Fertility-Related Problems and Ways of Coping of Couples With Primary Infertility in Urban India

Objective: To study the impact of infertility in terms of fertility-related problems and ways of coping among male organic factor, female organic factor, and unexplained factor infertility groups suffering from primary infertility. Infertility is defined as an inability to become pregnant after 1 year of regular sexual relations without use of contraceptives. This study compared coping strategies and specific fertility problems among the 3 infertile groups. Methods: This was a clinic-based cross-sectional comparative study based on consecutive sampling method. Sixty couples were taken, of which 10 couples were from the male factor, 10 from the female factor, and 10 from the unexplained factor group. Fertility Problem Inventory and Ways of Coping Questionnaire were the tools that were administered. Results: The female factor group had greater social and relationship concern and need for parenthood. Seeking social support was used more by the unexplained factor group, whereas positive reappraisal coping style was used more by the female factor group. The male factor group used confrontative and self-controlling strategy to deal with the infertility problem. Conclusion: Men and women had different fertility-related concerns and used different coping methods to address these issues. Mental health professionals can address these concerns with specifically devised psychotherapy module.

Source apportionment and the role of meteorological conditions in the assessment of air pollution exposure due to urban emissions

As particulate matter (PM) impacts human health, knowledge about its composition, exposure and source apportionment is required. A study of the urban atmosphere in the case of Augsburg, Germany, during winter (31 January–12 March 2010) is thus presented here. Investigations were performed on the basis of aerosol mass spectrometry and further air pollutants and meteorological measurements, including mixing layer height. Organic matter was separated by source apportionment of PM1 with positive matrix factorization (PMF) in three factors: OOA – oxygenated organic aerosol (secondary organic factor), HOA – hydrocarbon-like organic aerosol (traffic factor or primary organic factor) and WCOA – wood combustion organic aerosol (wood combustion factor), which extend the information from black carbon (BC) measurements. PMF was also applied to the particle size distribution (PSD) data of PM2.5 to determine different source profiles and we assigned them to the particle sources: nucleation aerosol, fresh traffic aerosol, aged traffic aerosol, stationary combustion aerosol and secondary aerosol. Ten different temporal phases were identified on the basis of weather characteristics and aerosol composition and used for correlations of all air pollutants and meteorological parameters. While source apportionment from both organic PM composition and PSD agree and show that the main emission sources of PM exposure are road traffic as well as stationary and wood combustion, secondary aerosol factor concentrations are very often the highest ones. The hierarchical clustering analysis with the Ward method of cross-correlations of each air pollutant and PM component and of the correlations of each pollutant with all meteorological parameters provided two clusters: "secondary pollutants of PM1 and fine particles" and "primary pollutants (including CO and benzene) and accumulation mode particles". The dominant meteorological influences on pollutant concentrations are wind speed and mixing layer height which are coupled with a certain wind direction. The compounds of the cluster "secondary pollutants and fine particles" show a negative correlation with absolute humidity, i.e., low concentrations during high absolute humidity and vice versa. The PM10 limit value exceedances originated not only from the emissions but also in combination with specific meteorological conditions. NC3-10 (number concentration of nucleation mode particles) and NC10-30 (Aitken mode particles), i.e., ultrafine particles and the fresh traffic aerosol, are only weakly dependent on meteorological parameters and thus are driven by emissions. The results of this case study provide information about chemical composition and causes of PM exposure during winter time in urban air pollution.

Sub-Antarctic marine aerosol: dominant contributions from biogenic sources

Biogenic influences on the composition and characteristics of aerosol were investigated on Bird Island (54°00' S, 38°03' W) in the South Atlantic during November and December 2010. This remote marine environment is characterised by large seabird and seal colonies. The chemical composition of the submicron particles, measured by an aerosol mass spectrometer (AMS), was 21% non-sea-salt sulfate, 2% nitrate, 8% ammonium, 22% organics and 47% sea salt including sea salt sulfate. A new method to isolate the sea spray signature from the high-resolution AMS data was applied. Generally, the aerosol was found to be less acidic than in other marine environments due to the high availability of ammonia, from local fauna emissions. By positive matrix factorisation five different organic aerosol (OA) profiles could be isolated: an amino acid/amine factor (AA-OA, 18% of OA mass), a methanesulfonic acid OA factor (MSA-OA, 25%), a marine oxygenated OA factor (M-OOA, 41%), a sea spray OA fraction (SS-OA, 7%) and locally produced hydrocarbon-like OA (HOA, 9%). The AA-OA was dominant during the first two weeks of November and found to be related with the hatching of penguins in a nearby colony. This factor, rich in nitrogen (N : C ratio = 0.13), has implications for the biogeochemical cycling of nitrogen in the area as particulate matter is often transported over longer distances than gaseous N-rich compounds. The MSA-OA was mainly transported from more southerly latitudes where phytoplankton bloomed. The bloom was identified as one of three sources for particulate sulfate on Bird Island, next to sea salt sulfate and sulfate transported from South America. M-OOA was the dominant organic factor and found to be similar to marine OA observed at Mace Head, Ireland. An additional OA factor highly correlated with sea spray aerosol was identified (SS-OA). However, based on the available data the type of mixture, internal or external, could not be determined. Potassium was not associated with sea salt particles during 19% of the time, indicating the presence of biogenic particles in addition to the MSA-OA and AA-OA factors.

