The mode of action of venom from the endoparasitic wasp Pimpla hypochondriaca (hymenoptera: ichneumonidae) involves Ca+2-dependent cell death pathways.

The endoparasitoid Pimpla hypochondriaca injects venom during oviposition to condition its lepidopteran hosts. Venom is a complex mixture of proteins and polypeptides, many of which have been identified as enzymes, including phenoloxidase, endopeptidase, aminopeptidase, hydrolase, and angiotensin-converting enzyme. Constituents of the venom have been shown to possess cytolytic and paralytic activity, but the modes of action of factor(s) responsible for exerting such effects have not been deciphered.

Using the five-factor model to identify a new personality disorder domain: the case for experiential permeability.

Two studies were conducted to demonstrate that maladaptive aspects of high and low Openness to Experience were related to characterological impairment and that this aspect of personality may define a new domain of personality dysfunction. The 55-item Experiential Permeability Inventory (EPI; containing 4 scales) was developed and demonstrated to have acceptable psychometric properties. Evidence of convergent, discriminant, and incremental validity was provided.

Expression of the insulin-like growth factor and insulin systems in the luteinizing macaque ovarian follicle.

Objective: To determine intrafollicular hormone levels and characterize the mRNA expression of the insulin-like growth factor (IGF) receptors, IGF binding proteins (IGFBP), and pregnancy-associated plasma protein-A (PAPP-A) in granulosa cells before and after an ovulatory hCG stimulus.

Design: Experimental animal study.

Setting: Academic medical center.

Patient-reported outcomes for an integrated real-time continuous glucose monitoring/insulin pump system.

Background: A 16-week, two-site study evaluated outcomes for a new device (the Paradigm 722 System, Medtronic MiniMed, Northridge, CA) that combines a "smart" continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion (CSII) pump with real-time (RT) continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) and CareLinktrade mark data management software (DMS).

Methods: CSII-naive adults with type 1 diabetes in suboptimal control (mean glycosylated hemoglobin [A1C] = 8.6%) were randomized to the control arm, consisting of multiple daily injections (MDI) and self-monitoring of blood glucose (SMBG), or the study arm (CSII with RT-CGM as an adjunct to SMBG).

Diabetes distress and its association with clinical outcomes in patients with type 2 diabetes treated with pramlintide as an adjunct to insulin therapy.

Objective: This study was designed to assess diabetes-related distress and its association with clinical outcomes in patients with type 2 diabetes using basal insulin who were treated with pramlintide.

Methods: In a 16-week, double-blind, placebo-controlled study 211 patients using insulin glargine with or without oral antidiabetes agents were randomized to addition of pramlintide or placebo. Clinical outcomes (change in A1C, postprandial glucose, daily basal insulin dose, and weight) and during-trial hypoglycemia were assessed, along with the Diabetes Distress Scale (DDS).

Crisis intervention and fostering resiliency.

Current estimates are that most people living in the United States will experience at least one violent or life-threatening event during their lives. Recent data suggest, however that most people exposed to traumatic events do not experience serious disruptions in normal life functioning, and are in fact resilient. The purpose of this article is to review the constructs of resilience and recovery, and to suggest how early crisis intervention, historically linked with the mitigation or prevention of psychological distress, may more accurately be conceptualized in terms of fostering or enhancing resiliency.

The clinical significance of neuropsychological changes following bilateral subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation for Parkinson's disease.

Despite the clinical importance of the question, a number of methodological issues have limited firm conclusions regarding the cognitive safety of deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the subthalamic nucleus (STN) in Parkinson's disease (PD). Amongst these issues, studies have generally failed to consider the postoperative changes that occur within individual patients. This study utilized reliable change indices (RCIs) derived from a PD sample to determine the frequency of clinically significant postoperative decline on a battery of neuropsychological measures.

Cognitive deficits in essential tremor consistent with frontosubcortical dysfunction.

