Impact of urban air pollutants and noise levels over daily hospital admissions in children in Madrid: a time series analysis.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this paper was to analyse the effects of the urban air pollutants and noise levels on daily emergency hospital admissions of children less than 10 years of age in Madrid. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Poisson Regression Models were used to quantify the associations. Meteorological variables, influenza epidemics, pollen concentrations and trends and periodicities were used as controlling variables. RESULTS: The main results obtained were the detected relationship (p<0.05) between emergency hospital admissions due to organic diseases and noise levels (AR=2.4%) and for PM(10) concentrations (AR=2.1%). For respiratory diseases statistically significant associations were detected for noise levels (AR=4.7%) and cold temperatures (AR=3.8%). The main association detected for causes of admissions due to bronchitis was for O(3) (AR=36.8%) and for pneumonia was for noise levels (AR=7.7%). CONCLUSION: The results obtained suggest that noise level particularly is a risk factor for daily emergency hospital admissions for organic and respiratory diseases in children less than 10 years old in Madrid.

The impact of the summer 2003 heat wave in Iberia: how should we measure it?

We present a new approach to improve the reliability of quantifying the impact of a heat wave on mortality rates. We show, for the recent European summer 2003 heat wave, that the use of absolute maximum temperature values, or number of days above a given threshold, can be misleading. Here, we have assessed the impact of the heat wave on Iberian mortality by applying a four step procedure: (1) calculating, for each observatory, the local maximum temperature (T (max)) distributions, (2) calculating the corresponding 95th percentile values (T (threshold)), (3) locally defining extremely hot days (EHD) as those days on which the local threshold of the 95th percentile of the series is exceeded, and (4) calculating the total degrees-days (DD) of exceedance, by calculating the difference T (max)-T (threshold) and summing these values for all days above T (threshold). We show that the relationship between summer mortality rates and the DD index is non-linear and can be described by a logarithmic function, with a correlation coefficient of 0.78, which explains 60.6% of the mortality variance (F value of 24.64, significant at P<0.0001). Using maximum temperatures, no significant relationship is found with mortality, whereas the EHD frequency shows a significant association with mortality, albeit weaker than that obtained with DD.

Predicting average feed intake of lactating Holstein cows fed totally mixed rations.

A dry matter intake (DMI) prediction equation was estimated by using a data file that contained 124 treatment means collected from published studies. Animal factors considered for inclusion in the prediction model were body weight (BW) and its natural logarithm, BW(0.75), milk yield (MY) and its natural logarithm, milk fat and protein yields, month of lactation and its square, as well as its natural logarithm. The dietary factors considered were the percentages of neutral detergent fiber, acid detergent fiber, crude protein and hemicellulose in the ration dry matter together with the square of all these predictors. The multiple regression model selected by using the maximum R2 method include both animal and dietary factors as independent variables. The accuracy of this DMI prediction equation was evaluated and compared with that of five other equations previously published by using three independent datasets also containing treatment means collected from literature. Even though the latest NRC equation was slightly more accurate than the equation proposed in this study with the three evaluation datasets, the latter can be used for some applications for which the NRC equation is not appropriate.

[Endomyocardial biopsy in heart transplantation]. / La biopsia endomiocárdica en el trasplante cardíaco.

From October 1984 to June 1991, 1,549 endomyocardial biopsies (EMB) were performed on 122 patients submitted to a Cardiac Transplant procedure (CT) at the Hospital Puerta de Hierro in Madrid. All biopsies were performed with the long sheath technique and the King bioptome. A total of 8,707 specimens were obtained, of which 7,311 (83.97%) were considered adequate for pathological examination. We did not find significant differences between the internal jugular (83.21%) and the femoral vein (84.82%) approaches. About 20% of the samples were not adequate for pathological evaluation after the fifth procedure performed on the same patient. There has been no deaths in our group. One patient (0.06%) had right ventricular perforation with tamponade that required surgical treatment. Two patients (2.98%) presented coronary fistulae related to EMB. The percent of other minor complications was less than 0.5%. EMB is mandatory for the control of rejection in the first year after cardiac transplantation, and has shown to be a reliable and safe method in experienced hands.

[Echographic study of jejunojejunal invagination]. / Estudio ecográfico de la invaginación yeyunoyeyunal.

Two cases of jejunojejunal intussusception in whom diagnosis was reached preoperatively by ultrasonography and small bowel follow-through meal are presented. We review the sonographic patterns of intussusception that allow the differential diagnosis with miscellaneous gastrointestinal abnormalities detected by ultrasound.

Ecological structures recognized by means of entropy analysis: assessment of differences between entropy values.

A procedure is outlined for the assessment of differences between entropy values obtained from a data set. The problem posed is that of identifying the data matrix representing least uncertainty in the disposition of its elements from two or more given matrices. Monte Carlo simulations were used, through which the maximum and minimum entropy values that could be obtained from each data set were estimated. Such values could be obtained by randomly interchanging the elements of each matrix and may serve as references in estimating the degree of order or randomness that an original matrix possesses.