Delay of gratification in children.

To function effectively, individuals must voluntarily postpone immediate gratification and persist in goal-directed behavior for the sake of later outcomes. The present research program analyzed the nature of this type of future-oriented self-control and the psychological processes that underlie it. Enduring individual differences in self-control were found as early as the preschool years. Those 4-year-old children who delayed gratification longer in certain laboratory situations developed into more cognitively and socially competent adolescents, achieving higher scholastic performance and coping better with frustration and stress. Experiments in the same research program also identified specific cognitive and attentional processes that allow effective self-regulation early in the course of development. The experimental results, in turn, specified the particular types of preschool delay situations diagnostic for predicting aspects of cognitive and social competence later in life.

Requirement of insulin growth factor I plus hydrocortisone for the regeneration of thyrotropin (TSH)-dependent mechanism of I-efflux and Ca2+ mobilization in FRTL-5 cells during TSH depletion.

FRTL-5 rat thyroid cells grown in culture medium supplemented with serum and 6H (TSH, insulin, hydrocortisone, transferrin, glycylhistidyllysine, and somatostatin) showed a significant increase in TSH-dependent cAMP accumulation and I- efflux after prolonged incubation (5 to 10 days) of the cells in culture medium containing 5H (6H - TSH) or serum. The induction of the cAMP response was at least partly reproduced when both serum and 5H were omitted from the medium. However the I- efflux response was completely abolished under such conditions and regenerated when serum or 5H was present. The serum or 5H effect on I- efflux response was mimicked by 2H (insulin + hydrocortisone). Insulin was replaced by 1/1000 less insulin-like growth factor-I than insulin. TSH-dependent Ca2+ mobilization of the cells was similarly affected by the presence of serum or 2H. However, the I- efflux and Ca2+ responses to an agonist other than TSH (extracellular ATP) were not substantially influenced by serum and/or 2H as well as TSH in the medium. The results indicate that serum or insulin-like growth factor-I plus hydrocortisone are required rather specifically for the regeneration of the TSH-receptor mechanism coupled with I- efflux and/or Ca2+ mobilization mechanism.

Graves' immunoglobulin G stimulates iodide efflux in FRTL-5 thyroid cells.

TSH induced I- efflux in FRTL-5 cells, a cell line derived from normal rat thyroid cells, is not mediated by cAMP but intracellular Ca2+ signaling. Graves' patient immunoglobulin G is known to activate the thyroidal cAMP pathway, but little is known about the activation of Ca2+ signaling. We report here that, similarly to TSH, the polyethylenglycol-precipitated serum fraction of Graves' patients induces I- efflux in FRTL-5 cells. The cells grown in the presence of TSH were incubated for 3 weeks in a Ham's 10 medium containing 1% CS, insulin, and hydrocortison for TSH depletion. After preincubating with 125I-iodide for 50 min to label intracellular iodide, the cells were challenged by serum samples for 1 min. The addition of normal pooled-serum hardly affected the I- efflux. The Graves' immunoglobulin G fractions dose-dependently stimulated I- efflux. The averaged potency of 12 patients' sera relative to the values of the pooled serum as 100% was 217 +/- 56.4%. This value was significantly higher (P < 0.001) than that for eight normal subjects (110 +/- 16.1%). The present study is the demonstration suggesting that Graves' thyrotoxicosis is mediated not only by an adenylate cyclase-cAMP system but also by a phospholipid-Ca2+ system.

Applying cognitive-social theory to health-protective behavior: breast self-examination in cancer screening.

This article applies recent developments in cognitive-social theory to health-protective behavior, articulating a Cognitive-Social Health Information Processing (C-SHIP) model. This model of the genesis and maintenance of health-protective behavior focuses on the individual's encodings and construals, expectancies, affects, goals and values, self-regulatory competencies, and their interactions with each other and the health-relevant information in the course of cognitive-affective processing. In processing health information, individuals are assumed to differ in both the accessibility of these mental representations and the organization of relationships among them. In this article, the model is applied to analyze and integrate the often-confusing findings on breast self-examination in cancer screening. Implications are considered for assessments and interventions to enhance adherence to complex, long-term, health-protective regimens, tailored to the needs and characteristics of the individual.