Essential tremor (ET) is increasingly thought to involve a heterogeneous group of patients, with some also exhibiting symptoms of Parkinson's disease (PD), including cognitive deficits. The goal of this study was to utilize a broad battery of neuropsychological measures to compare the cognitive function of 33 ET patients with that of 33 matched PD patients and 21 normal controls. Results indicated that the ET group performed significantly worse than controls across multiple cognitive domains, but performed remarkably similar to PD patients, consistent with frontosubcortical dysfunction.

Using MUMmer to identify similar regions in large sequence sets.

The MUMmer sequence alignment package is a suite of computer programs designed to detect regions of homology in long biological sequences. Version 2.1 makes several improvements to the package, including: increased speed and reduced memory requirements; the ability to handle both protein and DNA sequences; the ability to handle multiple sequence fragments; and new algorithms for clustering together basic matches.

The touch that heals: the uses and meanings of touch in the clinical encounter.

This paper investigates the healer's touch in contemporary medical practice, with attention to both allopathic and alternative modalities. Healing is understood as the recovery of an integrated relationship between the self and its body, others, and the surrounding world-the relationship that illness has rendered problematic. In this context, touch can play a crucial role in the clinical encounter.

Modeling Disease Progression with Longitudinal Markers.

In this paper we propose a Bayesian natural history model for disease progression based on the joint modeling of longitudinal biomarker levels, age at clinical detection of disease and disease status at diagnosis. We establish a link between the longitudinal responses and the natural history of the disease by using an underlying latent disease process which describes the onset of the disease and models the transition to an advanced stage of the disease as dependent on the biomarker levels. We apply our model to the data from the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging on prostate specific antigen (PSA) to investigate the natural history of prostate cancer.

Girl friend, boy friend, girlfriend, boyfriend: broadening our understanding of heterosocial competence.

Heterosocial interactions, or social interactions with other-sex peers, are theorized to serve a number of unique developmental functions for adolescents (e.g., companionship, intimacy, experimentation with sex-role behaviors and sexual activity).

Introduction to the special section on adolescent romantic competence: development and adjustment implications.

Romantic relationships are a normative developmental experience in adolescence. Although many prominent developmental theories recognize their importance in helping to form the foundations for future healthy adult relationships, empirical research has not progressed at an expected pace, and there remain many gaps in our knowledge base. Existing research suggests that, regardless of their duration, adolescent romances are salient emotional experiences with significant adjustment implications, both positive and negative.

Dissociative effects of true and false recall as a function of different encoding strategies.

Goodwin, Meissner, and Ericsson (2001) proposed a path model in which elaborative encoding predicted the likelihood of verbalisation of critical, nonpresented words at encoding, which in turn predicted the likelihood of false recall. The present study tested this model of false recall experimentally with a manipulation of encoding strategy and the implementation of the process-tracing technique of protocol analysis. Findings indicated that elaborative encoding led to more verbalisations of critical items during encoding than rote rehearsal of list items, but false recall rates were reduced under elaboration conditions (Experiment 2).

Police interviewing and interrogation: a self-report survey of police practices and beliefs.

By questionnaire, 631 police investigators reported on their interrogation beliefs and practices-the first such survey ever conducted. Overall, participants estimated that they were 77% accurate at truth and lie detection, that 81% of suspects waive Miranda rights, that the mean length of interrogation is 1.6 hours, and that they elicit self-incriminating statements from 68% of suspects, 4.

Self-regulation, rumination, and vulnerability to depression in adolescent girls.

There is increasing evidence that with the onset of adolescence, girls experience higher rates of depression than boys. However, a comprehensive understanding of the risk factors contributing to this emerging gender difference has yet to be attained. Previous studies indicate that both self-discrepancy, the perception that one is failing to attain an important personal goal, and ruminative coping, a tendency to passively and repetitively focus on one's failure and the causes and consequences of that failure, contribute to depression and that adolescent girls are more likely to manifest each than adolescent boys.

Psychosocial outcomes of anxious first graders: a seven-year follow-up.

This study examined the concurrent and long-term psychosocial outcomes associated with anxiety symptoms among a community sample of predominately low-income African Americans (N=149; 72 females). We classified first graders as high or low anxious using child, parent, and teacher reports. Academic, social, and psychological outcomes were assessed in the first and eighth grades.

