Science Primary Literature

Makary, M.A.; Overton, H.N.; Wang, P. (2017) BMJ (Clinical Research ed.), 359, j4792 Public health crises come in two forms–those resulting from naturally occurring diseases and those that are the byproduct of medical care itself. The opioid crisis is the latest self inflicted wound in public health. In the US alone, there were 240 million opioid prescriptions dispensed in 2015, nearly one for every adult in the general population. In order to tackle the opioid epidemic, we must first tackle a major contributor–physician overprescribing. Subject headings: Analgesics, Opioid/administration & dosage;…

Bowlby, J. (1977) The British Journal of Psychiatry : the Journal of Mental Science, 130, 421-431 An account is given of how a clinician guided by attachment theory approaches the clinical conditions to which the theory is held to apply, which include states of anxiety, depression and emotional detachment. Assessment of a patient is in terms of the patterns of attachment and caregiving behavior which he commonly shows and of the events and situations, both recent and past, which may have precipitated or exacerbated his symptoms. The problems posed by…

Lo, B.; Grady, D. (2017) JAMA, 317(17), 1719-1720 The federal Open Payments database makes public the amount and type of payments from drug and device companies to individual physicians. It seems plausible that very large payments warrant greater concern about conflict of interest causing bias and undue influence. The degree of concern will vary, however, according to the type of financial relationship and the nature of the physician’s advice or activity. In several situations, the existence of bias can be investigated directly, or the financial relationship effectively and simply managed…

Man-Son-Hing, H.; Zoran, M.J.; Lukowiak, K.; Haydon, P.G. (1989) Nature, 341(6239), 237-239 The mechanisms that underlie synaptic plasticity have been largely inferred from electrophysiological studies performed at sites remote from synaptic terminals. Thus the mechanisms involved in plasticity at the secretory sites have remained ill-defined. We have now used somatic synapses of cultured Helisoma neurones to directly assess presynaptic ion conductances and study the secretory apparatus. At these synapses we determined the actions of a modulatory neuropeptide, Phe-Met-Arg-Phe-NH2 (FMRFa), on the release of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine (ACh). Using voltage- and…

Dee, T.S. (2014) Economic Inquiry, 52(1), 173-182 Achievement gaps may reflect the cognitive impairment thought to occur in evaluative settings (e.g., classrooms) where a stereotyped identity is salient (i.e., stereotype threat). This study presents an economic model of stereotype threat that reconciles prior evidence on how student effort and performance are influenced by this social-identity phenomenon. This study also presents empirical evidence from a framed field experiment in which students at a selective college were randomly assigned to a treatment that primed their awareness of a negatively stereotyped identity (i.e.,…

Saeki, Y., Isono, E., Toh-E, A. (2005) Methods in Enzymology, 399, 215-227 For analysis of the mechanism of the 26S proteasome-mediated protein degradation in vitro, the preparation of well-defined substrate, the ubiquitinated proteins, of the 26S proteasome is inevitable. However, no method has been available to ubiquitinate a given protein. Here, we propose a relatively simple method for preparation of the ubiquitinated substrates using HECT-type ubiquitin ligase Rsp5, termed the PY motif-insertion method. The principle of this method is that the PY motif, known as the Rsp5-binding motif, is inserted…

McMurtry, C.M., Noel, M., Taddio, A., Antony, M.M., Asmundson, G.J.G., Riddell, R.P.; Chambers, C.T., Shah, V. (2015) The Clinical Journal of Pain, 31(10 Suppl), S109-123 BACKGROUND: This systematic review evaluated the effectiveness of exposure-based psychological and physical interventions for the management of high levels of needle fear and/or phobia and fainting in children and adults. DESIGN/METHODS: A systematic review identified relevant randomized and quasi-randomized controlled trials of children, adults, or both with high levels of needle fear, including phobia (if not available, then populations with other specific phobias were included)….

Shonkoff, J. P., Boyce, W. T., & McEwen, B. S. (2009) JAMA, 301(21), 2252-2259 A scientific consensus is emerging that the origins of adult disease are often found among developmental and biological disruptions occurring during the early years of life. These early experiences can affect adult health in 2 ways—either by cumulative damage over time or by the biological embedding of adversities during sensitive developmental periods. In both cases, there can be a lag of many years, even decades, before early adverse experiences are expressed in the form of disease….