Fatal Attraction: How Bacterial Adhesins Affect Host Signaling and What We Can Learn from Them

The ability of bacterial species to colonize and infect host organisms is critically dependent upon their capacity to adhere to cellular surfaces of the host. Adherence to cell surfaces is known to be essential for the activation and delivery of certain virulence factors, but can also directly affect host cell signaling to aid bacterial spread and survival. In this review we will discuss the recent advances in the field of bacterial adhesion, how we are beginning to unravel the effects adhesins have on host cell signaling, and how these changes aid the bacteria in terms of their survival and evasion of immune responses. Finally, we will highlight how the exploitation of bacterial adhesins may provide new therapeutic avenues for the treatment of a wide range of bacterial infections.     

Review of Behavior modification and coaching: Principles, procedures, and research.

Reviews the book, Behavior Modification and coaching: Principles, procedures, and research edited by Garry L. Martin and Dennis Hrycaiko (1983). The book is intended primarily for physical education students, but should be useful for already practising coaches as well. It is divided into seven sections. The first two introduce the reader to behavioural principles and techniques as they apply to coaching. The second chapter, is a very concise review, whereas other chapters contain statements that beg for substantiation. Sections three and four illustrate applications with respect to skill and motivation. Section five introduces cognitive behavioural techniques that help alleviate anxiety and enhance performance under competitive conditions. The penultimate section is concerned with the performance of the coach, and the final chapter points to recent literature and directions for future research. For the readership to whom the book is addressed, the reviewer greatly suspects that many will find it strongly influential. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

T-Code: 3-Erasure Longest Lowest-Density MDS Codes

In this paper, we study longest lowest-density MDS codes, a simple kind of multi-erasure array code with optimal redundancy and minimum update penalty. We prove some basic structure properties for longest lowest-density MDS codes. We define a "perfect" property for near-resolvable block designs (NRBs) and establish a bijection between 3-erasure longest lowest-density MDS codes (T-Codes) and perfect NRB(3κ + 1, 3, 2)s. We present a class of NRB(3κ+1, 3, 2)s, and prove that it produces a family of T-Codes. This family is infinite assuming Artin?s Conjecture. We also test some other NRBs and find some T-Code instances outside of this family.     

Age, exercise, and coding performance.

We investigated the effects of exercise on the coding performance of young and older subjects. Hypotheses were tested that exercise either facilitates spatial localization or reduces susceptibility to distraction in older subjects. In a balanced design, we administered Digit Symbol and Symbol Digit coding tasks to exercisers and nonexercisers at two age levels under conditions of low or high within-task interference. The findings showed higher performance by the exercisers than by the nonexercisers only at the older age level and only with the Symbol Digit task. These findings support the hypothesis that exercise compensates for a loss of spatial localization skills with age. We found no evidence that susceptibility to distraction either increased with age or was affected by chronic exercise. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The independent contribution of driver,crash, and vehicle characteristics to driver fatalities

Several driver, crash, and vehicle characteristics may affect the fatality risk of drivers involved in crashes. To determine the independent contribution of these variables to drivers’ fatality risk, we used data from single-vehicle crashes with fixed objects contained in the US Fatal Accident Reporting System. A multivariate logistic regression revealed that the odds ratio (OR) of a fatal injury increased with age, reaching 4.98 (99% confidence interval (CI)=2.01–12.37) for drivers aged 80+ compared with drivers aged 40–49 years. Female gender (OR=1.54, 99% CI=1.35–1.76) and blood alcohol concentration greater than 0.30 (OR=3.16, 99% CI=1.96–5.09) were also associated with higher fatality odds. In comparison with front impacts, driver-side impacts doubled the odds of a fatality (OR=2.26, 99% CI=1.92–2.65), and speeds in excess of 111 kilometers per hour (kph; 69 mph) prior to or at impact were related to higher fatality odds (OR=2.64, 99% CI=1.82–3.83) compared with speeds of less than 56 kph (35 mph). Three-point seatbelts were protective against fatal injuries (OR=0.46, 99% CI=0.39–0.53 compared with no belt). These data suggest that increasing seatbelt use, reducing speed, and reducing the number and severity of driver-side impacts may prevent fatalities. The importance of age and gender suggests that the specific safety needs of older drivers and female drivers may need to be addressed separately from those of men and younger drivers.     

