Religious beliefs in schizophrenia: Their relevance for adherence to treatment

The study examined how religious beliefs and practices impact upon medication and illness representations in chronic schizophrenia. One hundred three stabilized patients were included in Geneva's outpatient public psychiatric facility in Switzerland. Interviews were conducted to investigate spiritual and religious beliefs and religious practices and religious coping. Medication adherence was assessed through questions to patients and to their psychiatrists and by a systematic blood drug monitoring. Thirty-two percent of patients were partially or totally nonadherent to oral medication. Fifty-eight percent of patients were Christians, 2% Jewish, 3% Muslim, 4% Buddhist, 14% belonged to various minority or syncretic religious movements, and 19% had no religious affiliation. Two thirds of the total sample considered spirituality as very important or even essential in everyday life. Fifty-seven percent of patients had a representation of their illness directly influenced by their spiritual beliefs (positively in 31% and negatively in 26%). Religious representations of illness were prominent in nonadherent patients. Thirty-one percent of nonadherent patients and 27% of partially adherent patients underlined an incompatibility or contradiction between their religion and taking medication, versus 8% of adherent patients. Religion and spirituality contribute to shaping representations of disease and attitudes toward medical treatment in patients with schizophrenia. This dimension should be on the agenda of psychiatrists working with patients with schizophrenia.

Can PR voting serve as a shelter against declining turnout ? : Evidence from Swiss municipal elections

To assess the impact of electoral systems on voting turnout, cross-national studies can be usefully complemented by studies of turnout in local elections in countries using more than one electoral system at that level. In this article, we look at data from a 1998 survey of Swiss municipalities to revisit the findings of our earlier study. This previous study, based on a 1988 survey, concluded, in particular, that there exists a positive relationship between proportional representation elections, party politicization, and voter turnout. The moment is opportune since, in the interval, turnout has markedly declined in Swiss municipalities, as elsewhere. By testing whether municipalities with proportional representation voting were more or less successful in stemming the decline, we learn more about the relationship among these three phenomena. We use the results for those Swiss municipalities which participated in both surveys as our primary source.

Understanding Political Knowledge and Its Influence on Voting Preferences in the 2007 Federal Election

In this article we propose a model to explain how voters' perceptions of their ideological proximity to a party affect their propensity to vote for that party. We argue that political knowledge plays a crucial moderating role in the relationship between party proximity and voting propensity. It is necessary, however, to distinguish between institutional knowledge (information about the political system) and party knowledge (information about the parties' left-right positions). An analysis of survey data from the 2007 Swiss federal elections supports our main hypothesis that party knowledge enhances the link between party proximity and voting propensity. Institutional knowledge may have additional influence, but clear evidence for this effect was obtained only for propensities to vote for the Swiss People's Party (SVP). Overall, the impact of political knowledge was found to be substantial, even after controlling for the outstanding influence of party identification and other predictors of voting propensities

Cleavage of mitochondrial antiviral signaling protein in the liver of patients with chronic hepatitis C correlates with a reduced activation of the endogenous interferon system.

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection induces the endogenous interferon (IFN) system in the liver in some but not all patients with chronic hepatitis C (CHC). Patients with a pre-activated IFN system are less likely to respond to the current standard therapy with pegylated IFN-alpha. Mitochondrial antiviral signaling protein (MAVS) is an important adaptor molecule in a signal transduction pathway that senses viral infections and transcriptionally activates IFN-beta. The HCV NS3-4A protease can cleave and thereby inactivate MAVS in vitro, and, therefore, might be crucial in determining the activation status of the IFN system in the liver of infected patients. We analyzed liver biopsies from 129 patients with CHC to investigate whether MAVS is cleaved in vivo and whether cleavage prevents the induction of the endogenous IFN system. Cleavage of MAVS was detected in 62 of the 129 samples (48%) and was more extensive in patients with a high HCV viral load. MAVS was cleaved by all HCV genotypes (GTs), but more efficiently by GTs 2 and 3 than by GTs 1 and 4. The IFN-induced Janus kinase (Jak)-signal transducer and activator of transcription protein (STAT) pathway was less frequently activated in patients with cleaved MAVS, and there was a significant inverse correlation between cleavage of MAVS and the expression level of the IFN-stimulated genes IFI44L, Viperin, IFI27, USP18, and STAT1. We conclude that the pre-activation status of the endogenous IFN system in the liver of patients with CHC is in part regulated by cleavage of MAVS.

Mutation of the BAFF furin cleavage site impairs B-cell homeostasis and antibody responses.

