Did Adolf Hitler have syphilis?

The evidence that Adolf Hitler may have suffered from incapacitating syphilis is reviewed. Rumours that he acquired syphilis from a prostitute at the age of 20 years, with possible re-infection during World War I, can no longer be verified. Evidence is that he was sexually rather inactive throughout his life. Suggestions that Hitler\'s cardiac lesion and complaints such as transitory blindness, tremor of his left arm and leg, recurring abdominal pain and a skin lesion of the leg were of syphilitic aetiology cannot be supported. Hitler\'s progressive mental and physical deterioration after 1942, his growing paranoia, fits of rage, grandiosity and symptoms of possible dementia would fit in with neurosyphilis. There are, however, also other explanations for his terminal syndrome, and evidence that repeated clinical examinations did not show the characteristic signs of dementia paralytica or tabes dorsalis, swings the balance of probability away from tertiary syphilis. South African Medical Journal Vol. 95(10) 2005: 750-75

Die Mieloproliferatiewe Sindroom, Mielofibrose en Eritrositose

In a retrospective survey over 27 months the records of 76700 patients (39300 White, 37400 Black) admitted to the Bloemfontein Teaching Hospitals, were analysed in order to assess the incidence and nature of the myeloproliferative syndromes, myelofibrosis and erythrocytosis. Erythraemia (polycythaemia vera) was much less common among Black (1,7%) than among White (9,0%) patients, when expressed as a percentage of total patients with raised- haemoglobin and haematocrit. Myelofibrosis as part of the classical myeloproliferative syndrome was rare among the Black patients (1 out of 5 with histologically proven bone marrow fibrosis), and more common among Whites (3 out of 4 with marrow fibrosis). Chronic myeloid leukaemia showed no difference in racial incidence. Erythrocytosis (secondary polycythaemia) was common in both races (57 Blacks, 92 Whites), and causative analysis showed no significant sexual or racial differences, although the study was hampered by inadequate clinical data. Cyanotic heart and lung disease was responsible for 61,7% of cases. An association with tumours (9,3%) and hypertension and/or obliterative vascular disease (21,4%) was evident

The determination of phosphorus in saliva and dentine

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Strengthening impact assessment: a call for integration and focus

We suggest that the impact assessment community has lost its way based on our observation that impact assessment is under attack because of a perceived lack of efficiency. Specifically, we contend that the proliferation of different impact assessment types creates separate silos of expertise and feeds arguments for not only a lack of efficiency but also a lack of effectiveness of the process through excessive specialisation and a lack of interdisciplinary practice. We propose that the solution is a return to the basics of impact assessment with a call for increased integration around the goal of sustainable development and focus through better scoping. We rehearse and rebut counter arguments covering silo-based expertise, advocacy, democracy, sustainability understanding and communication. We call on the impact assessment community to rise to the challenge of increasing integration and focus, and to engage in the debate about the means of strengthening impact assessment

What is the role of sugar (sucrose) in dental caries today

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Transient Thrombasthenia in a Patient with Tuberculosis

A 20-year-old Black female presented with menorrhagia and epistaxis. Similar episodes, two years previously, had necessitated blood transfusion. No association with drug ingestion was found and the family history revealed no bleeding diathesis. The patient had a normal platelet count and a prolonged bleeding time. Platelet aggregation, clot retraction and platelet factor 3 release were grossly abnormal. She had axillary tuberculous lymphadenitis and chemotherapy was initiated. Three months later there was no clinical or laboratory evidence of a platelet abnormality. No reason for this transient thrombasthenia, which is unknown to us, was found. Glanzmann's disease is a hereditary thrombasthenia with a similar qualitative platelet defect

Reflections on impact assessment research scholarship from editor and academic perspectives

Reflections on impact assessment research scholarship are presented drawn from our experiences as journal editors and academics with respect to the nature of impact assessment research and the quality of impact assessment research writing. We support the call for more empirical impact assessment research studies, especially large and longer-term studies. While the international field of impact assessment research is healthy overall, we would like to see better international and multi-disciplinary collaboration. We also urge careful attention be given by impact assessment research writers to having clear aims, robust methods accounts and to write rigorously and insightfully for the international impact assessment journal readership

Characterization of the effect of sample quality on high density oligonucleotide microarray data using progressively degraded rat liver RNA

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The interpretability of microarray data can be affected by sample quality. To systematically explore how RNA quality affects microarray assay performance, a set of rat liver RNA samples with a progressive change in RNA integrity was generated by thawing frozen tissue or by <it>ex vivo </it>incubation of fresh tissue over a time course.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Incubation of tissue at 37°C for several hours had little effect on RNA integrity, but did induce changes in the transcript levels of stress response genes and immune cell markers. In contrast, thawing of tissue led to a rapid loss of RNA integrity. Probe sets identified as most sensitive to RNA degradation tended to be located more than 1000 nucleotides upstream of their transcription termini, similar to the positioning of control probe sets used to assess sample quality on Affymetrix GeneChip^®arrays. Samples with RNA integrity numbers less than or equal to 7 showed a significant increase in false positives relative to undegraded liver RNA and a reduction in the detection of true positives among probe sets most sensitive to sample integrity for <it>in silico </it>modeled changes of 1.5-, 2-, and 4-fold.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Although moderate levels of RNA degradation are tolerated by microarrays with 3'-biased probe selection designs, in this study we identify a threshold beyond which decreased specificity and sensitivity can be observed that closely correlates with average target length. These results highlight the value of annotating microarray data with metrics that capture important aspects of sample quality.</p