Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to J Moulton.
The technique of laparoscopic fundoplication and its hospital management are described. Thirty day results in seven patients demonstrate the decreased insult to the patient, early discharge and early return to usual function, similar to that seen in laparoscopic cholecystectomy.
We investigated factors influencing attitudes and practices among San Francisco physicians toward physician-assisted suicide in the context of AIDS. To explore this topic a questionnaire was developed for use in comparing two physician groups. This self-administered instrument was completed by 69 physician members of the San Francisco County Community Consortium (CCC), a community-based clinical research organization whose members care for persons with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) disease. A comparison group consisted of 86 randomly sampled San Francisco physicians recruited from the California Medical Association mailing list. Anonymity of respondents was maintained. Chi-squares and t-tests were conducted to compare physician groups with regard to demographics and experiences with AIDS. Factor analytic techniques and correlational analyses were used to identify attitudinal and behavioral predictors of willingness to assist in a patient suicide. Twenty-three percent of the total sample would be likely to grant the patient's initial request for assistance in committing suicide. When faced with an adamant request, CCC members would be more likely to assist than comparison group physicians. Ethical beliefs were the strongest predictor of physicians' intention to assist. Identification with the AIDS patient also had significant predictive value.
We report a striking visual illusion which involves an induced motion that is delayed in time. An observer visually tracks a moving target in the neightborhood of a fixed target. The fixed target appears to be entrained by the moving target and appears to follow its movements after a lag of 0.33 second. A series of experiments showed that while the illusion depends on low background salience it obtains with both smooth and oscillatory motion in all directions including depth, under monocular and binocular viewing, in the absence of vestibular and kinesthetic motion cues or eye movements, and under a wide range of relative and absolute target luminance and position. The strength of the illusion and the magnitude of the induced movement's delay seem not to depend on any of the above factors. The illusion, by resisting a peripheral explanation, may provide some clues to central perceptual processing. In addition, we suggest the possibility that errors of judgment based on the nonveridical perception of motion displaced in time may play a role in nighttime automobile and aircraft accidents.