Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to D Lester.
Data from a sample of 612 college students showed that the Depression subscale of the Manic-Depressiveness Scale had greater internal reliability than the Mania subscale. Furthermore, correlates of the total scale score did not appear to provide as useful information as use of the Depression and Mania subscales separately.
American (n = 132) and Kuwaiti (n = 204) undergraduates responded to the Arabic Obsessive-Compulsive Scale in English and Arabic languages, respectively. Students in Kuwait scored as more obsessive-compulsive than their American counterparts.
In a sample of 109 undergraduate students, religiosity was not associated with the fear of death or with scores on a manic-depressive tendencies scale.
In 95 French Départements in 1970, suicides rates were higher where measures of domestic social integration (marriage and divorce rates) were greater.
In 51 college students, attitudes toward abortion, capital punishment, and assisted suicide were not consistently anti- or pro-death.
In a sample of 99 undergraduates, religiosity and psychoticism scores were negatively associated (r = -.34).
In a sample of 73 undergraduates, obsessional-compulsive tendencies (and especially checking) were associated with scores on measures of manic, depressive, and suicidal tendencies.
The Arabic Obsessive-Compulsive Scale and the Maudsley Obsessional-Compulsive Inventory were administered to 159 Kuwaiti (Arabic version) and 72 American college students (English version). Pearson correlations for total score on the two scales were .68 and .64 for Kuwaiti and Americans, respectively, denoting a good convergent validity of the new Arabic Obsessive-Compulsive Scale against scores on the Maudsley Obsessional-Compulsive Inventory in the two different national groups.
A sample of 101 high school students obtained higher mania scores than, but did not differ in depression scores from, a sample of 504 college students.
Divorce rates in 14 Caribbean nations were associated with the size of the nation and the amount of inwardly-directed violence.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
The technique of RNA differential display has been used extensively to clone differentially expressed genes from a wide variety of cells and tissues. Recently, a simplified method of cloning differential display products, separated on agarose gels, was described. Here we report an adaption of this method, using total RNA, to clone differentially expressed genes. The approach is simple and rapid, and requires only small quantities of total RNA. Utilising this approach, we have cloned three differentially regulated genes from chondrocytes stimulated to hypertrophy in vitro, and confirmed their pattern of expression by Northern blotting. These gene fragments were sequenced and found to correspond to known genes, although only one has previously been isolated from chondrocytes.
A review of international statistics indicates that youth suicide rates are not increasing in all nations. Furthermore, it is suggested that the quality of life in nations is improving and that this improvement itself may increase the risk of suicide, especially in youth with narcissistic personality traits and antisocial personality disorder traits.
The NASH categories (Natural, Accident, Suicide, Homicide) used on death certificates are known to obscure many of the psychological dimensions of death. Although there are many studies of death certificates of the extent to which suicide may be misclassified as accidental or natural deaths, and a few studies comparing individuals who commit suicides to accidental death victims, this topic is often neglected at a sociological level. This analysis of the NASH modes of death examines if these deaths differ from a sociological perspective. Specifically, rates of divorce, marriage, birth, and unemployment were correlated with deaths of natural causes (stomach cancer, cirrhosis of the liver), accidents (motor vehicle accident), suicide, and homicide. The results suggest that the sociological associations with some causes of death (i.e., cirrhosis of the liver, suicide and, homicide) have a similar social pattern but are different from others (i.e., motor vehicle accidents and stomach cancer). Although there are problems of interpretation at a sociological level, it is suggested that the social epidemiology of death may be obscured by the NASH classification. Recent suggestions on terminology and taxonomy by the International Academy for Suicide Research (IASR) are offered as one step towards addressing this issue.
Suicide rates have risen in Belarus since 1990, and suicide rates are higher in rural than in urban areas. The regional distribution of suicide rates suggests a North-South variation that may be a result of ethnic and cultural differences between the regions.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Data are presented from mainland China to illustrate the differences by region, gender, and age in the methods used for suicide. Changes over time are also documented. The data support an availability hypothesis for choice of method for suicide. Differences by gender in the use of violent and nonviolent methods resemble those found in Western nations, except that the particular violent methods used are different in China.