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Pop-out effects occur when a novel or different stimulus is presented in the context of an array of otherwise familiar or similar stimuli. The effect has been studied using words extensively, but little evidence exists for humans relating to nonverbal stimuli. Although the finding has implications for understanding features of stimuli that capture attention, contradictory findings exist, and previous paradigms have limited applicability to real world situations. Given this, an experiment employed a novel procedure to investigate whether category pop-out effects, where one item is drawn from a different category to the others, could be obtained with pictorial stimulus array. It also investigated whether pop-out effects could be generated with a single continuous pre-exposure procedure, as would be experienced in a naturalistic setting, or whether they were the results of biases introduced by the repetitive pre-exposure procedures, typically used in such studies. The latter finding would undermine the use of such findings to support ecologically-valid models of attention. Both of these questions were answered in the affirmative: category pop-out effects were obtained using picture stimuli; and such effects were obtained with a single continuous pre-exposure. Further development this novel procedure may allow exploration of evolutionary and neurological aspects of selective attention effects., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2024 McCarthy, Reed. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Previous work shows that automatic attention biases toward recently selected target features transfer across action and perception and even across different effectors such as the eyes and hands on a trial-by-trial basis. Although these findings suggest a common neural representation of selection history across effectors, the extent to which information about recently selected target features is encoded in overlapping versus distinct brain regions is unknown. Using fMRI and a priming of pop-out task where participants selected unpredictable, uniquely colored targets among homogeneous distractors via reach or saccade, we show that color priming is driven by shared, effector-independent underlying representations of recent selection history. Consistent with previous work, we found that the intraparietal sulcus (IPS) was commonly activated on trials where target colors were switched relative to those where the colors were repeated; however, the dorsal anterior insula exhibited effector-specific activation related to color priming. Via multivoxel cross-classification analyses, we further demonstrate that fine-grained patterns of activity in both IPS and the medial temporal lobe encode information about selection history in an effector-independent manner, such that ROI-specific models trained on activity patterns during reach selection could predict whether a color was repeated or switched on the current trial during saccade selection and vice versa. Remarkably, model generalization performance in IPS and medial temporal lobe also tracked individual differences in behavioral priming sensitivity across both types of action. These results represent a first step to clarify the neural substrates of experience-driven selection biases in contexts that require the coordination of multiple actions., (© 2023 Massachusetts Institute of Technology.)

To accomplish the deceptively simple task of perceiving the size of objects in the visual scene, the visual system combines information about the retinal size of the object with several other cues, including perceived distance, relative size, and prior knowledge. When local component elements are perceptually grouped to form objects, the task is further complicated because a grouped object does not have a continuous contour from which retinal size can be estimated. Here, we investigate how the visual system solves this problem and makes it possible for observers to judge the size of perceptually grouped objects. We systematically vary the shape and orientation of the component elements in a two-alternative forced-choice task and find that the perceived size of the array of component objects can be almost perfectly predicted from the distance between the centroids of the component elements and the center of the array. This is true whether the global contour forms a circle or a square. When elements were positioned such that the centroids along the global contour were at different distances from the center, perceived size was based on the average distance. These results indicate that perceived size does not depend on the size of individual elements, and that smooth contours formed by the outer edges of the component elements are not used to estimate size. The current study adds to a growing literature highlighting the importance of centroids in visual perception and may have implications for how size is estimated for ensembles of different objects.

Multiple studies have identified that complement becomes activated during inflammation of the intestines yet it is unclear what roles the split complement molecules play. The epithelium, in particular, may be impacted and accordingly, we first discovered that colonic cell lines indeed possess the C5aR. Here we examined whether these cells also possess the C3aR. We determined that T84, HT-29 and Caco2 all possess C3aR mRNA and protein; T84 and HT29 were used to further explore the consequence of C3a binding the C3aR. C3a led to increased mRNA for CXCL2, CXCL8 and CXCL11. Polarized T84 monolayers responded to apically applied C3a with increased CXCL8 mRNA more rapidly than if the C3a was applied basolaterally. Polarized monolayers also increased permeability when treated with C3a. ERK1/2 was activated by C3a and the increase in CXCL8 mRNA was ERK-dependent in both T84 and HT-29. C3a resulted in activation of Gαi, determined by the ERK1/2 signal showing sensitivity to pertussis toxin. The transmembrane signal was further mapped to include Ras and c-Raf. Finally, we show that the C3aR is expressed by primary cells in mouse enteroids. We conclude that complement activation will contribute to the epithelial response during inflammation through C3a binding to the C3aR including by priming the cells to upregulate mRNA for selected chemokines., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

