The Vibrio cholerae var regulon encodes a metallo-β-lactamase and an antibiotic efflux pump, which are regulated by VarR, a LysR-type transcription factor.

The genome sequence of V. cholerae O1 Biovar Eltor strain N16961 has revealed a putative antibiotic resistance (var) regulon that is predicted to encode a transcriptional activator (VarR), which is divergently transcribed relative to the putative resistance genes for both a metallo-β-lactamase (VarG) and an antibiotic efflux-pump (VarABCDEF). We sought to test whether these genes could confer antibiotic resistance and are organised as a regulon under the control of VarR.

Cognitive testing and revision of the pain quality assessment scale.

Objective: To revise the Pain Quality Assessment Scale (PQAS) using feedback from patients to further increase its validity.

Methods: This project involved 3 cognitive interviewing studies. In Study 1, a group of patients with chronic pain (N=20) were asked a series of questions regarding the PQAS's understandability, and invited to make suggestions regarding how the measure could be improved.

Frequency of chronic pain descriptors: implications for assessment of pain quality.

The current study interviewed patients with chronic pain to: (1) identify the most common words used by patients in the samples to describe the "quality" of their pain (i.e. sharp, dull) and (2) evaluate the validity of existing pain quality measures.