No abstract

Fast climate changes in the western Antarctic Peninsula are reducing krill density, which along with increased fishing activities in recent decades, may have had synergistic effects on penguin populations. We tested that assumption by crossing data on fishing activities and Southern Annular Mode (an indicator of climate change in Antarctica) with penguin population data. Increases in fishing catch during the non-breeding period were likely to result in impacts on both chinstrap (Pygoscelis antarcticus) and gentoo (P. papua) populations. Catches and climate change together elevated the probability of negative population growth rates: very high fishing catch on years with warm winters and low sea ice (associated with negative Southern Annular Mode values) implied a decrease in population size in the following year. The current management of krill fishery in the Southern Ocean takes into account an arbitrary and fixed catch limit that does not reflect the variability of the krill population under effects of climate change, therefore affecting penguin populations when the environmental conditions were not favorable.

No abstract

Salt intake and blood pressure were found to be significantly elevated in young adults in Paraguay and argues for the importance of instituting a national campaign to reduce salt intake in this society.

SummaryIt is commonly assumed that loss of responsiveness and recovery of responsiveness occur at similar concentrations of propofol. However, the 'conscious' and 'anaesthetised' conditions produced by general anaesthetics may behave as two bistable states. We hypothesised that loss of responsiveness and recovery of responsiveness occur at different propofol concentrations. Propofol was administered to 19 healthy volunteers by effect-site target-controlled infusion using increasing and decreasing stable concentration steps of 7 min. Propofol serum concentrations were measured from venous blood samples at the end of each 7-min step. A long step of 14 min was performed at loss of responsiveness. At this step, propofol concentrations were measured at 7 and 14 min. Propofol concentrations measured at loss of responsiveness and recovery of responsiveness were 2.6 (1.2-4.7) lg.ml À1 and 1.6 (0.6-3.3) lg.ml À1, respectively (p < 0.001). Propofol plasma concentration and the corresponding bispectral index values measured at minute 7 and minute 14 of the long step performed at loss of responsiveness were 2.6 (1.2-4.7) vs. 2.6 (1.3-4.3) at recovery of responsiveness, (p = 0.96) and 61.2 (49.0-77.0) vs. 58.4 (45.0-74.0), (p = 0.058), respectively. Loss of responsiveness and recovery of responsiveness appear to occur at different propofol concentrations. However, it is possible that, if equilibration was not achieved between plasma and effect-sites at the end of each 7-min step, the higher concentrations found at loss of responsiveness compared with those observed during recovery of responsiveness could be explained by a possible bias in estimations of the effect-site concentrations of propofol by the Schnider model, rather than neural inertia.

No abstract

Paraguay is a landlocked country located in South America with a total population of 5,884,491. Most of the population (95%) is mestizo, a mixture of Spanish and American/Indian races. The total number of indigenous people in the country has increased from 38,703 in 1981 to 85,674 in 2002. The gross domestic product per capita was US $932.00 annually per person in the year 2002. Between 1992 and 1997, there were 380 patients on chronic dialysis in Paraguay and 75 patients received renal transplants, mostly living-related. The prevalence of renal replacement therapy was 87 patients per million, and the incidence of renal disease continues to rise. Seventy percent of cases of ESRD are of unknown etiology and 15% have diabetes-related renal disease. Only citizens covered by the employee's national health insurance have complete coverage for dialysis and transplantation. The remainder of the population has to apply to public hospitals when the need for hemodialysis arises. At such hospitals, they can receive hemodialysis coverage from the National Institute of Nephrology or from other medical foundations to obtain entrance to these programs. They must otherwise use their own resources to pay for treatment. Seventy percent of patients on chronic dialysis turn to public hospitals for treatment. Hospital hemodialysis is the method most widely used. Home dialysis is rarely performed and there are very few programs for ambulatory peritoneal dialysis. Thus, a large number of patients are not able to enter chronic dialysis programs. In a recent survey of 4655 ill children registered, the distribution of main renal disease was acute glomerulonephritis in 42 cases (9 per 1000), nephrotic syndrome in 40 cases (8.5 per 1000), systemic lupus erythematosis in 28 cases (6 per 1000), and hematuria alone in 11 cases (2.3 per 1000). In ambulatory pediatric practice, urinary tract infection is the leading reason for seeking medical advice. Two thirds of such cases are associated with urinary tract anomalies. Children with ESRD are able to enter hemodialysis programs, but there are not sufficient resources to transplant them. Over 60% of the children with ESRD are hospitalized with terminal renal failure; malformations of the urinary tract are the usual cause. One study of 9880 adults aged 18 to 74 years reported that 39.1% of the women and 26.8% of the men examined were found to have hypertension. Almost half who were found to have raised blood pressure in this study were not previously known to have hypertension. In another cross-sectional study of the urban and suburban mestizo population of Asuncion among patients between 20 and 74 years of age, the overall prevalence of diabetes mellitus was 6.5%, impaired glucose tolerance 13.5%, hypertension 17%, and obesity 31.6%. Extrapolating from this data, we can assume that 178,000 patients with hypertension in Paraguay need medical treatment. To face the problem of growing numbers of patients with end-stage renal failure, it is necessary to carry out basic epidemiologic research to detect...

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