Selective deletion of Pten in theca-interstitial cells leads to androgen excess and ovarian dysfunction in mice

Theca cell-selective Pten mutation (tPtenMT) in mice resulted in increases in PDK1 and Akt phosphorylation, indicating an over-activation of PI3K signaling in the ovaries. These mice displayed elevated androgen levels, ovary enlargement, antral follicle accumulation, early fertility loss and increased expression of Lhcgr and genes that are crucial to androgenesis. These abnormalities were partially reversed by treatments of PI3K or Akt inhibitor. LH actions in Pten deficient theca cells were potentiated. The phosphorylation of Foxo1 was increased, while the binding of Foxo1 to forkhead response elements in the Lhcgr promoter was reduced in tPtenMT theca cells, implying a mechanism by which PI3K/Akt-induced upregulation of Lhcgr in theca cells might be mediated by reducing the inhibitory effect of Foxo1 on the Lhcgr promoter. The phenotype of tPtenMT females is reminiscent of human PCOS and suggests that dysregulated PI3K cascade in theca cells may be involved in certain types of PCOS pathogenesis.

Protective effect of hop ?-acids on microbial degradation of thick juice during storage

AIMS

This study assessed the value of a commercial alkaline solution of hop beta-acids (HBA) for prevention of microbial degradation of thick juice, a concentrated intermediate product in the production of beet sugar.

METHODS AND RESULTS

The antimicrobial effect of different concentrations of HBA against microbial degradation of thick juice was tested in a pilot-scale storage experiment. Chemical, biochemical and microbial parameters were monitored during thick juice storage. Thick juice degradation, indicated as a decrease in pH, was generally accompanied by an increase in the count of fastidious bacteria (FB) on Columbia Agar with Sheep Blood (CAwSB), which were mainly identified as Tetragenococcus halophilus. Addition of HBA delayed juice acidification and the development of FB in a concentration-dependent manner. The susceptibility of FB to HBA was determined by plating degraded thick juice (FB > 10(5) CFU ml(-1) on CAwSB plates with different concentrations of HBA (0-160 ppm). None of the HBA concentrations tested reduced the number of FB colonies formed, but increasing HBA concentrations extended the lag time of colony formation.

CONCLUSIONS

HBA produce no measurable bactericidal effect, but retard the development of FB in thick juice. Moreover, HBA do not prevent the thick juice from deteriorating, but significantly delay its degradation.

SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF THE STUDY

These results indicate that adding a commercially available HBA formulation can prolong the storage life of thick juice in the sugar industry, although degradation cannot be eliminated. Future research will focus on the detailed characterization of FB consistently isolated from degraded thick juice and on determining their role in thick juice degradation.

Isolation and characterization of rhizobacteria from composts that suppress the severity of bacterial leaf spot of radish

ABSTRACT Composts can induce systemic resistance in plants to disease. Unfortunately, the degree of resistance induced seems highly variable and the basis for this effect is not understood. In this work, only 1 of 79 potting mixes prepared with different batches of mature, stabilized composts produced from several different types of solid wastes suppressed the severity of bacterial leaf spot of radish caused by Xanthomonas campestris pv. armoraciae compared with disease on plants produced in a nonamended sphagnum peat mix. An additional batch of compost-amended mix that had been inoculated with Trichoderma hamatum 382 (T(382)), which is known to induce systemic resistance in plants, also suppressed the disease. A total of 11 out of 538 rhizobacterial strains isolated from roots of radish seedlings grown in these two compostamended mixes that suppressed bacterial leaf spot were able to significantly suppress the severity of this disease when used as inoculum in the compost-amended mixes. The most effective strains were identified as Bacillus sp. based on partial sequencing of 16S rDNA. These strains were significantly less effective in reducing the severity of this disease than T(382). A combined inoculum consisting of T(382) and the most effective rhizobacterial Bacillus strain was less effective than T(382) alone. A drench applied to the potting mix with the systemic acquired resistance-inducing chemical acibenzolar-S-methyl was significantly more effective than T(382) in several, but not all tests. We conclude that systemic suppression of foliar diseases induced by compost amendments is a rare phenomenon. Furthermore, inoculation of compost-amended potting mixes with biocontrol agents such as T(382) that induce systemic resistance in plants can significantly increase the frequency of systemic disease control obtained with natural compost amendments.

