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PubMed1997

Fibers in the Mediterranean diet. An epidemiological study of the Campania Region.

BACKGROUND: The authors have evaluated: a) the survival of the "mediterranean diet" as way of life; b) the comparison between fiber content in the diet of adult or school children of the Campania Region. METHODS: To study nutritional epidemiology of adults, a new method consisting of publishing a 24-hour recall dietary chart in a new paper with big regional circulation, Il Mattino, and analyzing all the charts from the different towns of Campania was used. For that, the ZIP code of the subject was used as an informatics button. Data were housed in a computer using Food Meter (an informatics program by Bayer-Medimatica). RESULTS: Differences statistically significant were found between adults or children residing in various district of the Campania Region and Naples town. CONCLUSIONS: Finally, it is important to underline that the amount of fibers of children's diets was higher than adult diets.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2005

'Big build': hidden depression in men.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate men's experience of depression. METHOD: A sample of male and female teachers and students was recruited from four sites of a tertiary education institution to a series of focus groups. A grounded theory approach to qualitative data analysis was used to elucidate men's experience of depression. Content analysis was applied to the women's data to examine similarities and contrasts with the men. Standard measures of mood and dispositional optimism confirmed the non-clinical status of the group. RESULTS: The findings suggest that some men who are depressed can experience a trajectory of emotional distress manifest in avoidant, numbing and escape behaviours which can lead to aggression, violence and suicide. Gender differences appear not in the experience of depression per se, but in the expression of depression. CONCLUSION: Emotional distress, constrained by traditional notions of masculinity, may explain why depression in men can often be hidden, overlooked, not discussed or 'acted out'. There are implications for the types of questions asked of men to detect depressive symptoms.

Adult↗
PubMed1997

Acute poisonings with drugs. A review of the data collected at the National Poison Information Centre during the period 1991-1995.

An analysis of the files collected in the National Poison Information Centre reveals that drugs are the most frequent causes of acute poisonings (followed by pesticides and other chemical substances) not only in big cities but also in rural areas. Within the drug poisoning category, about 59% of the toxicological advice related to poisonings in children up to 14 years of age. The most frequent poisonings with drugs related to poisonings with sedative and psychotropic drugs, particularly those containing benzodiazepines, phenothiazine derivatives and tricyclic antidepressants. There were frequent inquiries relating to poisonings with drug mixtures. Self-poisonings were the most frequent cause of poisonings among the adults (87.3%), in children below 14 years of age dominated accidental poisonings (96% of all drug poisonings in children).

Adolescent↗
PubMed2005

Biogeochemical controls on Diel cycling of stable isotopes of dissolved O2 and dissolved inorganic carbon in the Big Hole River, Montana.

Rivers with high biological productivity typically show substantial increases in pH and dissolved oxygen (DO) concentration during the day and decreases at night, in response to changes in the relative rates of aquatic photosynthesis and respiration. These changes, coupled with temperature variations, may impart diel (24-h) fluctuations in the concentration of trace metals, nutrients, and other chemical species. A better understanding of diel processes in rivers is needed and will lead to improved methods of data collection for both monitoring and research purposes. Previous studies have used stable isotopes of dissolved oxygen (DO) and dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) as tracers of geochemical and biological processes in streams, lakes, and marine systems. Although seasonal variation in 6180 of DO in rivers and lakes has been documented, no study has investigated diel changes in this parameter. Here, we demonstrate large (up to 13%o) cycles in delta18O-DO for two late summer sampling periods in the Big Hole River of southwest Montana and illustrate that these changes are correlated to variations in the DO concentration, the C-isotopic composition of DIC, and the primary productivity of the system. The magnitude of the diel cycle in delta18O-DO was greater in August versus September because of the longer photoperiod and warmer water temperatures. This study provides another biogeochemical tool for investigating the O2 and C budgets in rivers and may also be applicable to lake and groundwater systems.

Anions↗
PubMed2001

Maternal knowledge, attitude and practices towards diarrhea and oral rehydration therapy in rural Maharashtra.

