[en] Patients waiting for or undergoing surgery with the Leksell Gamma Knife are mostly under emotional stress. The patient's subjective feelings are investigated by interviewing and by psychological examination using questionnaires. This serves as the basis for psychoprophylaxis and psychotherapy. Experience gained in medical practice is described. 20 refs

No abstract available

[en] Underwater sound from human activities may affect fish behaviour negatively and threaten the stability of fish stocks. However, some fundamental understanding is still lacking for adequate impact assessments and potential mitigation strategies. For example, little is known about the potential contribution of the temporal features of sound, the efficacy of ramp-up procedures, and the generalisability of results from indoor studies to the outdoors. Using a semi-natural set-up, we exposed European seabass in an outdoor pen to four treatments: 1) continuous sound, 2) intermittent sound with a regular repetition interval, 3) irregular repetition intervals and 4) a regular repetition interval with amplitude ‘ramp-up’. Upon sound exposure, the fish increased swimming speed and depth, and swam away from the sound source. The behavioural readouts were generally consistent with earlier indoor experiments, but the changes and recovery were more variable and were not significantly influenced by sound intermittency and interval regularity. In addition, the ‘ramp-up’ procedure elicited immediate diving response, similar to the onset of treatment without a ‘ramp-up’, but the fish did not swim away from the sound source as expected. Our findings suggest that while sound impact studies outdoors increase ecological and behavioural validity, the inherently higher variability also reduces resolution that may be counteracted by increasing sample size or looking into different individual coping styles. Our results also question the efficacy of ‘ramp-up’ in deterring marine animals, which warrants more investigation. - Highlights: • We exposed European seabass to four different sound treatments in a large outdoor pen. • Immediate behavioural changes mirrored previous indoor studies with similar design. • Response was not influenced by sound intermittency and interval regularity. • ‘Ramp-up’ did not scare fish away from the sound source. - Outdoor sound exposure changed sea bass behaviour, independent of sound intermittency and interval regularity. ‘Ramp-up’ procedure preceding the exposure did not drive the fish away.

[en] Many chronic renal diseases lead to the final common state of decrease in renal size, parenchymal atrophy, sclerosis and fibrosis. The ultrasound image show a smaller kidney, thinning of the parenchyma and its hyperechogenicity (reflecting sclerosis and fibrosis). The frequency of renal cysts increases with the progression of the disease. Ultrasound generally does not allow for the exact diagnosis of an underlying chronic disease (renal biopsy is usually required), but it can help to determine an irreversible disease, assess prognosis and avoid unnecessary diagnostic or therapeutic procedures. The main exception in which the ultrasound image does not show a smaller kidney with parenchymal atrophy is diabetic nephropathy, the leading cause of chronic and end-stage renal failure in developed countries in recent years. In this case, both renal size and parenchymal thickness are preserved until end-stage renal failure. Doppler study of intrarenal vessels can provide additional information about microvascular and parenchymal lesions, which is helpful in deciding for or against therapeutic intervention and timely planning for optimal renal replacement therapy option

[en] Purpose: patients undergoing radiotherapy have physical and psychological symptoms related to the underlying disease and the treatment. In order to give the best possible support to the patients, more knowledge about the amount and the changing of distress in the course of radiotherapy is of essentially importance. Methods: The distress was measured in a consecutive sample of cancer patients (n=82) undergoing radiotherapy. Each patient was given the EORTC-QLQ-C30, the HADS and a special questionnaire which ascertain radiotherapy-specific items before starting the radiotherapy, at the onset of radiotherapy, in the third week of radiotherapy and 3 weeks after the end of radiotherapy. Results: within the first week of treatment the psychological distress of the patients is increasing; 98.8 % of the patients are 'moderate distressed', 46 % 'severe distressed'. General physical symptoms seem not to be affected by the radiotherapy, there is no changing. The distress caused by the organization of the radiotherapy is decreasing, while therapy-related symptoms are increasing in the course of radiotherapy. Even after the end of the therapy these symptoms keep on causing distress, sometimes in a higher amount than before. A correlation between sex, sort of cancer and curative or palliative treatment and the amount of distress was found. Conclusion: the results stress the importance of adequate emotional support for patients undergoing radiotherapy especially in the first week of treatment and after the treatment. There is a need for the development of a valid radiotherapy - questionnaire in order to be able to measure the distress of these patients. (author)

