A study of the effects of elaborative thinking and vocabulary enrichment exercises on written composition

Thesis (Ed.D.)--Boston Universit

A rapid graphical technique for obtaining radar data time history for close earth orbits

Radar tracking parameters and contact time errors from graphic estimation of radar tracking coverage of near earth orbit

Alien Registration- Jalbert, Marie L. (Van Buren, Aroostook County)

https://digitalmaine.com/alien_docs/32276/thumbnail.jp

When do psychosocial explanations of psychiatric problems increase stigma? Self-report and implicit evidence

Background and objectives Biomedical explanations of psychiatric problems, compared to psychosocial explanations, may amplify psychiatric stigma. One limitation of existing research is the measurement of almost exclusively self-reported stigma. This study evaluated the stigma-related effects of biomedical versus psychosocial explanations of schizophrenia using conventional self-report and two other measurement approaches that may tap more deeply held attitudes. Methods One hundred three undergraduates listened to a vignette describing a man with (1) schizophrenia of biomedical origin, (2) schizophrenia of psychosocial origin, or (3) diabetes. They then completed an Implicit Association Test, conventional self-report stigma measures, and projected other measures that captured perceptions of most other people\u27s likely impressions. Results: Participants were more likely to attribute stigmatizing views to others compared to themselves. The projected other measurement, but not the conventional self-report measurement, predicted implicit attitudes. We obtained no evidence that the psychosocial causal explanation of schizophrenia led to decreased stigma compared to the biomedical causal explanation. In fact, the psychosocial causal explanation increased stereotyped attitudes. Limitations The absence of a schizophrenia control group complicates interpretation of biomedical versus psychosocial group comparisons. Conclusions Further research is needed to evaluate discrepancies between the present findings and other published evidence pertaining to psychosocial causal explanations of psychiatric problems

Quality Information for Improved Health

The Medical Library Association converts access to information into access to knowledge in a networked environment of digital resource

Utilisation d'une souche indigène de Trichoderma harzianum contre cinq agents pathogènes chez le concombre et la tomate de serre au Québec

Le potentiel antagoniste du biofongicide à base de Trichoderma harzianum MAUL-20, isolé au Québec, a été testé contre cinq agents telluriques phytopathogènes(Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. radicis-lycopersici (FORL), Pythium ultimum, Rhizoctonia solani, Sclerotinia sclerotiorum et Verticillium dahliae) du concombre et de la tomate de serre. Le biofongicide a démontré une efficacité contre P. ultimum et R. solani chez le concombre et la tomate et contre FORL chez la tomate. De plus, T. harzianum MAUL-20 a eu un effet stimulant sur le développement des plants de concombre lorsque cultivés, sans agents pathogènes, dans un substrat organique alimenté du biofongicide. L'efficacité de T. harzianum MAUL-20 a été comparée à celle du biofongicide américain Rootshield™ (Trichoderma harzianum KRL-AG2) et le premier a démontré une activité antagoniste égale ou supérieure à celle de Rootshield™.Trichoderma harzianum MAUL-20, a strain isolated from a soil in the province of Québec, was evaluated for its antagonistic potential against five plant pathogens (Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. radicis-lycopersici (FORL), Pythium ultimum, Rhizoctonia solani, Sclerotinia sclerotiorum, and Verticillium dahliae) on greenhouse cucumber and tomato. It reduced disease incidence significantly against P. ultimum and R. solani on both cucumber and tomato and against FORL on tomato. In addition, T. harzianum MAUL-20 stimulated plant growth of cucumber plants when amended to a substrate without plant pathogens. Its efficacy was compared to that of Rootshield™, a biofungicide based on Trichoderma harzianum KRL-AG2 registered in the USA. Its biocontrol potential was equivalent or superior to Rootshield™

Imagery enhancements increase the effectiveness of cognitive behavioural group therapy for social anxiety disorder: A benchmarking study

