[A preliminary analysis of population problems in Taiwan].
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"The primary purpose of this paper is to assess very broadly the regional growth and redistribution of the total, urban and rural populations of the USSR, as well as aggregate, regional and city size patterns of urbanization for the 1979-84 period. In order to investigate the continuity or reversal of trends, comparisons with preceding intercensal periods will also be undertaken, particularly with the 1970-79 period." It is found that "regional rates of population change between 1979 and 1984 were generally lower than those of 1970-79, primarily due to a general decline in natural increase rates. In addition, regional variations in rates of population change for the 1979-84 period were similar to those of the 1970-79 period.... The USSR has apparently reversed its long-term trend of deconcentration in the sense that the population as a whole is becoming more concentrated again, but this time in a new area of concentration, Central Asia, which is now the most populous economic region."
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To investigate a possible dysregulation of the autoantibody network in AIDS patients, the relative activity of representative natural antibodies was measured in serum IgG and IgM. These immunoglobulins were purified from two cohorts of 20 HIV-infected patients undergoing, or not, a triple combination therapy. A cohort of 20 normal patients was used as a control. Marked alterations of the natural antibody repertoire were observed, varying according to the isotype and specificity of the antibody studied. For the classical self-protein antigens, human actin and myosin, the changes observed in the untreated cohort were absent in the treated cohort. In contrast, no changes, or even increased changes of the activity of antibodies to special antigens, DNA and TNP, occurred in the treated cohort. The differences were highly significant, indicating that this repertoire is regulated and not randomly modified by the disease. These results suggest the presence of different factors of dysregulation of the B cell repertoire of natural antibodies associated with the disease as well as with the treatment. These major dysregulations may favor the autoimmune phenomena observed during HIV infection.
While aging studies employing a cross-sectional design have been informative in documenting many age-related alterations in immune function between different age cohorts within a population, longitudinal studies are invaluable for verifying changes at the level of the individual and for defining the precise periods of life during which particular changes occur. In the present study, a battery of immunological parameters were evaluated in a group of Labrador Retrievers as part of a comprehensive longitudinal aging study. Twenty-three dogs (14 females, 9 males; from 4 to 11 years of age) were evaluated annually for total WBC counts, lymphocyte subset distributions, natural killer cell activity and neutrophil phagocytic activity, and biannually for lymphoproliferative activity. An age-related decline in absolute numbers of lymphocytes, T-cells, CD4-cells and CD8-cells was observed in both genders. The distribution of lymphocyte subsets shifted with age, most dramatically in the females; percentages of B-cells declined while those of T-cells increased. Changes in percentages of CD4- and CD8-cells over the 8-year period were not dramatic; in females, percentages of CD8-cells increased significantly in early- to mid-life and then stabilized. Lymphoproliferative responses to mitogens declined over time in both genders. Males demonstrated higher levels of NK cytolytic activity than females; a marginal decline in activity with age was observed. No significant age-related changes in the phagocytic capacity of PMN were observed. These longitudinal findings help to discriminate between those immune parameters which change most dramatically in early-life versus those which either change more dramatically later in life or change gradually over the entire span of life. In addition they identify significant gender differences in several parameters and corroborate our previously published cross-sectional aging data in the same species.
Functional adaptations in knee kinematics and kinetics during level walking in 30 patients with unilateral anterior cruciate ligament deficiency and 30 healthy control subjects were studied. To examine the impact of time after injury on the functional adaptations, patients were placed into three time interval groups: early, intermediate, and chronic. The patients with anterior cruciate ligament deficiency had significantly decreased external knee flexion moments (balanced by net quadriceps contraction) and significantly increased external knee extension moments (balanced by net knee flexors contraction) as compared with the control subjects. As time after the injury increased, changes in the sagittal plane knee moments were more pronounced. A significant linear relationship (positive correlation) was found between the midstance knee flexion moment and the corresponding knee flexion angle. The patients with anterior cruciate deficiency had a greater knee flexion angle when generating a comparable midstance knee flexion moment as compared to the control subjects. The identification of gait adaptations over time provides additional information on the natural history of anterior cruciate ligament deficiency and may have implications regarding conservative rehabilitation, evaluation of outcomes, progression of meniscal injury, and the development of degenerative arthritis of the knee.
