Sensory Capacities Research Articles

Paleoneurology and neuroanatomical notes on the South American "rauisuchian" Saurosuchus galilei from the Ischigualasto formation, San Juan, Argentina.

Non-crocodylomorph loricatans, traditionally known as "rauisuchians," are considered as the top predators of the Triassic continental faunas that reigned before the emergence of the well-known theropod dinosaurs. In particular, Saurosuchus galilei is a large quadrupedal prestosuchid loricatan found in the Ischigualasto Formation from northwestern Argentina. Here, we reevaluated the braincase of S. galilei and present the first paleoneurological study based on the partial natural casts of the holotype and the digital cranial endocast of the referred specimen PVSJ 32. The braincase of S. galilei was here reinterpreted, identifying the sutures of the supraoccipital, otoccipital, basioccipital, parabasisphenoid, prootic, and laterosphenoid. A unique feature identified in the braincase of S. galilei is the presence of deep paracondylar recesses associated with pharyngotympanic pneumaticity, which has not been identified in any other "rauisuchians" so far. Most of the structures of the encephalon were recognized in the cranial endocast and natural casts including cranial nerves V-XII, olfactory bulbs, main blood vessels and sinuses, and inner ear. These structures allowed us to quantify some of its sensorial capacities and recognize that S. galilei had an enhanced olfactory acuity, with coefficients higher than those expected for its body size, a condition previously observed in living crocodilians and tyrannosaurid dinosaurs. An improved sense of smell might have allowed Saurosuchus to track its prey from long distances and compensate for the poorer development of its other senses like vision and balance.

HEALTH BEYOND DISEASE IN OLD AGE: RELATIONSHIP OF INTRINSIC CAPACITY WITH HEALTH CARE UTILIZATION

Abstract In contrast to the traditional disease-centered approach, intrinsic capacity (IC) is a fine-grained and comprehensive measure of overall health. It plays an essential role in the healthy aging model proposed by the World Health Organization. However, how IC contributes to healthcare utilization and medical expenditures beyond the presence of chronic conditions in old age is not well understood. Data were from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study. We used a validated, multidimensional tool (locomotor, cognitive, psychological capacity, sensory capacity, and vitality) for assessing IC at baseline (Wave 2011). Outcomes include outpatient and inpatient use, and their expenditure measured in Wave 2013. We used logistic and linear regression models to identify the association of IC with healthcare utilization, adjusting for demographics, lifestyles, and multi-morbidity (the presence 2+ out of 14 chronic conditions). We included 14,887 participants, and equally categorized them into three groups (low, intermediate, and high IC). Compared with those with a low IC, older adults with an intermediate level or high level of IC had a significant reduction of outpatient use (OR=0.80, 95% CI=0.72-0.90; OR=0.61, 95% CI=0.53-0.69) and inpatient use (OR=0.69, 95% CI=0.58-0.81; OR=0.58, 95% CI=0.49-0.70), after adjusting for demographics, lifestyles, and multi-morbidity. We did not find a significant association between IC and healthcare expenditure. Assessment of IC for older adults provides valuable information for healthcare use beyond chronic conditions. Assessment of IC in routine clinics may help screen for older adults with high healthcare utilization, which could optimize the allocation of healthcare resources and improve patient-centered care.

Making Sense? The Sensory-Specific Nature of Virtual Influencer Effectiveness

The current research examines consumers’ responses to sensory endorsements from virtual influencers. The authors reveal that consumers perceive virtual and human influencers to have similar distal sensory (i.e., visual and auditory) capacities. Consumers, however, perceive virtual influencers as having lower proximal sensory (i.e., haptic, olfactory, and gustatory) capacities. Consequently, when endorsements focus on proximal sensory experiences, consumers have lower purchase intention toward products and services endorsed by a virtual (vs. human) influencer. The findings further reveal that imagery difficulty and perceived sensory capacity serially mediate this effect. Importantly, this effect is mitigated when endorsements focus on distal sensory experiences, when sensory information is not explicitly mentioned, and when consumers are informed of new technology that enables virtual influencers to have proximal sensory experiences. These findings offer actionable insights for marketers to effectively utilize virtual influencers in sensory-driven campaigns, providing practical strategies to improve consumer responses to sensory endorsements and enhance marketing effectiveness.

