Choroidoretinal vascular anastomoses after blunt trauma to the eye

Six weeks after blunt ocular trauma in a 38-year-old white man, choroidoretinal vascular anastomoses occurred at the site of choroidal and retinal rupture. Neovascularization was not observed. Anastomoses of this type have been documented in other cicatrizing and granulomatous disease processes.     

Fifteen-month follow-up of eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) treatment for posttraumatic stress disorder and psychological trauma.

The present study is a 15-month follow-up of the effects of eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy on the functioning of 66 participants, 32 of whom were diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) prior to treatment. PTSD participants improved as much as those without the diagnosis, with both groups maintaining their gains at 15 months. At 15-month follow-up, the three 90-min sessions of EMDR previously administered (S. A. Wilson, L. A. Becker, & R. H. Tinker, 1995) produced an 84% reduction in PTSD diagnosis and a 68% reduction in PTSD symptoms. The average treatment effect size was 1.59; the average reliable change index was 3.37. Implications of the maintenance of EMDR treatment effects are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Smooth pursuit eye movement deficits after pontine nuclei lesions in humans

Eye movements were recorded electroculographically in four patients with basal pontine lesions, demonstrated by MRI. The most prominent eye movement abnormality observed was mild to severe impairment of smooth pursuit and optokinetic nystagmus, mainly ipsilateral to the lesion. This abnormality is thought to result from damage to the pontine nuclei, which form a crucial relay between the cerebral cortex and the cerebellum controlling smooth pursuit. Abnormalities of saccades and the vestibulo-ocular reflex in one patient are also discussed.     

Use of epsilon-aminocaproic acid to reduce bleeding

OBJECTIVE: To compare the effects of estrogen with estrogen-androgen treatment on vaginal blood flow velocity and fingertip postocclusive hyperemic blood flow response. DESIGN: Prospective, randomized, parallel, double-blind study. SETTING: Healthy human volunteers in an academic research environment. PATIENT(S): Postmenopausal women receiving estrogen replacement therapy for at least 12 months and treated with placebo before this investigation. INTERVENTION(S): Esterified estrogens or esterified estrogen + methyltestosterone were administered orally; laser Doppler velocimetry was used to determine vaginal and fingertip blood flow responses at baseline and after 4 and 8 weeks of daily drug administration. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): Fingertip postocclusive area under curve (AUC); vaginal blood flow velocities. RESULT(S): The AUC for postocclusive fingertip blood flow and vaginal blood flow increased to a greater extent in the estrogen-androgen group, but changes were not statistically significant between groups. CONCLUSION(S): Estrogen-androgen treatment does not diminish the vasodilator effects of estrogen treatment in postmenopausal women.     

Anomaly detection: eye movement patterns

The symptom of a garden path in sentence processing is an important anomaly in the input string. This anomaly signals to the parser that an error has occurred, and provides cues for how to repair it. Anomaly detection is thus an important aspect of sentence processing. In the present study, we investigated how the parser responds to unambiguous sentences that contain syntactic anomalies and pragmatic anomalies, examining records of eye movement during reading. While sensitivity to the two kinds of anomaly was very rapid and essentially simultaneous, qualitative differences existed in the patterns of first-pass reading times and eye regressions. The results are compatible with the proposal that syntactic information and pragmatic information are used differently in garden-path recovery.     

Case studies of eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) with chronic post-traumatic stress disorder.

One session of EMDR treatment for 4 41–46 yr old Black and 1 38-yr- old White male Vietnam combat veteran inpatients with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) resulted in marked decreases in distress associated with a severely troubling memory in 4 Ss. Ss had been asked to describe their most troubling memory of Vietnam, which they then visualized during the EMDR procedure. Two Ss sustained the feeling of relief. Three Ss reported alteration or diminution of the visual aspect of the memory, an experience they had not previously reported. Two Ss appeared to demonstrate new insight. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Use of carbonizers in open-hearth steelmaking to reduce pig-iron consumption

Il'ich Zhdanov Metallurgical Institute. Translated from Metallurg, No. 10, pp. 40–42, October, 1988.     

Wound management after trauma to the colon

The records of 62 patients with injury of the colon were reviewed to ascertain the contribution of technics in wound care to morbidity. Primarily closed wounds had a very high frequency of infection (56%). Wounds treated by delayed primary closure or secondary intention developed infection in 19% of patients. Infection in an open wound was associated with intraperitoneal abscess in 73% of cases.     

