1,809 research outputs found
Exploring neural correlates of automated speech-based cognitive markers through resting-state functional connectivity in aging and at-risk Alzheimer’s disease
No full textAbstract Background Digital speech-based assessments provide scalable tools for detecting subtle cognitive decline. Here, we investigated whether digitally derived speech-based composite score of cognition and individual speech features were associated with alterations in functional connectivity (FC) within task-related brain networks in the Alzheimer’s disease spectrum, which are known to reflect cognitive performance and disease-related changes. Methods Data were analyzed from 129 participants of the German PROSPECT-AD study, ranging from cognitively healthy individuals to those with mild cognitive impairment. Speech-based cognitive scores and speech features were derived from automated phone-administered semantic verbal fluency (SVF) and verbal learning tasks (VLT). Resting-state fMRI assessed FC, with intrinsic connectivity networks identified via independent component analysis and dual regression. Associations were examined using permutation-based voxel-wise regression, controlling for demographic and clinical covariates. Seed-to-voxel analyses were conducted to support network identification and complement findings. Results Greater language network connectivity in the left middle temporal gyrus was associated with increased SVF temporal cluster switching (FWE < .05, cluster size = 12 voxels, mean T = 3.86). Exploratory analyses (uncorrected p < .01) demonstrated no significant associations between cognitive composite scores and FC. However, individual SVF and VLT speech features exhibited network-specific associations across executive, language, and default mode networks, indicating exploratory yet spatially distinct connectivity patterns. Conclusion Digital speech-based assessments may have limited current utility for detecting FC alterations in at-risk individuals. Further validation using complementary methodological approaches, shorter intervals between fMRI and speech assessments, and testing in independent cohorts, are essential to establish their reliability and clinical relevance for monitoring brain network changes
A descriptive study on adolescent stress levels and social support networks
No full textPlan BThe purpose of this study was to describe the stress levels, coping strategies, and the perceived social support networks of 62 male and female adolescents age 12.5-18 years in Portage and Shawano County. Of these 62 adolescents, 24 remain at home and 38 are placed in a residential treatment facility. The Survey of Stress Management and Coping Mechanisms of Adolescents developed by the author to collect data from adolescents. The Survey contained questions that focused on identifying and comparing both group’s use of social support networks, interest in learning new copping strategies, aggressive behaviors, and concern for peers. Significant findings include teens in a residential facility indicate a greater rate of physically acting out aggression against other persons and expressed a greater desire to find alternative copping strategies when dealing with aggression. Males felt more support from teaching staff than did females. Both genders and groups desired further knowledge on stress and time management skills and the opportunity to obtain these skills through the school or community
Do UK based weight management programmes cause weight loss maintenance in adults? A systematic review
No full textThe aim of this dissertation was to examine whether UK based weight management programmes promote weight loss maintenance (follow up of 12 months to assess effectiveness of intervention in weight loss) in adults through the process of a systematic review. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has described obesity as a "global epidemic". Weight management comprises two phases; weight loss and weight loss maintenance. The latter phase is the true goal for obesity and the most difficult element of weight management to achieve. However much less is know about this as compared with the weight loss phase. There is little purpose in committing time and money to reducing obesity if the weight is regained. This is counter-productive and weight loss maintenance is essential to combat the obesity epidemic. Searches were made for relevant information from a variety of scientific online databases and journals,. Seven articles met the inclusion criteria and were analysed in the review. All studies incorporated a multi-component (diet, exercise, behaviur modification) intervention approach. All control and internvetion groups reported weight loss at 12 months when compared with baseline. All groups recieved an intervention. One study reported a significant difference (P<0.05) between groups. Four studies reported on at least one component (diet, physical activity, behaviour modification) however there was not enough information to conclude whether they complied with national guidelines (NICE CG43 and SIGN 115). High attrition rates and loss to follow up are problematic for each study except one. Analysis on an intention to treat basis was common however this is problematic and there are alternative methods which may be more suitable for dealing with missing data
Buy, Lobby or Sue: Interest Groups' Participation in Policy Making - A Selective Survey
No full textThe participation of interest groups in public policy making is unavoidable. Its unavoidable nature is only matched by the universal suspicion with which it has been seen by both policy makers and the public. Recently, however, there has been a growing literature that examines the participation of interest groups in public policy making from a New Institutional Economics perspective. The distinguishing feature of the New Institutional Economics Approach is its emphasis in opening up the black box of decision-making, whether in understanding the rules of the game, or the play of the game. In this paper we do not attempt to fairly describe the vast literature on interest group's behavior. Instead, the purpose of this essay for the New Institutional Economics Guide Book is to review recent papers that follow the NIE mantra. That is, they attempt to explicate the micro-analytic features of the way interest groups actually interact with policy-makers, rather than providing an abstract high-level representation. We emphasize the role of the institutional environment in understanding interest groups' strategies.
Complex reflection groups and K3 surfaces II. The groups , and .
No full textInternational audienceWe study some K3 surfaces obtained as minimal resolutions of quotients of subgroups of special reection groups. Some of these were already studied in a previous paper by W. Barth and the second author. We give here an easy proof that these are K3 surfaces, give equations in weighted projective space and describe their geometry
An investigation into violence against nurses in the southern region of Malawi Chimwemwe Chikoko.
