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Biomedical subjects

C J Phillips

Publications and source records attributed to C J Phillips.

At least 91 records · Page 5Linked to original sources
PubMed1992

Attainments of severely mentally retarded adolescents by aetiology.

Piagetian cognitive level, language abilities, adaptive behaviour and graphic skills were assessed in three groups of adolescents with severe learning difficulties: Down's syndrome (DS), congenital cerebral palsy (CP) and unknown origin (NSP). Results were compared with assessments made seven years earlier. A wide range of scores was observed in each group. Medians of the DS and NSP groups were similar and generally were significantly higher than those of the CP group. When the number and severity of other impairments and disabilities (HDCP) was taken into account, group averages of attainments and progress were very similar. Implications for intervention are discussed.

Achievement↗
PubMed1991

The prevalence of depression among Australian nursing home residents: results using draft ICD-10 and DSM-III-R criteria.

The aims of this study were, first, to estimate the prevalence of depressive disorders in Australian nursing home residents using international diagnostic criteria, and second, to explore environmental determinants of such disorders. Residents of 24 nursing homes were surveyed using the Canberra Interview for the Elderly (CIE) and a range of environmental measures was also taken. Of 323 residents who were screened for cognitive impairment, 165 (51%) scored 18 or above on the Mini-Mental State Examination (Folstein et al. 1975), and were interviewed with the CIE. According to DSM-III-R criteria and the CIE, the prevalence of major depressive episode was 9.7%. Using ICD-10 criteria, 6.1% of residents suffered from a severe depressive episode, 6.7% from a moderate depressive episode and 6.7% from a mild depressive episode. Some measures of the social environment were significantly related to depressive symptoms.

Aged↗
PubMed1991

Adenoid cystic carcinoma of the breast. A case report and review.

Adenoid cystic carcinoma of the breast is a malignant tumour of significant incidence with a better prognosis than histologically identical tumours occurring in other sites and as compared to other malignant tumours of the breast. The recognition of the tumour is important especially in the management of the individual patient but also in furthering understanding of growth, spread and biological behaviour of tumours.

Adult↗
PubMed1991

Developing a method of assessing quality of care in nursing homes, using key indicators and population norms.

This article illustrates how population norms on key indicators of quality can be used to assess quality of care in nursing homes. Five key indicators of quality were chosen from a Patient Care and Services Survey carried out by the Rhode Island State Department of Health: prevalence of contractures, in-house-acquired decubiti, use of restraints, lack of participation in an activities program, and nasogastric tube feeds. The population prevalence of these indicators was adjusted according to the case mix and size of each nursing home. A measure of quality suggested was the difference between the case-mix-adjusted prevalence and the prevalence observed by state surveyors. It was concluded that although the system is still in the exploratory stages, it has the potential to supplement the clinical judgment of nursing home surveyors with a more objective method of assessing compliance with quality of care standards.

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMed1990

Ultrastructure of the principal and accessory submandibular glands of the common vampire bat.

The principal and accessory submandibular glands of the common vampire bat, Desmodus rotundus, were examined by electron microscopy. The secretory endpieces of the principal gland consist of serous tubules capped at their blind ends by mucous acini. The substructure of the mucous droplets and of the serous granules varies according to the mode of specimen preparation. With ferrocyanide-reduced osmium postfixation, the mucous droplets are moderately dense and homogeneous; the serous granules often have a polygonal outline and their matrix shows clefts in which bundles of wavy filaments may be present. With conventional osmium postfixation, the mucous droplets have a finely fibrillogranular matrix; the serous granules are homogeneously dense. Mucous cells additionally contain many small, dense granules that may be small peroxisomes, as well as aggregates of 10-nm cytofilaments. Intercalated duct cells are relatively unspecialized. Striated ducts are characterized by highly folded basal membranes and vertically oriented mitochondria. Luminal surfaces of all of the secretory and duct cells have numerous microvilli, culminating in a brush borderlike affair in the striated ducts. The accessory gland has secretory endpieces consisting of mucous acini with small mucous demilunes. The acinar mucous droplets contain a large dense region; the lucent portion has punctate densities. Demilune mucous droplets lack a dense region and consist of a light matrix in which fine fibrillogranular material is suspended. A ring of junctional cells, identifiable by their complex secretory granules, separates the mucous acini from the intercalated ducts. The intercalated ducts lack specialized structure. Striated ducts resemble their counterparts in the principal gland. As in the principal gland, all luminal surfaces are covered by an array of microvilli. At least some of the features of the principal and accessory submandibular glands of the vampire bat may be structural adaptations to the exigencies posed by the exclusively sanguivorous diet of these animals and its attendant extremely high intake of sodium chloride.

