Pediatric lung diseases. Task Force on Research and Education for the Prevention and Control of Respiratory Diseases.
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Child↗
Biomedical subjects
R J Thompson
Publications and source records attributed to R J Thompson.
Medical stress, appraised stress, and the psychological adjustment of mothers of children with myelomeningocele.
This study investigated the relationship between medical severity, stress appraisals, and psychological symptoms in a representative sample of mothers of children with myelomeningocele. Although these mothers may be at risk for the development of depression and anxiety problems, substantial variability in their psychological adjustment exists, perhaps due to differences in illness severity and stress appraisals. A sample of 66 mothers answered several questionnaires, including the Stress Questionnaire and SCL-90-R. Medical indexes reflecting severity were obtained from medical charts. Correlational analyses indicated no relationship between medical indexes and maternal adjustment. Appraised illness stress was not related to medical indexes but was significantly related to adjustment. Regression analyses including demographic, medical, and appraised stress variables accounted for 32% of the variance in adjustment. The findings suggest the importance of cognitive appraisal of stress as opposed to objective medical severity in the explanation of maternal psychological adjustment to myelomeningocele.
Activities of Daily Living↗
Intercalation of psoralen into DNA of plastid chromosomes decreases late during barley chloroplast development.
We have used a DNA crosslinking assay to measure intercalation of the psoralen derivative HMT (4'-hydroxymethyl-4,5',8-trimethylpsoralen) into barley (Hordeum vulgare) plastid chromosomal DNA during chloroplast and etioplast development. Intercalation into DNA in intact plastids in vivo and in plastid lysates in vitro shows that chromosomal DNA in the most mature chloroplasts intercalates HMT less efficiently than DNA in younger chloroplasts. In contrast, there is no change in HMT intercalation during etioplast differentiation in the dark. Our results also show that DNA in higher plant plastid chromosomes is under superhelical tension in vivo. The lower susceptibility to HMT intercalation of DNA in the most mature chloroplasts indicates that late during chloroplast development the superhelical tension or the binding of proteins to the DNA or both change.
Blotting, Southern↗
Sickle cell disease in children and adolescents: the relation of child and parent pain coping strategies to adjustment.
Examined pain coping strategies in 72 children and adolescents with sickle cell disease and their parents using the Coping Strategies Questionnaire, and found that pain coping strategies could be reliably assessed. Children high on Negative Thinking and Passive Adherence were less active, required more health care services, and were more psychologically distressed during painful episodes. Children high on Coping Attempts were more active and required less frequent health care services. Parents high on Coping Attempts and low on Passive Adherence had children who were more active.
Adaptation, Psychological↗
The gene for human neurone specific ubiquitin C-terminal hydrolase (UCHL1, PGP9.5) maps to chromosome 4p14.
Ubiquitin carboxy terminal hydrolase 1, UCHL1, is a neurone-specific protein involved in the ubiquitin-mediated proteolytic pathway. The gene for human UCHL1 has been mapped to chromosome 4 using the polymerase chain reaction to amplify specifically the human UCHL1 sequences in rodent/human somatic cell hybrid DNA. A regional assignment of this locus to 4p14 has been made by in situ hybridization to metaphase chromosomes using both tritium and fluorescently labelled probes.
Base Sequence↗
Close linkage of esterase-D to unipolar depression and alcoholism is ruled out in eight pedigrees.
Unipolar depression and alcoholism were tested for genetic linkage to esterase-D at 13q14.1. Tight linkage to esterase-D was ruled out for three phenotypes using three models of penetrance: (1) unipolar depression and alcoholism taken together as affected, (2) unipolar depression alone as affected with alcoholism considered unaffected and (3) alcoholism alone as affected with unipolar depression considered unaffected. This study does not support an earlier finding of possible linkage between the esterase-D locus at 13q14.1 and alcoholism.
Adolescent↗
The structure of the human gene encoding protein gene product 9.5 (PGP9.5), a neuron-specific ubiquitin C-terminal hydrolase.
Database search using a bovine thymus ubiquitin C-terminal hydrolase sequence indicated 54% sequence identity with the abundant human neuron-specific protein gene product 9.5 (PGP9.5), which was then shown to possess the same activity [Wilkinson, Lee, Deshpande, Duerksen-Hughes, Boss & Pohl (1989) Science 246, 670-673]. A yeast counterpart of the enzyme is also known. The human PGP9.5 gene, described here, spans 10 kb, contains nine exons and displays 5' features some common to many genes and some common with neurofilament neuron-specific enolase and Thy-1-antigen gene 5' regions.
