Social vulnerability and reactions to caregiving in daughters and daughters‐in‐law caring for disabled aging parents

Variables that have been conceptually linked with social vulnerability—income, educational level, employment, cessation of work to provide care, marital status, social support, and health—were used to predict four categories of reaction to caregiving in 159 daughters and daughters‐in‐law caring for their disabled aging parents. Social support, income, and health best predicted negative reactions to caregiving; social support alone best predicted feelings of family abandonment, impact on health, and impact on schedule. Compared with daughters and daughters‐in‐law who had not quit work to provide care, those who had quit work were significantly older, had lower incomes and fewer social supports, and were more involved in care. The results suggest that quitting work may be a precursor to social isolation that places the caregiver at increased risk for social vulnerability and negative reaction to caregiving. The implications of the findings for health care policy are discussed.     

Temporal Pattern of Cocaine Intake Determines Tolerance vs Sensitization of Cocaine Effects at the Dopamine Transporter

The dopamine transporter (DAT) is responsible for terminating dopamine (DA) signaling and is the primary site of cocaine''s reinforcing actions. Cocaine self-administration has been shown previously to result in changes in cocaine potency at the DAT. To determine whether the DAT changes associated with self-administration are due to differences in intake levels or temporal patterns of cocaine-induced DAT inhibition, we manipulated cocaine access to produce either continuous or intermittent elevations in cocaine brain levels. Long-access (LgA, 6 h) and short-access (ShA, 2 h) continuous self-administration produced similar temporal profiles of cocaine intake that were sustained throughout the session; however, LgA had greater intake. ShA and intermittent-access (IntA, 6 h) produced the same intake, but different temporal profiles, with ‘spiking'' brain levels in IntA compared with constant levels in ShA. IntA consisted of 5-min access periods alternating with 25-min timeouts, which resulted in bursts of high responding followed by periods of no responding. DA release and uptake, as well as the potency of cocaine for DAT inhibition, were assessed by voltammetry in the nucleus accumbens slices following control, IntA, ShA, and LgA self-administration. Continuous-access protocols (LgA and ShA) did not change DA parameters, but the ‘spiking'' protocol (IntA) increased both release and uptake of DA. In addition, high continuous intake (LgA) produced tolerance to cocaine, while ‘spiking'' (IntA) produced sensitization, relative to ShA and naive controls. Thus, intake and pattern can both influence cocaine potency, and tolerance seems to be produced by high intake, while sensitization is produced by intermittent temporal patterns of intake.     

Sex role identity and depression in nurses

The relationship between sex role identity and depression in nurses was explored. It was posited that nurses tend to be high in feminine traits and have traditional attitudes and that these traits and attitudes will be correlated with depressive symptoms. The sample consisted of 203 nurses employed at a 350‐bed metropolitan hospital. The research questionnaire included: (a) the Maferr Inventory of Feminine Values, (b) the Bem Sex Role Inventory, (c) the Zung Self‐Rating Depression Scale, and (d) demographic data. It was found that a strong and positive association existed between traditional attitudes toward feminine sex roles and depressive symptoms. However, relationships between feminine traits and depressive symptoms were not found. Data analysis also indicated statistically significant relationships between both androgenous traits, masculine traits, and lack of depressive symptoms. Limitations in scope and sampling procedures were discussed. In addition, the significance to nursing was discussed.     

Geometrical manipulation of complex supramolecular tessellations by hierarchical assembly of amphiphilic platinum(II) complexes

Here we report complex supramolecular tessellations achieved by the directed self-assembly of amphiphilic platinum(II) complexes. Despite the twofold symmetry, these geometrically simple molecules exhibit complicated structural hierarchy in a columnar manner. A possible key to such an order increase is the topological transition into circular trimers, which are noncovalently interlocked by metal···metal and π–π interactions, thereby allowing for cofacial stacking in a prismatic assembly. Another key to success is to use the immiscibility of the tailored hydrophobic and hydrophilic sidechains. Their phase separation leads to the formation of columnar crystalline nanostructures homogeneously oriented on the substrate, featuring an unusual geometry analogous to a rhombitrihexagonal Archimedean tiling. Furthermore, symmetry lowering of regular motifs by design results in an orthorhombic lattice obtained by the coassembly of two different platinum(II) amphiphiles. These findings illustrate the potentials of supramolecular engineering in creating complex self-assembled architectures of soft materials.

