Validation of a Spanish version of the Revised Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire (FIQR)

8 p.

A Revised bibliography of papers dealing with the Oyster Toadfish, Opanus tau

The 261 papers of this bibliography fall into six major categories. These are alphabetized by author, within each subject, and are presented in the format usually encountered in the physiological and anatomical literature. We solicit your comments regarding omissions, errors or deletions. (PDF contains 19 pages)

Hypoxia and Sturgeons: report to the Chesapeake Bay Program Dissolved Oxygen Criteria Team

In this essay, three lines of evidence are developed that sturgeons in the Chesapeake Bay and elsewhere are unusually sensitive to hypoxic conditions: 1. In comparison to other fishes, sturgeons have a limited behavioral and physiological capacity to respond to hypoxia. Basal metabolism, growth, and consumption are quite sensitive to changes in oxygen level, which may indicate a relatively poor ability by sturgeons to oxyregulate. 2. During summertime, temperatures >20 C amplify the effect of hypoxia on sturgeons and other fishes due to a temperature*oxygen "squeeze" (Coutant 1987)- In bottom waters, this interaction results in substantial reduction of habitat; in dry years, nursery habitats in the Chesapeake Bay may be particularly reduced or even eliminated. 3. While evidence for population level effects by hypoxia are circumstantial, there are corresponding trends between the absence of Atlantic sturgeon reproduction in estuaries like the Chesapeake Bay where summertime hypoxia predominates on a system-wide scale. Also, the recent and dramatic recovery of shortnose sturgeon in the Hudson River (4-fold increase in abundance from 1980 to 1995) may have been stimulated by improvement of a large portion of the nursery habitat that was restored from hypoxia to normoxia during the period 1973-1978. (PDF contains 26 pages)

Evidence for classification of c.1852_1853AA > GC in MLH1 as a neutral variant for Lynch syndrome

Background: Lynch syndrome (LS) is an autosomal dominant inherited cancer syndrome characterized by early onset cancers of the colorectum, endometrium and other tumours. A significant proportion of DNA variants in LS patients are unclassified. Reports on the pathogenicity of the c.1852_1853AA>GC (p.Lys618Ala) variant of the MLH1 gene are conflicting. In this study, we provide new evidence indicating that this variant has no significant implications for LS. Methods: The following approach was used to assess the clinical significance of the p.Lys618Ala variant: frequency in a control population, case-control comparison, co-occurrence of the p.Lys618Ala variant with a pathogenic mutation, co-segregation with the disease and microsatellite instability in tumours from carriers of the variant. We genotyped p.Lys618Ala in 1034 individuals (373 sporadic colorectal cancer [CRC] patients, 250 index subjects from families suspected of having LS [revised Bethesda guidelines] and 411 controls). Three well-characterized LS families that fulfilled the Amsterdam II Criteria and consisted of members with the p.Lys618Ala variant were included to assess co-occurrence and co-segregation. A subset of colorectal tumour DNA samples from 17 patients carrying the p.Lys618Ala variant was screened for microsatellite instability using five mononucleotide markers. Results: Twenty-seven individuals were heterozygous for the p.Lys618Ala variant; nine had sporadic CRC (2.41%), seven were suspected of having hereditary CRC (2.8%) and 11 were controls (2.68%). There were no significant associations in the case-control and case-case studies. The p.Lys618Ala variant was co-existent with pathogenic mutations in two unrelated LS families. In one family, the allele distribution of the pathogenic and unclassified variant was in trans, in the other family the pathogenic variant was detected in the MSH6 gene and only the deleterious variant co-segregated with the disease in both families. Only two positive cases of microsatellite instability (2/17, 11.8%) were detected in tumours from p.Lys618Ala carriers, indicating that this variant does not play a role in functional inactivation of MLH1 in CRC patients. Conclusions: The p.Lys618Ala variant should be considered a neutral variant for LS. These findings have implications for the clinical management of CRC probands and their relatives.

Development of appropriateness explicit criteria for cataract extraction by phacoemulsification

Background: Consensus development techniques were used in the late 1980s to create explicit criteria for the appropriateness of cataract extraction. We developed a new appropriateness of indications tool for cataract following the RAND method. We tested the validity of our panel results. Methods: Criteria were developed using a modified Delphi panel judgment process. A panel of 12 ophthalmologists was assembled. Ratings were analyzed regarding the level of agreement among panelists. We studied the influence of all variables on the final panel score using linear and logistic regression models. The explicit criteria developed were summarized by classification and regression tree analysis. Results: Of the 765 indications evaluated by the main panel in the second round, 32.9% were found appropriate, 30.1% uncertain, and 37% inappropriate. Agreement was found in 53% of the indications and disagreement in 0.9%. Seven variables were considered to create the indications and divided into three groups: simple cataract, with diabetic retinopathy, or with other ocular pathologies. The preoperative visual acuity in the cataractous eye and visual function were the variables that best explained the panel scoring. The panel results were synthesized and presented in three decision trees. Misclassification error in the decision trees, as compared with the panel original criteria, was 5.3%. Conclusion: The parameters tested showed acceptable validity for an evaluation tool. These results support the use of this indication algorithm as a screening tool for assessing the appropriateness of cataract extraction in field studies and for the development of practice guidelines.

Fish farming in Anambra State: economic criteria

The paper is based on the premise that an understanding of the role and potentials of fish farming entrepreneurs in terms of their activities and expectations would enhance fish production and productivity. To this end, the present paper investigates the activities of 24 fish farmers in Anambra State, Nigeria. Based on the fish farmers' experience, the paper presents fish farming investments, budgets and recommendations that could ensure fish farming development as a profitable business venture and at the same time ensure greater fish production in the country

Pre-packaged fresh fish - Searching for quality descriptive criteria

32 Proben verpackten Frischfischs in Selbstbedienungspackungen, 16 Seelachs- und 16 Rotbarschproben aus deutschen Supermärkten wurden mit physikalischen, chemischen, mikrobiellen und sensorischen Methoden untersucht. Ziel der Untersuchung war dieWertung von Untersuchungsmethoden zur Qualitätsbestimmung. Es zeigte sich, daß neben der sensorischen Beurteilung die Bestimmung des TVB-N geeignet ist, die Qualität dieser Produkte zu beurteilen.

Income, inequality, and criteria air pollutants in the CAMA counties

Socioeconomic factors have long been incorporated into environmental research to examine the effects of human dimensions on coastal natural resources. Boyce (1994) proposed that inequality is a cause of environmental degradation and the Environmental Kuznets Curve is a proposed relationship that income or GDP per capita is related with initial increases in pollution followed by subsequent decreases (Torras and Boyce, 1998). To further examine this relationship within the CAMA counties, the emission of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides, as measured by the EPA in terms of tons emitted, the Gini Coefficient, and income per capita were examined for the year of 1999. A quadratic regression was utilized and the results did not indicate that inequality, as measured by the Gini Coefficient, was significantly related to the level of criteria air pollutants within each county. Additionally, the results did not indicate the existence of the Environmental Kuznets Curve. Further analysis of spatial autocorrelation using ArcMap 9.2, found a high level of spatial autocorrelation among pollution emissions indicating that relation to other counties may be more important to the level of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions than income per capita and inequality. Lastly, the paper concludes that further Environmental Kuznets Curve and income inequality analyses in regards to air pollutant levels incorporate spatial patterns as well as other explanatory variables. (PDF contains 4 pages)

Weighting social preferences in participatory multi-criteria evaluations: a case study on sustainable natural resource management

28 p.