Improvement in children’s fine motor skills following a computerized typing intervention

Children spend a large proportion of their school day engaged in tasks that require manual dexterity. If children experience difficulties with their manual dexterity skills it can have a consequential effect on their academic achievement. The first aim of this paper was to explore whether an online interactive typing intervention could improve children’s scores on a standardised measure of manual dexterity. The second aim was to implement a serial reaction time tapping task as an index of children's finger movement learning, and to see whether performance on this task would improve after the intervention. Seventy-eight typically developing children aged between 8 and 10 were tested at their school on the pre-intervention Movement Assessment Battery for Children (2nd edition; MABC-2) and tapping tasks. Twenty-eight of these children volunteered to be randomly allocated to the intervention or control group. Children in the intervention group had a choice of two online games to play at home over a period of four weeks, while the children in the control group were not given these games to play. The intervention and control groups were then re-tested on the MABC-2 manual dexterity and the tapping task. Children in the intervention group significantly improved their manual dexterity scores in the MABC-2 compared to the control group. On average, all children learnt the tapping sequence, however, there were no group differences and no effect of the intervention on the tapping task. These results have important implications for implementing a freely available, easy to administer, fun and interactive intervention to help children improve their manual dexterity skills.     

Modeling Lag‐2 Revisits to Understand Trade‐Offs in Mixed Control of Fixation Termination During Visual Search

An important question about eye‐movement behavior is when the decision is made to terminate a fixation and program the following saccade. Different approaches have found converging evidence in favor of a mixed‐control account, in which there is some overlap between processing information at fixation and planning the following saccade. We examined one interesting instance of mixed control in visual search: lag‐2 revisits, during which observers fixate a stimulus, move to a different stimulus, and then revisit the first stimulus on the next fixation. Results show that the probability of lag‐2 revisits occurring increased with the number of target‐similar stimuli, and revisits were preceded by a brief fixation on the intervening distractor stimulus. We developed the Efficient Visual Sampling (EVS) computational model to simulate our findings (fixation durations and fixation locations) and to provide insight into mixed control of fixations and the perceptual, cognitive, and motor processes that produce lag‐2 revisits.     

Antecedents of trust in the sharing economy: A systematic review

Users and potential users of the sharing economy need to place a considerable amount of trust in both the person and the platform with which they are dealing. The consequences of transaction partners’ opportunism may be severe, for example damage to goods or endangered personal safety. Trust is, therefore, a key factor in overcoming uncertainty and mitigating risk. However, there is no thorough overview of how trust is developed in this context. To understand how the trust of users in the sharing economy is influenced, we performed a systematic literature review. After screening, 45 articles were included in a qualitative synthesis in which the results were grouped according to a well‐established trust typology. The results show various antecedents of trust in the sharing economy (e.g. reputation, trust in the platform, and interaction experience) related to multiple entities (i.e. seller, buyer, platform, interpersonal, and transaction). Trust in this economy is often reduced to the use of reputation systems alone. However, our study suggests that trust is much more complex than that and extends beyond reputation. Furthermore, our review clearly shows that research on trust in the sharing economy is still scarce and thus more research is needed to understand how trust is established in this context. Our review is the first that brings together antecedents of trust in online peer‐to‐peer transactions and integrates these findings within an existing framework. Additionally, the study suggests directions for future research in order to advance the understanding of trust in the sharing economy.     

脂多糖受体mCD14定量研究的方法探讨

本文通过横断面研究,对100例正常人群(一次性)采集外周全血2ml,选用流式细胞技术测定单核细胞群、mCD14平均荧光强度值,行盲法测定.观察正常人群外周血mCD14的表达水平,探讨正常人群mCD14定量研究的方法.结果显示单核细胞与淋巴细胞的比值比单个读取mCD14的平均荧光强度值更具可重复性,集中趋势较好,有利于临床应用和比较研究.此方法可作为流式细胞仪定量检测数据校正的方法参考.     

情绪干扰听觉反应冲突的ERP研究

采用ERP技术研究13例正常青年人在声音诱发的不同情绪条件下,对反应抑制加工过程的影响,并试图阐明其潜在脑机制。实验中选择正、中、负三种声音各50种,作为诱发情绪的刺激材料。结果发现Go条件下的反应时在负性、中性、正性条件下依次减短;Go与Nogo刺激均诱发出显著的N1成分,中性条件下波幅显著大于正负性情绪条件。此外,三种情绪背景下, Nogo刺激诱发出显著的N2与P3成分。Nogo-N2主要分布在头皮前中部,在Fz点波幅最大。Nogo-P3主要分布在头皮中部,Pz点波幅最大。中性条件下Nogo-N2波幅显著大于负性与正性条件,而正性和负性之间差异不显著。行为结果表明,听觉负性情绪诱发对反应执行有干扰作用;ERP结果表明声音诱发的情绪对早期听觉选择性注意具有调节作用。听觉情绪诱发对反应抑制加工过程有显著影响,且该影响在早期反应冲突监控阶段最为明显。     

治疗糖尿病创新药物研究

本论文从治疗2型糖尿病药物应用现状出发,通过对2型糖尿病病理的认识,新发现的主要受体和相关药靶等方面进行分析。指出随着对糖尿病认识的深入发展,治疗糖尿病创新药物研究的发展趋势也发生了相应的变化,就是从局部治疗到全身综合考虑,从药物外部直接地干预到增强自身调节功能。为治疗2-型糖尿病药物发展指明了方向。     

原发性骨肉瘤中EGFR和C—erbB-2的表达及其意义

检测20例原发性骨肉瘤和10例骨纤维结构不良中EGFR和C-erbB-2的表达;两者在骨肉瘤中表达的阳性率分别为50%和40%（P＜0.05）,而在骨纤维结构不良中分别为10%和0%（P＜0.05）;骨肉瘤中EGFR和C-erbB-2表达均高于骨纤维结构不良,且呈正相关,这为骨肉瘤的诊疗提供了理论依据。     

Plasma BDNF is reduced among middle-aged and elderly women with impaired insulin function: Evidence of a compensatory mechanism

Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) plays a regulatory role in neuronal differentiation and synaptic plasticity and has been linked to glucose regulation and cognition. Associations among plasma BDNF, cognition, and insulin function were explored. Forty-one participants with impaired insulin function (IIF), ranging from insulin resistance to type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), were matched with 41 healthy controls on gender, age, education, and IQ. Participants received complete medical, neurological, psychiatric, and neuropsychological evaluations. IIF individuals had significantly lower plasma BDNF levels than controls, particularly females, and higher BDNF levels were associated with poorer explicit memory in IIF females, suggesting that higher levels within this group may reflect the body’s efforts to respond to damage. After accounting for age, education, and HbA1c, BDNF significantly predicted 13.1–23.5% of the variance in explicit memory in IIF women. These findings suggest that BDNF elevations within diseased groups may not always be a marker of health.