13,005 research outputs found
The medicinal use of leeches in Malta
The medical practice based on the Greek doctrine of the four humors considered that disease was due to alterations in the composition of these humors, and therapy was therefore based on attempting to restore the balance. Bleeding was the first resort in the treatment of a large majority of diseases a therapeutic measure that persisted throughout the centuries. Bloodletting generally took the form of using a knife or lancet to open a vein, a procedure referred to as venesection or phlebotomy. A gentler and more desirable form of bleeding was to put a leech on the affected part and to let the animal engorge itself with the bad blood thought to dwell below the point of application. Leeches have been used medically for centuries; in Europe the use of leeches to drain off blood reached its height of popularity in the 19th century. The practice of bloodletting in the Maltese Islands dates at least to about the 2nd century AD. A tomb-slab from the late Roman/Palaeo-Christian period depicts a set of surgical instruments that include two Roman cupping vessels 1. Only 93 kilometers away from Sicily and 290 km from Northern Africa, the Maltese archipelago with its central position in the Mediterranean was an important meeting place for the various cultures that dominated the region. Malta's location at the crossroads of culture is reflected by the medical practices in use throughout the centuries. The practice of venesection in Malta persisted through the ages and during the medieval period (1539), the procedure was being carried out by the barbersurgeons against payment of one unza2. The barber-surgeons or barberotti remained responsible for venesection well into the 19th century and were only removed from the list of medical practitioners in 19213. The gentler form of bloodletting through the use of leeches was also practiced in Malta.peer-reviewe
Modeling lithium rich carbon stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud: an independent distance indicator ?
We present the first quantitative results explaining the presence in the
Large Magellanic Cloud of some asymptotic giant branch stars that share the
properties of lithium rich carbon stars. A self-consistent description of
time-dependent mixing, overshooting, and nuclear burning was required. We
identify a narrow range of masses and luminosities for this peculiar stars.
Comparison of these models with the luminosities of the few Li-rich C stars in
the Large Magellanic Cloud provides an independent distance indicator for the
LMCComment: 7 pages, 2 figure
Análise Descritiva de Parturientes e Recém-Nascidos na Maternidade: Hospital Dona Estefânia entre 2005 e 2008
Entre 2005 e 2008, registaram-se 8413 nascimentos na maternidade do Hospital Dona
Estefânia (HDE), aproximadamente 8% do total nacional no mesmo período. A mortalidade
fetal (0,20%) atingiu os objectivos do Plano Nacional de Saúde (PNS) para 2010 e está aos
melhores niveis da União Europeia. Contudo, a percentagem média de nascimentos prétermo
(8,1%) e de cesarianas (31,9%) situam-se ainda acima das metas estabelecidas pelo
PNS de, respectivamente, 4,9% e 24,8%. O odds ratio de ocorrência de um índice Apgar
baixo aos 5 minutos por cada 100 g de peso a menos à nascença foi de 1,35 e por cada
semana a menos de gestação foi de 1,33. As parturientes tiveram em média 30,4 anos de
idade, sendo 3,8% adolescentes. Cerca de 22% eram estrangeiras, valor superior à média
nacional de 9%. Registou-se variabilidade entre as principais nacionalidades quanto a
percentagem de partos pré-termo e de cesarianas, sendo menor nas mães chinesas. Encontrou-se significado estatístico na relação do peso à nascença com a idade de gestação,tipo de gravidez (simples/gemelar), sexo, paridade e idade da mãe. Fixando as covariáveis,uma semana de gestação a mais correspondeu, em média, a mais 176 g; um recém-nascido(RN) gémeo teve, em média, menos 381 g que um não-gémeo e um RN do sexo feminino pesou, em média, menos 48 g que um masculino. Apresentam-se tabelas de percentis de peso por sexo e idade gestacional (36-41 semanas) para os RN do HDE
Cortisol and Anxiety Response to a Relaxing Intervention on Pregnant Women Awaiting Amniocentesis
Background: Stress and anxiety during pregnancy have been associated with premature and low birth weight babies, presumably through fetus over exposion to glucocorticoids. Antenatal stress
also seems to have long-term effects upon infant development and adult health. However,
medication for stress may carry risks to the expectant mother, therefore the efficacy of nonpharmacological interventions should be investigated.
