Laser applications to chemical and environmental analysis: introduction to the feature issue.

This issue of Applied Optics features 15 papers that describe laser techniques for measurements in chemical and environmental analysis. Many of these contributions were presented at the Optical Society of America Topical Meeting on Laser Applications to Chemical and Environmental Analysis, held in Santa Fe, New Mexico, 11-13 February 2000.

Genetic polymorphisms in platelet-related proteins and coronary artery disease: investigation of candidate genes, including N-acetylgalactosaminyltransferase 4 (GALNT4) and sulphotransferase 1A1/2 (SULT1A1/2).

Background: Both platelet function and heart disease show strong genetic components, many of which remain to be elucidated.

Materials And Methods: The roles of candidate polymorphisms in ten platelet-associated genes were compared between 1,237 Acute Coronary Syndrome (ACS) cases (with myocardial infarction and unstable angina) and 386 controls, from an Irish Caucasian population. Additionally, 361 stable angina patients were investigated.

Writing about emotions versus goals: effects on hostility and medical care utilization moderated by emotional approach coping processes.

Objectives: The study compared emotionally disclosive writing and writing about goals as the 'best possible self' to a control condition and evaluated coping through emotional processing (EP) and expression (EE) as moderators of effects at 1-month follow-up.

Method: Undergraduates (N=63) were randomly assigned to emotional disclosure (EMO), best possible self (BPS), or a control condition (CTL). Outcomes were hostility, medical visits, depressive symptoms, physical symptoms, and blood pressure.

Retinal vascular lesions in patients of Caucasian and Asian origin with type 2 diabetes: baseline results from the ADVANCE Retinal Measurements (AdRem) study.

Objective: The objective of this study was to describe prevalent vascular retinal lesions among patients with type 2 diabetes enrolled in the ADVANCE Retinal Measurements (AdRem) study, a substudy of the Action in Diabetes and Vascular Disease: Preterax and Diamicron MR Controlled Evaluation (ADVANCE) trial.

Research Design And Methods: Seven-field stereoscopic photographs of both eyes were obtained at the baseline assessment of the ADVANCE trial. All photographs were graded in a central reading center.

Clinical assessment of human lymph flow using removal rate constants of interstitial macromolecules: a critical review of lymphoscintigraphy.

Edema is a common clinical problem, and the daily avoidance of edema depends critically on the lymphatic system, which clears leaked plasma proteins and fluid from the interstitial compartment. There is often confusion as to the difference between chronic edema and lymphedema. Lymphedema is by definition primarily a disease of impaired lymphatic drainage and lymph flow, and progress in lymphedema research, currently an increasingly active field, requires a clinically viable method for the quantitative assessment of lymph drainage rate in patients.

Oxytocin increases generosity in humans.

Human beings routinely help strangers at costs to themselves. Sometimes the help offered is generous-offering more than the other expects. The proximate mechanisms supporting generosity are not well-understood, but several lines of research suggest a role for empathy.

An assessment of the Irish population for large-scale genetic mapping studies involving epilepsy and other complex diseases.

The recent completion of the International HapMap Project has rapidly advanced our understanding of linkage disequilibrium (LD) in the human genome. Today, tagging SNPs (tSNPs) can be quickly and easily selected and consequently HapMap data are regularly applied to both small- and large-scale genetic mapping studies. However, to correctly interpret the application of HapMap-derived tSNPs in a genetic mapping study, an understanding of how well HapMap data represents LD in the study population is critical.

Multicentre search for genetic susceptibility loci in sporadic epilepsy syndrome and seizure types: a case-control study.

Background: The Epilepsy Genetics (EPIGEN) Consortium was established to undertake genetic mapping analyses with augmented statistical power to detect variants that influence the development and treatment of common forms of epilepsy.

Methods: We examined common variations across 279 prime candidate genes in 2717 case and 1118 control samples collected at four independent research centres (in the UK, Ireland, Finland, and Australia). Single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) and combined set-association analyses were used to examine the contribution of genetic variation in the candidate genes to various forms of epilepsy.

Coping resources, coping processes, and mental health.

