Seeing double: the low-carb diet

No abstract available

The Relation of Ethnic Identity to Self-Esteem and Academic Self-Concept of African American Students at a Predominantly White Institution

Social scientists have challenged professionals and educators alike to develop a better understanding of the influences a predominantly White environment has on the academic and interpersonal experiences of African American college students. This study explored the psychosocial impact of several factors, both dispositional (e.g., ethnic identity, self-esteem, and academic self-concept) and contextual (e.g., racial composition of the institution), for 91 African American college students enrolled at a predominantly White institution in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States. Pearson correlations indicated the other group orientation sub-factor of ethnic identity is positively correlated with self-esteem and academic self-concept. Multiple regression analyses indicated that grade point average is best predicted by academic self-concept. Limitations of the present study, implications, and suggestions for future research are presented

The recent neritidae of the west indian region

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston Universit

The effect of single nucleotide polymorphisms of oxidative stress genes and low grade inflammation upon pulse wave contour analysis, a useful non invasive, intermediate vascular phenotype.

Cardiovascular disease remains a major cause of mortality and morbidity and is underpinned by Oxidative stress, within which, inactivation of nitric oxide (NO) by superoxide (SO) and other reactive oxygen species is characteristic. Two major enzyme systems are implicated within oxidative stress; NAD(P)H oxidase and endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS). eNOS generates NO while at the same time, and within the same cells, NAD(P)H plays a powerful role in the generation of SO. Evidence is accumulating that polymorphisms of the genes encoding these enzyme systems may play an important role in the pathophysiology of CAD. Additionally there has been much recent interest in both biochemical markers of oxidative stress and low grade chronic inflammation as well as a non invasive vascular phenotype, pulse wave analysis. This thesis reports a series of studies (utilising the techniques described in chapter 2) which aimed to ascertain:- The reproducibility of pulse contour analysis as a non invasive intermediate cardiovascular phenotype (Chapter 3). Whether common single nucleotide polymorphisms of the p22phox gene CYBA and the endothelial nitric oxide synthase gene, NOS3, have an effect upon arterial compliance in patients with coronary artery disease (Chapters 4,5 and 6). In healthy volunteers, free of cardiovascular disease whether a relationship existed between markers of low grade inflammation and arterial stiffness (Chapter 7). Chapter 3: The reproducibility of diastolic pulse wave contour analysis and its relation to systolic pulse contour analysis. This clinical study demonstrated that both large (C1) and small artery (C2) compliance values were reproducible and that there was a significant correlation between both Augmentation Index (AIx) and C1and AIx and C2 in healthy volunteers and though there was no association between AIx and C1 in patients with coronary artery disease AIx did correlate with C2 in this population. Chapter 4: The effect of the G894T SNP of the NOS3 gene upon arterial stiffness in patients with coronary artery disease. There was no association observed between this polymorphism and blood pressure or large artery compliance however ANOVA revealed a statistically significant association for TT homozygosity and small artery compliance. The highest small artery compliance was seen in the patients homozygous for the G allele, an intermediate value observed in heterozygotes and the lowest value demonstrated in patients homozygous for the T allele. Multiple regression analysis, examining the possible contribution of confounders showed that only small artery compliance was significant when NOS3 G894T genotype was assigned as the dependent variable. Chapter 5: The C242T single nucleotide polymorphism of the CYBA gene and blood pressure and arterial compliance in patients with coronary artery disease. We sought to examine the influence of the C242T SNP of CYBA upon vascular compliance and blood pressure using the dominant allele model. The presence of the 242T allele was associated with significantly higher systolic blood pressure. Patients homozygous for the C allele had lower systolic blood pressure than heterozygotes and patients homozygous for the T allele. There was no statistically significant effect upon diastolic blood pressure but there was however a significant association observed between the 242T allele and pulse pressure. Chapter 6: Combined analysis of NOS3 G894T and CYBA C242T genotypes upon arterial stiffness. In order to contrast the arterial stiffness between the favourable versus the non-favourable genotypes patients homozygous for the NOS3 G allele and homozygous for the CYBA C allele were compared with those homozygous for the NOS3T allele and possessing the CYBA 242T allele. The former displayed higher large and small artery compliance than the latter group. Multiple regression analysis, examining the possible contribution of confounders showed that only the large and small artery compliance values contributed significantly when genotype was assigned as the dependent variable. Chapter 7 Chronic low grade inflammation and insulin resistance and arterial compliance in healthy volunteers. Within healthy volunteers multiple regression analysis showed that small artery compliance was significantly associated with IL 6, CRP and ICAM. Augmentation index showed only an association with ICAM1. There was no significant correlation between Adiponectin levels and either of the arterial stiffness parameters studied. Conclusions Diastolic pulse wave contour analysis is a reproducible assessment of arterial stiffness with the potential to represent a high fidelity non invasive vascular phenotype. Small artery compliance is correlated with Augmentation Index and although the measurements are not analogous they both represent useful means of acquiring quantitative data concerning arterial stiffness. The 242T allele of the p22phox gene, CYBA, is associated with decreased large but not small artery compliance and increased systolic and pulse pressure. Homozygosity for a common NOS3 polymorphism (894 GT) was associated with decreased small artery compliance but not with large artery compliance or blood pressure. The markers of chronic inflammation Interleukin 6, ICAM and hsCRP but not Adiponectin, a marker of Insulin resistance, predict small artery compliance in healthy individuals apparently free of vascular disease

