Potential transition state phosphoramidate inhibitors of beta-tubulin as antifilarial agents.

Transition state phosphoramidate inhibitors of beta-tubulin were designed as potential antifilarial agents. The reaction of 2-aminobenzimidazole with diisopropyl phosphite and carbon tetrachloride at a low temperature gave the unexpected 1-diisopropoxyphosphoryl-2-aminobenzimidazole, which on heating gave the novel benzimidazole derivative, 2-(diisopropoxyphosphoryl)aminobenzimidazole. Both products were fully characterized and the synthetic procedure to both compounds was optimized. The procedure was used to prepare the related 5-benzoyl-2-(diisopropoxyphosphoryl)aminobenzimidazole and 5-benzoyl-2-(diethoxyphosphoryl)aminobenzimidazole (1d). In a preliminary trial against Brugia pahangi compound 1d was found to have no antifilarial activity. This lack of activity may be attributed to its extreme insolubility and thus low bioavailability. The synthesis of analogous, more soluble, phosphorothioate-substituted benzimidazoles using the same methods may yield compounds with greater antifilarial activity.

Targeting adolescent mothers with depressive symptoms for early intervention.

Infants of mothers with depressive symptoms show developmental delays if symptoms persist over the first 6 months of the infant's life, thus highlighting the importance of identifying those mothers for early intervention. In Study 1, mothers with depressive symptoms (n = 160) and mothers without depressive symptoms (n = 100) and their infants were monitored to identify variables from the first 3 months that predict which mothers would still be symptomatic at 6 months. A "dysregulation" profile was noted for the infants of depressed mothers, including lower Brazelton scores, more indeterminate sleep, and elevated norepinephrine, epinephrine, and dopamine levels at the neonatal period, and greater right frontal EEG activation, lower vagal tone, and negative interactions at the 3- and 6-month periods. A group of maternal variables from the neonatal and 3-month assessments accounted for 51% of the variance in the mothers' continuing depressive symptoms. These variables included greater right frontal EEG activation, lower vagal tone, and less positive interactions at 3 months, and elevated norepinephrine, serotonin, and cortisol levels at the neonatal stage. In Study 2, a similar sample of mothers with depressive symptoms (n = 160) and without depressive symptoms (n = 100) was recruited and followed to 3 months. Those symptomatic mothers who had values above (or below) the median (depending on the negative direction) on the predictor variables identified in Study 1 (taken from the first 3 months) were then randomly assigned to an intervention or a control group at 3 months. These groups were then compared with each other, as well as with the group without depressive symptoms, at 6 and 12 months. The intervention, conducted from 3 to 6 months, consisted of free day care for the infants and a rehab program (social, educational, and vocational) plus several mood induction interventions for the mothers, including relaxation therapy, music mood induction, massage therapy, and mother-infant interaction coaching. Although the mothers who received the intervention continued to have more depressive symptoms than did the nondepressed mothers, their interactions significantly improved and their biochemical values and vagal tone normalized. Their infants also showed more positive interations, better growth, fewer pediatric complications, and normalized biochemical values, and by 12 months their mental and motor scores were better than those of the infants in the control group.

The modification of the membrane of Oceanomonas baumannii when subjected to both osmotic and organic solvent stress.

Oceanomonas baumanniioff a novel halotolerant bacterium which was isolated from the estuary of the river Wear (Sunderland, UK). When grown in tryptone soya broth it can tolerate high levels of phenol, which is not utilised as a carbon source in this medium. However, the level of tolerance was reduced from 35 mM to 3 mM phenol as salinity increased from 1% to 12% NaCl (w/v). Increasing salinity up to 12% NaCl also decreased the growth rate 8-fold and caused modifications to the cytoplasmic membrane particularly anionic phosphatidylglycerol levels, which doubled at the expense of zwitterionic phosphatidylethanolamine. In addition, changes in the phospholipid fatty acid composition were noted, cis-vaccenic acid decreased significantly at higher salinities. Intracellular solute levels also increased with increasing salinity and there was an accumulation of the compatible solutes ectoine, glycine betaine and glutamate. The addition of phenol to osmotically compromised cultures led to a further modification of the cytoplasmic membrane phospholipid composition, in particular, that the decrease in zwitterionic phosphatidylethanolamine and the increase of anionic phospholipid species was much less pronounced. A further decrease in unsaturation, particularly in the proportion of cis-vaccenic acid, and the mean chain length of the fatty acids suggested that this response was important in maintaining membrane integrity in the presence of phenol.

