Differentiation of Mycobacterium ulcerans, M. marinum, and M. haemophilum: mapping of their relationships to M. tuberculosis by fatty acid profile analysis, DNA-DNA hybridization, and 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis

Although Mycobacterium ulcerans, M. marinum, and M. haemophilum are closely related, their exact taxonomic placements have not been determined. We performed gas chromatography of fatty acids and alcohols, as well as DNA-DNA hybridization and 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis, to clarify their relationships to each other and to M. tuberculosis. M. ulcerans and M. marinum were most closely related to one another, and each displayed very strong genetic affinities to M. tuberculosis; they are actually the two mycobacterial species outside the M. tuberculosis complex most closely related to M. tuberculosis. M. haemophilum was more distinct from M. ulcerans and M. marinum, and it appeared to be as related to these two species as to M. tuberculosis. These results are important with regard to the development of diagnostic and epidemiological tools such as species-specific DNA probes and PCR assays for M. ulcerans, M. marinum, and M. haemophilum. In addition, the finding that M. ulcerans and M. marinum are more closely related to M. tuberculosis than are other pathogenic mycobacterial species suggests that they may be evaluated as useful models for studying the pathogenesis of M. tuberculosis. M. marinum may be particularly useful in this regard since strains of this species grow much more rapidly than M. tuberculosis and yet can cause systemic disease in immunocompromised hosts.     

Adenoviral gene transfer in arteries of hypercholesterolemic nonhuman primates

Osteoid osteoma, a benign bone tumor, has traditionally been treated with operative excision. A recently developed method for percutaneous ablation of the tumor has been proposed as an alternative to operative treatment. The relative outcomes of the two approaches to treatment have not previously been compared, to our knowledge. The rates of recurrence and of persistent symptoms were compared in a consecutive series of eighty-seven patients who were managed with operative excision and thirty-eight patients who were managed with percutaneous ablation with radiofrequency. Patients who had a spinal lesion were excluded. The minimum duration of follow-up was two years. There was a recurrence, defined as the need for subsequent intervention, after operative treatment in six (9 per cent) of sixty-eight patients who had been managed for a primary lesion and in two of nineteen who had been managed for a recurrent lesion. The average length of the hospital stay was 4.7 days for the patients who had a primary lesion and 5.1 days for those who had a recurrent lesion. There was a recurrence after percutaneous treatment in four (12 per cent) of thirty-three patients who had been managed for a primary lesion and in none of five who had been managed for a recurrent lesion. The average length of the hospital stay was 0.2 day for these thirty-eight patients. With the numbers available, we could detect no significant difference between the two treatments with regard to the rate of recurrence. The rate of persistent symptoms (that is, symptoms that did not necessitate additional treatment) was greater than the rate of recurrence. According to responses to a questionnaire, eight (30 per cent) of twenty-seven patients had persistent symptoms after operative treatment and six (23 per cent) of twenty-six patients had persistent symptoms after percutaneous treatment with radiofrequency. Two patients had complications after operative excision, necessitating a total of five additional operations. There were no complications associated with the percutaneous method. The results of the present study suggest that percutaneous ablation with radiofrequency is essentially equivalent to operative excision for the treatment of an osteoid osteoma in an extremity. The percutaneous method is preferred for the treatment of extraspinal osteoid osteoma because it generally does not necessitate hospitalization, it has not been associated with complications, and it is associated with a rapid convalescence.     

Perceptions of politics: does measuring different foci matter?

Recent research on perceptions of politics in organizations and other organizational phenomena (e.g., commitment) has suggested the use of a multiple-foci approach to understand important politics-outcome relationships. This study confirms separate measures of perceptions of politics at the organizational and work-group levels and demonstrates differential effects in the prediction of various outcomes. After controlling for the effects of the relationship with one's supervisor (leader-member exchange), perceptions of politics existing at the organizational level predicted turnover intentions, whereas citizenship behavior was predicted by perceptions of politics at the group level. Both foci of politics significantly predicted organizational commitment.     

Effectiveness of security analyst information accessing strategies: A computer interactive assessment

The present study illustrates how computers can substantially extend the range and ease of application of the behavioral process information monitoring procedures that are increasingly being used to capture and preserve traces of pre-decision information accessing behavior. Employing such an extension, the study examined whether better and poorer decision marker performance was related to differences in the extent and content of information accessing behavior. The results of a computer simulation involving practicing financial security analysts engaged in a securities analysis task revealed that the better performing analysts generally considered slightly greater amounts of information and different types of information than did the poorer performing analysts. These findings are interpreted in terms of the concept of “control schemas” postulated by Kozminsky, Kintsch, and Bourne (1981). A concluding section describes numerous ways in which computers improve upon both the flexibility and validity of traditional research paradigms.     

Learn sesame a learning agent engine

Open Sesame! 1.0-released in 1993-was the world's first commercial user interface learning agent. The development of this agent involved a number of decisions about basic design issues that had not been previously addressed, including the expected types of agents and the preferred form and frequency of interaction. In the 2 years after shipping Open Sesame! 1.0, we have compiled a rich database of customer feedback. Many of our design choices have been validated by the general approval of our customers, while some were not received as favorably. Thanks to the overwhelming amount of feedback, we were able to substantially improve the design for Open Sesame! 2.0 and develop a cross-platform learning engine-Learn Sesame-that can be used to add learning agent functionality to any third-party application. In this article, we present a summary of the lessons learned from customer feedback, an outline of resulting design changes, the details of the developed learning agent engine, and planned research.     

Refining behavioral dysregulation in borderline personality disorder using a sample of women with anorexia nervosa.

One of the primary facets of borderline personality disorder (BPD) is behavioral dysregulation, a wide array of behaviors that are difficult to control and harmful to the individual. The purpose of this study was to explore the association between BPD and a variety of dysregulated behaviors, some of which have received little empirical attention. Using a large sample of individuals diagnosed with anorexia nervosa, 41 individuals diagnosed with BPD were compared to the rest of the sample on the presence of dysregulated behaviors using logistic regression analyses. Anorexia nervosa subtypes, age, and other Cluster B personality disorders were used as covariates. Results support an association between BPD and alcohol misuse, hitting someone/breaking things, provoking fights/arguments, self-injury, overdosing, street drug use, binge-eating, impulsive spending, shoplifting/stealing, and risky sexual behaviors. Differences between dichotomous and continuous measures of BPD yielded somewhat different results. Information on co-occurring anorexia nervosa and BPD was generated. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)