Preparation,Characterization, and Oxygenase Activity of a Photocatalytic Artificial Enzyme

A bicyclo[6,1,0]nonyne‐substituted 9‐mesityl‐10‐methyl‐acridinium cofactor was prepared and covalently linked to a prolyl oligopeptidase scaffold containing a genetically encoded 4‐azido‐L ‐phenylalanine residue in its active site. The resulting artificial enzyme catalyzed sulfoxidation when irradiated with visible light in the presence of air. This reaction proceeds by initial electron abstraction from the sulfide within the enzyme active site, and the protein scaffold extended the fluorescence lifetime of the acridium cofactor. The mode of sulfide activation and placement of the acridinium cofactor ( 5 ) in POP‐ZA₄‐ 5 make this artificial enzyme a promising platform for developing selective photocatalytic transformations.     

Parametric finite element investigation of the critical load capacity of elastomeric strip bearings

Elastomeric bearings are used in non-seismic bridge applications and for seismic isolation of structures. These bearings consist of a number of elastomeric (rubber) layers bonded to intermediate steel shim plates. For seismic isolation, the total thickness of rubber provides a low horizontal stiffness, whereas the close spacing of the intermediate shim plates provides a high vertical stiffness, relative to the horizontal, for a given bonded rubber area and shear modulus. During earthquake ground shaking, large lateral displacements will develop across the isolation interface and the individual bearings. The design of elastomeric bearings for seismic isolation requires that the stability of the individual bearings be demonstrated at the maximum bearing displacement. A component of the stability assessment is the determination of the critical load of the bearing at a given lateral displacement. Currently, the critical load is estimated using an approach whereby a ratio, that of the overlapping area between the top and bottom bearing endplates to the bonded rubber area, is used to reduce the critical load at zero lateral displacement, referred to herein as the overlapping area method. This study verifies the finite element method for predicting critical loads in elastomeric bearings, and uses the finite element method to investigate the dependency of the critical load on the bearing geometry. The results of the parametric study were also used to evaluate the predictive capabilities of the overlapping area procedure.     

Full disclosure data on clinical psychology doctorate programs.

The purposes of this article was to examine the rates at which Council of University Directors of Clinical Psychology (CUDCP) doctoral programs provided full disclosure information on their respective Web sites. Additionally, consistency of full disclosure data was examined using internship match rates, and summary statistics are provided for a normative basis. Of 153 programs, at least some data were located for 111 programs. Large discrepancies were found when comparing internship match statistics reported by programs with match statistics listed by Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Centers (APPIC). The mean profile of a CUDCP program includes about 160 applicants per year, of which the program admits eight new graduate students. These eight new graduate students have a GRE verbal score of 590, a quantitative GRE score of 650, an undergraduate GPA of 3.63, and take 6.5 years to complete their doctoral degree (including internship). These programs reported an average match rate of 93%. Given the Committee on Accreditation's (CoA's) new mandate for reporting program disclosure variables, the article concludes with recommendations for how best to report these data. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Evidence that strategy effects in word naming reflect changes in output timing rather than changes in processing route.

Four experiments tested whether readers reduce reliance on the phonological route in a pronunciation task when many words with inconsistent spelling-sound correspondences are included. High-frequency inconsistent and consistent words were pronounced faster with inconsistent fillers than with pseudoword fillers, whereas the opposite was true for low-frequency words. These effects of filler type were eliminated in a further experiment that included a manipulation that encouraged participants to adjust their response criterion in some conditions. The results suggest that readers can respond at different points during the processing of a stimulus, but it does not appear that they can change the extent to which they rely on the phonological route. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Intergenerational transmission of relationship aggression: A prospective longitudinal study.

The present study examined whether physical and verbal aggression in the family of origin were associated with similar patterns of aggression in young adult couples. Hypotheses were tested using a sample of 213 focal individuals who were followed from adolescence to adulthood. Results suggested that aggression in the family when focal participants were adolescents predicted aggression with romantic partners when participants were adults. The association between interparental aggression and later aggression in adult romantic unions was partially mediated through parents' aggression to focal participants when they were adolescents. Both physical and verbal aggression revealed the same pattern of findings. All together, these findings are consistent with a developmental-interactional perspective (Capaldi & Gorman-Smith, 2003) concerning the developmental origins of aggression in intimate relationships. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Using Genomic Selection to Develop Performance-Based Restoration Plant Materials

Effective native plant materials are critical to restoring the structure and function of extensively modified ecosystems, such as the sagebrush steppe of North America’s Intermountain West. The reestablishment of native bunchgrasses, e.g., bluebunch wheatgrass (Pseudoroegneria spicata [Pursh] À. Löve), is the first step for recovery from invasive species and frequent wildfire and towards greater ecosystem resiliency. Effective native plant material exhibits functional traits that confer ecological fitness, phenotypic plasticity that enables adaptation to the local environment, and genetic variation that facilitates rapid evolution to local conditions, i.e., local adaptation. Here we illustrate a multi-disciplinary approach based on genomic selection to develop plant materials that address environmental issues that constrain local populations in altered ecosystems. Based on DNA sequence, genomic selection allows rapid screening of large numbers of seedlings, even for traits expressed only in more mature plants. Plants are genotyped and phenotyped in a training population to develop a genome model for the desired phenotype. Populations with modified phenotypes can be used to identify plant syndromes and test basic hypotheses regarding relationships of traits to adaptation and to one another. The effectiveness of genomic selection in crop and livestock breeding suggests this approach has tremendous potential for improving restoration outcomes for species such as bluebunch wheatgrass.     

