Rapid isolation of human kininogens

A rapid, two-step procedure is described for the isolation of both "high molecular weight" (H-) and "low molecular weight" (L-) plasma kininogens from a single sample of plasma. Affinity chromatography on carboxymethyl-papain-Sepharose is used, together with high-resolution anion exchange chromatography.     

Social relatedness and autism: current research, issues, directions

Social relatedness has recently become a primary focus of investigators in the field of autism. This shift to regarding disturbances in social relatedness as one of the defining manifestations of the disorder marks the movement of research on autistic disorder back to its origins, when Kanner first noted the "social and affective" symptoms of autism as pathognomonic. Currently, social impairment in autism is viewed as more pervasively characteristic of the disorder than any other single symptom. Further, there has been a recent proliferation of research designed to document the nature of social deficit in autism, and whether it is primarily affective, communicative, or cognitive in nature, or involves some combination of these three variables. This review summarizes recent research focusing on social relatedness in autism and discusses the implications of these findings.     

Heparin versus saline flushing solutions in a small community hospital

Since no nursing policy on flushing procedures existed in their small community hospital, the authors thought it would be useful to clarify recent reports of the equivalency of saline to heparin flushes in their patient group before establishment of such a policy. They conducted a 2 month double-blinded, cross-over study of catheter failures when using either saline or heparin 10 units/mL flushing solutions. All medical and surgical floor patients were included in the study. Floor nurses were used as observers and characterized catheter failures as either loss of patency or phlebitis. Heparin was shown to cause more phlebitis than saline (p less than .025), but no difference was found between the two flushing solutions in loss of patency. Data revealed a statistically significant advantage to using saline flushes when both loss of patency and phlebitis were combined (p less than .05). They recommended adoption of a flushing procedure which did not contain heparin.     

Cone-beam tomography with discrete data sets

Sufficiency conditions for cone-beam data are well known for the case of continuous data collection along a cone-vertex curve with continuous detectors. These continuous conditions are inadequate for real-world data where discrete vertex geometries and discrete detector arrays are used. In this paper we present a theoretical formulation of cone-beam tomography with arbitrary discrete arrays of detectors and vertices. The theory models the imaging system as a linear continuous-to-discrete mapping and represents the continuous object exactly as a Fourier series. The reconstruction problem is posed as the estimation of some subset of the Fourier coefficients. The main goal of the theory is to determine which Fourier coefficients can be reliably determined from the data delivered by a specific discrete design. A Fourier component will be well determined by the data if it satisfies two conditions: it makes a strong contribution to the data, and this contribution is relatively independent of the contribution of other Fourier components. To make these considerations precise, we introduce a concept called the cross-talk matrix. A diagonal element of this matrix measures the strength of a Fourier component in the data, while an off-diagonal element quantifies the dependence or aliasing of two different components. One reasonable approach to system design is to attempt to make the diagonal elements of this matrix large and the off-diagonal elements small for some set of Fourier components. If this goal can be achieved, simple linear reconstruction algorithms are available for estimating the Fourier coefficients. To illustrate the usefulness of this approach, numerical results on the cross-talk matrix are presented for different discrete geometries derived from a continuous helical vertex orbit, and simulated images reconstructed with two linear algorithms are presented.     

NM-Win: A Personal Computer-Based Microsoft® Windows™ Front-End to NONMEM IV

A Microsoft Windows-based front-end, NM-Win, has been written to provide a more user-friendly environment to do nonlinear mixed effect modeling with the NONMEM program. NM-Win utilizes an object-oriented interface design which allows users to view and edit control, PRED, and/or data files using Windows Notepad. In addition, calls made to the Microsoft FORTRAN compiler and linker which generate the final NONMEN executable are performed simply by clicking the Run NONMEN button. During the executive step, iterations can be viewed in a window to check the progress of the run. Errors encountered while NONMEN or NM-TRAN is running are brought to a window for ease in debugging. Advanced options allow the user the flexibility of compiling user-written PRED files and creating linker response files. While the PC platform is not optimal for large data set or complex models, it does permit easier debugging and offers multitasking while Windows is running.     

Elephant people: the phenomena of social withdrawal and self-imposed isolation of people dying with AIDS

The phenomena of self-initiated isolation and social withdrawal of people dying from AIDS is described and explained in the context of its irony and detriment to the patients' well being, minimizing access to social support resources. The psychological and the therapeutic relevance of social support during the critical transition phase is explored. Recommendations for curbing the phenomena of self-imposed social death in PWAs, as well as suggestions for future research on the value of psychosocial support to the PWA's well being during the transition phase, are also discussed.