Institutional research productivity in industrial/organizational psychology.

Updated the report of W. M. Cox and V. Catt (see record 1978-21651-001) by determining the 40 top contributing institutions to the Journal of Applied Psychology, 1976–1982, and assessed the generalizability of productivity rankings based solely on contributions to this journal. A number of industrial and organizational psychologists were asked to indicate all the journals in which psychologists in the field were likely to publish. Five journals suggested by these nominators were used for comparison in the review. A list of the 40 most productive graduate programs based on these 5 journals is included. Results show the inadequacy of Cox and Catt's decision to base productivity ratings solely on contributions to 1 journal. Using 5 journals, 4 programs were catapulted into the top 10 rankings, while 7 programs dropped from top rankings in the Cox study (1970–1975) to below the 65th rank in the present study. Using only the Journal of Applied Psychology contributions, 2 of these programs ranked in the top 10, 1976–1982. (5 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A comparison of distribution and composition of intramuscular fat in Duroc Jersey and Hampshire pigs at 100 kg liveweight

The intramuscular fat content, its fatty acid composition and that from the triglyceride fraction, were determined in several muscles from the right sides of four Duroc Jersey and four Hampshire castrated male pigs slaughtered at 100 kg liveweight. The Hampshires had heavier muscles than the Duroc Jersey pigs, but did not show significant differences in the percentages of intramuscular fat. The concentrations of linoleic acid were, in general, higher in the Hampshire than in the Duroc Jersey pigs and in many muscles the differences were highly significant (p < 0·05) The concentrations of linoleic acid (18:2) in the triglyceride fraction did not differ among muscles within breeds but were higher in Hampshire than in Duroc Jersey pigs.     

Techniques for Scheduling I/O in a High Performance Multimedia-on-Demand Server

One of the key components of a multiuser multimedia-on-demand system is the data server. Digitalization of traditionally analog data such as video and audio, and the feasibility of obtaining network bandwidths above the gigabit-per-second range, are two important advances that have made possible the realization, in the near future, of interactive distributed multimedia systems. Secondary-to-main memory I/O technology has not kept pace with advances in networking, main memory, and CPU processing power. Consequently, the performance of the server has a direct bearing on the overall performance of such a system. In this paper, we present a highperformance solution to the I/O retrieval problem in a distributed multimedia system. We develop a model for the architecture of a server for such a system. Parallelism of data retrieval is achieved by striping the data across multiple disks. We present the algorithms for server operation when servicing a constant number of streams, as well as the admission control policy for accepting requests for new streams. The performance of any server ultimately depends on the data access patterns. Two modifications of the basic retrieval algorithm are presented to exploit data access patterns in order to improve system throughput and response time. Finally, we present preliminary performance results of these algorithms on the IBM SP1 and Intel Paragon parallel computers.     

An efficient communication structure for distributed commitprotocols

To maintain consistency in a distributed database environment, the transactions must be executed atomically. The standard algorithm for ensuring an atomic execution is called the distributed commit protocol. The two-phase commit protocol and its variations, the well-known protocols used for this purpose, are characterized by successive rounds of message exchange, among all the sites of the database, at the time a transaction enters into a completion phase. The performance of these protocols is given by a complexity measure that depends on the communication structure of the protocol. Given N sites, the worst-case complexity of a commit protocol is O(N²). A communication structure called maximal binomial structure (MBS) is presented, for which the complexity of the protocol is O(N×log³ N). A lower bound for this complexity is also given, which is O(N×log² N). Protocols using the MBS remain symmetric. A scheme for an arbitrary expansion of the MBS to allow communication among a large number of sites is proposed. For the expanded system, the protocol complexity is also shown to be O(N×log³ N ). These structures are shown to be superior to other known structures     

Tissue and developmental specificity of a polysialo-ganglioside species in the amphibian Xenopus

Xenopus embryos contain a considerable amount of a polysialo-ganglioside not yet fully characterized; in this paper, we will refer to it as ganglioside XI. Preliminary experiments indicate asialo-GMI as the core structure of the ganglioside XI and palmitic and oleic acid as the fatty acids of the ceramide moiety. Further analyses by comparative 2D-TLC with adult fish and chick embryo brains indicate the pentasialilated ganglioside GP1c as the possible structure of XI. In the adult Xenopus, XI characterizes the ganglioside pattern of the central nervous system while is absent in all the other tested tissues. At least two other more polar (presumably richer in sialic acid) bands are often visible under XI, both in embryos and in brain and spinal cord tissues of adult Xenopus. The persistence of polysialo-gangliosides in the brain and spinal cord of adult amphibians could serve to guarantee a proper functioning of the central nervous system at low body temperature.     

