Acute toxicity of zinc to several aquatic species native to the Rocky Mountains.

National water-quality criteria for the protection of aquatic life are based on toxicity tests, often using organisms that are easy to culture in the laboratory. Species native to the Rocky Mountains are poorly represented in data sets used to derive national water-quality criteria. To provide additional data on the toxicity of zinc, several laboratory acute-toxicity tests were conducted with a diverse assortment of fish, benthic invertebrates, and an amphibian native to the Rocky Mountains.

Discovering the elusive underlying cause of a bilateral effusion combined with ascites.

A 77-year-old Asian man presented to the emergency department with bilateral pleural effusion and ascites accompanied with generalized weakness, dyspnea, tachycardia, and tachypnea. After an extensive workup that ruled out heart failure, pulmonary embolism, pneumonia, and malignancy-including extensive laboratory tests, electrocardiograms, chest x-ray, computed tomographic angiogram, computed tomography scans of the abdomen and pelvis, colonoscopy, thoracentesis, paracentesis, and exploratory laparoscopy-an elusive peritoneal tuberculosis was successfully identified. This case suggests that clinicians should consider extrapulmonary tuberculosis in their practice, given increasing immigration and the variety of populations present in our society.

Acute toxicity of aqueous copper, cadmium, and zinc to the mayfly Rhithrogena hageni.

Heptageniid mayfly nymphs have been suggested as sensitive indicators of metal contamination in streams based on biomonitoring studies, experimentation in situ, and experimentation in microcosm. Laboratory tests were conducted to evaluate the sensitivity of Rhithrogena hageni, a heptageniid mayfly, to waterborne copper, cadmium, and zinc. Tests were conducted with soft water (hardness = 40-50 mg/L) at about 12 degrees C.

Treatment of substance abuse during pregnancy and infant outcome.

The objective of this study is to analyze the effects of residential substance abuse treatment on pregnancy outcome among gravidas in a gender-specific program. All clients (cases) who entered a residential substance abuse program for pregnant and postpartum women were eligible for inclusion in the study (n=95). Only those who were in treatment at the time of delivery were included in the present analysis (n=57).