BACKGROUND Chronic nicotine administration has a dual effect on inflammatory bowel disease: augmentation of jejunitis and amelioration of colitis. We previously showed that chronic nicotine administration has divergent regional effects on small bowel and colonic mucosal mediators and blood flow. OBJECTIVE To examine the effects of nicotine administration on cytokine levels in normal rat small...

I read Professor Somasundaram's article on "Psychiatric thoughts in Tamil Culture" with interest (Somasundaram,2002). Much of the debate on cul'ture and mental illness has emphasized the differences between cultures and systems of medicine (Kleinman,1980; Littlewood,1990). Anthropological orientations have employed cultural yardsticks and have argued against biomedical perspectives of mental di...

BACKGROUND The scope of regional anesthesia fellowship programs has not been analyzed but may provide insights that could improve fellowship training and standards. METHODS Regional anesthesia fellowship directors across the world were asked to complete a comprehensive survey that detailed the range of educational and practical experience and attitudes as well as assessment procedures offered...

in the current era, almost all companies have stepped further from the local or regional step toward more international or universal one. in these companies, humanitarian properties which derive from different cultures and countries receive the most conspicuous attention. training and instructing all staff of organizations in today's productive environment especially in international ones ...

It is unlikely that any serious attempt will be made to standardize bacterial nomenclature on a national or international scale until the implementation of the proposed revision of the International Code of Nomenclature of Bacteria on 1 January 1980. In the meantime, the lack of such standardization poses major problems in communication between the laboratory and the clinican and also causes di...

Factors influencing cross-national diffusion of mental health policy are important to understand but complex to research. This commentary discusses Shen’s research study on cross-national diffusion of mental health policy; examines the extent to which the three questions researched by Shen (whether countries are more likely to have a mental health policy (a) the earlier a country becomes a memb...

The growth of regional trade blocks has been one of the major developments in international relations in recent years. Regional agreements vary widely but, all have the objective of reducing barriers to trade between member countries that in most cases result in increasingly trade flows and economic growth. This paper attempts to explore the results of trade integration in ECO, EU and OIC block...