Preference awareness education as stress management training for academic staff

This paper describes a response directed stress management intervention (SMI) in the form of a Jungian based preference awareness education (PAE). It uses the Insights System of personality types to increase awareness of behaviour and communication preferences of self and different others. Eighteen self‐recruited academic employees participated for 7 weeks and received feedback about work preferences and personality type. The aim was to reduce perceptions of stress and interpersonal stress and to increase feelings of job satisfaction and interpersonal satisfaction. The data were analysed using two‐tailed t‐tests. No significant findings were observed for the total sample after training, however, interesting results were found for certain sub‐sample groups. Extravert‐thinking types, reported decreased stress levels (p > 0.018), and participants suffering high stress/interpersonal stress pre‐PAE, reported decreased stress levels (p > 0.010–0.018). Participants suffering low job/interpersonal satisfaction pre‐PAE, reported increased job satisfaction (p > 0.015–0.016). These results suggest that individuals who report high levels of stress and dissatisfaction are most likely to benefit from this type of intervention. Future PAE research might: (a) use pilot studies to meet the intervention preferences of employees that are reluctant to participate in SMIs; (b) include a wait‐list control group; use: (c) a follow up education/measures; (d) and organizational level (stressor directed) SMIs at the same time as response directed initiatives. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

New aspects of airway mechanics in pre-term infants.

High-frequency respiratory impedance data measured noninvasively by the high-speed interrupter technique (HIT), particularly the first antiresonance frequency (f(ar,1)), is related to airway wall mechanics. The aim of this study was to evaluate the feasibility and repeatability of HIT in unsedated pre-term infants, and to compare values of f(ar,1) from 18 pre-term (post-conceptional age 32-37 weeks, weight 1,730-2,910 g) and 18 full-term infants (42-47 weeks, 3,920-5,340 g). Among the pre-term infants, there was good short-term repeatability of f(ar,1) within a single sleep epoch (mean (sd) coefficient of variance: 8 (1.7)%), but 95% limits of agreement for repeated measures of f(ar,1) after 3-8 h were relatively wide (-41 Hz; 37 Hz). f(ar,1) was significantly lower in pre-term infants (199 versus 257 Hz), indicating that wave propagation characteristics in pre-term airways are different from those of full-term infants. The present authors suggest that this is consistent with developmental differences in airway wall structure and compliance, including the influence of the surrounding tissue. Since flow limitation is determined by wave propagation velocity and airway cross-sectional area, it was hypothesised that the physical ability of the airways to carry large flows is fundamentally different in pre-term than in full-term infants.     

The hazards to practitioners of obstetric and gynecological ultrasound.

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the specific complaints of physicians and technicians performing obstetric and gynecological ultrasound. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional retrospective survey. Questionnaires were distributed to members of the Israeli Society of Gynecological Ultrasound, including questions on gender and profession, number and type of scans performed, pain related to profession and any therapy undergone. Statistical analysis included chi-square or Fisher's exact test, Student's t-test, Pearson's correlation coefficient and logistic regression. RESULTS: Joint pain was reported by 51.7% (30/58) of the technicians compared with 25.3% (19/75) of the physicians (P = 0.002). It was more common in females than in males (P = 0.05) and it was more common among those who performed transabdominal sonography more frequently than they did transvaginal sonography (P = 0.004). There was a significant association between performing transabdominal ultrasound and back pain (P = 0.05). Although females reported pain more frequently, the rate of surgical procedures was higher among males (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: A technician is 3.5 times more likely to report joint pain than is a physician. Transabdominal sonography is a risk for both joint and back pain. There may be gender differences in pain perception.     

Cerebral blood flow and oxygen metabolism in rett syndrome

Positron emission tomography was performed on six patients with Rett syndrome to investigate cerebral blood flow and oxygen metabolism, and the results were compared with the concurrent clinical status of the patients. The cerebral metabolic rate of oxygen (CMRO2) was low in five patients, and oxygen extraction fraction was low in four patients; both had a tendency to decline with advancing age. Although the cause is unknown, it is suggested that impaired oxidative metabolism exists in Rett syndrome. An analysis of the distribution among brain regions showed that the ratios of values for the frontal cortex to those for the temporal cortex for both cerebral blood flow and CMRO2 were lower than those for the controls, which may indicate the loss of hyperfrontality in Rett syndrome.     

Localization of ferritin in human liver diseases studied by immuno-histochemical and immuno-electron microscopic procedures

Localization of ferritin using a pre-embedding diffusion technique and an indirect localization sequence has been made in 34 cases of human liver under normal and several pathological conditions. With light microscopic observation, positive immuno-staining for ferritin was demonstrated as diffuse deposits in the hepatocytes and Kupffer cells. Intensity of the positive immuno-staining for ferritin in these cells appeared to roughly coincide with serum ferritin levels of each patient, but showed no disease specificity, although hepatoma cells contained weak deposits or were negative from immuno-staining for ferritin. With electron microscopic studies, intracellular antigen was well preserved in the hepatocytes and Kupffer cells in most cases with the positive immuno-staining for ferritin being observed in cytosol and a few cisternae of rough endoplasmic reticulum. Content of the positive immuno-staining for ferritin differed considerably from one case to another and one cell to another even in the same case. There was no immuno-staining for ferritin in hemosiderin pigment, lysosome, most of rough endoplasmic reticulum, Golgi complexes, and nucleus in both cells.     

Occult metastatic neck disease: detection with US and US-guided fine-needle aspiration cytology

The authors performed a prospective study of the value of ultrasonography (US) and US-guided fine-needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) for assessment of N0 lesions in the neck. Preoperative US was performed in 107 patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck, who underwent 132 elective neck dissections. During the US examination of the last 54 patients, who underwent 70 elective neck dissections, US-guided FNAC was performed. US alone was found to be an unreliable method for detecting occult lymph node metastasis; the accuracy never exceeded 70% (93 of 132), with a sensitivity of 60% (32 of 53) and a specificity of 77% (61 of 79). In contrast, US-guided FNAC had an accuracy of 89% (62 of 70), a sensitivity of 76% (25 of 33), and a specificity of 100% (37 of 37). Because of the high sensitivity and specificity of US-guided FNAC for the assessment of the N0 neck, this modality may play an important role in directing treatment of these patients in the future.     

Ameloblastoma ex calcifying odontogenic cyst (dentinogenic ghost cell tumor)

Calcifying odontogenic cyst (COC) has shown to be of extensive diversity in its clinical and histopathological features, as well as in its biological behavior. In this report, a rare case is described of ameloblastoma ex COC (dentinogenic ghost cell tumor) and the relevant literature is briefly reviewed.