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This protocol outlines a mixed-methods study to explore the dynamics of intimacy on dating apps before, during and after the crisis years of COVID-19 in the UK; how these influenced/were influenced by different gendered and sexual cultures of relating; and their impact on personal resilience, viral risk, and wellbeing. The project examines diverse gendered and sexual cultures, examining the experiences of heterosexuals and LGBT+ communities. Through a two-stage approach involving a UK-wide quantitative survey and in-depth qualitative interviews, the study explores how dating app practices influence resilience, viral risk, and intimate norms. The project aims to generate knowledge about how app-based services can be harnessed to support the social and emotional needs of diverse gendered and sexual groups during and after COVID-19 providing valuable insights into strategies for personal resilience in the face of viral risk and social during periods of social distancing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores experiences of PrEP, a HIV-prevention intervention, among bugchasers, gay men who eroticize HIV. While PrEP has been hailed as a "game changer" in HIV-prevention, little attention has been paid to why and how some people may discontinue it in the face of HIV risk, such as bugchasers do. This paper relies on interview data with bugchasers themselves to discuss the process of discontinuation and its effects. The paper argues that, for these men, discontinuation is a fluid, complex, and sometimes contradictory process. It also describes how participants perceived themselves as being at different stages of discontinuation. The paper also analyzes how these men see PrEP as a barrier to intimacy, risk, and a tool to negotiate their desires and identity: through discontinuing PrEP, these men are able to reflect on and build their identities as bugchasers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article addresses both participants' and researchers' erotic arousal during in-depth interviewing and explores how these emotions can be both productive and informative. I briefly overview the scarce literature available and propose a new framework where arousal is considered as playful. I provide three cases from my research where erotic arousal was informative. These reflect on participants' and researcher's arousal through interview transcripts and research journal. I suggest that ignoring these instances overlooks important sources of information about the interview setting and propose ways in which these emotions can be included as informative insights in the analysis of research. Throughout this article, I also reflect on the ways in which erotic arousal is embodied and, thus, not always rational, and the limits of reflexivity. Finally, I conclude by acknowledging some of the complications of erotic arousal before suggesting its benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this piece, I discuss the creation of ethnoperformance as a method of exploring and representing online spaces. I highlight the need for writing that acknowledges the influence of technology in online communication and argue for the suitability of ethnodrama as a writing method. In particular, I focus on bugchasers – men who fetishize HIV – and their online discussions. Bugchasers' comments to a forum, articulated as a five act ethnoperformance, serve as a case study to showcase how this form of writing allows users to discuss their negotiations of fantasy/reality while also acknowledging the uncertainty of online spaces and the mediation by technology. I finally defend the view that the visceral reactions ethnodrama produces generate interesting reflexive standpoints from which to research stigmatized practices and ideas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Antioquia, Colombia, investigators have recently discovered the largest family with the E280A mutation in the presenilin 1 gene that causes one type of familial Alzheimer's disease (FAD). The current study compares two groups within this family: those diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease (AD) in its early stage (nine subjects) and relatives (carriers) who did not show any signs of dementia (nine subjects). A battery of the following neuropsychological tests was administered to subjects in both groups: the Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's Disease (CERAD), a Phonological Verbal Fluency test, the Visual “A” Cancellation Test, memory of three phrases, the Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure, and the Trail Making Test Part A. Statistical analyses of the average test scores of each group showed that the AD group scored significantly (p < 0.01 or p < 0.05) lower on 29 of the 43 neuropsychological variables measured (67 percent). Therefore, this specific battery was useful in discriminating subjects with AD from their healthy relatives who are carriers of the disease. The AD group as a whole presented slight dementia with predominant deficits in memory, language, praxis, and attention. This profile is similar to those reported in subjects with sporadic AD in its early stage and confirms the findings found in other neuropsychological studies of subjects with FAD linked to mutations in chromosome 14. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Infants with Down syndrome constitute an ideal population for analysing the development of emotional expression from the first months of life, due basically to the fact that this chromosomal alteration is identifiable from birth and results in well-known difficulties of cognitive development and in basic learning processes. Taking into account the functional aspects of facial expression during initial social interaction, in this review we present a series of studies which, although based on different theoretical approaches and different methodologies, have the common objective of analysing the emotional behaviour of young infants with and without Down syndrome during face-to-face interaction with their mothers. The main conclusions emerging from these studies are: (a) that, as in the case of typically developing infants, Down syndrome infants and their mothers present a series of coordinated and interdependent expressive interchanges; (b) that, despite the differences found between infants with and without Down syndrome in quantitative parameters of expressive behaviour, such as frequency, duration and intensity of the different emotional expressions or their point of initiation in development, what seems to be most significant is the clear functional similarity observed in the two groups of subjects during initial mother-infant interaction; and (c) that these differences may be understood by considering different psychobiological explanations as well as the known cognitive deficits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]