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Aim: This study sought to explore nurses' perceptions of clinical handover in a regional health care facility to better understand the local context and identify the most appropriate clinical handover models. Background: Clinical handover is an essential aspect of clinical care, and yet using accurate spoken and written communication can be neglected in nursing, potentially resulting in patient harm. Although much information is available on clinical handover in metropolitan settings, few studies have examined the regional context. Methods: This study was an exploratory qualitative study based at one small regional health care facility located 100 km from a metropolitan Australian centre. The study utilized an Appreciative Inquiry approach to identify how nurses perceive the use of standardized oral and written clinical handover. Focus groups were engaged to explore the perceptions of nurses "handing over" in the smaller regional facility. Results: Through focus group interviews with Registered and Enrolled Nurses, the data revealed that the cultural context of the ward influenced perceptions of clinical handover and that handover served as a light in the dark for all nursing staff; as an evolving communication tool illuminating patient care needs. Conclusion: This study facilitated understanding of the handover needs of smaller Australian regional hospitals. This study identified gaps in perception about handover practices between junior and senior nurses. New graduate nurses develop confidence in supportive clinical environments. A transition to practice programme would need to address the challenges new graduates face in the regional setting. Implications for Nursing Management: Nurse managers in regional facilities can champion supportive senior nurses to mentor new graduate nurses and enhance the transition to practice for the new nurse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent evidence suggests that temporal expectation is beneficial to memory formation. Rhythmic presentation of stimuli during encoding enhances subsequent recognition and is associated with distinct neural activity compared with when stimuli are presented in an arrhythmic manner. However, no prior study has examined how temporal expectation interacts with another important form of facilitation—spatial attention—to affect memory. This study systematically manipulated temporal expectation and spatial attention during encoding to examine their combined effect on behavioral recognition and associated ERPs. Participants performed eight experimental blocks consisting of an encoding phase and recognition test, with EEG recorded throughout. During encoding, pairs of objects and checkerboards were presented and participants were cued to attend to the left or right stream and detect targets as quickly as possible. In four blocks, stimulus presentation followed a rhythmic (constant, predictable) temporal structure, and in the other four blocks, stimulus onset was arrhythmic (random, unpredictable). An interaction between temporal expectation and spatial attention emerged, with greater recognition in the rhythmic than the arrhythmic condition for spatially attended items. Analysis of memory-specific ERP components uncovered effects of spatial attention. There were late positive component and FN400 old/new effects in the attended condition for both rhythmic and arrhythmic items, whereas in the unattended condition, there was an FN400 old/new effect and no late positive component effect. The study provides new evidence that memory improvement as a function of temporal expectation is dependent upon spatial attention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often have smaller vocabularies in infancy compared to typically-developing children. To understand whether their smaller vocabularies stem from problems in learning, our study compared a prospective risk sample of 18 elevated risk and 11 lower risk 24-month-olds on current vocabulary size and word learning ability using a paradigm in which parents teach their child words. Results revealed that both groups learned novel words, even though parents indicated that infants at elevated risk of ASD knew fewer words. This suggests that these early compromised vocabularies cannot be solely linked to difficulties in word formations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Age-related memory problems posit a growing concern in our society. This study investigated the impact of age and memory strength on recognition memory of pre-experimentally unfamiliar abstract figures and non-words. We applied a three-phase old/new recognition memory paradigm and manipulated memory strength as a function of the Levels of Processing (deep vs. shallow) and repetition. Older adults relative to the young showed impairment in the correct identification of new items. As indicated by the lower discriminability indexes, the older adults also had difficulties discriminating the strongly (drawn/semantically processed) and the weakly (studied) embedded abstract figures but not the non-words. Age-related differences in reaction times were only evident with the abstract figures. Finally, our results revealed that the recognition performance was equally affected by memory strength in both age groups. The current findings agree with previous research on age-related impairment in new item recognition, which can be attributed to misrecollection and decreased sensitivity to novelty in the older adults than the young. The detected age effects on the discriminability of the drawn and studied abstract figures agree with the age-related impairment in the perceptual encoding hypothesis and support the notion related to the need for environmental support to reduce age effects. The lack of age effects with the non-words indicates that age effects on discriminability are stimulus-dependent. The current results support the notion that recognition memory in aging is only impaired under certain conditions and depends on the stimuli used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Author(s): Renata Di Lorenzo [sup.1] [sup.2] , Nicolette M. Munsters [sup.1] [sup.2] [sup.3] [sup.4] , Emma K. Ward [sup.5] , Maretha de Jonge [sup.3] [sup.6] , Chantal Kemner [sup.1] [sup.2] [...], Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) show atypical processing of facial expressions. Research with autistic toddlers suggests that abnormalities in processing of spatial frequencies (SFs) contribute to such differences. The current event-related-potential (ERP) study investigated differences between 10-month-old infants with high- and low-likelihood for ASD in SF processing and in discrimination of fearful and neutral faces, filtered to contain specific SF. Results indicate no group differences in general processing of higher (HSF, detailed) and lower-SF (LSF, global) information. However, unlike low-likelihood infants, high-likelihood infants do not discriminate between facial expressions when either the LSF or HSF information is available. Combined with previous findings in toddlers, the current results indicate a developmental delay in efficient processing of facial expressions in ASD.

