Do elderly Medicare recipients contact physicians appropriately?

Objectives: This research identified characteristics of persons and their illness episodes that predict appropriate and inappropriate decisions to seek medical care.

Methods: This study analyzes 1,292 health care decisions of 885 elderly members of an HMO in Los Angeles. Illness episodes are divided into three categories based on the expertise of a panel of 22 geriatricians, using a formal mathematical analysis derived from anthropological consensus theory.

The revised scale for caregiving self-efficacy: reliability and validity studies.

Two samples of family caregivers (Study 1: N = 169; Study 2: N = 145) of cognitively impaired older adults were used to revise, extend, and evaluate a measure of perceived self-efficacy for caregiving tasks. The Revised Scale for Caregiving Self-Efficacy measures 3 domains of caregiving self-efficacy: Obtaining Respite, Responding to Disruptive Patient Behaviors, and Controlling Upsetting Thoughts. The 3 subscales show strong internal consistency and adequate test-retest reliability.

Feldkamp-type cone-beam tomography in the wavelet framework.

X-ray computed tomography (CT) is in transition from fan-beam to cone-beam geometry. For cone-beam volumetric imaging, reduction of radiation exposure remains an important issue. Because the wavelet approach was shown to be effective and flexible for two-dimensional (2-D) local region reconstruction, we are motivated to perform wavelet local CT in cone-beam geometry.

Selectively monomodified cyclodextrins. Synthetic strategies.

Monomodifications of cyclodextrins to give selectively 2-, 3-, or 6-substituted product is a challenging task because of the number of hydroxyl groups that can potentially react with the incoming reagent. The principles and the methods involved in manipulations of the differences in the chemistry of these hydroxyl groups to control the outcome of an electrophilic reaction with them to produce monoalkylated (ether-linkaged) cyclodextrin derivatives are discussed and illustrated.

Integrated literature review on effects of exposure to violence upon adolescents.

Violence has reached epidemic proportions in the Unites States. The past decade has seen professionals in public health, law enforcement, social sciences, and health care commit more attention to this area. Research and anecdotal articles read by the researcher indicated adolescents exposed to chronic community violence may experience a myriad of problems including; academic failure, the tendency to engage in violent behavior, depression, and a nihilistic, fatalistic orientation to the future, which often leads to increased risk-taking behaviors.

Prior interpersonal trauma: the contribution to current PTSD symptoms in female rape victims.

The purpose of the current study was to disentangle the relationship of childhood sexual abuse and childhood physical abuse from prior adult sexual and physical victimization in predicting current posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms in recent rape victims. The participants were a community sample of 117 adult rape victims assessed within 1 month of a recent index rape for a history of child sexual abuse, child physical abuse, other adult sexual and physical victimization, and current PTSD symptoms. Results from path analyses showed that a history of child sexual abuse seems to increase vulnerability for adult sexual and physical victimization and appears to contribute to current PTSD symptoms within the cumulative context of other adult trauma.

Steric restrictions on the binding of large metal ions to serum transferrin.

Apotransferrin in 0.1 M N-(2-hydroxyethyl)piperazine-N'-2-ethanesulfonic acid at 25 degrees C and pH 7.4 was titrated with acidic solutions of Lu3+, Tb3+, and Eu3+.

Understanding and controlling response bias in needs assessment studies.

This study demonstrated that estimates of agency awareness in the typical needs assessment study are probably inflated by a response bias labeled "agency awareness overclaming." Overclaimers (respondents who reported being aware of fictitious agencies) reported being aware of more real agencies than other respondents. Estimates of agency awareness may also be biased, because certain segments of the population were more likely to exhibit agency awareness overclaiming.

Growth, developmental stability and immune response in juvenile Japanese quails (Coturnix coturnix japonica).

Stresses are environmental factors which restrict growth or cause a potentially adverse change in an organism. The exposure of developing organisms to environmental stresses may have several physiological consequences including a decrease in immunocompetence. However, mounting an immune response against a foreign antigen may in itself constitute a cost for developing organisms.

Comparison of estrogen receptor alpha and beta subtypes based on comparative molecular field analysis (CoMFA).

A substantial body of evidence indicates that both humans and wildlife suffer adverse health effects from exposure to environmental chemicals that are capable of interacting with the endocrine system. The recent cloning of the estrogen receptor beta subtype (ER-beta) suggests that the selective effects of estrogenic compounds may arise in part by the control of different subsets of estrogen-responsive promoters by the two ER subtypes, ER-alpha and ER-beta. In order to identify the structural prerequisites for ligand-ER binding and to discriminate ER-alpha and ER-beta in terms of their ligand-binding specificities, Comparative Molecular Field Analysis (CoMFA) was employed to construct a three-dimensional Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationship (3D-QSAR) model on a data set of 31 structurally-diverse compounds for which competitive binding affinities have been measured against both ER-alpha and ER-beta.

Analysis of hexamer and pentamer motifs within a maize database: the presence of motif 'signatures' in functional gene categories.

Several transposable elements (TEs) have been reported in association with genes in maize and other plants. In this study we found, based on statistical analyses of 951 DNA sequences within a maize computer database, that short hexamer and pentamer DNA motifs from the Activator (Ac) and from the Tourist TEs, respectively, were also associated with maize genes. Moreover, these two short hexamer and pentamer TE motifs were nonrandomly and nearly nonrandomly distributed, respectively, with respect to particular biochemical functions of those maize genes.

