Recent research has shown that the combination of high triglyceride (TG) levels and low high density lipoprotein (HDL) levels, significantly increases the incidence of coronary artery disease (CAD). The incidence of CAD is also increased in abdominally obese individuals. To assess differences in postprandial TG clearance patterns between abdominally obese (AO) and controls (C), fourteen healthy, normolipidemic males (seven controls and seven abdominally obese) completed an oral fat loading test (78 grams of fat). Blood samples were collected every hour for eight hours. Abdominally obese individuals had significantly greater TG values, significantly lower total HDL and HDL2 values and significantly greater area under the TG curve (p = 0.03). Time to reach peak TG and time to reach baseline TG values did not differ between the two groups, even though fewer AO individuals reached baseline within eight hours. The data from the present investigation indicate that increased time to clear TG in AO individuals may be one pathway that increases the incidence of CAD in this group. / School of Physical Education

Spinal cord injury (SCI) results in a well-orchestrated inflammatory response which causes secondary tissue damage. Activated macrophages contribute to this cytotoxic response, which includes damage to neurons, glia and myelin, and tissue loss that worsens functional outcomes after SCI. However, activated macrophages in the spinal cord under other conditions are not cytotoxic, such as after intraspinal injection of lysophosphatidylcholine (LPC), a potent demyelinating agent. Recovery from SCI may be optimized by reducing the detrimental effects of macrophages while promoting their beneficial ones. Therefore, I compared spinal cord tissue, as well as purified macrophages, from mice after SCI (cytotoxic response) and intraspinal LPC injection (non-cytotoxic response). As a first step to carry out this work, I characterized the injury parameters for SCI contusion injury (i.e. injury force and spinal cord displacement) in mice using the Infinite Horizons impactor (Chapter 2). This lesioning model was used in other work for the thesis. The role T cells may play in mediating macrophage activation after LPC microinjection and SCI was also assessed using Nude mice (Chapter 3). Next, Affymetrix GeneChip analysis was carried out on spinal cord tissue obtained at the peak of the macrophage response after SCI and intraspinal LPC injection to identify potential candidate genes that may control the divergent inflammatory responses (Chapter 4). Several potential genes were identified. I next characterized the expression and role of one of these genes, MAPK activated protein kinase 2 (MK2), and showed that it mediates secondary tissue damage after SCI via several mechanisms (Chapter 5). The differences in gene expression profiles of macrophages purified from the spinal cord after SCI and LPC-injection were also assessed (Chapter 6). This microarray analysis of macrophages led to the identification of 10 novel candidate genes, two of which were validated at the protein level. Finally, I also examined the expression and role of secretory leukocyte protease inhibitor (SLPI) in SCI (Chapter 7). Using a combination of knockout/overexpressing transgenic mice and recombinant SLPI, I found that SLPI mediates protective anti-inflammatory effects after SCI. In conclusion, work done for this thesis has led to the identification of several novel molecules that influence the inflammatory response after injury and thus have led to the identification of potentially novel targets for the development of pharmacological approaches to treat acute SCI.

Bibliography: leaves 476-502 / xvi, 502 leaves : ill ; 30 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, 1985

