Lamotrigine poisoning presenting as seizures: a case of deliberate poisoning

Features of Lamotrigine poisoning are not clearly described in children. We report a child who presented with seizures and bizarre neurological symptoms, later attributed to lamotrigine poisoning.     

Introduction to Reference Sources in the Health Sciences: an interview with Jo Anne Boorkman, Jeffrey T. Huber and Fred W. Roper. Interview by Elizabeth Connor

Few works serve as solid a framework for the field of health sciences librarianship or provide as many insights and detailed knowledge as Introduction to Reference Sources in the Health Sciences. Now in its fourth edition, the book's editors and contributors represent an impressive range of experience, expertise, and subject knowledge appreciated by practicing librarians in a variety of settings and by students of health sciences librarianship. Jo Anne Boorkman, Jeffrey T. Huber, and Fred W. Roper answered a series of questions about the latest edition of this seminal work, and offered opinions about reference works, services, and librarians.     

Dynamic complementarities in innovation strategies

Using a panel of Irish manufacturing plants over the period 1991–2008 we test for dynamic complementarities in the joint use of internal R&D and external knowledge sources. We find little evidence, either from considering successive cross-sectional waves of comparable surveys, or in terms of the strategy switch choices of specific plants, that there has been a systematic move towards the joint use of internal and external knowledge in innovation. We then test formally for the presence of complementarities in the joint use of internal R&D and external innovation linkages. In static terms we find no evidence of complementarity, but in dynamic terms find evidence that strategy switches by individual plants towards a more ‘open’ strategy are accompanied by increased innovation outputs.     

What is meant by the term “schedule-induced,” and how general is schedule induction?

The term “schedule-induced” implies that the overall frequency of a behavior is greater in the presence of an intermittent schedule of reinforcement than in the absence of such a schedule. Consequently, the occurrence of interreinforcement behavior is not in itself sufficient evidence of schedule induction: a test of induction requires comparison between an intermittent-schedule condition and a nonschedule baseline. The relative merits of different types of nonschedule baseline are examined, and it is concluded that the best test of schedule-induction involves both an extinction and a massed-reinforcer baseline. A working definition of schedule-induction is suggested on this basis. Studies purporting to show schedule induction of activities other than drinking are critically reviewed, and it is concluded that schedule induction may be less general than is usually supposed. It may therefore be more fruitful to seek an explanation of schedule-induced drinking which focuses specifically on the interaction between food and water ingestion in the rat, rather than an explanation involving concepts such as stress, frustration, or arousal.     

Common coding in pigeons: Partial versus total reversals of one-to-many conditional discriminations

Common coding in pigeons was examined using a delayed conditional discrimination in which each sample stimulus was associated with two different comparison stimuli (one-to-many mapping). In Experiment 1, pigeons matched circle and dot samples to red and green hues and vertical and horizontal line orientations. In Experiment 2, the samples were red and green and the comparisons were vertical and horizontal spatial positions (up vs. down and left vs. right). Following acquisition to high levels of accuracy in each experiment, the associations between the samples and either both sets or only one set of comparisons were reversed. Pigeons learned the total reversals faster than the partial reversals. These results suggest that when different comparisons are associated with a common sample, they may become functionally equivalent.     

Schedule-induced wood-chewing in rats and its dependence on body weight

In Experiment 1, 12 rats were exposed to an FT 60 schedule of food reinforcement, followed either by extinction or by a massed-food control condition, in the presence of a wood block. In 9 rats, wood-chewing behavior increased systematically during the FT 60 condition and declined again during extinction or massed food, while the other 3 rats showed virtually no chewing behavior at any stage of the experiment. In Experiment 2, frequency and bout duration of wood-chewing under an FT 60 schedule of food reinforcement declined as body weight increased, in 7 rats. We conclude that wood-chewing qualifies as a schedule-induced behavior, and that it resembles schedule-induced drinking in its dependence on body weight. Unlike drinking, however, induced chewing occupied the middle region of the 60-sec interreinforcement interval, declined markedly within the session, and showed considerable within- and between-subject variability.     

Externalities of openness in innovation

Discussion of open innovation has typically stressed the benefits to the individual enterprise from boundary-spanning linkages and improved internal knowledge sharing. In this paper we explore the potential for wider benefits from openness in innovation and argue that openness may itself generate positive externalities by enabling improved knowledge diffusion. The potential for these (positive) externalities suggests a divergence between the private and social returns to openness and the potential for a sub-optimal level of openness where this is determined purely by firms’ private returns. Our analysis is based on Irish plant-level panel data from manufacturing industry over the period 1994–2008. Based on instrumental variables regression models our results suggest that externalities of openness in innovation are significant and that they are positively associated with firms’ innovation performance. We find that these externality effects are unlikely to work through their effect on the spread of open innovation practices. Instead, they appear to positively influence innovation outputs by either increasing knowledge diffusion or strengthening competition. Our evidence on the significance of externalities from openness in innovation provides a rationale for public policy aimed at promoting open innovation practices among firms.     

Special programs in medical library education, 1957-1971: part IV. Career characteristics of two groups of medical librarians

This final report compares career characteristics of former trainees employed in medical libraries in 1971 with those of another group of professional medical librarians who did not enter medical librarianship from special training programs. Career characteristics include career advancement (position level, number of people supervised, salary level), professional utilization (tasks performed), and professional activity (association memberships and offices, number of journals read, continuing education activity). The comparison of characteristics for the two groups showed many similarities. A major difference appeared in the career advancement comparison. For the former trainees, economic advancement seems less dependent on upward movement in line positions. This suggests the possibility of two career tracks available to them.     

Factors affecting schedule-induced wood-chewing in rats: Percentage and rate of reinforcement,and operant requirement

In Experiment 1, rats were allowed to acquire either schedule-induced drinking or schedule-induced wood-chewing behavior under a fixed-interval (FI) 60-sec schedule of food reinforcement, following which food was omitted from 20% and then 50% of interreinforcement intervals. Omission of food severely disrupted induced drinking but had relatively little effect on induced wood-chewing. Experiment 2 investigated wood-chewing as a function of reinforcement rate, using a range of FI schedules from 5 to 180 sec in duration. Both the amount of chewing per session and the relative time spent chewing were bitonically related to reinforcement rate. In Experiment 3, schedule-induced chewing that had been acquired under a response-dependent schedule was found to persist under a response-independent schedule. Induced wood-chewing resembles other induced behaviors in important respects, but quantitative differences are also apparent.