The relationship between the stockperson's personality and attitudes and the productivity of dairy cows.

This study investigated the relationships amongst personality traits and attitudes of 311 dairy stockpeople and the milk yield they obtained. A questionnaire pack consisting of a big-five measure of personality (which includes the traits of extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability and intellect), a four-factor attitude questionnaire and associated demographic and production questions was posted out to Northern Ireland dairy farmers. Pearson correlations were used to assess the relationship between personality and attitudes and partial correlations were calculated between milk yield and these psychometric measures. The personality traits of agreeableness and conscientiousness were most strongly correlated to positive attitudes towards working with dairy cows. None of the stockpeople's personality traits were significantly correlated with the milk yield they obtained. Three of the attitude scales, however, were significantly correlated with milk yield; milk yield was related to higher levels of empathy and job satisfaction and lower levels of negative beliefs. These findings, along with previous research, suggest stockperson attitudes may be important in relation to dairy cow welfare and production.

Use of bone meal amendments to immobilise Pb, Zn and Cd in soil: A leaching column study.

The aim of this study is to test the stabilisation of metals in contaminated soils via the formation of low-solubility metal phosphates. Bone apatite, in the form of commercially available bone meal, was tested as a phosphate source on a mine waste contaminated made-ground with high levels of Pb, Zn and Cd. Triplicate leaching columns were set up at bone meal to soil ratios of 1:25 and 1:10, in addition to unamended controls, and were run for 18 months. The columns were irrigated daily with a synthetic rain solution at pH of 2, 3, and 4.4. After 100 days, the leachate Pb, Zn and Cd concentrations of all amended columns were significantly reduced. For 1:10 treatments, release of these metals was suppressed throughout the trial. For 1:25 treatments, Zn and Cd concentrations in the leachates began to increase after 300 days. DTPA and water extractions showed that Pb and Cd were more strongly held in the amended soils. This study concludes that the complexity of soil processes and the small quantities of metals sequestered precluded determination of a metal immobilisation mechanism.

Colorectal cancer: a nurse puts a patient perspective.

Following last week's article on colorectal cancer this is a health visitor's reflective view of her experience coping with the diagnosis and treatment of colorectal cancer while being the main carrier for her elderly mother.

Sexual behavior and attitudes of university students in Northern Ireland.

Two surveys of a Northern Ireland student sample were conducted in 1987 and 1988. A total of 419 female and 201 male subjects completed self-administered anonymous questionnaires concerning their behavior, knowledge, and attitudes towards sex, AIDS, homosexuality, contraception, and relationships. Results indicated a relatively low level of sexual experience, and for those with experience, relatively few partners. The possible influences of gender and religiosity on sexual behavior and attitudes, in the context of Northern Ireland, are discussed. Subjects reported considerable variation in the amount of sex education, but the majority received little or none. This student sample held relatively conservative attitudes towards love, sex, and marriage and this was particularly true for females and for regular churchgoers. In addition, attitudes towards homosexuality were negative (particularly among regular churchgoers). Attitudes towards contraception were more positive than expected among Catholic subjects, and few indicated that they would refuse to use contraceptives on principle. Responses to items about AIDS were highly uniform, suggesting that much of the information made available to the public has been absorbed. However, the lack of uniformity of response to more general items about sex, relationships, and contraception may indicate that fundamental changes in sexual behavior are unlikely to be brought about by influencing a rather narrowly defined set of attitudes about AIDS.

PIP: Compared to other populations, the residents of northern Ireland are at relatively low risk for AIDS. As such, research was conducted to learn more about sexual behavior, knowledge, attitudes, AIDS, homosexuality, contraception, and relationships in a sample of regional college students. While not representative of the broad population of northern Ireland, these students nonetheless offer insight into potential determinants supporting this low risk of HIV infection and AIDS. 419 females and 201 males were surveyed through self-administered, anonymous questionnaires. The survey revealed a relatively low level of sexual experience, with only 50% of men and 44% of women attesting to having had sexual intercourse. Of those with experience, 35% of men and 49% of women were confined to 1 partner. Oddly enough, 1st-year students reported having more partners than students in any of the 3 more senior academic levels. 51% of these sexually experienced males claimed experience with 3 or more partners. 1/3 of the sample had no formal sex education in school, but Catholics were more exposed than Protestants to sex education. 50% were unable to accurately explain to what the initials AIDS refer, and only 2 could decipher HIV+. Modes of transmission were better recognized. 80% would welcome more information about AIDS. Only 7% would refuse contraception on principle, and were almost exclusively regular church-going Catholics. 41% employed condoms, and 16% of those sexually active frequently used no contraception. 91% felt not at risk of AIDS, and approximately 755 had not changed their behavior in response to AIDS. Overall, these students were relatively conservative about love, sex, marriage, and homosexuality. Views were especially narrow among females and regular churchgoers.

