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PubMed2005

Contamination of oxygen-consuming organics in the Yellow River of China.

Contamination of oxygen-consuming organics (OCOs) was one of the most serious problems in the Yellow River of China. This study was conducted to analyze monitoring of the data on OCOs contamination for the river in 1980 and during 1992-1999 as well as examining the effect of suspended solids (SS) on chemical oxygen demand (CODMn) and biochemical oxygen demand (BOD5) of river water. Several significant results have arisen from the study. First, CODMn and BOD5 of the river water showed an increasing trend from the upper to the lower reaches of the mainstream. BOD5 values of river water in 1992 were significantly higher than those in 1980 and showed an increasing trend during 1992-1999. Second, OCOs in river water of the mainstream was attributed mainly to point sources; the ratio of point to non-point sources of BOD5 was about 2.81. The load from point sources showed an increasing trend during 1992-1998. In contrast, the load from non-point sources manifested a decreasing trend during this period; this was caused by the decreasing trend of SS content in river water. The total load of BOD5 from point and non-point sources displayed an increasing trend during 1992-1998. Third, as the humic substances in SS can hardly be biologically oxidized in natural conditions but can be oxidized by chemical oxidants such as potassium permanganate, CODMn was not suitable for being regarded as a parameter reflecting the pollution degree of OCOs in river water with a high SS content.

Benzopyrans↗

PubMed1989

Human urine mutagenicity study comparing cigarettes which burn or only heat tobacco.

Cigarette smokers have been reported to void urine which is more mutagenic, as measured in the Ames bacterial mutation assay, than urine voided by non-smokers. Condensate from the mainstream smoke of a cigarette which heats, but does not burn tobacco (test cigarette) showed no evidence of mutagenicity in a battery of in vitro genotoxicity assays under conditions in which condensate from the mainstream smoke of cigarettes that burn tobacco was mutagenic. The objective of this study was to determine whether the absence of mutagenic activity observed in the in vitro assays would be reflected in the urine of smokers of the test cigarette. 72 subjects (31 smokers and 41 non-smokers) were enrolled in a 6-week study, with the smokers randomly divided into 2 groups. The study was designed as a double crossover, with each smoker smoking both test (tobacco-heating) and reference (tobacco-burning) cigarettes. This design allowed each smoker to serve as his or her own control while at the same time allowing comparisons between groups of non-smokers and smokers of both test and reference cigarettes. 24-h urine samples were collected twice a week and concentrated using XAD-2 resin. Urine concentrates were tested in Ames bacterial strains TA98 and TA100, with and without metabolic activation and with and without beta-glucuronidase/aryl sulfatase. Individuals who smoked the test cigarette voided urine which was significantly less mutagenic than that voided when they smoked reference cigarettes. The mutagenicity of urine from smokers who smoked the test cigarette and non-smokers did not differ under any of the assay conditions used in this study.

Animals↗

PubMed1988

Holistic physicians and family practitioners: similarities, differences and implications for health policy.

Although loosely defined, holistic or alternative medicine has been viewed by most observers as fundamentally at odds with mainstream biomedical approaches. Convergence or integration of the two are seen as highly unlikely. We attempt to assess the potential for such integration empirically through a survey of physicians, members of the American Holistic Medical Association (N = 340) and a comparison group of family practitioners (N = 142). Although social origins of the two groups are similar, they differ in their completion of residency training and a variety of practice characteristics. While the groups differ in the predicted directions in their evaluation and utilization of holistic techniques and in their attitudes toward the nature of medical practice, there is a good deal of overlap. Personal experiences, especially those in the area of religion/spirituality and psychotherapy differ sharply between the groups. Policy concerned with fostering cooperation or convergence between holistic and mainstream medicine should differentiate between clinical attitudes and behaviors (which appear to be more compatible than has been suggested), and the personal world views of physicians (which appear to be much further apart).

Adult↗

PubMed1992

The routinization of hospice: charisma and bureaucratization.

