Toxicity of amphotericins on chronic administration to mongrel dogs.

Conditioned mongrel dogs were given 30 i.v. injections of either AMB (amphotericin B, 0.75 mg/kg body weight), AME (amphotericin B methyl ester, 10 mg/kg body weight), or 5% glucose solution without antimicrobic. Severe loss of body weight and nephrotoxicity occurred with AMB; hepatic dysfunction resulted with AME; astrogliosis and pallor of the myelin were found in dogs given AME and 5% glucose solution.

How young children spend their time: television and other activities.

Time-use diaries were collected over a 3-year period for 2 cohorts of 2- and 4-year-old children. TV viewing declined with age. Time spent in reading and educational activities increased with age on weekdays but declined on weekends. Time-use patterns were sex-stereotyped, and sex differences increased with age. As individuals' time in educational activities, social interaction, and video games increased, their time watching entertainment TV declined, but time spent playing covaried positively with entertainment TV. Educational TV viewing was not related to time spent in non-TV activities. Maternal education and home environment quality predicted frequent viewing of educational TV programs and infrequent viewing of entertainment TV. The results do not support a simple displacement hypothesis; the relations of TV viewing to other activities depend on the program content, the nature of the competing activity, and the environmental context.

Activity level and sex-stereotyped toy choice in toddler boys and girls.

In the first study, the motor activity level and vigor of play of 52 toddlers was assessed as they played with a set of sex-role stereotyped and neutral toys. Boys and girls showed the same level of activity, and both were significantly more active when playing with stereotypically masculine toys. In the second study, 27 toddlers were observed playing with toys defined as potentially eliciting high, medium, or low activity within the masculine, feminine, and neutral categories. Again, boys and girls did not differ in overall activity level. All children preferred toys that allowed moderate to high activity, but given this preference, they selected toys stereotyped for their own gender above those stereotyped for the other gender.

Stability of four antifungal antimicrobics in vitro.

The stability of amphotericin B, amphotericin B methyl ester, 5-fluorocytosine, and miconazole was assessed under conditions encountered in bioassay and susceptibility testing in vitro. Although the amphotericins were labile as compared with other drugs, tests should be reliable with all four antimicrobics in view of the rapid action of the polyenes and the relatively slow action of 5-fluorocytocine and miconazole.

Susceptibility of coccidioides immitis, Candida albicans, and Cryptococcus neoformans to amphotericin B, flucytosine, and clotrimazole.

Toxicity and failure of treatment with amphotericin B are stimuli for researchers to evaluate alternative antifungal antimicrobics. Also, data from susceptibility tests of Coccidioides immitis are sparse. With use of a defined, synthetic culture medium, C. immitis (25 strains). Candida albicans (21 strains), and Cryptococcus neoformans (21 strains) were tested against flucytosine, clotrimazole, and amphotericin B. Molecule for molecule, the sequency of activity was: clotrimazole greater than amphotericin B greater than flucytosine (totally inactive) C. immitis; and clotrimazole greater than amphotericin B greater than flucytosine with C. albicans and C. neoformans. With four strains of C. immitis, the minimal inhibitory concentration (of amphotericin B) was the same when inocula of arthrospores were tested as when corresponding spherules/endospores were tested simultaneously and identically. The clinical outcome of coccidioidomycosis in 17 patients treated with amphotericin B correlated best with minimal inhibitory concentration after incubation of cultures for 48 hr; a favorable response was associated with minimal inhibitory concentrations of less than or equal 1.0 mug/ml. Because clinical isolates of fungi appear to vary in susceptibility, in vitro tests may have clinical utility.

Comparative susceptibility of four kinds of pathogenic fungi to amphotericin B and amphotericin B methyl ester.

