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Biomedical subjects

W Randall

Publications and source records attributed to W Randall.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1997

Gender differences in abused children with and without disabilities.

OBJECTIVE: Two questions were posed: (1) What are the proportions of boys and girls in various categories of substantiated child abuse? (2) Do the gender proportions differ for children with and without disabilities? METHOD: Data collected by previous researchers from a demographically representative sample of U.S. child abuse reporting districts was analyzed. This included 1,249 case files involving 1,834 children. The number of girls and boys who did and did not have disabilities was identified for three age categories and for several categories of abuse. Chi-square analyses were used to determine whether there was a relationship between disability and gender for the various age and abuse categories. RESULTS: More boys were physically abused and neglected, but more girls were sexually abused. Boys with disabilities, however, were over-represented in all categories of abuse. Moreover, gender proportions among abused children with disabilities differed significantly from those found among other abused children. Although slightly more than half of abused children without disabilities were girls, 65% of abused children with disabilities were boys. CONCLUSIONS: Boys represented a significantly larger proportion of physically abused, sexually abused, and neglected children with disabilities than would be expected from their respective proportion of abused and neglected children without disabilities. Several possible explanations for the observed gender and disability status interaction are discussed.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1995

Patterns of human reproduction and geographic latitude.

The present paper offers data to suggest an effect of geographic latitude in regard to the frequency of conception in human populations. The birth statistics from eight countries in different parts of the world have been evaluated. A particularly strong minimum appears to occur in almost all regions but is shifted in time with changing latitude.

Birth Rate↗
PubMed1993

Photoperiod, temperature, and regional patterns of conceptions in the USA.

Twenty-two years of monthly values of birth data for the USA, 1967 through 1988, were analyzed by visual inspection. The data were transformed to remove the influence of length of month and of linear trend, and the values were lagged 9 months to approximate the time of conception. Then, 11-year monthly averages were obtained and plotted as standard scores. Thus two 11-year sets of data were independently analyzed, providing the opportunity of replication. Four distinct temporal patterns were found, differing in month of occurrence of the initial trough and peak and the relative sizes of the two troughs; these characteristics of the temporal pattern change systematically with latitude in the eastern and midwestern states. Data from two other continents, the United Kingdom and Australia, also were analyzed using the same method and found to exhibit a temporal pattern during the year similar to the northern states of the USA. Two biologically relevant variables, temperature and photoperiod, were considered as possible controllers and regulators of the annual rhythmicity. Comparisons of the trends in conceptions with these environmental variables, and inspections of the temperatures and photoperiods at which peaks and troughs in conceptions were found, indicated that these environmental variables could not account for the annual rhythmicity in conceptions.

Birth Rate↗
PubMed1993

The 11-year cycle in human births.

The annual numbers of human births were analyzed with regard to an 11-year cycle. The annual values were obtained from seven different regions: Australia, Germany, England and Wales, New Zealand, Japan, Switzerland, and the USA. Fifty-five annual values were obtained from each region for the years 1930 to 1984, comprising approximately five sunspot cycles. For each region the annual values were formed into 5 by 11 matrices; the eleven column means obtained were standardized, and plotted. A periodic regression technique, utilizing the fitting functions of the Fourier series, was used to evaluate the temporal order in the column means. Eleven-year rhythms were found and compared with solar and geophysical variables. Correlations were found with sunspots and solar flares, with terrestrial measures of magnetic disturbances (the magnetic indices derived from the K-index), and with temperature. The correlation of conceptions with the 11-year solar cycle may be a potential guide in the selection of further variables for the control and regulation of the rhythms in human conceptions.

Birth Rate↗
PubMed1991

The solar wind and hallucinations--a possible relation due to magnetic disturbances.

Data from the 19th century on hallucinations and magnetic disturbances were found to exhibit a direct and statistically significant correlation. The aa magnetic index over the period 1868-89 and concurrent visual hallucinatory activity were found to co-vary (Spearman coefficient = .64; P less than .05). Magnetic influences on the pineal hormone, melatonin, are suggested as a possible source of variation.

Hallucinations↗
PubMed1991

An eleven-year cycle in human births.

