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Biomedical subjects

M Smith

Publications and source records attributed to M Smith.

At least 523 records · Page 29Linked to original sources
PubMed1996

Psychiatric Research Interview for Substance and Mental Disorders (PRISM): reliability for substance abusers.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to investigate the reliability of a new semistructured diagnostic interview, the Psychiatric Research Interview for Substance and Mental Disorders (PRISM), for substance-abusing patients. The reliability of psychiatric diagnoses for individuals who drink heavily or use drugs has been shown to be problematic. The PRISM was designed to improve the reliability for such individuals. METHOD: A test-retest reliability study of the PRISM was conducted with 172 patients being treated in dual-diagnosis or substance abuse settings. RESULTS: Good to excellent reliability was shown for many diagnoses, including affective disorders, substance use disorders, eating disorders, some anxiety disorders, and psychotic symptoms. The interview has recently been updated for DSM-IV diagnoses. CONCLUSIONS: The PRISM offers a method of producing psychiatric diagnoses with improved reliability for patients and other research subjects who have problems with alcohol or drugs.

Adult↗
PubMed1996

Uniform approach to risk classification and treatment assignment for children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

PURPOSE: To define more uniform criteria for risk-based treatment assignment for children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), the Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program (CTEP) of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) sponsored a workshop in September 1993. Participants included representatives from the Childrens Cancer Group (CCG), Pediatric Oncology Group (POG), Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI), St Jude Children's Research Hospital (SJCRH), and the CTEP. METHODS: Workshop participants presented and reviewed data from ALL clinical trials, using weighted averages to combine outcome data from different groups. RESULTS: For patients with B-precursor (ie, non-T, non-B) ALL, the standard-risk category (4-year event-free survival [EFS] rate, approximately 80%) will include patients 1 to 9 years of age with a WBC count at diagnosis less than 50,000/microL. The remaining patients will be classified as having high-risk ALL (4-year EFS rate, approximately 65%). For patients with T-cell ALL, different treatment strategies have yielded different conclusions concerning the prognostic significance of T-cell immunophenotype. Therefore, some groups/institutions will classify patients with T-cell ALL as high risk, while others will assign risk for patients with T-cell ALL based on the uniform age/WBC count criteria. Workshop participants agreed that the risk category of a patient may be modified by prognostic factors in addition to age and WBC count criteria, and that a common set of prognostic factors should be uniformly obtained, including DNA index (DI), cytogenetics, early response to treatment (eg, day-14 bone marrow), immunophenotype, and CNS status. CONCLUSIONS: The more uniform approach to risk-based treatment assignment and to collection of specific prognostic factors should increase the efficiency of future ALL clinical research.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1996

The advantages of an unsteady panel method in modelling the aerodynamic forces on rigid flapping wings

This paper responds to research into the aerodynamics of flapping wings and to the problem of the lack of an adequate method which accommodates large-scale trailing vortices. A comparative review is provided of prevailing aerodynamic methods, highlighting their respective limitations as well as strengths. The main advantages of an unsteady aerodynamic panel method are then introduced and illustrated by modelling the flapping wings of a tethered sphingid moth and comparing the results with those generated using a quasi-steady method. The improved correlations of the aerodynamic forces and the resultant graphics clearly demonstrate the advantages of the unsteady panel method (namely, its ability to detail the trailing wake and to include dynamic effects in a distributed manner).

Journal Article↗
PubMed1996

Technical note. Modulation transfer function analysis of a newly revised rotational panoramic machine.

OBJECTIVES: To determine the modulation transfer function (MTF) and noise equivalent passband (NE) values for a newly revised rotational panoramic X-ray machine, the PC-1000 (Panoramic Corp., Fort Wayne, Indiana, USA). METHODS: Images of a 10 microns test slit were taken at various locations along the X-ray beam projection path using a Lanex Regular/T-Mat G image receptor. Line spread functions were obtained at specific beam paths by scanning slit images with a microdensitometer. RESULTS: MTF values were highest around the central plane of the image layer, with a maximum near the centre of 0.25 at 4 cycles/mm. The NE values near the central plane of image layer were 1.4 cycles/mm. MTF and NE values in the anterior region were low, 0.2 and 1.2, respectively. The width of the image layer was narrower in the anterior and wider in the posterior segments. Rapid decreases in MTF and NE values were found on the X-ray tube side compared with the receptor side of the central plane. Using a spatial frequency of 0.25 MTF the shape of the image layer was coincident with that determined visually. CONCLUSION: On the basis of the MTF and NE values the image resolution produced by this machine is considered acceptable for panoramic dental radiography.

