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Entire Observation Period (entire + observation_period)
Selected AbstractsNest, but Not Egg, Fidelity in a Territorial SalamanderETHOLOGY, Issue 9 2000Megan G. Peterson Egg recognition and subsequent egg brooding are costly forms of parental investment in many species of vertebrates. Life history factors, such as coloniality or risk of brood parasitism, may constrain egg recognition in vertebrates. Female red-backed salamanders (Plethodon cinereus) from my study site are territorial and do not share nest sites with other females. They are terrestrial and neither they nor their eggs are likely to be displaced by environmental factors such as flooding. I experimentally tested, in the laboratory, the hypothesis that female red-backed salamanders can discriminate between their own eggs and the eggs of unfamiliar females. Each female was allowed to move about a test chamber containing two clutches of eggs, one clutch with which it was found in the forest and one that had been found with a distant female. Most females remained with one clutch of eggs, which they brooded during the entire observation period. However, they did not significantly prefer to brood their own eggs over the eggs of another female. In a corollary field experiment, I tested whether brooding females that were displaced 1 m from their nest sites would return to their territories and commence brooding behaviour within 3 d. All 10 displaced females returned to their own nest within this time period and were found brooding their eggs. Because female red-backed salamanders at my study site do not tend to share nest sites with other females and because their eggs remain in stationary nests, selection may not have favoured egg recognition. However, the results suggest that female salamanders indirectly recognize their own eggs by actively recognizing their territorial nest sites. [source] Maximum bite force after the replacement of complete denturesJOURNAL OF ORAL REHABILITATION, Issue 9 2002F. MÜLLER In complete denture wearers the maximum bite force (MBF) is known to be considerably lower than in dentate people. Low MBF might therefore be an indication of poor denture fit but there is limited evidence on this. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to investigate whether MBF can be improved by the replacement of complete dentures for elderly people. Nine edentulous volunteers, average age 74·2 ± 5·5 years and average denture experience 19·4 ± 19·5 years (1,50 years), had replacement dentures made. Functional impressions were taken after border moulding using zinc oxide eugenol paste. After a rehearsal session, MBF was recorded with the old dentures, and with the new dentures immediately at insertion, at 3, 8 days, 2,3 weeks, 1, 2, 3 and 6,10 months post-insertion (p.i.). The MBF was recorded with the central bearing point method using a full-bridge strain gauge with a confirmed linearity from 1 to 1000 N and an accuracy of ±1 N. Data were analysed off-line using the mean of two peak readings per patient per session. The results indicate that MBF tended to be impaired when replacement dentures were first fitted (n.s.). However, this trend reversed during the first month p.i. for patients with a ,moderate' lower ridge resorption of Atwood (1963) grade 3 or 4 (n=5). Patients with more severe lower ridge resorption (Atwood grade 5 or 6; n=4) showed a significantly lower MBF over the entire observation period (P=0·05) and took longer to regain bite strength. Only patients with moderate bone resorption exceeded their pre-insertion level of MBF within the observation period of 6,10 months p.i. In contrast to one report of immediate improvement of MBF at insertion of a new or relined denture (Leyka et al., 2000), the present study suggests that, at least for elderly patients with severe bone resorption, delayed improvement of MBF should be expected. [source] Replacement of dopaminergic medication with subthalamic nucleus stimulation in Parkinson's disease: Long-term observation,MOVEMENT DISORDERS, Issue 4 2009Luigi M. Romito MD Abstract Stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus (STN) is an effective treatment for advanced Parkinson's disease (PD), but the medication requirements after implant are poorly known. We performed a long-term prospective evaluation of 20 patients maintained at stable dopaminergic therapy for 5 years after bilateral STN implants, who were evaluated 6 months, 1 year, 3 years, and 5 years after surgery. We measured, during the entire observation period, the effect of deep brain stimulation on motor and functional outcome measures, the levodopa equivalent daily dose and the total electrical energy delivered. At 5 years, the UPDRS motor score had improved by 54.2% and levodopa equivalent dose was reduced by 61.9%, compared with preimplant. Dopaminergic medication remained stable during the observation period, but energy was progressively increased over time. Rest tremor, rigidity, gait, lower and upper limb akinesia, and total axial score were improved in decreasing order. Postural stability and speech improved transiently, whereas on-period freezing of gait, motor fluctuations and dyskinesias recovered durably. Functional measures did not show improvement in autonomy and daily living activities after STN implant. Chronic STN stimulation allows to replace for dopaminergic medications in the long-term at the expense of an increase of the total energy delivered. This is associated with marked improvement of motor features without a matching benefit in functional measures. © 2008 Movement Disorder Society [source] Causes of Male Excess Mortality: Insights from Cloistered PopulationsPOPULATION AND DEVELOPMENT REVIEW, Issue 4 2003Marc Luy The degree to which biological factors contribute to the existence and the widening of mortality differences by sex remains unclear. To address this question, a mortality analysis for the years 1890 to 1995 was performed comparing mortality data on more than 11,000 Catholic nuns and monks in Bavarian communities living in very nearly identical behavioral and environmental conditions with life table data for the general German population. While the mortality differences between women and men in the general German population increased considerably after World War II, they remained almost constant among the members of Bavarian