Neurocognition and the Suicidal Process.

Early thinking about cognitive process and suicidal behaviors tended to focus on the immediate situation surrounding the individual - typically the underlying psychiatric condition that was seen as leading to his or her distress. However, we now know that the cognitive processes involved in a range of suicidal thoughts and behaviors can exert a significant impact on the expression or development of these behaviors, even without an environmental stressor or psychiatric condition. In this chapter, we summarize theoretical perspectives that led to this realization and explore the current understanding of the link between cognition and suicide from recent research and clinical findings. We present these findings first by psychiatric disorder, then by cognitive domains, and finally by specific suicidal construct in order to highlight the importance of these factors in determining the role of cognition in the suicidal process.Within and across psychiatric disorders, certain cognitive processes - negativistic thinking, impulsivity, cognitive rigidity, and altered emotional processing - are frequently found to be linked to suicidal thoughts and behaviors. Overall cognitive performance, decreased processing speed, executive dysfunction, and negative biases in memory and attention have also been linked to suicidal thoughts and behaviors. However, these findings do not hold true for all populations. There seems to be a role both for cognitive distortions (such as hopelessness) and neurocognitive deficits (such as poor overall cognitive performance, slower processing speed, and executive dysfunction) in the suicidal process, which warrant further exploration both separately and together.

[Minor stroke in a patient with thrombocytopenia]. / Ictus menor en una paciente con trombocitopenia.

TITLE: Ictus menor en una paciente con trombocitopenia.

Thermoelectric power of p-doped single-wall carbon nanotubes and the role of phonon drag.

We measured thermoelectric power S of bulk single-wall carbon nanotube materials p doped with acids. In contrast to oxygen-exposed or degassed samples, S is very small at the lowest temperatures, increases superlinearly above a characteristic and sample-dependent T, and then levels off. We attribute this unusual behavior to 1D phonon drag, in which the depression of the Fermi energy cuts off electron-phonon scattering at temperatures below a characteristic T0. This idea is supported by a model calculation in which the low temperature behavior of phonon drag is specifically related to the one-dimensional character of the electronic spectrum.

El impacto mediático del Informe SESPAS 2000 / Media impact of (the Spanish Public Health Association) SESPAS 2000 report

Objetivo: Valorar el efecto en la prensa de estrategias de comunicación para la defensa de la salud pública. De forma más específica, evaluar la eficacia del World Wide Web (WWW) como herramienta para la canalización de la atención periodística hacia los problemas sanitarios. Métodos: Ejecución y evaluación de un plan de comunicación para la divulgación de los contenidos del Informe SESPAS 2000 con dos tipos de intervenciones distintas, pero complementarias: a) entre el 15 y el 20 de noviembre de 1999, puesta en marcha de una estrategia de comunicación tradicional, con el envío de varios comunicados a los medios y celebración de dos ruedas de prensa coincidiendo con la celebración del Congreso SESPAS; b) entre el 15 de agosto y el 30 de diciembre, programación paralela de una estrategia de comunicación con tecnología interactiva mediante el enganche del material bruto del trabajo libre de embargo en el WWW, y el envío posterior de una carta (primera semana de agosto) a los 280 miembros de la Asociación Nacional de Informadores de la Salud con la dirección de la página y el resumen esquemático de sus contenidos. Desde agosto hasta diciembre del 99, establecimiento de un sistema de evaluación para contabilizar la presencia de SESPAS en los medios. Seguimiento de 250 revistas y 70 diarios con el fin de localizar, recoger y analizar todas las noticias sobre el Informe SESPAS 2000.Resultados: Se recuperaron 66 noticias, publicadas en 32 medios impresos de 24 provincias diferentes, con un valor publicitario equivalente a 18.243.873 Ptas. En conjunto, fueron los diarios de menor tirada los que más se interesaron por el trabajo. Aunque el informe tuvo una presencia continuada en la prensa, las informaciones se concentraron especialmente en tres momentos: la semana después del envío a los periodistas de la dirección del web site; tras la publicación de un reportaje sobre accidentes de tráfico en El País; y en las fechas de la celebración del Congreso de SESPAS. Existieron diferencias entre las informaciones publicadas a partir de las estrategias tradicionales, y las del WWW, que resultaron más diversas, con más aportaciones del informador, y de temática más variada. Conclusiones: En el caso de la divulgación del Informe SESPAS 2000, la utilización conjunta de fórmulas de comunicación tradicionales junto con fórmulas basadas en tecnología interactiva fue efectiva. A diferencia de experiencias anteriores, en esta ocasión con la ayuda de Internet, se consiguió que la presencia del Informe en los medios no fuera puntual en derredor de la celebración del Congreso, sino sostenida. Los resultados y la experiencia de esta evaluación de distintas estrategias de comunicación con los medios pueden ser de utilidad para próximas actuaciones en defensa de la salud pública en España (AU)

[Media impact of the SESPAS (Spanish Public Health Association) 2000 report]]. / El impacto mediático del informe SESPAS 2000.

