Does the Neighborhood Area of Residence Influence Non-Attendance in an Urban Mammography Screening Program? A Multilevel Study in a Swedish City

MethodsWe analyze all women invited to mammography screening in 2005–09, residing in the city of Malmö, Sweden. Information regarding mammography screening attendance was linked to data on area of residence, demographic and socioeconomic characteristics available from Statistics Sweden. The influence of individual and neighborhood factors was assessed by multilevel logistic regression analysis with 29,901 women nested within 212 neighborhoods.ResultsThe prevalence of non-attendance among women was 18.3%. After adjusting for individual characteristics, the prevalence in the 212 neighborhoods was 3.6%. Neighborhood of residence had little influence on non-attendance. The multilevel analysis indicates that 8.4% of the total individual differences in the propensity of non-attendance were at the neighborhood level. However, when adjusting for specific individual characteristics this general contextual effect decreased to 1.8%. This minor effect was explained by the sociodemographic characteristic of the neighborhoods. The discriminatory accuracy of classifying women according to their non-attendance was 0.747 when considering only individual level variables, and 0.760 after including neighborhood level as a random effect.ConclusionOur results suggest that neighborhoods of residence in Malmö, Sweden (as defined by small-area market statistics (SAMS) areas) do not condition women’s participation in population based mammography screening. Thus, interventions should be directed to the whole city and target women with a higher risk of non-attendance.     

Autonomic Adaption to Clinical Simulation in Psychology Students: Teaching Applications

Simulation is used to facilitate new learning in a variety of situations. One application of simulation could be to help therapists gain therapeutic skills prior to seeing clients. This particular study was interested in measuring changes in stress response by looking at subjective and objective measures of distress (as measured by SUDS, HR, and HRV) over three sessions of simulated therapy. 16 second year psychology students participated in three sessions, and had their HR and HRV measured by Polar watches. Over the three sessions, there was a decrease in perceived distress, as measured by SUDS ratings. During and between sessions, there was inconclusive change in physiological parameters.     

Quinolone action in Escherichia coli cells carrying gyrA and gyrB mutations

Abstract We have isolated spontaneous mutant strains of Escherichia coli KL16 showing different levels of nalidixic acid (NAL) resistance. From 40 independent mutants, 36 had gyrA and four had gyrB mutations. Most of the gyrA mutations (30/36) conferred high level NAL resistance. In contrast, the only gyrB mutation that conferred a relatively high level of NAL resistance also determined enhanced susceptibility to quinolones with a piperazinyl substituent at C7 position of the quinolone ring (amphoteric quinolones). This gyrB mutation (denoted gyrB1604 ), jointly with a gyrA mutation (denoted gyrA972 ) which confers a high level of quinolone resistance, were used to construct strain IC2476, carrying the two gyr mutant alleles. The susceptibility of this strain to amphoteric quinolones (pipemidic acid, norfloxacin and ciprofloxacin) was similar to that of the gyrA972 single mutant. This result indicates that the change in GyrA subunit which determines a high level of quinolone-resistance has the capacity to mask the hypersusceptibility to amphoteric quinolones promoted by the GyrB1604 mutant subunit. This capacity was further confirmed by studying the effects of ciprofloxacin (CFX) on gyrase inhibition in the gyrA972 gyrB1604 strain.     

Does CD40 ligation induce B cell negative selection?

Binding of CD154 to its receptor, CD40, provides costimulation for mature B cell activation and differentiation in response to Ag receptor signals. In mice, early B cell precursors express CD40, but its function at this stage is unknown. We examined the effects of CD40 ligation during B cell ontogeny in transgenic mice constitutively expressing CD154 on B cells (kappaEP-CD154). Precursors beyond pro-B cells were absent in adult bone marrow but were increased in the fetal liver. Newborn kappaEP-CD154 mice had largely increased numbers of peripheral B cells, which were CD154+, and that 36 h after birth expressed high surface levels of CD23 and MHC class II, resembling activated mature B cells. Nevertheless, kappaEP-CD154 mice were hypogammaglobulinemic, indicating that the expanded population of apparently activated B cells was nonfunctional. Further analysis revealed that soon after birth, kappaEP-CD154 mice-derived B cells became CD5+/Fas+, after which progressively decreased in the periphery in a CD154-CD40-dependent manner. These results indicate that CD40 ligation during B cell ontogeny induces negative selection characterized by either hyporesponsiveness or an arrest in maturation depending on the time of analysis and the anatomic site studied.     

Structure and Evolution of the Mitochondrial DNA Complete Control Region in the Lizard Lacerta dugesii (Lacertidae, Sauria)

Abstract We sequenced the complete control region (CR) and adjacent tRNAs, partial 12S rRNA, and cytochrome b (over 3100 bp) from eight individuals of Madeiran wall lizards, Lacerta dugesii, from four distinct island populations. The tRNAs exhibit a high degree of intraspecific polymorphisms compared to other vertebrates. All CR sequences include a minisatellite that varies in length between populations but is apparently fixed within them. Variation in minisatellite length appears between populations separated by apparently very short evolutionary time spans. Many motifs identified in the CR of other vertebrates are not highly conserved, although conserved blocks are identifiable between the few published reptile CR sequences. Overall there are extensive differences in the internal organization of the reptile CR compared to the more widely studied mammals and birds. Variability in the CR is lower than in cytochrome b, but higher than in 12S rRNA. Phylogenetic analysis of these sequences produces a well-resolved estimate of relationships between populations.     

Mutants of Azotobacter vinelandii altered in the regulation of nitrate assimilation

The two enzymes involved in the assimilatory pathway of nitrate in Azotobacter vinelandii are corregulated. Nitrate reductase and nitrite reductase are inducible by nitrate and nitrite. Ammonium represses induction by nitrate of both reductases. Repression by ammonium is higher in media containing 2-oxo-glutarate as carbon source than in media containing sucrose. Mutants in the gene ntrC lost nitrate and nitrite reductase simultaneously. Ten chlorate-resistant mutants with a new phenotype were isolated. In media without ammonium they had a normal phenotype, being sensitive to the toxic effect of chlorate. In media containing low ammonium concentrations they were resistant to chlorate. These mutants seem to be affected in the repression of nitrate and nitrite reductases by ammonium.