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Biomedical subjects

K Mullen

Publications and source records attributed to K Mullen.

54 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
PubMed1987

The beliefs and attitudes of a group of men in mid-life towards tobacco use.

This paper considers the attitudes and beliefs of a group of men in mid-life, living in the city of Glasgow, towards smoking. Utilising an ethnographic interviewing technique it explores, in depth, issues which have been highlighted by earlier studies using more prevalent social-science questionnaire methods. The findings corroborate those of other studies particularly with regard to the reasons as to why people smoke, and the clear association between high levels of smoking and drinking. It goes further, however, in showing the importance of social forces in these issues. Changes in the strength of anti-smoking feelings in the general population, how work and leisure relate to smoking, the importance of breaks in daily routine for giving up smoking, and how the round sharing of cigarettes influences the pace and quantity of cigarettes smoked, are discussed.

Alcohol Drinking↗
PubMed1987

The effect of stress level, amino acid formula, and nitrogen dose on nitrogen retention in traumatic and septic stress.

Eighty-seven patients were entered into a randomized, prospective, double-blind, six-center study to evaluate the effect of amino acid loading and a formula that was branched chain enriched (50%) on nitrogen retention in metabolic stress. The patients had varying levels of metabolic stress (0-3) after major surgery, polytrauma, or surgical sepsis. The study was isocaloric and isonitrogenous and lasted for 7 days. The patients received either a standard amino acid formula (SAA) (Travasol) or a 50% branched chain enriched formula that was equimolar, leucine, isoleucine, and valine (MAA) (Travasol + Branchamin concentrate) at a dose of 1.0-2.0 g/kg/day in a fixed ratio with 114 glucose calories per gram of nitrogen administered. The nitrogen retention was proportionate to the nitrogen (and, therefore, caloric) load in both groups. The MAA group, however, had better nitrogen retention, reached nitrogen equilibrium at a lower dose of amino acids, and had less urinary nitrogen excretion per gram of nitrogen administered. Since the groups were isonitrogenous and the calorie to nitrogen ratios were fixed, it appears that nitrogen equilibrium in surgical stress is proportionate to the amino acid load over a range of 0.05-0.4 g/kg/day of nitrogen; and that MAA are more efficient at inducing nitrogen retention and a reduction in urea excretion. These effects on nitrogen retention were more significant at level 2 stress or greater. At these higher stress levels, a dose of 2 +/- 0.2 g/kg/day of MAA seemed most efficient in promoting nitrogen retention.

Adult↗
PubMed1986

Religion and attitudes towards alcohol use in the Western Isles.

Research on religion and alcohol has produced conclusive results with regard to the relationship between religion and alcohol consumption but ambiguous findings with regard to more general attitudes towards alcohol use. This paper considers these issues in depth by a secondary analysis of data collected in the Western Isles of Scotland. It finds that differences between Protestants and Catholics do exist: Protestants are more likely to endorse an abstinent position, while Catholics are more permissive in their attitudes towards drinking. In terms of attitudes towards drunkenness, however, differences between the two groups are slight. The paper concludes by giving data on differences in attitudes towards alcoholism and service use and calls for future studies in the area to take the cultural context of these issues into account.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1983

Decreased microfilarial load and its effect on the calculation of prevalence and the rate of false negatives in the detection of onchocerciasis.

It has been shown in the epidemiological evaluation of onchocerciasis that the method of taking two or more snips per person contains information about the probabilities of false negatives which can be extracted and used to improve the prevalence estimates. Using the method of maximum likelihood, one can obtain expressions for estimating the prevalence, adjusted for the false negatives, and for estimating the proportion of false negatives. The variances of all estimates are also available, making confidence interval estimation possible.

Humans↗
PubMed1983

Linked cross-sectional study for evaluating the effect on the microfilarial load of the onchocerciasis control programme.

When analysing incomplete longitudinal data (ie data which includes complete longitudinal results plus cross-sectional results plus partially longitudinal results) one can increase the sensitivity of the data by taking the correlation structure of the data into account. For the described data on onchocerciasis, the adapted method of Rao and Rao, called the Linked Cross-Sectional method, which estimates the mean microfilarial load for each passage and hence the differences between passages, taking into account the correlation between the same individuals measured at different times is such a method that reduces significantly the standard deviations of the mean responses and hence increases their sensitivity. The method takes into account the missing data nature of the results. It can be simply generalized to any number of passages.

Cross-Sectional Studies↗
PubMed1983

Use of a structured diagnostic interview to identify bipolar disorder in adolescent inpatients: frequency and manifestations of the disorder.

The authors interviewed 17 adolescent inpatients and their mothers with the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School-Aged Children and Adolescents, Epidemiological Version (K-SADS-E), a semistructured interview that generates RDC and DSM-III diagnoses for major affective disorders and nonaffective psychoses and DSM-III diagnoses for dysthymic, cyclothymic, and other selected disorders. Five of the patients (29%) satisfied DSM-III criteria for bipolar disorder or atypical bipolar (bipolar II) disorder, although these diagnoses had not been identified in the hospital charts. These data support previous findings that bipolar disorder occurs moderately frequently in adolescent inpatients, although it is often unrecognized. Moreover, the disorder can be readily identified with structured diagnostic methods.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1980

Hematology and biochemistry reference values for female Holstein cattle.

