Dr. John R. Brinkley: A Kansas Phenomenon

This work is an attempt to evaluate the impact of John R. Brinkley on the history of Kansas. It is not a definitive study of any phase of his life. Rather it is, within the limitations of available material, an attempt to gain a closer, truer look of the man and his activities, during the period of conflict that he engendered in Kansas. The material for this study has been brought together from a myriad of sources. Of particular importance is the biography of John R. Brinkley, The Life of A Man, by Clement Wood, the files and scrapbook of Ernest A. Dewey, and W. G. Clugston’s Rascals in Democracy. Newspapers of this state and others printed millions of words about Brinkley. The files of the Kansas City Star give a running account of his activities in Kansas, and practically all daily papers through their Associated Press service have given many columns to the career of Brinkley

Effects of Postgesterone and Related Compounds on Mating and Pregnancy in the Rat

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston Universit

Different Behavioral Experiences Produce Distinctive Parallel Changes in, and Correlate With, Frontal Cortex and Hippocampal Global Post-translational Histone Levels.

While it is clear that behavioral experience modulates epigenetic profiles, it is less evident how the nature of that experience influences outcomes and whether epigenetic/genetic biomarkers could be extracted to classify different types of behavioral experience. To begin to address this question, male and female mice were subjected to either a Fixed Interval (FI) schedule of food reward, or a single episode of forced swim followed by restraint stress, or no explicit behavioral experience after which global expression levels of two activating (H3K9ac and H3K4me3) and two repressive (H3K9me2 and H3k27me3) post-translational histone modifications (PTHMs), were measured in hippocampus (HIPP) and frontal cortex (FC). The specific nature of the behavioral experience differentiated profiles of PTHMs in a sex- and brain region-dependent manner, with all 4 PTHMs changing in parallel in response to different behavioral experiences. These different behavioral experiences also modified the pattern of correlations of PTHMs both within and across FC and HIPP. Unexpectedly, highly robust correlations were found between global PTHM levels and behavioral performances, suggesting that global PTHMs may provide a higher-order pattern recognition function. Further efforts are needed to determine the generality of such findings and what characteristics of behavioral experience are critical for modulating PTHM responses

Developmental Lead and/or Prenatal Stress Exposures Followed by Different Types of Behavioral Experience Result in the Divergence of Brain Epigenetic Profiles in a Sex, Brain Region, and Time-Dependent Manner: Implications for Neurotoxicology.

Over a lifetime, early developmental exposures to neurocognitive risk factors, such as lead (Pb) exposures and prenatal stress (PS), will be followed by multiple varied behavioral experiences. Pb, PS and behavioral experience can each influence brain epigenetic profiles. Our recent studies show a greater level of complexity, however, as all three factors interact within each sex to generate differential adult variation in global post-translational histone modifications (PTHMs), which may result in fundamentally different consequences for life-long learning and behavioral function. We have reported that PTHM profiles differ by sex, brain region and time point of measurement following developmental exposures to Pb±PS, resulting in different profiles for each unique combination of these parameters. Imposing differing behavioral experience following developmental Pb±PS results in additional divergence of PTHM profiles, again in a sex, brain region and time-dependent manner, further increasing complexity. Such findings underscore the need to link highly localized and variable epigenetic changes along single genes to the highly-integrated brain functional connectome that is ultimately responsible for governing behavioral function. Here we advance the idea that increased understanding may be achieved through iterative reductionist and holistic approaches. Implications for experimental design of animal studies of developmental exposures to neurotoxicants include the necessity of a \u27no behavioral experience\u27 group, given that epigenetic changes in response to behavioral testing can confound effects of the neurotoxicant itself. They also suggest the potential utility of the inclusion of salient behavioral experiences as a potential effect modifier in epidemiological studies

Conditioning a Class of Verbal Behavior in Schizophrenics and Normals Using Both Verbal and Gestural Reinforcement

This study was designed to determine some of the possible differences in normal and schizophrenic verbal behavior. Subjects were ten persons at the Larned State Hospital who had been diagnosed as schizophrenic and ten normals matched to the schizophrenics as to age, sex, and education. All subjects were requested to tell two stories including themselves, two other people, and the experimenter. References to the experimenter were reinforced by means of verbal approval (such as good and “mmm-hm ) during the second story. The frequency of references to the experimenter was computed for each story. Comparisons were made on a group basis and all possible comparisons were made between and within the groups. Significant differences were obtained in comparing non-reinforced normal with reinforced normal subjects and in comparing reinforced normal subjects with reinforced schizophrenic subjects. Schizophrenic subjects showed greater variability in their behavior and, as a group, their reinforced stories did not differ significantly from their non-reinforced stories