The prominent endogenous cycle of the sun, with a period of approximately 11 years, is correlated with human conceptions. Time series methods (periodograms and periodic regression analyses) established that an approximate 11-year period exists in the data on births in the 20th century (1909-1985) in the United States and in New Zealand. Statistical comparisons indicated a reliable and direct relationship of conceptions with the approximately 11-year sunspot cycle. These findings were discussed in terms of the possible mediating role of geomagnetic disturbances and other factors that have been suggested in the literature to mediate human conception.

Birth Rate↗
PubMed1990

The solar wind and human birth rate: a possible relationship due to magnetic disturbances.

Data obtained from the literature on the annual pattern of human conceptions and plasma melatonin at high latitudes indicated that simple annual rhythms do not exist. Instead, prominent semiannual rhythms are found, with equinoctial troughs and solsticial peaks. A prominent semiannual environmental event is the magnetic disturbance induced by the solar wind. The semiannual magnetic disturbances are worldwide, but most pronounced in the auroral zones where the corpuscular radiation enters the atmosphere. Magnetic indices that predominantly reflect these events were obtained from the literature and correlated with the melatonin and conception data. Significant and inverse correlations were found for Inuit conceptions and the melatonin data. The correlations obtained for 48 contiguous states of the United States indicated that only the extreme northern states exhibited this relationship. These data were compared with a previous correlational study in the United States which established that sunshine was correlated with conceptions in the middle latitude and southern states. An hypothesis of dual control by electromagnetic and magnetic energies is proposed: melatonin is a progonadal hormone in humans controlled by both factors, depending on their relative strength. Other studies are reviewed regarding the possible factors involved in determining the annual pattern of human conceptions. Demographic studies of geographic variation in temporal patterns of conceptions, with particular regard to variations of the magnetic fields on the earth's surface, may provide some insight into the efficacy of these different factors.

Birth Rate↗
PubMed1985

Grooming reflexes and Brown-Séquard epilepsy in cats with pontile lesions.

The literature on the relation between the scratch reflex and Brown-Séquard epilepsy in the guinea pig indicates that the scratch reflex is a stimulus-induced myoclonus that is the first component of a complete seizure. Cats with pontile lesions and cats with frontal neocortical lesions exhibit the scratch reflex and other grooming reflexes. The grooming reflexes in cats with pontile lesions develop over a period of a year or more into complete seizures that are similar to Brown-Séquard epilepsy as described for the guinea pig by Brown-Séquard and others. Cinematographic analyses revealed that the scratch reflex in cats with pontile lesions and in cats with frontal neocortical lesions has the same frequency and the same complex spatial and temporal pattern as normal scratching behavior. In addition, the myoclonus of the complete seizures is identified as the scratch reflex, representing a very vigorous and long-lasting afterdischarge. Reconstruction of the pontile lesions indicate that the lateral and rostral portions of the paralemniscal tegmental fields were destroyed along with portions of the pontile gray and pyramidal tract.

Animals↗
PubMed1985

Circadian rhythms in food intake and activity in domestic cats.

Daily patterns of food intake and activity were determined for normal cats and cats with pontile lesions. Food intake in the dark and in the light of LD (light/dark) cycles were determined separately by weighing the food, and a "percentage nocturnal" score was calculated. The measure of activity was infrared photobeam interruptions, with the photobeam placed in front of the cages, over the food bowl. No differences between normal cats and cats with pontile lesions were detected for any of the measures. Food intake of cats was influenced by simulated starlight and moonlight conditions and by the presence of humans. Cats in isolation from humans and human noises exhibited random patterns of activity in constant light and free-running circadian rhythms in constant dark. Idiosyncratic differences in entrainment to LD cycles were found among cats, and the relevance of this variability is noted for studies of photoperiodic phenomena in this species.

Animals↗
PubMed1983

Mediation of the photoperiodic effect on grooming reflexes by glucocorticoid hormones and serotonin.

