Ophthalmoplegia and ptosis in congenital fiber type disproportion

Bilateral ophthalmoplegia and ptosis is reported for the first time in a patient with a rare neuromuscular disorder, congenital fiber type disproportion (CFTD). The importance of limb muscle biopsy in the diagnostic evaluation is emphasized. A summary is presented of other congenital neuromuscular diseases which may have associated ophthalmoplegia.     

Ophthalmoplegia, hemiparesis and cheiro-oral syndrome in basilar artery migraine

A patient with migraine developed ophthalmoplegia, hemiparesis and cheiro-oral syndrome on the left side. T2-weighted MRI showed infarcts in the tegmentum of bilateral midbrains and right pons but no lesion in the cerebral or cerebellar hemisphere. Infarction in the tegmentum of brainstem secondary to the involvement of perforating arteries has not been reported in basilar artery migraine until now.     

Mutations of the RET-GDNF signaling pathway in Ondine''s curse

Sarcoidosis is a multi-systemic granulomatous disease of unknown cause. It commonly involves lymph nodes, lungs, eyes, and skin. Cardiac sarcoid may be isolated, or associated with systemic involvement. Cardiac involvement is found in 20-50% of autopsied patients with sarcoidosis. However, it only gives rise to clinical manifestations in about 5% of patients. Cardiac involvement by sarcoid has been reported to manifest as complete heart block, papillary muscle dysfunction, congestive heart failure, pericarditis and/or effusion, conduction abnormality or arrhythmia, chest pain, and sudden death. The most common site of involvement is the interventricular septum base, which when involved may lead to heart block or arrhythmia. We report a case of sudden death in a 33-year-old male with a history of surgically repaired congenital heart disease. Although his congenital heart disease was originally postulated to be important in his death, autopsy examination revealed cardiac sarcoid with prominent involvement of the conduction system.     

Why seeking help from teammates is a blessing and a curse: A theory of help seeking and individual creativity in team contexts.

Research has not explored the extent to which seeking help from teammates positively relates to a person's own creativity. This question is important to explore as help seeking is commonly enacted in organizations and may come with reciprocation costs that may also diminish creativity. Results based on 291 employees in a single division of a large multinational organization revealed that seeking help predicted creativity and mediated the relationship between intrinsic motivation and creativity. However, help seekers also incurred reciprocation costs in that they tended to give more help to teammates, and giving help to teammates was negatively related to creativity. In general, giving higher levels of help attenuated the positive relationship between help seeking and creativity. We also tested an integrated model to show that help giving moderated the mediated relationship between intrinsic motivation and creativity via help seeking, such that higher levels of help giving attenuated this mediated effect. We discuss theoretical and practical implications recommending additional research regarding the interpersonal creative process in team contexts. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Voices of fear and anxiety and sadness and depression: The effects of speech rate and loudness on fear and anxiety and sadness and depression.

Two studies investigated the role of expressive vocal behavior (specifically, speech rate and loudness) in fear and anxiety and in sadness and depression. In the 1st study, participants spoke about personally experienced fear and anxiety-arousing and neutral events using 3 different voice styles: fast and loud, normal, and slow and soft. In the 2nd study, participants spoke about personally experienced sad or depressing and neutral events using the same 3 voice styles. In both studies, the participants' highest levels of subjective affective and cardiovascular (CV) arousal occurred when they spoke about the emotional events in a mood-congruent voice style: fast and loud in the case of fear and anxiety, and slow and soft in the case of sadness or depression. Mood-incongruent voice styles canceled the heightened levels of CV arousal normally associated with these negative emotions. The voice-style manipulation had no significant effect on the participants' levels of CV arousal during the neutral discussions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Synthesis and analysis of mixed chlorinated-fluorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans and assessment of formation and occurrence of the fluorinated and chlorinated-fluorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans

Despite the use of multimodal therapy, higher-grade glioma is still uniformly fatal in the adult population. There is a considerable difference between the length of survival in each given patient, even within the same tumor type and malignancy grade group, suggesting that there are factors that might differentially influence outcome. To identify such factors, 107 patients with anaplastic or malignant glioma were retrospectively investigated. Clinical parameters and paraclinical data on the p53, mdm2, and EGFR genes at the DNA or protein level were evaluated by univariate analysis and Cox proportional hazards regression modeling. Kaplan-Meier survival estimation demonstrated that immunohistochemical positivity for mdm2 protein in patients with anaplastic astrocytoma or with glioblastoma multiforme was associated with a shorter survival time (p = 0.02). P53 gene mutations and immunopositivity for the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) protein were not significantly related to poor prognosis. The Cox proportional hazards model revealed immunohistochemical positivity for p53, mdm2, or for both of them, the presence of postoperative irradiation, and the extent of surgical resection of tumor to be variables significantly associated with prolonged survival. EGFR overexpression, age over 60 years, and Karnofsky performance score below 40 points did not significantly shorten survival time. In conclusion, the present study identified immunohistochemically detected mdm2-protein overexpression as a statistically significant negative prognostic parameter in patients bearing anaplastic or malignant glioma. Association analysis of variables revealed a possible correlation between mdm2 and p53, which is also consistent with the biological interaction mode of both proteins in vivo.     

Spondylolysis and spondylolisthesis and sports

Spondylolysis and spondylolisthesis occur predominantly in the lower lumbar spine. Besides congenital defects such as predisposition of spondylolysis the correlation between competitive sports activities and an increased incidence of spondylolysis is proved. In early stages, complete healing can be achieved by conservative treatment (abstinence from sports activities for 3 months, orthesis). Persistence of pain, neurologic symptoms and progression of vertebral slipping are indications for operative treatment (reconstruction of the isthmus, dorso-ventral spondylodesis). The exercise tolerance depends on the extent of instability, progression of vertebral slipping and clinical symptoms. The limits of exercise tolerance vary among the individual athletes and require the decision of the physician. Backstroke swimming, abdominal and back muscle strengthening exercises, and types of sport involving smooth movements are advisable. Sports education in school is possible without restriction in patients with stable spondylolysis and in those with spondylolisthesis without unfavourable concomitant factors.     