Morphogenesis of symbolic forms: a synthesizing formulation

Abstract The publication of Wolfgang Wildgen’s Morphogenesis of Symbolic Forms: Meaning in Music, Art, Religion and Language is an opportune moment to reflect on the author’s extensive contributions to a dynamic semiotics, founded on catastrophe theory. Bringing together a number of investigations on a number of Cassirer-like “symbolic forms” like music, visual art, myth/religion and language, Wildgen provides an overarching system to weigh the semiotic resources of each of these bodies of knowledge as they contribute to the semiogenesis of the species. By comparing sensorial capacities, Wildgen helps us understand how and when a symbolic form can grow at all. Chapters devoted to each form explore their unique way of organizing knowledge. Using catastrophe primitives, Wildgen both bonds symbolic forms together while at the same time preserving Cassirer’s Enlightenment interest in evolution and the way in which new semiotic capacities grow and others can be discarded. The review ends with a consideration of the humanist’s misunderstanding of mathematical and natural science insights like Wildgen’s and explains how its rich results are to be utilized.

Park Inclusive Design Index as a Systematic Evaluation Framework to Improve Inclusive Urban Park Uses: The Case of Hangzhou Urban Parks

This study aims to optimize the evaluation system of inclusive design in urban parks, emphasizing the systemic nature of sensory, cognitive, and motor capacity support and exploring its role in park design practice. Based on the capability demand model, this study constructed indicators through literature collation and focus group discussion and assigned weights through hierarchical analysis to finally construct the Park Inclusive Design Index (PIDI). Then, the PIDI was utilized to assess the inclusive design performance of 48 urban parks in Hangzhou, China. The results of this study show that the overall inclusive design level of parks is relatively low (the average PIDI < 70), especially in the provision of cognitive support (cognitive-related indicator < 4). Meanwhile, comprehensive and specialized parks performed better in inclusive design compared to community parks and leisure parks. The level of inclusive design is moderatory correlated with the park renovation time and the park area, and strongly correlated with geographic location (scenic spot parks perform better; the parks in the old city perform worse). Ten indicators in the assessment scored below 2, which reveals the current status, shortcomings, and general problems with inclusive facilities in Hangzhou’s urban parks. This study integrated the needs and ability differences of people into the indicators, providing an assessment framework with broad applicability. Inclusive performance is a long-term process, and the implementation of the evaluation framework will provide a reference guide for the design, construction, operation, and maintenance of urban parks across China and even around the world.

Household polluting cooking fuels and intrinsic capacity among older population: A harmonized nationwide analysis in India and China

BackgroundsHousehold polluting cooking fuels, as an important changeable behavior, are related to various detrimental health effects among the elderly. There is limited research on the association between polluting cooking fuel use and intrinsic capacity (IC) as an indicator of healthy aging. This study aimed to evaluate the above-mentioned association in India and China, where polluting cooking fuel use is common. MethodsWe enrolled 33,803 participants aged ≥60 years from two nationally representative studies: the Longitudinal Aging Study in India and the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study. Polluting cooking fuel use was defined as a self-report of using wood, coal, kerosene, crop residue, or dung. IC was measured by five aspects, including locomotion, cognition, vitality, sensory, and psychological capacity. The random-effects mixed linear regression and logistic regression with population weighting were performed. Multivariable-adjusted model and propensity score were used to adjust for potential confounders. ResultsA total of 47.54 % and 59.32 % of elderly adults reported primary cooking using polluting fuels in India and China, respectively. Using polluting cooking fuels was consistently associated with IC decline; particularly, cognitive capacity was the most susceptible domain. In India, participants using polluting fuels had a 1.062 (95 % confidence interval [CI]: 1.047–1.078) times risk for IC deficits, whereas more prominent results were observed in China (odds ratio [OR]: 2.040, 95 % CI: 1.642–2.533). Such harmful effects might be alleviated by transferring from polluting to clean fuels. Additionally, the duration of polluting fuel use was also positively associated with IC deficits. ConclusionThis study provided substantial public implications on healthy aging for the elderly population at a global scale, strengthening the importance of health education and policy efforts to accelerate the transition from polluting to clean fuels.

