Search results for: cognitive behaviour therapy

Authors: J. Marx, D. Smazna, R. Adelung, B. Fiedler

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Aerographite is a 3D interconnected carbon foam. Its tetrapodal morphology is based on the zinc oxide (ZnO) template structure, which is replicated in the chemical vapour deposition (CVD) into a hollow carbon structure. This replication process is analyzed in ex-situ studies via interrupted synthesis and the observation of the reaction progress by using scanning electron (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and Raman spectroscopy techniques. Based on the epitaxial growth process, with a layer-by-layer growth behaviour of the wall thickness or number of layers and the catalytical graphitization of the deposited amorphous carbon into graphitic carbon by zinc, a growth model is created. The properties of aerographite, such as the electrical conductivity is dependent on the graphitization and number of layer (wall thickness). Wall thicknesses between 3 nm and 22 nm are achieved by a controlled stepwise reduction of the synthesis time on the basis of the developed growth model, and by a further thermal treatment at 1800 °C the graphitization of the presented carbon foam is modified. The variation of the wall thickness leads to an optimum defect density (ID/IG ratio) and the graphitization to an improvement in the electrical conductivity. Furthermore, a metallic conducting behaviour of untreated and 1800 °C treated aerographite can be observed. Due to these structural and defective modifications, a fundamental structural-property equation for the description of their influences on the electrical conductivity is developed.

Keywords: electrical conductivity, electron microscopy (SEM/TEM), graphitization, wall thickness

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Authors: Riza Yilmaz, Samet Kiyak, Sezin Nur Yilmaz, Yasemin Yilmaz

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Child delinquency has been increasing in our country as well as in many countries of the world. Child intelligence, abilities, family's social environment and life conditions are the factors which affect the child delinquency. The reports of 73 cases ages of 12-15 which were sent to the University of Bulent Ecevit, School of Medicine, Forensic Medicine Department between January 2011-September 2015, in order to evaluate medically, children pushed to crime by the judicial authorities are examined in terms of age, gender, educational background, place of residence, reasons for being sent, whether it’s a repeating crime or not, type of intelligence test, results revealed by forensic medicine and department of mental and neurological disorders. When children pushed to crime examined in terms of their crimes, the most common type of crime was identified as theft (n = 24). The crimes with 19 physical attacks and 12 sexual abuse were seen. Following that other 12 crimes were determined as damage to property, hemp crop, insult, incitement to crime, forgery of private documents, illegal excavation, threatening, involuntary manslaughter. The alleged crimes in 6 cases were more than one. The children pushed to crime are one of the major social problems of many countries. In this sense, it is not only the responsibility of government agencies to protect children pushed to crime, also, the civil society organizations should take place in this struggle.

Keywords: delinquent behaviour, forensic medicine, crime, punishment

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Authors: Vanja Misic, Mohamed El-Mogy, Yousef Haj-Ahmad

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Endonuclease G (EndoG) is a well conserved mitochondrio-nuclear nuclease with dual lethal and vital roles in the cell. The aim of our study was to examine whether EndoG exerts its nuclease activity on exogenous DNA substrates such as plasmid DNA (pDNA), considering their importance in gene therapy applications. The effects of EndoG knockdown on pDNA stability and levels of encoded reporter gene expression were evaluated in the cervical carcinoma HeLa cells. Transfection of pDNA vectors encoding short-hairpin RNAs (shRNAs) reduced levels of EndoG mRNA and nuclease activity in HeLa cells. In physiological circumstances, EndoG knockdown did not have an effect on the stability of pDNA or the levels of encoded transgene expression as measured over a four day time-course. However, when endogenous expression of EndoG was induced by an extrinsic stimulus, targeting of EndoG by shRNA improved the perceived stability and transgene expression of pDNA vectors. Therefore, EndoG is not a mediator of exogenous DNA clearance, but in non-physiological circumstances it may non-specifically cleave intracellular DNA regardless of its origin. These findings make it unlikely that targeting of EndoG is a viable strategy for improving the duration and level of transgene expression from non-viral DNA vectors in gene therapy efforts.

Keywords: EndoG, silencing, exogenous DNA stability, HeLa cells

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Authors: Hamidreza Jabal Ameli, Anahita Movahedi

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Purpose: In radionuclide therapy, radioactive atoms are coupled to monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) for treating cancer tumor while limiting radiation to healthy tissues. We know that tumoral and normal tissues are not equally sensitive to radiation. In fact, biological effects such as cellular repair processes or the presence of less radiosensitive cells such as hypoxic cells should be taken account. For this reason, in this paper, we want to calculate biological effect dose (BED) inside tumoral area and healthy cells around tumors. Methods: In this study, deposited doses of a radionuclide, gold-198, inside cells lattice and surrounding healthy tissues were calculated with Monte Carlo method. The elemental compositions and density of malignant and healthy tissues were obtained from ICRU Report 44. For reaching to real condition of oxygen effects, the necrosis and hypoxia area inside tumors has been assessed. Results: With regard to linear-quadratic expression which was defined in Monte Carlo, results showed that a large amount of BED is deposited in the well-oxygenated part of the hypoxia area compared to necrosis area. Moreover, there is a significant difference between the curves of absorbed dose with BED and without BED.

