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Biomedical subjects

L Peters

Publications and source records attributed to L Peters.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources
PubMed1993

Reactions among Dutch youth toward people with AIDS.

AIDS education emphasizing personal responsibility toward AIDS-inducing behavior might enhance negative reactions to people with AIDS. This study, based on Weiner's attributional theory of motivation and emotion, addressed this dilemma by reporting data from a sample of 1,018 Dutch secondary school students. Results support the reasoning that emphasizing personal responsibility, and consequently personal controllability, increases negative reactions to people with AIDS. In addition to causal attributions, however, AIDS knowledge and attitudes toward homosexuality also related significantly to reactions to people with AIDS. To prevent negative reactions to people with AIDS, the subject of homosexuality should be dealt with before AIDS education is provided. AIDS education should address the impossibility of HIV infection by daily interactions, and the meaning and consequences of being seropositive.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗
PubMed1992

Effect of photocorrosion on cadmium sulfide suspensions applied in animal inhalation studies with CdS particles.

Cadmium sulfide aerosol (90 micrograms Cd/m3) was generated from an aqueous suspension for 12 weeks and the ratio of Cd++/Cdtotal in the suspension and the resulting aerosol was determined. After 4 weeks the concentration of Cd++ in the suspension and the aerosol leveled off at 43.5 +/- 11.4% and 35.8 +/- 6.8%, respectively. Therefore, lung tumors in rats observed after inhalation exposure to such CdS aerosols (Glaser et al. 1990) may have been caused not only by the effect of CdS but also by the influence of inhaled Cd++ or CdSO4. The contribution of CdS particles to the observed lung tumor rate depends on the bioavailability of CdS retained in the lungs. The photochemical decay of CdS in aqueous suspensions only occurred when exposed to light and adjusting the suspension up to pH 3 did not increase the decomposition rate of CdS. Ethanolic suspensions of CdS are much more stable than aqueous ones and experiments with suspensions kept under shield gases showed that the decay of CdS is not dependent on oxygen.

Administration, Inhalation↗
PubMed1992

Use of computerized hot wire block cutter in radiation therapy.

The ability to define the target volume more accurately and to deliver the radiation therapy with better precision in modern radiation oncology has resulted in radiation treatments with tighter margins in order to spare additional normal tissues. This type of treatment requires that the radiation shielding blocks be produced with high accuracy. The computer-driven block cutter has the advantage of being able to accept block contours designed from digital simulation and portal images as well as beam's-eye-view patterns produced during treatment planning. A computerized hot wire block cutter installed in our department has shown the capability to produce accurate blocks and has reduced the number of blocks requiring modifications by about one-third. The use of templates plotted on the transparencies facilitates the accurate mounting of the blocks has resulted in further reduction of the number of block modifications.

Humans↗
PubMed1992

Rheumatologists and their patients who seek alternative care: an agreement to disagree.

Alternative treatment, such as homoeopathy, acupuncture and spiritual healing, are popular among patients with rheumatic diseases. Rheumatologists are therefore likely to be confronted with patients who make use of less orthodox health care. Patients' and rheumatologists' views on the subject and on the rheumatologists' role, however, have not yet been assessed. A questionnaire on alternative medicine was sent to all 101 practising Dutch rheumatologists (response rate: 70%). After the results had been analysed 17 rheumatologists, seven rejecting alternative medicine and ten accepting it, handed out a questionnaire to a sample of their patients: 1466 patient questionnaires were distributed (response rate: 80%). Of the respondents 43% had visited an alternative practitioner at least once for their rheumatism and 26% in the year before the survey was held. Hand healers, homoeopaths and acupuncturists were most often visited. Rheumatologists, on their part, were not too enthusiastic about these visits. Only patients' visits to spa treatment centres were welcomed by a majority of them; visits of their patients to manipulative therapists, acupuncturists and homoeopaths were judged positively by a large minority, whereas other therapies were strongly disapproved. Nevertheless, most patients informed their rheumatologist about their visiting an alternative practitioner. A surprisingly low percentage of these patients noticed that the rheumatologist did not sympathize with it. Although many patients paid a visit to an alternative practitioner because regular care did not really help them, their satisfaction with the alternative treatment turned out to be less than their satisfaction with the rheumatologists' help.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Acupuncture Therapy↗
PubMed1991

The translation in vitro of rat ornithine decarboxylase mRNA is blocked by its 5' untranslated region in a polyamine-independent way.

