A healthy heart is not a metronome: an integrative review of the heart's anatomy and heart rate variability.

Heart rate variability (HRV), the change in the time intervals between adjacent heartbeats, is an emergent property of interdependent regulatory systems that operate on different time scales to adapt to challenges and achieve optimal performance. This article briefly reviews neural regulation of the heart, and its basic anatomy, the cardiac cycle, and the sinoatrial and atrioventricular pacemakers. The cardiovascular regulation center in the medulla integrates sensory information and input from higher brain centers, and afferent cardiovascular system inputs to adjust heart rate and blood pressure via sympathetic and parasympathetic efferent pathways.

Acceptance of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender patients, attitudes about their treatment, and related medical knowledge among osteopathic medical students.

Context: Limited research exists on the health issues faced by lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) patients, as viewed in the context of osteopathic medical education. A full understanding of current medical students' acceptance of, attitudes toward, and knowledge of these issues could lead to the development and incorporation of curricula focusing on the care of LGBT patients into colleges of osteopathic medicine (COMs).

Objective: To determine among osteopathic medical students the levels of acceptance of LGBT patients, attitudes toward treating this population, and medically relevant knowledge about their distinct health-related issues.

Two organophosphorus pesticides: methyl parathion and dicapthon.

Structural studies performed in this laboratory of organophosphorus pesticides continue with these related compounds. The -NO2 groups of methyl parathion (systematic name: dimethyl 4-nitrophenyl phosphorothioate, C8H10NO5PS) and dicapthon (systematic name: 2-chloro-4-nitrophenyl dimethyl phosphorothioate, C8H9ClNO5PS) make dihedral angles of 10.67 (8) and 5.

Differential time scales of change to learning frequency structures of isometric force tracking.

Multiple processes support the persistent (learning) and transient (adaptive) change in behavior over time. We investigated whether practice and rest influence similarly the learning and adaptation of slow and fast frequency structures in isometric force tracking of pathways that varied in their regularity. Participants practiced 25 trials on each of 5 days in either a constant force target or 1 with the 1/f distributional properties of brown or pink noise.

Two molybdenum pentacarbonyl complexes with electroneutral phosphane ligands: [bis(morpholin-4-yl)(pentafluoroethyl)phosphane-κP]pentacarbonylmolybdenum(0) and pentacarbonyl[(pentafluoroethyl)bis(piperidin-1-yl)phosphane-κP]molybdenum(0).

The crystal structures of the title compounds, [Mo{(C4H8NO)2P(C2F5)}(CO)5], (1a), and [Mo{(C5H10N)2P(C2F5)}(CO)5], (2a), were determined as part of a larger project that focuses on the synthesis and coordination chemistry of phosphane ligands possessing moderate (electroneutral, i.e. neither electron-rich nor electron-deficient) electronic characteristics.

Wet- and dry-season steroid hormone profiles and stress reactivity of an insular dwarf snake, the Hog Island boa (Boa constrictor imperator).

Field endocrine studies providing new comparisons for inference into the evolutionary and ecological factors shaping organismal physiology are important, often yielding novel physiological insights. Here, we explored factors associated with the sex steroid hormone concentrations and adrenocortical response to capture stress in Hog Island boas (Boa constrictor imperator) in the Cayos Cochinos archipelago of Honduras to generate comparative field hormone data from a tropical reptile and test the island tameness hypothesis. Baseline concentrations of testosterone, corticosterone, estradiol, and progesterone were measured during the wet and dry seasons, and an acute stressor of 1 h in a cloth bag was used to assess the stress response.

TEM analyses of chaetognath reproductive organs.

Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) enables analysis of subcellular organization. It is especially useful for describing the diverse array of cell types in the gonads and embryos of marine invertebrates. Here, I describe methods for preserving and embedding the reproductive organs of marine arrow worms for TEM, including procedures for staining thick sections for light microscopy and thin sections for TEM.

Reliability and smallest worthwhile difference of the NFL-225 test in NCAA Division I football players.