Elderly patients and their medication: a post-discharge follow-up study.

Fifty-six elderly patients (age range 65-98 years) discharged from a geriatric unit were visited at home on or after the 5th post-discharge day (median day 8) and their medication assessed. By the day of the visit, 15 of the 56 had not had a new prescription issued (27%) and 27 patients (48%) had old prescribed medication at home. Forty-one new scripts, issued by general practitioners, should have contained 128 medications if the general practitioners wished to continue unchanged the medication given on hospital discharge. Fourteen drugs (11%) had been added and 17 drugs (13%) omitted. The number of prescriptions issued unchanged was 26/41 (63%). Inaccurately labelled containers and/or changed drug names were found in 28%. Contrary to hospital advice, 47% of medications were issued in childproof containers. Poor communication between hospital and general practitioners is only part of the problem. Methods to expedite the delivery of new prescriptions should be developed.

Pyoderma gangrenosum complicating non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

A case of pyoderma gangrenosum which occurred in a patient with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma is described. The lesion started in the foot where dye was introduced for a lymphangiogram.

Antibody-dependent and phytohaemagglutinin-induced lymphocyte cytotoxicity in systemic sclerosis.

Cell-mediated cytotoxicity was examined in thirty-seven patients with systemic sclerosis using both whole blood and purified peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBM) to measure antibody-dependent (ADCC) and phytohaemagglutinin (PHA) induced lymphocyte cytotoxicity to 51Cr-labelled Chang liver cells. In twenty-three mildly affected patients, ADCC and PHA-induced cytotoxicity did not differ from that found in control populations. By contrast, fourteen patients severely affected by extensive visceral disease showed reductions in both ADCC and PHA-induced cytotoxicity which were more marked in whole blood assays (P less than 0.001) than in those performed with PBM (P less than 0.05). The addition of patient's sera to control cytotoxicity assays suggested that blocking or suppressive serum factors could only account for some of the disproportionate reduction in whole blood cytotoxicity which, in the main, must be due to a lack of circulating effector cells. These results are in agreement with previous findings of reduced numbers of circulating thymus-dependent lymphocytes in patients with severe disease, a defect of cell-mediated immunity that may result from the chronic antigenic stimulation of an autoimmune disease process.

Coexistence of bullous pemphigoid and pemphigus foliaceus.

A patient with bullous pemphigoid developed pemphigus foliaceus 5 years later. Mixed bullous diseases are rare and this is the first reported case of coexisting bullous pemphigoid and pemphigus foliaceus.

The presentation of psychiatric illness to the dermatologist.

An account is given of the manner in which patients suffering from psychoneurosis and psychoses present to the Dermatologist. Cases of monosymptomatic hypochondriasis, trichorrhexis nodosa in an obsessional neurotic, acne excoriée, schizophrenia, depression and delusions of infestation are described. The value of modern neuroleptic drugs in the management of monosymptomatic hypochondriasis in cluding delusions of infestation is confirmed.

The association of HLA-B8 with visceral disease in systemic sclerosis.

Seventy-one patients with systemic sclerosis (SS) were typed for twenty-seven HLA alleles of the A and B loci, and the findings were related to both the extent of visceral disease and tests of cellular immune competence in a subgroup of fifty-two of these patients. Nineteen pa;ients with widespread visceral involvement and more rapidly progressive disease had an increased frequency of HLA-B8 (relative risk = 4.14; P less than 0.05) when compared to thirty-three less severely affected patients and 3000 controls. Patients with severe and progressive disease also had defective cell-mediated immunity with reductions in both the numbers of circulating thymus-dependent (T) lymphocytes and in the lymphocyte transformation response to phytohaemagglutinin. These findings suggest that a genetic factor, such as an abnormal immune response gene, may be involved in the progression of the disease.