Preference awareness education as stress management training for academic staff

This paper describes a response directed stress management intervention (SMI) in the form of a Jungian based preference awareness education (PAE). It uses the Insights System of personality types to increase awareness of behaviour and communication preferences of self and different others. Eighteen self‐recruited academic employees participated for 7 weeks and received feedback about work preferences and personality type. The aim was to reduce perceptions of stress and interpersonal stress and to increase feelings of job satisfaction and interpersonal satisfaction. The data were analysed using two‐tailed t‐tests. No significant findings were observed for the total sample after training, however, interesting results were found for certain sub‐sample groups. Extravert‐thinking types, reported decreased stress levels (p > 0.018), and participants suffering high stress/interpersonal stress pre‐PAE, reported decreased stress levels (p > 0.010–0.018). Participants suffering low job/interpersonal satisfaction pre‐PAE, reported increased job satisfaction (p > 0.015–0.016). These results suggest that individuals who report high levels of stress and dissatisfaction are most likely to benefit from this type of intervention. Future PAE research might: (a) use pilot studies to meet the intervention preferences of employees that are reluctant to participate in SMIs; (b) include a wait‐list control group; use: (c) a follow up education/measures; (d) and organizational level (stressor directed) SMIs at the same time as response directed initiatives. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Male breast cancer in Iceland

All malignant tumours of the male breast diagnosed in Iceland during the 40-year period 1955–1994 were studied with regard to histological classification, tumour grading and flow cytometric analysis. Of 31 malignant tumours diagnosed, 29 were primary breast carcinomas. Male breast carcinoma constitutes 1% of all breast malignancies in Iceland and 0.25% of all malignant tumours in males. About 80% of the male breast carcinomas were diagnosed during the latter half of the study period. The mean age of the patients was 66.3 years and the left-to-right ratio was 1.9:1.0. Right-sided tumours appeared to be more aggressive. The mean tumour size was 2.6 cm. The vast majority of the carcinomas (79%) were of the infiltrating ductal type. Of these 21.7% were grade I, 43.5% were grade II and 34.8% grade III. Papillary carcinomas made up 17% of the total. These occurred in slightly older patients than the infiltrating ductal carcinomas and were diploid tumours. In this study 57% of the tumours were found to be aneuploid, but nearly 70% of the invasive ductal carcinomas NOS were aneuploid. In general, the aneuploid tumours were larger, of higher average histological grade and had a higher mean S-phase value. The overall mean S-phase fraction was 7.2% which is similar to that found in female breast tumours in Iceland. It is concluded that the male-to-female ratio of breast carcinoma in Iceland is similar to that found in other Western countries. The age-standardised incidence has increased considerably in the last 20 years, in contrast to the rates reported from most other countries. Papillary tumours are unusually common in Icelandic males. © 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

Biological and Genetic Differences Between Lung- and Brain-Derived Isolates of Maedi-Visna Virus

During the epidemic caused by maedi-visna virus (MVV) of sheep in Iceland, the pulmonary affection, maedi, was the predominant clinical manifestation. In some flocks, however, a central nervous system (CNS) affection, visna, was the main cause of morbidity and mortality. As there is only one breed of sheep in the country, host factors did apparently not play an important role in the different clinical manifestations. To obtain some information on possible viral genetic determinants of neurotropism and neurovirulence we studied both phenotypic and genotypic properties of two maedi-visna virus strains; a strain that was originally isolated from the brain of sheep with encephalitis (visna), and another strain isolated from the lungs of a sheep suffering from pneumonia (maedi). The brain isolate was found to grow faster in sheep choroid plexus cells than the lung isolate, whereas the growth rate in macrophages was similar for the maedi and visna virus strains. Intracerebral inoculation indicated that the visna virus isolate induced more severe brain lesions than the maedi isolate. In addition, a pathogenic molecular clone derived from a visna strain (KV1772kv72/67) was tested for growth in sheep choroid plexus cells and macrophages. The molecularly cloned virus retained the fast growth rate in choroid plexus cells. The nucleotide sequence of the env gene and the U3 of the LTR was determined for the maedi strain and compared to that of the visna strains. There was an 11.7% difference in deduced amino acid sequence in the Env protein and a 6% difference in the LTR. The molecular clone KV1772kv72/67 will be a useful reagent for characterization of viral determinants of cell tropism in vitro and possibly neurovirulence in vivo. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Increased anxiety and altered responses to anxiolytics in mice deficient in the 65-kDa isoform of glutamic acid decarboxylase

