Search PubMedSearch

Biomedical subjects

J G Robinson

Publications and source records attributed to J G Robinson.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Changes in empowerment: effects of participation in a lay health promotion program.

The Camp Health Aide Program is a lay health promotion program for migrant and seasonal farmworkers. The program increases access to health care while facilitating leadership development and empowerment of individual farmworkers through training and experience as lay health promoters (camp health aides [CHAs]). This article describes a study which documents impacts on the CHAs of working as lay health promoters in terms of changes in personal empowerment. The authors developed a working definition of personal empowerment and interviewed 27 CHAs at three program sites (Arizona, New Jersey, and Florida) at three different times. CHAs are grouped in five descriptive categories reflecting varying degrees of change in empowerment over this period. Of the total group of 27 CHAs, 24 exhibited some increase in personal empowerment during the study period. These changes are described in detail, and implications are discussed.

Adult

Practical management for hyperlipidemia.

Risk assessment, known coronary and other atherosclerotic disease, and lipid levels determine the potential need for drug therapy. Specific lifestyle objectives are strongly emphasized. Indications and regimens for newer and older drugs are offered.

Humans

Secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease.

In addition to proven approaches, new possibilities generate excitement in the medical community and in the press. Refinements of accepted options for secondary prevention and current data about others that are promising are the focus of this review.

Cardiovascular Diseases

Chlorhexidine gluconate--the solution for dental problems.

Rarely is a chemical agent so effective with so few contra-indications as is chlorhexidine. It has many oral applications, the main ones being the control of plaque and gingivitis. Due to the constraints on oral hygiene in animals, its benefits and indications are especially appropriate to veterinary dental cases. Its full potential is not being realised.

Animals

The provision of prostheses for patients with severe limitation in opening of the mouth.

The problem of providing prostheses for patients with restricted mandibular opening is not well reported, either in current texts on prosthodontics or in the literature. This report features two patients who suffer from severe and chronic forms of the disorder. The aim of the article is to provide some useful hints with respect to the prosthetic management of such patients.

Dental Impression Technique

The prevention of cardiovascular disease. Emphasis on secondary prevention.

Atherosclerosis is a progressive disease affecting all major arteries. Clinical evidence of atherosclerosis increases the risk of subsequent morbid and mortal events fivefold to sevenfold over the next 5 to 10 years. The same risk factors contribute to the initial development of CVD events as to their recurrence. Both coronary and noncoronary events, such as stroke or PAD, reflect the severity of the underlying atherosclerotic process and strongly predict future excess CVD morbidity and mortality. Short-term and long-term survival depends on modifying the risk factors that contribute to CVD events. Although absolute proof of benefit for secondary prevention does not exist for all risk factors, the data from primary prevention trials and the secondary prevention trials that have been done argue strongly for aggressive intervention. Benefit has been demonstrated for smoking cessation, cholesterol reduction, and blood pressure control. Selected patients may benefit from additional medical, procedural, or surgical interventions to prolong life, such as beta-blocking agents, aspirin, or carotid endarterectomy. Many secondary prevention measures are a cost-effective way to reduce the substantial morbidity and mortality due to CVD. Contrary to primary prevention, even modest treatment effects from secondary prevention efforts can benefit large numbers of patients. Finally, secondary prevention may be more successful because patients with clinical evidence of CVD may be more highly motivated than their healthy counterparts to make and maintain lifestyle changes.

Arteriosclerosis

Highlights of the new recommendations for hypercholesterolemia.

The patient who benefits most by aggressive efforts to reduce elevated LDL cholesterol is the one who is at greatest risk for a coronary event in the next 5 to 10 years. Thus, treatment decisions are based on risk-factor analysis and personal history.

Age Factors

Impact strength of acrylic resin denture base materials with surface defects.

The first part of this study involved the development of a method for evaluating the effect of small surface defects (3.0 microns-80.0 microns) on the impact strength of acrylic denture base materials. The method was used to compare the properties of 12 denture base materials, some of which are described as "high-impact strength" products. The defects were introduced by drawing the specimens over abrasive papers of varying grit sizes or by notching with a craft knife. Flexural toughness tests were also carried out in order to evaluate the materials under both rapid (impact) and slow (flexural) rate test conditions. The impact resistance of acrylic resins was significantly reduced by the presence of very small surface defects (e.g., < 16 microns), and this was particularly noticeable for so-called high-impact resins. The latter have values of impact strength only slightly higher than standard acrylic products when defects are present. Testing "notched" specimens with small surface defects was a simple method of obtaining reproducible results. This test was sensitive enough to differentiate among several types of currently available denture base resins.

Acrylic Resins

Variability and adaptability in the genus Cebus.

Capuchins (Cebus) present an array of similarities to humans and apes in morphology, behavior and life history which raise a host of questions about the relations of these features to each other and about their evolutionary origins. As a genus and as individuals, capuchins possess marked adaptability and great variability in behavior. These two characteristics contribute directly to the biological success of capuchins. Variability and adaptability are also hallmarks of human behavior.

Animals

Infanticide in wedge-capped capuchin monkeys, Cebus olivaceus.

