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Biomedical subjects

W C Taylor

Publications and source records attributed to W C Taylor.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
PubMed1993

The physical activity of fifth-grade students during physical education classes.

One hundred fifty-seven fifth-grade students in 20 of the 355 elementary schools in one Texas county were systematically observed during physical education classes. On average, the students spent 8.5% of class time in moderate to vigorous physical activity, 23.3% in minimal activity, and 68.1% in sedentary activity. None of the schools averaged 20% of class time in moderate to vigorous physical activity. The levels of physical activity observed are substantially lower than the levels called for in national health objectives.

Child↗
PubMed1992

Absolutely relative: how research results are summarized can affect treatment decisions.

PURPOSE: To determine whether alternative methods of presenting a contrast between the same two quantities in descriptions of research results could lead to different treatment decisions by physicians. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: We conducted a survey of practicing physicians and of faculty and fellows in training programs in clinical epidemiology and social science research methods. Each questionnaire presented results from a published study of either hypertension or hypercholesterolemia in two different ways: once as the relative change in the outcome rate and once as the absolute change in the outcome rate. We asked respondents to read each summary and indicate how the information contained in the summary would influence decisions about treatment. RESULTS: Of the 235 physicians who completed the questionnaire, 108 (46%) gave different responses to the same results presented in different ways. Of these, 97 (89.8%) indicated a stronger inclination to treat patients after reading of the relative change in the outcome rate (p less than 0.0001). CONCLUSION: The manner of presentation of results can influence physicians' judgments about the treatment of patients.

Abstracting and Indexing↗
PubMed1991

Teaching medicine as a human experience: a patient-doctor relationship course for faculty and first-year medical students.

We developed a required, longitudinal course for first-year medical students that addressed the patient-doctor relationship. Our course linked understanding patients' experiences and perspectives on illness with listening to, talking with, and establishing a rapport with patients while obtaining their medical histories. Learning was enhanced by use of an interdisciplinary faculty and by small-group continuity and faculty mentoring. Our curriculum adapted problem-based, self-directed educational methods to convey medical humanism. We focused on bedside interviewing as the means for exploring patients' social, emotional, and ethical concerns.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗
PubMed1991

Cell-specific accumulation of maize phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase is correlated with demethylation at a specific site greater than 3 kb upstream of the gene.

Development of the C4 photosynthetic pathway relies upon the cell-specific accumulation of photosynthetic enzymes. Although the molecular basis of this cell-specific gene expression is not known, regulation appears to be exerted at the level of transcript accumulation. We have investigated the relationship between gene expression patterns and DNA methylation for genes of two of the C4 photosynthetic enzymes, ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase (RuBPCase) and phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (PEPCase). We found no correlation between methylation state and gene expression for either the large subunit or a small subunit gene of RuBPCase. In contrast, demethylation of a specific site 5' to the PEPCase gene was correlated with the light-induced, cell-specific accumulation of PEPCase mRNA. This differentially methylated site is positioned at great distance (greater than 3 kb) from the start of transcription. This observation is made more interesting by the fact that the immediate 5' region of the gene, and some of the coding region, represents an unmethylated CpG island. Such islands are normally associated with constitutively expressed genes.

DNA↗
PubMed1991

Ethnobotanical review of medicinal plants from Thai traditional books, Part II: Plants with antidiarrheal, laxative and carminative properties.

A survey of medicinal plants used in Thailand has been made from Thai books on traditional herbal medicine. In this part of the survey, 326 plants with antidiarrheal, laxative and/or carminative properties are described. Information provided for each species includes plant part used, methods of preparation and administration and literature references to Thai books, together with indications of usage in other Southeast Asian countries and of phytochemical work which has been performed.

Antidiarrheals↗
PubMed1991

Outpatient medical records for a teaching hospital: beginning the physician-computer dialogue.

