Sex- and race-related differences in cross-sectional geometry and bone density of the femoral mid-shaft in older adults

Background : Femoral shaft fracture incidence increases in older adults and is associated with low-energy trauma. Apart from bone density, the distribution and size of bone contributes to its strength. Aim : To examine if bone geometry and density of the femoral mid-shaft in older adults differs by sex and race, we studied 197 White women, 225 Black women, 242 White men, and 148 Black men aged 70-79 years participating in the Health, Aging, and Body Composition study; a prospective cohort study in the USA. A secondary purpose of the study was to examine the association of site-specific muscle and fat to bone geometry and density. Subjects and methods : Subjects were community-dwelling and reported no difficulty walking one-quarter of a mile or climbing stairs. Mid-femoral volumetric bone mineral density (vBMD, mg cm -3 ), total area (TA), cortical area (CA), medullary area (MA), cross-sectional moments of inertia (CSMI: I x , I y , J ), and muscle and fat areas (cm 2 ) were determined by computed tomography (CT; GE CT-9800, 10 mm slice thickness). Results : vBMD was greater in men than women with no difference by race ( p < 0.001). Bone areas and area moments of inertia were also greater in men than women ( p < 0.001), with Black women having higher values than White women for TA and CA. Standardizing geometric parameters for body size differences by dividing by powers of femur length did not negate the sex difference for TA and MA. Significant differences ( p < 0.05) among the four groups also remained for I x and J . Mid-thigh muscle area was an independent contributor to TA in all groups (Std beta = 0.181-0.351, p < 0.05) as well as CA in women (Std beta = 0.246-0.254, p < 0.01) and CSMI in White women (Std beta = 0.175-0.185, p < 0.05). Further, muscle area was a significant contributor to vBMD in Black women. Conclusion : These results indicate that bone geometry and density of the femoral diaphysis differs primarily by sex, rather than race, in older well-functioning adults. In addition, site-specific muscle area appears to have a potential contributory role to bone geometry parameters, especially in women.

Persisting problems related to race and ethnicity in public health and epidemiology research

A recent and comprehensive review of the use of race and ethnicity in research that address health disparities in epidemiology and public health is provided. First it is described the theoretical basis upon which race and ethnicity differ drawing from previous work in anthropology, social science and public health. Second, it is presented a review of 280 articles published in high impacts factor journals in regards to public health and epidemiology from 2009-2011. An analytical grid enabled the examination of conceptual, theoretical and methodological questions related to the use of both concepts. The majority of articles reviewed were grounded in a theoretical framework and provided interpretations from various models. However, key problems identified include a) a failure from researchers to differentiate between the concepts of race and ethnicity; b) an inappropriate use of racial categories to ascribe ethnicity; c) a lack of transparency in the methods used to assess both concepts; and d) failure to address limits associated with the construction of racial or ethnic taxonomies and their use. In conclusion, future studies examining health disparities should clearly establish the distinction between race and ethnicity, develop theoretically driven research and address specific questions about the relationships between race, ethnicity and health. One argue that one way to think about ethnicity, race and health is to dichotomize research into two sets of questions about the relationship between human diversity and health.

Enhanced Race-to-halt: a leakage-aware energy management approach for dynamic priority systems

With progressing CMOS technology miniaturization, the leakage power consumption starts to dominate the dynamic power consumption. The recent technology trends have equipped the modern embedded processors with the several sleep states and reduced their overhead (energy/time) of the sleep transition. The dynamic voltage frequency scaling (DVFS) potential to save energy is diminishing due to efficient (low overhead) sleep states and increased static (leakage) power consumption. The state-of-the-art research on static power reduction at system level is based on assumptions that cannot easily be integrated into practical systems. We propose a novel enhanced race-to-halt approach (ERTH) to reduce the overall system energy consumption. The exhaustive simulations demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach showing an improvement of up to 8 % over an existing work.

Slow down or race to halt: towards managing complexity of real-time energy management decisions

Existing work in the context of energy management for real-time systems often ignores the substantial cost of making DVFS and sleep state decisions in terms of time and energy and/or assume very simple models. Within this paper we attempt to explore the parameter space for such decisions and possible constraints faced.

