Showing papers by "University of Alberta published in 1989"
TL;DR: Clinical guidelines for the diagnosis of autism in the draft version of ICD-10 were operationalized in terms of abnormalities on specific ADOS items, and an algorithm based on these items was shown to have high reliability and discriminant validity.
Abstract: The Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS), a standardized protocol for observation of social and communicative behavior associated with autism, is described. The instrument consists of a series of structured and semistructured presses for interaction, accompanied by coding of specific target behaviors associated with particular tasks and by general ratings of the quality of behaviors. Interrater reliability for five raters exceeded weighted kappas of .55 for each item and each pair of raters for matched samples of 15 to 40 autistic and nonautistic, mildly mentally handicapped children (M IQ = 59) between the ages of 6 and 18 years. Test-retest reliability was adequate. Further analyses compared these groups to two additional samples of autistic and nonautistic subjects with normal intelligence (M IQ = 95), matched for sex and chronological age. Analyses yielded clear diagnostic differences in general ratings of social behavior, specific aspects of communication, and restricted or stereotypic behaviors and interests. Clinical guidelines for the diagnosis of autism in the draft version of ICD-10 were operationalized in terms of abnormalities on specific ADOS items. An algorithm based on these items was shown to have high reliability and discriminant validity.
1,758 citations
845 citations
TL;DR: Testing a number of hypotheses relating top management group composition to firm performance found partial support for these hypotheses was found; however, the pattern of results also highlights the numerous difficulties in untangling and identifying the determinants of firm performance.
Abstract: Using a sample of 84 Fortune 500 food and oil companies, observed over the period 1967 to 1981, this paper tests a number of hypotheses relating top management group composition to firm performance. Specifically, it was expected that homogeneous top management groups would interact more efficiently and therefore be preferable when competition is intense, but that heterogeneous groups would facilitate adaptation and therefore be preferable under conditions of environmental change. Partial support for these hypotheses was found; however, the pattern of results also highlights the numerous difficulties in untangling and identifying the determinants of firm performance.
652 citations
TL;DR: D Daniels and Cosgrove as discussed by the authors discuss the political iconography of woodland in later Georgian England and the geometrical geometry of landscape in sixteenth-century Venetian land territories.
Abstract: Preface Introduction: iconography and landscape Stephen Daniels and Denis Cosgrove 1. The geography of Mother Nature Peter Fuller 2. The evocative symbolism of trees Douglas Davies 3. The political iconography of woodland in later Georgian England Stephen Daniels 4. Places and dwellings: Wordsworth, Clare and the anti-picturesque John Lacas 5. Art and agrarian change, 1710-1815 Hugh Prince 6. 'Fields of radiance': the scientific and industrial scenes of Joseph Wright David Fraser 7. The privation of history: Landseer, Victoria and the Highland myth Trevor P. Pringle 8. The iconography of nationhood in Canadian art Brian S. Osborne 9. Rhetoric of the western interior: modes of environmental description in American promotional literature of the nineteenth century G. Malcolm Lewis 10. Symbolism, 'ritualism' and the location of crowds in early nineteenth-century English towns Mark Harrison 11. Symbol of the Second Empire: cultural politics and the Paris Opera House Penelope Woolf 12. The sphinx in the north: egyptian influences on landscape, architecture and interior design in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Scotland Eric Grant 13. The geometry of landscape: practical and speculative arts in sixteenth-century Venetian land territories Denis Cosgrove 14. Maps, knowledge, and power J. B. Harley Index.
609 citations
563 citations
TL;DR: Active and passive measures of short-term memory over a large segment of the adult life span were compared and it is suggested that the age differences may be due to a decrease in the flexibility with which processing changes are made.
Abstract: Active and passive measures of short-term memory over a large segment of the adult life span were compared. Two hundred twenty-eight volunteers, aged 30 to 99 years, performed the digit span forward and backward task, the Peterson-Peterson task, and a new working memory task in which active manipulation of information is emphasized. Age differences were slight for passive tasks. For the working memory task, significant declines were found between the ages of 60 to 69 and 70+ years. It is suggested that the age differences may be due to a decrease in the flexibility with which processing changes are made.
