Veiksmingi psichologinės pagalbos būdai psichotraumatologijoje

The present article gives an overview of the psycho­logical treatments of psychological trauma. The article is oriented towards practitioners who want to update their knowledge of the recent developments in psychotraumatology. The research findings, based on meta-analyses and good practice guidelines, are presented and the issues related to the implementation of evidence-based treatments are discussed.The study has shown that the critical stress incident debriefing developed by J. T. Mitchell in 1983 (or psychological debriefing) is not recommended imme­diately after trauma. Metaanalysis (Rose et al., 2003; van Emmeric et al., 2002) revealed no positive long-term effects of debriefing immediately after trauma, with indications of negative outcomes in some studies. Practical guidelines of the International Society of Traumatic Stress Studies, as well as other guidelines, do not recommend debriefing as a regular procedure for all survivors. Practical, social, or legal assistance provided in an empathic way is recommended during the first month after the trauma.  Meta-analytical studies published since 1998 concerning the effectiveness of posttraumatic stress disorder treatments demonstrated the efficacy of trauma-focused cognitive-behavioral therapies (TF-CBT) and eye movement reprocessing and desen­sitization therapy (EMDR). Evidence from studies on the effects of brief eclectic psychotherapy for posttraumatic stress disorder (BEPP), developed by B. Gersons, internet-based treatments, and virtual reality are promising, and these treatments in the future are possible effective alternatives for TF-CBT and EMDR in evidence-based practice. Psychological treatments should be the first option for the treatment of PTSD, with medication used only when the appro­priate psychological treatments are unavailable or the client prefers medication over psychosocial treatment.While a number of RCT studies have shown the efficacy of TF-CBT and EMDR treatment for PTSD, there is still a gap between research and everyday clinical practice. From the practitioner’s point of view, the transfer of manual-based methods from RCT efficacy studies to daily practice is not easy. Clinicians are facing complicated cases, and comorbid disorders are widely prevalent with PTSD. We must also be aware that with the new treatments developed, training of these methods and particularly the availability of sys­tematic supervisions are not always easily accessible; this slows down the dissemination and implementation of evidence-based treatments. Clinicians have to take their own responsibility for selecting what is best for a particular client; however, practitioners also need to make decisions based on what science shows to be the most effective treatment.Straipsnyje analizuojamas psichologinės pagalbos būdų suaugusiems asmenims psichotraumatolo­gijoje veiksmingumas. Įsigilinus į 1998–2012 m. paskelbtas metaanalizes, sistemines apžvalgas, geros praktikos vadovus, daromos išvados, kad daugelis tyrimų patvirtina trumpalaikės į traumą orientuotos kognityviosios elgesio terapijos bei nujautrinimo akių judesiais ir perdirbimo (EMDR) terapijos veiksmin­gumą potrauminio streso sutrikimų turintiems asmenims. Tyrimų rezultatai rodo, kad asmenims iš kar­to po trauminio įvykio nerekomenduojama taikyti formalias psichosocialinės intervencijos procedūras, kaip antai psichologinis susirinkimas (angl. debriefing). Yra mokslinių įrodymų, kad trumpalaikė eklekti­nė terapija (BEPP), internetu teikiamos pagalbos ar virtualios realybės taikymo metodai gali veiksmingai padėti asmenims, kurie turi potrauminio streso sutrikimą. Straipsnyje aptariamos tyrimais paremtų psi­chologinės pagalbos metodų diegimo psichotraumatologijos praktikoje problemos

Ventajas Económicas y Energéticas en Accionamientos con Motores de Alta Eficiencia

