Gaining weight through retirement? Results from the SHARE survey

This paper estimates the causal impact of retirement on the Body Mass Index (BMI) of adults aged 50–69 years old, on the probability of being either overweight or obese and on the probability of being obese. Based on the 2004, 2006 and 2010–2011 waves of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), our identification strategy exploits variation in European Early Retirement Ages (ERAs) and stepwise increases in ERAs in Austria and Italy between 2004 and 2011 to examine an exogenous shock to retirement behavior. Our results show that retirement induced by discontinuous incentives in early retirement schemes causes a 12-percentage point increase in the probability of being obese among men within a two- to four-year period. We find that the impact of retirement is highly non-linear and mostly affects the right-hand side of the male BMI distribution. Additional results show that this pattern is driven by men retiring from strenuous jobs and by those who were already at risk of obesity. In contrast, no significant results are found among women.     

普通变异型免疫缺陷病合并肝硬化1例并文献复习

目的:讨论普通变异型免疫缺陷病(common variable immunodeficiency disease,CVID)的发病机制、临床表现及治疗方法。方法:报道1例普通变异型免疫缺陷病合并肝硬化患者并复习相关文献。结果:普通变异型免疫缺陷病是临床少见病,易误诊,病因不清,临床表现复杂,部分患者病程中可出现肝功能异常,甚至并发肝硬化。结论:临床反复感染的患者应考虑CVID的可能,须进一步作血浆免疫球蛋白的检测确诊。对已经确诊患者定期补充静脉丙种球蛋白,同时还应定期检查肝功能。     

生物安全柜的控制

生物安全柜是重要的一级屏障设备，适当的控制方式对生物安全柜的防护能力是很重要的。文中主要介绍了生物安全柜的控制要点和几种控制方式及其特点。     

The need for a revival of psychoanalytic investigations into premature ejaculation

Although psychoanalysis was the first-choice treatment for premature ejaculation (PE) between 1920 and 1960, hardly any reports on its efficacy have been published. Moreover, a scientific debate about its findings has never been fully developed. The recent progress that has been made in the classification of three different PE syndromes creates a new opportunity for psychoanalytic investigations of men with complaints of PE, distinguished by the actual duration of their intravaginal ejaculation latency time (IELT). The term premature-like ejaculatory dysfunction has been introduced to distinguish men with self-perceived PE at normal and long IELT durations from those men with lifelong, acquired and normal variable PE. Psychoanalytic research may contribute to a better understanding of the consequences of objective early ejaculations on the unconscious mental life of men with the four forms of PE. By integrating neurobiological, clinical and epidemiological data of ejaculatory performance, a revival of psychoanalytic research of PE in the four distinct, classified PE groups, will probably contribute to a deeper insight in to the unconscious mental life of men affected by PE.     

Contrast behavior and relaxation effects of conventional and hyperecho-turbo spin echo sequences at 1.5 and 3 T.

To overcome specific absorption rate (SAR) limitations of spin-echo-based MR imaging techniques, especially at (ultra) high fields, rapid acquisition relaxation enhancement/TSE (turbo spin echo)/fast spin echo sequences in combination with constant or variable low flip angles such as hyperechoes and TRAPS (hyperTSE) have been introduced. Due to the multiple spin echo and stimulated echo pathways involved in the signal formation, the contrast behavior of such sequences depends on both T2 and T1 relaxation times. In this work, constant and various variable flip angle sequences were analyzed in a volunteer study. It is demonstrated that a single effective echo time parameter TE(eff) can be calculated that accurately describes the overall T2 weighted image contrast. TE(eff) can be determined by means of the extended phase graph concept and is practically independent of field strength. Using the described formalism, the contrast of any TSE sequence can be predicted. HyperTSE sequences are demonstrated to show a robust and well-defined T2 contrast allowing clinical routine MRI to be performed with SAR reductions of typically at least 70%.     

多分类有序反应变量logistic回归应用条件的检验

目的 对多分类有序反应变量logistic回归的应用条件寻求科学合理的检验方法。方法 使用卡方分布的理论，SAS软件及抽样调查方法。结果 设计出多分类有序反应变量logistic回归应用条件的卡方检验方法，推导出反应变量取各水平的概率计算公式及卡方检验中理论值、自由度的计算公式，并在作者主持的国家医师资格临床实践技能考试研究中取得了成功效果。结论 多分类有序反应变量logistic回归得到完善和补充，具有较大的理论和实际意义。     

Possible role of IL-2 deficiency for hypogammaglobulinaemia in patients with common variable immunodeficiency.

