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Presents a speech made by the chairman of U S West Inc., on February 19, 1998, at the Equal Employment Advisory Council in Washington, D.C., on business.

Comments on an article by Richard Lacayo in `Time,' magazine on the difference between power and influence. Leadership in the American Catholic Church; Charismatic type of leadership that liberates; Factual separation of office and leadership; Enslavement to tradition.

Focuses on the contents of Richard P. McBrien's book `Catholicism.' Criticisms; Inherent values, virtues and possible vices. INSET: Of what theology is and is not, by Richard P. McBrien..

Summarizes The Gospel of Life, the 11th encyclical of Pope John Paul II. Culture of death; Inviolability of life; Relation of civil and moral law; Issues suggested by the encyclical.

Makes observations concerning the apostolic letter `Ordinatio Sacerdotalis,' issued by Pope John Paul II on May 30, 1994. Position on church authority to ordain women; Issue on the exercise of authority; Background on the letters of Cardinal Robert Bellarmine and Cardinal Leon Joseph Suenens.

Discusses the implications of Pope John Paul II's encyclical `Veritatis Splendor' on moral theology. John Paul II's sadness over the loss of the sense of sin; Rejection of the false dichotomies, autonomy and theonomy; Moral positions of proportionalists; Criteria and judgments of circumstances that contribute to sin; Bishops and the credibility of Catholic higher education.

Argues in favor of the attitude of the Society of Jesus during the 1980 Synod of Bishops. Aristotle and church teaching on intercourse; Position on contraceptive acts and natural family planning; Supportive views from Father Ora MacManus writings in the Lonergan Studies Newsletter; Viewed erroneous rigorisms on duration-of-the-marriage practice; Anti-life disposition on sexual intimacy.

Examines the effect of the encyclical `Humanae Vitae' 25 years since it was issued in July 25, 1968. Reactions of cardinals to the birth control issue; Dissent from bishops and priests; Fifth Synod of Bishops on September 26, 1980; Intervention from Archbishop John R. Quinn of San Francisco, California; Questions on what is the issue and what the church can do about the impasse.

Lists ten `value variables,' cultural assumptions, trends, unexamined attitudes and biases that affect bioethical thought and health-care planning in general. Among others, denial of mortality, eugenic mentality, absolutization of autonomy, dignity as independence, secularization of medicine, interventionist mentality, confusion of the legal and moral, morality as purely personal, functional assessment of the person; Hidden persuaders; Resistance.

Argues why dissent has occurred in the Roman Catholic Church and what it means. Key issues around which dissent occurs; Factors which encourage a new critical awareness in the church and help explain the emergence of dissent in the postconciliar church; Concept of the preconciliar approach.

Opinion. Presents the author's view on physician-assisted suicide. Examination of the reasoning of US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in the Washington case; Analysis on the views of James Rachels, Dan Brock, Tom Beauchamp and Ronald Dworkin, authors who defend assisted suicide; Identification of what the author believe are some of the larger cultural assumptions on physician-assisted suicide.

Studies were performed to determine if periovulatory ovine follicles secrete chemoattractants for leukocytes, and if so, to begin to elucidate the chemical nature of such factors. Tissues were obtained at 0, 12, 24, and 36 h Ater initiation of the preovulatory surge of luteinizing hormone and placed in short-term incubation (ovulation occurs at approximately 24 h). Follicular-conditioned medium was tested for its ability to attract leukocytes by utilizing a linear under-agarose assay: chemotaxis was quantified as a function of the leading front of migration of cells. Neutrophils and eosinophils were attracted toward media conditioned with tissues of 24 and 36 h. Monocytes responded toward medium of tissues collected at 36 h. There was no evidence for chemoattraction of basophils or lymphocytes. Chemoattractant activity for granulocytes and monocytes was of low molecular weight origin (<3000) and water-soluble. High performance liquid chromatographic separation of this sample produced a distinct peak with recoverable activity. The isolated fraction was rich in glycine. Eosinophils also migrated toward an additional low molecular weight attractant that was extracted into ethyl acetate. Leukocytes attracted into periovulatory follicles might produce substances (eg., proteolytic enzymes and angiogenic factors) that play a role in the mechanisms of ovulation and luteinization.

