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Biomedical subjects

I Stevenson

Publications and source records attributed to I Stevenson.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Involuntary memories during severe physical illness or injury.

This paper reports an analysis of the features of 122 cases of persons who became ill or even came close to death, but who survived and afterward reported that during the experience they recalled memories of earlier events in their lives. The life review varied widely in its form; the number of memories recalled ranged from only one or two to the subject's entire life. Moreover, few of the subjects reported seeing earlier events of their life "all at once," which makes the popular phrase "panoramic memory" a misnomer. One group of 54 cases was compared with a group of 54 other cases in which the feature of the life review did not occur. There were no significant differences between the two groups with regard to nine common features. The life review occurs as one feature among several others of equal or greater importance in the total experience. Its function, if any, remains to be elucidated by further research.

Accidents

PIK1, an essential phosphatidylinositol 4-kinase associated with the yeast nucleus.

Transmission of mitogenic and developmental signals to intracellular targets is often mediated by inositol derivatives. Here we present the cloning and characterization of a gene from Saccharomyces cerevisiae, PIK1, encoding the enzyme that catalyses the first committed step in the production of the second messenger inositol-1,4,5-trisphosphate. PIK1 encodes a phosphatidylinositol 4-kinase (PI 4-kinase) essential for growth. Cells carrying PIK1 on a multicopy vector overexpress PI 4-kinase activity exclusively in a nuclear fraction, suggesting that PIK1 is part of a nuclear phosphoinositide cycle. Temperature-sensitive mutations, but not a null mutation, can be suppressed by high osmolarity or an elevated concentration of Ca2+. Conditional mutants have a cytokinesis defect as indicated by a uniform terminal phenotype of cells with large buds and fully divided nuclei. We suggest that PIK1 controls cytokinesis through the actin cytoskeleton.

1-Phosphatidylinositol 4-Kinase

Colorectal cancer overlooked at barium enema examination and colonoscopy: a continuing perceptual problem.

PURPOSE: To evaluate reasons for missed diagnosis of colorectal carcinoma at barium enema (BE) examination and colonoscopy and determine if standards have improved since a similar study in 1981. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Relevant studies obtained within 3 years of diagnosis in 161 patients with colorectal carcinoma treated in 1990 were reviewed. RESULTS: Twenty-seven carcinomas were overlooked at BE examination and seven at colonoscopy. Fifteen percent of BE examination errors were purely perceptive (ie, the tumor was visible in retrospect). Another 15% were purely technical. Combined perceptive and technical errors occurred in 45% of cases. Interpretive errors (ie, the lesion was misinterpreted as benign) occurred in 25% of cases. CONCLUSION: Similar reasons for missing diagnoses of colorectal cancer at BE examination were seen in 1990 and 1981, with a high rate of perceptive errors. Double reading BE studies may reduce this rate, and readiness to perform BE examination after an incomplete colonoscopy may reduce colonoscopic "misses."

Barium Sulfate

The readers' NIH.

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Financing, Government

A strategy for managing change and stress. Developing staff support groups.

If change is stress-inducing, nursing must be one of the most stressful professions around. The profession is currently battling through a seemingly endless series of developments at all levels, which must affect individual practitioners. One way of minimising stress on nurses is to set up peer support groups.

Burnout, Professional

Features of "near-death experience" in relation to whether or not patients were near death.

The medical records of 58 patients, most of whom believed they were near death during an illness or after an injury and all of whom later remembered unusual experiences occurring at the time, were examined. 28 patients were judged to have been so close to death that they would have died without medical intervention; the other 30 patients were not in danger of dying although most of them thought they were. Patients of both groups reported closely similar experiences but patients who really were close to death were more likely than those who were not to report an enhanced perception of light and enhanced cognitive powers. The claim of enhancement of cognitive functions despite the likelihood that brain function had probably become disturbed and possibly diminished, deserves further investigation.

Adolescent

Near-death experiences in India. A preliminary report.

The authors report some features of 16 cases of near-death experiences that they investigated in India. After presenting brief accounts of four such experiences, the authors describe and discuss features in which the Indian cases differ from a larger sample of American cases. They note that some of these features seem to be culture-bound, but they caution against accepting this observation as adequate evidence that the case derive only from culture-bound beliefs. Some differences may derive from the effects of a person's beliefs on what actually does happen after death, and some different features may, on closer examination, be found to be basically similar in nature if not in detail.

Adult

Protoplast formation from submerged mycelium and from spore germinants of Streptomyces coelicolor.

Stages in the formation of protoplasts from S. coelicolor strain A3(2) have been studied by transmission electron microscopy. Protoplasts liberated from submerged mycelial growth were variable in size and were released when digestion of the cell wall by lysozyme had completely or almost completely taken place. Protoplasts did not fully adopt the typical rounded shape until after release. A single region of cytoplasm gave rise to more than one protoplast unit. Protoplasts released from spore germinants escaped from the tip of the germ tube, which was the region of the cell wall most susceptible to digestion. Protoplasts derived from spore germinants were more consistent in size and rounded up more rapidly. If a cross-wall had formed in a germinant then it gave rise to separate protoplasts from each cellular compartment. Protoplasts of either type contained a single DNA region. These studies give an indication of the cellular organization of a streptomycete colony, which can be visualized as a multinucleated assemblage of cellular units in a common cytoplasm. The assembly of units separates into a number of protoplasts on digestion of the cell wall.

Microscopy, Electron

American children who claim to remember previous lives.

An unknown number of American children claim to remember previous lives. In this paper data of 79 such children are analyzed and compared with data from a larger number of cases in India. Few American children of these cases make verifiable statements, and those who do nearly always speak about the lives of deceased members of their own families. In this feature, American cases differ from Indian ones, in which the children usually speak of the lives of deceased persons in another family and often in another community. Indian children also frequently make verifiable statements about the lives of such persons. In some other respects, however, such as the age of first speaking about the previous lives, the content of the statements they make, and related unusual behavior, American subjects closely resemble ones in India. Although many of the American cases may derive from fantasies, a wish-fulfilling motive or obvious gain for the child is not discernible in most of them. Nor do the cases resemble in their form fantasies of imaginary playmates. Some American cases of this type occur in families already believing in reincarnation, but many others do not. In these families the child's statements about a previous life are often puzzling and even alarming to his or her parents. The child is sometimes involved in conflict over the apparent memories with members of his or her family.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Child