Factors affecting neurobehavioral responses of preterm infants at term conceptional age

A revised Prechtl Neurological Examination was administered to 510 singleton infants at term conceptional age to assess the influence of gestational age, race, and sex on neurobehavioral responses in a "typical" newborn population. The infants were born at 1 of 5 centers and were subjects of the NIH Collaborative Study on Antenatal Steroid Therapy. Of these babies, 392 were born at less than 37 weeks gestational age, whereas 118 infants were born at greater than or equal to 37 weeks. Of a total of 50 items of interest, 12 differed significantly based on race, 14 items differed in terms of gestational age at birth, and 5 items were influenced by the sex of the baby. These data suggest that singleton preterm infants born at differing gestational ages should not be considered to comprise a homogeneous sample. Further, caution should be exercised when considering babies of heterogeneous race groupings, and the babies' sex has minimal impact on neurobehavioral responses at term conceptional age.

The Minnesota diabetes complications clinical trial. The first three years

A prospective and randomized clinical trial of an inception cohort of diabetic kidney recipients to test the hypothesis that maximized metabolic control of diabetes prevents or delays diabetic nephropathy in the renal allografts was initiated approximately three years ago. Notwithstanding the fact that all our diabetic patients were on prednisone and therefore metabolically unstable, we achieved and maintained a clear difference between the standard control (group A) and the maximized control patients (group B). At 13 months of study, the mean fasting blood glucose mg% (A: 242 +/- 22, B: 130 +/- 9, p less than 0.001), nonfasting blood glucose (A: 276 +/- 40, B: 135 +/- 10, p less than 0.001), 24 hour urine glucose (A: 85 +/- 16, B: 5 +/- 1, p less than 0.001), and glycosylated hemoglobin % (A: 13 +/- 0.9, B: 10 +/- 0.8, p less than 0.01) were all clearly and statistically significantly higher for the group A patients. These results show the feasibility of such a trial using the tools available today to treat diabetes.

[Na+ and K+ in the rabbit aqueous humor after treatment with timolol]

The influence of timolol on aqueous humour production has been well documented, nevertheless it is unknown the real mechanism by which timolol produces this process. We have conceived the hypothesis that any alteration of natrium and kalium content following topical treatment of timolol was the main cause of the lowering rate of aqueous humour production. Therefore, we have examined the behaviour of Na+ and K+ amounts after topical administration of one eye of young rabbits with timolol. The experimentation has been conducted by photometer appliance. Our results show the absence of any imbalance between natrium and kalium content. The failure of our purpose indicates that Na+/K+ content does not play a main role in decreasing aqueous humour production by timolol.

DIMENSIONAL INTERPRETATION AND CONFIGURATION INVARIANCE IN MULTIDIMENSIONAL SCALING: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY

This paper is concerned with: a ) the invariance of nonmetric multi- dimensional scaling soludions over changes in stimulus domain; and b) pro- cedures for assisting the researcher in interpreting the axes of multidimen- sional scaling configurations. The stimuli consisted of the names of 17 popular brands of automobiles. Similarities and preference judgments were obtained from 37 subjects, divided into two groups of approximately equal size. Each group received 11 of the 17 stimuli. A core set of 6 stimuli was common over both groups. Each group also rated the 11 car models on 20 semantic differential scales. Results of the study suggested that the interpoint distances of bhe core set of 5 stimuli remained stable over subject groups and differences in stimulus set composition. Semantic differential ratings were used to find directions in the configurational space (obtained from overall similarity judg- ments) whose projections were maximally correlated with the outside (property) vectors. Stimulus configurations developed from the semantic differential space were highly congruent with those found by the analysis of direct similarity judgments. However, attempts to develop stimulus configurations by the "unfolding" of preference data alone did not lead to configurations which closely matched those found by the analysis of direct similarities data.