Selective coating of cylindrical matrices with a central hole. I. An interpretation of the swelling process

Cylindrical matrices were prepared by compression either of polyvinyl alcohol 100000 or mixtures of the excipient and a drug (sodium salicylate or theophylline). To modify the cylindrical shape, a hole was bored in the centre of the flat surface through both sides of the matrices. Different swellable systems were obtained applying an impermeable coating to one, two or three surfaces of the perforated matrices. The swelling of the perforated matrices was modified according to the number and the position of the coated surfaces (selective coating) and the loaded drug. Pseudo-zero order kinetics were obtained when the interior hole was the only uncoated surface.     

An exploration of gifted programs

This article presents findings on an exploration of gifted programs in the state of Missouri. Over 60 percent of the state supported public school gifted programs participated in the study. The study concludes that the guidelines for gifted education in Missouri create extreme variability in the standards of the programs. Strong national policy for gifted education is needed to insure gifted children are properly served and protected by law.     

Case Study of Institution-Building by Nurse Bertha Wright and Colleagues

Purpose: To illuminate the history of nurses' participation in institution-building in the early 1900s, using the Baby Hospital in Oakland, California (now called Children's Hospital Oakland) as a case.
Design: Historical research using a framework of women's history theory focused on the women who founded Oakland's Baby Hospital, 1910–1930.
Method: Data collection included studying original sources, archival material, and interviews. Data evaluation included external criticism for authenticity and genuineness, and internal criticism for accuracy and bias.
Findings: In 1912, nurse Bertha Wright and social worker Mabel Weed, with a circle of community women, including Jessica Peixotto and Jean Howard McDuffie, established the Baby Hospital. Their activism included home visits, education, research, publications, political lobbying, and state policy and program development. At the center of this activity, was the lifelong commitment of Wright and Weed, who created new definitions of family. With social changes in the late 1920s, the male Board of Directors seized control of the hospital, and relegated women to auxiliary roles.
Conclusions: Health and social issues of the United States at the turn of the century are still problematic as a new century approaches and pertain to maternal-child health, foster care, and immigration. Feminists, including nurses, have played a central role in creating solutions. Knowledge of some of their incredible effort has been lost, particularly nursing's history in the western United States.     

The Future Detection and Prevention of Institutional Abuse: Giving Children a Chance to Participate in Research

The involvement of children in research studies is historically fraught with difficulties. Experiments on children without their consent or knowledge have been carried out in the past and thus the need for stringent ethical control is undoubtedly necessary. However this paper argues that the need to protect children from unethical research has somehow become entwined in the web of secrecy that surrounds the very nature of child abuse. In the name of 'protection' are children in danger of not having their voice heard?

In the foreword to 'Listening to Children' (Alderson, 1995) Roger Singleton writes, 'much research is carried out on and about children, but seldom with children. Children themselves are often strangely silent'. This paper draws on recent literature on the institutional abuse of young people in residential care and the lack of voice that those abused in residential care have traditionally had, suggesting that their silence is not 'strange' but perhaps contrived.

This paper does not repeat the work of Alderson (1995) and make suggestions as to how research with children may best be carried out, but seeks to address the issues in relation to research with children who are in institutions.     

Drug Education: Supporting Parents to Support Children

Such research evidence as exists on effective drug strategies in prevention and education draws attention to the importance of involving parents along with other community agencies and school governors. Much depends nevertheless on the way in which 'involvement' is interpreted and the assumptions that are made about parents' knowledge of drugs and drug education as well as their attitudes to drug issues. As the age of initial experimentation and contact with drugs continues to fall, the importance of enskilling parents to support drug education programmes for 5 year olds and upwards continues to rise. This paper reports the first wide ranging survey of parents' knowledge of drugs and drug issues across an entire English county embracing younger as well as older children. The need for more coordinated, informed and systematic guidance to parents is established.     

