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Usefulness of anaerobic threshold for evaluating daily life activity and prescribing exercise to the healthy subjects and patients.

Forty-three subjects were studied as for the relationship between anaerobic threshold (AT) and medical data including individual life style. Age, habit of exercise, and obesity are related to AT, showing a correlation coefficient of 0.533, 0.457 and 0.428, respectively. On the other hand, plasma lipid levels and alcohol are not so strongly related to AT, showing low correlation coefficient of 0.241 and 0.209 respectively. No correlation is found on the other factors such as FBS, Liver and blood pressure etc. Physical active life, commuting time, cumulative exercise hours in a month and work hours in a month are correlated to AT, showing correlation coefficient of 0.799, 0.734, 0.708 and 0.671, respectively, and even "more than once a month" frequency of exercise has affected AT. In conclusion, AT is a useful index for evaluating daily life activity and prescribing exercise regimen.

Activities of Daily Living↗

Rural emergency medical volunteers and their communities: a demographic comparison.

This research compares the personal, household, and professional characteristics volunteer emergency medical service (EMS) providers in Ulster County, NY with those of the general population of this rural upstate county, using a survey instrument implemented by the author in conjunction with the 1990 U.S. Census data. A principal objective of this research was to identify the characteristics of these volunteers in order to support the recruitment and retention efforts of volunteer EMS organizations. Statistically significant deviations between these two sample populations include age distribution, maximum educational attainment, size of household, years in residence, type of employer, employing industry, occupation, household income, and commuting distance from work. Population differences for race, sex, marital status, household site, home ownership, housing costs, and in-county employment were not statistically significant. Additional data reported for the EMS volunteers include total emergency responses, active squad membership, length of service, level of medical qualifications, and intensity and nature of individual participation, age of recruitment, family involvement, tenure in the community, rates of household work participation, other volunteer activity, motivation, and receptivity to alternative incentive programs. The relevance of these data is interpreted with respect to the prospects for effective recruitment of volunteers, the level of commitment and retention of the volunteers, the degree of support which volunteers can expect from their communities, and the extent of cohesiveness and integration which volunteer EMS squads provide to their communities.

Adult↗

The connection between the hippocampal and the striatal memory systems of the brain: a review of recent findings.

Two major memory systems have been recognized over the years (Squire, in Memory and Brain, 1987): the declarative memory system, which is under the control of the hippocampus and related temporal lobe structures, and the procedural or habit memory system, which is under the control of the striatum and its connections (Mishkin et al., in Neurobiology of Learning by G Lynch et al., 1984; Knowlton et al., Science 273:1399, 1996). Most if not all learning tasks studied in animals, however, involve either the performance or the suppression of movement. Animals acquire connections between environmental or discrete sensory cues (conditioned stimuli, CSs) and emotionally or otherwise significant stimuli (unconditioned stimuli, USs). As a result, they learn to perform or to inhibit the performance of certain motor responses to the CS which, when learned well, become what can only be called habits (Mishkin et al., 1984): to regularly walk or swim to a place or away from a place, or to inhibit one or several forms of movement. These responses can be viewed as conditioned responses (CRs) and may sometimes be very complex. This is of course also seen in humans: people learn how to play on a keyboard in response to a mental or written script and perform the piano or write a text; with practice, the performance improves and eventually reaches a high criterion and becomes a habit, performed almost if not completely without awareness. Commuting to school in a big city in the shortest possible time and eschewing the dangers is a complex learning that children acquire to the point of near-perfection. It is agreed that the rules that connect the perception of the CS and the expression of the CR change from their first association to those that take place when the task is mastered. Does this change of rules involve a switch from one memory system to another? Are different brain systems used the first time one plays a sonata or goes to school as compared with the 100th time? Here we will comment on: 1) reversal learning in the Morris water maze (MWM), in which the declarative or spatial component of a task is changed but the procedural component (to swim) persists and needs to be re-linked with a different set of spatial cues; and 2) a series of observations on an inhibitory avoidance task that indicate that the brain systems involved change with further learning.

Animals↗

[Experiences with ambulatory cardiologic phase II rehabilitation].

