Isolation, inoculation to insect host, and molecular phylogeny of an entomogenous fungus Paecilomyces tenuipes

BACKGROUND: To improve the poor prognosis of patients with advanced incurable gastric cancer, intensive chemotherapy combined with radical surgery was used. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Thirty patients with incurable gastric cancer were treated with a combination of 5-fluorouracil (370 mg/m2) and leucovorin (30 mg/person), given intravenously for five consecutive days, followed by cisplatinum (70 mg/m2) and etoposide (70 mg/m2) on days 6 and 20, delivered through a catheter placed either in the aorta with its tip at the level of the ninth thoracic vertebra or in the celiac artery. This treatment (FLEP therapy) was repeated twice every 5 weeks. Radical or palliative surgery followed chemotherapy. RESULTS: The overall response rate to the chemotherapy was 50.0% (15 of 30 patients, 95% confidence limit 0.305-0.671). Nineteen patients (15 with a partial response, three showing no change, and one with progressive disease) underwent surgery. Of these, nine underwent curative surgery and 10 palliative surgery. The median survival time was 6.5 months overall, 12.7 months for responders, and 4.7 months for nonresponders. Long-term survivors were exclusively found among patients with distant lymph node metastasis treated by curative surgery (55.6% at 5 years). CONCLUSIONS: Favorable results of this small phase II study justify a phase III trial.     

Temperament and dyadic contributions to affect regulation: Implications from developmental research for clinical practice.

The temperamental trait of inhibition offers a setting to examine the characteristics of the interplay between intraindividual factors and contextual influences. This article drew from both the developmental psychoanalytic model on mutual regulation of affect and developmental research on temperament to portray the mechanisms and consequences of the dynamic processes of change, in which both the individual and the environment are constantly changing. The portrait presents a unique case of a very inhibited girl at age 3, who gradually shifts from a frozen, fearful stance into a spontaneous, active behavior. The examination uses the paradigm of coconstruction of play narratives, a paradigm that combines both projective techniques and developmental research perspectives. The function of the adults as stress buffers is explored. Possible implications for psychoanalysis, treatment processes and developmental psychopathology are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Regulation of growth hormone-releasing hormone and somatostatin from perifused, bovine hypothalamic slices. I. Alpha 2-adrenergic receptor regulation

An in vitro perifusion system was developed for bovine hypothalamic tissue to examine the role of alpha 2-adrenergic receptors in the regulation of growth hormone-releasing hormone (GHRH) and somatostatin (SRIF) release. Up to three sagittal slices (600 microns) of hypothalamus, immediately parallel to the midline, were cut in an oxygenated balanced salt solution at 4 degrees C, placed in 5 cc syringes, and perifused at 37 degrees C with oxygenated minimum essential medium-alpha at a flow rate of 0.15 ml/min. Three experiments were conducted, and medium effluent was collected every 20 min before (two samples), during (one or three samples), and after (six samples) treatment. Areas under GHRH and SRIF response curves (AUC), adjusted by covariance for pretreatment values, were calculated from samples collected during the treatment/post-treatment period. Location from which slices were cut, relative to the sagittal midline, had no effect on basal release of GHRH and SRIF, but variation in basal release of GHRH and SRIF differed among animals. Medium containing 60 mM KCI increased AUC for GHRH 39% and 161% for SRIF when compared with perifusion of medium alone, thereby verifying that tissue remained viable for at least 14 hr. Activation of alpha 2-adrenergic receptor with 10(-6) and 10(-4) M clonidine increased AUC for GHRH from 54.8 (control) to 79.1 and 108.7 +/- 2.5 ng.ml-1 min for 10(-6) M and 10(-4) M clonidine, respectively. Guanabenz, another alpha 2-adrenergic receptor agonist, at 10(-8), 10(-6), and 10(-4) M also increased GHRH release from 45.5 (control) to 52.8, 66.2, and 86.7 +/- 1.6 ng.ml-1 min, respectively. Clonidine and guanabenz did not affect release of SRIF. An alpha 2-adrenergic receptor antagonist, idazoxan, blocked clonidine-induced release of GHRH without affecting release of SRIF. We concluded that alpha 2-adrenergic receptor stimulation of in vivo growth hormone secretion in cattle is mediated via an increase in release of GHRH and not a change in release of SRIF.     

Two moralities in action contexts: Relationships to thought, ego regulation, and development.

