Associations between changes in resilient coping and posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms.

The pervasive, damaging nature of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) presents enormous clinical challenges. Understanding the relationship between patients' perceptions of PTSD symptoms and resilient coping strategies may prompt investigation of clinical interventions that improve adaptive, resilient coping skills. In this study, we examined whether changes in resilient coping were related to changes over time in the PTSD symptoms of intrusion and avoidance. A secondary analysis was conducted using longitudinal data from the community-based Washington State Twin Registry. Participants completed the four-item Brief Resilient Coping Scale (BRCS) and the Avoidance and Intrusion subscales of the Impact of Events Scale (IES) at two points in time that were at least 2 years apart. To limit analyses to participants reporting PTSD symptoms at baseline, an initial value of at least 1.0 on either Avoidance (n = 1,337) or Intrusion (n = 1,206) was required for inclusion in the sample. Using linear regression, we assessed associations of change in BRCS with a change in IES scores, controlling for the respective initial scores on each measure. Controlling for initial BRCS and IES-Intrusion values, we observed a small, statistically significant association between change in BRCS and change in IES-Intrusion scores (b* = -0.07; p = .003). There was no statistically significant association between change in BRCS and change in IES-Avoidance (b* < 0.01; p = .869). In this large, longitudinal sample, increases in resilient coping were related to decreases in intrusive thoughts over time. Because coping patterns can be taught, these results warrant further investigations into adaptive coping patterns associated with diminishing PTSD symptoms.

Does an Antimicrobial Time-Out Impact the Duration of Therapy of Antimicrobials in the PICU?

OBJECTIVES: Our aim was to perform an antimicrobial time-out 48-72 hours after commencing therapy in order to achieve a decrease in days of therapy per 1,000 patient days for vancomycin, meropenem, and piperacillin/tazobactam in all PICU patients during an 8-month period. DESIGN: This is a pre- and postimplementation quality improvement study. SETTINGS: A 30-bed PICU at a tertiary children's hospital. PATIENTS: Patients less than 21 years old admitted to the PICU from July 1, 2015, until March 31, 2016, or from July 1, 2016, until March 31, 2017, who received antibiotics for greater than 48 hours were eligible for inclusion. INTERVENTION: An antimicrobial time-out was performed after 48-72 hours of antimicrobials for all patients in the PICU during postimplementation. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: The primary outcome measure was days of therapy per 1,000 patient-days for three target antibiotics: vancomycin, meropenem, and piperacillin/tazobactam. Ninety-five patients meeting inclusion criteria were admitted to the PICU during the pre-time-out period and 95 patients during the post-time-out period. The cohort that underwent time-outs had lower days of therapy for vancomycin (81.3 vs 138.1; p = 0.037) and meropenem (34.7 vs 67.1; p = 0.045). Total acquisition cost was 31 % lower for piperacillin/tazobactam and vancomycin and 46% for meropenem post implementation. Time-outs led to antimicrobial duration being defined 63% of the time and deescalation or discontinuation of antimicrobials 29% of the time. CONCLUSIONS: A 48-72-hour time-out process in rounds is associated with a reduction in days of therapy for antibiotics commonly used in the PICU and may lead to more appropriate usage. The time-outs are associated with discontinuation, deescalation, or duration being defined, which are key elements of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention-recommended antimicrobial stewardship programs.

Are Sex Effects on Ethical Decision-Making Fake or Real? A Meta-Analysis on the Contaminating Role of Social Desirability Response Bias.

A meta-analysis of 143 studies was conducted to explore how the social desirability response bias may influence sex effects on ratings on measures of ethical decision-making. Women rated themselves as more ethical than did men; however, this sex effect on ethical decision-making was no longer significant when social desirability response bias was controlled. The indirect questioning approach was compared with the direct measurement approach for effectiveness in controlling social desirability response bias. The indirect questioning approach was found to be more effective.

Practice makes imperfect: Working memory training can harm recognition memory performance.

There is a great deal of debate concerning the benefits of working memory (WM) training and whether that training can transfer to other tasks. Although a consistent finding is that WM training programs elicit a short-term near-transfer effect (i.e., improvement in WM skills), results are inconsistent when considering persistence of such improvement and far transfer effects. In this study, we compared three groups of participants: a group that received WM training, a group that received training on how to use a mental imagery memory strategy, and a control group that received no training. Although the WM training group improved on the trained task, their posttraining performance on nontrained WM tasks did not differ from that of the other two groups. In addition, although the imagery training group's performance on a recognition memory task increased after training, the WM training group's performance on the task decreased after training. Participants' descriptions of the strategies they used to remember the studied items indicated that WM training may lead people to adopt memory strategies that are less effective for other types of memory tasks. These results indicate that WM training may have unintended consequences for other types of memory performance.

