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Biomedical subjects

J Elkins

Publications and source records attributed to J Elkins.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2000

Are people with intellectual disabilities just another customer? Interviews with business owners and staff.

Descriptive information on the views of business people towards the presence of persons with intellectual disabilities as customers was reported. We interviewed 89 individuals representing a range of shops and local amenities in four urban and four country regions in Queensland, Australia. We also systematically examined the influence of degree of intellectual disabilities by interviewing employees in shops near community residential facilities for persons with mild/moderate and those near facilities for persons with severe/profound intellectual disabilities. A third group of businesses not located near any such residential facilities served as a control group. Overall, results suggest that business people had few special concerns related to interactions with customers who have intellectual disabilities.

Adult↗
PubMed1998

Visual behaviour and dyadic interaction between people with intellectual disability and people who are non-disabled.

Patterns of visual dominance in human interaction have been studied by a number of authors. The purpose of the present research was to investigate the implications of these studies for interaction between people who are disabled and people who are non-disabled. It was predicted that disability would differentiate the two groups, with non-disabled partners dominating the visual interaction. Two studies are reported. The first looked at visual interaction through the two looking modes of looking while listening and looking while speaking between 16 dyads where one partner was intellectually disabled and the other non-disabled. In the second study, eight subjects who were intellectually disabled and who had participated in the first study interacted with another person who had an intellectual disability. Their looking modes were then compared between conversing with a non-disabled partner in study 1 and with those of their partner with intellectual disability in study 2. The outcome of the studies showed that subjects who were intellectually disabled did not discriminate in looking mode between partners of different intellectual levels. Conversely, subjects who were non-disabled spoke and looked significantly more when conversing with their partner who was intellectually disabled. It has been argued that overlooking and overspeaking could arise from the need for the non-disabled person to gain some sign of affiliation from their partner, or alternatively, that it might reflect a dominant non-disabled person attempting to facilitate a cooperative style.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1995

Individual differences in story comprehension and recall of poor readers.

This study sought to identify poor readers and characterise weaknesses in their knowledge and use of story structure in comprehension and recall. Eighty year 3 children, 20 good readers and 60 poor readers, were selected from an initial pool of children based on factor analysis of scores from three measures of reading ability. The poor readers were then divided into relatively homogeneous subgroups, using eight additional measures of language-reading comprehension, according to a numerical classification procedure. This procedure helped identify specific weaknesses in their language-reading comprehension. All children listened to three stores and retold the stories under free and probe recall conditions. Story recalls were analysed using the STein and Glenn story grammar. Comparison of recalls between the good readers and each of the subgroups of poor readers showed that poor readers in two subgroups evidenced reduced sensitivity to story structure. The children in these subgroups recalled less of the stories overall, recalled less information from story grammar categories to varying extents, and showed patterns of category recall that differed from those of normal readers. Children in one of the subgroups also displayed poor perception of causal relations across story episode boundaries. These results provide evidence of marked heterogeneity in poor readers' story comprehension and recall. Certain subgroups of poor readers may have qualitatively different problems processing stories, relative to other poor readers, which may require a more concerted approach to instruction in story structure.

Aptitude Tests↗
PubMed1994

A survey of aggressive behaviour among a population of persons with intellectual disability in Queensland.

A survey was conducted on aggressive behaviour within a population of 2412 persons with intellectual disability in Queensland, Australia. Two hundred and sixty-one individuals were identified who engaged in at least one form of aggressive behaviour, yielding an overall prevalence of 11%. The relative prevalence of aggressive behaviour was higher among institutionalized persons (35%) when compared to those living in group homes (17%) or other community-based facilities (3%). The aggressive behaviour sample included a higher percentage of males (64%). Most were described as functioning in the severe/profound (54%) or moderate (31%) range of intellectual disability with one-third having no intelligible speech. Two-thirds of the sample received medication for their challenging behaviour, while only one-third had behavioural programmes. Eighty per cent engaged in three or more forms of aggression. Many also displayed self-injury (34%) or property destruction (30%). Surveys of aggressive behaviour may prove useful for coordinating services.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1994

The failed and the inadvertent: art history and the concept of the unconscious.

The history of art-historical responses to psychoanalysis has yet to be written. Art historians have imported a wide variety of psychoanalytic concepts, and psychoanalysis continues to be a major interpretive resource for the discipline of art history. But beyond the core of art-historical texts that are directly and explicitly influenced by psychoanalysis is a much larger, and I think more important, class of texts that do not cite psychoanalytic concepts, but would nevertheless not be possible without psychoanalysis and especially the fundamental concept of the unconscious. This paper examines the ways that the idea (or notion) of the unconscious affects current thinking about the control artists have over their works; I argue that, in this more general sense, psychoanalysis has tended to help art historians to take away artists' control and awareness of their own work, replacing it with the model of artists as workers largely unaware of what they do. Against this I argue that artists who are imagined to 'preside over their work with their eyes open' can be more interesting subjects, both historically and psychologically.

Art↗
PubMed1992

Relationship between in vivo skin blanching and in vitro release rate for betamethasone valerate creams.

