Correlates of Meal Skipping in Community Dwelling Older Adults: A Cross-Sectional Study.

In this cross-sectional analysis of 10,071 community dwelling adults aged ≥70 years, we examined factors associated with meal skipping (self-reported) using multivariable logistic regression. Prevalence of meal skipping in this study was 19.5%. The adjusted odds (aOR [95%CI]) of meal skipping were lower in those 85+ years (vs. 70-74.9 years, 0.56 [0.45-0.70]), and in those in regional areas (vs. urban area, 0.81 [0.72-0.92]). Higher odds of meal skipping were observed for those living alone (vs. living with someone, 1.84 [1.64-2.05]), current smokers (vs. non-smokers, 2.07 [1.54-2.80]), consumers of high amounts of alcohol (vs. abstainers 1.93 [1.35-2.75]), those with poor oral health (vs. excellent oral health, 1.71 [1.07 -2.73]) diabetes (vs. not 1.26 [1.06-1.50]), or frailty (vs. not, 1.63 [1.09-2.43]). This study identified socio-demographic, social, behavioural and biomedical correlates of meal skipping in later life, which may assist in targeting interventions to address meal skipping.

Neurotoxic effects of acrylamide on rat retinogeniculate fibres.

The common laboratory chemical, acrylamide, causes various clinical effects including dysfunction of the visual system. Previous electrophysiological recordings from the rat lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) following exposure to acrylamide suggested that X-like cells were selectively disrupted by the neurotoxin. This study examines the possibility that the diameter of the optic tract fibres may underlie their differential susceptibility, but shows that fibres of all sizes are affected by acrylamide intoxication and the results suggest that the selective effect of acrylamide is not due simply to disruption of optic tract fibres.

Effects of hand preference on the sex difference in psychomotor reminiscence.

Psychomotor reminiscence was investigated in 80 young adults as a function of sex, handedness, and hand employed in practice. Women reminisced more than men when practice was conducted with the preferred hand but not when it was conducted with the other hand. Hand preference was not a significant factor in men's reminiscence. Results were discussed within the context of reactive inhibition theory.

[Assessment of sociodynamic parameters and critical life change events in functional epigastric syndromes within the scope of an epidemiologic study]. / Erfassung soziodynamischer Parameter und kritischer Lebensereignisse bei funktionellen Oberbauchsyndromen im Rahmen einer epidemiologischen Studie.

In a rural district 187 patients with functional upper abdominal syndromes were examined in a neurological outpatient department by means of a clinical epidemiological questionnaire (46 parameters) and a modified life-event-inventory by Holmes and Rahe (56 items), expanded multidimensionally by subjective parameters of events. The epidemiological and stress-theoretical start of examination aimed at the result whether both methods in practice can help individually for a diagnostics fixed to therapy of psychosomatically sick persons. The representation of some results is limited to the sphere of work. One third of all patients mentioned conflicts in this field. Life-events belonging to the sphere of work with highly emotional filling by stress-experience were mentioned by the half of all patients. Both methods allow a more structured recording of the life-situation, of specific charges, of the individual kind of experience and a faster approach to the sphere of motivations, to problems of the development of such persons and their competencies to overcome these problems, as well as both methods allow an intelligibility of the genesis of this disease.

[Group-therapy system of treatment in a psychiatric ambulatory]. / Gruppentherapeutisches Behandlungssystem einer psychiatrischen Ambulanz.

The group-therapeutical system of treatment used by the outpatient department of the Leipzig University Mental Hospital is described. Individual forms of therapy and their indications are discussed. Some therapeutical principles are outlined. And attempt is made to report some of the experience gained using this system of treatment.

[On the influence of hormonal contraception on the secretion of tears (author's transl)]. / Ueber den Einfluss hormonaler Kontrazeptiva auf die Traenensekretion.

PIP: 55 women, 17-41 years of age, were given Schirmer's test to measure tear secretion. The patients had used Nonovlon, Deposiston, or Ovosiston for 8-143 cycles. A reduction in tear secretion was observed in 20 cases, in 3 of which tear secretion was completely inhibited. 6 patients reported dryness or a burning sensation of the eyes. Conjunctivitis or keratoconjunctivitis sicca were observed in 4 of the patients, 25-34 years of age, who had used oral contraceptives for 6 months to 5 years. 2 of these patients changed from Nonovlon to Gravistat use, while 1 discontinued oral contraceptive use completely, after which the conditions cleared up.^ieng

[Life stress events preceding illness episodes in multiple sclerosis and ulcerative colitis--a comparison]. / Lebensbelastende Situationen im Vorfeld von Krankheitsschüben bei multipler Sklerose und Colitis ulcerosa--ein Vergleich.

As to the prevention of somatic and psychosomatic diseases it should be tested, whether life-events are of interest to pathogenesis of disturbances like multiple sclerosis and ulcerative colitis. The social readjustment rating scale (Holmes, Rahe) was used and the life-change-unite-score of the groups of patients (n = 30) and a normal population was compared. Patients with m.s. and u.c. have a significant higher LCU-score than the normal group. Between the two diseases one can find no difference.

