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PurposeThe purpose of this study was to identify and describe how students experience academic coaching in higher education in Norway.Design/methodology/approachThe study employed a descriptive and exploratory qualitative design where semi-structured interviews formed the basis for data collection. Thematic analysis was used as an analytic strategy to identify, organise and find patterns or themes that emerged from the data.FindingsThe findings showed that academic coaching positively influenced the respondents' ability to identify the necessary and efficient cognitive processes and metacognitive skills needed to cope with everyday scholastic challenges. Academic coaching affected the respondents' metacognitive skills and cognitive processes in terms of evolving their self-efficacy, self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, stress identification, goal identification, goal setting and development of new strategies.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings in this study reflect the respondents' subjective opinions and further research is needed to validate these findings.Originality/valueThis article addresses a gap in the field of research by offering a descriptive pilot study and thematic analysis of students' experiences with academic coaching in Norway.

Cognitive Warfare takes advantage of novel developments in technology and science to influence how target populations think and act. Establishing adequate defense against Cognitive Warfare requires examination of modus operandi to understand this emerging action space. This includes the goals and methods that can be realized through science and technology. Recent literature suggests that both human and nonhuman cognition should be considered as targets of Cognitive Warfare. There are currently no frameworks allowing for a unified way of conceptualizing short-term and long-term Cognitive Warfare goals and attack methods that are domain- and species-agnostic. There is a need for a framework developed through a bottom-up approach that is informed by neuroscientific principles to capture relevant aspects of cognition. The framework should be at a level of complexity that is actionable to decision-makers in war. In this paper, we attempt to cover the existing gap by proposing the Unplug, Corrupt, disOrganize, Diagnose, Enhance (UnCODE) system for classifying the goals and methods of Cognitive Warfare. The system is neurocentric by conceptualizing Cognitive Warfare goals from the perspective of how adversarial methods relate to neural information processing in an individual or society. The UnCODE system identifies five main classes of goals: 1) Eliminating a target’s ability to produce outputs, 2) degrading a target’s capacity to process inputs and produce outputs, 3) biasing a target’s input-output activity, 4) monitoring and understanding the input-output relationships in targets, and 5) enhancing a target’s capacity and ability to process inputs and produce outputs. Methods can be divided in two categories based on access to the target’s neural system: direct access and indirect access. The UnCODE system is domain- and species-agnostic and allows for interdisciplinary commensurability when communicating attack paths across domains. In sum, the UnCODE system is a unifying framework that captures that multiple methods can be used to reach the same Cognitive Warfare goals.

Cyber operations are increasingly automated processes that can occur at computational speed with the intent of reducing, or denying time for good decision making or time to ground communication between human agents. There is a lack of performance measures and metrics in cyber operation settings. One potential setting describing human performance could be emotional stability under stress. Measures of higher individual affective variability indicate more emotional adaptability and allows for measuring individuals as dynamic systems. Previous research in other security-sensitive high-stake situations has shown that individuals with less emotional adaptability display maladaptive behaviors while individuals with more emotional adaptability can adapt more efficiently to changing situations, show more confidence in their own abilities and skills, and display better performance. We hypothesized that measurements of affective variability during a cyber defense exercise will be associated with team workload demands. Data was collected from 13 cadets during the Norwegian Defence Cyber Academy’s annual Cyber Defense Exercise. Three indicators of individual affective variability were measured daily with the Self-Assessment Manikin and compared to scores on the Team Workload Questionnaire. We found that affective variability was negatively associated with team workload demands. Participants with higher affective variability, as measured by the Self-Assessment Manikin, will impose less workload demands on the team, which can lead to better outcomes. This is the first study to assess how individual emotional adaptability affects team dynamics in a cyber defense setting. Future research should include variable measurements as they may have better explanatory power for performance measurements.