religious orders during the entire observation period, with slight advantages for nuns. Thus, the higher differences observable in the general population cannot be attributed to biological factors. The different trends in sex-specific mortality between the general and the cloistered populations are caused exclusively by men in the general population who were unable to follow the trend in mortality reduction of women, nuns, and especially monks. Under the special environmental conditions of nuns and monks, biological factors appear to confer a maximum survival advantage for women of no more than one year in remaining life expectancy at young adult ages. [source] Rapid improvement of recalcitrant disseminated granuloma annulare upon treatment with the tumour necrosis factor-, inhibitor, infliximabBRITISH JOURNAL OF DERMATOLOGY, Issue 3 2005M.S. Hertl Summary Granuloma annulare (GA) is a chronic inflammatory disorder of unknown aetiology, which is characterized clinically by erythematous plaques preferentially localized to the distal extremities, although disseminated variants exist. In light of the chronic relapsing nature of GA and lack of satisfactory treatment options, we initiated treatment with infliximab in a patient with chronic disseminated GA that was recalcitrant to standard treatment. The 59-year-old female patient with insulin-dependent diabetes had experienced GA lesions for more than 4 years despite various systemic and topical treatments. Systemic glucocorticoids were not a therapeutic option because of the preexisting unstable insulin-dependent diabetes. Infliximab was administered intravenously at 5 mg kg,1 day,1 at weeks 0, 2 and 6 and thereafter at a monthly interval for an additional 4 months. Most of the GA plaques resolved within 4,6 weeks, leaving postinflammatory brownish macules. Newly arising plaques disappeared within 2 weeks and new GA lesions were not observed during the entire observation period of more than 16 months. Infliximab may be an additional option in the treatment of recalcitrant forms of GA as well as in other chronic granulomatous skin disorders, such as sarcoidosis and necrobiosis lipoidica. [source] Randomized clinical trial comparing conservative and surgical treatment of neurogenic faecal incontinenceBRITISH JOURNAL OF SURGERY (NOW INCLUDES EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF SURGERY), Issue 9 2004A. Österberg Background: The treatment of choice in idiopathic (neurogenic) faecal incontinence is controversial. In a randomized study levatorplasty was compared with anal plug electrostimulation of the pelvic floor with respect to functional outcome and physiological variables. Methods: Thirty-one patients underwent levatorplasty and 28 anal plug electrostimulation of the pelvic floor over 3 years. The results were evaluated at 3, 12 and 24 months after completion of treatment by means of a validated questionnaire and anorectal manometry and manovolumetry. Results: Incontinence scores were significantly reduced during the entire observation period in both groups (P < 0·001) as was the use of pads (P = 0·003 to P < 0·001). The proportion of patients reporting improvement in physical and social handicap was greater in the levatorplasty group after 3, 12 and 24 months (P = 0·036 to P < 0·001). No significant changes in physiological variables were observed in either group. Conclusion: Better results were obtained with levatorplasty than with anal plug electrostimulation of the pelvic floor in patients with idiopathic (neurogenic) faecal incontinence. Levatorplasty should be therefore be considered the treatment of choice for this condition. Copyright © 2004 British Journal of Surgery Society Ltd. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Complication and failure rates in patients treated for chronic periodontitis and restored with single crowns on teeth and/or implantsCLINICAL ORAL IMPLANTS RESEARCH, Issue 5 2010Kurt Schmidlin Abstract Objectives: To assess the biological and technical complication rates of single crowns on vital teeth (SC-V), endodontically treated teeth without post and core (SC-E), with a cast post and core (SC-PC) and on implants (SC-I). Material and methods: From 392 patients with chronic periodontitis treated and documented by graduate students during the period from 1978 to 2002, 199 were reexamined during 2005 for this retrospective cohort study, and 64 of these patients were treated with SCs. Statistical analysis included Kaplan,Meier survival functions and event rates per 100 years of object-time. Poisson regression was used to compare the four groups of crowns with respect to the incidence rate ratio of failures, and failures and complications combined over 10 years and the entire observation period. Results: Forty-one (64%) female and 23 (36%) male patients participated in the reexamination. At the time of seating the crowns, the mean patient age was 46.8 (range 24,66.3) years. One hundred and sixty-eight single unit crowns were incorporated. Their mean follow-up time was 11.8 (range 0.8,26.4) years. During the time of observation, 22 biological and 11 technical complications occurred; 19 SC were lost. The chance for SC-V (56) to remain free of any failure or complication was 89.3% (95% confidence interval [CI] 76.1,95.4) after 10 years, 85.8% (95% CI 66,94.5) for SC-E (34), 75.9% for SC-PC (39), (95% CI 58.8,86.7) and 66.2% (95% CI 45.1,80.7) for SC-I (39). Over 10 years, 95% of SC-I remained free of failure and demonstrated a cumulative incidence of failure or complication of 34%. Compared with SC-E, SC-I were 3.5 times more likely to yield failures or complications and SC-PC failed 1.7 times more frequently than did SC-E. SC-V had the lowest rate of failures or complications over the 10 years. Conclusions: While SCs on vital teeth have the best prognosis, those on endodontically treated teeth have a slightly poorer prognosis over 10 years. Crowns on teeth with post and cores and implant-supported SCs displayed the highest incidence of failures and complications. To cite this article: Schmidlin K, Schnell N, Steiner S, Salvi GE, Pjetursson B, Matuliene G, Zwahlen M, Brägger U, Lang NP. Complication and failure rates in patients treated for chronic periodontitis and restored with single crowns on teeth and/or implants Clin. Oral Impl. Res. 21, 2010; 550,557. doi: 10.1111/j.1600-0501.2009.01907.x [source] | ||||||||||