Abstract
Objective
We compared two different methods of assessing self-awareness (clinician-rated vs. self- and caregiver report) in participants with neurodegenerative conditions. Additionally, we ...examined the contribution of memory dysfunction to assessment of self-awareness.
Method
Sixty-seven participants with various neurodegenerative disorders participated in this study. Data were collected on brain volume, neurocognitive function, demographic characteristics, and two measures of patient self-awareness, defined as (1) the discrepancy between patient and caregiver ratings of dysexecutive syndrome and (2) clinician-observed rating of patient insight. Penalized regression with best subset variable selection and 10-fold cross-validation was used to evaluate three neurocognitive frameworks: self-regulation, language, and perspective-taking, each predicting the results from the two methods of self-awareness measurement.
Results
The self-regulation framework was more robustly predictive for both the clinician rating and discrepancy method than language or perspective-taking. Frameworks in which the clinician rating was the criterion were more robust than those with the discrepancy method as criterion. When a measure of memory functioning was added to the framework, there was no appreciable improvement in the prediction of self-awareness.
Conclusions
A self-regulation neurocognitive framework, consisting of regions of interest and neuropsychological test scores, was more effective in understanding patient self-awareness than perspective-taking or language frameworks. Compared to the discrepancy method, a clinician rating of self-awareness was more robustly associated with relevant clinical variables of regional brain volume and neuropsychological performance, suggesting it may be a useful measure to aid clinical diagnosis.
The American Cancer Society (ACS) publishes Nutrition and Physical Activity Guidelines to serve as a foundation for its communication, policy, and community strategies and ultimately, to affect ...dietary and physical activity patterns among Americans. These Guidelines, published every 5 years, are developed by a national panel of experts in cancer research, prevention, epidemiology, public health, and policy, and as such, they represent the most current scientific evidence related to dietary and activity patterns and cancer risk. The ACS Guidelines include recommendations for individual choices regarding diet and physical activity patterns, but those choices occur within a community context that either facilitates or interferes with healthy behaviors. Community efforts are essential to create a social environment that promotes healthy food choices and physical activity. Therefore, this committee presents one key recommendation for community action to accompany the four recommendations for individual choices to reduce cancer risk. This recommendation for community action recognizes that a supportive social environment is indispensable if individuals at all levels of society are to have genuine opportunities to choose healthy behaviors. The ACS Guidelines are consistent with guidelines from the American Heart Association and the American Diabetes Association forthe prevention of coronary heart disease and diabetes, as well as for general health promotion, as defined by the Department of Health and Human Services' 2005 Dietary Guidelinesfor Americans.
Maritime transportation moves 90% of all internationally traded cargo, accounting for 3% of annual anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Some researchers and policymakers are proposing carbon ...pricing to incentivize a transition towards zeroemission shipping. Until low and zero-emission technologies have time to develop, I hypothesize that increases in the price of marine fuels, such as through a tax on GHG emissions, will raise prices of the Shanghai Containerized Freight Index (SCFI). This thesis uses data on oil-based maritime fuels to estimate the relationship between a marginal increase in fuel prices on the price of containerized shipping, with marginal increases in the price of fuel used as a proxy to estimate the effect of a GHG tax. Through empirical analysis, I find that a $1 tax per metric ton (tonne) of CO2-equivalent (CO2e) emissions would lead to a $11.28 increase in the price to ship a twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) container from the Port of Shanghai, the world’s largest port. This finding can be applied to any hypothetical tax rate, including the current European Union Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) price to emit one tonne of CO2e. Applying my regression results to the March 3, 2023 EU ETS price of $103.41 leads to an estimated 49% increase in the price to ship a TEU from Shanghai to international destinations. These results indicate that policymakers should invest in low and zero-emission fuels and reduce freight transportation costs to offset carbon tax-induced price increases.
The Dimensional Change Card Sort (DCCS) is a measure of cognitive flexibility for children, which requires rule-use and shifting. Demographic, cognitive, regional cortical thickness, and genetic ...variables, including those related to language and executive function, were used to build predictive models of DCCS scores in 556 healthy pediatric participants. Gender, age, frontal, and temporal lobe regions of interest, and measures of sustained attention, inhibition, and word reading were selected as the best predictors of DCCS performance. Results indicated that DCCS performance is related to a broad range of cognitive functions and anatomic regions associated with various levels of cognitive function.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
BFBNIB, DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Abstract Emotion has been conceptualized as a dimensional construct, while the number of dimensions – two or three – has been debated. Research has consistently identified two dimensions – valence ...and arousal – though ample evidence exists that three dimensions are necessary to describe emotion. One proposed third dimension, identified as dominance, is relevant in clinical syndromes, personality and consumer psychology. Dominance refers to an individual's sense of having an ability to affect the environment. Neuroimaging studies have generally focused on the two dimensions of valence and arousal, leaving the neural correlates of dominance unexplored. The current study used functional magnetic resonance imaging to explore the neural basis of dominance in 17 healthy male controls. Participants viewed images from the International Affective Picture System that were selected to represent high and low dominance conditions. Results indicated activation in paralimbic regions, including the bilateral anterior insula for high dominance and the right precuneus for low. The findings of this exploratory study support the consideration of dominance in dimensional models of emotion and suggest that further research is needed to understand the neural representation of dominance in emotional experience.
Assessment of capacity to give informed consent in the general hospital setting usually rests on a clinical judgment made of a patient's understanding and appreciation of his or her illness, a ...process limited by its subjective nature, interexaminer variability, and relative deficiency of quantitative instruments available to provide collateral information. Inasmuch as identification of associated variables could strengthen this process, this study examines the association of cognitive functions to the capacity to give informed consent. Over a one-year period, 65 patients were evaluated independent of medical or psychiatric diagnoses. The study population consisted of medical and neurology inpatients seen for neuropsychiatric evaluation. All evaluations included assessment of capacity to give informed consent as it related to the reason for the admission to the hospital, followed by administration of the Hopkins Competency Assessment Test, the Mini-Mental Status Examination, the Trail-Making Test, Parts A and B, and the Executive Interview. Of 65 patients, 34 were excluded based on preset criteria. The remaining patients were assigned to either a "competent" or "noncompetent" group based on clinical evaluation. Number of patients, gender, and handedness distributions between groups were similar. The groups did not differ significantly in terms of age or education. Significant between-group differences were found on an empirical measure of competency, a general mental state measure, and on measures of attentional and executive cognitive functions. An analysis of classification rates indicated that a measure of executive cognitive functioning (Executive Interview) had the best sensitivity and specificity in correctly classifying competent and noncompetent patients. The results of this study support the association between the capacity to give informed consent in the hospital setting and measures of cognitive functioning, suggesting that utilization of cognitive function measures may strengthen the competency assessment process.
Tasks sensitive to frontal lobe dysfunction (delayed response, delayed alternation, object alternation, and Wisconsin Card Sort) were administered to 20 patients with post-acute closed-head injury ...(CHI). Time since injury varied (6 to 280 months; mean, 48 months), as did length of coma (2 hr to 120 days; mean, 38 days). Compared to normal controls, CHI patients showed no deficits on delayed response tasks, but were impaired on delayed alternation, object alternation, and the Wisconsin Card Sort Test. Analyses of the performance profiles of the CHI patients suggested that they may have difficulty in establishing set (a consequence of damage to the orbitofrontal system).
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