Personality Characteristics Determine Health-Related Quality of Life as an Outcome Indicator of Geriatric Inpatient Rehabilitation

Background. The aim of the present study was to investigate the relationships between personality and quality of life during the course of geriatric rehabilitation, against the background of Cloninger's biosocial theory of personality. Methods. All consecutive patients of a geriatric rehabilitation clinic during one year were evaluated at admission and discharge (N = 687) by means of the ‘‘Vienna List’’ (a newly developed questionnaire for the assessment of quality of life in patients with severe dementia), and two variants of the Temperament and Character Inventory. Results. Self-directedness showed the most general and highest impact on quality of life and successful rehabilitation. Conclusions. It is probable in old and very old individuals who are on their highest level of maturity that the character represents the most important regulatory system in the encounter with challenges of daily life, which necessitates rehabilitation

Asymmetry pays: visual lateralization improves discrimination success in pigeons

AbstractFunctional cerebral asymmetries, once thought to be exclusively human, are now accepted to be a widespread principle of brain organization in vertebrates [1]. The prevalence of lateralization makes it likely that it has some major advantage. Until now, however, conclusive evidence has been lacking. To analyze the relation between the extent of cerebral asymmetry and the degree of performance in visual foraging, we studied grain–grit discrimination success in pigeons, a species with a left hemisphere dominance for visual object processing [2,3]. The birds performed the task under left-eye, right-eye or binocular seeing conditions. In most animals, right-eye seeing was superior to left-eye seeing performance, and binocular performance was higher than each monocular level. The absolute difference between left- and right-eye levels was defined as a measure for the degree of visual asymmetry. Animals with higher asymmetries were more successful in discriminating grain from grit under binocular conditions. This shows that an increase in visual asymmetry enhances success in visually guided foraging. Possibly, asymmetries of the pigeon’s visual system increase the computational speed of object recognition processes by concentrating them into one hemisphere while preventing the other side of the brain from initiating conflicting search sequences of its own

Novel role of Ras-GTPase Activating Protein SH3 Domain-Binding Protein G3BP in adhesion and migration of 32D myeloid progenitor cells

Rho GTPases are involved in homing and mobilization of hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells due to their impact on cytoskeleton remodeling. We have previously shown that inhibition of Rho, Rac and Cdc42 clearly impairs adhesion of normal and leukemic hematopoietic progenitor cells (HPC) to fibronectin and migration in a three-dimensional stromal cell model. Here, we identified the Ras GTPase-Activating Protein SH3 Domain-Binding Protein (G3BP) as a target gene of Rho GTPases and analysed its role in regulating HPC motility. Overexpression of G3BP significantly enhanced adhesion of murine 32D HPC to fibronectin and human umbilical vein endothelial cells, increased the proportion of adherent cells in a flow chamber assay and promoted cell migration in a transwell assay and a three-dimensional stromal cell model suggesting a strong impact on the cytoskeleton. Immunofluorescent staining of G3BP-overexpressing fibroblasts revealed a Rho-like phenotype characterized by formation of actin stress fibers in contrast to the Rac-like phenotype of control fibroblasts. This is the first report implicating a role for G3BP in Rho GTPase-mediated signalling towards adhesion and migration of HPC. Our results may be of clinical importance, since G3BP was found overexpressed in human cancers

Heat strengthening of lead-tin bronze alloyed with nickel

Investigate the process of thermal hardening of bronze without heat treatment. Determined phase, which is the cause for age-hardening of the nickel bronze alloy by heat strengthening

Refractory ventricular fibrillation in a patient with ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI)

Ventricular fibrillation (VF) is a life-threatening arrhythmia that can lead to sudden cardiac death by compromising cardiac output. It is a common complication of acute myocardial infarction (MI) due to the electrical instability of the myocardium. Refractory VF is defined as sustained VF that persists despite appropriate interventions

Efficient generation of neural stem cell-like cells from adult human bone marrow stromal cells

Clonogenic neural stem cells (NSCs) are self-renewing cells that maintain the capacity to differentiate into brain-specific cell types, and may also replace or repair diseased brain tissue. NSCs can be directly isolated from fetal or adult nervous tissue, or derived from embryonic stem cells. Here, we describe the efficient conversion of human adult bone marrow stromal cells (hMSC) into a neural stem cell-like population (hmNSC, for human marrow-derived NSC-like cells). These cells grow in neurosphere-like structures, express high levels of early neuroectodermal markers, such as the proneural genes NeuroD1, Neurog2, MSl1 as well as otx1 and nestin, but lose the characteristics of mesodermal stromal cells. In the presence of selected growth factors, hmNSCs can be differentiated into the three main neural phenotypes: astroglia, oligodendroglia and neurons. Clonal analysis demonstrates that individual hmNSCs are multipotent and retain the capacity to generate both glia and neurons. Our cell culture system provides a powerful tool for investigating the molecular mechanisms of neural differentiation in adult human NSCs. hmNSCs may therefore ultimately help to treat acute and chronic neurodegenerative diseases

Behandlungserfolg, Lebensqualität und Persönlichkeitsmerkmale von geriatrischen Rehabilitationspatienten

Es wurden alle Patienten (687) untersucht, die innerhalb eines Jahres (01.10.2001-30.09.2002) in der Fachklinik für geriatrische Rehabilitation behandelt wurden. Unter Nutzung eines umfangreichen Routineassessments - ergänzt durch Erhebung der Wiener Liste (Erfassung der Lebensqualität) und durch eine Persönlichkeitserfassung (nach der biosozialen Persönlichkeitstheorie von Cloninger) konnten Unterschiede zwischen Patienten verschiedener Rehadiagnosen herausgearbeitet werden, und die Abhängigkeit des Rehaerfolges und der erreichten Lebensqualität von der Persönlichkeit war belegbar

Analysis of secondary growth in the Arabidopsis shoot reveals a positive role of jasmonate signalling in cambium formation

After primary growth, most dicotyledonous plants undergo secondary growth. Secondary growth involves an increase in the diameter of shoots and roots through formation of secondary vascular tissue. A hallmark of secondary growth initiation in shoots of dicotyledonous plants is the initiation of meristematic activity between primary vascular bundles, i.e. in the interfascicular regions. This results in establishment of a cylindrical meristem, namely the vascular cambium. Surprisingly, despite its major implications for plant growth and the accumulation of biomass, the molecular regulation of secondary growth is only poorly understood. Here, we combine histological, molecular and genetic approaches to characterize interfascicular cambium initiation in the Arabidopsis thaliana inflorescence shoot. Using genome-wide transcriptional profiling, we show that stress-related and touch-inducible genes are up-regulated in stem regions where secondary growth takes place. Furthermore, we show that the products of COI1, MYC2, JAZ7 and the touch-inducible gene JAZ10, which are components of the JA signalling pathway, are cambium regulators. The positive effect of JA application on cambium activity confirmed a stimulatory role of JA in secondary growth, and suggests that JA signalling triggers cell divisions in this particular context