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More than 70 % of women with ovarian cancer are diagnosed with advanced-stage disease, which is initially treated with cytoreductive surgery, and combination chemotherapy with platinum-based compounds. Most patients initially respond to platinum-based therapy, but eventually up to 80 % of this responsive cohort becomes refractory due to the development of platinum resistance. This review discusses current and potential therapeutic approaches that exploit biomaterial-based applications to combat platinum resistance either by enhancing the delivery of platinum-based drugs or prodrugs, delivering other toxic non-platinum-based bioactive factors (by themselves or in combination with platinum-based drugs) or by delivering other bioactive factors that re-sensitize resistant ovarian cancer cells to these drugs. The types of materials that are used, the bioactive factors applied (i.e., drug or gene delivery), and the specific agents that are employed to target these types of cancer cells are discussed. We conclude that the unique attributes of biomaterial-based applications can be further explored toward overcoming platinum-resistant ovarian cancer as monotherapy, or in combination with other treatment strategies.

A 40-year-old woman with a history of chronic low back pain underwent a fluoroscopically guided intradiscal platelet-rich plasma injection (PRP) at the L5–S1 level. She subsequently developed progressive low back pain, night sweats and decreased ability to ambulate. Laboratory work-up revealed elevated acute phase reactants and imaging revealed L5–S1 intervertebral disc and vertebral end-plate abnormalities highly suggestive of spondylodiscitis. Computed tomography-guided aspiration and biopsy cultures grew Cutibacterium acnes and the patient was subsequently treated with intravenous antibiotics without surgical management. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first published case of lumbar spondylodiscitis following an intradiscal PRP injection, and brings to the forefront several clinically relevant issues including the antimicrobial effects of PRP, the role of C. acnes in spine infections and the ideal treatment protocol for intradiscal biologics in order to minimize morbidity and optimize functional outcomes.

PURPOSE: This study demonstrated an MR signal multitask learning method for 3D simultaneous segmentation and relaxometry of human brain tissues. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A 3D inversion-prepared balanced steady-state free precession sequence was used for acquiring in vivo multi-contrast brain images. The deep neural network contained 3 residual blocks, and each block had 8 fully connected layers with sigmoid activation, layer norm, and 256 neurons in each layer. Online synthesized MR signal evolutions and labels were used to train the neural network batch-by-batch. Empirically defined ranges of T1 and T2 values for the normal gray matter, white matter and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) were used as the prior knowledge. MRI brain experiments were performed on 3 healthy volunteers. The mean and standard deviation for the T1 and T2 values in vivo were reported and compared to literature values. Additional animal (N=6) and prostate patient (N=1) experiments were performed to compare the estimated T1 and T2 values with those from gold standard methods and to demonstrate clinical applications of the proposed method. RESULTS: In animal validation experiment, the differences/errors (mean difference ± standard deviation of difference) between the T1 and T2 values estimated from the proposed method and the ground truth were 113 ± 486 and 154 ± 512 ms for T1, and 5 ± 33 and 7 ± 41 ms for T2, respectively. In healthy volunteer experiments (N=3), whole brain segmentation and relaxometry were finished within ~5 seconds. The estimated apparent T1 and T2 maps were in accordance with known brain anatomy, and not affected by coil sensitivity variation. Gray matter, white matter, and CSF were successfully segmented. The deep neural network can also generate synthetic T1 and T2 weighted images. CONCLUSION: The proposed multitask learning method can directly generate brain apparent T1 and T2 maps, as well as synthetic T1 and T2 weighted images, in conjunction with segmentation of gray matter, white matter and CSF.

