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Contains fulltext : 129276.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Closed access) More than 40 years of research have shown that people favor members of their ingroup in their impressions, attitudes, and behaviors. Here, we propose that people also form different mental images of minimal ingroup and outgroup members, and we test the hypothesis that differences in these mental images contribute to the well-established biases that arise from minimal group categorization. In Study 1, participants were assigned to 1 of 2 groups using a classic minimal group paradigm. Next, a reverse correlation image classification procedure was used to create visual renderings of ingroup and outgroup face representations. Subsequently, a 2nd sample naive to the face generation stage rated these faces on a series of trait dimensions. The results indicated that the ingroup face was significantly more likely than the outgroup face to elicit favorable impressions (e. g., trusting, caring, intelligent, attractive). Extending this finding, Study 2 revealed that ingroup face representations elicited more favorable implicitly measured attitudes than did outgroup representations, and Study 3 showed that ingroup faces were trusted more than outgroup faces during an economic game. Finally, Study 4 demonstrated that facial physiognomy associated with trustworthiness more closely resembled the facial structure of the average ingroup than outgroup face representation. Together, these studies suggest that minimal group distinctions can elicit different mental representations, and that this visual bias is sufficient to elicit ingroup favoritism in impressions, attitudes and behaviors. 15 p.

A high time-resolved monitoring campaign of bulk deposition of PAHs and metals was conducted near the industrial area and at an urban background site in province of Taranto (Italy) in order to evaluate the impact of the biggest European steel plant. The deposition fluxes of the sum of detected PAHs at the industrial area ranged from 92 to 2432 ng m−2d−1. In particular the deposition fluxes of BaP, BaA, and BkF were, on average, 10, 14, and 8 times higher than those detected at the urban background site, respectively. The same finding was for metals. The deposition fluxes of Ni (19.8 µg m−2d−1) and As (2.2 µg m−2d−1) at the industrial site were about 5 times higher than those at the urban background site, while the deposition fluxes of Fe (57 mg m−2d−1) and Mn (1.02 mg m−2d−1) about 31 times higher. Precipitation and wind speed played an important role in PAH deposition fluxes. Fe and Mn fluxes at the industrial site resulted high when wind direction favored the transport of air masses from the steel plant to the receptor site. The impact of the industrial area was also confirmed by IP/(IP + BgP), IP/BgP, and BaP/BgP diagnostic ratios.

Although there is little information from primary or secondary prevention trials on cholesterol- lowering medication in diabetic patients, the reduction of elevated cholesterol is widely recommended for this group. The American Diabetes Association (ADA) recommends drug therapy in diabetic patients if low density lipoprotein (LDL)-cholesterol remains at > 130 mg/dl, or > 100 mg/dl in patients with macroangiopathy, after dietary intervention. When cholesterol- lowering medication is indicated, the choice of the drug must take into account the other lipid abnormalities that are often present and the need to maintain optimal glycaemic control. In the present study we compared the ef®cacy and safety of the novel HMG-CoA reductase inhibitor atorvastatin at the dose of 10 mg/day with simvastatin , lovastatin and pravastatin at doses of 10, 20 and 20 mg/day, respectively, and placebo, in type 2 diabetic patients with moderate elevation of LDL-cholesterol with or without elevation of triglycerides. All the quoted agents are enzyme inhibitors effective in lowering LDL-cholesterol in humans. The ef®cacy endpoints were the mean per cent changes in plasma LDL-cholesterol (primary), total cholesterol, triglycerides, and high-density lipoprotein (HDL)-cholesterol concentrations from baseline to the end of treatment (24 weeks). Atorvastatin at a dose of 10 mg/day produced: (1) a signi®cant reduction in LDL-cholesterol (± 37%) in comparison with equivalent doses of simvastatin (± 26%), pravastatin (± 23%), lovastatin (± 21%), and placebo (± 1%); (2) HDL-cholesterol increases (7.4%) comparable to or greater than those obtained with simvastatin (7.1%), pravastatin (3.2%), lovastatin (7.21%), and placebo (± 0.5%); (3) a signi®cantly greater reduction in total cholesterol (± 29%) than that obtained with simvastatin (± 21%), pravastain (± 16%), lovastatin (± 18%), and placebo (1%); and (4) a signi®cantly greater reduction in triglycerides than that obtained with all the other drugs and placebo. In all treatment groups no signi®cant variation in ®brinogen concentration was observed. All reductase inhibitors studied had similar levels of tolerance. There were no incidents of persistent elevations of serum aminotransferases or myositis.

