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Biomedical subjects

K J Flannelly

Publications and source records attributed to K J Flannelly.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2001

Evaluating improvements in nursing staff at a state psychiatric hospital.

In response to federal intervention in 1990, Hawaii initiated a number of changes at the state's psychiatric hospital. The process of change that was undertaken by the hospital's department of nursing from 1990 through 1994 to meet federal mandates was described in an earlier article in this journal. The present study evaluated the degree to which court-ordered improvements in nursing staff at the hospital were actually achieved between 1995 and 1997. Seven quantitative measures of compliance with federal mandates were evaluated, based on the court orders. Significant improvements were found on six of the seven measures during the 30-month study period. These included increases in nursing staff as measured by (1) the number of staff and (2) full-time equivalents, as well as increases in (3) the hours of nursing care per patient, (4) the number of staff per patient on each shift, and (5) the percent of RNs per shift. Use of agency personnel decreased significantly, as ordered, but overtime use increased significantly, contrary to court orders.

Hawaii↗
PubMed2001

A 10-year review of research on chaplains and community-based clergy in 3 primary oncology nursing journals: 1990-1999.

A manual examination of 3 primary oncology nursing journals was conducted to identify quantitative studies about chaplains and community-based clergy that were published between 1990 and 1999. This systematic review identified 7 studies involving chaplains and/or clergy dealing with a range of issues. Although the rate at which such studies were published in the oncology nursing literature was relatively low (1 in 123 studies), this rate far exceeds the rate found in a similar review of psychology journals (1 in 600 studies). The nature of the 7 studies and the issues they addressed are discussed and the authors make recommendations for future collaborative efforts.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed2001

A review of research on religious and spiritual variables in two primary gerontological nursing journals: 1991 to 1997.

All articles published between 1991 and 1997 in the Journal of Gerontological Nursing and Geriatric Nursing were classified as qualitative research, quantitative research, or non-research. Of the 784 articles reviewed, 5.1% mentioned religion or spirituality. Research articles (7.7%) were more likely than non-research articles (2.8%) to address religion and spirituality. No statistical difference was found between the percentage of qualitative (10.7%) and quantitative (6.8%) studies addressing religious and spiritual factors. The percentage of quantitative studies including religious and spiritual variables was found to be higher than that found by systematic reviews of the research literature in various health professions.

Aged↗
PubMed2000

Comparison of forced-choice and subjective probability scales measuring behavioral intentions.

Three surveys compared the accuracy of predictions based on forced-choice and subjective probability scales. The latter produced significantly more accurate election predictions and significantly reduced the percentage of undecided, or "Don't Know" responses, compared to forced-choice scales in all three surveys. Analysis indicates subjective probability scales decrease sampling error and confirms there is an inherent source of error in traditional forced-choice questions about voting intentions not attributable to sampling error. The results are discussed with respect to (1) sampling and measurement errors in forced-choice and subjective probability scales measuring behavioral intentions, (2) their practical application, and (3) cognitive theory, especially support theory.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1988

Life-span studies of dominance and aggression in established colonies of laboratory rats.

Six mixed-sex colonies of Long-Evans rats were observed at 100-day intervals from colony formation at 100 days of age until all colony members died. Long-term stable dominance relations were observed among males in four colonies while two colonies which had low initial levels of aggression continued to show low intracolony conflict at all ages and no clear dominance relationships. Agonistic interactions among females and between males and females were relatively infrequent and no dominance hierarchy among females was apparent. The aggression of resident males toward intruders increased from 201-601 days of age, but declined overall at age 701. Nevertheless, older males which fought intruders did so as readily as they had when they were young and the few animals that reached 800 days of age continued to attack intruders. Although no systematic decline in total duration or intensity of offense was found across age, there was some evidence of impaired motor performance by older males.

Aggression↗
PubMed1986

Ethanol changes patterns of defensive behavior in wild rats.

Wild-trapped R. rattus under saline or four ethanol doses were run in tasks designed to measure a range of defensive reactions to nonpainful threat stimuli. Results suggest that at higher doses (1.2 g/kg and above) ethanol reduces defense, with effects ranging from slight reductions to near abolition, depending on the behavior measured. Low and moderate ethanol (0.3 and 0.6 g/kg) doses, however, had divergent effects, tending to enhance components of the defensive attack pattern (vocalization, jump attacks, bites), while not altering other aspects of defensiveness. This pattern of results suggest that an ethanol-based potentiation of defensive attack may be one of the factors involved in the phenomenon of aggression increases following alcohol consumption.

Aggression↗
PubMed1986

Effects of septal-forebrain lesions on maternal aggression and maternal care.

Septal-forebrain lesions significantly increased the defensive reactions of lactating Long-Evans rats (n = 13) relative to nonlesioned control females. The lesions greatly enhanced defensive behaviors on a number of standard tests (e.g., responsiveness to humans and anesthetized conspecifics) while abolishing aggression toward intruding male conspecifics. The lesions also produced a striking disruption in maternal behavior as evidenced by absence of nest building, reduced litter weights, failure to retrieve, lick, or nurse pups, and increased cannibalization. While these results cannot be interpreted as indicating that maternal aggression is equivalent to offense, they are congruent with such a view. Certainly they are not supportive of a view that maternal aggression is primarily defensive. The lesion-induced abolition of maternal attack may have resulted from an inhibition of offensive tendencies by heightened defensiveness and/or reduced pup stimulation. There was no evidence that the lesion-induced impairment in maternal behavior resulted from a failure to sequence the individual behavioral acts comprising maternal behavior. Rather, all features of maternal care seemed to be greatly attenuated.

Aggression↗
PubMed1986

Defensive behavior of laboratory and wild Rattus norvegicus.