Predictive Processing accounts of autism claim that autistic individuals assign higher precision to their prediction errors than non‐autistic individuals, that is, autistic individuals update their predictions more readily when faced with unexpected sensory input. Since setting the level of precision is a fundamental part of perception and learning, we propose that such differences should be detectable in various domains at a very early age, before clinical symptoms have fully emerged. We therefore tested 3‐year‐old younger siblings of autistic children, with a high likelihood of later receiving an autism diagnosis themselves, and low‐likelihood children with an older sibling without autism. We used a novel implicit learning paradigm to examine the effect of sensory noise on the predictions participants built. In order to learn a sequence, our participants had to select which visual information to attend to and disregard low‐level prediction errors caused by the sensory noise, which the theory claims is more difficult for autistic individuals. Contrary to the proposed higher precision‐weighting of prediction errors in autism, the high‐likelihood children did not show signs of updating their predictions more readily when we added sensory noise compared to the low‐likelihood children, either in their reaction times or in the recurrence and determinism of their response locations. These results raise challenges for Predictive Processing theories of autism, specifically for the notion that prediction errors are inflexibly highly weighted by individuals with autism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a consensus that loneliness correlates with an increased risk of cognitive impairment and rapid cognitive decline. However, it has yet to be determined how loneliness influences cognitively healthy aging. This study makes use of the large, nationally representative Canadian Longitudinal Study of Aging (CLSA) to address this question. Based on the baseline and first follow-up datasets collected 3 years apart (n > 20,000 healthy individuals), we found that higher perceived loneliness predicted decreased scores in the immediate recall test at baseline and in two tests of prospective memory at first follow-up 3 years after baseline. We also examined whether a single-item measurement of loneliness widely used in the field of gerontology, including CLSA, has predictive validity, i.e., can contribute to the prognosis of a future level of cognitive functioning. We found low predictive validity and low test-retest (baseline to follow-up) reliability of this measurement type. These findings impose constraints on proposed accounts of loneliness as a risk factor and methods of examining its relation to cognitive aging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article lists initiates to the honorary society Phi Alpha Theta from various colleges and universities during the 2020-2021 academic year.

