Culture and neuroscience: How Japanese and European Canadians process social context in close and acquaintance relationships

Recent cultural psychology findings suggest that social orientation affects neural social attention. Whereas independent cultures process people as separate from social context, interdependent cultures process people as dependent on social context. This research expands upon these findings, investigating what role culture plays in people’s neural processing of social context for two relationship contexts, close and acquaintance relationships. To investigate, we had European Canadian and Japanese participants rate the emotions of center faces in face lineups while collecting ERP data. Lineups were either congruent, with all faces showing similar emotions, or incongruent, with center face emotions differing from background faces. To investigate relationship types, we framed face lineups to be in close or acquaintance relationships. We found that for acquaintances, only Japanese processed incongruent social context as meaningful, as seen through N400 incongruity effects. Contrasting with these patterns, only European Canadians showed N400 incongruity effects for close relationships. These patterns were seen whether or not the two groups noticed the emotional conflict, as seen by N2 incongruity effects. Finally, we found that social orientation was differentially related to the neural incongruity effects for the two relationships. These findings further elucidate the nuances of how culture affects neural social attention.     

Long-term outcome of adult acute leukemia patients who are alive and well 2 years after autologous blood or marrow transplantation.

We studied the long-term outcome of 87 adults with acute leukemia (age 15-59 years at transplant, median 27; 44 myeloid, 42 lymphoblastic, one biphenotypic) who were alive in continuous remission 2 years after a marrow (n = 74) or blood stem cell (n = 13) autograft. Nine relapsed 25-50 months (median 38) after transplantation. Five relapses were straightforward with no karyotypic or morphologic evolution of the original disease. Four recurrences were unusual, with development of myelodysplasia (n = 3) or myeloproliferative disease (n = 1). Five patients died of relapsed disease and four are still alive. Two patients died of complications related to the transplant, and one of ischemic heart disease. Seventy-nine patients (91%) are alive in remission 24-149 months (median 67) after transplantation (75 in continuous remission and four after further therapy) with Karnofsky scores of 80-100% (median 100%). The 8-year probabilities of survival, toxic death, and relapse (from the 2-year mark) are 89%, 3% and 12%. Eleven (12%) survivors had creatinine levels of >110 micromol/l (one more than double), and 14 (16%) had bilirubin levels of >17 mmol/l (one more than double) at the last follow-up. None of the following factors was found to be predictive for survival, non-relapse death, or relapse from the 2-year mark in multivariate analysis: age, sex, type of leukemia, disease stage, diagnosis, conditioning, origin of cells, and nucleated cell dose. We conclude that adult patients with acute leukemia who are alive and well 2 years following an autograft have a high probability of being cured, and the incidence of long-term liver and kidney dysfunction measured by serum bilirubin and creatinine is low.     

Gallstones: best served hot.

BACKGROUND: Acute episodes of gallstone-related diseases have traditionally been managed conservatively. In the event of gallstones obstructing the common bile duct, patients had endoscopic extraction of calculi with interval cholecystectomy after 4 weeks to 6 weeks when acute inflammatory changes have subsided. This placed the patient at risk of recurrent cholecystitis, pancreatitis, or other complications of cholelithiasis. METHODS: Patients presenting with acute gallstone-related diseases were investigated and underwent laparoscopic cholecystectomy during the same admission according to a predetermined treatment protocol. RESULTS: All patients (119) treated according to the study protocol had good results, with no 30-day mortality and no biliary tract injuries. One patient had bleeding from the cystic artery, and 6 patients required conversion to open cholecystectomy. CONCLUSION: Growing expertise in laparoscopic cholecystectomy has made it possible for surgeons to perform safe cholecystectomy in the presence of acute gallstone-related disease. Our experience of managing gallstone disease with prompt cholecystectomy during the index admission shows that this approach provides better, safer, and more cost-effective patient care.     

Decay-Accelerating Factor and Cytoskeleton Redistribution Pattern in HeLa Cells Infected with Recombinant Escherichia coli Strains Expressing Dr Family of Adhesins

Escherichia coli strains expressing Dr fimbriae are able to enter epithelial cells by interacting with a complement-regulatory protein, decay-accelerating factor. This model of bacterial internalization, with a well-characterized bacterial ligand and host receptor, provides a unique opportunity to investigate the early stages of invasion. We used immunofluorescence staining techniques to examine the distribution of receptor and cytoskeletal proteins in HeLa cells infected with E. coli recombinant strains that expressed Dr family of adhesins: Dr, Dr-II, F1845, AFA-I, and AFA-III. A major rearrangement of decay-accelerating factor was found at the adherence sites of recombinant strains expressing Dr, Dr-II, and F1845 adhesins. The changes in the distribution of receptor were significantly smaller on HeLa cells infected with E. coli bearing AFA-I or AFA-III afimbrial adhesins. Receptor aggregation was associated with the redistribution of cytoskeleton-associated proteins such as actin, alpha-actinin, ezrin, and occasionally tropomyosin. Purified Dr fimbriae coated on polystyrene beads were capable of triggering clustering of receptor and accumulating actin at the adhesion sites of beads to HeLa cells. Using scanning and transmission electron microscopic techniques, we have shown that beads coated with Dr fimbriae, as opposed to beads coated with bovine serum albumin, were enwrapped by cellular microvilli and ultimately internalized into HeLa cells. This indicates that interaction of Dr fimbriae with decay-accelerating factor is associated with redistribution of receptor and is sufficient to promote bacterial internalization.     

Post traumatic intra thoracic spleen presenting with upper GI bleed! – a case report

Background  

Isolated splenic vein thrombosis with left sided portal hypertension is a rare cause of upper gastrointestinal bleed. Diagnosis is difficult and requires a high index of suspicion, especially in patients presenting with gastrointestinal bleed in the presence of splenomegaly and normal liver function tests.     

Naso-oropharyngeal rhinosporidiosis: Endoscopic removal

Rhinosporidiosis is a chronic infestation by the fungus Rhinosporidium seeberi, which predominantly affects the mucus membranes of the nose and nasopharynx. We report a case of rhinosporidiosis with presentation as an oropharyngeal mass and a discusion about its endoscopic removal.