Measuring effects of voluntary attention: a comparison among predictive arrow, colour, and number cues.

The Posner cueing paradigm is one of the most widely used paradigms in attention research. Importantly, when employing it, it is critical to understand which type of orienting a cue triggers. It has been suggested that large effects elicited by predictive arrow cues reflect an interaction of involuntary and voluntary orienting. This conclusion is based on comparisons of cueing effects of predictive arrows, nonpredictive arrows (involuntary orienting), and predictive numbers (voluntary orienting). Experiment 1 investigated whether this conclusion is restricted to comparisons with number cues and showed similar results to those of previous studies, but now for comparisons to predictive colour cues, indicating that the earlier conclusion can be generalized. Experiment 2 assessed whether the size of a cueing effect is related to the ease of deriving direction information from a cue, based on the rationale that effects for arrows may be larger, because it may be easier to process direction information given by symbols such as arrows than that given by other cues. Indeed, direction information is derived faster and more accurately from arrows than from colour and number cues in a direction judgement task, and cueing effects are larger for arrows than for the other cues. Importantly though, performance in the two tasks is not correlated. Hence, the large cueing effects of arrows are not a result of the ease of information processing, but of the types of orienting that the arrows elicit.

[Insulinomas--nesidioblastomas. Clinical experience]. / Insulinoamele--nesidioblastoamele. O experienta clinica.

Between 1980 and 1996, 16 patients (10 women) with pathologically confirmed insulinomas were operated on; they represents a median of 0.9 per year and 1.1 per cent from the total of pancreatic tumors. Median age was 47.2 (+/- 22.8) years old (range 23-68). Insulinomas occurred with following frequency in: head--2 patients, body and tail--11 patients and diffuse forms (nesidioblastomas)--3 patients. The specific clinical forms only with tumoral syndrome (without hypoglycemic manifestations) and one was an intraoperative discovery. In the case of the four patients two presented with splenic-portal hypertension +/- upper digestive haemorrhages and the other two only tumoral syndrome. The surgical approach was: the midline (ten), uni- or bilateral subcostal (five), and other incisions one. There were performed tumor exeresis through: enucleation (three), segmentary pancreatectomies (two), spleno-left-pancreatectomies (nine) and the extension of an anterior pancreatectomy (one). In one case biopsy alone was done. The tumors were not intraoperatively identified in three cases (blind left spleno-pancreatectomies). The malignancy index was 4/16 (25 per cent). Postoperative mortality rate was 12.5 per cent (two patients: one acute necrotizing pancreatitis and one pulmonary embolism).

[Surgical injuries to the main bile ducts and their sequellae in "open" biliogastroduodenal surgery]. / Traumatisme operatorii ale caii biliare principale si sechelele lor în chirurgia bilio-gastro-duodenala "deschisa".

There are studied 53 patients (1984-1995) with surgical injuries (and/or sequels) of the main biliary duct (MBD) produced during biliary and gastro-duodenal "open" interventions. The patients are classified in the following categories: I) 7 (13%) with the ductal accident diagnosed and repaired in the time of the same operation. Produced in our clinic (0.13% of the total predisposing operations), all patients healed and there was not postoperative mortality. 2) 46 (87%) patients admitted from others surgical units: a) 17 with an immediate or precocious diagnosis of the surgical MBD trauma and b) 29 with late diagnosis having various MBD strictures (6 of them have had corrective interventions which became ineffective in time). All the patients have had overadded around 3 risk factors. The principles applied in the treatment of this iatrogenic lesions were: # If the surgical injury was recognised during the causal operation--immediate repair: various ductal sutures or anastomosis with stent support maintained approximately 6-9 months. # The accident was discovered soon postoperatively: the remedial operation was postponed for a second time, after the surgical treatment of the evident complications (jaundice, angiocolitis, choleperitoneum, fistulas, etc). # The late diagnosed strictures of the MBD (without other local septic complications) benefited particularly by bilio-jejunal derivations (21 patients--72% from 29). The postoperative morbidity and lethality: 9 patients (19,5%/46), the main cause being different septic complications. 34 patients (64%/53), which we can followed, were alive between 2 and 10 years postoperatively. The best treatment of the surgical injuries of the MBD during the different biliary or gastroduodenal operations (practiced "à ciel ouvert") is their avoidance.