Principles of psychotherapeutic strategy.

Argues that strategy fills a real need in psychotherapeutic thinking. An attempt is made to define strategic rules for (1) choosing and defining goals, (2) locating strategic points, (3) actively searching for the client's responses, (4) dealing with resistance, (5) exploiting or creating propitious timings, (6) mobilizing allies, (7) concentrating the therapeutic influence, (8) stabilizing partial achievements, (9) dealing with competing demands, (10) retreating after failure, and (11) changing the therapeutic framework when needed. Each principle is illustrated by interventions from different therapeutic orientations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Diagnosis of Trypanosoma evansi in Saudi Arabian camels (Camelus dromedarius) by the passive haemagglutination test and Ag-ELISA

The passive haemagglutination test and Ag-ELISA were employed to monitor antibody titres and antigenaemia levels in 4 Najdi camels experimentally infected with Trypanosoma evansi. The two tests were also used to determine the prevalence of trypanosomiasis in a total of 218 Najdi camels in the Gassim region, Central Saudi Arabia, during the period from October 1992 to September 1993. Trypanosoma evansi antibodies in the experimentally infected camels rose after 14-21 days and reached a maximum of between 1:64 and 1:128 by the 12th week post infection. Circulating antigens were detected in the experimentally infected camels one week post infection and antigenaemia levels fluctuated but generally remained above preinfection OD values. The results obtained from the field survey showed that 5.5% of the sampled camels were parasitologically positive for trypanosomes, while 19.7% were serologically positive by the passive haemagglutination test and 13.8% by Ag-ELISA. No significant age difference in seropositivity was observed in the tested camels.     

Prenatal fumonisin (FB1) treatment in rats results in minimal maternal or offspring toxicity

To investigate the neurobehavioral and developmental effects of the mycotoxin, FB1, Sprague-Dawley rats were treated with FB1 on gestational days 13-20. In Experiment 1, FB1 was obtained from culture material and pregnant rats were gavaged with 0, 0.8 or 1.6 mg/kg. In Experiment 2, pregnant rats were gavaged with purified FB1 at doses of 0, 1.6 or 9.6 mg/kg. Offspring were evaluated on a battery of behavioral tests as well as measures of whole and regional brain weight. There were no effects on maternal weight gain, reproductive outcomes, or offspring body weight through adulthood in either experiment. Complex maze performance, open field and running wheel activity were not altered by prenatal FB1 treatment. In Experiment 2, acoustic startle response was depressed at two ages during the first or second block of 9 trials in males treated with purified FB1. Females exhibited no such alterations. Play behavior at PND 33, but not PND 26, was increased in males prenatally treated with 9.6 mg/kg relative to those treated with 1.6 mg/kg. There were no substantive treatment effects on regional brain weight. These results suggest that doses of < or = 9.6 mg purified FB1/kg and/or < or = 1.6 mg FB1/kg obtained from culture material cause minimal maternal toxicity and produce few development functional alterations. In addition, potential FB1-related functional alterations were evident only in males providing further support for a mild sex-specific effect for fumonisin.     

DNF sparsification and a faster deterministic counting algorithm

Given a DNF formula f on n variables, the two natural size measures are the number of terms or size s(f) and the maximum width of a term w(f). It is folklore that small DNF formulas can be made narrow: if a formula has m terms, it can be ${\epsilon}$ -approximated by a formula with width ${{\rm log}(m/{\epsilon})}$ . We prove a converse, showing that narrow formulas can be sparsified. More precisely, any width w DNF irrespective of its size can be ${\epsilon}$ -approximated by a width w DNF with at most ${(w\, {\rm log}(1/{\epsilon}))^{O(w)}}$ terms. We combine our sparsification result with the work of Luby & Velickovic (1991, Algorithmica 16(4/5):415–433, 1996) to give a faster deterministic algorithm for approximately counting the number of satisfying solutions to a DNF. Given a formula on n variables with poly(n) terms, we give a deterministic ${n^{\tilde{O}({\rm log}\, {\rm log} (n))}}$ time algorithm that computes an additive ${\epsilon}$ approximation to the fraction of satisfying assignments of f for ${\epsilon = 1/{\rm poly}({\rm log}\, n)}$ . The previous best result due to Luby and Velickovic from nearly two decades ago had a run time of ${n^{{\rm exp}(O(\sqrt{{\rm log}\, {\rm log} n}))}}$ (Luby & Velickovic 1991, in Algorithmica 16(4/5):415–433, 1996).     

