Everyday Life Tasks Research Articles

The association between sleep duration and risk of mortality in Chinese older adults: a national cohort study.

Cohort studies about the sleep duration on the risk of death among Chinese older adults are still lacking. The aim of this study was to examine whether extremely long or short sleep duration was associated with mortality in Chinese adults aged 65 years or older. We included participants aged 65 years or older in 2011 at baseline in 23 provinces from the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey who were followed up in 2014/2018 in China. Sleep duration was categorized as short sleep duration (< 7 hours) and long sleep duration (> 8 hours). We used the Cox proportional hazards model and restricted cubic spline analysis to explore the association between sleep duration and mortality. Among 9578 participants, short sleep duration was associated with an 11% higher risk of death (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR]: 1.11; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.02-1.20) and long sleep duration was associated with a 24% higher risk of death (aHR: 1.24; 95% CI: 1.15-1.34), after adjustment for all covariates. There was a U-shaped association between sleep duration and all-cause mortality (nonlinear, P < .0001). Stratified analyses showed that the risk was higher among older people who smoked and with a higher level of education both for short and long sleepers than for those who never smoked and were illiterate (P value for interaction < .05). There was a U-shaped association between sleep duration and all-cause mortality in Chinese older adults, especially in more educated individuals and smokers. Du M, Liu M, Liu J. The association between sleep duration and the risk of mortality in the Chinese older adults: a national cohort study. J Clin Sleep Med. 2021;17(9):1821-1829.

Individual differences in cognitive offloading: a comparison of intention offloading, pattern copy, and short-term memory capacity

The cognitive load of many everyday life tasks exceeds known limitations of short-term memory. One strategy to compensate for information overload is cognitive offloading which refers to the externalization of cognitive processes such as reminder setting instead of memorizing. There appears to be remarkable variance in offloading behavior between participants which poses the question whether there is a common factor influencing offloading behavior across different tasks tackling short-term memory processes. To pursue this question, we studied individual differences in offloading behavior between two well-established offloading paradigms: the intention offloading task which tackles memory for intentions and the pattern copy task which tackles continuous short-term memory load. Our study also included an unrelated task measuring short-term memory capacity. Each participant completed all tasks twice on two consecutive days in order to obtain reliability scores. Despite high reliability scores, individual differences in offloading behavior were uncorrelated between the two offloading tasks. In both tasks, however, individual differences in offloading behavior were correlated with the individual differences in an unrelated short-term memory task. Our results therefore show that offloading behavior cannot simply be explained in terms of a single common factor driving offloading behavior across tasks. We discuss the implications of this finding for future research investigating the interrelations of offloading behavior across different tasks.

Aerobic reserve capacity in multiple sclerosis-Preliminary evidence.

Aerobic reserve capacity reflects the available energy for performing everyday life tasks, and it has been studied in older adult populations. This preliminary study examined proof of concept and measurement of aerobic reserve capacity in multiple sclerosis (MS). Twenty-one fully ambulatory people with MS performed a maximal, cardiopulmonary exercise test (CPET). We calculated aerobic reserve capacity based on the difference between peak aerobic power (VO2peak ) and first stage oxygen consumption (VO2 ). Participants completed assessments for disability (Expanded Disability Status Scale, EDSS), cognition (Symbol Digit Modalities Test, SDMT), mood (Beck Depression Inventory, BDI), walking endurance (six-minute walk distance, 6MWD), walking speed (Timed Twenty-Foot Walk, T25FW), impact of MS (Multiple Sclerosis Impact Scale, MSIS-29), and anthropometric measurements (height and weight). Aerobic reserve capacity was 9.3±3.7ml/kg/min. Aerobic reserve capacity was positively associated with VO2peak (ρ=.67, p<.01), time to exhaustion (ρ=.63, p<.01), and SDMT (ρ=.51, p<.05). Aerobic reserve capacity was negatively associated with BMI (ρ=-.62, p<.01) and RHR (ρ=-0.47, p<.05). We provide preliminary evidence that aerobic reserve capacity is a feasible outcome derived from maximal CPET (eg, modified Balke protocol) in MS. Aerobic reserve capacity was associated with clinically relevant outcomes and could become an important outcome for rehabilitation in future research.

