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Biomedical subjects

G J Fischer

Publications and source records attributed to G J Fischer.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1996

Deceptive, verbally coercive college males: attitudinal predictors and lies told.

About 1 in 4 college males admit to having lied or made false promises to have sex. In sex survey data reported here, 22% of 634 men lied an average of 4 times, but the modal number was 1, and 59% lied fewer than 4 times. Of the men who lied, 71% admitted to having been drinking at least some of these times. Lies told fell mostly into two subjective categories indicating caring or commitment (58%) or that this was not causal sex or a one-night stand (38%). Lying happened mostly at parties (66%) or at the woman's or man's apartment (34%). In contrast, only 0.2% of the males who lied admitted to having used threat or force to have sex. A logistic regression revealed four statistically significant predictors of men who lied: (i) (greater) sexual experience/activity, (ii) excessive use of alcohol, (iii) (greater) belief in women's use of a token "no" and (iv) (greater) hostility. Such variables identified correctly 77% of the men who lied.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1995

Effects of drinking by the victim or offender on verdicts in a simulated trial of an acquaintance rape.

College students, 232 women and 151 men, read a simulated trial of rape by an acquaintance under one of four conditions: victim only drinking, offender only drinking, and both drinking or neither drinking before the alleged assault. How much students blamed the victim or offender for what happened and their verdict were unaffected by these conditions. Yet students rated alcohol consumption as having contributed to the alleged assault. Apparently, they simply did not attribute blame to consuming alcohol. How much students blamed the victim and the offender and having been or having known a rape victim predicted jurors' verdicts with 89% accuracy.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1991

Cognitive predictors of not-guilty verdicts in a simulated acquaintance rape trial.

Cognitive predictors, such as relatively accepting attitudes toward forcible date rape, helped identify self-reported sexually coercive college students and were expected to help identify students voting not guilty in a simulated acquaintance rape trial. To test this hypothesis college students self-administered in random order (1) an anonymous sex survey measuring attitudes toward forcible date rape, attitudes toward women, sexual experience, including victimization, sexual permissiveness, and sexual knowledge and (2) a trial survey based on a simulated acquaintance rape trial. Only gender and cognitive variables from the trial (e.g., being male, tending to blame the victim, and uncertainty about one's verdict) identified not guilty verdicts above chance expectancy. Thus, the hypothesis that the cognitive predictors measured here would help identify students voting not guilty in a simulated acquaintance rape trial was not supported.

Adult↗
PubMed1987

Corticosterone response underlying tolerance to stress induced by a gaseous (nitrous oxide) environment.

Conditioned taste aversion (CTA) was demonstrated in rats following a single pairing between ingestion of a novel saccharin solution (CS) and 60 min. inhalation of an 80% N2O2:20% N2O gas mixture (UCS). CTA from a single novel CS-N2O UCS pairing was achieved by methodological improvements including: an inhalation chamber for small animals that achieved complete gas diffusion, an increased UCS duration (60 min. of inhalation) and a decreased CS-UCS interval (1 min.). The increased N2O UCS inhalation probably contributed to CTA, since no duration less than 60 min. of N2O inhalation produced significantly greater plasma corticosterone elevation than 60 min. of N2:O2 inhalation. The hypothesis that CTA is stress-induced was supported, in that plasma corticosterone levels were elevated by N2O inhalation and adrenal catecholamines (CA) were depleted. Further, after 4 N2O pretreatments, which produced partial behavioral tolerance to N2O treatment, plasma corticosterone elevation abated somewhat. However, corticosterone level also was raised by N2:O2 treatment. As a result, abatement of corticosterone elevation cannot account for behavioral tolerance to N2O-induced CTA, though it may be a contributor. Since adrenal CA were depleted by N2O inhalation, this response also might abate and underlie or contribute to behavioral tolerance.

Animals↗
PubMed1986

College student attitudes toward forcible date rape: I. Cognitive predictors.

Students completed a questionnaire measuring acceptance of forcible date rape, attitudes toward women, sexual knowledge, sexual experience, tolerance of socially unapproved sexual behavior, and religiosity. Findings suggested that persons relatively more accepting of forcible date rape are less sure it really is rape, have more traditional attitudes toward women, are more self-sexually permissive (i.e., more tolerant of their own socially unapproved of sexual behavior, such as premarital and extramarital sex with friends or casual acquaintances), have less accurate sexual knowledge and, though a large majority blame the male, are slightly more inclined than others to blame society or the situation. These predictor variables accounted for 35% of the variance in attitudes toward forcible date rape and identified correctly about two-thirds of the students classified as nonrejectors of forcible date rape, i.e., those who did not consider the male's behavior definitely unacceptable under any one of nine circumstances, including "He spent a lot of money on her." In addition to the emotional and personality variables often cited in rapists, the cognitive predictor variables found may be salient to understanding the etiology of rape.

Attitude↗
PubMed1983

Fetal development: effects of decompression sickness and treatment.

Pregnant hamsters were exposed to 7.1 ATA (200 fsw) of compressed air breathing for 40 min. Comparisons were made between three groups of pregnant hamsters: (a) those that developed decompression sickness (DCS); (b) those that did not; and (c) a control (non-divided) group. As reported previously, maternal DCS if untreated resulted in frequent and severe teratogenic effects. Furthermore, fetuses from those females who apparently did not develop DCS were significantly smaller at term than fetuses from the control animals. However, fetuses from females that were treated for DCS did not differ from controls. This suggests that 40-min, 200-fsw dives per se are detrimental to fetal development in hamsters.

