Emotion Regulation and Mentalization in Patients With Depression and Anxiety.

OBJECTIVE: Theoretical conceptualizations of emotion and affect regulation have a considerable common ground. However, mentalization theory considers the ability to regulate affects as being contingent on the ability to mentalize. The aim of the present study is to examine the association between emotion regulation and mentalization, operationalized as reflective functioning, in a sample of patients with depression and/or anxiety. METHODS: The study used data from the TRAns-diagnostic Cognitive behavioural Therapy versus standard cognitive behavioural therapy (TRACT-RCT) trial. Patients with depression and/or anxiety (N = 291; 64.4% female; Mage = 32.2; SD = 11.0) completed the Emotion Regulation Strategies Questionnaire (ERSQ) and the Reflective Functioning Questionnaire (RFQ-6). Correlation and regression analyses were performed to determine associations of the measures of ERSQ and RFQ-6 in relation to the outcome variables, global well-being (World Health Organization Well-being Index; WHO-5) and social functioning (Work and Social Adjustment Scale; WSAS). RESULTS: Overall, the patients had a reduced level of emotion regulation (MERSQ_Total = 1.77; SD = 0.59). However, only mildly impaired reflective functioning was found (MRFQ-6 = 3.57; SD = 1.26). ERSQ correlated significantly with RFQ-6 (r = -0.31), that is, more frequent use of emotion regulation strategies was associated with less hypomentalization. ERSQ was a stronger predictor of well-being and social function than RFQ-6. CONCLUSION: In patients with anxiety and/or depression, hypomentalization as measured by the RFQ-6 is not a major problem, but emotion regulation is. It seems that these two, theoretically related constructs, do not necessarily co-occur. Alternatively, the RFQ-6 scale might not capture the mentalization construct in a valid way. Emotion regulation strategies are highly related to symptomatology; therefore, they are likely to be an important target for psychotherapy.

Attachment and mentalization among survivors of sexual abuse: A questionnaire survey.

Knowledge of the long-term consequences of child sexual abuse (CSA) is crucial to further develop preventive strategies and treatment programs. The aim of this study is to investigate attachment and mentalizing ability in people who have experienced CSA. Attachment style, measured with the Experiences in Close Relationships-Relationship Structures Questionnaire (ECR-RS), and mentalization, measured with the Reflective Functioning Questionnaire (RFQ), were examined through a quantitative questionnaire survey in a sample of 49 individuals who had experienced CSA, and a control group of 612 with no history of CSA. The CSA group was, to a greater extent, identified with insecure attachment style. In addition, participants with insecure attachment were more likely to use hypomentalizing compared to individuals identified with a secure attachment. No significant association was found between attachment style and the relationship between the victim and the offender or the length of traumatic episodes.

A multifaceted approach to assessment of mentalization: the mentalization profile in patients with eating disorders.

Purpose: The existing literature, however sparse, suggests an association between eating disorders (ED) and mentalization ability. The aim of this study was to investigate the mentalization profile (MP) in patients with ED. It was hypothesized that patients with ED would have a lower degree of mentalization ability compared to healthy controls (HC).Materials and methods: The study is based on a cross-sectional survey on a sample of patients diagnosed with ED compared to a HC group.Results and conclusion: A total of 88 participants, distributed between patients with ED (N = 30) and HC (N = 58) were included.Results: The study results show statistically significant differences between patients with ED and HC. Thus, patients with an ED scored significantly higher on Reflective Functioning Questionnaire (uncertainty about mental states) (RFQ-U) (mean difference: 0.31, p = 0.048) and Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) (mean difference: 0.44, p = 0.019) compared to the HC. Furthermore, the results indicated that patients with Bulimia Nervosa (BN) may have a lower ability to mentalize about oneself as well as a generally lower ability to mentalize across different dimensions of the mentalization profile as the BN group scored significantly higher on RFQ-U (mean difference: 0.71, p = 0.023) and TAS-20 (mean difference: 0.89, p = 0.006) compared to the Anorexia Nervosa (AN) group. Further research should be conducted to gain knowledge on the mentalization ability in patients with an ED.

Review of Gas Dynamic RF-Only Funnel Technique for Low-Energy and High-Quality Ion Beam Extraction into a Vacuum.

