Occurrence and seasonal incidence of mosquitoes on Indian reservations in Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota during 1983

A mosquito surveillance program designed to prevent future human cases of Western equine encephalitis or Saint Louis encephalitis was established in 1983 on Indian reservations under the jurisdiction of the Aberdeen Area Indian Health Service in Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota. Standard New Jersey light traps were operated on all reservations throughout the summer season while CDC miniature and encephalitis virus surveillance traps were employed for shorter periods of time on 4 reservations. Aedes vexans was the most abundant species except on the Pine Ridge, Rosebud, Winnebago and Yankton Sioux reservations in which Culex tarsalis predominated and for the Sac-n-Fox where Aedes trivittatus occurred with the greatest frequency.     

Alzheimer's disease and alcoholism: possible interactions.

The purpose of this investigation was to test the hypothesis that chronic exposure to alcohol may accelerate Alzheimer's disease (AD), either by independently adding receptor losses or by accelerating the AD disease process itself. Muscarinic [3H]quinuclidinyl benzilate and benzodiazepine [3H]-flunitrazepam receptor binding in homogenates of human autopsy brains were determined in four nonalcoholic and seven alcoholic AD brains and in histologically normal brains from 20 alcoholics and 20 nonalcoholics. Muscarinic binding was decreased in alcoholic AD compared with nonalcoholic AD in the parahippocampal region of frontal cortex, premotor temporal cortex, and amygdala, but not in the hippocampus. Benzodiazepine receptors were lost from the temporal cortex and amygdala, but the difference in the amygdala was not statistically significant. Plaque counts considered a marker of the severity of AD were not increased in the brains of alcoholics compared with nonalcoholics. Larger receptor losses in some alcoholic AD were associated with low plaque counts. Since all of these patients were severely demented, it is tentatively suggested that the receptor losses resulting from alcoholism may have contributed to the dementia in these AD patients.     

Psychosocial stress and symptoms of menopause: a comparative study of menopause clinic patients and non-patients

In much of the literature to date, the definition of climacteric symptoms has been based largely upon women who present for medical treatment of symptoms. It is already well recognised that patients (of all ages and both sexes) presenting for medical treatment tend to report themselves as suffering from more life stresses and from more neurotic symptoms than people in the general population. Life stress and adequacy of coping may thus be important factors in the incidence of symptomatology at the climacteric, as at any other time of life. This study therefore investigated the proposal that post-menopausal women who present for treatment at menopause clinics suffer from more life stresses and more neurotic symptoms than post-menopausal women in the general pupolation.

It was found that patients did indeed suffer from more psychosocial stress, measured in terms of life events, clinical depression and anxiety scales and a rating scale based on a clinician's judgements of ongoing psychosocial stress, vulnerability and adequacy of coping. Patients also suffered from significantly more symptoms than non-patients, not only psychological, but also hypothalamic and metabolic symptoms. However, the incidence of hot flushes and vaginal atrophy was the same in both groups. The stress/coping rating was the measure which correlated most highly with the psychological symptoms reported by subjects as symptoms of menopause. Life events and clinical stress measures were more consistently related in the non-patient group, indicating possible intervening variables (such as hormone imbalance) in this relationship in the patient group.