Maternal sensitivity and the security of infant-mother attachment: a Q-sort study

40 mothers and their 12-month-old infants were observed twice at home by 2 observers for 2 hours. After the second visit, the observers described the infant using the Waters Attachment Behavior Q-sort and the mother's interactive behavior with the Maternal Behavior Q-sort developed by the present authors and Ainsworth's rating scales. Maternal sensitivity was unrelated to maternal age, income, or SES, but correlated positively with maternal education. Mothers of more difficult children were less sensitive. A strong relation was found between infant attachment and maternal sensitivity as measured by the Maternal Behavior Q-sort and by the Ainsworth scales. Using the Q-sort procedure, mothers of more secure infants were more frequently characterized as noticing their babies' signals and using these signals to guide their behavior; they also were more knowledgeable about their infant and appeared to enjoy them more than mothers of less secure infants.

Biological grading of breast cancer using antibodies to proliferating cells and other markers

Quantitation of immunohistochemical staining by image analysis was performed on 50 breast cancers stained with the monoclonal antibody Ki-67 to determine the growth fraction and its correlation with tumor grade. A high degree of correlation was shown. For each case the DNA ploidy was determined by quantitation of the DNA Feulgen stain by computerized microdensitometry. DNA content of breast tumor cells correlated to the histopathologic grade at which poorly differentiated tumors are more likely to be aneuploid. Quantitation of immunohistochemistry for estrogen and progesterone receptors had a high degree of correlation with the steroid binding assay, such as dextran-coated charcoal assay (DCCA), and were weakly correlated to histologic grade. In summary, our results indicated that quantitation of Ki-67-positive nuclear area and of DNA content by image analysis provides an objective method for assessing tumor cell growth fraction and DNA ploidy. Quantitation of steroid receptors by immunohistochemistry is a better and easier technique than those currently used to determine the best therapy for postmenopausal women. These methods can be performed on small frozen sections or needle aspirates in quantities that are insufficient for current steroid binding assays. Thus, this method is prognosticly useful even for patients with small breast lesions.

Intraperitoneal cisplatin: comparison of antitumor activity and toxicity as a function of solvent saline concentration

The use of increasing concentrations of NaCl in the solvent during administration of cisplatin is known to decrease nephrotoxicity, but its effect on antitumor activity is less certain. A murine tumor model employing the subrenal capsule assay was used to test the toxicity and antitumor activity of intraperitoneal cisplatin at different doses of the drug using varying concentrations of NaCl in the vehicle of administration. Toxicity (measured by LD50, weight loss, and nephrotoxicity) was significantly lower in mice treated with cisplatin prepared in 4.5% NaCl as compared to cisplatin prepared in distilled water (DW) or 0.9% NaCl. Administration of 4.5% NaCl subcutaneously along with intraperitoneal cisplatin prepared in DW failed to decrease toxicity. Despite lower toxicity, no decrease in antitumor activity could be demonstrated based on increasing concentrations of NaCl in the solvent during intraperitoneal therapy.

Health promotion in local government: a British experience

Historically, the development of health promotion work in Britain centred largely upon the activities of elected local authorities. From the mid-nineteenth century onwards, these authorities were primarily responsible both for major interventions in the physical environment, such as improved housing and sanitation, and for the development of community-based preventive and primary care services, such as ante-natal care, health-visiting and district nursing. The importance attached to such work was underlined by the statutory requirement that local authorities should appoint a Medical Officer of Health who could not be dismissed without specific Ministerial approval. Yet in recent decades, this long-standing tradition has been undermined, with both public health doctors and the community health services being displaced from their historical local authority base and placed instead within the the National Health Service, where they are substantially outnumbered by their hospital-based colleagues. As a result, a major political and administrative focus for developing public health approaches has largely disappeared. This loss of a health focus has become a matter of concern to a growing number of local authorities in Britain; a concern which reflects their public health tradition and newer policy issues and approaches which began to affect British local authorities from the late 1970s onwards. This paper considers the example of one such authority, the London Borough of Greenwich, where the author was employed during the early 1980s. In particular, it examines the political and practical problems faced when attempting a systematic review of the authority's role and potential for promoting health through its policies on housing. In the light of this experience, some tentative suggestions are made about the kinds of structures which will be needed if local authorities are to revitalise their public health tradition in a political and economic climate hostile even to existing levels of State intervention.