Keywords: biological dose, monte carlo, hypoxia, radionuclide therapy

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Authors: Juhanita Jiman

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Malaysia is a unique country with multifaceted society; rich with its beautiful cultural values. It has been a long assimilation process for Malaysia to emerge its national identity. Malaysian government has been working hard for centuries to keep its people together in harmony. Cultural identity is identified to be ‘container’ that brings Malaysians together. The uniqueness of Malaysian cultures can actually be exploited for the benefit of the nation. However, this unique culture is somehow being threatened by those imported foreign values. If not closely monitored, these foreign influences can bring more damages than good. This paper aims to study elements in Upin and Ipin animation series and investigate how this series could help to educate local children with good moral and behaviour without being too serious and sententious. Upin and Ipin is chosen as a study to investigate the effectiveness of animation as a media of communication to promote positive values amongst pre-school children. Purposive sampling method was employed to determine the sample of studies hence pre-school children from Putrajaya Presint 9(2) school were chosen to take part in this study. The findings of this study demonstrate positive suggestions on how animation programmes being shown on TV can play significant roles in children social development and inculcate good moral behaviour as well as social skills among children and people around them.

Keywords: animation characters, children informal education, foreign influences, moral values

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Authors: Amanda Abbott-Jones

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Adult students with dyslexia in higher education can receive support for their cognitive needs but may also experience negative emotion such as anxiety due to their dyslexia in connection with their studies. This paper aims to test the hypothesis that adult dyslexic learners have a higher prevalence of academic and social anxiety than their non-dyslexic peers. A quantitative approach was used to measure differences in academic and social anxiety between 102 students with a formal diagnosis of dyslexia compared to 72 students with no history of learning difficulties. Academic and social anxiety was measured in a questionnaire based on the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. Findings showed that dyslexic students showed statistically significant higher levels of academic, but not social anxiety in comparison to the non-dyslexic sample. Dyslexic students in higher education show academic anxiety levels that are well above what is shown by students without dyslexia. The implications of this for the dyslexia practitioner is that delivery of strategies to deal with anxiety should be seen equally as important, if not more so, than interventions to deal with cognitive difficulties.

Keywords: Academic, Anxiety, Dyslexia, Quantitative

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Authors: Mohammad M. Aria, Fatma Öz, Yashar Esmaeilian, Marco Carofiglio, Valentina Cauda, Özlem Yalçın

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Photoelectrical stimulation of cells with semiconductor organic polymers have been shown promising applications in neuroprosthetics such as retinal prosthesis. Photoelectrical stimulation of the cell membranes can be induced through a photo-electric charge separation mechanism in the semiconductor materials, and it can alter intracellular calcium level through both stimulation of voltage-gated ion channels and increase of intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) level. On the other hand, targeting voltage-gated ion channels in cancer cells to induce cell apoptosis through calcium signaling alternation is an effective mechanism which has been explained before. In this regard, remote control of the voltage-gated ion channels aimed to alter intracellular calcium by using photo-active organic polymers can be novel technology in cancer therapy. In this study, we used P (ITO/Indium thin oxide)/P3HT(poly(3-hexylthiophene-2,5-diyl)) and PN (ITO/ZnO/P3HT) photovoltaic junctions to stimulate MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells. We showed that the photo-stimulation of breast cancer cells through photo capacitive current generated by the photovoltaic junctions are able to excite the cells and alternate intracellular calcium based on the calcium imaging (at 8mW/cm² green light intensity and 10-50 ms light durations), which has been reported already to safety stimulate neurons. The control group did not undergo light treatment and was cultured in T-75 flasks. We detected 20-30% cell death for ITO/P3HT and 51-60% cell death for ITO/ZnO/P3HT samples in the light treated MDA-MB-231 cell group. Western blot analysis demonstrated poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) activated cell death in the light treated group. Furthermore, Annexin V and PI fluorescent staining indicated both apoptosis and necrosis in treated cells. In conclusion, our findings revealed that the photoelectrical stimulation of cells (through long time overstimulation) can induce cell death in cancer cells.

Keywords: Ca²⁺ signaling, cancer therapy, electrically excitable cells, photoelectrical stimulation, voltage-gated ion channels

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Authors: Yumeng He

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The purpose of this paper is to establish the “extenics” of children music education, the “extenics” thought and methods are introduced into the children music education field. Discussions are made from the perspective of children music education on how to generate new music cognitive from music cognitive, how to generate new music education from music education and how to generate music learning from music learning. The research methods including the extensibility of music art, extensibility of music education, extensibility of music capability and extensibility of music learning. Results of this study indicate that the thought and research methods of children’s extended music education not only have developed the “extenics” concept and ideological methods, meanwhile, the brand-new thought and innovative research perspective have been employed in discussing the children music education. As indicated in research, the children’s extended music education has extended the horizon of children music education, and has endowed the children music education field with a new thought and research method.

