Reliability and validity of depressive personality disorder

OBJECTIVE: Depressive personality disorder was introduced into DSM-IV's appendix amid controversy. While that disorder appears to be a reliable and valid one, the authors offer new data about its relationship to major depression, dysthymic disorder, and other personality disorders. METHOD: The authors assessed 54 subjects with early-onset, long-standing mild depressive features for depressive personality disorder, axis I and axis II disorders, family history, and treatment history; they conducted follow-up interviews 1 year after the baseline assessment. Subjects with (N=30) and without (N=24) depressive personality disorder were characterized and compared in terms of those variables. RESULTS: Although depressive personality disorder and dysthymia co-occurred in some subjects, 63% of subjects with depressive personality disorder did not have dysthymia, and 60% did not have current major depression. Although subjects with depressive personality disorder were more likely than the mood disorder comparison group to have another personality disorder, 40% had no such disorder. Contrary to study hypotheses, mood disorder was not more common in first-degree relatives of subjects with depressive personality disorder than in relatives of the comparison group. Subjects with and without depressive personality disorder had similar rates of past treatment with medication and psychotherapy; however, the duration of psychotherapy was significantly longer for subjects with than for those without depressive personality. The depressive personality diagnosis was relatively stable over the 1-year follow-up period. CONCLUSIONS: Depressive personality disorder appears to be a relatively stable condition with incomplete overlap with axis I mood disorders and personality disorders. Further studies are needed to better characterize its treatment response and relationship to axis I mood disorders.     

The effect of soy isoflavones on the development of intestinal neoplasia in ApcMin mouse

Large polymeric 3-alkylpyridinium salts have been isolated from the marine sponge Reniera sarai. They are composed of N-butyl(3-butylpyridinium) repeating subunits, polymerized head-to-tail, and exist as a mixture of two main polymers with molecular weights without counterion of about 5520 and 18900. The monomer analogue of the inhibitor, N-butyl-3-butylpyridinium iodide has been synthesized. This molecule shows mixed reversible inhibition of acetylcholinesterase. The polymers also act as acetylcholinesterase inhibitors and show an unusual inhibition pattern. We tentatively describe it as quick initial reversible binding, followed by slow binding or irreversible inhibition of the enzyme. This kinetics suggests that there are several affinity binding sites on the acetylcholinesterase molecule where the polymer can bind. The first binding favors binding to other sites which leads to an apparently irreversibly linked enzyme-inhibitor complex.     

Inflatable cavernosal body device: feasibility and acute safety study in the canine model

The phenylisopropylamine hallucinogen 1-(2,5-dimethoxy-4-methylphenyl)-2-aminopropane (DOM) produced dose-related increases in plasma concentrations of prolactin, adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) and corticosterone but not growth hormone in rats. Pretreatment with metergoline (serotonin, 5-HT1/5-HT2 antagonist), ritanserin and mianserin (5-HT2A/5-HT2C antagonists) significantly attenuated DOM-induced increases in prolactin, ACTH and corticosterone, whereas mesulergine (5-HT2A/5-HT2C antagonist) pretreatment significantly attenuated DOM-induced increases in plasma prolactin and ACTH but not corticosterone. Pretreatment with propranolol (beta adrenoceptor antagonist that also has high binding affinity for 5-HT1A, 5-HT1B and 5-HT2C sites), MDL-72222 and ondansetron (5-HT3 antagonists) attenuated DOM's effect on plasma prolactin, but did not attenuate DOM-induced increases in either ACTH or corticosterone. On the other hand, spiperone (5-HT1A/5-HT2A/D2 antagonist) pretreatment significantly attenuated DOM-induced increases in ACTH but not corticosterone. These findings demonstrate involvement of 5-HT2A/5-HT2C and 5-HT3 receptors in mediating DOM-induced increases in plasma prolactin, whereas DOM-induced increases in ACTH appear to be mediated by stimulation of 5-HT2A receptors. DOM-induced corticosterone secretion appears to be mediated by stimulation of 5-HT2A and/or 5-HT2C receptors. DOM does not affect growth hormone secretion in rats.     

Effects of vegetable-based cutting fluids on the wear in drilling

This study focuses on both formulation of vegetable-based cutting fluids (VBCFs) and machining with these cutting fluids. For this purpose, characterizations of chemical and physical analyses of these formulated cutting fluids are carried out. In this study, performances of three VBCFs developed from crude sunflower oil, refined sunflower oil, refined canola oil and commercial semi-synthetic cutting fluid are compared in terms of tool wear, thrust force and surface roughness during drilling of AISI 304 austenitic stainless steel with HSSE tool. Experimental results show that canola-based cutting fluid gives the best performance due to its higher lubricant properties with respect to other cutting fluids at the constant cutting conditions (spindle speed of 750 rpm and feed rate of 0.1 mm/rev).     

