An exploration of factors related to deviant sexual arousal among juvenile sex offenders.

To date, there has been limited literature on the measurement of sexual arousal in adolescent sex offenders. The data that exist have been somewhat mixed in terms of factors related to deviant sexual arousal in this group. The present study, with 71 adolescent sex offenders, investigates the relationship between offender and offense characteristics, including gender of victim, history of sexual abuse, history of physical abuse, race, and interactions between these factors in the prediction of physiologically measured sexual arousal to deviant and nondeviant stimulus categories. A number of variables significantly predicted sexual arousal. The most consistent predictors were gender of victim, race, the interaction of race and gender of victim, and to some extent the interaction of offender abuse history and gender of victim. Caucasian subjects tended to respond more than African American subjects did, and this has not been reported previously in the literature. The data are discussed in terms of consistency with other literature, suggesting that those juvenile offenders who target male victims and have been abused themselves may be a high risk group. Limitations of this study are also addressed.

Crystallization and preliminary structural studies of a chorismate mutase catalytic antibody complexed with a transition state analog.

The Fab' fragment of a catalytic antibody with chorismate mutase activity has been crystallized as a complex with the transition-state analog hapten. The complex was crystallized by the vapor diffusion method using ammonium sulfate as the precipitant. The crystals belong to the orthorhombic space group P2(1)2(1)2(1) with unit cell dimensions a = 37.1 A, b = 63.3 A, c = 178.5 A, and there is one Fab' molecule per asymmetric unit. The crystals diffract X-rays to at least 3.0 A and are suitable for X-ray crystallographic studies.

Routes to catalysis: structure of a catalytic antibody and comparison with its natural counterpart.

The three-dimensional structure of a catalytic antibody (1F7) with chorismate mutase activity has been determined to 3.0 A resolution as a complex with a transition state analog. The structural data suggest that the antibody stabilizes the same conformationally restricted pericyclic transition state as occurs in the uncatalyzed reaction. Overall shape and charge complementarity between the combining site and the transition state analog dictate preferential binding of the correct substrate enantiomer in a conformation appropriate for reaction. Comparison with the structure of a chorismate mutase enzyme indicates an overall similarity between the catalytic mechanism employed by the two proteins. Differences in the number of specific interactions available for restricting the rotational degrees of freedom in the transition state, and the lack of multiple electrostatic interactions that might stabilize charge separation in this highly polarized metastable species, are likely to account for the observed 10(4) times lower activity of the antibody relative to that of the natural enzymes that catalyze this reaction. The structure of the 1F7 Fab'-hapten complex provides confirmation that the properties of an antibody catalyst faithfully reflect the design of the transition state analog.

Factors related to coercive sexual behavior in a nonclinical sample of males.

The sexual coercion literature has suggested numerous factors related to aggressive sexual behavior. The present investigation explores a number of these factors in a community sample. Data collected from 189 volunteers from the community included measures of sexual arousal, social perception, personality variables, attitudes toward women, and self-reported likelihood to rape. Multiple-regression analyses were used to determine the relative association of these factors to coercive sexual behavior. The present findings suggested that social perception, Extraversion and Neuroticism from the Eysenck Personality Inventory, sexual arousal, and self-reported likelihood to rape all contributed to the multiple regression. Rape Myth Acceptance, although not contributing significantly to the multiple regression, did show a significant zero-order correlation with coercive sexual behavior. Additional analyses were performed in an attempt to replicate an earlier predictive study by Malamuth and Check (1983) that found self-reported sexual arousal to be predicted by a combination of self-reported likelihood to rape, Psychoticism and Neuroticism from the Eysenck Personality Inventory, power motivation, and sexual experience. In the present study, both self-reported sexual arousal and penile tumescence measures were significantly related to attitudinal measures, social perception measures, and self-reported likelihood to rape. Limitations of the present study and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Evaluation of biofeedback in the treatment of borderline essential hypertension.

Direct biofeedback of blood pressure was compared with frontal EMG biofeedback and with self-instructed relaxation for the treatment of essential hypertension in a controlled group outcome study. Patients were followed up for four months after the end of treatment. Generalization of treatment effects was assessed through pre- and posttreatment measurements of blood pressure under clinical conditions in a physician's office. There were no significant reductions in diastolic blood pressure. The systolic blood pressure (SBP) of the patients receiving blood pressure biofeedback decreased 8.1 mm mercury (p = 0.07) and the SBP of the patients in the relaxation condition decreased 9.5 mm mercury (p = 0.05). In the generalization measures, there were significant reductions in SBP for the relaxation group. The results are discussed in terms of the general lack of replicability within the area of biofeedback treatment of hypertension.

The use of feedback training and a stimulus control procedure to obtain large magnitude increases in heart rate outside of the laboratory.

A series of eight single-subject experiments were performed to test the feasibility of using a stimulus control procedure to teach subjects to control heart rate in the absence of feedback and outside of the laboratory. Four of the six subjects who completed the experiments were able to demonstrate increases in heart rate of from 15 to 35 beats per minute without the assistance of feedback and outside of the laboratory. These increases were consistently produced over six daily sesssions. Through the use of a systematic replication series of experiments, it was possible tentatively to rule out age, sex, and basal heart rate of subject, as well as type of previous feedback training and number of prior training sessions, as accounting for the differential success.

A comparison of direct blood pressure feedback and electromyographic feedback on the blood pressure of normotensives.

Groups of 20 normotensive subjects were assigned to one of three conditions to help them lower their blood pressure: (1) intermittent visual feedback of blood pressure; (2) continuous analogue auditory feedback of frontal EMG; (3) an instructed, no-feedback condition. Both groups receiving feedback showed greater within-session lowering of systolic blood pressure than the no-feedback control group. Although the group receiving intermittent visual feedback of blood pressure lowered blood pressure more than the EMG feedback group at the first session, in three subsequent sessions, the two feedback groups did not differ.