Staging systems in bipolar disorder: an International Society for Bipolar Disorders Task Force report

We discuss the rationale behind staging systems described specifically for bipolar disorders. Current applications, future directions and research gaps in clinical staging models for bipolar disorders are outlined.

The influence of protective and risk factors in individual, peer and school domains on Thai adolescents' alcohol and illicit drug use: a survey

This study investigates risk and protective factors for substance abuse in a sample of 1778 students attending technical colleges in Bangkok and Nakhon Ratchasima provinces of Thailand using a self-report questionnaire modified from the Communities That Care youth survey. Low school commitment was strongly associated with illicit drug use, with adjusted odds ratios ranging from 2.84 (glue sniffing) to 10.06 (ecstasy). Having friends using drugs, and friends with delinquent behaviors increased the risk of using alcohol and illegal drugs, with adjusted odds ratios of 6.84 and 6.72 respectively for marijuana use. For protective factors, approximately 40-60% of students with high levels of moral belief, participation in religious activities, and social skills were less likely to use alcohol. It is concluded that peer influence is a significant contributor to Thai adolescents' participation in substance abuse and that engaging in religiosity may assist adolescents to internalize negative aspects of harmful drugs into positive perceptions and encourage them to avoid alcohol and illegal drugs.

Sleep restriction during simulated wildfire suppression: effect on physical task performance

OBJECTIVES: To examine the effects of sleep restriction on firefighters' physical task performance during simulated wildfire suppression. METHODS: Thirty-five firefighters were matched and randomly allocated to either a control condition (8-hour sleep opportunity, n = 18) or a sleep restricted condition (4-hour sleep opportunity, n = 17). Performance on physical work tasks was evaluated across three days. In addition, heart rate, core temperature, and worker activity were measured continuously. Rate of perceived and exertion and effort sensation were evaluated during the physical work periods. RESULTS: There were no differences between the sleep-restricted and control groups in firefighters' task performance, heart rate, core temperature, or perceptual responses during self-paced simulated firefighting work tasks. However, the sleep-restricted group were less active during periods of non-physical work compared to the control group. CONCLUSIONS: Under self-paced work conditions, 4 h of sleep restriction did not adversely affect firefighters' performance on physical work tasks. However, the sleep-restricted group were less physically active throughout the simulation. This may indicate that sleep-restricted participants adapted their behaviour to conserve effort during rest periods, to subsequently ensure they were able to maintain performance during the firefighter work tasks. This work contributes new knowledge to inform fire agencies of firefighters' operational capabilities when their sleep is restricted during multi-day wildfire events. The work also highlights the need for further research to explore how sleep restriction affects physical performance during tasks of varying duration, intensity, and complexity.

Task-specific effects of modular body armor.

Eleven recreationally active males performed 11 circuits of military work, wearing torso armor on one occasion, and full armor on another. Performance was measured by the time taken to complete individual tasks, and the overall time to completion (TTC) for each circuit. Heart rate, intestinal temperature, ratings of perceived exertion (RPE), and thermal sensation were recorded after each circuit. Participants' circuit TTC was no different between conditions; however, specific tasks were differentially impeded by the two armor configurations. Vaulting and crawling were significantly slower (0.28 ± 0.06 and 0.55 ± 0.26 seconds) in full armor; however, box lifting and shooting were significantly slower (0.36 ± 0.18 and 0.86 ± 0.23 seconds) when wearing torso armor. Heart rate and core temperature were significantly higher during the full armor trial (5 ± 1 beats · min(-1) and 0.22 ± 0.03 °C). Similarly, RPE and thermal sensation were significantly higher (1 ± 0 and 0.5 ± 0.0) during the full armor condition. Military tasks were differentially impaired by the armor configurations used, which suggests a need to explore role-specific armor for military personnel. Physiological and perceptual responses were elevated in full armor, which could be exacerbated during longer periods of work or in hot conditions.

