Showing papers by "McGill University published in 1975"

The McGill Pain Questionnaire: major properties and scoring methods.

Abstract: The McGill Pain Questionnaire consists primarily of 3 major classes of word descriptors--sensory, affective and evaluative--that are used by patients to specify subjective pain experience. It also contains an intensity scale and other items to determine the properties of pain experience. The questionnaire was designed to provide quantitative measures of clinical pain that can be treated statistically. This paper describes the procedures for administration of the questionnaire and the various measures that can be derived from it. The 3 major measures are: (1) the pain rating index, based on two types of numerical values that can be assigned to each word descriptor, (2) the number of words chosen; and (3) the present pain intensity based on a 1-5 intensity scale. Correlation coefficients among these measures, based on data obtained with 297 patients suffering several kinds of pain, are presented. In addition, an experimental study which utilized the questionnaire is analyzed in order to describe the nature of the information that is obtained. The data, taken together, indicate that the McGill Pain Questionnaire provides quantitative information that can be treated statistically, and is sufficiently sensitive to detect differences among different methods to relieve pain.

Depressant action of TRH, LH-RH and somatostatin on activity of central neurones.

Abstract: THREE structurally identified hypothalamic-adenohypophy-seal regulatory peptides—thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH)1,2 luteinising hormone releasing hormone (LH–RH)3,4 and growth hormone-release inhibiting hormone (somato statin or SRIF)5 have now been localised both in extra-hypothalamic regions of the central nervous system (CNS)6–9 and in certain extraneural regions such as the pineal gland10. There is increasing evidence that these peptides may affect behaviour by direct action on the brain. Systemic admini stration of TRH to rats induces behavioural effects inde pendent of the pituitary–thyroid axis11; LH–RH can induce mating behaviour in hypophysectomised female rats12 and somatostatin potentiates the behavioural effects of d 1-dopa13. These findings together with evidence of high affinity binding sites for TRH in extrahypothalamic tissues14 identification of LH–RH in synaptosome fractions of brain15 and localisation of LH-RH16,17 and somatostatin18,19 in nerve terminals suggest a role for these peptides in neuronal function. Applying TRH, LH–RH and somatostatin directly to central neurones microiontophoretioally we have found that these peptides have a potent depressant action on the activity of neurones at several levels (cerebral and cerebellar cortex brain stem and hypothalamus) of the neural axis.

Prolonged relief of pain by brief, intense transcutaneous somatic stimulation

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of brief, intense transcutaneous electrical stimulations at trigger points or acupuncture points on severe clinical pain. The McGill Pain Questionnaire was used to measure the change in pain quality and intensity produced by stimulation. The data indicate that the procedure provides a powerful method for the control of some forms of severe pathological pain. The average pain decrease during stimulation sessions was 75% for pain due to peripheral nerve injury, 66% for phantom limb pain, 62% for shoulder-arm pain, and 60% for low-back pain. The duration of relief frequently outlasted the period of stimulation by several hours, occasionally for days or weeks. Different patterns of the amount and duration of pain relief were observed. Daily stimulation carried out at home by the patient sometimes provided gradually increasing relief over periods of weeks or months. Control experiments, which included two forms of placebo stimulation, showed that brief, intense electrical stimulation is significantly more effective than placebo contributions. Possible neural mechanisms that underlie these patterns of pain relief by brief, intense stimulation are discussed.

The syndrome of systemic carnitine deficiency. Clinical, morphologic, biochemical, and pathophysiologic features.

Abstract: An 11-year old boy had had recurrent episodes of hepatic and cerebral dysfunction and underdeveloped musculature. Overt weakness developed at age 10. Lipid excess, especially in type I fibers, was found in muscle. Hypertrophied smooth endoplasmic reticulum and excessive microbodies were present in liver. Marked carnitine deficiency was shown in skeletal muscle, plasma, and liver. Ketogenesis was impaired on a high fat diet, but omega oxidation of fatty acids was enhanced. There was excessive glucose uptake and essentially no oxidation of labeled long-chain fatty acids by perfused forearm muscles in vivo. Oral replacement therapy restored plasma carnitine levels to normal, but not liver or muscle carnitine levels, and was accompanied by clinical improvement.

Effect of clonidine on growth hormone, prolactin, luteinizing hormone, follicle-stimulating hormone, and thyroid-stimulating hormone in the serum of normal men.

