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Introduction Fibromyalgia is a common clinical syndrome of generalized musculoskeletal pain, stiffness, and chronic aching, characterized by reproducible tenderness on palpitation of specific anatomical sites, called tender points. (1) Fibromyalgia [...]

China's Great Leap Forward (GLF) of 1958-1961 ended as a catastrophe as widespread famine claimed millions of human lives. This paper reviews the literature on this historical crisis. The collapse of grain production was primarily attributable to failures in central planning that diverted agricultural resources to industry and to malnutrition among peasants, which towered their productivity. The resulting decline in grain availability and the urban bias in China's food distribution system were the main causes of the famine. This paper also compares China's experience with the Soviet famines of 1931-1933 and 1947. Keywords: Central planning, food supply, famine, urban bias, China, USSR JEL Classifications: I30, P21, Q11, O53, INTRODUCTION The Great Leap Forward (GLF) campaign of 1958-1961, which aimed at quickly transforming China into a powerful industrial state, involved dramatic turns of events, but ended as a national [...]

Byline: Steven T. Boyd, PharmD, BCPS, CDE, CDM (Xavier University of Louisiana, New Orleans, Louisiana, Sboyd1@xula.edu) 42S Management Through Risk Factor Modification SAGE Publications, Inc.200810.1177/0145721708316767 Steven T.Boyd PharmD, BCPS, CDE, [...]

Attempts to identify the root causes of individual stress have been made for centuries. The result has been the development of a myriad of approaches and explanations as to the [...]

Byline: Guillermo Donate, DPM (Institute for Tissue Regeneration, Repair and Rehabilitation, Department of Veteran's Affairs Medical Center, Bay Pines, Florida, Division of Plastic Surgery, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida); [...]

Objective: Most studies on alcohol as a risk factor for injuries have been mechanism specific, and few have considered several mechanisms simultaneously or reported alcohol-attributable fractions (AAFs)--which was the aim of the current study. Method: Data from 3,592 injured and 3,489 noninjured patients collected between January 2003 and June 2004 in the surgical ward of the emergency department of the Lausanne University Hospital (Switzerland) were analyzed. Four injury mechanisms derived from the International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision, were considered: transportation-related injuries, falls, exposure to forces and other events, and interpersonal violence. Multinomial logistic regression models were calculated to estimate the risk relationships of different levels of alcohol consumption, using noninjured patients as quasi-controls. The AAFs were then calculated. Results: Risk relationships between injury and acute consumption were found across all mechanisms, commonly resulting in dose-response relationships. Marked differences between mechanisms were observed for relative risks and AAFs, which varied between 15.2% and 33.1% and between 10.1% and 35.9%, depending on the time window of consumption (either 6 hours or 24 hours before injury, respectively). Low and medium levels of alcohol consumption generally were associated with the most AAFs. Conclusions: This study underscores the implications of even low levels of alcohol consumption on the risk of sustaining injuries through any of the mechanisms considered. Substantial AAFs are reported for each mechanism, particularly for injuries resulting from interpersonal violence. Observation of a so-called preventive paradox phenomenon is discussed, and prevention or intervention measures are described., ALCOHOL IS A DOCUMENTED RISK FACTOR for mortality resulting from injury, whether the injuries are intentional (e.g., homicide [Graham, 2006; Rossow, 2001; Sher, 2006]) or unintentional (e.g., traffic-related [Dussault et [...]

