Prevalence and severity of the dementia syndrome in homes for the aged and nursing homes. A study in elderly from a rural area near Zwolle

In the Netherlands both nursing homes and homes for the aged serve as a residence for demented elderly. Although these institutions differ considerably regarding financing and care facilities, specific functions of each institute concerning demented elderly have not been clearly defined. In order to know to what extent residential facilities serve demented elderly, the prevalence and severity of dementia among residents aged 65 and over was studied as part of a prevalence study among elderly people in a rural area of the Netherlands. The target population existed of all persons aged 65 and over who were registered in eight general practices. Patients who had to leave the practice on account of ill-health and were admitted to nursing homes were included in the study. In a two stage study the MMSE was applied as a screening instrument. Based on MMSE-score a non-proportional stratified random sample was drawn for the second, diagnostic stage, which existed of the CAMDEX. Prevalence estimates for DSM-III-R-dementia were 21% among residents of homes for the aged, 48% among residents of somatic wards of nursing homes and 100% among those admitted to psychogeriatric wards of nursing homes. Severity of dementia was highest among residents of psychogeriatric wards of nursing homes and lowest among those living in homes for the aged. Prevalence of dementia among residents of homes for the aged can be fully attributed to the age-distribution. The high frequency of dementia among residents of somatic nursing home wards can be explained in several ways: First, admission can be necessary due to a combination of dementia and somatic illness.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)     

Influence of short-term dietary measures on dioxin concentrations in human milk

Breast-feeding may expose infants to high levels of toxic chlorinated dioxins. To diminish intake of these lipophilic compounds by the baby, two diets were tested for their ability to reduce concentrations of dioxins in human milk. The diets were a low-fat/high- carbohydrate/low-dioxin diet. (about 20% of energy intake derived from fat) and a high fat /low-carbohydrate/low-dioxin diet. These diets were tested in 16 and 18 breast-feeding women, respectively. The test diets were followed for 5 consecutive days in the fourth week after delivery. Milk was sampled before and at the end of the dietary regimen, and dioxin concentrations and fatty acid concentrations were determined. Despite significant influences of these diets on the fatty acid profiles, no significant influence on the dioxin concentrations in breast milk could be found. We conclude that short-term dietary measures will not reduce dioxin concentration in human milk.     

Diffraction by an elliptic cone and the solution of the wedge diffraction problem

Contents The paper deals with scalar diffraction by an elliptic cone in the limit case of ellipticity parameterk=0. In this case the elliptic cone degenerates into a wedge with exterior opening angle 2₀. We solve the two-parameter eigenvalue problem for two coupled Lamé differential equations fork=0 and obtain the eigenvalues and the eigenfunctions for the wedge problem by a completely analytical calculation. We utilize a precise transformation of the sphero-conal coordinates into spherical coordinates with the edge of the wedge as polar axis and determine, by substitution of the transformed Lamé products into Green's functions for the elliptic cone, the solution of the scalar diffraction problem for the wedge.The results obtained are in full agreement with those reported in [2]. In the special case of half-plane diffraction (₀=) the solution reduces to that in [1].

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Beugung am elliptischen Kegel und die Lösung des Beugungsproblems für den Keil

Übersicht in dieser Arbeit beschäftigen wir uns mit der skalaren Beugung am Kegel elliptischen Querschnitts im Grenzfall des Elliptizitätsparametersk=0. In diesem Fall entartet der elliptische Kegel in einen Keil mit dem Außenöffnungswinkel 2₀. Wir lösen das zweiparametrige Eigenwertproblem für zwei gekoppelte Lamésche Differentialgleichungen fürk=0 und erhalten über eine vollständig analytische Rechnung die Eigenwerte und die Eigenfunktionen für das Keilproblem. Wir ziehen eine exakte Transformation der elliptischen Kegelkoordinaten in Kugelkoordinaten mit der Keilkante als Polarachse heran und gewinnen, durch Substitution der transformierten Laméschen Produkte in den Greenschen Funktionen für den elliptischen Kegel, die Lösung des skalaren Beugungsproblems für den Keil.Die Ergebnisse stimmen vollständig überein mit denjenigen, die in [2] zitiert werden. Im Spezialfall der Beugung an der Halbebene (₀=) wird die Lösung wieder zurückgeführt auf die in [1] abgeleitete Lösung.

     

Varietal Differentiation of Grape Juice Based on the Analysis of Near- and Mid-infrared Spectral Data

The aim of this study was to evaluate the usefulness of visible (VIS), near-infrared reflectance (NIR) and mid-infrared (MIR) spectroscopy combined with pattern recognition methods as tools to differentiate grape juice samples from commercial Australian Chardonnay (n = 121) and Riesling (n = 91) varieties. Principal component analysis (PCA), partial least squares discriminant analysis and linear discriminant analysis (LDA) were applied to classified grape juice samples according to variety based on both NIR and MIR spectra using full cross-validation (leave-one-out) as a validation method. Overall, LDA models correctly classify 86% and 80% of the grape juice samples according to variety using MIR and VIS-NIR, respectively. The results from this study demonstrated that spectral differences exist between the juice samples from different varietal origins and confirmed that the infrared (IR) spectrum contains information able to discriminate among samples. Furthermore, analysis and interpretation of the eigenvectors from the PCA models developed verified that the IR spectrum of the grape juice has enough information to allow the prediction of the variety. These results also suggested that IR spectroscopy coupled with pattern recognition methods holds the necessary information for a successful classification of juice samples of different varieties.     

