Factors associated with the high tuberculosis case rate in an urban area.

Setting: The Rotterdam region, the Netherlands, 1995-2006.

Objective: To identify factors associated with the high tuberculosis (TB) case rate in an urban area.

Design: Municipalities were divided into urban and semi-urban/rural municipalities.

Neck Pain and Disability Scale and the Neck Disability Index: reproducibility of the Dutch Language Versions.

The first aim of this study was to translate the Neck Pain and Disability Scale (NPAD) from English into Dutch producing the NPAD-Dutch Language Version (DLV). The second aim was to analyze test-retest reliability and agreement of the NPAD-DLV and the Neck Disability Index (NDI)-DLV. The NPAD was translated according to established guidelines.

Risk factors for failure of transmetatarsal amputation in diabetic patients: a cohort study.

Introduction: This study analysed the factors affecting wound healing of a transmetatarsal amputation (TMA) in patients with diabetes.

Materials And Methods: Twenty-one patients who failed a TMA and were revised to transtibial amputation (TTA) within the first year were compared with a matched cohort of 21 successful TMA's. The factors compared included demographics, systemic issues, and local conditions in the foot.

Using three-dimensional gait data for foot/ankle orthopaedic surgery.

We present the case of a forty year old male who sustained a torn carotid during strenuous physical activity. This was followed by a right hemispheric stroke due to a clot associated with the carotid. Upon recovery, the patient's gait was characterized as hemiparetic with a stiff-knee pattern, a fixed flexion deformity of the toe flexors, and a hindfoot varus.

The epigenetics of sex differences in the brain.

Epigenetic changes in the nervous system are emerging as a critical component of enduring effects induced by early life experience, hormonal exposure, trauma and injury, or learning and memory. Sex differences in the brain are largely determined by steroid hormone exposure during a perinatal sensitive period that alters subsequent hormonal and nonhormonal responses throughout the lifespan. Steroid receptors are members of a nuclear receptor transcription factor superfamily and recruit multiple proteins that possess enzymatic activity relevant to epigenetic changes such as acetylation and methylation.

[Diagnostic image. An old man with a cough].

A 72-year-old man presented with chronic coughing due to an infection with Mycobacterium avium complex: Lady Windermere syndrome.

Modeling procedure and surgical times for current procedural terminology-anesthesia-surgeon combinations and evaluation in terms of case-duration prediction and operating room efficiency: a multicenter study.

Background: Gains in operating room (OR) scheduling may be obtained by using accurate statistical models to predict surgical and procedure times. The 3 main contributions of this article are the following: (i) the validation of Strum's results on the statistical distribution of case durations, including surgeon effects, using OR databases of 2 European hospitals, (ii) the use of expert prior expectations to predict durations of rarely observed cases, and (iii) the application of the proposed methods to predict case durations, with an analysis of the resulting increase in OR efficiency.

Methods: We retrospectively reviewed all recorded surgical cases of 2 large European teaching hospitals from 2005 to 2008, involving 85,312 cases and 92,099 h in total.

A Mycobacterium tuberculosis cluster demonstrating the use of genotyping in urban tuberculosis control.

Background: DNA fingerprinting of Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates offers better opportunities to study links between tuberculosis (TB) cases and can highlight relevant issues in urban TB control in low-endemic countries.

Methods: A medium-sized molecular cluster of TB cases with identical DNA fingerprints was used for the development of a visual presentation of epidemiologic links between cases.

Results: Of 32 cases, 17 (53%) were linked to the index case, and 11 (34%) to a secondary case.

The lifetime prevalence of traumatic events and posttraumatic stress disorder in the Netherlands.

Little information exists on the lifetime prevalence of traumatic events and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in the general population of the Netherlands. A national representative sample of 1087 adults aged 18 to 80 years was selected using random digit dialing and then surveyed by telephone using the Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI) to determine the prevalence of trauma and DSM-IV PTSD. The lifetime prevalence of any potential trauma was 80.

Emergence of fluoroquinolone-resistant strains of Salmonella enterica in Surabaya, Indonesia.

Typhoid fever remains a major health problem in developing countries. Fluoroquinolones such as ciprofloxacin emerged as the 1st-choice treatment of enteric fever, including typhoid, in the 1990s. Recently, Salmonella typhi strains with resistance to ciprofloxacin have been increasingly reported in several countries, although the fluoroquinolone-resistant clinical strain has not been reported in Indonesia.

Facilitating empowerment in employees with chronic disease: qualitative analysis of the process of change.

Introduction: In the field of healthcare, empowering patients who have a chronic disease is defined as increasing their knowledge and skills, in order to enable them to define their treatment goals and take personal responsibility for their medical treatment. Our goal was to explore the nature of empowerment for employees who have a chronic disease and who experience work-related problems.

Methods: We used an explorative qualitative approach to document, from a professional perspective, the experiences of patients who participated in an empowerment training program.

Epigenetic control of sexual differentiation of the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis.

The principal nucleus of the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNSTp) is larger in volume and contains more cells in male than female mice. These sex differences depend on testosterone and arise from a higher rate of cell death during early postnatal life in females. There is a delay of several days between the testosterone surge at birth and sexually dimorphic cell death in the BNSTp, suggesting that epigenetic mechanisms may be involved.

Sex differences in the brain: the relation between structure and function.