Early prediction of outcome after global hypoxia of the brain requires accurate determination of the nature and extent of neurological injury and is cardinal for patient management. Cerebral metabolites of gray and white matter were determined sequentially after near-drowning using quantitative 1H nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) in 16 children. Significant metabolite abnormalities were demonstrated in all patients compared with their age-matched normal controls. Severity of brain damage was quantified from metabolite concentrations and ratios. Loss of N-acetylaspartate, a putative neuronal marker, from gray matter preceded that observed in white matter and was more severe. Total creatine decreased, while lactate and glutamine/glutamate concentrations increased. Changes progressed with time after injury. A spectroscopic prognosis index distinguished between good outcome (n = 5) and poor outcome (n = 11) with one false negative (bad outcome after borderline MRS result) and no false positive results (100% specificity). The distinction was made with 90% sensitivity early (after 48 h) and became 100% later (by days 3 and 4). This compared with 50-75% specificity and 70-100% sensitivity based upon single clinical criteria. MRS performed sequentially in occipital gray matter provides useful objective information which can significantly enhance the ability to establish prognosis after near-drowning.
To assess the pattern of mesocorticolimbic dopamine activity associated with drug-seeking and drug-taking behavior, we recorded impulse activity of ventral tegmental area neurons during intravenous heroin self-administration in trained rats. Although these neurons had considerable variability, two major groups-units with triphasic long-duration spikes and biphasic short-duration spikes-were identified. Relative to a slow and irregular basal activity of long-spike units, the first self-administration of each session was preceded by a phasic neuronal activation and followed by a more sustained drug-induced activation that reached a maximum at the time of the second self-injection. After each subsequent heroin self-injection, the discharge rate transiently decreased, correlating with the blockade of preceding motor activation and the appearance of freezing, but slowly and gradually increased again in parallel with searching behavior, reaching a maximum at the time of the next self-injection. Passive drug injections in either drug-naive, freely moving or drug-experienced, anesthetized rats caused much smaller, tonic increases in activity of long-spike units; these monophasic increases changed into biphasic responses with repeated injections. Although short-spike units had highly varying discharge rate and showed phasic activation during movement, during heroin self-injections they generally mimicked the activity pattern seen in long-spike units. Our results indicate that in behaving animals indirect "identification" of dopamine cells based on their distinctive electrophysiological features is more complex than in vitro and in anesthetized preparations. With respect to long-spike units, a candidate group of presumed dopamine neurons, our data agree with the view that mesocorticolimbic dopamine activation is important for the activational and/or motivational aspects of heroin-taking behavior and suggest the role of an abrupt termination of dopamine activation for drug reinforcement (reward). Although the neurochemical nature of long- and short-spike units is obviously different, similar changes in their activity may indicate that they are regulated by similar afferent inputs and that these inputs change similarly during drug-taking behavior.
Hemorrhagic fever with the renal syndrome (HFRS) is a viral disease of zoonotic nature presenting with a polyorgan symptomatology, with the leading syndrome being essentially a hemorrhagic one. Studied in HFRS patients during different stages of treatment were morphological-and-functional features of erythocytes (E). As many as 65 HFRS patients presenting with varying degree severity of their trouble were examined. The control group comprised 15 subjects. E volume was studied together with content and concentration of hemoglobin (Hb) in one E. There have been estimated parameters characterizing aggregation (percentage of minimum/maximum aggregation, deaggregation factor, second wave of aggregation). Trental and clivarin were prescribed for the trouble. In severe and moderately severe course a decrease in Hb content and concentration in the early period was revealed as was an augmentation of E volume, with Hb level and hematocrit value tending to be on the increase. Changes in rheological parameters were manifested by higher percentage of minimum and maximum aggregation and decrement in the deaggregation factor by 55 percent as compared with the control group.
Aging is a complex process. It consists of a diverse assortment of seemingly random manifestations that occur in the individual, the mutual relationship and impact on mortality of which is frequently obscure. We derive a simple equation to model the aging process based on scale invariant and increasing change. The solution to this equation indicates that this change itself, irrespective of its quality, is the cause and not simply the effect of aging. This model establishes loss of homeostasis as a fundamental feature of aging. The model is deterministic, but it supports the stochastic nature of age changes. Paradoxically, this model states that a sufficient augmentation of aging processes results in a lack of aging. Experimental evidence in support of this model is presented that spans the levels of population mortality rates, cellular spatial organization, and gene dysregulation.
