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Mechanisms underlying visual imagery, the ability to create vivid mental representations of a scene in the absence of sensory input, remain to be fully understood. Some previous studies have proposed that visual imagery might be related to visual short-term memory (STM), with a common mechanism involving retention of visual information over short periods of time. Other observations have shown a strong relationship between visual imagery and functional activity in the hippocampus and primary visual cortex, both regions also associated with visual STM. Here we examined the relationship of visual imagery to STM and hippocampal and primary visual cortex volumes, first in a large sample of healthy people across a large age range (N=229 behavioural data; N=56 MRI data in older participants) and then in patients with Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease (N=19 in each group compared to 19 age-matched healthy controls). We used a variant of the “What was where?” visual object-location binding task to assess the quality of remembered information over short delays. In healthy people, no evidence of a relationship between the vividness of visual imagery and any visual STM performance parameter was found. However, there was a significant positive correlation between visual imagery and the volumes of the hippocampus and primary visual cortex. Although visual STM performance was significantly impaired in patients with Alzheimer’s disease, their vividness of visual imagery scores were comparable to those of age-matched elderly controls and patients with Parkinson’s disease. Despite hippocampal volumes also being reduced in Alzheimer’s patients, there appeared to be no impact on their self-reported visual imagery. In conclusion, visual imagery was not significantly related to visual STM performance, either in healthy controls or Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s disease but it was related to hippocampal and visual cortex volume in healthy people.

Background Heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) is a clinical condition frequently diagnosed in clinical practice. In patients affected by HFrEF, sleep apnea (SA) can be detected among the most frequent comorbidities. Sacubitril–valsartan (sac/val) association has been proven to be effective in reducing disease progression and all-cause mortality in HFrEF patients. Sac/val treatment can potentially attenuate SA development via several pathophysiologic mechanisms, including improvement of global hemodynamics, reduction of extracellular fluid overload, and decrease of sympathetic neural activity. Purpose The aim of this work is to evaluate the effects of a 6-month therapy with sac/val on hemodynamic and metabolic parameters, as well as on the occurrence of apnea/hypopnea and oxygen saturation in patients with HFrEF and SA, already treated with CPAP. Methods We recruited 132 patients affected by HFrEF and SA, already under treatment with continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP), which was discontinued 24 hours before the scheduled study timepoints. Physical examination, echocardiography, nocturnal cardio-respiratory monitoring, and laboratory tests were performed in each patient at baseline and after a 6-month treatment with sac/val. Results After 6 months, sac/val induced statistically significant changes in clinical, hemodynamic, biohumoral (NT-proBNP, serum electrolytes, creatinine and uric acid), and echocardiographic parameters. In particular, cardiac index (CI), both atrial and ventricular volumes and global longitudinal strain (GLS) improved. Moreover, polysomnography, carried out during a temporary CPAP interruption, revealed a significant reduction in global apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) value (p Conclusions Our results suggest that treatment with sac/val is able to significantly improve the cardiorespiratory performance of patients with HFrEF and SA, integrating the positive impact of CPAP. Thus, both CPAP and sac/val therapy may synergistically contribute to lower the risks of both cardiac and pulmonary complications in HFrEF patients with SA. Funding Acknowledgement Type of funding sources: None.

