Morphological Development in Children's Writing.

This study focused on the development of children's control of morphological markers in their writing. The authors examined inflectional and derivational morphological forms within narratives written by 247 3rd and 4th graders. The majority of 3rd and 4th graders used inflectional forms consistently and accurately in their writing. In contrast, fewer students used derived forms, and significantly more 4th than 3rd graders used them accurately. Results indicate that children's control of morphological structures in their writing mirrors that in their speech: Inflectional morphology is largely mastered by age 9 or 10, but skills with derivational morphology continue to develop in middle childhood. The relationships among written morphological accuracy, reading, and spelling were also examined. Written morphological accuracy predicted reading and spelling performance at both grade levels. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Transmission line probes for scanning photon-tunneling microscopy

Because metalized light probes for scanning photon-tunneling microscopy are tapered waveguides beyond cutoff, tapered coaxial transmission lines have been tried instead. It is shown here that insertion losses in such a line can be reduced by asymmetrically phase-apodizing the illuminating lens. Alternatively, a strip rather than a coaxial line can be used.     

Reduction in virulence of Naegleria fowleri following growth with cholesterol

It has been reported that the virulence of axenically cultivated Entamoeba histolytica increases following growth with cholesterol. The purpose of this study was to determine whether cholesterol would enhance the virulence of axenically cultivated Naegleria fowleri. Amoebae were cultivated in axenic medium with (100 micrograms/ml) or without cholesterol for 6 months and tested in mice for changes in virulence. After 6 months of continuous cultivation. N. fowleri grown with cholesterol was less virulent for mice than the same strain grown without cholesterol.     

Revising for meaning: Effects of knowledge and strategy.

Two experiments examined developmental and individual differences in students' revising for meaning. In Experiment 1, the authors investigated effects of knowledge of topic and knowledge of error location on revising done by middle school and college students. Knowledge of topic helped with meaning-level revising but did not seem necessary when surface-level editing was the goal. More interesting, knowledge of error location helped college students with both editing and revising but focused middle school students on editing at the expense of revising. In Experiment 2, the authors used a dyad-discussion design to investigate further differences in reading strategies during revising. The authors listened as pairs of 7th-grade students of different writing abilities (high, middle, and low) collaboratively revised. The results of Experiment 2 were consistent with the outcomes in Experiment 1, that is, knowing error location may focus less sophisticated writers too narrowly and thereby impede meaning-based revision. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Individual differences in writing: Implications of translating fluency.

Provides theoretical detail for the model of writing proposed by J. R. Hayes and L. S. Flower (1980), particularly in relation to (1) subcomponents of the translating process, specifically the processes of sentence generation and lexical retrieval, and (2) processing constraints imposed by working memory limitations. In 2 experiments the components of the translating process were examined in elementary and middle-school students identified as either skilled or less skilled writers. Skilled writers showed more fluent sentence-generation processes than did less skilled writers; this was revealed in their better performance on reading span and speaking span tasks. Skilled writers were also faster and more accurate than less skilled writers in a lexical decision task thus indicating that lexical retrieval is more fluent for skilled writers. Fluent translating processes may help to reduce working memory load during writing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

STRONTIA AND ITS PROPERTIES IN GLAZES*

Strontia has proved to be a strong flux and a desirable glaze ingredient when it is used to replace PbO, ZnO, and CaO in a typical dinnerware glaze. By including it in the frit, the fluidity of the glaze was increased to a marked degree when it was substituted for ZnO and CaO and it also lowered the deformation temperature in the replacement of the latter oxide. Thermal-expansion tests indicate that strontia has practically the same effect as lime on glaze expansion. Glazes of excellent visual and physical properties were obtained in a series of low-lead and leadless compositions containing strontia.     

