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[Parasitology and entomology in the 29th century in Latin American narrative].

In the present review of twelve pieces produced by distinguished 20th century Latin American writers--Jorge Luis Borges from Argentina, Jorge Amado and João Ubaldo Ribeiro from Brazil, José Donoso from Chile, Gabriel García Márquez from Colombia, Alejo Carpentier from Cuba, Miguel Angel Asturias from Guatemala, Octavio Paz from Mexico, Mario Vargas Llosa from Perú, Horacio Quiroga and Mario Benedetti from Uruguay and Arturo Uslar-Pietri from Venezuela--paragraphs or parts of paragraphs in which parasitological or entomological situations of the most varied hues are referred to or described, have been extracted in a selective form. Sometimes in these descriptions appear, local or regional expressions, without ignoring colorful folklore representations. For a easier interpretation these or part of these paragraph sentences have been arranged by thematic similarities. In a varied and kaleidoscopic vision, it will be possible to find protozoiasis (malaria, Chagas disease, leishmaniasis, amebiasis), helminthiases (ascariasis, hydatidosis, trichinosis, schistosomiasis, cysticercosis, onchocerciasis), parasitoses produced by arthropods (pediculosis, scabies, tungiasis, myiasis), passing progressively to hemaphagous arthropods (mosquitoes, gnats, horse flies, bedbugs, ticks), venomous arthropods (Latrodectus spiders, scorpions, wasps, bees), mechanical vectors (flies and cockroaches), culminating with a conjunction of bucolic arthropods (butterflies, crickets, grasshoppers cicadas, ants, centipedes, beetles, glow worms, dragonflies).

Animals↗

PubMed1995

[The scientific conceptualization of the female being. Metaphoric use in Galen's writings].

This article, a gender study of the writings of Galen, aims to investigate the reasons for the sustained claims of the inferiority of feminine nature with respect to masculine nature. We offer a reconstruction of the social values held by Galen, which conferred to him an androcentric model of knowledge that differed from the other scientific forms in existence at that time. We show that descriptions of the female organism are assiduously associated with maleness or nature, which we interpret as a metaphorical and exemplifying use for the transmission of ethical norms, and the credibility of the doctrine.

Female↗

PubMed2002

Clinical chemistry since 1800: growth and development.

The 19th and 20th centuries witnessed the growth and development of clinical chemistry. Many of the individuals and the significance of their contributions are not very well known, especially to new members of the profession. This survey should help familiarize them with the names and significance of the contributions of physicians and chemists such as Fourcroy, Berzelius, Liebig, Prout, Bright, and Rees. Folin and Van Slyke are better known, and it was their work near the end of the second decade of the 20th century that brought the clinical chemist out of the annex of the mortuary and into close relationship with the patient at the bedside. However, the impact on clinical chemistry and the practice of medicine by the 1910 exposé written by Abraham Flexner is not as well known as it deserves to be, nor is the impetus that World War I gave to the spread of laboratory medicine generally known. In the closing decades of the 20th century, automated devices produced an overabundance, and an overuse and misuse, of testing to the detriment of careful history taking and bedside examination of the patient. This is attributable in part to a fascination with machine-produced data. There was also an increased awareness of the value of chemical methods of diagnosis and the need to bring clinician and clinical chemist into a closer partnership. Clinical chemists were urged to develop services into dynamic descriptions of the diagnostic values of laboratory results and to identify medical relevance in interpreting significance for the clinician.

Animals↗

PubMed2003

Application and refinement of the WHO risk framework for recreational waters in Sydney, Australia.

Local adaptation of the World Health Organisation (WHO) Farnham approach to managing pathogen risk in recreational waters was readily achieved given the extensive microbiological beach data for Sydney, and a clear understanding of applying the 'Annapolis Protocol' sanitary survey component to beach classification. Daily enterococci counts were predicted by rainfall (>10 mm in 24 h or >5 mm over 4-5 days), or by wind direction/speed, sunlight and tide during dry periods. Quantitative microbial risk assessment models (maximum risk exponential model for gastroenteritis and adenovirus exponential model for respiratory illness) fitted the United Kingdom epidemiological data and show potential for use. Flexibility in interpreting what is important for local conditions is essential, illustrated by replacing the general descriptions in the Farnham report with more ridged values for stormwater-impacted beaches. Hence, a user-friendly format for bather risk management, based on key environmental predictors of faecal pollution (such as rainfall, wind direction and tide) should largely replace the need for regular and costly microbiological testing; providing risk estimates in real time and allowing immediate control measures, such as signage or temporary beach closures. Ongoing testing resources should be directed to understanding the source(s) of faecal contamination, comparing enterococci/enteric virus survival under warm Australian conditions and spot checks for recalibration of environmental factors.

