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The aim of this discussion paper is to explore factors and contexts that influence how nurses might conceptualise and assign personhood for people with altered consciousness, cognition and behaviours. While a biomedical framing is founded upon a dichotomy between the body and self, such that the body can be subjected to a medical and objectifying gaze, relational theories of self, multiculturalism and technological advances for life-sustaining interventions present new dilemmas which necessitate discussion about what constitutes personhood. The concept of personhood is dynamic and evolving: where historical constructs of rationality, agency, autonomy and a conscious mind once formed the basis for personhood, these ideas have been challenged to encompass embodied, relational, social and cultural paradigms of selfhood. Themes in this discussion include: the right to personhood, mind-body dualism versus the embodied self; personhood as consciousness, rationality and narratives of self; social relational contexts of personhood and cultural contexts of personhood. Patricia Benner's and Christine Tanner's clinical judgement model is then applied to consider the implications for nursing care that seeks to reflexively incorporate personhood. Nurse clinicians are able to move between conceptions of personhood and act to support the body, as well as presumed autonomy and relational, social and cultural personhood. In doing so, they use analytical, intuitive and narrative reasoning which prioritises autonomous constructions of self. They also incorporate relational and social contexts of the person receiving care within the possibilities of technological advances and constraints of contextual resources., (© 2024 The Author(s). Nursing Philosophy published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

The International Conference on Cognitive Modelling is dedicated to understanding how the complex processes of the mind can be explained in terms of detailed inner processing. In this issue, we present four representative papers of this field of research from our 20th meeting, ICCM 2022. This meeting was our first hybrid meeting, with a virtual version happening July 11-15, 2022, and an in-person event from July 23-27, 2022, held in Toronto, Canada. The four papers presented here were the top-ranked papers across both the virtual and in-person events. Three of the papers develop novel computational theories about low-level components within the mind and how those components result in high-level phenomena such as motivation, anhedonia, and attention. The final paper demonstrates the use of cognitive modeling to develop novel explanations of a paired associate learning task, and uses those insights to develop and explain human performance in a more complex version of that task., (© 2024 Cognitive Science Society LLC.)

Medical postgraduates are the new force of scientific research groups in China. However, the limitation of their English language ability restricts their publication of high-level Science Citation Index (SCI) papers to a large extent. Measures to improve students' SCI language ability from macro, intermediate and micro aspects were discussed through flipped classroom teaching mode, such as students' reading papers before class, students' practicing paper writing after class, and teacher's making comments in class. The feedback from the questionnaire showed that 96.65% of the students were satisfied with the teaching mode and 93.57% of them had improved their confidence in SCI writing. For the problems mentioned in the feedback, it was suggested that colleges and universities should formulate policies to encourage teachers to engage in medical English teaching, meanwhile teachers should constantly improve their professional quality, so as to help students improve their SCI language ability rapidly.

Background: One of the satisfactions of publishing a paper in an academic journal is seeing the process reach closure after potentially weeks or months of peer review and editorial processing. Typically, in the latter step, a proof is developed and the paper stays in press until the paper is assigned to a journal issue, in the case of a print journal. In some cases, it is possible to find papers that are in press for years., Aims: Although it is unclear why this is the case, when a paper stays in an "in limbo" status for so long, it almost defeats the purpose of rapid proof and online publication., Method: The date of the last "in press" article was manually extracted and compared in 23 medicine-related journals indexed in Elsevier's Science Direct., Results: Among the 23 journals, "in press" articles ranged from less than one month to almost 16 years., Conclusion: Editors and publishers should endeavor to publish all "in press" papers within a reasonable amount of time. If not, they should rethink their publication process so as not to leave the intellect of some academics in a perpetual state of publishing "limbo"., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Royal Academy of Medicine in Ireland.)