[Truncated abstract] This thesis explores the risk factors and perinatal outcomes associated with prelabour rupture of membranes, with a particular focus on the environmental context. Prelabour rupture of membranes is defined as the rupture of fetal membranes before the onset of labour. It is a relatively common obstetric endpoint, occurring in approximately 8-10% of pregnant women at term (PROM) and in up to 40% of all preterm deliveries (pPROM). Despite the high prevalence of the condition, the biological mechanisms and risk factors, and in particular the role of environmental predictors, behind the development of PROM and pPROM remain largely unclear. A record-based prevalence design was used to analyse a population of 16,229 nulliparous, Caucasian women residing in Perth, Western Australia who gave birth to a single newborn during 2002-2004. Maternal age, socioeconomic status and threatened preterm labour during pregnancy were identified as risk factors for prelabour rupture of membranes. Term PROM was significantly associated with fetal distress (OR 1.19; 95%CI 1.00-1.43) and post-partum haemorrhage (OR 1.99; 95%CI 1.60-2.48). A number of perinatal complications were observed to be associated with the presentation of preterm PROM, including prolapsed cord (OR 13.95; 95%CI 4.57-42.61), ante-partum haemorrhage (OR 3.29; 95%CI 2.20-4.91), post-partum haemorrhage (OR 2.12; 95%CI 1.54-2.91), low birth weight (OR 17.79; 95%CI 13.87-22.82), very low birth weight (OR 20.01; 95%CI 14.12-28.35) and stillbirth (OR 5.42; 95%CI 2.87-10.21). However, the outcomes were similar between pPROM patients and other preterm deliveries, indicating that the complications arose due to the timing of the delivery. In contrast though, the risk factors between the two outcomes varied which may suggest that a different aetiological pathway exists between preterm PROM and other preterm deliveries. The frequency of complications decreased with increasing gestational age at delivery until the pregnancy reached full-term, whereupon an increase in gestational age at delivery resulted in an increased risk of fetal distress and post-partum haemorrhage. This finding is novel and may have important implications for the management of prelabour rupture of membranes, specifically with regard to the relative risks and benefits of expectant management (that is, the patient is admitted to an obstetric facility or hospital and closely monitored) versus planned delivery. ... This study represents the first attempt to investigate the potential associations between environmental risk factors and prelabour rupture of membranes. The results of the thesis provide a substantial contribution to our knowledge on prelabour rupture of membranes, including findings of direct relevance to clinical practice as well as a potentially contributing environmental exposure pathway. These original findings suggest a possible preventative approach to reducing the occurrence and associated morbidity of prelabour rupture of membranes may be feasible, and should be pursued if future research confirms the preliminary findings of this thesis.

[Truncated abstract] Over the past several decades substantial research has been conducted investigating the association between attentional bias to emotionally threatening material and anxiety. Tasks such as the emotional Stroop, the dichotic listening task and the visual probe task have been used to document this association, with the visual probe task providing the most direct means of assessing this bias. That this association exists stands beyond contention, however relatively little research has been conducted directly examining the causal nature of this relationship. By using predictive and recovery approaches it is possible to determine how attentional bias and anxiety co vary but not the exact causal nature of this relationship. However, when the visual probe methodology is used attentional bias to threat can be directly manipulated and as such it is possible to determine if attentional bias to threat causally underpins the development and maintenance of anxiety. The purpose of the current research was to deliver an extended attentional training task to anxious individuals by capitalising upon the ability to directly manipulate attentional bias using the visual probe task methodology and assessing the possible therapeutic benefits of such an approach. ...Nevertheless these results provided support for the validity of the causal hypothesis and the technological difficulties associated with administering the task online were ameliorated. Due to the fact that characteristics of both situational and dispositional anxiety are present in a clinical population a revised version of the attentional training task was administered to two groups of non-clinically anxious individuals to determine the impact that avoid threat attentional training has on each of these types of anxiety. High trait anxious students and pregnant women were chosen for this purpose but due to substantial attrition these two experiments failed to provide sufficient evidence to evaluate the causal hypothesis. Two main reasons for this attrition were identified, the motivation of participants and the procedures that were in place to monitor their progress. To ensure that attrition would not compromise future experiments a series of modifications were made and the attentional training program was then readministered to a sample of individuals characterised by dispositional or situational anxiety. A group of self labelled worriers and a sample of Immigrating Singaporean students respectively, were chosen for this purpose. There was no significant influence of avoid threat training on attentional bias for the self labelled worriers, nor any evidence of an attenuation of emotional vulnerability. For the Immigrating Singaporean students, however; there was evidence of a significant reversal of attentional bias to threat post attentional training compared to the control group and a corresponding attenuation of emotional vulnerability and a trend towards a significant attenuation of emotional reactivity. The implications for the causal hypothesis and the therapeutic applicability are discussed as well as several avenues for future research.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Linköping : Univ., 2001. / Härtill 5 uppsatser.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Stockholm : Karol. inst. / Härtill 6 uppsatser.

