QT & RR variability spots the earliest autonomic deregulation in diabetes

Step 1

Preliminary MANOVA/ANOVA showed significant effects on the ensemble of spectral variables of every single factor (status: normal or patient group; intervention; gender) with no significant factor interactions. Significant effects of intervention or status on main RR spectral variables and on a few QT spectral variables were also documented.

Step 2

Non-parametric tests showed that diabetics had (mildly to moderately) shorter mean RR, while their RR-LF was always singificantly lower than those found in normals—a difference propagated to QT-LF but not to idioventricular QT-LF. In the intra-group there were similar responses to interventions except stress with respect to mean RR. Consistent reduction in RR-LF under moderate or no change in mean RR suggests vagal down-regulation that, judging by idioventricular QT-LF showing, goes perhaps before a similar process with sympathetic control of ventricles. This phase delay may introduce an early arrhythmic risk worth dealing with in secondary prevention.     

Idioventricular low frequency oscillation in QT interval responds univocally to RR confusing kinds of mental stress

Seventeen male subjects, aged nineteen to twenty, went through a protocol including, while supine, relaxation at rest (10 min) and mental stress (MS) by a Kraepelin (arithmetic) test (5 min), as part of a larger study. With a polygraphic analog recording set-up we also collected a 1 ms - digital facsimile of a lead II-like thoracic ECG with maximum T-wave (Codas, Dataq Instr). Twenty-three stress responses were assigned to three classes according to known cardiotacho-, plethysmo-, and pneumo-graphic marks of “concentrated attention mainly,” “emotion,” or still “high emotion.” During each setting the most stationary 3 min RR epoch in cardiotachogram was selected for joint RR & QT beat-by-beat variability study. RR and QT intervals were detected using a published algorithm. Conventional RR and QT Fourier autospectra were computed while using RR^*QT mean square coherence spectrum we detached the RR-independent, idioventricular (IV) fraction of QT low frequency (LF: 0.04–0.15 Hz) power of variability (IV QT-LF). IV QT-LF responded consistently to varieties of mental stress that confuse RR-LF or let QT-LF unchanged, best witnessing the cortically-issued ventricular adrenergic strain. Indeed, while emotion propels the same way all spectral variables above, concentrated attention increased (Wilcoxon) significantly IV QT-LF only (0.54–0.80 ms²) and decreased RR-LF (715–465 ms²). Findings hold promise of a non-invasive, high resolution Holter based monitoring of sympathetic status of myocardium, robust vis-à-vis of confusion caused by the autonomic interplay at sino-atrial node.     

Suppressing my memories by listening to yours: The effect of socially triggered context-based prediction error on memory

Psychonomic Bulletin & Review - The mind is a prediction machine. In most situations, it has expectations as to what might happen. But when predictions are invalidated by experience (i.e.,...     

Predicating from an Early Age: Edusemiotics and the Potential of Children’s Preconceptions

This paper aims to explain how semiotics and constructivism can collaborate in an educational epistemology by developing a joint approach to prescientific conceptions. Empirical data and findings of constructivist research are interpreted in the light of Peirce’s semiotics. Peirce’s semiotics is an anti-psychologistic logic (CP 2.252; CP 4.551; W 8:15; Pietarinen in Signs of logic, Springer, Dordrecht, 2006; Stjernfelt in Diagrammatology. An investigation on the borderlines of phenomenology, ontology and semiotics, Springer, Dordrecht, 2007) and relational logic. Constructivism was traditionally developed within psychology and sociology and, therefore, some incompatibilities can be expected between these two schools. While acknowledging the differences, we explain that constructivism and semiotics share the assumption of realism that knowledge can only be developed upon knowledge and, therefore, an epistemological collaboration is possible. The semiotic analysis performed confirms the constructivist results and provides a further insight into the teacher-student relation. Like the constructivist approach, Peirce’s doctrine of agapism infers that the personal dimension of teaching must not be ignored. Thus, we argue for the importance of genuine sympathy in teaching attitudes. More broadly, the article also contributes to the development of postmodern humanities. At the end of the modern age, the humanities are passing through a critical period of transformation. There is a growing interest in semiotics and semiotic philosophy in many areas of the humanities. Such a case, on which we draw, is the development of a theoretical semiotic approach to education, namely edusemiotics (Stables and Semetsky, Pedagogy and edusemiotics: theoretical challenge/practical opportunities, Sense Publishers, Rotterdam, 2015).     

Within-culture variation in the content of stereotypes: Application and development of the stereotype content model in an Eastern European culture

There is little and unsystematic evidence about whether the content of stereotypes can vary within a culture. Using the Stereotype Content Model (SCM) as a theoretical framework, in two studies we examined the content of stereotypes in an Eastern European culture, namely Romania. Data were collected from four regions prototypical in terms of economic and social development in Romania, and we examined whether the content of stereotypes varies across these regions. As expected, the findings confirm the applicability of the SCM in Romania to reveal culture-specific stereotypes and provide initial support for within-culture variation in the content of stereotypes. We discuss, in particular, possible reasons for two main findings: a strong one-dimensional structure of stereotypes, and regional differences in stereotype content.     

Culture and the distinctiveness motive: constructing identity in individualistic and collectivistic contexts

The motive to attain a distinctive identity is sometimes thought to be stronger in, or even specific to, those socialized into individualistic cultures. Using data from 4,751 participants in 21 cultural groups (18 nations and 3 regions), we tested this prediction against our alternative view that culture would moderate the ways in which people achieve feelings of distinctiveness, rather than influence the strength of their motivation to do so. We measured the distinctiveness motive using an indirect technique to avoid cultural response biases. Analyses showed that the distinctiveness motive was not weaker-and, if anything, was stronger-in more collectivistic nations. However, individualism-collectivism was found to moderate the ways in which feelings of distinctiveness were constructed: Distinctiveness was associated more closely with difference and separateness in more individualistic cultures and was associated more closely with social position in more collectivistic cultures. Multilevel analysis confirmed that it is the prevailing beliefs and values in an individual's context, rather than the individual's own beliefs and values, that account for these differences.