Year book - Carnegie Institution of Washington.

n. 11 (1912)

Year book - Carnegie Institution of Washington.

n. 2 (1903)

Year book - Carnegie Institution of Washington.

n. 8 (1909)

Year book - Carnegie Institution of Washington.

n. 9 (1910)

Year book - Carnegie Institution of Washington.

n. 21 (1922)

Outbreak of human toxoplasmosis in a rural area. A three year serologic follow-up study

Thirty-six persons living on a farm located in the state of Minas Gerais (Brazil) were studied. Nine of them had the glandular form of toxoplasmosis, between May and August, 1976. These nine cases of toxoplasmosis were confirmed serologically by immunefluorescence-IF-, presenting IgG antibody titres between 1:4096 and 1:32000 and IgM antibody titres between 1:16 and 1:8000. Twelve out of thirty-six persons studied were considered to be "dubious cases". They were defined either by presenting a clinical picture compatible with acquired toxoplasmosis, yet having low serologic titres, or inversely they did not have a clear clinical picture but had serologic evidence of recent Toxoplasma infection. Fifteen out of thirty-six persons studied showed neither serologic nor clinical evidence of recent Toxoplasma infection. The epidemiologic information suggests two possible modes of transmission: a) poorly cooked pork at a barbecue party; b) farm vegetables and soil contaminated with Toxoplasma gondii oocysts (rat-cat cycle). Serologic follow-up nine months later in the human farm population demonstrated still high IgG titres, yet they tended to decline and IgM titres became negative. Three years later most of the IgG titres continued to decline and were almost compatible with the titres obtained in Brazilian population surveys.

Cells with neuronal characteristics differentiate and persist for one year in rat optic nerve explants cultures.

Evidence concerning the presence or absence of common neuronglia lineages in the postnatal mammalian central nervous system is still a matter of speculation. We address this problem using optic nerve explants, which show an extremely long survival in culture. Morphological, immunocytochemical and immunochemical methods were applied. The results obtained from in vitro tissue were compared with optic nerves (ONs) and whole-brain samples from animals of different ages. Newborn rat ONs represented the starting material of our tissue culture; they are composed of unmyelinated axons, astrocytes and progenitor cells but devoid of neuronal cell bodies. At this age, Western blots of ONs were positively stained by neurofilament and synapsin I specific antibodies. These bands increased in intensity during postnatal in situ development. In explant cultures, the glia cells reach a stage of functional differentiation and they maintain, together with undifferentiated cells, a complex histotypic organization. After 6 days in vitro, neurofilaments and synapsin I could not be detected on immunoblots, indicating that 1) axonal degeneration was completed, and 2) neuronal somata were absent at the time. Surprisingly, after about 4-5 weeks in culture, a new cell type appeared, which showed characteristics typical of neurons. After 406 days in vitro, neurofilaments and synapsin I were unequivocally detectable on Western blots. Furthermore, both immunocytochemical staining and light and electron microscopic examinations corroborated the presence of this earlier-observed cell type. These in vitro results clearly show the high developmental plasticity of ON progenitor cells, even late in development. The existence of a common neuron-glia precursor, which never gives rise to neurons in situ, is suggested.

High fat versus high carbohydrate nutritional supplementation: a one year trial in stunted rural Gambian children.

OBJECTIVE: The study tests the hypothesis that a low daily fat intake may induce a negative fat balance and impair catch-up growth in stunted children between 3 and 9y of age. DESIGN: Randomized case-control study. SETTING: Three rural villages of the West Kiang District, The Gambia. SUBJECTS: Three groups of 30 stunted but not wasted children (height for age z-score < or = -2.0, weight for height z-score > or = -2.0) 3-9 y of age were selected by anthropometric survey. Groups were matched for age, sex, village, degree of stunting and season. INTERVENTION: Two groups were randomly assigned to be supplemented five days a week for one year with either a high fat (n = 29) or a high carbohydrate biscuit (n = 30) each containing approximately 1600 kJ. The third group was a non supplemented control group (n = 29). Growth, nutritional status, dietary intake, resting energy expenditure and morbidity were compared. RESULTS: Neither the high fat nor the high carbohydrate supplement had an effect on weight or height gain. The high fat supplement did slightly increase adipose tissue mass. There was no effect of supplementation on resting energy expenditure or morbidity. In addition, the annual growth rate was not associated with a morbidity score. CONCLUSIONS: Results show that neither a high fat nor a high carbohydrate supplement given during 12 months to stunted Gambian children induced catch-up growth. The authors suggest that an adverse effect of the environment on catch-up growth persists despite the nutritional interventions.

Patrimoni Digital de Catalunya, a year and a half experience

E-repositories are part of the e-science, and they are based on the e-infrastructure. The Centre de Supercomputació de Catalunya (CESCA) together with the Consorci de Biblioteques Universitàries de Catalunya (CBUC) started in 1999 a cooperative repository, named TDR, to file, in digital format, the full-text of the read thesis at the universities of our country in order to spread them worldwide in open access, while at the same time, preserving the intellectual copyright of the authors. Since then, four additional cooperative repositories have been created: RECERCAT for research papers; RACO for scientific, cultural and erudite Catalan magazines; MDC for Catalan digital collections of pictures, maps, posters and old magazines; and PADICAT for archiving Catalan digital web content; The main objective of the latter is to archive Catalan web sites. That is, PADICAT collects, processes and provides permanent access to the entire cultural, scientific and general output of Catalonia in digital format. The repository manager is the Biblioteca de Catalunya, as the institution responsible for compiling, processing and distributing the bibliographic heritage of Catalonia, while CESCA is the technology partner. On September 11th, 2006 the repository went into operation for the general public, with some thirty websites archived. After one year and a half, it has 2.720 captures of more than 1.000 websites. This includes 34 million files (HTML, images...) and two terabytes of data. The objective of this paper is to present PADICAT and our experience developing and managing it.We describe the repository briefly, we explain the technology used to implement it and we comment our experiences during its first year and a half.