Calibration↗

PubMed1992

[Symptom portrayal and initial therapeutic relationship of female and male patients in the initial psychoanalytic interview].

The transcripts of psychoanalytic initial interviews are analyzed in using the "Structural Analysis of Social Behavior" (SASB) by L. S. Benjamin. This instrument was chosen to detect how male and female patients talk about their symptoms, and about previous treatments. The immediate interaction with the interviewer during the dialogue was also described by using SASB. On the basis of only the first patients' utterances after the initial request of the therapists (like "What brings you here?") we can distinguish female and male patients by the quality of the relations described (to the symptoms, the previous physicians, and to the therapist). The sex-specific readiness to establish relationships which becomes apparent in these descriptions can be related to the interview situation itself. In our further argumentation we interpret them as subtle messages to the interviewer. Finally we discuss their inherent potentials and risks for the psychotherapeutic cooperation.

Adult↗

PubMed2006

'The biggest worry..': research findings on pain management for Aboriginal peoples in Northern Territory, Australia.

INTRODUCTION: Effective pain management is considered essential during end-of-life care, and is core work for the discipline of hospice and palliative care. However, although there is extensive literature on pain relief during end-of-life care for Caucasians, there are few articles that focus specifically on issues associated with pain management for Australian Aboriginal peoples. In order to address this dearth, the present article provides findings from a National Health and Medical Research Council two-year study on Aboriginal palliative care, conducted in the Northern Territory, that explored and documented issues associated with pain management for rural and remote Aboriginal peoples. METHODS: The data were collected through open-ended, qualitative interviews conducted with a cross-section of participants (consumers and health professionals) throughout the Northern Territory, Australia. There were a total of seventy-two interviews completed with a wide range of participants including patients (n = 10), carers (n = 19), Aboriginal health care workers (n = 11), healthcare professionals (n = 30) and interpreters (n = 2). The interviews were transcribed verbatim, coded and thematically analysed within a descriptive phenomenological framework. FINDINGS: To understand the problems of pain management it is important to appreciate many of the cultural practices and beliefs of Aboriginal peoples. A complexity of cultural relationship rules determine who should and should not be directly involved in providing physical care. Findings from the study show that Aboriginal peoples may have a higher threshold of pain and are less likely to complain - this is particularly so for men, who do not want to appear weak by expressing their pain. Key factors impacting on pain management are cultural concerns about 'blame' and 'pay back'. There is also a fear of Western medicine, stemming from a lack of understanding of clinical notions of pain relief, fear of the administration, side effects and ramifications of medications, and fear that Western pain medications will speed up the dying process and inhibit the passing on of traditional knowledge and secrets that occurs during end-of-life. Strategies posited for ensuring effective pain management include developing trust, timely involvement of the doctor for administering pain medication, provision of emotional support, information giving to decrease fear, provision of the 'right' information to the 'right' person and strengthening of health service provision. CONCLUSIONS: The insights provided by a diversity of Aboriginal peoples and the health professionals who care for them provide valuable wisdom with respect to the best way to ensure effective pain management is made available to Australia's first peoples. At the core of this information is the need for cultural sensitivity and respect.

Cultural Diversity↗

PubMed1976

[Advances in gammaencephalography for the study of intercranial lesions].

