Outcome of drug abuse in a 20-year follow-up study of drug-experimenting schoolchildren in Finland

The fate of 119 drug-experimenting schoolchildren who had been interrogated by the narcotics police of Helsinki, Finland, during 1 year, 1971-72, was studied 20 years later. The material was divided in two groups: those with a favourable outcome (n = 49) and those with a poor outcome (n =70). Nineteen had died. Criteria for poor outcome were death, prison sentence, psychiatric hospitalization, or continuation of crimes. The group with a favourable outcome was alive, did not have prison sentences or psychiatric hospitalizations, and had not been caught by the police after the initial phase of the study. Offences against property in early adolescence and intravenous drug use were predictive factors for imprisonment, psychiatric hospitalization, and death. A poor atmosphere at home and the occupation of the father as labourer were predictive factors for imprisonment, psychiatric hospitalization, and death for boys. For girls low education was predictive of imprisonment and psychiatric hospitalization. Drug use in adolescence is a signal of greater risk for adjustment problems in later life.     

Classification and retrieval on macroinvertebrate image databases

Aquatic ecosystems are continuously threatened by a growing number of human induced changes. Macroinvertebrate biomonitoring is particularly efficient in pinpointing the cause–effect structure between slow and subtle changes and their detrimental consequences in aquatic ecosystems. The greatest obstacle to implementing efficient biomonitoring is currently the cost-intensive human expert taxonomic identification of samples. While there is evidence that automated recognition techniques can match human taxa identification accuracy at greatly reduced costs, so far the development of automated identification techniques for aquatic organisms has been minimal. In this paper, we focus on advancing classification and data retrieval that are instrumental when processing large macroinvertebrate image datasets. To accomplish this for routine biomonitoring, in this paper we shall investigate the feasibility of automated river macroinvertebrate classification and retrieval with high precision. Besides the state-of-the-art classifiers such as Support Vector Machines (SVMs) and Bayesian Classifiers (BCs), the focus is particularly drawn on feed-forward artificial neural networks (ANNs), namely multilayer perceptrons (MLPs) and radial basis function networks (RBFNs). Since both ANN types have been proclaimed superior by different investigations even for the same benchmark problems, we shall first show that the main reason for this ambiguity lies in the static and rather poor comparison methodologies applied in most earlier works. Especially the most common drawback occurs due to the limited evaluation of the ANN performances over just one or few network architecture(s). Therefore, in this study, an extensive evaluation of each classifier performance over an ANN architecture space is performed. The best classifier among all, which is trained over a dataset of river macroinvertebrate specimens, is then used in the MUVIS framework for the efficient search and retrieval of particular macroinvertebrate peculiars. Classification and retrieval results present high accuracy and can match an experts' ability for taxonomic identification.     

Resting Electrocardiogram and Blood Pressure in Young Endurance and Nonendurance Athletes and Nonathletes

ContextMuch information is available on electrocardiogram (ECG) and blood pressure (BP) changes in senior athletes. However, corresponding data on adolescent athletes are scarce.ObjectiveTo study the differences in resting ECG and BP values among adolescent endurance athletes, nonendurance athletes, and nonathletes.DesignCross-sectional study.SettingA total of 154 youth sports clubs in Finland and 100 secondary schools for comparison data.Patients or Other ParticipantsWe recruited young athletes (n = 410) aged 14 to 16 years in 10 popular sport disciplines, including winter and summer as well as team and individual sports, and categorized them as endurance or nonendurance sports. Comparison data for age-matched, non–sports club participants (n = 164) were collected via secondary schools.Main Outcome Measure(s)Resting ECG, including heart rate, PR interval, QRS duration, QRS axis, QRS amplitude, T axis, and QT interval as well as systolic and diastolic BPs.ResultsNo differences in any ECG variable of interest were found between the endurance and nonendurance athletes. The PR interval was longer in endurance athletes than in nonathletes (P = .05). The QRS amplitude (P = .03) was higher among nonendurance athletes than among nonathletes. Diastolic BP was lower among endurance (P = .002) and nonendurance (P = .02) athletes than among nonathletes. Endurance athletes (odds ratio [OR] = 2.85; 95% CI = 1.81, 4.50) and nonendurance athletes (OR = 2.19; 95% CI = 1.43, 3.35) were more likely to have sinus bradycardia than were nonathletes. Nonendurance athletes were more likely to have elevated systolic BP than were endurance athletes (OR = 1.70; 95% CI = 1.07, 2.72) and nonathletes (OR = 1.73; 95% CI = 1.04, 2.87).ConclusionsYoung athletes had similar ECG and BP findings independent of their sports. Physiological adaptations including sinus bradycardia, higher QRS amplitude, and lower diastolic BP, which are commonly seen in adult athletes, were also present in adolescent athletes.     