The significance of gallbladder wall thickness (GBWT) in regard to gallbladder disease (GBD) is not completely understood. Thickening of the gallbladder wall has been observed in patients with acute calculous and acalculous cholecystitis and chronic cholecystitis. However, various pathologic processes, such as gallbladder cancer and nonbiliary disorders such as liver cirrhosis and viral hepatitis, could also cause thickening of the gallbladder wall. To date, there is no report available on the genetic factors influencing GBWT. Therefore we sought to estimate the heritability ([h.sup.2]) of GBWT and to perform a genome-wide search to identify the susceptibility genes for GBWT, using data from the San Antonio Family Diabetes/Gallbladder Study (SAFDGS), a family study of Mexican Americans. GBWT was measured by ultrasound. After adjusting for the significant effects of age, sex, GBD (i.e., asymptomatic gallstones), metabolic syndrome, and duration of type 2 diabetes (T2DM), GBWT was found to be under significant and appreciable additive genetic influences ([h.sup.2] ± SE = 0.38 ± 0.09, P ≤ 0.0001). The strongest evidence for linkage occurred between markers D11S912 and D11S968 on chromosome 11q24-q25 (LOD = 2.7), where we have already shown suggestive evidence for linkage of GBD (LOD = 2.7) in a subset of our SAFDGS data. Potential evidence for linkage occurred at markers D1S1728 (1p31.1; LOD = 1.4) and D16S748 (16p 13.1; LOD = 1.4), respectively. In conclusion, our study provides suggestive evidence for linkage of GBWT on chromosome 11q in Mexican Americans, and future tasks of mapping susceptibility gene(s) for GBD and its related traits, such as GBWT, in this chromosomal region can be fruitful. KEY WORDS: GALLBLADDER DISEASE, CHOLELITHIASIS, CHOLECYSTITIS, FAMILY STUDY, VARIANCE COMPONENTS ANALYSIS, MEXICAN AMERICANS, SAN ANTONIO FAMILY DIABETES/GALLBLADDER STUDY (SAFDGS)., Gallbladder disease (GBD) is one of the most common diseases afflicting people worldwide. The presence of gallstones composed of cholesterol is the common manifestation of GBD in the United States [...]

Author(s): Charles J. Ammon [1]; Hiroo Kanamori [2]; Thorne Lay (corresponding author) [3] Temporal variations of the frictional resistance on subduction-zone plate boundary faults associated with the stick-slip cycle of [...]

Author(s): Mark A. Saunders (corresponding author) [1]; Adam S. Lea [1] Atlantic hurricane activity has increased significantly since 1995 (refs 1-4), but the underlying causes of this increase remain uncertain [...]

Author(s): Miguel de Lucas [1, 4]; Jean-Michel Davière [1, 4]; Mariana Rodríguez-Falcón [1, 4]; Mariela Pontin [1]; Juan Manuel Iglesias-Pedraz [1]; Séverine Lorrain [2]; Christian Fankhauser [2]; Miguel Angel Blázquez [...]

Author(s): James C. Zachos [1]; Gerald R. Dickens [2]; Richard E. Zeebe [3] By the year 2400, it is predicted that humans will have released about 5,000 gigatonnes of carbon [...]

Author(s): Nicolas Gruber [1]; James N. Galloway [2] The massive acceleration of the nitrogen cycle as a result of the production and industrial use of artificial nitrogen fertilizers worldwide has [...]

Author(s): Martin Heimann [1]; Markus Reichstein [1] It has only been recognized relatively recently that biological processes can control and steer the Earth system in a globally significant way. Terrestrial [...]

Author(s): Shilong Piao (corresponding author) [1]; Philippe Ciais (corresponding author) [1]; Pierre Friedlingstein [1]; Philippe Peylin [2]; Markus Reichstein [3]; Sebastiaan Luyssaert [4]; Hank Margolis [5]; Jingyun Fang [6]; Alan [...]

Author(s): Rune G. Graversen (corresponding author) [1]; Thorsten Mauritsen [1]; Michael Tjernström [1]; Erland Källén [1]; Gunilla Svensson [1] Near-surface warming in the Arctic has been almost twice as large [...]

Introduction The recent national accounts showed the United Kingdom to be running a balance of payments deficit of 5.7 per cent of GDP in the third quarter of 2007, matching [...]

