Sexual segregation seems to be common in bottlenose dolphins, whereby males and females live in different pods that mix mainly for mating. Male dolphins often use aggressive behaviour to mate with females, while females with calves may have different activity and dietary requirements to males and different susceptibility to predation. ...

BACKGROUND: To analyse the trends in the prevalence of different pathogroups of diarrheagenic (DEC) among hospitalized acute diarrheal patients. METHODOLOGYPRINCIPAL FINDINGS: From the active surveillance of diarrheal disease at the Infectious Diseases Hospital, Kolkata, 3826 tool specimens collected during 2008-2011 were screened for DEC and other enteric pathogens. PCR was ...

Coronary heart disease (CHD) remains a major public health burden, causing 80,000 deaths annually in England and Wales, with major inequalities. However, there are no recent analyses of age-specific socioeconomic trends in mortality. We analysed annual trends in inequalities in age-specific CHD mortality rates in small areas in England, grouped ...

Abstract The possibility of an alteration in the age at which pubertal onset occurs has shown that we still lack knowledge on the molecular and physiological mechanisms of normal female puberty. In this study, the adjustment effects of different suckling and prepuberty nutrition on puberty onset and the expression of ...

Horses are often kept in individual stables, rather than in outdoor groups, despite such housing system fulfilling many of their welfare needs, such as the access to social partners. Keeping domestic stallions in outdoor groups would mimic bachelor bands that are found in the wild. Unfortunately, the high level of ...

The purposes of this study were to generate functional-fitness norms for Portuguese older adults, to determine age and sex differences, and to analyze the physical activity-associated variation in functional fitness. The sample was composed of 802 older adults, 401 men and 401 women, age 60-79 yr. Functional fitness was assessed ...

The present study investigated the relationship between working time and QT and Tpeak-Tend (Tpe) intervals in three shift workers and identified factors associated with the prolongation of these intervals. A total of 60 shift workers underwent a standard 12-lead ECG during the morning, afternoon and night shifts. QT intervals and ...

Objective To study the effects of obstructive sleep apneas on endothelial function and autonomic modulation. Methods From June 2009 to June 2011, male patients with obstructive sleep apnea hypopnea syndrome (OSAHS) were consecutively enrolled in this study. Patients with an apnea/hypopnea index (AHI) of greater than 15 and without previous ...

The study was done to find out the number of germinal centre in human vermiform appendix of Bangladeshi people to magnify the knowledge regarding the diverse number of germinal centre of human vermiform appendix in our population in the department of Anatomy, Mymensingh Medical College, Bangladesh from July 2006 to ...

The performance in master marathoners has been investigated in flat city marathons but not in mountain marathons. This study examined changes in the sex differences in performance across time in female and male master runners competing in a mountain marathon compared to a flat city marathon. The association between age ...

Many potential causative factors are related to the initiation and progression of osteonecrosis of the femoral head. The aim of this research was to investigate the etiology and clinical features of osteonecrosis of the femoral head in Chinese patients. From January 1990 to July 2011, 643 cases of osteonecrosis of ...

Social animals have to coordinate joint movements to maintain group cohesion, but the latter is often compromised by diverging individual interests. A widespread behavioral mechanism to achieve coordination relies on shared or unshared consensus decision-making. If consensus costs are high, group fission represents an alternative tactic. Exploring determinants and outcomes ...

Background The aim of this study was to evaluate atrophy rates, perfusion, and diffusion disturbances within the hippocampus, which is the site of characteristic changes in Alzheimer's disease (AD) and mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Material and Methods Thirty patients with AD (mean age 71.2 yrs) - 34 with MCI (mean ...

The aim of the study was to estimate the risk of pre-term birth in women giving birth in Greece in different age groups. Data about women giving birth in Greece were retrieved from the Hellenic Vital Statistics covering the years from 1999 to 2008. Relative risk using χ(2) contingency tables ...

Objectives. Sensitivity to spatial frequencies changes with age and this may have profound effects on reading. But how the actual contributions to reading performance made by the spatial frequency content of text differs between young (18-30 years) and older (65+ years) adults remains to be fully determined. Accordingly, we manipulated ...

Internet technology can provide a diverse array of online resources for low-income disabled and homebound older adults to manage their health and mental health problems and maintain social connections. Despite many previous studies of older adults' Internet use, none focused on these most vulnerable older adults. This study examined Internet ...

The future rehabilitation of adults with hearing loss is likely to involve online tools used by individuals at home. Online tools could also be useful for people who are not seeking professional help for their hearing problems. Hearing impairment is a disability that increases with age, and increased age is ...

