Harry Harlow: Lessons on explanations, ideas, and mentorship.

Harry F. Harlow died on December 6, 1981, in Tucson, Arizona. An examination of the process of his professional contributions reveals an intensely antagonistic attitude toward simplistic explanations of psychological phenomena, and a willingness to entertain experimental ideas born in a wide variety of ways.

An unsuspected sign of cutaneous allergy.

An eczematous eruption in the superior retroauricular areas of the scalp and often on the posterior aspects of the pinnas may be seen in about 30% of allergic children. The eruption is not generally noticed because the overhanging hair covers the affected areas. The dermatitis is seen mainly in those children afflicted with bronchial asthma, perennial allergic rhinitis, or both.

Determination of ethinylestradiol and norethisterone in an oral contraceptive capsule by reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography.

A specific and sensitive analytical method is described for the simultaneous determination of ethinylestradiol and norethisterone in a capsule formulation. These steroids, commonly used in oral contraceptives, were extracted from the capsules with acetonitrile and tetrahydrofuran. The steroids were then quantitated with a high performance liquid chromatograph using a ODS reversed-phase column and a ternary solvent system of water, acetonitrile, and tetrahydrofuran as the mobile phase.

Qualitative detection of a human placental lactogen--binding substance by radioassay.

Serum levels of human placental lactogen (hPL) were measured by radioimmunoassay, and a method was developed for the detection of an hPL-binding substance by radioassay. Three groups of women were investigated: (1) normal adult women who had never been pregnant; (2) women with normal pregnancies; (3) high-risk pregnant women (those demonstrating low levels of hPL). All women who had never been pregnant and most women who had normal hPL levels were found to be negative for the hPL-binding substance, whereas 80% of the women with hPL levels less than 4.

The computerized medical record system: meeting the challenge for nursing.

A system of computerized medical record-keeping in a health maintenance organization is described. Some problems arising in the shift from manual to computerized record-keeping are discussed. Perhaps the most important for nursing is the increase in the nursing staff's responsibility for complete, consistent documentation of patient care concomitant with the shift to a computerized system.

Development of social behavior in an adult total isolate rhesus monkey (Macaca mulatta).

A 12-year-old female total isolate rhesus monkey was pretested with age mates and subsequently housed for 20 weeks with an infant "therapist" monkey. Daily observations during that period revealed a 24-fold increase in the probability of social behavior. Self-directed behaviors also increased significantly.

Pulsus paradoxus in childhood asthma--its prognostic value.

One hundred asthmatic children were examined for pulsus paradoxus, a palpable diminution or obliteration of the peripheral pulse during inspiration, while in bronchospasm. Pulsus was measured with a sphygmomanometer and the difference in systolic pressure between inspiration and expiration was noted. Seventy-five children with mild asthma had no palpable pulsus and responded with complete subsidence of symptoms with one or two injections of aqueous epinephrine, 1-1000.

Acquisition and extinction of an operant response in differentially reared rats.

Rats reared in either socially isolated or control environments were trained to bar press for food on a variable interval schedule of reinforcement, beginning at 125 days of age for 37 consecutive days. Following this phase the subjects were tested for response persistence during an extinction test. Next, the subjects were compared on measures of spontaneous recovery and the rate of response reacquisition when the reinforcement contingencies were once again reinstated.

The effects of pregnancy on asthma: a prospective study.

Forty-seven pregnant asthmatics were studied in a prospective study. Maternal asthma was exacerbated in 43%, most often in the last trimester. Normal physiologic alterations of pregnancy are reviewed as plausable explanations for the course of asthmatic patients during pregnancy.