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Biomedical subjects

M Faust

Publications and source records attributed to M Faust.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
PubMed2000

Psychological and demographic predictors of successful weight loss following silastic ring vertical stapled gastroplasty.

To identify psychological factors involved in obesity 45 individuals (40 women and 5 men), ranging in age from 21 to 54 years (M age = 41 yr.), who were candidates for silastic ring vertical stapled gastroplasty were assessed on the Millon Behavioral Health Inventory and the Millon Multiaxial Clinical Inventory-III. In addition, a number of demographic variables such as education, marital status, and age of onset of obesity were considered. Analysis indicated that significant predictors of weight loss at a 6-mo. postoperative assessment include age of onset of obesity and scores on the Schizoid scale of the Millon-III. These findings may be of assistance in identifying personality variables associated with changes in weight if replicated in a larger sample.

Adult↗
PubMed1999

Specific binding of protein kinase CK2 catalytic subunits to tubulin.

Protein kinase CK2 is composed of two regulatory beta-subunits and two catalytic alpha- or alpha'-subunits. To analyse these subunits individually we generated antibodies against unique peptides derived from the alpha-, alpha'- and beta-subunit. Immunofluorescence studies with these antibodies revealed the presence of all three CK2 subunits in the cytoplasm and weakly in the nucleus with strong signals around the nuclear membrane. Double staining experiments revealed a co-localisation of all three subunits with tubulin. A direct association between the CK2 alpha- and the alpha'-subunit and tubulin was confirmed by co-immunoprecipitation experiments as well as by Far Western analysis. There was no binding of the CK2 beta-subunit to tubulin. Thus, with tubulin we have identified a new binding partner specific for the catalytic subunits of CK2.

Animals↗
PubMed1999

Spectrum of transforming sequences detected by tumorigenicity assay in a large series of human neoplasms.

We here summarize the analysis of 126 DNA samples from patients with hematopoietic neoplasias and solid tumors and from various tumor cell lines that were screened in the tumorigenicity assay. Thirty-eight samples were able to induce tumors after transfection in NIH/3T3 cells and injection into nude mice. Southern-blot analysis with a panel of oncogene probes revealed human ras genes in the vast majority of cases (25 N-ras, 2 K-ras, 1 H-ras) but also activated FGF4, dbl, ret and mas genes respectively. DNA samples from the 6 remaining transfectants were cloned into EMBL-3 phages and screened with a human specific repetitive Alu probe. Direct hybridization of a transfectant cDNA library allowed cloning of the ufo oncogene. Application of the exon-trapping technique to alu-positive phage DNA from the other transfectants enabled us to isolate tre, cot, B-raf, p85beta/HUMORF8 and a novel oncogene.

3T3 Cells↗
PubMed1999

[Mechanisms of plaque stabilization].

Numerous angiographic control regression studies have demonstrated that aggressive reduction of plasma cholesterol significantly reduces the incidence of clinical overt cardiovascular complications, but has almost no effect on the angiographically determined luminal diameter of the coronary arteries. These, as well as other morphological and molecular studies have led to a new paradigm of coronary heart disease, i.e. clinical prognosis is not mainly determined by the extent of a single stenosis but by the number and biological nature of atherosclerotic plaque. Accordingly, stable plaques can be differentiated from instable or vulnerable plaques. The vulnerable or instable plaque is characterized by a large lipid-rich core with surrounding inflammation and a thin friable overlying fibrous cap susceptible to rupture or fissuring and thereby a high risk of thrombus formation. Rupture and thrombus formation can cause an acute coronary syndrome, such as unstable angina or myocardial infarction. There is increasing clinical and experimental evidence that statins do not only lower plasma cholesterol, but might also have direct effects on the vessel wall, possibly explaining early benefits in cardiovascular complications. Reduction of plasma cholesterol by lipid lowering therapy has been shown to significantly improve paradoxic vasoconstriction of cardiac vessels, a phenomenon indicating endothelial dysfunction. In addition, lipid lowering therapy can result in a diminution of the lipid-rich core, a reduction of inflammatory cells within the plaques, decreased macrophage activation as well as foam cell formation and events related to thickening of the fibrous cap. A clinical prospective should be to better clinically morphologically characterize the vulnerability of plaques in order to therapeutically and preventively reduced specific events leading to acute coronary syndromes, such as unstable angina or myocardial infarction.