Background: The heart undergoes physiological hypertrophy during pregnancy in healthy individuals. Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is now prevalent in women of child-bearing age and might add risks of adverse cardiovascular events during pregnancy. The present study asks if cardiac remodeling during pregnancy in obese individuals with MetS is abnormal and whether this predisposes them to a higher risk for cardiovascular disorders. Methods: The idea that MetS induces pathological cardiac remodeling during pregnancy was studied in a long-term (15 weeks) Western diet–feeding animal model that recapitulated features of human MetS. Pregnant female mice with Western diet (45% kcal fat)–induced MetS were compared with pregnant and nonpregnant females fed a control diet (10% kcal fat). Results: Pregnant mice fed a Western diet had increased heart mass and exhibited key features of pathological hypertrophy, including fibrosis and upregulation of fetal genes associated with pathological hypertrophy. Hearts from pregnant animals with WD-induced MetS had a distinct gene expression profile that could underlie their pathological remodeling. Concurrently, pregnant female mice with MetS showed more severe cardiac hypertrophy and exacerbated cardiac dysfunction when challenged with angiotensin II/phenylephrine infusion after delivery. Conclusions: These results suggest that preexisting MetS could disrupt physiological hypertrophy during pregnancy to produce pathological cardiac remodeling that could predispose the heart to chronic disorders.

Background and purpose Mental health has emerged as an important public health concern in recent years. With a high proportion of children and adolescents affected by mental disorders, it is important to ensure that they are provided with proper care and treatment. With the goal of sharing the activities and good practices on child and adolescent mental health promotion, care, and treatment in Japan and the Philippines, the National Center for Global Health and Medicine conducted a training program on the promotion of mental health focused on treatment and care in Japan and the Philippines in September and November 2019. Key highlights The training program comprised of a series of lectures, site visits, and round table discussions in Japan and the Philippines. The lectures and site visits focused on the current situation of child and adolescent psychiatry, diagnosis of childhood mental disorders, abuse, health financing for mental disorders, pharmacotherapy, psychotherapy, and disaster child psychiatry in both countries. Round table discussions provided an opportunity to explore the similarities and differences between the two countries in terms of the themes discussed during the lectures. The training program identified the need to collaborate with other professionals to improve the diagnosis of mental disorders in children and adolescents and to increase the workforce capable of addressing mental health issues among children and adolescents. It also emphasized the importance of cooperation between government efforts during and after disasters to ensure that affected children and their families are provided with the care and support that they need.

Purpose To develop a novel acquisition and reconstruction method for magnetization-prepared 3-dimensional multicontrast rapid gradient-echo imaging, using Hankel matrix completion in combination with compressed sensing and parallel imaging. Methods A random k-space shuffling strategy was implemented in simulation and in vivo human experiments at 7 T for 3-dimensional inversion recovery, T2/diffusion preparation, and magnetization transfer imaging. We combined compressed sensing, based on total variation and spatial-temporal low-rank regularizations, and parallel imaging with pixel-wise Hankel matrix completion, allowing the reconstruction of tens of multicontrast 3-dimensional images from 3- or 6-min scans. Results The simulation result showed that the proposed method can reconstruct signal-recovery curves in each voxel and was robust for typical in vivo signal-to-noise ratio with 16-times acceleration. In vivo studies achieved 4 to 24 times accelerations for inversion recovery, T2/diffusion preparation, and magnetization transfer imaging. Furthermore, the contrast was improved by resolving pixel-wise signal-recovery curves after magnetization preparation. Conclusions The proposed method can improve acquisition efficiencies for magnetization-prepared MRI and tens of multicontrast 3-dimensional images could be recovered from a single scan. Furthermore, it was robust against noise, applicable for recovering multi-exponential signals, and did not require any previous knowledge of model parameters. Magn Reson Med, 2017. © 2017 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.