Simultaneously to the development of new techniques such as the computerized axial tomography, the gamma-angioencephalography is progressing in the field of cerebral investigation in its original way, keeping on non invasing character. In view to analyze this evolution we shall examine first its technical possibilities, then the extractible data of the various techniques. Finally we will consider in which way we must bring most of our effort for the best utilization of the gamma-angioencephalography in the routine work, on one hand, and for progressing in the knowledge of the physiopathology of some lesions, specially vascular accidents, on the other hand. Technical modalities are multiple. Besides the standard technique (pertechnetate angiography with rapid sequential views, regional transit curves, early and late static views) it is possible to replace or to repete the injection: --changing the patient's position, --using another radiopharmaceutical labelled with technetium -or another isotope, or two tracers for two compartments; --carrying out a pharmacodynamic or CO2 test, --using radioxenon, and secondly a pure vascular tracer, to measure relative regional blood pool and relative regional blood flow. a) morphological ones (vascular tracks, regional blood pool, radioactive areas: number, form, homogeneity, outline), b) dynamic and quantitative ones (transit times, blood flow, extravascular diffusion, changes of these parameters when changing the radiopharmaceutic, or when using a test). Progresses can take place in three ways, very closely related to each other: a) In the methodology, to precise --relative merit of the different radiocompounds according to the various cerebral lesions, --methods for examination according to the clinical problems, --computing and date processing techniques. b) In the indications, to choose the best, the simplest, though the surest method for the daily clinical problems, and the best one to assemble special information escaping to the morphological radiological techniques. This choice needs frequent and close discussions between clinicians and nuclear specialists. c) In the signification of the data, to interprate correctly: --preferential uptakes in lesions or in compartments, --changes in the relative volumes of vascular bed and extravascular space in lesions, --vascular reactivity to an hemodynamic test, --accumulation or clearance of a diffusible tracer such as xenon. It is not always easy to reach a non equivocal interpretation of a whole group of data. It can be better to give a descriptive analysis which brings together elements for the diagnosis and physiopathological observations helpful for a therapeutic action and to follow up the disease at short and long term.

Blood Flow Velocity↗

PubMed1990

Hepatic lipofuscinosis in healthy Norwegian sheep.

Sheep livers with environmental pigmentation were examined histochemically and by electron microscopy. The pigment granules in hepatocytes and Kupffer cells had abundant lipid droplets; they were interpreted as being a variant of lipofuscins. It is concluded that the presently used descriptive term for the condition, "perilobular liver melanosis" should be replaced by the expression "liver lipofuscinosis".

Animals↗

PubMed1993

An ethnography of caring and control in an acute psychiatric unit.

The setting for this study was a 19 bed general hospital psychiatric ward serving a heterogeneous population. The objective of the study was to generate thick description of the cultural knowledge patients and nurses used to organise their behaviour and interpret their experience in an acute psychiatric unit. Further aims were to describe the nature of the service provided, and more specifically to identify relationships between caring and controlling in this social context, and the outcomes for patients of caring and controlling interventions by nurses.

Hospital Units↗

PubMed1998

The synchronization principle in modelling of binding and attention.

The paper presents some mathematical models in support of the hypothesis that there is a general principle of information processing at the levels of both preattention and attention. It is claimed that at both levels, information processing is based on the coherent (synchronous) activity of neurons, neural populations, and brain structures. The difference between the two levels is presumed to relate to how synchronization is realized. At the level of preattention, synchronization results from the self-organization of the cortical activity, while at the level of attention, synchronous activity is controlled by special structures that act as a central executive. Two types of oscillatory neural networks are developed to model preattention and attention phenomena. In the preattention modelling, we concentrate on the binding problem. To solve this problem, a two-layer network of neural oscillators is developed. The network is able to generate two-frequency envelope oscillations, in which the amplitude of high-frequency oscillations is modulated by a lower frequency. This network synchronizes regions of oscillatory activity at high and low frequencies according to the type of stimulation. Such a synchronization gives feature binding for both simple and complex stimuli. Networks of phase oscillators with a central element are used to described different dynamic behaviour associated with the attention focus formation and switching. For the input to the attention system represented by two stimuli, we give a complete description of conditions when a specific attention focus can be formed. The results are interpreted and discussed in terms of attention modelling. This includes the interpretation of psychological experiments on visual selective attention, the problem of attention focus formation and the possibility of spontaneous attention switching .

Attention↗

PubMed1999

The interpretation of Mg(2+) binding isotherms for nucleic acids using Poisson-Boltzmann theory.