Reference intervals are presented for 14 hematology and 32 biochemistry variables from four age groups of female Holstein cattle (n = 172) selected randomly from six well managed farms. Each animal was examined by a clinician and with the history available considered to be clinically normal at the time of blood collection. The variable observations were examined for outliers and Gaussian distribution prior to parametric or where necessary, nonparametric analysis. Many differences were noted between age groups but few between farms.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1980

Hematology and biochemistry reference values for the light horse.

Reference hematology and biochemistry intervals are presented for a number of variables of clinical interest determined for blood samples obtained from 60 thoroughbred mares, 12 thoroughbred foals and 50 standardbred horses in training. The observations for each variable were examined for outliers and Gaussian distribution. Parametric analysis was used where the observations were Gaussian initially or after any of four transformations, otherwise nonparametric analysis was required for estimation of the 2.5 and 97.5 percentiles. Description of the sample collection procedures, laboratory methods and statistical analysis are available allowing comparison and judicious application of these reference intervals by interested researchers and clinicians.

Animals↗
PubMed1980

On transforming biological data to Gaussian form.

Much of the statistical analysis of biological data depends on the assumption that the data are Gaussian (or normal). Some well-known procedures which use this assumption are (i) t-tests (ii) analysis of variance (iii) regression estimation and their attendant tests. If the data are not Gaussian, one can use nonparametric statistical techniques, if they exist, but they often require larger amounts of data to obtain equally precise results (see for example Lumsden and Mullen (7) for a discussion of this with regard to reference value estimation). If the data are not Gaussian a fruitful approach to their analyses lies in trying to find a transformation which will render tham Gaussian. The data thus transformed to a Gaussian form, can be analyzed validly using standard statistical techniques. The process of finding a good transformation of the data has often been an arbitrary and ad hoc one. The purpose of this article is to look at a particular technique for attempting to render nonGaussian data Gaussian, and to illustrate its applicability and breadth of use.

Animals↗
PubMed1979

Canine hematology and biochemistry reference values.

Reference hematology and biochemistry values for 53 variables are presented from 51 clinically healthy dogs, 26 female and 25 male, approximately six to 24 months of age and of mixed breed. These dogs were sampled because of their good health status and the opportunity to collect the volume of blood required to complete the variable analysis of interest. Collection of blood specimens and laboratory analysis was done in a standard described manner, the latter including a continuing quality control program. For each variable the data were examined for homogeneity and when present, outliers (n = 9) were excluded. Parametric analysis was used to calculate the reference interval for those variables which had a Gaussian distribution or could be changed to a Gaussian distribution by any of four transformations. For those variables in which Gaussian distribution was not present or attained, nonparametric analysis was used. Due to the small size of the population sample, the uncertainty of breed and the exact age of each dog, breed, age and sex effects were not examined. Reference values should be used to assist interpretation of observations obtained from an animal or animals of comparable origin, i.e. similar subpopulation, and only if the same laboratory techniques are followed. Until each laboratory is able to generate reference values using adequate sample size and current methodology for the numerous subpopulations of interest, reference intervals such as these are useful to clinicians and researchers.

Animals↗
PubMed1979

Linear skeletal growth in male and female turkeys.

Growth in the maximum length of the skull, humerus, ulna + radius, carpometacarpus + phalanges, pelvis, femur, tibiotarsus and tarsometatarsus + phalanges was measured by dissection of male and female white turkeys taken at 14 day intervals from hatching to 20 weeks. In all skeletal units except carpometacarpus + phalanges, a greater rate of growth (P less than 0.01) was detected in males.

Animals↗
PubMed1978

On establishing reference values.

In order to establish a range of reference values for any characteristic one can use Gaussian or nonparametric techniques, whichever are most appropriate. One has the choice of calculating tolerance intervals or percentile intervals. A tolerance interval is said to contain, say 95% of the population with probability, say 0.90. A percentile interval simply simply calculates the values between which 95% of the observations fall. If the data can be said to have a Gaussian distribution, the same precision can be obtained with smaller sample sizes than using the nonparametric techniques. In some cases, data which are not Gaussian can be transformed into a Gaussian form and hence make use of the more efficient Gaussian techniques. In both cases, the data should be checked for outliers or rogue observations and these should be eliminated if the testing procedure fails to imply that they are an integral part of the data.

Reference Values↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Relationships between wellness role modeling and professional training in health education.

The relationship between wellness role modeling and health education was examined in a university setting. Comparisons were made between the following groups: 1) new health science majors and advanced majors; 2) new health science majors and new majors in other fields; 3) advanced health science majors and advanced majors in other fields; and 4) health science education faculty and the previously tested groups. Each group responded to a valid and reliable wellness instrument (University of Wisconsin/La Crosse Wellness Inventory). Differences between groups were determined using means, analysis of variance and Scheffe's post-hoc test. Results indicated that no statistically significant difference existed among student groups indicating that just traditional academic exposure to health science/education does not produce positive role models. The faculty were significant potential role models but apparently failed to communicate this positive wellness philosophy to students.

Analysis of Variance↗