Economic Consequences of Health Status: A Review of the Evidence

The correlation between health and economic performance is extremely robust across communities and over time. Many factors exogenous to income play an important role in determining health status, including a number of geographical, environmental, and evolutionary factors. This suggests the existence of simultaneous impacts of health on wealth and wealth on health. Potential health impacts on national economic performance are explored, and some important unanswered questions are identified.health, economic growth, human capital

Comment on ``Solidification of a Supercooled Liquid in a Narrow Channel''

Comment on PRL v. 86, p. 5084 (2001) [cond-mat/0101016]. We point out that the authors' simulations are consistent with the known theory of steady-state solutions in this system

Economic Consequences of Health Status: A Review of the Evidence

The correlation between health and economic performance is extremely robust across communities and over time. Many factors exogenous to income play an important role in determining health status, including a number of geographical, environmental, and evolutionary factors. This suggests the existence of simultaneous impacts of health on wealth and wealth on health. Potential health impacts on national economic performance are explored, and some important unanswered questions are identified

The Changing Global Distribution of Malaria: A Review

Organized efforts to reduce the burden of malaria are as old as human societies. Understanding the historical relationships between humankind and malaria is important for natural and social scientists studying the disease, as well as policy makers trying to control it. Malaria once extended widely throughout the old world, reaching as far north as 64ºN latitude and as far south as 32ºS latitude. Today, however, malaria is almost exclusively a problem of the geographical tropics. Analysis of historical changes in malaria prevalence suggests a number of factors which help to determine the likelihood and sustainability of success in malaria control. Among these are geography, evolutionary history of flora and fauna, infrastructure, and land use. It is due to these factors, much more than socio-economic ones, that attempts to control or interrupt transmission of the disease have historically been most successful on islands, in temperate climates, or at high elevations

Quantitative assay and subcellular distribution of enzymes acting on dolichyl phosphate in rat liver

To establish on a quantitative basis the subcellular distribution of the enzymes that glycosylate dolichyl phosphate in rat liver, preliminary kinetic studies on the transfer of mannose, glucose, and N-acetylglucosamine-1-phosphate from the respective (14)C- labeled nucleotide sugars to exogenous dolichyl phosphate were conducted in liver microsomes. Mannosyltransferase, glucosyltransferase, and, to a lesser extent, N- acetylglucosamine-phosphotransferase were found to be very unstable at 37 degrees C in the presence of Triton X-100, which was nevertheless required to disperse the membranes and the lipid acceptor in the aqueous reaction medium. The enzymes became fairly stable in the range of 10-17 degrees C and the reactions then proceeded at a constant velocity for at least 15 min. Conditions under which the reaction products are formed in amount proportional to that of microsomes added are described. For N- acetylglucosaminephosphotransferase it was necessary to supplement the incubation medium with microsomal lipids. Subsequently, liver homogenates were fractionated by differential centrifugation, and the microsome fraction, which contained the bulk of the enzymes glycosylating dolichyl phosphate, was analyzed by isopycnic centrifugation in a sucrose gradient without any previous treatment, or after addition of digitonin. The centrifugation behavior of these enzymes was compared to that of a number of reference enzymes for the endoplasmic reticulum, the golgi complex, the plasma membranes, and mitochondria. It was very simily to that of enzymes of the endoplasmic reticulum, especially glucose-6-phosphatase. Subcellular preparations enriched in golgi complex elements, plasma membranes, outer membranes of mitochondira, or mitoplasts showed for the transferases acting on dolichyl phosphate relative activities similar to that of glucose- 6-phosphatase. It is concluded that glycosylations of dolichyl phosphate into mannose, glucose, and N-acetylglucosamine-1-phosphate derivatives is restricted to the endoplasmic reticulum in liver cells, and that the enzymes involved are similarly active in the smooth and in the rough elements

Extending the scope of microscopic solvability: Combination of the Kruskal-Segur method with Zauderer decomposition

Successful applications of the Kruskal-Segur approach to interfacial pattern formation have remained limited due to the necessity of an integral formulation of the problem. This excludes nonlinear bulk equations, rendering convection intractable. Combining the method with Zauderer's asymptotic decomposition scheme, we are able to strongly extend its scope of applicability and solve selection problems based on free boundary formulations in terms of partial differential equations alone. To demonstrate the technique, we give the first analytic solution of the problem of velocity selection for dendritic growth in a forced potential flow.Comment: Submitted to Europhys. Letters, No figures, 5 page

Puffy Foot Syndrome: An Important Often Overlooked Clinical Entity

The puffy foot syndrome, a novel clinical entity, describes the complication of secondary lymphedema with chronic progression in the feet, a finding that has often been overlooked in the non-tropical setting. While previously well described in the upper extremities, this complication has not been fully explored in the lower extremities. However, given increasing rates of diabetes mellitus, obesity, and a myriad of other possible etiologies in the United States, it is important to understand this entity and its non-viral, non-parasitic causes in non-tropical regions. This review delineates common illustrative properties of this syndrome observed in clinical practice as well as long-term complications, including Ruocco’s immunocompromised cutaneous district, that are often overlooked. Furthermore, a novel method of staging is suggested for this condition, reflective of increasing risk of complication, infection, and malignancy. We also highlight the increased need for improved detection and recognition of this condition to avoid possibly deleterious outcomes

Puffy Foot Syndrome: An Important Often Overlooked Clinical Entity

The puffy foot syndrome, a novel clinical entity, describes the complication of secondary lymphedema with chronic progression in the feet, a finding that has often been overlooked in the non-tropical setting. While previously well described in the upper extremities, this complication has not been fully explored in the lower extremities. However, given increasing rates of diabetes mellitus, obesity, and a myriad of other possible etiologies in the United States, it is important to understand this entity and its non-viral, non-parasitic causes in non-tropical regions. This review delineates common illustrative properties of this syndrome observed in clinical practice as well as long-term complications, including Ruocco’s immunocompromised cutaneous district, that are often overlooked. Furthermore, a novel method of staging is suggested for this condition, reflective of increasing risk of complication, infection, and malignancy. We also highlight the increased need for improved detection and recognition of this condition to avoid possibly deleterious outcomes