Ferriphaselus amnicola strain GF-20, a new iron- and thiosulfate-oxidizing bacterium isolated from a hard rock aquifer

Ferriphaselus amnicola GF-20 is the first Fe-oxidizing bacterium isolated from the continental subsurface. It was isolated from groundwater circulating at 20 m depth in the fractured-rock catchment observatory of Guidel-Ploemeur (France). Strain GF-20 is a neutrophilic, iron- and thiosulfate-oxidizer and grows autotrophically. The strain shows a preference for low oxygen concentrations, which suggests an adaptation to the limiting oxygen conditions of the subsurface. It produces extracellular stalks and dreads when grown with Fe(II) but does not secrete any structure when grown with thiosulfate. Phylogenetic analyses and genome comparisons revealed that strain GF-20 is affiliated with the species F. amnicola and is strikingly similar to F. amnicola strain OYT1, which was isolated from a groundwater seep in Japan. Based on the phenotypic and phylogenetic characteristics, we propose that GF-20 represents a new strain within the species F. amnicola.

Registered Replication Report: Schooler and Engstler-Schooler (1990)

Trying to remember something now typically improves your ability to remember it later. However, after watching a video of a simulated bank robbery, participants who verbally described the robber were 25% worse at identifying the robber in a lineup than were participants who instead listed U.S. states and capitals-this has been termed the "verbal overshadowing" effect (Schooler & Engstler-Schooler, 1990). More recent studies suggested that this effect might be substantially smaller than first reported. Given uncertainty about the effect size, the influence of this finding in the memory literature, and its practical importance for police procedures, we conducted two collections of preregistered direct replications (RRR1 and RRR2) that differed only in the order of the description task and a filler task. In RRR1, when the description task immediately followed the robbery, participants who provided a description were 4% less likely to select the robber than were those in the control condition. In RRR2, when the description was delayed by 20 min, they were 16% less likely to select the robber. These findings reveal a robust verbal overshadowing effect that is strongly influenced by the relative timing of the tasks. The discussion considers further implications of these replications for our understanding of verbal overshadowing.

Gait initiation in older people--Time to first lateral movement may be the measure of choice

AIMS

There are few empirical data to guide the choice of a gait initiation (GI) measure in older people. We investigated the statistical characteristics of the components of GI, their inter-relationships and associations with sensorimotor variables, and the effect on them of cognitive interference.

METHODS

GI was measured for randomly selected participants aged 60-86 years using a force-platform with and without a cognitive interference task. Sensorimotor measures were obtained using the physiological profile assessment (PPA), and cognitive speed using the digit symbol and symbol search tests. GI was divided into its three components: time to first lateral movement (FLM); transfer time; and swing time. Six summary indices were assessed for suitability. Regression techniques and Spearman correlations were used to examine learning effects, inter-relationships between components, associations with other study factors and responsiveness to cognitive interference.

RESULTS

The median of trials per participant was the best summary index. Learning effects were observed under single and particularly dual-tasking. Time to FLM was most consistently associated with age, height, weight, sensorimotor variables, falls-risk score and cognitive speed, and was most responsive to dual-tasking. Overall time to GI was more predictive of falls risk than was time to FLM.

CONCLUSIONS

Multiple trials are recommended for GI component measurement and the median may provide the best summary measure across trials. Time to FLM is the GI component measure of choice in older people due to its relationship with other factors and responsiveness to cognitive interference but without advantage over overall time to GI.

Visuospatial ability and memory are associated with falls risk in older people: a population-based study

BACKGROUND/AIMS

Our purpose was to examine whether falls risk is associated with cognitive functions beyond executive function/attention and processing speed.

METHODS

Cognitive function was measured in a population-based sample (n = 300) of people aged 60-86 years. The physiological profile assessment was used to estimate the falls risk.

RESULTS

After adjusting for confounders, visual construction (p < 0.01), executive function/attention and memory (both p < 0.05) were independently associated with falls risk. The associations for visual construction (p < 0.01) and memory (p < 0.01) remained after adjusting for executive function/ attention.

CONCLUSIONS

The neural basis underlying the associations of visuospatial function and memory with falls risk require further study.

