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CD4+ T cells are essential for protection against viruses, including SARS-CoV-2. The sensitivity of CD4+ T cells to mutations in SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern (VOCs) is poorly understood. Here, we isolated 159 SARS-CoV-2-specific CD4+ T cell clones from healthcare workers previously infected with wild-type SARS-CoV-2 (D614G) and defined 21 epitopes in spike, membrane and nucleoprotein. Lack of CD4+ T cell cross-reactivity between SARS-CoV-2 and endemic beta-coronaviruses suggested these responses arose from naïve rather than pre-existing cross-reactive coronavirus-specific T cells. Of the 17 epitopes located in the spike protein, 10 were mutated in VOCs and CD4+ T cell clone recognition of 7 of them was impaired, including 3 of the 4 epitopes mutated in omicron. Our results indicated that broad targeting of epitopes by CD4+ T cells likely limits evasion by current VOCs. However, continued genomic surveillance is vital to identify new mutations able to evade CD4+ T cell immunity.

Policy statements on penile circumcision have focused primarily on disease, dysfunction, or sensation, with relatively little consideration of psychological and psychosocial implications of the procedure. There has also been minimal consideration of potential qualitative changes in the subjective experience of sexual activity following changes in penile anatomy (foreskin removal) or associated sexual biomechanics. We present a critical overview of literature on the psychological, psychosocial, and psychosexual implications of penile circumcision. We give consideration to differences among circumcisions performed in infancy, childhood, or adulthood. We also discuss potential psychosocial effects on parents electing, or failing to elect, circumcision for their children. We propose a framework for policy considerations and future research, recognizing that cultural context is particularly salient for the narratives individuals construct around penile circumcision, including both affected individuals and medical professionals who perform the surgeries. We argue that additional attention should be paid to the potential for long-term effects of the procedure that may not be properly considered when the patient is an infant or child.

ContextThe disruption of normal activities by humans (i.e. ‘anthropogenic disturbance’) can have important behavioural, physiological and population effects on coastal birds. These negative effects include increased vigilance, increased energy expenditure and reduced nesting success. To overcome this, separation distances (e.g. buffers and setbacks) are often used to separate threatening stimuli, such as humans, from wildlife. However, in most instances the determination of separation distances are based on little empirical information. This is particularly true for Africa, which supports huge populations of Palearctic migrant shorebirds. AimTo determine suitable separation distances that will reduce anthropogenic disturbance to the coastal bird community at West Coast National Park, South Africa. MethodsThe distance at which a behavioural response (i.e. flight initiation distance, FID) occurred among 15 common coastal bird species when presented with an approaching human was measured. Linear mixed-effects models were used to determine the relationship between FID and body size, migratory status, intraspecific flock size, flock species richness, foraging behaviour and several environmental covariates. Key resultsBody mass was significantly and positively correlated with FID, indicating that larger birds are more sensitive to the anthropogenic stimulus. Furthermore, it was shown that migratory birds had longer FIDs, suggesting that they are less risk tolerant compared with resident birds. The distance at which the approach was initiated (i.e. the start distance, SD) was also significantly and positively correlated with FID, supporting the hypothesis that birds will flush early to avoid the potential negative consequences of fleeing too late. Finally, there was a novel significant effect of increasing wind speed on increasing FID, suggesting a thermoregulatory trade-off. There was no effect of foraging behaviour, flock size or flock composition on FID. ConclusionBased on these data, buffer distances for tidal habitats at West Coast National Park should be set at ~170 m. ImplicationsImproved understanding of FID, and the morphological and behavioural predictors thereof, will enable West Coast National Park and other protected areas to designate separation distances or buffer zones that reduce the negative effects of anthropogenic disturbance on shorebird communities.

