Modular Digital Course in Undergraduate Neuroscience Education (MDCUNE): A Website Offering Free Digital Tools for Neuroscience Educators.

We are providing free digital resources for teaching neuroscience labs at http://mdcune.psych.ucla.

The virtues of scholarship and the virtues of political action.

Many bioethicists are involved in political advocacy groups as well as scholarship, and this has led to controversy. The virtues that enable scholarship to flourish are in tension with those that are vital for effective participation in political advocacy groups. This produces conflicts for bioethicists that are as serious as financial conflicts of interest.

After Medicare: regionalization and Canadian health care reform.

In the immediate postwar era the primary object of health reform among the advanced industrial democracies was to expand, if not universalize, access to a broad spectrum of health services through sustained, high levels of government-mandated spending. The fiscal crises of the 1970s and 1980s ushered in a new generation of policies devoted to balancing the imperatives of guaranteeing access to basic health and social services and to improving the accountability, efficiency, and effectiveness of health care industries. In Canada, the regionalization of health care administration emerged as the most prominent strategy for grappling with the contradictions and paradoxes of contemporary health reform.

Sweet silent thought: alliteration and resonance in poetry comprehension.

Poetic devices like alliteration can heighten readers' aesthetic experiences and enhance poets' recall of their epic pieces. The effects of such devices on memory for and appreciation of poetry are well known; however, the mechanisms underlying these effects are not yet understood. We used current theories of language comprehension as a framework for understanding how alliteration affects comprehension processes.

Undergraduate Neuroscience Education: Blueprints for the 21(st) Century.

Paralleling the explosive growth of neuroscientific knowledge over the last two decades, numerous institutions from liberal arts colleges to research universities have either implemented or begun exploring the possibility of implementing undergraduate programs in neuroscience. In 1995, Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience (FUN) partnered with Project Kaleidoscope (PKAL) to offer a workshop exploring how undergraduate neuroscience education should proceed. Four blueprints were created to provide direction to the burgeoning interest in developing programs in undergraduate neuroscience education: 1) Neuroscience nested in psychology; 2) Neuroscience nested in biology; 3) Neuroscience as a minor; and 4) Neuroscience as a major.

Electronic spectrum of TaO and its hyperfine structure.

The B (2)Phi(5/2)-X(1) (2)Delta(3/2)(0,0) band at 778 nm and the C (2)Delta(3/2)-X(1) (2)Delta(3/2)(0,0) band at 737 nm of tantalum oxide (TaO) were recorded by laser excitation spectroscopy using a hollow cathode sputtering source to generate the molecules. The hyperfine structure arising from the (181)Ta (I=72) nucleus was measured at sub-Doppler resolution using the technique of intermodulated fluorescence spectroscopy. The hyperfine structure was assigned and fitted in order to derive accurate values for the magnetic dipole and electric quadrupole interactions.

In vitro assays for the determination of aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase editing activity.

Aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases are essential enzymes that help to ensure the fidelity of protein translation by accurately aminoacylating (or "charging") specific tRNA substrates with cognate amino acids. Many synthetases have an additional catalytic activity to confer amino acid editing or proofreading. This activity relieves ambiguities during translation of the genetic code that result from one synthetase activating multiple amino acid substrates.

Becoming a teller of tales: associations between children's fictional narratives and parent-child reminiscence narratives.

Previous research has revealed a connection between the contributions parents make while reminiscing and their children's narratives for personally experienced events. The current research expands the literature by focusing on the connection between parental reminiscing and children's production of fictional narratives. After 4- to 9-year-olds and their parents reminisced about past shared events, the children (with an experimenter) produced narratives based on wordless picture books.

The small molecule 2-furylacrylic acid inhibits auxin-mediated responses in Arabidopsis thaliana.

Auxins, typified by IAA, are a class of plant hormones involved in a wide array of processes including cell division, cell elongation, tissue patterning, phototropism, gravitropism and root development. Despite recent descriptions of the machinery involved in auxin transport and perception, additional regulatory mechanisms and components remain to be identified and characterized. Chemical genetics has proven to be a valuable means by which to investigate the auxin response pathway in Arabidopsis thaliana.

Biochemical basis for enhanced binding of peptide dimers to X-linked inhibitor of apoptosis protein.

XIAP (X-linked inhibitor of apoptosis protein) is involved in the mediation of programmed cell death and, therefore, is a target for the development of cancer therapeutics. Peptide mimetics based upon Smac, the natural binding partner of XIAP, and specifically, dimeric peptides, have shown great promise in drug development. In the present work, the basis for enhanced dimer efficacy has been explored.

Seeking perfection: a Kantian look at human genetic engineering.

It is tempting to argue that Kantian moral philosophy justifies prohibiting both human germ-line genetic engineering and non-therapeutic genetic engineering because they fail to respect human dignity. There are, however, good reasons for resisting this temptation. In fact, Kant's moral philosophy provides reasons that support genetic engineering-even germ-line and non-therapeutic.

Computational studies of intramolecular hydrogen atom transfers in the beta-hydroxyethylperoxy and beta-hydroxyethoxy radicals.

