Virtually simulated interpersonal touch negatively affects perceived closeness and social affiliation to an avatar partner.

Interpersonal touch is an essential component of human non-verbal communication, facilitating social affiliation and bonding. With the widespread use of digital interfaces and online platforms in all realms of human interactions, there are fewer opportunities for communicating through touch. Popular online platforms that virtually simulate human interactions rely primarily on visual and auditory modalities, providing limited or no capacity for the exchange of tactile cues. Previous studies of virtual interactions have explored the simulation of social touch using haptic devices, but little is known about how the visual representation of interpersonal touch is perceived and integrated into a virtual social experience. In two studies we examined how the exchange of virtual touch mediated by simulated 3-dimensional human characters, or avatars, within an online virtual environment influenced affiliation towards an unfamiliar interaction partner. Surprisingly, the exchange of virtual touch negatively affected the perceived closeness and affiliation to the partner and the social evaluation of the interaction but did not affect the level of physiological arousal during the interaction. These results indicate that the visual representation of social touch is sufficient to virtually communicate touch-related cues that impact social affiliation, but the influence of touch may be dependent on the interaction context.

Video Teleconference Administration of the Addenbrooke's Cognitive Examination-III for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status: An Experience in Indian Subjects with Cognitive Dysfunction.

Objective: To determine the feasibility, reliability, and acceptability of video teleconference (VTC)-based neuropsychological assessment using Addenbrooke's cognitive examination-III (ACE-III). Methods: This study was performed from January 2022 to April 2022, during the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in India. We administered ACE-III using video-teleconferencing and compared the scores to face-to-face (FTF) testing for the eligible participants. We also conducted a participant's satisfaction survey of VTC-administered ACE-III compared to FTF-administered ACE-III, using a 7-point Likert scale. Results: We screened 37 participants and 24 (64.9%) successfully underwent ACE-III testing through VTC. We included 20 patients (mean age: 62.7 ± 10 years, mean education: 12.0 ± 4.6 years, 85% men) for final analysis, (who completed both VTC and FTF-administered ACE-III). Nine patients had major neurocognitive disorder (dementia), eight had mild neurocognitive disorder (MCI), and three had subjective cognitive decline (SCD). The two tests were administered at a median gap of 36 (18,74.5) days. The Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) of ACE-3 total scores (0.97) and the subdomain scores was high (>0.8). There was "very low" to "no" bias on the Bland-Altman plots, across all domains. The mean overall satisfaction score was 4.1, indicating that VTC is "as good as" FTF. Conclusions: Results support the feasibility and acceptability of remote administration of ACE-III via VTC. There is a good agreement between the ACE-III scores across VTC and in-person conditions.

Review on people's trust on home use medical devices during Covid-19 pandemic in India.

With the rapid development of the medical device against COVID-19 is an excellent achievement. There are numerous obstacles effectively facing the worldwide population, from manufacture to distribution, deployment and, acceptance. Many manufacturers have entered the market rivalry as people's knowledge and demand for home-use medical equipment has increased. India represents a compelling market opportunity for global medical device manufacturers. Substantial growth for the Indian medical device industry is expected to be driven by the current low per-person spending rate for medical devices. The growth of the medical devices industry in India raises competition law issues (anti-trust) and therefore maintaining public trust in home-use medical devices during COVID-19 will be as essential. The review article aims to create awareness among people about commonly used medical devices during the COVID-19 pandemic and to survey people's trust in home usable medical devices in India. In a worldwide pandemic, manufacturers of medical devices face insufficient storage and the impossibility of meeting the requirements of the health centre. The sale of some of the most significant medical devices has increased, making it more difficult for the medical device industry to satisfy demand with high-quality goods since the quality of COVID-19 items plays a vital part in the present scenario. Despite the difficulty in providing enough medical equipment during a pandemic, they are striving to adapt to the circumstance. After recognizing the need to promote awareness and grasp the selling, and production, handling of medical instruments during COVID-19 at home was conducted. In addition, medical equipment manufacturers and distributors look at this scenario as an opportunity to profit more. This review article would enable researchers during COVID-19 to build more knowledge and widespread trust in medical technologies respectively.

Direct label free ultrasensitive impedimetric DNA biosensor using dendrimer functionalized GaN nanowires.

We demonstrate a very simple and generic protocol for ultrasensitive in-situ label-free detection of DNA hybridization using third generation poly(amidoamine)dendrimer (G3-PAMAM) functionalized GaN nanowires (NWs). PAMAM modified GaN NWs provides large density of docking site to immobilize significant number of probe (p-) DNA covalently. These p-DNA/PAMAM/GaN NWs sensor probes are employed to achieve an ultra-high detection limit down to attomolar level concentration of complementary target (t-) DNA. Comparative in-situ studies on single/triple base-pair mismatched, γ-irradiated and complementary t-DNA in the hybridization process reveal selectivity and specificity of the p-DNA/PAMAM/GAN NWs sensor probe over a wide range, 10(-8) to 10(-19)M, of analyte concentration. During the hybridization process, there is a substantial change in t-DNA concentration dependent interfacial polarization resistance during electrochemical impedance measurement, which forms the basis of the present DNA biosensor. This novel methodology for specific DNA sequence detection, as compared with the existing methods, is found to be very robust, highly sensitive, and reproducible.