Psychological distress across sport participation groups: The mediating effects of secondary irrational beliefs on the relationship between primary irrational beliefs and symptoms of anxiety, anger, and depression

© 2019 Human Kinetics, Inc. It is not fully understood the extent to which cognitive mediators are involved in the transaction between the athletic environment and athlete mental health. Rational emotive behaviour therapy (REBT) holds that primary irrational beliefs lead to psychological distress through secondary irrational beliefs. Therefore this study examined the mediational effects of primary and secondary irrational beliefs on psychological distress across three sport participation groups; non-sport participants, recreational sport participants, and elite athletes. This study also examined the differences in irrational beliefs and psychological distress between individual and team sport participants, between females and males, and across the three sport participation groups. Data revealed that secondary irrational beliefs mediated the relationships between primary irrational beliefs and psychological distress. Between-groups analyses revealed that elite athletes demonstrated smallest depreciation irrational beliefs, and elite female athletes reported greater depression symptoms than elite male athletes. The implications of the findings for research and applied work are discussed

No Elevated Plasma Catecholamine Levels during Sleep in Newly Diagnosed, Untreated Hypertensives

The sympatho-adrenergic system is highly involved in regulating sleep, wake and arousal states, and abnormalities in this system are regarded as a key factor in the development and progression of arterial hypertension. While hypertension is associated with a hyperadrenergic state during wakefulness, the effect of hypertension on plasma-catecholamine levels during sleep is not yet known. Twelve young participants with newly diagnosed, untreated hypertension and twelve healthy controls slept for 7 hours in the sleep laboratory. Before and after sleep, subjects rested in a supine position for 3-h periods of wakefulness. We sampled blood at a fast rate (1/10 min) and monitored blood pressure and heart rate continuously. We show that plasma NE and E levels did not differ between hypertensives and normotensive during sleep as well as before and after sleep. Blood pressure was higher in hypertensives, reaching the largest group difference in the morning after sleep. Unlike in the normotensives, in the hypertensive participants the morning rise in blood pressure did not correlate with the rise in catecholamine levels at awakening. Our results suggest that hypertension in its early stages is not associated with a strong hyperadrenergic state during sleep. In showing a diminished control of blood pressure through sympatho-adrenergic signals in hypertensive participants, our data point towards a possible involvement of dysfunctional sleep-related blood pressure regulation in the development of hypertension

Interleukin-1 polymorphisms associated with increased risk of gastric cancer

Helicobacter pylori infection is associated with a variety of clinical outcomes including gastric cancer and duodenal ulcer disease. The reasons for this variation are not clear, but the gastric physiological response is influenced by the severity and anatomical distribution of gastritis induced by H. pylori. Thus, individuals with gastritis predominantly localized to the antrum retain normal (or even high) acid secretion, whereas individuals with extensive corpus gastritis develop hypochlorhydria and gastric atrophy, which are presumptive precursors of gastric cancer. Here we report that interleukin-1 gene cluster polymorphisms suspected of enhancing production of interleukin-1-beta are associated with an increased risk of both hypochlorhydria induced by H. pylori and gastric cancer. Two of these polymorphism are in near-complete linkage disequilibrium and one is a TATA-box polymorphism that markedly affects DNA-protein interactions in vitro. The association with disease may be explained by the biological properties of interleukin-1-beta, which is an important pro-inflammatory cytokine and a powerful inhibitor of gastric acid secretion. Host genetic factors that affect interleukin-1-beta may determine why some individuals infected with H. pylori develop gastric cancer while others do no

Introduction to magnetic resonance methods in photosynthesis

Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) and, more recently, solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) have been employed to study photosynthetic processes, primarily related to the light-induced charge separation. Information obtained on the electronic structure, the relative orientation of the cofactors, and the changes in structure during these reactions should help to understand the efficiency of light-induced charge separation. A short introduction to the observables derived from magnetic resonance experiments is given. The relation of these observables to the electronic structure is sketched using the nitroxide group of spin labels as a simple example

Man Bites Mosquito: Understanding the Contribution of Human Movement to Vector-Borne Disease Dynamics

In metropolitan areas people travel frequently and extensively but often in highly structured commuting patterns. We investigate the role of this type of human movement in the epidemiology of vector-borne pathogens such as dengue. Analysis is based on a metapopulation model where mobile humans connect static mosquito subpopulations. We find that, due to frequency dependent biting, infection incidence in the human and mosquito populations is almost independent of the duration of contact. If the mosquito population is not uniformly distributed between patches the transmission potential of the pathogen at the metapopulation level, as summarized by the basic reproductive number, is determined by the size of the largest subpopulation and reduced by stronger connectivity. Global extinction of the pathogen is less likely when increased human movement enhances the rescue effect but, in contrast to classical theory, it is not minimized at an intermediate level of connectivity. We conclude that hubs and reservoirs of infection can be places people visit frequently but briefly and the relative importance of human and mosquito populations in maintaining the pathogen depends on the distribution of the mosquito population and the variability in human travel patterns. These results offer an insight in to the paradoxical observation of resurgent urban vector-borne disease despite increased investment in vector control and suggest that successful public health intervention may require a dual approach. Prospective studies can be used to identify areas with large mosquito populations that are also visited by a large fraction of the human population. Retrospective studies can be used to map recent movements of infected people, pinpointing the mosquito subpopulation from which they acquired the infection and others to which they may have transmitted it

