I Wish To-Day Were Yesterday And Yesterday To-Day

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Elders and End-of-Life Medical Decisions: Legal Context, Psychological Issues, and Recommendations to Attorneys Serving Seniors

Much more than the disposition of worldly goods must be considered when preparing legal documents for end-of-life situations. This article stresses the necessity of client autonomy in preparing dispositional gifts as well as decision planning for medical care and treatment for senior citizens, and also explains the concept of Generatively: the desire to contribute to the well-being of . . . future generations

Schroedinger equation for joint bidirectional motion in time

The conventional, time-dependent Schroedinger equation describes only unidirectional time evolution of the state of a physical system, i.e., forward or, less commonly, backward. This paper proposes a generalized quantum dynamics for the description of joint, and interactive, forward and backward time evolution within a physical system. [...] Three applications are studied: (1) a formal theory of collisions in terms of perturbation theory; (2) a relativistically invariant quantum field theory for a system that kinematically comprises the direct sum of two quantized real scalar fields, such that one field evolves forward and the other backward in time, and such that there is dynamical coupling between the subfields; (3) an argument that in the latter field theory, the dynamics predicts that in a range of values of the coupling constants, the expectation value of the vacuum energy of the universe is forced to be zero to high accuracy. [...]Comment: 30 pages, no figures. Related material is in quant-ph/0404012. Differs from published version by a few added remarks on the possibility of a large-scale-average negative energy density in spac

Epidemiologic Survey of Kawasaki Disease in Jilin from 1999 Through 2008

The epidemiologic pictures of Kawasaki disease (KD) in Jilin Province of China is still not clear. We sent a questionnaire form and diagnostic guidelines for KD to the province's 32 hospitals above the county and city level with pediatric in-patients. All patients with KD diagnosed during January 1999 through December 2008 were recruited in this survey. The incidence of KD was 1.39 to 11.07 (5.26 ± 3.97) per 100,000 children under the age of 5 years between 1999 and 2008. The ratio of male to female was 1.96 to 1. Ages at onset ranged from 58 days to 14 years. Patients under 5 years of age accounted of 88.73%. The disease occurred throughout the year, but it occurred more frequently in May to July and November. The most common cardiac abnormality was coronary artery dilatation (49.5%). Age at onset and hypoalbuminemia (<30 g/l) were selected for multivariate logistic regression equation. In conclusion, incidences of KD increased in Jilin Province. Age and gender distribution shared similarities with previous reports, and the seasonal distribution was different. Age and lower serum albumin were the most important risk factors of coronary arterial lesions (CAL) in KD. In addition, patients treated with steroids also had a possible heightened risk of contracting CAL

Therapie der Syphilis

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Identification of Spt5 Target Genes in Zebrafish Development Reveals Its Dual Activity In Vivo

Spt5 is a conserved essential protein that represses or stimulates transcription elongation in vitro. Immunolocalization studies on Drosophila polytene chromosomes suggest that Spt5 is associated with many loci throughout the genome. However, little is known about the prevalence and identity of Spt5 target genes in vivo during development. Here, we identify direct target genes of Spt5 using fogsk8 zebrafish mutant, which disrupts the foggy/spt5 gene. We identified that fogsk8 and their wildtype siblings differentially express less than 5% of genes examined. These genes participate in diverse biological processes from stress response to cell fate specification. Up-regulated genes exhibit shorter overall gene length compared to all genes examined. Through chromatin immunoprecipitation in zebrafish embryos, we identified a subset of developmentally critical genes that are bound by both Spt5 and RNA polymerase II. The protein occupancy patterns on these genes are characteristic of both repressive and stimulatory elongation regulation. Together our findings establish Spt5 as a dual regulator of transcription elongation in vivo and identify a small but diverse set of target genes critically dependent on Spt5 during development

Stainable hepatic iron in 341 African American adults at coroner/medical examiner autopsy