Social factors and the psychobiology of depression: Relations between life stress and rapid eye movement sleep latency.

Examined psychosocial factors (i.e., life stress) and biological factors (i.e., REM sleep latency) that are hypothesized to be of complementary importance for defining depressive subtypes in a sample of 61 nonpsychotic, endogenous major depressives. Ss were evaluated on several diagnostic scales for life stress, on EEG sleep data, and on 2 symptom measures for depression. As predicted, persons with severe stress that occurred shortly before depression onset had essentially normal REM latency values; patients without such stress had reduced REM latency values. Both stress and REM latency were also associated with greater severity of self-reported depressive symptoms. Alternative explanations of these findings are discussed, with particular emphasis on different roles of preonset and postonset stressors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Monotremes and the evolution of rapid eye movement sleep

Early studies of the echidna led to the conclusion that this monotreme did not have rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. Because the monotremes had diverged from the placental and marsupial lines very early in mammalian evolution, this finding was used to support the hypothesis that REM sleep evolved after the start of the mammalian line. The current paper summarizes our recent work on sleep in the echidna and platypus and leads to a very different interpretation. By using neuronal recording from mesopontine regions in the echidna, we found that despite the presence of a high-voltage cortical electroencephalogram (EEG), brainstem units fire in irregular bursts intermediate in intensity between the regular non-REM sleep pattern and the highly irregular REM sleep pattern seen in placentals. Thus the echidna displays brainstem activation during sleep with high-voltage cortical EEG. This work encouraged us to do the first study of sleep, to our knowledge, in the platypus. In the platypus we saw sleep with vigorous rapid eye, bill and head twitching, identical in behaviour to that which defines REM sleep in placental mammals. Recording of the EEG in the platypus during natural sleep and waking states revealed that it had moderate and high-voltage cortical EEGs during this REM sleep state. The platypus not only has REM sleep, but it had more of it than any other animal. The lack of EEG voltage reduction during REM sleep in the platypus, and during the REM sleep-like state of the echidna, has some similarity to the sleep seen in neonatal sleep in placentals. The very high amounts of REM sleep seen in the platypus also fit with the increased REM sleep duration seen in altricial mammals. Our findings suggest that REM sleep originated earlier in mammalian evolution than had previously been thought and is consistent with the hypothesis that REM sleep, or a precursor state with aspects of REM sleep, may have had its origin in reptilian species.     

Toward a model of eye movement control in reading

The authors present several versions of a general model, titled the E-Z Reader model, of eye movement control in reading. The major goal of the modeling is to relate cognitive processing (specifically aspects of lexical access) to eye movements in reading. The earliest and simplest versions of the model (E-Z Readers 1 and 2) merely attempt to explain the total time spent on a word before moving forward (the gaze duration) and the probability of fixating a word; later versions (E-Z Readers 3-5) also attempt to explain the durations of individual fixations on individual words and the number of fixations on individual words. The final version (E-Z Reader 5) appears to be psychologically plausible and gives a good account of many phenomena in reading. It is also a good tool for analyzing eye movement data in reading. Limitations of the model and directions for future research are also discussed.     

Saccadic eye movement and working memory deficits following damage to human prefrontal cortex

A patient with a lesion confined largely to the right inferior frontal gyrus was found to be impaired on tests of spatial working memory and executive functioning. By contrast, his pattern recognition was good. The patient's selective impairments are consistent with the view that prefrontal cortex contributes to processes involved in spatial working memory. The patient was also tested on a range of oculomotor paradigms, some of which required the temporary suppression of a saccadic response. He was unable to suppress making contra- or ipsilesional reflexive glances to peripheral stimuli on the "anti-saccade" paradigm, but his performance improved on delayed saccade, memory-guided saccade and fixation tasks. Although reflexive glances were observed under these conditions they occurred more frequently in response to contralesional stimuli than ipsilesional ones. Furthermore, the patient had no difficulty in performing anti-point movements with his ipsilesional hand. Thus, his inability to suppress reflexive glances on the anti-saccade task is not due to a generalised problem of "distractibility". The patient's deficits are discussed in terms of models of anti-saccade generation and are related to recent findings regarding the role of prefrontal cortex in working memory and visual attention.     

Use of damping alloys based on iron to reduce noise from impacts

Iron-based alloys (steels) with superior damping properties have been developed. Use of the new alloys reduces noise by 6–8 dB compared to well-known standard steel 45.