The practice of going helps children to stop:The importance of context monitoring in inhibitory control

How do we stop ourselves during ongoing action? Recent work implies that stopping per se is easy given sufficient monitoring of contextual cues signaling the need to change action. We test key implications of this idea for improving inhibitory control. Seven- to 9-year old children practiced stopping an ongoing action, or monitoring for cues that signaled the need to go again. Both groups subsequently showed better response inhibition in a Stop-Signal task than active controls, and practice monitoring yielded a dose-response relationship. When monitoring practice was optimized to occur while children engaged in responding, the greatest benefits were observed – even greater than from practicing stopping itself. These findings demonstrate the importance of monitoring processes in developing response inhibition, and suggest promising new directions for interventions

New York, années 1980 : dix ans de recherches en immersion

Traduit, annoté et présenté par Sophie Pécaud.National audienceNé à New-York en 1952, Rhys Chatham a été l'un des principaux acteurs du développement de la scène musicale de lower Manhattan dans les années 1980, à la fois en tant que compositeur et en tant que producteur. Auteur d'une œuvre foisonnante et protéiforme, connu pour avoir orchestré la rencontre entre les principes formels du courant minimaliste et le vocabulaire du rock (Guitar Trio, 1977), il a également fondé et dirigé pendant de longues années le programme musical du centre d'art contemporain The Kitchen. Dans ce texte rédigé à l'aube des années 1990, à la fois bilan et plan d'action pour le futur, il offre un témoignage de première main sur l'incroyable effervescence artistique du New York des années 1980. À cette époque, les frontières entre genres (avant-garde, jazz, rock) semblent s'être dissipées, et les réflexions esthétiques et les pratiques propres de chacun de ces domaines se fécondent mutuellement pour aboutir parfois à d'improbables crossovers, mais parfois aussi à l'émergence de courants esthétiques dont les nouvelles générations de musiciens n'ont pas fini d'explorer les méandres

Minorities with lupus nephritis and medications: a study of facilitators to medication decision-making

Prioritized facilitators in AA2 (UAB, Birmingham, AA, 6 low SES, 1 high SES). This table provides a list of prioritized facilitators to help patients make decisions about treatment choices in African-American patients in nominal group 2. AA African-American, SES socioeconomic status, UAB University of Alabama at Birmingham (DOC 43 kb

Incontinence-associated dermatitis: reducing adverse events

Incontinence-associated dermatitis (IAD) is a common problem in patients with faecal and/or urinary incontinence. Urine alters the normal skin flora and increases permeability of the stratum corneum and faecal enzymes on the skin contribute to skin damage. Faecal bacteria can then penetrate the skin, increasing the risk of secondary infection. However, IAD can be prevented and healed with timely and appropriate skin cleansing and skin protection. This includes appropriate use of containment devices. This article also looks at HARTMANN incontinence pads that have been developed to absorb the fluids that cause IAD and maintain the skin's acidic pH. The acidic pH of the skin contributes to its barrier function and defence against infection. Therefore, maintaining an acidic pH will help protect the skin from damage

Individualized decision aid for diverse women with lupus nephritis (IDEA-WON): A randomized controlled trial.

BackgroundTreatment decision-making regarding immunosuppressive therapy is challenging for individuals with lupus. We assessed the effectiveness of a decision aid for immunosuppressive therapy in lupus nephritis.Methods and findingsIn a United States multicenter, open-label, randomized controlled trial (RCT), adult women with lupus nephritis, mostly from racial/ethnic minority backgrounds with low socioeconomic status (SES), seen in in- or outpatient settings, were randomized to an individualized, culturally tailored, computerized decision aid versus American College of Rheumatology (ACR) lupus pamphlet (1:1 ratio), using computer-generated randomization. We hypothesized that the co-primary outcomes of decisional conflict and informed choice regarding immunosuppressive medications would improve more in the decision aid group. Of 301 randomized women, 298 were analyzed; 47% were African-American, 26% Hispanic, and 15% white. Mean age (standard deviation [SD]) was 37 (12) years, 57% had annual income of <$40,000, and 36% had a high school education or less. Compared with the provision of the ACR lupus pamphlet (n = 147), participants randomized to the decision aid (n = 151) had (1) a clinically meaningful and statistically significant reduction in decisional conflict, 21.8 (standard error [SE], 2.5) versus 12.7 (SE, 2.0; p = 0.005) and (2) no difference in informed choice in the main analysis, 41% versus 31% (p = 0.08), but clinically meaningful and statistically significant difference in sensitivity analysis (net values for immunosuppressives positive [in favor] versus negative [against]), 50% versus 35% (p = 0.006). Unresolved decisional conflict was lower in the decision aid versus pamphlet groups, 22% versus 44% (p < 0.001). Significantly more patients in the decision aid versus pamphlet group rated information to be excellent for understanding lupus nephritis (49% versus 33%), risk factors (43% versus 27%), medication options (50% versus 33%; p ≤ 0.003 for all); and the ease of use of materials was higher in the decision aid versus pamphlet groups (51% versus 38%; p = 0.006). Key study limitations were the exclusion of men, short follow-up, and the lack of clinical outcomes, including medication adherence.ConclusionsAn individualized decision aid was more effective than usual care in reducing decisional conflict for choice of immunosuppressive medications in women with lupus nephritis.Trial registrationClinicaltrials.gov, NCT02319525

The maximum queen’s problem with pawns

The classic n-queens problem asks for placements of just n mutually non-attacking queens on an n × n board. By adding enough pawns, we can arrange to fill roughly one-quarter of the board with mutually non-attacking queens. How many pawns do we need? We discuss that question for square boards as well as rectangular m × n boards

Differences in coping between parents of mentally handicapped children and parents of non handicapped children

The purpose of this study was to ascertain if there was a difference in perceived effectiveness of coping behaviors between mothers and fathers of a mentally handicapped child and mothers and fathers of a non handicapped child. The conceptual framework was derived from the work of Lazarus (1961) and Pearl in and Schooler (1978). Utilizing a descriptive design, 64 parents (28 parents of a mentally handicapped child and 36 parents of a non handicapped child) were surveyed using the Family Coping Inventory (FCI). Twenty-eight parents of a mentally handicapped child completed an additional instrument, the Coping Health Inventory for Parents (CHIP)