A mechanism-based group-psychotherapy approach to aggressive behaviour in borderline personality disorder: findings from a cluster-randomised controlled trial.

Background: Aggressive behaviour is a prevalent and harmful phenomenon in patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD). However, no short-term, low-cost programme exists that specifically focuses on aggression.

Aims: Attuning therapy modules to pathogenetic mechanisms that underlie reactive aggression in BPD, we composed a 6 week mechanism-based anti-aggression psychotherapy (MAAP) approach for the group setting, which we tested against a non-specific supportive psychotherapy (NSSP).

Randomized Trial of 2 Endoscopic Radial Artery Harvesting Devices-Immunofluorescence Assessment.

Background: Various devices are available for endoscopic radial artery harvesting during coronary artery bypass grafting. Thermal spread and graft damage, however, are common concerns. The aim of this study was to compare the MiFusion TLS2 system (Endotrust, Nettetal Germany) with direct heat technique and the LigaSure Maryland system (Medtronic, Dublin, Ireland) using advanced bipolar technique in a prospective randomized study.

Using a team-centered approach to evaluate effectiveness of nurse-physician communications.

Objective: To characterize communication strategies of labor and delivery nurses and their physician colleagues during perinatal decisions.

Design: A quantitative descriptive design was used.

Setting: A perinatal setting in an urban acute care facility.

Facial reactions during emotion recognition in borderline personality disorder: a facial electromyography study.

Background: Previous studies have suggested increased sensitivity for emotional facial expressions and subtle impairments in emotion recognition from facial expressions in borderline personality disorder (BPD). It has been proposed that facial mimicry contributes to emotion recognition of and emotional response to facial expressions. This study investigated whether BPD patients differ in facial reactions, emotion recognition and their subjective emotional response to faces showing different emotional expressions.

Severe relapse of multiple sclerosis during plasma exchange treatment.

To describe and treat a relapse of relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis occurring during escalating therapeutic plasma exchange for a previous relapse. A 47-year-old woman with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis received plasma exchange as escalating therapy for a severe prolonged steroid-refractory relapse. During plasma exchange the patient developed another relapse with new neurological symptoms.

Effects of probiotic supplementation on markers of acute pancreatitis in rats.

Background: Intestinal barrier disruption followed by bacterial translocation seems to play a role in secondary pancreatic infection in acute pancreatitis. The use of probiotics as a possible adjuvant strategy in the treatment of acute pancreatitis needs to be investigated.

Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the effects of dietary supplementation with a prophylactically administered multispecies probiotic mixture on the markers of acute pancreatitis and on the occurrence of bacterial translocation.

Hepatitis B virus replication is cell cycle independent during liver regeneration in transgenic mice.

The content of hepatitis B virus (HBV) replicative forms and HBV core protein in the liver of HBV transgenic mice is transiently reduced during massive liver regeneration following partial hepatectomy while the steady-state content of viral RNA is unchanged. This antiviral effect is triggered by interferon and tumor necrosis factor that are induced in the liver following hepatectomy and either prevent the formation or accelerate the degradation of viral nucleocapsids in the cytoplasm of the hepatocyte. Despite massive hepatocellular turnover, this effect is independent of liver cell division, indicating that HBV replicates efficiently in resting and dividing hepatocytes.

The hepatitis B virus (HBV) precore protein inhibits HBV replication in transgenic mice.

In this study, we examined the ability of the hepatitis B virus (HBV) precore, envelope, and X gene products to modulate HBV replication in the livers of transgenic mice that replicate the virus. Hepatic HBV replication was not affected by overexpression of the envelope or X gene products when these animals were crossed with transgenic mice that express the corresponding viral genes in the hepatocyte. Overexpression of the precore protein, however, eliminated nucleocapsid particles from the cytoplasm of the hepatocytes and abolished HBV replication without affecting the hepatic steady-state content of pregenomic HBV RNA.

Viral cross talk: intracellular inactivation of the hepatitis B virus during an unrelated viral infection of the liver.

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is thought to be controlled by virus-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL). We have recently shown that HBV-specific CTL can abolish HBV replication noncytopathically in the liver of transgenic mice by secreting tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha) and interferon gamma (IFN-gamma) after antigen recognition. We now demonstrate that hepatocellular HBV replication is also abolished noncytopathically during lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV) infection, and we show that this process is mediated by TNF-alpha and IFN-alpha/beta produced by LCMV-infected hepatic macrophages.

Intracellular inactivation of the hepatitis B virus by cytotoxic T lymphocytes.

It is widely believed that viral clearance is mediated principally by the destruction of infected cells by CTLs. In this report, we use a transgenic mouse model of HBV replication to demonstrate that this assumption may not be true for all viruses. We find that adoptively transferred virus-specific CTLs can abolish HBV gene expression and replication in the liver without killing the hepatocytes.

High-level hepatitis B virus replication in transgenic mice.

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) transgenic mice whose hepatocytes replicate the virus at levels comparable to that in the infected livers of patients with chronic hepatitis have been produced, without any evidence of cytopathology. High-level viral gene expression was obtained in the liver and kidney tissues in three independent lineages. These animals were produced with a terminally redundant viral DNA construct (HBV 1.

Maltose excretion by the symbiotic Chlorella of the heliozoan Acanthocystis turfacea.

Chlorella sp. strain 3.83, a symbiotic Chlorella isolated from the heliozoan Acanthocystis turfacea, excreted between 8% and 16% of assimilated (14)CO2 as maltose in the light (15000 lx), with a pH optimum around 4.