Cardiopulmonary interactions in healthy children and children after simple cardiac surgery: the effects of positive and negative pressure ventilation

On the day of the disaster, 641 victims were seen at St. Luke's International Hospital. Among those, five victims arrived with cardiopulmonary or respiratory arrest with marked miosis and extremely low serum cholinesterase values; two died and three recovered completely. In addition to these five critical patients, 106 patients, including four pregnant women, were hospitalized with symptoms of mild to moderate exposure. Other victims had only mild symptoms and were released after 6 hours of observation. Major signs and symptoms in victims were miosis, headache, dyspnea, nausea, ocular pain, blurred vision, vomiting, coughing, muscle weakness, and agitation. Almost all patients showed miosis and related symptoms such as headache, blurred vision, or visual darkness. Although these physical signs and symptoms disappeared within a few weeks, psychologic problems associated with posttraumatic stress disorder persisted longer. Also, secondary contamination of the house staff occurred, with some sort of physical abnormality in more than 20%.     

Socioeconomic Status and Insomnia.

This investigation compared the likelihood of insomnia and insomnia-related health consequences among individuals of different socioeconomic status. A random-digit dialing procedure was used to recruit at least 50 men and 50 women in each age decade from 20 to 80 + years old. Participants completed 2 weeks of sleep diaries as well as questionnaires related to fatigue, sleepiness, and psychological distress. Socioeconomic status was measured by education status assessed at 3 different levels: individual, household, and community. Results indicated that individuals of lower individual and household education were significantly more likely to experience insomnia even after researchers accounted for ethnicity, gender, and age. Additionally, individuals with fewer years of education, particularly those who had dropped out of high school, experienced greater subjective impairment because of their insomnia. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Congenital and pediatric interstitial disease

Congenital and pediatric interstitial lung disease (ILD) is set in the context of the maturing lung and immune system, and thus differs completely from its adult equivalents in presentation, therapy, and outcome. We first establish the background by briefly reviewing normal maturational changes and then describe recent advances in diagnosis. We then highlight three specific topics: drugs and the lung (treatment and iatrogenic ILD); the histiocytic disorders of the lung; and congenital ILD (specifically congenital surfactant protein deficiency).     

Decreased type II/type I TGF-beta receptor ratio in cells derived from human atherosclerotic lesions. Conversion from an antiproliferative to profibrotic response to TGF-beta1

Atherosclerosis and postangioplasty restenosis may result from abnormal wound healing. The present studies report that normal human smooth muscle cells are growth inhibited by TGF-beta1, a potent wound healing agent, and show little induction of collagen synthesis to TGF-beta1, yet cells grown from human vascular lesions are growth stimulated by TGF-beta1 and markedly increase collagen synthesis. Both cell types increase plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 production, switch actin phenotypes in response to TGF-beta1, and produce similar levels of TGF-beta activity. Membrane cross-linking of 125I-TGF-beta1 indicates that normal human smooth muscle cells express type I, II, and III receptors. The type II receptor is strikingly decreased in lesion cells, with little change in the type I or III receptors. RT-PCR confirmed that the type II TGF-beta1 receptor mRNA is reduced in lesion cells. Transfection of the type II receptor into lesion cells restores the growth inhibitory response to TGF-beta1, implying that signaling remains responsive. Because TGF-beta1 is overexpressed in fibroproliferative vascular lesions, receptor-variant cells would be allowed to grow in a slow, but uncontrolled fashion, while overproducing extracellular matrix components. This TGF-beta1 receptor dysfunction may be relevant for atherosclerosis, restenosis and related fibroproliferative diseases.     

Time perception and reproduction in young adults with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Adults with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD; n ?=? 104) were compared with a control group (n ?=? 64) on time estimation and reproduction tasks. Results were unaffected by ADHD subtype or gender. The ADHD group provided larger time estimations than did the control group, particularly at long intervals. This became nonsignificant after controlling for IQ. The ADHD group made shorter reproductions than the control group (15- and 60-s intervals) and greater reproduction errors (12-, 45-, 60-s durations). These differences remained after controlling for IQ and comorbid oppositional defiant disorder, depression, and anxiety. Only the level of anxiety contributed to errors (at 12-s duration) beyond the level of ADHD. Results extended findings on time perception in ADHD children to adults and ruled out comorbidity as the basis of the errors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Depressed Mood and Smoking Experimentation Among Preteens.

The authors examined children's depressed mood, parental depressed mood, and parental smoking in relation to children's smoking susceptibility and experimentation over 20 months in a cohort of 418 preteens (ages 10-12 at baseline) and their parents. Depressed mood in preteens was strongly related to experimentation but not to susceptibility. In cross-sectional analyses parental depressed mood was related to children's experimentation, but in longitudinal analyses parental depressed mood at baseline did not differentiate children who experimented from those who did not. Although parental smoking was strongly related to experimentation, it was not related to susceptibility either cross-sectionally or longitudinally. Depressed mood among preteens and parents appeared to be more strongly related to children's smoking behaviors than to their intentions to smoke. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A modular approach to distillation column simulation

THE DYNSYS 2.0 computer program for modeling the dynamic behavior of complex chemical plants is described. The application of this modular program to the simulation of some distillation column control schemes is presented. Tree typical column configurations are studied. The startup of the columns is simulated and the effect of some simple control arrangements is shown.

The advantages of a modular program structure are discussed and the flexibility and utility of DYNSYS is illustrated.     

Laboratory animal allergy

Since the second World War, excess mortality of males has been steadily growing in Poland. The aim of this paper was to analyze the basic relationships between excess male mortality and some social and economic factors, with special reference to both age and place of residence. Data published in Demographic Yearbooks and included in reports produced by the Government Population Council were used in the analysis. The excess male mortality is expressed in terms of male/female mortality ratio, and also in terms of the difference between the average female and male life expectancy. In the early 1990s the general male mortality rate in Poland was by 23% higher than the general female mortality rate, whereas in males at younger working age (20-44 years) mortality was three times higher, and in the older age (45-64 years) groups 2.7 times higher than the female mortality. Compared with the majority of European countries, Poland is characterised by high rates of excess male mortality, which points to a deteriorated health status of the population. At present, excess mortality of the working age males is much higher than in the 1960s and 1970s. Our analysis of the 1960-1994 trends revealed that the highest excess male mortality occurs in the 20-24 age group. Although recently a falling trend has been observed in the infant, juvenile and post working age groups, a continuous increase is noted in the working age population of Poland. Causes of death were also included in our analysis. Among circulatory diseases, the highest excess mortality was due to acute myocardial infarction (the risk of death from this disease was 8 times higher for males than for females). Accidents, injuries and poisoning constitute another leading group of causes responsible for excess mortality (6/1 male/female death risk ratio). The excess male mortality rates are higher in the rural than in the urban areas. The excess male mortality was also reflected in the indices of average life expectancy. In 1995, the average life expectancy was 67.6 years for males and 76.4 years for females. Thus, in Poland males live 8.6 years shorter than females on average. Increased excess mortality among the working age males, a considerable difference between male and female average life expectancy, disturbed demographic male/female balance, these are at least some of the reasons why further in depth studies of excess male mortality in Poland should continue.