A child-to-child programme in rural Jamaica

A child-to-child programme was carried out in six rural schools in Jamaica. School children in grades 4 and 5 were taught concepts of nutrition, environmental and personal hygiene, and child development. The children were encouraged to take messages home to their parents and improve the care of their younger siblings. Four hundred and twenty-three children and 90 mothers and guardians from four of the project schools were evaluated and compared with 199 children and 47 parents from two control schools. The project children showed higher scores on a test of knowledge in the topics at the end of the year. They also improved in some practices at home. The mothers improved in knowledge in some areas but not in their practices. We consider the results sufficiently encouraging to justify incorporating the programme into the country's education curriculum for primary schools.     

The effect of lorazepam on memory and event-related potentials in heavy and light social drinkers

To investigate the effects of heavy social drinking on sober cognitive processing, event-related potentials were recorded from 13 heavy social drinkers and 13 light social drinkers in the presence and absence of a pharmacological challenge (i.e., lorazepam). Event-related potentials were elicited by a task reuqiring continuous recognition memory for visually presented words. The heavy social drinkers exhibited shorter P2 latencies than the light in the task) versus “new” words. Lorazepam increased motor reaction time to correctly identified old words and produced a deficit in recognition memory only in the light social drinkers. Light social drinkers had an increased P300 latency anda larger P300 amplitude to new words in the lorazepam treatment. The differences in cognitive functioning evident between heavy and light social drinkers were reflected in event-related potential deviations and appear to indicate a tolerance in heavy social drinkers to the effects of lorazepam.     

Dermatoses in five related female carriers of X-linked chronic granulomatous disease

Eight female members of a family with X-linked chronic granulomatous disease were identified. Five were shown to be carriers of the disease gene. Each of these female carriers of the gene had a history of skin eruptions. The identification of the carrier state is important as genetic counselling should be offered and the prenatal diagnosis of this disorder is possible.     

A possible role for mono(ADP-ribosyl)transferase in the signalling pathway mediating neutrophil chemotaxis

1 Mono(ADP-ribosyl)transferase activity has been identified on the external surface of human polymorphonuclear neutrophil leucocytes (PMNs). The enzyme is released from the plasma membrane by phosphoinositide-specific phospholipase C, suggesting a glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI) linkage of the enzyme to the plasma membrane. Partial sequence of cDNA encoding the enzyme suggests that it is identical to the GPI-linked mono(ADP-ribosyl)transferase identified previously on human skeletal muscle.
2 A panel of inhibitors of mono(ADP-ribosyl)transferase (including vitamins K₁ and K₃, novobiocin and nicotinamide) showed a rank order of inhibitory potency similar to that described for other mono(ADP-ribosyl)transferases. Furthermore, the mono(ADP-ribosyl)ation of agmatine was inhibited also by diethylamino(benzylidineamino)guanidine (DEA-BAG), another substrate of the enzyme related structurally to arginine.
3 There was a close linear correlation between the I C ₅₀ values for inhibition of mono(ADP-ribosyl)ation of agmatine by DEA-BAG or the enzyme inhibitors and their I C ₅₀ values for inhibition of receptor-dependent polymerization of cytoskeletal actin and chemotaxis.
4 These results suggest a role for mono(ADP-ribosyl)transferase in the transduction pathway involved in receptor-dependent re-alignment of the cytoskeleton during neutrophil chemotaxis.     

Patient management problems Issues of validity

Patient management problems (PMP) are being used in medical examinations with increasing frequency despite evidence which throws doubt on their validity as measures of clinical competence. This study investigated the construct validity of a PMP constructed in both written and interview formats. Each test was administered to groups of students of different seniorities and to two groups of Docotor, interns and post-interns. The pattern of scores for the different groups was not that expected of a valid test of competence. The most competent groups (the postinterns) generally scored less well on the calculated indices than the senior students and interns. These findings were similar for both formats of the test so cueing was not thought to be the major factor. It appears that the scoring system is at fault.
A comparison of performance on the written and interview (uncued) formats showed that many more options were chosen by all groups tested on the written PMP.
It was concluded that written PMPs cannot yet be regarded as a valid simulation of clinical performance. Although content validity is high this does not appear to be so for construct validity or concurrent validity.