Do sperm and lubricants gel well with each other?:A systematic review

Vaginal lubricants are commonly used to aid sexual pleasure and/or to help combat vaginal dryness and dyspareunia. Several studies have reported their impact on sperm function, however there are no published guidelines to help healthcare professionals and couples select a vaginal lubricant that is 'sperm-safe'. To address this, we conducted a literature search using both PubMed and Scopus to identify and appraise manuscripts that reported the impact of lubricants on sperm function. We did not restrict the literature search by year of publication, and we only included manuscripts that looked at the impact of vaginal lubricants on human sperm. The quality of the eligible studies was assessed using the Björndahl et al., (2016) checklist for semen analysis, as most of the studies reported the findings of a basic semen analysis. A total of 24 articles were eligible for analysis with a total of 35 vaginal lubricants (that were available to buy over the counter) being included, 2 of which studied the effect of vaginal lubricants on sperm function in vivo, and 22 being conducted in vitro. KY Jelly, PreSeed and Astroglide were most studied, with most manuscripts focussing on their impact on sperm motility. A paucity of data on most lubricants combined with methodological variations between studies and limited/no reporting on pregnancy outcomes means greater efforts are required before an evidence-based guideline can be published.</p

Do sperm and lubricants gel well with each other?:A systematic review

Vaginal lubricants are commonly used to aid sexual pleasure and/or to help combat vaginal dryness and dyspareunia. Several studies have reported their impact on sperm function, however there are no published guidelines to help healthcare professionals and couples select a vaginal lubricant that is 'sperm-safe'. To address this, we conducted a literature search using both PubMed and Scopus to identify and appraise manuscripts that reported the impact of lubricants on sperm function. We did not restrict the literature search by year of publication, and we only included manuscripts that looked at the impact of vaginal lubricants on human sperm. The quality of the eligible studies was assessed using the Björndahl et al., (2016) checklist for semen analysis, as most of the studies reported the findings of a basic semen analysis. A total of 24 articles were eligible for analysis with a total of 35 vaginal lubricants (that were available to buy over the counter) being included, 2 of which studied the effect of vaginal lubricants on sperm function in vivo, and 22 being conducted in vitro. KY Jelly, PreSeed and Astroglide were most studied, with most manuscripts focussing on their impact on sperm motility. A paucity of data on most lubricants combined with methodological variations between studies and limited/no reporting on pregnancy outcomes means greater efforts are required before an evidence-based guideline can be published.</p

Recent variations of Ghiacciaio del Calderone, Abruzzi, Italy

AbstractResults of a detailed topographic survey of Ghiacciaio del Calderone, Italy, the southernmost in Europe, are described and compared with those of surveys made in earlier years. Recession and thinning, much affected by micro-climate, have been the predominant state of health during the 20th century. Between 1916 and 1990, volume is estimated to have been reduced by about 90% and area by about 68%

Object substitution masking and the object updating hypothesis

The object updating hypothesis of object substitution masking proposes that the phenomenon arises when the visual system fails to individuate target and mask at the level of object token representations. This hypothesis is tested in two experiments using modifications of the dot mask paradigm developed by Lleras and Moore (2003). Target—mask individuation is manipulated by the presentation of additional display items that influence the linking apparent motion seen between a target and a spatially separated mask (Experiment 1), and by the use of placeholders that maintain the target object’s presence during mask presentation (Experiment 2). Results in both cases are consistent with the updating hypothesis in showing significantly reduced masking when the conditions promoted target—mask individuation. However, in both experiments, some masking was still present under conditions of individuation, an effect we attribute to attentional capture by the mask

Emerging pathogenic links between microbiota and the gut-lung axis

© 2016 Macmillan Publishers Limited, part of Springer Nature. All rights reserved. The microbiota is vital for the development of the immune system and homeostasis. Changes in microbial composition and function, termed dysbiosis, in the respiratory tract and the gut have recently been linked to alterations in immune responses and to disease development in the lungs. In this Opinion article, we review the microbial species that are usually found in healthy gastrointestinal and respiratory tracts, their dysbiosis in disease and interactions with the gut-lung axis. Although the gut-lung axis is only beginning to be understood, emerging evidence indicates that there is potential for manipulation of the gut microbiota in the treatment of lung diseases