The International Conference on Cognitive Modeling brings together researchers from around the world whose main goal is to build computational systems that reflect the internal processes of the mind. In this issue, we present the five best representative papers on this work from our 19th meeting, ICCM 2021, which was held virtually from July 3 to July 9, 2021. Three of these papers provide new techniques for refining computational models, giving better methods for taking empirical data and producing accurate computational models of the cognitive systems that produce them. The other two papers focus on explanation: using models to elucidate the underlying processes affecting cognition in such diverse domains as logical reasoning and the effects of caffeine., (© 2022 Cognitive Science Society LLC.)

Background and Objective: The number of people suffering from dementia is increasing worldwide and so is the need for reliable and economical diagnostic instruments. Therefore, the aim of this study was to compare the processing times of the neuropsychological tests Trail Making Tests A and B (TMT-A/B) and Color-Word Interference Test (CWIT), which were performed in both digital and paper versions., Methods: The pilot study was conducted among 50 healthy participants (age 65-83 years) using a randomized crossover design. The correlations and differences in the individual processing times of the two test versions were statistically analyzed. Further research questions concerned the influence of the individual usage of technology and the technology commitment of participants as well as the influence of the assessed usability on participants' performance., Results: Between the two versions (paper-based vs. digital) statistically significant correlations were found in all tests, e.g., TMT-A r(48) = 0.63, p < 0.01; TMT-B r s (48) = 0.77, p < 0.001). The mean value comparison showed statistically significant differences, e.g., interference table (CWIT) t(49) = 11.24, p < 0.01). Correlations with medium effect were found between the differences in processing times and the individual usage of computer (e.g., r s (48) = - 0.31) and smartphone (r s (48) =  - 0.29) and between the processing times of the TMT-B and the usability (r s (48) = 0.29)., Conclusions: The high correlations between the test procedures appear promising. However, the differences found in the processing times of the two test versions require validation and standardization of digitized test procedures before they can be used in practice.

The International Conference on Cognitive Modeling brings together researchers from around the world whose main goal is to build computational systems that reflect the internal processes of the mind. In this issue, we present the four best representative papers on this work from our 18th meeting, ICCM 2020, which was also the first meeting to be held virtually. Two of these papers develop novel techniques for building larger and more complex models using Reinforcement Learning and Learning By Instruction, respectively. The other two show how cognitive models connect to neuroscience, drawing on details of the hippocampus and cerebellum to constrain and explain the cognitive processes involved in memory and conditioning., (© 2021 Cognitive Science Society LLC.)

Objective: The National Academy of Neuropsychology (NAN), the American Academy of Clinical Neuropsychology (AACN), and the American College of Professional Neuropsychology (ACPN) collaborated to publish an update to their original position statements, confirming the organizations' opposition to third party observers (TPO)., Method: A review of literature addressing TPO effects, ethical standards, professional organization position statements, test publisher policies and new telemedicine developments was completed to obtain consensus on relevant issues in TPO and recording of neuropsychological evaluations., Results: TPO has been shown to impact the cognitive functions most often assessed in forensic or medicolegal settings. Third party observation, whether in person, recorded or electronically, remains a potential threat to the validity and reliability of evaluation results, and violates test security guidelines, ethical principles and standards of conduct in the field. Demands for TPO in the context of medicolegal or forensic settings have become a tactic designed to limit the ability of the consulting neuropsychologist to perform assessment and provide information to the trier of fact., Conclusions: The field of neuropsychology opposes the presence of TPO in the setting of medicolegal or forensic neuropsychological evaluations.

This article reports our experience in developing a computerized cognitive assessment method in a nurse-led clinic. The assessment and report-writing time and the accuracy of using a computer as an assessment medium were compared with assessments that use the traditional pencil-and-paper method. The attitudes of professionals and service users toward the computerized approach were also collected. The results found that the computerized approach not only helped to reduce the time spent making assessments and writing reports but also improved the accuracy of the assessment when compared with the pencil-and-paper method. Most of the professionals and service users who were interviewed responded positively toward computerized assessments. The experience gained in this study will also help us to standardize our assessment procedures, promote communication among members of the clinical team, and facilitate data management and clinical research.

Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare no conflicts of interest. The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is characterized by high heterogeneity in disease manifestation, progression and risk factors. High phenotypic variability is currently regarded as one of the largest hurdles in early diagnosis and in the design of clinical trials; there is therefore great interest in identifying factors driving variability that can be used for patient stratification. In addition to genetic and lifestyle factors, the individual's sex and gender are emerging as crucial drivers of phenotypic variability. Evidence exists on sex and gender differences in the rate of cognitive deterioration and brain atrophy, and in the effect of risk factors as well as in the patterns of diagnostic biomarkers. Such evidence might be of high relevance and requires attention in clinical practice and clinical trials. However, sex and gender differences are currently seldom appreciated; importantly, consideration of sex and gender differences is not currently a focus in the design and analysis of clinical trials for AD. The objective of this position paper is (i) to provide an overview of known sex and gender differences that might have implications for clinical practice, (ii) to identify the most important knowledge gaps in the field (with a special regard to clinical trials) and (iii) to provide conclusions for future studies. This scientific statement is endorsed by the European Academy of Neurology., (© 2020 European Academy of Neurology.)

Introduction: Theory papers have been the most commonly employed method to assess learning outcomes in medical education. In these papers, both recall abilities and higher‑order cognitive functions need to be assessed giving proper weightage as per relevance. Hence it becomes necessary that valid assessment methods are employed to evaluate the required objectives/competencies. The objective of the study was to develop a method for analyzing postgraduate question papers of various specialties. Methodology: A rubric matrix was created with three broad objective criteria to assess framing and layout of the questions in each paper, analysis of different sets for same examination, and finally an overall assessment of all the papers for each subject. Results: A total of 28 specialty papers were available. A total number of papers analysed = 340. The overall mean score out of total 60 marks was 38.64 ± 4.5. It was seen that the majority (60%) of the departments have been graded as fair on analysis of the theory papers. None of the departments were graded as very good, while 7% of them were graded as good. Although a very minuscule percentage of the papers had grammatical errors and duplication of questions in the sets, only 57% of the departments had done a proper moderation and 21% had used higher domains of learning for assessment. Conclusion: Analysis of postgraduate question papers showed that the questions asked for postgraduates are more recall‑based instead of higher taxonomy of cognitive domain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The objective of this study was to investigate older adults' performance on the paper and electronic Montreal Cognitive Assessment (eMoCA)., Design: Repeated measures and correlational design., Participants: A convenience sample of 40 adults over 65 years of age living in the community., Interventions: Participants completed the eMoCA and paper Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) in a randomized order during 1 session. Participants reported their touchscreen experience and comfort and indicated their modality preferences., Main Outcome Measures: The primary outcome measures were paper MoCA and eMoCA total and subscale scores. Secondary outcome measures included participants' reported touchscreen experience and comfort, as well as post-administration preferences., Results: A moderate statistically significant correlation was found between eMoCA and paper MoCA performance across all participants. Analysis comparing first administration modality only (eMoCA vs. paper MoCA) found no statistically significant difference in total scores; however, there was a statistically significant difference for the visuospatial/executive subscale, which required physical interaction with paper or the tablet. For this subscale, participants scored lower on the eMoCA versus paper MoCA. There was a statistically significant correlation between experience with touchscreen devices and performance on the eMoCA, but not between modality preference and performance., Conclusion: Modality of administration can affect performance on cognitive assessments. Clinicians should consider individuals' level of touchscreen experience before selecting administration modality.

