Air pollution,economic activity and respiratory illness: Evidence from Canadian cities, 1974–1994

Many studies have reported a relationship between urban air pollution levels and respiratory health problems. However, there are notable variations in results, depending on modeling approach, covariate selection, period of analysis, etc. To help clarify these factors we compare and apply two estimation approaches: model selection and Bayesian model averaging, to a new data base on 11 Canadian cities spanning 1974–1994. During this interval pollution levels were typically much higher than the present. Our data allow us to compare monthly hospital admission rates for all lung diagnostic categories to ambient levels of five common air contaminants, while controlling for income, smoking and meteorological covariates. In the most general specifications we find the here-observed health effects of air pollution are very small and insignificant, with signs that are typically opposite to conventional expectations. Smoking effects are robust across specifications. Considering the fact that we are examining an interval of comparatively high air pollution levels, and the contrast between our results and those that have been published previously, we conclude that extra caution should be applied to results estimated on short and/or recent data panels, and to those that do not control for model uncertainty and socioeconomic covariates.     

Age-linked declines in retrieving orthographic knowledge: Empirical, practical, and theoretical implications.

[Correction Notice: An erratum for this article was reported in Vol 14(1) of Psychology and Aging (see record 2008-09595-001). The article contained an error. In Table 1 on page 652, the values for rated spelling ability at age 20 and at current age were reversed for older and oldest adults. The corrected table is included in the erratum, with values that have been changed in bold.] This study developed and tested a Transmission Deficit hypothesis of how aging affects retrieval of orthographic knowledge. Young, older, and very old adults heard a tape-recorded series of difficult-to-spell words of high and low frequency, spoken slowly, clearly and repeatedly, and wrote down each word at their own pace. With perceptual errors and vocabulary differences factored out, misspellings increased with aging, especially for high-frequency words. In addition, data from a metamemory questionnaire indicated that the oldest adults were aware of their declining ability to spell. These findings were not due to general slowing, educational factors, hours per week spent reading, writing, or solving crossword puzzles, or age-linked declines in monitoring or detecting self-produced errors. However, the results fit Transmission Deficit predictions, and suggested an age-linked decline in retrieval of orthographic knowledge that resembles age-linked declines in spoken word retrieval observed in many other studies. Practical implications of this age-linked decline for conceptions of normal aging are noted. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sentence severity and the drinking driver: Relationships with traffic safety outcome

While a major response to the drinking-driving problem has been to increase penalties for drinking-driving offences, the impact of sentence severity on the driving behaviour of offenders (specific deterrence) remains unclear. In this research, relationships between aspects of sentence severity (licensedeterrence) suspension, fine, jail term, assignment to probation, or temporary absence programmes) and postconviction accidents and drinking-driving convictions were examined, while controlling statistically for demographic and previous driving record factors. License suspensions were consistently associated with traffic safety benefits. However, increasing severity of other aspects of punishment seemed unrelated to outcome or was associated with increased traffic safety problems. As well, important differences between first, second, and multiple offenders were observed, which may be related to the impact of different aspects of sentence severity on driving behaviour.     

Prognostic factors affecting long term outcome after liver resection for hepatocellular carcinoma: results in a series of 100 Italian patients

BACKGROUND: Long term results after liver resection for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) are disappointing because the disease tends to recur. In this study, the authors assessed prognostic factors affecting long term outcome, in the hope that these factors might be used in selecting HCC patients for surgery. METHODS: During the period 1977-1995, 100 consecutive patients underwent curative liver resection; 78 of 100 had HCC arising on preexisting cirrhosis (53 Child's Class A and 25 Child's Class B). Thirty-five prognostic factors were evaluated for their association with overall survival (OS) and disease free survival (DFS) in univariate and multivariate analysis (Cox proportional hazards model). RESULTS: There were four postoperative deaths. Seven patients died in hospital of hepatorenal failure: six had Child's Class B cirrhosis and had undergone preoperative chemoembolization. Of the remaining 89 patients, 50 developed recurrence. All surviving Child's Class B patients had recurrence. Five-year OS, postoperative deaths included, was 38% (median, 36 months). Five-year DFS, postoperative deaths excluded, was 26% (median, 21 months). Independent prognostic factors for DFS were Child's class, glutamic-oxaloacetic transaminase, gamma-glutamyltransferase, alpha-fetoprotein, number of tumor nodules, width of resection margins, preoperative chemoembolization, and experience of the team that performed the surgery. Factors with an independent effect on OS were Child's class and width of resection margins. CONCLUSIONS: Liver resection can provide long term DFS in HCC patients with normal liver function. In patients with liver function impairment or an inadequate resection margin, recurrences are almost certain to occur. Preoperative chemoembolization significantly prolongs DFS but may increase the risk of postoperative liver failure in patients with liver function impairment.     

