Hemifacial asymmetries in age perception: the left cheek looks older for females, but not males

The left hemiface expresses emotion more intensely than the right. Because emotional expressions contract the facial muscles and wrinkle the skin, theoretically the left hemiface’s greater expressivity should prompt more pronounced expression lines and wrinkles on the left than right side of the face. As wrinkles are the most salient age cue, we investigated whether the left hemiface consequently appears older than the right. Two hundred and sixty participants (F=148; M=112) viewed booklets containing pairs of left-left and right-right chimeric faces of eight models (M=F). For each trial participants were asked to make a two alternative forced choice response indicating which image looked older. Results confirmed a left cheek bias, with participants more likely to select left-left than right-right chimeras. Whilst participant gender did not influence perceptions, model gender predicted cheek selections: responses to female models drive the overall left cheek bias. The left cheek (56.8%) appeared older than the right cheek (43.2%) for female models, whereas there was little difference in perceived age between male models' left (50.8%) and right (49.2%) cheeks. Given that youth influences perceptions of female beauty, these findings complement previous research and offer a potential explanation for why the left side of females’ faces are judged less attractive: the right cheek appears younger

International Nosocomial Infection Control Consortium report, data summary of 50 countries for 2010-2015: Device-associated module

•We report INICC device-associated module data of 50 countries from 2010-2015.•We collected prospective data from 861,284 patients in 703 ICUs for 3,506,562 days.•DA-HAI rates and bacterial resistance were higher in the INICC ICUs than in CDC-NHSN's.•Device utilization ratio in the INICC ICUs was similar to CDC-NHSN's. Background: We report the results of International Nosocomial Infection Control Consortium (INICC) surveillance study from January 2010-December 2015 in 703 intensive care units (ICUs) in Latin America, Europe, Eastern Mediterranean, Southeast Asia, and Western Pacific. Methods: During the 6-year study period, using Centers for Disease Control and Prevention National Healthcare Safety Network (CDC-NHSN) definitions for device-associated health care-associated infection (DA-HAI), we collected prospective data from 861,284 patients hospitalized in INICC hospital ICUs for an aggregate of 3,506,562 days. Results: Although device use in INICC ICUs was similar to that reported from CDC-NHSN ICUs, DA-HAI rates were higher in the INICC ICUs: in the INICC medical-surgical ICUs, the pooled rate of central line-associated bloodstream infection, 4.1 per 1,000 central line-days, was nearly 5-fold higher than the 0.8 per 1,000 central line-days reported from comparable US ICUs, the overall rate of ventilator-associated pneumonia was also higher, 13.1 versus 0.9 per 1,000 ventilator-days, as was the rate of catheter-associated urinary tract infection, 5.07 versus 1.7 per 1,000 catheter-days. From blood cultures samples, frequencies of resistance of Pseudomonas isolates to amikacin (29.87% vs 10%) and to imipenem (44.3% vs 26.1%), and of Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates to ceftazidime (73.2% vs 28.8%) and to imipenem (43.27% vs 12.8%) were also higher in the INICC ICUs compared with CDC-NHSN ICUs. Conclusions: Although DA-HAIs in INICC ICU patients continue to be higher than the rates reported in CDC-NSHN ICUs representing the developed world, we have observed a significant trend toward the reduction of DA-HAI rates in INICC ICUs as shown in each international report. It is INICC's main goal to continue facilitating education, training, and basic and cost-effective tools and resources, such as standardized forms and an online platform, to tackle this problem effectively and systematically