A contractual model for the protection of the rights of institutionalized mental patients.

Notes that the concept of informed consent is of central importance in many of the administrative regulations and policy guidelines now being developed to protect the rights of patients in treatment. Historically, informed consent has had a central role in determining tort liability in treatment of a medical nature, but it does not seem suitable for handling the current complexities and different characteristics of nonmedical treatment. Psychotherapy with patients can be viewed in terms of implicit and explicit agreements between the participants. It is suggested that treatment contracts can be used to clarify and make explicit the expectations and liabilities of the participants, thereby increasing the opportunities that patients have for choice and self-determination. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Exogenous NPY modulation of cardiac autonomic reflexes and its pressor effect in the conscious rabbit

1. Neuropeptide Y (NPY) may inhibit sympathetic and vagal transmission via presynaptic Y2 receptors and cause vasoconstriction via postsynaptic Y1 receptors. We examined the effects of NPY and related peptides on cardiovascular parameters and autonomic reflexes in the conscious rabbit. Further, the postjunctional effects of NPY and related peptides were assessed on acetylcholine (ACh) and isoprenaline agonist dose-chronotropic response curves. 2. In conscious rabbits the cardiac baroreceptor-heart rate reflex (baroreflex), Bezold-Jarisch like and nasopharyngeal reflexes were assessed in control, propranolol-treated or methscopolamine-treated (baroreflex only) groups, before and 30 min after i.v. administration of NPY (10 microg kg[-1] + 5 microg kg[-1] min[-1]) or vehicle (saline, 10 ml h[-1]). The effects of equivalent pressor doses of [Leu31, Pro34]NPY or methoxamine on the baroreflex were also examined. In separate animals, dose-heart rate (HR) response curves to isoprenaline or ACh were constructed before and 15 min after administration of NPY, [Leu31,Pro34]NPY (ACh only) or [Leu31,Pro34]NpY + sodium nitroprusside (ACh only). 3. Administration of NPY-receptor agonists caused sustained bradycardia (in the absence of methscopolamine) and rightward shifts of the barocurves in all 3 groups. The range of sympathetically-mediated tachycardia was significantly decreased by NPY or [Leu31,Pro34]NPY in the methscopolamine-treated group. However, these changes in the baroreflex were no different from those elicted by equipressor doses of methoxamine. There was no vagal inhibition by any NPY-receptor agonist in all three autonomic reflexes examined. ACh or isoprenaline dose-HR response curves were not affected by NPY peptide administration. 4. We conclude that in the conscious rabbit, at a single dose that elicits a significant pressor response, exogenous NPY has no direct effect on modulation of cardiac and autonomic reflexes. Non-specific effects of exogenous NPY on the baroreflex may be fully explained by its pressor action. There was no effect of NPY on postjunctional ACh or isoprenaline agonist dose-response curves. Therefore, it is unlikely that endogenous NPY has a functional role in directly modulating cardiac autonomic neurotransmission in the rabbit.     

Method development in pharmaceutical analysis employing capillary electrochromatography

Capillary electrochromatography (CEC) has been employed to explore method development for a series of structurally related polar neutral compounds of pharmaceutical relevance. Capillaries with dimensions of 75 microm ID x 25 cm length (34.5 cm total) were packed with Spherisorb ODS-1, Hypersil phenyl, and Hypersil MOS (all 3 microm particles) and were compared in the reversed-phase mode in order to determine which phase provided the best initial performance and thus serve as the phase of choice for additional method development experiments. The various separation parameters examined for their effect on efficiency, k', resolution, and linear velocity included percent and type of organic modifier, buffer concentration, voltage, and temperature. All separations were conducted with an acidic mobile phase (aqueous mobile phase component, pH 3.0). The separation efficiencies obtained were on the order of 200,000-260,000 plates/m, which equates to reduced plate heights of 1.22 for columns packed with Spherisorb ODS-1. Repeatable column-to-column separation performance was demonstrated.     

