Effect of Video Games on the Otolithic Reflex System

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Chih-Ching Wang ◽  
Yi-Ho Young

<b><i>Background:</i></b> Video gaming (VG) has since the 1980s become increasingly ubiquitous entertainment among the adolescents and young adults. Many young people expe­rienced dizzy spells, but not vertiginous episodes, after playing VG. <b><i>Objectives:</i></b> This study performed ocular vestibular-evoked myogenic potential (oVEMP) and cervical VEMP (cVEMP) tests in subjects before and after engaging on VG to investigate the effect of VG on the otolithic reflex system. <b><i>Methods:</i></b> Twenty subjects who frequently played VG (&#x3e;3 days per week) for more than 10 years were assigned to the long-term group. Another 20 subjects with engaging on VG &#x3c;3 days per week or &#x3c;10 years were assigned to the short-term group. Each subject underwent baseline oVEMP and cVEMP tests first, followed by playing VG for 1 h. Then, all subjects underwent the same paradigm. The “VG-year” is defined as frequency of VG playing within 1 week (day/week) multiplied by total length of VG engagement (year). <b><i>Results:</i></b> Engagement on VG rarely affected the oVEMP responses for either short- or long-term players. In contrast, the response rates of cVEMP significantly declined from pre-VG period (80%) to post-VG period (58%) in the short-term group, but not in the long-term group. The cutoff value for predicting absent cVEMP in VG engagement is 21 VG-year. <b><i>Conclusion:</i></b> Short-term engagement on VG may result in temporary cVEMP loss, while permanent cVEMP loss could be identified in long-term VG players. The cutoff value for predicting absent cVEMP in VG engagement is 21 VG-year, indicating that damage to the sacculo-collic reflex system could be anticipated in a subject who has played VG at least 1 h per session, 7 days weekly for 3 years.

Author(s):  
Kalina I. Madzharova ◽  
Ana P. Beshkova

<p class="abstract"><strong>Background:</strong> Vestibular evoked myogenic potential (VEMP) testing is used in the diagnosis of vestibular disorders. It is an objective method for testing the the otolith organs of the vestibular system. VEMP test is an additional method for diagnosing vestibular neuritis (VN). The combination of cervical VEMP (cVEMP) and ocular VEMP (oVEMP) testing has an advantage in long-term monitoring of patients with VN. The VEMP test is well-studied for adults but studies involving children are insufficient. The aim of this study was to analysis and evaluation of the results from VEMP testing of children diagnosed with vestibular dysfunction. Analysis and evaluation of the results from VEMP testing of children diagnosed with vestibular dysfunction.</p><p class="abstract"><strong>Methods:</strong> History, examination of ENT organs, tone threshold audiometry, tympanometry, otoneurological examination, VEMP test.  </p><p class="abstract"><strong>Results:</strong> Children with vestibular dysfunction who were examined showed changes predominantly in the oVEMP test. The upper branch of the vestibular nerve is affected.   </p><p class="abstract"><strong>Conclusions:</strong> The VEMP test is an additional method for diagnosing patients with vestibular dysfunction. It is safe when used for children.</p>


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 559-559
Author(s):  
Sara Freed ◽  
Briana Sprague ◽  
Lesley Ross

Abstract Interventions using exercise video games, or exergames, have shown short-term cognitive and physical benefits to older adults, though long-term effects are less promising. Enjoyment of exergames may promote exergame use after the intervention period, though little work has examined older adults’ views of exergames before and after gameplay experience. We invited 20 older adults between 65 and 84 years of age (M=73.30, SD=5.95) to play two Xbox Kinect games, Just Dance and Kinect Sports Rivals, for twenty minutes. In our presentation, we will present qualitative and quantitative findings of this pilot study, including findings that older adults reported that they were not likely to play similar exergames in the future and that they did not find the exergames to be more fun compared to other ways of exercising. We will discuss implications for game design and research relevant to game developers, manufacturers, and researchers. Part of a symposium sponsored by Technology and Aging Interest Group.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaorong Yan ◽  
Huiqing Wang ◽  
Cai Li ◽  
Yuanxiang Lin ◽  
Lin Lin ◽  
...  

