Attentional bias toward and distractibility by sexual cues: A meta-analytic integration.

From an evolutionary perspective, sexual stimuli are highly salient and are assumed to be processed with high priority. Hence, attentional processing of sexual cues is expected to not only bias attention but to also distract from other cognitive (foreground) tasks. It is, however, unclear to what extent these stimuli capture attention and whether there are differences between men and women. This meta-analysis combined the results of 32 studies employing experiments of attentional bias toward and distraction by sexual stimuli. From these, 13 studies provided data to examine gender differences. Overall, attentional bias and distractibility was lower than anticipated (gz = 0.43, p < .001) and there was support for the assumption of higher attention bias/interference in men (gs = 0.29, p = .031). Importantly, there was evidence for the presence of publication bias. With this in mind, findings are discussed in the context of stimulus features, the impact of provoked sexual arousal and motivational state, and gender-specific and -nonspecific neural processing of sexual stimuli which influence attention toward them.

The economic impact of antimicrobial stewardship programmes in hospitals: a systematic literature review.

BACKGROUND: Antimicrobial stewardship programmes (ASPs) include strategies that enable sustainable management of rational anti-infective treatment in the clinical setting. The successful introduction of ASPs requires close interdisciplinary collaboration among various health professionals, including the hospital management. So far, ASPs have been evaluated mainly from a clinical-pharmacological and infectious disease perspective. AIM: To identify and evaluate parameters with decisive significance for the economic impact of ASPs. METHODS: A systematic literature search for peer-reviewed health-economic studies associated with antimicrobial stewardship programmes was performed. Primary outcomes included savings in drug costs and lower revenue losses for hospitals. FINDINGS AND CONCLUSIONS: A total of 16 studies met all inclusion criteria. Most of the evidence from published clinical trials demonstrated savings through reduced direct cost of antibiotics. However, there are also studies that prove revenue effects of ASPs through decreases in length of stay and readmission rates.

Antiseptic efficacy and tolerance of tissue-tolerable plasma compared with two wound antiseptics on artificially bacterially contaminated eyes from commercially slaughtered pigs.

AIM: To compare the tissue tolerance and efficacy of two wound antiseptics with tissue-tolerable plasma (TTP) on enucleated contaminated eyes from slaughtered pigs in order to draw consequences for the use of TTP on wounds. METHOD: The corneas of extracted eyes were contaminated with Staphylococcus aureus or Pseudomonas aeruginosa. One and 10 min after application of 10% povidone (PVP)-iodine and 0.04% polyhexanide, respectively, the eyes were rinsed with inactivating solution. To test TTP, the plasma pen meandered over the eyes at a speed of 30 mm/s and a distance of 5 mm; the eyes were then rinsed with balanced salt solution. The reduction factor was calculated by the difference between the logarithm of colony-forming units in the rinse before and after antisepsis or TTP application. RESULTS: The efficacy of TTP (reduction factor 2.4-2.9) was significantly higher (p < 0.001) than that of PVP-iodine and polyhexanide (reduction factor 1.7-2.1). CONCLUSION: TTP is more effective than the tested wound antiseptics. The lack of histological damage to the eyes of slaughtered pigs would seem to make its use as a wound antiseptic a viable alternative. In contrast to antiseptics, it supplies additional energy in the form of heat, electric fields and radicals by TTP.

Molecular cloning of cgrA, the gene encoding the Aspergillus nidulans ortholog of Saccharomyces cerevisiae CGR1.

Saccharomyces cerevisiae CGR1 encodes a 120-amino acid protein with a predominant nucleolar localization. In this study we report the identification and cloning of the ortholog, cgrA, from Aspergillus nidulans. The cgrA gene is comprised of three exons on A. nidulans Chromosome 7. The cDNA contains a single open reading frame (ORF) that would encode a protein of 114 amino acids with 44% sequence identity to yeast Cgr1p. A plasmid expressing cgrA complemented the impaired growth phenotype of a yeast strain that can be inducibly depleted of CGR1, and a green fluorescent protein (GFP)-tagged CgrA protein had the same nucleolar localization as the corresponding yeast protein. These results identify cgrA as the A. nidulans ortholog of yeast CGR1 and suggest evolutionary conservation of nucleolar localization mechanisms used by these proteins.

Molecular cloning of Aspergillus fumigatus CgrA, the ortholog of a conserved fungal nucleolar protein.

In this report we describe the cloning of cgrA, the Aspergillus fumigatus ortholog of the yeast nucleolar protein Cgr1p. The cgrA complementary DNA (cDNA) contains a single open reading frame that would encode a protein of 114 amino acids that has 42% sequence identity to yeast Cgrlp. Heterologous expression of a green fluorescent protein (GFP)-tagged A. fumigatus cgrA gene demonstrated that the CgrA protein could localize to the yeast nucleolus. Moreover, the cgrA cDNA complemented the growth deficiency caused by inducible depletion of intracellular Cgr1p levels in yeast. These results support an orthologous relationship between the CgrA and Cgr1 proteins, and open the way for future studies into the potential value of nucleolar proteins as antifungal targets.