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Biomedical subjects

M Stinson

Publications and source records attributed to M Stinson.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2001

Outcomes of child sexual contacts: patterns of incarcerations from a national sample.

OBJECTIVE: In a test of the relationships between sexual touching before puberty and later incarcerations during adolescence and adulthood, two theoretical models were examined. These models focus on examination of crime from the developmental origins of criminals and the adaptive and maladaptive outcomes of early experiences. METHOD: Data were taken from the National Health and Social Life Survey to study the sexual touching and social origin variables in childhood and incarceration variable during teen years. The sample was a stratified, random sample of 3,362 adults (18 to 59 years of age) throughout the United States. RESULTS: Data support inferences from the two interrelated models. Respondents reporting touching before puberty were significantly more likely to experience incarceration. They were also more likely to engage in behaviors as teenagers that were associated with an increased probability of jailing. Such behaviors include sexual promiscuity and early departure from the parental family. CONCLUSIONS: These findings are consistent for first jailing as a teenager and as an adult, as well as for those with short (less than a week) or longer (a week or more) spells of incarceration. Prepubertal sexual touching has a significant and enduring effect on later adolescent and adult incarcerations.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed2000

Isolation and characterization of a human neutrophil aggregation defective mutant of Fusobacterium nucleatum.

Fusobacterium nucleatum is known to adhere to human polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMNs) and cause them to aggregate. In this study, we isolated a spontaneously occurring aggregation defective (AGG(-)) mutant and this mutant will be used for future study of the interactions between this bacterium and human PMN. Genomic DNA fingerprinting by random-primed polymerase chain reaction method revealed a difference between the parent strain and the AGG(-) mutant. This mutant also showed an altered phenotype in both microbicidal and phagocytic assays, suggesting that the bacterial factor involved in the aggregation may also be very important for the phagocytosis and, subsequently, the killing by human PMNs. Further study of this mutant may help to clarify the molecular mechanisms of the interaction between this pathogen and human PMNs.

Bacterial Adhesion↗
PubMed2000

The sign language skills classroom observation: a process for describing sign language proficiency in classroom settings.

In collaboration with teachers and students at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID), the Sign Language Skills Classroom Observation (SLSCO) was designed to provide feedback to teachers on their sign language communication skills in the classroom. In the present article, the impetus and rationale for development of the SLSCO is discussed. Previous studies related to classroom signing and observation methodology are reviewed. The procedure for developing the SLSCO is then described. This procedure included (a) interviews with faculty and students at NTID, (b) identification of linguistic features of sign language important for conveying content to deaf students, (c) development of forms for recording observations of classroom signing, (d) analysis of use of the forms, (e) development of a protocol for conducting the SLSCO, and (f) piloting of the SLSCO in classrooms. The results of use of the SLSCO with NTID faculty during a trial year are summarized.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1999

Learning styles of deaf college students and instructors' teaching emphases.

Six learning style dimensions of the Grasha-Riechmann Student Learning Style Scales (GRSLSS) were examined in this study with 100 deaf college students. In addition, six corresponding scales of teaching emphases were administered to the 16 instructors of these students. Student mean scores were higher for the dependent, participative, collaborative, and independent dimensions than for the competitive and avoidant styles. The participative learning style correlated significantly with course achievement and course interest, which suggests that an emphasis on active learning may be desirable. For instructors, as with students, the mean scores for teaching emphases were found to be higher for the collaborative, dependent, participative, and independent dimensions. the similar patterns of results for students and teachers suggest a correspondence between the learning styles and the teaching emphases.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1999

Considerations in educating deaf and hard-of-hearing students in inclusive settings.

This article provides an overview of key issues pertinent to an inclusive approach to the education of deaf students in order to establish a context for interpreting and integrating the articles in this issue. It discusses definitions of inclusion, integration, and mainstreaming from placement-related, philosophical, and pragmatic perspectives. The article provides demographic information pertinent to an inclusive approach. It also compares perspectives on inclusion in the general field of special education with those in the education of deaf and hard-of-hearing students. It considers the challenges of using an inclusive approach to achieve academic and social integration of students, as based on research on the learning and adjustment of deaf and hard-of-hearing students in regular classes. The article concludes with an overview of the topics addressed in the issue.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1999

Participation of deaf and hard-of-hearing students in classes with hearing students.

This project identified key issues concerning participation of deaf and hard-of-hearing (D/HH) students in regular (mainstream) classes. In one study, qualitative data were collected from 40 participants in focus groups consisting of interpreters, teachers of the deaf, and notetakers. In a second study, repeated field observations were made of four elementary-level D/HH students who were participating in small-group learning activities with hearing classmates. Focus group comments indicated that regular classroom teachers, interpreters, teachers of the deaf, hearing classmates, and D/HH students contribute to active participation by the D/HH student. Focus groups identified specific barriers that interfered with participation of each of these groups of individuals, and they also identified specific strategies to facilitate participation. Qualitative analyses of field observation data yielded results consistent with the comments collected from the focus groups participants. The observations identified accommodations that regular classroom teachers, teachers of the deaf, and interpreters can make to promote integration of the D/HH student. A summary synthesis of the data presents 16 specific strategies for overcoming barriers to participation.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1999

The relationship between teacher sign skills and student evaluations of teacher capability.

