A psychometric evaluation of the Beck Depression Inventory–II.

This article provides psychometric information on the second edition of the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI–II; A. T. Beck, R. A. Steer, & G. K. Brown, 1996), with respect to internal consistency, factorial validity, and gender differences. Both measures demonstrated high internal reliability in the full student sample. Significant differences between the mean BDI and BDI-II scores necessitated the development of new cutoffs for analogue research on the BDI–II. Results from exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses indicated that a 2-factor solution optimally summarized the data for both versions of the inventory and accounted for a cumulative 41% and 46% of the common variance in BDI and BDI–II responses, respectively. These factor solutions were reliably cross-validated, although the importance of each factor varied by gender. The authors conclude that the BDI–II is a stronger instrument than the BDI in terms of its factor structure. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Expression of hepatocyte low-density lipoprotein receptor-related protein is post-transcriptionally regulated by extracellular matrix

A clinical trial was conducted to assess the feasibility, safety, and efficacy of the atrial septal defect (ASD) occlusion system for transcatheter closure of secundum ASD and patent foramen ovale (PFO) after episodes of cerebral embolism. Occlusion was attempted in 200 patients aged 1 to 74 years (mean 32). The procedure failed in 26 patients (13%); the device was retrieved through a catheter in 20 and through surgery in 6 patients. Procedure-related complications necessitating surgical removal of the device included device embolization in 2, device entrapment within the Chiari network in 1, frame fracture in 1, and perforation of atrial wall in 2. All 6 patients experienced an uneventful postoperative course. An additional 11 patients (6%) underwent surgical removal of the device during follow-up. There were 163 patients (81%) with an implanted ASD occlusion system at follow-up of from 6 to 36 months (mean 17). Thrombus formation around the device was detected by transesophageal echocardiography in 9 patients 1 to 4 weeks after implantation. One of these patients (who had a coagulation factor XII deficiency) suffered a cerebral thromboembolism. Late atrial wall perforation (5, 6, and 8 months after implantation) occurred in 3 adult patients. Infectious endocarditis developed in 2 adult patients (1%). No late device embolization and no atrioventricular valve injury occurred. An asymptomatic device frame fracture was found in 14% and frame deformity in 4% of all patients during the follow-up period of >230 patient-years. Immediately after closure, a moderate/large residual shunt remained in 8% and a small shunt in 29% of patients. After 1 year, a moderate/large shunt was present in 2% and a small one in 26% of patients. During a total follow-up of 49 patient-years, only 1 of 46 patients with PFO had a transient neurologic event after the closure. The study indicates that patients with centrally situated secundum ASD and those with PFO after cerebral embolism can be treated with this system with a high success rate and an acceptable morbidity.     

Heterogeneity in the families of sons of alcoholics: The impact of familial vulnerability type on offspring characteristics.

In 2 samples of sons of alcoholics (family history positive for alcoholism; FHP: N?=?74 & N?=?72), cluster analyses identified 3 subtypes of familial vulnerability: 1 with low levels of familial psychopathology (FHP-LP) and moderate levels of familial alcoholism; a 2nd with high levels of familial antisocial personality (FHP-ASP), violence, and alcoholism; and a 3rd with high levels of familial depression (FHP-DEP), mania, anxiety disorder, and alcoholism. Compared with family history negative (FHN) participants (N?=?106), FHP offspring had higher levels of alcohol problems. FHP-ASP offspring had elevated levels of antisocial traits and negative affect. Compared with FHN participants, FHP-DEP offspring elevated levels of antisocial traits, hypomania, and experience seeking. FHP-LP offspring had moderate levels of antisocial traits. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

WEDS: a Web services-based environment for distributed simulation

Web services have the potential to radically enhance the ability of researchers to make use of distributed computing resources, but jargon and a plethora of standards make their use almost impossible for the scientist without prior experience of the necessary technologies. A powerful and simple WSRF-based middleware scheme is presented, designed to let scientists remotely deploy single or multiple instances of a pre-existing code across multiple resources, and giving steering, visualization and workflow functionality with only simple modifications to program code. It is hoped that the development and implementation of such a toolkit will be relevant not only to the problem of deploying workstation-class codes in real time, but also the move towards more tractable alternatives to the Globus toolkit for deployment of processes in a high-performance computing environment.     

