A response of Panc-1 cells to cis-platinum, assessed with a cDNA array

BACKGROUND

The problem posed by the lack of response of cells in most solid cancers to current chemotherapy generally remains intractable.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The use of cDNA arrays represents one global approach to identifying reasons for this failure. A messenger RNA response of pancreatic cancer (Panc-1) cells after culture for 24 hours with 12 microM cis-platinum was analyzed with a commercial cDNA array.

RESULTS

Major drug-induced events included inhibition of messenger RNAs associated with cell proliferation and up-regulation of generally countervailing DNA repair, cellular stress, heat shock protein, glutathione stress-related and multiple drug resistance enzyme messenger RNAs, accompanied by a limited programmed cell death response.

CONCLUSION

Induction of widespread normal stress-induced countervailing mRNAs by comparatively non-selective agents such as cis-platinum strongly biases against a successful therapeutic outcome. This paradoxical result of a therapeutic intent provides a further compelling argument for the use of specifically-targeted therapy such as growth factor receptor, tyrosine kinase and other discretely focused agents, probably employed in combinations based on expression of their targets in an individual patient's cancer, as identified by cDNA or proteonomic arrays.

A dissociation between symbolic number knowledge and analogue magnitude information

Semantic understanding of numbers and related concepts can be dissociated from rote knowledge of arithmetic facts. However, distinctions among different kinds of semantic representations related to numbers have not been fully explored. Working with numbers and arithmetic requires representing semantic information that is both analogue (e.g., the approximate magnitude of a number) and symbolic (e.g., what / means). In this article, the authors describe a patient (MC) who exhibits a dissociation between tasks that require symbolic number knowledge (e.g., knowledge of arithmetic symbols including numbers, knowledge of concepts related to numbers such as rounding) and tasks that require an analogue magnitude representation (e.g., comparing size or frequency). MC is impaired on a variety of tasks that require symbolic number knowledge, but her ability to represent and process analogue magnitude information is intact. Her deficit in symbolic number knowledge extends to a variety of concepts related to numbers (e.g., decimal points, Roman numerals, what a quartet is) but not to any other semantic categories that we have tested. These findings suggest that symbolic number knowledge is a functionally independent component of the number processing system, that it is category specific, and that it is anatomically and functionally distinct from magnitude representations.

Effects of violent video games on aggressive behavior, aggressive cognition, aggressive affect, physiological arousal, and prosocial behavior: a meta-analytic review of the scientific literature

Research on exposure to television and movie violence suggests that playing violent video games will increase aggressive behavior. A metaanalytic review of the video-game research literature reveals that violent video games increase aggressive behavior in children and young adults. Experimental and nonexperimental studies with males and females in laboratory and field settings support this conclusion. Analyses also reveal that exposure to violent video games increases physiological arousal and aggression-related thoughts and feelings. Playing violent video games also decreases prosocial behavior.

Media violence and the American public. Scientific facts versus media misinformation

Fifty years of news coverage on the link between media violence and aggression have left the U.S. public confused. Typical news articles pit researchers and child advocates against entertainment industry representatives, frequently giving equal weight to the arguments of both sides. A comparison of news reports and scientific knowledge about media effects reveals a disturbing discontinuity: Over the past 50 years, the average news report has changed from claims of a weak link to a moderate link and then back to a weak link between media violence and aggression. However, since 1975, the scientific confidence and statistical magnitude of this link have been clearly positive and have consistently increased over time. Reasons for this discontinuity between news reports and the actual state of scientific knowledge include the vested interests of the news, a misapplied fairness doctrine in news reporting, and the failure of the research community to effectively argue the scientific case.

Evaluation of an awareness enhancement device for the treatment of thumb sucking in children

An evaluation of the awareness enhancement device (AED) described by Rapp, Miltenberger, and Long (1998) was conducted with 2 children who engaged in thumb sucking past the age at which it was developmentally appropriate. The AED effectively suppressed thumb sucking for both children. Future research evaluating the AED is discussed.

Is it time to pull the plug on the hostile versus instrumental aggression dichotomy?

Psychologists have often categorized human aggression as hostile or instrumental. Hostile aggression is "hot," impulsive behavior that is motivated by a desire to hurt someone; instrumental aggression is "cold," premeditated behavior used as a means to some other end. This dichotomy was useful to the early development of aggression theories and continues to capture important features of nonhuman aggression, but it has outlived its usefulness as a descriptor of fundamentally different kinds of human aggression. It is confounded with the automatic-controlled information-processing dichotomy, and it fails to consider aggressive acts with multiple motives. Knowledge structure models of aggression easily handle these problems. Taking extreme measures to preserve the hostile-instrumental dichotomy will delay further advances in understanding and controlling human aggression. Therefore, this seems a proper time to "pull the plug" and allow the hostile-instrumental aggression dichotomy a dignified death.

A specialist toxicity database (TRACE) is more effective than its larger, commercially available counterparts

The retrieval precision and recall of a specialist bibliographic toxicity database (TRACE) and a range of widely available bibliographic databases used to identify toxicity papers were compared. The analysis indicated that the larger size and resources of the major bibliographic databases did not, for a series of test queries, assure superior retrieval of relevant papers. The specialist database, in which document selection and indexing is undertaken by the same expert toxicologists who use the database in their day-to-day work, achieved markedly better retrieval, using simpler search strategies, than the other databases. Specialist databases may offer a valuable alternative to the existing major bibliographic databases. The concept of relevance, as used to determine the effectiveness of bibliographic databases, is discussed.