Shared Prosthetic Control Based on Multiple Movement Intent Decoders.

A number of movement intent decoders exist in the literature that typically differ in the algorithms used and the nature of the outputs generated. Each approach comes with its own advantages and disadvantages. Combining the estimates of multiple algorithms may have better performance than any of the individual methods. This paper presents and evaluates a shared controller framework for prosthetic limbs based on multiple decoders of volitional movement intent. An algorithm to combine multiple estimates to control the prosthesis is developed in this paper. The capabilities of the approach are validated using a system that combines a Kalman filter-based decoder with a multilayer perceptron classifier-based decoder. The shared controller's performance is validated in online experiments where a virtual limb is controlled in real-time by amputee and intact-arm subjects. During the testing phase subjects controlled a virtual hand in real time to move digits to instructed positions using either a Kalman filter decoder, a multilayer perceptron decoder, or a linear combination of the two. The shared controller results in statistically significant improvements over the component decoders. Specifically, certain degrees of shared control result in increases in the time-in-target metric and decreases in unintended movements. The shared controller of this paper combines the good qualities of component decoders tested in this paper. Herein, combining a Kalman filter decoder with a classifier-based decoder inherits the flexibility of the Kalman filter decoder and the limited unwanted movements from the classifier-based decoder, resulting in a system that may be able to perform the tasks of everyday life more naturally and reliably.

WITHDRAWN: A benchmarking study of Parkinson's disease classification base on speech symptom features

In numerous prominent fields, such as e-business, communications, retail, and medical, information exploration in databases has built its success rate. The mining of medical data has immense potential to investigate the out-of-sight trends in the respective medical databases. This paper aims to provide a benchmarking analysis of the classification basis for Parkinson's disease (PD) on speech symptoms utilizing a data mining approach. The Mentation, Tasks of Everyday Life (ADL), Motor Analysis, and Therapy Symptoms will captivate various PD main signs. The speech symptom that is an ADL is a frequent cause for the disease's advancement. The dataset PD classification is accessed from UCI, an open archive of broad datasets of machine learning (ML). In this paper, a comparative review is carried out on various classification algorithms by adding the feature significance analysis and the accuracy analysis to the best classification algorithm. Subsequently, a collection of ML algorithms to classify PD are Averaged Perceptron (AP), Bayes Point Ma-chine (BPM), Boosted Decision Trees (BDT), Convolutional Neural Network (CNN), Decision Forest (DF), Logistic Regression (LR), Neural Network (NN), and Support Vector Machine (SVM). Each algorithm is tested and evaluated via a 5-fold cross-validation approach. The results show that the BDT achieves the highest accuracy of 90.03%, precision of 93.81%, recall of 93.32%, and AUC of 95.67. It outperforms all the other seven tested ML classifiers; nevertheless, the other classifiers also manage to produce high PD diagnosis results, which indicates the suitability of the speech analysis approach in PD diagnosis.

Slow History.

All historians realize how much COVID-19 has interfered with our scholarship and teaching. Everything has slowed down, from preparing for classes, to doing research, to completing the simplest tasks of everyday life. Yet in the upheaval we are currently experiencing, and as we struggle to remain productive, perhaps we should also seize the opportunity to think more deeply about the “doing” of history and to isolate what really matters in research, writing, and instruction. Scholars in other disciplines have been doing so for several years, and some have even issued manifestos like the one advocating for “slow science.” Should we follow their lead? “Is going slow good for historians as well?”