The behavioural and electrophysiological effects of visual task difficulty and bimanual coordination mode during dual-task performance

The difficulty of a visual three stimulus and a bimanual coordination task was manipulated by varying discrimination difficulty (easy, hard) and coordination mode (in-phase, anti-phase) respectively. Electroencephalographic activity was recorded from 32 sites whilst participants (n = 16) completed four dual-task conditions in counterbalanced order. Longer reaction time and lower accuracy were found for the hard relative to the easy visual task and, for the hard visual task, accuracy was lower under anti-phase relative to in-phase conditions. Amplitude and latency of event-related potential components P3a and P3b were recorded and measured. There was a reduction in P3b amplitude and increase in P3a amplitude for the hard visual task overall and a further reduction in frontal P3b amplitude under the more demanding anti-phase condition. For the easy visual task, however, P3b and P3a amplitude were greater under the anti-phase relative to in-phase coordination condition at left hemisphere frontal sites. These findings suggest that the attentional cost of stabilising anti-phase bimanual coordination is largely associated with top-down automatic processes subserved by the frontal attentional network.

Failure of regional blockade for caesarean section

This four-year retrospective study examined the quality of regional blockade for caesarean section. For patients having spinal anaesthesia, data were available on requirement for analgesic supplementation or conversion to general anaesthesia. In those having epidural anaesthesia, data were available only for conversion to general anaesthesia. A total of 1644 patients due to have caesarean section under spinal anaesthesia were studied and of these, 48 (2.9%) required general anaesthesia at some stage. Of the 1610 patients in whom a caesarean section was started under spinal, 12 (0.75%) received general anaesthesia while 175 (10.9%) required some analgesic supplementation. Of the 827 patients in whom epidural analgesia was in progress for labour and a decision was made to proceed to caesarean section, a total of 87 patients (10.5%) needed general anaesthesia. Of those (763) in whom caesarean section was started under epidural, only 17 (2.2%) were given general anaesthesia because of intra-operative pain. Although these results may fall short of best practice, they may enable the anaesthetist to give more accurate information to patients so that better informed consent can be obtained.

Forgetting sexual trauma: what does it mean when 38% forget?

L. M. Williams (1994) has shown that many women who were sexually abused as children do not report the abuse when questioned 2 decades later. These findings do not support certain freely made claims about memory, but they do support other claims. The findings do not provide cogent support for the claim that a long stream of childhood sexual traumas is routinely banished from conscious awareness and then can be reliably recovered later. The findings do support the claim that many children can forget about a sexually abusive experience from their past. Extreme claims such as "if you were raped, you'd remember" are disproven by these findings.

Forgetting sexual trauma: what does it mean when 38% forget?

L. M. Williams (1994) has shown that many women who were sexually abused as children do not report the abuse when questioned 2 decades later. These findings do not support certain freely made claims about memory, but they do support other claims. The findings do not provide cogent support for the claim that a long stream of childhood sexual traumas is routinely banished from conscious awareness and then can be reliably recovered later. The findings do support the claim that many children can forget about a sexually abusive experience from their past. Extreme claims such as "if you were raped, you'd remember" are disproven by these findings.

Pseudomemories without hypnosis

Hypnosis is often colloquially associated with "the power of suggestion"; however, some cognitive memory researchers believe that suggestions have power even without hypnosis. A well-known phenomenon in cognitive psychology is the "misinformation effect," in which subjects who are misled about previously witnessed events often integrate that inaccurate postevent information into their accounts of the event. In the present article, we review the misinformation literature in four major rounds according to the nature of the memory distortion. The first three rounds are studies of memory suggestibility for observed events; by contrast, the fourth (and newest) one deals with personal or autobiographical memory. Considered collectively, these four rounds of research provide compelling evidence that it is not hard at all to make people truly believe they have seen or experienced something they have not-without any hypnosis at all. Finally, we discuss the tragic implications for the unquestioned acceptance of all recovered memories.

Three cases of partial trisomy 7q owing to rare structural rearrangements of chromosome 7

Three cases of partial trisomy 7q are described. One case had duplication of region 7q22.1----q31.2 owing to a de novo direct intra-arm intrachromosomal duplication. The other two cases, first cousins, were trisomic for 7q34----qter, resulting from recombination within the inserted segment of a dir ins(7;17)(q34;q23.1q25.3)mat. All three cases had a number of the already recorded manifestations of partial trisomy 7q, namely strabismus, low set ears, depressed nasal bridge, small nose, hypotonia, and mental retardation.