The Problem of Intractability: The Continuing Need for New Medical Therapies in Epilepsy

Summary: Treatment of epilepsy, one of the most common neurologic disorders, has evolved from "institutional" poly-therapy to "dogmatic" monotherapy, and, most recently, to "rational" polypharmacy. The introduction of bromides for the treatment of epilepsy was followed first by phenobarbital and then by phenytoin as therapeutic options. Although attempts to combine medications were legion, none was supported by studies that demonstrated the benefit of such combinations. The issue of adverse effects became a principal argument in favor of monotherapy. Monotherapy, using newly developed drugs, avoided problems due to drug interactions but was ineffective in 20–30% of patients. A greater understanding of basic disease mechanisms and developments in molecular biology have led to an increased number of effective drugs for the estimated 6–12% of patients with epilepsy whose condition is intractable. Clinical research continues to build on the work of basic scientists in attempting to develop treatments based on a desire to move beyond the palliative and to affect the causative mechanisms of the disease. Novel medical approaches now under exploration include the use of drugs with complementary mechanisms of action, stimulation of various components of the nervous system, biochemical manipulations, focal intracerebral drug perfusion, and gene therapy.     

Pharmacological interactions between serotonin and dopamine on behavior in the squirrel monkey

 The behavioral effects of GBR 12909, a selective dopamine uptake inhibitor, were determined in squirrel monkeys trained to respond under a fixed-interval (FI) schedule of stimulus termination and a second-order schedule of IV drug self-administration. Intermediate doses of GBR 12909 increased FI response rate markedly, and the highest dose decreased response rate below control values. The 5HT uptake inhibitors, alaproclate and fluoxetine, and the 5HT agonist, quipazine, attenuated the behavioral-stimulant effects of GBR 12909, whereas the 5HT_2A/2C antagonist, ritanserin, enhanced the behavioral-stimulant effects of the lowest dose. GBR 12909 reliably maintained self-administration, and ritanserin increased response rate maintained by the highest dose. The dopamine agonist, quinpirole, increased FI response rate in only one of three subjects, and ritanserin enhanced the behavioral-stimulant effects of quinpirole in that subject. The dopamine agonist, apomorphine, only decreased FI response rate, and ritanserin did not alter its behavioral effects. The pharmacological profile of GBR 12909 administered alone and in combination with selective 5HT drugs in the present study was similar to that obtained previously with cocaine, further demonstrating that 5HT can reliably modulate the behavioral effects of psychomotor stimulants with prominent dopaminergic actions. Received: 9 July 1996 / Final version: 22 November 1996     

Neuropharmacology and Drug Interactions in Clinical Practice

Summary: Absorption, distribution, and clearance are key pharmacokinetic principles. These parameters can be highly variable among patients and among compounds, and are factors that must be considered in the wide variability in response to medications. Current antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) present many challenges in their administration. However, understanding and utilizing pharmacokinetic principles can assist the clinician in the appropriate optimization of AEds.     

人脑胶质瘤的实验系列研究

1979～1989年,我室建立了人脑胶质瘤的体外和体内模型,在实验肿瘤的生物学、形态学、动力学、遗传学、神经生化,免疫组化、细胞杂交、单抗分子生物学、放射免疫、生物导弹和实验治疗等多方面进行了探索,其中大部分的结果己经或即将发表。本文旨在系统归纳,以利同道检索。     

Drug related hospital admissions

Summary As part of a high-intensity monitoring study of drug events as the cause of admission to departments of internal medicine, the effect of an educational intervention programme was studied. Two departments were included, one specialising in geriatrics and one that received patients by non-selected referral. The series consisted of 607 consecutive admissions studied before and 703 after the intervention. The drug events considered were adverse drug reactions and dose-related therapeutic failures, mainly due to non-compliance.A modest, statistically non-significant decrease in drug related hospital admissions (DRH) was seen, from 14% before to 13% after the intervention period. However, DRHs classified as definitely avoidable showed the significant decrease of 83%.There was no apparent relationship between the topics selected for the intervention programme and changes in the pattern of DRHs. No relationship between alterations in sales data and hospital admissions caused by a given drug could be demonstrated. A blinded external evaluation of case abstracts did not disclose any significant shift in the investigators' assessments.The intervention may have had an non-specific effect on avoidable DRHs.