We have developed an outpatient medical record (OMR) system designed to facilitate direct physician interaction with the computer-based medical record. During the first two years the system was in use, staff physicians, residents, and nurse practitioners entered 15,121 active and 1996 inactive problems for 3524 patients, and 12,651 active medications and 1894 discontinued medications for 3430 patients. These clinicians entered 20,321 items on health promotion and disease prevention screening sheets and with the help of automatic updating by the computer an additional 21,897 entries on screening sheets were made for 8686 patients. On the computer, clinicians wrote more than twice as much--10.9 words per problem, in contrast to 4.3 words per problem in the paper record (p less than 0.0001, Student's t). We conclude that clinicians perceived the computer-based problem list to be more valuable than its paper counterpart.

Ambulatory Care Information Systems↗
PubMed1990

Structure-activity relationships of some Galbulimima alkaloids related to himbacine.

Himbacine, himbeline, N-methylhimandravine and himandravine together with their dihydro-derivatives were evaluated as antagonists of muscarinic receptors in guinea-pig ileal longitudinal muscle and electrically stimulated left atrium. Himbacine was the most potent compound and the 15-fold selectivity exhibited for the M2 muscarinic receptor was greater than that found with any of the other compounds examined. Reduction of the double bond linking the decalin ring system and the piperidine ring almost abolished selectivity in dihydrohimbacine. Removal of the N-methyl group in himbacine to form himbeline was associated with reduced selectivity. However the corresponding change in converting N-methylhimandravine to himandravine was not associated with any change in selectivity suggesting that orientation of the 2-methyl group in the piperidine ring may be important for selectivity.

Alkaloids↗
PubMed1990

Somatically heritable switches in the DNA modification of Mu transposable elements monitored with a suppressible mutant in maize.

Many transposable elements in maize alternate between active and inactive phases associated with the modification of their DNA. Elements in an inactive phase lose their ability to transpose, their ability to excise from reporter alleles and, in some cases, their ability to enhance or suppress mutant phenotypes caused by their insertion. The maize mutant hcf106 is a recessive pale green seedling lethal caused by the insertion of the transposable element Mu1. We show that the hcf106 mutant phenotype is suppressed in lines that have lost Mu activity. That is, homozygous hcf106 seedlings are dark green and viable when transposable elements belonging to the Robertson's Mutator family are modified in their terminal inverted repeats, a diagnostic feature of inactive lines. This property of the mutant phenotype has been used to follow clonal leaf sectors containing modified Mu elements that arise from single somatic cells during plant development. The distribution of these sectors indicates that epigenetic switches involving Mu DNA modification occur progressively as the meristem ages.

Blotting, Southern↗
PubMed1990

Vascular problems of the lower extremity in athletes.

The vascular anatomy of the lower extremity predisposes the popliteal area to traumatic injury owing to tethering at the adductor hiatus and the soleus arch. Knee dislocations should be followed with arteriography or exploration of the vessels. Epiphyseal separations of the proximal tibia and distal femur, as well as fractures about the knee, should be observed closely for 24 to 48 hours to ensure that the vascular status is intact. Traumatic pseudoaneurysms may arise from seemingly minor trauma and are treated surgically. The etiology of nonspecific claudication in the athletic population requires a careful history and physical examination and may require vascular studies in order to determine if the etiology is one of popliteal artery entrapment syndrome, adventitial cystic disease of the popliteal artery, or adductor canal outlet syndrome. Buerger's disease may be seen more frequently as the use of smokeless tobacco increases in the athletic population and may be distinguished from these other claudication-causing entities by its distribution to the upper and lower extremities in a distal fashion. A sense of alertness to these vascular entities will add to the quality of care of athletes.

Athletic Injuries↗
PubMed1989

Molecular cloning of a maize gene involved in photosynthetic membrane organization that is regulated by Robertson's Mutator.

The maize photosynthetic mutant hcf106 has a distinctive and unusual thylakoid membrane organization, and fails to accumulate three of the five thylakoid membrane protein complexes. This mutant arose in a Robertson's Mutator background, and shows somatic instability typical of a transposon-induced allele. In addition, hcf106 is suppressed when Mu1 elements are inactive and modified in their terminal inverted repeats. Thus plants homozygous for the mutant allele adopt a mutant phenotype only when Mu1 elements are active and unmodified. DNA from the mutant allele has been cloned by 'transposon-tagging' using the transposon Mu1, and the identity of the clone confirmed by observing somatic excision of the transposon in a revertant sector. A 1.2 kb transcript homologous to the cloned DNA is found in wild-type and suppressed seedlings, but is not found in mutant seedlings, suggesting that suppression is mediated at the level of transcript accumulation.