In cyber threat situations, decision-making within organizations and between the affected organization and external entities are high-stake situations. They require human communication entailing technical complexity, time pressure, interdisciplinary, and often insufficient information basis. Communication in cyber threat situations within socio-technical systems can thus be challenging and has a variety of implications for decision-making. The cyber-physical system is a rapidly changing socio-technical system that is understudied in terms of how cyber events are communicated and acted upon to secure and maintain cyber resilience. The present study is the first to review human-to-human communication in cyber threat situations. Our aims are to (1) outline how human-human communication performance in cybersecurity settings have been studied; (2) to uncover areas where there is potential for developing common standards for information exchange in collaborative settings, and; (3) to provide guidance for future research efforts. The review was carried out according to the PRISMA guidelines and articles were searched for on Google Scholar, ScienceDirect, Taylor & Francis, and IEEE. Primary research articles and reviews focusing on human-human communication in cyber threat situations published in peer reviewed journals or as conference papers were included. A total of 17 studies were included in the final review. Most of the studies were correlational and exploratory in nature. Very few studies characterize communication in useful goal-related terms.

Background: Self-efficacy, the belief in one’s ability and capacity to organize and execute actions required to achieve desired results, is associated with adolescent academic achievement and reduced risk for psychopathology. Adolescent emotion regulation represents an important component in the relationship between self-efficacy and developmental outcomes, but the underlying neurophysiological mechanisms are poorly understood. It is unclear how emotion regulation strategies, which change with experience, and emotion regulation capacity, which is largely determined by genetics, contribute to the development of self-efficacy. Aims: The present study aims to explore the relationship between emotion regulation and self-efficacy in adolescents. We hypothesize that neurophysiological emotion regulation capacity moderates the relationship between emotion regulation strategies and self-efficacy. Methods: The present study applied a cross-sectional design. A sample of high-school students (N = 45, nfemale = 31, age = 17-18) provided answers on the General Self-Efficacy Questionnaire and the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire. Vagal tone was used as an indicator for emotion regulation capacity. Results: In the initial correlational analysis, reappraisal, but not expressive suppression nor vagal tone was associated with self-efficacy. Vagal tone was not associated with any self-report measures of emotion regulation or self-efficacy. Contrary to our hypothesis, vagal tone did not moderate the relationship between emotion regulation and self-efficacy. Conclusion: This is the first study assessing the relationship between neurophysiological indicators of emotion regulation and self-efficacy. Our results do not indicate that vagal tone moderates the relationship between emotion regulation strategies and general self-efficacy. Future studies should also assess the possible influence of metacognition and interoception on relationships.

Background: Cyber operations unfold at superhuman speeds where cyber defense decisions are based on human-to-human communication aiming to achieve a shared cyber situational awareness. The recently proposed Orient, Locate, Bridge (OLB) model suggests a three-phase metacognitive approach for successful communication of cyber situational awareness for good cyber defense decision-making. Successful OLB execution implies applying cognitive control to coordinate self-referential and externally directed cognitive processes. In the brain, this is dependent on the frontoparietal control network and its connectivity to the default mode network. Emotional reactions may increase default mode network activity and reduce attention allocation to analytical processes resulting in sub-optimal decision-making. Vagal tone is an indicator of activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal node of the frontoparietal control network and is associated with functional connectivity between the frontoparietal control network and the default mode network.Aim: The aim of the present study was to assess whether indicators of neural activity relevant to the processes outlined by the OLB model were related to outcomes hypothesized by the model.Methods: Cyber cadets (N = 36) enrolled in a 3-day cyber engineering exercise organized by the Norwegian Defense Cyber Academy participated in the study. Differences in prospective metacognitive judgments of cyber situational awareness, communication demands, and mood were compared between cyber cadets with high and low vagal tone. Vagal tone was measured at rest prior to the exercise. Affective states, communication demands, cyber situational awareness, and metacognitive accuracy were measured on each day of the exercise.Results: We found that cyber cadets with higher vagal tone had better metacognitive judgments of cyber situational awareness, imposed fewer communication demands on their teams, and had more neutral moods compared to cyber cadets with lower vagal tone.Conclusion: These findings provide neuroergonomic support for the OLB model and suggest that it may be useful in education and training. Future studies should assess the effect of OLB-ing as an intervention on communication and performance.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a catalyst for innovation activity. This chapter looks at developers and entrepreneurs as key human actors forming a performance triad with the AI. Successful exploitation of AI capabilities in entrepreneurial contexts requires humans to successfully collaborate, prevent communication errors and maintain control over the AI. To achieve this, human enablers require cognitive agility. This skill is founded upon metacognition and relies on heightened domain cognisance and the ability to govern one’s own actions. These attributes can be trained through adaptive non-standards based forms of education. Failure to develop the necessary human factor attributes risks increasing the likelihood of compromising the triad and the catalytic effect of AI. Developing cognitive expertise can mitigate ethical issues, power imbalances, bias, and adversarial factors that present significant challenges to technological solutions. Cognitive agility for improved understanding and self-governance: a human-centric AI enabler

