Social Exchange Orientation and Conflict Communication in Romantic Relationships

Prior research has not conclusively established how individuals\u27 social exchange orientation (EO) affects their communication in, and satisfaction with, romantic elationships. Surveying 466 individuals in romantic relationships, we found that concern about being underbenefitted was more strongly correlated with conflict behaviors than concern about overbenefittedness, and that conflict communication influenced the relationship between exchange orientation and relationship satisfaction. We discuss the need for further research to discover how EO may influence communication patterns as relationships develop

Use of an interactive website to improve communication and education at an academic hospitalist program

Statement of Problem: The academic hospitalist section at UNM expanded by nearly 50% over just 12 months and was intimately involved with major changes in the residency ward structure. Section members repeatedly cited the need for improved communication about administrative and educational matters. Innovation Objectives: To provide a readily available interactive website for use by our hospitalist section to communicate about administrative and educational matters. Program Description: We established an interactive website for use by our hospitalist section through a commercial internet service. Section members were invited to register, and were allowed to contribute comments, edit existing pages, add pages, upload files, and provide links to other websites. Viewing rights to the website were unrestricted. The initial website was begun with 6 pages. Findings to Date: In the first month, 16/17 of our hospitalists and 2/3 of our mid-level providers registered and subsequently make contributions to the website. In the first 90 days, 85 new pages were created and 132 files were uploaded to create a website of 120 MB. Of the first 91 pages, 47 dealt with administrative issues (such as schedules, committee meetings, minutes, credentialing, billing and coding); 27 involved specific information about the residency and new ward structure; 14 specifically addressed educational topics; and 4 addressed faculty development and research efforts. At the end of one year, 289 pages and 330 files were added, creating a website of 627 MB. Lectures by hospitalist are now recorded and uploaded to the site. The website is now frequently viewed by residents and medical students who cite the value of the educational pages and pages that deal with residency issues. 80% of surveyed hospitalists found the site to be helpful or very helpful. To date the size of the website has not exceeded the initial free service, and the Section has incurred no direct cost related to this project. Key Lessons Learned: Establishment of an interactive website resulted in contributions by almost all hospitalists in our Section, has improved communication, and proved to be of value to medical students and residents with regard to educatio

Human Anti-Plague Monoclonal Antibodies Protect Mice from Yersinia pestis in a Bubonic Plague Model

Yersinia pestis is the etiologic agent of plague that has killed more than 200 million people throughout the recorded history of mankind. Antibiotics may provide little immediate relief to patients who have a high bacteremia or to patients infected with an antibiotic resistant strain of plague. Two virulent factors of Y. pestis are the capsid F1 protein and the low-calcium response (Lcr) V-protein or V-antigen that have been proven to be the targets for both active and passive immunization. There are mouse monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) against the F1- and V-antigens that can passively protect mice in a murine model of plague; however, there are no anti-Yersinia pestis monoclonal antibodies available for prophylactic or therapeutic treatment in humans. We identified one anti-F1-specific human mAb (m252) and two anti-V-specific human mAb (m253, m254) by panning a naïve phage-displayed Fab library against the F1- and V-antigens. The Fabs were converted to IgG1s and their binding and protective activities were evaluated. M252 bound weakly to peptides located at the F1 N-terminus where a protective mouse anti-F1 mAb also binds. M253 bound strongly to a V-antigen peptide indicating a linear epitope; m254 did not bind to any peptide from a panel of 53 peptides suggesting that its epitope may be conformational. M252 showed better protection than m253 and m254 against a Y, pestis challenge in a plague mouse model. A synergistic effect was observed when the three antibodies were combined. Incomplete to complete protection was achieved when m252 was given at different times post-challenge. These antibodies can be further studied to determine their potential as therapeutics or prophylactics in Y. pestis infection in humans

The Canopus by Capt. E.L. Sackett, U.S.N.

In the years between the first and second world wars, the West watched with growing alarm the rise of militarism in Japan. Japan began a full-scale invasion of China in the summer of 1937 which culminated in the infamous Nanking Massacre that, an attack on the Great Wall of China in 1938, and continued bombardment of Chinese cities during the late 1930s and early 1940s. Seeking to counteract Japan’s economic and military influence in the region, the United States and its allies discontinued sale of oil, steel, and iron ore to Japan. Viewing this embargo as a provocation, Japan saw war with the West as the only way to protect its interests in the Pacific and attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii on December 7, 1941. Japan’s attacks on the Philippine Islands in the following days included the bombing of Nichols Field, a U.S. military airfield south of Manila and near the Cavite Navy Yard in Manila where the submarine tender USS Canopus was carrying out its duties before being moved north to Mariveles Bay.These events serve as an opening to the remarkable story of the USS Canopus and its men transcribed and edited here