The larger isoform of the enzyme glutamate decarboxylase, GAD67, synthesizes >90% of basal levels of γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) in the brain. In contrast, the smaller isoform, GAD65, has been implicated in the fine-tuning of inhibitory neurotransmission. Mice deficient in GAD65 exhibit increased anxiety-like responses in both the open field and elevated zero maze assays. Additionally, GAD65-deficient mice have a diminished response to the anxiolytics diazepam and pentobarbital, both of which interact with GABA-A receptors in a GABA-dependent fashion to facilitate GABAergic neurotransmission. Loss of GAD65-generated GABA does not appear to result in compensatory postsynaptic GABA-A receptor changes based on radioligand receptor binding studies, which revealed no change in the postsynaptic GABA-A receptor density. Furthermore, mutant and wild-type animals do not differ in their behavioral response to muscimol, which acts independently of the presence of GABA. We propose that stress-induced GABA release is impaired in GAD65-deficient mice, resulting in increased anxiety-like responses and a diminished response to the acute effects of drugs that facilitate the actions of released GABA.     

Developmental trajectories of intentional self regulation in adolescence: the role of parenting and implications for positive and problematic outcomes among diverse youth

This study assessed 1574 Grades 5 to 11 youth (63.6% female) from the 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development (PYD), a longitudinal study involving U.S. adolescents, to assess if patterns of intentional self regulation (ISR) existed; whether these trajectories differed in relation to several Grade 5 parenting characteristics; and whether ISR trajectories were linked to positive and negative developmental outcomes at Grade 11. Growth mixture modeling identified a four-group solution of ISR trajectories: Steady Decline, Elevated, Late Onset, and Pronounced Decline. Most adolescents reported an incremental decrease in ISR from Grades 5 to 11 (Steady Decline). Lower levels of parental warmth, monitoring, and school involvement at Grade 5 predicted Late-Onset ISR development while Pronounced Decline adolescents reported lower levels of PYD and Contribution at Grade 11. We discuss the finding that youth at initially similar levels of ISR diverged over adolescence, while youth at initially disparate levels converged.     

Age at voice break in Danish boys: effects of pre-pubertal body mass index and secular trend

Voice break is a late, but characteristic event in male puberty. Assessment of age at voice break may be a relevant marker for epidemiological studies of male pubertal development. We investigated the timing of voice break and its association with explanatory variables [calendar year of admission in the boys choir and pre-pubertal body mass index (BMI)] by survival analysis techniques based on retrospective analyses of age at voice break in 463 Danish choir boys who were studied over a 10-year period. We found an overall median age at voice break of 14.0 [13.9-14.6] years, and a statistically significant downwards trend in age at voice break in the 10-year period (1994-2003) (log-rank test p = 0.0146). There was a statistically significant difference in age at voice break between boys in the different BMI quartiles in pre-puberty (p = 0.00822) with a tendency towards early voice break with increasing BMI standard deviation scores. Thus boys in the heaviest quartile at 8 years of age had an increased risk of early voice break (RR of 1.74 [1.14-2.65]) approximately 6 years later, compared with boys in the thinnest quartile. The earlier voice break seen during the 10-year observation period could however not exclusively be explained by a general increase in BMI in that period. Our findings indicate that puberty, as assessed by age at voice break in boys, may be starting earlier in Denmark as it has been observed in the USA, and suggest a relationship between pre-pubertal BMI and the timing of puberty.     

