Progressive renal disease: Role of race and antihypertensive medications

Progressive renal disease: Role of race and antihypertensive medications. Hypertension is associated with an accelerated rate of decline in renal function in patients with chronic renal disease. To identify factors that might alter the rate of decline in renal function, we reviewed records of 200 patients from the Nephrology Clinic of the Durham VA Medical Center who had chronic progressive renal insufficiency. The average rate of decline in renal function (slope of reciprocal plasma creatinine versus time) was -0.80 ± 0.62 (SD) ml/mg month in 112 black patients and -0.84 ± 0.59 in 88 white patients. Multiple regression analysis indicates that the patient's age, level of diastolic blood pressure and type of antihypertensive treatment had a significant effect on the slope of reciprocal creatinine whereas the patient's race and diagnosis did not. In individual patients, addition of minoxidil or a calcium channel blocker to other medications significantly lowered blood pressure and slope of reciprocal creatinine. Some antihypertensive medications lowered blood pressure without significantly affecting the slope. These data suggest that specific medications may have a favorable effect on the progression of chronic renal disease by mechanisms in addition to reduction of blood pressure

Buthan-Swiss archaeology project 2013: Report on activities and outlook

The Bhutan-Swiss Archaeology Project’s first phase (2008–10) was focused on the excavation of the Drapham Dzong ruins in the Bumthang valley (see corresponding SLSA annual reports). The second phase (2011–13) aims to achieve the implementation of the country’s first Archaeology Office under the Department for Conservation of Cultural Heritage Sites (Ministry of Home and Cultural Affairs) as well as to complete the modular teaching program in practical archaeology, which was set up by the Department of Prehistoric Archaeology of the University of Zurich. Semiannually, archaeological surveys, practical field schools and small excavations as well as theoretical class room teaching modules have been conducted by Swiss experts (see corresponding SLSA annual reports). In the context of the project’s second phase, activities of many kinds took place in 2013

Time-to-Event Modeling for Hospital Length of Stay Prediction for COVID-19 Patients

Providing timely patient care while maintaining optimal resource utilization is one of the central operational challenges hospitals have been facing throughout the pandemic. Hospital length of stay (LOS) is an important indicator of hospital efficiency, quality of patient care, and operational resilience. Numerous researchers have developed regression or classification models to predict LOS. However, conventional models suffer from the lack of capability to make use of typically censored clinical data. We propose to use time-to-event modeling techniques, also known as survival analysis, to predict the LOS for patients based on individualized information collected from multiple sources. The performance of six proposed survival models is evaluated and compared based on clinical data from COVID-19 patients

Substitution Patterns Are Under Different Influences in Primates and Rodents

There are large-scale variations of the GC-content along mammalian chromosomes that have been called isochore structures. Primates and rodents have different isochore structures, which suggests that these lineages exhibit different modes of GC-content evolution. It has been shown that, in the human lineage, GC-biased gene conversion (gBGC), a neutral process associated with meiotic recombination, acts on GC-content evolution by influencing A or T to G or C substitution rates. We computed genome-wide substitution patterns in the mouse lineage from multiple alignments and compared them with substitution patterns in the human lineage. We found that in the mouse lineage, gBGC is active but weaker than in the human lineage and that male-specific recombination better predicts GC-content evolution than female-specific recombination. Furthermore, we were able to show that G or C to A or T substitution rates are predicted by a combination of different factors in both lineages. A or T to G or C substitution rates are most strongly predicted by meiotic recombination in the human lineage but by CpG odds ratio (the observed CpG frequency normalized by the expected CpG frequency) in the mouse lineage, suggesting that substitution patterns are under different influences in primates and rodents

Long-Chain Omega-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids May Be Beneficial for Reducing Obesity—A Review

Current recommendations for counteracting obesity advocate the consumption of a healthy diet and participation in regular physical activity, but many individuals have difficulty complying with these recommendations. Studies in rodents and humans have indicated that long-chain omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (LC n-3 PUFA) potentially elicit a number of effects which might be useful for reducing obesity, including suppression of appetite, improvements in circulation which might facilitate nutrient delivery to skeletal muscle and changes in gene expression which shift metabolism toward increased accretion of lean tissue, enhanced fat oxidation and energy expenditure and reduced fat deposition. While LC n-3 PUFA supplementation has been shown to reduce obesity in rodents, evidence in humans is limited. Epidemiological associations between LC n-3 PUFA intakes and obesity are inconclusive but small cross-sectional studies have demonstrated inverse relationships between markers of LC n-3 PUFA status and markers of obesity. Human intervention trials indicate potential benefits of LC n-3 PUFA supplementation, especially when combined with energy-restricted diets or exercise, but more well-controlled and long-term trials are needed to confirm these effects and identify mechanisms of action

A transient presence: black visitors and sojourners in Imperial Germany, 1884-1914

The onset of German colonial rule in Africa brought increasing numbers of Black men and women to Germany. Pre-1914 the vast majority of these Africans can best be described as visitors or sojourners and the Black population as a whole was a transient one. This makes recovering their presence in the archival record exceptionally difficult and it is not surprising that the existing historiography almost exclusively focuses on individual biographies of well documented lives. Through utilising a number of newly digitised archival materials, particularly the Hamburg Passenger Lists, this article draws upon a database with information on 1092 individuals from sub-Saharan Africa who spent time in Germany over the period 1884-1914 in order to add considerable bread and depth to our understanding of the Black presence as a whole. It provides increasing empirical detail about the make-up and character of this fluid population - where visitors came from, why they came to Germany, their age on arrival - as well as more accurate detail on the temporal and, to a lesser extent, spatial distribution of visitors

Characteristics of Sexual Abuse in Childhood and Adolescence Influence Sexual Risk Behavior in Adulthood

Childhood and adolescent sexual abuse has been associated with subsequent (adult) sexual risk behavior, but the effects of force and type of sexual abuse on sexual behavior outcomes have been less well-studied. The present study investigated the associations between sexual abuse characteristics and later sexual risk behavior, and explored whether gender of the child/adolescent moderated these relations. Patients attending an STD clinic completed a computerized survey that assessed history of sexual abuse as well as lifetime and current sexual behavior. Participants were considered sexually abused if they reported a sexual experience (1) before age 13 with someone 5 or more years older, (2) between the ages of 13 and 16 with someone 10 or more years older, or (3) before the age of 17 involving force or coercion. Participants who were sexually abused were further categorized based on two abuse characteristics, namely, use of penetration and force. Analyses included 1177 participants (n=534 women; n=643 men). Those who reported sexual abuse involving penetration and/or force reported more adult sexual risk behavior, including the number of lifetime partners and number of previous STD diagnoses, than those who were not sexually abused and those who were abused without force or penetration. There were no significant differences in sexual risk behavior between nonabused participants and those who reported sexual abuse without force and without penetration. Gender of the child/adolescent moderated the association between sexual abuse characteristics and adult sexual risk behavior; for men, sexual abuse with force and penetration was associated with the greatest number of episodes of sex trading, whereas for women, those who were abused with penetration, regardless of whether the abuse involved force, reported the most episodes of sex trading. These findings indicate that more severe sexual abuse is associated with riskier adult sexual behavior