Psychosocial Predictors of Resilience in a Military Sample

Predictors of resilience, specifically optimism, social support, coping self-efficacy, and physical activity were explored in a sample of United States Army Active Duty service members and Veterans (N = 302). The participants were a predominantly a white (86%) sample of 191 males and 111 females, age 19 to 74 (M= 39.94, SD= 10.31). A cross-sectional survey design was used to identify predictors of resilience, examine differences in resilience based on demographic factors, and differences in resilience scores between those who had and had not completed resilience training. Regression analyses revealed that optimism and self-efficacy were significant predictors of resilience, [F(5, 287) = 76.90, p = .00] and accounted for 57.7 % of the variation in resilience, while controlling for gender, education, and participation in resilience training. Male participants reported significantly higher resilience scores (M = 32.13, SD = 6.31), than females (M = 30.11, SD = 5.86), t(308) = 2.78, p = .006), age was not a significant predictor, and education was significantly related with resilience [ =0.20 , 95% CI (.40, 1.41), t=3.52, p = .001]. Participants who reported completing resilience training scored significantly higher on resilience than those who reported not having completed the training. These findings carry strong support and additional considerations for existing resilience training efforts. The research supports the notion that resilience can be developed and this could happen through identifying paths to an optimistic mindset and supporting internal (visualization, meditation, problem-solving, self-talk) and external (unit support, recreational activities, friends and family) resources

Propagation of Pericentral Necrosis During Acetaminophen-Induced Liver Injury: Evidence for Early Interhepatocyte Communication and Information Exchange.

Acetaminophen (APAP)-induced liver injury is clinically significant, and APAP overdose in mice often serves as a model for drug-induced liver injury in humans. By specifying that APAP metabolism, reactive metabolite formation, glutathione depletion, and mitigation of mitochondrial damage within individual hepatocytes are functions of intralobular location, an earlier virtual model mechanism provided the first concrete multiattribute explanation for how and why early necrosis occurs close to the central vein (CV). However, two characteristic features could not be simulated consistently: necrosis occurring first adjacent to the CV, and subsequent necrosis occurring primarily adjacent to hepatocytes that have already initiated necrosis. We sought parsimonious model mechanism enhancements that would manage spatiotemporal heterogeneity sufficiently to enable meeting two new target attributes and conducted virtual experiments to explore different ideas for model mechanism improvement at intrahepatocyte and multihepatocyte levels. For the latter, evidence supports intercellular communication via exosomes, gap junctions, and connexin hemichannels playing essential roles in the toxic effects of chemicals, including facilitating or counteracting cell death processes. Logic requiring hepatocytes to obtain current information about whether downstream and lateral neighbors have triggered necrosis enabled virtual hepatocytes to achieve both new target attributes. A virtual hepatocyte that is glutathione-depleted uses that information to determine if it will initiate necrosis. When a less-stressed hepatocyte is flanked by at least two neighbors that have triggered necrosis, it too will initiate necrosis. We hypothesize that the resulting intercellular communication-enabled model mechanism is analogous to the actual explanation for APAP-induced hepatotoxicity at comparable levels of granularity

Comparison of Chinese and U.S. Patent Reform Legislation: Which, If Either, Got it Right?, 11 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 567 (2012)

Chinese patent law has a short history whereas the United States ( U.S. ) system has a more robust history. This article chronicles important remaining differences between Chinese and U.S. patent laws including the utility model successfully employed at State Intellectual Property Office of the People’s Republic of China ( SIPO ) and in the Chinese courts, but not available under U.S. law. Some differences are discussed in regard of patent appeals, reexaminations for invalidity, China’s lack of a reissue process to correct major errors, China’s inventors remuneration process and compulsory licensing of patents, and China’s unique requirement of post termination compensation to support a covenant not to compete. This article further discusses recent changes in U.S. Patent law, as a result of the American Invents Act, that have no counterpart in China. This includes a discussion on changes in the rules governing when prior art applies against applications, new misjoinder rules and elimination of qui tam patent suits rules. This article discusses the new procedure in the United States Patent and Trademark Office ( USPTO ) called post grant review and a companion process for review of validity of granted patents called inter partes review. These new proceedings have the potential for invalidation of patents in a manner far less expensive than in court. However, the devil will be in the details of the regulations and fees yet to be promulgated by the USPTO or reviewed by the public. Whether China or the United States got it right is too early to tell and is anyone’s guess

