Concealed lung abscess in critically ill, mechanically ventilated patients

This article reports on phenomenological research designed to discover how caring was taught in a nursing education program. The basic questions were: 1) What is the meaning of caring to the faculty and students; 2) How do the faculty communicate this meaning to the students; and 3) How does this meaning shape the experience of the students? Data were collected from a small associate degree nursing program using: a) semi-structured interviews with all faculty and a selected group of students, b) classroom observations, and c) review of documents. Data were analyzed for and found to have content explaining the meaning of caring, how caring was being taught, and what students were learning about caring as the essence of nursing. Implications derived speak to the need for faculty and administrators to have caring as a way of being if they wish to communicate caring as the essence of nursing to students.     

Production and characterization of genus and species specific monoclonal antibodies against surface tegumental antigens of Schistosoma mekongi

Fourty-four primary brain tumors were studied by immunohistochemistry. 29 (67.2%) expressed HLA-Dr. The incidence and number of tumor cells positive for HLA-Dr correlated with the histological type of brain tumor and increased with the degree of malignancy. The mononuclear cells infiltrating in these tumors were mostly CD45ROT cells and macrophages. The former consisted mainly of CD4 and CD8 subsets. The numbers of CD45RO+ and CD8+ T cells in HLA-Dr-group were more than any of the HLA-Dr+, +2, +3 groups. The numbers of CD4 subset and macrophages were not affected by the level of HLA-Dr expression. These results suggest that the HLA-Dr expressed by brain tumor cells selectively inhibit CD8 subset which participates in immunoreaction against brain tumors in situ.     

Proteins isolated from the venom of the common tiger snake (Notechis scutatus scutatus) promote hypotension and hemorrhage

Notechis scutatus scutatus venom contains several toxic acidic proteins called HTa-i which promote hypotension and hemorrhage in mice. They have apparent mol. wts in the 18,000-21,000 range, i.v. LD50 values between 0.5 and 1.5 micrograms/g, and no detectable phospholipase, arginine esterase, proteolytic or hemolytic activities. A polyclonal antibody raised against HTg binds to other purified proteins, suggesting that they are isoforms of the same protein. Many other elapid crude venoms contain proteins which recognize the polyclonal antibody raised against HTg. Crotalid and viperid crude venoms do not recognize this antibody, although some of their component proteins are known to exhibit hypotensive and hemorrhagic activities. A combination of gel-filtration on Sephacryl S-200, cation-exchange and anion-exchange chromatography allows isolation of the N. s. scutatus proteins in high purity. They are the first hypotension-inducing proteins to be purified from an Australian elapid.     

The nocturnal behavior of caged rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta)

The behavior of rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) was observed via videotape recording during the 12 hour period from 6.00 p.m. to 6.00 a.m. Adult animals were housed in male/female pairs under one of three cage conditions: individual cage, mating cage and a larger 'group' cage. 20 categories of behavior were assessed and the resultant behavior was described and quantitatively compared across cage conditions. The animals spent almost the entire night in a sitting position, either alone or while huddling with another animal. Sitting and huddling behavior are near-perfect complements to each other in terms of the frequency of occurrence; taken together they account for almost the entire nocturnal behavior. Other activity rarely displaces these behaviors. The animals tended to be relatively active in the early evening. As night fell, they settled down to relative inactivity, which they maintained until the morning. The activity level gradually increased as dawn approached.