Age of acquisition effects in recognition without identification tasks.

The Age of Acquisition (AoA) effect results in early-acquired words being processed more quickly and accurately than later-acquired words. This effect is argued to result from a gradual development of semantic representations and a changing neural network throughout development (Chang, Y.-N., Monaghan, P., & Welbourne, S., 2019). Some forms of the Recognition Without Identification (RWI) effects have been observed at a perceptual level. The present study used the RWI paradigm to examine whether the AoA effect is located at the perceptual loci. A total of 174 participants were presented a list of pictures (Experiment 1) or words (Experiment 2) followed by a list of mixed early- and late-acquired picture or word fragments that participants had to identify; half of which corresponded to studied words and half of which to unstudied words. Irrespective of whether the item was identified, participants then rated the likelihood that the item appeared in the study phase. In both experiments, results showed that studied items were recognised more accurately than unstudied items, even when they could not be identified and late-acquired items were recognised more than early-acquired items, even when they were not identified. Finally, RWI interacted with the AoA effect only in pictorial stimuli, suggesting that the RWI and AoA effects are located at the perceptual level.

The Impact of Prior Season Vaccination on Subsequent Influenza Vaccine Effectiveness to Prevent Influenza-related Hospitalizations Over 4 Influenza Seasons in Canada.

BACKGROUND: Recent studies have demonstrated the possibility of negative associations between prior influenza vaccines and subsequent influenza vaccine effectiveness (VE), depending on season and strain. We investigated this association over 4 consecutive influenza seasons (2011-2012 through 2014-2015) in Canada. METHODS: Using a matched test-negative design, laboratory-confirmed influenza cases and matched test-negative controls admitted to hospitals were enrolled. Patients were stratified into 4 groups according to influenza vaccine history (not vaccinated current and prior season [referent], vaccinated prior season only, vaccinated current season only, and vaccinated both current and prior season). Conditional logistic regression was used to estimate VE; prior vaccine impact was assessed each season for overall effect and effect stratified by age (<65 years, ≥65 years) and type/subtype (A/H1N1, A/H3N2, influenza B). RESULTS: Overall, mainly nonsignificant associations were observed. Trends of nonsignificant decreased VE among patients repeatedly vaccinated in both prior and current season relative to the current season only were observed in the A/H3N2-dominant seasons of 2012-2013 and 2014-2015. Conversely, in 2011-2012, during which B viruses circulated, and in 2013-2014, when A/H1N1 circulated, being vaccinated in both seasons tended to result in a high VE in the current season against the dominant circulating subtype. CONCLUSIONS: Prior vaccine impact on subsequent VE among Canadian inpatients was mainly nonsignificant. Even in circumstances where we observed a trend of negative impact, being repeatedly vaccinated was still more effective than not receiving the current season's vaccine. These findings favor continuation of annual influenza vaccination recommendations, particularly in older adults. CLINICAL TRIALS REGISTRATION: NCT01517191.

A Case of Paget-Schroetter Syndrome in a Young Male After Lifting Weights

Paget-Schroetter Syndrome (PSS) or effort thrombosis of the axillary-subclavian venous axis is a rare disease affecting healthy young adults which requires a high index of suspicion to diagnose. Management often requires not only anticoagulation but also thrombolysis with first rib resection to prevent recurrence and complications. We present a case of a 31-year-old male who presented to our emergency department with pain and swelling of his left upper limb. He was diagnosed with PSS and underwent; anticoagulation, catheter directed thrombolysis and planned for first rib resection.

The Role of Sequential Pneumatic Compression in Limb Salvage in Non-reconstructable Critical Limb Ischemia.

OBJECTIVE: Critical limb ischemia (CLI) is an increasingly alarming presentation of advanced generalized circulatory failure. Most patients presenting with CLI have profound cardiovascular comorbidities that hinder surgical intervention. Moreover, some patients present with non-reconstructable arterial anatomy. For this vulnerable cohort, primary amputation is often the only available option. This study aims at answering the question: Can sequential pneumatic compression (SPC) preclude amputation? METHODS: A retrospective analysis of 187 patients (262 limbs) prescribed the Artassist SPC compared outcomes between the group of patients who acquired the device and those who did not. The primary end point was limb salvage; secondary end points were amputation-free survival and improvement in toe pressures. RESULTS: The mean age was 74.78 years, the median follow-up was 16 months, and the median duration of usage was 4 months. 81.72% of the patient acquired the device and 18.28% did not. The mean toe pressure was 61.4 mmHg pre-application, and 65 mmHg after application (p = .071). Amputation-free survival was 98% and 96% for those who acquired the device and 90% and 84% for those who did not at 6 and 12 months, respectively. There was a non-significant association between limb salvage and device acquisition (p = .714); however, there was a significant improvement in rest pain (p < .0001), reduction in minor amputation (p = .023), and amputation-free survival associated with using the device (p = .01). CONCLUSIONS: Although limb salvage is the paramount ambition for patients referred to vascular services, some patients with CLI are better served with primary amputation. Although the mechanism of SPC action is still ambiguous, there is strong evidence to support its role in preventing minor amputation, prolonging amputation-free survival, and improving rest pain in patients with non-reconstructable CLI; nevertheless, its role in prevention of major amputation lacks statistical significance.

Interim estimates of 2013/14 influenza clinical severity and vaccine effectiveness in the prevention of laboratory-confirmed influenza-related hospitalisation, Canada, February 2014.