Caring Relations at the Margins of Neurological Care Home Life: The Role of ‘Hotel Service’ Staff in Brain Injury Rehabilitation

Context: Domestic staff in hospitals and aged long-term care have been shown to perform a range of caring roles alongside their cleaning work. Objective: This paper explores the roles these people and other ‘hotel service staff’ (catering, domestic, maintenance, finance and administrative) play in the rehabilitation of people with brain injuries residing in long-term care settings. Methods: This research draws on in-depth ethnographic data collected in 2014–15 over five months at two neurological long-term care settings in the UK; including interviews and observations of day-to-day happenings in the lives of around 60 brain injured residents and the work of 16 hotel service staff. The data was subject to a situational analysis – underpinned by grounded theory and discourse analysis. Findings: Hotel service staff contribute to and compliment the rehabilitation of patients’ cognitive skills, communication and physical functioning, and provide opportunities for occupation and interaction. The therapeutic accomplishments achieved by involving patients in mundane tasks of everyday life (e.g., gardening, managing money, sharing food), fit with the aims of more ‘formalized’ rehabilitation – to restore patients’ abilities to carry out ‘activities of daily living’. Limitations: This study has been unable to fully explicate how hotel service staff have, or gain, the skills to interact so positively with brain injured residents. The study was confined to two sites and may not be reflective of practice elsewhere. Implications: The study findings highlight how the work and interactions of hotel service staff contribute not only to care but to the rehabilitation of people with severe brain injuries. This has implications for service design as well as health and social care education.

Activities With a Microprocessor-Controlled Leg Brace for Patients With Lower Limb Paralysis: A Series of Case Studies

Lower limb paralysis often leads to depreciation in mobility of the affected individuals. Computer-controlled leg brace systems open up new possibilities for these patients, by improving the safety of mobility tasks in everyday life, especially when walking on uneven terrain, inclined surfaces, steps and stairs. This article introduces such a system. To investigate the use of device functionalities in the patient's everyday environment, the knee joint of the brace was configured to store data of various sensors, measuring motion with a high temporal resolution over several weeks of home use. Results from a clinical trial including 8 patients with different pathologies show that the system was used by the patients for more than 10 hours per day on average, taking more than 2,100 steps per day. Maximum use time was more than 20.24 hours with 12,609 steps per day. An implemented yielding function to support walking down slopes or stairs was used by all patients. This function can also catch the user in case of stumbling, which on average happened 3 times per day. Seven out of eight patients reported improvements in quality and safety of many activities in daily life using the novel system, compared to their previous device.

Bagaimana Mengembangkan Kemampuan Spasial dalam Pembelajaran Matematika di Sekolah?: Suatu Tinjauan Literatur

Spatial ability is an important one of the abilities for completing many tasks in everyday life successfully. Spatial ability is considered a type of different ability to others. Therefore, there needs a study on how are the characteristics of spatial abilities and to develop in schools. This paper is to reveal the ways are developing spatial abilities in learning mathematics. Based on literature review from some research, at least that there are six ways to develop spatial abilities in learning mathematics, namely: (1) using spatial language in daily interactions; (2) teaching for sketching and drawing; (3) using a suitable game; (4) using a tangram; (5) using video games; and (6) origami and folding paper. Playing video games like Tetris are exercises for spatial relations, mental rotation, spatial orientation, and spatial visualization.

Patients' experiences before and after total wrist fusion or total wrist arthroplasty: A qualitative study of patients with wrist osteoarthritis

IntroductionFor patients with advanced wrist osteoarthritis (OA), total wrist fusion (TWF) is the standard surgical treatment, although total wrist arthroplasty (TWA) has become a plausible motion-preserving alternative. PurposeTo explore patients' experiences of living with advanced wrist OA before and after surgery with either a TWF or a TWA. Furthermore, we wanted to explore the expectations of surgery, appraisal of results, and the adaptation strategies used to overcome challenges in everyday life. Study DesignQualitative descriptive. MethodsA purposive sample of 13 patients with advanced wrist OA surgically treated with TWF (n = 7) or TWA (n = 6) was recruited. Semistructured interviews were conducted and analyzed using qualitative content analysis. ResultsFour categories are described: the problematic wrist, the breakpoint, appraisal of the results, and adaptation to challenges in everyday life. Pain relief was the primary expectation of surgery, and involvement in the discussion regarding different surgical options had a positive effect on the appraisal of results. The participants' ability to perform tasks in everyday life appeared to be more related to their level of pain than the range of wrist motion. Successful coping strategies were developed, enabling the participants to become more independent and adapt to challenges in daily life. ConclusionsPrevious surgical experiences, occupation, and amount of wrist motion influenced the participants' expectations, surgical choice with either a TWF or a TWA, and the appraisal of results. The findings contribute valuable insights to both surgeons and hand therapists about the importance of having the patient's individual expectations and needs in focus.