This paper investigates the determinants of long-run unemployment and growth by extending the endogenous growth model of Howitt and Aghion (1998) to allow for a more general treatment of the labor market in the spirit of Pissarides (1990). We find that (i) both long-run growth and unemployment depend not only on factors that affect long-run growth as identified in endogenous growth models with full employment, but also on certain labor market parameters; (ii) long-run unemployment may rise or fall with growth depending on the model's parameters; and (iii) though government policies that promote growth indirectly through improvement in labor market efficiency always reduce the long-run unemployment rate, policies that directly encourage investment in research and development may increase the unemployment rate. JEL Classification: O40, J60, 1. Introduction Although a high rate of economic growth and a low rate of unemployment are two major goals of most governments, the relationship between these two goals is not [...]

Much thought must go into preparing children for the transition from home or a child care environment to school. Transition experiences need to consider the whole child, including children's cognitive, [...]

Byline: Paul B. Lewis, MD (Division of Sports Medicine, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, Illinois); John-Paul Rue, MD (Division of Sports Medicine, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery [...]

We analyze smoking risk beliefs and smoking behavior using individual data from 1997 for the United States and 1998 for Massachusetts. Smokers and adults more generally overestimate the lung cancer risks of smoking and the mortality risks and life expectancy loss. Higher risk beliefs decrease the probability of starting to smoke and increase the probability of quitting among those who begin. Better educated smokers have lower and more accurate risk beliefs, but education decreases the probability of smoking. Higher state cigarette taxes correlate with risk beliefs but not with smoking status. The uninsured are especially likely to remain current smokers. (JEL I12, I18, D80), I. INTRODUCTION More people die from smoking each year than from any other consumption activity. These risks arise from consumer choices in a market context. As a result, whether consumers [...]

President Bush is often met with cynicism when he cites nuclear energy as a way to curb greenhouse gas emissions. But what about House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the San Francisco [...]

Objective: The current study assessed women's risk for victimization during the first year at college, based on changes in drinking during the transition from high school to college. We were specifically interested in differential risk for victimization based on women's change in drinking status over the transition to college. We compared continued abstainers with women who began drinking ('new' drinkers) and women who continued drinking but either decreased, increased, or did not change their level of weekly drinking. Method: Data were collected using a Web-based survey each fall for the first 2 years at college with one cohort (N = 886) of incoming freshmen women at a large state university in New York. Women reported on their alcohol and other drug use, psychological symptoms, number of sexual partners, and experiences with physical and sexual victimization for the year before entering college (Year 1 survey) and for the first year at college (Year 2 survey). Results: Abstainers were significantly less likely to experience physical or sexual victimization during the first year at college, compared with drinkers. Logistic regression indicated that there were differences in the predictors of physical and sexual victimization during the first year at college. These differences included history of victimization, psychological symptoms, and number of sexual partners, as well as the type of change in drinking over the transition. Conclusions: In comparison with abstainers, having a history of physical victimization, greater psychological symptoms, and being a 'new' drinker increased the odds of physical victimization, whereas having a greater number of current psychological symptoms, sexual partners, and increasing weekly drinking increased the odds of sexual victimization during the first year at college. These findings have implications for prevention efforts targeting young women entering college. (J. Stud. Alcohol Drugs 69: 6574, 2008), INCREASES IN DRINKING and related problems have been reported for first-year college students across several studies (e.g., Hartzler and Fromme, 2003; Leeman and Wapner, 2001; Prendergast, 1994). Findings consistently indicate [...]

IN THE HISTORY OF THE INTERSECTIONS between war, gender, and sexuality, historians have debated the degree to which the age of total war represented a step toward 'remasculinization,' a process [...]

