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At least 127 records · Page 7Linked to original sources
PubMed1988

Neural mechanisms underlying stuttering: evidence from bimanual handwriting performance.

Left- and right-handed male and female stutterers were compared with fluent speakers on a bimanual handwriting task. On each trial four words were read to the subject. After repeating the words, subjects had to write the initial letters as quickly as possible using the two hands simultaneously and without visual guidance. As a group, stutterers were slower, made more mirror-reversed letters, and formed letters of poorer quality than fluent speakers. The effects were the same for males and females, and the data for left- and right-handers were mirror-symmetric with respect to left and right hands. Evidence was found for two subgroups of stutterers with respect to scores on the dependent variables. It was suggested that the overall pattern of results implicates the supplementary motor area in the mediation of stuttering, possibly through relatively ungated callosal pathways.

Adult↗
PubMed1998

[Man and his fellow-creatures under ethical aspects]

Since in 1995, ALTEX offered the literary report a kind of journalistic home and - being a scientific journal - opened up even more in the direction of the Arts, the ethical dialogue could gain in shape as well as in colour. To deepen this co-operation even further every fourth issue of the quarterly has "ethics" as its emphasis. This provides the chance to give access in one issue to topical texts which were mentioned in the report but could not be cited in full length. Aside from the consideration of valued personal contacts at this point, the co-operation between ALTEX and the archives for ethics in animal -, nature - and environmental protection at Karlsruhe gains in efficacy. The goal shared by both is the animal report on the development of ethical thought about the relationship between us as humans and our animated environment as it is mirrored in literature. The proximity to ethics is not the only particularity of our project. We also aim to maintain a platform within German professional scientific writing and, at the same time inform through examples form developments in the Anglo-Saxon sphere. A structure of presentation of these topics has developed over the years which still shows features of "happening by chance". Still, it is meant to facilitate access to requested topics. As in former reports, ethical themes predominate. At times, one can get the impression that finding generally acceptable criteria is of particular importance. These criteria are supposed to provide the possibility to divide animals into two groups: The highly developed ones which are to be highly regarded and the others, remaining widely outside of our ethical attention. But this is not all - further arguments are at stake which would permit us to exercise preference regarding human wishes in cases of conflict over the welfare - and survival interests of the animals. In this way, two restrictive models add up in the following manner: First, the scope of animals which have to be paid moral respect is being narrowed and secondly, human interest regarding the use of such animals is allowed clearly higher priority, so that in the balance, the animal hardly has a chance. The tightening of texts will be continued as announced in the preliminary remarks preceding the last report. Its first victim is the realm of biotechnology which could be referred to in a fragmentary manner. In its expanding scope and specialisation it simply cannot be mastered any more. Since personnel cannot be increased proportionally to the growing number of related issues the only remaining choice is the limitation of projects to a manageable level.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1992

Anaïs Nin and the developmental use of the creative process.

Anaïs Nin had the capacity to work through the wound of self-injury through the combination of poetic and analytic exploration demonstrated in her writing. She recreated her father, and confronted the fallacies of her idealization, as well as the suppressed anger that kept her enslaved in wishes for his mirroring admiration. There was no escape from injury for Nin. After the father's departure, she scrutinized herself for flaws, trying to discover a reason for her father's betrayal. Yet, the humiliation was modified by some knowledge of the narcissistic bind that she was in, and by some evidence that her father was unworthy of the kind of worship that she clung to from childhood. Nin transcends retaliation. Her fictional abandonment of her father does not come from vindictiveness. Rather, it comes through growing insight into herself and into her own needs. There is a letting-go of past fantasies of idealization, and a mourning process that is based on both awareness and acceptance of the disappointments in these idealized fantasies. Separation and loss stem from surrendering the fusion with the idealized object and its counterpart grandiose self, a grandiose self seen here as a false self that exists through resonating with image projections and their reflections.

Creativity↗
PubMed1997

An examination of adolescent risk-taking using a story completion task.