Cognitive and sensory capacity each contribute to the canine spatial bias.

Dogs interpret cues as being about location, which human infants would relate to objects. This spatial bias could shed light on the evolution of object-centered thought, however, research needs to rule out that this is not a by-product of dogs' weaker (compared to humans) visual capacities. In this study, we used a data set in which dogs were tested in two types of learning tasks (discrimination and reversal learning) with two types of rewarded cues (location and object features). In both tasks, dogs displayed spatial bias, that is, faster learning when the rewarded cue was a location. We investigated how sensory and cognitive capacity each contributes to this spatial bias. To this end, an estimate for general cognitive ability (g) was obtained from a battery of tests for some of the dogs. Cephalic index, a feature targeted in breeding and linked to differences in visual capacity, correlated negatively with the expression of spatial bias only in the easier discrimination learning task, while a negative correlation between g factor and spatial bias scores emerged in the more difficult reversal learning task. We conclude that dogs' spatial bias cannot be reduced to a sensory limitation and is easier to overcome with greater cognitive capacity.

Coordination of Pickpocket ion channel delivery and dendrite growth in Drosophila sensory neurons.

Sensory neurons enable an organism to perceive external stimuli, which is essential for survival. The sensory capacity of a neuron depends on the elaboration of its dendritic arbor and the localization of sensory ion channels to the dendritic membrane. However, it is not well understood when and how ion channels localize to growing sensory dendrites and whether their delivery is coordinated with growth of the dendritic arbor. We investigated the localization of the DEG/ENaC/ASIC ion channel Pickpocket (Ppk) in the peripheral sensory neurons of developing fruit flies. We used CRISPR-Cas9 genome engineering approaches to tag endogenous Ppk1 and visualize it live, including monitoring Ppk1 membrane localization via a novel secreted split-GFP approach. Fluorescently tagged endogenous Ppk1 localizes to dendrites, as previously reported, and, unexpectedly, to axons and axon terminals. In dendrites, Ppk1 is present throughout actively growing dendrite branches and is stably integrated into the neuronal cell membrane during the expansive growth of the arbor. Although Ppk channels are dispensable for dendrite growth, we found that an over-active channel mutant severely reduces dendrite growth, likely by acting at an internal membrane and not the dendritic membrane. Our data reveal that the molecular motor dynein and recycling endosome GTPase Rab11 are needed for the proper trafficking of Ppk1 to dendrites. Based on our data, we propose that Ppk channel transport is coordinated with dendrite morphogenesis, which ensures proper ion channel density and distribution in sensory dendrites.

Amplification Effects on the Acoustic Change Complex in Older Adults With Sensorineural Hearing Loss

Purpose: This pilot study evaluated the effect of stimulus level and amplification on the acoustic change complex (ACC) in adults with sensorineural hearing loss. Method: Ten adults with a M age of 74 years and bilaterally symmetrical mild-to-severe sensorineural hearing loss listened to contrasting vowel pairs, while cortical evoked potentials were recorded. The vowel contrasts (/a/−/i/ and /u/−/o/) were presented in the sound field at 30 and 60 dBA. Participants were tested with and without amplification fit to their audiogram configurations. ACC component P1–N1–P2 latencies and P1–N1, N1–P2, and P2–N2 peak-to-trough amplitudes were measured for eight test conditions ([two vowel contrasts] × [two levels] × [aided vs. unaided]). Paired-sample t tests were used to determine the effects of test conditions on ACC component latencies and amplitudes. Results: At 60 dBA, nine of 10 listeners had ACCs in the unaided condition, and the ACC amplitudes were significantly increased in the aided condition for the /a/−/i/ contrast. Amplification did not affect ACC amplitudes for the /u/−/o/ contrast at 60 dBA. At 30 dBA, only three of 10 participants had ACCs present in the aided condition, and none had ACCs in the unaided condition. ACC latencies at 60 dBA were unaffected as a function of amplification, but differences were noted as a function of vowel contrast type. Conclusions: ACCs were obtained for adults with hearing loss, demonstrating the feasibility of measuring a listener's neural capacity to discriminate vowel contrasts. The data indicate promising efficacy for using the ACC to evaluate those who cannot provide reliable perceptual responses, such as in immaturity (infants) or neurocognitive conditions (dementia). The ACC provides evidence of the sensory and neural capacity to detect and discriminate vowel sound contrasts, a neuro-biological validation that can be coupled with electroacoustic verification.

