Practice and reflection of participatory design in tableware design for the elderly.

Background: In the past, the designers used to dominate and conduct user-centered design and research. The findings of such surveys might not reflect the user needs and produce the best design solutions.

Objective: This project aimed to use PD to introduce the design curriculum to break through the previous user-centered design thinking, as the designer and the user design together, with the user given the right to lead the entire design process.

Effects of food nutrition labels on the health awareness of school-age children.

Background: Overweight and obesity have been described as a global epidemic that seriously affects the health of adults and children. Front of Package (FOP) Nutrition Labeling can increase consumers' awareness of unhealthy foods. The purpose of this study is to find effective deterrence and improve children's health awareness via the FOP.

Postural Maintenance Is Associated With Walking Ability in People Receiving Acute Rehabilitation After a Stroke.

Objectives: The Postural Assessment Scale for Stroke Patients (PASS) assesses the ability of people post stroke to maintain or change a given posture from lying to standing, and the items on which people with different walking status perform differently may suggest potential interventions. The purpose of this study was to (1) examine the association of PASS scores at admission for acute rehabilitation with walking status at admission and 3 months post stroke (3 M), and (2) identify PASS items that discriminate walking status.

Methods: In this prospective observational study, 93 people post stroke were assessed with the PASS and a 2.

The influence of semantic relevance on the discernment of product appearance and function.

Background: This study investigated the impact of semantic relevance on the ability to comprehend the appearance and function of a product, as presented in images.

Methods: The images used the constructs of Simile, Metaphor and Analogy to correspond to congruent, related and incongruent semantic structures, and measured the amplitude of Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) to compare these images with Landscape images. Sixteen participants with design-related educational backgrounds were invited to join in the ERP experiment.

Molecular evidence of SARS-CoV-2 in New York before the first pandemic wave.

Numerous reports document the spread of SARS-CoV-2, but there is limited information on its introduction before the identification of a local case. This may lead to incorrect assumptions when modeling viral origins and transmission. Here, we utilize a sample pooling strategy to screen for previously undetected SARS-CoV-2 in de-identified, respiratory pathogen-negative nasopharyngeal specimens from 3,040 patients across the Mount Sinai Health System in New York.

Use of photo diary and focus group to explore needs for digital disease management program among community older adults with chronic disease.

As technology advanced, new e-health solutions are evolved to empower people to manage their care at home. This study explored the needs for disease management in activity tracking using photo diary through older adults' subjective perspective. It further aimed to suggest which lifestyle measures, symptoms and behaviours would be meaningful to include in such a digital diseases care management program for technology design.

Early Rehabilitation in Acute Care Inpatient Wards May Be Crucial to Functional Recovery 3 Months After Ischemic Stroke.

Objective: Early rehabilitation in acute care inpatient wards may maximize functional outcome at 3 months after stroke in survivors of stroke. It is unknown whether functional change during acute care hospitalization is significantly associated with functional recovery at 3 months in survivors of acute stroke. The purposes of this study were to examine the association of the Barthel Index (BI) at 3 months with functional change as measured with the Barthel Index (ΔBI) in an acute care inpatient ward and to identify the factors associated with ΔBI and who could benefit from an early rehabilitation program.

Sex Differences in Stress and Group Housing Effects on the Number of Newly Proliferated Cells and Neuroblasts in Middle-Aged Dentate Gyrus.

Sex differences in stress and coping responses have been frequently documented in aged people, while whether such differences in aged people may appear at the middle age are unknown. This study was undertaken to study the impact of acute stress and social interaction on early neurogenesis in the dentate gyrus (DG) and hippocampus-related memory in two sexes of middle-aged mice. The number of newly proliferated cells, neuroblasts in DG, the object recognition and location memory in 9-month-old male and female C57BL/6N mice were assessed under baseline conditions as well as following an acute stressor regimen and group housing.

Criterion-Referenced Values of Grip Strength and Usual Gait Speed Using Instrumental Activities of Daily Living Disability as the Criterion.

Background And Purpose: Current evidence suggests that grip strength and usual gait speed (UGS) are important predictors of instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) disability. Knowing the optimum cut points of these tests for discriminating people with and without IADL disability could help clinicians or researchers to better interpret the test results and make medical decisions. The purpose of this study was to determine the cutoff values of grip strength and UGS for best discriminating community-dwelling older adults with and without IADL disability, separately for men and women, and to investigate their association with IADL disability.

Basolateral amygdalar D receptor activation is required for the companions-exerted suppressive effect on the cocaine conditioning.

The presence of companions renders decreases in cocaine-stimulated dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens and cocaine-induced conditioned place preference (CPP) magnitude. Limbic systems are widely believed to underlie the modulation of accumbal dopamine release and cocaine conditioning. Thus, this study aimed to assess whether intact basolateral nucleus of amygdala (BLA), dorsal hippocampus (DH), and dorsolateral striatum (DLS) is required for the companions-exerted suppressive effect on the cocaine-induced CPP.

Self-reported Sitting Time is Associated With Decreased Mobility in Older Adults.

