Care of persons with AIDS in the nursing home

BACKGROUND: AIDS is becoming a chronic illness for some patients whose significant accumulated functional impairments may limit community-based care. Nursing homes can provide an appropriate level of care, although reported experience caring for persons with AIDS in this setting is limited. METHODS: A retrospective case-series review was conducted in a 242-bed community teaching nursing home to describe the initial 26-month experience in providing care for patients with AIDS requiring nursing home admission. RESULTS: A total of 42 admissions by 32 patients with AIDS (mean age = 33.5 years, 81% male) involved a shorter length of stay (mean 63.1 days) and higher numbers of medications (mean = 11.2), facility charges (mean $11,971/admission, $189/day), and greater clinical management complexity than usual nursing home patients. Thirteen patients were discharged, seven for rehospitalization and six into community settings, although ultimately 29 of the 32 patients died in the facility. CONCLUSIONS: AIDS care in the nursing home presents significant, distinct challenges in complex management and terminal care prioritization.     

Environmental investigation of a legionellosis outbreak in western Sydney: the role of molecular profiling

Colitis following colonoscopy is an acute, self-limited condition characterized by tenesmus and bloody diarrhea appearing within 48 hours of colonoscopy or sigmoidoscopy. Glutaraldehyde used for disinfection of the endoscopes is considered to be the main etiological agent. Three cases of severe acute self-limited colitis are described in this report. All three were observed within one week, and showed the typical anamnestic, clinical, endoscopic, histological, and radiological features of glutaraldehyde-induced colitis. The main characteristics in these cases were the time relationship with colonoscopy and the severity of the clinical presentation, with symptoms of systemic reaction and intense and diffuse edema of the colonic mucosa. The clinical and morphological features may mimic those of colonic ischemia. All three patients recovered completely within a few days, one spontaneously and two after treatment with steroids, antibiotics, and mesalazine. Acute colitis following colonoscopy should be regarded as one of the complications related to colonoscopy, and it should be taken into account in the differential diagnosis of acute colitis.     

On-line control of rapid aiming movements: Unexpected target perturbations and movement kinematics.

Two experiments with a total of 11 university students (aged 23–47 yrs) assessed the use of on-line visual information during rapid goal-directed aiming movements. In both experiments, participants were required to complete a discrete aiming movement to a single target on a graphics tablet. In Exp 1, during 76% of the experimental trials, the target width remained constant throughout the movement. The remaining 24% of the trials were evenly divided between 2 target perturbations in which the width of the target unexpectedly increased or decreased in size upon movement initiation. During Exp 2, the spatial location of the single target was perturbed to a new location closer to, or farther away from, the original target position. The proportion of perturbation trials remained constant across experiments. Results indicate that peak velocity was determined prior to movement initiation in order to meet the speed–accuracy demands of the original target width or movement amplitude. In contrast, during deceleration, participants modified their movement trajectories to account for a perturbation in target width or movement amplitude. These data suggest that on-line monitoring of visual information can be used to modify the latter half of a movement trajectory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Meta-Analysis of Intellectual and Neuropsychological Test Performance in Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder.

Cognitive measures are used frequently in the assessment and diagnosis of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). In this meta-analytic review, the authors sought to examine the magnitude of differences between ADHD and healthy participants on several commonly used intellectual and neuropsychological measures. Effect sizes for overall intellectual ability (Full Scale IQ; FSIQ) were significantly different between ADHD and healthy participants (weighted d = .61). Effect sizes for FSIQ were significantly smaller than those for spelling and arithmetic achievement tests and marginally significantly smaller than those for continuous performance tests but were comparable to effect sizes for all other measures. These findings indicate that overall cognitive ability is significantly lower among persons with ADHD and that FSIQ may show as large a difference between ADHD and control participants as most other measures. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Impact of newspaper crime reports on fear of crime: Multimethodological investigation.

Investigated the impact of components of newspaper crime reports on fear of crime in an examination in which key newspaper components were based on theorizing in the areas of downward comparison, attribution, and normative behavior. In Study 1, 36 newspapers were classified according to the proportion of crime reports that involved local crimes, sensational crimes, and random crimes; the levels of fear of crime among 335 readers of these newspapers were assessed through telephone interviews. Results indicate that Ss who read newspapers that printed a high proportion of local crime news reported higher levels of fear if the crimes were predominantly sensational or appeared to be random, whereas Ss whose newspapers printed a low proportion of local crime news reported lower levels of fear if the crimes were predominantly sensational or random. These findings were replicated in Study 2: college students (N?=?80) who read reports of local crimes expressed higher levels of fear if the crimes were random rather than precipitated, whereas the opposite pattern emerged in regard to nonlocal crimes. Implications for psychologists and journalists are discussed. (35 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Slow bursting thermal sensitive neurons in the preoptic area of the rabbit

Recent data have shown the presence of some hypothalamic neurons with a slow bursting activity. This study reports the interactions of slow bursting neurons with thermoregulatory control in the preoptic/anterior hypothalamus (POAH). Ninety-seven single units studied with direct thermal stimulation and with central injections of norepinephrine (NE) or serotonin (5-HT) were assessed for slow bursting activity. Twenty-one percent of the neurons had slow bursting activity patterns with frequencies ranging from 0.02-0.10 Hz. Intraventricular or direct POAH injected monoamines frequently inhibited bursting activity during normothermia and/or POAH thermal stimulation. Slow bursting neurons may elicit rhythmic thermoregulatory motor outputs, neurosecretion, and infraslow DC potentials in the central nervous system.