Diseases of hope and the work of despair.

Discusses hope as not always an asset for the client or the psychotherapist: many difficult conditions can be described as diseases of hope. Hope becomes diseased partially as a function of its unlikelihood, but also when it leads to disparagement of the present, to mindless sacrifices, and to rigid attitudes or behaviors. The authors present the work of despair as a viable option in psychotherapy, claiming that, when the client displays signs of suffering from a disease of hope, the therapist may suggest that a "course of constructive despair" might serve as an antidote. This seeming oxymoron turns out to be surprisingly acceptable to clients. Case material is presented to illustrate the technique. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Glycogen Synthase Kinase 3β: A True Foe in Pancreatic Cancer

Glycogen synthase kinase 3 beta (GSK-3β) is a serine/threonine protein kinase involved in multiple normal and pathological cell functions, including cell signalling and metabolism. GSK-3β is highly expressed in the onset and progression of multiple cancers with strong involvement in the regulation of proliferation, apoptosis, and chemoresistance. Multiple studies showed pro- and anti-cancer roles of GSK-3β creating confusion about the benefit of targeting GSK-3β for treating cancer. In this mini-review, we focus on the role of GSK-3β in pancreatic cancer. We demonstrate that the proposed anti-cancer roles of GSK-3β are not relevant to pancreatic cancer, and we argue why GSK-3β is, indeed, a very promising therapeutic target in pancreatic cancer.     

The Hidden Secrets of the Dental Calculus: Calibration of a Mass Spectrometry Protocol for Dental Calculus Protein Analysis

Dental calculus is a solid deposit that forms and accumulates on the tooth surface, entrapping oral microorganisms, biomolecules, and other micro-debris found in the oral cavity. A mass spectrometry analysis of its protein content opens a vista into the subject’s diet, oral flora, and even some aspects of health, thus providing new insight and expanding our knowledge of archaic cultures. Multiple experimental protocols have been proposed for the optimal extraction of proteins from dental calculus. Herein, we compared various experimental conditions in order to calibrate and validate a protocol for protein extraction. Our results show that a high concentration of acetic acid followed by mechanical crushing and sonication provided the highest protein yield, while acetone precipitation enabled the identification of more distinct proteins. We validated this protocol using archeological samples, identifying human and microbial proteins in specimens from the eighth and seventeenth centuries (approximately 250–1300 years ago). These findings demonstrate that the developed protocol is useful for studying excavated archaeological samples and that it might be utilized to explore the biohistory, dietary habits, and microbiome of archaic populations.     

Production of bacterial cellulose in static conditions by a simple fed-batch cultivation strategy

The current study investigated fed-batch cultivation for the increased productivity of bacterial cellulose (BC) sheets by Gluconacetobacter hansenii PJK in static conditions using chemically defined medium and waste from beer fermentation broth. Fermentations were carried out in a 3 L jar fermenter without any impeller for 30 days. In the proposed fed-batch cultivation, 500 mL of the medium was initially inoculated with pre-culture in a jar fermenter while a fresh medium was fed periodically. BC production was also done by using batch cultivation which was used as a control for comparison. The results obtained revealed an overall of 2–3 times increase in BC production in fed-batch cultivation compared to batch cultivation after 30 days of cultivation. During these experiments, it was found that waste from beer fermentation broth is a superior medium for the BC production using fed-batch cultivation. The production of water soluble oligosaccharides as useful by-products was also monitored during these investigations. Fed-batch cultivation and waste from beer fermentation was also found superior for the production of these by-products. According to literature search and to the best of our knowledge, it is the first report of using fed-batch cultivation for BC production in static conditions.