Background. To date, no reports have investigated neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) to increase muscle force production of children with cerebral palsy (CP) using high-force contractions and low repetitions. Objective. The aims of this study were to determine if isometric NMES or volitional training in children with CP could increase muscle strength and walking speed and to examine the mechanisms that may contribute to increased force production. Methods. Eleven children with spastic diplegia were assigned to an NMES training group or to a volitional training group. Participants in the NMES group had electrodes implanted percutaneously to activate the quadriceps femoris and triceps surae muscles. The volitional group trained with maximal effort contractions. Both groups performed a 12-week isometric strength-training program. Maximum voluntary isometric contraction (MVIC) force, voluntary muscle activation, quadriceps and triceps surae cross-sectional area (CSA), and walking speed were measured pre- and post-strength training. Results. The NMES-trained group had greater increases in normalized force production for both the quadriceps femoris and triceps surae. Similarly, only the NMES group showed an increase in walking speed after training. Changes in voluntary muscle activation explained approximately 67% and 37% of the changes seen in the MVIC of the NMES and volitional groups, respectively. Quadriceps femoris maximum CSA increased significantly for the NMES group only. Conclusions. This study was the first to quantitatively show strength gains with the use of NMES in children with CP. These results support the need for future experimental studies that will examine the clinical effectiveness of NMES strength training. Key Words: Cerebral palsy--Strength training--Electrical stimulation--Muscle activation--Cross-sectional area--Hypertrophy., Low muscle force production in children with cerebral palsy (CP)(1) can potentially be explained by several observed factors: decreased central nervous system (CNS) motor unit recruitment and discharge rates,(2) increased [...]

The main aim of this study was to describe adolescents' perceptions and experiences of bullying: their thoughts about why children and adolescents are bullied, their ideas about why some bully others, and what they believe is important in order to stop bullying. The adolescents were asked about experiences throughout their school years. The study group was comprised of 119 high school students, with a mean age of 17.1 (SD = 1.2). Of the adolescents who reported, 39% indicated that they had been bullied at some time during their school years and 28% said that they had bullied others; 13% reported being both victims and bullies. The ages during which most students had been bullied at school were between 7 and 9 years. Bullies reported that most of the bullying took place when they were 10 to 12 years old. The most common reason as to why individuals are bullied was that they have a different appearance. The participants believe that those who bully suffer from low self-esteem. The most common response to the question 'What do you think makes bullying stop?' was that the bully matures. The next most frequent response was that the victim stood up for himself/herself. Those who were not involved in bullying during their school years had a much stronger belief that victims can stand up for themselves than did the victims themselves., One of the most distressing experiences for a child or adolescent is being bullied, especially when it occurs over a prolonged period of time (Whitney, Nabuzoka, & Smith, 1992). Bullying, [...]

Self-serving, perceptive elites tend to exploit ethnic conflict for their own personal benefit. In times of political and social upheaval, when insecurity prevails, ethnic leaders take advantage of uncertainty to [...]

Byline: Melody Ryan, PharmD, MPH (Department of Pharmacy Practice and Science, University of Kentucky College of Pharmacy, maryan1@email.uky.edu, Department of Neurology, University of Kentucky College of Medicine, Lexington, Kentucky); John [...]

Byline: Khashayar Dashtipour, MD, PhD (Department of Neurology and School of Medicine, Loma Linda University, Loma Linda, California, KDashtipour@llu.edu); Mandana Barahimi, MD (Department of Family Practice, Northridge Hospital Medical Center, [...]

Byline: Jack J. Chen, PharmD, BCPS, CGP (Schools of Medicine and Pharmacy, Loma Linda University, Loma Linda, California, jjchen@llu.edu); David M. Swope, MD (Department of Neurology and School of Medicine, [...]

We report a massive inland displacement of petrels, particularly female Atlantic Petrels (Pterodroma incerta) in southern Brazil, after Hurricane Catarina, the first ever reported hurricane in the South Atlantic Ocean. At least 354 petrels were affected and were found in 26 different locations, up to 420 km from the coast and 1,100 m above sea level. Birds were in heavy molt and near starvation, which probably contributed to their displacement and mortality., The Atlantic Petrel (Pterodroma incerta) is a medium-sized gadfly petrel endemic to Gough and Tristan da Cunha islands (Brooke 2004); it has vulnerable global status (Birdlife International 2004) and is [...]

