Metacognition and proofreading: the roles of aging, motivation, and interest

Objectives: The current study examined younger and older adults’ error detection accuracy, prediction calibration, and postdiction calibration on a proofreading task, to determine if age-related difference would be present in this type of common error detection task. Method: Participants were given text passages, and were first asked to predict the percentage of errors they would detect in the passage. They then read the passage and circled errors (which varied in complexity and locality), and made postdictions regarding their performance, before repeating this with another passage and answering a comprehension test of both passages. Results: There were no age-related differences in error detection accuracy, text comprehension, or metacognitive calibration, though participants in both age groups were overconfident overall in their metacognitive judgments. Both groups gave similar ratings of motivation to complete the task. The older adults rated the passages as more interesting than younger adults did, although this level of interest did not appear to influence error-detection performance. Discussion: The age equivalence in both proofreading ability and calibration suggests that the ability to proofread text passages and the associated metacognitive monitoring used in judging one’s own performance are maintained in aging. These age-related similarities persisted when younger adults completed the proofreading tasks on a computer screen, rather than with paper and pencil. The findings provide novel insights regarding the influence that cognitive aging may have on metacognitive accuracy and text processing in an everyday task.

The effect of targeting tolerance of children's negative emotions among anxious parents of children with anxiety disorders: a pilot randomised controlled trial

Following cognitive behavioural therapy for child anxiety a significant minority of children fail to lose their diagnosis status. One potential barrier is high parental anxiety. We designed a pilot RCT to test claims that parental intolerance of the child’s negative emotions may impact treatment outcomes. Parents of 60 children with an anxiety disorder, who were themselves highly anxious, received either brief parent-delivered treatment for child anxiety or the same treatment with strategies specifically targeting parental tolerance of their child’s negative emotions. Consistent with predictions, parental tolerance of the child’s negative emotions significantly improved from pre- to post-treatment. However, there was no evidence to inform the direction of this association as improvements were substantial in both groups. Moreover, while there were significant improvements in child anxiety in both conditions, there was little evidence that this was associated with the improvement in parental tolerance. Nevertheless, findings provide important clinical insight, including that parent-led treatments are appropriate even when the parent is highly anxious and that it may not be necessary to adjust interventions for many families.

A skill-based reporting system for parents of young hearing-impaired children

This paper reviews a skill-based reporting system for parents of young hearing impaired children.

COLOR STABILITY OF DENTAL CERAMICS SUBMITTED TO ARTIFICIAL ACCELERATED AGING AFTER REPEATED FIRINGS

Statement of problem. Color stability is an important factor to ensure the long-term clinical success of ceramic restorations. There is a lack of information on how color is affected by fabrication procedures, such as the number of firings. Purpose. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects that the number of firings and type of substrate have on the color stability of dental ceramic submitted to artificial accelerated aging. Material and methods. Sixty specimens were fabricated: 30 metal ceramic (Verabond II + IPS d.SIGN) and 30 all-ceramic (IPS d.SIGN). Specimens were divided into 3 groups (n=10), and submitted to 2, 3, or 4 firings (+/- 900 degrees C), respectively, according to the manufacturer`s instructions. Color readings were obtained with a spectro photometer before and after artificial accelerated aging, and L*, a*, and b* coordinates and total color variation (Delta E) were analyzed (2-way ANOVA, Bonferroni, (alpha=05). Results. For metal ceramic specimens, differences for the L* coordinates were significant (P<.05) only for the group submitted to 3 firings. With respect to the all-ceramic specimens, smaller L* coordinates were obtained for greater a* and b* coordinates, indicating that the greater the number of firings, the darker and more reddish/yellowish the specimen. All Delta E values, for all groups, were below 1.0. All-ceramic specimens submitted to 3 and 4 firings presented Delta E means differing statistically (P<.05) from those of the metal ceramic group. Conclusions. The type of substrate and number of firings affected the color stability of the ceramic material tested. Artificial accelerated aging did not produce perceptible color stability changes (Delta E<1.0). (J Prosthet Dent 2009-101:13-18)

Prospects for biodiversity conservation in the Atlantic Forest: Lessons from aging human-modified landscapes