Tessellation in two dimensions (2D) is a very old topic in geometry on how one or more shapes can be periodically arranged to fill a Euclidean plane without any gaps. Tessellation principles have been extensively applied in decorative art since the early times. In natural sciences, there has been a growing attention on creating ordered structures with increasingly complex architectures inspired by semi-regular Archimedean tilings (ATs) and quasicrystalline textures on account of their intriguing physical properties (1–5) and biological functions (6). Recent advances in this regard have been achieved in various fields of supramolecular science, including the programmable self-assembly of DNA molecules (7), coordination-driven assembly (8–10), supramolecular interfacial engineering (11–13), crystallization of organic polygons (14, 15), colloidal particle superlattices (16), and other soft-matter systems (17–20). Moreover, tessellation in 2D can overcome the topological frustration to generate complex semi- or non-regular patterns by using geometrically simple motifs. As exemplified by the self-templating assembly of spherical soft microparticles (21), a vast array of 2D micropatterns encoding non-regular tilings, such as rectangular, rhomboidal, hexagonal, and herringbone superlattices were obtained by layer-by-layer strategy at a liquid–liquid interface. Tessellation principles have also been extended to the self-assembly of giant molecules in three dimensions (3D). Superlattices with high space-group symmetry (Im3¯m, Pm3¯n, and P4₂/mnm) were reported in dendrimers and dendritic polymers by Percec and coworkers (22–24). Recently, Cheng and coworkers identified the highly ordered Frank–Kasper phases obtained from giant amphiphiles containing molecular nanoparticles (25–28). Despite such advancements made in the field of soft matter, an understanding of how structural ordering in supramolecular materials is influenced by the geometric factors of its constituent molecules has so far remained elusive.In light of these developments and the desire to explore the supramolecular systems, square-planar platinum(II) (Pt^II) polypyridine complexes may serve as an ideal candidate for model studies not only because of their intriguing spectroscopic and luminescence properties (29, 30), but also because of their propensity to form supramolecular polymers or oligomers via noncovalent Pt···Pt and π–π interactions (31–39). Although rod-shaped and lamellar structures are the most commonly observed in the self-assembly of planar Pt^II complexes (34–39), 2D-ordered nanostructures, such as the hexagonally packed columns (31, 40) and honeycomb-like networks (41–43), were recently first demonstrated by us.Herein, we report a serendipitous discovery of a C_2h-symmetric Pt^II amphiphile (Fig. 1A) that can hierarchically self-assemble into a 3D-ordered nanostructure with hexagonal geometry. Interestingly, this structurally anisotropic molecule possibly undergoes topological transition and interlocks to form its circular trimer by noncovalent Pt···Pt and π–π interactions (Fig. 1B). The resultant triangular motif is architecturally stabilized and preorganized for one-dimensional (1D) prismatic assembly (Fig. 1C). Together with the phase separation of the tailored hydrophobic and hydrophilic sidechains, an unusual and unique 3D hexagonal lattice is formed (Fig. 1D), in which the Pt centers adopt a rare rhombitrihexagonal AT-like order. Finally, the nanoarchitecture develops in a hierarchical manner on the substrate due to the homogeneous nucleation (Fig. 1E).Open in a separate windowFig. 1.Hierarchical self-assembly of Pt^II amphiphile into hexagonal ordering. (A) Space-filling (CPK) model of a C_2h-symmetric Pt^II amphiphile (1). All of the hydrogen atoms and counterions are omitted for clarity. (B) CPK representations of possible models of regular triangular, tetragonal, pentagonal, and hexagonal motifs formed with Pt···Pt and π–π stacking. These motifs possess a hydrophilic core (red) with various diameters wrapped by a hydrophobic shell comprising long alkyl chains (gray). (C) CPK representation of a 1D prismatic structure consisting of circular trimers with long-range Pt···Pt and π–π stacking. (D) CPK representation of a 3D columnar lattice constructed by the prismatic assemblies adopting a rare rhombitrihexagonal AT-like order. With the assistance of the phase separation, the hydrophobic domain serves as a discrete column associated with six prismatic neighbors. (E) Schematic representation of the nanoarchitecture with homogeneous orientation.     

The Role of Serotonin (5-HT) in Behavioral Control: Findings from Animal Research and Clinical Implications

The neurotransmitters serotonin and dopamine both have a critical role in the underlying neurobiology of different behaviors. With focus on the interplay between dopamine and serotonin, it has been proposed that dopamine biases behavior towards habitual responding, and with serotonin offsetting this phenomenon and directing the balance toward more flexible, goal-directed responding. The present focus paper stands in close relationship to the publication by Worbe et al. (2015), which deals with the effects of acute tryptophan depletion, a neurodietary physiological method to decrease central nervous serotonin synthesis in humans for a short period of time, on the balance between hypothetical goal-directed and habitual systems. In that research, acute tryptophan depletion challenge administration and a following short-term reduction in central nervous serotonin synthesis were associated with a shift of behavioral performance towards habitual responding, providing further evidence that central nervous serotonin function modulates the balance between goal-directed and stimulus-response habitual systems of behavioral control. In the present focus paper, we discuss the findings by Worbe and colleagues in light of animal experiments as well as clinical implications and discuss potential future avenues for related research.     