The phase II cardiac rehabilitation in Germany differs markedly from other European countries and the USA. Most of the patients enter a 3-week full residential program. In contrast we developed an outpatient phase II cardiac rehabilitation program. Since 1979 we treated more than 8,500 patients with different indications (i.e. after myocardial infarction, coronary bypass surgery, valve replacement and reconstruction). Patients with a daily commuting time over 60 minutes are not suitable for outpatient rehabilitation. Our model corresponds to the German intrahospital rehabilitation. The rehabilitation is carried out in 3 weeks offering approximately 66 hours of therapy. Groups of 8 patients with a similar level of physical capacity stay together during the rehabilitation. A comprehensive program with exercise training, physical therapy, psychological support, education in life style changes and risk factor modification has been developed. The compliance of the patients as well as the acceptance by the family are excellent. Long-lasting reduction in LDL cholesterol levels and increments in work-load capacities have been demonstrated. A high percentage of patients returned to work. Cost analysis demonstrates a reduction up to 40% in comparison to the full residential program. Therefore the outpatient phase II cardiac rehabilitation is a good alternative especially in urban areas.

Ambulatory Care↗

tRNA, new aspects in intracellular dynamics.

The nuclear envelope divides a eukaryotic cell into two compartments, the nucleus and the cytoplasm. Transcription and maturation of RNAs encoded on nuclear chromosomes are carried out in the nucleus, while the proteins coded by these RNAs are translated and processed in the cytoplasm. Cytosolic tRNAs, essential factors for translation, are transcribed in the nucleus and undergo extensive processing before reaching functionality. It had previously been believed that tRNAs have only one-way tickets to pass through the nuclear envelope after maturation in the nucleus, and that the small amounts of mature tRNAs found in the nucleus are biosynthetic intermediates. However, two reports from our lab and Anita Hopper's group recently demonstrated that tRNAs have multi-round commuter tickets to shuttle between the nucleus and the cytoplasm in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. In fact, various tRNA species, including aminoacylated full-length tRNAs and 3' end-shortened tRNAs, are actively imported into the nucleus under various conditions. These findings force a reconsideration of our view of intracellular dynamics of tRNAs, and re-evaluations of the physiological meanings of the nuclear mature tRNAs.

Animals↗

[Ambulatory rehabilitation after cochlear prosthesis implantation].

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: This study compares the results of the outpatient-based program of the Cochlear Implant Center Ruhr with inpatient-based rehabilitation, which is almost exclusively performed in Germany. PATIENTS/METHODS: The Department of Otorhinolaryngology at the University of Essen in Germany provided 52 patients with either 22- or 24-channel Nucleus cochlear implants from March 1996 to July 1999. Almost all patients (n = 49) were rehabilitated on an outpatient basis, which is the standard in many cochlear implant centers outside Germany. RESULTS: The longest follow-up period at the University of Essen Department of Otorhinolaryngology was 36 months. Minor complications occurred in 10% of the patients. After 24 months, the first three implanted patients were able to discriminate 100% of numbers and over 60% of syllables in the Freiburg speech discrimination test. The patients who developed an understanding of open speech were able to discriminate 31 words per minute with cochlear implant and without lipreading after 24 months. Children were seen to double their Schmid-Giovannini scores at 6 months postimplantation. CONCLUSIONS: The Essen outpatient-based cochlear implant program demonstrates results in speech development and speech understanding equal to those of centers providing inpatient rehabilitation. A special advantage is continuous rehabilitation with professionals known to the child for several years. In children especially, exhaustive commuting reduces school attendance and is a burden on the accompanying guardians. As an inpatient, however, the child is torn from his familiar environment. Parents with several children have particular difficulties in accompanying their child and indeed this may not always be possible.

Adult↗

A brief view of known landmarks reorientates path integration in hamsters.

