Salivary Parameters (Salivary Flow, pH and Buffering Capacity) in Stimulated Saliva of Mexican Elders 60 Years Old and Older.

OBJECTIVE: To compare a limited array of chewing-stimulated saliva features (salivary flow, pH and buffer capacity) in a sample of elderly Mexicans with clinical, sociodemographic and socio-economic variables. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional study was carried out in 139 adults, 60 years old and older, from two retirement homes and a senior day care centre in the city of Pachuca, Mexico. Sociodemographic, socio-economic and behavioural variables were collected through a questionnaire. A trained and standardized examiner obtained the oral clinical variables. Chewing-stimulated saliva (paraffin method) was collected and the salivary flow rate, pH and buffer capacity were measured. The analysis was performed using non-parametric tests in Stata 9.0. RESULTS: Mean age was 79.1 ± 9.8 years. Most of the subjects included were women (69.1%). Mean chewing-stimulated salivary flow was 0.75 ± 0.80 mL/minute, and the pH and buffer capacity were 7.88 ± 0.83 and 4.20 ± 1.24, respectively. Mean chewing-stimulated salivary flow varied (p < 0.05) across type of retirement home, tooth brushing frequency, number of missing teeth and use of dental prostheses. pH varied across the type of retirement home (p < 0.05) and marginally by age (p = 0.087); buffer capacity (p < 0.05) varied across type of retirement home, tobacco consumption and the number of missing teeth. CONCLUSIONS: These exploratory data add to the body of knowledge with regard to chewing-stimulated salivary features (salivary flow rate, pH and buffer capacity) and outline the variability of those features across selected sociodemographic, socio-economic and behavioural variables in a group of Mexican elders.

Solid-contact Hg(II)-selective electrode based on a carbon-epoxy composite containing a new dithiophosphate-based ionophore.

The experimental results herein concern a novel ion-selective electrode manufactured with an inner solid contact based on a new ligand O,O'-(2,2'-biphenylene)dithiophosphate pentyl (PenDTF). This electrode displays high selectivity toward the Hg(II) ion even in the presence of different divalent ions. The electrode also exhibited a good Nernstian response to Hg(II) (33.7±1.0 mV decade(-1)) over an ample concentration range (5.3×10(-7)-1.0×10(-2) mol L(-1)), with a detection limit of (6.1±1.7)×10(-7) mol L(-1). As a result of design, the electrode can be used for many experiments, simply renewing its contact surface with emery paper, without giving rise to a significant response deviation, exhibiting a variation coefficient of 3%, capable of being tested within the 0-5 pH interval. The electrode was used satisfactorily as indicating electrode during the potentiometric titration of Hg(II) ions with EDTA.

Nucleation and growth kinetics of electrodeposited sulfate-doped polypyrrole: determination of the diffusion coefficient of SO(4)(2-) in the polymeric membrane.

A kinetic study for the electrosynthesis of polypyrrole (Ppy) doped with SO(4)(2-) ions is presented. Ppy films were electrochemically polymerized onto a graphite-epoxy resin electrode. Experimental current density transients (j-t) were obtained for three different potentiometric behaviors: anionic, cationic, and a combination. Theoretical models were used to fit the experimental j-t data to determine the nucleation and growth processes controlling the polymer synthesis. It was encountered that, in all cases, pyrrole electropolimerization involves two concomitant processes, namely, a Ppy diffusion limited multiple 3D nucleation and growth and pyrrole electro-oxidation on the growing surface of the Ppy nuclei. SEM analysis of the electrodes surfaces reveals that Ppy deposition occurred over most of the electrode surface by multiple nucleation of hemispheres, as the theoretical model used for the analysis of the current transients required. Hemispherical particles formed the polymeric film displaying different sizes. The order for the particle size was as follows: anionic > anionic-cationic > cationic. These results are congruent with those obtained by theoretical analysis of the corresponding current transients. Analysis of the impedance measurements recorded on the anionic Ppy film, immersed in an aqueous solution with different sulfate ion concentrations evidenced that SO(4)(2-) ions diffuse through the Ppy film provoking a decrease of its electrical resistance and an increase of its dielectric constant. From the Warburg impedance coefficient, the sulfate coefficient of diffusion in the Ppy film was 1.38 x 10(-9) cm(2) s(-1).