Barclay: New scientific knowledge and resultant technologies create ethical dilemmas for society. The potential applications of in utero surgery for the repair of fetal defects are enormous and raise interesting ethical questions. The work of Drs Hodgen and Michejda and their associates, such as fetoscopic insertion of a prosthesis to relieve intracranial pressure in the hydrocephalic fetus and closure of neural tube defects, represents important advances and will be the context of our discussion today.McCormick: As part of any full discussion of an issue like this, something that strikes me is the need to distinguish among technologies. How is in utero surgery similar or dissimilar to end-stage renal disease programs, cardiac bypass surgery, and so on? In many such procedures, we are dealing with people who have lived fairly full lives, and we are not changing life radically, in terms of mentation or freedom. With the technology under discussion,

Substance abusers with borderline personality disorder (n = 34) were compared with substance abusers who were not borderline (n = 89) on measures of impulsivity, coping skills, hostility, negative affect, and triggers for craving or relapse. Borderline substance abusers abused more substances over the course of their lifetime and scored significantly higher on measures of impulsivity. Borderline substance abusers utilized escape/avoidance coping mechanisms more often, and used problem solving and positive reappraisal less often than nonborderline substance abusers. Borderlines had cravings and relapses triggered more often by negative emotional states, tension, social rejection, and negative physical states. The findings support the utility of focusing on treatment-relevant psychological constructs that characterize substance abusers with borderline personality disorder.

The importance of coping skill enhancement in the treatment of pathological gamblers is discussed. It is particularly critical to assess and enhance the coping skills of relapse prone gamblers who are marked by unusual degrees of impulsivity, high levels of negative affect and feelings of helplessness and hopelessness. A study of 1129 substance abusers, including 140 with serious gambling problems is reported. All were assessed to determine their repertoire of coping skills. The patients with serious gambling problems utilized significantly more avoidant and impulsive coping styles.

The model proposed attempts to integrate the growing data base on pathological gamblers in a parsimonious manner. The model focuses on psychological observations, although it recognizes the parallel importance of physiological phenomena. The model is based on two recurring observations with pathological gamblers: Gambling satisfies recurring and often intensified needs for the gambler; and pathological gamblers vary tremendously on a number of dimensions. The model suggests that attempts to understand pathological gambling must focus on sub-types of pathological gamblers. Two sub-types, are discussed.

This paper argues that there area priori reasons to extract measures of ego strength and achievement motivation from the psychometric data base routinely collected from inpatient pathological gambers in order to clarify the meaning of these constructs and to evaluate their roles in personality organization. A sample of 57 subjects engaged in an inpatient treatment program for pathological gamblers was studied using Barron's Ego Strength Scale (ES) from the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory and two measures of achievement motivation from the California Personality Inventory, Achievement via Conformance (Ac) and Achievement via Independence (Ai). Compared to the standardization group norms on these instruments, pathological gamblers are significantly deficient in both ego strength and one type of achievement motivation, Ac. Clinical impressions of gamblers in treatment suggest that narcissistic characteristics are a major problem in treatment and that future research should attempt further detailed studies of ego structure in order to refine treatment objectives.

To explore the use of normal personality measures in clinical populations, we investigated the usefulness of the Five-Factor personality domains measured by the NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI) in identifying subtypes among a cohort of 3,256 substance abusers. Three groups were reliably identified across clustering methods and the groups differed in reported coping style, psychopathological symptoms, and pattern of substance choice. The largest differences between group members' personality dimensions were found for measures of neuroticism, agreeableness, and conscientiousness. Members of groups characterized by elevated levels of neuroticism demonstrated low levels of conscientiousness and agreeableness. The more extreme the group members' levels on these personality dimensions, the higher their reported levels of depressive symptoms, aggressive/hostile cognitions, impulsiveness, maladaptive coping styles, and likelihood of abusing more than one substance. Results support the use of measures of normal domains of personality in identifying meaningful subtypes of substance abusers.

ON Feb 24, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Robert H. T. Houle died following court-ordered emergency surgery at Maine Medical Center. The child was born Feb 9, horribly deformed. His entire left side was malformed; he had no left eye, was practically without a left ear, had a deformed left hand; some of his vertebrae were not fused. Furthermore, he was afflicted with a tracheal esophageal fistula and could not be fed by mouth. Air leaked into his stomach instead of going to the lungs, and fluid from the stomach pushed up into the lungs. As Dr. Andre Hellegers recently noted, "It takes little imagination to think there were further internal deformities" (Obstetrical and Gynecological News, April 1974).As the days passed, the condition of the child deteriorated. Pneumonia set in. His reflexes became impaired and because of poor circulation, severe brain damage was suspected. The tracheal esophageal fistula,

Male pathological gamblers entering a comprehensive treatment program were followed-up for twelve months after treatment completion. Twelve month follow-up was obtained for 45 of the 66 patients entering treatment. Total abstinence was reported by 55% (n=25) of the patients located for twelve month follow-up. A relationship was found between abstinence at six month follow-up and selected subscales of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, performance scale. The implications of these findings for sub-typing gamblers are discussed.

