Sex differences in children's response to training on a visual-spatial test.

In a study with 133 children in Grades 1, 3, and 5, a brief training procedure designed to improve performance on the Children's Embedded Figures Test, a test of visual ability, resulted in significant improvement for girls but not for boys. No sex difference was observed among children receiving this training. The implications for theories of sex differences in visual–spatial ability are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Spatial analysis of annual air pollution exposure and mortality

The aim of this study was to relate ambient air pollution levels to mortality in Auckland, New Zealand. We used urban airshed modelling and GIS-based techniques to quantify long-term exposure to ambient air pollution levels and associated mortality. After adjusting for age, sex, ethnicity, socio-economic status, and urban/rural domicile there was a 1.3% (95%CI: 1-1.5%) increase in non-external cause mortality, and 1.8% (95%CI: 1.5-2.1%) increase in circulatory and respiratory causes per 1 microg/m(3) increase in annual average NO(2). Based on these exposure-response relationships and applying an annual average threshold of 13 microg/m(3), the average annual (for 1996-1999) number of people estimated to die from non-external causes and circulatory and respiratory causes attributable to air pollution in Auckland is 268 (95% range: 227-310) (3.9% of total all cause deaths) and 203 (95% range: 169-237) (5.9% of total circulatory and respiratory deaths) per year, respectively. The number of attributable deaths found in this study are consistent with a previous New Zealand risk assessment using a different methodology, and is approximately twice the number of people dying from motor vehicle accidents in the region, which is on average (1996-1999) 103 per year. The GIS-based exposure maps identify high exposure areas for policy developers and planners in a simple and realistic manner. Taken together with overseas studies the study provides additional evidence that long-term exposure to poor air quality, even at levels below current standards, is a hazard to the public health.     

Self-oscillations in an open biochemical substrate-inhibited reaction interacting with the enzyme-producing system

An open biochemical reaction with substrate inhibition is analysed under conditions of a continuous turnover of its enzyme maintained by the enzyme-producing system (EPS). In this reaction, self-oscillations of a long period may occur in addition to the resonance phenomena found in a simple biochemical reaction with the EPS. A distinctive property of this reaction is also superadaptation with which the total enzyme concentration increases as a square of the substrate influx rate.     

Endotoxic activity of cell-free rumen fluid from cattle fed hay or grain

The cell-free rumen fluid from cattle fed hay or grain exhibited the following biological characteristics which strongly suggest the presence of endotoxin or a toxic principle similar to endotoxin of gram-negative bacteria: proved lethal to mice when injected with actinomycin D; proved extremely lethal to chick embryo; induced biphasic pyogenic response in rabbits; enhanced susceptibility to bacterial infection in mice; evoked positive epinephrine skin reaction in rabbits and phenol-water or aqueous ether proved lethal to mice and chick embryos. A quantitative difference in concentrations of endotoxin was observed on LD50 in mice and chick embryos and response to the epinephrine skin test in rabbits. Cell-free rumen fluid of grain-fed cattle contained at least twice as much endotoxin as that of hay-fed cattle. Endotoxin in cell-free rumen fluid and in higher concentration in cattle fed grain than in those fed hay support the hypothesis that rumen bacterial endotoxins may participate in the pathogenesis of diseases associated with high grain feeding such as lactic acidosis and the sudden-death syndrome.     

Identification of Certain Sultones as the Sensitizers in an Alkyl Ethoxy Sulfate

Skin sensitizing agents that were present in a specific batch of alkyl ethoxy sulfate (AES) were identified as 1-dodecene-1,3-sultone and 1-tetradecene-1,3-sultone. Two other sensitizing agents that were present in the AES were tentatively identified as 2-chloro-1,3-dodecanesultone and 2-chloro-1,3-tetradecanesultone. A route of formation for these sensitizers has been postulated which is consistent with the specific conditions used for the manufacture of this batch of AES.     

