Psychological and Genetic Predictors of Pain Tolerance.

Previous studies have shown associations between genetic polymorphisms and pain tolerance, but psychological evaluations are seldom measured. The objective of this study was to determine the independent effects of demographic, psychological, and genetic predictors of cold noxious pain tolerance. Healthy subjects (n = 89) completed the Pain Catastrophizing Scale (PCS) and Fear of Pain Questionnaire (FPQ-III), underwent genotyping for candidate single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), and completed a cold-pressor test in a 1-2°C water bath for a maximum of 3 minutes. The primary outcome measure was pain tolerance, defined as the maximum duration of time subjects left their nondominant hand in the cold-water bath. Cox proportional hazards regression indicated that female sex, Asian race, and increasing PCS and FPQ-III scores were associated with lower pain tolerance. No candidate SNP was significantly associated with pain tolerance. Future genetic studies should include demographic and psychological variables as confounders in experimental pain models.

Does a high ranking mean success in the Situational Judgement Test?

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The selection of medical students to the foundation programme has undergone several changes since its introduction in 2005, with the latest being the introduction of the Situational Judgement Test (SJT) in 2013. The SJT, a 2-hour exam that uses a multiple-choice format to assess an individual's judgement when presented with clinically related scenarios, now accounts for 50 per cent of the application process. The remaining 50 per cent is made up of the Educational Performance Measure (EPM) score, which includes the medical student's performance at medical school, allocated by points attributed according to decile ranking. Coming out of its pilot year, there is little research into the results of the SJT. This project aims to discover whether there is a correlation between high-performing students who succeeded at medical school (i.e. by decile ranking) and those who scored high in the SJT. This project aims to discover whether there is a correlation between high- performing students and those whoscored high in the SJT METHOD: A survey was circulated to fifth-year medical students across the UK applying to the foundation programme in 2013, and who had sat the pilot year of the SJT. Students were asked to enter numerical values for their EPM and SJT scores. RESULTS: A total of 239 students from 12 UK medical schools responded to the questionnaire. In addition to their EPM, academic and SJT scores, all participants provided data on gender, duration of course (i.e. 4 or 5 years) and whether or not additional resources were used for the SJT. There was no correlation between the SJT and the academic scores (Spearman's = 0.0458; probability of any relationship = 0.4865).

Roles of poly-3-hydroxybutyrate (PHB) and glycogen in symbiosis of Sinorhizobium meliloti with Medicago sp.

Poly-3-hydroxybutyrate (PHB) and glycogen are major carbon storage compounds in Sinorhizobium meliloti. The roles of PHB and glycogen in rhizobia-legume symbiosis are not fully understood. Glycogen synthase mutations were constructed by in-frame deletion (glgA1) or insertion (glgA2). These mutations were combined with a phbC mutation to make all combinations of double and triple mutants. PHB was not detectable in any of the mutants containing the phbC mutation; glycogen was not detectable in any of the mutants containing the glgA1 mutation. PHB levels were significantly lower in the glgA1 mutant, while glycogen levels were increased in the phbC mutant. Exopolysaccharide (EPS) was not detected in any of the phbC mutants, while the glgA1 and glgA2 mutants produced levels of EPS similar to the wild-type. Symbiotic properties of these strains were investigated on Medicago truncatula and Medicago sativa. The results indicated that the strains unable to synthesize PHB, or glycogen, were still able to form nodules and fix nitrogen. However, phbC mutations caused greater nodule formation delay on M. truncatula than on M. sativa. Time-course studies showed that (1) the ability to synthesize PHB is important for N(2) fixation in M. truncatula nodules and younger M. sativa nodules, and (2) the blocking of glycogen synthesis resulted in lower levels of N(2) fixation on M. truncatula and older nodules on M. sativa. These data have important implications for understanding how PHB and glycogen function in the interactions of S. meliloti with Medicago spp.

Interaction of microbial populations in Steinernema (Steinernematidae, Nematoda) infected Galleria mellonella larvae.

Infection of Galleria mellonella larvae with the entomopathogenic nematodes Steinernema feltiae (A21 and R strains) and Steinernema glaseri (Dongrae) resulted in several species of bacteria, including the respective bacterial symbiont, Xenorhabdus spp., growing in the infected insect cadavers. These other bacteria were Enterococcus in all three nematode infections studied and Acinetobacter in the S. feltiae infections. The respective populations of these bacteria changed with time. Following infection of G. mellonella larvae with any one of the Steinernema sp., only Enterococcus bacteria were detected initially in the dead larvae. Between 30 and 50h post-infection Xenorhabdus bacteria were detected and concurrent with this Enterococcus population declined to zero. This was probably due to secondary metabolites with antibacterial properties that were produced by Xenorhabdus. In the S. feltiae (both R and A21 strains) infections a third bacterium, Acinetobacter, appeared at about 130h (in S. feltiae A21 infections) or 100h (in S. feltiae R infections) and increased in population size to approximately that of Xenorhabdus. It was demonstrated that Enterococcus, orginating from the G. mellonella digestive tract, was sensitive to the organically soluble antimicrobials produced by Xenorhabdus but Acinetobacter, which was carried by the nematode, was not.