Previous studies have demonstrated that skin vibration is an important factor affecting the roughness perception of fine textures. For coarse textures, the determining physical factor is much less clear and there are indications that this might be participant-dependent. In this paper, we focused on roughness perception of both coarse and fine textures of different materials (glass particle surfaces and sandpapers). We investigated the relationship between subjective roughness ratings and three physical parameters (skin vibration, friction coefficient, and particle size) within a group of 30 participants. Results of the glass particle surfaces showed both spatial information (particle size) and temporal information (skin vibration) had a high correlation with subjective roughness ratings. The former correlation was slightly but significantly higher than the latter. The results also indicated different weights of temporal information and spatial information for roughness ratings among participants. Roughness ratings of a different material (sandpaper versus glass particles) could be either larger, similar or smaller, indicating differences among individuals. The best way to describe our results is that in their perceptual evaluation of roughness, different individuals weight temporal information, spatial information, and other mechanical properties differently., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Background: Neuropsychological tests are particularly important for the clinical evaluation and Alzheimer's disease (AD) diagnosis. However, the tests currently employed for neuropsychological assessment have been developed several decades ago, and thus they do not fully exploit the potential provided by modern digital tools. One of the tests most commonly employed to assess attention and executive functions is the Trail Making Test (TMT)., Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate whether the TMT developed and used for the serious exergame X-Torp (TMTX-Torp) can be used to evaluate cognitive functions such as mental flexibility., Methods: Adjusted multivariate mixed model was used to compare performances in the TMTX-Torp to performances in the standard variant (TMTs) in three populations. 21 participants with AD (78.6y±8.5 y), 27 with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) (76.8y±8.5 y), and 27 healthy (HEC) (71.8y±7.4 y) were included., Results: A difference was observed for the TMT A between AD and HEC and for the TMT B between AD and MCI and between AD and HEC. Whatever the variant of the TMT, we found a positive linear correlation between the time to complete the TMTX-Torp and the TMTs for HEC (TMT A: r = 0.75, p < 0.001; TMT B: r = 0.52, p = 0.008) and MCI participants (TMT A: r = 0.53, p = 0.005; TMT B: r = 0.48, p = 0.025) but not for AD participants., Conclusion: Although these versions of the TMT were not identical, the results showed that both versions were able to discriminate between HEC, MCI, and AD populations.

Background: Electronic cognitive assessment tools present potential benefits for clinical practice; however, they warrant examination before use with clinical populations such as people with traumatic brain injury (TBI)., Objective: The primary study purpose was to compare results from a tablet-based, electronic cognitive assessment to two paper cognitive assessments when administered to adults with TBI. We also explored the effect of iPad comfort on performance., Methods: We employed a quasi-experimental, correlational study design. Forty adults between 18 to 615 months post TBI completed the Standardized Touchscreen Assessment of Cognition (STAC), the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), and the Cognitive Linguistic Quick Test (CLQT) in a systematically, counterbalanced order. We compared participants' performance on these tools and examined the effect of iPad comfort., Results: Three STAC subtests had a good relationship with CLQT subtests: orientation, generative naming category, and generative naming first letter. A good relationship was also identified between two STAC and two MoCA subtests: orientation and generative naming first letter. People who were very comfortable using the iPad performed statistically better on the STAC first letter fluency item than participants who were not comfortable., Conclusions: Moderate correlations suggest validity for some STAC items; however, modifications and further testing are needed.

