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We had a success rate of treating low, self-assessed, global quality of life (measured by QOL1: How would you assess the quality of your life now?) with clinical holistic medicine of 56.4% (95% CI: 42.3-69.7%) and calculated from this the Number Needed to Treat (NNT) as 1.43-2.36. We found that during treatment, (in average 20 sessions of psychodynamic psychotherapy complemented with bodywork at a cost of 1600 EURO), the patients entered a state of Antonovsky-salutogenesis (holistic, existential healing), which also improved their self-assessed health and general ability one whole step up a 5-point Likert Scale. The treatment responders radically improved their self-assessed physical health (0.6 step), self-assessed mental health (1.6 step), their relation to self (1.2 step), friends (0.3 step), and partner (2.1 step on a 6-step scale), and their ability to love (1.2 step) and work (0.8 step), and to function socially (1.0 step) and sexually (0.8 step). It seems that treatment with clinical holistic medicine is the cure of choice when the patients (1) present the triad of low quality of life, poor self-assessed physical and/or mental health, and poor ability to function; and (2) are willing to suffer during the therapy by confronting and integrating old emotional problems and trauma(s) from the past. For these patients, the treatment provided lasting benefits, without the negative side effects of drugs. A lasting, positive effect might also prevent many different types of problems in the future. The therapy was "mindful" in its focus on existential and spiritual issues.

Short-term psychodynamic psychotherapy (STPP) complemented with bodywork improved 31 of 54 patients (57.4%, 95% CI: 43.21-70.77%) who rated themselves mentally ill before treatment. Calculated from this we find 1.41 < NNT < 2.31; we estimate NNH > 500. Of the 54 patients, 40% had already had traditional treatment that did not help them. Bodywork helped the patients to confront repressed painful feelings from childhood and this seemingly accelerated and improved the therapy. The patients received in average 20 sessions over 14 months at a cost of 1600 EURO. For the treatment responders, all measured aspects of life (on a five point Likert Scale) improved significantly, simultaneously, and radically: somatic health (from 2.9 to 2.3), self-esteem/relationship to self (from 3.5 to 2.3), relationship to partner (from 4.7 to 2.9 [no partner was rated as "6"]), relationship to friends (from 2.5 to 2.0), ability to love (from 3.8 to 2.4), self-assessed sexual ability (from 3.5 to 2.4), self-assessed social ability (from 3.2 to 2.1), self-assessed working ability (from 3.3 to 2.4), and self-assessed quality of life (from 4.0 to 2.3. Quality of life as measured with QOL5 improved (from 3.6 to 2.3 on a scale from 1 to 5; p < 0.001). This general improvement strongly indicated that the patient had healed existentially, i.e., had experienced what Aaron Antonovsky (1923-1994) called "salutogenesis", defined as the process exactly the opposite of pathogenesis. For the treatment responders, the treatment provided lasting benefits, without the negative side effects of drugs. A lasting, positive effect might also prevent many different types of problems in the future.

At the Research Clinic for Holistic Medicine in Copenhagen, 43 patients who presented with low or very low self-esteem were treated with psychodynamic short-term therapy complemented with bodywork. They received an average of 20 sessions at a cost of 1,600 EURO. The bodywork helped the patients to confront old emotional pain from childhood trauma repressed to the body-mind. Results showed that 60.5% recovered from low self-esteem (95% CI: 44.41-75.02%). Calculated from this, we have NNT = 1.33-2.25. Almost all aspects of life improved at the same time (p < 0.01): physical health, mental health, quality of life, and ability to function in a number of important areas (partner, friends, sexually, and socially). This indicated that we had successfully induced existential healing (Antonovsky salutogenesis). The strategy of improving self-esteem can be the key to a new life for patients presenting with low quality of life, poor health (physical and/or mental), and poor ability to function. The patients were strongly motivated and willing to endure strong emotional pain provoked by the therapy. The rate of recovery is comparable to the most successful interventions with psychological and psychiatric treatment. Clinical holistic treatment has many advantages: efficiency, low cost, lack of negative side effects, lasting results, lack of use of psychopharmacological drugs (often with side effects), and an important preventive dimension.

