Functionality and loneliness in older people: Model of mediation by positive affect / Funcionalidad y soledad en personas mayores: Modelo de mediación por el afecto positivo

Objetivo: La soledad se asocia a la discapacidad funcional en la población mayor, aunque se sabe poco sobre el papel de la afectividad en esta relación. Nos proponemos explorar el efecto mediador de la afectividad en la relación entre funcionalidad y soledad, controlando el efecto de las variables relevantes. Métodos: Se administró la Escala de Soledad de la Universidad de California-16, la Escala de Funcionalidad Geriátrica, las Escalas de Afecto Positivo y Negativo-14 y la Escala de Depresión Geriátrica-8 a 489 adultos mayores (65–100 años), 428 de residencias geriátricas y 61 de la comunidad. Resultados: Los residentes en una institución, mujeres, viudos, con baja educación, más discapacidad funcional, más afecto negativo, menos afecto positivo y más síntomas depresivos reportaron más soledad. Controlando el efecto de los síntomas depresivos, género, situación residencial, estado civil y educación, solo el afecto positivo medió, parcialmente, la relación entre funcionalidad y soledad. Conclusión: Se sugieren intervenciones para aumentar la concienciación por parte de los adultos mayores en los perfiles personalizados de afecto positivo, aliviando así los sentimientos de soledad en los que sufren limitaciones funcionales (especialmente mujeres, con síntomas depresivos, viudos, residiendo en una institución y con bajo nivel educativo).(AU)

Objective: Research has shown that loneliness is associated with functional disability in the older population. However, little is known about the role of affectivity in this relationship. The present study explored a mediation model in which affectivity was hypothesized to mediate the re-lationship between functionality and loneliness, controlling for the effect of relevant variables.Methods:The University of California Loneliness Scale-16 items, Geriatric Functionality Scale, Positive and Negative AffectSchedule-14, and Geriatric Depression Scale-8 were administered to 489 old adults (65–100 years old), 428 from social care homes (SCH), and 61 from the community.Results:Those from SCH, women, widowed, withlow education, more functional disability, more negative affect, less posi-tive affect, and more depressive symptoms reported more loneliness. Con-trolling for the effect of depressive symptoms, gender, residential status, marital status, and education, only positive affect mediated, partially, the relationship between functionality and loneliness.Conclusion:We suggest implementing interventions that increase older adults' insights in personal-ized patterns of positive affect and, consequently, ease feelings of loneli-ness in older people suffering from functional limitations (especially wom-en, with depressive symptoms, widowed, residing in an institution, and with low educational level).(AU)

Emotion dysregulation in older people: validity and reliability of an 8-item version of the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale.

OBJECTIVES: The abbreviated 16-item version of the Difficulties with Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS-16) is widely used to assess individuals' perceived challenges in regulating their emotions, a central aspect of psychological symptoms commonly experienced in old age. However, its psychometric properties have yet to be tested in this population. Furthermore, a shorter version of the DERS-16 could further minimize the assessment burden on older individuals. Thus, we aimed to test the DERS-16's psychometric performance and determine if any items were redundant to develop a psychometrically sound shorter version. METHODS: We enrolled 302 Portuguese older adults (Mage = 75.22; SD = 8.99 years) in a cross-sectional study. RESULTS: Exploratory factor analyses indicated a one-factor structure and a four-factor solution with eight items (69.3%-81.9% of the variance observed). The four-factor-8-item solution presented an interpretable structure and demonstrated good reliability values (> 0.70) and construct validity with the Twenty-Item Toronto Alexithymia Scale, Eight-Item Geriatric Depression Scale, and Geriatric Anxiety Inventory (r = 0.66, 0.40, 0.52; p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: The robust psychometric properties of DERS-8 make it a valuable tool for clinical and longitudinal studies, facilitating targeted interventions in older adults and allowing for precise emotion dysregulation screening.

Validation of the geriatric sleep questionnaire.