Angina Pectoris↗
PubMed1999

A pilot study of immigration status, homosexual self-acceptance, social support, and HIV reduction in high risk Asian and Pacific Islander men.

This article reports the results of a cross-sectional study that was conducted to describe the sexual behavior and HIV risk reduction behaviors of homosexual and bisexual Asian and Pacific Islander men and to relate immigration status, self-acceptance as a homosexual, and levels of social support to the adoption of safe sexual behaviors in this population. Thirty-one gay and bisexual Asian and Pacific Islander men in San Diego County, California, participated. Generally high levels of knowledge about HIV and transmission risks as well as self-acceptance and social support were found. While most (84%) reported some attempts to increase condom use in the previous 6 months, 42% reported engaging in unprotected intercourse during that same time period. An inverse relationship between self-acceptance and utilization of risk reduction strategies was found. No association was found between immigration status or self-reported HIV status and level of HIV knowledge, level of HIV risk behavior, or level of HIV risk reduction efforts. The findings are discussed within the context of other social network studies and HIV prevention programs for gay and bisexual Asian and Pacific Islander men.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1999

The course of phosphorus excretion in growing pigs fed continuously increasing phosphorus concentrations after a phosphorus depletion.

A balance study was performed in order to quantify the effect of continuously increased phosphorus (P) intake on faecal and urinary P excretion. The aim was to quantify the level of intake where regulatory P excretion becomes relevant for comparative digestibility measurements on P, and when the pig adapts its urinary P excretion to increased P intake. Phosphorus intake of growing pigs was continuously increased on a daily basis starting at a marginal level and P excretion via faeces and urine was continuously followed for 92 days. Two semi-synthetic diets were prepared with different proportions of Na2HPO4 resulting in 2.4 (diet 1) and 6.3 (diet 2) g P/kg DM. Concentration of Ca was adapted to achieve a Ca supply approximately 3.1 fold the digestible P supply. Six castrated male crossbred pigs (31 kg BW) were kept individually in metabolism crates after they had undergone a 14 d P depletion period during which they were fed diet 1 solely. Pigs received 1.04kg of diet 1 per day throughout the experiment, and each day the amount of feed and P supplied to pigs from diet 2 was increased by 12 g and 69 mg, respectively. ME supply was approximately 2.4 fold maintenance and average daily BW gain of pigs during the entire experiment was 690 +/- 30 g. While intake increased linearly, faecal excretion of P and Ca increased non-linearly and could be best described by third order polynomial functions. The proportion of ingested P not excreted via faeces followed a quadratic type of curve with a maximum of 81% at 25 days on experiment and P intake of 4.0 g/d. Thereafter, the proportion decreased continuously. The digestibility of P from diet 2, determined by the slope ratio technique, was constant and not affected by P intake up to a P intake of 5 g/d. Renal P excretion did not exceed inevitable losses until day 60 and increased exponentially thereafter when body P reserves were restored. It is concluded, that an adaptation to surplus P supply occurred earlier on the intestinal than on the renal level. While faecal P excretion appeared regulated depending on the actual requirement for P retention, the regulation via urine depended on the P status of the pig. Once the renal P excretion of growing pigs exceeds a level of 25 mg/d, intake of digestible P cannot be regarded sufficiently low to measure P digestibility as a capacity of the feedstuff.

Absorption↗
PubMed1998

Constraints on sentence priming in the cerebral hemispheres: effects of intervening words in sentences and lists.

This study explored the role of syntactic organization on semantic facilitation for target words presented to the right (R) and left (L) visual fields (VFs). Sentence and unstructured list primes were contrasted and, in each condition, the effect of intervening unrelated words on the durability of priming within each VF/hemisphere was investigated. Each prime contained a critical word which occurred Near (one intervening word) or Far (six intervening words) from the target word and was semantically related to it or a neutral control. It was hypothesized that, for word lists, facilitation for RVF target words would decrease with increasing distance between the critical and target words. For sentences no decrease in facilitation was expected for RVF targets. However, for LVF targets, facilitation was expected to decrease with distance both for sentences and lists with no greater priming for sentences than for lists. The results supported these hypotheses. Priming effects that spanned several intervening items were found only when the primes were well-structured, normal sentences and the target words were presented to the RVF. These results suggest that while word-level priming processes are available to both hemispheres, the left hemisphere makes greater use of message-level syntactic and semantic mechanisms for sentence comprehension.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1998

Levels of sentence constraint and lexical decision in the two hemispheres.

