A longitudinal analysis of the early development and consequences of organizational commitment.

Examined the development and consequences of organizational commitment early in employees' careers. 54 university graduates who had recently become employed were administered an organizational commitment questionnaire (R. T. Mowday et al [1979]) and self-report measures of work experiences, work behavior, and turnover intention after 1, 5, and 9 mo on the job. Comparison of means over time revealed a significant decline in commitment and the favorableness of work experiences during the 1st 9 mo of employment. Analyses provided evidence consistent with the hypothesis that early work experiences influenced commitment to the organization but did not support the hypothesis that commitment influenced work behavior and turnover intention. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social dominance in preschool classrooms.

The authors examined preschoolers' aggressive and cooperative behaviors and their associations with social dominance. First and as predicted, directly observed aggressive interactions decreased across the school year, and same-sex aggression occurred more frequently than cross-sex aggression. Next, the authors examined the relation between aggression and reconciliation, cooperation, and social display variables. Teacher ratings of children's aggression related to observed aggression but not to observed "wins" of aggressive bouts. Instead, wins were related to cooperation and display variables. Finally, they examined the relative power of wins and cooperation in predicting 2 measures of social dominance. After age was controlled, wins alone predicted teacher-rated social dominance. Results are discussed in terms of different forms of competition and how school ethos affects these forms. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Micellar solubilization of binary organic liquid mixtures for surfactant enhanced aquifer remediation

Although non-aqueous phase liquids (NAPLs) are typically released to the environment as complex mixtures, most investigations of subsurface remediation focus on single contaminants and ignore the potential effects of co-constituents on mass recovery and groundwater plume evolution. In this study, we investigate the dissolution and micellar solubilization of binary NAPL mixtures in completely mixed batch reactors and heterogeneous aquifer cells using a commercially-available nonionic surfactant, Tween® 80. Micellar solubilization of trichloroethene (TCE), tetrachloroethene (PCE), decane, and dodecane measured in batch studies containing binary mixtures of TCE/PCE or decane/dodecane exhibited nonideal behavior that could not be predicted using Raoult's law. For a mixed PCE/decane NAPL, micellar solubilization of PCE was approximately 40% less than predicted, while decane was over 100% greater, which was attributed to expansion of the micelle core. In two aquifer cells containing different size fractions of quartz sand and low-permeability lenses, the initial NAPL (1:1 TCE:PCE) saturation distributions resulted in “pool” fractions (PFs) of 0.88 and 0.36. During the initial water flood, the greater aqueous solubility of TCE relative to PCE resulted in preferential removal of TCE from the source zone. However, when a 4% (wt) solution of Tween® 80 was introduced, preferential micellar solubilization of PCE relative to TCE resulted in enhanced removal of PCE, with TCE mass discharge reduced from 97% and 90% and PCE mass discharge reduced from 79% and 53%. The observed relationships between mass discharge and mass removal indicating that plume evolution is strongly influenced by the initial NAPL saturation distribution, changes in the mole fraction of NAPL constituents, and regions of high NAPL saturation that persist over time.     

Combined Radionuclide Therapy and Immunotherapy for Treatment of Triple Negative Breast Cancer

Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is an aggressive subtype of the disease with poor clinical outcomes and limited therapeutic options. Immune checkpoint blockade (CP) has surged to the forefront of cancer therapies with widespread clinical success in a variety of cancer types. However, the percentage of TNBC patients that benefit from CP as a monotherapy is low, and clinical trials have shown the need for combined therapeutic modalities. Specifically, there has been interest in combining CP therapy with radiation therapy where clinical studies primarily with external beam have suggested their therapeutic synergy, contributing to the development of anti-tumor immunity. Here, we have developed a therapeutic platform combining radionuclide therapy (RT) and immunotherapy utilizing a radiolabeled biomolecule and CP in an E0771 murine TNBC tumor model. Survival studies show that while neither monotherapy is able to improve therapeutic outcomes, the combination of RT + CP extended overall survival. Histologic analysis showed that RT + CP increased necrotic tissue within the tumor and decreased levels of F4/80+ macrophages. Flow cytometry analysis of the peripheral blood also showed that RT + CP suppressed macrophages and myeloid-derived suppressive cells, both of which actively contribute to immune escape and tumor relapse.     

