Young children's knowledge about visual perception: Effect of observer's distance from target on perceptual clarity of target.

Tested 48 3-, 3?-, and 4?-yr-old children for a previously unstudied form of knowledge about visual perception—that an observer stationed closer to a small object will be able to see it better than an observer stationed farther away on roughly the same line of sight, but they will be able to see it equally well if stationed side by side at the same distance from it. The data suggest that this knowledge undergoes considerable development during the preschool period, with many 4?-yr-olds seemingly possessing it in the form of a general rule. (3 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Nosocomial infections in hand surgery

The active and experienced hand surgeon should have enough knowledge to recognize both common and uncommon hand infections. Control of hospital-acquired infections, including surgical site infections, requires a knowledge of potential personal risk factors and ongoing surveillance systems to aid in prevention and early detection. Current national trends may soon require that surgical-site infections be diagnosed by specific criteria that will allow comparisons of data from various locations. Although most hand surgery procedures are now performed on an ambulatory basis, it is important for the hand surgeon to be aware of current methodologies for the prevention, control, surveillance, and treatment of hospital-acquired infections. These intriguing aspects of hospital-acquired infections are reviewed in this article.     

Caenorhabditis elegans is a nematode

Caenorhabditis elegans is a rhabditid nematode. What relevance does this have for the interpretation of the complete genome sequence, and how will it affect the exploitation of the sequence for scientific and social ends? Nematodes are only distantly related to humans and other animal groups; will this limit the universality of the C. elegans story? Many nematodes are parasites; can knowledge of the C. elegans sequence aid in the prevention and treatment of disease?     

Current aspects of infectious diseases in industrialized countries: development or history?

Man's conception of nature is a historically dated phenomenon. Thus the recent development of infectious diseases in industrialized countries could either be a real phenomenon or simply an artifact related to our current conception of medical progress and research. Is the return of infectious disease a natural process or has modern civilization been less prudent than its predecessors? What are the characteristic features of modern pathogenesis? Are these "changes" the result of some natural dynamics or an evolution in our means of investigation? Modern civilization has not invented technological deviation or diseases of civilization, phenomena well know in the past, but what is new is the fact that science today, with an ever growing amount of information on molecular epidemiology, is still raising questions about infection, recognized new unsuspected forms of the living world which do not fit into our well-knitted outline of infectious agents. We have applied our simplistic and mechanistic schemas designed for the timespan of human life to the evolutionary processes. The effects of evolution and history are thus combined today in a novel way composing a new future for infectious diseases. This new way of looking at infectious diseases is not totally natural nor totally historical. It is perhaps an epistemological revolution going on within epidemiology. The return of infections disease would appear to have a direct effect on magnifying the knowledge and the delinquency of our culture.     

The information age: influencing practice and academic environments

Technologic forces are transforming both the nursing profession and nursing education. How will these changes affect nurses? What is at stake? As society moves to an information economy, one's value will be determined by the ability to access and use information (knowledge).     

Surgical treatment of Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome: a "retrospectroscopic" view

The surgical treatment of the Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome made its appearance in 1968 when Dr W. C. Sealy performed the first direct surgical intervention for ablating an accessory connection in a patient with incessant atrioventricular reentrant tachycardia. The surgical approach fell into disfavor in 1990 when catheter ablation using radiofrequency energy was adopted into widespread use. In this presentation, I will attempt to assess the scientific value of the surgical experience using the scholarly tool, the "retrospectroscope," and also to answer the questions, Was it worth it? What was learned? and What was achieved? We conclude that a large body of scientific knowledge and skill was brought to light by this experience and, of even more importance, passed on for best use to the catheter surgeons.     

Pasteurella multocida epiglottitis

Pasteurella multocida, a small gram-negative coccobacillus, colonizes the nasopharynx and gastrointestinal tract of many animals, including cats and dogs. Most human infections with P multocida are due to animal bites, but the respiratory tract is the second most common site of infection. We describe the third case report (to out knowledge) of acute P multocida epiglottitis. The mode of transmission in this case was inhalation of infectious nasopharyngeal secretions from cats. The patient responded well to treatment with penicillin, the drug of choice for P multocida infections. Therefore, infection with P multocida, though rare, should be considered in the differential diagnosis in any case involving acute epiglottitis and exposure to cats.     

Wound closure of the fallopian tube with fibrin glue: endoscopic organ preserving therapy of extrauterine pregnancy

Families in transition (FIT), a joint program between Beth Israel Medical Center (BIMC) and National Development and Research Institutes, Inc., uses indigenous neighborhood women, Compa?eras (companions), to conduct street outreach in a New York City neighborhood where HIV infection is rampant. The outreach workers inform people that, not only will they be assisted in talking about HIV and guardianship for their children, but that they will be provided information concerning access to food stamps, housing, health care, and other basic needs. Through community participation, the Compa?eras empower themselves through knowledge making and sharing and, in the process, create conditions in which other women can began to effect changes in their individual lives and families. The ultimate goal of the project is to support HIV-infected women in finding their voices so that they can talk with their children and plan for their futures.     