The enzyme ornithine decarboxylase (ODC, EC 4.1.1.17) is believed to play an essential role in the growth and differentiation of cells by regulating the biosynthesis of polyamines. The 5' untranslated region (5' UTR) of the ODC mRNA of different species is rather unusual in length and GC content, and may therefore be involved in translational control of ODC protein synthesis. We cloned the rat ODC cDNA downstream of the phage T7 promoter in order to perform transcription/translation studies in vitro. Our results show that the intact 5' UTR of rat ODC mRNA, which is 303 nt in length, is a potent inhibitor of translation. Efficient synthesis in vitro of ODC protein is obtained when either 172 nt from the 5'-end or 236 nt from the 3'-end of the 5' UTR are removed. A truncated 5' UTR with a calculated free energy of less than -272 kJ (-65 kcal/mol) is unable to support the synthesis in vitro of ODC protein. The short open reading frame (ORF) present in the 5' UTR of rat ODC mRNA does not contribute to the observed inhibitory effect on translation efficiency in vitro. At low polyamine concentration the efficiency of translation in vitro of intact ODC mRNA is not relatively increased compared with that of an ODC mRNA having a truncated 5' UTR or with that of control globin mRNA. From this we conclude that the well-documented negative feedback control of intracellular polyamines on ODC expression is not regulated by effects of polyamines on the secondary structure of the 5' UTR of ODC mRNA.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1990

An orientation toward help-seeking for emotional problems.

In recent years, many researchers tried to explain the social selection in use of mental health care services. A modest role is attributed to the orientation toward help-seeking. This article studies this orientation. Our research-population consisted of 10,171 Dutch persons, aged 18 and older. Analysis showed that most people are prone to seek help for one or more emotional problems. People who are more prone to seek help are younger, have had more education and have a higher family income. They have more often acquaintances working in mental health care. People who are more prone to seek help do not see chance as the locus of control of health. These people are less dependent on their GP for common disorders and are more open about mental health matters. The results of discriminant analysis are not satisfactory, but when we try to distinguish the groups of people who are and who are not willing to seek help, we see that the best discriminating factor is their help-seeking attitude for common disorders. People who have high expectations from the GP for common disorders, clearly do have a preference to seek help for the emotional problems. The groups of people who are more willing to seek help from the GP compared to mental health professionals cannot be distinguished by these expectations. Here the level of education discriminates fairly well: people who are more prone to seek help from a GP have a lower educational level. Future research should be focussed on the testing of a theoretical model that explains the orientation toward help-seeking for emotional problems and selection in help-seeking with longitudinal data.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1990

Alternative medicine and general practitioners in The Netherlands: towards acceptance and integration.

A questionnaire on alternative medicine was sent to 600 general practitioners in the Netherlands. Most of the 360 (60%) GPs who replied expressed on interest in alternative practice; and 47% revealed that they used one or more alternative methods themselves, most often homoeopathy. However, the number of patients given alternative treatment by each doctor was small. Almost all (90%) of the GPs referred patients to alternative practitioners. There is no reason to assume that GPs make use of alternative methods just to meet their patients' wishes. A majority of the respondents thought that these therapies included ideas and methods from which the regular methods might benefit. Actual contacts with alternative practitioners are mostly limited to those practicing acupuncture, homeopathy and manipulative medicine with a regular medical or paramedical education. The integration of alternative medicine within the medical system goes hand in hand with its acceptance by general practitioners. Contact with medically or paramedically qualified practitioners has hardly any legal implications for individual general practitioners.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗
PubMed1990

Double staining to increase the sensitivity of protein detection in polyacrylamide gels.

As more and more researchers are examining proteins that are available only in extremely limited quantities, i.e., cellular extracts or genetic engineering products, it is critical to utilize staining methods that maximize sensitivity. The protocol we describe here--double staining of polyacrylamide electrophoresis gels with Pro-Blue (colloidal blue stain) followed by silver staining--yields an extremely sensitive, nonspecific protein stain. On average, this double-staining technique resulted in a 40-fold increase in sensitivity and intensity vs. silver stain alone. This is a tremendous return for a small investment in additional time and materials.

Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel↗
PubMed1989

Investigation on the carcinogenic effects of various cadmium compounds after inhalation exposure in hamsters and mice.

