Flashing a smile: Startle eyeblink modulation by masked affective faces

Affective faces are important stimuli with relevance to healthy and abnormal social and affective information processing. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of brief presentations of affective faces on attention and emotional state across the time course of stimulus processing, as indexed by startle eyeblink response modulation. Healthy adults were presented with happy, neutral, and disgusted male and female faces that were backward masked by neutral faces. Startle responses were elicited at 300, 800, and 3,500 ms following stimulus presentation to probe early and late startle eyeblink modulation, indicative of attention allocation and emotional state, respectively. Results revealed that, at 300 ms, both face expression and face gender modulated startle eyeblink response, suggesting that more attention was allocated to masked happy compared to disgusted female faces, and masked disgusted compared to neutral male faces. There were no effects of either face expression or face gender on startle modulation at 800 ms. At 3,500 ms, target face expression did not modulate startle, but male faces elicited larger startle responses than female faces, indicative of a more negative emotional state. These findings provide a systematic investigation of attention and emotion modulation by brief affective faces across the time course of stimulus processing.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/142906/1/psyp13012_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/142906/2/psyp13012.pd

GEOMETRICAL SPREADING AND ATTENUATION OF LG WAVES - A COMPARISON BETWEEN WESTERN ANATOLIA (TURKEY) AND SOUTHERN SPAIN

We compared the attenuation and geometrical spreading coefficient of Lg waves for crustal paths in western Anatolia and southern Spain, at source-receiver distances between 80 and 400 km. We used the coda normalization method which is based on the elimination of the source and site effects from observed spectra of Lg waves. Q for Lg waves in the crust was determined as a function of frequency in the range 1.5-10.0 Hz for western Anatolia and in the range 1.5-12 Hz for southern Spain. We found that Q(Lg) shows a strong frequency dependence in both regions. In western Anatolia, the frequency dependence of Q(Lg) is Q(Lg)(f)= 82.f(1.0) and the geometrical spreading coefficient ranges from 0.6 to 0.9. We found Q(Lg) = 83.f(0.88) and a geometrical spreading coefficient close to 0.5 in southern Spain. Comparing our results with code-Q values obtained in both regions, Q(Lg) and Q(Lg) are similar. Q(Lg) is close to Q(i) in all frequency bands. We interpret the geometrical spreading coefficient higher than 0.5 for western Anatolia as due to a strong layered and heterogeneous crustal structure

Source Parameters of Microearthquakes At Phlegraean Fields (southern Italy) Volcanic Area

The seismic activity that occurred at the Pblegraean Fields (Southern Italy) volcanic area during a pronounced episode of ground uplift has been analysed. One hundred and eighty-one three component seismograms from a digital network operating in the period January—May 1984 were processed to obtain seismic moments, source radii and stress dropsfor32microearthquakes(0.7<ML< 3.2).Aninversemethodbasedonaleastsquaresfittingofdisplacement spectra with a theoretical model has been applied to infer the spectral parameters of P-radial and SH records. This method has the advantage of giving statistical errors on the spectral estimates. The computed seismic moments range between 0.5 x 1018 and 0.13 x 1021 dyne-cm. Stress drops are approximately constant, and do not clearly depend on seismic moments, which is in contrast with other reported data from microearthquake sequences. Small values of source radii (few tens of metres) are found.Published25-423.1. Fisica dei terremotiJCR Journalreserve

Robotic single-site hysterectomy: Two institutions' preliminary experience

Background: To evaluate the feasibility, safety and peri- and postoperative outcomes of robotic single-site hysterectomy for gynaecological diseases. Methods: We studied 45 patients who underwent robotic single-site hysterectomy for benign and malignant disease at two institutions during May 2012-June 2013. We evaluated whether any correlation exists between BMI, patient's height, uterine size, operative time and blood loss, comparing the outcomes between the two centres. Results: The mean operative and console times were 134 ± 36 and 93 ± 29 min, respectively, with no significant difference between the centres (p = 0.09; p = 0.08). The mean intra-operative blood losses were 53 ± 45 and 33 ± 44 ml, respectively (p = 0.15). We observed a low rate of complications. Conclusions: Robotic single-site hysterectomy is feasible and safe and allows for optimal postoperative pain control and improved cosmetic results. This technique also seems to be successful in obese patients and in patients with a large uterine size. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.