Answering clients' questions.

Presents therapist guidelines for answering client questions in psychotherapy. Response recommendations are based on question type and whether the client's motives are overt or covert. Questions are categorized as: (1) genuine requests for information , (2) indirect requests for some type of gratification from the therapist, (3) questions that are really statements, (4) questions that are tests, and (5) questions that push the therapist's boundaries. The underlying dynamics of client questions are identified, including shame, anger, determining if the therapist cares, projective identification, and testing the therapist's limits and boundaries. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Applications of suits spectral model to wheat

The Suits' Model canopy reflectance calculations [1] for a spring type Mexican wheat, Penjamo, are compared with published data [2] collected by Kanemasu for Scout winter wheat. Good agreement exists between model calculations and experimental data in the spectral range, 500 nm to 750 nm, suggesting that the model parameters for wheat can be applied to different cultivars of wheat in the same growth stage. Wheat canopy reflectance is dependent upon surface soil type and this dependency is examined with the Suits' spectral model. In this particular growth stage wheat reflectance is shown to be nearly independent of soil reflectance in the visible wavelengths and progressively dependent at longer wavelengths in the infrared.     

Improved insulin stability through amino acid substitution

Insulin analogs designed to decrease self-association and increaseabsorption rates from subcutaneous tissue were found to havealtered stability. Replacement of H^B10 with aspartic acid increasedstability while substitutions at B²⁸ and/or B²⁹ were eithercomparable to insulin or had decreased stability. The principalchemical degradation product of accelerated storage conditionswas a disulfidelinked multimer that was formed through a disulfideinterchange reaction which resulted from ß-eliminationof the disulfides. The maintenance of the native state of insulinwas shown to be important in protecting the disulfides fromreduction by dithiothreitol and implicitly from the disulfideinter change reaction that occurs during storage. To understandhow these amino acid changes alter chemical stability, the intramolecularconformational equilibria of each analog was assessed by equilibriumdenaturation. The Gibbs free energy of unfolding was comparedwith the chemical stability during storage for over 20 analogs.A significant positive correla tion (R²=0.8 and P < 0.0005)exists between the conformational stability and chemical stabilityof these analogs, indicating that the chemical stability ofinsulin's disulfides is under the thermodynamic control of theconformational equilibria.     

A comparison of functional and structural consequences of the tyrosine B10 and glutamine E7 motifs in two invertebrate hemoglobins (Ascaris suum and Lucina pectinata)

The architecture of the distal heme pocket in hemoglobins and myoglobins can play an important role in controlling ligand binding dynamics. The size and polarity of the residues occupying the distal pocket may contribute steric and dielectric effects. In vertebrate systems, the distal pocket typically contains a "distal" histidine at position E7 and a leucine at position B10. There are several invertebrate organisms that have hemoglobins or myoglobins that display a pattern in which residues E7 and B10 are a glutamine and tyrosine, respectively. These proteins often have very high oxygen affinities stemming from very slow ligand off rates. In this study, two such hemoglobins, one from the nematode Ascaris suum and the other from the sulfide-fixing clam Lucina pectinata, are compared with respect to conformational and functional properties. Ultraviolet resonance Raman spectroscopy and visible resonance Raman spectroscopy are used to probe, respectively, the ligand-dependent hydrogen bonding pattern of the tyrosine residues and the proximal heme pocket interactions. Fourier transform infrared absorption spectroscopy is used to probe the dielectric properties of the distal heme pocket through the stretching frequency of carbon monoxide bound to the heme. Functionality is probed through the geminate rebinding of both CO and O2. The findings reveal two very different patterns indicative of two different mechanisms for achieving low oxygen off rates. In Hb Ascaris, a hydrogen bonding network that includes the E7 Gln, B10 Tyr, and oxygen bound to the heme results in a tight cage for the oxygen. Dissociation of the O2 requires a large amplitude conformational fluctuation that results both in a spontaneous dissociation of the oxygen through the loss of hydrogen bond stabilization and in an enhanced probability for ligand escape though the transient disruption and opening of the tight distal cage. In the case of the Hb from Lucina, there is no evidence for a tight cage. Instead the data support a model in which the hydrogen bonding network is far more tenuous and the equilibrium state of distal pocket is far more open and accessible than is the case in Ascaris. The results explain why Hb Ascaris has one of the highest oxygen affinities known (P50 approximately 10(-)3 Torr) while Hb Lucina II has an oxygen affinity comparable to that of Mb (P50 = 0.13 Torr) even though both of these Hbs contain the B10 Tyr and E7 Gln motif and display very low oxygen off rates. The roles of water and proximal strain are discussed.     

Microstructured Photopolymerization of Liquid Crystalline Elastomers in Oxygen‐Rich Environments

Liquid crystal elastomers (LCEs) are soft materials that undergo large anisotropic shape change in response to stimuli. Rational organization of the local director field can impart spatial control of the strain profile, enabling stretch‐based deformation capable of nearly 20 J kg^?1 of output force. LCEs are increasingly being considered in end‐use applications in robotics, therapeutics, and optics. Here, a new synthetic approach is introduced to prepare LCEs composed of main chain mesogens via the cationic photopolymerization of the epoxy liquid crystal monomer (LCM). This examination details the optical, mechanical, and thermal properties of epoxide‐based LCEs as a function of spacer length (3, 6, or 11 carbons). The oxygen insensitivity of the cationic photopolymerization of these monomers makes this approach particularly attractive for implementation with emerging additive manufacturing techniques. This contribution focuses on microstructuring LCEs via 2‐photon direct laser writing (2P‐DLW). A custom heated cell facilitated 2P‐DLW of the aligned LCE epoxy resin melts to fabricate diverse geometric arrays. Enabled by the orthogonality of the reaction chemistry, hybrid and microstructured material compositions are prepared via the encapsulation of LCE epoxy micropatterns with free‐radical polymerization of acrylate‐based LCEs. The distinct thermomechanical response of the hybridized and microstructured LCE composites enables local and spatially controlled actuation.