OBJECTIVE: A cross sectional hospital based survey was undertaken in rural area of Wardha District of Maharashtra, to assess the knowledge, attitude and practices of mothers regarding diarrhea and oral rehydration therapy. METHODS: 75 mothers of under-five children participated [corrected] in the study. They were interviewed by an interviewer using a pre-designed and pre-tested questionnaire. RESULTS: 69.3% of them had a per-capita income of less than rupees 500 [corrected]. 68% of mothers knew the correct definition of diarrhea but only 5.3% of them were aware that diarrhea leads to dehydration [corrected]. 90.7% of mothers were aware of ORT and ORS was easily available to the majority, but only 60% of mothers [corrected] practiced ORT. Nearly 1/3rd of mothers were mixing ORS in the wrong fluid. Nearly half of the mothers were not practicing adequate hand washing, 32% were using feeding bottles [corrected]. CONCLUSION: The maternal knowledge towards diarrhea and ORS was inadequate in the population studied [corrected] and there was a big gap between actual and desired practices.

Child, Preschool↗
PubMed1999

Spontaneously occurring anti-PTH autoantibodies must be considered in the differential diagnosis of patients with elevated serum PTH levels.

We investigated the cause of elevated immunoreactive circulating parathyroid hormone (PTH) levels in two females of 41 (case 1) and 39 (case 2) years of age with low/normal serum calcium levels and hypocalcemia, respectively, and, in the latter case, hyperprolactinemia. Serum samples from both patients were fractionated by Sephadex G-100 Superfine chromatography. Fractions were assayed for PTH and prolactin (PRL) by immunoradiometric assays (IRMA) and for immunoglobulin G (IgG) by radial immunodiffusion. Sera from both patients were incubated with protein A and protein G Sepharose, centrifugated and the supernatant was assayed for PTH by IRMA. Sera were also subjected to affinity chromatography with an anti-human-IgG-agarose column. IgG and PTH or PRL were measured in the fractions by radial immunodiffusion and IRMA, respectively. In both cases the majority of serum PTH immunoreactivity eluted in the same fractions of IgG after gel filtration and was precipitated by protein A (89% in patient 1 and 96% in patient 2) and protein G (83% in patient 1 and 100% in patient 2), thus, behaving as IgG. In case 1, 79% of PTH was also retained by an anti-hIgG agarose column. High PRL levels in patient 2 were due to macroprolactinemia since most of PRL eluted as big,big (40%) and big-PRL (45%) after gel filtration. Forty-eight percent of PRL from patient 2 was retained by the anti-hIgG column indicating the presence of an anti-PRL autoantibody. These data suggest that spontaneously occurring anti-PTH autoantibodies must be considered in the differential diagnosis of patients with elevated serum PTH levels.

Adult↗
PubMed1997

[Scientific role of German ophthalmology in the European telecommunication project OPHTEL].

BACKGROUND: In Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain and Italy, the OPHTEL project combines clinical centers of ophthalmology and internal medicine, an institute for medical informatics and health services research, a publishing company and different industrial partners in the EDP market. AIMS: With the aid of visual telecommunication and rapid data transfer, methods and conditions will be developed and proved so that any physician can very easily obtain sufficient information for treating his patient. Thus, the regional differences in the quality of structured health service (e.g., urban/ rural) will be overcome throughout Europe. SCIENTIFIC TASKS: A multilingual diagnostic and therapeutic thesaurus has to be worked out in order to create standards for communication and quality control. Based on literature, images and image analysis in a knowledge-based data bank, a monitoring system (containing watch-dog functions) and the basic aspects of an ophthalmological patient/disease register will be investigated. (In parallel, a technical development of synchronous and asynchronous telecommunication between eye physicians is taking place in close cooperation with the regional Bavarian project Teleopathalmology in Bavaria on-line). RESULTS: State of the art 6 months after starting the project:the knowledge-based image data bank has been founded and also an ophthalmological 8 language thesaurus and definition standard. All data transfer lines are installed. DISCUSSION: The project is taking place amid diverging sections of medicine: ophthalmology and internal medicine, health politics and data protection, individual treatment and common interest (health care), product management and office organization. Thus, the scientific quality of the transferred ophthalmological content must undergo sophisticated controls. FUTURE STEPS: Intense cooperation with the big German associations for ophthalmology (DOG, BVA) and the European ophthalmological societies concerning EDP, classification and quality control.