Mathematics↗
PubMed1996

Injuries in cross-country skiing: a critical appraisal of the literature.

This study comprehensively reviews and critically appraises recent literature on cross-country skiing injuries. Particular attention was paid to the study design when reviewing the literature, thereby producing a measure of internal and external validity. From these data, the factors associated with the aetiology, frequency, site distribution and types of cross-country skiing injuries are examined. The incidence of injury in cross-country skiing is estimated to be between 0.49 and 5.63 per 1000 skier days. The most common injuries are medial collateral ligament sprains of the knee, and ulnar collateral ligament sprains of the thumb. Overuse and cold injuries (e.g. hypothermia and frostbite) appear to be common as well, although the data do not provide an estimate of incidence. Comments in the literature on prevention of these injuries are mainly empirical: they recommend safer equipment, wise choice of terrain and a general increase in skier awareness of ways to prevent injury. However, rigorous studies that adequately evaluate preventive intervention strategies have yet to be conducted. Cross-country skiing is relatively safe and a suitable activity for physical fitness and rehabilitation. In the future, studies employing an analytical design will be required to evaluate the effectiveness of injury prevention intervention strategies.

Arm Injuries↗
PubMed1996

Pre-sympathetic neurones in the rostral ventrolateral medulla of the rat: electrophysiology, morphology and relationship to adjacent neuronal groups.

The activity of preganglionic sympathetic neurones largely depends on synaptic excitation from antecedent reticulospinal neurones located in the rostral ventrolateral medulla (RVLM). Our study, conducted in anaesthetized rats, showed that all RVLM pre-sympathetic neurones display a substantial synaptic noise and their action potentials are usually preceded by fast EPSPs. No evidence was found for presence of gradual depolarizations (autodepolarizations) between individual spikes. Therefore our results are consistent with the "network" hypothesis for the generation of sympathetic vasomotor tone. Axons of some pre-sympathetic neurones intracellularly labelled with Neurobiotin or Lucifer Yellow had collaterals arborizing in several medullary regions. Thus these neurones have synaptic inputs not only to preganglionic sympathetic neurones, but also to other, yet unidentified cells in the brainstem. Finally, our results show that anatomically adjacent RVLM pre-sympathetic and Bötzinger respiratory neurones from two functionally distinct neuronal subpopulations, and that some pre-sympathetic neurones have an adrenergic phenotype.

Animals↗
PubMed1996

Fix the skill mix.

Explore the source record for details and available documents.

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMed1996

Dose Intensity of Chemotherapy for Childhood Cancers.

Since the formulation of the "dose-intensity" concept of anticancer therapy in the mid-1980s, the concept that "more is better" has gained general acceptance among pediatric oncologists. However, recently published clinical trials results for adults with breast cancer, germ-cell tumors, and ovarian cancer raise questions about the value of dose intensification in improving outcome. Given the differences in sensitivity between pediatric and adult tumors to cytotoxic agents, the results from these adult trials suggest a need for caution but do not suggest that evaluations of dose intensity for pediatric tumors are unwarranted (especially for a tumor such as Ewing's sarcoma, which is especially sensitive to alkylating agents). Since dose-intensive therapies have significant short- and long-term costs for the patient, it is important to obtain reliable data concerning possible benefits of this strategy. Toward this end, NCI-sponsored randomized clinical trials evaluating the role of dose intensification have been initiated for several tumors of children (including neuroblastoma, germ-cell tumors, Ewing's sarcoma, and brain tumors in infants). These trials should be completed and reported in the next two to three years, and they may make unique contributions in defining the benefits and limitations of dose intensity as a cancer treatment strategy. In the long term, however, the utility of dose intensification is limited for children with cancer because of the inherent toxicities associated with its application. Identification of agents that more specifically target tumor cells is essential. Fortunately, pediatric tumor cells do have unique biological characteristics that may be susceptible to targeting for therapeutic benefit.

Journal Article↗