Symbol Search Research Articles

Clinical presentations of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children and adolescents: comparison of neurocognitive performance

ABSTRACT This study aimed to compare performance in working memory (WM), processing speed (PRS), and attention measures in children and adolescents with typical development (TD) and with Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (inattentive [ADHD-I] or combined [ADHD-C]) presentations, and to determine the predictive ability of the measures mentioned to discriminate between ADHD presentations and TD. 260 children and adolescents, 138 with ADHD (70 ADHD-I and 68 ADHD-C) and 122 TD in two age cohorts (8–12 years; 13–16 years), were assessed with WM and PRS indexes of Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-IV) and the d2 attention test. Significant differences between ADHD and TD groups in the WISC-IV GAI scores were found in children but not in adolescents. Children and adolescents with both ADHD presentations performed poorly on the PRS index, while on the WM index only children exhibited difficulties. In the attention test, children with ADHD-C showed more impulsivity and more difficulties for processing speed, concentration and accuracy than ADHD-I and TD. In addition, both ADHD presentations had higher inattention scores than TD. ADHD adolescents performed worse than TD in processing speed, concentration and accuracy. ADHD groups showed more impulsivity and inattention than TD. Digit Span and Symbol Search (WISC-IV) and processing speed and accuracy (d2) successfully classified ADHD and TD in children, but in adolescents, only coding (WISC-IV) and accuracy (d2) successfully classified ADHD presentations and TD. The WISC-IV and d2 yield neuropsychological profiles which reflect age-related cognitive changes and may allow the adaptation of more tailored early interventions for ADHD.

Association between secondhand smoke exposure at home and cognitive performance among rural primary school children in Malaysia.

INTRODUCTIONSecondhand smoke (SHS) exposure is linked to a series of serious health problems. Children may be particularly vulnerable to the effects of SHS exposure at home. This study aimed to determine the association between SHS exposure at home and cognitive performance in school children.METHODSA multistage sampling was performed across rural primary schools in Kuala Krai, Kelantan, Malaysia. Data were collected using self-administered questionnaires and the children aged 10–11 years (n=312) were subjected to cognitive tests including digit span, letter-number sequencing, coding, and symbol search. Cognitive performance was tested using subscales derived from the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children.RESULTSThe prevalence of SHS exposure at home was 55.8%, where 11.9% of children lived with one smoker, while 43.9% of children lived with ≥2 smokers. There was a significant difference in the mean score of the combined cognitive tests between SHS-exposed and non-exposed children after adjustment for sex, parental educational level, family income and academic performance [Pillai’s Trace=0.084, F statistic (df)=6.803 (4302), p<0.001].CONCLUSIONSMore than half of the primary school children in rural Kuala Krai were exposed to SHS from at least one smoker at home. There was a significant association between SHS exposure at home and cognitive performance.

Plasma Cytokine Levels As Predictors of Global and Domain-Specific Human Immunodeficiency Virus-Associated Neurocognitive Impairment in Treatment-Naive Individuals.

Central nervous system dysfunction, associated with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection, remains a significant clinical concern, affecting at least 50% of infected people. Imbalances in cytokine expression levels have been linked to HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders. The aim of this study was to evaluate plasma cytokine levels as predictor neurocognitive impairment in HIV infection using a multiplex profiling kit. Stepwise regression model was used to identify cytokine biomarkers of overall and domain-specific cognitive performance. Higher interleukin (IL)-2 (β = 0.04; P = 0.001) and eotaxin (β = 0.01; P = 0.017) were predictors of global neurocognitive, whereas higher IL-5 (β = 0.005; P = 0.007) was negative predictor of global cognitive deficit. IL-2 was a negative predictor of most cognitive domain functions, including recall (β = 0.24; P = 0.005), recognition (β = 0.04; P = 0.026), mental control (β = 0.38; P = 0.005), symbol search (β = -0.55; P = 0.001), and digital symbol (β = -0.79; P = 0.019). IL-6 was associated with 3 impaired domains, mental processing (β = -0.468; P = 0.027), recognition (β = -0.044; P = 0.012), and learning (β = 0.02668; P = 0.020) These results show that plasma cytokines/chemokines may serve as markers of neurocognitive impairment in HIV infection.