Prejudice researchers are typically interested in two things, neither of which directly concerns the brain: the situational causes and consequences of prejudice for individuals in society, and the psychological mechanisms that drive biased perceptions and discriminatory behavior. Perhaps surprisingly, the field of intergroup relations is the domain in which social neuroscience research has been arguably the most active. This is partly due to a coincidence-many of the first social psychologists with neuroscience training happened to be interested in intergroup questions (Amodio, Harmon-Jones, & Devine, 2003; Bartholow, Pearson, Gratton, & Fabiani, 2003; Ito & Urland, 2003; Phelps et al., 2000; Vanman, Paul, Ito, & Miller, 1997). A more substantive reason, however, is that the field of intergroup relations provides one of the most fertile, multifaceted areas of research for studying the interplay of multiple psychological processes at multiple levels of analysis. And, at its core, the social neuroscience approach is interested in connections across levels of analysis. By studying intergroup processes, social neuroscientists can examine the rich interplay of neural function with cognition, emotion, and behavior as they operate within the individual, dyads, groups, and societies. Prejudice researchers who take this approach hope to probe the psychological mechanisms of intergroup bias while also elucidating brain function.

Social anxiety is the intense fear of negative evaluation by others, and it emerges uniquely from a social situation. Given its social origin, we asked whether an anxiety-inducing social situation could enhance the processing of faces linked to the situational threat. While past research has focused on how individual differences in social anxiety relate to face processing, we tested the effect of manipulated social anxiety in the context of anxiety about appearing racially prejudiced in front of a peer. Visual processing of faces was indexed by the N170 component of the event-related potential. Participants viewed faces of Black and White males, along with nonfaces, either in private or while being monitored by the experimenter for signs of prejudice in a ‘public’ condition. Results revealed a difference in the N170 response to Black and Whites faces that emerged only in the public condition and only among participants high in dispositional social anxiety. These results provide new evidence that anxiety arising from the social situation modulates the earliest stages of face processing in a way that is specific to a social threat, and they shed new light on how anxiety effects on perception may contribute to the regulation of intergroup responses.

An annual monitoring campaign of VOCs, consisting of twelve sampling periods, was carried out from June 2008 to June 2009 in Modugno, a city located in the Apulia region (Southern Italy), in order to assess the urban air quality, identify the main emission sources, and quantify the cancer and no-cancer risk attributable to inhalation exposures. Monitoring, carried out by using the Radiello diffusive samplers, was conducted in eleven sampling sites throughout the city taking into account the traffic density and the architecture of the city. From the study of the data, it was found that, among all considered VOCs, benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylenes (BTEX) are the pollutants at higher concentration. The analysis of VOC concentrations, the study of the topography of the city, and the use of different diagnostic ratios between the BTEX species showed that the vehicular traffic emissions were the predominant source of VOCs in the urban area of Modugno. Despite that the annual concentration of benzene is lower than the regulatory limit, the estimation of cancer risk showed that the global lifetime cancer risk attributed to the investigated VOC exposure was not negligible and therefore should be taken into account in future regulatory approaches.