Major traumatic events were discovered in the histories of 23% of pathological gamblers seeking hospital treatment. These high-trauma patients were compared with groups of gambler patients who had experienced insignificant, low, or moderate amounts of life trauma. High-trauma patients tended, as measured by standard psychometrics, to be more depressed, anxious, and avoidant in personality style; they were also more likely to be abusing alcohol or other drugs. In their discussion the authors focus on the concept of learned dysthymia, a chronic state of negative affect related to cumulative life trauma and seemingly instrumental in potentiating addictive euphoria.

Abstract:The so-called "New Objectivity" in the arts and culture of the Weimar Republic was characterized by an erosion of the boundary between the "high culture" associated with the bourgeois public sphere and new forms of mass culture directed at other classes in the emerging modern consumer society. Related to this erosion of boundaries were anxieties about the destabilization of traditional models of (national, ethnic, class, gender, sexual) identity. Change seemed especially threatening in its effect on traditional ("natural") gender roles, as can readily be demonstrated in G.W. Pabst's film Geheimnisse einer Seele(1926). Similar anxieties about gender are also crucial to subsequent developments in German culture and society. (RWM)

Abstract:German women filmmakers and feminist film theorists have been productive in different "realms" since the 1970s. Courses focusing on the two can be productive as well. After briefly discussing the political consequences of such courses, I sketch the historical development of filmmaking by women in West Germany from the mid-1970s to the early 1980s. Then I trace a shift in feminist film theory (predominantly Anglo-American, although influenced by French theory) from the 1970s to the 1980s. Finally, I discuss some comparable developments over the course of the 1980s in German films by women.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of endurance exercise training on both locomotor skeletal muscle collagen characteristics and passive stiffness properties in the young adult and old rat. Young (3-mo-old) and senescent (23-mo-old) male Fischer 344 rats were randomly assigned to either a control or exercise training group [young control (YC), old control (OC), young trained (YT), old trained (OT)]. Exercise training consisted of treadmill running at ∼70% of maximal oxygen consumption (45 min/day, 5 days/wk, for 10 wk). Passive stiffness (stress/strain) of the soleus (Sol) muscle from all four groups was subsequently measured in vitro at 26°C. Stiffness was significantly greater for Sol muscles in OC rats compared with YC rats, but in OT rats exercise training resulted in muscles with stiffness characteristics not different from those in YC rats. Sol muscle collagen concentration and the level of the nonreducible collagen cross-link hydroxylysylpyridinoline (HP) significantly increased from young adulthood to senescence. Although training had no effect on Sol muscle collagen concentration in either age group, it resulted in a significant reduction in the level of Sol muscle HP in OT rats. In contrast, exercise had no effect on HP in the YT animals. These findings indicate that 10 wk of endurance exercise significantly alter the passive viscoelastic properties of Sol muscle in old but not in young adult rats. The coincidental reduction in the principal collagen cross-link HP also observed in response to training in OT muscle highlights the potential role of collagen in influencing passive muscle viscoelastic properties.

Extracellular matrix development of chicken pectoral muscle was examined in the Low Score Normal (LSN) genetic muscle weakness and compared to both normal and avian muscular dystrophy (MD). At 20 days of embryonic development significant elevations were noted in LSN total glycosaminoglycan concentration and decorin, while at 14 days, LSN glycosaminoglycan and decorin levels were indistinguishable from the controls. Levels of a large skeletal muscle chondroitin sulfate proteoglycan (M-CSPG) appeared to be unaffected. Morphologically, at 20 days, the extracellular matrix space between muscle fibers increased to a level characteristic to that observed in avian muscular dystrophy. At six weeks posthatch a marked increase in LSN collagen crosslinking relative to MD or control tissues was observed, while collagen concentration was not altered. By one year posthatch LSN collagen crosslink levels did not significantly differ from normal tissue. These data support the concept that the LSN muscle weakness is associated with changes in both proteoglycan and collagen characteristics.

