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There is a need for imagination in crafting policies for the care of the aged. Unfortunately, government policies for elderly care has not caught up in this trend. As people age, the influence of genetics diminishes while those of controllable factors such as disease and disability prevention and the maintenance of physical, social and mental well-being increase. Five books on aging and health policies are reviewed.

Evangelical Christians need to return to Bible reading as a source of faith. Historically, biblicism either confused the Bible with worshipping God or was used to enforce conservative doctrinal conformity. Postliberal biblicism treats the Bible as a literal Christian text whose parts help interpret each other when the reader is sufficiently knowledgable and sensitive to historical and ecclesial interests.

Contributions of the Long-Term Ecological Research Program The importance of long-term phenomena in ecology is well-documented (Likens 1989). Transient responses that extend over decades, or even centuries, are common, such [...]

Psychonalytic phenomena involve complex patterns of behavior which are difficult to model effectively and without oversimplification. This paper presents an approach to modeling which is appropriate for variables treated in psychoanalysis, and it describes a method for reducing the number of variables without losing essential information. The models used are from elementary catastrophe theory and are geometric in form. The approach is scientific in the strict sence that the models generate predictions which can be tested objectively. We illustrate this with an example involving the clinical phenomenon of affect-response. We present a ten-variable model based on the compact double cusp; the model generates an unforeseen, non-trivial, testable prediction.

Although many pregnant, drug-dependent women report extensive criminal justice involvement, few studies have examined reductions in crime as an outcome of substance abuse treatment programs for pregnant women. This is unfortunate, because maternal criminal involvement can have serious health and cost implications for the unborn child, the mother and society. Using the Addiction Severity Index, differences in pre- and posttreatment criminal involvement were measured for a sample of 439 pregnant women who entered publicly funded treatment programs in Massachusetts between 1992 and 1997. Accepted cost of illness methods were supplemented with information from the Bureau of Justice Statistics to estimate the costs and benefits of five treatment modalities: detoxification only (used as a minimal treatment comparison group), methadone only, residential only, outpatient only, and residential/outpatient combined. Projected to a year, the net benefits (avoided costs of crime net of treatment costs) ranged from US$32,772 for residential only to US$3,072 for detoxification. Although all five modalities paid for themselves by reducing criminal activities, multivariate regressions controlling for baseline differences between the groups showed that reductions in crime and related costs were significantly greater for women in the two residential programs. The study provides economic justification for the continuation and possible expansion of residential substance abuse treatment programs for criminally involved pregnant women. [C] 2001 Elsevier Science Inc. All fights reserved. Keywords: Pregnant women; Drug treatment; Cost-benefit analysis; Crime

Nine volunteers who were exposed to nicotine from cigarette smoking in the cabin of a commercial aircraft were evaluated for the presence of a metabolic byproduct (metabolite) of nicotine, cotinine, in their urine for the 72 hours following exposure. In addition, the volunteers carried personal monitors which measured the level of ambient nicotine in the cabin atmosphere. In some cases, individuals in the nonsmoking areas of the cabin were exposed to levels no different from the smoking sections. The level of secreted cotinine varied with exposure to nicotine, and the urine level of cotinine was measurable in the urine of volunteers for more than 72 hours following exposure. The volunteers' subjective experience was measured, and their discomfort was found to be related to the degree of exposure and levels of excreted cotinine. Irritability of eyes and nose between the beginning and end of the study correlated with exposure levels to nicotine. The type of ventilation system varied with aircraft and was an important factor in determining the level of ambient exposure to nicotine. This report demonstrates that various factors are involved in the establishment of a microenvironment within enclosed spaces such as an airplane. Separation of smoking and nonsmoking sections of an aircraft is not meaningful from a health perspective. Passive exposure to smoking represents another contribution to the cumulative health risk from smoking., ABSTRACT: In-flight exposure to nicotine, urinary cotinine levels, and symptom self-reports were assessed in a study of nine subjects (five passengers and four attendants) on four routine commercial flights each of approximately four hours' duration. Urine samples were collected for 72 hours following each flight. Exposures to nicotine measured during the flights using personal exposure monitors were found to be variable, with some nonsmoking areas attaining levels comparable to those in smoking sections. Attendants assigned to work in nonsmoking areas were not protected from smoke exposure. The type of aircraft ventilation was important in determining the levels of in-flight nicotine exposure. The environmental tobacco smoke levels that occurred produced measurable levels of cotinine (a major metabolite of nicotine) in the urine of passengers and attendants. Passengers who experienced the greatest smoke exposure had the highest levels of urinary cotinine. Changes in eye and nose symptoms between the beginning and end of the flights were significantly related both to nicotine exposure during the flight and to the subsequent urinary excretion of cotinine. In addition, subjects' perceptions of annoyance and smokiness in the airplane cabin were also related to in-flight nicotine exposure and urinary excretion measures.

A pharmacophore model of the structure-activity relationship of a hematoregulatory peptide, SK&F 107647, and its derivatives with its putative receptor was designed. The model, which suggest the occurrence of salt bridge-forming intramolecular ionic interactions along the side chains of the Asp3 and Lys5 residues, was validated via synthesis of a peptide analog and a biologically active peptidomimetic analog.

This book is one of a census monograph series on the population of the United States in the 1980s produced for the National Committee for Research on the 1980 Census. [...]

The conformational and conjugational characteristics of the restricted Arg-bily-Asp-(RGD)-containing cyclic peptide were used to directly design benzodiazepine, a high-affinity powerful, non-peptide GP IIb/IIIa antagonist. The design uses the 2- and 3-dimensional properties of a high-affinity peptide ligand. This makes the peptidomimetic procedure a novel approach to the production of a high-affinity, low-molecular-weight antagonist.