Comprehensive geriatric assessment

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Does disseminated sclerosis occur in the Bantu?

M. Gelfand states that disseminated sclerosis does not occur in the Bantu. F. M. K. Muwazi and H. C. Trowell in their comprehensive review of Neurological Disease among African Natives of Uganda, state 'we have never encountered any of the demyelinating diseases of the nervous system. It is true a few cases of disseminated sclerosis have been reported in Africans in West Africa, yet the case records and investigations were somewhat restricted and the autopsy material scanty'.B. Goldsteinreported 2 cases in East African Natives, one disseminated in type, the other of the progressive spastic paraplegic type seen in middle-aged persons.Craig Cochran reported a case in a non-European female of Xosa and Coloured extraction

Two-body quantum mechanical problem on spheres

The quantum mechanical two-body problem with a central interaction on the sphere ${\bf S}^{n}$ is considered. Using recent results in representation theory an ordinary differential equation for some energy levels is found. For several interactive potentials these energy levels are calculated in explicit form.Comment: 41 pages, no figures, typos corrected; appendix D was adde

Recommendations for the acute and long-term medical management of low-trauma hip fractures

Hip fractures are the most serious complication of osteoporosis and are associated with high morbidity and mortality. Generally, patients who sustain osteoporotic hip fractures are older adults who have a number of comorbiddiseases which predispose them to perioperative complications, disability and death. Furthermore, patients who survive a hip fracture are at higher risk of a subsequent fracture. The morbidity and mortality of hip fractures can be substantially reduced by a structured multidisciplinary approach to pre- and postoperative management. This review will focus on the epidemiology of hip fractures, predictors of mortality and the acute and long-term management of hip fractures

Iron bioavailability in two commercial cultivars of wheat: a comparison between wholegrain and white flour and the effects of nicotianamine and 2'-deoxymugineic acid on iron uptake into Caco-2 cells

Iron bioavailability in unleavened white and wholegrain bread made from two commercial wheat varieties was assessed by measuring ferritin production in Caco-2 cells. The breads were subjected to simulated gastrointestinal digestion and the digests applied to the Caco-2 cells. Although Riband grain contained a lower iron concentration than Rialto, iron bioavailability was higher. No iron was taken up by the cells from white bread made from Rialto flour or from wholegrain bread from either variety, but Riband white bread produced a small ferritin response. The results probably relate to differences in phytate content of the breads, although iron in soluble monoferric phytate was demonstrated to be bioavailable in the cell model. Nicotianamine, an iron chelator in plants involved in iron transport, was a more potent enhancer of iron uptake into Caco-2 cells than ascorbic acid or 2'-deoxymugineic acid, another metal chelator present in plants

Pregnancy- and lactation-associated osteoporosis

Pregnancy-and lactation-associated osteoporosis is a rare syndrome of spontaneous fractures occurring in late pregnancy or lactation. Early diagnosis and management is essential, because of the severity of the morbidityassociated with these fractures. Prior to therapy, other reversible causes of osteoporosis should be excluded through adequate investigation. Treatment includes cessation of breastfeeding, the provision of adequate pain relief,and the use of specific osteoporosis drugs, preferably those with short-term bone retention. Although there is no persuasive evidence that calcium and vitamin D requirements increase during pregnancy or lactation comparedto the non-pregnant woman of childbearing age, it is advisable to ensure that women are vitamin D replete during pregnancy and lactation

Error bounds for the large-argument asymptotic expansions of the Hankel and Bessel functions

In this paper, we reconsider the large-argument asymptotic expansions of the Hankel, Bessel and modified Bessel functions and their derivatives. New integral representations for the remainder terms of these asymptotic expansions are found and used to obtain sharp and realistic error bounds. We also give re-expansions for these remainder terms and provide their error estimates. A detailed discussion on the sharpness of our error bounds and their relation to other results in the literature is given. The techniques used in this paper should also generalize to asymptotic expansions which arise from an application of the method of steepest descents.Comment: 32 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in Acta Applicandae Mathematica

Mental Health and School Functioning for Girls in the Child Welfare System : the Mediating Role of Future Orientation and School Engagement

This study investigated the association between mental health problems and academic and behavioral school functioning for adolescent girls in the child welfare system and determined whether school engagement and future orientation meditated the relationship. Participants were 231 girls aged between 12 and 19 who had been involved with the child welfare system. Results indicated that 39% of girls reported depressive symptoms in the clinical range and 54% reported posttraumatic symptoms in the clinical range. The most common school functioning problems reported were failing a class (41%) and physical fights with other students (35%). Participants reported a mean number of 1.7 school functioning problems. Higher levels of depression and PTSD were significantly associated with more school functioning problems. School engagement fully mediated the relationship between depression and school functioning and between PTSD and school functioning, both models controlling for age, race, and placement stability. Future orientation was not significantly associated with school functioning problems at the bivariate level. Findings suggest that school engagement is a potentially modifiable target for interventions aiming to ameliorate the negative influence of mental health problems on school functioning for adolescent girls with histories of abuse or neglect

Central blockade of oxytocin receptors during mid-late gestation reduces amplitude of slow afterhyperpolarization in supraoptic oxytocin neurons

The neurohypophysial hormone oxytocin (OT), synthesized in magnocellular paraventricular (PVN) and supraoptic (SON) nuclei, is well known for its effects in lactation. Our previous studies showed that central OT receptor (OTR) binding is increased during gestation and that blockade of central OTRs, specifically during mid-late gestation, causes a delay in OT release during suckling and reduces weight gain in pups, suggesting decreased milk delivery. In the present study, we tested whether central OTR blockade during late gestation disrupts the gestation-related plasticity in intrinsic membrane properties. Whole cell current-clamp recordings were performed in OT neurons from pregnant rats (19-22 days in gestation) that were infused with an OTR antagonist (OTA) or artificial cerebrospinal fluid (aCSF) and from virgin rats infused with aCSF into the third ventricle via an osmotic minipump beginning on days 12-14 of gestation. The amplitudes of both Ca2+-dependent afterhyperpolarizations (AHPs), an apamin-sensitive medium AHP (mAHP) and an apamin-insensitive slow AHP (sAHP), were significantly increased during late gestation in control pregnant animals. However, the amplitude of the sAHP from pregnant rats treated with the OTA was significantly smaller than that of pregnant control rats and similar to that of virgins. These results indicate that the diminished efficiency in lactation due to OTR blockade may be partly a result of an altered sAHP that would shape OT bursting. These findings suggest that central actions of OT during late gestation are necessary for programming the plasticity of at least some of the intrinsic membrane properties in OT neurons during lactation. Copyright © 2008 the American Physiological Society