Untrained community help in the rehabilitation of stroke sufferers with language disorder.

The Newcastle Speech-After-Stroke Project is one of many schemes in Britain that have used untrained helpers to set up community clubs and home visiting for dysphasic stroke sufferers. To examine the contribution to rehabilitation made by such activities, patients'' language abilities and social confidence were assessed when they entered the project and after about six months. Formal tests of language showed no significant improvement after six months, but social confidence increased. Such projects can make a valuable contribution in helping dysphasic people to regain a role in the community. Nevertheless, too much should not be expected of them in the way of direct help in the patients'' recovery of language.     

Psychiatric disorder and gynaecological symptoms in middle aged women: a community survey.

In a community survey 521 women aged 35-59 were selected at random from all patients registered in two groups practices. They were interviewed at home and assessed by means of standardised psychiatric measures and detailed gynaecological inquiry. Levels of psychiatric morbidity were found to be within the expected range for such a sample. Both psychiatric morbidity and the personality dimension of neuroticism were significantly associated with gynaecological symptoms, including dysmenorrhoea and premenstrual tension, some symptoms of excessive menstruation, and flushes and sweats but not disappearance of menstruation for over six months. Current psychiatric state was significantly associated with recent adverse life events and with indices of psychiatric vulnerability (neuroticism and previous psychiatric history), suggesting possible aetiological links with gynaecological symptoms. The findings of this study have implications for the management of gynaecological complaints in general practice.     

Rookery through rehabilitation: Microbial community assembly in newborn harbour seals after maternal separation

Microbial community assembly remains largely unexplored in marine mammals, despite its potential importance for conservation and management. Here, neonatal microbiota assembly was studied in harbour seals (Phoca vitulina richardii) at a rehabilitation facility soon after maternal separation, through weaning, to the time of release back to their native environment. We found that the gingival and rectal communities of rehabilitated harbour seals were distinct from the microbiotas of formula and pool water, and became increasingly diverse and dissimilar over time, ultimately resembling the gingival and rectal communities of local wild harbour seals. Harbour seal microbiota assembly was compared to that of human infants, revealing the rapid emergence of host specificity and evidence of phylosymbiosis even though these harbour seals had been raised by humans. Early life prophylactic antibiotics were associated with changes in the composition of the harbour seal gingival and rectal communities and surprisingly, with transient increases in alpha diversity, perhaps because of microbiota sharing during close cohabitation with other harbour seals. Antibiotic-associated effects dissipated over time. These results suggest that while early life maternal contact may provide seeding for microbial assembly, co-housing of conspecifics during rehabilitation may help neonatal mammals achieve a healthy host-specific microbiota with features of resilience.     

陕北黄土区生态修复过程中植物群落物种多样性变化

根据18块典型样地的植被调查数据,采用时空互代和对比分析法,从演替时间、生态修复模式和坡向3个方面研究了陕西省吴起县生态修复过程中植物群落物种多样性特征.结果表明：在25年自然演替序列中,退耕封育群落依次经历了猪毛菜、猪毛蒿、达乌里胡枝子、铁杆蒿和白羊草5种类型,建群种表现为1年生向多年生、低级向高级的演替趋势.其间,物种种类、Margalef指数、Simpson指数、Shannon-Wiener指数和Pielou指数均呈二次函数变化,说明黄土区退化生态系统在消除外界压力后,通过自然恢复可达到高级、稳定状态,但速度缓慢.地形条件和恢复年限一致时,4种主要修复模式形成的群落中,草本层的Margalef指数、Shannon-Wiener指数和Pielou指数表现为退耕封育＞退耕还草＞退耕还林＞荒山造林,Simpson指数则相反.与退耕封育模式相比,退耕还草和退耕还林模式在相同恢复期内形成的草本群落,虽然多样性指数较低,但更接近自然演替后期阶段,说明人工修复模式能加快演替进程.在相同恢复年限内,阴坡退耕封育群落的Margalef指数、Shannon-Wiener指数和Pielou指数明显大于阳坡,且群落类型更接近演替后期阶段,说明阳坡生态修复的本底条件更差,植被自然演替速率更缓慢.     

Cardiac rehabilitation and the changing cardiac rehabilitation directions in Hoensbroeck rehabilitation centre

Hoensbroeck Rehabilitation Centre has been providing inpatient and outpatient cardiac rehabilitation services since 1980. In these twenty years the patient population has changed considerably. Rehabilitation is currently focussing on the complex and often old patient. The programme that has been developed during this period consists of standard activities that are mainly group oriented. However, certain activities are provided on an individual basis. Based upon this variety of activities, a tailor-made programme can be composed for every individual patient. If the Hoensbroeck programme is compared with the directions given by the Dutch Society of Cardiology and the Netherlands Heart Foundation, the main difference is the use of an integrated approach instead of separate modules. In our view, this is a must for complex cardiac rehabilitation.     

Changes in the Georgian Bay fish community,with special reference to lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush) rehabilitation

We describe and explain some of the changes in the fish community as reflected by the catches of the commercial fishery, and evaluate the efforts to restore the trout (Salvelinus spp.) in Georgian Bay. The changes in the fish community were caused in part by excessive fishing for lake trout (S. namaycush), lake whitefish (Coregonus clupeaformis) and deepwater ciscoes (Coregonus spp.), and the introduction of new species such as sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus), alewife (Alosa pseudoharengus), rainbow smelt (Osmerus mordax) and salmonids (Oncorhynchus spp.). The most striking changes were the near extinction of the lake trout, reductions in lake herring (Coregonus artedii), deepwater ciscoes and lake whitefish, and the increase in abundance of smelt and alewife. In an effort to replace the loss of yield from the cold-water habitat, a fast growing and early maturing hybrid trout (splake [S. namaycush × S. fontinalis]) and its backcross to lake trout were selectively bred for stocking in Georgian Bay. Splake did poorly because of low survival immediately after planting. The survival of backcross after planting was better, but adult mortality was still high. Adult survival of backcross improved considerably after restrictions were placed on the commercial fishery in 1984. The first naturally produced backcross larvae were collected in 1985.