In the fifty years since the organizational hypothesis was proposed, many sex differences have been found in behavior as well as structure of the brain that depend on the organizational effects of gonadal hormones early in development. Remarkably, in most cases we do not understand how the two are related. This paper makes the case that overstating the magnitude or constancy of sex differences in behavior and too narrowly interpreting the functional consequences of structural differences are significant roadblocks in resolving this issue.

Ral overactivation in malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumors.

Ras leads an important signaling pathway that is deregulated in neurofibromatosis type 1 and malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumor (MPNST). In this study, we show that overactivation of Ras and many of its downstream effectors occurred in only a fraction of MPNST cell lines. RalA, however, was overactivated in all MPNST cells and tumor samples compared to nontransformed Schwann cells.

Maternal energy allocation to offspring increases with environmental quality in house mice.

Breeding success generally increases with environmental productivity, but little is known about underlying mechanisms, and such relationships are not quantitatively understood. We studied female mice reproducing across an experimental environmental-quality gradient defined by the amount of wheel running required to obtain a food reward. Measuring energy metabolism with doubly labeled water, we quantified how mice made two key decisions: how much food to earn and how to allocate the energy earned between self and offspring.

Genomic aberrations in squamous cell lung carcinoma related to lymph node or distant metastasis.

About 50% of patients presenting with resectable lung cancer develop distant metastases within 5 years. Genomic markers predicting metastatic behaviour of squamous cell lung carcinoma (SCC) are currently underexposed. We analyzed a cohort of patients with primary SCC using array-based comparative genomic hybridization (aCGH) to identify which genomic aberrations are related to metastatic behaviour.

The effect of the Operating Room Coordinator's risk appreciation on operating room efficiency.

Background: The Operating Room Coordinator (ORC) is responsible for filling gaps in every operating room (OR) schedule. We have observed differences among the personalities of the four ORCs with regard to their willingness to agree to assume more risk concerning their daily planning. The hypothesis to be tested is that the relationship between the personality of each of the four ORCs and the risk an ORC is willing to take of cases running late affects OR efficiency.

Empowering employees with chronic diseases; development of an intervention aimed at job retention and design of a randomised controlled trial.

Background: Persons with a chronic disease are less often employed than healthy persons. If employed, many of them experience problems at work. Therefore, we developed a training programme aimed at job retention.

Transmission classification model to determine place and time of infection of tuberculosis cases in an urban area.

We conducted a population-based study in the Rotterdam region of The Netherlands to determine the place and time of infection of tuberculosis (TB) cases using conventional epidemiological and genotyping information. In particular, we focused on the extent of misclassification if genotyping was not combined with epidemiological information. Cases were divided into those with a unique mycobacterial DNA fingerprint, a clustering fingerprint, and an unknown fingerprint.

Weakly nonlinear analysis of a hyperbolic model for animal group formation.

We consider an one-dimensional nonlocal hyperbolic model for group formation with application to self-organizing collectives of animals in homogeneous environments. Previous studies have shown that this model displays at least four complex spatial and spatiotemporal group patterns. Here, we use weakly nonlinear analysis to better understand the mechanisms involved in the formation of two of these patterns, namely stationary pulses and traveling trains.

Sex differences in vasopressin and oxytocin innervation of the brain.

Sex differences in vasopressin and oxytocin expression are helpful in studying the anatomy and function of vasopressin innervation of the brain. They also provide insight in the function of neural sex differences in general. This paper will discuss nature, cause and possible significance of these sex differences, focusing on vasopressin projections from the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis and the medial amygdaloid nucleus, which show some of the most consistently found sex differences among vertebrates.

Prostaglandin E(2) metabolism is activated in Schwann cell lines derived from human NF1 malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumors.

Malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumors (MPNSTs) are characteristic of Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1), a human genetic disorder affecting approximately 1 in 3000 individuals. The absence of neurofibromin in Schwann cells results in hyperactivation of Ras, which contributes to Schwann cell hyperplasia. However, additional intracellular abnormalities in Schwann cells might contribute to the malignancy.

Distribution of oxytocin in the brain of a eusocial rodent.

Naked mole-rats are highly social rodents that live in large colonies characterized by a rigid social and reproductive hierarchy. Only one female, the queen, breeds. Most colony members are non-reproductive subordinates that work cooperatively to rear the young and maintain an underground burrow system.

Absence of progestin receptors alters distribution of vasopressin fibers but not sexual differentiation of vasopressin system in mice.

Perinatal estrogens increase the number of vasopressin-expressing cells and the density of vasopressin-immunoreactive fibers observed in adult male rodents. The mechanism of action of estrogens on sexual differentiation of the extra-hypothalamic vasopressin system is unknown. We hypothesized that the sexually dimorphic expression of progestin receptors (PRs) during development would masculinize vasopressin expression in mice.

Sexual differentiation of vasopressin innervation of the brain: cell death versus phenotypic differentiation.

In most vertebrates studied, males have more vasopressin (VP) cells in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, or homologous vasotocin cells in nonmammalian species, than females. Previous research excluded differential cell birth and migration as likely mechanisms underlying this difference, leaving just differential cell death and phenotypic differentiation of existing cells. To differentiate between these remaining possibilities, we compared VP cell number in wild-type mice vs.