Abstract: Clonidine (0.15 mg iv), a selective noradrenergic receptor agonist, increased serum growth hormone (GH) levels (greater than 6 ng/ml) on 8 out of 12 administrations to 6 normal men. This increase was independent of the hypotensive effects of the drug and unrelated to changes in serum cortisol. Clonidine induced a hyperglycemic effect in all subjects which was greatest 15 min after commencint the injection. No changes in blood sugar or GH occurred after placebo injection. Apomorphine, a selective dopamine receptor agonist, elevated GH in each of these 6 subjects (greater than 10 ng/ml). Clonidine had no effect on serum prolactin (PRL), luteinizing hormone (LH), follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), or thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH). These data are compatible with a dual dopaminergic and noradrenergic mechanism modulating GH secretion in normal men and with the absence of a noradrenergic mechanism in the regulation of PRL, LH, FSH, or TSH.

Structural Manifestations in Amorphous Alloys: Resistance Minima

Abstract: Logarithmic anomalies in the temperature-dependent resistivity of a series of amorphous alloys have been measured and shown to be nonmagnetic in origin. We associate these anomalies with the noncrystalline structure.

Prolactin receptors in rat liver: possible induction by prolactin.

Abstract: A prolactin receptor, present in adult female rat liver, can be induced in males by estrogen. Hypophysectomy diminished receptor levels in the female and rendered males unresponsive to estrogen. A renal pituitary implant blunted the decrease in hypophysectomized females and induced the receptor in hyophysectomized males. The increased receptor level in hypophysectomized males with a renal pituitary implant was preceded by a sustained elevation of circulating prolactin. Our observations suggest that prolactin induces its own receptor.

The single-stranded DNA phages.

Abstract: (1975). The Single-Stranded DNA Phages. CRC Critical Reviews in Microbiology: Vol. 4, No. 2, pp. 161-223.

The Use of a Helium-Oxygen Mixture during Maximum Expiratory Flow to Demonstrate Obstruction in Small Airways in Smokers

Abstract: We measured the response to breathing a mixture of 80% helium and 20% oxygen (He) during a maximum expiratory flow-volume (MEFV) maneuver in 66 nonsmokers and 48 smokers, aged 17-67. All of the subjects studied had (forced expiratory volume in 1 s/forced vital capacity [FEV(1.0)/FVC]) x 100 of greater than 70%. While the flow rates of the smokers were within +/-2 SD of those of the nonsmokers at 50% VC (Vmax(50)), both groups showed a reduction in flow with age (nonsmokers: r=-0.34, P<0.01; smokers r=-0.52, P<0.001). Nonsmokers showed no significant reduction with age in response to breathing He, while smokers showed a marked reduction with age (r=-0.63, P<0.001 at Vmax(50)). We also measured the lung volume at which maximum expiratory flow (Vmax) while the subject was breathing He became equal to Vmax while he was breathing air, and expressed it as a percent of the VC. This was the most sensitive method of separating smokers from nonsmokers. These results indicate that the use of He during an MEFV maneuver affords sufficient sensitivity to enable detection of functional abnormalities in smokers at a stage when Vmax while they are breathing air is normal.

Feeding mechanisms and feeding strategies of Atlantic reef corals

Abstract: The feeding behaviour of 35 species of Atlantic reef corals was examined in the laboratory and in the field. Observations were made during the day and at night, using freshly hatched brine shrimp nauplii and finely ground, filtered fresh fish as food sources. Three feeding strategies were observed: Group I–feeding by tentacle capture only; Group II–feeding by entanglement with a mucus net or mucus filaments; Group III–feeding by a combination of tentacle capture and mucus filament entanglement. Group I included corals of the families Poritidae and Pocilloporidae which were normally expanded during both day and night. Group II included corals of the family Agaricidae which were normally expanded at night and contracted during the day. Group III included corals of the other families examined which, with the exception of Dendrogyra cylindrus, were normally expanded only at night. Feeding responses were elicited by both chemical and tactile stimuli. A preparatory feeding posture was assumed in response to chemical stimuli and consisted of horizontal positioning of the tentacles, elevation of the oral disk to form a cone-like mouth, a wide mouth opening and secretion of mucus by the epidermis of the oral disk. Following the assumption of the preparatory feeding posture, food capture and ingestive movements were elicited by tactile stimuli. However, food capture and ingestive movements were also elicited by chemical stimuli alone in those species which were normally contracted during the day. While expanded corals captured food with their tentacles or with mucus filaments, contracted corals were able to feed by capturing fine particulate matter with mucus filaments only and thus acted as suspension feeders. By a combination of feeding strategies, reef corals were able to feed both day and night and a wide range of potential food ranging from fine particulate matter to large zooplankton was available to them.