Controlled trial of dexamethasone in neonatal chronic lung disease: an 8-year follow-up of cardiopulmonary function and growth

AIM: To evaluate the long-term effects of postnatal dexamethasone treatment in high-risk infants of very low birthweight. METHODS: The study included 16 children aged 7.8 to 9.2 y who had been born very prematurely at gestational ages of 24-29 wk and with birthweights of < 1500 g and who had participated in a randomized study of dexamethasone or placebo treatment in ventilator-dependent infants at 10 d of age. Flow-volume spirometry, impulse oscillometry, skin-prick tests and Doppler echocardiography were carried out at school age, and respiratory morbidity and overall neurological outcome evaluated. Controls were 18 non-atopic children born at term, tested for lung function. RESULTS: No significant differences were found in respiratory morbidity at school age between the dexamethasone (n = 8) and placebo (n = 8) groups. Six of the 16 children had moderate to severe neurosensory impairments, but all were able to walk without support and attended primary school. In prematurely born children, standardized height was significantly less than that in controls, but between the two study groups, no significant differences existed in somatic growth. Atopy was uncommon: skin-prick tests were positive in only one child in the placebo group. In the dexamethasone group, forced vital capacity adjusted to height was significantly higher than that in the placebo group, but impairment of basic lung function and bronchial obstruction was evident in both study groups. No hypertrophic cardiomyopathy was apparent, and non-invasive measurements of pulmonary arterial pressure did not reveal any significant difference between the study groups. CONCLUSION: In very low-birthweight children, high respiratory morbidity and neurological impairment continued until school age. Neonatal dexamethasone treatment at school age was not associated with any detectable adverse effects on somatic growth, or pulmonary or cardiac function.     

Long-term prognosis for jumper's knee in male athletes. A prospective follow-up study

BACKGROUND: Little information is available on the long-term outcome of jumper's knee, a common problem among athletes. PURPOSE: Our aim was to determine the 15-year prognosis of jumper's knee. STUDY DESIGN: Prospective case control. METHODS: The prognosis for jumper's knee was studied using two groups: athletes with jumper's knee and nonsymptomatic control athletes. At baseline, all subjects participated in standardized clinical examinations and measurements, and 15 years later they were asked to respond to a questionnaire. RESULTS: Twenty athletes with jumper's knee and 16 athlete control subjects responded (response rate 74% and 84%, respectively). The jumper's knee group reported significantly more knee symptoms according to their Kujala score and more knee pain after repeated squatting. Fifty-three percent of the subjects in the jumper's knee group (9 of 17) reported that they had quit their sports career because of their knee problem, compared with 7% of the control athletes (1 of 14). Patellar height was associated with knee symptoms at follow-up. CONCLUSION: Jumper's knee causes mild but long-lasting symptoms after an athletic career.     

Eosinophil cationic protein in induced sputum as a marker of inflammation in asthmatic children

We evaluated the usefulness of eosinophil cationic protein (ECP) in induced sputum and in serum as markers of asthmatic inflammation in children. We measured ECP in serum and in total indticed sputum samples from 14 children (7-11 years) with newly detected asthma before and after treatment, and from ten healthy non atopic controls of the same age. The patients inhaled budesonide, 800 μg/m2/day for the first month and 400 μg/m2/day for the next 5 months, both divided into two doses, and nedocromil, 4 mg three times daily for the following 6 months. In both sputum and serum, ECP levels were higher in the patients than in the controls, but the difference was more distinct in sputum. Significant clinical improvement during the treatment was accompanied by a decrease in sputum ECP. whereas serum ECP did not change. The results suggest that induced sputum is useful as a non invasive source material for evaluating asthmatic inflammation in children, total sputum ECP being more sensitive than serum ECP for diagnosing and monitoring asthma.     

