Search

Objective: This study aimed to quantify the instability of psychotherapy process variables by using a novel data-analytic approach. The study explored instability of the working alliance over 10 treatment sessions and its relationship with self-esteem., Methods: Data were extracted from a randomized controlled trial, conducted in Switzerland, of a short-term intervention for borderline personality disorder. Sixty clients diagnosed as having borderline personality disorder were randomly assigned to receive either 10 sessions of good psychiatric management-brief version (GPM-BV) or GPM-BV combined with a relational principle called motive-oriented therapeutic relationship. Square successive differences were calculated for client and therapist ratings of alliance instability. Multilevel models were used to test within- and between-person associations of alliance instability with self-esteem., Results: Although some preliminary analyses showed an association between a more stable alliance and higher self-esteem at the start of psychotherapy, the alliance did not become more stable over time. Alliance instability was not associated with self-esteem at either the within- or between-person level., Conclusions: This study highlights the advantages, procedures, and challenges of applying square successive differences to psychotherapy research data. The results suggest that the working alliance develops in complex ways and indicate the importance of continuing to use novel methods to capture dynamic psychotherapy processes., Competing Interests: The authors report no financial relationships with commercial interests. more...

Objective: Previous meta-analyses have shown that client-rated working alliance is negatively correlated with attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance. The purpose of this study is to provide an updated meta-analysis of the relation between alliance and the two dimensions of attachment insecurity. Method: Random effects models were used to examine the relation between the working alliance and attachment anxiety and the relation between the working alliance and attachment avoidance. Results: The overall relation between alliance and attachment anxiety was r  = -.09 ( p  = .01, k  = 33, I 2  = 43.7%). The overall relation between alliance and attachment avoidance was r  = -.13 ( p < .001, k  = 33, I 2  = 44.7%). There was no evidence that these relations varied across study characteristics such as client race or the number of therapists in the study. Conclusion: The results support the negative relations between client-rated alliance and both dimensions of client-rated attachment insecurity. Further research is needed to identify the factors that moderate this relationship, using a more diverse sample of study characteristics and a wider range of measures. more...

A 71-year-old woman was referred to our clinic with a 2-month history of pain and exudate from her right first toe. Physical examination revealed a subungual nodule that elevated the nail plate and produced distal onycholysis. We performed onychectomy and removed the nodule. A histopathological specimen from the nodule showed hyperkeratosis and acanthosis in the epidermis, papillomatosis and dilated vessels in the superficial dermis, and aggregation of eccrine glands in the mid-dermis. Based on these findings, a diagnosis of eccrine angiomatous hamartoma (EAH) was made. EAH is a rare cutaneous hamartoma that is histologically characterized by proliferation of eccrine glands and vascular components. To our knowledge, EAH occurring in the subungual region has not been reported. The pathogenesis of acquired EAH has not been completely elucidated, but several cases have been reported to be caused by external stimuli. Although the subungual area generally has no sweat glands, our case suggests that a traumatic stimulus can induce EAH anywhere including regions where sweat glands are normally not found., (©2023 Tottori University Medical Press.) more...

Although psychotherapy research has traditionally focused on decrease in distress, emotion research suggests the important role of positive emotional experience in healing and growing. Objective: The present study investigates the relationship between positive emotional experiences and working alliance. Method: We chose to investigate this relationship in accelerated experiential dynamic psychotherapy (AEDP), taking advantage of the modality's focus on both negative and positive emotional experiences. Fifty-eight clients receiving 16-sessions individual AEDP reported on their post-session levels of working alliance and positive emotions (enlivenment affect, positive relational affect, and peacefulness). The alliance-emotion relationship for each emotional categories was tested with separate disaggregated cross-lagged panel models. Results: Across the three categories, higher positive emotions at the end of the previous session were associated with higher working alliance at the end of the next session. On the other hand, working alliance did not contribute to any of the positive emotions in the next time point. Furthermore, the three emotion categories showed different patterns of development. Conclusion: The findings suggest that fostering positive emotions may be a promising venue to enhance working alliance. Furthermore, differentiating specific positive emotions is likely important both for research and practice. more...

