Racial matching and adolescent self-disclosure of substance use and mental health symptoms

Obtaining accurate assessment data from adolescents in treatment aids clinical decision making and facilitates more accurate outcome evaluations. However, findings could be biased due to underreported substance use and mental health symptoms. This article compares self-reports of youth in non-White matched client–assessor dyads and those in nonmatched dyads. There were no differences on self-reported substance use, but matched youth reported significantly fewer attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder symptoms versus the comparison group. One possible reason for these findings is the effect of in-group stereotype threat. Future studies should examine the potential effect that in-group stereotyping and perceived racism have on the therapeutic relationship.     

Addressing Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care: Using Federal Data to Support Local Programs to Eliminate Disparities

To reduce racial and ethnic disparities in health care, managers, policy makers, and researchers need valid and reliable data on the race and ethnicity of individuals and populations. The federal government is one of the most important sources of such data. In this paper we review the strengths and weaknesses of federal data that pertain to racial and ethnic disparities in health care. We describe recent developments that are likely to influence how these data can be used in the future and discuss how local programs could make use of these data.     

Do children with primary nocturnal enuresis have a retarded bone age? A cross‐sectional study

OBJECTIVE: Nocturnal enuresis is a common pediatric problem, the etiology of which is unclear. In recent years, various studies have been published stating that children with nocturnal enuresis exhibit growth and skeletal maturation retardation. METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, we included 27 patients (16 boys, 11 girls) between the ages of 6 and 14 years who had presented with primary nocturnal enuresis (PNE) complaints. We included in the evaluation 19 healthy subjects (12 boys, 7 girls), who were the siblings of the children with PNE, as the control group. RESULTS: The patients in both groups were similar in chronological age, bone age, height and weight, with no significant difference between groups (P>0.05). CONCLUSION: The two groups in our study consisted of the same genetic background. Thus, our results were found to be different from the previous studies. We have concluded that there is no direct relationship between enuresis nocturnal and skeletal maturation.     

Do ethnicity and gender have an impact on pain thresholds in minor dermatologic procedures?

Background and Objectives: The perception of pain is a personal experience influenced by many factors, including genetic, ethnic and cultural issues. Understanding these perceptions is especially important in dermatologic patients undergoing minor surgical operations and who often differ in their pain response to surgical treatments. Little is known about how these differences affect the perception of experimental pain. The purpose of this study was to determine experimental pain perception differences in three distinct East Asian ethnic populations.
Methods: Pain thresholds were examined with a psychophysical computerized quantitative thermal sensory testing device (TSA 2001) in healthy volunteers recruited from three different Asian ethnic groups. Using the methods of limits, experimental pain perception threshold was measured on the forehead and volar aspect of the forearm in 49 healthy subjects. The measurements were then repeated after skin barrier perturbation with adhesive tape stripping of the stratum corneum. All three ethnic groups were analyzed separately with respect to age, gender educational level and skin type.
Results: A total of 20 Chinese, 14 Malay and 15 Indian subjects completed the study. Thermal pain thresholds were similar in all three ethnic groups before and after tape strippings. No significant differences were noted between genders.
Conclusions: Using quantitative sensory thermal testing, we demonstrated that no significant differences in pain occur between different races and genders.     

Changes in the Eeg Background Activity of Children with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia During Cytotoxic Therapy

Thirteen children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) were investigated before and during cytotoxic therapy. EEG findings were correlated with the clinical course and the therapy protocol and compared with normal data obtained from 295 healthy children. Frequency analysis of the background activity of the EEG revealed an initial slowing of the background activity prior to therapy and further slowing each time a combination of vincristine (VCR), daunorubicine (DAU) or adriblastine (ADR), prednisone (FRED), and L-asparaginase (L-ASP) was administered. The slowing of the background activity correlated only with the administration of these drugs. DAU, ADR, and FRED are not known to influence the EEG; therefore, VCR and L-ASP remain the primary candidates responsible for the central nervous system alteration.     

