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We explored the content and structure of the cognitive, knowledge-based concept underlying aesthetic responses to music. To this aim, we asked 290 Finnish students to verbally associate the aesthetic value of music and to write down a list of appropriate adjectives within a given time limit. No music was presented during the task. In addition, information about participants’ musical background was collected. A variety of analysis techniques was used to determine the key results of our study. The adjective “beautiful” proved to be the core item of the concept under question. Interestingly, the adjective “touching” was often listed together with “beautiful”. In addition, we found music-specific vocabulary as well as adjectives related to emotions and mood states indicating that affective processes are an essential part of aethetic responses to music. Differences between music experts and laymen as well as between female and male participants were found for a number of adjectives. These findings suggest the existence of a common conceptual space underlying aesthetic responses to music, which partly can be modified by the level of musical expertise and gender.

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This study investigates the association between students" perceptions of learning context and approaches to studying at an individual level. The emphasis of this study thus focuses on individual student differences and, in order to facilitate the analyses presented, a statistical procedure (multidimensional unfolding analysis) has been introduced that is new to educational research of this nature. This procedure is described in non-technical terms as well as in a more technical Appendix. The results of this study confirm the existence of the important association between qualitatively different perceptions of learning context and approaches to studying at the individual level. They illuminate, furthermore, the subtly different ways in which individual students orchestrate their approaches to studying in relation to their perception of contextual variables. The diagnostic value of an unfolding analysis is discussed and it is concluded that the methodology described in this study constitutes a potentially powerful paradigm for improving the quality of student learning by facilitating intervention in terms of the perception of the context in which learning occurs.

Several small case-control studies have investigated whether factor V Leiden (FVL) is a risk factor for retinal vein occlusion (RVO) and generated conflicting data. To clarify this question we performed a large two-centre case-control study and a meta-analysis of published studies. Two hundred seven consecutive patients with RVO and a control group of 150 subjects were screened between 1996 and 2006. A systematic meta-analysis was done combining our study with further 17 published European case-control studies. APC resistance was detected in 16 out of 207 (7.7%) patients and eight out of 150 (5.3%) controls. The odds ratio (OR) estimated was 1.49 with a (non-significant) 95% confidence interval (CI) of 0.62-3.57. The meta-analysis including 18 studies with a total of 1,748 patients and 2,716 controls showed a significantly higher prevalence of FVL in patients with RVO compared to healthy controls (combined OR 1.66; 95% CI 1.19-2.32). All single studies combined in the meta-analysis were too small to reliably detect the effect individually. This explains the seemingly contradictory data in the literature. In conclusion, the prevalence of APC resistance (and FVL) is increased in patients with RVO compared to controls, but the effect is only moderate. Therefore, there is no indication for general screening of factor V mutation in all patients with RVO. We recommend this test to be performed in patients older than 50 years with an additional history of thromboembolic event and in younger patients without general risk factors like hypertension.

Thrombocyte glycoprotein IIb/IIIa inhibitors prevent fibrinogen binding and thereby thrombocyte aggregation. The inhibition of thrombocyte activation at the damaged coronary plaque is the target of the new therapeutic strategies in treating acute coronary syndrome. This reduces the ischemic complications associated with the non-STelevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI) and percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Thrombocytopenia is a known complication of glycoprotein (GP) IIb/IIIa inhibitors. Although, in general, GP IIb/IIIa inhibitor-induced thrombocytopenia is a harmless side effect which responds readily to thrombocyte transfusion, it can occasionally be a very serious complication associated with serious bleeding. In addition patients developing thrombocytopenia have unfavorable outcome (e.g., death, myocardial infarction, bypass surgery or additional PCI) in comparison to patients without thrombocytopenia. Advanced age (> 65 years), low BMI and a low initial thrombocyte count (<180,000/microl) are independent risk factors of thrombocytopenia. The risk of bleeding is higher with this form of thrombocytopenia not only due to the low thrombocyte count but also to the impaired function of the remaining thrombocytes. It is important to closely monitor platelet count during GP IIb/IIIa antagonist treatment. Platelet count monitoring two, six, twelve and 24 hour after starting the treatment reveals most cases of acute thrombocytopenia. Side effects can be avoided by the early discontinuation of the GP IIb/IIIa antagonist treatment. This article reviews the diagnosis and treatment of glycoprotein IIb/IIIa inhibitor-induced thrombocytopenia and summarizes the differential diagnosis from heparin-induced thrombocytopenia and laboratory-related pseudothrombocytopenia.

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Music Perception vo lu m e 29, issue 1, pp. 93-108. issn 0730-7829, electronic issn 1533-8312. © 2011 by the regents of the university of california all rights reserved. please direct all requests for permission to photo copy or reproduce article content through the university of california press's rights a n d permissions w e b s i t e , h t t p ://www.ucpressjournals.com/reprintinfo.asp.We assume that evaluative processes in response to musical stimuli can occur spontaneously without explicit demand, and that these responses are important for the emergence of emotions evoked by music. Two versions of the affective priming paradigm served to study spontaneous evaluation of music. In Experiment 1, a lexical decision task (LDT) and in Experiments 2 and 3, an evaluative decision task (EDT) was employed. A total of 20 original four-part, five-chord piano sequences with no specified harmonic resolution were used as primes. During the LDT, congruency in valence of prime-target pairs did not affect response times to the targets. However, for the EDT, significant effects of priming were obtained, indicating that spontaneous evaluations of primes must have occurred. No moderating influences of music expertise or any other person variable on spontaneous evaluation were observed. The diverging results of LDT and EDT point to the possibility that spontaneous evaluative processes are sensitive to context manipulations. Results are discussed with reference to harmonic and semantic priming studies.