Measuring Dysfunctional Attitudes in the General Population: The Dysfunctional Attitude Scale (form A) Revised

The Dysfunctional Attitude Scale (DAS) was designed to measure the intensity of dysfunctional attitudes, a hallmark feature of depression. Various exploratory factor analytic studies of the DAS form A (DAS-A) yielded mixed results. The current study was set up to compare the fit of various factor models. We used a large community sample (N = 8,960) to test the previously proposed factor models of the DAS-A using confirmatory factor analysis. The retained model of the DAS-A was subjected to reliability and validity analyses. All models showed good fit to the data. Finally, a two-factor solution of the DAS-A was retained, consisting of 17 items. The factors demonstrated good reliability and convergent construct validity. Significant associations were found with depression. Norm-scores were presented. We advocate the use of a 17-item DAS-A, which proved to be useful in measuring dysfunctional beliefs. On the basis of previous psychometric studies, our study provides solid evidence for a two-factor model of the DAS-A, consisting of ‘dependency’ and ‘perfectionism/performance evaluation’

Inverse Correlation between Promoter Strength and Excision Activity in Class 1 Integrons

Class 1 integrons are widespread genetic elements that allow bacteria to capture and express gene cassettes that are usually promoterless. These integrons play a major role in the dissemination of antibiotic resistance among Gram-negative bacteria. They typically consist of a gene (intI) encoding an integrase (that catalyzes the gene cassette movement by site-specific recombination), a recombination site (attI1), and a promoter (Pc) responsible for the expression of inserted gene cassettes. The Pc promoter can occasionally be combined with a second promoter designated P2, and several Pc variants with different strengths have been described, although their relative distribution is not known. The Pc promoter in class 1 integrons is located within the intI1 coding sequence. The Pc polymorphism affects the amino acid sequence of IntI1 and the effect of this feature on the integrase recombination activity has not previously been investigated. We therefore conducted an extensive in silico study of class 1 integron sequences in order to assess the distribution of Pc variants. We also measured these promoters' strength by means of transcriptional reporter gene fusion experiments and estimated the excision and integration activities of the different IntI1 variants. We found that there are currently 13 Pc variants, leading to 10 IntI1 variants, that have a highly uneven distribution. There are five main Pc-P2 combinations, corresponding to five promoter strengths, and three main integrases displaying similar integration activity but very different excision efficiency. Promoter strength correlates with integrase excision activity: the weaker the promoter, the stronger the integrase. The tight relationship between the aptitude of class 1 integrons to recombine cassettes and express gene cassettes may be a key to understanding the short-term evolution of integrons. Dissemination of integron-driven drug resistance is therefore more complex than previously thought

Health-related Quality of Life among hospitalized older people awaiting residential aged care

BACKGROUND: Health related quality of life (HRQoL) in very late life is not well understood. The aim of the present study was to assess HRQoL and health outcomes at four months follow-up in a group of older people awaiting transfer to residential aged care. METHODS: Secondary analysis of data from a randomized controlled trial conducted in three public hospitals in Adelaide. A total of 320 patients in hospital beds awaiting a residential aged care bed participated. Outcome measurements included HRQoL (Assessment of Quality of Life; AQoL), functional level (Modified Barthel Index), hospital readmission rates, survival, and place of residence at four months follow-up. RESULTS: In this frail group the median AQoL was poor at baseline (median 0.02; 95%CI -0.01 - 0.04) and at follow-up (0.05; 95%CI 0.03 - 0.06). On leaving hospital, more than one third of participants who were moving for the first time into nursing home care rated themselves in a state worse than death (AQoL < or = 0.0). Poor HRQoL at discharge from hospital (AQoL < or = 0.0) was a significant predictor of mortality (HR 1.7; 95%CI 1.2 - 2.7), but not hospital readmission nor place of residence at four months follow-up. Improved function was a predictor of improved HRQoL among the surviving cohort. CONCLUSION: People making the transition to residential aged care from hospital have very poor HRQoL, but small gains in function seem to be related to improvement. While functional gains are unlikely to change discharge destination in this frail group, they can contribute to improvements in HRQoL. These gains may be of great significance for individuals nearing the end of life and should be taken into account in resource allocation.Lynne C. Giles, Graeme Hawthorne and Maria Crott

Massive Nest-Box Supplementation Boosts Fecundity, Survival and Even Immigration without Altering Mating and Reproductive Behaviour in a Rapidly Recovered Bird Population