Hypercoagulable disorders can compromise success of free flap reconstruction. Factor V Leiden is one such disorder for which only one previously reported case of successful free tissue transfer in the head and neck has been described. We report a 70-year-old woman with factor V Leiden treated for stage IVA squamous cell carcinoma of the mandible with a composite resection and reconstruction with an osteocutaneous scapular free tissue transfer. The free tissue transfer occurred without complications, in the setting of intraoperative heparin, postoperative aspirin, and enoxaparin. The free tissue transfer continues to be viable at her most recent follow-up appointment. The hypercoagulable patient represents a diverse presentation of increased coagulation risk in the perioperative period. Considering a patient's history and understanding available treatment adjuncts can factor heavily in a patient with factor V Leiden successfully undergoing free tissue transfer for head and neck defects.

This study examines whether twelve sessions of heart rate variability biofeedback training would improve vagally mediated heart rate variability. If so, it would go some way in explaining why breathing-based interventions reduce clinical symptoms and improve non-clinical performance outcomes. Methods: Thirty participants (N = 30, Nfemale = 13) aged 14–13-year-old, all talented athletes, from a sport specialist school in SE London UK, were randomly divided into three groups, a control group, a psychology skills training combined with heart rate variability biofeedback training group, and a heart rate variability biofeedback only group. For the combined group, a variety of typical psychological skill training techniques were also used. Results: Paired participant t-test and the Wilcoxon Signed Rank test found non-significant differences between pre- and post-intervention measurements of heart rate variability. Non-significant results remained even after pooling the biofeedback training groups (n = 19). Conclusions: Our results do not indicate that beneficial effects associated with focused breathing training can be attributed to improved vagal tone. Further investigation into the underlying mechanisms of the benefits of focused breathing techniques is necessary to maximize clinical and non-clinical outcomes.

Password hygiene plays an essential part in securing systems protected with single-factor authentication. A significant fraction of security incidents happen due to weak or reused passwords. The reasons behind differences in security vulnerable behaviour between various user groups remains an active research topic. The paper aims to identify the impact of age and gender on password strength using a large password dataset. We recovered previously hashed passwords of 102,120 users from a leaked customer database of a car-sharing company. Although the measured effect size was small, males significantly had stronger passwords than females for all age groups. Males aged 26–45 were also significantly different from all other groups, and password complexity decreased with age for both genders equally. Overall, very weak password hygiene was observed, 72% of users based their password on a word or used a simple sequence of digits, and passwords of over 39% of users were found in word lists of previous leaks.