Keywords: comprehensive evaluations, extension thought, extension cognition music education, extensibility

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Authors: Ioanna Koumi

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The aim of the intervention presented is to show the positive effects a mindfulness programme can have on the behaviour of preschoolers (years 4-6). The programme was implemented as part of the psychologist's work in 5 preschool units on the Greek island of Chios. Classroom-based activities of mindfulness were shown and practiced in 5 sessions, in collaboration with teachers, in order to make preschoolers aware of how their brain affects their behaviour, as well as of how they can have more positive behaviours, especially in instances of negative feelings. The outcomes of the intervention were assessed via questionnaire completion before and after the sessions by the teachers, as well as focus groups procedures with students, teachers, and parents. Implications of how mindfulness programmes can also be implemented at home are further discussed. School year in which the programme is being implemented: 2022-23 Intervention method: based on basic mindfulness theory and practice, the 220 students (age 4-6) in 11 classes of the 5 preschools that participated were given lessons of how to become aware of their states of focusing, regulation, attention, emotional situation, as well as body and social situations. Furthermore, the preschoolers were encouraged to make more mindful choices when it came to negative situations and emotions. Assessment method: The school as a caring community Profile II – Questionnaire completed by 20 preschool teachers prior to and after the intervention, Focus group sessions with teachers, students, parents at the end of the intervention Results: the assessment will be completed in May 2023.

Keywords: preschool, mindfulness training, self-awareness, social-emotional development

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Authors: Frederic Jumelle, Kelvin So, Didan Deng

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A method and system for neuropsychological performance test, comprising a mobile terminal, used to interact with a cloud server which stores user information and is logged into by the user through the terminal device; the user information is directly accessed through the terminal device and is processed by artificial neural network, and the user information comprises user facial emotions information, performance test answers information and user chronometrics. This assessment is used to evaluate the cognitive performance and emotional response of the subject to a series of dichotomous questions describing various situations of daily life and challenging the users' knowledge, values, ethics, and principles. In industrial applications, the timing of this assessment will depend on the users' need to obtain a service from a provider, such as opening a bank account, getting a mortgage or an insurance policy, authenticating clearance at work, or securing online payments.

Keywords: artificial intelligence, neurofinance, neuropsychology, risk management

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Authors: L. Freeborn

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This paper discusses the application of complex dynamic system theory (DST) to the study of individual differences in second language development. This transdisciplinary framework allows researchers to view the trajectory of language development as a dynamic, non-linear process. A DST approach views language as multi-componential, consisting of multiple complex systems and nested layers. These multiple components and systems continuously interact and influence each other at both the macro- and micro-level. Dynamic systems theory aims to explain and describe the development of the language system, rather than make predictions about its trajectory. Such a holistic and ecological approach to second language development allows researchers to include various research methods from neurological, cognitive, and social perspectives. A DST perspective would involve in-depth analyses as well as mixed methods research. To illustrate, a neurobiological approach to second language development could include non-invasive neuroimaging techniques such as electroencephalography (EEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate areas of brain activation during language-related tasks. A cognitive framework would further include behavioural research methods to assess the influence of intelligence and personality traits, as well as individual differences in foreign language aptitude, such as phonetic coding ability and working memory capacity. Exploring second language development from a DST approach would also benefit from including perspectives from the field of applied linguistics, regarding the teaching context, second language input, and the role of affective factors such as motivation. In this way, applying mixed research methods from neurobiological, cognitive, and social approaches would enable researchers to have a more holistic view of the dynamic and complex processes of second language development.

Keywords: dynamic systems theory, mixed methods, research design, second language development

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Authors: Aadityaa Singla

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The big five personality traits are as follows: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. In order to get an insight into their personality, many flocks to these categories, which each have different meanings/characteristics. This information is important not only to individuals but also to career professionals and psychologists who can use this information for candidate assessment or job recruitment. The links between AI and psychology have been well studied in cognitive science, but it is still a rather novel development. It is possible for various AI classification models to accurately predict a personality question via ten input questions. This would contrast with the hundred questions that normal humans have to answer to gain a complete picture of their five personality traits. In order to approach this problem, various AI classification models were used on a dataset to predict what a user may answer. From there, the model's prediction was compared to its actual response. Normally, there are five answer choices (a 20% chance of correct guess), and the models exceed that value to different degrees, proving their significance. By utilizing an MLP classifier, decision tree, linear model, and K-nearest neighbors, they were able to obtain a test accuracy of 86.643, 54.625, 47.875, and 52.125, respectively. These approaches display that there is potential in the future for more nuanced predictions to be made regarding personality.

Keywords: machine learning, personally, big five personality traits, cognitive science

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Authors: Jenny Ringblom, Marie Proczkowska, Laura Korhonen, Ingrid Wåhlin

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Background: Emergence delirium is a well-known behaviour of perceptual disturbances that may occur after general anaesthesia in children. Children with emergence delirium are often confused; they cry, are involuntarily physically active and are almost impossible to console. The prevalence varies considerably between about 13% and 53%. Research has mainly focused on how different medication accents affect the incidence of emergence delirium, but less is known about parents’ experiences of emergence delirium during the recovery process. Aim: The aim of this study was to describe parents’ experiences and reflections during their child's emergence delirium behaviour when recovering from anaesthesia. Method: The study has a qualitative design, and the data has been analyzed using thematic analysis. A total of 16 parents were interviewed at two county hospitals in Sweden. Results: When the parents reunited with their child at the recovering unit, they felt as if they were encountering an incomprehensible scenario. When watching their child demonstrating emergence delirium, they experienced fear and insecurity and had feelings of powerlessness and guilt. Information and previous experience turned out to offer relief and being seen by the healthcare staff when they, in their vulnerability, failed to reach or console their child gave hope and energy. Conclusion: Emergence delirium must be extensively considered in children undergoing general anaesthesia. Healthcare staff needs to be aware of the parental difficulties it may cause. There is also important to know what parents experience as relieving, such as receiving information and when staff members are being available, responsive and supportive during the wake-up period.