532 citations
TL;DR: Clonal deletion may involve AICD when self-reactive, immature T cells are induced by self antigen, and CsA may cause autoimmunity by interfering with this process.
Abstract: One mechanism by which the immune system develops the ability to discriminate self from nonself is the deletion of autoreactive T-cell clones during thymic maturation. The drug cyclosporin A (CsA) has been shown to interfere with this process, allowing the escape of normally 'forbidden' T-cell clones and the appearance of autoimmune disease. Recently, it has been demonstrated that immature thymocytes undergo programmed cell death (apoptosis) upon activation via the T-cell receptor. A similar phenomenon of activation-induced cell death (AICD) has been observed in T-cell hybridomas. Here we show that AICD in T-cell hybridomas in vitro and in thymocytes in vivo is blocked by CsA. Thus, clonal deletion may involve AICD when self-reactive, immature T cells are induced by self antigen, and CsA may cause autoimmunity by interfering with this process.
506 citations
TL;DR: The ability to achieve significant prolongation in circulation times of liposomes makes possible a number of therapeutic applications ofliposomes which, until now, have not been achievable.
458 citations
TL;DR: The present work reviews theories and empirical findings that bear on the perception of English vowels, with an emphasis on the comparison of data analytic "machine recognition" approaches with results from speech perception experiments.
Abstract: The present work reviews theories and empirical findings, including results from two new experiments, that bear on the perception of English vowels, with an emphasis on the comparison of data analytic "machine recognition" approaches with results from speech perception experiments. Two major sources of variability (viz., speaker differences and consonantal context effects) are addressed from the classical perspective of overlap between vowel categories in F1 x F2 space. Various approaches to the reduction of this overlap are evaluated. Two types of speaker normalization are considered. "Intrinsic" methods based on relationships among the steady-state properties (F0, F1, F2, and F3) within individual vowel tokens are contrasted with "extrinsic" methods, involving the relationships among the formant frequencies of the entire vowel system of a single speaker. Evidence from a new experiment supports Ainsworth's (1975) conclusion [W. Ainsworth, Auditory Analysis and Perception of Speech (Academic, London, 1975)] that both types of information have a role to play in perception. The effects of consonantal context on formant overlap are also considered. A new experiment is presented that extends Lindblom and Studdert-Kennedy's finding [B. Lindblom and M. Studdert-Kennedy, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 43, 840-843 (1967)] of perceptual effects of consonantal context on vowel perception to /dVd/ and /bVb/ contexts. Finally, the role of vowel-inherent dynamic properties, including duration and diphthongization, is briefly reviewed. All of the above factors are shown to have reliable influences on vowel perception, although the relative weight of such effects and the circumstances that alter these weights remain far from clear. It is suggested that the design of more complex perceptual experiments, together with the development of quantitative pattern recognition models of human vowel perception, will be necessary to resolve these issues.
448 citations
TL;DR: A cDNA clone encoding the high affinity Ca2+-binding protein (HACBP) of rabbit skeletal muscle sarcoplasmic reticulum was isolated and sequenced, and the name calreticulin was chosen for the protein.
419 citations
TL;DR: A review providing a comprehensive, rather than exhaustive, appraisal of enantioselective drug action and pharmacokinetic mechanism of action.
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01 Jan 1989TL;DR: Fish as mentioned in this paper argues that while we can never separate our judgments from the contexts in which they are made, those judgments are nevertheless authoritative and even, in the only way that matters, objective.
Abstract: In literary theory, the philosophy of law, and the sociology of knowledge, no issue has been more central to current debate than the status of our interpretations. Do they rest on a ground of rationality or are they subjective impositions of a merely personal point of view? In "Doing What Comes Naturally," Stanley Fish refuses the dilemma posed by this question and argues that while we can never separate our judgments from the contexts in which they are made, those judgments are nevertheless authoritative and even, in the only way that matters, objective. He thus rejects both the demand for an ahistorical foundation, and the conclusion that in the absence of such a foundation we reside in an indeterminate world. In a succession of provocative and wide-ranging chapters, Fish explores the implications of his position for our understanding of legal, literary, and psychoanalytic interpretation, the nature of professional and institutional culture, and the place of reason in a world that is rhetorical through and through.