In cyber threat situations, the establishment of a shared situational awareness as a basis for cyber defense decision-making results from adequate communication of a Recognized Cyber Picture (RCP). RCPs consist of actively selected information and have the goal of accurately presenting the severity and potential consequences of the situation. RCPs must be communicated between individuals, but also between organizations, and often from technical to non-/less technical personnel. The communication of RCPs is subject to many challenges that may affect the transfer of critical information between individuals. There are currently no common best practices for training communication for shared situational awareness among cyber defense personnel. The Orient, Locate, Bridge (OLB) model is a pedagogic tool to improve communication between individuals during a cyber threat situation. According to the model, an individual must apply meta-cognitive awareness (O), perspective taking (L), and communication skills (B) to successfully communicate the RCP. Gamification (applying game elements to non-game contexts) has shown promise as an approach to learning. We propose a novel OLB-based Gamification design to improve dyadic communication for shared situational awareness among (technical and non-technical) individuals during a cyber threat situation. The design includes the Gamification elements of narrative, scoring, feedback, and judgment of self. The proposed concept contributes to the educational development of cyber operators from both military and civilian organizations responsible for defending and securing digital infrastructure. This is achieved by combining the elements of a novel communication model with gamification in a context in urgent need for educational input.

AI-generated “deep fakes” are becoming increasingly professional and can be expected to become an essential tool for cybercriminals conducting targeted and tailored social engineering attacks, as well as for others aiming for influencing public opinion in a more general sense. While the technological arms race is resulting in increasingly efficient forensic detection tools, these are unlikely to be in place and applied by common users on an everyday basis any time soon, especially if social engineering attacks are camouflaged as unsuspicious conversations. To date, most cybercriminals do not yet have the necessary resources, competencies or the required raw material featuring the target to produce perfect impersonifications. To raise awareness and efficiently train individuals in recognizing the most widespread deep fakes, the understanding of what may cause individual differences in the ability to recognize them can be central. Previous research suggested a close relationship between political attitudes and top-down perceptual and subsequent cognitive processing styles. In this study, we aimed to investigate the impact of political attitudes and agreement with the political message content on the individual’s deep fake recognition skills.In this study, 163 adults (72 females = 44.2%) judged a series of video clips with politicians’ statements across the political spectrum regarding their authenticity and their agreement with the message that was transported. Half of the presented videos were fabricated via lip-sync technology. In addition to the particular agreement to each statement made, more global political attitudes towards social and economic topics were assessed via the Social and Economic Conservatism Scale (SECS).Data analysis revealed robust negative associations between participants’ general and in particular social conservatism and their ability to recognize fabricated videos. This effect was pronounced where there was a specific agreement with the message content. Deep fakes watched on mobile phones and tablets were considerably less likely to be recognized as such compared to when watched on stationary computers.To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to investigate and establish the association between political attitudes and interindividual differences in deep fake recognition. The study further supports very recently published research suggesting relationships between conservatism and perceived credibility of conspiracy theories and fake news in general. Implications for further research on psychological mechanisms underlying this effect are discussed.

Appropriate management of cervical node metastasis is critical in the overall planning and treatment of squamous cell carcinoma of the upper aerodigestive tract. Radical and modified radical neck dissections remain the surgical option for advanced neck disease; however, these procedures are associated with specific complications. In this chapter, we will discuss the history and the development of the radical neck dissection (RND) and modified radical neck dissection (MRND), indications, classifications, and complications and review the management of recurrent neck disease.

Resumen Los azoles son fármacos que inhiben la enzima 14α-esteroldemetilasa, impidiendo la unión de ergosterol; esto altera la estructura y función de la pared celular fúngica. Especialmente el grupo de los triazoles: fluconazol, itraconazol, voriconazol, posaconazol e isavuconazol, son una alternativa farmacológica para el tratamiento de la enfermedad fúngica invasora causada por Aspergillus spp, Candida spp, Cryptococcus spp, patógenos emergentes como los Mucorales, y de micosis endémicas como las ocasionadas por Histoplasma spp y Coccidioides spp. Los efectos adversos de los triazoles son menos frecuentes comparados con los ocasionados por anfotericina B, un antifúngico de uso común para estas micosis. Los principales efectos adversos de los triazoles son hepáticos, gastrointestinales y cardiovasculares como la prolongación del intervalo QT. Las interacciones farmacológicas son usuales y se presentan con moléculas que usan sustratos del citocromo CYP3A4, lo que incluye anti-retrovirales, anti-tuberculosos e inmunomoduladores. En este trabajo se revisan la historia, características farmacológicas y los ensayos clínicos que evidencian su eficacia clínica en los diferentes escenarios clínicos.