La crisis energética que atraviesa actualmente el planeta ha exigido la revisión de las normativas aplicadas a los diferentes consumidores de energía, entre ellos, las máquinas eléctricas. Los niveles mínimos de eficiencia para máquinas eléctricas estipulados por las normativas han sido incrementados y se han definido distintas categorías con el fin de identificar a los motores en base al nivel de pérdidas. Independientemente de los beneficios de índole ecológica que imponen las normas recientes, el empleo de las nuevas generaciones de motores de inducción de alta eficiencia resulta atractivo desde un punto de vista económico. El menor consumo de energía de los motores y el incremento de su vida útil permiten recuperar rápidamente el costo adicional que presentan las nuevas unidades y alcanzar ganancias posteriores. En este trabajo se repasan las normativas vigentes en distintos países del mundo y se presentan cálculos de tiempos de recuperación de la inversión económica adicional en base al costo de la energía vigente en Argentina.Fil: Verucchi, Carlos. Universidad Nacional del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ingeniería Olavarria. Departamento de Electromecánica. Grupo Intelymec; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Tandil; ArgentinaFil: Ruschetti, Cristian Roberto. Universidad Nacional del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ingeniería Olavarria. Departamento de Electromecánica. Grupo Intelymec; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Tandil; ArgentinaFil: Kazlauskas, Gustavo E.. Universidad Nacional del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ingeniería Olavarria. Departamento de Electromecánica. Grupo Intelymec; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Tandil; Argentin

The distance to the young cluster NGC 7129 and its age

The dust cloud TGU H645 P2 and embedded in it young open cluster NGC 7129 are investigated using the results of medium-band photometry of 159 stars in the Vilnius seven-colour system down to V = 18.8 mag. The photometric data were used to classify about 50 percent of the measured stars in spectral and luminosity classes. The extinction A_V vs. distance diagram for the 20x20 arcmin area is plotted for 155 stars with two-dimensional classification from the present and the previous catalogues. The extinction values found range between 0.6 and 3.4 mag. However, some red giants, located in the direction of the dense parts of the cloud, exhibit the infrared extinction equivalent up to A_V = 13 mag. The distance to the cloud (and the cluster) is found to be 1.15 kpc (the true distance modulus 10.30 mag). For determining the age of NGC 7129, a luminosity vs. temperature diagram for six cluster members of spectral classes B3 to A1 was compared with the Pisa pre-main-sequence evolution tracks and the Palla birthlines. The cluster can be as old as about 3 Myr, but star forming continues till now as witnessed by the presence in the cloud of many younger pre-main-sequence objects identified with photometry from 2MASS, Spitzer and WISE infrared surveys.Comment: 8 pages, 6 fugures, full Table 1 online. Accepted for publication in MNRAS on 2013 November 3

Trauma exposure and factors associated with ICD-11 PTSD and complex PTSD in adolescence: a cross-cultural study in Japan and Lithuania

Aims: Cross-cultural studies of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and complex PTSD (CPTSD) based on ICD-11 diagnostic criteria are scarce, especially in adolescence. The study aimed to evaluate the trauma exposure, prevalence and factors associated with PTSD and CPTSD in general populations of adolescents in Lithuania and Japan. Methods: The study sample comprised 1746 adolescents from Lithuania (n = 832) and Japan (n = 914), 49.8% female. The mean age of study participants was 15.52 (S.D. = 1.64), ranging from 12 to 18 years. ICD-11 posttraumatic disorders were assessed using the International Trauma Questionnaire – Child and Adolescent version (ITQ-CA). Results: More than half of the adolescents in a total sample (61.5%) reported exposure to at least one traumatic event in their lifetime, 80.0% in Lithuania and 44.6% in Japan, with a higher prevalence of interpersonal trauma in Lithuania and more natural disaster exposure in Japan. The prevalence of PTSD was 5.2% (95% CI 3.8–6.9%) and 2.3% (95% CI 1.4–3.5%), CPTSD 12.3% (95% CI 10.1–14.7%) and 4.1% (95% CI 2.9–5.5%) in Lithuanian and Japanese samples, respectively. Cumulative trauma exposure, female gender, loneliness and financial difficulties in family predicted both PTSD and CPTSD in the total sample. Loneliness discriminated CPTSD v. PTSD in both Lithuanian and Japanese samples. Conclusions: This cross-cultural study is among the first which reported different patterns of trauma exposure in Asian Japanese and Lithuanian adolescents in Europe. Despite differences in trauma exposure and PTSD/CPTSD prevalence, we found similar predictors in both studies, particularly the importance of cumulative trauma exposure for PTSD/CPTSD, and social interpersonal factors for the risk of CPTSD. The study supports the universality of traumatic stress reactions to adverse life experiences in adolescence across cultures and regions and highlights different levels of traumatisation of adolescents in various countries