Background Non Valvular Atrial fibrillation (NVAF) is an independent predictor of cardiovascular (CV) mortality and morbidity. The incidence and prevalence increase in proportion to age and comorbidity burden especially in elderly patients in whom oral anticoagulant therapy (OAT) is difficult to manage, and it is often underused for limitations of efficacy and safety presented by vitamin K antagonists (AVK). Direct oral coagulation inhibitors (DOACs) are as effective as AVKs with a better safety profile, ensuring a lower incidence of major bleeding. NVAF and Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) are mutually connected and often coexist in the elderly patient. AF is a risk factor for the progression of CKD, the prevalence and incidence of AF increase with decrease in renal function, CKD also increases the risk of bleeding and thromboembolism, making risk stratification and treatment difficult. All available DOACs are partially eliminated by the kidneys therefore, renal function inevitably influences our therapeutic strategies. Purpose The aim of this work is to evaluate any differences between AVK versus DOACs patient's on the decline of renal function in elderly population with NVAF and important comorbidities. Methods We enrolled 411 Caucasian patients aged ≥70 years, affected by NVAF with important comorbidities; 135 patients receiving VKA and 276 receiving DOACs, median age was 77.2 years (IQR 72.7–81.6). Patients underwent clinical-instrumental and laboratory evaluation for a follow-up of 6.9±2.5 years. Patients with severe hepatic impairment or ClCr Results During an average follow-up of 6.9±2.5 years there were statistically significantly differences between VKA and NOAC in eGFR (p Conclusion The present study confirms a better safety profile of DOACs compared to AVKs on the decline of renal function in elderly and multimorbid population, even though patients receiving DOACs had a greater burden of comorbidities that negatively affect renal function such as arterial hypertension, COPD, heart failure; and at baseline a significantly lower eGFR value than the AVK group. Funding Acknowledgement Type of funding sources: None.

Background Heart failure (HF) is associated to endothelial dysfunction, a pathological condition characterized by imbalance between the production of vasoconstrictor and vasodilator factors, increase in the production of cytokines, down-regulation of eNOS, platelets activation and increased oxidative stress. Furthermore, endothelial dysfunction promotes the increase of arterial stiffness, augmenting myocardial damage. Sacubitril/Valsartan (sac/val) is used in the treatment of HF reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) and has been proven effective in reducing CV disease progression and all-cause mortality in HFrEF patients. Purpose The aim of the study was to evaluate the effect of sac/val on endothelial dysfunction and arterial stiffness in patients with HFrEF, at baseline and after 6 months of treatment. Moreover, we evaluated the effects of sac/val on oxidative stress levels and platelets activation. Methods We enrolled 46 Caucasian patients (mean age 70.1±7.1), suffering from HFrEF. Inclusion criteria were EF Results The mean dose of sac/val was 180.5±110 mg without serious adverse events. At 6 months, data showed a significant improvement in in hemodynamic and clinical parameters such as heart rate (HR) (p Conclusion The treatment with sac/val improved endothelial dysfunction and arterial stiffness, due to reduced levels of oxidative stress, platelet activation and inflammation. Funding Acknowledgement Type of funding sources: None.

Contains fulltext : 291673.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access) There are substantive theoretical questions about whether personal values affect romantic relationship functioning. The current research tested the association between personal values and romantic relationship quality while considering potential mediating mechanisms related to pro-relational attitudes, communal strength, intrinsic relationship motivation, and entitlement. Across five studies using different measures of value priorities, we found that the endorsement of self-transcendence values (i.e., benevolence, universalism) was related to higher romantic relationship quality. The findings provided support for the mediating roles of pro-relational attitudes, communal strength, and intrinsic relationship motivation. Finally, a dyadic analysis in our fifth study showed that self-transcendence values mostly influence a person's own relationship quality but not that of their partner. These findings provide the first evidence that personal values are important variables in romantic relationship functioning while helping to map the mechanisms through which this role occurs. 21 maart 2023 14 p.

Objective: Extant research mostly treats values as being stable over time. Our research examined how people perceive values over time and whether or not these perceptions reflect motivational tensions between theoretically opposing values. We also assessed the viability of examining values over time to predict well-being and future intentions.Method: Four studies (N = 934) asked participants to report their values across past, present, and future settings. These temporal trajectories were analyzed across the four types of higher-order values: self-transcendence, self-enhancement, openness, and conservation. Studies 3 and 4 assessed associations with well-being. Study 4 assessed associations with self-reported behavior over time.Results: Across all four studies, participants perceived their values as being dynamic over time. Younger participants' trajectories did not reflect the motivational conflicts typically reported in values research, but Study 4 showed potential awareness in older age groups. Variability in temporal values correlated with well-being, particularly for openness values. Future values predicted future intentions, even when controlling for present values.Conclusion: This novel method of examining values provides new understanding into how people perceive the pursuit of values over time. Additionally, we show two ways that a temporal values measure can offer new insights into well-being and future intentions.

