Toward building an international consensus in professional values

We have studied 8,495 regular season games in the National Basketball Association over eight seasons (1987-1988 through 1994-1995) to analyze the effects of travel and rest on performance. We found that more time between games improved performance, an effect that was constant over time and statistically significant. More than 1 day between games increased the home team's score by 1.1 points and the visitor's by 1.6 points. Peak performance occurred with 3 days between games. The negative effects of little time between games may be due to lack of time for physical recovery, rather than any effects of circadian rhythm (jet lag). We found few consistent effects of distance traveled or direction of travel. We did find a suggestion of circadian rhythm effects in a subanalysis of games on either coast in which the visitor traveled across the country, while the home team did not travel (n = 101). In these games, the visiting team did four points better (p = 0.07) when they traveled west to east rather than east to west, almost nullifying the home-court advantage. This effect, like similar findings for Monday Night Football games, may be due to West Coast visitors playing night games at an earlier time according to their "internal clock". An incidental finding in our study was that the home-court advantage decreased over 8 years, from about six points to three points (due to relatively lower field-goal percentages and fewer free throws by the home team).     

Absorption Anomalies in Ratio and Subtraction FT-IR Spectroscopy

Subtraction and ratioing of strong absorption bands in Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy produces anomalous absorption errors. One source of error is the instability in the wavenumber scale of the FT-IR spectra. The possible causes of this error are explored. The thermal expansion and contraction of the cavity of the HeNe reference laser from a typical commercial instrument was found to produce changes in the laser wavenumber of ±0.034 cm(-)(1). Changes of this size are shown to introduce errors into the wavenumber scales of FT-IR spectra which are sufficient to produce the observed anomalies. The dependence of the error on instrumental and spectroscopic parameters is explored. Solutions to the problem are proposed.     

Revealing Nanoscale Chemical Heterogeneities in Polycrystalline Mo‐BiVO4 Thin Films

The activity of polycrystalline thin film photoelectrodes is impacted by local variations of the material properties due to the exposure of different crystal facets and the presence of grain/domain boundaries. Here a multi‐modal approach is applied to correlate nanoscale heterogeneities in chemical composition and electronic structure with nanoscale morphology in polycrystalline Mo‐BiVO₄. By using scanning transmission X‐ray microscopy, the characteristic structure of polycrystalline film is used to disentangle the different X‐ray absorption spectra corresponding to grain centers and grain boundaries. Comparing both spectra reveals phase segregation of V₂O₅ at grain boundaries of Mo‐BiVO₄ thin films, which is further supported by X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy and many‐body density functional theory calculations. Theoretical calculations also enable to predict the X‐ray absorption spectral fingerprint of polarons in Mo‐BiVO₄. After photo‐electrochemical operation, the degraded Mo‐BiVO₄ films show similar grain center and grain boundary spectra indicating V₂O₅ dissolution in the course of the reaction. Overall, these findings provide valuable insights into the degradation mechanism and the impact of material heterogeneities on the material performance and stability of polycrystalline photoelectrodes.     

Calmodulin and Its Binding Proteins in Parkinson’s Disease

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder that manifests with rest tremor, muscle rigidity and movement disturbances. At the microscopic level it is characterized by formation of specific intraneuronal inclusions, called Lewy bodies (LBs), and by a progressive loss of dopaminergic neurons in the striatum and substantia nigra. All living cells, among them neurons, rely on Ca²⁺ as a universal carrier of extracellular and intracellular signals that can initiate and control various cellular processes. Disturbances in Ca²⁺ homeostasis and dysfunction of Ca²⁺ signaling pathways may have serious consequences on cells and even result in cell death. Dopaminergic neurons are particularly sensitive to any changes in intracellular Ca²⁺ level. The best known and studied Ca²⁺ sensor in eukaryotic cells is calmodulin. Calmodulin binds Ca²⁺ with high affinity and regulates the activity of a plethora of proteins. In the brain, calmodulin and its binding proteins play a crucial role in regulation of the activity of synaptic proteins and in the maintenance of neuronal plasticity. Thus, any changes in activity of these proteins might be linked to the development and progression of neurodegenerative disorders including PD. This review aims to summarize published results regarding the role of calmodulin and its binding proteins in pathology and pathogenesis of PD.     

Impact of the interfacial traps on the charge accumulation in organic transistors

A silver nanoparticles (NPs) self-assembled monolayer (SAM) was introduced in the pentacene organic field-effect transistors using modified Langmuir–Schäffer (horizontal lifting) technique, and its effect was being evaluated electrically using current–voltage (I?V) and impedance spectroscopy (IS) measurements. The I?V results showed a significant negative threshold voltage shift indicating that hole trapping phenomena exist inside the devices with about two orders higher in the contact resistance and an order lower in the effective mobility when a SAM was introduced. The IS measurements with the simulation of Maxwell–Wagner equivalent circuit revealed that the incorporation of the NPs SAM had a comparable negative voltage shift as in I–V measurements with a higher trapping time based on the simulation results.     

Evaluation of a voluntary military-style residential treatment program for youths with conduct problems: 6- and 36-month outcomes.

The authors investigated the socioemotional and behavioral outcomes of adolescents referred to voluntary military-style residential treatment. Adolescents (N = 232) with conduct problems were classified into three groups: adolescents who completed treatment, adolescents who withdrew from treatment, and wait list controls. Six months after treatment, boys and girls who completed military-style residential treatment showed fewer externalizing problems, greater adaptive skills, and better behavioral outcomes (e.g., high school completion, employment, lower recidivism) than comparison youths. Results were not maintained at 36-month follow-up. Adolescents who enlisted in the military after treatment showed better outcomes at 36-month follow-up than youths who returned home after treatment. Results indicate that the benefits of treatment might be tangible but short-lived for adolescents who return to their communities. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Possible diamond-like nanoscale structures induced by slow highly-charged ions on graphite (HOPG)

The interaction between slow highly-charged ions (SHCI) of different charge states from an electron-beam ion trap and highly-oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) surfaces is studied in terms of modification of electronic states at single-ion impact nanosize areas. Results are presented from AFM/STM analysis of the induced-surface topological features combined with Raman spectroscopy. I-V characteristics for a number of different impact regions were measured with STM and the results argue for possible formation of diamond-like nanoscale structures at the impact sites.