A cognitive-affective system theory of personality: reconceptualizing situations, dispositions, dynamics, and invariance in personality structure.

A theory was proposed to reconcile paradoxical findings on the invariance of personality and the variability of behavior across situations. For this purpose, individuals were assumed to differ in (a) the accessibility of cognitive-affective mediating units (such as encodings, expectancies and beliefs, affects, and goals) and (b) the organization of relationships through which these units interact with each other and with psychological features of situations. The theory accounts for individual differences in predictable patterns of variability across situations (e.g., if A then she X, but if B then she Y), as well as for overall average levels of behavior, as essential expressions or behavioral signatures of the same underlying personality system. Situations, personality dispositions, dynamics, and structure were reconceptualized from this perspective.

Influence of glucocorticoids on mammary prolactin receptors in pregnant mice after ovariectomy.

Regulation of mammary prolactin receptors by steroid hormones was investigated in ovariectomized mid-pregnant mice. Ovariectomy increased the number of mammary prolactin receptors per cell with no effect or a slight decrease in dissociation constant (Kd). The simultaneous removal of adrenals prevented this increase in numbers. A single injection of glucocorticoid (corticosterone or cortisol) in ovariectomized-adrenalectomized mice restored the number of prolactin receptors in mammary glands to the same level as that in ovariectomized controls without changing the Kd. Aldosterone, deoxycorticosterone and oestradiol did not affect the number of mammary prolactin receptors after ovariectomy-adrenalectomy. Serum concentration of prolactin was not influenced by the hormone manipulation except with injections of oestradiol or cortisol and apparently did not correlate with the number of prolactin receptors. These results indicated that glucocorticoids are required for the increase in the number of mammary prolactin receptors induced by ovariectomy in mid-pregnant mice.

Electrophoretic separation of prolactin secreted from mouse pituitary glands in vitro.

Prolactin secreted from the mouse pituitary gland in organ culture was characterized after disc or SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Some pituitary glands were cultured with 3H-labelled leucine for 24 h to obtain radioactive prolactin. In disc electrophoresis, immunoreactive, receptor-bindable and 3H-incorporated prolactins formed a single band with the same relative mobility (0.5). Prolactin migrating at Rf = 0.5 was extracted and re-analysed by SDS electrophoresis. A single stained and radioactive band was observed at the same position with an apparent molecular weight of 23 000 regardless of denaturing in the presence of absence of dithiothreitol. No other band was detected. These results indicate that mouse prolactin synthesized and secreted in organ culture is homogeneous and that mouse prolactin is a single-chain molecule.

Intraindividual stability in the organization and patterning of behavior: incorporating psychological situations into the idiographic analysis of personality.

In nomothetic analyses, the cross-situational consistency of individual differences in social behavior, assessed in vivo in a camp setting, dependent on the similarity in the psychological features of situations. As predicted by the social-cognitive theory of personality, idiographic analyses revealed that individuals were characterized by stable profiles of if ... then ...,situation-behavior relationships that formed "behavioral signatures" of personality (e.g., he aggresses when warned by adults but complies when threatened by peers. Thus, the intraindividual organization of behavior variation across situations was enduring but discriminatively patterned, visible as distinctive profiles of situation-behavior relationships. Implications were examined for an idiographic reconceptualization of personality coherence and its behavioral expressions in relation to the psychological ingredients of situations.

Intuitive interactionism in person perception: effects of situation--behavior relations on dispositional judgments.

