Physician understanding and application of surrogate decision-making laws in clinical practice.

Background: Although state surrogate laws are the most common way surrogate decision makers are identified, no studies have been conducted to determine physician understanding of these laws or how these laws are utilized during clinical practice. The purpose of this study is to better understand how surrogate decision-making laws function in practice.

Methods: A cross-sectional survey of 412 physicians working in Indiana hospitals was conducted between November 2014 and January 2015 to determine physicians' knowledge of Indiana's surrogate decision-making law and physicians' approaches to hypothetical cases using the law in clinical practice.

Affect and Sexual Responsivity in Men With and Without a History of Sexual Aggression.

Despite increased attention to understanding risk factors for sexual aggression, knowledge regarding the emotional and sexual arousal patterns of sexually aggressive men remains limited. The current study examined whether sexually aggressive men exhibit unique profiles of affective responsivity, in particular to negatively valenced stimuli, as well as sexual arousal patterns that differentiate them from nonaggressive men. We presented 78 young men (38 sexually aggressive; 40 nonaggressive) with a series of videos designed to induce positive, sad, or anxious affect.

Cartilage repair in the degenerative ageing knee.

Background and purpose - Cartilage damage can develop due to trauma, resulting in focal chondral or osteochondral defects, or as more diffuse loss of cartilage in a generalized organ disease such as osteoarthritis. A loss of cartilage function and quality is also seen with increasing age. There is a spectrum of diseases ranging from focal cartilage defects with healthy surrounding cartilage to focal lesions in degenerative cartilage, to multiple and diffuse lesions in osteoarthritic cartilage.

Comparison of FIM™ communication ratings for English versus non-English speakers in the traumatic brain injury model systems (TBIMS) national database.

Objective: To examine the effect of primary language on admission and discharge FIM™ communication ratings in a sample of individuals with moderate-to-severe traumatic brain injury (TBI).

Design And Methods: Secondary data analysis of rehabilitation admission and discharge FIM™ communication ratings of 2795 individuals hospitalized at a Traumatic Brain Injury Model Systems (TBIMS) centre between 2007-2012.

Results: Individuals who spoke no English were rated worse on functional communication outcomes at inpatient rehabilitation discharge relative to individuals whose primary language was English.