Scintigraphic detection of osteomyelitis with Tc-99m MDP and Ga-67 citrate: concise communication.

Using both Tc-99m methylene diphosphonate and gallium-67 citrate, images of the lower extremities in New Zealand white rabbits were obtained on sequential days after inoculation of tibias with Staphylococcus aureus. Gallium-67 scintigraphy was positive earlier in the course of infection than Tc-99m MDP scintigraphy. In addition to 4-hr Ga-67 scintigrams, 24-hr and 48-hr scintigrams were obtained, contributing substantially to interpretation. However, 72-hr Ga-67 scintigrams contributed little additional information.

Predicting the cure of osteomyelitis under treatment: concise communication.

The right tibias of sixty-six rabbits were injected with a suspension of Staphylococcus aureus and sodium morrhuate. After four weeks, 43 rabbits developed osteomyelitis and were started on a course of antibiotics. During treatment a gallium-67 scintigram was obtained every two weeks, for up to 10 weeks. During the treatment weeks, 25 rabbits developed negative gallium-67 scintigrams and were killed. All 25 had negative bacteriologic cultures of the right tibia. At the end of 10 wk after start of treatment, the 18 rabbits with persistently positive scintigrams were killed. Eleven of these had positive bacteriologic cultures of the tibia, and seven were negative. The findings suggest that sequential gallium-67 scintigrams may be useful in predicting the cure of osteomyelitis during treatment.

Cognitive mode and asymmetry in cerebral functioning.

Male graduate students from the fields of sculpture, psychology, and law were used to test the assumption that an individual's cognitive mode (verbal-analytic vs. spatial-holistic) is related to actual laterality in cerebral functioning. A measure of asymmetry of cognitive mode for each student, based on relative performance on three verbal-analytic tests compared to three spatial-holistic tests, successfully discriminated occupational groups. Laterality in cerebral functioning was indexed by relative reaction times to discriminate visual stimuli presented unilaterally to the left or right hemisphere. Reaction times to discriminate faces were less for the right hemisphere, while letters were discriminated faster by the left hemisphere. However, measures of cerebral laterality were not related to occupational group membership nor to asymmetry of cognitive mode. Asymmetry in performance on tests of cognitive mode may reflect an individual's general approach to problem solving, but is not closely related to laterality in cerebral functioning.

Evaluation of an interviewer as a function of interviewer gaze, reinforcement of subject gaze, and interviewer attractiveness.

Male subjects were interviewed by female interviewers who gazed constantly, intermittently, or not at all. Experimental subjects were reinforced with green light feedback whenever they gazed at the interviewers and were punished with red light feedback when they averted gaze for more than 6 seconds. Control subjects received noncontingent green and red light feedback. Although gaze of experimental subjects toward the interviewers was increased significantly, their attitudes toward the interviewers remained the same. This was probably because the subjects did not discriminate that their gazing behavior had changed. Subjects gave the most unfavorable reactions to the nongazing interviewers, rating them as least attractive, giving them the shortest answers, and sitting farthest from them during the debriefing session. Subjects did not discriminate between high and low attractive interviewers, except that the latter were rated disproportionately low on attentiveness if they did not gaze. Interviewers with high rates of talking were preferred over interviewers with low rates of talking. It was concluded that interpersonal attraction is related to gaze and physical attractiveness through a number of mediating variables which will have to be isolated more specifically in future research.

Legal and social control of alcohol-impaired driving in California: 1983-1994.

OBJECTIVE: This research was designed to provide information on the legal and social forces that influence change in control of alcohol-impaired driving. METHOD: Attitudes, perceptions and behaviors concerning drinking and driving for California drivers in 1994 (n = 608) were compared to similar information collected from California drivers in 1983 and 1986 (n = 291) through random-digit-dialing telephone interviews. RESULTS: Self-reported drinking-driving violations showed a substantial decline, paralleling the well-documented drop in alcohol-related traffic crashes during this time span. A large reduction in drinking before driving was reported for all age groups, men and women, and for both heavy drinkers and light drinkers. There was evidence of an increase in the levels of both general deterrence and general prevention. Increased external control was reflected in greater knowledge of drinking-driving laws and trends toward an increased expectation that violations would be followed by unpleasant consequences. Strong gains in creating a social norm for control of alcohol-impaired driving were indicated by perceptions that friends and relatives were more likely to disapprove of driving after drinking, observations of more control of drinking by drivers at occasions where alcohol is served and an increase in the view that it is morally wrong to drive after heavy drinking. CONCLUSIONS: California has made substantial progress in efforts to control alcohol-impaired driving, through increases in both general deterrence (fear of punishment) and general prevention (moral inhibitions and socialization of preventive habits), especially the latter.

Alcoholic beverage preferences of drinking-driving violators.

Relationships between the preferred type of alcoholic beverage and various drinking-driving behaviors and attitudes were examined in a representative sample of 1000 licensed U.S. drivers interviewed in a national telephone survey. Substantial differences were found between subjects who preferred beer and those who preferred wine or distilled spirits. Those who preferred beer typically drank to higher levels of intoxication, were more likely to drive after drinking and tended to consider driving while intoxicated to be less serious. With few exceptions, these findings were true regardless of sex, age, education, income and marital status. These data contradict the popular perception of beer as a relatively harmless drink of moderation, and challenge policies of special concessions for the legal purchasing age and advertising of beer.