Depression and attribution in abused children and their nonoffending caregivers.

This study examined depression and attribution in 17 abused children and their nonoffending caregivers. Analysis indicated that negative attributions were significantly related to higher scores on depression of both children and caregivers, that depression scores of caregivers were unrelated to depression of their abused children, but that caregivers, nevertheless, assessed their children's self-reported depression as similar to their own self-reported depression.

A comparison of normal forgetting, psychopathology, and information-processing models of reported amnesia for recent sexual trauma.

This study assessed memories for sexual trauma in a nontreatment-seeking sample of recent rape victims and considered competing explanations for failed recall. Participants were 92 female rape victims assessed within 2 weeks of the rape; 62 were also assessed 3 months postassault. Memory deficits for parts of the rape were common 2 weeks postassault (37%) but improved over the 3-month window studied (16% still partially amnesic).

New zwitterionic butanesulfonic acids that extend the alkaline range of four families of Good buffers: evaluation for use in biological systems.

Four new zwitterionic butanesulfonic acid buffers that are structurally related to four families of Good buffers were evaluated for use in biological systems. These buffers, with pKa values from 7.6 to 10.

A pentamer-repeat-containing DNA sequence in Texas bluebonnet (Lupinus texensis Hook.).

A 654-bp EcoRI restriction fragment called Lup4 was shotgun cloned from Texas bluebonnet (Lupinus texensis Hook.) nuclear genomic DNA that had been extracted from plant leaves. Its sequence was determined on both strands.

Infant communication and the development of hypnotic responsivity.

The research on the development of hypnotic responsivity indicates that it emerges, ex nihilo, sometime after the age of 3. The measures used to assess hypnotic responsivity rely on complex verbal instructions, thus precluding investigation of infancy. Recent research on infancy, however, suggests that the ontogenesis of hypnotic responsivity is likely to be found in fundamental human capacities that emerge in the first weeks and months of life.

Kinetic studies on the removal of iron and aluminum from recombinant and site-directed mutant N-lobe half transferrins.

Kinetic studies have been conducted in pH 7.4 Hepes buffer at 25 degreesC on the removal of Fe(III) and Al(III) from the recombinant N-lobe half molecule of human serum transferrin (Tf/2N) and from the R124A, K206A, and K296A mutants of this protein. The rates of iron removal from Tf/2N by 3-hydroxypyridin-4-one (deferiprone) and nitrilotriacetic acid (NTA) are essentially identical with previous results on N-terminal monoferric transferrin (Tf-FeN).

Evaluation of quantitative structure-activity relationship methods for large-scale prediction of chemicals binding to the estrogen receptor.

Three different QSAR methods, Comparative Molecular Field Analysis (CoMFA), classical QSAR (utilizing the CODESSA program), and Hologram QSAR (HQSAR), are compared in terms of their potential for screening large data sets of chemicals as endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs). While CoMFA and CODESSA (Comprehensive Descriptors for Structural and Statistical Analysis) have been commercially available for some time, HQSAR is a novel QSAR technique. HQSAR attempts to correlate molecular structure with biological activity for a series of compounds using molecular holograms constructed from counts of sub-structural molecular fragments.

The application of selective ROE experiments to study solution structures of cyclomaltooligosacharide derivatives and complexes.

Selective one-dimensional ROE experiments were applied to study the host-guest interactions of cyclomaltohexaose with p-nitrophenol and the solution structure of 3A-(4-methylamino-3-nitrobenzyl)-cyclomaltoheptaose. The line selective excitation of the aromatic signals of p-nitrophenol gave intense ROE enhancements on the cyclomaltohexaose multiplets (H3 and H5), indicating deep complexation inside the cavity. The results on 3A-(4-methylamino-3-nitrobenzyl)-cyclomaltopheptose showed that the aromatic moiety covers the wider base of the cyclomaltoheptaose cone.

Maize contains a Lon protease gene that can partially complement a yeast pim1-deletion mutant.

We have identified a gene in maize that encodes a product belonging to the Lon protease family. In yeast and mammals, Lon-type proteases catalyze the ATP-dependent degradation of mitochondrial matrix proteins. The maize gene, which we have designated LON1, is predicted to encode a protein with a molecular mass of 97.

Binding of monovalent anions to human serum transferrin.

Serum transferrin is the protein whose primary function is to bind iron and transport it through the blood. Apotransferrin has two specific metal-binding sites that bind a variety of metal ions in addition to the ferric ion. The distinguishing feature of the transferrins is that a "synergistic" bicarbonate anion is bound along with the metal ion to form a stable Fe(3+)-CO3-Tf ternary complex.

Hypnosis and human development: interpersonal influence of intrapersonal processes.

This article revisits the too-long-forgotten relation between hypnosis and development, illuminating common processes underlying both, and using research on one to provide insights into the other. Hypnosis is defined within a communications framework, and essential features of hypnosis are identified in the communicative exchanges of the first months of life. This forces a reconsideration of our understanding of the ontogenesis of hypnosis.