Recent global assessments have shown the limited coverage of protected areas across tropical biotas, fuelling a growing interest in the potential conservation services provided by anthropogenic landscapes. Here we examine the geographic distribution of biological diversity in the Atlantic Forest of South America, synthesize the most conspicuous forest biodiversity responses to human disturbances, propose further conservation initiatives for this biota, and offer a range of general insights into the prospects of forest species persistence in human-modified tropical forest landscapes worldwide. At the biome scale, the most extensive pre-Columbian habitats across the Atlantic Forest ranged across elevations below 800 masl, which still concentrate most areas within the major centers of species endemism. Unfortunately, up to 88% of the original forest habitat has been lost, mainly across these low to intermediate elevations, whereas protected areas are clearly skewed towards high elevations above 1200 masl. At the landscape scale, most remaining Atlantic Forest cover is embedded within dynamic agro-mosaics including elements such as small forest fragments, early-to-late secondary forest patches and exotic tree mono-cultures. In this sort of aging or long-term modified landscapes, habitat fragmentation appears to effectively drive edge-dominated portions of forest fragments towards an early-successional system, greatly limiting the long-term persistence of forest-obligate and forest-dependent species. However, the extent to which forest habitats approach early-successional systems, thereby threatening the bulk of the Atlantic Forest biodiversity, depends on both past and present landscape configuration. Many elements of human-modified landscapes (e.g. patches of early-secondary forests and tree mono-cultures) may offer excellent conservation opportunities, but they cannot replace the conservation value of protected areas and hitherto unprotected large patches of old-growth forests. Finally, the biodiversity conservation services provided by anthropogenic landscapes across Atlantic Forest and other tropical forest regions can be significantly augmented by coupling biodiversity corridor initiatives with biota-scale attempts to plug existing gaps in the representativeness of protected areas. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Fibroelastic Components of the Vesicourethral Junction of Rats in the Aging Process

The vesicourethral junction comprising the vesical trigone, is relevant in setting and positioning of the urinary bladder, along with the vesical neck, fixed by lateral ligaments of the bladder and tendinous arch of the pelvis fascia. Namely, the puboprostatic ligament (men) and the pubovesical (women). The circular set elastic fibers in this junction are important and valuable in the elasticity and plasticity of the area, allowing quick expansion and withdrawal with the flow of urine, and associated to smooth muscle tissue and nerve control form an important collective to maintain urinary continence. The objective of the present study is to describe the elastic system in the vesicouretral junction in relation to aging and its involvement in the states of urinary continence and incontinence, as well as the study of the vesicouretral junction in various age groups while evaluating with electron transmission microscopy. To carry out the study, 12 Wistar rats were used, divided into groups: neonate (4 animals), adult group (4 animals) and aged group (4 animals). Electron transmission microscopy with use of tanic acid technique associated to glutaraldehyde fixation, satisfactorily showed the extreme structural differences between mature elaunin and oxytalan fibers present between intercelular spaces and bundles of collagen fibers. The phases of elastogenesis in neonate animals and degradation of the elastic system of older animals were also evaluated.

Insights on eukaryotic translation initiation factor 5A (eIF5A) in the brain and aging

Long-term memory, a persistent form of synaptic plasticity, requires translation of a subset of mRNA present in neuronal dendrites during a short and critical period through a mechanism not yet fully elucidated. Western blotting analysis revealed a high content of eukaryotic translation initiation factor 5A (eIF5A) in the brain of neonatal rats, a period of intense neurogenesis rate, differentiation and synaptic establishment, when compared to adult rats. Immunohistochemistry analysis revealed that eIF5A is present in the whole brain of adult rats showing a variable content among the cells from different areas (e.g. cortex, hippocampus and cerebellum). A high content of eIF5A in the soma and dendrites of Purkinje cells, key neurons in the control of motor long-term memory in the cerebellum, was observed. Detection of high eIF5A content was revealed in dendritic varicosities of Purkinje cells. Evidence is presented herein that a reduction of eIF5A content is associated to brain aging. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Differential response of AMPA and NMDA glutamate receptors of Purkinje cells to aging of the chicken cerebellum

Aging can lead to cognitive, affective, learning, memory and motor deficits. Since the cerebellum and glutamatergic neurotransmission are involved in several of those functions, the present work aimed at studying the expression of AMPA and NMDA glutamate receptor subunits in the chick cerebellum during aging. Young (30 days old) and aged (ca. 4 years old) chickens (Gallus gallus) were used in order to evaluate the expression of GluR1, GluR2/3 and NR1 subunits. The cerebella of young and aged chickens were subjected to immunohistochemical and immunoblotting techniques. Numbers of GluR1, GluR2/3 and NR1-positive cells and optical density of the immunoblotting data were analyzed and submitted to statistical analysis using ANOVA and the Bonferroni post hoc test. Mean density of Purkinje cells stained for Giemsa, GluR1, GluR2/3 and NR1 in the cerebellum all showed a statistically significant decrease in aged animals when compared to the young animals (Giemsa, P < 0.01; GluRs and NR1, P < 0.03). However, the ratio of GluR1 and GluR2/3-positive Purkinje cells in relation the total number of Purkinje cells found in each time point decreased with aging (ca. 10%), whereas the ratio of NR1-positive cells increased (ca. 9%). The immunoblotting data showed a significant decrease of GluR1 (ca. 66%) and GluR2/3 (ca. 55%) protein expression with aging, but did not reveal changes for NR1. Our data suggest that aging can lead to differential changes in the pattern of expression of glutamate receptor subunits, which can underlie at least part of the cognitive and motor disorders found in aged animals. (c) 2010 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Ultrastructural Aspects of Female Aging Wistar Rat Epithelium Tongue: A HRSEM and TEM Study