When an object partially or completely disappears behind an occluding surface, a representation of that object persists. For example, fragments of no longer visible objects can serve as an input into mid-level constructive visual processes, interacting and integrating with currently visible portions to form perceptual units and global motion signals. Remarkably, these persistent representations need not be static and can have their positions and orientations updated postdictively as new information becomes visible. In this chapter, we highlight historical considerations, behavioral evidence, and neural correlates of this type of representational updating of no longer visible information at three distinct levels of visual processing. At the lowest level, we discuss spatiotemporal boundary formation in which visual transients can be integrated over space and time to construct local illusory edges, global form, and global motion percepts. At an intermediate level, we review how the visual system updates form information seen at one moment in time and integrates it with subsequently available information to generate global shape and motion representations (e.g., spatiotemporal form integration and anorthoscopic perception). At a higher level, when an entire object completely disappears behind an occluder, the object's identity and predicted position can be maintained in the absence of visual information., (© 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Extensive research has shown individual religiosity to have an impact upon U.S. protest participation. But very little work has examined the role of religious density in a community on the likelihood of protest mobilization. Our research links the religious density across 62 counties in New York State to various protest mobilization issues during the period of 1960-1995. In this research, we develop a theory of socially organized sentiments to examine religious influences on overall protest event mobilizations in local communities, a specific example of a more general theory that can link community structure to multiple forms of civic engagement. The impact of various religious traditions is assessed by using measures for the density of religious population per congregation of three religious traditions-Mainline Protestantism, Evangelical Protestantism and Catholicism. The analysis also assesses the likelihood of mobilization concerning four specific issues-African-American civil rights, gender, anti-nuclear/peace, and anti-poverty movements., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

In daily life, humans interact with multiple objects in complex environments. A large body of literature demonstrates that target selection is biased toward recently attended features, such that reaches are faster and trajectory curvature is reduced when target features (i.e., color) are repeated (priming of pop-out). In the real world, however, objects are comprised of several features-some of which may be more suitable for action than others. When fetching a mug from the cupboard, for example, attention not only has to be allocated to the object, but also the handle. To date, no study has investigated the impact of hierarchical feature organization on target selection for action. Here, we employed a color-oddity search task in which targets were Pac-men (i.e., a circle with a triangle cut out) oriented to be either consistent or inconsistent with the percept of a global Kanizsa triangle. We found that reaches were initiated faster when a task-irrelevant illusory figure was present independent of color repetition. Additionally, consistent with priming of pop-out, both reach planning and execution were facilitated when local target colors were repeated, regardless of whether a global figure was present. We also demonstrated that figures defined by illusory, but not real contours, afforded an early target selection benefit. In sum, these findings suggest that when local targets are perceptually grouped to form an illusory surface, attention quickly spreads across the global figure and facilitates the early stage of reach planning, but not execution. In contrast, local color priming is evident throughout goal-directed reaching.

When an object moves behind a bush, for example, its visible fragments are revealed at different times and locations across the visual field. Nonetheless, a whole moving object is perceived. Unlike traditional modal and amodal completion mechanisms known to support spatial form integration when all parts of a stimulus are simultaneously visible, relatively little is known about the neural substrates of the spatiotemporal form integration (STFI) processes involved in generating coherent object representations from a succession visible fragments. We used fMRI to identify brain regions involved in two mechanisms supporting the representation of stationary and rigidly rotating objects whose form features are shown in succession: STFI and position updating. STFI allows past and present form cues to be integrated over space and time into a coherent object even when the object is not visible in any given frame. STFI can occur whether or not the object is moving. Position updating allows us to perceive a moving object, whether rigidly rotating or translating, even when its form features are revealed at different times and locations in space. Our results suggest that STFI is mediated by visual regions beyond V1 and V2. Moreover, although widespread cortical activation has been observed for other motion percepts derived solely from form-based analyses [Tse, P. U. Neural correlates of transformational apparent motion. Neuroimage, 31, 766-773, 2006; Krekelberg, B., Vatakis, A., & Kourtzi, Z. Implied motion from form in the human visual cortex. Journal of Neurophysiology, 94, 4373-4386, 2005], increased responses for the position updating that lead to rigidly rotating object representations were only observed in visual areas KO and possibly hMT+, indicating that this is a distinct and highly specialized type of processing.