In 25 years the number of hospices in Britain has multiplied from under 15 in 1965 to over 430 in 1991. During this period, often working out with the mainstream health system, the hospices actively sought to transform terminal care. More recently a process of diversification and legitimation has meant that hospices have become increasingly subject to mainstream influence. Using Weber's concept of charisma we examine the development of the hospice movement during this period of expansion. We suggest there are a number of factors leading to the routinization of hospice care including the ways in which it was sponsored and developed at the local level, and pressures toward bureaucratization and professionalization. We make links with recent developments in the health services. Finally we consider whether it is possible for the hospice movement to sustain its founding ideals.

Hospices↗

PubMed1994

The institutionalization of the good death.

There has been some recent concern in Britain and North America that the increasing institutionalization of hospice care may compromise the movement's founding ideals. The threats posed by the encroachment of mainstream medicine and the medical technological imperative to treat, are also a source of concern to hospice administrators and staff. This study uses Australian data based on interviews with nurses and participant observation in an in-patient hospice unit and a community based hospice service to investigate whether the Good Death ideal, as central to the hospice philosophy, is compatible with the institutionalization of hospice care. The issues that arise, although interrelated are conceptualized as the following five challenges to hospice care: (1) encroachment of mainstream medicine and the medical technical imperative; (2) competing motivations; (3) delimitation of intellectual structures; (4) organizational maintenance; and (5) routinization of the Good Death. This conceptual framework is based on the way in which nurses and other health care professionals have used shared logic and strategies to negotiate the daily demands of their work and illustrates the tension that arises between the maintenance of the ideal and the maintenance of the organization.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗

PubMed1975

Inhalation experiments with 14C-labelled cigarette smoke. I. Determination of the effectiveness of two different smoking systems with labelled cigarettes.

Two different smoking systems were tested by exposing Syrian golden hamsters to the smoke of cigarettes labelled with (14C)dotriacontane-16, 17 (DOT). In 3 experiments, the activity of mainstream and sidestream Total Oarticulate Matter (TPM) and of butts and ash was determined. Comparing the results, the system involving individual exposure was shown to provide the animals with higher amounts of mainstream TPM than the system using simultaneous exposure of numerous animals.

Animals↗

PubMed1987

Enhanced chemotaxis and superoxide anion production by polymorphonuclear leukocytes from nicotine-treated and smoke-exposed rats.

Although previous studies have shown that polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMNs) exposed to nicotine in vitro exhibit enhanced superoxide anion generation and chemotactic responses, it is not known whether in vivo exposure to the alkaloid causes the same alterations in PMN function. Accordingly, this study evaluated superoxide anion generation evoked by phorbol myristate acetate (PMA) and chemotactic responses to formylmethionylleucylphenylalanine (fMLP) in PMNs isolated from rats treated acutely or subchronically with nicotine and from rats chronically exposed to cigarette smoke. Acute or subchronic (twice daily for 7 days) i.p. injection of 0.2 or 0.02 mg/kg nicotine potentiated PMA-induced superoxide anion generation by PMNs. Similarly, acute i.p. injection of 0.2 mg/kg nicotine or subchronic treatment with 0.02 mg/kg nicotine potentiated fMLP-induced chemotaxis. Subchronic treatment with 0.2 mg/kg of the alkaloid blunted fMLP-induced chemotaxis, in contrast to the potentiating actions of the lower dose. Treatment with nicotine mimicked the effects of tobacco smoke exposure. A 15-week exposure regimen to either sidestream and mainstream smoke from University of Kentucky 2R1 reference cigarettes potentiated PMA-induced superoxide anion generation. Mainstream but not sidestream smoke also enhanced chemotactic responses to fMLP. Viewed collectively, these observations indicate that in vivo exposure to nicotine or to tobacco smoke augment PMN superoxide anion generation and chemotactic responses to selected stimuli and thus implicate such adverse actions of smoking on PMN function in certain pathologies associated with excessive tobacco smoke exposure.

Animals↗

PubMed1992

Protective antioxidant mechanisms in rat and guinea pig tissues challenged by acute exposure to cigarette smoke.

