Object-location memory: A lesion-behavior mapping study in stroke patients

Object-location memory is an important form of spatial memory, comprising different subcomponents that each process specific types of information within memory, i.e. remembering objects, remembering positions and binding these features in memory. In the current study we investigated the neural correlates of binding categorical (relative) or coordinate (exact) position information with objects in memory. Therefore, an object-location memory battery was used, including different task conditions assessing object-location memory, i.e. memory for position information per se, and binding object information with coordinate and categorical position information. Sixty-one stroke patients with focal brain lesions were examined and compared with 77 healthy matched controls. The lesion subtraction method was used to define the area of overlap. Results indicate an important role of the left posterior parietal cortex in the binding of both categorical and coordinate positions with object information. Additionally, the hippocampus seems important for categorical object-location memory. This suggests that categorical and coordinate object-location memory depend on similar cognitive and neural systems.     

The association between body image and smoking cessation among individuals living with HIV/AIDS

Lower smoking cessation rates are associated with body image concerns in the general population. This relationship is particularly important to study in individuals living with HIV/AIDS due to alarmingly high smoking rates and considerable bodily changes experienced with HIV disease progression and treatment. The association between body image and smoking cessation rates was examined among individuals living with HIV/AIDS participating in a smoking cessation intervention. Body image concerns were significantly associated with depression, anxiety, stress, and social support, all variables known to affect cessation rates. However, reduced quit rates were found among individuals reporting elevated and low levels of body image concerns at the end of treatment. These findings suggest a unique relationship between smoking and body image among individuals living with HIV/AIDS. Further research is needed to examine these effects and whether moderate levels of body image concerns in this population reflect realistic body perceptions associated with positive mental health.     

老年糖尿病患者人工髋关节置换术的围手术期处理体会

探讨老年糖尿病患者人工髋关节置换术围手术期的治疗方法。对2000年1月~2006年3月54例糖尿病患者行人工髋关节置换术进行术后随访,利用临床关节功能及放射学检查进行分析。54例手术患者血糖控制满意且顺利度过围手术期。按Harris评分标准,术后髋关节功能优良率分别为人工股骨头置换组74%(14/19),人工全髋关节置换组91%(32/35)。未发现感染及假体松动现象等并发症。老年糖尿病患者如果有髋关节置换手术指征,没有严重的并发疾病,在重视围手术期处理的情况下,可以行人工髋关节置换术,且疗效肯定。     

我国肢体残疾病人矫形治疗的现状分析

我国肢体残疾病人的发病率、病种分类、病情特点、医疗需求的实际情况如何?矫形外科医生队伍的建设与学术研究现状怎样?众多的肢体残疾者是否得到正确的矫形外科治疗?骨科学术界缺乏这样的分析。作者实施了2万多例各种肢体残疾的矫形手术,对其中16678例病人进行了统计分析,结果发现,近10余年来我国大医院进入以市场为主导的发展阶段,外科治疗下肢畸形与残疾的矫形外科专业,由于缺乏强大的市场推动、治疗过程较复杂等原因,而被忽视。我国矫形外科医师严重缺乏,某些下肢残缺的矫形手术治疗甚至人才断档。从而出现数以百万计的各种肢体残疾病人,因为缺少经济能力和矫形外科医师,没有得到正确的矫形外科治疗。作者分析了我国肢体残疾病人的发生率、病种、病情特点、年龄分布、经济状况和医疗需求,提出了解决这一问题的对策和建议     

