Using mitogenomic and nuclear ribosomal sequence data to investigate the phylogeny of the Xiphinema americanum species complex.

Nematodes within the Xiphinema americanum species complex are economically important because they vector nepoviruses which cause considerable damage to a variety of agricultural crops. The taxonomy of X. americanum species complex is controversial, with the number of putative species being the subject of debate.

Urothelial differentiation of human amniotic fluid stem cells by urothelium specific conditioned medium.

Human amniotic fluid stem cells (HAFSCs) have a high proliferative capacity and a good differentiation potential, and may thus be suitable for regenerative medicine. To date, urothelial differentiation mechanisms of HAFSCs are poorly understood. We have investigated the urothelial differentiation potential of HAFSCs so that they can be therapeutically applied to cure defective diseases of bladder.

Health consequences of easier access to alcohol: New Zealand evidence.

We evaluate the health effects of a reduction in New Zealand's minimum legal purchase age for alcohol. Difference-in-differences (DD) estimates show a substantial increase in alcohol-related hospitalizations among those newly eligible to purchase liquor, around 24.6% (s.

Planning and designing spaces for the sciences.

Science facility renovation and expansion projects provide opportunities for faculty members to play a role in working with architects and administrators to produce effective spaces for teaching and research. This article summarizes information regarding the process and design features that have proved beneficial for many recent science facilities projects. Although the context focuses on large projects, the general principles pertain to smaller changes in spaces that individual departments might be pursuing.

Prism adaptation does not alter object-based attention in healthy participants.

Hemispatial neglect ('neglect') is a disabling condition that can follow damage to the right side of the brain, in which patients show difficulty in responding to or orienting towards objects and events that occur on the left side of space. Symptoms of neglect can manifest in both space- and object-based frames of reference. Although patients can show a combination of these two forms of neglect, they are considered separable and have distinct neurological bases.

Birth weight predicts scores on the ADHD self-report scale and attitudes towards casual sex in college men: a short-term life history strategy?

Early development can have long-term effects on physiology and behavior. While severe disturbances predictably lead to dysfunction, recent work in humans and animals has led to a growing appreciation for the more subtle ways in which early conditions can modulate behavioral tendencies later in life. Life history theory predicts that early cues signaling a stressful or suboptimal environment might lead an organism to adopt a strategy favoring short-term gains and early reproduction.

Copy number variations of 11 macronuclear chromosomes and their gene expression in Oxytricha trifallax.

Ciliated protozoa are peculiar for their nuclear dimorphism, wherein two types of nuclei divide nuclear functions: a germline micronucleus (MIC) is transcriptionally inert during vegetative growth, but serves as the genetic blueprint for the somatic macronucleus (MAC), which is responsible for all transcripts supporting cell growth and reproduction. While all the advantages/disadvantages associated with nuclear dimorphism are not clear, an essential advantage seems to be the ability to produce a highly polyploid MAC, which then allows for the maintenance of extremely large single cells - many ciliate cells are larger than small metazoa. In some ciliate classes, chromosomes in the MAC are extensively fragmented to create extremely short chromosomes that often carry single genes, and these chromosomes may be present in different copy numbers, resulting in different ploidies.

The cost of moving with the left hand.

Precise left-hand movements take longer than right-hand movements (for right-handers). To quantify how left-hand movements are affected by task difficulty and phase of movement control, we manipulated the difficulty of repetitive speeded aiming movements while participants used the left or right hand. We observed left-hand costs in both initial impulse and current control phases of movement.

Does suppressing the thought of a self-relevant stigma affect interpersonal interaction?

In the current study, we examined the effects of women's suppressing negative gender stereotypes while interacting with a male confederate. Compared with control participants, those who suppressed negative thoughts about women's ability experienced less self-confidence, lower self-esteem, and were more nonverbally submissive during the interaction, particularly if they were high in stigma consciousness (Pinel, 1999). These findings illustrate the negative intra- and interpersonal consequences of stigma suppression.

Examining the dimensionality of ADHD symptomatology in young adults using factor analysis and outcome prediction.

Objective: Current diagnostic criteria specify that ADHD involves difficulties with inattention and/or hyperactivity/impulsivity. Researchers using factor analysis have consistently found support for an inattention factor in both children and adults. Findings have been mixed regarding whether hyperactivity and impulsivity reflect one or two dimensions.

The role of ethnography in STI and HIV/AIDS education and promotion with traditional healers in Zimbabwe.

This article explores the utility of ethnography in accounting for healers' understandings of HIV/AIDS-and more generally sexually transmitted infections-and the planning of HIV/AIDS education interventions targeting healers in urban Zimbabwe. I argue that much of the information utilized for planning and implementing such programs is actually based on rapid research procedures (usually single-method survey-based approaches) that do not fully capture healers' explanatory frameworks. This incomplete information then becomes authoritative knowledge about local 'traditions' and forms the basis for the design and implementation of training programs.

Identity and environmentalism: the influence of community characteristics.

This paper examines the influence of community characteristics on self-proclaimed environmentalism. We find that the composition of a community affects the likelihood that a person claims to be a strong environmentalist even after controlling for individual political leaning, socio-economic characteristics, and pro-environment behaviors. Individuals are more likely to claim to be strong environmentalists if they live in areas where a larger share of the population has post-graduate degrees, if they live in heavily Democratic areas, or if they live in heavily Republican areas.

Extending Fitts' Law to three-dimensional obstacle-avoidance movements: support for the posture-based motion planning model.

According to Fitts' Law, the time (MT) to move to a target is a linear function of the logarithm of the ratio between the target's distance and width. Although Fitts' Law accurately predicts MTs for direct movements, it does not accurately predict MTs for indirect movements, as when an obstacle intrudes on the direct movement path. To address this limitation, Jax et al.