Coping, defined as action-oriented and intrapsychic efforts to manage the demands created by stressful events, is coming to be recognized both for its significant impact on stress-related mental and physical health outcomes and for its intervention potential. We review coping resources that aid in this process, including individual differences in optimism, mastery, self-esteem, and social support, and examine appraisal and coping processes, especially those marked by approach or avoidance. We address the origins of coping resources and processes in genes, early life experience, and gene-environment interactions, and address neural underpinnings of coping that may shed light on evaluating coping interventions.

Human lymphatic pumping measured in healthy and lymphoedematous arms by lymphatic congestion lymphoscintigraphy.

Axillary surgery for breast cancer partially obstructs lymph outflow from the arm, chronically raising the lymphatic smooth muscle afterload. This may lead to pump failure, as in hypertensive cardiac failure, and could explain features of breast cancer treatment-related lymphoedema (BCRL) such as its delayed onset. A new method was developed to measure human lymphatic contractility non-invasively and test the hypothesis of contractile impairment.

Renin gene polymorphisms and haplotypes, blood pressure, and responses to renin-angiotensin system inhibition.

Renin catalyzes the rate-limiting step of the renin-angiotensin system. A T allele variant at position -5312 within a distal enhancer region has been reported to increase in vitro renin gene transcription. Among 387 White bank employees, ambulatory blood pressures were higher in 133 -5312T allele carriers than in 254 CC homozygotes-mean differences [99% confidence interval] between carriers and homozygotes for daytime and night-time systolic/diastolic pressure were 2.

Mutations in FOXC2 are strongly associated with primary valve failure in veins of the lower limb.

Background: Mutations in the FOXC2 gene cause lymphedema distichiasis, an inherited primary lymphedema in which a significant number of patients have varicose veins. Because lymphedema distichiasis is believed to be caused by lymphatic valve failure (reflux), and FOXC2 is highly expressed on venous valves in mouse embryos, we tested the hypothesis that FOXC2 mutations may be linked to venous valve failure and reflux.

Methods And Results: The venous system of the leg was investigated with Duplex ultrasound.

Does self-affirmation, cognitive processing, or discovery of meaning explain cancer-related health benefits of expressive writing?

Although expressive writing has positive effects on health, little is known about the underlying psychological mechanisms for these effects. The present study assessed self-affirmation, cognitive processing, and discovery of meaning as potential mediators of the effects of expressive writing on physical health in early-stage breast cancer survivors. A content analysis of the essays showed that self-affirmation writing was associated with fewer physical symptoms at a 3-month follow-up assessment, with self-affirmation writing fully mediating the effects of the emotional expression and benefit-finding writing conditions on reduced physical symptoms.

Aliskiren reduces blood pressure and suppresses plasma renin activity in combination with a thiazide diuretic, an angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor, or an angiotensin receptor blocker.

Thiazide diuretics, angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors, and angiotensin receptor blockers all cause reactive rises in plasma renin activity. We hypothesized that renin inhibition with aliskiren would prevent this reactive rise and also enhance blood pressure lowering. In 3 open-label studies in which blood pressure was assessed with ambulatory measurement, aliskiren was administered to patients with mild-to-moderate hypertension in combination with hydrochlorothiazide (n=23), ramipril (n=21), or irbesartan (n=23).

Contextual life stress and coping strategies as predictors of adjustment to breast cancer survivorship.

Background/purpose: The study presented here examined the influence of contextual life stress and coping strategies on change in adjustment over the year following completion of treatment for breast cancer. We also investigated whether contextual stressful life events moderate the relationship between coping strategies and adjustment, such that cancer-specific emotional approach coping processes would predict better psychosocial outcomes only in the context of lower life stress and would have less impact on adaptation in the context of heightened life stress.

Methods: In a sample of women (n = 558) who had recently completed treatment for nonmetastatic breast cancer and were part of a psychoeducational intervention trial to facilitate the transition to survivorship, life stress in the year prior to study entry, cancer-specific coping strategies, and general and cancer-specific adjustment were assessed at baseline, and adjustment outcomes (i.

Psychosocial concerns and interventions for cancer survivors.

