Contribution of Temporal Fine Structure Cues to Concurrent Vowel Identification and Perception of Zebra Speech.

 The limited access to temporal fine structure (TFS) cues is a reason for reduced speech-in-noise recognition in cochlear implant (CI) users. The CI signal processing schemes like electroacoustic stimulation (EAS) and fine structure processing (FSP) encode TFS in the low frequency whereas theoretical strategies such as frequency amplitude modulation encoder (FAME) encode TFS in all the bands.  The present study compared the effect of simulated CI signal processing schemes that either encode no TFS, TFS information in all bands, or TFS only in low-frequency bands on concurrent vowel identification (CVI) and Zebra speech perception (ZSP).

Culturable bacteria associated with Anopheles darlingi and their paratransgenesis potential.

Background: Malaria remains a major public health problem in South America, mostly in the Amazon region. Among newly proposed ways of controlling malaria transmission to humans, paratransgenesis is a promising alternative. Paratransgenesis aims to inhibit the development of parasites within the vector through the action of genetically modified bacteria.

Comparative report on transplantation and relevant ethical problems in five European countries, and some reflections on Japan.

Comparison of transplantation medicine in Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Spain and Portugal reveals many and important differences with respect to frequency of transplantations, frequency of life donations, legal regulations and influence of the family on organ donation. The differences observed are at least partly related to cultural and value differences between the various countries, but many questions need to be studied systematically and in more detail before useful conclusions can be drawn. One study would have to address the problem of how differences in the family influence on organ donation can be explained.

Opinion on the ethical aspects of health care of patients at the end of life.

Demographic evolution and scientific progress in the treatment of fatal diseases have brought about a large number of disabled old persons and of greatly dependent persons. Nowadays, the dying process of people in such conditions is slower, though irreversible, and it has created a new form of medical care known as palliative medicine. Seven situations of this kind are discussed, with the corresponding ethical appraisal of the possible medical decisions in each case.

Circulating immune complexes in Buerger's disease. Endarteritis obliterans in young men.

Auto-antibodies such as anti-elastin, anti-collagen, anti-nuclear and anti-arterial, circulating immune complexes, and cellular responses to collagen I and III are known to be present in Buerger's disease (EO). Deposits of IgG, C3 and C4 have also been found in the vascular lesions of endarteritis obliterans (EO) in young men. The purpose of this study was to correlate clinical evidence of vascular disease with the presence of the circulating immune complexes.

Prognosis in colorectal carcinoma. A reassessment of the pathologist's role.

The prognostic significance of some pathologic features was evaluated in a series of 177 patients with colorectal carcinoma consecutively treated by curative resection in a department of Surgery from 1960 to 1981. There were 90 men and 87 women with a mean age of 59.2 +/- 12.

Hodgkin's disease with predominant infradiaphragmatic involvement and massive invasion of the bone marrow. A necropsic study of nine cases.

The authors report the results obtained in the necropsic study of nine cases of the so-called acute, visceral form of Hodgkin's disease (HD). Most of the patients (six men and three women, ranging from 42 to 74 years of age) lacked peripheral lymphadenopathies and had fever, weight loss, abnormality of hepatic function, and pancytopenia. Mixed cellularity was diagnosed in two, diffuse fibrosis in four, and reticular subtype of lymphocyte depletion in three cases.

[Centrolobular cholestasis: experimental study on the possible mechanism (author's transl)].

In the cholestatic condition of many different aetiologies a common pathologic picture is found. It is characterized by the presence of pigmented "plugs" and cytoplasmatic "masses" in the centrolobular region. Dubin has tried to interpret this on purely hydrostatic ground but this is not a very likely explanation.