'This isn't very typical I'm afraid': observing community care complaints procedures

The new complaints procedures which local authority social services departments have been required to introduce represent an important mechanism for managing the change of culture associated with recent community care reforms. They also represent a new genre in mechanisms of redress for welfare recipients. This paper reports the findings of a study which has observed considerable diversity in the ways in which local authorities are interpreting the nature and purposes of the new procedures and, in particular, the functions of review panels established under those procedures. Variations in the composition of panels, in the style of review panel proceedings, in perceptions of the panels' powers, and in the ways that complaints and complainants are constituted are all discussed. Attention is drawn to four competing interpretations of the review panels' role and to the need for these to be clarified and prioritised.     

AⅡ受体拮抗剂ACEI对慢性肾衰患者血浆ANF及RAS的影响

目的了解血管紧张素Ⅱ受体拮抗剂(ATRA)和转换酶抑制剂(ACEI)对慢性肾衰(CRF)高血压患者血浆心钠素(ANF)和肾素*.血管紧张素系统(RAS)的影响。方法受试者口服氯沙坦(Los组)或福辛普利(Fos组)连续12周，于治疗前和治疗后第4、8及12周测定坐位舒张压(SiDBP)、血清尿素氮(BUN)、血清肌酐(SCr)、ANF、血管紧张素Ⅰ(AⅠ)和血管紧张素Ⅱ(AⅡ)。用SPSS7.0软件作统计分析。结果经12周治疗，两组患者SiDBP均降至目标值。Fos组与治疗前比较，AⅡ下降，ANF和Scr升高(P<0.01)。Los组AⅡ明显升高(P<0.01)，ANF在短暂升高后降至治疗前水平，Scr无变化。结论ACEI可能对CRF高血压患者肾内灌注压有影响，ANF动态改变可作为肾内灌注压变化的指标之一。ATRA对肾内灌注压影响小于ACEI。     

Effects of Ethanol Exposure during the Third Trimester Equivalent on Neuron Number in Rat Hippocampus and Dentate Gyrus

An artificial rearing procedure was used to expose neonatal rats to a formula containing 3.74% ethanol during postnatal days 4 through 10. This treatment produced a mean blood ethanol concentration of 379.8 +/- 17.3 mg/dl. When the pups were killed on the afternoon of postnatal day 10, brain weight to body weight ratio in the ethanol-exposed rats was reduced 22.4% and 21.5% compared to suckle and pair-fed controls, respectively. Ethanol exposure also resulted in a 16% reduction of neurons in hippocampal field CA4, compared to controls, but did not produce deficits in fields CA1 or CA3. There was also a 10% increase in the number of neurons (a population of cells in the midst of a proliferative phase at the time of the exposure) in the granule cell layer of the dentate gyrus. The ethanol exposure did not affect cell size in any of the four neuron populations measured. These results suggest, that within the dose and timing parameters examined, ethanol exposure during the third trimester equivalent appears to be preferentially harmful to specific populations of developing neurons.     

Response of subpopulations of the FSall C fibrosarcoma to low dose x-rays and various potential enhancing agents.

The effectiveness of various oxygen carrying treatments in sensitizing subpopulations of the FSallC fibrosarcoma to low doses of radiation was assessed, and compared with survivals obtained with the same cells after in vivo irradiation under normally oxygenated or hypoxic conditions. FSallC tumors were treated with 2-10 Gray then the Hoechst 33342 dye diffusion method was used to separate the tumor into bright (enriched in normally oxygenated cells) and dim (enriched in hypoxic cells) subpopulations. There was good agreement between the survival of normally oxygenated cells in culture and bright cells from tumors and between hypoxic cells in culture and dim cells from tumors over a radiation dosage range of 2-5 Gray. At 10 Gray bright cells from tumors were minimally less sensitive to the radiation dose than normally oxygenated cells in vivo. When maximally effective doses of perfluorochemical emulsions (F44E at 4 g PFC/kg or Fluosol-DA at 2.4 g PFC/kg) or a purified bovine hemoglobin solution (PBHS at 1.32 g protein/kg) were administered 1 hr. prior to radiation therapy with carbogen (95% O2, 5% CO2) breathing prior to and during radiation delivery, low single doses of x-ray (2-5 Gray) were measurably more cytotoxic toward both FSallC tumor cell subpopulations. These results indicate that perfluorochemical emulsions or purified bovine hemoglobin preparations along with carbogen breathing may be able to increase tumor radiosensitivity to the relatively low radiation doses per fraction used in the clinic.