Cellular damage from reactive intermediates formed during xenobiotic biotransformation is prevented by the presence of adequate levels of antioxidant chemicals in the tissues. Equally important for cell protection is the rate at which these chemicals are replaced if tissue stores are depleted. The present experiments, using adult male Sprague-Dawley rats and Hartley guinea pigs, were conducted to ascertain what effects mainstream (MS) and sidestream (SS) tobacco smoke would have on the water-soluble, cytoplasmic antioxidants, ascorbic acid (AA) and reduced glutathione (GSH). The animals were exposed by nose-only inhalation to varying doses (40, 120, 240 puffs) of a 1:5 dilution of a 35-ml volume of freshly generated MS from cigarettes made from different types of tobacco and delivered by a B.-A.T-Mason inhalation apparatus. The animals were euthanized either immediately following exposure or at 3 and 6 h. The blood, lungs, liver, kidneys, heart and bladder were removed for the quantitation of AA and GSH following homogenization and deproteinization. Immediately following exposure to MS, dose-dependent decreases in pulmonary and renal GSH were observed in rats whereas, in guinea pigs, reductions in pulmonary, hepatic and renal GSH were observed only at the highest level of exposure. No reductions in tissue AA were observed in either species at any exposure level. In both species, blood levels of GSH and AA remained unchanged following exposure. Mainstream smoke (240 puffs) from flue-cured or dark, air-cured tobaccos elicited a significant, immediate reduction in pulmonary and renal GSH, but MS from low tar, filter cigarettes was without effect. Within 3 h of exposure, GSH in all tissues has returned to pre-exposure levels. Whole-body, chamber exposure to concentrated SS, generated from smouldering cigarettes, caused a dose-dependent reduction in rat pulmonary, hepatic, renal, cardiac and bladder muscle GSH but only affected pulmonary GSH in the guinea pig. Lesser effects were observed in tissues of rats exposed to diluted SS. In the rat, a comparison of the results of diethylmaleate- and smoke-induced depletion of tissue GSH suggested that, even at exceptionally high levels of exposure, there was a significant store of GSH in tissues that did not interact with tobacco smoke.

Animals↗

PubMed1995

Tobacco-specific nitrosamines in some Nigerian cigarettes.

Ten popular brands of cigarettes on the Nigerian market were analyzed for tobacco-specific nitrosamines (TSNA) in tobacco and in mainstream smoke, as well as nitrate in tobacco. TSNA was analyzed using a gas chromatography/thermal energy analyzer (GC-TEA), while nitrate was determined spectrophotometrically as nitrite following on-line reduction with copper, diozatization with sulfanilamide and coupling with N-(1-naphthyl) ethylene diamine to form an azo dye. In mainstream smoke, the concentration of NNN, NAB/NAT and NNK were respectively, between 8 and 90 ng, 10 and 65 ng, and between 15 and 72 ng/cigarette. Preformed NNN ranged between 64 and 565 ng/cigarette, while preformed NAB/NAT and NNK ranged respectively from 109 to 476 ng/cigarette, and from 55 to 317 ng/cigarette. Nitrate levels ranged between 1.5 and 6.1 mg/g tobacco. In general, the results indicate that the TSNA content of Nigerian cigarettes are within the range found for European and American cigarettes.

Nicotine↗

PubMed1986

Taking birth trauma seriously.

Virtually all mainstream schools of psychology, including biological psychology, reject the idea that people sustain psychological trauma at birth. Their objections are basically those raised by Freud more than 50 years ago: (1) lack of solid evidence that difficult births are related to mental disturbances and (2) a general conviction that the neonatal brain is not sufficiently developed to experience birth psychologically. But recent empirical evidence gathered by Stanislav Grof in over 3500 psychotherapy sessions using psychedelic drugs as a facilitator seems to show that a link does exist between birth trauma memory "matrices" in the unconscious and various mental conditions. And separate research on psychedelic drug effects, subcortical learning mechanisms and the nature of emotional response suggest that birth trauma memories might be explained in a way that circumvents without refuting Freud's basic objections. The following briefly reviews these developments, concluding that birth trauma theories--especially Grof's--deserve more serious consideration by mainstream psychologists and medical researchers.