Exo-mechanism proximity-accelerated alkylations: investigations of linkers, electrophiles and surface mutations in engineered cyclophilin-cyclosporin systems

Investigations on the scope and utility of exo-mechanism proximity-accelerated reactions in engineered receptor-ligand systems are reported. We synthesized a series of electrophilic cyclosporin (CsA) derivatives by varying electrophiles and linker lengths, prepared a series of nucleophilic cysteine mutations on the surface of cyclophilin A (Cyp), and examined their reactivity and specificity in proximity-accelerated reactions. Acrylamide and epoxide electrophiles afforded useful reactivity and high specificity for alkylation of engineered receptors in Jurkat cell extracts. We found that remote cysteines (>17 A from the ligand) could be alkylated with useful rates under physiological conditions. The results from mutations of the receptor surface suggest that the dominant factors governing the rates of proximity-accelerated reactions are related to the local environment of the reactive group on the protein surface. This study defines several parameters affecting reactivity in exo-mechanism proximity-accelerated reactions and provides guidance for the design of experiments for biological investigations involving proximity-accelerated reactions.     

Trans isomeric octadecenoic acids are related inversely to arachidonic acid and DHA and positively related to mead acid in umbilical vessel wall lipids

Long-chain PUFA play an important role in early human neurodevelopment. Significant inverse correlations were reported between values of trans isomeric and long-chain PUFA in plasma lipids of preterm infants and children aged 1–15 yr as well as in venous cord blood lipids of full-term infants. Here we report FA compositional data of cord blood vessel wall lipids in 308 healthy, full-term infants (gestational age: 39.7±1.2 wk, birth weight: 3528±429 g, mean±SD). The median (interquartile range) of the sum of 18-carbon trans FA was 0.22 (0.13)% w/w in umbilical artery and 0.16 (0.10)% w/w in umbilical vein lipids. Nonparametric correlation analysis showed significant inverse correlations between the sum of 18-carbon trans FA and both arachidonic acid and DHA in artery (r=−0.38, P<0.01, and r=−0.20, P<0.01) and vein (r=−0.36, P<0.01, and −0.17, P<0.01) wall lipids. In addition, the sum of 18-carbon trans FA was significantly positively correlated to Mead acid, a general indicator of EFA deficiency, in both artery (r=+0.35, P<0.01) and vein (r=+0.31, P<0.01) wall lipids. The present results obtained in a large group of full-term infants suggest that maternal trans FA intake is inversely associated with long-chain PUFA status of the infant at birth.     

The Common Operational Picture as Collective Sensemaking

The common operational picture is used to overcome coordination and information management problems during emergency response. Increasingly, this approach is incorporated in more advanced information systems. This is rooted in an ‘information warehouse’ perspective, which implies information can be collected, sorted and exchanged in an accessible and univocal form. In practice, however, professionals interpret similar information differently. Therefore, we focus on how emergency responders develop collective sensemaking from information. We employ a ‘trading zone’ perspective, in which information is negotiated, to study information management in an ethnographic study of disaster exercises in the Netherlands. Our analysis shows how professionals attribute different meanings to information that distorts the coordination process. We end by stressing the importance of actionable knowledge and reflexivity.     

Single Soybean Seed NMR Calibration for Oil Measurement Using Commercial Cooking Oils

Development of high oil soybeans would reduce the cost of soybean oil production for biodiesel or edible oil applications. An accurate determination of soybean seed oil concentration is essential especially when developing superior cultivars with increased seed oil content. The objective of this study was to develop an oil measurement method for single seeds using NMR spectrometry. An NMR spectrometer was calibrated using commercial cooking oil. Fifteen cultivars of known mean oil content were used to evaluate the calibration curves. The calibration curves developed had a correlation coefficient of 0.99. It was found that soybean and corn oil gave identical results over the calibrated interval.     

Quantitative structure/activity relationship for the rate of conversion of C4-substituted catechols by catechol-1,2-dioxygenase from Pseudomonas putida (arvilla) C1

Dot-immunoblotting assay (DIA) using five monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) to infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) was used to detect and classify the viruses propagated in embryonated chicken eggs. Using a group-specific MAb 3F5, 10 reference strains and 12 Korean isolates of IBV were successfully detected by DIA, and the lowest virus titer of IBV detected by DIA was approximately less than 10(3.8) mean embryo infective dose/ml. For evaluating the diagnostic efficiency, DIA was compared with the conventional infectious bronchitis (IB) diagnostic method. IBV antigens in allantoic fluid from embryonated eggs inoculated with IB-suspected field samples were specifically detected by DIA within only one or two egg passages, whereas the conventional embryonated egg inoculation method required four to seven egg passages for confirming IBV infection. These results indicated that DIA could significantly reduce time and cost for IB diagnosis. For examining the possibility of classifying IBV by DIA, four strain-specific MAbs, 3A4, 2A3, 6F7, and 2C6, were used. According to the MAb reacting patterns to the IBV antigens, the 10 IBV reference strains were classified into six groups; seven strains belonged to three different groups, and the other three strains each belonged to an individual group. In the case of 12 Korean isolates of IBV, they were classified in six groups. Among the six groups, the MAb reacting patterns of three groups matched those of the IBV reference strains, but the others did not. These data suggest that at least three variant serotypes of IBV exist in Korea.