Work-site smoking policies: their population impact in Washington State

This article presents data from a population-based, random-digit dialing telephone survey of 1228 employed adults in Washington State, conducted 1989 through 1990. Eighty-one percent of men and 91% of women reported work-site smoking restrictions. Employees in work sites with no-smoking policies were less likely to be current smokers; men in work sites with policies restricting smoking smoked fewer cigarettes on both workdays and nonworkdays. Forty-eight percent of male and 53% of female smokers reported reduced smoking as a result of work-site policy. Work-site smoking policies, intended to protect against smoke exposure, may also reduce employee smoking.     

The relationship of education to blood pressure: findings on 40,000 employed Chicagoans

The relationship of education to both actual blood pressure and the prevalence of high blood pressure, based on a systolic pressure of 160 mm Hg or greater or a diastolic pressure of 95 mm Hg or greater, was analyzed among 27,033 men and women, white and black, age 25-44 and 45-64, from the Chicago Heart Association Detection Project in Industry. The educational status of each individual was categorized as not a high school graduate, high school graduate, some college, or college graduate. A statistically significant inverse association between education and high blood pressure was present in all groups of whites. This association could not be "accounted for" by differences in age, relative weight, and heart rate among the educational strata. Controlling for these variables did, however, lessen the association. Among black males a significant inverse association between education level and blood pressure was found for the younger group. For the older black males there was a clear inverse association although with the small numbers it did not achieve statistical significance. For black females there was no clear association.     

Striated muscle in the pineal gland of swine

Striated muscle fibers (or cells) were observed in three of the six swine pineal glands. The muscle fibers occurred in clusters of several fibers about the parenchymal blood vessels. They were in general poorly developed, lacked regular cross striations and were not readily recognized histologically. The muscle fibers were, however, easily identified on electron microscopy because of the myofilaments they contain. In most of the muscle fibers, the myofilaments were arranged in ill-defined, disorderly bundles and rarely formed well-defined myofibrils and sarcomeres. The sarcotubular system was also poorly developed and triads were sparse and randomly scattered. Leptomeres were observed in several muscle fibers. The source of the muscle fibers in the pineal glands is not well understood and, whatever the source may be, the muscle fibers seem to remain poorly developed in the pineal glands.     

Effect of undernutrition and amino acid deficiency on the timing of puberty in rats

Sexual maturation was examined in underfed or amino acid-deficient rats. We have demonstrated a highly significant negative linear relationship (r = -0.80, P less than 0.001) between the age at puberty and the growth rate in rats under conditions of food restriction. The weight at puberty in animals growing at different rates because of undernutrition was not constant but behaved as a quadratic function of growth rate, as predicted from the assumption that growth rate was an independent variable. Growth rate is therefore more important than arrival at a particular fixed weight in determining the timing of puberty. Feeding of low valine diets resulted in delayed sexual maturation. Both the weight at vaginal opening (182 +/- 5.9 g) and the weight at first estrus (187 +/- 6.1 g) were significantly greater in the valine-deficient group when compared with growth-matched control (139 +/- 10.7 g and 161 +/- 9.3 g, respectively, P less than 0.05). The valine-deficient group also had significantly later vaginal opening (98.8+/- 4.7 days) than growth-matched controls (76.6 +/- 6.6 days, P less than 0.02). Valine deficiency seemed to have a specific effect on the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis since puberty in valine-deficient animals was delayed more than could be accounted for by impairment of growth.     

Cell proliferation in the prostate complex of the castrate mouse

Cell proliferation during 100 h of continuous androgen challenge was studied in the seminal vesicle and coagulating gland of Balb/c mice castrated 3 days or 14 days prior to the first daily injection of 250 mug testosterone propionate. Continuous labelling with [3H] thymidine indicated that the seminal vesicle was almost totally responsive to androgen, as early as 3 days after castration, whereas the androgen sensitivity of the coagulating gland increased from 30% at 3 days after castration to 85% at 14 days after castration. In both tissues the magnitude of the proliferative reaction could be related to the extent of cell loss prior to stimulation. The duration of the pre-replicative phase in the response of the seminal vesicle to androgen was 20-25 h both at 3 and 14 days after castration. In the coagulating gland the pre-replicative phase was 40 h at 3 days after castration and 20 h at 14 days after castration. The maximum uptake of [7alpha-3H] testosterone administered to mice 3 days after castration was significantly greater (P less than 0-01) in the seminal vesicle compared to the coagulating gland. At 14 days the seminal vesicle and coagulating gland exhibited a similar capacity for uptake. The in vivo metabolism of [7alpha-3H] testosterone was studied by thin layer chromatography 30 min and 120 min after administration. A high proportion of the radioactivity extracted from all the tissues was associated with highly polar steroids. At 3 days after castration, the seminal vesicle, 2 h after administration of radioactive testosterone, retained a much higher proportion of radioactivity associated with dihydrotestosterone than did the coagulating gland. The localization of steroid in mice 3 days after castration was studied by dry-mount autoradiography at intervals up to 2 h after the injection of [1,2,6,7(n)-3H]-testosterone. A heavier deposition of silver grains was observed over autoradiographs of the seminal vesicle. In the seminal vesicle the grains were primarily located over nuclear areas whereas in the coagulating gland the grains were diffusely distributed over both nuclear areas and over cytoplasmic areas.     

The effect of vasectomy on pituitary-gonadal function in men

The testosterone concentration in allantoic fluid between 90 and 150 days of gestation in cattle can be used to determine the fetal sex; values were 442 +/- 20-3 (S.E.M.) pg testosterone/ml for males fetuses and 215 +/- 8-2 pg/ml for female fetuses.     

Early unconjugated hyperbilirubinaemia after paracetamol overdosage

A rapid increase of predominantly unconjugated bilirubin in the blood -- which was not due to haemolysis -- was observed in 38 of 60 patients who had taken an overdose of paracetamol. Studies in the rat given an overdose of the drug showed that within 24 hours there was a striking reduction in the activity of bilirubin glucuronyl-transferase and the content of cytochrome P.450 in the liver. It is suggested that such early damage of the hepatic endoplasmic reticulum contributes to the hyperbilirubinaemia of paracetamol poisoning.