Despite the fundamental importance of children in adults’ lives, research has failed to systematically examine the psychological content of adult’s attitudes towards children. This manuscript describes four preliminary (N=1,073) and five main studies (N=2,227) addressing this gap, while also providing a new measure for assessing these attitudes: the Attitudes Towards Children (ATC) scales. After identifying beliefs, feelings, and behaviors that adults spontaneously associate with babies, toddlers, and primary/elementary school-age children, two factors emerged consistently: one factor capturing affection towards them and one capturing stress elicited by them. Focusing on attitude content towards school-age children, we found that affection is related to individual differences in positive affectivity, emotional approach tendencies, and a concern for others, while also predicting broad positivity in evaluations, motivations, and donation behavior specific to children. In contrast, we found that stress is related to individual differences in self-focused emotional instability, emotional avoidance, and concern about disruptions to a structured life. These attitude components also predict parents’ experiences in a challenging situation – home-parenting during Covid-19 lockdown – with affection explaining greater enjoyment, and stress explaining greater perceived difficulty. Furthermore, in a reverse-correlation image classification task, affection predicted mental visualization of children as more confident and less quiet, while stress predicted mental visualization of children as tougher and less innocent. Together, these findings offer fundamental new insights about social cognitive processes that impact children by revealing the importance of distinguishing between affection and stress in attitudes towards them.

Pathological personality traits are an important inhibitor of social functioning and well-being. Individual human values also possess important connections to both personality and well-being, but the links between human values and pathological personality traits have not been directly examined. Across two studies (N = 478), we provide the first direct examination of these relations by employing linear and sinusoidal methodologies assessing relations between Schwartz's circular model of human values (Schwartz, 1992) and a series of personality measures, including the Personality Inventory for the DSM-5 (e.g., Callousness, Intimacy avoidance, Rigid perfectionism). Data for Study 1 was collected in Germany and data for Study 2 in the UK. Self-transcendence values buffer against several pathological personality traits that constrain psychological well-being (e.g., callousness). Conversely, self-enhancement values (which are motivationally opposite to self-transcendence values in Schwartz's circular model of human values) were positively associated with these personality traits. Several pathological personality traits were related to the 10 value types in a sinusoidal waveform that was consistent with Schwartz's circular model of human values. Findings were overall consistent across samples from both countries. The results help us move closer to distinguishing between different processes underpinning the associations between personality traits and human values.

Attitudes are people’s likes and dislikes toward anything and anyone that can be evaluated. This can be something as concrete as a mosquito that is tormenting you during the night or as abstract and broad as capitalism or communism. In contrast, human values have been defined as abstract ideals and guiding principles in one’s life and are considered as abstract as well as trans-situational. Thus, while both attitudes and values are important constructs in psychology that are necessarily related, there are also a range of differences between the two. Attitudes are specific judgments toward an object, while values are abstract and trans-situational; attitudes can be positive and negative, while values are mainly positive; and attitudes are less relevant for one’s self-concept than values. A range of studies have investigated how values and attitudes toward specific topics are associated. The rationale for most studies is that people’s values guide whether they like certain people, an object, or an idea. For example, the more people value universalism (e.g., equality, broad-mindedness), the more they support equal rights for groups that are typically disadvantaged. However, these associations can also be complex. If people do not consider an attitude to be a relevant expression of a value, it is less likely that the value predicts this attitude. Further, it can also matter for people’s attitudes whether their values match those of the people in their country, are similar to other social groups (e.g., immigrants), and whether they think their own group’s values are similar or dissimilar to the values of other groups. In sum, the literature shows that the links between values and attitudes are both entrenched and malleable and that these interrelations have many important consequences for understanding social-political divisions and well-being.

