Social distancing and prosocial behaviors: The replenishing effect of intense visual stimulation.

COVID-19 has disrupted lives across the world. This research investigates the psychological and behavioral consequences of social distancing, which is being globally practiced to contain its spread. Using seven experiments, we document the moderating role of high-intensity visual stimulation on social distancing's effect on psychologically distressed individuals' prosocial intentions and behaviors. The results reveal that social distancing resulted in ego depletion; however, exposure to high-intensity visual stimuli replenished cognitive resources and increased prosocial intentions and behaviors among those experiencing psychological distress due to social distancing.

Assessment of early discomfort and wound healing outcomes after periodontal surgery with and without enamel matrix derivative: an observational retrospective case-control study.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to evaluate and compare early postoperative discomfort and wound healing outcomes between patients who underwent periodontal surgery with and without enamel matrix derivative (EMD), using retrospective questionnaires and postoperative clinical examinations. MATERIALS AND METHODS: All enrolled patients filled out the self-report questionnaire after suture removal. The severity and duration of subjective pain and swelling were evaluated using visual analog scale (VAS) scores and wound healing parameters (dehiscence/fenestration, spontaneous bleeding, persistent swelling, and ulceration). Chi-squared tests, two-tailed independent t tests, analysis of variance, and multiple logistic regression analysis were performed to identify significant differences between the two groups (surgery with EMD and surgery without EMD). RESULTS: The severity of pain and swelling did not differ between patients who underwent surgery with and without EMD, but the durations of pain (P < 0.001) and swelling (P = 0.019) were significantly lower in patients who underwent surgery with EMD. Multivariate analysis with adjustment for confounding variables showed that wound healing outcomes including dehiscence/fenestration, spontaneous bleeding, and ulceration did not differ significantly between the two groups, and only persistent swelling showed significant differences (odds ratio 4.03, 95% CI 1.17-13.78; P = 0.026). CONCLUSIONS: No difference was observed in the severity of early postoperative discomfort and wound healing outcomes between patients who underwent surgery with and without EMD, but shorter durations of postoperative pain and swelling were evident in patients who underwent surgery with EMD. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Adjunctive EMD used in periodontal surgery has clinical advantages for reducing the durations of postoperative pain and swelling.

Spatial communication systems across languages reflect universal action constraints.

The extent to which languages share properties reflecting the non-linguistic constraints of the speakers who speak them is key to the debate regarding the relationship between language and cognition. A critical case is spatial communication, where it has been argued that semantic universals should exist, if anywhere. Here, using an experimental paradigm able to separate variation within a language from variation between languages, we tested the use of spatial demonstratives-the most fundamental and frequent spatial terms across languages. In n = 874 speakers across 29 languages, we show that speakers of all tested languages use spatial demonstratives as a function of being able to reach or act on an object being referred to. In some languages, the position of the addressee is also relevant in selecting between demonstrative forms. Commonalities and differences across languages in spatial communication can be understood in terms of universal constraints on action shaping spatial language and cognition.

Discovering microbe-disease associations from the literature using a hierarchical long short-term memory network and an ensemble parser model.

With recent advances in biotechnology and sequencing technology, the microbial community has been intensively studied and discovered to be associated with many chronic as well as acute diseases. Even though a tremendous number of studies describing the association between microbes and diseases have been published, text mining methods that focus on such associations have been rarely studied. We propose a framework that combines machine learning and natural language processing methods to analyze the association between microbes and diseases. A hierarchical long short-term memory network was used to detect sentences that describe the association. For the sentences determined, two different parse tree-based search methods were combined to find the relation-describing word. The ensemble model of constituency parsing for structural pattern matching and dependency-based relation extraction improved the prediction accuracy. By combining deep learning and parse tree-based extractions, our proposed framework could extract the microbe-disease association with higher accuracy. The evaluation results showed that our system achieved an F-score of 0.8764 and 0.8524 in binary decisions and extracting relation words, respectively. As a case study, we performed a large-scale analysis of the association between microbes and diseases. Additionally, a set of common microbes shared by multiple diseases were also identified in this study. This study could provide valuable information for the major microbes that were studied for a specific disease. The code and data are available at https://github.com/DMnBI/mdi_predictor .

Effect of the tight fitting net on fit performance in single-use filtering facepieces for Koreans.

To get a better fit performance of filtering facepieces, a tight fitting net (TFN) was invented. This study was carried out to evaluate whether the TFN improves fit performance using a quantitative fit test (QNFT). The existing mask was of cup type with an aluminum clip on the nose bridge. The TFN mask was the same as the existing mask, but attached a TFN instead of aluminum clip. One hundred subjects (male 52, female 48) were selected to match fourfold in Korean 25-member facial size category for half-mask (KFCH). Fit factors (FFs) were measured using a QNFT by a Portacount®Pro+8038. Three QNFTs for each mask on the same subject was conducted and geometric mean FF (GMFF) was determined. The mean and median GMFFs of the TFN masks had higher than those of the existing mask (p=<0.001). The existing masks had tendency to have higher GMFFs with common facial size categories, while the TFN masks were regardless of facial size. The result indicates that putting even pressure on the entire parts of filter media would improve fit performance. In conclusion, to get a good fit when wearing filtering facepieces, a TFN would be an alternative to mask designing.

Trends in the incidence of tooth extraction due to periodontal disease: results of a 12-year longitudinal cohort study in South Korea.

PURPOSE: This study evaluated trends in tooth extraction due to acute and chronic periodontal disease (PD) using data from the National Health Insurance Service-National Sample Cohort for 2002-2013. METHODS: A random sample of 1,025,340 individuals was selected as a representative sample of the population, and a database (DB) of diagnostic and prescription codes was followed up for 12 years. We used multivariate logistic regression analysis to assess the incidence of total extraction (TE), extraction due to periodontal disease (EPD), and immediate extraction due to periodontal disease (IEPD) according to sociodemographic factors (sex, age, household income, health status, and area of residence). RESULTS: The incidence of tooth extraction was found to be increasing, and at a higher rate for TE in PD patients. In 2002, 50.6% of cases of TE were caused by PD, and this increased to 70.8% in 2013, while the number of cases of IEPD increased from 42.8% to 54.9% over the same period. The incidence rates of extraction due to acute and chronic PD increased monotonically. We found that the incidence rates of TE, EPD, and IEPD were all 2-fold higher among patients with high income levels and those who were not beneficiaries of health insurance. CONCLUSIONS: The rates of TE, EPD, and IEPD have been steadily increasing despite dental healthcare policies to expand public health insurance coverage, increasing the accessibility of dental clinics. Moreover, the effects of these policies were found to vary with both income and education levels. Consistent patient follow-up is required to observe changes in trends regarding tooth extraction according to changes in dental healthcare policies, and meticulous studies of such changes will ensure optimal policy reviews and revisions.