Showing papers by "University of Missouri published in 1972"

Evidence for Parathyroid Failure in Magnesium Deficiency

Abstract: Serum immunoreactive parathyroid hormone (IPTH) was low to nondetectable in spite of hypocalcemia in a patient with chronic magnesium deficiency. The administration of magnesium led to parallel increases in serum IPTH, serum calcium, and renal phosphate clearance. These findings support the view that magnesium depletion may result in impaired synthesis or release of parathyroid hormone in man, or both.

Texture Measures for Automatic Classification of Pulmonary Disease

Abstract: The complete pattern recognition problem is considered for the practical solution to a current significant medical question. Automated screening of chest radiographs for the detection of textural type abnormalities is approached from the view of: 1) preprocessing for standardization and data reduction; 2) feature extraction of characteristic measures (feature selection by optimization of classification accuracy); and 3) overall classification using training and test sets of selected chest radiographs.

A reassessment of the course of evolution of wheat.

Abstract: Chromosome pairing in hybrids involving Triticum aestivum and new accessions of T. speltoides, and in an amphiploid of these species, indicates that T. speltoides can no longer be considered to be the donor of the B genome of the polyploid wheats. This necessitates a reconsideration of the genome relationships and evolutionary processes that gave rise to cultivated wheats.

Evaluation of zinc availability in foodstuffs of plant and animal origin.

Abstract: Growth response of chicks and rats was used to evaluate the biological availability of zinc in selected cereal grains and animal products. Two sources of protein, soybean and casein-gelatin, were used in the basal low zinc diets and graded levels of ZnCOs were added to establish the standard response curve. Thus, the availability values are based on the assumption that 100% of the zinc in ZnCO3 is available. A plot of weight gain during a 4-week period versus the logarithm of zinc added gave a straight line relationship over the range of 3 to 12 ppm. The 5 to 10 ppm range was used to evaluate the supple ments which were added to the basal diets in lieu of carbohydrate. The minimum zinc requirement for chicks and rats fed the soybean protein diets was 19 ppm and for chicks fed the casein-gelatin diet it was 12 ppm. The following biological availabilities were obtained by use of the chick assay: high lysine corn 65%, control corn 63%, rice 62%, wheat 59%, high lysine corn germ 56%, control germ 54%, sesame meal 59%, soybean meal 67%, egg yolk 79%, fish meal 75%, oysters 95%, and nonfat milk 82%. The rat assay gave: high lysine corn 55%, control corn 57%, wheat 38%, rice 39%, egg yolk 76%, nonfat milk 79% and fish meal 84% . In general the zinc in plant seeds was less available than that in animal products, and rats utilized the zinc in plant seeds less well than chicks. J. Nutr. 102: 653-660, 1972.

Some Behavioral Tests of Domestication in Norway Rats

Abstract: Five experiments with wild and domestic rats (Rattus norvegicus) were designed to assess behavioral effects of domestication. The results, which must be considered preliminary, are supportive of the notion that domestication in the Norway rat has induced an adaptive fitness rather than degeneration: 1. Scar-marked captives showed the poor reproductive success typical of traditional attempts at initial laboratorization. In 10 such pairs, three of the females killed prospective mates and five of the six who produced litters cannibalized all or some of the offspring. Unscarred captives, assumed to represent higher social status in the wild population, produced litters in eight of ten pairings with no abnormal breeding or maternal behaviors. 2. Scar-marked captives were least dominant in water competition and were most likely to show abnormal behaviors, new wounds, and mortalities. Similar competitive groupings of domestic rats showed the expected difference in social behavior; fighting was less intense, social distance was less, and threat signals were rare compared to wild rats. Where wild and domestic rats were housed together, however, the intensity of social behaviors in the latter increased, even leading to deaths, although interaction was almost segregated between the two kinds of rats. 3. In an avoidance learning situation, wild-caught and wild F1 (laboratory raised) rats were markedly inferior in performance compared to domestic rats in paradigms with internally or externally cued warnings. 4. In another avoidance learning context, wild rats showed limited evidence of a passive style of learning while domestic rats showed clear evidence of active avoidance learning. These data suggest that learning styles may differ in the two kinds of rats and that definitive evidence of a learning difference will be difficult to obtain. 5. Daily patterns of responding for drinking water were more resistant to change in the wild rats, even at a substantial cost in water obtained, suggesting that domestication may have induced greater behavioral flexibility.