Transgenic hybrid aspen (Populus tremula L. x P. tremuloides Michx.) plants expressing a high-isoelectric-point superoxide dismutase (hipI-SOD) gene in antisense orientation were generated to investigate its function. Immunolocalization studies showed the enzyme to be localized extracellularly, in the secondary cell wall of xylem vessels and phloem fibers. The antisense lines of hipI-SOD exhibited a distinct phenotype; growth rate was reduced, stems were thinner and leaves smaller than in wild-type (WT) plants. The abundance of hipI-SOD was reduced in the bark and xylem of plants from these antisense lines. The vascular tissue of transgenic lines became lignified earlier than in WT plants and also showed an increased accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Xylem fibers and vessels were shorter and thinner in the transgenic lines than in WT plants. The total phenolic content was enhanced in the antisense lines. Furthermore, microarray analysis indicated that several enzymes involved in cell signaling, lignin biosynthesis and stress responses were upregulated in apical vascular tissues of transgenic plants. The upregulation of selected genes involved in lignin biosynthesis was also verified by real-time PCR. The results suggest that, in the transgenic plants, a premature transition into maturation occurs and the process is discussed in terms of the effects of increased accumulation of ROS due to reduced expression of hipI-SOD during development and differentiation.

This is a study of 109 patients who attended the Research Clinic for Holistic Medicine in Copenhagen during the 2004-2006 period, grouped according to the symptoms they presented with. Every new patient was asked to answer a 10-question composite questionnaire containing QOL1, QOL5, and four questions on ability to function socially, ability to function sexually, ability to love, and ability to work, rated on a 5-point Likert scale, on initial contact and after 1-3 months, when the patient had received about five treatments, the patient was asked to complete the questionnaire again, and finally again after 1 year. All had been to their general practitioner first with their problems and 30% had been in psychological/psychiatric treatment before. The patients were treated with short-time psychodynamic therapy (less than 40 sessions) including bodywork when necessary. More than half the patients had a bad or very bad self-assessed mental health before treatment, but after treatment only 15% reported a bad or very bad mental health (p < 0.001). Most had a complex of mental, somatic, existential, and sexual problems. Of the patients, 69.72% did the retest after treatment. We conclude that clinical holistic medicine was able to help the majority of these patients, even when patients had not been sufficiently helped by drugs, psychiatry, or psychology before. We found that outcome of therapy was not connected with severity of initial condition, but probably with the former experience of treatment. If psychiatric or psychological treatment had already failed, the patients were more difficult to help. The Square Curve Paradigm was used to document a large, immediate and lasting effect of the therapy.

The database from the Drosophila Genome Project contains a gene, CG9918, annotated to code for a G protein-coupled receptor. We cloned the cDNA of this gene and functionally expressed it in Chinese hamster ovary cells. We tested a library of about 25 Drosophila and other insect neuropeptides, and seven insect biogenic amines on the expressed receptor and found that it was activated by low concentrations of the Drosophila neuropeptide, pyrokinin-1 (TGPSASSGLWFGPRLamide; EC50, 5 x 10(-8) M). The receptor was also activated by other Drosophila neuropeptides, terminating with the sequence PRLamide (Hug-gamma, ecdysis-triggering-hormone-1, pyrokinin-2), but in these cases about six to eight times higher concentrations were needed. The receptor was not activated by Drosophila neuropeptides, containing a C-terminal PRIamide sequence (such as ecdysis-triggering-hormone-2), or PRVamide (such as capa-1 and -2), or other neuropeptides and biogenic amines not related to the pyrokinins. This paper is the first conclusive report that CG9918 is a Drosophila pyrokinin-1 receptor gene.

The morphological variation, secondary metabolite profiles and restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLPs) of PCR amplified intergenic spacer (IGS) ribosomal DNA (rDNA) were studied in 27 isolates of Fusarium equiseti, 25 isolated from Norwegian cereals and 2 from soil obtained from the IBT culture collection (BioCentrum, Technical University of Denmark). All 27 isolates were tested for production of fusarochromanone (FUSCHR), zearalenone (ZEA) and the trichothecenes: 15-monoacetoxy-scirpentriol (MAS), diacetoxy-scirpenol (DAS), T-2 and HT-2 toxins, T2-triol, neosolaniol (NEO), deoxynivalenol (DON), nivalenol (NIV) and 4-acetylnivalenol (Fus-X). The trichothecenes were analysed by GC-MS in a selected ion monitoring mode, while FUSCHR was determined by ion pair HPLC with fluorometric detection and production of ZEA by TLC. For amplification of IGS rDNA primers CNL12 and CNS1 were applied. IGS rDNA was digested with the four restriction enzymes: AvaII, CfoI, EcoRI and Sau3A. In addition, we sequenced the IGS rDNA region of three of the Norwegian isolates. There were two morphological types among the Norwegian strains of F. equiseti, type I with short apical cells (dominating) and type II with long apical cells, with four haplotypes identified based on the RFLP data. Variation in secondary metabolite profiles within and between the morphological groups was observed and the levels of produced toxins were: FUSCHR 3000-42,500 and 25-30 ng/g, NIV 20-2500 and 120-700 ng/g, FUS-X 20-15,000 and 0 ng/g, DAS 30-7500 and 0-600 ng/g, and MAS 10-600 and 0-500 ng/g, for strains with short and long apical cells, respectively. NEO was detected in 16/27 strains tested (all morphotype I). All but four strains of type I (these four lacked a restriction site for EcoRI) had identical RFLP profiles. The isolates of type II had two haplotypes. The IGS sequence similarity data indicated differences between these morphotypes corresponding to two separate lineages apparently at the species level.