Three cases of infanticide are reported from a well-studied population of wedge-capped capuchin monkeys, Cebus olivaceus, located in the Venezuelan llanos. For each case, we examined the social context and the consequences to the reproductive success of the infanticidal male. In 1 case, the male probably killed his own son. In 2 cases, the male killed an unrelated animal. In all 3 cases, the female conceived in the following breeding season, but in only 1 case did the infanticidal male possibly enhance his own reproductive success. These data are interpreted in the light of current hypotheses for infanticide.

Aggression

Comparison of high-dose with low-dose subcutaneous heparin to prevent left ventricular mural thrombosis in patients with acute transmural anterior myocardial infarction.

We performed a double-blind randomized trial comparing high doses of subcutaneous heparin (12,500 units every 12 hours) with low doses (5000 units every 12 hours) for 10 days in the prevention of left ventricular mural thrombosis in 221 patients with acute anterior myocardial infarction. Left ventricular mural thrombosis was observed by two-dimensional echocardiography on the 10th day after infarction in 10 of 95 patients (11 percent) in the high-dose group and in 28 of 88 patients (32 percent) in the low-dose group (P = 0.0004). One patient in the high-dose group and four in the low-dose group had nonhemorrhagic strokes (P = 0.17). One patient in the low-dose group had a fatal pulmonary embolism. There was no difference in the frequency of hemorrhagic complications, which occurred in six patients in the high-dose group and four in the low-dose group. The mean (+/- SEM) plasma heparin concentration was 0.18 +/- 0.017 U per milliliter in the high-dose group and 0.01 +/- 0.005 U per milliliter in the low-dose group (P less than 0.0001). In the high-dose group, the mean plasma heparin concentration was 0.10 +/- 0.029 U per milliliter among patients with abnormal two-dimensional echocardiograms, as compared with 0.19 +/- 0.019 U per milliliter among patients with normal echocardiograms (P = 0.01). We conclude that heparin administered subcutaneously in a dosage of 12,500 units every 12 hours to patients with acute anterior transmural myocardial infarction is more effective than a lower dosage (5000 units every 12 hours) in preventing left ventricular mural thrombosis.

Aged

Seasonal or ecological differences in diet and molar microwear in Cebus nigrivittatus.

Dental microwear analyses have raised new hopes and questions for functional morphologists. One hope is that analyses will allow insights into subtle dietary differences of extinct species. One major question is whether seasonal and/or habitat differences in dental microwear are reliably detectable. The extensive collections of Cebus nigrivittatus obtained by the Smithsonian Venezuelan Project allowed us to examine seasonal and habitat differences in dental microwear. Specimens were collected from three distinct ecological life zones that are distinguished by both the amount of rainfall and its seasonability. Environmental variation is generally correlated with variation in resource availability which, in C. nigrivittatus, affects diet. Published field studies indicate that these animals depend more on dry hard fruit and chitinous invertebrates during drier times and succulent fruits and caterpillars during wetter times of the year. As in previous microwear analyses, epoxy replicas were prepared from dental impressions, and the replicas were examined under a scanning electron microscope. Two micrographs were taken of facet 9 on M2 of each specimen. Mean values for the proportion of pits (vs. scratches), pit width, and scratch width were computed for each of 62 individuals and compared between ecological zones and collecting dates by using a multiple comparison test. Results indicate that, while seasonal differences in molar microwear in C. nigrivittatus are perhaps reliably detectable, 1) they are small in magnitude, 2) they are only detectable in certain ecological life zones, and 3) they are not of the order of magnitude that will obscure major interspecific differences in molar microwear such as those between C. apella and C. nigrivittatus.

Analysis of Variance

Intergroup loud calls, range size, and spacing in Callicebus torquatus.

Observations are reported on the response of a free-ranging group of Callicebus torquatus to recordings of loud intergroup calls. When the recording consisted of the call of a solo adult male, the group fled from the recording. When the recording consisted of the adult male and female duetting together, the group remained in place and called back to the recording. These results contrast with previously described vocal and spatial responses of C. moloch and suggest that range size influences the mechanisms that regulate between-group spacing. The consequence of intergroup loud calls in C. moloch is to define and reinforce the location of boundaries, whereas in C. torquatus, homologous calls maintain spacing between groups.

Animals

Estimating the approximate size of the illegal alien population in the United States by the comparative trend analysis of age-specific death rates.

This paper presents the results of an attempt to determine, through the use of demographic analysis, the approximate magnitude of the resident illegal alien population in the United States. The method described is the comparative analysis of trends in age-specific death rates in the United States and selected States, 1950 to 1975. The procedure depends on two assumptions: (a) that few or no illegal aliens are included in decennial census counts or current population estimates; and (b) that the reported statistics on deaths include deaths to all or nearly all illegal aliens. If the illegal alien population has increased by several million since 1970, then death rates in geographic areas where illegal aliens are most concentrated should show substantial excesses over the rates for the remainder of the country. A roughly similar downward trend in the death rates of all age groups since 1970 in all areas of the United States is apparent and hence does not support the view that many millions of illegal residents (perhaps over 6 million) are living here. However, the finding of a persistent deviation in the death rate trend for 10 selected States since 1960 for whites males, ages 20 to 44, and for no other group, suggests that the deaths of illegal aliens are being recorded in our vital statistics system. A range of estimates of the illegal alien population based on this analysis is presented and compared with the results of other studies.

Adolescent