Self-disclosure, loneliness and four interpersonal targets: friend, group of friends, stranger, and group of strangers.

69 Lonely and 142 Nonlonely undergraduates were compared on self-disclosure to four interpersonal targets, i.e. friend, group of friends, stranger, and group of strangers. The Lonely group were less willing to disclose to all four targets and reported higher frequency and intensity of loneliness-related affects.

Use of wild-type p53 to achieve complete treatment sensitization of tumor cells expressing endogenous mutant p53.

It is known that transfer of the wild-type p53 gene into p53-negative cells from transgenic mice increases their sensitivity to drug and radiation-induced apoptosis. However, unlike many human tumors, these transgenic cells do not express mutant p53, and it is not known from these earlier studies whether wild-type p53 dominates the effects of mutant p53 with respect to drug and radiation sensitivity. We addressed this question in glioblastoma, a disease characterized by an unusually high level of intrinsic resistance to therapy and poor prognosis: mean survival time from diagnosis is only about 1 yr. We introduced the gene for wild-type p53 into human T98G glioblastoma cells, which express endogenous mutant p53 but not wild-type p53. Stable transfectants that co-expressed mutant and wild-type p53 had enhanced sensitivity to cisplatin and gamma radiation, compared with parental cells, control vector-transduced cells, and transduced cells that had lost expression of wild-type p53. Transient wild-type p53 expression after high-efficiency gene transfer by a p53 adenovirus also sensitized the cells to cisplatin and correlated with the induction of apoptosis. The sensitization effect was also observed in p53 adenovirus-infected H23 small cell lung carcinoma cells, which express endogenous mutant p53. Therefore, wild-type p53 gene transfer has dominant effects over mutant p53 in sensitizing tumor cells to therapy, which supports the potential of p53 gene therapy to enhance the efficacy of traditional therapy.

Relationship of loneliness and its affective elements to self-esteem.

This study was designed to investigate the relationship between loneliness and self-esteem for adolescents (n = 57; age range 16 to 18 years). As hypothesized, scores on the UCLA Scale for Loneliness correlated negatively with adolescents' scores on Coopersmith's self-esteem measure. And, scores on two affective dimensions of loneliness (Isolation and Dejection) correlated negatively with scores on self-esteem.

A multidimensional loneliness measure: the Loneliness Rating Scale (LRS).

Interest in the topic of loneliness has resulted in the development of a number of global, unidimensional instruments used for measuring current levels of loneliness. A new, multidimensional scale, the Loneliness Rating Scale (LRS), is introduced. This 40-item scale assesses the frequency and intensity of particular affects reported by lonely individuals. Results of a factor analytic procedure suggest that the LRS contains four affective dimensions: Depletion, Isolation, Agitation, and Dejection. The theoretical implications of these results are presented, along with information concerning the usage and scoring of the LRS.