Praziquantel in clonorchiasis and opisthorchiasis

A single stool examination revealed pathogenic intestinal parasites in 462 (58%) of 796 vietnamese and cambodian refugees. 56 (7.0%) were infected with Clonorchis sinensis and/or Opisthorchis viverrini. These patients received Praziquantel in a dosage of 20 mg/kg bwt. p.day on 3 consecutive days. Parasitological controls were completed after 12 months. No further excretion of eggs could be detected in 88% of the patients. Concurrent infections with other trematodes and cestodes were also cured. Nematode infections remained uninfluenced. No change of haematological and biochemical parameters could be observed during therapy. Diarrhea and epigastric pain were common side effects, which are probably not effects of the drug itself. They rather seem to be due to the release of parasitic antigens. This is also indicated by a further increase of circulating Ig E after therapy

Komplizierte Malaria tropica

Bei elf von 43 nichtimmunen Patienten mit Malaria tropica traten eine oder mehrere Organkomplikationen auf: zerebrale Malaria, akute respiratorische Insuffizienz, akutes Nierenversagen, Sekundärinfektion, Autoimmunhämolyse, spontane Milzruptur und akute Pankreatitis. Die Parasitämie betrug 0,1 bis 60 %. Initiale antiparasitäre Therapie mit Chinin parenteral führte in neun Fällen zu rascher Rückbildung der Parasitämie. Zusätzlich wurde ein zweites schizontozides Mittel entsprechend der Resistenzlage gegeben. Die supportive Therapie umfaßte intensivmedizinische Überwachung mit Bilanzierung von Elektrolyt- und Wasserhaushalt sowie gegebenenfalls eine frühzeitige Hämodialyse und (oder) endotracheale Intubation mit PEEP-Beatmung. In einem Fall mit exzessiver Parasitämie wurde eine Austauschtransfusion durchgeführt. Heparin wurde nur bei nachgewiesener disseminierter intravasaler Gerinnung gegeben, Corticosteroide nur bei persistierender Autoimmunhämolyse. Alle Patienten überlebten ohne zurückbleibende Defekte. Die retrospektive Analyse zeigt, daß neben einer raschen spezifischen Therapie die supportive Behandlung der einzelnen Organkomplikationen für Verlauf und Prognose der komplizierten Malaria tropica mitentscheidend ist

The labour movement in Canterbury, 1880-1893.

The. development of industry and the associated .. problems of sweated labour within the newly developed industries are examined. The emerging awareness of the working class of the necessity for trade union organisation in order to safeguard their right~ to a reasonable standard of living and the organisation of these trade unions is discussed. The rise of confidence among trade unionists and their involvement in the Maritime Strike of 1890 emerges as a critical influence. The defeat of the unions in the strike and the subsequent move towards political representation by working men emerges during the late 1880 1s. The alliance between Liberal and Labour influences in parliament is discussed

Mulsemedia: State of the art, perspectives, and challenges

Mulsemedia-multiple sensorial media-captures a wide variety of research efforts and applications. This article presents a historic perspective on mulsemedia work and reviews current developments in the area. These take place across the traditional multimedia spectrum-from virtual reality applications to computer games-as well as efforts in the arts, gastronomy, and therapy, to mention a few. We also describe standardization efforts, via the MPEG-V standard, and identify future developments and exciting challenges the community needs to overcome

Salience-based selection: attentional capture by distractors less salient than the target

Current accounts of attentional capture predict the most salient stimulus to be invariably selected first. However, existing salience and visual search models assume noise in the map computation or selection process. Consequently, they predict the first selection to be stochastically dependent on salience, implying that attention could even be captured first by the second most salient (instead of the most salient) stimulus in the field. Yet, capture by less salient distractors has not been reported and salience-based selection accounts claim that the distractor has to be more salient in order to capture attention. We tested this prediction using an empirical and modeling approach of the visual search distractor paradigm. For the empirical part, we manipulated salience of target and distractor parametrically and measured reaction time interference when a distractor was present compared to absent. Reaction time interference was strongly correlated with distractor salience relative to the target. Moreover, even distractors less salient than the target captured attention, as measured by reaction time interference and oculomotor capture. In the modeling part, we simulated first selection in the distractor paradigm using behavioral measures of salience and considering the time course of selection including noise. We were able to replicate the result pattern we obtained in the empirical part. We conclude that each salience value follows a specific selection time distribution and attentional capture occurs when the selection time distributions of target and distractor overlap. Hence, selection is stochastic in nature and attentional capture occurs with a certain probability depending on relative salience