Variation in individuals' semantic networks for common knowledge is associated with false memory.

Three experiments assessed the relationships between false memories of words and their degree of connectedness within individual semantic networks. In the first two experiments, participants studied associated word lists (e.g., hot, winter, ice), completed a recognition test that included related nonstudied words (e.g., cold, snow), and then rated the semantic relatedness of all word pairs including studied and nonstudied words. In the third experiment, the task order was reversed; participants completed pairwise ratings and then, two weeks later, completed the false memory task. The relatedness ratings were analysed using the Pathfinder scaling algorithm. In all experiments, items that an individual falsely recognized had higher semantic Pathfinder node densities than those items correctly rejected.

A predominantly neolithic origin for European paternal lineages.

The relative contributions to modern European populations of Paleolithic hunter-gatherers and Neolithic farmers from the Near East have been intensely debated. Haplogroup R1b1b2 (R-M269) is the commonest European Y-chromosomal lineage, increasing in frequency from east to west, and carried by 110 million European men. Previous studies suggested a Paleolithic origin, but here we show that the geographical distribution of its microsatellite diversity is best explained by spread from a single source in the Near East via Anatolia during the Neolithic. Taken with evidence on the origins of other haplogroups, this indicates that most European Y chromosomes originate in the Neolithic expansion. This reinterpretation makes Europe a prime example of how technological and cultural change is linked with the expansion of a Y-chromosomal lineage, and the contrast of this pattern with that shown by maternally inherited mitochondrial DNA suggests a unique role for males in the transition.

Perceptions of sexual risks and injection for HIV among African American women who use crack cocaine in Nashville, Tennessee.

Significant health disparities in the rates of HIV infection primarily affect African American women. Although research has demonstrated that for some individuals HIV is connected to preventable high-risk behaviors related to substance use, a further examination of how these risks are perceived by the individuals involved in these activities is warranted. This study presents the results of 11 focus groups with 89 African American women who use crack cocaine in which respondents shared their perceptions of HIV risk behaviors. The results of this study suggest that women crack cocaine users in Nashville,Tennessee, are not injecting the drug. There appeared to be high levels of perceived sexual risks associated with the use of crack cocaine by some users; however, this was not universal, as many active users have internalized HIV prevention messages. The results of this study are significant in that further understanding of the means by which individuals experience their risk behaviors will enable more effective targeting of potential interventions to reduce the spread of HIV.

The genetic legacy of religious diversity and intolerance: paternal lineages of Christians, Jews, and Muslims in the Iberian Peninsula.

Most studies of European genetic diversity have focused on large-scale variation and interpretations based on events in prehistory, but migrations and invasions in historical times could also have had profound effects on the genetic landscape. The Iberian Peninsula provides a suitable region for examination of the demographic impact of such recent events, because its complex recent history has involved the long-term residence of two very different populations with distinct geographical origins and their own particular cultural and religious characteristics-North African Muslims and Sephardic Jews. To address this issue, we analyzed Y chromosome haplotypes, which provide the necessary phylogeographic resolution, in 1140 males from the Iberian Peninsula and Balearic Islands. Admixture analysis based on binary and Y-STR haplotypes indicates a high mean proportion of ancestry from North African (10.6%) and Sephardic Jewish (19.8%) sources. Despite alternative possible sources for lineages ascribed a Sephardic Jewish origin, these proportions attest to a high level of religious conversion (whether voluntary or enforced), driven by historical episodes of social and religious intolerance, that ultimately led to the integration of descendants. In agreement with the historical record, analysis of haplotype sharing and diversity within specific haplogroups suggests that the Sephardic Jewish component is the more ancient. The geographical distribution of North African ancestry in the peninsula does not reflect the initial colonization and subsequent withdrawal and is likely to result from later enforced population movement-more marked in some regions than in others-plus the effects of genetic drift.

Identifying genetic traces of historical expansions: Phoenician footprints in the Mediterranean.

