Although discontinuous gas exchange cycles (DGC) are known from many insects, the effects of body size and temperature on DGC have not been widely examined. Here, these effects are investigated in five Scarabaeus dung beetle species from mesic and xeric habitats. The investigation tests two hypotheses: that previous estimates of the scaling exponents for the DGC and its characteristics are more broadly applicable to insects, and that, in response to temperature, both DGC frequency and the quantity of CO2 emitted during the open (O) phase (O-phase emission volume) are modulated. Like previous workers, we find that V&d2;co2 scaled as mass0.968 and that O-phase emission volume scaled as mass0.833. However, temperature-associated increases in .Vco2 (Q10's of 2.19-2.65) were modulated mostly by increases in DGC frequency since O-phase volumes remained constant across temperature. Flutter (F)-phase and O-phase durations were closely coupled to DGC duration, although the relationship between closed (C)-phase duration and DGC duration was less pronounced. We show that ventilation phase coefficients, previously considered a measure of the proportional duration of each phase of the DGC, calculated from the slopes of these relationships are a measure of change in phase duration with change in DGC duration and not a measure of the way in which total DGC duration is apportioned among phases. We suggest that proportions be used to estimate the contribution of each of the phases to the total duration of the DGC.

Animals↗

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Pneumococcal antibodies in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and their response to pneumococcal capsular polysaccharides: preliminary results.

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Antibodies, Bacterial↗

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The Visual Response Evaluation: a pilot study of an evaluation tool for assessing visual responses in low-level brain-injured patients.

The Visual Response Evaluation (VRE) was developed to meet the need for a formal and in-depth measure of visual responses in low-level brain-injured persons (Rancho Levels II and III) and to monitor and document minute changes in the recovery of these patients. Often, patients at these low functional levels exhibit little to no motoric or cognitive interaction with the environment, except that which occurs in response to sensory stimulation. Other tools have been developed to document responses to various types of stimulation; however, none contain the sensitivity to consistency and type of response that is necessary to show the small but vital progress that is characteristic of the Rancho II and II type patient. The VRE consists of 10 items separated into two general categories: (1) Observations. and (2) Response to Stimuli. The five items in the Observations section assess a patient's spontaneous responses, while the five items in the Response to Stimuli section document responses directly related to the presentation of a hierarchical order of stimuli. The VRE was administered to 10 patients with a mean age of 39.8 years at a mean time of 4.2 months post-injury. Statistical analyses of the pilot-study data show the VRE to be both internally reliable and criterion-related valid at the p less than 0.025 level of significance. The data supports further investigation in the areas of prognostic ability and implications for treatment. The VRE can be a useful tool for studying the recovery process and evaluating treatment programmes for low-level brain-injured persons.

Arousal↗