The present research provides the first direct assessment of the fit of diverse behaviors to putatively related personal and social values from Schwartz’s theory. Across three studies, we examined spatial representations of value-related behaviors that were explicitly derived from people’s mental representations of the values. Participants were asked how similar the behaviors were to each other and various values, and these judgments were used to specify multidimensional scaling solutions. The results indicated that the spatial representation of the behaviors was consistent with the two-dimensional space described in Schwartz’s model of values, although several deviations occurred. For example, self-enhancement behaviors were widely spread, indicating more variation in the way individuals interpret these behaviors, which are often associated with other value types. These data provide evidence that a range of behaviors can at least partly be reduced to underlying motivations expressed by values. Furthermore, our findings indicate that behaviors are often expressed by several values, which might help to explain why value–behavior associations in previous studies were weak. Finally, they illustrate a new approach to learning which behaviors might relate to multiple values.

Transanal total mesorectal excision (TaTME) is the most recent approach developed to improve pelvic dissection in surgery for mid and low rectal tumors. There are still inconsistencies regarding the technique's oncological results. The aim of this study was to analyze clinical and oncological outcomes of the learning curve of TaTME in comparison to laparoscopic TME (lapTME).Rectal cancer patients who had TaTME and lapTME in two Portuguese colorectal units between March 2016 and December 2018 were eligible. Primary endpoints were 5-year overall survival, disease-free survival, and local recurrence. Secondary endpoints were clinical and pathological outcomes.Forty-four patients underwent TaTME (29 men) and 39 lapTME (27 men) with a median age of 69 and 66 (p = 0.093), respectively. No differences were observed concerning baseline characteristics, emphasizing their comparability. In the TaTME group, there were more hand-sewn anastomosis (0 lapTME versus 7 TaTME, p = 0.018) with significantly less distance to the dentate line (40 mm lapTME versus 20 mm TaTME, p = 0.005) and significantly more loop ileostomies performed (28 lapTME versus 41 TaTME, p = 0.001). There were no differences in post-operative mortality, morbidity, readmissions, and stoma closure. Groups were similar in relation to specimen quality, margins, and resectability; however, TaTME had a significantly higher node yield (14 lapTME versus 20 TaTME, p = 0.002). Finally, no disparities were noted in oncological outcomes, namely local and distant recurrence, 5-year overall survival, and disease-free survival.Even with the disadvantage of the learning curve of a new technique, TaTME appears to be comparable to lapTME, with similar long-term oncological outcomes. It has, however, a demanding learning curve, significant risk for morbidity and should be used only for selected patients.

Contains fulltext : 232802.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access) Organizations often put children front and center in campaigns to elicit interest and support for prosocial causes. Such initiatives raise a key theoretical and applied question that has yet to be addressed directly: Does the salience of children increase prosocial motivation and behavior in adults? We present findings aggregated across eight experiments involving 2,054 adult participants: Prosocial values became more important after completing tasks that made children salient compared to tasks that made adults (or a mundane event) salient or compared to a no-task baseline. An additional field study showed that adults were more likely to donate money to a child-unrelated cause when children were more salient on a shopping street. The findings suggest broad, reliable interconnections between human mental representations of children and prosocial motives, as the child salience effect was not moderated by participants' gender, age, attitudes, or contact with children. 10 p.

We review recent research investigating the effect of shared human values on personal and social outcomes. Using more precise methods than past research, cross-sectional and experimental evidence suggests that well-being and prejudice are predicted by the extent to which people’s values align (or are perceived to align) with those of other people around them. Importantly, this research shows that these effects depend on the type of values being considered and are more nuanced than prior research suggests. For example, well-being is higher among individuals who perceive their fellow citizens to share their values of power and achievement. Prejudice against immigrants is higher among individuals who value conservation more but perceive immigrants to value openness. Moreover, experimentally highlighting actual value similarities rather than mean differences improves attitudes towards outgroups. We discuss how future studies can improve our understanding of value similarity effects and their underlying mechanisms.