Este artículo pretende mostrar el diseño del Sistema de Automatización de las bahías Jamondino 1, Jamondino 2 y Yumbo, de la Subestación de San Bernardino, ubicada en Popayán, departamento de Cauca. La subestación sirve como conexión al Sistema Interconectado Nacional, y surge como estrategia para mejorar el mantenimiento de los Sistemas de Automatización de Subestaciones, sas. El artículo incluye el diseño y pruebas del sas de San Bernardino, que les permiten al operador tenertodas las señales concentradas en un solo sitio, con el propósito de ejecutar sus acciones operativas de una manera más segura. De esa forma, el operador cuenta con la información necesaria en el tiempo oportuno, para impedir cometer errores en la operación de la subestación e incluso agilizar la reposición de los circuitos ante eventos imprevistos. También ofrece mayor facilidad para realizar mantenimiento y ampliaciones en el sistema, sin incurrir en altos gastos operativos.

Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) is a rare and aggressive neuroendocrine tumor that typically arises from the skin. MCC is characterized by an aggressive behavior with frequent local recurrence, regional lymph node and distant metastasis. Non-cutaneous MCC has been reported in different locations infrequently. In this paper, we report an unusal case of primary Merkel Cell Carcinoma of the parotid gland and provide a comprehensive review of the literature of this rare entity.

Arrhythmias in Myotonic Dystrophy Patients Background Myotonic dystrophy (MD) is the most common muscular dystrophy in adults and is associated with sudden death. Reported predictors of sudden death in this population include atrial tachyarrhythmias, a PR interval greater than 240 milliseconds, aberrant QRS conduction, and any degree of AV block. Objective We sought to report on the arrhythmic outcome of a cohort of patients with a new diagnosis of genetically proven MD. Methods We performed a retrospective review of 37 patients with genetically confirmed MD referred to our electrophysiology clinic for primary cardiac screening. Results There were 25 patients with MD type 1 (MD1) and 12 patients with MD type 2 (MD2). Eight patients with MD1 (32%) had atrial fibrillation, compared to only one patient with MD2 (8.3%). Patients with MD1 were more likely to have evidence of conduction disease abnormalities (40% vs. 8.3%, P = ns) and had a higher all-cause mortality (16% vs. 0%) than those with MD2. Criteria for recommending ICD implantation were based on sudden death risk factors suggested by published literature. Eleven patients were offered an ICD, 2 refused and died within the next year. Of the 9 patients who received an ICD, 8 had MD1. Three patients received appropriate shocks, 2 for monomorphic VT, and one for polymorphic VT. Conclusion The presence of AV conduction disturbance in MD patients is associated with a greater risk for ventricular arrhythmias. MD1 was more likely to be associated with cardiac arrhythmias than MD2. The incidence of ventricular arrhythmias among those who received a primary prevention ICD was 33% over 22 months, with 2 patients experiencing monomorphic VT and one experiencing polymorphic VT.

The research focused on optimizing parameters of a PID controller using metaheuristics, aimed at improving the response of PID controls, especially those where processes manifest a pronounced nonlinear behavior and for which traditional tuning methods are usually inefficient. Three population-based metaheuristics were selected: Genetic Algorithm (GA), particle swarm optimization (PSO) and the method of cross entropy (CE). The algorithms associated with each metaheuristic were developed in MatLab, together with the code that allows making simulations as case studies, evaluating the performance of each algorithm on different simulated processes. Finally an implementation was performed in a physical controller (PLC) connected to a physical process, in order to compare the performance of the PID parameters obtained by the Metaheuristics versus traditional tuning methods. The results show that the use of metaheuristics to optimize PID controllers allow to obtain a control efficiency comparable or superior to conventional techniques.