Keywords: emergence delirium, experiences, pediatrics, parents, postoperative care

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Authors: Jolanta Jonak

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All students demonstrate various learning preferences and learning styles that range from visual, auditory to kinesthetic preferences. These learning preferences are further impacted by individual cognitive profiles hat characterizes itself in linguistic strengths, logical- special, inter-or intra- personal, just to name a few. Students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds (CLD) have an increased risk of being misunderstood by many school systems and even medical personnel. Students with disability, specifically Autism, are faced with another layer of learning differences. Research indicates that large numbers of students are not provided the type of education and types of supports they need in order to be successful in an academic environment. Multiple research findings indicate that significant numbers of school staff self-reports that they do not feel adequately prepared to work with students with disability and different learing profiles. It is very important for the school staff to be educated about different learning needs of students with autism spectrum disorders. Having the knowledge, school staff can avoid unnecessary referrals for office referrals and avoid inaccurate decisions about restrictive learning environments. This presentation will illustrate the cognitive differences in students with autism, how to recognize them, and how to support them through Differentiated Instruction. One way to ensure successful education for students with disability is by providing Differentiated Instruction (DI). DI is quickly gaining its popularity in the Unites States as a scientific- research based instructional approach for all students. This form of support ensures that regardless of the students’ learning preferences and cognitive learning profiles, they have an opportunity to learn through approaches that are suitable to their needs. It is extremely important for the school staff, especially school psychologists who often are the first experts to be consulted by educators, to be educated about differences due to learning preference styles and differentiation needs.

Keywords: special education, autism, differentiation, differences, differentiated instruction

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Authors: Brahim Sow

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Background: Throughout West Africa, Balanites aegyptiaca (BA), or Zygophyllaceae, is widely used in traditional medicine to treat diabetes, hypertension, inflammation, malaria and liver disorders. In our recent research, we found that BA has nephroprotective potential against diabetes mellitus, hypertension and kidney disorders. However, to our knowledge, no systematic studies have been carried out on its derivative (toxicity) profile. Aim of the study: The study was conducted to assess the potential potency of the hydroalcoholic extract of BA bark in rats by the acute and sub-acute oral route. Materials and methods: Male and female rats in the acute depression study received BA extract orally at single doses of 500 mg/kg, 2000 mg/kg, 3000 mg/kg and 5000 mg/kg (n = 6 per group/sex). To assess acute depression, abnormal behaviour, toxic symptoms, weight and death were observed for 14 consecutive days. For the subacute impairment study, Wistar rats received the extract orally at doses of 125, 250 and 500 mg/kg (n=6 per group/sex) per day for 28 days. Behaviour and body weight were monitored daily. At the end of the treatment period, biochemical, haematological and histopathological examinations were performed, and gross and histopathological examinations of several organs were carried out. To determine the presence or absence of phytochemicals, the BA extract was subjected to gage phage chromatographic examination. Results: The absence of absorption chromatography of BA indicates the absence of cyanide groups. This suggests that the BA extract does not contain toxic substances. No mortality or adverse effects were observed at 5000 mg/kg in the acute depression test. With regard to body weight, general behaviour, relative organ weights, haematological and biochemical parameters, BA extract did not induce any mortality or potentially treatment-related effects in the sub-acute study. The normal architecture of the vital organs was revealed by histopathological examination, indicating the absence of morphological alterations. Conclusion: BA extract administered orally for 28 days at doses up to 500 mg/kg did not cause toxicological damage in rats in the present study. The median lethal dose (LD50) of the extract was estimated to be over 5000 mg/kg in an acute hyperglycaemia study.

Keywords: Balanites aegyptiaca L Delile, haematology, biochemistry, rat

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Authors: Yayra Dzakadzie

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The descriptive cross-sectional survey study assessed dishonest academic intention, mediating academic goals, and attitude relationship with academic dishonesty among university undergraduate students in Ghana. The target population for this study was all the final-year undergraduate students enrolled full-time in Ghanaian public universities. One thousand two hundred (1,200) undergraduate students participated in the study. Multistage sampling was used to select the sample for the study. A structured questionnaire was used to collect the needed data to test hypotheses. Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) was used for the analyses. The results revealed that academic goals and attitudes had direct and indirect effects on academic dishonesty behaviour. Also, academic intention was statistically a significant mediator in the relationship that academic goals and attitude have with academic dishonesty. It was concluded that when academic goals are high, it compels individual students to try new strategies, and when academic goals are low, the students would like to “cut corners” to meet expectations. It was also concluded that when the attitude towards academic dishonesty is low, students are more unlikely to form an intention to be academically dishonest. It is recommended that lecturers should make their students aware of the goals that need to be attained in their courses and provide them with feedback on goal progress. Students should set their proximal goals and enhance their commitment so that they avoid putting things off. Enforcement of rules and regulations against academic dishonesty must be fully adhered to since students’ positive attitudes can result in high intention, which would lead to academic dishonesty behaviour.