Habitat restoration measures may result in artificially high breeding density, for instance when nest-boxes saturate the environment, which can negatively impact species' demography. Potential risks include changes in mating and reproductive behaviour such as increased extra-pair paternity, conspecific brood parasitism, and polygyny. Under particular cicumstances, these mechanisms may disrupt reproduction, with populations dragged into an extinction vortex. With the use of nuclear microsatellite markers, we investigated the occurrence of these potentially negative effects in a recovered population of a rare secondary cavity-nesting farmland bird of Central Europe, the hoopoe (Upupa epops). High intensity farming in the study area has resulted in a total eradication of cavity trees, depriving hoopoes from breeding sites. An intensive nest-box campaign rectified this problem, resulting in a spectacular population recovery within a few years only. There was some concern, however, that the new, high artificially-induced breeding density might alter hoopoe mating and reproductive behaviour. As the species underwent a serious demographic bottleneck in the 1970–1990s, we also used the microsatellite markers to reconstitute the demo-genetic history of the population, looking in particular for signs of genetic erosion. We found i) a low occurrence of extra-pair paternity, polygyny and conspecific brood parasitism, ii) a high level of neutral genetic diversity (mean number of alleles and expected heterozygosity per locus: 13.8 and 83%, respectively) and, iii) evidence for genetic connectivity through recent immigration of individuals from well differentiated populations. The recent increase in breeding density did thus not induce so far any noticeable detrimental changes in mating and reproductive behaviour. The demographic bottleneck undergone by the population in the 1970s-1990s was furthermore not accompanied by any significant drop in neutral genetic diversity. Finally, genetic data converged with a concomitant demographic study to evidence that immigration strongly contributed to local population recovery

Dopaminergic Activation of Estrogen Receptors Induces Fos Expression within Restricted Regions of the Neonatal Female Rat Brain

Steroid receptor activation in the developing brain influences a variety of cellular processes that endure into adulthood, altering both behavior and physiology. Recent data suggests that dopamine can regulate expression of progestin receptors within restricted regions of the developing rat brain by activating estrogen receptors in a ligand-independent manner. It is unclear whether changes in neuronal activity induced by dopaminergic activation of estrogen receptors are also region specific. To investigate this question, we examined where the dopamine D1-like receptor agonist, SKF 38393, altered Fos expression via estrogen receptor activation. We report that dopamine D1-like receptor agonist treatment increased Fos protein expression within many regions of the developing female rat brain. More importantly, prior treatment with an estrogen receptor antagonist partially reduced D1-like receptor agonist-induced Fos expression only within the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis and the central amygdala. These data suggest that dopaminergic activation of estrogen receptors alters neuronal activity within restricted regions of the developing rat brain. This implies that ligand-independent activation of estrogen receptors by dopamine might organize a unique set of behaviors during brain development in contrast to the more wide spread ligand activation of estrogen receptors by estrogen

Imaging in assessing hepatic and peritoneal metastases of gastric cancer: a systematic review

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Hepatic and peritoneal metastases of gastric cancer are operation contraindications. Systematic review to provide an overview of imaging in predicting the status of liver and peritoneum pre-therapeuticly is essential.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A systematic review of relevant literatures was performed in Pubmed/Medline, Embase, The Cochrane Library and the China Biological Medicine Databases. QUADAS was used for assessing the methodological quality of included studies and the bivariate model was used for this meta-analysis.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Totally 33 studies were included (8 US studies, 5 EUS studies, 22 CT studies, 2 MRI studies and 5 18F-FDG PET studies) and the methodological quality of included studies was moderate. The result of meta-analysis showed that CT is the most sensitive imaging method [0.74 (95% CI: 0.59-0.85)] with a high rate of specificity [0.99 (95% CI: 0.97-1.00)] in detecting hepatic metastasis, and EUS is the most sensitive imaging modality [0.34 (95% CI: 0.10-0.69) ] with a specificity of 0.96 (95% CI: 0.87-0.99) in detecting peritoneal metastasis. Only two eligible MRI studies were identified and the data were not combined. The two studies found that MRI had both high sensitivity and specificity in detecting liver metastasis.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>US, EUS, CT and ¹⁸F-FDG PET did not obtain consistently high sensitivity and specificity in assessing liver and peritoneal metastases of gastric cancer. The value of laparoscopy, PET/CT, DW-MRI, and new PET tracers such as ¹⁸F-FLT needs to be studied in future.</p

Fine mapping of type 1 diabetes susceptibility loci and evidence for colocalization of causal variants with lymphoid gene enhancers.

