Clinicostatistical study of ameloblastoma treatment.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the treatment of 190 cases of ameloblastoma in our department from 1966 to 1994. The statistical results with regard to age, sex and region agreed with those of other investigators. Thirty-five of 43 (81.4%) cases underwent enucleation in 1960s, but the sixteen of 27 (59.3%) cases underwent partial resection of mandible in 1990s. The defect of mandible was reconstructed with iliac bone grafting since 1968, grafts with a mixture of iliac blocked bone and PCBM (particulate cancellous bone and marrow) have been used since 1975. Grafting of the inferior alveolar nerve with the great auricular nerve to the defect has been performed in our department since 1977. Recently, technique involving pull-through of the inferior alveolar nerve bundle has been used in our department. When the reconstruction method for the mandible and nerve has been established, it becomes possible to operate radically and positively. Recurrence occurred in 17 cases after the primary enucleation. It is thought that the primary treatment of ameloblastoma must be as radical as possible. It appears to be necessary to observe progress and perform follow-up in cases of ameloblastoma for more than ten years, because there was one recurrence at 9 years and 4 months after the first operation. In fact, three quarters of our cases were lost to follow-up. Such losses can problems in confirming recurrence and responding rapidly.

Transfer to a nitrocellulose membrane allows of the bone forming activity of bone morphogenetic protein.

When we purify bone morphogenetic protein (BMP), its activity diminishes, and the quantity we are able to extract decreases. It is difficult to evaluate the effects of each of the processes involved in BMP purification because it is unstable. In order to resolve the problem, a modified bioassay method using only slight quantities of BMP which do not decrease its bone-forming activity, is needed. We transferred BMP separated by sodium dodecylsulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) onto nitrocellulose membranes (NC) and cut out the bands. Then we used each band as implanted material. The NC membrane firmly bound the BMP activity fraction and held it in the implantation area of the mouse thigh. No formation of bone-like tissue was detected histologically at 14 days after the implantation, but, by 21 days after implantation, cartilage like tissue had clearly formed and newly formed bone was seen by 28 days. By implanting BMP transferred to individual NC membranes, we could perform a bioassay easily with small amounts of BMP without any reduction in activity.

Purification and characterization of bone morphogenetic protein derived from bovine bone matrix.

Bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) was extracted from bovine bone matrix and purified. The 6M guanidine-HCL soluble fraction and the final purified substance were bioassayed by implantation of about 3 mg into the thigh muscles of C3H strain mice. These specimens induced new bone in three weeks when implanted into muscle pouches of the C3H mouse. The final fraction purified by liquid chromatography (fraction III) was shown to be homogeneous by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide slab gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE). The molecular weight of the bovine bone matrix-derived BMP was estimated to be about 14-18 kDa in MW. The main components correspond to a MW of 18 kDa and 14 kDa when they are compared with the mobilities of standard proteins. These were invariably present in fractions with osteoinductive activity.

Differentiation between glycoprotein III gene-deleted vaccine and wild-type strains of pseudorabies virus by polymerase chain reaction (PCR).

One of the attenuated and genetically recombinant modified-live viral (MLV) vaccine strains currently used contains a deletion in its glycoprotein III (gIII) gene, while prototypic wild-type pseudorabies (WT-PR) viruses contain an intact gIII gene. A polymerase chain reaction (PCR) system differentiating, based on this difference, between the vaccine virus and prototypic WT-PR viruses was investigated. This PCR system utilized two consecutive stages. Primers for the first-stage PCR were designed so as to amplify of DNA fragments lengths in respect to the vaccine and WT-PR viruses. The second-stage PCR amplification for improving the sensitivity and specificity and for confirming of the sites deleted from the first-stage PCR products produced an all-or-none result: internal DNA fragments were derived from only WT-PR viruses but not from the vaccine virus. These PCR-amplified fragment length polymorphisms clearly distinguished the vaccine virus from WT-PR viruses. The vaccine and WT-PR viruses in mixtures were each identified in this PCR system. This PCR system may permit rapid and sensitive detection of PR viral gIII gene, analysis of the genotype of PR virus isolates, and also examination of the isolates for purity and identity.

Childhood sexual abuse and parental alcoholism: interactive effects in adult women.

Symptoms associated with histories of childhood sexual abuse and parental alcoholism were investigated in a sample of 364 university women. A significant association was found in occurrence between the two stressors, and a substantially higher level of symptoms was revealed in women who had experienced both during childhood.

A new test of an old hypothesis: a quantification of sequence in the Rorschach.

Rorschach interpretation often assumes that successive responses are not independent of one another but rather that they are part of a series of interconnected events. In this study, methods that have been used to analyze event sequence data were applied to Rorschach protocols. Results from a nonclinical group of 102 university students showed that location scores on successive responses were repeated more frequently than was predicted by chance. There was also a tendency for subjects to make transitions from larger to smaller or more detailed areas of the inkblot on successive responses. In addition, we found that subjects tended to make transitions from more adequate to less adequate use of form, and that the unusual and minus form categories tended to be repeated. A modest association between transition frequencies and individual differences in anxiety, but not between transition frequencies and depression or overall symptomatology, was demonstrated.

Childhood family environment and sexual abuse as predictors of anxiety and depression in adult women.

A study of 46 women with histories of childhood sexual abuse and a control group of 93 women without such histories showed an association between childhood sexual abuse and the women's symptoms of anxiety and depression, as well as their perceptions of their families of origin. Results also suggested that family conflict, control, and cohesiveness moderated the relationship between the childhood abuse and current symptoms of depression.

Joint consequences of parental alcoholism and childhood sexual abuse, and their partial mediation by family environment.

