Emotional tearing is a poorly understood behavior that is considered uniquely human. In mice, tears serve as a chemosignal. We therefore hypothesized that human tears may similarly serve a chemosignaling function. We found that merely sniffing negative-emotion-related odorless tears obtained from women donors induced reductions in sexual appeal attributed by men to pictures of women's faces. Mo...

A multivalent live oral vaccine against both Shigella spp. and enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) is being developed based on the hypothesis that protection can be achieved if attenuated shigellae express ETEC fimbrial colonization factors and genetically detoxified heat-labile toxin from a human ETEC isolate (LTh). Two detoxified derivatives of LTh, LThK63 and LThR72, were engineered by s...

PURPOSE To review outcomes of arthroscopic repair of rotator cuff tears using absorbable anchors with a single-row technique. METHODS 66 patients underwent arthroscopic repair for rotator cuff tears using absorbable anchors with a single-row technique. 51 of them aged 37 to 73 (mean, 57) years had been followed up for a mean of 29 (range, 20-37) months. The extent of the tear was classified a...

The tearing effect refers to the relevance of tears as an important visual cue adding meaning to human facial expression. However, little is known about how people process these visual cues and their mediating role in terms of emotion perception and person judgment. We therefore conducted two experiments in which we measured the influence of tears on the identification of sadness and the percei...

BACKGROUND Rotator cuff tears are very common, but little is known about the outcome of nonoperative treatment of symptomatic tears in terms of progression and the need for surgical intervention. METHODS Fifty-nine shoulders in fifty-four patients (thirty-three women and a mean age of 58.8 years) with rotator cuff tears on initial magnetic resonance imaging who had been managed nonoperatively...

BACKGROUND The pattern of lateral meniscus tears observed in anterior cruciate ligament (ACL)-injured subjects varies greatly and determines subsequent management. Certain tear patterns with major biomechanical consequences should be repaired in a timely manner. Knowledge about risk factors for such tears may help to identify patients in the early posttraumatic phase and subsequently may improv...

The purpose of this study was to investigate the validity of the supraspinatus test as a screening test for detecting torn rotator cuff and to determine what its valuable positive signs were. Both the empty-can test and full-can test were performed on 200 shoulders diagnosed by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-and in some cases, surgical findings-to have full-thickness or partial-thickness torn...

BACKGROUND The clinical and radiologic features of radial tears of the medial meniscus posterior horn were compared with those of horizontal tears. METHODS From January 2007 to December 2008, 387 consecutive cases of medial meniscal tears were treated arthroscopically. Among these, 91 were radial tears in the medial meniscus posterior horn, and 95 were horizontal tears in the posterior segmen...

PURPOSE To assess whether the lacrimal gland is a possible site of synthesis of transforming growth factor-alpha (TGF-alpha) and to characterize TGF-alpha biochemically in human tears. METHODS Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) amplification was used to analyze rat lacrimal glands for the presence of TGF-alpha mRNA. Specific monoclonal antibodies were used to localize TG...

OBJECTIVE Psychological stress affects the condition of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). We evaluated the neuroendocrine and immune responses (NEIRs) in the peripheral blood to psychological stress induced by deep emotion with tears in patients with RA. METHODS We compared the levels of plasma cortisol and interleukin-6 (IL-6), the CD4/CD8 ratio, and natural killer (NK) cell activity ...