HRAS1 and INS genes are relocated but not structurally altered as a result of the t(7;11)(p15;p15) in a clone from a patient with acute myeloid leukaemia (M4)

A patient whose leukaemic cells carried the rare t(7;11)(p15;p15) was diagnosed as having acute myelomonocytic leukaemia (AML-M4), and supports the association of this specific translocation with forms of acute myeloid leukaemia showing differentiation. Blast phase chronic myeloid leukaemia was excluded by lack of involvement of the ABL and BCR genes. Chromosome in situ hybridization studies showed that both the HRAS1 and INS genes were present on the terminal part of chromosome 11p which was translocated to chromosome 7p. Neither HRAS1 nor INS were structurally rearranged. Field inversion gel electrophoresis showed that a 400 kb fragment encompassing HRAS1 was structurally entire in leukaemic DNA. Because the INS gene, which was also translocated, is probably located proximal to HRAS1 on chromosome 11p, it is unlikely that HRAS1 was near the chromosome 11 breakpoint or involved in this leukaemia.

A measurement of human hair oxidation by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy

Human scalp hair samples were oxidized to determine the sulfonic acid absorption peak. This peak was monitored at 1044 cm-1 by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) in hair samples from 135 whites and found to provide a degree of discrimination in treated and untreated hairs. The effects of moisture, laboratory storage, natural hair color, and variation over time were also studied.

Determination of flurbiprofen in human serum by reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection

A reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatographic method is described for the determination of flurbiprofen in human serum. Flurbiprofen is extracted from hydrochloric acid-acidified serum with pentane-ether (80:20). An octadecylsilane column was used with a mobile phase of acetonitrile-water-phosphoric acid (650:350:0.5, v/v/v). A fluorescence detector with excitation at 250 nm and emission at 315 nm provided a quantifiable peak for 0.1 microgram/mL of flurbiprofen in 0.5 mL of plasma. A comparison between UV and fluorescence detection systems is presented. The method is applicable to human bioavailability and pharmacokinetic studies with flurbiprofen.

Determination of ibuprofen in capillary and venous plasma by high-performance liquid chromatography with ultraviolet detection

A high-performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) method is described which determines ibuprofen in human capillary or venous plasma. Ibuprofen plus the internal standard, flurbiprofen, were extracted from acidified plasma with pentane-ether, back-extracted into base, and then extracted into the pentane-ether solution after acidification of the aqueous phase. A reverse-phase octadecylsilane column with acetonitrile-water-phosphoric acid as mobile phase and UV detection provided a quantifiable peak for 1 microgram/mL of ibuprofen in 0.1 mL of plasma. Capillary and venous plasma level curves were virtually superimposable after administration of 400 mg of ibuprofen to four normal volunteers. No ibuprofen was detected in the saliva of the subjects.

Triazolam protein binding and correlation with alpha-1 acid glycoprotein concentration

On two occasions separated by a minimum of 1 wk, plasma was obtained from 12 patients (aged 18 to 73 yr) on dialysis after an overnight fast. Samples were assayed for albumin and alpha 1-acid glycoprotein (AGP) concentrations. 14C-Triazolam was added to each sample to a final concentration of 5 ng/ml. Protein binding was determined by equilibrium dialysis. Unbound triazolam ranged from 6.4% to 15.4% (mean = 10.0%). AGP concentrations ranged from 71.8 to 205.1 mg% (mean = 123.4 mg%). Triazolam binding ratio (bound/unbound concentration) correlated with AGP concentration (r2 = 0.69) but not with albumin concentration, age, or sex. This correlation was verified by adding AGP in varying amounts to control plasma.

A deleted extra chromosome 22 identified by DNA replication banding

The identification of a deleted extra chromosome 22 by means of the DNA replication banding pattern is reported. The characteristics of DNA replication banding, its advantages and superiority in chromosome identification are described.

The treatment of vaginismus

The treatment of vaginismus was the subject of grand rounds in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Vancouver General Hospital. Staff members of the UBC Sex Therapy Unit participated in the presentation of a case of unconsummated marriage.