Visual working memory and perception speed of 3- to 6-year-old children tested with a Matrix Film Battery Test

In this study the visual working memory (VWM) and perception speed of 60 children between the ages of three and six years were tested with an age-based, easy-to-handle Matrix Film Battery Test (reliability R?=?.71). It was thereby affirmed that the VWM is age dependent (correlation coefficient r?=?.66***) as expected. Furthermore, a significant gender effect was found (partial correlation coefficient r_p?=?.42***) indicating that boys generally have a better VWM: they are able to memorise more items and they can process visual information faster. Given that the test was repeated during a period of eight months, strong learning effects could be detected which show that the VWM can be trained and that the test itself is also a good training tool.     

Scene Safety and Force Protection in the Era of Ultra-Potent Opioids

Ultra-potent opioids (fentanyl, carfentanil) are now widely available and fueling an epidemic of overdose. First responders are increasingly exposed to these potent narcotics necessitating guidance for scene safety and force protection from medical directors. Reports in lay media have sensationalized accounts of exposure and harm that may lead providers to fear providing care to patients suspected of opioid overdose. The likelihood of prehospital providers suffering ill effects from opioid exposure during routine emergency medical services (EMS) operations is extremely low. We propose recommendation to assist medical directors in providing guidance and education to their providers minimizing the risk of provider exposure while allowing the delivery of prompt and appropriate care to patients with suspected overdose.     

From the Cover: Bumblebees perceive the spatial layout of their environment in relation to their body size and form to minimize inflight collisions

Animals that move through complex habitats must frequently contend with obstacles in their path. Humans and other highly cognitive vertebrates avoid collisions by perceiving the relationship between the layout of their surroundings and the properties of their own body profile and action capacity. It is unknown whether insects, which have much smaller brains, possess such abilities. We used bumblebees, which vary widely in body size and regularly forage in dense vegetation, to investigate whether flying insects consider their own size when interacting with their surroundings. Bumblebees trained to fly in a tunnel were sporadically presented with an obstructing wall containing a gap that varied in width. Bees successfully flew through narrow gaps, even those that were much smaller than their wingspans, by first performing lateral scanning (side-to-side flights) to visually assess the aperture. Bees then reoriented their in-flight posture (i.e., yaw or heading angle) while passing through, minimizing their projected frontal width and mitigating collisions; in extreme cases, bees flew entirely sideways through the gap. Both the time that bees spent scanning during their approach and the extent to which they reoriented themselves to pass through the gap were determined not by the absolute size of the gap, but by the size of the gap relative to each bee’s own wingspan. Our findings suggest that, similar to humans and other vertebrates, flying bumblebees perceive the affordance of their surroundings relative their body size and form to navigate safely through complex environments.

Avoiding collisions with obstacles is a requirement for successful locomotion through most natural habitats, where the physical environment is often cluttered and complex. At the most elemental level, animals moving through their environments need to identify gaps between obstacles and assess their passability. In this context, whether a gap between obstacles “affords” passing is determined by the fit between the spatial layout of the environment and the properties of the organism’s form and action system, as described in classical theses on affordances (1–3). In humans and other highly cognitive vertebrates, the perception of affordances for performing visually guided actions such as grasping, passing through apertures, and climbing is actively shaped throughout ontogeny, as body size, configuration, and experience change (2, 4–7). However, the strategies used by animals with much smaller brains, such as insects, to contend with the challenges of navigating environmental clutter and spatial heterogeneity are unclear.We used bumblebees to investigate whether flying insects take into account their own size during interactions with their surroundings. Bumblebees and other volant insects that travel long distances (8) and frequently encounter regions of dense clutter can be expected to exhibit strategies to avoid collisions, because damage to sensitive structures such as the wings is irreparable and adversely impacts flight performance and lifespan (9, 10). For an animal attempting to navigate through tight spaces, perceiving the relationship between the layout of the environment and its own size can help inform the animal of its potential for collision-free passage. Bumblebee workers naturally display large variation in body size within a given colony (11, 12), and thus are particularly suitable models for testing the effects of insect body size on aerial navigation and for determining whether insects perceive the external environment in relation to their own spatial dimensions.To elicit repeatable flight behavior, we trained foraging bumblebees to fly within a 1.6 × 0.3 × 0.3 m (l × w × h) flight tunnel that separated the hive from a foraging arena (Materials and Methods, SI Appendix, Fig. S1, and Movie S1). After bees were habituated to the setup and began foraging normally, we placed an unexpected obstacle within the tunnel, consisting of a thin vertical wall (5-mm thickness) spanning the tunnel’s width and height. The obstructing wall contained a rectangular gap starting midway up and extending to the top of the wall (Materials and Methods, SI Appendix, Fig. S1, and Movie S1). The width of the gap was varied between 20 and 60 mm over different trials, with the presenting order of gap sizes chosen randomly. A high-speed camera placed above the tunnel was used to record bees’ instantaneous positions, heading/yaw orientations (Fig. 1A), and trajectories as they approached the obstructing wall and passed through the gap. To prevent bees from becoming familiar with the experimental paradigm, the obstructing wall was removed after each flight recording. In total, we recorded and analyzed over 400 flights of bees of varying body sizes flying through seven different gap sizes (SI Appendix, Table S1). For the population of bees recorded, wingspan was the longest dimension of the body and it varied linearly by a factor of 1.9 compared to their longitudinal body length while in flight (SI Appendix, Fig. S2A).Open in a separate windowFig. 1.Bumblebees can safely fly through gaps that are smaller than their wingspan. (A and B) Illustrations indicating the wingspan of bees (Ws), the size of the gap (Gs), and the positive and negative yaw (heading) angles for bees flying in the tunnel, respectively. (C) Schematic illustration of the flight of a bee flying through a gap that is much wider than its wingspan. (D) The instantaneous yaw angle of bee shown in C. (E) Schematic illustrationof the flightofabeeflying through a gap that is smaller than its wingspan. (F) The instantaneous yaw angle of bee shown in E. Flights, in both cases (C and E), consisted of approach, lateral peering, and—for the smaller gap size (E)—body reorientation (an increase in yaw angle) while passing through the gap. The differences in reorientation behavior can be noted at x = 0 (location of the gap), whereas in F the bee displays a large increase in yaw angle that reorients its body to pass through the small gap, and body reorientation in D is minimal. For the flight shown in C and D, Ws = 27.5 mm and Gs = 50 mm, while for the flight shown in E and F, Ws = 27 mm and Gs = 25 mm.     