Stable transfection of human β‐1,4N‐acetylgalactosaminyltransferase and α‐2,8‐sialyltransferase cDNAs in C6 rat glioma cells induces modifications in ganglioside metabolism

Ganglioside distribution in cells undergoes deep modifications during physiological and pathological events, possibly depending on the activity of glycosyltransferases involved in their biosynthesis. To understand how the ganglioside pattern can be altered by the selective expression of specific glycosyltransferases, C6 rat glioma cell line was stably transfected with two human glycosyltransferase cDNAs: β ‐1,4N‐acetylgalactosaminyltransferase (GalNAcT) and α ‐2,8‐sialyltransferase (ST‐II). GalNAcT and ST‐II are key enzymes in ganglioside biosynthesis; whereas ST‐II synthesizes GD₃, precursor of the “b” pathway, GalNAcT produces GM₂, GD₂ and asialo‐GM₂ and it is, therefore, involved in “a”, “b” and “asialo” pathways. C6 cells were subjected to three independent transfections: one with a construct containing GalNAcT cDNA, one with a construct containing the ST‐II cDNA, and one with both constructs simultaneously. Whereas control cells present mainly N‐acetyl‐ and N‐glycolyl‐GM₃, selected transfected clones show more complex ganglioside profiles: GalNAcT‐expressing cells are enriched in the “a” series gangliosides, ST‐II‐expressing cells synthesize the “b” series species, cells expressing contemporarily the two glycosyltransferases produce gangliosides of both series. Furthermore, among the selected clones, expression of GalNAcT and ST‐II correlates with changes in the ST‐I and ST‐IV activities, indicating that the switching on of the biosynthetic enzymes we investigated influences the activity of endogenous glycosyltransferases, possibly through the modification of the amount of their substrates or products.     

Alkali-silica reactivity criteria for concrete aggregates

In this study, the suitability of the threshold alkali level, TAL, the kinetic parameter, In k, and the microstructural disorder coefficient, Cd, of the aggregates, taken as alkali-silica reactivity criteria, was assessed using different typologies of Italian natural ASR-susceptible aggregates of known field performance. The TAL, In k, and Cd were determined using a modified version of the RILEM AAR-3 concrete prism expansion test, the ASTM C1260 mortar-bar expansion test, and the infrared spectroscopy test, respectively. It was found that the three reactivity criteria are all appropriate for discriminating between reactive and innocuous aggregates. However, the TAL proves to be a more suitable criterion for interpreting the field performance data of the aggregates investigated. There exists a linear relationship between TAL and In k, or between TAL and Cd, which provides a rapid means of estimating the threshold alkali levels of ASR-susceptible aggregates from the results of the ultra-accelerated mortar-bar test and/or the infrared spectroscopy test. A TAL-based classification of the degree of reactivity of the aggregates, as well as some modifications of the reactivity domains established by the infrared spectroscopy method are also proposed.     

Phospholipid distribution and fatty acid composition in different brain regions during chick embryo development

The phospholipid profile of different chick embryo brain regions was studied from 11 to 21 days of development, revealing interesting changes in content and distribution. Total phospholipid phosphorus (P), in micrograms of P per microgram of DNA, increases significantly during development of cerebral hemispheres (CHs), optic lobes (OLs), and brainstem (BS). Compared with CH and OL, the BS shows at all stages a significantly higher concentration of phospholipid P, which in contrast decreases in the cerebellum (CB) during development. Moreover, the data show interesting differences between the right and the left portion of the brain. The distribution of phospholipid P and the fatty acid composition of phospholipids were asymmetric between left and right OL and CH, as were the concentrations of DNA and cholesterol, demonstrating lateralized neurochemical development in these structures, i.e., left OL, right OL, left CH, and right CH. The data are discussed also in relation to the potential importance of neurochemical lateralization for determining lateralized embryonic and postnatal behavior of this species.