The intersection of adolescent development and intensive intervention: age-related psychosocial correlates of treatment regimens in the diabetes control and complication trial.

Objective: To provide evidence relevant to developmentally sensitive intervention and prevention of adolescents' psychosocial distress associated with treatment of type 1 diabetes.

Methods: We used self-reports on the Diabetes Quality of Life and SCL-90-R inventories administered at baseline, 1, and 3 years following adolescents' (n = 224) entry into the Diabetes Control and Complications Trial.

Results: Initiation of intensive treatment in early adolescence was associated with increasing school dissatisfaction; initiation in later adolescence resulted in marginal elevations in psychological distress.

Propionic acid side chain hydrogen bonding in the malaria pigment beta-hematin.

Malaria pigment, or beta-hematin, the insoluble heme detoxification product resulting from the intraerythrocitic digestion of hemoglobin by young malaria trophozoites has been structurally characterized by X-ray powder diffraction and shown to contain chains of propionic acid linked dimers. Although there is considerable spectroscopic evidence for a monodentate propionate-iron interaction in this crystalline material, the spectroscopic characterization of the propionic acid dimer is limited. Herein we demonstrate the presence of the propionic acid dimer unit by H/D isotope substitution in carboxylic acid dimer.

Altered expression of cellular genes in neutrophils of periparturient dairy cows.

The periparturient dairy cow undergoes a plethora of physiological changes, including changes in the immune system that lead to profound effects on animal health. Of the immune cells affected at parturition, the neutrophil has been of particular interest due to its primary role in innate immune defense against mastitis. Immune functions of bovine neutrophils are known to be depressed around parturition, but it has not been discerned at what level these alterations occur, including the possibility that parturition induces changes in expression of key genes.

Inflammatory bowel disease evaluated by low-field magnetic resonance imaging. Comparison with endoscopy, 99mTc-HMPAO leucocyte scintigraphy, conventional radiography and surgery.

Background: To evaluate the use of low-field magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in active inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

Methods: MRI was executed in a consecutive cohort of 28 patients with Crohn disease (CD) and in 17 with ulcerative colitis (UC) prior to glucocorticoid treatment (1 mg prednisolone orally/kg body weight/day). MRI was repeated after 2-3 weeks (22 CD, 12 UC), and again after treatment completion or prior to surgery (18 CD, 6 UC).

Vacuolar-type H(+)-ATPase and Na+, K(+)-ATPase expression in gills of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) during isolated and combined exposure to hyperoxia and hypercapnia in fresh water.

Changes in branchial vacuolar-type H(+)-ATPase B-subunit mRNA and Na+, K(+)-ATPase alpha- and beta-subunit mRNA and ATP hydrolytic activity were examined in smolting Atlantic salmon exposed to hyperoxic and/or hypercapnic fresh water. Pre-smolts, smolts, and post-smolts were exposed for 1 to 4 days to hyperoxia (100% O2) and/or hypercapnia (2% CO2). Exposure to hypercapnic water for 4 days consistently decreased gill vacuolar-type H(+)-ATPase B-subunit mRNA levels.

Attitudes towards clinical research amongst participants and nonparticipants.

Objectives: To investigate attitudes to clinical research amongst cancer trial participants and nonparticipants, and to compare results with those from previous studies amongst participants in noncancer trials.

Design: Trial participating respondents were given three questionnaires during the clinical trials. Respondents amongst patients declining randomization answered a single questionnaire.

Development of a novel indwelling balloon applicator for optimizing light delivery in photodynamic therapy.

Background And Objective: A human glioma spheroid model is used to investigate the efficacy of different light delivery schemes in 5-aminolevulinic acid (ALA)--mediated photodynamic therapy (PDT). The results provide the rationale for the development of an indwelling balloon applicator for optimizing light delivery.

Study Design/materials And Methods: Human glioma spheroids were incubated in ALA (100 or 1000 microg /ml-1) for 4 hours and subjected to various light irradiation schemes.

An immunogenomics approach to understanding periparturient immunosuppression and mastitis susceptibility in dairy cows.

Studies comparing in vivo and in vitro functional capacities of leukocytes from non-parturient and periparturient dairy cows have provided substantial evidence that systemic and local mammary immune defenses are deficient around parturition. This evidence has lead to the reasonable hypothesis that immune deficiency underlies the heightened mastitis susceptibility of periparturient cows. Nutrition and vaccine studies substantiate this hypothesis, showing that dietary antioxidant supplementation and rigorous immunization regimes can bolster innate and humoral immunity to the point that mastitis severity and time for return to normal milk production are reduced.

Pre-translational regulation of neutrophil L-selectin in glucocorticoid-challenged cattle.

L-selectin (CD62L) gene expression in neutrophils is commonly referred to as "constitutive" because circulating neutrophils require a constant supply of this adhesion molecule for continuous trafficking into peripheral tissues. Under normal circumstances, marginating blood neutrophils and neutrophils that become activated for migration into infected tissues rapidly shed surface CD62L that is ligated to the vascular endothelium. However, this does not shut down CD62L gene expression because these cells continue to express surface CD62L.

The coherence of dyadic behavior across parent-child and romantic relationships as mediated by the internalized representation of experience.

