Persistent acute renal failure with renal artery stenosis: cure following reconstructive arterial operation

A case of acute renal failure is reported in which renal function returned after surgical correction of renal artery stenosis to the sole functioning kidney. Acute renal failure associated with renal vascular lesions is reviewed. Although often clinically apparent vascular obstruction may be asymptomatic and should be considered in cases of prolonged acute renal failure.     

Silicon diode detectors used in radiological physics measurements. Part II: Measurement of dosimetry data for high-energy photons

Initial calibration of a linear accelerator requires physics instruments to measure accurately central axis depth-dose and off-axis data, both in and out of the beam. These data for an 8- MeV unit were first measured using film, a Farmer 0.6-cm3 ion chamber, a 0.3-cm3 ion chamber, and a 0.1-cm3 silicon diode. Both small probes and film gave a high response compared to the Farmer probe, which has a uniform energy response. Measurements with the diode interfaced to an X-Y recorder required only a fraction of the time required with the chambers, minimizing error due to change in machine output, and permitted resolution of isodose lines in the penumbra. However, corrections required at points in depth due to nonuniform energy response of the unshielded diode were laborious. Construction of a partially shielded diode which duplicates the response of the Farmer probe eliminated the necessity for corrections, permitting rapid accumulation of a wide range of depth-dose and off-axis data.     

Respiration and the generation of rhythmic outputs in insects

In insects gas exchange may be: 1) entirely passive, when metabolic rate is low; 2) enhanced automatically by muscle contractions that produce movements, e.g., wing movements in flight; or 3) produced by ventilatory movements, particularly of the abdomen. In terrestrial insects such as locusts and cockroaches ventilatory movements are governed by a dominant oscillator in the metathoracic or anterior abdominal ganglion. The dominant oscillator overrides local oscillators in the abdominal ganglia and thus sets the rhythm for the entire abdomen, and it also controls spiracle opening and closing in several thoracic and abdominal segments. This ventilatory control mechanism appears to be different from that generating metachronal rhythms such as occur in the ventilatory and locomotory movements of aquatic arthropods. There are now several examples of rhythms, both ventilatory and locomotory, that can be generated by the central nervous system in the absence of phasic sensory feedback, but the mechanism of rhythm production is not known. Studies of ganglionic output suggest that neuronal oscillators can produce a range of frequencies and that some oscillators may be employed in more than one function or behavior. The mechanisms by which central oscillators are coupled to the output motorneurons are also not known; large phase changes suggest that in some cases different coupling interneurons are active. Intracellular recordings from identified neurons have begun to clarify the important roles of interneurons in the production of motor patterns.     

The decerebrate human: associative learning

Phasic changes in cardiac reactivity to innocuous stimuli, presented in a sensory disparity paradigm, were used to evaluate habituation and learning processes in five decerebrate subjects. Three subjects showed systematic changes over trials in the pattern of cardiac response to simple auditory or visual stimuli, indicative of habituation. In addition, tests for associative learning were given after repeated presentations of two paired stimuli. The appearance of a marked cardiac orienting response, to the unpredictable omission of the second stimulus, documented the development of a conditioned association in these same three subjects. One additional subject failed to show a consistent pattern of response to the stimuli, and another demonstrated a consistent response which was not subject to habituation. Overall, these findings support the view that learning processes are not solely the product of the cerebral hemispheres, but reflect general integrative features of the human neuraxis.