Latent Profile Analysis of Neuropsychiatric Symptoms and Cognitive Function of Adults 2 Weeks After Traumatic Brain Injury

Heterogeneity across patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI) presents challenges for clinical care and intervention design. Identifying distinct clinical phenotypes of TBI soon after injury may inform patient selection for precision medicine clinical trials. To investigate whether distinct neurobehavioral phenotypes can be identified 2 weeks after TBI and to characterize the degree to which early neurobehavioral phenotypes are associated with 6-month outcomes. This prospective cohort study included patients presenting to 18 US level 1 trauma centers within 24 hours of TBI from 2014 to 2019 as part of the Transforming Research and Clinical Knowledge in TBI (TRACK-TBI) study. Data were analyzed from January 28, 2020, to January 11, 2021. TBI. Latent profiles (LPs) were derived from common dimensions of neurobehavioral functioning at 2 weeks after injury, assessed through National Institutes of Health TBI Common Data Elements (ie, Brief Symptom Inventory-18, Patient Health Questionnaire-9 Depression checklist, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist for DSM-5, PROMIS Pain Intensity scale, Insomnia Severity Index, Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test, Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Fourth Edition Coding and Symbol Search subtests, Trail Making Test, and NIH Toolbox Cognitive Battery Pattern Comparison Processing Speed, Dimensional Change Card Sort, Flanker Inhibitory Control and Attention, and Picture Sequence Memory subtests). Six-month outcomes were the Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS), Quality of Life after Brain Injury-Overall Scale (QOLIBRI-OS), Glasgow Outcome Scale-Extended (GOSE), and Rivermead Post-Concussion Symptoms Questionnaire (RPQ). Among 1757 patients with TBI included, 1184 (67.4%) were men, and the mean (SD) age was 39.9 (17.0) years. LP analysis revealed 4 distinct neurobehavioral phenotypes at 2 weeks after injury: emotionally resilient (419 individuals [23.8%]), cognitively impaired (368 individuals [20.9%]), cognitively resilient (620 individuals [35.3%]), and neuropsychiatrically distressed (with cognitive weaknesses; 350 individuals [19.9%]). Adding LP group to models including demographic characteristics, medical history, Glasgow Coma Scale score, and other injury characteristics was associated with significantly improved estimation of association with 6-month outcome (GOSE R2 increase = 0.09-0.19; SWLS R2 increase = 0.12-0.22; QOLIBRI-OS R2 increase = 0.14-0.32; RPQ R2 = 0.13-0.34). In this cohort study of patients with TBI presenting to US level-1 trauma centers, qualitatively distinct profiles of symptoms and cognitive functioning were identified at 2 weeks after TBI. These distinct phenotypes may help optimize clinical decision-making regarding prognosis, as well as selection and stratification for randomized clinical trials.

On ab initio-based, free and closed-form expressions for gravitational waves

We introduce a new approach for finding high accuracy, free and closed-form expressions for the gravitational waves emitted by binary black hole collisions from ab initio models. More precisely, our expressions are built from numerical surrogate models based on supercomputer simulations of the Einstein equations, which have been shown to be essentially indistinguishable from each other. Distinct aspects of our approach are that: (i) representations of the gravitational waves can be explicitly written in a few lines, (ii) these representations are free-form yet still fast to search for and validate and (iii) there are no underlying physical approximations in the underlying model. The key strategy is combining techniques from Artificial Intelligence and Reduced Order Modeling for parameterized systems. Namely, symbolic regression through genetic programming combined with sparse representations in parameter space and the time domain using Reduced Basis and the Empirical Interpolation Method enabling fast free-form symbolic searches and large-scale a posteriori validations. As a proof of concept we present our results for the collision of two black holes, initially without spin, and with an initial separation corresponding to 25–31 gravitational wave cycles before merger. The minimum overlap, compared to ground truth solutions, is 99%. That is, 1% difference between our closed-form expressions and supercomputer simulations; this is considered for gravitational (GW) science more than the minimum required due to experimental numerical errors which otherwise dominate. This paper aims to contribute to the field of GWs in particular and Artificial Intelligence in general.

