Remarkable Lives : Michelle Walker in conversation with Jerome Carson

The purpose of this paper is to provide a profile of Michelle Walker. In this single Case Study, Michelle gives a short background to the development of her depression and is then interviewed by Jerome. Michelle sets out the reasons she developed depression. These map onto the research conducted by Brown and Harris some 50 years ago, showing how social factors can create a vulnerability to develop depression. Single case studies provide us with one person’s narrative. That narrative is however unique and can often offer us insights that are lost in large statistical surveys. Michelle found the CBT approach really helped her. However she should never have had to wait as long as she did for that help. Mental health services must respond quickly, even if only to offer a triage assessment. Brown and Harris identified four key vulnerability factors for depression in women. Michelle met three of these. How many other women are in a similar situation and are suffering in silence? We can learn a lot from the factors that helped Michelle recover from her depressive episode. Medication, CBT, the support of her mother, education and finding her soulmate and although she doesn’t say it, her own rugged determination and personal resilience

Dual-drive LiNbO_3 interferometric Mach-Zehnder architecture with extended linear regime for high peak-to-average OFDM-based communication systems

A dual-drive LiNbO3 architecture modulator with chirp management is proposed and developed offering SFDR > 25 dB in a 1.4 V bias excursion compared to only 0.5 V bias excursion in a conventional Mach-Zehnder electro-optical modulator (MZ-EOM). The architecture effectively extends the linear regime and enables the optical transmission of wireless systems employing orthogonal division multiplexing (OFDM) modulation such as ultra-wide band (UWB) which require high linearity over a broad frequency range due to their high peak-to-average power ratio (PARP). Radio-over-fiber UWB transmission in a passive optical network is experimentally demonstrated employing this technique, exhibiting an enhancement of 2.2 dB in EVM after 57 km SSMF when the dual-drive developed modulator is employed. © 2011 Optical Society of America

A Smoking Cessation Project For African American Women: Implications For Relational Research

Smoking cessation among African Americans is a primary health objective for the nation. African American women are more likely than their counterparts to have a high dependency upon nicotine. Studies with African American women report lower quit rates than those for whites. A culturally sensitive pilot project was designed for African American women to investigate smoking, perception of family environment (FES-R, Life Events Scale, family survey), feasibility of family-focused followup sessions, and an exercise program. Baseline cigarettes were negatively correlated with the FES-R subscales for cohesion, active-recreational orientation, and moral/ religious emphasis; they were positively correlated with negativity in an important relationship. Predictors of ending cigarettes were scores for life events internal to the family and the FES-R subscale for independence. Interview and survey data identified potential sources of social support and perceived relational injustices. Future studies will explore expressed emotion, relational ethics, and interventions that improve relationships

Physiology

Contains reports on four research projects

Early life stress influences acute and sensitised responses of adult mice to cocaine by interacting with GABAA α2 receptor expression

Early life stress (ELS) is known to exert long term effects on brain function, with resulting deleterious consequences for several aspects of mental health, including the development of addiction to drugs of abuse. One potential mechanism in humans is suggested by findings that ELS interacts with polymorphisms of the GABRA2 gene, encoding alpha2 subunits of GABAA receptors, to increase risk for both posttraumatic stress disorder, and vulnerability to cocaine addiction. We used a mouse model, in which the amount of material for nest building was reduced during early postnatal life, to study interactions between ELS and expression of alpha2-containing GABAA receptors in influencing cocaine-related behaviour. Breeding of parents heterozygous for deletion of alpha2 resulted in litters containing homozygous knockout (alpha2-/-), heterozygous knockout (alpha2+/-), and wildtype (alpha2+/+) offspring. Following the ELS procedure, the mice were allowed to develop to adulthood before being tested for the acute effect of cocaine on locomotor stimulation, behavioural sensitisation to repeated cocaine, and to cocaine-conditioned activity. Exposure to ELS resulted in increased acute locomotor stimulant effects of cocaine across all genotypes, with the most marked effects in alpha2-/- mice (which also showed increased activity following vehicle). Repeated cocaine administration to non-stressed mice resulted in sensitisation in alpha2+/+ and alpha2+/- mice, but, in keeping with previous findings, not in alpha2-/- mice. Prior exposure to ELS reduced sensitisation in alpha2+/+ mice, albeit not significantly, and abolished sensitisation in alpha2+/- mice. Conditioned activity was elevated following ELS in all animals, independently of genotype. Thus, while the enhanced acute effects of cocaine following ELS being most marked in alpha2-/- mice suggests a function of alpha2-containing GABAA receptors in protecting against stress, the interaction between ELS and genotype in influencing sensitisation may be more in keeping with ELS reducing expression of alpha2-containing GABAA receptors. The ability of ELS to increase cocaine-conditioned locomotor activity appears to be independent of alpha2-containing GABAA receptors

