The development of the Edinburgh modular arm system

Modularity has not been investigated in any significant way in the development of upper-limb prostheses. The components currently available are the results of different research programmes conducted at different times by a variety of academic and commercial teams. The result is a historical hodge-podge of systems which are largely mutually exclusive in terms of compatibility. The Edinburgh work seeks to solve this problem by designing components which are neutral in structural terms so that left- and right-handed prostheses can be configured from the same basic parts. Currently, child and adult components are separate items; this does not need to be the case and the design presented here allows adult elbow parts to be used as children's shoulders. This paper will cover the rationale behind the design values and the technical aspects of the development.

High-risk sexual behaviors among adolescents engaged through a street-based peer outreach program--(the Adolescent HIV Project)

On-the-street peer based programs can overcome barriers and successfully engage teens in HIV counseling and testing. This initiative combines on-the-street peer outreach with on-the-street HIV testing in a mobile counseling and testing van. A survey was conducted to measure HIV risk behaviors concern about HIV infection. In year one, the program engaged 1550 youth. Of these, 666 completed HIV counseling and testing. Only 18% indicated that they had not had unprotected sexual intercourse in the preceding year. Thirty-nine percent of the males and 52% of the females had caused or been pregnant. Sixty-six percent of the males and 53% of the females believed that they could become HIV infected. Fifty-three percent of the male and 75% of the female respondents had had a previous HIV test. However concern about HIV did not significantly decrease the prevalence of HIV risk behaviors. Peer outreach and on-the-street counseling and testing is a successful method of increasing HIV testing among high risk youth. Youth are concerned about HIV infection but that concern does not translated into a change in risk behaviors.

Alcohol portrayal in Australian prime time television in 1990 and 1997

OBJECTIVE

This study examines the frequency of scenes involving alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinking acts in Australian TV serials in 1990 and 1997.

METHOD

In 1990 and 1997, 87.5 and 85 hours (respectively) of prime time Australian serials were video taped. Tapes were coded using a standard protocol, including visual or verbal references to alcoholic beverages and the act of consuming or preparing to consume any type of beverage.

RESULTS

In 1990 and 1997, prime time viewers saw on average 2.6 acts of alcohol consumption per hour. There was a statistically significant threefold decrease in the total number of references to alcohol on prime time Australian serials (primarily accounted for by a significant reduction in the incidental depiction of alcohol), an almost halving of the number of episodes that made some reference to alcohol and less consumption of beverages (both alcoholic and non-alcoholic) in 1997 compared with 1990.

CONCLUSIONS

The decrease in incidental references to alcohol was not due to an obviously more socially responsible depiction of alcohol. In both 1990 and 1997, uncritical viewers could conclude from watching Australian TV serials that alcohol is everywhere, is there to be drunk, is used and accepted by all ages and both sexes and is rarely associated with any negative consequences.

IMPLICATIONS

The portrayal of health or risk-taking behaviour on television may influence the perception of viewers that certain behaviours are 'normal', common or acceptable, may encourage modelling of that behaviour and may indirectly influence the policy agenda.

The effects of imagery and sensory detection distractors on different measures of pain: how does distraction work?

OBJECTIVES

Two experiments compared the effects of different distraction tasks on pain. Based on multiple-resource theory, Expt 1 predicted that the more a distractor shares processing resources with pain perception the greater the interference between the two. Experiment 2 tested whether the emotional content of the distractor would differentially effect measures that are supposedly reflective of the affective component of pain.

DESIGN

Both experiments used repeated measures designs, with counterbalanced distraction conditions.

METHODS

In Expt 1 20 participants indicated their pain threshold. No instructions, or one of three distraction conditions were presented across four blocks of potassium iontophoresis. The distractors were: thermal and light detection, and neutral imagining. In Expt 2 30 participants had three blocks of pain threshold, pain tolerance, and pain rating trials. For threshold, tolerance, and rating trials, one block was without distraction, a second block was completed during light detection, and a third block while imagining an enjoyable holiday.

RESULTS

In Expt 1 all the distractors increased pain threshold. The two detection tasks were similarly effective, and more so than the imagination task. Performance on the two detection tasks was impaired by painful stimulation similarly for both tasks. In Expt 2 the visual detection distractor increased pain threshold and tolerance and reduced pain ratings while pleasant imagery only increased pain threshold.

CONCLUSIONS

These results indicate that a task that requires attention to external cues has more impact on pain than either a positive or neutral imagination task. However, it is not clear that the specific resources used by the distraction tasks moderated pain differentially as predicted by multiple-resource theory.

A 30-year progress report on a VA satellite psychiatric clinic program

This paper describes a program of rural satellite psychiatric clinics that has evolved within a Veterans Affairs medical center over the past three decades. The eight clinics are staffed by a single team that includes a psychiatrist, a psychiatric nurse, and two mental health technicians. The team travels to the eight sites at least once each month. The program has achieved its goal of providing outpatient screening, diagnosis, and treatment services to veterans who would otherwise have no access to specialty psychiatric care due to distance and transportation problems.

Sexual behaviors of African-American male college students and the risk of HIV infection

A survey of the rates of sexually transmitted diseases and protective sexual behaviors among a population of African-American male college students demonstrates that although monogamy, avoidance of casual sexual activity, and the avoidance of the use of drugs and alcohol during sexual activity tends to decrease the risk of exposure to human immunodeficiency virus, consistent condom use is the only sexually related behavior that is significantly protective.

Inadequacy of voice recognition as a demonstration of self-deception

Gur and Sackeim (1979) argued that subjects deceived themselves when they failed to recognize their own voices on playback from a tape recorder. This claim is based primarily on the observation that subjects showed a heightened galvanic skin response when their own voices were present regardless of whether recognition took place. The authors suggest that even though subjects may not consciously recognize their own voices, a heightened physiological response implies that true recognition did in fact occur at some other level of cognitive processing. This article describes an experiment demonstrating that results similar to those arrived at by Gur and Sackeim can also be produced when subjects attempt to recognize the voice of a familiar "other." These results suggest that self-deception is not the main factor operating to produce the heightened physiological response.

The inhibition of pulmonary maturation in the fetal rabbit by maternal treatment with phenobarbital

Phenobarbital was administered to pregnant rabbits, 7 to 10 days before the delivery of their fetuses at 27 to 30 days of gestation. There were no differences in body weight or wet or dry lung weights between control animals and phenobarbital-treated pups at similar gestational ages. The phospholipid content (PLC) of the alevolar wash was lower in the phenobarbital-treated group, but there was no difference in the lung tissue PLC between the treated and control groups. Phenobarbital-treated pups had higher opening pressures and fewer lamellar bodies than the control animals. These data suggest that phenobarbital may have an inhibitory effect on surfactant production and/or release.

Serum urate concentrations in the Australian aboriginal

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