Perceptions of human attractiveness comprising face and voice cues

In human mate choice, sexually dimorphic faces and voices comprise hormone-mediated cues that purportedly develop as an indicator of mate quality or the ability to compete with same-sex rivals. If preferences for faces communicate the same biologically relevant information as do voices, then ratings of these cues should correlate. Sixty participants (30 male and 30 female) rated a series of opposite-sex faces, voices, and faces together with voices for attractiveness in a repeated measures computer-based experiment. The effects of face and voice attractiveness on face-voice compound stimuli were analyzed using a multilevel model. Faces contributed proportionally more than voices to ratings of face-voice compound attractiveness. Faces and voices positively and independently contributed to the attractiveness of male compound stimuli although there was no significant correlation between their rated attractiveness. A positive interaction and correlation between attractiveness was shown for faces and voices in relation to the attractiveness of female compound stimuli. Rather than providing a better estimate of a single characteristic, male faces and voices may instead communicate independent information that, in turn, provides a female with a better assessment of overall mate quality. Conversely, female faces and voices together provide males with a more accurate assessment of a single dimension of mate quality

Synchronous reluctance motors performance based on different electrical steel grades

This paper investigates the influence of various electrical steel grades on the torque and efficiency of synchronous reluctance motors (SynRMs). Four different steel grades are studied for the same motor geometry. A finite-element method is combined with an experiment-based magnetic material model to study the effect of the four steel grades on the performance of the SynRM. On the one hand, there is a negligible effect on the torque ripple because this ripple depends mainly on the motor geometry. On the other hand, it was found that the material properties have an obvious effect on the SynRM efficiency and output power. Evidently, the low loss grades result in higher efficiency: 9% point higher for NO20 compared with M600-100A. One of the four considered grades is designed to have a higher flux density in the useful magnetic field range (a few hundreds to a few thousand amperes per meter). This grade has somewhat lower efficiency, but results in a higher saliency ratio and an 8% higher torque output compared with the worst grade. Some experimental validation results are shown

EINAQ - A European educational initiative on Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and associated problems

BACKGROUND: Continuing Medical Education (CME) plays an important role in quality management, especially as quality assurance, for the improvement of healthcare in child and adolescent psychiatry. This requires responsibility regarding quality standards of clinical practice throughout Europe as outlined by the European Union of Medical Specialists (UEMS). OBJECTIVE: Therefore, steps should be undertaken to improve specialists' medical care and harmonize it in Europe. Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) with its many co-existing developmental disorders/problems is the central healthcare problem in child and adolescent psychiatry with high impact on society. Therefore, it was chosen as the target. METHOD: A European Interdisciplinary Network for ADHD Quality Assurance (EINAQ) was founded, didactic material was developed and a faculty of experts from several European countries established to offer all over Europe harmonized courses on ADHD and associated problems. RESULTS: Pilot courses were given in Germany in 2003/2004 and were highly appreciated by the participants. Further courses in Germany and other European countries will take place in 2004. CONCLUSION: EINAQ seems to be on the right track to be part of CME and specialized networks for healthcare in ADHD to improve the provision for mental health problems in children and adolescents in Europe. Cooperative projects with official European bodies like the UEMS -- Section on Child and Adolescent Psychiatry/Psychotherapy and the European Society of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry could strengthen the impact of EINAQ

ADHD subtypes: do they differ in their executive functioning profile?

The present study was designed to investigate the hypothesis that children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder combined subtype (ADHD-C) have a generalized executive functioning (EF) [Barkley, R. A. (1997). Behavioural inhibition, sustained attention, and executive functions: Constructing a unifying theory of AD/HD. Psychological Bulletin, 121, 65-94; Barkley, R. A. (1997). ADHD and the nature of self-control. New York: The Guilford Press]. We tested whether ADHD-C and ADHD inattentive subtype (ADHD-I) can be differentiated from each other on EF measures. We compared 16 normally developing boys with 16 boys with ADHD-C and 16 with ADHD-I on five EF domains. The boys were all matched on age, IQ, and the presence of oppositional defiant disorder (ODD)/conduct disorder (CD). Despite carefully diagnosed groups and methodological controls, the results do not support the EF-hypothesis of ADHD-C. Children with ADHD-C differed from normal controls (NC) on tasks related to inhibition; they did not exhibit EF deficits on all EF tasks. Children with ADHD-C also exhibited deficits on non-EF tasks. Furthermore, the ADHD-C and ADHD-I subtypes did not differ from one another. Neuropsychological findings on the domains under study did not yield evidence for the distinctiveness of ADHD-C and ADHD-I subtypes. © 2004 National Academy of Neuropsychology. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Inhibitory Deficits in reading disability depend on subtype: guessers but not spellers

