The Relations Between Stress, Mood and Insomnia.

Stress is hypothesized to cause increased cognitive and physiological arousal which is incompatible with sleep. Major life events have been implicated as a significant factor in the onset of chronic insomnia (Healey et al., 1981), and there is some suggestion that minor life events influence symptoms as well (Haynes et al., 1981). The present study was designed to evaluate and further clarify the role of daily minor stressors and mood variables on sleep in both normal sleepers and insomniacs. Subjects with insomnia secondary to medical or physical disorders were excluded from this study. Fifty-four adult subjects (20 mixed-complaint insomniacs, 17 sleep onset insomniacs, and 17 normal sleepers) volunteered from the community. Each subject completed the Daily Stress Inventory, the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (State Form) and the Zung Self-rating Scale for Depression each night between supper and retiring. They completed a Daily Sleep Diary in the morning upon awakening, and mailed back completed forms daily. In this manner, 21 consecutive days of monitoring were collected for each subject. Stress was divided into two conditions; the seven days with the highest stress scores for each individual became the high stress condition, and the seven days with the lowest stress scores became the low stress condition for each individual. Results comparing sleep disturbances on those days indicated that under relatively high stress conditions, subjects slept fewer minutes, achieved a lower quality of sleep and lower sleep efficiency than they did in the low stress condition. There was a significant group by stress interaction such that all insomniacs slept fewer minutes under the high stress condition than under the low stress condition, but normal subjects showed no change across stress conditions. Regression analyses indicated that frequency of daily minor stressors was predictive of latency to sleep onset and difficulty falling asleep. Depression scores were predictive of latency to sleep onset, difficulty falling asleep, restedness upon awakening and sleep efficiency. Depression scores were substantially more predictive of dependent sleep measures than anxiety scores were. Results lend modest support to the hypothesis that stress contributes to symptoms of insomnia. Additional theoretical and clinical implications are discussed

Surgical Helmets and SARS Infection

Performance testing of two brands of surgical helmets indicated that their efficiency at in vivo filtration of sub–micrometer-sized particles is inadequate for their use as respirators. These helmets are not marketed for respiratory protection and should not be used alone for protection against severe acute respiratory syndrome when performing aerosol-generating procedures

Gel-type autologous chondrocyte (Chondron™) implantation for treatment of articular cartilage defects of the knee

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Gel-type autologous chondrocyte (Chondron™) implantations have been used for several years without using periosteum or membrane. This study involves evaluations of the clinical results of Chondron™ at many clinical centers at various time points during the postoperative patient follow-up.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Data from 98 patients with articular cartilage injury of the knee joint and who underwent Chondron™ implantation at ten Korean hospitals between January 2005 and November 2008, were included and were divided into two groups based on the patient follow-up period, i.e. 13~24-month follow-up and greater than 25-month follow-up. The telephone Knee Society Score obtained during telephone interviews with patients, was used as the evaluation tool.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>On the tKSS-A (telephone Knee Society Score-A), the score improved from 43.52 ± 20.20 to 89.71 ± 13.69 (P < 0.05), and on the tKSS-B (telephone Knee Society Score-B), the score improved from 50.66 ± 20.05 to 89.38 ± 15.76 (P < 0.05). The total improvement was from 94.18 ± 31.43 to 179.10 ± 24.69 (P < 0.05).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Gel-type autologous chondrocyte implantation for chondral knee defects appears to be a safe and effective method for both decreasing pain and improving knee function.</p

On the Poetry of Baseball

There is a growing bibliography of literature about baseball, but very few of the works in it treat baseball poetry as having an important role to play in our understanding the nature of literary creation and experience. It is as if Wordsworth's nature poetry were considered a distinct category of English literature, perhaps of interest to hikers and the few eccentrics who would be willing to give serious attention to poems about walks in the country, but not a subject worth the attention of serious critics. At best, the attitude displayed in the critical treatment of poems and fiction about the sport often resembles the belief that the mythic and philosophical elements of "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" and Moby-Dick mitigate those works' original sin of being sea-faring yarns. I try to remedy this situation by discussing Rolfe Humphries' "Polo Grounds" and Andrés Eloy Blanco's "Romance del campeonato" `Championship Ballad,' as well as others in English, Spanish, and Japanese, an infrequent combination of subject matter. I examine the relationship between Humphries and Blanco's two poems and subject both works to extensive close reading. I place the poems in their historical contexts as well as in that of other works in a variety of genres, including fiction, film, journalism, music,oratory, painting, and, of course, poetry.I test the boundaries between accepted categories by discussing a news article by Damon Runyon's as cubist narrative and treating Babe Ruth as a theorist of economics and cultural anthropology. I treat radio broadcasts of baseball games as factors in Humphries and Blanco's poems and as agents of factual transmission and distortion. I discuss the sexual energy underlying baseball and poetry. Along the way, I point out a few ways in which baseball is, itself, a form of poetry.My dissertation resembles the radio broadcast of a double-header on a long Sunday afternoon. Although its narrative may seem to meander far from the objects it attempts to describe and understand, it always returns to the two games whose play-by-play description it provides, "Polo Grounds" and "Romance del campeonato.

From private letters to pamphlet wars: the literary relations of Alexander Pope and Lady Mary Mortley Montagu

Scholars have long struggled to fully explained the eigthteenth-century poetic war between Lady Mary Wortley and Alexander Pope. These two writers and intellectuals became magnets for gossip, praise, and opprobium when the years of their friendship shifted into a sensational battle of verses.Desde hace tiempo los eruditos se han esforzado por explicar la guerra poética entre Lady Mary Wortley Montagu y Alexander Pope. Estos dos escritores atraían cotilleo,elogio y oprobio cuando los años de su amistad se convirtieron en una batalla de versos.Máster Erasmus Mundus en Estudios de las Mujeres y de Género, GEMMA. 4ª ed.This project would not have been possible without the funding provided by a 2010-2012 Erasmus Mundus Master's scholarship

On the Poetry of Baseball

There is a growing bibliography of literature about baseball, but very few of the works in it treat baseball poetry as having an important role to play in our understanding the nature of literary creation and experience. It is as if Wordsworth's nature poetry were considered a distinct category of English literature, perhaps of interest to hikers and the few eccentrics who would be willing to give serious attention to poems about walks in the country, but not a subject worth the attention of serious critics. At best, the attitude displayed in the critical treatment of poems and fiction about the sport often resembles the belief that the mythic and philosophical elements of "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" and Moby-Dick mitigate those works' original sin of being sea-faring yarns. I try to remedy this situation by discussing Rolfe Humphries' "Polo Grounds" and Andrés Eloy Blanco's "Romance del campeonato" `Championship Ballad,' as well as others in English, Spanish, and Japanese, an infrequent combination of subject matter. I examine the relationship between Humphries and Blanco's two poems and subject both works to extensive close reading. I place the poems in their historical contexts as well as in that of other works in a variety of genres, including fiction, film, journalism, music,oratory, painting, and, of course, poetry.I test the boundaries between accepted categories by discussing a news article by Damon Runyon's as cubist narrative and treating Babe Ruth as a theorist of economics and cultural anthropology. I treat radio broadcasts of baseball games as factors in Humphries and Blanco's poems and as agents of factual transmission and distortion. I discuss the sexual energy underlying baseball and poetry. Along the way, I point out a few ways in which baseball is, itself, a form of poetry.My dissertation resembles the radio broadcast of a double-header on a long Sunday afternoon. Although its narrative may seem to meander far from the objects it attempts to describe and understand, it always returns to the two games whose play-by-play description it provides, "Polo Grounds" and "Romance del campeonato.