Emory University

About: Emory University is a education organization based out in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Medicine. The organization has 51959 authors who have published 122469 publications receiving 6010698 citations.

Altered Pituitary-Adrenal Axis Responses to Provocative Challenge Tests in Adult Survivors of Childhood Abuse

Abstract: OBJECTIVE: Early adverse life events may predispose individuals to the development of mood and anxiety disorders in adulthood, perhaps by inducing persistent changes in corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) neuronal systems. The present study sought to evaluate pituitary-adrenal responses to standard hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis challenge tests in adult female survivors of childhood abuse with and without major depressive disorder. METHOD: Plasma ACTH and cortisol responses to the administration of 1 μg/kg ovine CRF and plasma cortisol responses to the administration of 250 μg ACTH1–24 were measured in healthy women without early life stress (N=20), women with childhood abuse without major depressive disorder (N=20), women with childhood abuse and major depressive disorder (N=15), and women with major depression but no early life stress (N=11). RESULTS: Abused women without major depressive disorder exhibited greater than usual ACTH responses to CRF administration, whereas abused women with major de...

The primary mechanism of attenuation of bacillus Calmette–Guérin is a loss of secreted lytic function required for invasion of lung interstitial tissue

Abstract: Tuberculosis remains a leading cause of death worldwide, despite the availability of effective chemotherapy and a vaccine. Bacillus Calmette–Guerin (BCG), the tuberculosis vaccine, is an attenuated mutant of Mycobacterium bovis that was isolated after serial subcultures, yet the functional basis for this attenuation has never been elucidated. A single region (RD1), which is absent in all BCG substrains, was deleted from virulent M. bovis and Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains, and the resulting ΔRD1 mutants were significantly attenuated for virulence in both immunocompromised and immunocompetent mice. The M. tuberculosis ΔRD1 mutants were also shown to protect mice against aerosol challenge, in a similar manner to BCG. Interestingly, the ΔRD1 mutants failed to cause cytolysis of pneumocytes, a phenotype that had been previously used to distinguish virulent M. tuberculosis from BCG. A specific transposon mutation, which disrupts the Rv3874 Rv3875 (cfp-10 esat-6) operon of RD1, also caused loss of the cytolytic phenotype in both pneumocytes and macrophages. This mutation resulted in the attenuation of virulence in mice, as the result of reduced tissue invasiveness. Moreover, specific deletion of each transcriptional unit of RD1 revealed that three independent transcriptional units are required for virulence, two of which are involved in the secretion of ESAT-6 (6-kDa early secretory antigenic target). We conclude that the primary attenuating mechanism of bacillus Calmette–Guerin is the loss of cytolytic activity mediated by secreted ESAT-6, which results in reduced tissue invasiveness.

The Value of Active Mutual Fund Management: An Examination of the Stockholdings and Trades of Fund Managers

Abstract: We investigate the value of active mutual fund management by examining the stockholdings and trades of mutual funds. We find that stocks widely held by funds do not outperform other stocks. However, stocks purchased by funds have significantly higher returns than stocks they sell-this is true for large stocks as well as small stocks, and for value stocks as well as growth stocks. We find that growth-oriented funds exhibit better stock-selection skills than income-oriented funds. Finally, we find only weak evidence that funds with the best past performance have better stock-picking skills than funds with the worst past performance.