Two experiments were reported that aimed at investigating the development of spatial analysis of hierarchical patterns in children between 3 and 9 years of age. A total of 108 children participated in the drawing experiment, and 224 children were tested in a force-choice similarity judgment task. In both tasks, participants were exposed to consistent and inconsistent targets for short (300-ms) and long (3-s) durations. The drawing task showed that 3-year-old children either preferred to draw the local level or reproduced both levels in a nonintegrated manner. Coordination between the 2 processes started to emerge at 4 years of age, and 6-year-old children produced essentially correct integrated responses. The similarity judgment task confirmed that local processing dominated at 3 years of age. Preference for global processing appeared at 5 years of age, and it gained in strength later. Significant effects of stimulus consistency and stimulus duration were also found. In particular, the use of inconsistent patterns in the similarity judgment task revealed a phenomenon of local-to-global interference in the 3-year-olds.

IntroductionActivated platelets generate microparticles. Increased platelet microparticles occur in acute myocardial infarction (AMI) and contribute to intracoronary thrombosis and subsequent myocardial injury. This study aimed to investigate the impact of platelet microparticles on intracoronary thrombosis by assessing the relationship between platelet microparticles and the extent of myocardial damage in AMI.Material and methodsThis was a cross sectional study. The subjects were patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS). Forty-one consecutive subjects with ACS admitted to intensive cardiovascular care unit were enrolled. The clinical spectrum of ACS comprised AMI (n = 26), both ST-elevation AMI (STEMI) and non-ST-elevation AMI (NSTEMI), and unstable angina (n = 15). Platelet microparticles were isolated from peripheral venous blood and detected with anti-CD42b-PE by the flow cytometry method. The extent of myocardial damage was determined by measuring the peak level of serial cardiac enzymes within 24 h of admission.ResultsSubjects with AMI had a significantly higher number of platelet microparticles than those with unstable angina (4855 ±4509/µl vs. 2181 ±1923/µl respectively; p = 0.036). Subjects with STEMI had the highest number of platelet microparticles, but no significant difference was detected as compared to those with NSTEMI (5775 ±5680/µl vs. 3601 ±1632/µl). The number of platelet microparticles in AMI was positively associated with the extent of myocardial damage (peak CK-MB: r = 0.408, p = 0.019 and peak GOT: r = 0.384, p = 0.026).ConclusionsThe number of platelet microparticles was increased in AMI as compared to unstable angina and associated with the extent of myocardial damage.

Introduction Soluble ST2 (sST2) is increased during acute myocardial infarction. The point of care test (POCT) for sST2 is currently available. The aim of this study was to investigate the utility of the sST2 POCT measurement for predicting adverse cardiac events during acute care of ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). Patients and Methods This research used a cohort study design. Consecutive patients with STEMI were enrolled. Soluble ST2 level was measured from peripheral blood taken on admission with POCT. Observation during acute intensive care was conducted to record adverse cardiac events. Two groups were assigned based on median sST2 level, that is, supramedian and inframedian group. The incidence of adverse cardiac events between groups was analyzed. A p value < 0.05 was statistically significant. Results We analyzed 95 subjects with STEMI and 10 patients with stable coronary artery disease as controls. The median sST2 level was significantly higher in subjects with STEMI as compared to controls (152.1 ng/mL versus 28.5 ng/mL, p < 0.01). Among subjects with STEMI, the supramedian group had higher incidence of adverse cardiac events than the inframedian group (38.3% versus 12.5%, p=0.004). Multivariable analysis showed that supramedian sST2 level was independently associated with increased incidence of adverse cardiac events (adjusted OR 6.27; 95% CI: 1.33–29.47, p=0.020). Conclusions The sST2 POCT measurement was useful to independently predict adverse cardiac events during acute intensive care of STEMI.

Background Transmission within families and multiple spike protein mutations have been associated with the rapid transmission of SARS-CoV-2. We aimed to: (1) describe full genome characterization of SARS-CoV-2 and correlate the sequences with epidemiological data within family clusters, and (2) conduct phylogenetic analysis of all samples from Yogyakarta and Central Java, Indonesia and other countries. Methods The study involved 17 patients with COVID-19, including two family clusters. We determined the full-genome sequences of SARS-CoV-2 using the Illumina MiSeq next-generation sequencer. Phylogenetic analysis was performed using a dataset of 142 full-genomes of SARS-CoV-2 from different regions. Results Ninety-four SNPs were detected throughout the open reading frame (ORF) of SARS-CoV-2 samples with 58% (54/94) of the nucleic acid changes resulting in amino acid mutations. About 94% (16/17) of the virus samples showed D614G on spike protein and 56% of these (9/16) showed other various amino acid mutations on this protein, including L5F, V83L, V213A, W258R, Q677H, and N811I. The virus samples from family cluster-1 (n = 3) belong to the same clade GH, in which two were collected from deceased patients, and the other from the survived patient. All samples from this family cluster revealed a combination of spike protein mutations of D614G and V213A. Virus samples from family cluster-2 (n = 3) also belonged to the clade GH and showed other spike protein mutations of L5F alongside the D614G mutation. Conclusions Our study is the first comprehensive report associating the full-genome sequences of SARS-CoV-2 with the epidemiological data within family clusters. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that the three viruses from family cluster-1 formed a monophyletic group, whereas viruses from family cluster-2 formed a polyphyletic group indicating there is the possibility of different sources of infection. This study highlights how the same spike protein mutations among members of the same family might show different disease outcomes.

Typically developing children aged 5 to 8 years were exposed to artificial grammar learning. Following an implicit exposure phase, half of the participants received neutral instructions at test while the other half received instructions making a direct, explicit reference to the training phase. We first aimed to assess whether implicit learning operated in the two test conditions. We then evaluated the differential impact of age on learning performances as a function of test instructions. The results showed that performance did not vary as a function of age in the implicit instructions condition, while age effects emerged when explicit instructions were employed at test. However, performance was affected differently by age and the instructions given at test, depending on whether the implicit learning of short or long units was assessed. These results suggest that the claim that the implicit learning process is independent of age needs to be revised.