Melanocortin 1 receptor variants in an Irish population

The identification of an association between variants in the human melanocortin 1 receptor (MC1R) gene and red hair and fair skin, as well as the relation between variants of this gene and coat color in animals, suggests that the MC1R is an integral control point in the normal pigmentation phenotype. In order to further define the contribution of MC1R variants to pigmentation in a normal population, we have looked for alterations in this gene in series of individuals from a general Irish population, in whom there is a preponderance of individuals with fair skin type. Seventy-five per cent contained a variant in the MC1R gene, with 30% containing two variants. The Arg151Cys, Arg160Trp, and Asp294His variants were significantly associated with red hair (p = 0.0015, p < 0.001, and p < 0.005, respectively). Importantly, no individuals harboring two of these three variants did not have red hair, although some red-haired individuals only showed one alteration. The same three variants were also over-represented in individuals with light skin type as assessed using a modified Fitzpatrick scale. Despite these associations many subjects with dark hair/darker skin type harbored MC1R variants, but there was no evidence of any particular association of variants with the darker phenotype. The Asp294His variant was similarly associated with red hair in a Dutch population, but was infrequent in red-headed subjects from Sweden. The Asp294His variant was also significantly associated with nonmelanoma skin cancer in a U.K. population. The results show that the Arg151Cys, Arg160Trp, and Asp294His variants are of key significance in determining the pigmentary phenotype and response to ultraviolet radiation, and suggest that in many cases the red-haired component and in some cases fair skin type are inherited as a Mendelian recessive.

Effects of co-trimoxazole, erythromycin, amoxycillin, tetracycline and chloroquine on sperm function in vitro

This in-vitro study was designed to investigate the effects of commonly prescribed antibiotics on sperm movement characteristics, viability and the ability of spermatozoa to undergo the acrosome reaction. Spermatozoa were obtained by swim-up from normozoospermic semen and cultured for 24 h with increasing concentrations of co-trimoxazole, erythromycin, amoxycillin, tetracycline and chloroquine. Tetracycline at concentrations as low as 2.5 microg/ml led to a significant dose-dependent inhibition in percent rapid-moving spermatozoa, mean path velocity (VAP), straight-line velocity (VSL) and curvilinear velocity (VCL), but at 50 microg/ml tetracycline all spermatozoa were static. Erythromycin had significant effects on rapid movement, VAP, VSL and VCL only at concentrations >100 microg/ml. In contrast, percent rapid-moving spermatozoa was significantly enhanced at low concentrations of chloroquine (5 microg/ml), but significantly inhibited by higher concentrations. Co-trimoxazole did not adversely affect percent rapid-moving spermatozoa below 500 microg/ml, at which concentration movement was decreased by 34%. The mean lateral head displacement (ALH) was significantly enhanced by 5 microg/ml co-trimoxazole and reduced at 1 mg/ml erythromycin. The effects of these drugs were mostly irreversible. Amoxycillin had no effect on sperm movement characteristics over the dose range used, though it inhibited viability at high doses. Viability was significantly reduced at concentrations of all drugs which affect rapid sperm movement; these concentrations of drugs did not appear to affect the ability of spermatozoa to undergo the acrosome reaction. The results from this study, when combined with known effects on spermatogenesis, should facilitate the choice of drugs for the treatment of both genitourinary and unrelated infections in men who are attempting to conceive.

Combined use of titanium mesh and biocompatible osteoconductive polymer in the treatment of full thickness calvarial defects

Restoration of bony defects is a common problem in craniofacial surgery. This article describes a versatile approach using a combination of titanium micromesh or midimesh and biocompatible osteoconductive polymer to restore calvarial bone loss.

To Work or Not to Work: That Is Not the Question

1. Although employers in the public mental health arena may be expected to hire consumers of mental health services, it has been much more difficult for people with mental disabilities to find work in the private sector, or to return to such jobs after an acute episode of mental illness. 2. Many consumer-and survivor-run services around the country offer those with mental illness not only volunteer and employment opportunities, job training, and placement services, but also good role models and hope for the future. 3. How to address gaps in résumés is still controversial. However, since it is illegal for employers to ask questions designed to elicit information about illness, many experts advise consumers to get the job first; they can disclose their illness and ask for reasonable accommodations later.

Adaptive optics using a liquid crystal phase modulator in conjunction with a Shack-Hartmann wave front sensor and zonal control algorithm

Multi-segment liquid crystal spatial light modulators have received much attention recently for use as high-precision wavefront control devices for use in astronomical and non-astronomical applications. They act much like piston only segmented deformable mirrors. In this paper we investigate the use of these devices in conjunction with a Shack-Hartmann wave-front sensor. Previous investigators have considered Zernike modal control algorithms. In this paper we consider a zonal algorithm in order to take advantage of high speed matrix multiply hardware which we have in hand.

Computational approach for probing the flow through artificial heart devices

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) has become an indispensable part of aerospace research and design. The solution procedure for incompressible Navier-Stokes equations can be used for biofluid mechanics research. The computational approach provides detailed knowledge of the flowfield complementary to that obtained by experimental measurements. This paper illustrates the extension of CFD techniques to artificial heart flow simulation. Unsteady incompressible Navier-Stokes equations written in three-dimensional generalized curvilinear coordinates are solved iteratively at each physical time step until the incompressibility condition is satisfied. The solution method is based on the pseudocompressibility approach. It uses an implicit upwind-differencing scheme together with the Gauss-Seidel line-relaxation method. The efficiency and robustness of the time-accurate formulation of the numerical algorithm are tested by computing the flow through model geometries. A channel flow with a moving indentation is computed and validated by experimental measurements and other numerical solutions. In order to handle the geometric complexity and the moving boundary problems, a zonal method and an overlapped grid embedding scheme are employed, respectively. Steady-state solutions for the flow through a tilting-disk heart valve are compared with experimental measurements. Good agreement is obtained. Aided by experimental data, the flow through an entire Penn State artificial heart model is computed.