Partial translation elongation factor 1 alpha (TEF-1alpha) gene and intron sequences are reported from 148 isolates of 11 species of the anamorph genus Fusarium; F. avenaceum (syn. F. arthrosporioides), F. cerealis, F. culmorum, F. equiseti, F.flocciferum, F. graminearum, F. lunulosporum, F. sambucinum, F. torulosum, F. tricinctum and F. venenatum. The sequences were aligned with TEF-1alpha sequences retrieved from 35 isolates of F. kyushuense, F. langsethiae, F. poae and F. sporotrichioides in a previous study, and 39 isolates of F. cerealis, F. culmorum, F. graminearum and F. pseudograminearum retrieved from sequence databases. The 222 aligned sequences were subjected to phylogenetic analyses using maximum parsimony and Bayesian Markov Chain Monte Carlo maximum likelihood statistics. Support for internal branching topologies was examined by Bremer support, bootstrap and posterior probability analyses. The resulting trees were largely congruent. The taxon groups included in the sections Discolor, Gibbosum and Sporotrichiella sensu Wollenweber & Reinking (1935) all appeared to be polyphyletic. All species were monophyletic except F. flocciferum that was paraphyletic, and one isolate classified as F. cfr langsethiae on the basis of morphology that grouped with F. sporotrichioides. Mapping of toxin profiles, host preferences and geographic origin onto the DNA based phylogenetic tree structure indicated that in particular the toxin profiles corresponded with phylogeny, i.e. phylotoxigenic relationships were inferred. A major distinction was observed between the trichothecene and non-trichothecene producers, and the trichothecene producers were grouped into one clade of strictly type A trichothecene producers, one clade of strictly type B trichothecene producers and one clade with both type A and type B trichothecene producers. Furthermore, production of the type A trichothecenes T-2/HT-2 toxins are associated with a lineage comprising F. langsethiae and F. sporotrichioides. The ability to produce zearalenone was apparently gained parallel to the ability to produce trichothecenes, and later lost in a derived sublineage. The ability to produce enniatins is a shared feature of the entire study group, with the exception of the strict trichothecene type B producers and F. equiseti. The ability to produce moniliformin seems to be an ancestral feature of members of the genus Fusarium which seems to have been lost in the clades consisting of trichothecene/zearalenone producers. The aims of the present study were to determine the phylogenetic relationships between the different species of Fusarium commonly occurring on Norwegian cereals and some of their closest relatives, as well as to reveal underlying patterns such as the ability to produce certain mycotoxins, geographic distribution and host preferences. Implications for a better classification of Fusarium are discussed and highlighted.

Vasopressin (AVP) stimulates collecting duct water reabsorption through cAMP-mediated membrane targeting and increased expression of the aquaporin-2 (AQP2) water channel. Rats with liver cirrhosis induced by common bile duct ligation (CBL) show decreased protein expression of AQP2 despite increased plasma concentrations of AVP. The present study was conducted to investigate possible mechanisms behind this uncoupling of AVP signaling. The rats were examined 4 wk after CBL or sham operation. The CBL rats had increased plasma AVP concentrations (CBL: 3.2 +/- 0.2 vs. sham: 1.4 +/- 0.4 pg/ml, P < 0.05) and reduced AQP2 (0.62 +/- 0.11) and phosphorylated AQP2 (0.50 +/- 0.06) protein expression compared with sham-operated rats. However, examination of subcellular AQP2 localization by immunohistochemistry showed unchanged plasma membrane targeting in CBL rats, indicating a sustained ability of AQP2 short-term regulation. In a separate series of animals, thirsting was found to normalize AQP2 expression, indicating that AVP uncoupling in CBL rats is a physiological compensatory mechanism aimed at avoiding dilutional hyponatremia. Studies on microdissected collecting ducts from CBL rats showed decreased cAMP accumulation in response to AVP stimulation. The presence of the nonspecific phosphodiesterase inhibitor IBMX normalized the cAMP accumulation, indicating that cAMP-phosphodiesterase activity is increased in CBL rats. However, in contrast to this, Western blotting showed a decreased expression of several phosphodiesterase splice variants. We conclude that CBL rats develop an escape from AVP to prevent the formation of dilutional hyponatremia in response to increased plasma AVP concentrations. The mechanism behind AVP escape seems to involve decreased collecting duct sensitivity to AVP as a result of increased cAMP-phosphodiesterase activity.

