OBJECTIVES: In normal pressure hydrocephalus, there is no clear evidence that the opening pressure of differential pressure valves influences outcome. In this study, the objective was to determine whether the relationship between valve opening pressure and post-operative postural ICP changes was predictable. METHODS: Eight adult-onset hydrocephalus patients were evaluated using an intraparenchymal ICP microsensor. Postural ICP measurements were obtained before and after placement of a ventricular shunt (VP or VA) with a Codman Hakim programmable valve. RESULTS: Valve opening pressure had a poor correlation with ICP at any head-of-bed elevation across subjects (best r = 0.25). The degree of negative ICP encountered for any given patient did not appear to be determined by the valve pressure, and varied significantly between patients at the same valve pressure. Each individual's ICP correlated well to opening pressure (r > 0.76), but the response is more sigmoidal than linear, and the opening pressure at which ICP changed most was markedly different between patients. CONCLUSIONS: The hydrodynamic pressures generated by shunts with different pressure valves are unpredictable. Our data supports the use of programmable valves in patients with adult onset hydrocephalus and suggests that ICP be measured post-operatively to achieve an optimal clinical outcome.

OBJECTIVE: The presence of enterobacteria such as Escherichia coli in the vagina of normal women is not synonymous with infection. However, vaginal E. coli may also cause symptomatic infections. We examined bacterial virulence properties that may promote symptomatic female reproductive tract infections (RTI) and neonatal sepsis. METHODS: E. coli isolated as the causative agent from cases of vaginitis (n = 50), tubo-ovarian abscess (n = 45) and neonatal sepsis (n = 45) was examined for selected phenotypic and genetic virulence properties. Results were compared with the frequency of the same properties among fecal E. coli not associated with disease. RESULTS: A significantly greater proportion of infection E. coli exhibited D-mannose resistant hemagglutination compared with fecal E. coli (p < 0.01). This adherence phenotype was associated with the presence of P fimbriae (pap) genes which were also significantly more prevalent among isolates from all three infection sites (p < 0.01). The majority of pap+ isolates contained the papG3 allele (Class II) regardless of infection type. Increased frequency of Type IC genes among vaginitis and abscess isolates was also noted. No significant differences in frequency of other bacterial adherence genes, fim, sfa, uca (gaf or dra were observed. E. coli associated with vaginitis was significantly more likely to be hemolytic (Hly+) than were fecal isolates (p < 0.05). The Hly+ phenotype was also more prevalent among tubo-ovarian abscess and neonatal sepsis isolates (p < 0.08). CONCLUSIONS: E. coli isolated from female RTI and neonatal sepses possess unique properties that may enhance their virulence. These properties are similar to those associated with other E. coli extra-intestinal infections, indicating that strategies such as vaccination or bacterial interference that may be developed against urinary tract infections (UTI) and other E. coli extra-intestinal infections may also prevent selected female RTI.

BACKGROUND: The late-phase allergic reaction is an eosinophilic inflammatory response that begins several hours after allergen exposure, may persist for 24 hours, and is an important pathogenic mechanism in allergic disease. OBJECTIVE: Cultured naive human mast cells were used to investigate whether mast cells are a direct source of the eosinophil-promoting cytokines IL-5, IL-3, and granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF). METHODS: Naive human mast cells were derived from bone marrow mononuclear cells cultured in the presence of stem-cell factor. Cytokine message and protein production in response to high-affinity IgE receptor ligation of cultured mast cells were measured by semiquantitative polymerase chain reaction and ELISA, respectively. RESULTS: IL-5, IL-3, and GM-CSF messenger RNA increased within 2 hours of mast cell activation, with IL-5 and GM-CSF message remaining elevated for 24 hours, whereas IL-3 mRNA rapidly declined. IL-5 and GM-CSF protein were measurable 4 to 6 hours after stimulation and peaked by 24 and 12 hours, respectively. IL-3 protein was not detectable. CONCLUSION: These findings demonstrate that naive mast cells do not constitutively produce IL-5 or GM-CSF protein but are a major source of these eosinophilotropic cytokines on high-affinity IgE receptor ligation.

Proteus mirabilis bacteria are a common cause of hospital-acquired urinary tract infection. In a previous study, we described a P. mirabilis fimbrial protein, UCA, that adhered to human uroepithelial cells. Genes sufficient for expression of UCA adherence were cloned into Escherichia coli K-12. E. coli bacteria that contained the uca recombinant plasmid adhered to human uroepithelial cells. In addition, the ucaA gene encoding the structural component of UCA pili was subcloned, and its DNA sequence was determined. Amino acid sequence homology (30 to 50%) was found between mature UcaA protein and pilins from pathogenic bacteria representing several genera, including E. coli F17, G, and type 1C pilins, Haemophilus M43 pilin, and a Bordetella pilin.

In an experiment with 141 Japanese participants, we tested an alternative interpretation of Peng & Nisbett's (1999) study that examined Chinese participants' responses to contradictory statements. They found that differences in the plausibility judgments about two contradictory statements were smaller when the statements were presented simultaneously than when they were presented independently (i.e., middle-way judgment). This pattern was not found among Americans. In a partial replication of their experiment, we tested our hypothesis that the middle-way judgment responses among Asians are specific to the social domain. We compared participants' responses to contradictory statements in two conditions. In the social context condition, each statement was expressed as an opinion of a particular person. In the non-social context condition, the same statement was expressed as a general opinion without mentioning who made the statement. The results indicate that social context is required for the middle-way seeking responses to occur.