Carl Ludwig Schleich and the introduction of infiltration anesthesia into clinical practice

Peptostreptococcus is an anaerobic gram-positive coccus that is encountered in dental and sinus infections, pelvic infections in women, osteomyelitis, arthritis, skin and soft-tissues infections, conjunctivitis and bacteraemia [1,2]. We report here, what is to our knowledge, the first cases of spondylitis with discitis caused by Peptostreptococcus.     

Enterovirus infections and insulin dependent diabetes mellitus--evidence for causality

BACKGROUND: Insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) has a long subclinical period characterised by gradually progressing autoimmune damage of insulin producing beta-cells. Clinical IDDM is manifested when 90% of beta-cells have been destroyed. Several studies have indicated that enterovirus infections, coxsackievirus B (CVB) infections especially, are frequent at the manifestation of clinical IDDM suggesting that they can precipitate the symptoms of IDDM in individuals who already have an advanced beta-cell damage. Recently, the first prospective studies have been published suggesting that enterovirus infections can also initiate the process several years before clinical IDDM. This implies that enterovirus infections may have a crucial role in the pathogenesis of human IDDM. OBJECTIVE: The recent findings have brought up the question whether the time has come when a causal association between enterovirus infections and IDDM could finally be confirmed. This review focuses on this question summarising the current knowledge and the prospects of future research. STUDY DESIGN: Review of the recent progress in studies evaluating the role of enterovirus infections in human IDDM. CONCLUSIONS: The currently available information supports the assumption that the role of enterovirus infections may be more important than previously estimated. Enterovirus infections are obviously associated with increased risk of IDDM, but whether this association reflects causal relationship remains to be confirmed in future studies. Prospective birth-cohort studies will be among the most important ones giving important data on the etiologic fraction of enterovirus infections, the properties of diabetogenic virus variants and the mechanisms of beta-cell damage.     

Review of What’s behind the research? Discovering hidden assumptions in the behavioral sciences.

Reviews the book, What’s behind the research? Discovering hidden assumptions in the behavioral sciences by Brent D. Slife and Richard N. Williams (1995). As the book's subtitle indicates, the authors' purpose is to assist the reader in Discovering hidden assumptions in the behavioral sciences, a worthy objective not likely to be realized simply through a love affair with "information" and its packaging. Slife and Williams state their mission clearly: "Presenting (behavioral sciences') hidden assumptions, along with their costs and consequences, is our task in this book. Whether you are a student of the behavioral sciences, therapist, educator, businessperson, or simply a consumer of behavioral science information, you will need to know the implicit ideas in that information. What are the main interpretations of the data by scientists? What alternative methods are available for gathering knowledge? What ideas are embedded in the usual approaches to abnormality and treatment? Are there other ideas available for generating solutions to human problems? Do conventional approaches to business or education include assumptions about the world or human nature that are questionable or unacceptable to the people who use them? We attempt to answer these and many other questions." In most respects, Slife and Williams do a splendid job at this. Many of the central conceptual issues Slife and Williams have raised have been treated before (by, among others, the mentor of both authors and the scholar to whom they have dedicated their work, Joseph Rychlak, but I know of no work the equal of this one in presenting the material in a way so accessible to previously uninitiated students and the intelligent and interested lay public. Surely this book will be welcomed by those scholars and educators who would wish to move psychology and the other behavioral sciences into the 21st century shorne of their positivistic leanings and empiricist pretensions, and re-oriented toward a more apposite science of human nature. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Putting off tomorrow to do what you want today: Planning for retirement.

In this article we note that in the coming years, a larger number of people will be experiencing retirement for a longer period of time than ever before and that despite this fact, many will find themselves unprepared for this stage of their lives. We review the literature on retirement preparation, structuring our review around the key questions that need to be addressed when planning for retirement: (a) What will I do? (b) How will I afford it? (c) Where will I live? and (d) Who will I share it with? We make a number of suggestions for research and practice. We conclude that although psychology has begun to play a role in understanding and addressing retirement preparation, there are considerable opportunities for psychologists to engage with this issue in their research and applied work. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Down-regulation of human sialyltransferase gene expression during in vitro human keratinocyte cell line differentiation

We studied cytokines and anti-cytokine autoantibodies (Aabs) during T.b.brucei infections in IFN-gamma-/-, IFN-gammaR-/- and wild-type mice. Increased serum levels of IFN-gamma, TNF-gamma and IL-4 with decreased Aabs to these cytokines were recorded early during infections in all mice (except IFN-gamma in IFN-gamma-/- mice). Later, these responses were reversed, and surprisingly Aabs reacting to IFN-gamma in the IFN-gamma -/- mice were detected. To examine the possibility that an IFN-? immunoreactive molecule might be expressed due to infections and upon gene deletion, anti-IFN-gamma antibody was inoculated and resulted in abrogation of such Aabs. The scenario was different for IL-10 and TGF- since IFN-gammaR-/- and wild-type mice showed low cytokines and high Aabs early during infections, but later high cytokines and low Aabs were registered. Interestingly, IFN-gamma-/- mice exhibited reversed levels of both IL-10 and TGF-beta, and also of their Aabs. Fab fragments of purified serum immunoglobulins showed binding and neutralizing effects in biological assays. Pre-absorption of the Fab fragments with a cytokine inhibited the binding and neutralization effects of this cytokine, but not of other cytokines. These results highlight an important role for autoimmunity in cytokine regulation, and that genomic deletion of IFN-gamma modulates cytokines and their Aab responses in experimental African trypanosomiasis.     