Effects of maternal folic acid supplementation during the second and third trimesters of pregnancy on neurocognitive development in the child: an 11-year follow-up from a randomised controlled trial

BackgroundMaternal folic acid (FA) supplementation before and in early pregnancy prevents neural tube defects (NTD), but it is uncertain whether continuing FA after the first trimester has benefits on offspring health. We aimed to evaluate the effect of FA supplementation throughout pregnancy on cognitive performance and brain function in the child.MethodsFollow-up investigation of 11-year-old children, residing in Northern Ireland, whose mothers had participated in a randomised trial of Folic Acid Supplementation in the Second and Third Trimesters (FASSTT) in pregnancy and received 400 μg/day FA or placebo from the 14th gestational week. Cognitive performance (Full Scale Intelligence Quotient, Verbal Comprehension, Working Memory, Perceptual Reasoning, and Processing Speed) was assessed using the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children. Neuronal function was assessed using magnetoencephalographic (MEG) brain imaging.ResultsOf 119 mother-child pairs in the FASSTT trial, 68 children were assessed for neurocognitive performance at 11-year follow-up (Dec 2017 to Nov 2018). Children of mothers randomised to FA compared with placebo scored significantly higher in two Processing Speed tests, i.e. symbol search (mean difference 2.9 points, 95% CI 0.3 to 5.5, p = 0.03) and cancellation (11.3 points, 2.5 to 20.1, p = 0.04), whereas the positive effect on Verbal Comprehension was significant in girls only (6.5 points, 1.2 to 11.8, p = 0.03). MEG assessment of neuronal responses to a language task showed increased power at the Beta (13–30 Hz, p = 0.01) and High Gamma (49–70 Hz, p = 0.04) bands in children from FA-supplemented mothers, suggesting more efficient semantic processing of language.ConclusionsContinued FA supplementation in pregnancy beyond the early period currently recommended to prevent NTD can benefit neurocognitive development of the child. MEG provides a non-invasive tool in paediatric research to objectively assess functional brain activity in response to nutrition and other interventions.Trial registrationISRCTN ISRCTN19917787. Registered on 15 May 2013.

Cognitive differences between adults with traumatic brain injury and specific learning disorder

ABSTRACT Background: Impaired working memory, attention, and processing speed are common in individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI) and specific learning disorder (SLD). Yet, there is a paucity of research that has examined cognitive differences between these groups. Objective: The current study examined potential group differences between individuals with TBI and SLD on performance-based tests of working memory, attention, and processing speed. Subsequently, the study examined whether just processing speed tests could discriminate persons with TBI versus SLD. Method: The authors analyzed archival data to assess differences between 39 adult participants with moderate-severe TBI versus 57 adult participants with SLD on the Trail Making Test Part A, Trail Making Test Part B, Digit Span test, and Symbol Search test. Results: 95% confidence intervals revealed that participants with TBI performed significantly worse on the Trail Making Test Part A and Symbol Search test. Logistic regression analysis procedures revealed that Trail Making Test Part A was the most sensitive discriminator. Conclusion: Diagnosis of moderate-severe TBI compared to SLD can be determined by poor performance on measures of visual scanning and processing speed. These findings may be used for diagnostic interpretation and treatment planning by clinicians.

Cognitive Fatigue and Processing Speed in Children Treated for Brain Tumours.