The joint influence of gender and amount of smoking on weight gain one year after smoking cessation.

Weight gain is often associated with smoking cessation and may discourage smokers from quitting. This study estimated the weight gained one year after smoking cessation and examined the risk factors associated with weight gain in order to identify socio-demographic groups at higher risk of increased weight after quitting. We analyzed data from 750 adults in two randomized controlled studies that included smokers motivated to quit and found a gradient in weight gain according to the actual duration of abstinence during follow-up. Subjects who were abstinent for at least 40 weeks gained 4.6 kg (SD = 3.8) on average, compared to 1.2 kg (SD = 2.6) for those who were abstinent less than 20 weeks during the 1-year follow-up. Considering the duration of abstinence as an exposure variable, we found an age effect and a significant interaction between sex and the amount of smoking before quitting: younger subjects gained more weight than older subjects; among light smokers, men gained more weight on average than women one year after quitting, while the opposite was observed among heavy smokers. Young women smoking heavily at baseline had the highest risk of weight gain after quitting.

Five-year evolution of drug prescribing in a university adult intensive care unit

Introduction: Drug prescription is difficult in ICUs as prescribers are many, drugs expensive and decisions complex. In our ICU, specialist clinicians (SC) are entitled to prescribe a list of specific drugs, negotiated with intensive care physicians (ICP). The objective of this investigation was to assess the 5-year evolution of quantity and costs of drug prescription in our adult ICU and identify the relative costs generated by ICP or SC. Methods: Quantities and costs of drugs delivered on a quarterly basis to the adult ICU of our hospital between 2004 and 2008 were extracted from the pharmacy database by ATC code, an international five-level classification system. Within each ATC first level, drugs with either high level of consumption, high costs or large variations in quantities and costs were singled out and split by type of prescriber, ICP or SC. Cost figures used were drug purchase prices by the hospital pharmacy. Results: Over the 5-year period, both quantities and costs of drugs increased, following a nonsteady, nonparallel pattern. Four ATC codes accounted for 80% of both quantities and costs, with ATC code B (blood and haematopoietic organs) amounting to 63% in quantities and 41% in costs, followed by ATC code J (systemic anti-infective, 20% of the costs), ATC code N (nervous system, 11% of the costs) and ATC code C (cardiovascular system, 8% of the costs). Prescription by SC amounted to 1% in drug quantities, but 19% in drug costs. The rate of increase in quantities and costs was seven times larger for ICP than for SC (Figure 1 overleaf ). Some peak values in costs and quantities were related to a very limited number of patients. Conclusions: A 5-year increase in quantities and costs of drug prescription in an ICU is a matter of concern. Rather unexpectedly, total costs and cost increases were generated mainly by ICP. A careful follow-up is necessary to try influencing this evolution through an institutional policy co-opted by all professional categories involved in the process.

Comparison of two osteoporotic fracture management pathways: experience at 1 year

Introduction: Osteoporosis presenting as low-impact fractures to traumatology units is often undiagnosed and under-treated. Results from the Osteocare study in Lausanne (a nurse based intervention, passive pathway) showed that only 19% of patients received management for osteoporosis, and in the literature [1], the rate is between 10-25%. We have evaluated a different management concept, based on the systematic assessment of patients with osteoporotic fractures during and after hospitalization (active pathway). Methods: Inpatients admitted to the Department of Musculoskeletal Medicine for a fragility fracture were identified by a nurse according to a predefined questionnaire and were then clinically evaluated by a doctor. Based on the results, a management plan was proposed to the patients. Patients could choose between follow up either by their GP or by the Centre of Bone Disease of the CHUV. For patients who chose follow-up in our Centre, we assessed their adherence to medical follow-up 1 year inclusion. The results of patients who had been evaluated in our cohort between the 1 November 2008 and the 1 December 2009 were analysed. Results: 573 inpatients received specific management of their osteoporotic fracture over 18 months. The mean age was 77 y (31-99), 81% were women (203 hip fractures, 40 pelvis fractures, 101 arm fractures, 57 vertebral fractures, 63 ankle fractures, and 25 others sites). During the study period, 303 patients received a proposition of a specific treatment. 39 (13%) chose a follow up with the GP, 19 (6%) dead and 245 (81%) preferred a follow up in our Centre. After 1 year, 166 (67%) patients are under follow up in our outpatient clinic. Conclusion: With an active clinical pathway that starts during the hospitalization, consisting on a nursing evaluation followed by a medical consultation by an expert in osteoporosis, the adherence increased from 19% to 67% in terms of follow up. These results lead us to propose a consultation with a doctor experienced in osteoporosis after all osteoporotic fractures.