Search

College students screened for psychosis-proneness using the Chapman scales were compared on 4 free-vision tasks that typically yield left-spatial-field biases. The tasks included 2 chimeric face tests, consisting of happy/neutral faces and male/female faces, and 2 nonface tasks, consisting of pairs of dot-filled or gradient-filled rectangles. Participants endorsing perceptual aberration items, magical ideation items, or both (n = 98) and control participants (n = 112) were left-biased on all tasks but gradients and were most biased on emotion faces; in contrast, i.e., social anhedonia participants (n = 40) displayed very little or no left-field biases. For all groups, task intercorrelations were greatest between the 2 face tasks and between the 2 nonface tasks. These findings suggest patterns of atypical perceptual asymmetry in psychosis-prone individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: This study explores older people's use of a free bus service in Wollongong, Australia. The research focus was on understanding the experiences of people over the age of 60 who use the service and the extent to which it contributes to their physical, mental and social well-being., Methods: The ethnographic research utilised fieldwork and interviews for data collection. Participant observations took place on the bus, and interviews were undertaken at bus stops. Data were analysed using an inductive thematic approach., Results: The research highlighted how bus services can be caring places for older people and a bus journey could be characterised as a therapeutic milieu. Travelling on the bus provided opportunities for health promotion due to active transport. Subsidised access to public transport supported people to maintain social connections throughout the city., Conclusions: Bus travel has contributed positively to the physical, mental and social well-being of people over the age of 60 in Wollongong., (© 2022 The Authors. Australasian Journal on Ageing published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd on behalf of AJA Inc’.)

Background: Refugee and migrant women are at higher risk of childbirth complications and generally poorer pregnancy outcomes. They also report lower satisfaction with pregnancy care because of language barriers, perceived negative attitudes among service providers, and a lack of understanding of refugee and migrant women's needs. This study juxtaposes health policy expectations in New South Wales (NSW), Australia on pregnancy and maternity care and cultural responsiveness and the experiences of maternal healthcare providers in their day-to-day work with refugee and migrant women from non-English speaking backgrounds., Methods: This study used a qualitative framework method to allow for a comparison of providers' experiences with the policy expectations. Sixteen maternal health service providers who work with refugee and migrant women were recruited from two local health districts in New South Wales, Australia and interviewed (November 2019 to August 2020) about their experiences and the challenges they faced. In addition, a systematic search was conducted for policy documents related to the provision of maternal health care to refugee and migrant women on a state and federal level and five policies were included in the analysis., Results: Framework analysis revealed structural barriers to culturally responsive service provision and the differential impacts of implementation gaps that impede appropriate care resulting in moral distress. Rather than being the programmatic outcome of well-resourced policies, the enactment of cultural responsiveness in the settings studied relied primarily on the intuitions and personal responses of individual service providers such as nurses and social workers., Conclusion: Authentic culturally responsive care requires healthcare organisations to do more than provide staff training. To better promote service user and staff satisfaction and wellbeing, organisations need to embed structures to respond to the needs of refugee and migrant communities in the maternal health sector and beyond., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

A significant challenge in the production of Earth observation satellites is the precise alignment of the telescope optical components. We have developed a strategy to perform automated alignment of two-mirror telescopes for use in a realistic factory-based setting. A Ritchey-Chrétien telescope was used as an example. The secondary mirror was mounted on a high precision hexapod and its misalignment inferred from the Zernike coefficients for tilt, defocus, and coma, as measured by a phase-shifting interferometer. The required corrections to the position of the secondary mirror were implemented using an integral controller and alignment was achieved within minutes, compared to within days when using a manual alignment process. The Zernike coefficient for each aberration was reduced to within one standard deviation of the fluctuations due to residual instability (48 nm).

Most students and nurses will attend conferences but far fewer will tackle arranging and presenting one.

To date, nearly all self-report measures of anhedonia have been developed for use with adult samples. A valid measure of anhedonia that can be used with adolescents would be useful in order to address key questions about the nature and course of anhedonia during adolescence. This study examined the psychometric properties of an adolescent version of a relatively new measure of social anhedonia, namely, the Anticipatory and Consummatory Interpersonal Pleasure Scale (ACIPS-A). The ACIPS-A was administered to a general, community-derived Spanish adolescent sample of 449 students, including 251 males (55.9%), who ranged in age from 13 to 19 years old. Other measures included the Temporal Experience of Pleasure Scale (TEPS), anhedonia subscales from the Oviedo Schizotypy Assessment Questionnaire (ESQUIZO-Q), and the General Health Questionnaire-12 (GHQ-12). Exploratory factor analysis yielded a four-factor solution (close relationships, casual friendships and relationships, social bonding, and negative affiliation/emancipation). The total ACIPS-A showed excellent internal consistency, with ordinal alpha=0.95. The ACIPS-A total scores were positively correlated with the TEPS-Anticipatory scores (r=0.44, P<0.001) and TEPS-Consummatory scores (r=0.30, P<0.001) but not with total GHQ-12 scores. The ACIPS-A total scores were negatively correlated with social anhedonia subscale scores (r=-0.55) taken from a measure developed for use with adolescents. These results suggest that the ACIPS-A is a valid measure for use with non-clinical adolescents and is likely to prove useful for screening purposes., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.)