Directional asymmetry in smooth ocular tracking in the presence of visual background in young and adult primates

The smooth pursuit system moves the eyes in space accurately while compensating for visual inputs from the moving background and/or vestibular inputs during head movements. To understand the mechanisms underlying such interactions, we examined the influence of a stationary textured visual background on smooth pursuit tracking and compared the results in young and adult humans and monkeys. Six humans (three children, three adults) and six macaque monkeys (five young, one adult) were used. Human eye movements were recorded using infrared oculography and evoked by a sinusoidally moving target presented on a computer monitor. Scleral search coils were used for monkeys while they tracked a target presented on a tangent screen. The target moved in a sinusoidal or trapezoidal fashion with or without whole body rotation in the same plane. Two kinds of backgrounds, homogeneous and stationary textured, were used. Eye velocity gains (eye velocity/target velocity) were calculated in each condition to compare the influence of the textured background. Children showed asymmetric eye movements during vertical pursuit across the textured (but not the homogeneous) background; upward pursuit was severely impaired, and consisted mostly of catch-up saccades. In contrast, adults showed no asymmetry during pursuit across the different backgrounds. Monkeys behaved similarly; only slight effects were observed with the textured background in a mature monkey, whereas upward pursuit was severely impaired in young monkeys. In addition, VOR cancellation was severely impaired during upward eye and head movements, resulting in residual downward VOR in young monkeys. From these results, we conclude that the directional asymmetry observed in young primates may reflect a different neural organization of the vertical, particularly upward, pursuit system in the face of conflicting visual and vestibular inputs that can be associated with pursuit eye movements. Apparently, proper compensation matures later. Electronic Publication     

Variance in rotavirus infection rates in different urban population groups in South Africa

Rotavirus infection in black infants contrasts markedly with that of white infants in being much less common and showing no seasonal variation. In this multicentre study in Johannesburg, the aetiology of winter infantile gastroenteritis in black, coloured, and white infants was investigated. Stools were examined by electron microscopy and also by enzyme-immunoassay to detect subparticular antigen which may be missed by electron microscopy in patients presenting late in the course of the illness. Stools were also examined bacteriologically by conventional techniques. Rotavirus was the most common pathogen in all three population groups with bacteria playing a relatively minor role. Striking differences were observed in the rotavirus rates between the three groups. Infection in the whites was five times more common than in the blacks (60% versus 12%) with the coloureds intermediate at 40%. The hypothesis was put forward that the relative protection of the black population may be due to a greater degree of colonization of neonates, thus inducing protection against symptomatic infection at the target age of 6 to 24 months. This may well have important implications in immunoprophylaxis. The reason for the lack of seasonal variation in the black population is still unclear.     

A racial difference in apolipoprotein E allele frequencies between the Japanese and Caucasian populations

We have examined the apo E phenotype frequencies in the Japanese population (n = 576, 16-78 years of age). Apo E phenotypes were determined by the rapid flat gel isoelectric focusing method that we previously reported. The apo E phenotype frequencies in the Japanese were 0.3% for E2/2, 6.1% for E3/2, 71.9% for E3/3, 0.7% for E4/2, 19.3% for E4/3 and 1.7% for E4/4. The apo E allele frequencies were 0.037, 0.846 and 0.117 for the epsilon 2, epsilon 3 and epsilon 4 alleles, respectively. These frequencies were compared with those in the Caucasian populations (n = 3033) reported by Sing & Davignon (1985). There was a significant difference in the apo E phenotype frequencies between the Japanese and Caucasian populations. In addition, a significantly lower frequency of the epsilon 2 and epsilon 4 alleles and a significantly higher frequency of the epsilon 3 allele were found in the Japanese than those reported for the Caucasian populations. It is concluded that there is a racial difference in the apo E allele frequencies between the Japanese and Caucasian populations.     

How to improve microscopic images obtained with consumer-type digital cameras

AIM: Digital imaging is useful in conventional photography because it immediately provides images, and the image quality can be improved afterwards by the use of computer programs. The major disadvantages of consumer-type digital cameras mounted on microscopes are (i) unequal illumination through the image, and (ii) a coloured background. A computer program was specifically adapted and refined to improve images obtained with consumer-type digital cameras mounted on microscopes. METHODS AND RESULTS: An approach using a division operation between the specimen image and a background image leads to homogeneous illumination throughout the image, with automatically corrected brightness and white background. The correct colour spectrum is preserved by correction of the histogram. This approach was obtained from the freeware computer program 'Image Arithmetic'. In a test, three different consumer-type digital cameras (Sony, Nikon, Olympus) on different microscopes were used to obtain images of different types of histological specimens (cervical smear, bone marrow biopsy, and colonic biopsy). The computer program dramatically improved the quality of images obtained with all tested cameras. CONCLUSION: Using this approach, even low-cost digital cameras mounted on microscopes produce brilliant images with homogeneous illumination and a white background, the image quality being comparable with expensive cameras especially designed for microscopes.