Amino Acid Sequence↗
Light affects the structure of Chlamydomonas chloroplast chromosomes.
We have analyzed changes in the structure of chloroplast chromosomes in response to light in growing Chlamydomonas cells using a crosslinking assay based on the intercalation of HMT (4'-hydroxymethyl-4,5',8-trimethylpsoralen) into DNA. Our results show that the structure of chloroplast chromosomes in at least three widely separated regions is different in light-grown vs. dark-grown cells. Structural changes in chloroplast chromosomes occur within 3 hrs after exposure to light or darkness, respectively. The response to light is not inhibited by atrazine and can be elicited by dim blue light incapable of evolving O2, indicating that it does not require photosynthesis. Inhibition of cytoplasmic protein synthesis with cycloheximide prevents this response to light, indicating that it depends, at least in part, on proteins imported from the cytoplasm.
Atrazine↗
Reducing cesarean sections at a teaching hospital.
A department-wide effort to reduce the cesarean section rate at the University Medical Center of Jacksonville (Florida) began in 1987. University Medical Center, a teaching hospital with approximately 4500 annual deliveries, serves an almost exclusively indigent obstetric population. Overall, the cesarean section rate declined from 28 per 100 deliveries in 1986 to 11 per 100 in 1989. Decreasing the number of repeat cesarean sections played an important role in reducing total cesarean deliveries. In 1986 32% of women with prior cesarean sections underwent a trial of labor. By 1989 this proportion had increased to 84%. In 1986 65% of women undergoing a trial of labor were delivered vaginally. By 1989 this proportion had increased to 83%. For these reasons the proportion of patients who had repeat cesarean sections dropped from 8% in 1986 to 3% in 1989. Changing approaches to the evaluation and management of dystocia and fetal distress also helped to lower the overall cesarean section rate. In 1986 cesarean sections for at least one of these two indications accounted for 14% of all deliveries. By 1989 this percentage had dropped to 4%. Because selective criteria for vaginal delivery of fetuses in breech presentation were maintained, incremental increased rates of vaginal breech delivery had only a minimal impact on lower overall cesarean section rates. The reduction in the number of cesarean sections was accomplished without compromising neonatal outcomes. In fact, during this 4-year period neonatal mortality rates actually decreased; neonatal morbidity rates remained stable. Our experience suggests that cesarean section rates can be substantially reduced without compromising the newborn.
Birth Weight↗
Behavior problems in children with the presenting problem of poor school performance.
Used 3 methods of assessing behavioral disturbance in 79 children presenting with poor school performance to an interdisciplinary evaluation center. Findings revealed a very high frequency of behavior problems, particularly of the internalizing type, but few differences in frequency or type of behavior problems among 4 subgroups: children with learning disabilities, mental retardation, borderline intellectual functioning, and without learning disabilities or cognitive impairment. Behavioral problems were associated with lower perceptions of self-worth and family functioning characterized as more controlling, and less supportive. Findings are discussed in terms of the need for interactional models of learning and behavior problems.
Adolescent↗
A matched comparison of adjustment in children with cystic fibrosis and psychiatrically referred and nonreferred children.
Utilized the Child Assessment Schedule, a standardized clinical interview, to assess psychosocial adjustment in terms of DSM-III diagnoses. The criteria for a major DSM-III diagnosis were met by 58% of the children with cystic fibrosis compared to 23% for the nonreferred children and 77% for the psychiatrically referred children. Children with cystic fibrosis generally did not demonstrate more symptoms of psychological disturbance than nonreferred children. It was in terms of worries, poor self-image, and anxiety, that the children with cystic fibrosis demonstrated symptom levels comparable to that of psychiatrically referred children. Findings are discussed in terms of the specific risk of internalizing behavior problems for children with chronic illness.
Adaptation, Psychological↗
Internal consistency of DSM-III diagnoses using the symptom scales of the Child Assessment Schedule.