Methods: Pregnant women (n = 154) awaiting amniocentesis, were randomly assigned in the
morning and the afternoon to three groups for 30 min: (1) listening to relaxing music, (2) sitting and reading magazines, and (3) sitting in the waiting-room. Before and after that period, they completed the Spielberger’s State and Trait anxiety inventory and provided blood samples for
cortisol. The groups were then compared regarding change in cortisol levels and anxiety.
Results: Maternal cortisol and state anxiety were correlated (r = 0.25, p = 0.04) in the afternoon, but not in the morning. The larger decreases in cortisol occurred in the music group ( 61.8 nmol/L, ANOVA: p = 0.01), followed by magazine, being differences among groups more pronounced in the morning. Women in the music group also exhibited the greater decreases in state anxiety
( p < 0.001). Younger mothers with less gestational age were on average the most anxious, and also the ones with greater decreases in cortisol and anxiety levels after relaxation.
Conclusion: A relaxing intervention as short as 30 min, especially listening to music, decreases plasma cortisol and self-reported state anxiety score. Pregnant women might benefit from the routine practice of relaxation in the imminence of clinical stressful events
Evolution of two stellar populations in globular clusters II. Effects of primordial gas expulsion
We investigate the early evolution of two distinct populations of low-mass
stars in globular clusters under the influence of primordial gas expulsion
driven by supernovae to study if this process can increase the fraction of
second generation stars at the level required by observations. We analyse
N-body models that take into account the effect of primordial gas expulsion. We
divide the stars into two populations which mimic the chemical and dynamical
properties of stars in globular clusters so that second generation stars start
with a more centrally concentrated distribution. The main effect of gas
expulsion is to eject preferentially first generation stars while second
generation stars remain bound to the cluster. In the most favourable cases
second generation stars can account for 60% of the bound stars we see today. We
also find that at the end of the gas expulsion phase, the radial distribution
of the two populations is still different, so that long-term evolution will
further increase the fraction of second generation stars. The large fraction of
chemically anomalous stars is readily explainable as a second generation of
stars formed out of the slow winds of rapidly rotating massive stars if
globular clusters suffer explosive residual gas expulsion for a star formation
efficiency of about 0.33.Comment: 11 pages, accepted for publication in A&
The extended Main Sequence Turn Off cluster NGC1856: rotational evolution in a coeval stellar ensemble
Multiple or extended turnoffs in young clusters in the Magellanic Clouds have
recently received large attention. A number of studies have shown that they may
be interpreted as the result of a significant age spread (several 10^8yr in
clusters aged 1--2 Gyr), while others attribute them to a spread in stellar
rotation. We focus on the cluster NGC 1856, showing a splitting in the upper
part of the main sequence, well visible in the color m_{F336W}-m_{F555W}$, and
a very wide turnoff region. Using population synthesis available from the
Geneva stellar models, we show that the cluster data can be interpreted as
superposition of two main populations having the same age (~350Myr), composed
for 2/3 of very rapidly rotating stars, defining the upper turnoff region and
the redder main sequence, and for 1/3 of slowly/non-rotating stars. Since rapid
rotation is a common property of the B-A type stars, the main question raised
by this model concerns the origin of the slowly/non-rotating component. Binary
synchronization is a possible process behind the slowly/non-rotating
population; in this case, many slowly/non-rotating stars should still be part
of binary systems with orbital periods in the range from 4 to 500 days. Such
periods imply that Roche lobe overflow occurs, during the evolution of the
primary off the main sequence, so most primaries may not be able to ignite core
helium burning, consistently why the lack of a red clump progeny of the slowly
rotating population.Comment: 8 pages 4 figures, accepted for publication on Monthly Notices of the
R.A.
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