The effect of a balanced amino acid infusion on hepatic regeneration in rats

The efficacy of a balanced amino acid infusion on recovery from temporary hepatic insufficiency and its effect on plasma ammonia levels in partially hepatectomized rats were studied. Polyethylene implant buttons were developed to secure animals to the infusion apparatus. Rats under went jugular vein cannulation, and 70% partial hepatectomy. Test solutions were continuously infused (30 ml/d). Plasma samples were taken through the jugular vein cannula and analyzed for bilirubin concentration, ammonia concentration, LDH activity, and GPT activity. LDH and bilirubin results were inconclusive. Results from GPT activity assays suggest that both Freamine III and the balanced formula provided injured hepatocytes with better nutrition than saline infusions and ad libitum food consumption. Ammonia assay results suggest that the balanced formula was more effective than Freamine in maintaining plasma ammonia levels in the normal range after partial hepatectomy

Toward Digital Picture Books for a New Generation of Emergent Readers

The study tests the efficacy of a new sort of digital picture book. It includes camera movements to guide children’s visual attention through the pictures and the possibility to control page-turning and the pace at which the camera moves through pictures. There were 56 participants (Mage = 60.34 months, SD = 6.24) randomly assigned to three conditions: still images, camera movements (no control over pace), and camera movements (control over pace). For the 50% of children least proficient in language skills, sparingly adding well-chosen camera movements to the illustrations helps children understand the story. In addition, the camera movements’ effect can be enhanced by enabling control over the pace at which new information appears. Particularly the 50% low-language proficiency children benefited from camera movements and spending more time processing information.publishedVersio

Thuis voorlezen met digitale prentenboeken

Gezinnen met jonge kinderen zouden vrij toegang moeten hebben tot een website met digitale prentenboeken. Digitale boeken worden vaker herlezen waardoor ze de taalinput van contextrijke taal in het Nederlands enorm kunnen vergroten zelfs als kinderen maar een paar keer per week met de digitale prentenboeken aan de slag gaan. Dit geeft een enorme impuls aan hun kennis van de Nederlandse taal. Het project is onderdeel van het programma ‘Innovatiecentra vve’ van het ministerie van OCW en NRO, waarin vijf interventies werden geselecteerd en onderzocht op hun bijdrage aan verhoging van kwaliteit van voor- en vroegschoolse educatie. Naast dit Dordtse project werden vier andere innovatiecentra onderzocht, in de gemeenten Den Haag, Amsterdam, Leiden en Heerlen

Intergenerational Groups: Rediscovering our Legacy

Intergenerational groups are a community-based group concept designed to engage and mobilize often untapped resources of older adults in effective interaction with younger populations. These groups support an atmosphere of synergistic interaction. Members of each generation share reflections on interpersonal strengths and capacities and rediscover emotional and spiritual anchors and bonding. Illustrated here is Community Connections (CC), developed using the phase driven participatory culture-specific intervention model (PCSIM; Nastasi, Moore & Varjas, 2004) that included self selected local older adults, caregivers, and multicultural exchange students. The program was structured to offer mutual opportunities for activities built around exchanging cultural and life experiences. The goals were: 1) to reduce social isolation due to age, culture, or disability 2) for international students to practice English and learn about local cultural traditions, and 3) to build intergenerational ‘extended family’ relationships

Antibodies to Enteroviruses in Cerebrospinal Fluid of Patients with Acute Flaccid Myelitis.

Acute flaccid myelitis (AFM) has caused motor paralysis in >560 children in the United States since 2014. The temporal association of enterovirus (EV) outbreaks with increases in AFM cases and reports of fever, respiratory, or gastrointestinal illness prior to AFM in >90% of cases suggest a role for infectious agents. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) from 14 AFM and 5 non-AFM patients with central nervous system (CNS) diseases in 2018 were investigated by viral-capture high-throughput sequencing (VirCapSeq-VERT system). These CSF and serum samples, as well as multiple controls, were tested for antibodies to human EVs using peptide microarrays. EV RNA was confirmed in CSF from only 1 adult AFM case and 1 non-AFM case. In contrast, antibodies to EV peptides were present in CSF of 11 of 14 AFM patients (79%), significantly higher than controls, including non-AFM patients (1/5 [20%]), children with Kawasaki disease (0/10), and adults with non-AFM CNS diseases (2/11 [18%]) (P = 0.023, 0.0001, and 0.0028, respectively). Six of 14 CSF samples (43%) and 8 of 11 sera (73%) from AFM patients were immunoreactive to an EV-D68-specific peptide, whereas the three control groups were not immunoreactive in either CSF (0/5, 0/10, and 0/11; P = 0.008, 0.0003, and 0.035, respectively) or sera (0/2, 0/8, and 0/5; P = 0.139, 0.002, and 0.009, respectively).IMPORTANCE The presence in cerebrospinal fluid of antibodies to EV peptides at higher levels than non-AFM controls supports the plausibility of a link between EV infection and AFM that warrants further investigation and has the potential to lead to strategies for diagnosis and prevention of disease

Ein Traum, zwei Methoden

Die vorliegende Arbeit will zwei bezüglich Zielsetzung und Methodik unterschiedliche Herangehensweisen zum Thema Traum miteinander vergleichen. Nach einer Vorstellung von zugrundeliegenden Annahmen und technischem Vorgehen wird derselbe Traumbericht einer Patientin unabhängig voneinander von einem Traumseminar nach Morgenthaler sowie dem Zurich Dream Process Coding System nach Moser und von Zeppelin untersucht. Die Analyseschritte werden von einer Fallvignette ergänzt und von der behandelnden Therapeutin kommentiert. Eine kritische und vergleichende Reflexion der beiden Ansätze schliesst den Aufsatz ab