A major remaining challenge for magnetic resonance-based attenuation correction methods (MRAC) is their susceptibility to sources of MRI artifacts (e.g. implants, motion) and uncertainties due to the limitations of MRI contrast (e.g. accurate bone delineation and density, and separation of air/bone). We propose using a Bayesian deep convolutional neural network that, in addition to generating an initial pseudo-CT from MR data, also produces uncertainty estimates of the pseudo-CT to quantify the limitations of the MR data. These outputs are combined with MLAA reconstruction that uses the PET emission data to improve the attenuation maps. With the proposed approach (UpCT-MLAA), we demonstrate accurate estimation of PET uptake in pelvic lesions and show recovery of metal implants. In patients without implants, UpCT-MLAA had acceptable but slightly higher RMSE than Zero-echo-time and Dixon Deep pseudo-CT when compared to CTAC. In patients with metal implants, MLAA recovered the metal implant; however, anatomy outside the implant region was obscured by noise and crosstalk artifacts. Attenuation coefficients from the pseudo-CT from Dixon MRI were accurate in normal anatomy; however, the metal implant region was estimated to have attenuation coefficients of air. UpCT-MLAA estimated attenuation coefficients of metal implants alongside accurate anatomic depiction outside of implant regions., Comment: Accepted to the IEEE Transactions on Radiation and Plasma Medical Sciences on October 3, 2021. To be published under open access Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY)

Background Mental disorders contribute substantial burden to the society due to their widespread occurrence and debilitating effects. A quarter of the world’s population are children and adolescents, a significant number of whom experience mental disorders as early as the age of 14. Some interventions have been found to effectively reduce the risk factors and reinforce protective or preventive factors. However, there is still a need to put emphasis on mental health promotion strategies such as religious education. This paper aims to discuss the importance of religious education in promoting mental health. Discussion Religious education can be instrumental to improving adolescent mental health. Specifically, it can: (1) help develop healthier reaction to stimuli through the internalization of religious morality; (2) reinforce religious coping mechanisms which reduce the impact of stresses, enhance coping skills, and promote a less risky lifestyle; (3) increase awareness regarding religious beliefs and practices and their influence on the individual, the family, and the community; and finally, (4) promote connectedness which can enhance self-esteem and well-being. However, negative health outcomes such as discrimination and social isolation can also develop, especially among religious or gender minority groups. Conclusion It is important to reflect on the crucial role of religious education on adolescent mental health. School-based mental health education and promotion strategies can maximize the benefits of religious education by putting emphasis on effective implementation of religious education to positively influence adolescent mental health.

Background Globally, suicide is a significant cause of death among adolescents. Previous studies conducted in high-income countries suggest that students in alternative schools are more likely to engage in suicidal behaviors than those in formal schools. This study aimed to document suicidal ideation and behaviors among adolescent learners enrolled in the Alternative Learning System (ALS) in Manila, Philippines. Methods A mixed methods study was conducted in 24 ALS centers in the city of Manila. ALS centers were stratified according to congressional district and selected using probability proportionate sampling. A cross-sectional survey to determine attitudes towards suicide and prevalence of suicidal ideation and behaviors was administered to 171 learners aged 13 to 17 years old. In-depth interviews with 18 teachers and 12 learners were conducted to explore the school psychosocial environment’s role on learners’ suicidal ideation and behaviors. Exploratory factor analysis was used to extract attitude factors. Fisher’s exact test and Student’s t-test were used to identify differences in sociodemographic characteristics and attitudes towards suicide between learners with or without suicidal ideation or behaviors. Qualitative data were analyzed using thematic analysis. Results Non-specific active thoughts were the most common type of lifetime suicidal ideation (40.9%) while passive ideation was the most common in the past month (13.5%). Aborted suicide attempt was the most frequent behavior in both lifetime (16.4%) and in the past month (4.7%). Non-fatal suicide attempt in the past month was 2.3%, reaching 12.9% for the entire lifetime. Age, sex, education, and attitudes towards suicide were significantly associated with suicidal ideation or behavior. Thematic analysis showed five themes: (1) fostering belongingness, (2) securing learners’ safety, (3) teaching philosophy, (4) teacher and learner beliefs towards suicidal behavior, and (5) availability of school-offered and community-based services. Conclusion Suicidal ideation and behaviors are prevalent among adolescent ALS learners. This study also showed a significant difference in attitudes towards suicide and sociodemographic characteristics between learners with and without suicidal ideation behaviors. It also suggests that the school psychosocial environment, through social norms and learner-teacher interactions, can potentially prevent progression of suicidal ideation to behavior, influence help-seeking, and promote mental health among learners.

