National estimates of vocational service utilization and job placement rates for adults with mental retardation.

Data from the 1994 and 1995 Disability Supplements of the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) were used to estimate rates of utilization of vocational services and examine employment outcomes for adults with disabilities who have received vocational services. Those living outside the formal long-term care system, and who were self or proxy identified as having mental retardation, were compared with other adults with disabilities. Analyses suggest that compared to other working-age persons with disabilities, adults with mental retardation (a) have a different population profile, (b) receive different types of services, (c) experience similar levels of satisfaction, (d) have much lower rates of competitive employment, and (e) are much more likely to be employed in segregated work settings. Research and policy implications of findings are discussed.

Anatomy of commitment: an in vivo study.

A self-evaluation of one small but innovative agency providing supported living and other community supports to individuals with developmental disabilities is presented. Key elements that appear to perpetuate a culture of commitment among direct support and supervisory staff are described. Agency staff people have achieved the capacity to listen and respond to individuals and honor their choices. In order to assure that individuals get what they need, staff members take appropriate initiative, work outside of their assigned hours, and support one another. Whereas most human service organizations function within the parameters of well-defined policies and procedures, the agency described here operates more flexibly. The observed pattern of organizational dynamism and reflexivity is compared to that of a living organism.

Arabidopsis contains at least four independent blue-light-activated signal transduction pathways.

We have investigated the stomatal and phototropic responses to blue light of a number of single and double mutants at various loci that encode proteins involved in blue-light responses in Arabidopsis. The stomatal responses of light-grown mutant plants (cry1, cry2, nph1, nph3, nph4, cry1cry2, and nph1cry1) did not differ significantly from those of their wild-type counterparts. Second positive phototropic responses of etiolated mutant seedlings, cry1, cry2, cry1cry2, and npq1-2, were also similar to those of their wild-type counterparts. Although npq1 and single and double cry1cry2 mutants showed somewhat reduced amplitude for first positive phototropism, threshold, peak, and saturation fluence values for first positive phototropic responses of etiolated seedlings did not differ from those of wild-type seedlings. Similar to the cry1cry2 double mutants and to npq1-2, a phyAphyB mutant showed reduced curvature but no change in the position or shape of the fluence-response curve. By contrast, the phototropism mutant nph1-5 failed to show phototropic curvature under any of the irradiation conditions used in the present study. We conclude that the chromoproteins cry1, cry2, nph1, and the blue-light photoreceptor for the stomatal response are genetically separable. Moreover, these photoreceptors appear to activate separate signal transduction pathways.

Pro-convulsant actions of theophylline and caffeine in the hippocampus: implications for the management of temporal lobe epilepsy.

The pro-convulsant actions of theophylline and caffeine have been investigated using the hippocampal slice preparation and rats administered kainic acid or Metrazol. Both theophylline and caffeine induced the generation of epileptiform activity in the CA3 region of the hippocampal slice with convulsive dose50 (CD50) values of 3 microM respectively. Kainic acid-induced bursting in hippocampal slices was enhanced by theophylline (0.3-30 microM) and caffeine (1-100 microM). Theophylline induced burst firing in response to electrical stimulation in hippocampal area CA3 but not area CA1. Theophylline (50 mg/kg) strongly potentiated the effect of the limbic convulsant kainic acid in vivo whilst a dose of 200 mg/kg was necessary to significantly lower the threshold dose of Metrazol required to induce generalized convulsions. We conclude that alkylxanthines, probably by antagonizing the effect of endogenous adenosine, exert a pro-convulsant action in the hippocampus which preferentially promotes limbic seizures.

Clinicopathologic correlation of ocular and neurologic findings in AIDS: case report.

The protean ocular manifestations of patients with the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) have been well documented both clinically and histopathologically. Since 1978, many case reports have emphasized the opportunistic ocular infections in patients with AIDS. We report the clinicopathologic findings in a patient with AIDS who demonstrated focal necrosis of the ciliary processes and cerebellum due to cytomegalovirus (CMV). The former explained the clinical manifestations of uveitis and the latter masqueraded as drug toxicity.