This study examines the extent to which deaf students' perceptions of their teachers' effectiveness and ease of communication in the classroom are related to the teachers' sign skills. Thirty-three faculty, teaching a variety of courses at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID), were rated on "teaching effectiveness" and "communication ease" by their students over a 2-year period. Faculty sign proficiency was evaluated independently using the Sign Communication Proficiency Interview (SCPI). Results indicate a moderate relation between students' perceptions of communication ease and teaching effectiveness, and a weak relation of these two variables to the teachers' assessed level of sign skill. The data also show that the students could clearly differentiate three levels of teacher sign skill in the classroom. Results are discussed in relation to the component parts of effective communication from the perspective of students in the classroom.

Communication↗
PubMed1996

Deaf college students' perceptions of communication in mainstream classes.

Fifty deaf and hard-of-hearing students who were mainstreamed in postsecondary classes rated their classroom communication ease with hearing instructors, hearing peers, and deaf peers. A subgroup of these students participated in an in-depth interview that focused on perceptions of communication ease, support services, and attitudes of teachers and students toward deaf students in mainstreamed classes. Quantitative analyses indicated that students more comfortable in using speech in this setting reported being able to receive and send a greater amount and a higher quality of information than did students who were less comfortable in using speech. Both quantitative and qualitative results indicated that students varied considerably in their communication with hearing peers and professors, in their relations with deaf peers, and in their concerns about access. It is a challenge for interpreting and other support services to serve these various needs, especially when it is not unusual for these variations to occur in the same classroom.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1995

Streptococcus-mutans-induced nephritis in rabbits: rheumatoid factors and nephritogenicity.

The pathogenesis of streptococcus-induced nephritides (SIN) involves immune complex-mediated inflammation; however, specific mechanisms are still poorly understood. Using preparations of two strains of Streptococcus mutans (SM) in attempts to induce SIN in rabbits, one preparation was strongly and the other virtually not nephritogenic. The non-nephritogenic preparation provided a negative control for our studies. Streptococcal components were present in circulating immune complexes (CIC) as well as in tissue-bound immune complexes (TIC), especially early in the disease. CIC and TIC also contained rheumatoid factors (RF), which tended to predominate in late stages of the disease. The nephritogenic and the non-nephritogenic preparations of SM shared the same major tissue-binding components and induced similar titers of antimicrobial antibodies, but differed significantly in their ability to induce CIC and RF. It is proposed that kidney-binding microbial components, antimicrobial antibodies and high serum concentration of RF are necessary and sufficient determinants for the pathogenesis of SIN in this rabbit model.

Animals↗
PubMed1994

Inactivation of the Porphyromonas gingivalis fimA gene blocks periodontal damage in gnotobiotic rats.

Fimbrial production by Porphyromonas gingivalis was inactivated by insertion-duplication mutagenesis, using the cloned gene for the P. gingivalis major fimbrial subunit protein, fimA. by several criteria, this insertion mutation rendered P. gingivalis unable to produce fimbrilin or an intact fimbrial structure. A nonfimbriated mutant, DPG3, hemagglutinated sheep erythrocytes normally and was unimpaired in the ability to coaggregate with Streptococcus gordonii G9B. The cell surface hydrophobicity of DPG3 was also unaffected by the loss of fimbriae. However, DPG3 was significantly less able to bind to saliva-coated hydroxyapatite than wild-type P. gingivalis 381. This suggested that P. gingivalis fimbriae are important for adherence of the organism to saliva-coated oral surfaces. Further, DPG3 was significantly less able to cause periodontal bone loss in a gnotobiotic rat model of periodontal disease. These observations are consistent with other data suggesting that P. gingivalis fimbriae play an important role in the pathogenesis of human periodontal disease.

Alveolar Bone Loss↗
PubMed1994

The Classroom Communication Ease Scale. Development of a self-report questionnaire for mainstreamed deaf students.

This study describes efforts to develop a self-report psychological scale (CCES: Classroom Communication Ease Scale) to provide information about the extent to which mainstreamed deaf students think that they communicate effectively with teachers and peers, as well as how they feel about their communication experiences in mainstreamed classrooms. Data obtained from administration of the CCES to 50 deaf students enrolled in baccalaureate programs at a postsecondary technical institution were subjected to Rasch rating scale analysis. Fit of data to the measurement model resulted in a set of 42 items that empirically define the concept of "communication ease" in its cognitive aspects and a set of 21 items that elaborate the concept further in terms of its affective aspects.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1992

Deposition of circulating streptococcal lipoteichoic acid in mouse tissues.