The relationship between fatigue and cognition has not been fully elucidated in children and adolescent survivors of brain tumours. The aim of the present study was to investigate the potential relationship between fatigue and cognitive impairments in these survivors, as this group is at risk for both types of deficits. Survivors of paediatric brain tumours (n = 45) underwent a neuropsychological testing on average 4 years after diagnosis. Mean age at follow-up was 13.41 years. Cognition was assessed with neuropsychological tests, and fatigue with the Pediatric Quality of Life (PedsQL™) Multidimensional Fatigue Scale. Regression analysis, adjusted for cranial radiotherapy and age at diagnosis, was used to investigate the associations between cognitive variables and fatigue subscales. Cognitive variables associated with fatigue were subsequently exploratively assessed. Significant associations were found for cognitive fatigue and measures of cognitive processing speed; Coding: p = .003, r = .583, 95% CI [9.61; 22.83] and Symbol Search: p = .001, r = .585, 95% CI [10.54; 24.87]. Slower processing speed was associated with poorer results for cognitive fatigue. Survivors with the largest decrease in processing speed from baseline to follow-up also experienced the most cognitive fatigue. Survivors expressed more cognitive fatigue compared to other types of fatigue. The association between cognitive fatigue and cognitive processing speed in children and adolescents treated for brain tumours is in concordance with the results previously reported in adults. Some survivors experience fatigue without impairment in processing speed, indicating the need for comprehensive assessments. Moreover, the study supports that fatigue is a multidimensional concept which should be measured accordingly.

Killing Stubborn Mutants with Symbolic Execution

We introduce SEMu , a Dynamic Symbolic Execution technique that generates test inputs capable of killing stubborn mutants (killable mutants that remain undetected after a reasonable amount of testing). SEMu aims at mutant propagation (triggering erroneous states to the program output) by incrementally searching for divergent program behaviors between the original and the mutant versions. We model the mutant killing problem as a symbolic execution search within a specific area in the programs’ symbolic tree. In this framework, the search area is defined and controlled by parameters that allow scalable and cost-effective mutant killing. We integrate SEMu in KLEE and experimented with Coreutils (a benchmark frequently used in symbolic execution studies). Our results show that our modeling plays an important role in mutant killing. Perhaps more importantly, our results also show that, within a two-hour time limit, SEMu kills 37% of the stubborn mutants, where KLEE kills none and where the mutant infection strategy (strategy suggested by previous research) kills 17%.

‘Som escola’. The construction of an inclusive intercultural community in a school undergoing transformation

ABSTRACT The present article describes a study carried out in a rural school in the province of Valencia (Spain) that is currently immersed in a process of transformation towards becoming an inclusive intercultural school. The objective of this study is to learn about the process of constructing the school’s educational community and the factors involved in this process. The study used intrinsic case study methodology in which, through interviews, focus groups, participatory social diagnostic techniques and participant observation, we examine how this educational community is being constructed. The results show the dynamism and complexity of this process. The search for identity symbols, the need to continually inspire motivation among the members of the community and the emergence of a dichotomous discourse determines its evolution. The democratic participation of the community is demonstrated as a core element in the process of constructing this inclusive intercultural educational community.

Incorporating Actor-Critic in Monte Carlo tree search for symbolic regression

Most traditional genetic programming methods that handle symbolic regression are random algorithms without memory and direction. They repeatedly search for the same or similar positions in the symbolic space, and easily fall into premature convergence. To overcome these shortcomings, we propose a new symbolic expression search algorithm based on the Monte Carlo tree search named SE-MCTS. It creates a tree to represent the symbolic space and remembers its visiting positions. Moreover, it incorporates two neural networks—Actor and Critic into the upper confidence bound to direct its search based on the given dataset features and decide when to use particle swarm optimization to find fitted constants in a mathematical expression. The experiment results show that SE-MCTS can discover more proper mathematical expressions than canonical genetic programming methods.

