Large Number Of Volunteers Research Articles

Efeitos dos óleos de amendoim, açafrão e oliva na composição corporal, metabolismo energético, perfil lipídico e ingestão alimentar de indivíduos eutróficos normolipidêmicos

OBJETIVOS: O presente trabalho visou avaliar os efeitos do consumo dos óleos de amendoim, açafrão e oliva no perfil lipídico, composição corporal, metabolismo energético e ingestão alimentar em indivíduos eutróficos normolipidêmicos. MÉTODOS: Foram selecionados 32 indivíduos, divididos aleatoriamente em quatro grupos, tendo quatro mulheres e quatro homens em cada grupo, com idade entre 18 e 50 anos. Foi oferecido um milk shake aos voluntários no desjejum, veiculando uma quantidade equivalente a 30% da sua energia basal na forma de óleo (amendoim, açafrão ou oliva), por um período de oito semanas, exceto para o grupo-controle, que não recebeu o shake. Foram realizadas avaliações dos valores de colesterol total e frações, triacilgliceróis, composição corporal, taxa de metabolismo basal, termogênese induzida pela dieta e ingestão alimentar dos indivíduos nas semanas basal, 4ª e 8ª. RESULTADOS: Não foi observada diferença significante no perfil lipídico e na saciedade, no entanto, o grupo que recebeu óleo de açafrão apresentou valores de lipídios plasmáticos mais reduzidos. A ingestão dos óleos levou ao aumento do ganho de peso, sendo que o óleo de oliva proporcionou maior circunferência do quadril. CONCLUSÃO: A adição dos óleos na dieta levou ao aumento da deposição de gordura corporal sem provocar alterações no perfil lipídico e ingestão dietética, ao contrário do relatado na literatura. O uso dos óleos em substituição a outros nutrientes energéticos da dieta, o maior número de voluntários e um período maior de intervenção devem ser investigados em estudos futuros.

Topics in internet technology

he Internet Technology series is published in May and October every year. The issue deals with survey and tutorial articles on current research issues relating to Internet Technology. Over the years, there has been a steady and increasing number of submissions to this series, indicating a strong interest in its topics among our readers. This time, nine articles were submitted for possible publication in this issue. After a rigorous review process, we accepted only three articles for publication in this issue. The future Internet will consist of an interconnection of heterogeneous networks consisting of wireless, wired, and optical networks. Wireless Internet access is challenging in terms of minimizing requirements for battery power and bandwidth, and interworking with heterogeneous networks. Caching can improve access latency, reduce battery power consumption, and reduce bandwidth usage in the wireless Internet. Chen and Xiao provide a classification and detailed survey of cache access mechanisms and replacement algorithms. They suggest that wireless networks should be designed keeping in consideration the limitations posed by wireless networks/devices and the future heterogeneous wireless Internet. Heterogeneous networks also give rise to the problem of different networking protocols and packet formats. Tunneling, which consists of encapsulating a packet or frame within another packet of the same or a different network layer, is a commonly used technique to solve the issue of internetworking heterogeneous networks. Tunneling has also been used to provide end-to-end secure communications. The article by Saad, Alawieh, Gulder, and Mouftah discussed various tunneling techniques and looks at the interations between them to provide end-to-end connectivity. The article by McGregor Kaczmarek, Mosley, Dease, and Adams discusses the requirements of the next-generation Internet for national security and emergency preparedness. Such users must be assured of effective and priority service even under catastrophic conditions such as natural disasters and terrorist attacks, similar to what is now-a-days offered by telecommunication providers. The authors present test results of voice over IP for such priority users. The quality of this series depends on the quality of articles and the stringent refereeing carried out by a large number of volunteers. We would like to thank the authors and reviewers for their time and dedication to this series. We also invite potential authors to continue submitting high-quality articles. We would like to acknowledge the help of the Editor in Chief, Tom Chen, and Joe Milizzo and Sue Lange of the ComSoc publications staff for helping with the production of this series. We welcome any comments you may have to further improve the quality of this series.