Animals↗
PubMed1989

Children's learning skills: a cautionary note on ethnic differences.

In the summer term of their first year in junior schooling, pupils of seven schools in the West Midlands were tested for attainments in reading, spelling and number. Ninety-one children were from Asian families and 149 children were of indigenous parentage. About three years earlier all subjects had been rated on Part I of the Guide to the Child's Learning Skills, the predictive validity of which is supported by the attainment testing. The linear regression slopes of attainments on ratings do not differ significantly between the ethnic samples.

Achievement↗
PubMed1989

Reliability of flexible fiberoptic nasopharyngoscopy for evaluation of velopharyngeal function in a clinical population.

Flexible fiberoptic nasopharyngoscopy (FFN) has become a popular clinical tool for evaluating velopharyngeal function. The literature contains numerous reports of FFN methodology and findings. However, there are few published reports that address clinical rating and reporting schemes or that evaluate viewer reliability. This study was designed to evaluate the reliability of visual perceptual ratings of FFN video images for assessing velopharyngeal structure and function in a clinical population. Ninety-five videotaped clinical evaluations were presented to and judged by three expert raters and nine novice raters from the fields of speech pathology, otolaryngology, and plastic surgery, using a standard rating form. A clinical rating scheme was used for quantifying perceptual judgments of velopharyngeal activity. Results suggest that videotaped FFN evaluations may be rated reliably, that expert raters working as a group are more reliable than novice raters working individually, and that the 125 evaluations presented without feedback are insufficient to improve the novices' reliability. The combined auditory and visual perceptual evaluation inherent in FFN may be its most significant asset for both clinical and research applications.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1988

Mitochondrial DNA polymorphism in three Antillean island populations of the fruit bat, Artibeus jamaicensis.

The Neotropical fruit bat, Artibeus jamaicensis, occurs throughout Latin America and on many islands in the Caribbean. Populations from Jamaica (in the Greater Antilles) to Barbados (in the Lesser Antilles) have been classified as a subspecies (A.j. jamaicensis) separate from that on the Lesser Antillean island of St. Vincent (A.j. schwartzi). Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) was isolated from 54 individuals collected on these islands, analyzed by digestion with restriction endonucleases, and the restriction sites were mapped. Three different mtDNA genotypes (16,000 +/- 200 bp) were identified: J-1 (16 animals from Jamaica, one from St. Vincent, 15 from Barbados), J-2 (two animals from Jamaica), and SV-1 (18 animals from St. Vincent, two from Barbados). The J-1 and J-2 genotypes were estimated to differ from each other by only 0.4%, but the SV-1 genotype differed from J-1 and J-2 by 8.1%-10.5%. The estimated sequence divergence between SV-1 and J-1 is unusually large for mammals that are regarded as conspecific. Restriction mapping showed that the differences among the genotypes (presence or absence of particular restriction sites) were located throughout the genome. The presence of the J-1 mtDNA genotype on Jamaica and on St. Vincent and Barbados (1,400 km away) demonstrates that maternal lineages in these bats are not necessarily confined to single islands or limited geographic regions. The presence of the J-1 mtDNA genotype within the A. j. schwartzi population on St. Vincent and the presence of the SV-1 genotype in two specimens of A. j. jamaicensis from Barbados document genetic exchange between subspecific populations on these islands, which are separated by 180 km of open water.

Animals↗
PubMed1988

An immunohistochemical study of gut endocrine cells in two species of insectivorous vespertilinid bats (Chiroptera: Pipistrellus abramus and Plecotus auritus sacrimontis).

11 endocrine cell types immunoreactive for either 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT), somatostatin, gastrin, cholecystokinin (CCK), gastric inhibitory peptide (GIP), motilin, secretin, neurotensin, pancreatic glucagon, enteroglucagon or bovine pancreatic polypeptide (BPP) were found in gastrointestinal tract of 2 species of insectivorous bats. 5 of these 11 types of endocrine cells were located in the stomach and all 11 types of endocrine cells were found in the intestine. However, the distribution and relative frequency of each immunoreactive endocrine cell varied among the cell types and between the 2 species of bats examined. In Brunner's glands, gastrin- and 5-HT-immunoreactive cells were detected very rarely in Pipistrellus and only occasionally in Plecotus. The present results obtained from the insectivorous bats were compared with those of the sanguivorous vampire bats.