Summary Background Nursing education was fully absorbed into universities in the United Kingdom in the late 1990s and thus is a relatively young academic discipline. In contrast to a lively literature on clinical nursing leadership, little attention has been given to the leadership of academic nursing as these roles encompass contract management, research and teaching. Objectives The purpose of this study was to explore the scope and meaning of leadership from the experience of nurse leaders in universities in the United Kingdom (UK). Design and Methods The qualitative design used open ended telephone interviews. Interview transcripts were checked with participants. Framework analysis was used for capturing and identifying themes. Setting and Participants A convenience sample of academic nurse leaders (responsible for a School, Department or a Faculty) was identified through the UK Council of Deans of Health. Results All ten respondents were managing health care portfolios and running departments of various sizes and often with a mix of nursing and other health care disciplines. There was regional and country representation (England, Scotland and Wales) and half the respondents were employed at pre 1992 and half at post 1992 universities (the latter institutions that were previously polytechnics and gained university status in 1992). Three core issues emerged from the data: the leadership context; ways in which the deans articulated their leadership skills and the issue of legitimacy of nursing in higher education. Conclusion Two important issues emerged for nursing deans, firstly the university as a knowledge producer and secondly the need to create strong academic and professional identities. The findings highlight role complexity as academic nurse leaders navigate the dichotomy between the different worlds of the university and health care practice. The legitimacy of nursing as a practice discipline in the university continues to be contested territory. There is an opportunity for nurse leaders to do more to develop a collective narrative about the contribution that academic nursing can make to the quality of the workforce.

IT has been suggested that the opiate addict gets pleasure both from the physiological effects of the drug and from the complex of environmental stimuli associated with obtaining and administering the drug. These latter stimuli achieve their control over behaviour by a conditioning process and can therefore, in theoretical terms, be considered as conditional stimuli in the Pavlovian sense. Wilder1 proposes that the repeated occurrence of certain exteroceptive stimuli which accompany the interoceptive stimulation induced by the opiate, results in conditioning of the environment to the drug state.

The instability of human growth hormone (hGH) to temperature and interfaces makes its formulation into injectable, sustained-release drug delivery systems challenging. A novel method of encapsulating hGH in polymeric microparticles has been developed using supercritical CO(2) (scCO(2)) technology, but there is limited understanding of the stability of hGH within this system. The aim of this study was to evaluate the stability of hGH in scCO(2) processing. The integrity of the protein was assessed following exposure to scCO(2) using a range of different analytical techniques. Mass spectrometry showed that no peptide cleavage occurred as a result of processing or exposure to scCO(2). Size-exclusion chromatography detected formation of aggregates at high temperatures, but not as a result of the encapsulation process. Reverse-phase chromatography demonstrated that the production of deamidation products occurred as a function of temperature, but only at temperatures higher than those used for the encapsulation process. Circular dichroism and infrared spectroscopy demonstrated that the use of scCO(2) was not detrimental to the secondary molecular structure of hGH. Together, these results show that the structural integrity of hGH is unaffected by scCO(2) processing and that hGH can be successfully encapsulated in polymer microparticles using this technique.

Acacia mearnsii is an introduced Australian acacia in South Africa and has invaded more than 2.5 million ha, primarily establishing in rangeland and riparian areas. Because acacias have the capability to fix N, A. mearnsii invasions may fundamentally change N dynamics in invaded systems. This study compares biological N2-fixation in the alien invasive A. mearnsii and the native A. caffra growing in a grassland riparian zone in the Komati Gorge Reserve, Mpumalanga, South Africa. A 15N natural abundance field survey suggested that both mature alien and native acacias fix N under current conditions in the riparian zone. Significantly depleted δ15N was observed in both acacias relative to reference species, although variation in δ15N was not correlated with N concentrations. Calculated contributions of N2-fixation (%Ndfa) suggest that alien acacias fix significantly more of their N than native acacias (~75 ± 5% SE and 53 ± 9% SE, respectively). There was a larger variation in δ15N and %Ndfa in the native acacia, suggesting relatively high plasticity in its N2-fixation contributions. This plasticity was interpreted as a facultative N2-fixation strategy for the native acacia, while the N2-fixation strategy of the alien acacia remained unclear. Our results emphasize the importance of potentially elevated N inputs through N2-fixation by invasive legumes in invaded landscapes. Furthermore, they suggest that N2-fixation by invasive acacias may not respond to fine-scale patchiness in soil N in the same manner as native acacias, making them potential contributors to N excess in Southern Africa.

