Heart rate variability, hemostatic and acute inflammatory blood parameters in healthy adults after short-term exposure to welding fume.

The present study aimed to investigate, whether short-term experimental exposure to high levels of welding fumes would be capable of exerting acute effects in healthy subjects. Specifically, we assessed cardiovascular function in terms of heart rate variability (HRV) as well as the concentrations of inflammatory mediators and hemostatic proteins in blood as outcome measures. Twenty subjects without a history of airway and cardiovascular diseases were exposed to either control air or welding fume for 1 h on 2 separate days under standardized conditions. The median concentration of the alveolar particle fraction during welding was 3.5 mg/m(3 )(quartiles: 1.4-6.3 mg/m(3); range 1.0-25.3 mg/m(3)). Five hours later a panel of clinical assessments was performed, including HRV measurement and drawing of blood samples. There were no changes in symptom ratings or lung function after welding fume exposure. Exposures did also not differ regarding effects on time- and frequency-domain parameters of HRV. Similarly, blood leukocyte numbers, cell differentials and the blood levels of fibrinogen, C-reactive protein, antithrombin III, factor VIII, von Willebrand factor, ristocetin cofactor, sICAM-1, tumor necrosis factor alpha, interleukin 6, interleukin 8 and epithelial neutrophil activating peptide 78 were not altered by welding fume inhalation. However, there was a significant fall in the level of endothelin-1 (P < 0.01). In conclusion, the data did not indicate effects of clinical significance of a short-term high-level exposure to welding fumes on HRV or a set of blood hemostatic and acute inflammatory parameters in healthy subjects. The small but statistically significant effect on endothelin levels demonstrated that measurable effects could be elicited even in these individuals. Overall, welding fumes are not likely to exert acute cardiovascular effects in healthy individuals.

Information, Strategic Behavior, and Fairness in Ultimatum Bargaining: An Experimental Study.

This paper reports on an experimental study of ultimatum bargaining situations in which an inactive third player is present. The proposer X suggests an allocation (x, y, z) on how to divide a cake between X, Y, and Z. A message m that (partially) reveals this proposal is sent to the responder Y who has to accept or reject it. If Y accepts, each player gets paid as proposed, otherwise each player receives zero. In our experiments the three messages m=(x, y, z), m=y, and m=z were used. The information condition is common knowledge. The proposer's offer is seen to depend on the information condition. Specifically, the lower the information content of the message, the greedier the demand x of the proposer. In the case where m z, the modal proposal allocates (almost) all of the cake to X. In the other cases, the responder receives slightly more than 1/3 of the cake on average. Copyright 1998 Academic Press.

Male fights of hamadryas baboons

An attempt is made to develop a model of male fights which can account for the stylized facts, observed by Kummer and his team, for hamadryas baboons. By two special versions of the general model it is shown that these observations can be consistently explained by one mathematical model which may deserve some interest for its own sake. To demonstrate the relative advantages of our approach we also analyse an ad hoc-type of model.Copyright 1998 Academic Press Limited Copyright 1998 Academic Press Limited

Collimator angulation error and its effect on SPECT.

Angulation errors in collimator septa degrade tomographic resolution in SPECT due to mispositioning of events in the projection data. These errors should be small compared to other contributions to SPECT system resolution, such as intrinsic camera and collimator resolution, gantry alignment, and algorithmic smoothing. We describe a radioisotope technique to measure septal angulation errors over the entire collimator surface to +/- 0.05 degrees (RMS). A simple computer simulation is used to estimate a tolerance level, based on a 1% degradation in reconstructed resolution, of 0.25 degrees (RMS) and 0.6 degrees (max.) for collimator septal deviations. We also point out two methods for collimator linearity correction during SPECT reconstruction.

[Status of mentally ill criminals in Germany]. / Untersuchungen zur Situation der psychisch kranken Rechtsbrecher in Deutschland.

The situation of the mentally diseased lawbreakers in West Germany is described on the basis of an inquiry among 70 clinics or sociotherapeutic institutions. This study shows that the situation of the forensic stations or departments--with the exception of a few model institutions--is absolutely inadequate, both from the viewpoints of construction and as far as staff is concerned. The sociotherapeutic institutions are usually treated and considered as models, and hence they are well equipped. However, the small number of facilities now available is nothing more than a drop in the bucket. Forensic psychiatry is unable to fulfill its legal tasks if it is understaffed and inadequately housed on the one hand, and if the forensically referred patients are not differentiated clearly and unequivocally on the other hand. In this respect, possibilities are discussed which might contribute to improving present conditions.

