Impulsivity and self-control in elementary school children and adult females: Using identical task and procedural parameters.

Results of studies examining the relationship between impulsivity and age are limited because different tasks, procedural parameters, and different reinforcers have been used with different aged participants. Thus, the current study sought to rectify these differences in two experiments with children (42, ages 5-12) and adults (69 college-aged females) using the same task with identical procedural parameters. In the Self-Control Video Software Task (SCVST; Forzano and Schunk, 2008; Forzano et al., 2014) participants repeatedly choose between larger, more delayed and smaller, less delayed access to viewing video cartoons. No differences in impulsivity were found between adults and children. No age or gender differences were found among children. Differences in task and procedural parameters are identified as important in their implications for research on impulsivity.

Comparison of pelvic masses score (PMS) and Risk of Malignancy Index (RMI 3) in the evaluation of pelvic masses.

PURPOSE: Ovarian cancer is the fourth cause of death from cancer in women worldwide and the majority of its diagnoses is made in an advanced stage of the disease. Several sonographic scoring systems have been created for a better preoperative discrimination between benign and malignant pelvic masses. The aim of this study was to evaluate the performances of the Risk of the Malignancy Index 3 (RMI 3) and the Pelvic Masses Score (PMS). MATERIALS AND METHODS: This retrospective study was performed in 55 women admitted to the department of Obstetrics and Gynecology of University of Udine for surgical exploration of pelvic masses between 2009 and 2012. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV) and negative predictive value (NPV) were calculated for both the scores. RESULTS: PMS showed a sensitivity of 100%, a specificity of 93.8%, a PPV of 70%, and a NPV of 100%, while RMI 3 yielded a sensitivity of 85%, a specificity of 91%, a PPV of 60%, and a NPV of 97.8%. CONCLUSION: The authors found that, in discriminating between benign and malignant pelvic disease, the PMS method was more reliable than RMI3. PMS is a simple scoring system which can be used in clinical practice.

Therapy side-effects and predictive factors for preterm delivery in patients undergoing tocolysis with atosiban or ritodrine for threatened preterm labour.

The objective of this study was to compare the safety and efficacy of atosiban and ritodrine in the treatment of threatened preterm labour (TPL) and to analyse the predictive factors of preterm delivery. We retrospectively sampled data on 380 women hospitalised for TPL (24-35 weeks' gestation), in our clinic between 2004 and 2007. All were subjected to tocolysis with ritodrine and/or atosiban. Data were analysed using R (version 2.12.1), considering p < 0.05 as significant. We had 69 women treated with atosiban, 242 treated with ritodrine and 69 treated with ritodrine changed for atosiban, if adverse effects occurred. In the multivariate logistic regression, the use of atosiban vs ritodrine does not play any role in delaying delivery after 48 h or 7 days, whereas the cervical change at the digital examination, high contractions pre/post-therapy ratio, pPROM, cervical length and fibronectin result as predictive factors for both delivery before 48 h or 7 days. Maternal adverse drug effects were significantly more frequent in patients treated with ritodrine, and one single case of pulmonary oedema was observed. We found fewer side-effects in the atosiban than in the ritodrine group and no difference in efficacy. Moreover, the most predictive factors for preterm delivery were fibronectin test, pPROM, digital vaginal examination and uterine contraction persistence. We believe that predictive capacity of these tests could give the opportunity for targeting therapy and limiting drug side-effects and cost.

Prediction of large-for-gestation neonates with first-trimester maternal serum PAPP-A.

AIM: The aim of this paper was to identify maternal/pregnancy characteristics, first trimester ultrasound parameters and biochemical indices which are significant independent predictors of large-for-gestational age (LGA) neonates. METHODS: An Observational cross-sectional study was conducted at the Fetal Medicine Unit, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology of the University of Udine (Italy). Seventy-two singleton pregnancies presenting for screening for chromosomal abnormalities by nuchal translucency and maternal serum biochemistry at 11-14 weeks. Linear regression was applied to develop first trimester prediction models for LGA. RESULTS: Maternal height, parity, smoking, assisted conception and pregnancy-associated plasma protein-A were significant independent predictors of LGA. PAPP-A cut-off value expressed in MoM of 1.25 used for the study was chosen to obtain good sensitivity and specificity values. CONCLUSION: Prediction for birthweight deviations (LGA) is feasible using data available at the routine 11-14 weeks' examination.

[Maternal body mass index and breast feeding]. / Indice di massa corporeo materno e allattamento al seno.