The influence of a new timing strategy of band adjustment on the vomiting frequency and the food consumption of obese women operated with laparoscopic adjustable silicone gastric banding (LAP-BAND)

Chinese teas with different degrees of fermentation were examined for their effect on diet-induced hypercholesterolemia in rats. The teas tested were Chinese Green tea, Jasmine, Iron Buddha, Oolong and Pu erh. Hypercholesterolemia was induced by feeding rats with a cholesterol-enriched diet for 1 week. They were then treated with different tea extracts together with a cholesterol-enriched diet for another 8 weeks. Chinese Green tea and Jasmine tea, both with a minimum degree of fermentation, were found to have significant serum and liver cholesterol lowering effects. They also reduced the increase in liver weight due to lipid deposition. All tea treatments lowered the atherogenic index and increased the HDL-total cholesterol ratio, while HDL-cholesterol and triglyceride levels were not significantly affected. Analysis of catechin levels in tea extracts showed that the individual catechin component in Chinese Green tea and Jasmine tea were significantly higher than the others. (-)-Epicatechin gallate and (-)-epigallocatechin gallate in the tea extracts may account for their hypocholesterolemic effect.     

Conversions and complications in 185 laparoscopic adjustable silicone gastric banding cases

CMV infection is the most severe transfusion-transmitted infection in immunosuppressed patients, and must be prevented in high-risk subjects by the use of seronegative units or by the use if leucocyte-reduced units. The value of these methods has been shown in patients who are seronegative for CMV. Allotransfusions may favor bacterial infections through negative immunomodulatory effects due to leucocytes. Finally, parvovirus can induce a more severe disease in immunosuppressed patients.     

Est-ce que l'identification d'un stimulus visuel se produit en l'absence de traitement attentif?

Studied the identification of distractors located within a compound visual stimulus to test the conclusion of 2 previous studies (L. Paquet and K. Appleby, 1988; Paquet and P. M. Merikle, 1988) that stimuli to which an S is inattentive receive a partial perceptual analysis that does not include identification. Ss were 24 university students. In 2 experiments, 2 compound stimuli (2 large letters consisting of smaller letters) were presented side by side and attention was directed to 1 of the 2 stimuli (relevant object). The Stroop effect produced by various aspects of the irrelevant compound stimulus was measured. (English abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Estimating a Game Theoretic Model

Applied game theory generally shows possible game situations, discussingtheir implications. This paper derives an estimation procedure fornon-cooperative games, using cross-section data. During thetransformation of the data an attempt is made to pick extreme points, tofind the outer borders for the actual game. The estimation procedure isan algorithm that switches between several software packages. In anapplication a motivated choice can be made for the transformationfunctions such that the estimated game comes closest to the actual gameof the empirical problem under study. To demonstrate the estimationprocedure, a situation is studied in which a villager voluntarilychooses a level of participation in forest management.     

Employee reaction to continuous and variable ratio reinforcement schedules involving a monetary incentive.

Examined the performance of 12 mountain beaver trappers (aged 21–40 yrs) when a monetary incentive was administered on continuous and VR-4 schedules of reinforcement. On alternate weeks (over a 12-wk period), Ss received $1 for every beaver caught. On the VR-4 schedule, each S received $4 contingent on presenting the beaver to the supervisor and correctly predicting an even or odd number on a dice roll. Consistent with operant theory, the performance of Ss was higher on the VR-4 reinforcement schedule. Ss were interviewed to determine what they viewed as differentiating the 2 schedules of reinforcement. Based on the interviews, a questionnaire was developed and administered. Results indicate that the VR-4 schedule was perceived as including job enrichment variables such as recognition, task variety, task accomplishment, and feedback, whereas this was less likely to be the case when the incentive was paid on a continuous schedule. (10 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)