The effect of contrast adaptation on briefly presented stimuli

AbstractWilson and Humanski (1993) have recently reported evidence that adapting to low temporal frequency sinewave gratings yields little threshold elevation for briefly presented test stimuli. We postulated that brief stimuli may be detected by a transient channel which would be minimally affected by a low temporal frequency adapting pattern. We therefore measured the effect of adaptation om briefly presented test stimuli for a wider range of adapting temporal frequencies. The results indicate that adaptation may yield threshold elevation for briefly presented stimuli and that threshold elevation is greater for high than low temporal frequency adapting patterns. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that briefly presented stimuli are detected by a transient channel

Is it feasible to conduct a randomised controlled trial of pretransplant exercise (prehabilitation) for patients with multiple myeloma awaiting autologous haematopoietic stem cell transplantation? Protocol for the PREeMPT study

Introduction While myeloma is an incurable malignancy, developments in disease management have led to increased life expectancy in recent years. Treatment typically involves stem-cell transplantation. Increased survival rates equate to more patients living with the burden of both the disease and its treatment for increasing number of years, rendering myeloma a long-term condition. Evidence exists to demonstrate the benefits of exercise for patients recovering from stem-cell transplantation, and prehabilitation—exercise before treatment—has been shown to be effective in other disease areas. To date there has been no research into prehabilitation in patients with myeloma awaiting transplantation treatment. Our objective is to determine whether it is feasible to conduct a randomised controlled trial into pretransplant exercise for patients with multiple myeloma who are awaiting autologous stem-cell transplantation. Methods and analysis This mixed methods study identifies patients with diagnosis of multiple myeloma who have been assigned to the autologous transplantation list and invites them to participate in six weekly sessions of individualised, supervised exercise while awaiting transplantation. Quantitative data to determine feasibility targets include rates of recruitment, adherence and adverse events, and outcome measures including 6 min walking distance test and quality of life. Qualitative interviews are undertaken with a purposive sample of patients to capture their experiences of the study and the intervention. Ethics and dissemination Ethics committee approval has been obtained. Dissemination will be through open-access publications and presentations and will seek to reach multiprofessional bases as well as patients and carer groups, addressing the widespread interest in this area of research. Trial registration number NCT03135925; Pre-results

Response inhibition in the parametric Go/No-Go task in psychopathic offenders

Previous research on response inhibition in psychopaths has failed to find consistent evidence for aberrant inhibitory ability, despite strong expectations to the contrary. However, previous examinations have utilised inhibition paradigms that suffer from critical shortcomings, such as a lack of ecological validity and overly simplistic response criteria. To assess inhibition under conditions close to the demands of everyday settings, the current study employs a parametric Go/No-go task in male offenders (n77). Additionally, rather than treating psychopathy as a categorical descriptor, a dimensional approach is taken to assess the relationship between individual psychopathic traits and response inhibition performance. Results indicate significant relationships between response inhibition and individual facets of psychopathy as measured by the Psychopathy Checklist: Screening Version. A positive relationship was found between inhibitory ability and interpersonal aspects of psychopathy, reflecting an enhancement of inhibitory functioning for those scoring high on this facet. In addition, a negative association was found between psychopathic lifestyle characteristics and response inhibition. Whereas the negative association mirrors the conceptualisation of the lifestyle facet, the positive association between interpersonal psychopathic aspects and response inhibition might reflect a propensity for adaptive behaviour that enables psychopaths to adequately manipulate their victims and mask their true nature

The triarchic model of psychopathy and antisocial behavior: results from an offender population with personality disorder

The triarchic model posits that psychopathy is a combination of phenotypes related to boldness, meanness, and disinhibition. We examined how each of these phenotypes of psychopathy related to past violence and antisocial behavior and to behavior within the prison. The sample consisted of men (n = 108) with a history of serious offending and a diagnosis of personality disorder at the point of admission to a prison serving as a therapeutic community. We took four indices of violence and antisocial behavior, (a) self-report of lifetime proactive and reaction aggression, (b) criminal convictions prior to admission to the prison, (c) exclusion from the prison within 12 months due to rule breaking, and (d) behavior within the first 12 months of admission to the unit. The constructs of the triarchic model, as assessed by the triarchic psychopathy measure (TriPM), were strong predictors of self-reported aggression, with disinhibition being related to both proactive and reactive aggression, whereas boldness was related to proactive aggression alone. Past criminal convictions were also associated with disinhibition, except for convictions for violent behavior. Both meanness and disinhibition were predictive of exclusion from the prison within 12 months for rule-breaking behavior and of aggressive behavior within the prison. The triarchic model of psychopathy is associated with past antisocial behavior and is predictive of antisocial behaviors within the prison, and the different constructs of the triarchic model are associated with different manifestations of antisocial behavior. The TriPM holds great promise for improved assessment and enhanced understanding of psychopathic personality within institutions and can facilitate offender management via improved phenotypic analysis of boldness, meanness, and disinhibition