Attachment theory suggests, first, that patterns of dyadic behavior cohere across salient relationships and, second, that such linkages are mediated by working models, defined as cognitive/emotional representations of relationships abstracted from dyadic experience. In this longitudinal study, adolescents' (age 19) Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) coherence ratings and classifications (e.g.

[Severe ibutilide-induced arrhythmia in patients with heart failure].

Background: Ibutilide is a novel class III antiarrhythmic agent used for the termination of atrial flutter and atrial fibrillation. It mainly affects membrane potassium currents (IKr) and prolongs the cardiac action potential. This effect is reflected as QT-interval prolongation in the ECG.

Structural and Spectroscopic Studies of Two Phases of the Organometallic Chain Polymer [Ru(2){&mgr;(2):&mgr;(2):eta(2)-O(2)PMe(2)}(2)(CO)(4)](n)().

The microcrystalline organometallic coordination polymer [Ru(2){&mgr;(2):&mgr;(2):eta(2)-O(2)PMe(2)}(2)(CO)(4)](n)() which results from the oxidative addition of dimethylphosphinic acid to triruthenium dodecacarbonyl has been structurally characterized by X-ray powder diffraction, lambda = 1.149 49(1) Å, at 295 and 50 K. At room temperature the crystallites have a monoclinic unit cell with the space group C2/c with lattice constants a = 18.

[Selective serotonin uptake inhibitors and pancreatitis].

Background: About 2% of all cases of pancreatitis are drug-induced. Several drugs cause pancreatitis, including selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs).

Material And Methods: Two Norwegian adverse drug event reports and a review of the international WHO adverse drug reactions database form the basis for this discussion.

An open-labeled, randomized study comparing systemic interferon-alpha-2A and prednisolone enemas in the treatment of left-sided ulcerative colitis.

Objective: The aim of this study was to compare the treatment efficacies of subcutaneous interferon-alpha-2A (IFN-alpha-2A) injections versus prednisolone enemas in active left-sided ulcerative colitis in an open-labeled, randomized study.

Methods: Sixteen ulcerative colitis patients received IFN-alpha-2A subcutaneously (dosage: first wk, 9 MIU three times weekly [t.i.

[Inhalation of a prostacyclin analog (iloprost) in primary and secondary pulmonary hypertension].

Background: Vasodilative therapy in the form of calcium channel blockers and, recently, continuous intravenous prostacyclin has improved exercise capacity and reduced mortality in primary pulmonary hypertension. Their clinical value is limited by either low rate of response or serious side effects. These shortcomings could be overcome by the use of iloprost, a stable prostacyclin analogue.

Effects of fluvastatin on cardiac events in renal transplant patients: ALERT (Assessment of Lescol in Renal Transplantation) study design and baseline data.

Background: Recent clinical trials of primary and secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease have demonstrated that lowering plasma cholesterol with 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A (HMG CoA) reductase inhibitors ('statins') reduces morbidity and mortality from coronary heart disease in diverse patient populations.

Study Aims: The aim of the present ALERT (Assessment of Lescol in Renal Transplantation) study is to determine whether renal transplant recipients would also benefit from statin therapy. ALERT is a multicentre, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial to assess the effect of fluvastatin in renal transplant recipients with mild-to-moderate hypercholesterolaemia.

Intra- and extracellular beta-galactosidases from Bifidobacterium bifidum and B. infantis: molecular cloning, heterologous expression, and comparative characterization.

Three beta-galactosidase genes from Bifidobacterium bifidum DSM20215 and one beta-galactosidase gene from Bifidobacterium infantis DSM20088 were isolated and characterized. The three B. bifidum beta-galactosidases exhibited a low degree of amino acid sequence similarity to each other and to previously published beta-galactosidases classified as family 2 glycosyl hydrolases.

Analysis of the genetic switch and replication region of a P335-type bacteriophage with an obligate lytic lifestyle on Lactococcus lactis.

The DNA sequence of the replication module, part of the lysis module, and remnants of a lysogenic module from the lytic P335 species lactococcal bacteriophage phi31 was determined, and its regulatory elements were investigated. The identification of a characteristic genetic switch including two divergent promoters and two cognate repressor genes strongly indicates that phi31 was derived from a temperate bacteriophage. Regulation of the two early promoters was analyzed by primer extension and transcriptional promoter fusions to a lacLM reporter.

[How should ACE inhibitors be used in myocardial infarction?].

Background: Based on the results of large clinical trials, ACE inhibitors are established as routine treatment after acute myocardial infarction accompanied by heart failure. Pathophysiologically, the benefit of ACE inhibitors has been attributed to an effect on remodelling of the left ventricle. In the past decade, it has been suggested that ACE inhibitors might have other important mechanisms of action and accordingly be useful for other conditions than those they have been used for until now.

Rapid modulation of Na+/K+-ATPase activity in osmoregulatory tissues of a salmonid fish.

The effects of cyclic AMP on Na+/K+-ATPase activity were studied in the gill and kidney of the euryhaline brown trout Salmo trutta using two different experimental approaches. In the first series of experiments, in situ Na+/K+-ATPase activity was analyzed by measuring the ouabain-sensitive uptake of non-radioactive rubidium (Rb+) into gill cells and blocks of gill and kidney tissue. Rubidium uptake was linear for at least 30 min and was significantly inhibited by 1 mmol x l(-1) ouabain.