Blood pressure estimation and beliefs among normotensives and hypertensives.

14 medicated hypertensive, 15 nonmedicated mild hypertensive, 39 normotensive, and 13 hypotensive adults participated in a 1–2 hr laboratory experiment that assessed each S's symptoms, moods, and estimates of systolic blood pressure (SBP) relative to actual SBP levels. Several self-reports and autonomic measures were collected during and after each of 22 tasks. Within-S correlations indicated that all Ss could estimate SBP at levels greater than chance. Further, 68% of the Ss evidenced at least 1 significant symptom–SBP correlation. Although medicated hypertensives believed they could estimate their BP more accurately than other groups, they were actually no more accurate than the other Ss. They also evidenced far fewer empirically derived symptom–SBP and emotion–SBP correlations than any other group. Overall, blood pressure (BP) beliefs were largely inaccurate. If these erroneous beliefs can be eliminated, Ss may be able to estimate BP fluctuations more accurately. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A magnetic resonance imaging study of planum temporale asymmetry in men with developmental dyslexia

The influence of ionic strength and composition on the binding and inhibition of human leukocyte elastase by glycosaminoglycans with variable degree and position of sulfation was investigated. The kinetic mechanism of inhibition had a hyperbolic, mixed-type character with a competitive component that was promoted by low ionic strength, reduced by phosphate ions, and which also depended on the substrate and glycosaminoglycan structure. Enzyme binding was a cooperative phenomenon that varied with ionic strength and composition. The inhibition patterns correlated with the cationic character of elastase and with the distribution of arginines on its molecular surface, most notably with residues located in the vicinity of the substrate binding region. The order of affinity for elastase binding was chondroitin 4-sulfate < chondroitin 6-sulfate < dermatan sulfate, iduronate-containing derivatives being superior with respect to the glucuronate-containing counterparts. Additional sulfation at both the 4- and 6- positions or at the N- and 4-positions of the N-acetylgalactosamine moiety decidedly improved the inhibitory efficiency. The results highlight a fundamental physiological role of enzyme-glycosaminoglycan interactions. In the azurophil granule of the human polymorphonuclear neutrophil, elastase and other enzymes are bound to a matrix of chondroitin 4-sulfate because this is the only glycosaminoglycan that simultaneously offers good binding for enzyme compartmentalization together with prompt release from the bound state at the onset of phagocytosis.     

GUIDELINES FOR DESIGNING EIS INTERFACES Meeting Executives' Information Needs

For users of an executive information system (EIS), the EIS interface is the system and is crucial to the EIS's success. These guidelines for designing EIS interfaces are based on studies of actual EIS interfaces that meet the unique information needs of executives.     

Afterburner [network-independent card for protocols]

Many current implementations of protocols such as the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) are inefficient because data are often accessed more frequently than necessary. Three techniques that reduce the need for memory bandwidth are proposed. The techniques are copy-on-write, page remapping, and single-copy. Afterburner, a network-independent card that provides the services that are necessary for a single-copy protocol stack, is described. The card has 1 MByte of local buffers and provides a simple interface to a variety of network link adapters, including HIPPI and asynchronous transfer mode (ATM). Afterburner can support transfers to and from the link adapter card at rates up to 1 Gbit/s. An implementation of TCP/IP that uses the features provided by Afterburner to reduce the movement of data to a single copy is discussed. Measurements of the end-to-end performance of Afterburner and the single-copy implementation of TCP/IP are presented     

Pregnancy in patients with cystic fibrosis

With increasing life span of patients with CF, more women with CF are becoming pregnant and others are seeking information about the risks involved during pregnancy and delivery. A striking limitation of the available information is the lack of large prospective studies of pregnant patients with CF matched for age and disease severity compared with their non-pregnant cohorts. A study investigating the effect of pregnancy on morbidity and mortality is being completed by the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. We recommend that all women with CF be offered contraceptive measures and counseling on the maternal and fetal risks of pregnancy, including the genetic risks for the child. The issue of who will raise the child in the event of subsequent morbidity or maternal mortality should ideally be prospectively discussed.     

Outbreak of serogroup C meningococcal disease associated with campus bar patronage

Between February 1991 and April 1992, eight undergraduates at a US residential university and one at a nearby 2-year college contracted serogroup C meningococcal disease. A case-control investigation with 20 controls per case, oropharyngeal carriage surveys, and multilocus enzyme electrophoresis (MEE) of serogroup C isolates were used to identify factors contributing to the outbreak. All eight sterile-site isolates from cases were closely related by MEE and were similar (though not identical) to the strain associated with the 1991-1992 epidemic of meningococcal disease in eastern Canada. Disease was associated with cigarette smoking (p = 0.012), recent patronage of campus-area bars (p = 0.034), estimated amount of time spent in campus-area bars (p = 0.0003), and, especially, recent patronage of one specific bar, bar A (p = 0.0006; odds ratio = 23.1, 95% confidence interval 3.0-571.5). In carriage surveys, 1,528 throat cultures taken from (primarily student) noncases yielded only five (0.3%) strains that were identical by MEE to those from cases. Two of these were found among 22 cultures obtained from bar A employees in spring 1992. Some cases in this outbreak may have followed transmission of the epidemic strain in bar A. Campus bar environments may facilitate the spread of meningococcal disease among teenagers and young adults.