PubMed Health⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

S Frisch

Publications and source records attributed to S Frisch.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2005

Emotion recognition in stroke patients with left and right hemispheric lesion: results with a new instrument-the FEEL Test.

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of a stroke event on people's ability to recognize basic emotions. In particular, the hypothesis that right brain-damaged (RBD) patients would show less of emotion recognition ability compared with left brain-damaged (LBD) patients and healthy controls, was tested. To investigate this the FEEL Test (Facially Expressed Emotion Labeling) was used, a computer based psychometric test that assesses one's ability to recognize facially displayed basic emotions via a forced-choice paradigm. We examined 24 patients after a stroke event (13 RBD, 11 LBD) and compared them with a matched group of healthy controls (HC, n=29). Results showed that the stroke patients performed significantly worse in the FEEL Test than did HC (p<.001). This deficit was especially evident for negative emotions (fear, anger, sadness, and disgust). In contrast to other studies we did not find any significant differences between RBD and LBD patients in their ability to recognize emotions. These results indicate that a stroke event has a negative effect on the recognition of facially displayed emotions but suggest that this effect is apparently not dependent on the side of the brain damage.

Adult↗
PubMed2005

Large sticky traps for capturing house flies and stable flies in dairy calf greenhouse facilities.

Large sticky traps were evaluated for stable fly, Stomoxys calcitrans (L.), and house fly, Musca domestica L., (Diptera: Muscidae) capture under field conditions in 5 dairy calf greenhouse facilities in New York. The farm with the highest stable fly capture had the highest house fly capture, and the farm with the lowest stable fly capture had the lowest house fly capture, suggesting that fly management practices greatly influenced trap captures. In general, stable fly populations, as reflected by increased trap capture, generally rose during the summer. Numbers of flies counted on calves did not increase, however, suggesting that the traps greatly reduced the potential stable fly pressure on the calves as the fly population increased. Estimated number of stable flies and house flies captured during this 10-wk study exceeded 142,000 and 900,000, respectively. Producers were generally pleased with the trap performance and most felt that these traps reduced flies in their calf greenhouses to acceptable levels.

Animals↗
PubMed2001

The N400 reflects problems of thematic hierarchizing.

Using event-related potentials (ERPs), we present evidence that the current interpretation of the N400 component must be extended. This component is elicited in incorrect German sentences with two grammatical subjects, thereby showing its sensitivity to thematic relations between arguments in a sentence (who is doing what to whom). Such a violation only elicits an N400 when both arguments are animate but not when one of them is animate and the other inanimate, thus showing that the brain uses animacy information to overcome interpretation problems due to thematic competition. Structures with two subjects additionally elicit a P600 component which occurs independently of the animacy variation. Thus, animacy information does not appear to influence the syntactic processing problems resulting from such violations.

Adult↗
PubMed2000

Modeling phoneme and open-set word recognition by cochlear implant users: a preliminary report.

On the basis of the good predictions for phonemes correct, we conclude that closed-set feature identification may successfully predict phoneme identification in an open-set word recognition task. For word recognition, however, the PCM model underpredicted observed performance, and the addition of a mental lexicon (ie, the SPAMR model) was needed for a good match to data averaged across 7 adults with CIs. The predictions for words correct improved with the addition of a lexicon, providing support for the hypothesis that lexical information is used in open-set spoken word recognition by CI users. The perception of words more complex than CNCs is also likely to require lexical knowledge (Frisch et al, this supplement, pp 60-62) In the future, we will use the performance off individual CI users on psychophysical tasks to generate predicted vowel and consonant confusion matrices to be used to predict open-set spoken word recognition.

Adult↗
PubMed1999

Family response to difficult hospitalizations: the phenomenon of 'working through'.

This paper describes the process and outcomes of a project to learn about qualitative research methods. A small study of family participation in decision-making was conducted with 7 family members who were interviewed after an inter-unit patient transfer. The data analysis used strategies derived from grounded theory, family life-cycle framework and storytelling. The interviews indicated respondents' concerns about the patient, their efforts to balance their lives during a time of disarray and their sorting through crises in their lives ('working through'). 'Working through' discourse has identifiable features, including: linking the past, present and future; refrains; rhetorical questions; and self-talk. Clinicians should encourage the 'working through' process by family during the hospitalization of a family member.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1999

Lexical integration: sequential effects of syntactic and semantic information.