This paper reviews the development and present status of a novel gas dynamic RF-only funnel technique for low-energy ion beam extraction into vacuum. This simple and original technique allows for the production of high-quality continuous and pulsed ion beams in a wide range of masses, which have a very small transverse and longitudinal emittance.

Description of custom thread IGM technique with use of PDO facial support threads in the orofacial harmonization

The aim of this article was to describe a thread lifting procedure used for face lifting and skin rejuvenation, developed by the Doctor Molina Dental Institute (IGM, in the Portuguese acronym), termed "IGM custom thread technique" that has shown excellent results in facial tissue repositioning for facial harmonization. In this study, rather than presenting the results, we have described and discussed the proposed custom thread injection technique.

Mentalizing mediates the association between emotional abuse in childhood and potential for aggression in non-clinical adults.

BACKGROUND: Emotional abuse in childhood has been linked to a higher expression of aggressive behavior in adulthood. The identification of protective factors that mitigate this association is needed. Mentalizing-the capacity to understand behavior in terms of intentional mental states-appears to be a promising candidate factor that possibly modifies maladaptive consequences of early emotional abuse. OBJECTIVE: This study investigated associations between the history of emotional abuse, aggressive behavior in adulthood and mentalizing capacities in a non-clinical sample of adults. METHODS: 214 healthy adults completed questionnaires measuring retrospectively rated experiences of emotional abuse in childhood, mentalizing capacities and aggressive behavior in a cross-sectional design. RESULTS: Results indicated associations between emotional abuse in childhood, uncertainty about mental states, and aggressive behavior in adulthood. Moreover, certainty about mental states counteracted the negative effect of emotional abuse and partially mediated the associations between emotional abuse and aggressive behavior in adulthood. CONCLUSION: This study extends current research and sheds further light on the relationship between emotional abuse in childhood, the health-promoting capacity of mentalizing, and aggressive behavior in non-clinical adults.

Accuracy of Smoking Status Reporting: Proxy Information in a Rapidly Fatal Cancer Setting.

OBJECTIVE: To assess whether patients and relatives can serve as reliable proxy reporters of other family members' cigarette-smoking history. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Two samples (325 patients, 707 relatives) were identified from the Mayo Clinic Biospecimen Resource for Pancreas Research, enrolled from November, 6, 2000, to March 15, 2018. Smoking-history data, including categorical (ever/never) and quantitative (packs per day and years smoked) smoking measures, were obtained from self-completed questionnaires by patients and relatives. Relative reports were compared with patient reports on self; patient reports were compared with relative reports on self. RESULTS: Overall, spouses and first-degree relatives (FDRs) were accurate (94.5%) when reporting patient ever smoking; spouse reports were 98.6% sensitive and 97.7% accurate. Accuracy of patient reports was 97.8% for spouse smoking and 85.5% for FDR smoking; accuracy varied by relationship of FDR. When not concordant, patients generally over-reported daily packs smoked by relatives and under-reported years smoked. Within a 25% agreement range, spouse reports about patients' daily packs smoked was 46.7%, and years smoked was 69.6%, whereas FDRs were 50% and 64.6%, respectively. When not concordant, relatives generally over-reported daily packs smoked by patients, but no consistent pattern was observed of over- or under-reporting years smoked by patients. CONCLUSIONS: Patients and relatives can be reliable proxies for smoking history (ever/never) in their family members, especially spouses. An accurate reporting of smoking status will help physicians to better gauge performance status and family smoking exposures to inform disease management.

Investigation on the expression stability of common reference genes in Aurelia sp.1 under hypoxia.

RT-qPCR (Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction) is a reliable molecular biology technique used for gene expression detection due to its high sensibility and good reproducibility. However, suitable reference genes for RT-qPCR are often not available to investigate the expression of target genes in jellyfish under different conditions. To determine the responsible genes of jellyfish under hypoxia, primers to amplify the actin gene was designed for the amplification according to the conserved actin amino acid sequences of cnidarian. Then, we cloned and sequenced the partial cDNA sequence of ß-actin gene containing 849 bp nucleic acids was cloned and sequenced, and the four common housekeeping genes (18S rRNA, ß-actin, α-tubulin and GAPDH) were detected. To obtain suitable reference genes, we compared the four genes under normoxia and hypoxia were determined and compared using RT-qPCR. The evaluation result shows that α-tubulin gene can be used as single reference gene, and α-tubulin and ß-actin can be served as multiple reference genes to study relative gene expression related to hypoxic tolerance of Aurelia sp.1. This research will establish foundation to reveal the molecular mechanism of jellyfish under hypoxia.