The impact of human values on our choices depends on their nature. Self-Transcendence values motivate us to act for the benefit of others and care for the environment. Self-Enhancement values motivate us to act for our benefit. The present study examines differences in the neural processes underlying these two value domains. Extending our previous research, we used fMRI to explore first of all neural correlates of Self-Transcendence vs Self-Enhancement values, with a particular focus on the putative role of the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC), which has been linked to a self-transcendent mind-set. Additionally, we investigated the neural basis of Openness to Change vs Conservation values. We asked participants to reflect on and rate values as guiding principles in their lives while undergoing fMRI. Mental processing of Self-Transcendence values was associated with higher brain activity in the dorsomedial (BA9, BA8) and ventromedial (BA10) prefrontal cortices, as compared to Self-Enhancement values. The former involved activation and the latter deactivation of those regions. We did not detect differences in brain activation between Openness to Change vs Conservation values. Self-Transcendence values thus shared brain regions with social processes that have previously been linked to a self-transcendent mind-set, and the "core self" representation.

There has been surprisingly little examination of how recall performance is affected by processing demands induced by retrieval cues, how manipulations at encoding interact with processing demands during maintenance or due to the retrieval cue, and how these are affected with aging. Here, we investigate these relationships by examining the fidelity of working memory recall across two delayed reproduction tasks with a continuous measure of report across the adult lifespan. Participants were asked to remember and subsequently reproduce from memory the identity and location of a probed item from the encoding display. In Experiment 1, we examined the effect of filtering irrelevant information at encoding and the impact of filtering distracting information at retrieval simultaneously. In Experiment 2, we tested how ignoring distracting information during maintenance or updating current contents with new information during this period affects recall. The results reveal that manipulating processing requirements induced by retrieval cues (by altering the nature of the retrieval foil) had a significant impact on memory recall: the presence of two previously viewed features from the encoding display in the retrieval foil led to a decrease in identification accuracy. Although irrelevant information can be filtered out well at encoding, both ignoring irrelevant information and updating the contents of memory during the maintenance delay had a detrimental effect on recall. These effects were similar across the lifespan, but older individuals were particularly affected by manipulations of processing demands at encoding as well as increasing set size of information to be retained in memory. Finally, analyses revealed that there were no systematic relationships between filtering performance at encoding, maintenance and retrieval suggesting that these processing demands are independent of each other. Rather than filtering being a single, monolithic entity, the data suggest that it is better accounted for as distinctly dissociable cognitive processes that engage and articulate with different phases of working memory.

Traditional models of personality traits and of human values have frequently pointed to theoretical interconnections between these constructs, which both refer to stable psychological characteristics. Yet, decades of study have yielded no consensus about precisely how these constructs interrelate. The present research takes a significant step forward by empirically examining consequences of matching semantic content between traits and values. As an example of such semantic matching, people can vary in the extent to which they are honest and curious (traits), while varying in the extent to which they believe that it is important to be honest and curious (values). We used alternate forms of the HEXACO-trait model (Ashton et al., 2004) and Schwartz’s (1992) 10-value type model to examine this role of semantic content. As expected, we found that the HEXACO and Schwartz models assess different semantic content from each other. We also predicted and found that both the semantic content of the measures (e.g., honesty vs curiosity) and the type of measurement (i.e., as traits or values) determined relations to other variables (e.g., negative affect, internalization of moral identity). These findings show that greater theoretical precision about the relations between traits and values can be achieved by explicitly distinguishing the models’ axiological starting points and focus of assessment.

Rectal cancer treatment has evolved with the implementation of new surgical techniques. Transanal total mesorectal excision (TaTME) is the most recent approach developed to facilitate pelvic dissection of mid- and distal rectal tumours. The purpose of this study was to analyse the short- and mid-term oncological outcomes of TaTME.A study was conducted on patients treated with TaTME for rectal cancer at two colorectal units in Portugal between March 2016 and December 2018. Clinical, pathological and oncological data were retrospectively analysed. Primary endpoints were 3-year overall survival, disease-free survival and local recurrence. Secondary endpoints were clinical and pathological outcomes.Fifty patients (31 males, [62%], median age 66 years [range 40-85 years]) underwent TaTME, 49 (98%) for malignant and 1 (2%) for benign disease. There were no cases of conversion, 49 (98%) patients had complete or near-complete mesorectum, all the resections were R0 with adequate distal and circumferential margins. With a median follow-up of 36 months, there were 2 cases (4%) of local recurrence and 3-year estimated overall survival and disease-free survival were 90% and 79%, respectively.TaTME can provide safe mid-term oncological outcomes, similar to what has been published for classic and laparoscopic TME. Our results also show how demanding this novel approach can be and the consequent need for audited data and standardized implementation.

