Perspectives on history: army dietetics in southwest Asia during Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm.

The Army dietitians deployed during Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm exemplified the commitment, dedication, patriotism, and professionalism of their predecessors. Although some were continuously on the move and all dealt with the extremes of a desert environment, were frequently handicapped with equipment shortages, and coped constantly with the monotony of limited ration variety, throughout their experiences these professionals expressed pride in participating in this national undertaking. The purposes of this article are to familiarize members of The American Dietetic Association with the responses of their colleagues in the US military to another of their nation's calls, to relate some aspects of Army dietetics experienced in Southwest Asia, and to identify the lessons learned in that engagement.

The family relations, peer relations, and criminal activities of Caucasian and Hispanic-American gang members.

Juvenile gang members present serious problems to society, yet few empirical studies have examined their criminal activity, family relations, and peer relations in comparison with other highly antisocial youths. In a 2 (Gang Membership) x 2 (Ethnicity: Hispanic-American vs. Caucasian) design, 131 incarcerated male juvenile offenders were administered a battery assessing criminal activity, family relations, and peer relations. Results demonstrated (a) higher rates of criminal behavior (i.e., general delinquency, index offenses, school delinquency) among gang members than among offenders who did not belong to gangs, (b) higher rates of general delinquency and home delinquency among Caucasian offenders than among Hispanic-American offenders, and (c) greater aggression and less social maturity in the peer relations of gang members than in the peer relations of offenders who did not belong to gangs. In addition, gang membership mediated sociocultural differences in hard drug use. Findings are integrated with the extant literature.

A rate nephelometric phenobarbital and phenytoin assay: analytical and correlation studies of a new single-point calibration immunoprecipitation inhibition method.

A new single-point calibration immunoprecipitation inhibition rate nephelometric assay for phenobarbital (PB) and phenytoin (PT) has been evaluated on the Beckman ICS-II analyzer. Within-run precision (n = 20) coefficients of variation (CV) were less than 4.0% for PB (10-44 micrograms/ml) and less than 5.7% for PT (12-34 micrograms/ml). Between-run precision CVs of pooled sera (n = 20) assay were less than 4.2% for PB (7.5-33.8 micrograms/ml) and less than 8.7% for PT (4.5-17.8 micrograms/ml). Linearity and recoveries were good over a broad range of drug levels for both assays. Excellent correlation was found with existing PB, ICS vs. EMIT on the IL Multistat III MCA (y = 1.26 + 1.00x; r = 0.994), ICS vs. Dupont aca (y = 0.832 + 1.01x; r = 0.997), and ICS vs. GLC (y = 0.08 + 0.99x; r = 0.998) methods, and PT, ICS vs. MCA (y = -1.76 + 1.04x; r = 0.985), ICS vs. aca (y = -2.02 + 1.054x; r = 0.987), and ICS vs. GLC (y = -0.26 + 0.990x; r = 0.999) methods. These assays were found to provide accurate drug analyses, good stat or batching capability, and good correlation with existing methods.

Performance of a new rate-nephelometric assay for rheumatoid factor, and its correlation with tube-titer results for human sera and synovial fluid.

We evaluated a rate-nephelometric assay for rheumatoid factor (RF), as developed for use with the Beckman Immunochemistry System (ICS). Within- run precision (CV) for low-, mid-, and high-dilution samples (60-400 kilo-int. units/L) was 3.5, 1.5, and 1.6%; between-run precision was 3.4%. Analytical linearity was excellent. Biological interference resulted in some degree of nonlinearity in more than 70% of the patients' samples tested. Sensitivities were 96.5 and 94.1% and specificities were 98.5 and 95.3% for the ICS RF and Wampole slide methods, respectively, for a clinically defined population of 170 patients. Results for 100 ICS RF-positive samples correlated well with concomitantly measured Calbiochem-Behring tube-titers. Weekly measurement of Calbiochem-Behring. Hyland Diagnostics, and ICL Scientific tube-titer values for RF along with the ICS RF values on samples from the same patients indicated stable ICS RF values but showed at least +/- 1 tube dilution variances both within and between the tube-titer methods. Therefore, it may not be appropriate to compare a precise new method with a relatively imprecise comparison method. Treatment of RF-positive samples with dithiothreitol, which disrupts the pentameric character of immunoglobulin M, rendered the samples negative by repeat ICS RF assay and confirmed the method's specificity for pentameric immunoglobulin M-RF. Serum RF concentration as determined by ICS paralleled changes in clinical symptoms in a patient treated with both effective and relatively ineffective regimens, which suggests a useful role for the assay in monitoring efficacy of clinical treatment.