Young adult and middle age mortality in Butajira demographic surveillance site,Ethiopia: lifestyle,gender and household economy

Background  

Public health research characterising the course of life through the middle age in developing societies is scarce. The aim of this study is to explore patterns of adult (15–64 years) mortality in an Ethiopian population over time, by gender, urban or rural lifestyle, causes of death and in relation to household economic status and decision-making.     

Differences between measured and resultant joint moments during voluntary and artificially elicited isometric knee extension contractions

OBJECTIVE: Examine two hypotheses: (a) during isometric knee extension contractions the moment measured at the dynamometer is different from the resultant moment in the same plane around the knee joint and (b) during isometric contractions, at the same given resultant moment the knee angle while loading is different from the knee angle while unloading. DESIGN: Comparative study in which the geometrical and the kinetic differences between joint and dynamometer were determined. BACKGROUND: It is usually assumed that the moment measured by the dynamometer is equivalent to the resultant joint moment. The non-rigidity of the dynamometer-leg system can influence the equivalence of these two moments. METHOD: Twenty seven subjects performed isometric maximal knee extension contractions and contractions induced by electrostimulation on a dynamometer. The kinematics of the leg were recorded using 8 cameras (120 Hz). RESULTS: The resultant moment at the knee joint and the moment measured by the dynamometer are different. During a knee extension effort the knee angle changes significantly. At identical resultant knee joint moments the knee angles are different when comparing the loading and the unloading phases. CONCLUSIONS: The differences between the measured and the resultant joint moments might influence the estimation of parameters as: muscle forces, moment-angle relationship and strain and hysteresis of tendons and aponeuroses. RELEVANCE: Torque dynamometers have been often used to estimate muscle forces, to examine neuromuscular processes and to determine the mechanical properties of tendons and aponeuroses.     

Effects of ambient air pollutants on asthma medication use and wheezing among fourth-grade school children from 12 Southern California communities enrolled in The Children's Health Study

To investigate the effects of 12 monthly average air pollution levels on monthly prevalence of respiratory morbidity, the authors examined retrospective questionnaire data on 2034 4th-grade children from 12 Southern California communities that were enrolled in The Children's Health Study. Wheezing during the spring and summer months was associated with community levels of airborne particulate matter with a diameter < or = 10 microm (PM10) (odds ratio (OR) = 2.91; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.46-5.80), but was not associated with community levels of ozone, nitrogen dioxide, PM2.5 (diameter < or = 2.5), nitric acid, or formic acid. Logistic regression was performed on data stratified into two seasonal groups, spring/summer and fall/winter. Among asthmatics, the monthly prevalence of asthma medication use was associated with monthly levels of ozone, nitric acid, and acetic acid (OR = 1.80 [95%CI = 1.19-2.70]; OR = 1.80 [95%CI = 1.23-2.65]; OR = 1.57 [95% CI = 1.11-2.21]; respectively). Asthma medication use was more prevalent among children who spent more time outdoors--with consequential exposure to ozone--than among children who spent more time indoors (OR = 3.07 [95%CI = 1.61-5.86]; OR = 1.31 [95%CI = 0.47-2.71]; respectively). The authors concluded that monthly variations in some ambient air pollutants were associated with monthly respiratory morbidity among school children.     

Tissue factor pathway inhibitor-2 (TFPI-2) recognizes the complement and kininogen binding protein gC1qR/p33 (gC1qR): implications for vascular inflammation

Evidence is accumulating to suggest that TFPI-2 is involved in regulating pericellular proteases implicated in a variety of physiologic and pathologic processes including cancer cell invasion, vascular inflammation, and atherosclerosis. Recent immunohistochemical studies of advanced atherosclerotic lesions, demonstrated a similar tissue distribution for TFPI-2, High Molecular Weight Kininogen (HK), and gC1qR/p33 (gC1qR), a ubiquitously expressed, multicompartmental cellular protein involved in modulating complement, coagulation, and kinin cascades. Further studies to evaluate TFPI-2 interactions with gC1qR demonstrated direct interactions between gC1qR and TFPI-2 using immunoprecipitation and solid phase binding studies. Specific and saturable binding between TFPI-2 and gC1qR (estimated Kd: approximately 70 nM) was observed by ELISA and surface plasmon resonance (Biacore) binding assays. Binding was inhibited by antibodies to gC1qR, and was strongly dependent on the Kunitz-2 domain of TFPI-2, as deletion of this domain reduced gC1qR-TFPI-2 interactions by approximately 75%. Deletion of gC1qR amino acids 74-95, involved in C1q binding, had no effect on gC1qR binding to TFPI-2, although antibodies to this region and purified C1q both inhibited binding, most likely via allosteric effects. In contrast, HK did not affect TFPI-2 binding to gC1qR. Binding of TFPI-2 to gC1qR produced statistically significant but modest reductions in TFPI-2 inhibition of plasmin, but had no effect on kallikrein inhibition in fluid phase chromogenic assays. Taken together, these data suggest that gC1qR may participate in tissue remodeling and inflammation by localizing TFPI-2 to the pericellular environment to modulate local protease activity and regulate HK activation.     