Computer Communication Networks↗
PubMed2005

[MRI of the pituitary gland: indications and results in gynaecology and in obstetrics].

MRI is the sole radiological examination to be obtained if abnormal menses, galactorrhea or anovulation evokes the diagnosis of prolactinoma. Nevertheless, iatrogenic hyperprolactinemia or presence of big prolactin has to be ruled out before MRI is asked for. MRI of the pituitary gland must be technically optimal; analysis of the images has to be directed by clinical and biological data.

Amenorrhea↗
PubMed2006

Towards an epidemiological understanding of the effects of long-term institutional changes on population health: a case study of Canada versus the USA.

This paper uses a comparative case study of Canada and the USA to argue that, in order to fully understand the associations between population health and the socioeconomic environment we must begin to place importance on the dynamic aspect of these factors--examining them as they evolve over time. In particular, for institutional and policy shifts that often unfold over decades, population health must attend to these big, slow moving processes by adopting a historical perspective to the knowledge base. We compare Canada and the USA on basic health outcomes and a range of determinants of health for which routine data have been collected for all or most of the period between 1950 and the present. During the analysis that follows, we are able to establish that, at the level of society (i) greater economic well being and spending on health care does not yield better health outcomes, that (ii) public provision and income redistribution trump economic success where population health is concerned, and (iii) that the gradual development of public provision represents the buildup of social infrastructure that has long-lasting effects on health status. Our case study shows what can be gleaned from a comparative perspective and a long-term view. The long view allows us to detect the gradual divergence in health status between these two societies and to trace potential institutional causes that would otherwise go unnoticed. The perspective introduced here, and in particular the comparison of Canada and the USA, provides strong support for the use of cross-national comparative work, and a historical perspective on the investigation of societies that successfully support population health.

Canada↗
PubMed1998

Relationship between foot length and the inter anterior superior iliac distance.

Reduction of unstable pelvic fracture by external fixator might be over or under corrected as there is no proper estimation from the surgical landmark. Radiographic evaluation after reduction must be carried out and improper reduction is found in a certain number. To find a better guide by normal surgical landmark the study was carried out as a survey research in 600 volunteers aged from 10 to 70 years. Simple caliper and tape were used to measure the height, foot length and inter anterior superior iliac spine distance. In 376/420 male volunteers (89%), the length between right heel and tip of the fourth toe was equal to the inter anterior superior iliac spine distance. In 173/180 female volunteers (96%), the length between right heel and tip of big toe was equal to the inter anterior superior iliac spine distance. The length of the right foot can be used as a reference in reducing unstable fractured pelvis by external fixation. These data were used in the management of 36 patients with unstable fractured pelvis with external fixation for reduction and stabilization. All had good results.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1998

Educational level and adult mortality in Russia: an analysis of routine data 1979 to 1994.

The investigation of socio-economic differences in mortality in Russia was effectively prohibited in the Soviet period. The extent and nature of any such differences is of considerable interest given the very different principles upon which Russian society has been organised for most of this century compared to the West where socio-economic differences in health have been extensively documented. Using cross-sectional data on mortality in Russia around the 1979 and 1989 Censuses, we have analysed mortality gradients according to length of education. Our results show that educational differences in mortality are at least as big as seen in Western countries, and are most similar to the recently reported differences observed for other former communist countries such as the Czech Republic, Estonia and Hungary. As observed in many other countries the strength of association of mortality with education declines with age, varies by cause of death and is generally stronger among men than women. Differentials are particularly large for accidents and violence, where for men and women the mortality rate among those with primary or basic secondary education is over twice that of people with higher education. Even larger effects are seen for causes directly related to alcohol (including alcoholic cirrhosis and accidental poisoning by alcohol), and for infectious and parasitic diseases and respiratory diseases. These educational differences may in part be related to educational differences in alcohol consumption. Of particular significance is the fact that there are indications that socio-economic differences in mortality have widened considerably in the 1990s, a period during which there was a huge increase in the national burden of alcohol-related deaths. This widening of socio-economic differences at this time suggest that these increases in consumption were especially acute among those with less education. At a more general level the fact that large educational differences in mortality were seen in Russia in 1979 and 1989, prior to the collapse of the Soviet Union, is very striking and informative. In this period there was a far weaker association between income and education than is seen in the West, suggesting that the education effects are unlikely to be driven by underlying differences in financial resources. The protective effect of education, in the Russian context at least, has been driven by more subtle and mechanisms. The apparent widening of socio-economic mortality differences since the collapse of the Soviet Union suggests that the transformation underway in Russian society requires a strengthening of the public health function.