The Lower Permian Wasp Head Formation (early to middle Sakmarian) is a ~95 m thick unit that was depos- ited during the transition to a non-glacial period following the late Asselian to early Sakmarian glacial event in eastern Australia. This shallow marine, sandstone-dominated unit can be subdivided into six facies associa- tions. (i) The marine sediment gravity flow facies association consists of breccias and conglomerates deposited in upper shoreface water depths. (ii) Upper shoreface deposits consist of cross-stratified, conglomeratic sand - stones with an impoverished expression of the Skolithos Ichnofacies. (iii) Middle shoreface deposits consist of hummocky cross-stratified sandstones with a trace fossil assemblage that represents the Skolithos Ichnofacies. (iv) Lower shoreface deposits are similar to middle shoreface deposits, but contain more pervasive bioturba- tion and a distal expression of the Skolithos Ichnofacies to a proximal expression of the Cruziana Ichnofacies. (v) Delta-influenced, lower shoreface-offshore transition deposits are distinguished by sparsely bioturbated carbo - naceous mudstone drapes within a variety of shoreface and offshore deposits. Trace fossil assemblages repre- sent distal expressions of the Skolithos Ichnofacies to stressed, proximal expressions of the Cruziana Ichnofacies. Impoverished trace fossil assemblages record variable and episodic environmental stresses possibly caused by fluctuations in sedimentation rates, substrate consistencies, salinity, oxygen levels, turbidity and other physio- chemical stresses characteristic of deltaic conditions. (vi) The offshore transition-offshore facies association con- sists of mudstone and admixed sandstone and mudstone with pervasive bioturbation and an archetypal to dis- tal expression of the Cruziana Ichnofacies. The lowermost ~50 m of the formation consists of a single deepening upward cycle formed as the basin transitioned from glacioisostatic rebound following the Asselian to early Sak- marian glacial to a regime dominated by regional extensional subsidence without significant glacial influence. The upper ~45 m of the formation can be subdivided into three shallowing upward cycles (parasequences) that formed in the aftermath of rapid, possibly glacioeustatic, rises in relative sea-level or due to autocyclic progra- dation patterns. The shift to a parasequence-dominated architecture and progressive decrease in ice-rafted de- bris upwards through the succession records the release from glacioisostatic rebound and amelioration of cli- mate that accompanied the transition to broadly non-glacial conditions.

The Lower Permian (Artinskian to Sakmarian) Pebbley Beach Formation (PBF) of the southernmost Sydney Basin in New South Wales, Australia, records sediment accumulation in shallow marine to coastal environments at the close of the Late Palaeozoic Gondwanan ice age. This paper presents a sequence stratigraphic re-evaluation of the upper half of the unit based on the integration of sedimentology and ichnology. Ten facies are recognized, separated into two facies associations. Facies Association A (seven facies) comprises variably bioturbated siltstones and sandstones with marine body fossils, interpreted as recording sediment accumulation in open marine environments ranging from lower offshore to middle shoreface water depths. Evidence of deltaic influence is seen in several Association A facies. Facies Association B (three facies) comprises mainly heterolithic, interlaminated and thinly interbedded sandstone and siltstone with some thicker intervals of dark grey, organic-rich mudstone, some units clearly filling incised channel forms. These facies are interpreted as the deposits of estuarine channels and basins. Throughout the upper half of the formation, erosion surfaces with several metres relief abruptly separate open marine facies of Association A (below) from estuarine facies of Association B (above). Vertical facies changes imply significant basinward shift of environment across these surfaces, and lowering of relative sea level in the order of 50 m. These surfaces can be traced over several kilometres along depositional strike, and are defined as sequence boundaries. On this basis, at least nine sequences have been recognized in the upper half of the formation, each of which is

