Migration and mental health: Evidence from a natural experiment

People migrate to improve their well-being. Yet a large literature suggests that migration can be a stressful process, with potentially negative impacts on mental health. However, to truly understand the effect of migration one must compare the mental health of migrants to what their mental health would be had they stayed in their home country. The existing literature is not able to do this. New Zealand allows a quota of Tongans to immigrate each year with a random ballot used to choose amongst the excess number of applicants. Experimental estimates of the mental health effects of migration are obtained by comparing the mental health of migrants who were successful applicants in the random ballot to the mental health of those who applied to migrate under the quota, but whose names were not drawn. Migration is found to lead to improvements in mental health, particularly for women and those with poor mental health.     

THE DEVELOPMENT OF AGGLUTININS AND PROTECTIVE ANTIBODIES IN RABBITS FOLLOWING INHALATION OF PNEUMOCOCCI

1. Following repeated inhalations of Type I pneumococci agglutinins and protective antibodies can be demonstrated in the serum of rabbits. 2. The percentage of rabbits whose serum shows agglutinins remains stationary after the 5th exposure, but the percentage of rabbits showing protective antibodies in their sera steadily rises.     

The history of pediatric rheumatology in the United States

Children were afflicted uncommonly by the rheumatic diseases so that one physician's experience was obviously limited. In the latter half of the nineteenth century a few physicians began to study several of the diseases systematically in hospitals. Slow progress continued in the twentieth century but was accelerated by the grants in the 1950s which made possible the establishment of well-staffed centers for the treatment of these patients and their long-term clinical and laboratory study. Teaching of medical students and resident staffs was improved. A serious medical problem was getting the attention it deserved.     

Effacement of the fetal cisterna magna in association with myelomeningocele

The cisterna magna is effaced in association with myelomeningocele. The authors retrospectively investigated the size of the fetal cisterna magna as a predictor of fetal myelomeningocele in 67 pregnant women (17-38 menstrual weeks) referred for prenatal sonography because of an elevated serum alpha-fetoprotein level (n = 61) or a suspicion of fetal ventriculomegaly on previously obtained sonograms (n = 6). Twenty fetuses had myelomeningocele, 14 had isolated ventriculomegaly, and 33 were normal. A normal-sized cisterna magna (range, 4-9 mm in depth) was present in all normal fetuses. In 19 of 20 fetuses with myelomeningocele, the views of the posterior fossa were adequate, and in each of these the cisterna magna was effaced (n = 18) or very small (n = 1). The cisterna magna was effaced in five of 13 (38%) fetuses with isolated ventriculomegaly in whom the posterior fossa was adequately imaged. Although effacement of the cisterna magna is a nonspecific finding, the high negative predictive value of this sign is useful during routine screening of the fetal neural axis.