TL;DR: A predator-prey model is developed and it is shown that in the case where the uninfected predator cannot survive only on unin infected prey, the parasitization could lead to persistence of the predator provided a certain threshold of transmission is surpassed.
Abstract: A predator-prey model, where both species are subjected to parasitism, is developed and analyzed. For the case where there is coexistence of the predator with the uninfected prey, an epidemic threshold theorem is proved. It is shown that in the case where the uninfected predator cannot survive only on uninfected prey, the parasitization could lead to persistence of the predator provided a certain threshold of transmission is surpassed.
TL;DR: A survey of the maximization location models in the Operations Research literature is contained, and a synthesis of the solution procedures with emphasis on similarities and differences is presented.
TL;DR: Fourteen bacteriocin-producing strains from the genera Lactobacillus, Leuconostoc, Pediococcus, and Lactococcus were evaluated for their ability to inhibit the growth of eight strains of Listeria monocytogenes.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined the determinants of audit delay, the number of calendar days from fiscal year-end to the audit report date, and the proportion of variability in audit delay explained by the variables, including auditor size, industry classification, existence of extraordinary items and sign of net income.
Abstract: . We examine the determinants of “audit delay,” the number of calendar days from fiscal year-end to the audit report date. A descriptive model of audit delay is tested on a sample of 465 companies listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange from 1977 to 1982. Although several variables included in the model are statistically significant, the proportion of variability in audit delay explained by the variables is low. Descriptive data are presented for variables consistently associated with audit delay over the six-year period — auditor size, industry classification, existence of extraordinary items, and sign of net income. Some directions for future research are also suggested.
Resume. Les auteurs examinent les determinants du «delai de verification», soit le nombre de jours francs qui s'ecoulent entre la fin de l'exercice financier et la publication du rapport des verificateurs. Ils verifient un modele descriptif du delai de verification sur un echantillon de 465 entreprises cotees a la bourse de Toronto, de 1977 a 1982. Bien que plusieurs variables incluses dans le modele soient statistiquement significatives, la proportion de la variation du delai de verification expliquee par ces variables est mince. Les auteurs presentent des donnees descriptives pour les variables associees de facon uniforme au delai de verification, sur la periode de six ans — la taille du cabinet de verification, la classification du secteur, l'existence de postes extraordinaires et le caractere positif ou negatif du resultat net. Ils suggerent egalement certaines pistes de recherche a envisager.
TL;DR: The scale permits identification of the patient at risk of falling so that prevention strategies may be targeted to those individuals and that the scale is sensitive to different patient conditions and to length of stay.
Abstract: Patient falls are a serious problem, contributing to the morbidity and mortality of the elderly patient. This study reports on the development of the Morse Fall Scale. The scale consists of six scored items and discriminant analysis correctly classifies 80.5% of the patients. Validation of the scale by computer modeling was conducted. Data were randomly split and that analysis procedure repeated. Variables were obtained and weighted using half of these data, and these weights were tested on the remaining data. Similar results were obtained. Sensitivity of the scale was 78% and the positive predictive value, 10.3%. Conversely, specificity was 83% and the negative predictive value, 99.3%. Interrater reliability scores were r=.96. A prospective study in three clinical areas showed that the scale is sensitive to different patient conditions and to length of stay. Thus, the scale permits identification of the patient at risk of falling so that prevention strategies may be targeted to those individuals.
TL;DR: Children who had moderate and severe neonatal encephalopathy are at risk for physical and mental impairment and reduced school performance.
TL;DR: Rat brain sulfide levels could be measured either following inhalation of H2S or after injection of sodium hydrosulfide, and subcellular fractionation demonstrated that sulfide was detectable in fractions enriched in myelin, synaptosomes and mitochondria.
TL;DR: Guanine nucleotide-binding proteins are implicated in the coupling of agonist receptors to the activation of phospholipases A 2, C and D, and stimulate the resynthesis of phosphatidylcholine via activation of CTP:phosphocholine cytidylyltransferase.
TL;DR: An analytical method for the determination of sulfide in human and rat brain utilizes a continuous flow gas dialysis pretreatment and quantitation by ion chromatography with electrochemical detection and was able to measure significantly elevated sulfide levels in both cases.