Advanced materials and biofabrication technologies to design in vitro functional central nervous system models

Nowadays, the pathophysiology of several central nervous system (CNS) disorders is still poorly understood, making difficult the identification of efficient treatments. CNS damages, due to neurodegenerative conditions or injuries, often result in permanent neuronal dysfunctions and serious impairments of motor, sensory and cognitive capacities. Despite the many attempts of pharmaceutical research to promote neural regeneration, poor progresses have been made in effectively restoring nervous functionality. Indeed, most of the experimental drugs show limited efficacy in the clinical trials, also due to existing preclinical models’ inability in fully replicating the complexity of CNS pathophysiology. Therefore, tissue-engineered three-dimensional (3D) models are being extensively explored to develop novel representative in vitro platforms, which more carefully replicate the architecture of neural microenvironment, including both cellular and extracellular components. In this respect, 3D in vitro models are expected to be promising and comprehensive tools for investigating CNS diseases and testing new drug compounds, as they overcome some of the common limitations of traditional two-dimensional (2D) cultures. This review discusses the main challenges to be addressed in CNS modeling, analyzing the key elements involved in neural tissue engineering. Specifically, an overview of the mostly used neural cell sources and biomaterials is provided, focusing on the critical aspects to consider in selecting the appropriate components according to the application. Different methods adopted to modulate the structural and functional properties of the engineered microenvironment are also presented, aimed at fostering in vitro tissue maturation. Lastly, the latest advances in biofabrication technologies are outlined, reviewing the most recent 3D bioprinted in vitro systems and microfluidic-based 3D platforms, starting from the modeling of distinctive CNS pathophysiological mechanisms to the designing of refined and functional in vivo-like neural microtissues.

Society's Attitudes Towards Human Augmentation and Performance Enhancement Technologies (SHAPE) Scale

Human augmentation technologies (ATs) are a subset of ubiquitous on-body devices designed to improve cognitive, sensory, and motor capacities. Although there is a large corpus of knowledge concerning ATs, less is known about societal attitudes towards them and how they shift over time. To that end, we developed The Society's Attitudes Towards Human Augmentation and Performance Enhancement Technologies (SHAPE) Scale, which measures how users of ATs are perceived. To develop the scale, we first created a list of possible scale items based on past work on how people respond to new technologies. The items were then reviewed by experts. Next, we performed exploratory factor analysis to reduce the scale to its final length of thirteen items. Subsequently, we confirmed test-retest validity of our instrument, as well as its construct validity. The SHAPE scale enables researchers and practitioners to understand elements contributing to attitudes toward augmentation technology users. The SHAPE scale assists designers of ATs in designing artifacts that will be more universally accepted.

The overall and domain-specific quality of life of Chinese community-dwelling older adults: the role of intrinsic capacity and disease burden.