“Attitudes” refer to summary evaluations of people, groups, ideas, and other objects, reflecting whether individuals like or dislike them. The study of attitudes takes a central position in social psychology. Decades of research have demonstrated that attitudes are important for understanding how individuals perceive the world and how they behave. One of the key aspects of attitudes is their cognitive, affective, and behavioral content. That is, an individual may associate an attitude object with cognitions or beliefs, emotional reactions, and intentions or past actions. The attitude itself may also have a simple (e.g., positive or negative) structure or a more conflicted, ambivalent (e.g., simultaneously positive and negative) structure; it may serve different psychological functions (e.g., simplification of knowledge, value-expression); and it may vary in strength. Diverse techniques have been developed to measure attitudes, showing that they are useful predictors of behavior and that the strength of this link depends on diverse factors, such as how strongly the attitude is held, the individual’s personality, and the context. Overall, the long history of research on attitudes has supported their considerable theoretical and practical relevance.

The COVID-19 pandemic poses an exceptional challenge for humanity. Because public behaviour is key to curbing the pandemic at an early stage, it is important for social psychological researchers to use their knowledge to promote behaviours that help manage the crisis. Here, we identify human values as particularly important in driving both behavioural compliance to government guidelines and promoting prosocial behaviours to alleviate the strains arising from a prolonged pandemic. Existing evidence demonstrates the importance of human values, and the extent to which they are shared by fellow citizens, for tackling the COVID-19 crisis. Individuals who attach higher importance to self-transcendence (e.g., responsibility) and conservation (e.g., security) values are likely to be more compliant with COVID-19 behavioural guidelines and to help others who are struggling with the crisis. Further, believing that fellow citizens share one's values has been found to elicit a sense of connectedness that may be crucial in promoting collective efforts to contain the pandemic. The abstract nature of values, and cross-cultural agreement on their importance, suggests that they are ideally suited to developing and tailoring effective, global interventions to combat this pandemic.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via the original article.

Arieli, Sagiv, and Roccas’s lead article provides a timely and important review of the role of individual values and their role in organisations. At the same time as identifying several key areas of progress, the review identifies significant gaps. In this commentary, we focus on additional gaps that merit attention. In particular, we highlight a need for greater theoretical clarity in the literature about the concrete ways in which values are instantiated in different organisational contexts, roles, and cultural settings. We argue that the growing importance of values in studies of organisational contexts would be well-served by more precision in how they are conceptualised and operationalised in studies of organisational behaviour.

Human values and affective traits were found to predict attitudes toward the use of different types of drugs (e.g., alcohol, marijuana, and other illegal drugs). In this study (N = 196, M age = 23.09), we aimed to gain a more comprehensive understanding of those predictors of attitudes toward drug use in a mediated structural equation model, providing a better overview of a possible motivational path that drives to such a risky behavior. Specifically, we predicted and found that the relations between need for affect and attitudes toward drug use were mediated by excitement values. Also, results showed that excitement values and need for affect positively predicted attitudes toward the use of drugs, whereas normative values predicted it negatively. The pattern of results remained the same when we investigated attitudes toward alcohol, marijuana, or illegal drugs separately. Overall, the findings indicate that emotions operate via excitement and normative values to influence risk behavior.

