The effect of depression on balance decline in mature women

Depression has been identified as a risk factor for falls, and a change in balance ability over time has yet to be investigated. This study aimed to identify if, over a 3-year period, balance ability changed in 26 women who were on medication for depression, compared to 26 non-depressed women. The two groups were matched for age, number of co-morbidities, activity level, medications, and height. All participants were simultaneously enrolled in a larger, longitudinal study of ageing. Balance measures included the Functional Reach (FR) test, Lateral Reach (LR) test, Step Test (ST), Timed Up and Go, and the Modified Clinical Test of Sensory Integration and Balance, Unilateral Stance (ULS) and Limit of Stability (LOS) laboratory tests. Results showed a significant difference between the groups on ST, right ULS (eyes closed) and forward end point excursion of the LOS. There was no difference in the number of falls between groups. Analysis of the depressed group alone showed that right FR declined significantly and left and right LR tended towards decline, but not differently between groups. There was no between-group differences for these measures. There was no significant decline in non-depressed women for any measurement. Depressed women have less ability to maintain their balance than non-depressed women, and should be encouraged to participate in appropriate activities known to improve or maintain balance.

Ending the affair: The decline of television current affairs in Australia

Examines the state of current affairs television in Australia today by pondering the future, while drawing lessons from the past. The book questions the social and political value of what we now think of as current affairs journalism.

Do migrants' remittances decline over time? Evidence from Tongans and Western Samoans in Australia

There is concern that Pacific Island economies dependent on remittances of migrants will endure foreign exchange shortages and falling living standards as remittance levels fall because of lower migration rates and the belief that migrants' willingness to remit declines over time. The empirical validity of the remittance-decay hypothesis has never been tested. From survey data on Tongan and Western Samoan migrants in Sydney, this paper estimates remittance functions using multivariate regression analysis. It is found that the remittance-decay hypothesis has no empirical validity, and migrants are motivated by factors other than altruistic family support, including asset accumulation and investment back home.

The Australian mortality decline: all-cause mortality 1788-1990

This review describes the Australian decline in all-cause mortality, 1788-1990, and compares this with declines in Europe and North America. The period until the 1870s shows characteristic 'crisis mortality', attributable to epidemics of infectious disease. A decline in overall mortality is evident from 1880. A precipitous fall occurs in infant mortality from 1900, similar to that in European countries. Infant mortality continues downward during this century (except during the 1930s), with periods of accelerated decline during the 1940s (antibiotics) and early 1970s. Maternal mortality remains high until a precipitous fall in 1937 coinciding with the arrival of sulphonamide. Excess mortality due to the 1919 influenza epidemic is evident. Artefactual falls in mortality occur in 1930, and for men during the war of 1939-1945. Stagnation in overall mortality decline during the 1930s and 1945-1970 is evident for adult males, and during 1960-1970 for adult females. A decline in mortality is registered in both sexes from 1970, particularly in middle and older age groups, with narrowing of the sex differential. The mortality decline in Australia is broadly similar to those of the United Kingdom and several European countries, although an Australian advantage during last century and the first part of this century may have been due to less industrialisation, lower population density and better nutrition. Australia shows no war-related interruptions in the mortality decline. Australian mortality patterns from 1970 are also similar to those observed in North America and European countries (including the United Kingdom, but excluding Eastern Europe).