This study aimed to investigate the impact of the different domains of intrinsic capacity (IC) and chronic disease burden on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and domain-specific HRQoL in Chinese community-dwelling older adults. A cross-sectional observational study of a community-based cohort. We evaluated Chinese older adults (n = 429, mean age, 72.91 ± 7.014 years; female proportion, 57.30%). IC contains five domains, namely locomotion, vitality, cognition, psychological, and sensory capacity. Locomotion dysfunction was defined as grip and/or gait decline. Vitality decline was defined if two of the following three parameters were present: fatigue, physical inactivity, and weight loss or overweight. Cognition was classified into normal cognition, pre-mild cognitive impairment (pre-MCI), and MCI according to the normative z-scores of the neuropsychological test battery. Psychological dysfunction was diagnosed based on depressive symptoms. Sensory dysfunction was defined as hearing and/or vision impairment. HRQoL was assessed using the AQoL-8D scale, which comprised physical (including independent living, senses, and pain) and psychosocial (including mental health, happiness, self-worth, coping, and relationships) dimensions. Low HRQoL (HRQoL score or subscores in the highest quintile) was used as a dependent variable in logistic regression analyses adjusted for demographic, health-related, and psychological confounders. Sensory impairment was an independent determinant of senses, and locomotion impairment was significantly associated with overall HRQoL, independent living, and pain in the physical dimension of HRQoL. Cognition was an independent determinant of the senses. Vitality was independently associated with overall HRQoL, senses, and pain in the physical dimension and mental health and relationships in the psychological dimension of HRQoL. The psychological domain of IC was independently associated with overall and domain-specific HRQoL apart from senses after adjustment for all confounders. The number of multimorbidities mainly had a significant impact on independent living after adjustment for all confounders. IC domains and chronic disease burden had heterogeneous influences on overall and domain-specific HRQoL. The impairment of sensory and locomotion domains had a synergistic impact on the overall and physical dimensions of HRQoL. The vitality and psychological domains of IC had more profound effects on HRQoL. Older people with high morbidity might have a higher risk of poor independent living.

Affecting belonging: experimental education, cultural resources, and affective cultural citizenship in contemporary China

ABSTRACT This article explores how Chinese grassroots actors engaged in ‘experimental education’ (EE) practice a new form of Chinese cultural citizenship. Using cultural resources gleaned from grassroots social movements ranging from ‘Chinese Traditional Culture’ (CTC) revival to Steiner education, EE activists establish affectivity, or the embodied sensory capacity to receive and exert influence, as a legitimate education goal and a key criterion of socio-cultural belonging. Using affectivity as a basis, EE activists contest the state’s exclusionary education politics. In their grassroots social networks, EE activists construct radical inclusion for ‘value minorities’ – individuals and groups who misfit normative conceptions of Chinese cultural citizenship. These include CTC educators who promote ‘non-cognitive knowing’, Steiner educators who run illegal ‘Voldemort Schools’ to foster children’s affective development, and neurodivergent children who putatively demonstrate ‘terrifyingly strong affective abilities’. I argue that these diverse EE activists articulate and practice ‘affective cultural citizenship’, ranging from moderate to militant forms. Their contestations amount to community-based cultural citizenship practices, asserting the right to be different and to belong in an authoritarian state.

Resilience-happiness nexus in community-dwelling middle-aged and older adults: Results from Gan-Dau Healthy Longevity Plan

The core of healthy aging is intrinsic capacity (IC) that consists of major elements, i.e., cognition, locomotion, vitality, sensory capacity, and psychological aspect. This cross-sectional study analyzes data of the Gan-Dau Healthy Longevity Plan, targeting community-dwelling adults aged 50 years or older. The participants completed the assessment, in addition to WHO IC, including the Mini-Mental Status Examination (MMSE) for cognitive performance, 6 m walking speed (m/s),timed up-and-go test (s) and hand grip strength (Kg) for locomotor assessment, Cardiovascular health study (CHS) for frailty assessment, Mini Nutrition assessment short form (MNA-SF) for nutrition. Psychological aspect including the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) for sleep quality, the Geriatric Depression Scale-5 (GDS-5) for depressive symptoms, the Brief Resilience Scale (BRS) for resilience, and the Chinese Happiness Inventory (CHI) for happiness levels. The study enrolled 810 participants (mean age of 68.45 ± 8.05 years, 32% male) and revealed that 94.7% of participants exhibited impairments in IC, with visual capacity and cognition being the most common deficit items of IC. Resilience levels varied, with 37.4% of men and 33.5% of women exhibiting moderate to low resilience. Only 23.4% of male participants and 21.1% female participants reported a high level of happiness. Resilience was found to partially mediate the relationship between intrinsic capacity and happiness, with approximately 6.6% of the variance in happiness being mediated by resilience. In conclusion, the study provides valuable insights into the connections between psychological aspect, IC, and healthy aging.