Detection of phosphopeptides using Fe(III)-nitrilotriacetate complexes immobilized on a MALDI plate

Metal affinity complexes were chemically grafted onto the surface of gold matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) plates by coupling a derivative of nitrilotriacetate (NTA) to immobilized poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) and subsequently forming the Fe(III)-NTA complex. The immobilized complexes can adsorb phosphorylated peptides preferentially from protein digests; deposition of digests on these surface-modified plates, followed by rinsing with an acetic acid solution, addition of matrix, and subsequent analysis by MALDI MS, resulted in mass spectra dominated by peaks corresponding to phosphopeptides. In the case of analyzing a tryptic digest of beta-casein, conventional MALDI MS revealed only one monophosphopeptide, while use of the Fe(III)-NTA-PAA-modified plate resulted in strong signals due to two additional tetraphosphorylated species. The diminution or elimination of signals due to nonphosphorylated species also greatly simplified the identification of phosphopeptides during analysis of ovalbumin digests and myoglobin digests spiked with an equimolar mixture of angiotensin and phosphoangiotensin. The matrix 2',4',6'-trihydroxyacetophenone mixed with diammonium hydrogen citrate proved to be much better than alpha-cyano-4-hydroxycinnamic acid for the detection of phosphorylated peptides from digests of beta-casein and ovalbumin.     

Thermal stability of soy protein isolate and hydrolysate ingredients

The objective of this study was to characterize the effects of pH, protein concentration and calcium supplementation on thermal stability, at 140 °C, of soy protein isolate (SPI) and soy protein hydrolysate (SPH) ingredients. Increasing pH between 6.4 and 7.5 led to significantly (p < 0.05) higher mean heat coagulation times (HCTs) at 140 °C, for all soy protein ingredients at 1.8, and 3.6% (w/v) protein. Increasing protein concentration from 1.8 to 7.2% (w/v) led to shorter HCTs for protein dispersions. Calcium supplementation up to 850 mg/L, except in the case of supplementation of SPI 1 with calcium citrate (CaCit), decreased HCT for soy protein ingredient dispersions, at pH 6.4 – 7.5. No significant differences (p < 0.05) were found in mean HCT for dispersions supplemented with calcium chloride (CaCl₂) and those supplemented with CaCit at 450, 650 and 850 mg/L Ca²⁺, in the pH range 6.4–7.5.     

Contiguous and Atomically Thin Pt Film with Supra‐Bulk Behavior Through Graphene‐Imposed Epitaxy

The nature of the atomic configuration and the bonding within epitaxial Pt‐graphene films is investigated. Graphene‐templated monolayer/few‐multilayers of Pt, synthesized as contiguous 2D films by room temperature electrochemical methods, is shown to exhibit a stable {100} structure in the 1–2 layer range. The fundamental question being investigated is whether surface Pt atoms rendered in these 2D architectures are as stable as those of their bulk Pt counterparts. Unsurprisingly, a single layer Pt on the graphene (Pt_1ML/GR) shows much larger Pt dissociation energy (?7.51 eV) than does an isolated Pt atom on graphene. However, the dissociation energy from Pt_1ML/GR is similar to that of bulk Pt(100), ?7.77 eV, while in bi‐layer Pt on the graphene (Pt_2ML/GR), this energy changes to ?8.63 eV, surpassing its bulk counterpart. At Pt_2ML/GR, the dissociation energy also slightly surpasses that of bulk Pt(111). Bulk‐like stability of atomically thin Pt–graphene results from a combination of interplanar Pt? C covalent bonding and inter/intraplanar metallic bonding. This unprecedented stability is also accompanied by a metal‐like presence of electronic states at the Fermi level. Such atomically thin metal‐graphene architectures can be a new stable platform for synthesizing 2D metallic films with various applications in catalysis, sensing, and electronics.     

Atomically Sharp Dual Grain Boundaries in 2D WS2 Bilayers

It is shown that tilt grain boundaries (GBs) in bilayer 2D crystals of the transition metal dichalcogenide WS₂ can be atomically sharp, where top and bottom layer GBs are located within sub‐nanometer distances of each other. This expands the current knowledge of GBs in 2D bilayer crystals, beyond the established large overlapping GB types typically formed in chemical vapor deposition growth, to now include atomically sharp dual bilayer GBs. By using atomic‐resolution annular dark‐field scanning transmission electron microscopy (ADF‐STEM) imaging, different atomic structures in the dual GBs are distinguished considering bilayers with a 3R (AB stacking)/2H (AA′ stacking) interface as well as bilayers with 2H/2H boundaries. An in situ heating holder is used in ADF‐STEM and the GBs are stable to at least 800 °C, with negligible thermally induced reconstructions observed. Normal dislocation cores are seen in one WS₂ layer, but the second WS₂ layer has different dislocation structures not seen in freestanding monolayers, which have metal‐rich clusters to accommodate the stacking mismatch of the 2H:3R interface. These results reveal the competition between maintaining van der Waals bilayer stacking uniformity and dislocation cores required to stitch tilted bilayer GBs together.