Influence of job strain and emotion on blood pressure in female hospital personnel during workhours

A homogeneous sample of 56 women who were between the ages of 20 and 59 years and worked in acute emergency care, child psychiatry, or a pediatric outpatient clinic comprised the subjects of this study to determine the relationship between job strain and blood pressure. Job strain was measured with a standardized questionnaire, and blood pressure during workhours with self-triggered equipment. Endocrine factors (morning concentration of plasma prolactin, cortisol, and dehydroepiandrosterone) and emotional states recorded in diaries were also studied. Significant interrelationships occurred among perceived job strain, plasma prolactin, and diastolic blood pressure during workhours even when body mass index, age, family history of hypertension, level of education, and mood state were adjusted for in a multiple regression analysis. Thus job strain of female care givers was associated with systolic and diastolic blood pressure during workhours and also with diastolic blood pressure at rest, but not with blood pressure during leisure time.     

Epstein-Barr virus genomes in undifferentiated and squamous cell nasopharyngeal carcinomas in Italian patients

Three antigens of Candida albicans were comparatively evaluated to their ability to elicit delayed hypersensitivity (DH) responses in the mouse footpad test, using alloxan-diabetic and normal mice which were primed with heat-killed C. albicans in complete Freund adjuvant. These antigens were: (1) a preparation of sonically disrupted heat-killed cells; (2) a preparation of soluble cytoplasmic material remaining in the supernatant of a broken-cell suspension centrifuged at 100,000 g; (3) a preparation obtained by extraction of pulverized defatted cells with dilute phenol and sodium bicarbonate in water. After separation by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, the major components of soluble cytoplasmic material and dilute phenol extract were identified as a 43-kD protein, and glycoproteins of 21, 27 and 38 kD, respectively. Fifty-eight CD-1 outbred mice, which had received a single intravenous injection of alloxan followed by a 28-day rest period, were randomized with normal littermates to distinct experimental groups. Seven days after sensitization, mice were injected with one of the antigens in the right rear footpad and saline in the left rear footpad and the net specific increase in footpad thickness determined 24 and 48 h later. All three antigens elicited significant responses in sensitized normal mice. The responses of sensitized diabetic mice were clearly inferior to those of sensitized normal mice when heat-killed cells and soluble cytoplasmic material were used. Dilute phenol extract elicited equivalent responses at 24 and 48 h in both primed diabetic and normal mice.     

Discretization errors in numerical micromagnetic models

Numerical micromagnetic models attempt to determine coercive force, reversal modes, the number of stable magnetic states of particles, and the effect of particle interaction. These models can have considerable discretization error. In some cases, the calculated equilibrium states change considerably when the number of elements is increased. An analysis of three types of discretization errors suggests a measure of the accuracy of the models     

Lowpass filter with minimum integrated power-loss ratio in the passband

A class of lowpass filters with minimum integrated power-loss ratio in the passband is discussed. Comparisons with the usual Butterworth and Cheby?shev filters are also reported.     

Analysis and parameterisation of wind profiles in the low atmosphere

Knowledge of temporal and spatial variation of the wind is important to obtain accurate calculations of wind power potential. The best estimation method involves direct measurement of wind speed which, however, is not always possible. In such cases, a good parameterisation of wind profile is necessary. A RASS sodar located in Northern Spain has been used in this paper. This device provided a broad database of 10-min averages from August 2002 to January 2004. The vertical range extended from 40 to 500 m in 20 m levels, although the 220 m level was selected as the upper boundary by analysis of wind speed and temperature vertical profiles. Hourly medians were calculated each month in the 10 lower levels, yielding a sharp contrast between day and night. Flat wind speed profiles were clear during day, mainly in summer, due to convection produced by surface heating. However, stable stratification favoured horizontal movement and wind speed values increasing with height were observed during the night. Power and logarithmic laws have been fitted from vertical profiles of hourly wind speed medians. The exponent of the power law showed hourly medians greater than 0.5 during the night and lower than 0.2 during the day. A simple model has been proposed for the parameters of both expressions, consisting of an addition of three harmonic functions with periods of 1 year, 1 day and half a day. Hourly wind speed medians were successfully fitted at the heights of interest, although the fit proved better for the power law. Finally, a slight decrease in fitting at increasing heights was also observed.