It is often assumed that incongruence between individuals’ values and those of their country is distressing, but the evidence has been mixed. Across 29 countries, the present research investigated whether well-being is higher if people’s values match with those of people living in the same country or region. Using representative samples, we find that person-country and person-region value congruence predict six well-being measures (e.g., emotional well-being, relationship support; N = 54,673). Crucially, however, value type moderates whether person-country fit is positively or negatively associated with well-being. People who value self-direction, stimulation, and hedonism more and live in countries and regions where people on average share these values report lower well-being. In contrast, people who value achievement, power, and security more and live in countries and regions where people on average share these values, report higher well-being. Additionally, we find that people who moderately value stimulation report the highest well-being., It has been assumed that incongruence between individuals’ values and those of their country or region is distressing, but the evidence has been mixed. Using representative samples from 29 countries, the authors show that person-country and person-region value congruence predict six well-being outcomes.

Preoperative biliary drainage (PBD) in patients with pancreatic cancer remains debatable. The aim of this study was to analyse the indications for PBD in patients performing pancreaticoduodenectomy (PD) and to evaluate the impact of this procedure on postoperative outcome.Observational retrospective cohort study of patients undergoing PD for pancreatic cancer. Clinical data and postoperative outcome, namely complications and 90-day mortality, were prospectively collected and compared between patients performing PBD or direct surgery (DS).Eighty-two patients were included: 40 underwent PBD and 42 performed DS. Major complications (27.5% vs 33.3%, P=0.156) and 90-day mortality (10% vs 16.7%, P=0.376) were similar between the two groups. There was a trend for higher mean total bilirubin in patients with PBD (P=0.073). The indication for PBD was suspicion of cholangitis/choledocholithiasis or need to perform neoadjuvant chemotherapy in 24 (60%) patients. In the remaining, elevated bilirubin was probably the only reason to perform PBD. Length of hospital stay was longer in PBD group (P=0.003). On multiple logistic regression, 90-day mortality was not related with preoperative bilirubin levels, biliary drainage or its indication, but solely with age (OR 1.15, 95%CI 1.05-1.31, P=0.008).PBD is often performed in patients undergoing PD without a formal indication, mainly due to high bilirubin levels. No increased morbidity/mortality was observed but length of hospital stay was prolonged in patients performing PBD.

Background and aims Attitudes towards children in both private and public spheres can have serious implications for children’s health because they often influence adult treatment and decision-making concerning children. However, despite the importance of attitudes towards children, psychological research has surprisingly failed to systematically examine or measure them. Addressing this gap, we developed the Child Attitude Components Scales (CACS). Methods In pilot work, 32 adults indicated which child age-groups they spontaneously distinguished, and 119 adults indicated which feelings, beliefs, and behaviours they associated with each of the resulting child groups. We used these associations as statements and assessed the degree of adults’ agreement with them. In five studies (1750 participants), we examined the structure of adults’ responses, selected statements that reflected this structure, and examined the resulting scales’ relationships with a range of important child-related outcomes. Results The findings indicated that adults spontaneously distinguished between babies, toddlers, primary school children, and teenagers. Across the three younger groups, two dimensions of responses emerged consistently, with one capturing differences in positivity toward child groups and one capturing differences in stress elicited by them. As expected, the resulting ten-item measure predicted a range of relevant perceptions, evaluations, feelings, motivations, and behaviours towards the respective child group and future generations. Adults higher in the positivity category perceived these child groups as higher in warmth, competence, and innocence, were more motivated to be a parent, contributed more to a charity event benefiting children, and were generally more affectively orientated. In contrast, adults higher in the stress category were more anxious about interacting with toddlers and supported corporal punishment more. Interestingly, teenagers revealed a distinct pattern of responses: One CACS dimension captured openness to interact with teenagers, one captured positive perceptions of them and one captured positive emotions towards them. Conclusions Together, our research shows that the CACS is a reliable and valid measure of adults’ attitudes towards children. As such, the CACS can help explain and improve adult treatment and decision-making concerning children, including the development of public policy.

In this chapter, we describe and integrate advances in the study of inter-individual differences in attitude content. Research within this area has addressed how people differ in the extent to which their attitudes are primarily guided by the favorability of their cognitive and affective responses. We begin by describing work that prompted researchers to address this topic and how these individual differences have been measured. We then highlight the implications of individual differences in cognitive and affective content in relation to attitude formation, attitude change, attitude strength, and how individuals perceive and evaluate people, groups, and other attitude objects. Taken together, these lines of research lend support to the argument that people differ in their use of cognitive and affective information as bases for attitudes. We conclude the chapter by addressing new questions that we believe will stimulate further interest in the topic.