Halofantrin zur Behandlung der importierten Malaria bei nicht-immunen Reisenden

Im Rahmen einer prospektiven Multizenterstudie wurden die Wirksamkeit (Kriterien: Heilungsrate, Zeit bis zur Entfieberung oder Parasitenfreiheit) und Verträglichkeit (Kriterien: klinische Nebenwirkungen, veränderte Laborparameter) von Halofantrin bei 96 nicht-immunen Malaria-Patienten (71 Männer, 25 Frauen, mittleres Alter 34,3 [21-62] Jahre) untersucht, die aus Hochresistenzgebieten nach Deutschland oder in die Schweiz zurückgekehrt waren. 63 Patienten wurden mit einer Eintagestherapie behandelt (dreimal 500 mg Halofantrin); die folgenden 33 Patienten erhielten einen zusätzlichen Therapiezyklus nach einer Woche. In der zweiten Gruppe war die Therapie in allen Fällen wirksam, während bei der Eintagestherapie fünf von 41 Patienten (12,2 %) mit Malaria tropica einen Rückfall erlitten. Die Zeit bis zur Entfieberung betrug 45 Stunden, die Zeit bis zur Parasitenfreiheit 66 Stunden. Bei fünf Behandelten kam es unter der Therapie zu leichten Transaminasenanstiegen, die jedoch spontan innerhalb weniger Tage zurückgingen und am ehesten infektionsbedingt waren. - Bei guter Verträglichkeit ist Halofantrin für die Therapie und Stand-by-Therapie von multiresistenten Plasmodien-Infektionen geeignet. Die Behandlung muß nach 7 Tagen wiederholt werden.The efficacy (criteria: cure rate, time to resolution of fever or absence of parasites) and safety (criteria: clinical side effects, altered laboratory parameters) of halofantrin were investigated in a multi-centre study of 96 non-immune patients (71 men, 25 women, mean age 34.3 [21-62] years) with malaria imported from regions of high resistance into Germany or Switzerland. The initial 63 patients received one-day treatment (three doses of 500 mg halofantrin), while the last 33 patients received an additional course of treatment one week later. Treatment was curative in all patients in the second group, but relapses occurred in five of the 41 patients (12.2 %) with falciparum malaria who received one-day therapy. Fever resolved after a mean of 45 hours and parasites were absent after a mean of 66 hours. There were small increases in transaminase values (most probably because of the infection) in five patients, but all became normal again within a few days. - Halofantrin is a safe drug and is suitable for both therapy and stand-by therapy of resistant Plasmodium infections. Treatment should be repeated after 7 days

Visual saliency and semantic incongruency influence eye movements when inspecting pictures

Models of low-level saliency predict that when we first look at a photograph our first few eye movements should be made towards visually conspicuous objects. Two experiments investigated this prediction by recording eye fixations while viewers inspected pictures of room interiors that contained objects with known saliency characteristics. Highly salient objects did attract fixations earlier than less conspicuous objects, but only in a task requiring general encoding of the whole picture. When participants were required to detect the presence of a small target, then the visual saliency of nontarget objects did not influence fixations. These results support modifications of the model that take the cognitive override of saliency into account by allowing task demands to reduce the saliency weights of task-irrelevant objects. The pictures sometimes contained incongruent objects that were taken from other rooms. These objects were used to test the hypothesis that previous reports of the early fixation of congruent objects have not been consistent because the effect depends upon the visual conspicuity of the incongruent object. There was an effect of incongruency in both experiments, with earlier fixation of objects that violated the gist of the scene, but the effect was only apparent for inconspicuous objects, which argues against the hypothesis

Lavoro totale

Le componenti culturali, creative e relazionali investono in modo crescente gli ambiti dell’innovazione sociale e dell’auto-imprenditorialità e come tali vengono ampiamente studiate, ma è solo spostando l’attenzione dalle varietà del lavoro cognitivo alle forze che lo determinano che possiamo tentare di cogliere e interpretare la dinamica del cambiamento in atto. Apprendimento continuo, autonomia, responsabilità, flessibilità, individualizzazione, svalorizzazione e cooperazione diventano così traiettorie di sviluppo del lavoro e non contingenze di alcuni settori o fenomeni. Analizzare le strutture che fondano l’attuale condizione del lavoro cognitivo nei campi dell’innovazione sociale e dell’auto-imprenditorialità può allora aiutarci a comprendere le forze sottostanti ai processi di riorganizzazione del lavoro in atto. L’urgenza e l’originalità di questo libro di Maurizio Busacca consistono nell’analisi di queste strutture, cercando di rintracciare ed evidenziare contraddizioni e distorsioni prima di accettare acriticamente e astoricamente le retoriche più diffuse e dirompenti, e indagando la struttura di fondo del lavoro cognitivo, nella sua dinamica storica e esistenziale, attraverso il concetto di Lavorototale-Improduttivitàmalata. Il lavoro totale si profila come una delle forme di vita economica e sociale, ma anche di patologia individuale, che già contraddistingue nel presente il lavoro cognitivo e minaccia di estendersi a settori sempre più ampi nell’immediato futuro. L’improduttività malata è il suo risvolto, o il fratello gemello. Questo libro di Maurizio Busacca ne indaga i meccanismi, anche alla luce del magistero di Franco Basaglia, e mentre ne denuncia i pericoli cerca di individuare possibili alternative o vie d’uscita