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Modest Proportion (modest + proportion)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Medical Sciences	50%
Earth and Environmental Science	50%

Selected Abstracts

Factors influencing prehospital and emergency department analgesia administration to patients with femoral neck fractures

EMERGENCY MEDICINE AUSTRALASIA, Issue 3 2002
John Vassiliadis
Abstract Objectives: To assess the analgesia practices of ambulance personnel and emergency department staff treating patients with fractured neck of femur. Methods: This is a retrospective analysis of 176 patients with an admission diagnosis of fractured neck of femur, who presented to a major western Sydney teaching hospital, between January and November 1999. Results: One hundred and twenty-eight patients met the inclusion criteria. The median age was 82, there were more female than male subjects. Ambulance officers made a clinical diagnosis of fractured neck of femur in 68% of cases. In 49% of cases no analgesia was given. Patients were given a higher triage category and pain relief faster if they had been given analgesia by ambulance officers, P = 0.0018 and P = 0.002, respectively. The median time to analgesia was 2 h 48 min. Conclusions: Only a modest proportion of patients with fractured neck of femur received prehospital analgesia and delays to analgesia in the emergency department are considerable. Strategies to address the delivery of appropriate analgesia to this group of patients should be developed. [source]

Growth hormone deficiency and combined pituitary hormone deficiency: does the genotype matter?

CLINICAL ENDOCRINOLOGY, Issue 2 2005
Mehul T. Dattani
Summary The past 12 years have witnessed an explosion in our understanding of the development of the anterior pituitary gland, and of mechanisms that underlie the diagnosis of growth hormone deficiency (GHD) and combined pituitary hormone deficiency (CPHD). The anterior pituitary is the end-product of a carefully orchestrated pattern of expression of signalling molecules and transcription factors that leads to the development of this complex organ secreting six hormones from five different cell types. Naturally occurring and transgenic murine models have demonstrated a role for many of these molecules in the aetiology of GHD/CPHD. These include the transcription factors HESX1, PROP1, POU1F1, LHX3, LHX4, GLI2 and SOX3. Depending upon the expression patterns of these molecules, the phenotype may consist of isolated hypopituitarism, or more complex disorders such as septo-optic dysplasia (SOD) and holoprosencephaly. The phenotype and the mode of inheritance can be highly variable. Novel mutations within the GH-1 and GHRHR genes have also shed light on the phenotype and pathogenesis of isolated GHD (IGHD). To date, genetic mutations have been identified in a modest proportion of patients with IGHD/CPHD and associated syndromes such as SOD. It is, however, clear that many genes remain to be identified, and characterization of these will further elucidate the pathogenesis of these complex conditions. [source]

Accumulation of heterocyclic nitrogen in humified organic matter: a 15N-NMR study of lowland rice soils

EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF SOIL SCIENCE, Issue 3 2000
N. Mahieu
Summary Recent intensification of cropping and the attendant longer submergence of the soil for lowland rice in tropical Asia appear to have altered the nature of the soil organic matter, and perhaps also nutrient cycling. To identify the dominant forms of organic nitrogen in the soils we extracted the labile mobile humic acid (MHA) and the more recalcitrant calcium humate (CaHA) fractions from soils under several long-term field experiments in the Philippines and analysed them by 15N-nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Amide N dominated the spectra of all humic acid (HA) samples (60,80% of total peak area). Its proportion of total spectral area increased with increasing intensity of cropping and length of time during which the soil was flooded and was greater in the MHA fraction than in the CaHA fraction. Simultaneously the spectral proportion of free amino N and other chemical shift regions decreased slightly with increasing length of submergence. Heterocyclic N was detected at modest proportions (7,22%) and was more prevalent in more humified samples, especially in the CaHA of aerated soils. Correlations of spectral proportions of heterocyclic N with other properties of the HA, reported elsewhere, were highly significant. Correlations were positive with visible light absorption (r=,0.86) and concentration of free radicals (r=,0.85), both of which are indices of humification, and negative with concentration of H (r=,,0.86), a negative index of humification. Correlations of spectral proportions of amide N with these properties were also highly significant but in each case of opposite sign to that of heterocyclic N. Proportions of heterocyclic N declined with increasing duration of submergence. The results suggest that (i) 15N-NMR can reproducibly measure some portion of heterocyclic N, (ii) formation of heterocyclic N is associated solely with gradual humification occurring over many years, and (iii) the abundant phenols in the submerged rice soils did not promote formation of heterocyclic N, and hence some other process is responsible for a substantial decrease in the availability of native N associated with intensive rice cropping. [source]

Crustal structure of central Tibet as derived from project INDEPTH wide-angle seismic data

GEOPHYSICAL JOURNAL INTERNATIONAL, Issue 2 2001
W. Zhao
Summary In the summer of 1998, project INDEPTH recorded a 400 km long NNW,SSE wide-angle seismic profile in central Tibet, from the Lhasa terrane across the Banggong-Nujiang suture (BNS) at about 89.5°E and into the Qiangtang terrane. Analysis of the P- wave data reveals that (1) the crustal thickness is 65 ± 5 km beneath the line; (2) there is no 20 km step in the Moho in the vicinity of the BNS, as has been suggested to exist along-strike to the east based on prior fan profiling; (3) a thick high-velocity lower crustal layer is evident along the length of the profile (20,35 km thick, 6.5,7.3 km s,1); and (4) in contrast to the southern Lhasa terrane, there is no obvious evidence of a mid-crustal low-velocity layer in the P- wave data, although the data do not negate the possibility of such a layer of modest proportions. Combining the results from the INDEPTH III wide-angle profile with other seismic results allows a cross-section of Moho depths to be constructed across Tibet. This cross-section shows that crustal thickness tends to decrease from south to north, with values of 70,80 km south of the middle of the Lhasa terrane, 60,70 km in the northern part of the Lhasa terrane and the Qiangtang terrane, and less than 60 km in the Qaidam basin. The overall northward thinning of the crust evident in the combined seismic observations, coupled with the essentially uniform surface elevation of the plateau south of the Qaidam basin, is supportive of the inference that northern Tibet until the Qaidam basin is underlain by somewhat thinner crust, which is isostatically supported by relatively low-density, hot upper mantle with respect to southern Tibet. [source]