In darkness, hamsters commute between their nest and a feeding site through path integration only, and therefore show cumulative errors in the return direction to the nest. We examined whether a brief presentation of familiar room cues could reset the path integrator. The hamsters could see the room cues either during, or at the end of, the outward journey to the food place, in a conflict situation where motion cues and visual information were set at variance. In both conditions, the animals used mainly visual information to return home. Thus, hamsters can determine their azimuth, and possibly their location, through a visual fix, and can reset their path integrator through the fix. This allows them to update their position during further locomotion in the dark and thus to compute a correct homing vector with respect to a visually induced reference frame. Taking episodic positional fixes may greatly enhance the functional value of path integration.

Animals↗

New NIST sediment SRM for inorganic analysis.

NIST maintains a portfolio of more than 1300 standard reference materials (SRM), more than a third of these relating to measurements in the biological and environmental fields. As part of the continuous renewal and replacement efforts, a set of new marine sediments has been recently developed covering organic and inorganic determinations. This paper describes the steps taken in sample preparation, homogeneity assay, and analytical characterization and certification with specific emphasis on SRM 2702 inorganics in marine sediment. Neutron activation analysis showed the SRM to be highly homogeneous, opening the possibility for use with solid sampling techniques. The certificate provides certified mass fraction values for 25 elements, reference values for eight elements, and information values for 11 elements, covering most of the priority pollutants with small uncertainties of only several percent relative. The values were obtained by combining results from different laboratories and techniques using a Bayesian statistical model. An intercomparison carried out in field laboratories with the material before certification illustrates a high commutability of this SRM.

Certification↗

Flow-injection spectrophotometric multidetermination of metallic ions with a single reagent exploiting multicommutation and multidetection.

A flow system designed by computer-controlled discrete commutation devices is proposed for the multidetermination of metallic ions with a single chromogenic reagent. Intermittent addition of masking agents and changes of the reaction pH were exploited to implement selective determination of four species. Multidetection with an optical-fiber CCD-array spectrophotometer enabled simultaneous measurements at different wavelengths for multidetermination. The proposed system was applied to the determination of iron, copper, nickel and zinc in alloys and pharmaceutical preparations, yielding results in agreement with those obtained by flame atomic absorption spectrophotometry at the 95% confidence level. The sampling rate was estimated to be 80 determinations per hour. Coefficients of variation lower than 2% (n = 20) were achieved for all species.

Alloys↗

Forest and farmland conservation effects of Oregon's (USA) land-use planning program.

Oregon's land-use planning program is often cited as an exemplary approach to forest and farmland conservation, but analyses of its effectiveness are limited. This article examines Oregon's land-use planning program using detailed spatial data describing building densities in western Oregon. An empirical model describes changes in building densities on forest and agricultural lands from 1974 to 1994, as a function of a gravity index of land's commuting distance to cities of various sizes, topographic characteristics, and zoning adopted under Oregon's land-use planning program. The effectiveness of Oregon's land-use planning program is evaluated based on the statistical significance of zoning variables and by computing estimated areas of forest and agricultural lands falling into undeveloped, low-density developed, and developed building density categories, with and without land-use zoning in effect. Results suggest that Oregon's land-use planning program has provided a measurable degree of protection to forest and agricultural lands since its implementation.

Agriculture↗

Mutation and recombination with tight linkage.

An exact solution of the mutation-recombination equation in continuous time is presented, with linear ordering of the sites and at most one mutation or crossover event taking place at every instant of time. The differential equation may be obtained from a mutation-recombination model with discrete generations, in the limit of short generations, or weak mutation and recombination. The solution relies on the multilinear structure of the dynamical system, and on the commuting properties of the mutation and recombination operators. It is obtained through diagonalization of the mutation term, followed by a transformation to certain measures of linkage disequilibrium that simultaneously linearize and diagonalize the recombination dynamics. The collection of linkage disequilibria, as well as their decay rates, are given in closed form.

Evolution, Molecular↗

[Potentials of elderly migrants].