The aim of the study was to assess whether risk-taking as described in complete the story tasks written by adolescents could be predicted by the perceived consequences of the behaviours portrayed in the stories. The study involved analysis of story themes in terms of portrayal of participation in risky behaviour and the nature of story outcomes. Links between story elements were assessed and comparisons made of these projectively-based findings with previous self-report research. Participants were 570 adolescents aged 12 to 17 from secondary schools in Melbourne, Australia. Responses to four complete the story stimuli were coded according to whether story protagonists participated in the hypothetical risk posed, and in terms of the behavioural outcomes presented. Adolescents were more likely to write stores accepting negative than positive risks, and to expect short-term rather than long-term consequences. Perceived short-term consequences of risk-taking behaviour were predictive of risk participation, however long-term consequences were not. The study provided data about adolescent risk-taking which mirrored and extended the findings of self-report studies.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2003

[A study on the relation between the location of brain damage and agraphia of Chinese].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the relation between the location of brain damage and Chinese agraphia. METHODS: Aphasia Battery of Chinese (ABC) and Chinese Agraphia Battery (CAB) were used to examine the ability of oral language and writing. Different types of aphasia and agraphia were detected. Computerized image-processing technology was used to standardize and reconstruct the skull CT/MRI images. The results substracted from the normal controls were shown directly. RESULTS: 48 patients had lesions on the left brain among them 30 were aphasic and 32 were agraphic. 15 had lesions on the right brain, among them 3 were aphasic and agraphic. The image-processing results showed that the nidi of aphasic agraphia located on the left deep albae of frontal and parietal lobe, the nidi of persistent agraphia located on the posterior parts of the left 1st and 2nd gyrus of frontal lobe and the nidi of mirror agraphia were dispersed near the left basal ganglion and thalamus. CONCLUSIONS: It is found that there is a relationship between Chinese agraphia and the location of brain damage. Some parts may be responsible for some special writing ability.

Adult↗
PubMed1997

[Medical deontology in Islam].

Our knowledge of medical practice in medieval Islam is still scanty. It is mostly derived from normative sources, textbooks and deontological texts, which rather depict an ambitious ideal to be followed than the social reality of the average physician. Moreover, deontological regulations in Arabic medical literature are to a large degree shaped by traditional conceptions. The present article, which is based on three so-called mirrors for physicians dating from the 9th to the 12th century AD, attempts to give a provisional outline of possible Greek sources beyond the well-known Hippocratic writings on medical ethics and deontology and a first assessment of topics which seem to be original with the Arabic authors.

Arab World↗
PubMed2005

[Jargonagraphia in a left-handed aphasia due to a left hemisphere lesion].

We report a case who developed jargonagraphia, severe aphasia and unilateral spatial neglect due to cerebral infarction in the left hemisphere. The patient was a 57 year-old left-handed woman. She suddenly developed hemiplegia on the right side and aphasia, and was admitted to our hospital. Neuropsychological examination showed non-fluent spontaneous speech. Repetition, reading and auditory comprehension were impaired. Writing was severely impaired and she showed paragraphia without meaning (jargonagraphia). Right unilateral spatial neglect and buccofacial apraxia were noted, but neither ideomotor nor ideational apraxia was observed. The mechanisms of jargonagraphia remain unknown. The localization of language function in this patient is not a mirror image of same function in dextral aphasia. Her condition was considered that free-running on motor engrams of characters stored in the right hemisphere caused jargonagraphia.

Agraphia↗
PubMed1994

Nursing the postmodern body: a touching case.

Using touch as a medium for exploring the ways in which it is constructed by nurses, the body is here characterized by a plethora of competing and co-existing terms: disobedient, obedient, mirroring, stigmatized, sinful, post-mortem, sanitized, angelic, desexualized, dangerous, dominant, dominating, deceitful, submissive, disciplined, postmodern and communicative. We have tried to be provocative by juxtaposing contradictory messages and evoking conflicting emotions, and we hope that the reader will not assume that we believe everything we write, or that everything may be taken only at face value. There are as many messages and meanings in the paper as each reader thinks there are.

Attitude to Health↗
PubMed2005

From benign mirror to demon lover: an object relations view of compulsion versus desire.

This article addresses the terrifying power of the father as a dynamic force within the psyche of the female. Its particular focus is on how the psychodynamic form of father internalization within the female effects her creative process and her creative work. Two cases vignettes of female writers are used to illustrate the interaction of traumatizing parental behavior and the daughter's incestuous desire on promoting compulsions and inhibitions in creative work. Writing blocks will be seen as a symptom of trauma and psychic conflict that has taken place in the oedipal and post oedipal years, as opposed to the creative compulsions that result from primal stage preoedipal trauma.

Compulsive Behavior↗
PubMed2003

[Problems of treating writer's cramp with botulinum toxin injections: results from 10 years of experience].