This study used a lexical decision-priming paradigm to investigate the relative sensitivity of the two cerebral hemispheres to linguistic constraint. Level of constraint of syntactically and semantically correct priming sentences was determined by the Cloze procedure and constraint was manipulated by means of these sentences. High-, medium-, and low-constraining as well as neutral incomplete sentences were presented centrally prior to the appearance of a target word or nonword either to the left or to the right visual field of sixteen righthanded subjects. The hypothesis tested was that the left hemisphere benefits more from linguistic constraint than the right hemisphere. Although reaction time data generally supported this hypothesis, the right hemisphere also seemed to benefit from the constraint produced by high-constraint sentences. The relevance of these findings to the manner in which the two hemispheres process different kinds of linguistic material is discussed.

Adult↗
PubMed1998

Cerebral hemispheric asymmetries in processing lexical metaphors.

This study investigated semantic priming for literal (stinging-mosquito) and metaphoric (stinging-insult) associates presented to either the left or right visual fields (RVF/LVF) across stimulus-onset-asynchronies (SOA) of 200 and 800 ms. For the short SOA condition, facilitation was found for metaphorically related targets in both visual fields (VFs) while literally related targets were facilitated only in the RVF. For the long SOA condition, metaphorically related targets were facilitated in the LVF whereas literally related targets were facilitated in the RVF. These results support previous findings indicating an enhanced role of the RH in metaphoric comprehension. In addition, the present results are in accordance with current models of hemispheric semantic processing.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1998

Cerebral hemispheric asymmetries in processing lexical metaphors.

This study investigated semantic priming for literal (stinging-mosquito) and metaphoric (stinging-insult) associates presented to either the left or right visual fields (RVF/LVF) across stimulus-onset-asynchronies (SOA) of 200 and 800 ms. For the short SOA condition, facilitation was found for metaphorically related targets in both visual fields (VFs) while literally related targets were facilitated only in the RVF. For the long SOA condition, metaphorically related targets were facilitated in the LVF whereas literally related targets were facilitated in the RVF. These results support previous findings indicating an enhanced role of the RH in metaphoric comprehension. In addition, the present results are in accordance with current models of hemispheric semantic processing.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1998

Sentence context and lexical ambiguity resolution by the two hemispheres.

A lexical decision experiment investigated hemisphere asymmetries in resolving lexical ambiguity within a sentence context. Sentences that biased a single meaning (either dominant or subordinate) of sentence-final ambiguous words were followed by a lateralized target related to the sentence-congruent or -incongruent meaning of the ambiguous word, or an unrelated word. In the RVF sentence-congruent targets were facilitated, while incongruent targets were not primed. In contrast, related targets were facilitated in the LVF, regardless of sentence context. This suggests that selecting the contextually appropriate word meaning requires the left hemisphere, and supports a right hemisphere role in maintaining alternate word senses.

Adult↗
PubMed1997

Script as a priming stimulus for lexical decisions with visual hemifield stimulation.

The present study examined the effect of script-based priming stimuli on the ability to discriminate word from nonword targets (lexical decision) presented to the right or left visual hemifield (RVF, LVF). The scripts contained two sentences. In addition, the targets were either related or unrelated to the preceding script. Although the greatest amount of facilitation was found for RVF-presented target stimuli following related scripts, nevertheless, scripts significantly facilitated lexical decisions for related word targets presented to the LVF as well. If the script represents "knowledge of the world," and it is knowledge of the world that facilitate word from nonword discrimination, then knowledge of the world was available to right hemisphere lexical mechanisms. However, the superior discrimination of RVF-presented targets after relevant scripts argues that either the left hemisphere is more efficient or each of the hemispheres processes script primes by a different mechanism.

Adult↗
PubMed1997

Lexical decision, visual hemifield and angle of orientation.