Emerging evidence suggests that imagery-based techniques may enhance the effectiveness of traditional verbal-linguistic cognitive interventions for emotional disorders. This study extends an earlier pilot study by reporting outcomes from a naturalistic trial of an imagery-enhanced cognitive behavioural group therapy (IE-CBGT, n=53) protocol for social anxiety disorder (SAD), and comparing outcomes to historical controls who completed a predominantly verbally-based group protocol (n=129). Patients were consecutive referrals from health professionals to a community clinic specialising in anxiety and mood disorders. Both treatments involved 12, two-hour group sessions plus a one-month follow-up. Analyses evaluated treatment adherence, predictors of dropout, treatment effect sizes, reliable and clinically significant change, and whether self-reported tendencies to use imagery in everyday life and imagery ability predicted symptom change. IE-CBGT patients were substantially more likely to complete treatment than controls (91% vs. 65%). Effect sizes were very large for both treatments, but were significantly larger for IE-CBGT. A higher proportion of the IE-CBGT patients achieved reliable change, and better imagery ability was associated with larger symptom change. Outcomes compared very favourably to published group and individual treatments for SAD, suggesting that IE-CBGT may be a particularly effective and efficient mode of treatment delivery

Modulation of the epithelial sodium channel (ENaC) by bacterial metalloproteases and protease inhibitors

The serralysin family of metalloproteases is associated with the virulence of multiple gram-negative human pathogens, including Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Serratia marcescens. The serralysin proteases share highly conserved catalytic domains and show evolutionary similarity to the mammalian matrix metalloproteases. Our previous studies demonstrated that alkaline protease (AP) from Pseudomonas aeruginosa is capable of activating the epithelial sodium channel (ENaC), leading to an increase in sodium absorption in airway epithelia. The serralysin proteases are often co-expressed with endogenous, intracellular or periplasmic inhibitors, which putatively protect the bacterium from unwanted or unregulated protease activities. To evaluate the potential use of these small protein inhibitors in regulating the serralysin induced activation of ENaC, proteases from Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Serratia marcescens were purified for characterization along with a high affinity inhibitor from Pseudomonas. Both proteases showed activity against in vitro substrates and could be blocked by near stoichiometric concentrations of the inhibitor. In addition, both proteases were capable of activating ENaC when added to the apical surfaces of multiple epithelial cells with similar slow activation kinetics. The high-affinity periplasmic inhibitor from Pseudomonas effectively blocked this activation. These data suggest that multiple metalloproteases are capable of activating ENaC. Further, the endogenous, periplasmic bacterial inhibitors may be useful for modulating the downstream effects of the serralysin virulence factors under physiological conditions. © 2014 Butterworth et al

A neural network based model effectively predicts enhancers from clinical ATAC-seq samples.

Enhancers are cis-acting sequences that regulate transcription rates of their target genes in a cell-specific manner and harbor disease-associated sequence variants in cognate cell types. Many complex diseases are associated with enhancer malfunction, necessitating the discovery and study of enhancers from clinical samples. Assay for Transposase Accessible Chromatin (ATAC-seq) technology can interrogate chromatin accessibility from small cell numbers and facilitate studying enhancers in pathologies. However, on average, ~35% of open chromatin regions (OCRs) from ATAC-seq samples map to enhancers. We developed a neural network-based model, Predicting Enhancers from ATAC-Seq data (PEAS), to effectively infer enhancers from clinical ATAC-seq samples by extracting ATAC-seq data features and integrating these with sequence-related features (e.g., GC ratio). PEAS recapitulated ChromHMM-defined enhancers in CD14+ monocytes, CD4+ T cells, GM12878, peripheral blood mononuclear cells, and pancreatic islets. PEAS models trained on these 5 cell types effectively predicted enhancers in four cell types that are not used in model training (EndoC-βH1, naïve CD8+ T, MCF7, and K562 cells). Finally, PEAS inferred individual-specific enhancers from 19 islet ATAC-seq samples and revealed variability in enhancer activity across individuals, including those driven by genetic differences. PEAS is an easy-to-use tool developed to study enhancers in pathologies by taking advantage of the increasing number of clinical epigenomes