, adverse health outcomes, and a significant strain and burden to the healthcare system. Therefore, there remains a critical need to develop targeted therapies that can circumvent aberrant wound healing and promote the proper progression through the phases of wound healing.Therapeutic interventions for wounds encompass a diverse array of physical, mechanical, material, chemical and biological based modalities that have been shown to modulate the wound healing response in a variety of ways; however, many currently utilized therapies lack an effective targeted approach. Interestingly, tissue engineering and regenerative medicine approaches for wound care applications have grown significantly in the last several years. Recent investigations into Mesenchymal Stem Cells (MSCs) have demonstrated promise in augmenting the tissue regenerative response of wounds via their intrinsic multipotent nature and the compositional plasticity of their secretory profile. Additionally, priming of MSC populations has demonstrated the capacity to modulate and control cellular activity. Yet, current ex vivo culture technologies result in precipitous decline in the regenerative potential of MSCs and a decreased translatability of clinically viable and reproducible products. These changes are compounded by lack of standardized culture conditions, creating a bottleneck in the development of regenerative therapeutics. Thus, there is a critical need for developing culture systems for improved MSC expansion that allow significant expandability of cell numbers and their regenerative byproducts.Although a number of 3D cell culture systems have been investigated, to date, hydrogel-based scaffold systems appear to offer the greatest advantage for developing a wide-range of customizable, tissue-mimetic systems. However, current hydrogel systems are limiting and are associated with significant diffusion and scalability constraints. Thus, the research outlined in these studies is aimed at developing a novel 3D hydrogel system that is tailorable, tissue-mimetic, and permits long-term culture expansion for improved scalability of future MSC-derived clinical therapies. A number of parameters were investigated, including the dimensionality, architectural design, matrix binding epitopes, material, and mechanical properties of the hydrogel system. Notably, the micro- and macro- structural designs are critical.The 3D hydrogel system proposed was demonstrated as a system that can be utilized as a continuous “bioreactor” system to expand MSC populations that retain their viability and regenerative phenotype. A critical component of MSC regenerative potential that was investigated was the ability of the secretome to promote critical wound healing activity in secondary cell populations. The results demonstrated that retainment of more robust MSC populations was associated with increased secretion of regenerative factors. Moreover, MSCs in 3D were able to adapt to priming stimuli more readily, resulting in greater diversity of secreted factors that modulated keratinocyte epidermal regeneration activity. Ultimately, this system demonstrated the potential to be a more efficient and effective methodology for the culture of MSC populations and for the improved production of cell-based and/or acellular biologic therapies that can be tailored toward specific soft tissue and regenerative applications
Accurately detecting AI text when ChatGPT is told to write like a chemist
No full textLarge language models like ChatGPT can generate authentic-seeming text at lightning speed, but many journal publishers reject language models as authors on manuscripts. Thus, a means to accurately distinguish human-generated from artificial intelligence (AI)-generated text is immediately needed. We recently developed an accurate AI text detector for scientific journals and, herein, test its ability in a variety of challenging situations, including on human text from a wide variety of chemistry journals, on AI text from the most advanced publicly available language model (GPT-4), and, most important, on AI text generated using prompts designed to obfuscate AI use. In all cases, AI and human text was assigned with high accuracy. ChatGPT-generated text can be readily detected in chemistry journals; this advance is a fundamental prerequisite for understanding how automated text generation will impact scientific publishing from now into the future
An orthotropic continuum model with substructure evolution for describing bone remodeling: an interpretation of the primary mechanism behind Wolff’s law
