Reading-related wavelength and spatial frequency effects in visual spatial location

Specific deficits in the processing of transient visual stimuli have been identified in reading-disabled children, and it has been shown that the filtering out of some medium to high spatial frequencies and some visible wavelengths impacts on their performance in a number of visual tasks. To assess further how these light diffusing and colour filtering manipulations might mediate visual processing, this study compared the letter-naming accuracy and visual spatial location judgements of eighteen poor readers with those made by eighteen good readers of the same age. Naming and spatial discrepancy measures were recorded for briefly displayed target letters at varying eccentricities, for each child, under a normal (NI) condition and wearing blue (Be), yellow (Yw), diffusion (Dn), blue with diffusion (BeDn), and yellow with diffusion (YwDn) optical framed lenses. A preliminary analysis of the data detected larger spatial discrepancies for the poor readers, and this finding was consistent with the presence of a deficit in transient (or magnocellular) activity in these children. Both the naming accuracy data and the spatial location data showed filter-dependent differences in reading ability. The letter-naming data showed that the addition of the blue filter to the diffusion lens significantly depressed performance only for the good readers, and that the addition of the yellow filter to the diffusion lens significantly improved performance only for the poor readers. Comparison of the spatial discrepancies showed that the rate at which location accuracy declined with increasing target eccentricity was smaller for the blue and yellow lenses than for normal viewing in the case of the good readers but not in the case of the poor readers. Some of these effects are consistent with the proposition that increased stimulation of the blue cones relative to the red and green cones reduces tonic inhibition in the magnocellular pathways and increases the level of transient activity, but others are more problematical. It is cautioned, therefore, that while the short-wavelength lenses show some differentiation between good and poor readers, this should not be interpreted as supporting the efficacy of prescribed, coloured or diffusing optical filters as a remediation technique.     

Fog of War: Psychopharmaceutical “Side Effects” and the United States Military

ABSTRACT

The unprecedented reliance today on psychiatric drugs to maintain mission readiness in war and to treat veterans at home has been the subject of ethical debate in the United States. While acknowledging these debates, I advocate for an ethnography of how US soldiers and veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars themselves articulate political and ethical tensions in their experiences of psychiatric drug treatment. Detailing one army veteran’s interpretations of drug effects as narrated through the lens of his current antiwar politics, I examine the radicalizing transformations of self and subjectivity that he attributes both to his witnessing drug use in Iraq and to the neurochemical effects of his own medications. Playing on the biomedical notion of “side effects,” I highlight surprising political and ethical openings that can surface when psychopharmaceuticals and war intersect. Psychotropic medication use offers a critical realm for furthering the ethnographic study of the lived tensions and contradictions of military medicine and medicalization as revealed in militarized embodied experience.     

Evaluating the long-term impact of faculty development programs on MCQ item analysis

Abstract

Purpose: Evaluating the long-term impact of faculty development programs (FDPs) can help monitor the effectiveness of the program and identify areas for development. This study examined long-term differences in confidence, knowledge, behaviors, and policies of faculty members who attended FDPs on multiple choice question (MCQ) item analysis and faculty members who did not attend the FDPs.

Methods: A cross-sectional study design was used, by administering a 24-item survey to a representative sample (simple random selection) of 61 faculty members at King Abdulaziz University Faculty of Medicine.

Results: Among respondents, 34% did not attend FDPs; 53% attended 1–3 FDPs; and 13% attended more than 3 FDPs on MCQ item analysis. Results showed that faculty knowledge on elements of MCQ item analysis was significantly greater (p?=?.01) for members who attended the FDPs. Faculty who attended FDPs on MCQ item analysis were twice more likely to conduct item analysis in general (p?=?.020) and four times more likely to conduct item analysis for more than 70% of module examinations (p?=?.005).

Conclusion: FDPs focused on MCQ item analysis can yield systematic changes on faculty confidence, knowledge, and behaviors. Moreover, FDPs also need support from the department and need sustained strategic support to ensure continued effectiveness.     

Rosacea or photodamaged skin? Use of brimonidine gel in differentiating erythema in the two conditions

In this case report, we detail the response of a 37‐year‐old Caucasian man with an overlap of erythematotelangiectatic rosacea and telangiectatic photoaging to brimonidine tartrate gel. With the application of brimonidine only on half of his face, skin analysis images, clinician's and patient's assessment showed that there was significant improvement in the erythema. This case has lent insight into how brimonidine can be used to assess the extent of photoaging by eliminating the erythema of rosacea to some degree. We propose that it can be used as a non‐invasive test to differentiate between the two conditions, sparing patients from skin biopsies and molecular analysis.     

Comparison of allergen responses based on the TRUE Test and IQ Chamber system in Korean patients

Background

A comparison between responses to allergens based on the TRUE Test® (TT) and IQ® Chamber (IQC) in Europeans has been previously reported, however, no such study has been performed in Asians.

Objectives

To compare allergen responses using the TT and IQC (using the Korean standard series) in order to gather more information regarding the positive response rates for each allergen and the clinical value of IQC.

Materials & methods

Suspected contact dermatitis patients were enrolled and tested with 18 allergens using the TT and IQC.

Results

The test was performed in 214 patients. Simultaneous positive results for both tests were recorded in 242 cases (positive concordance rate: 66.7%). IQC yielded more positive results. Allergens with a high positive concordance rate were nickel sulphate (82.1%), thimerosal (78.6%), and p-phenylenediamine (73.3%). IQC mostly showed similar or higher positive rates than TT, with high concordance.

Conclusions

We recommend the IQC method as a screening test in patients with suspected contact dermatitis. To compensate for possible false positive results, careful history taking and a different patch test should be performed when appropriate.

     

Multicenter Analysis of Clinicopathologic Features of Intraductal Papillary Mucinous Tumor of the Pancreas: Is It Possible to Predict the Malignancy Before Surgery?

Background Despite recently increasing numbers of reports on intraductal papillary mucinous tumors (IPMTs), difficulties still remain in terms of diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis. The purpose of this multicenter study was to evaluate the clinicopathologic features of IPMT in Korea and to suggest predictive criteria for malignancy in IPMT.Methods We retrospectively reviewed the clinicopathologic data of 208 patients who underwent operations for IPMT between 1993 and 2002 at 28 institutes in Korea.Results Of the 208 patients (mean age, 61 years), 147 were men and 61 were women. A total of 124 patients underwent pancreatoduodenectomy, 42 underwent distal pancreatectomy, 17 underwent total pancreatectomy, and 25 underwent limited pancreatic resection. There were 128 benign cases (adenoma, n = 62; borderline, n = 66) and 80 malignant cases (noninvasive, n = 29; invasive, n = 51). A significant difference in 5-year survival was observed between the benign and malignant groups (92.6% vs. 65.3%; P = .006). Of the six factors (age, location, duct dilatation, mural nodule, main duct type, and tumor size) that showed statistical differences by univariate analysis between the benign and malignant groups, three were significant by multivariate analysis—namely, mural nodule (P = .009), tumor size (P = .023), and a dilated duct size (P = .010).Conclusions A significant proportion of IPMTs are malignant, although the overall prognosis of IPMT is superior to that of ordinary pancreatic cancer. Radical surgery is recommended for IPMT with the predictors of malignancy: mural nodule, tumor size (30 mm), and dilated duct size (12 mm).