Verbal abuse from outsiders versus insiders: Comparing frequency, impact on emotional exhaustion, and the role of emotional labor.

Research on aggression from organizational outsiders (customers, clients or patients) has ignored insider-instigated aggression, and has been limited to employees in emotional labor jobs (e.g., social work and customer services). The authors argue that customer-employee interactions have distinct characteristics from organizational insider interactions, and provide two studies to compare the frequency and strain of verbal abuse from customers, supervisors and coworkers. Furthermore, they assess whether customer verbal abuse is only a critical issue for employees in jobs requiring emotional labor, measured with both O*NET job codes and self-reported display rules. With a national random sample of U.S. employees (n = 2446) and a convenience sample of U.S. employees who have customer contact (n = 121), the authors find that verbal abuse from outsiders (1) occurs more frequently than insider verbal abuse, particularly for those with higher emotional labor requirements, and (2) predicts emotional exhaustion over and above insider verbal abuse, regardless of emotional labor requirements. The authors conclude that better integration of customer aggression and insider aggression research is needed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Output feedback control of general linear heterodirectional hyperbolic PDE-ODE systems with spatially-varying coefficients

This paper presents a backstepping solution for the output feedback control of general linear heterodirectional hyperbolic PDE-ODE systems with spatially varying coefficients. Thereby, the ODE is coupled to the PDE in-domain and at the uncontrolled boundary, whereas the ODE is coupled with the latter boundary. For the state feedback design, a two-step backstepping approach is developed, which yields the conventional kernel equations and additional decoupling equations of simple form. In order to implement the state feedback controller, the design of observers for the PDE-ODE systems in question is considered, whereby anti-collocated measurements are assumed. Exponential stability with a prescribed convergence rate is verified for the closed-system pointwise in space. The resulting compensator design is illustrated for a 4 × 4 heterodirectional hyperbolic system coupled with a third-order ODE modelling a dynamic boundary condition.     

A G protein gamma subunit-like domain shared between RGS11 and other RGS proteins specifies binding to Gbeta5 subunits

Regulators of G protein signaling (RGS) proteins act as GTPase-activating proteins (GAPs) toward the alpha subunits of heterotrimeric, signal-transducing G proteins. RGS11 contains a G protein gamma subunit-like (GGL) domain between its Dishevelled/Egl-10/Pleckstrin and RGS domains. GGL domains are also found in RGS6, RGS7, RGS9, and the Caenorhabditis elegans protein EGL-10. Coexpression of RGS11 with different Gbeta subunits reveals specific interaction between RGS11 and Gbeta5. The expression of mRNA for RGS11 and Gbeta5 in human tissues overlaps. The Gbeta5/RGS11 heterodimer acts as a GAP on Galphao, apparently selectively. RGS proteins that contain GGL domains appear to act as GAPs for Galpha proteins and form complexes with specific Gbeta subunits, adding to the combinatorial complexity of G protein-mediated signaling pathways.     

Potato gun ocular injury

PURPOSE: This study aimed to identify a dangerous new weapon capable of causing damage to the ocular and periocular regions. METHODS: The authors report two patients who had penetrating ocular injury in the past year because of homemade recreational potato guns. RESULTS: In one 14-year-old boy, projectiles from the firing of a potato gun resulted in orbital and cranial injuries that were life threatening with widespread fractures, marked disruption of facial structures, a cerebrospinal fluid fistula requiring bifrontal surgical repair, and loss of one eye. In a separate accident with a different potato gun, a 14-year-old boy who was wearing glasses at the time of injury had a sight-threatening perforating corneal laceration. CONCLUSION: Practitioners must be aware of the existence of these new, homemade unregulated devices. Information about the use and construction of these guns is widespread on the Internet, but no injuries resulting from these guns currently are documented in the medical literature.     

Muscle proton T2 relaxation times and work during repetitive maximal voluntary exercise

We studied the effects of progressive maximal voluntary handgrip contractions (MVCs) on muscle proton spin-spin (T2) relaxation times and work, measured as the integrated force vs. time curve (FTI). Six healthy volunteers performed 10, 20, 40, and 80 MVCs in a 0.35-T magnet on four separate occasions. Repeated measures analyses of variance of increases in T2 and FTI during successive bouts were significant (P < 0.005 and P < 0.001, respectively). FTI increased with successive bouts to a greater extent than did muscle T2 (P < 0.05). For T2, the Helmert contrast judged the 10-MVC response lower than the mean of the remaining responses (P < 0.005), and the differences between all others compared with the means of subsequent responses were not significant, indicating a "flattening" of the T2 response after the increase from 10 to 20 repetitions. For FTI, all the single degree of freedom Helmert contrasts were significant (P < 0.001), indicating a continual increase in response over increased MVCs. The curved nature of the T2 response conformed best to a hyperbolic function, suggesting that a limit of approximately 32% exists for the change in T2 during progressively longer bouts of MVCs. A limit in the T2 response is consistent with the existence of a limit in the amount of water that muscle can take up from the vasculature during exertion.     

