Sterilization of the mentally disabled: applying error cost analysis to the "best interest" inquiry.
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Decision Making↗
Biomedical subjects
S J Cleveland
Publications and source records attributed to S J Cleveland.
Neurophysiologic changes in lumbar nerve root inflammation in the rat after treatment with cytokine inhibitors. Evidence for a role of interleukin-1.
STUDY DESIGN: The present study was designed to evaluate the effect of cytokine inhibitors in experimental allergic radiculitis. OBJECTIVE: Evaluation of the effect of cytokine inhibitors in experimental allergic radiculitis. SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA: A number of cytokines are known to be involved in hyperalgesia and may play a role in radiculitis. Corticosteroids and other cytokine inhibitors antagonize their effects. METHODS: Experimental allergic radiculitis was induced in rats by injection of bovine myelin from the peripheral nervous system. The sham group subsequently received saline injections; the treatment groups received either prednisolone or interleukin-1 receptor antagonist. Treatment effect was assessed on the basis of motor performance and neurophysiologic parameters. RESULTS: Treatment ameliorated the symptoms of experimental allergic radiculitis. Prednisolone appeared to be somewhat more effective than interleukin-1 receptor antagonist. CONCLUSIONS: Because interleukin-1 receptor antagonist specifically blocks the effects of interleukin-1 at its receptors, the present results imply that interleukin-1 is a causal factor in the model of experimental radiculitis used. Its specificity and apparent lack of side effects make interleukin-1 receptor antagonist an attractive candidate treatment for the human disease.
Animals↗
[Contrast transfer function of the visual system].
Visually evoked potentials were used to determine the spatial contrast response function of the visual system and the visual acuity of the pigeon. The spatial contrast response describes the relationship between the contrast in a pattern of vertical stripes, whose luminance is a function of position, and the amplitude of the visually evoked response at various spatial frequencies for a given temporal frequency (pattern reversal frequency); it indicates how particular spatial frequencies are attenuated in the visual system. The visually evoked responses were recorded using monopolar stainless steel electrodes inserted into the stratum griseum superficiale of the optic tectum; the depth of penetration was determined on the basis of a stereotactic atlas. The stimulus patterns were generated on a video monitor placed 75 cm in front of the animal's eye perpendicular to the optic axis. The spatial contrast response function measured at 10% contrast and 0.5 Hz reversal frequency shows a peak at a spatial frequency of 0.5 c/deg, corresponding to 1 degree of visual angle, and decreases progressively at higher spatial frequencies. The high-frequency limit (cut-off frequency) for resolution of sinusoidal gratings, estimated from the contrast response function, is 15.5 c/deg, corresponding to a visual acuity of 1.9 min of arc.
Animals↗
[The spatial frequency limits and the resolving power of the visual system of the pigeon].
The spatial contrast transfer function of the visual system of the pigeon was determined by recording from the optic tectum evoked potentials or extracellular unit activity in response to a pattern stimulus contrast transfer function, determined as a "response function", describes the relationship between the contrast in the pattern--which consisted of vertically oriented stripes of sinusoidally varying luminance--and the amplitude of the response at various spatial frequencies (c/deg). The transfer function yields an estimate of the high frequency limit, which in turn is a measure of visual resolving power. Action potentials were recorded extracellularly using glass microelectrodes; for evoked potentials, stainless steel electrodes were used. Recordings were made from the stratum griseum et fibrosum superficiale of the optic tectum. The highest spatial frequency detectable in a visual system is limited by various factors, including the diffraction of light at the pupil and the anatomical spacing of the photoreceptors. The pupil factor can be controlled in experiments in a suitable way. In this paper, the electrophysiologically determined high-frequency limit was compared with the theoretical resolution limit imposed by the photoreceptor mosaic. The experimental results show that the visual system of the pigeon has a high-frequency limit at a spatial frequency of 15.5 c/deg, corresponding to a visual acuity of 1.9 min of arc. The attempt to relate visual acuity in the pigeon to the anatomical spacing of the photoreceptors shows that the Nyquist frequency of the photoreceptor mosaic, the theoretical upper bound of the spatial resolution, agrees with measurement.
Animals↗
The influence on spinal cord evoked potentials of chymopapain applied to the rat lumbar spine canal.
Electrically evoked compound action potentials were used to quantify the neurophysiologic abnormalities caused by application of chymopapain into the lumbar spinal canal in rats. A branch of the sciatic nerve was stimulated with voltage impulses of constant amplitude (40 V) and duration (0.1 msec) at the right external malleolus. The responses were recorded at the dorsal root entry zone L1. The authors used different doses of chymopapain (low dose = 100 IU, middle dose = 250 IU, and high dose = 500 IU). The control rats were subjected to exactly the same stimulus and recording procedures, but the test solution was a corresponding volume of isotonic saline. The prolongation of the latency of the electrically evoked potential due to chymopapain is very clear at the doses of 250 IU and 500 IU, being about 10 to 15% relative to the mean latency before application of the drug. This study indicates that locally applied chymopapain has a dose-dependent effect on nerve conduction properties.
Animals↗