Ear piercing: A review on the legislative regulations and potential health hazards; its relevance to family physicians

Ear piercing is very popular. Legislation regulating the practice of ear piercing is lacking in Hong Kong. Complications arising from this normally low risk procedure do occur, especially with high ear piercing and improper techniques or instruments. This article reviews the existing legislations governing ear-piercing in different countries and the potential health hazards associated with ear-piercing. We hope to increase the awareness of the general public and primary care physicians to the potential serious medical problems that can result from such a minor procedure, which is performed for cosmetic reasons; and to prevent these complications from happening.published_or_final_versio

Multiscale characterization of chronobiological signals based on the discrete wavelet transform

To compensate for the deficiency of conventional frequency-domain or time-domain analysis, this paper presents a multiscale approach to characterize the chronobiological time series (CTS) based on a discrete wavelet transform (DWT). We have shown that the local modulus maxima and zero-crossings of the wavelet coefficients at different scales give a complete characterization of rhythmic activities. We further constructed a tree scheme to represent those interacting activities across scales. Using the bandpass filter property of the DWT in the frequency domain, we also characterized the band-related activities by calculating energy in respective rhythmic bands. Moreover, since there is a fast and easily implemented algorithm for the DWT, this new approach may simplify the signal processing and provide a more efficient and complete study of the temporal-frequency dynamics of the CTS. Preliminary results are presented using the proposed method on the locomotion of mice under altered lighting conditions, verifying its competency for CTS analysis. | To compensate for the deficiency of conventional frequency-domain or time-domain analysis, this paper presents a multiscale approach to characterize the chronobiological time series (CTS) based on a discrete wavelet transform (DWT). We have shown that the local modulus maxima and zero-crossings of the wavelet coefficients at different scales give a complete characterization of rhythmic activities. We further constructed a tree scheme to represent those interacting activities across scales. Using the bandpass filter property of the DWT in the frequency domain, we also characterized the band-related activities by calculating energy in respective rhythmic bands. Moreover, since there is a fast and easily implemented algorithm for the DWT, this next approach may simplify the signal processing and provide a more efficient and complete study of the temporal-frequency dynamics of the CTS. Preliminary results are presented using the proposed method on the locomotion of mice under altered lighting conditions, verifying its competency for CTS analysis.published_or_final_versio

Ontogeny of 2-[ 125I]iodomelatonin binding sites in the chicken (Gallus domesticus) kidney and spleen

To understand the possible role of melatonin receptors in the development of renal and immune functions, age-related variations of 2-[ 125I]iodomelatonin binding sites in the chicken kidney and spleen were investigated by radioreceptor assay. Chickens at embryonic day 20, as well as 2 days, 9 days, 2 weeks, 6 weeks, 12 weeks, and 16 weeks after hatching, were kept under a 12 h light : 12 h dark photoperiod and killed at the middle of the light period. Binding sites for 2-[ 125I]iodomelatonin in membrane preparations of the chicken kidney and spleen were present on embryonic day 20. The maximum binding densities (B(max)) in the kidney increased to a peak between 9 days and 2 weeks of age, then progressively decreased. B(max) values of 2-[ 125I]iodomelatonin binding sites in the chicken spleen were lower than in the kidney. The peak density in the chicken spleen was recorded at day 2 after hatching and decreased significantly after 6 weeks of age. There were no significant differences in binding affinities (K(d)) in kidney and spleen of chicken in the different age groups studied. The unity of Hill coefficients of 2-[ 125I]iodomelatonin binding sites of the chicken kidney and spleen in all age groups tested suggested that only a single class of binding sites was present in these tissues during development. It is proposed that the developmental changes in 2-[ 125I]iodomelatonin binding sites in the chicken kidney and spleen may be pertinent to the development of diurnal rhythms of kidney functions and the post-pubertal decline in immune functions of the chicken.published_or_final_versio

Breast reconstruction with transverse rectus abdominis musculocutaneous (TRAM) flap in young women with breast cancer

Since its introduction in 1982, the transverse rectus nbdominis musculocutaneous (TRAM) flop has become the standard for autogenous breast reconstruction. However, it has serious potential complications. In this article, the 10 TRAM flaps performed at Princess Margaret Hospital from December 1993 to September 1994 for young women with breast carcinoma were evaluated to assess the safety and complications of this technique. Majority of the patients were satisfied with the cosmetic outcome.published_or_final_versio

Multiscale analysis of activity rhythms of animals

In this paper we propose a multiscale approach to analyze locomotion activity rhythms of animals. The Wavelet Transform (WT) is used to decompose the locomotion signal into different scales. An activity-section segmentation procedure is introduced to segment different scale activity sections following a strategy of from large scale to small scale with the results arranged in a tree description. Furthermore, each activity segment can be characterized by several parameters. Initial study results on mice are presented.published_or_final_versio

A PC-based system for long-term monitoring of animal activity

This paper describes a PC-based animal locomotor and sound activities synchronous analysis and recording system. In the former, using video recording and image analysis techniques, the geometric locations of an animal in a cage and its bodily displacement areas between consecutive time in two-dimensions were detected. Tremendous data reduction rate has also been obtained (512×512:4), which facilitates our PC computer (Pentium 100) to perform a long-term (up to several weeks according to the space of hard disk) and on-line (1 sec) analysis and storage of the animal locomotor signals. In the latter, the sounds generated by the animal were recorded at the cage over a consecutive 1-sec time and its root mean square (RMS) value was used to index the sound level. Our preliminary study showed that such a combination of monitoring and recording system gives a faithful and comprehensive representation of animal activity.published_or_final_versio

Characterization of the chronobiological signals based on the continuous wavelet transform

Chronobiology, which studies periodic patterns or rhythms of the living beings, often needs to characterize the observed chronobiological time series (CTS) and to study the stability and adaptability of the periodic patterns in different environmental conditions. Fourier transform (FT) based methods and complex demodulation (CD) approach have been widely used in such study. However, the former lacks temporal resolution and the later needs to extract the temporal behaviors of individual frequencies. In this paper, we proposed a new approach to characterize the CTS based on the continuous wavelet transform (CWT). It allows us to investigate the time-frequency dynamics of different rhythmic-band activities in the CTS simultaneously. Two application results have been presented to illustrate the proposed method.published_or_final_versio

Melatonin attenuates pulmonary hypertension in chronically hypoxic rats

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Reversal of long-latency reflexes in first dorsal interosseous during a force-tracking task

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