Cocaine-dependence has been shown to affect the amplitudes of the P50 mid-latency auditory evoked response (MLAER) as well as P50 sensory gating. The effects on subsequent MLAERs (N100 and P200) have not been examined. The objective of the current study was to further assess the effects of chronic cocaine use on the P50, N100, and P200 components. Thirty-four, at least three weeks abstinent, cocaine-dependent individuals and 34 age and gender matched healthy controls were examined. The amplitudes, latencies and gating measures were calculated and compared between the groups. The N100 and P200 were significantly smaller in patients as compared to control subjects. Sensory gating of the P50, the N100, and the P200 were deficient in cocaine-dependent subjects. Latencies of all measured components were prolonged in subjects who reported developing paranoia while intoxicated. Finally, a positive correlation was found between length of abstinence and evoked response amplitudes. We conclude that the effects of cocaine on sensory gating extend beyond the P50 to the N100 and the P200 components. The data also suggest that prolonged latency of the evoked potentials may be a correlate of cocaine-induced psychosis. Finally, the data suggest that some recovery of amplitude and gating occurs with abstinence.

Cortical excitability can be assessed by transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). Previously we observed that TMS motor threshold (MT) was elevated in abstinent cocaine-dependent subjects. In the current study we aimed at replicating our initial finding, exploring other TMS-based measures of excitability, and examining association with personality characteristics. Nineteen cocaine-dependent and 12 healthy control subjects were examined. Resting and activated motor thresholds (RMT and AMT) and duration of the cortical silent period (CSP) were examined. The Cocaine Experience Questionnaire (CEQ) was administered to assess cocaine-induced psychotic symptoms. The relationship between Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) scales and cortical excitability measures was also examined. AMT was significantly elevated in cocaine-dependent subjects on both hemispheres. RMT was also significantly elevated on the right hemisphere. No CSP changes were noted. Patients with cocaine-induced paranoia had longer CSPs on the right hemisphere compared to subjects reporting no paranoid experiences. The patients displayed significantly elevated scores on several MMPI scales, though the scale scores did not correlate with cortical excitability measures. These data support our initial finding of decreased cortical excitability in abstinent cocaine-dependent subjects. We interpret this finding as a compensatory mechanism against the stimulating and epileptogenic effects of cocaine.

The present study examined spatial working memory and Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) performance in psychosis-prone individuals, either those with extremely high scores on the Social Anhedonia Scale (SocAnh; n = 49) or deviant scores on the Perceptual Aberration-Magical Ideation Scales (Per-Mag; n = 66). Sixty-three individuals with normal scores on the Chapman Psychosis-Proneness Scales served as control subjects. In order to evaluate working memory performance, participants were administered three tasks, namely, sensorimotor, degraded stimulus, and delayed-response tasks. Although the SocAnh and Per-Mag groups displayed poorer performance than control subjects on the working memory task, they did not differ significantly from each other. The SocAnh group exhibited slower reaction times on the working memory task compared to the control group. The groups did not differ in their performance on sensorimotor or degraded stimulus control tasks. Both psychosis-prone groups differed significantly from control subjects in terms of their WCST performance. Working memory performance was inversely associated with the number of perseverative errors (r = -0.17) and the number of trials to complete the first category on the WCST (r= -0.15). These findings extend the literature by indicating that some psychosis-prone individuals with social-interpersonal schizotypal deficits also display subtle spatial working memory impairments.

The present study investigates executive functioning in schizotypic college students and control subjects using the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST). Inhibitory control and working memory, two aspects of executive functioning, were examined in deviantly high scorers on the Perceptual Aberration and Magical Ideation Scales (n=97), high scorers on the revised Social Anhedonia Scale (n=58), and in control subjects (n=104). The schizotypic groups displayed significantly more perseverative errors and achieved fewer categories than the control group. The two schizotypic groups did not differ from each other. We identified a subset of schizotypic individuals who also produced clinically deviant WCST profiles. The findings support the hypothesis that executive function deficits may precede the onset of schizophrenia and related illnesses.

The authors wished to examine the role of the prefrontal cortex in oculomotor performance. They assessed smooth pursuit and saccadic performance in a patient with schizophrenia who had undergone a bilateral prefrontal leukotomy. Her performance on neuropsychological test measures sensitive to frontal lobe functioning were also examined. Against a background of intact intellectual and neurological functioning, the patient displayed a dissociation in premotor and prefrontal functioning. Smooth pursuit performance was within normal limits, as were the patient's finger tapping scores. In contrast, the patient performed poorly on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, and verbal and design fluency tasks. Similarly, her performance on the antisaccade task was markedly deviant. Despite advanced age and a frontal leukotomy, this patient with schizophrenia displayed intact smooth pursuit, indicating that the frontal cortex is not necessary for normal smooth pursuit performance.

We evaluated the temporal stability of smooth-pursuit eye tracking in 38 schizophrenic, 42 nonschizophrenic psychotic (bipolar, depressive, paranoid psychotic, and schizophreniform), and 49 normal subjects. Pursuit performance was evaluated on two testing occasions separated by approximately 9.5 months. Retest reliability coefficients of root mean square (RMS) error scores for schizophrenic and normal subjects were .68 and .57, respectively. The reliability coefficients of RMS error scores for the nonschizophrenic psychotic patients ranged from .44 to .51. Level of psychological functioning was not significantly related to tracking performance, and most patients' pursuit performance remained stable despite changes in medication and clinical status. These results support the hypothesis that eye tracking dysfunction is a trait characteristic that can serve as a vulnerability indicator of schizophrenia.

The association between treatment with lithium carbonate and smooth pursuit eye tracking performance was investigated in first-episode patients with psychotic affective disorders. The horizontal pursuit performance of patients with major depression and bipolar disorder who were receiving lithium carbonate was contrasted with that of patients not receiving lithium carbonate. In addition, the accuracy and quality of pursuit eye tracking was examined in bipolar patients whose lithium status changed from the time of initial testing to the time of retest 10 months later. For the combined group of depressed and bipolar patients, treatment with lithium carbonate was not associated with worse pursuit performance. Bipolar disordered patients on lithium did not differ in tracking proficiency from those not on lithium; bipolar patients whose lithium status changed from intake to retest also did not display a significant change in pursuit performance.

Although analytical high-performance liquid chromatographic columns have been successfully used for purification of milligram amounts of proteins, they do not appear to be ideal for preparing gram or kilogram quantities because of cost and load capacities. In this paper the development of preparative weak anion-exchange materials is described. These materials possess similar chromatographic characteristics to analytical 5-10 micron materials, yet also have high load capacities. A number of inorganic packings were examined to determine which had the best combination of high load capacity, good resolution, stability, and low cost. When appropriate flow-rates and gradient shapes were used, 30-50 micron materials produced resolution of components of a commercial ovalbumin sample that was comparable to that achieved on a 6-micron material. An amount of 3 g of a protein could be loaded onto a 250 X 21 mm-I.D. column with adequate resolution to separate it from some of its impurities.

Dibromothymoquinone has been shown to inhibit light-induced cytochrome b reduction, and oxidation of succinate and NADH by chromatophores of Rhodopseudomonas capsulata. The half-inhibitory concentration of light-induced reactions and NADH oxidation is 2.5 muM, but of succinate oxidation is 16 muM. Hexane extraction inhibited oxidation of NADH and succinate equally. The results are interpreted to suggest that ubiquinone is concerned in all three processes described, but that the pools associated with NADH and succinate oxidation are not equally accessible to dibromothymoquinone.

The efficacy of epidural hydromorphone alone or in combination with epinephrine for postoperative analgesia was evaluated in 30 healthy women who underwent cesarean delivery with epidural anesthesia. They were assigned randomly to receive either 1.5 mg hydromorphone alone (N = 15) or 1.5 mg hydromorphone with 1/200,000 epinephrine (N = 15). Duration of analgesia (mean +/- SD) was 24.3 +/- 9.4 hours after the epidural injection of hydromorphone plus epinephrine. This was significantly greater (p less than 0.01) than the duration of 18.2 +/- 5.9 hours after the same dose of plain hydromorphone. Analgesia was more rapid in onset and significantly better at the 0.5, 1, 3, and 12 hours postoperatively in the hydromorphone-epinephrine group. Side effects including pruritus (73%), nausea (20%), and vomiting (15%) were of similar frequency with and without epinephrine. Although mean venous PCO2 (PvCO2) levels three and six hours after the hydromorphone-epinephrine dose were elevated significantly over the pre-drug PvCO2 levels, no respiratory depression was detected by an apnea monitor to which all patients were connected. The addition of epinephrine to epidural hydromorphone hastened onset and prolonged the duration of analgesia after cesarean section.

The initial postwar development of new towns in Britain took place at a time when the present British National Health Service was in its infancy, and few attempts were made to integrate health service planning into the overall planning process. The more recent new towns have been the object of better social planning and, at the same time, the National Health Service has been substantially unified, at first functionally and, in 1974, administratively. In consequence, attempts have been made to use the opportunities which such towns present for planning health services in a comprehensive and integrated manner. The evolution of a planning and implementation structure for health services in Milton Keynes, a new town with a target population of 250,000, is described, together with some of the implications for the administratively unified National Health Service which came into being in 1974.

The chromatographic behavior of five proteins on hydrophobic interaction matrices having six different ligand arms was investigated using gradient elution with ammonium sulfate and ammonium acetate buffers at two pH values. The nature of the mobile phase and/or the ligand chain arm of the matrix was found to have substantial effect on the resolution, retention, and selectivity. Ovalbumin was moderately or highly retained with ammonium sulfate on all columns; however, with ammonium acetate, ovalbumin was not retained on SynChropak Hydroxypropyl and Propyl columns. Chromatographic conditions developed for analytical hydrophobic interaction chromatography columns containing 6.5-micron packings were adapted to preparative columns packed with 30-micron SynChroprep packings for the separation of serum components. Dynamic load capacities were 4-13 mg of ovalbumin per ml of column volume.