Showing papers by "Temple University published in 1974"

An Exploratory Assessment of Situational Effects in Buyer Behavior

Abstract: Circumstances, contexts, or situations are often cited but rarely examined as explanations for unpredicted behaviors. This article reports an exploration of the amounts and patterns of variance in ...

Film theory and criticism;: Introductory readings

Abstract: Brought up to date with an expanded range of selections, extended historical coverage, and a dedicated pluralistic commitment, the third edition of this highly popular text on film aesthetics features major additions of contemporary topics in film theory--including psychoanalytic, feminist, and Marxist approaches--and new essays on television, horror films, and experimental movie making. Of the 53 selections, 13 are new. The section "Kinds of Film" has been retitled "Film Genres" and concentrates exclusively on the distinctions within a single type of film: classical Hollywood narrative cinema. The final section, now called "Film: Psychology, Society, and Ideology" is substantially revised to take into account film's relationship to its consumers: how films shape or reflect cultural attitudes, reinforce or reject dominant modes of cultural thinking, and stimulate or frustrate people's needs and drives. Throughout the book chapter introductions have been rewritten to reflect today's concerns. Current and comprehensive, the book that The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism called "the best collection available on the disparate comments in the fields of film theory and criticism" is now even better.

Urban graffiti as territorial markers

Abstract: Wall graffiti can be indicators of attitudes, behavioral dispositions, and social processes in settings where direct measurement is difficult. The autographed inscriptions of inner city “graffiti kings”in Philadelphia are analyzed in terms of their style, motivation, and preferred setting. Graffiti written by teenage gangs delineate their turf or area of control; their content may indicate contested space and gang violence. Graffiti in an ethnic neighborhood identify tension zones related to social change.

Non-melanoma skin cancer among Caucasians in four areas of the United States.

Abstract: A survey of the incidence of non-melanoma skin cancer was undertaken in four areas which included about ten million people. Complete reporting of all newly diagnosed cases of skin cancer which occurred during the survey period of September 1, 1971 to February 29, 1972 was obtained by canvassing dermatologists, radiotherapists, pathologists, and other physicians seeing and treating skin cancer. Rates among Caucasians were found two to three times higher than any ever reported before in these area. An estimate of 300,000 new cases of skin cancer per year would amount to about one-half the total for all other forms of cancer combined in the United States. In all areas, there was an excess liability in males of about 2 to 1. Highest rates were observed in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area, where increased solar radiation is suspected as a carcinogenic agent.

Polypeptide influences on attention, memory and anxiety in man.

Abstract: The effects of two polypeptides, ACTH 1–24 and ACTH 4–10 on a variety of bioelectric and behavioral measures of attention, memory and anxiety in human subjects were examined within the context of a disjunctive reaction time paradigm. ACTH 1–24 had no effect on any of the measures involved; ACTH 4–10 , however, served to improve visual memory, decrease anxiety, reinstitute a previously habituated alpha blocking response in the occipital EEG, and generally influence the occipital EEG toward a pattern consistent with increased attention. The results were taken to suggest a direct polypeptide influence on CNS attentional mechanisms.

The relative significance of CO2-fixing enzymes in the metabolism of rat brain.

Abstract: To evaluate the relative significance of CO2-fixing enzymes in the metabolism of rat brain, the subcellular distribution of pyruvate carboxylase, phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase, NADP-isocitrate dehydrogenase and NADP-malate dehydrogenase, as well as the fixation of H14CO3− by the cytosol and the mitochondria was investigated. Pyruvate carboxylase and phosphoenol-pyruvate carboxykinase are mainly localized in the mitochondria whereas NADP-isocitrate dehydrogenase and NADP-malate dehydrogenase are present in both the cytosol and the mitochondria. In the presence of pyruvate rat brain mitochondria fixed H14CO3− at a rate of about 170 nmol/g of tissue/min whereas these organelles fixed negligible amounts of H14CO3− in the presence of α-ketoglutarate or phosphoenolpyruvate. Rat brain cortex slices fixed H14CO3− at a rate of about 7 nmol/g of tissue/min and it was increased by two-fold when pyruvate was added to the incubation medium. The carboxylation of α-ketoglutarate and pyruvate by the reversal of the cytosolic NADP-isocitrate dehydrogenase and NADP-malate dehydrogenase respectively was very low as compared to that by pyruvate carboxylase. The rate of carboxylation reaction of both NADP-isocitrate dehydrogenase and NADP-malate dehydrogenase was only about 1/10th of that of decarboxylation reaction of the same enzyme. It is suggested that under physiological conditions these two enzymes do not play a significant role in CO2-fixation in the brain. In rat brain cytosol, citrate is largely metabolized to α-ketoglutarate by a sequential action of aconitate hydratase and NADP-isocitrate dehydrogenase. The operation of the citrate-cleavage pathway in rat brain cytosol is demonstrated. The data show that among four CO2-fixing enzymes, pyruvate carboxylase, an anaplerotic enzyme, plays the major role in CO2-fixation in the brain.