The tissue binding properties of streptococcal lipoteichoic acid (LTA) were studied using normal and passively immunized BALB/c mice. After intraperitoneal injection in non-immunized mice, 3H-LTA concentrations in blood, heart, kidney and liver were highest between 24 and 30 h post-injection. LTA deposits in heart remained high for the next 24 h, whereas other tissue levels decreased. Constant amounts of 3H-LTA were detected in urine throughout the 48 h period. In passively immunized mice, the amount of tissue deposition of 3H-LTA was inversely proportional to the ratio of antibodies to LTA. Autoradiography revealed focal deposits of 3H-LTA in heart, kidney and liver. These observations indicate that LTA, released by streptococci growing at remote body sites, can be carried by the blood to internal organs where it can accumulate and participate in pathogenesis.

Animals↗
PubMed1991

Identification of Streptococcus pyogenes proteins that bind to rabbit kidney in vitro and in vivo.

Proteins were extracted from the surface of a nephritogenic strain of Streptococcus pyogenes M12 and tested for binding to rabbit kidney using indirect immunofluorescence and enzyme-linked immunoassays. Streptococcal antigens bound in vitro in a fine linear pattern to basal laminae of glomeruli, Bowman's capsule, and tubules. Perfusion of rabbit kidney in vivo with streptococcal components resulted in focal and segmental fine granular staining of glomerular capillaries. Three streptococcal proteins (43, 31 and 9 kDa) were recovered from renal tissue that was pretreated in vitro with S. pyogenes extract. Streptococcal components bound in vitro to heparan sulfate, heparin, laminin and collagen IV but only weakly or not at all to fibronectin, bovine serum albumin or dextran sulfate. Affinity chromatography of bacterial extracts on heparin-agarose produced a 9 kDa streptococcal protein (pI 9.5) which bound to kidney basement membranes in vitro and in isolated perfused kidneys. Several additional strains of group A streptococci were found to contain the 9 kDa cationic protein. This bacterial protein, when released into the blood by the bacterium during infection, may contribute to the pathogenesis of streptococcus-associated nephritides in man.

Animals↗
PubMed1991

Ten weeks of intermittent hypocalcemic stimulation does not produce functional parathyroid hyperplasia.

Hypocalcemia is a major stimulus for parathyroid hormone secretion and presumably the major cause of parathyroid hyperplasia in chronic hypocalcemic syndromes. We could find no data to indicate what degree, duration, or frequency of hypocalcemia is needed to produce parathyroid hyperplasia in humans. We have monitored the effects of thrice weekly hypocalcemic parathyroid stimulation for 10 weeks. Measurements were made during a study designed to test the feasibility of carrying out a randomized, blinded trial of "chelation therapy," a widely used but unproven method to treat atherosclerotic symptoms. Eight patients received infusions of disodium ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) and six received placebo infusions thrice weekly for ten weeks. The EDTA infusions (50 mg/kg over three hours) lowered serum ionized calcium at two hours by an average of 0.20 mmol/L and trebled the immunoreactive parathyroid hormone (iPTH) value. Basal serum iPTH, ionized calcium and 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D values, measured just before the infusion, did not change significantly after 10 weeks of treatment with either EDTA or placebo. The increment in serum iPTH produced by the EDTA-induced hypocalcemia was also unchanged. Lowering ionized serum calcium to values below the normal range three times a week for 10 weeks is not a sufficient stimulus to cause a detectable increase in basal or stimulated parathyroid function.

Aged↗
PubMed1983

Specificity of word meaning and use of sentence context by hearing-impaired adults.

The effects of a semantic aspect of sentence context, general versus specific words, on word identification by hearing-impaired adults was examined. In Experiment 1, subjects heard incomplete sentences over headsets and attempted to identify the omitted test word. These sentences varied the number of contextual words with general or specific meanings. As predicted, listeners identified more test words when the sentences contained specific contextual words. In Experiment 2, listeners attempted recall of test words that were included in the sentence presentation. Listeners were required to recall the entire sentence in order to direct attention to the context. Again, recall of the test word occurred more frequently when sentences contained specific words. Implications of the findings for aural rehabilitation are discussed.

Adult↗
PubMed1982

Relations between word meanings and identification of words in spoken sentences by hearing-impaired children.

To examine effects of contextual words upon the identification of test words in sentences, 21 hearing-impaired children, 7-12 yr of age, received word-discrimination training followed by sentence testing. Word-discrimination training was conducted to ensure that children could discriminate the contextual words in isolation. The subsequent sentence testing was the more important phase of the experiment, since it permitted observation of the use of contextual cues to facilitate the identification of the correct test word. The relationship between the contextual words and test words was either congruous, incongruous, or neutral, as predetermined from normative data. After hearing each sentence, children decided whether they had heard the test word or its alternative. The alternative word differed in either the initial or final consonant. Significantly more correct discriminations were made on congruous and neutral sentences than on incongruous sentences. These results indicated that hearing-impaired children used contextual cues to identify the correct alternative.

Child↗