Race-to-halt energy saving strategies

Energy consumption is one of the major issues for modern embedded systems. Early, power saving approaches mainly focused on dynamic power dissipation, while neglecting the static (leakage) energy consumption. However, technology improvements resulted in a case where static power dissipation increasingly dominates. Addressing this issue, hardware vendors have equipped modern processors with several sleep states. We propose a set of leakage-aware energy management approaches that reduce the energy consumption of embedded real-time systems while respecting the real-time constraints. Our algorithms are based on the race-to-halt strategy that tends to run the system at top speed with an aim to create long idle intervals, which are used to deploy a sleep state. The effectiveness of our algorithms is illustrated with an extensive set of simulations that show an improvement of up to 8% reduction in energy consumption over existing work at high utilization. The complexity of our algorithms is smaller when compared to state-of-the-art algorithms. We also eliminate assumptions made in the related work that restrict the practical application of the respective algorithms. Moreover, a novel study about the relation between the use of sleep intervals and the number of pre-emptions is also presented utilizing a large set of simulation results, where our algorithms reduce the experienced number of pre-emptions in all cases. Our results show that sleep states in general can save up to 30% of the overall number of pre-emptions when compared to the sleep-agnostic earliest-deadline-first algorithm.

Caucasian Familial Moyamoya Syndrome With Rare Multisystemic Malformations

Moyamoya disease is an idiopathic progressive steno-occlusive disorder of the intracranial arteries located at the base of the brain. It is associated with the development of compensatory extensive network of fine collaterals. Moyamoya disease is considered syndromic when certain genetic or acquired disorders such as polycystic kidney disease, neurofibromatosis, or meningitis are also present. Although the genetic contribution in moyamoya is indisputable, its cause and pathogenesis remain under discussion. Herein, we report a rare occurrence of moyamoya syndrome in two European Caucasian siblings in association with unusual multisystemic malformations (polycystic kidney disease in one, and intestinal duplication cyst in the other). The karyotype was normal. No mutation in the RFN213 gene was found, and none of the HLA types linked to moyamoya disease or described in similar familial cases were identified. By describing these multisystemic associations, polycystic kidney disease for the second time, and intestinal malformation for the first time in the literature, our report expands the phenotypic variability of moyamoya syndrome. The coexistence of disparate malformations among close relatives suggests an underlying common genetic background predisposing to structural or physiological abnormalities in different tissues and organs.

Torpedo Maculopathy with an Anisometropic Amblyopia in a 5-Year-Old Caucasian Girl: Case Report

The aim of this study is to report a clinical case of asymptomatic female Caucasian children with torpedo maculopathy. A 5-year-old girl was referred to our clinic for routine evaluation. The ophthalmic examination revealed best-corrected visual acuity of 20/20 in both eyes, without any changes in the biomicroscopy. Fundus examination showed normal findings in one eye, whereas in the contralateral eye it disclosed, in the temporal sector of the macular region, a whitish, atrophic, oval chorioretinal lesion with clearly defined margins. Posterior evaluations documented the stability of the lesion. Torpedo maculopathy diagnosis is based on its characteristic shape and peculiar location. The differential diagnosis has to be established versus choroidal lesions (melanoma and nevus), congenital or iatrogenic hyperplasia of the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) and particularly versus the congenital pigmented lesions associated with Gardner's syndrome.

Aortic valve assessment. Anatomical study of 100 healthy human hearts

PURPOSE: To assess anatomical characteristics of the aortic valve, so that they may be useful in diagnostic situations and surgical treatment. METHODS: The study analyzed 100 healthy fixed human hearts; 84% of them obtained from males, 61% of them from Caucasian individuals. The ages of the individuals ranged from 9 to 86 years (mean 30±15.5 years). The characteristics assessed related to age, sex, and race were the following: number and height of the cusps, size of the lunulae, internal and external intercommissural distance, position of the coronary ostium in relation to the aortic valve, position of the ventricular septum in relation to the aortic valve, thickness of the cusps. RESULTS: All hearts assessed had a tricuspidal aortic valve. In regard to the height of the cusps and size of the lunula, the left coronary cusp was larger, followed by the right coronary cusp and the noncoronary cusp. The internal and external intercommissural distances had mean values of 24.6±5.7mm and 19.7±7mm, respectively. In regard to the position of the coronary ostia, in one heart two ostia emerged from the left coronary sinus, and in another, the ostium was supracommissural. The mean diameter of the aorta was 21.8±3.6mm, and there were no significant sexual or racial differences, but the diameter increased progressively with the increase in age. The thickness of the cusps did not show any significant difference in the 3 points assessed. CONCLUSION: The aortic valve annulus did not show a perfect circumference, with some variations in the measurements of the annulus, in the cusps and in the relation with the ventricular septum.

A Colombian race of Tinamus osgoodi / Emmet R. Blake.

v.34:no.18(1953)

A new race of koklas pheasant.

v.31:no.11(1947)

A new race of Penelope montagnii from southeastern Peru.

v.44:no.14(1962)

A new Peruvian race of Crypturellus obsoletus.

v.39:no.51(1961)

A new race of crow. Corvus enca, from the Philippines [by] Austin L. Rand and Dioscoro S. Rabor.

v.39:no.52(1961)