Sub-Antarctic marine aerosol: significant contributions from biogenic sources

Biogenic influences on the composition and characteristics of aerosol were investigated on Bird Island (54°00' S, 38°03' W) in the South Atlantic during November and December 2010. This remote marine environment is characterised by large seabird and seal colonies. The chemical composition of the submicron particles, measured by an aerosol mass spectrometer (AMS), was 21% non-sea salt sulfate 2% nitrate, 7% ammonium, 22% organics and 47% sea salt including sea salt sulfate. A new method to isolate the sea salt signature from the high-resolution AMS data was applied. Generally, the aerosol was found to be less acidic than in other marine environments due to the high availability of ammonia, from local fauna emissions. By positive matrix factorisation five different organic aerosol (OA) profiles could be isolated: an amino acids/amine factor (AA-OA, 18% of OA mass), a methanesulfonic acid OA factor (MSA-OA, 25%), a marine oxygenated OA factor (M-OOA, 40%), a sea salt OA fraction (SS-OA, 7%) and locally produced hydrocarbon-like OA (HOA, 9%). The AA-OA was dominant during the first two weeks of November and found to be related with the hatching of penguins in a nearby colony. This factor, rich in nitrogen (C : N ratio = 0.13), has implications for the biogeochemical cycling of nitrogen in the area as particulate matter is often transported over longer distances than gaseous N-rich compounds. The MSA-OA was mainly transported from more southerly latitudes where phytoplankton bloomed. The bloom was identified as one of three sources for particulate sulfate on Bird Island, next to sea salt sulfate and sulfate transported from South America. M-OOA was the dominant organic factor and found to be similar to marine OA observed at Mace Head, Ireland. An additional OA factor highly correlated with sea salt aerosol was identified (SS-OA). However, based on the available data the type of mixture, internal or external, could not be determined. Potassium was not associated to sea salt particles during 19% of the time, indicating the presence of biogenic particles in addition to the MSA-OA and AA-OA factors.

Aerosol composition and sources in the central Arctic Ocean during ASCOS

Measurements of submicron aerosol chemical composition were made over the central Arctic Ocean from 5 August to 8 September 2008 as a part of the Arctic Summer Cloud Ocean Study (ASCOS) using an aerosol mass spectrometer (AMS). The median levels of sulphate and organics for the entire study were 0.051 and 0.055 μ g m−3, respectively. Positive matrix factorisation was performed on the entire mass spectral time series and this enabled marine biogenic and continental sources of particles to be separated. These factors accounted for 33% and 36% of the sampled ambient aerosol mass, respectively, and they were both predominantly composed of sulphate, with 47% of the sulphate apportioned to marine biogenic sources and 48% to continental sources, by mass. Within the marine biogenic factor, the ratio of methane sulphonate to sulphate was 0.25 ± 0.02, consistent with values reported in the literature. The organic component of the continental factor was more oxidised than that of the marine biogenic factor, suggesting that it had a longer photochemical lifetime than the organics in the marine biogenic factor. The remaining ambient aerosol mass was apportioned to an organic-rich factor that could have arisen from a combination of marine and continental sources. In particular, given that the factor does not correlate with common tracers of continental influence, we cannot rule out that the organic factor arises from a primary marine source.

EEG in psychiatric practice: to do or not to do?

SummaryElectroencephalography (EEG) is a non-invasive investigation that can aid the diagnosis of psychiatric and neuropsychiatric disorders. A good predictor of an abnormal EEG recording is the presence of an organic factor identified during the clinical assessment. The non-invasiveness and low cost of the procedure and its ability to measure spontaneous brain activity appear to attract clinicians to utilise this investigative tool. However, studies have reported that EEGs arising from psychiatric referrals have the lowest abnormality detection rate. The focus of this article is to improve this by highlighting the current pitfalls and providing recommendations for appropriate utilisation of EEG. We describe specific EEG changes associated with major psychiatric disorders. We conclude by offering pragmatic considerations when referring a patient for EEG, emphasising the fact that the information provided to the neurophysiologist plays a crucial role in interpreting the EEG recording in a diagnostically meaningful way.