Predicting the likely response of data-poor ecosystems to climate change using space-for-time substitution across domains

Predicting ecological response to climate change is often limited by a lack of relevant local data from which directly applicable mechanistic models can be developed. This limits predictions to qualitative assessments or simplistic rules of thumb in data-poor regions, making management of the relevant systems difficult. We demonstrate a method for developing quantitative predictions of ecological response in data-poor ecosystems based on a space-for-time substitution, using distant, well-studied systems across an inherent climatic gradient to predict ecological response. Changes in biophysical data across the spatial gradient are used to generate quantitative hypotheses of temporal ecological responses that are then tested in a target region. Transferability of predictions among distant locations, the novel outcome of this method, is demonstrated via simple quantitative relationships that identify direct and indirect impacts of climate change on physical, chemical and ecological variables using commonly available data sources. Based on a limited subset of data, these relationships were demonstrably plausible in similar yet distant (>2000 km) ecosystems. Quantitative forecasts of ecological change based on climate-ecosystem relationships from distant regions provides a basis for research planning and informed management decisions, especially in the many ecosystems for which there are few data. This application of gradient studies across domains - to investigate ecological response to climate change - allows for the quantification of effects on potentially numerous, interacting and complex ecosystem components and how they may vary, especially over long time periods (e.g. decades). These quantitative and integrated long-term predictions will be of significant value to natural resource practitioners attempting to manage data-poor ecosystems to prevent or limit the loss of ecological value. The method is likely to be applicable to many ecosystem types, providing a robust scientific basis for estimating likely impacts of future climate change in ecosystems where no such method currently exists.

Type-aware task placement in geo-distributed data centers with low OPEX using data center resizing

With the rising demands on cloud services, the electricity consumption has been increasing drastically as the main operational expenditure (OPEX) to data center providers. The geographical heterogeneity of electricity prices motivates us to study the type-aware task placement problem over geo-distributed data centers. With the consideration of the diversity of user requests and server clusters in modern data centers, we formulate an optimization problem that minimizes OPEX while guaranteeing the quality-of-service, i.e., the expected response time of tasks. Furthermore, an efficient solution is designed for this formulated problem. The experimental results show that our proposal achieves much higher cost-efficiency than the greedy algorithm and much approaches the optimal results. © 2014 IEEE.

Glucose administration and cognitive function: differential effects of age and effort during a dual task paradigm in younger and older adults

RATIONALE: Current research suggests that glucose facilitates performance on cognitive tasks which possess an episodic memory component and a relatively high level of cognitive demand. However, the extent to which this glucose facilitation effect is uniform across the lifespan is uncertain. METHODS: This study was a repeated measures, randomised, placebo-controlled, cross-over trial designed to assess the cognitive effects of glucose in younger and older adults under single and dual task conditions. Participants were 24 healthy younger (average age 20.6 years) and 24 healthy older adults (average age 72.5 years). They completed a recognition memory task after consuming drinks containing 25 g glucose and a placebo drink, both in the presence and absence of a secondary tracking task. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: Glucose enhanced recognition memory response time and tracking precision during the secondary task, in older adults only. These findings do not support preferential targeting of hippocampal function by glucose, rather they suggest that glucose administration differentially increases the availability of attentional resources in older individuals.

Comparing kinematic changes between a finger-tapping task and unconstrained finger flexion-extension task in patients with Parkinson's disease.

