Learning to Observe Relationships and Coping

Milieu relationships provide the critical background presence to staff's attempts to motivate, regulate, and teach patients how to cope with stress. Forging a connection with hospitalized children and adolescents demands attention to how they respond to adults and engage with staff around milieu expectations. Assessment guides that deal with these issues are presented. Important aspects of children's relatedness are presented in the context of their working models of adults and the influence of these representations on their response to staff. Coping skills are explained with particular emphasis on behavioral coping strategies. Tied to the assessment process are interventions that emphasize staff's role in helping patients manage strong affects and avoid the use of nonproductive behavior regulation strategies.     

Pharmacological properties and specific psychotropic activity of new derivatives of heterocyclic phenols with a bridging nitrogen atom

Translated from Khimiko-farmatsevticheskii Zhurnal, Vol. 28, No. 10, pp. 23–26, October, 1994.     

Comparison of the results of provocation electrocardiographic tests with the questionnaire for detection of exertion-induced stenocardia (data of the epidemiological study)

The results of a combination of functional electrocardiographic tests were compared with those of a WHO questionnaire for angina of effort. Coronary disease was verified in 37% of patients with a double diagnosis of angina of effort, and in 100% of cases of angina of effort combined with ischemic electrocardiographic changes.     

Comparative evaluation of the anal sphincter function after sphincter-sparing operations in diffuse polyposis

Experience in treating 76 patients who were subjected to various sphincter-preserving operations is analysed. It is shown that after subtotal resection of the large intestine with ++abdomino-anal resection of the rectum and pull-through of the right parts of the colon into the anal canal as well as after pull-through of the segment of the transverse colon into the anal canal, the neuro-reflex activity of the musculus sphincter ani internus is destroyed in 55% and reduces in 25% of patients while the reflex activity of the musculus sphincter ani externus is disturbed in 45% of patients and is not restored later. The results bear evidence that the condition of the rectal obturation apparatus does not depend on the segment of the colon subjected to the pull-through operation (cecum, ascending colon, transverse colon). Experience has shown that the results of sphicterometry, electromyography, and electromanometry in various periods after colectomy, mucosectomy of the rectum, and formation of ileorectal anastomosis are much better than those after pull-through operations on various parts of the colon, and return to normal values in 18 months.     

Follistatin and activin A production by the male reproductive tract

Follistatin is a binding protein for the activin and inhibin family of hormones, regulating their biological activity. In the male reproductive tract, the interaction of these factors is likely to be involved in the regulation of the proliferation of several cell types. We have investigated the presence of follistatin and activin A in seminal plasma using specific immunoassays and have localized follistatin and activin/inhibin subunits in the adult human testis, prostate and seminal vesicle to establish their likely sources. High concentrations of immunoreactive follistatin were present in seminal plasma in normal men (mean 97.9 ng/ml; 1.43 ng/ml in peripheral plasma) and were similar in men with oligo/azoospermia and following vasectomy. Follistatin immunoreactivity was localized to both Leydig and Sertoli cells of the testis, and to epithelial cells of the prostate gland and seminal vesicle, which are likely to be the predominant sources of the hormone in seminal plasma. Activin A was also present in seminal plasma in normal men but was undetectable following vasectomy, thus deriving from the testis. Consistent with this finding, the betaA-subunit was immunolocalized in Sertoli and Leydig cells but was not present in seminal vesicle or prostate gland. The functional significance of the high concentrations of follistatin secreted into seminal plasma by the prostate gland and/or seminal vesicle is uncertain, but they may regulate the biological activity of testis-derived activin A and inhibin B.