Este texto da cuenta del trabajo de investigación que tuvo como propósito la creación de un Objeto Virtual de Aprendizaje con el cual evaluar, mejorar y enriquecer, desde las diferentes áreas básicas, la autonomía de los estudiantes con necesidades educativas especiales del Liceo de Guilford y Gagné, que se encuentran cursando el grado nivelación de primaria. Se creó un aplicativo de software en el programa Jclic, con el fin de apoyar el aprendizaje de los estudiantes con Autismo, en las áreas básicas del currículo, así como apoyarlos en el desarrollo de la autonomía. También se valoró la importancia de la formación teórica, actitudinal y práctica para iniciar o fortalecer procesos de integración e inclusión de personas con Autismo al aula regular. Se logró fortalecer la autonomía de los estudiantes con Autismo, a través de las múltiples ayudas del objeto virtual (auditivas y visuales), consiguiendo, finalmente, que los niños interactúen independientemente con el software (sin ayuda de un adulto), generando un avance para decidir y actuar por sí mismo.

Myotonic dystrophy (MD) is the most common muscular dystrophy in adults and is associated with sudden death. Reported predictors of sudden death in this population include atrial tachyarrhythmias, a PR interval greater than 240 milliseconds, aberrant QRS conduction, and any degree of AV block.We sought to report on the arrhythmic outcome of a cohort of patients with a new diagnosis of genetically proven MD.We performed a retrospective review of 37 patients with genetically confirmed MD referred to our electrophysiology clinic for primary cardiac screening.There were 25 patients with MD type 1 (MD1) and 12 patients with MD type 2 (MD2). Eight patients with MD1 (32%) had atrial fibrillation, compared to only one patient with MD2 (8.3%). Patients with MD1 were more likely to have evidence of conduction disease abnormalities (40% vs. 8.3%, P = ns) and had a higher all-cause mortality (16% vs. 0%) than those with MD2. Criteria for recommending ICD implantation were based on sudden death risk factors suggested by published literature. Eleven patients were offered an ICD, 2 refused and died within the next year. Of the 9 patients who received an ICD, 8 had MD1. Three patients received appropriate shocks, 2 for monomorphic VT, and one for polymorphic VT.The presence of AV conduction disturbance in MD patients is associated with a greater risk for ventricular arrhythmias. MD1 was more likely to be associated with cardiac arrhythmias than MD2. The incidence of ventricular arrhythmias among those who received a primary prevention ICD was 33% over 22 months, with 2 patients experiencing monomorphic VT and one experiencing polymorphic VT.

Angiogenesis, a hallmark step in tumor metastasis and ocular neovascularization, is driven primarily by the function of VEGF ligand on one of its receptors, VEGF receptor 2 (VEGFR-2). Central to the proliferation and ensuing angiogenesis of endothelial cells, the abundance of VEGFR-2 on the surface of endothelial cells is essential for VEGF to recognize and activate VEGFR-2. We have identified phosducin-like 3 (PDCL3, also known as PhLP2A), through a yeast two-hybrid system, as a novel protein involved in the stabilization of VEGFR-2 by serving as a chaperone. PDCL3 binds to the juxtamembrane domain of VEGFR-2 and controls the abundance of VEGFR-2 by inhibiting its ubiquitination and degradation. PDCL3 increases VEGF-induced tyrosine phosphorylation and is required for VEGFR-2-dependent endothelial capillary tube formation and proliferation. Taken together, our data provide strong evidence for the role of PDCL3 in angiogenesis and establishes the molecular mechanism by which it regulates VEGFR-2 expression and function. Background: Angiogenesis is primarily driven by the VEGF-induced activation of VEGFR-2. Results: We have identified PDCL3 as a novel chaperone protein involved in angiogenesis by regulating expression of VEGFR-2. Conclusion: PDCL3 activity is required for angiogenesis. Significance: Targeting PDCL3 represents an attractive therapeutic strategy to block angiogenesis and tumor growth.