Cognitive processes involved in the appraisal of stress

Four experiments were organized around a central question: What is the form of relationship between estimated stress level on the one hand and situation strain, personal resources and social support, on the other? The first experiment examined the form of the relationship between estimated level of stress, situation strain and personal resources. The participants were students. They integrated situation strain and personal resources information in a non‐additive way. In particular, the effect of personal resources on the estimated level of stress varied as a function of the level of situation strain considered. When the situation strain was low, the stress level related with this circumstance largely depended on the personal resources of the individual. When the situation strain was high, the stress level related with this circumstance was much less dependent on the personal resources of the individual. The second experiment replicated these results among first‐aid workers, fire‐fighters and persons that had recently been injured. The third and fourth experiments replicated these results in various conditions differing as regards the level of social support. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Cognitive rehabilitation in the elderly: overview and future directions.

This study provides an overview of the papers emanating from the experimental trial that evaluated a new cognitive rehabilitation program in older adults who were experiencing normal cognitive decline. The main features of the design are summarized, along with evidence that the training produced long-lasting improvement in memory performance, goal management, and psychosocial status. The benefits were attributed to several factors, including the program's emphasis on techniques that promoted efficient strategic processing. Limitations of the program and directions for future research are discussed.     

Hypointense transcerebral veins at T2*-weighted MRI: a marker of hemorrhagic transformation risk in patients treated with intravenous tissue plasminogen activator.

Prediction of hemorrhagic transformation (HT) in patients treated by intravenous recombinant tissue-type plasminogen activator (rt-PA) is a challenging issue in acute stroke management. HT may be correlated with severe hypoperfusion. Signal changes may be observed at susceptibility-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) within large perfusion defects. A signal drop within cerebral veins at T2*-weighted gradient-echo MRI may be expected in severe ischemia, and may indicate subsequent risk of HT. The authors prospectively searched for an abnormal visibility of transcerebral veins (AVV) within the ischemic area in patients with hemispheric ischemic stroke, before they were treated with intravenous rt-PA therapy. Any correlation between AVV and baseline clinical or MRI findings, or further HT, was noted. An AVV was present in 23 of 49 patients (obvious, n = 8; moderate, n = 15), and was supported by severe hemodynamic changes at baseline MRI. The AVV was correlated with the occurrence of parenchymal hematoma type 2 at computed tomography during the first week (r = 0.44, P = 0.002). Five of six type 2 parenchymal hematomas occurred in association with obvious AVV. At multiple regression analysis, two baseline MRI factors had an independent predictive value for HT risk during the first week: the AVV and the cerebral blood volume ratio (Nagelkerke R2 = 0.48).     

Loss of cables, a novel gene on chromosome 18q, in ovarian cancer.

Cables, a cyclin-dependent kinase (cdk) interacting protein, has recently been identified and mapped to human chromosome 18q11. Cables appears to be primarily involved in cell cycle regulation and cell proliferation. Overexpression of Cables in Hela and other cell lines inhibits cell proliferation and tumor formation. We hypothesize that loss of Cables expression is associated with ovarian cancer. To test our hypothesis, we examined Cables expression in the four most common subtypes of ovarian carcinomas: serous, endometrioid, mucinous, and clear cell. In addition, mucinous and serous borderline tumors were also included. Loss of Cables expression was observed at high frequency in ovarian serous (11 of 14 cases, 79%) and endometrioid (5 of 10 cases, 50%) carcinomas. In contrast, strong Cables staining was detected in all clear cell carcinomas (10 cases) and mucinous tumors (5 carcinomas and 5 borderline tumors). The majority of serous borderline tumors (11 of 14 cases, 79%) showed positive Cables staining, with the rest showing focal loss of Cables expression. Furthermore, RT-PCR revealed the lack of Cables mRNA in a human ovarian cancer xenograft. No correlation was noted between loss of Cables and histologic grade, tumor stage, and survival. In conclusion, our results indicate that loss of Cables is common in ovarian serous and endometrioid carcinomas and imply that Cables may be involved in the pathogenesis of these two types of ovarian carcinomas.     

Inhibition of in Vitro Generation of Cytotoxicity Against Tumor Cells by Monoclonal Antibody to Thy-1

The Thy-1 molecule on murine T lymphocytes has been suggested to play a role in cellular activation events leading to a variety of immunologic functions. We present evidence that this molecule may be involved in signals leading to the in vitro generation of cytotoxic T cells against several tumor cell lines used as stimulators in mixed tumor-lymphocyte culture. The presence of monoclonal antibody against a polymorphic determinant on the Thy-1 molecule markedly reduced the generation of cytotoxicity after three days of culture of murine splenocytes with stimulator tumor cells bearing low levels of Ia antigen. In contrast, no effect was seen when the stimulators were either allogeneic splenocytes, or a tumor cell line expressing large amounts of Ia. These results suggest that the Thy-1 molecule is critically involved in events leading to the generation of cytotoxic effectors under some, but not all conditions.     

When the right to be counted doesn’t count: The politics and challenges of researching the health of asylum seekers

A fundamental prerequisite of population health research is the ability to establish an accurate denominator. This in turn requires that every individual in the study population is counted. However, this seemingly simple principle has become a point of conflict between researchers whose aim is to produce evidence of disparities in population health outcomes and governments whose policies promote (intentionally or not) inequalities that are the underlying causes of health disparities. Research into the health of asylum seekers is a case in point. There is a growing body of evidence documenting the adverse affects of recent changes in asylum-seeking legislation, including mandatory detention. However, much of this evidence has been dismissed by some governments as being unsound, biased and unscientific because, it is argued, evidence is derived from small samples or from case studies. Yet, it is the policies of governments that are the key barrier to the conduct of rigorous population health research on asylum seekers. In this paper, the authors discuss the challenges of counting asylum seekers and the limitations of data reported in some industrialized countries. They argue that the lack of accurate statistical data on asylum seekers has been an effective neo-conservative strategy for erasing the health inequalities in this vulnerable population, indeed a strategy that renders invisible this population. They describe some alternative strategies that may be used by researchers to obtain denominator data on hard-to-reach populations such as asylum seekers.     

Age-related changes in lung collagen metabolism. A role for degradation in regulating lung collagen production

Lung collagen levels are determined by a balance between synthesis and degradation, processes known to have rapid rates in young animals. Here, we report age-related changes in lung collagen synthesis and degradation in rats at five ages from 1 month to 2 yr. Synthesis rates were determined after injection of [14C]proline with a flooding dose of unlabeled proline, and its appearance as hydroxy-[14C]proline in protein. To determine degradation of newly synthesized collagen, the appearance of hydroxy-[14C]proline, either free or in low-molecular-weight peptides, was compared with hydroxy-[14C]proline in protein. Fractional collagen synthesis rates decreased from 13.51 +/- 0.54%/day at 1 month to 0.97 +/- 0.14%/day at 2 yr of age (p less than 0.05). Total lung collagen production also fell, but only after 15 months, when it decreased from 2.01 +/- 0.16 mg/day at 15 months to 0.54 +/- 0.10 mg/day at 2 yr of age (p less than 0.05). Fractional rates of total collagen degradation, calculated from the difference between rates of synthesis and rates of collagen deposition, decreased 20-fold from 1 month to 2 yr of age. The proportion of newly synthesized collagen degraded increased from 27.6 +/- 3.2% at 1 month to a maximum of 82.3 +/- 1.1% at 15 months. These results suggest that lung collagen synthesis and degradation occur throughout life, and that degradative pathways may play important roles in regulating collagen production during growth and ageing.