In this study, children with the guessing subtype of dyslexia (who read fast and inaccurately) were compared with children with the spelling subtype (who read slowly and accurately) on three aspects of executive functioning (EF): response inhibition, susceptibility to interference from irrelevant information, and planning. It was found that guessers were impaired in their ability to inhibit inappropriate responding on all tasks used to assess EF (the stop signal task, the Stroop task, and the Tower of London task). This raises the question of whether the specific reading disorder of guessers may be linked to the same executive deficits which underlie ADHD. In order to unite a fast/inaccurate reading style with executive deficiencies, an attempt is made to incorporate the concept of executive control into models of lexical activation

Aprotinin reduces cardiac troponin I release and inhibits apoptosis of polymorphonuclear cells during off-pump coronary artery bypass surgery

Objectives: In addition to blood-sparing effects, aprotinin may have cardioprotective and anti-inflammatory effects during cardiopulmonary bypass-assisted cardiac surgery. In this study, the authors examined whether aprotinin had cardioprotective and/or anti-inflammatory effects in patients undergoing off-pump coronary artery bypass grafting. Design: A prospective randomized clinical trial. Setting: University hospital. Participants: Fifty patients were randomized to control (n = 25) or aprotinin treatment (n = 25) groups. Interventions: Aprotinin was given as a loading dose (2 x 10(6) KIU) followed by a continuous infusion at 5 x 10(5) KIU/h until skin closure. Measurements and Main Results: Blood samples for cardiac troponin I; interleukin-6, interleukin-8, and interleukin-10; tumor necrosis factor a; and elastase were taken after anesthesia induction, completion of revascularization, and 6 hours, 12 hours, and 24 hours after revascularization. Blood samples were taken to assess for apoptosis in polymorphonuclear cells. Baseline plasma levels for cardiac troponin I did not differ between groups but were significantly lower in aprotinin-treated patients at the time of revascularization (P = 0.03) and 6 hours (p = 0.004) and 24 hours (p = 0.03) later. Aprotinin significantly reduced apoptosis in polymorphonuclear cells compared with control-treated patients (p = 0.04). There were no differences in plasma cytokine or elastase levels between groups. Conclusions: The authors conclude that aprotinin reduces perioperative cardiac troponin I release and attenuates apoptosis in polymorphonuclear cells but has no significant effects on plasma cytokine levels in patients undergoing off-pump coronary artery bypass graft surgery

The Stroop revisited: a meta-analysis of interference control in AD/HD

Background: An inhibition deficit, including poor interference control, has been implicated as one of the core deficits in AD/HD. Interference control is clinically measured by the Stroop Colour-Word Task. The aim of this meta-analysis was to investigate the strength of an interference deficit in AD/HD as measured by the Stroop Colour-Word Task and to assess the role of moderating variables that could explain the results. These moderating variables included: methods of calculating the interference score, comorbid reading and psychiatric disorders, AD/HD-subtypes, gender, age, intellectual functioning, medication, and sample size. Methods: Seventeen independent studies were located including 1395 children, adolescents, and young adults, in the age range of 6-27 years. A meta-analysis was conducted to assess the effect sizes for the scores on the word and the colour card as well as the interference score. Results: Children with AD/HD performed more poorly on all three dependent variables. The effect sizes for word reading (d = .49) and colour naming (d = .58) were larger and more homogeneous than the effect size for the interference score (d = .35). The method used to calculate the interference score strongly influenced the findings for this measure. When interference control was calculated as the difference between the score on the colour card minus the score on the colour-word card, no differences were found between AD/HD groups and normal control groups. Discussion: The Stroop Colour-Word Task, in standard form, does not provide strong evidence for a deficit in interference control in AD/HD. However, the Stroop Colour-Word Task may not be a valid measure of interference control in AD/HD and alternative methodologies may be needed to test this aspect of the inhibitory deficit model in AD/HD. © Association for Child Psychology Psychiatry, 2004

Recovery of a Medieval Brucella melitensis genome using shotgun metagenomics

ABSTRACT Shotgun metagenomics provides a powerful assumption-free approach to the recovery of pathogen genomes from contemporary and historical material. We sequenced the metagenome of a calcified nodule from the skeleton of a 14th-century middle-aged male excavated from the medieval Sardinian settlement of Geridu. We obtained 6.5-fold coverage of a Brucella melitensis genome. Sequence reads from this genome showed signatures typical of ancient or aged DNA. Despite the relatively low coverage, we were able to use information from single-nucleotide polymorphisms to place the medieval pathogen genome within a clade of B. melitensis strains that included the well-studied Ether strain and two other recent Italian isolates. We confirmed this placement using information from deletions and IS711 insertions. We conclude that metagenomics stands ready to document past and present infections, shedding light on the emergence, evolution, and spread of microbial pathogens