Low birth weight as an additional indication for chromosomal analysis

INTRODUCTION: Even though there are few epidemiological studies evaluating the birth weights of different groups of malformed babies with chromosomal abnormalities, it is widely known that infants with trisomy 18, and to a lesser degree those with trisomy 13 and other chromosomal alterations, have low birth weights. PATIENTS AND METHODS: In this study we present the analysis of the birth weights and gestational ages of a large sample of babies (23,155 malformed and a similar number of nonmalformed babies), separating the different groups of chromosomal anomalies and comparing the weight in the clinical groups of malformed infants. RESULTS: Most of the groups with chromosomal abnormalities present lower birth weights in comparison to the other groups. CONCLUSIONS: The results of our study support the conclusion that the relationship between chromosomal alterations and low birth weight is sufficiently important that such a low birth weight in children with minor or major anomalies should be considered as one more indication to perform chromosomal analysis.     

Retinal vessel dilatation and elongation precedes diabetic macular oedema

Rolandic discharge (RD), noted in the electroencephalography (EEG) of patients with benign epilepsy in childhood with centrotemporal spikes (BECCT) has several unique features. One feature is that the amount or frequency of RDs does not correlate well with the incidence of seizures in BECCT although it is a key finding in the diagnosis of this epileptic syndrome. In this study, we examined the efficacy of antiepileptic drugs focusing on the disappearance of RDs in relationship with seizure control. Forty patients with BECCT who were not medically treated prior to this study were randomly sorted into three groups. Twenty patients were assigned for clonazepam (CZP) treatment, 10 patients for valproate (VPA) and the remaining 10 patients for carbamazepine (CBZ). Each drug was administered for 4 consecutive weeks. EEGs were recorded twice during the study, before and 4 weeks after the medication trial. The effects of each treatment on RDs were assessed. RDs disappeared in 15 of the 20 cases treated with CZP (75%) within 4 weeks while the same was observed in only one of the 10 cases treated with VPA (10%). CBZ failed to demonstrate any effect on RD. In the group treated with CZP, there were no differences in seizure incidence, seizure type and blood concentration of CZP between the patients whose RDs disappeared and those whose RDs remained.     

Evaluating the impact of CASE: an empirical comparison of retrospective and cross-sectional survey approaches

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate two methods of assessing the productivity and quality impact of Computer Aided Software Engineering (CASE) and Fourth Generation Language (4GL) technologies: (1) by the retrospective method; and (2) the cross-sectional method. Both methods involve the use of questionnaire surveys. Developers' perceptions depend on the context in which they are expressed and this includes expectations about the effectiveness of a given software product. Consequently, it is generally not reliable to base inferences about the relative merits of CASE and 4GLs on a cross-sectional comparison of two separate samples of users. The retrospective method that requires each respondent to directly compare different products is shown to be more reliable. However, there may be scope to employ cross-sectional comparisons of the findings from different samples where both sets of respondents use the same reference point for their judgements, and where numerical rather than verbal rating scales are used to measure perceptions.     

Presupposition failure — A comedy of errors

Presuppositions of utterances are the pieces of information you convey with an utterance no matter whether your utterance is true or not. We first study presupposition in a very simple framework of updating propositional information, with examples of how presuppositions of complex propositional updates can be calculated. Next we move on to presuppositions and quantification, in the context of a dynamic version of predicate logic, suitably modified to allow for presupposition failure. In both the propositional and the quantificational case, presupposition failure can be viewed as error abortion of procedures. Thus, a dynamic assertion logic which describes the preconditions for error abortion is the suitable tool for analysing presupposition.     

Predictive equation for acquisition of hepatitis B in hospital workers in a general hospital

A cross-sectional study was performed to obtain risk factors for hepatitis B disease, HBsAg carriers and immunised personnel, among 2470 workers in a general hospital in Madrid, Spain. The data obtained were analyzed with multiple logistic regression to obtain beta coefficients for variables. The results of the analysis show that being a nurse or being regularly exposed to blood are the most important risk factors for hepatitis B acquisition. The length of time working at the same job activity was also a risk factor. The resulting beta coefficients allow the construction for a hepatitis non-immunised, HBsAg carrier and immunised HBV status, which can select subjects for a hepatitis B vaccination program.     

Generation of Technology-Independent Retargetable Analog Blocks

This paper introduces a complete methodology for retargeting of analog cells to different sets of specifications. This methodology is technology-independent, thus allowing the migration, from one technology to another, of the circuit under retargeting. Careful integration of the device sizing and layout generation tasks via the incorporation of layout constraints during the sizing process allows to generate fully functional designs in a few minutes. The methodology is illustrated via the retargeting of a fully-differential Miller-compensated two-stage operational amplifier for a new set of specifications and two different technological processes.An erratum to this article can be found at