Varying the orientation of word or nonword target stimuli from 0 degree to 90 degrees in a lexical decision-visual hemifield task results in an increase in RT and a decrease in accuracy and d'. RVF superiority, as measured by d' was found at all orientations. RVF superiority, as measured by RT was only found for stimulation by words at orientations of 0 degree and 15 degrees. There was a significant bias to respond 'word' (log beta) only for stimulation of the RVF at orientations of 0 degree and 15 degrees. Under all other conditions, there was no significant response bias. A 'normal' (horizontal) presentation format seems to be necessary for the finding of a greater RVF bias to respond 'word' and for RVF superiority in speed of processing linguistic stimuli. However, a horizontal presentation format does not seem to be necessary for the RVF superiority in its capability to discriminate words from nonwords.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1997

Naming difficulties in language-disabled children: preliminary findings with the application of the tip-of-the-tongue paradigm.

The "tip of the tongue" (TOT) paradigm in a picture-naming task was presented to 14 children with language disabilities (LD) and 14 children without language disabilities (ND). Although the two groups did not differ in the semantic information they had on words they could not fully retrieve, the LD children had less valid and more invalid phonological information. They also had fewer correct responses and spontaneous recalls, more "Don't Know" s (DK) and TOTs, and less accurate "feeling of knowing" (FOK) judgments. These results, demonstrating dissociation between the semantic and phonological levels of word representation, support a two-stage model of word retrieval. These findings are evidence in favor of a phonological treatment approach for naming problems in LD children.

Child↗
PubMed1997

Digestibility of phosphorus in protein-rich ingredients for pig diets.

Two experiments were run to determine the digestibility of phosphorus in different vegetable and animal proteins for the pig diet. Each experiment comprised two 4 x 4 Latin squares run concurrently. Pigs initially weighing 30 kg were kept in metabolism crates and fed twice daily at about 2.5-fold metabolisable energy requirement for maintenance. A semi-purified basal diet low in phosphorus and without intrinsic phytase activity was fed either alone or after blending into mixtures with one of the ingredients to be tested. Mixtures were calculated to contain not more than 2 g digestible P/kg DM and between 5.0 and 6.0 g Ca/kg DM. Faeces and urine were quantitatively collected for 8 days after 7 days of adaptation. Phosphorus digestibility for ingredients under test was calculated assuming the digestibility of phosphorus from the basal diets to be constant in all diets. P digestibilities in solvent extracted soybean meal from dehulled seed, rapeseed and solvent extracted rapeseed meal were 37, 42 and 24%, respectively. Supplementation of a microbial phytase (750 U/kg diet) improved digestibility coefficients significantly to 76, 66 and 73%, respectively. Digestibility of phosphorus in 3 different batches of fish meal ranged from 85 to 90%, without significant differences between batches. In 3 different types of carcass meal, digestibility coefficients were 80, 82 and 83% without significant differences between types, and digestibility of phosphorus from bone meal was 80%.

6-Phytase↗
PubMed1995

A property level analysis of lexical semantic representation in Alzheimer's disease.

In order to assess the hypotheses that Alzheimer's disease (AD) results in a property level restructuring, loss, or degradation of lexical-semantic knowledge, Alzheimer's patients and normal elderly subjects were presented with a property verification task in which they were asked to judge the truth value of telegraphic statements which paired objects with their properties (e.g., "Apple is red."). Objects with either high- or low-typical exemplars of categories (e.g., "oak" is a high typical exemplar of the category "tree." while "palm" is a less typical item). Properties were varied with respect to normatively determined dominance (e.g, "fins" is a high dominant property of "trout," while "slimy" is a less dominant property) and whether they were distinctive (i.e., served to distinguish between subsets of exemplars within a category) or shared among most or all category members (e.g., "stem" for the category "fruit"). Analyses of accuracy and reaction time data suggested that AD results in neither a loss per se of representation of properties, nor a reorganization of relations between objects' properties. However, results were consistent with a property level degradation of AD patients' object concepts. While there was no evidence for a differential degradation of distinctive vs shared properties, results suggested that AD patients have degraded representations of lower dominant properties and properties of low-typical category exemplars.

Aged↗