The activity of amphotericin B methyl ester was compared with that of amphotericin B, using Candida albicans (34 isolates), Torulopsis glabrata (12 isolates), Filobasidiella neoformans (stat. conid. Cryptococcus neoformans) (14 isolates), and Coccidioides immitis (37 isolates) and tube dilution in a totally synthetic, completely defined medium (SAAMF) with inocula of 10(4) colony-forming units per ml. Minimal inhibitory concentrations were read after 24 h at 34 degrees C for C. albicans and T. glabrata, and after 48 h at 34 degrees C for C. immitis and F. neoformans. Minimal lethal concentrations were determined by subculture of 10% of the volume of the cultures without evident growth onto Sabouraud glucose agar medium. Overall, amphotericin B methyl ester was slightly less active than amphotericin B, with the differences attaining statistical significance for: (i) inhibition of C. albicans and T. glabrata and (ii) killing of T. glabrata.

Induction of resistance in Staphylococcus aureus and Klebsiella pneumoniae by exposure to cephalothin and cefoxitin.

Six strains each of Staphylococcus aureus and Klebsiella pneumoniae were exposed to subinhibitory, but serially incremental, concentrations of cephalothin and cefoxitin in a totally defined liquid culture medium. After exposure to cephalothin, the level of resistance to both drugs increased; the gain was greater against cephalothin and among the strains of K. pneumoniae. After exposure to cefoxitin, resistance to both drugs developed; this resistance was greater against cefoxitin and among the strains of K. pneumoniae. Acquired resistance was not lost after serial subculture in drug-free medium. Qualitative tests revealed no cephalosporinase activity in the resistant straphylococci and in four of the strains of K. pneumoniae. Two strains of K. pneumoniae, which had been isolated from a patient before and after failure of treatment with cephalothin, respectively, had no demonstrable cephalosporinase activity as isolated but developed activity after exposure to cephalothin in vitro.

Effect of culture media on the antifungal activity of miconazole and amphotericin B methyl ester.

The capacity of four culture media to obfuscate the antifungal activity of miconazole and amphotericin B methyl ester was evaluated qualitatively by examination of five isolates each of Candida albicans, Candida tropicalis, Candida parapsilosis, Torulopsis glabrata, and Cryptococcus neoformans, and quantitatively by determination of the absolute minimal inhibitory concentrations for a strain of C. albicans. Miconazole, like the predecessor imidazole (clotrimazole), was antagonized by two complex, undefined media (Sabouraud's glucose and brain-heart infusion agars) but not by either of two synthetic formulations (synthetic amino acid medium, fungal and modified yeast-nitrogen base). The antifungal activity of amphotericin B methyl ester, like that of the parent compound amphotericin B, was not materially affected by the culture medium used for testing. When added separately to synthetic amino acid medium (fungal), neither purines nor pyrimidines antagonized miconazole. Ether extraction of Sabouraud's glucose agar failed to diminish the antagonism of this medium for miconazole.

Children and poverty: issues in contemporary research.

The state-of-the-art research in this volume is based on complex, multidimensional conceptions of poverty. Current research goes beyond description to emphasize analysis of processes by which effects occur and variations in effects associated with race, gender, and ethnicity. Child care, school, neighborhood, and community are studied as well as family contexts. The child outcomes investigated include both intellectual development and socioemotional functioning. It is multidisciplinary, using a broad range of analytic frameworks and research methods from economics, sociology, health, psychology, and other disciplines. In this introduction, the overall research trends are described, and new questions for future research are identified.

Reproducible method for induction of pulmonary coccidioidomycosis in mice.

Intranasal instillation of an inoculum has been suggested as a method for establishment of experimental pulmonary infections. Because we encountered untoward variation in rates and times of death with use of this method for inducing coccidioidomycosis in mice, a simple method for direct intratracheal infection was devised. With doses of 50 or 100 arthrospores of Coccidioides immitis, mortality rates were 80%-90% from 14 to 25 days after infection by the intratracheal route and 20%-60% from 12 to 24 days after infection by the intranasal route. The procedure for intratracheal infection caused only slight morbidity, and the method resulted in consistent rates of disease.

The effects of television form and violent content on boys' attention and social behavior.

