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Biomedical subjects

P Kline

Publications and source records attributed to P Kline.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Effect of dehairing operations on microbiological quality of swine carcasses.

To develop a hazard analysis and critical control point plan for food processing operations, critical control points must be determined. Swine slaughtering and dressing operations were investigated to establish their critical control points. We monitored the microbiology of swine carcasses by surface swabbing carcass bellies at various steps during the process and by quantitating total aerobic plate count (APC) and coliforms. Starting with a dehaired carcass, the sequential steps monitored included presingeing, postsingeing, polishing, and chilling. Initial results indicate that singeing and chilling substantially reduced the levels of APC and coliforms, whereas polishing increased their levels. The hygienic characteristics of individual operations involved in dressing swine carcasses were then evaluated in the second experiment. A set of 40 randomly selected carcasses leaving singeer, polisher, shaver, and washer were sampled. Carcasses were heavily contaminated during the final polishing procedure, and the APC increased threefold compared with prepolishing levels. Washing reduced the bacterial numbers by 69%. To reduce the microbial load on swine carcasses, final polishing and manual shaving steps were not used during the dressing operation on a set of 90 carcasses. APCs on singed carcasses were reduced from 1.34 to -0.15 log10 CFU/cm2 when the final polisher and manual shavers were not used. However, carcasses were subsequently recontaminated with bacteria after evisceration, and the APCs were similar (P > 0.05) regardless of whether the final polishing and manual shaving steps were used, averaging 1.30 and 1.46 log10 CFU/cm2. These results indicated that individual operations can be identified as critical control points, appropriate limits can be set and monitored in a hazard analysis and critical control point system, and steps where further changes to reduce bacterial levels may be needed for swine slaughtering plants.

Abattoirs↗

Item factor analysis of the Italian version of the Death Anxiety Scale.

The 15 items of the Italian edition of the Templer's Death Anxiety Scale (DAS) were subjected to a principal components factor analysis with a sample of 257 subjects. Three factors, selected by the scree test, were rotated using the Direct Oblimin procedure. Cronbach alpha-coefficients are reported for the scale and the factors together with their intercorrelations. The results demonstrate that the DAS is a multidimensional scale. Therefore, its utility is questioned. Suggestions are made for future research.

Adolescent↗

Comments on the objective analysis of motivation and psychotherapy.

There are several important issues raised in the paper by Cattell and in the comments upon it: the empirical status of the Cattell factors; the experimental verification of factors; difficulties with confirmatory analysis and the value of P-analysis. The relevance of these points is explicated in this paper.

Awareness↗

Pregenital fixation and perceptual distortions to conflict-laden material.

Three standard questionnaire measures of oral and anal fixation were administered to 142 students. On the basis of their scores 26 students were selected and shown tachistoscopic exposures of pictures designed to activate oral or anal conflicts. Five subjects in each group had extremely high scores on the corresponding measure of fixation, five had extremely low scores, and 16 had intermediate scores. It was hypothesised that individuals who were fixated at one or other of the psychosexual stages would show stereotyped perceptual distortions to repeated dim exposures of the corresponding picture. Highly fixated subjects showed significantly more deviant responses than did subjects who showed low levels of fixation at the same stage. A form of Q-factor analysis indicated that subjects who were fixated at the oral sadistic or anal stages showed different patterns of perceptual distortions to the anal picture than those who were not fixated. These results were interpreted as supporting the link between defenses against anal eroticism and the anal character.

Adult↗

Phase I/II trial of superselective arterial 5-FU infusion with concomitant external beam radiation for patients with either anaplastic astrocytoma or glioblastoma multiforme.

