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Studies Bearing on Coronary Heart Disease in South African Populations

In South Africa, populations may be observed in various stages of transition from primitiveness to sophistication. Among them there are different prevalences of coronary heart disease (CHD); it is very common in Whites, somewhat less common in Indians, but remains rare in Bantu. Information on these populatio.ls is presented in relation to expectation of life and age structure, prevalences of serum cholesterol level, hypertension, overweight, smokIng, physical inactivity and stress. It is considered that risk factors, in respect of CHD proneness, do not have the same connotations of noxiousness in different populations. In seeking to avoid the ill-effects of CHD risk factors, it is considered that the likelihood of persons, particularly the young, significantly altering their habits to reduce or delay CHD, is very remote.S. Afr. Med. J., 47, 85 (1973

Survival outlook for middle-aged populations in South Africa

The following topics are discussed, with special reference to changing patterns in the South African populations: (i) diet; (ii) mortality of the young; (iii) growth, overweight and obesity; (iv) arterial disease; (v) mortality in the middle-aged and elderly. The view is reached that with progressive sophistication .of diet and manner of life, the concomitant change from infections and nutritional deficiencies to degenerative diseases, as main causes of death at middle-age and beyond, reduces rather than increases chances of survival. The possibility that the ultimate longevity of populations may be genetically programmed is briefly discussed.S. Afr. Med. J., 48, 2053 (1974)

Erratum

In the editorial entitled 'Are our health goals realistic or idealistic?' by A. R. P. Walker et al., which appeared on pp. 235 - 237 of the April 1995 SAMJ, the infant mortality rates quoted in the second paragraph of the left-hand column on p. 236 should have been expressed as per 1 000 live births and not as percentages. Reference 23 was also incorrect, and should have read as follows:23. lunes RF, Monteiro CA. The improvement in child nutritional status in Brazil: howdid it occur? 15th International Congress of Nutrition, Adelaide. Australia, 26 Sep - 1 Dct 1993 (Abstracts Book 2. p. 747)

Editorial: World Health Organisation 'Healthy Life Expectancy in 191 Countries, 1999' - What of the future?

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Be stars and binaries in the field of the SMC open cluster NGC330 with VLT-FLAMES

Observations of hot stars belonging to the young cluster SMC-NGC330 and its surrounding region were obtained with the VLT-GIRAFFE facilities in MEDUSA mode. We investigated the B and Be star properties and proportions in this environment of low metallicity. We also searched for rapid variability in Be stars using photometric databases. With spectroscopic measurements we characterized the emission and properties of Be stars. By cross-correlation with photometric databases such as MACHO and OGLE, we searched for binaries in our sample of hot stars, as well as for short-term variability in Be stars. We report on the global characteristics of the Be star sample (131 objects). We find that the proportion of early Be stars with a large equivalent width of the Halpha emission line is higher in the SMC than in the LMC and MW. We find a slight increase in the proportion of Be stars compared to B-type stars with decreasing metallicity. We also discovered spectroscopic and photometric binaries, and for the latter we give their orbital period. We identify 13 Be stars with short-term variability. We determine their period(s) and find that 9 Be stars are multiperiodic.Comment: english not yet corrected, 23 pages, 4th article about the study in the LMC NGC2004 and SMC NGC33

Altered tumor formation and evolutionary selection of genetic variants in the human MDM4 oncogene

A large body of evidence strongly suggests that the p53 tumor suppressor pathway is central in reducing cancer frequency in vertebrates. The protein product of the haploinsufficient mouse double minute 2 (MDM2) oncogene binds to and inhibits the p53 protein. Recent studies of human genetic variants in p53 and MDM2 have shown that single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) can affect p53 signaling, confer cancer risk, and suggest that the pathway is under evolutionary selective pressure (1–4). In this report, we analyze the haplotype structure of MDM4, a structural homolog of MDM2, in several different human populations. Unusual patterns of linkage disequilibrium (LD) in the haplotype distribution of MDM4 indicate the presence of candidate SNPs that may also modify the efficacy of the p53 pathway. Association studies in 5 different patient populations reveal that these SNPs in MDM4 confer an increased risk for, or early onset of, human breast and ovarian cancers in Ashkenazi Jewish and European cohorts, respectively. This report not only implicates MDM4 as a key regulator of tumorigenesis in the human breast and ovary, but also exploits for the first time evolutionary driven linkage disequilibrium as a means to select SNPs of p53 pathway genes that might be clinically relevant

Horizontal Branch Stars: The Interplay between Observations and Theory, and Insights into the Formation of the Galaxy

We review HB stars in a broad astrophysical context, including both variable and non-variable stars. A reassessment of the Oosterhoff dichotomy is presented, which provides unprecedented detail regarding its origin and systematics. We show that the Oosterhoff dichotomy and the distribution of globular clusters (GCs) in the HB morphology-metallicity plane both exclude, with high statistical significance, the possibility that the Galactic halo may have formed from the accretion of dwarf galaxies resembling present-day Milky Way satellites such as Fornax, Sagittarius, and the LMC. A rediscussion of the second-parameter problem is presented. A technique is proposed to estimate the HB types of extragalactic GCs on the basis of integrated far-UV photometry. The relationship between the absolute V magnitude of the HB at the RR Lyrae level and metallicity, as obtained on the basis of trigonometric parallax measurements for the star RR Lyrae, is also revisited, giving a distance modulus to the LMC of (m-M)_0 = 18.44+/-0.11. RR Lyrae period change rates are studied. Finally, the conductive opacities used in evolutionary calculations of low-mass stars are investigated. [ABRIDGED]Comment: 56 pages, 22 figures. Invited review, to appear in Astrophysics and Space Scienc

Optical multiband surface photometry of a sample of Seyfert galaxies. I. Large-scale morphology and local environment analysis of matched Seyfert and inactive galaxy samples

Parallel analysis of the large-scale morphology and local environment of matched active and control galaxy samples plays an important role in studies of the fueling of active galactic nuclei. We carry out a detailed morphological characterization of a sample of 35 Seyfert galaxies and a matched sample of inactive galaxies in order to compare the evidence of non-axisymmetric perturbation of the potential and, in the second part of this paper, to be able to perform a multicomponent photometric decomposition of the Seyfert galaxies. We constructed contour maps, BVRcIc profiles of the surface brightness, ellipticity, and position angle, as well as colour index profiles. We further used colour index images, residual images, and structure maps, which helped clarify the morphology of the galaxies. We studied the presence of close companions using literature data. By straightening out the morphological status of some of the objects, we derived an improved morphological classification and built a solid basis for a further multicomponent decomposition of the Seyfert sample. We report hitherto undetected (to our knowledge) structural components in some Seyfert galaxies - a bar (Ark 479), an oval/lens (Mrk 595), rings (Ark 120, Mrk 376), a nuclear bar and ring (Mrk 352), and nuclear dust lanes (Mrk 590). We compared the large-scale morphology and local environment of the Seyfert sample to those of the control one and found that (1) the two samples show similar incidences of bars, rings, asymmetries, and close companions; (2) the Seyfert bars are generally weaker than the bars of the control galaxies; (3) the bulk of the two samples shows morphological evidence of non-axisymmetric perturbations of the potential or close companions; (4) the fueling of Seyfert nuclei is not directly related to the large-scale morphology and local environment of their host galaxies.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&