Abstract: An analytical method for the determination of sulfide in human and rat brain is described. It utilizes a continuous flow gas dialysis pretreatment and quantitation by ion chromatography with electrochemical detection. Rat brain sulfide levels were reliably measured after fatal intoxication by intraperitoneal injection of NaHS. By expeditious analysis of samples it was possible to demonstrate the presence of endogenous levels of sulfide in both rat and human brain as well as to measure elevated brain levels of sulfide after intoxication. In postmortem rat brain tissue, elevated sulfide levels could still be reliably demonstrated 96 h after death if the bodies had been refrigerated at 4 degrees C. Two case studies of human hydrogen sulfide inhalation fatalities are presented. The described method was able to measure significantly elevated sulfide levels in both cases.
TL;DR: There was a wide range of tolerance to high dosages and bears appeared able to thermoregulate while immobilized, and the mortality rate due to handling was lower than with any other drug used to date.
Abstract: In 1986, 213 polar bears (Ursus maritimus) were immobilized with Telazol® on the sea ice of the eastern Beaufort Sea during April and May, and 106 along the western coast of Hudson Bay near Churchill, Manitoba (Canada) in September. No animals died from handling. The efficacy of this drug at different seasons and the physiological responses of the immobilized bears were compared. A single injection of 8 to 9 mg of Telazol per kg of body weight gave a rapid full immobilization with satisfactory analgesia, and faster recovery than other drugs for which there is no antagonist. The reactions of the bears could be reliably and easily interpreted from a safe distance before the animal was approached. There was a wide range of tolerance to high dosages and bears appeared able to thermoregulate while immobilized. The mortality rate due to handling was lower than with any other drug used to date.
TL;DR: Observations provide a partial explanation for the metabolic changes that can accompany the risk factors and clarify why they interact in promoting atherosclerosis.
Abstract: This review has discussed some metabolic and endocrine changes that can be associated with a stress type of metabolism, diabetes, obesity, hypertension, smoking and the consumption of diets rich in fat and refined sugar, or poor in ascorbate. These are some of the risk factors associated with premature atherosclerosis, coronary thrombosis and stroke. It has been proposed that an increased control of metabolism by the 'stress' or counter-regulatory hormones, relative to insulin, is a common feature of these risk factors. Particular emphasis was placed upon the action of the glucocorticoids which can produce insulin insensitivity, leading to hyperglycaemia, hypertriglyceridaemia, hypercholesterolaemia and hyperinsulinaemia. Furthermore, glucocorticoids can decrease energy expenditure and, together with insulin, promote energy deposition. These observations provide a partial explanation for the metabolic changes that can accompany the risk factors and clarify why they interact in promoting atherosclerosis.
TL;DR: A fluorescence detector has been developed for capillary zone electrophoresis that produces a ten-fold improvement in precision compared with the previous state-of-the-art in fluorescence detection.
TL;DR: It is concluded that this is a simple and reliable system for clinical staging that can be used for clinical research and management of patients with cancer pain.
Abstract: Fifty-six consecutive patients with pain due to cancer were admitted to a prospective study designed to test a clinical staging system for cancer pain. The system classifies patients in stage 1 (good prognosis) to stage 3 (poor prognosis) according to the mechanism of pain, characteristics of pain, previous narcotic exposure, cognitive function, psychological distress, tolerance and past history of drug addiction or alcoholism. During day 1 patients were staged after being seen by one of the investigators. Patients were treated for 21 days, when a final diagnosis of pain control was made. Eighteen of 22 patients in stage 1 achieved good pain control (82%) vs. 2/22 patients in stage 3 (10%; P less than 0.01). Sensitivity, specificity and negative predictive value of the system were 0.75, 0.86 and 0.80, respectively. We conclude that this is a simple and reliable system for clinical staging that can be used for clinical research and management of patients with cancer pain.
TL;DR: Results of the present study suggest that the secretion of GH and GTH in the goldfish are regulated, at least in part, through a common releasing factor, GnRH, whereas somatostatin and dopamine appear to act independently as GH andGTH release inhibitory factors, respectively.