The patient's perspective of commercial clinical trials

All drugs are tested on a large number of volunteers and patients prior to licensing by the Medical Controls Agency. Patients are often recruited while attending National Health Service (NHS) clinics. This paper reports a survey designed to ascertain patients' views of the desirability of such trials being undertaken in the NHS.Patients have a sophisticated understanding of who benefits from commercial clinical trials. Nonetheless, those taking part in trials did feel the process had some personal benefit. The patients overwhelmingly supported such clinical trials being undertaken in the NHS and felt that they were likely to raise the overall quality of care.The results can be used to influence the design of future patient information leaflets and the trial process.

Detection of a "faked" strength task effort in volunteers using a computerized exercise testing system.

The objective of this study was to develop an experimental method to separate a "faked" strength effort from a "best" effort in volunteers. Thirty-four pain-free volunteers (18 males, 16 females) performed a shoulder press and pull-down on an isokinetic computerized exercise testing system (CETS), giving a best effort followed by a faked effort. Two months later, a randomly selected subgroup (6 males) repeated the experiment to test the predictive validity of the derived variables. In the statistical analysis, best efforts were first compared with fake efforts by paired ttest for 80 CETS variables for males and females separately. Variables showing a strong difference between the best and faked effort were then selected for further analysis. In the second step of the analysis, the method of multiple correlations (r2 method) was used to reduce the number of redundant CETS variables to five in both the male and female groups. In the third step, a stepwise discriminant analysis was used to select predictor variables for the male and female groups. For the variables selected by the discriminant analysis for both males and females, sensitivities and specificities were calculated. Finally, the developed discriminant formula was used in the predictive validity part of the study to determine the sensitivities and specificities of the developed method. The discriminant analysis selected the following CETS variables for male and female groups, respectively: duty cycle down, work weight/down, peak value up (males); and average power up, 40% repetition down, duty cycle up (females). For males, using their three variables, the discriminant function classified 77.14% of the efforts correctly with 88.9% sensitivity and 64.7% specificity. For females, using their three variables, the discriminant function classified 90.63% of the efforts correctly with 100% sensitivity and 81.3% specificity. In the predictive validity group, the discriminant function classified 75% of the efforts correctly with 83.3% sensitivity and 66.7% specificity. This pilot study indicates that the method developed here may be useful in the experimental study for the discrimination between faked and best efforts on this isokinetic CETS machine. Future studies using this method will need to involve a larger number of volunteers.

Flood Disaster in the Czech Republic in July, 1997 — Operations of the Emergency Medical Service

This report is a review of the response and the activities of the Emergency Medical Services during a huge flood that devastated one-third of the territory of the Czech Republic in July 1997. The Emergency Medical Services personnel extracted by helicopter a great number of citizens who were trapped in their flats and homes. For diabetics and cardiacs who were isolated from the surface transport, the EMS personnel supplied necessary medication, and transported patients to hemodialysis. The cooperation between non-medical emergency services and the district crisis staff of the Integrated Rescue System, varied in different districts. However, in most flooded districts, the cooperation was satisfactory. In addition, a large number of volunteers helped in the first days of the flood. Unfortunately, 49 people died because of the flood. Nevertheless, since the EMS was able to manage the extraordinary needs, the number of emergencies and hospitalizations was low.

The patient's perspective of commercial clinical trials

All drugs are tested on a large number of volunteers and patients prior to licensing by the Medical Controls Agency. Patients are often recruited while attending National Health Service (NHS) clinics. This paper reports a survey designed to ascertain patients' views of the desirability of such trials being undertaken in the NHS.Patients have a sophisticated understanding of who benefits from commercial clinical trials. Nonetheless, those taking part in trials did feel the process had some personal benefit. The patients overwhelmingly supported such clinical trials being undertaken in the NHS and felt that they were likely to raise the overall quality of care.The results can be used to influence the design of future patient information leaflets and the trial process.

