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Des comparaisons entre villes canadiennes et américaines doivent se faire avec prudence. L'obstacle principal reste la comparabilité des séries statistiques. Nous proposons une analyse intégréede l'ensemble des 90 régions métropolitaines nord-américaines de 500 000 habitants et plus, dont neuf canadiennes. Suiteà une revue de divers classements, nous situons les 90 régions urbaines sur sept indicateurs, dont des variables portant sur le capital humain et le secteur tertiaire intensif en savoir, suivi d'une analyse de corrélation mettant en relation les indicateurs pour trois univers de villes (sans et avec des villes canadiennes). Nos résultats confirment le bon positionnement sur plusieurs indicateurs de métropoles américaines comme San Francisco-Silicon Valley et Boston, mais aussi de villes comme Raleigh (research triangle) et Austin, connues pour leurs activités de recherche. Les villes canadiennes se classent plutôt bien, notamment les cinq plus grandes. Cependant, c'est moins vrai pour des villes comme Winnipeg ou Hamilton. L'analyse de corrélation fait ressortir la relation positive entre dotation en capital humain et poids du tertiaire intensif en savoir, mais ne révèle aucune relation significative avec l'indicateur de qualité de vie. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: To compare the children of alcoholic fathers who do not develop alcohol or drug problems in adolescence (that is, resilient children) to those who do, focusing on characteristics of personality and family. Various behavioural traits are examined as resilience factors, as are certain educational practices of the parents.Method: Resilience factors were studied throughout childhood, from age 6 to 12 years. The presence or absence of alcohol or drug problems was assessed at the age of 15 or 16 years.Results: Close to 1000 children of both sexes participated in the study. As expected, paternal alcoholism was an important risk factor in the development of substance abuse problems in adolescence. The risk, however, diminishes with personality traits such as low thrill-seeking behaviour and a propensity for inhibition. These traits cannot be considered resilience factors, however, because their effect is as present in children of nonalcoholic fathers as in children of alcoholic fathers. Parental supervision proves to be a protective influence and was found to reduce the risk of substance abuse in children of alcoholic fathers.Conclusion: These results indicate that, above and beyond personality variables, the presence of an alcoholic father constitutes a high risk factor for adolescent drug addiction. Nevertheless, parental supervision may attenuate this risk and is therefore an important means of intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Preschoolers' social adaptation is related to their degree of exposure to environnemental risks. However, the mechanisms through which the environmental risks operate their influence on social adaptation are still poorly documented. Thus, the first goal of this study is to investigate the main effect of family adversity on preschoolers' behavioral problems and attachment security. The second goal is to test the mediating effect of family functionning in the relationship between family adversity and behavioral problems or attachment security. Five hundred and seventy-two participants (n=572) were assessed on family adversity between the age of 5 and 42 months. Behavioral problems and family functionning were assesed at 42 months. Eighty of the participants were assessed on attachment security at the age of 48 months. The results show a main effect of family adversity on behavioral problems as well as a mediating effect of family functionning in the relationship of family adversity and behavioral problems. No significant effect was found for security of attachment.

This article examines coocurrence of three types of problems of adaptation during adolescence : abuse of psychotropic drugs, behavioral disorder (oppositional and behavioral disorders) and feelings of depression (depression and dysthymia). The study also examines behavioral, social as well as family characteristics which, during childhood, distinguish youths with many adaptation problems from those with only one or no problem. More than 1600 youths from all regions of Quebec participated in the study. These youths were around 15,7 years old when they completed an interview aiming at determining the possible presence of abusive use of psychotropic drugs, behavioral problems and feelings of depression. Their behavioral and sociofamilial characteristics had been previously evaluated (between the ages of 6 and 12) with questionnaires answered by parents and teachers. Results reveal that almost 10 % of youths experience two or three adaptation problems. These youths distinguish themselves from those with only one problem on various personal and sociofamilial dimensions in the course of childhood. Those with one problem represent a little more than 25 % of the sample. They also distinguish themselves from the group of youth with no problem on several variables. However, the group of youths with a problem of substance abuse only, is an exception. The discussion underlines the importance of knowing if there is simultaneous presence of several problems and proposes to intervene in a preventive fashion with youths who risk experiencing many problems.

Objectives: To compare the children of alcoholic fathers who do not develop alcohol or drug problems in adolescence (that is, resilient children) to those who do, focusing on characteristics of personality and family. Various behavioural traits are examined as resilience factors, as are certain educational practices of the parents., Method: Resilience factors were studied throughout childhood, from age 6 to 12 years. The presence or absence of alcohol or drug problems was assessed at the age of 15 or 16 years., Results: Close to 1000 children of both sexes participated in the study. As expected, paternal alcoholism was an important risk factor in the development of substance abuse problems in adolescence. The risk, however, diminishes with personality traits such as low thrill-seeking behaviour and a propensity for inhibition. These traits cannot be considered resilience factors, however, because their effect is as present in children of nonalcoholic fathers as in children of alcoholic fathers. Parental supervision proves to be a protective influence and was found to reduce the risk of substance abuse in children of alcoholic fathers., Conclusion: These results indicate that, above and beyond personality variables, the presence of an alcoholic father constitutes a high risk factor for adolescent drug addiction. Nevertheless, parental supervision may attenuate this risk and is therefore an important means of intervention.