Increased physical activity decreases hepatic free fatty acid uptake: a study in human monozygotic twins

Exercise is considered to be beneficial for free fatty acid (FFA) metabolism, although reports of the effects of increased physical activity on FFA uptake and oxidation in different tissues in vivo in humans have been inconsistent. To investigate the heredity-independent effects of physical activity and fitness on FFA uptake in skeletal muscle, the myocardium, and liver we used positron emission tomography (PET) in nine healthy young male monozygotic twin pairs discordant for physical activity and fitness. The cotwins with higher physical activity constituting the more active group had a similar body mass index but less body fat and 18 ± 10% higher ( P < 0.001) compared to the less active brothers with lower physical activity. Low-intensity knee-extension exercise increased skeletal muscle FFA and oxygen uptake six to 10 times compared to resting values but no differences were observed between the groups at rest or during exercise. At rest the more active group had lower hepatic FFA uptake compared to the less active group (5.5 ± 4.3 versus 9.0 ± 6.1 μmol (100 ml)⁻¹ min⁻¹, P = 0.04). Hepatic FFA uptake associated significantly with body fat percentage ( P = 0.05). Myocardial FFA uptake was similar between the groups. In conclusion, in the absence of the confounding effects of genetic factors, moderately increased physical activity and aerobic fitness decrease body adiposity even in normal-weighted healthy young adult men. Further, increased physical activity together with decreased intra-abdominal adiposity seems to decrease hepatic FFA uptake but has no effects on skeletal muscle or myocardial FFA uptake.     

Jet nebulization of budesonide suspension into a neonatal ventilator circuit: Synchronized versus continuous nebulizer flow

To determine the dose of inhaled budesonide suspension in the treatment of preterm infants with ventilator-dependent lung disease, we measured the dose of nebulized budesonide delivered through an endotracheal tube (ETT), using a test lung and filters. The effect of delivering the nebulized aerosol to two different locations in the same ventilatory circuit was evaluated. In addition, a new synchronized jet nebulizer was tested. The median drug delivery to the test lung was 0.3% (range, 0–0.4%) of the nominal dose when the nebulizer activated by continuous gas flow was inserted into the inspiratory line of the circuit. Drug delivery could be increased to 0.7% (range, 0.5–0.8%) by delivering the nebulizer output directly to the ETT. When using the synchronized jet nebulizer, drug delivery was 1.1% (range, 0.8–1.6%). The particle size of aerosol emerging from the ETT was 2.14 μm. The nebulization time with the synchronized nebulizer set-up was 38 min, while the other set-ups delivered an equal volume of solution in 6–7 min. Drug delivery of 0.3–1.1% to the test lung illustrates the problems encountered in aerosol treatment of intubated neonates. We conclude that the delivery of budesonide to the test lung can be increased by delivering the nebulizer output to the ETT directly. Using synchronized nebulization during inspiration only can achieve further increases in drug delivery, and wastage of drug during expiration is decreased. Synchronized nebulization may, therefore, have an important place in the delivery of expensive aerosolized drugs. Pediatr. Pulmonol. 1997;24:282–286. © 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

Jumping height in former elite athletes

To evaluate lower-limb explosive strength with respect to lifetime athletic activity, we measured vertical jumping height on a contact mat in former male runners (n?=?28), soccer players (n?=?31), weightlifters (n?=?29) and shooters (n?=?29) (age range 45–68 years). There were no statistically significant age-adjusted sport-group differences in jumping height, but differences by sport were evident among the subgroup of athletes without hip or knee osteoarthritis (n?=?65) (P?n?=?33) (P?相似文献