Drinking-driving compliance in the United States: perceptions and behavior in 1983 and 1986.

This investigation of drinking and driving explored American attitudes, beliefs, legal knowledge and self-reported violations through national surveys in 1983 (1,000 drivers) and 1986 (1,800 drivers). The findings from 1986 replicated all of the basic drinking-driving control tactics reported in 1983, and there were modest gains in compliance rates over time. There was a decrease in perceived certainty of arrests, but, in view of the compliance gains, this decrease seems to have been compensated by increases in legal knowledge, credibility of sanctions and personal support for drunk-driving controls. While there was support for some elements of simple deterrence theory, the findings are more fully accommodated by the inculcation process implied in general deterrence theory.

Alcoholic beverage preference as a public statement: self-concept and social image of college drinkers.

Several studies have indicated that drinking-driving violation rates differ significantly across beverage preference groups. In an effort to assess beverage-specific alcohol expectancies, surveys of 120 college students probed self-concept, drinker stereotypes, beverage preference and quantity-frequency of alcohol consumption. The results revealed sharply differentiated social stereotypes for hypothetical drinkers of various alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages. Beverage preference groups differed little in self-concept except that men who preferred beer or mixed drinks rated themselves as more drunk than did men who preferred wine or nonalcoholic beverages. Combining all beverage preference groups, heavier drinkers rated themselves more positively and they rated male nondrinkers more negatively on most dimensions than did lighter drinkers. Support was found for some, but not all, extrapolations from consistency theory and enhancement theory in predicting beverage choice.

Gender differences in the control of alcohol-impaired driving in California.

OBJECTIVE: An examination of gender differences in alcohol-impaired driving. METHOD: Attitudes, perceptions and behaviors concerning drinking and driving were compared for male and female California drivers in three random-digit-dialing telephone survey interviews from 1983, 1986 and 1994 (survey response rates of 58%, 52% and 49%, respectively). A moral reasoning framework was applied to account for observed gender differences. RESULTS: Gender differences were examined within aggregate data from the 1983 and 1986 surveys (n = 291), and within the 1994 survey data (n = 608). Self-reported drinking-driving violations showed a substantial decline for both men and women across the survey periods (although violations remained much higher for men), paralleling the well-documented drop in alcohol-related traffic crashes during this time span. Men and women responded equally to the threat of punishment from the legal system (threat of arrest, jail, loss of license, fine, increased insurance), but women were much more responsive to social and internal controls (perceived disapproval from friends, feelings of guilt, violation of a moral standard). CONCLUSIONS: These gender differences suggest that women may play an important role in strengthening broad social and moral constraints regarding alcohol-impaired driving. Implications of these findings to deterrence, the effects of sanctions, and social change are discussed.

Predicting/preventing child abuse: value of utility maximizing cutting scores.

Any standardized method for identifying cases of likely child abuse requires specification of a cutting score (or scores) on a predictor variable. In this paper, we describe two criteria for determining cutting scores--utility maximizing (UtilMax) and error minimizing (ErrMin)--and we demonstrate that UtilMax is often the superior, and never the inferior, criterion. Two types of ErrMin cutting scores, true and artificial, are distinguishable based on whether realistic or artificial base rates are used to find the cutting score. Since studies often compute artificial ErrMin cutting scores, these scores must be modified to produce true ErrMin cutting scores. UtilMax cutting scores are explained and a numerical example is presented to show that maximizing utility is the preferable criterion in that it optimizes the balance between the costs of incorrect decisions and the benefits of correct decisions. The example also illustrates how UtilMax cutting scores help one to decide whether attempting to predict abuse would be worthwhile or not.

Abdominal varices mimicking an acute gastrointestinal hemorrhage during technetium-99m red blood cell scintigraphy.

Abdominal varices consisting of a caput medusae and dilated mesenteric veins resulted in pooling of Tc-99m tagged red blood cells (RBC) within these dilated vessels in a 57-year-old man with severe Laennec's cirrhosis. The atypical radiotracer localization within the abdomen mimicked an acute gastrointestinal hemorrhage. Clinical suspicion and careful evaluation of scintigraphic gastrointestinal bleeding studies will avoid false-positive interpretations.

Are there long-term "literal copies" of visually presented words?

Evidence for the hypothesis that the appearance of visually presented words is stored in "literal copy" form is critically evaluated and shown to be inconclusive. An experiment in which students were required to retain information about zero, one, or two visual properties of words is reported. A strong version of the literal-copy hypothesis predicts that retention of both case and color should be equally good under instructions to remember one of these attributes and instructions to remember both. However, the results were inconsistent with predictions from this hypothesis. A model that assumes that each visual attribute is stored independently in abstract propositional form provided a good quantitative fit to the data.

Trade-off between memory for verbal items and their visual attributes.

