A 3D Computational Head Model Under Dynamic Head Rotation and Head Extension Validated Using Live Human Brain Data, Including the Falx and the Tentorium.

We employ an advanced 3D computational model of the head with high anatomical fidelity, together with measured tissue properties, to assess the consequences of dynamic loading to the head in two distinct modes: head rotation and head extension. We use a subject-specific computational head model, using the material point method, built from T1 magnetic resonance images, and considering the anisotropic properties of the white matter which can predict strains in the brain under large rotational accelerations. The material model now includes the shear anisotropy of the white matter. We validate the model under head rotation and head extension motions using live human data, and advance a prior version of the model to include biofidelic falx and tentorium. We then examine the consequences of incorporating the falx and tentorium in terms of the predictions from the computational head model.

Experiences of women healing from childhood sexual abuse.

Childhood sexual abuse has affected the lives of countless survivors who seek help within the health care system. Despite extensive research and clinical work, many survivors do not receive adequate help. This research aimed to add to the body of clinical knowledge by reporting on the experiences of childhood sexual abuse survivors who have achieved a measure of healing. Findings from a naturalistic study of 14 female survivors of childhood sexual abuse are presented. The character of healing, the relationship of context with healing, what facilitated healing, and what impeded healing are discussed.

Healing: analysis of the concept.

Healing, a concept familiar to many nurses has recently gained wide recognition and use in both professional and lay circles. In spite of the wide use and scrutiny of the term, the concept remains confusing and inexact. Lack of clarity in meaning leads to multiple definitions, communication problems and difficulties in measurement and theory development. Continued discussion and examination of healing and related concepts will help nurses more clearly define this important concept. The Walker and Avant method of concept analysis can be applied to the concept healing for exploring and clarifying its meaning. Healing, as defined here, is a natural, active and multidimensional process that is individually expressed with common patterns. Body condition, personal attitudes and relationships influence healing.

Four years later: Clara revisited.

TOPIC: The use of art therapy to treat post-traumatic response. PURPOSE: To demonstrate through the use of a case presentation ways in which art therapy can be used to facilitate healing from post-traumatic response. SOURCE: The author's own clinical work. CONCLUSIONS: The healing process for individuals experiencing post-traumatic response does not end with the formal termination of therapy. It may need to be supplemented with support and follow-up, short-term therapy episodes. Healing can be facilitated by art therapy, which provides a useful medium for identifying and exploring changes in self-concept, behaviors, and feelings.

Serial self-portrait: a technique to monitor changes in self-concept.

Recovery work for adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse can be difficult because survivors have endured traumas and events that marred and disrupted the development of their sense of self. Serial portrait drawing, an expressive technique, can be useful for clients and therapists to monitor changes and progress. These changes can lead to increased awareness, insight development, and motivation for continuing the often grueling work of recovery. Recognizing and exploring self-concept issues are necessary for healing to occur.

Projective drawings: helping adult survivors of childhood abuse recognize boundaries.

1. Boundary issues for adult childhood trauma survivors are complex, problematic, difficult to resolve, and occur on a level of unawareness. 2. Boundary concepts can be found in all types of projective drawings. 3. Projective drawings can facilitate awareness and understanding of boundary problems experienced by adult childhood trauma survivors.

Oxalate nephrosis in Macaca fascicularis.

Crystals within the renal proximal convoluted tubules of several cynomolgus monkeys (Macaca fasciculata) were investigated by light and scanning electron microscopy together with histochemistry and X-ray microanalysis techniques. The crystals were shown to have the physical structure and staining characteristics of calcium oxalate monohydrate. The incidence varied between different batches of animals and no definite cause was established.

Clara's story: post-traumatic response and therapeutic art.

Post-traumatic response (PTR) is a reaction to a distressful event or events. PTR can be immediate, delayed, or chronic. Delayed or chronic PTR is often observed in adults who experienced repeated episodes of childhood physical, emotional, and/or sexual abuse. After years of secrecy, fear, denial, repression, suppression, and/or maladaptive coping patterns, recovery for chronic survivors can be lengthy, painful, and arduous. Recovery work can be facilitated by a therapeutic approach combining cognitive and expressive techniques. A case study illustrates one client's four-year recovery period.

The art of therapeutic drawing. Helping chronic trauma survivors.

1. Survivors of chronic trauma, who may have survived hundreds of episodes of battering and abuse, have no gauge of what is normal and continue to live in the same emotional climate. 2. The coping patterns that are a result of chronic trauma are below the level of awareness and prevent healthy adaptation. 3. The inclusion of expressive techniques, such as therapeutic drawing, can be used to facilitate the emotional work of chronic trauma issues.

Inhalation toxicity and carcinogenicity of 1,3-butadiene in Sprague-Dawley rats.

A 2-year inhalation study was conducted in Sprague-Dawley rats with 1,3-butadiene. Groups of 110 male and 110 female rats inhaled 1,3-butadiene at 0, 1000, or 8000 ppm for 6hr/day, 5 days/week. Interim clinical pathology, neuromuscular, and histopathology investigations were carried out. The study terminated at 20 to 25% survival (105 weeks for females, 111 weeks for males). Following exposure to 1,3-butadiene there were no effects on hematology, blood chemistry, urine analysis, and neuromuscular function that definitely could be associated with treatment. Treatment was associated with changes in clinical condition, suppression of body weight gain, reduced survival, and increases in certain organ weights and in both common and uncommon tumor types. Although the biological interpretation of the significance of some of the tumor types is equivocal, the evidence suggests that the test article is an oncogen to the rat under the conditions of exposure used in this study, and the mechanism is more likely to be an indirect effect through the endocrine system, rather than a direct effect through the production of reactive metabolites.

