Public health lessons from the Bhopal chemical disaster.
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Disasters↗
Biomedical subjects
G Green
Publications and source records attributed to G Green.
Do children of lone parents smoke more because their mothers do?
This short report examines the association between smoking behaviours of mothers and their 15 year old children, and whether there is a difference between families headed by a mother living alone or with a partner. It is based on data collected from a cohort of young people and their mothers (N = 967), resident in the West of Scotland. We found no evidence that children of lone mothers smoke more because their mothers do; the familial transmission of smoking behaviour, at 15, appeared to be less apparent in households headed by lone than cohabiting mothers.
Adolescent↗
Suppression of hyperandrogenism does not improve peripheral or hepatic insulin resistance in the polycystic ovary syndrome.
Women with the polycystic ovary syndrome (PCO) have significant insulin resistance and are at risk to develop noninsulin-dependent diabetes mellitus. It remains controversial, however, whether hyperandrogenism directly decreases insulin action. Hence, we performed 2-h euglycemic glucose (approximately 772 pmol/L steady state insulin levels) clamps in nine PCO women with insulin resistance basally and after the 12th week of therapy with a superagonist GnRH analog (40 micrograms every 8 h, sc). Diet, activity, and weight were kept constant. Despite significant decreases in plasma testosterone and androstenedione levels (both P less than 0.05), there was no significant change in insulin-mediated glucose disposal, plasma insulin levels, or hepatic glucose production. The sample size was adequate to detect a clinically significant change in insulin-stimulated glucose disposal (i.e. approximately 3.3 mumol/kg.min; P less than or equal to 0.05). We conclude that suppressing androgen levels into the normal range did not result in significant changes in insulin resistance in PCO. Thus, controlling hyperandrogenemia is not a clinically effective modality to improve insulin action and thereby decrease the risk of noninsulin-dependent diabetes in PCO.
Adult↗
Self-administered written prompts to teach home accident prevention skills to adults with brain injuries.
This study evaluated the use of written checklists and task analyses as self-administered prompts to teach home accident prevention skills to 4 adults with brain injuries. Subsequent to baseline, participants used written checklists that identified potential in-home hazards but did not prompt behaviors necessary for hazard remediation. Written individualized task analyses, incorporating specific behavioral steps for correcting hazards that participants had failed to remediate during the checklist phase, were used to prompt appropriate responding when necessary. These were subsequently faded to transfer stimulus control to the natural conditions. A multiple probe technique across participants and settings was used. Results indicated that the checklist alone was sufficient to increase appropriate responses to many of the potential hazards. Individualized task analyses, when needed, resulted in appropriate remediation of all potential hazards. Generalization to untrained potential hazards occurred to some degree for all participants. Follow-up results showed that most skills trained were maintained over a 1-month period.
Accidents, Home↗
Equivalence classes generated by sequence training.
In Experiment 1, 3, adult females were taught with verbal instructions and contingencies to select, in sequence, three arbitrary visual stimuli from an array of five stimuli. After four different sequences were taught, match-to-sample tests assessed emergent conditional relations among all stimuli that had been selected in the same order in the sequences. Subjects' performances indicated development of four stimulus classes, three based on ordinal position and one based on nonselection. Next, match-to-sample training established conditional relations between each of four novel figures and one member of each of the ordinal stimulus classes. Tests confirmed that the classes were equivalence classes, each expanded by one new member. In subsequent sequence tests, the new stimuli were selected in a sequence that was consistent with ordinal class membership. Experiment 2 replicated Experiment 1 with 2 different adult females, but the verbal instructions were omitted. Results were similar to Experiment 1, except that extensive review and retesting were required before expansion of the ordinal classes with the novel figures was observed.
Adult↗
Development of conditional and equivalence relations without differential consequences.
Two experiments were conducted to establish conditional stimulus relations without differential consequences and to test for the emergence of other relations. In Experiment 1, 3 adults responded to match-to-sample displays in which sample-comparison pairs were constant while the second comparison presented with each pair changed periodically across trials. No differential consequences followed any comparison selections. All subjects learned conditional relations between constant samples and comparisons, but results of tests for transitivity in those relations were equivocal. In Experiment 2, 4 children were given unreinforced training and testing similar to that provided to the adults in Experiment 1, with procedural refinements. One child learned conditional relations and demonstrated emergent relations that confirmed the development of two four-member equivalence classes. Another child learned the conditional relations but did not demonstrate any emergent relations reliably. A 3rd child, after reinforced training on two conditional relations, learned four new conditional relations without differential consequences and demonstrated symmetry but not equivalence in the trained relations. The 4th child did not learn the conditional relations. These findings emphasize the importance of careful construction of tests for stimulus equivalence and suggest a need for critical analyses of the apparent emergence of untrained stimulus relations on unreinforced tests that has been observed in several stimulus equivalence studies.
