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Subjective expectations are known to be associated with clinical outcomes. However, expectations exist about different aspects of recovery, and few studies have focused on expectations about specific treatments. Here, we present results from a prospective observational study of patients receiving lumbar steroid injections against low back pain (N = 252). Patients completed questionnaires directly before (T1), directly after (T2), and 2 weeks after (T3) the injection. In addition to pain intensity, we assessed expectations (and certainty therein) about treatment effects, using both numerical rating scale (NRS) and the Expectation for Treatment Scale (ETS). Regression models were used to explain (within-sample) treatment outcome (pain intensity at T3) based on pain levels, expectations, and certainty at T1 and T2. Using cross-validation, we examined the models' ability to predict (out-of-sample) treatment outcome. Pain intensity significantly decreased (P < 10−15) 2 weeks after injections, with a reduction of the median NRS score from 6 to 3. Numerical Rating Scale measures of pain, expectation, and certainty from T1 jointly explained treatment outcome (P < 10−15, R2 = 0.31). Expectations at T1 explained outcome on its own (P < 10−10,f2=0.19) and enabled out-of-sample predictions about outcome (P < 10−4), with a median error of 1.36 on a 0 to 10 NRS. Including measures from T2 did not significantly improve models. Using the ETS as an alternative measurement of treatment expectations (sensitivity analysis) gave consistent results. Our results demonstrate that treatment expectations play an important role for clinical outcome after lumbar injections and may represent targets for concomitant cognitive interventions. Predicting outcomes based on simple questionnaires might be useful to support treatment selection.

Las variedades de vid (Vitis vinifera L.) se caracterizan por su alta heterocigosidad(variación entre sus copias genómicas de herencia materna y paterna), lo que obliga a lapropagación vegetativa como única vía posible para reproducir su genotipo y sus característicasvarietales. Sin embargo, la propagación vegetativa prolongada da lugar a la acumulación demutaciones somáticas que en ocasiones pueden producir fenotipos de interés que son la basepara la mejora mediante selección clonal. En este trabajo hemos producido ensamblajes de losgenomas de Tempranillo y Garnacha. Usando los ensamblajes como referencia, pudimosidentificar variación genómica responsable de caracteres de interés en clones o variantessomáticas seleccionadas de cada variedad. En Tempranillo se identificó una deleción de grantamaño en un clon con color de baya más oscuro de lo normal, relacionada con una reducciónen la acumulación de ceras en la cutícula de la baya. En Garnacha se identificaron dos patronesde deleción distintos que causan la pérdida de los genes MYB necesarios para la síntesis deantocianinas en el hollejo, que suponen dos orígenes independientes de la variedad GarnachaBlanca. Estos resultados muestran como el ensamblaje de genoma puede ayudar a conocer elorigen de las características varietales y posibilitar la trazabilidad de variación genética clonalútil para la innovación intravarietal.

The compulsion to seek and use heroin is frequently driven by stress and craving during drug-cue exposure. Although previous neuroimaging studies have indicated that craving is mediated by increased prefrontal cortex activity, it remains unknown how heroin administration modulates the prefrontal cortex response. This study examines the acute effects of heroin on brain function in heroin-maintained patients. Using a crossover, double-blind, placebo-controlled design, 27 heroin-maintained patients performed functional magnetic resonance imaging 20 minutes after the administration of heroin or placebo (saline) while drug-related and neutral stimuli were presented. Images were processed and analysed with statistical parametric mapping. Plasma concentrations of heroin and its main metabolites were assessed using high-performance liquid chromatography. Region of interest analyses showed a drug-related cue-associated blood-oxygen-level-dependent activation in the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) in heroin-dependent patients during both treatment conditions (heroin and placebo). This activation of the OFC was significantly higher after heroin than after placebo administration. These findings may indicate the importance of OFC activity for impulse control and decision-making after regular heroin administration and may emphasize the benefit of the heroin-assisted treatment in heroin dependence.

Human IFITMs were identified as restriction factors of influenza A virus (IAV). Given the important role of pigs in the zoonotic cycle of IAV we cloned swine IFITMs (swIFITM) and found two IFITM1 like proteins one homologue of IFITM2 and one of IFITM3. We show that swIFITM2 and swIFITM3 localize to endosomes and display potent antiviral activity. Knockdown of swIFITMs strongly reduced virus inhibition by interferon establishing the swIFITMs as potent restriction factors in porcine cells.