This study investigated the effects of childhood sexual abuse and parental alcoholism in a sample of university women. Current symptoms of anxiety and depression were measured together with retrospective reports of subjects' families of origin. Using a 2 x 2 factorial design, main effects on symptoms were obtained for sexual abuse and parental alcoholism, but their interaction was not significant. With respect to family environment, a history of sexual abuse was associated with perceptions that families of origin had less cohesion, more conflict, less emphasis on moral-religious matters, less emphasis on achievement, and less of an orientation towards intellectual, cultural, and recreational pursuits. Similarly, subjects who had alcoholic parents reported less family cohesion, more conflict, and less emphasis on moral-religious matters. Results of analyses of covariance suggested that family environment was a mediator of current symptoms of anxiety, but not symptoms of depression.

Effects of temporal separation and masker level on binaural analysis in forward masking.

In the present study detection under diotic (NoSo) and dichotic (NoS pi) listening conditions in a forward masking paradigm was investigated. Both the level of a noise masker and the temporal separation between the masker and a 250-Hz tone burst served as independent variables. Results showed that most of the variance in the data could be accounted for by the amount of masking in the NoSo condition, independent of the value of the temporal parameter, which itself accounted for only 1.4% of the variance that remained. Once the data were corrected for NoSo masking effectiveness, the MLD was found to decrease by only 1.4 dB as temporal separation increased from 5-100 ms, which is consistent with a very long time constant for the binaural system. Consistent with this finding, it was shown that slope changes of the growth of masking functions, for simultaneous as compared to forward masking, were similar for both the NoSo and NoS pi conditions.

The usefulness of human figure drawings as an index of overall adjustment.

This study investigates the relation between global ratings of human figure drawings and psychological adjustment. The sample was comprised of a group of Vietnamese refugees who were evaluated at their entry into a residential education program. Adjustment was defined as the number of foster-care placements experienced by these clients during the 5 years following the program. Results showed that ratings of overall artistic quality, figure bizarreness, and estimated client adjustment all varied linearly as a function of number of foster-care placements. A fourth predictor variable, number of Koppitz emotional indicators, did not produce this result. All four predictor variables were found to be related, and it was shown that ratings of figure bizarreness alone adequately predicted the criterion. Implications of these results are discussed, and results suggest that projective drawings could provide a useful index of overall adjustment when better sources of information are not available.

Binaural analysis in forward masking: effects of signal frequency.

The present study investigates the relationship between signal frequency and size of the MLD in forward masking for the two binaural conditions NoSM and NoS pi. For both conditions, the largest MLDs were produced for signal frequencies between 200 and 500 Hz, and as signal frequency was increased above these values, the MLD progressively diminished. This pattern of frequency dependence, and the similarity of the results for the NoSM and NoS pi conditions, are consistent with data obtained in simultaneous masking experiments and are compatible with a vectorial description of the stimulus processed by the binaural system.

Upward shifts in the masking pattern with increasing masker intensity.

Masking patterns obtained with forward-masking paradigms and relatively intense maskers sometimes have their peaks at the masker frequency and sometimes at a frequency well above it. Here it is shown that which outcome is obtained depends upon certain temporal parameters of the procedure. Specifically, the masking pattern for a 2000-Hz tone showed a gradual shift toward higher frequencies as masker intensity was increased from 65 to 95 dB SPL when long signals (about 50 ms) and long masker-to-signal intervals (about 50 ms) were used, but the effect was absent or smaller when the signals and intervals were short. This shift did not occur with a 750-Hz masker. Upward shifts in the masking pattern with increasing masker intensity are in accord with the view that the peak of displacement of the traveling-wave envelope migrates basally with increasing intensity--an idea that has frequently been suggested as an explanation of the so-called half-octave shift so routinely seen in auditory fatigue experiments.

Tonal masking and frequency selectivity for the monaural and binaural hearing systems.

A series of masking experiments was performed with the aim of comparing frequency selectivity for the monaural and binaural systems. The masking stimulus used in this study combined a sinusoid, which was gated simultaneously with the signal, with a continuous broadband noise. Signal frequency was fixed at 500 Hz. In one condition, the tonal masker and noise were interaurally in phase and the signal was phase reversed. In a second condition, noise, tonal masker, and signal were presented to one ear alone. Signal thresholds were obtained as a function of masker frequency for these two conditions. After making an appropriate selection of noise levels, masking functions for the monaural and binaural system conditions were found to agree closely except for a region about their tips where the binaural condition was more detectable. Two possible interpretations of these results are discussed. Either the monaural and binaural systems contain filters each which have similarly shaped skirts, or the frequency selectivity observed under both diotic and dichotic conditions (for large frequency separations of masker and signal) reflect the operation of a common peripheral filter.

Differences between psychophysical "suppression effects" under diotic and dichotic listening conditions.

A forward-masking paradigm was used in an attempt to measure and compare "suppression effects" under one monaural system condition, NOSO, and two binaural system conditions, NOSM and NOSII. The signal was a 500-Hz tone burst of 10-ms duration (measured at the 6-dB down points) and was presented 12.5 ms after the termination of the masker. In the diotic condition, as the masker bandwidth increased, masking at first increased, reached a maximum between bandwidths of 50 and 150 Hz, and then decreased with further increases of the bandwidth. The pattern of results was very different for the dichotic conditions: Here, masking never decreased with increases in the masker bandwidth; unlike the NOSO condition, there was no evidence of a "suppression effect." These data are used to argue that diotic "suppression effects" obtained with noiseband maskers are actually produced by a combination of off-frequency listening and quality-difference cues.