Speech perception in children with cochlear implants for continua varying in formant transition duration

Purpose: To examine the developmental course of labial and alveolar manner of articulation contrasts, and to determine how that course may be different for typically developing (TD) children with cochlear implants (CI).

Method: Eight young adults, eight TD 5–8 year-old children, and seven 5–8 year-old children with CIs participated. Labial /ba/–/wa/ and alveolar /da/–/ja/ continua stimuli were presented, with each continuum consisting of nine synthetic stimuli varying in F2 and F3 transition duration. Participants were asked to label the stimuli as either a stop or glide, and responses were analysed for phonetic boundaries and slopes.

Result: For the /ba/–/wa/ contrast, children with CIs required longer transition durations compared to TD children or adults to cross from one phoneme category to another. The children with CIs demonstrated less confidence in labelling the stimuli (i.e. less steep slopes) than the TD children or the adults. For the /da/–/ja/ contrast, the children with CIs showed less steep slope values than adults.

Conclusion: These results suggest that there are differences in the way TD children and children with CIs develop and maintain phonetic categories, perhaps differences in phonetic representation or in linking acoustic and phonetic representations.     

Subjectivity About Turnover Intention Among Male Nurses in South Korea: A Q-Methodological Study

Purpose

Around the world, male nurses face a variety of difficulties within clinical settings; accordingly, a large number of male nurses consider changing their occupation. In particular, male nurses in a number of Asian countries with a Confucian heritage experience difficulties. Thus, the purpose of this study was to explore individual differences in turnover intention among male nurses in one such country, South Korea, and on that basis to suggest concrete strategies for reducing turnover among male nurses in Confucian cultures.

The Low Vision Team: Optometrists' and Ophthalmologists' Perceptions and Knowledge of Occupational Therapy

Aims: The purpose was to discover the knowledge and perceptions among eye-care professionals regarding the role of occupational therapists in low visions rehabilitation. Methods: A mixed methods design included open-ended qualitative responses along with quantitative survey data. Data were gathered anonymously through the PsychData electronic platform. Results: Optometrists and ophthalmologists were familiar with occupational therapy interventions for individuals with low vision but were uncertain about how to include occupational therapists in this practice specialty. Data were categorized into two themes: knowledge and perceptions and were grouped into subthemes of comprehensive, fractioned, occupational therapy intervention strategies, optimistic perceptions, and uncertain perceptions. It was found that only a small number of respondents referred or consulted with occupational therapists regarding clients with low vision. Conclusion: There is a need for education and advocacy to optometrists and ophthalmologists regarding the access to occupational therapy services for individuals with low vision.     

Shoulder pain after stroke – experiences,consequences in daily life and effects of interventions: a qualitative study

Purpose: To describe experiences of shoulder pain after stroke, how pain affects daily life and perceived effects of interventions.

Method: A qualitative interview study including 13 community-dwelling persons (six women; median age 65?years) with persistent shoulder pain after stroke.

Results: Three categories emerged from the content analysis. In “Multiple pain characteristics” an insidious pain onset was reported. The pain existed both day and night and could be located around the shoulder girdle but also have radiation to the arm and hand. An explanation of the pain was seldom given. In “Limitations caused by the pain” it was described how the pain negatively influenced personal care, household activities and leisure, but also could lead to emotional reactions. In “Multiple pain interventions with various effects” a variety of interventions were described. Self-management interventions with gentle movements were perceived most effective. A restraint attitude to pain medication due to side effects was reported.

Conclusions: Shoulder pain after stroke can lead to a variety of pain characteristics. As the pain is complex and may affect many important areas in a person’s life, multidisciplinary rehabilitation interventions are important.

• Implications for rehabilitation

• Shoulder pain after stroke can lead to a variety of pain characteristics with radiation to the arm and hand

• Shoulder pain often influence personal care, household activities and leisure negatively, which may lead to emotional reactions

• Self-management interventions with gentle movements are perceived most effective

• As the shoulder pain after stroke is complex, interventions by a multidisciplinary team may be needed