The Phoenicians were the dominant traders in the Mediterranean Sea two thousand to three thousand years ago and expanded from their homeland in the Levant to establish colonies and trading posts throughout the Mediterranean, but then they disappeared from history. We wished to identify their male genetic traces in modern populations. Therefore, we chose Phoenician-influenced sites on the basis of well-documented historical records and collected new Y-chromosomal data from 1330 men from six such sites, as well as comparative data from the literature. We then developed an analytical strategy to distinguish between lineages specifically associated with the Phoenicians and those spread by geographically similar but historically distinct events, such as the Neolithic, Greek, and Jewish expansions. This involved comparing historically documented Phoenician sites with neighboring non-Phoenician sites for the identification of weak but systematic signatures shared by the Phoenician sites that could not readily be explained by chance or by other expansions. From these comparisons, we found that haplogroup J2, in general, and six Y-STR haplotypes, in particular, exhibited a Phoenician signature that contributed > 6% to the modern Phoenician-influenced populations examined. Our methodology can be applied to any historically documented expansion in which contact and noncontact sites can be identified.

Complex germline and somatic mutation processes at a haploid human minisatellite shown by single-molecule analysis.

Mutation at most human minisatellites is driven by complex interallelic processes that give rise to a high degree of length polymorphism and internal structural variation. MSY1, the only highly variable minisatellite on the non-recombining region of the Y chromosome, is constitutively haploid and therefore precluded from interallelic interactions, yet maintains high diversity in both length and structure. To investigate the basis of its mutation processes, an unbiased structural analysis of >500 single-molecule MSY1 PCR products from matched sperm and blood samples from a single donor was undertaken. The overall mutation frequencies in sperm and blood DNAs were not significantly different, at 2.68% and 1.88%, respectively. Sperm DNA showed significantly more length mutants than blood DNA, with mutants in both tissues involving small-scale (1-3 repeat units in a 77 repeat progenitor allele) increases or decreases in repeat block lengths, with no gain or loss bias. Isometric mutations altering structure but not length were found in both tissues, and involved either the apparent shift of a boundary between repeat unit blocks (a 'boundary switch') or the conversion of a repeat within a block to a different repeat type ('modular structure' mutant). There was a significant excess of boundary switch mutants and deficit of modular structure mutants in sperm. A comparison of mutant structures with phylogenetically matched alleles in population samples showed that alleles with structures resembling the blood mutants were unlikely to arise in populations. Mutation seems likely to involve gene conversion via synthesis-dependent strand annealing, and the blood-sperm differences may reflect more relaxed constraint on sister chromatid alignment in blood.

Fundamentals of viviparity: comparison of seasonal changes in the uterine epithelium of oviparous and viviparous Lerista bougainvillii (Squamata: Scincidae).

Distinct differences in epithelial response between oviparous and viviparous species of skinks led us to investigate morphological differences in the uterus of a species that exhibits bi-modal reproduction and that may indicate specialities for the different requirements of viviparity and oviparity. The uteri of females from oviparous and viviparous populations of the Australian scincid lizard, Lerista bougainvillii, are described in detail to determine whether the occurrence of uterodomes and the plasma membrane transformation, found in other viviparous species but not oviparous species, are indeed features characteristic of viviparity. Oviductal tissue was dissected at three different stages of reproduction from lizards from both populations: 1) vitellogenic, 2) gravid or pregnant, and 3) non-reproductive or quiescent. Tissue was observed using both scanning and transmission electron microscopy. Lerista bougainvillii has a simple placental morphology with simple squamous epithelium. In contrast to mammals and other viviparous skinks, L. bougainvillii does not undergo a plasma membrane transformation, but early signs of placentation in viviparous individuals are indicated by changes in the uterine surface that occur largely after embryonic stage 30. There are no obvious cellular differences between the uteri of oviparous and viviparous L. bougainvillii at the non-reproductive and vitellogenic phase of the reproductive cycle but throughout gestation/gravidity, the cellular differences that could be related to the changing functional requirements with the retention of the viviparous embryo, became apparent. A plasma membrane transformation with ensuing uterodome formation does not occur, which suggests that these more sophisticated changes are a feature of advanced placental development in reptiles.

Uterine epithelial changes during placentation in the viviparous skink Eulamprus tympanum.