Seromuscular enteric pedicles and prosthetic aortic graft complications in a porcine abdominal trauma model. An experimental study

BACKGROUND/AIMS

Abdominal vascular trauma may require prosthetic grafting despite peritoneal contamination by concurrent visceral injury. This study tested the use of vascularized, seromuscular enteric pedicles (VSEP) against the development of vascular prosthetic complications, in a porcine abdominal trauma model.

METHODS

Eight pigs underwent aortic transection and reconstruction with a Dacron interposition graft (DIG). A standard bacterial inoculum soaked the DIG in situ. An enteric segment was isolated on its mesenteric pedicle, and the mucosa stripped. This VSEP was wrapped around the DIG and oversewn. Animals received antibiotics for 5 days. Endpoints were 2-week survival, or evidence of sepsis. The animals underwent explantation of the DIG, VSEP, and native aorta for the purposes of histological, and microbiological analyses, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Outcome measures were graft infection, graft thrombosis, tissue incorporation, and anastomotic integrity.

RESULTS

Two pigs were excluded for perioperative death. All study group animals (n = 6), survived 2 weeks. Infection and thrombosis were found in 0/6 (0%). Incorporation and anastomotic integrity were evident in 6/6 (100%). VSEP had intact blood supplies. SEM demonstrated viable muscle, microcirculation, and fibroplasia in VSEP.

CONCLUSION

We conclude that VSEP may help prevent prosthetic graft complications in the contaminated setting.

A genomic response of H-358 bronchiolar carcinoma cells to MK 886, an inhibitor of 5-lipoxygenase, assessed with a cDNA array

Incomplete programmed cell death is one explanation for the escape of cancer cells from therapy. Inhibitors of the enzyme 5-lipoxygenase reduce proliferation and initiate programmed cell death in many different types of malignantly transformed cells. The 5-lipoxygenase inhibitor, MK 886. induces an atypical form of programmed cell death in H-358 bronchiolar lung cancer cells. A genomic response of H-358 cells after 24 hr of culture at a 40 uM concentration that inhibited proliferation was analyzed with a Clontech human cDNA array containing 588 cDNAs corresponding to identified genes. The data grouped into 3 major categories and initial conclusions regarding countervailing, cellular stress, programmed cell death, DNA damage and repair mRNA-responses as possible reasons for escape from the antiproliferative response are discussed. The use of cDNA arrays to estimate the extent to which malignantly transformed cells respond to therapy or why they do not and so infer prognosis and identify possible therapeutic modifications is indicated.

Current strengths and limitations of doctoral education in nursing: are we prepared for the future?

The number of doctoral programs in nursing has increased significantly over the past 20 years. This growth has been driven in part by the pressing need to supply faculty to teach in undergraduate and graduate programs in nursing. Yet, enrollment in and graduation from these programs has remained fairly constant even as the number of programs has grown. During this 20-year period, there have been numerous conferences, workshops, and meetings devoted to the topic of doctoral education with a constant thread running through them calling for the need to maintain quality--quality students, quality faculty, quality research, and quality course work and requirements--in them. Faculty teaching in these programs have given considerable thought to ways of assuring quality in the program of study so as to ensure the graduate's ability to function as a teacher and researcher. Yet, despite these efforts, still less than 50 per cent of nursing faculty possess the doctorate, faculty are experiencing difficulty in fulfilling the tripartite mission of colleges and universities, and extramural funding for research is very unevenly distributed across programs and, in total, is inadequate to build the science. This article examines the strengths and weaknesses of doctoral programs in nursing at the start of the new millennium in which the challenges in higher education are forecasted to become more focused and intense, using accepted benchmarks of quality for students, faculty, and curricula.

Video games and aggressive thoughts, feelings, and behavior in the laboratory and in life

Two studies examined violent video game effects on aggression-related variables. Study 1 found that real-life violent video game play was positively related to aggressive behavior and delinquency. The relation was stronger for individuals who are characteristically aggressive and for men. Academic achievement was negatively related to overall amount of time spent playing video games. In Study 2, laboratory exposure to a graphically violent video game increased aggressive thoughts and behavior. In both studies, men had a more hostile view of the world than did women. The results from both studies are consistent with the General Affective Aggression Model, which predicts that exposure to violent video games will increase aggressive behavior in both the short term (e.g., laboratory aggression) and the long term (e.g., delinquency).

Widespread countervailing genomic responses induced by chemotherapy or radiation as a cause of therapeutic failure

If chemotherapy or ionizing radiation induce widespread genomic responses tending to circumvent or antagonize their ability to kill malignant cells, an additional cause for therapeutic failure would be suggested. There is evidence that some agents evoke extensive countervailing genomic activity, the nature and extent of which can be assessed with the use of 'gene chips'.

Video games and aggressive thoughts, feelings, and behavior in the laboratory and in life

Two studies examined violent video game effects on aggression-related variables. Study 1 found that real-life violent video game play was positively related to aggressive behavior and delinquency. The relation was stronger for individuals who are characteristically aggressive and for men. Academic achievement was negatively related to overall amount of time spent playing video games. In Study 2, laboratory exposure to a graphically violent video game increased aggressive thoughts and behavior. In both studies, men had a more hostile view of the world than did women. The results from both studies are consistent with the General Affective Aggression Model, which predicts that exposure to violent video games will increase aggressive behavior in both the short term (e.g., laboratory aggression) and the long term (e.g., delinquency).