To examine the effects of the relationships between behavior and the situation in which it occurs, we manipulated such relations and exposed subjects to them. Impressions were similar when based on the behaviors presented with situations unspecified (e.g., child hits) or when the situations in which they naturally occurred were specified (e.g., child hits when provoked). However, when situations were specified, subjects' impressions more accurately predicted individual differences in the children's actual levels of overall aggressive behavior. When the veridical situation-behavior relations were increasingly altered, the targets were perceived as being less plausible and increasingly maladjusted and odd, and correlations decreased between the perceived level of the children's aggressiveness and their actual aggressive behavior. Thus, both personality impressions and predictive accuracy were influenced by the relations between the target's behaviors and their situational contexts.

The nature of adolescent competencies predicted by preschool delay of gratification.

Delay of gratification, assessed in a series of experiments when the subjects were in preschool, was related to parental personality ratings obtained a decade later for 95 of these children in adolescence. Clear and consistent patterns of correlations between self-imposed delay time in preschool and later ratings were found for both sexes over this time span. Delay behavior predicted a set of cognitive and social competencies and stress tolerance consistent with experimental analyses of the process underlying effective delay in the preschool delay situation. Specifically, children who were able to wait longer at age 4 or 5 became adolescents whose parents rated them as more academically and socially competent, verbally fluent, rational, attentive, planful, and able to deal well with frustration and stress. Comparisons with related longitudinal research using other delay situations help to clarify the important features of the situations and person variables involved in different aspects of delay of gratification.

Cognitive person variables in the delay of gratification of older children at risk.

The components of self-regulation were analyzed, extending the self-imposed delay of gratification paradigm to older children with social adjustment problems. Delay behavior was related to a network of conceptually relevant cognitive person variables, consisting of attention deployment strategies during delay, knowledge of delay rules, and intelligence. A positive relationship was demonstrated between concurrent indexes of intelligence, attention deployment, and actual delay time. Moreover, attention deployment, measured as an individual differences variable during the delay process, had a direct, positive effect on delay behavior. Specifically, as the duration of delay and the frustration of the situation increased, children who spent a higher proportion of the time distracting themselves from the tempting elements of the delay situation were able to delay longer. The effect of attention deployment on delay behavior was significant even when age, intelligence, and delay rule knowledge were controlled. Likewise, delay rule knowledge significantly predicted delay time, even when age, attention deployment, and intelligence were controlled.

The role of situational demands and cognitive competencies in behavior organization and personality coherence.

Consistency in the natural organization of aggressive and prosocial (constructive) behavior, assessed repeatedly in vivo over a summer in a residential camp for children, was predicted from situational and personal characteristics. Similarity of situations in the types of competencies they demand in part predicted cross-situational consistency in individual differences in aggressive behaviors (Study 1). Study 2 examined the effect of cognitive competence on the discriminative patterning of behavior variation across situations. More cognitively competent Ss showed such discriminative patterning, which was reflected in greater Person X Situation interaction variance in their prosocial behavior.

Person X situation interactionism in self-encoding (I am...when...): implications for affect regulation and social information processing.

Although Person X Situation (P X S) interactionism is central in current social-cognitive conceptions of personality organization, its implications for the encoding of the self remain unexplored. Two studies examined the causal role of P X S interactionism in self-encoding on affect regulation and discriminative social perception. Following failure (Studies 1 and 2) and success (Study 2) ideation, participants were prompted to encode the self either in P X S interactionist terms (I am...when...) or in traitlike unconditional terms (I am...). Interactionist (compared with unconditional) self-encoding led to less affective extremity, suggesting that such encoding may prevent individuals from generalizing specific success and failure experiences to the self as a whole. Study 2 also found that interactionist self-encoding attenuated the endorsement of global stereotypes, suggesting that such encoding may enhance fine-grained social perception as well.

The role of strategic attention deployment in development of self-regulation: predicting preschoolers' delay of gratification from mother-toddler interactions.