Refractive error sensing from wavefront slopes

15 páginas, 8 figuras, 2 tablas.The problem of measuring the objective refractive error with an aberrometer has shown to be more elusive than expected. Here, the formalism of differential geometry is applied to develop a theoretical framework of refractive error sensing. At each point of the pupil, the local refractive error is given by the wavefront curvature, which is a 2 2 symmetric matrix, whose elements are directly related to sphere, cylinder, and axis. Aberrometers usually measure the local gradient of the wavefront. Then refractive error sensing consists of differentiating the gradient, instead of integrating as in wavefront sensing. A statistical approach is proposed to pass from the local to the global (clinically meaningful) refractive error, in\ud which the best correction is assumed to be the maximum likelihood estimation. In the practical implementation, this corresponds to the mode of the joint histogram of the 3 different elements of the curvature matrix. Results obtained both in computer simulations and with real data provide a close agreement and consistency with the main optical image quality metrics such as the Strehl ratio.This research has been supported by the Spanish CICyT, Grant FIS2008-00697, and Red Española de Optometría (Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, SAF2008-01114-E).Peer reviewe

Validity and reliability of total body volume and relative body fat mass from a 3-dimensional photonic body surface scanner

OBJECTIVE: Three-dimensional photonic body surface scanners (3DPS) feature a tool to estimate total body volume (BV) from 3D images of the human body, from which the relative body fat mass (%BF) can be calculated. However, information on validity and reliability of these measurements for application in epidemiological studies is limited. METHODS: Validity was assessed among 32 participants (men, 50%) aged 20-58 years. BV and %BF were assessed using a 3DPS (VitusSmart XXL) and air displacement plethysmography (ADP) with a BOD POD(R) device using equations by Siri and Brozek. Three scans were obtained per participant (standard, relaxed, exhaled scan). Validity was evaluated based on the agreement of 3DPS with ADP using Bland Altman plots, correlation analysis and Wilcoxon signed ranks test for paired samples. Reliability was investigated in a separate sample of 18 participants (men, 67%) aged 25-66 years using intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) based on two repeated 3DPS measurements four weeks apart. RESULTS: Mean BV and %BF were higher using 3DPS compared to ADP, (3DPS-ADP BV difference 1.1 +/- 0.9 L, p<0.01; %BF difference 7.0 +/- 5.6, p<0.01), yet the disagreement was not associated with gender, age or body mass index (BMI). Reliability was excellent for 3DPS BV (ICC, 0.998) and good for 3DPS %BF (ICC, 0.982). Results were similar for the standard scan and the relaxed scan but somewhat weaker for the exhaled scan. CONCLUSIONS: Although BV and %BF are higher than ADP measurements, our data indicate good validity and reliability for an application of 3DPS in epidemiological studies

Association of body surface scanner-based abdominal volume with parameters of the Metabolic Syndrome and comparison with manually measured waist circumference

To investigate abdominal volume determined by a new body scanner algorithm as anthropometric marker for Metabolic Syndrome (MetS) and its parameters compared to manually measured waist circumference (WC), we performed body scans in 411 participants (38% men, 20-81 years). WC and triglyceride, HDL-cholesterol, and fasting glucose concentrations, and blood pressure were assessed as MetS parameters. We used Spearman correlations and linear regression to investigate associations and goodness-of-fit (R(2), BIC) of abdominal volume and WC with MetS parameters, and logistic regression to analyse the discriminative power of WC and abdominal volume to assess likelihoods of MetS components and MetS. Correlations with triglyceride, HDL-cholesterol, and glucose concentration were slightly stronger for abdominal volume (r; 0.32, −0.32, and 0.34, respectively) than for WC (0.28, −0.28, and 0.29, respectively). Explained variances in MetS parameters were slightly higher and goodness-of-fit slightly better for abdominal volume than for WC, but differences were small. Exemplarily, glucose levels were 0.28 mmol/L higher (R² = 0.25; BIC = 945.5) per 1-SD higher WC, and 0.35 mmol/L higher (R² = 0.28; BIC = 929.1) per 1-SD higher abdominal volume. The discriminative power to estimate MetS components was similar for WC and abdominal volume. Our data show that abdominal volume allows metabolic characterization comparable to established WC