While intraocular lenses (IOL) are used to restore visual acuity in cataract patients, they are limited in their development as no clinically available lens can effectively mimic the accommodative function of the eye's natural lens. The optoelectronic properties of 2D transition metal carbides and/or nitrides (MXenes), including high electronic conductivity, optical transparency, flexibility, biocompatibility, and hydrophilicity, suggest potential use within an accommodating IOL. This study investigates the use of Ti3C2Tx (MXene) as a transparent, conductive electrode to allow changes in optical power. Ti3C2Tx is synthesized and spin‐coated on hydrophobic acrylate IOLs, achieving a sheet resistance ranging from 0.2–1.0 kΩ sq−1 with 50–80% transmittance in the visible region. Human lens epithelial and monocytic cells show no cytotoxic nor inflammatory response to the coated lenses. An adjustable focus test cell is fabricated using a liquid crystal (LC) layer sandwiched between Ti3C2Tx coatings on a solid support. Molecular reorientation of the LC layer, through an applied electric field, results in changes in optical power as objects viewed through the test cell appeared in and out of focus. This study is the first step toward the use of Ti3C2Tx within an accommodative IOL design through demonstration of reversible, controlled, adjustable focus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The RSVP Bibliography compiles essays, books, master's theses, and doctoral dissertations published in the field of Victorian periodicals studies between December 2015 and December 2017. The bibliography's 327 references were assembled by thirty-four volunteers, who reviewed more than 150 journals and databases for entries relevant to British journalism, 1837–1901. The bibliography focuses primarily on newspapers and magazines published in Great Britain and the British Empire with some attention to transnational journalism and the long nineteenth century as they relate to the Victorian press. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presenting events in a rhythm has been shown to enhance perception and facilitate responses for stimuli that appear in synchrony with the rhythm, but little is known about how rhythm during encoding influences later recognition. In this study, participants were presented with images of everyday objects in an encoding phase before a recognition task in which they judged whether or not objects were previously presented. Blockwise, object presentation during encoding followed either a rhythmic (constant, predictable) or arrhythmic (random, unpredictable) temporal structure, of which participants were unaware. Recognition was greater for items presented in a rhythmic relative to an arrhythmic manner. During encoding, there was a differential neural activity based on memory effect with larger positivity for rhythmic over arrhythmic stimuli. At recognition, memory-specific ERP components were differentially affected by temporal structure: The FN400 old/new effect was unaffected by rhythmic structure, whereas the late positive component old/new effect was observed only for rhythmically encoded items. Taken together, this study provides new evidence that memory-specific processing at recognition is affected by temporal structure at encoding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reinstatement of encoding context facilitates memory for targets in young and older individuals (e.g., a word studied on a particular background scene is more likely to be remembered later if it is presented on the same rather than a different scene or no scene), yet older adults are typically inferior at recalling and recognizing target–context pairings. This study examined the mechanisms of the context effect in normal aging. Age differences in word recognition by context condition (original, switched, none, new), and the ability to explicitly remember target–context pairings were investigated using word–scene pairs (Experiment 1) and word–word pairs (Experiment 2). Both age groups benefited from context reinstatement in item recognition, although older adults were significantly worse than young adults at identifying original pairings and at discriminating between original and switched pairings. In Experiment 3, participants were given a three-alternative forced-choice recognition task that allowed older individuals to draw upon intact familiarity processes in selecting original pairings. Performance was age equivalent. Findings suggest that heightened familiarity associated with context reinstatement is useful for boosting recognition memory in aging. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Older adults have been shown to avoid negative and prefer positive information to a higher extent than younger adults. This positivity bias influences their information processing as well as decision-making. We investigate age-related positivity bias in charitable giving in two studies. In Study 1 we examine motivational factors in monetary donations, while Study 2 focuses on the emotional effect of actual monetary donations. In Study 1, participants (n = 353, age range 20-74 years) were asked to rate their affect toward a person in need and then state how much money they would be willing to donate to help this person. In Study 2, participants (n = 108, age range 19-89) were asked to rate their affect toward a donation made a few days prior. Regression analysis was used to investigate whether or not the positivity bias influences the relationship between affect and donations. In Study 1, we found that older adults felt more sympathy and compassion and were less motivated by negative affect when compared to younger adults, who were motivated by both negative and positive affect. In Study 2, we found that the level of positive emotional reactions from monetary donations was higher in older participants compared to younger participants. We find support for an age-related positivity bias in charitable giving. This is true for motivation to make a