Time of appearance and histology of tumors induced in the dorsal skin of C3Hf mice by ultraviolet radiation from a mercury arc lamp

The time course of skin tumor induction was determined in hair-clipped inbred agouti C3Hf mice irradiated three times per week with a medium-pressure quartz-mercury lamp; 4 different UV doses were used. Although the ears were also exposed to the radiation, in the 3 groups given the highest doses no ear tumors were observed by the time each animal had developed at least 1 tumor on its back. No tumors were found in the animals receiving the lowest UV dose. In the group receiving the highest dose, males developed tumors earlier than did females; this trend continued in the lower dose groups. Many tumors that developed in the back skin were well-differentiated squamous cell carcinomas. Others were less well-differentiated squamous cell carcinomas. Others were less well defined so that the cell of origin was difficult to determine. In the group receiving the highest UV dose, the squamous cell carcinomas were few, whereas at the lower doses they predominated.     

Car insurance and the risk of car crash injury

Despite speculation about the role of vehicle insurance in road traffic accidents, there is little research estimating the direction or extent of the risk relationship. Data from the Auckland Car Crash Injury Study (1998–1999) were used to examine the association between driving an uninsured motor vehicle and car crash injury. Cases were all cars involved in crashes in which at least one occupant was hospitalized or killed anywhere in the Auckland region. Controls were 588 drivers of randomly selected cars on Auckland roads. Participants completed a structured interview. Uninsured drivers had significantly greater odds of car crash injury compared to insured drivers after adjustment for age, sex, level of education, and driving exposure (odds ratio 4.77, 95% confidence interval 2.94–7.75). The causal mechanism for insurance and car crash injury is not easily determined. Although we examined the effects of multiple potential confounders in our analysis including socioeconomic status and risk-taking behaviours, both of which have been previously observed to be associated with both insurance status and car crash injury, residual confounding may partly explain this association. The estimated proportion of drivers who are uninsured is between 5 and 15% in developed countries, representing a significant public health problem worthy of further investigation.     

The role of driver sleepiness in car crashes: a systematic review of epidemiological studies

To assess the available evidence for a causal role of driver sleepiness in car crashes or car crash injury, and to quantify the effect, a systematic review of the international literature was conducted. The review included all studies with a fatigue-related exposure measure, a crash or crash injury outcome measure and a comparison group, regardless of publication status, language or date of the study. Eighteen cross-sectional studies and one case-control study fulfilled the inclusion criteria. The fatigue-related exposures investigated in these studies were sleep disorders (n = 14), shift work (n = 2), sleep deprivation/fragmentation (n = 1), and excessive daytime sleepiness (n = 2). Only one study used an injury outcome measure. Studies were limited in their ability to establish a causal relationship by their design, by biases, and in many cases, by small sample sizes. The better quality cross-sectional studies were suggestive of a positive relationship between fatigue and crash risk, but could not provide reliable estimates of the strength of the association. The case-control study provided moderately strong evidence for an association between sleep apnoea and risk of driver injury, with an adjusted odds ratio of 7.2 (95% confidence interval 2.4-21.8). We conclude that the direct epidemiological evidence for a causal role of fatigue in car crashes is weak, but suggestive of an effect. To estimate the burden of injury due to fatigue-related crashes in the population, information is required from well-designed observational epidemiological studies about the prevalence of fatigue in the car driving population and the size of the risk this confers.     

Multifunctional Transmembrane Protein Ligands for Cell‐Specific Targeting of Plasma Membrane‐Derived Vesicles

Liposomes and nanoparticles that bind selectively to cell‐surface receptors can target specific populations of cells. However, chemical conjugation of ligands to these particles is difficult to control, frequently limiting ligand uniformity and complexity. In contrast, the surfaces of living cells are decorated with highly uniform populations of sophisticated transmembrane proteins. Toward harnessing cellular capabilities, here it is demonstrated that plasma membrane vesicles (PMVs) derived from donor cells can display engineered transmembrane protein ligands that precisely target cells on the basis of receptor expression. These multifunctional targeting proteins incorporate (i) a protein ligand, (ii) an intrinsically disordered protein spacer to make the ligand sterically accessible, and (iii) a fluorescent protein domain that enables quantification of the ligand density on the PMV surface. PMVs that display targeting proteins with affinity for the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) bind at increasing concentrations to breast cancer cells that express increasing levels of EGFR. Further, as an example of the generality of this approach, PMVs expressing a single‐domain antibody against green fluorescence protein (eGFP) bind to cells expressing eGFP‐tagged receptors with a selectivity of ≈50:1. The results demonstrate the versatility of PMVs as cell targeting systems, suggesting diverse applications from drug delivery to tissue engineering.