Since Heart Rate Variability (HRV) is an important indicator of patient's health it is important to introduce HRV into the hybrid models of cardiorespiratory system. We decided to use Elman's neural networks to generate off-line HRV signals of physiological and pathological patients, and we are working on application of this method on-line in our hybrid model. For analysis of the generated HRV and their comparison with input data we apply Higuchi's Fractal Dimension method.

Processing of Heart Rate Variability (HRV) signal becomes more and more important for functional assessment of patient's health. When developing Hybrid Models of cardiopulmonary system we need to make possible taking into account heart rate variability. Our aim is to generate signals that have properties similar to HRV in norm and in different pathologies. Hybrid models of cardiopulmonary system with features including generation of HRV and new signal processing algorithms may be very helpful in medicine for noninvasive functional assessment. We decided to use Elman's neural networks to generate HRV signals off-line and we are working on application of this method on-line. To evaluate if the generated signal is sufficiently good to model HRV we compare its Higuchi's fractal dimension with that of the signal used to teach the network. While generating HRV of a person suffering with epilepsy we observed significant decrease of HRV-signal's fractal dimension that is accompanying epileptic seizure.

A 52 year old, right handed, hearing impaired woman was admitted with headache and neck stiffness. The only neuropsychological symptom was transient auditory perceptions in the left ear, which were musical, seemed familiar and were not influenced by verbal communication. CT and MRI showed a right subarachnoid haemorrhage, while brainstem auditory evoked potentials failed to reveal a brainstem lesion. In patients with organic cerebral disease, unilateral auditory hallucinations (AHs) may indicate a lesion in the contralateral hemisphere. However, according to this review the type of AHs (verbal versus musical) is not consistently associated with a cerebral lesion on either side.

A left-handed, Dutch-speaking woman of average intelligence became aphasic after having sustained a left frontotemporal cerebrovascular accident. As she had made semantic paralexias while reading isolated words during a routine aphasiological assessment, we wanted to know whether she could be characterized as 'deep dyslexic', and whether the deep dyslexia symptom complex described in English-speaking patients would recur in a Dutch-speaking patient. We subsequently administered two experimental reading tests in order to investigate the organization of five situational lexical-semantic categories, and to analyse the types of reading errors affecting different word classes. Our findings, which indicate that the patient is a deep dyslexic reader, shed light upon three theoretical issues: (1) the occurrence of individual differences within the symptom complex, (2) the plurimodality of certain features first thought to be specific to reading, and (3) the underlying causes of the semantic paralexias.

A 52 year old, right handed, hearing impaired woman was admitted with headache and neck stiffness. The only neuropsychological symptom was transient auditory perceptions in the left ear, which were musical, seemed familiar and were not influenced by verbal communication. CT and MRI showed a right subarachnoid haemorrhage, while brainstem auditory evoked potentials failed to reveal a brainstem lesion. In patients with organic cerebral disease, unilateral auditory hallucinations (AHs) may indicate a lesion in the contralateral hemisphere. However, according to this review the type of AHs (verbal versus musical) is not consistently associated with a cerebral lesion on either side.

Des indicateurs de l'etat hydrique du sol (potentiel hydrique dans la zone racinaire et reserve en eau utilisee) ont ete mis en relation avec plusieurs indicateurs de l'etat hydrique de plantes de mais pendant la periode post-floraison: le potentiel foliaire au lever du jour, le potentiel foliaire pendant la journee, la conductance stomatique et le niveau des composantes du rendement formees pendant la periode de mesure. Cette mise en relation a ete effectuee pour des plantes en pots, ou l'etat hydrique du sol et la reserve en eau sont bien definis (...)

Fifty hypertensive Type 2 (non-insulin-dependent) diabetic patients were allocated, in a controlled trial, to a treatment diet of high fibre, low fat and low sodium composition, or to a control diet by the hospital dietitian. After 3 months treatment, the modified diet-treated group showed a highly significant reduction in mean systolic (180.5±19.0 to 165.0±20.7 mmHg) and diastolic blood pressure (96.6±9.3 to 88.0±10.5 mmHg), accompanied by significant reductions in urinary sodium excretion (183.0±62.1 to 121.7+ 65.8 mmol/day) glycosylated haemoglobin (12.4±3.1 to 10.5±2.9%), weight (74.6s±13.5 to 71.7±12.1 kg) and serum triglyceride levels (p<0.05). The mean values of diastolic pressure (p<0.01), urinary sodium/potassium ratio (p< 0.001), urinary potassium (p<0.01) was significantly reduced at 3 months compared to control. No changes in serum HDL-cholesterol levels were observed. The number of patients with normal blood pressure at 3 months was greater in the modified diet-treated group (ten versus five). Treatment of mild hypertension in diabetic subjects with this form of dietary regimen has a hypotensive response, with improvement in glycaemic control and no side effects. This modified diet may be an attractive alternative to anti-hypertensive drug therapy as a first line treatment.

Fifty-three diabetic patients with mild hypertension were allocated to a treatment diet with a high fibre, low fat and low sodium dietary regime or a control diet. After a 1-month treatment period, the modified-diet treated group (n = 35) showed a highly significant reduction in mean diastolic blood pressure (P less than 0.001) accompanied by significant reduction in urinary sodium excretion (P less than 0.01). The mean values of diastolic pressure (P less than 0.05) and urinary sodium/potassium ratio (P less than 0.01) were also significantly reduced at 1 month compared to control. White (n = 16) and West Indian (n = 10) diabetic hypertensive patients demonstrated a similar significant hypotensive response (P less than 0.05 and less than 0.01 respectively) with reduction in urinary sodium excretion to the modified diet. In contrast, Asian patients demonstrated no significant changes. Treatment of hypertension in diabetic subjects with a high fibre, low fat and low sodium dietary regimen may have a hypotensive response after a period of 1 month and there is a similar response in both black and white ethnic groups. Further observation of these patients will determine long-term response and compliance.

Dealing with the DisadavantagedCommunicating with non-English-speaking patients PASH BAL One of the main problems facing health workers is that of patient compliance.An important factor in compliance is patient education, and there is no doubt this can be improved by better communication.Since language is the most important method of communication, the three million immigrants living in Britain pose special problems for health workers, since many