When interacting with someone from another social group, one's responses may be influenced by both stereotypes and evaluations. Given behavioral results suggesting that stereotypes and evaluative associations operate independently, we used fMRI to test whether these biases are mediated by distinct brain systems. White participants viewed pairs of Black or White faces and judged them based on an evaluation (who would you befriend?) or a stereotype-relevant trait (who is more likely to enjoy athletic activities?). Multi-voxel pattern analysis revealed that a predominantly occipital network represented race in a context-invariant manner. However, lateral orbitofrontal cortex preferentially represented race during friendship judgments, whereas anterior medial prefrontal cortex preferentially represented race during trait judgments. Furthermore, representation of race in left temporal pole correlated with a behavioral measure of evaluative bias during friendship judgments and, independently, a measure of stereotyping during trait judgments. Whereas early sensory regions represent race in an apparently invariant manner, representations in higher-level regions are multi-componential and context-dependent.

Social neuroscience is an interdisciplinary approach to studying the mind and behavior, noted for its appreciation for the dynamic interactions of situational and dispositional processes as they relate to neural and biological mechanisms. In this chapter, we describe the methodological approach of social neuroscience and review research that has applied this approach to address the interplay of the person and situation in the domains of social cognition, attitudes, emotion and motivation, intergroup relations, and personality. We provide critical discussion of how neuroscience may contribute to classic questions in personality and social psychology, and we describe how the social neuroscience approach promotes the integration of dispositional and situational accounts of the mind and behavior.

A portable sensor-system based on solid-state gas sensors has been designed and implemented as proof-of-concept for environmental air-monitoring applications and malodours olfactometric control. Commercial gas sensors (metal-oxides, n-type) and nanotechnology sensors (carbon nanotubes, p-type) are arranged in a configuration of array for multisensing and multiparameter devices. Wireless sensors at low-cost are integrated to implement a portable and mobile node, that can be used as early-detection system in a distributed sensor network. Real-time and continuous monitoring of hazardous air-contaminants (e.g., NO 2, CO, SO 2, BTEX, etc.) has been performed by in-field measurements. Moreover, monitoring of landfill gas generated by fermentation of wastes in a municipal site has been carried out by the portable sensor-system. Also, it was demonstrated that the sensor-system is able to assess the malodours emitted from a municipal waste site and remarkably compared to the olfactometry method based on a trained test panel. © 2012 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.

The present work outlines a theory of attitudes toward emotions, provides a measure of attitudes toward emotions, and then tests several predictions concerning relationships between attitudes toward specific emotions and emotional situation selection, emotional traits, emotional reactivity, and emotion regulation. The present conceptualization of individual differences in attitudes toward emotions focuses on specific emotions and presents data indicating that 5 emotions (anger, sadness, joy, fear, and disgust) load on 5 separate attitude factors (Study 1). Attitudes toward emotions predicted emotional situation selection (Study 2). Moreover, attitudes toward approach emotions (e.g., anger, joy) correlated directly with the associated trait emotions, whereas attitudes toward withdrawal emotions (fear, disgust) correlated inversely with associated trait emotions (Study 3). Similar results occurred when attitudes toward emotions were used to predict state emotional reactivity (Study 4). Finally, attitudes toward emotions predicted specific forms of emotion regulation (Study 5).

