Understanding v$session_wait

Hi, I have been trying to perform some performance tracking issues on Oracle 7.2.3 running under HP-UX 10.01 with Tuxedo v4.2.1 as the traffic cop making. We have seen non-consistent, short term spikes in the load on our system and am trying to determine if it's an Oracle problem or not. Anyway, I have been monitoring the DB during these times and the following is what appears in v$session_wait on a consistent basis. My questions are:  

1. Why are there so many "SQL*Net message from client" entries when the application uses OCI?
2. What's the significance of the negative numbers?

Thanks,
Clay

       SID EVENT WAIT_TIME

========== ========================================= ======================

	18 latch free								    -2
	15 db file sequential read						    -2
	16 db file sequential read						    -2
	26 SQL*Net message from client						    -2
	 4 smon timer								     0
	 2 rdbms ipc message							     0
	 3 rdbms ipc message							     0
	 1 pmon timer								     0
	17 latch free								     0
	 5 SQL*Net message from client						     0
	21 SQL*Net message from client						     0
	20 SQL*Net message from client						     0
	 8 SQL*Net message from client						     0
	10 SQL*Net message from client						     0
	12 SQL*Net message from client						     0
	14 SQL*Net message from client						     0
	13 SQL*Net message from client						     0
	11 SQL*Net message from client						     0
	 9 SQL*Net message from client						     0
	19 SQL*Net message from client						     0
	 6 SQL*Net message from client						     0
	 7 SQL*Net message from client						     0