We investigated if improving a patient's memory for the content of their treatment, via the Memory Support Intervention, improves illness course and functional outcomes. The platform for investigating this question was major depressive disorder (MDD) and cognitive therapy (CT). Adults diagnosed with MDD (N = 178) were randomly allocated to CT + Memory Support (n = 91) or CT-as-usual (n = 87). Both treatments were comprised of 20-26, 50-min sessions over 16 weeks. Blind assessments were conducted before and immediately following treatment (post-treatment) and 6 months later (6FU). Patient memory for treatment, assessed with a free recall task, was higher in CT + Memory Support for past session recall at post-treatment. Both treatment arms were associated with reductions in depressive symptoms and functional impairment except: CT + Memory Support exhibited lower depression severity at 6FU (b = -3.09, p = 0.050, d = -0.27), and greater reduction in unhealthy days from baseline to 6FU (b = -4.21, p = 0.010, d = -1.07), compared to CT-as-usual. While differences in illness course and functional outcomes between the two treatment arms were limited, it is possible that future analyses of the type of memory supports and longer follow-up may yield more encouraging outcomes. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01790919. Registered October 6, 2016., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest Allison Harvey has received research support from the National Institutes of Health and book royalties from American Psychological Association, Guilford Press, and Oxford University Press., (Copyright © 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.) more...

Background: This study examined the 6-month follow-up outcomes of the Transdiagnostic Sleep and Circadian Intervention (TranS-C), compared to Psychoeducation about sleep and health (PE)., Methods: Adolescents (mean [SD] = 14.77 [1.84] years) with eveningness chronotype and "at-risk" in at least one of five health domains were randomized to receive TranS-C (n = 89) or PE (n = 87) at a university-based clinic. Primary outcomes were average weeknight total sleep time and bedtime calculated from sleep diary, a questionnaire measure of circadian preference, and composite risks in five health domains. Secondary outcomes were selected sleep diary indices, sleepiness, and self- and parent-reported sleep, parent-reported risks in five health domains., Results: Relative to PE, TranS-C showed treatment effects through 6-month follow-up on only one primary outcome; namely eveningness circadian preference. TranS-C also showed treatment effects on two sleep and circadian secondary outcomes, including the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index and sleep-diary measured weeknight-weekend discrepancy in wakeup time. TranS-C did not show treatment effects on self-report or parent-report composite risks in five health domains. PE showed benefit, relative to TranS-C, from posttreatment to 6-month follow-up for reducing parent-reported behavioral health risk (secondary outcome)., Conclusions: In at-risk adolescents, the evidence supports the TranS-C treatment effects over six months on improving sleep and circadian functioning on selected outcomes but not on reducing risk in five health domains., (© 2019 Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health.) more...

Background: The Memory Support Intervention was developed in response to evidence showing that: (1) patient memory for treatment is poor, (2) poor memory for treatment is associated with poorer adherence and poorer outcome, (3) the impact of memory impairment can be minimized by the use of memory support strategies and (4) improved memory for treatment improves outcome. The aim of this study protocol is to conduct a confirmatory efficacy trial to test whether the Memory Support Intervention improves illness course and functional outcomes. As a "platform" for the next step in investigating this approach, we focus on major depressive disorder (MDD) and cognitive therapy (CT)., Method/design: Adults with MDD (n = 178, including 20% for potential attrition) will be randomly allocated to CT + Memory Support or CT-as-usual and will be assessed at baseline, post treatment and at 6 and 12 months' follow-up (6FU and 12FU). We will compare the effects of CT + Memory Support vs. CT-as-usual to determine if the new intervention improves the course of illness and reduces functional impairment (aim 1). We will determine if patient memory for treatment mediates the relationship between treatment condition and outcome (aim 2). We will evaluate if previously reported poor treatment response subgroups moderate target engagement (aim 3)., Discussion: The Memory Support Intervention has been developed to be "transdiagnostic" (relevant to a broad range of mental disorders) and "pantreatment" (relevant to a broad range of types of treatment). This study protocol describes a "next step" in the treatment development process by testing the Memory Support Intervention for major depressive disorder (MDD) and cognitive therapy (CT). If the results are promising, future directions will test the applicability to other kinds of interventions and disorders and in other settings., Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov, ID: NCT01790919 . Registered on 6 October 2016. more...

A dinuclear copper(II) complex of 3,5-diamino-1,2,4-triazole is one of the highly active copper-based catalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in basic solutions. Our in situ X-ray absorption near edge structure measurements revealed that deprotonation of the triazole ligand might cause coordination geometrical changes, resulting in the enhancement of the ORR activity. more...

In autocrine cells, both a ligand and its receptors are synthesized in the same cell, but their intracellular interaction is not well known. We examined it using PC84 cells, a mutant PC12 cell line expressing nerve growth factor (NGF). We have already reported that the intracellular precursor of TrkA was phosphorylated and that MAP kinase was phosphorylated in PC84 cells. In this paper we found that the NGF receptors, TrkA and p75NTR, existed mainly as precursors, and most p75NTR localized inside PC84 cells. The phosphorylation of MAP kinase was also observed even when PC84 cells were incubated with anti-NGF antibody to block the extracellular interaction. These results suggest the possibility that newly synthesized NGF could interact intracellularly with the receptors in PC84 cells., (Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.) more...