Feelings and attitudes of gifted students.

Differences between the self-perceptions of gifted high school freshmen (n = 62) and nongifted peers (n = 162) were assessed regarding intimacy with family and peers, social support, family responsibilities, self-esteem, depression, and risk-taking behavior. Gifted students perceived themselves as being more intimate with friends, assuming fewer family responsibilities, and taking more risks (both sports- and danger-related risks). Contrary to the literature suggesting delays in the social development of gifted students, these data indicate that gifted students may be socially precocious when compared with their nongifted peers. Gifted students and their teachers were also administered the Perceptions about Giftedness Scale. Gifted students reported feeling the same as, or better than, their peers about their academic and social skills, and their teachers closely agreed. However, the teachers rated the gifted students as being less happy than the students rated themselves.

Adolescents' perceptions of family responsibility-taking.

A scale was developed to solicit adolescents' perceptions of their family responsibility-taking (defined as helping out and being supportive). Four hundred adolescents were administered this scale together with self-report measures of intimacy with parents and peers as well as other psychological variables (self-esteem, depression, risk-taking, and drug use). The results revealed that adolescents who felt they assumed more family responsibility reported less depression, more intimate relationships with their parents, and higher self-esteem.

Adolescent psychiatric patients' interactions with their mothers.

Thirty-eight adolescent psychiatric patients and their mothers engaged in two dyadic interactions. The participants rated themselves and each other on four behavioral dimensions (calmness, friendliness, involvement, and bossiness) during a videotaped playback. An independent observer rated the dyads on the same dimensions. Analyses were conducted based on classification of adolescents as internalizers/externalizers, depressed/nondepressed, and socially anxious/nonanxious. Internalizing adolescent dyads were significantly calmer, friendlier, and more involved than were externalizing adolescent dyads. The dyads in which the adolescents scored lower on the depression scale were calmer, friendlier, and more involved than were the dyads with adolescents who had higher depression scores. No differences were noted between high and low socially anxious dyads. The findings indicated that the videotaping procedure could help familiarize clinical staff with the dynamics of parent-adolescent interactions.

Adolescent depressed mood and parental unhappiness.

A set of self-report scales on depression, parental happiness, intimate relationships, social support, self-esteem, and risk-taking behavior were administered to 455 adolescents to determine the relationship between depression and these other variables. Adolescents with depressed mood were found to be less intimate with both parents, felt less social support, and had lower self-esteem than their peers. Adolescents who perceived their mother or father as unhappy also reported less intimacy with both parents and less social support.

Preschoolers of dysphoric mothers.

Dysphoric mothers rated their preschool children as having more internalizing and externalizing behavior problems than children of nondysphoric mothers. Observers rated the dysphoric mothers as having more negative affect during play interactions, although their children's affect was not rated more negatively. The dysphoric mother-infant dyads were also rated as having a poorer quality interaction. These data suggest that mothers' chronic dysphoria (75% were chronically dysphoric) has a negative impact on the mothers' perceptions of their children as well as the mothers' and children's interaction behavior.

Mothers touching newborns: a comparison of rooming-in versus minimal contact.

We compared the maternal behaviors of women who had extended and early contact (rooming-in) with their infants with those who had contact only during feedings. Thirty-one young, unmarried, predominantly black, lower-socioeconomic mothers and their infants were observed in the mother's hospital room for 15 minutes after a morning feeding approximately 18 hours after delivery. A time sample unit checklist was used to record each mother's behavior, looking, talking, and touching directed toward their infants and others, as well as watching television and talking on the telephone. Analyses of variance revealed that the rooming-in mothers looked at, talked to, and touched their infants more, watched less television, and talked less on the telephone than mothers with minimal contact with their infants. These findings suggest that increased postpartum contact with infants leads not only to more interaction, but also to more touching as well as touching in more intimate places (face and head), thus highlighting the value of rooming-in arrangements for mothers and infants.

Under-eating and over-eating concerns among adolescents.