Comparison of the analgesic potency of xenon and nitrous oxide in humans evaluated by experimental pain

We have compared the analgesic potency of MAC-equivalent concentrations of xenon (10, 20, 30 and 40%) and nitrous oxide (15, 30, 45 and 60%) in humans using a multimodal experimental pain testing and assessment technique. We tested 12 healthy volunteers in a randomized, single-blind, crossover study. The following experimental pain tests were used: nociceptive reflex to repeated stimuli; pain tolerance to maximal effort tourniquet ischaemia; electrical stimulation; mechanical pressure; and cold. Reaction time was also measured. Xenon and nitrous oxide produced analgesia to ischaemic, electrical and mechanical stimulation, but not to cold pain. There was no difference in MAC-equivalent concentrations of xenon and nitrous oxide. Both increased reaction time in a similar manner. Xenon and nitrous oxide evoked nausea and vomiting in a large number of volunteers.

Vitamin B 6 and coronary artery disease : Epidemiological observations and case studies

The finding of low plasma pyridoxal-5′-phosphate levels in patients suffering from myocardial infarction has been construed as possible evidence for the pathogenetic role that vitamin 136 deficiency may play in causing premature ischaemic heart disease. However, the presence of normal plasma pyridoxal-5′-phosphate levels in patients with angiographic evidence of coronary artery narrowing but with no previous infarctions prompted the investigation of possible short-term alterations in plasma pyridoxal-5′-phosphate levels during the acute phase of myocardial infarction. In the follow-up of 30 patients with acute myocardial infarction, all of them showed a continuous decrease of approximately 45% in plasma pyridoxal-5′-phosphate levels during the acute phase. These levels subsequently returned back to normal before discharge from hospital. A large number of volunteers from a ethnic group known to have a very low incidence of ischaemic heart disease were found to have both significantly lower total cholesterol and plasma pyridoxal-5′-phosphate levels than a Caucasian group in the same geographic area which is known to have a high incidence of ischaemic heart disease. These findings therefore do not support the contention that vitamin B6 deficiency may be a risk index for ischaemic heart disease.

Using the Resources of AA in Treating Alcoholics in a General Hospital

At Cleveland Metropolitan General Hospital a small number of staff and a large number of volunteers from Alcoholics Anonymous have collaborated to meet the treatment needs of the community's alcoholics. Recovered alcoholics serve as volunteers staffing a friendship room, located close to the emergency room and open weeknights between 6 and 10 p.m. They also provide counseling on AA, escort patients to AA meetings, help in postdischarge follow-up, and act as casefinders in the community. The hospital staff have become more aware of problems of alcoholism and are better able to treat alcoholics and to provide counseling and referral services.

Immunization Against Superficial Fungous Infection: II. Studies on Human Volunteer Subjects

A vaccine from broth cultures of Trichophyton mentagrophytes was prepared by a technic designed to minimize destruction of antigenic material. This material was incorporated into a salve base and used for treatment of human volunteers. As controls, one group of subjects were treated with a similar preparation made from an Alternaria strain, and a third group with the salve base alone. The experiment was randomized with respect to the subjects and to the three salve preparations. After four weeks of treatment, the subjects were exposed to experimental infection by T. mentagrophytes . Statistical analysis of the results indicated that acquired resistance developed in those subjects treated with the T. mentagrophytes antigen. A method to immunize guinea pigs locally against infection with Trichophyton mentagrophytes was described recently by Keeney and Huppert (3). A mixture of intracellular and extracellular antigens from broth cultures of one virulent strain of T. mentagrophytes was prepared by a technique (3) designed to minimize alteration of the natural antigenicity of the living fungus. Guinea pigs were treated topically with this antigen for six weeks and then the animals were challenged with the homologous fungus. The immunized animals exhibited resistance to the infection and because of this an experiment using human volunteers was planned. The purpose of this article is to report on the results of the effectiveness of local immunization in humans against an infection with Trichophyton mentagrophytes. There were 2 parts to the experiment: 1) a small number of volunteers were immunized and infected and the results appraised; 2) the experiment was repeated on a larger number of volunteers according to a predetermined statistical design.