A life-history model of human fitness indicators.

Recent adaptationist accounts of human mental and physical health have reinvigorated the debate over the evolution of human intelligence. In the tradition of strong inference the current study was developed to determine whether either Miller's (1998, 2000a) Fitness Indicator Theory or Rushton's (1985, 2000) Differential-K Theory better accounts for general intelligence ("g") in an undergraduate university population (N=192). Owing to the lengthy administration time of the test materials, a newly developed 18-item short form of the Ravens Advanced Progressive Matrices (APM-18; Sefcek, Miller, and Figueredo 2007) was used.

Resources and strategies to integrate the study of ethical, legal, and social implications of genetics into the undergraduate curriculum.

Gene therapy, genetically modified organisms, and the privacy of an individual's genetic information are just a few of the developments emerging from recent advances in molecular genetics that are controversial. Oversight and regulation of emerging technologies are the responsibility of both experts and the general public who both need to understand the science and the societal impact of its use. The study of ethical, legal, and social implications (ELSI) of advances in genetics provides a very powerful pedagogical tool to accomplish two goals.

Efficient and accurate characterization of the Bergman cyclization for several enediynes including an expanded substructure of esperamicin A1.

Incorporation of enediynes into anticancer drugs remains an intriguing yet elusive strategy for the design of therapeutically active agents. Density functional theory was used to locate reactants, products, and transition states along the Bergman cyclization pathways connecting enediynes to reactive para-biradicals. Sum method correction to low-level calculations confirmed B3LYP/6-31G(d,p) as the method of choice in investigating enediynes.

Climate change trade-offs in the side-blotched lizard (Uta stansburiana): effects of growing-season length and mild temperatures on winter survival.

An expanding body of literature has demonstrated that global climate change continues to adversely affect many populations, species, and ecosystems. However, life-history theory also predicts possible benefits from longer growing seasons and less severe winters, particularly for ectotherms. To test the idea that climate change will have benefits as well as costs, I studied the impacts of growing-season length on growth and overwintering conditions on survival time using side-blotched lizards (Uta stansburiana).

Ramachandran-type plots for glycosidic linkages: Examples from molecular dynamic simulations using the Glycam06 force field.

The goals of this article are to (1) provide further validation of the Glycam06 force field, specifically for its use in implicit solvent molecular dynamic (MD) simulations, and (2) to present the extension of G.N. Ramachandran's idea of plotting amino acid phi and psi angles to the glycosidic phi, psi, and omega angles formed between carbohydrates.

Thermodynamics of the hydroxyl radical addition to isoprene.

Oxidation of isoprene by the hydroxyl radical leads to tropospheric ozone formation. Consequently, a more complete understanding of this reaction could lead to better models of regional air quality, a better understanding of aerosol formation, and a better understanding of reaction kinetics and dynamics. The most common first step in the oxidation of isoprene is the formation of an adduct, with the hydroxyl radical adding to one of four unsaturated carbon atoms in isoprene.

Hydration of OCS with one to four water molecules in atmospheric and laboratory conditions.

Carbonyl sulfide is the most abundant sulfur gas in the atmosphere. We have used MP2 and CCSD(T) theory to study the structures and thermochemistries of carbonyl sulfide interacting with one to four water molecules. We have completed an extensive search for clusters of OCS(H2O)n , where n = 1-4.

Single unit activity in the rat superior colliculus during reward magnitude task performance.

Long-Evans hooded rats were trained to run an alternation pattern in a t-maze with low reward (1 pellet) in the food cup of one arm and high reward (3 pellets) in the food cup of the other arm. Single units in the intermediate and deep layers of the superior colliculus were recorded using moveable microelectrodes. Most units showed activity that was associated with food retrieval, with a phasic increase in activity either upon the cessation of running or upon the insertion of the snout into the food cup.

Using psyscope to conduct IAT experiments on Macintosh computers.

The Implicit Association Test (IAT; Greenwald, McGhee, & Schwartz, 1998) is one of the most widely used tools for assessing implicit attitudes. To date, most IAT experiments have been run using Inquisit, a PC-based program. In the present article, we describe a method for conducting IAT experiments using PsyScope, a free, downloadable, Macintosh-based program (see Bonatti, n.

Comparison of a norm-based versus criterion-based approach to measuring ADHD symptomatology in college students.

Objective: The prevalence of ADHD symptomatology in college students is unclear because rates can vary depending on the methodology that is employed. Gender differences in college prevalence have also remained unexplored.

Method: Self-reported ADHD symptomatology was assessed in 1,096 college students using the College ADHD Response Evaluation, a measure that has been normed on college students and that also contains the 18 criteria currently used for diagnosis.

Amino acid transport through the Saccharomyces cerevisiae Gap1 permease is controlled by the Ras/cAMP pathway.

The general amino acid permease (Gap1p) of Saccharomyces cerevisiae is a broad range, low affinity permease that imports amino acids in cells growing on poor nitrogen sources. This permease also signals the presence of amino acids through the fermentable growth medium pathway allowing the cell to respond to new sources of nitrogen in the surrounding medium. Yeast with an activated Ras2/cAMP pathway show many phenotypes indicative of altered nitrogen uptake and metabolism; sensitivity to nitrogen starvation, low amino acid pools.

In search of CS2(H2O)(n=1-4) clusters.

Gaussian-3 and MP2/aug-cc-pVnZ methods have been used to calculate geometries and thermochemistry of CS(2)(H2O)n, where n=1-4. An extensive molecular dynamics search followed by optimization using these two methods located two dimers, six trimers, six tetramers, and two pentamers. The MP2/aug-cc-pVDZ structure matched best with the experimental result for the CS(2)(H2O) dimer, showing that diffuse functions are necessary to model the interactions found in this complex.