Background: There is general consensus that the effects of intrinsic aging on the oral mucosa are relatively small, though potentially important to understanding the pathologies present in the aged animals. Objective: In this paper, the development of dorsal surface of rat tongue was examined using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and high-resolution scanning electron microscopy (HRSEM) in order to understand the age-related structural and ultrastructural changes experimentally. Methods: In this study, we used female rats 75 and 720 days old (adult and aging). Tissues of rat tongue were prepared and the specimens submitted to HRSEM and TEM techniques. Results: The analysis of HRSEM and TEM demonstrated that the same characteristic keratinous epithelium was found in aging animals, however with some modifications. Conclusion: We agree that there are obvious changes in the oral mucosa with aging and these modifications can be observed starting from the ultrastructural aspects. Copyright (C) 2009 S. Karger AG, Basel

Aging and stationary properties of non-equilibrium symmetrical three-state models

We consider a non-equilibrium three-state model whose dynamics is Markovian and displays the same symmetry as the three-state Potts model, i.e. the transition rates are invariant under the cyclic permutation of the states. Unlike the Potts model, detailed balance is, in general, not satisfied. The aging and the stationary properties of the model defined on a square lattice are obtained by means of large-scale Monte Carlo simulations. We show that the phase diagram presents a critical line, belonging to the three-state Potts universality class, that ends at a point whose universality class is that of the Voter model. Aging is considered on the critical line, at the Voter point and in the ferromagnetic phase.

Inference From Aging Information

For many learning tasks the duration of the data collection can be greater than the time scale for changes of the underlying data distribution. The question we ask is how to include the information that data are aging. Ad hoc methods to achieve this include the use of validity windows that prevent the learning machine from making inferences based on old data. This introduces the problem of how to define the size of validity windows. In this brief, a new adaptive Bayesian inspired algorithm is presented for learning drifting concepts. It uses the analogy of validity windows in an adaptive Bayesian way to incorporate changes in the data distribution over time. We apply a theoretical approach based on information geometry to the classification problem and measure its performance in simulations. The uncertainty about the appropriate size of the memory windows is dealt with in a Bayesian manner by integrating over the distribution of the adaptive window size. Thus, the posterior distribution of the weights may develop algebraic tails. The learning algorithm results from tracking the mean and variance of the posterior distribution of the weights. It was found that the algebraic tails of this posterior distribution give the learning algorithm the ability to cope with an evolving environment by permitting the escape from local traps.

XRCC1 haploinsufficiency in mice has little effect on aging, but adversely modifies exposure-dependent susceptibility

Oxidative DNA damage plays a role in disease development and the aging process. A prominent participant in orchestrating the repair of oxidative DNA damage, particularly single-strand breaks, is the scaffold protein XRCC1. A series of chronological and biological aging parameters in XRCC1 heterozygous (HZ) mice were examined. HZ and wild-type (WT) C57BL/6 mice exhibit a similar median lifespan of similar to 26 months and a nearly identical maximal life expectancy of similar to 37 months. However, a number of HZ animals (7 of 92) showed a propensity for abdominal organ rupture, which may stem from developmental abnormalities given the prominent role of XRCC1 in endoderm and mesoderm formation. For other end-points evaluated-weight, fat composition, blood chemistries, condition of major organs, tissues and relevant cell types, behavior, brain volume and function, and chromosome and telomere integrity-HZ mice exhibited by-and-large a normal phenotype. Treatment of animals with the alkylating agent azoxymethane resulted in both liver toxicity and an increased incidence of precancerous lesions in the colon of HZ mice. Our study indicates that XRCC1 haploinsufficiency in mammals has little effect on chronological longevity and many key biological markers of aging in the absence of environmental challenges, but may adversely affect normal animal development or increase disease susceptibility to a relevant genotoxic exposure.