BACKGROUND: In spite of many known and suspected factors associated with the risk of breast cancer there has until recently been no explanation for its continuing increase in women of Western societies over recent decades or why there has not been an equivalent increase in women of most Asian and other less Westernized societies. It has long been suspected that a significant factor has been an increasing change of diet in Western societies from one predominantly vegetarian to one with a high content of meat and dairy products as well as 'refined' foods. Although diet has long been suspected there has otherwise been no real explanation as to the mechanism of the change in incidence of breast cancer. METHODS: A comprehensive literature review has been made of aetiological factors and associations concerning breast cancer to determine whether any consistent trend can explain the rising incidence in Western societies. RESULTS: There are a number of likely contributory factors but there is now accumulating evidence that the single most important difference is that people having a vegetarian diet have a high intake of legumes and other plant foods containing a variety of lignans and isoflavonoids. These appear to have an important role as nature's sex hormone modulators. These agents appear to be biologically active in a number of ways not yet completely understood but they do have both a weak oestrogenic effect and an anti-oestrogenic competitive effect, thus reducing the potential carcinogenic action of prolonged oestrogen activity. A probable additional benefit of such diets could be the role of dietary fibre. CONCLUSIONS: A major problem of Western diets may not be the presence of meat or dairy products in the diet but the absence of desirable ingredients of vegetarian diets, namely dietary fibre and certain plant lignans and isoflavonoids. A modification of diet to include a greater proportion of fibre and soy or other leguminous plant food should be studied. Alternatively addition of more fibre and lignans and especially isoflavonoids to traditional Western diets would seem worthy of serious investigation. Such influences appear to have their greatest impact early in life and therefore could be especially important for girls and young women in Western societies.
1. A scheme is presented which summarizes the activation and deactivation of the membrane currents which underlie pacemaking in the natural pacemaker of the heart. 2. Experimental evidence (mostly obtained using the voltage-clamp technique) for the properties of the time-dependent membrane currents in pacemaking tissue of the frog and the rabbit is discussed. 3. The mode of the inhibitory action of acetylcholine on pacemaker cells is considered. In the amphibian pacemaker cell, acetylcholine probably reduces slow inward current (as it certainly does in amphibian atrium) but in mammalian sino-atrial node it seems that such action, if present at all, is much less marked. In the pacemakers of both amphibian and mammal, acetylcholine greatly increases outward potassium current and there is recent evidence that it may do so by opening up a special acetylcholine-activated potassium channel. 4. Adrenaline greatly increases the slow inward current in pacemaker as in other cardiac tissues. This increase, together with (in mammal at least) an increased change of an additional pacemaking current, overrides an adrenaline-induced increase in outward current and leads to acceleration of the pacemaking rate. 5. The Appendix contains a brief consideration of the experimental and theoretical basis for the method of exponential separation of outward current components in the presence of the extracellular potassium accumulation that inevitably accompanies the flow of outward membrane current.
The prevalence of allergic disease is increasing dramatically in industrialised countries. Environmental factors that are putative causes of this increase are to be sought among those that induce a shift in T-helper cell (Th1/Th2) balance toward Th2 immunity dominance, and whose natural occurrence is consistent with epidemiological evidence of regional differences in allergy prevalence. Of such factors, changes in the panorama of bacterial and viral infections, altered intestinal microflora, and changes in dietary habits (particularly increased consumption of omega-6 fatty acids) seem to be the most likely causes of the increased prevalence of allergic diseases. There are also other factors, however, such as diesel exhaust particles, tobacco smoke and environmental toxins, which may partly fulfil the immunological and epidemiological criteria. As several of these putative environmental factors exert powerful effects in vitro, the increase in allergy prevalence is hardly surprising.
Hungarian data of 36 zoonotic diseases are summarized. These illnesses cause problems not only for health, public health and veterinary health services but for the society and their importance has increased. Changing character of an old pathogen (Salmonella enteritidis PT4) resulted in new epidemiological situation. The number of cases of food-borne zoonotic diseases has rapidly grown. The number of pets has elevated and in consequence the possibility of an infection of owners, breaders, sellers and other persons has also grown. Growing number of HIV positive patients as well as ill persons treated with immunosuppressive drugs increases the importance of opportunistic zoonotic pathogens (Cryptosporidium, Toxoplasma). The most effective and less expensive way to prevent an exposed population is the active immunization (BCG, tetanus, tick-borne encephalitis). Active immunization of animals can also reduce probability of human infections and economic losses (leptospirosis, rabies). In special cases it is advised to perform eradication programmes to get pathogenic-free domestic animals (brucellosis, bovine tuberculosis, salmonellosis, campylobacteriosis). Permanent surveillance is obligatory to recognize changing nature of pathogens, alteration of epidemiological situation and to identify areas for further research. Continuous education of population in general and special teaching of risky groups are very important for an effective prevention.