The Triarchic Model of Psychopathy and Antisocial Behavior: Results From an Offender Population With Personality Disorder

The triarchic model posits that psychopathy is a combination of phenotypes related to boldness, meanness, and disinhibition. We examined how each of these phenotypes of psychopathy related to past violence and antisocial behavior and to behavior within the prison. The sample consisted of men (n = 108) with a history of serious offending and a diagnosis of personality disorder at the point of admission to a prison serving as a therapeutic community. We took four indices of violence and antisocial behavior, (a) self-report of lifetime proactive and reaction aggression, (b) criminal convictions prior to admission to the prison, (c) exclusion from the prison within 12 months due to rule breaking, and (d) behavior within the first 12 months of admission to the unit. The constructs of the triarchic model, as assessed by the triarchic psychopathy measure (TriPM), were strong predictors of self-reported aggression, with disinhibition being related to both proactive and reactive aggression, whereas boldness was related to proactive aggression alone. Past criminal convictions were also associated with disinhibition, except for convictions for violent behavior. Both meanness and disinhibition were predictive of exclusion from the prison within 12 months for rule-breaking behavior and of aggressive behavior within the prison. The triarchic model of psychopathy is associated with past antisocial behavior and is predictive of antisocial behaviors within the prison, and the different constructs of the triarchic model are associated with different manifestations of antisocial behavior. The TriPM holds great promise for improved assessment and enhanced understanding of psychopathic personality within institutions and can facilitate offender management via improved phenotypic analysis of boldness, meanness, and disinhibition

Joint analysis of X-ray and Sunyaev Zel'dovich observations of galaxy clusters using an analytic model of the intra-cluster medium

We perform a joint analysis of X-ray and Sunyaev Zel'dovich (SZ) effect data using an analytic model that describes the gas properties of galaxy clusters. The joint analysis allows the measurement of the cluster gas mass fraction profile and Hubble constant independent of cosmological parameters. Weak cosmological priors are used to calculate the overdensity radius within which the gas mass fractions are reported. Such an analysis can provide direct constraints on the evolution of the cluster gas mass fraction with redshift. We validate the model and the joint analysis on high signal-to-noise data from the Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Array for two clusters, Abell 2631 and Abell 2204.Comment: ApJ in pres

High Energy Astrophysics Program (HEAP)

This report reviews activities performed by the members of the USRA contract team during the 6 months of the reporting period and projected activities during the coming 6 months. Activities take place at the Goddard Space Flight Center, within the Laboratory for High Energy Astrophysics. Developments concern instrumentation, observation, data analysis, and theoretical work in astrophysics. Supported missions include advanced Satellite for Cosmology and Astrophysics (ASCA), X-Ray Timing Experiment (XTE), X-Ray Spectrometer (XRS), Astro-E, High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center (HEASARC) and others

Implicit measurement of violence-related cognitions.

Objective: Violence-related cognitions may underpin many acts of violence, but explicit self-report measures of these cognitions may be inadequate to assess them fully due to their unconscious nature or due to deliberate dissimulation. We designed three versions of the Implicit Association Test (IAT) that separately examined violence-related associations to valence (good vs. bad), hedonic value (enjoy vs. dislike), and arousal (exciting vs. boring) and examined if these were associated with greater levels of past criminal activity and self-reported violence. Method: The three IATs were administered to an offender sample (N = 108) with a history of serious offending and a diagnosis of personality disorder. Violence was assessed via the Proactive and Reactive Aggression Questionnaire and by the examination of previous convictions. Results: The IATs showed good to moderate reliability. The valence-IAT did not show any significant correlations to the measures of previous violence. The hedonic value-IAT showed positive relationships with official records of convictions, especially among participants without a conviction for homicide. The arousal IAT was positively related to self-reported aggression in those without a conviction for homicide. Conclusions: The results show some promise that indirect techniques may be able to measure violence-related cognitions

International Study of Chaplains’ Attitudes About Research

An online survey was conducted by twelve professional chaplain organizations to assess chaplains’ attitudes about and involvement in research. A total of 2,092 chaplains from 23 countries responded to the survey. Over 80% thought research was definitely important and nearly 70% thought chaplains should definitely be research literate. Just over 40% said they regularly read research articles and almost 60% said they occasionally did. The respondents rated their own research literacy as 6.5 on a 0–10 scale. Significant positive inter-correlations were found among all four measures: importance of (a) research and (b) research literacy; (c) frequency of reading articles; and (d) research literacy rating. Approximately 35% were never involved, 37% had been involved, 17% were currently involved, and 11% expected to be involved in research. The last three groups were significantly more likely to think research and research literacy were important and to read research articles than chaplains who were never involved in research. Given chaplains’ interest in research, actions should be undertaken to facilitate further research engagement

High Energy Astrophysics Program

Technical report for the High Energy Astrophysics Program for the period April 1, 1995 - September 30, 1995