Instructions to attend to the case and color in which words were presented led to improved retention of these visual attributes but depressed recognition performance. This trade-off between item and attribute memory occurred at three presentation rates (1.5, 5.5, and 10.5 sec/item), suggesting that visual attributes of verbal stimuli are rarely stored unless subjects expect that knowledge of physical form will be useful later. Visual attributes of high-imagery words were retained better than visual attributes of low imagery words by subjects instructed to attend to case and color, but not by subjects asked only to attend to word meaning. Implications of these findings for the hypothesis that visually presented verbal stimuli are stored as literal copies are discussed.

Prediction of success or failure in birth planning: an approach to prevention of individual and family stress.

Following the view that individual future time perspective is an outcome of the socialization process, it was hypothesized that good contraceptors would display significantly longer future time extension than poor contraceptors. In a Planned Parenthood agency, 25 subjects from each group, constituting nearly the whole clinic population in these categories for a 3-month period, were given the Future Events Test during their clinic visits. The major hypothesis was confirmed, and also a significant tendency towards viewing future events more negatively was found among the poor contraceptors. Demographic data did not discriminate clearly between the two groups, though the poor contraceptors were somewhat younger and had a somewhat higher weekly family income. Use of personality variables in predicting birth-planning success or failure seems more promising than continued reliance solely on the sociocultural approach. Implications for screening and prevention in the interest of the individual, the family, and the community are discussed.

Young people, alcohol, and driving in two Australian states.

Road traffic accidents are the single largest cause of death in Australia among people aged 15-24. The proposition that a broadly based deterrence measure, such as random breath testing (RBT), would be sufficient to change the behavior of young drivers was tested in a comparison of young drivers in New South Wales (NSW), which has had RBT for 6 years, with young drivers in Western Australia (WA), where there was no RBT. The results demonstrated that NSW young drivers were less likely to drink and drive and more likely to believe their peers would disapprove of drink-driving than were their counterparts in WA. It was concluded that RBT had altered the drink-driving behavior and possibly the beliefs about drink-driving of young people in NSW.

Using cognitive learning theory to design effective on-line statistics tutorials.

Careful attention to principles of learning can improve the design of Web-based lessons and tutorials. Tutorials from the Web Interface for Statistics Education (WISE; http:¿wise.cgu.edu) demonstrate how specific principles can be integrated into Web design to enhance learning in two areas. First, the impact of students' poor self-regulation abilities on Web-based learning is considered. Second, evidence that specific types of visual presentations improve learning is discussed. Finally, the need for empirical evaluation is emphasized. Specific research and examples from the WISE project are used to illustrate each of these points.

Adsorption losses from urine-based cannabinoid calibrators during routine use.

The major metabolite of cannabis found in urine, 11-nor-delta 9-tetrahydrocannabinol-9-carboxylic acid (delta 9-THC), is the compound most often used to calibrate cannabinoid immunoassays. The hydrophobic delta 9-THC molecule is known to adsorb to solid surfaces. This loss of analyte from calibrator solutions can lead to inaccuracy in the analytical system. Because the calibrators remain stable when not used, analyte loss is most probably caused by handling techniques. In an effort to develop an effective means of overcoming adsorption losses, we quantified cannabinoid loss from calibrators during the testing process. In studying handling of these solutions, we found noticeable, significant losses attributable to both the kind of pipette used for transfer and the contact surface-to-volume ratio of calibrator solution in the analyzer cup. Losses were quantified by immunoassay and by radioactive tracer. We suggest handling techniques that can minimize adsorption of delta 9-THC to surfaces. Using the appropriate pipette and maintaining a minimum surface-to-volume ratio in the analyzer cup effectively reduces analyte loss.

Evaluation of EMIT Cyclosporine Assay for use with whole blood.

We evaluated the EMIT Cyclosporine Assay, designed for specific quantification of cyclosporine (CsA) in whole blood. The assay was run on the Roche Cobas Mira or Cobas Mira S analyzer. Analytical recovery from both normal donor whole blood and transplant patients' samples was within 17% of the standards. Measurement of diluted out-of-range samples also yielded excellent recovery (101-105%). Within-run, between-run, and total CVs were < or = 8.1%, 10.9%, and 12.1%, respectively. The detection limit was < 32 micrograms/L. The assay was linear from 0 to 500 micrograms/L. No significant cross-reactivity was observed for CsA metabolites AM1, AM19, and AM4N. Slight cross-reactivity occurred with metabolite AM9; 670 micrograms/L AM9 increased the measured CsA concentration by 49 micrograms/L. High concentrations of bilirubin, uric acid, triglycerides, and cholesterol, as well as 54 commonly coadministered drugs did not interfere with CsA quantification. Similarly, neither extreme values of hematocrit nor choice of anticoagulant affected CsA recovery. Sample extract stability was > 4 h, and assay calibration was stable for at least 2 weeks. Patients' samples analyzed by the EMIT assay showed strong correlation with both HPLC and 125I-RIA (r > 0.97). We conclude that the EMIT Cyclosporine Assay provides a convenient, accurate, and precise method for specific quantification of CsA in whole blood.