BACKGROUND: Results of previous autopsy studies indicate that increased hepatic iron stores or hepatic iron overload is common in African Americans dying in hospitals, but there are no reports of hepatic iron content in other cohorts of African Americans. METHODS: We investigated the prevalence of heavy liver iron deposition in African American adults. Using established histochemical criteria, we graded Perls' acid ferrocyanide-reactive iron in the hepatocytes and Kupffer cells of 341 consecutive African American adults who were autopsied in the coroner/medical examiner office. Heavy staining was defined as grade 3 or 4 hepatocyte iron or grade 3 Kupffer cell iron. RESULTS: There were 254 men and 85 women (mean age ± 1 SD: 44 ± 13 y vs. 48 ± 14 y, respectively; p = 0.0255); gender was unstated or unknown in two subjects. Approximately one-third of subjects died of natural causes. Heavy staining was observed in 10.2% of men and 4.7% of women. 23 subjects had heavy hepatocyte staining only, six had heavy Kupffer cell staining only, and one had a mixed pattern of heavy staining. 15 subjects had histories of chronic alcoholism; three had heavy staining confined to hepatocytes. We analyzed the relationships of three continuous variables (age at death in years, hepatocyte iron grade, Kupffer cell iron grade) and two categorical variables (sex, cause of death (natural and non-natural causes)) in all 341 subjects using a correlation matrix with Bonferroni correction. This revealed two positive correlations: hepatocyte with Kupffer cell iron grades (p < 0.01), and male sex with hepatocyte iron grade (p < 0.05). We also analyzed the relationship of steatosis, inflammation, and fibrosis/cirrhosis in 30 subjects with heavy iron staining using a correlation matrix with Bonferroni correction. There were significant positive correlations of steatosis with inflammation (r = 0.5641; p < 0.01), and of inflammation with fibrosis/cirrhosis (r = 0.6124; p < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: The present results confirm and extend previous observations that heavy liver iron staining is relatively common in African Americans. The pertinence of these observations to genetic and acquired causes of iron overload in African Americans is discussed

Effects of Insemination Quantity on Honey Bee Queen Physiology

Mating has profound effects on the physiology and behavior of female insects, and in honey bee (Apis mellifera) queens, these changes are permanent. Queens mate with multiple males during a brief period in their early adult lives, and shortly thereafter they initiate egg-laying. Furthermore, the pheromone profiles of mated queens differ from those of virgins, and these pheromones regulate many different aspects of worker behavior and colony organization. While it is clear that mating causes dramatic changes in queens, it is unclear if mating number has more subtle effects on queen physiology or queen-worker interactions; indeed, the effect of multiple matings on female insect physiology has not been broadly addressed. Because it is not possible to control the natural mating behavior of queens, we used instrumental insemination and compared queens inseminated with semen from either a single drone (single-drone inseminated, or SDI) or 10 drones (multi-drone inseminated, or MDI). We used observation hives to monitor attraction of workers to SDI or MDI queens in colonies, and cage studies to monitor the attraction of workers to virgin, SDI, and MDI queen mandibular gland extracts (the main source of queen pheromone). The chemical profiles of the mandibular glands of virgin, SDI, and MDI queens were characterized using GC-MS. Finally, we measured brain expression levels in SDI and MDI queens of a gene associated with phototaxis in worker honey bees (Amfor). Here, we demonstrate for the first time that insemination quantity significantly affects mandibular gland chemical profiles, queen-worker interactions, and brain gene expression. Further research will be necessary to elucidate the mechanistic bases for these effects: insemination volume, sperm and seminal protein quantity, and genetic diversity of the sperm may all be important factors contributing to this profound change in honey bee queen physiology, queen behavior, and social interactions in the colony

Participant experiences of mindfulness-based childbirth education: a qualitative study

Background: Childbirth is an important transitional life event, but one in which many women are dissatisfied stemming in part from a sense that labour is something that happens to them rather than with them. Promoting maternal satisfaction with childbirth means equipping women with communication and decision making skills that will enhance their ability to feel involved in their labour. Additionally, traditional antenatal education does not necessarily prepare expectant mothers and their birth support partner adequately for birth. Mindfulness-based interventions appear to hold promise in addressing these issues. Mindfulness-based Child Birth Education (MBCE) was a pilot intervention combining skills-based antenatal education and Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction. Participant experiences of MBCE, both of expectant mothers and their birth support partners are the focus of this article. Methods: A generic qualitative approach was utilised for this study. Pregnant women between 18 and 28 weeks gestation, over 18 years of age, nulliparous with singleton pregnancies and not taking medication for a diagnosed mental illness or taking illicit drugs were eligible to undertake the MBCE program which was run in a metropolitan city in Australia. Focus groups with 12 mothers and seven birth support partners were undertaken approximately four months after the completion of MBCE. Audio recordings of the groups were transcribed verbatim and analysed thematically using the method of constant comparison by all four authors independently and consensus on analysis and interpretation arrived at through team meetings.Results: A sense of both ‘empowerment’ and ‘community’ were the essences of the experiences of MBCE both for mothers and their birth support partner and permeated the themes of ‘awakening my existing potential’ and ‘being in a community of like-minded parents’. Participants suggested that mindfulness techniques learned during MBCE facilitated their sense of control during birth, and the content and pedagogical approach of MBCE enabled them to be involved in decision making during the birth. The pedagogical approach also fostered a sense of community among participants which extended into the postnatal period. Conclusions: MBCE has the potential to empower women to become active participants in the birthing process, thus addressing common concerns regarding lack of control and satisfaction with labour and facilitate peer support into the postnatal period. Further education of health professionals may be needed to ensure that they respond positively to those women and birth support partners who remain active in decision making during birth