Six adolescent friendship groups (56 Ss aged 13–27 yrs), each group being sexually heterogeneous but all Black or White and all of lower or middle socioeconomic status, participated in moral games in an investigation of moral action constructed according to 2 different formulations. L. Kohlberg's (1969) theory of formal moral judgment, which is viewed as a process of deducing logical moral solutions from imperative rules, was contrasted with an interpersonal formulation that posits that moral solutions are achieved through dialogues that strive for balanced agreements among participants. Analyses focused on relationships between interview-based moral thought, action in the moral games, the coordination of action by coping and defensive processes used in these moral games, and changes in the level of thought after the game experiences. Although the levels of both the Kohlberg and interpersonal scores fluctuated between games, the interpersonal scores were more stable than the formal scores, particularly in stressful games. Black adolescents had higher interpersonal than formal levels; Whites reversed this pattern. All Ss used interpersonal more frequently than formal reasoning in the action situations. Predictions of action from test levels were markedly improved for the interpersonal moral scores when ego processing was taken into account. After the games the levels of both moral scores increased for the 6 experimental groups as compared to a control group of an additional 17 teenagers. (21 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Bacterial expression of tenecin 3, an insect antifungal protein isolated from Tenebrio molitor, and its efficient purification

Tenecin 3, an antifungal protein isolated from the insect Tenebrio molitor larvae, inhibits growth of the fungus Candida albicans. However, the antifungal mechanism and functions of tenecin 3 have not yet been studied due to its very low availability from the natural source. Here we report an expression system of the recombinant tenecin 3 in E. coli, whose amino acid composition is the same with that of the natural tenecin 3. We also devised a simple and easy procedure to isolate the recombinant protein from the bacterial cell extracts. The recombinant tenecin 3 showed an antifungal activity against C. albicans as the natural tenecin 3 did. Therefore large quantities of tenecin 3 can be easily obtained by the expression and purification system of tenecin 3 described in this report.     

Emotion, plasticity, context, and regulation: Perspectives from affective neuroscience.

The authors present an overview of the neural bases of emotion. They underscore the role of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and amygdala in 2 broad approach- and withdrawal-related emotion systems. Components and measures of affective style are identified. Emphasis is given to affective chronometry and a role for the PFC in this process is proposed. Plasticity in the central circuitry of emotion is considered, and implications of data showing experience-induced changes in the hippocampus for understanding psychopathology and stress-related symptoms are discussed. Two key forms of affective plasticity are described—context and regulation. A role for the hippocampus in context-dependent normal and dysfunctional emotional responding is proposed. Finally, implications of these data for understanding the impact on neural circuitry of interventions to promote positive affect and on mechanisms that govern health and disease are considered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Learning from the basics: Clinical implications of social, developmental, and cross-cultural study of the self.

This article serves as an introduction to a series aimed at informing psychotherapists about the current state of theory and research on the self across different domains of basic psychological science (i.e., social, developmental, and cross-cultural). The authors highlight several gaps in integration that continue to exist both within the field of psychotherapy, and across psychology as a whole and argue that such chasms serve to limit the applied utility of an abundance of scholarly work. The self is then presented as a potentially unifying construct that may begin to address such chasms. The overarching goal of this special series is to attempt a direct stimulation of science and practice, as well as cross-discipline integration, by presenting the clinical implications of the highly diverse study of the self. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sequence analysis of 18S-28S rRNA spacer regions from Saccharomyces kunashirensis, S. martiniae, S. rosinii, and S. transvaalensis

Although bone response can be evaluated by radiography, there have been no reports in human confirming formation of new soft tissue in limb lengthening. This study evaluated the tensile force between pin clamps in 14 lower limb lengthenings. Legs were lengthened 0.5 mm every 12 hours and the tensile was measured continuously. The tensile force increased simultaneously with each lengthening and decreased gradually. However, the reduction rate of tensile force during the nighttime (120+/-22%) was significantly higher than that during the daytime (72+/-10%). This differed from the stress relaxation phenomenon shown by viscoelastic material and suggested the presence of other phenomena such as histogenesis.     

Characterization and developmental expression of AmphiNk2-2, an NK2 class homeobox gene from Amphioxus. (Phylum Chordata; Subphylum Cephalochordata)

Anatomy and ethics have traditionally been viewed as inhabiting different conceptual worlds on the assumption that the practice of anatomy is ethically neutral. This assumption is challenged by critiquing the nature of anatomy and by demonstrating that ethical issues pervade anatomical study. This should come as no surprise since anatomy deals with the structure of the human body, and it is the human body and human tissues that are central to bioethical questions concerning human life in both health and disease, at its beginning and end and in research and clinical practice. Furthermore, many issues of interest to anatomists, such as the mechanisms of organ and fetal tissue transplantation, the neurological bases of aging and dementia, and definitions of brain death, are best tackled by venturing into questions usually dealt with in a clinical context. By the same token, a number of clinical issues can be approached helpfully from starting points provided by anatomy, although they too have ethical dimensions. To illustrate the close interrelationship between anatomical and ethical issues, two topic areas are discussed: research on archeological human remains and the notion of the pre-embryo.     