Characterization of major surface glycoprotein genes of human Pneumocystis carinii and high-level expression of a conserved region

To facilitate studies of Pneumocystis carinii infection in humans, we undertook to better characterize and to express the major surface glycoprotein (MSG) of human P. carinii, an important protein in host-pathogen interactions. Seven MSG genes were cloned from a single isolate by PCR or genomic library screening and were sequenced. The predicted proteins, like rat MSGs, were closely related but unique variants, with a high level of conservation among cysteine residues. A conserved immunodominant region (of approximately 100 amino acids) near the carboxy terminus was expressed at high levels in Escherichia coli and used in Western blot studies. All 49 of the serum samples, which were taken from healthy controls as well as from patients with and without P. carinii pneumonia, were reactive with this peptide by Western blotting, supporting the hypothesis that most adult humans have been infected with P. carinii at some point. This recombinant MSG fragment, which is the first human P. carinii antigen available in large quantities, may be a useful reagent for investigating the epidemiology of P. carinii infection in humans.     

Questioning the Institutional Boundaries of U.S. Communication Research: An Epistemological Inquiry

Interpreting three levels of assumptions—the ideal case, the object-domain, and the method of inquiry—for each of the three subdisciplines of communication—rhetoric, interpersonal and mass—provides a foundation for assessing an appropriate and comprehensive definition of the domain of communication study.     

Noncatalytic coal char gasification

A simple particle model is used to interpret differential thermogravimetric data taken on the gasification of coal/char with CO₂, H₂ and H₂O. The model takes into account the major physical factors which influence the gasification rate, viz., the changing magnitudes of surface area, porosity, activation energy and effective diffusivity during gasification. Specific reaction rate constants based on surface area and activation energies are extracted from the data. Practical criteria for regimes of reaction rate and diffusion control and for particle isothermality are developed. For isothermal particles at low classical Thiele moduli, the data can be correlated with only one parameter, which has a simple physical interpretation.     

Section 94 developer contributions and marginal cost pricing

Abstract Developer contributions for infrastructure are a major feature of the development scene in New South Wales. They are enabled under s. 94 of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979. The second edition of the Section 94 Contributions Plans Revised Manual has now been in operation for three years. Although it incorporates important additional material compared to the first edition, it still does not address the problem of the efficient pricing of infrastructure through properly calculated s. 94 developer contributions. This paper sets out the case for using marginal cost pricing to determine the magnitude of developer contributions. It argues that the efficient pricing of local government service infrastructure should be viewed as part of the larger process of microeconomic reform in local government.     

Expressed emotion and communication deviance in the families of schizophrenics.

Investigated the relation between 2 measures of family communication, intrafamilial expressed emotion (EE) and communication deviance (CD). Ss were 205 relatives of recently episodic schizophrenics from 3 samples collected in the US and the UK. Ss were rated according to their participation in a family interview. Findings indicate that high-EE relatives had higher levels of CD than did low-EE relatives in all 3 samples. When high-EE relatives were subdivided according to the specific EE attitude they manifested (i.e., criticism and/or emotional overinvolvement), those relatives showing emotionally overinvolved attitudes exhibited the highest levels of CD and were consistently separable from low-EE relatives on the CD measure. The potential impact that high-EE/high-CD environments may have on schizophrenic patients is discussed. (37 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Grain-boundary migration in single-phase and particle-containing materials

An understanding of the detailed mechanisms which control the migration of grain boundaries through multiphase materials is limited. In this article, the forces which may cause grain-boundary migration (such as those due to recrystallization, grain growth and a redistribution of chemical species) together with effects which oppose this motion (such as solute drag and particle pinning) are reviewed. Theories of grain-boundary migration are presented and, in particular, the influence of grain-boundary structure on these models is discussed. It is shown that experimental studies of grain-boundary migration in bicrystals offer the best opportunity of relating migration mechanisms to the grain-boundary structure. In the light of this an attempt is made to develop an experimental approach by which the interaction of a migrating boundary with a dispersion of particles might be studied.