Adrenalectomy Causes Oxidative Damage and Monoamine Increase in the Brain of Rats and Enhances Immobilization Stress-Induced Oxidative Damage and Neurotransmitter Changes

The paradox that increased levels of glucocorticoids can either enhance or suppress the organism's defense against stress, has been an obstacle to formulating a unified picture of glucocorticoid function. To clarify the glucocorticoid paradox, we examined male Sprague-Dawley rats exposed to immobilization stress and/or bilateral adrenalectomy (ADX), and measured oxidative damage to lipid, protein, and DNA, as well as monoamine neurotransmitter turnover. ADX, which is similar to stress, induces an increase in lipid peroxidation and protein oxidation, accompanied by increased monoamine neurotransmitter turnover in several regions of the brain of rats. The effect of ADX is greater than that induced by short-term immobilization stress. In addition, ADX enhances stress-induced oxidative damage and increase of monoamine neurotransmitter turnover. These results, together with our previous finding that long-term stress causes oxidative damage to the brain, suggest that stress levels of glucocorticoids, or levels lower than basal, cause oxidative damage. However, basal levels of glucocorticoids appear to buffer against oxidative damage. These findings provide possible mechanisms to understand the glucocorticoid paradox, and support the stress-oxidative hypothesis of aging acceleration.     

Feedlot veterinarians' moral and instrumental beliefs regarding antimicrobial use in feedlot cattle

This cross‐sectional survey research study examined the role moral beliefs play in predicting behavioural beliefs and attitudes and the role that subjective norms play in predicting moral beliefs. Using a self‐administered questionnaire, one hundred and three feedlot veterinarians completed measures of behavioural beliefs, referent others, perceived constraints and moral beliefs regarding recommendations to use antimicrobials in four situations (i.e. acutely sick cattle, chronically sick cattle, at‐risk cattle and high‐risk cattle). Regression analysis and F‐tests indicate moral beliefs as contributing significant increases in R² to models predicting behavioural beliefs regarding antimicrobial use in each situation. In addition, subjective norms contribute a significant increase in R² in models predicting moral beliefs in each of the four situations. The results indicate the effects of moral beliefs on behavioural beliefs are somewhat contingent on the condition; that is the level of risk associated with treating cattle with antimicrobials, the level of risk of not doing so, and the effectiveness of the antimicrobial in situations such as acute illness or being at‐risk of illness. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A revised Emotional Intelligence Scale: factor re-evaluation and item reduction

The original Emotional Intelligence Scale of Fukunishi utilized 65 items measuring 3 basic dimensions: intrapersonal, interpersonal, and situational. 170 psychiatric outpatients (84 men and 86 women) completed the inventory. The mean age of the sample was 41.1 yr. (SD= 12.4). Compared with the 65-item scale, factor re-analysis yielded a new 34-item solution with significant correlations for the Intrapsychic (.97) and Interpersonal dimensions (.96) of the larger scale, but not with the Situational dimension (.43). The correlation between the total inventory scores was also significant (.94).     

Object-based anisotropies in the flash-lag effect

The relative visual position of a briefly flashed stimulus is systematically modified in the presence of motion signals. We investigated the two-dimensional distortion of the positional representation of a flash relative to a moving stimulus. Analysis of the spatial pattern of mislocalization revealed that the perceived position of a flash was not uniformly displaced, but instead shifted toward a single point of convergence that followed the moving object from behind at a fixed distance. Although the absolute magnitude of mislocalization increased with motion speed, the convergence point remained unaffected. The motion modified the perceived position of a flash, but had little influence on the perceived shape of a spatially extended flash stimulus. These results demonstrate that motion anisotropically distorts positional representation after the shapes of objects are represented. Furthermore, the results imply that the flash-lag effect may be considered a special case of two-dimensional anisotropic distortion.     