Internal consistency of the major diagnostic categories for children was assessed, using the symptom scale scores of the Child Assessment Schedule. Alpha coefficients were calculated for three samples: 116 nonpsychotic psychiatrically disturbed children, 63 children with cystic fibrosis, and 177 children from a community based sample. For the psychiatric sample, a high level of internal consistency was demonstrated for all the symptom scales (i.e., attention deficit, conduct, anxiety, and depression). For the nonpsychiatric samples, the attention deficit and depression scales were reliable, with lower levels of endorsement and more variability observed for the other scales. These results are supportive of the clustering of diagnostic criteria present in DSM-III.
Adolescent↗
Localisation of neurone-specific enolase (ENO2) to 12p13.
We have localised the human cDNA for neurone-specific enolase (ENO2) to chromosome region 12p13 by in situ hybridisation. Two additional smaller peaks of hybridisation to specific chromosomal subregions were observed. That on chromosome 1p36 probably represents cross-hybridisation to the locus for nonneuronal enolase (ENO1), which has been previously localised to this chromosome and with which ENO2 shares homology. A further gene for a member of the enolase family may be responsible for the hybridisation to chromosome 17.
Chromosome Banding↗
Brain type creatine kinase in relation to oxygen desaturation in the blood of children with congenital heart disease.
The concentration of brain type creatine kinase (CK-BB) was measured in blood from the internal jugular vein in 32 children (less than 1 year old) with congenital heart disease. In transposition of the great arteries the CK-BB levels were significantly higher than in children without cyanosis (10.1 +/- 4.1 vs. 3.0 +/- 0.5 ng/ml). A negative correlation was found for CK-BB concentration and arterial oxygen saturation (r = -0.41, p less than 0.02 for all children and r = -0.62, p less than 0.05 for those with tetralogy of Fallot). It is suggested that the increased CK-BB levels in the blood of cyanotic children reflect chronic cerebral hypoxia, which may explain other reports of reduced psycho-intellectual function in patients with cyanotic heart disease.
Brain↗
Age, gender, and metabolic control in children and adolescents with diabetes.
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Adolescent↗
The effect of stationary, random phase discontinuities, on spatial frequency discrimination.
We measured spatial frequency discrimination for sine wave gratings that had stationary, periodic, random phase shifts. Testing was conducted at 2.5, 5.0 and 10.0 c/deg. The effects of introducing phase shifts that occurred after a phase continuity in the range 1-8 cycles of the parent sine wave were examined in different experiments. We found that the Weber fraction for spatial frequency was an inverse linear function of the logarithm of the number of cycles of the sine wave in continuous phase. Discrimination performance improved as the number of cycles before the phase shift was increased. The results are compatible with models of spatial frequency discrimination that are based on the averaging of estimates of the spatial intervals between characteristic luminance features (Heeley, 1987a, b), and show also that performance on this task is related to the amount of information available in the retinal image.
Adult↗
Width discrimination for band-pass stimuli.
There is a disagreement in the literature about whether the discrimination function for width is a continuous or a segmented function of target size (Hirsch & Hylton, 1982; Mayer & Kim, 1986). We determined the Weber fraction for width for difference of Gaussian (DOG) luminance distributions. Data for seven different standard widths were collected simultaneously. Although the value of the Weber fraction varied with target size, there was no evidence for any discontinuities in the discrimination function, either in the fovea or at 2.0 deg eccentricity.
Humans↗
Behavior classification system for children with developmental, psychiatric, and chronic medical problems.
Derived a new behavior classification system based on Missouri Children's Behavior Checklist (MCBC) ratings. Using an accumulated MCBC data base on 854 children, 4-14 years of age, with developmental disabilities (n = 471), psychiatric problems (n = 155), chronic illnesses (n = 184), and nonreferred controls (n = 44), raw scale scores were transformed into T scores and then factor analyzed. Three factors emerged: Internalizing, Externalizing, and Sociable. Hierarchical cluster analysis of factor scores yielded six behavior profile clusters that replicated. Classification rules, based on T scores, were derived for each of the six clusters and for unclassified profiles to yield seven behavior patterns. There were four behavior problem patterns: Internal, External, Mixed Internal and External profiles, and Undifferentiated Disturbance. There were three behavior problem free patterns: Low Social Skills, Problem-free, and Sociable profiles. The distribution of these seven behavior patterns differed significantly across children with developmental, psychiatric, and medical problems and nonreferred controls. Furthermore, the new system provides more refined behavior pattern delineation than previously developed systems.
Adolescent↗