Alleles↗
PubMed1989

Should women be tested for gonococcal infection of the cervix during routine gynecologic visits? An economic appraisal.

PURPOSE, PATIENTS, AND METHODS: We used decision analysis to calculate the economic implications of routine testing for Neisseria gonorrhoeae infection of the cervix. This study compared performing endocervical cultures in all women seeking routine gynecologic care to a no-test strategy. Estimates derived from the medical literature were varied in a sensitivity analysis, and a Monte Carlo technique was used to incorporate the estimates of experts into the analysis. RESULTS: We found that routinely testing for gonorrhea reduced overall medical costs when the prevalence of infection exceeded 1.5 percent. This result was most sensitive to variation in the cost of the culture and the assumption that treatment prevents adverse sequelae. Reducing the estimated cost of the culture from $9 to $5 decreased the threshold prevalence from 1.5 to 0.8 percent. When we considered the variation in estimates of experts, the threshold prevalence increased from 1.5 to 2.1 percent. CONCLUSION: We conclude that a strategy of testing and treating selected women with risk factors for gonorrhea will not only reduce the likelihood of the development of serious adverse sequelae but will also result in a reduction of medical costs.

Adult↗
PubMed1989

A first-year problem-based curriculum in health promotion and disease prevention.

This paper describes Harvard Medical School's integration of a curriculum on health promotion and disease prevention into the first year of its New Pathway to General Medical Education. The goals of the curriculum were to develop in each student (1) the knowledge and skills necessary to evaluate critically the major issues in prevention and (2) an attitude that acknowledges the pertinence of prevention in virtually every clinical encounter. The case method was used for all teaching in the curriculum, as it is throughout the New Pathway. Students worked together in small groups, addressing the issues raised by each case under the direction of faculty preceptors. The component was taught by clinicians as part of a two-year course in which students learned clinical skills and addressed topics from the social sciences and medical humanities. In addition, issues in health promotion and disease prevention were integrated into the cases used to teach the other components of the New Pathway curriculum.

Boston↗
PubMed1989

Transcriptional regulation by a circadian rhythm.

Transcription of genes encoding the light-harvesting chlorophyll a/b protein (Cab) was shown previously to be regulated by light and a number of developmental factors. I show that a circadian rhythm in transcriptional activity is superimposed on these other regulatory programs. In vitro transcription measurements in isolated maize leaf nuclei demonstrated that changes in transcription are not coincident with light-dark transitions and that diurnal changes in transcription continue in continuous light and disappear in complete darkness. Light intensity influences the amplitude of transcriptional changes but has no effect on periodicity. Major diurnal changes in Cab mRNA are evident not only in developing seedling leaves, but also in mature, fully expanded leaves. Genes encoding phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase and the cytosolic form of aldolase show no diurnal changes in transcription.

Circadian Rhythm↗
PubMed1988

Isoniazid for the tuberculin reactor: take it or leave it.

The management of the adult tuberculin reactor who has no other risk factors for the development of active tuberculosis is controversial. We performed a decision analysis to address the issue of whether adults 20 to 80 yr of age should take isoniazid to prevent the development of active disease. The analysis uses a Markov simulation, a regression model to calculate the risk of developing tuberculosis at any given time after the discovery of a positive skin test, and estimates from the literature for other probabilities. The analysis favors withholding INH for all age groups, but by only 4 to 17 days of life expectancy, depending on the age of the patient. Quality adjusting and discounting change neither the preferred strategy nor the closeness of the outcome. Sensitivity analyses also underscore the narrowness of the margin. Our analysis reaches different conclusions from previously published analyses. More important than the actual strategy preferred is the minute difference in expected utilities between administering and withholding INH. We suggest that the individual patient decide whether or not these differences are meaningful.

Adult↗