Simultaneous determination of tetracyclines in poultry muscle by capillary zone electrophoresis.

A capillary zone electrophoresis method with UV detection was developed for the simultaneous detection and quantification of three tetracyclines in chicken meat samples: tetracycline (TC), oxytetracycline (OTC) and doxycycline (DOC). The separation conditions were: a running buffer containing 30 mM sodium phosphate, 2mM EDTA disodium salt and 2.5% 2-propanol, pH 12.0, a 5s hydrodynamic injection and a 14kV separation voltage. Two different clean-up methodologies were employed: solid-phase extraction with C(18) cartridges and ion exchange with Amberlite XAD7 resin. Analytes were detected at 360 nm in less than 12 min. LODs ranged from 61 microg kg(-1) for OTC to 68 microg kg(-1) for DOC with C(18) cartridges, and 81 microg kg(-1) for DOC to 89 microg kg(-1) for TC with Amberlite XAD7 resin. The recoveries for TC, OTC and DOC obtained by both methods were between 85 and 95%, and the peak area repeatability for all of the samples was below 5% in all cases. Twenty-four samples of commercial chicken drumsticks were examined with both clean-up methodologies. In nine cases (37.5%) TC was detected, in a range from 197.8 to 2564.3 microg kg(-1), and in seven cases (29.2%) OTC was detected in a range from 83.0 to 2049.3 microg kg(-1). DOC was not detected in any of the tested samples. This method would be useful for the routine monitoring of TCs residues in poultry muscle.

Anestesia para transplante hepático: comportamiento hemodinámico durante su manejo transoperatorio / Anesthesia for liver transplant: hemodinamic profile during trans-operative period

El presente trabajo titulado "Anestesia pata Trasplante Hepático, comportamiento Hemodinamico durante su Manejo Transoperatorio" es un trabajo descriptivo, serie de casos de 15 pacientes sometidos a trasplante ortotópico de hilado en la Fundación Clínica Valle del Lili, en Santiago de Cali, Colombia. La anestesia que recibieron los pacientes estuvo guiada por el protocolo diseñado por los anestesiólogos del grupo de trasplante hepático de la institución, se realizaron mediciones hemodinámicas en las diferentes fases del trasplante, preanhepática, anhepática y neohepática, los resultados obtenidos fueron sometidos a análisis estadístico mediante el programa Epi-Info 6.1 y el programa STATSM, dentro de las variables medidas se tomaron la frecuencia cardiaca, presión arterial media, presión cavo pulmonar, índice cardiaco, índice volumen sistólico, índice de resistencia vascular sistólica. Se compararon dos técnicas quirúrgicas empleadas en un grupo, se realizo clampeo total de la vena cava inferior, y en otro grupo se realizo clampeo parcial de la vena cana inferior como parte de la técnica de Piggy - Back, encontrándose que en los pacientes a los que se les realizo clampeo total de la vena cava inferior presentaron en la fase neohepática un mayor aumento de la presión en cuna pulmonar, menor índice de volumen sistólico y mayor resistencia vascular sistémica. Los cambios analizados no presentaron significancia estadística cuando se comparan con el clampeo parcial, lo que podría explicarse posiblemente por el tamaño pequeño de la muestra

Phorbol ester induces c-sis gene transcription in stem cell line K-562.

The phorbol ester 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA) induced megakaryoblastic differentiation and c-sis expression in the human hematopoietic stem cell line K-562. This induction occurred at the transcriptional level, as determined by a nuclear runoff transcriptional assay, and was not a generalized effect of TPA, since the treatment of other hematopoietic cell lines and normal peripheral blood lymphocytes with TPA did not result in the appearance of c-sis mRNA.

[Continuing education in health in Latin America]. / La educación permanente en salud en América Latina.