An experiment is reported that examined the independent effects of television content (violence) and television formal features (action level) on children's attention to programs and their postviewing social behavior. Pairs of preschool boys participated in two experimental sessions in which they saw animated and live television programs that varied in violent content (high or low) and formal features (high or low action level). They then played with toys that contained cues for either aggressive or prosocial interaction. Rapid character action facilitated visual attention to the programs; violent tv content did not facilitate attention. On measures of social behavior, strong effects of toy cues were found independently of television treatment effects. Aggressive toys produced aggressive behavior, and prosocial toys produced prosocial behavior; these patterns included some nonspecific, generalized influences in addition to direct demands of the play materials. Violent tv content led to changes in subjects' style of interaction and was also associated with increases in some prosocial behaviors. Television action level had no systematic effects on subjects' behavior. Results are discussed within the theoretical frameworks of observational learning and general arousal. Implications for children's television programming are also discussed.

Form cues and content difficulty as determinants of children's cognitive processing of televised educational messages.

An experiment was designed to assess the effects of formal production features and content difficulty on children's processing of televised messages about nutrition. Messages with identical content (the same script and visual shot sequence) were made in two forms: child program forms (animated film, second-person address, and character voice narration with sprightly music) and adult program forms (live photography, third-person address, and adult male narration with sedate background music). For each form, messages were made at three levels of content difficulty. Easier versions were longer, more redundant, and used simpler language; difficult versions presented information more quickly with less redundancy and more abstract language. Regardless of form or difficulty level, each set of bits presented the same basic information. Kindergarten children (N = 120) were assigned to view three different bits of the same form type and difficulty embedded in a miniprogram. Visual attention to child forms was significantly greater than to adult forms; free and cued recall scores were also higher for child than for adult forms. Although all recall and recognition scores were best for easy versions and worst for difficult versions, attention showed only minor variation as a function of content difficulty. Results are interpreted to indicate that formal production features, independently of content, influence the effort and level of processing that children use to understand televised educational messages.

Social interactions and play patterns of parents and toddlers with feminine, masculine, and neutral toys.

Children as young as 18 months display sex-stereotyped toy choices. The present study was designed to determine whether parents encourage involvement with sex-stereotyped toys or avoidance of cross-sex-stereotyped toys and to determine whether masculine and feminine toys lead to different patterns of parent-child interaction, regardless of gender. 40 parent-toddler dyads were videotaped while playing with 6 different sets of sex-stereotyped toys. Equal numbers of boys and girls were observed with mothers and fathers. The children showed greater involvement when playing with same-sex-typed toys than with cross-sex toys even when statistically controlling for parents' behaviors. Parents' verbal behaviors, involvement, and proximity to the child differed across toy groups, regardless of the parent's or child's gender. Parents' initial nonverbal responses to the toys, however, were more positive when the toys were stereotyped for the child's and parent's gender than when they were not.

Family ecology and child characteristics that predict young children's educational television viewing.

This study investigated how sociological variables, program access, family attributes, and child characteristics influence children's viewing of the most well-established educational television program in the United States--"Sesame Street." 2 cohorts were followed from ages 3 to 5 and 5 to 7, respectively. Each family kept a diary of television viewed during 5 1-week periods over 2 years. Interviews and testing sessions were conducted before and after the 2-year period. "Sesame Street" viewing increased from age 3 to a peak between the ages of 3 1/2 and 4; thereafter, viewing declined. This developmental change appeared to be a function of age-correlated life events and perceived age appropriateness of the program rather than of ontogenetic cognitive change. Individual differences were primarily a function of family ecology--opportunities to view and characteristics of other viewers--rather than of family demographics or individual child attributes. Maternal employment and the amount of time children attended child care or preschool were negatively related to viewing. The presence of older siblings reduced viewing; the presence of younger siblings increased it. Viewing was unrelated to parent education or occupational status, child gender, child's vocabulary level, involvement in television, or interest in print and other media. Parental encouragement to watch the program was positively related to viewing for 3-5-year-olds.

Children's auditory and visual processing of narrated and nonnarrated television programming.