Effects of medical crisis intervention on anxiety, depression, and posttraumatic stress symptoms: a meta-analysis.

A meta-analysis of 11 studies (N=2124) investigating the impact of individual crisis intervention with medical patients yielded a significant, overall moderate effect size, d=0.44. The strongest effect of individual crisis intervention was on posttraumatic stress symptoms (d=0.

Friend influence on prosocial behavior: The role of motivational factors and friendship characteristics.

This study examined motivation (prosocial goals), individual characteristics (sex, ethnicity, and grade), and friendship characteristics (affective quality, interaction frequency, and friendship stability) in relation to middle adolescents' prosocial behavior over time. Ninth- and 10th-grade students (N = 208) attending a suburban, mid-Atlantic public high school and having at least 1 reciprocated friendship were followed for 1 year. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that a friend's behavior is related to an individual's prosocial goal pursuit, which in turn, is related to an individual's prosocial behavior.

"Spooky actions at a distance": physics, psi, and distant healing.

Over decades, consciousness research has accumulated evidence of the real and measureable existence of "spooky actions at a distance"--modes of telepathy, telekinesis, clairvoyance, and the like. More recently scientists have begun rigorous study of the effects of distant healing intention and prayer vis-a-vis nonhuman living systems and patients in clinical trials. A barrier to taking such work seriously may be the belief that it is fundamentally incompatible with the scientific world view.

Localization of intracellular calcium release in cells injured by venom from the ectoparasitoid Nasonia vitripennis (Walker) (Hymenoptera: Pteromalidae) and dependence of calcium mobilization on G-protein activation.

Venom from the ectoparasitic wasp Nasonia vitripennis induces cellular injury that appears to involve the release of intracellular calcium stores via the activation of phospholipase C, and culminates in oncotic death. A linkage between release of intracellular Ca2+ and oncosis has not been clearly established and was the focus of this study. When BTI-TN-5B1-4 cells were treated with suramin, an uncoupler of G-proteins, venom-induced swelling and oncotic death were inhibited in a dose-dependent manner for at least 24 h.

Bimodal response sensitivity and bias in a test of sustained attention contrasting patients with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder to normal comparison group.

This study examined response discrimination (d') and bias (likelihood ratio) differentials in a computer-generated test of auditory and visual attention functioning. Patients with bipolar disorder (n=42) and schizophrenia (n=47) were contrasted to a normal comparison group (n=89) in two conditions: (a) simple modal responsivity (auditory and visual stimuli) and (b) ipsimodal (auditory/auditory and visual/visual) and crossmodal (auditory/visual and visual/auditory) responding. The results of this study indicated that in the simple modal condition both subject groups showed differential modal preferences but in opposite directions.

PTSD reactions and coping responses of East Coast and West Coast American Airlines flight attendants after September 11: a possible psychological contagion effect?

Psychological reactions and functional coping of East Coast and West Coast-based flight attendants were compared after the attacks on September 11. Demographics and standardized questionnaires were sent in June 2002 to approximately 26,000 flight attendants. The 2,050 returned surveys were separated into East Coast-based flight crews (513 from Boston, New York, and Washington, DC) and West Coast-based flight crews (353 from Los Angeles and San Francisco).

Spiritual transcendence as a predictor of psychosocial outcome from an outpatient substance abuse program.

Does the Spiritual Transcendence Scale (STS; R. L. Piedmont, 1999) predict psychosocial outcomes from an outpatient substance abuse program? Self-report data on symptoms, personality, and coping resources were obtained for 73 consecutive admissions (57 men and 16 women; ages 19-66 years) at intake and again from the 56 (47 men and 9 women) who completed treatment.

Child sexual abuse evaluations in an emergency room: an overview and suggestions for a multidisciplinary approach.

The physical and emotional distress associated with child sexual abuse may be compounded when the professional response in the emergency room (ER) to this critical incident is not well planned, comprehensive, and multidisciplinary. The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of the literature on emergency room (ER) evaluations of child sexual abuse and to provide recommendations for a multidisciplinary team approach to conducting these evaluations that includes physicians, nurses, mental health workers, and law enforcement officers.