Intrinsic Thermodynamics of Protein-Ligand Binding by Isothermal Titration Calorimetry as Aid to Drug Design

Isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) is one of the main techniques to determine specific interactions between molecules dissolved in aqueous solution. This technique is commonly used in drug development programs when low-molecular-weight molecules are sought that bind tightly and specifically to a protein (disease target) molecule. The method allows a complete thermodynamic characterization of an interaction, i.e., ITC enables direct determination of the model-independent observed interaction change in enthalpy (ΔH) and a model-dependent observed interaction affinity (change in Gibbs free energy, ΔG) in a single experiment. The product of temperature and change in entropy (TΔS) can be obtained by the subtraction of ΔG from ΔH, and the change in heat capacity (ΔC p ) can be determined as a slope of the temperature dependence of the binding ΔH. Despite the apparent value of ITC in characterization of interactions, it is often forgotten that many protein-ligand binding reactions are linked to protonation-deprotonation reactions or various conformational changes. In such cases, it is important to determine the linked-reaction contributions and obtain the intrinsic values of the changes in Gibbs energy (affinity), enthalpy, and entropy. These energy values can then be used in various SAR-type structure-thermodynamics and combined with structure-kinetics correlations in drug design, when searching for small molecules that would bind the protein target molecule. This manuscript provides a detailed protocol on how to determine the intrinsic values of protein-ligand binding thermodynamics by ITC

PDGFRα Is a Key Regulator of T1 and T3's Differential Effect on SMA Expression in Human Corneal Fibroblasts

Purpose The goal of this study was to examine the mechanism behind the unique differential action of transforming growth factor β3 (TGF-β3) and TGF-β1 on SMA expression. It was our hypothesis that platelet-derived growth factor receptor α (PDGFRα) played a key role in determining TGF-β3's response to wounding. Methods: A stable cell line, human corneal fibroblast (HCF)-P, was created from HCFs by knocking down PDGFRα expression using a lentivirus-delivered shRNA sequence. A three-dimensional (3D) in vitro model was constructed by culturing HCF or HCF-P on poly-transwell membranes for 4 weeks in the presence and absence of 0.1 ng/mL TGF-β1 or -β3. At the end of 4 weeks, the constructs were processed for immunofluorescence and reverse transcription–quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR). In addition, HCF and HCF-P cell migration was evaluated. Results: In HCF, TGF-β3 treatment resulted in significantly lower α-smooth muscle actin (SMA) mRNA expression and immunolocalization when compared to TGF-β1, while in HCF-P, both TGF-β1 and -β3 treatment increased the SMA mRNA expression and immunolocalization compared to both the untreated HCF-P control and TGF-β3-treated HCF. Human corneal fibroblast-P also had a lower migration rate and construct thickness when compared to HCF. Conclusions: These results show that TGF-β3 decreases SMA in HCF, while remarkably increasing SMA in HCF-P, thus indicating that the presence or absence of PDGFRα elicits contrasting responses to the same TGF-β3 treatment. Understanding the role of PDGFRα in TGF-β3's ability to stimulate SMA may potentially help in understanding the differential functions of TGF-β1 and TGF-β3 in corneal wound healing

Cambogin Is Preferentially Cytotoxic to Cells Expressing PDGFR

Platelet-derived growth factor receptors (PDGFRs) have been implicated in a wide array of human malignancies, including medulloblastoma (MB), the most common brain tumor of childhood. Although significant progress in MB biology and therapeutics has been achieved during the past decades, MB remains a horrible challenge to the physicians and researchers. Therefore, novel inhibitors targeting PDGFR signaling pathway may offer great promise for the treatment of MB. In the present study, we investigated the cytotoxicity and mechanisms of cambogin in Daoy MB cells. Our results show that cambogin triggers significant S phase cell cycle arrest and apoptosis via down regulation of cyclin A and E, and activation of caspases. More importantly, further mechanistic studies demonstrated that cambogin inhibits PDGFR signaling in Daoy and genetically defined mouse embryo fibroblast (MEF) cell lines. These results suggest that cambogin is preferentially cytotoxic to cells expressing PDGFR. Our findings may provide a novel approach by targeting PDGFR signaling against MB

