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Twenty-four orgasmic and 10 anorgasmic women, ages 21-40, provided continuous self-report measures of sexual arousal while viewing explicit videotape segments depicting a variety of sexual activities. They also completed several questionnaires designed to assess sexual attitudes, knowledge, and guilt. As compared to the orgasmic women, the anorgasmic women reported (i) greater discomfort in communicating with a partner regarding only those sexual activities involving direct clitoral stimulation, (ii) more negative attitudes toward masturbation, (iii) greater endorsement of sex myths, and (iv) greater sex guilt. Contrary to expectations, the groups failed to differ significantly on either the frequency of use of any of the sexual activities depicted or on arousal to viewing these activities. The theoretical and clinical implications of these findings are explored.

Malpractice is the legal charge against a professional accused of a private wrong. Claims must be filed under tort (or civil) law; specific statutes can vary from state to state. Legal doctrines associated with malpractice include respondeat superior, which places ultimate liability with a superior or employer; proximate cause, which states that the professional's negligence resulted in injury; and res ipsa loquitur, which allows malpractice to be proved without expert testimony. Traditionally, PAs have been protected by respondeat superior; however, while some legal precedents have assigned liability to the physician entirely, others have distributed it proportionately between the supervised nonphysician provider and the physician. Consequently, no clear guidelines exist for PAs regarding malpractice, since the degree of liability has not yet been definitely decided by the courts. However, in the current legal climate, more and more PAs assume malpractice liability, and are providing for personal coverage.

The hypothesis that premature ejaculators (PEs) are less able than non-premature ejaculators (NPEs) to evaluate accurately their level of physiologically determined sexual arousal was tested. Twenty-six men (13 PEs and 13 NPEs) viewed a variety of videotaped vignettes, some of which were excerpts from sexually explicit films. Concurrent subjective (self-report) and objective (plethysmograph) ratings of sexual arousal were taken. Data revealed that both the PEs and NPEs were equally accurate in assessing their level of physiological sexual arousal. These results and those from a sexual history questionnaire were used to evaluate several hypotheses regarding the nature and etiology of premature ejaculation.

NO(2) fluorescence measurements have been made in a CH(4)/O(2)/N(2) flame at atmospheric pressure using a pulsed tunable dye laser. The results indicate that it should be possible to achieve sub-ppm sensitivities for NO(2) in flames using currently available lasers.

Binocular pattern reversal evoked potentials (PREPs) and EEG power were recorded bilaterally from occipital scalp of 50 boys and 50 girls aged 5-14. PREP latency was unaffected by either age or gender. Amplitudes, however, were consistently larger for girls than boys, with differences diminishing by adolescence. Significant electrophysiological asymmetries were also found; larger PREP amplitudes were measured at the right occipital electrode than the left for the two waves investigated. These asymmetries were apparent in both girls and boys across all ages, although they tended to diminish with maturation. EEG alpha asymmetry did not correlate with PREP amplitude asymmetry. PREPs elicited by half-field stimulation of 8 girls aged 9-10 years determined that 'paradoxical lateralization' of the half-field response was the same for both left and right half-fields, thus failing to account for the asymmetry of the full-field binocular response.