Analysis of responses from 418 respondents from southern USA (198 African-American, 220 Euro-American adults) in 53 different locations at 4 colleges and universities showed that African-American and Euro-American high school and college athletes differed significantly in agreement on 4 of 12 statements representing their treatment by coaches. African-American athletes rated their coaches significantly more negatively on these items. Implications for coaches lie in planning, design and evaluation of coaching behaviors by African-American athletes.

This research explored how White students' automatically activated racial attitudes and motivations to control prejudiced reactions (MCPR) related to their self-reported comfort and willingness to interact with Black partners in a variety of situations. Participants completed the MCPR scale and a priming task that provides an unobtrusive measure of automatically activated racial attitudes. In a later session, participants rated their comfort and willingness to enter eight situations varying in their degree of intimacy and scriptedness and then rerated each situation while imagining different interaction partners, including a Black individual. When the situations were scripted or participants were low on the restraint to avoid dispute factor of the MCPR scale, participants expressed willingness to interact with Black partners. When the situation was unscripted and participants were characterized by higher restraint scores, anticipated comfort varied as a function of automatically activated racial attitudes and the concern with acting prejudiced factor of the MCPR scale.

In 2 studies, the authors examined the role of interethnic friendship with African Americans or Latinos in predicting implicit and explicit biases against these groups. White participants completed the Implicit Association Test (IAT; Greenwald, A. G., McGhee, D. E.,& Schwartz, J. L. K., 1998), several self-report bias measures, and a friendship questionnaire. Participants with close friends who were members of the target group exhibited less implicit prejudice than participants without close friends from the target group. Friendship influenced only 2 of the 7 explicit measures, a result that likely stems from social desirability bias rather than truly non-prejudiced attitudes. Results support the importance of contact, particularly interethnic friendship, in improving intergroup attitudes.

The author assessed preschool-aged children's attitudes (N = 70) toward their own and 2 ethnic or racial out-groups using traditional forced-choice measures and a new method that assessed children's out-group attitudes independently of their attitudes toward their own group. When required to assign positive and negative traits to either their own group or an ethnic or racial out-group, children evaluated their own group favorably relative to the out-group in question. However, when not forced to choose between groups, children evaluated out-groups positively, indicating that own-group preference relative to ethnic and racial out-groups was not equated with out-group rejection. Children's positive out-group evaluations did vary with the out-group being considered and were reflective of the local social context, suggesting the influence of social learning. The results indicate that young children's positive feelings toward their own group do not necessarily involve or cause negative out-group attitudes and that various factors might differentially influence in-group and out-group attitudes.

This study examines the relationships among social support, negative interaction, financial strain, traumatic events, personal control, personality, and psychological distress among African American and white adults. These analyses:(1) test the overall adequacy of various models (i.e., main, mediator, and artifactual effects) of these effects,(2) examine the role of social support and negative interaction within the context of financial strain and traumatic events, and (3) verify possible indirect effects of social interaction on distress by assessing their impact on personal control. Data from The National Comorbidity Survey were used to examine these relationships using structural equation modeling techniques. Findings indicated different models of these relationships for African Americans and whites. Overall, personal control mediated the relationship between negative interaction and psychological distress. For whites, negative interaction was an overall stronger predictor of distress and contributed to the impact of financial strain and traumatic events on psychological distress. Among African Americans, social support was a stronger predictor of distress. The findings suggest that the underlying models of these relationships are different for African Americans and whites.

Why is the broad American public disapproving of urban African American teen mothers and unaware that the scientific evidence on the consequences of teen childbearing, per se, is equivocal? I focus on the links between culture, identity, and privilege. I argue that the broader society is selective in its attention to the actual life chances of urban African Americans and how these chances shape fertility-timing norms, in part, because this selective focus helps maintain the core values, competencies, and privileges of the dominant group. Delayed childbearing is an adaptive practice for European Americans and an intensely salient goal they have for their children. Yet early fertility-timing patterns may constitute adaptive practice for African American residents of high-poverty urban areas, in no small measure because they contend with structural constraints that shorten healthy life expectancy. European Americans put their cultural priorities into action ahead of the needs of African Americans and employ substantial resources to disseminate the social control message meant for their youth that teenage childbearing has disastrous consequences. Their ability to develop a more nuanced understanding of early childbearing is limited by their culturally mediated perceptions. Thus, cultural dominance can be perpetuated by well-meaning people consciously dedicated to children's well-being, social justice, and the public good. The entrenched cultural interdependence of and social inequality between European and African Americans leads African Americans to be highly visible targets of moral condemnation for their fertility behavior, and also sets up African Americans to pay a particularly high political, economic, psychosocial, and health price.

This study examined whether African American children's perceptions of occupational status and their own vocational interests are affected by racial segregation of the workforce. Children (N = 92) rated familiar occupations with respect to status, desirability, and stereotyping. Children also rated novel jobs that had been depicted with African Americans, European Americans, or both African and European Americans. As predicted, for familiar jobs, children's judgments were linked to their knowledge of racial segregation of these jobs. In addition, novel occupations that had been depicted with African Americans were judged as lower in status than the identical occupations that had been depicted with European Americans, demonstrating a causal influence of workers' race on children's judgments. Children's age and socioeconomic background moderated their occupational judgments.