Toddlers' use of effective attention deployment strategies to cope with separation from the mother and with maternal behavior predicted the use of effective delay-of-gratification strategies at age 5, even though the contexts, measures, and manifest behaviors were different. Toddlers who used distraction strategies during a brief separation from the mother were able, at age 5, to delay immediate gratification longer for more valued rewards. Toddlers who explored at a distance from a controlling mother when she tried to engage the child also delayed longer and used more effective delay strategies at age 5, compared with toddlers who did not distance themselves. Toddlers whose mothers were not controlling showed the opposite pattern: Those who did not distance themselves from the mother's bids had longer preschool delay times and more effective strategies. Strategic attention deployment was shown to be an enduring self-regulatory skill visible in early development across domains, measures, and over time.

A case of pemphigus vulgaris in a six-year-old girl.

A case of pemphigus vulgaris in a six-year-old Japanese girl is presented. She first developed vesicles and ulcerations in oral and laryngeal mucous membranes, showing a hoarse voice and fits of coughing with excessive slavering. She had skin blisters six months later. Biopsy of the skin lesion demonstrated the intraepidermal blister in a suprabasal location. Direct immunofluorescence (IF) of the skin lesion revealed deposits of IgG and C3. Indirect IF showed serum anti-ICS antibody titer at 1:640. She was diagnosed as having pemphigus vulgaris. Treatment with oral prednisolone (1 mg/kg) proved effective. This is the first case of infantile pemphigus vulgaris in Japan.

A case of dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans on the right first toe.

Reports of dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans on a toe are extremely rare. It frequently occurs on the trunk and extremities. A Japanese woman presented with a dark-brownish hyperkeratotic plaque on the dorsal skin of her first toe. The initial clinical diagnosis of verruca vulgaris prompted treatment with cryotherapy. After that a glossy milky-white tumor appeared. Only the results of the histopathologic examination resulted in a diagnosis of dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans. The unusual macroscopic finding was considered to be due to repetitive stimulation by foot movement.

[Concentrations of cefmenoxime and cefotiam in the bile and gallbladder tissue following intravenous administration in patients with biliary tract diseases].

To test the effectiveness of cefmenoxime (CMX) and cefotiam (CTM) in patients with biliary tract diseases, concentrations of either antibiotic were measured after an intravenous bolus injection of 1.0 g of CMX or CTM, or simultaneous injection of both (1.0 g each). CMX or CTM was injected in 76 patients with biliary tract diseases (mostly cholelithiasis) prior to a cholecystectomy and concentrations of CMX or CTM were measured by the bioassay (agar well) method at 30 to 60 minutes after the injection. Average concentrations of both CMX and CTM in gallbladder bile and gallbladder tissue sufficiently exceeded the minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) against main causative organisms of biliary tract infections. Concentrations of both antibiotics in gallbladder bile were significantly higher in patients with patent cystic ducts than with obstructed cystic ducts. Concentrations of both antibiotics in the gallbladder tissue reached at a similar high level regardless of the patency of the cystic ducts, but concentrations were lower in severely inflamed gallbladders. CMX and CTM were administered alternatively (cross-over fashion), or simultaneously (combined) to 13 patients with T-tube drainage or percutaneous transhepatic cholangio-drainage, and concentrations of both antibiotics in bile from the drainage tube were measured by high performance liquid chromatography at hourly intervals after the injection. Concentrations of both antibiotics were far greater than MICs against main attributable microorganisms in biliary tract infections. The concentration of CMX slightly exceeded that of CTM. Concentrations of both antibiotics were lower in bile of patients showing abnormally high serum GTP, A1-P, and total bilirubin levels than in bile of patients with normal values of these variables. It is speculated that the secretion of both antibiotics in the bile may decrease in cases with severe hepatic failure, but effective concentrations of both antibiotics in the gallbladder tissue should be maintained as long as the blood circulation in the gallbladder was maintained.

[Clinical studies of BRL 28500 (clavulanic acid/ticarcillin) in the treatment of intraperitoneal infections and biliary tract infections].