Accelerated aging of thick glass second surface silvered reflectors under sandstorm conditions

Concentrated solar power systems are expected to be sited in desert locations where the direct normal irradiation is above 1800 kWh/m2.year. These systems include large solar collector assemblies, which account for a significant share of the investment cost. Solarreflectors are the main components of these solar collector assemblies and dust/sand storms may affect their reflectance properties, either by soiling or by surface abrasion. While soiling can be reverted by cleaning, surface abrasion is a non reversible degradation.The aim of this project was to study the accelerated aging of second surface silvered thickglass solar reflectors under simulated sandstorm conditions and develop a multi-parametric model which relates the specular reflectance loss to dust/sand storm parameters: wind velocity, dust concentration and time of exposure. This project focused on the degradation caused by surface abrasion.Sandstorm conditions were simulated in a prototype environmental test chamber. Material samples (6cm x 6cm) were exposed to Arizona coarse test dust. The dust stream impactedthese material samples at a perpendicular angle. Both wind velocity and dust concentrationwere maintained at a stable level for each accelerated aging test. The total exposure time in the test chamber was limited to 1 hour. Each accelerated aging test was interrupted every 4 minutes to measure the specular reflectance of the material sample after cleaning.The accelerated aging test campaign had to be aborted prematurely due to a contamination of the dust concentration sensor. A robust multi-parametric degradation model could thus not be derived. The experimental data showed that the specular reflectance loss decreasedeither linearly or exponentially with exposure time, so that a degradation rate could be defined as a single modeling parameter. A correlation should be derived to relate this degradation rate to control parameters such as wind velocity and dust/sand concentration.The sandstorm chamber design would have to be updated before performing further accelerated aging test campaigns. The design upgrade should improve both the reliability of the test equipment and the repeatability of accelerated aging tests. An outdoor exposure test campaign should be launched in deserts to learn more about the intensity, frequencyand duration of dust/sand storms. This campaign would also serve to correlate the results of outdoor exposure tests with accelerated exposure tests in order to develop a robust service lifetime prediction model for different types of solar reflector materials.

Parent’s experiences of feeding their preterm infant in Neonatal Units in Sweden. : Ethnographic design

Introduction: Studies have shown that having a preterm infant may cause stress and powerlessness for parents. It is important to support parents around the feeding situation, and that the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) has appropriate space and place to help the family to bond to each other. For the healthcare professionals it is important to promote skin-to-skin contact and breastfeeding; particularly for preterm infants. There are many studies on parent’s experiences of NICUs and a few studies on parent’s experiences of feeding their infant in the NICU. Objective: The objective of this study was to explore parents experiences of feeding their infant in the NICU. Design: The study was conducted using an ethnographic design. Results: A global theme of ‘The journey in feeding’ was developed from four organising themes: ‘Ways of infant feeding’; ‘Environmental influences’; ‘Relationships’ and ‘Emotional factors’. These themes illustrate the challenges mothers reported with different methods of feeding. The environment had a big impact on parent’s experiences of infant feeding. Some mothers felt that breastfeeding seemed unnatural because their infant was so tiny but breastfeeding and skin-to-skin contact helped them to bond to their infant. The mothers thought it was difficult to keep up with the milk production by only pumping. Routines were not inviting parents to find their own rhythm. They also felt stressed about the weighing. Healthcare professionals had positive and negative influences on the parents. Conclusions: This study demonstrates that while all parents expressed the wish to breastfeed, their ‘journey in feeding’ was highly influenced by method of feeding, environmental, relational and emotional factors. The general focus upon routines and assessing milk intake generated anxiety and reduced relationality. Midwives and neonatal nurses need to ensure that they emphasise and support the relational aspects of parenting and avoid over-emphasising milk intake and associated progress of the infant

Parenthood in transition : Somali-born parents' experiences of and needs for parenting support programmes

BACKGROUND: Pre- and post-migration trauma due to forced migration may impact negatively on parents' ability to care for their children. Little qualitative work has examined Somali-born refugees' experiences. The aim of this study is to explore Somali-born refugees' experiences and challenges of being parents in Sweden, and the support they need in their parenting. METHODS: A qualitative descriptive study was undertaken. Data were collected from four focus group discussions (FGDs) among 23 Somali-born mothers and fathers living in a county in central Sweden. Qualitative content analysis has been applied. RESULTS: A main category, Parenthood in Transition, emerged as a description of a process of parenthood in transition. Two generic categories were identified: Challenges, and Improved parenting. Challenges emerged from leaving the home country and being new and feeling alienated in the new country. In Improved parenting, an awareness of opportunities in the new country and ways to improve their parenting was described, which includes how to improve their communication and relationship with their children. The parents described a need for information on how to culturally adapt their parenting and obtain support from the authorities. CONCLUSIONS: Parents experienced a process of parenthood in transition. They were looking to the future and for ways to improve their parenting. Schools and social services can overcome barriers that prevent lack of knowledge about the new country's systems related to parenthood. Leaving the home country often means separation from the family and losing the social network. We suggest that staff in schools and social services offer parent training classes for these parents throughout their children's childhood, with benefits for the child and family.