Polylactic acid was combined with lemongrass essential oil (EO) to produce functional nanocapsules (NCs). The obtained polylactic acid nanoparticles showed antimicrobial activity both with and without the presence of lemongrass oil; however, the presence of EO improved the activity of the NCs. The presence of lemongrass assisted the formation of well-separated NCs and also provided enhanced antimicrobial properties, since lemongrass is known for its antimicrobial character.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA low level of UDP-Glc occurs in cells exposed to hypoxia or glucose starvation. This work reveals that a 65% reduction in the cellular UDP-Glc level causes up-regulation of the mitochondrial chaperone GRP75 and the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) resident chaperones GRP58, ERp72, GRP78, GRP94, GRP170, and calreticulin. Conditions that cause misfolding of proteins within the ER activate the transcription factors ATF6alpha/beta and induce translation of the transcription factors XBP-1/TREB5 and ATF4/CREB2.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCognitive and psycho-physiological models of panic disorder stress the role of interpretation bias in the maintenance of the disorder. Several studies have reported results consistent with this hypothesis, but it is still unclear whether this bias precedes panic disorder or is a consequence of it. In the present study, we compared the interpretations of ambiguous scenarios of children of individuals with panic disorder, children of individuals with animal phobia, and children of healthy controls.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Anxiety Disord
February 2003
Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) is a syndrome characterized by distress about imagined defects in one's appearance. Though categorized as a somatoform disorder, BDD is marked by many characteristics associated with social phobia (e.g.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe prevalence of body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) was investigated in a non-clinical sample. German college students (n=133; 73.7% female) completed self-report questionnaires assessing BDD, self-esteem, symptoms of depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder and skin picking.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTo assess relationships between alcohol consumption and two dimensions of drinking restraint (temptation and restriction), American and German college students were given the Khavari Alcohol Test (KAT) and the Temptation and Restraint Inventory (TRI). As hypothesized, drinking temptation was a positive predictor of students' alcohol consumption in both countries, but there was no main effect for drinking restriction. Also as hypothesized, American students who were high on drinking temptation drank greater (not smaller) quantities of alcohol if they were also high on drinking restriction.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The aim of the study was to investigate psychological and physiological responses of bulimic patients to the repeated presentation of food cues.
Method: On 2 subsequent days, 48 bulimic women (DSM-IV) were confronted with high- or low-caloric food for 20 min. A control group (n = 24) was exposed to high-caloric food once.
Physiol Behav
January 2001
The assessment of cortisol in saliva has been proven a valid and reliable reflection of the respective unbound hormone in blood. In the present study, a standard dexamethasone suppression test (DST) with measures of salivary cortisol levels was performed in bulimic women without depression (DSM-IV; N=48) and healthy controls (N=24) matched for age. Feedback sensitivity was assessed using the standard DST with pre- and post-measures of salivary cortisol.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Anxiety Disord
November 2000
The aim of the present study was to investigate whether socially anxious children show deficits in their deliberate facial expression of emotions. To test for potential mother-child transmission effects, the mothers' facial expressions were also assessed. Fifty socially anxious and 25 socially nonanxious children (8-12 years) and their mothers participated in a facial expression posing task.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Although the standard treatments for the irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) are medical, growing evidence indicates the substantial therapeutic value of psychological therapy. However, it has not been investigated whether the combination of multicomponent behavioral therapy plus medical treatment is more effective than medical treatment alone. The aim of this study was to investigate this question in patients consulting a tertiary gastrointestinal (GI) referral center.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBr J Clin Psychol
September 1999
Objectives: This study was designed to investigate the impact of mood changes on body width estimation in women with bulimia nervosa.
Design: A pre-post controlled experimental design was chosen.
Method: Mood changes were induced in 40 women with bulimia nervosa, 20 women with panic disorder and 40 women with no diagnosis of a psychological disorder.
Psychopathology
November 1999
Two experiments investigated memory bias for panic-related material in 40 patients with panic disorder and 40 healthy control subjects. No memory bias was found on a memory task that tested intentional encoding and explicit recall of panic-related versus non-panic-related sentences. In contrast, a significant memory bias was apparent on a memory task requiring classification of panic-related and non-panic-related words to test conceptual information processing in implicit memory.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPsychother Psychosom
November 1999
Background: This study evaluates the effects of individual high-density exposure (2-3 weeks, all day) plus response prevention therapy on 85 unselected inpatients suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).
