Il-ghana f'halq il-Malti

Part 2 of this article was issued in Lehen il-Malti (1931) - no. 2 (April). https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar//handle/123456789/20483In this article Guze Aquilina discusses and analyzes folk music in relation to the Maltese language. Aquilina also examines the role of folk music in a social context.peer-reviewe

Hepatic encephalopathy: a neurochemical, neuroanatomical, and neuropsychological study.

Hepatic encephalopathy (HE) is normally diagnosed by neuropsychological (NP) tests, which are not very specific and do not reveal the underlying pathology. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and spectroscopy (MRS) of the brain offer alternative and possibly more specific markers for HE. These methods were applied in conjunction with NP testing in order to determine their usefulness in the identification of HE and to understand the pathogenesis of HE more clearly. MR imaging and spectroscopy examinations, in addition to a battery of 15 NP tests, were administered to investigate 31 patients awaiting liver transplantation and 23 healthy controls. MR image intensities from the globus pallidus region were calculated and normalized to those of the thalamus. Absolute concentrations and ratios with respect to creatine (Cr) of several metabolites were computed from MR spectra. The MR data were correlated with the results of NP tests. The patients showed impairment in NP tests of attention and visuospatial and verbal fluency. In T1-weighted MRI, the relative intensity of the globus pallidus with respect to that of the thalamus region was significantly elevated in patients and correlated(negatively) with three NP tests (Hooper, FAS, and Trails B). The absolute concentrations of myo-inositol (mI) and choline (Ch) were significantly reduced in three brain regions. In addition, the absolute concentrations of glutamine (Gln) and combined glutamate and glutamine (Glx) were increased in all three locations, with Gln increase being significant in all areas while that of Glx only in the occipital white matter. In summary, this study partially confirms a hypothesized mechanism of HE pathogenesis, an increased synthesis of glutamine by brain glutamate in astrocytes due to excessive blood ammonia, followed by a compensatory loss of myo-inositol to maintain astrocyte volume homeostasis. It also indicates that the hyperintensity observed in globus pallidus could be used as complementary to the NP test scores in evaluating the mental health of HE patients

Depression und Suizidalität

Even if the freedom to suicide is part of our human existence, about 90% of all suicides occur in the context of psychiatric disorders and thus in states of limited power of judgment. Depressive disorders represent the most frequent cause for suicides. Thus, optimization of medical care for depressive patients is one of the most promising strategies to prevent suicides. In the context of the `Nuremberg Alliance Against Depression' it came to an obvious reduction of suicidal acts compared to a baseline year and compared to the control region of Wurzburg. The reduction could be reached by a cooperation with GPs, multipliers such as teachers, priests, geriatric caregivers and the media, through intensive public relations work and through support of self help activities. This approach is carried forward within the Germany-wide `Alliance Against Depression' and within the `European Alliance Against Depression' ( EAAD) which is funded by the European Commission. In the last part of the article the suicide- preventive, but also the possible suicide-inducing effect of antidepressants is discussed

Samuel B. Guze Oral History

An interview of the Washington University Medical Center Desegregation History Project, conducted by Edwin W. McCleskey and associates, 1990. Approximate Length: 49 minutes. Samuel Guze discusses his experience with segregation and desegregation of Barnes Hospital, Renard Hospital, as well as its psychiatric service and unit. He guesses the psychiatric service desegregated the Barnes Hospital psychiatric unit in October 1953. He describes the desegregation of Washington University School of Medicine. He says the Executive Faculty gave the admissions committee discretion in flexible criteria for admission for those with disadvantaged educational background. Roy Vagelos of biochemistry was a key player on the executive faculty along with John Herweg, who headed the admissions committee starting in the early 1960s. Guze recalled that the first African American medical student admitted had difficulty and the second had no difficulty, but the Executive Faculty wanted more African Americans admitted and numbers did not start to go up significantly until about 1968. Guze says this was due to the hiring of Robert Lee, Assistant Dean for Minority Affairs. Guze discusses the parallel but related desegregation of the St. Louis City Hospital and health care systems. He notes that the segregated city healthcare system included two large general hospitals, Homer G. Phillips Hospital for Blacks and the older St. Louis City Hospital No. 1 for whites. He explains that there was one psychiatric unit at the Malcolm Bliss Center for whites and a separate psychiatric unit for Blacks run by Black psychiatrists at Homer G. Phillips. Guze recalls the teaching arrangement with Homer G. Phillips was less complete and depended on personal relationships in each service. Guze notes that desegregation of both facilities led the city to evaluate whether the city needed two large general hospital complexes. A group of Black physicians approached Guze in the 1970s about an affiliation, but Guze insisted on conditions that Homer G. Phillips was not prepared to meet then, including the right to appoint medical staff

A note on bifurcation of equilibrium forms of a gas baloon parachute

We will be concerned with deformations of a free elastic top rim of a parachute of a gas balloon. The top rim is connected with the circular deflation port of the balloon envelope by heavy duty flexible load tapes. The inside part of the balloon is filled with compressed gas. Equilibrium forms of the parachute may be found as solutions of a certain nonlinear functional-differential equation with two physical parameters: an elasticity coefficient of tapes and a physical parameter describing compressed gas. This equation possesses radially symmetric solutions corresponding to circular shapes of the top rim. Our goal is to study the existence of symmetry breaking bifurcation of the top rim of parachute