Biomedical subjects

B F Fuller

Publications and source records attributed to B F Fuller.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1992

Validity and reliability of nonverbal voice measures as indicators of stressor-provoked anxiety.

To determine the validity and reliability of vocal jitter, tenseness, and pitch as measures of stressor-provoked anxiety, 88 women representing three coping styles (Highly Anxious, Truly Low Anxious, and Repressor) phonated vowels, reported anxiety, and provided measures of muscle tension, heart rate, and sweating 2 weeks before, the day before, and 1 week after stressful exams. Greater self-reported anxiety, sweating, and heart rate on the day before versus the other occasions confirmed the day before was the most stressful occasion. Results suggest excellent validity and reliability for Jitter as an indicator of stressor-provoked anxiety.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMed1992

The effects of stress-anxiety and coping styles on heart rate variability.

This study explored the effects of a naturally occurring stressor on the amplitudes of the respiratory sinus arrhythmia and Traube-Hering-Mayer bands of the power spectra of cardiac interbeat intervals of 15 Highly Anxious, 15 Truly Low Anxious and 15 Repressor women. Interbeat interval samples were obtained from 4.5 min tachygraph records while the subjects sat quietly 2 weeks before (2W), the day before (DB) and 1 week following (WA) their oral comprehensive examinations. Subjects also reported their state anxiety on each occasion. Repeated measures ANOVA indicated that subjects' state anxiety was greater on the DB than on the other two occasions. Heart rates were faster for the DB than for the 2W and WA occasions. Truly Low Anxious women had slower heart rates, across all occasions, than did Repressors or Highly Anxious women. Although respiratory sinus arrhythmia amplitudes did not differ across occasions, RSA amplitudes were smaller for individuals with high trait anxiety (Repressors and Highly Anxious) than for subjects with low trait anxiety (Truly Low Anxious). Traube-Hering-Mayer amplitudes were smaller on the DB than the 2W or WA occasions for all subjects and were smaller for Repressors or Highly Anxious women than for Truly Low Anxious women across occasions.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMed1990

Selected acoustic characteristics of voices before intubation and after extubation.

Effects of endotracheal intubation on acoustic characteristics of voices were investigated for 8 male and 8 female subjects using a miniature neck accelerometer and computerized analysis methods. Variables extracted from sustained vowels were (1) spectral slopes of the average waveforms, (2) harmonics-to-noise ratios (H/N), (3) coefficients of variation for amplitude (CVA), (4) coefficients of variation for fundamental frequency (CVF), (5) amplitude perturbation (shimmer), and (6) fundamental frequency perturbation (jitter). Fundamental frequency (Fo) distributional statistics (mean Fo, Fo standard deviation, and Fo mid-90% range) were also obtained from oral readings. Results for the sustained vowel samples showed that after extubation, (1) spectral slopes were less steep, and (2) both shimmer and jitter were greater than before intubation. Results for the passage reading revealed that the mean Fo was lower and the Fo standard deviation and mid-90% range were smaller after the extubation than before intubation. It was concluded that even short-term endotracheal intubation affects acoustic characteristics of voice and that selected measures of waveform characteristics are sensitive enough to reveal such effects.

Adult↗

PubMed1990

Selection of vigilant and avoidant coping strategies among repressors, highly anxious and truly low anxious subjects.

70 female graduate students from a western university were classified as to personality type: Highly Anxious, Truly Low Anxious, and Repressing, using a combination of scores from the Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale and the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scales. Each subject's preference for monitor or blunter coping strategy was assessed via the Miller Behavioral Style Scale. Highly Anxious subjects chose significantly more monitor strategies than did Truly Low Anxious subjects or Repressors. The number of blunter strategies chosen did not differ across personality types. Chi-squared indicated that Highly Anxious subjects were more often classified as monitors than blunters whereas the proportions of monitors and blunters did not significantly differ between Truly Low Anxious subjects and Repressors. Results suggest that the repressor trait is distinct from avoidant and vigilant coping strategies.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMed1979

The conceptually-oriented physician.

This article is based on the authors' book "Physician or Magician: The Myths and Realities of Patient Care" (McGraw Hill and Hemisphere, 1978). In this paper, the authors contend that the main problem confronting medical practice and medical education today is that there is no consensus on what physicians should be doing. Should they be technologists or should they be conceptually-oriented? The authors further state that these two types of physicians are trained in different approaches to problem solving. They conclude by saying that both types of physicians are needed if the quality of patient care is to improve while containing cost, but that the conceptually-oriented physician--the primary physician--should be in charge of all treatment patients receive. This is because the primary physicians as well as the Cartesian approach. Therefore, they would be better able to determine the risks and benefits to each patient of various technological regimens.

Decision Making↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Acoustic discrimination of three types of infant cries.

The ability of acoustic characteristics, both separately and in linear combination with others, to differentiate among procedural pain-induced, hungry, and fussy crying was explored using audiorecordings of cries from healthy 2 to 4-month-old infants. Fussy cries were less tense than hungry or pain-induced cries and pain-induced cries had significantly stronger second formant amplitudes than fussy or hungry cries. Formants and tenseness were important contributors to a linear combination of acoustic measures, derived from discriminant function analysis, which correctly classified 74% of the procedural pain-induced crying specimens. The inability of this linear combination of acoustic measures to identify correctly approximately one-third of the cry specimens suggests that the discrete acoustic differences among the three situationally defined types of crying is not large.

Acoustics↗