Some controversy remains about the potential applicability of cognitive potentials for evaluating the cerebral activity associated with cognitive capacity. A fundamental requirement is that these neurophysiological parameters show a high level of stability over time. Previous studies have shown that the reliability of diverse parameters of the P3 component (latency ...

Shigellosis continues to be a public health challenge for developing countries, including Bangladesh. The aim of the study is to demonstrate recent changes in Shigella sero-groups and their geographical diversity. Data were extracted from data archive of four diarrheal disease surveillance systems. A 2% sub sample from urban Dhaka Hospital ...

Obesity is now a global epidemic. Obese people are at higher risk of snoring. Weight reduction could influence the prevalence of snoring. Present study tried to find out, whether weight reduction is of benefit in all adult snorers. It is a cross sectional study, on 349 subjects (196 males and ...

Exposure to various types of fumes and gases are very common in Jewelery industries. No Report is available regarding the effects of those fumes and gases on the respiratory functions of the goldsmiths. Due to lack of proper monitoring of the workplace environments in these unorganized sectors, workers get very ...

Animal home ranges may vary little in their size and location in the short term but nevertheless show more variability in the long term. We evaluated the degree of site fidelity of two groups of spider monkeys (Ateles geoffroyi) over a 10- and 13-year period, respectively, in the northeastern Yucatan ...

In many cooperatively breeding societies, only a few socially dominant individuals in a group breed, reproductive skew is high, and reproductive conflict is common. Surprisingly, the effects of this conflict on dominant reproductive success in vertebrate societies have rarely been investigated, especially in high-skew societies. We examine how subordinate female ...

Height is known as an index that reflects the environment of the fetal, childhood, and adolescent periods, which affect adult health. This study was conducted to elucidate whether height is associated with cognitive impairment in community-dwelling elders in Korea. The study subjects were recruited among community dwelling elderly individuals aged ...

Investigations into the effect of the intensity of invasion on tick-questing behaviour were conducted on 3 groups of rabbits: 1) 10 females and 5 males, 2) 20 females and 10 males, 3) 40 females and 20 males in the case of I. ricinus, whereas in the case of D. reticulatus, ...

To research the effect of 27.2 MHz radiofrequency radiation on electrocardiograms (ECG), 225 female workers operating radiofrequency machines at a shoe factory were chosen as the exposure group and 100 female workers without exposure from the same factory were selected as the control group. The 6 min electric field strength that the ...

Although one-handed pulling is commonly used in many tasks, normative data on the populational strength capacity are scarce. A strength test protocol was administered to collect data on static one-handed pulling strength using four handle heights and three pulling directions: across (handle opposite to the pulling hand), front, and side ...

Background: Although long-term predictors of mortality and vascular events after ischemic stroke are well defined, the age-dependent differences in predicting outcomes are unknown, particularly for lipid parameters. Methods: We assessed recurrent stroke and other vascular events in patients with first-ever ischemic strokes who were registered in a prospectively collected hospital-based ...

BACKGROUND: The rising prevalence of childhood obesity was observed in China. This study assessed the prevalence and district distribution of childhood obesity in Shandong Province, China. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted in the province. A total of 42 275 students (21 222 boys and 21 053 girls) aged 7-18 ...

The quality and radiation dose of different tube voltage sets for chest digital radiography (DR) were compared in a series of pediatric age groups. Forty-five hundred children aged 0-14 years (yr) were randomly divided into four groups according to the tube voltage protocols for chest DR: lower kilovoltage potential (kVp) ...

Abstract Earlier diagnosis of COPD is a major public health challenge as symptoms may be attributed to the normal consequences of aging. The optimum strategy for identifying patients with COPD remains to be determined. People aged 35 and over (n = 1896) on a GP practice register were randomised to ...

To explore age-related changes in symptoms and quality of life (QoL) of women with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Two-hundred and fifty-four female adult outpatients with IBS attending the Department of Gastroenterology at the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University between January, 2008 and October, 2008 were approached. Patients with ...

PURPOSE: To assess the long-term effect of primary correction of the nasal septum during lip repair in unilateral complete cleft lip and palate on the craniofacial morphology. MATERIAL, SUBJECTS, METHODS: The study material consisted of 54 lateral cephalograms made at the ages 7-22, including 28 cephalograms of patients from a ...

BACKGROUND: Oral cancer (OC) is the leading cause of death from cancer in men between the ages of 25 and 44 in Taiwan. The survival rate for the last stage of OC is <20% while that for the earliest stage is >75%, which suggests the importance of the diagnosis of ...

