Mcdermottchappell4886

LIMITATIONS Mechanisms of change associated with treatment outcomes were not investigated in the present study. Therefore, it remains unclear which specific or non-specific factors contributed to the decrease in anxiety symptoms in both conditions. CONCLUSIONS The present study provided some preliminary evidence that video games are a promising new intervention vehicle for children with an ASD and anxiety, at least according to parents. However, further research on working mechanisms is needed, in order to specify to what extent and for which children with ASD Mindlight could be an effective anxiety treatment. OBJECTIVE To describe illness cognitions among patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), to study cross-sectional associations between illness cognitions and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and to study the predictive value of illness cognitions measured shortly after the diagnosis for HRQoL at follow-up. METHODS Prospective longitudinal design. We administered Self-report questionnaires at study onset (n = 72) and follow-up (n = 48). Median follow-up period was 10.0 months. At baseline median ALS Functional Rating Scale-Revised was 43, median time since onset of symptoms was 13.6 months, 79% of patients presented with spinal onset. Illness cognitions Helplessness, Acceptance and Disease Benefits were measured with the Illness Cognitions Questionnaire (ICQ) and HRQoL with the ALS Assessment Questionnaire (ALSAQ-40). Correlational and regression analyses were used. RESULTS Patients experienced more Helplessness at follow-up. We found no significant changes in Acceptance or Disease Benefits at follow-up. In cross-sectional analyses, Helplessness was independently related to worse HRQoL at baseline (β = 0.44; p = .001) and Acceptance and Disease Benefits were independently related to worse HRQoL at follow-up (β = -0.17, p = .045) and (β = -0.186, p = .03 respectively). Longitudinal analyses showed that, adjusted for disease severity at baseline, Helplessness at baseline was a predictor of worse HRQoL at follow-up (β = 0.43; p = .006). None of the illness cognitions were a significant predictor of HRQoL with adjustment for baseline HRQoL. CONCLUSION Helplessness was independently associated with HRQoL in the cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses. These results can help us identify patients shortly after diagnosis who might benefit from psychological interventions. Attractive serial dependence - a bias whereby the current stimulus appears more similar to the previous ones - is thought to reflect a stability mechanism integrating past and current visual signals. Prior work suggests that serial dependence originates from both perceptual and cognitive mechanisms, but the conditions under which this attractive bias occurs remain to be studied. In particular, whether serial dependence can occur solely from memory interference remains unclear. Here, we address this question by testing the hypothesis that if memory interference is sufficient to generate serial dependence, it should occur within memorized stimuli irrespective of the order of stimulus presentation. In Exp. 1, we used a numerosity estimation task in which participants estimated the number of dots of a briefly flashing dot-array comprising 8 to 32 dots. The pattern of serial dependence was found in that numerical estimates of a dot array were biased towards the numerosity of the preceding dot array. In Exp. 2, we presented a series of three such dot arrays, and cued the one to be estimated only after the whole series was presented, making the participants first form a memorized representation of the three dot arrays. The results show a pattern of attractive biases both in the forward (the stimulus presented before biases the one presented after) and the backward (the stimulus presented after biases the one presented before) directions. Overall, our results demonstrate that serial dependence can be induced solely from memory interference and that this interference can operate irrespective of the chronological order of the stimulus presentation. Streptococcus intermedius, Streptococcus mutans, and Candida albicans are harmful oral pathogens and prone to resist chemical antimicrobial agents. Active ingredients from plants are of increasing interest as an alternative. This study aims to compare antimicrobial effects of 4-allylpyrocatechol (APC) extracted from Piper betle on these oral pathogens. Minimum concentration of APC against the tested pathogens was determined using a broth microdilution assay. Killing kinetic study of APC was carried out within 24 h. Morphology of the pathogenic cells was assessed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Anti-biofilm was investigated using crystal violet assay and confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM). The results showed that the mechanism of inhibition of APC was bactericidal and fungicidal effects. APC at minimum concentration of 400 μg/mL could completely kill Streptococcus and Candida spp., however, the killing rate on S. intermedius and C. selleck chemicals llc albicans was significantly faster than on S. mutans. APC inhibited biofilm formation of C. albicans more efficiently than that of the bacterial cells. Cell morphology from SEM indicated that APC caused bacterial cell membrane destruction and inhibited fungal budding or tubing formation. CLSM images confirmed the killing potential of APC and suggested that bacterial dead cells could be easier washed out than the fungal dead cells. It is concluded that APC potentially inhibits growth and biofilms of oral Streptococcus and Candida spp. in different mechanism of action and killing rate. APC can be considered as a promising agent for preventing and treating dental disorders caused by S. intermedius, S. mutans, and C. albicans. OBJECTIVE Little is known regarding the functional role of microRNA-195-5p (miR-195-5p) in heart failure (HF). Hence, the aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of miR-195-5p on cardiac function in mice with HF and its mechanism through the regulation of Chemokine receptor type 4 (CXCR4) and Janus kinase/signal transducer and activator of transcription (JAK/STAT) signaling pathway. METHODS The mice model of HF was established by transverse aortic constriction, the successfully modeled mice were injected with anti-miR-195-5p and OE-CXCR4. The expression of miR-195-5p, CXCR4, JAK2 and STAT1 in the myocardial tissues of each group were detected. The target relationship between miR-195-5p and CXCR4 was verified. The indices of cardiac ultrasound, hemodynamics, oxidative stress, inflammatory factor, myocardial enzyme and cardiac function were detected. RESULTS MiR-195-5p, JAK2 and STAT1 expression were raised and CXCR4 expression was degraded in myocardial tissues of HF mice and CXCR4 was the target gene of miR-195-5p.