Background And Purpose: Prolonged sitting is associated with increased risk of sarcopenia in community-dwelling older adults and can lead to poor muscle function, limited balance and transfer abilities, and mobility limitations. Sitting time can be a modifiable factor in preserving independent mobility in older adults. Assessing sitting time is an important measure for preventive medicine in older populations.

Rottlerin impairs the formation and maintenance of psychostimulant-supported memory.

Rationale And Objective: Since brain proteins such as protein kinase C (PKC), brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), and mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) are involved in the establishment and maintenance of psychostimulant memory, we sought to determine if systemic treatment with rottlerin, a natural compound affecting all these proteins, may modulate stimulant-supported memory.

Materials And Methods: Stimulant-induced conditioned place preference (CPP) was used in modeling stimulant-supported memory.

Results: Three cocaine (10 mg/kg; COC) or three methamphetamine (1 mg/kg; MA) conditioning trials reliably established the drug-induced CPP in male C57BL/6 mice.

The progression of disability among older adults in Mexico.

Purpose: This paper seeks to document the progression of disability in a developing country and to examine gender differences in this process.

Methods: The data come from the Mexican Health and Aging Study (MHAS), a nationally representative sample of older adults. An ordinal logistic regression (n = 3283) is used to measure the progression of disability that considers: (1) no disability, (2) mobility problems, (3) mobility problems with IADLs limitations, (4) mobility problems with ADLs limitations, (5) combinations of the latter three and (6) death.

Combined association of chronic disease and low skeletal muscle mass with physical performance in older adults in the Sarcopenia and Translational Aging Research in Taiwan (START) study.

Background: Multiple chronic conditions and low skeletal muscle mass are common features of aging that are detrimental to physical performance. This study evaluates the simultaneous impact of these conditions on physical performance in older adults.

Methods: Five studies from 2003 to 2012 were pooled to include 2,398 adults aged ≥65 years with diagnosed chronic diseases measured by self-administered questionnaire.

Concurrent and convergent validity of the mobility- and multidimensional-hierarchical disability categorization models with physical performance in community older adults.

A valid, time-efficient and easy-to-use instrument is important for busy clinical settings, large scale surveys, or community screening use. The purpose of this study was to validate the mobility hierarchical disability categorization model (an abbreviated model) by investigating its concurrent validity with the multidimensional hierarchical disability categorization model (a comprehensive model) and triangulating both models with physical performance measures in older adults. 604 community-dwelling older adults of at least 60 years in age volunteered to participate.

Epidemiology of sarcopenia among community-dwelling older adults in Taiwan: a pooled analysis for a broader adoption of sarcopenia assessments.

Aim: To develop cut-off points of muscle mass, gait speed and handgrip strength; and to examine the prevalence of sarcopenia, and the relationship between sarcopenia stages and functional limitations and disability by using these cut-off points.

Methods: We pooled individual participant data of 2867 community-dwelling older adults from five cohort studies. We defined the cut-off point of a muscle mass index (ASM/ht(2)) as the values of two standard deviations below the sex-specific means of a young population or as the 20th percentile of the sex-specific distribution in our study population.

FIM motor scores for classifying community discharge after inpatient rehabilitation for hip fracture.

Objective: To assess the utility of functional status in classifying patients by discharge setting after inpatient rehabilitation for hip fracture.

Design: Retrospective cohort study.

Setting: A total of 1257 inpatient rehabilitation facilities in the United States.

Grip strength measurement in older adults in Taiwan: a comparison of three testing positions.

Aim: The purpose of this study was to explore the effects of three commonly used positions on grip strength measurement in older people.

Method: A total of 249 (113 women, 136 men) older participants, 72.8 ± 6.

A reliability study for standing functional reach test using modified and traditional rulers.

The purposes of the study were (1) to estimate the standing reach distance, test-retest, and interrater reliability of the functional reach test using traditional and modified rulers and (2) to evaluate the difference in the scores based on one trial, the mean of two or of three trials. Sixty-four individuals (M age = 36.3 yr.

Neonatal isolation decreases cued fear conditioning and frontal cortical histone 3 lysine 9 methylation in adult female rats.

Early life stress is thought to enhance adult susceptibility to stress and stress-related mood disorders. In this study, fear-potentiated startle was used to model the acquisition of a traumatic event-related memory in female rats experiencing early life stress. Daily 1-hr maternal and sibling separation throughout day 2-9 postpartum (D2-9 PP) caused a decrease in the fear-potentiated startle, but not acoustic startle baseline, in adult female rats.

Gait speed measure: the effect of different measuring distances and the inclusion and exclusion of acceleration and deceleration.

The purposes of this study were to examine the effects of different distances and the inclusion and exclusion of acceleration and deceleration distances on the measurement of self-paced and fastest gait speeds in younger and older adults. The self-paced and fastest gait speeds of younger and older adults were measured over 4-m and 10-m walkways with the acceleration and deceleration distances included and excluded in the measuring distance. The results indicated gait speeds (both self-paced and fastest) measured over different distances were comparable only if a distance for acceleration and deceleration was excluded from the measuring distance to obtain stable and comparable gait speeds.