A new species of Fusarium, Fusarium langsethiae, is described, illustrated and discussed. This species is isolated from kernels of oats, wheat and barley in several European countries. Morphologically, the species resembles Fusarium poae. It is differentiated from F. poae by slower growth, less aerial mycelium and absence of odour; its napiform or globose conidia are borne in the aerial mycelium on the agar surface on often bent phialides which exhibit sometimes more than one opening, whereas those of F. poae are produced on straight monophialides mostly in the aerial mycelium. No sporodochial conidia are formed by F. langsethiae even under near-UV light (nUV). Based on morphological characters, the species is placed in the section Sporotrichiella.

The occurrence and geographic distribution of species belonging to the genera Alternaria and Fusarium in grains of reduced and of acceptable quality were studied post-harvest in 1997 and 1998. A total of 260 grain samples of wheat, barley and oats was analysed. The distribution of Alternaria and Fusarium spp. varied significantly in samples of reduced quality compared with acceptable samples. Alternaria spp. dominated in the acceptable samples with A. infectoria group as the most frequently isolated and most abundant species group of this genus while Fusarium spp. dominated in samples of reduced quality. The most frequently isolated Fusarium spp. from all samples were F. avenaceum, F. poae, F. culmorum and F. tricinctum. Other important toxigenic Fusarium spp. isolated were F. graminearum and F. equiseti. The infection levels of F. graminearum and F. culmorum were significantly higher in the samples of reduced quality. The results indicated a negative interaction between F. graminearum and Alternaria spp. as well as between F. graminearum and other Fusarium spp., (Copyright 2003 Elsevier B.V.)

This study was designed to examine the effect of bilateral renal denervation (DNX) on thick ascending limb of Henle's loop (TAL) function in rats with liver cirrhosis induced by common bile duct ligation (CBL). The CBL rats had, as previously shown, sodium retention associated with hypertrophy of the inner stripe of the outer medulla (ISOM) and increased natriuretic effect of furosemide in vivo, and semiquantitative immunoblotting showed increased expression of the furosemide-sensitive Na-K-2Cl cotransporter type 2 (NKCC2) in ISOM from CBL rats. DNX significantly attenuated the sodium retention in the CBL rats, which was associated with normalization of the natriuretic effect of furosemide, as well as a significant reduction in the expression of NKCC2 in the ISOM. However, the marked hypertrophy of the ISOM found in CBL rats was not reversed by DNX. Together, these data indicate that increased renal sympathetic nerve activity known to be present in CBL rats plays a significant role in the formation of sodium retention by stimulating sodium reabsorption in the TAL via increased renal abundance of NKCC2.

A Fusarium species with a micro morphology similar to F. poae and a metabolite profile resembling that of F. sporotrichioides has been identified. Like typical F. poae, the microconidia have a globose to pyriform shape, but the powdery appearance, especially on Czapek-Dox Iprodione Dichloran agar (CZID), less aerial mycelium and the lack of fruity odour on Potato Sucrose Agar (PSA) make it different from F. poae. The lack of macroconidia, polyphialides and chlamydospores differentiates it from F. sporotrichioides. All 18 isolates investigated, 15 Norwegian, two Austrian and one Dutch, produced T-2 toxin (25-400 micrograms/g) on PSA or Yeast Extract Sucrose agar (YES). In addition, neosolaniol, iso-neosolaniol, HT-2 toxin, 4- and 15-acetyl T-2 tetraol, T-2 triol and T-2 tetraol and 4,15-diacetoxyscirpenol were formed in variable amounts. Neither nivalenol, 4- or 15-acetylnivalenol or 4,15-diacetylnivalenol were detected in any of the cultures, while these toxins were produced at least in small amounts by all the 12 typical F. poae isolates studied. The question of whether this Fusarium should be classified as F. poae or F. sporotrichioides or a separate taxon should be addressed.