Adult↗
PubMed1994

Sensorimotor model of bat echolocation and prey capture.

A model of the bat sensorimotor system is developed using acoustics, signal processing, and control theory to illustrate the fundamental issues in accomplishing prey capture with echolocation. This model indicates that successful nonpredictive tracking of an ideal prey can be accomplished with a very simple system. Circular apertures approximate the mouth and ears for deriving acoustic beam patterns, using the big brown bat Eptesicus fuscus as a model. Fundamental and overtone frequency components in the emissions allow two simultaneous acoustic beams to be defined. A pair of nonlinear, time-variable, sampled-data controllers alter the bat's heading by applying yaw and pitch heading corrections. The yaw correction attempts to position the prey in the midsagittal plane by nulling the interaural intensity difference of the fundamental component. The pitch correction compares the intensities of the overtone and fundamental components and acts to null their difference. By initiating pitch correction when the overtone intensity first exceeds that of the fundamental, the ambiguity problem is solved and the prey is directed to the capture region. Simulations of passive prey capture indicate that the capture probability decreases as the prey speed increases. Both quick and sluggish prey are considered, with sluggish prey found to be caught with slightly better efficiency. The magnitude of the prey's lateral motion just prior to capture is observed to be an important factor determining capture. The presence of a blind stage is considered, during which the interference of the emission with the echo is assumed to disrupt any sonar information. The presence of such a blind stage is found to have negligible effect on capture efficiency.

Acoustics↗
PubMed1984

Serum LDH concentration in non-Hodgkin's lymphomas. Relationship to histologic type, tumor mass, and presentation features.

Serum lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) activity is increased in many tumor-bearing patients and can be used as a prognostic marker. We studied serum LDH concentration in 94 consecutive patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma who were histologically classified according to the Kiel Classification and were grouped according to the Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma Pathologic Classification Project Working Formulation. 74 patients were studied at diagnosis, and 20 of them (27%) had an LDH level higher than 250 U/l. High LDH levels were more frequent in cases of true histiocytic, high-grade, and intermediate-grade malignancy lymphoma (4 of 7, 7 of 14, and 7 of 20, respectively) than in cases of low-grade lymphoma (2 of 33). A close relationship of LDH to several prognosis-related disease features was found, including general symptoms, bulky disease, big mediastinal tumor, huge hepatosplenomegaly, bone marrow involvement, and a leukemic syndrome. LDH was higher than normal in a high proportion of cases who were studied in relapse (13 of 20, 65%). These data suggest that in non-Hodgkin's lymphomas the LDH serum concentration is not independent of other disease features, so that the prognostic value of LDH is probably lower than expected from previous studies. Serum LDH activity decreased to normal in all cases of complete remission, but also in cases of partial remission, suggesting that measuring enzyme activity is of a limited usefulness for detecting and monitoring minimal residual disease. For that purpose, LDH isoenzyme studies would be more appropriate.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1984

Quantitative differences between immunological and receptor binding activities of hGH in pituitary adenomas from patients with acromegaly.

