The effect of an odd-one-out visual search task on attentional bias, body size adaptation, and body dissatisfaction.

Body image disturbance is a both a risk factor for, and a symptom of, many eating disorders and refers to the misperception of and dissatisfaction with one's own body. Women with high body dissatisfaction have been shown to direct more attention to low body mass index (BMI) bodies, which results in the overestimation of body size via body size adaptation. Therefore, attention may have a causal role in body image disturbance. We conducted a novel training visual search task with 142 young adult women who we trained to attend to either high or low BMI bodies. We assessed the effects of this training on attention to bodies of different sizes, body size adaptation, and body dissatisfaction. Women trained to attend to low BMI bodies decreased their perceptions of a 'normal' body size via adaptation from pre- to post-training (p < 0.001); however, women trained to attend to high BMI bodies showed no change in their perception of a 'normal' body size. We found no lasting effects of the training on attention to body size or body dissatisfaction; however, our visual search task showed poor internal consistency as a measure of attention. These findings indicate that attention to low BMI bodies may exacerbate body image disturbance in women. However, more reliable measures of attentional are required to confirm this finding.

The relationship between body dissatisfaction and attentional bias to thin bodies in Malaysian Chinese and White Australian women: a dot probe study.

Studies suggest that an attentional bias to thin bodies is common among those with high levels of body dissatisfaction, which is a risk factor for, and symptom of, various eating disorders. However, these studies have predominantly been conducted in Western countries with body stimuli involving images of White people. In a preregistered study, we recruited 150 Malaysian Chinese women and 150 White Australian women for a study using standardized images of East Asian and White Australian bodies. To measure attentional bias to thin bodies, participants completed a dot probe task which presented images of women who self-identified their ethnicity as East Asian or as White Australian. Contrary to previous findings, we found no evidence for an association between body dissatisfaction and attentional bias to thin bodies. This lack of association was not affected by participant ethnicity (Malaysian Chinese versus White Australian) or ethnic congruency between participants and body stimuli (own-ethnicity versus other-ethnicity). However, the internal consistency of the dot probe task was poor. These results suggest that either the relationship between body dissatisfaction and attentional bias to thin bodies is not robust, or the dot probe task may not be a reliable measure of attentional bias to body size.

Is body dissatisfaction related to an attentional bias towards low weight bodies in non-clinical samples of women? A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Body dissatisfaction is defined as the negative subjective evaluation of one's body and is considered a risk factor for, and symptom of, eating disorders. Some studies show women with high body dissatisfaction display an attentional bias towards low weight bodies; however, this finding is not consistent, and results are yet to be systematically synthesised. We conducted a qualitative and quantitative synthesis of cross-sectional studies investigating the relationship between body dissatisfaction and attentional bias to low weight bodies in non-clinical samples of women. We searched PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, PsycINFO, ProQuest, and OpenGrey for studies up until September 2022. We identified 34 eligible studies involving a total of 2857 women. A meta-analysis of 26 studies (75 effects) found some evidence from gaze tracking studies for a positive association between body dissatisfaction and attentional bias to low weight bodies. We found no evidence for an association from studies measuring attention using the dot probe task, electroencephalogram (EEG) recording, or the modified spatial cueing task. The results together provide partial support for the positive association between body dissatisfaction and attentional bias to low weight bodies in women. These findings can be used to inform future attentional bias research.

A psycho-legal perspective on sexual offending in individuals with autism Spectrum disorder.

It is important to consider whether there are innate vulnerabilities that increase the risk of an individual with an autistic spectrum disorder (ASD), predominantly those defendants with a diagnosis of Asperger's Syndrome, being charged and convicted of a sexual offence. The significance of such can be readily seen in recent English case law, with judgments on appeal finding convictions unsafe where there have been a number of failings in the Judge's summing up. In this article, we will consider the gravity of Judges omitting to highlight a defendant's diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder and the necessity of detailed explanations to jury members regarding the condition and its effect upon thoughts and behaviour. Consideration will be specifically given to the necessity to prove sexual motivation in such offences and the judicial direction required in relation to whether the appellant's actions had been sexually motivated. Recognition of the social impairments inherent in ASDs are vital to this work and we shall consider whether the difficulty with the capacity to develop appropriate, consenting sexual relationships as a result of impaired social cognition may be one of the factors which increases the risk of sexual offending in individuals with ASD (Higgs & Carter, 2015).

