An examination of stress in college students over the course of a semester.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether differing stress reduction interventions could alter stress levels experienced by male and female college students from the beginning to the end of a semester. Components of stress examined included overall perceived stress, test anxiety, and personal burnout. Participants (N = 531) were part of courses that during the course of a 16-week semester focused specifically on cognitive-behavioral stress management, cardiovascular fitness, generalized physical activity, or a control with no intervention.

Identification and characterization of a functional zebrafish smrt corepressor (ncor2).

The retinoic acid receptors (RARs or rars) and the thyroid hormone receptors are members of the steroid receptor superfamily that interact with their DNA response elements (for RARs: retinoic acid response elements or RAREs) in the regulatory regions of promoters in the absence of their ligand. In this ligand minus configuration, it has been suggested that the RAR provides a binding site for a corepressor (SMRT or N-CoR) that also brings in other proteins to repress the gene. In the presence of the ligand, the receptor goes through an allosteric change eliminating the corepressor binding site and providing a coactivator binding site.

Genomic structure and embryonic expression of estrogen receptor beta a (ERbetaa) in zebrafish (Danio rerio).

Estrogenic steroid hormones mediate complex actions important in both embryonic and adult life. The hormones signal through ligand-inducible transcription factors known as estrogen receptors (ERs). In this study, we have isolated a zebrafish estrogen receptor with homology to human estrogen receptor beta (ERbeta).