It takes two to mimic: Behavioral consequences of self-construals.

The present studies demonstrated the moderation of self-construal orientation on mimicry. Recent research has indicated that an interdependent self-construal is associated with assimilation of the other to the self whereas an independent self-construal is associated with minimizing the influence of others on the self (H. R. Markus & S. Kitayama, 1991; D. Stapel & W. Koomen, 2001). Therefore, the authors hypothesized that an interdependent self-construal would be associated with more mimicry than an independent self-construal. When self-construal orientations were experimentally primed. as in Studies 1 and 2, independent self-construals produced less nonconscious mimicry than interdependent self-construals. When self-construals were examined as cultural differences with either a chronically dominant independent (Americans) or interdependent (Japanese) construal of the self, these results were replicated. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Fundamental aspects of excitation and propagation of on-line partial discharge signals in three-phase medium voltage cable systems

On-line partial discharge (PD) detection of three-phase belted medium voltage cable connections results in a number of interpretation differences as compared to off-line measurements where only one phase is energized. The induced currents and charges in the phase conductors and earth screen upon a PD not only depend on the discharge site, but also become phase angle dependent. Furthermore, simulations show that the PD distribution itself varies with the amount of eccentricity of the rotating electric field and may differ from the off-line distributions obtained with a linear field. Finally, the PD propagation in a multi-conductor cable also alters the signals measured at the cable terminals. In this paper, induced charges and PD distributions are studied by means of computer simulation. The cable propagation characteristics are verified by measurements.     

Cross-Layer Packetization and Retransmission Strategies for Delay-Sensitive Wireless Multimedia Transmission

Existing wireless networks provide dynamically varying resources with only limited support for the quality of service required by the bandwidth-intense, loss-tolerant and delay-sensitive multimedia applications. This variability of resources does not significantly impact delay insensitive data transmission (e.g., file transfers), but has considerable consequences for multimedia applications. Recently, the research focus has been to adapt existing algorithms and protocols at the lower layers of the protocol stack to better support multimedia transmission applications and conversely, to modify application layer solutions to cope with the varying wireless networks resources. In this paper, we show that significant improvements in wireless multimedia performance can be obtained by deploying a joint application-layer adaptive packetization and prioritized scheduling and MAC-layer retransmission strategy. We deploy a state-of-the-art wavelet coder for the compression of the video data that enables on-the-fly adaptation to changing channel conditions and inherent prioritization of the video bitstream. We pose the cross-layer problem as a distortion minimization given delay constraints and derive analytical solutions by modifying existing joint source-channel coding theory aimed at fulfilling rate, rather than delay, constraints. We also propose real-time algorithms that explicitly consider the available information about previously transmitted packets. The obtained results show significant improvements in terms of video quality as opposed to ad-hoc optimizations currently deployed, while the complexity associated with performing this optimization in real time, i.e., at transmission time, is limited     

Artefactual cleavage of E coli H-NS by OmpT

In the bacterium Escherichia coli, H-NS-(H1, H1a) is a heat-stable protein with a molecular mass of 15.5 kDa involved in nucleoid organisation and gene regulation linked to certain signal transduction pathways. We have shown that, following addition of preparations of everted inner membrane vesicles, heat-stable cleavage products of approximately 10 kDa of H-NS are formed in vitro from newly synthesised, radio-labelled H-NS and from purified H-NS. The 15.5 kDa protein and its cleavage products were also recovered from a minicell system. These results raised the possibility that cleavage of H-NS is physiologically significant. However, the cleavage of H-NS observed appears to occur during cell breakage and to depend on the method of protein extraction and the presence of the outer membrane protease, OmpT. Nevertheless, the results indicate that H-NS may contain at least two separate domains with cleavage occurring between these domains at a preferred OmpT site. Failure to take account of H-NS cleavage in sample preparation and analysis can lead to serious underestimation of H-NS levels.     