[Association of idiopathic acropustuloses to HLA antigens and their relation to psoriasis]. / Assoziation der idiopathischen Akropustulosen zu HLA-Antigenen und deren Beziehung zur Psoriasis.

Immunogenetical findings can contribute to the understanding of diseases of unknown etiology. It has, however, become difficult to define the borderlines between related diseases, since a vast amount of individual facts have been reported. For this reason, immunogenetical findings should only be seen as a part of general pathology. Our study, which makes use of HLA markers, is an attempt to provide a better definition of idiopathic acropustulosis, and to differentiate it more clearly from psoriasis.

[Intelligence findings in children and adolescents with congenital cataract]. / Intelligenzbefunde bei Kindern und Jugendlichen mit angeborener Katarakt.

In children and young people with congenital cataracts the verbal intelligence quotient gives higher values than the perceptive-practical IQ. Longitudinal studies show the IQv reduced, but not the IQH. Connections exist between visual acuity and the IQ value, and the causes can be assumed to be disturbances of verbal information processing.

An analysis of neural spike-train distributions: determinants of the response of visual cortex neurons to changes in orientation and spatial frequency.

A previously unexploited method of examining neural spike-trains was applied to data obtained from cells in the visual cortex. Distributions of interspike intervals recorded extracellularly from cat visual cortex under four conditions were analyzed. Stimuli were gratings differing in orientation and spatial frequency. The probability density function of first passage time for a random walk with drift process, which is defined by its barrier height and drift coefficient, was used to characterize the generating process of axonal discharge under resting and stimulus conditions. Drift coefficient and barrier height were derived from the sample mean and standard deviation of the measured inter-spike intervals. For cells with simple receptive fields, variations in the drift coefficient were produced by changes in orientation and spatial frequency. Variations in barrier height were produced only by changes in orientation of the stimulus.

Nitrate and nitrite in normal gastric juice. Precursors of the endogenous N-nitroso compound synthesis.

The nitrate and nitrite levels of 75 gastric juice samples from young and healthy fasting volunteers were examined. For both parameters a dependence on the specific pH value of the secretion was detected. The rise of the nitrite level from normal 0.1 ppm in the acid to 1.4 ppm in the neutral range can be explained by the activity of the bacterial flora even in the healthy stomach, which has already been demonstrated earlier. The hitherto existing theory that nitrate originates exclusively from the salivary glands, and if not reduced to nitrite by bacteria in the mouth cavity, is brought into the stomach via swallowed saliva only, does not explain the observation that there is a rise in nitrate concentration in neutral juice, too. Further investigations have to be made to see whether there are other endogenous sources of nitrate except the salivary glands in the gastrointestinal tract. The environmental pollutant nitrate must be paid more attention to in future.

On the other side of the mean: the perception of dissimilarity in human faces.

We created a 'face space' using a laser-scan representation of faces. In this space, a caricature can be made by moving a face away from the average face, along the line connecting the particular face to the average face. Here, we move the face along this line in the other direction, proceeding through the mean and 'out the other side'. This results in a face that is 'opposite', in a computational sense, to the original face. We morphed several faces into their anti-faces and sampled the morph trajectory in five discrete steps. We then collected similarity ratings from human participants for all possible pairs of morphed faces to determine how the distances in the 'physical face space' related to the distances in the 'psychological face space'. The data indicate that there is a perceptual discontinuity of face identity as the face crosses over to the 'other side of the mean'. We consider these results in the context of face-space models of human face processing.

Recognition and sex categorization of adults' and children's faces: examining performance in the absence of sex-stereotyped cues.

The ability of children and adults to classify the sex of children's and adults' faces using only the biologically based internal facial structure was investigated. Face images of 7- to 10-year-old children and of adults in their 20s were edited digitally to eliminate hairstyle and clothing cues to sex. Seven-year-olds, nine-year-olds, and adults classified a subset of these faces by sex and were asked, subsequently, to recognize the faces from among the entire set of faces. This recognition task was designed to assess the relationship between categorization and recognition accuracy. Participants categorized the adult faces by sex at levels of accuracy varying from just above chance (7-year-olds) to nearly perfect (adults). All participant groups performed less accurately for children's faces than for adults' faces. The 7-year-olds were unable to classify the children's faces by sex at levels above chance. Finally, the faces of children and adults were equally recognizable--a finding that has theoretical implications for understanding the relationship between categorizing and identifying faces.

Ribosomal RNA is the target for oxazolidinones, a novel class of translational inhibitors.