Particulate matter (PM) is a very complex mixture of many inorganic and organic compounds of primary and secondary origin and this is the main reason why the desired reduction of its concentration and the identification of its many sources constitute a very difficult task. It is widely recognised that atmospheric particles are responsible for adverse effects on the ecosystem, the climate and the health of human beings (Pope & Dockery, 2006). Epidemiological studies have shown a consistent association of the mass concentration of urban air thoracic particles (PM10 particles with an aerodynamic diameter smaller than 10 μm), and its sub-fraction fine particles (PM2.5 particles with an aerodynamic diameter smaller than 2.5 μm), with mortality and morbidity among cardio-respiratory patients (WHO, 2005). Recent studies indicate that PM10 is associated to respiratory responses while PM2.5 may contribute to cardiovascular diseases (Wyzga, 2002). The chemical characteristics of the particulate fractions and biological mechanisms responsible for these adverse health effects are still unknown as well as the aerosol parameters (mass, particle size, surface area, etc) involved in the health impacts (Hauck et al., 2004). In addition, there is an indication that the increase in the atmospheric aerosol burden delays the global warming attributed to the increase in greenhouse gasses (GHG: CO2, CH4, N2O, halocarbons). Whether the increase in GHGs since preindustrial times is producing a warming of 2.3 Wm,anthropogenic contributions to aerosols (primarily sulphate, organic carbon, black carbon, nitrate and dust) together produce a cooling effect, with a total direct radiative forcing of -0.5 Wm2 and an indirect cloud albedo forcing of -0.7 Wm (IPCC, 2007). In recent years many studies have been carried out to determine the chemical composition of atmospheric particulate matter (Vecchi et al., 2007). Most of these studies were devoted to the identification of the main particle sources, with the purpose to identify viable strategies for their reduction. In this chapter we focus the attention mostly on the ionic component of

We examined relationships among individual differences in trait emotions and the emotion-modulated startle-eyeblink response. In particular, we examined the extent to which trait anger, which is negative in valence, would be associated with a pattern of approach motivation in startle eyeblink responses to appetitive stimuli. Self-reported trait emotions were compared with emotion-modulated startle eyeblink responses to auditory probes during appetitive, aversive, and neutral pictures. Results revealed that trait anger, enjoyment, and surprise were each associated with greater blink inhibition to appetitive pictures, indicating an approach motivational response. No other trait emotions were associated with startle eyeblink responses to appetitive or aversive pictures. These results support the idea that trait anger, although experienced as a negative emotion, is associated with an approach-related motivational response to appetitive stimuli at basic, reflexive levels of processing.

The authors tested the effectiveness of implementation intentions as a strategy for limiting the behavioral expression of implicit stereotypes. Implementation intentions are if-then plans that link an intended response to an anticipated situational cue, thereby enabling a reflexive form of control. The authors examined whether two different types of implementation intentions could improve response accuracy on the Shooter Task, a reaction time measure of implicit stereotyping. In Study 1, participants used a distraction-inhibiting implementation intention designed to engage control over the perception of goal-irrelevant stimuli (e.g., race). In Study 2, participants used a response-facilitating implementation intention designed to promote goal-directed action. Across studies, implementation intentions improved accuracy, thereby limiting the behavioral expression of implicit stereotypes. Furthermore, process dissociation analyses indicated that the distraction-inhibiting implementation intention increased controlled processing while reducing automatic stereotype activation, whereas the response-facilitating implementation intention increased only controlled processing. Implications for goal strategy approaches to reducing prejudice are discussed.

In the intergroup relations literature, theories of control concern the interplay of basic cognitive mechanisms of self-regulation with intrapersonal and societal-level goals and motivations. By integrating multiple levels of analysis, this literature has been uniquely positioned to advance our understanding of control as it operates in the complex social world that the human self-regulatory system has evolved to negotiate. In this chapter, we review research and theoretical models of control that have emerged from intergroup approaches. The first section of this chapter describes four theoretical models of control that have been central to research in prejudice, stereotyping, and intergroup relations. The next section highlights some of the recent exciting advances in the study of control in the intergroup domain and notes how they are refining and, in some cases, redefining basic conceptions of control as a self-regulatory process. The final section outlines what we see as some major challenges faced by current theories of control, both in the intergroup domain and in the broader psychological literature.

Self-regulation is believed to involve changes in motivation and perception that function to promote goal-driven behavior. However, little is known about the way these processes interact during the on-line engagement of self-regulation. The present study examined the coordination of motivation, perception, and action control in White American participants as they regulated responses on a racial stereotyping task. Electroencephalographic indices of approach motivation (left frontal cortical asymmetry) and perceptual attention to Black versus White faces (the P2 event-related potential) were assessed during task performance. Action control was modeled from task behavior using the process-dissociation procedure. A pattern of moderated mediation emerged, such that stronger left frontal activity predicted larger P2 responses to race, which in turn predicted better action control, especially for participants holding positive racial attitudes. Results supported the hypothesis that motivation tunes perception to facilitate goal-directed action. Implications for theoretical models of intergroup response regulation, the P2 component, and the relation between motivation and perception are discussed.

