Search PubMed⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

J Simons

Publications and source records attributed to J Simons.

At least 127 records · Page 7Linked to original sources
PubMed1982

Health attitudes and knowledge, and coronary risk factors in high-school children, Sydney and Inverell.

Attitudes to, and knowledge of, health and nutrition, together with presence of major coronary risk factors, were assessed in New south Wales high-school students at the start of an experimental healthy lifestyle programme. Data were obtained for 2596 children (mean age, 12.5 to 15.5 years), of whom 1971 lived in Sydney and 625 in rural Inverell. Girls had higher scores than boys on questions related to nutrition and fitness attitudes. Girls' scores on questions related to health attitudes and knowledge and nutrition attitudes and knowledge increased with age. The earliest precursors of coronary heart disease and chronic lung diseases were present in this group of children, of whom 20% to 30% were smoking cigarettes, 30% were overweight or obese, 8% to 15% of boys and 2% to 7% of girls had high blood pressure, and 9% had hypercholesterolaemia.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1982

Preliminary results of Rorschach protocols of pre and post operative transsexuals.

Presented are initial descriptive results of two administrations of the Rorschach over a 5-year period to a group of 20 transsexuals. Of the 20, 10 were female to male and 10 were male to female. Five of the female to male transsexuals had during the 5-year period gone on for surgery, as had 5 of the female to males. Discussion focuses on the differences and similarities between pre- and post-operative groups as well as contrasting both groups with norms of the general population. Results suggest that there are no obvious differences between the transsexual group and norms for the general population.

Adult↗
PubMed1982

Fatness and skeletal maturity of Belgian boys 12 through 17 years of age.

Relationships between fatness and skeletal maturity are considered in a nationwide sample of 14,259 Belgian boys 12 through 17 years of age (The Leuven Growth Study of Belgian Boys). Absolute fatness was estimated from four skinfolds using the Drinkwater and Ross technique and from the sum of four skinfolds, and was related to skeletal maturity assessed by the Tanner-Whitehouse method (I and II). In addition, comparisons were made between the fattest 5% and leanest 5% of the boys at each age level. Correlations between the indices of fatness and skeletal age and relative skeletal age (the difference between skeletal and chronological ages) are positive and generally low, ranging from 0.12 to 0.39. They tend to decrease with age from 12 to 17 years. Comparisons between the extreme groups indicate that the leanest boys are more delayed in skeletal maturity, by about 0.8 years, than the fattest boys are advanced, by about 0.5 years. Stature data for the same boys are consistent with the skeletal maturity data and thus suggest that the size differences between the extreme groups are due in part to maturity differences. Over the age span 12 through 20 years, the leanest boys are reduced in stature by about -1.2 standard deviations, while the fattest boys are larger in stature by about +0.6 standard deviation units. The size differences, however, persist after skeletal maturity is attained so that there may be a specific role for fatness in influencing statural growth.

Adipose Tissue↗
PubMed1981

Coronary risk factors in a rural community which includes aborigines: Inverell Heart Disease Prevention Programme.

A coronary risk factor screening and referral service was established in Inverell, New South Wales, in July 1978. In non-Aboriginal subjects, there was an increasing prevalence of coronary risk factors with age (hyperlipidaemia, hypertension and obesity), except for cigarette smoking which showed a reverse trend. Allowing for minor differences in sampling, the average level of plasma cholesterol, blood pressure and cigarette smoking in rural inverell closely resembled that in Sydney. However, Inverell subjects of both sexes were consistently more overweight at all ages. Aboriginal subjects of both sexes showed an increased prevalence of hypertriglyceridaemia and cigarette smoking compared with non-Aboriginal subjects, whilst hypertension and obesity were also more prevalent in the Aboriginal females. High Coronary risk Inverell subjects sustained significant improvements in serum cholesterol, cigarette smoking and body weight levels over one year of follow-up. Community-wide control of hypertension was initially unsatisfactory and this remained so.

Adult↗
PubMed1979

Stability and gap phenomena for Yang-Mills fields.