Trends in solids/liquids poisoning suicide rates in Taiwan: a test of the substitution hypothesis

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Several previous studies have illustrated that restricting access to lethal methods can reduce suicide rates. The most often cited example was Kreitman's study, showing a reduction not only in gas-specific suicide rates, but also in the overall suicide rates because of the lack of increase of other methods. However, method substitution is still a major concern in the application of the means restriction strategy to prevent suicide. The aim of the study was to investigate whether the reduction in the solids/liquids poisoning suicide rate in 1983-1993 after the launching of pesticide restriction interventions in Taiwan was accompanied with an increase in the suicide rate using other methods (method substitution).</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Data on age-, sex- and method-specific suicide rates for 1971-1993 in Taiwan were obtained. Changes in solids/liquids poisoning suicide rates were compared with suicide rates by hanging and other methods between 1983 and 1993.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>No concomitant increase in suicide rates by hanging or other methods was noted from 1983 to 1993, during which the suicide rates by poisoning with solids/liquids (mainly pesticides) decreased markedly and steadily. The phenomenon of method substitution was also not found by sex and age groups.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>In general, no method substitution was found along with the reduction in solids/liquids suicide rates in Taiwan. Our study results have also added the evidence that restricting access to methods maybe a promising strategy in preventing suicide, particularly in those countries where the "target method" has been found to contribute greatly to the suicide rates.</p

Brief report:effects of sensory sensitivity and intolerance of uncertainty on anxiety in mothers of children with autism spectrum disorder

This study examined the relations between anxiety and individual characteristics of sensory sensitivity (SS) and intolerance of uncertainty (IU) in mothers of children with ASD. The mothers of 50 children completed the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, the Highly Sensitive Person Scale and the IU Scale. Anxiety was associated with both SS and IU and IU was also associated with SS. Mediation analyses showed direct effects between anxiety and both IU and SS but a significant indirect effect was found only in the model in which IU mediated between SS. This is the first study to characterize the nature of the IU and SS interrelation in predicting levels of anxiety

Innate partnership of HLA-B and KIR3DL1 subtypes against HIV-1

Allotypes of the natural killer (NK) cell receptor KIR3DL1 vary in both NK cell expression patterns and inhibitory capacity upon binding to their ligands, HLA-B Bw4 molecules, present on target cells. Using a sample size of over 1,500 human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)+ individuals, we show that various distinct allelic combinations of the KIR3DL1 and HLA-B loci significantly and strongly influence both AIDS progression and plasma HIV RNA abundance in a consistent manner. These genetic data correlate very well with previously defined functional differences that distinguish KIR3DL1 allotypes. The various epistatic effects observed here for common, distinct KIR3DL1 and HLA-B Bw4 combinations are unprecedented with regard to any pair of genetic loci in human disease, and indicate that NK cells may have a critical role in the natural history of HIV infection

Association of KIR2DS1 and KIR2DS3 with fatal outcome in Ebola virus infection

Zaïre ebolavirus (ZEBOV) infection rapidly outruns the host's immunity and leads to death within a week. Fatal cases have been associated with an aberrant innate, proinflammatory immune response followed by a suppressed adaptive response leading to the rapid depletion of peripheral NK cells and lymphocytes. A critical role for NK cells has been suggested but not elucidated. In this genetic study, we investigated the association of KIR genotype with disease outcome by comparing genotypes of a Gabonese control population, IgG+ contacts, survivors, and fatalities of ZEBOV infection. We showed that the activating KIR2DS1 and KIR2DS3 genes associate with fatal outcome in Ebola virus infection. In addition, this study brings supplemental evidence in favor of the specificity of the IgG+ contact population. The outcome of fulminating Ebola virus infection could depend in part on the host's inherited KIR gene repertoire. This supports a key role for KIRs in disease susceptibility to infections

Generation of recombinant hyperimmune globulins from diverse B-cell repertoires

Plasma-derived polyclonal antibody therapeutics, such as intravenous immunoglobulin, have multiple drawbacks, including low potency, impurities, insufficient supply and batch-to-batch variation. Here we describe a microfluidics and molecular genomics strategy for capturing diverse mammalian antibody repertoires to create recombinant multivalent hyperimmune globulins. Our method generates of diverse mixtures of thousands of recombinant antibodies, enriched for specificity and activity against therapeutic targets. Each hyperimmune globulin product comprised thousands to tens of thousands of antibodies derived from convalescent or vaccinated human donors or from immunized mice. Using this approach, we generated hyperimmune globulins with potent neutralizing activity against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) in under 3 months, Fc-engineered hyperimmune globulins specific for Zika virus that lacked antibody-dependent enhancement of disease, and hyperimmune globulins specific for lung pathogens present in patients with primary immune deficiency. To address the limitations of rabbit-derived anti-thymocyte globulin, we generated a recombinant human version and demonstrated its efficacy in mice against graft-versus-host disease