NQO2 is a reactive oxygen species generating off-target for acetaminophen

[Image: see text] The analgesic and antipyretic compound acetaminophen (paracetamol) is one of the most used drugs worldwide. Acetaminophen overdose is also the most common cause for acute liver toxicity. Here we show that acetaminophen and many structurally related compounds bind quinone reductase 2 (NQO2) in vitro and in live cells, establishing NQO2 as a novel off-target. NQO2 modulates the levels of acetaminophen derived reactive oxygen species, more specifically superoxide anions, in cultured cells. In humans, NQO2 is highly expressed in liver and kidney, the main sites of acetaminophen toxicity. We suggest that NQO2 mediated superoxide production may function as a novel mechanism augmenting acetaminophen toxicity

Non-intersecting squared Bessel paths and multiple orthogonal polynomials for modified Bessel weights

We study a model of $n$ non-intersecting squared Bessel processes in the confluent case: all paths start at time $t = 0$ at the same positive value $x = a$, remain positive, and are conditioned to end at time $t = T$ at $x = 0$. In the limit $n \to \infty$, after appropriate rescaling, the paths fill out a region in the $tx$-plane that we describe explicitly. In particular, the paths initially stay away from the hard edge at $x = 0$, but at a certain critical time $t^*$ the smallest paths hit the hard edge and from then on are stuck to it. For $t \neq t^*$ we obtain the usual scaling limits from random matrix theory, namely the sine, Airy, and Bessel kernels. A key fact is that the positions of the paths at any time $t$ constitute a multiple orthogonal polynomial ensemble, corresponding to a system of two modified Bessel-type weights. As a consequence, there is a $3 \times 3$ matrix valued Riemann-Hilbert problem characterizing this model, that we analyze in the large $n$ limit using the Deift-Zhou steepest descent method. There are some novel ingredients in the Riemann-Hilbert analysis that are of independent interest.Comment: 59 pages, 11 figure

Protection of early phase hepatic ischemia-reperfusion injury by cholinergic agonists

BACKGROUND: Cytokine production is critical in ischemia/reperfusion (IR) injury. Acetylcholine binds to macrophages and inhibits cytokine synthesis, through the cholinergic anti-inflammatory pathway. This study examined the role of the cholinergic pathway in cytokine production and hepatic IR- injury. METHODS: Adult male mice underwent 90-min of partial liver ischemia followed by reperfusion. The AChR agonists (1,1-dimethyl-4-phenyl-L-pioperazinium-iodide [DMPP], and nicotine) or saline-vehicle were administered i.p. before ischemia. Plasma cytokine tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, macrophage inflammatory protein-2, and Interleukin-6 were measured. Liver injury was assessed by plasma alanine transaminase (ALT) and liver histopathology. RESULTS: A reperfusion time-dependent hepatocellular injury occurred as was indicated by increased plasma-ALT and histopathology. The injury was associated with marked elevation of plasma cytokines/chemokines. Pre-ischemic treatment of mice with DMPP or nicotine significantly decreased plasma-ALT and cytokines after 3 h of reperfusion. After 6 h of reperfusion, the protective effect of DMPP decreased and reached a negligible level by 24 h of reperfusion, despite significantly low levels of plasma cytokines. Histopathology showed markedly diminished hepatocellular injury in DMPP- and nicotine-pretreated mice during the early-phase of hepatic-IR, which reached a level comparable to saline-treated mice at late-phase of IR. CONCLUSION: Pharmacological modulation of the cholinergic pathway provides a means to modulate cytokine production and to delay IR-induced heaptocellular injury