Platelet responses to agonists in a cohort of highly characterised platelet donors are consistent over time.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Platelet function shows significant inheritance that is at least partially genetically controlled. There is also evidence that the platelet response is stable over time, but there are few studies that have assessed consistency of platelet function over months and years. We aimed to measure platelet function in platelet donors over time in individuals selected from a cohort of 956 donors whose platelet function had been previously characterised. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Platelet function was assessed by flow cytometry, measuring fibrinogen binding and P-selectin expression after stimulation with either cross-linked collagen-related peptide or adenosine 5'-diphosphate. Eighty-nine donors from the Cambridge Platelet Function Cohort whose platelet responses were initially within the lower or upper decile of reactivity were retested between 4 months and five and a half years later. RESULTS: There was moderate-to-high correlation between the initial and repeat platelet function results for all assays (P ≤ 0·007, r2 0·2961-0·7625); furthermore, the range of results observed in the initial low and high responder groups remained significantly different at the time of the second test (P ≤ 0·0005). CONCLUSION: Platelet function remains consistent over time. This implies that this potential influence on quality of donated platelet concentrates will remain essentially constant for a given donor.

Association of the 5- HTTLPR genotype and unipolar depression: a meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: We sought to ascertain the strength of evidence for association between the 5-HTTLPR polymorphism and unipolar depression. METHOD: We applied meta-analytic techniques to data from relevant published studies, and obtained an estimate of the likely magnitude of effect of any association. We also tested for possible publication bias, and explored the impact of various study design characteristics on the magnitude of the observed effect size. RESULTS: Meta-analysis indicated evidence of a small but statistically significant association between the 5-HTTLPR polymorphism and unipolar depression [odds ratio (OR) 1.08, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.03-1.12]. This remained significant when data from samples of European and East Asian ancestry were analyzed separately. In all cases there was evidence of significant between-study heterogeneity, although the observed associations were robust to the application of a random-effects framework. CONCLUSIONS: Our results support the presence of a small effect of a polymorphism in the serotonin transporter promoter on susceptibility to depression. However, we caution that it is possible that the effect has an artifactual basis, rather than a biological origin.

Effects of acute alcohol consumption on processing of perceptual cues of emotional expression.

Alcohol consumption has been associated with increases in aggressive behaviour. However, experimental evidence of a direct association is equivocal, and mechanisms that may underlie this relationship are poorly understood. One mechanism by which alcohol consumption may increase aggressive behaviour is via alterations in processing of emotional facial cues. We investigated the effects of acute alcohol consumption on sensitivity to facial expressions of emotion. Participants attended three experimental sessions where they consumed an alcoholic drink (0.0, 0.2 or 0.4 g/kg), and completed a psychophysical task to distinguish expressive from neutral faces. The level of emotion in the expressive face varied across trials the threshold at which the expressive face was reliably identified and measured. We observed a significant three-way interaction involving emotion, participant sex and alcohol dose. Male participants showed significantly higher perceptual thresholds for sad facial expressions compared with female participants following consumption of the highest dose of alcohol. Our data indicate sex differences in the processing of facial cues of emotional expression following alcohol consumption. There was no evidence that alcohol altered the processing of angry facial expressions. Future studies should examine effects of alcohol expectancy and investigate the effects of alcohol on the miscategorisation of emotional expressions.

Effects of acute alcohol consumption and alcohol expectancy on processing of perceptual cues of emotional expression.

We recently demonstrated that alcohol elicits a difference between men and women in perceptual threshold for facial expressions of sadness. However, this study did not include a manipulation of alcohol expectancy. Therefore, we sought to determine whether these effects may be due to the expectation of having consumed alcohol. Male and female participants (n = 100) were randomised using a balanced-placebo design to receive either an alcoholic or a non-alcoholic drink and to be told that this was alcoholic or non-alcoholic. Participants completed a psychophysical task which presented male and female faces expressing angry, happy, and sad emotions. Analysis of threshold data indicated a significant two-way interaction of drink x target emotion, reflecting a higher threshold for the detection of sad facial expressions of emotion, compared with angry or happy expressions, in the alcohol condition compared with the placebo condition. We did not observe any evidence of sex differences in these effects. Our data indicate that alcohol modifies the perceptual threshold for facial expressions of sadness. Unlike our previous report, we did not observe evidence of sex differences in these effects. Most importantly, we did not observe any evidence that these effects were due to expectancy effects associated with alcohol consumption.

Differential responsiveness to caffeine and perceived effects of caffeine in moderate and high regular caffeine consumers.

RATIONALE: Individual differences in responsiveness to caffeine occur even within a caffeine-consuming population, but the factors that mediate differential responsiveness remain unclear. OBJECTIVES: To compare caffeine's effects on performance and mood in a group of high vs moderate consumers of caffeine and to examine the potential role of subjective awareness of the effects of caffeine in mediating any differential responsiveness. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Two groups of regular caffeine consumers (<200 mg/day and >200 mg/day) attended two sessions at which mood and cognitive functions were measured before and 30 min after consumption of 400-mg caffeine or placebo in a capsule. Cognitive tests included visual information processing, match-to-sample visual search (MTS) and simple and choice reaction times. Post-session questionnaires asked participants to describe any perceived effect of capsule consumption. RESULTS: High consumers, but not moderate consumers, demonstrated significantly faster simple and choice reaction times after caffeine relative to placebo. These effects were not attributable to obvious group differences in withdrawal or tolerance because there were no group differences in baseline mood or in reports of negative affect after caffeine. Instead, the high consumers were more likely to report experiencing positive effects of caffeine, whereas the moderate consumers were more likely to report no effect. CONCLUSIONS: The sensitivity of caffeine consumers to the mood- and performance-enhancing effects of caffeine is related to their levels of habitual intake. High caffeine consumers are more likely than moderate consumers to perceive broadly positive effects of caffeine, and this may contribute to their levels of use.