Accurate quantification of uptake on PET images depends on accurate attenuation correction in reconstruction. Current MR-based attenuation correction methods for body PET use a fat and water map derived from a 2-echo Dixon MRI sequence in which bone is neglected. Ultrashort-echo-time or zero-echo-time (ZTE) pulse sequences can capture bone information. We propose the use of patient-specific multiparametric MRI consisting of Dixon MRI and proton-density–weighted ZTE MRI to directly synthesize pseudo-CT images with a deep learning model: we call this method ZTE and Dixon deep pseudo-CT (ZeDD CT). Methods: Twenty-six patients were scanned using an integrated 3-T time-of-flight PET/MRI system. Helical CT images of the patients were acquired separately. A deep convolutional neural network was trained to transform ZTE and Dixon MR images into pseudo-CT images. Ten patients were used for model training, and 16 patients were used for evaluation. Bone and soft-tissue lesions were identified, and the SUVmax was measured. The root-mean-squared error (RMSE) was used to compare the MR-based attenuation correction with the ground-truth CT attenuation correction. Results: In total, 30 bone lesions and 60 soft-tissue lesions were evaluated. The RMSE in PET quantification was reduced by a factor of 4 for bone lesions (10.24% for Dixon PET and 2.68% for ZeDD PET) and by a factor of 1.5 for soft-tissue lesions (6.24% for Dixon PET and 4.07% for ZeDD PET). Conclusion: ZeDD CT produces natural-looking and quantitatively accurate pseudo-CT images and reduces error in pelvic PET/MRI attenuation correction compared with standard methods.

Synthetic x-ray computed tomography (CT) images derived from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a recent area of focus for medical imaging researchers for applications in attenuation correction in simultaneous PET/MRI systems and MRI-guided radiotherapy planning. Several research groups have demonstrated the potential of deep learning to generate the synthetic CT images, however, there are several major open questions that remain with this approach. We investigated how the selection of MRI inputs affect the resulting output using a fixed network. We found that Dixon MRI may be sufficient for quantitatively accurate synthetic CT images and ZTE MRI may provide additional information to capture bowel air distributions.

Recent evidence suggests that fluency may be capable of supporting recognition independently of familiarity. This hypothesis was further tested in the present study. 29 participants encoded name-brand and off-brand products in an incidental task. Participants then judged whether the product was old or new during two tests with products from one category (i.e., only name-brand or only off-brand products) and a mixed test (where both name-brand and off-brand products were shown). The ERP data elicited by off-brand products varied as a function of test format. During the mixed test, off-brand products were correlated with a FN400 effect, whereas a fluency ERP (old ERPs were more negative than new at parietal electrodes 225-400ms) was observed during the other test. Importantly, no FN400 was detected during this test. The ERP results suggest that viewing the off-brand products during the mixed test produced a familiarity experience; however, fluency supported recognition when viewing off-brand products on the other test. The results are strong evidence that top-down processing of visual features during recognition interprets the information relative to the context. This process results in either fluency or, in other contexts, it is interpreted as familiarity as the Discrepancy-Attribution Hypothesis (Whittlesea and Williams, 2001a, 2001b) contends.