A presente pesquisa tem por objetivo analisar como os determinantes socioeconômicos contextuais influenciaram na produção e no fortalecimento de tendências criminogênicas, entre os municípios da Região Metropolitana de Porto Alegre, mediante a utilização de análises multivariadas entre anos de 1991 e 2000. Buscamos construir um modelo empírico causal para avaliar as questões indicadas e também captar em que medida as transformações qualitativas que a criminalidade vem sofrendo - em decorrência de mudanças macro-estruturais de caráter mais amplo - têm penetrado nos municípios da RMPA. Para tanto, nos servimos de técnicas estatísticas de análise de regressões múltiplas para captar nexos causais entre as variáveis independentes e dependentes em modelos longitudinais. Também utilizamos alguns modelos transversais para os referidos anos, com o objetivo de perceber as covariações entre as variáveis selecionadas. Os resultados obtidos nas regressões foram interpretados a partir de uma série de perspectivas teóricas que tratam do fenômeno da criminalidade. Para avaliar os dados obtidos utilizamos, principalmente, a perspectiva da transição etiológica da criminalidade. A análise tem como suas variáveis dependentes às taxas de apenados por delitos selecionados. Dentre os resultados que alcançamos podemos indicar a constatação da relação entre uma forma nova da desorganização social e o avanço de grupos criminosos. Contudo, os resultados obtidos devem servir principalmente para a ampliação de estudos de mesmo perfil teórico e metodológico. / The goal of this research is to examine the influence that contextual socioeconomic factors had in producing and strengthening criminogenic tendencies among municipalities in the Porto Alegre metropolitan area, by means of multi-varied analyses for the years between 1991 and 2000. We sought to build a causal empirical model to evaluate the issues listed and also to determine the extent to which the qualitative changes that crime has been undergoing - as a result of macro-structural changes of a broader nature - have penetrated the municipalities in the Porto Alegre metropolitan area. To this end, we employed statistical techniques of multiple regression analysis to determine causal links between independent and dependent variables in longitudinal models. We also used some transversal models for the years in question in order to perceive the covariations between the selected variables. The results obtained in the regressions were interpreted from a number of theoretical perspectives that address the phenomenon of crime. To evaluate the data we mainly used the perspective of the etiological transition of crime. The dependent variables of the analysis are the conviction rates for selected crimes. Among the results we came to, we can confirm the relationship between a new form of social disorganization and the advancement of criminal groups. However, the results obtained should serve mainly to increase further studies of the same theoretical and methodological profile.