Tattoo removal by surgery in a bloodless field.

Tattoo removal from the forearm often requires excision and split skin grafting. The authors propose the use of a bloodless field to facilitate accurate dermal peeling, to ensure complete removal of the pigment, and to reduce operative time.

Calcium alginate dressing accelerates split skin graft donor site healing.

A prospective controlled trial of calcium alginate compared with traditional dressing of paraffin gauze on split skin graft (SSG) donor sites had to be abandoned after 15 patients as there was consistently better healing under the calcium alginate. The study was continued, on every patient requiring split skin grafting, to assess calcium alginate from the point of view of patient comfort, ease of dressing and quality of regenerated skin. In 107 patients with 130 SSG donor operations, there was a statistically highly significant decrease in average time to complete healing (from 10 down to 7 days), and also significantly better patient comfort. The alginate dressings were easy to use and the quality of the new skin significantly better than that seen under paraffin gauze dressings.

The understanding and use of interpersonal gestures by autistic and Down's syndrome children.

Autistic adolescents with mild, moderate, and severe degrees of mental retardation, Down's syndrome adolescents, and clinically normal 4-, 5-, and 6-year-old children were compared in their ability to understand a set of simple instrumental gestures. Almost all gestures were perfectly understood, that is, correctly responded to, by normal children from age 5 onwards, and by all the handicapped groups, regardless of diagnosis or degree of retardation. However, the ability to initiate such gestures on verbal request was generally less good, especially in the less able autistic groups. The same subjects were unobtrusively observed in the playground and during mealtime at their schools. Peer interactions were least frequent in the autistic subjects, regardless of degree of mental retardation. However, relative to interaction frequency, the autistic group used nonverbal instrumental gestures as a means of communication to the same extent as the other groups. Unlike Down's syndrome adolescents, or normal preschool children, no autistic adolescent ever used expressive gestures.

Correction of prominent ears using Mustardé's technique: an out-patient procedure under local anaesthetic in children and adults.

Experience in correction of prominent ears as an out-patient procedure under local anaesthetic in 52 patients is described. Adults and children aged 9 and over are suitable for this form of treatment. A review of 44 patients has revealed 100% patient satisfaction and a low complication rate. Infection has occurred in two ears. An objective appraisal of the results is given.

Bacillus cereus infection in burns.

Two patients are reported in whom severe toxicity developed about 4 days after relatively minor burn injuries and in whom the burn areas then appeared to enlarge. In both patients, B. cereus and Staph. aureus were isolated and the affected burn areas had subcutaneous thrombosis and necrosis. The management is outlined and the dramatic rapidity of onset of toxicity emphasized, with special reference to increasing pain, lividity and extension of the burns.

The irritant action of some drugs derived from hydnocarpus oil

1- An acid value of 3 is sufficient to render hydnocarpus preparations irritant. 2- Hemolysis is caused rapidly by salts of hydnocarpus acids in normal saline but it is so far inhibited by the presence of serum that it cannot be considered an important factor in causing pain on injection. 3- The amount of formic acid present in ethyl esters which have deteriorated is insufficient to account for more than a small part of the irritation. 4- Aralkyl esters (thymyl-, phenylethyl-, cinnamyl-, and menthyl-) of the crystalline acids are less irritant than the ethyl esters, causing no necrosis on intradermal injection. 5- Iodized ethyl esters of the crystalline acids are unstable on exposure to air, but oxidation is inhibited by addition of 0.1 percent of catechol or pyrogallol.

The irritant constituent of anti-leprotic oils

The constituent fractions of the acids of sapucainha oil have been separated by cold processes as afr as possible and tested for irritant properties. A crystalline acid fraction (chaulmoogric, hydnocarpic and palmitic acids), an oily acid (5 per cent), and a keto-acid (4,5 per cent), gave bland ethyl esters and sodium salts. The only product to exhibit marked irritant properties was a tarry acid fraction (9 per cent), which appeared to consist essentially of a lactonic acid. The ethyl esters of the crystalline acids were not rendered irritant by distillation at 350°/760 mm., but on long exposure in thin layers to ligh and air they change in physical and chemical character and become highly irritant, possibly owing to the production of the lactonic acid above mentioned.