A quantitative study of the satellite cell population in postnatal mouse lumbrical muscle.

Abstract: The satellite cell population in mouse lumbrical muscle is quantitated at ages 7, 14, 21 and 30 days. Satellite cell nuclei comprise nearly 30% of the nuclei within the fiber basal lamina in the youngest animals studied. Growth is accompanied by a rapid decrease in the percentage of satellite cell nuclei. This is not accounted for by the increase in myonuclei, but rather there is an absolute decrease in the number of satellite cells. This loss in satellite cells occurs in spite of their high rate of division and is explained by a high percentage incorporation of the daughter cells of satellite divisions. It is further suggested that the percent incorporation of available cells decreases with age.

Ultrastructural studies of the mouse blastocyst substages.

Abstract: The mouse blastocyst stage covers approximately 2 days. During this period, embryonic development advances through four ultrastructurally distinct substages. Specific ultra-structural characteristics, such as changes in cell shape and/or the distribution of intracellular organelles, may be used to characterize the various cell types from each other at each substage (e.g. trophoblast from inner cell mass cells), as well as to distinguish the same cells from each other at different substages (e.g. substage 1 abembryonic trophoblast cells from substage 2 abembryonic trophoblast cells). A distinguishing characteristic of these blastocyst substages are the membrane contacts (tight junctions, desmosomes, focal tight junctions) between cells. The apical surfaces of adjacent trophoblast cells, from the time of cavity formation until the initial stage of implantation, are connected by a tight junction and a desmosome. The basal region of the apposed trophoblast membranes, however, vary both in their spatial interrelationship with each other and in their defined cellular contacts. Likewise, the cell contacts between the inner cell mass cells, and between these cells and the embryonic trophoblast cells, are distinctive for each blastocyst substage.

Effects of antimycin and 2-deoxyglucose on adenine nucleotides in human platelets. Role of metabolic adenosine triphosphate in primary aggregation, secondary aggregation and shape change of platelets

Abstract: 1. Human platelet-rich plasma prelabelled with [3H]adenine was incubated at 37°C with antimycin A and 2-deoxy-d-glucose. Variations in the amounts of ATP, ADP and Pi, and in the radioactivity of ATP, ADP, AMP, IMP, hypoxanthine+inosine and adenine were determined during incubation. Adrenaline- and ADP-induced platelet aggregation and the ADP-induced shape change of the platelets were determined concurrently. 2. 2-Deoxyglucose caused conversion of [3H]ATP to [3H]hypoxanthine+inosine. The rate of this conversion increased with increasing 2-deoxyglucose concentration and was markedly stimulated by addition of antimycin, which had no effect alone. At maximal ATP–hypoxanthine conversion rates, the IMP radioactivity remained at values tenfold higher than control, whereas [3H]ADP and [3H]AMP radioactivity gave variations typical for product/substrates in consecutive reactions. The specific radioactivityof ethanol-soluble platelet ATP decreased during incubation to less than one-tenth of its original value. The amounts and radioactivity of ethanol-insoluble ADP did not vary during incubation with the metabolic inhibitors. 3. The rate of ADP- and adrenaline-induced primary aggregation decreased as the amount of radioactive ATP declined, and complete inhibition of aggregation was obtained at a certain ATP concentration (metabolic ATP threshold). This threshold decreased with increasing concentration of inducer ADP. 4. Secondary platelet aggregation (release reaction) had a metabolic ATP threshold markedly higher than that of primary aggregation. 5. Shape change was gradually inhibited as the ATP radioactivity decreased, and had a metabolic ATP threshold distinctly lower than that of primary aggregation, and which decreased with increasing concentration of ADP. 6. A small but distinct fraction of [3H]ATP disappeared rapidly during the combined shape change–aggregation process induced by ADP in platelets incubated with metabolic inhibitors, whereas no ATP disappearance occurred during aggregation in their absence.

