Do we neglect child neglect?

Child neglect is a condition in which a major need of the child is not met, regardless of the cause or who is responsible for the condition. Multiple interacting factors at the individual (child and parent), familial, community, and societal levels contribute to child neglect. In typical neglect cases, a caretaker, either deliberately or through extraordinary inattentiveness, permits the child to experience avoidable suffering and/or fails to provide one or more of the components generally deemed essential for developing the child's physical, intellectual, and emotional capacities. Neglect varies in type, severity and chronicity. Both actual and potential harm should be weighed by a physician in considering reporting to child protective services. Outcome data on intervention are lacking, therefore proper intervention should be individualized and the results carefully monitored.     

Object-centered not scene-based visual neglect.

Whether visuospatial attention accesses object-centered representations, in addition to location-based coordinates, was investigated in patients with hemispatial neglect who detected a target on the left or right of a single object (2 connected circles or barbell) or of 2 objects (2 unconnected circles). The object or objects either remained static (left circle in left space) or rotated by 180° (left circle now in right space). Relative to the static condition, in the rotating condition, detection times are facilitated on the left (contralateral) and inhibited on the right (ipsilateral) of space even when eye movements are controlled. This modulation of neglect was only observed for the single object, but not for the 2-object displays. The findings suggest that attention operates on object-centered as well as on location-based representations, and thus accesses multiple reference frames. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Do not go gently

The authors aimed at conducting an epidemiological analysis of genital chlamydial infection among married couples with infertility problems, women with pelvic inflammatory disease and among patients with promiscuity and clinical symptoms of genital infection in the region of Pleven. They performed a prospective study for a six month period of time. 36 married couples with infertility problems and 66 patients with promiscuity were included in the study. The authors conclude that genital chlamydiosis is a widely spread sexually transmitted disease among a large group of patients. Poor personal hygiene, poor education, young age, some professions which are a predisposition to promiscuity increase the risk of sexually transmitted diseases.     

Do not resuscitate: an ethical dilemma for the decision-maker

Since its introduction in the 1960s, cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) has been universally available to all hospital patients unless the consultant in charge has specified a 'do not resuscitate' (DNR) order. The public perception of CPR has tended to be one of overoptimism, but this is not matched by the low survival to discharge ratio of approximately 1:10. In addition, there is the risk of prolonging suffering, compared with the quick and relatively painfree alternative offered by cardiac arrest. Decisions about resuscitation pose many ethical dilemmas for those involved and should take into consideration the patient's wishes, prognosis and quality of life.     

"Do not mislabel counseling": Response.

Responds to L. O. Bascue's (see record 1986-20566-001) comments on the present authors' (see record 1985-18426-001) work regarding the problems encountered in describing the practice of specialty areas within professional psychology. Issues on defining the population for role delineation studies and describing distinguishing features of specialty practice are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Do not discount lay opinion": Comment.

Comments on the article by S. M. Kassin et al (see record 2001-17140-001) which discussed eye witness testimony. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Do not forget to listen to the ambulance crew and the spouse...

Dislocation of the testes is an uncommon sequela of trauma. In contemporary times, it is usually associated with motorcycle accidents. We present 2 cases of unilateral traumatic testicular dislocation and 1 case of bilateral dislocation, all involving motorcyclists. Spontaneous reduction is rare. Early reduction is recommended because of histological changes seen in dislocated testes. Surgical reduction is often required. The significance of this condition must be emphasised to doctors managing trauma patients and early urological consultation obtained.     

Exploitation or neglect.

A comparison of lengths of stay for alcoholism treatment in nonpublic and public hospitals indicates that the ratio of median stay was greater in nonpublic hospitals (2:1). While 3 explanations are possible, these results support W. R. Miller and H. K. Hester's (see record 1986-28253-001) contention that financial considerations play a dominant role in patient treatment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Dissociable coordinate frames of unilateral spatial neglect: "viewer-centered" neglect

Detailed analyses of reading and nonlexical tasks by three patients with unilateral spatial neglect (USN) secondary to stroke indicate that the USN in each of these patients affects the left side (contralateral to brain damage) of the viewer, with respect to the viewer's head, mid-sagittal plane of the body, or line of sight. In one case, the neglect was further specified as concerning the left side of the viewer's line of sight (the left half of her residual visual field). Thus, the frame of reference of USN in these three cases appears to have viewer-centered (in at least one case, specifically retinotopic) coordinates. The performance of these patients is contrasted to that of other patients in the literature whose USN appears to have a frame of reference with stimulus-centered or object-centered coordinates. These results are interpreted within a model of visual processing (adapted from Marr, 1980 and others) with at least three coordinate frames. It is argued that USN can affect one or more of these coordinate frames independently.     