The article considers continuing education as instruction to update knowledge and provide personal training. The first part defines concepts, terms, education, learning, socialization, critical awareness, and personal training. The underlying principles of continuing education are spelled out: Education is a continuing process; every social group is educational; continuing education is comprehensive; education is a dynamic process; education is an orderly process of thought; the education system is integrative in character; and education is an innovative process. The second section examines the relationship between work and continuing education, and views work as a social institution that completes the education process. A consideration of continuing education, health services, and the purposes of continuing education completes this part. The third part compares the new continuing education with the traditional variety. The former centers on the student, learning, and work, and the latter on the teacher and verbalization. The fourth part discusses methods, research, and evaluation and the existing kinds of continuing education in relation to their objectives. Continuing education in Latin America is the subject of the fifth part, which summarizes the disparate purposes, methods, and concepts of 155 continuing education program in the region. It is concluded that continuing education is a means, not an end, the end being to meet the public's health needs.

[Education-service integration]. / Integración docente-asistencial.

The article broadly reviews the conceptual basis of the integration of service and education and the history of the process and of the programs in progress in the countries of the Americas. A study of the different definitions given and uses made of the concept and practice yields a definition of the integration of services and education as "a process of progressive articulation between institutions providing health services and those imparting instruction in the health field in order to improve health care and guide the generation of knowledge and the training of personnel on the basis of the epidemiological profile of a given region and population. This ongoing education process takes place in the course of work, which it is capable of changing by virtue of its own momentum." This definition embodies the features common to all those used: The process itself, articulation between teaching and service establishments, and objectives. The story of the process in the Old World is briefly reviewed; its stages in the New World are considered at greater length, and the positions taken by the Pan American Health Organization since 1963 are stated. The emphasis today is on the technical cooperation provided in the different aspects of the process: institutional and program development, program supervision, the setting of standards and priorities for research, personnel utilization, etc. The article closes with an account of the mechanisms for interaction (formal, informal, operational, and policy-making) and a discussion of the different fields, practices and coverage that have been affected by this process, and comes to the conclusion that the integration of service and education has been essential to the student's training in exposing him to the practical realities of the local and general situation of his country.

[Training in supervision: an attempt at a theoretical guide]. / Adiestramiento en supervisión: ensayo de marco teórico.

The author says that, in the health field, training in supervision should be based on research. This approach would make it possible to draw up a scheme for supervision with a scientific basis as a guide to the training of the required personnel. He points out that the negative image of the supervisor as one who conspires against individual creativity and cowers the subordinate, has to be overcome. Supervision must be accompanied by counseling, and give the subordinate an opportunity to contribute to the solutions of problems. The basic principles of the proposed supervision for education are, summarily, safeguarding the integrity of the worker, support to his talent, participation of the subordinate in his own evaluation, and the avoidance of threats, insecurity and punishment as a consequence of supervision. Finally, he proposes that all supervision must have a continuing education program as a response.

Adiestramiento en supervision: ensayo de marco teorico. / Training in supervision: assay of theoretical framework

Plantea el autor que en el campo de la salud, el adiestramiento en supervision debe partir de un proceso de investigacion. Ese enfoque haria posible la elaboracion de un esquema de supervision con una base cientifica, que proporcione orientacion al proceso de educacion para la formacion del personal requerido.Destaca que es preciso superar la imagen negativa del supervisor, que conspira contra la creatividad individual y atemoriza al supervisado. La supervision debe ir acompanada de una labor de asesoramiento y ofrecer la oportunidad al supervisado para que contribuya a la solucion de los problemas. Los principios basicos de la supervision-educacion propuesta son, en sintesis: la proteccion de la integridad del trabajador, el apoyo al talento del trabajador, la participacion del supervisado en su evaluacion, en evitar la amenaza, la inseguridad y el castigo como consecuencia de la supervision. Por ultimo, propone que todo proceso de supervision debe tener como respuesta un programa de educacion continua

[The teaching of internal medicine in the forming of the physician]. / La enseñanza de la medicina interna en la formación del médico.

This paper was presented as a working document to the Second Meeting of the PAHO/WHO Program of Textbooks for the Integrated Teaching of Internal Medicine and its Specialties (Washington, D.C., 13-18 December 1976). The need to place the medical student in his environment from the first as an active member of the health team is stressed, and several considerations about the usual obstacles to this proposal are advanced. Reference is made to the subject of curricular integration as related to the length of medical studies and to the traditional use of the hospital in the teaching of internal medicine. The second part of the document reports on the results of the PAHO survey on how internal medicine is taught in Latin America, in which 84 faculties and schools in 15 countries of the Region participated.