Biomass, Man and Seasonality in the Tropics

SUMMARY Agricultural research linked to government policies to increase the availability of biomass to provide food, forage and medicine requires a re?think. In particular, by ignoring trees and gathered foods, policies have not met demands for food in arid areas, and an emphasis on increasing production per unit area has accentuated seasonality of production by favouring selection of crop species requiring longer periods of moisture availability. The use of plants for medicines, stimulants and control of fertility also has important seasonal effects, but has received minimal attention to date. The classification of Raunkiaer, who distinguished plants on the basis of their modes of protection and size of buds, enables an analysis related to their effective use of moisture and temperature, so providing a framework for linking the seasonal production of biomass to human needs. RESUME Biomasse, l'Homme et les Variations Saisonnières sous les Tropiques Il est nécessaire de repenser la recherche agronomique associée aux mesures gouvernementales visant à améliorer l'accessibilité à la masse biologique afin de fournir de la nourriture, du fourrage et des médicaments. En particulier, ces mesures en ne tenant pas compte des arbres et de la nourriture récoltée par la cueillette, n'ont pas satisfait les besoins alimentaires des régions arides, et la concentration des efforts sur l'augmentation du taux de production à l'unité a accentué les variations saisonnières de la production en favorisant la sélection d'espèces nécessitant de plus longues périodes d'humidité. L'ultilisation de plantes pour la fabrication de remèdes, de stimulants et pour le contrôle de la fertilité a aussi des effets saisonniers importants, auxquels, jusqu'à présent, il n'a été porté qu'un minimum d'attention. La classification de Raunkiaer, qui établit une distinction entre les différentes plantes en utilisant leurs modes de protection et la dimension de leurs bourgeons rend possible une analyse basée sur leur besoin effectif en humidité et température, nous donnant ainsi un cadre de travail qui nous permet d'établir le lien entre les besoins humains et la production saisonnière de masse biologique. RESUMEN Biomasa, ser humano y estacionalidad en el trópico La investigación agrícola vinculada a políticas gubernamentales tendientes a incrementar la disponibilidad de biomasa para proveer alimentos, forraje y medicinas requiere una revisión. Al ignorar los árboles y alimentos asociados, las políticas no han satisfecho las demandas de alimentos en las zonas áridas y el énfasis puesto en el incremento del producto por unidad de área, ha acentuado la estacionalidad de la producción al favorecer la selección de especies de cultivos que requieren largos períodos de disponiblidad de humedad. El uso de plantas para medicamentos, estimulantes y control de fertilidad, también tiene importantes efectos estacionales, no obstante, la atención que ha recibido hasta la fecha es mínima. La clasificación de Raunkiaer, basada en las formas de protección y el tamaño de los brotes de las plantas, permite un análisis de su real uso de humedad y temperatura, proveyendo un marco de trabajo para vincular la producción estacional de biomasa con las necesidades humanas

Liver-Targeting of Interferon-Alpha with Tissue-Specific Domain Antibodies

PMCID: PMC3581439This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited