Gender dysphoria, gender reorientation, and the clinical management of transsexualism.

Conducted 2 studies of gender dysphoria and postoperative adjustment by transsexuals. Study 1 examined the relation of gender reorientation (approximation of the status of the opposite biological sex) to psychological adjustment in gender dysphorics. Three S groups (75 heterosexual males, mean age 36.7 yrs; 85 homosexual males, mean age 29.8 yrs; and 103 biological females, mean age 27.4 yrs) were studied in multiple regression analyses, with psychological symptoms as criteria and measures of 3 roughly sequential components of gender reorientation (role changes, document changes, and physical changes), age, and education as predictors. Psychological complaints correlated negatively with the earliest phase of reorientation for females and with the later phases for males. Age and education bore little relation to current symptoms. Results suggest that psychological improvement accompanies gender reorientation in both male and female gender dysphorics; the greatest degree of improvement is seen earlier in the process for females. Ss in Study 2 were postoperative transsexuals (32 homosexual males, mean age 33.2 yrs; 9 heterosexual males, mean age 47.7 yrs; and 38 biological females, mean age 32.6 yrs) at least 1 yr after surgery. Follow-up rate was 77.5% for all Ss meeting the 1-yr criterion. Satisfaction with surgery was high, and psychosocial adjustment was acceptable for the majority. Results of both studies support the rationale for clinical intervention in aid of gender reorientation in selected cases. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The electric utility-industrial user partnership in solving powerquality problems

Various views on power quality among industrial end users and utility personnel are summarized. The issues raised include the most salient power quality problems, their causes, and designing the most effective technical and organizational responses to these problems. Recent technological advancement has helped to precipitate power quality problems through the widespread influx of sophisticated electrical equipment that is sensitive to common power quality problems; of particular note here are momentary loss of power and inadvertent noise that infiltrates into sensitive logic circuits. These problems have been exacerbated through the growing use of power electronics equipment which, although beneficial, can generate harmonic distortion and notching of the line voltage. It is pointed out that identifying and technically solving these emerging problems is an engineering challenge that can be met on a case-by-case basis     

Serial prognostic capabilities of electrocardiographic indices of infarcted and hibernating myocardium in predicting short- and long-term outcome following coronary artery bypass surgery

Concentrations and ex vivo production of interleukin 1 beta (IL-1), tumour necrosis alpha (TNF), interleukin 6 (IL-6), interleukin-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1RA) and TNF soluble receptors (sTNF-receptors, P55 and P75) were measured in bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid and blood in 23 HIV-seropositive (HIV+) patients with Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP) and compared with values found in healthy HIV-seronegative (HIV-) controls and asymptomatic HIV+ subjects. Concentrations of the proinflammatory cytokine IL-1 beta were increased in BAL fluid of HIV+ patients with PCP (184 +/- 47 pg mL-1) compared with undetectable levels in healthy control subjects (P = 0.0001). In plasma of these patients higher concentrations of the anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-1RA were found during acute PCP than after recovery (2.1 +/- 0.7 vs. 0.5 +/- 0.2 ng mL-1, P = 0.01). No correlations could be found between cytokine concentrations and clinical severity of the infection. Corticosteroid treatment did not influence cytokine concentrations in BAL or blood, nor did it suppress the production in alveolar cells. In whole-blood cultures, however, lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated production was significantly suppressed for IL-1 (1.3 vs. 5.5 ng mL-1, P = 0.009) and for IL-6 (0.6 vs. 2.5 ng mL-1, P = 0.01). The overall data show that in HIV+ patients with PCP (similar to what we had found previously in HIV-patients with PCP) proinflammatory cytokines are more prominently present in BAL, whereas anti-inflammatory reaction is predominant in the circulation.     

Continuous monitoring of global left ventricular ejection fraction during percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty

Continuous monitoring of left ventricular (LV) function during percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) was performed in 40 patients (53 +/- 2 years) with a miniature, nuclear detector system after labeling the patients' red blood cells with technetium-99m. Balloon dilation (113 seconds, range 60 to 240) induced on average a 0.12 ejection fraction (EF) unit (19%) decrease in the LVEF, which was explained by a 34% increase in end-systolic counts. Balloon dilation of the left anterior descending artery (n = 23) produced a decrease in the LVEF of 0.17 +/- 0.13 EF units compared with the decrease of 0.06 +/- 0.07 EF units in patients undergoing dilation of the left circumflex artery (n = 9) and 0.05 +/- 0.04 EF units in patients treated for a stenosis of the right coronary artery (n = 8), (p = 0.02). Balloon deflation was associated with an immediate return to pre-PTCA levels. In 10 patients with 2 identical balloon occlusions, the second occlusion led to a significantly less decrease in the LVEF (0.41 +/- 0.14 vs 0.44 +/- 0.15) and electrocardiographic ST-segment deviation (88 +/- 54 microV vs 65 +/- 42 microV) than the first. We conclude that PTCA is associated with an abrupt transient decrease in the LVEF. The effect of balloon occlusion of the left anterior descending artery is more pronounced than balloon occlusion of the left circumflex and the right coronary arteries. Neither single nor multiple balloon occlusions were associated with post-PTCA global LV dysfunction, whereas the lesser degree of LV dysfunction and electrocardiographic signs of myocardial ischemia during the second of 2 identical balloon occlusions suggests that preconditioning can be induced during PTCA.     

