Utilization of offender case information by “lenient” vs. “punitive” clinicians

Presentence evaluations conducted by psychologists and psychiatrists (clinicians) and correctional counselors (caseworkers) were subjected to multiple regression analyses in order to specify the relative contribution of inmate characteristics (offense severity and recidivism probability) and decision maker response biases to sentencing recommendations. Although both groups of decision-makers showed a response bias effect for cases that were difficult to discriminate, the effect was generally lerger for chnicians than for caseworkers. Response bias (lenient vs. punitive) was not associated with type of clinical judgment model (linear vs. configural) or predictability of recommendation, although it was associated with the degree of relative weighting of the two independent variables and, in the case of extremely punitive decision-makers, with the tendency to utilize only one evaluative dimension (offense severity) to the exclusion of the other. Furthermore, it was found that inmates who committed the most serious offenses were exposed selectively to those decision-makers most likely both to place exclusive emphasis on offense severity and to recommend relatively punitive case dispostions. The need for an accountability system designed to minimize the effects of the response biases of correctional decision-makers was discussed.     

Metabolic responses in feline “red” and “white” skeletal muscle to shock and ischemia

In order to investigate possible differences in the reaction to hypoxic conditions between “red” and “white” skeletal muscle, cats were subjected to a 2 h period of either hemorrhagic shock or hind limb tourniquet ischemia, and the hypoxia induced changes were studied in the soleus and lateral gastrocnemius muscles. Muscle biopsies were analysed for ATP, CP, glucose, G 6–P and lactate. Using microelectrodes, the resting membrane potential was repeatedly measured. Both experimental models resulted in increased tissue lactate levels and a successive decrease in the membrane potential of both muscles studied. No reduction of the high energy phosphagen content (ATP+CP) occurred in any of the muscles during shock. The tourniquet ischemia resulted in a 40% reduction of the ATP+CP content in the soleus muscle, whereas in the gastrocnemius muscle no significant reduction occurred. A significant correlation was found between the tissue lactate content and the membrane potential under both conditions and in both muscles studied. It is concluded that “red” muscles are more susceptible to metabolic derangement than “white” muscles during total ischemia, whereas during hypovolemia “red” muscles appear to be protected from early hypoxic damage, probably due to a redistribution of skeletal muscle blood flow.     

Bone “mass” and the “mechanostat”: A proposal

The observed fit of bone mass to a healthy animal's typical mechanical usage indicates some mechanism or mechanisms monitor that usage and control the three longitudinal growth, bone modeling, and BMU-based remodeling activities that directly determine bone mass. That mechanism could be named a mechanostat. Accumulated evidence suggests it includes the bone itself, plus mechanisms that transform its mechanical usage into appropriate signals, plus other mechanisms that detect those signals and then direct the above three biologic activities. In vivo studies have shown that bone strains in or above the 1500–3000 microstrain range cause bone modelling to increase cortical bone mass, while strains below the 100–300 microstrain range release BMU-based remodeling which then removes existing cortical-endosteal and trabecular bone. That arrangement provides a dual system in which bone modeling would adapt bone mass to gross overloading, while BMU-based remodeling would adapt bone mass to gross underloading, and the above strain ranges would be the approximate “setpoints” of those responses. The anatomical distribution of those mechanical usage effects are well known. If circulating agents or disease changed the effective setpoints of those responses their bone mass effects should copy the anatomical distribution of the mechanical usage effects. That seems to be the case for many agents and diseases, and several examples are discussed, including postmenopausal osteoporosis, fluoride effects, bone loss in orbit, and osteogenesis imperfecta. The mechanostat proposal is a seminal idea which fits diverse evidence but it requires critique and experimental study.     

Psychiatric “Co-occurrence”? I'll Stick with “Comorbidlty”

Lilienfeld et al's critique of the use of the term comorbid in psychopathological research is critically examined. They are incorrect in asserting that the original use of the term in medical epidemiology was intended to restrict it to disease entities. Furthermore, the ways in which medical comorbidity can be understood apply equally well to understanding the comorbidity of psychiatric or psychological disorders. Just as it has been useful to use the general term psychiatric disorders to include symptom patterns and syndromes and few If any true diseases, so to it is useful to apply the generic term of comorbidity to the joint occurrence of psychiatric disorders. Because methodological factors can sometimes contribute to artifactual comorbidity which is uninformative about the disorders being studied is no reason to abandon the term comorbidity in psycho-pathological research.