The intestinal antiseptic treatment of Ceylon sore mouth

As a medical practitioner in the Tea districts of Ceylon,I have found that Cases of Ceylon Sore Mouth show themselves from time to time among Europeans in the higher and cooler elevations,from 3,500 to 5,000 feet above sea level.Literature: The medical literature dealing with this disease is scanty, and difficult to get at. I have searched in "Diseases of Tropical Climates", Surgeon General MacLean, London, 1886, and found no record of it; also neither neither do Eagge's "System of Medicine" 2nd Edition '88, nor Parke's "Hygiene" 7th Edition '87,nor Q,uain's 'Dictionary of Medicine' '88, make any mention of it. But in a small popular treatise called,"Disease among Malabar Coolies and Europeans in Ceylon", Kandy, 1866, written by John Thwaites, M.D., there is a short paragraph, which says, "a prominent feature of low remittent fever is its almost invariable, tendency to end in the well-known 'Sore Mouth' of Ceylon. It is not, however, until after a long continuance of the fever that this result takes place. As the determined continuance of the fever arises from either already formed or commencing disease of the liver or spleen,so the first symptoms of 'Sore Mouth' should be a peremptory warning not to delay seeking professional advice." This succinct paragraph represents the literature on the subject,as far as I can ascertain from the means at my disposal, to gain farther information on the point.Definition: It is a clinical condition, which is invariably preceded by a long series of attacks of some gastro-intestinal irritation, such as stomachic dyspepsia, congestion and inflammation of liver,in all its forms, duodenal dyspepsia, enlargement and inflammation of spleen, dysentery, typhoid, tropical diarrhoea, inflamed haemorrhoids and anal fissure,and other intestinal lesions, in each case, in conjunction with low fever.Cause: It is caused by living in damp,moist atmospheres, in old bungalows (houses) where the wood is rotten or has dry-rot in it, and where the situation of the bungalow is unhealthy, from the proximity of swamps, or stagnant water. The fact, that many people have to live on bad or a poor quality of food, year in, year year out, no doubt causes the condition in those whose system has been undermined by previous sequence of gastro-intestinal illnesses. It is to be noted, that among Europeans in a tropical colony like Ceylon, by far the greatest proportion of diseases suffered from are, (1) those of the gastro-intestinal tract and its visceral appendages,and (2) those of the renal system.Clinical Features: One marked accompaniment of this disease is nostalgia, which is so strong in a patient, that if he is attacked by it, and wants to go home, he simply must go, or he dies in a short time, with strong melancholic tendencies present. After Ceylon sore mouth has been running its course for some time, in addition to the general ill-health induced,this nostalgia produces a mental peevishness and inaptitude for work. The patient becomes dull, apathetic, querulous and irritable. The incentive to work seems to have gone; the temper is uncertain, so that there is an alternating condition of complacent, listless apathy, and one of impulsive, spasmodic irritability, roused by trifles which previously would not have had that effect. There is a restless craving to escape from present surroundings,it may be to England or to Australia, or often the place wished for is. not specified, but but the desire is simply expressed by the wish to 'get away'. The patient is sleepless,or sleeps at short intervals throughout the night, wakes in the morning,dull heavy and unrefreshed, and during the day sleeps in snatches, to make up for the want of the night's rest. He cannot read even the lightest literature - the effort of concentrating the mind on the subject matter evidently being as tiring to the body as the effort to hold up the book or paper. The patient becomes a regular barometer of the weather: he can tell by his own feelings whether the rain is coming or not, for whenever damp, misty weather comes on, the raw, sore feeling is present in the whole outline of the large bowel,and the melancholic symptoms become intensified. The hypochondriacal tendencies increase day by day, and the patient is a victim to headaches, neuralgias, and other neurasthenic pains, which flit and chase one another about, from one part of his body to another.Aetiology:. As we look more minutely into the aetiology of this disease, we find that it occurs mainly in those those who have spent a long period of their lives in the Tropics. Most patients that I have seen, have lived at least 15 years in Ceylon, some of them longer than that, and seeing that the class of patients affected, are principally Europeans, who have come to the Island as adolescents, the age after which it may come on is from 35 onwards. Of course the disease may show itself before that age, if. the patient's environment as to climate, feverishness of district,and indulgence in alcoholic excess, has been too trying for the individual organism. The disease occurs more commonly in women, in the proportion of 3 to 2, and this is due mainly I think, to the fact that, in a tropical country like Ceylon, all the re-productive functions, such as menstruation and child-bearing,tell more upon the general health, and tend to wear out the system, as a whole, more than in England; it is also partly due to the fact that women in Ceylon lead solitary, uneventful lives, and do not take enough exercise; hence the tendency among them to congestion and sluggish liver, with its accompanying dyspepsia and constipation