Nucleosynthetic molybdenum isotope anomalies in iron meteorites – new evidence for thermal processing of solar nebula material

publisher: Elsevier articletitle: Nucleosynthetic molybdenum isotope anomalies in iron meteorites – new evidence for thermal processing of solar nebula material journaltitle: Earth and Planetary Science Letters articlelink: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2017.05.001 content_type: article copyright: © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.© 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2017.05.001

Novel Plasmids and Resistance Phenotypes in Yersinia pestis: Unique Plasmid Inventory of Strain Java 9 Mediates High Levels of Arsenic Resistance

Growing evidence suggests that the plasmid repertoire of Yersinia pestis is not restricted to the three classical virulence plasmids. The Java 9 strain of Y. pestis is a biovar Orientalis isolate obtained from a rat in Indonesia. Although it lacks the Y. pestis-specific plasmid pMT, which encodes the F1 capsule, it retains virulence in mouse and non-human primate animal models. While comparing diverse Y. pestis strains using subtractive hybridization, we identified sequences in Java 9 that were homologous to a Y. enterocolitica strain carrying the transposon Tn2502, which is known to encode arsenic resistance. Here we demonstrate that Java 9 exhibits high levels of arsenic and arsenite resistance mediated by a novel promiscuous class II transposon, named Tn2503. Arsenic resistance was self-transmissible from Java 9 to other Y. pestis strains via conjugation. Genomic analysis of the atypical plasmid inventory of Java 9 identified pCD and pPCP plasmids of atypical size and two previously uncharacterized cryptic plasmids. Unlike the Tn2502-mediated arsenic resistance encoded on the Y. enterocolitica virulence plasmid; the resistance loci in Java 9 are found on all four indigenous plasmids, including the two novel cryptic plasmids. This unique mobilome introduces more than 105 genes into the species gene pool. The majority of these are encoded by the two entirely novel self-transmissible plasmids, which show partial homology and synteny to other enterics. In contrast to the reductive evolution in Y. pestis, this study underlines the major impact of a dynamic mobilome and lateral acquisition in the genome evolution of the plague bacterium

DNA hypermethylation markers of poor outcome in laryngeal cancer

This study examined molecular (DNA hypermethylation), clinical, histopathological, demographical, smoking, and alcohol variables to assess diagnosis (early versus late stage) and prognosis (survival) outcomes in a retrospective primary laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC) cohort. The study cohort of 79 primary LSCC was drawn from a multi-ethnic (37% African American), primary care patient population, diagnosed by surgical biopsies in the Henry Ford Health System from 1991 to 2004 and followed from 5 to 18 years (through 2009). Of the 41 variables, univariate risk factors of p < 0.10 were tested in multivariate models (logistic regression (diagnosis) and Cox (survival) models (p < 0.05)). Aberrant methylation of estrogen receptor 1 (ESR1; p = 0.01), race as African American (p = 0.04), and tumor necrosis (extensive; p = 0.02) were independent predictors of late stage LSCC. Independent predictors of poor survival included presence of vascular invasion (p = 0.0009), late stage disease (p = 0.03), and methylation of the hypermethylated in cancer 1 (HIC1) gene (p = 0.0002). Aberrant methylation of ESR1 and HIC1 signified independent markers of poorer outcome. In this multi-ethnic, primary LSCC cohort, race remained a predictor of late stage disease supporting disparate diagnosis outcomes for African American patients with LSCC

Analysis of CHK2 in vulval neoplasia

Structure and expression of the Rad53 homologue CHK2 were studied in vulval neoplasia. We identified the previously described silent polymorphism at codon 84 (A>G at nucleotide 252) in the germ-line of six out of 72, and somatic mutations in two out of 40 cases of vulval squamous cell carcinomas and none of 32 cases of vulval intraepithelial neoplasia. One mutation introduced a premature stop codon in the kinase domain of CHK2, whereas the second resulted in an amino acid substitution in the kinase domain. The two squamous cell carcinomas with mutations in CHK2 also expressed mutant p53. A CpG island was identified close to the putative CHK2 transcriptional start site, but methylation-specific PCR did not detect methylation in any of 40 vulval squamous cell carcinomas, irrespective of human papillomavirus or p53 status. Consistent with this observation, no cancer exhibited loss of CHK2 expression at mRNA or protein level. Taken together, these observations reveal that genetic but not epigenetic changes in CHK2 occur in a small proportion of vulval squamous cell carcinomas