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Biomedical subjects

C Price

Publications and source records attributed to C Price.

At least 109 records · Page 6Linked to original sources
PubMed1994

Differential activation of right and left posterior sylvian regions by semantic and phonological tasks: a positron-emission tomography study in normal human subjects.

A previous study of brain activation in normal subjects during a phonological (Phonemes) task and a lexical semantic (Words) task using positron-emission tomography [3] is complemented by new data after a method for image realignment was applied [17]. The pattern of cerebral blood flow increases associated with Words compared with Phonemes, involved several foci of activation but these were not exclusively distributed in the left hemisphere as it also included the right angular gyrus, suggesting a participation of the right hemisphere in lexical semantic processes. Conversely, by comparison to Words, Phonemes activated left-sided perisylvian regions, involving the inferior part of the left supramarginal gyrus, in accordance with previous results on verbal short-term memory [12].

Adult↗
PubMed1994

Epidemiology of traumatic spinal cord injury and acute hospitalization and rehabilitation charges for spinal cord injuries in Oklahoma, 1988-1990.

Few injuries result in more profound and long-term disability than traumatic spinal cord injury. This study describes the demographic and epidemiologic characteristics of traumatic spinal cord injury among Oklahoma residents reported to the statewide, population-based surveillance system in 1988-1990; initial acute hospital and rehabilitation charges for 1989 are also included. There was a reported incidence rate of 40 per million population. Based on a reporting sensitivity of 77%, the "true" incidence of spinal cord injury was estimated to be 51 per million population. Motor vehicle crashes accounted for 48% of injuries. Males aged 15-29 years and blacks were at highest risk of injury. Among blacks, the injury rate due to violence was seven times that for whites or Native Americans. Alcohol/drug use was a contributing factor in 39% of injuries and was highest among males aged 20-29 years (58%), Native Americans (57%), and victims of motor vehicle crashes (48%) or violence (51%). The combined initial charges for persons receiving both acute and rehabilitative care ranged from $9,790 to $666,510, with a median of $53,410 per patient; for complete quadriplegia, the combined median charge was $88,585. Despite its low incidence, hospitalization and rehabilitation charges for spinal cord injury in 1989 caused an economic burden of an estimated $8.4 million. While the charges presented were only a small portion of the total costs of spinal cord injury, they further substantiate the need for prevention efforts targeting these debilitating, often permanent injuries. These efforts should target young males and blacks, and should focus on preventing injuries associated with motor vehicle crashes, violence, and alcohol/drug use.

Accidents, Traffic↗
PubMed1994

Depression in children and adolescents with sickle-cell disease.

OBJECTIVE: To look at the role of a standardized screening test for assessing depression in children and adolescents with and without sickle-cell disease and to compare findings with this instrument with clinical evaluations by child psychiatrists. In addition, to suggest the prevalence of clinical depression in children and adolescents with sickle-cell disease. DESIGN: Nonrandomized, sequential sample of subjects, convenience control sample, prevalence study using the Children's Depression Rating Scale-Revised and an interview assessment by a child psychiatrist based on criteria from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Revised Third Edition. SETTING: Comprehensive Sickle Cell Center outpatient clinic and ambulatory Resident Practice Clinic at the University of South Alabama Children's Medical Center, Mobile. STUDY PARTICIPANTS: Patients aged 6 through 18 years with homozygous sickle-cell disease (hemoglobin SS) served as study subjects. Subjects of the same age and race who did not have sickle-cell disease served as controls. MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS: The mean Children's Depression Rating Scale-Revised total scores were 27.1 and 22.1 in study and control groups, respectively (P = .0073). Eleven (29%) of 38 children in the study group had scores indicating a high risk for clinical depression. Four (12%) of 34 children in the control group were in this category. The four items accounting for most of this significant difference were excessive fatigue, physical complaints, self-esteem, and morbid ideation. This contrasted with the clinical evaluation by a child psychiatrist in a clinical interview in which 13% of study subjects and 15% of control subjects had evidence of clinical depression (P = .85). CONCLUSION: Excessive fatigue and physical complaint factors contributed to a high false-positive rate when the Children's Depression Rating Scale-Revised was used to screen for depression among patients with sickle-cell disease. Based on the clinical interview by a child psychiatrist, the actual prevalence of clinical depression was not increased in children with sickle-cell disease compared with those without this chronic illness.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1994

A slow death or eternal life? Future directions for annual public health reports.

Several years after their reintroduction, district public health reports continue to face questions about purpose, content and evaluation. As public health embraces the wider vision of the World Health Organisation's 'Health for All' strategy, and the consequent need for collaboration with other sectors and participation with communities, there is a need for the reports to respond accordingly. This theme is explored in relation to the needs of the report's diverse audience, the type of local research required to make the report relevant and effective, and approaches to evaluation. A growing local research function has resource and training implications for Departments of Public Health. The demands of producing a report every year suggest that biennial publication of the main report, with other targeted products over the intervening period, would be a more realistic and effective option.