Artificial parthenogenesis ..

Typewritten sheets in cover. Thesis (M.A.)--Boston University This item was digitized by the Internet Archive. Bibliography: p. 46

Icosapent ethyl

No abstract available

Multi-use lunar telescopes

The objective of multi-use telescopes is to reduce the initial and operational costs of space telescopes to the point where a fair number of telescopes, a dozen or so, would be affordable. The basic approach is to develop a common telescope, control system, and power and communications subsystem that can be used with a wide variety of instrument payloads, i.e., imaging CCD cameras, photometers, spectrographs, etc. By having such a multi-use and multi-user telescope, a common practice for earth-based telescopes, development cost can be shared across many telescopes, and the telescopes can be produced in economical batches

How Accurate and Robust Are the Phylogenetic Estimates of Austronesian Language Relationships?

We recently used computational phylogenetic methods on lexical data to test between two scenarios for the peopling of the Pacific. Our analyses of lexical data supported a pulse-pause scenario of Pacific settlement in which the Austronesian speakers originated in Taiwan around 5,200 years ago and rapidly spread through the Pacific in a series of expansion pulses and settlement pauses. We claimed that there was high congruence between traditional language subgroups and those observed in the language phylogenies, and that the estimated age of the Austronesian expansion at 5,200 years ago was consistent with the archaeological evidence. However, the congruence between the language phylogenies and the evidence from historical linguistics was not quantitatively assessed using tree comparison metrics. The robustness of the divergence time estimates to different calibration points was also not investigated exhaustively. Here we address these limitations by using a systematic tree comparison metric to calculate the similarity between the Bayesian phylogenetic trees and the subgroups proposed by historical linguistics, and by re-estimating the age of the Austronesian expansion using only the most robust calibrations. The results show that the Austronesian language phylogenies are highly congruent with the traditional subgroupings, and the date estimates are robust even when calculated using a restricted set of historical calibrations