We used scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) to describe the complete ontogeny of simple placentation and the development of both the yolk sac placentae and chorioallantoic placentae from nonreproductive through postparturition phases in the maternal uterine epithelium of the Australian skink, Eulamprus tympanum. We chose E. tympanum, a species with a simple, noninvasive placenta, and which we know, has little net nutrient uptake during gestation to develop hypotheses about placental function and to identify any difference between the oviparous and viviparous conditions. Placental differentiation into the chorioallantoic placenta and yolk sac placenta occurs from embryonic Stage 29; both placentae are simple structures without specialized features for materno/fetal connection. The uterine epithelial cells are not squamous as previously described by Claire Weekes, but are columnar, becoming increasingly attenuated because of the pressure of the impinging underlying capillaries as gestation progresses. When the females are nonreproductive, the luminal uterine surface is flat and the microvillous cells that contain electron-dense vesicles partly obscure the ciliated cells. As vitellogenesis progresses, the microvillous cells are less hypertrophied than in nonreproductive females. After ovulation and fertilization, there is no regional differentiation of the uterine epithelium around the circumference of the egg. The first differentiation, associated with the chorioallantoic placentae and yolk sac placentae, occurs at embryonic Stage 29 and continues through to Stage 39. As gestation proceeds, the uterine chorioallantoic placenta forms ridges, the microvillous cells become less hypertrophied, ciliated cells are less abundant, the underlying blood vessels increase in size, and the gland openings at the uterine surface are more apparent. In contrast, the yolk sac placenta has no particular folding with cells having a random orientation and where the microvillous cells remain hypertrophied throughout gestation. However, the ciliated cells become less abundant as gestation proceeds, as also seen in the chorioallantoic placenta. Secretory vesicles are visible in the uterine lumen. All placental differentiation and cell detail is lost at Stage 40, and the uterine structure has returned to the nonreproductive condition within 2 weeks. Circulating progesterone concentrations begin to rise during late vitellogenesis, peak at embryonic Stages 28-30, and decline after Stage 35 in the later stages of gestation. The coincidence between the time of oviposition and placental differentiation demonstrates a similarity during gestation in the uterus between oviparous and simple placental viviparous squamates.

Thomas Jefferson's Y chromosome belongs to a rare European lineage.

We have characterized the Y chromosome carried by President Thomas Jefferson, the general rarity of which supported the idea that he, or a patrilineal relative, fathered the last son of his slave Sally Hemings. It belongs to haplogroup K2, a lineage representing only approximately 1% of chromosomes worldwide, and most common in East Africa and the Middle East. Phylogenetic network analysis of its Y-STR (short tandem repeat) haplotype shows that it is most closely related to an Egyptian K2 haplotype, but the presence of scattered and diverse European haplotypes within the network is nonetheless consistent with Jefferson's patrilineage belonging to an ancient and rare indigenous European type. This is supported by the observation that two of 85 unrelated British men sharing the surname Jefferson also share the President's Y-STR haplotype within haplogroup K2. Our findings represent a cautionary tale in showing the difficulty of assigning individual ancestry based on a Y-chromosome haplotype, particularly for rare lineages where population data are scarce.

Structural variation on the short arm of the human Y chromosome: recurrent multigene deletions encompassing Amelogenin Y.

Structural polymorphism is increasingly recognized as a major form of human genome variation, and is particularly prevalent on the Y chromosome. Assay of the Amelogenin Y gene (AMELY) on Yp is widely used in DNA-based sex testing, and sometimes reveals males who have interstitial deletions. In a collection of 45 deletion males from 12 populations, we used a combination of sequence-tagged site mapping, and binary-marker and Y-short tandem repeat haplotyping to understand the structural basis of this variation. Of the 45 deletion males, 41 carry indistinguishable deletions, 3.0-3.8 Mb in size. Breakpoint mapping strongly implicates a mechanism of non-allelic homologous recombination between the proximal major array of TSPY gene-containing repeats, and a single distal copy of TSPY; this is supported by the estimation of TSPY copy number in deleted and non-deleted males. The remaining four males carry three distinct non-recurrent deletions (2.5-4.0 Mb), which may be due to non-homologous mechanisms. Haplotyping shows that TSPY-mediated deletions have arisen seven times independently in the sample. One instance, represented by 30 chromosomes mostly of Indian origin within haplogroup J2e1*/M241, has a time-to-most-recent-common-ancestor of approximately 7700+/-1300 years. In addition to AMELY, deletion males all lack the genes PRKY and TBL1Y, and the rarer deletion classes also lack PCDH11Y. The persistence and expansion of deletion lineages, together with direct phenotypic evidence, suggests that absence of these genes has no major deleterious effects.

Use of TaqMan real-time reverse transcription-PCR for rapid detection, quantification, and typing of norovirus.