Objective: To determine the prevalence of positive tuberculin tests in a population of patients requiring long-term care in a hospital setting., Design: Prevalence study: to evaluate reaction to the test among patients who agreed to be included in the study., Setting: The study took place in two units of the Enfant-Jésus hospital where patients are admitted for chronic care., Participants: A total of 108 patients were eligible for the study; 56 agreed to take part. One patient died before the study was completed., Interventions: The tuberculin test consisted of an injection of PPD-T and reading the reaction 48 to 78 hours later. A reaction > 10 mm was considered significant. Patients with insignificant reactions were injected again 2 weeks later in order to evaluate positive response secondary to reactivation of the immune system (booster effect)., Main Outcome Measures: Indications of previous tuberculosis, risk factors for tuberculosis, immunosuppressive medication, length of stay in hospital, size of reaction., Results: Seventeen tuberculin tests were positive (30.9%); of these, six were positive after the second injection., Conclusion: The prevalence of positive tuberculin tests was high in our elderly population; this finding is comparable to the findings of American studies.

This article presents a preliminary study, a descriptive one, on the sexual intercourse precocity rates at adolescence. 765 male adolescents francophones, 13 years old, from low economic status answered the QAS, questionnaire on aspects of sexual life including. The results show that 11.3% of subjects are sexually active by 13 years old. The first sexual partner is known from many months to many years from the majority of subjects. The majority (61.8%) of the non-sexually active subjects of the research would be near to transit to the first sexual intercourse if we consider the results of our predictive measure of the transition. Discussed at the light of the literature, these results show that early sexual behaviors are: 1) a concrete reality for an important proportion of male adolescents from low economic status; 2) to consider in the future in terms of research priority.

Several studies of female adult populations suggest that somatization problems appear during adolescence and that they are related to behavioural problems during childhood. This study uses Cloninger's personality model to verify the link between personality traits and the beginning of somatization problems in elementary school girls. This model is based on the interaction of three dimensions: novelty seeking, harm avoidance and social reward dependence. Subjects were part of a longitudinal study of the social adjustment of children from Montreal and Val d'Or families. Evaluations of the girls' behaviour in kindergarten were used to establish personality types according to Cloninger's model. The somatization problems were assessed at age ten following interviews with mothers and girls, and ratings by mothers and teachers. The results showed that somatization problems at age ten were more likely when novelty seeking and harm avoidance were high in kindergarten. The kindergarten girls with 'passive-aggressive' or 'explosive-schizoid' personality profiles were more at risk of higher levels of somatization problems at age ten. However, Cloninger's hypothesized link between high levels of somatization problems and the 'histrionic' personality profile was not confirmed.

Available data on the impact of certain types of families is lacking, and the results are often misleading with respect to maladjustment. Following a description of variations in delinquent activity and behaviour problems according to family type, the authors analyse the difficulties in the operation of family systems. Comparisons of six family types apply to data from 763 boys aged 10, 319 female and 426 male adolescents, aged 14 and 15: intact families, father-based and mother-based single-parent families, father-based and mother-based reconstituted families and substitute families. The article's data show that in the late eighties, nearly 40 per cent of children and adolescents living in low-income districts in Montreal belonged to disunited families. In addition, the data confirm a classic observation: in comparison with intact families, disunited families are underprivileged in relation to living conditions, deficient in relation to psychosocial functioning, and propitious to behaviour problems and delinquent activity. In addition, it has been established that certain disunited family types represent a considerable risk factor. The damaging effect of family structure increases in the following order: intact families, mother-based single-parent families, mother-based reconstituted families, substitute families, father-based reconstituted families and father-based single-parent families. Finally, certain intervention methods are suggested to help prevent behaviour and family problems.

To characterize by a mathematical model the dynamics of adrenocortical responses to ACTH, the concentration of plasma corticosterone was measured following a series of injections and perfusions of ACTH to dexamethasone-treated male rats. A similar slope was observed during the rise of plasma corticosterone following graded pulse inputs, and the steady-state corticosterone secretion rate was shown to increase proportionally to the perfusion rate of ACTH up to saturation corresponding to maximal secretion. The data will be used, concurrently with our model of the dynamics of plasma cortiscosterone, for the identification of a mathematical model of the adrenocortical response to ACTH.

In the course of our studies on the fate of cytoplasmic receptors for androgens in various target organs, such a receptor has been partially characterized in rat kidney cytosol: the high affinity constant, the specificity for testosterone and the formation of a hormone-receptor complex with a 8-10S sedimentation coefficient on sucrose density gradient led us to estimate that this macromolecule was similar to the rat prostate androgen receptor. This receptor is partially occupied by circulating androgens because the number of binding sites increases following castration or hypophysectomy. Constant levels of receptors have been recorded for several months in absence of testosterone. The age and the sex of animals, as well as the functional state of thyroid gland, did not affect the number of binding sites. These receptor characteristics may explain the slight renotrophic action of androgens in rat kidney.

In order to determine whether kidney hypertrophy secondary to unilateral nephrectomy was an appropriate model to study cytoplasmic androgen receptor modulation, this receptor was measured three weeks after surgery in intact or castrated animals. Our results demonstrate that the process of kidney hypertrophy is not accompanied by a proportional elevation of the number of androgen receptors and that these receptors are not significantly influenced by the gonadal activity in the rat.

Cholecystitis and cholelithiasis in children would appear to be a rare surgical finding; however, the authors have encountered 15 cases. Although in approximately half the children with this condition the symptomatology is sufficient to draw attention to the biliary tract, in the other half the presence of periumbilical or right lower quadrant abdominal tenderness can easily be misleading. Only by considering the use of cholecystography will one be in a position to make a diagnosis of cholelithiasis in these latter cases.Among the possible causally associated factors in the adult, sex (female) and obesity alone may be applicable in children. Cholecystectomy with peroperative cholangiography is the treatment of choice, even though the occurrence of migratory calculi in the common bile duct is exceptional.