Estimates are that there are between 1.2 and 3 million people who are in same-gender partnered household relationships in the United States. Although there is less certainty about the number of parents among these couples and the number of single-parent gay and lesbian families, all research shows that a growing number of gay and lesbian as well as bisexual and transgender individuals are choosing to be parents. A sound body of empirical literature has demonstrated that the sexual orientation of a parent is irrelevant in terms of a person's ability to parent and has no lasting effect on the psychological adjustment of the person's children. Nevertheless, a majority of states in the United States place considerable legal hurdles in the face of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals who would like to be parents, as do many countries around the world, and the social context of contemporary society creates a number of special issues that the forensic evaluator or psychologist may encounter when asked to make a custody, adoption, or other fitness to parent assessment with LGBT parents. This article presents an overview of these issues and moves beyond theory to provide specific recommendations for evaluators working with LGBT parents.

This paper describes the design, construction and operation of a large rig to apply bending and torsional moments to full-scale reinforced concrete slabs and to measure the resulting strains and deformations of the slabs. The rig can subject slabs to uniaxial or biaxial bending moments and/or torsion, using a computer-based control system operating on 37 high-quality, double-acting hydraulic jacks. The control system can conduct tests using either the magnitude of the applied loads or the magnitude of the slab deformations as the governing variable. The instrumentation carried on the rig allows the measurement of strains on the surfaces of the slabs and on the reinforcement, together with slab deformations and changes of curvature. The rig is capable of accommodating additional jacks for the application of in-plane loading.

The role of the emergency nurse practitioner (ENP) has increasingly become part of mainstream healthcare delivery in major accident and emergency departments in the United Kingdom. Although some research data are available in this field, there has been little attempt to evaluate the impact of the implementation of the ENP role from the perspective of those healthcare professionals most closely involved at local level. This paper describes one part of a case study evaluation of the role in an accident and emergency department in the South Thames English region. Nine face-to-face semi-structured interviews were carried out with the key multidisciplinary stakeholders in the organization. Five major themes emerged from the data analysis: blurring role boundaries; managing uncertainty; individual variation; quality vs. quantity; and the organizational context. Whilst some professional consensus was evident regarding the benefits of the role, such as improved waiting times and patient satisfaction, there appeared also to be a degree of ambivalence, particularly regarding current role configuration, value for money, and the extent to which the role should be expanded in the future. These issues are discussed in terms of professional identity, changing role boundaries, and professional personhood. It is argued that the benefits and pitfalls of the ENP role need to be considered within the context of local service provision. The growing emphasis on clinical governance reinforces the need for ongoing audit of role effectiveness in order to meet the challenges and uncertainties of increasingly blurred professional boundaries.

OBJECTIVE: To establish the current and predicted distribution of formal emergency nurse practitioner services in major accident and emergency departments in the United Kingdom; to determine organisational variations in service provision, with specific reference to funding, role configuration, training, and scope of clinical activity. METHODS: Postal survey of senior nurses of all major accident and emergency departments in the United Kingdom (n = 293) in May/June 1996. RESULTS: There were 274 replies (94% response rate): 98 departments (36%) provided a formal service; a further 91 departments (33%) reported definite plans to introduce a service by the end of 1996; smaller departments, under 40000 new patient attendances annually, were less likely to provide a service than busier units (p < 0.001, chi2 for trend). Three different methods of making the role operational were identified: dedicated, integrated, and rotational. Only 16 (18%) were able to provide a 24 hour service; 91 departments (93%) employed emergency nurse practitioners who had received specific training, but wide variations in length, content, and academic level were noted; 82 departments (84%) authorised nurse practitioners to order x rays independently, but only 35 (36%) allowed them to interpret radiographs; 67 (68%) permitted "over the counter" drug supplying under local protocol, and 52 (54%), "prescription only" drug supplying from an agreed list. CONCLUSIONS: Formal emergency nurse practitioner services are provided in all parts of the United Kingdom, with predicted figures suggesting a rapidly accelerating upward trend. Wide variations in service organisation, training, and scope of activity are evident.