The role of distractors in Object Substitution Masking

In object substitution masking (OSM) a surrounding mask (typically comprising of 4 dots) onsets with a target but lingers after offset; under such conditions, the ability to perceive the target can be significantly reduced. OSM was originally claimed to occur only when a target was not the focus of attention, for instance, when embedded in an array of distractors (Di Lollo, Enns, & Rensink, 2000). It was argued that the distractors influenced the time taken for focal attention to reach the target. Some recent work, however, failed to find any such distractor influence; the effect of mask duration was found to be independent of set size when steps were taken to avoid ceiling effects in the smallest set size condition (Argyropoulos, Gellatly, Pilling, & Carter, 2013; Filmer, Mattingley, & Dux, 2014). In 3 experiments, we repeatedly found that set size manipulations can interact with mask duration (in which neither ceiling nor floor effects are evident), with the effect of the mask on target perceptibility being amplified according to the number of distractor items. However, a further experiment (Experiment 4) showed that crowding by nearby distractors was actually responsible for this "set size" effect. When decoupled from crowding, set size alone did not interact with masking, though it did influence overall accuracy. Thus, the presence of distractors does influence OSM, but not in the way originally assumed by Di Lollo and colleagues in their model. The Crowding × OSM interaction suggests that the 2 phenomena involve partly overlapping mechanisms

Set size and mask duration do not interact in object substitution masking

Object-substitution masking (OSM) occurs when a mask, such as four dots that surround a brief target item, onsets simultaneously with the target and offsets a short time after the target, rather than simultaneously with it. OSM is a reduction in accuracy of reporting the target with the temporally trailing mask, compared with the simultaneously offsetting mask. It has been thought that OSM occurs only if attention cannot be rapidly focused, or prefocused, on the target location. One line of evidence for this is a reported interaction between target display set size and the duration of the trailing mask. We analyze the evidence for this interaction and suggest it occurs only as an artifact of data being compressed by a ceiling effect. We report six experiments that support this interpretation by showing that the interaction is always absent unless a ceiling effect is induced. We go on to analyze other evidence to support the notion that attention modulates OSM, and argue that in each case, the data either reflect a ceiling effect or can be explained in another way. Our data and our analyses of the existing literature have strong implications for how OSM should be conceptualized. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Stress transmission in granular matter

The transmission of forces through a disordered granular system is studied by means of a geometrical-topological approach that reduces the granular packing into a set of layers. This layered structure constitutes the skeleton through which the force chains set up. Given the granular packing, and the region where the force is applied, such a skeleton is uniquely defined. Within this framework, we write an equation for the transmission of the vertical forces that can be solved recursively layer by layer. We find that a special class of analytical solutions for this equation are L\'evi-stable distributions. We discuss the link between criticality and fragility and we show how the disordered packing naturally induces the formation of force-chains and arches. We point out that critical regimes, with power law distributions, are associated with the roughness of the topological layers. Whereas, fragility is associated with local changes in the force network induced by local granular rearrangements or by changes in the applied force. The results are compared with recent experimental observations in particulate matter and with computer simulations.Comment: 14 pages, Latex, 5 EPS figure

Exogenous spatial precuing reliably modulates object processing but not object substitution masking.

Object substitution masking (OSM) is used in behavioral and imaging studies to investigate processes associated with the formation of a conscious percept. Reportedly, OSM occurs only when visual attention is diffusely spread over a search display or focused away from the target location. Indeed, the presumed role of spatial attention is central to theoretical accounts of OSM and of visual processing more generally (Di Lollo, Enns, & Rensink, Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 129:481-507, 2000). We report a series of five experiments in which valid spatial precuing is shown to enhance the ability of participants to accurately report a target but, in most cases, without affecting OSM. In only one experiment (Experiment 5) was a significant effect of precuing observed on masking. This is in contrast to the reliable effect shown across all five experiments in which precuing improved overall performance. The results are convergent with recent findings from Argyropoulos, Gellatly, and Pilling (Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance 39:646-661, 2013), which show that OSM is independent of the number of distractor items in a display. Our results demonstrate that OSM can operate independently of focal attention. Previous claims of the strong interrelationship between OSM and spatial attention are likely to have arisen from ceiling or floor artifacts that restricted measurable performance

Exogenous spatial precuing reliably modulates object processing but not object substitution masking

Object substitution masking (OSM) is used in behavioral and imaging studies to investigate processes associated with the formation of a conscious percept. Reportedly, OSM occurs only when visual attention is diffusely spread over a search display or focused away from the target location. Indeed, the presumed role of spatial attention is central to theoretical accounts of OSM and of visual processing more generally (Di Lollo, Enns, & Rensink, Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 129:481–507, 2000). We report a series of five experiments in which valid spatial precuing is shown to enhance the ability of participants to accurately report a target but, in most cases, without affecting OSM. In only one experiment (Experiment 5) was a significant effect of precuing observed on masking. This is in contrast to the reliable effect shown across all five experiments in which precuing improved overall performance. The results are convergent with recent findings from Argyropoulos, Gellatly, and Pilling (Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance 39:646–661, 2013), which show that OSM is independent of the number of distractor items in a display. Our results demonstrate that OSM can operate independently of focal attention. Previous claims of the strong interrelationship between OSM and spatial attention are likely to have arisen from ceiling or floor artifacts that restricted measurable performance