Cognitive and Psychological Reactions of the General Population Three Months After the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami

BACKGROUND: The largest earthquake on record in Japan (magnitude 9.0) occurred on March 11, 2011, and the subsequent tsunami devastated the Pacific coast of Northern Japan. These further triggered the Fukushima I nuclear power plant accidents. Such a hugely complex disaster inevitably has negative psychological effects on general populations as well as on the direct victims. While previous disaster studies enrolled descriptive approaches focusing on direct victims, the structure of the psychological adjustment process of people from the general population has remained uncertain. The current study attempted to establish a path model that sufficiently reflects the early psychological adaptation process of the general population to large-scale natural disasters. METHODS AND FINDINGS: Participants from the primary disaster area (n = 1083) and other areas (n = 2372) voluntarily participated in an online questionnaire study. By constructing path models using a structural equation model procedure (SEM), we examined the structural relationship among psychological constructs known related to disasters. As post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTS) were significantly more present in people in the primarily affected area than in those in secondary- or non-affected areas, the path models were constructed for the primary victims. The parsimoniously depicted model with the best fit was achieved for the psychological-adjustment centered model with quality of life (QoL) as a final outcome. CONCLUSION: The paths to QoL via negative routes (from negative cognitive appraisal, PTS, and general stress) were dominant, suggesting the importance of clinical intervention for reducing negative cognitive appraisal, and for caring for general stress and PTS to maintain QoL at an early stage of psychological adaptation to a disaster. The model also depicted the presence of a positive route where positive cognitive appraisal facilitates post-traumatic growth (PTG) to achieve a higher QoL, suggesting the potential importance of positive psychological preventive care for unexpected natural disasters

Abrasive, Silica Phytoliths and the Evolution of Thick Molar Enamel in Primates, with Implications for the Diet of Paranthropus boisei

Background: Primates—including fossil species of apes and hominins—show variation in their degree of molar enamel thickness, a trait long thought to reflect a diet of hard or tough foods. The early hominins demonstrated molar enamel thickness of moderate to extreme degrees, which suggested to most researchers that they ate hard foods obtained on or near the ground, such as nuts, seeds, tubers, and roots. We propose an alternative hypothesis—that the amount of phytoliths in foods correlates with the evolution of thick molar enamel in primates, although this effect is constrained by a species ’ degree of folivory. Methodology/Principal Findings: From a combination of dietary data and evidence for the levels of phytoliths in plant families in the literature, we calculated the percentage of plant foods rich in phytoliths in the diets of twelve extant primates with wide variation in their molar enamel thickness. Additional dietary data from the literature provided the percentage of each primate’s diet made up of plants and of leaves. A statistical analysis of these variables showed that the amount of abrasive silica phytoliths in the diets of our sample primates correlated positively with the thickness of their molar enamel, constrained by the amount of leaves in their diet (R 2 = 0.875; p,.0006). Conclusions/Significance: The need to resist abrasion from phytoliths appears to be a key selective force behind the evolution of thick molar enamel in primates. The extreme molar enamel thickness of the teeth of the East African homini

CCN3 modulates bone turnover and is a novel regulator of skeletal metastasis

The CCN family of proteins is composed of six secreted proteins (CCN1-6), which are grouped together based on their structural similarity. These matricellular proteins are involved in a large spectrum of biological processes, ranging from development to disease. In this review, we focus on CCN3, a founding member of this family, and its role in regulating cells within the bone microenvironment. CCN3 impairs normal osteoblast differentiation through multiple mechanisms, which include the neutralization of pro-osteoblastogenic stimuli such as BMP and Wnt family signals or the activation of pathways that suppress osteoblastogenesis, such as Notch. In contrast, CCN3 is known to promote chondrocyte differentiation. Given these functions, it is not surprising that CCN3 has been implicated in the progression of primary bone cancers such as osteosarcoma, Ewing’s sarcoma and chondrosarcoma. More recently, emerging evidence suggests that CCN3 may also influence the ability of metastatic cancers to colonize and grow in bone

Strategies to Target Tumor Immunosuppression

The tumor microenvironment is currently in the spotlight of cancer immunology research as a key factor impacting tumor development and progression. While antigen-specific immune responses play a crucial role in tumor rejection, the tumor hampers these immune responses by creating an immunosuppressive microenvironment. Recently, major progress has been achieved in the field of cancer immunotherapy, and several groundbreaking clinical trials demonstrated the potency of such therapeutic interventions in patients. Yet, the responses greatly vary among individuals. This calls for the rational design of more efficacious cancer immunotherapeutic interventions that take into consideration the “immune signature” of the tumor. Multimodality treatment regimens that aim to enhance intratumoral homing and activation of antigen-specific immune effector cells, while simultaneously targeting tumor immunosuppression, are pivotal for potent antitumor immunity

Characterisation of Dermanyssus gallinae glutathione S-transferases and their potential as acaricide detoxification proteins

BACKGROUND: Glutathione S-transferases (GSTs) facilitate detoxification of drugs by catalysing the conjugation of the reduced glutathione (GSH) to electrophilic xenobiotic substrates and therefore have a function in multi-drug resistance. As a result, knowledge of GSTs can inform both drug resistance in, and novel interventions for, the control of endo- and ectoparasite species. Acaricide resistance and the need for novel control methods are both pressing needs for Dermanyssus gallinae, a highly economically important haematophagous ectoparasite of poultry. METHODS: A transcriptomic database representing D. gallinae was examined and 11 contig sequences were identified with GST BlastX identities. The transcripts represented by 3 contigs, designated Deg-GST-1, −2 and −3, were fully sequenced and further characterized by phylogenetic analysis. Recombinant versions of Deg-GST-1, −2 and −3 (rDeg-GST) were enzymically active and acaricide-binding properties of the rDeg-GSTs were established by evaluating the ability of selected acaricides to inhibit the enzymatic activity of rDeg-GSTs. RESULTS: 6 of the identified GSTs belonged to the mu class, followed by 3 kappa, 1 omega and 1 delta class molecules. Deg-GST-1 and −3 clearly partitioned with orthologous mu class GSTs and Deg-GST-2 partitioned with delta class GSTs. Phoxim, permethrin and abamectin significantly inhibited rDeg-GST-1 activity by 56, 35 and 17 % respectively. Phoxim also inhibited rDeg-2-GST (14.8 %) and rDeg-GST-3 (20.6 %) activities. CONCLUSIONS: Deg-GSTs may have important roles in the detoxification of pesticides and, with the increased occurrence of acaricide resistance in this species worldwide, Deg-GSTs are attractive targets for novel interventions

A922 Sequential measurement of 1 hour creatinine clearance (1-CRCL) in critically ill patients at risk of acute kidney injury (AKI)

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