In laboratory studies electromotive mitomycin C (MMC) demonstrated markedly increased transport rates compared with passive transport. We performed a prospective study in patients with high risk ...superficial bladder cancer to assess the efficacy of intravesical electromotive vs passive MMC using bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) as a comparative treatment.
Following transurethral resection and multiple biopsies 108 patients with multifocal Tis, including 98 with T1 tumors, were randomized into 3 equal groups of 36 each who underwent 40 mg electromotive MMC instillation with 20 mA electric current for 30 minutes, 40 mg passive MMC with a dwell time of 60 minutes or 81 mg BCG with a dwell time of 120 minutes. Patients were scheduled for an initial 6 weekly treatments, a further 6 weekly treatments for nonresponders and a followup 10 monthly treatments for responders. Primary end points were the complete response rate at 3 and 6 months. MMC pharmacokinetics were assessed.
The complete response for electromotive vs passive MMC at 3 and 6 months was 53% versus 28% (p = 0.036) and 58% versus 31% (p = 0.012). For BCG the responses were 56% and 64%. Median time to recurrence was 35 vs 19.5 months (p = 0.013) and for BCG it was 26 months. Peak plasma MMC was significantly higher following electromotive MMC than after MMC ((43 vs 8 ng/ml), consistent with bladder content absorption.
Intravesical electromotive administration increases bladder uptake of MMC, resulting in an improved response rate in cases of high risk superficial bladder cancer.
► Roadside advertisements capture attention while driving. ► Attention capture depends on emotional content. ► Eye fixation time elicited by emotional advertisements was larger than neutral ones. ► ...Negative advertisements speed up braking responses in subsequent risky situations.
In road safety literature the effects of emotional content and salience of advertising billboards have been scarcely investigated. The main aim of this work was to uncover how affect-laden roadside advertisements can affect attention – eye-movements – and subsequent risky decisions – braking – on the Honda Riding Trainer motorcycle simulator. Results indicated that the number of fixations and total fixation time elicited by the negative and positive emotional advertisements were larger than the neutral ones. At the same time, negative pictures got later gaze disengagement than positive and neutral ones. This attentional capture results in less eye fixation times on the road relevant region, where the important driving events happen. Finally, the negative emotional valence advertisements sped up braking on subsequent risky situations. Overall results demonstrated how advertisements with emotional content modulate attention allocation and driving decisions in risky situations and might be helpful for designing roadside advertisements regulations and risk prevention programs.
Recent development of systems for assisted driving has raised questions about what features of the stimuli perceived by a driver may improve driving behaviour and road safety. The present study aimed ...to uncover whether emotional auditory stimuli can affect risky behaviour in hazardous situations. Forty-nine volunteers rode a motorcycle in a virtual environment and went through a number of preset risky scenarios, some of which were cued by a sound (a beep, a positive emotional sound or a negative sound). Results showed that hearing the beep reduced the frequency of accidents in the upcoming risky situation, while the emotional cues did not. Likewise, the beep induced the drivers to decrease their speed and focus their gaze on relevant areas of the visual field, while the emotional sounds did not. These results suggest that auditory warning systems for vehicles should avoid using emotion-laden sounds, as their affective content might diminish their utility to increase driving alertness. These findings could provide important information for the development of new advanced driver assistance systems and in general for the specification of future Human–Machine-Interaction design guidelines.
Hypoxia, defined as decreased availability of oxygen in the body's tissues, can lead to dyspnea, rapid pulse, syncope, visual dysfunction, mental disturbances such as delirium or euphoria, and even ...death. It is considered to be one of the most serious hazards during flight. Thus, early and objective detection of the physiological effects of hypoxia is critical to prevent catastrophes in civil and military aviation. The few studies that have addressed the effects of hypoxia on objective oculomotor metrics have had inconsistent results, however. Thus, the question of whether hypoxia modulates eye movement behavior remains open. Here we examined the effects of short‐term hypobaric hypoxia on the velocity of saccadic eye movements and intersaccadic drift of Spanish Air Force pilots and flight engineers, compared with a control group that did not experience hypoxia. Saccadic velocity decreased with time‐on‐duty in both groups, in correlation with subjective fatigue. Intersaccadic drift velocity increased in the hypoxia group only, suggesting that acute hypoxia diminishes eye stability, independently of fatigue. Our results suggest that intersaccadic drift velocity could serve as a biomarker of acute hypoxia. These findings may also contribute to our understanding of the relationship between hypoxia episodes and central nervous system impairments.
Pilots and flight engineers experienced a simulated ascent to 22 000 feet, and subsequent short‐term hypobaric hypoxia, in an altitude training chamber (each crew member underwent hypoxia for up to 3.25 minutes without supplemental oxygen). We measured their eye movements before and after hypoxia. Intersaccadic drift velocity increased after hypoxia exposure, suggesting that acute hypoxia diminishes eye stability.
PDF