Oxazolidinones are antibacterial agents that act primarily against gram-positive bacteria by inhibiting protein synthesis. The binding of oxazolidinones to 70S ribosomes from Escherichia coli was studied by both UV-induced cross-linking using an azido derivative of oxazolidinone and chemical footprinting using dimethyl sulphate. Oxazolidinone binding sites were found on both 30S and 50S subunits, rRNA being the only target. On 16S rRNA, an oxazolidinone footprint was found at A864 in the central domain. 23S rRNA residues involved in oxazolidinone binding were U2113, A2114, U2118, A2119, and C2153, all in domain V. This region is close to the binding site of protein L1 and of the 3' end of tRNA in the E site. The mechanism of action of oxazolidinones in vitro was examined in a purified translation system from E. coli using natural mRNA. The rate of elongation reaction of translation was decreased, most probably because of an inhibition of tRNA translocation, and the length of nascent peptide chains was strongly reduced. Both binding sites and mode of action of oxazolidinones are unique among the antibiotics known to act on the ribosome.

Mechanisms of fat-related modulation of N-nitrosodiethylamine-induced tumors in rats: organ distribution, blood lipids, enzymes and pro-oxidant state.

Groups of rats, either dosed with N-nitrosodiethylamine (NDEA) for 10 weeks (from the age of 7 to 17 weeks) or untreated, were fed diets containing either 2% (low fat, LF) or 30% polyunsaturated fat (high fat, HF) on an equicaloric basis from 5 weeks until rats were 43 weeks old. Biochemical parameters were measured during and at the end of the experiment in various organs, blood, urine and exhaled air, for correlation with the presence or absence of tumors. The HF diet tended to increase the number of hepatic tumors induced by NDEA, while the number of extrahepatic tumors was higher in rats fed on the LF diet; also the overall tumor incidence was higher in the LF group. In the HF/NDEA group, only two benign extrahepatic tumors were found. Plasma total and free cholesterol and triglyceride concentrations were lower in the HF than the LF group without NDEA treatment. In animals bearing liver and/or extrahepatic tumors all plasma lipid concentrations were lower than in tumor-free animals. Only minor or no changes were detected in blood catalase activity, malondialdehyde level, reduced glutathione (GSH) level or GSH-related enzymes and excretion of thioethers in the urine due to dietary modulation or NDEA. Changes in the liver that were associated with the HF diet were: (i) increased amounts of some polyunsaturated fatty acids and of total phospholipids in liver microsomes; (ii) an enhanced level of lipid peroxidation in liver; (iii) a decrease in liver glutathione levels during NDEA treatment, with a simultaneous adaptive increase in superoxide dismutase levels, and a decrease in renal glutathione levels in both treated and untreated groups; (iv) enhanced microsomal induction of aminopyrine N-demethylase and epoxide hydrolase activities by NDEA, and (v) decreased hexose monophosphate shunt (HMS) activity. All mono-oxygenase activities were lower, and the activities of epoxide hydrolase, UDP-glucuronosyltransferase and HMS were higher, in liver tumors than in non-tumorous liver of similarly-treated rats. Neither diet nor NDEA had a major effect on drug-metabolizing enzyme activities in lung and kidney. HF diet significantly increased ethane exhalation (an indicator of the whole-body pro-oxidant state) over those on the LF diet: in rats on either diet, it was further increased when NDEA was given. Ethane exhalation was still elevated 30 weeks after the cessation of NDEA treatment. Our results suggest an association between the observed changes in biochemical parameters, notably oxidative stress, due to dietary modulation and the altered tumor incidence and organ distribution of tumors induced by NDEA.

Making faces: creating three-dimensional parameterized models of facial expression.

Previous studies of the perceptual processing and dynamics of emotional expression in faces have been limited by the lack of realistic yet controlled stimuli. The present work offers researchers a method for creating such stimuli for exploring these phenomena. We describe the creation of the stimuli and a series of experiments testing the validity of these stimuli with respect to emotional expressions in humans. Participants evaluated synthesized facial images and standardized photographs of six basic emotional expressions for intensity and accuracy of perceived emotion. Comparisons of these measures were qualitatively similar for synthesized and photographed faces. A manipulation of the magnitude of the synthesized expressions yielded a significant effect on the perceived intensity of expression. In a subsequent multidimensional scaling study, no systematic differences were uncovered in the derived configurations of the synthesized expressions and the photographs. These results are discussed in the context of possible future research applications.

p38 kinase inhibitors for the treatment of arthritis and osteoporosis: thienyl, furyl, and pyrrolyl ureas.

Inhibitors of the MAP kinase p38 are potentially useful for the treatment for osteoporosis, arthritis, and other inflammatory diseases. A series of thienyl, furyl, and pyrrolyl ureas has been identified as potent p38 inhibitors, displaying in vitro activity in the nanomolar range.

Discovery of heterocyclic ureas as a new class of raf kinase inhibitors: identification of a second generation lead by a combinatorial chemistry approach.

Heterocyclic ureas, such as N-3-thienyl N'-aryl ureas, have been identified as novel inhibitors of raf kinase, a key mediator in the ras signal transduction pathway. Structure-activity relationships were established, and the potency of the screening hit was improved 10-fold to IC(50)=1.7 microM. A combinatorial synthesis approach enabled the identification of a breakthrough lead (IC(50)=0.54 microM) for a second generation series of heterocyclic urea raf kinase inhibitors.