Magnesium ions play a crucial role in the structural integrity and biological activity of nucleic acids. Experimental thermodynamic descriptions of Mg(2+) interactions with nucleic acids in solution have generally relied on the analyses of binding polynomials to estimate the energetic contributions of diffuse and site-bound ions. However, since ion binding is dominated by long-range electrostatic forces, such models provide only a phenomenological description of the experimental Mg(2+) binding data and provide little insight into the actual mechanism of the binding equilibria. Here, we present a rigorous theoretical framework based on the non-linear Poisson-Boltzmann (NLPB) equation for understanding diffuse ion interactions that can be used to interpret experimental Mg(2+) binding isotherms. As intuitively expected, in the NLPB model binding is simply the total accumulation of the ion around the nucleic acid. Comparing the experimental data to the calculated curves shows that the NLPB equation provides a remarkably accurate description of Mg(2+) binding to linear polynucleotides like DNA and poly(A x U) without any fitted parameters. In particular, the NLPB model explains two general features of magnesium binding; the strong dependence on univalent salt concentration, and its substantial anticooperativity. Each of these effects can be explained by changes in the Mg(2+) distribution around the polyion under different solution conditions. In order to more fully understand these different aspects of magnesium binding, the free energy of Mg(2+) binding, DeltaGMg, is calculated and partitioned into several salt-dependent contributions: the change in the electrostatic interaction free energy of the charges, DeltaDeltaGE.D (including Mg(2+)-phosphate, Mg(2+)-Mg(2+), Mg(2+)-Na(+), Na(+)-Na(+), Na(+)-phosphate interactions, and similar contributions for Cl(-)) and the cratic free energies of (re)organizing the MgCl2 and NaCl atmospheres, DeltaG(Mg)org and DeltaDeltaG(Na)org, respectively. For the systems studied here, DeltaGMg is strongly influenced by entropic free energy changes in the distributions of both NaCl and MgCl2, DeltaG(Mg)org and DeltaDeltaG(Na)org. From this analysis, we also raise the possibility that coions added with the magnesium salt might play an important role in the overall stability of nucleic acids under some conditions.

Binding, Competitive↗

PubMed2007

An investigation of skeletal indicators of vitamin D deficiency in adults: effective markers for interpreting past living conditions and pollution levels in 18th and 19th century Birmingham, England.

Vitamin D deficiency in adults is referred to as osteomalacia, and this condition has multiple causes related to factors such as environment, living conditions and cultural practices. Therefore, understanding the types and range of expression of osteomalacia in archaeological bone, using a number of investigative techniques, will have significant implications for interpretations made about past communities. This study aimed to understand the expression of vitamin D deficiency in the skeletons of adults through detailed analysis of human bone from the late 18(th) and 19(th) century churchyard of St. Martin's, Birmingham, England, at a gross, radiological and histological level. The collection from St. Martin's is unusual for the period as this central burial ground in Birmingham was used by a wide cross section of society rather than a narrow socio-economic group as at other sites of this date. Macroscopic and radiological analysis of 291 adults identified seven individuals with osteomalacia, and histological analysis using back-scattered scanning electron microscopy confirmed the findings. Detailed description of the range of pathological alterations observed in the archaeological skeletons are presented, and possible interpretations of the patterns seen considered. The results of this investigation will enable clear diagnosis and interpretation of this vitamin D deficiency disease, an important socio-economic indicator, to take place in the future.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1986

Interpretation of biological ion channel flux data--reaction-rate versus continuum theory.

Although the reaction-rate theory may provide a useful mathematical description of the channel flux, it presents a misleading physical picture of the channel structure. There is a tendency to regard the barriers in the model as actual physical structures, whereas they are actually only mathematical artifacts that allow one to reduce a complicated differential equation with an infinite number of states to a finite difference equation with a minimum number of states. I argue that the energy profile in the permeation pathway of most biological channels should vary relatively smoothly with only a few localized energy barriers or wells. In these smoothly varying regions, the resistance to ion movement is similar to bulk diffusion and cannot be accurately modeled by one or two energy barriers. For the one-ion channel, the continuum approach is as general and at least as simple as the reaction-rate theory and may provide a more physical interpretation of the data. Thus for the SR K+ channel, the structure suggested by the reaction-rate theory seems inconsistent with some experimental data, while the continuum-theory model is not only consistent with, but complements, the structure suggested by other data. Multi-ion channels have such complicated kinetics that one can only expect the theories to provide a qualitative description of the experimental data. They can be modeled by either the reaction-rate model or a finite difference approximation to the continuum model.

Animals↗

PubMed1994

What is a clinical fact? Clinical psychoanalysis as inductive method.

This paper is an inquiry into the nature of clinical facts in psychoanalysis. The attainment of representability of psychic reality being requisite for insight, the author examines inductive processes on the part of both analyst and analysand, which are to be considered proper aspects of the study of clinical facts. It is argued that the analyst chooses his interpretations guided in good measure by nonverbal material, based on how he intuits that he is 'used' by the analysand and the ways the analysand feels 'used' by him; such nonverbal clues on the nature of the unconscious relational 'frames' operating in sessions guide him to select relevant associations from the universe of the analysand's verbal utterances. He thus comes to voice his interpretations, purveying a 'mapping' of psychic reality that typically makes use of a new viewpoint for description. Insight is achieved when the analysand attains ostensive refutation or redefinition of his unconscious 'theories' about the relationship, and this happens only in concrete individual situations, when the effects of his relational unconscious 'theories' come to be contrasted observationally in diverse 'screens', perceptual and mnemic, against the background of the analyst's neutrality: in such a way unconscious 'theories' attain the Pcs.-Cs. domain of the 'no'.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1990

Description of enzyme kinetics in reversed micelles. 1. Theory.