Background: REM sleep (REMS) is considered vital for supporting well-being and normal cognition. However, it remains unclear if and how decreases in REMS impair cognitive abilities. Rare case studies of patients with REMS abolishment due to pontine lesions remain sporadic, and formal evaluation of cognitive status is lacking. In 1984, Lavie and colleagues described the case of Y.C. - a man with a pontine lesion and near-total absence of REMS who led a normal life. Here, we set out to re-evaluate this individual's REMS status 30 years after the original report, and formally assess his cognitive abilities., Methods: Four whole-night polysomnographic sleep recordings were conducted to evaluate sleep architecture. Sleep scoring was performed according to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) guidelines. Cranial Computed Tomography (CT) imaging was performed, as well as formal neuropsychological testing to evaluate cognitive functions., Results: Y.C. averaged 4.5% of sleep time in REMS, corresponding to the 0.055 percentile of normal values for his age. Furthermore, residual REMS episodes were short and only occurred towards the end of the night. CT imaging revealed damage and metallic fragments in pons, cerebellum, and thalamus. Neuropsychological evaluation demonstrated average to high-average cognitive skills, normal memory, and motor difficulties including speech and left hand dyspraxia., Conclusions: To our knowledge, this is the only case where REMS loss resulting from pontine lesion was re-evaluated after many years. We find a near-total absence of REMS with no signs of significant compensation throughout adult life, along with normal cognitive status. The results provide a unique perspective on the ongoing debate regarding the functional role of REMS in supporting cognition., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Objective: Healthcare institutions worldwide are moving to electronic health records (EHRs). These transitions are particularly numerous in the US where healthcare systems are purchasing and implementing commercial EHRs to fulfill federal requirements. Despite the central role of EHRs to workflow, the cognitive impact of these transitions on the workforce has not been widely studied. This study assesses the changes in cognitive workload among pediatric nurses during data entry and retrieval tasks during transition from a hybrid electronic and paper information system to a commercial EHR., Materials and Methods: Baseline demographics and computer attitude and skills scores were obtained from 74 pediatric nurses in two wards. They also completed an established and validated instrument, the NASA-TLX, that is designed to measure cognitive workload; this instrument was used to evaluate cognitive workload of data entry and retrieval. The NASA-TLX was administered at baseline (pre-implementation), 1, 5 and 10 shifts and 4 months post-implementation of the new EHR., Results: Most nurse participants experienced significant increases of cognitive workload at 1 and 5 shifts after "go-live". These increases abated at differing rates predicted by participants' computer attitudes scores (p = 0.01)., Conclusions: There is substantially increased cognitive workload for nurses during the early phases (1-5 shifts) of EHR transitions. Health systems should anticipate variability across workers adapting to "meaningful use" EHRs. "One-size-fits-all" training strategies may not be suitable and longer periods of technical support may be necessary for some workers., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The need to complete multiple tasks concurrently is a common occurrence both daily life and in occupational activities, which can often include simultaneous cognitive and physical demands. As one example, there is increasing availability of head-worn display technologies that can be employed when a user is mobile (e.g., while walking). This new method of information presentation may, however, introduce risks of adverse outcomes such as a decrement to gait performance. The goal of this study was thus to quantify the effects of a head-worn display (i.e., smart glasses) on motor variability during gait and to compare these effects with those of other common information displays (i.e., smartphone and paper-based system). Twenty participants completed four walking conditions, as a single task and in three dual-task conditions (three information displays). In the dual-task conditions, the information display was used to present several cognitive tasks. Three different measures were used to quantify variability in gait parameters for each walking condition (using the cycle-to-cycle standard deviation, sample entropy, and the "goal-equivalent manifold" approach). Our results indicated that participants used less adaptable gait strategies in dual-task walking using the paper-based system and smartphone conditions compared with single-task walking. Gait performance, however, was less affected during dual-task walking with the smart glasses. We conclude that the risk of an adverse gait event (e.g., a fall) in head-down walking conditions (i.e., the paper-based system and smartphone conditions) were higher than in single-task walking, and that head-worn displays might help reduce the risk of such events during dual-task gait conditions.

Heart failure (HF) is a complex clinical syndrome with multiple interactions between the failing myocardium and cerebral (dys-)functions. Bi-directional feedback interactions between the heart and the brain are inherent in the pathophysiology of HF: (i) the impaired cardiac function affects cerebral structure and functional capacity, and (ii) neuronal signals impact on the cardiovascular continuum. These interactions contribute to the symptomatic presentation of HF patients and affect many co-morbidities of HF. Moreover, neuro-cardiac feedback signals significantly promote aggravation and further progression of HF and are causal in the poor prognosis of HF. The diversity and complexity of heart and brain interactions make it difficult to develop a comprehensive overview. In this paper a systematic approach is proposed to develop a comprehensive atlas of related conditions, signals and disease mechanisms of the interactions between the heart and the brain in HF. The proposed taxonomy is based on pathophysiological principles. Impaired perfusion of the brain may represent one major category, with acute (cardio-embolic) or chronic (haemodynamic failure) low perfusion being sub-categories with mostly different consequences (i.e. ischaemic stroke or cognitive impairment, respectively). Further categories include impairment of higher cortical function (mood, cognition), of brain stem function (sympathetic over-activation, neuro-cardiac reflexes). Treatment-related interactions could be categorized as medical, interventional and device-related interactions. Also interactions due to specific diseases are categorized. A methodical approach to categorize the interdependency of heart and brain may help to integrate individual research areas into an overall picture., (© 2017 The Authors. European Journal of Heart Failure © 2017 European Society of Cardiology.)