[en] Numerous recent works strengthen the idea that the nuclear and cytosolic-specific O-GlcNAc glycosylation protects cells against injuries. We have first investigated O-GlcNAc level and Hsp70-GlcNAc-binding activity (HGBA) behaviour after exposure of HeLa and HepG₂ cells to a wide variety of stresses. O-GlcNAc and HGBA responses were different according to the stress and according to the cell. HGBA was released for almost all stresses, while O-GlcNAc level was modified either upwards or downwards, depending to the stress. Against all expectations, we demonstrated that energy charge did not significantly vary with stress whereas UDP-GlcNAc pools were more dramatically affected even if differences in UDP-GlcNAc contents were not correlated with O-GlcNAc variations suggesting that O-GlcNAc transferase is itself finely regulated during cell injury. Finally, HGBA could be triggered by proteasome inhibition and by L-azetidine-2-carboxylic acid (a proline analogue) incorporation demonstrating that protein misfolding is one of the key-activator of this Hsp70 property

[en] The Keap1–Nrf2 [Kelch-like ECH-associated protein 1–nuclear factor (erythroid-derived 2)-like 2] pathway plays a central role in the protection of cells against oxidative and xenobiotic stresses. Nrf2 is a potent transcription activator that recognizes a unique DNA sequence known as the antioxidant response element (ARE). Under normal conditions, Nrf2 binds to Keap1 in the cytoplasm, resulting in proteasomal degradation. Following exposure to electrophiles or reactive oxygen species, Nrf2 becomes stabilized, translocates into the nucleus, and activates the transcription of various cytoprotective genes. Increasing attention has been paid to the role of Nrf2 in cancer cells because the constitutive stabilization of Nrf2 has been observed in many human cancers with poor prognosis. Recent studies have shown that the antioxidant and detoxification activities of Nrf2 confer chemo- and radio-resistance to cancer cells. In this review, we provide an overview of the Keap1–Nrf2 system and discuss its role under physiological and pathological conditions, including cancers. We also introduce the results of our recent study describing Nrf2 function in the metabolism of cancer cells. Nrf2 likely confers a growth advantage to cancer cells through enhancing cytoprotection and anabolism. Finally, we discuss the possible impact of Nrf2 inhibitors on cancer therapy.

[en] The sample of 21 requalification trainees used in this study involved four groups of trainees, who participated in the requalification training cycle from December 19, 1984, to January 16, 1985. The interference-response stress measurement was studied through the performance of tasks as measured by the instructor on the Trainee Scenario Evaluation Report. The direct-response stress measurement was examined through the measurement of heart beat and blood pressure of the trainees during the crisis scenarios as monitored by the Pollenex Digital Blood Pressure Machine. The reported-response stress measurement was studied through the trainee's self-evaluation on the Multiple Affect Adjective Check List (Anxiety Scale)-Today Form. The major findings are: (1) because of the satisfactory completion of the crisis scenario by all of the requalification trainees, the study was unable to draw a significant relationship between any single trainee characteristic and the satisfactory completion of a crisis scenario; (2) an overall pattern exists in the heart beat and blood pressure of the direct-response stress measurement and in the MAACL of the reported-response stress measurement; and (3) twelve pairs of variables compared the unusual event, the general emergency event, and following the scenario means with the baseline mean for significance. Those twelve pairs included a significant difference at the 0.05 level between six pairs

[en] Distress associated with attendance at a radiotherapy department was assessed in 80 consecutive patients. All patients were interviewed within 24 h of their first fraction of radiotherapy; 31 patients were also interviewed at the end of treatment. The problem identified at first interview as causing the most distress was worry about the effects of disease and its treatment upon the patient's family. At second interview the dominant complaint was of not being allowed to wash. Psychological problems, including anxiety and sleep disturbances, caused more overall distress than did physical symptoms. The method used in this study for eliciting information on the side-effects of therapy is straightforward and has yielded data that are provocative and suggest interesting avenues for further investigation. (author)

No abstract available