Histological aspects of Cu-deficient hypertrophied rat hearts were evaluated to determine causal factors. Twenty-four male weanling rats were fed either Cu-adequate (8.0 mg/kg diet) or Cu-deficient (0.4 mg/kg diet) diets until 9 or 11 wk of age. Copper-deficient rats had increased mitochondrial:myofibrillar ratios compared with Cu-adequate rats. Mitochondria were vacuolated. Cristae seemed fragmented and matrix seemed translucent and they tended to distort the myofibrils. Glycogen granules and lipid droplets were more frequently observed in Cu-deficient rats. When the Cu-deficient rats were examined separately, the larger hearts in the older rats had smaller mitochondrial:myofibrillar ratios, but had larger myofibrillar volume densities. Valves from Cu-deficient rats had less connective tissue and seemed fragmented in areas. In 9-wk-old Cu-deficient rats, there was a negative correlation between heart: body weight ratios and bicuspid valve scores, whereas 11-wk-old rats demonstrated the same relationship for tricuspid valves with myofibril volume density. These results suggest that there are two components contributing to cardiac hypertrophy in copper deficient rats: 1) an enlarged mitochondrial area and 2) myofibrillar enlargement. Hematocrit values did not seem to be related to cardiac hypertrophy.

Myofibrillar and nonmyofibrillar proteins from hearts of copper-adequate (n= 9) and copper-deficient (n= 10) rats were compared. Male weanling Long-Evans rats were fed copper-deficient or copper-adequate diets for 9 wk. Twelve additional rats were fed similar diets and cardiac tissue was evaluated by transmission electron microscopy. Ventricular myocytes were glycerinated and homogenized in 0.1 M KCl and 1.5% Triton X-100, and suspensions were centrifuged at 1100 × g. The supernatant was removed and designated Triton X-100-soluble nonmyofibrillar protein, and the pellet was resuspended and recentrifuged several times to obtain myofibrillar protein. Sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) analysis was conducted on both protein fractions. Densitometer scans of SDS-PAGE pherograms of myofibrillar protein revealed no significant difference between copper-adequate and copper-deficient groups. Similar analysis of nonmyofibrillar protein revealed a consistent decrease or diminished level of a 23-kDa polypeptide among copper-deficient rat hearts. These results may be consistent with the findings that demonstrated fragementation of mitochondrial cristae and an increased area occupied by mitochondria in copper-deficient rat hearts.

Ovine longissimus dorsi and biceps femoris muscles were analyzed for proteoglycan content, collagen and lysine aldehyde-derived collagen crosslinking concentrations at 2-4 days, six-month-old, and six-year-old stages of development. Tissue extracted proteoglycan molecular sieve distribution on a Sephacryl S-200HR column revealed two proteoglycan populations with estimated relative molecular weight ranges of 200,000 to 250,000 daltons and 23,000 to 70,000 daltons. The molecular sieve distribution was similar between the two muscles within a developmental age, but changed as a function of developmental age. Primary culture from both the longissimus dorsi and biceps femoris muscle liberated proteoglycans into the culture medium. In contrast to the tissue extracted proteoglycans, at the six-year-old stage of development, culture medium liberated proteoglycan Sephacryl S-200HR molecular sieve distribution differed between the two muscles. In both the tissue extracted and medium liberated proteoglycans at all developmental stages, nitrous acid deamination demonstrated the presence of heparan sulfate. Immunoblot analysis of the tissue extracted proteoglycans indicated the presence of decorin at each developmental stage. Longissimus dorsi and biceps femoris collagen concentrations (5.13 ± 0.9 vs. 5.53 ± 1.5%, respectively) and crosslink concentrations (0.07 ± 0.01 moles HP/mole collagen) were initially similar between the two muscles; however, by six-months the muscles differed in both collagen concentration (1.72 ± 0.5 and 2.53 ± 0.7%, respectively) and crosslinking (0.24 ± 0.02 and 0.27 ± 0.03 moles HP/mole collagen, respectively). At six years of age, both the longissimus dorsi and biceps femoris exhibited slightly elevated collagen concentrations (2.49 and 3.05%, respectively) while crosslinking values were decreased relative to values at six-months of age (0.11 ± 0.01 and 0.18 ± 0.01 moles HP/mole of collagen, respectively). The results from this study indicate that skeletal muscle proteoglycans and collagen show developmental changes, which suggests that they are subject to developmental regulation.

Presents information about the problem of companies regarding their employees dealing with families issues during working hours. Two choices for companies to solve their problem; Percentage of employees with family concerns; Other benefits designed by companies to retain good employees; Some of the initiatives that work with benefits of employees; Some of the remarks of the employees working at home; Three things a company needs to succeed in the 90s.