It is shown that any weakly stable Yang-Mills field of type SU(2) or SU(3) on the four-sphere must be self-dual or anti-self-dual. Any Yang-Mills field on S(n), n >/= 5, is unstable. Examples of stable fields on S(4) and S(n)/Gamma for n >/= 5 and Gamma not equal {e} are given. It is also shown that, for any Yang-Mills field R on S(4), the pointwise condition parallelR(-) parallel (2) < 3 (or parallelR(+) parallel (2) < 3) implies that R(-) = 0 (or respectively that R(+) = 0). In general, any Yang-Mills field R on S(n), n >/= 3, that satisfies the pointwise condition parallelR parallel(2) < (1/2)((2) (n)) is trivial. If n = 3 or 4, the condition parallelR parallel(2) </= (1/2)((2) (n)) implies that either R is the trivial field or it is the direct sum of a trivial field with a field of tangent spinors carrying the standard connection.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1979

Neuropsychological study in treated thyroid dysgenesis.

Neuropsychological assessment was carried out in 57 patients aged 3.0 to 17.5 years (mean 8.5) with thyroid dysgenesis under adequate long-term therapy. Starting age of hypothyroidism as estimated by bone age at diagnosis was prenatal in 32 cases, close to birth in 13 cases and postnatal of 1-12 months in 12 cases. Hypothyroidism of prenatal onset results in severe neuropsychological disorders and mental retardation if not treated early. Only some signs of "minimal brain dysfunction" which compensate with advancing age and normal IQ are found in these children if therapy is started before one month of age. Hypothyroidism starting at birth does not result in mental retardation but neuropsychological disorders are found. They are more frequent if treatment is started after 6 months of age. Children who become hypothyroid between 1 and 12 months of age are usually not mentally retarded and show minor neuropsychological disorders.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1977

An observation concerning electronically excited retinal.

The observation of Mathies and Stryer of highly polar excited electronic states of all-trans-retinal, its unprotonated Schiff base, a salt of the protonated Schiff base, and 11-cis-retinal leads us to propose a possible consequence of the existence of such species. The highly polar excited molecule may have sufficient potential to oxidize its surroundings, thus achieving a transfer of one electron. Experimental evidence is combined with crude model calculations to support the possible role of these excited states as electron transfer agents.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1977

Genic similarity of American and European species of the lobster Homarus.

European lobsters (Homarus gammarus) from the Norway coast and from the Irish Sea are examined for electrophoretically detectable genetic variation in seventeen functionally different proteins. Forty-one loci encoding these proteins are homologous with loci studied in a previous survey of eight populations of H. americanus. Progeny hatched from ovigerous Norway females show variation in three enzymes, but Mendelian inheritance is confirmed only for triosephosphate isomerase and for one of the phosphoglucose isomerases. Complex PGI phenotypes are described. The average amounts of genetic variability in European and American lobster populations appear to be equivalent. More than one allele is detected at 20% of the loci, the average number of alleles detected per locus is 1.2 and the average proportion of loci heterozygous per individual is 4.0%. While much less genically variable than other invertebrates, Homarus is not atypical when compared with eleven decapod species that average 5.8% heterozygosity. This is consistent with hypotheses relating genetic variability to adaptive strategy. At thirty loci H. gammarus is monomorphic for the common H. americanus allele. Two acid phosphatase systems are fixed or nearly fixed for alternative alleles in the two species while the remaining polymorphic loci show various degrees of interspecific divergence. Unique H. gammarus alleles are detected at five loci but only contribute significantly to species differences at the Acph-5, Me, and Pgi-4 loci. Acph-1, Est-2, Pgi-3, and Pgm-1 are polymorphic for the same alleles in both species, but again, with various differences in allelic frequencies. In sum, average genetic identity and average genetic distance are: I = 0.896 +/- 0.007 and D = 0.110 +/- 0.007, respectively. Compared to the values for conspecific population comparisons, I = 0.994 +/- 0.001 and D - 0.006 +/- 0.001, it is clear that a small but significant amount of genetic divergence separates the European and American lobster. Based on the premise that protein differences between existing species reflect the amount of time since they shared a common ancestor, it can be speculated that the European and American lobsters were isolated during the Pleistocene. The apparent weakness of reproductive isolating barriers suggests that these populations have evolved allopatrically. Finally, quantification of species' genetic differences, together with recent successes in interspecific laboratory matings, implicates species hybridization as a potentially important breeding practice in lobster aquaculture.

Animals↗