Background There are limited safety data for high-dose and long-term daptomycin treatment (16mg/kg administered for >or=14 days). We present our experience in 61 patients. Methods We performed a retrospective chart review for all patients treated with daptomycin at New York Hospital Queens (Flushing) from 1 January 2004 through 30 April 2007; patients were identified through a computerized hospital pharmacy database. Results Sixty-one patients (29 male and 32 female patients; mean age, 66.6 years) received a mean dose of 8 mg/kg of daptomycin for a median of 25 days (range, 14-82 days). Twelve patients (with bone and skin and softtissue infections) did not have an identified microbiologic isolate. Gram-positive infections included bloodstream infection with or without infective endocarditis (n = 32), skin and soft-tissue infection (n = 14), bone and joint infection (n = 9), and intra-abdominal infection (n = 5), and unidentified infection (n = 1). Prosthetic devices were removed from 11 of 20 patients. Grade 1 adverse events occurred in 22 patients and did not lead to daptomycin discontinuation. Fifty-eight patients underwent creatine phosphokinase (CPK) analysis (34 patients had paired CPK analyses at the beginning of and during therapy, and 13 patients had random CPK analysis performed during treatment). Three patients had constitutional and/or musculoskeletal symptoms accompanying CPK levels 110 times upper limit of normal (grade 3). All occurred after 24 days of treatment and improved after daptomycin treatment was discontinued. Two of 3 patients were morbidly obese (body mass index grade III). Conclusions Daptomycin treatment was well tolerated at a mean dose of 8 mg/kg for a median duration of 25 days. The incidence of symptomatic CPK level elevation was within the range reported with lower doses of daptomycin and/or for shorter treatment durations.

An action‐based model of dissonance is presented. This model accepts the original theory's proposal that a sufficient cognitive inconsistency causes the negative affective state of dissonance. It extends the original theory by proposing why cognitive inconsistency prompts dissonance and dissonance reduction. After reviewing past theoretical and empirical developments on cognitive dissonance theory, we describe the action‐based model and present results from behavioral and physiological experiments that have tested predictions derived from this model. In particular, this evidence converges with recent neuroscience evidence in suggesting that the anterior cingulate cortex and left prefrontal cortical region are involved in conflict detection and resolution, respectively. We end by reviewing research on individual differences in dissonance arousal and reduction, and present a new measure designed to assess these individual differences.

Low-prejudice people vary considerably in their ability to regulate intergroup responses. The authors hypothesized that this variability arises from a neural mechanism for monitoring conflict between automatic race-biased tendencies and egalitarian intentions. In Study 1, they found that low-prejudice participants whose nonprejudiced responses are motivated by internal (but not external) factors exhibited better control on a stereotype-inhibition task than did participants motivated by a combination of internal and external factors. This difference was associated with greater conflict-monitoring activity, measured by event-related potentials, when responses required stereotype inhibition. Study 2 demonstrated that group differences were specific to response control in the domain of prejudice. Results indicate that conflict monitoring, a preconscious component of response control, accounts for variability in intergroup bias among low-prejudice participants.