The emergency nurse practitioner (ENP) is a rapidly developing role within emergency health care provision in the United Kingdom (UK). This paper explores some of the available literature concerning the development of the role in the context of major accident and emergency departments. The professional and legal implications of this shift in role boundaries are discussed. The current inconsistencies in educational provision and the potential consequences for practice in this area, are highlighted. The relative plethora of rigorous evaluation studies of ENP role effectiveness in North America, is contrasted with the current paucity of empirical data available in the UK. A number of methodological issues concerning the evaluation of ENP services are identified. The need for research in this area, alongside a programme of continuing local audit to guide and inform evidence-based practice, is emphasized.

The Permian (Sakmarian‐Artinskian) Talaterang and Shoalhaven Groups form the basal part of the Sydney Basin succession at its southernmost onshore extremity. A new stratigraphic model is proposed for the southern Sydney Basin and, although the previous group division is retained, considerable rearrangement of formations within and between the groups has been necessary as a result of recent field work. The Talaterang Group now includes the Clyde Coal Measures (incorporating the previous Pigeon House Creek Siltstone) and the Wasp Head Formation. The lower units in the overlying Shoalhaven Group are the Yadboro and Tallong Conglomerates, Pebbley Beach Formation, Yarrunga Coal Measures and Snapper Point Formation. Within the Talaterang Group, north‐directed sediment dispersal in the mud‐rich alluvial Clyde Coal Measures sequence and high energy east‐directed debris flows in the Wasp Head Formation suggest axial and transverse drainage related to possible north‐trending extensional (rift) sub‐basins similar to...

In this paper, a new approach to reduce the 1/f noise levels in the MOSFETs on varied silicon orientations, such as Si(100) and (110) surfaces, has been carried out. We focus on the Accumulation‐mode (AM) FD‐SOI device structure and demonstrate that the 1/f noise levels in this AM FD‐SOI MOSFETs are obviously reduced on both the Si(100) and (110) surfaces.

Patients' experiences after receiving care from emergency care practitioners (ECPs) were compared with those after receiving care from traditional ambulance practitioners using a postal questionnaire distributed to 1658 patients in London; 888 responses were received. The responses of patients receiving care from both groups were similar and largely positive. But in two areas ("thoroughness of assessment" and "explaining what would happen next"), the care provided by ECPs was experienced as considerably better. These differences were partly explained by considerably fewer patients from ECPs being conveyed to the emergency department, suggesting that empowering ECPs to explore and explain alternatives to the emergency department improves patient satisfaction.

The affinities of olanzapine, clozapine, haloperidol, and four potential antipsychotics were compared on binding to the neuronal receptors of a number of neurotransmitters. In both rat tissues and cell lines transfected with human receptors olanzapine had high affinity for dopamine D1, D2, D4, serotonin (5HT)2A, 5HT2C, 5HT3, alpha 1-adrenergic, histamine H1, and five muscarinic receptor subtypes. Olanzapine had lower affinity for alpha 2-adrenergic receptors and relatively low affinity for 5HT1 subtypes, GABAA, beta-adrenergic receptors, and benzodiazepine binding sites. The receptor binding affinities for olanzapine was quite similar in tissues from rat and human brain. The binding profile of olanzapine was comparable to the atypical antipsychotic clozapine, while the binding profiles for haloperidol, resperidone, remoxipride, Org 5222, and seroquel were substantially different from that of clozapine. The receptor binding profile of olanzapine is consistent with the antidopaminergic, antiserotonergic, and antimuscarinic activity observed in animal models and predicts atypical antipsychotic activity in man.

