Positron emission tomography (PET) with fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) has been used to evaluate a variety of malignancies. The authors describe a patient with gallbladder carcinoma that showed multiple foci of intense increased FDG uptake in the liver and periaortic region consistent with metastatic disease. This report emphasizes that FDG-PET may play an important role in the staging, restaging, and posttherapy follow-up of gallbladder carcinoma, a highly fatal disease.

Individual variations in hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) function are most evident at or beyond the time of puberty, when marked changes in sex steroid release occur. To explore the nature by which gender differences in HPA function emerge we examined in prepubertal (approximately 30-d-old) and postpubertal (approximately 60-d-old) male and female rats HPA activity under basal conditions and in response to 30 min of restraint. Within the ACTH-regulating, medial parvocellular portion of the paraventricular nucleus, restraint-induced Fos protein and arginine vasopressin heteronuclear RNA were lower in 60- than in 30-d-old males. No such age-related shift in the response of these synaptic and transcriptional markers of cellular activation occurred in female rats. Basal CRH mRNA expression levels in the paraventricular nucleus increased with age in female but not male rats. Conversely, only male rats showed an age-related increase in basal CRH mRNA in the central amygdala, suggesting that neuronal and neurosecretory CRH-expressing cell types are subject to different pubertal and gender influences. We conclude that gonadal regulation of the HPA axis develops via distinct mechanisms in males and females. Puberty-related shifts in parvocellular neurosecretory function in males are emphasized by stress-induced shifts in neuronal activation, whereas biosynthetic alterations dominate in female rats.

To gauge the strength by which the testes influence stress-induced activation of neurosecretory neurons in the paraventricular nucleus, we studied within medial parvocellular neurons the effects of gonadectomy on restraint-induced Fos-immunoreactivity and on CRH and arginine vasopressin (AVP) heteronuclear (hn) RNA expression levels. Relative to intact male rats (sham-gonadectomized), gonadectomized rats showed a significantly greater number of medial parvocellular neurons recruited to express Fos protein evident at 0.5 h and from 1-4 h after the onset of 30-min restraint exposure. Restraint provoked a transient increase in hnCRH levels that was maximal at the end of restraint and this was significant only in gonadectomized rats. Both intact and gonadectomized rats displayed an increase in AVP hnRNA expression levels in response to restraint exposure; however, it was significantly greater in gonadectomized rats. All of these responses were accompanied by a higher corticosterone response in gonadectomized compared with intact rats and negatively correlated with plasma testosterone concentrations, with the exception of stress-induced CRH transcription. These findings indicate an inhibitory role for testosterone on stress-induced indexes of synaptic (Fos) and transcriptional (AVP hnRNA) activation among hypophysiotropic paraventricular neurons and provide meaningful end points with which to pursue how and where androgens operate on stress-related input to the paraventricular nucleus motor neurons.

Early life stages of rainbow trout were exposed to different regimes of water-borne retene (7-isopropyl-1-methylphenanthrene) to determine if there is an ontogenic stage particularly sensitive to retene toxicity, and if cytochrome P-4501A (CYP1A) induction is a forerunner to blue sac disease (BSD), the syndrome of toxicity. CYP1A protein concentrations, measured by immunohistochemistry, were first detected during organogenesis, when organ and enzyme systems are first being developed, and steadily increased until swim-up. The prevalence of signs of BSD rose 1 wk following a marked increase in CYP1A activity after hatch, suggesting that CYP1A induction is related to BSD. The larval stage was the most sensitive to retene toxicity, based on CYP1A induction and a high prevalence of BSD. The most common signs of BSD were hemorrhaging, yolk-sac edema, and mortality, but hemorrhaging was the first and most frequently observed response. Tissue concentrations of retene were elevated just after fertilization, but decreased steadily as fish developed to the swim-up stage, most likely due to the establishment of more efficient metabolic and excretory systems in later stages of development.

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This study was carried out to determine the prevalence, antibiotic resistance, resistance genes and class 1 integrons of Salmonella serovars in raw leafy vegetables, chicken carcasses and related environments. From April 2015 to May 2016, a total of 642 samples collected from fresh food markets in Peninsular Malaysia were examined. The overall occurrence of Salmonella species was 29.1% (187/642) with 37 different serovars detected. The most prevalent serovars were S. Corvallis (49/187), S. Brancaster (28/187), S. Weltevreden (17/187), S. Albany (15/187), S. Hvittingfoss (6/178), S. Paratyphi B (6/178) and S. Typhimurium (6/178). Among the Salmonella isolates, the highest antibiotic resistance was to streptomycin (66.6%), followed by tetracycline (44.3%), sulfonamides (44.3%), ampicillin (26.7%), chloramphenicol (29.1%) and trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (16.6%). All isolates of Salmonella were 100% susceptible to cephalothin. Fifty-five percent of the isolates (103/187) were multidrug-resistant. The multiple antibiotic resistance (MAR) index of Salmonella serovars ranged from 0.08 to 0.83, and the most prevalent resistance pattern was STeS₃. Eleven out of 16 resistant genes (tetA, tetB, blaTEM-1, temB, strA, strB, aadA, sul1, sul2, floR and cmlA) were detected among the resistant Salmonella isolates. None of the isolates was positive for tetC, tetG, cat1 and cat2. Seventeen isolates harboured class 1 integrons, which were grouped into 5 different integrons profiles (IPs). DNA sequencing analyses have identified dfrA1, dfrA12, aadA2, blaPSE−1, dfrA12-orf-aadA2 arrays of cassettes in variable regions on class 1 integrons.

Philosophies of science are perhaps the most covert yet significant forces influencing the direction of change within disciplines. Although the era of logical positivism has waned for many disciplines, newer philosophies may not be satisfactory, especially for the applied disciplines. This article describes an alternative philosophy of science with special significance for nursing. This philosophy was influenced by several of the major existing philosophies, but especially by the paradigmatic view espoused by Thomas Kuhn. The generative philosophy of science was named because of its focus on generating growth among the applied disciplines. Members of these disciplines study questions with social significance and human application. This article defines major concepts, describes relationships among concepts and discusses implications for the development of nursing science and the nursing discipline.

Attendees to the largest ever annual AAHSA meeting and conference, held in Orlando, were invited to explore several proven strategies that assisted in developing a successful fall management and reduction process. A Successful Falls Management and Prevention Program was presented to an audience of over 100 participants by members of the Dock Terrace PA FIRST (Fall Interventions, Resources, Systems and Training) training team. The session started with Sara Wright, PARRI, sharing some background regarding PARRI and the