The NFL-225 test is widely used to assess the strength level and evaluate the progress of college football players during resistance training. Despite the studies evaluating the validity of this test, there are no reports assessing its reliability. The purpose of this study was to determine the reliability and smallest worthwhile difference (SWD) of the NFL-225 test in Division I college football players.

Factors that contribute to and account for strength and work capacity in a large cohort of recreationally trained adult healthy men with high- and low-strength levels.

The factors that best account for differences in strength across all types of exercise, body types, and training histories are not well understood. The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of strength level and body composition on upper- and lower-body work capacity in adult men. From a cohort of 295 adult men (25.

Are Improvements in Cognitive Content and Depressive Symptoms Correlates or Mediators during Acute-Phase Cognitive Therapy for Recurrent Major Depressive Disorder?

The cognitive model of depression posits that cognitive therapy's (CT) effect on depressive symptoms is mediated by changes in cognitive content (e.g., automatic negative thoughts dysfunctional attitudes, failure attributions).

A trade-off between quantity and quality of offspring in haematophagous ectoparasites: the effect of the level of specialization.

Theory predicts an adaptive trade-off between quantity and quality of offspring if mothers can reliably predict the offspring environment. We studied egg production and quality of offspring in two flea species (host-specialist Parapulex chephrenis and host-generalist Xenopsylla ramesis) exploiting eight rodent species. We evaluated quality of new imagoes via their developmental time, size (length of a femur as a proxy) and resistance to starvation without a blood meal.

O,O-Dimethyl O-(4-sulfamoylphen-yl) phospho-rothio-ate (cythio-ate).

The title mol-ecule, C8H12NO5PS2, exhibits a crystallographic mirror plane that is perpendicular to the ring and bis-ects the sulfamoyl and thio-phosphate ester groups. In the crystal, mol-ecules are linked by N-H⋯O hydrogen-bonding inter-actions reminiscent of carb-oxy-lic acid hydrogen bonding pairs, forming chains parallel to the b-axis direction.

Backbone-base interactions critical to quantum stabilization of transfer RNA anticodon structure.

Transfer RNA (tRNA) anticodons adopt a highly ordered 3'-stack without significant base overlap. Density functional theory at the M06-2X/6-31+G(d,p) level in combination with natural bond orbital analysis was utilized to calculate the intramolecular interactions within the tRNA anticodon that are responsible for stabilizing the stair-stepped conformation. Ten tRNA X-ray crystal structures were obtained from the PDB databank and were trimmed to include only the anticodon bases.

A conceptual model of the Amblyomma americanum life cycle in northeast Missouri.

The geographic distribution of Amblyomma americanum (the lone star tick) has increased as has its role as a pathogen vector. The objectives of this study were to determine seasonal activity patterns of each life stage of A. americanum in the northwestern part of the species range and the relationship of these activity patterns among life stages and degree days.

Nomothetic and idiographic symptom change trajectories in acute-phase cognitive therapy for recurrent depression.

Objective: We tested nomothetic and idiographic convergence and change in 3 symptom measures during acute-phase cognitive therapy (CT) for depression and compared outcomes among patients showing different change patterns.

Method: Outpatients (N = 362; 69% women; 85% White; age M = 43 years) with recurrent major depressive disorder according to criteria in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed., text rev.

Community Health Policy Assessment of a Rural Northeast Missouri County using the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's CHANGE Tool.

Background: In order to build a framework to address policy gaps and needs, community's risk factors were identified and the extent to which current policies were in place to address the risk factors were compared.

Methods: Face-to-face interviews, using the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's CHANGE tool were conducted in a rural Northeast Missouri county possessing exceptionally high chronic disease rates to assess the factor(s) had the greatest influence on the rates in each sector of the community.

Results: The Health Care Agency sector possessed the most factors categorized as environmental and policy assets, and the Community-at-Large and Business/Worksite sectors seemed to possess the least environmental and policy factors categorized as assets.

Modeling the influence of Peromyscus leucopus body mass, sex, and habitat on immature Dermacentor variabilis burden.