Olanzapine (LY170053, 2-methyl-4-(4-methyl-1-piperazinyl)-10H-thieno[2,3-b][1,5] benzodiazepine) is a novel "atypical" antipsychotic agent with 5-hydroxytryptamine2.dopamine D1/D2 antagonist activity and anticholinergic properties. In behavioral studies, olanzapine (1.25-10 mg/kg, p.o.) antagonizes apomorphine-induced climbing behavior in mice, demonstrating that the compound possesses D1/D2 antagonist activity in vivo. Olanzapine (0.3-20 mg/kg, p.o.) antagonizes 5-hydroxytryptophan-induced head twitches in mice at doses much lower than those required to block the climbing response, confirming that in vivo, the compound is a more potent 5-hydroxytryptamine2 antagonist than dopamine antagonist. Olanzapine (2.5-10 mg/kg, p.o.) also antagonized oxotremorine-induced tremor in mice. In a conditioned avoidance paradigm in rats, olanzapine inhibits the avoidance response with an ED50 of 4.7 mg/kg p.o; however, unlike other antipsychotic agents, catalepsy is only observed at much higher doses (ED50 39.4 mg/kg, p.o.). These data would suggest that the compound will be less likely to produce undesirable extrapyramidal symptoms. Unlike "typical" antipsychotics, olanzapine (1.25-5 mg/kg p.o.) increases responding during the conflict component of a modified Geller Seifter test, demonstrating that the compound may also possess anxiolytic activity. In another series of experiments, olanzapine (1.25 mg/kg, i.p.) produced clozapine-appropriate responding in a drug discrimination model in which animals had been trained to discriminate clozapine (5 mg/kg, i.p.) from vehicle. On the basis of these results, it would therefore be predicted that olanzapine will have an atypical profile and will be less likely to induce undesirable extrapyramidal symptoms than currently available drugs.

Animals were trained on a three-component multiple schedule comprising variable interval reward, time out and conflict (reward plus punishment). Following training, dose response-functions of a number of psychoactive compounds were studied particularly with respect to their actions on the two low rate behaviours. Thus, during time out no specific effects were observed following morphine, amino-oxyacetic acid, caffeine or para-chlorophenylalanine (PCPA), although amphetamine, chlordiazepoxide (CDP) and diazepam (DZP) produced dose dependent changes in lever pressing rate. During conflict, however, significant attenuation of suppressed responding was only observed following administration of the benzodiazepines (CDP and DZP) and PCPA. These increases with CDP and DZP were quantitatively larger than those observed during time out. These results suggest that the benzodiazepines have specific effects on behavioural processes involved in punishment and that these actions are mediated by changes in 5-HT functional activity.

The need to make more efficient use of energy resources by improved methods of control, the deferrment of expensive pipework reinforcement or replacement and the requirement to accommodate different loading patterns on sections of the gas network have made the requirement for effective feedback control essential. Gas distribution systems are large and complex and a major problem in applying conventional feedback techniques is the cost and reliability of transmitting the data necessary for automatic control. In order to overcome these difficulties, state estimation techniques have been investigated as a means of providing information about a distribution system from a minimum number of measurement points.The theoretical background to the study is reviewed including the modelling technique and the results of experimental work which has been performed on a distribution network in order to verify the techniques developed are presented.The results show that state estimation techniques have considerable potential for this type of application.

The paper discusses an on-line computer control system for a nuclear reactor using optimal state feedback based on the linear quadratic regulator and state estimation using a Kalman filter. Practical methods are presented for selecting the gain of the state estimator. It is shown that when pure time delays occur in the output states it is possible to use the Kalman filter to virtually eliminate the effects of the time delay on the control loop performance. The experimental results obtained using the control scheme show that the control scheme designed using modern control techniques has improved performance compared with conventional reactor control methods having greater speed of response, wider stability margins and significantly improved noise filtering properties

Aniamls were administered increasing doses of morphine for 16 days. During withdrawal they were challenged with an apomorphine ester or lergotrile. These dopamine agonists produced quantitatively different effects on behaviour. The results suggest that chronic morphine administration leads to dopamine supersensitivity which may be anatomically distinct in origin.

The effects of chlordiazepoxide (CDP) on emergence behavior was examined in socially reared and isolation reared rats. It was found that low doses of CDP decreased the emergence times of isolated animals but had little effect on the emergence of social animals. At higher doses the drug retarded emergence in all groups but there were no differential effects. The results do not support claims that rearing conditions influence the susceptability of rats to CNS depressants, rather they suggest that particular levels of CDP selectively influence "emotional" behavior.