СИСТЕМАТИЗАЦІЯ ТА АНАЛІЗ ПРАЦЬ, ПРИСВЯЧЕНИХ ДОСЛІДЖЕННЮ УКРАЇНСЬКИХ ЕТНІЧНИХ МЕЖ

The article attempts to systematize and analyze scientific works devoted to the study of the Ukrainian ethnic boundaries. It is worth noting that the study of the Ukrainian ethnic boundaries is one of the most debatable today, because shortly after the formation of the first concepts of ethnogenesis of Ukrainians historiographical generalizations of this problem began to form, which were built mainly in the forms of criticism of views of different historiographical schools on the settlement of Ukrainian people. Today, one of the most acute problems in the study of Ukrainian ethnic boundaries is the systematization and analysis of historiographical achievements of scholars. It has become one of the most complex and controversial in domestic scientific and historical thought. Although the problem of the origin of the Ukrainian ethnos and the early stages of the ethnogenesis of the Ukrainian nation has been actively studied by various researchers for more than a century and a half, this issue needs further elaboration. But why is the issue of resettlement of the Ukrainian ethnic group and analysis of scientific works devoted to this issue gaining its peak right now? Currently, the study and analysis of this topic is extremely important, because due to the fruitful study and comprehensive analysis of the problem of resettlement of the Ukrainian nation, the future generation will form a clearer understanding of the sources of Ukrainian ethnogenesis, traditions and customs, cultural identification, national traits, patriotism, representation of Ukrainian nation in the world historical and political arena, etc. After the proclamation of Independence of Ukraine, there was a need in society to search for historical sources of national identity. This led to the active emergence of new or popularization of existing ethnogenetic concepts. Most of them fall under the concept of quasi-scientific because of their doubts about the original sources and a fairly free interpretation of historical phenomena and events. The West and the East of Ukraine are characterized by completely opposite attitudes to the same events and historical figures. Public authorities need to pay close attention to the development of a national idea, the search for national symbols and leaders. The article reveals the problems of systematization of scientific works devoted to the study of the Ukrainian ethnic boundaries, as well as analyzes the ethnic components of the formation of Ukrainian culture.

Controlling TMD Enhances Cognitive and Emotional Responsiveness

Background: While previous studies have focused on cognitive improvement over time, they have not necessarily focused on mood changes. The goal of this study was to address pain relief, in particular the immediate response of pain relief. Methods: The focus of this study was 25 chronic TMD patients suffering from craniofacial pain. Trigger point injections were given to alleviate this pain, after a neurocognitive assessment was completed. Patients were then given the Epworth Daytime Sleepiness Scale, Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), and a measure of memory (Three Words Three Shape Test) and processing speed (Symbol Search from the WAIS III) test. This was performed on a voluntary basis. Results: Out of 25 participants, 4.2% reported a pain ranking of 1 (on a scale of 0 to 3), 37.5% reported a pain ranking of 2, and 58.3% reported a pain ranking of 3. In regards to the origin of pain, 75% reported that trauma was the origin, 16.7% reported that stress was the origin, and 8% reported that the origin was anatomical in nature. Conclusions: This study has shown that you have a higher chance of immediate increase in cognitive function in terms of processing speed, however memory is not as receptive to immediate change. Craniofacial muscles are therefore less tense. Practical Implications: Can there be an immediate improvement in brain function when pain is eliminated? Dentists who are specialists in treating TMD are proving to revert negative cognitive and emotional changes when TMD symptoms dissipate

한국형 AAC 기본상징 검색 시스템 - 로우테크 보완대체의사소통 도구 제작을 위한 웹 서비스 개발 -

한국형 AAC 기본상징 검색 시스템 - 로우테크 보완대체의사소통 도구 제작을 위한 웹 서비스 개발 -

Native Spanish-speaker’s test performance and the effects of Spanish-English bilingualism: results from the neuropsychological norms for the U.S.-Mexico Border Region in Spanish (NP-NUMBRS) project

Objective: We aimed to investigate whether or not demographically-corrected test scores derived from the Neuropsychological Norms for the U.S.-Mexico Border Region in Spanish (NP-NUMBRS) would be less accurate if applied to Spanish-speakers with various degrees of English fluency. Spanish-English Method: One hundred and seventy primarily Spanish-speaking adults from the NP-NUMBRS project completed a comprehensive neuropsychological test battery. T-scores adjusted for age, education, and sex (but not degree of bilingualism), were derived for each test utilizing population-specific normative data. English fluency was assessed via the Controlled Oral Word Association Test in English (F-A-S), and Spanish fluency with “P-M-R,” and degree of relative English fluency was calculated as the ratio of English language words over total words produced in both languages. Effects of degree of bilingualism on the NUMBRS battery test scores (raw scores and T-scores) were examined via Pearson’s product moment correlation coefficients, and language groups (Spanish dominant vs. relative bilingual) were compared on demographically adjusted T-scores via independent samples t-tests. Results: Higher Spanish-English bilingualism was associated with higher education and SES, and was significantly associated with higher raw scores on all tests, but only associated with higher T-scores on a limited number of tests (i.e., WAIS-III Digit Symbol, Symbol Search, Letter-Number Sequencing and Trails B). Conclusion: Degree of Spanish-English bilingualism generally did not account for significant variance in the normed tests beyond the standard demographic adjustments on most tests. Overall, the normative adjustments provided by the NP-NUMBRS project appear applicable to native Spanish speakers from the U.S.-Mexico border region with various degrees of Spanish-English bilingualism.