Re-migration and immigration are the causes for the continual fluctuation within the migrant population. It is, however, currently foreseeable that the elderly migrant population living in Germany will steadily increase. Because of the large degree of heterogeneity among the elderly migrant population in Germany, the following report will be limited to a discussion of those groups of migrant workers, who originate from former recruiting countries. These groups will constitute the majority of elderly migrants in the coming years. Among the first generation of migrants, some groups have extensive ethnic social networks. This is mostly the case with respect to the migrants from Turkey. These have access to their own ethnic infrastructure, and, due to this fact, there is little need for the initiation of social contacts outside their own ethnic context. Generally, they prefer, as do other elderly foreign workers, to remain in their cultural niches with their own religious institutions and migrant organizations. In comparison to the German population, the families of the first generation of migrants have more children and live more often in multigenerational households. Under the conditions of migration and in a foreign cultural context, the family fulfills a function of social-emotional support. Migrants possess a high potential for mobility. They commute between their homeland and the land of immigration. For some, this is a transitional strategy in order to reach a final decision, either to return to their homeland or to stay in Germany. For others, it is a long-term solution that enables them to make use of each country's respective advantages.

Age Distribution↗

Physical load and psychological demand at work during pregnancy and preterm birth.

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the effect of physical workload and psychological demand on all preterm births, and to determine whether these risk factors have the same effect on different types of preterm birth (moderate versus very preterm birth) and different modes of delivery onset (spontaneous versus indicated preterm birth). METHODS: A case-control study was carried out in two public general hospitals in the Valencia Region, Spain. All preterm births (228) which occurred between 22 and 36 completed weeks of amenorrhea and 348 controls of 37 or more completed weeks of amenorrhea were included. The information was collected by interviewing women within 2 days of their giving birth. Physical workload, psychological demand, weekly working hours and daily time spent commuting between home and work were used as explanatory variables. A polytomous logistic regression was carried out. RESULTS: Exposure to medium or high level physical workload increases the risk of preterm birth, with an adjusted odds ratio (OR) of 1.59 and 2.31, respectively. The risk of moderate preterm birth was greater in women with a medium or high level of physical workload, OR: 1.73 and 2.35, respectively. The same trend was observed for very preterm birth. Physical workload showed a different effect on spontaneous and indicated preterm birth. The exposure to medium and high level physical workload increases the risk of indicated preterm birth, with an OR of 2.74 and 3.88, respectively. The same trend was seen in the case of spontaneous preterm birth. Psychological demands were not associated with preterm birth. CONCLUSIONS: High physical exertion increases the risk of preterm birth in Spain. The magnitude of the effect of physical workload on moderate and very preterm birth is similar, but is higher on indicated preterm birth than on spontaneous preterm birth. Psychological demands show no effect on the risk of preterm birth.

Child↗

Factors affecting outdoor exposure in winter: population-based study.

The extent of outdoor exposure during winter and factors affecting it were examined in a cross-sectional population study in Finland. Men and women aged 25-74 years from the National FINRISK 2002 sub-study (n=6,591) were queried about their average weekly occupational, leisure-time and total cold exposure during the past winter. The effects of gender, age, area of residence, occupation, ambient temperature, self-rated health, physical activity and education on cold exposure were analysed. The self-reported median total cold exposure time was 7 h/week (8 h men, 6 h women),<1 h/week (2 h men, 0 h women) at work, 4 h/week (5 h men, 4 h women) during leisure time and 1 h/week (1 h men, 1.5 h women) while commuting to work. Factors associated with increased occupational cold exposure among men were: being employed in agriculture, forestry and industry/mining/construction or related occupations, being less educated and being aged 55-64 years. Factors associated with increased leisure-time cold exposure among men were: employment in industry/mining/construction or related occupations, being a pensioner or unemployed, reporting at least average health, being physically active and having college or vocational education. Among women, being a housewife, pensioner or unemployed and engaged in physical activity increased leisure-time cold exposure, and young women were more exposed than older ones. Self-rated health was positively associated with leisure time cold exposure in men and only to a minor extent in women. In conclusion, the subjects reported spending 4% of their total time under cold exposure, most of it (71%) during leisure time. Both occupational and leisure-time cold exposure is greater among men than women.

Adult↗

Blast injuries from Madrid terrorist bombing attacks on March 11, 2004.