Happiness and activities in later life: A propensity formulation.

Although traditional models have considered the happiness/activities relationship from a reactivity perspective, evidence from recent longitudinal and structural studies indicates that separate propensities contribute to later life levels of happiness and activities. The stabilities obtained with reliable measures of both constructs appear to reflect stable individual differences rather than the effects of levels on environmentally correlated precursors. A review of the evidence suggests that happiness affects the perceived quality of life, and that activity affects functional competence and the remaining lifespan duration. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Factors influencing outcome in consultations for chronic pelvic pain

We aimed to document the demographic and clinical characteristics of women referred by primary care physicians for investigation of chronic pelvic pain to a university hospital gynecology outpatient clinic and to test the hypothesis that specific patient features and the quality of doctor/patient communication at the initial consultation would influence pain outcomes. A clinical questionnaire, visual analog scales for pain, and instruments for hostility and the experience of the consultation were administered at the initial clinic attendance to 105 consecutive women. Follow-up pain scores were obtained 6 months later from 98 women. The mean hostility score was highly significantly elevated compared with normative data (p < 0.001). In a logistic regression model, a favorable patient rating of the initial consultation was associated with complete recovery at follow-up and interacted significantly with whether or not exercise was impaired (p < 0.005). For those in whom symptoms persisted, significant factors found by multiple regression models to predict continuing pain levels were the initial level of pain, the number of functions of daily life impaired, endometriosis, and the doctor who carried out the initial consultation. Patient hostility scores and the doctor's level of experience or gender were not significantly associated with continuing pain. This study highlights the importance of good communication as a basis for successful treatment of a group of hostile patients and indicates the influence in individual doctors of subtle attitudinal and personality factors that modify patients' experience of the medical consultation.     

Review of Measurement of Human Aging in Applied Gerontology and Interventions in Applied Gerontology.

Reviews the books, Measurement of Human Aging in Applied Gerontology by Robert F. Morgan (see record 1999-02948-000) and Interventions in Applied Gerontology by Robert F. Morgan (see record 1999-02947-000). The review asserts that these books defy easy classification. Are they new text or reprinted readings? fiction, autobiography, science, or how-to-do-it manuals? serious or a leg-pull? fun or dull? The answer is affirmative for all possibilities. Measurement of Human Aging, in which the main text is broken up by fictional inserts and reprints of scientific and newspaper articles, is devoted primarily to the how-to-do-it matter of measuring "body age." Body age is to be measured by the author's Adult Growth Examination (AGE), the entire manual for which is reproduced in both books--yes, both--together with a very laudatory review, reproduced from Longlife Magazine. How-to-do-it books are fun, but only if one can do whatever it is. The aim of Interventions in Applied Gerontology is to examine ways of decelerating the ageing process--thereby extending the lifespan? Two chapters are devoted to hypnotic intervention for this purpose, and some others discuss sensible interventions. One reading, reprinted in full from an established psychological journal, reports on the initial phase of an longitudinal study in which college students were provided with hypnotic suggestion that they would live to 120 years. The author of the article, a director of the Committee for Elimination of Death, reported confidently that he would publish data on the success of the intervention in 100 years. A leg-pull? I suggest that the reader reserve judgement for 100 years until that study is completed. The reveiwer asks, "Who, if anyone, should read these books and in what context?" (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A novel waveguide-to-microstrip transition for millimeter-wavemodule applications

A novel waveguide-to-microstrip transition is developed using a new design methodology based on iris coupling. Key features of the design are a single-layer substrate, new matching topology, and new cavity enclosure. The transition lends itself to a low-cost implementation, while maintaining the enclosure's hermetic integrity. An extensive tolerance study shows that the present design is robust and very stable with respect to manufacturing and assembly variations. Careful consideration has been given to the mechanical aspects of the transition's implementation in order to achieve seamless integration into the overall package manufacturing and assembly process without sacrificing electrical performance. Proof of concept was achieved by implementing a Q-band (f₀=44.5 GHz) design on alumina, a W-band (f₀=94 GHz) design on z-cut quartz, and a W-band design on fused silica. All exhibited better than 22 dB return loss at their center frequencies with less than 0.3 dB insertion loss, and at minimum a 10% 15 dB return-loss bandwidth