Correlates of morale among Canadian widowed persons

Summary The effect of widowhood upon global happiness and morale are considered in this paper. Data come from the Canada Health Survey, conducted from July 1978 through March 1979, using 11,071 subjects age 40 and over. A major objective was to assess the independent contributions of five factors, marital status, sex, socioeconomic status, age, and religiosity in predicting morale. Results showed thatwidowed people of lower socioeconomic status were significantly less happy and more negative in mood than non-widowed persons. No sex differences were found. Younger people had more negative morale than older ones. Religiosity was a significant factor in predicting morale, with people scoring higher in religiosity having higher morale.     

FROM MEDIBANK TO MEDICARE: TRENDS IN AUSTRALIAN MEDICAL CARE COSTS AND USE FROM 1976 TO 1986

Private medical care costs and service use in Australia from 1976 to 1986 are compared. In each of these years Australia had a compulsory, universal, fee-for-service, national health insurance scheme - Medibank in 1976 and Medicare in 1986. Over the period of 1976 to 1986, the number of private medical services per capita, in the 6 month period 1 April to 30 September, increased from 2.79 to 3.95, an increase of 3.54 per cent per year. The cost of services per capita, adjusted for increases in schedule fees for each item-group of services (the ‘fee-adjusted cost’), grew at a rate of 3.91 per cent per year. The results are reported by subsets of age, sex and item-group of service. It is found that very little of the large increases in use and cost of services can be attributed to demographic changes or population growth. Rather, they represent rapid increases in age and sex-specific rates of use, primarily among the very young, the very old and, for some types of service, women of child-bearing age. The most dramatic increases in service use are found in pathology, radiotherapy and miscellaneous procedures.     

Metabolism and DNA adduct formation of benzo[a]pyrene and 7,12-dimethylbenz[a]anthracene in fish cell lines in culture

The metabolic activation of the carcinogens benzo[a]anthracene(BP) and 7,12-dimethylbenz[a]anthracene (DMBA) was examinedin cell lines derived from bluegill fry (BF-2), rainbow trout(RTG-2) and brown bullhead (BB). All three cell lines metabolizedBP (0.5 µg/ml medium) almost completely to water-solublemetabolites within 120 h, but the maximum amount of BP boundto DNA ranged from only 5 pmol/mg DNA in the BF-2 cells to 17in the BB cells and 44 in the RTG-2 cells. The major BP-DNAadduct in the BB and BF-2 cells was that formed by reactionof (+)-anti-BP-7,8-diol-9,10 epoxide [(+)anti-BPDE] with deoxyguanosine.This adduct was also present in the RTG-2 cell DNA, but therewere larger amounts of unidentified polar BP-DNA adducts. Exposureof the cells to [³H]BP-7,8-diol, a metabolic precursor of (+)anti-BPDE,resulted in binding of 1.5, 12 and 35 pmol BP per mg DNA inthe BF-2, BB and RTG-2 cells, respectively. More than 90% ofthe BP-7,8-diol added to the BF-2 cultures was recovered asa glucuronic acid conjugate, but the RTG-2 cells formed moreglutathione conjugates than glucuronide conjugates. The BB cellsformed both types of conjugates at a slower rate for more than75% of the 7,8-diol was recovered unchanged after 24 h. Thethree cell lines differed in the proportion of a 0.1 µg/mldose of DMBA metabolized in 48 h: the values ranged from 47%in the BF-2 cells to 78% in the BB cells and 97% in the RTG-2cells. The amount of DMBA bound to DNA ranged from 4.7 to 8.6pmol/mg DNA in the three cell lines: DMBA-3,4-diol-1,2-epoxide(DMBADE) adducts were present in the BB cell DNA, but no significantamounts of DMBADE-DNA adducts were detected in the RTG-2 orBF-2 cell DNA. These results demonstrate that fish cell culturescan activate BP to an ultimate carcinogenic metabolite, (+)anti-BPDE,but the level of binding of this metabolite to DNA is much lowerthan that which occurs in rodent embryo cell cultures. In BF-2cell cultures formation of BP-7,8-diol-glucuronide effectivelyprevents the activation of this diol to (+)anti-BPDE. A substantialproportion of the BP-7,8-diol is also metabolized to glucuromdeand glutathione conjugates in BB and RTG-2 cells. DMBA alsobinds to DNA at very low levels in these fish cell cultures.Thus effective conjugation of diols and their metabolites byfish cell lines appears to greatly reduce metabolic activationof hydrocarbons through the bay-region diol epoxide pathwaythat predominates in mammalian cell cultures.     

Masson trichrome stain helps differentiate myofibroma from smooth muscle lesions in the head and neck region

BACKGROUND/PURPOSE: Myofibromas are well described in the head and neck region, but differentiating them from smooth muscle lesions is still difficult using smooth muscle immunohistochemical stains. This study evaluated the usefulness of the Masson trichrome stain in differentiating myofibromas from smooth muscle lesions in the head and neck region. METHODS: Samples of 11 oral myofibromas, two leiomyomas, one angioleiomyoma, and one smooth muscle hamartoma were retrieved from our archives. Immunohistochemistry and Masson trichrome stains were performed on tissue sections of these lesions. RESULTS: All 11 oral myofibromas, seven from male patients and four from female patients, were solitary myofibromas. The patients' mean age at diagnosis was 32.8 years. Oral myofibromas occurred most commonly on the gingiva (four cases) and in the mandible (three cases). With the Masson trichrome stain, the smooth muscle cell cytoplasm was stained red, while the collagenous fibrous tissue was stained blue. Myofibromas and smooth muscle lesions demonstrated different characteristic patterns with the Masson trichrome stain. Myofibromas were composed of a much more collagenous stroma intermixed with the spindle cells. Thick fibrous bundles with random, irregularly intersecting angles were prominent in myofibromas. Smooth muscle lesions showed only minimal delicate fibrous tissue surrounding the smooth muscle cells and in the septa between the smooth muscle masses. On low-power view, red masses of smooth muscle tumor surrounded by blue fibrous tissue were observed. CONCLUSION: The Masson trichrome stain can be a useful tool to differentiate myofibromas from smooth muscle lesions, but immunohistochemical methods to rule out other spindle cell lesions are still needed.