Anxiety↗

PubMed1996

Recruiting minorities into the profession of epidemiology. Surveying the applicants' mail. American College of Epidemiology Committee on Minority Affairs.

The underrepresentation in epidemiology of members of racial/ethnic minority groups is greater than in medicine and health fields in general. Using printed recruitment materials, we evaluated the impression that epidemiology programs might make on prospective minority students. Mainstream recruitment materials were solicited from all identifiable U.S. epidemiology programs (n = 70) by requesting copies of typical mailings to prospective students. Of 51 respondents, 46 sent materials that could be analyzed by tabulating and evaluating minority-related content in text and pictures. Materials reflected a generally low-key approach to epidemiology student recruitment. Most minority-related text referred to affirmative action or financial aid and was at the school level rather than specific to the epidemiology programs. Few minority-related epidemiology course titles or research interests were identified. We recommend including more information about epidemiology and its relevance to minority health in mainstream recruitment materials as one possible strategy for increasing the number of minority applicants.

Career Choice↗

PubMed2006

Brief report: School exclusion drug use and delinquency in adolescence.

Fifty-one young people aged 14-15 years considered to be at a high risk to substance abuse and exhibiting antisocial behavior, primarily because they longer attended mainstream school, participated in this research by completing a questionnaire to measure drug use and delinquent behaviour. The findings suggest that many of them may have already developed a high propensity to drug abuse and antisocial behaviour compared with their peers in mainstream education. As they were all excluded from school, they were not accessing school based prevention programmes delivered to their contemporaries at school suggesting that additional and specialized resources are required to fully meet their needs.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2005

Human monoamine oxidase is inhibited by tobacco smoke: beta-carboline alkaloids act as potent and reversible inhibitors.

Monoamine oxidase (MAO) is a mitochondrial outer-membrane flavoenzyme involved in brain and peripheral oxidative catabolism of neurotransmitters and xenobiotic amines, including neurotoxic amines, and a well-known target for antidepressant and neuroprotective drugs. Recently, positron emission tomography imaging has shown that smokers have a much lower activity of peripheral and brain MAO-A (30%) and -B (40%) isozymes compared to non-smokers. This MAO inhibition results from a pharmacological effect of smoke, but little is known about its mechanism. Working with mainstream smoke collected from commercial cigarettes we confirmed that cigarette smoke is a potent inhibitor of human MAO-A and -B isozymes. MAO inhibition was partly reversible, competitive for MAO-A, and a mixed-type inhibition for MAO-B. Two beta-carboline alkaloids, norharman (beta-carboline) and harman (1-methyl-beta-carboline), were identified by GC-MS, quantified, and isolated from the mainstream smoke by solid phase extraction and HPLC. Kinetics analysis revealed that beta-carbolines from cigarette smoke were competitive, reversible, and potent inhibitors of MAO enzymes. Norharman was an inhibitor of MAO-A (K(i)=1.2+/-0.18 microM) and MAO-B (K(i)=1.12+/-0.19 microM), and harman of MAO-A (K(i)=55.54+/-5.3nM). Beta-carboline alkaloids are psychopharmacologically active compounds that may occur endogenously in human tissues, including the brain. These results suggest that beta-carboline alkaloids from cigarette smoke acting as potent reversible inhibitors of MAO enzymes may contribute to the MAO-reduced activity produced by tobacco smoke in smokers. The presence of MAO inhibitors in smoke like beta-carbolines and others may help us to understand some of the purported neuropharmacological effects associated with smoking.

Alkaloids↗

PubMed2005

Evaluation of estrogenic activities of hydroxylated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in cigarette smoke condensate.

