Semidesert Ecosystems: Who Will Use Them? How Will We Manage Them?

What are production diseases, and how do we manage them?

The term "Production Diseases" referred traditionally to those diseases induced by management practices, metabolic diseases are typical examples. Recently, the term "Production related diseases" has been enhanced to include other traits, such as infertility, and diseases such as mastitis and lameness that might involve infectious agents but exacerbated by nutritional or managemental factors. Th...

Relapses of sarcoidosis: what are they and can we predict who will get them?

Granulomatous inflammation in the lung may occur from a variety of causes. Many of these are the result of specific antigens that reach the lung and induce a granulomatous response. A prototype of this schema is pulmonary tuberculosis where the organism serves as the inciting antigen. Treatment of tuberculosis is aimed at killing and clearing the organism. It would be foolhardy and potentially ...

Predicted values: how should we use them?

We can train them, but how can we retain them?

To the Editor: The Department of Surgery at the Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine is proud of its 100% pass rate in the October 2008 Colleges of Medicine of South Africa examinations held in Durban. Most candidates attended the graduation and joined the 3 who passed in May as registered specialists in general surgery. This represents a stalwart effort on the part of the candidates and their t...

Hereditary cancer syndromes: if you look, you will find them.

H ereditary cancer syndromes are estimated to account for up to 10% of all new cancer diagnoses in children and adults [1–4]. Given the current incidence of pediatric cancer, this translates to greater than 1,300 children in the United States and Canada diagnosed each year with a cancer related to a hereditary cancer syndrome. However, this widely quoted 10% rate is just an estimate extrapolate...