Clinical studies have been conducted on BRL 28500 (a formulation containing 15 parts ticarcillin (TIPC) plus 1 part clavulanic acid (CVA]. BRL 28500 was administered at doses of 1.6 g or 3.2 g b.i.d., generally for 10 days by drip infusion to patients with intraperitoneal infections or biliary tract infections. Drug concentrations in the ascites were determined. A total of 76 cases was treated with BRL 28500. These cases included 49 intraperitoneal infections (suppurative peritonitis 29, postoperative peritonitis 20) and 18 biliary tract infections (cholecystitis 5, cholangitis 13). Nine cases were excluded from evaluation according to the committee's assessment. The clinical improvement as assessed by surgeons in charge increased with the duration of continued treatment and efficacies were assessed as 57.1% on day 5, 63.1% on day 7 and 77.8% on day 10 in intraperitoneal infections. Corresponding results in biliary tract infections were 38.9%, 40.0% and 42.9%, respectively. From these results, it is clear that the degree of improvement is related to the duration of treatment. The clinical usefulness as assessed by surgeons in charge of the study was 63.8% in intraperitoneal infections (suppurative peritonitis 75.0%, postoperative peritonitis 47.4%) and 58.8% in biliary tract infections (cholecystitis 100%, cholangitis 41.7%). The overall rate of usefulness was 62.5%. The clinical efficacy rates as assessed by the committee were 81.6% in intraperitoneal infections (suppurative peritonitis 93.1%, postoperative peritonitis 65.0%) and 66.7% in biliary tract infections (cholecystitis 100%, cholangitis 53.8%). In cases where causative organisms were isolated, the efficacies were 92.9% in suppurative peritonitis, 58.8% in postoperative peritonitis, 50.0% in cholangitis and overall, 69.2%. In cases from which TIPC-resistant organisms were isolated, the overall efficacy rate was 65.4% (suppurative peritonitis 88.9%, postoperative peritonitis 58.3% and cholangitis 40.0%). Regarding bacteriological effect as assessed by the committee, the eradication rate was 76.9% in intraperitoneal infections and 40.0% in biliary tract infections (71.0% overall). In cases from whom ticarcillin-resistant organisms were isolated the corresponding rates were 68.4% and 33.3% respectively, (63.6% overall). In 4 patients with peritonitis drug levels in the ascites were determined following administration of BRL 28500 by drip infusion. Good levels of both TIPC and CVA were detected 1 to 3.5 hours after administration.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

[Assay of circulating thyroid stimulator determined by I- efflux].

The thyroid stimulating antibodies (TSAb) have been widely used as a clinical marker for diagnosis of hyperthyroidism due to Graves' disease. Immunoglobulins (IgG) of Graves' patients as well as TSH is known to stimulate cAMP production in FRTL-5 cells, a cell-line derived from normal rat thyroid. On the other hand, it has been shown that TSH-induced I- efflux in these cells is associated with production of inositolphosphate as well as intracellular Ca2+ increase. An attempt was made to determine whether Graves' IgG also can mimic such TSH action as a cause of Graves' disease. Polyethyleneglycol precipitated serum fraction of Graves' patients were prepared. The cells grown in the presence of TSH were incubated for 3 weeks in a Ham's 10 medium containing 1% calf serum, insulin and hydrocortisone for TSH depletion. After preincubation with 125I-iodide for 50 min to label intracellular iodide, the cells were challenged by serum samples for 1 min. The addition of normal pooled serum hardly affected the I- efflux. The Graves' immunoglobulin G fractions stimulated I- efflux dose-dependently. The mean potency of 12 patient's sera relative to the values of the pooled serum as 100% was 217 +/- 56.4%, which was significantly higher (p < 0.001) than that for 8 normal subjects (110 +/- 16.1%). The results obtained herein indicate that IgG of Graves' patients activate both adenylate aclase-cAMP system and a phospholipid-Ca2 system. I- efflux stimulating immunoglobulins (IESI) activity is a useful marker in making a diagnosis or determining a remission of hyperthyroidism due to Graves' disease.