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The field of stem cell therapy is growing rapidly and hopes to offer an alternative solution to diseases that are historically treated medically or surgically. One such focus of research is the treatment of medically refractory epilepsy, which is traditionally approached from a surgical or interventional standpoint. Research shows that stem cell transplantation has potential to offer significant benefits to the epilepsy patient by reducing seizure frequency, intensity, and neurological deficits that often result from the condition. This review explores the basic science progress made on the topic of stem cells and epilepsy by focusing on experiments using animal models and highlighting the most recent developments from the last 4 years.

When college/university programs in educational administration focus more on theory than on practicality, it becomes critical for beginning administrators to have a support system such as mentoring. Mentoring helps to close the gap between preservice training and the actualities of administration.

Higher levels of interpersonal perception in personal relationships have been relatively ignored over the last decade, as well as the role played by those perceptions in the creation of a relationship. Through utilization of Balance Theory and a variation of Laing's Interpersonal Perception Method, this study investigated multiple levels of interpersonal perception in cross-sex friendships, and how those perceptions help create a shared perceptual reality among cross-sex friends. One hundred and three pairs of cross-sex friends completed a survey examining direct perspectives (DPs), metaperspectives (MPs), and metametaperspectives (MMPs), on various manifestations of intimacy, the importance of the friendship and the definition of the relationship. As predicted by Balance Theory, there was significant agreement, understanding and realization of understanding between cross-sex friends concerning intimacy in the relationship and the importance of friendship. Results also reveal that perceived agreement and perceived understanding in those friendships was significantly greater than actual agreement and understanding. In addition, there was strong evidence that individuals in cross-sex friendships use their own attitudes as a basis for predicting the attitudes of their partner - that they create their partner's perspectives so that they more closely agree with their own (i.e. they assimilate). These results question the acceptability of higher-order perspectives as fully validated constructs, and suggest that the location of explanatory force in POX systems may reside in individual level variables - as opposed to dyadic level measurements.

The purpose of this study was to investigate how individuals in cross- and same-sex friendships define and express intimacy. In a self-report questionnaire 164 college students were asked what they meant by the term `intimacy' in the context of cross- and same-sex friendships. Individuals assigned an average number of two meanings to the term `intimacy', though the number of meanings ranged from one to five. Results revealed substantial similarities in the meanings of intimacy in both types of friendship, as well as some gender differences. For instance, five of the seven most frequently mentioned definitions of intimacy were specified by both cross- and same-sex friends: self-disclosures, emotional expressiveness, unconditional support, physical contact and trust. One of the remaining two meanings of intimacy, i.e. sexual contact, was mentioned by cross- but not same-sex friends. Sharing activities was given as a definition of intimacy by 9 percent of the males in same-sex friendships, and 4 percent of the females in cross-sex friendships. Within cross-sex friendships, emotional expressiveness and sexual contact were specified as meanings of intimacy by a higher percentage of males than females, while physical contact was specified by a greater percentage of females in those relationships.

An association between substance abuse and major psychiatric illness is increasingly well recognised, but most studies have been conducted in the USA and have focussed upon patients with schizophrenia rather than other disorders. We conducted a survey of 38 consecutively admitted patients with DSM-III-R functional psychoses. A semi-structured substance abuse interview was administered and a urine specimen for drug metabolite screening requested. The prevalence of cigarette smoking (63%) and current illicit drug use (26%) were higher than general population norms. The 16 subjects with schizophrenia and related disorders were more likely to smoke cigarettes than the 22 patients with an affective disorder (p=0.008, odds ratio 8.4, 95% CI 1.3–69.6), and showed tendencies to more illicit drug and alcohol consumption. Illicit drug users were more likely to have a forensic history and less likely to have entered further education. Substance abuse is common among patients with psychoses, particularly in those with schizophrenia and related disorders. All psychotic patients should have a detailed drug history taken, and therapeutic attempts made to reduce consumption.

Fluoride in high concentrations is known to have an adverse effect on the formation of enamel. The effect of a single injection of two concentrations of sodium fluoride on inner enamel secretory ameloblasts was investigated morphologically by electron microscopy and functionally by assessing the location and relative amount of available calcium, using the potassium pyroantimonate method. The results showed that acute doses of fluoride interfere with the normal function of secretory ameloblasts. The increase in the population of lysosome-like structures observed after fluoride administration is suggestive of defects in the synthetic pathway. Concomitant with the effect of fluoride on secretory ameloblasts is an inhibition of enamel formation, resulting in incomplete enamel rods and leaving large remnants of Tomes' processes buried in the enamel. The distribution of the calcium pyroantimonate deposits found tends to support the concept of calcium traveling between the cells to the enamel. Acute doses of fluoride also reduce the amount of calcium available for complexing with pyroantimonate in the intercellular region.