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / O presente trabalho tem como objetivo contrastar a noção de prevenção elaborada no contexto norte-americano dos anos 60 com a emergência do risco como noção alternativa de viés preventivista na psiquiatria contemporânea. Para tanto, analisamos as concepções e teorias que fundamentavam a prevenção nos anos 60, investigando como um determinado modo de explicar a doença se articulou a interesses profissionais e a demandas sociais daquele período, contribuindo para elevar a prevenção à ação primordial e objetivo fundamental do campo psiquiátrico. Em seguida, analisamos as concepções e teorias neurocientíficas recentes sobre a formação psicopatológica e as correlatas propostas de manejo do risco que começam a se configurar como alternativa aos discursos preventivos que predominaram no século XX. Finalmente, discutimos as transformações que explicam o declínio da prevenção e a ascensão das práticas de manejo do risco, associando as modificações do campo psiquiátrico às alterações no campo da saúde e no contexto cultural do final do século XX e início do século XXI. Os objetivos da discussão são: contrastar os dois discursos psiquiátricos, tecendo considerações sobre as marcantes diferenças entre o predomínio da prevenção e a lógica do risco e sobre possíveis similaridades ou continuidades; e examinar, de forma exploratória, algumas das consequências que a associação entre categorias psiquiátricas, risco e práticas de saúde contemporâneas pode promover nas formas de conhecer, tratar e vivenciar a patologia mental. / The purpose of this thesis is to contrast the notion of prevention developed in the United States during the 60s with the emergence of risk as an alternative notion of preventive bias in contemporary psychiatry. Therefore, I analyze concepts and theories underpinning prevention in the 60s, investigating how a particular way of explaining disease was articulated to professional interests and social demands, contributing to raise prevention as a fundamental action and main goal of the psychiatric field. Then I analyze recent neuroscientific concepts and theories on the formation of psychopathology and the related risk management proposals that begin to take shape as an alternative to preventive discourses that prevailed in the twentieth century. Finally, I discuss the transformations that explain the decline of prevention and the rise of risk management, connecting modifications in psychiatry to changes in health practices and in the cultural context of late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. The objectives of the discussion are: to contrast the psychiatric discourses, considering the striking differences between the prevalence of prevention and the risk logic, as well as possible similarities; and to examine, in an exploratory way, some of the alterations that the association between psychiatric categories, risk and health practices may promote in contemporary ways of knowing, experiencing and treating mental pathology.

A presente pesquisa tem por objetivo analisar como os determinantes socioeconômicos contextuais influenciaram na produção e no fortalecimento de tendências criminogênicas, entre os municípios da Região Metropolitana de Porto Alegre, mediante a utilização de análises multivariadas entre anos de 1991 e 2000. Buscamos construir um modelo empírico causal para avaliar as questões indicadas e também captar em que medida as transformações qualitativas que a criminalidade vem sofrendo - em decorrência de mudanças macro-estruturais de caráter mais amplo - têm penetrado nos municípios da RMPA. Para tanto, nos servimos de técnicas estatísticas de análise de regressões múltiplas para captar nexos causais entre as variáveis independentes e dependentes em modelos longitudinais. Também utilizamos alguns modelos transversais para os referidos anos, com o objetivo de perceber as covariações entre as variáveis selecionadas. Os resultados obtidos nas regressões foram interpretados a partir de uma série de perspectivas teóricas que tratam do fenômeno da criminalidade. Para avaliar os dados obtidos utilizamos, principalmente, a perspectiva da transição etiológica da criminalidade. A análise tem como suas variáveis dependentes às taxas de apenados por delitos selecionados. Dentre os resultados que alcançamos podemos indicar a constatação da relação entre uma forma nova da desorganização social e o avanço de grupos criminosos. Contudo, os resultados obtidos devem servir principalmente para a ampliação de estudos de mesmo perfil teórico e metodológico. / The goal of this research is to examine the influence that contextual socioeconomic factors had in producing and strengthening criminogenic tendencies among municipalities in the Porto Alegre metropolitan area, by means of multi-varied analyses for the years between 1991 and 2000. We sought to build a causal empirical model to evaluate the issues listed and also to determine the extent to which the qualitative changes that crime has been undergoing - as a result of macro-structural changes of a broader nature - have penetrated the municipalities in the Porto Alegre metropolitan area. To this end, we employed statistical techniques of multiple regression analysis to determine causal links between independent and dependent variables in longitudinal models. We also used some transversal models for the years in question in order to perceive the covariations between the selected variables. The results obtained in the regressions were interpreted from a number of theoretical perspectives that address the phenomenon of crime. To evaluate the data we mainly used the perspective of the etiological transition of crime. The dependent variables of the analysis are the conviction rates for selected crimes. Among the results we came to, we can confirm the relationship between a new form of social disorganization and the advancement of criminal groups. However, the results obtained should serve mainly to increase further studies of the same theoretical and methodological profile.