Two experiments with 5- and 7-year-old children tested the hypotheses that auditory attention is used to (a) monitor a TV program for important visual content, and (b) semantically process program information through language to enhance comprehension and visual attention. A direct measure of auditory attention was the latency of the child's restoration of gradually degraded sound quality. Restoration of auditory clarity did not vary as a function of looking. Restoration of visual clarity was faster when looking than when not looking. Restoration was faster for visual than auditory degrades, but audiovisual degrades were restored most rapidly of all, suggesting that dual modality presentation maximizes children's attention. Narration enhanced visual attention and comprehension including comprehension of visually presented material. Auditory comprehension did not depend on looking, suggesting that children can semantically process verbal content without looking at the TV. Auditory attention did not differ with the presence or absence of narration, but did predict auditory comprehension best while visual attention predicted visual comprehension best. In the absence of narration, auditory attention predicted visual comprehension, suggesting its monitoring function. Visual attention indexed overall interest and appeared to be most critical for comprehension in the absence of narration.

Occupational portrayals on television: children's role schemata, career aspirations, and perceptions of reality.

UNLABELLED: Do children's schemata for occupations they observe in real life differ from those they see on TV? 177 second- and fifth-graders were assigned to conditions in a 2 (real-life or on TV) x 2 (police officer or nurse) design. They answered open-ended questions about what police officers or nurses do (in real life or on TV) and rated the typicality of various job activities. Their schematic knowledge about TV and real occupations was clearly differentiated. TV versions entailed more glamour, higher income, more stereotypes, and more dramatic events without negative consequences. Real-life occupations entailed more effort, status, and excitement. Older children differentiated slightly more clearly than younger ones. Children who perceived television as factual and realistic had real-world schemata similar to TV images. Children who were heavy viewers and perceived television as realistic were most likely to aspire to jobs shown on TV. CONCLUSION: children form separate schemata for social information acquired from TV and from real-world experience, but those who perceive television as socially realistic are apt to incorporate TV messages in their schemata and their aspirations.

Gender, adult structuring of activities, and social behavior in middle childhood.

The study was designed to test the relations among gender, adult-provided activity structure, and social behavior for children in middle childhood. Adult-provided structure was defined as verbally presented rules, guidelines, suggestions, and modeling. Children aged 7-11 years attended a 1-week summer day camp in which activities characterized by high or low adult structure were available. As predicted, girls spent more time in highly structured activities, whereas boys spent more time in low-structure activities. Once in high-structure activities, however, both genders displayed high rates of adult-directed bids for recognition, leadership attempts, and compliance and low rates of peer interaction. In low-structure activities, children directed high rates of leadership and other social behaviors to same-sex peers. Children who chose high-structure activities most often were also most likely to interact with adults in those activities. Those who chose low-structure activities showed the highest rates of interaction with male peers. Sex-typed personality attributes were not related to activity choice. The results are interpreted in a framework encompassing the interactions of "person" attributes, environmental variables, and behavior.

Television and families: what do young children watch with their parents?

A sample of 271 3- and 5-year-olds and their families participated in a 2-year longitudinal study of television viewing patterns. 5 1-week diaries for all family members were collected at 6-month intervals. Programs were categorized as: (1) child informative, (2) child entertainment, (3) news and informative, (4) sports, (5) comedy, (6) drama, (7) action-adventure, and (8) variety-game. The majority of child programs were viewed without parents, while the majority of adult programs were watched with parents. Coviewing patterns of adult programs were predicted from parents' individual viewing habits, but not from the child's. Coviewing declined with age. Parental encouragement and regulation of viewing were orthogonal. Children whose parents encouraged viewing watched more child informative programming; children of restrictive parents watched less entertainment programming. Encouraging parents coviewed more than nonencouraging parents. Results support the assertion that parental viewing preferences, habits, and orientations toward television influence children's viewing, both with and without parents.

Long-term venous access in rhesus monkeys.

Long-term, intermittent, intravenous infusion of substances, such as amphotericin B, with a high potential for causing peripheral vein thrombophlebitis was feasible by means of a subcutaneously implanted silastic reservoir catheter device, which gave access to the central venous compartment. The implanted reservoirs withstood at least 100 percutaneous entries with a 27-gauge needle; injections were carried out by using an infusion pump. With precautions taken to prevent infection, clotting, or the formation of precipitates in the catheter, the device permitted easy intravenous injection and was well tolerated.