The role of the synthetic enzyme GAD65 in the control of neuronal γ-aminobutyric acid release

We have studied GABAergic synaptic transmission in retinal ganglion cells and hippocampal pyramidal cells to determine, at a cellular level, what is the effect of the targeted disruption of the gene encoding the synthetic enzyme GAD65 on the synaptic release of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA). Neither the size nor the frequency of GABA-mediated spontaneous inhibitory postsynaptic currents (IPSCs) were reduced in retina or hippocampus in GAD65-/- mice. However, the release of GABA during sustained synaptic activation was substantially reduced. In the retina both electrical- and K(+)-induced increases in IPSC frequency were depressed without a change in IPSC amplitude. In the hippocampus the transient increase in the probability of inhibitory transmitter release associated with posttetanic potentiation was absent in the GAD65-/- mice. These results indicate that during and immediately after sustained stimulation the increase in the probability of transmitter release is not maintained in GAD65-/- mice. Such a finding suggests a decrease in the size or refilling kinetics of the releasable pool of vesicles, and various mechanisms are discussed that could account for such a defect.     

Multimodal surface-based morphometry reveals diffuse cortical atrophy in traumatic brain injury.

Background

Normal aging involves a decline in cognitive function that has been shown to correlate with volumetric change in the hippocampus, and with genetic variability in the APOE-gene. In the present study we utilize 3D MR imaging, genetic analysis and assessment of verbal memory function to investigate relationships between these factors in a sample of 170 healthy volunteers (age range 46–77 years).

Methods

Brain morphometric analysis was performed with the automated segmentation work-flow implemented in FreeSurfer. Genetic analysis of the APOE genotype was determined with polymerase chain reaction (PCR) on DNA from whole-blood. All individuals were subjected to extensive neuropsychological testing, including the California Verbal Learning Test-II (CVLT). To obtain robust and easily interpretable relationships between explanatory variables and verbal memory function we applied the recent method of conditional inference trees in addition to scatterplot matrices and simple pairwise linear least-squares regression analysis.

Results

APOE genotype had no significant impact on the CVLT results (scores on long delay free recall, CVLT-LD) or the ICV-normalized hippocampal volumes. Hippocampal volumes were found to decrease with age and a right-larger-than-left hippocampal asymmetry was also found. These findings are in accordance with previous studies. CVLT-LD score was shown to correlate with hippocampal volume. Multivariate conditional inference analysis showed that gender and left hippocampal volume largely dominated predictive values for CVLT-LD scores in our sample. Left hippocampal volume dominated predictive values for females but not for males. APOE genotype did not alter the model significantly, and age was only partly influencing the results.

Conclusion

Gender and left hippocampal volumes are main predictors for verbal memory function in normal aging. APOE genotype did not affect the results in any part of our analysis.     

BRCA2, but not BRCA1, mutations account for familial ovarian cancer in Iceland: a population-based study

A single founder mutation in each of the BRCA genes has been identified in Iceland. The frequency of the BRCA1 G5193A and BRCA2 999del5 mutations in all ovarian cancer patients diagnosed over the period 1991–2000 was determined. Mutation status was correlated with family history, tumour morphology and age at diagnosis. Samples from 86% of cases (179 carcinomas and 74 borderline tumours) were available. In the carcinomas, BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations were present in 1.2% and 6% of cases, respectively. No BRCA mutations were found in the borderline tumours. Odds Ratio (OR) of developing ovarian cancer was 20.65 for BRCA2 carriers. Family history of breast/ovarian cancer was present for 70% of BRCA2 carriers and approximately 14% for non-carriers with carcinoma. In conclusion, BRCA2 999del5 is present in 6% of ovarian cancer cases in Iceland and is associated with a 20-fold increase in the risk of the disease. The BRCA1 G5193A mutation is too rare to contribute significantly to ovarian cancer in Iceland.