The Effects of Empathy, Emotional Intelligence and Psychopathy on Interpersonal Interactions.

The current study investigated the relationships between empathy (emotional and cognitive), emotional intelligence, psychopathy, emotional contagion, and non-conscious behavioural mimicry (smiles and hand scratches), using self-report scales and a script-based interview session exhibiting nine non-verbal gestures, on a student sample. Past findings suggest a deficit of emotional but not cognitive empathy in psychopaths. Empirical research on non-conscious behavioural mimicry in psychopathy with reference to emotional intelligence is somewhat scarce; however it was proposed that individuals high in psychopathic traits would show reduced emotional mimicry based on the relation of empathy to mimicry. The study was quasi-experimental, involving individual assessment of 51 participants. Results suggest decreased emotional empathy at high levels of psychopathy and show that emotional intelligence moderates the relationship between psychopathy and non-conscious mimicry (smiles per minute). Social competence might be more predictive of effects of psychopathy on non-conscious mimicry.

Estimating exposed pulp lengths of tusks in the African elephant (Loxodonta africana africana).

Captive and wild African elephants frequently suffer tusk fractures. Several institutions shorten the tusks of captive elephants to reduce fractures and injury as a result of behaviour within enclosures. Fracturing or coronal amputations that expose pulp lead to pain for the elephant. Estimating coronal pulp lengths may thus help to minimise the risk of pulp exposure during amputations. We aimed to determine the length of the pulp beyond the lip margin from an external tusk characteristic. Tusks collected from elephants in Namibia and the Kruger National Park had similar morphological relationships. This statistical property allowed us to correct for missing data in our data sets. Pulp volume and pulp length correlated with tusk circumference at the lip. Even so, the circumference at the lip could not predict the length of the pulp in the crown external to the lip. Our findings suggest that tusks, irrespective of sex or age, amputated further than 300 mm from the lip should not expose pulp.

Pre- versus post-ventilatory surfactant treatment in surfactant-deficient preterm lambs.

Twenty lambs at 127 days' gestation (term is 145 days) were randomly assigned to receive Infasurf (Calf Lung Surfactant Extract, ONY Inc., Amherst, NY) as an intratracheal bolus (3 mliter kg-1) either into a fluid-filled lung before ventilation (n = 10), or after ventilation for 5 min (n = 10). All lambs were surfactant-deficient by analysis of lung liquid obtained before surfactant administration. Lambs were then mechanically ventilated for 4 h. Oxygenation for the lambs given surfactant before ventilation did not change during the experiment; a/A pO2 was 0.50 +/- 0.13 at 1 h and 0.52 +/- 0.17 at 4 h. For the lambs given surfactant after initial ventilation, oxygenation decreased over time; a/A pO2 decreased from 0.48 +/- 0.23 at 1 h to 0.37 +/- 0.22 at 4 h (P < 0.05). Compliance, as calculated from the Ventilator Efficiency Index (VEI), improved over time in both groups, but was always significantly higher for lambs given surfactant before ventilation (P = 0.03). Histologic examination of the lungs revealed no differences between the groups; no evidence of epithelial denudation or hyaline membrane formation was seen in either group. Thus, ventilation of surfactant-deficient newborn lambs for 5 min before surfactant administration results in significantly decreased lung function when compared with surfactant administration before ventilation. These differences in lung function are not dependent on a histopathologic injury to the lung. It is possible that unevenness of deposition of the surfactant in an air-filled lung, compared to more uniform deposition in a fluid-filled unventilated lung, produces these differences.

A controlled clinical comparison of four different surfactant preparations in surfactant-deficient preterm lambs.

Four pulmonary surfactant preparations (natural sheep surfactant, Exosurf, Infasurf, and Survanta) were compared with no treatment in 29 newborn lambs at 126 +/- 1 days gestation. Fetuses were delivered by Cesarean section under general anesthesia and treated with either the manufacturer's recommended dose of a commercial surfactant, 100 mg phospholipid/kg of natural sheep surfactant, or no surfactant (control group). Lambs were mechanically ventilated with 100% oxygen until moribund from respiratory failure or until killed at 24 h after delivery. Lambs surviving to 12 h received surfactant retreatment (of the same type) if hypoxemic. All lambs were surfactant deficient at birth, having less than 0.1 mg/ml of phospholipid measured in the lung liquid. All control lambs developed early respiratory failure and died within 8 h after delivery. Survival was significantly prolonged by natural surfactant (p less than 0.02), Infasurf (p less than 0.0001), and Survanta (p less than 0.02). Natural surfactant, Infasurf, and Survanta significantly improved arterial oxygenation and ventilatory compliance compared with no treatment. These effects lasted as long as 24 h in lambs given Infasurf, but no more than 6 h in lambs given natural surfactant or Survanta. After death, static pressure-volume lung mechanics were significantly better for lambs given natural sheep surfactant, Infasurf, or Survanta. Lambs given Exosurf were no different than control lambs in any variable measured. Thus, in 126-day gestation surfactant-deficient newborn lambs, natural sheep surfactant, Infasurf, and Survanta, but not Exosurf, Improve oxygenation, lung mechanics, and survival.