Annual Reports as Topic↗
PubMed1994

A cephalometric and electromyographic study of upper airway structures in the upright and supine positions.

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is characterized by recurrent upper airway obstruction during sleep, usually in the supine position. To investigate the relationship between upper airway size and genioglossus (GG) muscle activity, upright and supine cephalograms were obtained in 20 OSA patients and 10 symptom-free control subjects. Tongue electromyographic (EMG) recordings were obtained with surface electrodes, and pressure transducers were placed in the 10 symptom-free controls. The tongue cross-sectional area increased 4.3% (p < 0.05), and the oropharyngeal area decreased 36.5% (p < 0.01) when the OSA patients changed their body position from upright to supine. No changes were observed in the tongue area, but soft palate thickness increased (p < 0.01) when the control subjects changed from the upright to the supine position. Furthermore, the oropharyngeal cross-sectional area decreased 28.8% (p < 0.01) despite a 34% increase (p < 0.05) in resting GG EMG activity. Posterior tongue pressure increased 17% (p < 0.05) with the change from upright to supine. On the basis of these findings, we propose that body posture has a substantial effect on upper airway structure and muscle activity. This postural effect should be taken into account when assessing upper airway size in the erect posture (conventional cephalography) and in the supine position (computed tomography). The vertical and anteroposterior position of the tongue and its relationship to airway size may be more important than soft palate size in the pathogenesis of OSA.

Airway Resistance↗
PubMed1994

A PET study of cognitive strategies in normal subjects during language tasks. Influence of phonetic ambiguity and sequence processing on phoneme monitoring.

We previously demonstrated using PET in normal subjects (Démonet et al., Brain 1992; 115: 1753-68) that, by comparison to a reference task of monitoring for pure tones, a phoneme monitoring task involving two factors of complexity (sequence processing and perceptual ambiguity) activated Wernicke's area and Broca's area. In the present experiment, we explored the respective influence of these factors on brain activation. In addition to the reference task, four phoneme monitoring tasks in non-words were used with stimuli presented binaurally. These included an easy, non-sequential, unambiguous task; a perceptually ambiguous, but non-sequential task; a sequential, but perceptually unambiguous task; a sequential and ambiguous task identical to the one we used in our previous study. Changes in regional cerebral blood flow were measured in nine right-handed volunteers using PET and infusion of H2(15)O. The sequential unambiguous task was associated with the same pattern of activation as that observed for the equivalent non-sequential task, i.e. activation of Wernicke's area. The two tasks with perceptual ambiguity gave rise to activations in the left fusiform gyrus and in Broca's area, respectively. Activation of the left fusiform gyrus in the perceptually ambiguous but non-sequential task suggests a prominent role for a strategy involving phoneme-to-grapheme transcoding in subjects, who thereby attempted to visualize non-words that they could not decipher auditorily. Activation of Broca's area in the sequential and ambiguous task reproduces our previous result and suggests that subjects resorted to a predominantly verbal rehearsal strategy when performing this task.

Adult↗
PubMed1994

Embryonic fat-cell lineage in Drosophila melanogaster.

The Drosophila adipose tissue, or fat body, and the bodywall muscle are two major tissues derived from the mesoderm. Although much is known about the lineage of muscle cells, little is known about the development of the fat body. Using known genes and an enhancer trap (29D), we have begun to trace the lineage of the cells comprising the fat body. The genes Adh (alcohol dehydrogenase) and DCg1 (type IV collagen) code for gene products involved in fat-cell metabolism and therefore serve as terminal fat-cell differentiation markers. The expression of these genes was used to identify the fat body at stage 17 and to identify the start of terminal fat-cell differentiation at stage 15. We found that the steroid-hormone receptor gene, svp (seven-up), was expressed transiently within the fat-cell lineage from stages 12 to 14. We suggest that stage 12 marks the beginning of early fat-cell differentiation and that the svp-positive cells within the mesoderm are early precursor fat cells. To confirm the identity of these cells and to establish the role of svp in the developing fat cell, we examined svp mutant embryos for alterations in the expression of the two terminal fat-cell differentiation markers, Adh and DCg1. Loss of svp function resulted in the loss of Adh transcript and a reduction of DCg1 expression specifically in the fat body. Thus, svp plays a role in fat-body-specific expression of at least two terminal fat-cell differentiation genes. In contrast to svp, we found no evidence that the steroid receptor HNF-4(D) gene was expressed in the fat body nor that it was involved in the development of this tissue. Using an enhancer-trap line (29D), we further traced the fat-cell lineage to nine bilateral clusters of cells within the mesoderm at germ-band extension. We suggest these 29D-positive cells represent the progenitor fat cells. In stage-12 embryos, the 29D-positive cell clusters can be identified within the mesoderm internal to nautilus-expressing cells. These data suggest that the precursor fat cells may be derived from the inner mesoderm, or spanchnopleura. Embryos deficient for the DNA region surrounding the site of the 29D enhancer trap lack most, if not all, of the cells in the fat-cell lineage. These embryos exhibit the loss of svp-positive precursor fat cells and concomitant loss of fat-body-specific expression of Adh and DCg1.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Alcohol Dehydrogenase↗
PubMed1994

Hunting-related spinal cord injuries among Oklahoma residents.