Optimization of Protoplast Isolation and Transformation for a Pilot Study of Genome Editing in Peanut by Targeting the Allergen Gene Ara h 2

The cultivated peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) is a legume consumed worldwide in the form of oil, nuts, peanut butter, and candy. Improving peanut production and nutrition will require new technologies to enable novel trait development. Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats and CRISPR-associated protein 9 (CRISPR–Cas9) is a powerful and versatile genome-editing tool for introducing genetic changes for studying gene expression and improving crops, including peanuts. An efficient in vivo transient CRISPR–Cas9- editing system using protoplasts as a testbed could be a versatile platform to optimize this technology. In this study, multiplex CRISPR–Cas9 genome editing was performed in peanut protoplasts to disrupt a major allergen gene with the help of an endogenous tRNA-processing system. In this process, we successfully optimized protoplast isolation and transformation with green fluorescent protein (GFP) plasmid, designed two sgRNAs for an allergen gene, Ara h 2, and tested their efficiency by in vitro digestion with Cas9. Finally, through deep-sequencing analysis, several edits were identified in our target gene after PEG-mediated transformation in protoplasts with a Cas9 and sgRNA-containing vector. These findings demonstrated that a polyethylene glycol (PEG)-mediated protoplast transformation system can serve as a rapid and effective tool for transient expression assays and sgRNA validation in peanut.     

A comparison of danaparoid and warfarin for prophylaxis against deep vein thrombosis after total hip replacement: The Danaparoid Hip Arthroplasty Investigators Group

Orgaran (danaparoid sodium injection) is a novel antithrombotic agent. Early studies suggest that this compound may be beneficial in preventing deep vein thrombosis in predisposed patients. This multicenter, randomized, assessor blinded, clinical trial compared subcutaneous danaparoid with warfarin for the prevention of deep vein thrombosis in patients undergoing hip replacement surgery. Bilateral venography was used to detect thrombi. Patients also underwent follow-up examinations 1, 2, and 3 months after discontinuation of the study to determine the after effects of treatment. Nearly 27% of patients who received warfarin and 14.6% of patients who received danaparoid developed deep vein thrombosis, a risk reduction of 46%. The absolute difference in the incidence of deep vein thrombosis was 12.3% in favor of danaparoid. The incidence of venographically documented proximal deep vein thrombosis was 1.5% for danaparoid and 4.1% for warfarin. These results demonstrate that danaparoid is more effective than warfarin in preventing deep vein thrombosis following hip replacement surgery. The preoperative administration of danaparoid does not increase surgical blood loss compared with warfarin.     

Surface chemistry of new lubrication systems for high-speed spacecraft bearings

Multialkylated cyclopentane (MAC) and silahydrocarbon (SiHC) are primary candidates for future spacecraft applications due to their high viscosity and good viscosity–temperature profile, low vapor pressure and good lubricating properties. In this work, the friction, wear and associated tribochemistry of these fluids, both unformulated and formulated with 2% aryl phosphate ester (TPP), were investigated. A Plint reciprocating wear rig equipped with an environmental chamber that was filled with dry air or nitrogen was used to produce boundary lubrication conditions. The resulting specimens were examined by X-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES) spectroscopy in order to gain some understanding of how the base fluid and additive function. Several relationships were discovered among friction, wear and tribochemistry within the wear scar. First, the wear rate in both unformulated and formulated fluids was higher in a dry nitrogen environment than in dry air. Second, when tested in air, unformulated silahydrocarbon acts as its own antiwear additive by decomposing to a silicon oxide glass within the wear track thereby eliminating additive issues such as solubility, evaporation and concentration effects. Third, the antiwear properties of silahydrocarbon oil are hindered by the presence of a phosphate additive. Both the oil and additive form an oxide glass within the wear track and compete for active growth sites. Fourth, the chain length of the polyphosphate glass formed in the wear track controls the antiwear performance of the film. The phosphate additive in multialkylated cyclopentane decomposed to a polyphosphate glass in both dry air to generate a good antiwear film (short to medium chain length polyphosphate) and nitrogen to form a poor antiwear film (long chain length polyphosphate). This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.