No full textWe propose a variational approach that employs a generalized principle of virtual work to estimate both the mechanical response and the changes in living bone tissue during the remodeling process. This approach provides an explanation for the adaptive regulation of the bone substructure in the context of orthotropic material symmetry. We specifically focus upon the crucial gradual adjustment of bone tissue as a structural material that adapts its mechanical features, such as materials stiffnesses and microstructure, in response to the evolving loading conditions. We postulate that the evolution process relies on a feedback mechanism involving multiple stimulus signals. The mechanical and remodeling behavior of bone tissue is clearly a complex process that is difficult to describe within the framework of classical continuum theories. For this reason, a generalized continuum elastic theory is employed as a proper mathematical context for an adequate description of the examined phenomenon. To simplify the investigation, we considered a two-dimensional problem. Numerical simulations have been performed to illustrate bone evolution in a few significant cases: the bending of a rectangular cantilever plate and a three-point flexure test. The results are encouraging because they can replicate the optimization process observed in bone remodeling. The proposed model provides a likely distribution of stiffnesses and accurately represents the arrangement of trabeculae macroscopically described by the orthotropic symmetry directions, as supported by experimental evidence from the trajectorial theory
The Social Validity and Efficacy of a Virtual Reality Intervention for Improving Middle School Students’ Social Communication: A Randomized Controlled Study
No full textThe extent to which an intervention is perceived as socially valid significantly influences whether the intervention is selected, implemented, and maintained (Kern & Manz, 2004). Social skill interventions and evidence-based practices are often ranked with low social validity by adolescents (McCoy et al., 2016). Interventions delivered through virtual reality (VR) report increased social validity with this population due to life-like features improving motivation and engagement (Hew & Cheung, 2010; Mikropoulos & Natsis, 2011). Despite evidence of positive feelings, there is limited research on the effectiveness of VR-delivered instruction for building social competence in students.This study utilized a randomized control trial (RCT) to investigate whether a VR-based social skill intervention, Virtual reality Opportunities to Integrate Social Skills (VOISS), could be as effective as an evidence-based intervention, the Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills (PEERS) at improving the expressive communication knowledge and skill application of middle school students. The study also sought to understand student social validity ratings (i.e., acceptability, appropriateness, and feasibility) of the VR intervention (VOISS) versus the PEERS intervention.Participants within ten classrooms in four states were randomly assigned to VOISS (N=60) and PEERS (N=60). In both conditions, participants experienced an estimated 300 minutes of the intervention spread out over one to four months. Using the norm-referenced Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals-5 Pragmatic Profile (CELF-5 PP) and a knowledge-based assessment, participants were assessed pre and post-intervention to determine social communication skill acquisition and application. All participants were also given an adapted Children’s Intervention Rating Profile (CIRP), the Intervention Appropriateness Measure (IAM), and the Feasibility of Intervention Measure (FIM) to determine their ratings of each intervention’s acceptability, feasibility, and appropriateness. Results indicate that a VR intervention (VOISS) has the potential to provide an effective and socially valid means of delivering social communication instruction to middle school students
A Glitch in the System: Alienation and Glitches in Psycho-Pass
No full textThis project looks at societal and cultural lessons that help prepare society for the future by analyzing the first season of the Japanese animation Psycho-Pass (titled Psycho-Pass I in this project). While the framework focuses mostly on Western theorists, historical and cultural contexts between Japan and America are noted to show how intertwined media artifacts between these two nations are. Pulling in cultural Marxism and glitch theory to explore how alienated glitches – people ousted by society – challenge societal expectations formed the main framework used for analyzing Psycho-Pass I as a case study. This overarching claim argues that being a glitch in society means to challenge the status quo, but this can also lead to alienation. This framework pulls from Karl Marx’s concepts of alienation; specifically framed by Melvin Seeman, Isidor Walliman, and Frank Weyher. By also incorporating Rosa Menkman’s Manifesto of Glitch Theory and Bruno Latour’s Actor-Network-Theory (ANT), the framework shows the interconnectivity of alienation, glitches, and actors, and how all of these, combined, show cracks in a system designed to be infallible. By pulling in Latour’s ANT with Menkman, this framing argues that glitches were designed from the start - that they are a necessary part of any working system, which plays into the “equal-importance” factor of ANT. Even though these glitches are important, the overarching system in power attempts to alienate those glitches because they represent imperfection in a seemingly perfect system. This analysis further expands to implications in the real world that argues and warns over humanity’s potential over-reliance on technology – specifically the type of technology that makes emotional decisions based on logical and mathematical equations