Objective: To estimate the impact of alcohol consumption on the incidence of mild cognitive impairment and its progression to dementia. Methods: We evaluated the incidence of mild cognitive impairment in 1,445 non–cognitively impaired individuals and its progression to dementia in 121 patients with mild cognitive impairment, aged 65 to 84 years, participating in the Italian Longitudinal Study on Aging, with a 3.5-year follow-up. The level of alcohol consumption was ascertained in the year before the survey. Dementia and mild cognitive impairment were classified using current clinical criteria. Results: Patients with mild cognitive impairment who were moderate drinkers, i.e., those who consumed less than 1 drink/day (approximately 15 g of alcohol), had a lower rate of progression to dementia than abstainers (hazard ratio [HR] 0.15; 95% CI 0.03 to 0.78). Furthermore, moderate drinkers with mild cognitive impairment who consumed less than 1 drink/day of wine showed a significantly lower rate of progression to dementia than abstainers (HR 0.15; 95% CI 0.03 to 0.77). Finally, there was no significant association between higher levels of drinking (≥1 drink/day) and rate of progression to dementia in patients with mild cognitive impairment vs abstainers. No significant associations were found between any levels of drinking and the incidence of mild cognitive impairment in non–cognitively impaired individuals vs abstainers. Conclusions: In patients with mild cognitive impairment, up to 1 drink/day of alcohol or wine may decrease the rate of progression to dementia.

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Implicit stereotyping and prejudice often appear as a single process in behavior, yet functional neuroanatomy suggests that they arise from fundamentally distinct substrates associated with semantic versus affective memory systems. On the basis of this research, the authors propose that implicit stereotyping reflects cognitive processes and should predict instrumental behaviors such as judgments and impression formation, whereas implicit evaluation reflects affective processes and should predict consummatory behaviors, such as interpersonal preferences and social distance. Study 1 showed the independence of participants' levels of implicit stereotyping and evaluation. Studies 2 and 3 showed the unique effects of implicit stereotyping and evaluation on self-reported and behavioral responses to African Americans using double-dissociation designs. Implications for construct validity, theory development, and research design are discussed.

Sentinel lymph node sampling, in patients with resectable colon cancer, improved identification of lymph node disease and identified patients likely to benefit from adjuvant therapy. This study examined whether sentinel node sampling accurately predicted lymph node status for patients with resectable colon cancer.

Intrahepatic primary lithiasis is extremely rare in the Western world. The development of endoscopic technique permitted a conservative treatment for this disease. Because of the high recurrence rate after conservative treatment due to the remaining biliary stricture and the risk of incidental cholangiocarcinoma, we believe that hepatic resection is the treatment of choice of unilateral liver intrahepatic primary lithiasis. Herein we present a case affected with intrahepatic primary lithiasis localized into the left biliary system that successfully underwent left hepatic lobectomy.

Three studies examined the moderating role of motivations to respond without prejudice (e.g., internal and external) in expressions of explicit and implicit race bias. In all studies, participants reported their explicit attitudes toward Blacks. Implicit measures consisted of a sequential priming task (Study 1) and the Implicit Association Test (Studies 2 and 3). Study 3 used a cognitive busyness manipulation to preclude effects of controlled processing on implicit responses. In each study, explicit race bias was moderated by internal motivation to respond without prejudice, whereas implicit race bias was moderated by the interaction of internal and external motivation to respond without prejudice. Specifically, high internal, low external participants exhibited lower levels of implicit race bias than did all other participants. Implications for the development of effective self-regulation of race bias are discussed.