Problem-posing triggers or where do mathematics competition problems come from?

Spurred by Kilpatrick’s (1987) “Where do good problems come from?”, this study explores problem-posing triggers of experienced problem posers for mathematics competitions. Triggers are conceived as instances of noticing, where an impulse draws a poser’s attention and “triggers off” a mathematical re-action, one of the outcomes of which is a creation of a problem that gets accepted to some mathematics competition. The data were collected from 26 problem posers residing in nine countries, and who had experience in creating problems for national, regional, and international competitions. Three types of triggers emerged from the analysis: (i) Instances where the participants extracted mathematical phenomena from activities that are replete with modern elementary mathematics. These triggers were described in emotionally loaded terms that resonated with appreciation, surprise, challenge, and feeling of innovation. (ii) Cases where the participants abstracted mathematical phenomena from common everyday-life tasks in which mathematical optimization was beneficial. These situations emphasized participants’ desire to compensate for self-disappointment with an initially made decision and the value of finding a better alternative. (iii) Situations where the participants were asked to pose a problem ‘here and now’. The posers were unanimous in their dislike of such situations. They elaborated on how difficult it is to pose ‘here and now’ and highlighted the low quality of the resulting problems. The findings are situated in the body of knowledge on expert problem posing and educational literature on school students and teachers.

Developing and Validating a Short Scale Assessing Generic Life Skills

Life psychology is an integrative framework theory centered on how individuals employ their generic life skills in handling everyday life tasks and reaching life goals. Indeed, the theory relates to the accelerating complexity of contemporary globalized societies and how we need generic life skills in order to successfully navigate through a fluid and dynamic context. Within the theory of life psychology, ten life skills have been identified and these are categorized into (1) participation in life, (2) realistic attunement, and (3) perspective taking. The present paper describes the development and validation of a new measure tapping into these three categories as well as an overall aggregated dimension of life skills. Our analyses indicate that the scale holds a solid factor structure. Furthermore, convergent validity was established through the related concepts of self-determination and self-efficacy, and predictive validity was examined in relation to life satisfaction. Our scale holds great implications in regard to developing the empirical foundation for research in the field of life psychology.

LANGUAGE NEEDS ANALYSIS FOR WORKING ABROAD: A CASE-STUDY IN THUA THIEN HUE PROVINCE

Needs analysis is the first essential step of designing a language curriculum [26]. Needs analysis provides a mechanism for obtaining a wider range of input in the contents, design, and implementation of a language program. The process identifies general or specific language needs so that they can be addressed while developing goals, objectives, and content for a language program. In this study, we aimed to explore the language needs analysis for labor export. We regarded foreign language for labor export with a view that all decisions in instructions are based on the learners’ reasons for learning. As a case in point, we studied the language needs for labor export of laborers in Thua Thien Hue province. A task-based needs analysis approach [17] was utilized due to its methodological cogency. 45 laborers who were working abroad participated in our study. Five were interviewed and 40 were surveyed to elicit the foreign language needed for everyday life tasks and occupational domains. The results outlined export laborers language needs in regards to everyday survival (i.e. language at the supermarket, hospital, etc.) and vocational tasks (i.e. understanding employer’s requests, interacting with customers/clients, etc.). The findings of this study inform the design of an English language curriculum for labor export and serve as the basis for reviewing and evaluating existing language programs for labor export. The research also affords implications for future designs of task-based needs analysis.

