Paired-associate learning and recall of high and low imagery words: moderating effects of hypnosis, hypnotic susceptibility level, and visualization abilities

Relationships between recall of low and high imagery paired-associate (P-A) words and hypnotic susceptibility, and the influence of hypnosis on recall as moderated by hypnotic level were examined. Subjects were assessed on 2 hypnotic susceptibility scales [Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility; Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale, Form C (SHSS:C)]. Forty-one low (0-4 SHSS:C) and 41 highly (9-12 SHSS:C) hypnotizable college students were assigned to 1 of 4 experimental groups: waking-hypnosis, hypnosis-waking, waking-waking, or hypnosis-hypnosis. Recall was significantly better for high than low imagery words. In the more sensitive within-subjects design, high hypnotizables recalled more P-A words during hypnosis than waking, and lows did not differ. In the between-subjects design, hypnotic level was not a moderator of performance during hypnosis. Low hypnotizables recalled more words in the within-subjects design. Visualization ability was a poor moderator of imagery-mediated learning. High imagery recall correlated significantly with Marks's (1973) Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire (.25) and Paivio and Harshman's (1983) Individual Differences Questionnaire (IDQ) Verbal scale (.29), but not with the IDQ Imagery scale, the Mental Rotations Test (Vandenberg & Kuse, 1973), or the revised Minnesota Paper Form Board Test (Likert & Quasha, 1941).     

Study of the use of noninvasive ventilation of the lungs in acute respiratory insufficiency due exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Noninvasive positive pressure ventilation (NPPV) is a life-saving procedure in acute respiratory failure (ARF), but its technique is not yet in routine use in many respiratory centers. We carried out a prospective randomized study comparing the combination of NPPV with conventional therapy (oxygen, bronchodilators, steroids, and theophylline) with conventional therapy alone in patients with acute respiratory failure caused by exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). A total of 58 patients were recruited from a large group of patients admitted to our hospital between September 1995 and March 1997. Twenty-nine patients were randomly assigned to the NPPV group and 29 to the conventional (non-NPPV) group. The patients were matched for demographic and physiological norm values (mean age 63.4 +/- 5.5 vs. 66.2 +/- 7.1 years, mean FEV1 0.68 +/- 0.15 vs. 0.74 +/- 0.16 L, PaO2 51.4 +/- 6.8 vs. 52.3 +/- 6.5 mm Hg, PaCO2 63.4 +/- 10.9 vs. 64.9 +/- 9.7 mm Hg, and pH 7.28 +/- 0.07 vs. 7.26 +/- 0.06). The outcome end points were needed for endotracheal intubation, length of hospital stay, and incidence of complications. NPPV was administered using BiPAP ventilatory device (Respironics, Inc.) by spontaneous and spontaneous/timed modes via nasal and facial masks. The mean time of NPPV was 29 +/- 25 h. Three patients refused from NPPV because of intolerance of mask or ventilation procedure. Two of them were eventually intubated and one of them died. In patients administered NPPV, we observed a significant rise of pH and fall of PaCO2 after 1 h of ventilation, in contrast to the non-NPPV group (7.34 +/ 0.09 vs. 7.21 +/- 0.08, p < 0.05; 53.2 +/- 10.7 vs. 71.4 +/- 10.2 mm Hg, p < 0.01, respectively). The need in intubation was lower in the NPPV group as compared to the reference group (12 vs. 28%, p = 0.18), mortality rate was higher in the non-NPPV group (31 vs. 8%, p = 0.03), and hospital stay was shorter in NPPV patients (26 +/- 7 vs. 34 +/- 10 days). The incidence of complications was lower in the NPPV group, they were less significant, and did not involve discontinuation of ventilation. Hence, NPPV is a first-line therapy in patients with ARF caused by COPD exacerbation, due to obvious advantages over conventional methods of treatment.     

