Height, weight, and body mass index among Akwesasne Mohawk youth.

Information on the growth of contemporary Native American adolescents is limited. A few studies have shown that Native Americans have growth patterns that may differ from U.S. reference values. We describe basic anthropometric characteristics (height and weight) of Mohawk youth between the ages of 10.0 and 16.99 years from the Akwesasne Mohawk Nation. Body mass index (BMI) was calculated. Mean height of Akwesasne Mohawk youth approximates the 50th percentile of reference values as determined by the 2000 Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) growth charts. At every age, weight means of males approximate or exceed the 90th percentile and all mean weights of females approximate the 85th percentile. Akwesasne males are significantly taller than females from age 14 on and significantly heavier at ages 14 and 16. All age-specific BMI means for males are at or above the 90th percentile and females' means are at or above the 85th. The potential for long-term health effects associated with being overweight has implications for the future health of young Native Americans.     

The witches’ brew of spirituality and medicine

Recent proposals to join spirituality and medicine are facile and ill defined. The notion that physicians have the time or training to make assessments and recommendations about spirituality is misguided. Whenever a physician demonstrates personal caring for a patient, the healing process is likely enhanced, and in that sense, physicians often promote the spirituality of the patient. However, recent proposals to extend the physician’s task to that of assessing religion and directing the patient toward approved forms of spirituality are inappropriate. The languages of religion and science are radically different. The cultural body-mind split will not be solved by such simplistic solutions as having physicians endorse spirituality, which will result only in denigration of both medicine and religion. Physicians are encouraged to rely on clinically trained ministers for assistance in understanding the patient’s state of mind or spirit and its possible effects on the course of illness and health.     

Dynamic MRI with projection reconstruction and KWIC processing for simultaneous high spatial and temporal resolution.

A method for dynamic imaging in MRI is presented that enables the acquisition of a series of images with both high temporal and high spatial resolution. The technique, which is based on the projection reconstruction (PR) imaging scheme, utilizes distinct data acquisition and reconstruction strategies to achieve this simultaneous capability. First, during acquisition, data are collected in multiple undersampled passes, with the view angles interleaved in such a way that those of subsequent passes bisect the views of earlier ones. During reconstruction, these views are weighted according to a previously described k-space weighted image contrast (KWIC) technique that enables the manipulation of image contrast by selective filtering. Unlike conventional undersampled PR methods, the proposed dynamic KWIC technique does not suffer from low image SNR or image degradation due to streaking artifacts. The effectiveness of dynamic KWIC is demonstrated in both simulations and in vivo, high-resolution, contrast-enhanced imaging of breast lesions.     

Olanzapine reduces craving for alcohol: a DRD4 VNTR polymorphism by pharmacotherapy interaction.

Separate investigations have suggested that olanzapine, a D4 antagonist, decreases craving after a priming dose of alcohol and that the DRD4 variable number of tandem repeats (VNTR) polymorphism influences the expression of craving after a priming dose of alcohol. The present study tested the hypothesis that olanzapine may be differentially effective at reducing cue-elicited craving based on individual differences in DRD4 VNTR in a sample of heavy social drinkers. Participants were randomly assigned to receive olanzapine (5 mg) or a control medication (cyproheptadine, 4 mg) prior to consuming three alcoholic drinks. Participants completed subjective measures of craving and euphoria after each drink. Participants who were homozygous or heterozygous for the 7 (or longer) repeat allele of the DRD4 VNTR were classified as DRD4 L, while the other participants were classified as DRD4 S. The findings indicated that olanzapine reduces craving for alcohol at baseline for both DRD4 S and DRD4 L individuals, but only reduces craving after exposure to alcohol cues and after a priming dose of alcohol for DRD4 L individuals.     

Using online databases to find peer-reviewed journal articles on injury prevention and safety promotion research: a study of textword queries by SafetyLit users.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the capacity of textword queries to provide a comprehensive listing of articles on injury prevention and safety promotion (IPSP) concepts in a literature database. METHODS: All terms used to search SafetyLit (a database of scholarly literature selected for its relevance to the IPSP field) during the years 2000-2005 were listed and then examined to identify terms that are synonyms for the same concept. Terms were grouped by concept, the number of queries that used terms within each concept category were summed, and the concepts were then ordered by the total number of searches for each concept category. For each textword, the proportion of all articles for that concept that could be found by using it alone was calculated. RESULTS: Each of the 25 most searched-for concepts has 4 to 40 synonyms. Sixteen of the concepts required queries using two or more terms to find 75% of the available articles. Few searchers used a sufficient number of textword synonyms in their queries to return a complete listing of the available material. CONCLUSION: On the basis of this study, queries using only one or two textword terms are insufficiently sensitive to find all relevant journal articles about an IPSP concept.