Nickel release from inexpensive jewelry and hair clasps purchased in an EU country — Are consumers sufficiently protected from nickel exposure?

Background

Nickel allergic subjects are at risk factor of acquiring hand eczema. In 1990 and 1994, respectively, Denmark and member states in the EU regulated nickel release from selected consumer products. The intention was that the nickel epidemic could be controlled and prevented if the general population was protected from high cutaneous nickel concentrations. Despite a decrease, the prevalence of nickel allergy remains high as nearly 10% of young women are nickel allergic.

Objective

This study aimed to perform dimethylglyoxime (DMG) testing of inexpensive jewelry and hair clasps purchased from random stores in Copenhagen, Denmark to detect the proportion of items that may result in nickel allergy.

Methods

Inexpensive jewelry and hair clasps were purchased from 36 stores and street vendors in Copenhagen and were later tested for nickel release using the DMG test.

Results

The study showed that 19.3% hair clasps, 14.8% earrings, and 12.9% necklaces intended for adult women released an excessive amount of nickel. Of 25 stores visited, 36.0% sold DMG positive jewelry. For items designed for children, excessive nickel release was identified in hair clasps (79.4%) and in finger rings (20%). Four (50.0%) of 8 children clothing stores sold jewelry that released too much nickel.

Discussion

Excessive nickel release has been regulated since 1990 in Denmark. However, 1/5 of purchased items released nickel in concentrations that may lead to nickel allergy. Especially hair clasps intended for children released an excessive amount of nickel.     

Hyperspectral imaging based on diffused laser light for prediction of astaxanthin coating concentration

We present a study on predicting the concentration level of synthetic astaxanthin in fish feed pellet coating using multi- and hyperspectral image analysis. This was done in parallel using two different vision systems. A new instrument for hyperspectral imaging, the SuperK setup, using a super-continuum laser as the light source was introduced. Furthermore, a parallel study with the commercially available multispectral VideometerLab imaging system was performed. The SuperK setup used 113 spectral bands (455–1,015 nm), and the VideometerLab used 20 spectral bands (385–1,050 nm). To predict the astaxanthin concentration from the spectral image data, the synthetic astaxanthin content in the pellets was measured with the established standard technique; high-pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC). Regression analysis was done using partial least squares regression (PLSR) and the sparse regression method elastic net (EN). The ratio of standard error of prediction (RPD) is the ratio between the standard deviation of the reference values and the prediction error, and for both PLSR and EN both devices gave RPD values between 4 and 24, and with mean prediction error of 1.4–8.0 parts per million of astaxanthin concentration. The results show that it is possible to predict the synthetic astaxanthin concentration in the coating well enough for quality control using both multi- and hyperspectral image analysis, while the SuperK setup performs with higher accuracy than the VideometerLab device for this particular problem. The spectral resolution made it possible to identify the most significant spectral regions for detection of astaxanthin. The results also imply that the presented methods can be used in general for quality inspection of various coating substances using similar coating methods.     

A comparison of dimension reduction methods with application to multi-spectral images of sand used in concrete

This paper presents a comparison of dimension reduction methods based on a novel machine vision application for estimating moisture content in sand used to make concrete. For the application in question it is very important to know the moisture content of the sand so as to ensure good-quality concrete. In order to achieve a continuous in-line approach for the concrete mixing, digital image analysis is used. Multi-spectral images, consisting of nine spectral bands in the visible and near infrared (NIR) range, were acquired. Each image consists of approximately 9 million pixels. Five different sand types were examined with 20–60 images for each type. To reduce the amount of data, features were extracted from the multi-spectral images; the features were summary statistics on single bands and pairs of bands as well as morphological summaries. The number of features (2,016) is high in relation to the number of observations and, therefore, dimension reductive methods are needed. Furthermore, speed, which is an important consideration, is aided by the use of a small number of variables. On top of that, fewer dimensions tend to give more robust results. Two traditional statistical methods for dimension reduction (forward selection and principal components) combined with ordinary least squares and one sophisticated chemometrics algorithm (genetic algorithm-partial least squares) are compared to the recently proposed least angle regression-elastic net (LARS-EN) model selection method.