Previous research described different cognitive processes on how individuals process distributional information. Based on these processes, the current research uncovered a novel phenomenon in distribution perception: the Endpoint Leverage Effect. Subjective endpoints influence distribution estimations not only locally around the endpoint but also influence estimations across the whole value range of the distribution. The influence is largest close to the respective endpoint and decreases in size toward the opposite end of the value range. Three experiments investigate this phenomenon: Experiment 1 provides correlational evidence for the Endpoint Leverage Effect after presenting participants with a numerical distribution. Experiment 2 demonstrates the Endpoint Leverage Effect by manipulating the subjective endpoints of a numerical distribution directly. Experiment 3 generalizes the phenomenon by investigating a general population sample and estimations regarding a real-world income distribution. In addition, quantitative model analysis examines the cognitive processes underlying the effect. Overall, the novel Endpoint Leverage Effect is found in all three experiments, inspiring further research in a wide area of contexts., (© 2024 The Author(s). Cognitive Science published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Cognitive Science Society (CSS).)

Background: Standardizing nursing handoffs at shift change is recommended to improve communication, with electronic tools as the primary approach. However, nurses continue to rely on personally created paper-based cognitive artifacts - their "paper brains" - to support handoffs, indicating a deficiency in available electronic versions., Objective: The purpose of this qualitative study was to develop a deep understanding of nurses' paper-based cognitive artifacts in the context of a cancer specialty hospital., Methods: After completing 73 hours of hospital unit field observations, 13 medical oncology nurses were purposively sampled, shadowed for a single shift and interviewed using a semi-structured technique. An interpretive descriptive study design guided analysis of the data corpus of field notes, transcribed interviews, images of nurses' paper-based cognitive artifacts, and analytic memos., Results: Findings suggest nurses' paper brains are personal, dynamic, living objects that undergo a life cycle during each shift and evolve over the course of a nurse's career. The life cycle has four phases: Creation, Application, Reproduction, and Destruction. Evolution in a nurse's individually styled, paper brain is triggered by a change in the nurse's environment that reshapes cognitive needs. If a paper brain no longer provides cognitive support in the new environment, it is modified into (adapted) or abandoned (made extinct) for a different format that will provide the necessary support., Conclusions: The "hidden lives" - the life cycle and evolution - of paper brains have implications for the design of successful electronic tools to support nursing practice, including handoff. Nurses' paper brains provide cognitive support beyond the context of handoff. Information retrieval during handoff is undoubtedly an important function of nurses' paper brains, but tools designed to standardize handoff communication without accounting for cognitive needs during all phases of the paper brain life cycle or the ability to evolve with changes to those cognitive needs will be underutilized., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest in the research.

Objectives: Schizophrenia is a group of severe psychiatric disorders with high heritability but only low odds ratios of risk genes. Despite progress in the identification of pathophysiological processes, valid biomarkers of the disease are still lacking., Methods: This comprehensive review summarises recent efforts to identify genetic underpinnings, clinical and cognitive endophenotypes and symptom dimensions of schizophrenia and presents findings from neuroimaging studies with structural, functional and spectroscopy magnetic resonance imaging and positron emission tomography. The potential of findings to be biomarkers of schizophrenia is discussed., Results: Recent findings have not resulted in clear biomarkers for schizophrenia. However, we identified several biomarkers that are potential candidates for future research. Among them, copy number variations and links between genetic polymorphisms derived from genome-wide analysis studies, clinical or cognitive phenotypes, multimodal neuroimaging findings including positron emission tomography and magnetic resonance imaging, and the application of multivariate pattern analyses are promising., Conclusions: Future studies should address the effects of treatment and stage of the disease more precisely and apply combinations of biomarker candidates. Although biomarkers for schizophrenia await validation, knowledge on candidate genomic and neuroimaging biomarkers is growing rapidly and research on this topic has the potential to identify psychiatric endophenotypes and in the future increase insight on individual treatment response in schizophrenia.