Lay metrology and metroscoping: Towards the study of lay units.

This exploratory article provides groundwork towards a tentative framework for exploring how lay measures and units - what is here called 'lay metrology' - intersect with formal metrology, and its various mediations. This article concerns itself with the role that everyday 'units' - grounded in part in the material culture of bodies and experience - play in relation to a metrological landscape, or 'metroscape' that is also inhabited by standardised units routinely popularised through various media. After a brief overview of the relevant literature on metrology, examples of lay metrology are provided that examine the relation of everyday units of, for example, length and area, to particular forms of bodily experience, social identity and sensorial capacities. This article draws on elements from science communication and affect theory to develop the notion of 'metroscoping' and to articulate a series of orienting questions for engaging with lay metrological processes.

Social engagement and depressive symptoms mediate the relationship between age-related hearing loss and cognitive status.

Age-related hearing loss (ARHL) is the third leading cause of years lived with disability. Connections among ARHL, depressive symptoms, social engagement and cognitive status are increasingly reported but the underlying mechanisms leading to these relationships are largely unknown. Exploring these mechanisms is a worthy goal, especially in older adults. This study aimed to examine the mediating effect of social engagement and depressive symptoms on the relationship between ARHL and cognitive status. Structural equation modeling (SEM) with path analysis were performed with data from a cross-sectional study conducted in 11 community centers in 2021, which assessed older adults' intrinsic and sensory capacities using the WHO ICOPE framework. Demographic information, health profile, a binary measure of hearing capacity, depressive symptoms, social engagement, and cognitive status of participants were gathered. A total of 304 participants were included. ARHL was positively associated with depressive symptoms (β=0.18, p=0.009) and negatively related to social engagement (β=-0.13, p=0.026). Social engagement was positively associated with cognitive status (β=0.17, p=0.005) and negatively associated with depressive symptoms (β=-0.23, p<0.001). Greater depressive symptoms were negatively associated with the participants' cognition (β=-0.13, p=0.009). Both social engagement (β=-0.02, p=0.029) and depressive symptoms (β=-0.02, p=0.032) mediated the negative associations between ARHL and cognitive status. Addressing hearing loss, depressive symptoms, and enhancing social engagement should be investigated as a potential means of minimizing cognitive decline. Well-designed studies are needed to comprehensively inform the clinical practice development, particularly large prospective studies that will facilitate further elucidate possible causal mechanisms behind these observed associations.

Intrinsic capacity and 5-year late-life functional ability trajectories of Chinese older population using ICOPE tool: the Rugao Longevity and Ageing Study.

Knowledge of how intrinsic capacity (IC) shape functional ability (FA) trajectories in later life remains unclear. We investigated the changes in IC and their impact on 5-years FA trajectories in the Chinese older population. A total of 1640 older adults from the Rugao Longitudinal Ageing Study were included and analyzed. FA was assessed by The Lawton Instrumental Activities of Daily Living Scale (IADLs). We used cognition, psychology, locomotion, sensory capacity, and vitality to capture the multiple domains of IC according to the ICOPE method. The IC was derived retrospectively from variables collected before this was described by WHO. At baseline, a higher IC was associated with higher IADLs (β = 0.98, 95% CI 0.90, 1.06, P < 0.001). Individuals with declines in IC between wave1 and wave2 experienced a faster decline in IADLs over time (β = - 0.28, 95% CI - 0.40, - 0.16, P < 0.001) after considering covariates. One or more impairment IC scores at baseline strongly predicted death (HR = 1.20, 95% CI 1.11, 1.30, P < 0.001). In addition, according to the IC scores at baseline, we stratify IC in low, middle, and high, compared with those in the high IC score, those in the low were associated with a 2.56-fold (95% CI 1.64, 4.01, P < 0.001) higher risk of mortality, after adjustment for variables. Changes in IC shape FA trajectories. IC impairment is associated with an increased risk of death. Assessing intrinsic capacity would facilitate early identification of older adults at high risk of adverse outcomes and prompt targeted interventions.