While major causes of traumatic spinal cord injuries have been described as motor vehicle crashes, falls, sports-related events, and injuries related to violence, causes of serious consequence but of lesser magnitude have not been widely reported. This report, drawn from Oklahoma State Department of Health spinal cord injury surveillance data, describes the incidence and circumstances surrounding hunting-related spinal cord injuries. All of the injuries resulted from falls from trees or tree stands. The incidence rate of injury was less than one per 100,000 licensed hunters. Half of the injuries resulted in neurological damage severe enough to result in permanent paralysis or death. The circumstances of the injuries suggest a need for educating hunters concerning safe hunting practices and safe tree stand use, including inspection of trees for weak or dead branches, and use of a safety belt when ascending, descending, or sitting in a tree or tree stand.

Accidental Falls↗
PubMed1993

Identification of a gene encoding a novel zinc finger protein in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

In the course of a comprehensive genomic screen for cell cycle regulated genes in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae (Price et al., 1991) we identified and characterized a transcriptional unit encoding a putative zinc finger protein named FZF1 (EMBL accession number: X67787). This gene encodes a protein containing five zinc fingers of the Cys2His2 class, three of which are positioned in tandem at the N-terminus. The fourth and fifth finger follow after an interruption of 61 and 66 amino acids, respectively. While FZF1 is constitutively expressed at a very low level, its deletion is not essential for growth. Its similarity with known transcription factors, however, suggests that the FZF1 gene product may serve as a transcription factor in yeast.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1993

An evaluation of the Sens-A-Ray digital dental imaging system.

The Sens-A-Ray digital imaging system was compared with group D- and E-speed intraoral radiographic film with respect to resolution, speed and image quality. Using a line-pair plate, resolution was determined to be 10 line-pairs per millimetre. With a constant potential X-ray source, the speed of the system was over three times that of E-speed emulsion and the response of pixel value to exposure was linear. Absorption curves with aluminium showed a similar response to D-speed film. An aluminium foil test object was used to compare the Sens-A-Ray system with both film types. Thirty observers were scored for successful identification of a pattern of holes in the test object. There was little difference between D- and E-speed film groups, and successful identification was significantly reduced with the Sens-A-Ray images when compared with D- and E-speed films.

Evaluation Studies as Topic↗
PubMed1992

Euplotes crassus has genes encoding telomere-binding proteins and telomere-binding protein homologs.

We have identified two 1.6 kb macronuclear DNA molecules from Euplotes crassus that hybridize to the alpha subunit of the Oxytricha telomere protein. We have shown that one of these molecules encodes the 51 kDa Euplotes telomere protein while the other appears to encode a homolog of the telomere protein. Although this homolog clearly differs in sequence from the Euplotes telomere protein, the two proteins share extensive amino acid sequence identity with each other and with the alpha subunit of the Oxytricha telomere protein. In all three proteins 35-36% of the amino acids are identical, while 54-56% are similar. The most extended regions of sequence conservation map within the N-terminal section; this section has been shown to comprise the DNA-binding domain in the Euplotes telomere protein. Our findings suggest that some of the conserved amino acids may be involved in DNA recognition and binding. The gene encoding the telomere protein homolog contains two introns; one of these introns is only 24 bp in length. This is the smallest mRNA intron reported to date.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1992

Regional response differences within the human auditory cortex when listening to words.

The relationship between activity within the human auditory cortices and the presentation rate of heard words was investigated by measuring changes in regional cerebral blood flow with positron emission tomography. We demonstrate that in the primary auditory cortices and middle regions of the superior temporal gyri there is a linear relationship between the rate of presentation of heard words and blood flow response. In contrast, the blood flow response in an area of the left posterior superior temporal gyrus (Wernicke's area) is primarily dependent on the occurrence of words irrespective of their rate of presentation. The primary auditory cortices are associated with the early processing of complex acoustic signals whereas Wernicke's area is associated with the comprehension of heard words. This study demonstrates for the first time that time dependent sensory signals (heard words) detected in the primary auditory cortices are transformed into a time invariant output which is channelled to a functionally specialised region--Wernicke's area. Wernicke's area is therefore distinguished from other areas of the auditory cortex by direct observation of signal transformation rather than by association with a specific behavioural task.

Adult↗