Dietary practices and lipid intake in relation to plasma lipid profile in Hong Kong Chinese

OBJECTIVE: To study dietary lipid intake and plasma lipid profile of the Hong Kong Chinese population as part of a territory wide survey on cardiovascular risk factors. DESIGN: Randomised age and sex stratified survey. SUBJECTS: 1010 subjects aged 25-74 y (500 men, 510 women). MEASUREMENTS: A food frequency method with food tables compiled for Hong Kong was used for nutrient quantitation, while a separate questionnaire was used to examine dietary practices. Plasma lipid profile was estimated using standard laboratory methods. RESULTS: Total calorie, fat, saturated fatty acid (SFA), poly- and mono-unsaturated fatty acid (PUFA and MUFA), and cholesterol intake were higher in men; however when adjusted for caloric intake no difference was observed. Men had lower intake of PUFA as percentage of total energy had a higher Hegsted Score compared with women. Subjects consuming beans twice or more per week had lower total cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol concentrations. Overall, the population dietary intake was close to the ideal for cardiovascular health: percentage fat not greater than 30% of the total calorie intake, saturated fat intake not greater than 10% of calories, and cholesterol less than 180 mg/1000 Kcal. CONCLUSION: The dietary pattern for Hong Kong Chinese appear to be satisfactory with respect to cardiovascular health.     

Why gulling software colleagues is popular

A few months ago, a 550-person software company in Oregon cut a significant part of its developer workforce to reduce expenses and align its salaries with industry averages. It had already streamlined its software development practices, which increased productivity and improved product reliability. During the year-long streamlining program, the company had mapped existing processes to make explicit exactly how software was being developed and then carefully refined the processes to reduce the cost and time required. Implementing these changes required people to relocate into multidisciplinary teams and eliminate tasks that added no value. The majority of staff, facilitated by consultants, participated in this process. At the end of these initiatives, our research team did a follow-up survey and investigation to gauge how well the company was now organized to let staff attain their corporate goals. We found room for more improvement, but also some interesting results regarding employees' attitudes toward staff reductions.     

Influence of physical aging on medical plastics properties

Proper design of medical devices requires a thorough understanding of material properties throughout the manufacturing, distribution, and end-use conditions. Widely used amorphous polymers deserve special attention. In this article, we will focus on the physical aging phenomenon. This process affects many important properties of materials. An improved Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) technique was developed to quantify the extent and the kinetics of aging. Consequences of aging were also studied with physical testing and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM).     

Multiplicative approximation of transfer functions with frequency weighting

An algorithm for transfer function order reduction is presented, which generalizes the balanced stochastic truncation algorithm to allow for input weighting. An example illustrates use of the algorithm to secure smaller dB error in selected frequency bands through the introduction of the weighting.     

Brequinar sodium inhibits interleukin-6-induced differentiation of a human B-cell line into IgM-secreting plasma cells

Brequinar sodium (BQR) has been shown recently to be a potent immunosuppressive agent. This property has been attributed to the capacity of BQR to inhibit de novo pyrimidine nucleoside biosynthesis and consequently, to blockade the synthesis both of DNA and RNA. The influence of this new immunosuppressant on lymphocyte function has not been fully characterized. To determine the potential efficacy of BQR for the control of antibody-mediated graft rejection, which is of particular significance in the context of xenotransplantation, we have examined the influence of the drug on interleukin-6-dependent IgM production by the human B-cell line, SKW 6.4. At concentrations up to 10 micrograms/ml, BQR did not affect concanavalin A (Con A)-induced human peripheral blood lymphocyte proliferation or IL-6 production by blood mononuclear leucocytes. In contrast, the drug was very effective in inhibiting IL-6-stimulated IgM production by SKW 6.4 cells, with an optimal inhibitory concentration of 0.3 microgram/ml. As expected, addition of exogenous uridine (0.1 mM), the precursor of uridine triphosphate (UTP), reversed the inhibitory effect of BQR on antibody production, while cytidine (0.1 mM) potentiated the inhibitory activity of the drug. It was further demonstrated that the inhibition of IgM production was unrelated to DNA synthesis, indicating that BQR may affect IL-6 signal transduction and IgM production in SKW 6.4 cells independent of any effect on cell proliferation.