Objective: To investigate the clinical characteristics and related factors of corticosteroid induced adrenal crisis (AC) in children with primary nephrotic syndrome (NS). Methods: Case control study. The case group included 7 children aged 1 to 18 years with NS combined with AC hospitalized in Peking University First Hospital from January 2016 to May 2021 (AC group). According to the ratio of case group: control group 1: 4, 28 children aged 1 to 18 years who were diagnosed with NS without AC during the same period were matched as controls (non-AC group). Clinical data were collected. The clinical characteristics of AC were described. The clinical parameters were compared between the 2 groups by t test, Mann-Whitney U test or Fisher's test. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to analyze the cutoff values of clinical parameters for prediction of AC. Results: The AC group included 4 boys and 3 girls aged 6.9 (4.6, 10.8) years. The non-AC group included 20 boys and 8 girls aged 5.2 (3.3, 8.4) years. All AC events occurred during the relapse of NS with infection. Seven children had gastrointestinal symptoms such as nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain. Six children had poor mental state or impaired consciousness. No significant differences in NS course, corticosteroid treatment course, corticosteroid type, steroid dosage, steroid medication interval, the proportion of gastroenteritis and fever existed between the two groups (all P>0.05). Compared with the non-AC group, the duration from the onset of the relapse of NS until hospitalization in the AC group was significantly shorter (0.2 (0.1, 0.6) vs. 1.0 (0.4, 5.0) month,U=25.50, P=0.005). The 24 h urinary total protein (UTP) level was significantly higher in the AC group (193 (135, 429) vs. 81 (17, 200) mg/kg, U=27.00,P=0.036) than the non-AC group. The serum albumin level in the AC group was significantly lower((13.1±2.1) vs. (24.5±8.7) g/L,t=-6.22,P<0.001) than the non-AC group. There were significantly higher total white blood cell counts ((26±9)×10⁹ vs. (11±5)×10⁹/L,t=4.26,P=0.004), percentage of neutrophils (0.71±0.08 vs. 0.60±0.19,t=2.56,P=0.017) and the proportion of children with C reactive protein level≥8 mg/L (3/7 vs. 0,P=0.005) in the AC group than in the non-AC group. ROC curve analysis showed that the cutoff value of 24 h UTP was 122 mg/(kg·d) with a sensitivity of 100.0% and specificity of 70.4%. The cutoff value of serum albumin was 17.0 g/L with a sensitivity of 100.0% and specificity of 82.1%. Conclusions: Gastrointestinal symptoms and poor mental state were prominent manifestations of AC in children with NS. High 24 h UTP level, low serum albumin level, high peripheral white blood cell counts, high neutrophils percentage, and high C-reactive protein level during the early stage of NS relapse may be related to the occurrence of AC in children with NS.
Nephrotic Syndrome/drug therapy* ; Humans ; Child ; Adolescent ; Male ; Female ; Gastrointestinal Diseases/diagnosis* ; Adrenal Cortex Hormones/therapeutic use* ; Nausea/chemically induced* ; Vomiting/chemically induced* ; Abdominal Pain/chemically induced* ; Mental Processes/drug effects* ; China

In the traditional P300 brain-computer interface (BCI) system, the electroencephalogram (EEG) signals can only provide limited information with a low signal-to-noise ratio. A BCI paradigm under visual stimulus was proposed in our study aiming to effectively activate the related brain areas and response signal while dealing with specific cognitive task (mental arithmetic task), so as to enhance the EEG signals. The result was compared with the traditional P300 counting task paradigm. Then the collected EEG data were preprocessed including extracting signal features with coherent averaging method, and analyzing the influences of different experimental paradigms on main components of event related potential (ERP). In the improved paradigm experiments the average increasing rate of P300 amplitude was 6. 83MV (73. 94%). The brain activity from 400ms was more active and lasted longer. Besides, unlike traditional counting task, mental arithmetic task appeared to have apparent activation at 650ms. The results showed that the improved paradigm could activate the related brain areas better and enhance the characteristics of signal. This provides a new system paradigm for BCI.
Brain-Computer Interfaces ; Electroencephalography ; Event-Related Potentials, P300 ; physiology ; Humans ; Mathematical Concepts ; Mental Processes ; physiology ; Task Performance and Analysis