Genetic studies of type 1 diabetes (T1D) have identified 50 susceptibility regions, finding major pathways contributing to risk, with some loci shared across immune disorders. To make genetic comparisons across autoimmune disorders as informative as possible, a dense genotyping array, the Immunochip, was developed, from which we identified four new T1D-associated regions (P < 5 × 10(-8)). A comparative analysis with 15 immune diseases showed that T1D is more similar genetically to other autoantibody-positive diseases, significantly most similar to juvenile idiopathic arthritis and significantly least similar to ulcerative colitis, and provided support for three additional new T1D risk loci. Using a Bayesian approach, we defined credible sets for the T1D-associated SNPs. The associated SNPs localized to enhancer sequences active in thymus, T and B cells, and CD34(+) stem cells. Enhancer-promoter interactions can now be analyzed in these cell types to identify which particular genes and regulatory sequences are causal.This research uses resources provided by the Type 1 Diabetes Genetics Consortium, a collaborative clinical study sponsored by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) and JDRF and supported by grant U01 DK062418 from the US National Institutes of Health. Further support was provided by grants from the NIDDK (DK046635 and DK085678) to P.C. and by a joint JDRF and Wellcome Trust grant (WT061858/09115) to the Diabetes and Inflammation Laboratory at Cambridge University, which also received support from the NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre. ImmunoBase receives support from Eli Lilly and Company. C.W. and H.G. are funded by the Wellcome Trust (089989). The Cambridge Institute for Medical Research (CIMR) is in receipt of a Wellcome Trust Strategic Award (100140). We gratefully acknowledge the following groups and individuals who provided biological samples or data for this study. We obtained DNA samples from the British 1958 Birth Cohort collection, funded by the UK Medical Research Council and the Wellcome Trust. We acknowledge use of DNA samples from the NIHR Cambridge BioResource. We thank volunteers for their support and participation in the Cambridge BioResource and members of the Cambridge BioResource Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) and Management Committee for their support of our study. We acknowledge the NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre for funding. Access to Cambridge BioResource volunteers and to their data and samples are governed by the Cambridge BioResource SAB. Documents describing access arrangements and contact details are available at http://www.cambridgebioresource.org.uk/. We thank the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children laboratory in Bristol, UK, and the British 1958 Birth Cohort team, including S. Ring, R. Jones, M. Pembrey, W. McArdle, D. Strachan and P. Burton, for preparing and providing the control DNA samples. This study makes use of data generated by the Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium, funded by Wellcome Trust award 076113; a full list of the investigators who contributed to the generation of the data is available from http://www.wtccc.org.uk/.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available via NPG at http://www.nature.com/ng/journal/v47/n4/full/ng.3245.html

Phasevarions Mediate Random Switching of Gene Expression in Pathogenic Neisseria

Many host-adapted bacterial pathogens contain DNA methyltransferases (mod genes) that are subject to phase-variable expression (high-frequency reversible ON/OFF switching of gene expression). In Haemophilus influenzae, the random switching of the modA gene controls expression of a phase-variable regulon of genes (a “phasevarion”), via differential methylation of the genome in the modA ON and OFF states. Phase-variable mod genes are also present in Neisseria meningitidis and Neisseria gonorrhoeae, suggesting that phasevarions may occur in these important human pathogens. Phylogenetic studies on phase-variable mod genes associated with type III restriction modification (R-M) systems revealed that these organisms have two distinct mod genes—modA and modB. There are also distinct alleles of modA (abundant: modA11, 12, 13; minor: modA4, 15, 18) and modB (modB1, 2). These alleles differ only in their DNA recognition domain. ModA11 was only found in N. meningitidis and modA13 only in N. gonorrhoeae. The recognition site for the modA13 methyltransferase in N. gonorrhoeae strain FA1090 was identified as 5′-AGAAA-3′. Mutant strains lacking the modA11, 12 or 13 genes were made in N. meningitidis and N. gonorrhoeae and their phenotype analyzed in comparison to a corresponding mod ON wild-type strain. Microarray analysis revealed that in all three modA alleles multiple genes were either upregulated or downregulated, some of which were virulence-associated. For example, in N. meningitidis MC58 (modA11), differentially expressed genes included those encoding the candidate vaccine antigens lactoferrin binding proteins A and B. Functional studies using N. gonorrhoeae FA1090 and the clinical isolate O1G1370 confirmed that modA13 ON and OFF strains have distinct phenotypes in antimicrobial resistance, in a primary human cervical epithelial cell model of infection, and in biofilm formation. This study, in conjunction with our previous work in H. influenzae, indicates that phasevarions may be a common strategy used by host-adapted bacterial pathogens to randomly switch between “differentiated” cell types

Genome-wide meta-analysis identifies six novel loci associated with habitual coffee consumption.

Coffee, a major dietary source of caffeine, is among the most widely consumed beverages in the world and has received considerable attention regarding health risks and benefits. We conducted a genome-wide (GW) meta-analysis of predominately regular-type coffee consumption (cups per day) among up to 91 462 coffee consumers of European ancestry with top single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) followed-up in ~30 062 and 7964 coffee consumers of European and African-American ancestry, respectively. Studies from both stages were combined in a trans-ethnic meta-analysis. Confirmed loci were examined for putative functional and biological relevance. Eight loci, including six novel loci, met GW significance (log10Bayes factor (BF)&gt;5.64) with per-allele effect sizes of 0.03-0.14 cups per day. Six are located in or near genes potentially involved in pharmacokinetics (ABCG2, AHR, POR and CYP1A2) and pharmacodynamics (BDNF and SLC6A4) of caffeine. Two map to GCKR and MLXIPL genes related to metabolic traits but lacking known roles in coffee consumption. Enhancer and promoter histone marks populate the regions of many confirmed loci and several potential regulatory SNPs are highly correlated with the lead SNP of each. SNP alleles near GCKR, MLXIPL, BDNF and CYP1A2 that were associated with higher coffee consumption have previously been associated with smoking initiation, higher adiposity and fasting insulin and glucose but lower blood pressure and favorable lipid, inflammatory and liver enzyme profiles (P&lt;5 × 10-8).Our genetic findings among European and African-American adults reinforce the role of caffeine in mediating habitual coffee consumption and may point to molecular mechanisms underlying inter-individual variability in pharmacological and health effects of coffee