OBJECTIVE: Assessing sleep in later life is essential for diagnosing and treating sleep problems and their consequences. We aimed to test a short questionnaire specifically designed to assess the subjective sleep quality in older people, the Geriatric Sleep Questionnaire (GSQ). METHOD: The GSQ was validated in a Portuguese sample of older people (N = 443; 65-100 years; M = 80.02; SD = 6.95). We analyzed reliability, factor validity, convergent validity with other theoretical similar constructs, discriminant validity with a theoretically divergent measure, and predictive power to detect sleep problems (ROC analysis). RESULTS: A six-item version was obtained with good reliability (Cronbach's α = 0.79), and adequate convergent and divergent validity (p < 0.01). ROC analysis revealed a sensitivity of 80.0% and a specificity of 66.7% in detecting sleep problems with a cutoff point of 16 (AUC = 0.72). Older people in social care, low education, and living in rural areas reported worse sleep quality. CONCLUSION: The GSQ-6 is a brief instrument with good psychometric characteristics to assess the subjective sleep quality in older people. The GSQ-6 seems to be a valuable tool for future investigations on the relationship of sleep quality with mental health and well-being in older people.

Generative Art with Swarm Landscapes.

We present a generative swarm art project that creates 3D animations by running a Particle Swarm Optimization algorithm over synthetic landscapes produced by an objective function. Different kinds of functions are explored, including mathematical expressions, Perlin noise-based terrain, and several image-based procedures. A method for displaying the particle swarm exploring the search space in aesthetically pleasing ways is described. Several experiments are detailed and analyzed and a number of interesting visual artifacts are highlighted.

Brittle solid collapse to simple liquid for a waxy suspension.

We show that thanks to the existence of a continuous (percolating) network of weak interparticle bonds in a liquid, wax suspensions behave as "soft breakable (brittle) solids". It appears that, under the action of either a large stress over a short time or oscillating low stress (fatigue test), the initially solid network of these materials is broken and dispersed in the liquid, which makes them turn abruptly ("collapse") and irreversibly into a low viscous fluid. This collapse is more dramatic as the concentration increases. These phenomena are related to the evolution of the microstructure directly observed after different flow histories. The interpretation of these results provides new perspectives for understanding the physical origin of the brittleness or plasticity of solid or pasty materials, and suggests such materials might be used as model systems to simulate and explain natural catastrophic events such as landslides and avalanches.

Assessing positive emotional memories with peers: The Early Memories of Warmth and Safeness with Peers Scale for adolescents.

Research on the association between early positive relational experiences and later psychosocial adjustment is growing. The quality of peer relationships may have a particularly important effect on adolescents' wellbeing and mental health. The current study aimed at examining a measure of personal emotional memories of peer relationships characterized by warmth, safeness and affection, which occurred in childhood and adolescence (EMWSSPeers-A). Distinct samples (N = 584) of adolescents aged between 12 and 18 were used to assess the EMWSSPeers-A' factorial structure through a Principal Component Analysis and a Confirmatory Factor Analysis, and to analyse the scale's psychometric properties. Results indicated a one-dimensional structure with 12 items with very good internal consistency, and construct, convergent, divergent and incremental validities. By allowing the examination of the role played by memories of positive peer relationships on adolescents' psychological adjustment, the EMWSSPeers-A may be potentially useful for future model testing and for the assessment of interventions.

Achados audiológicos e linguagem em gêmeas regurgitadoras / Audiology and language findings in twins with gastroesophageal reflux

TEMA: achados audiológicos e linguagem em gêmeas regurgitadoras. PROCEDIMENTOS: o estudo consiste no relato dos achados audiológicos e do desenvolvimento da linguagem de duas crianças, irmãs gêmeas regurgitadoras. Para isso, foram realizadas as seguintes etapas: coleta dos dados nos prontuários, relatórios das pacientes e coleta de informações com os familiares. Nos prontuários, além dos achados audiológicos e de linguagem, foi relatado também o tipo de abordagem terapêutica utilizada e os objetivos dos planejamentos diários que nortearam as sessões. RESULTADOS: as crianças apresentaram ausência das emissões otoacústicas evocadas por estímulo transiente e produto de distorção, e potencial evocado auditivo de tronco encefálico via aérea e via óssea com limiar eletrofisiológico em 30 e 35dBNA bilateralmente, tendo sido sugerido no laudo perda auditiva de grau leve. No acompanhamento apresentaram episódios de otite média secretora, confirmada pela avaliação otorrinolaringológica, e curvas timpanométricas do tipo B e C. As crianças iniciaram a terapia fonoaudiológica aos 10 meses de idade. Foram realizadas 32 sessões terapêuticas para o sujeito A.B. e 28 para o sujeito A.E., no período de 11 meses, nas quais as crianças demonstraram evolução, apresentando produções esperadas para a fase linguística do desenvolvimento da linguagem, porém não eram compatíveis com a idade observada na literatura estudada. CONCLUSÃO: as duas crianças com refluxo gastroesofágico apresentaram perda condutiva, audição flutuante nos primeiros dois anos de vida e atraso no desenvolvimento da linguagem. Apesar de suas produções apresentarem atraso, foi possível observar significativa evolução das crianças em relação à aquisição de linguagem dentro do processo terapêutico.

