Taking an afternoon nap (siesta) is a common habit. A number of studies have shown an increased cardiovascular mortality in habitual nappers. Afternoon nappers have anthropometric characteristics similar to those of patients with sleep apnea. Nappers appear to suffer from more sleep apnea, which could contribute to cardiovascular disorders. Our aim was therefore to determine the association between sleep apnea and napping, as well as to analyze the relationship of sleep apnea and napping with hypertension. Case-control study. Residents in the town of Caceres (Spain) with a population of 100,000 inhabitants. Four hundred five individuals were initially selected (186 nappers and 219 nonnappers). Telephone interviews were conducted to contact habitual nappers and nonnappers. Out of the total population selected, 90 nappers and 88 nonnappers completed the study protocol (personal interview and polysomnography). The nappers had a higher frequency of sleep apnea at the 3 cutoff points studied (apnea and hypopnea index ≥ 5, ≥ 10, ≥ 15). The adjusted odds ratio was between 2.8 (confidence interval, 1.3–5.8) and 5.5 (confidence interval, 2.3–13). Napping was associated with hypertension in the univariate analysis (odds ratio: 2.1; confidence interval, 1.1–4), but this association disappeared once sleep apnea was included as a covariate in the multivariate modeling (odds ratio dropped to 1.1). Our findings suggest that napping could be regarded as a marker of sleep apnea, which could account for the cardiovascular diseases observed in nappers. Given that napping is common and that sleep apnea is treatable, more attention should be focused on this population.

Spirometry is essential for the diagnosis and management of common respiratory diseases. However, its use and quality are low in primary care. An important reason for this is the technical difficulty in performing conventional spirometry. If high-quality spirometry could be performed online, from the pulmonary function laboratory in hospitals, most of the technical problems could be solved. The aim of the present study was to compare spirometries performed online by remote technicians with conventional spirometry.This was a controlled, randomised crossover study of 261 patients referred from primary care centres for pulmonary consultation. They were randomised to undergo either conventional or online spirometry. The technician, located remotely, controlled the spirometer computer. Using a teleconference link, the technician guided the patient through the spirometry. The comparison between conventional and online spirometries was performed on intention to treat and per protocol bases for spirometric values and quality criteria. Agreement between the two spirometric methods was assessed with a Bland–Altman plot. A subpopulation of off-range patients was also characterised. Finally, intra- and interobserver agreement was evaluated using the intraclass correlation coefficient.No clinically significant differences were seen between the online and conventional spirometric values in both the intention to treat and per protocol analyses. The agreement in Bland–Altman analysis was poorer for intention to treat than for the per protocol analysis. The latter had a lower percentage of off-range patients and high agreement to determine abnormal spirometry in the off-range group. Conventional spirometry had a higher percentage of patients with spirometric quality criteria although the quality criteria difference was only 5.9%, when both procedures were the first to start. Very good agreement was found between intra- and interobserver reliability.Spirometry performed online from a hospital can be an adequate alternative to conventional spirometry for primary care centres.

In this work, an approach to the Bayesian estimation in a bisexual Galton-Watson process is considered. First we study an important parametric case assuming offspring distribution belonging to the bivariate series power family of distributions and then, we continue to investigate the nonparametric case. In both situations, Bayes estimators under weighted squared error loss function, for means, variances and covariance of the off spring distribution are obtained. For the superadditive case, the Bayes estimation of the asymptotic growth rate is also considered. Illustrative examples are given.

In this paper a bisexual Galton–Watson branching process allowing the immigration of mating units is introduced and its limit behaviour is investigated. For the supercritical case, i.e., asymptotic growth rate greater than one, necessary and sufficient conditions for the almost sure and L 1 convergence of the suitably normed underlying sequences are given. *Research supported by the Consejerı´a de Educación y Juventud de la Junta de Extremadura and the Fondo Social Europeo, grant IPR98A023.

Project Euclid - mathematics and statistics online