BACKGROUND: Skin pH is one of the important physiological parameters of the skin. Changes in the pH play a role in the pathogenesis of several skin diseases, including acne. PURPOSE: To assess the correlation between the pH and the age, and between the pH and the development of acne lesions, ...

BACKGROUND: The standard textbook on complete dentures suggests the necessity of relief for the incisive and posterior palatine foramina of denture wearers to prevent the impingement of the nerves and vessels passing through these foramina. However, concrete evidence of the effect of dentures on the sensory function of the nerves ...

Aluminum (Al) metal is considered one of the most benign industrial metals. Although the harmful effects of Al on respiratory health have been denied by some studies, others reported its noxious effect on the lung through spirometric measurements. This work aimed at studying the effect of Al fumes on pulmonary ...

Young adults are more likely to correct an initial higher confidence error than a lower confidence error (Butterfield & Metcalfe, 2001). This hypercorrection effect has never been investigated among older adults, although features of the standard paradigm (free recall, metacognitive judgments) and prior evidence of age-related error resolution deficits (see ...

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: In 2009 a new influenza serotype (AH1N1) was identified in Mexico that spread rapidly generating worldwide alarm. San Luis Potosi (SLP) was the third state with more cases reported in that year. The clinical identification of this flu posed a challenge to medical staff. This study aimed at ...

Research suggests that online communication is associated with increased closeness to friends and friendship quality. Children under 13 years of age are increasingly using social networking sites (SNSs), but research with this younger age group is scarce. This study examined the relationship between SNS use and feelings of belonging among children ...

Falls are a geriatric syndrome which affects physical and psychological well-being of the aged. So far, in Poland there have not been any population-based data on the prevalence of falls among the elderly. The aim of this analysis was to assess the prevalence of falls, their circumstances and consequences in ...

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: From a health perspective it is suggested to promote a positive balance between time spent in light intensity physical activity (LIPA) and sedentary behaviour (SB) (i.e. spending more time in LIPA than time spent in SB). However, no studies have reported prevalence rates of the LIPA-SB balance yet. ...

Acne vulgaris is a chronic inflammatory disease with a complex pathogenesis that affects predominantly adolescents. The aim of the study was to investigate the interrelations between the presence of acne and several variables associated with somatic growth, pubertal maturation, and environmental conditions (altitude and regions of residence). A population sample ...

BACKGROUND: In Japanese routine clinical practice, endoscopy is generally carried out without sedation. The present study aimed to identify the factors essential for appropriate selection of transnasal esophagogastroduodenoscopy (TN-EGD) as an alternative to unsedated transoral esophagogastroduodenoscopy (TO-EGD). PATIENTS AND METHODS: Subjects in this prospective cohort study comprised consecutive outpatients who ...

BACKGROUND: Pedometer-based recommendations for accumulating steps/d largely focus on volume, with less emphasis on intensity and fitness/health outcomes. We aim to examine this relationship. METHODS: A convenience sample (N=70, 35 men, 32+8yrs) wore a pedometer (4-days). The pedometer classified steps as "aerobic" (>60steps/minute, minimum duration of 1-minute) or "non-aerobic" (<60steps/minute ...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The aim of this post hoc analysis of data extracted from a prospective, multicenter study is to test in a large homogenous population of chemotherapy-naïve patients with colorectal cancer (CRC) treated with oxaliplatin (OXA)-based chemotherapy whether advanced age increases the risk of developing OXA-induced peripheral neuropathy (OXAIPN). ...

ABSTRACT: The purpose of this study was to analyse the effects of a competitive swim season on the strength, balance and endurance of shoulder rotator cuff muscles in young swimmers. A repeated-measures design was used with three measurements performed during the swim season. A swimmers group (n = 20) of ...

Abstract Objective: To test the hypothesis that twin-block and Mandibular Protraction Appliance-IV (MPA-IV) are not effective in improving the pharyngeal airway passage (PAP) dimensions among Class II malocclusion subjects with a retrognathic mandible. Materials and Methods: Eighty-three subjects ranging in age from 8 to 14 years were divided into four groups. ...

Cyclooxygenase (COX) is an enzyme that participates in the wound healing process. Aspirin, a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug, simultaneously inhibits COX-1 and -2 isoforms' aromatase activity, which are needed for prostaglandins synthesis. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether aspirin, and thus COX inhibition, distinctly affects cutaneous wound healing ...

Abstract A primary benefit of grouping is diluting the individual risk of attack by predators. However, the fact that groups are formed not always by solitary adults but also by subgroups (e.g., families) has been overlooked. The subgroup-specific benefit of predator dilution depends on its relative contribution to total group ...