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T Brink

Publications and source records attributed to T Brink.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

Mental illness and changing definitions of disability under the Americans With Disabilities Act.

The Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of disability. Originally, an assessment of whether a person had a disability and thus was protected by the ADA examined the person's impairment in its uncorrected state. Thus it was comparatively easy for people with mental illness to meet the threshold requirement for having a disability. However, in 1999 the U.S. Supreme Court issued three decisions holding that, for the purposes of the ADA, disability had to be assessed in its corrected state. Since those decisions were issued, the courts have increased the burden on individuals, including people with mental illness, to prove that they have a disability. In several cases, courts ruled that people with serious mental illnesses do not have a disability and are not protected by the ADA. This article discusses these cases and their implications for people with mental illness and for practitioners.

Adult↗

Nutrient absorption and utilization by wing and flight muscle morphs of the cricket Gryllus firmus: implications for the trade-off between flight capability and early reproduction.

Absorption efficiency (AD, approximate digestibility, assimilation efficiency) of various macronutrients and conversion of absorbed nutrients to biomass (ECD) were compared among the two types of flightless morph and the flight-capable morph of the cricket, Gryllus firmus. No biologically significant phenotypic or genetic difference in AD for carbohydrate, protein or lipid was observed among morphs fed either a high-nutrient (100%) or a low-nutrient (25%) diet. Thus, previously-documented differences among adult morphs in carbohydrate and lipid content must be caused by processes other than variation in nutrient absorption by morphs during adulthood. Relative absorption efficiency of total dry mass of food by morphs of G. firmus appears to be a valid indicator of relative AD of total calories. Morphs did not differ phenotypically or genetically in the excretion of end products of nitrogen metabolism (uric acid, hypoxanthine plus xanthine) on either the high nutrient or the low nutrient diet. Nutritional indices corrected for excreted nitrogenous metabolites were very similar to uncorrected indices, and the pattern of variation among the morphs was the same for corrected or uncorrected values. Each of the two types of flightless morph converted a greater proportion of absorbed nutrients into body mass, mainly ovaries, and allocated a smaller proportion of assimilated nutrients to respiration than did the flight-capable morph. Moreover, the trade-off between respiration and early reproduction was substantially magnified on the low nutrient diet. These results extend previous findings of a trade-off between flight capability and early reproduction in wing-polymorphic Gryllus species (1) to diets of very different nutrient quantity, and (2) to flightlessness arising from different causes: blockage of flight muscle development in juveniles vs histolysis of fully-developed flight muscles in adults.

Journal Article↗

Apoptosis.

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Apoptosis↗

The kinetics of methanol elimination in alcoholics and the influence of ethanol.

Methanol concentrations were studied during the end phase of ethanol elimination and for about five hours afterwards in 12 alcoholics admitted with alcohol intoxication for acute care. The rate of ethanol elimination (beta 60) ranged from 0.114 g/kg/h to 0.270 g/kg/h (mean 0.178 +/- 0.045 g/kg/h). The methanol concentration was found to remain almost steady as long as ethanol levels were relatively high, and changed only to an extent that could be explained by the combined opposing influences of methanol excretion and endogenous synthesis. There was no significant relationship between the rate of ethanol elimination and the methanol level. The methanol concentration began to decrease when the ethanol concentration had fallen to under 0.2 g/kg. When the ethanol concentration had fallen to base levels, methanol was eliminated at a rate characterized by an elimination constant (kel) of 0.212-0.481 h-1, and a half life of 1.44-3.27 h. There was a positive correlation between the rate of ethanol elimination and the rate of methanol elimination (r = 0.642; p < 0.05).

Adult↗

Induration of the diabetic foot pad: another risk factor for recurrent neuropathic plantar ulcers.

Ten diabetic feet with polyneuropathy and a history of recurrent plantar ulcers were assessed for soft tissue abnormalities of the plantar pad, in comparison with non-diabetic control feet. Plantar pad thickness and hardness were measured at the metatarsal heads. In addition, joint mobility was assessed by measuring the passive dorsal flexion of the metatarsophalangeal joints, and peak plantar pressures were studied during walking. The results showed slightly less joint mobility and thinner plantar pads in the diabetics as compared with control subjects; however, the differences failed to reach statistical significance. Soft tissue hardness at the heel was also comparable in patients and controls. At the sites of previous plantar ulcers over the metatarsal joints, soft tissue was significantly harder than at other sites in the same feet or in the control feet; peak plantar pressure at two metatarsal heads was higher in the diabetic feet than in the control feet (p < 0.05). Induration of the periarticular soft tissue may predispose to recurrent foot ulcers in diabetics by decreasing the shock-absorption capacity of the plantar pad.

Adult↗