The different economic performance of transitioning Asia versus Central and Eastern Europe and the FSU (CEEFSU) has been arguably the most salient fact of transition. Particularly remarkable has been the contrast between China and Russia. This paper argues that the contrasting experiences of China and Russia can in part be explained by the different roles that governments have played in the transition process of these countries. China gave priority to administrative reform, aligned bureaucratic incentives at all levels with growth and development objectives, and enhanced enterprise and local autonomy while preserving the capacity of the centre to exercise control. This approach transformed government bodies into real owners of the reform process and Led to privatisation over time that was Largely welfare enhancing. Russia, on the contrary gave priority to economic over state restructuring. Major reforms including mass privatisation were implemented in an environment of a weak state, which did not have the capacity to protect its ownership rights and coordinate reforms. As a result, privatisation was a wasteful process associated with asset stripping and consequently with Lack of legitimacy of newly established property rights. These contrasting experiences carry broader Lessons for the role of the government in large-scale complex reforms. Comparative Economic Studies (2007) 49, 543-571. doi:10.1057/palgrave.ces.8100230 Keywords: Institutional change, economic transition, China, Russia, role of government, administrative reform, incentives JEL Classifications: P210, P260, H110, INTRODUCTION The different economic performance of transitioning Asia versus Central and Eastern Europe and the FSU (CEEFSU) has been arguably the most salient fact of transition. While CEEFSU economies went [...]

Byline: Taeyeon Kim (Department of Architectural Engineering, Yonsei University, Korea, tkim@yonsei.ac.kr); Shinsuke Kato (Institute of Industrial Science, University of Tokyo, Japan); Shuzo Murakami (Department of System Design Engineering, Keio University, [...]

Byline: Qu Hongjuan (Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School, Laboratory of Urban Habitat Environmental Science and Technology, Shenzhen 518055, China, qhjjx2005@gmail.com); Luan Shengji (Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School, Laboratory of Urban [...]

Byline: Sofia Papadia (Centre for Neuroscience Research, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom); Giles E. Hardingham (Centre for Neuroscience Research, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom, Giles.Hardingham@ed.ac.uk) Keywords: Apoptosis; Necrosis; [...]

264 Localized Pulmonary Mycobacterium avium Disease in HIV-Infected Patients Without Access to HAART SAGE Publications, Inc.200710.1177/1545109707303940 SoumyaSwaminathan MD, DNB Tuberculosis Research Centre (ICMR), Chetput, Chennai, doctorsoumya@yahoo.com C.Padmapriyadarsini MBBS, MNAMS DNB [...]

Chikungunya is a mosquito-borne disease first described during an outbreak in the southern part of the United Republic of Tanzania in 1952. The name chikungunya derives from a root verb [...]

Abstract: The objectives of this study were twofold: (i) to determine the mechanism(s) of Senecio-induced toxicity in human hepatoblastoma cells (HepG2) in vitro and whether such toxicity could be prevented [...]

IN THE WAKE of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, policymakers, scholars, and ordinary citizens asked a key question: What would make people willing to give up their lives [...]

Objective: On May 1, 1996, Ontario, Canada, amended the Liquor Licence Act to extend the hours of alcohol sales and service in licensed establishments from 1 AM to 2 AM. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of extended drinking hours in Ontario on motor-vehicle collision (MVC) and other injuries admitted to regional trauma units based on Ontario Trauma Registry data. Method: A quasi-experimental design using interrupted time series was used to assess changes in admissions to Ontario trauma units. The analyzed data sets were monthly data on number of admissions from MVC and other causes of injury during the 11 PM-12 AM, 12-1 AM, 1-2 AM, and 2-3 AM time windows for 4 years before and 3 years after the policy change (May 1992-April 1999). Results: For MVC injuries, no significant pre-post increases were found for the 2-3 AM period commensurate with the introduction of the extended drinking hours, but decreases were found for the 11 PM-12 AM and 1-2 AM periods. For non-MVC injuries, a significant increase was found for the 2-3 AM period. Conclusions: The data sets suggest that increased availability of alcohol as a result of extension of closing hours had an impact on non-MVC injuries presenting to Ontario trauma units, but road safety initiatives may have mediated the effects of the extension on MVC injuries. These observations are consistent with those of other studies of small changes in alcohol availability. (J. Stud. Alcohol Drugs 68: 905-911, 2007), ALCOHOL CONTROL POLICIES are a set of public health measures that governments, agencies, or industry can use to influence the level of alcohol problems in a society (Room et al., [...]

