Spatial Distribution of Normal Lung Sounds in Healthy Individuals under Varied Inspiratory Load and Flow Conditions.

Respiratory sounds yield pertinent information about respiratory function in both health and disease. Normal lung sound intensity is a characteristic that correlates well with airflow and it can therefore be used to quantify the airflow changes and limitations imposed by respiratory diseases. The dual aims of this study are firstly to establish whether previously reported asymmetries in normal lung sound intensity are affected by varying the inspiratory threshold load or the airflow of respiration, and secondly to investigate whether fixed sample entropy can be used as a valid measure of lung sound intensity. Respiratory sounds were acquired from twelve healthy individuals using four contact microphones on the posterior skin surface during an inspiratory threshold loading protocol and a varying airflow protocol. The spatial distribution of the normal lung sounds intensity was examined. During the protocols explored here the normal lung sound intensity in the left and right lungs in healthy populations was found to be similar, with asymmetries of less than 3 dB. This agrees with values reported in other studies. The fixed sample entropy of the respiratory sound signal was also calculated and compared with the gold standard root mean square representation of lung sound intensity showing good agreement.

Olanzapine for the treatment of chronic refractory schizophrenia: a 12-month follow-up naturalistic study.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to provide long-term data on the effectiveness and safety of olanzapine in a group of patients with severe refractory schizophrenia. GENERAL METHODS: Twenty patients who had previously received treatment with typical antipsychotic agents and who met the DSM-IV criteria of schizophrenia and refractoriness to treatment were evaluated in a 1-year prospective study after switching to olanzapine. The Positive and Negative Symptoms Scale (PANSS) and the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS) were used to measure effectiveness. The extrapyramidal symptoms were also recorded. Serial laboratory tests, electrocardiograms and body weight measurements were also performed. Longitudinal statistical analyses were performed on the global changes in the scores of the scales by means of a repeated measures analysis of variance. RESULTS: Significant reductions in the global scores from baseline in the PANSS, as well as in the BPRS, were observed. Furthermore, these reductions were also significant when considered only from Week 12. Olanzapine was, in general, well tolerated; a weight gain was observed between baseline and Month 4.5, but, interestingly, it decreased again from this time point to Month 12. CONCLUSION: Olanzapine was shown to be a suitable treatment for refractory schizophrenia in this series of seriously ill patients. Although most of the effects were observed before Week 12, improvement persisted after 1 year. Weight gain stopped or even regressed when the treatment was prolonged. Large controlled clinical trials to define the role of atypical antipsychotics for the management of treatment-refractory schizophrenia are necessary.

Perdida de CO2 poe swforestacion en la zona del Tropico de Cochabamba con analisis digital (SIG) / sss

En el bosque de uso multiple del tropico de Cochabamba se relizao un analisis multitemporal de cobertura vegetal usando imagenes Landsat TM de Octubre de 1986 y Julio de 1999, clasificando la cobertura en 5 categorias para determinar la perdida de CO2 emitido a la atmosfera. Se eligio bosque primario, bosque secundario, pasturas, rios, playas, terrenos en barbecho o descanso, edificaciones y poblaciones con la premisa de que no almacenan carbono. Con el analisis multitemporal aplicando clasificacion no supervisada con density slices en indice de vegetacion NDVI se clasifico la cobertura de la zona y con un cruce de mapas se ubico espacialmente las areas mas afectadas de bosque primario, logrando cualificar estos cambios entre las diferentes coberturas y las areas no afectadas...