Most published research focuses on describing differences, while neglecting similarities that are arguably at least as interesting and important. In Study 1, we modified and extended prior procedures for describing similarities and demonstrate the importance of this exercise by examining similarities between groups on 22 social variables (e.g., moral attitudes, human values, and trust) within 6 commonly used social categories: gender, age, education, income, nation of residence, and religious denomination (N = 86,272). On average, the amount of similarity between 2 groups (e.g., high vs. low educated or different countries) was greater than 90%. Even large effect sizes revealed more similarities than differences between groups. Studies 2-5 demonstrated the importance of presenting information about similarity in research reports. Compared with the typical presentation of differences (e.g., barplots with confidence intervals), similarity information led to more accurate lay perceptions and to more positive attitudes toward an outgroup. Barplots with a restricted y-axis led to a gross underestimation of similarities (i.e., a gross overestimation of the differences), and information about similarities was rated as more comprehensible. Overall, the presentation of similarity information achieves more balanced scientific communication and may help address the file drawer problem. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Objective We conducted five studies testing whether an implicit measure of favorability toward power over universalism values predicts spontaneous prejudice and discrimination. Method Studies 1 (N = 192) and 2 (N = 86) examined correlations between spontaneous favorability toward power (vs. universalism) values, achievement (vs. benevolence) values, and a spontaneous measure of prejudice toward ethnic minorities. Study 3 (N = 159) tested whether conditioning participants to associate power values with positive adjectives and universalism values with negative adjectives (or inversely) affects spontaneous prejudice. Study 4 (N = 95) tested whether decision bias toward female handball players could be predicted by spontaneous attitude toward power (vs. universalism) values. Study 5 (N = 123) examined correlations between spontaneous attitude toward power (vs. universalism) values, spontaneous importance toward power (vs. universalism) values, and spontaneous prejudice toward Black African people. Results Spontaneous positivity toward power (vs. universalism) values was associated with spontaneous negativity toward minorities and predicted gender bias in a decision task, whereas the explicit measures did not. Conclusions These results indicate that the implicit assessment of evaluative responses attached to human values helps to model value-attitude-behavior relations.

Sustainable intensification (SI) has been proposed as a solution to meeting the challenge of feeding a growing global population under increasing land pressure. This paper explores the level of ambivalence felt towards SI and towards experts promoting SI based solutions to meet food security. A web-based experiment was conducted with 600 respondents who had varying degrees of knowledge about food security issues. We found a diversity of public ambivalence towards sustainable intensification and a high level of felt ambivalence towards experts promoting SI as a solution to global food security. High levels of ambivalence towards experts seemed to influence how messages on global food security were accepted. Moreover, within the respondents here sustainable consumption and greater equity ranked higher than production based sustainable intensification solutions. This paper represents the first application of the psychological construct of ambivalence applied to the topic of sustainable intensification and we argue this helps to localise the debate around SI as it offers the opportunity to capture or disentangle responses towards food security issues.

Three studies explored the connection between social perception processes and individual differences in the use of affective and cognitive information in relation to attitudes. Study 1 revealed that individuals high in need for affect (NFA; Maio & Esses, 2001) accentuated differences in evaluations of warm and cold traits, whereas individuals high in need for cognition (NFC; Cacioppo & Petty, 1982) accentuated differences in evaluations of competent and incompetent traits. Study 2 revealed that individual differences in NFA predicted liking of warm or cold targets,whereas individual differences in NFC predicted perceptions of competent or incompetent targets. Further, the effects of NFA and NFC were independent of structural bases and meta-bases of attitudes. Study 3 revealed that differences in the evaluation of warm and cold traits mediated the effects of NFA and NFC on liking of targets. The implications for social perception processes and for individual differences in affect-cognition are discussed.