New aspects in electrical measurement accreditation

Modern technology involves increasingly more accurate measurements over a much wider range of values and parameters; this situation is particularly true in the field of electrical measurements, where new concepts have required accreditation services to modify and adapt their criteria accordingly. This article describes how criteria have been developed to make accreditation possible in three different, newly-developed circumstances: (a) instruments in which software plays a vital part in the measurement process; (b) instruments which are primary standards where conventional direct traceability is not appropriate; and (c) techniques by which calibration can be carried out at a customer's premises without any laboratory staff from the higher level laboratory needing to be present during the work     

Route of infection that induces a high intensity of gamma interferon-secreting T cells in the genital tract produces optimal protection against Chlamydia trachomatis infection in mice

The induction of local T helper type 1 (Th1)-mediated cellular immunity is crucial for resistance of mice to genital infection by the obligate intracellular bacterium Chlamydia trachomatis. We tested the hypothesis that the route of immunization that elicits relatively high numbers of chlamydia-specific, gamma interferon (IFN-gamma)-secreting T lymphocytes (ISTLs) in the genital tract would induce optimal protective immunity against reinfection. Female BALB/c mice were infected intravaginally (i.v.), intranasally (i.n.), orally (p.o.), or subcutaneously (s.c.) with C. trachomatis. At days 7, 14, 21, and 28 postinfection, T cells isolated from the genital tract tissues were restimulated with chlamydial antigen in vitro, and the amounts of IFN-gamma induced were measured by a sandwiched enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay method. At day 7 postinfection, i.n.- and i.v.-immunized mice had high levels of chlamydia-specific ISTLs in their genital tracts (203.58 +/- 68.1 and 225.5 +/- 12.1 pg/ml, respectively). However, there were no detectable ISTLs in the genital tracts of p.o.- or s.c.-infected mice. When preinfected mice were challenged i.v. 70 days later, animals preexposed by the i.n. route were highly resistant to reinfection, with greatly reduced chlamydial burden, and suffered an attenuated infection that resolved by day 6 postchallenge. Animals preexposed by the i.v. route were modestly protected, whereas p.o. and s.c. groups were indistinguishable in this regard from control mice. The resistance of i.n.-immunized mice (and to some extent the i.v.-exposed mice) to reinfection was associated with early appearance (within 24 h) of high levels of genital ISTLs compared with mice preinfected by other routes. Furthermore, although i.n. and i.v.-immunized mice had comparable levels of chlamydia-specific immunoglobulin A (IgA) antibodies in their vaginal washes, the levels of IgG2a were four- sixfold higher in i.n.-immunized mice than in any of the other groups. The results suggested that immunization routes that foster rapid induction of vigorous genital mucosal cell-mediated immune (CMI) effectors (e.g., IFN-gamma), the CMI-associated humoral effector, IgG2a, and to some extent secretory IgA produce protective immunity against chlamydial genital infection. Therefore, i.n. immunization is a potential delivery route of choice in the development of a vaccine against Chlamydia.     

Heterologous processing of prosomatostatin in constitutive and regulated secretory pathways. Putative role of the endoproteases furin, PC1, and PC2

Mammalian prosomatostatin (PSS) is cleaved at a dibasic Arg-Lys site to produce somatostatin-14 (SS-14) and at monobasic Arg and Lys sites to yield SS-28 and PSS(1-10) (antrin), respectively. Furin, PC1, and PC2 are three recently discovered mammalian endoproteases localized either to the constitutive (furin) or regulated (PC1, PC2) secretory pathways. In this study we have compared the heterologous processing of PSS in transiently transfected endocrine (AtT-20 pituitary) and nonendocrine (COS-7 monkey kidney, PC12 pheochromocytoma) tumor cells. We have correlated the efficiency of processing of PSS to SS-14, SS-28, and PSS(1-10) with (i) secretion through the constitutive or regulated pathways; (ii) endogenous expression of mRNA for furin, PC1, and PC2; and (iii) exogenous expression of PC1 and PC2 in cells that do not contain these enzymes in order to delineate the putative role of these enzymes in mediating PSS cleavage at dibasic and monobasic sites and to localize the proteolytic events to specific compartments of the secretory pathways. COS-7 and PC12 cells expressed only furin, secreted constitutively, and processed PSS preferentially at monobasic sites to SS-28 (40-43%) and antrin (27-29%). Processing, however, was inefficient as suggested by large amounts of unprocessed PSS. In contrast, AtT-20 cells showed regulated secretion, expressed all three endoproteases (with high levels of PC1), and processed PSS efficiently to mainly SS-14. PC1, but not PC2, exogenously coexpressed with PSS in COS-7 cells produced significant conversion to SS-14 but not SS-28. This study shows that PSS is capable of monobasic cleavage in the constitutive secretory pathway. Such processing could be mediated by a furin-like enzyme but is relatively inefficient. PC1 can effect dibasic cleavage of PSS whereas PC2 is without influence on PSS processing at least within the constitutive secretory pathway. Although monobasic and dibasic processing of PSS in COS-7 cells correlates with furin-like and PC1 activity, respectively, the relative inefficiency of such processing suggests that compartmentalization of proteolytic events in secretory vesicles or other more specific endoproteases may be required.     