Betamethasone valerate creams from two firms were evaluated using the skin blanching procedure. In both studies, the same cream formulation exhibited significantly higher blanching compared to the other product. An in vitro release rate was determined for these betamethasone valerate cream products using a diffusion cell system, with a cellulose acetate membrane and a 60% ethanol:water receptor medium. The release rate (flux) of betamethasone valerate was higher for the higher blanching formulation and was statistically different from the other product. The integrity of the cellulose acetate membrane in 60% ethanol:water mixture was ascertained using hydrocortisone cream product. The in vitro drug release method, using a diffusion cell system and a synthetic membrane, can serve as a good quality control test method for topical creams.

Betamethasone Valerate↗
PubMed1991

In vitro release of hydrocortisone from topical preparations and automated procedure.

The in vitro drug release profile of hydrocortisone (HC) from creams, ointments, and lotions has been determined using an automated procedure. A diffusion cell system and commercially available synthetic membranes were utilized for the studies. The use of a synthetic membrane obviates the problems associated with using skin membranes. Uniform creams and ointment samples for determining release rate profile were prepared by using the teflon mask. Automated sampling avoids operator artifacts. The automated technique developed for determining the in vitro release rate profile of the drug from creams, ointments, and lotions using a diffusion-cell system appears to be a reasonable and practical procedure for assuring batch-to-batch uniformity of topical drug products.

Administration, Topical↗
PubMed1987

Analysis of in vitro dissolution of whole vs. half controlled-release theophylline tablets.

Controlled-release (CR) drug products dissolve more slowly than conventional-release products, reflecting their quality of sustaining a prolonged therapeutic effect. A frequent practice with scored tablets when only half the dosage is desired is to divide the tablet at the score mark and administer only half of the product. The dissolution characteristics of the divided tablets are unknown. It is only an assumption that the halved tablet behaves similarly to the whole tablet both in vitro and in vivo. A series of in vitro dissolution analyses was performed on whole and half CR theophylline tablets from different manufacturers. Statistical tests were carried out between the dissolution results of whole and those of halved tablets to determine whether the mean overall percentages dissolution (averaged over sampling times) were similar and whether the patterns of percentage dissolution over time were similar. The dissolution of halved tablets was slightly faster compared to that of intact (whole) tablets. However, these small differences were not large enough to cause concern or to require bioavailability studies.

Delayed-Action Preparations↗
PubMed1984

Monitoring of unfavorable reproductive outcome (URO) among occupationally exposed groups.

In the Negev Region of Israel, population 300,000, with a centralized health care and health data system, we propose to monitor associations of occupational exposure with the following URO (approximate rates in parenthesis): infertility (10%), spontaneous abortion (10%), stillbirth (1%), pregnancy complications (5%), specific birth defects (1%), all birth defects (5%), low birth weight (5%), neonatal morbidity (5%); all URO (25%). Critical covariates include smoking, age, contraceptive use, coexisting disease, parity, spouse exposures, and past reproductivity history. Currently exposed women are estimated to include 150 in hospital operating rooms, 200 laboratory workers, 75 chemical production workers and 20 in mercury thermometer factory; men include 5000 in chemical production, 1000 in agricultural chemical use, 100 in chemical laboratories and 200 in university and hospital laboratories. Adjusting for expected turnover rates, we estimate that overall exposures which have risks of increased URO will include about 5000 men and 1000 women. Since priority in research resources goes to most feasible detection and prevention combinations, we define and examine "minimal detectable risk ratios" based on expected populations sizes and incidences for a two year cohort study with estimated one "exposed pregnancy" per five person years in this young population. We tabulate these risk ratios using a cutoff for false positive at p=0.05 and false negative at p=0.1. Sex ratio changes represent outcomes relatively easily detected. Proposed application of these criteria to Negev populations and an example of such applications to published work place exposures to dioxins are shown.

Chemical Industry↗
PubMed1982

School progress and cognitive development of 6-year-old children whose mothers were treated antenatally with betamethasone.

The cognitive development of children whose mothers had been included in the first Auckland trials of betamethasone therapy in premature labor were studied. An earlier study of these children used psychometric tests during the fifth year of life. In the present study tests were given during the seventh year of life (the second year of school) to 250 (82.2%) of 304 surviving children. Of the 250 children, 139 were in the group whose mothers had received betamethasone and 111 were in the control group. Further tests of cognitive development were made, together with assessment of the children's progress in school. Again, on the majority of measures there were no significant differences between children whose mothers had received betamethasone and the children in the control group. Calculations of statistical power showed that important differences were unlikely to have been missed.

Anthropometry↗
PubMed1981

Cognitive and psychosocial development of 4-year-old children whose mothers were treated antenatally with betamethasone.

The present study was part of a larger study investigating the long-term development of children of mothers included in a controlled trial of betamethasone therapy in preterm labor, the purpose was to determine whether there are any benefits or hazards of treatment detectable up to the seventh year of life. The first 318 children of mothers included in the trial because of spontaneous premature labor were selected for study. Of 305 survivors, 258 (84.6%) were included in this phase of the study. Detailed tests of psychological development, together with assessments of psychosocial background, were made during the fifth year. Of the 258 children 144 were in the betamethasone group and 114 were control patients. Despite a heavy weighting of the betamethasone group with more prematurely delivered infants and more boys (resulting from improved perinatal survival of these children associated with betamethasone therapy), no significant differences emerged between the groups in measures of outcome. It was concluded that betamethasone therapy, under the conditions of the original trial, was not hazardous to cognitive development as measured in this study.

Betamethasone↗