Perception, affection and consciousness are basic psychological functions of human being. Affection is the subjective reflection of different kinds of objects. The foundation of human being's thinking is constituted by the three basic functions. Affective computing is an effective tool of revealing the affectiveness of human being in order to understand the world. Our research of affective computing focused on the relation, the generation and the influent factors among different affections. In this paper, the affective mechanism, the basic theory of affective computing, is studied, the method of acquiring and recognition of affective information is discussed, and the application of affective computing is summarized as well, in order to attract more researchers into this working area.
Affect ; Computing Methodologies ; Emotions ; Humans ; Mental Processes

PURPOSE: Reflection is increasingly being used in higher education, but the criteria to assess the depth of reflection in student essays are difficult to define. This article tested the hypothesis that a good reflective essay contains more terms indicating mental processes. METHODS: The authors selected two essays written by first year medical students at The University of Hong Kong, after their first encounter with cadavers in their dissection class. The two essays were perceived by teachers as having different depths of reflection. The transitivity system in Systemic Functional Linguistics was adopted to compare the two essays in terms of percentage occurrence of different process types (mental, material, relational, verbal, behavioral, existential). RESULTS: The analysis showed that the essay with deeper reflection had a higher percentage occurrence of mental and relational processes and a low percentage occurrence of material processes. The other three processes accounted for only a low percentage of processes in both essays. CONCLUSION: From the transitivity analysis of the two reflective essays, the hypothesis that a good reflective essay contains more terms indicating mental processes is supported. The transitivity system in systemic functional linguistics can thus be used as an objective framework for assessing the depth of reflection in written essays.
Cadaver ; Education, Medical ; Hong Kong ; Humans ; Linguistics ; Mental Processes ; Students, Medical

Cross-modal stochastic resonance is a ubiquitous phenomenon, that is, a weak signal from one sensory pathway can be enhanced by the noise from a different sensory pathway. It is a special multisensory integration (MI) that can not be explained by the inverse-effectiveness rule. According to cross-modal stochastic resonance, the detection of signal is an inverted U-like function of the intensity of noise at different levels. In this paper, we reviewed the research of cross-modal stochastic resonance and put forward some possible explanations for it. These efforts raise a new idea for neural encoding and information processing of the brain.
Acoustic Stimulation ; Auditory Perception ; physiology ; Brain ; physiology ; Humans ; Mental Processes ; physiology ; Sensory Thresholds ; physiology ; Stochastic Processes ; Visual Perception ; physiology

Mean Kolmogorov entropy within one second is introduced and is used to analyze and localize the cortical lateralization based on spontaneous EEG and nonlinear dynamics. The results of analysis indicate: The conclusion drawn form the use of this method is almost consistent with that from other methods, but this method is more sensitive to cortical lateralization; this method can identify the differences of cortical lateralization between different brain areas. To analyze and localize cortical lateralization, mean Kolmogorov entropy based on spontaneous EEG is a good method.
Cerebral Cortex ; physiology ; Cognition ; Electroencephalography ; methods ; Functional Laterality ; physiology ; Humans ; Mental Processes ; physiology ; Nonlinear Dynamics ; Rotation ; Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted

This study was conducted to analyze the impact on human's left and right brain by mental calculation based on principal components analysis (PCA). Electroencephalogram (EEG) data were collected from twenty-one people before and during mental calculation. In each subject, we first calculated the PCA load of maximum principal component of the theta wave in four brain electrodes of the forehead, then we analyzed the relationship between mental calculating event and each brain electrode. From closing eye to relaxing event and to performing mental calculation event, it was shown that the weight of left head decreased and the weight of right head increased. These results indicate that mental calculation increases the workload on the right forehead, and on the right side of head obviously.
Adult ; Brain ; physiology ; Electroencephalography ; methods ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Mathematics ; Mental Processes ; physiology ; Principal Component Analysis ; Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted ; Theta Rhythm