B-cell-activating factor of the TNF family (BAFF)/BLyS contributes to B-cell homeostasis and function in the periphery. BAFF is expressed as a membrane-bound protein or released by proteolytic cleavage, but the functional importance of this processing event is poorly understood. Mice expressing BAFF with a mutated furin consensus cleavage site, i.e. furin-mutant BAFF (fmBAFF), were not different from BAFF-deficient mice with regard to their B-cell populations and responses to immunization. It is however noteworthy that an alternative processing event releases some soluble BAFF in fmBAFF mice. Mild overexpression (∼ 5-fold) of fmBAFF alone generated intermediate levels of B cells without improving humoral responses to immunization. Processed BAFF was however important for B-cell homeostasis, as peripheral B-cell populations and antibody responses were readily restored by administration of soluble BAFF trimers in BAFF-deficient mice. However, the rescue of CD23 expression in B cells of BAFF-deficient mice required both soluble BAFF trimers and fmBAFF, or a polymeric form of soluble BAFF (BAFF 60-mer). These results point to a predominant role of processed BAFF for B-cell homeostasis and function, and indicate possible accessory roles for membrane-bound BAFF.

Very (few) certainties concerning the establishment of e-voting

the analysis of e-voting potential as an example of technological implementation in political areas.

Prospective randomized study of two cryopreservation policies avoiding embryo selection: the pronucleate stage leads to a higher cumulative delivery rate than the early cleavage stage.

OBJECTIVE: To compare the cumulative live birth rates obtained after cryopreservation of either pronucleate (PN) zygotes or early-cleavage (EC) embryos. DESIGN: Prospective randomized study. SETTING: University hospital. PATIENT(S): Three hundred eighty-two patients, involved in an IVF/ICSI program from January 1993 to December 1995, who had their supernumerary embryos cryopreserved either at the PN (group I) or EC (group II) stage. For 89 patients, cryopreservation of EC embryos was canceled because of poor embryo development (group III). Frozen-thawed embryo transfers performed up to December 1998 were considered. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): Age, oocytes, zygotes, cryopreserved and transferred embryos, damage after thawing, cumulative embryo scores, implantation, and cumulative live birth rates. RESULT(S): The clinical pregnancy and live birth rates were similar in all groups after fresh embryo transfers. Significantly higher implantation (10.5% vs. 5.9%) and pregnancy rates (19.5% vs. 10.9%; P< or = .02 per transfer after cryopreserved embryo transfers were obtained in group I versus group II, leading to higher cumulative pregnancy (55.5% vs. 38.6%; P < or = .002 and live birth rates (46.9% vs. 27.7%; P< or = .0001.Conclusion(s): The transfer of a maximum of three unselected embryos and freezing of all supernumerary PN zygotes can be safely done with significantly higher cumulative pregnancy chances than cryopreserving at a later EC stage.

Proteasomal cleavage does not determine immunogenicity of gp100-derived peptides gp100 209-217 and gp100 209-217T210M.

Immune responses against tumor-associated antigens rely on efficient epitope presentation. The melanoma-associated antigen (Ag) gp100 contains HLA-A*0201 ligands that are characterized by low to medium binding affinity, among which gp100(209-217) is the most prominent (Kawakami et al., J Immunol 154:3961-3968, 1995). While this epitope is a natural T-cell target, it primes with low-efficiency T-cell responses during immunization. A modified gp100 epitope, gp100(209-217T210M), that contains a Thr to Met substitution at position 2 of the antigenic nonamer is characterized by high binding affinity for HLA-A*0201 and elicits strong and clinically effective T-cell responses. This higher affinity is believed to represent the sole reason for enhanced immunogenicity. Contrasting with this observation is the unpredictable relationship between affinity and immunogenicity observed in other antigen systems. In addition, we noted a striking difference between the capability of endogenously processed gp100(209-217) and gp100(209-217T210M) to induce T-cell responses in an in vitro model. Therefore, we questioned whether factors other than HLA-affinity might play a role in determining the immunogenicity of these epitopes. In the present study, we evaluated the in vitro proteasomal cleavages of 23meric precursor peptides encompassing the native sequence (gp100(201-223)) or the modified sequence (gp100(201-223T210M)). Here we show that the standard proteasome liberates the C-termini of both antigenic peptides but not the N-termini. Quantitative analysis of the digestion products revealed that more of the fragments displaying the final C-termini were produced from the wild-type precursor. However, a stronger TCR engagement was observed when fractions of digested gp100(201-223T210M) were used to activate an HLA-A*0201-expressing target T-cell clone. This difference was also found using separately produced, synthetic nonamers. In conclusion, the high binding affinity of gp100(209-217T210M) seems to compensate for possible differences in proteasomal cleavage at the biological level. Since the final antigenic nonamer is not directly produced by the proteasome, additional further factors may influence the antigenic peptide availability, such as post-proteasomal processing and intracellular peptide transport.

Vaiṣṇavism, Saivism and minor religious systems / by sir R. G. Bhandarkar

Collection : Grundriss der indo-arischen Philologie und Altertumskunde ; 3, 60

On exiting after voting

We consider the problem of a society whose members must choose from a finite set of alternatives. After knowing the chosen alternative, members may reconsider their membership in the society by either staying or exiting. In turn, and as a consequence of the exit of some of its members, other members might now find undersirable to belong to the society as well. We analyze the voting behavior of members who take into account the effect of their votes not only on the chosen alternative, but also on the final composition of the society