Fluorotelomer alcohols [FTOHs, F(CF2)nCH2CH2OH, n = 4, 6, and 8] are emerging environmental contaminants. Biotransformation of FTOHs by mixed bacterial cultures has been reported; however, little is known about the microorganisms responsible for the biotransformation. Here we reported biotransformation of FTOHs by two well‐studied Pseudomonas strains: Pseudomonas butanovora (butane oxidizer) and Pseudomonas oleovorans (octane oxidizer). Both strains could defluorinate 4:2, 6:2, and 8:2 FTOHs, with a higher degree of defluorination for 4:2 FTOH. According to the identified metabolites, P. oleovorans transformed FTOHs via two pathways I and II. The pathway I led to the production of x:2 ketone [dominant metabolite, F(CF2)xC(O)CH3; x = n − 1, n = 6 or 8], x:2 sFTOH [F(CF2)xCH(OH)CH3], and perfluorinated carboxylic acids (PFCAs, perfluorohexanoic, or perfluorooctanoic acid). The pathway II resulted in the formation of x:3 polyfluorinated acid [F(CF2)xCH2CH2COOH] and relatively minor shorter‐chain PFCAs (perfluorobutyric or perfluorohexanoic acid). Conversely, P. butanovora transformed FTOHs by using the pathway I, leading to the production of x:2 ketone, x:2 sFTOH, and PFCAs. This is the first study to show that individual bacterium can bio‐transform FTOHs via different or preferred transformation pathways to remove multiple CF2 groups from FTOHs to form shorter‐chain PFCAs. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2012; 109: 3041–3048. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

To secure the role of behavioral medicine in health care, researchers continue to improve the quality of their outcome studies. Despite the availability of guidelines for designing high quality clinical trials, however, we have noted two, unfortunately common, flaws in behavioral medicine outcome research that undermine these efforts. The first issue is that researchers recruit medical patients whose scores on psychological target measures are not elevated at pretest. Data are presented from quantitative reviews of cardiovascular and cancer populations to illustrate the impact of this protocol decision. It is demonstrated how magnitude of change and corresponding statistical power are greatly reduced when patients with few problems are enrolled. The second issue pertains to the failure of researchers to measure psychological change when the actual model to be tested is a mediational model such that successful treatment of psychological distress is presumed to account for good long-term health outcomes. Such lack of attention to protocol design can result in misinterpretation of obtained effects and can lead to premature dismissal of psychological treatment opportunities for physical disease. We suggest how these flaws can be avoided in the protocol design stage.

Yogis and runners demonstrated several cardiovascular health advantages over sedentary individuals. Our findings raise the possibility that yoga may improve aerobic fitness in men but not women.

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