Effects of morphine on serum growth hormone, cortisol, prolactin and thyroid stimulating hormone in man.

Abstract: Morphine administration in man results in a significant increase in serum prolactin without altering the levels of growth hormone, thyroid stimulating hormone and cortisol. Apomorphine prevented the morphine induced prolactin rise. It is suggested that the effect on prolactin is not mediated via non specific stress or changes in the thyroid stimulating hormone releasing factor, but via suppression of prolactin inhibiting factor or activation of a specific prolactin releasing factor.

Cellular renewal in the enamel organ and the odontoblast layer of the rat incisor as followed by radioautography using 3H-thymidine.

Abstract: Renewal of the cell populations of the incisor was studied in 100 gm male rats injected with a single dose of 3H-thymidine and sacrificed at various times from one hour to 32 days after injection. Radioautographs showed that a cohort of labeled cells within the enamel organ, odontoblast layer, and pulp was carried passively with the erupting incisor from the apical end towards the gingival margin where the life cycle of these cells was terminated. Labeled cells in the upper and lower incisor, although traversing different absolute lengths, were found in approximately the same functional stage of their life cycle at similar times after the injection. Thus, by one and on-half days labeled ameloblasts began inner enamel secretion and, by eight days (upper) or nine days (lower), complement outer enamel secretion. By 32 days labeled ameloblasts had traversed the entire enamel maturation zone and were located at the gingival margin. Labeled odontoblasts followed closely the movement of labeled ameloblasts. The mean rate of ameloblast migration was 567 mum/day on the upper incisor and 651 mim/day on the lower. For the odontoblasts this rate was 55 mum/day (upper) and 631 mum/day (lower). Finally, it was found that as the rat age, the duration of the life cycle for epithelial and pulp cell populations of the incisor increased because of growth within the lonitudinal axis of the tooth. It was concluded that the apical end of the incisor literally "grows backward" in the bony socket, and hence, the duration of the life cycle becomes greater simply because it takes cells longer to physically reach the gingival margin.

A rigorous theory of ring tensiometry

Abstract: TheHarkins-Jordan correction factors which make the ring method an accurate and absolute method of measuring surface and interfacial tensions, are calcuated theoretically and made available in a tabulated form. The applicable range of the numerical tabulation far exceeds the range of those available in the literature which have been obtained experimentally. With the tabulation, the ring method may be used to measure the interfacial tensions of liquid systems in which the density difference across the interface is very small and the interfacial tension is large, or in which the density difference is large and the tension is small. The theoretical calculations also provide information on the state of the ring at the liquid interface which may be used to increase accuracy of the ring method.

Distribution of syringyl and guaiacyl moieties in hardwoods as indicated by ultraviolet microscopy

Abstract: Ultraviolet absorption spectra were determined microscopically for the different morphological regions of fourteen hardwood species. The woods were chosen to represent a range of methoxyl to carbon nine ratio (MeO/C9) in their lignins. The various trends in absorbance and peak wavelength indicated that 1. Syringyl residues become increasingly predominant in the walls of the fiberes and ray cells as the MeO/C9 ratio of the lignin increases. 2. The vessel walls and cell corner regions contain mostly guaiacyl residues except at high MeO/C9 ratios when the syringyl character of the vessel walls increases. If certain reasonable assumptions were made, it was possible to resolve the spectrum of the fibre wall of eastern cottonwood into spectra of the syringyl, guaiacyl and p-hydroxy benzoic acid components.

Detection of symmetry as a function of angular orientation.

Abstract: Subjects decided as quickly as possible whether dot patterns were or were not symmetrical about a line. Their decision times were shorter when the line was verticle and increased as the angle between the line and the verticle increased. This orientation function was essentially the same whether or not the subjects knew in advance what the orientation of the line would be. When the subjects tilted their heads, the function shifted in the direction of the head tilt, indicating that it was tied more closely to retinal than to gravitational coordinates. These data can be interpreted to mean that people mentally rotate patterns to a vertical orientation before judging their symmetry. This in turn suggests that the "template" for detecting symmetry may itself be embedded symmetrically in the brain. Language: en

Eclogite nodules from kimberlite pipes of the Colorado plateau—samples of subducted Franciscan-type oceanic lithosphere

Abstract: Remarkable similarities between lawsonite-bearing eclogite xenoliths from kimberlite pipes on the Colorado plateau and Franciscan eclogitic rocks suggest a common origin for both groups of rocks. Petrological and structural evidence as well as RbSr isotopic studies are consistent with interpreting the xenoliths as fragments of Mesozoic oceanic crust subducted beneath the North American continent and returned to the Earth's surface via the kimberlite pipes. This radically different model may have important implications for the tectonic evolution of the south-western United States. It may constitute direct proof that recently proposed large-scale underflow of oceanic crust and mantle beneath the North American continent has indeed taken place.

