Some professional and scientific problems and opportunities for biofeedback

This paper will deal with a variety of topics such as dangers and opportunities from the developing crisis in health care costs, a cooperative study of the cost-effectiveness of treatments for headaches, the need for a federation of related societies, exploiting remarkable electronic advances, the wide range of adaptive functions of visceral learning (including its role in homeostasis), why maladjustments occur and their implications for biofeedback, and the need for analytic experiments involving adequate amounts of training.     

A Multiplex Label-Free Approach to Avian Influenza Surveillance and Serology

Influenza serology has traditionally relied on techniques such as hemagglutination inhibition, microneutralization, and ELISA. These assays are complex, challenging to implement in a format allowing detection of several types of antibody-analyte interactions at once (multiplex), and troublesome to implement in the field. As an alternative, we have developed a hemagglutinin microarray on the Arrayed Imaging Reflectometry (AIR) platform. AIR provides sensitive, rapid, and label-free multiplex detection of targets in complex analyte samples such as serum. In preliminary work, we demonstrated the application of this array to the testing of human samples from a vaccine trial. Here, we report the application of an expanded label-free hemagglutinin microarray to the analysis of avian serum samples. Samples from influenza virus challenge experiments in mallards yielded strong, selective detection of antibodies to the challenge antigen in most cases. Samples acquired in the field from mallards were also analyzed, and compared with viral hemagglutinin inhibition and microneutralization assays. We find that the AIR hemagglutinin microarray can provide a simple and robust alternative to standard methods, offering substantially greater information density from a simple workflow.     

Cell adhesion molecule in the hexactinellid Aphrocallistes vastus

Abstract. The Hexactinellida sponge Aphrocallistes vastus contains a soluble aggregation factor (AF) whose purification has been described in this communication. It is characterized by a S°_20.w value of 37 and a buoyant density of 1.45 g/cm³. The AF is a glycoporteinaceous particle composed of three major protein species; no core structure could be visualized. In the presence of Ca²⁺, the AF causes secondary aggregation of single cells. The aggregation process is temperature, pH, and ionic strength independent within a broad range. Evidence is presented indicating that two (or more) AF molecules are required for the establishment of a stable cell: cell interaction. In contrast to the AFs from demosponges, the hexactinellid AF functions species-unspecifically.