Nutritional risk and health care use before and after an acute hospitalization among the elderly.

Objective: Our objective was to assess the nutritional status and health care use of community-dwelling elderly before hospitalization and determine risk factors for longer hospitalizations during 3 mo of follow-up.

Methods: During a 1-y period, we recruited patients 65 y and older admitted to an internal medicine ward at Soroka Medical Center (Beer-Sheva, Israel). Data were obtained regarding health and nutritional status and demographic and social characteristics.

Flows through forest canopies in complex terrain.

Recent progress on boundary layer flow within and above tall forest canopies in complex terrain is reviewed from the perspective of developing methods to interpret carbon dioxide fluxes from tower measurements in real terrain. Two examples of complex terrain are considered in detail: a forest edge, which exemplifies nonuniform forests, and hilly terrain, which can lead to drainage currents at night. Dynamical arguments show that, when boundary layer winds approach a forest edge, the mean wind adjusts on a length scale of approximately 3L(c), where L(c) is the canopy drag length scale, which depends inversely on the leaf area density of the forest.

Increased mast cells in the irritable bowel syndrome.

Mast cells (MC) release potent mediators which alter enteric nerve and smooth muscle function and may play a role in the pathogenesis of the irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). The aim of this study was to determine if MC were increased in the colon of IBS patients compared to controls. Biopsy specimens were obtained from the caecum, ascending colon, descending colon and rectum of 28 patients: 14 IBS (Rome criteria); seven normal; and seven inflammatory controls.

Diabetes mellitus is associated with chronic hepatitis C but not chronic hepatitis B infection.

Glucose intolerance is associated with chronic liver disease, particularly cirrhosis, and overt diabetes mellitus is two to four times more common than in the general population. Little attention has been paid to the relationship between the cause of cirrhosis and the development of glucose intolerance or whether cirrhosis is a prerequisite. We found glucose intolerance to be particularly common in patients with chronic hepatitis C, and in this retrospective study we attempt to confirm this possible association.