Compensatory strategies for people with traumatic brain injury

This article will describe the development and use of compensatory strategies for people with traumatic brain injury. Brain injury results in a wide variety of physical, cognitive, communication and behavioural deficits which impact on daily living skills, work and recreation. Because of these problems, strategy development may be required to address many aspects of a client's life. As this article shows, the compensatory strategies incorporated into one community-based, real-Life rehabilitation programme in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, are as varied as the challenges they seek to address.

Toxicity of peracetic acid (PAA) to tomonts of IIchthyophthirius multifiliis

The free-living infective theront of Ichthyophthirius multifiliis historically has been thought to be the only stage susceptible to treatment. Here we introduce a technique to determine the toxicity of compounds to the newly released tomont, the encysted tomont and the developing tomites within the tomont that emerge as theronts. The toxicity of Wofasteril E400 (40% peracetic acid, PAA) to free-living forms of I. multifiliis was determined shortly after tomonts were physically removed from the surface of the fish and at 2.5 and 24 h after removal. Results indicate that 0.6 to 0.9 mg l(-1) PAA killed 39 to 82% of the newly released tomonts within 48 h when treated immediately. In a second experiment, tomonts were allowed to settle for 2.5 h after sampling from the skin and then treated for 12 h; concentrations > or =0.5 mg l(-1) PAA produced significantly fewer theronts than the controls. In a third experiment, encysted tomonts that were exposed to PAA 24 h after sampling from the skin and treated for 2 or 4 h produced a variable amount of theronts, but the concentrations tested (0.5 to 3.0 mg l(-1)) did not halt theront production. This research demonstrates that encysted I. multifiliis are less susceptible to chemical treatments.