future donation, as well as affective thinking about a previous donation. We conclude that older adults draw more positive affect from both the planning and outcome of monetary donations and hence benefit more from engaging in monetary charity than their younger counterparts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose of the study: Everyday memory of older persons does not improve with intensive memory training programs. This study proposes a change in these programs based on a time-extended and massive intervention format. Design and Methods: The sample of 1007 healthy older persons (mean age 71.85; SD = 5.12) was randomized into 2 groups. The experimental group followed an extended 6 years of training (192 sessions over 192 weeks) whereas the control group received an intensive training (3 sessions per week for a total of 32 sessions in 11 weeks). The program included cognitive and emotional content whose effects were assessed with the Rivermead Behavioral Memory Test (RBMT) and with the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE). Both groups were evaluated initially, after 32 sessions, and again after 6 years. Results: The relative improvements measured with Blom's derivative showed that everyday memory and mental status of the experimental group were significantly better both in the short (Δ% 8.31 in RBMT and Δ% 1.51 in MMSE) and in the long term (Δ% 12.54 in RBMT and Δ% 2.56 in MMSE). For everyday memory and mental level, the overall gain estimate representing the mean difference in pre-post change between time-extended and intensive groups was 0.27 (95% CI: 0.13-0.40) and 0.54 (95% CI: 0.40-0.67), respectively. Time-extended programs have significantly improved everyday memory in contrast with the usual intensive programs whose effects decay with time. There are also significant increases in mental level scores while daily life functionality is preserved in all subjects who completed the training. Implications: These results suggest that it is possible to preserve everyday memory in the long term with continuous training and practice. Massive and time-extended formats may contribute in the future to a paradigm shift in memory programs for healthy older people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT To systematically review the characteristics, validity and outcome measures of tasks that have been described in the literature as assessing pattern separation and pattern completion in humans. Electronic databases were searched for articles. Parameters for task validity were obtained from two reviews that described optimal task design factors to evaluate pattern separation and pattern completion processes. These were that pattern separation should be tested during an encoding task using abstract, never-before-seen visual stimuli, and pattern completion during a retrieval task using partial cues; parametric alteration of the degree of interference of stimuli or degradation of cues should be used to generate a corresponding gradient in behavioral output; studies should explicitly identify the specific memory domain under investigation (sensory/perceptual, temporal, spatial, affect, response, or language) and account for the contribution of other potential attributes involved in performance of the task. A systematic, qualitative assessment of validity in relation to these parameters was performed, along with a review of general validity and task outcome measures. Sixty-two studies were included. The majority of studies investigated pattern separation and most tasks were performed on young, healthy adults. Pattern separation and pattern completion were most frequently tested during a retrieval task using familiar or recognizable visual stimuli and cues. Not all studies parametrically altered the degree of stimulus interference or cue degradation, or controlled for potential confounding factors. This review found evidence that some of the parameters for task validity have been followed in some human studies of pattern separation and pattern completion, but no study was judged to have adequately met all the parameters for task validity. The contribution of these parameters and other task design factors towards an optimal behavioral paradigm is discussed and recommendations for future research are made. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to the dual-process theoretical perspective adopted in the presented research, the efficiency of deliberative processes in decision making declines with age, but experiential processes are relatively well-preserved. The age-related differences in deliberative and experiential processes in risky decision-making were examined in this research by applying the Balloon Analog Risk Task (BART). We analyzed the influence of age on risk acceptance and decision-making performance in two age groups of female participants (younger adults, n = 81; older adults, n = 76), with additional experimental manipulation of initial risk perception. We predicted and confirmed that aging significantly worsens performance on the behavioral BART measures due to age-related decline in deliberative processes. Older participants were found to exhibit significantly higher risk aversion and lower BART performance, and the effect of age was mediated by cognitive (processing speed) and motivational (need for cognitive closure) mechanisms. Moreover, older adults adapt to the initial failure (vs. success) similarly, as younger adults due to preserved efficiency of experiential processes. These results suggest future directions for minimizing negative effects of aging in risky decision-making and indicate compensatory processes, which are preserved during aging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An essay is presented on book "Salvage the Bones" by Jesmyn Ward. Topics discussed include Hurricane Katrina that struck in August 2005; discussion on topics like feminism, postcolonialism, and postmodernism; and revision that acknowledges literary longevity and durability in terms of canonical text.

