Search PubMed⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

C C Taylor

Publications and source records attributed to C C Taylor.

49 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
PubMed1988

The concept of flow in Rwandan popular medicine.

This paper examines Rwandan popular concepts of health and physiology focusing upon notions which concern the bodily secretions: blood, saliva, semen, and maternal milk. Through the analysis of a female patient's description of an illness caused by "poisoning', the author demonstrates that Rwandan notions of individual health, social order, and the cosmos manifest the principle of homology. Liquid substances participate in several important processes in Rwandan social life, including those of production, exchange, and reproduction. Pathology arises where the flow of liquids becomes perturbed, hence a contrast is drawn between "flow' and "anomic flow'. Ritually controlling "flow' was once the responsibility of the Rwandan divine king (mwami). Today, although Rwanda is no longer a monarchy, symbolic constructs related to the "flow/anomic flow' dialectic continue to permeate Rwandan popular medicine and this is evinced in the discourse of patients and healers. In this particular instance, the patient uses this symbolic model to express feelings of malaise which run the gamut from "micro' level phenomena--herself and her household--to "macro' level phenomena--political strife at the national level.

Anthropology, Cultural↗
PubMed1985

Oxonol dyes as monitors of membrane potential: the effect of viruses and toxins on the plasma membrane potential of animal cells in monolayer culture and in suspension.

Optical indicators of the cationic, cyanine and anionic oxonol classes were used to evaluate the plasma membrane potential of animal cells in suspension and in monolayer culture. The optical signals were calibrated by using diffusion potentials either of K+ (in the presence of valinomycin) or of H+ (in the presence of carbonyl cyanide p-trifluoromethoxyphenylhydrazone; FCCP); both classes of dye gave similar values of plasma membrane potential, in the range -40 to -90 mV for different cell types. Addition of haemolytic Sendai virus or Staphylococcus aureus alpha-toxin depolarizes cells and causes them to leak monovalent cations; these effects are antagonized by extracellular Ca2+. Cells infected with vesicular stomatitis or Semliki Forest virus become depolarized during an infectious cycle; infection with other viruses was without affect on plasma membrane potential.

Animals↗
PubMed1982

Vividness of memory imagery and self-induced mood change.

Previous research has shown that people who can voluntarily form vivid images are able to exert more control over some of their cognitive and affective functions than people who can voluntarily form only weak images. This study was designed to extend this line of research to the control of mood states. From a sample of first-year psychology students four groups were formed: vivid imagery/elated, vivid imagery/depressed, weak imagery/elated, weak imagery/depressed. Mood change induction procedures were employed in an attempt to produce reversals in the initial mood states. It was found that greater changes occurred for the vivid imagers than for the weak imagers. These results were discussed in relation to the differential effectiveness of the mood induction procedures, the problem of measuring mood and the importance of taking into account individual differences in imagery abilities when planning imagery based treatment.

Adult↗
PubMed1976

Interaction between radiation and drug damage in mammalian cells. II. The effect of actinomycin-D on the repair of the sublethal radiation damage in plateau phase cells.

The effect of actinomycin-D (AMD) on radiation damage repair was studied in plateau phase V79 Chinese hamster cells. Sublethal radiation damage repair, as demonstrated by survival fluctuations following two x-ray exposures separted by time, was observed in our plateau phase cells. Plateau phase cells exposed to 0.01-0.04 mug/ml AMD (a nontoxic regimen to 8 hours) between x-ray exposures were less able to repair sublethal damage. If plateau phase cells were plated at low dilutions into fresh medium (conditions for resuming exponential growth) immediately after the first x-ray dose, and exposed to 0.01--0.04 mug/ml AMD until the second dose, inhibition of sublethal damage repair and additional cell killing were observed particularly at 0.04 mug/ml AMD. It is suggested that radiation-drug damage interactions should be studied in plateau phase cells and in cells resuming exponential growth after plateau phase (possibly analogous to "recruitment"), as well as in exponential phase cultures.

Animals↗
PubMedDate not supplied

2,3,7,8-Tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) blocks ovulation by a direct action on the ovary without alteration of ovarian steroidogenesis: lack of a direct effect on ovarian granulosa and thecal-interstitial cell steroidogenesis in vitro.

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the direct effect of 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) on ovarian function including ovulation and steroidogenesis. In vivo effects of TCDD were investigated on ovulation and alteration of circulating and ovarian steroid hormones in immature hypophysectomized rats (IHR) primed with equine chorionic gonadotropin (eCG) and human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG). In addition, in vitro effects of TCDD on the steroidogenesis of granulosa cells (GC), theca-interstitial cells (TIC), and whole ovarian dispersates derived from the ovary of IHR were investigated. In the ovulation model, rats were hypophysectomized on Day 23 of age. On Day 26, the IHR were given 20 microg TCDD/kg by gavage. The next day eCG (10 IU) was injected sc to stimulate follicular development. Fifty-two hours after eCG, 10 IU hCG was given to induce ovulation. TCDD (20 microg/kg) blocked ovulation and reduced ovarian weight in IHR. Concentrations of progesterone (P4), androstenedione (A4), and estradiol (E2) in sera and ovaries were not altered by TCDD at 12, 24, 48, and 72 h after eCG. except for a two-fold increase in ovarian concentration of A4 at 48 h after TCDD. However, this higher concentration of A4 at 48 h after TCDD did not reflect that of A4 in sera and did not correlate with E2 in either sera or ovaries. In isolated GC from untreated IHR, TCDD (0.1 to 100 nM) had no significant effect on P4 and E2 after stimulation by LH or FSH. In TIC and whole ovarian dispersates containing GC, TIC, and other ovarian cells, TCDD (0.1 to 800 nM) had no effect on A4 and P4 secretion stimulated by LH. Using RT-PCR, AhR mRNA was shown to be expressed constitutively in the whole ovary of IHR with maximum down-regulation at 6 h after TCDD (20 microg/kg). Ovarian CYP1A1 was induced maximally at 6 h after TCDD, whereas CYP1B1 could not be detected. The induction of AhR related genes by TCDD in the ovary implies the existence of AhR-mediated signal transduction pathways. In summary, these results indicate that TCDD does not affect ovulation in IHR by altering ovarian steroidogenesis. It seems that inhibition of ovulation by TCDD is due to processes related to follicular rupture.

Animals↗