On the Efficient Generation of Prime-Order Elliptic Curves

We consider the generation of prime-order elliptic curves (ECs) over a prime field \mathbbF_p\mathbb{F}_{p} using the Complex Multiplication (CM) method. A crucial step of this method is to compute the roots of a special type of class field polynomials with the most commonly used being the Hilbert and Weber ones. These polynomials are uniquely determined by the CM discriminant D. In this paper, we consider a variant of the CM method for constructing elliptic curves (ECs) of prime order using Weber polynomials. In attempting to construct prime-order ECs using Weber polynomials, two difficulties arise (in addition to the necessary transformations of the roots of such polynomials to those of their Hilbert counterparts). The first one is that the requirement of prime order necessitates that D≡3mod8), which gives Weber polynomials with degree three times larger than the degree of their corresponding Hilbert polynomials (a fact that could affect efficiency). The second difficulty is that these Weber polynomials do not have roots in \mathbbF_p\mathbb{F}_{p} .     

A search for uniparental disomy in carriers of supernumerary marker chromosomes

Dietary supplementation with 4% eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), a long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acid, suppressed the development of lung metastases in nude mice from MDA-MB-435 human breast cancer cell mammary fat pad solid tumors. Zymography of primary tumor homogenates showed that this inhibition of metastasis was associated with reduced levels of 92-kDa type IV collagenase gelatinolytic activity; this isoform has been previously associated with the metastatic phenotype. The 72-kDa isoform, which was also present, may have arisen from the cancer cells, or tumor-associated host cells. In vitro, the incorporation of EPA, 0.25-1.0 micrograms/ml into the medium caused a concentration-related suppression of cultured MDA-MB-435 cell 92-kDa type IV collagenase mRNA expression.     

Encapsulation of nutraceutical monoterpenes in beta-cyclodextrin and modified starch

ABSTRACT:  The encapsulation of thymol and geraniol in β -cyclodextrin (β-CD) and modified starch (MS) by spray- and freeze-drying was studied. The formation of thymol/β-CD and geraniol/β-CD inclusion complexes was confirmed by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). Oxidative DSC revealed that the monoterpenes enclosed in the β-CD cavity were protected against oxidation, remaining intact in temperatures at which free monoterpenes were oxidized. Phase solubility studies showed that the inclusion complexes of thymol and geraniol with β-CD are more soluble in water than the free molecules themselves. Furthermore, in order to evaluate the fraction of monoterpenes that can be released from their complexes with MS in aqueous media, a series of release experiments were conducted.     

Sensitivity of Penicillium expansum field isolates to tebuconazole, iprodione, fludioxonil and cyprodinil and characterization of fitness parameters and patulin production

A total of 236 Penicillium expansum field isolates from decayed apple fruit collected from packinghouses and processing industries located in the region of Imathia, Northern Greece were tested for their sensitivity to tebuconazole, fludioxonil, iprodione and cyprodinil. Preliminary fungitoxicity tests on the response of the isolates showed several phenotypes, distinguished according to their sensitivity to fungicides tested. The EC₅₀ values ranged from 0.64 to 5 (average = 0.98) μg/ml for iprodione, 0.9 to 7.3 (average = 2.66) μg/ml for tebuconazole, 0.008 to 1.28 (average = 0.55) μg/ml for cyprodinil and from 0.013 to 0.47 (average = 0.08) μg/ml for fludioxonil. A bimodal distribution of the EC₅₀ values of isolates with distinct sensitive and resistant populations to fludioxonil and tebuconazole were observed. In the case of cyprodinil, a much broader, hundred-fold, range of sensitivity was found, probably indicating that some isolates are relatively insensitive to cyprodinil compared to the most sensitive ones. Isolates exhibiting simultaneously reduced sensitivity to tebuconazole and fludioxonil or tebuconazole and iprodione or to tebuconazole and cyprodinil were also observed at low frequencies. A small portion of the population (7.5%) showed multiple resistance to tebuconazole, fludioxonil and iprodione. Study of fitness determining parameters showed that the resistance to tebuconazole, fludioxonil and iprodione had a significant adverse effect on mycelial growth rate and pathogenicity. Contrary to that, these fitness parameters were not affected in the isolates showing reduced sensitivity to cyprodinil. Analysis of patulin production on YES-agar growth medium and on artificially inoculated apple fruit showed that all isolates were mycotoxigenic. Most of the cyprodinil-insensitive isolates produced patulin at concentrations similar to or relatively higher (up to 1.5-fold on growth medium) than the sensitive ones. In contrast, a significant reduction (up to 98% of multiple resistant isolates) in patulin production was observed in all other phenotypes, indicating an adverse effect of fitness penalties on the mycotoxigenic ability of resistant isolates. The above mentioned data clearly show a considerable risk for the selection of P. expansum isolates resistant to fludioxonil, iprodione, tebuconazole and cyprodinil. The potential risk of increased patulin contamination of apples and their byproducts by the appearance and predominance of highly mycotoxigenic isolates of P. expansum resistant to the anilinopyrimidines is discussed.