Common variable immunodeficiency (CVID) patients are unable to produce specific immunoglobulins after antigen contact in vivo. The aim of this study was to investigate whether in some cases of CVID a decreased de novo synthesis of IL-2 might be the cause of immunodeficiency and whether this deficiency can be corrected by IL-2 supplementation in vitro. Mononuclear cells from 17 CVID patients and from 10 healthy controls were cultured with monoclonal anti-CD3 antibody OKT3, pokeweed mitogen (PWM) or tetanus toxoid (TT) to stimulate IL-2 synthesis. In parallel, in vitro IgG and IgM synthesis was stimulated with Staphylococcus aureus Cowan I (SAC), PWM or TT in the presence or absence of IL-2. While lymphocytes of 11 out of 17 patients produced low to normal amounts of IL-2 upon stimulation with anti-CD3, only three patients showed low IL-2 production in response to PWM and five in response to TT. Regarding immunoglobulin synthesis in vitro, five patients completely failed to produce IgM or IgG upon stimulation with PWM, SAC or TT irrespective of the addition of IL-2. By contrast, four patients did not show any defect in vitro and synthesized normal amounts of IgM and IgG with any of the three stimuli. Finally, eight patients could be reconstituted for PWM-, SAC- and TT-induced IgM and/or IgG synthesis in vitro, by adding IL-2 to the culture system. This enhancing effect of IL-2 could be blocked by adding anti-IL-2 receptor antibodies to the cultures. Our findings indicate that a defective IL-2 synthesis after antigen stimulation may be one reason for the impaired immunoglobulin production in some cases of CVID.     

The normally expressed κ immunoglobulin light chain gene repertoire and somatic mutations studied by single-sided specific polymerase chain reaction (PCR); frequent occurrence of features often assigned to autoimmunity

The expressed human κ light chain gene repertoire utilized by healthy individuals was studied by two different single-sided specific PCR techniques to avoid bias for certain V genes. A total of 103 rearranged κ sequences from peripheral blood mononuclear cells from healthy individuals were cloned from cDNA and assigned to the Vκ and Jκ germ-line genes with the closest overall homology. The use of cDNA rather than genomic DNA focused the analysis on activated B cells rich in mRNA. Accordingly, the sequences represented the applied repertoire and almost all were somatically mutated. V genes from the Jκ-proximal duplication unit of the κ locus were almost exclusively used. A total of 65% of the sequences could be assigned to four or five genes: A27 (humkv325), L6 (Vg), L2 (humkv328), and A3 and/or A19. N additions and P nucleotides were quite common and found in 32% and 21% of the sequences, respectively. Extended CDR3s more than nine residues in length were found in 18% of the sequences, and in 71% of cases this was due to insertion of an extra proline residue. This proline was usually explained from the germ-line sequences involved. These results are in good agreement with those of previous repertoire studies using potentially V-gene-biased techniques. Thus, it is clear that restricted V-gene usage, common N and P additions, and extended CDR3 regions are normal features and not, as has been claimed, characteristics of pathological autoantibodies.     

Effects of haloperidol on the multitrial partial reinforcement extinction effect (PREE): evidence for neuroleptic drug action on nonreinforcement but not on reinforcement

Two experiments investigated the effects of haloperidol (0.1 mg/kg) on the partial reinforcement extinction effect (PREE). In experiment 1 two groups of rats were trained to run in a straight alley using six trials/day with an intertrial interval (ITI) of 5–8 min. The continuously reinforced (CRF) group received food reward on every trial. The partially reinforced (PRF) group was rewarded on a quasi-random 50% schedule. All animals were then tested in extinction. Haloperidol was administered in a 2 × 2 design, i.e., drug-no drug in acquisition and drug-no drug in extinction. In experiment 2 two groups of rats were trained to press a lever in an operant chamber using a discrete trial procedure of ten trials/day with an ITI of 60 s. The CRF group was rewarded on each trial and the PRF group was rewarded on a quasi-random 50% schedule. Haloperidol was administered for 22 days prior to the start of the PREE procedure as well as throughout acquisition and extinction. The PREE, i.e., increased resistance to extinction of PRF as compared to CRF animals, was obtained in both experiments in all drug conditions. In both experiments haloperidol increased the rate of extinction. Experiment 1 revealed that this effect was entirely dur to the administration of the drug in extinction, independently of the drug condition in acquisition. In contrast to previous results in a one trial/day procedure, the administration of haloperidol to CRF animals did not increase resistance to extinction, failing to support the notion that neuroleptics attenuate the rewarding properties of reinforcement.     

Fast method for 1D non-cartesian parallel imaging using GRAPPA.

MRI with non-Cartesian sampling schemes can offer inherent advantages. Radial acquisitions are known to be very robust, even in the case of vast undersampling. This is also true for 1D non-Cartesian MRI, in which the center of k-space is oversampled or at least sampled at the Nyquist rate. There are two main reasons for the more relaxed foldover artifact behavior: First, due to the oversampling of the center, high-energy foldover artifacts originating from the center of k-space are avoided. Second, due to the non-equidistant sampling of k-space, the corresponding field of view (FOV) is no longer well defined. As a result, foldover artifacts are blurred over a broad range and appear less severe. The more relaxed foldover artifact behavior and the densely sampled central k-space make trajectories of this type an ideal complement to autocalibrated parallel MRI (pMRI) techniques, such as generalized autocalibrating partially parallel acquisitions (GRAPPA). Although pMRI can benefit from non-Cartesian trajectories, this combination has not yet entered routine clinical use. One of the main reasons for this is the need for long reconstruction times due to the complex calculations necessary for non-Cartesian pMRI. In this work it is shown that one can significantly reduce the complexity of the calculations by exploiting a few specific properties of k-space-based pMRI.