Blast injuries after terrorist attacks are seen with increasing frequency worldwide. Thousands of victims were attended in the hospitals of Madrid, Spain, on March 11, 2004 after the bombing attacks against the commuter trains. Thirty-six patients were attended in our institution. Seventeen of them suffered from severe or life-threatening injuries, and 19 had mild injuries. The most common lesions were thoracic trauma and blast lung injury, acoustic trauma, and orbital and paranasal sinus fractures. Other findings were hepatic and splenic lacerations, and vertebral and limb fractures. Emergency radiology had an important role in the correct management of the victims. Prompt radiological diagnoses of these complex lesions are crucial to efficient treatment. Therefore, radiologists have to become familiar with the injury patterns and specific lesions caused by blast wave.

Adolescent↗

Mental health differences between rural and urban men living with HIV infection in various age groups.

Despite the disproportionate increase in rural, Southern residents and older persons during the third era of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, no known study has examined whether older, rural men living with HIV infection face a double jeopardy and have poorer psychosocial profiles than other subgroups of men. We investigated whether area of residence (rural, urban), age (young, middle-age, old), and the interaction of residence and age would be related to mental health factors by using two measurement methods to categorize rural and urban residence (US Census Bureau classification and The Office of Rural Health Policy's, Rural Urban Commuting Area Codes [RUCAs]). We conducted 2-3 hour-long, face-to-face interviews with all but 43 patients who met the study criteria and kept their clinic appointments at three different types of healthcare facilities (i.e., VA, university clinic, public health department) over a 20-month period. The sample consisted of 226 men living in the southeastern US. Rural and urban men of various age groups did not differ in socioeconomic factors, travel distance to clinics, use of medications, satisfaction with care, types of severe stressors, and confidentiality concerns. Using two methods to categorize area of residence, we found that rural men as compared to urban men had similar levels of total stress, AIDS-related stress, social support, active coping and avoidance coping, but higher rates of risk for depression. Rural men had higher levels of non-AIDS-related stress only when the US Census Bureau's categorization was used, which highlights the importance of carefully selecting and describing methods to categorize rural versus urban residence.

Adult↗

Symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder in a New Orleans workforce following Hurricane Katrina.

On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina made landfall resulting in catastrophic damage and flooding to New Orleans, LA, and the Gulf Coast, which may have had significant mental health effects on the population. To determine rates and predictors of symptoms consistent with a diagnosis of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in New Orleans residents following Hurricane Katrina, we conducted a web-based survey 6 months after Hurricane Katrina made landfall. Participants included 1,542 employees from the largest employer in New Orleans. The prevalence of PTSD symptoms was 19.2%. Predictors of PTSD symptoms in a multivariate-adjusted regression model included female sex, non-black race, knowing someone who died in the storm, not having property insurance, having had a longer evacuation, a much longer work commute compared to before Hurricane Katrina, and currently living in a newly purchased or rented house or in a temporary trailer. Despite universal health coverage and the benefits of an employee assistance program for all employees, only 28.5% of those with PTSD symptoms had talked to a health professional about the events of Hurricane Katrina or issues encountered since the storm. A significant burden of PTSD symptoms was present 6 months following Hurricane Katrina among a large group of adults who had returned to work in New Orleans. Given their key role in the economic redevelopment of the region, there is a tremendous need to identify those in the workforce with symptoms consistent with PTSD and to enhance treatment options. The strong relationship between displacement from one's pre-Katrina residence and symptoms of PTSD suggests a need to focus resource utilization and interventions on individuals living in temporary housing.

Adult↗

An analysis of road traffic fatalities in Delhi, India.

Road use patterns in Delhi, India are very different from those in cities in highly industrialized countries. In Delhi roads are also shared by unmotorized vehicles in large numbers. This study is an attempt to understand fatal crash patterns in Delhi in 1980 using police data. The results indicate that fatality patterns in Delhi are very different from those in highly industrialized countries. Pedestrians, two-wheeler riders and bus commuters comprise 80% of fatalities and motor-vehicle occupants a small minority. It appears that priorities for safety countermeasures in Delhi would have to be significantly different from those in more industrialized high-income countries. Some short-term and long-term measures are suggested in the paper.

Accidents, Traffic↗