In vivo hematopoietic effects of recombinant interleukin-1 alpha in mice: stimulation of granulocytic, monocytic, megakaryocytic, and early erythroid progenitors, suppression of late-stage erythropoiesis, and reversal of erythroid suppression with erythropoietin

Interleukin-1 alpha (IL-1 alpha) is a macrophage-derived, multifunctional cytokine that broadly potentiates myelopoiesis and induces the synthesis of hematopoietic colony-stimulating factors (CSF) in vitro and in vivo. To evaluate the possibility for use of IL-1 alpha in ameliorating in vivo bone marrow suppression induced by drugs or radiation, we examined the in vivo effects of the cytokine on erythropoietic and other hematopoietic progenitor cells. Normal mice were treated with a single intraperitoneal (IP) injection of recombinant human IL-1 alpha at varying doses and were assayed at various times post-treatment. By six hours postinjection, a significant suppression of mature erythroid progenitors (CFU-E) was observed in animals treated with IL-1 alpha (0.5 micrograms/mouse), with maximum suppression of CFU-E and peripheral blood reticulocyte counts occurring at 24 hours. Decreases in peripheral blood hematocrit did not occur after a single IL-1 alpha injection but were observed after multiple injections of the cytokine. The suppressive effects of IL-1 alpha on late-stage erythropoiesis were abrogated by simultaneous administration of erythropoietin (EPO). At 48 hours post-treatment, a marked stimulation was observed in the numbers of spleen and marrow immature erythroid (BFU-E), macrophage (CFU-M), granulocyte (CFU-G), granulocyte- macrophage (CFU-GM), and megakaryocyte (CFU-meg) progenitor cells. These results demonstrate the potential use of IL-1 alpha as a generalized stimulator of hematopoiesis and show that the cytokine- induced suppression of late-stage erythropoiesis can be prevented by EPO.     

A set of double-angled needle holders and long,angled tissue forceps for use in surgery of the abdomen

A set of double-angled needle holders and long, angled tissue forceps have been designed and presented for use in surgery of the abdomen. The problems of passage and control of curved needles in all directions is well recognized. The marriage of design and presentation addresses the mechanical and anatomic needs of surgeons in the pelvis, subdiaphragmatic area, and in large and obese patients. Multiple variables in use provided by these instruments, particularly when used together, enhance surgical control at problem sites.     

Influence of oxygen tension on the viscoelastic behavior of red blood cells in sickle cell disease

Although the rheological behavior of sickle cell suspensions and of hemoglobin S solutions is known to be strongly dependent on oxygen tension (PO2), little data exist concerning the influence of PO2 on the viscoelasticity of individual HbSS RBC. We have used micropipette aspiration techniques to test the deformation response of both HbSS and control HbAA RBC over a wide range of PO2 at 23 degrees C. Sickled, spiculed HbSS cells were present for PO2 approximately less than 35 mm Hg; for a number of these cells, the deformation response was essentially elastic and an effective membrane rigidity (EMR) was calculated. EMR increased with decreasing PO2 and was approximately 5 to 50 times higher than the equivalent rigidity of oxygenated HbSS RBC. In addition, the rate of membrane deformation was very slow for sickled cells; the half-time for the deformation process increased as PO2 was lowered and was about two orders of magnitude longer than the equivalent time for normal RBC. Other sickled cells exhibited plastic deformation when subjected to comparable deforming forces and experienced irreversible membrane deformation and budding. At all PO2 levels tested, some HbSS RBC remained as discocytes; these cells had normal membrane elasticity and membrane viscosity. Furthermore, changes in PO2 did not affect the membrane properties of HbAA RBC. Thus, gross abnormalities in the deformation response of HbSS RBC were only detected after morphological sickling had occurred. These abnormalities most likely arose from changes in the cytoplasmic HbS viscoelasticity and, if present in vivo, would be expected to impair the flow of HbSS cells in the microcirculation.     

Alloimmunization to platelets in heavily transfused patients with sickle cell disease

Bone marrow transplantation (BMT) is now an option for some patients with sickle cell disease (SCD). Many SCD patients are multiply transfused with red blood cells (RBCs), and may be immunized to alloantigens other than erythrocyte antigens. Because platelet refractoriness is a significant complication during BMT, we wished to determine the prevalence of alloimmunization to platelets in transfused SCD patients. Sera collected from 47 transfused and 14 untransfused SCD patients were screened for HLA and platelet-specific antibodies. Transfusion and RBC antibody histories were reviewed. A subset of the patients were rescreened 1 year later. Eighty-five percent of patients with at least 50 RBC transfusions (22 of 26), 48% of patients with less than 50 transfusions (10 of 21), and none of 14 untransfused patients demonstrated platelet alloimmunization (P < .05). Platelet alloimmunization was more prevalent than RBC alloimmunization (20% to 30%). Half of the platelet reactivity was chloroquine-elutable. Eighteen of 22 patients (82%) on chronic RBC transfusion remained platelet-alloimmunized 11 to 22 months after initial testing. In summary, 85% of heavily transfused SCD patients are alloimmunized to HLA and/or platelet-specific antigens. These patients may be refractory to platelet transfusion, a condition that would increase their risk during BMT. Leukodepletion in the transfusion support of SCD patients should be considered to prevent platelet alloimmunization.