The implant quality scale: a clinical assessment of the health--disease continuum

Implant success is as difficult to describe as the success criteria required for a tooth. A range from health to disease exists in both conditions. The primary criteria for assessing implant quality are pain and mobility. The presence of either one greatly compromises the implant, and removal is usually indicated. Probing depths may be related to the presence of local disease or pre-existing tissue thickness before the implant was inserted. An increasing probing depth is more diagnostic and signifies bone loss, gingival hyperplasia or hypertrophy. Bone loss is usually evaluated best with probing rather than with radiographs. The most common cause of bone loss during the first few years of function are exaggerated factors of stress. The bleeding index is easily observed and indicates inflammation of the gingiva. However, implant health status is not as related to sulcular inflammation as would be the case for a natural tooth. Implant failure is easier to describe and may consist of a variety of factors. Any pain, vertical mobility, uncontrolled progressive bone loss, and/or generalized periradiolucency warrant implant removal. Implant quality factors were established by James and modified by Misch into an implant quality scale which not only assesses the implant health-disease continuum, but relates treatment and prognosis to the existing conditions.     

Persistence of red cell aplasia despite treatment of malignant thymoma: a case report

Pure cytopenias are well-recognised associations with malignant thymoma. We present a case of pure red-cell aplasia (PRCA) and malignant thymoma where the PRCA continued to persist despite computerised tomographic scan evidence of regression following radiotherapy and chemotherapy.     

Depression and the impression-formation continuum: Piecemeal processing despite the availability of category information.

A study explored depressed–nondepressed differences in impression formation. From S. T. Fiske and S. L. Neuberg's (1990) model of impression formation, mildly depressed perceivers were hypothesized to engage in more piecemeal processing when forming an impression of a target other, even when nondepressed perceivers would typically use less effortful, categorical processing. With an idiographic technique designed by M. A. Pavelchak (see record 1989-18928-001), depressed Ss were shown to use trait attributes in evaluating a person, even when induced to categorize the individual. Nondepressed Ss relied on category information when available, replicating Pavelshak's study. Depressed Ss' results are interpreted as arising from a motivation to engage in effortful analysis of social information, stemming from feelings of lack of control over life events. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Persistence in children's reading behavior as a function of N length and attribution retraining.

In an investigation using 30 children (Grades 5-7) who were experiencing reading difficulties, procedures involving partial reinforcement and attribution retraining were assessed in terms of their relative effectiveness in developing reading persistence. Two levels of a partial reinforcement variable, termed N length (the number of successive failures prior to success), were factorially combined with the presence or absence of attribution retraining. A 5th condition received success-only training. These manipulations occurred in the context of a reading task presented on 3 successive days. A posttest measure of persistence revealed that the number of difficult sentences attempted by the Ss was increased jointly by both independent variables. However, Ss receiving success-only training or partial reinforcement with nonsuccessive failure (N lengths of 1), without the benefit of attribution retraining, did not show improvement from pretest to posttest. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Statistical significance as a continuum.

Comments on the discussion by E. R. Harcum (see record 1989-31713-001) of inappropriately using modifiers to describe statistical significance. If significance is seen as a continuum, then certain results beyond chance will be more/less probable than others beyond chance and will thus differ in significance relative to each other. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An analysis of transfer along a continuum.

10 white carneaux pigeons trained on an easy wavelength discrimination subsequently performed more accurately on a hard wavelength discrimination than did 10 controls trained on the hard problem from the outset. The effect was not a simple consequence of learning an easy problem, for a 3rd group (N=10), initially trained on the hard wavelength discrimination but with a 2nd relevant dimension added, performed no more accurately than controls. Nor was it due to a greater difference in response strengths to the stimuli of the hard problem, since a 4th group (N=10), initially trained on the reversal of the easy problem, eventually performed more accurately than controls. A 2nd experiment with 20 white carneaux pigeons of the same age, further disconfirmed this 2nd analysis, leaving it probable that the basic result is partly a consequence of the strengthening of attention to the relevant dimension. (French summary) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Persistence of the fetal circulation

A 43-year-old woman with bilateral Adie's tonic pupils had a segment of one iris sphincter that contracted spontaneously every few seconds, but was not influenced by light, near vision, or eye movements.     

A serological indication of the existence of a guineapig poliovirus

Lipid apheresis, a recently described procedure for the elimination of lipid but not apolipoproteins from plasma, was applied to normocholesterolaemic and hypercholesterolaemic roosters. Lipid apheresis resulted in an immediate reduction in plasma unesterified cholesterol concentration, which was sustained for 150 min. The reduction in unesterified cholesterol concentration was higher in the normocholesterolaemic animals than in the hypercholesterolaemic animals. Lipid apheresis induced changes in the ratio of plasma unesterified to total cholesterol in normocholesterolamic animals but not in hypercholesterolaemic animals. In hypercholesterolaemic animals, lecithin-cholesterol acyltransferase (LCAT) activity was not affected by lipid apheresis, whereas in normocholesterolaemic animals LCAT activity was acutely reduced for 150 min after lipid apheresis. Saturated LCAT kinetics occurred in the hypercholesterolaemic animals but not in the normocholesterolaemic animals. LCAT obeyed Michaelis-Menten kinetics. After lipid apheresis, there was a pool of unesterified cholesterol that was available as substrate for LCAT to a greater extent in hypercholesterolaemic animals than in normocholesterolaemic animals. These observations may have important implications for lipid apheresis as a treatment for atherosclerosis.