Rapid loss of translatable messenger RNA of phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase during glucose repression in liver.

Abstract: The rate of synthesis of phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase (EC 4.1.1.32) in rat liver decreased with a half-life of 30 min after fasted rats were refed either a chow diet or glucose. A requirement for both glucose and insulin to bring about this rapid deinduction was shown, as well as the ability of dibutyryl adenosine 3′:5′-cyclic monophosphate to block the decrease in enzyme synthesis. Estimates of the stability of messenger RNA of phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase were made by using the inhibitors actinomycin D and cordycepin to block further messenger RNA synthesis, and then measuring the decrease in specific enzyme synthesis. It is suggested that the use of actinomycin D yields an overestimation of the template stability. The results with cordycepin imply that the enzyme messenger RNA has a short half-life of approximately 1 hr. Thus, it is possible that deinduction may proceed by way of a decrease in messenger RNA production, leading to a rapid fall in the synthesis of phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase.

Problems of Cell Wall and Membrane Growth, Enlargement, and Division

Abstract: Not many years ago, growth and division of bacteria was thought of as a rather casual process. Cells merely increased in size and, after a more or less appropriate increase, divided into two smaller units. In fact, the observations of Henrici (published in 1928) were not fully appreciated until relatively recently. In cultures of Escherichia coli, Henrici observed that cells from the lag phase were both larger on the average and less uniform in size than cells from the exponential or stationary phases of growth. More recent observations, of balanced exponentially growing cultures, showed that both cellular composition and the average size of bacterial cells are dependent on growth rate.?, Such observations served as a basis for defining some of the factors involved in the regulation of the synthesis of informational macromo1ecules.3 Later, it became apparent that the processes that lead to cell division also must be coupled to, and interrelated with, the synthesis of informational macromolec u l e ~ . ~ ~ In addition to the cell division process itself, the enlargement of the bacterial cell surface (cell wall and membrane) also must be somehow related to the synthesis of other cellular constituents. I t is necessary for the cell surface not only to expand in area to enclose an increasing volume of protoplasm but also to undergo a series of changes in shape (morphogenesis), while maintaining the osmotic integrity of the cell. As cells increase in mass and volume, all of the cellular dimensions do not increase proportionately. During balanced growth of rod-shaped species, such as E. coli, at any specific growth rate the diameter of the cylinder remains fixed,9 so that increases in cell volume can be attributed to an increase in cell length. In the process of cylindrical elongation, there is a continuous decrease in the surface area to volume ratio.lo Such potential changes in surface area to volume ratio are illustrated in FIGURE 1. The formation of new poles and cell division result in the surface area to volume ratio reverting to that at the start of the cycle. Immediate separation of newly formed cross walls, to become one of the poles of each of the daughter cells, is not, however, essential to the process. When newly divided cells remain in chains, the potential surface area of their poles remains hidden, so that the ratio of cellular surface area to volume is considerably less than that of fully separated cells. Therefore, consideration must be given not only to exposed surface area but also to total

Circadian rhythms in cockroaches

Abstract: The driving oscillator, which mediates circadian locomotor rhythms in cockroaches, appears to reside in the protocerebrum of the brain. The evidence indicates that the optic lobes are crucial elements in this circadian system, and that control of rhythmicity is mediated through electrical, rather than hormonal, channels. Lesions were placed at various sites within the optic lobes in order to localize the areas controlling rhythmicity. It appears that the two innermost synaptic areas (the lobula and the medulla) constitute the crucial optic lobe elements. The outer synaptic area of the optic lobe (the lamina) is not necessary for the expression of rhythmicity, but does function as a coupling through which light cycles, transduced by the compound eyes, entrain the circadian clock.

Sociometric Status of Retarded Children in an Integrative Program

Abstract: This study determined the sociometric status in elementary school regular classes of 40 former special class educable mentally retarded children who participated in an integrative resource room program. The results indicated that the educable children in this study were no better accepted in regular classes than were educable children in previous studies for whom such supportive resource room services had not been made available. However, considerable overlap in sociometric acceptances and rejections were found between the educable children and other pupils in the regular classes.