Methods: Twenty-eight therapist practitioners performed treatment.
Results: At 1-year follow-up, self-ratings indicated that patients on average felt much improved.
Background: The purpose of this pilot study was to evaluate the impact of a 6-month cognitive-behavioral therapy for infertile couples.
Methods: Seventeen idiopathic infertile couples participated in a therapy program comprised of modules to behaviorally optimize the chance of conception, improve sexual functioning and satisfaction, reduce thoughts of helplessness and, if necessary, improve marital communication skills. Pre- to posttreatment changes in the therapy group were compared to changes in two control groups.
A Chinese hamster cell line with a mutation in the UDP-glucose pyrophosphorylase (UDPG:PP) gene leading to UDP-glucose deficiency as well as a revertant cell were previously isolated. We now show that the mutant cell is 10(5) times more sensitive to the cytotoxic effect of Clostridium perfringens phospholipase C (PLC) than the revertant cell. To clarify whether there is a connection between the UDP-glucose deficiency and the hypersensitivity to C.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPsychopathology
June 1998
Several studies reveal a heightened risk for anxiety and other mental disorders in the offspring of patients with panic disorder and other anxiety disorders. Data on the specific type of transmitted disorders, however, are inconsistent. We investigated the specificity of the relationship between parents' and children's psychopathology.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Cognitive models of panic disorder are becoming more and more influential. Therefore, research specifying cognitive processes related to panic disorder is needed. The present study investigated memory bias for panic-related material in patients with panic disorder.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe previously isolated a mutant cell that is the only mammalian cell reported to have a persistently low level of UDP-glucose. In this work we obtained a spontaneous revertant whose UDP-glucose level lies between those found in the wild type and the mutant cell. The activity of UDP-glucose pyrophosphorylase (UDPG:PP), the enzyme that catalyzes the formation of UDP-glucose, was in the mutant 4% and in the revertant 56% of the activity found in the wild type cell.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInt J Eat Disord
March 1997
Objective: The aim of the present study was to investigate psychophysiological responses to food exposure in binge eaters.
Method: Thirty female volunteers reporting regular binge attacks were compared with 30 nonbinge eaters. Subjects attended individually for the single laboratory session.
Patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) (N = 36) and healthy controls (N = 24) participated in an autobiographical memory experiment in which they were asked to retrieve specific personal memories in response to cue words having either positive (e.g. happy) or negative (e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe tested whether patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) are characterized by dysfunction in the ability to forget disturbing material. Employing a directed forgetting procedure, we presented OCD patients and healthy control subjects with a series of negative, positive, and neutral words, and instructed them either to remember or to forget each item after it was presented. Subjects received free recall and recognition tests for all words, regardless of instructions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: The relationship between depression and the outcome of low back surgery was investigated. Data analysis was based on two assumptions: (1) Presurgical assessments of depression are correlated with the outcome of surgery, and, therefore, depression can be interpreted as a risk factor for surgical failure. (2) Postsurgical assessments of depression are correlated with the outcome of surgery, and therefore, depression can be interpreted as a response to treatment failure.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe have previously isolated a fibroblast mutant cell with high resistance to the two Rho-modifying glucosyltransferase toxins A and B of Clostridium difficile. We demonstrate here a low level of UDP-glucose in the mutant, which explains its toxin resistance since: (i) to obtain a detectable toxin B-mediated Rho modification in lysates of mutant cells, addition of UDP-glucose was required, and it promoted the Rho modification dose-dependently; (ii) high pressure liquid chromatography analysis of nucleotide extracts of cells indicated that the level of UDP-glucose in the mutant (0.8 nmol/10(6) cells) was lower than in the wild type (3.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMaternal critical attitude (CA) and negative mother-child verbal interaction in families with an asthmatic child and in controls were investigated in the present study. Twenty-eight children with bronchial asthma (6-13 yr) and 23 healthy children with their mothers participated in the project. Mothers were asked to describe their child (Five Minute Speech Sample; FMSS).
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