No full textIncludes bibliographical references.Incidences of violence in nursing have been reported in local media in Malawi. Although violence in the health sector is not a new concept, it has become a global concern in the 21st century (Needham, Kingma, O'Brien-Pallas, McKenna, Tucker & Oud, 2008:6). The aim of the study was to investigate and describe the nature and extent of violence against nurses and the perceived effects thereof on nurses in selected health facilities in the southern region of Malawi
Reading in the mobile era
No full textMobile technology can advance literacy and learning in underserved communities around the world.
Summary
Millions of people do not read for one reason: they do not have access to text. But today mobile phones and cellular networks are transforming a scarce resource into an abundant one.
Drawing on the analysis of over 4,000 surveys collected in seven developing countries and corresponding qualitative interviews, this report paints the most detailed picture to date of who reads books and stories on mobile devices and why.
The findings illuminate, for the first time, the habits, beliefs and profiles of mobile readers. This information points to strategies to expand mobile reading and, by extension, the educational, social and economic benefits associated with increased reading.
Mobile technology can advance literacy and learning in underserved communities around the world. This report shows how
Acquired status in free and open source software user groups
No full textIncludes abstract.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 89-93).This study represents a seamless weaving of new and previously seemingly unrelated concepts on Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) participation into an integrated substantive framework. The research demonstrates how patterns of behaviour amongst FOSS participants serve as currency for the acquisition of status. Stages of the Basic Social Process (BSP) that lead to the resolution of the status concern are proposed. The core elements of the BSP are found to be Joining, Learning, Locating, Cultivating and Consolidating. These constructs represent the non-linear stages which the members of the community encountered in their FOSS journey towards acquiring status. The conditions for variation of the constructs are also addressed in this study
Bounded Cohomology of Discrete Groups
No full textBounded cohomology of groups was first defined by Johnson and Trauber during the seventies in the context of Banach algebras. As an independent and very active research field, however, bounded cohomology started to develop in 1982, thanks to the pioneering paper "Volume and Bounded Cohomology" by M. Gromov, where the definition of bounded cohomology was extended to deal also with topological spaces.
The aim of this monograph is to provide an introduction to bounded cohomology of discrete groups and of topological spaces. We also describe some applications of the theory to related active research fields (that have been chosen according to the taste and the knowledge of the author). The book is essentially self-contained. Even if a few statements do not appear elsewhere and some proofs are slighlty different from the ones already available in the literature, the monograph does not contain original results.
In the first part of the book we settle the fundamental definitions of the theory, and we prove some (by now classical) results on low-dimensional bounded cohomology and on bounded cohomology of topological spaces. Then we describe how bounded cohomology has proved useful in the study of the simplicial volume of manifolds, for the classification of circle actions, for the definition and the description of maximal representations of surface groups, and in the study of higher rank flat vector bundles (also in relation with the Chern conjecture)
Symmetry groups of regular polytopes in three and four dimensions: The Platonic Solids, Binary Groups and Regular Polytopes in four-dimensional space
No full textA pentagon is an example of a highly symmetric polygon in two-dimensional space. The three-and four-dimensional analogue of these polygons are the regular polyhedra and the regular polytopes. There exist five regular polyhedra in three-dimensional space and these are called the Platonic solids. These five Platonic solids are the tetrahedron, cube, octahedron, dodecahedron and the icosahedron. In four-dimensional space, the regular polytopes are the 5-cell, the 8-cell, also called the tesseract, the 16-cell, the 24-cell, the 120-cell and the 600-cell. The main focus in this thesis is to describe the symmetry group of the icosahedron, to introduce the Icosians, which are related to the rotation group of the icosahedron, and to study the action of the symmetries of the 600-cell on the twenty-five 24-cells it circumscribes. Firstly, the symmetry groups of the Platonic Solids, the regular polytopes in three dimensional space are established. Then it will be shown that there eixsts a two-to-one map from the the group H1 of unit quaternions to the group SO(3), the group of 3 x 3 orientation-preserving matrices. This map will be used to describe the binary groups, which are double covers of the rotation groups of the Platonic solids. After that, the symmetry group of the tesseract will be studied both via an isomorphism between G := {± 1 }4 x S4} and the symmetry group of the tesseract as well as geometrically via rotation planes. Then, the 24-cell and the 600-cell will be defined as the four-dimensional regular polytopes whose vertices are the quaternions from the binary tetrahedral group and the binary icosahedral group, the Icosians. It will be shown that twenty-five 24-cells inscribe a 600-cell and that there are 10 ways to decompose the vertices of a 600-cell into the vertices of 5 disjoint 24-cells. Next, it will be shown that these 10 decompositions are chiral, 5 being 'left-handed' and 5 being 'right-handed'. Finally, it is shown that the symmetry group of the 600-cell acts on these 5+5 decompositions by permutation, each permutation being described by an element from A5 x A5 ⋊ {±1}, where -1 acts on A5x A5 by interchanging the factors of A5x A5.Applied Mathematic
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