A Symbolic Interactionist Analysis of Politics

Abstract: The purpose of this article will be to outline a symbolic interactionist approach to the study of politics in the United States. In the course of this presentation, the basic assumptions and concepts of the interactionist perspective will be presented, culminating in a model of society as a negotiated order. This model in conjunction with definitions of power and politics will provide the basis for analyzing the processes of power. The article will focus on and emphasize two mechanisms of power, information flow control and symbolic mobilization of support, which have previously been unrecognized and unan-alyzed. In the conclusion, the strengths and weaknesses of the approach will be discussed.

Dependence and Aging Aspects of Multivariate Survival

Abstract: The basic reliability concept of monotone failure rate is presented, and extensions to n variables are considered. We analyze Harris' multivariate extension of increasing failure rate, in particular his right corner set increasing property, which is a type of positive dependence. But we think that multivariate monotone failure rate need not involve dependence. Hence, increasing failure rate as extended in this article requires merely that the residual life of all subsets of a set of n survival times must be increasing. Decreasing failure rate is defined analogously and it is found that the multivariate exponential distribution forms the “boundary” between.

Widowhood, Social Participation and Life Satisfaction:

Abstract: The study is an analysis of the relation between widowhood, social participation and life satisfaction as measured by the Havighurst Life Satisfaction Scale-Form A. The study compared the level of participation and LSIA scores of married and widowed males and females residing in sixty-one small towns of Missouri in 1966. Females were found to be more activity oriented than males, whether with children, relatives, friends or in formal organizations. There were no changes in activity patterns after widowhood among females. Males show a linear decline in most types of participation with length of widowhood. Association with friends appears to be more closely associated with LSIA score than is association with children and relatives. Participation in formal groups, primarily the church, correlated more closely with LSIA scores than does either participation with family or friends. Widowhood produces a more drastic change in life style and in satisfaction of small town elderly males than it does for females.

Inhibition of Photosystem II in Isolated Chloroplasts by Lead

Abstract: Inhibition of photosynthetic electron transport in isolated chloroplasts by lead salts has been demonstrated Photosystem I activity, as measured by electron transfer from dichlorophenol indophenol to methylviologen, was not reduced by such treatment However, photosystem II was inhibited by lead salts when electron flow was measured from water to methylviologen and Hill reaction or by chlorophyll fluorescence Fluorescence induction curves indicated the primary site of inhibition was on the oxidizing side of photosystem II That this site was between the primary electron donor of photosystem II and the site of water oxidation could be demonstrated by hydroxylamine restoration of normal fluorescence following lead inhibition

Early life experiences and adult sports participation.