[Kurt Schneider's concept of cyclothymic mania in the light of a research-oriented catatonic syndrome]. / Kurt Schneiders Begriff der zyklothymen Manie im Lichte eines forschungs-orientierten Katatonie-Syndroms.

Catatonic motor signs were specifically sought out in the case records of 89 episodes of Schneider-oriented mania. Only some so-called "minor" catatonic motor phenomena were found and "major" catatonic motor disturbances, recently reported to frequently occur in some American samples of mania, were completely absent. Indeed, the only motor abnormalities seen in Schneider-oriented mania appeared to be of a kind and degree typically associated with Kraepelins "hypomania". These findings are then primarily discussed in historical perspective and their relationships to some important modern research trends also highlighted.

[Psychopathology of brain tumors]. / Zur Psychopathologie der Hirntumoren.

The psychopathology of brain tumors covers the whole range of the organic psychoses. There is no tumorspecific psychopathology. Generally, early signs resemble greatly the traits of an organic syndrome's beginning. A systematization of the organic psychoses is being depicted, the importance of early signs for diagnosis is examplified by a clinical case report.

The mimicking of mania in "benign" herpes simplex encephalitis.

This paper reports on a relative rarity, the case of a 41-year-old male who, after receiving an original admission diagnosis of clear-cut acute mania, actually turned out to be suffering from herpes simplex encephalitis. Interestingly enough, his illness was unusually "benign" in the sense that at no time during massive cycling bipolar mood disturbances did any clinically apparent neurological signs and symptoms or other serious somatic complications or any psychopathology pointing to an acute organic brain syndrome appear. Karl Bonhoeffer's often forgotten but still relevant clinical insights on acute organic psychoses are then discussed in the light of recent research attempting to link manic states and infectious illness.

[A contribution to the psychopathology of patients with open heart surgery (author's transl)]. / Zur Psychopathologie der Herzoperierten.

The results of a larger study of psychopathological disorders in relation to pre-operative and post-operative examined heart surgery patients, where the heart-lung machine was used, will be shown, to begin with, on 20 patients. Pre-operative examination showed quite clearly, among other things, that patients suppress obvious operation risks. General mental disorders were seen post-operative in 4 patients, and these were diagnosed as organic psychosis. A comparison between psychotic and other patients shows, among other things, that somatic predictors such as cerebral sclerosis and atrophy, or a cerebral trauma tend to promote post-operative psychosis. A releasing cause could be a cerebral hypoxia brought about by the extracorporeal blood circulation. In our opinion psychological factors can only be found in the contents of psychosis.

First-rank symptoms of schizophrenia in Schneider-oriented German centers.

First-rank symptoms of schizophrenia, such as thought insertion, thought broadcasting, "made" volition, and delusional perception, were introduced for purposes of diagnosis into a German university clinic. Such "Schneiderian" criteria were evaluated in 210 case records. Ratings employed formal definitions. Of 210 records examined, 69 (33%) of the schizophrenic patients had first-rank symptoms. The frequency of finding such symptoms in a group of schizophrenics is compared to other reports. There are considerable differences in frequency of individual symptoms as well as total number of such symptoms across centers, but the use of precisely agreed on definitions of first-rank symptoms may lead to better agreement.

Schneider-oriented versus Conrad-oriented psychiatric diagnosis in the same German clinic.

The Chair of the University Nervenklinik in Homburg/Saar was held by Klaus Conrad from 1949-58 and by H.-H. Meyer, a former pupil and colleague of Kurt Schneider, from 1962-72. As the catchment area and admission policy of the clinic remained substantially unchanged throughout, comparison of the relative proportions of all admissions allocated to different diagnostic categories in 1949-58 and 1962-72 can be used to elucidate the similarities and differences between Conrad's and Schneider's diagnostic criteria. The results of this comparison indicate that Schneider's concept of schizophrenia was broader than Conrad's, and his concept of manic-depressive depression more restricted. More detailed comparisons are complicated by differences in nomenclature and in the varieties of functional mental illness recognized in the two periods. However, it seems that Conrad's concept of mania was wider only when the atypical schizophrenia-like psychoses diagnosed during the Conrad era were added to the Conrad-oriented cases of mania; when this was not done, the Schneiderian concept of mania was broader.