Purpose This study introduces a new hybrid ZTE/Dixon MR-based attenuation correction (MRAC) method including bone density estimation for PET/MRI and quantifies the effects of bone attenuation on metastatic lesions uptake in the pelvis. Methods Six patients with pelvic lesions were scanned using fluorodeoxyglucose (18F-FDG) in an integrated time-of-flight (TOF) PET/MRI system. For PET attenuation correction, MR imaging consisted of two-point Dixon and zero echo-time (ZTE) pulse sequences. A continuous-value fat and water pseudoCT was generated from two-point Dixon MRI. Bone was segmented from the ZTE images and converted to Hounsfield units (HU) using a continuous two-segment piecewise linear model based on ZTE MRI intensity. The HU values were converted to linear attenuation coefficients (LAC) using a bilinear model. The bone voxels of the Dixon-based pseudoCT were replaced by the ZTE-derived bone to produce the hybrid ZTE/Dixon pseudoCT. The three different AC maps (Dixon, hybrid ZTE/Dixon, CTAC) were used to reconstruct PET images using a TOF ordered subsets expectation maximization algorithm with a point-spread function model. Metastatic lesions were separated into two classes, bone lesions and soft tissue lesions, and analyzed. The MRAC methods were compared using a root-mean-squared error (RMSE), where the registered CTAC was taken as ground truth. Results The RMSE of the maximum standardized uptake values (SUVmax) is 11.02% and 7.79% for bone (N=6) and soft tissue lesions (N=8), respectively using Dixon MRAC. The RMSE of SUVmax for these lesions is significantly reduced to 3.28% and 3.94% when using the new hybrid ZTE/Dixon MRAC. Additionally, the RMSE for PET SUVs across the entire pelvis and all patients are 8.76% and 4.18%, for the Dixon and hybrid ZTE/Dixon MRAC methods, respectively. Conclusion A hybrid ZTE/Dixon MRAC method was developed and applied to pelvic regions in an integrated TOF PET/MRI, demonstrating improved MRAC. This new method included bone density estimation, through which PET quantification is improved. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Background and aims Herpes-zoster (HZ) has higher occurrence in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) compared to the general population. This study aimed to identify risk factors associated with HZ infections in SLE. Methods We included patients from Lupus Database of University of Santo Tomas (UST) Hospital, Manila, Philippines, who were diagnosed with HZ infection. Controls included SLE patients without HZ matched for age, sex and disease duration. SLE disease activity, corticosteroid, immunosuppressives, and hydroxychloroquine were compared between groups. Results In a review of 626 patient records, 65 SLE patients (61, 93.8% females) developed HZ, with incidence 10.4/1000 person-years. Mean age was 36.5 years+11 (range 19–60), mean SLE disease duration to HZ 6.1 years+3.3 (range 2–17). HZ lesions were localised in 63 (97%), disseminated in 2 (3%) patients. Four patients had >2 HZ episodes. All responded favourably to anti-viral therapy with minimal sequelae. Compared with controls of 130 SLE patients without HZ, cases were significantly more likely to have received high-dose prednisone 65/65 (OR 16.41, p=0.0066) with mean prednisone 18.5+12 mg/day and cyclophosphamide (Cyc) 19/65 (OR 7.05, p Conclusions Immunosuppressive agents and corticosteroids are risk factors associated with development of HZ in SLE. On the other hand, hydroxychloroquine appeared to have a protective role against HZ.

Autobiographical recollections are accompanied by visual perspectives that can be either a view through the person's own eyes (first-person) or a view that integrates visual characteristics of the rememberer into the reconstructed scene (third-person). Some have argued that a third-person perspective serves as a coping mechanism allowing the person to distance themselves from details of painful memories. The study reported here created first- and third-person memories in a novel experimental paradigm. Later, participants discriminated between these perspectives on a source memory test while event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded. Experimental evidence from the current study suggests that memories from different perspectives can be effectively modeled in the lab. Directly comparing first-person and third-person memories revealed no strong source memory or ERP differences; however, more first-person memories were recognized. Surprisingly, the modeling of the behavioral data using ROC curves and Dual Process Signal Detection (DPSD) measures of recollection and familiarity suggest that familiarity contributed to source judgments of both first- and third-person memories. The ERP data support this claim because the putative ERP correlate of familiarity (i.e., FN400) was observed during the source test. Because source monitoring tends to draw on recollection, evidence of familiarity-based source monitoring has been elusive, and these results support a key prediction of the Source Monitoring Framework (SMF) - that source decisions can be based on familiarity in some contexts (Johnson, Hashtroudi, & Lindsay, 1993; Mitchell & Johnson, 2009).

Infections are an important cause of morbidity and mortality in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Survival rates for SLE patients in developing countries are comparatively lower than those reported in industrialized countries, with early death from infection and active disease. In addition to the role of immunosuppressive agents in enhancing susceptibility to infection, infectious agents are also known to trigger lupus disease expression and activity. The endemicity of certain infections like tuberculosis further poses a special health issue in developing countries.