N-acetylprocainamide: an active metabolite of procainamide.

Abstract: SummaryN-Acetylprocainamide has been detected in the plasma samples of each of four patients receiving procainamide. The metabolite was identified from tlc data and its identity confirmed by gas chomatographic-mass spectroscopic analysis. The metabolite was also detected in the whole blood of Sprague-Dawley rats after administration of PA. NAPA · HCI when injected ip into 42- to 49- day-old ICR male mice prevented coarse ventricular fibrillation caused by deep chloroform anesthesia and resultant hypoxia. NAPA · HCl reduced aconitine-induced arrhythmia to atrial flutter or atrial tachycardia with varying degrees of A-V block in three dogs. Analysis by tlc indicated that the mice, dogs, and rats did not deacetylate NAPA during the period of pharmacologic testing. NAPA was found to cause less ferrihemoglobin in Sprague-Dawley rats than did PA.

Evoked potential tests of augmenting-reducing.

Abstract: Two evoked potential tests of augmenting-reducing, using flash and sine wave modulated light stimuli, were administered to 23 normal Ss to determine: a) generalizability between tests; b) short-term reliability; c) influence of electrooculographic (EOG) activity; d) relationships between perceptual discrimination of stimuli and evoked response measurements; e) correlation between evoked responses, extraversion and neuroticism (Eysenck Personality Inventory). Four months later 11 Ss were retested before and after pilocarpine fixation of the pupil in miosis, to assess long-term reliability and pupillary factors. Although mean amplitudes of sine and flash responses were significantly positively correlated, correlations between linear slope measures of their intensity-response functions were low. Both short- and long-term reliability were high for mean amplitudes, but relatively low for most slope measures. Ocular factors, as reflected in EOG and changes with pupillary miosis, appeared to exert relatively little influence on the evoked potential measures of augmenting-reducing. Subjective perceptual discrimination performance was not correlated with evoked potential measures. Extraversion was correlated with some evoked response augmenting indicators; neuroticism yielded inconsistent results. Generally, results varied with lead placement.

Comparative measurements of glucose, beta-hydroxybutyrate, acetoacetate, and insulin in blood and cerebrospinal fluid during starvation.

Abstract: The possibility that altered central nervous system (CNS) metabolism is reflected by changes in the constituents of the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) was investigated. From eight obese subjects undergoing total starvation for weight reduction, overnight and 21-day fasting specimens of venous blood and lumbar CSF were obtained nearly simultaneously to determine the concentrations of glucose, beta-hydroxybutyrate (β-OHB), acetoacetate (AcAc), and immunoreactive insulin (IRI). After 21 days of starvation, the glucose concentration fell in both blood and CSF. The decrease in blood glucose was greater than the decline in CSF glucose, resulting in a diminished blood-CSF difference. Concentrations of β-OHB and AcAc in blood and CSF were elevated after prolonged fasting, but blood levels exceeded those in CSF, producing an increased blood-CSF ketone body difference. After an overnight and 21-day fast, the IRI levels in CSF were about one-half of the serum levels. These data suggest that metabolic alterations in CNS metabolism during prolonged starvation are reflected in substrate concentrations observed in CSF, and demonstrate that insulin is presented in the CSF of man.

Arteriovenous hemangioma (arteriovenous shunt). A clinicopathological and histochemical study.

Abstract: Sixty-nine patients with predominantly asymplomatic solitary angiomatous lesions were studied. Lips and perioral skin were the usual location, and the lesion occurred almost exclusively in adults. The essential histopathologic features are multiple dilated vascular channels located in the corium or submucosa and without significant epidermal participation. Anastomosing vascular spaces are lined by endothelial cells and thin-walled veins contrast sharply with arteries showing thick fibromuscular walls. The pathogenesis of these peculiar hemangiomas is unknown, but they probably represent hamartomas with numerous arteriovenous shunts and arise from the subpapillary vascular plexus. Simple surgical excision is curative and represents the treatment of choice. The term of arteriovenous hemangioma is proposed for this clinicopathologic entity and should be considered in the differential diagnosis of other acquired benign hemangiomas and vascular lesions occurring in middle-aged patients.