During the 2013/14 influenza season in Canada, 631 of 654 hospitalisations for laboratory-confirmed influenza enrolled in sentinel hospitals were due to Influenza A. Of the 375 with known subtype, influenza A(H1N1) accounted for 357. Interim unmatched vaccine effectiveness adjusted for age and presence of one or more medical comorbidities was determined by test-negative case-control design to be 58.5% (90% confidence interval (CI): 43.9-69.3%) overall and 57.9% (90% CI: 37.7-71.5) for confirmed influenza A(H1N1).

Age-of-acquisition effects: A literature review.

Age of acquisition (AoA) refers to the age at which people learn a particular item and the AoA effect refers to the phenomenon that early-acquired items are processed more quickly and accurately than those acquired later. Over several decades, the AoA effect has been investigated using neuroscientific, behavioral, corpus and computational techniques. We review the current evidence for the AoA effect stemming from a range of methodologies and paradigms and apply these findings to current explanations of how and where the AoA effect occurs. We conclude that the AoA effect can be found both in the connections between levels of representations and within these representations themselves, and that the effect itself occurs through the process of the distinct coding of early and late items, together with the nature of the connections between levels of representation. This approach strongly suggests that the AoA effect results from the construction of perceptual-semantic representations and the mappings between representations. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Outcome of transungual surgical approach with synthetic nail shield in the treatment of digital glomus tumors: A retrospective study.

Glomus tumor is a benign neuromyoarterial tumor commonly found in the hand, particularly in the subungual region, that is removed only by surgery. Surgical excision leaves postoperative nail deformity and may cause a recurrence of subungual glomus tumors. A retrospective chart review was performed to assess the role of a synthetic nail shield in the prevention of postoperative nail deformity after transungual glomus tumor excision; the review was performed at a minimum of one year of follow-up of proven diagnosed 19 patients with digital glomus tumor between May 2011 and April 2016 in the orthopedic department in the university hospitals. All patients underwent surgical excision using transungual approach with a synthetic nail shield under digital nerve block anesthesia. Pain, cold intolerance, and complications were examined before and after surgery, and data were recorded. All patients had pain, tenderness, and cold intolerance, 12 patients (63.2%) had nail discoloration, and 3 patients (15.8%) had dystrophic changes. The tumors detached from surrounding tissues had an ovoid or round shape of 2-10 mm in size. Diagnosis was confirmed after pathological examination. In all patients, pain and cold sensitivity diminished. The mean follow-up period was 20.6 months, with no recurrences detected and improved nail appearance. No patient had postoperative nail deformity. Transungual approach followed by artificial coverage was an effective method for the treatment of glomus tumors without complications to the nail bed.

The hunt for the age of acquisition effect: It's in the links!

The Age of Acquisition (AoA) effect is such that words acquired early in life are processed more quickly than later-acquired words. One explanation for the AoA effects is the arbitrary mapping hypothesis (Ellis & Lambon-Ralph, 2000), stating that the AoA effects are more likely to occur in items that have an arbitrary, rather than a systematic, nature between input and output. Previous behavioural findings have shown that the AoA effects are larger in pictorial than word items. However, no behavioural studies have attempted to directly assess the AoA effects in relation to the connections between representations. In the first two experiments, 48 participants completed a word-picture verification task (Experiments 1A and 2A), together with a spoken (Experiment 1B) or written (Experiment 2B) picture naming task. In the third and fourth experiments, 48 participants complete a picture-word verification task (Experiments 3A and 4A), together with a spoken (Experiment 3B) or written (Experiment 4B) word naming task. For each pair of experiments the subtraction of the naming latencies from the verification tasks for each item per participant was calculated (Experiments 1-4C; e.g. Santiago, Mackay, Palma & Rho, 2000). Results showed that early-acquired items were responded to more quickly than late-acquired ones for all experiments, except for Experiment 3B (spoken word naming) where the AoA effect was shown for only low-frequency words. In addition, the subtraction results for pictorial stimuli demonstrated strong AoA effects. This strengthens the case for the AM hypothesis, also suggesting the AoA effect resides in the connections between representations.

Validation of the Seegene RV15 multiplex PCR for the detection of influenza A subtypes and influenza B lineages during national influenza surveillance in hospitalized adults.

Background. The Serious Outcomes Surveillance Network of the Canadian Immunization Research Network (CIRN SOS) has been performing active influenza surveillance since 2009 (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT01517191). Influenza A and B viruses are identified and characterized using real-time reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), and multiplex testing has been performed on a subset of patients to identify other respiratory virus aetiologies. Since both methods can identify influenza A and B, a direct comparison was performed.Methods. Validated real-time RT-PCRs from the World Health Organization (WHO) to identify influenza A and B viruses, characterize influenza A viruses into the H1N1 or H3N2 subtypes and describe influenza B viruses belonging to the Yamagata or Victoria lineages. In a subset of patients, the Seeplex RV15 One-Step ACE Detection assay (RV15) kit was also used for the detection of other respiratory viruses.Results. In total, 1111 nasopharyngeal swabs were tested by RV15 and real-time RT-PCRs for influenza A and B identification and characterization. For influenza A, RV15 showed 98.0 % sensitivity, 100 % specificity and 99.7 % accuracy. The performance characteristics of RV15 were similar for influenza A subtypes H1N1 and H3N2. For influenza B, RV15 had 99.2 % sensitivity, 100 % specificity and 99.8 % accuracy, with similar assay performance being shown for both the Yamagata and Victoria lineages.Conclusions. Overall, the detection of circulating subtypes of influenza A and lineages of influenza B by RV15 was similar to detection by real-time RT-PCR. Multiplex testing with RV15 allows for a more comprehensive respiratory virus surveillance in hospitalized adults, without significantly compromising the reliability of influenza A or B virus detection.