Introduction: Assessments direct students towards learning. There are three types of learning: cognitive, affective, and psychomotor. While all three are interlinked, the cognitive domain, which covers knowledge and intellectuality, is foundational and can be assessed through theory examinations. Theory exams are the best way to test the cognitive domain of a learner, while practical exams can assess the psychomotor and affective domains. Since the question paper is the most important tool in theory exams, it is essential that the question paper covers relevant topics and tests all levels of cognitive learning, which encompass knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. Aim: To assess the level of cognitive domains assessed and the weightage allocated to various topics in the undergraduate summative examination question paper of community medicine. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted at Department of Community Medicine, Pramukh Swami Medical College and Sri Krishna Hospital, Bhaikaka University, Karamsad, Anand, Gujarat, India in which the five-year question papers (2016-2020) from five Universities were analysed to assess the level of cognitive domains and the weightage assigned to various topics. Each question was categorised as recall, comprehension, or application based on the cognitive domain it assessed. Furthermore, each question was analysed to determine the topic it pertained to, and the marks allocated to that question were assigned to the corresponding topic. Results: The majority of marks in Universities 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 were, respectively allocated as follows: 324 (80.62%), 459 (84.66%), 453 (75.5%), 895 (89.5%), and 379 (63.16%) for questions testing the recall ability of the learners. For questions assessing comprehension ability, the marks allotted were 20 (4.87%), 0, 81 (13.5%), 65 (6.5%), and 51 (8.15%). The fewest marks were assigned to questions testing application, synthesis, or evaluation abilities. Epidemiology had the highest weightage in all five Universities, with marks of 73 (18.25%), 75 (13.89%), 93 (15.5%), 141 (14.1%), and 83 (13.83%). Conclusion: The cognitive domains assessed in the subject across all five Universities were unsatisfactory. The weightage of marks allotted to topics varied, highlighting the need to develop a question paper plan that facilitates a systematic distribution based on different levels of cognitive domains and topics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This pilot study compared a novel electronic Montreal Cognitive Assessment (eMoCA) tool to the original paper-based MoCA. Potential participants were approached at primary care practices, a geriatric day hospital, and a university campus. Each of the 401 participants were randomly assigned to either the eMoCA (N=182) or MoCA (N=219). Scores were adjusted by self-reported demographic and health information using regression analysis. The difference in average scores (26.21±3.11 for the MoCA group and 24.84±4.21 for the eMoCA group) was found to be statistically significant. Controlling for the effect of potential covariate factors with regression analyses, the adjusted difference is -0.90 (95% confidence interval, -1.45 to -0.35). This difference may be due to factors related to use of the electronic device or software usability. However, the standardized, self-administered eMoCA may offer an opportunity for health systems to screen for early changes in cognitive function in primary care settings and offer greater access to assessment for rural or remote communities. Population-level research may be required to identify whether the score difference between test versions requires a downward adjustment to the eMoCA score taken as indicative of cognitive impairment.

Simon Folkard in 1997 introduced the phrase black time to draw attention to the fact that the risk of driving accidents (DA) is greater during the night than day in usually diurnally active persons. The 24 h temporal pattern in DA entails circadian rhythms of fatigue and sleep propensity, cognitive and physical performance, and behavior that are controlled, at least in part, by endogenous clocks. This opinion paper extends the concept of black time to reports of excess nighttime accidents and injuries of workers and nocturnal occurrence of certain man-caused catastrophes. We explore the chronobiology of work-related black time accidents and injuries taking into account laboratory and field investigations describing, respectively, circadian rhythms in cognitive performance and errors and mistakes by employees in the conduct of routine occupational tasks. Additionally, we present results of studies pertaining to 24 h patterns of both the number and relative risk (number of events per h/number of workers exposed per h) of work-related accidents (WRA) and injuries (WRI) as well as indices of performance and alertness of a self-selected homogenous survivor cohort of French firefighters (FFs) to explore two possible explanations of black time, namely, 24 h variation in sleep propensity/drossiness characterized by a nocturnal peak and circadian rhythms in cognitive performance characterized by a nocturnal trough. We propose the 24 h pattern of WRA and WRI, particularly of FFs and other highly skilled self-selected cohorts, is more strongly linked to circadian rhythms of fatigue and sleepiness than cognitive performance. Other possible explanations--suppressed expression of circadian rhythms and/or unmasking of ultradian periodicities in cognitive performance in specific circumstances, e.g., highly stressful work, competitive, or life-threatening settings, are also discussed.