Effect of potting mix microbial carrying capacity on biological control of rhizoctonia damping-off of radish and rhizoctonia crown and root rot of poinsettia

ABSTRACT Potting mixes prepared with dark, highly decomposed Sphagnum peat, with light, less decomposed Sphagnum peat, or with composted pine bark, all three of which were colonized by indigenous microorganisms, failed to consistently suppress Rhizoctonia damping-off of radish or Rhizoctonia crown and root rot of poinsettia. Inoculation of these mixes with Chryseobacterium gleum (C(299)R(2)) and Trichoderma hamatum 382 (T(382)) significantly reduced the severity of both diseases in the composted pine bark mix in which both biocontrol agents maintained high populations over 90 days. These microorganisms were less effective against damping-off in the light and dark peat mixes, respectively, in which populations of C(299)R(2) declined. In contrast, crown and root rot, a disease that is severe late in the crop, was suppressed in all three types of mixes. High populations of T(382) in all three mixes late during the cropping cycle may have contributed to control of this disease.

Syzygy, science, and psychotherapy: the Consumer Reports study

Results from a Consumer Reports (CR) survey indicated that psychotherapy has proven to be quite effective and that longer-term therapy has been more effective than shorter-term therapy. Critiques of the methodology of this study have included the claim that (a) the self-selected sample was biased in favor of people who felt that they had benefited from psychotherapy, (b) the use of retrospective accounts led to a further positive bias, and (c) the validity of the outcome assessment was questionable. Supplemental data from other sources, including prospective data from a large sample of psychotherapy patients, are presented to augment the interpretation of the results of the CR study and to illustrate how some critiques of research results can be evaluated systematically.

Exploring individual change

In the analysis of the impact of clinical interventions, the received wisdom has been that posttreatment scores, with pretreatment scores equated by random assignment or statistically partialed out, should be used to evaluate treatment outcomes. However, posttreatment scores are not generally more reliable than, nor equivalent to, change scores, even with pretreatment scores partialed out of both. Moreover, there are data-analytic methods that indicate how individual patients change, in terms of response curves over time, rather than indicate only how much groups change on the average. These methods take researchers back to the individual data that they ought to use for choosing the specific models of change to be used. To maximize relevance for clinical practice, the results of treatment research should always be reported at this most disaggregated or individual change level, as well as, when appropriate, at more aggregated statistical levels.

"Between-group psychotherapy outcome research and basic science" revisited

Case studies involving the measurement of every plausibly causal variable and every important outcome variable and covering the widest possible range of cases in terms of these variables are the highest priority for psychotherapy research. Such case studies looked at together will give us the best initial understanding of what variables are probably causal and what treatments yield the best results for particular kinds of patients, therapists, and settings. The accumulation of such case studies will show us where we would benefit by doing comparative controlled experiments of distinct therapies or by employing optimum-seeking designs for a particular therapy. Collaboration by the practitioner community will be needed to do this. The truly difficult and necessary work of applied psychotherapy research still lies ahead of us, hardly touched.

Exploring individual change

In the analysis of the impact of clinical interventions, the received wisdom has been that posttreatment scores, with pretreatment scores equated by random assignment or statistically partialed out, should be used to evaluate treatment outcomes. However, posttreatment scores are not generally more reliable than, nor equivalent to, change scores, even with pretreatment scores partialed out of both. Moreover, there are data-analytic methods that indicate how individual patients change, in terms of response curves over time, rather than indicate only how much groups change on the average. These methods take researchers back to the individual data that they ought to use for choosing the specific models of change to be used. To maximize relevance for clinical practice, the results of treatment research should always be reported at this most disaggregated or individual change level, as well as, when appropriate, at more aggregated statistical levels.

