A kinetic investigation into the removal of carbobenzyloxy group from protected amines via hydrogenolysis reaction

Hydrogenolysis of a carbobenzyloxy group (CBz) was studied utilizing molecular hydrogen in the presence of carbon-supported palladium catalyst. It was demonstrated that the kinetics of the reaction are greatly influenced by the presence of the CO₂ by-product. It was found out that the presence of CO₂ determines whether the reaction is first or zero order since it causes deactivation of the catalyst via inhibition. The effect of potassium carbonate (K₂CO₃) and triethylamine (TEA) as additives was investigated. A considerable solvent effect was also observed that may be explained by the variation of dispersion of the catalyst from one solvent to another.     

Does marital conflict cause child maladjustment? Directions and challenges for longitudinal research.

Although the association between marital conflict and child adjustment problems has been well documented, there is no empirical evidence that conflict actually causes maladjustment. The investigation of causation requires theoretically and empirically informed longitudinal research. Two topics are addressed to facilitate such research. First, how marital conflict may lead to adjustment problems is outlined, with a focus on constructs that are likely to be critical to any theory on this topic. Second, several issues are identified that need to be addressed in longitudinal research on the mechanisms underlying the link between marital and child problems. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The physician-delivered smoking intervention project: Can short-term interventions produce long-term effects for a general outpatient population?

Patterns of smoking cessation using 6- and 12-mo follow-up data are reported for 1,261 primary care patients randomized to 3 physician-delivered smoking interventions: advice only (AO), counseling (CI), and counseling plus availability of nicotine-containing gum (CI?+?NCG). One-week point-prevalence cessation rates at 12 mo did not differ among the interventions: AO (15.2%), CI (12.9%) and CI?+?NCG (16.7%). However, maintained cessation rates (abstinent at both 6 and 12 mo) increased with intervention intensity: AO (6.0%), CI (7.8%), and CI?+?NCG (10.0%): Test of trend χ–2?=?5.06, p?=?.02. CI?+?NCG was significantly higher than AO (p?=?.02). The findings support the following conclusions: Brief physician delivered intervention with availability of nicotine-containing gum can have a beneficial long-term effect on smoking cessation, and cohort data as well as point-prevalence rates are important when assessing the long-term impact of lifestyle interventions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Tower of London performance in relation to Magnetic Resonance Imaging following closed head injury in children.

To investigate the relationship of severity of pediatric closed head injury (CHI), the contribution of frontal lobe lesions, and age at testing (6–10 yr olds vs 11–15 yr olds) to cognitive deficit, 134 head-injured patients were given the Tower of London (TOL) task and underwent magnetic resonance imaging. 89 normal controls were given the TOL for comparison. Severity of CHI and age at testing were strongly related to cognitive performance on the TOL, including the frequency of breaking the rules. Volume of frontal lobe lesion (but not extrafrontal lesion) contributed to the prediction of perfomance on the TOL even after severity of injury was taken into account. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

In Google We Trust: Users' Decisions on Rank, Position, and Relevance

An eye tracking experiment revealed that college student users have substantial trust in Google's ability to rank results by their true relevance to the query. When the participants selected a link to follow from Google's result pages, their decisions were strongly biased towards links higher in position even if the abstracts themselves were less relevant. While the participants reacted to artificially reduced retrieval quality by greater scrutiny, they failed to achieve the same success rate. This demonstrated trust in Google has implications for the search engine's tremendous potential influence on culture, society, and user traffic on the Web.     

Altered arachidonic acid content in polymorphonuclear and mononuclear cells from patients with allergic rhinitis and/or asthma

We previously have found that monocytes from patients with allergic rhinitis and/or asthma produce less PGE₂ than cells from normal subjects in response to a histamine-induced lymphokine. In order to investigate this observation further, we measured the fatty acid content in the total phospholipids derived from the plasma, red cells, buffy coat cells, neutrophils, monocytes and lymphocytes of 27 allergic patients and 21 normal controls. There were no substantial differences between atopics and normals in the fatty acid analyses carried out for plasma and red cells. However, linoleic acid (18∶2n−6) levels were elevated significantly in the buffy coat fraction, while arachidonic acid (20∶4n−6) levels were reduced. Measurement of fatty acid levels after fractionation of the buffy coat population into neutrophils and monocytes yielded similar elevations in 18∶2n−6 and reduced 20∶4n−6. In contrast, lymphocytes appeared to have the reverse pattern, i.e., significantly reduced 18∶2n−6 and elevated 20∶4n−6 levels. These data suggest that atopic leukocytes may have altered essential fatty acid metabolism.     

Trust in consumer-to-consumer electronic commerce

We developed a model of consumer-to-consumer (C2C) e-commerce trust and tested it. We expected that two influences: internal (natural propensity to trust [NPT] and perception of web site quality [PWSQ]) and external (other's trust of buyers/sellers [OTBS] and third party recognition [TPR]) would affect an individual's trust in C2C e-commerce. However contrary to studies of other types of e-commerce, support was only found for PWSQ and TPR; we therefore discussed possible reasons for this contradiction. Suggestions are made of ways to help e-commerce site developers provide a trustworthy atmosphere and identify trustworthy consumers.     

E-recruitment and the benefits of organizational web appeal

This study examined the influences of website design on prospective job seekers. A total of 182 participants accessed and reviewed an online job ad. Afterwards, they rated: (a) the attractiveness of the ad’s formatting, (b) the usability of the website, (c) overall evaluations of the organization’s web appeal, (d) impressions of the organization, and (e) willingness to pursue employment with the hiring organization. Although both the formatting attractiveness and usability of online recruitment materials influenced participants’ inclinations to pursue jobs, formatting was more important than usability. Moreover, impressions of the employer mediated the relationship between satisfaction with the website and willingness to pursue employment with the organization. Overall, this research advances knowledge by applying signaling theory to the web-based recruitment domain and by testing a mediated relationship implied therein. In addition, this is the first study to introduce relative weights analysis to the recruitment literature.