The developmental psychometrics of big five self-reports: Acquiescence, factor structure, coherence, and differentiation from ages 10 to 20.

How do youths' personality reports differ from those of adults? To identify the year-by-year timing of developmental trends from late childhood (age 10) to early adulthood (age 20), the authors examined Big Five self-report data from a large and diverse Internet sample. At younger ages within this range, there were large individual differences in acquiescent responding, and acquiescence variability had pronounced effects on psychometric characteristics. Beyond the effects of acquiescence, self-reports generally became more coherent within domains, and better differentiated across domains, at older ages. Importantly, however, different Big Five domains showed different developmental trends. Extraversion showed especially pronounced age gains in coherence but no gains in differentiation. In contrast, Agreeableness and Conscientiousness showed large age gains in differentiation but only trivial gains in coherence. Neuroticism and Openness showed moderate gains in both coherence and differentiation. Comparisons of items that were relatively easy versus difficult to comprehend indicated that these patterns were not simply due to verbal comprehension. These findings have important implications for the study of personality characteristics and other psychological attributes in childhood and adolescence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Hassles, coping, and depressive symptoms in an elderly community sample: The role of mood regulation expectancies.

To extend research on the role of expectancy in coping, 96 individuals aged 65 yrs or older (M?=?74.46, SD?=?6.28) from non-nursing-home residential communities and organizations completed measures of daily hassles, situational coping responses, depressive symptoms, and generalized expectancies for negative mood regulation, defined as beliefs about one's ability to alleviate a negative mood. Scores from the Negative Mood Regulation Scale (S. J. Catanzaro and J. Mearns, 1990) were negatively associated with avoidant coping and depressive symptoms, independent of hassles and coping responses. As in college student samples, active coping was positively related to depressive symptoms, but only when negative mood regulation expectancies were controlled. The relations of hassles and expectancies with coping responses were weaker than those found previously in younger samples. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Predicting the developmental course of mother-reported monitoring across childhood and adolescence from early proactive parenting, child temperament, and parents' worries.

Change in mothers' reported monitoring and awareness of their children's activities and companions across Grades 5, 6, 8, and 11 were examined with the use of latent factor growth modeling. Proactive parenting and resistant-to-control (RTC) child temperament assessed prior to kindergarten, as well as parents' worries about their children's behavior in Grades 5 and 8, were tested as factors associated with change in monitoring over time. Higher proactive parenting, lower RTC temperament, and the mounting of a successful campaign to change their children's behavior were associated with higher monitoring scores overall. Monitoring levels decreased across time, but the rate of decline was steeper among mothers with high RTC children and slower among mothers who mounted a campaign and judged it to be effective. These findings shed light on factors contributing to continuity and change across development in a key domain of parenting. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Limb-body wall malformation complex: an unusual developmental abnormality of the abdominal wall. Case report, clinicopathological and etiological implications

Anterior abdominal wall defects are not too rare between developmental abnormalities. A case of abdominal wall defect associated with complex malformations diagnosed prenatally is reported in the paper. In the present case of limb-body wall complex a right sided abdominoschisis was associated with rotational abnormality of the lower limbs, clubfoot, scoliosis, meningomyelocele, lack of developed pelvic organs, consecutive dilatation of the upper urinary tract, anal atresia, lack of external genitalia, lack of diaphragm and hypoplastic lungs. Review of the pertinent literature has revealed over 100 cases that clearly indicate the possible phenotypic variation of the limb-body wall complex. These data add further evidence to support the existence of two different phenotypes and possibly pathogenesis under the heading of limb-body wall complex. The three principal theories on the possible aetiology of the complex are also discussed. Because the limb-body wall complex is incompatible with life, it is important to diagnose the lesions prenatally, and to differentiate them from other anterior abdominal wall defects. Serum alpha-fetoprotein measurement, and ultrasonographic examination are the key to prenatal diagnosis.     

Predicting psychiatric admission from an emergency room. Psychiatric, psychosocial, and methodological factors

The determinants of psychiatric hospitalization, especially nonspecific issues, have been studied extensively. The methodological problem of correlational non-cross-validated findings are seen as contributing to our uncertainties about the critical issues involved in the decision to admit. A cross-validated multiple regression analysis of determinants of hospitalization in an inner-city municipal hospital revealed two determinants of hospitalization: severity of schizophrenic symptoms and active suicidal and/or homicidal ideation. They accounted for one third of the variance without shrinkage. Quasi-experimental designs may be the most efficient means of studying the remaining unexplained variance.     