ISO 9001 benefits and pitfalls: the path to successful certification

The lifeblood of a business is developing and commercializing new products with minimum cost and time and maximum quality. Implementation of a quality management system is often used to achieve these goals, and the ISO 9001 standard for a business quality system is rapidly becoming the model of choice. The existence of an ISO-compliant system is a key to meeting the forthcoming regulatory requirements in the European Union and the US Food and Drug Administrations's proposed good management practices. DuPont has demonstrated leadership in the achievement of ISO registration. I describe the path to these successful registrations along with key lessons from the experience. Elements of success are management commitment, adequate resources, education, communication, total organizational involvement, and auditing of system performance. For the system to flourish and provide benefits to the users, sufficient time must be allocated for the organization to change.

ISO 9001 benefits and pitfalls: the path to successful certification

The lifeblood of a business is developing and commercializing new products with minimum cost and time and maximum quality. Implementation of a quality management system is often used to achieve these goals, and the ISO 9001 standard for a business quality system is rapidly becoming the model of choice. The existence of an ISO-compliant system is a key to meeting the forthcoming regulatory requirements in the European Union and the US Food and Drug Administrations's proposed good management practices. DuPont has demonstrated leadership in the achievement of ISO registration. I describe the path to these successful registrations along with key lessons from the experience. Elements of success are management commitment, adequate resources, education, communication, total organizational involvement, and auditing of system performance. For the system to flourish and provide benefits to the users, sufficient time must be allocated for the organization to change.

Hoarding and obsessive-compulsive symptoms

The present study attempts to extend recent research on the relation between hoarding and obsessive-compulsive experiences. In both college student and community samples, hoarding was associated with higher scores on the Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (YBOCS). The relationship was stronger among the community sample, in which there was a greater range of compulsive symptoms and hoarding behavior. Hoarding was also associated with higher levels of general psychopathology as measured by the Brief Symptom Inventory but not by the Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder subscale from the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-II or by a measure of ordinary risk taking. Among a sample of patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), 31% reported hoarding obsessions and 26% reported hoarding compulsions on the YBOCS symptom checklist. These frequencies are similar to those found elsewhere and suggest that, although not as frequent as the classical symptoms of OCD, hoarding is a common symptom among OCD patients.

The Relationship of the Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (YBOCS) to Other Measures of Obsessive Compulsive Symptoms in a Nonclinical Population

The Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (YBOCS; Goodman, Price, Rasmussen, & Mazure, 1989a) is an interview-based rating scale measuring severity of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). Because it is independent of the number and type of OCD symptoms and minimizes confounding with other types of symptoms, it has become the "gold standard" for assessing the outcome of behavioral and pharmacological treatments. This study was designed to further validate the YBOCS in relation to self-report measures of obsessive compulsive phenomena in a nonclinical population. Among a group of 45 female college students, the three primary YBOCS measures (obsessions, compulsions, and total score) were internally consistent and correlated moderately to strongly with self-report measures of obsessive compulsive phenomena that have been used in previous research. The compulsive subscale of the YBOCS showed the lowest correlation with self-report measures sharing only 25% of the common variance. This measure is appropriate for use with nonclinical samples and may prove superior to other instruments for detecting the presence and severity of obsessive and compulsive symptoms.

Compulsivity and superstitiousness

The relationship between superstitious beliefs and behaviors, and measures of obsessive-compulsive experiences was examined in this study. Both superstitious beliefs and superstitious behaviors were correlated with measures of compulsivity and obsessionality. Compulsive checking, but not compulsive cleaning (from the MOCI and the CAC-R) were correlated with superstitiousness. Both subscales from the Obsessional Thoughts Questionnaire were correlated with superstitiousness. The implications of these findings for the role of perceived control in obsessive-compulsive phenomena were discussed.

