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ABaCo: Assessment Battery for Communication
No full text\ud
Human communication is\ud
one of the most complex social\ud
activity: it is a process of meaning\ud
construction which cooperatively\ud
involves all participants taking\ud
part in the interaction. Various\ud
clinical conditions may lead to\ud
impairments of communicative\ud
abilities: developmental disorders\ud
(e.g., autism, specific language\ud
impairment, Down syndrome),\ud
brain pathologies (e.g., closed\ud
head injury, right hemisphere\ud
damage, aphasia), psychiatric disorders\ud
(schizophrenia), disorders\ud
of old age (e.g. dementia). The\ud
assessment of a patient’s abilities\ud
and disabilities is the crucial starting\ud
point for planning an efficient\ud
rehabilitation path, where\ud
residual capacities are strengthen\ud
and, whenever possible, impaired\ud
components are restored. However,\ud
while the phonological,\ud
syntactic and semantic components\ud
of language can be assessed\ud
by numerous tests, instruments\ud
for the evaluation of pragmatic\ud
aspects of communication are\ud
scarce (see Sacco et al., 2008 for a\ud
more detailed analysis of the existing\ud
instruments for the assessment\ud
of communication).\ud
The Assessment Battery for\ud
Communication (ABaCo) has\ud
been created to be a theoretically\ud
grounded, wide-range clinical\ud
instrument. Its theoretical bases\ud
stem from Cognitive Pragmatics\ud
theory (Airenti, Bara & Colombetti,\ud
1993; Bara, 2010), a theory of\ud
the cognitive processes underlying\ud
human communicative exchanges,\ud
framed within the inferential\ud
model of communication (Grice,\ud
1975) and the speech acts perspective\ud
(Austin, 1962; Searle, 1969).\ud
The theory has been shown to\ud
be able to make predictions on\ud
typically developing children (Bucciarelli,\ud
Colle & Bara, 2003; Bosco,\ud
Bucciarelli & Bara, 2004; 2006;\ud
Bosco & Buciarelli, 2008; Bosco,\ud
Vallana & Bucciarelli, 2012), atypically\ud
developing children (Bara,\ud
Bosco & Bucciarelli, 1999; Bara,\ud
Bucciarelli & Colle, 2001; De\ud
Marco, Colle & Bucciarelli, 2007),\ud
patients with traumatic brain injury\ud
(Bara, Tirassa & Zettin, 1997;\ud
Bara, Cutica & Tirassa, 2001; Angeleri\ud
et al., 2008), patients with right\ud
and left focal brain lesions (Cutica,\ud
Bucciarelli & Bara, 2006), patients\ud
with Alzheimer’s disease (Bara,\ud
Bucciarelli & Geminiani, 2000)\ud
and patients with schizophrenia\ud
(Bosco, Bono & Bara, 2012). In\ud
this view, communication is the\ud
ability to comprehend and produce\ud
linguistic and extralinguistic\ud
communication acts, accompanied\ud
by suitable paralinguistic features,\ud
appropriate with respect to discourse\ud
and social norms, and fluently\ud
integrated within the conversation.\ud
The ABaCo assesses each of\ud
these components, encompassing\ud
the major aspects involved in communication.\ud
In this paper, we will\ud
briefly describe the features of the\ud
battery, and summarize its psychometric\ud
properties, providing some\ud
suggestions for clinical application
Nodular Fasciitis of Neck in Childhood.
No full textNodular fasciitis, is a benign, pseudo sarcomatous proliferative lesion of the soft tissue, which is frequently misinterpreted as sarcoma, both clinically and microscopically. It is a reactive lesion composed of fibroblasts/myofibroblasts and most commonly found in extremities and trunk. NF has been described in the head and neck region in 10-20% of cases. Many pathologists do not consider NF in the differential diagnosis of soft tissue masses arising in the Head neck region. NF that occurs in otherwise healthy individuals usually presents with a history of rapid growth, and is commonly found in the upper extremities and on the chest and trunk. The importance of otolaryngologists being aware of the existence of this entity in this area of the body is stressed. It has a confirmed perfectly benign clinical course, and simple excision, as tissue-sparing as possible, is the treatment of choice. A case of NF over the neck in a 05-year-old female not associated with trauma who presented with a localized mass over her left neck is presented
The emergence of choice: Decision-making and strategic thinking through analogies
No full textConsider the chess game: When faced with a complex scenario, how does understanding arise in one’s mind? How does one integrate disparate cues into a global, meaningful whole? how do humans avoid the combinatorial explosion? How are abstract ideas represented? The purpose of this paper is to propose a new computational model of human chess intuition and intelligence. We suggest that analogies and abstract roles are crucial to solving these landmark problems. We present a proof-of-concept model, in the form of a computational architecture, which may be able to account for many crucial aspects of human intuition, such as (i) concentration of attention to relevant aspects, (ii) \ud
how humans may avoid the combinatorial explosion, (iii) perception of similarity at a strategic level, and (iv) a state of meaningful anticipation over how a global scenario \ud
may evolve
Desire for Children and Fear of Side Effects – A Basic Barrier for Acceptance of Contraceptive Services in Rural Area of Central India
No full textBackground: According to UN projection India’s population will reach 1.53 billion by the year 2050 and will be the highest population in the world. The success of the present RCH-II programme relies on the acceptance of contraceptive methods in reproductive age group. Objective: To determine the prevalence, type of contraceptive used and reasons for not accepting contraceptives in rural Maharashtra. Methodology: A cross sectional study was carried out in field practice area of a rural tertiary health care hospital in Wardha district of Maharashtra, India. Married women in the reproductive age group of 15 to 49 years were the study participants. Results: Out of total 378 women respondents 223(58.99%) were contraceptive acceptors. 62.78% women accepted permanent method of contraception. Among the temporary methods most commonly accepted was Cupper-T by 20.62% women. Commonest reason for not accepting contraceptives was desire of children in 30.32% women followed by fear of side effects in 18.06%. Conclusion: Many factors like desire for children; especially a male child, fear of side effects of contraceptives, breastfeeding, attended the menopause…etc converge to shape a woman’s attitudes about the use of and the need for contraception
