Involuntary social cue integration in patients with obsessive compulsive disorder

Objective Patients with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) have inferior social functioning compared to healthy controls, but the exact nature of these social deficits, and the underpinning mechanisms, are unknown. We sought to investigate social functioning in patients with OCD by measuring their involuntary/spontaneous processing of social cues using a specifically designed test, which might reveal deficits in these patients that explicit voluntary tasks do not detect. Methods The sample of the study consisted of an OCD group (n = 25) and a control group (n = 26). Both groups performed an adaptation of the Social Distance Judgment Task (SDJT; Jellema et al., 2009), in which participants have to judge the geometrical distance between two human cartoon figures presented on a computer screen. Head/gaze direction and body direction were manipulated to be either compatible, i.e. both directed to the left or to the right (Compatible condition) or incompatible, i.e. body directed toward the observer (frontal view) and head/gaze directed to the left or right (Incompatible condition). Results In the Compatible condition, controls nor OCD patients were influenced by the social cues in their judgments of the geometrical distances. However, in the Incompatible condition, where the attentional cue was more conspicuous, both groups were influenced by the cues, but the controls to a significantly larger extent than the OCD patients. Conclusions This study showed that patients with OCD are less likely, compared to controls, to automatically/spontaneously integrate the other’s direction of attention into their visual percept. This may have resulted in their judgments of the geometrical distances between the agents to be more accurate than those of controls. The suggested impairment in automatically integrating social cues may have important repercussions for the social functioning of OCD patients

REFLECTIONS ON THE IHEART PROGRAMME BY DIFFERENT STAKEHOLDERS: Self-confidence, Mental Wellbeing and Resilience

To promote social justice and educational equity for all students, teachers are given a significant place in international policy and literature as essential agents of change. Training teachers for inclusive practices necessitates building their self-confidence to increase their understanding of how they may use their resources to support children and adolescents, as well as boost their self-confidence. Teachers’ resilience to overcome difficulties may also have a crucial role in increasing the effectiveness of inclusive practices. This is because, despite agreement about the benefits of inclusive education, the number of teachers leaving their jobs increases daily. The aim of the project, therefore, was to support student teachers to bring to light their innate resilience and mental wellbeing and increase their self-confidence while working in schools and early year’s settings using the Iheart Project of Plymouth University experience. The Iheart Project was designed as a 10-week course. Student teachers in the first and second years of study at Plymouth Institute of Education participated voluntarily in the programme. This research was conducted using mixed methods and is focused particularly on students specialising in teaching children with special educational needs. Data were initially collected by using existing standardised scales namely Teacher Efficacy for Inclusive Practice and Warwick–Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing. Besides the scales, researcher diaries, feedback forms, Iheart website documents and interviews with key individuals involved in developing and participating in the programme were also used. Findings suggest that caution should be exercised when considering programmes designed from a particular ontological and pedagogical standpoint, but the interactive activities and some of the techniques used in the Iheart Project can nonetheless be useful to increase student teachers’ self-confidence and mental wellbeing in the school environment. It is anticipated that aspects of the training that student teachers received within the Iheart Project are likely to make a positive contribution to their professional lives as they develop effective inclusive practices in mainstream settings

Influence of infliximab pretreatment on ischemia/reperfusion injury in rat intestine

The Pringle maneuver is used in hepatic surgery to prevent blood loss but is associated with ischemia- reperfusion injury. To investigate the effect of infliximab on inflammation and apoptosis in rat intestinal mucosa during ischemia-reperfusion (IR) injury. A total of 30 male Wistar albino rats were equally divided into three groups to be subjected to (i) sham operation (sham), (ii) IR injury via Pringle maneuver (pringle) or (iii) infliximab (IFX) group (IFX was given at a dose 3 mg/kg for 3 days before IR injury). Following reperfusion period of 60 min., intestinal tissue and blood samples were taken and processed by standard histological methods. The Pringle maneuver and following reperfusion caused significant histopathological changes, increased serum transaminases’ activity and the levels of oxidative stress markers and decreased glutathione peroxidase activity. IFX pretreatment partially prevented these changes. Infliximab pretreatment may protect intestinal mucosa against ischemia-reperfusion injury. Further studies are needed to investigate mechanism and evaluate safety and optimal dosing of IFX in humans exposed to the possible tissue damage by ischemia-reperfusion. (Folia Histochemica et Cytobiologica 2014, Vol. 52, No. 1, 36–41

The effect of white tea on serum TNF-α/NF-κB and immunohistochemical parameters in cisplatin-related renal dysfunction in female rats

The study was funded by a grant from the scientific research foundation of Recep Tayyip Erdogan University .Objective: Nephrotoxicity is the most important side effect of the antineoplastic drug cisplatin, thereby restricting its use. The aim of this study was to investigate the protective effects of white tea infusions (WT) against renal damage induced by cisplatin (CP) in rats by biochemical and histopathological means. Materials and methods: This study used 24 female Sprague Dawley rats at 12–14 weeks of age and weighing 250–300 g. Rats were divided into three groups: Control, CP and CP + WT groups. CP was injected 7 mg/kg i.p as a single dose/rat in the CP group. White tea was given at a dose of 0.5% (w/v) for 4 weeks. At the end of the experiment, blood urea nitrogen (BUN), creatinine, uric acid, tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), interleukin-6 (IL-6) and nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) along with caspase-3 in the kidney were evaluated in study. Results: BUN, creatinine, TNF-α NF-κB and IL-6 levels of the CP group showed a statisically significant increase in comparison to the control group. TNF-α NF-κB and IL-6 levels showed a statistically significant decrease in the CP + WT group with respect to the CP group. Caspase-3 levels in tubular epithelial cells decreased in CP + WT group compared with CP group (p = 0.02). Conclusion: White tea infusions reduced significantly the nephrotoxicity of CP. The anti-nephrotoxic feature of the infusion may be attributed primarily to its anti-inflammatory and anti-apoptotic characteristics

