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Based on 180 censored letters and two pamphlets written by psychiatric patients committed to Jydske Asyl (Asylum of Jutland) in Risskov, Denmark, between 1895 and 1920, the authors give an account of how the patients experienced their stay at the newly established mental hospital in Risskov. In the first part of the article, the authors outline central themes. The letters and pamphlets describe how a large part of the treatment at the mental hospitals involved a significant amount of coercion in various forms. In the second part of the article, they outline the mental hospital's historical context to understand the institutional context in which the patients wrote their descriptions of everyday life. The authors focus on the ideas behind the treatments the patients experienced, which involved the ideals the psychiatrists formulated when Jydske Asyl was constructed and the reality of everyday life at the mental hospital.

Parsonage-Turner (PT) syndrome is a painful disease with unknown aetiology. it often presents with acute pain in the shoulder, upper arm, the side of the neck and over the scapula. We describe the concurrence of PT in a 75-year-old woman with intense shoulder pain. PT is a diagnose of exclusion after clinical elimination of other frequent diseases and should be considered when the pain in the shoulder is not improved with medical treatment and/or physical therapy.

The effect of fluorine substitution on the hydrogen bond strength in alcohol-amine molecular complexes was investigated, with a combination of vapour phase infrared spectroscopy and theoretical calculations. The complexes were combined from methanol (MeOH), ethanol (EtOH) and trifluoroethanol (TFE) as the hydrogen bond donor, and either dimethylamine (DMA) or trimethylamine (TMA) as the acceptor. The fundamental OH-stretching vibration involved in hydrogen bonding was measured for all complexes, as well as the weak second NH-stretching overtone for the DMA complexes. Equilibrium constants for complex formation were determined by combining a calculated intensity and the measured integrated absorbance. The observation of two transitions in the alcohol-DMA complexes provides an opportunity for two independent determinations of the equilibrium constants. Molecular interactions between the monomers were elucidated by Natural Bond Orbital, Atoms in Molecules and Non-covalent Interactions analysis. We find that the alcohol-amine complexes with TFE as the hydrogen bond donor form stronger hydrogen bonds and that secondary interactions between the monomers increase from MeOH to EtOH to TFE. TFE is a stronger acid than EtOH and MeOH making the OH bond weaker, and the OH-stretching frequency is redshifted in TFE relative to EtOH. This redshift is small in the monomers but significantly enhanced upon complexation.

