De invloed van seksuele oriëntatie op aandacht: een mogelijk gaydar mechanisme

Personen met een homoseksuele oriëntatie wordt vaak een ‘telepathisch zesde zintuig’ toegeschreven waarmee ze andere homoseksuelen zouden kunnen herkennen (Reuter, 2002). Dit fenomeen wordt ook wel aangeduid als gaydar - een samenstelling van gay en radar (Shelp, 2002). Ofschoon waarneembare verschillen tussen homo- en heteroseksuelen niet door iedereen worden opgemerkt, rapporteren verschillende studies subtiele maar onderscheidende kenmerken die worden gedeeld door homoseksuelen, zoals haardracht (Rule, Ambady, Adams & Macrae, 2008), beweging van het lichaam en gebaren (Ambady, Hallahan & Connor, 1999), spraakpatroon (Linville, 1998), en grootte van de penis (Bogaert & Hershberger, 1999). Er schijnt dus een perceptuele basis te zijn waarop mensen een betrouwbare gaydar kunnen ontwikkelen, en homoseksuelen zijn hier blijkbaar beter in getraind. Deze studie gaat niet zozeer in op de individuele perceptuele-informatie-elementen die ten grondslag liggen aan gaydar, maar beantwoordt de vraag of een homoseksuele oriëntatie is geassocieerd met systematische veranderingen in aandachtprocessen. De meeste perceptuele-informatie-elementen die de gaydar moet verwerken, zijn relatief specifiek en lokaal van aard en vereisen dus gerichte aandacht om deze te snel te kunnen detecteren. Er is toenemend bewijs dat de gewoonte om bepaalde aandachtsets aan te wenden een chronische aandachtvoorkeur kan bewerkstelligen die generaliseert naar overige, niet-gerelateerde situaties

Defining an ageing-related pathology, disease or syndrome: International Consensus Statement

Around the world, individuals are living longer, but an increased average lifespan does not always equate to an increased health span. With advancing age, the increased prevalence of ageing-related diseases can have a significant impact on health status, functional capacity and quality of life. It is therefore vital to develop comprehensive classification and staging systems for ageing-related pathologies, diseases and syndromes. This will allow societies to better identify, quantify, understand and meet the healthcare, workforce, well-being and socioeconomic needs of ageing populations, whilst supporting the development and utilisation of interventions to prevent or to slow, halt or reverse the progression of ageing-related pathologies. The foundation for developing such classification and staging systems is to define the scope of what constitutes an ageing-related pathology, disease or syndrome. To this end, a consensus meeting was hosted by the International Consortium to Classify Ageing-Related Pathologies (ICCARP), on February 19, 2024, in Cardiff, UK, and was attended by 150 recognised experts. Discussions and voting were centred on provisional criteria that had been distributed prior to the meeting. The participants debated and voted on these. Each criterion required a consensus agreement of ≥ 70% for approval. The accepted criteria for an ageing-related pathology, disease or syndrome were (1) develops and/or progresses with increasing chronological age; (2) should be associated with, or contribute to, functional decline or an increased susceptibility to functional decline and (3) evidenced by studies in humans. Criteria for an ageing-related pathology, disease or syndrome have been agreed by an international consortium of subject experts. These criteria will now be used by the ICCARP for the classification and ultimately staging of ageing-related pathologies, diseases and syndromes

Preliminary results of a phase I/II study of weekly or twice weekly bortezomib in combination with rituximab, in patients with follicular lymphoma, mantle cell lymphoma and Waldenström's macroglobulinaemia