Cardiovascular fitness recently has been linked to executive control function in older adults. The present study examined the relationship between cardiovascular fitness and executive control in young adults using event-related potentials (ERPs). Participants completed a two-part experiment. In part one, a graded exercise test (GXT) was administered using a cycle ergometer to obtain VO(2)max, a measure of maximal oxygen uptake. High-fit participants had VO(2)max measures at or above the 70th percentile based on age and sex, and low-fit participants had VO(2)max measures at or below the 30th percentile. In part two, a task-switching paradigm was used to investigate executive control. Task-switching trials produced slower response times and greater amplitude for both the P3a and P3b components of the ERP relative to a non-switch trial block. No ERP components varied as a function of fitness group. These findings, combined with results from previous research, suggest that the relationship between greater cardiovascular fitness and better cognitive function emerges after early adulthood.

Source memory, memory for the origin of a memory, can be influenced by stereotypes and the information of focus during encoding processes. Participants studied words from two different speakers (male or female) using self-focus or other-focus encoding. Source judgments for the speaker׳s voice and Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) were recorded during test. Self-focus encoding increased dependence on stereotype information and the Late Posterior Negativity (LPN). The results link the LPN with an increase in systematic decision processes such as consulting prior knowledge to support an episodic memory judgment. In addition, other-focus encoding increased conditional source judgments and resulted in weaker old/new recognition relative to the self-focus encoding. The putative correlate of recollection (LPC) was absent during this condition and this was taken as evidence that recollection of partial information supported source judgments. Collectively, the results suggest that other-focus encoding changes source monitoring processing by altering the weight of specific memory features.

A large sample of users (N = 211) from three geographically distinct locations within the United States completed a survey to reveal a number of practical as well as social benefits to using instant messenger (IM) systems. Paradoxically, a number of these benefits were also described as common sources of frustration in different contexts. For instance, the ability to conduct multiple conversations simultaneously was described as a benefit of using IM yet sources of frustration included an inability to type fast enough to respond to everyone and confusion of message content. To compensate for past usability issues associated with IM use, users suggested a number of design recommendations to facilitate the use of future systems. The implications of this work are discussed in terms of current theories regarding technology acceptance and use.

Simultaneous positron emission tomography and MRI (PET/MRI) is a technology that combines the anatomic and quantitative strengths of MR imaging with physiologic information obtained from PET. PET and computed tomography (PET/CT) performed in a single scanning session is an established technology already in widespread and accepted use worldwide. Given the higher cost and complexity of operating and interpreting the studies obtained on a PET/MRI system, there has been question as to which patients would benefit most from imaging with PET/MRI versus PET/CT. In this article, we compare PET/MRI with PET/CT, detail the applications for which PET/MRI has shown promise and discuss impediments to future adoption. It is our hope that future work will prove the benefit of PET/MRI to specific groups of patients, initially those in which PET/CT and MRI are already performed, leveraging simultaneity and allowing for greater degrees of multiparametric evaluation. Level of evidence 5 Technical Efficacy: Stage 5 J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2017;46:1247-1262.

The present study investigated the neuroscience of memory for actions using event-related potentials (ERPs). Actions were performed, initiated but not completed (i.e., interrupted), or watched while the experimenter performed the action during encoding. Memory was assessed in a reality monitoring (RM) test (performed vs. watched actions), as well as in an internal source monitoring (ISM) test (performed vs. interrupted) while ERPs were recorded. Behavioral measures provided evidence of robust old/new recognition for all actions, but the analysis of source errors revealed that interrupted actions were often confused with performed actions. The ERP correlate of recollection, the parietal "old/new" effect (700-900ms), was observed for all actions. The right frontal "old/new" effect (1500-1800ms) that correlates with general memory monitoring was observed in RM but not in ISM. Instead, ISM was associated with the late posterior negativity (LPN) that has been connected to more specific memory monitoring. This pattern of ERP findings suggest that, in this context, general monitoring was used to discriminate self- versus other-performed actions, whereas more specific monitoring was required to support the discrimination of completed and interrupted actions. We argue that the mix of general/specific monitoring processes is shaped by the global retrieval context, which includes the number of memory features that overlap and the combination of sources being considered among other factors.

