Wallet modification for residents of Eden Supportive Living

People with a disability often find that common everyday items are not designed to fit their needs. One such item is the wallet. People frequently use a wallet to carry cash, credit cards, identification cards, and other personal items. Commercially available wallets often have small compartments and other design features that make them difficult to use by people with limited dexterity. Our goal was to create a wallet that is organized, easy to use, and secure. From user interviews and observations, we determined the key features that the wallet should have. The features for our wallet included magnetic fasteners, accordion-style pockets, a phone pocket, an ID window, and a security strap. These key features make this wallet much easier and safer to use than a more conventional wallet.     

Notes Made During the London Smog in December, 1962

The levels of peripherally circulating serum corticosterone in groups of mice selected from a common pool and treated identically in all respects except that of housing, are used as a measure of population pressure. Groups of 15 males, 4 to 5 weeks old, when exposed to an established population of 400 mice of both sexes and all ages postweaning showed significantly higher levels of serum corticosterone than cohorts segregated by age and sex in groups of 15. Similarly, body weights of mice exposed to the populations for a one-week period were significantly lower than those of mice housed under control conditions. These observations are indicative of the increased stress encountered by animals exposed to the environmental conditions of large mouse populations.     

Integrating social model principles into broad-based treatment: results of a program evaluation

Although traditional social model recovery programs appear to be decreasing, some aspects of social model recovery continue to exert a strong influence in broad-based, integrated programs. This article describes a four-week program that integrates licensed therapists, certified counselors, psychiatric consultation, and social model recovery principles into a broad-based treatment approach. The Social Model Philosophy Scale revealed a low overall rating on social model philosophy. However, social model principles that were heavily stressed included practicing 12-step recovery, the importance of getting a 12-step sponsor, staff-client interactions outside a formal office, employing staff who are in recovery, and emphasizing a goal of abstinence. Three- and six-month follow-up revealed significant improvement in alcohol and drug use, heavy alcohol use, satisfaction with family relationships, 12-step involvement, illegal behaviors, arrests, unsafe sex, self-esteem, use of medical resources, and health status. Findings provide a rationale for larger, multi-site studies that assess the effectiveness of social model characteristics using multivariate techniques.     

Influence of pericardiectomy on cat right ventricular function after pulmonary arterial constriction

Although the results of mitral valve replacement in patients with mitral valve disease and pulmonary arterial hypertension are usually gratifying, persistent right ventricular decompensation occasionally occurs despite successful insertion of a mitral prosthesis. It is possible that when pulmonary hypertension is slow to resolve, the loss of an intact pericardium incurred by the operative intervention allows right ventricular dilatation to occur acutely. In some cases, the latter might lead to chronic irreversible right ventricular failure. To test this hypothesis, right ventricular hypertension and failure were produced in 62 cats by pulmonary arterial banding. Thirty-two of these cats had a total pericardiectomy, and in 30 the pericardium was reconstituted. The mortality rates for each group were similar. Right heart catheterization was performed in the surviving animals 4 to 145 days later. There were no significant differences in the degree of right ventricular failure between cats with and without an intact pericardium. Isometric contractile function of papillary muscles was measured with each muscle at the peak of its length-tension curve (L_max). Active tension, rate of tension development, time to peak tension and the contractile response of the papillary muscles to norepinephrine were similar in each group. Thus, the absence of a pericardium does not seem to affect the degree of experimental right ventricular failure induced by a chronic pressure stress on the right ventricle.