Elsevier

Few studies have estimated screen time among Arab adolescents, and no studies, to date, have published data on addiction to video games or Internet games among Arab adolescents. This study aimed to assess the prevalence of addiction to video games and its correlation with mental health in a sample of expatriate high school students from the Al-Qassim region of Saudi Arabia. The survey was conducted in 2016 among 276 students enrolled in ninth through twelfth grades in the International Schools in Buraidah, Al-Qassim. Students who returned signed consent forms from their parents filled out a self-administered questionnaire that included validated scales on addiction to video games, general health, and lifestyle. The proportion between the sexes and the schools were roughly equal. Around 32% were overweight or obese, 75% had screen time ≥ 2 h/day, and 20% slept < 5 h/night. Sixteen per cent (16%) were addicted to video games and 54% had psychological distress. Addiction to video ga...

INTRODUCTION Despite the serious behavioral consequences faced by individuals with sexual compulsivity, related neuropsychological studies are sparse. AIM To compare decision making and cognitive flexibility at baseline and after exposure to an erotic video in sexually compulsive participants and non-sexually compulsive controls. METHODS The sample consisted of 30 sexually compulsive men and 30 controls. Cognitive flexibility was investigated through the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test and decision making was examined through the Iowa Gambling Task. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Wisconsin Card Sorting Test categories, correct responses, and perseverative errors and Iowa Gambling Task general trends and blocks. RESULTS Sexually compulsive subjects and controls performed similarly at baseline. After watching an erotic video, controls performed better in block 1 of the Iowa Gambling Task (P = .01) and had more correct responses on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (P = .01). CONCLUSIONS The controls...

The hammock positioning within the incubators simulates the intrauterine environment, however, there is little evidence of its benefits and possible risks. The aim of this study was to assess the effects of hammock positioning on behavioral status, vital signs, and pain in very low birth weight preterm newborns. This is a quasi-experimental/case series study in which premature infants (<1500g) were positioned in supine for one hour in a hammock. The preterm newborns were assessed 10min before, during (2, 20, 40, and 60min), and 10min after hammock positioning with the Brazelton Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale, vital signs and pain by the Neonatal Facial Coding System. 28 preterm infants between 28 and 36 weeks of gestational age were evaluated. Regarding the behavioral state, the preterm newborns progressively evolved to light or deep sleep during hammock positioning. There was a statistically significant reduction of the heart and respiratory rate from 2 to 60th minute in a...

Whole body vibration (WBV) is a promising tool for counteracting bone loss. Most WBV studies on animals have been performed at acceleration <1g and frequency between 30 and 90Hz. Such WBV conditions trigger bone growth in osteopenia models, but not in healthy animals. In order to test the ability of WBV to promote osteogenesis in young animals, we exposed seven-week-old male mice to vibration at 90Hz and 2g peak acceleration for 15min/day, 5 days/week. We examined the effects on skeletal tissues with micro-computed tomography and histology. We also quantified bone vascularization and mechanosensitive osteocyte proteins, sclerostin and DMP1. Three weeks of WBV resulted in an increase of femur cortical thickness (+5%) and area (+6%), associated with a 25% decrease of sclerostin expression, and 35% increase of DMP1 expression in cortical osteocytes. Mass-structural parameters of trabecular bone were unaltered in femur or vertebra, while osteoclastic parameters and bone formation rat...

Spiritual, existential, and psychological issues represent central components of quality of life (QOL) in palliative care. A better understanding of the dynamic underlying these components is essential for the development of interventions tailored to the palliative context. The aims were to explore (i) the relationship between spirituality, meaning in life, wishes for hastened death and psychological distress in palliative patients, and (ii) the extent to which these non-physical determinants influence QOL. A cross-sectional study involving face-to-face interviews with Swiss palliative patients was performed, including the Schedule for Meaning in Life Evaluation (SMILE), the Spiritual Subscale of the Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy (FACIT-Sp), the Idler Index of Religiosity (IIR), the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and the Schedule of Attitudes toward Hastened Death (SAHD). QOL was measured with a single item visual analogue scale (0-10). 206 patients ...

Misunderstood ironic intents may injure the conversation and impede connecting with others. Prior research suggests that ironic compliments, a rarer type of irony, are considered less ironic when spoken with a foreign accent. Using more ecologically-valid stimuli with natural prosodic cues, we found that this effect also applied to ironic criticisms, not just to ironic compliments. English native speakers (N = 96) listened to dialogs between Canadian English speakers and their foreign-accented peers, rating targets on multiple scales (irony, certainty in the speaker's intent, appropriateness, and offensiveness). Generalized additive mixed modelling showed that 1) ironic comments were rated lower for irony when foreign-accented, whereas literal comments were unaffected by accent; 2) the listener's political orientation, but not empathy or need for cognitive closure, modulated irony detection accuracy. The results are discussed in terms of linguistic expectations, social distance, cultural stereotypes, and personality differences.

Surgical site infection (SSI) is one of the most common infections associated with health care, but its importance as a global health priority is not fully understood. We quantified the burden of SSI after gastrointestinal surgery in countries in all parts of the world. This international, prospective, multicentre cohort study included consecutive patients undergoing elective or emergency gastrointestinal resection within 2-week time periods at any health-care facility in any country. Countries with participating centres were stratified into high-income, middle-income, and low-income groups according to the UN's Human Development Index (HDI). Data variables from the GlobalSurg 1 study and other studies that have been found to affect the likelihood of SSI were entered into risk adjustment models. The primary outcome measure was the 30-day SSI incidence (defined by US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention criteria for superficial and deep incisional SSI). Relationships with e...

The European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) provides an ideal framework to establish multi-disciplinary research networks. COST Action BM1203 (EU-ROS) represents a consortium of researchers from different disciplines who are dedicated to providing new insights and tools for better understanding redox biology and medicine and, in the long run, to finding new therapeutic strategies to target dysregulated redox processes in various diseases. This report highlights the major achievements of EU-ROS as well as research updates and new perspectives arising from its members. The EU-ROS consortium comprised more than 140 active members who worked together for four years on the topics briefly described below. The formation of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (RONS) is an established hallmark of our aerobic environment and metabolism but RONS also act as messengers via redox regulation of essential cellular processes. The fact that many diseases have been found to be associat...