Differential effects of aging and Alzheimer's disease on conceptual implicit and explicit memory.

The effects of aging and Alzheimer's disease (AD) on conceptual explicit and implicit memory were examined. Three groups of participants patients with AD; age-matched, older control participants; and younger control participants made deep (semantic) or shallow (nonsemantic) judgments about low-dominant category exemplars. Explicit memory was measured by category cued recall and implicit memory was measured by priming on a category-exemplar generation task. Younger participants had enhanced cued recall and priming following deep, relative to shallow, encoding; this indicated that both memory measures were conceptually driven. Aging reduced explicit, but not implicit, test performance, and it did not reduce conceptually driven processes for either test. In contrast, AD reduced explicit and implicit test performance, and it impaired conceptually driven memory processes for both tests. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Automation in urinalysis: evaluation of three urine test strip analysers

A clinical laboratory evaluation was conducted on the Clinitek Auto 2000, the Super Aution Analyzer and the Urotron RL9 for the determination of glucose, protein, pH, blood, ketone-bodies and bilirubin.Precision of the systems was tested using three commercial control urine materials, and reported as the percentage of times the instrument repeats a certain value. Good repeatability was obtained with all the instruments.Accuracy of the systems was evaluated by comparison with quantitative procedures, and to check agreement between methods yielding semi-quantitative and quantitative results, ranges of acceptability were defined, based on the criteria reported in a previous paper [2]. It was then found that 87.5 to 98.9% of results from the Urotron RL9 and the Clinitek Auto 2000 were acceptable. With the Super Aution Analyzer the level of agreement was apparently lower because of the higher number of concentration steps used by this instrument.     

Economic Benefits of Remediating the Sheboygan River,Wisconsin Area of Concern

This study estimates the economic benefits of remediation in the Sheboygan River, WI Area of Concern (AOC) using two distinct empirical methods. The methodology parallels that described by Braden et al. (2008). The results are mixed. Using hedonic analysis of property sales, for owner-occupied homes within a 5-mile radius of the Sheboygan River AOC, the overall estimated loss of value is $158 million (8% of market value). Of this total, only $49 million in losses for homes closest to the upper river segment has strong statistical support. The impacts are greatest proportionally for properties closest to the AOC. A survey-based method yields a mean estimate of $218 million (10% of property value) in willingness to pay for full cleanup of the AOC. If remediation were to induce recovery of property values, then the local communities could benefit through increased property tax revenues.     

Molecular analysis of the SNF8 gene of Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Mutations in the SNF8 gene impair derepresson of the SUC2 gene, encoding invertase, in response to glucose limitation of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. We report here the cloning of the SNF8 gene by complementation. Sequence analysis predicts a 26 936-dalton product. Disruption of the chromosomal locus caused a five-fold decrease in invertase derepression, defective growth on raffinose, and a sporulation defect in homozygous diploids. Genetic analysis of the interactions of the snf8 null mutation with spt6/ssn20 and ssn6 suppressors distinguished SNF8 from the groups, SNF1, SNF4 and SNF2, SNF5, SNF6. Notably, the snf8 ssn6 double mutants were extremely sick. Mutations of SNF8 and SNF7 showed similar phenotypes and genetic interactions, and the double mutant combination caused no additional phenotypic impairment. These findings suggest that SNF7 and SNF8 are functionally related. The complete nucleotide sequence of SNF8 has been deposited in GenBank under accession number U10361.     

A hybrid implementation of a process-oriented programming language for system simulation

The implementation of a hierarchical, process-oriented programming language for simulation (HSL) is described. It features a hybrid approach, involving the front end of a compiler and the back end of an interpreter. An HSL program is dichotomous in structure. Source statements from each part are translated into three-address code for an abstract machine, and the resulting code is then interpreted. The algorithms and the supportive data structures that effect the translation and interpretation of HSL are detailed. The host language for HSL is C++. HSL is machine independent and can be ported to any machine on which the host language is available. Its initial implementation was carried out on an NCR Tower. More recently, it was transferred to an NCR PC916.     

Social and emotional patterns in adulthood: Support for socioemotional selectivity theory.

Explored 2 hypotheses derived from socioemotional selectivity theory: (1) Selective reductions in social interaction begin in early adulthood, and (2) emotional closeness to significant others increases rather than decreases in adulthood even when rate reductions occur. Transcribed interviews with 28 women and 22 men from the Child Guidance Study, conducted over 34 yrs, were reviewed and rated for frequency of interaction, satisfaction with the relationship, and degree of emotional closeness in 6 types of relationships. Interaction frequency with acquaintances and close friends declined from early adulthood on. Interaction frequency with spouses and siblings increased across the same time period, and emotional closeness increased throughout adulthood in relationships with relatives and close friends. Findings suggest that individuals begin narrowing their range of social partners long before old age. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Editorial: Smart Objects and Technologies for Social Good (GOODTECHS 2017)

Mobile Networks and Applications -     

Challenging Google Search filter bubbles in social and political information: Disconforming evidence from a digital methods case study

This article engages in the debate on supposed online ‘filter bubbles’ by analysing a panel of Google users’ search results on a standardized set of socio-politically themed search queries. In general, the query results appear to be dominated by mainstream media sources, followed at a large distance by civil society and government resources. By means of mixed model regression analyses, with the prominence of different source types in the search results as dependent variables, it was tested whether search results vary across Google Search users. The results indicate that the inclusion of participants as a random effect does not explain variance when controlling for the different query keywords and the time at which the queries were ran. Hence, this study does not support the occurrence of ‘filter bubbles’ in Google Search results in the context of social and political information.     

Structure of His94->Asp carbonic anhydrase II in a new crystalline form reveals a partially occupied zinc binding site

The structure of histidine 94aspartate (H94D) carbonic anhydraseII (CAII) crystallized in an orthorhombic space group has beendetermined to 2.5 Å resolution. This crystal form is notisomorphous with monoclinic wild-type enzyme crystals or withthe monoclinic crystal form of H94D CAII reported earlier [Kiefer,L.L.,Ippolito,J.A., Fierke,C.A. and Christianson,D.W. (1993) J. Am.Chem. Soc., 115, 12581–12582]. In monoclinic H94D CAII,a fully occupied zinc ion is tetrahedrally coordinated by D94,H96, H119 and a water molecule. In orthorhombic H94D CAII, apartially occupied zinc ion is coordinated by H96 and H119 andonly weakly coordinated by a disordered D94 side chain.Thesedifferences are particularly surprising given that the two crystalforms co-precipitate in the same drop in the same experiment.Re-refinement of the orthorhombic crystal form of H94C CAIIand comparison with its corresponding monoclinic crystal formyield similar results. It appears that partial—but notfull—zinc dissociation accompanies the crystallizationof CAII variants in the orthorhombic crystal form, and significantdifferences on the protein surface presumably affect the relativestability of each crystal lattice. These results underscoreanunexpected ambiguity in this protein engineering experiment:which crystal structure of H94D CAII should be correlated withfunctional measurements made in solution?     

Modeling biological gradient formation: combining partial differential equations and Petri nets

Both Petri nets and differential equations are important modeling tools for biological processes. In this paper we demonstrate how these two modeling techniques can be combined to describe biological gradient formation. Parameters derived from partial differential equation describing the process of gradient formation are incorporated in an abstract Petri net model. The quantitative aspects of the resulting model are validated through a case study of gradient formation in the fruit fly.