Test de Atención d2: Consistencia interna, estabilidad temporal y evidencias de validez

El objetivo de esta investigación fue analizar la adecuación psicométrica del Test d2 para su uso en Costa Rica. Una muestra de 445 individuos con edades entre 18 y 47 años, 58% mujeres y 42% hombres, contestaron la prueba d2; 50 de ellos completaron la prueba una segunda vez y 40 respondieron también las pruebas Test del Trazo, Test de Colores y Palabras de Stroop, Span de Dígitos, Búsqueda de Símbolos, Claves y Cancelación. Fueron evaluadas la consistencia interna, la estabilidad temporal y las evidencias de validez basadas en relaciones con otras variables y en la estructura interna. Los puntajes más fiables fueron los siguientes: total de respuestas (TR), total de aciertos (TA), índice de efectividad en la prueba (TOT) e índice de concentración (CON), con resultados del alfa de Cronbach y de fiabilidad test-retest en el rango de .90 a .97. Las correlaciones con pruebas que evalúan atención sostenida y selectiva, velocidad de procesamiento, precisión y control inhibitorio sugieren evidencias de validez para los puntajes CON, TR, TA y O (errores de omisión). Además, el aumento de edad está relacionado a la disminución de los puntajes TA y CON, en especial. Se discuten los hallazgos respecto a la estructura factorial de la prueba. Los resultados corroboran estudios previos e indican puntajes válidos del d2 para evaluar individuos de nivel universitario de Costa Rica.&#x0D;

Automated Discovery of Relationships, Models, and Principles in Ecology

Ecological systems are the quintessential complex systems, involving numerous high-order interactions and non-linear relationships. The most used statistical modeling techniques can hardly accommodate the complexity of ecological patterns and processes. Finding hidden relationships in complex data is now possible using massive computational power, particularly by means of artificial intelligence and machine learning methods. Here we explored the potential of symbolic regression (SR), commonly used in other areas, in the field of ecology. Symbolic regression searches for both the formal structure of equations and the fitting parameters simultaneously, hence providing the required flexibility to characterize complex ecological systems. Although the method here presented is automated, it is part of a collaborative human–machine effort and we demonstrate ways to do it. First, we test the robustness of SR to extreme levels of noise when searching for the species-area relationship. Second, we demonstrate how SR can model species richness and spatial distributions. Third, we illustrate how SR can be used to find general models in ecology, namely new formulas for species richness estimators and the general dynamic model of oceanic island biogeography. We propose that evolving free-form equations purely from data, often without prior human inference or hypotheses, may represent a very powerful tool for ecologists and biogeographers to become aware of hidden relationships and suggest general theoretical models and principles.

Intensive measurement of cognition to support early detection of cognitive change in individuals at risk of dementia