Impaired Carbohydrate Metabolism among Women with Chronic Low Back Pain and the Role of Dietary Carbohydrates: A Randomized Controlled Cross-Over Experiment

Background: Impaired glucose regulation is suggested to be related to chronic low back pain (CLBP), although it is not clear how they interact with each other. Thus, the primary aim of this study was to investigate differences in postprandial glycemic responses (PPGRs) (the first sign of impaired glucose metabolism) to high- (sucrose) and low-glycemic index (GI) (isomaltulose) beverages in normoglycemic women with CLBP and healthy controls (HCs) and explore whether any group that showed greater PPGRs to high-GI beverage intake would benefit when the high-GI beverage was replaced with a low-GI beverage. Secondly, this study aimed to explore the association between PPGR and pain in patients with CLBP. Methods: This study was registered at clinicaltrials.org (NCT04459104) before the start of the study. In this study, 53 CLBP patients and 53 HCs were recruited. After 11–12 h of fasting, each participant randomly received isomaltulose or sucrose. Blood glucose levels were measured during the fasting state and 15, 30, 45, 60, 90, and 120 min after the beverage intake, and each participant underwent experimental pain measures. Results: Compared to the HCs, the CLBP group showed significantly higher PPGRs to sucrose (p < 0.021). Additionally, the CLBP group showed a significantly higher decrease in PPGR (p = 0.045) when comparing PPGR to sucrose with PPGR to isomaltulose. Correlation analysis revealed a positive association between self-reported pain sensitivity and PPGR to sucrose, while there was no association found between any experimental pain measures and glycemic responses. Conclusions: Overall, these findings suggest that normoglycemic CLBP patients might have a higher risk of developing impaired glucose tolerance than the HCs and might benefit more when high-GI foods are replaced with low-GI ones

Laughter and humour for personal development: A systematic scoping review of the evidence

The accessibility of laughter and humour make them attractive choices for self-care, and integrative medicine. There is a growing body of literature, but both fields are fragmented and the overall evidence has not been systematically reviewed. The relationship between health and personal development is increasingly recognized. This review scopes the evidence for laughter and humour interventions from the perspective of their potential benefits on personal development. A systematic scoping review used Joanna Briggs guidelines and the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews Scoping Review extension (PRISMA-ScR). All-population laughter and humour interventions described in primary and secondary research from 1970, and in English, were searched in Web of Science and PubMed/Medline. Analysis of 240 primary research articles (k), and 11 systematic reviews (K), identified k = 564 discrete articles with studies involving 574,611 participants (n). Twelve large studies (n >15,000) contributed 77% of participants. Classification analysis found more research relating to humour (k = 445, n = 334,996) than laughter (k = 119, n = 239,615) and identified diverse personal development outcomes associated with Biological, Psychological, Social, Environmental, and Behavioural (BPSE-B) factors. This review presents growing evidence for the diverse applications and benefits of laughter and humour. Multiple opportunities for self-care and interventional applications are described. The consideration of personal development outcomes may support tailored applications according to specific needs and objectives. An umbrella Personal Development Theory of laughter and humour, inclusive humour and laughter definitions, and a humour-laughter-affect model are proposed to unify the fields.N/

The Investigation of the Epistemological Beliefs of University Students According to Gender, Grade, Fields of Study, Academic Success and Their Learning Styles

WOS: 000301683500006The aim of this study is to investigate the epistemological beliefs of university students according to their genders, classes, fields of Study, academic success and learning styles. This study was carried out with 246 females and 242 males, in total 488 university students. The data was collected through Epistemological Beliefs Questionnaire.(EBQ), Kolb Learning Style Inventory (KLSI) and Personal Information Form. According to the findings, the epistemological beliefs do not differ depending on the gender of the students. According to the grade levels, it was found out that two beliefs, one of which is that "Learning depends on the effort" and the other one is that "There is one unchanging truth", differ. However; the belief concerning that "learning depends on ability" does not differ. It was seen that the common interaction between the gender and the grade level did not differ significantly in the sub-dimensions of the beliefs concerning that learning depends on effort" and of the beliefs concerning that learning depends on ability; whereas it differs meaningfully in the sub-dimension of the beliefs that "There is one unchanging truth". Results showed that the males in the second grade believed that there is more than one unchanging truth. It was realized that the epistemological beliefs of the students differ according to their fields of study; however, they do not differ according to the common effect of the academic success and the field of Study. It was understood that the students from the field of social sciences in the sub-dimension of the belief concerning that "learning depends on effort"; the students from the field of health in the sub-dimension of the belief concerning that "learning depends on ability"; the students from the field of science-techniques were more developed/mature in the sub-dimension of the belief concerning that "There is one unchanging truth". It was determined that a great majority of university students have "Assimilating" and "Converging" learning styles. It was seen that there is not a meaningful difference in the sub-dimension of the beliefs concerning that "learning depends on effort" in terms of different Learning styles. On the other hand, it was realized that there is a meaningful difference in the sub-dimensions of the beliefs concerning that "learning depends on ability" and of the beliefs that "There is one unchanging truth" in favour of the students who have "Diverging" learning styles. It was suggested for the further studies to investigate the epistemological beliefs of the university instructors and the personal characteristics (locus of control, learned helplessness) of the students