Alexithymia and sociocultural factors in a Japanese sample: a study with the Rorschach

We reexamined the Japanese version of the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale, a self-report sc ale for measuring alexithymic characteristics, by comparing the scores on three factors and the total scores with variables of the Rorschach in a sample of 40 (originally 48) Japanese college students. Based on prior studies, our aims were to further validate the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale by comparing its scores with those on a projective technique. We also investigated whether sociocultural factors, such as repression of hostility. are associated with scores on the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (especially Factor 3). None of the seven Rorschach Alexithymia Variables were significantly related to the factors and total scores of the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale. However, scores for Factor 1 (difficulty identifying feelings) of the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale correlated positively with scores on Sum C' (reserved responses to emotional stimuli) and Adj es (stimulus demand), suggesting that individuals who score high for Factor 1 experience gloomy, depressive feelings but in constricted ways. Scores for Factor 3 (externally oriented thinking) correlated positively with the D scores (stress tolerance) and negatively with m (situational stress) responses, suggesting that Factor 3 may reflect a psychological defense that enhances stress tolerance. There was a nonsignificant negative correlation between Factor 1 and Factor 3 scores, but, unlike our hypothesis. Factor 3 was neither related to AG (aggression) nor S (space responses reflecting oppositional tendency), indices of aggression or hostility in the Rorschach Comprehensive System. It may be that the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale and the Rorschach measure quite different aspects of personality, but further research is necessary.     

Biochemical pathogenesis of post-traumatic epilepsy

The online version of the original article can be found at     

Biochemical pathogenesis of post-traumatic epilepsy

Head trauma is often followed by epilepsy and may be related to the breakdown of red blood cells and hemoglobin within the CNS. Injection of hemoglobin or iron salts into the rat cortex is known to induce a chronic epileptic focus. We observed the formation of superoxide anion (O₂) and hydroxyl radical (·OH) after ferric chloride injection into the rat cerebral cortex and suggest that these radicals, especially ·OH, may be responsible for the initiation of lipid peroxidation in neuronal membranes and for the accelerated production of guanidine compounds in the brain, which may in turn lead to epileptogenicity. Then, we found that treatment with epigallocatechin (EGC) or a phosphate diester of vitamins E and C (EPC), which are potent ·OH scavengers, significantly inhibited the formation of malondialdehyde and epileptic discharges in the iron-induced epileptic focus. This study was supported by a grant-in-aid for scientific research from the Japanese Ministry of Education, Science, and Culture.     

Nitroglycerin relieves emotional stress-induced stomach ulcers in rats

It is known that nitroglycerin (GTN) can be converted to form a nitric oxide (NO) molecule which is a highly reactive and unstable free radical species. NO is known to have many beneficial effects such as relaxing blood vessels, promoting digestive activity, and regulating blood pressure. The first experiment established an additional effect of NO, that GTN can help prevent emotionally-induced stomach stress ulcers in rats. In Experiment 2, we sought to estimate the quantity of nitrogen oxides in serum produced by GTN that is administered subcutaneously to rats. The results indicated that rats administered GTN increased significantly the amount of serum NO₂ and NO₃, relative to values for a control group. Since amounts of NO₂ and NO₃ reflect amount of NO, the administration of GTN significantly increased amount of NO. An implication of this research is that chemicals such as GTN may be used in therapy with humans for the prevention of some kinds of ulcers. Furthermore, while NO is commonly recognized as a pollutant, it has a number of beneficial effects on the body, e. g., it may slow the aging process, contribute to therapy for improtency, and facilitate memory processes.     

A study of intermediate propositional logics on the third slice

The intermediate logics have been classified into slices (cf. Hosoi [1]), but the detailed structure of slices has been studied only for the first two slices (cf. Hosoi and Ono [2]). In order to study the structure of slices, we give a method of a finer classification of slices & _n (n 3). Here we treat only the third slice as an example, but the method can be extended to other slices in an obvious way. It is proved that each subslice contains continuum of logics. A characterization of logics in each subslice is given in terms of the form of models.