AbstractBackgroundCognitive changes in nondemented older adults are best measured longitudinally and relative to individual baselines. Effect sizes of early changes in cognition are small with most traditional measures, and so there is a need for alternative measurement approaches that can improve statistical power to detect change. Remotely administered mobile assessments can address this need by permitting much more frequent repeated measurements, which then permits statistical delineation of early slopes of decline from performance variation associated with extraneous factors (e.g., mood, practice). MyCogHealth is an iOS/Android app for self‐administered cognitive assessments and customizable surveys. Inclusion of MyCogHealth in the Canadian Thumbs Up program (CTU) will permit evaluation of feasibility and utility of intensive measurement designs for capturing early cognitive changes in older adults identified to be at increased risk of dementia.MethodThe CTU Platform Trial Cohort will complete five intensive measurement “bursts” in three‐month intervals using MyCogHealth. Each burst involves brief self‐administered assessments completed twice daily across seven consecutive days. Each assessment includes the Symbol Match test (processing speed), Dot Memory (visual short‐term memory), a digital Trailmaking Test analogue, and surveys assessing state factors that can affect cognition. A pilot cohort (N=17; Mean age=74; Mean MoCA score=28) was followed for 12 months using this protocol to evaluate feasibility and psychometric integrity of the Symbol Match and Dot Memory tests in this design.ResultIn the pilot cohort Symbol Match correlated with Digit Span Forward and the Trailmaking Test (r=.51‐.66). Dot Memory correlated with Backward Digit Span (r=.49), Trailmaking Test (r=‐.59), object naming (r=.64), and visual episodic memory (r=.58). Retest reliability was .80 for Dot Memory and .87 for Symbol Search. Intraclass correlation was .77 for Symbol Search and .42 for Dot Memory. Participant retention was 100% and compliance with burst testing was 94%.ConclusionPreliminary results support the feasibility, validity, and reliability of self‐administered burst testing deployed longitudinally. Inclusion of MyCogHealth in CTU should be informative in capturing early slopes of decline in the study cohort. Such early detection of decline will inform more powerful, personalized trials where those at the highest predicted risk would be included and those at lower risk excluded.

Interaction-transformation symbolic regression with extreme learning machine

Symbolic Regression searches for a mathematical expression that fits the input data set by minimizing the approximation error. The search space explored by this technique is composed of any mathematical function representable as an expression tree. This provides more flexibility for fitting the data but it also makes the task more challenging. The search space induced by this representation becomes filled with redundancy and ruggedness, sometimes requiring a higher computational budget in order to achieve good results. Recently, a new representation for Symbolic Regression was proposed, called Interaction-Transformation, which can represent function forms as a composition of interactions between predictors and the application of a single transformation function. In this work, we show how this representation can be modeled as a multi-layer neural network with the weights adjusted following the Extreme Learning Machine procedure. The results show that this approach is capable of finding equally good or better results than the current state-of-the-art with a smaller computational cost.

The effect of increased family finance and dual-parental absence since infancy on Children's cognitive Abilities.

Existing research suggests that parental absence per se does not have a main effect on children's cognitive development. However, this body of research is confounded by decreased family finance resulted from parental absence. Further insights on children's cognitive development can be gained by studying situations where parental absence actually leads to higher family finance. China's rural left-behind children (LBC) are uniquely suited for this purpose because of their extended separation from parents who migrated to work for better family finance. The participants were 74 LBC (M=9.99 years, SD=2.66) whose parents both migrated away for work within six months of their births and 74 non-left-behind children (NLBC) (M=10.03 years, SD=2.58) of similar backgrounds but whose parents never migrated. We used the 4th Edition of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-IV) to individually collected data on the children's Verbal Comprehension (which includes Similarities, Vocabulary, and Comprehension subtests), Perceptual Reasoning (which includes Block Design, Picture Concepts and Matric Reasoning subtests), Working Memory (which includes Digit Span and Letter-Number Sequencing subtests), and Processing Speed (which includes Coding and Symbol Search subtests). We found that the LBC scored lower than the NLBC on the language Comprehension and Vocabulary subtests of the Verbal Comprehension Index (Cohen's d=0.41; p=.01). Subsequent General Linear Modeling analyses revealed that for the Comprehension subtest: (1) dual-parental absence significantly and negatively predicted Comprehension scores and (2) monthly family income significantly and positively predicted Comprehension scores for the LBC but not for the NLBC. For Vocabulary subtest, only dual-parental absence was significant. Overall, these results offer a deeper understanding on the effect of dual parental absence and changes in family finance on different domains of children's cognitive development.