The Immunophilin-Like Protein XAP2 Is a Negative Regulator of Estrogen Signaling through Interaction with Estrogen Receptor α

XAP2 (also known as aryl hydrocarbon receptor interacting protein, AIP) is originally identified as a negative regulator of the hepatitis B virus X-associated protein. Recent studies have expanded the range of XAP2 client proteins to include the nuclear receptor family of transcription factors. In this study, we show that XAP2 is recruited to the promoter of ERα regulated genes like the breast cancer marker gene pS2 or GREB1 and negatively regulate the expression of these genes in MCF-7 cells. Interestingly, we show that XAP2 downregulates the E2-dependent transcriptional activation in an estrogen receptor (ER) isoform-specific manner: XAP2 inhibits ERα but not ERβ-mediated transcription. Thus, knockdown of intracellular XAP2 levels leads to increased ERα activity. XAP2 proteins, carrying mutations in their primary structures, loose the ability of interacting with ERα and can no longer regulate ER target gene transcription. Taken together, this study shows that XAP2 exerts a negative effect on ERα transcriptional activity and may thus prevent ERα-dependent events

Enhancement of lipase activity in non-aqueous media upon immobilization on multi-walled carbon nanotubes

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Immobilization of biologically active proteins on nanosized surfaces is a key process in bionanofabrication. Carbon nanotubes with their high surface areas, as well as useful electronic, thermal and mechanical properties, constitute important building blocks in the fabrication of novel functional materials.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Lipases from <it>Candida rugosa </it>(CRL) were found to be adsorbed on the multiwalled carbon nanotubes with very high retention of their biological activity (97%). The immobilized biocatalyst showed 2.2- and 14-fold increases in the initial rates of transesterification activity in nearly anhydrous hexane and water immiscible ionic liquid [Bmim] [PF6] respectively, as compared to the lyophilized powdered enzyme. It is presumed that the interaction with the hydrophobic surface of the nanotubes resulted in conformational changes leading to the 'open lid' structure of CRL. The immobilized enzyme was found to give 64% conversion over 24 h (as opposed to 14% with free enzyme) in the formation of butylbutyrate in nearly anhydrous hexane. Similarly, with ionic liquid [Bmim] [PF6], the immobilized enzyme allowed 71% conversion as compared to 16% with the free enzyme. The immobilized lipase also showed high enantioselectivity as determined by kinetic resolution of (±) 1-phenylethanol in [Bmim] [PF6]. While free CRL gave only 5% conversion after 36 h, the immobilized enzyme resulted in 37% conversion with > 99% enantiomeric excess. TEM studies on the immobilized biocatalyst showed that the enzyme is attached to the multiwalled nanotubes.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Successful immobilization of enzymes on nanosized carriers could pave the way for reduced reactor volumes required for biotransformations, as well as having a use in the construction of miniaturized biosensensor devices.</p

The design and performance of the Gaia photometric system

The European Gaia astrometry mission is due for launch in 2011. Gaia will rely on the proven principles of the ESA Hipparcos mission to create an all-sky survey of about one billion stars throughout our Galaxy and beyond, by observing all objects down to 20 mag. Through its massive measurement of stellar distances, motions and multicolour photometry, it will provide fundamental data necessary for unravelling the structure, formation and evolution of the Galaxy. This paper presents the design and performance of the broad- and medium-band set of photometric filters adopted as the baseline for Gaia. The 19 selected passbands (extending from the UV to the far-red), the criteria and the methodology on which this choice has been based are discussed in detail. We analyse the photometric capabilities for characterizing the luminosity, temperature, gravity and chemical composition of stars. We also discuss the automatic determination of these physical parameters for the large number of observations involved, for objects located throughout the entire Hertzsprung-Russell diagram. Finally, the capability of the photometric system (PS) to deal with the main Gaia science case is outline