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This article seeks to show how Human Resource Management and Development practitioners can develop an ethics of practice by adopting a Humanistic Action Research approach toward their Continuing Professional Development (CPD). Central to this approach is the development of reflective practice skills, in itself a journey of development. I aim to give a flavour of what this practice has meant for me as a professional educator by sharing an account of my own CPD using this approach. This approach is for the mature practitioner and it is located within Humanistic Action Research: to be appropriate, it necessitates a maturity of ego and not simply professional maturity and status. The article will discuss what this maturation process involves and will show its centrality to reflective practice. Within this framework of human inquiry, CPD requires an undertaking to engage in first person Action Research, where ‘I’ am the subject and object of my inquiry. At the heart of this approach is the pragmatic question at the centre of any approach to CPD ‘How do I improve my practice?’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The very low density (VLDL) apolipoproteins of 12 male patients with gout have been studied by analytical isoelectric focusing. The relative percentage distribution of the C apolipoproteins was calculated and compared with that from 12 normolipidaemic and 12 'lipid-matched' controls. In the gout patients apolipoprotein CII (apo CII) represented 19.6% of the VLDL C proteins and the CII/CIII2 ratio was 0.57. In the normolipidaemic controls apo CII represented 28.8% and in the lipid-matched controls 33.1% of VLDL apo C, and the CII/CIII2 ratio approached one in each control group. These differences were significant. This suggests that a reduction in VLDL apo CII may predispose to the hypertriglyceridaemia that is commonly found in patients with gout. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The urinary total hydroxyproline:creatinine ratio was measured on samples collected from 18 boys and 11 girls referred to a children's hospital because of small stature. Any serious degree of growth hormone deficiency was excluded and each child's growth and development was recorded over the following year. The hypothesis that the average hydroxyproline:creatinine ratio on random urine samples may be used to predict height velocity was examined. Such a prediction would have been incorrect on 35% of occasions, and it is concluded that this investigation cannot be used reliability to predict growth in height; it is probably only useful with sequential studies of an individual child over short periods while monitoring therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ninety-six juvenile onset type diabetics showed an increase in the frequency of HLA B8 and B15 and a decrease in frequency of HLA B7 antigens. Sixty-four maturity onset diabetics showed no disturbance in the frequency of these antigens. Fifty-four of the juvenile onset type diabetics, with an average duration of disease of 3-2 years were tested for the presence of islet cell antibodies (ICAs). Thirty-two per cent were positive, the incidence decreasing from 70% in those patients tested within 1 year of diagnosis to zero in those patients tested more than 5 years after diagnosis. No correlation was found between the incidence of ICAs and either cell-mediated immune reactions or HLA type. B15 positive patients were associated with cell-mediated immune reactions to pancreatic antigens and with the presence of other tissue autoantibodies. HLA phenotypes were not associated with environmental data. Diabetic siblings had identical HLA A-B haplotypes more often than could be expected to occur by chance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forty-three newly diagnosed insulin-dependent diabetics and thirty control subjects have been examined for cellular hypersensitivity to different pancreatic preparations, rat liver mitochondria and Coxsackie B4 virus. Evidence for cellular hypersensitivity to the pancreatic preparations was shown in the diabetic group, in whom the hypersensitivity to the pancreatic preparations was found to correlate with hyper- sensitivity to rat liver mitochondria. Hypersensitivity to Coxsackie B4 virus was not found to differ significantly in the diabetic and control groups. Hypersensitivity to liver mitochondria appeared to decrease over a 1-year period. There was an indication that hypersensitivity to Coxsackie B4 was greatest 3 months after diagnosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Leucocyte migration tests with rat liver mitochondria have been performed in eighteen patients with juvenile diabetes mellitus and in fifteen healthy controls. Leucocytes from normal subjects showed no inhibition of leucocyte migration. whereas inhibition occurred in twelve out of eighteen diabetics. The active component appeared to be in the inner membranes of the mitochondria in seventeen patients, whilst leucocytes from one patient showed inhibition to outer membrane fragments. Leucocyte migrations tests were performed in a further thirty-five patients, again using rat liver mitochondria as antigen, and sera from these patients was investigated for the presence of tissue autoantibodies. In those patients having a positive leucocyte migration test there was a higher incidence of circulating antibodies than in the group where white cells showed no inhibition but this did not reach statistical significance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nineteen patients with severe oedema due to either cirrhosis of the liver or to congestive cardiac failure, who had failed to respond to previous diuretic therapy, were treated with either increasing doses of frusemide (Group A), or with frusemide in a fixed dose of 80 mg daily and increasing doses of spironolactone (Group B). In Group A there was an inverse correlation between the baseline 24-hr urinary sodium: potassium (Na : K) ratio and the 24-hr urinary potassium excretion during diuresis, and a direct correlation between the urinary Na : K ratio before and after diuresis. Thus, in patients of this group during diuresis, there was a significantly higher urinary potassium excretion in those with a baseline urinary Na : K ratio of less than 1, as compared with those with a ratio of greater than 1. In Group B a satisfactory diuresis was achieved without marked urinary potassium loss in those patients with a baseline urinary Na : K ratio of less than 1, whereas no diuresis was obtained in the two patients with a baseline urinary Na : K ratio of greater than 1. These results suggest that the measurement of the baseline urinary Na : K ratio is of help in determining the potential value of spironolactone in patients with resistant oedema. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Synthetic luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone (LH-RH) was given in doses of 11-100 μg to normal men. Doses of 50 and 100 μg caused a two- to ten-fold rise in serum LH in all subjects, but in only 40% was the serum follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) elevated. A significantly higher LH response to LH-RH was seen in subjects in whom a rise in serum FSH could be detected. Although there was a wide variation in the serum gonadotrophic hormone response, the test was reproducible in individual subjects. A significant rise of serum LH was seen following the injection of 1 μg LH-RH and a linear log-dose response occurred over the range 0·25 to 4 μg. There was no rise in serum FSH with the lower doses of LH-RH. Two injections of LH-RH 90 min apart produced comparable rises of serum LH and FSH. The rise of serum LH following a second injection of LH-RH was blunted when the two injections were given 30 or 45 min apart. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A sensitive and specific radioimmunoassay for cholecystokinin-pancreozymin (CCK-PZ) has been developed, using rabbit antisera to crude porcine hormone. Highly purified porcine CCK-PZ, labelled with I, and repurified by column chromatography on Sephadex G15, was used as tracer. Separation of free from antibody-bound labelled CCK-PZ was carried out using charcoal, ion-exchange resin, or a double antibody procedure. Non-specific interference with the assay system by serum factors was abolished (as judged by and recovery studies) by boiling and diluting the serum samples before assay. Ninety-nine per cent pure porcine CCK-PZ (standard), commercial CCK-PZ preparations, caerulein, the C-terminal 8- and 12-amino acid fragments of the CCK-PZ molecule, and endogenous human CCK-PZ all cross reacted in the assay system and showed parallel inhibition curves. No significant cross reaction was found with gastrin, secretin, glucagon, or insulin. The sensitivity of the assay is approximately 5 pg per ml of test solution, which proved adequate for measuring physiological levels of CCK-PZ in peripheral blood in man. The mean immunoreactive CCK-PZ concentration in 50 fasting normal subjects was 60·4 pg per ml. The distribution of individual values was skewed, however, so that the median was much lower (30 pg per ml). Older subjects had higher fasting levels of CCK-PZ than were found in young adults. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses a method for assessing the lymphocyte transformation of human leucocyte cultures induced by phytohaemagglutinin and tuberculin purified protein derivative (PPD) by the measurement of the uptake of thymidine. The thymidine uptake of the cultures has been expressed as percentage of the total activity added. The mean basal uptake of twenty-two unstimulated cultures was 0-96 percent. The mean uptake of twenty-four PHA stimulated cultures was 19-5 percent, whilst the mean uptake of eleven PPD stimulated cultures from seven subjects, who were strongly positive on skin testing to tuberculin, was 20-1 percent. A rise of thymidine uptake was detected in five out of six tuberculin negative subjects.

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Two patients with Whipple's disease are described in whom the diagnosis was established by peroral small intestinal biopsy. Scurvy occurred in one patient. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Introduction: Intranasal esketamine administration demonstrates rapid improvement in symptoms of treatment-resistent depression. Transient adverse effects (dissociative symptoms, sedation, dizziness) that could impact driving performance occur routinely in the hours after esketamine administration. Objectives: To investigate effects of 84 mg esketamine on on-theroad driving performance. Methods: Part A used a single-blind, double-dummy, randomized 3-period, cross-over design to compare effects of esketamine vs placebo on next-morning driving. Alcohol (blood alcohol concentration= 0.05%) established assay sensitivity. In Part B, esketamine was administered twice weekly, and weekly driving tests were conducted 6h after administraton. Twenty-seven patients with DSM-5-defined mild-to-moderate major depressive disorder without psychotic features completed a 100-km driving test on a public highway in normal traffic. Primary outcome was Standard Deviation of Lateral Position (SDLP;cm;weaving of car). Part A driving assessments were conducted 18±2 hours postadministration. Part B driving tests were conducted 6±0.5 hours post-treatment. Results: In Part A, alcohol significantly impaired driving performance: Least-square means (95%CI) for delta SDLP (cm) compared with placebo: [SDLP = +1.83 (1.03;2.62)]. There was no significant difference between esketamine and placebo, [SDLP = -0.23 (-1.04;0.58)]. Weekly driving tests showed no significant differences between placebo baseline SDLP and after esketamine administration over 4 weeks (Day 11: [SDLP = -0.96 (-3.72;1.81)], Day 18: [SDLP = -0.56 (-3.33;2.20)], Day 25: [SDLP = -1.05 (-3.82;1.71)]). Conclusions: In MDD patients, esketamine did not significantly impair on-road driving performance the next morning following a single dose, or 6 hours after repeated administrations. These results support the label recommendation to not drive on the day of esketamine dosing. Disclosure: The study and the editorial assistance provided by Ann C Sherwood, PhD were funded by Janssen R&D. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]