Human growth hormone (hGH) in the pituitary extracts from patients with acromegaly and normal subjects was measured by radioimmunoassay (RIA) and radioreceptor assay (RRA) using pregnant rabbit liver membrane, and the RRA to RIA ratios of hGH were calculated. The RRA to RIA ratio of hGH for acromegaly was higher than that for normal (0.90 +/- 0.03 vs 0.75 +/- 0.03, p less than 0.01). When the pituitary extracts were gel filtered on Sephadex G-100 column there were three immunoreactive hGH peaks ("pre-big", "big", and "little" hGH); there were no significant differences in gel filtration patterns of hGH between acromegaly and normal. The "little" hGH component (major component) had a higher RRA to RIA ratio than "pre-big" hGH and "big" hGH in both acromegaly and normal. "Little" hGH extracted from acromegaly had a higher RRA to RIA ratio than that from normal (1.14 +/- 0.09 vs 0.93 +/- 0.04, p less than 0.05). These data support the hypothesis that hGH synthesized in acromegaly may be different from normal.

Acromegaly↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[The nature of heterosis, methods of its enhancing and fixation in a series of generations without hybridization].

The long-standing studies into the problem of heterosis on the silkworm and other objects are reviewed. Silkworms are divided by sex for hybridization using the genetic marking of the eggs by sex, an improved method of ameiotic parthenogenesis providing all-female progeny, or the method of obtaining all-male progeny as a result of the death of eggs with female embryos under the influence of two non-allele embryonic lethals balances in the Z-chromosome. The experimental data suggest that heterosis is determined by the heterozygosity of lethals and semilethals, rather than depending on the heterozygosity of all gene types. The number of modifier genes that control viability plays a big role in the vigor of heterosis. An effective method is proposed to enhance the vigor of heterosis through the selection of one or two parents of a hybrid for viability, both of which received a strong semilethal. In hybrids, this semilethal is suppressed by the normal allele, and then a more unbalanced complex of modifier genes initiates a heterosis two to three times more vigorous than in standard hybrids. A method is developed to fix heterosis through the backcrosses of females of the high-heterosis hybrids to the absolutely homozygous males of androgenetic origin obtained from these females. These crosses preserve the main genotype of the hybrid and eliminate lethals and semilethals, and, as a result, heterosis is not damped during standard intrahybrid reproduction.

Alleles↗
PubMed2006

[Analyzing the methods to smooth field reconstructed by algebraic reconstruction technique with spectroscopy].

The effects of filters and filtering methods on the field reconstructed by algebraic reconstruction technique (ART) is discussed with spectroscopy. The field to be constructed was simulated with numerical simulation technique. The effects of many kinds of filters and filtering methods on the field reconstructed by ART were analyzed with spectroscopy. The filters used included quarter, fifth, eighth averaging filter, fifth center filter, and third row, column filter. The filtering methods included filter being inserted in the iterating process or set at its end. The averaging filter mentioned above meant that the value was acquired from the average of the four data, named quarter averaging filter, and so on. The fifth center filter meant that the value was acquired from the center, the third one in ascendant or descendant sequence of the five data. As a result, the authors found that a larger difference existed in the effects of different filters and filtering methods on the reconstructed field. First, the field reconstructed by ART contained much big noise and needed to be smoothed. Secondly, the reconstructive accuracy declined much when an averaging filter, such as quarter, fifth or eighth filter, was only set at the end of iterating process. Thirdly, the accuracy could be improved a little with a quarter or eighth averaging filter inserted in the iterating process and activated according to iterating times. Forthly, a better accuracy could be obtained with a fifth center filter inserted in the iterating process than with a fifth averaging one inserted. Fifthly, the best result in this work was obtained with a fifth averaging filter and a fifth center one inserted in the iterating process and activated alternately according to iterating times.

English Abstract↗
PubMed1995

[The epidemiological significance of human lice in relation to the characteristics of their parasitism].

Epidemiological significance of clothes and head louse is determined first of all by the type of "parasite-host" connection. Clothes louse has an immediate contact with man only during bloodsucking, it dwells in clothes, consumes big portions of blood and has great productivity. Temperature factor is very important for Pediculus corporis. If the man's temperature is growing the louse will abandon him. The comparison of various literature data and proper author's information has shown that Pediculus capitis didn't play a significant role in epidemic typhoid malady taking into account the modern level of the affection of population with head lice. The author describes the peculiarities of morphology, biology, population dynamics, parasitology and epidemiology of P. capitis and P. corporis.

Animals↗