Search

[EN]Background: The urban environment may influence neurodevelopment from conception onwards, but there is no evaluation of the impact of multiple groups of exposures simultaneously. We investigated the association between early-life urban environment and cognitive and motor function in children. Methods: We used data from 5403 mother-child pairs from four population-based birth-cohorts (UK, France, Spain, and Greece). We estimated thirteen urban home exposures during pregnancy and childhood, including: built environment, natural spaces, and air pollution. Verbal, non-verbal, gross motor, and fine motor functions were assessed using validated tests at five years old. We ran adjusted multi-exposure models using the Deletion-Substitution-Addition algorithm. Results: Higher greenness exposure within 300 m during pregnancy was associated with higher verbal abilities (1.5 points (95% confidence interval 0.4, 2.7) per 0.20 unit increase in greenness). Higher connectivity density within 100 m and land use diversity during pregnancy were related to lower verbal abilities. Childhood exposure to PM2.5 mediated 74% of the association between greenness during childhood and verbal abilities. Higher exposure to PM2.5 during pregnancy was related to lower fine motor function (-1.2 points (-2.1, -0.4) per 3.2 mu g/m3 increase in PM2.5). No associations were found with non-verbal abilities and gross motor function. Discussion: This study suggests that built environment, greenness, and air pollution may impact child cognitive and motor function at five years old. This study adds evidence that well-designed urban planning may benefit children's cognitive and motor development. Acknowledgements We are grateful to all the participating children, parents, practi-tioners and researchers in the four countries who took part in this study. This work was supported by funding from the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme [FP7/2007-206 n 308333; the HELIX project] . This INMA cohort was funded by grants from Instituto de Salud Carlos III (Red INMA G03/176; CB06/02/0041; PI041436; PI081151 incl. FEDER funds, FIS PI06/0867, FIS-PI09/00090, FIS and FIS-PI18/01142 incl. FEDER funds, FIS-FEDER: PI03/1615, PI04/1509, PI04/1112, PI04/1931, PI05/1079, PI05/1052, PI06/1213, PI07/0314, PI09/02647, PI11/01007, PI11/02591, PI11/02038, PI13/1944, PI13/2032, PI14/00891, PI14/01687, PI16/1288, PI16/00118 and PI17/00663; FIS-FSE: 17/00260; Miguel Servet-FEDER CP11/00178, CP15/00025, CPII16/00051, and CPII18/00018) , from UE (FP7-ENV-2011 cod 282957, HEALTH.2010.2.4.5-1, and H2020 n 824989) , Generalitat de Catalunya-CIRIT 1999SGR 00241, Fundacio La marato de TV3 (090430) , Generalitat Valenciana: FISABIO (UGP 15-230, UGP-15-244, and UGP-15-249) , Alicia Koplowitz Foundation 2017, CIBERESP, Department of Health of the Basque Government (2013111089, 2009111069, 2013111089, 2015111065 and 2018111086) , Provincial Government of Gipuzkoa (DFG06/002, DFG08/001, DFG15/221 and DFG 89/17) and annual agreements with the municipalities of the study area (Zumarraga, Urretxu , Legazpi, Azkoitia y Azpeitia y Beasain) . We acknowledge support from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Inno-vation and the State Research Agency through the "Centro de Excelencia Severo Ochoa 2019-2023" Program (CEX2018-000806-S) , and support from the Generalitat de Catalunya through the CERCA Program. The work was also supported by MICINN [MTM2015-68140-R] and Centro Nacional de Genotipado-CEGEN-PRB2-ISCIII (Spain) . The Rhea project was financially supported by European projects, and the Greek Ministry of Health (Program of Prevention of obesity and neurodevelopmental disorders in preschool children, in Heraklion district, Crete, Greece: 2011-2014; "Rhea Plus": Primary Prevention Program of Environmental Risk Factors for Reproductive Health, and Child Health: 2012-15) . This paper presents independent research funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) under its Collaboration for Applied Health Research and Care (CLAHRC) for Yorkshire and Humber (UK) . The EDEN study was supported by Foundation for medical research (FRM) , National Agency for Research (ANR) , National Institute for Research inPublic health (IRESP: TGIR cohorte sante 2008 program) , French Min-istry of Health (DGS) , French Ministry of Research, INSERM Bone and Joint Diseases National Research (PRO-A) , and Human Nutrition Na-tional Research Programs, Paris-Sud University, Nestle, French National Institute for Population Health Surveillance (InVS) , French National Institute for Health Education (INPES) , the European Union FP7 pro-grams (ESCAPE, ENRIECO, Medall projects) , Diabetes National Research Program (through a collaboration with the French Association of Diabetic Patients (AFD) ) , French Agency for Environmental Health Safety and French National Agency for Food Security (now ANSES) , Mutuelle Generale de l'Education Nationale a complementary health insurance (MGEN) , French-speaking association for the study of diabetes and metabolism (ALFEDIAM) . Core support for Born in Bradford is also provided by the Wellcome Trust (WT101597MA, UK) . Born in Bradford (BiB) is only possible because of the enthusiasm and commitment of the children and parents in BiB. We are grateful to all the participants, health professionals, schools and researchers who have made BiB happen. BiB receives funding from the ESRC/MRC, the Wellcome Trust (WT101597MA) and the National Institute for Health Research York-shire and Humber ARC (reference: NIHR20016) . M. Mon-Williams was supported by a Fellowship from the Alan Turing Institute. Additional funding from the National Institute of Environmental Health Science supported Dr Chatzi (R01ES030691, R01ES029944, R01ES030364, R21ES029681, and P30ES007048) . The views expressed are those of the authors, and not necessarily those of the NHS or the NIHR. None of the funders were involved in designing the study, collecting the data, analyzing or interpreting the data, deciding to submit the article for publication, or the writing of the report. Data sharing statement The HELIX data warehouse has been established as an accessible resource for collaborative research involving researchers external to the project. Access to HELIX data is based on approval by the HELIX Project Executive Committee and by the individual cohorts. Further details on the content of the data warehouse (data catalogue) and procedures for external access are described on the project website (http:// www.proj-ecthelix.eu/index.php/es/data-inventory) .

