1. The effect of semistarvation (sufficient to produce a loss of 18-28% of initial body weight) on the active transport of D-glucose and L-histidine by the rat, the guinea-pig and the golden hamster has been investigated by the use of sacs of everted small intestine (from upper jejunum to lower ileum).2. In the rat and the guinea-pig the dietary restriction resulted in increased active transport in all regions of the small intestine. In contrast, it caused no alteration in active transport in the hamster.3. The response in the rat was most impressive in the middle-to-lower ileum during D-glucose uptake. Whereas normal sacs from this area appeared unable to move the sugar against its concentration gradient, sacs from semistarved rats did so quite well.4. Although there was a considerable loss (24-29%) of intestinal dry weight in all three species when the food intake was reduced, shortening of the small intestine was not detectable in the guinea-pig or the hamster and was present to only a minor extent in the rat.5. Evidence is presented indicating that the enhanced active transport is not merely a reflexion of the thinning of the intestinal wall and that it occurs during complete as well as in partial starvation.

Animals↗

PubMed1965

[Cysts of the submaxillary salivary glands].

Explore the source record for details and available documents.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Increased fetal colonic muscle contractility following glucocorticoid and thyroxine therapy: implications for meconium passage.

The incidence of meconium-stained amniotic fluid increases with advanced gestational age and fetal stress, and meconium passage is likely dependent on fetal colonic muscle function. Antenatal hormone exposure improves fetal pulmonary and cardiovascular function. We hypothesized that in utero exposure to steroid or thyroid hormones effect an increase in fetal distal colonic muscle contractility. In a randomized controlled study 126-day (term 145 days) ovine fetuses were treated with a single ultrasound-guided intramuscular injection of 0.5 mg/kg betamethasone (n = 5), betamethasone plus 60 micrograms/kg thyroxine (n = 5), or saline (n = 7). After 48 h, fetuses (128 days) were delivered, distal colon segments were removed, and peak tension responses to bethanechol (10(-8) to 10(-3) M) characterized in vitro. Peak muscle tensions were significantly greater in fetuses exposed to combined betamethasone and thyroxine therapy (989 +/- 190 g/cm2) than in saline-treated animals (509 +/- 91 g/cm2). There was difference in the maximum tension response between betamethasone alone (559 +/- 75 g/cm2) and the saline animals. The bethanechol ED50 values (2.1 +/- 0.5 x 10(-5) M) were not different among the three groups. Antenatal fetal betamethasone and thyroid hormone treatment increases fetal colonic muscle contractility. We speculate that endogenous or exogenous fetal maturational agents may facilitate the passage of meconium.

Animals↗

PubMedDate not supplied

The impact of reimbursement issues on rehabilitation nursing practice and patient care.

Rehabilitation nursing practice and patient care are affected profoundly by reimbursement trends. This article provides a basic understanding of current and proposed reimbursement issues in Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurance--information that should help the rehabilitation nurse make the changes necessary to provide patient care within the constraints of the reimbursement systems. Furthermore, an understanding of these economic issues should assist nurses in working collaboratively and positively with administration while reducing their level of frustration. Nurses can play an important role in managing length of stay, using ancillary services, and moving the patient along the continuum of care, all of which are critical financial factors in a facility's successful management of its payer mix.

Health Expenditures↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Evoked magnetic responses of the human auditory cortex to minor pitch changes: localization of the mismatch field.

The neuromagnetic source localizations of the auditory M100 and the mismatch field (MMF) were studied using a large-array biomagnetometer. Standard tones of 1000 Hz and deviant tones of 1050 Hz were delivered with 90% and 10% probability, respectively. Wave forms of the derived MMF were computed by examining difference wave forms between the responses to the deviants and the responses to the standards preceding (D-P) and following (D-F) the deviants as well as to all remaining standards (D-A). The subset of standards preceding the deviants was used for a more realistic comparison with the set of deviants (having the same number of epochs and a similar signal-to-noise ratio), while the subset of standards following the deviants served to answer the question whether those standards also elicit an MMF. The MMF deflections were compared with each other, with the "native" MMF occurring in response to the deviants, and with wave M100. (The MMF as it appears in the unprocessed response to the deviants was termed "native" for an easy distinction from the "derived" MMF.) Our results demonstrate a distinct MMF deflection, corresponding in latency to the simultaneously recorded fronto-central electrical MMN. Source analysis, using a single moving dipole model, showed the same spatial localization for the native MMF and for the different derived MMFs. The MMF source location turned out to be significantly anterior, medial and inferior relative to the sources of the M100. The present data also demonstrate that a minor frequency deviation may not activate measurably different M100 generators, yet be sufficient to trigger the nearby but spatially distinct mismatch generator.

Acoustic Stimulation↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Clinical tools for the 90s: magnetic resonance spectroscopy and metabolite imaging.

Magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) is a flexible tool with real clinical utility. Examples from our experience in over 250 cases of clinical proton MRS are presented. Shorter echo time and reproducible water suppression increases the number of metabolites which can be detected and identified. Case reports illustrate the significance of altered ratios of N-acetylaspartate, choline, total creatine, myo-inositol, glutamate, glutamine, lactate, glucose, ketones, and, as an incidental finding, ethanol. Significant new information has resulted by applying proton MRS in chronic hepatic encephalopathy, diabetes mellitus and severe hypoxic encephalopathy ('near-drowning'). Potentially useful measurements have been made in normal brain maturation, ethanol related diseases, dementia (normal-pressure hydrocephalus), urea cycle defect and neuronal disease presenting as seizures. Metabolite imaging, particularly with proton, is clinically valuable, documenting the heterogeneity of biochemical disorders in seemingly focal lesions. A new method of specific 31-phosphorus--phosphocreatine imaging provides information in partially denervated skeletal muscle and is expected to have applications in brain.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

A proposed framework for teaching and evaluating critical thinking in nursing.

Critical thinking is now an explicit National League for Nursing outcome requirement for nursing education programs, and all nursing faculty currently are expected to teach and evaluate critical thinking. However, most of the related literature is theoretical and not on the practical level that might be directly usable by faculty. This article presents a beginning framework developed by a faculty task force at the Indiana University School of Nursing for teaching and evaluating critical thinking. The conceptual definition of critical thinking underlying the framework reflects the efforts of several hundred experts from various disciplines, is maximally inclusive, and lends itself well to operationalization in the nursing context. The task force made two assumptions for this project: first, that the principles of rational thinking are essentially the same at every educational level, although the expertise expected of students at different educational levels certainly differs; and, second, that at this time a focus on operational as opposed to theoretical definitions for the six identified components of critical thinking (interpretation, analysis, evaluation, inference, explanation, and self-regulation) would be particularly useful for faculty and student understanding.

Curriculum↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Quantitative proton-decoupled 31P MRS of the schizophrenic brain in vivo.

Quantitative proton MR spectroscopy (MRS) and proton-decoupled phosphorus MRS were applied in the parietal cortex of 13 schizophrenic subjects (11 drug-treated and 2 neuroleptic-naive) and 15 normal control subjects. Significantly increased concentrations of glycerophosphorylcholine (1.18 +/- 0.16 vs. 0.93 +/- 0.14 mmol/kg brain; p < 0.001), glycerophosphoethanolomine (0.70 +/- 0.19 vs. 0.59 +/- 0.07 mmol/kg; p < 0.04), and phosphocreatine (3.73 +/- 0.39 vs. 3.41 +/- 0.13 mmol/kg; p < 0.007), but no differences in N-acetylaspartate, total creatine, or myo-inositol, were determined in treated schizophrenic subjects. Identical abnormalities were found in two neuroleptic-naive patients. These results provide new evidence of disordered cerebral membrane and high energy phosphate metabolism in schizophrenia.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Assisting students at risk: using computer NCLEX-RN review software.

In response to a decline in the success rate on the National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses (NCLEX-RN) examination, the authors developed a program to identify and assist students at risk for failure. The use of a computerized NCLEX-RN practice examination and an individualized student review and study process is described.

Computer-Assisted Instruction↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Study of the human auditory cortices using a whole-head magnetometer: left vs. right hemisphere and ipsilateral vs. contralateral stimulation.

Structural and functional asymmetries of the temporal lobe affect language development and may also play a role in a variety of disorders, ranging from specific language impairment to schizophrenia. Whole-head neuromagnetometers allow the noninvasive measurement of functional asymmetries since activity from both hemispheres is recorded simultaneously. In the present study, the location of the auditory cortices and their responsiveness to pure tones was compared between hemispheres in healthy human subjects. Data suggest a greater contralateral than ipsilateral activation. In line with previous findings, sources of responses for the right hemisphere seem to be more anterior than for the left one.

Acoustic Stimulation↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Tinnitus and event-related activity of the auditory cortex.

A neuromagnetic study in tinnitus patients and normal-hearing controls was performed with a modified contingent negative variation (CNV) paradigm. While the warning stimulus S1 was a tone burst at an intensity well above threshold, the imperative stimulus S2 was presented at a near threshold intensity because, in the majority of cases, the perceived loudness of tinnitus is very close to the threshold for a pure tone of the same frequency. Subjects had to respond to S2 by pressing a button until its offset was detected. In this case, instead of the usual sudden cut-off of the CNV after the perception of S2, a slow negative deflection develops, the post-imperative negative variation (PINV). Its initial portion probably indicates the development of a second initial CNV because the subject had to attend also to the offset of S2. The neuromagnetic data were analysed both in the time domain and in the frequency domain (short-time spectral analysis of the classical EEG bands). The time domain waveform as well as the spectrotemporal patterns of the MEG bands exhibited deviations from the normal pattern in several tinnitus subgroups, depending on the characteristics of tinnitus (tonal vs. noisiform, monaural vs. binaural) and on the stimulation conditions (tinnitus side vs. non-tinnitus side).

Adolescent↗