Noroviruses (NoVs) are the most commonly identified cause of outbreaks and sporadic cases of acute gastroenteritis. We evaluated and optimized NoV-specific TaqMan real-time reverse transcription (RT)-PCR assays for the rapid detection and typing of NoV strains belonging to genogroups GI and GII and adapted them to the LightCycler platform. We expanded the detection ability of the assays by developing an assay that detects the GIV NoV strain. The assays were validated with 92 clinical samples and 33 water samples from confirmed NoV outbreaks and suspected NoV contamination cases. The assays detected NoV RNA in all of the clinical specimens previously confirmed positive by conventional RT-PCR and sequencing. Additionally, the TaqMan assays successfully detected NoV RNA in water samples containing low viral concentrations and inhibitors of RT and/or PCR, whereas the conventional method with region B primers required dilution of the inhibitors. By means of serially diluted NoV T7 RNA transcripts, a potential detection limit of <10 transcript copies per reaction mixture was observed with the GII assay and a potential detection limit of <100 transcript copies per reaction mixture was observed with the GI assay. These results and the ability to detect virus in water that was negative by RT-PCR demonstrate the higher sensitivity of the TaqMan assay compared with that of a conventional RT-PCR assay. The TaqMan methods dramatically decrease the turnaround time by eliminating post-PCR processing. These assays have proven useful in assisting scientists in public health and diagnostic laboratories report findings quickly to outbreak management teams.

Molecular and epidemiologic trends of caliciviruses associated with outbreaks of acute gastroenteritis in the United States, 2000-2004.

Between July 2000 and June 2004, fecal specimens from 270 outbreaks of acute gastroenteritis were sent to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention by local or state health departments for calicivirus testing. Of the 226 outbreaks that met the criteria for inclusion in the present study, caliciviruses were detected in 184 (81%) by reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction and nucleotide sequencing. Nursing homes, retirement centers, and hospitals were the most frequently reported settings, and person-to-person contact was the most common mode of transmission, followed by foodborne spread. Overall, genogroup II norovirus (NoV) strains were the most abundant (79%), followed by genogroup I NoV strains (19%) and sapovirus (2%). Nucleotide-sequence analysis indicated a great diversity of NoV strains and implicated the emergence of one particular sequence variant in outbreaks occurring between July 2002 and June 2003. The public health impact of caliciviruses will not be fully appreciated, nor will interventions be completely evaluated, until methods to detect these viruses are more routinely used.

The case of the unreliable SNP: recurrent back-mutation of Y-chromosomal marker P25 through gene conversion.

The Y-chromosomal binary marker P25 is a paralogous sequence variant, rather than a SNP: three copies of the P25 sequence lie within the giant palindromic repeats on Yq, and one copy has undergone a C to A transversion to define haplogroup R1b (designated C/C/A). Since gene conversion is known to be active in the palindromic repeats, we reasoned that P25 might be liable to back-mutation by gene conversion, yielding the ancestral state C/C/C. Through analysis of a set of binary markers in Y-chromosomes in two large samples from Great Britain and the Iberian Peninsula we show that such conversion events have occurred at least twice, and provide preliminary evidence that the reverse conversion event (yielding C/A/A) has also occurred. Because of its inherent instability, we suggest that P25 be used with caution in forensic studies, and perhaps replaced with the more reliable binary marker M269.

Cyto-epitheliochorial placenta of the viviparous lizard Pseudemoia entrecasteauxii: a new placental morphotype.

The structural features of the uterine epithelium of the chorioallantoic placenta and omphalloplacenta in the viviparous Australian skink, Pseudemoia entrecasteauxii, were investigated using SEM and TEM techniques. In particular, the structural characteristics that would allow interpretation of function were analyzed, particularly those of gas exchange in the chorioallantoic placenta and histotrophy in the omphaloplacenta. Pseudemoia entrecasteauxii has a complex placenta consisting of a placentome, paraplacentome, and omphaloplacenta. The paraplacentome has a well-vascularized lamina propria in which projecting uterine capillaries displace the overlying uterine epithelial cells, reducing them to attenuated cytoplasmic extensions. Associated cell nuclei and organelles are lost from this region, to provide a capillary lumen to uterine lumen barrier of 0.5-1.0 microm. Hence, the paraplacentome is likely a prominent site for gaseous exchange via simple diffusion. The omphaloplacenta has a similar cytology to that of the placentome, but the uterine epithelial cells are hypertrophied and the apical plasma membrane actively secretes vesicles into the uterine lumen. The omphaloplacenta shows features that are associated with histotrophic transport of nutrients via vesicle secretion, very similar to that of lipid apocrine secretion. The placentome consists of cuboidal cells in the uterine epithelium, with large centrally located nuclei overlying the well-vascularized lamina propria. Although the placentome has a similar cytological structure to that of the omphaloplacenta, granules or active vesicle secretion were not observed. Thus, the placentome may be associated with histotrophy, but not via apocrine secretion. Squamate placentation is epitheliochorial; however, we propose a new term be used to describe the type of placentation in P. entrecasteauxii: "cyto-epitheliochorial," because of the extreme attenuation of uterine epithelial cells of the paraplacentome.