Effects of Low pH on Lactate Dehydrogenase Kinetics of Diving and Nondiving Reptiles

The properties of lactate dehydrogenase were examined in two snake species, Nerodia rhombifera and Elaphe obsoleta, and a turtle species, Pseudemys scripta. Our purpose was to compare the LDH activity of reptiles with limited anaerobic capabilities with that of the well established diver Pseudemys. The Michaelis-Menten kinetics of LDH and its susceptibility to inhibition by elevated pyruvate concentrations were investigated in the brain and heart of the three species. All tissue incubations and enzyme activity determinations were done at a pH of 7.0 in order to stimulate a diving blood pH in the three species. In both tissues the LDH activity of the snakes was higher than that of Pseudemys at pyruvate concentrations ranging between .03 mM and .50 mM. The Km values of the snakes were lower than those of Pseudemys, suggesting a greater enzyme-substrate affinity in the snake tissues. The Vmax values were higher in the snake tissues indicating a faster conversion of substrate to product. Heart LDH activity was reduced to an equal extent by high pyruvate concentrations in each of the three species. Elaphe brain LDH was most susceptible to pyruvate inhibition, but Nerodia and Pseudemys brain LDH were inhibited to an equal extent. The results indicate that the kinetic behavior of brain and heart LDH of the three species is similar at a pH of 7.4 and a pH of 7.0. The results also suggest that the LDH of Pseudemys is no better adapted to withstand anaerobic conditions than that of Nerodia or Elaphe at a pH of 7.0

Concreteness training reduces dysphoria: proof-of-principle for repeated cognitive bias modification in depression.

addresses: Mood Disorders Centre, School of Psychology, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK. [email protected]: Journal Article; Randomized Controlled Trial; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov'tThis is a postprint of an article published in Journal of Abnormal Psychology © 2009 copyright American Psychological Association. 'This article may not exactly replicate the final version published in the APA journal. It is not the copy of record.' Journal of Abnormal Psychology is available online at: http://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/abn/index.aspxA tendency toward abstract and overgeneral processing is a cognitive bias hypothesized to causally contribute to symptoms of depression. This hypothesis predicts that training dysphoric individuals to become more concrete and specific in their thinking would reduce depressive symptoms. To test this prediction, 60 participants with dysphoria were randomly allocated either to (a) concreteness training; (b) bogus concreteness training, matched with concreteness training for treatment rationale, experimenter contact, and treatment duration but without active engagement in concrete thinking; (c) a waiting-list, no training control. Concreteness training resulted in significantly greater decreases in depressive symptoms and significantly greater increases in concrete thinking than the waiting-list and the bogus training control, and significantly greater decreases in rumination than the waiting-list control. These findings suggest that concreteness training has potential as a guided self-help intervention for mild-to-moderate depressive symptoms

Determination of atmospheric mercury during the North Sea experiment

Total gaseous mercury (TGM) and rainwater were collected on board of two research vessels (F. S. ALKOR and R.V. BELGICA) positioned 200 km apart in the center of the North Sea during the North Sea Experiment, September 1991. On the F. S. ALKOR (up-wind ship) TGM concentrations ranged from 0.7 to 2.6 ng.m(-3) with an average of 1.5 ng.m(-3) and on the R. V. BELGICA (down-wind ship) TGM ranged from 0.7 to 1.9 ng.m(-3) with an average of 1.2 ng.m(-3). An average 20% decrease is observed from the up-wind to the downwind ship. which may largely be affected by entrainment into the free troposphere. An overall removal (entrainment) velocity of 0.95 cm.s(-1) was calculated for the whole experiment. The average removal velocity was 0.5 cm.s(-1) for dry periods and varied between 1 to 5 cm.s(-1) during rain events. Rainwater concentrations varied between 5 and 25 ng.l(-1). Based on these data an annual wet deposition flux of 1.08 ng Hg cm(-2) yr(1-) was estimated for the North Sea

The impact of trust on private equity contracts

This paper adresses the impact of trust on private equity contracts. Trust between investor and entrepreneur is essential to help overcome control problems, especially in an environment with severe agency risks and incomplete contracts. In this study, information about the effects of trust is collected using a simulation with 144 entrepreneurs and investors. We find that trust has an impact on the desired contracts of entrepreneurs, but not on that of investors. Our findings suggest that for parties, faced with potentially large agency problems (investors), trust and control seem to play complementary roles. On the other hand, for parties faced with smaller agency problems (entrepreneurs), trust seems to be a substitute for control

Guided self-help concreteness training as an intervention for major depression in primary care: a Phase II randomized controlled trial

addresses: Mood Disorders Centre, University of Exeter, UK. [email protected]: PMCID: PMC3359637Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011 The online version of this article is published within an Open Access environment subject to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike licence . The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0033291711002480The development of widely accessible, effective psychological interventions for depression is a priority. This randomized trial provides the first controlled data on an innovative cognitive bias modification (CBM) training guided self-help intervention for depression

Erratum to: Design of pharmaceutical products to meet future patient needs requires modification of current development paradigms and business models

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