The Australian mortality decline: cause-specific mortality 1907-1990

This review describes the changes in composition of mortality by major attributed cause during the Australian mortality decline this century. The principal categories employed were: infectious diseases, nonrheumatic cardiovascular disease, external causes, cancer,'other' causes and ill-defined conditions. The data were age-adjusted. Besides registration problems (which also affect all-cause mortality) artefacts due to changes in diagnostic designation and coding-are evident. The most obvious trends over the period are the decline in infectious disease mortality (half the decline 1907-1990 occurs before 1949), and the epidemic of circulatory disease mortality which appears to commence around 1930, peaks during the 1950s and 1960s, and declines from 1970 to 1990 (to a rate half that at the peak). Mortality for cancer remains static for females after 1907, but increases steadily for males, reaching a plateau in the mid-1980s (owing to trends in lung cancer); trends in cancers of individual sites are diverse. External cause mortality declines after 1970. The decline in total mortality to 1930 is associated with decline in infection and 'other' causes, Stagnation of mortality decline in 1930-1940 and 1946-1970 for males is a consequence of contemporaneous movements in opposite directions of infection mortality (decrease) and circulatory disease and cancer mortality (increase). In females, declines in infections and 'other' causes of death exceed the increase in circulatory disease mortality until 1960, then stability in all major causes of death to 1970. The overall mortality decline since 1970 is a consequence of a reduction in circulatory disease,'other' cause, external cause and infection mortality, despite the increase in cancer mortality (for males).

Late Quaternary cycles of mangrove development and decline on the north Australian continental shelf

Mangrove communities in the Australian tropics presently occur as narrow belts of vegetation in estuaries and on sheltered, muddy coasts. Palynological data from continental shelf and deep-sea cores indicate a long-term cyclical component of mangrove development and decline at a regional scale, which can be linked to specific phases of late Quaternary sealevel change. Extensive mangrove development, relative to today, occurs during periods of marine transgression, whereas very diminished mangrove occurs during marine regressions and during rarer periods of relative sea-level stability. Episodes of flourishing mangrove cannot be linked to phases of humid climate, as has been suggested in studies elsewhere. Rather, the cycle of expansion and decline of mangrove communities on a grand scale is explained in terms of contrasting physiographic settings characteristic of continental-shelf coasts during transgressive and regressive phases, in particular by the existence, or lack, of well-developed tidal estuaries. Copyright (C) 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Central projections of Drosophila sensory neurons in the transition from embryo to larva

Sensory axons of different sensory modalities project into typical domains within insect ganglia. Tactile and gustatory axons project into a ventral layer of neuropil and proprioceptive afferents, including chordotonal axone, into an intermediate or dorsal layer. Here, we describe the central projections of sensory neurons in the first instar Drosophila larva, relating them to the projection of the same sensory afferents in the embryo and to sensory afferents of similar type in other insects. Several neurons show marked morphologic changes in their axon terminals in the transition between the embryo and larva. During a short morphogenetic period late in embryogenesis, the axon terminals of the dorsal bipolar dendrite stretch receptor change their shape and their distribution within the neuromere. In the larva, external sense organ neurons (es) project their axons into a ventral layer of neuropil. Chordotonal sensory neurons (ch) project into a slightly more dorsal region that is comparable to their projection in adults. The multiple dendrite (md) neurons show two distinctive classes of projection. One group of md neurons projects into the ventral-most neuropil region, the same region into which es neurons project. Members of this group are related by lineage to es neurons or share a requirement for expression of the same proneural gene during development. Other md neurons project into a more dorsal region. Sensory receptors projecting into dorsal neuropil possibly provide proprioceptive feedback from the periphery to central motorneurons and are candidates for future genetic and cellular analysis of simple neural circuitry. J. Comp. Neurol. 425:34-44, 2000. (C) 2000 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Progressive dysgraphia in a case of posterior cortical atrophy

Dysgraphia (agraphia) is a common feature of posterior cortical atrophy (PCA). However, detailed analyses of these spelling and writing impairments are infrequently conducted. LM is a 59-year-old woman with dysgraphia associated with PCA. She presented with a two-year history of decline in her writing and dressmaking skills. A 3D T-1-weighted MRI scan confirmed selective bi-parietal atrophy, with relative sparing of the hippocampi and other cortical regions. Analyses of LM's preserved and impaired spelling abilities indicated mild physical letter distortions and a significant spelling deficit characterised by letter substitutions, insertions, omissions, and transpositions that was systematically sensitive to word length while insensitive to real word versus nonword category, word frequency, regularity, imagery, grammatical class and ambiguity. Our findings suggest a primary graphemic buffer disorder underlies LM's spelling errors, possibly originating from disruption to the operation of a fronto-parietal network implicated in verbal working memory.