The N-terminal conserved domain of rubella virus capsid interacts with the C-terminal region of cellular p32 and overexpression of p32 enhances the viral infectivity

Cellular 'defense collagens' are produced to launch virus-specific responses to clear the invading viruses. Cellular p32, the C1q binding protein is one such protein. In this report, we identified the interaction of p32 derived from a human lung diploid cell line (WI-38) with rubella virus capsid (RVCP from Therien strain) N-terminal 28-amino acid domain, which is conserved among several RV strains including the vaccine strains. We further identified that the C-terminal 69 aa of the mature p32 is sufficient to interact with the CP. In addition, we observed that in three independent Vero 76-derived cell lines constitutively overexpressing p32, the RV infectivity was enhanced. Our results suggest that RV has evolved a strategy whereby one of its proteins is recruited to interact with, and exploit the cellular defense machinery to its advantage.     

Obesity and the risk of newly diagnosed asthma in school-age children

To determine the relation between obesity and new-onset asthma among school-age children, the authors examined longitudinal data from 3,792 participants in the Children's Health Study (Southern California) who were asthma-free at enrollment. New cases of physician-diagnosed asthma, height, weight, lung function, and risk factors for asthma were assessed annually at five school visits between 1993 and 1998. Incidence rates were calculated, and proportional hazards regression models were fitted to estimate the adjusted relative risks of new-onset asthma associated with percentile of body mass index (weight (kg)/height (m)(2)) and indicators of overweight (>85th body mass index percentile) and obesity (>95th body mass index percentile). The risk of new-onset asthma was higher among children who were overweight (relative risk (RR) = 1.52, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.14, 2.03) or obese (RR = 1.60, 95% CI: 1.08, 2.36). Boys had an increased risk associated with being overweight (RR = 2.06, 95% 1.33, 3.18) in comparison with girls (RR = 1.25, 95% CI: 0.83, 1.88). The effect of being overweight was greater in nonallergic children (RR = 1.77, 95% CI: 1.26, 2.49) than in allergic children (RR = 1.16, 95% CI: 0.63, 2.15). The authors conclude that being overweight is associated with an increased risk of new-onset asthma in boys and in nonallergic children.     

The effects of ambient air pollution on school absenteeism due to respiratory illnesses

We investigated the relations between ozone (O3), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), and respirable particles less than 10 microm in diameter (PM10) and school absenteeism in a cohort of 4th-grade school children who resided in 12 southern California communities. An active surveillance system ascertained the numbers and types of absences during the first 6 months of 1996. Pollutants were measured hourly at central-site monitors in each of the 12 communities. To examine acute effects of air pollution on absence rates, we fitted a two-stage time-series model to the absence count data that included distributed lag effects of exposure adjusted for long-term pollutant levels. Short-term change in O3, but not NO2 or PM10, was associated with a substantial increase in school absences from both upper and lower respiratory illness. An increase of 20 ppb of O3 was associated with an increase of 62.9% [95% confidence interval (95% CI) = 18.4-124.1%] for illness-related absence rates, 82.9% (95% CI = 3.9-222.0%) for respiratory illnesses, 45.1% (95% CI = 21.3-73.7%) for upper respiratory illnesses, and 173.9% (95% CI = 91.3-292.3%) for lower respiratory illnesses with wet cough. The short-term effects of a 20-ppb change of O3 on illness-related absenteeism were larger in communities with lower long-term average PM10 [223.5% (95% CI = 90.4-449.7)] compared with communities with high average levels [38.1% (95% CI = 8.5-75.8)]. Increased school absenteeism from O3 exposure in children is an important adverse effect of ambient air pollution worthy of public policy consideration.     

An ovarian Sertoli-Leydig cell tumour in a 40 year old Ethiopian woman: case report

Sertoli-Leydig cell tumors of the ovary are uncommon ovarian tumors. They belong to the ovarian stromal neoplasm. The most striking mode of presentation of these tumours is virilization due to androgen secretion. But approximately 50% of patients with Sertoli-Leydig cell tumors have no endocrine manifestations and usually complain of abdominal pain or swelling. Occasional tumors have been associated with various estrogen syndromes. A forty year old Ethiopian lady with well differentiated Sertoli-Leydig cell tumor of the left ovary presenting with features of virilization is described with clinicopathological correlation and literature review.     

Demonstrating the robustness of population surveillance data: implications of error rates on demographic and mortality estimates

Background  

As in any measurement process, a certain amount of error may be expected in routine population surveillance operations such as those in demographic surveillance sites (DSSs). Vital events are likely to be missed and errors made no matter what method of data capture is used or what quality control procedures are in place. The extent to which random errors in large, longitudinal datasets affect overall health and demographic profiles has important implications for the role of DSSs as platforms for public health research and clinical trials. Such knowledge is also of particular importance if the outputs of DSSs are to be extrapolated and aggregated with realistic margins of error and validity.