Keywords: intention, academic goals, attitude, academic dishonesty, public university

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Authors: Anna Ghosh, Dominic Shields, Ceri McIntosh, Stephen Crank

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A 29-year-old male was a referral to the maxillofacial unit following a referral from his general dental practitioner via a routine pathway regarding a large periapical lesion on the LR4 with root resorption. The patient was asymptomatic, the LR4 vital and unrestored, and this was an incidental finding at a routine check-up. The patient's past medical history was unremarkable. Examination revealed no extra or intra-oral pathology and non-mobile teeth. No focal neurology was detected. An orthopantogram demonstrated a well-defined unilocular corticated radiolucency associated with the LR4. The root appeared shortened with the radiolucency between the root and a radio-opacity, possibly representing the displacement of the apical tip of the tooth. It was recommended that the referring general practitioner should proceed with orthograde root canal therapy, after which time exploration, enucleation, and retrograde root filling of the LR4 would be carried out by a maxillofacial unit. The patient was reviewed six months later where, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the patient had been unable to access general dental services for the root canal treatment. He was still entirely asymptomatic. A one-year review was planned in the hope this would allow time for the orthograde root canal therapy to be completed. At this review, the orthograde root canal therapy had still not been completed. Interestingly, a repeat orthopantogram revealed a significant reduction in size with good bony infill and a significant reduction in the size of the lesion. Due to the ongoing delays with primary care dental therapy, the patient was subsequently internally referred to the restorative dentistry department for care. The patient was seen again by oral and maxillo-facial surgery in mid-2022 where he still reports this tooth as asymptomatic with no focal neurology. The patient's history was fully reviewed, and noted that 15 years previously, the patient underwent open reduction and internal fixation of a left angle of mandible fracture. Temporary IMF involving IMF screws and fixation wires were employed to maintain occlusion during plating and subsequently removed post-operatively. It is proposed that the radiolucency was, as a result of the IMF screw placement, penetrating the LR4 root resulting in resorption of the tooth root and development of a radiolucency. This case highlights the importance of careful screw size and physical site location, and placement of IMF screws, as there can be permeant damage to a patient’s dentition.

Keywords: facial trauma, inter-maxillary fixation, mandibular radiolucency, oral and maxillo-facial surgery

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Authors: Shaymaa Kennedy, Sam Clark, Paul Shaply

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With the upcoming construction of high-speed rail HS2 in the UK, a number of issues surrounding the construction technology and track design need to be answered. In this paper performance of subsoil subjected to dynamic loads were studied. The material of study is Mudrock backfill, a weak prevalent rock which response under indicative loading of high-speed rail line is unknown. This paper aims to investigate the use of different track types and the influence they will have on the underlying soil, in order to evaluate the behaviour of it. Ballstless track is a well-established concept in Europe, and the investigation the benefit of the form of construction due to its known savings in maintenance costs. Physical test using a triaxial cyclic loading machine was conducted to assess the expected mechanical behaviour of mudrock under a range of dynamic loads which could be generated beneath different track constructions. Some further parameters are required to frame the problem including determining the stress change with depth and cyclic response are vital to determine the residual plastic strain which is a major concern. In addition, Stress level is discussed in this paper, which are applied to recreate conditions of soil in the laboratory. Results indicate that stress levels are highly influential on the performance of soil at shallower depth and become insignificant with increasing depth.

Keywords: stress level, dynamic load, residual plastic strain, high speed railway

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Authors: A. Alli-Oluwafuyi, A. Amin, S. M. Fii, S. O. Amusa, A. Imam, N. T. Asogwa, W. I. Abdulmajeed, F. Olaseinde, B. V. Owoyele

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Chronic stress or prolonged glucocorticoid administration impairs higher cognitive functions in rodents and humans. However, the mechanisms are not fully clear. Insulin and receptors are expressed in the brain and are involved in cognition. Insulin resistance accompanies Alzheimer’s disease and associated cognitive decline. The goal of this study was to evaluate the effects of sub-chronic administration of a glucocorticoid, dexamethasone (DEX) on behavior and biochemical changes in prefrontal cortex (PFC). Male Wistar rats were administered DEX (2, 4 & 8 mg/kg, IP) or saline for seven consecutive days and behavior was assessed in the following paradigms: “Y” maze, elevated plus maze, Morris’ water maze and novel object recognition (NOR) tests. Insulin, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and Superoxide Dismutase (SOD) activity were evaluated in homogenates of the prefrontal cortex. DEX-treated rats exhibited impaired prefrontal cortex function manifesting as reduced locomotion, impaired novel object exploration and impaired short- and long-term spatial memory compared to normal controls (p < 0.05). These effects were not consistently dose-dependent. These behavioral alterations were accompanied by a decrease in insulin concentration observed in PFC of 4 mg/kg DEX-treated rats compared to control (10μIU/mg vs. 50μIU/mg; p < 0.05) but not 2mg/kg. Furthermore, we report a modification of brain stress markers LDH and SOD (p > 0.05). These results indicate that prolonged activation of GCs disrupt prefrontal cortex function which may be related to insulin impairment. These effects may not be attributable to a non-specific elevation of oxidative stress in the brain. Future studies would evaluate mechanisms of GR-induced insulin loss.

