Respiratory failure can be difficult to predict. It can develop into a life-threatening condition in just a few minutes, or it can build up more slowly. Thus continuous monitoring of respiratory activity should be mandatory in clinical, high-risk situations, and appropriate monitoring equipment could be life-saving. The review considers non-invasive methods and devices claimed to provide information about respiratory rate or depth, or gas exchange. Methods are categorised into those responding to movement, volume and tissue composition detection; air flow; and blood gas concentration. The merits and limitations of the methods and devices are analysed, considering information content and their ability to minimise the rate of false alarms and false non-alarms. It is concluded that the field of non-invasive respiratory monitoring is still in an exploratory phase, with numerous reports on specific device solutions but less work on evaluation and adaptation to clinical requirements. Convincing evidence of the clinical usefulness of respiratory monitors is still lacking. Devices responding only to respiratory rate, and lacking information about actual gas exchange, will have limited clinical value. Furthermore, enhancement in specificity and sensitivity to avoid false alarms and non-alarms will be necessary to meet clinical requirements. Miniature CO2 sensors are identified as one route towards substantial improvement.

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Sixty-five children born to women who all abused amphetamine during pregnancy have been followed prospectively since their birth in 1976-77. At the age of 14-15 years, information about growth and school achievement was collected from school records. For comparison of school achievements the means of schoolmates were used, and for growth a group of Stockholm children born in the same year. By the age of 14 years only 14 children (22%) had stayed with their biological mothers for the whole period since birth. In the eighth grade, 10 (15%) were one grade lower than indicated by their biological age. The norm for Sweden is less than 5%. The means of the points in mathematics, Swedish language and sports were statistically below those of their classmates. At the age of 10 years the girls were significantly shorter and lighter than their peers born in 1976. At the age of 14 years the boys were statistically taller and heavier than their peers. It can be concluded that maternal amphetamine abuse during pregnancy will influence children at lest up to the age of 14-15 years even though many of them have been living in foster homes since a young age.

These findings suggest that promoting MVPA may be have a beneficial effect on attention capacity, an important component of cognition, in adolescents.

This paper examines students' perceptions of e-learning taking students at Jönköping University in Sweden as an example. The students had experiences from two years of e-learning on campus. Students (n 5 150) lled in a questionnaire with closed as well as open-ended questions. The answers were analysed in a multiple regression analysis, putting the students' perceptions in relation to gender, age, previous knowledge of computers, attitudes to new technology, learning styles and the way of implementing e-learning at the university. Advantages and disadvantages of e-learning were categorized in a qualitative content analysis. The main conclusion from the study was that the strategy of implementing the e-learning system at the university was more important in in uencing students' perceptions than the individual background variables. Students did not regard access to e-learning on campus as a bene t. Male students, students with previous knowledge of computers and students with positive attitudes to new technologies were all less positive to e-learning on campus than other students.