Abstract Background To present a surgical technique for the treatment of intradural extramedullary (IDEM) tumors by using endoscopically controlled surgery with open hemilaminectomy technique. Methods In this study, 20 patients with 22 IDEM tumors were enrolled. An endoscopically controlled surgery with open hemilaminectomy was employed to remove the tumors. Data related to clinical symptoms and medical images before and after surgery were collected for perioperative evaluation and follow-up analysis. Results All the tumors in 20 patients were well removed. The clinical symptoms were significantly reduced in all the patients as well. The short-term follow-up data showed that there was no tumor recurrence or spinal deformity. Conclusion The endoscopically controlled surgery with open hemilaminectomy technique provided favorable exposure and satisfactory resection to the IDEM tumors. It may be an effective surgical method for treating IDEM tumors. Larger samples and longer follow-up data are needed to verify its long-term effectiveness.


Fractals ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 21 (01) ◽  
pp. 1350001 ◽  
Author(s):  
KAI SHI ◽  
WEN-YONG LI ◽  
CHUN-QIONG LIU ◽  
ZHENG-WEN HUANG

In this work, multifractal methods have been successfully used to characterize the temporal fluctuations of daily Jiuzhai Valley domestic and foreign tourists before and after Wenchuan earthquake in China. We used multifractal detrending moving average method (MF-DMA). It showed that Jiuzhai Valley tourism markets are characterized by long-term memory and multifractal nature in. Moreover, the major sources of multifractality are studied. Based on the concept of sliding window, the time evolutions of the multifractal behavior of domestic and foreign tourists were analyzed and the influence of Wenchuan earthquake on Jiuzhai Valley tourism system dynamics were evaluated quantitatively. The study indicates that the inherent dynamical mechanism of Jiuzhai Valley tourism system has not been fundamentally changed from long views, although Jiuzhai Valley tourism system was seriously affected by the Wenchuan earthquake. Jiuzhai Valley tourism system has the ability to restore to its previous state in the short term.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaorong Yan ◽  
Huiqing Wang ◽  
Cai Li ◽  
Yuanxiang Lin ◽  
Lin Lin ◽  
...  

Abstract Background To present a surgical technique for the treatment of intradural extramedullary (IDEM) tumors by using endoscopically-controlled surgery with open hemi-laminectomy technique. Methods In this study, 20 patients with 22 IDEM tumors were enrolled. An endoscopically-controlled surgery with open hemi-laminectomy was employed to remove the tumors. Data related to clinical symptoms and medical images before and after surgery were collected for perioperative evaluation and follow-up analysis. Results All the tumors in 20 patients were well removed. The clinical symptoms were significantly reduced in all the patients as well. The short term follow-up data showed that there was no tumor recurrence or spinal deformity. Conclusion The endoscopically-controlled surgery with open hemi-laminectomy technique provided favorable exposure and satisfactory resection to the IDEM tumors. It may be an effective surgical method for treating IDEM tumors. Larger samples and longer follow-up data are needed to verify its long-term effectiveness.


PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. e0247272
Author(s):  
Claudius Gros ◽  
Roser Valenti ◽  
Lukas Schneider ◽  
Benedikt Gutsche ◽  
Dimitrije Marković