Objects in the world often are occluded and in motion. The visible fragments of such objects are revealed at different times and locations in space. To form coherent representations of the surfaces of these objects, the visual system must integrate local form information over space and time. We introduce a new illusion in which a rigidly rotating square is perceived on the basis of sequentially presented Pacman inducers. The illusion highlights two fundamental processes that allow us to perceive objects whose form features are revealed over time: Spatiotemporal Form Integration (STFI) and Position Updating. STFI refers to the spatial integration of persistent representations of local form features across time. Position updating of these persistent form representations allows them to be integrated into a rigid global motion percept. We describe three psychophysical experiments designed to identify spatial and temporal constraints that underlie these two processes and a fourth experiment that extends these findings to more ecologically valid stimuli. Our results indicate that although STFI can occur across relatively long delays between successive inducers (i.e., greater than 500 ms), position updating is limited to a more restricted temporal window (i.e., ~300 ms or less), and to a confined range of spatial (mis)alignment. These findings lend insight into the limits of mechanisms underlying the visual system's capacity to integrate transient, piecemeal form information, and support coherent object representations in the ever-changing environment.

A recent study showed that color synesthetes have increased color sensitivity but impaired motion perception. This is exciting because little research has examined how synesthesia affects basic perceptual processes outside the context of synesthetic experiences. The results suggest that synesthesia broadly impacts perception with greater neural implications than previously considered., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

In grapheme-color synesthesia, graphemes (e.g., numbers or letters) evoke color experiences. It is generally reported that the opposite is not true: colors will not generate experiences of graphemes or their associated information. However, recent research has provided evidence that colors can implicitly elicit symbolic representations of associated graphemes. Here, we examine if these representations can be cognitively accessed. Using a mathematical verification task replacing graphemes with color patches, we find that synesthetes can verify such problems with colors as accurately as with graphemes. Doing so, however, takes time: ~250 ms per color. Moreover, we find minimal reaction time switch-costs for switching between computing with graphemes and colors. This demonstrates that given specific task demands, synesthetes can cognitively access numerical information elicited by physical colors, and they do so as accurately as with graphemes. We discuss these results in the context of possible cognitive strategies used to access the information., (Published by Elsevier Inc.)

Secondary data gathered for purposes other than research play an important role in the social sciences. A recent data release has made an important source of publicly available data on associational interests, the Encyclopedia of Associations (EA), readily accessible to scholars (www.policyagendas.org). In this paper we introduce these new data and systematically investigate issues of lag between events and subsequent reporting in the EA, as these have important but under-appreciated effects on time-series statistical models. We further analyze the accuracy and coverage of the database in numerous ways. Our study serves as a guide to potential users of this database, but we also reflect upon a number of issues that should concern all researchers who use secondary data such as newspaper records, IRS reports and FBI Uniform Crime Reports., (Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Our perception of an object's size arises from the integration of multiple sources of visual information including retinal size, perceived distance and its size relative to other objects in the visual field. This constructive process is revealed through a number of classic size illusions such as the Delboeuf Illusion, the Ebbinghaus Illusion and others illustrating size constancy. Here we present a novel variant of the Delbouef and Ebbinghaus size illusions that we have named the Binding Ring Illusion. The illusion is such that the perceived size of a circular array of elements is underestimated when superimposed by a circular contour - a binding ring - and overestimated when the binding ring slightly exceeds the overall size of the array. Here we characterize the stimulus conditions that lead to the illusion, and the perceptual principles that underlie it. Our findings indicate that the perceived size of an array is susceptible to the assimilation of an explicitly defined superimposed contour. Our results also indicate that the assimilation process takes place at a relatively high level in the visual processing stream, after different spatial frequencies have been integrated and global shape has been constructed. We hypothesize that the Binding Ring Illusion arises due to the fact that the size of an array of elements is not explicitly defined and therefore can be influenced (through a process of assimilation) by the presence of a superimposed object that does have an explicit size.

