The association between ABO blood types and venous thromboembolism in individuals with a positive antiphospholipid profile is varied by sex.

Objectives Although non-O blood type is an established risk factor for venous thromboembolism in the general population, the impact of ABO blood type (ABO) on venous thromboembolism risk in individuals with persistent antiphospholipid antibodies (aPL) has not been studied. We sought to investigate the relationship between ABO and venous thromboembolism in aPL-positive individuals. We also sought to explore potential interactions between ABO and sex or race to determine whether ABO contributes to race or sex differences with respect to the development of venous thromboembolism. Methods We identified all patients over 18 years old followed at a tertiary medical center between January 2000 and January 2015 with serological aPL criteria and ABO data. Episodes of venous thromboembolism were recorded. Logistic regression models were fitted to estimate odds ratios (ORs) of venous thromboembolism for non-O (A, B, or AB blood types) versus O blood type. Results There were 226 patients included in the final analysis, of whom 75 (33%) had reported venous thromboembolism. In the overall sample, there was a non-significant difference between venous thromboembolism in patients with non-O blood type compared to O blood type (OR 1.64, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.94, 2.88; P = 0.08). Men with non-O blood type had a significantly higher risk of venous thromboembolism as compared to men with O-type blood (OR 4.94, 95% CI 1.37, 17.85; P = 0.02), but there was no significant association between ABO and venous thromboembolism among women (OR 0.96, 95% CI 0.50, 1.83; P = 0.52). Conclusions Non-O blood type may be an under-recognized risk factor for venous thromboembolism among men with persistent aPL antibodies, whereas the risk associated with non-O blood type seen in the general population may be attenuated in aPL-positive women.

Cysteine is an essential growth factor for Trypanosoma brucei bloodstream forms.

A modified cystine-free minimum essential medium has been used to address the question whether cysteine is an essential growth factor for bloodstream form trypanosomes or if its reducing power is sufficient to support parasite growth in axenic culture. Bloodstream-form trypanosomes, taken either from freshly isolated infected mouse blood or from logarithmically growing axenic cultures were transferred to a medium containing 20% dialysed foetal calf serum, 10 microM bathocuproine sulphonate and 250 microM cysteine. Growth curves of these cultures have been compared to those obtained in identical cultures containing no cysteine but cystine and reducing agents (beta-mercaptoethanol, monothioglycerol), or reducing agents alone. The results clearly show that cell growth was only obtained if cysteine was either directly added to the medium or was reduced from cystine by the action of reducing agents. However, neither reducing agents alone, nor D-cysteine, supported cell growth. Since cystine is not taken up by bloodstream form trypanosomes, and methionine is a regular constituent of the medium, we conclude from our results that cysteine is an essential growth factor for Trypanosoma brucei.

Assessing the empirical validity of the "take-the-best" heuristic as a model of human probabilistic inference.

The boundedly rational 'Take-The-Best" heuristic (TTB) was proposed by G. Gigerenzer, U. Hoffrage, and H. Kleinbölting (1991) as a model of fast and frugal probabilistic inferences. Although the simple lexicographic rule proved to be successful in computer simulations, direct empirical demonstrations of its adequacy as a psychological model are lacking because of several methodical problems. In 4 experiments with a total of 210 participants, this question was addressed. Whereas Experiment 1 showed that TTB is not valid as a universal hypothesis about probabilistic inferences, up to 28% of participants in Experiment 2 and 53% of participants in Experiment 3 were classified as TTB users. Experiment 4 revealed that investment costs for information seem to be a relevant factor leading participants to switch to a noncompensatory TTB strategy. The observed individual differences in strategy use imply the recommendation of an idiographic approach to decision-making research.

Test anxiety versus academic skills: a comparison of two alternative models for predicting performance in a statistics exam.

BACKGROUND: Two competing theoretical models to explain academic performance were proposed. The interference model stresses the detrimental effect of task-irrelevant thoughts during the test-taking situation whereas the deficit model suggests Study Habits and domain-specific skills as main predictors of test performance. AIMS: The study compares the two models by determining the relative contribution of Test Anxiety, Study Habits, and Maths Skill to performance in a statistics exam. SAMPLE: Sixty-six undergraduate students who were enrolled in the first semester of two parallel introductory statistic courses participated in the study. METHOD: Hierarchical regression analyses were performed on the performance in the final statistics exam. The unique variance attributable to Test Anxiety, Study Habits, and Maths Skill was calculated. RESULTS: Both Maths Skill and Test Anxiety added unique variance in explaining performance, whereas Study Habits did not. Although Maths Skill emerged as relatively more important than Test Anxiety, a purely deficit-based account nevertheless appears untenable because interfering effects of Test Anxiety during the examination also contributed an important portion of variance. CONCLUSIONS: It is recommended that cognitive-attentional accounts stressing test anxiety be supplemented by a deficit formulation, and that multimodal counselling address both Test Anxiety and skill deficits. COMMENT: Methodological problems in investigating the causal relationship between skill deficits, anxiety, and performance are discussed.

