Late-onset hypogonadism: the advantages of treatment with human chorionic gonadotropin rather than testosterone

The traditional pharmacological treatment of patients with late onset hypogonadism (LOH) is represented by different formulations of testosterone (T) or alternatively by the extractive human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG). The hormone replacement treatment (HRT) is associated with the potential increase of hematocrit, serum concentrations of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) and prostate volume. Moreover, the gynecomastia represent a condition frequently associated with HRT. Recent evidences showed the role of leydig cells in the 25-hydroxylation of vitamin D and the elevated frequency of hypovitaminosis D among LOH patients. Finally, another important aspect of LOH is represented by the frequency of secondary infertility due to age or to traditional HRT. This study evaluated 40 LOH patients treated for 6 months with extractive HCG (n?=?10 patients) and three different formulations of T: transdermal (n?=?10 patients), undecaonate (n?=?10 patients) and enantate (n?=?10 patients). Hormonal, anthropometric, metabolic and sperm parameters were evaluated and compared. Moreover, the main safety parameters and the results of the main questionnaires were evaluated. After treatment, HCG group showed serum concentrations of 25-OH-vitamin D significantly higher (p?p?p?p?相似文献   

Hybrid Strategies: Allocating Involvement in the Digital Age

An important trait of mobile phones is their capacity to superimpose multiple social interactions in time and space. Little research examines how individuals choose between face‐to‐face and digitally mediated interactions in specific social contexts. Drawing upon focus group interviews with a diverse sample of university students in the United States, we argue that, contrary to a perspective that is popular in theory and journalistic commentary, mobile phone users do not experience the digital and the face‐to‐face as distinct realms. In deciding where to direct their attention, users enmesh the distant and the present, making moves that are expressive and strategic in their own right that reveal the interest, intimacy and urgency that users place in multiple, coinciding social involvements.     

Analysis of consensus sorting via the cycle metric

Journal of Combinatorial Optimization - Sorting is studied in this paper as an archetypal example to explore the optimizing power of consensus. In conceptualizing the consensus sort, the classical...     

On multivariate Gaussian copulas

Gaussian copulas are handy tool in many applications. However, when dimension of data is large, there are too many parameters to estimate. Use of special variance structure can facilitate the task. In many cases, especially when different data types are used, Pearson correlation is not a suitable measure of dependence. We study the properties of Kendall and Spearman correlation coefficients—which have better properties and are invariant under monotone transformations—used at the place of Pearson coefficients. Spearman correlation coefficient appears to be more suitable for use in such complex applications.     

Les appartenances collectives à l'hôpital

Despite managerial pressures, various forms of group affiliation take shape up in the work performed in hospitals. At the ward level, group affiliations are strong owing to intense technical or relational interactions. Relational interactions are taxing on individuals and tend to weaken the care-giving community unlike stabler, “endogenous” technical interactions. Care-givers are integrated in “philanthropical chains of care” with a sectoral dimension: psychiatry, pediatrics, geriatrics. Outside this chain, feelings of belonging to a group are weaker, negative (owing to differences based on ethnic group, social class or gender) or sporadic (public service); they arise in contexts where all or part of the hospital's personnel is mobilized.     

Mortality modeling: A review

Looking at survival in terms of biological indicators of aging has given rise to various models of mortality, some of which we review here. The most notable models are that of Strehler and Mildvan, which relates the force of mortality to the ability of organisms to compensate for stress, and that of Sacher and Trucco, which describes the role played by homeostatic forces in shaping the age‐specific pattern of mortality. The analysis of longitudinal data in aging studies now incorporates the notions of heterogeneity and frailty, as well as that of changes in the “repair capacity”; of organisms. Furthermore, attention is now being paid to evolutionary theory and to models of senescence. These models and directions for further research are discussed.     

Improving the Measurement of the Relationship between Opportunities and Income: Evidence from Longitudinal Data from Chile

The relationship between exogenous circumstances faced in early childhood (opportunities) and earnings has been increasingly studied in the past decade. In this article we assess the sensitivity of this relationship to different income measures. Typically the empirical evidence is based on short‐term income measures that suffer from variability and measurement error. Using longitudinal data from Chile, we find that when four‐ and seven‐year earnings are used, the relationship between inequality of opportunity and income inequality is significantly higher than that obtained with yearly measures. Monte Carlo simulations with several data‐generating processes confirm this result. This supports policies targeted to reduce long‐term income inequality via providing equal opportunity to individuals at early stages in life.     

One country,three populations: Trust in police among migrants,villagers, and urbanites in China

While the past decade has witnessed the burgeoning of research on public assessments of the police in China, marginalized social groups have rarely been considered in this line of inquiry. Using data collected from migrant workers, rural villagers, and urban dwellers, this study assesses whether Chinese perceptions of the police are distinguishable along procedural-based trust and outcome-based trust and whether expressive concerns and instrumental concerns are predictive of trust in the police. Findings show that Chinese citizens tend to conflate procedural-based trust and outcome-based trust. Expressive concerns play a more important role than instrumental concerns, with such expressive variables as trust in neighborhood residents committee, perceived law and order, and quality of life influencing trust in the police. Public perceptions of police trustworthiness are also significantly linked to media influence. Directions for future research are discussed.     

Russia 2020

The authors describe four idealized alternative scenarios for Russia in 2020—Kremlin Gambit, Fortress Russia, Russian Mosaic, and New Dream—and analyze the views of focus-group participants concerning their probability and desirability. They find that these views are influenced only marginally by electoral preferences.