Poverty,Self-Concept,and Health:

America's largest minority group at the beginning of the twenty-first century will be Hispanics/Latinos. Only a few years away from the new century, this group faces the sad reality of being at the lowest rung of the economic ladder, exhibiting poor health, being ignored in the data-collection process, and thought of as having low self-concept. A brief review of who they are and a summary of the data available in the areas of poverty, self concept, and health as they pertain to Hispanas/Latinas are provided. (The term “Hispanic” and “Latino” will be used interchangeably to describe the same population.) A vocational and counseling approach used at San Francisco Mission Community College is Described and its effectiveness for Hispanic women is discussed. Recommendations for future work are provided.     

Adrenoleukodystrophy: genetics, phenotypes, pathogenesis, and treatment

Adrenoleukodystrophy is a genetically determined disorder inherited as an X-linked recessive trait due to the defective peroxisomal oxydation of very long chain fatty acids (VLCFA). It is hallmarked by demyelination of the central nervous system and adrenal insufficiency. Even though the studies concerning the molecular basis of the disease are in progress, the role of VLCFA in the demyelination is still unclear. In this paper we report the most recent knowledges about genetics, pathogenesis and treatment of this disorder. 117 cases have been recognized in Italy in the period 1985-1997, but many cases could be missing due to the heterogeneus clinical manifestations that vary from mild to very severe forms. To control the devastating course of this disease two therapeutic approaches are under evaluation: bone marrow transplantation and dietary treatment based on a mixture of glyceroyl trioleate and glyceroyl trierucate. Nevertheless this dietary treatment provides normalization of plasma VLCFA, no significant modification of the natural course of the disease has been demonstrated. For what concerns bone marrow transplantation, in recent years a more accurate selection of patients and donors has been giving favourable results, but some strict criteria should be respected.     

Obesity: Genes,brain, gut,and environment

Obesity, which is assuming alarming proportions, has been attributed to genetic factors, hypothalamic dysfunction, and intestinal gut bacteria and an increase in the consumption of energy-dense food. Obesity predisposes to the development of type 2 diabetes mellitus, hypertension, coronary heart disease, and certain forms of cancer. Recent studies have shown that the intestinal bacteria in obese humans and mice differ from those in lean that could trigger a low-grade systemic inflammation. Consumption of a calorie-dense diet that initiates and perpetuates obesity could be due to failure of homeostatic mechanisms that regulate appetite, food consumption, and energy balance. Hypothalamic factors that regulate energy needs of the body, control appetite and satiety, and gut bacteria that participate in food digestion play a critical role in the onset of obesity. Incretins, cholecystokinin, brain-derived neurotrophic factor, leptin, long-chain fatty acid coenzyme A, endocannabinoids and vagal neurotransmitter acetylcholine play a role in the regulation of energy intake, glucose homeostasis, insulin secretion, and pathobiology of obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus. Thus, there is a cross-talk among the gut, liver, pancreas, adipose tissue, and hypothalamus. Based on these evidences, it is clear that management of obesity needs a multifactorial approach.     

Cholinesterases: structure, role, and inhibition

Enzymes acetylcholinesterase (AChE; E.C. 3.1.1.7) and butyrylcholinesterase (BChE; E.C. 3.1.1.8) have intensively been investigated in biomedicine and toxicology due to important role in organisms. Even if structurally homologous, they differ in catalytic activity, specificity, for substrates, and selectivity in binding to many ligands. This paper compiles the results of research on cholinesterases and their interactions with ligands and inhibitors, and identifies amino acids of active sites involved in these interactions.     

Meta-analysis: formulating, evaluating, combining, and reporting

Meta-analysis involves combining summary information from related but independent studies. The objectives of a meta-analysis include increasing power to detect an overall treatment effect, estimation of the degree of benefit associated with a particular study treatment, assessment of the amount of variability between studies, or identification of study characteristics associated with particularly effective treatments. This article presents a tutorial on meta-analysis intended for anyone with a mathematical statistics background. Search strategies and review methods of the literature are discussed. Emphasis is focused on analytic methods for estimation of the parameters of interest. Three modes of inference are discussed: maximum likelihood; restricted maximum likelihood, and Bayesian. Finally, software for performing inference using restricted maximum likelihood and fully Bayesian methods are demonstrated. Methods are illustrated using two examples: an evaluation of mortality from prophylactic use of lidocaine after a heart attack, and a comparison of length of hospital stay for stroke patients under two different management protocols.