Background: When mathematical knowledge is expressed in general language, it is called verbalized mathematics. Previous studies on verbalized mathematics typically paid attention to mathematical vocabulary or educational practice. However, these studies did not exclude the role of symbolic mathematics ability, and almost no research has focused on verbalized mathematical principles., Aims: This study is aimed to investigate whether verbalized mathematics ability independently predicts mathematics achievement. The current study hypothesized that verbalized mathematics ability supports mathematics achievement independent of general language, related cognitive abilities and even symbolic mathematical ability., Sample: A sample of 241 undergraduates (136 males, 105 females, mean age = 21.95, SD = 2.38) in Beijing, China., Methods: A total of 12 tests were used, including a verbalized arithmetic principle test, a mathematics achievement test, and tests on general language (sentence completion test), symbolic mathematical ability (including symbolic arithmetic principles test, simple arithmetic computation and complex arithmetic computation), approximate number sense ability (numerosity comparison test) and several related cognitive covariates (including the non-verbal matrix reasoning, the syllogism reasoning, mental rotation, figure matching and choice reaction time)., Results: Results showed that the processing of verbalized arithmetic principles displayed a significant role in mathematics achievement after controlling for general language, related cognitive abilities, approximate number sense ability and symbolic mathematics ability., Conclusions: The results suggest that verbalized mathematics ability was an independent predictor and provided empirical evidence supporting the verbalized mathematics role on achievement as an independent component in three-component mathematics model., (© 2023 British Psychological Society.)

Despite the importance of knowing the cognitive capabilities of children with neurodevelopmental conditions, less than one-third of children with cerebral palsy participate in standardized assessments. Globally, approximately 50% of people with cerebral palsy have an intellectual disability and there is significant risk for domain-specific cognitive impairments for the majority of people with cerebral palsy. However, standardized cognitive assessment tools are not accessible to many children with cerebral palsy, as they require manual manipulation of objects, verbal response and/or speeded response. As such, standardised assessment may result in an underestimation of abilities for children with significant motor and/or speech impairment. The overall aim of the project is to examine and compare the psychometric properties of standardised cognitive assessment tools that have been accommodated for use with either a switch device or eye-gaze control technologies, with the specific aims to: (1) Examine the psychometric properties (measurement agreement and validity) of accommodated assessment tools by comparing the performance of typically developing children on six cognitive assessment tools administered via standardised versus accommodated (switch or eye-gaze control) administration; (2) Describe and compare the performance and user experience of children with cerebral palsy on six accommodated cognitive assessments administered via switch or eye-gaze control technologies. Secondary aims are to: (1) Describe the completion rates and time to complete assessments of participants in each group; (2) Within the group with cerebral palsy, examine the effects of condition-specific characteristics (type of cerebral palsy, functional levels, and pain) and demographics (age, socio-demographic) on participation. This protocol paper describes a two-phase validation and acceptability study that utilizes a mixed-model design. This study will collect concurrent data from 80 typically developing children and 40 children with cerebral palsy, who use switch or eye-gaze control technology as alternate access communication methods. The set of instruments will measure receptive vocabulary, fluid reasoning, sustained attention, vision perception, visuospatial working memory and executive functions. Data analyses will be conducted using SPSS v. 25 and R v 4.1.0. SPSS Sample Power 3 was used for power computation and allows for a 10% drop out rate. Quantitative descriptive statistics, measurement agreement data plotting, bivariate and multiple regressions analysis will be conducted using appropriate methods.