BACKGROUND: audiological findings and language in regurgitating twin. PROCEDURES: the study consists of the report concerning the Audiology findings and the speech development in regurgitating twin sisters. The following steps were accomplished for this study: gathering data in medical registers, patient medical reports and gathering family history. In the data medical registers, beyond the Audiology speech findings, we also found a boarding type of used therapeutic approach and the daily objective planning that guided the sessions. RESULTS: children showed absence of otoacoustic emissions caused by transient stimulation, distortion product, and evoked hearing potential of the brain stem by air and by bone conduction with bilaterally electrophysiological threshold in 30 and 35dBNA, and a light degree hearing loss was suggested in the findings. In this follow-up, they had episodes of secretary otitis media, confirmed by the otolaryngology evaluation and tympanometric curves as for type B and C. Children initiated the speech therapy with ten-months age. Thirty-two therapeutical sessions were accomplished for subject A.B., 28 for subject A.E., in a period of eleven months, in which the children demonstrated improvements as for the language phase of the speech development, however they were not compatible with the age observed in studied literature. CONCLUSION: the two children with gastroesophageal reflux showed conductive loss, floating hearing in the first two years of life and delay in speech development. Although their productions show delay, it was possible to observe significant improvement of the children in relation to the therapeutical speech process.

Imunofenotipagem e avaliação quantitativa de linfócitos circulantes de bovinos da raça Curraleiro / Immunophenotyping and quantitative evaluation of circulating lymphocytes of cattle of the Curraleiro breed

Este estudo teve por objetivo traçar o perfil imunológico, pela marcação imunocitoquímica e quantificação de linfócitos T e B, de bovinos da raça Curraleiro. Para tal, foram utilizados 116 animais entre machos e fêmeas, de diferentes faixas etárias, provenientes de duas propriedades de criação de gado Curraleiro do Estado de Goiás, sendo alocados em grupos conforme a faixa etária, sexo e origem. As amostras de sangue foram colhidas e processadas para a realização da técnica de imunocitoquímica, sendo utilizados os marcadores linfóides espécie-específicos, anti-CD3 (MM1A-BoCD3) e anti-LB (LCTB16A-clone B-B14), para a quantificação de linfócitos T e B, respectivamente. Inicialmente os dados foram submetidos à estatística descritiva e, posteriormente, aos testes de Kruskall Wallis e Mann-Whitney. Verificou-se que, com o avançar da idade, os níveis de leucócitos, linfócitos, linfócitos T e B diminuíram. Os valores absolutos de leucócitos, linfócitos totais e linfócitos T foram maiores nos machos. Nenhum dos parâmetros avaliados sofreu influência em relação à qualidade do manejo nas propriedades.

The aim of this study was to establish an immunological profile by marking and quantification of T and B lymphocytes in Curraleiro breed by immunocytochemistry. A total of 116 cattle was used, males and females of different ages, from two farms situated in the Goiás State, Brazil. The animals were allotted into groups according to age, sex and origin. Blood samples were collected and processed in accordance with immunocytochemistry standard technique using lymphoid markers species-specific, as anti-CD3 (MM1A - BoCD3) and anti-LB (LCTB16A-clone B-B14), for T and B lymphocyte counting, respectively. The data were submitted to descriptive statistics, and to Kruskall Wallis and Mann-Whitney tests. The results showed decreased levels of leukocytes, lymphocytes, T lymphocytes and B lymphocytes along the age advance. Absolute values of leukocytes, lymphocytes and T lymphocytes were higher in males than females. None of the evaluated parameters were affected by differences of the management carried out at the two farms.