Risk perception and victim perception: The judgment of HIV cases

There is a vast literature confirming that reactions to different risks are strongly affected by characteristics other than scientific risk estimates; most of this research has concentrated on mapping people's representations of sets of widely varying dangers (e.g. diseases, natural disasters, accidents). This study explored a potentially vital component of risk that cannot be studied by eliciting general reactions to many hazards: the extent to which who is at risk contributes to perceptions and judgments of a risk. While it may be preferable to assume that misfortunes affect the population uniformly, of course the truth is not so egalitarian. Thus, for both theoretical and policy reasons, it is worth exploring psychometrically representations of a particular risk as it affects different people. Using multidimensional scaling and hierarchical cluster analysis, we constructed models of respondents' representations of a disease assumed to be particularly affected by victim perception: Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). Subjects rated the similarity of all possible pairs among 16 scenarios involving HIV infection; the scenarios contained information about both the victim and the method of contraction. A set of attribute scales as well as political/demographic information allowed us both to interpret the structures and to predict individual differences. The results confirmed that reactions to HIV infection are greatly affected by reactions to the victim. In particular, the perceived distastefulness and riskiness of the method of infection loomed larger than did either the overall likability of the victim or the general riskiness of the victim's behavior. Further, the salience of the most statistically influential dimension, ‘deservedness’, depended significantly on demographic and political characteristics of the respondents, suggesting that the relationship between personal values and risk perception is in part mediated by victim perception. Implications for risk perception work and public policy are discussed.     

‘Sluts’ or ‘Sleazy Little Animals’?: Young People's Difficulties with Carrying and Using Condoms

Qualitative data from a Western Australian study of sexual behaviour in young people were used to describe difficulties experienced in carrying and using condoms. Both men and women were concerned for their sexual reputation if they carried condoms, although this was more of a problem for the women than the men. However, these fears were not matched by the attitudes of the opposite gender: in general, there was less negativity about condom-carrying than was feared. Many of those who described using condoms had experienced condom failure and other difficulties, and it appeared that they were unfamiliar with the correct way to use condoms. It is suggested that many of these barriers to condom use can be removed with appropriate education and information strategies.     

是否告知重症患者病情的调查

本调查认为:目前多数人仍主张不将病情如实告知重症患者.我们应当清楚实情告知重症患者病情所面临的困难和患者知情同意权行使时的障碍,从而缩短社会承认医生告知的过程.     

代理行使知情同意权的有关问题探讨

代理行使知情同意权在医疗实践中广泛存在,也面临一些争议。对代理权设置的法律意义、代理行使知情同意权在医疗实践中的种类以及不同情况下的问题与对策作出分析,为这个领域的代理实践提供一些思路。     

To Be With Them: A Hospital Chaplain's Reflection of the Bedside Ministry to Terminally III and Dying People

The author, an ordained Lutheran pastor, reflects upon his experiencesas chaplain at a small hospital in southwestern Germany (Tropenklinik– Paul Lecher Krankenhaus, Tübingen). Besides itsexpertise in the treatment of tropical diseases this 100 + bedhospital serves as the referral hospital for terminally illand dying patients from the local University hospitals and thesurrounding area. The experiences at the bedside of such patientswith various denominational and religious backgrounds challengedthe chaplain to go beyond the confines of any fixed theologicalsystem or counseling technique. They made him to discover threeessentials as the very basis of such ministry, which he sharesin this article. He identifies these as (1) the necessity torealize the situation sober mindedly, (2) the desire to becomea companion, and (3) the venture of confident faith, where holdingon to any genuine perspective of life is deemed ridiculous.     

Ethics of Globalization and the AIDS Crisis from a Jewish Perspective

This essay explores what Jewish ethics has to say about globalization in relation to the AIDS crisis. Special attention is paid to the consequences in affirming current intellectual trends to transcend traditional limits in both society and thought for rethinking traditional Jewish values. The discussion proceeds from two presuppositions. The first is that there is an intimate connection between ethics, science, and politics. The second is that the history of Jewish ethics involves three distinct forms that are generally correlated but rarely identical in content and moral judgment. These three forms are law, wisdom or virtue, and covenant. The discussion considers related issues of accidental connections in time between the bubonic plague and Zionism and between AIDS and homosexuality in relation to moral–theological issues related to divine providence and distributive justice.