Sexuality and aging--usual and successful

BACKGROUND: As aging research increasingly reflects an effort to dissociate true time-driven changes from those that can be improved, sexuality in later life remains largely unexplored. Several problems are evident. There is a lack of normative data, a lack of a conceptual framework relating to the biology, psychology, and sociology of sex, and an attitudinal resistance that obscures the entire topic. METHODS: We conducted a three-part instructional series on major topics involved with sexuality and aging. We surveyed our group of attendees (n 158, average age 68 for males, 65 for females) before and after the series. RESULTS: A remarkably robust sex life was evidenced by both the men and the women, even until advanced old age. Yet, a substantially decreased involvement was reported from 10 years earlier. Despite current activities, people of both sexes wished they were participating even more than they currently were. Impotency was identified as the major negative feature for the men; relationship problems were for the women. A questionnaire 6 months after the series reported improved sexual attitudes, but no change in sexual activities from the earlier survey. CONCLUSION: Sexuality is a major quality-of-life issue which persists into old age. Our study showed that the usual sexual practices reported by our group were not considered by them to be ideal. The intervention of this instructional series provided improved sexual attitudes but not performance. Additional studies are encouraged.     

Larks and owls and health, wealth, and wisdom

OBJECTIVE: To test the validity of Benjamin Franklin's maxim "early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise." DESIGN: Cross sectional analysis of sleeping patterns in a nationally representative group of elderly people, and longitudinal investigation of mortality. SETTING: Eight areas in Britain (five in England, two in Scotland, and one in Wales). SUBJECTS: 1229 men and women aged 65 and over who in 1973-4 had taken part in a survey funded by the Department of Health and Social Security and for whom data on sleeping patterns, health, socioeconomic circumstances, and cognitive function had been recorded. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Self reported income, access to a car, standard of accommodation, performance on a test of cognitive function, state of health and mortality during 23 years of follow up. RESULTS: 356 people (29%) were defined as larks (to bed before 11 pm and up before 8 am) and 318 (26%) were defined as owls (to bed at or after 11 pm and up at or after 8 am). There was no indication that larks were richer than those with other sleeping patterns. On the contrary, owls had the largest mean income and were more likely to have access to a car. There was also no evidence that larks were superior to those with other sleeping patterns with regard to their cognitive performance or their state of health. Both larks and owls had a slightly reduced risk of death compared with the rest of the study sample, but this was accounted for by the fact that they spent less time in bed at night. In the study sample as a whole, longer periods of time in bed were associated with increased mortality. After adjustment for age, sex, the presence of illness, and other risk factors, people who spent 12 or more hours in bed had a relative risk of death of 1.7 (1.2 to 2.5) compared with those who were in bed for 9 hours. The lowest risk occurred in people who spent 8 hours in bed (adjusted relative risk 0.8; 0.7 to 1.0). CONCLUSION: These findings do not support Franklin's claim. A "late to bed and late to rise" lifestyle does not seem to lead to socioeconomic, cognitive, or health disadvantage, but a longer time spent in bed may be associated with increased mortality.     

IQ and ego-resiliency: Conceptual and empirical connections and separateness.

The constructs of intelligence and ego-resiliency are discussed. The personality implications of "pure intelligence" and "pure ego-resilience" were identified. Intelligence (IQ) was indexed by the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised (WAIS—R) and ego-resiliency by an inventory scale. Residual scores measuring "pure intelligence" and "pure ego-resilience" were correlated with the items of the observer based California Q-sort, used to describe participants. Persons relatively high on ego-resilience tend to be more competent and comfortable in the "fuzzier" interpersonal world; persons defined primarily by raw IQ tend to be effective in the "clearer" world of structured work but tend also to be uneasy with affect and less able to realize satisfying human connections. Gender differences exist in the relations of ego-resilience and intelligence and in their adaptive relevance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Conserving and retaining equalities and inequalities through observation and correction.

Investigated the effects of modeling and corrective feedback on the conservation of equalities and inequalities, with items spanning 3 stimulus dimensions (length, number, and 2-dimensional space). Ss were 48 kindergartners (24 boys, 24 girls). Brief observation of a model, briefer correction training (joining positive feedback with verbal rule provision), and the combination of observation and correction were all successful in producing learning and, without further training, transfer and retention of conservation. Unlike the controls (who also never correctly answered any equality items), the trained experimental Ss gave evidence of spontaneously generalizing their new learning to a task that required nonverbal behavior to manifest conservation. (17 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

关于摩尔浓度及其与硬度转换关系问题的讨论

众所周知，国际单位制物质的量采用摩尔(mol)表示，近几年出版的给排水专业书籍，为了与国际单位制接轨，逐渐将摩尔的使用频率不断提高，被给排水技术人员广泛应用的新版给排水设计手册，将表示物质浓度的单位“当量／升”或“毫克当量／升”．改为mol／l或mmol／l，虽然编者对其基本单元定义作了说明，但在实际运用上仍会出现误解，     

《儿子与情人》的语码转换与男女二元对立

劳伦斯小说《儿子与情人》一个鲜明的语言特色就是标准英语和当地方言频繁的语码转换。莫瑞尔用方言来对抗妻子,而妻子坚持用标准英语,偶尔也用方言来讽刺、挖苦丈夫。语码转换反映了劳伦斯男女二元对立的哲学思想。