The distinct ways the COVID-19 pandemic has been unfolding in different countries and regions suggest that local societal and governmental structures play an important role not only for the baseline infection rate, but also for short and long-term reactions to the outbreak. We propose to investigate the question of how societies as a whole, and governments in particular, modulate the dynamics of a novel epidemic using a generalization of the SIR model, the reactive SIR (short-term and long-term reaction) model. We posit that containment measures are equivalent to a feedback between the status of the outbreak and the reproduction factor. Short-term reaction to an outbreak corresponds in this framework to the reaction of governments and individuals to daily cases and fatalities. The reaction to the cumulative number of cases or deaths, and not to daily numbers, is captured in contrast by long-term reaction. We present the exact phase space solution of the controlled SIR model and use it to quantify containment policies for a large number of countries in terms of short and long-term control parameters. We find increased contributions of long-term control for countries and regions in which the outbreak was suppressed substantially together with a strong correlation between the strength of societal and governmental policies and the time needed to contain COVID-19 outbreaks. Furthermore, for numerous countries and regions we identified a predictive relation between the number of fatalities within a fixed period before and after the peak of daily fatality counts, which allows to gauge the cumulative medical load of COVID-19 outbreaks that should be expected after the peak. These results suggest that the proposed model is applicable not only for understanding the outbreak dynamics, but also for predicting future cases and fatalities once the effectiveness of outbreak suppression policies is established with sufficient certainty. Finally, we provide a web app (https://itp.uni-frankfurt.de/covid-19/) with tools for visualising the phase space representation of real-world COVID-19 data and for exporting the preprocessed data for further analysis.


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Grace Amin

Bullying is deliberate aggressive action, using an imbalance of strength physically or mentally by hurting physical, verbal, or emotional / psychological forms repeatedly. In the last decade, cases of bullying in Indonesia continue to increase and if not handled properly will increasingly have a negative impact on the development of the children of the nation's next generation. Bullying does not only affect children who are bullied but can also affect children who bully, children who witness bullying. Some of the effects of bullying include anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem. The purpose of community engagement is to socialize the impact of bullying and how to increase self-esteem to adolescents. Through psychoeducation programs in adolescents such as schools and teenagers religious communities in the Cikarang - Bekasi region, young people gain an in-depth understanding of bullying, its effects and how to increase their confidence. Through this psychoeducation, teenagers understand the understanding, types and effects of bullying both short term and long term so they promise to resist bullying starting from themselves. Teenagers learn that humans are social beings who need each other. They learn about the meaning of diversity and bhineka tunggal ika and try to implement it in their next lives by respecting the differences in their environment. These teenagers learn to respect themselves more, see the positive things that God has given them. They try to always believe in themselves that they are perfect and valuable beings in God's eyes so that even though the environment around them may not appreciate, they can still see positive things in themselvesABSTRAK:Bullying adalah tindakan agresif yang disengaja, menggunakan ketidakseimbangan kekuatan secara fisik atau mental dengan cara menyakiti bentuk fisik, verbal, atau emosional/ psikologis secara berulang – ulang. Dalam satu decade terakhir, kasus bullying di Indonesia terus meningkat dan bila tidak ditangani dengan baik akan semakin berdampak negative bagi perkembangan anak – anak generasi penerus bangsa. Tindakan bullying tidak hanya berdampak pada anak yang di-bully tetapi juga dapat berdampak pada anak yang mem-bully, anak yang menyaksikan bullying. Beberapa dampak bullying diantaranya kecemasan, depresi, serta rendahnya harga diri (self-esteem). Tujuan dari pengabdian kepada masyarakat ini adalah untuk mensosialisasikan dampak bullying serta cara meningkatkan self-esteem kepada para remaja. Melalui program psikoedukasi di lingkungan remaja seperti sekolah maupun komunitas keagamaan remaja wilayah Cikarang – Bekasi, para remaja mendapatkan pemahaman mendalam mengenai bullying, dampaknya serta bagaimana cara meningkatkan kepercayaan diri mereka. Melalui psikoedukasi ini, para remaja memahami pengertian, jenis serta dampak bullying baik jangka pendek maupun jangka panjang sehingga mereka berjanji untuk bersikap menolak bullying mulai dari diri mereka sendiri. Para remaja belajar bahwa manusia adalah mahluk social yang saling membutuhkan. Mereka belajar tentang makna keberagaman dan Bhineka Tunggal Ika serta berusaha mengimplementasikannya dalam kehidupan mereka selanjutnya dengan cara menghargai perbedaan yang ada di lingkungannya. Remaja ini belajar untuk lebih menghargai diri mereka, melihat hal positif yang telah diberikan Tuhan kepada mereka. Mereka mencoba untuk selalu menanamkan dalam diri bahwa mereka adalah mahluk yang sempurna dan berharga di mata Tuhan sehingga walaupun lingkungan di sekitar mereka mungkin tidak menghargai, mereka tetap dapat melihat hal positif dalam diri mereka.