Keywords: dexamethasone, insulin, memory, prefrontal cortex

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Authors: Chenchen Liu, Jacques Audran

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Using tablet apps with a certain educational purpose to promote young children’s cognitive development, is quite common now. Developing an educational app on an Ipad like tablet, especially for a young child (age 3-5) requires an optimal level of challenge to continuously attract children’s attention and obtain an educational effect. Adaptive difficulty adjustment, which could dynamically set the difficulty in the challenge according to children’s performance, seems to be a good solution. Since space concept plays an important role in young children’s cognitive development, we made an experimental comparison in a French kindergarten between one group of 23 children using an educational app ‘Debout Ludo’ with adaptive difficulty settings and another group of 20 children using the previous version of ‘Debout Ludo’ with a classic incremental difficulty adjustment. The experiment results of spatial problem solving indicated that a significantly higher learning outcome was acquired by the young children who used the adaptive version of the app.

Keywords: adaptive difficulty, spatial problem solving, tactile tablet, young children

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Authors: N. Zandi, M. Sitarz, J. Jastrzebski, M. Vagheian, J. Choinski, A. Stolarz, A. Trzcinska

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¹³⁵La with the half-life of 19.5 h can be considered as a good candidate for Auger therapy. ¹³⁵La decays almost 100% by electron capture to the stable ¹³⁵Ba. In this study, all important possible reactions leading to ¹³⁵La production are investigated in details, and the corresponding theoretical yield for each reaction using the Monte-Carlo method (MCNPX code) are presented. Among them, the best reaction based on the cost-effectiveness and production yield regarding Poland facilities equipped with medical cyclotron has been selected. ¹³⁵La is produced using 16.5 MeV proton beam of general electric PET trace cyclotron through the ¹³⁵Ba(p,n)¹³⁵La reaction. Moreover, for a consistent facilitating comparison between the theoretical calculations and the experimental measurements, the beam current and also the proton beam energy is measured experimentally. Then, the obtained proton energy is considered as the entrance energy for the theoretical calculations. The production yield finally is measured and compared with the results obtained using the MCNPX code. The results show the experimental measurement and the theoretical calculations are in good agreement.

Keywords: efficient ¹³⁵La production, proton cyclotron energy measurement, MCNPX code, theoretical and experimental production yield

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Authors: Yang Wei, Xueyan Wang, Hui Zou

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Objective: Investigation the prevalence of menopausal symptoms in patients with allergic symptoms, evaluation of the effect of sex hormones combined with anti-allergic therapy in these patients. Method: Age of 45-65 years old women with allergic symptoms at the same time in gynecological-endocrinology clinic in our hospital were selected from Feb 1 to May 31, 2010, randomly. The patients were given oral estradiol valerate plus progestin pills combined with anti-allergy treatment and then evaluated twice a week and one month later. Evaluation criterion: Menopause Rating Scale (MRS) and the degree of clinical symptoms were used to evaluate menopause and allergy separately. Results: 1) There were 195 cases of patients with menopausal symptoms at the age. Their MRS were all over 15. 2) Among them 45 patients were with allergic symptom accounted for 23% which were diagnosed by allergic department. 3) Evaluated after one week: the menopausal symptoms were improved and MRS were less than or equal to 5 in all these patients; the skin symptom of allergic symptoms vanished completely. 4) Evaluated after one month: Menopause symptoms were improved steadily; other clinical symptoms of allergy were also improved or without recurrence. Conclusion: The incidence rate of menopausal women with clinical symptoms of allergic diseases is high and it needs attention. The effect of sex hormones combined with anti-allergic therapy is obvious.

Keywords: menopausal, allergy, sex hormone, anti-allergy treatment

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Authors: Daniella Hirwa

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Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is associated with several risk-taking behaviors, including drug use and smoking. Such risk-taking behaviors are often a result of an attempt to self-manage symptoms associated with ADHD. The present review investigates the effects of nicotine on symptoms associated with ADHD. This systematic literature review was conducted for 2017-2024 using keywords associated with ADHD, smoking, and nicotine. The results indicate that individuals with ADHD start smoking earlier than those without ADHD, and it is believed that this prevalence and the higher rates of smoking are due to improvements in cognitive and executive function, attention, and impulsivity due to the effect that nicotine has on dopamine release. Longitudinal studies with larger sample sizes and comprehensive health history and cognitive testing are required to gain more insight into the ways that nicotine affects ADHD symptoms and the context by which smoking is used as a method of self-treatment to help aid the development of nicotine-based treatment options that do not pose the same health risks as smoking.

Keywords: ADHD, nicotine, risk-taking behaviors, smoking

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Authors: Dean J. Hill

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This paper undertakes the task of conducting an in-depth textual analysis of the cli-fi genre. It examines how writing in the genre contributes to expressing and facilitating the articulation of environmental consciousness through the form of narrative. The paper begins by situating cli-fi within the literary continuum of ecological narratives and identifying the unique textual characteristics and thematic preoccupations of this area. The paper unfolds how cli-fi transforms the esoteric nature of climate science into credible narrative forms by drawing on language use, metaphorical constructs, and narrative framing. It also involves how descriptive and figurative language in the description of nature and disaster makes climate change so vivid and emotionally resonant. The work also points out the dialogic nature of cli-fi, whereby the characters and the narrators experience inner disputes in the novel regarding the ethical dilemma of environmental destruction, thus demanding the readers challenge and re-evaluate their standpoints on sustainability and ecological responsibilities. The paper proceeds with analysing the feature of narrative voice and its role in eliciting empathy, as well as reader involvement with the ecological material. In looking at how different narratorial perspectives contribute to the emotional and cognitive reaction of the reader to text, this study demonstrates the profound power of perspective in developing intimacy with the dominating concerns. Finally, the emotional arc of cli-fi narratives, running its course over themes of loss, hope, and resilience, is analysed in relation to how these elements function to marshal public feeling and discourse into action around climate change. Therefore, we can say that the complexity of the text in the cli-fi not only shows the hard edge of the reality of climate change but also influences public perception and behaviour toward a more sustainable future.

