The study objective was to examine the association, among older persons with cutaneous melanoma, between areal socioeconomic status (SES) and receiving chemotherapy. SEER-Medicare-linked database (1,239 white men and women aged ≥ 66, with invasive melanoma [regional and distant stages]; 1991–1999) was used. SES was measured by census tract poverty level (average of 1990 and 2000 Census data). Covariates were sociodemographics, tumor characteristics, and comorbidity index. Residing in poorer SES areas was associated with a lower likelihood for receiving chemotherapy among patients in the overall sample (adjusted odds ratios = OR 0.97, 95% confidence interval = CI 0.95–0.99), and those with regional stage at diagnosis (OR 0.97, 95% CI 0.94–0.98). These findings reflect socioeconomic disparities in chemotherapy use for melanoma among older white patients in the United States.

Silkworm larvae infected transovarially with Nosema bombycis were fed with an aqueous suspension of Bavistin (50% carbendazim w/w) at 2 and 3% concentrations. The treatments increased the survival of worms and reduced the pebrine infection in the lot significantly, although complete elimination of infection was not observed. Significant beneficial effects of the treatments at 2 and 3% were also observed with respect to larval, cocoon and cocoon shell weights and cocoon to shell ratio. However, treatments with Bavistin at 4% concentration produced an adverse effect on cocoon characters.

The author has reviewed evidence generated during the past decade at the University of Tennessee and other affective disorders research units in support of a psychobiologic understanding of affective disorders as the final common pathway of various psychologic and biologic factors that impinge on midbrain centers of reward, circadian rhythms, and psychomotor function. In this model, inherited temperamental instability, based on a persistent diencephalic abnormality, provides the fertile soil for the development of major affective episodes. The pathogenesis of full-blown affective episodes is then the product of multiple factors, none of which alone is a necessary or sufficient cause. It is submitted that this unified theory, in bridging psychosocial and biologic factors, provides the most comprehensive etiologic understanding of depressive illness permitted by current data. Clinical implications of the theory are discussed.