Abstract: IntroductionA central- endeavor of social research is the analysis of determinants of anc constraints on behavior patterns. One of the more salient features of social life about which much has been written, and little resolved, has been that of participation. To this end a considerable amount of research has been directed Studies have undertaken the task of determining conditions of joining and not joining, participation and nonparticipation, the scope of activities in whict individuals take part, and the scale of participation (Axelrod, 1956; Hage dorn and Labovitz, 1967; Harry, 1970; Tomeh, 1967). In part, this interest has been a result of changes occurring in society, especially those changes leading to increased leisure time. Changes in income, amount and scheduling of work, and increased urbanization have generated an interest in the potential increase in demand for recreation facilities and a concern for effective use of free time (Clawson and Knetsch, 1963; Neumeyer, 1958; Shafer, 1968; Wippler, 1970).Prior research on leisure participation has exhibited several trends. First, there has been little differentiation with regard to types of participation. Populations were studied with respect to participation in general, and descriptive breakdowns were provided to show who participated in which activities. Second, there has been a considerable amount of research treating personal and social characteristics such as age, sex, marital status, stage of life cycle, income, residence, and education as determinants of participation (Jordan, 1963; Shafer, 1965; Spaulding, 1970). As Smith (1966: 249) has indicated, though, approaching participation by way of social and personal characteristics represent progress but is an "inadequate and unsatisfactory stopping point." And, third, present and past situational determinants of recreation participation have been largely ignored.1In this paper our research focuses on two specific outdoor activities: hunting and fishing. The concern is not with establishing the fact of participation but with examining the relation of some early-life experiences to current level of adult participation in these sports.Theoretical FrameworkOur theoretical focus is guided by the social scientist's recognition that much of what occurs in adult life stems from participation in social forms and institutions during childhood and from the transmission of values and attitudes of parents and other groups in which individuals are members (Broom and Selznick, 1970: 84). The internalization of these early experiences has been termed socialization. Socializing experiences, or conditions of previous experience, are felt to be important to recreation because they are factors in an individual's background which may predispose him toward certain future action. The suggestion here is that, as in other areas of daily life, early orientations toward sports may persist into adult life, influencing both the types of recreation one chooses to participate in and the extent of his participation. For our sample of hunters and fishermen, we operationalize the above socializing influences in terms of three childhood antecedents: residence during youth, source of introduction to sports, and frequency of participation during youth.2By way of elaboration on the above influences, one might argue that hunting and fishing are rural sports into which youths are introduced at an early age and are participated in more frequently by rural youth. With the increased urbanization that has occurred over the past few decades and the accompanying migration from rural to urban areas, hunting and fishing may diminish in importance and in the future lose some of their appeal to urban youth, if the effect of rural background during youth is, in fact, important to adult participation (Hendee, 1969; Copp, 1964). Similarly, being introduced to hunting and fishing by one's parents may be important for participation during youth as well as for participation later in life. …

Design of Experiment for Bioassay

Abstract: The one-parameter logistic distribution is used to illustrate certain numerical approximations for finding one- and two-stage bioassay designs which produce small posterior variances. The article discusses the use of two prior distributions, one for design and another for inference. Graphs are given for designing experiments when the prior distributions are normal. These graphs illustrate the importance of using additional dose levels when the variance of the prior distribution is large.

Automated Radiographic Diagnosis via Feature Extraction and Classification of Cardiac Size and Shape Descriptors

Abstract: One goal of digital processing of radiographic images is to provide the radiologist with quantitative measurements of human anatomy as well as an indication as to whether or not this anatomy is within normal limits. A computer algorithm is described, designed to automatically detect, extract quantitative measurements from, and diagnose the cardiac projection present in full-size anteriorview chest radiographs. A normal-abnormal diagnosis is demonstrated utilizing abnormal data from five classes of heart disease. In addition, normal-abnormal as well as normal-differential diagnoses are demonstrated for the rheumatic heart disease class. A feature extraction algorithm is developed using several ad hoc techniques, some of which were adapted from other feature extraction uses. The extracted features are classified into diagnostic classes using linear and quadratic discriminant functions. A concurrent study of physician diagnostic accuracy is also undertaken using the averaged diagnostic rates of ten radiologists on a representative subset of the radiographs used in the computer study.

Effects of Renal Arterial Infusion of Sodium and Potassium on Renin Secretion in the Dog

Abstract: The nonfiltering kidney model was used to determine whether sodium or potassium inhibits renin secretion in the absence of a functional macula densa in dogs with thoracic inferior vena caval constriction. The control rate of renin secretion was high, and decreases were readily recognized. After control observations, hypertonic sodium chloride or hypertonic potassium chloride was infused into the renal artery for 1 hour, and renin secretion was measured at 15-minute intervals. An increase in renal venous plasma sodium concentration from 141 to 154-158 mEq/liter caused no change in renin secretion for the first 45 minutes of infusion in dogs with a nonfiltering kidney. In contrast, dogs with thoracic caval constriction but with a filtering kidney showed a striking decrease in renin secretion during intrarenal sodium infusion (3,097 to 1,061 ng angiotensin/min, P <0.02). An increase in renal venous plasma potassium concentration from 3.9 to 6.1 mEq/liter in one group of dogs and from 4.9 to 8.3 mEq/liter in ...