A case of persecutory delusions presenting in a woman with normal pressure hydrocephalus due to idiopathic aqueductal stenosis

IntroductionNormal pressure hydrocephalus due to idiopathic aqueductal stenosis is an abnormal accumulation of CSF in the cerebral ventricles caused by an obstruction in the Sylvian aqueduct. Although NPH typically presents with the progressive ‘triad’ of cognitive impairment, gait disturbance and urinary incontinence it has been described that it rarely manifests with predominant psychotic symptoms.Objective and methodA clinical case was followed and reviewed to illustrate the psychiatric symptoms in NPH.ResultsA 32-year-old female was admitted to our acute psychiatric department because she exhibited verbal and physical aggressive behavior while being in an agitated state with persecutory delusions. Symptoms appeared and gradually exacerbated over a 5-year period reaching their climax two weeks before admission. The patient's increased body weight and bradykinetic appearance implied the presence of an underlying organic factor. However her endocrinological workup proved normal and her neurological examination revealed no actual focal deficits. An EEG also proved negative for seizure activity and encephalopathy.Neuropsychological batteries showed mild cognitive impairment and a CT scan revealed considerable dilatation of the ventricular system due to idiopathic aqueductal stenosis. While a conservative approach was chosen for the treatment of NPH our patient was initiated on atypical antipsychotics showing marked improvement of her psychiatric symptomatology.ConclusionsPatients without a prior psychiatric history who have soft nonlocalising neurological signs and mild cognitive deficits in association with prominent psychotic symptomatology should raise our index of suspicion and prompt the clinician to explore the existence of an organic factor contributing to a behavioral disorder.

The hygroscopicity parameter (κ) of ambient organic aerosol at a field site subject to biogenic and anthropogenic influences: relationship to degree of aerosol oxidation

Cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) concentrations were measured at Egbert, a rural site in Ontario, Canada during the spring of 2007. The CCN concentrations were compared to values predicted from the aerosol chemical composition and size distribution using κ-Köhler theory, with the specific goal of this work being to determine the hygroscopic parameter (κ) of the oxygenated organic component of the aerosol, assuming that oxygenation drives the hygroscopicity for the entire organic fraction of the aerosol. The hygroscopicity of the oxygenated fraction of the organic component, as determined by an Aerodyne aerosol mass spectrometer (AMS), was characterised by two methods. First, positive matrix factorization (PMF) was used to separate oxygenated and unoxygenated organic aerosol factors. By assuming that the unoxygenated factor is completely non-hygroscopic and by varying κ of the oxygenated factor so that the predicted and measured CCN concentrations are internally consistent and in good agreement, κ of the oxygenated organic factor was found to be 0.22±0.04 for the suite of measurements made during this five-week campaign. In a second, equivalent approach, we continue to assume that the unoxygenated component of the aerosol, with a mole ratio of atomic oxygen to atomic carbon (O/C) ≈ 0, is completely non-hygroscopic, and we postulate a simple linear relationship between κorg and O/C. Under these assumptions, the κ of the entire organic component for bulk aerosols measured by the AMS can be parameterised as κorg=(0.29±0.05)·(O/C), for the range of O/C observed in this study (0.3 to 0.6). These results are averaged over our five-week study at one location using only the AMS for composition analysis. Empirically, our measurements are consistent with κorg generally increasing with increasing particle oxygenation, but high uncertainties preclude us from testing this hypothesis. Lastly, we examine select periods of different aerosol composition, corresponding to different air mass histories, to determine the generality of the campaign-wide findings described above.

Evidence that calcium-dependent cellular processes are involved in the stiffening response of holothurian dermis and that dermal cells contain an organic stiffening factor

Although previous investigations have shown that experimental increases and decreases of the concentration of extracellular Ca2+ produce correlated changes in the stiffness of holothurian dermis, they have failed to determine whether the Ca2+-correlated changes were due to Ca2+-dependent cellular events or to direct effects of Ca2+ on the viscosity of the extracellular matrix. We have addressed this question by testing two explicit predictions of the latter hypothesis: that dermal stiffness should be correlated with the Ca2+ concentration in the absence of viable cells; and that, in the presence of a normal extracellular Ca2+ concentration, drugs that inhibit cellular pathways dependent on Ca2+ should not affect dermal stiffness. Our results are inconsistent with the hypothesis and support the alternative hypothesis that Ca2+ is important only in the cellular regulation of dermal stiffness. In addition, we have extracted from dermal cells an organic factor that stiffens the extracellular matrix.