The inhalation of cadmium chloride aerosols induced lung carcinomas in rats (3). Subsequently, CdCl2 was classified as probably carcinogenic in humans (2). Thus the Cd compounds CdCl2, CdSO4, CdS and CdO were investigated for their carcinogenic potencies in the lungs of hamsters and mice. The same experiment was conducted by GLASER et al. with rats (1).

Administration, Inhalation↗
PubMed1988

A comparison of marrow transplantation with chemotherapy for adults with acute leukemia of poor prognosis in first complete remission.

From July 1980 to November 1985, 109 patients with acute myelogenous and lymphoblastic leukemia who had reached a complete remission (CR) following induction treatment were assigned to a study comparing marrow transplantation with chemotherapy as a postremission treatment. Sixty-nine patients did not have a human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-identical donor, and therefore served as chemotherapy controls; 40 patients had HLA-identical donors, and therefore were assigned to the transplant arm. Of these, 23 were transplanted in first remission and 17 were not. Ten of these 17 were subsequently transplanted in relapse. Initially, only patients with poor prognosis determined by a predictive model were entered into the study. Subsequently, patients with moderately poor prognosis were admitted. Comparing the chemotherapy group with the patients transplanted in first CR, significant control of leukemia relapse in transplanted patients was seen in the subgroup with acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) (P less than .1), and acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) (P less than .01), in the poor (P = .01) and intermediate subgroup (P = .01), and in the good-prognostic groups (P = .05). The survival was affected significantly in only the poor and intermediate subgroups. The use of predictive models might help to select patients for whom bone marrow transplantation is appropriate in first remission and those for whom bone marrow transplantation can be left as the initial treatment of relapse. Predictive models could further be helpful in comparing studies performed at different transplant centers.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1988

The Nucleic Acid Blot Analyzer II. ANALYZE, an image analysis software package for molecular biology.

The Nucleic Acid Blot Analyzer, a new instrument providing high-speed imaging of 32P labeled nucleic acids, captures, stores and presents images in digital form, thus lending itself to rapid data handling and analysis as well as replacing conventional X-ray film autoradiography for many applications. A software package called ANALYZE has been specifically designed for the instrument in order to provide automatic or semi-automatic analysis for molecular biological techniques. The software includes image display manipulation, quantitative and positional analysis, as well as file maintenance utilities. The specific application of the software/hardware to various techniques is presented.

Molecular Biology↗
PubMed1988

Spontaneous noncardiac chest pain. Evaluation by 24-hour ambulatory esophageal motility and pH monitoring.

Noncardiac chest pain can be a diagnostic dilemma because patients rarely experience spontaneous chest pain in the laboratory. Therefore, we studied 24 patients with chronic, daily, substernal chest pain with a prototype 24-h ambulatory esophageal motility and pH system. Spontaneous chest pain episodes were correlated with pH less than 4 and abnormal motility changes (mean amplitude and duration, maximum amplitude and duration, or percentage of abnormal peristalsis) defined as exceeding the patient's normal esophageal motility pattern. Twenty-two patients experienced a total of 92 spontaneous chest pain episodes. Eleven chest pain episodes (12%) occurred during abnormal motility, whereas 18 episodes (20%) were associated with pH less than 4 and four episodes (4%) had both abnormalities. The majority of chest pain episodes, 59 events (64%), did not have any association with motility or pH. Abnormal maximum duration and amplitude were the motility changes most frequently associated with chest pain. Overall, 13 of 22 patients (59%) had at least one chest pain episode correlating with abnormal motility or pH (range 33%-100%). Therefore, we conclude that ambulatory esophageal motility and pH monitoring is useful in the evaluation of noncardiac chest pain. pH abnormalities (20%) are more commonly associated with chest pain than motility abnormalities (12%). However, the majority of chest pain episodes (64%) did not correlate with either abnormality and may be the result of lowered esophageal pain threshold for distention, i.e., the "irritable esophagus."

Chest Pain↗
PubMed1987

Characteristics of American and Japanese schizophrenic patients elicited by the Rorschach technique and demographic data.

This cross-cultural study addressed itself to the investigation of personality characteristics of American and Japanese schizophrenic patients as elicited by the Rorschach technique and demographic data. Unlike traditional cross-cultural studies of schizophrenia with their emphasis upon the symptomatology of schizophrenia, the present study aimed its focus upon the personality aspect of schizophrenic population. In an attempt to elucidate such characteristics, ten culturally variant and eight culturally constant features of schizophrenic patients of the United States and Japan were identified.

Adult↗