Mutant K-ras oncogenes in colon cancers Do not predict Patient's chemotherapy response or survival

One half of human colon cancers bear mutant c-K-ras oncogenes. Mutant K-ras oncogenes are associated with shortened survival in non-small cell lung cancers, and, in cell line models, with resistance to cis-platinum and to ionizing radiation. This study examines whether mutant K-ras alleles in colon cancer alter patients' response to chemotherapy or survival. We studied 37 patients who received chemotherapy with 5-fluorouracil and leucovorin, Exon 1 of the c-K-ras gene was PCR amplified from DNA extracted from paraffin-embedded tumor blocks. The presence of mutant or wild-type c-K-ras alleles was determined by dideoxy sequencing of the PCR-amplified c-K-ras DNA. c-K-ras mutations at codons 12 or 13 were present in 19 and absent in 18 cases. Responses to chemotherapy were equally likely in patients with either wild-type or mutant c-K-ras, occurring in 28% of patients with wild-type ras and 32% of patients with mutant ras (P = 0.8). Survival was also indistinguishable among both groups. Median survival from diagnosis was 35 months for ras wild-type patients and 31 months for ras mutant patients (P = 0.96). Median survival from starting chemotherapy was 14 months for ras wild-type patients and 17 months for ras mutant patients (P = 0.26). Patients with colon cancers bearing either wild-type or mutant c-K-ras alleles are indistinguishable in overall survival and are equally likely to respond to 5-fluorouracil-based chemotherapy.     

Quantitative EEG in subcortical neglect

We have analyzed the regulatory roles of the first intron (intron-1) of the bovine beta-casein gene in the bovine beta-casein/CAT expression system using a mouse mammary epithelial cell line, HC11. After a combined treatment of HC11 cells with insulin, dexamethasone and prolactin, the induced expression of p beta c1.8/+ICAT vector including 2 kb intron-1 and 1.8 kb promoter was greatly increased to 23.5 folds, while that of p beta ca.8CAT basic vector with 1.8 kb promoter only, was 6.5. A classical enhancer activity was shown in the 2 kb intron fragment from the experiment in which the orientation and the position of the intron-1 on the vectors were changed. The enhancer activity was largely dependent on the lactogenic hormones, especially prolactin. A stepwise reduction of the inducibility in the 5' to 3' deletion analysis of the intron-1 indicates the existence of several functional elements in the region. In particular, an internal fragment (+1071 to +1490) was important for the prolactin-dependent enhancing activity of the intron-1. These results suggest that several elements in the intron-1 of the bovine beta-casein gene cooperatively interact not only with each other but also with its promoter for hormonal induction.     

Gravitational inputs modulate visuospatial neglect

Right brain-damaged patients with left visuospatial neglect were required to bisect a line placed in front of them in two different body positions (upright and supine) and two different light conditions (light and dark). The neglect patients, unlike right brain-damaged patients without neglect, strongly reduced their rightward directional error in the supine compared with the upright position. No systematic changes were produced by the light-dark manipulation. The present result cannot be explained with an attentional interpretation of hemispatial neglect. We suggest that the present data provide further evidence that hemineglect is the consequence of a mismatch between different afferent information integrated into an egocentric space representation. According to this model, the presence of a lateralized brain lesion produces asymmetries in some intermediate spatial representations (eye-head, head-trunk, body-environment) but not in the retinotopic one. Any experimental manipulation that reduces the asymmetry of the intermediate representation such as the reduction of gravitational inputs may improve the dynamic integration of the egocentric coordinates.