The psychological development of orphanage-reared infants: interventions with outcomes (Tehran)

This paper describes five successive interventions in the rearing of infants at an orphanage in Tehran, with their outcomes. The outcomes were assessed longitudinally. The first of the successive groups, here called "waves", numbered 15. These Ss constitute the controls. The only intervention consisted of examining the infants every other week during the first year and every fourth week thereafter with the ordinal, sensorimotor scales of Uzgiris and Hunt. The audio-visual intervention intended for the second wave of 10 infants was tape-recorded mother talk and music under the control of the infants and mobiles that the infants could activate. This plan was never adequately implemented because of inadequate supervision. The third wave of 10 infants got extra untutored human care. The fourth wave of 20 infants got the kind of audio-visual intervention originally intended for the second wave plus access to responsive inanimate materials. For the fifth wave, numbering 11, the infant-caretaker ratio was reduced to two or three to one and the caretakers were taught the Badger program supplemented with procedures to foster vocal imitation and semantic mastery of body parts, clothing, toys, and other objects and events regularly encountered. The results show that each successive wave, excepting the second, achieved the top steps of nearly all seven of the ordinal scales at mean ages younger than the preceding wave, and the fifth wave surpassed even home-reared American children from predominantly professional families in achieving the top steps on five of the seven scales. The findings show that infants need not advance along all branches simultaneously and that the kinds of experience encountered determine the branch along which advancement occurs. A number of theoretical implications are examined. Especially important is the idea that a dependable educational psychology for infancy and early childhood calls for much more knowledge than we now have of the kinds of experience that advance development along each of the various branches.     

Views necessary for the traumatic wrist

Wrist injuries are an extremely common occurrence. The origin of these injuries may be due to a fracture of the two bones of the forearm or the wrist bones, which may sometimes require specific X-rays views. They are rarely responsible for a dislocation of the wrist. Strains wrists may be misdiagnosed and may result in instability of the wrist. The initial examination of all wrist injuries should systematically include the following four views: (1) a PAview of the wrist in pronation (with the palm facing downward). (2) a lateral view according to the Meyrueis technique. (3) an oblique view. (4) a scaphoid view. An additional, fifth view with the wrist in supination (with the palm facing upward) may be required. If there is clinical evidence of instability of the wrist or if the initial examination results in a probably strained wrist, a further more complete radiological examination can then be undertaken. This examination, known as "the instability examination" includes stress views, which can allow detection of a discrete instability of the wrist. Finally, it is sometimes necessary to carry out this examination in a bilateral and comparative manner.     

Virulence of Aspergillus fumigatus double mutants lacking restriction and an alkaline protease in a low-dose model of invasive pulmonary aspergillosis

To investigate the pathogenicity of Aspergillus fumigatus mutants lacking putative virulence factors, we have developed a new murine model of invasive pulmonary aspergillosis based on neutropenia, the major factor predisposing patients to this infection. Mice were treated with cyclophosphamide and inoculated by the intranasal route with 5 x 10(3) conidia, a significant reduction from inoculum levels used in previous models. Evidence for the production of the extracellular alkaline protease (Alp) in lung tissue was obtained by using a fungal transformant harboring an alp::lacZ reporter gene fusion. The pathogenicities of single mutant strains lacking either Alp or the ribotoxin restrictocin and of a double mutant strain lacking both proteins were assessed in this infection model. There were no significant differences between the mutant and the wild-type strains in terms of mortality or histological-features. Inoculations with mixtures of conidia showed that the double mutant strain is slightly less virulent than the wild-type strain. We conclude that Alp and restrictocin are not important virulence determinants in pulmonary infection.