[Effect of face mask type on trust attribution and doctor- patient relationship]. / Effect van mondmaskertype op attributie van vertrouwen en arts-patiëntrelatie.

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic led to the wearing of face masks by both psychiatric care workers and patients. Despite their protection against transmission, negative effects - related to mask wearing - on the doctor-patient relationship are reported, which may be more severe in psychiatric patients. AIM: Previous studies did not distinguish between face mask types. In this study, we compared trust in a healthcare provider between three common mask types (cloth, surgical and FFP2) and without. METHOD: 48 psychiatric patients in (semi)residential care, indicated their trust at four photographs of the same unknown healthcare provider via a structured questionnaire. RESULTS: Overall, patients rated practitioners with surgical or FFP2 mask as more trustworthy. Participants indicated that they perceive a healthcare provider to be significantly more careful and are less concerned about their lives when the health care provider wears a more protective face mask. CONCLUSION: We note that the use of a more protective face mask by healthcare providers leads to patients perceiving them as significantly more trustworthy and competent. Possible reasons for this increase are pandemic-related anxiety and the effect of a professional appearance. Further studies, with larger samples wherein the above factors are investigated, may shed light on this.

Depressive symptoms in adolescence: The role of perceived parental support, psychological control, and proactive control in interaction with 5-HTTLPR.

BACKGROUND: Parenting dimensions are associated with depressive symptoms in adolescents. We investigated the role of perceived parenting dimensions and gene-environment interactions between these perceived parenting dimensions and five well-known variable number of tandem repeats (VNTRs): 5-HTTLPR, STin2, DAT1, DRD4, and MAO-A, in depressive symptoms. METHODS: From a non-clinical sample of 1111 Belgian adolescents (mean age: 13.79 years, SD=.94; 51% boys), 1103 adolescents consented for genetic research. Five VNTRs were analyzed using DNA from saliva samples. Perceived parenting dimensions (i.e., support, proactive control, psychological control, punishment, and harsh punishment) were examined using self-report scales completed by adolescents and their parents. Depressive symptoms were investigated using the CES-D self-report scale. Statistical analyses were performed in R using linear regression. RESULTS: Parental support, as perceived by the adolescent, was negatively associated with depressive symptoms (CES-D) and psychological control was positively associated with these symptoms. The only interaction effect withstanding correction for multiple testing was observed for 5-HTTLPR and the difference in proactive control as perceived by adolescents in comparison to parents. Short-allele carriers showed more depressive symptoms when there was a higher discrepancy in proactive control as perceived by adolescents versus parents. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that perceived parenting dimensions are associated with depressive symptoms, as measured by the CES-D. We only found modest evidence for 5-HTTLPR as a moderator in the association between the difference in perception of proactive control (adolescents vs. parents) and depressive symptoms.

Invariance from the Euclidean geometer's perspective.

It is remarkable how well the human visual system can cope with changing viewpoints when it comes to recognising shapes. The state of the art in machine vision is still quite remote from solving such tasks. Nevertheless, a surge in invariance-based research has led to the development of methods for solving recognition problems still considered hard until recently. A nonmathematical account explains the basic philosophy and trade-offs underlying this strand of research. The principles are explained for the relatively simple case of planar-object recognition under arbitrary viewpoints. Well-known Euclidean concepts form the basis of invariance in this case. Introducing constraints in addition to that of planarity may further simplify the invariants. On the other hand, there are problems for which no invariants exist.