Repetitive finger tapping is a well-established clinical test for the evaluation of parkinsonian bradykinesia, but few studies have investigated other finger movement modalities. We compared the kinematic changes (movement rate and amplitude) and response to levodopa during a conventional index finger-thumb-tapping task and an unconstrained index finger flexion-extension task performed at maximal voluntary rate (MVR) for 20 s in 11 individuals with levodopa-responsive Parkinson's disease (OFF and ON) and 10 healthy age-matched controls. Between-task comparisons showed that for all conditions, the initial movement rate was greater for the unconstrained flexion-extension task than the tapping task. Movement rate in the OFF state was slower than in controls for both tasks and normalized in the ON state. The movement amplitude was also reduced for both tasks in OFF and increased in the ON state but did not reach control levels. The rate and amplitude of movement declined significantly for both tasks under all conditions (OFF/ON and controls). The time course of rate decline was comparable for both tasks and was similar in OFF/ON and controls, whereas the tapping task was associated with a greater decline in MA, both in controls and ON, but not OFF. The findings indicate that both finger movement tasks show similar kinematic changes during a 20-s sustained MVR, but that movement amplitude is less well sustained during the tapping task than the unconstrained finger movement task. Both movement rate and amplitude improved with levodopa; however, movement rate was more levodopa responsive than amplitude.

Promoting reasoning through the magic V task

Reasoning in mathematics plays a critical role in developing mathematical understandings. In this article, Bragg, Loong, Widjaja, Vale and Herbert explore an adaptation of the Magic V Task and how was used in several classrooms to promote and develop reasoning skills.

Effectiveness of dual-task functional power training for preventing falls in older people: study protocol for a cluster randomised controlled trial

BACKGROUND: Falls are a major public health concern with at least one third of people aged 65 years and over falling at least once per year, and half of these will fall repeatedly, which can lead to injury, pain, loss of function and independence, reduced quality of life and even death. Although the causes of falls are varied and complex, the age-related loss in muscle power has emerged as a useful predictor of disability and falls in older people. In this population, the requirements to produce explosive and rapid movements often occurs whilst simultaneously performing other attention-demanding cognitive or motor tasks, such as walking while talking or carrying an object. The primary aim of this study is to determine whether dual-task functional power training (DT-FPT) can reduce the rate of falls in community-dwelling older people. METHODS/DESIGN: The study design is an 18-month cluster randomised controlled trial in which 280 adults aged ≥65 years residing in retirement villages, who are at increased risk of falling, will be randomly allocated to: 1) an exercise programme involving DT-FPT, or 2) a usual care control group. The intervention is divided into 3 distinct phases: 6 months of supervised DT-FPT, a 6-month 'step down' maintenance programme, and a 6-month follow-up. The primary outcome will be the number of falls after 6, 12 and 18 months. Secondary outcomes will include: lower extremity muscle power and strength, grip strength, functional assessments of gait, reaction time and dynamic balance under single- and dual-task conditions, activities of daily living, quality of life, cognitive function and falls-related self-efficacy. We will also evaluate the cost-effectiveness of the programme for preventing falls. DISCUSSION: The study offers a novel approach that may guide the development and implementation of future community-based falls prevention programmes that specifically focus on optimising muscle power and dual-task performance to reduce falls risk under 'real life' conditions in older adults. In addition, the 'step down' programme will provide new information about the efficacy of a less intensive maintenance programme for reducing the risk of falls over an extended period. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry: ACTRN12613001161718 . Date registered 23 October 2013.

A shadow-like task migration model based on context semantics for mobile and pervasive environments

Pervasive computing is a user-centric mobile computing paradigm, in which tasks should be migrated over different platforms in a shadow-like way when users move around. In this paper, we propose a context-sensitive task migration model that recovers program states and rebinds resources for task migrations based on context semantics through inserting resource description and state description sections in source programs. Based on our model, we design and develop a task migration framework xMozart which extends the Mozart platform in terms of context awareness. Our approach can recover task states and rebind resources in the context-aware way, as well as support multi- modality I/O interactions. The extensive experiments demonstrate that our approach can migrate tasks by resuming them from the last broken points like shadows moving along with the users.

Fighting fires and fatigue: sleep, physical activity, and physical task performance

 During bushfires, firefighters often work long shifts with little sleep. Grace’s research showed that although firefighters’ sleep is restricted, it does not adversely affect their ability to perform physical tasks. This contrasts the cognitive impairments associated with sleep loss and could prompt revision of fatigue management guidelines in physically-demanding occupations.