Pathology and viral antigen distribution of lethal pneumonia in domestic cats due to pandemic (H1N1) 2009 influenza A virus.

A novel swine-origin H1N1 influenza A virus has been identified as the cause of the 2009 influenza pandemic in humans. Since then, infections with the pandemic (H1N1) 2009 influenza virus have been documented in a number of animal species. The first known cases of lethal respiratory disease associated with pandemic (H1N1) 2009 influenza virus infection in house pets occurred in domestic cats in Oregon. A 10-year-old neutered domestic shorthair and an 8-year-old spayed domestic shorthair died shortly after developing severe respiratory disease. Grossly, lung lobes of both cats were diffusely firm and incompletely collapsed. Histologically, moderate to severe necrotizing to pyonecrotizing bronchointerstitial pneumonia was accompanied by serofibrinous exudation and hyaline membranes in the alveolar spaces. Influenza A virus was isolated from nasal secretions of the male cat and from lung homogenate of the female cat. Both isolates were confirmed as pandemic (H1N1) 2009 influenza virus by real-time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction. With immunohistochemistry, influenza A viral antigen was demonstrated in bronchiolar epithelial cells, pneumocytes, and alveolar macrophages in pneumonic areas. The most likely sources of infection were people in the household with influenza-like illness or confirmed pandemic (H1N1) 2009 influenza. The 2 cases reported here provide, to the best of the authors' knowledge, the first description of the pathology and viral antigen distribution of lethal respiratory disease in domestic cats after natural pandemic (H1N1) 2009 influenza virus infection, probably transmitted from humans.

Observing troubled children's interpersonal negotiation strategies: implications of and for a developmental model.

29-year-old boys, both selected from a pool of children with socioemotional and interpersonal difficulties, were observed unobtrusively in 35 weekly hour-long pair therapy sessions over the course of 2 school years. A transcript/narrative analysis technique was used to identify all interpersonal negotiation strategies each child used within each session. Strategies were classified using a coding system that simultaneously ordered them according to 4 developmental levels (0, impulsive-physical; 1, unilateral-coercive; 2, reciprocal-influential; and 3, collaborative-mutual) and 2 interpersonal orientations (self- and other-transforming). Using individual strategies as the basic unit of analysis, strategies in each weekly session were charted according to level and orientation and were summed to show total distributions and trends over time. Results indicated that the predominant level of strategy used by both children was unilateral (level 1) followed for each child by reciprocal (level 2), impulsive (level 0), and then collaborative (level 3) strategies. Across time a trend toward increased use of reciprocal strategies was suggested, although there was wide oscillation in the percentage and absolute use of strategies coded at each level from 1 weekly session to the next. Different patterns of strategy use were identified for each child. With respect to the pattern of use of orientations (self- and other-transforming) over time, each subject began the interaction with strategies rigidly adherig to 1 particular orientation. However, while 1 subject was consistently rigid in orientation over the 35 weeks, the other demonstrated a movement with time to a more balanced usage of strategies across orientations. Results of this study were discussed with respect to their implications for using developmental methods and models for clinical purposes.

Stability and oscillation in interpersonal awareness: a clinical-developmental analysis.

This paper has examined the research questions and strategies used by those who attempt to study social development from a cognitive-developmental orientation. It began by pointing to the need to integrate the descriptive work done by social-cognitive developmental researchers with some of the approaches taken by clinical and social psychologists in studying the same general phenomenon: interpersonal relations. An issue-by-stage social-cognitive map developed on the basis of both conceptual and empirical investigations was described, as were some of the properties which defined these stages. Following this, empirical evidence was cited from several ongoing studies which both supported the theoretical claims of logical coherence and pointed research in several new directions. One direction of particular importance is the naturalistic study of social and interpersonal reasoning and relating. Taken together, the interview data and the naturalistic observations appear to present a paradox. Evidence from the descriptive research appears to support the principle of stage consistency across categories of experience. On the other hand, the impact of the naturalistic findings is to point out oscillations in reasoning across varying real-life conditions. It should be noted, however, that several of the children in the classroom study did reason fairly consistently across a wide range of contexts; these children, perhaps not coincidentally, were the ones who had shown the greatest improvement in their interpersonal functioning and were soon to return to a more traditional educational milieu. Such clinical evidence points to the strong need to study better-adjusted children under similar conditions to see if real-life oscillation is as pronounced as it is in more pathological groups (Inhelder, 1943/1968). Our conclusion is that the cognitive-developmental approach, viewed in the proper perspective, can accommodate and make coherent data which suggest both variability and uniformity of reasoning, but that for such an accommodation to take place, greater attention must be paid to the critical social psychological and clinical variables which reciprocally interact with level of social-cognitive capability.