The role of serotonin and glucocorticoid hormones in the mediation of the effect of photoperiod on the size of the receptive field for grooming reflexes was determined in cats with pontile lesions. Nineteen adult male cats with pontile lesions were used to form four groups. One group of cats with pontile lesions was adrenalectomized, another group received 5,7-dihydroxytryptamine injections in the superior colliculi, and the other two groups of cats with pontile lesions were used to provide the baseline response to photoperiod. Then, for all four groups, the receptive fields for the grooming bite, lick, and scratch reflexes were determined under different photoperiods. Both adrenalectomy and 5,7-DHT treatment blocked the effect of photoperiod. After the photoperiodic manipulations, the efficacy of intramuscular injections of hydrocortisone and 5-hydroxytryptophan in abolishing the receptive fields was demonstrated. The data indicate a modulatory effect of serotonergic neurons on the photoperiodic regulation of glucocorticoid hormones. Comparisons of this study with previous photoperiodic studies established that a complex seasonal rhythm exists which is controlled by the annual rhythm in photoperiod.

Adrenalectomy↗
PubMed1982

Acute cardiogenic pulmonary edema in the elderly: factors predicting in-hospital and one-year mortality.

This prospective evaluation of 55 consecutive patients, aged 60 years or older, admitted in 1977-1978 to a community hospital coronary care unit for treatment of cardiogenic pulmonary edema, examines morality during hospitalization and during the subsequent one-year follow-up. Their treatment was based on clinical criteria, without the "advantage" of Swan-Ganz catheters and before widespread use of vasodilators for severe congestive heart failure. Multiple clinical and laboratory features were reviewed to determine possible prognostic clues. The nine patients who died during the initial hospitalization provided several clues to immediate mortality, including admission systolic blood pressure of less than 150 mm Hg, dyspnea for more than four hours, and peak creatine kinase values greater than 1,000 IU/L. The study identified high-risk patients who may benefit from more aggressive in-hospital therapy. The one-year mortality among the 46 patients discharged from the hospital was high (43%). Most noninvasive methods were not useful in attempting to predict one-year survival. The important question of whether newer therapeutic methods including vasodilators will favorably alter the relatively poor long-term prognosis in the elderly needs further study.

Aged↗
PubMed1980

Raphe lesions and 5,7-dihydroxytryptamine induce grooming reflexes in adrenalectomized cats.

Grooming reflexes are induced by frontal neocortical, pontile, or spinal lesions in dogs and cats. In intact cats, the combined treatments of adrenalectomy and para-chlorophenylalanine administration induce grooming reflexes. Two other ways of depleting serotonin (with 5,7-dihydroxytryptamine and raphe lesions) were combined with adrenalectomy in the present study as further tests that serotonin and glucocorticoid hormones are the critical factors in the induction of grooming reflexes. Because the deficit in serotonin is confined to the superior colliculi in cats with frontal and pontile lesions, 5,7-dihydroxytryptamine (5,7-DHT) was injected directly into the superior colliculi at eight sites, 2 microgram/site (1 microliter at .5 microliter/min). Electrolytic dc lesions of the dorsal and superior central raphe nuclei were made in another group, and then both groups were adrenalectomized. There were three control groups: (a) a group with vehicle injections in the superior colliculi and laporatomies, (b) a group with 5,7-DHT injections in the superior colliculi, and (c) a group with the raphe lesions. Large receptive fields for grooming reflexes occurred only in the groups with combined treatments. Thus the mechanism of induction of grooming reflexes by central nervous system lesions involves independent changes in a hormonal and a neurotransmitter system which combine to effect the change in behavior.

5,7-Dihydroxytryptamine↗
PubMed1977

Serotonin, the superior colliculus, and grooming behavior in cats with neocortical lesions.

Previous studies of cats with pontile lesions indicate that a serotonergic deficit exists in the superior colliculi and that this deficit is involved in the genesis of an abnormal grooming behavior. Cats with frontal neocortical lesions exhibit the same serotonergic deficit and the same abnormal grooming behavior. The present study established that the serotonergic deficit is involved in the mediation of the abnormal grooming behavior in cats with frontal neocortical lesions. Microinjections of 5-hydroxytryptophan (5-HTP) and 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) into the superior colliculi abolished or signigicantly reduced the abnormal behavior in cats with frontal neocortical lesions, whereas no effects of 5-HTP were observed after injections into the cerebrospinal fluid above the superior colliculi, into the tegmentum beneath the superior colliculi, or into the medial dorsal nucleus rostral to the superior colliculi. Other substances (tryptophan, noradrenaline, and gamma-amino-butyric acid) had no effect on the abnormal behavior when injected into the superior colliculi. Further evidence implicating a serotonergic deficit in the mediation of the abnormal behavior was obtained by systemic injections: The abnormal behavior was abolished with 5-HTP in cats with frontal neocortical lesions and in adrenalectomized cats that were previously treated with p-chlorophenylalanine.. The present study also demonstrated that the abnormal grooming behavior is induced by frontal neocortical lesions and not by more caudal lesions of the neocortex. The anatomical relations between the frontal neocortex and the superior colliculus and the role of these structures in grooming behavior are discussed.