In light of the increasing population living with a history of cancer in the United States, it is important to attend to quality of life and health in this group, and to develop effective interventions to address psychosocial and physical concerns across the course of the cancer trajectory. The goals of this article are to document the need for attention to psychosocial domains; offer a brief overview of the current status of the empirical literature on effects of psychosocial interventions with cancer survivors, relying on systematic reviews and meta-analyses conducted in the last decade; highlight recent examples of randomized, controlled psychosocial intervention trials directed toward cancer survivors after the completion of primary medical treatments (ie, the re-entry phase and beyond); and identify directions for application and research.

Experiences of a national sample of qualified addiction specialists who have and have not prescribed buprenorphine for opioid dependence.

The limited availability of medication-assisted treatment has created a treatment gap leaving many opioid dependent individuals without access to appropriate treatment. Survey data from a national random sample of 545 addictions physicians with waivers to provide buprenorphine treatment under The Drug Addiction Treatment Act of 2000 are presented. During the first year, an estimated 63,204 opioid dependent patients were treated with buprenorphine; many were dependent on prescription opioids and were new to drug treatment.

Tobacco cessation interventions for young people.

Background: Teenage smoking prevalence is around 15% in developing countries (with wide variation from country to country), and around 26% in the UK and USA. Although most tobacco control programmes for adolescents are based around prevention of uptake, there are also a number of initiatives to help those who want to quit. Since those who do not smoke before the age of 20 are significantly less likely to start as adults, there is a strong case for programmes for young people that address both prevention and treatment.

The impact on coronary artery disease of common polymorphisms known to modulate responses to pathogens.

There are two distinct models to explain how genetic variants contributing to cardiovascular disease may have arisen. Firstly, variants may result from random, initially neutral, mutations whose effects are largely revealed in post-reproductive individuals in industrialized societies. Alternatively, the introduced variants may confer an adaptive advantage in certain circumstances.

Rationale and design of the AdRem study: evaluating the effects of blood pressure lowering and intensive glucose control on vascular retinal disorders in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus.

The ADVANCE Retinal Measurements (AdRem) Study is a large intervention study evaluating the effects of target driven intensive glucose control and placebo controlled blood pressure lowering on retinal vascular changes. AdRem is a sub-study of the ADVANCE Study (Action in Diabetes and Vascular disease), a 2x2 factorial randomized controlled trial with an ACE inhibitor-diuretic combination (perindopril-indapamide) and a gliclazide MR-based regimen in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. The AdRem study is based on seven-field stereoscopic retinal photographs of both eyes.

Health psychology: psychological adjustment to chronic disease.

Chronic diseases carry important psychological and social consequences that demand significant psychological adjustment. The literature is providing increasingly nuanced conceptualizations of adjustment, demonstrating that the experience of chronic disease necessitates adaptation in multiple life domains. Heterogeneity in adjustment is apparent between individuals and across the course of the disease trajectory.

Candesartan- and atenolol-based treatments induce different patterns of carotid artery and left ventricular remodeling in hypertension.

Background And Purpose: Angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB)-based treatment reduces cardiovascular events and stroke more than does beta-blocker-based treatment despite similar blood pressure (BP) reduction. We investigated whether these treatments have different effects on cardiac and large-artery remodelling and evaluated the relation of arterial remodelling to hemodynamic changes in subjects with hypertension.

Methods: We compared the treatment effects of an ARB (candesartan cilexetil)-based regimen and a beta-blocker (atenolol)-based regimen for 52 weeks on common carotid artery (CCA) and left ventricular structure in hypertensive patients in a randomized, double-blind study.

Quantification of topological changes in retinal vascular architecture in essential and malignant hypertension.

Objective: Grading of hypertension severity by fundoscopic appearance is difficult and inaccurate. We investigated whether essential hypertension (EHT) and malignant phase hypertension (MHT) were associated with quantifiable abnormalities of the topology and architecture of the retinal circulation.

Methods: The topology and architecture of the retinal microvasculature were compared in images from 20 normotensive subjects, 20 patients with EHT and 20 patients with MHT.

Expressive disclosure and benefit finding among breast cancer patients: mechanisms for positive health effects.

A randomized trial (n = 60; A. L. Stanton, S.