In the literature measurements of kinetic data of enzymes in reversed micelles have been interpreted in two ways. In the first, all enzyme parameters are expressed with respect to the total volume of the reversed micellar solution. In the second, the enzymatic conversion is related only to the fraction of the volume consisting of aqueous solution (pseudophase model). In this paper equations are derived describing the rate of an enzymatic reaction for three different kinds of enzymes: enzymes obeying Michaelis-Menten kinetics, enzymes following a ping-pong bi-bi mechanism and enzymes which convert substrates according to an ordered mechanism. In deriving these equations, a distinction is made between intermicellar exchange reactions of substrate(s) and product(s) and the enzymatic reaction which takes place in the waterpool of a reversed micelle. In the description, all intrinsic rate constants of the enzyme are assumed to be independent of its environment. The rate equations show that the presence and efficiency of the intermicellar exchange reaction, which supplies the enzyme with substrate and removes product, can affect the rate of an enzymatic reaction under common experimental conditions. Whereas kinetic parameters derived from double-reciprocal plots often seem to be affected by enclosure in reversed micelles, these apparent deviations from kinetics in aqueous media can be explained by the model presented here as arising from exchange phenomena. Neither the experimentally determined maximum enzyme velocity, vmax, nor the Michaelis constants are affected by the incorporation of the enzyme in reversed micelles. The deviations of kinetic parameters from the aqueous values are shown to depend strongly on the concentration of reversed micelles, the intermicellar exchange rate and the volume fraction of water, a dependence in agreement with findings reported in the literature.

Colloids↗

PubMed2004

Women's interpretation of cervical smear test results.

Screening for cervical cancer using the Papanicolaou smear test has been available in England since the 1960s, yet very little is known about how women interpret their test results. This questionnaire study required women to explain, in their own words, the meaning of normal and abnormal test results. It was discovered that the use of the word cell as a description of findings was extremely common, and that a proportion of subjects equated abnormal results with technical inadequacy. The frequency of circularity in the interpretations, i.e. interpreting 'normal' as 'not abnormal' and vice versa, was striking. Contrary to previous research, we find that, whilst many women interpret normal results as indicating the current absence of cancer, few appear to believe that future cancer is thereby definitively ruled out. By the same token, only a very small minority interpret abnormal results as definitive of cancer.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2005

Path analysis of factors for delayed healing and nonunion in 416 operatively treated tibial shaft fractures.

UNLABELLED: A prospective observational study was done in 41 trauma centers. Four hundred sixteen patients with tibial shaft fractures were treated operatively and followed up for at least 6 months. Fifty-two (13%) cases of delayed healing or nonunion were reported. In such nonrandomized observational studies, multiple interrelationships exist between prognostic factors and patient outcomes. We used path analyses to investigate prognostic factors associated with the occurrence of delayed healing or nonunion. The most important factors were identified using multivariate regression analyses, and interrelationships between factors were illustrated using a path diagram. Fractures with open injuries less than and greater than 5 cm were 3.6 and 5.7 times as likely, respectively, to have delayed healing or nonunion as fractures with no skin injuries. The Müller-AO classification of fractures did not provide additional prognostic information. The risk of healing problems was doubled for fractures of the distal shaft and for fractures showing a postoperative diastasis. Treatment options showed an indirect effect on outcome with the occurrence of diastasis. A model for predicting delayed healing or nonunion is proposed. We encourage the use of path analysis in orthopaedics as a powerful visual technique to interpret data from observational studies. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Prognostic study, Level II-1 (retrospective study). See the Guidelines for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1980

[Coronary spasm during coronary arteriography. Classification and interpretative criteria].

Coronary spasm during selective coronary angiography have multiple explanation. In some instances there is no true pathological implication (catether induced spasm), in other instances, instead, a clear relationship with "functional" angina and myocardial infarction exists. Moreover, in few occasions may only be a false positive radiologic image (apparent spasm). The angiographic features of coronary spasm, however, are always the same, indipendently from its clinical significance and pathophysiologic mechanism. In this paper the Authors are not limiting their experience to the morphologic description of this event, rather describe the clinical criteria which, together with angiographic picture, may be useful in the interpretation of the physiopathology of the coronary artery spasm.

Angiography↗