Brain and Muscle: How Central Nervous System Disorders Can Modify the Skeletal Muscle

It is widely known that nervous and muscular systems work together and that they are strictly dependent in their structure and functions. Consequently, muscles undergo macro and microscopic changes with subsequent alterations after a central nervous system (CNS) disease. Despite this, only a few researchers have addressed the problem of skeletal muscle abnormalities following CNS diseases. The purpose of this review is to summarize the current knowledge on the potential mechanisms responsible for changes in skeletal muscle of patients suffering from some of the most common CSN disorders (Stroke, Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease). With this purpose, we analyzed the studies published in the last decade. The published studies show an extreme heterogeneity of the assessment modality and examined population. Furthermore, it is evident that thanks to different evaluation methodologies, it is now possible to implement knowledge on muscle morphology, for a long time limited by the requirement of muscle biopsies. This could be the first step to amplify studies aimed to analyze muscle characteristics in CNS disease and developing rehabilitation protocols to prevent and treat the muscle, often neglected in CNS disease.

LINGUISTIC MEANS OF DISCURSIVE REPRESENTATION OF MASCULINITY AND FEMININITY

This article highlights the presence of the gender component in any type of discourse and its linguistic implementation. The aim of the study is to determine the gender component in the discourse of Western and Russian gender-oriented lifestyle magazines using a comparative analysis of the used English and Russian language means of lexical-grammatical (gender-marked language units) and semantic-syntactic (assessment, modality of sentences, syntax sentences) levels. The cognitive-linguistic approach allows us to prove that in the publications in question two types of discursive representation of masculinity and femininity are used: the type of “reflection” and the type of “construction”. The presence of gender neutral or gender-marked units of language in texts is associated with the intensity of the male / female dichotomy, this ratio reflects the predominance of egalitarian or traditional gender representations in society. The authors’ choice of the lexical repertoire, the general modality of statements and the syntactic organization of sentences correspond to the discursive tasks of publications, the linguistic tools used at the cognitive level translate certain models of gender behavior into the minds of the general readers. Analysis of 4000 contexts taken by continuous sampling from popular men’s and women’s magazines in the UK, USA and Russia for the period of 2012-2017 (“GQ”, “Men’s Health” (MH), “Men’s Fitness” (MF), “Esquire”, “Tatler”, “Cosmopolitan” (Cosmo), “Glamour”, “Women’s Health” (WH), “Women’s Fitness ”(WF),“ Marie Claire ”(MC)) allows us to identify common features and peculiarities of the discursive representation of masculinity and femininity in English editions and Russian-language versions of the same name, containing both translated and original (author) articles.

Recalling experiences: Looking at momentary, retrospective and global assessments of relationship satisfaction

Relationship satisfaction can be assessed globally, in retrospection or in the moment as a state. Each assessment modality captures the evaluation of individuals’ relationships in a different resolution and comes with its own advantages and limitations. In two experience sampling studies (N = 130 and N = 510) which included global evaluations and a retrospection on the study period, the specificities of the different assessment modalities are examined. We show that 1) retrospective as well as global evaluations best describe the mean of relationship satisfaction states; 2) retrospection introduces an overestimation of the amount of annoyance individuals report experiencing in their relationship on a momentary basis, which results in an overall negative mean-level bias for relationship satisfaction; 3) this bias is most strongly moderated by global relationship satisfaction at the time of retrospection, but also more generally by satisfaction and identity-related beliefs; 4) momentary snapshots of relationship satisfaction get representative of global evaluations after approximately two weeks of sampling. The retrospective bias found in the current studies extends the general bias found for the retrospection of negative affective states to the domain of relationship evaluations. More generally, the results strengthen the understanding of the different assessment modalities, illustrating their validity, their limits thereof and assist researchers in designing effective experience sampling studies to avoid systematic measurement errors introduced by recall.

Validation and inter-rater reliability of inexpensive, mini, no-touch infrared surface thermometry devices as an assessment tool for prediction of wound-related deep and surrounding infection

Industrial infrared thermometry devices are large and, despite being less expensive than the current gold standard Exergen Dermatemp medical infrared thermometer, are still not affordable enough to ensure unrestricted and consistent use of this assessment modality in regular wound-related day-to-day practice. An increased skin surface temperature differentiation of 3°F associated with a wound has a positive predictive ability to detect deep or surrounding wound infection. This study hypothesised that inexpensive, pen- or pocket-sized, no-touch surface infrared thermometry devices will be equal in ability to detect a 3oF increased skin temperature compared to the Exergen Dermatemp infrared device and be reliable in the hands of any wound assessor. The odds of the control and other thermometers to detect a 3oF temperature difference, irrespective of the raters, were achieved in all five of the mini thermometers tested, with a correct temperature difference prediction that occurred in 90.933% of the times (odds determined 9/10). As a result of this study mini, no-touch infrared thermometry, to detect a 3oF temperature difference in wound assessment to determine tendency, could be implemented into primary health care clinics, rural clinics, day-to-day hospital practice and standard outpatients departments at a small financial cost, regardless of which thermometer is put to use.