We studied the efficacy of botulinum toxin (BTX-A) injections in 167 patients, from a large cohort of 259 patients, presenting with writer's cramp (WC) and followed up to 10 years. The selection of the muscle was based on a careful physical examination, using up to 6 manoeuvres whilst attempting to write in order to bring out the original dystonic posture. The injection technique had to be precise, under EMG guidance, with a hollow recording needle to detect muscle or finger fascicle. The results showed a good efficacy and tolerance of this treatment in the long term with recovery of normal writing in 46 per cent, partial benefit in 10 per cent, failure in 21 per cent, and loss to follow-up after the first injection in 23 per cent. Among the responders, 27 per cent carried on the treatment every 9 months on average, with a duration of benefit of 6 months with follow-up between 3 and 9 years. Mirror dystonia had no prognostic value. Secondary dystonia, tremulous WC, long duration WC and progressive WC were associated with poor outcome.

Adult↗
PubMed1995

Is there convergence between Britain and the United States in the organisation of health services?. Interview by Penny Newman.

Is the organisation of health care in Britain becoming similar to that in the United States? Since the introduction of the internal market radical change has gripped the NHS. In the United States, despite the failure to implement coherent health care reform, a health care revolution is under way, driven by cost containment. At the centre of these changes is managed competition. Alain Enthoven, Marriner S Eccles professor of public and private management at Stanford University, has been the principal proponent of managed competition in both countries. His writings inspired the NHS reforms in 1989 and President Clinton's advisers to adopt managed competition in 1994, though ultimately he became opposed to the Clinton plan. In this interview with Penny Newman he redefines managed competition, explores the similarities and differences that have arisen between Britain and the United States, and describes recent trends in the United States, many of which are being mirrored in Britain. He illustrates a degree of convergence between the two countries. This was unthinkable 10 years ago when comparing the fee for service system in the United States with the NHS.

Competitive Medical Plans↗
PubMed2006

Remembering the orientation of newly learned characters depends on the associated writing knowledge: a comparison between handwriting and typing.

Recent data support the idea that movements play a crucial role in letter representation and suggest that handwriting knowledge contributes to visual recognition of letters. If so, using different motor activities while subjects are learning to write should affect their subsequent recognition performances. In order to test this hypothesis, we trained adult participants to write new characters either by copying them or by typing them on a keyboard. After three weeks of training we ran a series of tests requiring visual processing of the characters' orientation. Tests were ran immediately, one week after, and three weeks after the end of the training period. Results showed that when the characters had been learned by typing, they were more frequently confused with their mirror images than when they had been written by hand. This handwriting advantage did not appear immediately, but mostly three weeks after the end of the training. Our results therefore suggest that the stability of the characters' representation in memory depends on the nature of the motor activity produced during learning.

Adult↗
PubMed2006

Umbilical cord blood transplantation: newer trends.

During last ten years, over 4000 umbilical cord blood transplantations have been performed worldwide. The interest in this modality of transplantation has been growing as this provides easy access to an alternative source of stem cells for treating cancer and serious genetic disorders with otherwise fatal outcome or immense morbidity. Umbilical cord blood is a commonly discarded source of useful stem cells. The outcome of transplantation using cells from this source in children mirrors the results of unrelated donor transplantation and hence the procedure is widely accepted by paediatric transplant community. Results are, however, hampered in adults due to low cell dose. Newer techniques, such as pooled or sequential cord blood transplantation, may help to increase progenitor cell numbers and improve immune reconstitution. In near future, non-haematopoietic uses will make this even more exiting area. In this write-up, we will review this treatment including cord blood banking issues and the ethical concerns. We will discuss both paediatric and adult transplantations including certain new indications.

Adult↗
PubMed1996

Redefining private insurance in a changing market structure.

This discussion on likely changes and challenges for the health insurance industry over the coming decade assumes that significant national reform of health care financing for the privately insured population will not occur--or, if it does, that it will mirror the insurance market reforms that many states already have undertaken. First, the changes in private insurance coverage during the past several years are considered, with particular attention to the erosion of employer-based coverage and to the rising influence of public insurance programs--especially Medicaid--on the private insurance market. Next is a description of the changing web of state laws and regulations governing private health insurance. At this writing, virtually every state has enacted or is considering reforms of the small group market to limit what many perceive as unfair or destructive insurer practices and to set new ground rules for competition among insurance arrangements. The changing nature of private insurance contracts in the United States is considered next. Evolving from conventional fee-for-service contracts, private insurance is increasingly a complex mixture of capitation, partial capitation, and reinsurance of capitated arrangements. Finally, this chapter discusses three issues of increasing importance in shaping the marketplace for private insurers: (1) the federal preemption of states' regulatory authority over self-insured employer plans; (2) emerging state regulation to restructure competition in the health insurance and health care markets; and (3) the growing interest of both federal and state governments in medical savings accounts to finance health insurance and health care spending.

