Primary tuberculous nasal polypi—A case report

Primary tuberculous pathology in nasolpolypi is a rare condition. A case of bilateral ethmoidal polypi with tubercular lesion diagnosed on histopathologlcal examination is being reported and the available relevant literature has been reviewed.     

The risk of AIDS: psychologic impact on the hemophilic population

The psychologic impact of the risk of the acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) was evaluated by questionnaire survey of 116 hemophiliacs, age 16 or older, and 40 mates and 94 parents of hemophiliacs. Although the mean group distress ratings indicate a lessening of emotional discomfort over time, ongoing distress as well as interference with life activities are reported. Parents indicate more distress than either hemophiliacs or mates. Health preoccupation, the fear of being contagious, interference with parent-child intimacy and sexual intimacy between hemophiliac and mate are noted. A significant decrease in the use of clotting factor concentrates for the treatment of bleeding episodes is reported because these products have been linked to the transmission of AIDS. Although the overall hemophilic population is coping effectively with the AIDS risk, some hemophiliacs are at increased risk for psychiatric morbidity, social isolation, hypochondriasis, and medical noncompliance. Increased parental anxiety is likely to lead to over-protective child-rearing practices. Although it examines only the hemophilic population, this study describes stress responses likely to be present in other at risk groups and suggests that specific psychosocial interventions are urgently needed.     

Current methods of estimating severity for occupational injuries and illnesses: Data from the 1986 Michigan comprehensive compensable injury and illness database

National and state estimates of the severity of occupational injuries and illness (severity + lost work time + missed work days + restricted work days) have come from the annual Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses (Survey) produced by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. However, we show that the Survey practice of collecting injury information soon after the accident year reduces substantially the accuracy of missed work day estimates, which constitute 85.3% of the Survey lost work time estimate. To develop an independent estimate of missed work days, the research team created the Michigan Comprehensive Compensable Occupational Injury Database (Michigan Database) by linking state files with injury characteristics to files with workers' compensation information for injuries occurring in 1986. The measure of missed work time (days, weeks, or years) is the cumulative duration of compensation from the “date disability commenced,” noted on the first payment form, through follow-up to March 1, 1990. Cumulative missed work time has been calculated or estimated for 72.057 injured workers, more than 97% of the 73,609 Michigan workers with compensable occupational injuries in 1986 identified through the close of the study. Our “best” estimate of missed work days, to follow-up, attributable to both fatal and nonfatal compensable occupational injuries and illnesses is 7,518,784, a figure four times that reported for Michigan by the Survey. When insurance industry data on disbursements are also considered, the estimate of missed work days increases to 8.919,079, a figure 4.75 times that reported by the Survey. When insurance data on reserves for future payments are also considered, the estimate of missed work days increases to 16,103,398, a figure 8.58-fold greater than that obtained for Michigan in the Survey. The Michigan data suggest that the national Survey may have failed to identify almost 373 million of 421 million missed work days in the private sector that have resulted, or will result, from 1986 occupational injuries. The present federal/state system for estimating occupational injury severity by measuring lost work days seriously underestimates the magnitude of the problem. The current policy of obtaining incidence and severity data from the same Survey should be reconsidered. We recommend that national estimates of injury severity be obtained from representative states by using state compensation data and that such estimates be used to evaluate current prevention and rehabilitation strategies. The redesigned occupational safety and health Survey (ROSH Survey) should be revised to permit linkage to compensation data. © 1993 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

LOW BIRTH WEIGHT BABIES : INCIDENCE AND RISK FACTORS

In a prospective hospital based study, during the period from Jan 95 to Dec 96, 3100 consecutively delivered live newborns were studied for the incidence of low birth weight neonates and to evaluate the associated risk factors. One thousand fourteen newborns were classified as low birth weight babies. The incidence expressed per 1000 live births was 327 (32.7%). Of these, 815 (80.4%) were small for gestational age neonates and 199 (19.6%) were preterm neonates. Five hundred seventy small for gestational age neonates (70%) were weighing between 2001 to 2500 gms. Mothers belonging to the age group of 19-25 years delivered the maximum number of low birth weight babies (618/1014) and of these 82.8% were small for gestational age neonates. There were 48 neonates with low birth weight born to mothers below the age of 18 years. Primiparous mothers were found to contribute higher number of low birth weight neonates (414/1014). Spacing as a factor did not show any major difference. Two hundred sixty two low birth weight neonates were born to mothers with significant obstetrical problems such as pregnancy induced hypertension, bad obstetrical history and premature rupture of membranes. The incidence of 32.7% of low birth weight babies is high enough to ring alarm bells.     

猪脑钠素及其类似物的合成

以固相多肽合成方法合成了猪的二十六肽脑钠素(BNP)和它的一个类似物(Mpr⁴,D-Ala^6,13)-BNP(4-24)-NH₂,保护肽用HF裂解除去保护基、在碱性条件下空气氧化形成二硫桥后,粗产物经凝胶过滤和高效液相色谱分离纯化,均有与天然脑钠素相同的活性。合成肽相对于树脂初始取代量的产率分别为9.56%和11.03%。     

Hippocampal mediation of stimulus representation: A computational theory

The authors propose a computational theory of the hippocampal region's function in mediating stimulus representations. The theory assumes that the hippocampal region develops new stimulus representations that enhance the discriminability of differentially predictive cues while compressing the representation of redundant cues. Other brain regions, including cerebral and cerebellar cortices, are presumed to use these hippocampal representations to recode their own stimulus representations. In the absence of an intact hippocmpal region, the theory implies that other brain regions will attempt to learn associations using previously established fixed representations. Instantiated as a connectionist network model, the theory provides a simple and unified interpretation of the functional role of the hippocampal region in a wide range of conditioning paradigms, including stimulus discrimination, reversal learning, stimulus generalization, latent inhibition, sensory preconditioning, and contextual sensitivity. The theory makes novel predictions regarding the effects of hippocampal lesions on easy-hard transfer and compound preexposure. Several prior qualitative characterizations of hippocampal function–including stimulus selection, chunking, cue configuration, and cotextual coding–are identified as task-specific special cases derivable from this more general theory. The theory suggests that a profitable direction for future empirical and theoretical research will be the study of learning tasks in which both intact and lesioned animals exhibit similar initial learning behaviors but differ on subsequent transfer and generalization tasks.