From August 1987 through September 1989, 25 patients with either anaplastic astrocytoma (8 patients) or glioblastoma multiforme (17 patients) were entered into a Phase I trial of combined intra-arterial 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) and external beam radiation therapy. The intra-arterial 5-FU was given in a superselective, supraopthalmic fashion, in escalating doses from 200 mg to 600 mg on a weekly basis during the radiotherapy. Each patient received from 1-4 courses of 5-FU. Radiotherapy consisted of 5,000 rads in 25 fractions given to partial brain fields including the mass and surrounding edema plus a 3-cm margin as defined by computed tomography scan. There were a total of 4 significant acute complications out of a total of 70 infusions. These included 3 ischemic events of which 2 were transient. In addition, 1 patient experienced a cerebral bleed. No patients developed ocular complications. Electroencephalograms (EEGs) were performed immediately before and during 21 intra-arterial infusions. Two patients developed significant EEG changes during intra-arterial infusion, and both of these patients experienced untoward reactions. The remaining patients showed no EEG changes during their infusions. The median survival for patients with glioblastoma multiforme was 15 months. We believe the toxicity of superselective intra-arterial 5-FU infusion combined with external beam radiotherapy is acceptable. This type of treatment deserves further study.

Adult↗

Edentulous ridge augmentation. Part II.

Edentulous ridge augmentation has evolved from an attempt to control progressive atrophy of both denture-bearing bone and soft tissue. Preprosthetic surgery to reverse these undesirable conditions should only be attempted after other methods, such as proper denture construction, proper patient compliance, and patient management have been unsuccessful. Also a thorough evaluation by both a prosthodontist and an oral surgeon is required. Prosthodontically, the surgical procedure should produce the following features: (1) enlargement of the area of bony support, (2) improved contour of the ridge for denture stability, and (3) elimination of the displacing action of muscle attachments on the complete denture. Ideally we would like to combine all of these distinct features to arrive at the goal of optimum denture retention. The oral surgeon must also be aware of these principles, and in essence, determines the immediate post-surgical results. However, the oral surgeon is also limited by specific patient factors such as systemic conditions, oral health maintanence, and finances. He must recognize these and determine which surgical methods would give the best denture retention and patient service. It is in this context that the prosthodontist and oral surgeon must work together to facilitate total patient care.

Alveolar Ridge Augmentation↗

Five new personality scales: their location in the factor space of personality measures.

Five scales from a picture-preference test (PPT; Auld, 1981) and a sixth, provisional scale from this test, along with some of the best established factorial tests of personality and ability, were administered to 182 university students. The marker tests included the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, Cattell's 16 Personality Factor Questionnaire, the Hakstian-Cattell Comprehensive Ability Battery, and measures of authoritarian personality traits, obsessionality, and Machiavellianism. In order to determine the factorial composition of the five PPT scales, we computed the correlations among the 53 variables, extracted the 12 significant factors by the principal axes method, and did a direct oblimin rotation. It was shown that three of the PPT scales loaded on a single factor, which was identified as P, Eysenck's "psychoticism." We concluded that the three PPT scales may prove useful as a non-questionnaire approach to measurement of P.

Humans↗

Measuring the effects upon cognitive abilities of sleep loss during continuous operations.

One hundred and thirty-five soldiers attending a 10-week training course in the Brecon Beacons were divided into three groups, each of which sat a different kit of five tests taken from the Kit of Factor-Referenced Cognitive Tests (Ekstrom et al., 1976). The tests were given three times, with the first administration serving as a baseline, and the second and third administrations being completed after exercises involving either two nights' loss of sleep, or a physically fatiguing day. The experimental design allows the effects of practice and physical fatigue to be taken into account, and measures of the cognitive effects of sleep loss are obtained for each test. The results show that tests adversely affected by sleep loss are those that involve visual encoding and scanning, production of novel responses, as well as those in which lapses of attention critically affect performance. Performance on tests which involved logical thought and reasoning did not suffer, and in some cases improved.

Arousal↗

The scientific status of the DMT.