Object motion perception depends on the integration of form and motion information into a unified neural representation. Historically, form and motion perception are thought to be independent processes; however, research has demonstrated that these processes interact in numerous and complex ways. For example, an object's orientation relative to its direction of motion will influence its perceived speed (Georges, Seriès, Frégnac, & Lorenceau, Vision Research 42:2757-2772, 2002). Here, we investigated whether this local form-motion interaction influences global form processing. In Experiment 1, we replicated the effect of orientation-dependent modulation of speed. In Experiment 2, we investigated whether the perceived speed of local elements could influence the perceived shape of a global object constructed from grouping of those elements. The results indicated that the orientation of local elements indeed influenced the perceived shape of a global object. We propose that inputs from local form-motion processes are one of perhaps many neural mechanisms underlying global form integration.

Why do some social movement leaders work harder than others? And, how does gender affect the patterns we uncover? Utilizing historical case study evidence of local chapters in the emerging movement opposing drinking and driving we are able to develop and test theoretical expectations about predictors of weekly effort among MADD and RID leaders. Taken together, our model explains 45 percent of the variation in leadership effort. We find bureaucratic complexity and victim support activities are more powerful predictors of effort than are individual leader characteristics, although all are important. Further analysis reveals that gender almost wholly conditions the strong effect of bureaucratic complexity on leadership effort so that increasingly complex chapter structures are associated with substantial increases in work hours for women but not men.

Some states maintain high-quality alcohol outlet databases but quality varies by state, making comprehensive comparative analysis across US communities difficult. This study assesses the adequacy of using ZIP Code Business Patterns (ZIP-BP) data on establishments as estimates of the number of alcohol outlets by ZIP code. Specifically we compare ZIP-BP alcohol outlet counts with high-quality data from state and local records surrounding 44 college campus communities across 10 states plus the District of Columbia. Results show that a composite measure is strongly correlated (R=0.89) with counts of alcohol outlets generated from official state records. Analyses based on Generalized Estimation Equation models show that community and contextual factors have little impact on the concordance between the two data sources. There are also minimal inter-state differences in the level of agreement. To validate the use of a convenient secondary data set (ZIP-BP) it is important to have a high correlation with the more complex, high quality and more costly data product (i.e., datasets based on the acquisition and geocoding of state and local records) and then to clearly demonstrate that the discrepancy between the two to be unrelated to relevant explanatory variables. Thus our overall findings support the adequacy of using a conveniently available data set (ZIP-BP data) to estimate alcohol outlet densities in ZIP code areas in future research., (Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Objective: To describe anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) variation across normal menstrual cycles., Design: Cohort study., Setting: Academic environment., Patient(s): Twenty regularly menstruating women., Intervention(s): Serum AMH and inhibin B assayed daily during one normal menstrual cycle., Main Outcome Measure(s): Intracycle variability of AMH and inhibin B., Result(s): Data were classified into quartiles of AMH area-under-the-curve (AUCs). Mean AMH AUC was 15.7 ng/mL for quartile 1 versus 43.5, 80.9 and 144.9 ng/mL for quartiles 2, 3, and 4. Mean AMH levels (ng/mL) were 0.67, 1.71, 3.02, and 5.33, respectively. There was no variation in quartile 1 AMH rate of change from stochastic modeling, but in quartiles 2 to 4, there were increased rates of change in days 2 to 7. Women in quartile 1 had the lowest mean inhibin B (24.2 pg/mL vs. 44.3, 43.2, and 42.2 pg/mL), and had shorter menstrual cycles (24.6 days) than women in quartiles 3 and 4 (28.2 and 28.4 days)., Conclusion(s): There were two menstrual cycle patterns of AMH. The "aging ovary" pattern included low AMH levels with little variation, lower inhibin B, and shorter cycle lengths. The "younger ovary" pattern included higher AMH levels with significant variation days 2 to 7, suggesting that for women with AMH>1 ng/mL, the interpretation of AMH levels is contingent upon the day of the menstrual cycle on which the specimen is obtained., (Copyright (c) 2010 American Society for Reproductive Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Congenital anomalies of the vagina may be isolated to the vagina or be part of a more complex Mullerian tract anomaly with possible fertility concerns. Patient age, complete assessment of the anomaly before surgery, and the psychologic implications for the patient are important components of the initial evaluation and treatment planning. Imaging, including magnetic resonance imaging, should be used to assess the extent of the anomaly and possibly other organ systems involved. Surgeries for imperforate hymen, longitudinal septum, and low thin transverse septum are relatively straightforward. More complicated surgeries should be performed by a specialized surgical team.

