Medicine : the way ahead

The significant developments in medicine which have taken place over the years have no doubt been a determining factor in improving the Maltese medical profession. Hi-technology has in many areas taken over in both the diagnostic as well as in the curative field. In this article the author mentions the developments in new technologies introduced in the Maltese hospitals, besides the major growing interest in the academic field.peer-reviewe

Studies on Maltese Consanguinity

The possible genetic consequences of consanguinity have been known from ancient times, though different societies have held varying views. Some have encouraged consanguinity as desirable and the classic examples are the sister brother marriages of the Egyptian Pharaohs and also of the ancient Irish and Inca Royal families. Mother-son, father-daughter marriages are only said to occur occasionally among the primitive tribes such as the Minahassa of Celebes. In certain countries, consanguinous marriages are very common. The Japanese population of nearly 100 million has a remarkable degree of inbreeding, reaching a consanguinity rate of approximately 20% in many districts, while in Central and Southern India many populated areas are claimed to have a 60% consanguinity rate. Inbreeding is typically common in isolate population, and small island communities or `closed' populations are most frequently associated with this phenomenon.peer-reviewe

The xiphoid process in clinical medicine

Few references are to be found in medical literature to the association of the xiphoid process with disease. The case reports of two patients are here presented. The first patient is especially interesting as she throws light on a centuries old Maltese medical custom, which is dying out and is now practiced in the more isolated villages in the Maltese islands. These two patients illustrate first of all the ease with which the role of the xiphoid process in the production of symptoms may be completely overlooked. An erroneous diagnosis such as gastritis or even peptic ulcer can easily be made by a busy doctor if a patient indicates with one finger the localisation of pain in the upper epigastric region. A wrong diagnosis would be all the more possible if the patient is fully clothed when describing the symptoms at the beginning of the interview. In essence, this paper is intended to draw the attention of medical colleagues to the psychiatric, medical and even surgical aspects associated with the xiphoid process, whether because of the manipulative customs described above or through accidental self-manipulation or palpation.peer-reviewe

Public health medicine in Malta : past, present and future

This article highlights some of the significant developments in public health including the pattern of disease in past centuries when emphasis was on sanitation and control of epidemics. The improved social conditions as well as health care developments during the past decades have not only changed this pattern, but have also modified the approach to public health. The future presents us with challenges which we must face through appreciation of the issues involved and the use of appropriate strategies.peer-reviewe

Hypercentral constituent quark model and isospin dependence

The constituent quark model based on a hypercentral approach takes into account three-body force effects and standard two-body potential contributions. The quark potential contains a hypercentral interaction, to which a hyperfine term is added. While the hypercentral potential supplies good values for the centroid energies of the resonance multiplets and a realistic set of quark wave functions, the hyperfine splittings are sometimes not sufficient to account for the observed masses. In this work we have introduced an improved form of the hyperfine interaction and an isospin dependent quark potential. The resulting description of the baryon spectrum is very good, also for the Roper resonance, specially thanks to the flavour dependent interaction.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figures, accepted by Eur. Phys. J.

The Molecular Pathology of Prion Diseases

Prion diseases, or transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs), are a group of invariably fatal neurodegenerative disorders. Uniquely, they may present as sporadic, inherited, or infectious forms, all of which involve conversion of the normal cellular prion protein (PrPC) into a pathogenic likeness of itself (PrPSc). Formation of neurotoxic PrPSc and/or loss of the normal function of native PrPC result in activation of cellular pathways ultimately leading to neuronal death. Prion diseases can affect both humans and animals, with scrapie of sheep, bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease being the most notable. This review is intended to provide an overview of the salient scientific discoveries in prion research, mainly from a molecular perspective. Further, some of the major outstanding questions in prion science are highlighted. Prion research is having a profound impact on modern medicine, and strategies for prevention and treatment of these disorders may also find application in the more common neurodegenerative diseases.peer-reviewe

Extra S11 and P13 in the Hypercentral Constituent Quark Model

We report on the recent results of the hypercentral Constituent Quark Model (hCQM). The model contains a spin independent three-quark interaction which is inspired by Lattice QCD calculations and reproduces the average energy values of the SU(6) multiplets. The splittings within each multiplet are obtained with a SU(6)-breaking interaction, which can include also an isospin dependent term. All the 3- and 4-stars resonances are well reproduced. Moreover, as all the Constituent Quark models, the hCQM predicts ``missing'' resonances ({\em e.g.} extra $S11$ and $P13$ states) which can be of some help for the experimental identification of new resonances. The model provides also a good description of the medium $Q^2$-behavior of the electromagnetic transition form factors. In particular the calculated helicity amplitude $A_{{1/2}}$ for the $S_{11}(1535)$ resonance agrees very well with the recent CLAS data. More recently, the elastic nucleon form factors have been calculated using a relativistic version of the hCQM and a relativistic quark current.Comment: 7 pages,3 figures, Talk given at NStar 2002 workshop on the physics of excited nucleons, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, October 9-12, 200

Blood lead levels in pregnant women and the neonate

Population studies carried out during the 1980s had shown that the Maltese population was characterized by high blood lead (PbB) levels. These high levels appeared to be a feature at all age groups including neonates. A number of environmental control measures had been initiated to attempt to decrease these PbB levels. The present study reviews PbB levels in pregnant women and newborns. It is shown that mean cord PbB levels decreased significantly in the last decade from a mean of 165.1 + 87.9 ug/I in 1985 to 89.79 + 31.23 ug/I in 1996. This decrease did not correlate with the increasing use of multimineral supplements which include the zinc cation said to be useful to counter the effects of chronic lead intoxication. Placental transfer of lead is also shown to follow closely maternal levels with a correlation coefficient of 0.81. In spite of the apparent decrease in PbB levels, about half of newborns still I have levels which require preventive community measures.peer-reviewe

Gluon chain formation in presence of static charges

We consider the origins of the gluon chain model. The model serves as a realization of the dynamics of the chromoelectric flux between static quark-antiquark sources. The derivation is based on the large-N_C limit of the Coulomb gauge Hamiltonian in the presence of a background field introduced to model magnetic confinement.Comment: 10 pages, 9 figure