Keywords: cli-fi genre, ecological narratives, emotional arc, narrative voice, public perception

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Authors: Amani Hassan Abu Atieh

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This study aims at examining the patterns of ideology reflected in the written discourse of women writers in the media of Jordan; Lana Mamkgh is taken as an example. This study critically analyzes the discursive, linguistic, and cognitive representations that she employs as an agent in the institutionalized discourse of the media. Grounded in van Dijk’s critical discourse analysis approach to Sociocognitive Discourse Studies, the present study builds a multilayer framework that encompasses van Dijk’s triangle: discourse, society, and cognition. Specifically, the study attempts to analyze, at both micro and macro levels, the underlying cognitive processes and structures, mainly ideology and discursive strategies, which are functional in the production of women’s discourse in terms of meaning, forms, and functions. Cognitive processes that social actors adopt are underlined by experience/context and semantic mental models on the one hand and social cognition on the other. This study is based on qualitative research and adopts purposive sampling, taking as an example a sample of an opinion article written by Lana Mamkgh in the Arabic Jordanian Daily, Al Rai. Taking her role as an agent in the public sphere, she stresses the National and feminist ideologies, demonstrating the use of assertive, evaluative, and expressive linguistic and rhetorical devices that appeal to the logic, ethics, and emotions of the addressee. Highlighting the agency of Jordanian writers in the media, the study sought to achieve the macro goal of dispensing political and social justice to the underprivileged. Further, the study seeks to prove that the voice of Jordanian women, viewed as underrepresented and invisible in the public arena, has come through clearly.

Keywords: critical discourse analysis, sociocognitive theory, ideology, women discourse, media

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Authors: Binh Thanh Ta, Elizabeth Sturgiss

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Central to patient-centered care is the idea of treating a patient as a person and understanding their perspectives regarding their health conditions and care preferences. Surprisingly, little is known about how GPs can understand their patients’ perspectives. This paper addresses the challenge of understanding patient perspectives in behavior change consultations by adopting Conversation Analysis (CA), which is an empirical research approach that allows both researchers and the audience to examine patients’ perspectives as displayed in GP-patient interaction. To understand people’s perspectives, CA researchers do not rely on what they say but instead on how they demonstrate their endogenous orientations to social norms when they interact with each other. Underlying CA is the notion that social interaction is orderly by all means. (It is important to note that social orders should not be treated as exogenous sets of rules that predetermine human behaviors. Rather social orders are constructed and oriented by social members through their interactional practices. Also, note that these interactional practices are the resources shared by all social members). As CA offers tools to uncover the orderliness of interactional practices, it not only allows us to understand the perspective of a particular patient in a particular medical encounter but, more importantly, enables us to recognise the shared interactional practice for signifying a particular perspective. Drawing on the 10 video-recorded consultations on behavior change in primary care, we have discovered the orderliness of patient laughter when reporting health behaviors, which signifies their orientation to the problematic nature of the reported behaviors. Among 24 cases where patients reported their health behaviors, we found 19 cases in which they laughed while speaking. In the five cases where patients did not laugh, we found that they explicitly framed their behavior as unproblematic. This finding echoes the CA body research on laughter, which suggests that laughter produced by first speakers (as opposed to laughing in response to what has been said earlier) normally indicates some sort of problems oriented to the self (e.g. self-tease, self-depreciation, etc.). This finding points to the significance of understanding when and why patients laugh; such understanding would assist GPs to recognise whether patients treat their behavior as problematic or not, thereby producing responses sensitive to patient perspectives.

Keywords: patient centered care, laughter, conversation analysis, primary care, behaviour change consultations

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Authors: Michal Krecichwost, Zauzanna Miodonska, Pawel Badura

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The diagnosis of sigmatism is mostly based on the observation of articulatory organs. It is, however, not always possible to precisely observe the vocal apparatus, in particular in the oral cavity of the patient. Speech processing can allow to objectify the therapy and simplify the verification of its progress. In the described study the methodology for classification of incorrectly pronounced phoneme [s] is proposed. The recordings come from adults. They were registered with the speech recorder at the sampling rate of 44.1 kHz and the resolution of 16 bit. The database of pathological and normative speech has been collected for the study including reference assessments provided by the speech therapy experts. Ten adult subjects were asked to simulate a certain type of stigmatism under the speech therapy expert supervision. In the recordings, the analyzed phone [s] was surrounded by vowels, viz: ASA, ESE, ISI, SPA, USU, YSY. Thirteen MFCC (mel-frequency cepstral coefficients) and RMS (root mean square) values are calculated within each frame being a part of the analyzed phoneme. Additionally, 3 fricative formants along with corresponding amplitudes are determined for the entire segment. In order to aggregate the information within the segment, the average value of each MFCC coefficient is calculated. All features of other types are aggregated by means of their 75th percentile. The proposed method of features aggregation reduces the size of the feature vector used in the classification. Binary SVM (support vector machine) classifier is employed at the phoneme recognition stage. The first group consists of pathological phones, while the other of the normative ones. The proposed feature vector yields classification sensitivity and specificity measures above 90% level in case of individual logo phones. The employment of a fricative formants-based information improves the sole-MFCC classification results average of 5 percentage points. The study shows that the employment of specific parameters for the selected phones improves the efficiency of pathology detection referred to the traditional methods of speech signal parameterization.

