The McGurk effect is a classic audiovisual speech illusion in which discrepant auditory and visual syllables can lead to a fused percept (e.g., an auditory /bɑ/ paired with a visual /gɑ/ often leads to the perception of /dɑ/). The McGurk effect is robust and easily replicated in pooled group data, but there is tremendous variability in the extent to which individual participants are susceptible to it. In some studies, the rate at which individuals report fusion responses ranges from 0% to 100%. Despite its widespread use in the audiovisual speech perception literature, the roots of the wide variability in McGurk susceptibility are largely unknown. This study evaluated whether several perceptual and cognitive traits are related to McGurk susceptibility through correlational analyses and mixed effects modeling. We found that an individual’s susceptibility to the McGurk effect was related to their ability to extract place of articulation information from the visual signal (i.e., a more fine-grained analysis of lipreading ability), but not to scores on tasks measuring attentional control, processing speed, working memory capacity, or auditory perceptual gradiency. These results provide support for the claim that a small amount of the variability in susceptibility to the McGurk effect is attributable to lipreading skill. In contrast, cognitive and perceptual abilities that are commonly used predictors in individual differences studies do not appear to underlie susceptibility to the McGurk effect.

Background: Physical activity is a behavioral strategy that increases general (public) health, including the mental performance of individuals. The goal of this study was to investigate the effect of group physical games on cognitive performance (memory, attention) of old people in adult day-care centers. Methods: In this quasi-experimental study, 50 elderly people (aged >60 years) were selected from two adult day-care centers using available sampling and divided into two groups: control and intervention. As approval was received from the Babol Hamrah Salamat adult day-care center to modify the design of the center’s yard, this center was selected to conduct an intervention program. The intervention group received a physical activity program twice a week for 6 weeks. Questionnaires that were used for collecting data included demographic questions, a standard questionnaire for daily activities of living, and a short-term test, the Abbreviated Mental Test Score. Cognitive function was assessed with the Wechsler Memory Scale (WMS) (Form A), before and after the intervention. Statistical analysis of normal variables was performed using independent and paired t -tests and in non-standard cases with Mann–Whitney and Wilcoxon non-parametric tests at a significance level of P <0.05, using SPSS software (version 22). Results: Statistical analysis showed that the scores of the subjects in the intervention group, compared to the control group, had significantly improved. The calculated mean differences in the intervention groupwere, for memory function d =8.4±3.3 ( P =0.001), and for attention and concentration d =4.18±2.38 ( P <0.001) (WMS). This level of change in the intervention group was significant. Conclusion: The results of this study showed that a physical exercise program can improve the memory and attention/concentration of the elderly. Therefore, it seems that such activities are a useful method for maintaining cognitive function.

Funding Acknowledgements Type of funding sources: None. Introduction Recent reports have indicated that a considerable portion of patients experiences a cardiac injury, ranging from 7.2% to 22.2%, which is linked to higher mortality. Nevertheless, previous studies have exclusively focused on the cardiac injury defined as a raised cardiac marker without a definitive diagnosis. To our knowledge, the present retrospective cohort study is the first study to comprehensively address cardiovascular (CV) complications and related outcomes in COVID-19 patients. Purpose To address CV complications and their relationship to clinical outcomes in hospitalized patients with COVID-19. Methods A total of 196 adult hospitalized patients admitted to our hospital with a confirmed diagnosis of COVID-19 and a consultation requested from the cardiology department were enrolled in this retrospective single-center cohort study from September 10, 2020, to December 10, 2020, with a median age of 65 years (IQR, 52-77). Cardiac examinations included cardiac biomarkers, electrocardiography, and echocardiography. Data regarding complications during hospitalization were extracted, and patients were categorized into two groups concerning the presence or absence of CV complications. All transthoracic echocardiographic (TTE) assessments were performed by a single cardiologist, who was provided with personal protective gear according to national guidelines. Follow-up continued for 3 months after hospital discharge. Results CV complication was observed in 54 (27.6%) patients, with arrhythmia being the most prevalent (14.8%) followed by myocarditis, acute coronary syndromes, ST-elevation myocardial infarction, cerebrovascular accident, and deep vein thrombosis in 15 (7.7%), 12 (6.1%), 10 (5.1%), 8 (4.1%), and 4 (2%) patients, respectively. The proportion of patients with elevated hs-TpI, NT-proBPN, left ventricular diastolic dysfunction, and heart failure with preserved ejection fraction was greater in the CV complication group. Severe forms of COVID-19 comprised nearly two-thirds (64.3%) of our study population and constituted a significantly higher share of the CV complication group members (75.9% vs 59.9%; P = 0.036). Intensive care unit admission (64.8% vs 44.4%; P = 0.011) and stay (5.5 days vs 0 day; P = 0.032) were notably higher in patients with CV complications. Among 196 patients, 50 died during hospitalization and 10 died after discharge, yielding all-cause mortality of 30.8%. However, there were no between-group differences concerning mortality. Heart failure, cancer/autoimmune disease, severity, interferon beta-1a, and arrhythmia were the independent predictors of all-cause mortality during and after hospitalization. Conclusion CV complications occurred widely among COVID-19 patients. Moreover, arrhythmia, as the most common complication, was associated with increased mortality. Abstract Figure.

Due to the dynamic nature and complexity of TCP congestion control, the AQMs leave some opportunity for improvement. The objective of this paper is to design novel AQM schemes which achieve efficiency and robustness by using AI technologies, in particular FL. In this paper, we elaborate on the approach of developing AQM using FL. First, we present our AQM design and innovations in terms of the traffic load factor and the application of FL for AQM. After describing the structure of a generic FL controller (FLC) which directs an FLC design, the two proposed FL-based AQM (FLAQM) algorithms are then presented to realize proactive queuing in turn. Finally we show the analysis of the efficiency and feasibility of our proposed FLAQM algorithms.