Latency measures of starting to drink and of consummatory behavior were used to investigate ingestional neophobia to novel visual and novel taste cues in chicks. In Experiment 1 (N = 36), latencies to start drinking were reliably shorter to ingesta that appeared familiar from previous rearing or preexposure procedures. After drinking started, consummatory responding occurred reliably more rapidly to familiar taste cues than to novel ones. However, the presence of familiar visual cues reliably facilitated consumption of a novel taste. Experiments 2 and 3 (Ns = 144 and 180) were performed to evaluate, respectively, whether the ingestional effects of taste stimulus intensity, 0%–6% vinegar, and of visual stimulus intensity, 0%–1.0% concentrations of red food-coloring in water, changed during ontogeny for chicks 3, 5, and 7 days old. In Experiment 2, reliable direct effects of taste concentration on consummatory response latencies occurred immediately in 7-day-olds but were delayed in 3-day-olds. In Experiment 3, each age group immediately showed reliably slower starting and consummatory response times, the higher the concentration of red food-coloring. Intake performance in both experiments was consistent with the latency data. Experiments 1–3 showed that visual and taste cues of ingesta separately influenced approach and consummatory behaviors of the ingestive response sequence and that these influences depend on ontogenetic events.

Retrieval interference and orthographic processing were evaluated in schizophrenia, schizotypal personality disorder, and non-psychiatric control participants using a word fragment completion paradigm. Participants studied solutions and later completed corresponding fragments preceded by solutions, orthographically similar blocking words, or ampersands. Although schizophrenia patients completed fewest fragments, they showed equivalent repetition priming and blocking magnitude, supporting intact orthographic processing. Schizophrenia patients were more likely to commit intrusions in the blocking condition, whereas control participants displayed better mental control because they were more likely to withhold the response. These results suggest schizophrenia patients show abnormal functioning of control mechanisms responsible for selection and inhibition of competitors.

Topographic differences in Contingent Negative Variation (CNV) were recorded while people were preparing for cognitive versus motor tasks in an S1-S2 paradigm. CNV had a frontal distribution when people prepared to encode words into long-term memory, whereas CNV was more centrally distributed when the tasks were predominantly motoric. These topographic differences appeared to be related to the type of task rather than the amount of information extracted from the S2, because a direct manipulation of the level of S2 processing had little effect on CNV amplitude. The topographic differences in CNV suggest that preparation for motor activity is a different psychological process from preparation for stimulus processing and that these two processes are subserved by different neural structures. This experiment also demonstrated that a recognition memory paradigm can be useful in the investigation of the psychological correlates of CNV.

Two experiments investigated the effect of test modality (visual or auditory) on source memory and event-related potentials (ERPs). Test modality influenced source monitoring such that source memory was better when the source and test modalities were congruent. Test modality had less of an influence when alternative information (i.e., cognitive operations) could be used to inform source judgments in Experiment 2. Test modality also affected ERP activity. Variation in parietal ERPs suggested that this activity reflects activation of sensory information, which can be attenuated when the sensory information is misleading. Changes in frontal ERPs support the hypothesis that frontal systems are used to evaluate source-specifying information present in the memory trace.

The 1976 U.S. census lists 235.3 births for every 1,000 unmarried women below the age of nineteen [1]. From these figures it appears that in spite of the availability of contraceptive methods adolescent pregnancy continues to be a problem in this country. It is one problem that has always been of interest to mental health practitioners and fortunately various services are available which provide social, medical and educational support. Several facilities offer comprehensive care, but the services are usually confined to the time of pregnancy and two to three months following the birth. While such services seem appropriate for a large number of young women, for some, however, care is needed for a longer period.