Older adults’ multi-sensory experience: an eye-tracking study of high-density residential neighbourhoods in Singapore

ABSTRACT Declines in sensory and cognitive capacity are common with ageing and deeply affect daily functioning of older adults. However, empirical studies investigating seniors’ multi-sensory spatial experience are scarce. This study employs mobile eye-tracking and post-walk interviews in two high-density public housing neighbourhoods in Singapore to empirically examine the ways they perceive their familiar outdoor settings. Methods prove to be fruitful for gathering and interlinking complex and dynamic, quantitative and qualitative data on multi-sensory experience, through active and embodied spatial engagement. Key findings indicate that the majority of seniors spend most of their time visually engaged with the ground. This may result from higher safety concerns among seniors, but also from the lack of engaging features in investigated neighbourhoods. Comfort, safety, aesthetic and ethical/social judgement, inter-generational interaction, health and wayfinding are among the most reoccurring themes revealed, which can inform better multi-sensory integration for empathetic and enabling ageing-friendly neighbourhood design.

Association between Intrinsic Capacity and Sarcopenia in Hospitalized Older Patients.

This study aimed to clarify the association between intrinsic capacity (IC) and sarcopenia in hospitalized older patients. A cross-sectional study. Hospital-based. This study included 381 inpatients aged ≥ 60 years (225 men and 156 women). IC was evaluated in five domains defined by the World Health Organization: cognition (Mini-Mental State Examination), locomotion (Short Physical Performance Battery test), vitality (Short-Form Mini Nutritional Assessment), sensory (self-reported hearing and vision) and psychological (5-item Geriatric Depression Scale) capacities. IC composite score (0-5) was calculated based on five domains, with lower scores representing greater IC. Sarcopenia was defined in accordance with the criteria recommended by the Asian Working Group for Sarcopenia (AWGS) 2019. Multiple linear and logistic regressions were performed to explore the associations between IC composite score and IC domains with sarcopenia and its defining components. The mean age of 381 patients included was 81.95±8.42 years. Of them, 128 (33.6%) patients had sarcopenia. The median IC composite score was 1 (1, 2). Cognition, locomotion, vitality, sensory and psychological capacities were impaired in 22.6%, 63.5%, 18.9%, 27.3% and 11.3% of patients. Multiple linear regression analyses showed that favorable IC domain scores in cognition, locomotion and vitality were associated with a stronger handgrip strength. A higher vitality score was associated with a greater appendicular skeletal muscle mass index (ASMI), and a higher locomotion score was associated with a greater gait speed. The multiple logistic regression analysis showed that only vitality impairment was associated with sarcopenia. A higher IC composite score was associated with higher risks of sarcopenia, as well as low ASMI, handgrip strength and gait speed. This study indicated that a more serious impairment of IC was associated with a greater risk of sarcopenia. Vitality was the domain most strongly associated with sarcopenia. IC may be employed to detect and manage sarcopenia.

A unified paradigm for defining elasmobranch aggregations

AbstractElasmobranchs are highly diverse in movement, sensory capacity, and behavioural responses to the environment, leading to differences in the function and nature of associations and interactions between individuals, populations, and species. The term “aggregation” has been widely and variably used to describe co-occurrence across elasmobranch species, but its defining criteria remain vague and indeterminate. The lack of standardized terminology hinders comparisons across studies, species, and systems. It can cause misinterpretation about the drivers of aggregation formation or grouping behaviour and limits the impact of elasmobranch behavioural research. Here, we propose generalizable definitions of aggregation and supporting terms, adapted from more mature socioecological theory in other systems, which can be applied across elasmobranchs. We discuss the drivers and types of elasmobranch aggregations, detail the criteria required to identify an aggregation based on our definition, and offer direction on future methods and reporting to advance the field. These proposed definitions and reporting protocols standardize the study of elasmobranch socioecology, will generate greater understanding of the mechanisms underlying behaviour and distribution across species, and support more cross-system comparisons. Finally, this information can offer greater predictive power into when and how aggregations may form, leading to more proactive management strategies to mitigate anthropogenic threats.