The Correlation Between Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma and Expression Levels of B-Cell Activating Factor and Its Receptors.

BACKGROUND: Lymphoma is a malignant tumor of the immune system originating from lymph nodes and extralymphatic tissues. Its occurrence is believed to be associated with various immune cells due to the proliferation and differentiation of lymphocytes during the immune response. It has been found in many studies that B-cell activating factor (BAFF), as a member of the tumor necrosis factor (TNF) superfamily, could specifically activate B lymphocytes and promote their proliferation. OBJECTIVES: To explore correlations between non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) and the expression of BAFF and its receptors in NHL patients. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The protein expression of BAFF and its receptors in serum and BAFF mRNA expression in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of 47 NHL patients and 20 healthy subjects were detected by ELISA and RFQ-PCR and compared with LDH and ß2M levels. RESULTS: BAFF mRNA expression in the PBMCs of NHL patients was significantly higher than in healthy controls. The expression levels of serum BAFF and the three receptors (TACI, BCMA and BAFF-R) in NHL patients were significantly higher than in healthy controls, and were not significantly correlated with ß2M and LDH levels. CONCLUSIONS: The serum protein concentration of BAFF and the expression level of BAFF mRNA in PBMCs of NHL patients underwent abnormal changes, indicating that BAFF and its receptors may play some role in the pathogenesis of NHL.

A rapid freeze-quench setup for multi-frequency EPR spectroscopy of enzymatic reactions.

Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy in combination with the rapid freeze-quench (RFQ) technique is a well-established method to trap and characterize intermediates in chemical or enzymatic reactions at the millisecond or even shorter time scales. The method is particularly powerful for mechanistic studies of enzymatic reactions when combined with high-frequency EPR (ν≥90 GHz), which permits the identification of substrate or protein radical intermediates by their electronic g values. In this work, we describe a new custom-designed micro-mix rapid freeze-quench apparatus, for which reagent volumes for biological samples as small as 20 µL are required. The apparatus was implemented with homemade sample collectors appropriate for 9, 34, and 94 GHz EPR capillaries (4, 2, and 0.87 mm outer diameter, respectively) and the performance was evaluated. We demonstrate the application potential of the RFQ apparatus by following the enzymatic reaction of PpoA, a fungal dioxygenase producing hydro(pero)xylated fatty acids. The larger spectral resolution at 94 GHz allows the discernment of structural changes in the EPR spectra, which are not detectable in the same samples at the standard 9 GHz frequency.

Expression of aproliferation-inducing ligand in B cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma / 白血病·淋巴瘤

Objective To investigate mRNA and protein expression of aproliferation-inducing ligand (APRIL) in peripheral blood mononuclear cell and plasma of patients with B cells non-Hodgkin lymphoma (B-NHL) pre- or post- chemotherapy and to explore the role of APRIL in the B-NHL. Methods The mRNA and protein expression of APRIL were detected by real-time fluorescence quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RFQ-PCR) and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay(ELISA), respectively. According to the standard curves,the quantitative levels of target mRNA and protein were determined. Results The detection linear range of targeted mRNA by RFQ-PCR was 101-109 pg/ml, and the coefficient of variation values for both intra- and inter-experimental reproducibility ranged 1.69 %-5.99 % and 6.35 %-10.12 %, respectively. To detect expression of APRIL protein by ELISA, the correlation coefficient of standard curves reached 0.9922. Before or after chemical treatment, the expression levels of APRIL mRNA and protein in patients with B-NHL were significantly higher than those in normal control (P ＜0.01), while the expression levels in post-treatment patients with Ⅲ and Ⅳ stage were lower than those of pre-treatment patients with corresponding stage (P ＜0.05, respectively), but those of pre- and post-treatment patients with Ⅰ / Ⅱ stage were not different (P ＞0.05).Conclusion The expression level of APRIL mRNA is similar to that of APRIL protein. APRIL may be involved in pathogenesis and development of B-NHL. Moreover, APRIL may be related to the burden of B-NHL and it may be considered as a targeted molecule for B-NHL.