Alphabetic Letter Identification: Effects of perceivability, similarity, and bias
No full textThe legibility of the letters in the Latin alphabet has been measured numerous times since the beginning of\ud
experimental psychology. To identify the theoretical mechanisms attributed to letter identification, we report\ud
a comprehensive review of literature, spanning more than a century. This review revealed that identification\ud
accuracy has frequently been attributed to a subset of three common sources: perceivability, bias, and simi-\ud
larity. However, simultaneous estimates of these values have rarely (if ever) been performed. We present the\ud
results of two new experiments which allow for the simultaneous estimation of these factors, and examine\ud
how the shape of a visual mask impacts each of them, as inferred through a new statistical model. Results showed that the shape and identity of the mask impacted the inferred perceivability, bias, and similarity space of a letter set, but that there were aspects of similarity that were robust to the choice of mask. The results illustrate how the psychological concepts of perceivability, bias, and similarity can be estimated simultaneously, and how each make powerful contributions to visual letter identification
Category of Metabolic-Replication Systems\ud in Biology and Medicine
No full textMetabolic-repair models, or (M,R)-systems were introduced in Relational Biology by Robert Rosen. Subsequently, Rosen represented such (M,R)-systems (or simply MRs) in terms of categories of sets, deliberately selected without any structure other than the discrete topology of sets. Theoreticians of life’s origins postulated that Life on Earth has begun with the simplest possible organism, called the primordial. Mathematicians interested in biology attempted to answer this important question of the minimal living organism by defining the functional relations that would have made life possible in such a minimal system- a grandad and grandma of all living organisms on Earth
Prevalence & Prescription: Prescribing Practices of Clozapine in Australia between 2005 & 2010
No full textClozapine is an anti-psychotic used to treat refractory schizophrenia. This study reviews the rates of clozapine prescription for refractory schizophrenia in a region of Australia and compares the prescribing patterns to the estimated prevalence rates of refractory schizophrenia in the region. Utilising a pharmacoepidemiological approach; the results indicated that only 8.4% of the individuals estimated to be suffering from refractory schizophrenia in the region were prescribed clozapine between 2005 and 2010, with only 4.1% continuing clozapine to the conclusion of the study. In conclusion it is evident that clozapine is widely under-prescribed in this area of Australia
A Rare Primary Pelvic Hydatid Cyst Presenting as Sciatica
No full textPrimary hydatid cyst in the pelvis is rare, and usually presents with pressure symptoms affecting the adjacent abdominal organs. We describe a rare hydatid cyst which was eroding the sacral hallow, protruding into the right sciatic foramen and presenting as a radiating pain and weakness of right lower limb due to compression of the lumbosacral nerve roots. Laparotomy with removal of cyst and postoperative treatment with albendazole is effective in controlling the disease and preventing recurrence
Role of Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology in Salivary Gland Pathology and its Histopathological Correlation: A Two Year Prospective Study in Western India.
No full textBackground and objectives: Salivary gland lesions account for 2-6.5% of all the neoplasms of the head and neck. Fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) is being increasingly used in the diagnosis of salivary gland lesions. The objective of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy and the sensitivity and specificity of FNAC in various salivary gland lesions in correlation with their histopathology, which helps in the appropriate therapeutic management. Methods: A total of 120 FNACs were done on salivary gland tumours from July 2010 to June 2012 in the Department of Pathology, P.D.U. Government Medical College, Rajkot (Gujarat, India). Formalin fixed (10%), surgically resected specimens were received, they were processed and slides were prepared for histopathological diagnosis. The stained cytological and histopathological slides were studied, analyzed and correlated. Results: The cytomorphological features were studied and analyzed and the following lesions were observed: Pleomorphic adenoma (88), Warthin’s tumour (2), Cystic lesion (4), Mucoepidermoid carcinoma (6), Acinic cell carcinoma (2), Primary lymphoma (2), Carcinoma EX pleomorphic adenoma(4), metastatic malignancy deposits (2), benign parotid tumour (8) and malignant tumour (unspecified)(2). A histopathological correlation was available in 78 cases. Out of these, 71 cases were true positive, 1 was false positive, 2 were false negative and 4 were true negative. Interpretation and conclusion: The overall sensitivity, specificity and the diagnostic accuracy were 97%, 80% and 92% respectively. Hence, the appropriate therapeutic management could be planned earlier. This study documents that FNAC of the salivary gland tumours is accurate, simple, rapid, inexpensive, well tolerated and harmless for the patient
Retinal Dysplasia Mimicking Retinoblastoma.
No full textRetinal dysplasia represents a congenital disorder characterized by abnormal proliferation of retinal tissue causing leukocoria. We present a case of an infant with bilateral leukocoria, clinically diagnosed as retinoblastoma, followed by enucleation of the left eye. Microscopy however, demonstrated retinal dysplasia consisting of a disorderly proliferation of retinal tissue with formation of rosettes, mimicking retinoblastoma. Microscopic features that aid in differentiating this lesion from retinoblastoma are discussed