Recapitulating Actin Module Organization in the Drosophila Oocyte Reveals New Roles for Bristle-Actin-Modulating Proteins

The generation of F-actin bundles is controlled by the action of actin-binding proteins. In Drosophila bristle development, two major actin-bundling proteins—Forked and Fascin—were identified, but still the molecular mechanism by which these actin-bundling proteins and other proteins generate bristle actin bundles is unknown. In this study, we developed a technique that allows recapitulation of bristle actin module organization using the Drosophila ovary by a combination of confocal microscopy, super-resolution structured illumination microscopy, and correlative light and electron microscope analysis. Since Forked generated a distinct ectopic network of actin bundles in the oocyte, the additive effect of two other actin-associated proteins, namely, Fascin and Javelin (Jv), was studied. We found that co-expression of Fascin and Forked demonstrated that the number of actin filaments within the actin bundles dramatically increased, and in their geometric organization, they resembled bristle-like actin bundles. On the other hand, co-expression of Jv with Forked increased the length and density of the actin bundles. When all three proteins co-expressed, the actin bundles were longer and denser, and contained a high number of actin filaments in the bundle. Thus, our results demonstrate that the Drosophila oocyte could serve as a test tube for actin bundle analysis.     

A proteomic investigation of isogenic radiation resistant prostate cancer cell lines

To model the problem of radiation resistance in prostate cancer, cell lines mimicking a clinical course of conventionally fractionated or hypofractionated radiotherapy have been generated. Proteomic analysis of radiation resistant and radiosensitive DU145 prostate cancer cells detected 4410 proteins. Over 400 proteins were differentially expressed across both radiation resistant cell lines and pathway analysis revealed enrichment in epithelial to mesenchymal transition, glycolysis and hypoxia. From the radiation resistant protein candidates, the cell surface protein CD44 was identified in the glycolysis and epithelial to mesenchymal transition pathways and may serve as a potential therapeutic target.     

Harmonization of color measurements for dental application

This multicenter study evaluated the effect of harmonizing spectrophotometric (d/8°) color measurements by using actual dental materials of clinically relevant thickness and translucency as “calibration tiles.” Ten tooth-colored, 1-mm thick, resin- and ceramic-based materials were tested at the coordinating center (CC) and six research sites (RS). Correction factors were calculated for each material and each site to obtain the corrected reflection spectra from the non-corrected data set. Non-corrected (_NC) and corrected (_C) reflection values were converted into CIEDE2000 and CIELAB color parameters for the following comparisons: CC vs RS_NC and CC vs RS_C, between RS_NC vs RS_NC and RS_C vs RS_C pairs, and among RS separately (α = 0.05). Mean color differences for CC vs RS_NC and corresponding CC vs RS_C values were ΔE₀₀ = 4.2 (2.6) and ΔE₀₀ = 0.7 (0.6), respectively. Corresponding values for RS_NC vs RS_NC and RS_C vs RS_C specimen pairs were ΔE₀₀ = 5.9 (2.9) and ΔE₀₀ = 1.0 (0.5), respectively. The CIEDE2000 NC vs C comparison for each research site separately ranged from 0.5 to 8.5. Color differences of CC vs RS_C and RS_C vs RS_C pairs decreased 83% to 84.5% as compared with respective color differences for non-corrected research site measurements and was RS dependent (P < .001). The obtained results validated the proposed method of harmonizing color measurements for dental application as a reliable quality control tool for dental research laboratories and industry.     

Hijacking Translation Initiation for Synthetic Biology

Genetic code expansion (GCE) has revolutionized the field of protein chemistry. Over the past several decades more than 150 different noncanonical amino acids (ncAAs) have been co-translationally installed into proteins within various host organisms. The vast majority of these ncAAs have been incorporated between the start and stop codons within an open reading frame. This requires that the ncAA be able to form a peptide bond at the α-amine, limiting the types of molecules that can be genetically encoded. In contrast, the α-amine of the initiating amino acid is not required for peptide bond formation. Therefore, including the initiator position in GCE allows for co-translational insertion of more diverse molecules that are modified, or completely lacking an α-amine. This review explores various methods which have been used to initiate protein synthesis with diverse molecules both in vitro and in vivo.     

A note on non‐parametric testing for Gaussian innovations in AR–ARCH models

In this paper, we consider autoregressive models with conditional autoregressive variance, including the case of homoscedastic AR models and the case of ARCH models. Our aim is to test the hypothesis of normality for the innovations in a completely non‐parametric way, that is, without imposing parametric assumptions on the conditional mean and volatility functions. To this end, the Cramér–von Mises test based on the empirical distribution function of non‐parametrically estimated residuals is shown to be asymptotically distribution‐free. We demonstrate its good performance for finite sample sizes in a small simulation study. AMS 2010 Classification: Primary 62 M10, Secondary 62 G10