Abstract: The present study examined the influence of GnRH on the in vivo and in vitro secretion of GH in the goldfish (Carassius auratus). Intraperitoneal injection of several GnRH peptides, including a form native to goldfish, salmon GnRH (sGnRH), elevated circulating GH levels in female goldfish. An analog of mammalian GnRH (mGnRH), [D-Ala6,Pro9-NEt] mGnRH (mGnRH-A), at a dosage of 0.1 μg/g BW increased serum GH levels for up to 48 h after a single ip injection. Goldfish receiving a series of injections of this dose of mGnRH-A also displayed an increased rate of body growth, indicating that the mGnRH-A-induced increase in the circulating GH level was sufficient to accelerate body growth. In vitro experiments using perifused pituitary fragments found that sGnRH stimulated the secretion of GH from the goldfish pituitary in a potent, dosedependent, and reversible manner. The time course of response and half-maximally effective dose of sGnRH were very similar for both GH and gonadotropin (GTH) secretion in vitro, su...
TL;DR: Three experiments are reported that examined the relationship between covert visual attention and a viewer’s ability to use extrafoveal visual information during object identification, and evidence is found for a model in which extraFoveal information acquired during a fixation derives primarily from the location toward which the eyes will move next.
Abstract: Three experiments are reported that examined the relationship between covert visual atten tion and a viewer's ability to use extrafoveal visual information during object identification. Sub jects looked at arrays of four objects while their eye movements were recorded. Their task was to identify the objects in the array for an immediate probe memory test. During viewing, the number and location of objects visible during given fixations were manipulated. In Experiments 1 and 2, we found that multiple extrafoveal previews of an object did not afford any more benefit than a single extrafoveal preview, as assessed by means of time of fixation on the objects. In Ex periment 3, we found evidence for a model in which extrafoveal information acquired during a fixation derives primarily from the location toward which the eyes will move next. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for the relationship between covert visual attention and extrafoveal information use, and a sequential attention model is proposed. 196 During normal perception, the eyes tend to move in short hops or saccades, punctuated by fixations during which the eyes remain relatively stationary and visual in formation acquisition takes place. This article is concerned with the acquisition and use of information from stimuli beyond the fovea (i.e., extrafoveal stimuli) during an eye fixation, given that the fixation occurs during a sequence of fixations and saccades (in contrast to tachistoscopic procedures). The acquisition of information from an extra foveal stimulus can be seen as serving at least two dis tinct functions. First, extrafoveal processing is necessary for determining where to position future eye movements (see, e.g., Loftus, 1983; Morris, 1987; Rayner & Pol latsek, 1987). Second, and more important for the pur poses of this study, while an extrafoveal stimulus may not be fully analyzed before it is fixated, partial analysis of an extrafoveal stimulus often provides information that subsequently speeds the analysis of that stimulus once it
TL;DR: In patients admitted with confusion, infection and congestive heart failure predominated, and in those who developed confusion after hospitalization, iatrogenic disease was more common and support the aggressive investigation and treatment of acute confusion in the elderly.
Abstract: The acute confusional state (delirium) is a common presentation for a wide variety of medical conditions in the elderly. This paper reports a prospective study of acute confusion in elderly people admitted to general medical services in two acute care hospitals in Edmonton, Alberta. Eighty patients were studied, ranging in age from 65-91. Acute confusion was seen in one-fourth of these patients, who tended to be older, more ill, more likely to have chronic cognitive impairment and a higher mortality rate. In patients admitted with confusion, infection and congestive heart failure predominated. In those who developed confusion after hospitalization, iatrogenic disease was more common. Confusion was a sensitive sign of physical illness, and its resolution accompanied recovery. A diagnosis of the cause of the confusion state could be made in 22 of 24 cases. These findings support the aggressive investigation and treatment of acute confusion in the elderly.
TL;DR: The key finding was that LDL receptors clustered in coated pits, structures that had been described by Roth and Porter 10 years earlier, and thus established receptor-mediated endocytosis as a distinct mechanism for the transport of macromolecules across the plasma membrane.
TL;DR: Mate choice and mating success were investigated in a natural population of the redlip blenny, Ophioblennius atlanticus, and a computer simulation showed that males mating selectively should obtain eggs at a faster rate than males mating indiscriminately.