Animals↗
PubMed1987

Interspecific comparisons of immunohistochemical localization of retinal neurotransmitters in four species of bats.

Four ecologically distinctive Neotropical bat species of the family Phyllostomidae were collected and their retinae surveyed immunohistochemically for the presence of neurotransmitter candidates: glucagon, somatostatin, vasoactive intestinal peptide, substance P (SP), methionine enkephalin, serotonin (5-HT) and two enzymes, glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD) and tyrosine hydroxylase (TOH). In all four species immunoreactivity (IR) to GAD, TOH and SP was found. GAD-IR and SP-IR showed little interspecies variation whereas TOH-IR differed interspecifically in a pattern that matched the systematic relationships and the ecological characteristics of the bats. 5-HT-IR, which has not previously been reported from mammalian retinae, was found in fibers in the inner nuclear layer and in the outer and inner plexiform layers of Macrotus waterhousii, which is a relatively underived insectivorous phyllostomid bat, but was not found in the retinae from frugivorous or nectarivorous species.

Animals↗
PubMed1984

Trans-isolate medium: a new medium for primary culturing and transport of Neisseria meningitidis, Streptococcus pneumoniae, and Haemophilus influenzae.

A diphasic medium, Trans-Isolate medium, was developed for the transport of primary cultures of cerebrospinal fluids from patients with bacterial meningitis. It consists of a charcoal-starch agar slant and soybean-casein digest-gelatin broth buffered at pH 7.2 with 0.1 M 3-(N-morpholino)propanesulfonic acid buffer. In the laboratory, this medium supported the growth and survival of stock cultures of Neisseria meningitidis, Streptococcus pneumoniae, and Haemophilus influenzae for at least 3 months. Under field conditions in Africa, cerebrospinal fluids from patients suspected of having bacterial meningitis were inoculated directly onto plates of chocolate agar medium and into bottles of Trans-Isolate medium. An etiological agent was isolated from 52 spinal fluids by direct plating. After shipment to Atlanta, Ga., 2 to 4 weeks later, the same etiological agents were recovered from 38 bottles of Trans-Isolate medium.

Bacteriological Techniques↗
PubMed1984

Effects of procedure on memory scanning of mildly mentally retarded adults.

The performance of mildly mentally retarded adults on recognition memory tasks was compared with that of nonretarded control subjects. Following Sternberg's (1969) procedure, material to be remembered was presented in a fixed-set procedure, during which subjects were tested repeatedly on the same well-learned set of material, and a varied-set procedure, during which they were only tested on a memory set once before having to learn a new set. Mean reaction times (RTs) in all groups increased linearly as the number of items in the fixed memorized set increased; but "no" RTs of retarded adults tested under the varied-set procedure did not show this pattern. There was a gradation of slopes for the linear regression functions of RT on memory set size in both procedures, from less steep for nonretarded adults to increasingly steep values for nonretarded children and retarded adults. These results suggest that retarded adults use different processing strategies in the two procedures and that rate of processing increases with increasing mental age.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1984

Effects of practice on recognition memory of mildly mentally retarded adults.

The effect of practice on recognition memory of mildly mentally retarded adults was investigated in two experiments using the Sternberg (1969) memory scanning paradigm. In Experiment 1, the slope and zero intercept for item-recognition functions under both fixed- and varied-set procedures decreased over seven sessions of practice among retarded adults and nonretarded children, remaining relatively constant among nonretarded adults. Because performance of only retarded subjects had not yet reached asymptote, Experiment 2 provided these subjects with additional practice at the same task (varied-set procedure only). After extended practice, slopes in the retarded group were near those for both nonretarded groups; therefore, although the generally poorer performance of retarded adults in this task may reflect some structural impairment, the initial level of deficiency is reduced by practice.

Adult↗
PubMed1981

Age-related progress among children with severe learning difficulties.

Severely educationally handicapped children aged between seven and 13 years were assessed on scales of psychological development. Improvements in cognition, social skills and language were observed around the age of 11 to 12 years. These developments were most clearly seen in two subgroups of the sample: those with Down's syndrome and those whose mental retardation was unaccompanied by any severe pathological condition. It appeared that the gains were not an artefact of selective processes operating in the sample. The reason for improvements in diverse areas, some of which might be associated with psychological development and others with growth of physical skills, is not clear, but the findings indicate the need for longitudinal studies of the severely educationally subnormal, and particularly of the two subgroups mentioned, who together comprise about three-fifths of those with severe learning difficulties.

Aging↗