MEPS Marine Ecology Progress Series Contact the journal Facebook Twitter RSS Mailing List Subscribe to our mailing list via Mailchimp HomeLatest VolumeAbout the JournalEditorsTheme Sections MEPS 185:85-92 (1999) - doi:10.3354/meps185085 Patterns of variability of retinol levels in a harbour porpoise population from an unpolluted environment Asunción Borrell1,*, Gemma Cantos1, Alex Aguilar1, Christina Lockyer2, Abraham Brouwer3, Mads Peter Heide-Jørgensen4, Jette Jensen5, Bert Spenkelink3 1Dept of Animal Biology, Faculty of Biology, University of Barcelona, E-08071 Barcelona, Spain 2Dept of Marine Fisheries, Danish Institute for Fisheries Research, DK-2920 Charlottenlund Slot, Denmark 3Dept of Food Technology and Nutritional Sciencies, Division of Toxicology, Agricultural University, 6703 HE Wageningen, The Netherlands 4Greenland Institute of Natural Resources, NERI, DK-2200 Copenhagen, Denmark 5ASCOBANS Secretariat, C/o Sea Mammal Research Unit, Cambridge CB3 0ET, United Kingdom *E-mail: assump@porthos.bio.ub.es ABSTRACT: Organochlorine compounds (OC) are known to induce vitamin A (retinoids) deficiency in mammals, which may be associated with impairment of immunocompetence, reproduction and growth. This makes retinoids a potentially useful biomarker of organochlorine impact on marine mammals. However, use of retinoids as a biomarker requires knowledge about its intrapopulation patterns of variation in natural conditions, information which is not currently available. We investigated these patterns in a cetacean population living in an unpolluted environment. 100 harbour porpoises Phocoena phocoena from West Greenland were sampled during the 1995 hunting season. Sex, age, morphometrics, nutritive condition, and retinol (following saponification) and OC levels in blubber were determined for each individual. OC levels found were extremely low and therefore considered unlikely to affect the population adversely: mean blubber concentrations, expressed on an extractable basis, were 2.04 (SD = 1.1) ppm for PCBs and 2.76 (SD = 1.66) ppm for tDDT. The mean blubber retinol concentration for the overall population was 59.66 (SD = 45.26) µg g-1. Taking into account the high contribution of blubber to body mass, blubber constitutes a significant body site for retinoid deposition in harbour porpoises. Retinol concentrations did not differ significantly between geographical regions or sexes, but they did correlate significantly (p < 0.001) with age. Body condition, measured by determining the lipid content of the blubber, did not have a significant effect on retinol levels but the individuals examined were considered to be in an overall good nutritive condition. It is concluded that measurement of retinol concentrations in blubber samples is feasible and has a potential for use as a biomarker of organochlorine exposure in cetaceans. However, in order to do so, biological information, particularly age, is critical for the correct assessment of physiological impact. KEY WORDS: Harbor porpoise · Retinol · Organochlorines · Biomarker · Greenland Full text in pdf format PreviousNextExport citation RSS - Facebook - Tweet - linkedIn Cited by Published in MEPS Vol. 185. Publication date: August 20, 1999 Print ISSN:0171-8630; Online ISSN:1616-1599 Copyright © 1999 Inter-Research.

With the purpose of determining the distribution and abundance of ringed seals (Phoca hispida) hauling out on the ice, systematic strip census aerial surveys were flown in the Kong Oscars Fjord, Scoresby Sund and adjacent areas (between approximately 70°N and 72°30'N in eastern Greenland) from 7 to 13 June 1984. The study area comprised approximately 18,500 km2 mainly covered with smooth one-year-old shore-fast ice. The survey effort was concentrated in the afternoon during the presumed peak haul-out period. Main emphasis was given to surveying the Kong Oscars Fjord/Davy Sund and the Scoresby Sund/Hurry Fjord areas which were surveyed twice. Average densities in various sub-areas varied between 0.3 and 2.9 seals/km2 and were similar tothose reported from other Arctic areas. No significant differences in densities were found between sets of surveys of the same sub-areas. The mean density (2.00 seals/km2, SD=0.22) in the Scoresby Sund area was significantly higher than that found in Kong Oscars Fjord (1.04 seals/km\ SD=0.15) probably reflecting a higher overall marine productivity in Scoresby Sund. The sum of the point estimates of the visible part of the population in the different sub-areas was 28,882 seals.

EDITOR,--E Ernst and K L Resch state that the true placebo effect can be measured in trials that compare an untreated group with a placebo group.1 They assume that non-specific effects other than the true placebo effect produce the same response in the two arms of a trial. …

Field work in 1985 revealed that the Aleqatsiaq Fjord Formation (Ordovieian-Silurian) can be traced from Washington Land to westernmost Peary Land, and that a tripartite subdivision of the formation can be achieved throughout most of this area (units AFI-3). Five mapping units (WGI-5) were recognised within the overlying Washington Land Group of Silurian age between Hall Land and westernmost Peary Land. These are described and correlated with sequenees in Washington Land and elsewhere in Peary Land. Deposition was uniform in the lower part of the sequenee (units AFI-WG1) throughout the mapped area. Lateral lithologieal variation in the upper part (units WG2-5) refleets differential regional subsidenee, the presence of intrashelf mounds and the development of huge mound complexes along the shelf margin.

In Constance Holden's News & Comment article "Giving mental illness its research due" (30 May, p. 1084), a study by Otto Wahl mentioned at the bottom of column 1 on page 1085 is to be published in the Journal of Community Psycholgy, not the Journal of community Psychiatry, as stated.