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (24) ◽  
pp. 13609
Author(s):  
Lucas Wauters ◽  
Raúl Y. Tito ◽  
Matthias Ceulemans ◽  
Maarten Lambaerts ◽  
Alison Accarie ◽  
...  

Proton pump inhibitors (PPI) may improve symptoms in functional dyspepsia (FD) through duodenal eosinophil-reducing effects. However, the contribution of the microbiome to FD symptoms and its interaction with PPI remains elusive. Aseptic duodenal brushings and biopsies were performed before and after PPI intake (4 weeks Pantoprazole 40 mg daily, FD-starters and controls) or withdrawal (2 months, FD-stoppers) for 16S-rRNA sequencing. Between- and within-group changes in genera or diversity and associations with symptoms or duodenal factors were analyzed. In total, 30 controls, 28 FD-starters and 19 FD-stoppers were followed. Mucus-associated Porphyromonas was lower in FD-starters vs. controls and correlated with symptoms in FD and duodenal eosinophils in both groups, while Streptococcus correlated with eosinophils in controls. Although clinical and eosinophil-reducing effects of PPI therapy were unrelated to microbiota changes in FD-starters, increased Streptococcus was associated with duodenal PPI effects in controls and remained higher despite withdrawal of long-term PPI therapy in FD-stoppers. Thus, duodenal microbiome analysis demonstrated differential mucus-associated genera, with a potential role of Porphyromonas in FD pathophysiology. While beneficial effects of short-term PPI therapy were not associated with microbial changes in FD-starters, increased Streptococcus and its association with PPIeffects in controls suggest a role for duodenal dysbiosis after long-term PPI therapy.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Godsoe ◽  
Peter J Bellingham ◽  
Elena Moltchanova

Beta diversity describes the differences in species composition among communities. Changes in beta diversity over time are thought to be due to selection based on species' niche characteristics. For example, theory predicts that selection that favours habitat specialists will increase beta diversity. In practice, ecologists struggle to predict how beta diversity changes. To remedy this problem, we propose a novel solution that formally measures selection's effects on beta diversity. Using the Price equation, we show how change in beta diversity over time can be partitioned into fundamental mechanisms including selection among species, variable selection among communities, drift, and immigration. A key finding of our approach is that a species' short-term impact on beta diversity cannot be predicted using information on its long-term environmental requirements (i.e. its niche). We illustrate how our approach can be used to partition causes of diversity change in a montane tropical forest before and after an intense hurricane. Previous work in this system highlighted the resistance of habitat specialists and the recruitment of light-demanding species but was unable to quantify the importance of these effects on beta diversity. Using our approach, we show that changes in beta diversity were consistent with ecological drift. We use these results to highlight the opportunities presented by a synthesis of beta diversity and formal models of selection.


2020 ◽  
pp. 0000-0000
Author(s):  
Thomas Smith ◽  
G. Ryan Huston ◽  
Richard M. Morton

This study extends the employee stock option literature by examining the impact of accrual management, before and after stock option exercise, on the timing of sales of shares acquired at exercise. We find evidence that accrual management prior to exercise is positively associated with the decision to quickly sell shares after exercise, facilitating a short-term exercise-and-sell strategy. Alternatively, we find that, among executives initially choosing to hold at exercise, tax incentives appear to drive both post-exercise accrual management and the timing of sale transactions. Specifically, our results suggest that executives use income-increasing accruals during the holding period to bolster their stock option gains sand then sell immediately after satisfying the minimum (twelve month) holding period for long-term capital gain treatment. These results provide context for prior research that found evidence of earnings management leading up to option exercise on the expectation of an immediate sale.


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