Lack of awareness of erectile dysfunction in many men with risk factors for erectile dysfunction

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Men with erectile dysfunction often have concurrent medical conditions. Conversely, men with these conditions may also have underlying erectile dysfunction. The prevalence of unrecognized erectile dysfunction in men with comorbidities commonly associated with erectile dysfunction was determined in men invited to participate in a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial of sildenafil citrate.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Men ≥30 years old presenting with ≥1 erectile dysfunction risk factor (controlled hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, smoking, metabolic syndrome, stable coronary artery disease, diabetes, depression, lower urinary tract symptoms, obesity [body mass index ≥30 kg/m²] or waist circumference ≥40 inches), and not previously diagnosed with erectile dysfunction were evaluated. The screening question, "Do you have erectile dysfunction?," with responses of "no," "yes," and "unsure," and the Erectile Function domain of the International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF-EF) were administered.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Of 1084 men screened, 1053 answered the screening question and also had IIEF-EF scores. IIEF-EF scores indicating erectile dysfunction occurred in 71% (744/1053), of whom 54% (399/744) had moderate or severe erectile dysfunction. Of 139 answering "yes," 526 answering "unsure," and 388 answering "no," 96%, 90%, and 36%, respectively, had some degree of erectile dysfunction. The mean±SD (range) number of risk factors was 2.9 ± 1.7 (3-8) in the "yes" group, 3.2 ± 1.7 (3-9) in the "unsure" group, and 2.6 ± 1.5 (2-8) in the "no" group.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Although awareness of having erectile dysfunction was low, most men with risk factors had IIEF-EF scores indicating erectile dysfunction. Erectile dysfunction should be suspected and assessed in men with risk factors, regardless of their apparent level of awareness of erectile dysfunction.</p> <p>Trial registration</p> <p>ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier NCT00343200.</p

The impact of first and second language exposure on learning second language constructions

We study how the learning of argument structure constructions in a second language (L2) is affected by two basic input properties often discussed in literature – the amount of input and the time of L2 onset. To isolate the impact of the two factors on learning, we use a computational model that simulates bilingual construction learning. In the first two experiments we manipulate the sheer amount of L2 exposure, both in absolute and in relative terms (that is, in relation to the amount of L1 exposure). The results show that higher cumulative amount of L2 exposure leads to higher performance. In the third experiment we manipulate the prior amount of L1 input before the L2 onset (that is, the time of L2 onset). Given equal exposure, we find no negative effect of the later onset on learners’ performance. This has implications for theories of order of acquisition and bilingual construction learning

Morris dancers, matriarchs and paperbacks:Doing the village in contemporary Britain

To call a place rural is to categorize it as a particular kind of place and, often, to presume that particular kinds of being innately occur there. Over the past 20 years, however, trends in British rural studies have problematized easy ascription; this article is an ethnographic contribution within those trends. If it is no longer adequate to read the rural as a container for being, then, as I contend here, rurality can be explored anew through doing. I draw upon David Matless’s (1994) frame of ‘doing the village’ representationally, and amplify it to include concepts of place as representational and relational. I thus use ‘doing’ to read the multiple ways in which diverse residents in a Northern England village engage with both their real locality and with nationally shared rural imaginings

A comparative study of the hydrogen-bonding patterns and prototropism in solid 2-thiocytosine (potential antileukemic agent) and cytosine, as studied by 1H-14N NQDR and QTAIM/ DFT

A potential antileukemic and anticancer agent, 2-thiocytosine (2-TC), has been studied experimentally in the solid state by 1H-14N NMR-NQR double resonance (NQDR) and theoretically by the quantum theory of atoms in molecules (QTAIM)/density functional theory (DFT). Eighteen resonance frequencies on 14N were detected at 180 K and assigned to particular nitrogen sites (−NH2, –N=, and –NH–) in 2-thiocytosine. Factors such as the nonequivalence of molecules (connected to the duplication of sites) and possible prototropic tautomerism (capable of modifying the type of site due to proton transfer) were taken into account during frequency assignment. The result of replacing oxygen with sulfur, which leads to changes in the intermolecular interaction pattern and molecular aggregation, is discussed. This study demonstrates the advantages of combining NQDR and DFT to extract detailed information on the H-bonding properties of crystals with complex H-bonding networks. Solid-state properties were found to have a profound impact on the stabilities and reactivities of both compounds