Background: Ovarian tumors are the most common gynecologic malignancy occurring in childhood, with germ cell tumors being most frequent. This contrasts with adults where epithelial tumors account for most ovarian neoplasms. Tumor markers are an integral part of the work-up and may guide management., Case: A 6-year-old girl with a persistent adnexal mass was found to have a highly elevated CA-125. Other tumor markers were normal. Laparoscopy revealed an enlarged, adherent ovary. A minilaparotomy revealed an ovary filled with necrotic material. This necrotic material was excised and the ovary was spared. The pathology was consistent with necrosis. Follow-up ultrasonography and CA-125 were normal., Summary and Conclusions: This case demonstrates for the first time the association of an elevated CA-125 and ovarian torsion in a pediatric patient. This benign finding allowed attempting a conservative ovary-sparing approach during the surgery even in the presence of a highly elevated CA-125. However, in general, for children CA-125 is of limited utility, as it will not affect the indication for surgical exploration of persistent masses and elevations in CA-125 may discourage ovarian conservation., (Copyright 2010 North American Society for Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Major vascular injury during laparoscopic surgery is an uncommon but serious complication. A small number of earlier case reports describe delayed diagnosis of vascular lacerations. Herein we report a unique case of a robot-assisted laparoscopic resection of an obstructed uterine horn, complicated by delayed postoperative presentation of a common iliac artery thrombus without extravascular hemorrhage. The injury was likely caused by blunt trauma to the exterior of the vessel with damage to the vascular intima and subsequent dissection. Meticulous surgical technique, accurate diagnosis, and subsequent treatment are essential to decrease morbidity from such major vascular injuries at the time of laparoscopy.

In the context of hazard monitoring, using sensor web technology to monitor anddetect hazardous conditions in near-real-time can result in large amounts of spatial data thatcan be used to drive analysis at an instrumented site. These data can be used for decisionmaking and problem solving, however as with any analysis problem the success ofanalyzing hazard potential is governed by many factors such as: the quality of the sensordata used as input; the meaning that can be derived from those data; the reliability of themodel used to describe the problem; the strength of the analysis methods; and the ability toeffectively communicate the end results of the analysis. For decision makers to make use ofsensor web data these issues must be dealt with to some degree. The work described in thispaper addresses all of these areas by showing how raw sensor data can be automaticallytransformed into a representation which matches a predefined model of the problem context.This model can be understood by analysis software that leverages rule-based logic andinference techniques to reason with, and draw conclusions about, spatial data. These toolsare integrated with a well known Geographic Information System (GIS) and existinggeospatial and sensor web infrastructure standards, providing expert users with the toolsneeded to thoroughly explore a problem site and investigate hazards in any domain.

Reliable methods are required for the detection and enumeration of potentially injured E. coli O157 in food in the presence of outnumbering competing bacteria. Selective agents can prevent or inhibit the recovery and subsequent multiplication of injured cells and direct inoculation, either into selective enrichment broths or onto selective agar plates is still used in many methods for E. coli O157 detection and enumeration. When compared with tryptone soya agar (TSA), sorbitol MacConkey agar (SMAC) was shown to underestimate the concentration of viable E. coli O157:H7 subjected to low pH and high NaCl concentration. Using a resuscitation stage on TSA followed by membrane transfer to SMAC improved recovery to levels obtained on TSA. The membrane method was used to monitor the numbers of artificially contaminated E. coli O157:H7 during the fermentation of a meat product and demonstrated better survival when compared to counts on SMAC. Six rapid methods for the detection of E. coli O157 in food (BAX E. coli O157, Reveal 8 E. coli O157-H7 screening test, VIP EHEC, VIDAS E. coli O157 (ECO), EHEC-Tek and Tecra E. coli O157 visual immunoassay), were evaluated using beetburgers, parsley and fermented meat artificially contaminated with injured cells. Methods using direct selective enrichment, with or without an elevated incubation temperature gave false-negative results. The incorporation of a non-selective pre-enrichment medium improved the detection rates of these assays by up to ten fold.