Capitation Fee↗
PubMed2006

Introducing clinical laboratory science: CLS students help shape the future.

OBJECTIVES: The profession of clinical laboratory science (CLS) is in dire need of increased exposure to young people. By introducing the clinical laboratory sciences to students at a critical point in their science education and by making it relevant to their lives, more choices are made available to them when considering future career options. With this in mind, the CLS faculty at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center (TTUHSC) redesigned a recruitment program and developed it into one making use of CLS student knowledge, enthusiasm, and professionalism. CLS students were given the assignment of designing an entire curriculum for a ten day presentation of clinical laboratory science topics to middle and secondary school students. Following the presentations, participants in the program were asked to provide feedback regarding CLS student performance and overall opinion of their interest in clinical laboratory science. The objectives of this study were twofold: 1) to determine if educational methodologies could be appropriately applied by CLS students to present CLS disciplines to middle and high school students; and 2) to determine if the student presentation was successful in initiating interest in the CLS profession based on outcome measures. DESIGN: As a component of the CLS laboratory management course, CLS students were instructed in education methodologies including objective writing, teaching-unit preparation, and evaluation tool design. In the following semester, these students were divided into groups and assigned a specific CLS discipline that would then be presented to middle and secondary school students in a two week, 30 hour educational program. This program was offered by the TTUHSC CLS program in cooperation with the Institute for the Development and Enrichment of Advanced Learners (IDEAL) at Texas Tech University. The curriculum prepared by the CLS students (with faculty supervision) provided the framework for the present study. SETTING: Didactic instruction of the CLS students regarding objective writing, curriculum design, and preparation of evaluations was included as a component of a CLS laboratory management course. The educational program presented by IDEAL in conjunction with the TTUHSC CLS program within the School of Allied Health Sciences occurred in the CLS student laboratories located in Lubbock, Texas. PARTICIPANTS: TTUHSC senior CLS students in a 2 + 2 baccalaureate level CLS program acted as instructors in the educational program which was presented to middle and secondary school students from around the region. CLS program faculty served as supervisors of this program. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Questionnaires with Likert-scaled responses were used to evaluate outcomes. These questionnaires regarded 1) faculty assessment of CLS student performance relative to instruction in education methods; 2) participant feedback on the effectiveness and competence of the CLS student instructors and overall appeal of the presented subject material; and 3) peer evaluations of attitude, contribution, and effort of the group members. RESULTS: CLS faculty strongly agreed that the CLS students demonstrated a high level of competence when writing objectives, planning age-appropriate curriculum and activities, and demonstrating a positive image of the profession. Regarding satisfaction of the IDEAL student participant, questionnaire responses demonstrated a high rate (84% or greater for middle school participants and 85% for high school students). The program design has been so successful that it has been implemented for several other programs offered by TTU and IDEAL. CONCLUSION: The education methods used in presenting the IDEAL program mirror those found in clinical and academic settings and is an effective technique to introduce CLS students to the varied aspects of educational methodology. The presentation by the CLS students also demonstrated that introduction of clinical laboratory science disciplines early in the education of middle and secondary school students leads to an interest in the CLS profession and to the desire to learn more about it.

Clinical Laboratory Techniques↗
PubMed2003

High-resolution, air-coupled ultrasonic imaging of thin materials.

This paper describes the use of a focused air-coupled capacitance transducer combined with pulse compression techniques to form high-resolution images of thin materials in air. The focusing of the device is achieved by using an off-axis parabolic mirror. The lateral resolution of the focused transducer, operating over a bandwidth of 1.2 MHz, was found to be less than 0.5 mm. A combination of the focused transducer as a source and a planar receiver in through-transmission mode has been developed for the measurement of different features in paper products, with a lateral resolution in through-transmission imaging of approximately 0.4 mm. Images in air of thin samples such as bank notes, high-quality writing paper, stamps, and sealed joints were obtained without contact to the sample.

Journal Article↗