The use of previously distracting information on memory tests with indirect instructions is usually age-equivalent, while young adults typically show greater explicit memory for such information. This could reflect qualitatively distinct initial processing (encoding) of distracting information by younger and older adults, but could also be caused by greater suppression of such information by younger adults on tasks with indirect instructions. In Experiment 1, young and older adults read stories containing distracting words, which they ignored, before studying a list of words containing previously distracting items for a free recall task. Half the participants were informed of the presence of previously distracting items in the study list prior to recall (direct instruction), and half were not (indirect instruction). Recall of previously distracting words was age-equivalent in the indirect condition, but young adults recalled more distracting words in the direct condition. In Experiment 2, participants performed the continuous identification with recognition task, which captures a measure of perceptual priming and recognition on each trial, and is immune to suppression. Priming and recognition of previously distracting words was greater in younger than older adults, suggesting that the young engage in more successful suppression of previously distracting information on tasks in which its relevance is not overtly signaled. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

He author opines on the association of risky decision-making with residential choice in healthy older adults. Topics discussed include pattern of behaviour consistent with increased chronological age showcased by old adults; need for motivation to avoid negative experiences; and use of longitudinal research for finding potential mediators that relate to residential circumstances and increased risk aversion.

The authors discusses the effects of age-related changes on balloon analog risk task. Topics include the effect of sub-optimal decision outcomes contributed by the reduction of fluid cognitive ability, the effect of aging on the risks, and the reliance on theoretical frameworks in predicting the cognitive underpinnings of preferential choice.

The article discusses research being done on emotional difference between older and younger adults. It references the study "Greater Emotional Gain from Giving in Older Adults: Age-Related Positivity Bias in Charitable Giving," by P. Bjalkebring et al. in the 2016 issue of "Frontiers Psychology." The variables considered include experience of greater emotional complexity, ability to deal with emotional complexity, and information processing.

Information about experimental psychology discussed at various congresses in England is presented. They include a meeting at University College London which was held in London, England on January 4, 2007, the 59th Annual General Meeting of the Experimental Psychology Society which was held on January 5, 2007, the joint meeting with the Belgian Association of Psychological Science Society which was held at the School of Psychology, University of Cardiff in Cardiff, England on April 10, 2007.

This paper explores the roles and practices of collective citizen engagement in spatial planning. Drawing on a selection of core articles in planning scholarship, it investigates how citizens (re-)shape urban places by responding to perceived flaws in how spatial planning addresses societal challenges. Formal planning interventions are often spatially and socially selective, ineffective, or even non-existent due to a lack of institutional capacities and resources. Consequently, citizens take on roles that they consider as missing, underperformed or ineffective. The paper shows that this results in a variety of practices complementary to, independent from, or opposing formal planning actors and interventions. Five dilemmas citizens face are identified, highlighting the tensions that surface on exclusion, participation, and governmental responsibilities when citizens claim their role in urban governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the beginning of this century, a broad understanding of motherhood based on socially defined characteristics provided the rationale for legislation limiting the hours of working women. Modern medicine transformed the industrial workplace by emphasizing individual characteristics over group ones and by establishing policies that kept women from working with reproductive hazards like lead. While such practices reflected a more biological definition of motherhood and theoretically provided more opportunities for work than under hours legislation, they also provided new ways of assigning group characteristics to women workers, continuing a feminist debate about gender equality and difference in the workplace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reviews the musical recording `Toscanini at La Scala,' featuring Arturo Toscanini's operatic works, performed by La Scala Orchestra and Chorus, conducted by Arturo Toscanini. Highlights of the performance; Accounts of Toscanini's La Scala career.

A directory for labor officials in the U.S. and foreign countries is presented.

This article presents information on government reports related to industries and commerce, labor and public finance in the U.S., as of September 1926. The Bureau of Statistics of the Interstate Commerce Commission has published the report "Freight Commodity Statistics, Class I, Steam Railways in the United States, Year Ended December 31, 1925." It has also published "Thirty-Eighth Annual Report on the Statistics of Railways in the United States for the Year Ended December 31, 1924." Bulletin number 13 published by the Bureau of Railway Economics, in the series "Commodity Prices in Their Relation to Transportation Costs," relates to cotton. This article also presents a list of bulletins issued by the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. The preliminary report on "Statistics of Income From Returns of Net Income for 1924 Filed by Individuals," has been compiled by the U.S. Bureau of Internal Revenue. The U.S. Bureau of the Census has issued its annual report "Financial Statistics of States, 1924."