Both semantic and syntactic context constraints can influence word processing at the level of lexical integration. In event-related brain potentials (ERPs), semantic integration is reflected by a negativity around 400 msec (N400), whereas phrase structure assignment and syntactic integration are assumed to be reflected by an early left anterior negativity and a late positivity (P600), respectively. An ERP study is presented in which participants read different types of sentences whose terminal verb was either congruent with the preceding context or incongruent due to a phrase structure violation, a semantic violation, or both. The main finding was that only the pure semantic violation condition, but not the combined semantic and syntactic violation condition, elicited a large N400. The two conditions containing phrase structure violations were predominantly characterized by a P600. Both semantic violation conditions, moreover, displayed a late negativity around 700 msec that overlapped with the P600 in the double violation condition. The absence of an N400 effect for elements that are syntactically as well as semantically incongruent with prior context suggests an early influence of phrase structure information on processes of lexical-semantic integration. The present data are discussed in comparison to previous ERP findings, and a new view of lexical integration processes is proposed.

Adult↗
PubMed1998

Regulation of cell death protease caspase-9 by phosphorylation.

Caspases are intracellular proteases that function as initiators and effectors of apoptosis. The kinase Akt and p21-Ras, an Akt activator, induced phosphorylation of pro-caspase-9 (pro-Casp9) in cells. Cytochrome c-induced proteolytic processing of pro-Casp9 was defective in cytosolic extracts from cells expressing either active Ras or Akt. Akt phosphorylated recombinant Casp9 in vitro on serine-196 and inhibited its protease activity. Mutant pro-Casp9(Ser196Ala) was resistant to Akt-mediated phosphorylation and inhibition in vitro and in cells, resulting in Akt-resistant induction of apoptosis. Thus, caspases can be directly regulated by protein phosphorylation.

Apoptosis↗
PubMed1996

Repression of a matrix metalloprotease gene by E1A correlates with its ability to bind to cell type-specific transcription factor AP-2.

Adenovirus E1A 243-amino acid protein can repress a variety of enhancer -linked viral and cellular promoters. This repression is presumed to be mediated by its interaction with and sequestration of p3OO, a transcriptional coactivator. Type IV 72-kDa collagenase is one of the matrix metalloproteases that has been implicated in differentiation, development, angiogenesis, and tumor metastasis. We show here that the cell type-specific transcription factor AP-2 is an important transcription factor for the activation of the type IV 72-kDa collagenase promoter and that adenovirus E1A 243-amino acid protein represses this promoter by targeting AP-2. Glutathione S-transferase-affinity chromatography studies show that the E1A protein interacts with the DNA binding/dimerization region of AP-2 and that the N-terminal amino acids of E1A protein are required for this interaction. Further, E1A deletion mutants which do not bind to p3OO can repress this collagenase promoter as efficiently as the wildtype E1A protein. Because the AP-2 element is present in a variety of viral and cellular enhancers which are repressed by E1A, these studies suggest that E1A protein can repress cellular and viral promoter/enhancers by forming a complex with cellular transcription factors and that this repression mechanism may be independent of its interaction with p3OO.

Adenovirus E1A Proteins↗
PubMed1995

Progression of carcinoma cells is associated with alterations in chromatin structure and factor binding at the E-cadherin promoter in vivo.

E-cadherin has been identified as a tumor (invasion) suppressor gene, which is mutated in 50% of diffuse-type human gastric carcinomas. In other carcinomas, the expression of E-cadherin is down-regulated in the poorly differentiated cells such as from breast, bladder, lung and colon. We have here examined the in vivo properties of the genomic E-cadherin promoter in well and poorly differentiated carcinoma cell lines in order to gain insights into the mechanisms of E-cadherin down-regulation in tumors. In vivo footprinting analysis revealed that positive regulatory elements of the E-cadherin promoter (a GC-rich region, the CCAAT-box and a palindromic element) are specifically bound by transcription factors in E-cadherin-expressing but not in non-expressing cells. The tested cell systems include more than a dozen carcinomas cell lines as well as mammary epithelial cells where E-cadherin expression can be switched off by activation of a Fos-estrogen receptor fusion protein and rhabdomyosarcoma cells where E-cadherin expression was induced by transfection with E1A. Mapping of DNase I hypersensitive sites showed that the chromatin structure in the promoter region is loosened in expressing but condensed in non-expressing cells. Furthermore, the endogenous E-cadherin promoter is specifically methylated at CpG sites in the undifferentiated cells. We also show that the in vivo properties of the promoter in E-caherin-negative carcinoma cells are similar as in mesenchymal cells, i.e. fibroblasts or sarcoma cells. These data suggest that silencing of the E-cadherin promoter during epithelialmesenchymal transition and tumor progression is due to a loss of factor binding in vivo and to chromatin rearrangement in the regulatory region.

