Impaired chair-to-bed transfer ability leads to longer hospital stays among elderly patients.

Background: The study objectives were to identify the main predictive factors for long hospital stays and to propose new and improved methods of risk assessment.

Methods: This prospective cohort study was conducted in the clinics and surgical wards of a tertiary hospital and involved 523 elderly patients over 60 years of age. Demographic, clinical, functional, and cognitive characteristics assessed between 48 and 72 h after admission were analyzed to investigate correlations with lengths of stay greater than 10 days.

Follow-up of premature children with high risk for growth and development delay: a multiprofessional assessment.

Objective: To describe the activities of a multiprofessional outpatient clinic performed by neonatologist, physiatrist, physical therapist, occupational therapist, speech therapist, audiologist and psychologist, who evaluated the development of premature newborns.

Methods: Twenty children born at a tertiary-care hospital (São Paulo, Brazil), between April 2006 and April 2007, with birth weight below 1250 g or less than 32 weeks of gestation, were evaluated. The multiprofessional evaluation included assessment of development using the Bayley III scale, at the corrected age of 3, 6, 9, 12, 18 and 24 months.

[Neuronal heterotopy].

The diagnosis of most volumetric processes of the brain presents no difficulty today; however, there are a number of brain diseases whose clinical manifestations are similar to those of tumors. Despite the development of neurovisualization techniques (application of currently available computer and magnetic resonance tomographs and special programs, such as MR imaging and CT spectroscopy, diffusion and perfusion, etc.), some of these processes are difficult to differentiate from neoplasms noninvasively.

[A study of specific electrical conductivity of water by the action of constant magnetic field, electromagnetic field, and low-frequency mechanical vibrations].

The effect of a constant magnetic field, an electromagnetic field, and low-frequency mechanical vibrations on specific electrical conductivity of distilled water was studied. Newly formed (fresh), three-day- and six-day-old distilled water was used. The exposure of distilled water to a constant magnetic field (2.

[Aspergillosis of the central nervous system (clinical observation and review of literature)].

Aspergillosis of the central nervous system presents a challenge faced with the problems arising from the establishing the diagnosis, the low efficiency of treatment, and high mortality rates (about 95% as shown by some data). This paper presents a clinical case of a patient with aspergillosis-induced central nervous system lesion verified by autopsy. Possible errors in the diagnosis and treatment of the patient are analyzed.

[Genetic and ecologic factors of the variability of growth and development rates in postnatal human ontogeny].

The contribution of genetic and ecological (high-altitude, urban-rural) factors into variability of the level of somatic development in different stages of pubertal development (7-17 years) of the male ontogeny was studied. It was found, that realization of genetic potential of growth and development in children and adolescents is not substantially influenced by high-altitude locations, but by ecological differences between urban and rural communities, induced by socioeconomic conditions.

[The effect of anesthesia and surgery on cerebral and pulmonary circulation and on the state of the liver in gynecologic patients].

Pre- and postoperative examinations of 136 gynecological patients (78 patients with ectopic pregnancy, 30 patients with ovarian cysts and cystomas, and 28 patients with myomas of the uterus) have revealed disturbances in cerebral and pulmonary hemodynamics and liver function damage caused by surgery and general anesthesia. Disturbances in cerebral and pulmonary hemodynamics normalized on day 7 after the operation, while liver function damage persisted, which indicates the necessity of correcting therapy in such patients.

[Structure of polylysine-DNA complexes].

By the methods of nuclease digestion and electron microscopy the complexes of poly-I-lysine with phage T2 DNA were studied. At micrococcal nuclease digestion of complexes polylysine--phage T2 DNA structures resistant to nuclease and containing fragments of DNA with lengths of about 300, 600, 1200 base pairs were revealed. On the electron micrographs structures superficially resembling nucleosomes were detected.

[Bacillus thuringiensis plasmid DNA].

Plasmid DNAs were isolated from Bacillus thuringiensis and their physico-chemical properties were studied. The DNAs were purified using ultracentrifugation in a CsCl2 density gradient. The molecular weight of these extrachromosomal DNAs determined by electrophoresis in 0.

[Characteristics of Pseudomonas putida plasmid DNAs].

Physico-chemical characteristics of plasmid DNAs isoalted from Pseudomonas putida G7 were studied as well as the behavior of these DNAs in th eourse of chromatography on columns with Sepharose 4B and kieselguhr with methylated albumin (MAC). This strain was found to contain several plasmid DNAs having molecular weights of 33-36X10(6), 15-18X10(6), and 3-5X10(6) dalton. The plasmid DNAs of biodegradation are supposed to be located in the vicinity of chromosomes, and only a small part of them is characterized by extrachromosomal localization.