The Defence Mechanism Test, the DMT (Kragh, 1969), is claimed to measure defence mechanisms and to reveal important and forgotten experiences in a subject's life. The nature of the responses to this test and the results achieved with it are examined in the light of the psychoanalytic definitions of the defence mechanisms. It is argued that although the responses resemble Freudian defences there is no strong evidence for their validity. Similarly it is shown that the purported parallelism between psychobiography and test responses must be treated with caution. Despite these interpretative caveats the evidence supports the claim that the DMT is a useful test in the clinical setting.

Defense Mechanisms↗

Extraversion, neuroticism, obsessionality and the type A behaviour pattern.

A questionnaire consisting of a subset of questions from the Jenkins Activity Survey was given to 135 male military personnel aged between 18 and 25, together with the EPQ and the AI3, an obsessionality scale. A factor analysis of the answers revealed a four-factor structure - impatience, hard-driving competitiveness, speed and emotional unrepression. Neuroticism was found to correlate positively with impatience and speed, but negatively with hard-driving competitiveness, which together with emotional unrepression correlated positively with extraversion. Impatience, speed and emotional unrepression also correlated positively with obsessionality. Obsessionality was the only personality measure to correlate significantly with the total Type A score. The nature of the relationships between the Type A behaviour pattern and the Eysenckian personality measures are discussed.

Adolescent↗

Comparison of a videotape instructional program with a traditional lecture series for medical student emergency medicine teaching.

An emergency medicine faculty has reported that the use of the videotape medium for presenting curricular material to medical students is both cost effective and well suited to the educational milieu of the emergency department. In order to compare the effectiveness of videotape instruction with that of a traditional lecture, groups of students received instruction in one topic by videotape and in another topic by lecture. The students' retention of material was tested by a multiple-choice examination administered ten days later. The students scored 76.1% (683 of 898 questions) on material taught by lecture and 76.2% (673 of 883 questions) on material taught by videotape (P greater than 0.7). We conclude that videotape instruction is as effective an educational tool as the traditional lecture for an emergency medicine course.

Curriculum↗

Psychoticism and creativity.

Eysenck and Eysenck (1976) cited a number of studies showing that creativity and originality are associated with high scores on their Psychoticism factor, P. In this study, we examined the generality of this claim by using a different set of creativity measures, scales from the Comprehensive Ability Battery (Hakstian & Cattell, 1976) and the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (Eysenck & Eysenck, 1975), with a sample of 173 students. No appreciable overlap was found between the creativity scales and P. A number of possible explanations for this result are discussed, and we concluded that this finding may cast doubt on the generality of the link between creativity and P.

Adolescent↗

A student emergency medicine clerkship that uses new information technologies.

The effective teaching of clinical emergency medicine to medical students requires efficiency in the management of both student and faculty time. Presented is a course outline that makes use of the following elements to structure and augment clinical time in the emergency department (ED): Videotape to present a 19.7-hour series of faculty-produced lectures covering a "core" emergency medicine curriculum. A microcomputer to facilitate staggered scheduling of clinical time. A microcomputer test generation program that permits a secretary to formulate, administer, and grade a different final exam with each rotation. Computer-assisted recordkeeping for faculty evaluation of a student's clinical performance. Once established, this program can be administered with fewer than five faculty hours per month assisted by a part-time (25% full-time equivalent) clerical coordinator. The total cost for the instructional program is $86.37 per student using the new technologies, and $144.15 per student when presenting the same program using traditional teaching techniques. The use of new technologies in student teaching will therefore result in significant savings.

Clinical Clerkship↗

A cost-effective emergency medicine clerkship.

Programs in emergency medicine for medical students are expected to become increasingly organized over the next several years with the development of emergency medicine teaching faculties by medical schools. In this article, the authors describe a clerkship design with three fundamental elements--clinical instruction, classroom instruction, and evaluation--that should be included in an emergency medicine clerkship. Through the use of optimal student scheduling and new information technologies, the yearly cost per student for the classroom teaching and student evaluation sections of the clerkship is $86.65.

Clinical Clerkship↗