Keywords: computer-aided pronunciation evaluation, sibilants, sigmatism diagnosis, speech processing

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Authors: Zhuoyuan Wang, Benson T. H. Lim, Imriyas Kamardeen

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Effective service quality management has long been touted as a means of improving project and organisational performance. Particularly, in construction projects, main contractors are often seen as a broker between clients and subcontractors, and their service quality is thus associated with the overall project affinity and outcomes. While a considerable amount of research has focused on the aspect of clients-main contractors, very little research has been done to explore the effect of contractors’ service quality on subcontractors’ behaviours and so project outcomes. In addressing this gap, this study surveyed 97 subcontractors in the Chinese Construction industry and data was analysed using the Partial Least Square (PLS) Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) technique. The overall findings reveal that subcontractors categorised main contractors’ service quality into three dimensions: assurance; responsiveness; reliability and empathy. Of these, it is found that main contractors’ ‘assurance’ and ‘responsiveness’ positively influence subcontractors’ intention to engage in contractual behaviours. The results further show that the subcontractors’ intention to engage in organizational citizenship behaviours is associated with how flexible and committed the main contractors are in reliability and empathy. Collectively, both subcontractors’ contractual and organizational citizenship behaviours positively influence the overall project outcomes. In conclusion, the findings inform contractors different strategies towards managing and gaining subcontractors’ behaviour commitment in a socially connected, yet complex and uncertain, business environment.

Keywords: construction firms, organisational citizenship behaviour, service quality, social exchange theory

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Authors: A. Degale Desta, Cheng Jian

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Deep learning application in computer vision is rapidly advancing, giving it the ability to monitor the public and quickly identify potentially anomalous behaviour from crowd scenes. Therefore, the purpose of the current work is to improve the performance of safety of people in crowd events from panic behaviour through introducing the innovative idea of Aggregation of Ensembles (AOE), which makes use of the pre-trained ConvNets and a pool of classifiers to find anomalies in video data with packed scenes. According to the theory of algorithms that applied K-means, KNN, CNN, SVD, and Faster-CNN, YOLOv5 architectures learn different levels of semantic representation from crowd videos; the proposed approach leverages an ensemble of various fine-tuned convolutional neural networks (CNN), allowing for the extraction of enriched feature sets. In addition to the above algorithms, a long short-term memory neural network to forecast future feature values and a handmade feature that takes into consideration the peculiarities of the crowd to understand human behavior. On well-known datasets of panic situations, experiments are run to assess the effectiveness and precision of the suggested method. Results reveal that, compared to state-of-the-art methodologies, the system produces better and more promising results in terms of accuracy and processing speed.

Keywords: action recognition, computer vision, crowd detecting and tracking, deep learning

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Authors: Maciej Sobczak, Julita Pietrzak, Tomasz Płoszaj, Agnieszka Robaszkiewicz

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Brg1, a member of SWI/SNF complex, plays a role in chromatin remodeling, therefore, regulates expression of many genes. Brg1 is an ATPase of SWI/SNF complex, thus its activity requires ATP. Through its bromodomain recognizes acetylated histone residues and evicts them, thus promoting transcriptionally active state of chromatin. One of the enzymes that is responsible for acetylation of histone residues is Ep300. It was previously shown in the literature that cooperation of Brg1 and Ep300 occurs at the promoter regions that have binding sites for E2F-family transcription factors as well as CpG islands. According to literature, approximately 20% of human cancer possess mutation in Brg1 or any other crucial SWI/SNF subunit. That phenomenon makes Brg1-Ep300 a very promising target for anti-cancer therapy. Therefore in our study, we investigated if physical interaction between Brg1 and Ep300 exists and what impact those two proteins have on key for breast cancer cells processes such as DNA damage repair and cell proliferation. Bioinformatical analysis pointed out, that genes involved in cell proliferation and DNA damage repair are overexpressed in MCF7 and MDA-MB-231 cells. Moreover, promoter regions of these genes are highly acetylated, which suggests high transcriptional activity of those sites. Notably, many of those gene possess within their promoters an E2F, Brg1 motives, as well as CpG islands and acetylated histones. Our data show that Brg1 physically interacts with Ep300, and together they regulate expression of genes involved in DNA damage repair and cell proliferation. Upon inhibiting Brg1 or Ep300, expression of vital for cancer cell survival genes such as CDK2/4, BRCA1/2, PCNA, and XRCC1 is decreased in MDA-MB-231 and MCF7 cells. Moreover, inhibition or silencing of either Brg1 or Ep300 leads to cell cycle arrest in G1. After inhibition of BRG1 or Ep300 on tested gene promoters, the repressor complex including Rb, HDAC1, and EZH2 is formed, which inhibits gene expression. These results highlight potentially significant target for targeted anticancer therapy to be introduced as a supportive therapy.

Keywords: brg1, ep300, breast cancer, epigenetics

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