Objective: The objectives of the present study were twofold: (1) to determine whether gender differences exist in the roles of drinking in the event (i.e., self-reported drinking before the injury and estimated blood alcohol concentration [BAC] captured after injury) and drinking pattern (i.e., heavy episodic drinking) in explaining violent versus nonviolent injuries and (2) to assess whether these gender differences vary by country. Method: Emergency department data were analyzed from 30 hospitals in 15 countries, as part of the Emergency Room Collaborative Alcohol Analysis Project and the World Health Organization Collaborative Study of Alcohol and Injuries. Interaction effects between gender and alcohol were tested in the prediction of violent versus nonviolent injury for each country. Results: The bivariate analyses revealed significantly larger effects of drinking-in-the-event variables for men than for women in three countries (i.e., 6 hours before the injury in Argentina and having a positive BAC in Belarus and Spain). In the multivariate analyses, restricted to countries with sufficient sample sizes (i.e., Mexico, South Africa, and the United States), no significant gender differences were found between the drinking-in-the-event variables and violent injury. In the bivariate and multivariate analyses, a significant interaction effect between gender and heavy episodic drinking was found in the United States, indicating that heavy episodic drinking predicted violent injury for women but not for men. Conclusions: Although the results are preliminary, treatment and prevention programs may need to target both genders equally or perhaps even focus more on heavy-drinking women, particularly in the United States. (J. Stud. Alcohol Drugs 68: 824-833, 2007), CONSISTENT EVIDENCE HAS SHOWN THAT a pattern of heavy drinking, alcohol use before injury, and positive and high blood alcohol concentrations (BAC) (i.e., exceeding .08, or 8 mg of alcohol/100 [...]

We investigated the relationships between L/S promoter (SERTPR) and l/s intron2 (SERTin2) genetic variants of serotonin transporter (SERT) polymorphisms with olanzapine-induced weight gain and treatment response in 94 female schizophrenic patients treated with olanzapine for up to 3 months. Body mass index (BMI) was calculated for each patient prior to olanzapine administration and 3 months afterwards. To assess and evaluate improvement of clinical psychotic symptoms and therapeutic response to the antipsychotic, all patients were rated using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS). Overall, the presence of S SERTPR allelic variant and SS genotype was associated with significantly higher weight gain in subjects who were non-obese at the time of admission. The presence of L SERTPR variant was associated with significantly better treatment response measured with total PANSS and general PANSS subscale, while the presence of l SERTin2 variant determined better treatment response only in several items. No evidence of linkage disequilibrium between the two loci was found in the sample. These findings identify genetic factors associated with olanzapine-induced weight gain and treatment response in female schizophrenic patients. Keywords olanzapine, schizophrenia, genetics, serotonin transporters, weight gain, treatment response, Introduction Compared to typical antipsychotics, second generation antipsychotics (SDA) have more acceptable side-effect profiles, and possibly broader symptom efficacy (Bagnall et al., 2003). However, weight gain, as one of the [...]

On 30 July 2007, Uganda's Ministry of Health announced that Marburg virus (Filoviridae family) had been confirmed as the causative agent in a suspected case of haemorrhagic fever that occurred [...]

Introduction Most kitchen and living room furniture in Korea is made of either particle board (PB) or medium density fibreboard (MDF) covered on both sides with vinyl sheets. Internal partitions [...]

Introduction Currently, people who spend more than 80% of the day in indoor spaces are being exposed to a considerable level of air pollutants that are not easily discharged outdoors [...]