Friday 1 October 1971

Behavior of young children under conditions simulating entrapment in refrigerators

Pediatrics
Vol. 22 No. 4 October 1, 1958
pp. 628 -647

Katherine Bain, Marion L. Faegre, Robert S. Wyly

Children's Bureau, U. S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare (K.B.), and National Bureau of Standards, U. S. Department of Commerce

Abstract

Behavior of young children in a situation simulating entrapment in refrigerators was studied in order to develop standards for inside releasing devices, in accordance with Public Law 930 of the 84th Congress.

Using a specially designed enclosure, 201 children 2 to 5 years of age took part in tests in which six devices were used, including two developed in the course of this experiment as the result of observation of behavior.

Success in escaping was dependent on the device, a child's age and size and his behavior. It was also influenced by the educational level of the parents, a higher rate of success being associated with fewer years of education attained by mother and father combined. Three major types of behavior were observed: (1) inaction, with no effort or only slight effort to get out (24%); (2) purposeful effort to escape (39%); (3) violent action both directed toward escape and undirected (37%).

Some of the children made no outcry (6% of the 2-year-olds and 50% of the 5-year-olds). Not all children pushed. When tested with devices where pushing was appropriate, 61% used this technique. Some children had curious twisting and twining movements of the fingers or clenching of the hands. When presented with a gadget that could be grasped, some (18%) pulled, a few (9%) pushed, but 40% tried to turn it like a doorknob.

Time of confinement in the enclosure was short for most children. Three-fourths released themselves or were released in less than 3 minutes; one-fourth in less than 10 seconds. Of those who let themselves out, one-half did so in less than 10 seconds. One-third of the children emerged unruffled, about half were upset but could be comforted easily, and a small group (11%) required some help to become calm.

Forces exerted in any horizontal direction by the children for whom such records were obtained ranged up to 29 pounds. The average was about 10 pounds for 3-year-olds and about 21 pounds for 5-year-olds. For reasons not known, the 2-year-old group exerted a slightly greater average force than did the 3-year-old group.

More than one-fourth of the children exerted in excess of 18 pounds and almost two-thirds in excess of 12 pounds.

Data from these experiments proved valuable in developing standards for release devices (as required by Public Law 930), which are expected to be effective for self-release by a large percentage of, but not all, entrapped children. An important result of the behavior study was the finding that, when entrapped, children most often try to escape either by pushing on the door through which they entered the enclosure, or by manipulating a knob release as they would a doorknob. Relatively few children pushed against the back, sides or ceiling of the enclosure.

A follow-up study of 96 test subjects, 8 months after the tests, by interviews with the mothers showed very little obvious residual effect. Reversion to infantile behavior was not found. A number of children still talked about the tests, some with pleasure, a few with resentment. Mothers were not aware of more than ephemeral emotional upset in any of the children.

Reasons for the low level of anxiety engendered by the tests may lie in the precautions taken and in factors inherent in the situation; the parents were not involved in the incident, which enabled them to be calm and casual with the children.

http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/22/4/628

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Thursday 1 July 1971

On the Comparative Palatability of Some Dry-Season Tadpoles from Costa Rica

American Midland Naturalist
Vol. 86, No. 1 (Jul., 1971), pp. 101-109
Published by: The University of Notre Dame

Richard Wassersug
Museum of Vertebrate Zoology
University of California
Berkeley 94720

Abstract:

Tadpoles of eight species of frog were tasted in a standardized procedure by 11 volunteers. The tadpoles were rated in their palatability from "tastes good" to "highly unpalatable." It is suggested that palatability in tadpoles may correlate inversely with vulnerability.

http://www.jstor.org/stable/2423690

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Microbiological Laboratory Hazard of Bearded Men

Appl Microbiol. Jul 1967; 15(4): 899–906

Manuel S. Barbeito, Charles T. Mathews, and Larry A. Taylor

Industrial Health and Safety Office, Fort Detrick, Frederick, Maryland 21701

Abstract

An investigation was conducted to evaluate the hypothesis that a bearded man subjects his family and friends to risk of infection if his beard is contaminated by infectious microorganisms while he is working in a microbiological laboratory. Bearded and unbearded men were tested with Serratia marcescens and Bacillus subtilis var. niger. Contact aerosol transmission from a contaminated beard on a mannequin to a suitable host was evaluated with both Newcastle disease virus and Clostridium botulinum toxin, type A. The experiments showed that beards retained microorganisms and toxin despite washing with soap and water. Although washing reduced the amount of virus or toxin, a sufficient amount remained to produce disease upon contact with a suitable host.

http://aem.asm.org/content/15/4/899.abstract

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Tuesday 1 June 1971

XI. On the Formation of Bone in the Human Penis

Annals of Surgery
June 1913 - Volume 57 - Issue 6 - ppg 896-901

Arpad G. Gerster, M.D.,
Surgeon to the Mount Sinai Hospital
and
F. S. Mandlebaum, M.D.,
of New York
Pathologist to the Mt. Sinai Hospital

   The fact that the formation of bone in the human penis is one of the rarest of phenomena may serve as an excuse for presenting a paper based on the observation of a single case.