X-ray induced atomic motion on a Ge(111)-c(2 x 8) clean surface at room temperature was directly observed with atomic resolution using a synchrotron radiation (SR)-based scanning tunneling microscope (STM) system under ultra high vacuum condition. The atomic motion was visualized as a tracking image by developing a method to merge the STM images before and after X-ray irradiation. Using the tracking image, the atomic mobility was found to be strongly affected by defects on the surface, but was not dependent on the incident X-ray energy, although it was clearly dependent on the photon density. The atomic motion can be attributed to surface diffusion, which might not be due to core-excitation accompanied with electronic transition, but a thermal effect by X-ray irradiation. The crystal surface structure was possible to break even at a lower photon density than the conventionally known barrier. These results can alert X-ray studies in the near future about sample damage during measurements, while suggesting the possibility of new applications. Also the obtained results show a new availability of the in-situ SR-STM system. more...

A prototype of a mammalian cell array chip was developed on a flat glass surface. A superhydrophilic (water contact angle=5 degrees)/highly hydrophobic (120 degrees) pattern was prepared on a fluorinated polymer-coated glass surface by means of photocatalytic lithography, and A549 (a human alveolar epithelial cell line), Hep G2 (a human hepatoma cell line) and mouse fibroblast 3T3 cells were inoculated onto the superhydrophilic regions. The cell populations were confined in the superhydrophilic regions for at least 24 h and separated from each other for at least one week. Organ-specific toxicity of aflatoxin B(1) and non-specific toxicity of adriamycin were successfully detected by using the cell array chip. more...

An algal array was prepared on a single transparent electrode, and photosynthetic activity of each algal channel and its inhibition by a toxin were monitored with a single-channel potentiostat by successive light irradiation with a LED array. more...

A fungal biosensor plate was applied to assessment of the harmfulness of air polluted by formaldehyde. Alternariaalternata, Eurotiumherbariorum and Aspergilluspenicillioides were used as fungal species. Fungal mycelium length and optical transparency of the biosensor plate were employed as indices of the fungal growth. Formaldehyde in air was detected on the basis of growth inhibition, reflected by suppression of the growth indices. Dynamic range of the measurement was 700-4000 microg m(-3) or broader. Eurotiumherbariorum and Aspergilluspenicillioides were the most suitable fungal species to formaldehyde sensing based on the mycelium length and that based on the transparency, respectively. more...

The supramolecular architecture of the extracellular matrix and the disposition of its specific accessory molecules give rise to variable heterotopic signaling cues for single cells. Here we have described the successful occlusion of human fibroblast growth factor-2 (FGF-2) into the cubic inclusion bodies (FGF-2 polyhedra) of the Bombyx mori cytoplasmic polyhedrosis virus (BmCPV). The polyhedra are proteinous cubic crystals of several microns in size that are insoluble in the extracellular milieu. Purified FGF-2 polyhedra were found to stimulate proliferation and phosphorylation of p44/p42 mitogen-activated protein kinase in cultured fibroblasts. Moreover, cellular responses were blocked by a synthetic inhibitor of the FGF signaling pathway, SU5402, suggesting that FGF-2 polyhedra indeed act through FGF receptors. Furthermore, FGF-2 polyhedra retained potent growth stimulatory properties even after desiccation. We have demonstrated that BmCPV polyhedra microcrystals that occlude extracellular signaling proteins are a novel and versatile tool that can be employed to analyze cellular behavior at the single cell level. more...

A novel technique for patterning based on visible light at Au-TiO2 and Ag-TiO2 nanocomposite film surfaces has been developed for the first time. TiO2 films loaded with Au and Ag nanoparticles were modified with hydrophobic thiols to obtain hydrophobic surfaces. The surfaces were converted to hydrophilic by visible light irradiation. Hydrophobic/hydrophilic patterning was also possible by visible light irradiation through a photomask. The patterning was due to removal of the thiol based on plasmon photoelectrochemistry. Visible-light-induced plasmon resonance at the Au and Ag nanoparticles gives rise to charge separation and redox reactions. The thiol is removed from the Au-TiO2 film probably by oxidative desorption, and from the Ag-TiO2 film owing chiefly to oxidation of Ag nanoparticles to Ag+. more...