Enhancing students' well-being with a unified approach based on contextual behavioural science: A randomised experimental school-based intervention.

A new generation of interventions has begun to move towards principles of acceptance that deal with the context and function of psychological events. The aim of this paper is to analyse the effectiveness of a brief contextual behavioural intervention to improve the psychological well-being of secondary school students. This intervention represents a unified model with key processes based on contextual behavioural science, including Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Functional Analytic Psychotherapy (FAP). We conducted an intervention with 94 students (age range 17-19 years), randomly assigned to an experimental group (n = 50) or control group (n = 44). Participants took a pretest and post-test of distress, life satisfaction, psychological flexibility and mindfulness. The intervention consisted of three sessions of 1 h each. The results showed significant differences between the groups in distress and significant differences for the interaction (group × pre-post) in all the other variables. The intervention had greater benefits for girls than for boys. These results may provide a breakthrough, thus leading to a process of evidence-based therapies, which would be responsible for inducing psychological improvements in brief periods, in a population with an increasing risk of distress.

Heritable variation in a family-diagnostic trait.

Derived characters that have not changed during the diversification of a clade provide traits that are diagnostic at higher taxonomic levels. The tetradynamous stamen condition (four long and two short stamens) of the Brassicaceae is an example of a diagnostic trait that has not changed during the diversification of this large flowering plant family. We investigated one hypothesis that might explain the long-term stasis of this trait-that tetradynamous stamens have persisted because of an absence of genetic variation underlying the trait. Through a sib-analysis with Raphanus raphanistrum and an artificial selection experiment with Brassica rapa, we demonstrate that significant genetic variation is present for the tetradynamous condition in both species and that the trait is therefore not constrained from evolutionary change by a lack of heritable genetic variation.

The distribution of individual inbreeding coefficients and pairwise relatedness in a population of mimulus guttatus

In order to infer population structure at the individual level, we estimated individual inbreeding coefficients and examined the relationship between geographical distance and genetic relatedness from polymorphic microsatellite data for a population of Mimulus guttatus that has an intermediate selfing rate. Expected heterozygosities for five microsatellites ranged from 0.79 to 0.93. The population inbreeding coefficient was calculated to be 0.19 (SE=0.023). A method-of-moments estimator developed by Ritland (1996b) was used to estimate the distribution of inbreeding among and relatedness between individuals of a natural population. The mean individual inbreeding coefficient (F=0.16) did not differ significantly from the population-level estimate. Most of the individuals appeared to be outbred, and there were very few plants that had estimated inbreeding coefficients greater than one-half. Individuals sampled from one transect showed significantly more inbreeding than individuals sampled along the other (P=0.005). There was no apparent relationship between interplant distance (range: 0-14 m) and mean genetic relatedness between individuals. These results represent the first application of polymorphic microsatellites to estimate fine-scale genetic population structure.

Delayed cardioprotection is associated with the sub-cellular relocalisation of ventricular protein kinase C epsilon, but not p42/44MAPK.

Both noradrenaline administration to rats and rapid cardiac pacing in dogs induces delayed protection of the heart against ischaemia-induced ventricular arrhythmias. In an attempt to establish molecular mechanisms underlying the delayed cardioprotection, we have examined the potential role of two kinases, PKC epsilon and p42/44MAPK. These protein kinases are expressed in the ventricles of the heart and are characterised by their ability to regulate ion-flux and gene transcription. In the rat p42MAPK is predominantly localised in the high-speed supernatant fraction of the ventricle homogenate, whereas p44MAPK is enriched in the nuclear low speed pellet. A small proportion of the p42MAPK is activated even in hearts from control animals. However, neither kinase is relocalised or activated by noradrenaline administration and this provides preliminary evidence the p42/44MAPK may not play a significant role in delayed protection in this species. In contrast, noradrenaline does induce the translocation of PKC epsilon to cell membranes, a response that is sustained for up to 4 h. However, PKC epsilon is down-regulated from the cytoplasm after 24 h post noradrenaline treatment. PKC epsilon is also translocated to the membrane in dogs that have been classically pre-conditioned and cardiac paced. In the latter case, translocation of PKC epsilon from the cytoplasm to the cell membrane is evident 24 h after pacing. These results indicate that the release of endogenous mediators may either inhibit down-regulation or elicit an increase in PKC epsilon mRNA expression. Therefore, in dog heart the subcellular relocalisation of PKC epsilon persists into the 'second window' and may play a central role in the molecular mechanism governing delayed cardioprotection. It is important in the future to identify either the gene products that are induced or the target protein(s) that are phosphorylated by PKC epsilon.

A possible role for insulin in the altered capability for hepatic enzyme adaptation during aging.

The pattern of change in the concentration of immunoreactive insulin in portal vein blood during a 7-hour period following intragastric administration of glucose to fasted, male Sprague-Dawley rats is modified both in magnitude and time course of response as rat age increases from 2- to 24-months. This alteration in the control of insulin levels probably is not the consequence of modifications in the availability of administered glucose to the pancreas. A similar modification in the control of insulin secretion also is evident when pancreatic islets isolated from fasted rat donors aged 2- to 24-months are perifused with glucose in vitro. This may represent the first demonstration of an altered response of aging animals which is expressed in the same way in an isolated in vitro system.

[Experience with the treatment of longitudinal oblique and spiral fractures of the leg by Goetze's percutaneous cerclage].

After the short review of the literary data in respect of Goetze's percutaneous cerclage 25 cases are presented: in all cases satisfactory functional results have been obtained. With proper use this method is useful for the treatment of long oblique and spiral fractures of the leg, if suitable technical equipment is available.