The beta-hydroxyethylperoxy (I) and beta-hydroxyethoxy (III) radicals are prototypes of species that can undergo hydrogen atom transfer across their intramolecular hydrogen bonds. These reactions may play an important role in both the atmosphere and in combustion systems. We have used density functional theory and composite electronic structure methods to predict the energetics of these reactions, RRKM/master equation simulations to model the kinetics of chemically activated I, and variational transition state theory (TST) to predict thermal rate constants for the 1,5-hydrogen shift in I (Reaction 1) and the 1,4-hydrogen shift in III (Reaction 2).

Antagonism of nucleus accumbens M(2) muscarinic receptors disrupts operant responding for sucrose under a progressive ratio reinforcement schedule.

Diverse cholinergic signaling mechanisms regulate the excitability of striatal principal neurons and modulate striatal-dependent behavior. These effects are mediated, in part, by action at muscarinic receptors (mAChR), subtypes of which exhibit distinct patterns of expression across striatal neuronal populations. Non-selective mAChR blockade within the nucleus accumbens (NAc) has been shown to disrupt operant responding for food and to inhibit food consumption.

Tracking an ancient killer.

Large meat-eating dinosaur Majungatholusatopus (above) met an untimely end some 70 million years ago in what is now northwestern Madagascar (opposite page, top]. Members of the authors' team carefully excavated the remains, including a jaw with serrated teeth used to slice through flesh (right), and packed them in plaster for transport to the U.S.

Association of unmet need with self-rated health in a community dwelling cohort of disabled seniors 75 years of age and over.

Self-rated health (SRH) is a measure of perceived health that has been shown to predict use of community services, functional decline, pain, and mortality. Many factors associated with SRH have been identified, but unmet need for physical assistance with activities of daily living (ADL) has not yet been examined. The objective of this paper is to examine the association between unmet need and SRH while accounting for the effects of other, previously identified, correlates of SRH.

RNA interference: unraveling a mystery.

Andrew Fire and Craig Mello have won the Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology for their discovery of RNA interference. Mary K. Montgomery, then a postdoc in the Fire laboratory, participated in some of the key experiments.

A formal test for the stationarity of the incidence rate using data from a prevalent cohort study with follow-up.

In a prevalent cohort study with follow-up, the incidence process is not directly observed since only the onset times of prevalent cases can be ascertained. Assessing the "stationarity" of the underlying incidence process can be important for at least three reasons, including an improvement in efficiency when estimating the survivor function. We propose, for the first time, a formal test for stationarity using data from a prevalent cohort study with follow-up.

Quantum chemical and master equation studies of the methyl vinyl carbonyl oxides formed in isoprene ozonolysis.

Methyl vinyl carbonyl oxide is an important intermediate in the reaction of isoprene and ozone and may be responsible for most of the (*)OH formed in isoprene ozonolysis. We use CBS-QB3 calculations and RRKM/master equation simulations to characterize all the pathways leading to the formation of this species, all the interconversions among its four possible conformers, and all of its irreversible isomerizations. Our calculations, like previous studies, predict (*)OH yields consistent with experiment if thermalized syn-methyl carbonyl oxides form (*)OH quantitatively.

Quantum chemical and master equation simulations of the oxidation and isomerization of vinoxy radicals.

The vinoxy radical, a common intermediate in gas-phase alkene ozonolysis, reacts with O2 to form a chemically activated alpha-oxoperoxy species. We report CBS-QB3 energetics for O2 addition to the parent (*CH2CHO, 1a), 1-methylvinoxy (*CH2COCH3, 1b), and 2-methylvinoxy (CH3*CHCHO, 1c) radicals. CBS-QB3 predictions for peroxy radical formation agree with experimental data, while the G2 method systematically overestimates peroxy radical stability.

Using Extracellular Single-unit Electrophysiological Data as a Substrate for Investigative Laboratory Exercises.

Desirable objectives for laboratory-based science courses include fostering skills in problem solving and reasoning, enhancing data fluency, and encouraging consideration of science as an integrative enterprise. An effective means of reaching these objectives is to structure learning experiences around interesting problems in our own research. In this article, we explore the idea of using extracellular single-unit electrophysiological data as a substrate for student investigatory exercises as a means of achieving many of these objectives.

Both incubation temperature and posthatching temperature affect swimming performance and morphology of wood frog tadpoles (Rana sylvatica).

In many oviparous vertebrates, hatchling phenotypes are influenced by egg incubation temperature. Many of those phenotypic traits can also acclimate to long-term thermal conditions of juveniles and adults, yet the interactive effects of prehatching and posthatching temperatures on phenotypes have not been studied. To address such interaction, we incubated eggs of wood frogs (Rana sylvatica) at two temperatures and subsequently reared larvae at three temperatures in a fully factorial design.

The spectrum of APC mutations in children with hepatoblastoma from familial adenomatous polyposis kindreds.

Hepatoblastoma is associated with familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP). In a series of 93 patients with hepatoblastoma,8 (8.6%) reported family histories suggestive of FAP.

Research note: Increasing Amb a 1 content in common ragweed (Ambrosia artemisiifolia) pollen as a function of rising atmospheric CO concentration.

Although the impact of increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration ([CO]) on production of common ragweed (Ambrosia artemisiifolia L.) pollen has been examined in both indoor and outdoor experiments, the relationship between allergen expression and [CO] is not known. An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used to quantify Amb a 1, ragweed's major allergen, in protein extracted from pollen of A.