Animals↗
PubMed1981

Brightness effects on color pecking preferences in dark-hatched domestic chicks.

Color pecking preferences in day-old, dark-hatched domestic chicks of 2 breeds were studied as a function of (1) target luminance (dim, medium, or bright) when testing was in darkness and in the light (Experiments I and II): (2) method of equilibrating target brightnesses (i.e., objectively or subjectively: Experiments III and IV); and (3) ambient brightness (dim, medium, or bright; Experiment IV). White Leghorns were found to peck sooner and more often than New Hampshires. Under all conditions of target and ambient brightness, results revealed the previously reported bimodal (V-shaped) color preference function with peak preferences in the blue-violet and orange regions of the spectrum and minimal at green. The only brightness factor that affected the V-shaped function was dark-adapted vs light-adapted viewing, that is, the chicks showed a slight shift away from red and/or a slightly more negative slope with light adaptation.

Animals↗
PubMed1980

Liver-spleen imaging in patients with subacute hepatic necrosis and chronic hepatitis.

Tc-99m-sulfur colloid reticuloendothelial images and percutaneous liver biopsies are correlated in 54 patients who presented with signs and symptoms of subacute hepatic necrosis or chronic active hepatitis. The scored Tc-99m-sulfur colloid scan is compared to the histological severity of disease. Serial scans and biopsies are compared. In patients with significant hepatocellular disease, the liver-spleen scan did not correlate well with the histological severity of disease. Changes in the spleen-to-liver ratio are more common than those in the liver or increased bone marrow activity, and appear earlier. In serial studies, changes in the Tc-99m-sulfur colloid scans correlate weakly with changes in histology.

Biopsy, Needle↗
PubMed1979

Human parotid alpha-amylase secretion as a function of chronic hyperbaric exposure.

Secretion of alpha-amylase by the human parotid gland increased significantly during eight days of hyperbaric exposure. This hyperactivity of the parotid gland presumably resulted from increased autonomic nervous system (ANS) activity attributable to (1)psychological stress in the form of anticipation; (2) dive-related factors, i.e., hyperoxia, PN2, physical stress; or (3) a combination of both. The etiology of the effect must await additional studies, but a consistent and significant elevation in alpha-amylas secretion was found. This previously undescribed effect of hyperbaric exposure indicates that parotid alpha-amylase sampling holds promise as a noninvasive means of monitoring physical and psychological stress, and as an indirect measure of ANS tone.

Adult↗
PubMed1978

Chick colour approach preferences are altered by cold stress; colour pecking and approach preferences are the same.

Colour approach preferences in 1-day-old New Hampshire and White Leghorn chicks were assessed by choice preference tests between pairs of differently coloured floors, illuminated by light passed through different interference filters and adjusted to equal luminance. In experiment 1, the preferences found closely resembled colour pecking preferences reported previously for domestic chicks, e.g. a preference for blue over green. Experiment 2 showed that the latter preference could be reversed by cold stress. That is, chicks tested similarly but in a cold noisy room (18.9 C) preferred green over blue. Experiment 3 eliminated the role of noise in this reversal effect, since chicks tested in a warm noisy room showed the normal blue over green preference. It was concluded, in disagreement with prior findings and their interpretations, that chick colour pecking and approach preferences are normally the same, not different, and certainly not spectral mirror-image reversals. Instead, a more restricted preference reversal (i.e. in the blue-green spectral regions) occurs as a result of cold stress.

Animals↗
PubMed1977

Pharmacological and behavioral components of tolerance to LSD and mescaline in rats.

A fixed-ratio schedule of water reinforcement (FR-10) was used to examine the relative contributions of pharmacological and behavioral mechanisms in the development of tolerance to the disruptive effects of LSD and mescaline in the rat. Rats treated daily with LSD or mescaline before operant testing developed tolerance to the impairement of responding, while rats treated daily after each session did not display tolerance when the drugs were administered before testing. These results indicate that behavioral compensatory mechanisms may be involved in the development of tolerance to the disruptive effects of LSD and mescaline on fixed-ratio (FR-10) performance.

Animals↗
PubMed1977

Magnetic removal of foreign bodies from the upper gastrointestinal tract.

The authors describe a simple method of removing objects such as bobby pins and straight pins from the upper gastrointestinal tract. A small but strong magnet such as the one used in a magnetic potholder is inserted in a nasogastric tube and passed through the mouth and nasopharynx under fluoroscopic control until it makes contact with the foreign body. The entire procedure takes only about two minutes and requires no special endoscopic skill.

Child, Preschool↗
PubMed1976

The effect of diethyldithiocarbamate on passive avoidance learning by chicks (Gallus domesticus).

Diethyldithiocarbamate (DDC), a competitive inhibitor of dopamine-B-hydroxylase, produced a dosage-related depletion of neural NE and impairment of passive avoidance learning in young chicks. Retention was not impaired, however, as shown by normal relearning of the task a day later, when the drug was no longer active. Perhaps, neural NE depletion impairs ability to inhibit responding and, thus, impairs passive or inhibitory avoidance learning indirectly. Alternatively, NE depletion may slow down learning by interfering with consolidation, but if the task is well learned, it is remembered.

Animals↗