Visual, kinaesthetic and cross-modal judgments of length by clumsy children: a comparison with young normal children

In a previous study, clumsy children, when compared to normal children of the same age, were found to be impaired in their ability to match the length of successively presented straight lines within and between the modalities of vision and kinaesthesis. The present study explores this finding further by comparing the clumsy children's performance with that of a group of younger normal children whose skills of movement are comparable to those of the clumsy children. It was found that the clumsy children's performance on the perceptual measures was equivalent to that of the younger normal children.

Visual, kinaesthetic and cross-modal development: relationships to motor skill development

The ability of children between the ages of 5 and 10 years to match the length of lines within and between the modalities of vision and kinaesthesis was studied. No evidence was found for specific increases in cross-modal skill which could not be explained in terms of within-modal development. Performance in the perceptual task was related to measures of developing motor skill in the children. Substantial relationships were found between performance on the within-modal tasks and motor skill, but no significant relationships were found between cross-modal measures and motor skill development. It is concluded that the development of cross-modal integration is not a major determinant of motor skill development.

Binocular depth perception in the meerkat (Suricata suricatta)

Although it has been widely assumed that mammals with frontally placed eyes have stereoscopic vision, there is actually a paucity of supporting evidence. We have measured monocular and binocular depth perception in the meerkat (Suricata suricatta), obtaining strong evidence for the presence of stereopsis. The data provide additional evidence for the generality of stereoscopic vision across many different species.

Visual, kinaesthetic and cross-modal judgements of length by normal and clumsy children

The ability of normal and clumsy children to match the length of lines within and between the modalities of vision and kinesthesis was studied. The clumsy children showed perceptual impairments, as indicated by their poor performance on the visual, kinaesthetic and cross-modal judgements of length and also by their low scores on spatial subtests of the WISC. Variations in motor skill correlated with performance on the visual perceptual measures, but not with performance on the kinaesthetic or cross-modal tasks. The idea that clumsiness may be caused by an impairment of visual perception is discussed, together with some alternative interpretations of this pattern of results.

Visual perceptual deficits in clumsy children

In a previous study clumsy children were found to be impaired in their ability to match the length of successively presented straight lines, and the ability to perform this task correlated with their degree of motor impairment [3]. The present experiments explore two possible explanations for this pattern of results. One possibility is that this earlier result tapped a memory deficit in the clumsy children. The first experiment shows that the clumsy children still experience difficulties in matching the length of a line to a second line which is simultaneously present. This suggests the difficulty is one of perception and not memory. The second experiment explores whether faulty perception of length in the clumsy children is related to eye movement problems. No support for this idea was found; with tachistoscopic presentations at durations which exclude subjects making eye movements the clumsy children are still clearly impaired in judging the length of lines.

Favorability of group atmosphere and group dimensionality

Fiedler has recently proposed that the direction of the relationship between the leadership personality trait LPC and group productivity is mediated by the favorability of the atmosphere in the group in which leadership is exercised. One crucial aspect of this so-called contingency model is the manner in which the favorability of a group's atmosphere for the exercise of leadership is measured. Fiedler's measure of favorability, while empirically valid, does not allow for determination of the general properties of favorable groups. This paper demonstrates that groups classified as favorable in Fiedler's usage of this term are characterized by many general group dimensions including intimacy, hedonic tone, potency, cohesiveness, participation, polarization, stratification, and flexibility. The dimension called “favorability” is specifiable in terms of many basic dimensions of groups and appears to be a fruitful concept for basic group research.

Group cohesion and conformity behavior

Group differences in levels of cohesion and motivation were unrelated to conformity to social pressure in a judgmental perceptual situation thereby failing to support Festinger's cohesion theory.