Adult↗
Perspectives on relational learning in mental retardation.
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Attention↗
Differences in development of visual and auditory-visual equivalence relations.
Five young adult females with mild mental retardation were given match-to-sample training and testing to develop four classes of equivalent stimuli: two classes containing three forms each and two classes containing one spoken nonsense syllable and two forms each. All subjects demonstrated development of all possible equivalence classes involving these stimuli. For 4 of 5 subjects, the classes that included auditory stimuli developed more rapidly than those that did not.
Adult↗
Clostridium difficile toxin B: characterization and sequence of three peptides.
The cytotoxin, also named toxin B, was isolated from a toxigenic strain of Clostridium difficile, purified to homogeneity and partially characterized. The purification procedure included ultrafiltration followed by anion-exchange chromatography. We noticed that a non-specific nucleic material eluted with the protein during the purification. The presence of these nucleic acids appeared to be important for the toxic activity of the protein. Some characteristics of the cytotoxin were examined, especially the amino acid composition and the sequence of three tryptic fragments.
Amino Acid Sequence↗
Psycho-behavioral characteristics of children with vocal nodules: WPBIC ratings.
The parents of 30 children referred to speech pathology because of vocal nodules completed the Walker Problem Behavior Identification Checklist (WPBIC) on their children. These checklist responses were then compared to those from the parents of a matched, vocally normal, control group. The nodule children had significantly higher scores on the scales for acting out, distractibility, disturbed peer relations, and immature behaviors. The implications of these results for nodule formation and intervention are discussed.
Aggression↗
Isolation of bile acid glucosides and N-acetylglucosaminides from human urine by ion-exchange chromatography and reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography.
A method for the isolation, separation and analysis of glucosides and N-acetylglucosaminides of non-amidated bile acids and of glycine- and taurine-conjugated bile acid glucosides from normal human urine is described. Total bile acids were extracted from 24-h collections of urine by repetitive use of Sep-Pak C18 cartridges. After elution with 80% aqueous methanol, a group separation into non-amidated, glycine- and taurine-conjugated bile acids was performed by ion-exchange chromatography on Lipidex-DEAP. The glycosylated compounds were then separated from the corresponding non-glycosylated ones by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) using a reversed-phase system with a linear methanol gradient. The glycosylated compounds isolated by HPLC were analysed by fast atom bombardment mass spectrometry and, after derivatization, by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Information about the sugar moieties of the bile acid glycosides was also obtained by treatment with different glycosidases.
Acetylglucosamine↗
Response restriction and substitution with autistic children.
Few studies to date have examined time reallocation in naturalistic, multiresponse human repertoires when one or more responses are restricted. For this experiment, free-operant baseline levels of six responses were measured for four autistic children. The high-probability responses were made unavailable, one at a time, such that subjects had access to five, four, three, and two responses in successive restriction conditions. A return to the six-response free-operant baseline condition completed the experiment. Results were compared to predictions made by four time-reallocation models. These results were described accurately only by the selective substitution model. Further analyses examined alternative explanations for the individual reallocation patterns obtained. An expanded selective substitution definition is proposed that may characterize orderly patterns observed in multiresponse repertoires under restriction conditions more accurately than the other existing models.
Autistic Disorder↗
Taking the fear out of parliamentary procedure and making it your friend.
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Assertiveness↗
A special on the nursing shortage and AMA proposal. From within.
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Allied Health Personnel↗
Compliance with the Royal College of Radiologists' guidelines on the use of pre-operative chest radiographs.
Clinical compliance with the Royal College of Radiologists' guidelines on the use of pre-operative chest radiology was examined in a random sample of patients in four hospitals in England and Wales. Pre-operative clinical data were abstracted from medical reports and, in one hospital, from special chest radiograph request forms completed by clinicians. Seventy-five per cent of patients had clinical indications warranting a pre-operative chest radiograph. This level of compliance is compatible with that found with other guidelines and would suggest that the pre-operative chest radiograph guidelines are suitable for wider implementation in the National Health Service.
Health Planning Guidelines↗