Prevalence of asthma and asthma-like symptoms in three French cities

BACKGROUND: This study is part of the European Community Respiratory Health Survey (ECRHS), which uses a common methodology in different areas throughout the world. This paper describes the prevalences of reported asthma, asthma-like symptoms and nasal allergies, their relationships to age group and sex, and the relationships of asthma-like symptoms to current asthma, in the general population aged 20-44 years of three French urban areas. METHODS: The study population of 2804 subjects in Grenoble, 3774 in Montpellier and 3152 in Paris (18th district), randomly selected from electoral rolls, answered a postal questionnaire (stage I of ECRHS). The response rates were 77.8%, 68.6% and 74.4%, respectively. RESULTS: The prevalences were approximately 14% for wheezing, 16% for chest tightness and 4.5% for nocturnal shortness of breath in the three areas. Asthma attacks in the last 12 months were reported by 2.7% of subjects in Grenoble, 3.5% of subjects in Montpellier and 4.0% of subjects in Paris (P = 0.02). For nasal allergies, the prevalences were 28.0%, 34.3% and 30.8%, respectively (P < 0.001). Asthma was inversely correlated to age (higher prevalence in the youngest) but was not related to sex. Neither age distribution nor sex ratio explained the differences between areas. Among the asthma-like symptoms, wheezing and nocturnal shortness of breath correlated strongly with asthma, chest tightness correlated moderately and nocturnal coughing correlated poorly. CONCLUSION: The prevalences observed were higher than expected from previous comparable French studies in young adults. These results are consistent with the hypothesis of a recent increase of asthma and allergies.     

PALAEOZOIC TECTONIC HISTORY OF SE TURKEY

A review of published data for the Palaeozoic of SE Turkey, together with facies distribution and palaeo-fault maps derived from regional field data, are used to interpret the Palaeozoic tectonic history of the region.
Intracratonic rifting events in the Early Cambrian and the Early Ordovician led to syn-rift deposition within fault-bounded basins. Marine transgressions across the region in the mid-Cambrian and mid-to-Late Ordovician were probably influenced by regional thermal subsidence after each rifting event, in addition to (glacio-)eustatic mechanisms. Marine transgressions in the Early Silurian and Early Carboniferous are thought to have been entirely eustatic in origin.
Poorly-constrained, Late Palaeozoic facies variations across the region can be related to uplift during the Caledonian and Hercynian orogenic episodes. Widespread tilting and erosion before the Cretaceous, which has removed much of the Late Palaeozoic record from this region, resulted from uplift at the edges of a major rift system which was initiated during the Triassic-to-Jurassic opening of the Southern Neotethys.     

Composition for the protection of aluminum alloys against exfoliation corrosion

Translated from Khimiya i Tekhnologiya Topliv i Masel, No. 10, pp. 21–22, October, 1992.     

Failure of underground workings in rock of block structure under the action of dynamic forces. I. Experimental data on the failure mechanics of real rock under the action of powerful explosions

Translated from Fiziko-Tekhnicheskie Problemy Razrabotki Poleznykh Iskopaemykh, No. 4, pp. 51–61, July–August, 1994.     

Extension of the optimality of the threshold policy inheterogeneous multiserver queueing systems

The authors extend the validity of some results on the optimal control of two-server queueing models with service times of unequal distribution, operating in continuous or discrete time. The distribution of arrivals can be arbitrary subject to some conditions. Both discounted and long-run average costs are considered. Dynamic programming and probabilistic arguments are used to establish the assertion that the optimal policy is of threshold type, i.e. the slower server should be utilized only when the queue length exceeds a certain threshold value     

Component composition of residual lube stock from Azerbaidzhan crudes

Translated from Khimiya i Tekhnologiya Topliv i Masel, No. 12, pp. 16–20, December, 1992.     

New equipment for a continuous heat-treatment line for motor-vehicle gas cylinders

All-Union Scientific-Research Institute of Pipes (VNITI). Il'ich Zhdanov Metallurgical Combine. Translated from Metallurg, No. 9, pp. 39–40, September, 1988.     

Identifying dynamic systems with delay

The application of a method of test signals proposed earlier by the authors to determination of the delay parameters of one of the types of linear systems is examined. Identification of systems is a special case of the measurement of their parameters.Translated from Izmeritel'naya Tekhnika, No. 4, pp. 14–15, April, 1995.