The history of hand infections

The current approach to hand infections is a culmination of information gained from centuries of medical teaching by the ancient Greeks, nineteenth-century anatomists, and twentieth-century microbiologists and surgeons. Although many individuals have contributed to our knowledge through their teachings and writings, the contemporary treatment of hand infections has evolved quite rapidly. Several landmark scientific discoveries have drastically changed not only the manner in which hand infections are treated, but the ultimate clinical results obtained. This brief review of the history of hand infections highlights the major contributions that have influenced the contemporary medical and surgical approach to infections of the hand.     

Homocysteine associated hypercoagulability and disseminated thrombosis--a case report

That which constitutes competence in an occupational therapy entrepreneur is not well delineated, even though the role of entrepreneur requires that such a person possess a particular set of knowledge and skills in order to be competent. The question of competence in an occupational therapy entrepreneur is increasingly important because the number of practitioners assuming this role has grown in recent times. Indeed, a connection exists between the competence of occupational therapy entrepreneurs and the future stature of the profession. Still, the issue remains: How will occupational therapy entrepreneurs be judged competent? Peer evaluation is one possibility, but the ultimate measure will be marketplace success.     

La?nnec, re-inventor of the stethoscope?

According to our common medical culture, some facts are simply unquestionable, for instance La?nnec invented the stethoscope. But was he the first one? On a recent trip to Egypt we visited the temple of Kom Ombo, built prior to the roman period and renowned as a medical care center. Today, the tourist is fascinated by the magnificent hieroglyphics on the well-preserved walls testifying to significant advances in various fields of medicine including ophthalmology and gynecology. We were particularly interested by the basreliefs presenting vivid drawings of some of the first medical instruments. We easily identified curettes, scissors, a balance, forceps for dental extraction, and a surgical saw, but were captivated by two other instruments. The first one looked a lot like what La?nnec invented around 1820. The second one was amazingly similar to the instrument we use everyday, with a distal opening and flexible tubes (woven papyrus?) leading to proximal ear pieces. Our Egyptian guide was formal: the stethoscope was invented in Egypt. The scientific impact of our observations leaves something to be desired, but did make us think about the huge gap between the advancement of medical knowledge in ancient Egypt and La?nnec's (re)-invention. Exposed to a similar gap in history, what would our documents stored on CD and video tapes have to say to future touring doctors?     

The new transplantation law. What must hospital physicians observe?

The molecular revolution is beginning to have an impact on all aspects of tuberculosis. Work in diagnostics is expected to progress in maximizing genetic testing of mycobacteria. Drug development will benefit from recently acquired knowledge on molecular mechanisms of drug action. The availability of the complete genome of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, and better tools for genetic work with mycobacteria, will promote the development of vaccine candidates. Our work has contributed to the definition of the mechanisms of resistance to rifampin, fluoroquinolones, and ethambutol, and, using molecular analysis, to a better understanding of the epidemiology of mycobacterial infections. This overview of the direction of tuberculosis research today illustrates the impact of novel scientific approaches on the investigation of old problems.     

The Tanner Mandibular Appliance

The purpose of the study was to investigate whether the human and economic investment of resources in the further training of nursing and nursing assistants is justified. The study focused in particular on the transfer of knowledge from training course to working practice. It was carried out as a case study in Ringk?bing County, Denmark, during 1993/94. The population consisted of 49 nurses and 49 nursing assistants. The study showed that the participants took a keen interest in the courses. The learning process was found relevant by the nurses, but not by the nursing assistants. Neither group found that their expectations of getting more knowledge were satisfied. With respect to job-behaviour, the study confirmed the hypothesis that the practising of the content of the course will depend on the support and interest of the head of the department towards a goal-oriented development of competence and structure. If such support and interest is lacking, the course-participant will only change her own working practices, independent of the organizational structure.     

Continuous quality improvement in the ICU and the role of a data management system

Quality improvement may be defined as the effort to improve the level of performance of key processes in the ICU. Based on knowledge of the current level of performance and on systematic analysis of organizational aspects of the ICU, quality improvement will include the implementation of standards, the formulation and analysis of quality indicators (e.g. scores, rate of complications such as nosocomial infections) and the possible introduction of data management systems.     

Note-taking fosters generative learning strategies in novices.

Subjects were instructed to take notes or not take notes while watching a videotaped lecture on cameras. Note-takers performed better than non-note-takers on recall and transfer tests for students with low prior knowledge of cameras but not for students with high prior knowledge. The results replicated previous Attribute?×?Treatment interactions observed for different materials and supported the generative hypothesis (R. J. Peper and R. E. Mayer; see PA, Vols 62:4717 and 73:15759). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)