At present, we increasingly encounter the concept of so-called digital literacy. Digital technologies are constantly evolving in this field and play an important role in human life. They are important not only in the labor market but also in education and human skills development. Digital technologies are thus one of the means by which we can develop the cognitive processes of visually impaired people. We can thus help them to improve a number of areas that are limited due to loss or reduction of visual perception. Especially, thinking, memory, and creating ideas are very important. This contribution was created within the solution of the project TAČR – Reduction of information deficit and development of the imagination of visually impaired people through 3D models with auditory elements in cooperation with the project PIGŽU – Support of information literacy of pupils and teachers. The first of the projects aims to reduce the information deficit caused by the loss or reduction of visual perception in visually impaired people using multisensory action. At the same time, it aims to develop their spatial imagination. The second project then focus on the creation of digital aids, which aims primarily at the development and support of computational thinking. In addition to mainstream primary school pupils, the project also focuses on pupils with special educational needs, including visually impaired individuals. The main output of the project is the creation of aids, including methodologies, using digital technologies. These are technologies such as Ozobot, Blue-Bot, or Bee-bot. The aim of the paper is to acquaint with the project, to provide at least basic information about digital technologies, and especially to describe the possibilities of personality development, skills, and abilities using these technologies in visually impaired students.

Purpose:\ud \ud We investigated the association between food insecurity and fall-related injury among older adults from six low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), and the extent to which this association is mediated by mental health.\ud \ud Methods:\ud \ud Cross-sectional, community-based, nationally representative data from the WHO Study on global AGEing and adult health (SAGE) were analyzed. Past 12-month food insecurity was assessed with two questions on frequency of eating less and hunger due to lack of food. Fall-related injury referred to those that occurred in the past 12 months. Multivariable logistic regression analysis and mediation analysis were conducted to assess associations.\ud \ud Results:\ud \ud Data on 14,585 adults aged ≥65 years [mean (SD) age 72.5 (11.5) years; 54.9% females] were analyzed. After adjustment for potential confounders, severe food insecurity (versus no food insecurity) was associated with 1.95 (95%CI = 1.11–3.41) times higher odds for fall-related injury. Moderate food insecurity was not significantly associated with fall-related injury (OR = 1.34; 95%CI = 0.81–2.25). The mediation analysis showed that 37.3%, 21.8%, 17.7%, and 14.0% of the association between severe food insecurity and fall-related injury was explained by anxiety, sleep problems, depression, and cognition, respectively.\ud \ud Conclusion:\ud \ud Severe food insecurity was associated with higher odds for injurious falls among older adults in LMICs, and a large proportion of this association may be explained by mental health complications. Interventions to improve mental health among those who are food insecure and a strong focus on societal and government efforts to reduce food insecurity may contribute to a decrease in injurious falls.

In this chapter, we first review the two main approaches to categories (understood from a cognitive perspective) found in the current literature. The ecological and the goal-based approaches to categories vary in terms of premises (prototypes vs. ideals), processes (central tendency and family resemblance vs. conceptual combination and goal achievement), and economic and institutional consequences. We then present three modes of reconciliation between the two approaches (intra-audience, inter-audience and as a function of field evolution) and integrate them more broadly into the institutional literature. Finally, in the last section, we expose fruitful areas for future research: we account for the domain validity of each approach; emphasize ignored research avenues at the field, organizational and individual levels; and finally make stronger connections between category research and strategy research.

In this paper, we build on research on the microfoundations of strategy and learning processes to study the individual underpinnings of organizational learning. We argue that once an individual has accumulated a certain amount of experience with a task, the benefit of accumulating additional experience is inferior to the benefit of deliberately articulating and codifying the experience accumulated in the past. We explain the superior performance outcomes associated with such deliberate learning efforts using both a cognitive (improved task understanding) and an emotional (increased self-efficacy) mechanism. We study the proposed framework by means of a mixed-method experimental design that combines the reach and relevance of a field experiment with the precision of two laboratory experiments. Our results support the proposed theoretical framework and bear important implications from both a theoretical and practical viewpoint.

Background APOE is the biomarker with the greatest known influence on cognitive function; however, the effect of complex haplotypes involving polymorphisms rs449647, rs405509, rs440446, rs429358 and rs7412 has never been studied in older populations. Methods We evaluated APOE polymorphisms using multiplex PCR for genotyping and Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) to evaluate cognitive function in 819 individuals from VA Normative Aging Study. Results Combinatorial analysis of all polymorphisms and individual analysis of polymorphisms rs449647, rs405509, rs440446 and rs7412 did not show any association with cognitive performance. Polymorphism rs429358 was associated with better cognitive performance (odds of MMSE ≤ 25 = 0.63, 95% CI 0.42-0.95; p = 0.03) in the oldest subsample (5th quintile of age) (odds of MMSE ≤ 25 = 0.34; 95% CI 0.13-0.86; p = 0.02). APOE allele ε4 was also associated with better cognitive performance (odds of MMSE ≤ 25 = 0.61, 95% CI 0.40-0.94; p = 0.02), also in the oldest subsample (odds of MMSE ≤ 25 = 0.35, 95% CI 0.14-0.90; p = 0.03). Conclusions These results suggest a beneficial effect of polymorphism rs429358 in the oldest men. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12888-014-0223-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.