Intraoperative blood salvage in children and young adults undergoing spinal surgery with predeposited autologous blood: efficacy and cost effectiveness

We conducted a retrospective review of 155 spinal operations at our institution to determine the efficacy of intraoperative salvage. Addition of intraoperative salvage had little effect on the success of a preoperative autologous donation program. Only patients with operative blood loss > 2,000 ml (12% of patients) benefited from this expensive source of autologous blood. The technique tended to be most effective in children aged 16-18 years. Use of intraoperative salvage for all pediatric spinal procedures is neither necessary nor cost effective.     

What is being masked in object substitution masking?

Object substitution masking (OSM) is said to occur when a perceptual object is hypothesized that is mismatched by subsequent sensory evidence, leading to a new hypothesized object being substituted for the first. For example, when a brief target is accompanied by a longer lasting display of nonoverlapping mask elements, reporting of target features may be impaired. J. T. Enns and V. Di Lollo (2000) considered it an outstanding question whether OSM masks some or all aspects of a target. The authors report three experiments demonstrating that OSM can selectively affect target features. Participants may be able to detect a target while being unable to report other aspects of it or to report the color but not the orientation of a target (or vice versa). We discuss these findings in relation to two other visual phenomena. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Physics and plasticine.

Argues that children's failure on one of Piaget's best known tasks, conservation of solid quantity, reflects ignorance of physical properties rather than inadequate reasoning ability. The evidence for conservation itself, seen from the child's position, is analyzed. It is emphasized that children can learn and enjoy the concepts and methods of physics at much earlier ages than current orthodoxies would indicate. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mathematical Relationship Between Surface Emission and Diffusion Coefficients

This naver analvzes the surface emission coefficient corresponding to anv diffusion coefficient expressed as an exponential function of the concentration diffusing substance in capillary porous solids. Theoretical equations for surface emission coefficient for both sorption and desorption are presented. Procedures to derive the diffusion coefficient and to verify the corresponding surface emission coefficient are made using experimental sorption data of aspen (Populur sp.) wood. It is of interest to note that the theoretical models for diffusion and surface emission coefficients can be established and/or evaluated using the same set of experimental dara.     

Effects of Helicobacter pylori vacuolating cytotoxin on primary cultures of human gastric epithelial cells

BACKGROUND: Many Helicobacter pylori strains produce a cytotoxin that induces cytoplasmic vacuolation in various types of eukaryotic cells. In contrast with the marked cell vacuolation that occurs in vitro in response to this cytotoxin, comparatively little epithelial vacuolation has been observed in the gastric mucosa of H pylori infected persons. AIMS: Experiments were performed to determine the susceptibility of human gastric epithelial cells in vitro to H pylori vacuolating cytotoxin activity. METHODS: Human gastric epithelial cells, harvested from upper gastrointestinal endoscopic biopsy specimens, were incubated overnight with broth culture supernatants from either a wild type cytotoxin producing (tox+) H pylori strain or an isogenic mutant strain that lacks cytotoxin activity. RESULTS: Prominent cytoplasmic vacuolation occurred in response to tox+ supernatant, but not supernatant from the isogenic mutant strain. Primary human gastric epithelial cells were significantly more sensitive to H pylori vacuolating cytotoxin activity than were either HeLa or AGS cells. Exposure of human gastric epithelial cells to high concentrations of tox+ supernatant for 48 hours caused lethal cell injury. CONCLUSIONS: These studies indicate that primary human gastric epithelial cells are highly sensitive to H pylori vacuolating cytotoxin activity.     

Finally, a central place to evaluate nursing systems

Nurses now have a central place to check standards and evaluate systems. The Nursing Information and Data Set Evaluation Center develops, disseminates and evaluates nursing practice sets used by vendors. This center, established by the American Nurses Association, ensures that interventions and outcomes related to nursing diagnosis are appropriate and accurate.     

Chromosome 9p deletions in invasive and noninvasive nonfunctional pituitary adenomas: the deleted region involves markers outside of the MTS1 and MTS2 genes

We have screened 57 cases of primary, nonfunctional, pituitary adenomas for loss of heterozygosity of markers on chromosome 9p. Using a panel of 11 microsatellite markers, we found hemizygous deletion with at least one of the markers in 18 tumors (31.5%). The frequency of loss was similar in both noninvasive (8 of 26; 31%) and invasive tumors (10 of 31; 32%), suggesting that loss on this chromosome might be an early event in pituitary tumorigenesis. Two discrete areas of loss were punctuated by a region of retention of heterozygosity between the markers D9S171 and IFNA, indicative of homozygous deletion. However, multiplex PCR analysis (MTS1 and MTS2) and the presence of a 3' untranslated region polymorphism in MTS1 suggested that neither of these tumor suppressor genes was homozygously deleted. In 6 of the 18 tumors showing LOH, sufficient DNA was also available for Southern blot analysis and, in all cases, showed retention of MTS1. Cell mixing experiments of tumor cell DNA homozygously deleted for MTS1 with DNA in which neither copy of the gene was deleted only gave rise to a signal at contamination levels greater than 30% and could discriminate homozygous and hemizygous loss. These studies support the recent findings that mechanisms other than hemi- and homozygous deletion are most likely responsible for the loss of MTS1 gene product in pituitary tumors (M. Woloschak et al., Cancer Res., 56: 2493-2486, 1996.). These data show that losses on either side of 9p21-22, both or either of which may be deleted, are involved in pituitary tumorigenesis and provide evidence for distinct suppressor gene loci, in addition to MTS1, on chromosome 9p.