OBJECTIVE: To measure the mediatic effect of different communication strategies used in public health advocacy. More specifically, to compare the effectiveness of the World Wide Web as a tool to attract the attention of journalists, with other more traditional formulas. METHODS: For the Spanish Public Health Association (SESPAS) Report 2000, two types of media strategies to communicate the report contents were programmed: a) traditional and passive strategies, centred in approaching journalists through press releases and press conferences around the SESPAS meeting (November 15-20 1999); b) interactive strategies, since August 15 to December 30, focused towards attracting health journalists to the non-embargoed, full text SESPAS report launched in a web site. To facilitate the web page use, we wrote a letter, in the first week of August, to all the members of the Spanish Health Communicators Association giving them the URL and the website map. In parallel, a monitoring system of the media impact was established from August to December 99, covering 250 magazines and 70 newspapers, in order to locate and recover all the stories about the SESPAS report for further analysis. RESULTS: Sixty-six stories were recovered; they were published in 32 press media from 24 provinces with an advertising value of 18,243,873 Ptas. As a whole, smaller circulation rate papers published more stories than larger ones. During five months, the SESPAS report was present in the press agenda, even though stories were not distributed homogeneously over time. Information concentrated around three moments: the first one, a week after our summer mailing; the second one, in the occasion of the publication of a story about the increase in traffic accidents in El País, and the third one during the SESPAS meeting. There were significant differences among those stories published from the traditional strategies of communication and those published from the interactive ones, the latter being more diverse, with more contributions of the journalists and tackling a wider range of issues. CONCLUSIONS: The combination of traditional and alternative communication strategies was a effective option. Unlike previous experiences in this occasion, with the network aid, the presence of SESPAS in media was not punctual around the Congress, but maintained during five months. The results and the obtained experience of this research can be useful for future public health advocacy interventions in Spain.

Ocular linguatuliasis in Ecuador: case report and morphometric study of the larva of Linguatula serrata.

Linguatula serrata is a pentastomid, a cosmopolitan parasite belonging to the Phylum Pentastomida. Humans may act as an intermediate or accidental definitive host of this parasite, manifesting the nasopharyngeal or visceral form, with the latter having been described more frequently. The occurrence of ocular linguatuliasis is extremely rare, but it has been reported in the United States and Israel. The objective of the present paper was to report the first case of ocular linguatuliasis in Ecuador and to extend the morphologic study of L. serrata by morphometric analysis. The patient studied was a 34-year old woman from Guayaquil, Ecuador who complained of ocular pain with conjunctivitis and visual difficulties of two-months duration. Biomicroscopic examination revealed a mobile body in the anterior chamber of the eye. The mobile body was surgically removed. The specimen was fixed in alcohol, cleared using the technique of Loos, stained with acetic carmine, and mounted on balsam between a slide and a coverslip. It was observed with stereoscopic and common light microscopes in combination with an automatic system for image analysis and processing. The morphologic and morphometric characteristics corresponded to the third-instar larval form of L. serrata. To our knowledge, ocular linguatuliasis has not been previously described in South America, with this being the first report for Ecuador and South America. The present study shows that computer morphometry can adequately contribute both to the morphologic study and to the systematic classification of Pentastomids, and L. serrata in particular.

First record of Angiostrongylus costaricensis Morera and Céspedes, 1971 in Ecuador.

Third-stage metastrongyle larvae were recovered from slugs (Vaginulus sp.) collected in Santa Lucia, Ecuador, a town about 40 miles north of Guayaquil. Some of the larvae were inoculated into laboratory-bred cotton rats and adults of Angiostrongylus costaricensis were later recovered. This is the first report of this parasite in Ecuador.

Ectopic pregnancy early diagnosis limitations.

A series of 219 surgically and pathologic proven ectopic gestations are reviewed to emphasize the ectopic pregnancy early diagnosis limitations. A childbearing age, low parity woman is typical of having an ectopic pregnancy. Risk factors in their past history were absent in 52% of patients. Fertility investigations, IUD, PID, and abdominal surgery are often found in their past. Six per cent of patients had a previous ectopic pregnancy. Sixty-one per cent of patients were admitted with a definite ruptured ectopic pregnancy and 37% were admitted to rule out this condition. At surgery 58% had ruptured ectopic pregnancy with intraabdominal hemorrhage. Only 12% were unruptured. The obstetric outcome after surgery was available in 74 patients. Out of these, 40.5% had term pregnancies with live children, repeat ectopic pregnancy occurred in 8.2%, spontaneous first trimester abortion in 4.1%, and subsequent infertility in 16%. Postoperative pelvic adhesions were more frequently seen, at laparoscopy, when the patients were diagnosed at the stage of ruptured ectopic pregnancy with intraabdominal hemorrhage. A diagnostic protocol based on the screening of the patients at risk, correct evaluation of symptom and signs, and liberal use of beta-hCG pregnancy tests, culdocentesis, ultrasound and laparoscopy, is finally proposed.