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to identify the predictors of clinical competence in new graduate nurses. METHODS: The subjects of this study were 238 nurses at 13 general hospitals who have had less than 12 months of nursing experience. The data were collected by structured questionnaire from August 5 to August 31 of 2009 and analyzed by the SPSS Win 12.0 program. RESULTS: The total mean score for clinical competence was 181.05+/-15.17, critical thinking disposition was 94.65+/-8.12, and practice environment was 41.00+/-5.55. There were significant differences of clinical competence according to the GPA (t=-3.58, p<.001), the number of beds in the hospital (t=-3.22, p=.001), instruction by preceptor (t=-2.32, p=.021), and previous experience of clinical practice in the hospital (t=-2.21, p=.028). Additionally, critical thinking disposition and practice environment were positively correlated to clinical competence (r=.50, p<.001; r=.20, p=.002). In multivariate approach, predictors included in this study explained 43% of variance in clinical competence. Significant predictors of clinical competence were critical thinking disposition (beta=.50, p<.001), practice environment (beta=.14, p=.012), and working duration (beta=.13, p=.018). CONCLUSIONS: Based on these findings, it is needed that providing supportive practice environment and developing curriculum for enhancing the critical thinking disposition to improve the clinical competence in new graduate nurses.
Clinical Competence ; Curriculum ; Hospitals, General ; Mental Processes ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Thinking

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to identify the predictors of clinical competence in new graduate nurses. METHODS: The subjects of this study were 238 nurses at 13 general hospitals who have had less than 12 months of nursing experience. The data were collected by structured questionnaire from August 5 to August 31 of 2009 and analyzed by the SPSS Win 12.0 program. RESULTS: The total mean score for clinical competence was 181.05+/-15.17, critical thinking disposition was 94.65+/-8.12, and practice environment was 41.00+/-5.55. There were significant differences of clinical competence according to the GPA (t=-3.58, p<.001), the number of beds in the hospital (t=-3.22, p=.001), instruction by preceptor (t=-2.32, p=.021), and previous experience of clinical practice in the hospital (t=-2.21, p=.028). Additionally, critical thinking disposition and practice environment were positively correlated to clinical competence (r=.50, p<.001; r=.20, p=.002). In multivariate approach, predictors included in this study explained 43% of variance in clinical competence. Significant predictors of clinical competence were critical thinking disposition (beta=.50, p<.001), practice environment (beta=.14, p=.012), and working duration (beta=.13, p=.018). CONCLUSIONS: Based on these findings, it is needed that providing supportive practice environment and developing curriculum for enhancing the critical thinking disposition to improve the clinical competence in new graduate nurses.
Clinical Competence ; Curriculum ; Hospitals, General ; Mental Processes ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Thinking

OBJECTIVES: Because of the growing concern for stroke in the young, this study was done to determine functional outcome among patients seen at the out-patient clinic of the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Philippine General Hospital.
METHODS: Twenty-two patients diagnosed to have stroke in the young, who were referred for comprehensive rehabilitation and satisfied the inclusion criteria participated in this prospective study. The patients were evaluated using the Institute of Rehabilitation and Restorative Care-Long Range Evaluation System. The scores were analyzed using paired t-test, repeated measures ANOVA and linear regression at 95% confidence level.
RESULTS: Significant changes across time in all variables tested: communication, motor function of the affected extremity, the unaffected extremity, proficiency in self-cafe activities, family cluster, social cluster, resources, outlook in life and work status. Significant changes were also noted between the first and second, and between the second and third evaluation periods. Family cluster, resources and the motor functional outcome of the patients.
CONCLUSION: The present study suggests that it is not the improvement in motor recovery alone but also increased psycho-social support that determine functional outcome for stroke in young patients.

Human ; Male ; Female ; Adult ; Analysis Of Variance ; Hospitals, General ; Linear Models ; Mental Processes ; Outpatients ; Personal Satisfaction ; Philippines ; Physical And Rehabilitation Medicine ; Prospective Studies ; Rehabilitation ; Social Support ; Stroke