Immature (larvae and nymph) tick burden on rodents is an important determinant of adult tick population size and understanding infectious disease dynamics. The objective of this research was to build a descriptive model for immature Dermacentor variabilis burden on Peromyscus leucopus. Mice were live-trapped on two permanent grids in an old field and an early successional forest every other month between April and October, 2006-2009.

The function of consciousness in multisensory integration.

The function of consciousness was explored in two contexts of audio-visual speech, cross-modal visual attention guidance and McGurk cross-modal integration. Experiments 1, 2, and 3 utilized a novel cueing paradigm in which two different flash suppressed lip-streams cooccured with speech sounds matching one of these streams. A visual target was then presented at either the audio-visually congruent or incongruent location.

Ectoparasite fitness in auxiliary hosts: phylogenetic distance from a principal host matters.

We studied reproductive performance in two flea species (Parapulex chephrenis and Xenopsylla ramesis) exploiting either a principal or one of eight auxiliary host species. We predicted that fleas would produce more eggs and adult offspring when exploiting (i) a principal host than an auxiliary host and (ii) an auxiliary host phylogenetically close to a principal host than an auxiliary host phylogenetically distant from a principal host. In both flea species, egg production per female after one feeding and production of new imago after a timed period of an uninterrupted stay on a host differed significantly between host species.

Economic impact of a smoke-free ordinance on bars and restaurants in a small, rural, Missouri community.

The purpose of this study was to analyze the economic impact of a city-wide smoke-free ordinance in the small, relatively isolated, rural, Northeast Missouri community of Kirksville. A model similar to prior studies was applied to the taxable sales revenues of eating and drinking establishment data prior to and following enactment of a smoke-free ordinance. It was found that there was a significant positive change in eating and drinking establishment taxable sales revenues post-enactment.

Comparison of kettlebell swings and treadmill running at equivalent rating of perceived exertion values.

The purpose of this study was to compare metabolic demand of a kettlebell (KB) swing routine with treadmill (TM) running at equivalent rating of perceived exertion (RPE). Thirteen subjects (11 male, 2 female, age = 21.4 ± 2.

Impact of testing strategy on expression of upper-body work capacity and one-repetition maximum prediction after resistance training in college-aged men and women.

The purpose of this study was to assess the effect of resistance training on upper-body muscular strength and the expression of work capacity and muscular endurance. In addition, a training-induced change in the relationship between muscular strength and endurance was assessed by testing changes in the accuracy of using endurance repetitions to predict 1 repetition maximum (1RM) bench press before and after training. College-aged men (n = 85) and women (n = 62) completed a 12-week linear periodization resistance training program.

Change in psychosocial functioning and depressive symptoms during acute-phase cognitive therapy for depression.

Background: Major depressive disorder (MDD) is highly prevalent, is recurrent, and impairs people's work, relationships and leisure. Acute-phase treatments improve psychosocial impairment associated with MDD, but how these improvements occur is unclear. In this study, we tested the hypotheses that reductions in depressive symptoms exceed, precede and predict improvements in psychosocial functioning.

Relationship of Facility Characteristics and Presence of an Ombudsman to Missouri Long-Term Care Facility State Inspection Report Results.

This study analyzes existing data describing general facility characteristics, the presence of an ombudsman in the facility, and the number of deficiencies/violations reported for long-term care facilities in the state of Missouri. The model that predicted the rate of deficiencies/violations best was one that included the following characteristics: "contained more than 50 beds" and "considered a Skilled Nursing facility." Findings suggest that the characteristics that are significantly associated with fewer deficiencies are larger size (more than 50 beds) and being classified as Skilled Nursing.

Fechner's "inner psychophysics".

Though psychologists are generally aware that Gustav Fechner introduced psychophysics and set down its essential methodology, most of them only know about the part that Fechner called "outer psychophysics." In his classic publication of 1860, Fechner insisted that "inner psychophysics" was more important, yet this aspect of Fechner's work failed to receive any attention. The article reviews Fechner's presentation of inner psychophysics and suggests reasons why that part of his work was neglected and has been forgotten.