Adaptive neuro-fuzzy modeling of a soft finger-like actuator for cyber-physical industrial systems

Soft robotics is a trending area of research that can revolutionize the use of robotics in industry 4.0 and cyber-physical systems including intelligent industrial systems and their interactions with the human. These robots have notable adaptability to objects and can facilitate many tasks in everyday life. One potential use of these robots is in medical applications. Due to the soft body of these robots, they are a suitable replacement for applications like rehabilitation and exoskeletons. In this paper, we present the neuro-fuzzy modeling of a soft pneumatic finger-like actuator. This actuator is a fiber-reinforced soft robot with the shape and dimensions of a real finger and moves in planar motion. A bending sensor is used as a feedback for curvature motion of this actuator. In order to model this actuator, an adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system is utilized to overcome the hardship in the modeling of the nonlinear performance of the soft materials. An experimental setup is designed to obtain suitable input–output data needed for modeling. The results show the applicability of the utilized method in the modeling of the soft actuator.

Is digital inclusion fighting disability stigma? Opportunities, barriers, and recommendations

This paper presents a focus group study of the role of digital inclusion in overcoming disability stigma. It reviews stigma literature and contrasting disability models, ultimately arguing in favor of the value of the biopsychosocial approach to the role of digital inclusion in disability stigma. The paper qualitatively explores the stigma experienced by people with disabilities and the ways in which digital inclusion might affect such experiences. It asserts that the benefits of digital inclusion depend, simultaneously, on bio-medical, social, and personal/psychological levels. In addition, prominent barriers to digital inclusion, such as low accessibility and usability and ineffective technology design, are determined by complex biopsychosocial factors, rather than purely bio-technical or social parameters. Thus, the paper recommends the adoption of the biopsychosocial model of disability, in order digital inclusion research to generate longitudinal insights into the actual and potential role of digital inclusion in people with disabilities’ social inclusion and welfare. Points of interest This is a study of what people with different or similar disabilities think of the role of digital technologies in their experiences of disability stigma. The people with disabilities who participated in the study argued about the positive role that digital technologies play in alleviating: a) medical aspects of their stigma by helping them cope with everyday life tasks; b) social aspects of their stigma by helping them socialise and participate in the society; and c) psychological aspects of their stigma by helping them express freely and be more confident. At the same time, the participants criticised the design of digital technologies and argued that digital design often worsens their experiences of stigma, as it reinforces medical, social and psychological aspects of such stigma. The study recommends that future research on the role of digital technologies in disability stigma should shed light on medical, social and psychological aspects and forces of disability stigma.

Perception of a Haptic Stimulus Presented Under the Foot Under Workload.

It is clear that the haptic channel can be exploited as a communication medium for several tasks of everyday life. Here we investigated whether such communication can be altered in a cognitive load situation. We studied the perception of a vibrotactile stimulus presented under the foot when the attention is loaded by another task (cognitive load). The results demonstrated a significant influence of workload on the perception of the vibrotactile stimulus. Overall, we observed that the average score in the single-task (at rest) condition was greater than the overall mean score in the dual-task conditions (counting forwards, counting backwards, and walking). The walking task was the task that most influenced the perception of the vibrotactile stimulus presented under the foot.

Running During Encoding Improves Word Learning for Children

The learning of new information is an important task in everyday life, especially at a young age. Acute physical exercise can facilitate cognitive processes in multiple ways, and previous studies have shown that memory can profit from physical exercise before and during the encoding of vocabulary. The current study investigates the interplay of movement and vocabulary learning and also addresses lifespan differences in these effects. Participants were recruited in a recreational basketball club. Children (n = 24, Mage = 12.3 years; 13 girls), young adults (n = 30, Mage = 21.5 years; 17 women), and older adults (n = 24, Mage = 59.3 years; 9 women) learned 20 new pseudo-words, which corresponded to a German word. In a between-subjects design, encoding took place either while standing, while running, or while running and dribbling a basketball. Recall was assessed three times throughout the learning session and on the following day. In children, more words could be remembered in the running condition compared to the standing condition. There were no differences between conditions for the young and older adults. Age-dependent reasons for this pattern of results are discussed and embedded into the literature of physical exercise. Our result suggests that implementing learning activities into children’s physical education or exercise activities could be beneficial.

