Self-monitoring processes and Holland Vocational Preferences among college students.

Examined the association between self-monitoring and occupational preferences. 237 undergraduates completed Snyder and Gangestad's (1986) revised self-monitoring scale and Holland's (1977) Vocational Preference Inventory (VPI). Regression analyses showed that men who valued congruence between their beliefs and behavior (i.e., low self-monitors) preferred social occupations. Men who were inclined to modify their behavior to fit social situations (i.e., high self-monitors) preferred enterprising occupations. In contrast, high self-monitoring women preferred artistic occupations. It is argued that these gender-neutral occupations permit high self-monitoring women to use their social skills but without the constraints found in male dominated enterprising occupations. Results support the assumption that people prefer occupations compatible with their social skills. Implications for career counseling and further research are noted. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of age on cardiovascular responses to adrenaline in man

Sensitivity to toxicants is a major criterion for selecting organisms for bioassay testing. If a sensitive species is also abundant and occupies a role as prey for many other species within a community, then the species become a valuable tool in environmental monitoring. These features apply to larval midge Chironomus petiolatus in freshwater environments of central Chile. The youngest larval instar is the most sensitive and presents the additional feature of lower survival within control arenas, making it more difficult to discern toxicant-related mortality from background mortality. In this work, we perform acute bioassays with the three larval stages of C. petiolatus and K2Cr2O7 as reference toxicant, with the goal of selecting a particular instar as the best bioassay tool using two criteria: sensitivity and background mortality. Sensitivity is evaluated through Monte Carlo estimation of LC50 and background mortality through bootstrap resampling, and a final Bioassay Performance Index as the product of LC50 and background mortality. For this task we developed a new computationally intensive statistical algorithm. Results show that the best bioassay tool is not the youngest and most sensitive instar but an intermediate one.     

Role of early supervisory experience in supervisor performance.

Explores the role of early supervisory experience and cognitive ability in 1st-line supervisor performance. Similar to the F. L. Schmidt et al (see record 1986-31441-001) study of nonsupervisors, this research tested structural models hypothesizing relationships among supervisory experience, cognitive ability, supervisory knowledge and proficiency, and performance ratings, using a sample of 570 2nd-tour soldiers. The Schmidt et al model with an additional ability?→?experience path provided the best fit. The significant ability?→?experience path was interpreted as indicating that demonstrated ability contributes to soldiers being given the opportunity to obtain supervisory experience. Experience had a greater impact on supervisor proficiency than on supervisor knowledge. Ability had a greater impact on supervisor knowledge than on proficiency. Discussion focuses on the personal characteristics that might be involved in being assigned supervisory responsibilities. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Data management and analysis for high-throughput DNA sequencingprojects

The rapid advances in molecular biology have begun to shift many of the bottlenecks in genome research from the laboratory to the data analysis facility. The pace at which this has occurred creates a situation in which software development always has to catch up with the flow of data. Since such large-scale processes were not anticipated, the analysis infrastructure has not been fully established. Furthermore, most systems that have been built were designed by the biologists who collected the data. More recently, computer scientists, mathematicians, and engineers have taken an interest in this problem. This has had a positive effect, since it has created a tight synergy between the informatics and the biology. Several principles affected the design of the system developed at TIGR. Each of the sample preparation, sequencing, and analysis steps had to be managed, scheduled, and tracked. This information had to be made readily available to those who needed it for carrying out their tasks. Different skill levels of the users had to be taken into account. The degree of human intervention at each step had to be evaluated and built into the design. A mixed processing environment of Macintosh and Unix platforms had to be integrated. Most importantly, the system had to save time, reduce error, and ensure uniformity of the analysis and quality of the results. In the authors' experience, the tools they have built work well because of their early decisions as to which systems to use for development. The authors settled on a robust relational database management system (Sybase) and a portable development environment (C, C++)     

Performance of advanced resuscitation skills by pediatric housestaff

OBJECTIVE: To describe pediatric housestaff resuscitation experience and their ability to perform key resuscitation skills. DESIGN: Cohort study of 63 pediatric residents in a university-based training program. PARTICIPANTS AND METHODS: Investigators observed, scored, and timed resident performance on 4 key resuscitation skills. Cognitive ability was tested with 4 written scenarios. Housestaff provided self-reports of the number of months since their last American Heart Association Pediatric Advanced Life Support course, number of mock and actual codes attended, number of times skills were performed, and self-confidence with respect to resuscitation. RESULTS: A total of 45 pediatric residents (71%) participated. Median cognitive score was 5 (range, 1-5). Of all residents, 44 (97%) successfully bag mask-ventilated the mannequin; 24 (53%) and 36 (80%) used the correct bag and mask size, respectively. Thirty-nine residents (87%) placed a tube in the mannequin trachea, 12 (27%) checked that suction was working prior to intubation, and 30 (67%) chose the correct endotracheal tube size. Forty residents (89%) discharged the defibrillator, and 25 (56%) and 32 (71%) correctly chose asynchronous mode and infant paddles, respectively. Thirty-eight residents (84%) inserted an intraosseous line; 35 (78%) had correct placement. Median times for successful skill completion were 83 seconds for bag mask ventilation, 136 seconds for intubation, 149 seconds for defibrillation, and 68 seconds for intraosseous line placement. CONCLUSION: Pediatric housestaff previously trained in pediatric advanced life support were generally able to reach the end point of 4 key resuscitation skills but less frequently performed the specific subcomponents of each skill. This poor performance and the prolonged time to skill completion suggest the need for greater attention to detail during training.     

Octave-tunable miniature RF resonators

The development and testing of a miniaturized, high-Q, broadly tunable resonator is described. An exemplary device, with a center frequency that is continuously tunable from 1.2 to 2.6GHz, was tested in detail. Experimental results demonstrated a resonator Q of up to 380, and typical insertion loss of -1.9dB for a 25MHz 3-dB bandwidth. These resonators have been used to stabilize a broadly-tunable oscillator with phase noise of -132dBc/Hz at 100-kHz offset, with a center frequency tunable from 1.2-2.6GHz, and a tuning speed of 1GHz/ms.     

Screen‐printed biosensor for allergens

Allergen levels in indoor environments, leading to many diseases, eg asthma, rhinitis and conjunctivitis, affect a large and increasing fraction of the population. A quite effective and inexpensive method of a rough but very rapid overall assessment of total allergen level in the environment has been developed. The method involved estimation of protein in allergen extracts by screen‐printed electrodes using two different techniques. The biosensor comprised a rhodinised carbon working electrode, a silver/silver chloride reference electrode and a carbon counter electrode. In the first method the enzyme protease reacted with allergen protein to release amino acid, which produced hydrogen peroxide in the presence of amino acid oxidase. This was detected amperometrically. The second method used potassium bromide as electrolyte and the electrode was subjected to dual potential. Bromine, released due to electrolysis at higher potential, was consumed by the allergen protein at lower potential. In the first method, a unique technique was used to microencapsulate the enzyme protease and immobilise it on the surface of the electrode by in‐situ polymerisation to avoid contact with the amino acid oxidase. A total of seven allergens were tested and the results gave a good correlation with the standard protein measurement method. Environmental specimens from indoors, schools and workplaces can be evaluated for the aeroallergens produced by dust mites, animal hairs, cockroach debris, pollens, etc as a means of determining the exposure risk. Copyright © 2005 Society of Chemical Industry