   CASE REPORT.-John B., male, Frenchman, restaurant keeper, 49 years old, married. There was a history of syphilis, no gonorrhoea, no acute infectious disease. Patient had worn a pair of corsets of the straight front type for three years. About eight months ago he noticed at the place where, in the sitting posture, the lower anterior rim of the corsets impinged on the upper aspect of the root of the penis, the appearance of a small indurated mass the size of a pea. Gradually this mass extended downward along the middle of the dorsum of the organ, until it reached its present size. The presence of this body caused the patient no inconvenience whatever, except in erection of the penis, when an increasing amount of upward incurvation acted as an insurmountable obstacle to the introduction of the organ into the female genital tract. On October 3, 1910, the following was noted:

   Status Prasens.-Florid, somewhat obese man. Pulse 80, temperature normal. Arteries somewhat hard. Lungs and heart normal. Abdomen obese and pendulous. Liver palpable, not painful; spleen non-palpable. Genitals well developed. Close to where the penis emerges from underneath the symphysis pubis, an oblong, lamella shaped, very hard body can be felt resting upon the dorsum, extending forward to the extent of 3.5 cm. It's width is 1.75 cm. It occupies the middle space exactly. The thickness is estimated to be about two or three millimetres. There is considerable subcutaneous lateral mobility which easily permits a tilting on edge from either side, the tilted body then assuming the shape of a longitudinal crest. No longitudinal mobility. The Wassermann test proved to be negative. Urination unimpeded. Urine of high specific gravity (1018-1022), clear, dark amber, acid; no albumin, no sugar, no blood, pus, or casts.

   October 15, under light gas and ether anaesthesia extirpation of the body. Artificial anaemia by constriction of root of penis. Longitudinal median incision down upon the body, severing the penile fascia. Very easy dissection of the lateral margins; the inferior attachments of the osseous body to the tunica albuginea and to the septum penis demanded cutting. After the removal of the body a defect of the tunica extending over both corpora cavernosa was visible. Catgut suture of tunica albuginea, release of the constrictor, ligature of two small arteries, suture of the fascia and skin, together with a small compressive dressing completed the little operation. Uneventful primary healing followed.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1407570/

This boner paper is over a hundred years old. All copyrights have expired.

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Thursday 1 April 1971

Swallows and Bed-Bugs

The Condor
Vol. 15, No. 1, Jan. - Feb., 1913, pp. 14-16
Published by: University of California Press on behalf of the Cooper Ornithological Society
Jan., 1913
DOI: 10.2307/1361865

Edward R. Warren

In my paper in the May-June CONDOR, 1912, entitled "Some North-cen-tral Colorado Bird Notes," I referred to the belief that swallows harbor bed-bugs as ridiculous; and now I have to confess that possibly I did not know as much as I thought I did, a not uncommon failing with us all. Some time after the paper was published, W. Leon Dawson in a very courteous letter, called my attention to the fact that he had found Cliff Swallows' nests badly in-fested with bed-bugs, in one case so much so that the colony had been deserted.
He reported this in "The Birds of Washington," page 333. This started me to looking into the matter, something I had not done before, and as it would seem that not very many are posted on the subject, and in fact but little definite has been published that I have been able to find, I have thought it worth while to write up what little I have been able to learn about the matter, together with a few observations of my own, in the hope that it may be the means of bringing out further information. Certainly ornithologists should do their part in ascertain-ing whether or not swallows are guilty of bringing such disagreeable pests into human habitations.

I found that a bug (Acanthia hirundinis), belonging to the same genus as the true bed-bug (Acanthia lectularia), is parasitic on swallows, pigeons, chickens, and bats. It should perhaps be stated that the French authority, L. Gedoelst, places it in another genus because of certain structural differences, calling it Oeciacus hirundinis. On writing Dr. L. O. Howard, Chief of the Bureau of Entomology, Department of Agriculture, for information, he gave me a reference to a record by Otto Lugger, State Entomologist of Minnesota, and published in the Sixth Annual Report of the Entomologist of the State Ex-periment Station of the University of Minnesota, 1900, page 52.
This is as follows:

"Bugs, very similar to bed bugs, attack pigeons, chickens, swallows and bats. Those found in the nests of swallows not infrequently reach the inside of houses against which these beneficial birds have built their clay nests. Such bugs very closely resemble the genuine bed-bugs, yet are different when studied in detail; they are much smaller, darker, and cannot exist for any length of time away from their proper home, the nest of the swallow, where they are sometimes ex-ceedingly numerous.

http://www.jstor.org/stable/1361865

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