Animals↗
PubMed1994

Case management and nursing practice.

Does adopting a case management model alter nursing practice? The authors examine the effect case management has on nurse-client relationships and nurse-colleague relationships and explore how nurses are using case management as a vehicle to achieve professionalism. The article is based on a literature review of case management for community-dwelling elderly residents and interviews with 17 community-based nurses practicing as case managers in Canada.

Canada↗
PubMed1992

Nasoduodenal feeding tubes: prevention of occlusion.

Blockage of nasoduodenal feeding tubes is costly in terms of materials and nursing time, and traumatic to the neuroscience patient. A laboratory experimental study explored ways to decrease obstruction of small bore nasoduodenal feeding tubes when medications are given concurrently with continuous tube feeding. The first part of the study examined type and form of 4 medications in relation to frequency and timing of tube blockage. Trimethoprim sulfamethoxazole (Septra) in dissolved pill form blocked tubes most frequently (F10,77 = 10.333, p < .001) and in the shortest time (F10,77 = 10.534, p < .001). The second part of the study examined different irrigation methods. Irrigation before and after administration of medication and irrigation after medication administration only were significantly better than no irrigation in preventing blockage, both in terms of number of occlusions (F2,87 = 5.486, p < .01) and time to occlusion (F2,87 = 4.556, p < .02). The fact the study was performed in vitro rather than in vivo was a limiting factor. However, results of the study suggest trimethoprim sulfamethoxazole forms occlusions, especially in dissolved form. Elixir of this medication should probably be used whenever available. This study also found that irrigating the tube before and after administration of medications was the most effective of the 3 options examined.

Acetaminophen↗
PubMed1990

Injectate temperature: effects on thermodilution CO measurements.

The present study has confirmed the findings of other research and indicates that current technology permits accurate CO determination using room temperature injectate. Some patients, especially those with high output, temperature, or blood pressure, may continue to require iced injectate measures to ensure accuracy; more research is needed here. Room temperature measures may be less reproducible than iced. Several ways of compensating for this have been suggested, depending on the technology available. At present, these methods are preferable to using a correction formula based on regression analyses.

Cold Temperature↗
PubMed1989

Clonal chromosome abnormalities in tumor cells from patients with sporadic renal cell carcinomas.

The karyotype of 75 sporadic, nonpapillary renal cell carcinomas was analyzed using chromosome banding techniques. Sixty-five tumors had near-diploid stemlines, and ten had near-triploid or near-tetraploid stemlines. Aberration of chromosome 3 was detected in 71 cases. The nonrandom changes on chromosome 3 were monosomy 3, terminal deletions, or unbalanced translocations; the 3p13-pter segment was identified as the minimal common deletion. The rearrangement of chromosome 3p was the only karyotype change in 13 tumors. Abnormalities of chromosome 5 resulting in trisomy for the 5q22-qter region were found in 36 cases, while the loss of 14q22-qter segment was observed in 34 tumors. Trisomy for chromosome 7 was detected in 17 cases, and monosomy 8 and 9 occurred 14 times each. Our data show that more than one specific chromosomal site may be involved in the development of human renal cell carcinomas.

Adult↗
PubMed1987

The impact of a designated cancer unit on house staff behaviors toward patients.

To examine the impact of a subspecialty care unit on house staff behavior toward patients, fourteen internal medicine teams were observed in 1213 interactions with patients on morning rounds using a previously devised instrument, the Physician Behavior Check List. The eight teams assigned to the hematology/oncology unit (HO teams) saw significantly more cancer patients than did the six teams assigned to general medicine floors (GM teams). Patients seen by HO teams were sicker (P less than 0.001). Hematology/oncology teams engaged in fewer support behaviors, particularly with the sickest cancer patients, than did the GM teams. Teams did not differ on time spent with patient or patient involvement but HO teams were rated significantly lower on addressing the patient's needs. The authors propose the concentration of sick cancer patients on a designated cancer unit diminishes house staff ability to engage in supportive behaviors and to address the needs of patients during morning rounds.

Aged↗