The prediction of learning in family therapy training programs*

Research on family therapy training has produced very little data regarding the kinds of trainees that do best in family therapy training programs. This study attempts to provide some rough and preliminary data on that issue. One hundred and seventy trainees, drawn from seven different structural!strategic training experiences, were evaluated as to how much they learned by taking the Family Therapy Assessment Exercise pre- and posttraining. Their performance was correlated using a hierarchical regression analysis with a number of trainee variables such as amount of conjugal family experience, amount of experience doing family or individual therapy, or prior knowledge of family therapy. The results indicate that, as predicted, conjugal family experience was positively related, and prior knowledge was negatively related to performance. Prior experience doing individual therapy was also positively related to performance.

Design and analysis issues in the cross-cultural evaluation of psychotherapies

Psychotherapies and cultures cannot be made experimentally independent because important input, process, and outcome variables essentially involve participants' meanings, emics, which are not naturally invariant across cultures. Factor analysis can be helpful in describing the analogues of a specific psychotherapy in several cultures once relevant emic variables have been developed for each culture. The special problems of cross-cultural research complicate the usual problems of psychotherapy research, those of defining outcome and specific therapies and of measuring the response function of outcome to the various amounts of the therapy. However, the special problems of cross-cultural research, of meaning variation, also exist in intracultural psychotherapy research, though they have received little notice.

Program evaluation in the public interest: a new research methodology

For every social welfare or social control service program there are several parties, each with different interests: patients, clients, staff, management, and sponsors. Evaluation of such a program in the public interest must take the interests of these parties into account. To do so requires an untraditional methodology, that of a second-person, or communal, science, which is not above the conflict of parties and their interests in specifying the variables, staffing the research, balancing considerations of intrusion against those of bias, considering the action implications of the data, sequentially staging the research, or even publishing findings. This all makes evaluation in the public interest a highly political process often unlikely to be logically decisive about intervariable relationships, to yield generalizable results, or even to be completed.

CODIMENSIONALITY WITHOUT HIGH CORRELATION

The product moment correlation of discrete variables is depressed by differences in the variables' distributions which are consistent with their variables are actually codimensional and so to bias convergent validation studies toward rejectring a true hypothesis of (sufficient) convergence. 3 being codimensional. This makes it prone to indicate multidimensionality when variables are actually codimensional and so to bias convergent validation studies toward rejectring a true hypothesis of (sufficient) convergence.

Focussing on the client's expectations of treatment: brief report

Extensive efforts to clarify clients' expectations of treatment during their first 6 to 12 interviews may enhance their motivation and prognoses and do not seem to harm them.

Promoting possible alcoholism referrals

Careful intake statistics concerning problem-types and referral sources can be used to estimate secular and seasonal trends. The effect of a publicity campaign promoting intake is superimposed upon these trends and so requires their estimation before it can be evaluated. In this study of a campaign to promote alcoholism referrals, the aggregate effect of the publicity was great enough to be confidently distinguished from a background of seasonal trends. Its effect on referrals from other agencies and professionals seems, however, more limited than one might expect.

Proving Causal Propositions : The Foundations Of Program And Experiment Design

Although causal propositions cannot be proven to the point of incorrigibility, they can be disproven (aside from instrument validity problems) or corroborated. Just how one proceeds to such disproof or corroboration depends upon what his interest is in the causes of his dependent variables' values. Testing and qualifying or restricting a specific causal proposition, developing a comprehensive or variance exhaustive linear causal proposition (or multiple regression equation), and mapping or describing the efficacy of a specific set of Treatments imply somewhat,different programs of re- search and experiment designs. Programs and designs for these three interests or strategies are differentiated in terms of a Factor Lattice of all the ex ante relevant variables. The terms of this analysis refer to the regional locations in, density of coverage of, and allocation of replicates to the selected Lattice intersects and the factorial completeness of the design which they constitute, as well as to the type of control exercised over the Factors: production, selection, or stochastic.

Ordinal Scale Construction For Convergent Validity, Object Discrimination, And Resolving Power

With the use of a weighted consistency coefficient, factor analysis, and criteria for convergent validity, object discrimination, and scale resolving power, an ordinal scale can be uniquely constructed from a set of dichotomous monotone items to most nearly satisfy these criteria. The considerations which are represented in these criteria are necessary constraints for all scale construction.