Estrogenic activities of cigarette smoke condensates obtained from the extraction of particulate matters from mainstream and sidestream cigarette smoke with benzene/ethanol were evaluated by using a yeast two-hybrid assay system expressing human estrogen receptor alpha (hERalpha). To identify the constituents of the cigarette smoke condensate which are responsible for the estrogenic activity, the condensate was fractionated into eleven fractions by liquid-liquid extractions. Among these fractions, the neutral fractions of mainstream and sidestream smoke showed the strongest estrogen receptor-mediated activity by the yeast two-hybrid assay. Then the neutral fractions were fractionated by medium-pressure liquid chromatography with silica gel column. In the fractions that showed strong estrogenic activity, 2-hydroxyfluorene (2-OHFle), 2- and 3-hydroxyphenanthrene (2- and 3-OHPhe), 1-hydroxypyrene (1-OHPyr) and n-propyl-p-hydroxybenzoate (n-PHB) were identified by LC- and GC-MS and HPLC with fluorescence detection. 2-OHFle, 2-OHPhe and n-PHB exhibited estrogenic activity, whereas weak activity was observed with 3-OHPhe and 1-OHPyr. Several other hydroxylated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons having no activity were also identified. This is a first study to identify estrogenic hydroxylated PAHs in cigarette smoke condensate. The present findings points out the necessity for detailed investigation of exposure to aerosols containing apparently estrogenic compounds.

Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid↗

PubMed2005

The entangled geographies of social exclusion/inclusion for people with learning disabilities.

People with learning disabilities (PWLD) are one of the most marginalised groups in Western society. Social policies attempting to redress this situation focus on their 'reinclusion' into mainstream socio-spaces through engagement in 'normal' activities, primarily paid employment and independent living. Drawing on group interviews in Scotland, the paper develops a nuanced account of the lives of PWLD, exploring their experiences of exclusion and seeming 'inclusion', and also the alternative spaces and networks of inclusion developed by many PWLD. The paper argues that the situations and experiences of exclusion/inclusion are complex and 'entangled', shaped by the socio-spatial contexts within which PWLD live. The paper 'reimagines' social inclusion as a transformation of mainstream social spaces to incorporate PWLD, achieved through self-advocacy.

Deinstitutionalization↗

PubMed2004

Flow pattern and shear stress distribution of distal end-to-side anastomoses. A comparison of the instantaneous velocity fields obtained by particle image velocimetry.

OBJECTIVE: To describe the local hemodynamics and pressure losses of crural bypass anastomoses using instantaneous velocity fields acquired by particle image velocimetry (PIV). METHODS: Silastic models of a Taylor patch, a Miller cuff and a femoro-crural patch prosthesis (FCPP) were attached to a circuit driven by a Berlin Heart, providing a pulsatile flow with an amplitude of 450 to 25 ml/min (mean 200 ml/min). An outflow resistance of 0.5 mmHg/ml/min (peripheral resistance units, PRU) was modeled using small silastic tubes providing a phase shift of -12 degrees between flow and pressure curves. The working fluid consisted of a glycerine/water mixture with a viscosity of 4 mPas. Hollow glass spheres with a mean size of 9-13 microm were used as tracer particles. Instantaneous velocity fields were obtained by means of PIV and shear rates as well as shear stresses were calculated. Triggered by the flowmeter signal, 10 measurements at 100 ms intervals per cardiac cycle were obtained. The pressures were measured on the inflow and at both distal outflows. The resulting mean pressure losses due to flow separation and distal fluid acceleration were calculated. RESULTS: Inside the Taylor patch anastomosis a large flow separation at the hood containing a clockwise rotating vortex was found. Additionally a smaller flow separation at the heel and a flow stagnation zone on the floor of the recipient artery were observed. Conversely, inside the Miller cuff a counterclockwise rotating vortex was seen inside a large heel flow separation. The FCPP also showed typical separation areas at the hood and heel of the anastomosis, although these were smaller compared to the other anastomoses. Inside the FCPP anastomosis no vortex creation was observed throughout the cardiac cycle. The mainstream velocities at the inlet levels were comparable for the three anastomoses. A significant fluid acceleration was present at the antegrade as well as the retrograde outlets of the Taylor and Miller cuff, while the fluid acceleration at the antegrade outflow of the FCPP was small, which was attributed to the end-to-end configuration of the antegrade FCPP leg. The calculated normalized antegrade and retrograde pressure losses for the Taylor form were 0.90 and 0.88, for the Miller cuff 0.89 and 0.86 and for the FCPP 0.94 and 0.86, respectively. The shear stresses inside the flow separations of the three anastomoses were significantly lower than normal wall shear stresses. High shear stress levels were found inside the transition zones between flow separation and high velocity mainstream. CONCLUSIONS: The flow pattern inside cuffed or funnel shaped anastomoses consists of large flow separation zones, which are thought to be associated with intimal hyperplasia development. In addition, fluid accelerations at the distal outlets result in pressure losses, which may contribute to impaired crural perfusion.