5-Hydroxytryptophan↗
PubMed1977

Grooming behavior in cats with pontile lesions and cats with tectal lesions.

Because an abnormal grooming behavior that is mediated by the superior colliculi is elicited from cats with pontile lesions, an ablation study of these structures was conducted to specify quantitatively the changes in grooming behavior. Cats that underwent the surgical procedure except for the lesion and cats with lesions of the auditory and visual cortices served as control groups. Time-lapse motion pictures of the cats in their home cages were taken, and statistical analyses of the grooming behavior shown on the films indicated that cats with pontile lesions and cats with tectal lesions spent less time grooming, had shorter grooming bouts, and failed to exhibit the normal temporal pattern of grooming behaviors. Other studies revealed that cats with pontile or tectal lesions were deficient in removing tapes stuck on their fur. A sensory-loss hypothesis appeared to account for some of the changes, but a deficit in endogenous control of the grooming behaviors also was indicated. The literature on grooming behavior related to peripheral versus endogenous control was reviewed, and the role of the superior colliculi as a higher order integrative center for complex behaviors is emphasized.

Animals↗
PubMed1976

Similarities in the physiological bases of an abnormal grooming behavior in thyroidectomized cats and in cats with lesions of the central nervous system.

Thyroidectomized cats display a dissociation of the appetitive and consummatory components of grooming behavior when the body surface is tactually stimulated, an abnormal behavior that also occurs in cats with pontile or frontal neocortical lesions. Systemic administration of 5-hydroxytryptophan (5-HTP) abolishes the abnormal behavior, whereas dihydroxyphenylalanine administration does not, and p-chlorophenylalanine (PCPA) administration induces the abnormal grooming behavior in thyroidectomized cats that are not displaying the abnormal behavior because of spontaneous seasonal reversions. Microinjections of 5-HTP or serotonin into the superior colliculi also abolish the abnormal grooming behavior in thyroidectomized cats. Lesions of the superior colliculi prevent the development of the abnormal behavior after thyroidectomy, even with PCPA treatment. These pharmacological results in thyroidectomized cats parallel the behavioral effects observed in cats with pontile or frontal neocortical lesions.

Animals↗
PubMed1976

Role of thyroid hormones in an abnormal grooming behavior in thyroidectomized cats and cats with pontile lesions.

Thyroidectomized cats and cats with pontile lesions exhibit the same abnormal grooming behavior. Investigations were conducted to determine whether the abnormal grooming behavior in cats with pontile lesions was attributable to a hypothyroid condition. Administration of thyroid hormones abolished the abnormal behavior of thyroidectomized cats but was without effect in cats with pontile lesions. Studies of brain and blood levels of thyroid hormones in cats with pontile lesions failed to detect any differences from normal cats, and normal effects of thyroid hormones on evoked potentials to light flashes and to clicks were obtained in cats with pontile lesions. It was concluded that any thyroid dysfunction that may exist in the cats with pontile lesions was not involved in the genesis of the abnormal grooming behavior. Because the abnormal grooming behavior fluctuates rhythmically during the year, an endocrine hypothesis was entertained as the source of the fluctuations; endocrine concomitants of the abnormal behavior were investigated with longitudinal studies. The urinary excretion of 11-hydroxycorticoids exhibited a significant negative correlation with the abnormal behavior. When compared with that of normal cats, the plasma level of 11-hydroxycorticoids of thyroidectomized cats was significantly decreased. Intramuscular injections of 11-hydroxycorticoids abolished the abnormal behavior in both thyroidectomized cats and cats with pontile lesions. These results considered together with previous findings indicate that thyroidectomy and pontile lesions induce similar changes in 11-hydroxycorticoid and serotonergic functions-changes that are critical features of the physiological bases of the abnormal grooming behavior in both groups.

11-Hydroxycorticosteroids↗