Brain scintigrams with 8-10 mci of pertechnetate were studied refering to surgical, histological and other neuroradiological findings in 91 cases with diagnosis or suspect of basal midline lesions. Anterior view of 45 cases was stored in high speed magnetic tape, displayed on CRT of our data processing system and studied of the ratio of average count for regions of interest, 2 cm x 2 cm in size, placed on the areas of lesion, the sagittal sinus and the normal brain hemispheres. In 18 pituitary adenomas, excluding acromegaly and other intrasellar lesions, 89% of cases with surgical indication for optic nerve symptoms were reported as abnormal scintigrams. In 20 craniopharyngiomas, 11 positive cases consisted mainly of solid, recurrent or thick cystic tumors. Five of 6 ectopic pinealomas and all 6 parasellar or medial sphenoidal ridge meningiomas showed positive uptake. Average counts of the regions of interest placed on tumor areas were 169.4% of normal hemispheric areas in 9 pituitary adenomas, 192.5% in 3 solid craniopharyngiomas, 192.3% in 6 meningiomas and 193.3% in ectopic pinealomas. The difference in the average ratio of the lesion count to the normal hemispheric count was statistically significant between cystic craniopharyngioma and adenoma, ectopic pinealoma, meningioma, glioma and solid craniopharyngioma, and between adenoma and acromegaly with p less than 0.005, and between solid craniopharyngioma and acromegaly, and between glioma and acromegaly with p less than 0.025. In the ratio of the lesion count to the sagittal sinus count, on the other hand, the difference of the average ratio was significant with p less than 0.005, only between cystic craniopharyngioma and ectopic pinealoma, and between cystic and solid craniopharyngioma. These facts suggested that the sagittal sinus count was unsuitable to be the standard count of an anterior scintigram to compare with basal midline count. The routine Polaroid scintigram with Tc99m pertechnetate proved their useful clinical diagnostic value for various basal midline lesions, the size of which indicated the surgical procedures. The digital analysis of anterior scintigrams supported the clinical value of the routine brain scintigram in the detection of these lesions. The ratio of the average count of the basal midline lesion to the normal brain area on the anterior scintigram presents more useful clinical information than the ratio of the lesion to the sagittal sinus count. Brain scintigram is found to be very helpful for the differential diagnosis between solid and cystic sellar tumors which is very important for the decision of surgical indications, and is not always possible by any other conventional neuroradiological procedures.

Di-isobutyryl apomorphine (5 mg/kg i.p.) and lergotrile (5 mg/kg i.p.) produce long lasting turning behaviour in rats with 6-hydroxydopamine lesions at the level of the substantia nigra. Haloperidol (1.5 and 3.0 mg/kg p.o.) blocks the rotational behaviour due to the apomorphine ester but has no effect on lergotrile turning. Clozapine (10 and 20 mg/kg p.o.) blocks the lergotrile turning but stimulates the rotational behaviour produced by the apomorphine ester. The results support the concept of two anatomically separate dopamine receptors and their relevance to the study of antipsychotic activity is discussed.

PUNISHMENT is defined as the presentation of a noxious stimulus and results in the suppression of behaviour. This suppressive effect of punishment is seen clearly in conflict situations where the organism is encouraged to respond and then is punished for doing so. Brain 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) systems have been implicated in the processes associated with the response to punishment. We show here that selective neurotoxin lesions to the 5-HT forebrain pathways reverse the suppressive effects of punishment, as do minor tranquillisers, supporting the view that 5-HT has a central role in conflict behaviour and in the effect of minor tranquillisers on such behaviour.

Ten London pigeons were trained on a schedule which allowed concurrent measurement of motor and exteroceptive sensory changes. The task involved a conditional colour discrimination contingent upon the completion of a fixed interval schedule of responding. As a preliminary pharmacological study the effects of the benzodiazepines, chlordiazepoxide and flurazepam were investigated. Both drugs enhanced perseverative responding (after completion of the FI), and to a variable degree responding during the FI, although there was no evidence for an increase in responding during the inter-trial-intervals. On the other hand, no marked changes in discrimination performance were observed. It is concluded that the most significant effects of these benzodiazepines are on motor mechanisms.