Background: Recent recognition that a predisposition to prostate cancer can be inherited has led to a search for specific genes associated with the disease. Through a study of families with three or more affected first-degree relatives, a region on the long arm of chromosome 1 (i.e., 1q24-25) has been tentatively identified as containing a gene, HPC1, involved in the development of hereditary prostate cancer. Confirmation of this finding is needed, however, before attempts are made to isolate and characterize the putative HPC1 gene., Purpose: To confirm that chromosome 1q24-25 contains a gene relevant to hereditary prostate cancer, we analyzed an independent set of families, each with two or more affected individuals., Methods: Fifty-nine unrelated families were selected for analysis on the sole criterion that more than one living family member was affected by prostate cancer. DNA samples were subsequently isolated from 130 individuals with the disease. These samples were genotyped at six polymorphic marker sequences (D1S215, D1S2883, D1S466, D1S158, D1S518, and D1S2757) covering the chromosomal region proposed to contain HPC1. The resulting data were analyzed by nonparametric multipoint linkage (NPL) methods, yielding NPL Z scores and corresponding one-sided P values., Results: When the entire set of 59 families was considered, the occurrence of prostate cancer (and, presumably, the HPC1 gene) was most tightly linked to marker D1S466 (NPL Z score = 1.58; P = .0574). Analysis of the 20 families (51 affected individuals) fulfilling one or more of the proposed clinical criteria for hereditary prostate cancer (i.e., three or more affected individuals within one nuclear family; affected individuals in three successive generations [maternal or paternal lineage]; and/or clustering of two or more individuals affected before the age of 55 years) revealed more convincing evidence of disease linkage to chromosome 1q24-25 (maximum NPL Z score [at marker D1S466] = 1.72; P = .0451). The 39 families (79 affected individuals) that did not meet the clinical criteria for hereditary prostate cancer exhibited no significant evidence of disease linkage to DNA sequences at chromosome 1q24-25 (maximum NPL Z score [at marker D1S466] = 0.809; P = .208). The six African-American families in our study contributed disproportionately to the observation of linkage, with a maximum NPL Z score at marker D1S158 of 1.39 (P = .0848) for these families., Conclusions and Implications: Our data confirm that chromosome 1q24-25 is likely to contain a prostate cancer susceptibility gene. Future efforts at positional cloning of the HPC1 gene should focus on families who meet the proposed clinical criteria for hereditary prostate cancer.

Diverticular disease in patients 40 years of age or younger has been described as rare but virulent. Previous studies, based on age, on diverticular disease are often confusing because of inexact definitions of the disease status. With these criticisms in mind, the authors studied 322 clinical records on patients admitted with a diagnosis of colonic diverticulosis or diverticulitis to the University of New Mexico Hospital and the Lovelace Medical Center. Of these patients, 285 had documented evidence of colonic diverticula with only 6 per cent of these being 40 years of age or younger. The criteria for acute diverticulitis were met by 86 patients, 17 of whom were 40 years of age or younger. The younger group had disproportionately more men, particularly Hispanics. The authors conclude that acute diverticulitis is more common in the young than suggested by previous reports, but the behavior of the disease is not distinctive.

A microimmunofluorescence test was used to detect antibodies to mycoplasmas in avian sera. When the specificity of the system was established, the test was applied to the detection of M. synoviae antibodies in experimentally and naturally infected chickens and turkeys. The test is considerably more sensitive than the rapid serum agglutination test, detects reactors earlier in the experimentally infected birds and produces titres that are markedly greater. In naturally infected birds the titres were also very much higher than rapid serum plate test titres.

Polypropylene mesh (Marlex) is well accepted for use in the peritoneum. Incisional hernias can be effectively repaired by anchoring Marlex intraperitoneally with a series of U sutures. These sutures pass through the normal body wall which remains after excision of the hernia sac and overlying attenuated fascia. When the sutures are taken up, an impenetrable diaphragm of Marlex is drawn into place beneath the abdominal wall defect. The defect itself is closed with other sutures. Only 2 of 25 patients had recurrences, and each recurrence came past the edge of the mesh. This operation is recommended for the repair of incisional hernias.