Analysis of the defensive behaviors of wild rats to an inescapable approaching threat stimulus (the experimenter) indicated a pattern of freezing to distant stimuli, giving way to vocalization, jumps, and jump-attacks at shorter defensive distances. Comparisons of the defensive reactions of wild-trapped and laboratory-bred wild rats to a variety of threatening stimuli, in escapable as well as inescapable situations, indicated that the two wild strains were similar and consistently more defensive than laboratory rats to both human and conspecific threat stimuli. These results thus suggest that the defensive behaviors of rats have been substantially reduced during the process of domestication, with relatively little of this reduction being attributable to housing in standard laboratory conditions.

Aggression↗
PubMed1985

Specific anti-aggressive effects of fluprazine hydrochloride.

Two experiments were performed with adult male rats of the Long-Evans strain to determine the specificity of fluprazine hydrochloride in decreasing offensive attack. Both 4 and 8 mg/kg doses (IP) significantly reduced offense by resident males selected for high or medium levels of aggression when tested with intruders 30 min postinjection. No reliable differences in other social or nonsocial behaviors were observed. Drug treatment resulted in an overall reduction in offensive behavior of more than 70% in both groups. Actual biting and wounding of intruders by treated subjects was decreased by as much as 98%. A second experiment assessed the drug's influence on defense in the "shock-elicited aggression" paradigm. While duration of boxing to multiple intermittent shocks was significantly suppressed by drug administration (4 and 8 mg/kg), the same doses had no effect on postshock duration of boxing, or sonic and ultrasonic vocalizations following several high intensity (1.5 mA) shocks. These findings are consistent with other research on this and related phenylpiperazine compounds, indicating that its action is specific in reducing offense with minimal influence on social or defensive behavior.

Aggression↗
PubMed1985

Mouse killing, insect predation, and conspecific attack by rats with differing prior aggressive experience.

Mouse-killing, cockroach predation, and conspecific attack were examined in male Long-Evans rats with a history of intraspecific aggression (n = 20), defeat (n = 20), or no aggressive experience (n = 20). Roaches were more likely to be attacked during 30 min tests, and were attacked more rapidly than mice or rats regardless of previous social experience of subjects. Rats with aggressive experience attacked conspecifics more readily than subjects with defeat or no experience. There was no effect of prior experience on mouse-killing. These results indicate that mouse-killing does not correspond closely to either predation or intraspecific attack.

Aggression↗
PubMed1985

Fluprazine hydrochloride does not decrease defensive behaviors of wild and septal syndrome rats.

Recent studies indicate that fluprazine hydrochloride reduces offensive attack in laboratory rats and mice without decreasing defensive behavior during conspecific encounters. Since wild rats and rats displaying the "septal lesion syndrome" show much more pronounced defensive reactions than do normal laboratory rats, these animals were used to provide a more critical test of fluprazine's effectiveness on defense. When a dose of fluprazine hydrochloride (8 mg/kg), previously shown to be highly effective in reducing or eliminating offense, was given to wild and septal syndrome rats these animals showed no reliable decrement in a wide range of defensive reactions including biting attack (defensive attack) to human handling and other stimulation. These findings support the view that fluprazine does not appreciably affect defensive attack or other defensive behaviors even though it strongly inhibits offensive attack.

Aggression↗
PubMed1985

Fluprazine hydrochloride decreases copulation in male rats.

The copulatory performance of 18 sexually experienced male rats was tested 30 min after IP injection of the phenylpiperazine, Fluprazine Hydrochloride (4 and 8 mg/kg), or saline solution. Three 20-min tests with an estrous female were conducted at weekly intervals. Each drug dose produced a significant depressive effect on copulatory behavior (latency to and frequency of intromissions and ejaculations) without affecting social investigation. The increased latencies to mounting and intromission observed at both doses suggest that the primary action of the Fluprazine Hydrochloride is to interfere with the transition from social to copulatory patterns. Although the drug's mode of action is currently unknown, the present findings suggest that it operates on some common mediator of sexual and aggressive behavior.

Animals↗
PubMed1985

Life-span changes in the copulatory behavior of male rats (Rattus norvegicus).

The copulatory behavior of 5-, 10-, 15-, and 20-month-old sexually naive male rats (Long-Evans) was studied during 2-hr tests with receptive females. There was no apparent change in sexual arousal as measured by latency to initiate copulation across age, with subjects from all groups exhibiting comparable latencies to first mount and first mount with intromission. The numbers of ejaculations achieved were also similar across ages. Significant age differences were found for frequency of mounts, with 20-month-olds having the highest mean frequency. The persistent mounting by older males appeared to account for significant group differences in interintromission interval and ejaculation latency. It is suggested that motor deficits may impair the ability of older males to achieve intromission, increasing the number of mount bouts as well as the number of mounts per bout, thus extending the length of each copulatory series.

Aging↗
PubMed1984

The effects of age and strain on aggression in male rats.

Aggressive behaviors were compared for male Fischer-344 and Long-Evans rats formed into mixed-sex colonies at 100, 200, or 300 days of age. Within each strain, male aggression did not differ across these ages, nor did it differ for an additional group of 600-day old Long-Evans males: both the form and the incidence of specific aggressive and defensive behaviors remained relatively constant over an age range representing nearly the entire normal life span for this species. However, Fischer-344 males at all ages were reliably lower in aggression than the Long-Evans rats. The specific aggression components seen in the Fischer-344 rats tended to be nondamaging, resembling "play fighting" more than the tissue damaging attack behaviors typical of other strains. Despite the frequent use of this strain in gerontological research, such low levels of aggressiveness counterindicate their use in research in aging and aggression.

Age Factors↗