[Surgical treatment and prevention of bronchial fistula after pneumonectomy]. / Khirurgicheskoe lechenie i profilaktika bronkhial'nykh svishchei posle pnevmonéktomii.

Bronchial fistulas made their appearance in 22 patients after pulmonectomy for different diseases of the lungs. Various methods of closing the bronchial fistulas (++trans-sternal, transpleural, contralateral ones) were used. Based on an analysis of clinical observations the authors have developed the strategy and methods of surgical measures as well as prophylactics of complications.

[Diagnosis and treatment of suppurative mediastinitis]. / Diagnostika i lechenie gnoinogo mediastinita.

An analysis of 57 clinical observations has shown that purulent mediastinitis is one of the particular complications of traumas of the esophagus, peripharyngeal phlegmons, phlegmon of the oral cavity floor. The method of choice for the treatment of purulent mediastinitis is active surgical tactics--optimal drainage of the mediastinum with running irrigation.

[Differential diagnosis of the cavitary form of lung cancer and lung abscess]. / Differentsial'naia diagnostika polostnoi formy raka i abstsessa legkogo.

Data on the clinical picture and diagnosis in 9 patients with the cavitary from of lung cancer are presented. The differential diagnostic criteria of the abscess and cavitary form of lung cancer are analyzed in detail. The authors show the role of clinico-rentgenological examinations for more exact diagnosis of the main disease.

[The dynamics of the immune response and severity of the intoxication in peritonitis patients with open and closed management of the peritoneal cavity]. / Dinamika immunnogo otveta i tiazhesti intoksikatsii u bol'nykh peritonitom pri otkrytom i zakrytom vedenii briushnoi polosti.

A comparative evaluation of clinico-immunological examinations of 45 patients with diffuse purulent peritonitis treated by the open method of management of the abdominal cavity and 46 patients treated by the traditional closed method was made. Pathogenetic grounds of the effectiveness of the open method of management of the abdominal cavity in patients with peritonitis are presented. Immunological alterations are shown allowing the evaluation of the severity of the state of patients in the postoperative period. They should be taken into account when prescribing the immunocorrective therapy.

[Slip technique, process dissociation model and multinomial modeling: new tools for experimental detection of "Freudian slips"]. / SLIP-Technik, Prozessdissoziationsmodell und multinomiale Modellierung: neue Werkzeuge zum experimentellen Nachweis "Freudscher Versprecher"?

The study reported here was conducted as a test of the so-called "weak Freudian hypothesis", which claims that unconscious thoughts are relevant for the generation of speech errors. Spoonerisms were induced experimentally using the so-called SLIP technique. Motley and Baars (1976) demonstrated an increase in speech error rates when spoonerisms were primed semantically. The extensively discussed problems of "unawareness" of briefly presented stimuli were circumvented by using a modified version of Jacoby's process dissociation technique which allows a model-based estimation of conscious and unconscious processes within a task. The two reported experiments combined a wordstem completion task for estimating probabilities of perceptual processes and a SLIP task under identical perceptual conditions. A joint multinomial model was constructed for data analysis. The SLIP technique was successfully applied using German stimuli, adequate experimental variations raised the error rate from 7% in experiment 1 to 19% in experiment 2. Neither the replication of Motley and Baars' results nor unconscious priming of speech errors were statistically confirmed. Despite this negative result, the descriptive pattern of parameter estimates is psychologically meaningful: primes that remained unconscious resulted in a higher speech error probability than primes that were perceived consciously. Conscious perception might trigger control processes that act in opposition of speech errors. Statistical problems of the particular multinomial model and possible solutions in future research are discussed.

[Causes of repeated lung surgery]. / Prichiny povtornykh operatsii na legkikh.

Up to 9% of patients need to be operated on the lungs for a second time. Repeated operations on the lungs should be conducted in specialized clinics and only by an experienced thoracic surgeon. Improvement of the results of repeated operations depends on the skill of the anesthesiologist, the thoroughness of the preoperative management and examination, and skilled postoperative management.