Ferredoxin reduction by photosystem I from Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803: toward an understanding of the respective roles of subunits PsaD and PsaE in ferredoxin binding

The process of ferredoxin reduction by photosystem I has been extensively investigated by flash-absorption spectroscopy in psaD and psaE deleted mutants from Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803. In both mutants, the dissociation constant for the photosystem I/ferredoxin complex at pH 8 is considerably increased as compared to the wild type: approximately 25- and 100-fold increases are found for PsaD-less and PsaE-less photosystem I, respectively. However, at high ferredoxin concentrations, submicrosecond and microsecond kinetics of electron transfer similar to that observed in the wild type are present in both mutants. The presence of these fast kinetic components indicates that the relative positions of ferredoxin and of the terminal photosystem I acceptor are not significantly disturbed by the absence of either PsaD or PsaE. The second-order rate constant of ferredoxin reduction is lowered 10- and 2-fold for PsaD-less and PsaE-less photosystem I, respectively. Assuming a simple binding equilibrium between photosystem I and ferredoxin, PsaD appears to be important for the guiding of ferredoxin to its binding site (main effect on the association rate) whereas PsaE seems to control the photosystem I/ferredoxin complex lifetime (main effect on the dissociation rate). The properties of electron transfer from photosystem I to ferredoxin were also studied at pH 5. 8. In the psaE deleted mutant as in the wild type, the change of pH from 8 to 5.8 induces a 10-fold increase in affinity of ferredoxin for photosystem I. In the absence of PsaD, this pH effect is not observed, in favor of this subunit being mostly responsible for the low pH increased affinity.     

Examining the relationships among item recognition, source recognition, and recall from an individual differences perspective.

The authors of the current study examined the relationships among item-recognition, source-recognition, free recall, and other memory and cognitive ability tasks via an individual differences analysis. Two independent sources of variance contributed to item-recognition and source-recognition performance, and these two constructs related differentially to other memory and cognitive ability constructs. The results are in accordance with a dual-process theory of memory retrieval in which a familiarity process can support judgments of previous occurrence and a more strategic recollection process is needed for controlled search of long-term memory. Furthermore, the authors offer additional evidence in favor of a dual-process model by showing validity for these two unique sources of variance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

First-, second-, and third-order factors from the Children's Behavioral Classification Project instrument and an attempt at rapprochement.

Describes 1st-, 2nd, and 3rd-order factor analyses of the responses of 1,278 parents to the Children's Behavioral Classification Project (CBCP) instrument. At the 1st order, 30 factors were derived, 26 of which matched factors from an earlier study with 341 Ss. At the 2nd order, 9 factors were found, and at the 3rd order, 2 forms of the well-known conduct problem and personality problem factors that could not be reduced by a 4th-order factoring were revealed. The study also demonstrated convergencies among factors derived from the CBCP instrument and the factors, syndromes, or diagnostic categories of other instruments (e.g., 16–24 DSM-III categories appear to be fair matches for the 1st- and 3rd-order factors of the CBCP). (64 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Photoperiodic control of gonadotrophin secretion in the ram: a detailed study of the temporal changes in plasma levels of follicle-stimulating hormone, luteinizing hormone and testosterone following an abrupt switch from long to short days

Six adult Soay rams were housed under artificial lighting conditions of long days (16 h light:8 h darkness) for 4 months and this caused the animals to lapse into a state of reproductive quiescence with low levels of gonadotrophins in the circulation and regressed testes secreting very low amounts of testosterone. The photoperiod was changed abruptly to short days (8 h light:16 h darkness) to induce a resurgence of sexual activity, and a detailed study was made of the pituitary and testicular responses over the first 100 days. Plasma levels of LH and FSH first began to increase between days 6 and 12 of short days, and rose progressively until days 33-54 before declining again. Testicular growth of the rams began on days 19-26 and continued for most of the remaining period of study. Plasma testosterone levels rose in parallel with the growth of the testes, and were greatly increased by day 100 when gonadotrophin levels were reduced. At most stages there were short-term fluctuations in the plasma levels of FSH, LH and testosterone indicative of episodic secretion. Peaks in plasma levels of LH were especially conspicuous and from the changes in frequency and amplitude of these peaks it was possible to predict the way in which photoperiod influenced gonadotrophin secretion by its effect on hypothalamic LH-RH secretion. A slight 24 h rhythm in the plasma levels of all three hormones was observed, and the significance of this in relation to the photoperiodic response is discussed.     

Health and illness from an anthroposophical viewpoint. Lecture at the Summer Academy, '92 Lucerne

Health and disease are only understood when man is not solely perceived as a physical, but also as a living, a psychic and a spiritual being. The scientific perception of physis has to be complemented by a likely scientific notion of the immaterial in man (life, soul, spirit). To this goal a human science is required like "Anthroposophy" to which I.P.V. Troxler from Lucerne (1780-1860) aspired and which was finally founded by R. Steiner (1861-1925). A really human medicine will only be regained by such an extension of modern medicine by humanities.