Response definition criteria for ELISPOT assays revisited.

No consensus has been reached on how to determine if an immune response has been detected based on raw data from an ELISPOT assay. The goal of this paper is to enable investigators to understand and readily implement currently available methods for response determination. We describe empirical and statistical approaches, identifying the strengths and limitations of each approach to allow readers to rationally select and apply a scientifically sound method appropriate to their specific laboratory setting. Five representative approaches were applied to data sets from the CIMT Immunoguiding Program and the response detection and false positive rates were compared. Simulation studies were also performed to compare empirical and statistical approaches. Based on these, we recommend the use of a non-parametric statistical test. Further, we recommend that six medium control wells or four wells each for both medium control and experimental conditions be performed to increase the sensitivity in detecting a response, that replicates with large variation in spot counts be filtered out, and that positive responses arising from experimental spot counts below the estimated limit of detection be interpreted with caution. Moreover, a web-based user interface was developed to allow easy access to the recommended statistical methods. This interface allows the user to upload data from an ELISPOT assay and obtain an output file of the binary responses.

Enhancing the image of nursing.

A Task Force from a Midwestern teaching hospital developed a comprehensive strategy to enhance the image of nursing in both the hospital and the community. Nursing administrators will find the Task Force's process and outcomes useful in addressing the image of nursing in their own institutions.

Effects of music and imagery on physiologic and self-report of analogued labor pain.

Two studies were conducted to examine the effects of music on analogued labor pain using volunteer nulliparous subjects who were randomly assigned to treatment groups (n = 10 per group). Assessments of the treatments were made in a 1-hour session involving twenty 80-second exposures to a laboratory pain stimulus patterned to resemble labor contractions. In the first experiment, it was hypothesized that subjects listening to easy-listening music would report lower pain ratings and cardiovascular responses than subjects listening to rock music, self-selected music, or a dissertation (placebo-attention) and subjects in a no-treatment control group. No significant group effects were found; significant time effects were found for heart rate, systolic and diastolic blood pressure. Subjects spontaneously reported using imagery as a pain reduction technique. In the second study a combination of music and imagery was examined by randomly assigning subjects to one of five groups: self-generated imagery with music (SIM), guided imagery with music (GIM), self-generated imagery without music (SI), guided imagery without music (GI), or no-treatment control. Again, no significant group effects were obtained. Significant time effects were obtained for heart rate, systolic and diastolic blood pressure.