Inhalation toxicity studies with 1,3-butadiene. 3. Two year toxicity/carcinogenicity study in rats.

Groups of 110 male and 110 female CD (Sprague-Dawley) rats were exposed to atmospheres containing 0 (control), 1000 or 8000 ppm v/v butadiene for 6 hr/day and 5 days/week. Ten of each sex from each group were killed at 52 weeks. The study was terminated when it was predicted that survival would drop to 20% to 25% (105 weeks for females and 111 weeks for males). High dose rats had wet, ruffled fur and showed slight incoordination during the first exposure each week. During the second year, mortality in both treated female groups was increased because of humanitarian sacrifice of animals with large subcutaneous masses, while increased mortality in the high dose males was accompanied by an increase of the severity of nephropathy. Body weight was slightly lower than controls in both sexes at the high dose, but statistically significant only over the first 12 weeks. There were no effects in hematological analyses or tests of neuromuscular function that definitely could be associated with treatment. Liver weights at both doses were increased in both sexes with no associated pathological change. Kidney weight was increased in males at the high dose, together with an increase in the severity of nephrosis. There were increases in the incidences of pancreatic exocrine adenoma (high dose, male); uterine sarcoma (both doses, female); Zymbal gland carcinoma (high dose, female); mammary tumors (both doses, female); thyroid follicular cell tumors; and testis Leydig-cell tumors (high dose). These data suggest that butadiene is a weak oncogen to the rat under the conditions of exposure used in this study.

Subchronic inhalation toxicology of carbon fibers.

Male Sprague Dawley rats were exposed to carbon fibers 7 microns in diameter and 20 to 60 microns in length, for six hours a day and five days a week for up to 16 weeks at an average chamber concentration of 20 mg/m3. Rats were killed at 4, 8, 12, and 16 weeks of exposure and after a 32-week postexposure recovery period. A similar number of control rats exposed only to air were killed at the same times. Pulmonary function tests, conducted just prior to the animals' death, did not demonstrate any significant or consistent changes. The only pulmonary finding that could be causally related to the subchronic inhalation of carbon fibers was phagocytosis of the inhaled particles by alveolar macrophages. This physiologic response was not accompanied by any local reactive pulmonary inflammation or fibrosis.

A Yaba-like condition in a young baboon (Papio anubis).

A rapidly developing proliferation of subcutaneous nodules on the leg of a young baboon is described. Histologically the nodules consisted of plump round cells, many of which contained intracytoplasmic eosinophilic viral-like inclusions.

Self-report and psychophysiological effects of Lamaze preparation: an analogue of labor pain.

Eighty nulliparous college female undergraduates were cast randomly into a series of eight treatment conditions representing all possible combinations of the three major components of the Lamaze method of childbirth preparation (relaxation training, informative lectures, and breathing exercises). Assessments of the efficacy of these pain coping strategies were subsequently made in the context of a 1-hour session involving twenty 80-second exposures to a laboratory pain stimulus, patterned so as to resemble labor contractions. Dependent variables included self-reported pain, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, frontalis EMG, and heart rate. Results of the study indicated that relaxation training comprises the most therapeutically active component of the Lamaze treatment regimen, with significant effects (treatments X trials) on self-reported pain, frontalis EMG, and heart rate. The implications of these findings are discussed from the perspective of designing new, and hopefully more efficacious, methods of preparing women for labor and delivery.

Total and free plasma neuroleptic levels in schizophrenic patients.

Nineteen male patients, under 35 years of age, newly admitted with a diagnosis of schizophrenia, were treated with either chlorpromazine or haloperidol at a fixed dosage for 25 days. Both total and free plasma neuroleptic levels were measured using a radioreceptor assay. Clinical response was measured by the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS). On day 25, nonresponders (those with a decrease of less than 8 points on the BPRS) had both total and free plasma neuroleptic levels within the range observed in responders. It is therefore concluded that lack of therapeutic response is generally not due to inadequate plasma drug levels.

Rhabdomyosarcoma in a young rat.

A spontaneous rhabdomyosarcoma was observed in a female Sprague Dawley-derived rat at 8 weeks of age. Histopathological examination when the rat was killed at 5 months of age revealed marked differences from experimentally-induced tumours.

Changes in patients with gender-identity problems after parental death.

The authors studied the incidence of parental loss among 163 gender-disordered patients and an equal number of psychiatric control patients. An unusually high number of gender-disordered patients had lost their fathers, particularly during adolescence and early adulthood. Many of these patients showed shifts in gender identity in the year after loss, and during that period many requested surgical sex reassignment for the first time. Changes in the patient's relationship with the remaining parent and experiences related to loss of the father are discussed.

Chronographic speech patterns of acutely psychotic patients. A preliminary note.

This study was a preliminary attempt to explore the likelihood that, for psychiatric patients, amount of vocal activity (relative to silence) reflects degree of psychopathology and change with treatment. Five acute schizophrenic patients (two men and three women) were each seen in three interviews by one of two interviewers. After each interview, the interviewer evaluated the extent of his patient's pathology in terms of the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale, and he and the patient separately completed a questionnaire designed to elicit their perceptions of the interview. The results reveal that the relative amounts of the patients' vocal activity were negatively related to the interviewers' ratings of their general level of psychopathology and were also related to several aspects of their perceptions and the interviewers' perceptions of the interview. However, the number of interviews per patient was too few to permit an evaluation of treatment effects.