Engraftment of allogeneic hematopoietic progenitor cells with purine analog-containing chemotherapy: harnessing graft-versus-leukemia without myeloablative therapy

The immune-mediated graft-versus-leukemia effect is important to prevent relapse after allogeneic progenitor cell transplantation. This process requires engraftment of donor immuno-competent cells. The objective of this study was to assess the feasibility of achieving engraftment of allogeneic peripheral blood or bone marrow progenitor cell after purine analog containing nonmyeloablative chemotherapy. Patients with advanced leukemia or myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) who were not candidates for a conventional myeloablative therapy because of older age or organ dysfunction were eligible. All patients had an HLA-identical or one-antigen-mismatched related donor. Fifteen patients were treated (13 with acute myeloid leukemia and 2 with MDS). The median age was 59 years (range, 27 to 71 years). Twelve patients were either refractory to therapy or beyond first relapse. Eight patients received fludarabine at 30 mg/m2/d for 4 days with idarubicin at 12 mg/m2/d for 3 days and ara-c at 2 g/m2/d for 4 days (n = 7) or melphalan at 140 mg/m2/d (n = 1). Seven patients received 2-chloro-deoxyadenosine at 12 mg/m2/d for 5 days and ara-C 1 at g/m2/d for 5 days. Thirteen patients received allogeneic peripheral blood stem cells and 1 received bone marrow after chemotherapy. Graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) prophylaxis consisted of cyclosporine and methyl-prednisolone. Treatment was generally well tolerated, with only 1 death from multiorgan failure before receiving stem cells. Thirteen patients achieved a neutrophil count of greater than 0.5 x 10(9)/L a median of 10 days postinfusion (range, 8 to 17 days). Ten patients achieved platelet counts of 20 x 10(9)/L a median of 13 days after progenitor cell infusion (range, 7 to 78 days). Eight patients achieved complete remissions (bone marrow blasts were < 5% with neutrophil recovery and platelet transfusion independence) that lasted a median of 60 days posttransplantation (range, 34 to 170+ days). Acute GVHD grade > or = 2 occurred in 3 patients. Chimerism analysis of bone marrow cells in 6 of 8 patients achieving remission showed > or = 90% donor cells between 14 and 30 days postinfusion, and 3 of 4 patients remaining in remission between 60 and 90 days continued to have > or = 80% donor cells. We conclude that purine analog-containing nonmyeloablative regimens allow engraftment of HLA-compatible hematopoietic progenitor cells. This approach permits us to explore the graft-versus-leukemia effect without the toxicity of myeloablative therapy and warrants further study in patients with leukemia who are ineligible for conventional transplantation with myeloablative regimens either because of age or concurrent medical conditions.     

Integrated Smart Sensor Calibration

In many applications electronic sensors are used toimprove performance and reliability of measurement systems. Suchsensors should provide a correct transfer from the physical signalto be measured to the electrical output signal. One importantstep to achieve this, is to calibrate each sensor by applyingdifferent reference input signals and adjusting the sensor transferaccordingly. Besides expensive reference equipment the calibrationprocess takes much time and attention per individual sensor,which means a considerable increase in sensor production costs.By including at the sensor or sensor interface chip a programmablecalibration facility the calibration of such smart sensors caneasily be automated and can be executed for a batch of sensorsat a time, thus minimizing the calibration time and costs. Thispaper presents a calibration method and options for integrationin the smart sensor concept, in hardware as well as in software.An advantage of the proposed method is that it does not needa large matrix of calibration data, which needs to be storedin a look-up table or converted into a correction formula, butinstead it uses a step-by-step approach to correct the sensortransfer at each calibration measurement until the error is sufficientlysmall.     