Auditory segregation: stream or streams?

Abstract: When auditory material segregates into "streams," is the unattended stream actually organized as an entity? An affirmative answer is suggested by the observation that the organizational structure of the unattended material interacts with the structure of material to which the subject is trying to attend. Specificially, a to-be-rejected stream can, because of its structure, capture from a to-be-judged stream elements that would otherwiise be acceptable members of the to-be-judged stream. Language: en

A new algorithm for the solution of multi-state dynamic programming problems

Abstract: This paper presents a new algorithm for the solution of multi-state dynamic programming problems, referred to as the Progressive Optimality Algorithm. It is a method of successive approximation using a general two-stage solution. The algorithm is computationally efficient and has minimal storage requirements. A description of the algorithm is given including a proof of convergence. Performance characteristics for a trial problem are summarized.

A comparsion of various procedures for fine grain development in electron microscopic radioautography

Abstract: Fine grain development for electron microscopic radioautography was investigated with two types of radioactive specimens: sections of tritiated methacrylate, which provide a homogeneously labeled source for quantitative evaluation of the radioautographic reaction, and sections of 125I-labeled thyroid. Radioautographs were prepared with Ilford L4, Sakura NR-H2, Agfa-Gevaert NUC 307 or Kodak NTE emulsions. The radioautographs were developed with one of several “solution physical” development procedures (Agfa-Gevaert, phenidone-ascorbic acid, p-phenylenediamine developers) or with arrested “direct” developments (D-19b, Elon-ascorbic acid developers). By arresting each development at an early stage of the reaction and at progressively longer time intervals, it was possible to examine the sequence of shapes in the growth of developed silver deposits for each emulsion-development combination. Thus, conditions which resulted in the development of small, round, compact silver deposits were defined for each emulsion.

Turbiditic and non‐turbiditic mudstone of Cretaceous flysch sections of the East Alps and other basins

Abstract: Recognition of the occurrence and extent of hemipelagic and pelagic deposits in turbidite sequences is of considerable importance for environmental analysis (palaeodepth, circulation, distance from land, hemipelagic or pelagic versus turbidite sedimentation rates) of ancient basins. Differentiation between the finegrained parts (E-division) of turbidites and the (hemi-) pelagic layers (F-division of turbidite-pelagite alternations) is facilitated in basins where carbonate turbidites were deposited below the carbonate compensation depth (CCD) such as the Flysch Zone of the East Alps but may be difficult in other basins where less compositional contrast is developed between the fine-grained turbidites and hemipelagites. This difficulty pertains particularly in Palaeozoic and older basins. For Late Mesozoic-Cenozoic oceans with a relatively deep calcite compensation level three other types of turbidite basins may be distinguished for which differentiation becomes increasingly more difficult in the sequence from (1) to (3): (1) terrigenous turbidite basins above the CCD; (2) carbonate turbidite basins above the CCD; (3) terrigenous turbidite basins below the CCD. Criteria and methods useful for the differentiation between turbiditic and hemipelagic mudstone in the Upper Cretaceous of the Flysch Zone of the East Alps include calcium carbonate content, colour, sequential analysis, distribution of bioturbation, and microfaunal content. In modern turbidite basins clay mineral content, organic matter content, plant fragments, and grain-size (graded bedding, maximum grain diameter) have reportedly also been used as criteria (see Table 3). Deposition of muddy sediment by turbidity currents on weakly sloping sea bottoms such as the distal parts of deep-sea fans or abyssal plains is not only feasible but may lead to the accumulation of thick layers. Contrary to earlier speculation it can be explained by the hydrodynamic theory of turbidity currents, if temperature differences between the turbidity current and the ambient deep water as well as relatively high current velocities for the deposition of turbiditic muds (an order of magnitude higher on mud surfaces than commonly assumed) are taken into consideration. The former add to the capacity of turbidity currents to carry muddy sediment without creating a driving force on a low slope.