Report cards: tools for managing pathways and outcomes

An overriding concern of many health care providers is how to maintain quality in such a turbulent, cost-driven environment. It is essential for health care providers to determine the effectiveness of their care and to institute changes in practice to affect patient outcomes in a positive fashion. Determining the appropriate outcomes to measure and formatting the report in an easy-to-read manner with meaningful information is important for presentation to a variety of audiences. We describe a report card methodology for disseminating outcome information that can easily be adapted in other settings.

Clinical global measures of dementia. Position paper from the International Working Group on Harmonization of Dementia Drug Guidelines

Following is the report of the committee working on clinical global measures for antidementia drug guidelines. The concepts involved in global scales, the distinctions between change and severity scales, advantages and disadvantages of structured interviews, and anchoring of change scores are discussed, and selected existing clinical global scales are described. In addition, the committee assessed the utility of global scales in clinical trials for antidementia drugs. There was a consensus among the members of the working group on the following: (1) Clinical global scales are interview based; in most cases, they include information obtained from caregivers as well as directly from patients, but they can rely on information from the subject only. (2) Clinicians' global ratings are intended to assess clinically meaningful change based on multidimensional clinical assessment and take into account the clinical heterogeneity of dementia by assessing at least cognition, behavior, and functioning. (3) There are two distinct types of clinical global measures: (a) clinicians' interview-based global severity scales, which generally incorporate classification by stage or severity of illness and (b) clinicians' interview-based global change scales, which incorporate global assessment ratings of clinical change. The committee could not reach a consensus on whether global scales should be required in phase II and phase III clinical trials, or whether other specific assessments such as well-designed activities of daily living, cognition, and behavior measures could, when used in appropriate combinations, replace the global as assessments of clinical meaningfulness.

Experience-dependent changes in the number of chemosensory sensilla on the mouthparts and antennae of

The effect of diet on the number of gustatory and olfactory sensilla was investigated in locusts. Insects fed for the final two stadia on nutritionally adequate synthetic foods have fewer sensilla on the maxillary palps and antennae than insects fed on the usual rearing diet of seedling wheat. This effect was seen irrespective of the nutritional balance of the foods and was independent of the concentration of nutrients present or the size of the insect. Supplying wheat odour to locusts fed synthetic foods had no effect on the number of sensilla present on the palps, but completely reversed the decrease in the number of olfactory sensilla of the antennae and partially reversed the decrease in the number of antennal uniporous trichoid sensilla. Locusts that were allowed to select between two nutritionally unbalanced but complementary synthetic foods had a higher number of sensilla on the maxillary palps than those fed individual synthetic foods, providing the two foods differed substantially in their protein:carbohydrate ratios. Insects also developed more sensilla if they were fed on two foods of identical nutritional composition but with different added flavours (1% tannic acid or amygdalin). Exposing locusts to synthetic foods for a single stadium did not cause any significant decrease in sensilla number. The results suggest that the number of sensilla that develop in a given sensory field is influenced by the variety of chemical stimuli experienced and the chemical complexity of the environment as provided by the presence of distinct individual sources of stimulation.

Fever

Fever is a host defense response that provides a sign of an ongoing process related to infection, inflammation, drug reactions, neoplasms, autoimmune diseases, and vascular disorders. The most frequent causes of fever in acutely ill patients are infection and inflammation, but fever may be caused by one or more of a long list of pathophysiologic processes.

The five Cs of choice. Outcome measures for individuals with severe and persistent mental illness

In a time when mental health service providers are cutting costs and services, stakeholders need adequate information in the form of outcome measures to evaluate services based on quality. Outcome measures are particularly important for high-risk populations, where severe and persistent mental illness results in serious functional impairment of daily life. A client-oriented method of gauging rehabilitation of real-world behavior over the long-term, as well as the short-term, and which allows for comparison with other programs, must be developed. Lack of agreement on the domains to be measured, however, has hindered the development of common standards, making it difficult to track accountability and service effectiveness. Four authors provide a framework to help organizations choose and develop appropriate outcome measures, as well as core data suggested to measure longitudinal changes in rehabilitation.

Experimental measurements of estimator bias and the signal-to-noise ratio for deconvolution from wave-front sensing

Deconvolution from wave-front sensing (DWFS) has been proposed as a method for achieving high-resolution images of astronomical objects from ground-based telescopes. The technique consists of the simultaneous measurement of a short-exposure focal-plane speckled image, as well as the wave front, by use of a Shack-Hartmann sensor placed at the pupil plane. In early studies it was suspected that some problems would occur in poor seeing conditions; however, it was usually assumed that the technique would work well as long as the wave-front sensor subaperture spacing was less than r(0) (L/r(0) < 1). Atmosphere-induced phase errors in the pupil of a telescope imaging system produce both phase errors and magnitude errors in the effective short-exposure optical transfer function (OTF) of the system. Recently it has been shown that the commonly used estimator for this technique produces biased estimates of the magnitude errors. The significance of this bias problem is that one cannot properly estimate or correct for the frame-to-frame fluctuations in the magnitude of the OTF but can do so only for fluctuations in the phase. An auxiliary estimate must also be used to correct for the mean value of the magnitude error. The inability to compensate for the magnitude fluctuations results in a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) that is less favorable for the technique than was previously thought. In some situations simpler techniques, such as the Knox-Thompson and bispectrum methods, which require only speckle gram data from the focal plane of the imaging system, can produce better results. We present experimental measurements based on observations of bright stars and the Jovian moon Ganymede that confirm previous theoretical predictions.