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Respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) is a common breathing complication in premature and low-birth-weight infants. It is caused by a deficiency in surfactant, a protein which makes the lungs pliable. When the lungs are inflexible and cannot expand properly, this results in labored breathing and decreased oxygen intake. In an effort to prevent RDS, a natural surfactant can be given to infants at birth. The results of a multicenter trial of single-dose modified bovine surfactant Survanta, a surfactant derived from cows, are reported. Of the 160 low-birth-weight infants (1.7 to 2.8 pounds, or 750 to 1,250 grams) born between 24 and 30 weeks of pregnancy, 79 were treated with Survanta (100 milligrams per kilogram), while 81 were given air without surfactant. All the infants were treated within 37 minutes of birth. The study evaluations, which included chest X-rays, blood gases, inspired oxygen and airway pressure, were assessed over the next 72 hours. The infants receiving Survanta had less severe RDS assessed by chest X-ray findings and improved inspired oxygen than infants receiving no therapy. There was no major difference in the incidence of the most common complications of prematurity, namely necrotizing enterocolitis (tissue death in the intestinal tract), bronchopulmonary dysplasia (development of abnormal lung tissue), pneumothorax (leakage of air from the lungs into the thoracic cavity), intraventricular hemorrhage (bleeding in the spaces of the brain), sepsis (infection) and a patent ductus arteriosus (the maintenance of a connection between the aorta and the pulmonary artery that normally closes after birth). Treated infants had a lower incidence of pneumothorax and an increased incidence of necrotizing enterocolitis. The incidence of all other complications of prematurity were same in the treated and nontreated groups. Survanta therapy improved the inspired oxygen fraction and increased the number of survivors without bronchopulmonary dysplasia in a small subgroup of infants who weighed less than 2.2 pounds (1 kilogram). Although Survanta did not reduce the incidence of RDS complications, it was useful in decreasing the severity of chest X-ray findings and improved oxygenation in the first 72 hours of life. Infants of very low birth weights may benefit the most from Survanta therapy. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)

The article responds to folklorist Elliott Oring's 2017 Francis Lee Utley Lecture, published in the same issue. Topics include the notion of theory in relation to folklore research, the notion of tradition in the history of folklore research, and the significance of the notion of materiality for the study of folklore.

This essay attempts to unpack a core principle of folklore's "field-Imaginary." Characterized here as a cybernetic Ideal, folklorists take for granted that the folklore process entails a tension between mechanisms of randomizing variation and counter forces of stabilizing constraint, leading to some form of dynamic equilibrium. The argument is not that this foundational idea is wrong, but that the simple form in which we receive it from the field-Imaginary limits what we recognize as relevant to folklore studies. A more complex understanding of (neo) cybernetic thinking can help us enlarge our disciplinary frame and contemplate more critically the digital/ computational turn in folklore studies today [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) images were obtained in two patients with achondroplasia. Communicating hydrocephalus was present without ventricular stasis of the radiopharmaceutical. CSF diversionary shunts may not he indicated in the usual patient with achondroplasia and hydrocephalus. This diagnostic study offers future promise in predicting those patients who may benefit from a CSF diversionary shunt. Pediatrics, 49:46, 1972, ACHONDROPLASIA, CISTERNOGRAPHY, HYDROCEPHALUS, BONE DEVELOPMENT, NEUROCRANIAL ENLARGEMENT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is argued that there are at least two alleles at the achondroplasia locus: one responsible for classic achondroplasia and one responsible for hypochondroplasia. Homozygosity for the achondroplasia gene produces a lethal skeletal dysplasia; homozygosity for hypochondroplasia has not been described. We report here a child considered to be a genetic compound for the achondroplasia and hypochondroplasia alleles. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abstract. In 1973 the United States Mint proposed replacing the bronze penny with a less expensive penny made of aluminum. Pediatricians and pediatric radiologists, by testifying that aluminum coins are difficult to see on radiographs, helped defeat that legislation. Now the Mint again proposes a less expensive penny, one made principally of zinc. This proposed penny is radiopaque and will be easily identified on radiographs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]