Statistical Inference From Censored Weihull Samples

Abstract: In life testing experiments it is a fairly common practice to terminate the experiment before all items have failed. The Weibull distribution is often used as a model for the observations and when a computer is available maximum likelihood estimation of the parameters is to be recommended. The tables presented in this paper enable one to set confidence limits on the parameters and the reliability based on the maximum likelihood estimates for selected censoring and sample sizes. It is also observed that, as in the case with no censoring, the maximum likelihood estimator of the reliability is very nearly unbiased and its variance is near the Cramer-Rao lower bound, Unbiasing factors for the maximum likelihood estimator of the shape parameter are given.

Climate and Behavior: A Biocultural Study

Abstract: Relatively neglected in the growing number of human ecological studies is the consideration of direct environmental effects on the behavioral and psychological adaptations of individuals. This paper presents some tentative cross-cultural and cross-national evidence relating one environmental variable--climate--to both behavioral and psychocultural processes. Some support for the hypothesis that the amount of emotional expression or "level of arousal? co-varies predictably with climate and weather is offered, and alternative explanations and discussions of this hypothesis are explored.

Electrical Current Effects on E. coil Growth Rates

Abstract: SummaryThe results show that alternating current had little or no effect upon the growth rate of microorganisms in the current and frequency ranges investigated. The general effect of direct curren...

A Method for Rearing Black Cutworms

Abstract: Agrotis ipsilon (Hufnagel) adults were brought into the laboratory in 1968 and used to start a laboratory culture. An adult diet consisting mainly of water, beer, and honey, and a larval diet consisting mainly of water and pinto beans have maintained the culture continuously since 1968 with no addition of wild stock. Approximately 800 larvae were reared weekly. However, this method will allow for rearing more cutworms depending on labor input. Under laboratory conditions (20-25°, 75-8.5% RH), larvae increased in weight by 4500-fold in 15 days. Over 82% of the measured larvae completed 7 stadia before pupation. Hatching to pupation took 23.9 days. Survival rates of over 80% were achieved for the larvae.

Experimental Shigella infections in laboratory animals. I. Antagonism by human normal flora components in gnotobiotic mice.

Abstract: Germfree mice were associated with selected species of human intestinal bacteria and then challenged with a streptomycin-resistant Shigella flexneri strain. Antagonism against Shigella was most pronounced in mice associated with Escherichia coli and least pronounced in mice associated with Bacteroides fragilis. A moderate degree of antagonism could be demonstrated in mice associated with either Streptococcus faecalis or Bifidobacterium adolescentis. Shigella persisted in the cecal contents of E. coli-associated mice at very low, stable levels. Shigella populations were reduced to levels below detection in the ceca of mice diassociated with E. coli and Bacteroides. Upon subsequent administration of streptomycin, Bacteroides disappeared from the ceca. The E. coli population was greatly reduced, and Shigella reappeared at very high population levels as an apparent recombinant which resembled E. coli biochemically. A streptomycin-resistant E. coli population subsequently emerged and became dominant in the ceca. Shigella concomitantly declined to levels below detection.

Diapause of the Southwestern Corn Borer, Diatraea grandiosella: Transition from Spotted to Immaculate Mature Larvae

Abstract: Immaculate larvae which lack cuticular pigmentation are the typical diapause larvae of Diatraea grandiosella Dyar. Results snowed that mature spotted larvae reared under diapause-inducing conditions underwent a stationary ecdysis to become immaculate larvae. This stationary ecdysis occurred earlier when mature larvae were held at 30°C than at 23°C. Mature spotted larvae had a high weight loss until the immaculate ecdysis, after which their weight decreased slowly. During this period mature larvae became partially dehydrated and 10 days after the immaculate ecdysis had a mean water content of only 65%. A comparison of laboratory-reared and field-collected spotted and immaculate larvae revealed no physiological differences. However, field larvae were heavier and contained a significantly higher concentration of hemolymph pigments than the laboratory ones. These pigments were found to be carotenoids which were absorbed from ingested host plant tissues. The possible nature of hormonal mechanisms regulating diapause induction and development are discussed.