A successful lifestyle intervention model replicated in diverse clinical settings

Lifestyle interventions (LIs) can treat metabolic syndrome and prevent type 2 diabetes mellitus, but they remain underutilised in routine practice. In 2010, an LI model was created in a rural primary care practice and spread with few resources to four other rural practices. A retrospective chart review evaluated changes in health indicators in two practice environments by following 372 participants, mainly women (mean age 52  years). Participants had a mean body mass index of 37 kg/m2 at baseline and lost an average of 12% of their initial body weight as a result of the intervention. Among  participants at the first intervention site for whom cardiometabolic data were available, the prevalence of metabolic syndrome decreased from 58% at baseline to 19% at follow-up. Taken as a whole, our experience suggests that LIs are feasible and deliver meaningful results in routine primary care practice

Cretaceous mammal

4 p. ; 24 cm.Includes bibliographical references (p. 4)."The first discovery (recognition) of a Cretaceous mammal was that of Meniscoessus conquistus by Wortman in 1882. Its type locality can be restricted to part of Harding County, South Dakota, from newly uncovered correspondence. Mammals of the late Cretaceous Bug Creek facies occur in Wyoming as well as in eastern Montana, and were first collected in 1892"--P. [1]

n3 and n6 polyunsaturated fatty acids differentially modulate prostaglandin E secretion but not markers of lipogenesis in adipocytes

A dramatic rise in the incidence of obesity in the U.S. has accelerated the search for interventions that may impact this epidemic. One recently recognized target for such intervention is adipose tissue, which secretes a variety of bioactive substances including prostaglandins. Prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) has been shown to decrease lipolysis in adipocytes, but limited studies have explored alternative mechanisms by which PGE2 might impact obesity, such as adipogenesis or lipogenesis. Studies conducted on ApcMin/+ mice indicated that selective inhibition of the cyclooxygenase (COX)-2 enzyme led to significant reductions in fatty acid synthase (FAS) activity in adipose tissue suggesting lipogenic effects of PGE2. To further investigate whether these lipid mediators directly regulate lipogenesis, we used 3T3-L1 adipocytes to determine the impact of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and celecoxib on PGE2 formation and FAS used as a lipogenic marker. Both arachidonic acid (AA) and EPA dose-dependently increased PGE secretion from adipocytes. AA was expectedly more potent and exhibiting at 150 uM dose a 5-fold increase in PGE2 secretion over EPA. Despite higher secretion of PGE by EPA and AA compared to control, neither PUFA significantly altered FAS activity. By contrast both AA and EPA significantly decreased FAS mRNA levels. Addition of celecoxib, a selective COX-2 inhibitor, significantly decreased PGE2 secretion (p < 0.05) versus control, and also significantly decreased FAS activity (p < 0.05). Unexpectedly, the combination of exogenous PGE2 and celecoxib further decreased the FAS activity compared to PGE2 alone or untreated controls. In conclusion, EPA-mediated inhibition of AA metabolism did not significantly alter FAS activity while both AA and EPA significantly decreased FAS mRNA expression. COX-2 inhibition significantly decreased PGE2 production resulting in a decrease in FAS activity and expression that was not reversed with the addition of exogenous PGE2, suggesting an additional mechanism that is independent of COX-2

Polyomavirus JC in the Context of Immunosuppression: A Series of Adaptive, DNA Replication-Driven Recombination Events in the Development of Progressive Multifocal Leukoencephalopathy

Polyomavirus JC (JCV) is the etiological agent of progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML), a demyelinating infection of oligodendrocytes in the brain. PML, a frequently fatal opportunistic infection in AIDS, has also emerged as a consequence of treatment with several new immunosuppressive therapeutic agents. Although nearly 80% of adults are seropositive, JCV attains an ability to infect glial cells in only a minority of people. Data suggest that JCV undergoes sequence alterations that accompany this ability, and these changes can be derived from an archetype strain by mutation, deletion, and duplication. While the introductory source and primary tissue reservoir of JCV remain unknown, lymphoid cells have been identified as potential intermediaries in progression of JCV to the brain. This review is focused on sequence changes in the noncoding control region (NCCR) of the virus. We propose an adaptive mechanism that involves a sequential series of DNA replication-driven NCCR recombination events involving stalled DNA replication forks at NCCR palindromic secondary structures. We shall describe how the NCCR sequence changes point to a model in which viral DNA replication drives NCCR recombination, allowing JCV adaptation to different cell types in its progression to neurovirulence

