Graph analysis of verbal fluency test discriminate between patients with Alzheimer’s disease, Mild Cognitive Impairment and normal elderly controls

Verbal fluency is the ability to produce a satisfying sequence of spoken words during a given time interval. The core of verbal fluency lies in the capacity to manage the executive aspects of language. The standard scores of the semantic verbal fluency test are broadly used in the neuropsychological assessment of the elderly, and different analytical methods are likely to extract even more information from the data generated in this test. Graph theory, a mathematical approach to analyze relations between items, represents a promising tool to understand a variety of neuropsychological states. This study reports a graph analysis of data generated by the semantic verbal fluency test by cognitively healthy elderly (NC), patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment – subtypes amnestic(aMCI) and amnestic multiple domain (a+mdMCI) - and patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Sequences of words were represented as a speech graph in which every word corresponded to a node and temporal links between words were represented by directed edges. To characterize the structure of the data we calculated 13 speech graph attributes (SGAs). The individuals were compared when divided in three (NC – MCI – AD) and four (NC – aMCI – a+mdMCI – AD) groups. When the three groups were compared, significant differences were found in the standard measure of correct words produced, and three SGA: diameter, average shortest path, and network density. SGA sorted the elderly groups with good specificity and sensitivity. When the four groups were compared, the groups differed significantly in network density, except between the two MCI subtypes and NC and aMCI. The diameter of the network and the average shortest path were significantly different between the NC and AD, and between aMCI and AD. SGA sorted the elderly in their groups with good specificity and sensitivity, performing better than the standard score of the task. These findings provide support for a new methodological frame to assess the strength of semantic memory through the verbal fluency task, with potential to amplify the predictive power of this test. Graph analysis is likely to become clinically relevant in neurology and psychiatry, and may be particularly useful for the differential diagnosis of the elderly.

Graph analysis of verbal fluency test discriminate between patients with Alzheimer’s disease, Mild Cognitive Impairment and normal elderly controls

Verbal fluency is the ability to produce a satisfying sequence of spoken words during a given time interval. The core of verbal fluency lies in the capacity to manage the executive aspects of language. The standard scores of the semantic verbal fluency test are broadly used in the neuropsychological assessment of the elderly, and different analytical methods are likely to extract even more information from the data generated in this test. Graph theory, a mathematical approach to analyze relations between items, represents a promising tool to understand a variety of neuropsychological states. This study reports a graph analysis of data generated by the semantic verbal fluency test by cognitively healthy elderly (NC), patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment – subtypes amnestic(aMCI) and amnestic multiple domain (a+mdMCI) - and patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Sequences of words were represented as a speech graph in which every word corresponded to a node and temporal links between words were represented by directed edges. To characterize the structure of the data we calculated 13 speech graph attributes (SGAs). The individuals were compared when divided in three (NC – MCI – AD) and four (NC – aMCI – a+mdMCI – AD) groups. When the three groups were compared, significant differences were found in the standard measure of correct words produced, and three SGA: diameter, average shortest path, and network density. SGA sorted the elderly groups with good specificity and sensitivity. When the four groups were compared, the groups differed significantly in network density, except between the two MCI subtypes and NC and aMCI. The diameter of the network and the average shortest path were significantly different between the NC and AD, and between aMCI and AD. SGA sorted the elderly in their groups with good specificity and sensitivity, performing better than the standard score of the task. These findings provide support for a new methodological frame to assess the strength of semantic memory through the verbal fluency task, with potential to amplify the predictive power of this test. Graph analysis is likely to become clinically relevant in neurology and psychiatry, and may be particularly useful for the differential diagnosis of the elderly.

Entre a vida e a obra: música e religião em Max Weber

This study aims to analyze the relationship between music and religion in Max Weber s life and work, in a perspective that combines its intellectual productions in Sociology, in religion and art subfields. We developed a research in order to revisit the concept of rationalization, present in Weberian thought, and also to discuss how music and religion, as distinct spheres of life, star conflicts and alliances and build particular attitudes of action in the world, having the appearance of a rationality based on calculation in a central position to understand the construction of musical technique in the West and the autonomy of aesthetic enjoyment from religious enjoyment, previously linked. Regarding the procedure analysis, we built a symbolic cartography, according to Santos (2000), from selected works of Max Weber, as Religious rejections in the world and their directions (1982), among others. With the activity, we identified similarities and differences between music and religion in the author thoughts. We consider that the studied dimensions are important in Weberian analysis of the constitution of modern society and its cultural system, showing two distinct approaches to the issue of rationalization in the West

Um estudo sobre a relação entre matemática e religião na obra de Blaise Pascal

The aim of the present study is to investigate the way through which the relations between Mathematics and Religion emerge in the work of Blaise Pascal. This research is justified by the need to deepen these relations, so far little explored if compared to intersection points between Mathematics and other fields of knowledge. The choice for Pascal is given by the fact that he was one of the mathematicians who elaborated best one reflection in the religious field thus provoking contradictory reactions. As a methodology, it is a bibliographical and documental research with analytical-comparative reading of referential texts, among them the Oeuvres complètes de Pascal (1954), Le fonds pascalien à Clermont-Ferrand (2001), Mathematics in a postmodern age: a cristian perspective by Howell & Bradley (2001), Mathematics and the divine: a historical study by Koetsier & Bergmans (2005), the Anais dos Seminários Nacionais de História da Matemática and the Revista Brasileira de História da Matemática. The research involving Pascal's life as a mathematician and his religious experience was made. A wider background in which the subject matter emerges was also researched. Seven categories connected to the relation between mathematics and religion were identified from the reading of texts written by mathematicians and historians of mathematics. As a conclusion, the presence of four of these seven categories was verified in Pascal's work

Assistência de enfermagem às urgências e emergências psiquiátricas no serviço de atendimento móvel de urgência em Mossoró-RN

This study aims to identify the concepts of professional nursing team on assistance in urgency and psychiatric emergencies in SAMU in Mossoró/RN, identifying the difficulties in implementing an emergency assistance to the user in psychiatric distress in this service and point strategies in pursuit of consolidation and expansion of comprehensive health care to the public. It is a descriptive research with qualitative and exploratory approach. The subjects were employees of the nursing staff of SAMU of that mentioned municipality. Semi-structured interviews are applied as tool for data collection. It was counted on the consent of the institution where the study was developed and approval by the Ethics Committee in Research of UFRN with CAAE No 17326513.0.0000.5537, besides signing the Informed Free Consent Term by the participants. Data analysis was done by means of thematic analysis proposed by Bardin. Thus , as a result of the research produced the following categories: mechanistic practice; dehumanization of care; need for qualification, barriers to assistance in urgency and psychiatric emergency and strategies in pursuit of comprehensive care, which proceeded in preparing two articles entitled "Nursing care to the emergency room and psychiatric emergencies in the mobile emergency care service" and "Barriers for emergency service and psychiatric emergencies in the mobile emergency care service". In the studied reality it was identified that nursing care offered to users in situations of urgency and psychiatric emergency is made based primarily on the use of chemical and physical restraints, as well as transportation to the general hospital, constantly using the police force support, which meets the guidelines of the Psychiatric Reform and thereby undermining the provision of an effective and humane care. This scenario is worsened by the lack of an organized network of services in mental health, where after the service the user is taken to a general hospital, considering that there is no ready or appropriate psychiatric emergency service as a Center of Psychosocial Care - CAPs III to reference it, thereby precluding the realization of a resolute and comprehensive care. Thus, it is concluded that nursing care is based on biologicist and medicine-centered model advocated by classical psychiatry, and that despite all the advances in psychiatric reform, still guides the mental health care, so the lack of service network organized in hierarchical and mental health, where the user in urgency and emergency service can be watched in full and the guidelines of the psychiatric reform can be realized in practice

Razão e Fé: estudo do grupo de oração como prática complementar na promoção à saúde

The World Health Organization (WHO) has given special attention to therapeutic procedures other than those practiced in conventional therapy, including homeopathy, phytotherapy, spiritual therapies and prayers, making possible the transition from a mere medicalizating model to a holistic view of the human being. This trend, earmarked in 1978 at the Alma-Ata Conference, questions the ability of technological and specialized medicine to solve the health problems of humankind. In Brazil, the onset of the Brazilian unified health system in 1988, introduced changes in the population s health care model where, within the scope of basic care, emphasis has been given to the Family Health Program since 1994. In this scenery, there is a broad area of complementary practices used in promoting health and preventing and treating diseases to support an understanding of the habits and beliefs underpinning popular practices. The purpose of this study was to analyze the perception users participating in the Peace and Balance group of the Family Health Unit of Nova Cidade, in Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, started in 1999, have of the relationship between the experience of prayer and the changes that may have taken place in their lives after joining the group. It is a case study of descriptive nature and qualitative approach. The data were collected during focus group interviews between January and February 2007, using as tools a questionnaire to describe the research participants and a discussion outline. The theoretical support approached the following: religion and the evolution of thought; complementary health practices; and religion as a complementary health practice. Those interviewed reported, as results of such experience, a reduction in stress and depression, an increase in socialization and self-esteem, improved family interaction, comfort, safety, assurance, improved blood pressure levels and a decrease in the use of antihypertension medication and psychopharmacs. Although most professionals do not consider attention to the religious and spiritual aspects an effective therapeutical complement in health care, its understanding and practice may democratize knowledge and relationships, out of which they can learn how to make health production more effective, strengthening assurance and confidence, and developing and expanding soft technologies aimed at health care promotion and wholeness

Reflexões filosóficas em torno da constituição do sujeito religioso-moral no pensamento de Freud

The present research deals with a philosophical reflection about the constitution of the subject religious and moral in the thought of Freud, starting from of question of religion while one of the various spaces concretion of the individual morality. Our hypothesis is that religion presents itself as a space of revival of the primary relationship with the mother of the subject and as a moral agency. That primary relationship corresponds to the period before the Oedipus complex. The cut caused in the Oedipus complex sake in the an emptiness the subject, leading him to a situation of helplessness. In trying to fill the emptiness and consequently out of the situation of displeasure occasioned by the helplessness, the individual seeks diverses means, between which, the religion. The religion, that sense, quest for one part, that support be filling of the existential emptiness, triggered in the Oedipus complex, and on the other, works as a staunch ally of the Superego, which for turn is direct heir of the Oedipus complex and whose function is to require of the subject to moral living, as is established by the social body, where the individual is inserted. Therefore, we seek to draw this subject starting from general ideas of the philosophy, about the moral, as well as some theoretical elements of freudian thought, since his idea of the origin of the culture, morality and religion the more specific elements that pertain to the individual subject, ie, the psychism