Helicobacter pylori infection of humans is so old that its population genetic structure reflects that of ancient human migrations. A closely related species, Helicobacter acinonychis, is specific for large felines, including cheetahs, lions, and tigers, whereas hosts more closely related to humans harbor more distantly related Helicobacter species. This observation suggests a jump between host species. But who ate whom and when did it happen? In order to resolve this question, we determined the genomic sequence of H. acinonychis strain Sheeba and compared it to genomes from H. pylori. The conserved core genes between the genomes are so similar that the host jump probably occurred within the last 200,000 (range 50,000–400,000) years. However, the Sheeba genome also possesses unique features that indicate the direction of the host jump, namely from early humans to cats. Sheeba possesses an unusually large number of highly fragmented genes, many encoding outer membrane proteins, which may have been destroyed in order to bypass deleterious responses from the feline host immune system. In addition, the few Sheeba-specific genes that were found include a cluster of genes encoding sialylation of the bacterial cell surface carbohydrates, which were imported by horizontal genetic exchange and might also help to evade host immune defenses. These results provide a genomic basis for elucidating molecular events that allow bacteria to adapt to novel animal hosts.

Description of Bartonella schoenbuchii sp. nov. Bartonella schoenbuchii (schoen.buch��i.i. N.L. gen. n. schoenbuchii from Schonbuch, a nature park near Tubingen in south��west Germany where most of the roe deer analysed in this study were shot). Growth obtained on Columbia agar base supplemented with 5% defibrinated sheep blood in a moist atmosphere containing 5% CO. Colonies ap�� # pear in primary culture within 4���6 d as firm adherent, deeply invaginated, cauliflower��like colonies which upon passaging may switch to a more rapidly growing, shiny and smooth colony phenotype. The Gramnegative, monopolar politrichous flagellated rods are approximately 1���2���0���5 lm, aerobic and negative for oxidase, indole, catalase and urea hydrolysis. The code for preformed enzymes obtained in the RapID ANA II system is 000 671. The biotype code using Rapid ID 32A was 0000 0737 05 or 0000 0337 05, depending on the strain analysed. The major fatty acids are cis ��11�� octadecanoic acid (C: x7 c), octadecanoic acid ") " (C) and hexadecanoic acid (C), similar as "):! "���:! observed for other Bartonella species. The four strains thus far isolated from the blood of healthy roe deer display phenotypic and genotypic differences but belong to a single new species. This new species is distinguished from previously known Bartonella species by the total protein profiles in SDS��PAGE, the banding patterns in the ERIC��PCR, the gltA and 16S rRNA gene sequences, and by whole��DNA hybridization analysis. Type strain is R 1 T, isolated from the blood of a 4��month��old female wild roe deer. Deposited in the National Collection of Type Cultures as NCTC 13165 T and the Deutsche Sammlung von Mikroorganismen und Zellkulturen as DSM 13525 T., Published as part of Dehio, C, Lanz, C, Pohl, R, Behrens, P, Bermond, D, Pi��mont, Y, Pelz, K & Sander, A, 2001, Bartonella schoenbuchii sp. nov., isolated from the blood of wild roe deer., pp. 1557-1565 in International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology 51 (4) on page 1563, DOI: 10.1099/00207713-51-4-1557, http://zenodo.org/record/4265339

The expanding genus Bartonella includes zoonotic and human-specific pathogens that can cause a wide range of clinical manifestations. A productive infection allowing bacterial transmission by blood-sucking arthropods is marked by an intraerythrocytic bacteremia that occurs exclusively in specific human or animal reservoir hosts. Incidental human infection by animal-adapted bartonellae can cause disease without evidence for erythrocyte parasitism. A better understanding of the intraerythrocytic lifestyle of bartonellae may permit the design of strategies to control the reservoir and transmittable stages of these emerging pathogens. We have dissected the process of Bartonella erythrocyte parasitism in experimentally infected animals using a novel approach for tracking blood infections based on flow cytometric quantification of green fluorescent protein-expressing bacteria during their interaction with in vivo-biotinylated erythrocytes. Bacteremia onset occurs several days after inoculation by a synchronous wave of bacterial invasion into mature erythrocytes. Intracellular bacteria replicate until reaching a stagnant number, which is sustained for the remaining life span of the infected erythrocyte. The initial wave of erythrocyte infection is followed by reinfection waves occurring at intervals of several days. Our findings unravel a unique bacterial persistence strategy adapted to a nonhemolytic intracellular colonization of erythrocytes that preserves the pathogen for efficient transmission by blood-sucking arthropods.