AIM: The aim of this paper was to determine whether maternal BMI influences breast-feeding practice in quality and duration METHODS: A retrospective case-control study were included Fifty women with Body Max Index (BMI) ≥25 kg/m2 considered overweigh and obese and fifty controls with BMI<25 kg/m2 who delivered in our clinic between 2010 and 2011. RESULTS: The incidence of breast-feeding was significantly lower in overweight and obese women compared with normal weight. Breastfeeding length was negatively related to prepregnancy BMI but not to gestational weight gain, method of delivery or lactation integration. Obese women presented an elevated Body Max Index one year apart from childbirth and are correlated to maternal complications during breastfeeding. CONCLUSION: Maternal overweight and obesity is negatively correlated to duration and quality of lactation.

Evaluation of fetal cerebral blood flow perfusion using power Doppler ultrasound angiography (3D-PDA) in growth-restricted fetuses.

OBJECTIVE: to explore the potential of 3D Power Doppler Angiography (3D PDA) to evaluate the cerebral circulation in normal and growth restricted fetuses (IUGR). STUDY DESIGN: in a pilot study, we enrolled 51 appropriate for gestational age (AGA) pregnancies and 17 singleton pregnancies presenting IUGR, all between 22 and 38 weeks of gestation. Using 3D power Doppler ultrasound, a -volume acquisition of the fetal brain was performed. Two regions of interest (ROI) were defined within the fetal brain. Zone 1 is anterior to the cavum septi pellucidi (CSP). Zone 2 is defined by a rectangle obtained tracing a contour -between the temporal bones as wide as the CSP, corresponding to the area of the middle cerebral artery. The Flow Index (FI), the Vascularization Index (VI), the Vascularization and Flow Index (VFI) were determined in both areas in both IUGR and AGA fetuses by a single operator. IUGR fetuses were divided into three groups: Group 1, with normal pulsatility index (PI) of umbilical artery (UA), middle cerebral artery (MCA) and ductus venosus (DV); Group 2, IUGR fetuses with abnormal UA PI, normal MCA PI, normal DV PI; in Group 3, IUGR fetuses with abnormal UA PI, MCA PI and DV PI. RESULTS: FI and VFI values of zone 1 were increased in Group 1.Values of VFI in zone 2 were increased in Group 2. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings are in line with recent studies in growth-restricted fetuses suggesting that the anterior -cerebral artery shows Doppler signs of vasodilatation before these are observed in the MCA, demonstrating the "frontal brain sparing effect".

WITHDRAWN: Effects of Reinforcer Type on Performance of Psychological Tasks.

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Self-control and impulsiveness in children and adults: Effects of food preferences.

Experiment 1 used 6 preschool boys and Experiment 2 used 6 adult women to explore the effects of food preference on humans' choice in self-control paradigms. The boys showed a higher proportion of responses for more delayed, larger reinforcers (a measure of self-control) when those choices resulted in receipt of the most preferred food compared to when those choices resulted in the least preferred food. Further, the boys chose the less delayed, smaller reinforcers significantly more often when only those choices, as opposed to both choices, resulted in the most preferred food. Conversely, they chose the more delayed, larger reinforcers significantly more often when only those choices, as opposed to both choices, resulted in the most preferred food. Finally, the women demonstrated significantly less sensitivity to reinforcer amount relative to sensitivity to reinforcer delay (another measure of self-control) when they had a higher preference for the juice received as the less delayed, smaller reinforcer than for the juice received as the more delayed, larger reinforcer. Together, the results show that subjects' food preferences can influence self-control for food reinforcers.

Predictors of adult humans' self-control and impulsiveness for food reinforcers.

Humans vary in the degree to which they demonstrate self-control--choice of larger, more delayed over smaller, less delayed reinforcers. When reinforcers consist of food, individual human subjects' choice behavior varies from virtually exclusive self-control to exclusive impulsiveness. The present experiment, using 26 men and 26 women subjects, explored some possible sources of this individual variation through assessing the correlation of behaviors exhibited in the self-control paradigm with various subject characteristics. The results suggest that self-control is negatively related to individuals' reported susceptibility to hunger (Factor 3 of the Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire) and positively related to overall rating of juice desirability, but not to gender or to various measures of caloric deprivation or personality. Relatively high self-perceived levels of food deprivation may decrease self-control, whereas assigning a relatively high value to the reinforcer may increase self-control. Both tendencies would have been adaptive for evolving humans.