Blood and plasma selenium levels and GSH-Px activities in patients with arterial hypertension and chronic heart disease

Among the 57 monoclonal antibodies analyzed within the T-cell group of the Second International Swine CD Workshop, one mAb fell within cluster T14a that included the CD6 standard a38b2 (No. 175). The new mAb MIL8 (No. 082) and a38b2 both precipitated from activated T-cells a 150 kDa monomeric protein. Staining patterns on the various cell types were similar. There was no inhibition of binding of either mAb to peripheral blood T-cells with the opposite mAb. The new mAb, MIL8, reacts with a separate epitope on porcine wCD6.     

Driving Automotive User Interface Research

Cars offer an interesting but challenging microcosm for pervasive computing research and, in particular, for interaction with pervasive computing systems. Increasingly, researchers are looking at interactive applications in the car and investigating human-car interaction from a computer science—rather than an ergonomics or mechanical engineering—perspective. This article reports on the International Conference on Automotive User Interfaces and Interactive Vehicular Applications, wherein participants shared presentations on topics such as aesthetics, user interaction and distraction, safety, and driver monitoring.     

Assessing exposure to transformation products of soil-applied organic contaminants in surface water: comparison of model predictions and field data

Transformation products (TPs) of chemicals released to soil, for example, pesticides, are regularly detected in surface and groundwater with some TPs even dominating observed pesticide levels. Given the large number of TPs potentially formed in the environment, straightforward prioritization methods based on available data and simple, evaluative models are required to identify TPs with a high aquatic exposure potential. While different such methods exist, none of them has so far been systematically evaluated against field data. Using a dynamic multimedia, multispecies model for TP prioritization, we compared the predicted relative surface water exposure potential of pesticides and their TPs with experimental data for 16 pesticides and 46 TPs measured in a small river draining a Swiss agricultural catchment. Twenty TPs were determined quantitatively using solid-phase extraction liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (SPE-LC-MS/MS), whereas the remaining 26 TPs could only be detected qualitatively because of the lack of analytical reference standards. Accordingly, the two sets of TPs were used for quantitative and qualitative model evaluation, respectively. Quantitative comparison of predicted with measured surface water exposure ratios for 20 pairs of TPs and parent pesticides indicated agreement within a factor of 10, except for chloridazon-desphenyl and chloridazon-methyl-desphenyl. The latter two TPs were found to be present in elevated concentrations during baseflow conditions and in groundwater samples across Switzerland, pointing toward high concentrations in exfiltrating groundwater. A simple leaching relationship was shown to qualitatively agree with the observed baseflow concentrations and to thus be useful in identifying TPs for which the simple prioritization model might underestimate actual surface water concentrations. Application of the model to the 26 qualitatively analyzed TPs showed that most of those TPs categorized as exhibiting a high aquatic exposure potential could be confirmed to be present in the majority of water samples investigated. On the basis of these results, we propose a generally applicable, model-based approach to identify those TPs of soil-applied organic contaminants that exhibit a high aquatic exposure potential to prioritize them for higher-tier, experimental investigations.     

Recognition of sequence-directed DNA structure by the Klenow fragment of DNA polymerase I

Time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy was used to investigate the influence of sequence-directed DNA structure upon the interaction between the Klenow fragment of DNA polymerase I and a series of defined oligonucleotide primer/templates. 17/27-mer (primer/template) oligonucleotides containing a dansyl fluorophore conjugated to a modified deoxyuridine residue within the primer strand were used as substrates for binding to Klenow fragment. The time-resolved fluorescence anisotropy decay of the dansyl probe was analyzed in terms of two local environments, either solvent-exposed or buried, corresponding to primer/templates positioned with the primer 3' terminus in the polymerase site or the 3'-5' exonuclease site of the enzyme, respectively. Equilibrium constants for partitioning of DNA between the two sites were evaluated from the anisotropy decay data for primer/templates having different (A + T)-rich sequences flanking the primer 3' terminus. Primer/templates with AAAATG/TTTTAC and CGATAT/GCTATA terminal sequences (the nucleotides on the left refer to the last six bases at the 3' end of the primer, and the nucleotides on the right are the corresponding bases in the template) were bound mostly at the polymerase site. The introduction of single mismatches opposite the primer 3' terminus of these DNA substrates increased their partitioning into the 3'-5' exonuclease site, in accord with the results of an earlier study [Carver, T.E., Hochstrasser, R.A., and Millar, D.P. (1994) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 91, 10670-10674]. In contrast, a primer/template with the terminal sequence CAATTT/GTTAAA, containing an A-tract element AATTT, exhibited a surprising preference for binding at the 3'-5' exonuclease site, despite the absence of mismatched bases in the DNA substrate. Interruption of the A-tract with a single AG step, to give the terminal sequence CAGTTT/GTCAAA, reversed the effect of the A-tract, causing the DNA to partition in favor of the polymerase site. Moreover, the presence of a single mismatch opposite the primer 3' terminus was also sufficient to reverse the effect of the A-tract, resulting in a distribution of DNA between polymerase and 3'-5' exonuclease sites that was similar to that observed for the other mismatched DNA substrates. Taken together, these results suggest that the A-tract adopts an unusual conformation that is disruptive to binding at the polymerase site. The effect of the A-tract on binding of DNA to the polymerase site is discussed in terms of the unusual helix structural parameters associated with these sequence elements and the difference between the local geometry of the A-tract and the conformation adopted by duplex DNA within the polymerase cleft. The results of this study show that in addition to base mismatches, Klenow fragment can also recognize irregularities in the helix geometry of perfectly base-paired DNA.