Five groups of light hybrid SPF chicks were inoculated at 1 day of age with different strains of Mycoplasma iowae via the right thoracic air sac and right foot pad. Control birds were inoculated with sterile mycoplasma broth at the same sites. The chicks were observed daily for clinical signs and at 3 and 6 weeks approximately half the birds in each group were killed for postmortem, histological and cultural examination. At 6 weeks serological studies were also carried out. Clinical signs were minimal although in three of the five infected groups there was impaired ability in some birds to flex the digits of the feet. On postmortem examination the most common finding was exudative tenosynovitis affecting the digital flexor tendons above and below the hock joint. Histological examination of such tendons revealed inflammatory changes with heterophil infiltration together with plasma cells and lymphoid foci. Some tendons exhibited sigmoid folding which was apparently associated with rupture of that tendon. M. iowae was reisolated from chicks in only three of the five infected groups and there was no obvious correlation with lesions. Rapid serum plate agglutination tests using an antigen made from the type strain gave one positive reaction out of 34 infected birds tested but an antigen prepared from another strain (serovar J DJA) gave 11 positive reactions.

The Childs-Phillips plication operation was performed in forty-two patients, as treatment for recurrent small bowel obstruction in nineteen and as prophylaxis against future intestinal obstruction in twenty-three. Intestinal obstruction occurred later in only one patient. Eight of ten patients with acute peritonitis died in the postoperative period. Consequently, the operation is not recommended in the presence of generalized acute peritonitis.

Obstruction of the small intestine caused by peritoneal carcinomatosis is properly palliated by resection, bypass, and stoma formation. If none of these procedures is applicable, palliation may be achieved by the permanent placement of a long intraluminal decompressive (Baker) tube. Twelve patients have been treated in this manner, nine of them living long enough to exhibit the capacity to eat and drink without repetitive vomiting. The Baker tube was passed across the abdominal wall, inserted into the proximal jejunum, and then passed as far as practical down to the surgically nontreatable obstruction. Venting of the small intestine distally allows continuing decompression, which thereby permits mucosal functions proximally. This technique allows the surgeon to do something beneficial for these unfortunate patients when the established maneuvers of bypass, resection, or stoma formation are pointless.

Does a content-free measure of global self-esteem tap the same self-esteem dimensions as that measured by self-evaluations on specific dimensions that are then combined into a summated scale? We address this question by using a sample of 1,528 7th, 9th, and 11th graders. Nine specific self-ratings (e.g., "I am smart" and "I am GOOD-LOOKING") were combined into a scale that used various weightings, in an attempt to maximize correlations with global self-esteem measured by two content-free scales. The correlations do not exceed .453, suggesting that measures based on summations of a large number of specific self-ratings tap a somewhat different phenomenon than content-free global scales. The most effective weighting of specific dimensions for predicting global self-esteem depended on group identity salience rather than individual identity salience--that is, group means of the importance of the separate self-evaluation dimensions were used rather than each subject's own self-rating of the importance of that dimension. This result held even when interactive models of weighting were used.

Twelve patients with severely bleeding peptic ulcers (six duodenal, five gastric, and one esophageal) who were considered to be at high operative risk were treated instead by endoscopic electrocoagulation of the bleeding point. Arrest of the bleeding was permanent in ten, one bled again two days later, and one patient died of nonulcer disease one day later. Although this method to control bleeding from peptic ulceration is new, it seems to offer promise especially when treating desperately ill people.

An investigation was carried out into the pathogenicity of four strains of Mycoplasma iowae for chick embryos. Doses ranging from approximately 10(6) to 10 colony-forming units of M. iowae per egg were inoculated via the yolk sac at 7 days of incubation. Groups of 10 or more eggs per dose were used. The eggs were incubated through to hatch, and dead embryos and hatched chicks were examined for abnormalities and mycoplasma recovery. All four strains of M. iowae caused embryo mortality but two were especially virulent - one killed all the embryos while the other killed all but one. Most deaths occurred towards the end of incubation and the main abnormalities were dwarfing and congestion. Some embryos were oedematous, especially around the head, and livers and spleens were often mustard-coloured. Hatched chicks had a low incidence of air sac lesions. Mycoplasmas, identified by immunofluorescence as M. iowae were isolated from almost every exposed embryo and chick, and from almost every site sampled. No mycoplasmas were isolated from broth-inoculated controls.

The accuracy of operative cholangiograms can be increased by radiomanometry. This study identified 17 patients among 198 studied whose choledocholiths would have likely been missed by routine cholangiography. These are almost invariably small stones the fate of which would be conjectural if left behind. In the present study, if the cholangiogram was negative and the passage pressure within normal limits, calculi were seen only once. If the cholangiogram was positive for choledocholithiasis and the passage pressure elevated, stones were almost invariably found (95 per cent). Such accuracy cannot be expected from either roentgenography alone or determination solely of pressure relationships.