High affinity presentation of an autoantigenic peptide in type I diabetes by an HLA class II protein encoded in a haplotype protecting from disease

Tissue composition and the distribution of body mass are described for four genera of East African Bovidae (Madoqua, Gazella, Damaliscus, Hippotragus) with supporting data from four others (Neotragus, Oryx, Tragelaphus, Connochaetes). These species are high in muscle mass, an adaptation convergent with other high-speed terrestrial cursors, bounders, and saltators. The segments below the elbow/cubitus and knee/stifle/genu joints in small bovids are both lighter in percent of total body mass (8.6% TBM) and less heavily muscled (10-15% of total limb musculature) than those segments in macaques (13.6% TBM, 20-25% of the limb musculature). Bovid species differ from one another in the regional distribution of muscle mass. Madoqua kirkii (4-5 kg) concentrates muscle in the lumbar extensors and hindlimbs; large species such as Damaliscus doreas (50-60 kg) and Hippotragus niger (160-220 kg) distribute it more evenly between the lumbar and cervical regions and between the hindlimbs and forelimbs. Gazella dorcas (10-20 kg) is quantitatively intermediate in those characteristics. The redistribution of muscle mass with increasing size correlates with the loss of axial bending of the vertebral column: in small, hindlimb dominant, 'dorsomobile' species such as Madoqua sagittal mobility increases stride length through 'extended' suspension; in large 'dorsostable' species such as Damaliscus and Hippotragus the vertebral column resists bending, consequently abbreviating or omitting this non-contact phase of the gait cycle. Locomotor adaptation as it is reflected in size, shape, and musculoskeletal structure is the key to habitat choice, dietary specialization, social structure, and male agonistic behavior and, therefore, central to the fabric of behavioral ecology.     

Generation of frequency-chirped optical pulses in a large-slippagefree-electron laser

We have investigated the optical output of the free-electron laser for infrared experiments (FELIX) when it is driven by an electron beam with a ramped energy. We show that the applied slow ramp on the electron beam energy leads to a frequency chirp on each picosecond optical pulse. Typical values for the chirp are 0.2% frequency sweep across a 1.5-ps-long optical pulse. The optical pulses were analyzed with a double-grating pair and with a second-order autocorrelator. The pulse duration was reduced in the double-grating pair by 20%. A linear dependence of the chirp on the cavity desynchronization was measured     

Interferon-gamma activates the oxidative killing of Candida albicans by human granulocytes

The sequence proline-proline-glycine-proline is highly conserved in cytochrome P450 families 1 and 2, and similar proline rich sequences are found in other cytochromes P450. Since this sequence immediately follows the NH2-terminal hydrophobic membrane insertion signal, it potentially could function as a signal either for retention of cytochrome P450 in the endoplasmic reticulum or for its correct orientation in the membrane. To test this possibility, DNA sequence coding for this tetrapeptide was deleted from cytochrome P450 2C2 cDNA. Translation of the mutated mRNA in a reticulocyte cell-free system containing canine microsomal membranes resulted in the insertion of the protein into the membrane with a topology indistinguishable from that of normal cytochrome P450 2C2. The mutated protein was expressed in COS1 cells and its distribution, assayed by immunofluorescence, was similar to that of cytochrome P450 2C2. Furthermore, if a short peptide containing a potential glycosylation site was fused to the N-terminus of the mutant protein, the new hybrid protein was glycosylated in COS1 cells and the carbohydrate moiety remained sensitive to cleavage by endoglycosidase H. These results indicate that the protein was inserted and retained in the endoplasmic reticulum membrane. Pulse-chase studies showed that the mutated protein was degraded about four times as fast as cytochrome P450 2C2. In contrast to cytochrome P450 2C2, no (omega-1) hydroxylase activity was detected in COS1 cells expressing the mutated protein at similar steady-state levels as the wild-type protein. These results indicate that, although the conserved PPGP tetrapeptide is not required for cellular localization of cytochrome P450 in the endoplasmic reticulum membrane, its deletion decreases the stability of the protein and abolishes enzymatic activity.     

Analysis of molecular determinants in native AMPA receptors

For this study, 194 respondents completed a biographical data sheet, the Templer (1970) Death Anxiety Scale and the Constantinople (1973) Inventory of Psychosocial Development to help assess the relationship among death anxiety, age, and psychosocial maturity. Findings showed that psychosocial maturity was a better predictor of death anxiety than age was. However, both variables were significantly negatively correlated with death anxiety, revealing that as psychosocial maturity and age increase, death anxiety decreases.