Anastomosis, Surgical↗

PubMed2005

The origins of life -- the 'protein interaction world' hypothesis: protein interactions were the first form of self-reproducing life and nucleic acids evolved later as memory molecules.

The 'protein interaction world' (PIW) hypothesis of the origins of life assumes that life emerged as a self-reproducing and expanding system of protein interactions. In mainstream molecular biology, 'replication' refers to the material copying of molecules such as nucleic acids. However, PIW is conceptualized as an abstract communication system constituted by the interactions between proteins, in which 'replication' happens at the level of self-reproduction of these interactions between proteins. Densely concentrated peptide interaction systems may have reproduced and expanded as 'protocell' vesicles surrounded by lipid bi-layer membranes. Protocells led to the emergence of proto-RNA molecules of greater chemical stability which served as chemically differentiated 'memories' of peptide interaction states, thereby facilitating the reproduction and expansion of protocells. Simplification-driven expansion led to the selection of biotic amino acids and the reduction of the typical RNA alphabet to the four usual bases (A, C, G and U). Dense interactions between RNA molecules led to the emergence of the RNA interaction subsystem of the cell, and to the emergence of 'memories' of RNA interactions in the form of DNA molecules with greater chemical stability. The expansion of DNA molecule interactions led to the dense clustering and encapsulation of DNA molecules within the cell nucleus. RNA molecules therefore serve as memories of protein interactions and DNA molecules are memories of RNA interactions. We believe that the PIW hypothesis is more evolutionarily plausible than the mainstream RNA world hypothesis, and has greater explanatory power.

Evolution, Molecular↗

PubMed2006

Primary reflex persistence in children with reading difficulties (dyslexia): a cross-sectional study.

The primary reflex system emerges during fetal life and is inhibited during the first year after birth. Our aim was to examine the effects of persistence of this early neurological system on the attainment of core literacy skills in dyslexic and non-dyslexic poor readers. We assessed the prevalence of a persistent primary reflex in a cross-sectional, representative sample of children (n=739) aged 7-9 years old attending mainstream primary school in Northern Ireland using standardised educational tests, and a clinical diagnostic test for a primary reflex (the asymmetrical tonic neck reflex (ATNR)). Multiple regression analyses, involving all of the sample children, revealed that persistence of the ATNR was significantly predictive of attainments in reading (t=-8.34, p<.001), spelling (t=-8.00, p<.001), non-word reading (t=-16.15, p<.001), and verbal IQ (t=-4.71, p<.001). ANOVA tests revealed that there were no differences between the performance of dyslexic and non-dyslexic poor readers on any of the outcome measures (reading (F(1, 289)=0.51, p=.48), spelling (F(1, 289)=0.02, p=.90), non-word reading (F(1, 289)=0.76, p=.38), ATNR level (F(1, 289)=2.54, p=.11)). Further ANOVA tests revealed that males had significantly higher levels of persistent reflex than females (F(1, 737)=15.21, p<.001), and that children from socially disadvantaged backgrounds had significantly higher levels of reflex than children who were not socially disadvantaged (F(1, 737)=20.84, p<.001). The findings suggest that for many children in mainstream schooling, the attainment of core educational skills may be affected by the persistence of a brainstem mediated reflex system that should have been inhibited in the first year after birth. Furthermore, these findings suggest that dyslexia is not a distinct category of poor reading, and that it may be more valid to term all poor readers as dyslexic irrespective of IQ.

Age Factors↗