Pulmonary and hepatic gene expression following cecal ligation and puncture: monophosphoryl lipid A prophylaxis attenuates sepsis-induced cytokine and chemokine expression and neutrophil infiltration

Polymicrobial sepsis induced by cecal ligation and puncture (CLP) reproduces many of the pathophysiologic features of septic shock. In this study, we demonstrate that mRNA for a broad range of pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokine and chemokine genes are temporally regulated after CLP in the lung and liver. We also assessed whether prophylactic administration of monophosphoryl lipid A (MPL), a nontoxic derivative of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) that induces endotoxin tolerance and attenuates the sepsis syndrome in mice after CLP, would alter tissue-specific gene expression post-CLP. Levels of pulmonary interleukin-6 (IL-6), tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha), granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF), IL-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1ra), and IL-10 mRNA, as well as hepatic IL-1beta, IL-6, gamma interferon (IFN-gamma), G-CSF, inducible nitric oxide synthase, and IL-10 mRNA, were reduced in MPL-pretreated mice after CLP compared to control mice. Chemokine mRNA expression was also profoundly mitigated in MPL-pretreated mice after CLP. Specifically, levels of pulmonary and hepatic macrophage inflammatory protein 1alpha (MIP-1alpha), MIP-1beta, MIP-2, and monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) mRNA, as well as hepatic IFN-gamma-inducible protein 10 and KC mRNA, were attenuated in MPL-pretreated mice after CLP. Attenuated levels of IL-6, TNF-alpha, MCP-1, MIP-1alpha, and MIP-2 in serum also were observed in MPL-pretreated mice after CLP. Diminished pulmonary chemokine mRNA production was associated with reduced neutrophil margination and pulmonary myeloperoxidase activity. These data suggest that prophylactic administration of MPL mitigates the sepsis syndrome by reducing chemokine production and the recruitment of inflammatory cells into tissues, thereby attenuating the production of proinflammatory cytokines.     

A method to assess invasion and intracellular replication of Trypanosoma cruzi based on differential uracil incorporation

The retrograde tracer 1,1'-dioctadecyl-3,3,3',3'-tetramethylindocarbocyanine perchlorate (DiI) was used to label sympathetic preganglionic neurons (SPN) and motoneurons (MN) in postmortem human spinal cord. Seven months after microinjection of DiI into the ventral part of spinal thoracic segments T4 and T8, DiI-labelled neurons were identified and analyzed. Cryostat sections of spinal cord were prepared for light microscopy, while vibratome sections were analyzed using confocal microscopy. The majority of retrogradely labelled SPNs were located within the intermediolateral nucleus, with a few labelled dendrites having a mediolateral orientation. SPNs were also located within the nucleus intercalatus, around the central canal and in the lateral funiculus. Cell bodies of retrogradely labelled IML neurons were oval, kite- or spindle-shaped. The soma area of SPNs in T4 was approximately 422.9 +/- 20.9 microm2 with a median diameter of 14 +/- 0.6 microm. MNs in the ventral horn were round or oval in shape and often appeared with a few labelled neurites. The soma area of the MNs in T4 was approximately 842.3 +/- 35.1 microm2, with a median diameter of 18.3 +/- 0.1 microm. The mean values for MN soma area and diameter measurements were significantly greater compared to SPNs. However, no difference was observed between MNs in different segments or between SPNs in the same segments. No retrogradely labelled cells were observed within the dorsal horn. These findings indicate that DiI is a useful method for studying fixed human central nervous system tissue.