Introduction: Rituximab (R) is an integral component of therapy for B-cell lymphoid malignancies; bortezomib (Btz) has shown provocative single agent activity in Follicular Lymphoma (FL), Mantle Cell Lymphoma (MCL) and Waldenström’s Macroglobulinaemia (WM), providing the rationale for investigating the combination. Patients+Methods: Forty-five adult patients (pts.) (30 men, 15 women) with histologically confirmed recurrent CD20+ve FL, MCL or WM, median age 60 years (range 45-79), FL: 17, MCL: 18, WM: 10, stage III/IV 40 (93%), bone marrow (BM) infiltration 32 (73%), elevated LDH 22 (49%), performance status 1 22 (49%), were enrolled in a randomised trial comparing 2 schedules of Brz+R: Arm A (twice weekly) Btz: 1.3mg/m2 (on days 1, 4, 8, 11 of a 21-day cycle) and R: 375mg/m2 (on day 1) for 8 cycles, or Arm B (weekly) Btz: 1.6mg/m2 (on days 1, 8, 15, 22 of a 35-day cycle) and R: 375mg/m2 (on days 1, 8, 15, 22 of cycles 1 and 4) for 6 cycles (23 arm A, 22 arm B). The median number of previous treatments was 2 (range 1-7). Seventeen pts. had received a R-containing regimen, with response lasting >6 months, and 8 high-dose treatment. Response was evaluated using the IWR criteria (Cheson et al, JCO17: 1244, 1999) and the updated response criteria from the 3rd International Workshop on WM (Treon et al, Blood107: 3442, 2006) Results: Ability to deliver the therapy, toxicity and efficacy were equivalent in both arms. The median number of cycles given in arm A was 4 and 5 in arm B. Haematological toxicity (grade3: anaemia 0%, neutropenia 25%, thrombocytopenia 22%) was significantly influenced by the high percentage of pts. with BM infiltration and concomitant cytopenia on entry to the trial. The most common non-haematological adverse events were fatigue (76%), nausea (56%), diarrhoea (56%), lethargy (46%). Neurotoxicity occurred in 19 pts. (46%) (10 pts. grade 1, 7 pts. grade 2, 2 pts. grade 3). Btz dose was reduced in 7 pts.; 5 doses were omitted because of neuro or haematological toxicity. In 16 pts., treatment was delayed by 1-14 days and in 24 pts. treatment was stopped prematurely. The reasons for stopping treatment were: treatment-related toxicity 11 pts., progressive disease 9 pts., patient’s preference 3 pts., myocardial infarction 1 pt. One pt. was excluded having been found ineligible post randomisation. Thirty-nine pts. (21 arm A, 18 arm B) are evaluable for response so far, one having only received 1 cycle of therapy, which had to be discontinued because of excessive toxicity. 15/32 were in remission (CR, CRu, PR) at the completion of therapy, 7/7 at "mid-therapy" assessment, and 5 have yet to be evaluated. Thus the overall response rate (RR) presently is 22/39 (56%) (CR, CRu, PR), FL 44%, MCL 46%, WM 90%. Conclusions: The combination was active in pts. with recurrent NHL especially WM (RR 90%), despite multiple previous treatments, The weekly schedule is preferable being more convenient, as efficacious and no more toxic. Further investigation is warranted, despite not insignificant therapy compromising toxicity

Polarized inelastic neutron scattering of the partially ordered Tb2Sn2O7

We present inelastic neutron scattering results on the geometrically frustrated pyrochlore Tb2Sn2O7. At high temperature T gt;50K, this system resembles the cooperative paramagnet Tb2Ti2O7, while at low temperature T 60mK, it displays remarkably different behavior. Powder neutron scattering, susceptibility and specific heat techniques have shown that below 0.87K Tb2Sn2O7 enters a partially ordered state that is characterized by two sublattice ferrimagnetic long range order which coexists with paramagnetic spin components. We show that i the low temperature state produces a large internal field and collective excitations and ii the coexisting paramagnetic state persists down to 0.1K, with spins fluctuation at a rate greater than 0.04 THz, resulting in a diffuse magnetic background to the diffraction patterns. A low lying excitation at 1.2meV partially softens as short range correlations build up while cooling in the paramagnetic stat