A lattice in more than two Kac--Moody groups is arithmetic

Let $\Gamma$ be an irreducible lattice in a product of n infinite irreducible complete Kac-Moody groups of simply laced type over finite fields. We show that if n is at least 3, then each Kac-Moody groups is in fact a simple algebraic group over a local field and $\Gamma$ is an arithmetic lattice. This relies on the following alternative which is satisfied by any irreducible lattice provided n is at least 2: either $\Gamma$ is an S-arithmetic (hence linear) group, or it is not residually finite. In that case, it is even virtually simple when the ground field is large enough. More general CAT(0) groups are also considered throughout.Comment: Subsection 2.B was modified and an example was added ther

The Genome Sequence DataBase: towards an integrated functional genomics resource

During 1998 the primary focus of the Genome Sequence DataBase (GSDB; http://www.ncgr.org/gsdb ) located at the National Center for Genome Resources (NCGR) has been to improve data quality, improve data collections, and provide new methods and tools to access and analyze data. Data quality has been improved by extensive curation of certain data fields necessary for maintaining data collections and for using certain tools. Data quality has also been increased by improvements to the suite of programs that import data from the International Nucleotide Sequence Database Collaboration (IC). The Sequence Tag Alignment and Consensus Knowledgebase (STACK), a database of human expressed gene sequences developed by the South African National Bioinformatics Institute (SANBI), became available within the last year, allowing public access to this valuable resource of expressed sequences. Data access was improved by the addition of the Sequence Viewer, a platform-independent graphical viewer for GSDB sequence data. This tool has also been integrated with other searching and data retrieval tools. A BLAST homology search service was also made available, allowing researchers to search all of the data, including the unique data, that are available from GSDB. These improvements are designed to make GSDB more accessible to users, extend the rich searching capability already present in GSDB, and to facilitate the transition to an integrated system containing many different types of biological data

An axiomatic characterization of wagering mechanisms

We construct a budget-balanced wagering mechanism that flexibly extracts information about event probabilities, as well as the mean, median, and other statistics from a group of individuals whose beliefs are immutable to the actions of others. We show how our mechanism, called the Brier betting mechanism, arises naturally from a modified parimutuel betting market. We prove that it is essentially the unique wagering mechanism that is anonymous, proportional, sybilproof, and homogeneous. While the Brier betting mechanism is designed for individuals with immutable beliefs, we find that it continues to perform well even for Bayesian individuals who learn from the actions of others.Engineering and Applied Science

Replication of “Experiencing physical warmth promotes interpersonal warmth” by Williams & Bargh (2008)

We report the results of three high-powered, independent replications of Study 2 from Williams and Bargh (2008). Participants evaluated hot or cold instant therapeutic packs before choosing a reward for participation that was framed as a prosocial (i.e., treat for a friend) or self-interested reward (i.e., treat for the self). Williams and Bargh predicted that evaluating the hot pack would lead to a higher probability of making a prosocial choice compared to evaluating the cold pack. We did not replicate the effect in any individual laboratory or when considering the results of the three replications together (total N = 861). We conclude that there is no evidence that brief exposure to warm therapeutic packs induces greater prosocial responding than exposure to cold therapeutic packs

Learned helplessness in chess players: The importance of task similarity and the role of skill

The effects of noncontingency between subjects' responses and outcomes were examined with respect to treatment/posttest similarity and skill in the task. The experimental design consisted of three groups. The first group had to solve chess problems with objective solutions and received veridical feedback; each member of the second group faced problems with no objective solutions, and received the same feedback as the member of the first group he was yoked with, but without any control on it; the control group received a waiting task. It was found that the group with unsolvable problems was more depressed than the two other groups at the end of the experiment. The mid-strength players were the most sensitive to the manipulation, and the weakest players showed little effect of learned helplessness. It was also found that the effects were proportional to the degree of similarity between the treatment and the posttest. The results limit the domain of applicability of the learned helplessness model

A theory on reports of constructive (real) and illusory posttraumatic growth

It has been suggested that self-reported posttraumatic growth could sometimes be considered as a way for people to protect themselves from the distress of trauma. In this case, reports of posttraumatic growth could be illusory. We suggest a theory on self-reported constructive (real) posttraumatic growth and illusory posttraumatic growth by using Rogers’s (1959) theory and the work by Vaillant (1995). Through this theoretical framework we attempt to explain when reports of posttraumatic growth are likely to be constructive and real and when such reports are likely to represent aspects of illusions. We will also consider the implications for research practice