Computerized cognitive training using virtual reality on everyday life activities for patients recovering from stroke

Purpose Recent studies argue that the use of virtual reality tasks depicting activities daily living may be effective means for cognitive rehabilitation. The aim of this study was to test an ecologically oriented approach in virtual reality resembling the demands of everyday life activities for cognitive rehabilitation following stroke. Materials and Methods The sample comprised 30 sub-acute stroke patients recovering from stroke in a rehabilitation hospital. They were assessed in a single-arm pre-post intervention study on global cognition, executive functions, memory and attention abilities. The intervention consisted of virtual reality in a multidomain cognitive training approach depicting everyday life tasks (preparing food, choosing clothes, shopping, etc.). Results Improvements were found in the assessed cognitive domains at 6 to 10 post-treatment sessions. In-depth analysis through reliable change scores has suggested larger treatment effects on global cognition. Conclusions Overall results suggest that the use of virtual reality-based exercises on everyday life activities may be a useful cognitive rehabilitation approach to provide short-term gains in cognition following stroke. Implications for rehabilitation Virtual reality-based cognitive rehabilitation resembling everyday life activities may provide short-term gains in cognition of stroke patients; Consistent improvements in executive functions may require higher treatment dosage than for improvements in global cognition.

Virtual Reality-Based Cognitive Stimulation to Improve Cognitive Functioning in Community Elderly: A Controlled Study.

The advantages of using naturalistic virtual reality (VR) environments based on everyday life tasks for cognitive intervention in the elderly are not yet well understood. The literature suggests that the similarity of such exercises with real life activities may improve generalizability by extending the transfer of gains of training to everyday living. This study aimed to investigate the gains associated with this ecologically-oriented virtual reality cognitive stimulation (VR-CS) versus standard cognitive stimulation in the elderly. Forty-three healthy older adults were divided into two groups: an experimental group underwent a VR-based cognitive stimulation and an active control group underwent a paper-and-pencil cognitive stimulation. The outcomes assessed at the pre-treatment and posttreatment assessment consisted in well-established tests for cognitive and executive functioning, depression, subjective well-being, and functionality. The results showed positive outcomes on dimensions of general cognition, executive functioning, attention, and visual memory in the group that underwent VR-CS. Improvements in executive functioning in this group was supported by consistent evidence of increases in attention abilities but little evidence of increases in memory abilities. Both effects may have contributed to improvements in general cognition. Further studies are needed to test whether these effects may extend to well-being and functionality in cognitively impaired older adults.

Towards Energy Efficiency in the Internet of Wearable Things: A Systematic Review

Personal mobile devices such as smartwatches, smart jewelry, and smart clothes have launched a new trend in the Internet of Things (IoT) era, namely the Internet of Wearable Things (IoWT). These wearables are small IoT devices capable of sensing, storing, processing, and exchanging data to assist users by improving their everyday life tasks through various applications. However, the IoWT has also brought new challenges for the research community to address such as increasing demand for enhanced computational power, better communication capabilities, improved security and privacy features, reduced form factor, minimal weight, and better comfort. Most wearables are battery-powered devices that need to be recharged – therefore, the limited battery life remains the bottleneck leading to the need to enhance the energy efficiency of wearables, thus, becoming an active research area. This paper presents a survey of energy-efficient solutions proposed for diverse IoWT applications by following the systematic literature review method. The available techniques published from 2010 to 2020 are scrutinized, and the taxonomy of the available solutions is presented based on the targeted application area. Moreover, a comprehensive qualitative analysis compares the proposed studies in each application area in terms of their advantages, disadvantages, and main contributions. Furthermore, a list of the most significant performance parameters is provided. A more in-depth discussion of the main techniques to enhance wearables’ energy efficiency is presented by highlighting the trade-offs involved. Finally, some potential future research directions are highlighted.