Since its first description in the early 1990s, minimally invasive Heller myotomy has become the treatment of choice for esophageal achalasia. We report the experience of a single unit with thoracoscopic Heller myotomy (THM) and laparoscopic Heller myotomy (LHM) and we analyze the short- and long-term surgical outcomes in patients treated by each of the two approaches.We evaluated retrospectively 33 patients who underwent surgical treatment for achalasia. Sixteen patients underwent THM without an antireflux procedure, and 17 patients underwent LHM and partial anterior fundoplication (n = 10) or closure of the angle of His (n = 7).Mean operative time was significantly shorter for LHM than for THM (150 vs 222 min, respectively) (p = 0.0001). Mean hospital stay was significantly shorter after LHM than after THM (2.0 +/- 1.0 vs 5.1 +/- 2.2 days, respectively) (p = 0.0001). Six of 16 patients (37.5%) in the THM group experienced persistent or recurrent dysphagia compared to one of 17 patients (5.8%) in the LHM group (p = 0.04). Heartburn developed in five patients (31.2%) after THM and in one patient (5.8%) after LHM (p = 0.07). Regurgitation developed in four patients (25%) after THM and in one patient (5.8%) after LHM (p = 0.149). Lower esophageal sphincter (LES) basal pressure decreased significantly from 30.1 +/- 5.07 to 15.3 +/- 2.1 after THM and from 32.1 +/- 5.9 to 10.5 +/- 1.7 after LHM (p = 0.0001). Mean esophageal diameter was significantly reduced after LHM compared to THM (from 54.5 +/- 5.7 mm to 27.1 +/- 3.3 mm vs 50.8 +/- 7.6 mm to 37.2 +/- 6.9 mm, respectively) (p = 0.0001).In our experience, LHM is associated with a shorter operative time and a shorter hospital stay, and it is superior to THM in relieving dysphagia. LHM with partial anterior fundoplication should be considered the treatment of choice for achalasia.

The spleen is rarely involved from metastatic disease. Metastases from breast cancer are extremely rare although described in the Literature. The Authors report a case of a woman who had undergone to radical mastectomy for breast cancer nine years previously and admitted to the hospital because of a single splenic lesion shown by U.S. scan during the follow up.

Political scientists and psychologists have noted that, on average, conservatives show more structured and persistent cognitive styles, whereas liberals are more responsive to informational complexity, ambiguity and novelty. We tested the hypothesis that these profiles relate to differences in general neurocognitive functioning using event-related potentials, and found that greater liberalism was associated with stronger conflict-related anterior cingulate activity, suggesting greater neurocognitive sensitivity to cues for altering a habitual response pattern.

From 1973 to 1994, 21 patients with esophageal peptic stenosis were submitted to esophago-jejuno-gastroplasty with Merendino's technique. In 14 cases peptic stenosis developed after Heller's myotomy for achalasia, associated in 3 cases with fundoplication. In 3 patients the stenosis was secondary to fundoplication. Other 3 subjects presented a primary stenosis. One patient showed Barrett's esophagus with in situ carcinoma. Endoscopic esophageal dilatation was attempted in every patient with no satisfactory results. One patient died for a postoperative cardiopulmonary failure (4.7%). One patient developed a fistula of the esophago-jejunal anastomosis treated with enteral nutrition successfully (4.7%). In another subject splenectomy was performed following a iatrogenic injury (4.7%). Minor complications developed in 5 patients (23.7%). After one year from operation in 1 patient a severe stricture of esophago-jejunal anastomosis appeared; it was treated with anastomotic resection and reconstruction. After 8 years one patient was submitted to a partial resection of interposed jejunal loop, that was redundant. In 18 patients long term follow-up showed good results in 14 patients (78%), discrete in 2 (11%), unsatisfactory in 2 (11%). Our results show that Merendino's esophago-jejunal gastroplasty allows to achieve good results with acceptable rate of mortality and morbidity.

We examined the neurocognitive correlates of the Behavioral Inhibition and Behavioral Activation Systems (BIS/BAS) in an effort to clarify ambiguities concerning interpretations of BIS as reflecting inhibition versus avoidance. We hypothesized that self-reported BIS should relate to neural mechanisms associated with conflict monitoring, whereas self-reported BAS should be associated with neural correlates of approach motivation. Consistent with these predictions, higher self-reported BIS was uniquely related to the N2 event-related potential on No-Go trials of a Go/No-Go task, linking BIS with conflict monitoring and sensitivity to No-Go cues. Higher BAS was uniquely related to greater left-sided baseline frontal cortical asymmetry associated with approach orientation. Implications for theories of self-regulation involving conflict monitoring, cognitive control, and approach/avoidance motivation are discussed.