462 adolescents were given a set of scales to determine their concerns about eating (under-eating or over-eating), and perceptions of family and peer intimacy, social support, self-esteem, depression and exercise. Although only 10% stated that they were "underweight" and 21% that they were "overweight", as many as 50% reported having eating concerns. As compared to those who did not have concerns about eating, those who were concerned about undereating felt that they had poorer relationships with their mothers and fathers, less social support, lower self-esteem and low levels of exercise. In contrast, those who were concerned about overeating perceived having an intimacy problem only with their fathers. Like those concerned about undereating, the group concerned about overeating also had lower self-esteem and low levels of exercise. But, unlike the under-eating concern group, the over-eating concern group scored higher on the depression scale.

Adolescents' intimacy with parents and friends.

Adolescents' perceived levels of intimacy with their mother, father, and close friend were examined as a function of demographic, family and school, and psychological variables. Students with same-sex friends and greater interest in school reported greater intimacy with their mothers. Students with higher self-esteem, lower depression, and lower risk-taking scores reported greater intimacy with their mothers and fathers. The greatest number of relationships with positive variables involved intimacy with mothers.

Adolescents' perceptions of their risk-taking behavior.

A questionnaire comprised of several self-report scales was administered to 440 adolescents to assess differences between high and low sports and danger risk takers on relationship and personality variables. Sports risk takers reported more danger-related risk taking and more drug use but higher self-esteem than did nonrisk takers. Danger risk takers reported greater sports-related risk taking and more drug use as well as less intimacy with their mothers, less family responsibility taking, and less depression than did their nonrisk-taking counterparts.

"Depressed" mothers' perceptions of their preschool children's vulnerability.

"Depressed" mothers who scored in the depression range on the Beck Depression Inventory when their infants were 3-months-old were asked to complete the Vulnerable Child Scale when their children were preschool age. Depressed versus non-depressed mothers rated their preschool children as being more vulnerable (as did an independent observer) as well as having more behavior problems. The vulnerability ratings were significantly related to infancy stage measures including the POMS (mothers' depressed mood), the infants' behavior ratings and heart rate range during interactions with a nondepressed stranger. These measures of the mothers' and infants' behavior tapped during early infancy may have contributed to the mothers having perceived their children as "vulnerable" during the preschool stage.

Infants of depressed mothers show "depressed" behavior even with nondepressed adults.

To determine whether the "depressed" behavior (e.g., less positive affect and lower activity level) of infants noted during interactions with their "depressed" mothers generalizes to their interactions with nondepressed adults, 74 3-6-month-old infants of "depressed" and nondepressed mothers were videotaped in face-to-face interactions with their mothers and with nondepressed female strangers. "Depressed" mothers and their infants received lower ratings on all behaviors than nondepressed mothers and infants. Although the infants of "depressed" versus nondepressed mothers also received lower ratings with the stranger adult, very few differences were noted between those infants' ratings when interacting with their mother versus the stranger, suggesting that their "depressed" style of interacting is not specific to their interactions with depressed mothers but generalizes to their interactions with nondepressed adults as early as 3 months of age.

Effects of maternal smoking and caffeine habits on infantile apnea: a retrospective study.

To evaluate the relationship of antecedent maternal smoking and caffeine consumption habits on the occurrence of apnea in their offspring, rates for central and obstructive apnea were analyzed in a cohort of mother-infant pairs. The mothers of 298 infants with apnea responded to a questionnaire completed prior to a nine-hour polysomnogram performed as part of the patients' evaluations. Cigarette consumption estimates were computed on a 20-cigarette per pack basis, and caffeine intake, based on dietary sources (coffee, tea, chocolate, and colas), was summarized as milligrams of caffeine consumed per day. Rates of central and obstructive apnea of 6 to 10 seconds in duration were calculated. Multiple linear regression analysis determined that smokers tended to be younger and have lower birth weight infants who presented earlier with apnea than infants of nonsmokers. Increased rates of central apnea occurred in infants of smokers as compared with infants of nonsmokers. During pregnancy, a pack per day increase in maternal smoking habit was associated with a 1.88/h increase in central apneas in their offspring (P less than .01). Maternal smoking after delivery had a similar relationship. Obstructive apnea rates were similar in both groups. Both central and obstructive apnea rates associated positively with increasing maternal caffeine consumption. Smoking habits and caffeine ingestion were correlated (P less than .01). Infants with apnea have greater rates of central apnea when their mothers smoke during pregnancy. Therefore, a history of nicotine consumption should be included in the medical history of infants presenting with apnea.