An improvement in the calculation of the magnetic field for an arbitrary geometry coil with rectangular cross section

Hong Lei, Lian‐Ze Wang and Zi‐Niu Wu presented new simple and convenient solutions of the magnetic field for an arbitrary geometry coil with rectangular cross section. They treated two types of basic forms: the trapezoidal prism segment and curved prism segment. The curved prism segment has been divided into a series of small trapezoidal prism segments with the same cross section and its magnetic field is a vector sum of the individual fields created by each small trapezoidal prism conductor. For one trapezoidal prism conductor the magnetic field is obtained by 1‐D integrals using Romberg numerical integration. In this paper, we give a completely analytical solution of these 1‐D integrals that considerably saves the computational time especially in the computation of the magnetic field nearby the conductor surface, at the conductor surface and inside the conductor. From obtained analytical expressions the treatment of singularities can be easily done. Also, we tested four types of numerical integration (Gaussian, Romberg, Simpson and Lobatto) to find the most convenient singularity treatment of 1‐D integrals. These obtained results are compared with those obtained analytically so that one can understand the advantage of the proposed approach. The paper points out on the accuracy and the computational cost. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Electrochemically Induced Conformational Change of Di-Boronic Acid-Functionalized Ferrocene for Direct Solid-State Monitoring of Aqueous Fluoride Ions

While fluoride ions (F⁻) are abundant across environmental and biological systems, common procedures and potentiometric sensors for quantifying aqueous F⁻ are inefficient, time-consuming, and suffer from poor pH resiliency and high detection limits. Herein, this work reports a new di-boronic acid-functionalized ferrocene (FDBA) molecular receptor for noncovalent F⁻ recognition, toward the development of a solid-state miniaturized voltammetric fluoride sensor capable of direct and reversible F⁻ detection in drinking water (DW) (pH 6) and community water (pH 7.6–9.1) over the µg L⁻¹–mg L⁻¹ range. The associated sensing mechanism is enabled by the conformational change of FDBA from the open (charge-repelled) to closed (π-dimerized) conformation, which is facilitated by the unique linkage of two electron-accepting phenylboronic acid moieties with the electron-donating ferrocene moiety using rigid conjugated amide linkers. The square wave voltammetric (SWV) oxidation current response of the FDBA-based fluoride sensor is spectroscopically investigated, suggesting a combination of electrooxidation-triggered conformational change of FDBA on a nanocarbon-modified electrode, F⁻ anion–π interactions, and resulting electron transfer between F⁻ and FDBA. The performance of the voltammetric fluoride sensor is compared to that of a commercial liquid junction-based fluoride ion-selective electrode (F-ISE), and of a solid-contact (SC) F-ISE sensor chip, demonstrating significant advantages versus traditional potentiometric F-ISEs.     

Synthesis and Evaluation of Functionalized Aryl and Biaryl Isothiocyanates against Human MCF-7 Cells

Organic isothiocyanates (ITCs) are a class of anticancer agents which naturally result from the enzymatic degradation of glucosinolates produced by Brassica vegetables. Previous studies have demonstrated that the structure of an ITC impacts its potency and mode(s) of anticancer properties, opening the way to preparation and evaluation of synthetic, non-natural ITC analogues. This study describes the preparation of a library of 79 non-natural ITC analogues intended to probe further structure-activity relationships for aryl ITCs and second-generation, functionalized biaryl ITC variants. ITC candidates were subjected to bifurcated evaluation of antiproliferative and antioxidant response element (ARE)-induction capacity against human MCF-7 cells. The results of this study led to the identification of (1) several key structure-activity relationships and (2) lead ITCs demonstrating potent antiproliferative properties.     

Aeroelastic applications of the Connection Machine

This paper describes the implementation of a dynamical systems approach to aeroelastic analysis using the Connection Machine model 2 (CM-2). Through numerical simulation, the regions of harmonic and chaotic behavior in the δ,R_x (velocity, in-plane load) plane have been examined in detail. These regions are of interest in evaluation of the fatigue life of fluttering plates. The CM-2 computer architecture allows the removal of many of the previous simplifying and limiting assumptions regarding the prediction of the stability regions maps. Owing to its high-speed prediction capability, the CM-2, with framebuffer, offers 'real-time' display of the solution as it evolves during the prediction process. This feature gives insight into the fundamental way in which the solution evolves. This is essential in defining the scenarios describing roads to chaotic behavior of the dissipative dynamical systems.